Need.that.shirt. My first question. Can you maybe sell these to us and donate a percentage to Nuzzles? It's okay if you jack up the price. A cat would do that, and the other cats would understand. Just a suggestion. P.S. Today, August 8, is International Cat Day!
thanks! i'm going to wait a little before ordering one, in case gato comes up with a variation to sell here. i like keahi's idea of a percentage going to nuzzles. if that idea doesn't go through i'll order one from pixels.
Thanks so much, kerked. But I would still love for el gato malo to make these available, maybe with badcatitude on there somewhere, if permission can be granted. To help Spread the Word. I think we're ready for merch. And I'd be thrilled to help Nuzzles, I'm a sucker for animal rescue groups, got my local group in my will.
Your call to action at the end ... “We need a better way.” While true, we should not forget that our origin story as a country is rooted in a better way. We did not start in this post modern name-calling dystopia in which truth is a thing to be hated and feared. We need to return to some first principles: intrinsic value of the individual person (broad definition applies), truth matters (in the objective sense), and we are ruled by law, not by people.
A republic, madame, if you can keep it. Or something like that.
Everytime I hear someone talk about "our democracy", I know they are absolutely ignorant of the foundation of how America was truly formed.
Bobby Graves does a great job explaining our history. Search it on YouTube, type: "Bobby Graves Part 1" ...and watch all three parts. It's mind-blowing, informative, and once one gets it, we actually do have a path towards fixing our country... Peacefully if possible.
If not for this way, I do not see any other method for saving America short of some sort of violence, and this none of us truly desires.
And though I am more of a dog guy, felines and canines must unite. It's gotta rain cats and dogs on this society until we fix it.
Ah, cats. They can never understand the joy of actually being paid real money to live your best mean girl life.
That's it.
A decade ago, educated middle-class black women did what everone else, ever, in a job, with colleagues and bosses and subordinates, had to do: you keep your individual hatreds tamped down until you got home and could safely bitch about them, and then you went back to work the next morning and did the same.
That was called life. You like some, you hate some, you feel a bit of disdain for some, you feel a lot of envy for some--but it's all in the normal scheme of things.
And then Trump came and everyone had permission to take all those socially-imposed curbs off and could hate right out loud and it was glorious.
The true opioid crisis of our times. They can't stop. It feels too good. Best rush ever. 'm amazed they don't have transcendental orgasms right through the screen.
That's all it is. Being your best 14-yr. old self on live TV.
I think it pre-dates Trump. I'd tie it to the advent of social media, and the way that tech and those platforms make it seem easier to unload on someone who isn't actually there in real time--kinda like we say all kinds of things, protected, in the car, unheard by the other, to the other, that we would never say to someone's face, or at the very least, in a manner we would never use to their face. Like, I just don't curse at slow walkers the way I do at slow drivers.
Zerlina seems like she's in a bubble, doesn't get out much, and so is just talking for soundbytes she knows will outrage screen world. There's no IRL accountability for her.
I used to watch MSNBC until it became unbearable, and the media careers of Zerlina et al depended entirely on Trump outrage. They have absolutely nothing else to bring to the conversation.
Is the IRS move just thinly veiled effort to create another policing force? The new hires could be screened by ideology and used to persecute the opposition. Think of all the auditing unleashed on Trump and how much worse it would be for the middle class who could hardly finance the battle. Gadsen flag on your house… ‘ooh, looks like we need to audit you’. Show up to a BoE meeting upset that the kindergarten teacher is showing your child how to masturbate.. audit. (You wouldn’t even have to break a law for punishment, providing an easy circumvent.
That is exactly what I believe, but I don't think there's anything veiled about it. They want us to know that they can and will unleash the bureaucratic pit bulls on us at any moment if we show signs of misbehaving. The new and improved Stasi.
my guess is that this kind of politically selected enforcement will simply drive the political movement underground. people won't disagree with "the party." instead they'll pay it lip service and ignore its dictates wherever they can. and since law enforcement is expensive, people will get away with ignoring most laws. home schooling, even if outlawed, will continue to grow. we'll have a system with two faces: official policy and actual reality on the ground.
big cities already provide examples of this. e.g. look at official gun possession laws in Chicago. then look at actual gun involved homicide in Chicago. or, look at California mandatory car insurance regulations. then look at the proportion of uninsured drivers in Los Angeles county.
as a nation, as an economy, we're already driving down that road. all we're doing now is pressing harder on the gas pedal.
Makes sense. Have to say that some of the writers from communist countries, and therefore know how this works, have been seeing things coming months and years before others.
Oh yeah, if we think the B.Hussein/Lois Lerner attacks were bad before then we ain't seen nuthin' yet. These extra agents will also be unleashed on all the low income, under the radar people who work in cash, your yard man, barber, maid, handyman, whatever. In those cases they can send them a scary letter saying that the taxpayer had screwed up somehow as in "our records show that your real income was higher than what you reported. Send us $400-500-600 and you will be good to go. That would be enough to frighten a lot of people to just pay up and avoid the hassle (and cost) of trying to fight it.
I have a hard time believing that the people of color in these jobs will be targets. Seems to me the targets are more likely political and annoying (cost of tax atty etc.).
'Could be...used to persecute the opposition'?...didn't they already weaponize the IRS years ago? Though I guess maybe they put it on paxlovid for a few years and now this is the rebound aka 'build back better' IRS. :P
Perhaps they'll recruit the new hires from the 47% of Americans who pay no federal taxes? As it is, those of us who do pay taxes are subject to years of ongoing "analysis and suggestions" often for multiple tax years. I have an ongoing case for tax year 2018...for which I have been awaiting documentation for 28 months. And I'm just a normal person.
“white privilege” is not a magic spell that crushes all dissent anymore. it just makes you look stupid and out of touch. it’s a shibboleth for “i have no real argument.” this whole group has drowned in garrulous glossolalia. they are some sort of neo-vegan organism that eats and excretes only word salad
And I vow to name my firstborn Garrulous Glossolalia
"these are wild, inaccurate, dishonest claims. and yet he seems to expect to be believed."
But he made the claims on MSNBC, and it seems like a given that anyone who watches MSNBC anymore is the kind of skull full of mush who *would* believe what he said, and who does believe the nonstop crap that MSNBC is known for.
That I think gets to the root of the problem: too many stupid, lazy, or ignorant Americans who STILL think they're getting "news" from the alphabet legacy media. That number must be in the tens of millions, because something like 30% of Americans will vote Democrat in November no matter what.
Ignorant is one thing; it can be remedied with persuasive information. But stupid is forever, and people who watch MSNBC for its "news" are stupid, and stupid enough to believe the crap. I mean, how many people STILL believe the Trump/Russia collusion hoax, how many people STILL believe that masks work, that the clot shots work, that CDC/NIH/FDA et al are honest and trustworthy?
Millions. It's an epidemic of stupidity, and that's an unflattenable curve.
They _watch_ and rarely _read_ is a big part of the problem. Not sure which is worse ... the CNN/MSNBC/NPR/NYT crowd, or the up-and-coming generation who gets their news from ... TikTok. Once again, I wish I was joking.
Are we sure of how many people will vote Democrat come November? Yes, there are polls that say so, but polls can be wrong, biased, flawed.
I don't think people who watch the regular news are stupid. I think they have been conditioned and manipulated, and lazy, but not necessarily stupid. Now this isn't to say there are stupid people who watch and believe the news because they don't know any better and never will, but for the most part, it is hard for people to believe that so many different news outlets would lie to them in tandem.
