Feet of Clay

If the times we live in were a suspense novel we would have a plethora of villains.  There’s Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, George Soros, Christopher Wray, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, William J Burns, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, William Barr, Gavin Newsom and on and on and on.

The sheer number and power of this group is staggering and downright depressing.  Everywhere we look, the status quo is controlled by some part of the enormous coalition that is working relentlessly to destroy what’s left of our civilization.  Whether it’s Anthony Fauci directing bioweapon research and then lying about its release or legal and medical authorities encouraging social services and grade school teachers to convince young children that their sex is other than what their bodies demonstrate, we are surrounded by a tidal wave of evil people protected and spurred on by the elite systems of control that run this country.  But every novel has a hero, a protagonist that comes along and opposes the villains and fights to overthrow that evil.

That is what we are lacking.  No one has stepped forward and proven that he is strong enough and determined enough to free us from our tormentors.  Currently Donald Trump is applying for that job.  He has identified many of the mechanisms that the Left uses to pin us down and prevent us from stopping them from harming us.  He said illegal immigration is the largest threat to our sovereignty and he tried in his first term to stop it.  He had some success.  But it was clear by the end of his term that the Deep State has enormous resources and absolutely no fear of using them.  It’s entirely possible that the COVID release was intentional and that the whole vaccine and lockdown catastrophe was part of a disruption used to prevent a popular president from being re-elected.  None of that seems remotely unthinkable once you see what kinds of actions these people have already demonstrably committed.  So, all of this is the build-up to my familiar and at this point, tired thesis that life isn’t fiction.  We’re not going to be rescued by the plucky hero using a trillion to one lucky shot to blow up the Death Star.

But what is true, is that psychologically we expect that miracle to happen.  And not only regular people believe it but even a rich famous New York real estate tycoon talked himself into it.  Our culture is suffused with the idea that the people are the rightful owners of this country and if you can harness their anger, it will allow a hero to move mountains and fix the problems that we have.

And as I’ve said before, all of that is make believe.  The people in charge want to stay in charge and since they can rig the system any way they deem fit, they will do whatever is necessary to prevent anyone from threatening that power.  Just look at the landslide of indictments they’ve brought down on the head of the former president of the United States.  They hold all the cards and they’re willing to use them as needed.

But there is a caveat.  All of this great power is tied up in the prestige of America being this invincible colossus.  For two hundred years a myth has existed that America is this miracle.  It was a land where success was based on the freedom of its people.  Each man was a king.  His sovereignty was over his house and his family and if he didn’t like the neighbors, he could pull up stakes and go where the air was sweeter and the rules weren’t so onerous.  He had dozens of “states” to choose from and he could tell anybody he pleased to go to hell.  And a country of such men could also tell the rest of the world to go to hell too.  And if other countries made trouble for him, he’d organize a raid and put them in their places.

And after two hundred years of this it turned out that the rest of the world wasn’t much of anything compared to America.  It was the Unipolar Power; the Hegemon.  And the rest of the world took orders from us.  But the people in charge realized this.  The whole world did what they said.  And so, they took the next step.  Why not have the American people become their slaves just the same as the Brits and the French and the Germans.  So that’s what they did.

But they didn’t figure turning the Americans into sheep would cause any issues.  I guess they figured that the elites are what made America great and they could get the same results without all those annoying free men.

But what they missed is that a nation of sheep, even three hundred and sixty million sheep are still just sheep.  And you can’t scare the world with sheep.  No one ever heard of an invincible colossus being just a flock of sheep.  So now Russia and China and soon Iran and maybe Saudi Arabia and who knows soon Mexico will start thinking that sheep aren’t very effective soldiers.  Neither are men in dresses or women in pants.

So, the people in charge may have their way for another few years.  And they’ll do a lot of damage to us.  But the stink of failure is starting to get stronger.  It won’t be much longer before something very bad happens on the international scene.  And when they try to rally us around the flag, it will go over like a lead balloon.  And that will cause a very serious military defeat.  And after the powers that be take a few hard hits, a lot of people in this country are going to look around and say, “These aren’t leaders and we need real men to clean up this mess.”  And when someone steps forward, a lot of things will change.  And unfortunately, that is when a Caesar or a Napoleon is likely to appear.  But that is just how these things roll downhill.  And at this point that might be our best option.

