I Love Guns – Page 5 – Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise

Happy Thanksgiving 2021, Wilder Style

“Two men are dead! This is not the time for petty sibling squabbles. That’s what Thanksgiving is for.” – Psych

Isn’t it odd the only people who tried to tell you how many people it’s appropriate to have for Thanksgiving dinner are the Centers for Disease Control and Jeffery Dahmer?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

I would say that it has always been my favorite holiday, but that’s not really so. When I was younger, say between toddler and 12, Christmas was. The reason that Christmas was so important was, well, the stuff. The movie A Christmas Story says it all.

But as I grew older, Thanksgiving kept growing in importance. In part, it grew in importance because it didn’t have the gifts. It had all of the proper things that, in my mind, a good holiday should have:

Time away from the cares of the day,
Time focused on being grateful,
Free from stress, and,
Cold.

The stress of Christmas was from the commercial aspects. Would I get that thing I wanted? The gifts overshadowed the holiday. Of course, each year the presents got less and less important, and the time with loved ones became more important. That’s when Thanksgiving started to win.

This year is the 400^th anniversary of Thanksgiving. The first one was held (according to a letter) in 1621. It wasn’t held at this time of year, rather, sometime near the end of harvest. The Pilgrims knew that they were going to make it.

April showers, bring . . .

It wasn’t always so clear. The original deal that they drew up was socialist. Everybody worked, and everybody shared equally. That worked as well as it ever has. Nobody worked, so nobody shared anything, except starvation. That was 1620.

Starvation is a tough teacher.

The Pilgrims then came to the good and sensible decision that if you grow it, you own it. The result?

So much food that they wanted to have a party – a party that lasted three days. And history teaches us that the Pilgrims weren’t teetotalers. But this harvest festival was sheer joy: giving thanks for the good sense to give up socialism and allow people individual freedom. There’s a big lesson here, yet we keep trying to repeat the same evils that impoverish men.

Oh well.

The holiday being a direct repudiation of the philosophy that’s killed more people than any other philosophy, well, that’s not the main reason I love the holiday. It’s just whipped cream on the pumpkin pie.

It’s so cold this Thanksgiving I saw a socialist with his hands in his own pockets.

The cold plays into why I love the holiday as well. The work of planting is done. The work of growing is done. The work of the harvest is done. Now is the time to sit, rest, and be thankful. The harvest was good. The food will last us through the winter and spring until the next crops can be grown from a renewed Earth.

It’s that stillness, that preparation. The great woodpile set and prepared against the winter’s cold. The food stocks set against the winter’s hunger. Now is a time of peace.

And that resonates through 400 years.

The life of a man, when faced with 400 years, is but an instant. But the peace of a single Thanksgiving can seem as an eternity. The moments created when family gathers together to celebrate is nearly magical. Overcooked turkey or gravy as lumpy as the Hunter Biden’s thighs? Not a problem.

We are here to give thanks.

I’m pretty sober, but even prettier when I’m not.

A drunken uncle who wants to need Mom about something that happened when they were six? Not a problem. Your team doesn’t win the football game? Not a problem.

We are here to give thanks.

Of course, at this point, the question is, to give thanks to who? Well, in our folks, the dinner will start out with us giving a prayer. That is, over those 400 years, the most common way the feast was held.

Giving thanks is part of being human, whether you are religious or not. Being thankful is a way to be healthier. The mere attitude of being thankful changes the way that people think. It moves them from a spirit of greed for what they don’t have, to a spirit of gratitude, for what they do have.

French tanks have rearview mirrors, mainly so they can see the battlefield.

Studies have proven that being happy about the things you have is about a zillion percent better for your health than being unhappy about things you don’t have.

Duh. This is the equivalent of psychology professors stealing money to do a study, because nothing in the history of humanity has been more obvious since, well, ever. Yet, they studied this. You could look it up, but, why?

You already know that it’s true. To quote it again:

We are here to give thanks. Not complain. Not be upset about any of the day-to-day things that always go wrong. Thanks.

I seemed to figure that out a little each year as I grew older. When I was six, it was all about the stuff. I remember ripping through the wrapping paper like a velociraptor in a room full of Leftists who had been raised on soy since birth. Some of the bits probably reached orbit.

As I got older, the greed waned, and the importance of Thanksgiving increased. Last year when I cooked the turkey upside down? I don’t think anyone but me noticed. But we were together as a family on the 399^th Thanksgiving. Together, in a house filled with the smells of turkey and pumpkin pie and a family that loves each other.

The most frustrated ghost in the world? The one that tried to haunt Helen Keller.

The things that I am thankful for are so numerous I couldn’t list them if I kept writing for the next eight hours. I’d put my list down, but I’m going to (as my textbooks always said) leave this as an exercise for the reader. It’s not what I’m thankful for, it’s what you are thankful for that will help you.

Even in the deepest depths of difficulties, there is a time and a place to stop. And give thanks.

Every minute I think about those things I give thanks for, I feel better. And the crazy thing I’ve learned? I don’t even need a turkey and mashed potatoes to do it. But the gravy? I’m especially thankful for my annual gravy bath. What would Thanksgiving be without it?

Happy Thanksgiving.

Rittenhouse Has Caused More Tears Than Old Yeller

“Ladies and gentleman, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookie from the planet Kashyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about that. That does not make sense.” – South Park

I guess Kyle did have a salt rifle.

The reaction from the Left on the Rittenhouse verdict has been different than I expected – I expected a few riots, sure. Riots are the standard when dealing with Leftists. They want the world to burn, so why not start with a Starbucks®? Or, heck, almost any huge corporate entity. They seem to love it when Leftists burn down their buildings – they immediately respond by vowing to rebuild and then donating to the very groups that . . .

. . . just burned down their store.

But Kyle Rittenhouse bothered them, deeply.

Don’t recognize his two IMDB® credits. Probably wouldn’t be a good dinner guest.

I watched, while not the whole trial, a huge chunk of it. Just after the Prosecution was done, the Defense could have said, “The Defense rests,” and still won.

It was that clear-cut. I don’t know why it took the jury so long, perhaps they were just waiting around to see if they could get those Panera® sandwiches the judge promised them if they were still deliberating on Friday.

The Left, who has never seen a criminal atrocity so bad that they don’t want the criminal to go free, was fixated on this case. The media was on board, mainly. Large numbers of people thought had no real idea of the facts of the case, and some even thought that Rittenhouse had killed multiple black people for no reason other than that they were protesting.

So, what did they have to say? (Some language not safe for all audiences, and all memes today are as-found on the Internet.)

Umair Haque is a grifter, and a fairly successful grifter. Does he bring up valid issues? Certainly, from time to time. And, if his solution is commies leaving the United States? I will personally help buy tickets if they promise to never come back.

Ayanna apparently has a keyboard that doesn’t allow her to type a capital “W”. Also? She takes her love of Jean-Luc Picard a bit too far.

Does “Prince Jellyfish” describe his arm?

Possibly fake. But funny.

Take a breath and come up for some Umair, Umair.

If you had any doubts about who we are dealing with . . .

You can find plenty of salt for yourself on Twitter® or Reddit©. Might as well bid goodbye to the trial with some memes:

That explains everything! Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: “What does this have to do with this case?” Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me, I’m a lawyer defending a major record company, and I’m talkin’ about Chewbacca. Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you’re in that jury room deliberating and conjugating the Emancipation Proclamation… does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.

Okay, the real testimony was even worse than the South Park® quote above.

Why can’t Gaige point to Kyle?

Oh, yeah, that. The ol’ Spicey Bicep.

A moment of silence, please.