The truth is, we just don't know how many people believe these things. We think it could be millions, but how do you define belief?
If you define belief by participating in some of these things, then does that not also apply to those of us who do not believe it?
Concerning the Trump Collusion Hoax, how many of us just never spoke up about it. In so doing, did that get interpreted as belief?
On masks, how many of us have worn masks? I have sadly worn them in the last year more than the last two before it combined. I wore masks on Ubers and in doctor's offices. But I completely disagree that they work. I know it's all theater. The dangerous thing I have participated in is contributing to the idea that the virus is so serious as to wearing a mask.
The vaccine is a little tougher, as how many believe vs. how many just didn't want to lose their job? I certainly am not in favor of losing a job, but I am in the process of finding a job, and thus I can speak my mind, and reject any employer that would mandate the Covid vaccine for any reason, and I have done so. Who knows how detrimental this makes my chance of finding a job. All I know is the facts, and logic perhaps will lead them to the realization that mandating vaccines is absurd.
Well.... regarding November, if the mules, Dominion and the MSM work as planned. there will be a Dem sweep. And people will rationalize it because they are lazy and don't want to do anything about it.
Plus... if you protest this regime, you are a political prisoner, no lawyer will touch you and your will die in prison.
I agree with you that it is dubious that Biden won the previous election. I find it very hard to believe that Biden would surpass Obama's popularity, even keeping in mind that much of the vote for Biden may not have arisen out of a love of Biden, but rather hatred of Trump.
I also find it ironic that a group so against Trump learned to adopt his strategies of branding people and concepts he disagreed with. "The Big Lie" is one of those. You are seen as foolish and stupid if you believe that anything but a "fair and secure" election occurred in November of 2020. So wait...most other countries outlawed mail-in ballots, but somehow this seemed like a good idea in the states because, you know. Covid kills .14% of the population.
The thing is, the fix was in. And since there was collusion between the MSM and the body politic, they could keep things open, and just pretend that the election was on the up and up, because you know, they said so.
So many people who we might think get their news from MSM don't even do that. They get their "news" from Rachel Madcow, the HuffPost, The View, NPR talk shows and Late Night Comedy Central. And a huge percentage of people do not follow any news at all. They pick stuff up on FB, Twitter and TikTok.
I get that many people took the jabs out of necessity. I don't consider them "stupid" for doing so. I'm talking much more about anyone TODAY who still thinks the jabs work, who still say that the jabs are to prevent worse illness or hospitalization, who still think we were NEVER told that the jabs are dead-ends for the virus, who still think we were never told that you can't catch or spread the virus if you'd just get jabbed. Those people are the stupidasses among us, IMO.
I used "30%" as a guesstimate as to how many people will vote Democrat no matter what, no matter how expensive gas has become because of Resident Biden, no matter how much purchasing power Biden has cost them, no matter how corrupt and dishonest the federal government and its agencies have been proved to be about the Chinese virus, no matter how effed up the supply chain has become, no matter how badly domestic air travel is performing, ad nauseam.
There are millions of Americans who will still vote Democrat in November. I'm guessing 30% is the Democrat Party's floor.
I think at this point anyone who watches MSBNC for news IS stupid. I would probably add CNN to that equation. Those two networks have so thoroughly beclowned themselves that you'd have to be stupid to believe anything they say.
Those who watch or read the other alphabet legacy media would fit my description of "stupid, lazy, or ignorant". Maybe they're more lazy and less stupid, and thus more ignorant than stupid.
But they're still an existential threat, IMO, to the survival of the republic.
I know a bunch of Democrats aged 50+ who totally believe CNN and MSNBC. It does not even occur to them that their favorite news shows would lie.
However... Fox? That's fake news. Also... when in doubt, ask google. They're totally trustworthy as well.
It's maddening, especially regarding the CV19 injection. I want them to look at the information and realize that they could be harming themselves. If CNN doesn't endorse the information, it's not real. By the time CNN reports it, well, it might be too late for many of them.
I have people close to me, both conservative and democrat, who still are living under the auspices that the vaccine is safe and effective. But if you walk them through it, they can't argue much against the points made such as questioning why something is mandated that only may help the person receiving the vaccine.
I think the existential threat to the survival of the republic are not people who believe all this, but rather the mechanisms of propaganda that perpetuate it. And from the people that I know personally, a lot of these beliefs are held by both conservatives and democrats. So while it may be political it is less partisan than we might think, but rather based on those, either left or right, who still have some faith in the integrity of the state.
There is no integrity of the state.
How many conservatives stood up from the beginning and spoke against Covid? How many speak out against it now? Aside from a few notable exceptions most are silent in regards to this issue.
Here is what I know, the purpose to which representatives are voted into a position is to uphold the precepts, values, and principles as stated in the Constitution of the United States. That means that you...represent the people, but more importantly what is best for people which is the ability as much as they are able to, make decisions about what it is they wish to do with their lives. First and foremost is that there has to be a very good reason to enact any law, provision, or restriction on liberty.
"I think the existential threat to the survival of the republic are not people who believe all this, but rather the mechanisms of propaganda that perpetuate it."
Yup. I have said for years that the alphabet legacy media are the real cancer among us, that if the media were just honest and straightforward, with integrity, the Democrat Party would be at most a fringe element in American politics. Without the near-complete support of the "mechanisms of propaganda", the Dem Party would be nothing.
Wanna fix America? First, burn down the alphabet legacy media and salt the earth where they stood.
And as we've seen over the past 24 hours, yeah, "there is no integrity of the State".
Another battle line drawn. Either people are indifferent, or think it was "justified" (which to my mind means, they're pleased) or they are openly thrilled about it (half my family, I'm sorry to say, don't know for sure as we don't talk). Those folks. Then there's the rest of us, who are sickened, appalled, enraged and very, very worried. For God's sake, this November, even if you think the GOP are mostly all feckless cowards and losers, please just hold your nose and vote for them. We have to do what we can to stop these people. If they pull off another cheat and then do it again in 2024, we will be utterly lost.
When I found out I didn't need a referral for some of the medical services I needed, I also asked myself why I was going through the process of masking for each visit.
Roe v. Wade zealots fervently attacking any man or institution who dared to voice a contrary opinion, while unironically defending a trans woman’s (man’s) right to participate in the debate, was where the Emperor was truly revealed as having no clothes for many. The not-recession-recession blather is just adding to the farce.
Since money is what they want, their lifeblood, how 'bout everyone in the country who's sick of this shit just stop paying taxes? Like, millions of us? Can they get all of us?
Mmm. Bet most people aren't up to finding that out.
“Lenin developed a special way of writing that made it possible to establish the ‘formula-slogan’ in the mind of the reader or listener . . . Then, as the most important compositional element, there is the use of repetition, by means of which a rectangle is formed which concentrates the attention, narrows the field of possibilities, and squeezes thought into a tight ring from which there is only one exit . . .
Total power over the Word gives the Master of the Word a magical power over all communications. Soviet speech is always a monologue because there is no other party to talk to. On the other side is the enemy. In the Soviet language there are no neutral words – every word carries an ideological burden . . . That is why in Soviet language the same words are repeated over and over again, until they become a signal that acts without any effort of thought. The effect of set phrases and slogans is also assured by their always being repeated in absolutely the same form . . .
