Category: Uncategorized

“Do I look like the kind of clown that can start a movement?” – Joker

Mainly memes today to go with the Monday post.  I’ll respond to comments on both of them before my Wednesday post . . . all memes are “as found” on the ‘net – veracity not assured.

 

Shot:

 

Chaser:

“Can’t stop the signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere.” – Serenity

I wonder if Putin got his doctorate in Russian political leaders?  If so, does that make him a Stalin grad?

As technology has changed, so has the information that is available to us.  Starting with radio, the ability of that technology to influence public opinion increased.  Radio was a voice in the night that broadcast the opinion of one to many.  Then, after the invention of FM radio, radio became stereo-typical.

Film increased the ability to spread messages, and in a much deeper way.  There is something about moving images coupled with sound that draws human attention and consciousness.  Measurements of human brain activity while watching television showed that the brain “shut off” while watching television, entering an alpha wave state – a state normally associated with resting.

It isn’t that way when talking, or reading.  Beta waves, associated with active thought processing jump back into play when we read.  In a very weird way, television puts us into a trance, where we receive and don’t think about the message.  If ever there was a way to put propaganda into the heads of everyone watching, television is your answer.  It also caused the problem of losing the controller.  I always found mine in some remote area.

Also, congratulations to drugs for winning the war on drugs.

In many cases, the idea wasn’t only to put propaganda into heads, it was also to entertain.  Why would I watch a television show that I didn’t like?  No, shows competed for market share, too.  If the propaganda was too strong, the show would fail.  But many of the messages of globalist, Leftist thought were still put into skulls relentlessly, slipped in as special episodes, or by painting ideas that violated The Narrative in the most negative light possible.

Even the news, though, was part of the same message, which we now call The Narrative.  The Narrative is strong.  Honestly, I am still finding elements of The Narrative that I believed to be true.  It’s more or less like The Matrix, but Elon Musk doesn’t keep forgetting that Keanu Reeves is the good guy.

Now here’s a narrative I could get behind. (meme not an original)

One example was that The Narrative that drove the United States both getting into and getting out of the Vietnam War.  It was the first war that was televised on a daily basis.  And, regardless of our recent fiascos, presidents dream of being a “War President” which gives them nearly unrivaled political power.

A case in point was the attack on the Twin Towers.  Whoever did it, the beneficiaries were George W., Lockheed-Martin®, and everyone who didn’t like the United States.  It’s unlikely that George W. would have been re-elected because of messy economy.  W. drove the “Left” every bit as insane as Trump did, and would have (no doubt) driven them to the same level of coordination to bring him down in 2004 as they spent on Trump in 2020.  Except?  9/11.

I think Sleepy Joe would love nothing more than the power and prestige that comes with a War footing in the country.  Or at least someone would.  Hence, Ukraine.

They asked Joe what he thought of this meme, but he’d forgotten Biden.

I don’t know exactly what the game is.  It appears that the Ukrainians are a lot less concerned about the Russians than we are, and that Joe is far more concerned about Russians crossing the Ukrainian border than the millions that he’s inviting to cross our border.

Why not?  If get gets the Russian Bear just grumpy enough, I think the calculus is, he can turn Putin into a figure to unite the country.  If Corona-chan couldn’t do it, well, trot out the (spins wheel) Russians.  And we’ll have a united country, and the whole economic mess will get solved when spending even more billions with weapons manufacturers!

First, we’re no longer a serious nation when it comes to anything military.  Yes, I know that we have a long, proud tradition.  But have you seen the military in 2022?

I had a friend that joined the Army and killed a lot of people.  He’s a horrible doctor.

Second, although the people of the United States were in favor of going to get Osama Bin Laden, the wars overseas soon became background noise.  Without a significant loss of Americans, say, a carrier battle group, there is little chance of getting the rank and file American citizens would support a war in Ukraine.  Outside of, say, loss of a carrier battle group.

And, finally:  What, exactly, is this about?  Ukraine and Russia are similar in the national corruption index scores – it’s not like Ukraine is remotely on par with Denmark or even Albania.  Yes, Albania is less corrupt than Ukraine.

