Category: Current Events

Flash Mob Loots Nordstrom – LA Mayor Says Mean Things

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This is hilarious.  Woke mayor of LA is really, really mad.  And she’s gonna tell the police to do something about this.  Boy, that’ll scare the criminals!

Even a Leftist Admits the Dangerous Hypocrisy

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H/T to Tim for the link on my feed.  Greenwald is a progressive.  But he’s an honest man.  He believes in the concept of equality under the law.  And he sees that the Justice Department has been weaponized against its enemies.  And he knows once equal protection has been eliminated everyone is the potential target.  He knows that the Deep State has then become an unassailable tyrant.

That’s when the FBI starts killing old crippled men and tossing them in the street as a warning.

 

As the Neocons Blunder Their Way to Armageddon

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It’s almost as if they would prefer to spark a world war rather than admit that the world would be infinitely better without them.

 

A Friday Lecture and the Laboratory of Real Life

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I spent my morning exercise time listening once again to the ZMan’s Friday podcast.  And once again it was a very illuminating hour.  Ostensibly it was about the degrading of college football.  But really that was only a single example of corporatism’s ability to dissolve the underlying value of an institution or business and convert it to short term gain.  And the whole talk is extremely well done.  It’s like a lecture by a college professor who knows his material pat and who also happens to be a gifted orator.  I’ll stop raving about it now but if you are interested in hearing how we’ve gotten into the mess we’re in with the managerial state swallowing the federal government and just about every other institution give it a listen.

After that I read through the news and my Twitter (I mean X) feed.  It was a combination of more bad news from Washington and some small bits of hope from some of the less crazy parts of the nation.  On balance I think the nation as a whole is growing tired of Biden’s America.  I haven’t seen any organizing in order to begin taking control of things above the state level yet.  I’ve been hoping that more cooperative action would begin.  But maybe the 2024 election is actually a barrier to people thinking in those terms until after it’s lost.  Maybe after the expected election fraud returns Biden to the White House next year people will realize that waiting to take back the federal government is a fool’s errand.  And that they have to control the things that they have power over and work around the things they don’t.

A nice summer day today so I tried to find some macro shots (insects and flowers) but there weren’t many bugs at all.  It’s as if the insects were on strike.  Even the mosquitoes and deer flies were missing.  But I found a dead toad and set it up as bait.  Later on, I saw a carrion beetle sizing the toad up.  We’ll see what develops.

I also tried to get some shots of Camera Girl’s free-loading turkey flock but they were MIA.  A little later I think I saw the reason.  An adult fox showed up and made the rounds.  It was a good-sized animal but the fur was very light in color.  I asked Camera Girl if she thought it was one of the gray foxes but she said it had red in its fur.  Now I’m color blind but I could tell it was very light.  It almost looked like a cream color to me.  Well, anyway, I hope it didn’t eat up all of Camera Girl’s gobbling welfare recipients.  She really does like them and I will admit I hear they eat lots of ticks and that’s always a welcome situation.

Now I don’t pretend to know how much impact a thoroughly cynical electorate could have on the regime of the United States but I definitely think that it does have an impact on the behavior of the people who live as captives under this regime.  One of the impacts is already being seen.  A migration out of the blue states and into the red states is ongoing.  People are doing everything they can to minimize their exposure to dysfunction.  The same kind of thing is going on in other aspects of life.  People are avoiding the public schools.  They’re looking for colleges that aren’t propaganda internment camps.  They’re avoiding the chaotic blue-run cities.  And lately they’re even trying to punish companies that hate them through boycotts like the one that’s currently strangling Bud Light to death.

So maybe the grand total of all these small changes in behavior might have some bigger effects.  All this remains to be seen.  But watching this stuff is the only show in town.  After all, saying the wrong thing will get you dragged off to the gulag or even shot in the street by the Stasi.  Much better doing the things within your purview and just observing how stupid and obnoxious all these feds really are.

So, the summer is winding down and there are a few more get togethers scheduled.  The grandkids have been away this week at the beach and it sounds like they had a lot of fun.  Now school is imminent and we’ll see if they can spend the last week or two in the pool while their parents scramble to get things done.  I’ve had my one-on-ones with them and watched as much Godzilla and Jurassic Park as an alleged grownup possibly can and still survive.  Soon it will be shifting over to Fall and the approach of Halloween.  There are still a couple who haven’t been initiated into the classics of Universal’s Monster movies of the ‘30’s and ‘40’s.

I guess that’s enough for now.  Enjoy your day.

Forcing Change

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H/T to ArthurinCali on an interesting exchange.

Putting the Fox in Charge of the Henhouse

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Garland appoints the same guy who is currently trying to bury the Hunter Biden investigation as special counsel so he’ll have even more power to bury it.  In fact. he’ll probably use his office to investigate the people trying to get to the bottom of Hunter’s crimes.  I expect him to indict all the whistle blowers and even the Republican congressional committee members.

And now that the special counsel’s work is ongoing the congressional committee can be held off as trying to interfere in an active investigation.  What a wonderful system we live under.

Rufo in Florida Shuts Down Gender Studies Dept. in His College

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Say what you will about DeSantis as a candidate for president.  He’s getting people to fix things in Florida.  He’s hiring good people.  And they’re doing valuable work.

Purging public colleges of these leeches and psychopaths is one of the highest priorities.  These departments are the spawning grounds for people who destroy the minds of young people and suck the resources away from useful educational opportunities.  For every gender studies department closed down open up a welding class somewhere else.

Well, Maybe

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I get an e-mail whenever Curtis Yarvin writes a post in his Substack; Gray Mirror.  Now Yarvin is a lunatic but an engaging and clever lunatic.  His answer to all of the ills of our society is always the same; install a king.  So, I’m always a little daunted when I consider reading his posts, not least of all because they are usually between five and ten thousand words long.  Yikes!  Luckily this one was on the low end of that range.

