Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise

“Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma.  I believe everything happens for a reason.  I believe we were destined to get thrown out of this dump.” – Ghostbusters

If your wife insists you treat her like a queen, remember that allows you to behead her if the Pope doesn’t authorize an annulment.

Just a little bit before my time, a popular way to buy music was on a 45rpm record.  It was a little, circular YouTube® that you could put on a record player, for all you Zoomers out there.  These were small records that just contained a single song.  Generally, the best song was the “A” side.  On the back?  The record company generally put a song that they felt was inferior.  This was the “B” side.

The record company was generally right, but sometimes spectacularly wrong.  Queen’s “We Will Rock You” was the B-side to “We Are The Champions.”  But most of the time, the B-side really was an inferior song.  As time was precious and you can never tell when another one is going to bite the dust, why would you take time to listen to a song that wasn’t the best?

You wouldn’t.  Unless . . .

In the song, “Burning for You” by Blue Öyster Cult, one particular lyric is:

Time everlasting,
Time to play B-sides

Even though I owned a total of two 45’s in my life, I understood this when I first listened to the lyric on a dodgy cassette player that ate batteries like they were candy outside while stacking firewood.  Ben Franklin said it very well when he said:

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Time is our most precious commodity.  But what if you had time to play the B-sides?

You’d have all the time in the world.

Our lives are built entirely built in how we spend our time.  It’s like the Native American story of the two wolves inside of each of us – one good and one evil.  Which one grows?  The one we feed.

And we feed our life through the choices we make which choices we feed with our time.

And both of the wolves are named Toby.

One of my choices on how to spend my time has been writing this blog.  It has been one of the most fulfilling things in my life in the three and a half years since I started it.  So, by feeding it, I change my future.  To some very small extent, I might even change the lives of the people who read it.

Doing this blog is an A-side.  And it’s one I plan on continuing, if not expanding.

But we all need time for B-sides.  Why?  Because exploring the undiscovered can only take place when we move off of the path that everyone else takes.  I like to think that this blog is somewhat unique – it’s not to everyone’s taste, certainly.

Nah, you can see that Racine eats a lot of carbs.

“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel,” is a quote from dead French writing dude Jean Racine.  And he’s right.  I think that life is mostly amusing.

One of the biggest sources of amusement to me is the idea that we can plan our lives.  Of course, to a certain extent, we can.  But everywhere we see that there are unexpected things that show up.  That is, perhaps, one of the best things in life.  The Chinese farmer story (which I’ve used before) tells the tale.

I first heard this from a friend in 2002 or so . . . there were several of us that would get together to talk about ideas and concepts, and one of the participants told this story:

There is an old Chinese story about a farmer.  One night, there was a terrible storm.  The wind blew so hard, it opened up his corral, and his horses got out.

“Bad luck!” said his friends.

“Good luck, bad luck.  Who can say?” replied the farmer.

The next week, his horses, lonely for home, came back.  But while they were loose, they got in with a group of wild horses.  The wild horses came home with them.  The farmer now had twice as many horses.

A centaur got a cough and worried he had COVID-19, but the doctor told him only his legs were horse.

“Good luck!” said his friends.

“Good luck, bad luck.  Who can say?” replied the farmer.

A wild horse is good to no one, so the farmer’s son began to work on breaking the horses.  Most of them were no problem, but one particularly fierce horse bucked the farmer’s son off.  The farmer’s son broke his leg.

“Bad luck!” said his friends.

“Good luck, bad luck.  Who can say?” replied the farmer.

The next week, the Emperor, having decided to go off to war due to a very dangerous threat against the empire, marched with his troops through the farmer’s town.  They called up in a draft all of the able-bodied young men to accompany them to war.  The farmer’s son could not go – his leg was broken.

Good luck, bad luck?  Who can say?  Hopefully

Where do Vikings keep their children?  In the norse-ry.