A Russian wedding used to be called a Soviet Union.

Even the Ukrainian president, Zelinsky, told Biden to chill out on fanning the flames of war.  Russia has a long sense of paranoia, and isn’t interested in having NATO camp out right next door.  Honestly, I have no idea why we have troops in Europe in 2022, let alone trying to pull Ukraine into NATO just to irritate the Russians.

Oh, yeah, because international tension takes away from the intractable problems Joe has at home.

The problem that Joe faces is a simple one:  the old model of a single source delivering a single Narrative is gone.  Places exist all over the Internet the question The Narrative.  That’s crucial.  Heck, they’re even questioning The Narrative in Canada.

Politely, but they are.

From Trudeau:  “They only hate me because I’m black.”

And the Signal is getting out.  I have only listened to a few minutes of Joe Rogan.  It was okay, but not enough to keep me coming back.  But he’s irritated the gatekeepers of The Narrative.

Or at least Neil Young.  Neil Young, who hasn’t had a headline since Nixon was in office, decided that he was so in favor of free speech that he’d pull his music from Spotify®, who sponsors Joe Rogan’s podcast.

It’s unlikely that Spotify™ will cave to Mr. Young, even though he’s now been joined by Joni Mitchell, Liza Minnelli, and maybe Wolfgang Mozart.  Of course, The Mrs. and I made fun of Mr. Young on our podcast.  When I checked on it the next day, I found that our podcast was gone.

There are fates worse than death.  (not my original meme)

The Mrs. had used a music bed for a parody commercial.  The music bed was one of Mr. Young’s songs.  The next day, we were pulled down for copyright infringement (no strike).  The Mrs. is getting ready to re-upload an edited version.  I really don’t think Mr. Young had anything to do with it personally.  So, our podcast hits dozens of visitors sometimes.  Joe Rogan hits millions.

They try to censor the small when we deviate, but the large they must take down, in public.  If the Canadian trucker protest were not so large, there would be a complete lack of news coverage.  As it is, the coverage will be small as they can make it, except to cover whatever trivial outrage can be manufactured.

I hear some of the protesters are semi-retired.

The important thing is, large or small, there is an alternative to The Narrative.  I try to be as honest as I can be in every single post.  In many cases what I say is slightly different from The Narrative.  Sometimes it’s a lot different.

And there are thousands of other voices out there, too, willing to defy The Narrative, in ways both big and small.  This is new.  Television and radio gave us the grand wave of propaganda that led to The Narrative being so powerful.  They’ll stop at almost nothing to stop us from seeing that the emperor has no clothes.

But it’s too late.  The signal is out.  It’s even covered in maple syrup sometimes.

Question:  how many trees did mankind have to suck before they found maple syrup?

Tomorrow, there will be a rare Tuesday version of Wilder Wealthy and Wise, just memes and examples of The Narrative being exposed.

“The Mandela Effect has been an Internet meme for almost a decade. It’s always been called that.” – The X-Files

According to National Geographic™, 80% of Americans can’t find Ukraine on a map.  They’re really ahead of the news!

Got in fairly late tonight, so it’s memes for dinner for everyone.  Back to original content on Monday – these memes are “as caught” in the wild.  I’ll note that on the podcast side, apparently, Neil Young didn’t like us making fun of him, so we had our first podcast pulled down.  I hope Neil Young will remember, this blogger don’t need him around, anyhow.  Since they pulled him from Spotify®, I hope he does okay.  I hear that he’s going to concentrate on MySpace™.

 

“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.” – Airplane

Jill caught Joe chewing on electrical wires, so she had to ground him.

Joe Biden is having his worst week in office.  In fact, so far his time in office has been an utter string of failure that makes the whole farce looks like it’s on purpose.  Let’s just look at the catalog of mess (not in order) that he’s created/made worse since last January.

I thought that Biden was in denial, but from the picture, looks like he was in the Suez.

