25SEP2022 – Quote of the Day

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To the gross senses the chair seems solid and substantial. But the gross senses can be refined by means of instruments. Closer observations are made, as the result of which we are forced to conclude that the chair is “really” a swarm of electric charges whizzing about in empty space. … While the substantial chair is an abstraction easily made from the memories of innumerable sensations of sight and touch, the electric charge chair is a difficult and far-fetched abstraction from certain visual sensations so excessively rare (they can only come to us in the course of elaborate experiments) that not one man in a million has ever been in the position to make it for himself. The overwhelming majority of us accept the electric-charge chair on authority, as good Catholics accept transubstantiation.

Aldous Huxley

Forget Politicians, We Need a Huckster

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One of the reasons that Donald Trump did so well with the American public is that he’s a salesman.  He knows how to talk to people and he knows what they want to hear.  Can you imagine listening to a speech by Mitch McConnell?  Not only is he a hopeless boob of a speaker but he doesn’t have a clue about what the voters want.  And he doesn’t care.  So even in politics you need someone with people skills.

But my point is that politicians can only fight a battle against the Left in Washington and the state capitols.  And, no doubt, winning the political wars is important.  But what is just as important and what has been completely neglected is the social life of the Right.  Currently we are not served by any of the corporations that provide cultural products and services.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Books, movies, games, music and entertainment of all sorts are specifically and intentionally curated to exclude anything that might appeal to the Right.

Go to Amazon and look for books that appeal to you.  You’ll be fighting an uphill battle even if you already know the names of some.  And when they recommend other books (as they always do) they seem to be selected from the LGBTQ Book of the Month Club.  And forget movies and tv.  The number of tolerable selections is miniscule and also hard to find.  And that goes for music, games, comedians, dating services, sports channels and on and on and on.

Recently a very few social media outlets like Rumble and Truth have come into existence.  But these are primarily political outposts that currently have only a small following and don’t fill much of a niche in terms of “social impact.”  And I think the reason for this is that no one with a true huckster’s skills has arrived on the scene.  What is needed is a showman to orchestrate an exciting and engaging social experience.  Someone has to look intelligently at this enormous underserved market and identify a way to make a ton of money serving it.

And honestly, there’s no reason why someone doing this wouldn’t be able to make money off of the rest of the market that isn’t right-wing.  Maybe the blue-haired cat ladies and LGBTQ freaks would boycott it but regular progressives are just as interested in getting stuff at a reasonable price as we are.  You can sell the same dog food and toilet paper to everyone from Karl Marx to Ronald Reagan.  All you have to do is make sure that you have an aisle in your “store” that has our stuff too.

I’m surprised that supposed geniuses like Elon Musk and Peter Thiele haven’t recognized the opportunity to go head-to-head with Bezos and Hollywood.  They could make a fortune.  And all they’d have to do is package it all with some glitz and showmanship.  There’s a demand for wholesome entertainment for children.  And it could start small.  A small studio and a small publishing operation but one that has invested in talented creative types could do extremely well.

This could be a lot more profitable and a lot less expensive than buying Twitter.  Taking money away from Disney and Amazon with their lame Star Wars and Rings of Power franchises is a no-brainer.  They’ve abandoned tens of millions of fans by making blatantly woke and boring products that ignore the underlying stories that these fans value.

So, Musk, Thiele and anyone else who has money and wants to make more of it, open your eyes and put on your ringmaster’s hat, tails, boots and whip and address the “ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages” to pay their ducats for a chance to enter the tent and be entertained.  Just make sure the female trapeze artists are actually women.  And while you’re at it, we wouldn’t complain if they were pretty.

Seasonal Activities

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So today is the last official day of summer.  Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox but here in Dunwich fall is well advanced.  The crickets are hiding under stones and digging down to avoid the chill well before sundown.  Their chirping is becoming slower and weaker each day.  The frogs are still enthusiastically croaking and piping in the swamp but even they haven’t got too much longer to go.

We’ve gotten tons of rain in the last couple of weeks so the grass is green again and growing.  But the vegetable garden is on its last legs.  There are some peppers and eggplants almost ready to pick and a couple of butternut squash in a race to ripen before the death of the vines they’re on.  And the flower gardens are down to a few new cone flowers and some black eyed susans that haven’t given up the ghost yet.

