“I don’t know why the Democrats lost. I don’t understand … Prices have come down, the economy is good. I don’t know why they voted against her, against the party.” — William Shatner (Captain Kirk)
I watched MSNBC this morning just to laugh while they gossip incessantly about Trump’s cabinet picks. They reminded me of the middle school super duper clique lunch table. Gossiping and trashing those who just aren”t “good enough” to sit with them. I do believe that’s what that network has become. The middle school lunch table. No value whatsoever. Vapid clowns.
Agreed. Unfortunately, a LOT of people (some of my family included) watch these shows, BELIEVE these people, and when sufficiently riled up, ACT accordingly, usually spitefully.
Perhaps William Shatner should look back at his role in another movie to figure out why we voted against her, against the Democratic party. Judgement at Nuremberg:
The movie tells us how the system itself failed because the people who were entrusted to protect the constitutional rights of Germans failed. Judges, doctors, "experts" who believed they were right, they were "perfect" government above reproach destroyed their nation and committed the worst crimes against humanity the world has ever known. It's cast included: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, along with William Shatner. Bill - Pssst - watch your own old work.
“EXCLUSIVE: PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that in order to "Make America Great Again," it is "vital" to have a "free, fair and open media," telling Fox News Digital that he feels he has "an obligation" to the American people to work with the press, even those who had treated him "badly beyond comprehension.” I guess the adage applies. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
Comcast has put out feelers for selling CNN and other news outlets. They cannot correct their brand. They went too far, and show no signs of changing. It is quite amazing to watch them lie without blinking or blushing, making it up, and "reporting" as if it's real.
When they lose their idiot watchers, Comcast will lose its advertisers and shitcan this obnoxious network. Do not stop with MSDNC, take out NBC TOO, then ABC, then CBS.
No. They will have advertisers that pay less for their diminished and focused demographic: Gimmiedats with TDS and Karens with hemorrhoids. Think Lifetime/Oxygen/Hallmark/et al.
That being said, Women watching Womyn cry will not balance their finances.
11/18/24: Having attempted to read Walter Isaacson's unreadable "Einstein, His Life & Universe" (2007; PULPED), I can only imagine how inarticulate this pretentious boob must be. Kudos to Mr. Kunstler for forcing himself to listen to Isaacson's inane criminal defense alibi.
11/22/24: Glad to hear it. Try Thomas Kunkel's "Genius In Disguise" (1995). Avoid his sequel, decades after academia ruined his joie de vivre, "Man In Profile" (2015).
The jaw boning is beginning to discredit and character assassinate President Trump's choices to fix our federal government. Trillions of dollars are at stake. The key ones are DOD and NIH being brought back on track. The paid mouth pieces can't see beyond their paycheck.
I agree. Mean girls! And Joe is as mean as any of them. He's the one in the middle school girl clique who talks conciliation but never misses a chance to denigrate another.
They’ve known it all along but there never were consequences. They will suffer those consequences now. We should beat them until their moral improves. I’m giddy just thinking about it.
Absolutely - they can only learn by having to deal with the consequences.
There is this absolute nutter in Vegas named Robert Telles, and he was a low-level councilman on a power trip. He became so deranged with power that when a local reporter wrote some (deserved) hit pieces on him, he killed the guy. He actually got arrested and went to prison. He was sloppy with the murder, figuring (as narcissists and psychos do) that he could just talk a judge and jury out of believing he was the murderer (!!!!). That didn't happen, and he's in jail for life.
This is what should happen to every single public "servant" who was in on and pushed the covid and trans agendas, who probably are responsible for more misery than even Robert Telles.
You're not breaking any news, and I didn't vote for Trump, either. I have never voted for him. He absolutely still brags about Operation Warp Speed, which is why I remain skeptical that he will even mete out the appropriate punishments.
I wrote a piece a while back asking if the "swamp" is now too big to ever drain. It probably is, but let's drain as much of it as we can. What the world needs is a Mass Purge of the dunces and sociopaths who have ascended to the top of all the key leadership organizations. A Baby Purge would be better than no purge.
I imagine draining that swamp. But all the swamp creatures need to be contained and dealt with. Before draining the swamp an invisible fence must be built around the swamp to contain the creatures. So when it is drained there will be no escape.
First contain the creatures, then drain the swamp. Then Matt Gaetz can deal with them.
I don't think either party of self-aggrandizing grifters will ever care what they did to us, as long as they made a buck or won office, etc. These are psychopathic people. In fact, they set out to damage others because they hate humanity. The goal is to replace them. In order to do so, we have to start recognizing who is actually a narcissist, a psychopath, etc. and stop worshipping those. Sadly, our society shows no signs of being able to do that.
HG Tudor, (on YouTube), who ought to know, says Trump is a narcisisst too. The whole system is set up by narcisissits to reward narcisissts, and thus attracts them in great numbers. We're fortunate in Trump, as he is the sort whose ego won't allow him to fail. May God protect him, because those people will kill him, if they get the chance.
He might be a narcissist but if so, he's a brilliant one, because he is not killing the host, like most of them do. So perhaps he's more of a showman than a narcissist? It's hard to tell. He has many narcissistic qualities, but he is definitely not murderous like, say, Obama. At least not demonstrably.
H.G. Tudor is to be taken with a grain of salt, always. If Trump is a true narcissist, he's a prosocial one. The very best kind. They serve a useful function.
Re: HG Tudor, Do you really think a narcissist is going to be brutally honest about himself? I was a therapist for many years and made diagnoses of my clients. I don't see how any narcissist can be completely honest about narcissism. I've watched Trump for 45 yrs - was never a narcissist. You might want to watch his body language in this video from 1980, I don't see anything arrogant or narcissistic about him:
On one hand, hanging that painting of a younger version of himself in tennis sweater, in a prominent place is purely narcissistic. On the other hand he is very kind to others. No matter their status. Everyone who knows him likes him including his children! Trump is a bona fide mystery.
One can be a supreme egotist and not be a narcissist, correct? Trump is just very self-confident with a natural sense of majesty. He's basically a king.
Sociopath does not mean violent. There are plenty of peaceful sociopaths. Psychopath means violent, and able to kill people - totally without conscience. Some sociopaths can do that. All psychopaths can.
Walled towns and cities. Every man a soldier. Nobody has anything they can't keep from robbers and gangs. The return of a sane understanding of economics: You didn't build that by yourself. And nobody votes who isn't part of the guard.
“I don’t know why the Democrats lost. I don’t understand …" — William Shatner (Captain Kirk)
"I don't believe you." — Ron Burgundy
William Shatner seems like a nice guy, but I'm sorry, I just cannot comprehend how anyone let alone an allegedly sentient human being like Shatner doesn't understand how the weakest Presidential candidate in American history running the most pathetic campaign since Biden deservedly and decisively lost the election. Not buying it.
For multi-millionaires like Shatner the economy is good because that's all they see in their sphere of influence. They only hobnob with other wealthy people. They hire and pay servants to do their shopping and prepare their meals, clean their homes and maintain their yards while they hop from vacation house to vacation house. It doesn't surprise me at all that Bill Shatner (one of my favorite actors as a child) can't understand Trump's victory. A wealthy person's opinion on the economy is as worthless as sock with holes.
He's not one of them, though. The assholes who were wearing masks during the covid crap while DRIVING ALONE in their cars.
He was too scared to put up a Trump sign. That's how bad it is.
But, their day is coming. Already the petty crime spillover from West Philly is happening. I just hope he'll get out of there before the property prices plummet. Wishful thinking.
And that’s why they want plenty of illegals. Very cheap labor to babysit, clean their toilets and mow the grass on their estates but they’ll sure bitch and moan about capitalists
Well there's the problem right there. ".......seems like a nice guy". HAHAHA . Great depth of thought. In fact, Shatner is an ACTOR. Brain dead Hollywoodian ACTOR. He ACTS for a living!
It's what he DOES.
But how we FEEL about anyone now is supposed to count for something ??
Shatner arrived from Canada, fully indoctrinated in the illusion of wealth via robbing the working poor as Government Mandarins (CBC) bleed you out as they tell you daily, they are there to "help" you.
Contribute nothing, take everything. Shatner's Canadian disease.
I was listening to his album he worked on with Ben Folds and Henry Rollins, "Has Been" ... it came out years ago and I decided to cue it up again while I was out running errands. He touches on subjects like the death of his wife, his relationship with his daughter, and life in general. Good for a few laughs. He was probably more "with it" back when they cut those tracks.
IMHO, the reason half of the Hollywood and celebrity crowd and much of the city culture in the USA support the Dems and the Deep State is because they want that border open. Why? Serfs and drugs to be unobstructed and cheap. The elite have their slaves and drugs, and the government has its revenue from the cartels. Isn’t that a lovely picture of America? I am watching the effect of RFK, Jr., DOGE, on the flow of drugs into the country. Human trafficking will need border closure and control. Will this country be able to control the cartels and their goon squads? That would be a legacy of Trump.
We're into one of Taylor Sheridan's shows, "Lioness". While the premise is pretty ridiculous (gorgeous females in SpecOps who handle business like John Wick) this season is actually touching on real issues, including human trafficking. At least some folks in HollyWeird are trying to bring attention to it.
Tom's not really wrong though, right? Those two are empirical Elites who found populist politics when the time was right. OTOH, the true, lifelong populists of the core crew, who have lived their lives more or less like regular folk, would be people like Gabbard most obviously, then Vance and Kennedy. Billionaire celebrity johnny-come-latelys just represent the natural first, transitional step in reverse engineering or -- depending on one's perspective -- organically navigating a way out of a plutocratic society in which the working class is hopped up on celebrity worship. Once hard times come, the true populists will need to be taking the reigns. Won't be all that long before Maralago starts rubbing the base the wrong way IMO.
How did you get the "new navigation bar at the top of this blog-page" to appear at the top of a post page? I don't see a setting for that - unless its only possible with some themes...