• In March, that cargo ship blocked the Suez Canal. Not Biden’s fault (probably) but I think Kamala might have been driving.
• Increased inflation so it is now at multi-generation highs. Biden has successfully turned the economy into the number one fear of Americans.  I guess that’s one way to solve the COVID crisis.
• International embarrassment about fleeing Afghanistan in the middle of the night. Certainly, we should have left, but we left like a fat man sneaking away from the dessert bar with a full plate.
• Announced a mandate for workers at companies with over 100 employees to force-vax as a last-ditch effort to get support, only to have the Supreme Court deny it. This actually was to his benefit, except that it makes him look weak politically.  Or like an old man with dementia.
• Actually got in place a requirement for health care workers paid by Uncle Sugar to be force-vaxxed. While it might seem like a political win, the fallout from the health care systems will be very dark indeed – expect emergency levels of personnel shortages coming soon.

How does a pirate set up his Bluetooth speaker?  Parrot with his phone.

As I’ve mentioned before, Biden has made himself as popular as morning-after-tequila breath.  People actually would rather have that volcano that just exploded near Tonga as president, since it would certainly do less damage to the country.  A tornado?  That would be a huge improvement on Biden – at least the tornado stops destroying after a while.

In previous years, I would have asked the question, how could it get worse?  But since I asked that question about 2020 “How could 2021 be worse?” I’ve learned to stop tempting fate since I don’t want a plague of Leftist vampires with electric cars to appear suddenly as the Sun goes nova.  So, I don’t want to push my luck.

With good measure.  Biden’s problem is that . . . he has nothing but problems.  I had a boss once who said, “Nothing succeeds like success.”  What he meant by that was that when things were going well, if you could keep them going you could end up in a virtuous circle.  Things just got better and better, and the momentum led from one victory to the next.

Little known fact:  you don’t need a parachute to skydive.  You need a parachute to skydive twice.

Success leads to success.  Does failure lead to failure?  Absolutely.  Joe Biden’s life is a patchwork of failure that somehow has led to him to the most epic failure of all politicians since Louis XVI said, “Nah, you can ignore them.  The peasants never do anything.”

But failing politicians are like failing businesses.  They’ll do almost anything to try to turn things around.  Businesses will borrow increasing amounts of money while promising increasingly ludicrous deals.  Politicians will . . . do exactly the same thing.  Except with a politician, they’ll toss in war as a bonus.

That’s just what Joe is doing.  Why would we want to increase the size of NATO by one Ukraine?  I have no idea.  But right now, I have no idea why NATO exists.  The Warsaw Pact and Stalin are both long gone, so who, exactly, are we worried about attacking Europe?

And why would we care about Ukraine enough to do, well, anything?  When Putin took the Crimean peninsula over, I was surprised – surprised he didn’t control it already.  But, again, why would we care?  I personally wouldn’t care if Guatemala took over Nicaragua, but that would be far more relevant to the United States than Ukraine is.  I see no role for the United States in any of these issues, but I’m not a politician looking to score popularity points like Joe.

I’m glad I wasn’t born in Ukraine.  I don’t speak a word of Ukrainian.

Additionally, though, Biden is playing the war card inside the United States, defining over 80,000,000 Americans as “terrorists” that the FBI just hasn’t organized terror plots for.  I do hear that the 2022 New Year’s Resolution of the FBI is to make their plot planning just a little less obvious.  The big advantage here is the government can time their schemes so they get all the Federal holidays off.

In one sense, Trump should be happy he isn’t in office:  the economy is was cooked for 2021 no matter what happened.  The aftermath of the COVID-19 shutdowns combined with the currency faucets spraying cash everywhere was bound to create an additional economic catastrophe.  That was baked into the cake already.

But Biden took that situation and made it worse.  The biggest mistakes were (and are) the Federal stimulus bills that have directly led to the inflation we’re seeing today.  You can only pour so much money into an economy until it shows up everywhere.

And it’s about to get spicy for Biden, the Federal Reserve® has signaled that they’re more than fine with abandoning Biden, too.  The only real cure for an inflating currency is to dry it up through higher interest rates.

If you had a dollar for every time you thought about me . . . you’d think about me more often.

