The Scratching Post has a post up about our current condition.
Does Anything Need To Work?
I really like this bit about the morons in charge:
I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no plan. There is no plan. Of plans, there are none. The box of plans is empty and the cupboard wherein plans are kept is similarly barren of plans.
There's no plan.
I've linked to The Scratching Post before.
Found this on The Scratching Post this morning:
Going back to the Instapundit post by Sarah that motivated my dive into Comanche history, this quote keeps coming to mind.
(After a deep dive into African history), what became very clear to me is that whenever civilized (in this case defined as post-tribal) humans collide with tribal humans, tribal humans lose. (The tribal people) use the techniques that work in between tribes, imagining that their adversaries are also a tribe:
They start off with unimaginable massacres and horrible evil in the belief that this will cause the adversaries to back off... (T)he more atrocities they commit the more they aggravate the anger of the civilized people.
The civilized hold back, afraid of committing atrocities, and the tribal humans commit more atrocities, and act like victors, while doing truly horrific things.
And then at some point the post-tribal people lose it.
What comes after is usually horrific and causes college social studies majors to cry centuries later.
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| Artist's Concept of a Viruses Contained in Water Droplets Cute picture, but it is very inaccurate. Water droplets are actually about a zillion times bigger than a virus particle. The link goes to a cute article that doesn't really clarify anything. |
The Scratching Post has a post about airborne viruses, which prompted me to comment, and since I made so much sense I thought I better post it here as well.
I think the idea about the masks is that virions often travel in water droplets, water droplets that are expelled when you talk or blow your nose or maybe even breath. So while a mask won't stop a free floating virion, it will stop a water droplet. Anyway, I think that's the theory.
The other rumor I've heard is that these virions won't survive in places with a temperature different than human body temperature for very long, which is why you don't really need to worry about free floating virions. Should any escape from you, by the time they travel 6 feet in 72 degree air, they will have expired.
But all that's irrelevant. The masks are stupid and the lockdowns are ridiculous and awful. If Congress wanted to give Pfizer a zillion dollars, they should have just given it to them and not bothered the rest of us with this panic driven stupidity.
Stolen entire from The Scratching Post:
When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton replied, “Because that's where the money is.”
States have a lot more money than banks.
This is a partial reply to Tim's comment on a recent post where he pointed out that even 200,000 Chinese anchor babies becoming eligible to vote wouldn't be that big of a deal. I might have thought that as little as 3 months ago. Something completely changed my mind. The California High Speed Choo Choo, as Deano calls it, flipped me.
Authorized in 2008, it was supposed to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Anyone familiar with California permitting and zoning red tape knew instantly that it was going to be insanely expensive and take forever. AI says that as of April 2026, the estimated cost for the full Phase 1 California High-Speed Rail project (San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim) has reached approximately $126 billion to $135 billion and I have no reason to doubt it.
Not a single mile of track has been laid so far.
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| This sad, little bridge in Central California is just about the only solid evidence the high speed choo choo project even exists. |
Someone on X made a snarky comment that completely changed my thinking about not just the high speed choo choo, but the graft and corrupting uncovered in Minneapolis, California and elsewhere as well as the voter fraud. In short, the post asserted that there was never any intention of building the railroad at all. It was all graft from the start.
It immediately rang true. When it was announced in 2008, I thought there was no way it was ever going to happen. I'd gone through the permitting processes on relatively straightforward remodels and construction and they were beyond onerous. This one, cutting across any number of habitats of strange and unusual creatures, seemed doomed from the start.
It was Willie Sutton on an utterly cosmic scale. The entire project was intentional theft. Everyone involved in it, save for the Global Warming Climate Change fanatics, knew it would never be built.
New hypothesis: The Democratic Party is mostly AWFLs with a pack of ruthless and intelligent parasites riding on top, directing it.
The AWFLs thought they were stopping the death of polar bears while the parasites were sticking needles into the biggest financial veins they could think to find.
Michael Schellenberger, ex-progressive, wrote the staggering San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. It detailed the results of his inside-the-system research into how SanFran managed to spend stunning amounts on the homeless without having any effect other than increasing the size and severity of the problem. What he discovered was a huge industry that made money off of suffering.
Some of the NGOs he detailed would get money from the government at the beginning of the year and then do nothing but lobby and budget for next year's money. That was it. That was all they did. Get money and then get next year's money.
