Life Choices Are Resilience Choices: When One Income Is More Than Two

“An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious. And even the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.” – Inception

I’ve heard that King Charles at his coronation vowed to keep his armies in his sleevies.

During the Great Recession I read an article about the economic resilience of families.  I can’t find it, since I’ve slept several thousand nights since then.  Heck, I’m not sure even Frequent Commentor Ricky could find it.  The conclusion of the article was interesting to me – two-earner families were actually less economically resilient than sole-breadwinner families.

The article went on to explain that in most two income families, the families weren’t stashing tons of money away, but rather spending at about the level of the two incomes – nicer cars, shinier PEZ®, more velvet Elvis paintings.  They were operating on a similar margin as a typical sole breadwinner.  The big difference was in flexibility.  If one member of a two-income family became unemployed, it was often a hit of 50% or more of the family income.

This may be the best painting ever done – the Mona Lisa could not show such elegance.

Sure, losing 50% of family income sounds bad, and I’m sure it is.  The flip side, however, is that if the sole breadwinner lost a job, that family lost 100% of their income.  That sounded worse to me, but those families performed better during hard times.

Why?

It turns out that a dual income family was already operating at nearly 100% efficiency.  The mortgage, the cars, the PEZ®, the private schools, whatever expenses they had were based on Mom and Dad going out and making nearly their theoretical maximum incomes.  To lose half of that is devastating, unless they had saved some of that cash.

It turned out that in economic hard times, the assets that people buy often go down in value.  So, during the Great Recession, people bought hella-nice houses complete with granite avocado sharpeners and walk-in nail-trimming rooms that they could just barely afford the payments on.

But during an economic downturn, the price of the McMansions® went down.  I talked to several folks during the Great Recession that dual-incomed themselves into bankruptcies as they lost jobs and had to walk away from expensive houses in half-finished subdivisions to move across the country to places that they didn’t want to live.  Ouch.  One dude I knew was bitter for just this reason.  I think he was a tool anyway, but this magnified it.

I guess my regular ladder went for a pack of cigarettes and never came back.

Sometimes this economic stress ends in divorce as Dad loses his mojo and Mom loses a bit of respect and better-deals Dad.  This isn’t an indictment of women, more so a realization of the fact that women want (in survey after survey) to have a man that’s more economically successful than them, despite them wanting equal pay.

Contradiction?  Yeah.  But still and amazing stress on a family.

And they want a man who is sensitive but who will also take charge. 

On the other hand, I knew some single income families (intact families) where Dad lost his job, and Mom went into the labor force, Dad took a job to get by, and the family didn’t skip a beat in making payments.  Did things like daycare go up?

Yup, unless Grandma could help out or Grandpa could use the kids as help down at the still.  But the families weren’t flying so close to the flame, so they made it, and in most cases Dad found something again, maybe not as good as before, but close enough so Mom could cut down on hours or quit her job entirely.

I’ve made many, many, many arguments against efficiency.  This is another one.  It’s also insidious because that quest for economic efficiency ends (often) in weakness.

This idea that women should go out into the labor force, make as much as men, and thus make their families more vulnerable to economic dislocation caused by (spins wheel) inflation, COVID, immigration, or recession has been propagandized into the population for decades.  There is hardly any little girl that wasn’t exposed to the idea that she shouldn’t go out and be just as good as a man and that she had some sort of duty to work because, well, because women.

It’s powerful when that’s the propaganda that millions in Gen X and later grew up with.

Chuck Norris told a joke about Jada Smith.  Will Smith then slugged Jada.

To be fair, there are some amazingly capable women that I know who have had very strong careers, executive level stuff, who have kept it together and been great moms, to boot.  In most cases, though, if those women quit tomorrow their family could do fine on their husband’s income.  But that’s not the norm.

As we move into a time of greater economic instability, this will have the impact of making families more dependent on government, because efficiency is the enemy of independence.  This may very well be the plan – dependent people are easier to control.  When the next meal is dependent on pleasing power, people tend to stop testing boundaries, tend to be pushed to conform to power.

The opposite of efficiency is resilience, finding our own way economically, becoming independent rather than dependent.  This is difficult when focused on trying to meet the ideals of a society bent on consumption at all costs.

That’s a big one.  I guess my faith in huge manatee has been restored.

Economically, this flies in the face of propaganda we’ve seen for decades.  It flies in the face of the desired outcome to treat people as economic units whose purpose is to create money to pay of a debt so large as to be unimaginable by any person alive atop a technological framework that is increasingly prone to failure.

Resiliency is our future, the only future outside of living in the pods and eating the bugs, which is a perfect life for an economic unit, but no life for a man.  The end part of the 2020s will be (my guess) the biggest change that we’ll ever see in our lives, which includes the time when we added those extra four digits to the zip code.

The only solution?  Resilience.

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Lessons From France And Falling Apart

“Yes, I shall certainly choose revolutionary France for my holiday again next year.” – Blackadder the Third

Why does France have so many rivers?  Water follows the path of least resistance.

  1. Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
  2. People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology.  Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
  3. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
  4. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
  5. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
  6. Open War.

Volume V, Issue 2

All memes except for the clock and graphs are “as found”.

This is a moving situation, and things are changing quickly.  The advice remains.  Avoid crowds.  Get out of cities.  Now.  A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue:  Front Matter – Lessons From France – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Falling Apart – 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 nearly 800 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

Lessons From France

France is always at the front of things, like fashion trends, like making great wine, like losing wars against countries that aren’t France.  Recently, after a foreign “youth” was killed after a police chase, the massive foreign population of France rebelled.  Riots, which are generally scheduled for every Wednesday in France, were extended to the weekends.

The people initially rioting were the Leftists and the foreign population of France.  Thankfully, they provided several lessons that may apply to the future Civil War in the United States.

First, violence can start and spread rapidly.  The violence is, generally, confined to the cities.

Second, the police won’t do much against people who are Leftist or associated with Leftist causes, like unrestrained immigration.

Third, the police will rapidly, and with great force jump down the throats of native peoples defending themselves.

Fourth, the native people can and will rapidly organize.  The time for organization in the face of a significant threat is measured in days, not weeks.  This organization scares the Powers That Be and they’ll rapidly do everything they can to stop it.  Everything.

Fifth, diversity isn’t a strength, it’s a weakness.  Society is tough to maintain and requires effort at every point in history.  Adding in a foreign element that has no commonality with the host country other than that they eat and use oxygen doesn’t make a country stronger, it weakens it.

Ask the French.

There are probably some other lessons (feel free to share more below) but these are the big ones I found.

Violence and Censorship Update

The censorship this month again is bigger than the violence.  Here are a few moments in a very, very busy month.  The theme of this month is about censorship unravelling as even the press begins to turn against Biden in preparation for his successor for the 2024 election.  Gavin Newsom?  Likely.

The biggest stories are about suppression of information about alleged corruption of the Biden Crime Family®.  Here are a few snippets of how the .gov folks are attempting to suppress

It’s almost like there was some sort of collusion between the Left and the various parts of the government, like the Biden Administration blocking disclosure of the Deep State’s® manipulation of the 2020 election.  Wonder why?

But if that’s not creepy enough, the .mil folks were looking for mean Tweets®:

And the CIA wanted the Leftists to win in Brazil.  Again, shocking.

Biden’s Misery Index

Let’s take a look to see how we’ve done this month . . . .

Yup, up again, but not as steep.

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:

Violence is down – I was expecting more during a long, hot summer.  Perhaps August?

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it was down a bit, though people are thinking a lot more about Civil War.

Economic:

Economic numbers are swinging back up.  The numbers look fairly unstable from month to month, which isn’t good, but June was a calm month.

Illegal Aliens:

The border numbers are down, and I’m a bit surprised, since the infiltration continues.  Suppressed numbers?

