Keeping the Faith

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt
Yes, I stole it from MadMike. It’s okay. He probably stole it from someone.

This is not a religious post. It is a creedal one.

Guys, gals, mantis shrimpies, we’re headed into pretty hard times. We’re already living in a clown timeline, or if you prefer we’re living in a clown car that is inside a dumpster fire.

It’s situation normal, really. We’re doing pretty well for a country that’s been invaded and conquered by a death cult.

And no, I’m not even hanging out at the black dog cafe. Not this morning. I sent the second of the series Barbarella script out late last night, and I’m editing Bor, so I can write a novel that is downloading into my head at speed. I might have to write all six before it’s done. In the middle there, the USAian anthology will get compiled. I’m too busy to be depressed.

I’m also too busy to fully reality check, much less make sense of the news that make no sense what-sofluffy- ever and which are maybe hiding nuggets of truth or maybe not. Pravda is always hard to read. Half the time you have to make a judgement call on whether there’s something behind it or not. And you really can’t tell. And these days the “trustworthiness” of the news have nothing to do with it.

After all trustworthy means part of the establishment, by and large, and the establishment has lied to us by every means available and some they invented for the last two years. We had a spokesthing from Pfizer yelling at me in the comments (I don’t object to that. I object to her stealing a friend’s first name for her handle) because of what I posted at insty about a CEO of her company having said the wuflu is just like the flu. She wanted to know how I very dared post that. The CEO never said that. And how could I post without verifying.

I spammed her, because frankly yelling at me on my blog is over the top. Yes, I did realize the guy was saying that the Wuflu was like the regular flu season NOW but frankly, I preferred to make it sound like he was apologizing for past deception. Because not only was the Wuflu “just a bad flu” hitting only the most vulnerable, but his company conspired with others and the establishment to make it worse. Granting him the pretend-grace of admitting it a-posteriori is merciful of me, and much better than what he deserves, which is one of those creative Tudor executions.

And no, I certainly wasn’t going to do a deep dive of “trusted sources” to find out what he’d said precisely. The word-parsing of con men doesn’t interest me.

And the establishment is con men all the way down. Oh, pardon me, one must not be sexist. Con women. And con gender neutral critters too.

I don’t know where the over-under for “conspiracy theory is revealed to be true” but I think it’s probably under two days at this point.

The “blue” — which is to say centralized, statist, center out and top down “rule by experts” — model is dying ugly all over. And it’s a bit of a problem.

How is it a problem you’ll ask, if it never worked?

It’s a problem because in the US full implementation of the blue model was FDR, which means most of the people who are older but still active in politics were raised when it seemed to be shiny and new, and when enough of the original American culture remained to give them the bizarre idea not just that the model worked but that the corporatist fifties were a sort of halcyon age.

I think this is like the golden age of science fiction being twelve. The halcyon age is always when you were under five.

Even I have misty-eyed memories of Portugal when I was under six, and we were all poor as Job due to government malfeasance. And indoor bathrooms were a rarity. And baths were accomplished in a hip bath of Napoleonic vintage, with water heated on the wood stove. (Ah, but the festas, the orange tree, the kittens, the meadow full of daisies. Stop laughing.)

The problem with this is that the blue model is failing EVERYWHERE but we have a bunch of people with power and influence that think it would work, if only it were more traditional and enforced THEIR values.

To be fair, if I had to choose national socialism or international socialism I’d come down on the side of national all the time (to the idiots who just said AHAH, take a powder. I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. It’s not original but it’s truth nonetheless, and that applies to BOTH forms of socialism. This choice is under “Do you prefer to be drawn and quartered or slow roasted alive?”) because at least the nationalists by definition don’t hate their country.

Which doesn’t mean they don’t impoverish it and slowly destroy it, only that that’s not their aim. Also they’re slower.

Anyway, as the model fails and burns — and I think this winter not to mention the next, a lot of it will burn just for heating — nations revert to their basics. In Europe that mostly means nationalism. God, Country, Family, more or less in that order.

And there are any number of people who want to bring the same here. The problem being of course that Americans are Americans. (And have always been. I think American is one of those things embedded in the matrix of the universe. Before we existed as a nation, it was probably pronounced “Those ornery SOBs”)

We probably have the largest percentage of religious people remaining in the world, but any attempts to impose a universal religion on us are going to meet with knives. And probably guns. And ooh, boy, would it then get hot.

All of y’all who say America needs to turn to G-d aren’t precisely wrong, but half the time the form your comments take offends half the other commenters who are sincere believers and most of them offend me, because honestly, so much heresy it’s almost funny. (The heresy train has no stops.)

What I mean is Europe can turn to their state church, which is what they mean when they say G-d and enforce attendance while killing faith, but despite all the vapors of some of my favorite authors (including the one, yes, RAH) a theocracy was always unlikely in the US, because there is nothing a sincere believer resents more than having another’s sincere belief imposed on him/her/it/kumquat.

Marxism almost managed it — and arguably it’s the STATE religion, just not the people’s — by pretending not to be a religion, but it’s now headed down. (Which is the good part. It’s a death cult.)

Family… ooh, boy. Y’all are aware it doesn’t mean the same here as it means in Europe, right? And I’m not just talking of our charming habit of serial monogamy, which yes, perhaps could be less flamboyant. (Except that we live very long lives, and have the ability to change a lot in that time, which in turn means our partnerships change. I don’t approve, but that doesn’t mean I don’t UNDERSTAND. Also I don’t approve for myself. I’m not in the business of judging my friends and neighbors.)

In Europe “family” really means tribe. As it does in most of the world. And while we have those, they tend to be… self-chosen. Witness the vastness of this duct tape family and its ever-increasing glory.

Country I’ll give you means the same as in Europe. Kind of. Sideways and upside down because it’s what we do to concepts.

Country for an American means not “our old and respected boundaries full of people who look like us, because frankly the paint is still drying in some states, and well… my mom nailed it when she said she couldn’t figure out what the American “look” was. (This because any European can usually, with some fails, identify another’s origin on sight.) I told her “A look of justified and self-assured arrogance” and she made the sound she makes when she doesn’t like my response.

So– As the wheels come off old blue, there’s going to be a tendency from the bien pensant, who are forever sorry they weren’t born in Europe to turn on a dime to the new shiny European model.

… Which means it’s going to need us. It’s going to need us to point at the constitution and the bill of rights. It’s going to need us to dunk their heads in the nearest toilet bowl and flush hard. (What? I didn’t say we should hold them under until bubbles stopped coming up. If they’re going to behave like middle schoolers, a swirly will give them a world of good. Yes, we could also lock them in lockers, but there aren’t enough lockers.)

They need to be made fun of, and stopped as relentlessly as we’ve laughed and ignored the commands of the Marx Commands.