Unfortunately, people do not realize the pain and suffering they will be forced to endure from the years of Dems (uni-party) in charge. This is where were going to live the result of weak men creating hard times. Only good news is that it will lead to hard men who will make good times.
Semantics….and I suggest given the shit that we are in there will be few (in any good) options. Unfortunately, it will be hard men that will have to lead the way out. Thus the saying….Hard times make hard men….hard men make good times…good times make weak men…weak men make hard times….and the beat goes on. Pax
Yes, many can do hard things, but how few can withstand public pressure or the contempt of their own family and friends? Moral courage is the rarest. Many men have physical courage (rescue workers, fire and police), but many of those couldn't stand against another man in physical combat. And of those who could, how many could stand up and give a speech? And of those, taking a radically unpopular stance?
We have a nice local run coffee shop in our 9,000 pop city. Unique and used by me snd our large Hispanic population. Young owners. Now, the stupid city has let Dunkin AND Starbucks in on the main highway through town. I will not be drinking coffee there. Starbucks coffee sucks. Hopefully we locals can keep our local one going. Walmart has prevented any other grocery store from opening so we’re stuck with it. I do use the local nice Mexican supermarket but it’s actually more expensive and lacks things I need. But produce and other products are “cleaner” in ingredients. I hope the Democrat snobs writhe the rest of their lives with their voices a tiny squeak in the background. I was a democrat who learned the truth in 2021.
My local independent coffee shop’s founder at one point experimented to test a theory. He offered a faux Starbucks coffee. He took a mediocre bean and roasted it to death pretty much destroying it. Starbucks buyers who came in did indeed enjoy it! Point proven but he couldn’t bring himself to do it again :-)
Coffee in general tastes like dirt to me though I do enjoy the aroma of coffee in the office. I don't understand peoples' obsession with it. Back in the wild west people used coffee to mask the taste of river and well water. Today? Not sure what it is. The caffeine, probably.
Have you ever noticed how obscene the Starbucks logo is? I'm a graphic designer, I pay attention to this shit. A mermaid with a SPLIT TAIL? And WTF does that have to do with coffee? Yeah, call it a "siren" if you want, thanks Tim Buckley. A siren with a SPLIT TAIL. Yeah, right.
I learned how to roast coffee when we moved out to the boonies and started our own businesses. Been doing it for over 30 years now, only takes about 40 minutes for 1 week of fresh roast for 2 of us (400 gm). Average cost for the green beans is about $6-10 lb. for stuff from all over the world. You can roast it in a popcorn popper, but get better results from a more automated roaster for a $100 or more.
Yep, I hear what you're saying. I live in a small community in rural Texas (about 3500 and growing...eye roll), and we have two local pizza places. Recently, I began noticing Dominos delivery vans in town and I wondered where they were coming from. Turns out there's a new Dominos pizza right here in our town now. I hate seeing it happen as they will undoubtedly siphon a lot of business from the local businesses.
Yo Jeff, perhaps not. I remember when Domino's came into my town and set up shop, and they had a whole fucking caravan of vans, at least 20. Well, they picked the exact wrong place to fuck with. We gotta lotta dagos here and there's pizza places on every corner. I really enjoyed watching the caravan of vans diminish to only a couple of them. Yay.
The Blues want control of every aspect of life. Incorporation allows them control of just about everything.
Just heard an interesting statement. Musk’s main influence in the Deep State will be the ability to expose the cretins on X, uninhibited. He is the Red equivalent of the MSM, being able to make toast out of the shenanigans of the Left. As news moves more and more to the social media approach, his influence will do nothing but increase.
The task ahead is truly going to be one of Herculean proportions, and perhaps it’s most challenging aspect will be the essential element of having a single unity of purpose. That’s a tall order, with so many with their hands out for “their piece of the pie”.
Freedom has come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of people, and for most, it’s most necessary ingredient of personal sacrifice doesn’t even come to mind. But the transformation back into our original Constitutional Republic will not happen without some level of sacrifice in some measure being willingly borne by every American.
The people’s concept of the very original purpose of our form government, the Federal government in particular, has been thoroughly perverted after decades and decades of its flagrant disregard and willful ignoring of its very stringent Constitutional limits and parameters.
Our government was never intended to “fix every problem” - especially made up ones - or to “give us hand outs” for every damned thing under the sun.
It was designed to be nearly inconsequential and purely perfunctory in relation to our everyday lives, not the arbiter of every aspect of them.
Thus, the process of dismantling the monstrosity that currently masquerades as our federal government must absolutely and unequivocally go hand in hand with a “Manhattan Project” re-education of the American citizenry as to its original purpose, which, inevitably demand a sacrifice to varying degrees from the populace, but will be the only way we will ever truly get to experience genuine freedom, if that’s truly what we want.
It will be excruciatingly difficult, painful and disruptive, but absolutely necessary.
Government cannot fix every problem. We are too many. Too diverse. Too many unique problems to be fixed. Hence the reason we need to be able to govern ourselves and resolve our own problems.
Trump cannot dismantle everything even if he were willing to try. He needs a willing Congress and that he does not have. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the Republicans can break a filibuster in the Senate, especially with so many Republicans willing to vote across the aisle.
Any real change is going to come because it MUST come, not because we want to fix things. Too many people with too many differing views. Something must happen that unite all of use and cause us to cast off the political parties and work together to resolve the issues.
"But the transformation back into our original Constitutional Republic will not happen without some level of sacrifice"
I am not so keen on how our representational Republic works. Perhaps term limits would make a difference but we need things to evolve to reflect the realities of our population and the 21st century.
And when I hear a "Manhattan Project" of "re-education" of the American citizenry why does Mao comes to mind? And what exactly are the sacrifices you're expecting for this so we get "genuine" freedom?
See there's never been a magical time when the citizenry of the U.S. was all on the same page and participated in the government. That should not be a goal.
The job of our government is to protect us from foreigners. That is its number one job per the Constitution.
Open border is a direct obliteration of that charter and is why all the Mayorkas types should be imprisoned for being traitors to their oath of office.
An outsized portion of Americans think it is the government’s job to care for them from cradle to grave.
It is not.
And It is not Maoist by any means to want our children (as well as adults!) to be educated about their country’s Founding Documents, freedoms, and principles. Every school should include that in their curriculum, as once upon a time we did just that, but conveniently stopped doing so little by little over time.
By sacrifices I mean Americans have to relearn how become more self-reliant, and no longer so dependent on the government to fix all their problems. That is not, and never was the government’s job.
The problems in the 21st century are pretty much the same as they were 250 years ago: war, crime, poverty, corruption, etc. The Constitution addresses all of these when applied appropriately, just not always the way some people may wish it did.
Yeah, it's kind of Maoist to want to educate every person in the country on the founding documents because how else are you going to do it without somehow making it compulsory?
Will everyone have to take a test?
I get your general idea that if everyone knew the Constitution in and out things would be so much better but that is a fantasy. In any case the Constitution doesn't address all these things as much as the Bill of Rights does - but you knew that didn't you?
You may want to believe that the "problems' of the 21st century are the same but the solutions aren't. You understand the Republics don't last and neither will ours so we might want to be thinking about that. How to pivot? Maybe direct democracy or a different version of representation to the federal level? Regional governance?
What the government is and what some believe it to be hasn't been because some folks aren't self-reliant. Since FDR (throw in The Great Society) and the government has been purposely positioned to "solve" all problems. "Relearning" something you never had is impossible (go ahead and try it on somebody).
Every day in the U.S. sacrifices are made by any person of working age as by law we have to give money to the government to give to those who don't or can't work. In the real world it's called a ponzi scheme.
Yes, it's frustrating that few in the culture seem unable to manage things on their own but that's the way it's always been. Sacrificing something to be self-reliant does not make one so.
Emotional simplification of the problems of our country does nothing to work towards solutions.
Well said. We found a stone age people here and we conquered them. We took this continent by storm. We (the Whites!) are the Native Americans. If you can't get behind this, don't even bother with the documents. THEY were all behind this. THEY were for their people!
Right! The purpose of the American common culture is to absorb all peoples here into a common bond, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit. Any people who do not join in will be outsiders and treated as such. The Natives rejected that premise and therefore created their own nations. You reap what you sow.
You hit on a point that has disgusted me for years-referring to us always and only as “consumers”, not as citizens. The differences between the two are monumental.
Good text, but it doesn't look far enough beyond the tip of the nose, let alone the horizon.
Rebuilding America, or any part of the world, to its former glory, whether real or imagined, is anachronistically delusional.
It's time to start connecting the dots, namely societal, economic, and, most importantly, physical issues. The way the world, the Occident in particular, has developed over the past few hundred years is fully owed to hydrocarbons - coal, oil, and natural gas. More specifically, cheap, easy to get hydrocarbons. That is no longer the case, they're not so cheap anymore, in the sense of energy needed to invest to obtain energy (not money, money is worthless shit). This will only get worse, and similar problems are faced in regard to just about all other resources. Energy, however, is the master resource, and matters the most.
Thus, rebuilding America's glory is impossible because the physical conditions that formerly allowed it to thrive are no longer there. That includes the aforementioned energy and other factors, such as privileged status after the two world wars, control over the world through the dollar and military strength, soft power thanks to the entertainment industry.
Gotta look to the future. All of humanity will have to reinvent itself and embrace a whole new paradigm. The notion of ongoing progress, growth (in the physical sense), the biblical dominion of the world, will have to be abandoned and replaced with a sustainable, unchanging existence aligned with natural cycles. The transition to a different source of energy is a pipe dream, not to mention that it wouldn't solve the dwindling reserves of other resources, rare earths, minerals. Fertilizer made using natural gas too!
As fucking disgusting as wokeism is and as heartwarming as is its rejection in Trump's election, the vast majority of people have no clue about what's in the pipeline, and the vote was mostly reactionary, cast in vain hope of returning to the heyday of America's prosperity. That ain't happening, as per the above.