The Soviet language became the most important means of preventing people from acquiring more knowledge than the state wished . . . Soviet speech lost its freedom. The language was put together out of slogans and quotations from the Leader [Stalin] . . . The crushing, unquestioned authority of the Leader’s word is the result to a large extent of his right and power to name the Enemy . . . The word that signifies the enemy must be striking, easy to remember, implying condemnation by its very sound, and always imprecise, so that everyone who at a given moment does not please the Leader can be included under it rubric . . ."
- Mikhail Heller (Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man)
This is where we're heading if we do not speak up!
also, i was a Lit major in the 80s and I remember wondering why so many of the trendy theories that infected the academy then (like "All books are political" or lots of jargon adding up to: "the goal of all books and all art should be Leftist social engineering") sounded suspiciously like Leninism and Maoism....
Now I realize that this style of thought was migrating from Marxism to American academia (smuggled in through the humanities) where after a few decades it escaped the lab and now infects the entire culture.
It is, or was at least, called "The Long March through the Institutions" and was a consciously and purposefully developed concept.
It developed during the early 1950s in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, when marxist intellectuals realised the working class wanted nothing to do with communism, neither theortical or in practice (hardly surprising). The workers wanted fair pay, the weekends off, enough for a pension, and when they didn't work they wanted to be left alone - not Hectored on the class struggle or stuff like that.
So the plan became, roughly, to further the careers of generally like-minded academics, with an eye to teachers and budding politicians and union members especially, so as to slowly - generationally - move the "Normal" more and more to the left. This included european academics in the humanities moving to the US and making contact with US radicals in the Civil Rights-movements and media/entertaintment industry.
While that may cause despair initially, consider this, seeing as you are a Lit major: a story isn't over until the telling stops, and all the tools of the academic left are just that - tools. Anyone can learn to use them.
Tools of course also depend upon the needs and volition of the user, ie the knife i use to carve up my lunch could be used in a much more sinister fashion by someone more homicidally inclined.
I dont know if this makes me smart or stupid, but i studied Lit and read Lit because...I love Lit. My point being my interests are and were storytelling, esthetics, the beauty of a well-turned phrase, the individual talent and skill of authors etc...but other people for whatever reasons (personal social career etc) looked at these same works and felt the need to utilize them for political sloganeering and ideological campaigning (expressing their devotion to the religion known as Leftism)...
My feeling has always been: if you want to be a politician or a social worker etc, great go ahead, but pls let art and artists maintain their own independence and integrity.
Yet that naivety is what lets you keep the two apart. I choose to read it not as childish in the sense of inexperienced, but innocent - the optimism a child can have because it has not yet been taught "That's not possible".
In me, that optimism turned to berserker rage at a young age, and it simmers eternally, occasionally bursting forth no matter what I do. Which is why I always keep a pile of timbers and spare axehandles. Literally.
I think when it comes to words, many who opt for being in the spotlight of politics use words on instinct, rather than with innate skill and passion: witness Obama with and without prompter/script, and compare him to Reagan or Clinton. It's embarassing. Reagan I have no doubt you could have woke up 0230 and told him "Mr President we need you to speak to the nation in five minutes, Castro is invading Florida" and he'd have jumped to it.
The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master.
"The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master."
Aha, is that kind of stuff in the Tao Te Ching? Asian religions and belief systems never held much fascination for me, excepting the mythological side, I'm afraid. Not my cup of tea if you pardon the lame attempt at a joke.
Well, it's past bedtime where I am (2300) so I have to sign off. Time to sleep, perhcance to dream, as some poet said.
Big credit to you for bringin up Lenin. He has a well-deserved reputation for lots of atrocities and horrid stuff, but the man was no idiot - he was in fact brilliant, and had a very incisive intellect, rather effortlessly disecting whatever topic he touched upon.
And it doesn't do anyone any favours that that aspect has been so downplayed for propaganda-reasons during the Cold War. Among the old-school hard-core marxists he was required reading, and as they wound up in academia during the early 1960s... well. Here we are.
After all, Lenin is the originator of the concept and term "politically correct" in all its horrorschau.
the kids... One day I said to my step-daughter, I'm really afraid what it might be like for your nieces and nephews as they grow-up. Oh, she says, me too! Western individualism vs. Eastern framing---community is more important than the self.
While it seems so obvious, I see true believers everywhere. The lengths to which they must suspend reason, logic, and fact and reality to stay true believers is both impressive and frightening. We've had hypocrites for decades, if not forever, and this Zerlina Maxwell isn't even original. We've heard it all before.
But in 2022 you've got people who are right smack in the middle of struggling to keep up with doubling of food prices and transportation costs over the last year, defending the deniers. All over social media, the local watering hole, and in coffee shops everywhere the narrative has shifted from "it is Trump's fault" to the "the economy is BOOMING" holding up last weeks jobs numbers - showing stead growth by zooming in on the last year carefully excluding the huge dive in 2020 when state governors, following the orders from The Party, forced businesses to shut down, killing many more millions of jobs than have been created by the economic brilliance of the Biden administration. "See, jobs are up, it's all good!" is this weeks hope to cover reality.
My real fear is that it seems to be working. Between the hysteria over Roe, carefully cultivated jobs numbers, maybe a few more tragic deaths that can be blamed on republicans, The Party is on a roll towards holding on in November. Couple that with the real questions about election integrity in a growing number of states, and reality begs the question is it too late to reverse this via the ballot box?
But I am not asking that question, kids. Nope, not me. I don't want to hear the answer.
I so hope our feline friend is correct. But, I see it as you do. Continually astonished at the number of folks buying the whole sh.. shebang from Biden and Co. The view from my cheap seat is that many folks are quite comfortable, don’t see that comfort ending, and don’t give a rat’s ass about those who are not. Babbling about privilege and other nonsense “issues” is just another way of showing you are a member of the right clubs.
None of the Dems I know will vote for anyone other than a Dem. They are still angry about "Trump" and "Russia." I do know a few middle ground type people that will probably not vote though.
Mm, maybe if they're talking directly to you; they might be a little more circumspect now. But amongst themselves, maybe they still hold with the old crazy narrative. I don't know, and frankly, I'm sorry but I find myself caring less and less about them. Maybe I'm really just hardening myself so I can bear to watch the big die-off. But they have had so many months of this, with so much truth coming out. "There is none so blind as [they] who will not see."
Yeah, go look at the fawning, clueless comments in support of Jen Rubin's Tweet last night about how productive and effective Resident Biden has been in just 18 months. JRubinBlogger is her handle.
It is scary or astonishing or troubling or our death knell, that so many Americans are as stupid as Rubin's followers are, or are as dishonest as Rubin herself is.
It is a special kind of stupid, though. These are people who are educated, and in other contexts capable of using their grey matter, apply logic, and even spot inconsistencies and contradictions. The deep loyalty to a political party - not even an ideology - which suppresses the capabilities they otherwise suppress - that's what scares me.
Yeah, I've said for a while that big-L Liberalism/Leftism is a mental disorder if not an outright mental illness. And I say that seriously, not hyperbolic.
I know smart, highly-educated, fully-functioning people (we all do) who are so friggin' clueless and so unable to detect bullshit from the alphabet legacy media that it seemingly can ONLY be a mental problem at work.
Andrew, I'm surrounded by them. I've got a dent in my head from banging it against the wall. They are frightening, toxic beings. If I don't get out of California soon I'll start day drinking.
Just do it man. You won't regret it. I pulled the trigger 4 years ago and got out of the toxic SF Bay area. Texas is a great place to raise kids. Property taxes are a little high, but no state income tax is great. I actually see where the money goes, right back into the schools which are excellent, brand new facilities.