Huh, yeah, I wonder what would happen if they let clinically insane socialists out on the street?

And the only people that Kyle shot ended up being felons? What are the odds??

The prosecutor will probably never end up living this one down . . .

And, for of course people could see the next round of trouble coming:

The Mrs. really laughed at this one.

And then The Bee® stings.

Who knows what the future will bring?

Reminder that it might be time for Leftists to change their password . . .

How Single Suburban Soccer Moms Are Killing The Country

“Train yourself to let go . . . of everything you fear to lose.” – Star Wars, Episode III

Childhood is like being drunk. Everyone remembers what you did but you.

I’ve written a lot about fear, and how negative it is. But fear is a very potent persuasion technique. Fear motivates people to action. Heck, I had a fear of elevators, but I took some steps to avoid it.

That’s why it’s used. David Frum (press “S” to spit) recently wrote an article in The Atlantic titled, How to Persuade Americans to Give Up Their Guns. I’m not going to link to it because I don’t want to drive traffic to this screed. That just encourages them to pay Frum to write other crap when he’s not sleeping in the warm chest cavity of the “conservative” money laundering schemes think tanks.

In the end, David takes his Canadian* sensibilities to tell the benighted Americans that they should be horribly afraid of guns. Guns are scary! I believe, in technical terms, they are so scary that they make Frum wee a bit in his pants.

I guess we know Frum’s favorite drink: pop.

Policy Exchange, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, Weasel Hair Added By Wilder

In the end, who, exactly was Frum writing this article to?

Well, let’s eliminate who he wasn’t writing to, first:

He wasn’t writing to you. He wasn’t writing to me. If you’re a regular here, it’s nearly a lock that you’re at least sympathetic to the idea that the Second Amendment provides, in clear language, an individual right to own and carry weapons of war. And we don’t wee our pants about it.
He wasn’t writing to the Left. They don’t need to be convinced. The Second Amendment is probably the biggest single impediment to their plans (see: Australia).
He wasn’t writing to rural folks. We have so many guns that our guns have guns.
He wasn’t writing to urbanites. Most people deep in the hive are already Leftists.
He wasn’t (for the most part) writing to guys. Guys (generally) like guns, and are generally less in favor of restricting them. Women, for instance, are 30% more likely to support restrictions on standard size magazines.

Single Suburban Soccer Moms have such high double standards.

What does that leave? Suburban women, specifically Single Suburban Soccer Moms. Frum even admits as much in the article – he references both Mothers Against Drunk Driving® (MADD©) and Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America™ (MDAFGSIA®). No, I didn’t make that last one up. It’s what happens when the wine aunt tries to come up with a catchy name and everyone is so blitzed on the white zin that they don’t tell her, “Oh, Mabel, that is an awful name.”

But, yeah, the weasel-faced Frum was trying to manipulate the SSSM, because they’re often the swing voter in elections. And, they make decisions based on fear, unlike me. I like my emotions like I like my beer. Bottled.

MADD© and MDAFGSIA™ are an excellent example of fear being used to manipulate Moms. Did MADD™ do some good? Certainly. But even the founder thought they went too far and quit in 1985 because MADD©, founded to stop drunk driving, became (in her words) “neo-prohibitionist”.

That has been the problem: fear drives decisions which then result in laws that take away freedom.

The SSSM has been the most reliable target of the “if it only saves one life!” and the “what about the children?” level of logic. And that’s what has led us to the path we’re on today.

As Yoda taught us: fear leads to hate. Who does the Left hate now?

People who won’t take “the jab”. Not everyone, of course. BIPOC seem to be exempt from this hate, so it’s pretty much people who like freedom and people on the Right. I’m surprised there isn’t a group called Mothers Against Icky Infected People Not Doing What I Say (MAIIPNDWIS).

It’s healthy to eat dried fruit. I’m just raisin awareness.

Really, where we’re at is hysteria. Remember how the ‘Rona crisis started – grainy videos of people walking down the street in Wuhan and collapsing, apartments being welded shut to keep the residents in, and Chinese denials that there was any issue. It was just like the first four minutes of the average Hollywood® “plague destroys mankind” movie that has been made dozens of times since 1950.

Is the ‘Rona real? Certainly. It does have a body count, though I think the one being reported has been artificially inflated.

So it is real. I’ve had it. And it seems to kill people somewhat randomly, though in very, very small numbers as a percentage of those who catch it and are captured in the statistics (I’m not).

And the perfect way to beat the fear drum so that Single Suburban Soccer Moms forget the clown show exit engineered by Biden. The specifics of the “vaccine” mandate don’t matter as much as the process, which never changes:

Suck at leading.
Have bad poll numbers.
Make use of either an existing or contrived “scary” situation.
Come down hard on the “scary” situation: propose something that takes away rights, if possible. The Leftist base will be fine with it, and it will engage the SSSM crowd.

Oh, and I forgot: always pass the buck.

This is what passes for Leftist leadership. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, said the quiet part that you’re not supposed to say out loud: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” If there wasn’t a crisis, the Left would invent one. Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was one. The Keystone pipeline from Canada is another. These are manufactured to enrage and engage people on the Left.

But the crisis had to be a specific one: a crisis that could engage the SSSM brigade. As the de facto swing voters, political policies are determined by how the fears of this group can be exploited. COVID-19 is just one example. Why do you think images of little kids in cages were trotted out to show how actually enforcing immigration law was mean? Me, I only get upset when I see a hamburger bun in a cage – that means it was bread in captivity.

I bought a knife that can almost slice five baguettes of bread at once – but it’s only a four loaf cleaver.

Since there is nothing a SSSM loves more than safety, they’ll vote for it every time. And it doesn’t matter if liberty is on the line – the SSSM essentially views government as her spouse and protector.

Perhaps, though, there is an alternative?

Maybe we could convince the SSSMs that, historically, governments have committed murder on the wholesale level. Maybe we could get them up in arms about that? Heck, I even have a name for it if they want to use it:

Mothers Engaged Against Tyrant Politicians Exploiting Everyone (MEATPEE)

Which is weird, because that’s exactly what I think David Frum probably smells like.

*Technically Frum got American citizenship in 2007 or so, but I think it should be revoked because he’s a tool

The Mrs. went to a lot of trouble to create an advertisement for the livestream on Wednesday at 9 Eastern. Here it is:

Efficiency: Not Always Our Friend

“Practical, Captain? Perhaps. But not desirable. Computers make excellent and efficient servants; but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, a starship also runs on loyalty to one man, and nothing can replace it, or him.” – Star Trek (TOS)

I’d tell you a German knock-knock joke but they already have AI-enabled sensing that lets them know who it is.

Let’s pretend that you had to break a big rock. A really big one, say the size of your mother-in-law’s butt.

Okay, that’s a big ask. The last time I had to break a big rock that big was . . . never. That’s a big rock.

Big rocks, mothers-in-law? You’re thinking, have you had too much ale, John Wilder? Bear with me, this will make as much sense as Joe Biden’s economic policies.

So, we’re back to breaking a stupid rock in our mind because John Wilder asked us to. What’s the most direct way to do it?

What does a member of the Southern Buddhist Church say when they die? “What in the reintarnation is going on here?”

You might think you could use a sledgehammer, but not so fast, Thor. That’s not the most direct way, and Disney® will probably sue me for mentioning Thor because they now have the intellectual property rights on all things Norse. Ignore Disney®, since they don’t have (yet) a copyright on hammers. But I don’t want to give them ideas, because soon enough they’ll have a copyright on interstellar space.