Because they are the same, just another form of plague.

The fun part — I swear this is not the black dog, just realism — is that whether we manage to vote our way out of this, or not, we’re in for another massive round of destruction by the Marx fanatics.

If we win the election, they’re going to hurt us in revenge. If they manage to fraud their way in, they’ll hurt us because they’ll think they’re untouchable.

Either way, it’s going to hurt like a mother. And they’ll find out. Eventually.

But through it all remember, a nation can come out stronger and more faithful to its principles after a terrible time than they were before.

Hold on to your scrap of flag. Remember the words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …

We’ll come through this. We’ll endure. We’ll survive.

We’re part of something bigger than us. We’re free, no matter how they try to enslave us. We’ll remain free. And we’re going to the stars.

And if I die before we’re through the time of troubles? This is possible. I’m turning sixty this year, and heaven knows how long we’ll wade through stupid.

But as long as I’m here, I’ll keep the light on.

It’s all right. I was part of something greater. I was part of something magnificent.

Tell the boys I died standing pat.

232 thoughts on “Keeping the Faith”

  1. And if we get through it, never, ever let the ones who helped this, facilitated it or turned a blind eye to it forget. Don’t let them scrub the “I’m with Joe” and “Ridin’ with Biden” stickers off their EVs and pretend it was never there.

    Charity to excess is no virtue.

    1. P.S. Memories are short, the burn fool’s bandaged finger always reaches back to the fire, and after WWII everyone in France was a member of the Resistance and no one was a collaborator, doncha know.

      1. The museum in Caen was . . . Educational for an American. The military history part was excellent (D-Day and related). The part about the French outside of Normandy, well, one final panel read “All were part of the Resistance, all were collaborators.”

        Ah, no. That’s not how it worked back then.

          1. If I recall correctly, it was specifically saying “No one was really a hero and no one was really that bad, so we’re all OK.” It left a sour taste in my mouth, in part because the people who hid Grandpa Carl in their barn until the rest of the US Army caught up to him knew that if the Germans found him, they’d all die. They hid him and another paratrooper anyway.

            But I’m biased, and not French.

            1. The Reader notes that most of the odd parts of post WW II French politics can be explained by the collaborator / resistance split with the French Communist party stirring the pot. He can see the attempt to paper it over.

      2. Ironically enough, a fair number of the collaborators were, in fact, Resistance. Malcolm Muggeridge describes his job scrambling about France assuring people that the collaborator who claimed he was working for British Intelligence was indeed working for British Intelligence, and British Intelligence had sent him to say so.

  2. Regarding the pziser harpy, fug her and her ilk. These incomprehensibly evil motherWEFers voted 15-0 to add their killshot to children’ vax regimen- they know it kills, it maims, it sterilizes.

      1. When a company asks the government to keep its data involving creation, making, testing, and safety of a product, secret for 75 years, i.e. above average life expectancy, it should be presumed that nefarious motives are involved.

      2. I want the info on cardiac damage spread everywhere. Everywhere. I’m pretty darn sure I’m not the only one who has tricky enough heart stuff to say, “Nope, I’ll take my chances with Covid, knthxbye.”

        1. There’s enough of it in my family to where I wasn’t going to get it though the worst I’ve had is some high blood pressure when I was…much less careful about my diet, shall we say. Based on everything we’ve seen I’m damn glad I didn’t get the shot and I’ve never had anything worse than the odd slightly more annoying than usual cold these past two years.

        2. With me it’s autoimmune. I read up on what the MRNA vaccines do. What they did in the past.
          SCREW THAT FOR A GAME OF SOLDIERS.
          My autoimmune is bad enough, danke schon.

        3. I want the info on miscarriages everywhere. That is the most effective way to freaking end these people.

          The rage of a mom denied her kid? Forget a woman scorned, such fury is found in neither Heaven nor Hell.

    2. Pfizer’s CEO admitted in the UK before Parliament that the vaccine wasn’t tested to prevent getting the CCP VIrus before seeking approval. Given that vaccines are defined as being to prevent people from catching something, this admission is proof of misrepresentations being made.

    3. They did it because it officially immunizes them from legal liability.

      Their current legal liability immunity will likely expire with the end of the EUA which has become difficult to sustain after two+ years, and the end of the pandemic.

      I think at a fundamental level they have confused the paper with reality. The problem is that the Oresteian Bargain is based on litigation resulting in greater and more consistent justice than vendetta.

      Once that no longer holds, the bargain will be lost. I really don’t think they are thinking about that.

      1. I fully expect that the horde of ambulance chasers currently inundating us with offers to “help you” with your Camp LeJune claim start advertising similar “help” with your claims of damage due to the Covid shots.

        1. Now we know why there used to be laws against liars lawyers advertising on TV.

          I’ve seen the small print at the end of those ads. Buried in there is always “So-and-so is not licensed to practice law in California” — so they are advertising services they are not legally allowed to provide.

          But you’d need lawyers to do anything about it.

          As I always say: “If it wasn’t for lawyers, we wouldn’t need lawyers.”

    4. The best response to this long-forecast outrage I’ve seen (other than the World War II vintage “Nuts!” of course) is a rare editorial at Uncover DC:

      http://www.uncoverdc.com/2022/10/21/a-message-to-humanity-the-time-for-silence-is-over/

      (trying this single link ‘unconfused’ in wild hopes Willie Pete will be kind for once).

      A preview (quoted without the many embedded background links in the original):

      My fellow humans worldwide, the time for silence is over. I have been beating this drum for years now, but for some reason, the decision by a panel of 15 “doctors” at the CDC to place the COVID-19 shot on the childhood vaccination schedule has caused me to reignite my plea.

      The time for silence is over. There is far too much readily available data, far too many examples, and far too much pain and suffering for this to continue. We have data from systems designed to alert us to harm and death the government created. We have independent studies. We have pharmaceutical studies. We have state governments recommending against the vaccine. We have world-renowned doctors and virologists pleading as they sacrifice their careers, all to try to save humanity. We have exploding cancer rates in young people. We have healthy athletes having heart attacks. We have teenagers dying for no discernible cause. We have morticians speaking out about the fibrous structures they are removing from those who passed during embalming, like nothing they have ever experienced before. We have excess death statistics that show loss of life in young people far surpassing that of the Vietnam war. We have actuaries speaking out about insurance claims spiking in such a way that they represent a never before seen event. We have gynecological complications increasing at an exponential rate. We have independent experience. We have loved ones who have died. We have loved ones who have gotten very ill, and we have loved ones who have lost their babies. We have loved ones who can no longer have babies. The list goes on and on and on. Have a look.