Where in Texas are you? We looked for a long time at the Alpine/Big Bend/Fort Davis area. Now we're seriously focused on the Pacific coast of Baja, somewhere between Ensenada and Todos Santos. If anyone out there knows anything about the San Quintin area, please give me a shout. I have a hundred questions. We'll do a recon this winter. I could happily swim, fish, snorkel, sail and walk the beach and eat seafood, avos and fruit every day, living like kings on less than $2k per month. And did I mention whales? There's whales.
I started a little weed here and there throughout my day and it takes the edge off and makes me productive. It’s not for everyone. I’m so sorry you are in CA. I’m in NY, so I feel your pain
Good on you, Jane! I am a retired outlaw; I grew the Devil's lettuce for over 20 years. I am still completely surrounded by it, though the industry here has collapsed and it's hard freakin' times. Thank God I got out before legalization, I know my history and saw the writing on the wall. Oddly enough, I've never been much of a stoner. I probably ought to do more, helps the ol' brain settle down, to say nothing of the arthritis. Cheers!
I worked on a female team with Toronto's elites/lawyers/generational wealth beneficiaries - you know, the ones with kids in private schools and who have the dough for complicated tax strategies, offshore properties and don't have mortgages but a nice home in a large urban centre. They participate in 'one-up' virtue signalling and group think, all very positive, all very leftist. Fukkin weird, as you say a mental disorder. And yes, devoid of an ability to detect bullshit ideology. or they struggle to validate it.
Nassim Taleb refers to these people as “Intellectual Yet Idiots”. Basically for the intellectual class who are not in touch with reality or have “no skin in the game”.
That's another category IMO. I know lots of "intellectuals", some even with much education, who are idiots. Mistaking an ability to navigate and endure the rituals of academic institutions for intelligence. True idiots. I also know some "intellectuals" who know well that what they are lying, but because their arrogance makes them believe "it's for their own good the sorry lot". Not idiots so much as arrogant bastids. Then there are those who who know full well what they are doing is wrong, and do it anyway for profit and power. Not idiots, but sociopaths.
The folks I was talking about are different. Take them out of a political context, and they are capable, rational, and reasonable. They can see the obvious, make connections, spot inconsistencies and even admit when they're mistaken. Good folks you'd like to hang out with, work with, and enjoy having around. Yet inexplicably all that capability is suspended to follow The Party doctrine. No matter how absurd, no matter how extreme and irrational.
I believe that conformity and adherence to the party line is possibly a quality people are learning in school — we need to spend more time teaching critical thinking skills ala Peter Bogosian (sp).
I think you hit it. It has always been challenging for the non-conforming, but intolerance has hit new heights. Especially when wrapped in false labels like 'inclusiveness' and 'liberal' it seems the persecution of non-conforming continues to escalate.
You can teach your kids to think. You have to teach them to question authority. As pointed out to me by a good friend, a few years ahead in the child rearing, the problem for us is that the first authority in our kids' lives are their parents. Another example of when doing the right thing may not be fun or easy, but it is the right thing. And it works - and raising a kid to be a good thinker, hard working productive person with a full life and shot at happiness is one heck of a reward.
It has been an interesting decade or two, for sure. A lot of "never befores" for me. With absurdity that isn't new but keeps reaching ever escalating extremes. The level of delusion required to maintain loyalty to The Party puts this kindof of WTF absurdity just about normal.
I have not heard the economy is booming from my Dem friends.
Instead, they just shrug and accept it as something that is external to the regime. What can Joe do? Nothing. Joe can't do anything, it's not his fault or the Democrats fault.
They will support Joe and the Dems, even while they're loaded onto trains to go the the FEMA camps for their "showers."
Two weeks ago the narrative was it was all Trump's fault. The dept of labor put out a jobs report that showed steady growth since July of last year. The number of jobs in July 2021 reflected all the 2020 shutdown damage PLUS the layoffs in the energy industry as a result of the administration caps on production and exports, as well as the exodus of truck drivers and other transportation workers. Compared to Jan 2020 it's dismal, but comparted to July 2021 and ignoring the reality it is being hyped wide and far as good news. I'm seeing many glom onto this so as to justify their loyalty. It supports the general denial. I expect we'll see a string of such fraudulently constructed "news" to support "see it is working" narrative to further support the denial. We do not have an inflation problem, we have a strong economy blah
where do i get one of those t shirts to vote for the feline party?
Need.that.shirt. My first question. Can you maybe sell these to us and donate a percentage to Nuzzles? It's okay if you jack up the price. A cat would do that, and the other cats would understand. Just a suggestion. P.S. Today, August 8, is International Cat Day!
Came here to ask this. I'll need multiples.
Seriously!! I just came here to post that. Need that shirt, like, real bad.
I too, need a shirt like that. :)
Agree, except I think the cat is facing the wrong way! :P
maybe the cat should be sitting above the other two, as that would be the natural order of things.
How about kuat the kitty face look right at you!
Found it:
https://pixels.com/featured/animals-my-vote-cat-funny-political-jacob-zelazny.html?product=adult-tshirt
Also on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/voting-shirt-person-political-t-shirt/dp/B07MJWHQH4
Another non-Amazon:
https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/I-Vote-For-Cats-by-LemonRindDesign/29732932.NL9AC
thanks! i'm going to wait a little before ordering one, in case gato comes up with a variation to sell here. i like keahi's idea of a percentage going to nuzzles. if that idea doesn't go through i'll order one from pixels.
What about simply instead of "cast your vote" it should really "Cat your vote?"
It looks like the one from Redbubble is the one shown here.
And here's a vote dog tee, for dissidents:
https://printerval.com/politipets-vote-dog-t-shirt-p9135748
Yes, I have to admit, I'm a dog person! Sorry!
No need to apologize. Me too! I love kitties too, but my senior dog is a hard no on felines.
Meow too!
I want one too - add my name.
The shirt is available here https://pixels.com/featured/animals-my-vote-cat-funny-political-jacob-zelazny.html?product=adult-tshirt
Thanks so much, kerked. But I would still love for el gato malo to make these available, maybe with badcatitude on there somewhere, if permission can be granted. To help Spread the Word. I think we're ready for merch. And I'd be thrilled to help Nuzzles, I'm a sucker for animal rescue groups, got my local group in my will.
In women's cut please
shirts!!! i want shirts!!!!
Your call to action at the end ... “We need a better way.” While true, we should not forget that our origin story as a country is rooted in a better way. We did not start in this post modern name-calling dystopia in which truth is a thing to be hated and feared. We need to return to some first principles: intrinsic value of the individual person (broad definition applies), truth matters (in the objective sense), and we are ruled by law, not by people.
This X 1000
A republic, madame, if you can keep it. Or something like that.
Everytime I hear someone talk about "our democracy", I know they are absolutely ignorant of the foundation of how America was truly formed.
Bobby Graves does a great job explaining our history. Search it on YouTube, type: "Bobby Graves Part 1" ...and watch all three parts. It's mind-blowing, informative, and once one gets it, we actually do have a path towards fixing our country... Peacefully if possible.
If not for this way, I do not see any other method for saving America short of some sort of violence, and this none of us truly desires.
And though I am more of a dog guy, felines and canines must unite. It's gotta rain cats and dogs on this society until we fix it.
😺+🐶=💥
Meow isn't this a doggone good idea!
Ah, cats. They can never understand the joy of actually being paid real money to live your best mean girl life.
That's it.