It was a gentle chiding of Richard Hanania for becoming a moderate.  I guess Hanania was being attacked in the media for being an alt-right partisan in his younger days.  Well, who wasn’t?  Anyway, after a few thousand words to ridicule the concept of classical liberalism Yarvin gets down to his bottom line.  Any and all progress against the woke left is hopeless because the oligarchy protects it and the only way to get rid of the oligarchy is with a king.

Well, maybe.

So, because our representative democracy has been hijacked by an oligarchy, according to him we should welcome a dictator.  And you wonder, how did that work out for the Romans?  Julius Caesar and Augustus were pretty good.  But after that, what a nightmare.  How do you keep the king from being a madman or an incompetent?  Yarvin has this idea that it would be like some kind of CEO for the country and there would be a board of directors who could hire and fire the king.

Well, maybe

But I’m guessing that stuffing that board would be like stuffing the Supreme Court.  And truth be told the board would be the oligarchs and they would just choose one of their oligarchi-est oligarchs to run their show.  And how in hell do you get something like this started?  No, there is no way out that way.

What seems to be the case is that we are heading for a crisis.  The old system and the way that it works is reaching a breaking point.  Those in charge seem to have a plan to permanently make the voting system just a rubber stamp for their regime.  And at the same time, they want to change the class system in this country from a middle-class dominant model to a feudal system with the peasants working for the oligarchs.  And to be totally honest it sure looks like they’re way ahead getting their plan done.  A big chunk of the millennials and zoomers have serf written all over them.

Well, maybe.

But the best laid plans of oligarchs and serfs oft time go to hell in the real world.  I still think it’s too soon to just throw in the towel.  The demolition of the American economy is preceding at such a breakneck pace that it is somewhat possible that a popular revolt might miraculously sweep the Democrats completely out of power long enough to allow actual representatives of the people to make drastic reforms and restore our interests.

Well, maybe.

After reading about the FBI gunning down that old guy in Provo, Utah I’m not feeling so chipper today.  I know the radical nature of the killing should help to delegitimize the institutions like the FBI.  And it probably does.  The man as described was obviously no threat to anyone.

“Neighbors who spoke with the Deseret News described Robertson as a markedly different person than what he portrayed online. One person called him a “teddy bear” known for his woodworking who would sit in the same seat at church every Sunday; another said he was barely mobile, weighed nearly 300 pounds and was unable to walk without a cane. He would drive to church, despite it only being about 200 yards from his home, because he had so much trouble moving around.

Neighbors also described a harrowing scene, with dozens of agents converging on the Provo house, rifles drawn and hiding behind bulletproof shields as flash bangs exploded.

“I just can’t believe that this man warranted that kind of response,” said Travis Clark, who lived up the street from Robertson.”

It makes me sick to think that the FBI has become a secret police agency, no different from the Stasi and the KGB.  In fact, worse than those organizations.  At least the KGB wouldn’t have allowed BLM and Antifa to burn down their own cities.  But maybe it will be this kind of gestapo tactics that convinces a solid majority of the American people that our “leaders” are really our overlords now and need to be replaced with something better.

Maybe, maybe not.

Tough day to be optimistic.

Will Iger Retreat from the Woke Agenda that is Ruining Disney’s Business?

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In the linked article the Financial Times speculates on whether Disney will sell off its television business or ESPN or Hulu or blah, blah, blah.  It also wonders about the recent spate of theatrical releases that have underperformed or out right lost money.  As it goes through the litany of business divisions that have problems it seems that one option seems to be ignored.  Instead of concluding that television or streaming or movies aren’t really the “core” business of Disney maybe they should be looking at why each of these formerly lucrative businesses is suffering.

In each of these ventures, Disney has attempted to take a winning formula and mangle it by substituting a woke alternative.  Star Wars was chloroformed to provide a platform for the “Estrogen = The Force” narrative.  Now The Marvel movies will follow suit.  Kill off Iron Man and Captain America and substitute Captain Marvel.  And finally Indiana Jones is wheeled off to an old age home and Unlikable Girl Jones is brought in.

And now in the most brilliant example of brand poisoning on record they are openly sabotaging the classic cartoon properties of the 1930’s.  Snow White is an empowered girl boss who “don’t need no man” and is too busy with her empire building to fall in love.  She’s doesn’t need Prince Charming and for all we know she doesn’t swing that way.

Honestly, you’ve got to admire a campaign as boldly insane as the Disney reset.  One thing they’re responding to is the future status of those movies from the thirties and forties.  It’s getting close to the point where their copyright protection ends.  Snow White was made in 1937.  2037 is in fourteen years.  At that point anyone can repackage that movie and sell it.  By then Disney may be known as the non-binary children’s entertainment company.  Somebody else could have an amusement park where the old fashioned “normal” male and female Disney characters walk around and entertain the kids.  Who knows, maybe the amusement parks will be the business that Disney sells off.  Maybe someone else will restore the brand with a more family friendly attitude toward these formerly wholesome places.  It’s a thought.

Iger’s vision for Disney is embracing the woke sensibility and make it the their brand.  It’s a bold decision but right now it looks pretty dangerous to the company’s profitability.  Whatever they think they know about the future of the children’s entertainment market it looks like most parents still want to bring their kids to see movies where the beautiful girl is saved by the handsome prince from the evil stepmother or the evil witch and they live happily ever after.

You know, I hope Disney continues down the road they’re on.  Killing off the biggest entertainment company in the world may be the only thing that can save that industry.  There’s something to be said for being a true believer.