It would behoove everybody to start looking forward and instead of invoking RE-building of this and that focus on building something new, taking into account the physical constraints humans will be facing.
Another point to make in addition to your points is that people are not having children anymore. Population is set to begin decreasing once the Baby Boomers are gone. Without population growth there is no economic growth. Who is going to buy all of those new homes if there isn't population growth. Who is going to buy all those new cars if there isn't population growth. Our young people are so obsessed with their phones they don't notice each other. Our young men are neutered by pornography addictions. Our young women have been taught to believe they don't need men and have grown to hate men. Babies are our future. Lots of babies result in economic growth. People aren't having lots of babies anymore.
The point I was trying to make is that people have to start looking beyond economic growth. The age of economic growth, driven by cheap energy, is nearing its end. We're on the downslope already, as energy is becoming too expensive (in the physical sense, in the sense that you get less energy from the energy you put in or, in other words, more energy needs to be invested to obtain energy).
We've built a very complex civilization and there ain't enough juice to run it and maintain it. Shit is crumbling all over the place. Bridges, roads, power infrastructure, you name it. The same goes, by extension, for everything else.
In the long run, the fact that people are not having kids is a good thing. The world's population has doubled over the past circa 40 years and that can't go on, even if there were enough resources (especially energy), which there aren't. Population will have to be reduced and if it happens because limpdick faggots can't get it up, so much the better. Certainly better than a war or some other violent event or another fucking covid and fuckccination.
The decadence you allude to, women fucked up in the head (men too), and all the other shit are side-effects of the energy- and resource-related structural issues.
I didn't disagree with you, Paul. I think you are right. I was just also stretching what you were saying to the fact that humans are naturally going to de-populate themselves by not reproducing. The need for all of this energy is going to naturally reduce itself simply through the reduction of population and the economic contractions that are going to follow.
Believe me, I agree that there are too many people on this planet. I can't go anywhere and be totally isolated, even back packing in high Rocky Mountain wilderness still yields other back packers who can't go three days without listening to loud hip hop rap music on their I-phones (true story).
The problem with population size is primarily energy. Although you can fit zillions of people into a city, everybody lives from what a chunk of land somewhere out there produces (distributed all over the world). The stuff is grow, harvested, processed, and delivered to us thanks to energy (hydrocarbons). Without energy, we'd lose the connection to the land out there and starve. Even if people went back to manual farming and even if they did it collectively, they wouldn't be able to produce enough to sustain themselves.
Rap in the Rockies is sick! The bears will hopefully eat the fuckers!
The first question to ask about human depopulation: Who is going to go and who stays? Obviously you want the other group to go. Those like Paul who don't see it that way get the Darwin award.
You're in denial of facts and are responding by invoking ad hominem shit.
This is a simple biological phenomenon. Like any other species, humans have happened on a bonanza of an easy-to-get resource - hydrocarbons - and have overmultiplied. The human population is sustained solely by availability hydrocarbons, even though the size of the population and the quantity of hydrocarbons needed to sustain is are debatable figures. There is a limit, however, your denial and insinuations of malevolence notwithstanding - the former is okay, your problem, the latter you can shove back up your asshole.
Who's going to go? With any luck, the population size will shrink naturally over a long period due to reduced birthrate, people dying earlier due to reduced access to healthcare, what have you. The other option is a fight over the last fucking loaf of bread.
This is not personal, these are objective observations. If you care to contribute, go right ahead. If you want to insult, go fuck yourself.
The problem is that the so-called elite, the people who run the circus, are not only the worst scum (they get where they are through the most abominable practices, backstabbing, corruption, the worst possible sleaze), but also stupid as fuck. They're good at scheming, sucking dick, and backstabbing, not looking beyond the horizon. If anything, they do quick fixes and myopic solutions.
Immigration is a farce. Instead of picking educated, hardworking, high-potential people who want to integrate (kinda the way it used to be), they not only let anybody in, but the newcomers are assigned a privileged status, allowed to bring whatever problems fucked up their world back at home, and all the rest.
Things are fucked up to the nth degree, just about completely inverted. All these issues, however, are secondary to the energy predicament and the underlying raison d'etre of this civilization - technological progress and economic growth for the sake of progress and growth.
The real metric is people/household. This has been declining since the 70's. It is an indicator of slower population growth as well as increased wealth which translates into sprawl. The wealth variable mainly came from cheap reliable energy sources. It was government intervention which curtailed the "cheap" part. Eventually we'll either be back to being serfs on farms or else living the good life with modular nukes in every small town.
How hydrocarbons have been used was a choice. The model of civilization that was chosen for the plebs and the middle class isn’t for the plebs and the middle. The model of civilization was chosen by the overlords and for the overlords. The overlords decided on how the global economy was going to be built and powered. They went with centralization and maximizing political-financial-ecclesiastical power for themselves.
The western world is in serious decline. Out of all the aspects of that, the most serious is cultural decline. Since circa WWII, America has steamrolled the world with its cheap entertainment, which perhaps had some value at one point, but has slid into absolutely worthless shit that fucks up people's heads, makes them fucking stupid, and makes them wallow in their fucking stupidity. The whole world is infected, the closer to the US, the worse.
There is no spirituality, no introspection, no nothing, just mad craving for another useless piece of shit, without purpose, sans aucune raison d'etre.
The West is fucked.
Is Trump's election or the revolt against wokeism (an extreme manifestation of the decadence) a harbinger of change? Are people sick of this shit? Or do they want more? Good question. I'd like to believe the former, but the latter is probably the case.
It would seem that the global East has been better able to hang onto common sense, not to embrace every new craze, but who knows - they like the cheap horseshit just like the next guy. We shall see what happens.
Looking forward to 2030, we are all supposed to be chock full of self replicating nanotechnology with built in alarm clocks so we can do the deep staters' work. You mean that "looking forward"?
It will take a while to filter down to the democrats around me. Some will, some won’t. It was the child trans evil and my own president threatening me if I didn’t get the kill shots. A fairly sudden awakening. A realization that what my 14 yo granddaughter was going through—a transgender grooming, WAS THE PLAN ENABLED BY THE LEFT. As far as I’m concerned, the left is irredeemable and will never get my respect ever again. Ever. Over. I want vaporizing revenge. Now.
Now if you would just awaken to the Republican scum who have stabbed you in the back over and over and over. How many times have the Republicans held the Congress and the Executive but done nothing with that power to curb spending, reduce government, and eliminate unconstitutional agencies? People are still playing the tribe game. Democrat or Republican. Republican or Democrat. Their tribalism is blinding them to the fact that both parties want and do the same thing, they just use different jargon to get themselves there. Both spend too much money. Both continue waging foreign wars in lands that pose no threat or interest to the USA. Both refuse to deport all of the illegal immigrants. Political parties are the demise of America. More Americans need to cast off the party brainwashing and just think America first.
Get out of the business of passing lame to the Dems or the Republicans, these do not really exist any more. RINOS are counted as GOP and they are not MAGA, they are Deep State.
Trump has Dems in his group, get it? He is anti-Deep State, MAGA, not GOP. I wish he had declared a third party, MAGA. He couldn’t, but now perhaps with other anti- Deep Staters coming out of the Blue closet, he can form the MAGA party. Screw the RINOS! They are the worst.
Reject Israel and millions of Democrats will rally to his standard - as well as countless disgruntled traditional Americans who don't bother voting for the most part.
Anti-deepstate. Is that when a person wears the little beanie hat and worships at a crumbly wall? Trump IS deep state but not everybody knows that. Know anybody who believes everything Trump says?
I heartily enjoyed this morning's article. It's brilliant. I don't know how you manage to so beautifully and accurately describe the condescending self-owning ignorance of the Woke Jacobin left, but you do it like nobody else. So many great lines in today's post! I don't know where to start.
I guess the most satisyfing line is: "the punking of America by a gang of vicious, criminal snobs. The aggregate insult alone deserves a world-class beat-down. They know it, and they know they are going to get it, and it will be satisfying to watch them rat each other out as judgment nears."
I endeavor to avoid schadenfreude; however, I am only human. And I have saved all of the proof of the horrors unleashed upon us during the covid psyops, and the inducement of TDS to the point where I can't even talk to my former friends and most of my family - even if I don't bring up even one "political" issue or figure. The damage that the MKULtra tactics used via the mainstream media is vast and deep, and I don't know if it can be reversed. Peoples' minds are destroyed. In any case, if these people aren't somehow able to be deprogrammed, I am not sure how much we can progress.
Perhaps the answer is to just begin the work ourselves, and see whether they are smart enough to come along.
They make a claim and back it up with an opinion, and when challenged, they substantiate their claim and opinion with additional opinions.
Their claim essentially being that my deceased wife, my oldest daughter, and myself are part of the problem because we choose not to be "vaccinated", and they won't entertain any perspective or facts that would destroy their claim and opinions.
By doing so, they are essentially telling me that they don't respect my opinion, and ultimately certifying that they have a closed mind, where they are either married to an agenda, or subject to any derangement syndrome that their sources promote.
I can think of no reason to tolerate a relationship with such individuals. They ultimately clutter and cripple your mind, and I have better things to do.
Mary, in regard to the claim that the unvaccinated are the problem, what is your best source of information that implicates Fauci as being the problem?
Mary, you said "I have saved all of the proof of the horrors unleashed upon us during the covid psyops", and I just figured that you would be a good source to provide me with information to counter the claim.
RFK, Jr is using hindsight. In 2020, the entire world was enveloped in fear, mostly because of the bullshit they were being fed by the governments and the supporting media. If his book stops government overbearance and the consequent grab for power, good for him. If he uses his knowledge in HHS, yay! Until Fauci invents the next biological weapon and it escapes.
Can't happen? Hahaha! There are a lot of monkeys in I believe S. Carolina that would disagree with that.