      We are not conspiracy theorists. The facts and data are clearly on our side. The facts and data are stark, sad, and foreboding. It is clear at this point that the vaccine is deadly at worst and harmful at best. Untold suffering is occurring all over the globe, and this is what we know about two years in. No one can tell what the field will look like in another 5 or 10. It is about time we did more. We must do more. The future of the human race depends on it…

      P.S.: I do not think the article’s topline picture of a White Rose is at all either coincidental or unaware. (In case that reference is unfamiliar, you can search on either “White Rose” or “Sophie Scholl” for a good look at part of the native German anti-Nazi resistance.)

    5. Indeed, drawing and quartering would be appropriate in their case …Now the we will need to pressure the State and local authorities to ignore this crime against our precious children…Florida has already said they won’t do it, and Arizona’s Republican Gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, has pledged the same…

    6. There must be a reckoning, a real reckoning, and if others do not have the stomach for such, I volunteer. I’ll live with the nightmares.
      My mom died from the clot shot. It gave her a stroke, and three weeks later she died.
      There are no limits to what I’m willing to do.

        2. Ing, I seriously doubt that even 20% of the readers here recognize the source of “Let’s Roll” even though it happened only 22 years ago. I wore that pin for about 2+ years as I flew worldwide at least every two weeks.

          1. You don’t hang around here much, do you?
            Yes, most people here, including the ones who were in diapers at the time understand the source of “Let’s roll”

            1. I agree. Maybe, in this group, 1/10 of percent of Sarah’s readers, won’t recognized “Let’s Roll” even after 22 years. Not this crowd. I allow for 1/10th (1/10000?) of a percent, because it only takes one to break 100%. A bet I’d also take is most of us even knows where, and the name who said it (first name at least), even me, I am absolutely horrible remembering names.

              1. 🙂 His name was Todd, and he was a very very brave man.
                But then, everyone here knows that.

                1. Hey. At least lead with a “spoiler alert” …. 😉 😉 😉

                  OTOH in this group? Never mind. Just proves I’d win the bet.

                  1. Oh my word. I turned into the kid that just shouts it out in class.
                    “I am so ashamed.”
                    🤭

                2. He was also one heck of an Oracle consultant, who brought the same clear eyed judgment to a project that he did to his last act.

            1. The movie is haunting, very well done. It uses some of the people who actually did the work on 911.

      2. Hugs. They should be afraid of the women. Those who have stuff to avenge, and those who will protect their kids to the knife.
        They should be VERY afraid.
        Kippling had a line about what happens when the women come out to cut up what remains….

        1. He was referring to Afghanistan, but I’ve also heard that in several American Indian tribes, the torture and killing of prisoners too badly injured to be adopted into the tribe was left to the women — and men of proven bravery in battle were terrified of it. I’ve also heard similar stories about the tribes of the North Caucasus, particularly in Tsarist times (IIRC, Tolstoy referred to it in one of his early works)

          2. When you find yourself lying on Afghanistan’s plains,
            And the women come out to cut up what remains,
            Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
            And go to your God like a soldier.

            Rudyard Kipling

        2. I never knew quite what I might be capable of till we walked my Papa through pancreas cancer for five years.
          A lot of families have been treated far worse especially with the coof insanity.
          So, YES THIS to your words. And Kippling’s.

        3. When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
          And the women come out to cut up what remains,
          Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
          An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
          Go, go, go like a soldier,
          Go, go, go like a soldier,
          Go, go, go like a soldier,
          So-oldier of the Queen!

    7. I read early on that tests of mRNA vaccines for coronaviruses in animals usually ended up with dead animals, because the vaccines would work until the virus mutated. Which is sort of the situation people have been yelling about regarding the “boosters”, which were nothing but the original vaccine with no modification to take account of the new variants.

      So I said from the start, eff that for a game of soldiers. And I’d already had WuFlu anyway, and was already taking several supplements that turned out to have immune-boosting qualities, and I just see no reason to have something pumped into me that could shorten my life any more than it probably will be anyway.

      Giving it to kids when it’s already pretty clear it causes bad problems for them is almost cause to burn the CDC to the ground with everyone locked inside. I say “almost” because it should already have been done two years ago over the lockdowns and masking. But it seems like it would have been safer to let kids get WuFlu and recover from it than to give them this poison concoction that’s almost perfectly designed to destroy humanity.

    1. Remember our last fearless democrat leader said “never bring a knife to a gun fight!” Knifes and arrows come out after the lead supply is depleted. I think Einstein said after World War 3, the next world war will be fought with sticks and stones.

      1. I was professionally taught to bring “ambush” to a gunfight.

        (Grin)

        Granted, that was mumblesonething years ago. And I am now in a different field. But the key concept of surprising your opponent to doom is valid.

        When coaching ladies, I suggest that the first clue the attacking villain should have that you are armed is the muzzle flash that kills him. Give away no advantage. Surprise is a lethal advantage.

        Not a lawyer. Can’t know every jurisdiction can only speak to live versus die.

        “Choose life”

        The will to live is essential. Nurture it.

        1. Old military adage (in the Air Force, attributed to fighter pilots)….If you’re not cheating you’re not trying. There is no such thing as a fair fight.

        2. One of my favorite Victorian “damsel only briefly in distress” stories was of a young woman who was accosted by two thugs. She raised her m and used it as a rapier, NOT a club, and rammed the steel tip between Attacker #1’s ribs. The heart does not take well to such things. His buddy fled, only to be caught by onlookers and rather well tenderized by the time the Bobbies arrived.

    3. Trying to take a marker away from a toddler convinced me that knife fights are a losing proposition.

      Remember that if you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

          2. Knife fight:

            Two desperate savages trying to hack the life out of each other. And probably both succeeding.

            If the other poor bastard is not yet aware of you, it technically isn’t a knife fight. (Grin)

            Yeah, I know to plan a fight around a good rifle, and all ones friends with them, and mortars on standby, but for those sh!tty situations….

            I am also reminded of a basic Klingon saying:

            A running warrior in a single night can slit a thousand throats.

            Well! aren’t we fierce!

            All of which makes for interesting fiction. Civilized folks fight via lawyers these days….

              1. I’ve fought with rocks, with knives, with umbrella, with dictionaries, with my shoe.
                Lawyers seem like they would be an effective weapon, but I don’t think I can swing one up by the ankles.
                Not anymore.

                2. My last summer in college, I worked in Daytona Beach for a couple of months, and still remember a Local Interest article in the newspaper about a man who’d been arrested for beating his wife with an alligator. Apparently the tail makes a convenient handle when the beast is in the 3′ range.

  4. I think I asked a variation on this in yesterday’s thread too, but I really wonder what it is that makes it so difficult for people to change course? We see this in doomsday cults where if doom does not come, most of the members double down. And we’re seeing it again here where people simply cannot see the failure of their ideas.

