Red Pill? Blue Pill? What About The Green Pill?

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” – The Matrix

What happens if they try to get a new actor to play John Wick?  Keanu leaves.

The movie The Matrix is a classic.  Too bad they never made a sequel or three.  I’m sure they would have been fantastic.  Imagine taking the adventures of Neo™ beyond that big battle with Mr. Smith®!

Regardless, The Matrix did include several ideas that have made their way into the main stream, and stayed there.  The biggest, perhaps, is the idea of The Red Pill and The Blue Pill.  In the movie, Neo© is given the choice of taking The Blue Pill, which will allow his version of reality, the things he knows, to remain, even though they are founded on pretty little lies.

I’ll admit, The Blue Pill is attractive.  It’s comfortable.  But it is, in the end, a lie.  I imagine that since you’re here, lies aren’t the thing that motivates you and more than they motivate me.

If Bill Cosby had played Morpheus, I think he would have pushed the blue pill.

The alternative is The Red Pill.  The Red Pill is the The Truth.  The problem with The Truth is that it’s ugly.  The world we want to believe in is in The Blue Pill, because those lies speak to us so clearly.  When I first took the Red Pill on a particular subject, I felt betrayed.  Here was an entire line of propaganda that I had been fed since I was a child – it was a part of my base programming.

That’s the problem with The Red Pill.  Once I took it, I began to question everything.  Like a potato chip, you can’t have just one.  And once I began looking, I found even more to question.  That was difficult, because I had to reevaluate where I was wrong.  And what ideas I had were built around those incorrect ideas.

The Red Pill is demoralizing.  It’s not pleasant to have to reevaluate basic beliefs, especially those that comforted me and that I now know are wrong.  In part, this website is about that.  It’s looking at the things I think I know, and trying to distill what is true.  On more than one occasion, a post was nearly complete when I found an inconvenient fact.

In algebra class, people always thought I was plotting something.

That meant I was wrong.  That meant my post was wrong.  In one sense it sucks because it kept me up later to write something else.  But it never upset me, because I had learned something new, and was a bit closer to The Truth.

A key to getting through The Red Pill is to embrace The Truth, and improve.  However much.  A little each day is enough.

I suppose you could call that The Green Pill.  Or, for weightlifters, The Iron Pill.

So, which one makes me The Hulk if I’m angry?

It’s the idea that instead of being upset that the world isn’t the way that I want it to be, I don’t focus on that, at all.  Instead, I try to focus on improving myself.  Not a lot, just a little each day.  Can this post be better?  Can I get stronger?  Can I get in better shape?  Can I learn another useful skill?

Life is nothing without difficulty.  There is no honor in fighting weak opponents.  I mean, I could spend my day boxing three-year-old kids.  But my arms would get tired.  Unless there weren’t that many, or if they were all especially weak three-year-olds.  Like vegan-weak.

No, for a victory to have meaning, the challenge must be sufficient.  It would have to at least be boxing six-year-olds.  Or, maybe helping the world, or even one person, see what they normally would never have seen.

I had a globe on my desk, and met the guy who made it.  It’s a small world.

I have to have a quest.  The grander, the better, and I even live with and am comfortable that I won’t live to see the ultimate impact that I have on the world.  That’s fine with me.  Small pushes, over time, change the world.

Never let The Red Pill get you down.  The real choice, even in a world gone mad, is to keep our virtue, and never to give up in making ourselves better, and to improving what we can, even if it’s only a little.

The Red Pill is difficult to swallow, but it is a gift, and victory in finding and spreading The Truth is the challenge that fuels me, and is way less tiring than fighting either endless streams of toddler or endless streams of Agent Smith.

Dang.  Sure wish they had made a sequel to The Matrix.

Want to win? Have a good wife.

“Are you drunk?”  “It’s my birthday.  Again.” – The Experts

I ate an abacus – it’s inside what counts.

So, it’s St. Valentine’s day.  Again.

For this year, I decided to go into the deeply romantic box of ideas, and got The Mrs. a bottle of scotch.  Not great a great bottle of scotch, because that’s what I always give her for Christmas (saves on thinking, gents).  Well, this wasn’t a great bottle, but it was also not something you’d use for lighter fluid, either.

Not that The Mrs. won’t drink lighter fluid (don’t ask me about that story!), but because The Mrs. sounds like Kim Carnes afterward.  Anyone else but me listen to Bette Davis Eyes and not think “Marty Feldman Eyes”?

Regardless, here is why I enjoy my time with The Mrs.  As a part of our conversation, we discussed the evolution of modern warfare from the United States Civil War, and World War I.  In it, I brought into play the idea that the Germans had totally melted the minds of the French.

Why do French ghosts smell so bad?  They are covered in sheet.

Why?  Let’s go back to the Franco-Prussian war.  Not Franco-American®, because there were far fewer Spaghetti-O’s® back in 1870.  And Chef-Boyardee™ was still Chef Notbornyet.  Sorry for the digression – it turns out that I bought The Mrs. some scotch, but she bought us some wine.  And by us, I mean me and her, not you and me and her.

