Category: Current Events

Another Lefty Media Company Bought by a Non-Woke Owner?

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Apparently Politico has been purchased by the German publishing company Axel Springer   And its CEO, Mathias Döpfner says he wants to turn it into a real news company.  Back in 2020 Döpfner was quoted as saying to his colleagues, “Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?”

Now this doesn’t prove that he isn’t a typical Lefty.  But it does sound hopeful.  If this is another case of the Left media being reined in we’ll soon have news of the most strident leftist reporters at Politico being bounced out.  And you know how much I love those stories.  Ah, the great goddess Schadenfreude, she is a terrible mistress.  But I am her ardent acolyte.

Summer Vacation Ends

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So yesterday we came home from the party and the water in the clogged kitchen sink had drained away.  With hope in my eyes, I ran the water taps but unfortunately the sink filled up again.  Still clogged!

But like President Whitmore in Independence Day after his first missile is stopped by the alien shield I said, “Hold on, I want another shot at this.”  So, I plunged it once more.  And miracle of miracles, there was a loud sucking sound and the water rushed down the drain with a satisfying gasp.  I ran the taps for a couple of minutes and nothing happened, completely clear.  A miracle had occurred and the spirits that guard over the septic system had smiled upon us. Camera Girl danced a sprightly caper around me as I stood triumphant holding plunger and monkey wrench like the symbols of my hallowed manly office, Lord of the Drain Pipe.  Last night I enjoyed a well-deserved snack of peanut butter on pumpernickel bagel to celebrate our liberation from piled up dirty dishes and Styrofoam plates.  I watched a terrible movie (Anna Karenina (1948)) and listened with half an ear to the pounding rain on the metal roofs.  Very evocative.

And like a switch being thrown, the hot dry weather ended.  It’s been raining, sometimes torrentially for two straight days.  The daytime temperatures have gone from the eighties to low seventies and sixties.  And this will mark the transition from the no-news summer silly season to the non-stop political drama of election year infomercials.  Joe Biden’s Stalin at the Haunted Castle, Labor Day Weekend Speech, kicked off the season.  But we can expect any number of manufactured crises and emergency speeches to reassure us that the Wizard will protect the Emerald City from flying monkeys with marines in dress uniform, endless student loan forgiveness and even more stimulus checks.

Well, no one in his right mind is surprised by any of this kabuki theater.  It’s all become sort of routine and even boring.  But the regime hasn’t got anything else to use.  I guess if they get really desperate, they can drag the COVID monster back out again for another round.  But I think most of the make believe has been knocked out of that game.  And I think a lot of people have heard that the vaccines are quite dangerous for some people.  And so there might not be much play in it this time around.

Folks on the Dissident Right are saying that the Republicans are actively trying to lose the races where a non-machine Republican candidate is running.  It should be interesting to see how the races in the swing states go.  Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan are going to tell us a lot about whether there’s any hope of fixing things.  Election night will be interesting.  One interesting spot is Nevada.  There the Republicans look to swing a Senate seat and a Governor’s mansion.  And supposedly this reflects the swing in the Hispanic vote to the right.  That will be an interesting race to see.

And then there’s the Roe v. Wade narrative.  Will millions of women vote for the right to kill their unborn children rather than to protest against a crumbling economy?  That will be another data point to record.

But really in my mind the whole election is a single binary switch, a fork in the road, a point of no return.  Either we pull back from the cliff or we just tumble over.  Simple as that.

Well, I intend to enjoy to the fullest the 62 days left until that decision.  Why not?  I’ve never been one to rush a bad thing.  If we’re going off the cliff I’ll even try to relax during the freefall.  No need to borrow trouble.

There are all kinds of interesting things going on.  People are trying to cope with terrible economic conditions and the downturn has barely begun.  We can expect the propaganda coming from the mainstream media to be turned up to eleven about how wonderful conditions are in Joe Biden’s America.  And the cognitive dissonance between those two things will further anger the voters.  I think we are in the perfect storm for the Democrats to get dumped.  So, if it doesn’t happen that will be all we’ll need to see that the game is now permanently rigged.  And as I’ve said I won’t be crushed by that news.  I’ll use that as the sign that it’s time to stop beating a dead horse and move on from trying to resurrect our republic and move on to figuring out how best to thrive in the empire.  Bring it on.