    Why are so many people not able to change that? Is it something cultural? Do we just have a limited amount of plasticity? It is sunk cost?

    What is going on? Can it be changed? And what does it take?

      1. Ok, so sunk costs, and fallacy of the odds.

        I think there’s also an unwillingness to admit that one was ever wrong. I think that may be a combination of cultural and intrinsic, because I do recall in the past, people who made mistakes and owned them would receive great praise and social approval, but I don’t really see that now.

        There is also the idea of “cognitive dissonance” I’m not sure I’m keep on that, because it seems to be assuming that one’s view of the world cannot change, merely break.

        So speculation: having one’s predictions prove to be completely wrong breaks one’s world view. Accepting that means two big things, first I was a fool for having that view, second now the world is unknown aka frightening. Third, now I need to take the time and effort to build a new world view, which I doubt because my last one was garbage.

        And the question becomes is the perceived cost of pretending that nothing is wrong higher than the cost of ripping things out by the roots? And if your world view has no concept of redemption, that’s a very high cost.

        I wonder what the history of redemption as a concept is?

      3. Saw a post earlier today that suggested the poster (a very left progressive) thinks that conservatives (or whatever you want to use as a label… those not of the left), believe that we are shifting right after finally recognizing our sunk cost fallacy. This individual absolutely failed to recognize the sunk costs fallacy on her own side. It was really quite puzzling, but then I realized that true believers will never recognize their own sunk cost fallacies even when they’re staring them in the face.

        1. Did she mean that conservatives estimate that American society had already shifted right?

          Or did she mean that conservatives predict that American society will shift right?

          Because my guess, that Democrat and the left are a small chunk of the population, elevated to ‘parity’ by fraud, deceit, stupidity, and being abusive jerks, could be compatible with both.

          I think the population is already relatively moderate, and has had its views of hard left policy misrepresented for some time.

          I also think that the house of cards is coming tumbling down.

          If she is considering the insanity of the Gu jar of vicious morons to be right in conservative eyes, she is necessarily wrong in projecting my feelings.

            1. Ah.

              Yeah, sounds like she is probably super nuts.

              OTOH, there are some views where there could be concern about the right being too strongly influenced by the left.

              Recall some of my ‘spree shooters are mostly left, because pure left upbringing is more heavily damaged’. Lots of folks on the right are also a bit damaged, and that can easily result in an interest in embracing left tactics in the theory that left tactics carried out by the right will result in right goals.

              I don’t comprehend how someone could think that the right would go left because of seeing ‘sunk cost’, without being crazy or projecting in their estimates of right goals and thought process. ‘Sunk cost fallacy’ is about having alternatives for ‘investment’, which in theory could give similar or interchangeable categories of return. It does not at all hold for alien mindsets and different goals.

              It could make sense if she is only looking at the Never Trump ‘right’ and the establishment Republicans.

              1. Well… 1. She’s a documentary producer, been involved in the movie/TV business for almost 40 years now; majored in English… 2. She has truly embraced all things “Fascist Trump” to the point that other friends on the left think she’s gone around the bend. 3. Well, yeah. I think 1 & 2 explain it all. 4. Oh, for their most recent documentary, she and her director husband found about three or four “disillusioned” Trump voters, so that’s their entire population of voters.

    2. Basiically this is one of the most obscure parts of a religion or belief system its eschatology. People become very attached to how things end because almost always part if it is that their prefered people are rewarded/win in some fashion. When a cult or a belief system hits a clear undeniable issue with their beliefs there seem to be three basic responses to the failure of their eschatologic view:
      1) Double down saying “Oh we messed something up, miscalculated, misread the signs” Classic here is the Millerites, their leader had calculated the time of the second Coming to the day using various bits and bobs from Daniel, Revelation, Isiah and other prophecies. When the day came and nothing happened he said “OOPS slipped a decimal” And se a new date in the future
      2) Walk away or modify the prophecy so it is less specific. After the Millerite prophecy failed again (and perhaps a 3rd time, memory fails) many of believers reformulated the viewpoint to be less defined, I think some of current christian and christian adjacent faiths actuall derive from that view.
      3) Immanentize the eschaton. That is to say MAKE the prophecy true, usually by group action often suicide. Plenty of examples here, Heavens Gate, Jonestown, Branch Davidian. Never ends well
      It’s number 3 I’m not liking, The Brahmandarins have control of the WMD which is a bad start. They also have their insane/poorly controlled SA arm ANTIFA. I hope most of them (or enough that they can’t get a nuclear go order stuck together) fear their own mortality enough that they don’t give us the Flame Deluge (sorry rereading Canticle for Liebowitz, might be a poor choice of literature given the world). I fear that their control over their SA arm is so tenuous and the SA arms grasp on reality is poor that that MIGHT get unleashed over a win in 2022 or 2024. Remember the idiots when Trump won. At some level it was a shadenfreude fest of epic proportions, but they also started to go squirelly. Only thing that limited it was SOME police control was exercised. It least in the deep blue cities that is gone what remains of the constabulary will either die trying or turn tail and run as they no longer believe they have ANY support from the political side

      2. See also: The self-immolation of National Review.

        There was always an element of sabotage in their “policing” of the right.
        But when they declared Trump untouchable, and it didn’t derail the Trump train, they flew to pieces.

        1. And lost their minds. And went left. I wish I hadn’t lost friends who followed the same trajectory.
          which reminds me I have a post that is an open letter to never trumpers.
          …. I know, I know. Like preaching at fish.

          1. Hey could be worse, my wife was a bivocational pastor. When she was setting up to preach she’d practice in our bedroom and the cats would come in. Cats seem to be particularly unrepentant.

            1. They’re already perfect, so why should they repent of anything? Pride is a human problem, not a feline one (lions excepted, of course.)

              1. TXRed I had often joked with my wife that cats had been on the job watching the serpent and had a direct part in the fall. And today it struck me that this would make a wonderful Just So story like those written by the Huns Poet Laureate Rudyard Kipling. I thus present to the humble masses my poor attempt to follow in those giant footsteps:

                How The Cat got a share in the Curse
                (or Why Cats hate Cucumbers)

                This is a Just So Story based (loosely, very loosely) on the Abrahamic Creation stories and the Fall as found in Genesis 1-3 . I am certain parts of it are or verge on Heretical from most orthodox views of that scripture. I imagine an Imam would feel the same about Kipling’s “How the Camel Got His Hump” but that makes it no less an enjoyable story. Just please don’t quote it to your Pastor, Priest or Rabbi as anything that actually happened. That said let us begin…

                This happens long ago when the world and universe were young and new. It was a bit after the initial creation and the Lord had had his day of rest. He tried to find a companion for the Man. Many of the animal kingdom applied, the Dog was the most adamant and was pushing hard for the position until he read the full requirements. At that point the Dog decided he liked the man, but not quite that much. The Cat having read all the paperwork did not apply. To be honest the Cat lost interest when he found the Companion would be an Equal. The Cat felt this was beneath him, he felt in any pairing he should get top billing. As the good scripture tells us the Lord decided to create a true companion for the Man and so He put the man to sleep and took a portion of him and created one. When Man was introduced to the Companion he was overjoyed and said “Here at last is one who is flesh of my flesh”, and she was called Woman. The Man and the Woman were inseparable and spent their time together and with the Lord in the Garden.