To have a steel hammer, you’d have to make one. That would involve having a mine for iron ore. Then the ore would have to be processed into steel. After you figured out how to do that, you’d have to forge the head of the hammer (it has to be strong, right?).

Even then you’re not done. You have to find a tree, get some wood suitable for a handle, invent an entire industry to just get the knife to carve the handle, and finally mate the handle to the hammer head.

Nope. A hammer isn’t that direct. To have a hammer, you have to have a functioning civilization.

Thor’s enemies never get drunk: they just get hammered.

For the most direct way, you’d have to grab a stone or something hard nearby and just start thwacking the rock.

That’s not very efficient.

A hammer is more efficient. But how about you build a piece of high-strength steel to use as a drill? That’s faster. But the drill requires advances in metallurgy even greater than the hammer head.

Okay, what’s the most efficient way to break rock?

How about you blow it up?

Note to the ATF, this is economics, not a suggestion.

That’s a really good way to make a big rock a bunch of tiny rocks, quickly. But in addition to making your hammer and drill, you have to also create an entire industry dedicated to making explosives.

This points out a lesson from the (dead) Austrian economics dude, Ludwig Von Mises: the most efficient way to do something is the most indirect.

To break a rock more efficiently, you have to look for increasingly more indirect methods. That requires time. It requires effort. And, it requires resources that might be hundreds of miles (around 7 kilometers) away.

We have a really efficient society. We can have fresh strawberries delivered to us (cheaply) in January because they grow them in Peru or some other country that rarely visits here. We can have fresh roses for Valentine’s Day® because we have airplanes that deliver them directly from the cocaine fields. Or something like that. I’m not a botanist.

Efficient is better, right?

Well, no. I’d like to put forward as Wilder’s Exhibit A the human body. Nobody needs two kidneys, at least that’s what the girl in the motel in Vegas told me before I woke up in the bathtub. Yet we have (on average) two. We have two lungs. Everywhere that having a spare part might make it easier for you to pass along your genetic information, the parts are paired. I’ll leave the other locations of other paired organs as an exercise for the reader. I mean, everyone has six toes on their left foot, right?

Wow. Looks like Chee-toes® instead of actual toes.

Not everything is paired. We each have (on average) one brain, though I think my ex-wife had six or so brains, one for each personality and species of venomous snake that she would normally impersonate.

But that single brain is armored as well as it could be. Likewise, physics says that having two hearts works as well as having a man living with two women living under the same roof. Thankfully, we have a solution that’s the next best thing – death.

Two eyes. Two ears. I could go on and on. It appears that humans are designed based on the philosophy that “two is one, and one is none.” Huh.

Efficient designs are vulnerable.

From experience, I can say that any business that has any spare capacity will do anything to use that capacity. Wall Street doesn’t want 90% utilization – Wall Street wants 99%. They want . . . efficiency. They don’t want profits for the next decade, they want profits this year.

Just like I have two lungs, I’ll say this again: Efficient designs are vulnerable.

How many of the semiconductor chips in your life came from Taiwan?

A lot. Here’s what the Financial Times noted:

“Yes, the industry is incredibly dependent on TSMC, especially as you get to the bleeding edge, and it is quite risky,” says Peter Hanbury, a partner at Bain & Company in San Francisco. “Twenty years ago there were 20 foundries, and now the most cutting-edge stuff is sitting on a single campus in Taiwan.”

So, most of the best information and knowledge in making computer chips that define the very essence of your life are built at one factory in a country that the Chinese now know that Joe Biden will defend with all of the force of . . . a strongly worded speech.

The Chinese word for Asia is the same as their word for Taiwan: China.

It’s efficient.

I can’t help wondering how many of the current shortages of “stuff” that we’re seeing is just China messing with us. “Hey, if we turn this lever, what happens to the United States? Oh, man, that was funny. Did you expect to see used car prices go up? And those pickles and baking soda? That was a hoot.”

Outsourcing and internationalizing is efficient. Having no surplus production stored in warehouses is efficient. Having no redundant capacity is efficient.

When efficiency works, it means everyone has more stuff. The factories are working at 100%. The people are consoooming apps and video games and pantyhose and PEZ®.

Did I mention that efficiency is vulnerable?

What happens when an efficient process gets disrupted?

Shortages. Price increases. Business failures. Revolutions.

Maybe the question that we should ask is what can we do to make life less efficient?

I guess I have stock-home syndrome.

More efficiency means empty warehouses. Do you have food storage? Do you have ammo storage? What happens if you lose the grid for an hour? A week? A month?

What happens if you lose the efficiency of modern life for a day? For a week? For a month?

What happens if you lose it for the rest of your life?

What happens if you have to live a life that’s less efficient?

I guess there are always more rocks, right?

Debt, Trench Warfare And An End Of The World Cult You Can Believe In

Had some (planned) other things come up, so one from the vaults that many of you might not have seen . . .

After World War One, the phrase, “Happy as a Hapsburg in Serbia” fell out of favor, as did the “Hair Smile” style of mustache. Or is that Herr Smile?

I’ve already told the story about digging out of debt. In retrospect, it seems to me that all of those stories end up sounding the same: “I weighed six hundred pounds, my kitchen floor was covered in dirty dishes and cat food, and I had $3.7 million in debt until I found Wildernetics© and the First Church of PEZology™. Look at me now!”

Proof that I am a reincarnated World War One soldier (Part One). These are from a soldier’s joke newspaper, The Wiper’s (a mangling of Ypres) Times, produced for soldiers by soldiers that found an abandoned printing press.

I know my methods can solve everything, but today I had a crazy idea. How about spending some time talking about how I got into debt in the first place? I know that might cut into the revenue of the Wildernetics© End of the World Cult and Take-Out BarBeQue Restaurant®, but I figure you might come back for the brisket. It’s very tender.

I’ll quit teasing. How did I get into debt? First a little. Then all at once.

Let me rewind a whole marriage. As regular readers will know, The Mrs. was not the first, but she is the final spouse. My first marriage was an example of a series of escalating poor mutual decisions where each side seemed to lack a brief moment of sanity to back out before anyone got hurt, sort of like the run-up to World War I. Even before Archduke Franz Ferdinand proved that .380 ACP was a useful round against Hapsburgs and their notably gelatinous bones, World War I was inevitable. Before I said “I do” everything was in place for the trench warfare of future divorce.

Okay, I apologize for this joke. I think it violated the Geneva Convention.

But, rewinding. After graduating college I got married and got a starter job, which is to say I had a job that just barely paid the bills. Nearly exactly. In fact, after working at the job for a few months, we were exactly (most months) at zero. We weren’t saving any money yet, but we also weren’t in the red. Success. My credit card limit was 10,000 . . . Siberian Lira. This was equivalent to a whole bright and shiny quarter. This helped me stay debt-free.

Then came the table.

Proof that I am a reincarnated World War One soldier (Part Two), this one is for James.

We had a dining room table. It wasn’t great, and the chairs that came with it were a bit ratty – the vinyl arms had been slammed into the table often enough that it looked like a pack of rabid Chihuahuas had spent their lives sitting on the chair seats and gnawing on the arms. I imagine them growling and chewing in unison as they sat around the table, like Viking Chihuahua rowers. Most all of our furniture was second-hand or gifted, but the table really was the biggest eyesore.

Okay, this one isn’t mine, but I couldn’t resist.

At some point, discipline broke. I know how silly it sounds to say that now, but back then, month after month of not buying anything but actual necessities takes more discipline than Elizabeth Warren around a tribal gathering. Eventually, I gave in. We bought the table. Using debt. Back then, individual stores would give you amazing credit limits just to buy their crap. They gave us more than enough credit to buy that table, and with the money I saved from shipping the Chihuahuas back to Denmark, I figured we’d be money ahead.