Conservatives Getting Organized

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As we adapt to living in Oceania (see map) it’s important to be aware of the differences between what we thought conditions were and how they really are.  The point is even if intellectually we know what our government really is, unless we explicitly list all of the differences, we may find ourselves lapsing into error on specific points that we haven’t considered.

As a for instance, someone who only recently became a parent may not have considered the reality of using the public schools.  Luckily all the attention over critical race theory in the schools has sounded the alarm for many parents but unless you consciously look ahead a few years you might be caught by surprise at the point when your kids start school.  You have to think ahead.

And there are a thousand things like that which are affected by the regime we live under.  And because of this multitude of problems that we face it seems to me that the best strategy for conservatives would be to create an overarching organization to concentrate the resources for the whole population and use the economies of scale to provide clout on our behalf.  As an example, we might look at the way AARP acts as an advocate for the benefit of older people.  By utilizing the membership fees and the buying power of this large pool of individuals they are able to get reduced cost benefits from insurance companies, drug companies, vacation resorts, airlines and many other businesses.

Just imagine if a “club” with over a hundred million members negotiates with a company or some other organization.  Let’s call it the AANP (American Association of Normal People).  You could only imagine the leverage they would have.  Suppose you were a publisher of school text books and such an organization said they were interested in making a deal to buy books for all their private schools from you but only if you produced a line of history and social studies texts that didn’t include the propaganda that the Left has been pushing for decades.  If this was a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, do you suppose you might put aside your ideology to get that contract?  I’m guessing the answer is yes.  Now this supposes that there is a whole network of private schools that would want these text books.  But once again, with an organization to represent conservative parents I could see religious schools and other private schools organizing to standardize on non-woke text books.  And if they did standardize, they could expect to reduce cost by this same economy of scale.

And this is just one example.  Imagine if Netflix was approached with a proposal to provide a premium service for conservatives that included only entertainment that wouldn’t disgust its viewers.  I think Netflix would jump at the chance to expand their business.  Who knows, Netflix might even be able to steal away the entertainment crown from Disney and start producing superhero movies and cartoons that parents and children could watch together without embarrassment.

But the biggest benefit of having an advocacy organization for conservatives would be the clout it would have with Republican politicians.  First off it could objectively rate the existing Republican politicians and provide a scorecard.  And then it could become a lobbying organization to bribe our representatives to actually act on our behalf.  I know it’s shocking to think of Republicans forced to help us but it could work.  There would be a carrot and a stick to help them remember why they’re in Washington.

Anyway, that’s what seems to make sense to me.  Why it hasn’t already been organized is a mystery to me.  Surely all these conservative think tanks must have some people who work on practical efforts.  But this could be part of that same problem I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  We still think this is our country and that it’s working for us instead of against us.  When we get that through our thick skulls then maybe we’ll start to get organized.

05SEP2022 – OCF Update – Laboring Laboriously on Labor Day

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Apologies for my tardiness.

Here on Labor Day I toil at clearing the stubborn and laborious kitchen sink drain line clog.  So far I’ve expended capital for a new auger, two gallons of drain cleaner and almost all of my patience.  The only progress is that clog has gone from impenetrable to semi-permeable.  The muck must be breaking up but it is a dismal slog.

And we are due at my daughter’s house in an hour for a holiday brunch.  So I have been unable to produce my daily post.  Most annoying.  But I will have everything well in  hand by the end of today.  The news roundup I’ve seen is just same old, same old.  So I’ll have to think of some interesting things to divert my thoughts from Joe Biden and the decay of the Republic.

Enjoy your morning and we’ll meet back later.

CNN Staffers Terrified, photog Busts a Gut Laughing

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Man, I love this stuff.  Some of my favorite quotes:

CNN staffers said they fear a network-wide purge of top talent after Brian Stelter and White House correspondent John Hardwood were unceremoniously fired.

One CNN journalist told the Post: ‘People are freaked out. It almost feels like there’s a pattern. Is there a purge going on?