One thing I do suggest is that, at least occasionally, you take the time to play at least some of the B-sides of your life.  You never know when life will throw a change at you, and your B-side becomes an A-side.

“Prentiss got caught stuffing the ballot boxes, so I won.  I am the sheriff!” – Soap

I was physically restrained and denied the right to vote once – and Pugsley would have made such a great 6^th grade treasurer.

Western Civilization is a work of genius.  Yes, there are flaws, and some of them may be fatal, but it has produced the greatest amount of achievement in human history.  Western Civilization has done things that no culture has in history.  It has gone from the farthest reaches of the Arctic, to the Antarctic, to the tallest mountain in the world and the lowest trench in the sea.  And don’t forget the Sports Illustrated® Swimsuit Edition™.

While other nations starved their own citizens on purpose, we gladly fed the world.

Were we perfect?  Certainly not.  I, for one, want to apologize to the world for The Brady Bunch, which I believe was in violation of the Geneva Convention.  But in most cases, we brought far more than we took.  When Western Civilization retreats, freedom dies and chaos reigns.

There are Four Boxes that keep Western Civilization safe – really four systems.  Remove them?  Freedom dies and chaos reigns.  I’ll note that Western Civilization is built on more than this – but these are four stabilizing features that help protect it.

The first box is the Soap Box.

Freedom of speech is stabilizing, within certain parameters.  If an insane person is allowed to speak, that’s a safety valve.  Bad ideas won’t gather much purchase:  they are drowned out by good ones.  Heck, even North Korea has freedom of speech.  They just won’t guarantee your safety after you speak, however.

Communists allow free speech – no one says otherwise, right?

But as I’ve documented at length in the Civil War 2.0 Weather Reports (LINK) censorship is a primary tool of the Left.  I’ve documented time after time how the Left is censoring ideas across the primary means of communication today – the Internet.

I know that many people have said (especially libertarians) that Twitter®, for instance, is owned by a private company so censorship is fine.  It’s not merit-based like it used to be.  Heck, at one point even Jesus only had 12 followers.

I can understand that, because once upon a time, I was a libertarian, too.  Heck, I’ve been registered as an independent until the last primary election.  Why did I change?

First, I’m older than 35.  Second?  So I could vote for myself.  Take that, Mrs. Svenson (my kindergarten teacher).

Twitter® used to advertise itself as the “Free speech wing of the Free Speech Party.”  Now, a better line would be the “Allowed speech wing of the Leftist Revolution.”  It’s true.  Place any idea on Twitter™ that’s out of the mainstream, even if backed up by data?

It will be suppressed.  And sure, you say, there are alternatives.  You could go on Gab©.

You may not know this, but Gab™ was cut off from its payment processors.  If you wanted to give money to Gab® via Visa©?  You can’t.  You can pay for porn with a Visa®.  But you can’t pay for Gab©.

See the problem?

Used with permission. 

When Alex Jones was banned from Twitter®, in rapid succession he was banned across nearly all social media in the same day.  He wasn’t a killer – killers can have Twitter™.  He wasn’t a foreign government who calls the USA “Great Satan” – they have an official account.

Nope, he was just a Texan who said things that scared people.

The ideas of the Left don’t hold up to history.  Their compassion is, mainly, a lie.  Should Twitter® be a public utility?  Maybe.  I hate to suggest that step, but perhaps the time has come.

Regardless – removing the Soap Box is dangerous.  Suppression of ideas will lead to suppression of people.  And suppression gives a validity to ideas that they might not have otherwise.

The Soap Box is the first safety valve.  If people cannot vent?  If they cannot share their opinions?  The system begins to fail.  The system is based on the idea that Truth can be debated, but Truth cannot be suppressed.  Heck, I’ve even seen politicians speaking the Truth – they were calling each other liars.

Our system now is dangerously pushing censorship.  And Leftists cheer it, as Leftists always do.

The second box is the Jury Box.