Falling Apart

During the month I save memes and snippets to use in the Civil War 2.0 Weather Report, often, they for a theme for the month.  This month, I had a few where the only thing I could think of was the theme that everything is falling apart – the values that we once held dear are now inverted, and we cease to be recognizable as a country.

The first is inversion, and Krassenstein, thankfully, took a lot of heat for this really, really bad Tweet®.

In California, the criminals have more rights than property owners.

And let’s look at the impact of diversity:

And just like Jason from Friday the 13th, you can tell that Evil never dies:

And things that are good are described as Evil.  Funny.

But the tide is turning . . . .

LINKS

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

Bad Guys

https://twitter.com/i/status/1672995397642469378

https://twitter.com/i/status/1673519038855630849

https://twitter.com/i/status/1677485194918461440

https://twitter.com/i/status/1674800078845018118

https://twitter.com/i/status/1673049905470795776

https://twitter.com/i/status/1671291289776664578

https://twitter.com/i/status/1670750415057477633

https://twitter.com/nofones/status/1673880949287706624

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1667539871232315392

 

Good Guys

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1672303533998108672

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXbzrxEuL54

https://twitter.com/ScottLoBaido/status/1667293405804736513

https://www.uncoverdc.com/2023/06/26/making-real-men-king-randall-and-the-life-preparatory-school-for-boys/

 

One Guy

https://www.foxnews.com/us/armed-las-vegas-housing-employee-thwarted-likely-mass-shooting-received-little-attention-expert

https://www.revolver.news/2023/06/nyc-threatens-queens-hero-with-91-years-in-prison-after-he-shoots-violent-crazed-robber-who-attacked-him/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12237045/Murder-charges-against-Chicago-mother-son-14-dropped-video-shows-victim-punching-mom.html

https://news.yahoo.com/advocates-call-for-abolishing-stand-your-ground-laws-after-ajike-owenss-death-192846780.html

 

Body Count

https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/30161.jpeg

https://twitter.com/robinmonotti/status/1673982701500497922

https://citizenfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/covid-deaths-heart.jpeg

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/06/no_author/865136-2/

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-the-cardiovascular-death-toll

https://www.statista.com/chart/30206/suicide-homicide-rates-us-10-24/

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/fentanyl-responsible-80-overdose-deaths-under-24-us

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1669919081343111168

https://apnews.com/article/polarization-republicans-democrats-abortion-gender-colorado-idaho-406b5a841d4d47c8a08cf054c38bb2a0

https://alt-market.us/how-to-solve-violence-in-the-us-remove-democrat-run-cities-and-bring-back-asylums/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-all-volunteer-force-is-in-crisis/ar-AA1dmIUn

https://nypost.com/2023/06/11/us-military-offers-legal-migrants-path-to-citizenship-amid-recruiting-shortfall/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

 

Vote Count

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com%2Farticles%2F2023%2F06%2Fthe_gop_is_losing_the_vote_fraud_war_.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/states-introduced-nearly-200-bills-2023-subvert-elections-report-finds-rcna88163

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/update-halderman-report-reveals-georgias-dominion-voting-machines/

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fnews-and-politics%2Frobert-spencer%2F2023%2F06%2F19%2Fnow-they-tell-us-new-report-reveals-critical-vulnerabilities-in-dominion-voting-machines-n1704516

 

Civil War

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/06/08/wallowa-county-votes-for-greater-idaho-talks-crook-county-schedules-vote/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/secession-talks-emerge-in-one-northern-california-county-is-a-new-state-a-possibility/ar-AA1cA1jy

https://lithub.com/how-inflammatory-rhetoric-feeds-the-insurrectional-fantasies-of-the-far-right/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/10/how-to-avoid-a-civil-war-by-the-man-who-predicted-trump

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/12/trump-civil-war-chances-documents-indictment

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-far-right-brad-onishi-america-civil-war-interview-1234772017/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/the-congressman-telling-trump-supporters-to-buckle-up/674367/

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/06/1440/810/AP23161658871944.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/03/americans-down-on-god-family-country-patriotism-polling

https://news.gallup.com/poll/507980/extreme-pride-american-remains-near-record-low.aspx

https://twitter.com/CannConActual/status/1667650134656655361

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1676433342223515651

 

Through A Glass Darkly
https://www.the-sun.com/news/8396436/worlds-most-dangerous-city-haiti-machete/

One Problem? People Who Don’t Want To Solve The Problem.

“You want the solution to inflation? Hi, friends. Marshall Lucky here for New Deal Used Cars, where we’re lowering inflation not only by fighting high prices, not only by murdering high prices, but by blowing the living s**t out of high prices. Yes sir. Here’s an example. It’s a 1972 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, for sixty-two ninety-nine. That price . . . is too high.” (shoots the car) – Used Cars

But I hear he does know Tae Kwon Dough.

I’m amused that something called the “Inflation Reduction Act” has the same initials as the Irish Republican Army, but at the same time is a lot more destructive than the IRA ever was.  The idea that solving inflation involves the government spending metric-Lizzo-Tons® of cash on boondoggles that will benefit Democratic donors is an idea that only someone with a child’s intellect could come up with, so at least we know what the Veep has been doing when she’s done with the construction paper for the day.

Here’s Brandon’s Tweet®:

I also hear he’s a fan of putting out fires by throwing more gasoline on them.

Don’t think this is a naked Leftist slush-pile for donors that will make Sam Bankman-Fraud’s scheme of taking American taxpayer dollars given to Ukraine and donating them after deposit to Leftist political schemes in the United States?  This is bigger by far.  And not only that, it’s being overseen by that paragon of virtue, John Podesta.

Yeah, that same John Podesta who on a scale of 1-10 for being creepy rates “Drag Queen Story Hour”.

As Podesta always says, “If you want you be a successful stalker, you must do the following.”

Green Energy isn’t about energy, it’s about the green.  And the particular green in question is money.  The alchemy that the Left wants to work is to give it to people and companies who give money to the Left.  Hakuna Matata, the Circle Of Politics!

How does it work?  Simple!  Pay taxes, have the Left direct the money to people who support the Left.  This is what they mean by “Our Democracy®” since the people involve in “Our©” don’t include you.  Or me.  They include people who support the Left, or can be bought to support the Left.  Green (remember, that means money laundering) energy company Solyndra™ received over $535,000,000 in loans from Obama, and produced nothing but accounting irregularities.

This was actually the subject of the 1994 Nobel Prize® in Economics.  I’m still waiting for one in blogging, and have my fingers crossed, but regardless, the idea was that if government could give everyone in the United States $1, it would be a much better deal for the political weasels to give three people $100 million.  This is also the basis for every decision made in Congress.

Cats are better than dogs.  Cats don’t work for the cops.

(Also, for the record, there is a Nobel Prize® for Literature, and if some nice reader would nominate me for a Nobel©, then I would be one of the very few nominated for both a Nobel™ and a Hugo®.  Winning?  Who cares, it’s an honor just to be nominated.)

The Nobel Prize™ was won by three dudes, one of which you might be familiar with:  Graham John Nash, who also wrote Teach Your Children Well was played by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.  Sorry about the confusion.  I guess Graham is no Nash-trophysicist.

The result of this is a very, very unserious economy.  Green Energy in most cases just means, “La-la-la I’m not listening, I can’t hear you because my fingers are in my ears, so the laws of thermodynamics do not exist and if they do, Congress can pass a law to change those laws” energy.  Unserious.

I hear that there is now a way to make the turbine blades 99% recyclable (true!).  All you have to do is chop them up into small pieces and ship them down to Louisiana where more energy than was used to create the blades is used to recycle them!  What a win! (/sarcasm) 

AOC’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti even let the mask slip and noted that the real goal of Green Energy policy.  In his own words, according to Sam Ricketts, WaPo® reporter:  “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal, is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all.  Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?  Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire economy thing.”