CNN staffers are ‘terrified’ after Brian Stelter and John Harwood were fired© Provided by Daily Mail.
Ah, how splendiferous.
And listen to how confused they are about what constitutes even-handed coverage:
CNN journalists, however, say the new boss has done little to elaborate on what his vision entails and what reporters should do to avoid coming off as partisan when reporting about major issues.

‘I think they’re hoping people will just guess what to do,’ one journalist told the Post.

And lastly look which names are on the top of the list of targets:

Viewers were speculating online that anchors could be next, with Don Lemon, a lightning rod for the right, being mentioned. Other popular anchors on the possible chopping block included Jim Acosta and Jake Tapper.

Karma can be a wonderful thing.

Facing Reality

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Today was a busy day.  Lots of chores around the house and yard.  And then in the afternoon Camera Girl broke the news that the kitchen sink drain was completely clogged.  So, out come the monkey wrenches and plungers and the fun begins.  The trap was clear so I went looking for the snake to send down the drain line.  But it was gone.  There is no more annoying experience for a man than to have one of his tools turn up missing when he needs it.  But who could I blame?  I wanted to blame Camera Girl.  After all she is my go-to.  But unfortunately, I knew in my heart it must have been me.  I was trying to remember when I had thrown out any boxes without looking at them during the move ten years ago.  I vaguely remember thinking that whatever was in a certain beat-up box was useless old hardware that I no longer needed.  I think I told myself it was some scrap from a project.  Some conduit that I didn’t want to part with at the time but had never found a use for.  Looking back, it was just part of the dumpster mania that happens when you’ve been in a house for twenty-five years and then you have to empty it.  At a certain point you’re tempted to throw anything out, even the dogs, just to end the packing.

So, I took a piece of coaxial cable that was lying around and tried to snake the line with that.  No luck.  Then I reassembled the drain line and dutifully plunged it for almost half an hour with no result.  Tomorrow I’ll go out and buy an auger and clear the line.  I’d do it today but the roads are clogged with people going to the various Labor Day fairs and carnivals that break out at this time of year.  We’ll go early and pick it up and then head out to an orchard for some photography.  Then we’ll return by a roundabout route and I’ll spend an hour or so removing glop from that sink drain line.

I think I’ll blame Joe Biden for the clogged line.  The crud in that pipe is somewhat reminiscent of the gunk that must exist between his ears.  There must be a sympathetic magic that exists between the crap he was spewing the other day and all the noisome disgusting bilge that infects the waste lines of the world.  Joe himself is like a waste clog that has fouled up this country.  All the normal processes that need to happen to keep our country functioning have been obstructed by the presence of this human hairball.  He’s gummed up the works and America is stuck with a mess and no easy way to clean it up.  Well, I’ve stretched that metaphor way past its limit.  And it’s a mixed metaphor.  Joe is more akin to a backed-up toilet than sink because he’s really a lying sack of crap.  But I’ll move on.

It’s sixty some-odd days until the election.  I think we’ll learn very important things afterward.  And at this point I’m not even nervous.  I’m prepared to accept either eventuality.  If we win, great.  If we lose, I’ll move on.  If we lose that means I am responsible for steering my life in a permanently hostile political environment.  No more pretending we can vote our way out of this.  I can assume that the US federal government will always be trying to deprive me of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  And I will be avidly weighing my options in finding the optimal way to avoid its efforts.

Even though the dish washer is unusable Camera Girl decided to use some real china and silverware to have a nice dinner.  It was ribeye steaks with big baked potatoes smothered in butter.  It adds to the mess in the kitchen but her instincts were correct.  That dinner, followed by a showing of John Huston’s “African Queen,” was a good remedy to a frustrating afternoon of plumbing failures.  And tomorrow I’ll gather my supplies and set things straight in Camera Girl’s kitchen and all will be right with the world again.  If only Joe Biden could be as easily flushed down the drain.  But he’s a much bigger hairball.