A decade ago, educated middle-class black women did what everone else, ever, in a job, with colleagues and bosses and subordinates, had to do: you keep your individual hatreds tamped down until you got home and could safely bitch about them, and then you went back to work the next morning and did the same.
That was called life. You like some, you hate some, you feel a bit of disdain for some, you feel a lot of envy for some--but it's all in the normal scheme of things.
And then Trump came and everyone had permission to take all those socially-imposed curbs off and could hate right out loud and it was glorious.
The true opioid crisis of our times. They can't stop. It feels too good. Best rush ever. 'm amazed they don't have transcendental orgasms right through the screen.
That's all it is. Being your best 14-yr. old self on live TV.
(edited for typo)
I think it pre-dates Trump. I'd tie it to the advent of social media, and the way that tech and those platforms make it seem easier to unload on someone who isn't actually there in real time--kinda like we say all kinds of things, protected, in the car, unheard by the other, to the other, that we would never say to someone's face, or at the very least, in a manner we would never use to their face. Like, I just don't curse at slow walkers the way I do at slow drivers.
Zerlina seems like she's in a bubble, doesn't get out much, and so is just talking for soundbytes she knows will outrage screen world. There's no IRL accountability for her.
I used to watch MSNBC until it became unbearable, and the media careers of Zerlina et al depended entirely on Trump outrage. They have absolutely nothing else to bring to the conversation.
Is the IRS move just thinly veiled effort to create another policing force? The new hires could be screened by ideology and used to persecute the opposition. Think of all the auditing unleashed on Trump and how much worse it would be for the middle class who could hardly finance the battle. Gadsen flag on your house… ‘ooh, looks like we need to audit you’. Show up to a BoE meeting upset that the kindergarten teacher is showing your child how to masturbate.. audit. (You wouldn’t even have to break a law for punishment, providing an easy circumvent.
That is exactly what I believe, but I don't think there's anything veiled about it. They want us to know that they can and will unleash the bureaucratic pit bulls on us at any moment if we show signs of misbehaving. The new and improved Stasi.
my guess is that this kind of politically selected enforcement will simply drive the political movement underground. people won't disagree with "the party." instead they'll pay it lip service and ignore its dictates wherever they can. and since law enforcement is expensive, people will get away with ignoring most laws. home schooling, even if outlawed, will continue to grow. we'll have a system with two faces: official policy and actual reality on the ground.
big cities already provide examples of this. e.g. look at official gun possession laws in Chicago. then look at actual gun involved homicide in Chicago. or, look at California mandatory car insurance regulations. then look at the proportion of uninsured drivers in Los Angeles county.
as a nation, as an economy, we're already driving down that road. all we're doing now is pressing harder on the gas pedal.
Makes sense. Have to say that some of the writers from communist countries, and therefore know how this works, have been seeing things coming months and years before others.
Oh yeah, if we think the B.Hussein/Lois Lerner attacks were bad before then we ain't seen nuthin' yet. These extra agents will also be unleashed on all the low income, under the radar people who work in cash, your yard man, barber, maid, handyman, whatever. In those cases they can send them a scary letter saying that the taxpayer had screwed up somehow as in "our records show that your real income was higher than what you reported. Send us $400-500-600 and you will be good to go. That would be enough to frighten a lot of people to just pay up and avoid the hassle (and cost) of trying to fight it.
I have a hard time believing that the people of color in these jobs will be targets. Seems to me the targets are more likely political and annoying (cost of tax atty etc.).
'Could be...used to persecute the opposition'?...didn't they already weaponize the IRS years ago? Though I guess maybe they put it on paxlovid for a few years and now this is the rebound aka 'build back better' IRS. :P
I want to know if they really have guns and ammo. And if so, srsly, why.
Buy your @mmo locally and pay... CASH.
In fact, pay CASH at every opportunity to stop the CBDC plan.
For the same reason they're trying to take away ours.
Perhaps they'll recruit the new hires from the 47% of Americans who pay no federal taxes? As it is, those of us who do pay taxes are subject to years of ongoing "analysis and suggestions" often for multiple tax years. I have an ongoing case for tax year 2018...for which I have been awaiting documentation for 28 months. And I'm just a normal person.
Caring about the economy is privilege/racist but wanting reparations for ancestors transgressions is perfectly logical. 🤡
hahaha. so true
This is magnificent
“white privilege” is not a magic spell that crushes all dissent anymore. it just makes you look stupid and out of touch. it’s a shibboleth for “i have no real argument.” this whole group has drowned in garrulous glossolalia. they are some sort of neo-vegan organism that eats and excretes only word salad
And I vow to name my firstborn Garrulous Glossolalia
"these are wild, inaccurate, dishonest claims. and yet he seems to expect to be believed."
But he made the claims on MSNBC, and it seems like a given that anyone who watches MSNBC anymore is the kind of skull full of mush who *would* believe what he said, and who does believe the nonstop crap that MSNBC is known for.
That I think gets to the root of the problem: too many stupid, lazy, or ignorant Americans who STILL think they're getting "news" from the alphabet legacy media. That number must be in the tens of millions, because something like 30% of Americans will vote Democrat in November no matter what.
Ignorant is one thing; it can be remedied with persuasive information. But stupid is forever, and people who watch MSNBC for its "news" are stupid, and stupid enough to believe the crap. I mean, how many people STILL believe the Trump/Russia collusion hoax, how many people STILL believe that masks work, that the clot shots work, that CDC/NIH/FDA et al are honest and trustworthy?
Millions. It's an epidemic of stupidity, and that's an unflattenable curve.
They _watch_ and rarely _read_ is a big part of the problem. Not sure which is worse ... the CNN/MSNBC/NPR/NYT crowd, or the up-and-coming generation who gets their news from ... TikTok. Once again, I wish I was joking.
Honestly, and I’m not joking- I think the TikTok ers are in the better position. At least they are not under the impression that they are “educated”.
Are we sure of how many people will vote Democrat come November? Yes, there are polls that say so, but polls can be wrong, biased, flawed.
I don't think people who watch the regular news are stupid. I think they have been conditioned and manipulated, and lazy, but not necessarily stupid. Now this isn't to say there are stupid people who watch and believe the news because they don't know any better and never will, but for the most part, it is hard for people to believe that so many different news outlets would lie to them in tandem.
The truth is, we just don't know how many people believe these things. We think it could be millions, but how do you define belief?
If you define belief by participating in some of these things, then does that not also apply to those of us who do not believe it?
Concerning the Trump Collusion Hoax, how many of us just never spoke up about it. In so doing, did that get interpreted as belief?
On masks, how many of us have worn masks? I have sadly worn them in the last year more than the last two before it combined. I wore masks on Ubers and in doctor's offices. But I completely disagree that they work. I know it's all theater. The dangerous thing I have participated in is contributing to the idea that the virus is so serious as to wearing a mask.
The vaccine is a little tougher, as how many believe vs. how many just didn't want to lose their job? I certainly am not in favor of losing a job, but I am in the process of finding a job, and thus I can speak my mind, and reject any employer that would mandate the Covid vaccine for any reason, and I have done so. Who knows how detrimental this makes my chance of finding a job. All I know is the facts, and logic perhaps will lead them to the realization that mandating vaccines is absurd.
Well.... regarding November, if the mules, Dominion and the MSM work as planned. there will be a Dem sweep. And people will rationalize it because they are lazy and don't want to do anything about it.
Plus... if you protest this regime, you are a political prisoner, no lawyer will touch you and your will die in prison.