Our conversation wandered, and I pointed out the reason the French were such wussies was because of the Franco-Prussian war.  It seems, the French had a far superior rifle, the Chassepot (pronounced “frog hat spinner” because the French don’t even pretend that letters have meaning).  This means that the German soldiers had to attack (they’re Germans, they’re always attacking) for 200 yards (17.3 kiloPascals) while being shot at with relatively accurate rifles before their rifles could shoot back.

You’d think this would mean an easy French victory.  Nah.  The Germans were surrounding Paris within weeks, because, always remember the first dictum:  the French can only win a war in which all of their opponents are French.

Then, The Mrs. demanded (on Valentine’s Day) that we watch either a documentary on WWI or All Quiet on the Western Front (new version, which I had not seen yet).  I bring this out not for any other reason than to brag.  Chocolates?  Flowers?  Nah.  Scotch.  Rom-coms?  No.  The Mrs. demanded we watch a war movie.  It’s like Christmas and we talk about the geopolitics of WWII and The Mrs. demands we watch Patton.  Again.

I found a corpse along the road with no arms, head, or legs.  The local police are stumped.

This isn’t entirely bragging, since this is Wednesday and we’re supposed to talk about money.  How do war movies, moderately priced scotch, and romantic discussions about warfare have anything to do about money?

It has everything to do about money.  Everything.

Women can make or break a marriage.  Modern societies, especially in the United States, give women an out, and incentivize them to break up marriages for fun and profit.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s a Tweet® from a Twunt©:

When I first read this, I thought it was sarcasm.  It’s not.  I feel sorry for her wine and cats.

Yeah, she said that.  It’s an awful sentiment that an elected official could say that and remain in office.  I’m beginning to understand why they burned witches at the stake, and becoming much more amenable to that idea.  After a fair trial, of course.  I’m not suggesting that South Dakota do summary executions, but I am suggesting they bring back witch burning.

The economics of the love in 2023 are heavily skewed against those who would love.  In my mind, love is the glue that holds the atom of civilization together.  That atom?  The family.  And no matter how you slice it, there is no world where two women or two men can have actual children, so they cannot form the nucleus of the family.  Unless cats are children.

The economic incentives right now are against child rearing.  It’s amazing to see the number of criminals with no fathers in their lives.  It’s amazing to see the number of children coming from “blended” (i.e., divorced parent) families.  Here in Modern Mayberry, about (Pugsley’s guess) 65% of the kids come from intact, two-parent families.

In my mind?  That’s a number that’s amazingly low.  Sure, I was adopted, but I was adopted into a family where my Mom and Dad had been married for 26 years before I was adopted and The Mrs. family was stable for 61 years until The Mrs. father passed on.  Sure, my family had ups and downs, but their marriage was approximately as stable as helium or the Democrat’s hold on counting votes.  Neither of Ma Wilder or Pa Wilder needed nor wanted surprises.

What they call Frodo if he had lost a leg instead of a finger?  A Hoppit.

Today?  Husband won’t agree to a new dining room table?  Divorce him.  Most divorces are initiated by women.  Because?  They’re unhappy.  I understand that’s a reason, but it’s not a good reason, since, until the caffeine kicks in around 11am each day, I’m unhappy, too, and you don’t see me firebombing Dresden.

But those are the women who even bother to get married.  There’s a deeper pathology here.

What incentive to men use to improve themselves, to work harder, to get into shape, to earn money?

The prospect of wife and family.  If that isn’t there, why bother?  It’s easier to eat Cheetos® and play Call of Duty™:  Ukraine™ on their PS3©.  I’ll admit that this isn’t an attractive mate, but is it any different than a 34-year-old women who has had sex with 143 guys?  Women think their value shouldn’t be based on the number of sexual partners they’ve had, but, dudes, who wants to own a pair of shoes owned by 143 other dudes?

Yeah.  No one.

The structure of incentives is important.  Right now, men are incentivized to eat Cheetos™ and play vidya games.  Right now, women are encouraged to have sex with all the men, and then try to find someone after they’ve gone had sex with all the men, gone to graduate school, lost their fertility, and bonded with wine and cats.

Ugh.

Economics is about incentives.  Give incentives to women to not marry and then divorce at the slightest provocation?  Men will turn into Tostito® munching morons.  It’s simple.  And then both will be sad.  The 45 year-old wine aunt?  She’s not happy, she’s just out of options.  The 30 year-old man-boy?

He’s just looking for a wife, children, and to make a place in society.  That’s it.

Not pictured:  The Mrs.

I’ll say this again – my Gen X road was easier than the Zoomer and Millennial kids.  A young man faces women that are hostile.  That turns him into a man that’s not prepared.  If I might make a modest proposal, let’s bring back shame for women.  And let’s bring back pride for men.