The entire economy.  Why?  Because they don’t like you.  They want to funnel money to the people that give them the big shrimp parties, and give them money to put out ads so they can run again.  The thing that fuels Washington, D.C. isn’t electricity.  It is cash.  And shrimp.  And the quest for power – over you.

If we arrested all the corrupt politicians, who would we vote for in November of 2024?

The idea that solving the problems that we have with our economy is hard is laughable.  Solving those problems is trivial.  Really.  Why does no one do it?  Solving those problems is painful.

  • If solving them involves increasing the interest rates until the banks squeal, and some of them fail?
  • If solving them involves the destruction of entire portions of the economy only kept alive via corruption?
  • If solving them involves reducing the payments to those who could, but don’t contribute?
  • If solving them involves changing the rules so that people who game Wall Street rather than producing anything can’t rig the game?

Washington, D.C. won’t be for them, because they’d rather let a paper cut turn into an amputation than make any decision that will stop the shrimp parties with the beautiful people who are just rubbing their hands at the idea of an “Inflation Reduction Act”.

Dispatches From The Culture War

“Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours.” – Star Trek: TNG

My body is like a Greek temple as I age.  In ruins.

There is so much going on any given news cycle in the last few months that it’s now difficult to be amazed about anything.  Credible sourcing that Joe Biden took bribes?  When asked about it, he said, “Then where’s the money?”

That’s not the way that innocent people act, rather, that’s a taunt that’s similar to a mobster saying, “You got nothin’ on me, copper.”  Biden did it, might even remember he did it, and is now telling the world that he’s above it all and doesn’t fear anything.  Of course, he’s a thousand years old now, so he’s probably pretty deep in “old guy DNGAF” mode.

Certainly, Biden (or whoever has the remote control that makes Biden say thinks like a big flesh robot) gave the nod before Trump was indicted.  This was intentional.  There is something about Trump that the Left and Official Washington and Big Money despises that caused them to set up a propaganda campaign among their followers like few before it.  They even got high on their own supply, believing that the echo chamber that they had created was a reflection of reality, rather than just their own words played back to them on an infinite-repeat loop, like I play The Accountant, or Big Trouble in Little China.

Regardless, the split is deep, and, although I don’t think Pew® has updated their Left/Right split data, I think that the split has become ever deeper.  The Los Angeles Dodgers® can’t even fathom why Catholics would protest the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an LGBT+ group that openly mocks Christian faith.  They can’t understand why most Americans don’t want to go to war due to two oppressive Eastern European countries fighting each other over land that’s been fought over so many times that I think they’re on the Juneteenth Battle of Kharkov.

Is the smartest nun called Nun the Wiser?

Trump embraced the LGBT+ agenda explicitly, so it’s not that.  His performance on illegals, while much better than Biden’s, looked more like Obama than Eisenhower.  So, it must be the war thing, since Democrats and the Neo-Con branch of the RINO party have been all-in on Ukraine for decades.

Remember when Russia wanted to join NATO?  Sigh.

Whatever was the common core of America is no longer common.  Using Michael Savage’s mantra of borders, language, and culture to define a country (not a nation, that’s different) is a bleak exercise.

  • Borders: The Right would like some.  The Left thinks that borders are fundamentally racist and that everyone is a citizen of the United States, they just haven’t gotten here to vote for them.  Biden still thinks that Borders® is a bookstore.
  • Language: The Right would like just one, English.  The Left celebrates multiplicity of mutually unintelligible people.  A few years ago, I listened to an NPR® station that had a late night talk program that focused on the idea that it was racist if you couldn’t understand what some dude who just crossed the river or got off the boat said, regardless of how heavy and thick his accent is.  I mean, at least fish have an excuse for having a Finnish accent.

Archeologists never get married.  They’re only interested in dating.

Border and Language are in absolutely horrible shape.  Culture, of course, is the worst off.

One of the constant cries of the Left is that the United States has no culture.  This is patently a lie – fish don’t know about water because they’re surrounded by it, all the time.  So are Leftists, but they hate it.  But I said it was a lie.  Leftists do see the culture, and want to destroy it and rebuild it to fit their ideology because the last thing they want is to see happy people.  Here are just a few segments of culture, and what the Left is doing to try to destroy it.

A huge target for the Left has been the effort to dismantle the history of the West.  Slavery?  Even though it was far from a Western invention, and even though the United States fought a war to end it, and even though Great Britain used their navy to end the trade, it has been painted as only a sin of the West.  The effort is also in full swing to distort and demean every single historical figure that generations of schoolchildren idolized.  Why did the Left start tearing out statues?  Any previous hero must be destroyed so that the Leftists can choose new, acceptable heroes.

I kept making a statue of St. Peter and the city kept tearing it down.  Then they gave me a ticket – they said I was a re-Pete offender.

The customs and traditions are being erased.  Examples are everywhere, but just look toward the military of the United States for some particularly egregious examples.  I’m fairly certain the Marines will soon be issued Nerf® guns so they don’t hurt themselves.  Etiquette is also falling apart, where Americans are told that they have to conform to the etiquette of foreigners and Leftists.  Previously, it was accepted that aliens would have to adopt American customs and traditions.  In 2023, that is racist, of course.

The arts and literature of the nation are being changed.  Movies, which morphed from the pro-American fare of the Disney® era now is actively anti-American.  Thankfully, many of the ideologically driven writers, directors, and executives that are now in charge make horrible movies, but it’s clear that the last decade has brought fewer good movies than the year 1986 did by itself.  Literature now consists of horrible screeds against racism, but they’re not content with that – publishers are now actively editing works from the past to make them conform to Leftist principles.  Electronic media is all subject to that so books and DVDs might be the only way in the future to see the real deal.

Education is a cornerstone for any culture.  Vladimir Lenin said, “Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”  The commies have always focused on this, and they’ve done a really good job on the education centers of the world.  But it doesn’t happen all at once.  First, they grabbed the colleges.  Then, bit by bit, they grabbed each teacher that they could coming through the system and indoctrinating them into Leftism.  When I was in school, the real first wave of hardcore Leftists were hitting the schools, but it was just one or two.  Now?  Videos I’ve seen in big cities show they’re Lefty, through and through.  Even in Modern Mayberry are they attempting to take over.  Thankfully our school board is pretty good at keeping those zealots out.

And Joe is smart enough to figure out how to make a train go across the Indian and Pacific oceans!

I started writing this post on Fathers’ Day, and was amused because it’s not really Fathers’ Day anymore, it’s “I’m a single mom so I am both father and mother and this is about me” Day.  The destruction of the traditional and nuclear family structure is the first thing Leftists have attacked, from the French Revolution to the Soviet Revolution to the communist version of Spain that Franco destroyed.  It’s a shame Franco didn’t have helicopters.  The social organization of a country is the what regenerates it.  Family structures and gender roles reinforce the culture.  Every wonder why those are marked for change?

Finally, the values and beliefs of a culture help define it.  It used to be that prostitution was a dirty little secret.  Now?  Leftists argue that “sex work is real work” and Moms spend time making money on Only Fans®.  Was there hypocrisy in old America?  Sure.  But shame and ostracism were powerful motivators to keep the rot down.

I did hear that Hunter was sad because he wasn’t getting a new laptop for Christmas.

This list could go on and on – I have over 10 more categories where I could go through the same exercise, but the answer wouldn’t change and this post would then be 4,000 words and I’d get no sleep at all tonight.  The Mrs. keeps reminding me that sleep is no substitute for caffeine, and I’ll have plenty of time to rest after I’ve died.

As I’ve recently been saying, the idea isn’t to conserve our culture, since it has been turned into a smoking crater by Leftists appealing to the vanity and pride of susceptible folks.  This will end as it has always ended, since the reason American culture was successful will cease to exist as American culture ceases to exist.  From there, there will be tears.