As members of Western Civilization, we give up some rights to play the game.  One of the most important rights we give up is personal vengeance.  In areas where personal vengeance is still the normal mode of operation, one killing follows another which follows another.  It’s like Chicago, but without the charm.

I guess I don’t understand court.  After they found me not guilty of bank robbery, my lawyer told me I shouldn’t have asked, “Does that mean I can keep the money?”

An article that opened my eyes to the importance of the justice system to Western Civilization is at this (LINK).  It’s by Jared Diamond, who is often wrong on things, but this is perhaps his strongest work.  It shows clearly what happens to a society that has no law.  But Diamond was talking about New Guinea, not San Francisco.

In the United States, we make fun of lawyers, because many of them are worthy of being made fun of. They charge thousands to write out your last wishes.  Did they never hear of free will?  But the justice system is crucially important:  first, it allows a push back against government.  Second, it provides a way that the guilty can be punished, so you and I don’t have to do the dirty work ourselves and create feuds that last generations.

So, yes.  The Jury Box is that important.

It has been subverted, however.  Prosecutors always charge people with amazing levels of crimes in order to achieve a plea bargain and have the ability to throw nearly infinite resources at prosecuting a man because they don’t like him.

“Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”  This is a quote by one of the most evil men to have ever had power in the world – Lavrentiy Beria, who was head of Stalin’s secret police.  It could almost be the motto of the Department of Justice in 2020.  The DOJ seems fixated on finding an unpopular person and then finding crimes.  Hillary Clinton admittedly committed multiple felonies with her email server even though she never confessed to the fashion police.  Green pantsuits?

No charges will ever be filed against Hillary, or almost any powerful person.  Governor Cuomo abused his power to force Coronavirus patients into nursing homes where they infected and killed thousands.  But heaven forbid that a businessman make a mistake in filing foreign taxes.

That’s one way to lose faith in the justice system.

George Soros hates Flat-Earthers.  They’re not globalists.

Another?  Buy your justice system.  George Soros has been spending tens of millions of dollars getting District Attorneys that he likes elected.  Nope, this isn’t a conspiracy theory – it is well documented by mainstream sources (LINK).

What happens when you own the District Attorneys in dozens of Leftist-controlled areas?  They decide who gets charged, and with what.  So, a Leftist college professor swings a bike lock which would be an assault with a deadly weapon for you and I?

Probation for three years.  If that had been someone from the Right?  Prison.  Certainly.

But who do you think funded the D.A. that let the bike lock professor off with probation?  Soros.  Here’s the link to the San Francisco Chronicle (LINK).  I don’t make this stuff up.

I’ll skip the activist judges that want to legislate and make new law from the bench – you can look them up.  They’re out there and ubiquitous enough that they’re a stereotype.

A justice system that doesn’t have the faith of the people undermines all of Western Civilization.

The third box is the Ballot Box.

At least 60,000,000 American citizens think the 2020 presidential election was stolen (so far – the results aren’t done yet).  Let that sink in.

And these 60,000,000 Americans aren’t foolish, stupid, or acting in bad faith.  They’re actually quite rational.  On the face of it, electoral fraud is nearly certain.

How can I make such a statement?

• The people who would have engaged in the fraud thinks Trump is “Literally exactly like a certain leader who led Germany from 1932-1945.” When faced with that?  In their minds, a little fraud is justified.  Motive is proved.
• The systems are set up that relies on trust at the lowest levels. Opportunity exists.  The people hired to run the system at the lowest levels are politically motivated.  The Means exists.
• On top of that, getting caught is difficult. Certain cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee have been corrupt for decades.  Graveyard voting in Chicago has been a joke for decades.  Think Detroit is better?
• It doesn’t need to be widespread. It only takes four cities to rig a presidential election in 2020 – Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee.
• The Mainstream Media is 100% compliant in covering it up. How many people do you think CNN® is sending to look into allegations of voter fraud?  Umm, zero.