Proof that I am a reincarnated World War One soldier (Part Three).

The table was only $500, but the difference between having no debt (outside of a mortgage) and having debt, even a small one, was a huge psychological hurdle for me. It’s like having a doughnut when you’re doing low carb. “I got weak had one doughnut, so I might as well have, say, 36. And do you have any whipped cream I could just guzzle straight from the can? I broke my diet, and don’t want to waste it.” Pretty soon other nice-to-have things showed up, very few of which I still own today. But I had crossed that mental barrier from peace (debt-free) to war (spend away!). Suddenly, the credit card companies realized I had debt, and immediately wanted to lend me more money. My credit limits tripled.

I hope that this doesn’t sound like I’m blaming The Ex. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, I was fully complicit. Ultimately the debt grew faster than my wages. This led to the idea of grad school: I could get free tuition plus be a paid graduate assistant. Would it work?

Sure. There were also student loans. Free money! Oops.

Okay, let’s all admit that Nachos Bellgrande® is NOT a war crime.

Proof that I am a reincarnated World War One soldier (Part Four).

There were some places along the way that I could have gotten off the merry-go-round. When I sold that first house to move for a new, post-grad school job, we’d made a stunning 40% profit in three years. It would have more than paid off a good chunk of my student loans. Nope, that would have made too much sense. We did pay down a little debt and bought a new house, putting down the minimum down payment.

But most of the money was just spent. About this time I also had one of the worst ideas I’d ever had in my life. The Ex and I were always arguing about money, and about the thermostat – I knew that 50°F in winter and 90°F in summer were reasonable temperatures, but The Ex disagreed. Well, if she had to pay the bills, she would certainly understand how tight money was. Right?

No.

We had a different view of not only household temperature, but the idea that one should pay monthly bills, well, monthly. I didn’t figure this out for three years, by which time I owed enough money to qualify as a third-world country, but one of the nice, mainly atrocity-free ones. Mainly.

Taco Bell® inspired outfits?

Debt is like George Washington’s description of fire, it’s an amazing tool, but a fearful master. My advice is to pay all of your bills in full, monthly. I know that the people who own your debt disagree. Why? They want you to have debt, as much as you can pay.

I had a friend (since passed away in an accident) who I called Batman© on this blog (“I’m Batman,” – Batman, in Batman). He had one particular investment that was worth about $12 million – a series of apartments. He had paid the apartments off before they were even built by selling future property tax credits to other businesses. Yeah, that kind of friend.

But he viewed his tenants as slaves (his term), who went to work daily so they could send him money every week. I heard him use exactly that phrase to describe them. He liked his tenants and was a good landlord. However, he knew the score: when they went to work each day, they went to work so they could pay him.

And Batman was a good guy and he taught kids that debt was a form of slavery of ordinary people to wealthy guys just like him, not that they always listened.

My marriage to The Ex? That particular marriage is proof of the old Henny Youngman joke:

“Why are divorces expensive?”

“They’re worth it.”

Yeah, divorce just STARTS the argument.

The day she moved out was one of the happiest days for both of us.

I was still digging myself out of debt when I met The Mrs. As our relationship blossomed, I thought it was only fair to tell her of the debt that I had.

“The Soon To Be The Mrs., I have something to tell you. You might want to sit down.”

The Soon To Be The Mrs. looked shaken. She sat. I told her about my debt. She laughed.

“Is that all? I thought you were going to tell me you’d been in prison.”

No, not prison.

But I still owed reparations payments to France.

Who Do I Write To?

“A writer writes, always.” – Throw Momma From The Train

Gravity is a conspiracy theory. It’s how the man keeps you down.

I wrote a while back about why I write. TL, DR: because I want to.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, perhaps another question is, who am I writing to?

TL, DR: You.

But a lot more follows.

I guess I’ll start for who I’m not writing for: Leftists. I don’t care about their opinion. At all. Anyone who thinks that a human who has/had testicles should compete in sports as a woman is delusional. Anyone who thinks that prosperity can be bought with a printing press is dangerous.

There’s little to no reason to think that anything I ever will write or ever could write would interest a Leftist in the slightest. This blog has had one or two Leftist trolls in the comments. We ignored them, they went away nearly immediately. I think that reading the things I write is probably painful for them. They’d love to troll here, but that means they have to read it first.

Vampires are like Leftists: they don’t reflect.

Leftists seem to be able to read, it’s the comprehension that gets them. And I don’t think that Leftists will ever be convinced by mere words.

No, there are only two things that convince a Leftist they’re wrong:

When the State that they created decides to send the police in the middle of the night to collect them. Generally, the next part is The End. How? With a bullet (just a few, bullets are expensive) or, more likely, intentional starvation. At the point when the real hunger sets in, I imagine more than one of them has that final thought: “Maybe I was wrong.”
When a long drop from a great height ends in a sudden impact. Call it Pinocetivation instead of motivation. It has the advantage of being a sudden and permanent cure. There are, of course, variations on this them involving vast amounts of kinetic energy applied to a small portion of the body through a fast-moving projectile. You get the point.

Leftists are, generally, not redeemable. Once the infection of Leftism has set in, just like a ‘Rona mRNA shot, they’ll never be the same again. Ever.

So, I’m not writing for them. Even statements that have been proven to be true for thousands of years of human existence will be denied by them. Why? Because that’s not what we’ve believed for (checks watch) five years now. It’s (insert current year here).

So, I’m not writing for Leftists.

When Starbucks®, Antifa™, Nike©, and Coke® are on the same side . . . . Reprinted with permission.

I’m also not writing to vilify things I see that I don’t like on the Right. I’ve seen enough of history to know that atrocity really only comes from the Left. The Right? Mainly if the Right is unchecked they want to produce free and open societies where their citizens can be left alone so they can be prosperous.

Ohhh, scary. I kid, but to a Leftist, the idea of a free and prosperous society that chooses who can (and can’t!) be a citizen is scary.

Leftists have a big problem with the idea of “their citizens” because to a Leftist, everyone is a possible American citizen. They just aren’t Americans yet.

That’s obvious nonsense.

The policies of the Left, when unchecked lead to the greatest horrors man has ever seen on Earth. The policies of the Right, when unchecked lead to the greatest prosperity that has ever been seen anywhere, at any time ever on Earth.

That’s why I don’t, and won’t, shoot Right. Do I endorse everything everyone on the Right says? Of course not!

Even though I don’t write about the things I disagree with, I write (mainly) for the Right. I’m not trying to convert anyone. I’m also not trying to spread dissension in our ranks. That’s what the Left is for, and I won’t do add fuel to the fire for them.

Yup, this is the energy policy of the Left in a nutshell.

Several readers I know in real life. I’ve written many posts with them in mind. Many readers I’ve grown to know over time through comments and email exchanges. I write with them in mind, too. I don’t hold my tongue to not offend someone. Not everyone shares all of the same opinions. What one friend might agree with, another might disagree with.

That’s okay. This isn’t a cult. Unlike the Left, we’ll take you even if you’re not up to every single nuance of our current doctrine.

But when I write, I want to do this: make people think about the world in a different way. There is nothing I love more than when I find that something I thought was true was false. It gives me pause, and makes me reassess my philosophy from top to bottom.

I recall a particular day where I did just that: George “read my lips” Bush came out against a tax cut. This particular tax cut was proposed by a Democrat. Bizarro world? Sure. But I realized that George was just another one of them – the permanent ruling class in Washington.