The higher interest rates will (eventually, and if the rates are high enough) reduce inflation.  But the cost includes lowered prices on things people need to borrow money to buy, like houses.  So, while interest rates make borrowing more expensive, housing prices will drop, while rents stay high, and inflation remains.

Joe’s approval rate is 33% now.  What will it be when that perfect economic storm hits?

I bet that week will be even worse.

“This man has no salt in his body at all.” – Star Trek, TOS

I had dinner with Bobby Fischer once.  It took him two hours to pass the salt.

In the wake of the Supreme Court (which we all know is just Regular Court with tomatoes and sour cream), I thought I’d post some Leftist tears with plenty of salt that we could all mine, along with a selection of “as-found” memes.

Were the rulings all we wanted?  No.  Rather than collapse the whole economy, SCROTUS decided to keep the mandate for health care workers.  I can expect that this will result in breathless headlines in about a month when the health care system starts to crater (it’s never really overstaffed at the nurse/doctor level) and the blame will go on (spins Biden’s Wheel of Blame-Shifting) to dart-shooting ninjas.  Aesop, who is in health care, (LINK) has a take on this.  His post is labeled as, BURNING HATRED LIKE A THOUSAND SUNS.  That might actually understate his level of anger.

But, for tonight, let’s enjoy a selection of memes, all are “as-found” on ‘net with zero originals.  Some of them are so full of salt that if you just add water, they make their own sauce.

For now, my annual Christmas post . . .

“You’ll put your eye out.” – A Christmas Story

Nobody was too concerned with my eyes.  But do NOT make us have to pay for a neighbor’s window.

(This was first published in 2018, but I’ve made some slight edits.  Merry Christmas!)

I’m a believer in Christmas – it’s a time of redemption and rebirth that proves that miracles can happen.  People can escape their past, and become something more than they were before – they can become reborn.  We can become better.  The birth of Christ is an example that we can all be reborn and change our lives in a miraculous and meaningful way.

But, I’m not sure I can recall any particular Christmas miracles.

Oh, wait, here’s one.  It’s mostly true, as well as I can recall, and field-tested to read aloud to your family:

On Christmas Day when I was in second grade, the one thing I wanted more than anything else was . . . a BB-Gun.  No, this is not a remake of A Christmas Story, this is A Wilder Story.  And I was there for this one.

As I recall, this was the last Christmas when we opened Christmas presents on Christmas morning.  In all following years, my older brother John Wilder and I wheedled our parents into a Christmas Eve opening of everything but “Santa” gifts.  We were insufferable.  My brother (really) is also named John Wilder – my parents didn’t want to waste those extra birth announcements they had bought when they could just change the day and year, but that’s another story.

But that particular Christmas morning when I was in second grade I looked down on a real-life lever-action Daisy® BB gun.  It looked like a real rifle even though the wood parts were plastic.  I’d never shot a real rifle before, but I knew that all I wanted for Christmas was that BB gun.  And there it was, all mine, pristine in its oiled metal and plastic perfection.

It looked very real.  Mine was the one on the bottom.  It was actually mistaken for a real rifle several times.  Mainly by me, because everyone who was an adult could see it was just a BB gun.

“Take care of that, and it’ll last you a long time, Son,” Pop said as he handed me my first gun.  This was the first time he’d said that to me, and I nodded gravely, feeling the responsibility and pride deep inside me.  Pop would later repeat that phrase about boots I got in high school, a Buck© pocket knife I got in fifth grade, and my first car.

I still have the BB gun and the boots.  I lost the knife, probably at school.  It was expected when I was a kid that you had a knife with you if you were in fifth grade, because what if you had to gut a fish during English class?

But I was in second grade, and I had a BB gun.  My BB gun.

And I was ready to use it.  I was given a quick tutorial on how to load it, a list of all the things (mainly windows), people (mainly windows), places (our windows), and forbidden objects (neighbor’s windows) that I shouldn’t even think of aiming my BB gun at, let alone shoot.  I was trusted to take my new BB gun out on a Christmas morning expedition, because it was made clear to me in no uncertain terms that the worst punishment in the world would fall upon me if I shot something I shouldn’t.  I would lose (probably until I was 40) my BB gun, be grounded from TV until I had my own children and probably be branded as a BB abuser for the rest of my life in my Permanent Record.  (For kids:  Permanent Record is now called Snapchat©.)