Anyway that’s my prediction on how this plays out.  What can’t go on, won’t go on.

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 07APR2024 – Dark Premonitions

war pig

 

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.

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.

 

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Lazing Away the Day

The First Selectman Taking a Stroll

I couldn’t face talking about politics today.  I spent a good part of the day staring out a window at the huge snowflakes swirling around in the gale force winds that blew in circles around the compound.  At one point there was an inch or two of some combination of slush and snow on the grass and asphalt.  But by 2pm the driveways were miraculously clear.  So, I decided that my well thought out strategy of not doing anything had worked brilliantly and now I should go outside and take my victory lap with my snow shovel over my shoulder.  Hail the conquering hero!

These April snow events in New England are transitory oddball affairs.  The daffodils and hyacinths and hellebores can be buried in snow and ice but surprisingly these delicate flowers take no apparent harm from it.  Even the birds who you’d think would be devastated by the snow disrupting their feeding and mating activities seem unphased by the whole thing.  In fact, the crows almost seemed to be playing in the snow and clowning around.

Another fence post cracked in the fierce winds we had last night (thanks a lot First Selectman) and I made a mental note to fix the damn thing as soon as the snow retreats away from it.  Honestly, this winter has done a good bit of damage to the infrastructure, what with the pine tree landing on the upper driveway fence and the gutter cracking off of the pool shed.  My to-do list has been growing steadily.

And yesterday my laptop told me the battery is dying.  Of course, this isn’t one of those laptops that has the external battery, so now I have to do brain surgery on it.  So, I bought an electronics tool kit with the fifty screw driver bits, pliers, pick, static wrist band and two spudger tools.  Well, since I don’t know what a spudger is I guess I can’t let myself be caught short so two must be right.  Of course, the tools are going to show up a week after everything else so I hope the battery can struggle on for that long.  All in all, the world is crumbling before my eyes and honestly, I really can’t blame it.  Currently we’re being led by moochers and morons and it’s a miracle we haven’t gone over a cliff, lock stock and barrel.

But all things considered I’m calm and relatively jovial.  The First Selectman was glad to hear that folks still remembered the good works he did back in the colonial era and that his chronicler Howard Philip is still remembered as a kook with an overactive imagination who did give Batman a place to warehouse the lunatic criminals that cropped up so consistently in Gotham City.  Although how that managed to be in New England I’ll never know.  Maybe they thought placing it far away from New York City would be good for their nerves.  Or maybe they just moved the whole darn thing to Gotham over a long weekend or something.  Anyway, all praise to His August Cephalopodliness and long may he reign over Dunwich and please don’t let him raise my property taxes again.  Amen.

Farmer Cthulhu in Hi s Fields

The Western Alliance Begins to Plan for the Ukraine’s Collapse

Politico published an article that confirms that Ukraine admits that the Russian offensive will force the Ukrainians to yield large swaths of their country wherever the assault comes.

“Ukraine is at great risk of its front lines collapsing

Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 04APR2024 – The Witch’s Curse

I grew up not too far from Dunwich; Danvers, MA, better known among the arcana-read as the real site of the Salem Witch trials. Back then it was known as Salem Village, while modern Salem was Salem Towne. Growing up I noticed that when a storm was forecast to bring, say nine inches of snow, we got 12. Or a Foot was forecast and we got 18 inches.

I finally had a chance to put this question to no less than Don Kent, meteorologist at WBZ-TV. He looked me in the eye and said “You’re from Danvers aren’t you?” I said yes, and just why is the weather so weird? He answered honestly “We don’t know…BUT…” and then he told me about how, during the Trials, one of the accused witches, on the way to the gallows, laid a curse on the town, that it should always suffer a harder winter than the rest of the county. And this curse WORKED! Even changing the town’s name didn’t help (That’s why the town seal says “Without the King’s Consent”. They did it without the approval of the Colonial Office.)
Best regards to the First Select-Entity. The Eldrich Powers are hard at work in other regions as well.

[Editor’s Note – The First Selectman sends his greetings to his cousins on the shore and hopes they are enjoying the weather they ordered a while back from his cousin.  Gurgle, glug, gurgle, gurgle glug glug glug.]