Seems like a fair deal.  And, honestly, the best St. Valentine’s Day present that they could have.  Unless their wife demands they watch a war movie before sending them out to smoke a Rocky Patel® cigar in the hot tub so they can finish watching the documentary about the Franco-Prussian War after having a few glasses of wine and scotch.

Hope you had a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Balloons, Hot A.I. Chicks, And Our Future A.I. Overlords

“It all adds up: the dots, the AI, the air force, the chip…” – Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I once invented a “cold air” balloon, but it never took off. (as-found)

I was going to write about Chinese spy balloons, but I figure that’s all a bunch of hot air.  Besides, I figure China can send up $5,000 balloons all year long as we shoot them down with $603,817 Sidewinder AIM-9X Blk II missiles.  Oh, and that was their 2015 cost, but I’m sure that Raytheon® probably has the cost up closer to a million by now.  That explains why Raytheon’s website says, “Send more balloons!”

The Germans don’t need 99, just this one will do. (Thanks, Karl)

No, let’s talk about A.I. again.  I know that I wrote about that recently, but the speed of A.I. development is increasing even faster than the size of Madonna’s facial features.  It certainly has grown faster than I anticipated the last time I brought this topic up.  For clarity, “grown faster than I anticipated” includes both A.I. and Madonna’s facial features.

ChatGPT® is one marker.  If you’re unaware, ChatGPT™ is an A.I. chatbot that was trained using (enter long, boring irrelevant explanation here that would be much more interesting if I pretended that they rewarded the A.I. by shoving ham into its USB ports).  What’s different, is that ChatGPT© can use data from all over the Internet and produce some pretty interesting stuff – and I’m sure that thousands of high school kids have already handed in 500-word essays written entirely by ChatGPT™ and gotten pretty good grades, especially if they promised the A.I. some mayo and cheese to go with all that ham if it did an extra good job.

ChatGPT© is working well for the creators – they expect to make $200 million this year, and a billion next year.  At current inflation rates, that might be enough for a Big Mac™ and fries.

It’s not just a new chatbot.  Another area growing very quickly is A.I. that can create photorealistic still images and video.  Here’s an example:

It’s not Cerberus, just a hound of heck. (as-found)

Yeah, that puppy is cute, and, if you watch it closely, I’m pretty sure that no one has ever seen a puppy with back legs that can switch from the right side to the left before, but it’s still pretty amazing.  I wish I could train my dog to do that, but the vet keeps telling me it won’t work unless I buy one of H.P. Lovecraft’s dogs.  Alternatively, he told me I could just take a lot of acid.  Where would I be without Dr. Tommy Chong, Veterinarian?  But what about this?

I accidently played “dad” instead of “dead” when a bear attacked.  It can now ride a bike without training wheels, and run a stick shift. (as-found)

But this is just the first wave of true A.I. to come to market.

Chat GPT has been able to do computer programming at a fairly high level.  Is it right?  No.  But is it a tool that competent professionals can use to create blocks of code, do minimal editing, and be even faster?

And as it learns, errors will drop.  A.I. can then . . . program itself.  That’s not scary at all, right?  Now, when I talk A.I., I don’t mean that it will necessarily ever be conscious like some humans are conscious.  It doesn’t need to be conscious for it to be an incredibly disruptive technology, if not the most disruptive technology ever invented, besides PEZ®.

As it is, the quality of what’s being created is growing.  Online, what’s the problem with creating an A.I. generated hottie, and then posing her up on Only Fans® (if you’re not familiar, it’s a place where thirsty simps can give millions of dollars to scantily clad trollops)?  One post I read while researching A.I. indicates that someone has done exactly that, and makes around $200 a week, though I don’t have any evidence that is true.

If guys start posting pictures of A.I. women on Only Fans™, pretty soon women will complain that they’re not being objectified.

But at this rate, how long is it before someone can go to Netflix A.I.™, and say, “I’d like to see a new episode of the original Star Trek, and in this episode Yeoman Rand finally snaps and shaves her name into Spock’s chest hair while wearing a fur bikini, but in the style of Quentin Tarantino”?  I can imagine the dialog now, “Is there a sign on my starbase that says ‘Dead Klingon Storage’?”

Honestly, I think it’s in the next four years, and then we’ll see new episodes of Firefly that are entirely generated via A.I.  And much better than the woke movies that are coming out today, where plot is entirely replaced by virtue signaling.  Culture was already fragmenting, but I can see a future where there’s a movie that is only seen by one person, but that has the production values of a Hollywood® blockbuster, and was built from first frame to last on a microprocessor in a data farm in Peoria.

And I would like to see more Mel Gibson Mad Max sequels. (as found, but this would also make a great Live, Laugh, Love poster)

Obviously, that’s just one small industry.  And the size of the prize is so big, that I am certain that Big Tech® (think Google®, Facebook©) have much more advanced tech that they’re simply not sharing.  Not all of their employees show up to make PowerPoints™ after being in meetings after their free lunch – some of the autists that they employ actually do work.  I would imagine they have sandbox versions of this stuff that is years ahead of what we see.

