All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
I’m sure the mainstream media will celebrate Pearl Harbor Day with endless recriminations about Japanese Americans being interred in California. But I think it’s important for us in post-America to remember what a united nation can accomplish when its enemies give it no choice. We may have the courage to unite against the enemies within who are determined to destroy us and our way of life.
Fredo went against the Family. No not the Cuomo Crime Family. He went against the #MeToo family. So, they took him out on the lake and now he sleeps with the fish. Don Lemon will now be the sole contestant for the title “Stupidest Human on Television.” Without Fredo CNN will lose a whole demographic of viewers. The short attention span viewer will permanently tune CNN out. They’ll drift away to reality tv or possibly watch shiny spinning objects. They’ve lost their man.
Seriously, as much as I despise the people who fired him, I’m delighted to hear that the last of the Cuomos are now unemployed. From Mario to Fredo they have infested New York politics and embarrassed Italian Americans for over fifty years. To never have to see Fredo’s “deer in the headlights” expression again on the television is a blessing.
Of course, I haven’t considered whether Fredo might find something outside of news. Maybe something in the entertainment industry. I know it’s probably beyond him but maybe he could become a rodeo clown. It’s honest work and his face would be an asset. He wouldn’t need makeup and I’m sure the bulls and bucking broncs will be fascinated by his dim-witted stare. Or possibly he could become a carny. Not one of the barkers. That’s too skilled. Maybe he could throw sawdust on the beer barf. That’s not so hard. That’s it! His next gig will be beer barf sawdust guy. And if he studies hard and applies himself, one day, he could become the cotton candy guy. Only in America.
Really my only worry is the possibility of a next generation. Could Andrew and Chris have progeny that might one day show up in the public space? I tend to think this is unlikely. Based on the drop off in intelligence between Mario and his sons I assume the next generation will fall right out of the human spectrum and end up with IQ’s in the single digits. That would put them in a class with planaria and other flatworms. Even CNN couldn’t employ them.
So, I guess this is it. Farewell Fredo. We hardly knew ye. Or we hardly wanted to know ye. Or something.
Good riddance.
The NY Post reports that in the wake of smash and grab looting of some of the most expensive stores in San Francisco the store owners have boarded up their store and hired security guards to protect their businesses and employees from the threat.
The end quote encapsulates the situation.
“Being soft on criminals has its consequences. For San Francisco, the result is a ghost town. For decades, this Bay Area destination has held conferences where it held itself up to the world as a model of a “livable, walkable” city.
Not any more.
“People are scared to go downtown,” native resident Tandler told me.
“This is the destruction of a city.””
During all the chaos and violence associated with the Defund the Police and BLM Riots, statements were made on how the rich could tolerate living around this danger because they lived in gated communities and had private security protecting them at home and elsewhere. And that got me thinking, maybe that’s what we need too. I don’t mean that we can all afford to live in the enclaves of the rich and famous. Obviously, we can’t. But maybe what we’ll be looking at as a way to survive is a form of gated community. In the same way that people buy condos and have to adhere to the rules of the community maybe we’ll need to organize into closed communities that will protect us from a long list of societal ills that the Left is unleashing on us. Undeniably this type of setup will have to be located in a red state. Otherwise, the federal and state governments will attempt to crush it based on some kind of anti-discriminatory nonsense.
You might ask why would someone living in a free state like say Florida need to go to all the trouble of getting involved in a restrictive collective relationship? This is a fair question. Being a contrarian myself I can see how having to toe the line on a laundry list of personal choices would be annoying. But the reason would be to ensure the safety of you and your family and to preserve other freedoms that otherwise will be infringed on living in Post America. So, the trick is to figure out what requirements are absolutely necessary to allow this sort of collective to function correctly and protect the members from harm but otherwise maintain the maximum freedom for the individual.
So now you can see I’m founding a state! Here I am Plato planning out my Republic. But really what I’m trying to do is found a town. What is needed is a planned community in the sense that it will include schools, recreational and social organizations, homes, a hospital, police department, fire department, cable television company and a social networking company. In fact, it probably should have its own general store, barber shop, beauty parlor, pharmacy, hardware store, restaurants, theater, lawyers and a host of other things I haven’t thought of yet. In other words what you want is a self-sufficient community.