I'm not amassing and issuing my research on demand, sorry. You will have to do your own. I would suggest reading Celia Farber's work on Fauci from the AIDS debacle first to get a background. Then you can read Steve Kirsch's work exposing the vaccines, and he's just one person. I am amazed if you hang around here you haven't already found dozens of other resources.
"If the Democratic Party had not gone completely insane for a decade, its many eggheads like Walter Isaacson and Michael Sandel would have been working on these major socio-economic transformations, instead of punking us with drag queens, pointless wars, and Marxian punishments."
I appreciate your knock on the term "consumer." I refuse to use it as I feel it is intended to degrade people and portray us all as untermenschen. They see us as no more than hogs at the trough, mindlessly and greedily taking whatever swill they deign to allow us.
The pusillanimous pricks have plenty to answer for, as they often knowingly committed damaging actions. But the Long Emergency also ushered in a great wave of denial in the early stages, much of it only possible due to the extreme wealth Western Civilization exploited due to fossil fuels and technology. Now there are many citizens getting clarification on their gut feel of "something ain't right" as they are slowly awakening, realizing things will not improve without some serious pain.
Like a roller coaster diving down from the top, the rather pleasant feeling of weightlessness and stomach floating is now morphing into the increasing g-force of slamming backwards into the seat, eyeballs pressed into sockets, face-ripping in the wind and white-knuckling of the crash bar as survival instinct kicks in. The screaming has just begun.
Mr. Kunstler is absolutely correct about the chain stores. Most of them are on their way out. Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens have already closed hundreds of stores and hundreds more are on the chopping block. Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Big Lots are on their way out. Just the other day Advance Auto announced that they are closing over 700 stores.
I know a poor sap who purchased a Rite Aid for $2.9 million. There was supposedly over 8 years left on the lease. Lat year a bankruptcy judge allowed Rite Aid to vacate their lease. After the Rite Aid left and the store was vacant, it was valued at $600,000.
Advance Auto is a canary in the coal mine of economic distress on Main Street. Their customer base is DIY guys who work on their own cars to save money. Now they can't even afford to fix their own cars. Fun times ahead.
Well, can't afford.......true, but also CANNOT. Chilton's (the gold standard and Bible for amateur mechanics) no longer publishes repair manuals for retail sale. And the car companies are totally onboard with doing everything in their power to discourage "shadetree mechanics". Home repair work now depends upon other amateur mechanics publishing Youtube videos (which fortunately are usually very good).
My son, who was in sales at Sony Pictures until Covid happened, installed two new shower gizmos and two new sink gizmos using YouTube. He even tore an outside wall out (2’x2’) to do the shower.
So he has become a sort of plumber with YouTube! I am proud of him! And Home Depot loves him!
Still have the original Idiots' Guide for VW by John Muir. Very greasy though.
Also the small print ads in the back of Popular Science were great for ordering manuals on nasty things like explosive formulas and chemicals and other strange alien technology.
"Chilton's (the gold standard and Bible for amateur mechanics) no longer publishes repair manuals for retail sale."
Are you fucking kidding me? That is just straight-up fucking criminal.
Are they on archive.org? I won't buy anything past 2013 because I don't want to deal with the touchscreen bullshit, among other things. I'm one of those "power-NOTHING" chicks. God, I miss having a stick-shift. And windows I can wind down without locking up. A friend of mine had a car that all of the power windows eventually failed. And this was in the Deep South. He used to call it, "The Easy-Bake-Oven." LOL.
I'm good with cruise-control, though. For me, it's "speed control." If I'm on a road trip, my lead foot will floor it to 100 before I even notice. LOL.
And the J.C. Whitney parts catalogues? Long since gone too. The wait for them in the mail was excruciating. Second only to the new monthly Playboy centerfolds. Yes, those were the days, good as it got!
- There isn't much to fix or work on with electric vehicles. As the percentage of EV's grows the demand for parts stores and mechanics decreases.
- vehicles are overly complicated and the scanners needed to diagnose problems in many makes are incredibly expensive. My mechanic retired because he couldn't find any decent employees and he couldn't afford to buy new scanners for every brand out there.
In a broader sense, I look back on it as another attack on masculinity, and an attack on individualism. Cars - especially muscle cars - were an extension of the owner. Who got more ass than the Z-28 Camaro & Chevelle SS owners? Mopar? Nope. Ford? Nope. No one.
Yes. It is an attack on masculinity. Having a couple pops, cruising around, cranking some Waylon, getting in some dustups. That was as American as apple pie.
Girls I didn't know wanted to hop right in. The only problem with 70's Camaros was that the seats didn't recline. You had to be somewhat of a gymnast make use of the back seat.
"Advance Auto is a canary in the coal mine of economic distress on Main Street. Their customer base is DIY guys who work on their own cars to save money. Now they can't even afford to fix their own cars. Fun times ahead."
Yeah, no shite!
I can't even get what I need at the hardware store without them placing it on backorder.
Re: Rite Aid...They closed one of the two stores in my town years ago, and now the other one is about to close, which is near me. They've been in bankruptsy proceedings for months now, the employees say it should be "resolved" (whatever that means) by January, but the shelves are nearly empty. The only thing they're good for is prescriptions...if that's what you need.
I am living in Los Angeles with my son, DIL and two grade school kids.
Costco, Home Depot, Ralph’s, Whole Paycheck etc. are all within a ten minute drive.
Even with all the shopping they have nearby what do they do? Amazon. Every day there are boxes of this or that dropped on the porch. Even I am guilty of letting my fingers do the walking/driving. Want a book? Amazon. Used.
There are generational issues at play here that everyone needs to get a grip on. Many kids were born with a smartphone on their laps. Even my five year old granddaughter is on the laptop every day doing “ST Math”.
Check out a book by Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, subtitled: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. It's an eye opener - not a pretty story.
I watched MSNBC this morning just to laugh while they gossip incessantly about Trump’s cabinet picks. They reminded me of the middle school super duper clique lunch table. Gossiping and trashing those who just aren”t “good enough” to sit with them. I do believe that’s what that network has become. The middle school lunch table. No value whatsoever. Vapid clowns.
Agreed. Unfortunately, a LOT of people (some of my family included) watch these shows, BELIEVE these people, and when sufficiently riled up, ACT accordingly, usually spitefully.
Perhaps William Shatner should look back at his role in another movie to figure out why we voted against her, against the Democratic party. Judgement at Nuremberg:
https://archive.org/details/movie-judgment-at-nuremberg-1961
The movie tells us how the system itself failed because the people who were entrusted to protect the constitutional rights of Germans failed. Judges, doctors, "experts" who believed they were right, they were "perfect" government above reproach destroyed their nation and committed the worst crimes against humanity the world has ever known. It's cast included: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, along with William Shatner. Bill - Pssst - watch your own old work.
Yep, they really are the roving pack of Mean Girls we all had to deal with in middle- and high-school.
Bingo. Even those liberal pussies behave like that. Morning Joe, Conan, Andrew on SquawckBox.
What do you think about Joe and Mika’s visit with Trump?
Not much.
“EXCLUSIVE: PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that in order to "Make America Great Again," it is "vital" to have a "free, fair and open media," telling Fox News Digital that he feels he has "an obligation" to the American people to work with the press, even those who had treated him "badly beyond comprehension.” I guess the adage applies. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
Heathers.
Yup.
MSDNC should be kaput
Comcast has put out feelers for selling CNN and other news outlets. They cannot correct their brand. They went too far, and show no signs of changing. It is quite amazing to watch them lie without blinking or blushing, making it up, and "reporting" as if it's real.
They have no reverse.
When they lose their idiot watchers, Comcast will lose its advertisers and shitcan this obnoxious network. Do not stop with MSDNC, take out NBC TOO, then ABC, then CBS.
"Comcast will lose its advertisers"
No. They will have advertisers that pay less for their diminished and focused demographic: Gimmiedats with TDS and Karens with hemorrhoids. Think Lifetime/Oxygen/Hallmark/et al.
That being said, Women watching Womyn cry will not balance their finances.
11/18/24: Having attempted to read Walter Isaacson's unreadable "Einstein, His Life & Universe" (2007; PULPED), I can only imagine how inarticulate this pretentious boob must be. Kudos to Mr. Kunstler for forcing himself to listen to Isaacson's inane criminal defense alibi.
His bio of Steve Jobs was pretty good though.
11/22/24: Glad to hear it. Try Thomas Kunkel's "Genius In Disguise" (1995). Avoid his sequel, decades after academia ruined his joie de vivre, "Man In Profile" (2015).
The jaw boning is beginning to discredit and character assassinate President Trump's choices to fix our federal government. Trillions of dollars are at stake. The key ones are DOD and NIH being brought back on track. The paid mouth pieces can't see beyond their paycheck.
RFK Jr. task is daunting! https://thomasabraunrph.substack.com/p/bobbys-goal
LOL. So true. I’ve often had similar thoughts.
I agree. Mean girls! And Joe is as mean as any of them. He's the one in the middle school girl clique who talks conciliation but never misses a chance to denigrate another.
Excellent analogy
Is there a better start to the morning than this in my inbox?:
"James Howard Kunstler from Clusterfuck Nation"
Seriously on-point with this one, maybe demonrats(and neoliberal 'republicans') will finally understand what they have done to us.
They’ve known it all along but there never were consequences. They will suffer those consequences now. We should beat them until their moral improves. I’m giddy just thinking about it.
Absolutely - they can only learn by having to deal with the consequences.
There is this absolute nutter in Vegas named Robert Telles, and he was a low-level councilman on a power trip. He became so deranged with power that when a local reporter wrote some (deserved) hit pieces on him, he killed the guy. He actually got arrested and went to prison. He was sloppy with the murder, figuring (as narcissists and psychos do) that he could just talk a judge and jury out of believing he was the murderer (!!!!). That didn't happen, and he's in jail for life.