Being Preached to by a Congenital Liar

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I read through some of Creepy Joe’s speech.  It’s the usual bizarro world version of reality.  Evil is good, down is up and crazy is sane.  It’s good to see he’s pulling out all the stops.  So, here we have Biden doing what he always does, lying through his teeth.  Putting aside questions of wholesale voter fraud, we will see whether suburban women will vote for their families or their place in the hive.  I think it’ll be close but I could be wrong.  Last year we had Virginia vote against a party that was trying to propagandize their children at school.  Since then, the economy has tanked and the Biden administration has weaponized the IRS.  Experience says the Democrats will be punished but Roe v Wade will stir the women into a frenzy, at least the crazy ones.  So, we’ll have to see how all this goes.

But I think it’s worth mentioning that this country must be pretty far gone if we’re in this situation.  Anyone who has been paying attention knows that not only is Joe Biden an inveterate liar and an influence peddler but also that his whole term as president has been an unmitigated disaster.  He allowed COVID to tear apart the economy of this country and then he bungled every single task that presented itself.  He stoked inflation with senseless multi-trillion-dollar payouts to people who should have been back at work.  He allowed bureaucrats to force useless and unsafe vaccines on people who neither wanted nor needed them.  He watched as his incompetent Pentagon botched the Afghan retreat.  And he’s stood by like a mook while the cities of this country have descended into lawlessness.

And now that his underwater approval rating is poised to lose the Democrats both the House and Senate, he gives this imbecilic hit piece of a speech claiming that half the country is an evil treasonous cabal against the virtuous forces of his storm troopers in the FBI.

And of course, the media laps it up.  They’re completely on the same page.  But what about the American public?  According to the polls about 40% think Biden is doing a good job.  Well good for the other 60%.  But 40% of America is a big number.  If there are that number of people satisfied with Biden then we’re in big trouble.  In fact, even with massive fraud it still shouldn’t have been possible for him to have gotten elected in the first place.  And that’s why I’m starting to wonder if there is any long-term hope for this country.

Even if we take back Congress in November and the White House in 2024, we’re still looking at almost half this country composed of some combination of crooks and imbeciles.  That’s got to be too high a percentage to allow for the long-term survival of this country.  And I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about that.  The smart thing would be to figure out a way to loosen up the federal system so that the states that aren’t as filled with stupid people can survive the stupid decisions that the stupid states make.  But how does that get done?  You can see why I’m more than a little dismayed.

But at the very least I hope the House impeaches that lying sack of crap for all of the crimes that have already been exposed on the infamous Hunter Biden laptop.  He deserves a prison sentence that he surely couldn’t outlive but I’d settle for seeing him exposed publicly in front of all the dimwits who voted for him as the crook he truly is.  At least it’s something.

CNN Continues to Clean House, Bounces Harwood

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And the beat goes on.  CNN fired their White House Correspondent John Harwood.  Immediately leftists in the press and the White House reacted with shrieks of outrage that another of their anointed has gotten kicked to the curb by CNN.

I’m starting to like this CNN CEO Chris Licht.  He’s firing all the people I despise the most at his company.  Maybe Don Lemon could be next?  Just a suggestion.

Well, between the three firings at CNN and the story that Chucky Todd is getting the boot off Meet the Press, I’m starting to think there is something good going on in the front offices of network news.  Maybe they’re tired of losing money.  Or maybe they know the wind is shifting.  Or maybe both.

Reactions to Yesterday’s Post (A Red-Pilled America)

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Yesterday’s post got a lot of new eyes because it got linked on several external sites.  Four of these folks left comments.  I’ve copied those comments below:

  • I enjoy your well written posts. Just for my education, you mentioned “FBI sponsored inner city crime”. Could you elaborate? Thanks.
  • I’ve said it before, and it is worth repeating: The salvation of the American people rests with the states and the state governments. Only these entities can protect and defend the people from the predators in DC. Only the states can marshal the resources necessary to prevent the federal government goons from harassing and harming citizens. Just as state governments have refused to cooperate with federal goons on various issues, it is time for states to utterly nullify the federal government. By no longer allowing collection of federal taxes within their jurisdictions, and also not allowing agents of the DC to operate within their borders, Americans can be freed of the criminality inflicted upon them by the unaccountable criminals at the US Capitol. It is time to take Federalism to the next level. A convention of states could, in a single day, invalidate the entire swamp and begin a new era of freedom and government accountability in this once great nation.
  • I think tribunals, and executions, will go a LOOONNNNNGGGGGGGG way to healing this country. The “great experiment” (i.e. the black man, women’s “rights”) is an ABJECT FAILURE!!!  We HAVE to move forward Or NO ONE DOES, and of course, NO ONE LIVES.
  • And you honestly think the R’s are the genuine answer?  You are a bigger fool and bigger part of the problem than originally calculated.