You can immediately protest, but all those things will be uneconomical. Walmart and Amazon make hardware stores and general stores obsolete. And how can a one-horse cable company and social media site compete with Comcast and Facebook? Well in all four of these examples they can’t. But they can provide services that their alternatives cannot. The hardware store can be associated with the local tradesmen; plumbers, carpenters, electricians who can perform the jobs that require more experience and manpower than the average do-it-yourselfer can muster. The general store can stock the crafts and other products that the community produces. The cable provider can eliminate the channels that nobody wants and provide local access for community projects. And the social network can be used for actual social networking around the neighborhood.
It might even be desirable for the community to have its own energy infrastructure. Purchasing a gas station and heating oil company along with a power company to provide electricity for the community might make sense. So that’s about what I see as the extent of the community. In the next installment I’ll try to think of convincing reasons why it makes sense. But if we devolve into the kind of place you see in California I could see localities doing everything they can to try and maintain their quality of life by cutting themselves off from the danger and dysfunction all around them.
As the Justice Department spins furiously trying to allow the implementation of the Private Industry Vaccine Mandate the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals just said nope. The Sixth Circuit which is pretty conservative court refused to hand the case over to a more liberal jurisdiction and likewise refused to vacate the halt that was put on the implementation of the mandate by the Fifth Circuit Court back in November. Merrick Garland and Dementia Joe must be pretty sore after that beating.
Some are saying that this will eventually go to the Supreme Court. Hopefully by that time COVID will be just a nasty memory and Biden can wear his mask by himself.
Serial rage-aholic Alec Baldwin sat down with malignant dwarf George Stephanopoulos to discuss how he was able to shoot two people without any criminal responsibility. And it was palpable just how in awe of Baldwin’s genius the sniveling dwarf was. Sure, Stephanopoulos had witnessed Bill Clinton evade serious consequences for any number of felonies. But none of the Clinton murders were ever captured on video tape. Here Baldwin went through a second-by-second account of his shooting of the cinematographer and director of his grade z western. You could hear the pride in his voice at pulling off the trick shot that bagged both targets with only one bullet. Of course, there is a trace of sadness that the director survived, but he remained upbeat and speculated that in future shootings he might be able to line up three or even four targets as Deadpool did in the famous opening fight scene of his movie.
A second video will be coming out consisting of the portions of the interview that were edited out. They consist of the times where the conversation got side-tracked while Stephanopoulos reminisced about the good times during the Clinton White House when Vince Foster and Vic Raiser met their fortunate ends. Unfortunately, Disney will be putting that episode behind a paywall.
At the end of the interview Baldwin was asked what he had lined up in the future. He said he was in development on a biopic project about President Biden. It was tentatively titled, “Plugs” and it would star Baldwin as the incontinent commander in chief. Baldwin spoke in glowing terms of the cooperation he had received from the White House. He hoped to have it in theaters for Christmas 2022 and hinted that Wesley Snipes was being considered for the part of Corn Pop.
Seriously though, Alec Baldwin is a soulless sociopath. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that he put the bullet in the gun to collect on some kind of weird codicil in his movie’s insurance policy. The points in the interview where he breaks down and weeps look completely fake.
I have to assume that at some point in the future Baldwin will up his game and succumb to the urge to cannibalize someone just to check it off his list. Hopefully it will be Stephanopoulos or possibly Robert DeNiro and Baldwin will die from ingesting that much toxin.
Well, here we are exactly three weeks before Christmas Day and despite the havoc that the pod people have unleashed on the world, I’m feeling kind of happy and even optimistic about what’s to come. Why I’m that way is probably a combination of things. Doubtless, knowing that the Biden administration is in disarray has something to do with it. The fact that I’ll be spending several days with the kids and grandkids is also part of it. Another part is that by December I’ve come to terms with winter and no longer feel the post summer gloom. And finally, well, life is good! Everyone in the family is in pretty good health. We’re going to have another fantastic dinner soon and another one right after that. The house hasn’t been foreclosed on. We have enough money for food, clothes and even enough left over for some toys like the new camera I’m hoping to buy in January. Any sane person would say I’m doing alright. And even though I’m at least slightly crazy I’ll say it too.
So, what’s on the horizon?
I listened to a doctor in England who’s pretty sure that the omicron variant is going to be a very mild virus and should be the end of the farce we’ve been enduring. He said it will be extremely transmissible and quite capable of infecting even the hyper vaccinated. So, everyone will get this thing. It will feel like the kind of virus that gives you aches and a dry cough and headache for a couple of days. Then that should be it. No huge number of deaths, no wave of hospitalizations except for the chronically ill and the really elderly. So, in a month or three Anthony Fauci should be out of an annoying job as health nag of the world. Hallelujah! Of course, nothing is ever guaranteed but I’m guessing the weariness of even the Karens will drive this thing to its ending. So that’s a good prospect.