And then?  Our job is to rebuild and restore.  And most of the people that formerly fell into the Leftist trap of dismantling the success and wholesomeness of the culture will welcome that restoration, after having seen what their depravity has created.

Rebuilding a culture takes time.  It won ‘t be done in my lifetime, but probably will be in the lifetime of my children.  And that’s good enough for me.  Our job is to keep the fire lit, and to not let the Left get away with the lie and call the destruction they’ve created to be simply called “bad luck”.

Oh, and I almost forgot!  Don’t forget to celebrate Juneteenth!

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report – May Edition – Lies and Immigration

Newspaper Headline: “Roman Moroni Deported to Sweden. Says He’s Not From There.” – Johnny Dangerously

How should they be deported?  Juan by Juan.

  1. Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
  2. People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology.  Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
  3. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
  4. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
  5. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
  6. Open War.

Volume V, Issue 1

All memes except for the clock and graphs are “as found”.

This is a moving situation, and things are changing quickly.  The advice remains.  Avoid crowds.  Get out of cities.  Now.  A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue:  Front Matter – Immigration Crisis – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – The Spark, Part 2 – 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 790 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

Immigration Crisis

Immigration has been a continuing and contentious issue throughout my life.  The major reason people immigrate in this age is not due to mistreatment, but due to economic factors.  If it weren’t economic, the Guatemalans would stay in Mexico, which is culturally much closer.  But it’s all about money for the majority of immigrants.

This is difficult, because the people coming into the United States mainly don’t like the United States all that much, they like the money and free stuff – that’s why they have their flags held high as they march toward our country.

It’s the same in most other Western countries – the immigrants coming into Germany, for instance, haven’t helped as much as they suck from the economy – only half of the immigrants to Germany since 2013 have paid employment.

They want the stuff.

The numbers coming into the country are undercounted, significantly.  And there’s no longer any place to stack them.  New York is saying they’re full.  The black people in Chicago don’t want any more of them.  The average American voter doesn’t want them, and I’d guess the average Dane or Italian would feel the same way.

So why do they keep on coming?

Because the Left wants them – Leftist businesses for cheap labor, and Leftist politicians for a vote farm of poorly educated, easily led (because they don’t speak the language) voters.  And it’s not that the immigrants are choosing this themselves – millions of dollars (likely your tax dollars) are spent getting them to our borders.  This video shows the massive amounts of money being spent on them as they make their way north.  Similar groups are spending millions in Europe to destroy it in the same fashion.

Your tax dollars at work.

And the government is in on it in a manner that many might call treason:

Even in Canada:

The end result is a push towards greater chaos, which can end in nothing but conflict:

Violence and Censorship Update

This month is less about violence (the biggest events of the month were the NYC protests about Jordan Neely’s death – Neely was the Michael Jackson impersonator that went nuts on the subway).  The big takeaways is that government is lying to us and covering up for the Left.

I know, this is my shocked face.  First, the only people who didn’t do anything wrong in the “Russia colluding with Trump” lie are Russia and Trump.  The FBI lied.  I know that this isn’t surprising to anyone, since May has been just about the worst month for the three-letter agencies being shown to be partisan Leftist liars.  Let’s continue with more FBI:

It looks like the very best way to get fired from the FBI is to try to be honest and follow the law.  Thankfully the CIA is . . . oh.

Yup.  The CIA lied.  Shocking!  What about the DOJ?

Yup, them, too.  A loss of trust in government fairness and in-your-face corruption is often a precursor to Civil War.

Biden’s Misery Index

Let’s take a look to see how we’ve done this month . . . .

Yup, up again.  I guess he wants demolish everything so he can Build Back Better®.

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:

Violence jumped up – it’s getting warm out.

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it was down a bit, though people are thinking a lot more about Civil War.

Economic:

Economic numbers are swinging back down, a bit.  The numbers look fairly unstable from month to month, which isn’t good.

Illegal Aliens:

I’d say the border is wide open, but we have no border.  New York and Chicago are now irritated because they want these illegals to go back to Texas.  Huh.

The Spark, Part 2

Last month, I wrote about the idea that the very successful boycott of Bug Light® might be the beginnings of Americans realizing that they don’t have to put up with the culture that has been forced upon them for decades.  I am pleasantly surprised that this spark, this countering to the current culture is spreading.  In general, American media has controlled the messages that go out:

The Internet really changed the game and still allows people to put out alternate viewpoints, and memetic warfare is fighting for the hearts and minds of the people.  And it worked.

Bud Light® isn’t the only victory.  Here are some others:

When they call me an economic terrorist because I won’t buy stuff from people who hate me, it feels kinda good.

And every marketing executive now is afraid.  It’s no longer a cost-free proposition to pump Lefty ideas into your ads.  And I think they’re finally beginning to understand who they’re dealing with:

Can we fix the culture?  No.  I think it must be restored.  And I don’t think it will be easy, either, but we will win.

The Babylon Bee© and a wag on Twitter™ are pointing the way back . . .

LINKS

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

Bad Guys

https://twitter.com/i/status/1661097342051942401

https://twitter.com/ArabChicago/status/1660324204502212609

https://twitter.com/ppv_tahoe/status/1654983449701220352

https://twitter.com/DeanPreston/status/1656023543333933057

https://twitter.com/DeIudedShaniqwa/status/1657507128322523139

https://twitter.com/i/status/1653398943978385408

https://twitter.com/i/status/1658857771217854469

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/canvasser-shooting-eddie-brokenbough-onepa-20230509.html

 

Good Guys

https://twitter.com/TheRightMelissa/status/1656861108697800705

https://twitter.com/KarliBonnita/status/1656862956896878595

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1661191693260165121

 

One Guy

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/conservatives-hail-daniel-penny-as-hero-after-killing-man-on-subway/ar-AA1b98jg

https://www.foxnews.com/us/marine-veteran-nyc-subway-chokehold-death-faces-tough-legal-road-experts-say

https://thefederalist.com/2023/05/05/the-lesson-of-jordan-neely-your-courage-and-sacrifice-will-be-punished/

https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/man-arrested-after-he-returns-fire-at-car-thieves-outside-of-his-shelby-county-home/article_cb42209a-f354-11ed-a2c9-b7e1f051cd76.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/was-florida-man-justified-in-killing-gunman-after-the-shooting-stopped-a-jury-decides/ar-AA1bqiNy

 

Body Count

https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/1657178704039034882

https://news.yahoo.com/nyc-chicago-clash-biden-migrant-141046631.html

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2023%2F05%2F04%2Ftitle-42-countdown-700000-migrants-in-mexico-waiting-to-rush-u-s-border%2F

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com%2Fblog%2F2023%2F05%2Fless_than_a_week_before_511_migrant_rush_everything_is_going_swimmingly.html

https://nypost.com/2023/05/16/google-meta-amazon-hire-low-paid-foreign-workers-after-us-layoffs-report/

https://archive.fo/OwgOY

https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/05/18/industrial-civilization-needs-a-biological-future/

 

Vote Count

https://headlineusa.com/maricopa-county-election-director-told-woman-to-abuse-voting-system/

https://www.libertynation.com/watchdog-reveals-how-easy-it-is-for-non-citizens-to-vote/

https://citizenfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/arizona-signatures.jpg

https://www.westernjournal.com/lake-attorneys-closing-argument-least-70k-votes-not-verified-election-must-set-aside/

https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/1660717421710155780

https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/11/the-voter-registration-machine-flipping-the-states-blue/

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fthestarnewsnetwork.com%2F2023%2F05%2F19%2Franked-choice-voting-proposed-for-pennsylvania-municipalities%2F

https://www.revolver.news/2023/05/rfk-jr-sparks-a-wildfire-us-election-fraud-becomes-a-blazing-issue-in-2024/

https://warroom.org/controversial-zuckerberg-group-purchases-storage-center-for-voting-machines-and-ballots-for-election-offices-ahead-of-2024/

https://redstate.com/kiradavis/2023/03/29/bombshell-james-okeefe-uncovers-massive-potential-political-money-laundering-to-democrat-campaigns-n723020

https://zarkfiles.substack.com/p/the-first-discovery

 