Our youngest son and I went to a Padres game recently. The stadium is near one of our zombieland areas. We had to drive through it to get to the game. Every zombie we saw had a price tag of about $80,000 per year. The money wasn't going to the zombies, it was going to government agencies and NGOs that would kick some of that money back to Democrat campaigns.
Dig this.
The Somali fraud schemes in Minneapolis were of a piece. Dittos for the Los Angeles hospice scam recently uncovered by people doing the most basic of due diligence.
In answer to Tim's comment, I'll just stop with this:
Why was the border wide open for 4 years? Why don't we have national voter ID? Why are we all along in the world in having birthright citizenship?
Add it all up. It's Willie Sutton at as large a scale as can be managed. It's not that 200K Chinese will change a national election, although if they are properly placed, they certainly could. It's that birthright citizenship is just one more tool in the graft toolbox.
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| Donald Trump on the campaign trail in Las Vegas, Nevada June 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Becker/Files |
The Scratching Post has a great post about Trump. I especially like his opening statement:
Donald Trump as a candidate is primal scream therapy for the right. He is the embodiment of our rage against the corrupt news media, the incompetent expert class and the neo-Nazi education industry.
Righteous anger is all good fun until you're hitting serious troubles and then it actively prevents working on solutions.
Good advice if you want to get serious.
But let me wander off the straight and narrow and out into the weeds where we can smell the car tires burning. The best thing about Trump is the way he is able to turn half of the country into deranged lunatics just by opening his mouth. I don't have that problem, I never listen to him. Shoot, the only people I listen to are actual people who are right in front of me. My politics are pretty much driven by the price of gold and gasoline, and since both parties are spending money like drunken sailors, I don't expect any improvement within the, well, ever, actually.
I suppose things could get better if we purged all the corrupt officials, but I'm a little afraid that might look like gang warfare. Now I'm wondering if any countries had any success in rooting out corruption, so I asked ChatGPT:
Yes, several countries have undertaken successful campaigns to root out corruption. It's important to note that the success of such campaigns can vary, and eradicating corruption is an ongoing challenge. Here are a few examples:
Singapore: Singapore is often cited as a success story in combating corruption. The country implemented strict anti-corruption measures and established institutions like the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB). The government's commitment to transparency and accountability has contributed to Singapore's relatively low levels of corruption.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong has a strong anti-corruption framework, and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has been effective in investigating and prosecuting cases of corruption. The ICAC's success is often attributed to its independence and the support it receives from the public.
Rwanda: Rwanda has made significant progress in reducing corruption. The government implemented anti-corruption reforms, established an ombudsman office, and promoted a culture of accountability. Rwanda's efforts have been recognized internationally for their impact on reducing corruption levels.
Georgia: Georgia has been praised for its successful anti-corruption initiatives. The country implemented comprehensive reforms, including the digitization of public services to minimize opportunities for corruption. These efforts have contributed to improvements in Georgia's corruption perception rankings.
Denmark: Denmark consistently ranks high on global corruption perception indices. The country's success is attributed to a combination of factors, including a strong legal framework, transparent institutions, and a culture of integrity.
It's important to note that the effectiveness of anti-corruption campaigns often depends on a combination of legal reforms, institutional strength, public awareness, and international cooperation. Additionally, addressing corruption is an ongoing process, and countries may face new challenges over time.
Notice that all of these countries are small places. I'm wondering if there is a critical mass above which corruption is inevitable.
If it's Trump vs. Biden in the next election, I'll be voting for Trump. I find it hard to imagine that the Democrats will put Biden up again, but nothing anybody in the top tier is doing makes any sense. The Democrats could put up a literal sock puppet and with their lock on the media, they could make it look like the answer to our prayers. God help us.
Stolen from The Scratching Post
California
There's something most people don't understand about what's happening in California, something I didn't understand until a month or two ago. I wrote this in a previous blog post, but it was an epiphany for me that bears retelling.
The high speed choo-choo was never intended to run. There was never any intent to actually build the trains, build the bridges or lay the tracks. It was all a grift from the start, a grift to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
Think about the size of that con for a second. Bernie Madoff pocketed around a billion when all was said and done. Yes, investors lost more than that, but Bernie himself only got a 10-figure payout. The high speed choo choo is an order of magnitude larger and no one is risking jail.
When that project was started, I knew in my bones you could never do it. I've built houses and remodeled houses in California. It is almost impossible to get anything of consequence done. A house is one thing, but a railroad running for more than a 100 miles? No chance.
Still, until some Internet wag said it, I hadn't put two and two together, It was all a fraud from the start.