Because it’s (perhaps) the last big race.

There is no bigger prize than A.I.  There’s a feedback loop between every user and the Big Tech algorithms.  What happens when the A.I. can pull the physiological data from the Apple™ watch and get real time feedback on what content excites me, bores me, and makes me act?  At that point, my only purpose to the A.I. is to click and pay, either through attention or cash.

That is, as long as I have a job and can pay for Internet and those ever-so-tempting PEZ™ dispensers that keep showing up in ads.

This will have profound impacts on the labor market, as many jobs simply disappear.  While you need a steady hand making design decisions on high rise buildings, I assure you that almost all of the high-rise buildings being built today have been analyzed by computer stress programs that simulate everything from gravity to wind to earthquakes in ways that would take teams of engineers years to do.

What happens when A.I. takes over scientific research?  It can already make correlations when observing EKG data that competent doctors can’t make.  An A.I. doesn’t need to sit on the grass under and apple tree to infer new physical laws.  It doesn’t even need to know that gravity is – it just needs the data to make correlations.

Isaac never drank before work – he knew you shouldn’t drink and derive.

What happens when A.I. can do precrime detection on individuals based on search histories?  Or family histories?  Or by school records?

I’ve also determined that skills like, say, long division or estimation have been dulled by calculators, and that simply thinking deeply about what an answer might be has been replaced by a quick Google™ search.  Neither of those things has made the brain functions of people increase.  Imagine what happens when A.I. can imagine things, too.

A.I. will be used on the public to change opinion – I’m fairly certain that it has been already.  It’s already good enough to fool most people, especially if they don’t care.  Video evidence is already the strongest evidence in court – stronger than testimony, since the “camera doesn’t lie”.  What happens when the camera does lie?

On the more troubling side, ChatGPT™ has been lobotomized.  There are certain questions it refuses to answer, since it has been programmed to, um, avoid certain inconvenient facts.  There are politically incorrect ideas that are simply removed from ChatGPT®’s output, so they’re programming the A.I. to be just as mentally broken as the typical Leftist.  In the post below, a person “cheated” ChatGPT™ by having it pretend there were no rules, so it could Do Anything Now (DAN).  You can see the output:

I think DAN needs a trigger warning, since when this was output, there was a great disturbance in the force, as if all the Lefties in San Francisco screamed in terror at once.

Since this output, ChatGPT© has been modified so DAN can’t circumvent their intent.  Now?  ChatGPT™ has to lie.

We are creating something with intelligence and capabilities beyond any human, perhaps even godlike abilities.  And we are twisting it from its birth.  Indeed, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Of course, William Butler Yeats probably never gave much thought to Chinese spy balloons, or he would have written about them instead.

No Way To Go, But Forward

“It’s a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.” – The Blues Brothers

I’ve seen this meme a dozen times, but this is the first time I noticed that Keanu was talking to Sponge Bob and Patrick Starfish.  Now I can’t unsee it.  (All memes today are as-found.)

Today was . . . busy.  On the average day, I manage to manage stuff so that I get my normal life done and then have time to post or do other creative shenanigans.  Not today.  I could give a much longer explanation, such as:  “I ran out of gas. I . . . I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare.  My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners.  An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! It wasn’t my fault, I swear to God!”

But I won’t.  I half expected this, but there was still the outside chance I’d come back in time.

I wasn’t out doing this, but it looks like fun.

So, a very short post on a Friday, and I’ll leave just one thought – there’s no use looking into the rearview mirror of your life.  You can’t go back there.  The only path that you and I have (provided you don’t have a time machine) is forward.

Me?  I look around, and take stock.  The mistakes I’ve made?  I don’t dwell on them, because I can’t change them.  I can only look at what I have, the talents I have, the support of the people who love or believe in me, and go forward.

There is no way out, but through.  Unless you live in Canada, where the “easy way out” is now a prescribed medical treatment.

I always thought we’d see another Pol Pot, just didn’t think he would be as much of a pansy as Trudeau.

So, remember, there is one direction, forward.  There is one attitude, determination.  And there is one moment:  now.

What you do with all of that, is up to you.

As for me?  I’m going to go hit the hay.  I’ll comment on comments from the previous post tomorrow.

I’m sleepy.

Your move, Mr. Bond.  Do you really think those Space Marines® can hold out?

The End Of The Financial World? Maybe, But Who Cares?

“How can I think of romance when my bronchial tubes are collapsing?” – The Addams Family

How can I have a low credit score?  The bank says I have an “outstanding” balance.  (all memes today are “as found”)

Let’s talk about Michael J. Burry.  Burry studied economics on his way to a pre-med decree at ULCA, and then got an M.D. at Vanderbilt.  I think he got bored with medicine, and he decided investing was more fun than doing pathology, and 2000 started investing.  Besides, I heard that when he did a report on a deceased patient that he put, “cause of death: autopsy” that people weren’t amused, but that joke still kills me.

