Author: photog
08APR2024 – Quote of the Day
To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day.
William Somerset Maugham
Guest Contributor – War Pig – 07APR2024 – Dark Premonitions
I, too, fear the day of the cartridge box. We have proven that only Americans can kick Americans’ asses. When roused, Americans are insensate fighters. The only example being our civil war, the casualties on both sides in that war exceed all casualties from all other wars combined. If it actually comes to fighting it will not be pretty. I am also fairly sure that the military leadership will not use the full powers of war against The People. As before, I believe the military will itself split. Also, it will be the left who actually fires the first shot, as the Confederacy did at Ft Sumpter. My dearest hope is a bloodless revolution. After all, the elite left talks a good fight, but they have no guts to actually get bloody.
The next thing that will happen will be a lot of criminal executions. No more revolving door justice. No more blaming the defender. Try to kick in a door and now get shot through the door. Felons caught in possession of firearms will not be put back on the street. Prison riots will be settled with shotguns and flamethrowers. Riots will be quelled with dispatch. Antifa and BLM will be sharply curbed. Looters run the risk of being shot in the act. It will take a few years for things to reach equilibrium, but they will settle.
Metallic Crystals, Imagination and the Persistence of Memory
In July 1971 I had finished up my freshman year in high school. And I was a poor kid who used the Brooklyn Public Library as my main source of books. So each month I would trek to my local branch and take out the latest (or the closest to latest) issue of Analog Science Fiction magazine. In that month’s edition, there was an illustration on the back page of what was a photograph of what was purported to be a futuristic city that was being eroded by unimaginable eons of time as it lay dead under a dying red star at the end of the universe.
Actually, it was a scanning electron microscope photo of lead-tin telluride crystals.
But it sort of reminds me of the bismuth crystals that I used for today’s photo of the day.
I wonder if the anonymous author of that blurb was John Campbell. But I can understand his imaginative description. It is apt.
Funny how these things stick with you. Wow, that’s almost 53 years ago.
Scenes from a Family Gathering
I was at a gathering of the clan today and that’s always fun. The younger generations are beginning to take their place at the table and unsurprisingly they’re beginning to sound almost as cynical as their ancient ancestors. I spent a goodly amount of the day just enjoying the banter and intra-familial mockery.
But I did find the time to check in with some of the folks I don’t have a chance to see as often. And this was interesting. These are folks who aren’t constantly obsessed with the political situation. They’re busy with work. They live in the belly of the beast in NYC and they have no illusions about changing the political status quo. But even among these folks there was a deep abiding anger and a sense that we’re reaching a breaking point.
One guy in particular was very angry about the sexual “transitioning” of children. He was incensed that medical associations and world-renowned hospitals were championing what he considered criminal malpractice against children. I had no idea how upset he was about this. He said he hoped that these hospitals and the doctors involved would be sued into bankruptcy and would even face prison sentences for what was in his mind medical child abuse.
I told him that this one aspect of the woke culture seemed to be the one that was most likely to be rejected out of hand by people and even governments because it had the potential to cause a revolt of a clear majority of the population. And I wondered if it could be the trigger for rejecting other parts of the woke agenda.
Another conversation I had today was about the story of the homeless guy who robbed and beat up the man who gave him the coat off his own back. Apparently, the comments by Mayor Adams trying to excuse the crime as being the result of “pain” had outraged large sections of working-class New Yorkers and reinforced the nature of the broken criminal justice system in the city. This other fellow I was talking to was of the opinion that it would be very hard to get a jury to convict the subway Samaritan, Daniel Penny because all of the witnesses in the subway car are adamant that he was justified in subduing the berserk homeless man who was terrorizing the women on the train. And many of these witnesses were minorities.
I told him I wasn’t so sure of that. After all the prosecution will probably be allowed carte blanche in cherry picking the jurors for the sake of diversity. But I did agree that conditions in New York were getting so bad that even leftists were losing patience with the revolving door arrests, rampant shoplifting and terrifying violent lawlessness.
And then we finished with the meal and moved on to the desserts. I confess to eating way too much cake and washing it down with good coffee. The long drive home gave me a chance to think a little bit about how the current chaos is playing inside the blue bastions like New York City. It’s starting to get to them. The damage being done is substantial and even the true believers are getting punchy. Will this change the votes in November? Nope. But it also tells me that the breaking point is getting much closer. And when it finally cracks things will change, one way or the other. What’s the expression? What can’t continue, won’t.
07APR2024 – Photo of the Day
07APR2024 – Quote of the Day
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
William Somerset Maugham
Guest Contributor – Milo Mindbender – 04062024 – Several Thoughts
Trump vs Biden
I find it interesting that Trump couldn’t fill a stadium, Biden couldn’t fill a high school basketball court, Trump campaigned nationwide, and got huge support, Biden “Put a lid on it at 0900” and did not travel due to kung flu, Trump was leading until the 0200 shut down in several states and then color me shocked, Biden surged in a manner that exceeded the capacity of the vote tabulators in use, but there is nothing to see here.