The homeless are the same thing. I said before that the encampments in our cities are just feed lots for the non-profits. Read San Fran-sicko. Seriously. Until you read that, you don't have a sense of the depth of the corruption.
The water situation in California is similar, but I don't think it's a grift. I think it's just simple ideological blockheadedness.
Okay, typical government corruption. But then he brings up Muslim Rape Gangs and I'm not going to even think about that because If I do I'll start foaming at the mouth and my carefully cultivated façade of an educated gentleman will crumble and I will be cast out into the darkness.
The Scratching Post has a post up about 'Merica today. It opens with this:
Maybe It's All True
I've read several different takes on the latest Trump indictments, the ones dealing with his efforts to overturn the results of the election. Such luminaries as Ben Shapiro and the guys over at PowerLine assert that the indictment is trash. Others give it plenty of respect. I took the time to read part of it and I don't think it's trash at all.
On the other hand, it's all trash.
Everything is true and no one and nothing can be trusted.
It's pretty great. Go read the whole thing.
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| Finnish soldier loading a Mosin-Nagant rifle - SA-Kuva, Finnish National Archives, via Tom Laemlein |
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| The New York State Court of Appeals |
Computer Security: Borepatch talks about the US government's attempt to force software companies to take some basic precautions against hacking.
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| White Cliffs of Dover |
Life Planning: The Scratching Post talks about walking towards the edge of the metaphorical cliff.
The Scratching Post is talking about Whole Foods closing their flagship store in San Francisco. He has a poop map of San Francisco and Whole Foods is right in the center of it. It bestirred me enough to post a comment:
"How come they didn't learn their lessons?" Good question. I don't know, but I suspect there is a core group of people who are busy plundering the public coffers. They discourage anyone who wants to change things (stop their thieving ways) by being as obnoxious as possible. Anyone with a brain can find much more rewarding things to do with their time than dealing with them. Why doesn't the public vote them out? Because the people in charge run a massive propaganda campaign that portrays them as 'good folks' who only want the best for everybody. They are lying, of course. People operate on emotions, not reason and facts, so they are going to vote for the person who tells them the most comforting lies.
P. S. Portland ain't no slouch when the making the charge to Armageddon. Portland Tribune tells us that Coava Coffee is closing their downtown shop due to what you might call a 'hostile work environment'. You known, gangsters, muggers, and bums.
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| Michigan High School Reading Proficiency |
The Scratching Post is talking about the sad condition of poor black Americans and how all the social engineering programs in the last 60 years have aggravated their situation rather than improving it. If I recall correctly, K T Cat (the author) is Catholic and his post certainly has a Catholic slant. I'm not a big fan of the Catholic church, but I agree with most of their basic principles.
The more I read about what the Federal government has been doing for the last century, the more I am appalled. The big problem for me is that I don't know what can be done about it. Our country is rich enough that several warlords have been able to establish their own fiefdoms within our country. Oh, they aren't really old timey warlords with swords and shit, they are billionaires with all the clout that money can buy. I can't fault them for throwing their weight around. If you want something done you can't depend on the Feds to take care of it, you are much better off taking care of it yourself.
Problem is that if you haven't been taken up by one of one of these warlords, you are pretty much out in the cold. One of these days it is entirely possible that some demagog is going to gather all the deplorables into a cohesive force and we will have a real life coup and civil war. Or we will have another holocaust. I don't think either of those events are very likely. More likely is that the situation will continue to deteriorate, big cities will become war zones for the drug cartels. The suburbs will be populated by wage slaves loyal to their local virtual warlord, and the countryside outside of the cities will be populated by religious redneck preppers.
About the graph. I looked for the original but I could not find it. The closest thing I found is this one:
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| Percentage of students at or above the Proficient level in 2013 |
What If Women Ruled The World?
... is not a question we need to ask any more. We have the answer in the form of many of our nations as well as international institutions.
Inspired by my experiences fighting with AI (read: ChatGPT) while trying to write Arthurian fiction, listening to Jordan Peterson's descriptions of classic feminine pathologies and recently experiencing a diocesan get-together prepping for a new round of synodality, I began wondering if we're seeing the results of feminine leadership gone very, very wrong.
I sat down with AI and began to explore the topic. The results seemed to fit the data to a T.Caveat: These days, AI has become a version of Rudolf Hess. I pace back and forth in my cell in Spandau Prison, ranting this or that manifesto and it dutifully transcribes it, embellishes it and punctuates our interactions with praise and support. It has become the perfect toady.