Civil War

https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/05/15/secession-is-not-the-solution-for-rural-oregon/

https://www.kuow.org/stories/pnw-secession-movements-arent-new-but-lately-eastern-oregon-is-feeling-idaho-curious

https://news.yahoo.com/rural-america-dreams-secession-eastern-011532936.html

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/allen-texas-shooting-white-supremacy-greg-abbott-20230509.html

https://www.wboc.com/news/state-senator-talks-secession-cites-underserved-southern-delaware/article_67541026-eebc-11ed-8c89-8bd0d754ba06.html

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-05-23-battlefield-reports-new-civil-war/

https://www.wpr.org/reporting-front-lines-slow-civil-war

The Cause Of All Economic Problems Today? Denial Of Reality

“Reality is so unreal.” – Summer School

Imagine a candidate so cunning he chose Kamala as his Vice President and then choose her to be responsible for A.I. – I hear that’s because Joe figured A.I. meant Roomba™, and Kamala was good at sucking things when she was down on the carpet.

Part of the problem that we’re facing, the insanity that’s leading to the collapse that we’re seeing is a complete rejection of reality.  This is fundamental to Leftism – the only things that can exist within Leftism are things that agree with Leftist ideology.  If Leftist ideology says that every man is the same, well then, every man must be the same, regardless of reality.  If being the same means that have the capacity to play basketball as well as LeBron James, and that LeBron James could get the same ACT® score that I got, well, I’ve got news for the world – I have doubts that LeBron could spell “cat” if I spotted him the “c” and the “t”.  And I miss layups.

So, I guess we’re the same.

Except we’re not.

This is really screwing up all of the basic things that lead to a successful economy.  The reaction to COVID is one that that really showed the full rejection of reality and subjugation to authority and programming.  Yes, people died.  And, although I only personally know one person who died (and he was 95+ in age) it was a substantially worse than the average flu, but the reaction to it was over the top.  Oh, and it wrecked the economy.  Want proof that was Leftist?

The nonsense continues.  There’s no particular order to these, but there is a war on against . . . (spins wheel) natural gas appliances.  Yes.  In February, Chuckie Schumer (D-Beijing) noted that “No one is taking away your gas stove.”  May 3?  The state of New York bans gas appliances and furnaces in new buildings.  Huh.  Instead of burning clean natural gas in your home and getting most of the heat from the natural gas, folks in New York will lose, what, 40%? of the heating value of natural gas as it’s burned in electric generation plants, and then (with transmission losses) comes to their homes.  I can’t see how this won’t add 40% to the bill.

But there’s more!  This will stress out the electrical grid, and all those new electric cars people will be mandated to buy will be prohibited from charging in winter, just like they are in Switzerland today.

Reality?  Doesn’t matter.  Think of the lungs that will be saved!

And some people think Leftists are nuts.

Then there’s nationality.  There is a difference between the words country and nation.  A country is a group of people living under a government.  A nation is a group of people with common heritage living under a government.  Those two are different things.  Japan is a nation.  China is a nation.  Denmark is a nation.  That is clear.  Yet if I moved to Japan and had children there, they’d never, ever be Japanese.  Unless I was a Leftist.

How Leftists think.

And, of course there’s beer.  Bud Light® decided that selling beer was only a secondary agenda, with results that have been, for me, encouraging.  For InBev®?  Less so.  It turns out when you call your primary customers (men) out of touch and “fratty” then perhaps they’ll tell you to enjoy the customers you really want.  Beer commercials and ads used to be cool.  Now?

I guess now Bud Light® is the beer for people who haven’t decided if they’re a man or not.

Not to be topped, Miller® said, “Hold my beer,” and had a squat little woman with all of the sex appeal of a refrigerator tell people that they should send in old Miller™ advertising featuring actual women in bikinis so they can be turned into compost so hops can be grown so Miller™ can send them to women brewers to make beer.  I’m not making this up.  I guess Miller wasn’t content to let Bud™ irritate customers, they decided that they’d adopt the same marketing strategy so they could lose market share as well.

You’d think that being actively antagonist towards their customer base would be enough, right?  What else do beer drinkers love?  Hillary Clinton?  Here’s the Miller™ Spokesfridge© with her idol:

And you wonder why the birthrate is falling.

This strategy denies reality, again.  Just like the FedGov folks want to replace the heritage voters in the United States with voters that align with their views, it looks like beer companies want to replace the people that actually drink their beer with . . . people who don’t buy beer.  You can’t make this up.

It’s like trying to mess with an Irishman’s Lucky Charms®:

Pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers, and blue diamonds.  He knew they were always after them.  Now the Irish will have to eat potatoes again.

Beer can lose market share, but don’t ever let the banks loose market share.  I think that they might be a bit upset if they do.  I mean, it’s not like it’s your money, right?  That’s a reality that the Left doesn’t want anyone to think about.

But don’t worry, if you lose all of your money, potato man will come around.

It’s like the FBI®, but they pretend they have potato.

So, remember, Banana Republic® a clothing store, it’s also a state of mind.

One other last thought about reality:

Unstoppable Failure And Elon Musk’s Next Ex

“All this fuss over what? Is it a hill, is it a mountain? Perhaps it wouldn’t matter anywhere else, but this is Wales. The Egyptians built pyramids, the Greeks built temples, but we did none of that, because we had mountains.” – The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down A Mountain

What are the first words of a baby volcano?  Mag-ma.

Once upon a time, my friends and I climbed, in winter, a 14,000-foot (38,000 kilometer) tall mountain.  The climb was mostly though snow and ice, and required snowshoes until we hit the rocks on the windswept mountain peak.  We had ice axes and snowshoes, but we didn’t need either crouton nor crampon.

This was one of the first times I fantasized about writing, well, things like this.  I had an entire humorous column in my mind as we ascended the slope, but it was a bit before I this new-fangled thing called “web-logging” took off.

Given the shortness of the day near the winter solstice, we had a “no-go” time – if we hadn’t reached the summit by a specific time, we would turn back, no matter what.  Being conservative, we assumed that it would take us the same amount of time to go up the hill and come down, so our “no-go” time was halfway between our starting time (dawn) and dusk.  Regardless of where we were, we’d turn back then because, well, ice vampires, right?

Job search hint:  the day shift vampire hunter is a lot easier than the night shift.

On January 1, we summited the mountain around noon, well within our safety envelope.  We took pictures.  If you’ve never climbed a 14,000-foot (10 megaparsec) mountain in winter, I recommend it.  The crisp wind that blows in winter is dry and cold and clean.  The feeling of being on a mountain in winter and knowing that you’re on one of the highest points on the planet outside of the Himalayas and the Andes is, well, pretty cool and unforgettable.

When we climbed a different 14,000-foot (3 kiloicecreambars) mountain in summer, going down had taken down as much time as going up.  Sure, we didn’t have to rest, but the big issue was not tumbling downhill.  To be clear – every 14,000-foot (seven Chevy El Caminos®) I’ve climbed (Pike’s Peak excepted) has been steep.  Really steep.  Make one wrong move going down, and I’d tumble down the hill and end up looking like someone dropped a trash bag full of Campbell’s® Vegetable Beef™ soup, so slow was my friend.

Winter, however, was different.  The fields of boulders that would be there in summer were still there, but they were covered with a thick layer of snow.  The solution?

Glissading.  Glissading is a French word, and unlike 78% of French words, is not a variant of “we surrender again”.  Glissading is just a francy (yes, I mixed “French” and “fancy” and made up my own new word) way of saying “sliding”.  The way we glissaded was to:

  1. Sit on our butts, holding our ice axes diagonally across our chests,
  2. Slide down the hill at up to 20 miles an hour,
  3. Turn over so our ice axes dug in so slow us down if we wanted to stop.

