Month: August 2023

The Great Sorting

photog Current Events, Reclaiming the Family ,

The powers that be are working to reshape the world.  It will no longer be an old-fashioned analog model where people can find their own place in the world and cobble together a life that suits their individual talents and preferences.  No, this new model is a quantized arrangement.  There are only a few allowable choices for profession, school, sexuality, race, religion, and only one choice for political party and belief system.  And that’s only the start.  Soon there will only be one kind of car, one kind of heating system and one kind of bathroom and kitchen.  And the power company will tell you if you’ve used too much power for your car or the air conditioner (if they even allow A/C to exist anymore).  And the city will tell you if you’ve taken too long a shower or flushed the toilet too many times.

But where it really gets tricky is if you aren’t from the right family and didn’t go to the right college but you still want to have a normal life.  You know, like having a wife and kids.  Well, that’s sort of a problem.  Because they don’t want just anybody having kids.  You’ve got to have the right pedigree and the right mindset.  Kids are expensive and it takes a village to raise them so unless you’re the kind of person the village approves of, you’ll just be messing up the orderliness of the hive.  So, the mechanism they’ll use is to make it almost impossible to be able to afford kids unless you’re the right kind of person.

It’ll cost a fortune to buy a house and it’ll cost a fortune to send them to good schools and even feeding and clothing them, unless you’re an illegal immigrant, will cost an arm and a leg.  So, many people, especially young men are just giving up.  It’s just not worth the effort.

Well, the alternative is family helping out with providing a place to live until a house is affordable and providing resources for a down payment and maybe foregoing luxuries like vacation homes and expensive toys to provide help with medical expenses and other incidentals that are bound to come along.  And also providing advice and contacts for the young.

And in the past, I’ve kidded about opening up my own match-making business but I think it’s a real need that exists.  Women especially could get involved by finding eligible girls who wants to get married and have kids.  Sure, I know there are all kinds of dating services and maybe some of them are selective enough to help serious, normal men and women find mates.  But relatives and friends are still a valuable source for finding a man or woman for someone looking to start a family.

It may seem like this whole thing is a silly topic.  But I think it’s serious enough to think about.  There is a great contraction already in the works.  If you want your family to survive it then you’re going to have to provide some extra help to make it work.  Now, some people probably don’t care.  A cheap apartment, a streaming service and a small government check will keep things going until your health gives out and then there’s euthanasia so what’s all the fuss?  The path of least resistance is the preferred route for some of the young.  The government is just making the choice easier.

But for those of us who want a future that includes a fulfilling human life for our descendants then it’s time to take a hand in what happens to your kids and their kids.  Lend a hand.  Or go extinct.

25AUG2023 – 2024 Primary Thoughts

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We’ll be bombarded for the next year and more with the 2024 election nonsense.  And the important political races will be things like primarying Mitt Romney out of his senate seat.  Maybe Mitch McConnell is coming up for a leadership vote too.  These are feel good events that we can all embrace and enjoy.

But I’ve come to the conclusion that short of a nuclear war, nothing will keep the Democrats from holding the White House for the foreseeable future.  And since if there is a war, I won’t be around anymore I’ve decided not to get too excited about all the hoopla.  So, the Republican presidential primary race isn’t particularly important with respect to how it plays out.  But does it serve any purpose?  Well, maybe.

A case can be made that it can provide information on the Uni-Party.  The talking points of the most obviously anointed of the candidates can tell us a lot about what the official party line of the Republican establishment is supposed to be.  You might further ask what use knowing that could be.  Well, the obvious answer is amusement.  It’s always fun to know just how stupid they think we are.  Come to think of it most people really are that stupid.  In fact, I was one of those stupid people just a decade or two ago.  I actually believed that George W Bush was a conservative and that he cared about the people on the Right.  What a dope I was.

But being mugged by Operation Iraqi Freedom opened my eyes thoroughly.  So, hearing Nikki Haley talk about how unlimited spending for Ukraine is the highest priority for the United States is hilarious.  Right now, the Ukrainians are being blown to bits in the minefields of Zaporizhzhia trying to approach the first of Russia’s three defensive lines.  Funneling more money and weapons to the Ukrainians will keep the meatgrinder going until the last Ukrainian has been fed in.  When that’s done the plan is the Poles and Balts are next.  When they’re used up it’s supposed to be our children that get fed in.  Something tells me that’s gonna land with a thud.  The Right is who usually fights these wars.  Well, we’ve been smartened up.  So now the millennials and zoomers on the Left are up to bat.  But they already spoke up back during the middle eastern campaigns, “No way bro, let someone else take care of that.  I’ve got pot to smoke and artisanal beer to brew.”  So yeah, Nikki Haley’s talking points tells you that the Uni-Party needs our kids to fight the Russians.

Aside from entertainment, the party line is valuable to know because it gives us a chance to see which of the candidates aren’t complete shills for the donor class.  For people like Haley, Hutchinson, Pence and Christie nothing needs to be proven.  Their tickets are stamped coming out of the gate.  What about this Ramaswamy guy?  Can we parse what he stands for or at least pretends to stand for?  And how about DeSantis?  Has he revealed his bottom line.  He’s already flip-flopped on Ukraine.  So, we know his donors must have given him an earful over his initial position that the war was a local affair and none of our business.  Is Ron a bought and paid for neocon?  Maybe.  That’s important information to ferret out.  After all he’s been about the best Republican governor in years.  How do these two things square?

I guess the other information that comes out of the primary will be where the pundits stand.  We’ve already seen that Fox News is now enemy territory.  Their mission is to support the establishment positions and candidates and attack Donald Trump whenever possible.  It’s been interesting to see how Tucker Carlson has become an outpost of right-wing realism in an ocean of left-wing propaganda.  Elon Musk has shown a willingness to allow free speech on his “X” platform.  That has been a veritable miracle.

And the last thing that will be interesting in the primary is what Donald Trump tells us about his plans.  He’s been kind of vague on what he plans to do either in the election or if he wins.  Of course, he’s the same old Trump and whenever he talks about his accomplishments there are no mistakes or defeats.  So, it’s an open question if he really has a plan to defang the Deep State.  It’s possible his plans have to remain unspoken to allow for the element of surprise.  But I would be less skeptical if he could share them with us.

But there it is.  We’re going to be marinated in this clap-trap for the next fourteen months and just to stay sane we’ll have to address it somewhat.  I’ll do my best not to take it too seriously.  But who knows, maybe something incredibly compelling will occur during this madness and I’ll be caught up in the excitement.  You never know.

The New JEB!

photog ArthurinCali, Current Events, Guest Contributors

H/T to ArthurinCali for the link.  When the NY Times anoints an Republican candidate they might as well include a stamp that says “NEOCON.”  Nikki Haley or Chris Christie?  Which is more emblematic of controlled opposition.  What’s next, the adoration of the magi?  Will Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Paul Ryan come bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

 

25AUG2023 – Babylon Bee Laugh for Today

photog Biden Humor, Current Events, Humor ,

Once again pretty dead on.  Every day Biden has a new low point.  Telling the bereaved Hawaiians about how his car was almost burned was a another new low.  Keep it coming Joe.  Let’s these people know what they’ve voted for.  A dishonest moron.

Well, Trump’s Back on Twitter (errrr… X)

photog Current Events

I’m sure he’ll have a lot to say over the next year or so.  Unless they jail him to keep him quiet.  Trump has plenty of faults but no one can say he doesn’t have guts.  Then I compare him to that clown Christie and he looks even more impressive.  I don’t know if there is any hope for our “democracy” but Trump is at least taking a stand.  I wish him luck.  He needs it.