                Most of the animals were happy for the Couple. Even Cat felt this was a better solution (especially since he’d read the full requirements). But some were a bit chagrined still, Dog was annoyed he’d failed to fill that spot. Cat who hadn’t even wanted the spot was solidly put out. So Cat decided to see if there was a job for him (an odd thought for a Cat, but his habits were not yet fully established)

                The Cat went to the Lord and said “Lord”. I’ll stop there for a moment, the Cat did not say Lord but the actual name of God. I shall not record it here. It is offensive for some to write it down and I am nowhere near as full of hubris or pride as Cat, nor am I grounded against several hundred million volts of electricity. Returning to our story, the Cat said “Lord, I feel that I am worthy of a task and that my talents are being wasted simply basking in the sun and chasing bits of vine for the Woman, although I look very good in the sun.” The Cat talked so as he was a vain and self important animal. The Lord said “Well cat, I just might have a job worthy of your skills.” He continued, “The Serpent has been acting odd lately, some of my angels think perhaps something is up. Please keep an eye on him and especially keep him away from the Couple”. The Cat replied, “Yes Lord it shall be done, No Cat has ever failed in his task.’” This was a rather odd and prideful statement as with the world and universe being young and all there really wasn’t time yet to fail in anything. On top of that how hard is it to chase bits of vine and doze prettily in the sun? And there was precisely one cat.

                At first the Cat was diligent in his efforts (again habits not well established) but as we all do he soon found the task tiring. One day he was watching the Serpent and it was near the center of the garden. The sun was shining brilliantly and there was a particularly nice patch of sun near a little rise by the two trees in the center of the garden. The Serpent was curled up doing nothing and the Cat decided this was an excellent time for a Cat Nap (not the first and certainly not the last). So the Cat decided it was time for a nap.

                Now we know the story of the fall and the punishments the Lord meted out to the Man the Woman and the Serpent. But Scripture does not record what happened to the Cat. But I have it on good authority it was something like this:

                The Cat woke up to being poked by something. As he looked he realized it was the Lord he said “Oh Hello Lord, did You need me for something?” The Lord was not pleased, he looked at the cat and said, “You boasted that no Cat had ever failed in it’s task, but you failed to stop the Serpent.” He continued, “Although, it is not your fault for the Man and Woman knew not to eat of that fruit you, do bear some responsibility especially because of your unjustified boasting”. The Cat knew this was a problem as he had been present when the Man had been told to not eat the fruit from the trees in the center of the Garden. The Lord said “Worry not, it shall be fixed. However, there must be suitable punishment for you.” “Like the Woman and the Serpent I shall put enmity between your kind and the Serpents. In addition if you are ever surprised by a serpent you will react violently without control and with shame to remind you of your failure.”

                We know this is what must have happened. To this very day if you sneak something long and serpent like near a cat like a hose or an english cucumber they will react with a startled leap and a great deal of shame and fear. You don’t believe me? Just search for “cats and cucumbers” on the internet, and you’ll see.

      3. Antifa is a complete and total non-issue unless you are in a city where they have police backing.

        And even then they can’t manage more than 1.5 cities worth of riots at a time.

        1. As much as local opinion is that the cities don’t matter they do for a particular reason, transport. Screw up NYC and the best paths to deliver stuff (like food) go away. Most major train routes go through NYC or near it. There are road routes but you need to go further north (pick up I-90) before heading east and capacity on that is notoriously tight. You can go via water but the docks in the Boston area have specialized for RORO (cars mostly from europe) and LNG (there are HUGE LNG tanks near Tobin Bridge kind of a nightmare scenario for terrorism). Chicago still has lots of rail interchanges (its just the geography) don’t know that part of the US interstate as well as I know New England, NY, PA, NJ and down into Virginia. So screw up the right city (or the right city today, some other city tomorrow, another day after) and its a pain. Not Nuclear Armageddon mind you but not what we’re accustomed to. Of course the current state of things with odd shortages hither and yon is not what we’re used to either. Infant formula, tampons, various medications TP back at the start of this nonsense. The modern food production chain is FAR more integrated and Just In Time on inventory. Find “Inside the Factory”, in many cases they have no more than 48-72 hours of supply before their lines go quiet. And even in Great Britain much of their stuff comes from overseas. For example the Pulp/ cellulose for the TP they were working on came from Sweden, Brazil and the US.

          1. That is a lot of words to ignore that antifa doesn’t know infrastructure exists let alone how to hit it, doesn’t have the capability to operate without governmental air cover, doesn’t have the numbers to operate in more than one city beyond their home base, and doesn’t have the competence to do more than throw molotovs or shoot individuals.

            1. And that’s more than enough words to confirm you are operating on wishful thinking and hope.

              You have no idea of actual capability of the known players, you have no idea of the number of unknown players, and you are ignoring known facts of infrastructure vulnerability, as demonstrated over the last two years. Hope is not a plan.

              1. CHAZ was sitting on top of of an important piece of infrastructure vital to maintaining life in Seattle. They could have killed tens of thousands of people, instead we got the CHAZ.

                But like a typical teenage brat someone came to a less nihilistic conclusion than you so they must be ignorant.

                1. Just because the frontline jerkoffs haven’t got a clue, and skills/knowledge are concentrated on one side of this, don’t think that there isn’t anyone with the knowledge/skills/mindset on the other side to do this crap. And we know it only takes a few to do serious damage.