This is what should happen to every single public "servant" who was in on and pushed the covid and trans agendas, who probably are responsible for more misery than even Robert Telles.
I hate to break the news to ya, but “Operation Warp Speed” was under the Trump administration.
This is ONE reason that I did not vote for Trump a third time.
How soon people want to forget…
That is the $64,000 question. Why has Trump refused to acknowledge the wrongness of his decision?
I did vote for Trump, thrice. In all those elections it was a no-brainer to vote against the Democrats.
But yeah I'd like to ask Tucker this question.
You're not breaking any news, and I didn't vote for Trump, either. I have never voted for him. He absolutely still brags about Operation Warp Speed, which is why I remain skeptical that he will even mete out the appropriate punishments.
That sounds like a story a guy once told me at a Blackjack table at Binion's Casino. Except nobody got arrested and no bodies were found.
He will take care of it! He has a lot of irons in the fire just now! Patience!!
That's good. I'm giddy too.
I wrote a piece a while back asking if the "swamp" is now too big to ever drain. It probably is, but let's drain as much of it as we can. What the world needs is a Mass Purge of the dunces and sociopaths who have ascended to the top of all the key leadership organizations. A Baby Purge would be better than no purge.
I imagine draining that swamp. But all the swamp creatures need to be contained and dealt with. Before draining the swamp an invisible fence must be built around the swamp to contain the creatures. So when it is drained there will be no escape.
First contain the creatures, then drain the swamp. Then Matt Gaetz can deal with them.
"Then Matt Gaetz can deal with them."
Revenge much? Fucking hell yeah!!!
Oddly enough, they have built a fence around the White House about a week ago. There was a guy in D.C. who filmed it and put it up on Yoo Toob.
Agree to all points.
I don't think either party of self-aggrandizing grifters will ever care what they did to us, as long as they made a buck or won office, etc. These are psychopathic people. In fact, they set out to damage others because they hate humanity. The goal is to replace them. In order to do so, we have to start recognizing who is actually a narcissist, a psychopath, etc. and stop worshipping those. Sadly, our society shows no signs of being able to do that.
HG Tudor, (on YouTube), who ought to know, says Trump is a narcisisst too. The whole system is set up by narcisissits to reward narcisissts, and thus attracts them in great numbers. We're fortunate in Trump, as he is the sort whose ego won't allow him to fail. May God protect him, because those people will kill him, if they get the chance.
He might be a narcissist but if so, he's a brilliant one, because he is not killing the host, like most of them do. So perhaps he's more of a showman than a narcissist? It's hard to tell. He has many narcissistic qualities, but he is definitely not murderous like, say, Obama. At least not demonstrably.
Yup. Do you think he means it when he says he is trying to save America?
H.G. Tudor is to be taken with a grain of salt, always. If Trump is a true narcissist, he's a prosocial one. The very best kind. They serve a useful function.
Trump is a lot of things. I do not think he’s a narcissist.
Re: HG Tudor, Do you really think a narcissist is going to be brutally honest about himself? I was a therapist for many years and made diagnoses of my clients. I don't see how any narcissist can be completely honest about narcissism. I've watched Trump for 45 yrs - was never a narcissist. You might want to watch his body language in this video from 1980, I don't see anything arrogant or narcissistic about him:
https://vimeo.com/937105935
Just my 2 cents.
On one hand, hanging that painting of a younger version of himself in tennis sweater, in a prominent place is purely narcissistic. On the other hand he is very kind to others. No matter their status. Everyone who knows him likes him including his children! Trump is a bona fide mystery.
One can be a supreme egotist and not be a narcissist, correct? Trump is just very self-confident with a natural sense of majesty. He's basically a king.
“These are psychopathic people". No they are not. They are sociopaths. I wish people would get their terms straight.
I wish you would.
Sociopath does not mean violent. There are plenty of peaceful sociopaths. Psychopath means violent, and able to kill people - totally without conscience. Some sociopaths can do that. All psychopaths can.
I care. I care so much that I didn’t vote (for Trump a third time).
Yeah, you already said. Turns out he didn’t need your vote after all.
Walled towns and cities. Every man a soldier. Nobody has anything they can't keep from robbers and gangs. The return of a sane understanding of economics: You didn't build that by yourself. And nobody votes who isn't part of the guard.
Sounds like Israel, not the USA.
Well said. Instead of being fan boys of Israel, why don't we become like them?
ZOG 🤷♀️
Oh, I just knew someone was going to bring up Jews.
“I don’t know why the Democrats lost. I don’t understand …" — William Shatner (Captain Kirk)
"I don't believe you." — Ron Burgundy
William Shatner seems like a nice guy, but I'm sorry, I just cannot comprehend how anyone let alone an allegedly sentient human being like Shatner doesn't understand how the weakest Presidential candidate in American history running the most pathetic campaign since Biden deservedly and decisively lost the election. Not buying it.
For multi-millionaires like Shatner the economy is good because that's all they see in their sphere of influence. They only hobnob with other wealthy people. They hire and pay servants to do their shopping and prepare their meals, clean their homes and maintain their yards while they hop from vacation house to vacation house. It doesn't surprise me at all that Bill Shatner (one of my favorite actors as a child) can't understand Trump's victory. A wealthy person's opinion on the economy is as worthless as sock with holes.
I call that archetype the "Limousine Liberal". They exist in their own vacuum/echo chambers.
My brother lives in that neighborhood. The "Main Line" of Philly. The place that David Brooks called, "Bobos in Paradise."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobos_in_Paradise
He's not one of them, though. The assholes who were wearing masks during the covid crap while DRIVING ALONE in their cars.
He was too scared to put up a Trump sign. That's how bad it is.
But, their day is coming. Already the petty crime spillover from West Philly is happening. I just hope he'll get out of there before the property prices plummet. Wishful thinking.
And that’s why they want plenty of illegals. Very cheap labor to babysit, clean their toilets and mow the grass on their estates but they’ll sure bitch and moan about capitalists
Well there's the problem right there. ".......seems like a nice guy". HAHAHA . Great depth of thought. In fact, Shatner is an ACTOR. Brain dead Hollywoodian ACTOR. He ACTS for a living!
It's what he DOES.
But how we FEEL about anyone now is supposed to count for something ??
But, I’m trying to reach him to find out where he shops(LOL). Prices have gone down!
Shatner arrived from Canada, fully indoctrinated in the illusion of wealth via robbing the working poor as Government Mandarins (CBC) bleed you out as they tell you daily, they are there to "help" you.
Contribute nothing, take everything. Shatner's Canadian disease.
Yes, I'm a fan. He's actually a brilliant man in many ways. But alas, a hard core member of the cult apparently.
"allegedly sentient"
Hank,
You assume.
I believe Shatner was being sarcastic.
Oh now that’s giving credit where it is not due!!!
That, I believe. At least I would like to believe he was being sarcastic, because I would prefer not to believe anyone can be so clueless.
Yeah, I'm wondering about that too.
I was listening to his album he worked on with Ben Folds and Henry Rollins, "Has Been" ... it came out years ago and I decided to cue it up again while I was out running errands. He touches on subjects like the death of his wife, his relationship with his daughter, and life in general. Good for a few laughs. He was probably more "with it" back when they cut those tracks.
Thanx for that TCG. I fucking love Henry Rollins.
This, I can get behind. LOL.
😂🤣😂🤣https://youtu.be/d5hae6PlPYA?si=PrQ6_4KALmRWz9Ud🙃🤪🤪😂👍
He wept when Leonard Nimoy broke their friendship without explanation.
Nimoy's a you-know-what, what did you expect?
IMHO, the reason half of the Hollywood and celebrity crowd and much of the city culture in the USA support the Dems and the Deep State is because they want that border open. Why? Serfs and drugs to be unobstructed and cheap. The elite have their slaves and drugs, and the government has its revenue from the cartels. Isn’t that a lovely picture of America? I am watching the effect of RFK, Jr., DOGE, on the flow of drugs into the country. Human trafficking will need border closure and control. Will this country be able to control the cartels and their goon squads? That would be a legacy of Trump.
Mexico hasn’t.
We're into one of Taylor Sheridan's shows, "Lioness". While the premise is pretty ridiculous (gorgeous females in SpecOps who handle business like John Wick) this season is actually touching on real issues, including human trafficking. At least some folks in HollyWeird are trying to bring attention to it.
Are you describing Donald Trump and Elon Musk?
Trolling, Tom?
Tom's not really wrong though, right? Those two are empirical Elites who found populist politics when the time was right. OTOH, the true, lifelong populists of the core crew, who have lived their lives more or less like regular folk, would be people like Gabbard most obviously, then Vance and Kennedy. Billionaire celebrity johnny-come-latelys just represent the natural first, transitional step in reverse engineering or -- depending on one's perspective -- organically navigating a way out of a plutocratic society in which the working class is hopped up on celebrity worship. Once hard times come, the true populists will need to be taking the reigns. Won't be all that long before Maralago starts rubbing the base the wrong way IMO.
Nah...I love you and you're always on my to do list to read Mon. morning. A day w/o Kunstler is a day w/o sunshine.
How did you get the "new navigation bar at the top of this blog-page" to appear at the top of a post page? I don't see a setting for that - unless its only possible with some themes...
No, just the opposite, Tom. Your Blue world is going to get a rude awakening, hopefully.
I agree with you Tom. And I voted for Trump twice.
3 times for me!
Unfortunately, people do not realize the pain and suffering they will be forced to endure from the years of Dems (uni-party) in charge. This is where were going to live the result of weak men creating hard times. Only good news is that it will lead to hard men who will make good times.
Strong men, not necessarily hard.
Semantics….and I suggest given the shit that we are in there will be few (in any good) options. Unfortunately, it will be hard men that will have to lead the way out. Thus the saying….Hard times make hard men….hard men make good times…good times make weak men…weak men make hard times….and the beat goes on. Pax
Yes, many can do hard things, but how few can withstand public pressure or the contempt of their own family and friends? Moral courage is the rarest. Many men have physical courage (rescue workers, fire and police), but many of those couldn't stand against another man in physical combat. And of those who could, how many could stand up and give a speech? And of those, taking a radically unpopular stance?