 

Reply from Tregonsee 314

I live just down the road from Danvers, Close enough that when the leaves are off the trees I can see the remaining building of the Danvers State Hospital (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_State_Hospital )

the alleged inspiration for Lovecraft’s Arkham Asylum (amazingly there are now expensive Condos there, with only the historic main tower remaining as a shared space). Our little town was part of Salem Village but split in the early 18th century from Danvers. We also seem to share in that curse 🙂 . It has to be true Mr. Kent was one of New England’s top meteorologists for most of my life and if that was the explanation he had that is good enough for me, certainly nothing else makes sense,

Reply from photog

Tregonsee. there used to be a similar mental hospital in Worcester.

Likewise it was recently demolished leaving only a replica clocktower to mark its former presence. But when it stood it was an eerie reminder of a different world.

Voigtlander 10mm e-mount Clock Tower vertical angle

 

 

The Long National Nightmare of Me Being Way Too Busy is Over!

Today I finished up a weeklong marathon project that really made my life a misery and seriously cut into my on-line time to the detriment of this site.

Whew!!!

So here I am looking around and I see…

The same crap as the week before!

Hmmm.

Okay, there’s a claim that Biden’s poll numbers have gone up a point or maybe two.  Let’s grant that.  But his swing state numbers, both with and without third party candidates are the same or maybe even a little bit worse than before.  And inflation has gotten worse but the disastrous housing market is forcing the Fed to drop interest rates to try and generate some good news for Biden.  Which will make the inflation worse still.

And the Zoomers are really angry about Gaza.

Apparently, the big tent party is beginning to turn on its Jewish contingent because of Biden’s support for the Gaza War.  And this is causing pundits like the Ragin’ Cajun James Carville to hit the panic button.  His exact words were:

“I’ve been very vocal about this,” Carville said. “It’s horrifying, our numbers among younger voters, particularly younger Blacks, younger Latinos … younger people of color. Particularly males. We’re not shedding them, they’re leaving in droves,” he added.”

So, Biden has lots of election problems because the country has lots of problems and it’s too late to fix them before November.

And the border crisis is worse than ever and the criminal aliens are in the news every day.  And the cities are becoming war zones.

And now ships are crashing into bridges and destroying them.  I mean, you can’t make this stuff up!

Sure, this is more of the same.  But it’s like a train crash.  Once you’ve discovered that you have no brakes and you’re closer than some minimum distance “x” then you can’t avoid the crash.  But the closer you get to the impact the more terrifying is the view from the engineer’s seat.  So, I’m sure whoever is running the Biden campaign is in daily contact with the voting officials in Pennsylvania figuring out if they can add an extra five million votes to the Biden total on Election Day.

Well, enough election crap.  Instead something nearer and dearer to my heart; my novel (The American Archipelago: Book 1 – The Sniper).  Thanks to all who’ve been reading along and special thanks to those who have provided feedback.  Honest criticism is extremely valuable when you’re trying to make a story attractive to the publishers and compelling for the readers.

Anyone who has a taste for dystopian science fiction, I ask that you give it a whirl and leave some comments that reflect your take on the story, positive or negative.  And the more specific the better.

Here in Dunwich the weird is the rule and the weather is no exception to this.  It’s supposed to snow tonight and then rain will freeze up tomorrow night and create a Class IV Kill Storm. So tomorrow, after helping Camera Girl navigate the frozen tundra, we’ll probably hunker down and enjoy the sounds of squealing brakes and screeching cries on the road outside as the black ice claims numberless victims on the crater strewn back roads of Dunwich.  Afterward I’ll go out for the traditional gathering of the pocket change from the bodies of the crash victims and I’ll return as a conquering hero (of sorts) as I dole out this largesse to my minions (dog one and dog two) in the form of low-quality pressed rawhide that I purchase on the websites of third world competitors of Amazon dot com.

I’ve often wondered what would happen if a prolonged storm cut off the supply of these “treats.”  I fear that my minions might notice that there is a disturbing similarity between pressed rawhide and, well, me!  Me thinks Dog One has a lean hungry look about him.  Such minions are dangerous.

Well, anyway, enough yammering.  I’m back and on the job.