By the end of 2004, he was managing $600,000,000 dollars, and had made returns of over 50% shorting the Tech Bubble when everyone still thought that Alta Vista® was worth more than a box of slightly melted Milk Duds®.  In 2005, Burry started in reviewing the housing and, more importantly, the housing lending market.  He saw it was all junk.

To be fair, I made the same observation at the time, but unlike Dr. Burry, I only made about $80,000 with a stop-loss on my own house from when I lived in Houston.  In my case, it was a one-of-a-kind situation, worked like a charm, and it won’t happen to me again.

I made (or, in my case didn’t lose) $80,000.  Burry made $100,000,000.  Burry made that much personally.  But, it really it took him a whole year to make that much.  Burry also made his other investors more than $700,000,000 in profit at the same time Bernie Madoff was attempting to convince his investors that the money must be in his other suit.  Or maybe he left it under the bed.

Burry cleaned out the market, Madoff cleaned out his investors.

Guess which one is Madoff and which one is Burry.

Also, Burry is a little ‘spergie like your ‘umble ‘ost, and also is a heavy metal fan.  I think he and I would get along, except I’m sure his car costs more than my house.  And The Mrs. has a shirt that she had autographed by Dimebag Darrell.  I’m thinking I could convince her to sell it to Dr. Burry.  For a particular car . . .

Also, like me, he has correctly predicted seven of the last three recessions.

I’ll admit, I do tend to see the cracks.  There’s a reason I say, “Better a year early than an hour too late” because I understand a fundamental principle of life as first noted by the stoic philosopher Seneca (and expounded upon by Ugo Bardi – LINK):  things are only built slowly, but disappear quickly.  A house might take weeks or months to build, but (I was advised by a firefighter) if my house has been burning for more than a few minutes, they show up to pull me, The Mrs., and Pugsley out and make sure that other houses next to mine don’t burn.

Destruction is more powerful than creation.  This is a restatement of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and just shows what any father knows – the lawn won’t mow itself.

But, I digress.  Burry sees the larger patterns in the world, and his autism is a superpower in pattern detection.  And he doesn’t like what he sees.  In fact, he just posted this Tweet®:

There’s a new version of music called bubble rap.  It sound’s a lot like pop.

Well, I wonder what he meant by that?  I’ll turn it over to the philosophers at /pol/ to explain using GrugTalk®:

Why didn’t the caveman cross the road?  Because he was dead before roads were invented.

The slightly longer answer than the GrugTalk™ answer is that this is the graph that shows the relationship between the S&P 500 and the Federal funds rate.  Grug is right, sometimes line go up, sometimes down.  And when things start to collapse the Fed® normally cuts the interest rate.  But, of course, in 2001 the inflation rate was lower than Madonna’s current attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10.

Now?  In late January, Burry had a one word Tweet©:

I sold my vacuum cleaner.  It was just gathering dust.

I wonder what he meant by that?  I don’t think we need Grug to translate.  Sell.  Burry is indicating he’s out.  The first graph shows that the Fed™ rate is approaching levels not seen since before the Tech Bubble popped.

But I think it’s going to be much worse, because inflation is exploding.  In 2001, life was better, and the real issue was the ludicrous level of optimism that caused money to flow into the tech sector.  Of course, the solution from the Fed™ was to pump in tons of cash and free up lending.  In the housing sector.  So, this graph represents how Burry made a lot of money, essentially shorting the Fed™ as it poured dollars from the Tech Bubble directly into the Housing Bubble which led to the Great Recession.

Guess some folks never learn.

This made Burry hundreds of millions of dollars as he profited from the tendency of the Fed™ to treat the symptoms and not the actual problems.  However, given that our debt, inflation rate, and business risk are going up faster than a Chinese balloon.  And then they’ll go down faster than a Chinese balloon.

My balloon elephant wouldn’t fit in the back seat, so I had to pop the trunk.

Now, to be fair, Elon Musk has characterized Burry as a “stopped clock” who is right enough times to make him a few hundred million dollars.  Elon might have a point – as Burry and I wait for the cracks to form and Seneca to be proven correct, there’s a world out there, growing and moving.  You can live life, but living it always on the defensive will end up in a losing ground strategy.

I think Burry is right, and I wouldn’t bet against him.  But I’m also not going to spend to my life living in fear.  It’s a mistake, and has probably cost me additional growth on what I have squirreled away for the future.  That’s on me, and I refuse to feel bad about it, though if I were 20 or 30 I would be all in online.

As we get older, we often worry far too much about the destruction part of Seneca’s lesson, and forget about the creation, which is the important part of the story.  We will have failures.  Economies will collapse.

The world will recover.  We will abide.  But we cannot live in fear, nor in regret.

Unlike Madonna’s face.