            2. Here Ian I think we have to agree to disagree. Are the Antifa folks Napoleon, Sun Tsu or Von Clausewitz? No, in fact HELL NO. They’re shock troops. As you noted they can’t operate without support, but in the blue cities they’ve got that in spades and a free pass from the DAs into the near future at a minimum. And someone is using them as a Fifth Column. Who? Leftover KGB? Various parts of the democrat party? Alien Space Bats? It doesn’t really matter as there seems to be someone using them as a tool. The shock troops job is not to do the damage themselves but to instigate others like mobs to loot and burn. And the mobs have no reasonable moral compass anymore. They’ll destroy, steal even kill because they want to blame anyone but themselves for their failure. Modern Cities (and our society in general) are complex and a bit fragile. We’re like a nice cruise ship or cargo ship, complex interrelated break thinks and it still works. Break lots of things (essentially battle damage). and it fails because you don’t design for that level of damage in a commercial vehicle. Looking at examples in Boston area, in 2014 half a dozen idiots chained themselves to Large concrete filled barrels in RT 93. It screwed up traffic for half a day nearly killed a couple folks who could get down to the hospitals. In 2013 the Tsarnevs fleeing Boston ended up causing large portions of Watertown and Waltham to be shutdown as well as some neighboring areas. Get a big winter storm in and large portions of the old dock area flood and underground lines like electric, phone and internet go out. Get a largish fire (3-4 story building, 4 alarms) and the water from the firefighting starts breaking similar things. Hell rent 5-6 u haul trucks and drive them into Storrow Drive and similar areas in Cambridge. I’m certain NYC/ Chicago/LA have similar weak spots. Even if you hit them by mistake it breaks things, you don’t have to consciously know that you’ve opened the flood valves to sink a ship.

    3. Part of it is that the cult just gets purged. Those who were wavering or borderline leave, the more fanatic stay, so as a whole the cult is relatively more fanatical.

      1. It’s a weird set of things. Some of it is not saying they were wrong, especially if it was a strongly held belief for a long time. Some of it is that in some cases death or martyrdom is part of the belief (E.G. Heaven’s Gate, Aum Shin Rikiyo (sp?), and parts of Islam). Alot of it seems to be charismatic leaders, they rev up the followers in ways that cause them to act in ways rational folks would not.

  5. Well, never underestimate the inability of the individual to just simply admit they were wrong and try to do better going forward. Witness the insanity of the push to ‘green’ energy in the EU and the US and most of the rest of the world. It makes no difference to them that it is actually impossible to get what they want using wind and solar and ending the use of petroleum. Their religion says it is so, and so it will be. The heretics (us) must be destroyed, along with civilization so that they can build it back ‘better’.

      1. I buy +30% unemployment and don’t deny the possibility, or even probability of 80% including those that don’t know how to, as well as those who don’t even want to, look for work.

      2. I think most of those 80% people are the mail denizens of META world in their basements wearing diapers… LOL I really don’t believe that statistic though. I would say that perhaps 15-20% is realistic and that includes those working at a level below their education/abilities (i.e. college-educated barristas, etc.)

        There’s really like 50% of the population busting their asses in the real world (not guvment jobs) to support the other 50% who are 1) Too young to work (but still brainwashable), 2)Retired, 3) Unemployable, 4) Disabled, 5) Lazy, or 6) Work for guvment as grifters.

        I think it’s nearly time to Go GALT!

        2. Oh, not lower than 30%. But people of working age, working and not counted “under working” are probably around 40% if you include “not looking for work.”

      3. Where are they all hanging out? Usually that many bored males leads to ongoing mayhem.

        Localized pockets? Sure. Some cities, some small towns. But nationwide? We function too well. Insufficient chaos.

        1. The trouble is, my brain immediately writes the story that explains what I’m seeing. So I never know if it’s “real” or my story.
          We shall see.

          2. This is why stupid people make good witnesses. We remember what stuff MEANS, and intelligent people are quick to see what things mean, and — not invariably right.

  7. Nationalists don’t hate their own country. The BBESP has outed Pedo Joe as an internationalist for anyone who had any doubt. In other news the local pravda newspaper has endorsed the (and be damned if I didn’t almost faint in my seat when I read it) republican candidate for governor. This is akin to Xi saying nice things about Taiwan. We may be able to stumble short of the precipice and survive.

  8. I’m turning sixty this year, and heaven knows how long we’ll wade through stupid.

    ……………
    Welcome to the 60 ages, this year.

    I turned 66 yesterday.

      1. Hum. Hadn’t thought about it but I suspect I’m far more comfortable being 84 then I would be looking forward to turning 60 right now. I’m not sure why either.

          1. Hell I’m either a superannuated oil barrel with tentacles or a somewhat pudgy 61 year old whose hair headed for the hills about 20 years ago. I’ll bet you’re far better off than that. Hey and I’m fairly Certainly Dan thinks you’re lovely 🙂 .

      3. For me 60 meant “In just over 7 months, when I’ve been employed here for 30 years, I can retire. And boy, I’m gonna!”. That was over 16 years ago, and I have zero regrets. 🙂

      4. The Reader really didn’t notice 60. He was still deeply involved in work at the Great Big Defense Contractor. However, next year is 70, and he is noticing.

        1. At 60, I was too busy still celebrating being retired and not going nuts. So 60 slipped by. Besides, by the time I turned 60, or 65, or even 70, hubby has it firmly in his rear view, as he looked at turning 65, 70, and 75, … I don’t get to wallow in “OMG I’m X old!”

          1. Once the Reader had a son, he tended to mark the passage of time in his son’s time coordinates so to speak. So instead of 50, the Reader’s milestone was when son turned 21 (reader was 54). Now that son is well into his 30’s the Reader has returned to marking his own decades.

      5. Because when you were very young, people in their 60s were usually dead or dying. Except in certain long-lived families.
        And no, we are not Howards.
        John

        1. Our family was long lived. We usually go 80 some to 90 some and I have reason to think more in a more advanced society (You know, like with indoor plumbing.)
          But the answer to anyone n their sixties dying was “Well he was OLD” Dying in your sixties was NORMAL.

        2. Parts of Dad’s side is long lived, almost to Howard levels (several 95+). Mom’s side varies lots of stroke type issue (which is why I hammer the blood pressure) and seems to have one of the BRCA genes, not an issue for me per se but daughters are watching that. Others got into their 80’s still pretty decent for folks born near the start of the 20th century. I do look at myself and realize I look like my dad in lat 40’s early 50s (died at 52 so no later comparison). Way younger than Maternal grandfather but he smoked 2-3 packs a day and worked outside all his life so looked like tanned leather.

          1. Mom’s family is very long lived. Even them that smoke or overweight. Dad’s side “It varies”. Dad died at 72. He smoked, and was drinking too much from about age 40 on, up until his stroke at age 50 (almost lost him then, only a Hail Mary surgery saved him. Conversation was “Do nothing, he will die. Surgery has 90% chance of stroking out and dying on the table. One of us should have bought a lottery ticket afterwards.)

            Mom’s side. Not only did grandma and grandpa live into their 90’s, so did most of their older siblings, and now her cousins. She will be 88 in November. Her sister just turned 85, her brother is 76, soon 77. Both siblings are heavy smokers, even now.

            Dad’s side. The men tend to die younger. Cardio vascular problems. But not so much the women. His older sister was 87 when she passed away (we think accidental drug overdose, forgot she’d already taken a prescription, and sleep apnea). Younger sister is 81. His mom was weeks short of 80 (pretty sure it was complications from long term sleep apnea). One younger brother is 73. The other younger brother is now 72. While they have health problems they aren’t at death’s door.