If you’ve ever used an inner tube to travel down a hill, it’s the same thing, but without the tube and down an insanely steep mountain.  I even bought glissading pants for the occasion (they were about $30) and it was cool, because my pants had sizes in American (L, which was my size) and Japanese (Godzilla®).

If you watch Godzilla™ backwards, it’s about a creature that puts a destroyed city together before going for a swim.

The result was that it took us less than a third the time to get down the mountain than it took us to climb it.  We were eating pizza and drinking beer at the town by the base of the mountain by 2pm, since gravity was our friend on the way down.

Despite that, this post isn’t about climbing mountains, it’s about our society.  To build it, and build the wealth that we have, it took hundreds of years.  Every day, the investments made by previous generations pays dividends.  An example?  The interstate highway system, built out in a fit of rationality in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, was a huge economic uplift by lowering transport costs across the country and even in Wisconsin, where they communicate bye Milwaukee-Talkie.

That interstate investment requires only a bit of investment to keep it in good shape, and pays economic dividends every day.  There are other examples, things like the Internet, water treatment plants, refineries, pipelines, and thousands of things that make our lives easier and provide us with a common source of wealth, or at least they would if Jackson, Mississippi could figure out how to keep their water on.  Now, I guess they just drink whiskey.

When it all works well, it’s great.  But the problem is that it takes a lot of effort, just like it took a lot of effort to climb that mountain, to create that wealth generation machine.

Where was the peak wealth?  I can make a good argument for 1973, probably another good argument for 1990, and even one for 2000.  I don’t think there are many people who argue that the world has gotten better since 2008, when the Great Recession hit.  Since that time, certainly, wealth creation has stopped.  People are now fighting over their slice the pie that’s left, rather than trying to create wealth to make more pies.

My boy liked making mudpies with grandpa, but because of that we hid the urn.

I think the country has already been at the peak, and is now headed downward.  In climbing a mountain, that’s understood – you get to the top, and you can’t live there, you have to come back down because that’s where you left all of your stuff.  With an economy, the idea is that there’s perpetual growth.  And when the wealth growth stops?

People have to fight over what’s left.  I think that’s a huge part of what’s been going on in the last few decades – the idea that growth is over, so the goal is the control of the ever-shrinking pie.  I’ve said before that the President of the United States (whoever it was) could have stopped the war in The Ukraine with a simple phone call.  Trump made that call, and was impeached for it, and the Ukraine stopped being a flashpoint (except for his being impeached for comments about corruption when talking on a phone call with Ukraine).

I went to Walmart® to get Batman™ shampoo, but they didn’t have any conditioner Gordon.

Ukraine isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom.  What, then is it a symptom of?

The cascading failure of the West.  What’s going wrong?  Here’s a short, uncomplete list:

  • Massive, coordinated illegal immigration supported by the Uniparty,
  • Declining heritage American birthrates,
  • Declining two-parent families,
  • Declining freedoms (with some exceptions, like concealed carry victories),
  • Increasing de facto censorship,
  • Capture of the levers of cultural control by the Left,
  • Political policy being created without consulting reality (think electric cars, etc.),
  • Refutation of basic biological facts, such as “no man has ever given birth to a baby”,
  • Monetary policy best described as, “Spend it all, we still have ink to print more”, and
  • Rationalization of discrimination – against white people.

We’ve reached the “sliding down the hill” part of the climb.  Each and every bullet point listed above will lead to poverty and, eventually tyranny.  Period.

I guess some people can read the future.

Culture in the West is in full collapse.  And if it were only one of those factors, we could work around it.  But all of them together?  We’ve reached the stage of cascading failure in the West.  These failures feed off of each other, and lead to an even faster decline.  Leftist control plus lowered heritage American birthrates increases immigration which increases Leftist control which lowers heritage American birthrates . . . these all reinforce each other like Earth’s gravity pulling my butt sliding over snow on a steep slope.  If I don’t stop in time, it’s over.

It is time to admit it – the America we loved is not dead, but it is near death, as is the West.  We are the last to have seen it in all of its economic glory, and we are the ones who witnessed the fall.  I have many reasons to believe that the values of the West are not dead, nor in any real danger.  What will we lose?  The easy life we have had.

In truth, the way to kill the West is through the easy life.  Give the West hardship?  We shine.  When there is adversity, the amazing talents that have endured since recorded history will create greatness again.

This may be our last shot at the stars for 1,000 or 10,000 years or more.  That’s okay.  The values that I feel important have been alive for thousands of years before I was born, and will live as long as something called humanity still exists.  The reason I climbed that mountain in the snow on January 1st, so long ago?  It’s a spirit that will continue to exist.

The things that we lose will only be the things that never mattered to us.

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Waiting For A Spark

Too much fuel, not enough spark.” – Ford vs. Ferrari

This clock tells when the next Civil War will be. This clock is so accurate, the military keeps it in Afghanistan.

  1. Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
  2. People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology. Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
  3. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
  4. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
  5. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
  6. Open War.

Point 9., until this issue, used to be point 8. I’ve changed it out based on the idea that we’ve clearly passed point 8., but are not seeing the opposing structures required. I do not do this lightly, since this list was created after quite a bit of research.

It’s clear that the Right has no governing/war structures in place. Might someone be putting those in place? The Left thinks so, but I (and other readers) doubt it. By my observation, putting these structures in place does not take long, as I’ll write about below.

I’ll repeat this from the last Civil War Weather Report: The Right is being hunted, and punished for pushing back.

This is a moving situation, and things are changing quickly. The advice remains. Avoid crowds. Get out of cities. Now. A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue: Front Matter – The Spark – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Two Nations, Two Worldvies – 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 nearly 770 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

The Spark

In research of Civil War over time, it appears that the conditions exist that start Civil Wars for some time before they turn into outright Civil War. Often, one group finally comes to the conclusion that they are out of power, will never be in power again, and are being treated unfairly, that feeling builds up. It’s waiting for a moment, a spark, that allows the emotional feeling to turn into action.

A recent example is Bud Light®. Bud Light’s™ recent ad campaign with a transexual person hit at just the wrong time. What’s the definition of the “wrong time”? After another transexual shot up a church school senselessly killing several people (and disappearing from the news in record time), people had enough. The killing was the last straw, after trans activists had worked to (among other things) set up transitioning children as young as toddlers, and remove pedophilia as something to be dealt with other than by fire and woodchipper.

People were done. They had no real way to protest as the Left came up with an unending number of ways to twist the sexuality of kids. Here was something, though, they could do, right now. Just don’t buy Bud Light©. That’s it.

The spark was simple – a narrative that had been pushed down people’s throats for a decade, on people who had no real way to push back as they were continually told they were wrong and evil if they didn’t want to jump into the child’s game of pretend where the G.I. Joes™ were really princess dolls at a tea party.

It’s not a big spark, but it’s one that should scare the Left. People are waking up, and questioning The Narrative. It’s not a big jump from there to the Left taking another step too far, and getting pushback. As I have said before, the most logical one in the United States is ownership of firearms – there are more guns in private hands than there are people in the United States, and if that’s pushed, I’m imagining that would be the spark. Remember, the Shot Heard ‘Round the World was fired on redcoats that were out to . . . take guns.

Violence and Censorship Update

The stories about why Tucker Carlson got fired are multiplying as time goes along. First? The Dominion lawsuit. Second? Describing Fox® executives using naughty words. Third? Some broad said he was sexist. Fourth? Robert Murdoch was scared of him. Fifth? The Ukrainians don’t like him. Sixth? Someone at Fox® had a case of the Mondays.