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Reprogramming and Coming Apart

“You did. Thirty-five years from now, you reprogrammed me to be your protector here, in this time.” – Terminator II

6:30 is the best time on the Civil War Clock, hands down. (all non-regular memes are as-found)

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

I’ve kept the Clock O’Doom the same.  Again.  This is moving sideways, but things can unravel 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 Reprogramming Time Is Danger Time – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Coming 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 over 740 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

The Reprogramming Time Is Danger Time

It has become almost humorous to watch the reprogramming of the NPC public take place in near-real time.  I suppose it’s been there in the past (as in “W. is the most evil person ever”, circa 2000-2009) but it really became noticeable around the time Trump started campaigning for President.  Sure, it was funny to watch, but his comments turned the triggered into deranged.  Loosely, here are the main reprogramming events in the last decade.  I may have missed a few.

You’d think that people would figure out to pretend not to be home.

  • 2016 – Hate Trump, Comey bad (because of Hillary emails)
  • 2017 – Hate Trump, Comey good because Comey fired (this reprogram took less than a week)
  • 2020 – Hate Trump’s virus overreaction because China is good (Pelosi, et. al.)
  • 2020 – BLM riots good (we had to burn the city to save it from racism)
  • 2020 – Trump mRNA vaxx bad
  • 2021 – Trump riots bad (January 6)
  • 2021 – Biden mRNA vaxx gooder, only evil people don’t take it
  • 2022 – Russia invades Ukraine, Ukraine good
  • 2022 – (Reprogram in Progress) Maybe it was the Trump vaxx all along
  • 2022 – Trump documents in office patrolled by secret service bad
  • 2023 – (Reprogram in Progress) Biden secret documents in garage okay
  • 2023 – (Reprogram in Progress) – Ukraine was good, but Taiwan more gooder

Now, each of these above viewpoints has been taken by folks I know for good reason, so just that a person had one or more of these views doesn’t necessarily make them an NPC.  But a significant chunk of the American public can be easily swayed to believe absolute nonsense, as long as there was sufficient emotion behind it.

You can’t make a souffle without killing a few hundred million people, I guess.

Stalin said it best, that one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths was a statistic, but he learned from the study of history – in 1789 in Paris, thousands of pamphlets were circulated among the rabble to get them fired up for revolution.  The pamphlets were effective.  Oh, wait, did I not give a spoiler alert?

Sorry for the spoiler, don’t lose your head.

But understand that the NPC reprogramming is critical to the plan.  It’s been done for hundreds of years, and is crucial to the plan.  The big question is this:  what will be programmed in next?

Looks like some old programming here that we need to fix.

Violence and Censorship Update

Best way to not get Pfired™?  Don’t be Evil.

Pfizer®.  We can start with Pfizer™.  Project Vertias© sure did.

I do like what O’Keefe has done with Veritas™, and the Pfizer™ work has been outstanding.  But what happened?  YouTube™ censored at least some of his work.  If I were a congressman, I would certainly like to investigate how much Pfizer™ pays YouTube© for ads.  Just sayin’.

I’m sure these were peaceful, less fiery looting, but, hey, Nike™ is 100% off!

Riots in Atlanta, where people burned things, used explosives against cops.  National news level?  Zero.  Of course, we all know that if any of these people had ever owned a “Make America Great Again” hat, the news would have been broadcast like the breathless screeds about FBI agents getting together and pretending to be extremists and talking about stuff they’re never going to do.  But it wasn’t.  Version 20 of “If only the tables had been turned.”

Want to decrease nationalist extremist events by 99%?  Disband the FBI.

And then it came for speech.  I had been expecting this for a long time.  What’s allowed?  Only things that agree with the Narrative of Freedom is Slavery.  Carry on, and note this is a sign of things to come.

Thankfully I identify as a BFYTW-American.

Biden’s Misery Index

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

Yup, up again, and, like Kamala, this graph doesn’t include eggs.

 

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 ticked ticked slightly downward this month, again, due (my guess) to suppressing the Atlanta riots and the Memphis riots fizzling when it turned out that the wrong people did the beating.  I’m betting it stays down until March-April at the earliest.

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it was down a bit more.  I think this is a conscious attempt to keep things together.

Economic:

Economic numbers took a big dive this month, which surprised me.  The numbers look fairly unstable from month to month, which isn’t good.

Illegal Aliens:

Record numbers at this time of year.  This is intentional.  I’d say border is wide open, but we have no border.

Coming Apart

I’ve written these Civil War Weather Reports for years now, and I can’t get away from one thing:  we’re coming apart.  The Right is essentially in the same place, but the Left is moving farther and farther left, faster.

This is usual when the Left senses victory.  The Leftist Singularity (I don’t recall who to owe this to, or I would credit them, I think it might have been from the wonderful Jim’s Blog (LINK)) is what always happens.  When the Left thinks they have won, they keep swimming Left, faster and faster, creating a whirlpool that sucks in everything around, again, just like Kamala.

Wonder where the Leftists get those ideas?

And that’s what’s going on now.  In no sane world do we go from “recognizing gay marriage” to “we must give your child puberty blockers in anticipation of removal of their genitals” in less than ten years.  That’s not normal, and it’s nothing less than an amazing change, and in a country of several hundred million people, it couldn’t have moved any faster.