They almost pulled it off in 2016, they did it in 2020, and I do not doubt that they will do it again. Stevie Wonder can see there is something fuckery going on here, but by questioning the narrative I am accused of wearing my tin foil beret too tight.
My first election I voted in was 84, and the only one I missed since then was 92, I was deployed in Task Force Andrew and did not get registered vote before the cutoff date being out of state. I sat that one out, but consider my franchise to be an obligation, and responsibility as it is the only time my representative actually wants to hear from me.
If Trump pulls this one off, and defeats the cheat, he needs to surround himself with proper experts, not self serving jackapes, and be willing to accept criticism when warranted. If he doesn’t, win, I think we just need to drop the curtains, lower the house lights, and file towards the exits, the show is over. Claire Wolfe talked about the three boxes, that soap box has been used for the bonfire of the vanities in charge, we are teetering on the Splinter’s of the ballot box, that leaves the last box, and I don’t want to go there anymore than those who are trying to stampede us that way.
Once that starts I don’t forsee a solution that brings us out the other side intact.
Anarcho-Tyranny Comes to a City Near You
When the act of charity becomes dangerous, charity dries up. This is the result of the same policies that were put in place, creating a giant open air prison, with hidden fences. Releasing these criminals with a “Semi stern scolding”, and telling the to go out and try not to do it again, doesn’t seem to be working, but God forbid some innocent civilians are forced to defend themselves, break out the charge book, and warm up another cell, we gotta put a stop to these vigilante activities.
Daniel Penny wasn’t available for comment.
In Your Lifetime
“This will be the most important election in your lifetime.” How many times have you heard those words? How many of the last elections have been described exactly that way? Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt. 2020, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1976, 1972, 1968, 1964, 1960, 1956. 1952, 1948, 1944, 1940, 1936, 1932. That’s twenty-three presidential elections and eighty-eight years of crises, wars, world war, depressions, riots, drafts, atom bombs, collapsing evil empires and cultural psychoses. Forget the boy who cried wolf. This is almost a century of crisis.
But heaven help me, I think I believe the expression is true this time, in a sense. Now I don’t think Armageddon is upon us. Nor do I believe that either Biden or Trump is going to change the world that much, either for the better or worse. But I do believe that we have reached a point where Americans have gone beyond wondering if our elections are honest and basically will make up their minds based on the results of 2024.
Would you believe an election was honest if it reelected a frail, mentally struggling 82-year-old incumbent who has knowingly allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood the country, increased the cost of living to unaffordable levels for the working and middle classes and waged war on his political opponents through lawfare? I’m going to say for most honest people the answer is no.
Effectively, this will undermine the legitimacy of the United States federal government in the minds of its citizens over a wide swath of the country.
THAT WOULD BE A VERY BID DEAL
We’ve never been in this territory before. Well, not since the Civil War, anyway. And I believe it will have a profound effect on the way Americans think about and interact with their government. I see this as akin to how the Americans felt about the British government in the 1770s. There will be an adversarial mindset and the federal government will react to this mindset in kind. And that could lead to a spiral of actions and reactions.
Of course, trying to predict the future based on historical precedents is a fool’s errand. But the attitudes are hardening and there is definitely a civil war vibe that has infected both sides over the last couple of years and there definitely is such a thing as self-fulfilling prophesies. But let’s just say that if Biden is “re-elected” I think it will ignite a political movement to resist the malfeasance of the federal government, especially concerning illegal immigrants.
What happens if Trump wins? Isn’t it funny how no one even talks about that? Then he’ll really have a tiger by the tail. He would have to start off his term by pardoning everybody on our side; himself, first of all and all of the January 6th defendants and as many of his people as have been hounded by the DOJ.
After that he’s going to have to try and make good on his promise to fire almost a quarter of the federal bureaucracy. Hopefully he’s really done his homework and has a decent plan for such a monumental endeavor. And then he has to try and revive the economy. And then boot out tens of millions of illegal aliens. And then he has to end the war in Ukraine. And then he has to dismantle the green energy boondoggle. And then, and then, and then, …
I don’t know about you but electing Trump president is starting to sound like the next round of presidential elder abuse. The poor guy. Well, maybe he can make DeSantis VP so he’ll have a kid around to do the heavy lifting.
And even if Trump gets is elected, I don’t think unity is going to be restored to the US. In fact, based on the last time he came into office I expect the CIA to send a hit squad after him as he steps into the White House on Inauguration Day.
So, is this the most important election in my lifetime? I’d say yes. But let’s hope the next one isn’t.
Loading ...06APR2024 – Quote of the Day
Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
William Somerset Maugham