As I said, election fraud is certain, the only question is the extent.  Was this election stolen?  Means, Motive, Opportunity plus cover-up?  Why wouldn’t it happen?  How many ballots could you fill out in four hours?

No, this doesn’t look unusual, or at least it wouldn’t look unusual in the Soviet Union. 

Were I Joe Biden, and there was a chance I was going to become president under a cloud, I would work with Trump to clear my name.  Fraud in Philadelphia?  Let’s find it.  Fraud in Milwaukee?  “I’m sure it’s malarkey, but let’s investigate it.”  If he wants to fix the country, he should jump in and fix this.

But it’s not happening.

And people who are certain that $200,000 in Facebook® ads in 2016 from Russia changed the election are certain that the election is clean this time.

Shocking.

A failed voting system is a cancer on the Republic.  The voting system is exactly the last system that can relieve pressure in politics.

That leaves only one box:

The Ammo Box.

The Founders wisely put free speech in the First Amendment.  They put in an above-average justice system.  They put in a voting system that minimized the spread of fraud – the Electoral College.

But they also put in place the Second Amendment, which had the purpose of being both a safety measure and a curb on government.  The safety measure is that a populace who is armed feels safer – they will be measured in a response.  The curb on government is the flip side of that coin:  if you were going to do something that would put a substantial portion of your population to think that armed insurrection was a better idea than doing what the government said?

The government loses.

And there are at least 300,000,000 firearms owned by American citizens.  My bet is closer to 500,000,000.  Want to talk about a successful government policy?

In this nation, the bulk of the American population is well-armed.  A portion of it, veterans, are very well trained, perhaps better trained than the current members of the military.  I know several people that compete regularly shooting things so far away that I can’t see them even if I’m wearing my glasses.

Understand that ending up at this stage is something that almost no one wants.  We want freedom, peace, sound money, strong justice systems, and voting systems with unquestionable integrity.

But there’s always another alternative:  the last of the Four Boxes.

Let’s hope we don’t have to go there.

“Let’s see, warrants outstanding . . . New Mexico:  Mail Fraud. Colorado:  Wire Fraud. And coming soon to Ohio, Computer Fraud.” – Tommy Boy

If 2020 was a horse?  It would be a night-mare.

6. People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology.  Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
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.

We remain in the gray zone between step 9. and step 10.  I will maintain the clock at 2 minutes to midnight.  Violence continues to be commonly justified by local and state authorities, but there are now premeditated, fatal attacks by the Left.  As noted in a previous update, the only thing keeping the clock ticking to full midnight is the number of deaths.  I put the total at (this is my best approximation since no one tracks the death toll from rebellion-related violence) 500 out of the 1,000 required for the international civil war definition.

We’re close.  Avoid crowds.

In this issue:  Front Matter – Voter Fraud – Violence And Censorship Update – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – Choices – Links

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, feel free to subscribe and you’ll get every post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30 Eastern.  Still free.

Voter Fraud

I hate to say I told you it would get weirder than you would imagine, and I was right.  Here we are.  The design, intentional or not, of elections in the United States was to relieve tension.  Voting makes us feel better.  1860, 1968, 2016, and 2020 seem to be exceptions.

Lincoln walked into a bar.  He wanted a table, not a booth.

The Electoral College generally limits fraud and adds legitimacy to the election.  Add a million votes in Chicago?  It won’t change anything but the results in Illinois.  The Electoral College, among other things, is a firewall that allows us to feel better.  You’d generally have to commit fraud in more than one state to win an election.

As I write this, Joe Biden has been “proclaimed” by the Mainstream Media© to have won the election.  Thankfully, legitimacy doesn’t come from the Mainstream Media™.  Sadly, neither does news anymore, so I guess they have to pretend to have some sort of job.