    2. I’ll turn 63 on Christmas Eve. I love getting older, to be honest. It’s got some downsides, like dying at the end, but overall? Pretty sweet.

      1. I’m turning that in February and I’m absolutely dreading it. Nothing like hitting that age and not feeling like you’ve accomplished anything, which you know people are going to hold against you…

  9. “The “blue” — which is to say centralized, statist, center out and top down “rule by experts” — model is dying ugly all over. And it’s a bit of a problem.”

    What’s that awful stench, the ‘blue model’ in rapid decay! The number of the Left’s co-ideologists will rapidly decline, no one ever wants to be on the side with losers (but, then again, the losers never give up and they never go away).

    We need to conserve and restore. Restoration will be difficult because general public ignorance is so pervasive. However, in the future, having a say, should also obligate persons to have informed views (and not be lemming-like).

    Here’s to rising from the ashes!

    1. Since I live near Phoenix, rising from the ashes seems only natural… 😉

      But as for “the losers never give up and they never go away”, who says we’ll give them a choice?

      1. The Reader expects a lot of ‘community authoritarianism’ after the oncoming unpleasantness. No government will be involved but the losers will be ‘persuaded’ to stop their crap.

          1. Maybe in difficult cases. The really difficult cases will also involve tar.

            The Reader has been reading (he knows – not news) on the period leading up to the American Revolution. He has been particularly interested in how rapidly sentiment crystalized for independence and how solidly that sentiment drove out dissenting opinions. The advocates of independence weren’t always given to friendly persuasion. Given that the speed of correspondence was horses and ships between Committees of Correspondence and from them to town halls and church pulpits, the colonies went from ‘we have some issues to work out with the mother country’ to ‘screw King George’ with remarkable speed.

              1. Seems Jill Biden got met with a chant at the Philadelphia Eagles game. I think it was the original, not, “Let’s Go Brandon.”
                She’s being sent out as a surrogate because she’s more popular than her husband.
                And apparently Joe fell asleep during an interview on MSNBC. In the clip I saw he was obviously having trouble keeping things together.

                1. Obama had a pen and a phone.

                  As a proxy for whoever, Biden has a pen. An autopen, used by someone else.

                  Because he is not consistently coherent enough to offer ‘corrections’ to his ‘subordinates’ by phone, and having him fire them by phone is an invitation to record his incoherence.

                  Fraulein Professor Edith may be out doing the rounds as a desperate last grasp at feeling like a President.

  10. Even I have misty-eyed memories of Portugal when I was under six, and we were all poor as Job due to government malfeasance.

    I was under six in the Nixon administration. We were technically poor but my parents managed to paper it over very well. It helped living on twenty? forty? acres of farmland + forest to wander through unsupervised, but I also remember telling a friend that Santa Clause must exist: my parents couldn’t afford some of the Christmas gifts under the tree. I was thinking specifically of the electric train set, I think, though I may be jumbling up gifts from different years.

    In retrospect, “Santa must exist” may not have been exactly the right message but it definitely engenders misty-eyed memories.

    1. “Santa must exist”

      …..
      Of coarse Santa exists to those who believe. Santa does not deliver to those who do not believe.

      The best part of Santa? Is being Santa.

      1. Yes; there are few means left in the modern world to give to those close to you without them knowing where the gift came from. Even giving anonymously elsewhere is difficult.

    2. My “misty eyed memories of Portugal” were from 1978-79 when I got the opportunity to visit a pen pal of several years, and moreover, go to visit her ailing grandmother, who lived in this agricultural valley a fair distance from town. I was never clear on how much electricity was available, but I know some of the houses seemed mostly lit by lanterns.. So the farming was a little more primitive than what I grew up with ( but our family farm was in the middle of “Amish Country” so I was quite familiar with a lot of the methods). But it was an honor, to me, to be invited into that ancient home, and converse ( as well as we could; most folks English wasn’t a lot better than my Portuguese, which was abysmal ) with the people working in the fields. I never knew my family qualified as ‘poverty level’ growing up. I knew we struggled a bit more than most folks, and many of the Amish were far more affluent, but not flaunting that is part of their religion. I was kinda shocked when I did figure it out. Because those were mostly happy times for me, as well, and the unhappy parts had more to do with the odd way my brain functioned and my perspective on my life than the circumstances thereof. But that Portuguese valley felt very “homey” to me. So it shines forth as a very pleasant memory.

  11. Trustworthy news and “… the establishment is con men all the way down. ” I’m not sure that it’s not even it all the way down at the local news level any more.

    A few days ago we had a power outage. My savage teenage granddaughter and her dad were driving along the highway next to our local army base, Ft. Wainwright. As they drove past there was a mighty boom, an bright orange flash and the streetlights along the highway went dark. So did the lights in my house, 6 miles away, as well as in all homes and business along and beyond the 6 mile route.

    Our electric co-op reported it as affecting some 50 houses (My guess was at least 300+.), and claimed it was caused by a tree falling on a power line.

    OK I’ll allow such is possible and that the simultaneous big bang on the base had nothing to do with it.

    I do allow the news reports of the outage are quite (I just checked and the affecting 50 households has been changed to 5,400 households.) , possibly true but sadly, one can’t be sure these days.

    1. Big transformer exploded, probably. If there is arcing inside, they build up acetylene gas. When that finds enough O2, the arc lights what is a decent fuel-air explosive.

      The kaboom is often triggered by the poor slob who opens it wrong.

      Been around several. One was big enough to blow out nearby windows. Thought it was a car bomb.

      1. Steve Bannon on his Warroom podcast says the same thing, with more vehemence. We shall see spending and tyranny and whatever else, the likes of which have never been seen. The enemy will use November and December to bring utter ruin upon the Republic.

        1. most casualties happen after the war is won.
          But they just might be too far. Mothers with hungry kids and the husbands of same mothers are liable to get unreasonable.
          … oh, well. There are always overpasses.

          1. My guess is that if the Democrats are unable to fraud or otherwise steal the November elections so as to keep Congress, they are going to really push Putin to use a nuke or two so they can use such use as a pretext to declare the incoming Republicans as “traitors” and arrest them en mass so that they cannot take their seats, thereby leaving Democrats in control of Congress. They will then pack the Supreme Court so that by the time the lawsuits over not being seated get to the Supreme Court it will be filled with partisan hacks who will go along with the Democratic Party coup.

              1. Maybe, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try, and their are enough RINOs that would capitulate in quite a few places.

          2. And yet, this same government can’t scrape together a few million to reimburse Musk for the StarLink service he’s providing to the Ukrainian military at his own expense.