With the earnestness only a second grader can muster, I put on my deep blue Sears™ parka (the ad said it was designed for pilots stationed in . . . the ARCTIC, you know, where we fought the Soviets to save Santa from becoming, I guess, more Red) with polyester fur trim, and a pocket for pens and pencils on the arm, because where else would you keep pens and pencils except your left arm?  I pulled on my black felt-lined snow boots and stiff green plastic gloves, and went outside.  It was cold, certainly below freezing, and probably hovering around zero in non-communist units.

Like a pocket knife, every boy had a parka like this.  Every boy. But does anyone know why pilots need parkas if they’re in heated jet airplanes??  Oh, yeah.  Soviets.  Image from E-Bay.

It had already snowed enough that the snow pile in our front yard was 10 feet (43 meters) deep, but we had a packed trail where our snowmobiles had gone onto the snow-packed country road and up into miles of forest roads that dated back to the old prospectors looking for gold.

My feet crunched in the snow as I walked due north onto the road, my breath puffing out as if from a small blue fake-fur-trimmed steam engine headed uphill.  I kept going.  What was I looking for?  I’m not sure – I don’t remember, exactly.  I guess, looking at stuff with a BB gun in my hand and shooting anything that wouldn’t get me in trouble with Ma Wilder at the rate of 6 BBs per step.  But I felt like a man, and what would a man with a rifle do?  Hunt.  Win World War II again.  Look for communists.  It’s hazy, but I know I had a purpose.

Snakes weren’t a possibility, since I knew snakes wintered in Florida with baseball players, Santa and Cubans.  Regardless, I wanted to shoot my BB gun, even if the opportunities to send Soviets back to Russia with a backside full of BBs was limited, at best.  I still don’t recall ever seeing a Soviet in the forest until I saw Red Dawn, and then my BB gun was at home.

I guess Europe decided to sit this one out.

I trundled up the road.  I think that’s probably the only time I’ve used the word “trundled” precisely since it implies I moved along slowly, noisily, and in a less than graceful manner.  All of those applied.  But I was ten feet tall with my BB gun, shooting aimed fire into snowbanks and sage brush alike.  About a half a mile from my house, more than three-quarters of the way to the Old Cemetery, I saw it.

The Bear.

Sitting motionless, huddled against the barbed wire fence, not 20’ away, was the bear.  It was a black bear.  I knew that grizzly bears had been killed nearby, but this was definitely a black bear, being black and all.  Ma Wilder had told me about them before going hiking and told me to never, ever get between a black bear cub and its mother – she said that was more dangerous than being between Beto O’Rourke and a microphone.

I didn’t know if this bear was cub-sized or mother-sized, but I already knew that this was something way out of my experience level – I mean I still wasn’t even coloring within the lines very well.  Communists?  Sure, I could take down a dozen of them since they were weak because they were Godless and fatherless and mainly starving when they weren’t swilling massive quantities of cheap Afghan vodka.

But bears?  Better call the reinforcements (spelled D-A-D) in.

Calling out an APB on a tiny blonde boy.  He looked tasty.

I backed away from the bear, keeping my eyes on it the whole time.  My BB gun was loaded, a precious brass sphere ready to explode outward on a column of pressurized air at the bear should it charge me.  I knew I was too slow to out-trundle the bear.  Even my candy-cane addled brain knew that the BB was scant protection against a bear, but if I was going to go down, I was going to go down fighting like a man, and not running away like a weak Soviet child would.  Even though it was nearly zero, I built up a sweat in my green turtle neck under my Air Force Pilot Parka®.

That green turtle-neck was really tight and made me look a lot like an actual turtle, so I only wore it three times.  Why?  A chubby kid covered in the smell of fear sweat and Nacho Cheese Doritos™ isn’t really a winner with the ladies despite whatever Bill Clinton might say.