Every year in the winter I’m always frustrated by the dearth of photographic opportunities. After all, snow and ice sort of look the same whether I photograph it on Wednesday or Sunday so there is a futility to going out in the neighborhood. Plus, I’m not a big fan of being cold. Well, this year I’ve vowed that I’ll make a few treks around New England to try to find interesting snow (whatever that is). Plus, I think I’ll set up a macro studio in the house and bring some interesting subjects inside to do the work in the comfort of forced hot water heating. I’m interested to see if my 200mm Minolta macro lens will be controllable with a program I use to take focus stacks. It allows the focus setting to be very gradually changed between shots. I’m not at all certain it will work because the Minolta lens will be under the control of the LA-EA5 adapter which is nowhere near as precise as one of those lenses that has stepper motors built in. But it’ll still be fun trying it out. And that’ll be just one of the cool things I’m hoping to do with the A-mount lenses on the A7 IV camera once I get my hands on it. Looking back on some of the photos I took on the A-850 DSLR with them I am excited to see what kind of results I can get in the spring. But winter will still provide some opportunities.
I’ve been enjoying the movie reviews. I think it makes a good change of pace from the political stuff. Even the horror of Star Trek Season 3 can be fun if there is enough mockery involved. Mixing science fiction movies with the old movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s seems to work. But I’ll see if I can mix in some later movies just for variety. I don’t want to get predictable!
I’ll have to do some reading into H. P. Lovecraft. I’ve forgotten all the details of the stories and I’ll need those details when I riff on Lovecraft in my Dunwich newspaper articles. I think I might try the “Whisperer in the Dark” next.
And finally on the fiction writing front I’ve made progress on my novel but what I’ve concluded is I need to carve out much more time. I’ve got to get more disciplined. I spend too much time just reading stuff on the net. It’s way too much of a time sink.
Well enjoy your Saturday.
Here’s a generous slice of today’s headlines on Real Clear Politics:
Biden Reaches Deal to Restart Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy
Announces New Covid Travel Restrictions, Extends Mask Mandate
White House Blames Pandemic and Guns for Increased Crime
House Passes Bill to Fund Government, Sends It to Senate
Supreme Court Signals Support for Upholding MS Abortion Law
Majority Blues: House Democrats Not Done Limping Toward the Exit
Trans Swimmer Sparks Outrage After Smashing Women’s Records
GOP Reps Propose Requiring History of Communism in High Schools
Black Lives Matter: Don’t Buy from White Businesses This Christmas
Dem Pollster: We Have a Problem
To Win, Beto Needs Latino Voters, But They’re Moving Away from Dems
Smollett Trial: Witness Says Actor Staged Attack, Wanted to Be ‘Fake Beat Up’
Finally, the Supreme Court Gets Out of Dodge
It Sure Sounds Like Roe v. Wade Is Doomed
Fewer Than Half Say Covid Is Most Urgent Health Problem
The War on Meritocracy
If you work your way through the list there is no good news for Biden and the Dems. Everything is either things going our way or it’s things that Biden or some other Lefty is doing that are driving the public to despise them. It’s not a good idea to underestimate the Republicans’ talent for screwing up a good thing but it seems that since August Biden has seemed like that guy in the cartoon surrounded by rakes, that he keeps stepping on, and that keep hitting him in the face. Well, good! After 2020 we’re certainly overdue for some good news. The question that has to be asked is, do we expect this to continue?
I think the answer is yes. Regardless of the pat answers that the Left has been handing out, the supply chain problems and inflation don’t just disappear because we don’t find them convenient. Dementia Joe can beg the Saudis all he likes to drop the cost of oil but that’s not how it works. The economic pain that he is causing almost everyone is not going away and his COVID policies continue to aggravate just about everyone, even a lot of his supporters.
The next question is how will this play out in the short, medium and long range? In the short and middle range, the administration’s attempt to railroad the reconciliation bill through the objections of Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin is failing miserably and this failure is panicking the Congressional Democrats who are coming up for reelection in less than a year. In fact, it’s now a foregone conclusion that the Democrats will lose the House of Representatives in 2022. And it’s beginning to look like there may be a wave election that sweeps large numbers of both Democrat representatives and senators out of office. If this happens then the Biden administration is essentially dead in the water. Without the Senate it’s a cinch that no more judges in any of the federal courts will be approved and it’s also a certainty that no controversial legislation will occur.