    2. A diesel fuel shortage will hit us in ways even he didn’t mention. Trains run on diesel fuel. So do some ships, especially Great Lakes freighters and Mississippi River tugboats. The ones that push barge rafts up and down the rivers, carrying millions of tons of freight. Fire trucks and some ambulances run on diesel fuel. So do a lot of other emergency vehicles. The trucks and trains that deliver diesel fuel. Backup generators for hospitals and other critical installations, like water treatment plants.

      And, don’t forget — snow plows.

      Imagine, if you will, New York and Boston in February without snow plows.
      ———————————
      Why do so many idiots believe that our problems will be solved by the same shitheads that caused them?

      1. A lot of the pumps that move gasoline, heating oil and natural gas also work off diesel. Switching those pumps to solar and electric is why Texas had such a disaster when they had a huge freeze.

        1. Actually, most of the natural gas pumps ran on gas tapped off from the pipeline. They were converted to electric motors because they’re more efficient. And so they were — until the power went out and they had a gas outage to go with the electrical blackout.
          ———————————
          “Kid, your eyes are red.”
          “You should see ‘em from the inside.”

    3. Diesel, home heat oil, kerosene, and jet fuel are all pretty much similar, and thus all in the same figurative supply boat.

      People are filling thier tanks for the winter, and already burning more for cold weather, so demand is way up.

      I suspect smart folks are trying to top up tanks now, before things get worse.

      Do be careful storing flammables, please. False economy to burn down ones home trying to avoid cold by stacking cheap fuel cans. Invest in real storage tanks,
      properly installed , not half-fast improvs.

  14. I’m 71 and need a cane to hobble around. I’m not “running” anywhere because I physically can’t. But my military heritage was armored cavalry in the 70s, which meant “die in place” in the Fulda Gap to slow the Soviets if they came. I have no problem with doing that under the current circumstances. March of Cambreadth and all that. War to the knife. I live near Baltimore City, so it won’t take long. At least I will catch up on my sleep.

    1. I was lucky enough to move from near “Balmer” (Crownsville) to AZ when I retired in ’06, so I’m somewhat familiar with the problems you face (although they seem far worse now from what I’ve read about the area). Best of fortune to you, and get away if you can.

    3. The Fulda Gap was our area of “welp, hope your will is complete” deployment. 🙂

      1. Never stationed in Europe. DaNang, San Diego (electronics school) when it was a really nice town, Beaufort SC when it was…ummm…Beaufort. 🙂 Not a bad place, but SC isn’t my cuppa, not even the Sea Islands.

        1. Graduated from USC Columbia and love the low country. Maybe not Beaufort but Carolina suits me. To visit. I need mountains, Gandalf.

  15. Saw a Bill Whittle video today that I highly recommend. He takes awhile getting to his point about the attack we’re under from the left, but it’s worth it. The historical perspective of 3 surprise attacks is fascinating. https://youtu.be/urcONVEI5MY

        2. Oh, crap; that made the Alan Sherman version pop into my head. And now it WON’T LET GO!!! And all his others are crowding in…

  17. I’m editing Bor

    And no doubt I’m the only one who saw “Bor” and thought, “Oh, next door neighbor of Gor; I didn’t realize Sarah’s interests went that way.” 😉

    2. It’s really a great read, a fitting extension of the Shifter series.
      Fast paced, full of action, and true to the canon.
      Rampant sex and violence of course, but none of it gratuitous.
      And I think I left enough typos in it to satisfy the usual cadre of nit pickers.
      One caveat, does not parse well as a stand alone. Better read as a continuation of the series. If it’s been more than a couple of years since you read the first three go back and do them first for context.

  18. I remember realizing reading David Eddings (and I checked) that he’d been a child in the 30s. So to him, everything the government/progressive culture pushed – organized religion is suspect (unless the predates are heavily involved in charity and making sure the commons are treated well), fanatics can be spotted by their filthiness and bigotry, everyone wants to be rich, all or almost all politicians are cynics, and so on -was simple, self-evident truth. But given one speech he put into the mouth of a character, he’d have no use whatever for “reparations,” or a lot of the current progressive dogma.

    1. I read a bunch of Eddings, but it was a long time ago. Which character and speech was this?

      1. Re-use, dammit! You could have lines waiting! It doesn’t have to be simultaneous, like Spartacus’ troops.

    1. Video of Ju Huntao being “escorted,” out of CCP congress (?) by masked men in suits. Noticed Noone else seemed to be wearing them. Since I finally bought Keay’s history of China I wonder if Hu will be asked to commit suicide.

      2. Or if he’ll have a heart attack (age related, of course). The lower-level Party cadre have masks on, but not the leadership. So you know who are the servants and who are the masters. (You know, like at the Met Museum Gala in NYC.)

  23. The next few months is going to show us things we never thought possible.
    This is the time for which we are made, though I’d have preferred something else.
    The friends we’ll make during these times will some of the deepest, most meaningful of our lives. So there is that to look forward to.

        1. When even Tom Clancy and Brad Thor can’t get away with it . . . Yeah. The Author is getting Odd. (Although, since the Author came up with dinosaurs, platypodes, wombats, and the Hula-Hoop, well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.)

          1. Blue lava. There’s a volcano in Indonesia that occasionally erupts with blue. Lava.

            The legit explanation is a high concentration of sulfuric gas that comes along with the lava. Still weird.

            I don’t think the Other Dan (Simmons) can get away with it, either.

  24. “But there aren’t enough lockers.”
    Old, old Jean Kerr essay, where she parodied a Mickey Spillane book. The hero has just found John Brown’s body in his locker:
    “I looked in the next locker. Bill Brown was in that one. One thing was clear: somebody was going to have to clean out those lockers.”

  25. Well said, and I hope people heed your warnings about how adopting the blue model for different purposes isn’t going to work and neither is forcing religion in particular. I’m still not sure how I’m going to come out of this but hopefully it’ll be in a better community that I can actually survive this mess with and soon.

  27. Part of me wants to hate the people destroying America. I could, under certain circumstances, become like the protagonist in Fed Up; but I choose not to surrender to those impulses. For one thing, killing others takes away from us. For another, there aren’t enough bullets. And I’m no “Lone Ranger” type.

    Not to mention the corrosive effects of hate. It’s like drinking battery acid and hoping it will kill the other guy.

    Mind you, I’m not particularly what I consider a saint; but I think God will “defend the right,” as the Vicar said in Mrs. Miniver. And I want to be on that side.

    I have multiple flags, including the one they gave my wife during her citizenship ceremony. They may have those back after they pry them from my cold dead fingers. But I hope to pass them on before that.

    1. Multiple flags; but no firearms, large knives, spears, nun-chucks, blackjacks, brass knuckles, Texas-sized belt buckles, or rope. I just thought I should make that clear.

      I’m just a large, slow-moving target.

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