It doesn’t look like (so far) the final choice has been left to the voters in the various states, either.  We all know that Chicago politics has been rotten since Al Capone was diagnosed with OCD after getting into Organized Crime.  The same can be said for certain cities that have long been under control of the Democrats.  Let the people vote all that want, and as hard as they want.

In cities like Philadelphia, we know that they really say, “We’ll count ‘em like we want to count ‘em.”  Stalin, of course, would nod approvingly.  It’s not the voting that matters, it’s the counting.

My dad left me a Yahtzee® game once owned by Al Capone.  Sadly, some parts are missing – I’m stuck with only a gangster’s pair of dice.

Yes.  It looks like there is much more than circumstantial evidence that vote fraud took place.  The Mainstream® Media™ used to say, “There is no direct evidence of voter fraud.”  Well, if you didn’t look up during the day, there’s no direct evidence of the Sun, either.  The system in those Democratic stronghold areas seems to be designed to prevent review.  And why not?  Is it really a crime if there’s no evidence?  It’s like Schrodinger’s election.

But, importantly, now the Mainstream™ Media© is saying, “There is no direct evidence of widespread voter fraud.”

Well, to swing an election, you don’t need widespread fraud.  You need fraud in the right place at the right time.  Fraud in California?  Who cares?  Fraud in Philadelphia?  In Milwaukee? In Atlanta?  In Detroit?  That’s not widespread – it’s just four places.  And it’s enough.

Spoiler:  he’s dead.

I mean, it’s enough if you stop counting in the middle of night, exclude poll watchers, and then board up the windows so no one can see what you’re doing.  Yes, all of those things happened.

I joked with The Mrs. that I was going to tell you to Google® information on voter fraud, but then we both laughed.  If there is any information related to actual, verifiable voter fraud, Google© will ban it (see below in the Violence And Censorship Update), hide it, and put a disclaimer on it.

Mail-in ballots?  Google® and Twitter™ Trust and Safety Commissars say there’s no chance of fraud, even though fraud on a massive scale with mail-in ballots becomes trivial.  As in the BBC® wrote an article for use in Africa so people in Africa could recognize voter fraud (LINK).

We check all of the boxes, folks.

Do transvestite voters commit male fraud?

Let me know if you’d like me to do a post on voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.  I’m not sure I have anything special to add, but since you won’t find it on Google©, if you want me to do a post summarizing some of it, let me know.  There’s a lot out there.  Yes, it’s an extraordinary claim.  From what I’ve seen so far?

There’s extraordinary evidence.

Voter fraud, on a scale of hundreds of thousands of ballots has, in my opinion, occurred.  That is destabilizing enough.  The irony is that if the Left had waited to 2024, they could have had it all with a young, charismatic candidate winning it all and pulling all of the levers (new Left-leaning states, expanding the Supreme Court, etc.) to make the future Leftist forever.

But by not waiting?  Either intentionally or not, the Left created a mess.  With a clear election win in 2024, they get it all.

With a win (maybe, see the last segment before the Links, Choices) largely seen as fraudulent?  The Left brings us that much closer to Civil War.

Violence And Censorship Update

My last sentence from last month’s Violence And Censorship Update was:

“They have to have a line somewhere.”

I was making fun of Gofundme®, which would support nearly anything but Kyle Rittenhouse.  But this month?  Gofundme© killed a fundraiser for a guy to pull together data to find fraud in the election.

Yup, they have a line.

Disclaimers – they’re showing up everywhere.  I watched a Scott Adams video today – it had disclaimers galore.  How mail voting was safe.  How the video might have opinions on the election that weren’t approved.

Retweet this?  Get a 12 hour ban.

And Twitter®?  It’s on a complete information lockdown.  Gateway Pundit® Tweeted© about fraud.  As of yesterday, retweeting Gateway Pundit™ will get you an automatic 12 hour ban.  The original Tweet™ is still up.  But how dare you try to share it.

Twitter™ has also had enough of President Trump.  They’ve taken to censoring him.  In one sense, this is his own fault – as his supporters were kicked off the platform, one by one, he did nothing.  Now?