I agree with you that it is dubious that Biden won the previous election. I find it very hard to believe that Biden would surpass Obama's popularity, even keeping in mind that much of the vote for Biden may not have arisen out of a love of Biden, but rather hatred of Trump.
I also find it ironic that a group so against Trump learned to adopt his strategies of branding people and concepts he disagreed with. "The Big Lie" is one of those. You are seen as foolish and stupid if you believe that anything but a "fair and secure" election occurred in November of 2020. So wait...most other countries outlawed mail-in ballots, but somehow this seemed like a good idea in the states because, you know. Covid kills .14% of the population.
The thing is, the fix was in. And since there was collusion between the MSM and the body politic, they could keep things open, and just pretend that the election was on the up and up, because you know, they said so.
So many people who we might think get their news from MSM don't even do that. They get their "news" from Rachel Madcow, the HuffPost, The View, NPR talk shows and Late Night Comedy Central. And a huge percentage of people do not follow any news at all. They pick stuff up on FB, Twitter and TikTok.
I get that many people took the jabs out of necessity. I don't consider them "stupid" for doing so. I'm talking much more about anyone TODAY who still thinks the jabs work, who still say that the jabs are to prevent worse illness or hospitalization, who still think we were NEVER told that the jabs are dead-ends for the virus, who still think we were never told that you can't catch or spread the virus if you'd just get jabbed. Those people are the stupidasses among us, IMO.
I used "30%" as a guesstimate as to how many people will vote Democrat no matter what, no matter how expensive gas has become because of Resident Biden, no matter how much purchasing power Biden has cost them, no matter how corrupt and dishonest the federal government and its agencies have been proved to be about the Chinese virus, no matter how effed up the supply chain has become, no matter how badly domestic air travel is performing, ad nauseam.
There are millions of Americans who will still vote Democrat in November. I'm guessing 30% is the Democrat Party's floor.
I think at this point anyone who watches MSBNC for news IS stupid. I would probably add CNN to that equation. Those two networks have so thoroughly beclowned themselves that you'd have to be stupid to believe anything they say.
Those who watch or read the other alphabet legacy media would fit my description of "stupid, lazy, or ignorant". Maybe they're more lazy and less stupid, and thus more ignorant than stupid.
But they're still an existential threat, IMO, to the survival of the republic.
I know a bunch of Democrats aged 50+ who totally believe CNN and MSNBC. It does not even occur to them that their favorite news shows would lie.
However... Fox? That's fake news. Also... when in doubt, ask google. They're totally trustworthy as well.
It's maddening, especially regarding the CV19 injection. I want them to look at the information and realize that they could be harming themselves. If CNN doesn't endorse the information, it's not real. By the time CNN reports it, well, it might be too late for many of them.
I have people close to me, both conservative and democrat, who still are living under the auspices that the vaccine is safe and effective. But if you walk them through it, they can't argue much against the points made such as questioning why something is mandated that only may help the person receiving the vaccine.
I think the existential threat to the survival of the republic are not people who believe all this, but rather the mechanisms of propaganda that perpetuate it. And from the people that I know personally, a lot of these beliefs are held by both conservatives and democrats. So while it may be political it is less partisan than we might think, but rather based on those, either left or right, who still have some faith in the integrity of the state.
There is no integrity of the state.
How many conservatives stood up from the beginning and spoke against Covid? How many speak out against it now? Aside from a few notable exceptions most are silent in regards to this issue.
Here is what I know, the purpose to which representatives are voted into a position is to uphold the precepts, values, and principles as stated in the Constitution of the United States. That means that you...represent the people, but more importantly what is best for people which is the ability as much as they are able to, make decisions about what it is they wish to do with their lives. First and foremost is that there has to be a very good reason to enact any law, provision, or restriction on liberty.
"I think the existential threat to the survival of the republic are not people who believe all this, but rather the mechanisms of propaganda that perpetuate it."
Yup. I have said for years that the alphabet legacy media are the real cancer among us, that if the media were just honest and straightforward, with integrity, the Democrat Party would be at most a fringe element in American politics. Without the near-complete support of the "mechanisms of propaganda", the Dem Party would be nothing.
Wanna fix America? First, burn down the alphabet legacy media and salt the earth where they stood.
And as we've seen over the past 24 hours, yeah, "there is no integrity of the State".
What's happened in the last 24 hours specifically that highlights this?
Another battle line drawn. Either people are indifferent, or think it was "justified" (which to my mind means, they're pleased) or they are openly thrilled about it (half my family, I'm sorry to say, don't know for sure as we don't talk). Those folks. Then there's the rest of us, who are sickened, appalled, enraged and very, very worried. For God's sake, this November, even if you think the GOP are mostly all feckless cowards and losers, please just hold your nose and vote for them. We have to do what we can to stop these people. If they pull off another cheat and then do it again in 2024, we will be utterly lost.
How about, the survival of life on earth. Which, of course, they claim conservatives will end.
I’ve canceled 3 doc appointments this year bc of mask requirements & told them why.
When I found out I didn't need a referral for some of the medical services I needed, I also asked myself why I was going through the process of masking for each visit.
One of the best comments on here, @AndrewTheGreat, and damn, there are a LOT of great comments!
You're too kind, Judy (and Ryan, below)...but I'll take it!
I know of several people who DO still watch MSNBC etc., and can testify that they all have brains full of mush. No activity going on in there.
*It's an epidemic of stupidity, and that's an unflattenable curve.*
LOL. Outstanding!
I do take a little pride in that one!
Sounds like narcissistic, professional victimhood. They are quite an industry and needs a tax audit.
Those audits are coming for the middle class and small/medium biz owners. Have no doubt.
Lol!
Roe v. Wade zealots fervently attacking any man or institution who dared to voice a contrary opinion, while unironically defending a trans woman’s (man’s) right to participate in the debate, was where the Emperor was truly revealed as having no clothes for many. The not-recession-recession blather is just adding to the farce.
"Fight inflation with even MORE inflation!"
If you haven't drawn down your accounts to the minimum and converted your dying fiat into other assets, you better do it before the normies catch on.
maybe you've spotted a general pattern
fight vaccination failure by vaccinating even more
fight child sex trafficking by sexualizing even more children in drag shows and public schools
fight an uncontrolled flow of migrants by adding even more migrants
fight the lost cause in Ukraine with yet another lost cause in Taiwan
fight the rising cost of energy by fighting domestic energy producers
fight the destruction of US manufacturing by removing tariffs on imports from China
fight homelessness by making it more expensive and time consuming to build homes
Pure "newspeak" and "doublethink" right out of 1984. LOL
fight food shortages by capping fertilizer amounts for farmers to create more food shortages
so true! it's like the government is attacking the farmers.
guns ammo and canned goods
refer to Ira in 1919 ire land
I’m so sick of this victim mentality 🥴
So you don't even have to be white anymore to benefit from "white privilege"? Who knew privilege could be so egalitarian!
I'm forecasting a massive run on cake. After all, it's the only thing they expect everyone to eat.
Would that be the delicious, new cricket flour and meal worm cake? Or the Soylent Green style?
Hah, I wish! Cricket flour is astronomically expensive, even at Costco. I'm going with dirt.
It’s a vaccine cake. It’s free for all!
As always, so eloquently written.
My translation: 1. They hate you. 2. Screw them. 3. If you get a chance, screw them again.
Since money is what they want, their lifeblood, how 'bout everyone in the country who's sick of this shit just stop paying taxes? Like, millions of us? Can they get all of us?