I won’t promise I’m consistent, but I do promise to tell the Truth. And when I find I was wrong? I’ll tell you that, too. I won’t be shy – Pa Wilder taught me that telling the Truth about being wrong isn’t the sign of a weak man.

Writing to convince people is a fool’s errand. You already know who you are. And if you’re here, chances are good we’d be on the same side. Who knows, some of you may even be in Mayberry and not know that I’m walking around with you daily.

Not my target audience.

In the end, the war of ideas and of information is where our battle will be won. We must keep our heads high, our spirits up, and be of good humor.

Which is why I’m writing to you. Our day will come. This is not over. We are not done.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Cache

“You would then illegally scrounge whatever material you could from a backup supply cache that I’ve overlooked. The same cache where your team are waiting for further orders.” – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

I have the eye of a tiger, and the heart of a lion, and a lifetime ban from the zoo.

Cache.

It’s from a French word, cache, and it’s pronounced exactly like the word “cash” but you simply have to add the sound of a six-day-old banana being chopped in half with a rusty meat cleaver on the end. I have no idea why people say learning French is difficult.

Cache was originally a French trapper word for a place where they hid stuff like gunpowder and spare Velcro® and the PEZ® extract that they painstakingly hand-squeezed from beaver glands.

Who exactly were the French trappers hiding stuff from? Probably beavers wanting their glands back, or the rare deepwater Apache wanting gunpowder to snort.

Why am I bringing up old French slang terms? I was inspired to write this little post down because both Aesop (LINK) and Eaton Rapids Joe (LINK) wrote about it today. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

Why don’t dairy cows wear flip flops? They lactose.

Each of them had a slightly different take than I will, so, please do give them a visit. Here’s my $0.02 worth:

What am I going to want to hide and why? First, how about what not to hide?

Food.

This is one of my pet peeves. Many, many people in America have been hungry, as in “I skipped breakfast” but few people living in 2021 America have really been hungry. I remember reading that T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia” not D.H. Lawrence who was “Lawrence of Chlamydia”) was always showing how tough he was. Why, one day, he went a whole day without having any food.

Most people in the United States could go weeks without any chow. It always amuses me when I read an article about some programmer from San Jose who followed the Apple® Maps™ direction and ended up snowbound for three days is found. Almost always, the news story ends up with some insanely stupid comment, “And Brandon survived for six days on nothing but Taco Bell® Fire Sauce™ packets.”

If you mix Taco Bell® Fire Sauce™ into ramen, it tastes just like poverty.

No. Brandon was fine going to be fine. The 86 calories he got from the hot sauce packets didn’t cover that thin margin between life and death, and he didn’t really need to eat the two people with him.

When it comes to bug-out bags (or get home bags) the last thing I’d want is to add food. And that goes for your cache, too. Food is bulky, and, over time, will spoil. Food is a difficult thing to conceal for long periods. I mean, have you ever left a ham sandwich with mayo on the counter for a week or two? Ugh.

Freeze dried food or MREs will last quite a long time if kept dry, but how many MREs would you have to bury to survive for a reasonable period?

A lot. I could do the math. And I certainly do suggest that you have a ludicrous amount of food on hand – as much as you can afford and store. But to go out and bury it? Unless you have enough land and enough money to build and bury a bunker, creating a food cache would be just as silly as creating a water cache.

Is drinking water from a straw the opposite of snorkeling?

But what should I cache? That’s where it gets interesting. What does it take to keep me alive? What do I want to hide?

As many before me have said, if you think it’s time to bury your rifles, perhaps it’s time to start loading them instead. But rifles are a great thing to have when times get tough. Rifles are a great thing to have when times are great. I just love rifles.

A rifle without a cartridge means I have to do cardio to bash the commies with my rifle butt. That sounds like work. So, why not store some ammo, too? And, by ammo, I mean a LOT of ammo. Since the prices are coming down now, it’s pretty close to the time to smash the “buy” button. So, that’s something that I might want to have.

Tools. What kind? Knives. Hatchets. Fire starting stuff. Rope. A good pair of boots. Bitcoins.

Medical supplies. Some of them have a pretty short shelf life. Bandages, not so much – they can last as long as they’re dry and sealed. And, if it came down to it, some triple-antibiotic salve is worth having. Personally, I’d try that even if it was expired even if it didn’t work any better than rubbing cottage cheese into a cut at that point.

Well, I can’t store a year’s worth of water, but I can store high-quality, high-volume water filters that will do 100,000 or so gallons. That should give me time to figure out how to clean up the local creek water.

The Mrs. got me a bracelet with my initials on it before I went into the hospital, but they had a silly typo – instead of JW it said DNR.

Where should I hide my cache?

Any public lands are just that – public. If someone finds my cache, well, hey, “free stuff” will be what they think. In the western half of the United States where there is an immense volume of public land, it’s certainly easy enough to find places where no one has ever been. I know that in several of my trips, I’ve been places that no other person, ever, has walked. That’s a good place to hide stuff.

Depending on where you are, there might not be any public lands to speak of, especially if you’re east of the Mississippi. That means hiding it on lands that you or someone else owns. I don’t know about you, but I don’t generally think highly of people who dig holes on my land and bury stuff on it. Heck, the other week I dug down and found a wallet that someone had cached here at Wilder Mansion. Anyone know of a “Jimmy Hoffa”? I seem to have his wallet.

If I or my family own it, by definition I’m in much better shape. It’s even better if I have 50 or more acres, because playing tic-tac-toe across 50 acres gets a little tiresome.

Like anything, I’d suggest that you never trust on a single solution. “Two is one, and one is none” is old-school prepper talk. Redundancy is the key. Why have one AR-15 when you could have two? Two means that if one breaks, you have the other one. And if they both break? You just might be able to use the parts from one for the other – that’s the reason The Mrs. and I had two boys, after all.

Buy a communist a plane ticket and he can fly once. Push him out of a helicopter and he can fly the rest of his life.

The same goes with caches. They have one cache, when you can have three? Why have three, when you can have four? Having two water filters is better than having one. And having two of the same water filter is better still.

The last thing is that if I have a cache, i need to be able to find it and access it when I need it. If i hid it so well that even i can’t find it, it’s lost. Perhaps some future archaeologist might find it interesting, but that doesn’t help me. As I’ve recently seen, I can’t even remember all of the 300 or so passwords I have, so trying to remember where I buried my cache in a decade might be difficult if I can’t remember “password123”.

But whatever you do, don’t cache French fish. They’re literally poisson.

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: F-15 And Nukes Edition

“Computer, this is Captain James Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Begin 30-second countdown. Code zero-zero-zero-destruct-zero.” – Star Trek

When you kill the last Dracula clone? That’s the final Count down.

Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
Open War.

June had (again) increased levels of violence over the norm, but it was down from last June when the George Floyd riots began the active operational phase of the Leftist Coup. Again, none of the violence that I could see originated from the Right. None.

I’m holding June at 9 out of 10. That’s still two minutes to midnight. Last month I repeated that “ July or August could take us to a 10” and the reason is becoming clear as hot weather and economic woes are showing up on the street.

I currently put the total at (this is my best approximation, since no one tracks the death toll from rebellion-related violence) hanging in at around 900 out of the 1,000 required for the international civil war definition.

As close as we are to the precipice of war, be careful. Things could change at any minute. Avoid crowds. Get out of cities. Now. A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue: Front Matter – Extremist Content – Violence And Censorship Update –– Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Demonizing America – Links

Front Matter

Welcome to the latest issue of the Civil War II Weather Report. These posts are different than the other posts at Wilder Wealthy and Wise and consist of smaller segments covering multiple topics around the single focus of Civil War 2.0, on the first or second Monday of every month. I’ve created a page (LINK) for links to all of the past issues. Also, subscribe because you’ll join over 500 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30 Eastern, free of charge.