I said, “Doc, I’ve got a Twitter® addiction.”  He said, “I don’t follow you.”

If Trump shares an opinion that there might have been voter fraud?  Censored.  If Iranian leaders share opinions?

Come right on through.

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 lead to the index.  On illegal aliens, I’m just using government figures.

Violence:

Up is more violent.  The public “perception” of violence jumped during October.  What will November bring?

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable.  Instability was up, a lot, in October.  The only place where instability is good is if it’s not your turn in Jenga®.  November won’t be better.

Economic:

The economic measures are slightly down this month.  I had expected it to be more, but the money pumping keeps things floating along.  The Fed® can stay irrational longer than most investors can stay solvent.

Illegal Aliens:

Down is good, in theory.  This is a statistic showing border apprehensions by the Border Patrol.  Numbers of illegals being caught is rising again.  Will it increase further?

Choices

The election is a mess.  A bad mess, and the events surrounding it could lead to the ultimate unwinding of the United States.  Scott Adams says there won’t be Civil War.  Why?  In his words:  “We (the United States) don’t want one.”  I wish I could share his optimism.

 

Redo

Probably one of the best things we could do is something horribly simple.  There are several contested states, and there are several real problems we’ve seen.  The answer?  Just re-vote.  Where?  Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

In other news, looks like Biden won a key demographic:  every voter born in the 1800’s.

Simple.  If we addressed the problems we’ve documented in the systems and processes in November, we could have elections that were universally agreed to be free and fair.  Heck, we could even have the Army run it and put purple ink on the fingers of people who showed up in person to vote so they can’t cheat.

If it’s good enough for Iraq, why can’t we do it?

Result if this happens:  An election we can agree is fair.

Chances of this happening:  Zero.

 

Biden Wins

This has a subset of Biden Wins with Senate Control or Biden Wins with a GOP Senate.

If Biden wins with control of the Senate?  All bets are off.  This is a huge negative, since that ends the game.   The Left has already indicated they want to bring in Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico as states with two (Leftist) senators each.  The result of that is, more or less, permanent Leftist control of the Senate.  Additionally, the Left would likely increase the number of Supreme Court Justices to whatever number that would give them a majority.

If Biden wins without controlling the Senate?  This is a far better scenario.  Divided government will prevent unilateral action, which will be good for all of us.

I hear that Kamala is now Biden’ her time.

Result if this happens:  Either a fundamental transformation of the American political power structure or a boring two years where important stuff gets done until Joe Biden is gently relieved of command after the dementia is too obvious even for Leftist shills to cover up.  If Biden wins the Senate?  Odds of a shooting war in the United States go up significantly in the next six months – the Leftists have already announced an online database of people who supported Trump.  Wonder why they just don’t issue them little gold stars?

Chances of this happening:  30%-50% that Biden wins.  10%-20% that he wins and gets the Senate, which is too close for comfort.

 

Trump Wins

This might seem crazy at first thought, but I assure you it’s not.  Pennsylvania law is clear that ballots that arrive after 8pm are trash.  A court ruling changed that – except that legislative decisions on national elections are not reviewable by any court.  Go read the Constitution.  If rule of law still exists, Pennsylvania will go for Trump.  Period.

That leaves Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona.  Trump just needs two.  If he’s competently represented?  He’ll get two.  Then it’s President Trump until 2024.

Result if this happens:  If you thought the collective Leftist salt mine after the 2016 election was big, compared to this scenario it will be nothing.  Emotions and the love-fest for President Biden have led to the Left being on a high.  If Trump pulls victory from nearly certain defeat?  Riots.  Burning down Leftist cities.  Probably National Guard suppression.  Washington, D.C. would be a war zone.  Where’s my popcorn?

Chances of this happening:  50%-60%.  Yup.  The fraud is so blatant that any decent audited recount should catch it in multiple states.