In the long term it looks like the Biden presidency will be something worse than the Carter presidency. A number of people are beginning to think that Biden will not serve out his full term. In fact, some pundits think the Democrats are looking to get rid of both Biden and Harris. And if the House is going to be lost in November, then it becomes important to swap out vice presidents before then because the House is in charge of approving vice-presidential appointments. All kinds of horror stories have been whispered about Hillary or Michelle Obama being installed as vice president in time to allow a transition when Dementia Joe resigns. The desperation that would warrant these kinds of bizarre strategies is wonderful to contemplate. The reality of just how total a train wreck the Biden presidency has become is something to behold. Federal judges are putting holds on each of his vaccine mandates and look almost certain to declare them unconstitutional. If and when the federal COVID overreach is ended by the courts Joe will probably declare victory over COVID and do some kind of victory lap. But the anger he has already fostered will not be going away. The way things are going we are looking at a long slow burn for the American public waiting to get rid of the monstrosity that they had foisted on them in January.
Now what could go wrong with this analysis? Obviously, the Stupid Party could come to the rescue of the Evil Party by virtue of their stupid. Guys like Mitch McConnell live with their heads completely enclosed in their butts. Another strategy that could be used to distract the public from Joe’s failures is a convenient war. And finally, there is the chance that against all odds everything starts turning around for Joe just when he needs it to. Manchin could finally take the bribe and inflation could magically disappear and Biden’s brain could be found and reinstalled.
But I’ll have to say I’ve become quite bullish for the chances that the Biden presidency is a dead duck. Call me a crazy optimist but that’s what I think.
All of my adult life traditional religious Americans have been waiting for the chance to overturn Roe v. Wade. It has taken almost fifty years to assemble a conservative majority of Supreme Court justices who might overturn the 1973 abortion decision. Today a lot of the pundits were saying that the statements coming out of the hearings by the justices indicated that they were preparing to uphold the new law in Mississippi. This would limit abortions to pregnancies shorter than 16 weeks.
Now enormous pressure is being put on the justices to let Roe stand. Idiots like Senators Blumenthal and Schumer have made very ominous statements about the consequences if Roe is overturned or even if some stringent restrictions are made on abortion such as the recent Texas law. The more measured warnings include packing the court or restricting its jurisdiction. But Schumer actually made his warning sound like a personal threat against the justices themselves. Personally, I’m not surprised by these threats. The Democrats are gangsters who frequently resort to threats and violence when all else fails. One need look no further than the George Floyd riots to see violence and intimidation being wielded by the Left’s mob du jour.
The abortion decision will not occur until next June. This will provide proximity to the mid-term elections which will make its consequences even more interesting. If the Court strikes down Roe or even just confirms the more stringent Mississippi law will this galvanize democratic support next November? Or would it have the effect of encouraging voters on the Right who have been waiting all their adult lives to see the Supreme Court admit that abortion is not a constitutional right?
Speculating about something that won’t be known for another seven months seems kind of premature. But it is fascinating to think that such a momentous change might actually happen after all these years. And it makes me wonder what other alleged constitutional rights might be struck down in the future. My favorite would be affirmative action. The last time the subject came before the Supreme Court it was admitted by the Justices that it was indeed unconstitutional but that social pressures required it to be used as a stopgap method. That was decades ago. I think the impact from striking down all the affirmative action laws would be an order of magnitude greater than any of the other fake unconstitutional laws like same sex marriage because removing the affirmative action mechanisms would allow freedom of association to exist again. The government would stop telling us who we had to employ. We could once again hire people according to whether they were the best qualified candidates and not have to adhere to some kind of social grievance heat map to pick them.
The one thing I think could put the brakes on any actual decision is the fact that John Roberts might decide to vote for the conservative opinion. By virtue of being Chief Justice that would then allow him to write the decision and he could do anything he wanted including just sending this case back down to the Appeals Court to tweak their decision. And I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s a spineless weasel who never misses a chance to roll over for the Left.
But the political winds are shifting in this country. People’s eyes have been opened to how the people in Washington govern without caring what their constituencies actually elected them to do. If voting for change doesn’t work pretty soon, they’ll stop voting. And then they’ll look for change by other means.
Well, here we are at the precipice of December and there have been some hopeful political signs and some hopeful cultural stirrings. The consensus is that Brandon Sucks and that even some Democrats are unimpressed with the Biden administration and with the direction they’re bringing the country. But where does this put us? Have we made any real progress in the last year? That’s what I want to discuss here. And the simple answer, I think, is yes. Not a lot of progress but enough to warrant not giving up quite yet.