Mmm. Bet most people aren't up to finding that out.
unreported income. people will switch more of their transactions to the cash economy.
“Lenin developed a special way of writing that made it possible to establish the ‘formula-slogan’ in the mind of the reader or listener . . . Then, as the most important compositional element, there is the use of repetition, by means of which a rectangle is formed which concentrates the attention, narrows the field of possibilities, and squeezes thought into a tight ring from which there is only one exit . . .
Total power over the Word gives the Master of the Word a magical power over all communications. Soviet speech is always a monologue because there is no other party to talk to. On the other side is the enemy. In the Soviet language there are no neutral words – every word carries an ideological burden . . . That is why in Soviet language the same words are repeated over and over again, until they become a signal that acts without any effort of thought. The effect of set phrases and slogans is also assured by their always being repeated in absolutely the same form . . .
The Soviet language became the most important means of preventing people from acquiring more knowledge than the state wished . . . Soviet speech lost its freedom. The language was put together out of slogans and quotations from the Leader [Stalin] . . . The crushing, unquestioned authority of the Leader’s word is the result to a large extent of his right and power to name the Enemy . . . The word that signifies the enemy must be striking, easy to remember, implying condemnation by its very sound, and always imprecise, so that everyone who at a given moment does not please the Leader can be included under it rubric . . ."
- Mikhail Heller (Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man)
This is where we're heading if we do not speak up!
yes this!
also, i was a Lit major in the 80s and I remember wondering why so many of the trendy theories that infected the academy then (like "All books are political" or lots of jargon adding up to: "the goal of all books and all art should be Leftist social engineering") sounded suspiciously like Leninism and Maoism....
Now I realize that this style of thought was migrating from Marxism to American academia (smuggled in through the humanities) where after a few decades it escaped the lab and now infects the entire culture.
It is, or was at least, called "The Long March through the Institutions" and was a consciously and purposefully developed concept.
It developed during the early 1950s in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, when marxist intellectuals realised the working class wanted nothing to do with communism, neither theortical or in practice (hardly surprising). The workers wanted fair pay, the weekends off, enough for a pension, and when they didn't work they wanted to be left alone - not Hectored on the class struggle or stuff like that.
So the plan became, roughly, to further the careers of generally like-minded academics, with an eye to teachers and budding politicians and union members especially, so as to slowly - generationally - move the "Normal" more and more to the left. This included european academics in the humanities moving to the US and making contact with US radicals in the Civil Rights-movements and media/entertaintment industry.
While that may cause despair initially, consider this, seeing as you are a Lit major: a story isn't over until the telling stops, and all the tools of the academic left are just that - tools. Anyone can learn to use them.
Tools of course also depend upon the needs and volition of the user, ie the knife i use to carve up my lunch could be used in a much more sinister fashion by someone more homicidally inclined.
I dont know if this makes me smart or stupid, but i studied Lit and read Lit because...I love Lit. My point being my interests are and were storytelling, esthetics, the beauty of a well-turned phrase, the individual talent and skill of authors etc...but other people for whatever reasons (personal social career etc) looked at these same works and felt the need to utilize them for political sloganeering and ideological campaigning (expressing their devotion to the religion known as Leftism)...
My feeling has always been: if you want to be a politician or a social worker etc, great go ahead, but pls let art and artists maintain their own independence and integrity.
Naive, I know!
Yet that naivety is what lets you keep the two apart. I choose to read it not as childish in the sense of inexperienced, but innocent - the optimism a child can have because it has not yet been taught "That's not possible".
In me, that optimism turned to berserker rage at a young age, and it simmers eternally, occasionally bursting forth no matter what I do. Which is why I always keep a pile of timbers and spare axehandles. Literally.
I think when it comes to words, many who opt for being in the spotlight of politics use words on instinct, rather than with innate skill and passion: witness Obama with and without prompter/script, and compare him to Reagan or Clinton. It's embarassing. Reagan I have no doubt you could have woke up 0230 and told him "Mr President we need you to speak to the nation in five minutes, Castro is invading Florida" and he'd have jumped to it.
The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master.
"The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master."
EMBRACE THE TAO!
always good advice ;)
Aha, is that kind of stuff in the Tao Te Ching? Asian religions and belief systems never held much fascination for me, excepting the mythological side, I'm afraid. Not my cup of tea if you pardon the lame attempt at a joke.
Well, it's past bedtime where I am (2300) so I have to sign off. Time to sleep, perhcance to dream, as some poet said.
You're the best Rikard!
Thank you! I work with what I'm given, if you see what I mean.
Going to go out and hunt for cloudberies today, it's the last week of summer after all.
Exactly. You a Lit major...no way!
LOLOLOL
im going to happily take this as a quality insult ;)
im sorry i forgot what we were doing, am i supposed to be insulting u?
sorry im just awake in LA and is already 90 out!
Hey you had mentioned several months ago that you had experience dealing with hurricanes in your past...;]
Wanted to get your thought process on evacuation. We're down near Sarasota. Forecasting shows a direct hit. Who knows though?
Anyway it's our first serious one.
Funny I'm asking this cuz I always chuckle at folks who get alarmed by earthquakes and tornadoes. But, I have lived in those areas for many years.
it's amazing how the quality of the commentary picks up when the author judiciously interacts...from top to bottom.
Big credit to you for bringin up Lenin. He has a well-deserved reputation for lots of atrocities and horrid stuff, but the man was no idiot - he was in fact brilliant, and had a very incisive intellect, rather effortlessly disecting whatever topic he touched upon.
And it doesn't do anyone any favours that that aspect has been so downplayed for propaganda-reasons during the Cold War. Among the old-school hard-core marxists he was required reading, and as they wound up in academia during the early 1960s... well. Here we are.
After all, Lenin is the originator of the concept and term "politically correct" in all its horrorschau.
Obama was the first master, in our time, of the “formula-slogan”.
Sounds like a must-read. Thank you, Ryan!
It should be. And maybe some of the kids will wake up.
the kids... One day I said to my step-daughter, I'm really afraid what it might be like for your nieces and nephews as they grow-up. Oh, she says, me too! Western individualism vs. Eastern framing---community is more important than the self.
Agree. And me too
It is certainly time for a better way.
While it seems so obvious, I see true believers everywhere. The lengths to which they must suspend reason, logic, and fact and reality to stay true believers is both impressive and frightening. We've had hypocrites for decades, if not forever, and this Zerlina Maxwell isn't even original. We've heard it all before.
But in 2022 you've got people who are right smack in the middle of struggling to keep up with doubling of food prices and transportation costs over the last year, defending the deniers. All over social media, the local watering hole, and in coffee shops everywhere the narrative has shifted from "it is Trump's fault" to the "the economy is BOOMING" holding up last weeks jobs numbers - showing stead growth by zooming in on the last year carefully excluding the huge dive in 2020 when state governors, following the orders from The Party, forced businesses to shut down, killing many more millions of jobs than have been created by the economic brilliance of the Biden administration. "See, jobs are up, it's all good!" is this weeks hope to cover reality.
My real fear is that it seems to be working. Between the hysteria over Roe, carefully cultivated jobs numbers, maybe a few more tragic deaths that can be blamed on republicans, The Party is on a roll towards holding on in November. Couple that with the real questions about election integrity in a growing number of states, and reality begs the question is it too late to reverse this via the ballot box?
But I am not asking that question, kids. Nope, not me. I don't want to hear the answer.