Well, I think this represents an interesting cross-section of people on the Right.  The first commentor didn’t explicitly provide his position on the topic I was discussing but he definitely read my words and had a specific question about one of my statements.  He also said polite things about my writing (which is always greatly appreciated) so I assume that we are at least not too far apart on basic beliefs on the American political situation (at least that could be the case).

The second and third commentors wanted to address specific actions that they hope some groups will take to force changes in the political situation.  These are actions that will not occur under the current political framework but would require some kind of rupture of the political structure, either through a civil war or a loosening of the federal arrangement that might involve some kind of implicit or explicit nullification of federal laws that are deemed harmful by various states.

The fourth commentor is especially interesting.  And not only because he recognized that I am, “a bigger fool and bigger part of the problem than originally calculated.”  He also seems to have gotten the impression that I think the Republicans are somehow the “genuine answer” to our problems.  What I find interesting is that not only didn’t I say or imply that the Republicans were part of any solution, but my post never mentioned the Republicans at all.  What this tells me is that many of us are already locked into points of view and ways of looking at things that almost preclude hearing what people with other points of view have to say.

And I see this in my own discussions with others.  I already have a narrative about what’s going on.  If someone has a different way of looking at things, often I attribute this different point of view to a lack of understanding or ignorance of the facts.  We develop tunnel vision to simplify the playing field.  We’re tuned into a few general indicators.  Maybe they’re key phrases or buzzwords that we use to size up whether someone is on “our side” or not.  And from these we extrapolate everything else about that person.  But the conversations between people even on the “same side” aren’t very helpful.

I’ve been of the opinion that people on the right have become more extreme because they’ve been shut out of the conversation by gatekeepers at places like National Review and the Weekly Standard (when it still existed).  Being silenced by the mainstream of your own side tends to radicalize those who are excluded.  And by the same token excluding dissident voices will weaken the reasoning abilities of those who are left.  They no longer have to defend their opinions against real opponents and so they descend into lazy idealism that is ungrounded in reality.  And so, we end up with echo chambers and silos where we preach to the choir.

There have been some positive steps taken.   In 2022 Marjorie Taylor Greene attended the America First Political Action Conference.  She became the first member of Congress to show she was not afraid of the white supremacist label associated with attending a dissident right event.  J.D. Vance refused to condemn her for it.  The Claremont Institute in California has taken small steps to have dialog with members of the dissident community.  There are the beginnings of dissident ideas being mainstreamed on national shows like Tucker Carlson’s broadcast.  These are small things but they are a beginning.

As for my humble part, I’m just glad when people leave comments; good, bad or confusing.  Any communication is better than none, I guess.  So, onward and upward.  Please leave your comments below.

Tucker Carlson Tells America That Europe Will Freeze This Winter

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Tucker reviews the disaster that is energy policy in Europe.  Between the embargo of Russia and the “Green Energy” initiatives like Germany shutting down its nuclear power plants, Europe will be freezing in the dark this winter.  The fact that the price of natural gas has gone up 700% and Germans are scouring their forests for scrap wood to turn into wood chips to heat their homes this winter is somewhat shocking.

Carlson makes a very good point when he says clearly that wind and solar were never going to be even close to a replacement for coal, oil and gas for heating and electricity.  But the Russian embargos are happening just at the right moment to create a perfect storm.

And so far, the Russians are still selling some gas to Europe (about 20% of what they could be sending).  If they cut off the supply altogether it will shut down German industry altogether.  So far the politicians are maintaining their stance on the Ukrainian war.  But it’s still summer.  We’ll have a better idea how things will go in January.

Now, we’re in better shape than Europe.  We produce a lot of fossil fuels.  But our energy prices have skyrocketed and they will increase again this winter.  This should have some effect on the November elections I think.