We have a nice local run coffee shop in our 9,000 pop city. Unique and used by me snd our large Hispanic population. Young owners. Now, the stupid city has let Dunkin AND Starbucks in on the main highway through town. I will not be drinking coffee there. Starbucks coffee sucks. Hopefully we locals can keep our local one going. Walmart has prevented any other grocery store from opening so we’re stuck with it. I do use the local nice Mexican supermarket but it’s actually more expensive and lacks things I need. But produce and other products are “cleaner” in ingredients. I hope the Democrat snobs writhe the rest of their lives with their voices a tiny squeak in the background. I was a democrat who learned the truth in 2021.
Starbucks coffee sucks.
My ex and my eldest son love this acid.
Starbucks taste always reminded me of the last dregs in the pot as you turned out the lights in the office.
No wonder sugar and creams are needed to offset the swill.
My local independent coffee shop’s founder at one point experimented to test a theory. He offered a faux Starbucks coffee. He took a mediocre bean and roasted it to death pretty much destroying it. Starbucks buyers who came in did indeed enjoy it! Point proven but he couldn’t bring himself to do it again :-)
+100 for hilarity.
Coffee in general tastes like dirt to me though I do enjoy the aroma of coffee in the office. I don't understand peoples' obsession with it. Back in the wild west people used coffee to mask the taste of river and well water. Today? Not sure what it is. The caffeine, probably.
It is a drug.
Just like oxygen.
Like Navy coffee, which much of the time was the last dregs in the pot.
John the NAVY as far as I can tell no longer roasts its own coffee.
I no longer see the five gallon tins.
Instead they buy pouches of Starbucks dark roast and Maxwell house.
I have seen this to be true on the Carl Vinson, Makin Island, Essex and the Abe Lincoln. I assume this holds true across the fleet.
In addition to over roasting the beans Starbucks also pumps the caffeine content up.
Army coffee will put hair on your chest.
Lol! True! Not to mention $3.50 for a small cup of swill.
Have you ever noticed how obscene the Starbucks logo is? I'm a graphic designer, I pay attention to this shit. A mermaid with a SPLIT TAIL? And WTF does that have to do with coffee? Yeah, call it a "siren" if you want, thanks Tim Buckley. A siren with a SPLIT TAIL. Yeah, right.
I learned how to roast coffee when we moved out to the boonies and started our own businesses. Been doing it for over 30 years now, only takes about 40 minutes for 1 week of fresh roast for 2 of us (400 gm). Average cost for the green beans is about $6-10 lb. for stuff from all over the world. You can roast it in a popcorn popper, but get better results from a more automated roaster for a $100 or more.
A satisfying hobby if nothing else.
I had an Arabica tree in San Diego that was doing well until we moved.
It was to hot and windy for the tree and it got rust and died.
I did manage to get a couple of pounds of beans off it but have not roasted them.
These were picked when the fruit was super red and sort of sweet.
I have read in the green bean form they can last years properly stored.
Yes burned beyond any recognition as a once sweet fruited bean.
Their dark roast is vile.
Yep, I hear what you're saying. I live in a small community in rural Texas (about 3500 and growing...eye roll), and we have two local pizza places. Recently, I began noticing Dominos delivery vans in town and I wondered where they were coming from. Turns out there's a new Dominos pizza right here in our town now. I hate seeing it happen as they will undoubtedly siphon a lot of business from the local businesses.
The local pizza place should change the name to “Checkers” and start delivering.
We should start wearing blue check more often anyway in honor of Matt Gaetz.
OMGLMFAO you are really killing me now Jarek.
LOL! Great idea, love it!
Yo Jeff, perhaps not. I remember when Domino's came into my town and set up shop, and they had a whole fucking caravan of vans, at least 20. Well, they picked the exact wrong place to fuck with. We gotta lotta dagos here and there's pizza places on every corner. I really enjoyed watching the caravan of vans diminish to only a couple of them. Yay.
Well, I guess only time will tell how it plays out. Hopefully, we have a similar result.
The Blues want control of every aspect of life. Incorporation allows them control of just about everything.
Just heard an interesting statement. Musk’s main influence in the Deep State will be the ability to expose the cretins on X, uninhibited. He is the Red equivalent of the MSM, being able to make toast out of the shenanigans of the Left. As news moves more and more to the social media approach, his influence will do nothing but increase.
"Incorporation allows them control of just about everything."
Finally, you are getting it. Props.
Great observation.
Starbucks tea is horrible too. Bitter and acidic.
The task ahead is truly going to be one of Herculean proportions, and perhaps it’s most challenging aspect will be the essential element of having a single unity of purpose. That’s a tall order, with so many with their hands out for “their piece of the pie”.
Freedom has come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of people, and for most, it’s most necessary ingredient of personal sacrifice doesn’t even come to mind. But the transformation back into our original Constitutional Republic will not happen without some level of sacrifice in some measure being willingly borne by every American.
The people’s concept of the very original purpose of our form government, the Federal government in particular, has been thoroughly perverted after decades and decades of its flagrant disregard and willful ignoring of its very stringent Constitutional limits and parameters.
Our government was never intended to “fix every problem” - especially made up ones - or to “give us hand outs” for every damned thing under the sun.
It was designed to be nearly inconsequential and purely perfunctory in relation to our everyday lives, not the arbiter of every aspect of them.
Thus, the process of dismantling the monstrosity that currently masquerades as our federal government must absolutely and unequivocally go hand in hand with a “Manhattan Project” re-education of the American citizenry as to its original purpose, which, inevitably demand a sacrifice to varying degrees from the populace, but will be the only way we will ever truly get to experience genuine freedom, if that’s truly what we want.
It will be excruciatingly difficult, painful and disruptive, but absolutely necessary.
Very well said, Suzie. An appropriate maxim: Nothing worth having is ever easy.
Government cannot fix every problem. We are too many. Too diverse. Too many unique problems to be fixed. Hence the reason we need to be able to govern ourselves and resolve our own problems.
Trump cannot dismantle everything even if he were willing to try. He needs a willing Congress and that he does not have. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the Republicans can break a filibuster in the Senate, especially with so many Republicans willing to vote across the aisle.
Any real change is going to come because it MUST come, not because we want to fix things. Too many people with too many differing views. Something must happen that unite all of use and cause us to cast off the political parties and work together to resolve the issues.
"Any real change is going to come because it MUST come..."
Probably be forced upon us by the circumstances we have tolerated and lived with (and in some ways found short term benefit) for so long.
You are right. it takes 61.
BUT, they majority party controls the committee chairmanships and what gets attention, that is a big advantage.
"But the transformation back into our original Constitutional Republic will not happen without some level of sacrifice"
I am not so keen on how our representational Republic works. Perhaps term limits would make a difference but we need things to evolve to reflect the realities of our population and the 21st century.
And when I hear a "Manhattan Project" of "re-education" of the American citizenry why does Mao comes to mind? And what exactly are the sacrifices you're expecting for this so we get "genuine" freedom?
See there's never been a magical time when the citizenry of the U.S. was all on the same page and participated in the government. That should not be a goal.
The job of our government is to protect us from foreigners. That is its number one job per the Constitution.
Open border is a direct obliteration of that charter and is why all the Mayorkas types should be imprisoned for being traitors to their oath of office.
You know he's one of the special people, right?
MIGA is not MAGA. To the extent we have MIGA, we won't have MAGA.
Yer duh 1 hooz speshul.
He definitely needs to pay consequences for his treachery. Above all.
An outsized portion of Americans think it is the government’s job to care for them from cradle to grave.
It is not.
And It is not Maoist by any means to want our children (as well as adults!) to be educated about their country’s Founding Documents, freedoms, and principles. Every school should include that in their curriculum, as once upon a time we did just that, but conveniently stopped doing so little by little over time.
By sacrifices I mean Americans have to relearn how become more self-reliant, and no longer so dependent on the government to fix all their problems. That is not, and never was the government’s job.
The problems in the 21st century are pretty much the same as they were 250 years ago: war, crime, poverty, corruption, etc. The Constitution addresses all of these when applied appropriately, just not always the way some people may wish it did.
Giving people a hand up, not a hand out. What a concept.
Yeah, it's kind of Maoist to want to educate every person in the country on the founding documents because how else are you going to do it without somehow making it compulsory?
Will everyone have to take a test?
I get your general idea that if everyone knew the Constitution in and out things would be so much better but that is a fantasy. In any case the Constitution doesn't address all these things as much as the Bill of Rights does - but you knew that didn't you?
You may want to believe that the "problems' of the 21st century are the same but the solutions aren't. You understand the Republics don't last and neither will ours so we might want to be thinking about that. How to pivot? Maybe direct democracy or a different version of representation to the federal level? Regional governance?
What the government is and what some believe it to be hasn't been because some folks aren't self-reliant. Since FDR (throw in The Great Society) and the government has been purposely positioned to "solve" all problems. "Relearning" something you never had is impossible (go ahead and try it on somebody).
Every day in the U.S. sacrifices are made by any person of working age as by law we have to give money to the government to give to those who don't or can't work. In the real world it's called a ponzi scheme.
Yes, it's frustrating that few in the culture seem unable to manage things on their own but that's the way it's always been. Sacrificing something to be self-reliant does not make one so.
Emotional simplification of the problems of our country does nothing to work towards solutions.
Well said. We found a stone age people here and we conquered them. We took this continent by storm. We (the Whites!) are the Native Americans. If you can't get behind this, don't even bother with the documents. THEY were all behind this. THEY were for their people!
Lugh
Right! The purpose of the American common culture is to absorb all peoples here into a common bond, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit. Any people who do not join in will be outsiders and treated as such. The Natives rejected that premise and therefore created their own nations. You reap what you sow.