Extremist Content

It’s been a while since the person sworn in as President of the United States threatened his own people with violence. Here’s what Mr. Biden said recently:

“Those who say the blood of patriots, you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government, if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.”

I wrote about that here (The Wilder Response To Mr. Biden), but more on that later.

After some research, this isn’t the first time that Mr. Biden has said something similar, though last time he described committing mass murder of Americans using American troops he avoided mentioning nuclear weapons. He just stuck to Hellfire® missiles. I guess those are more humane, though I heard if I throw my shoes into hellfire, I could watch the soles burn.

I guess this might work. I hear Pakistan uses Sikh-heating missiles.

To be clear, if any of the people writing on the Right had mentioned using weapons of mass destruction against either the Left or FedGov I imagine they would have gotten a meeting with the FBI in a small hot room in a distant state and the chance to see if Ted Kaczynski has written anything recently.

Thanks, I’m John Wilder, and welcome to my Ted Talk®.

But Mr. Biden does it, it just makes the headlines for the afternoon. This is not only the single most extreme thing that any sitting president has ever said, at least in my recollection. The scary thing is the lack of reaction from the news media. Had Trump mentioned one-way helicopter flights for Antifa®?

Imagine the collective panties in a bunch.

I ain’t got time to bleed.

Extremism, though, is the problem. The Left has become unhinged in its quest to take over every element of life in the United States. About the only thing left are 100,000,000 or so people who reject Leftism. And all of those people have guns. So many guns. And they don’t want to sell them to the government – they couldn’t imagine selling them to organized crime.

I guess that makes us the extremists?

Violence And Censorship Update

The beatings and low-level constant riots in cities across the country continues. The level of violence we face today would have been considered off the scale in 2000. But today? They are what we call “another Saturday night in Portland.” How is everyone enjoying the new normal?

You want a civil war? This is how you get a civil war.

Censorship is the main story in the Violence and Censorship Update. The first story starts with:

Me.

Of the 1,569 some-odd days that this blog has been operational, it has gone down twice. The first was because of (as near as I can tell) a botched update of the WordPress® version software. It was down for just a few hours on a Saturday. The post that was up wasn’t anything more or less controversial than usual. It probably involved PEZ©.

Last week, however, I experienced an . . . unusual outage. It was while this post (The Wilder Response To Mr. Biden) was up and running. The entire site shut down just as one of the widest audiences that I’ve ever had was coming by to read that story. After hours of wrangling and two botched solutions, the blog was back up and running.

Who was it? I have a good friend who knows about such things, and he thought that it didn’t smell right. Rather than a big government conspiracy, it was, he thought, more likely to be an amateur who didn’t like the message. To be sure, the wheels of government are so large and we are all so tiny that any of us (any, up to and including Gates and Bezos) could be crushed by it and it wouldn’t even slow its spin.

So, a message? A coincidence? As people tell me, there are no coincidences. Regardless, I write.

But if you’re on Facebook®, please note that the following is no coincidence:

I’d love to meet Zuckerberg. He’s someone really is interested in my hobbies, political interests, job, spending habits, history, and friends.

Yup. Facebook™ is now actively checking the people you interact with, and warning you if they Facebook© doesn’t like their opinion. It is even offering you expert help.

Hurray! That’s just what I need, support from a global corporation on what to think about the unapproved media I consume. Thanks, guys!

I haven’t been on Facebook® in, well, a very long time. But if you’re one of the people still going there, be happy that they’ll tell you what to think.

Updated Civil War II Index

The Civil War II graphs are an attempt to measure four factors that might make Civil War II more likely, in real-time. They are broken up into Violence, Political Instability, Economic Outlook, and Illegal Alien Crossings. As each of these is difficult to measure, I’ve created for three of the four metrics some leading indicators that combine to become the index. On illegal aliens, I’m just using government figures.

Violence:

Up is more violent, and violence is down again in June. Is it really down, or are we just used to seeing it?

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable. Instability increased this month, as expected. As I predicted last month, instability is down right now. Unless there’s a crisis, I expect political instability to remain low until at least September.

Economic:

Inflation is finally beginning to hit this measure. Right now we’re in a trap: take measures to stop inflation, and you tank the economy. Take measures to keep the economy going, you increase inflation. Sounds like my first marriage.

Illegal Aliens:

This data is at record levels for every year I have data for. I think it’s plateaued because the bus won’t take any more people over. I guess Congress will authorize more money for busses? Or maybe, just maybe, the Border Patrol is just letting them go on by because they know that their actions won’t change a thing?

Demonizing America

There is a complete effort by the Left to demonize traditional American values. It starts with the flag:

If your basic idea of loving a country New York Times is to hate everything about it, you might want to rethink what loving a country means.

This particular article is by Sarah Maslin Nir. “Ms.” Nir, who from her online photos appears to be transgender, is the writer. “She” has had several other pieces of “journalism” published, where “she” has displayed a continual hate for the United States.

Sarah Maslin Nir comes into the bar. The bartender says, “Why the long face?”

It’s okay if “Ms.” Nir wants to use her journalistic platform to go after the traditional values of the United States every single time she writes. It has also become clear that the New York Times® will go after traditional values whenever they can. The stories that the newspapers publish aren’t things that happen by mistake like my conception, they’re a choice like Jeff Epstein’s death.

And that choice is to demonize everything about the United States. Another example? Shockingly, it’s from the New York Times™. Again. It seems like they’re always behind this. At what point can you declare a newspaper an enemy combatant?

To destroy a people without bloodshed, the first thing someone must do is destroy their connection to their past. To vilify that which was good. They even tried to vilify fireworks by pointing out the people with PTSD might be triggered. As if they didn’t know July 4 was coming?

When would you do this?

On the most favored holiday of what you want to destroy. For Americans, that would be July 4. To win a civil war without fighting, you’d demoralize a people so they had no will to fight back.

You’ll never convince a patriot that the Constitution was a bad idea. Sure, some of them think the bill of rights didn’t go far enough. But most people raised with traditional American values won’t be convinced by the 1619 Project© or any of the drivel I’ve posted above.

So why do they do it?

Remember, for Leftists, Orwell is a “How To” and not a cautionary tale.

To create division. To widen the gap. To demoralize. To destroy the people that made the United States great.

So, for a Leftist? Tuesday.

LINKS

As usual, links this month are courtesy of Ricky. Thanks so much, Ricky!!