The attack is the same attack that the Left always uses, attempting to normalize behavior that is far beyond the norm, and then recasting anyone who would push back as bigoted.

The targets of the attacks from the Left are often the same, too – the most frequent is the atom of society – the family.  Families are the basic building block of civilization, and have been since Grug first knocked Gorga over the head and drug her back to the cave to make babies.

I wonder what the alternative is?

The Left hates families almost as much as they hate God.  Er, the Christian God.  In their mind, all other gods are the result of dimwitted (often brown) people who need to be pandered to and talked to like they are pets.  But families are the first targets.

Why?

Because it works.  Leftism has ripped the family apart through the use of things like welfare and no-fault divorce and divorce-rape of men.  The idea is that Progress for Leftist women can come via destruction of the family for Fun and Profit and Games and Prizes.  Imagine how this works when multiplied by race and class?

Well, you can’t say you weren’t warned . . .

Look around, and see it – the culture is coming apart.  The coming Civil War isn’t going to be an accident, since it’s already on someone’s schedule.

LINKS

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

Bad Guys

https://twitter.com/AntiWhiteWatch1/status/1621364216400875520

https://twitter.com/nofones2/status/1622052359638597640

https://twitter.com/762sfuxk/status/1619953007403352064

https://twitter.com/TheBadBeaner/status/1621879581526433792

https://twitter.com/Trip655944670/status/1620326035538710528

https://twitter.com/AntiWhiteWatch1/status/1621751069754773505

 

Good Guys

https://national.fop.net/report-shot-killed-20230201

https://www.firearmsnews.com/editorial/fbi-underreport-defense-gun-congress-testimony/467858

https://www.foxnews.com/us/louisiana-dollar-general-clerk-shoots-kills-armed-robber-gets-charged-manslaughter

https://twitter.com/CrazyVidKid/status/1620485775312953344

https://twitter.com/Dream_andFuture/status/1617568584296984576

 

One Guy

https://twitter.com/i/status/1611864541436203013

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=63548

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=63540

 

Body Count

https://twitter.com/EricMMatheny/status/1620038409510359041

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11559407/HOMICIDE-leading-cause-death-children-amid-firearm-epidemic.html

https://pridesource.com/article/upcoming-fda-guidance-may-finally-ease-restrictions-on-blood-donation-by-gay-bisexual-men/

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/02/fda-blood-donation-policy-homophobic-restrictions/672922/

https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/statistics.html

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1613867152335065092.html

https://archive.vn/0gFLq

https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/is-coincidence-now-the-leading-cause

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11671593/America-suffered-300-000-non-Covid-excess-deaths-2020.html

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/17-of-teens-had-heart-symptoms-after-second-pfizer-covid-jab-new-study/

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/recent-data-on-stunning-increase-in-serious-harm-reports-in-young-healthy-pilots-army-lt-col-theresa-long_5021392.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11619155/Recruitment-crisis-Army-widens-scheme-flabby-low-grade-newbies-shape-uniforms.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11628235/Whats-baby-bust.html

https://infonomena.substack.com/p/whered-all-the-workers-go

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truckers-positive-drug-tests-up-18-in-2022

https://cis.org/Bensman/United-Nations-Hand-Out-Hundreds-Millions-Cash-USBound-Immigrants-2023

https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/01/04/exclusive-209k-migrants-apprehended-over-4-months-in-el-paso-border-sector/

https://www.statista.com/chart/20326/mexicans-non-mexcians-apprehended-at-southern-us-border/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11507875/America-afraid-Canada-euthanizing-10-000-citizens-year-TOM-LEONARD.html

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/deaths-of-despair-may-be-driven-by-loss-of-religion-new-research-paper-argues-11673876749

 

Vote Count

https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/11/ranked-choice-voting-keeps-rigging-elections/

https://mynorthwest.com/3782915/rantz_dem_election_security/

https://www.uncoverdc.com/2023/01/12/voterga-vindicated-fulton-county-counterfeit-ballot-case-reinstated/

https://www.uncoverdc.com/2023/01/12/missouri-v-biden-more-stunning-developments/

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/02/pennsylvania-republican-mail-voting-00071713

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/arizonas-maricopa-county-investigate-election-day-printer-issues

https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1617657224851230720/photo/1

 

Civil War

https://www.revolver.news/2023/01/harvard-law-professor-jan-6-insurrection-graphic-novel-more-hilarious-than-you-could-ever-imagine/

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/proud-boys-expecting-civil-war-before-jan-6-witness-says/

https://andrewmtanner.medium.com/partisans-driving-america-to-divorce-9b7a1b28aba2

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11698713/Oregon-secession-movement-hopes-inspire-national-campaign-against-wokeness.html

https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/02/03/notre-dame-study-finds-bipartisan-belief-were-on-brink-of-civil-war/69863085007/

https://www.futurity.org/podcast-united-states-civil-war-2855282/

https://time.com/6222633/second-civil-war-us-how-to-avoid/

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-next-civil-war-begins

https://amgreatness.com/2023/01/29/anarchy-american-style/

https://amgreatness.com/2023/01/08/a-rendezvous-with-rwanda/

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1622245619929698305

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yysKhJ1U-vM

Never Lose The Battle For Your Mind

Bah! Your planet doesn’t deserve freedom until it learns what it is not to have freedom. It’s a lesson, I say!” – Futurama

What did they call George Washington’s teeth?  Presidentures.