You hit on a point that has disgusted me for years-referring to us always and only as “consumers”, not as citizens. The differences between the two are monumental.
Amen.
Blood bags to be squeezed when something is needed or worse as human resources.
Human resources to be used as capitol.
Morning Jim - excellent as always. Thanks as always. I love you - sane, relentless, a fighter.
"The aggregate insult alone deserves a world-class beat-down." ~ JHK
Amen.
"Garage Sale Nation".
That's epic.
I'm a big-girl-garage-sailor, btw. Lol.
Good text, but it doesn't look far enough beyond the tip of the nose, let alone the horizon.
Rebuilding America, or any part of the world, to its former glory, whether real or imagined, is anachronistically delusional.
It's time to start connecting the dots, namely societal, economic, and, most importantly, physical issues. The way the world, the Occident in particular, has developed over the past few hundred years is fully owed to hydrocarbons - coal, oil, and natural gas. More specifically, cheap, easy to get hydrocarbons. That is no longer the case, they're not so cheap anymore, in the sense of energy needed to invest to obtain energy (not money, money is worthless shit). This will only get worse, and similar problems are faced in regard to just about all other resources. Energy, however, is the master resource, and matters the most.
Thus, rebuilding America's glory is impossible because the physical conditions that formerly allowed it to thrive are no longer there. That includes the aforementioned energy and other factors, such as privileged status after the two world wars, control over the world through the dollar and military strength, soft power thanks to the entertainment industry.
Gotta look to the future. All of humanity will have to reinvent itself and embrace a whole new paradigm. The notion of ongoing progress, growth (in the physical sense), the biblical dominion of the world, will have to be abandoned and replaced with a sustainable, unchanging existence aligned with natural cycles. The transition to a different source of energy is a pipe dream, not to mention that it wouldn't solve the dwindling reserves of other resources, rare earths, minerals. Fertilizer made using natural gas too!
As fucking disgusting as wokeism is and as heartwarming as is its rejection in Trump's election, the vast majority of people have no clue about what's in the pipeline, and the vote was mostly reactionary, cast in vain hope of returning to the heyday of America's prosperity. That ain't happening, as per the above.
It would behoove everybody to start looking forward and instead of invoking RE-building of this and that focus on building something new, taking into account the physical constraints humans will be facing.
Another point to make in addition to your points is that people are not having children anymore. Population is set to begin decreasing once the Baby Boomers are gone. Without population growth there is no economic growth. Who is going to buy all of those new homes if there isn't population growth. Who is going to buy all those new cars if there isn't population growth. Our young people are so obsessed with their phones they don't notice each other. Our young men are neutered by pornography addictions. Our young women have been taught to believe they don't need men and have grown to hate men. Babies are our future. Lots of babies result in economic growth. People aren't having lots of babies anymore.
The point I was trying to make is that people have to start looking beyond economic growth. The age of economic growth, driven by cheap energy, is nearing its end. We're on the downslope already, as energy is becoming too expensive (in the physical sense, in the sense that you get less energy from the energy you put in or, in other words, more energy needs to be invested to obtain energy).
We've built a very complex civilization and there ain't enough juice to run it and maintain it. Shit is crumbling all over the place. Bridges, roads, power infrastructure, you name it. The same goes, by extension, for everything else.
In the long run, the fact that people are not having kids is a good thing. The world's population has doubled over the past circa 40 years and that can't go on, even if there were enough resources (especially energy), which there aren't. Population will have to be reduced and if it happens because limpdick faggots can't get it up, so much the better. Certainly better than a war or some other violent event or another fucking covid and fuckccination.
The decadence you allude to, women fucked up in the head (men too), and all the other shit are side-effects of the energy- and resource-related structural issues.
I didn't disagree with you, Paul. I think you are right. I was just also stretching what you were saying to the fact that humans are naturally going to de-populate themselves by not reproducing. The need for all of this energy is going to naturally reduce itself simply through the reduction of population and the economic contractions that are going to follow.
Believe me, I agree that there are too many people on this planet. I can't go anywhere and be totally isolated, even back packing in high Rocky Mountain wilderness still yields other back packers who can't go three days without listening to loud hip hop rap music on their I-phones (true story).
The problem with population size is primarily energy. Although you can fit zillions of people into a city, everybody lives from what a chunk of land somewhere out there produces (distributed all over the world). The stuff is grow, harvested, processed, and delivered to us thanks to energy (hydrocarbons). Without energy, we'd lose the connection to the land out there and starve. Even if people went back to manual farming and even if they did it collectively, they wouldn't be able to produce enough to sustain themselves.
Rap in the Rockies is sick! The bears will hopefully eat the fuckers!
Whites who listen to this stuff are self haters even if they into the "natural". They will go the way of the Dodo and Saber Tooth.
No. Civilization is not a zero sum game.
Not sure about that. There’s Civilization and Un-civilization. This model of civilization is fatally flawed.
The first question to ask about human depopulation: Who is going to go and who stays? Obviously you want the other group to go. Those like Paul who don't see it that way get the Darwin award.
You're in denial of facts and are responding by invoking ad hominem shit.
This is a simple biological phenomenon. Like any other species, humans have happened on a bonanza of an easy-to-get resource - hydrocarbons - and have overmultiplied. The human population is sustained solely by availability hydrocarbons, even though the size of the population and the quantity of hydrocarbons needed to sustain is are debatable figures. There is a limit, however, your denial and insinuations of malevolence notwithstanding - the former is okay, your problem, the latter you can shove back up your asshole.
Who's going to go? With any luck, the population size will shrink naturally over a long period due to reduced birthrate, people dying earlier due to reduced access to healthcare, what have you. The other option is a fight over the last fucking loaf of bread.
This is not personal, these are objective observations. If you care to contribute, go right ahead. If you want to insult, go fuck yourself.
Agreed.
The problem is that the so-called elite, the people who run the circus, are not only the worst scum (they get where they are through the most abominable practices, backstabbing, corruption, the worst possible sleaze), but also stupid as fuck. They're good at scheming, sucking dick, and backstabbing, not looking beyond the horizon. If anything, they do quick fixes and myopic solutions.
Immigration is a farce. Instead of picking educated, hardworking, high-potential people who want to integrate (kinda the way it used to be), they not only let anybody in, but the newcomers are assigned a privileged status, allowed to bring whatever problems fucked up their world back at home, and all the rest.
Things are fucked up to the nth degree, just about completely inverted. All these issues, however, are secondary to the energy predicament and the underlying raison d'etre of this civilization - technological progress and economic growth for the sake of progress and growth.
The real metric is people/household. This has been declining since the 70's. It is an indicator of slower population growth as well as increased wealth which translates into sprawl. The wealth variable mainly came from cheap reliable energy sources. It was government intervention which curtailed the "cheap" part. Eventually we'll either be back to being serfs on farms or else living the good life with modular nukes in every small town.
How hydrocarbons have been used was a choice. The model of civilization that was chosen for the plebs and the middle class isn’t for the plebs and the middle. The model of civilization was chosen by the overlords and for the overlords. The overlords decided on how the global economy was going to be built and powered. They went with centralization and maximizing political-financial-ecclesiastical power for themselves.
I don't expect that we (the western world) will have a say in the matter. It will merely be whack-a-mole in an attempt to manage the chaos.
The western world is in serious decline. Out of all the aspects of that, the most serious is cultural decline. Since circa WWII, America has steamrolled the world with its cheap entertainment, which perhaps had some value at one point, but has slid into absolutely worthless shit that fucks up people's heads, makes them fucking stupid, and makes them wallow in their fucking stupidity. The whole world is infected, the closer to the US, the worse.
There is no spirituality, no introspection, no nothing, just mad craving for another useless piece of shit, without purpose, sans aucune raison d'etre.
The West is fucked.
Is Trump's election or the revolt against wokeism (an extreme manifestation of the decadence) a harbinger of change? Are people sick of this shit? Or do they want more? Good question. I'd like to believe the former, but the latter is probably the case.
It would seem that the global East has been better able to hang onto common sense, not to embrace every new craze, but who knows - they like the cheap horseshit just like the next guy. We shall see what happens.
Looking forward to 2030, we are all supposed to be chock full of self replicating nanotechnology with built in alarm clocks so we can do the deep staters' work. You mean that "looking forward"?
Dems are truly the party of numbnuts. But also, as the party of liars, they know they were caught with the pants down, finally!
It will take a while to filter down to the democrats around me. Some will, some won’t. It was the child trans evil and my own president threatening me if I didn’t get the kill shots. A fairly sudden awakening. A realization that what my 14 yo granddaughter was going through—a transgender grooming, WAS THE PLAN ENABLED BY THE LEFT. As far as I’m concerned, the left is irredeemable and will never get my respect ever again. Ever. Over. I want vaporizing revenge. Now.
Now if you would just awaken to the Republican scum who have stabbed you in the back over and over and over. How many times have the Republicans held the Congress and the Executive but done nothing with that power to curb spending, reduce government, and eliminate unconstitutional agencies? People are still playing the tribe game. Democrat or Republican. Republican or Democrat. Their tribalism is blinding them to the fact that both parties want and do the same thing, they just use different jargon to get themselves there. Both spend too much money. Both continue waging foreign wars in lands that pose no threat or interest to the USA. Both refuse to deport all of the illegal immigrants. Political parties are the demise of America. More Americans need to cast off the party brainwashing and just think America first.
Get out of the business of passing lame to the Dems or the Republicans, these do not really exist any more. RINOS are counted as GOP and they are not MAGA, they are Deep State.
Trump has Dems in his group, get it? He is anti-Deep State, MAGA, not GOP. I wish he had declared a third party, MAGA. He couldn’t, but now perhaps with other anti- Deep Staters coming out of the Blue closet, he can form the MAGA party. Screw the RINOS! They are the worst.