 

Two Presidents

What if we all agree we’re done playing house?  The Left can have the East and West Coasts.  The Right gets the core.  We declare some neutral cities, and divvy up the military stuff.

Result if this happens:  An initially peaceful Balkanization of America.  Eventually?  We’d go to war over who got to keep the Tom Petty albums.

Chances of this happening:  <1%.  The Left would never, ever, let a single person escape its grasp – that’s why East Germany built walls – to keep people in.

Why did Angela Merkel cross the road?  Because the pedestrian crossing light indicated it was the correct time to do so.

Invalid Election

What if the election was ruled so messed up that it couldn’t be undone.  In Pennsylvania the ballots may have been mixed up so that the broken law couldn’t be undone.  Likewise, if voter fraud is so pronounced in other states, those electoral votes are just thrown out.

Result if this happens:  They’d hash it out in Congress.  Maybe President Pence and Vice President Justin Bieber.  Who can say?  No one would be happy with the result and net tensions increase every minute until 2024.  And you thought 2020 was bad.

Chances of this happening:  10%-20%.

LINKS

The links are, once again, mostly all from Ricky, as are the headers.  You have no idea how much I appreciate that on nights when I post these.  I’ll start off with the non-Ricky links . . . feel free to identify yourself in the comments if you want!

Even reserved Forbes is pricing major violence over the election.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/10/28/get-ready-for-turbulence-that-will-impact-your-job-the-economy-stock-market-and-the-us/amp/.

And another that likely you see.

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/election-war-games-pre-planned-chaos/

Interesting that this area is concerned since the vote is heavily Republican.  Gun stores have some time and ammo, although there limits on ammo and the price is doubled to tripled from 6 months ago.

https://www.al.com/news/2020/10/alabamians-stocking-up-on-ammunition-prepping-for-post-election-unrest.html.

This one says that the Uber rich Rodeo Dr in Hollywood will be closed to vehicle and people on election day.  Another author questions, why election day and not the night-of or the next day?  Are they working with real intel or just guessing?

https://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/video/4817061-beverly-hills-to-shut-down-rodeo-drive-on-election-day/

And

https://news.yahoo.com/beverly-hills-shut-down-rodeo-051253368.html

And an independent one from the Jewish community.

https://m.jpost.com/us-elections/jewish-security-officials-warn-be-prepared-for-violence-on-election-day-645916

 

And from Ricky, who gave us great themes this month:

American Graffiti

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93w5yy/swing-states-face-risk-of-militia-violence-during-election-new-report

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akddz5/talking-culture-warlords-and-the-second-civil-war

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8zyw/a-boogaloo-boi-leader-just-got-arrested-for-allegedly-firing-ak-47-during-george-floyd-protest

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ep4yak/the-casual-brutality-of-protesting-in-portland

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjp48x/is-the-us-already-in-a-new-civil-war

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7gwm3/we-tracked-the-shocking-amount-of-gun-violence-at-us-protests

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gmmk/meet-mymilitia-where-right-wing-extremists-find-friendship-and-fantasize-about-violence

Apocalypse Now

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/guillotines-motherfcker-colorado-democratic-committee-member-caught-hidden-camera

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-week-with-the-baying-antifa-mob

https://www.valleynewslive.com/2020/10/20/is-antifa-planning-a-civil-war/

https://www.newsweek.com/antifa-plans-wave-demonstrations-streets-election-polls-close-1544038

https://www.newsweek.com/antifa-march-through-washington-dc-1544676

https://www.kptv.com/news/downtown-portland-businesses-targeted-by-self-described-antifa-group-in-wednesday-night-riot/article_6bda4df6-1fd2-11eb-947f-afe7c5354a08.html

https://newsone.com/4043905/candace-owens-mob-rule-antifa-video/

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-expert-explains-antifa

Minority Report

https://www.bridgemi.com/urban-affairs/militias-trump-civil-war-fears-prompt-gun-sales-spike-black-michiganders

https://www.bet.com/celebrities/news/2020/10/08/spike-lee-civil-war-comments-election-maga-slavery.html