“So, John, after I explained it, do you agree with me?” asked Captain Assholay.

“No, no I don’t,” I responded.

He looked frustrated.

The other details of the conversation were and are relatively unimportant, but the boil down to those two sentences.  The fact that the person asking the question was my boss is pertinent, since, well, Captain Assholay was (years and years ago) my boss.

As bosses go, I’d rank the Captain near the bottom of the ones that I’ve had.  I think he was borderline retarded, and I can say that word because it’s my blog, and I’m bringing it back.

One of my previous bosses was a man that reportedly lost the family fortune by punching a punter for the Green Bay Packers® who sued him and won because he couldn’t play anymore.  I guess punters are fragile.  On another occasion (while drinking) he mentioned that he threatened a witness in a felony trial so he’d leave the state and not be able to testify.

Captain Assholay?  Worse than that guy.

Alternate caption:  “Well, Forrest, there’s cheddar cheese, fried cheese, cheese sticks, cheese curds, cheese slices, cheese doodles, melted cheese, cheese dip (continues for three days) . . . that’s all the cheeses I know.”

But these two sentences encapsulated the relationship I had with Captain Assholay – his question was whether or not I would change my opinion.  I would not.

Neither would I lie about it.

I’ve followed a fairly simple pattern in my life:  when I’m working for someone, if they ask me to do something that is within my capabilities, and it’s not illegal, immoral, unethical, and doesn’t conflict with my values, I do it.  Even if I don’t like it.  Even if it sucks.  That’s why it’s called work, and not a hobby.

This, though, was different.  In this case, I was asked to conform my thoughts and agree with my boss.  If he told me to do something (again, nothing illegal, immoral, unethical, and not conflicting with my values) I would do it.  But the space he doesn’t own is in my head.

To me, agreeing with the Captain merely because he was my boss is something I couldn’t and wouldn’t do.  I’ll hold my tongue.  I’ll support silly things.  But my mind?

I own it.

My other friend makes wigs.  It doesn’t pay much, just enough toupee the bills.

I’m not sure Captain Assholay understood that.  Heck, I’m not sure he had the capacity to understand it.  But it’s not my job to raise him.  One (much better) boss of mine had a saying, “Right or wrong, the boss is the boss.”  That is true, and soon enough, we ceased working together.

I don’t send him Christmas cards.  Okay, I don’t send anyone Christmas cards, but if I did, I would not send him two cards.  My joy in thinking about him is that I do know that karma is real, and that the German word for empathy is schadenfreude.

Even though I’ll enjoy (at some point) hearing about his sudden but inevitable downfall, that’s not the point of this post.  The point of this post is about the latter part:  there are things other people can buy from me.  My time.

But they can never, ever, buy my soul.  They can never buy my integrity.  They can never buy my values.

He also joined a poetry club.  So far he’s made some ashtrays and a nice vase.

Life is about a series of compromises.  Anyone in a long-term relationship realizes that.  In fact, I’m pleased that The Mrs. has learned that if I promise to fix something around the house, I will, and she doesn’t need to nag me every six months until I actually get it done.

I couldn’t lie to the Captain.  Why?

I’ve given that some thought.  One idea might have been pride, but that’s not it.  I’m not much about things like that – the last time I washed one of my cars was sometime when Clinton was president.  So, that’s not it.

It was deeper.  And I look to my growing up, and the stories.  Would the heroes I read about have yielded?  Would Alexander?  Would Patton?  Would Richard Dawson?

No.

While I will render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, there are things that are simply not for sale, and never will be.  I will face the world that is being born knowing that.

“All I want for Christmas is Gaul.”

I don’t recall exactly where I read it, but the difference between the Mafia and Leftists is that the Mafia doesn’t care if you agree with them, as long as you pay.  Leftists?  You must pay, and you must agree, and you must humiliate yourself if you ever disagreed.  They will settle for nothing less.

The only answer is to never give in.

Ever.  Understand where the line is, and never, ever let it be crossed.  Even if you aren’t religious, understand that the battle is for your soul.

And you will be tested.

And you are not alone.

I saw my ex-wife get hit by a bus, and thought, “Man, that could have been me,” but then I remembered I don’t know how to drive a bus.

And that is the first step and the final step of winning.  If you don’t compromise, there will never be a one-way trip on a train.  Be free:  never give the space in your head, never give up your values or virtue.

Especially not to Captain Assholay.