An aside:  In the safe realm of 2018, I know that it seems insane to allow a second grader to hike up into the forested wilderness alone at temperatures near zero on Christmas morning armed with a weapon that’s patently illegal to arm a second grader with in New York City, and twenty other states that are, no doubt, now deeply under the influence of the Soviets.  Or, does it?   When I last had a second grader (Pugsley) he had a BB gun and trundled off into the backyard with a zillion BBs.  I can attest our backyard is now safely Soviet-free.  But back in the day?  We weren’t building weak Soviet children.  No!  We had backbones of steel and cheap Taiwanese Rambo® knives with compasses built into the handle.

So, yeah, not unusual.  I guess it was a crazy thing called freedom.  Anyway . . .

I got back to the house and threw open the door.  I stamped my snow-covered feet inside.  Yeah, I know, bad form.  But I was in a hurry, I had real news and information for the family.

My parents were lounging on the couch, enjoying a quiet coffee.

“A BEAR!”  I yelled.

“I swear, I saw it, a bear!  It was just right up the road, right where the hill starts.  A bear!  A black one!”

Ma looked at Pop, concerned.

Pop Wilder shook his head.  “Bears are hibernating.  None are up this time of year, not when it’s this cold.”

“No, it was there, right by the fence.”

Ma Wilder nudged him, seeing the absolute certainty on my face.  “We should take a look.”

There is a look a man gives a woman when he knows that he has lost the argument even before it started.  I know that look because I saw it then.  Pop sighed, got up, and got dressed.  Half an hour later, he and Ma and my brother were all dressed, and ready to go up the road.  I had my BB gun.  I hoped that the bear would still be there.

We walked.  I pointed, when the Bear came into sight, not 300 yards away.

“See, I told you.”

Ma Wilder looked concerned when she saw visual proof of my story.  I think she had put my bear story into the category of “addled ravings of an overly imaginative eight-year old that may or may not process reality like a normal human after he told me that he was worried that Grandma would turn into a zombie (Sleep Deprivation, Health, Zombies, and B-Movies).”

As for me, I was concerned that Pop hadn’t brought bazookas, howitzers, grenades, or maybe a battleship.  Nah, Pop Wilder could probably wrestle a dozen or so bears, if they came up to him one at a time, like in the Kung Fu movies.  We finally got up to the road where we were perpendicular to the black bear, still huddled up against the fence, not 30 feet (432 meters) away.  It hadn’t moved since I’d first seen it.  I felt . . .vindicated, even though I’d never heard the word.

“Hand me the BB gun,” said Pop Wilder.

I did.

Pop shot one BB into the bear, smoothly worked the lever like a cowboy in the Old West, and then shot another BB into the bear.

The bear was motionless.  It must be dead!  Pop Wilder killed it!  Pop handed the BB gun back to me.

He then walked back into the deep snow directly to the bear, reached out, and pulled up the black plastic sheeting that had blown into a ball up against the fence.

He handed me back the BB gun and handed my brother the black plastic sheet.  We walked home in silence.

So, there was that:  the Miracle of the Transubstantiation of the Bear – where a Christmas miracle transmuted a black bear into a sheet of black plastic.  Not sure of any other explanation.

But the real Christmas miracle, it’s below.  Merry Christmas to all.

“The risk of death turns people on.” – Rush

What’s more than 9, but not quite to step 10?  This clock.

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

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 – Signals – Violence And Censorship Update – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Running Out Of Options – 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 620 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

Signals

• Senator Ted Cruz from Texas brought up the idea that Texas should secede from the Union in November, if the Democrats “fundamentally destroy the country.”
• Three counties in Maryland are looking into leaving Maryland and going to West Virginia.
• Oroville, California declared itself a “Constitutional Republic” where federal and state ‘Rona mandates don’t apply.

Those are all stories from November.  This isn’t an all-exhaustive list, since it doesn’t include all of the cries for a national breakup should abortion be thrown back to a state-by-state decision.  More than anything, though, they’re a sign that people are talking about national divorce everywhere.

By itself, these would be nothing more than ramblings.  But in virtually every public issue except for spending as much money as is humanly possible (where the Democrats and Republicans are in harmony), the polarization is advancing and accelerating.