Fed Clowns To The Left Of Me…

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-us-never-been-as-divided-since-civil-war

https://slate.com/culture/2021/06/civil-war-documentary-peacock-juneteenth-history.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJoU520xQnU

Joker States To The Right…

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-06-24/us-civil-war-now-table-new-alliances-form

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article252170028.html

https://sanctuarycounties.com/2021/06/20/more-than-61-of-american-counties-are-now-second-amendment-sanctuaries/

Here I Am, Stuck In The Middle With You

https://www.alreporter.com/2021/06/11/mo-brooks-alabama-legislators-arent-real-republicans-another-civil-war-could-be-coming/

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/560681-trump-supporter-warns-cnn-reporter-of-civil-war-if-former-president-not

https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2021/americas-next-insurgency/

https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/opinion/columns/elza-how-to-avoid-a-civil-war/article_371a2975-ed57-5170-aa14-3663ea375509.html

https://newrepublic.com/article/162637/third-reconstruction-second-civil-war

https://thebulwark.com/the-civil-war-they-seek/

Law And Order Breakdown, Orange Cards Bad Edition: GOOJF (Get Out Of Jail Free)

NYC: https://nypost.com/2021/06/20/hundreds-of-nyc-rioters-looters-have-charges-dropped/

DC: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/prosecutors-drop-many-rioting-charges-as-dozens-charged-in-dc-protests-appear-in-court/2020/06/01/b581d5d2-a38b-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html

Houston: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/harris-county-district-attorney-dismisses-charges-protesters-george-floyd/285-0279e98b-0d54-49c1-90ff-07be2fb373ac

Denver: https://sentinelcolorado.com/orecent-headlines/adams-county-da-drops-all-charges-against-elijah-mcclain-protest-leaders/

Portland: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/multnomah-county-da-charges-10-people-for-protest-related-crimes/283-14b55c8f-d8a3-4576-b0b7-34d0d6518523

Seattle: https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/dozens-protesters-arrested-by-seattle-police-may-never-be-prosecuted/TQMXRMHYXBFZ5KZVTMEDU2S4IE/

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/beware-of-george-soros-trojan-horse-prosecutors/

https://ammo.com/articles/george-soros

Temps Rising In The Ongoing Cold ACLU Dem GOP Race War…

https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/syndicated/cold-civil-war-division-multiracial-democracy-anti-democratic-minority/

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/558433-the-aclus-civil-war-over-old-values-free-speech-only-for-the-woke

https://nypost.com/2021/06/08/get-ready-for-a-full-scale-democrat-civil-war/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/07/idaho-republicans-far-right-mask-mandates

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/identity-crisis-politics-race-wreck-america-charles-murray/

And Boiling Over on the Streets: Welcome To The Party, Pal…

https://twitter.com/pix11news/status/1405928349311057922?lang=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaucPPrYZJQ

https://twitter.com/lourdesubieta/status/1406738672909684736?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQg7Vt6AVIy/

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-grim-trade-off-of-blm-29d

Parting Shots…

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/north-korean-defector-us-similarities-insane/

https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-systemic-risk-no-one-sees.html

https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/ready-fearless-jason-whitlocks-letter-to-black-america-explaining-the-real-purpose-of-made-for-tv-racial-conflict

https://thebulwark.com/thucydides-on-partisanship-insurrection-and-the-risks-of-civil-war/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/06/30/incremental_outrageousness_is_killing_america_146008.html

https://www.amazon.com/New-Civil-War-Exposing-Restoring/dp/1645438406

The Wilder Response To Mr. Biden

“It’s perfect. We traded one nuked civilization for another.” – Battlestar Galactica.

Bill Murray wasn’t cast as Thor by Marvel®. They figured that no one likes an electricity Bill.

I had an utterly different post planned. It was so funny that the laughing that it would induce would have caused your ribs to exit your body. It was a post so funny, it was dangerous. Comedy, as they say, is not always pretty. I try to do those posts on Fridays. Why?

I had a boss that gave sage advice: never give your boss bad news on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning. I figure that people need a palate cleanser going into the weekend, and try to provide a bit of fun. And this post that I had planned? It would have been banned by the Geneva Convention as a Weapon of Mass Hilarity.

Sadly, that post might now be lost to history, since I have to replace it with this one. Normally, my posts are created weeks in advance and focus tested against a cross-section of laboratory badgers who have no spleens. Why no spleens? They tell me that’s important, something about we don’t need no spleenin’ badgers.

But no, the Occupant-in-Chief decided to make the single most irresponsible statement ever made by someone who was sworn in as President since Richard Nixon said, “What’s the worst that they can do to me?”

I don’t want to be accused of taking Biden out of context (not that there’s much of a chance of that) but here’s his quote, to the most accurate degree I can find:

First, Biden is as articulate as a fourth-grader with fetal alcohol syndrome who’s just smoked a bowl of Hunter Biden’s crack. And, yes, his Fraudulency has a son who smokes crack with hookers and takes videos of it. This is a thing that really happens. Of course, the response from the Left is to say Putin is corrupt.

Sorry. I’ll try to stick to the topic.

Second, that’s also the same logic as a fourth-grader with an extra chromosome or three who’s just huffed a can of sparkly gold spray paint. Abraham Lincoln made the obvious response fairly well:

“All the armies of Europe and Asia could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”

Lincoln was wrong about a lot of things. He was right about a lot of things, too. He is correct about this:

“As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.”

Joe Biden could have the armies of the united States get him a drink by force from any river in this land. But Joe Biden and all the armies of the united States couldn’t hold the length of the Missouri or the Mississippi for a single day by force.

The armies of the united States number some 1.3 million men oh, wait people oh, wait, xim/xers. Add in the Reserves? Let’s round WAY UP and call it three million. Total.

There are three million males in Missouri. I pick Missouri only because they recently decided they’re going to tell the Feds to attempt to compact a very large object into a very small space when it comes to firearm laws.

Go, Missouri.

Not all of the three million males in Missouri would be on the side of freedom, since there are always some disgusting gelatinous slugs of humanity that will side with Evil over Truth. But there are enough. And don’t tell me that neighboring states wouldn’t flow in.

No, Mr. Biden. The only one who needs F-15s and nuclear weapons for control is you, you disgusting pile of fake hair, fake teeth, Alzheimer’s degraded brain, who gets his only Father’s Day card encrusted in cocaine dust and whore DNA.

The united States governs only, let me make this clear, only by consent of the governed. As citizens, we’re generally pretty good. But we are horrible, horrible at taking instruction from tyrants. It’s in our DNA.

No, literally. This is not an exaggeration. My family line came across an ocean to tame a continent. That was their resume. That was their job description as they rocked back and forth on little wooden boats in the midst of Atlantic storms. We didn’t come here because we were weak. We came here to fight and die and bleed and make this land our own.

We came here because we were strong.

We came here because we yearned for freedom.

Mr. Biden, your butt-sniffing and shoe-licking parents and your degenerate sons and personal weaknesses are abhorrent to every fiber of my body. Mr. Biden, you are disgusting. Mr. Biden, your forefathers were horrible. Mr. Biden, you and your weaknesses represent everything wrong with this country, and everything that has led to where we are today.

How dare you threaten me?

To threaten me is to threaten Duncan MacWilder of the Clan MacWilder, who came here before this was a country.
It is to threaten Hans Wilder, who came here to leave tyrants behind in Europe before World War I.
It is to threaten my forefathers who died hewing a civilization out of this continent with their blood and sweat and toil and dead babies so lazy writers like me could exist.

The deal we made in 1776 is the same one we have today, Bucko. We are here because we have certain inalienable rights.

Mr. Biden, you want to threaten me with jet fighters? Mr. Biden, you want to threaten to use nuclear weapons against your own citizens?

We didn’t come here for that. We didn’t die here for that. We didn’t bury our sons and daughters on dusty plains and hills and hallows across this country, building it with our blood for that.

Reparations? We paid for that in blood in places you have long forgotten, like Manassas Junction. Everyone I’ve ever been able to research on any part of my family has been someone who made the united States better.

Every.

Single.

One.

We taught Eisenhower (really). We built farms. We built bridges 150 years ago that still exist today. We built infrastructure that serves tens of millions of people – this is not an exaggeration. We built railroads across mountains that mountain goats couldn’t cross. We took trains up those mountains when the snow was 20 feet deep. With our kids.

Just for fun.

We raised and nurtured children and taught them freedom.

Our blood is in this soil. Our children are buried here as payment from sea to sea.