I so hope our feline friend is correct. But, I see it as you do. Continually astonished at the number of folks buying the whole sh.. shebang from Biden and Co. The view from my cheap seat is that many folks are quite comfortable, don’t see that comfort ending, and don’t give a rat’s ass about those who are not. Babbling about privilege and other nonsense “issues” is just another way of showing you are a member of the right clubs.
I think hardship is showing up at enough front doors that people are starting to see through the BS.
At least I've noticed that with people I know. They'd never admit it, but I can tell by the way the don't defend any of this nonsense anymore.
I see it in the way people around me cannot afford to spend $10 on lunch anymore. People vote their wallets - and their stomachs.
I hope they vote according to what you think they see. If they aren’t admitting it , though….?
None of the Dems I know will vote for anyone other than a Dem. They are still angry about "Trump" and "Russia." I do know a few middle ground type people that will probably not vote though.
Yeah. I wonder too. My gut is that they see it and their silence is tacit admission that they made a mistake. But that's just a guess.
Mm, maybe if they're talking directly to you; they might be a little more circumspect now. But amongst themselves, maybe they still hold with the old crazy narrative. I don't know, and frankly, I'm sorry but I find myself caring less and less about them. Maybe I'm really just hardening myself so I can bear to watch the big die-off. But they have had so many months of this, with so much truth coming out. "There is none so blind as [they] who will not see."
Don't get me down before bedtime Keahi!...;]
Hope you’re right.
Yeah, go look at the fawning, clueless comments in support of Jen Rubin's Tweet last night about how productive and effective Resident Biden has been in just 18 months. JRubinBlogger is her handle.
It is scary or astonishing or troubling or our death knell, that so many Americans are as stupid as Rubin's followers are, or are as dishonest as Rubin herself is.
It's a class war. And we need to lean into it. Period.
It is a special kind of stupid, though. These are people who are educated, and in other contexts capable of using their grey matter, apply logic, and even spot inconsistencies and contradictions. The deep loyalty to a political party - not even an ideology - which suppresses the capabilities they otherwise suppress - that's what scares me.
Yeah, I've said for a while that big-L Liberalism/Leftism is a mental disorder if not an outright mental illness. And I say that seriously, not hyperbolic.
I know smart, highly-educated, fully-functioning people (we all do) who are so friggin' clueless and so unable to detect bullshit from the alphabet legacy media that it seemingly can ONLY be a mental problem at work.
Andrew, I'm surrounded by them. I've got a dent in my head from banging it against the wall. They are frightening, toxic beings. If I don't get out of California soon I'll start day drinking.
Just do it man. You won't regret it. I pulled the trigger 4 years ago and got out of the toxic SF Bay area. Texas is a great place to raise kids. Property taxes are a little high, but no state income tax is great. I actually see where the money goes, right back into the schools which are excellent, brand new facilities.
Where in Texas are you? We looked for a long time at the Alpine/Big Bend/Fort Davis area. Now we're seriously focused on the Pacific coast of Baja, somewhere between Ensenada and Todos Santos. If anyone out there knows anything about the San Quintin area, please give me a shout. I have a hundred questions. We'll do a recon this winter. I could happily swim, fish, snorkel, sail and walk the beach and eat seafood, avos and fruit every day, living like kings on less than $2k per month. And did I mention whales? There's whales.
I started a little weed here and there throughout my day and it takes the edge off and makes me productive. It’s not for everyone. I’m so sorry you are in CA. I’m in NY, so I feel your pain
Good on you, Jane! I am a retired outlaw; I grew the Devil's lettuce for over 20 years. I am still completely surrounded by it, though the industry here has collapsed and it's hard freakin' times. Thank God I got out before legalization, I know my history and saw the writing on the wall. Oddly enough, I've never been much of a stoner. I probably ought to do more, helps the ol' brain settle down, to say nothing of the arthritis. Cheers!
lmao
I worked on a female team with Toronto's elites/lawyers/generational wealth beneficiaries - you know, the ones with kids in private schools and who have the dough for complicated tax strategies, offshore properties and don't have mortgages but a nice home in a large urban centre. They participate in 'one-up' virtue signalling and group think, all very positive, all very leftist. Fukkin weird, as you say a mental disorder. And yes, devoid of an ability to detect bullshit ideology. or they struggle to validate it.
On reflection, the mature version of the same social contagion that feeds girls into the trans sausage maker.
Identical to NorCal - places like SF, Berkeley and Marin County. It's all about their image.
Nassim Taleb refers to these people as “Intellectual Yet Idiots”. Basically for the intellectual class who are not in touch with reality or have “no skin in the game”.
That's another category IMO. I know lots of "intellectuals", some even with much education, who are idiots. Mistaking an ability to navigate and endure the rituals of academic institutions for intelligence. True idiots. I also know some "intellectuals" who know well that what they are lying, but because their arrogance makes them believe "it's for their own good the sorry lot". Not idiots so much as arrogant bastids. Then there are those who who know full well what they are doing is wrong, and do it anyway for profit and power. Not idiots, but sociopaths.
The folks I was talking about are different. Take them out of a political context, and they are capable, rational, and reasonable. They can see the obvious, make connections, spot inconsistencies and even admit when they're mistaken. Good folks you'd like to hang out with, work with, and enjoy having around. Yet inexplicably all that capability is suspended to follow The Party doctrine. No matter how absurd, no matter how extreme and irrational.
I believe that conformity and adherence to the party line is possibly a quality people are learning in school — we need to spend more time teaching critical thinking skills ala Peter Bogosian (sp).
I think you hit it. It has always been challenging for the non-conforming, but intolerance has hit new heights. Especially when wrapped in false labels like 'inclusiveness' and 'liberal' it seems the persecution of non-conforming continues to escalate.
You can teach your kids to think. You have to teach them to question authority. As pointed out to me by a good friend, a few years ahead in the child rearing, the problem for us is that the first authority in our kids' lives are their parents. Another example of when doing the right thing may not be fun or easy, but it is the right thing. And it works - and raising a kid to be a good thinker, hard working productive person with a full life and shot at happiness is one heck of a reward.
Yes! Exactly. I worked with these.
She’s either lying, delusional, or blind & dumb.
She should be embarrassed defending this ill stand-in & his administration who’s wrecked this once exceptional nation.
It has been an interesting decade or two, for sure. A lot of "never befores" for me. With absurdity that isn't new but keeps reaching ever escalating extremes. The level of delusion required to maintain loyalty to The Party puts this kindof of WTF absurdity just about normal.
I have not heard the economy is booming from my Dem friends.
Instead, they just shrug and accept it as something that is external to the regime. What can Joe do? Nothing. Joe can't do anything, it's not his fault or the Democrats fault.
They will support Joe and the Dems, even while they're loaded onto trains to go the the FEMA camps for their "showers."
Two weeks ago the narrative was it was all Trump's fault. The dept of labor put out a jobs report that showed steady growth since July of last year. The number of jobs in July 2021 reflected all the 2020 shutdown damage PLUS the layoffs in the energy industry as a result of the administration caps on production and exports, as well as the exodus of truck drivers and other transportation workers. Compared to Jan 2020 it's dismal, but comparted to July 2021 and ignoring the reality it is being hyped wide and far as good news. I'm seeing many glom onto this so as to justify their loyalty. It supports the general denial. I expect we'll see a string of such fraudulently constructed "news" to support "see it is working" narrative to further support the denial. We do not have an inflation problem, we have a strong economy blah
democrat lie often and always run their con