What is Voyager 1’s favorite cheese since it’s over a billion miles from Earth?  Probe Alone.

There is little agreement of what the United States even is in 2021 – as Empire fades, we see that we are hollowed out.  Left and Right cannot agree on anything.  The “Jab” is a perfect example:  the Left sees it as a new Holy Sacrament, and the Right sees the apparatus supporting it as a potential Mark of the Beast-level of Evil.

Violence And Censorship Update

In violence, Portland again takes the Riot Prize for convulsing in a violent pity-party after Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty.  Portland wasn’t the only place, but seemed to have the greatest degree of destruction.  The violence was initiated by the Left.

• Project Veritas Raid

Project Veritas has been a thorn in the side of the Left since James O’Keefe pointed out the hypocrisy of Project Acorn, where Leftist activists gave him pointers on how to have his (fictitious) 13 year-old-Ecuadoran prostitutes as a tax deduction and helped him apply for a loan for his brothel.

Since then, he’s engaged a series of high-profile stunts that mix real reporting with “I can’t believe he got away with that” publicity ideas.  The Left hates this guy.  So, what to do?

I hear Hillary is a ruthless editor, too.  She took one guy’s colon out.

Use the full force of the FBI to investigate him, conduct an early-morning raid on his house, and leak personal information as well as electronic conversations with his lawyer to a party he was suing:  The New York Times®.  The use of the federal government to harass people who embarrass the Left is nothing new, but going after journalists is a blatant attempt at censorship.

• YouTube® Dislike Button

We have known for several years now that YouTube® is against the Right.  Creator after creator on the Right has been first demonetized and then kicked off the platform.  This forces people with unpopular (from YouTube’s® perspective) opinions to have to seek alternative platforms.

Now it’s a war against the viewer.  One very easy way to show that you didn’t like a video was to hit the “dislike” button.  This very simple act made it easy to share a very simple opinion.  “I didn’t like this.”

YouTube© sold this change on the idea that it would “help protect” small creators.  Nope.  This was entirely aimed at not showing how many dislikes Biden’s videos got.  This was for creators like Disney™ to avoid dislikes on their videos.  This allows them to manufacture consent (LINK) by hiding the fact that there are huge numbers of people that disagree with The Leftist Narrative.

How is YouTube® like the government?  They both break their own rules.

• New Twitter CEO

A single quote is all you need to understand the bans will intensify:  “Focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.”

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 our perception of violence is holding steady, despite riots in major cities after the Rittenhouse verdict.  Perhaps we’re just getting used to it?

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it ticked up this month again.

Economic:

Economic feelings finally dropped.

Illegal Aliens:

This data was at record levels last three months, but finally dropped.  Now it’s just near a record level (and record for this time of year).

Running Out Of Options

Biden’s approval rating is in the dirt.  Almost everything that could be a difficulty, is a difficulty.  When Bill Clinton was in this position, he hired nominally Republican staffers to help him.  They “triangulated” and tried to find positions where the Left and Right could be ignored, and a compromise solution could be proposed.  It worked, and without his lying under oath, this strategy made him a much more effective President.

Biden does not appear to have that luxury.  Viewed on the Left as a compromise that could defeat Trump, there’s no real excitement for him outside of his bedroom, and, honestly, probably not there either.  The Hard Commie Left considers him a fascist, the progressives consider him a sell-out, and the moderate Left barely exists anymore.  Biden’s base . . . doesn’t exist.

Sadly, this made-up stuff is actually more coherent than a lot of his actual comments, you lying dog-faced pony soldier.

The Right doesn’t like him at all, and is following the post-1990 opposition playbook of “do anything to make him fail” that only had a short truce after 9/11.

Who does that leave?

Well, he tried mandating “the Jab” because, with 59% of Americans double-jabbed, he thought that he could get someone on his side.  Ooops.  Turns out that only the hardcore Left want to take people’s jobs and then put them in camps if they’re not vaxxed.  It was a longshot, and (right now) it looks like a big failure.