The first item to look at is COVID. Almost eleven months since Dementia Joe took over and I’d say way more than half of the country has had enough of the absurd claims and dictates of the Democrats. The way that the White House favored the teachers’ unions and ignored parents’ concerns has demonstrated that even in blue states like Virginia and New Jersey people have grown extremely weary and angry. In places like California and New York there are still a majority of nuts voting in the likes of Gavin Newsom but even there the enthusiasm for this endless control over people’s lives is gone. And the courts have recently begun to push back against the vaccination mandates that the feds are trying to push on public and private employers. Taking all these things together we are in a better place on COVID. I suspect that the “Omicron” variant will turn out to be a nothing burger in terms of deaths and places like Florida will be the proof that lockdowns and mandates are a stupid strategy.
The next thing to talk about is the economy. The inflation and shortages that have sprung up are the primary reason for Dementia Joe’s sagging poll numbers. And despite any obfuscation most of the inflation is caused by his administration’s war on fossil fuels. Doubling the price of gasoline is a phenomenally disastrous course for a president to take. Not only does it hurt commuters but the increased cost of fuel adds to the price of virtually everything we buy because of the transportation component to their cost. And with winter in full swing now the increases in fuel oil will outrage million of homeowners. Even renters will see their payments go up to account for the heating increases. Inflation alone will cost the Democrats their House majority and very likely, the Senate too.
The damage that last year’s riots did to the ability of city police departments to enforce the law is tremendous. Almost every major city and even smaller population centers have seen the police step back from enforcement as a result of the cities’ administrations throwing the police to the wolves. And the result has been an epidemic of lawlessness. Murder, assault, armed robbery and looting of retail establishments is literally out of control. Just last week armed gangs overwhelmed security in a number of California retail stores and walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars of merchandise. Security guards have been shot and store employees are demoralized and frightened. I’ve read leftist news sites claim that because the cities are already Democrat strongholds that crime will not be a major political issue in 2022. I think they’re dead wrong. There will be plenty of cities and maybe even blue states that will vote Republican out of fear of lawlessness.
Another item that can be added to the list of positive signs is the mainstreaming of some formerly forbidden ideas. Even though it is relegated to only single sources, a politician (Ron DeSantis) and a network journalist (Tucker Carlson) have both begun to talk openly about subjects like anti-white discrimination and targeted violence against white Americans by groups that are almost opnly sanctioned by federal law enforcement agencies. The biggest instance is the FBI protecting BLM and Antifa from prosecution during their riots which featured intimidation of white people along with assault, arson and looting. The fact that any mention of these conditions is now allowed to reach audiences at all is, I think, a game changer. Raising awareness in the general population is the only way to reach a critical mass of people unwilling to put up with the madness that has overtaken us.
And finally, I think we are finally reaching a point where leadership may be emerging that is willing to work toward toppling the oligarchy that has us by the throat. Trump was the first taste of that. He was suppressed pretty successfully by the combination of the media and the deep state. Someone like DeSantis may be the next iteration in this process. He is a politician and he has run a large state government. He may have a plan to take charge of the federal government and reform it. And by reform it I mean gut it.
So, these are the items I see and what has been going on. In summary, the lousy job Dementia Joe has done on the economy, COVID and public safety seems poised to decimate the Democrats in Congress and state governments. And some beginnings have emerged in some meaningful resistance to the outrageous assaults on American life that have gone on in the last year or two.
But none of these things represent a meaningful reversal of the already disastrous status quo. It isn’t enough to capture the Congress or even the White House. Policies must be rolled back not only on paper but in practice. Bureaucrats have to be fired so that policies that they dictate cannot be enforced even against the wishes of a president. And in the realm of business nothing has been done to break the stranglehold that leftist corporations in Silicon Valley exercise over e-commerce and social media speech. Conservatives are banned from presenting their views on most of the internet and stand to lose their livelihoods if they attempt to do so. Donald Trump has stated that he intends to launch a social media company to give a home to conservatives looking to speak freely. That sounds like a good start. But what is really needed is an e-commerce platform that combines the e-commerce services of companies like PayPal, GoFundMe and YouTube. And that’s a tall order. In fact, I’d add in banking and credit card functions to that list. All of these things have been weaponized against conservatives in the last few years. Only companies that provide these services to conservatives without fear of cancellation will finally re-level the playing field for us.
Last word, we’ve seen a start to progress. But we’re so far behind that it’ll be a good long time before we start seeing anything like winning. Let’s hope 2022 is the beginning of something more than just hope.