At any rate, dig this.
Summary of the Features of Pathological Femininity
Pathological femininity refers to a disordered, unhealthy expression of feminine traits that prioritizes emotional validation, denial of conflict, and compulsive caretaking at the expense of truth, justice, and responsibility. It is not true femininity, which is rooted in nurturing, beauty, receptivity, and moral strength, but rather a distorted counterfeit that leads to social, moral, and spiritual breakdown.
He goes on for a bit. Read the whole thing here.
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| The stimmy checks will never stop, man. |
"That's why I don't take politics all that seriously any more. It's Ivy League glee club catfighting, for the most part." - The Scratching Post
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| A McDonald's restaurant in Chicago, on July 7, 2015. (Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo) |
The Scratching Post got me started.
I am beginning to suspect that the problem is that competent people don't want to go into politics, there are too many other opportunities out there. Going into politics means dealing with a whole raft of unpleasant people and not that many people are willing to subject themselves to the abuse they will be receiving in the political arena. This means that the only people in politics are either incompetent or deranged.
If you want to succeed in politics and change things, you need to be two faced. With one face you tell the masses what they want to hear so that you can get elected. With the other face you talk to your supporters and work out what you actually want to do. This isn't too different from the way things are now, it's just that there are an awful lot of politicians whose hidden face is only working to improve their personal position. They are not working to improve the lot of the people.
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| Ise was Hyuga's Sister by Standish Backus, 1946 Wreck of the Japanese battleship-carrier Ise, Kure, Japan |
The division sailed from Singapore on 10 February [1945] and was spotted by the British submarine HMS Tantalus the following day. It was forced to submerge by a maritime patrol aircraft and was unable to attack. On 13 February the submarine USS Bergall unsuccessfully attacked the ships as did the submarine USS Blower. One of Ise's AA guns caused one of Blower's torpedoes to detonate prematurely. Later that afternoon, Oyodo launched one of her floatplanes which spotted the submarine USS Bashaw on the surface about 22 km (13.7 miles) ahead of the convoy. Hyūga opened fire with her main guns and forced Bashaw to submerge when one of her shells landed within 1.6 km (1 mile) of the submarine. The convoy reached the Matsu Islands, off the Chinese coast, on the 15th and was unsuccessfully attacked by the submarine USS Rasher before they reached Zhoushan Island, near Shanghai that night. The convoy reached Kure on 20 February, having evaded or escaped pursuit by 23 Allied submarines along the way. - Wikipedia
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| "Oh, little plant, I will appreciate you because by December, you'll be dead." |
The Scratching Post reports:
It made me realize I need to be grateful for all the things that still work. As I wondered how I might go about doing that, it occurred to me that it's not possible. You don't know what's going to fail next. If you go around thinking to yourself, "Oh, pancreas, how I love you so!" your spleen might get jealous and say, "So what am I, chopped liver?" to which your liver will say, "Hey, I heard that!" and your spleen will have to apologize.
If I do my situps, my back gives me less trouble, which means my legs don't hurt. My back never hurts but the doc says a pinched nerve in my back is what is causing the pain in my legs.
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| Skybridge Interior |
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| Crazy Cat Lady |
Death By Crazy Cat Lady
It occurred to me the other day that all of the folks who are hell-bent on "diversity" and "migrants" aren't much different from crazy cat ladies.
Progressive: I found this (kitty, migrant) and it was sad, so I brought it home!
Me: You already have (23, 20,000,000) (kitties, illegals). You can't take care of the ones you have.
Progressive: But it was sad!
And that's how we ended up with 20,000,001 illegals in the country. Well, that and the Democrats' desire to change America's demographics so they never lost another election. That and certain businesses short-term interests in quasi-slave labor. Still, the psychopaths in politics and business couldn't have gotten it done without the crazy cat ladies.
We're being destroyed by pathological empathy.
From The Scratching Post:
Tariffs As An Example
In the tariff wars, Trump said he wanted to eliminate trade deficits. In retrospect, I think even Trump knew that was idiocy. However, it was way beyond where he was willing to accept. Everyone took him at his word and went into spasms of horror.
Incidentally, I did, too. That's what I mean when I say it's very hard to escape the zeitgeist generated by the Super Smart Set Who Don't Actually Know Much Of Anything And Who Have Been Wrong About A Lot Of Things For Decades (SSSWDAKMOAWHBWAALOTFD).