The scary part of this is that when people are really far down, they tend to take major risks to try to win.  If it’s the bottom of the ninth and there’s a runner on base and you’re up at bat, the chances of swinging for the fence to get a homer go up.  Why?  Nothing left to lose, baby.

Like I said – scary.  What policies will he try and how will he push in order to gain the support of the Left?  And will that push the United States even farther apart?

 

LINKS

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

The Devolution Will Be Televised

Palm Beach, FL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqW5yyXv9pc

Portland: https://twitter.com/i/status/1461922664377847813

SF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKFPGzomkUo

https://twitter.com/i/status/1461933919750606850

https://twitter.com/i/status/1462284757434175488

Chicago: https://twitter.com/i/status/1465678537306914826

https://twitter.com/i/status/1461478278645047307

http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/in-some-parts-of-america-looting-has-become-a-way-of-life

https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2021/12/02/third-worldizing-america-n2599978

 

Ballot Box Befuddlement

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/16/how-much-cheating-is-enough/

NJ: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/powerful-new-jersey-senate-democrat-says-12000-ballots-recently-found-support-refusal-to-concede-to-truck-driver/ar-AAQnpiG?ocid=se

TX: https://uncoverdc.com/2021/11/23/texas-funds-sos-comprehensive-forensic-audit-of-four-counties/

PA: https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/19/whistleblower-videos-capture-pennsylvania-election-officials-destroying-evidence/

GA: https://voterga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Brian-Kemp-Audit-Inconsistencies-Report-Joe-Rossi-11.18.2021.pdf

https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/24/georgia-governor-releases-more-evidence-that-2020-ballots-were-miscounted/

https://www.westernjournal.com/election-integrity-group-2020-ballot-images-56-georgia-counties-destroyed/

WI: https://www.cbs58.com/news/kleefisch-files-lawsuit-against-wisconsin-elections-commission

https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/wisconsin-election-commission-admits-to-breaking-laws-in-2020/

USA FBI Bombshell: https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/18/durham-investigation-intrigue-sergei-millian-an-fbi-plant/

 

Body Count Of A Lost War…

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/yearly-drug-overdose-deaths-top-100000-first-time-rcna5656

https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/18744.jpeg?itok=u3T0Djrx

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-opioids-more-powerful-than-fentanyl-are-discovered-in-dc-amid-deadly-wave-of-overdoses/ar-AARgxFB?ocid=uxbndlbing

 

Marching Towards A New War???

https://summit.news/2021/11/26/video-california-town-declares-independence-from-dictatorship-powers-of-federal-covid-mandates/

https://archive.fo/OM46U

https://nypost.com/2021/11/21/armed-father-daughter-duo-seek-to-protect-anti-rittenhouse-protesters/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/nov/23/antifa-urges-members-take-arms-after-kyle-rittenho/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10226225/WATCH-Portland-police-cornered-garage-protesters-riots-Kyle-Rittenhouse-verdict.html

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/580856-gop-centrists-come-under-increased-attacks-from-own-party?rl=1

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-sullivan-conservatism-60-minutes-2021-11-12/

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/beyond-red-vs-blue-the-political-typology-2/?adobe_mc=TS%3D1636515583%7CMCAID%3D6F4FD548A61746D0-0A4A75241B51B9FC

https://www.salon.com/2021/11/09/ted-cruz-says-texas-should-secede-and-take-the-military-if-democrats-destroy-the-country/

https://tnm.me/texit/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10183647/Americas-NINE-political-tribes-according-Pew-Research.html

https://dailyreckoning.com/the-u-s-is-a-powder-keg/

https://www.salon.com/2021/11/04/in-the-coming-second-american-civil-war-which-side-are-you-on/

https://survivingtomorrow.org/america-will-be-twelve-countries-very-soon-58d900389257

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10267619/Billionaire-Ray-Dalio-predicts-30-chance-Civil-War-10-years.html

https://unherd.com/2021/11/would-america-survive-a-civil-war/

 

Amen, Five Times August, Amen

https://youtu.be/6z1ZpYcyku4

 

Sharp-eyed readers will note that this is a reprint from 30 months ago – I’m under the weather right now, and need some sleep, but expect fresh stuff Friday.