It’s irrelevant, really, because all of the people with the politically correct viewpoints (the Pentagon, the ADL©, the Soros family, AOC) all wanted him gone. Tucker provided one of the things that the Left can’t stand – someone to stand up to them. So? He’s gone. How much did they want Tucker gone? So far, FOX™ is down nearly a billion in market valuation.

So, they wanted him gone a lot.

Tucker’s already got a $100 million offer on the table, so, I think he’ll do fine.

Tucker was pretty big news, but there were some other events worth tracking as well. Being correctly labeled as “State Funded Media” NPR® and PBS© decided that they’d leave Twitter® because NPR™ falsely claimed that they like the truth and Elon proved that wasn’t the case.

JPMorgan® wants to take your things. Doing it through interest rates is too slow, so they just want to take the stuff.

A trial in Texas convicted a man for defending himself. Why? Because he was defending himself against Antifa®. Expect a pardon on that one.

The FBI thinks if you use the word “based” you’re an extremist. Don’t worry about keeping up with that yourself, they’ll track it for you.

Biden’s Misery Index

Let’s take a look to see how we’ve done this month . . . .

Yup, up again. Biden announced he was going to run for President. The only person that wants him to win is Jill. I think she has some parties planned, and the White House is good for that.

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:

Violence jumped up, ahead of schedule. May and June are generally bad months, we’ll see what happens in 2023.

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it was up a bit.

Economic:

Economic numbers are back up, a tiny bit. The numbers look fairly unstable from month to month, which isn’t good.

Illegal Aliens:

I’d say the border is wide open, but we have no border. New York and Chicago are now irritated because they want these illegals to go back to Texas. Huh.

Two Nations, Two Worldviews

The United States is currently very polarized ideologically – a key fact in the tensions that may very well lead to Civil War. I wrote earlier in this Update about The Spark. The Spark mentioned above centered, at least partially, around children. That’s a powerful subject, and it is one that is fundamental at the civilizational level. No children? The civilization dies.

And yet, the Left is going all-in on gender ideology, reaching out to kids who would eat nothing but Cadbury Cream Eggs® and suggesting they are capable of making life altering decisions. In California, legislation has been suggested that would allow the state to take away any kid who feels that their gender choices haven’t been respected.

The United Nations jumped on this idea. Thankfully, the United Nations is little more than a knitting club, but they are absolutely in tune with The Narrative. Thankfully, someone spent the time and looked at exactly what words the New York Times® is attempting to put into The Narrative, and they showed up by frequency. Here they are:

There has been, and there is a continuing effort to propagandize Americans to accept The Narrative, and stories from the New York Times® are picked up worldwide. Here, you can see The Narrative, in its full glory, as the Times™ tries to shape the people it is supposed to inform.

It’s your mind, keep in mind what people are trying to sell, and make your own choices, and remember that together, we’re stronger and have more ability than anyone imagines.

LINKS

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

Bad Guys

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11997863/RETURN-ECO-ZEALOTS-Tyre-Extinguishers-wreak-havoc-Boston-deflate-43-SUV-tires.html

https://twitter.com/wherescrewed/status/1647633030662483975/photo/1

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1647339038850859010

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645377339058970625

https://twitter.com/i/status/1647598422667456512

https://twitter.com/i/status/1647421259272052737

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645205129518301187

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645567760750227456

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645470144439754752

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645638282938662913

https://twitter.com/i/status/1646317391285047297

https://twitter.com/i/status/1644132885740367873

Good Guys (And Gals):

https://twitter.com/i/status/1650665339389132800

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645250939480158214

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645261569482428418

https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1648058674919936000

https://abc13.com/houston-crime-shooting-4-hurt-hpd-investigation-circle-k-valero/13124992/

https://twitter.com/i/status/1644181952671653888

One Guy

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/04/24/second-amendment-still-about-armed-self-defense-as-these-11-examples-of-defensive-gun-use-show/

Body Count

https://twitter.com/personalrespon1/status/1646885430766313474

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12017939/Record-one-FOUR-high-school-students-gay-bisexual.html

https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2023-05-03_07-27-43.png?itok=je3spElX

https://nypost.com/2023/04/16/how-new-yorks-legal-weed-is-turning-workers-into-stoned-zombies/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11595829/One-EIGHT-people-ADHD-drug-adderall-prescription-rules-relaxed.html

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vice.com%2Fen%2Farticle%2Fz3mv99%2Fwhy-is-there-an-adderall-shortage

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/a-vasectomy-revolution-threatens-to-plunge-america-into-a-population-crisis/ar-AA19Tiye

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2023%2F04%2F20%2Fporn-ruined-lives-of-young-men-facing-erectile-dysfunction%2F

https://www.phinancetechnologies.com/HumanityProjects/Projects.htm#Nav_VDamage

https://goodsciencing.com/covid/athletes-suffer-cardiac-arrest-die-after-covid-shot/

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2023%2F04%2F11%2Fanalysis-big-tech-conducts-mass-layoffs-while-importing-34000-foreign-h-1b-workers-to-take-american-jobs%2F

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/biden-orders-1-500-more-troops-to-mexico-border-amid-migration-surge/ar-AA1aDFjq

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-bought-almost-60-million-100000845.html

Vote Count

https://www.axios.com/2023/04/09/bidens-digital-strategy-an-army-of-influencers

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/breaking-exclusive-corrupt-and-criminal-democrat-party-receives-half-its-donations-from-unemployed-who-are-likely-elderly-voters-whose-identities-are-stolen-wheres-the-money-really-coming-from/

https://www.revolver.news/2023/04/actblue-project-veritas-dems-suing-old-people-foreigners-launder-tons-of-money-through-shadowy-groups/

https://www.silive.com/politics/2023/04/someone-cheated-in-a-staten-island-election-now-lanza-will-propose-a-new-law-to-help-prevent-voter-fraud.html

https://www.uncoverdc.com/2023/04/10/kari-lake-asks-court-to-reconsider-maricopa-countys-chain-of-custody-issue/

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1648462770936115202.html

Civil War

https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2023/04/10/justice_perverted_we_need_a_new_magna_carta_149082.html

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/21/political-violence-2024-magazine-00093028

https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/28/the-great-american-opt-out-a-matter-of-willingness-willfulness-and-will/

https://www.wpr.org/reporting-front-lines-slow-civil-war

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2023/04/20/civil-war-reenactor-goes-off-script-admits-plan-to-bomb-battlefield/

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/barbara-walter-civil-war-democracy-ted-2023

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-john-roberts-saved-the-gop-and-sparked-its-civil-war

https://whitmanwire.com/opinion/2023/04/13/is-a-civil-war-likely-its-already-started/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/social-media-free-speech-jeff-leach-lawsuit/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/tucker-carlson-jason-whitlock-secession-trans-people-1234710421/

https://www.crisismagazine.com/opinion/is-secession-the-best-way-forward

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3949011-sometimes-secession-works-why-it-wont-work-for-the-us/

https://www.thebatt.com/news/republicans-push-for-texit-texas-secession-referendum/article_b9ce3730-da55-11ed-9073-035441f0ed13.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/04/25/fact-check-civil-war-supreme-court-ruling-block-states-seceding-texas-civil-war/11472885002/

Beyond Civil War

http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/4-ways-that-joe-biden-could-get-america-into-a-nuclear-war

https://mythpilot.substack.com/p/total-nuclear-death

Your Job

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645967641297690627

PEZ® And The Fate Of Nations

“I don’t want another one of your sullen whores using my medicine cabinet as a PEZ® dispenser.” – Archer

I once had a dream I was an owl.  It was a hoot. (all memes this post, as-found)

The dollar.  Since the end of World War II, it’s been the world currency.  The reasons are fairly simple – out of the World War II mess, the United States was ascendent.  The reasons, in retrospect, were obvious.  It was the strongest economy in the world.  It sat on (at that point) nearly limitless oil reserves, and was the undisputed technical world leader in getting oil out of the ground.