My blood is in this soil. My forefathers weren’t evil. They were Big Damn Heroes. Odin and Thor and Jesus would be proud of them for their courage.

Did other people build this land as well? Sure. But Wilder blood is spread here from the Mayflower to today.

I can do no less than to tell you, Mr. Biden, what Duncan MacWilder would have said:
I can do no less than to tell you, Mr. Biden, what Patrick Henry would have said (distant relative, according to an aunt):
I can do no less than to tell you, Mr. Biden, what Hans Wilder would have said:

No.

And, to mark the first time I have ever used this word on this blog? Each and every one of them would have added:

Fuck you, Mr. Biden.

Bring your jets. Bring your nukes. The only way you have to dislodge us off this continent we conquered with our blood and sweat and buried kin is to kill us all. We will never give up. We will never surrender. This will not die with me. Or my children.

You will never defeat us. Never. Our blood is here. Here we make our stand. We can go to no other country for freedom. We can go no further to a distant frontier. Despite what you will try to do with us, despite the injustices you will visit on us, we will win. We will mock you, and your grave will be pulled up and your bones used by our children for their amusement.

We will smile, and nod.

We did not choose this. We do not want this.

You spiked the ball too soon. Maybe two generations into the future, they would go gentle onto that goodnight.

Too soon, Bucko.

Fuck you.

The 1819 Project: Restoring America

“Restoration may be possible, in two days. By the book, Admiral.” – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

We can finally predict the platform that George Bush’s kids will run on.

The United States is in a bad place. Monetarily. Philosophically. Morally. It even has bad manners.

Ultimately, the systems that led us to this situation won’t lead us out. Voting won’t save us. The Supreme Court won’t save us. Conservatism?

Conservatism© certainly won’t save us. It certainly didn’t save itself, and it becomes increasingly quaint as Conservatism 2021® quietly ignores nearly every position of Conservatism 1965™, if not right out taking the exact opposite position from even a decade ago.

Conservatism® has led us to where we are today. It’s just last year’s Leftist platform, but dressed up in a suit with a useful idiot explaining the Conservative Case for Sex Change Surgery for Toddlers. Oh, and this should be done even if the parents disagree. For the good of the child, you know, which they will all nod and agree, is a Conservative™ value.

Imagine if we called the Left intolerant! That would show them!

The reason for this is the Conservatism™ is inherently a negative philosophy. It doesn’t stand for anything, merely against (mainly) Leftist ideas. Once those Leftist ideas gain a mainstream following? They become a part of Conservatism®, and Conservative™ shills pretend those ideas were always part of their philosophy.

Conservatives® were always in favor of sending troops to Uganda to secure the rights of Ugandans to have gay marriage.

But Conservatism™ in 2021 is now as dead as whatever it is that lives on top of Sean Hannity’s head. There is zero actual Conservative™ philosophy, merely a money and influence game where politicians sell their influence to the largest corporation for thirty pieces of bacon-wrapped shrimp monthly.

So conservative!

All is not lost. Look at, for instance, gun rights. Gun rights were presented not as, “what the Left wants, but more slowly” but instead as, “from our cold, dead hands.” It was that level of determination that led to the “assault weapon” ban lapsing. What started with a concealed carry movement has now led to Constitutional carry (i.e., concealed carry without a permit) in state after state.

In the year 2000, one state had Constitutional carry. In 2021 (by my count) the number is over 21. And gun rights is where the Right has had a similar victory recently. In Missouri, the governor signed into law a bill that bars the police from enforcing Federal gun laws.

All of them.

Of course, the Leftist Justice Department was quick to sperg out and say, “Missouri, you can’t do that” but Missouri just kept hitting “ignore” and sending them straight to voicemail when they called again and again. In truth, the Feds will never be able to enforce Federal law in Missouri unless they unleash the might of the American military against the people of Missouri.

The chances of that happening aren’t particularly high, plus Missouri seems entirely justified.

Amazing what a little light will show you.

Missouri is just following the pattern we’ve been seeing from States for years. Want to sell marijuana in violation of Federal law at the State level? Sure. Multimillion-dollar industries can be set up in a year. Want to exclude police from helping enforce immigration laws? Sure.

This is just the next, logical step.

And it gave me a crazy idea.

The 1819 Project.

In 1819, the Federal government didn’t have these regulations and laws. In 1819, the average citizen’s interaction with the Federal government would have been voting for a Representative and voting for President. We weren’t THE United States, we were the united States.

Until the Civil War, that was fairly clear – States were sovereign entities – they didn’t gain their existence from the Federal government, the Federal government got its existence from them.

The Federal government didn’t tax individuals. The Federal government didn’t place arbitrary restrictions on what you could do with your business, your hiring, and your land. These simply were not Federal issues.

Could the States regulate these things? Certainly, that’s what the Constitution said. Did they? I imagine they did, some of them. Were the states free to pick and choose who voted and how and why? Yes., they were, and without resorting to appeal to the nine black-robed justices in Washington, D.C.

It’s funny that I can write the speeches the governor of Oregon will give in the future.

Could Oregon turn itself into a communist paradise? Sure. But it couldn’t turn its people into serfs, and it couldn’t put up walls to keep them in. It might be able to keep people it didn’t want out, as would any State.

Sure. That’s freedom. But the Commie Rot would be stuck in Oregon. And people could leave it. Senators wouldn’t be elected, but appointed by State legislatures. This improves the ability of the States to fight against silly things from larger States, and makes the ratification of a treaty a real event, not a popularity contest.

Corporations? Well, like people, they’d have a finite purpose and a finite lifetime. If corporations have the same rights as a person, they have to die, too. 70 years might be too long.

How about 40? Regardless, in 1819, corporations had a charter, and existed for a specific purpose and had a specific lifetime. That changed with a Supreme Court decision (not looking it up, it’s late) in the 1880s that gave corporations an infinite lifespan.

Sounds good to me. Every corporation should have an end date.

But the point is that we don’t fight to conserve anything. The time has now come for a Restoration. What do we restore? A culture filled with freedom; a culture where the Federal government was a tiny, distant force that had the responsibility of national defense and regulation of interstate commerce.

No, not the creeping interstate commerce regulations we have today (where having a phone number constitutes evidence of participating in “interstate commerce”) but a very limited scope so Texas can’t put tariffs on goods from Oklahoma. This leaves room for the FAA, but very little room for the FBI since 99% of Federal crimes disappear overnight because they no longer exist. And the ATF? Only to enforce taxes and not kill women and children with fire.

Hey, it’s not easy to brutally enforce arbitrary regulations on law-abiding citizens.

Politics is downstream of Culture. What’s needed is a Restoration of Culture.

If it sounds like I’m making up a movement, I assure you I’m not. The 1819 Project is well underway and has been for years. Parents are, especially in the Leftist parts of the world, pulling their kids from government schools and putting them in religious schools or homeschooling. Why?

The 1819 Project has already started, at best, I’m giving it a name. It’s well underway in places like Modern Mayberry, where a kid can grow up (more or less) free. The Feds seem to have forgotten that rural places exist, and hardcore Leftists don’t seem to want to live here unless they can get ganja and free stuff.

That can be tough to take in. Next week we’ll start in on how he’s born to treat women badly.

Places like Missouri are going to become the norm. I anticipate that, with the coming Troubles I see, the Federal government will become weaker and weaker. The hallmark of a failing government is more tyranny, but the people of the united States have seen their share of what happens when they give up their guns. Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin have provided a clear example that gun confiscation precedes life confiscation.

Will we get back to 1819 in values? I have no idea.

But I do know we need to be headed towards something, and not just reacting. 1819 is a good start.

The plan.