Even the dragonflies are so lethargic that I think I could catch them with my hands if I tried.  Camera Girl saw a hummingbird a couple of days ago but they must be ready to head south already.  I haven’t seen any butterflies in the last couple of days so maybe they’re all gone.

So, it’s officially time to shut everything down and winterize the grounds.  All the lawn and pool furniture has to be stored away.  My fence repairs will have to be completed before the ground freezes.  And there are some incidentals.  I have to install a tree swing for Princess Sack of Potatoes.  I’ll use my weight as a test for the branch we’ve selected.  It’s in an odd spot because of a slope but it’s the only convenient branch.  I’ve also got to replace the transmission on my snowblower.  The parts are in but I’m hemming and hawing because I don’t want to do it.  It’s supposed to be straight forward but you know how that is.

Then there’s the rotten wood that needs to be replaced.  I’ve been stalling on that too.  Realistically I can skip this year but I promised myself I’d get the ball rolling and tackle one or two problems before winter.  At the least I should cover the problem areas with some tarps to avoid additional damage.  Maybe I’ll flip a coin.

The shorter days are already noticeable.  After dinner the sun is behind the hill in the west.  The light is gone by seven o’clock.  But the good news is that I mourned the end of summer on the last day of July.  After that I’ve already skipped ahead to thoughts of winter and any incidental good weather is all gravy as far as I’m concerned.  So here I am concentrating on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas to get me through the end of the year and into the new one.

This year I have the elections to distract me from the shortening days and cooling temperatures.  The horror of Biden, Pelosi and Schumer along with their henchmen in the Deep State and the Media should provide stimulation that can’t be overlooked.  After all we could be looking at the official end of the republic as a legitimate political institution.  That’s got to be a noteworthy event to live through.  And even if we are saved by a shocking Republican victory I don’t think that will be something to sleep through.  And who knows, World War III might be in the wings if Biden keeps poking the Russian bear.

And I have a long list of tasks that I can perform indoors.  I’ve got a ton of pictures that need adjusting and all kinds of writing that has to be done so I’ll be anything but bored.

But it’s funny.  Once it gets chilly at night, say in the forties, we close the windows after dark.  And then there’s no outdoor sounds to hear.  No frogs, no owls, no coyotes even.  And that’s a big change.  You become detached from the natural world and plugged into the artificial one.  Electric light takes over and you tend to go to bed later and get up later.  Well, not Camera Girl.  She’s plugged into the dogs’ schedule and they’ll get her up at 6 am even if the apocalypse descends on us.  But I start to stay up later and read too much and watch too much television.

But that’s normal.  We compensate for the change of season as we do.  And there are family activities coming up.  Kids’ soccer games and birthday parties are in the offing.  And it’s almost time to drag out the Universal Classic Monster movies and introduce the youngsters to the hokey joys of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman.  I think I’ll indulge in some popcorn for that film festival.

Okay, Autumn 2022, let’s see what you’ve got.

Here’s Another Poll That Says, “It’s the Economy Stupid.”

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The Democrats are working as hard as they can to replace the lousy economy on the minds of voters with anything else; abortion, the Ukraine, gun violence, January 6th, anything.  But it hasn’t worked:

“In the latest Investor’s Business Daily/TIPP Poll conducted in early September, we asked Americans to pick top-3 issues facing the country. The economy came as the top issue for most. It does not matter what party you are from; the sentiment is shared across the political spectrum.

The economy is the #1 issue for nearly half (48%) of the Americans who took part in the poll. It is important to 38% of Democrats, 63% of Republicans, and 46% of Independents.

The #2 issue is Gun violence/Gun control at a distant 27%. Democrats (37%) think it is important and it is ‘somewhat important’ to Independents (21%), but it has limited appeal to Republicans (15%).

Immigration and border security (24%) is the #3 issue. While immigration and border security is a critical issue for one-half (49%) of Republicans, only 21% of Independents think it is important.

Many Democratic politicians want to leverage abortion as a wedge issue, but it has only limited appeal. One in five (21%) think it is important, with 26% of Democrats and a similar share of Independents (25%). Only 13% of Republicans rated it as a top issue.”

So apparently Americans aren’t as clueless as the Democrats hoped.  Sounds hopeful.  Let’s just see if the voter fraud machine is ready to crank out more fake Democrat victories.