Reject Israel and millions of Democrats will rally to his standard - as well as countless disgruntled traditional Americans who don't bother voting for the most part.
Blame!
I too wish Trump had said fuckitall and gone Independent.
What better term than that? Independence. As in, the Declaration thereof. As in, non-gimmes. Which is what the Uniparty is, lock, stock, and barrel.
Anti-deepstate. Is that when a person wears the little beanie hat and worships at a crumbly wall? Trump IS deep state but not everybody knows that. Know anybody who believes everything Trump says?
Primaries are important. Weeds must be pulled out and replaced.
I missed where she said she was going to the other side. All I got was that she didn't want to be a Democrat any more. That's a win. The end.
Oh, come on Red, you know for most people it is either Democrat or Republican. Even "independents" still vote Republican or Democrat.
"I want vaporizing revenge. Now."
Fuck yeah! And I'm stealing that.
I heartily enjoyed this morning's article. It's brilliant. I don't know how you manage to so beautifully and accurately describe the condescending self-owning ignorance of the Woke Jacobin left, but you do it like nobody else. So many great lines in today's post! I don't know where to start.
I guess the most satisyfing line is: "the punking of America by a gang of vicious, criminal snobs. The aggregate insult alone deserves a world-class beat-down. They know it, and they know they are going to get it, and it will be satisfying to watch them rat each other out as judgment nears."
I endeavor to avoid schadenfreude; however, I am only human. And I have saved all of the proof of the horrors unleashed upon us during the covid psyops, and the inducement of TDS to the point where I can't even talk to my former friends and most of my family - even if I don't bring up even one "political" issue or figure. The damage that the MKULtra tactics used via the mainstream media is vast and deep, and I don't know if it can be reversed. Peoples' minds are destroyed. In any case, if these people aren't somehow able to be deprogrammed, I am not sure how much we can progress.
Perhaps the answer is to just begin the work ourselves, and see whether they are smart enough to come along.
Thanks for the excellent work, Jim.
They make a claim and back it up with an opinion, and when challenged, they substantiate their claim and opinion with additional opinions.
Their claim essentially being that my deceased wife, my oldest daughter, and myself are part of the problem because we choose not to be "vaccinated", and they won't entertain any perspective or facts that would destroy their claim and opinions.
By doing so, they are essentially telling me that they don't respect my opinion, and ultimately certifying that they have a closed mind, where they are either married to an agenda, or subject to any derangement syndrome that their sources promote.
I can think of no reason to tolerate a relationship with such individuals. They ultimately clutter and cripple your mind, and I have better things to do.
Mary, in regard to the claim that the unvaccinated are the problem, what is your best source of information that implicates Fauci as being the problem?
Where did I mention Fauci or the unvaccinated being the problem?
Mary, you said "I have saved all of the proof of the horrors unleashed upon us during the covid psyops", and I just figured that you would be a good source to provide me with information to counter the claim.
RFK, Jr is using hindsight. In 2020, the entire world was enveloped in fear, mostly because of the bullshit they were being fed by the governments and the supporting media. If his book stops government overbearance and the consequent grab for power, good for him. If he uses his knowledge in HHS, yay! Until Fauci invents the next biological weapon and it escapes.
Can't happen? Hahaha! There are a lot of monkeys in I believe S. Carolina that would disagree with that.
Even better yet - just read Robert F. Kennedy, Jr's best-selling book on Fauci. Like what, 600 pages worth? It's great. Buy it.
I'm not amassing and issuing my research on demand, sorry. You will have to do your own. I would suggest reading Celia Farber's work on Fauci from the AIDS debacle first to get a background. Then you can read Steve Kirsch's work exposing the vaccines, and he's just one person. I am amazed if you hang around here you haven't already found dozens of other resources.
"If the Democratic Party had not gone completely insane for a decade, its many eggheads like Walter Isaacson and Michael Sandel would have been working on these major socio-economic transformations, instead of punking us with drag queens, pointless wars, and Marxian punishments."
"These two pusillanimous pricks, pretending to be genteel, are the poster boys for a diseased polity."
Just once I'd like to turn a phrase like that all on my own.
I appreciate your knock on the term "consumer." I refuse to use it as I feel it is intended to degrade people and portray us all as untermenschen. They see us as no more than hogs at the trough, mindlessly and greedily taking whatever swill they deign to allow us.
The worthless eaters
The pusillanimous pricks have plenty to answer for, as they often knowingly committed damaging actions. But the Long Emergency also ushered in a great wave of denial in the early stages, much of it only possible due to the extreme wealth Western Civilization exploited due to fossil fuels and technology. Now there are many citizens getting clarification on their gut feel of "something ain't right" as they are slowly awakening, realizing things will not improve without some serious pain.
Like a roller coaster diving down from the top, the rather pleasant feeling of weightlessness and stomach floating is now morphing into the increasing g-force of slamming backwards into the seat, eyeballs pressed into sockets, face-ripping in the wind and white-knuckling of the crash bar as survival instinct kicks in. The screaming has just begun.
Mr. Kunstler is absolutely correct about the chain stores. Most of them are on their way out. Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens have already closed hundreds of stores and hundreds more are on the chopping block. Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Big Lots are on their way out. Just the other day Advance Auto announced that they are closing over 700 stores.
I know a poor sap who purchased a Rite Aid for $2.9 million. There was supposedly over 8 years left on the lease. Lat year a bankruptcy judge allowed Rite Aid to vacate their lease. After the Rite Aid left and the store was vacant, it was valued at $600,000.
Advance Auto is a canary in the coal mine of economic distress on Main Street. Their customer base is DIY guys who work on their own cars to save money. Now they can't even afford to fix their own cars. Fun times ahead.
Well, can't afford.......true, but also CANNOT. Chilton's (the gold standard and Bible for amateur mechanics) no longer publishes repair manuals for retail sale. And the car companies are totally onboard with doing everything in their power to discourage "shadetree mechanics". Home repair work now depends upon other amateur mechanics publishing Youtube videos (which fortunately are usually very good).
The 11th commandment of the Orange Bible: Thou shalt not make a machine in the image of the human mind.
The 12th commandment of the Orange Bible: Thou shalt not put a computer in the a car.
Thank you, Jarek! Agree!!!
I like both of those.
My son, who was in sales at Sony Pictures until Covid happened, installed two new shower gizmos and two new sink gizmos using YouTube. He even tore an outside wall out (2’x2’) to do the shower.
So he has become a sort of plumber with YouTube! I am proud of him! And Home Depot loves him!
They love him because they can't do shit otherwise. Their "contractors" suck.
I had the Haynes manual for my 1977 Camaro and I had the Chilton for my 1984 Mercury.
Still have the original Idiots' Guide for VW by John Muir. Very greasy though.
Also the small print ads in the back of Popular Science were great for ordering manuals on nasty things like explosive formulas and chemicals and other strange alien technology.
Fred sez:
"Chilton's (the gold standard and Bible for amateur mechanics) no longer publishes repair manuals for retail sale."
Are you fucking kidding me? That is just straight-up fucking criminal.
Are they on archive.org? I won't buy anything past 2013 because I don't want to deal with the touchscreen bullshit, among other things. I'm one of those "power-NOTHING" chicks. God, I miss having a stick-shift. And windows I can wind down without locking up. A friend of mine had a car that all of the power windows eventually failed. And this was in the Deep South. He used to call it, "The Easy-Bake-Oven." LOL.
I'm good with cruise-control, though. For me, it's "speed control." If I'm on a road trip, my lead foot will floor it to 100 before I even notice. LOL.
And the J.C. Whitney parts catalogues? Long since gone too. The wait for them in the mail was excruciating. Second only to the new monthly Playboy centerfolds. Yes, those were the days, good as it got!
Two more factors:
- There isn't much to fix or work on with electric vehicles. As the percentage of EV's grows the demand for parts stores and mechanics decreases.
- vehicles are overly complicated and the scanners needed to diagnose problems in many makes are incredibly expensive. My mechanic retired because he couldn't find any decent employees and he couldn't afford to buy new scanners for every brand out there.
In a broader sense, I look back on it as another attack on masculinity, and an attack on individualism. Cars - especially muscle cars - were an extension of the owner. Who got more ass than the Z-28 Camaro & Chevelle SS owners? Mopar? Nope. Ford? Nope. No one.
Yes. It is an attack on masculinity. Having a couple pops, cruising around, cranking some Waylon, getting in some dustups. That was as American as apple pie.
Girls I didn't know wanted to hop right in. The only problem with 70's Camaros was that the seats didn't recline. You had to be somewhat of a gymnast make use of the back seat.
RA sez:
"Advance Auto is a canary in the coal mine of economic distress on Main Street. Their customer base is DIY guys who work on their own cars to save money. Now they can't even afford to fix their own cars. Fun times ahead."
Yeah, no shite!
I can't even get what I need at the hardware store without them placing it on backorder.
Re: Rite Aid...They closed one of the two stores in my town years ago, and now the other one is about to close, which is near me. They've been in bankruptsy proceedings for months now, the employees say it should be "resolved" (whatever that means) by January, but the shelves are nearly empty. The only thing they're good for is prescriptions...if that's what you need.
I am living in Los Angeles with my son, DIL and two grade school kids.
Costco, Home Depot, Ralph’s, Whole Paycheck etc. are all within a ten minute drive.
Even with all the shopping they have nearby what do they do? Amazon. Every day there are boxes of this or that dropped on the porch. Even I am guilty of letting my fingers do the walking/driving. Want a book? Amazon. Used.
There are generational issues at play here that everyone needs to get a grip on. Many kids were born with a smartphone on their laps. Even my five year old granddaughter is on the laptop every day doing “ST Math”.
Lots to consider.
Thriftbooks and ABEbooks are better options. I hate Scamazon.
Check out a book by Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, subtitled: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. It's an eye opener - not a pretty story.
Interesting.