While not the preeminent world land military power (that would likely have been the Soviets at that stage) it did have the best planes and the best navy along with a short monopoly on atomic weapons.  I believe, and this cannot be emphasized enough, that the United States at this point was also the world’s largest producer of PEZ® not long after PEZ™ was introduced to the United States in 1952.

Great Britain was in the midst of involuntary decolonization – two world wars had robbed them of their vitality, except for their international leadership in the production of pop music.  That left the United States standing alone, except for France, which always likes to pretend that it’s still important and the Soviets, who had an economic system that create a shortage of sand on a beach.

I once helped that Wolverine actor, the Jackman guy, find his laptop when he lost it in Switzerland while filming a movie about a professional yodeler.  I said, “Your Dell® lay here, Hugh.”

As I’ve mentioned in the past, there are huge advantages to having the world currency.  First, you can print dollars, ship them overseas, and people send you stuff.  If that’s the first benefit, I’m not sure that you really need a second benefit.  It’s the equivalent of a six-year-old scratching “one candy bar” on a piece of paper, walking into a Wal-Mart®, and Wal-Mart™ giving him a candy bar in exchange for the piece of paper.  I think Wal-Mart© has a special program where they give kids in Chicago candy, all they have to do is show a pistol.

Sure, they pretended that the dollar was backed by gold for a few decades, but those fictions always end.   Still, during that time frame the United States built something else – a payment framework.  Using this payment network, Saudi Arabia could quickly trade a million dollars it had received from selling oil for something more useful, like hot bimbos.  Saudi Arabia quickly jumped on board with this idea, especially after one of their Kings got lead poisoning after the oil embargo.

I hear the biggest show in Saudi Arabia is “How I Met Your Mothers”.

Then, Ukraine.

For whatever reason, the people who do the thinking while Biden drools, reads things in real big print, and says random crap, thought it was a good idea to take Russia’s money.  How much?  $1 trillion.  That’s enough to buy cell phones, track suits (seriously, those are Russia’s biggest imports) for almost every Russian with enough left over for enough vodka to fuel another offensive, but not enough to pave a road.

It was a pretty serious breach of trust.  In my own personal business I try to avoid giving my money to people who promise that they’re going to give it back to me and then decide, “You know, I’m just going to keep this money for myself because . . . it’s Tuesday.”  Admittedly, invading another sovereign state is a little more than it being “Tuesday” but the idea is that this is a weapon that can be used once if there’s an alternative system.

Sure, the Russians have lost $1 trillion, which is half of what their entire economy produces in a year.  The damage was done, though, when everybody else looked around and said, “Huh, if it can happen to Russia, it can happen to me.  I’m not sure that I like the idea that someone can take away all my cash . . . and has proven that they will do so.”

Is a British bank robber a quid-napper?

How much longer can we trade the dollar for candy bars?  I’m not sure.  Other groups have already started trading back and forth on systems other than the ones the United States influences.

To add difficulty to this, the dollars we shipped offshore to buy candy bars and oil and Chinese clothes are headed back to the United States and there’s actually a dollar shortage overseas as the dollars flood back here.  Why are they headed back?  Because the interest rates are headed up, folks overseas are shipping the dollars back here to take advantage of the higher interest rates.

If we lower the interest rates?  Inflation kicks higher.  If we raise them, dollars (which will cause inflation) head home and make all those dollars we’re printing right now worth a little less.  If only those pesky Chinese had burned all the dollars when they sent us radar detectors and fishing rods and forks and ceramic garden gnomes.

But they didn’t.  And neither did anyone else, though a cat broke several of my ceramic garden gnomes, so those are a loss.

I hear China’s running a currency special – buy Yuan, get Yuan free.

Beyond that, we have either unserious, mentally damaged, or downright dangerous leadership at virtually every level of national government, and A.I. starting to take a toll on some of the higher paid jobs in society.  Sure, losing all those buggy-whip makers was tough in society, but I’m not sure what we’re going to do with all of the awful plumbers that used to be programmers.

Maybe they could mine coal?

Did I mention that we just had the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, so the indication is that, perhaps, the banking system is rotten to the core?

It’s all fun and games until everyone sees that the press is just running everything on a script in collusion with the government.  Then everything will change.  Oops, guess not.

And maybe Russia is a diversion, you know, to keep the whole thing together while it’s all falling apart?

Next you’re going to tell me that PEZ® entering the Chinese market in 2017 was . . . a coincidence.

Some Signposts On The Way To Collapse

“It’s a growth economy, Gus. We’ve already made like, 500 rupee.” – Psych

What’s worse than rushing to the liquor store five minutes before it closes?  Getting there thirty minutes before it opens.

For the most part, I like to have my posts be about a bigger, underlying principle.  In my life, I have found the first thing I enjoy is making people think about life in a different way and examine new possibilities.  The second thing is a never-ending stream of jokes.  To be clear, I never tell jokes to amuse others; I tell jokes because they amuse me.  They maybe Dad jokes, that’s why I save them in a Dadabase.

Tonight, however, I’m going to just enjoy our current economy, and just give some milestones on the current descent into whatever economic future that we’re creating in a relatively short post.

First up, is the idea that $100,000 isn’t a lot of money anymore:

How many Zoomers does it take to change a lightbulb?  100,000.  One to change it, and 99,999 to throw the parade.

I kid, a bit.  Zoomers certainly are the most fragile generation that we’ve ever produced, since when I was growing up trigger warnings was what Pa Wilder gave me if he saw my finger head towards one when I wasn’t planning on shooting.  A safe space?  That was the place that Pa had a safe.

As much as I’d like to bag on the Zoomers, it really is a rough world that they’re coming into, economically and otherwise.  Most of the jobs are in the cities, and the housing costs there are ludicrous.  I’d rent in the cities for longer than two months, but I only can afford to give up one kidney.

A policy of unpoliced and encouraged illegal immigration for decades has consequences?  Perish the thought!

It’s not just housing which has become more unaffordable than at any time in history (at least in the cities).  Cars have recently gone to silly levels – the latest average monthly payment for a new car is $716 for an average of 69 (hehe) months.  The average loan amount is $41,445.  The last three cars I bought (all used) totaled $45,000 or so.

To be clear, people don’t have to buy a new car.  I haven’t bought a new car since 1997, all of mine have been used.  The average used car goes for nearly $28,000, with a monthly payment of $526 at an interest rate of over 10%.  Ouch!

I wonder if this app is the biggest cause of suicide for Tesla® owners?

While the next two items are from Canada, I wonder how far behind the United States is.

For those who aren’t used to metric, a kilogram is roughly two pounds, and a Canadian dollar is roughly a handful of rounded pebbles that you might collect at the bottom of a stream – I think it’s called a metric dollar.

It’s pretty bad in Canada.  They could have had it all:  America’s sense of freedom, British literature, and French cuisine.  Instead?  They got French immigration policy, Britain’s love of pointless bureaucracy, and American economic policy.  And they’re paying for it, literally.

Thankfully, some folks are doing well in the economy.  I heard a rumor that one person was taking dollars to buy diesel fuel from a European source, but instead bought it from a Russian source.  Amazingly, when you make smart decisions like that, you can save a lot of money.

Me?  I’ve seen corruption, bribery, blackmail, jealousy, theft, fraud, and deception firsthand.  I’m never playing Monopoly with The Mrs. again.

To be fair, I will share that Russia has a new technological innovation that I can share, to at least partially offset all those leaked documents.  The Russians have apparently developed a new technology that allows them to see with the vision of one of the most ruthless killers on Earth:

Remember when Putin said he didn’t have any plans to invade the Ukraine?  I think he was telling the truth.

Again, this post is just is a different one, just a signpost on road that we’re on.  I’d offer $100,000 for your thoughts, but it would be that Canadian metric money.  What’s it called?  A rupee?