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3anz38/the-not-fucking-around-coalition-wants-to-protect-black-americans

https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/10/12/proud-boys-civil-war-donald-trump-election.html

Casablanca / Play It Again, Sam?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/22/opinions/liberias-civil-wars-advice-to-american-voters/index.html

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/28/928644025/after-covering-civil-war-overseas-journalist-examines-u-s-militia-movement

Vertigo / High Anxiety

https://azbigmedia.com/lifestyle/another-civil-war-poll-shows-majority-of-americans-worry-about-it/

https://gen.medium.com/i-cover-civil-wars-the-state-of-america-right-now-makes-me-anxious-59320249de03

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/07/both-sides-worry-doubts-election-integrity-could-spark-violence/5880965002/

https://www.thearticle.com/the-trump-biden-clash-leaves-the-spectre-of-civil-war-hovering-over-america

https://midasletter.com/2020/09/american-civil-war-looms-as-trump-reveals-intention-to-ignore-voting-results/

https://www.newsweek.com/proud-boys-trump-civil-war-qanon-1538208

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/04/revealed-trump-linked-consultant-facebook-pages-warning-election-cause-civil-war

https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-whether-your-vote-can-prevent-a-civil-war/

Ice Station Zebra / Cold War

https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1316446749729398790

https://nypost.com/2020/10/31/bill-maher-lets-not-have-a-civil-war-with-the-trumpers/

https://www.amestrib.com/story/opinion/2020/10/09/walter-suza-united-states-doesnt-need-another-civil-war/5935542002/

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2020/10/26/post-election-civil-war-why-that-is-not-happening/6008708002/

https://www.suntelegraph.com/story/2020/10/07/opinion/civil-war/15049.html

Some Like It Hot

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/news/2020/10/15/-a-social-civil-war—ideological-gulf-in-texas-becoming-increasingly-violent

https://www.bayoubrief.com/2020/10/19/after-a-supporter-predicts-new-american-civil-war-and-criticizes-anti-racism-education-u-s-sen-cindy-hyde-smith-raves-that-was-wonderful-i-just-want-to-get-you-on-fox-news/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/09/gretchen-whitmer-kidnap-plot-michigan-hotbed-armed-groups/5934812002/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/right-wing-militias-civil-war/616473/

War Of The Roses / Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

https://boingboing.net/2020/09/22/your-terrifying-reading-for-today-wargame-designer-outlines-4-post-election-civil-war-scenarios.html

https://counter-currents.com/2020/10/yes-we-are-headed-for-violent-civil-war/#_ednref1

https://mises.org/wire/media-now-openly-pushing-secession-election-nears

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2020/09/lets-consciously-uncouple-the-united-states

https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/steve-chapman/ct-column-secession-trump-biden-election-chapman-20200918-kybt5hym3nhtpkoj25gtbqmiiq-story.html

https://internationalman.com/articles/the-american-revolution-the-sequel/

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/22/disunited-states-could-a-second-civil-war–and-an-end-to-the-union–really-happen/

The Neverending Story

https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=713599

“Maybe we got ’em demoralized.” – Aliens

I was reminded that, even though I bragged I was the Inventor of the Bikini Graph®, I had produced no bikini graph in a recent post.  My apologies.  Here is the most recent GDP of the United States.  With bikini.  How can you be sad after seeing these results???

I was on the football team at my high school.  I know the football teams on television are all above average, but they had to play someone.  And we were the ones they got to play so they could be above average.

Going from memory, I’m certain we never had a winning season in high school.  My senior year, we won a single varsity game, and that was by a margin of two points – we won 8-6.  A record of 1-8 might sound like it only took nine weeks to make, but it seems a lot longer while you’re making it.

One particular game we went into the locker room at halftime, down by some amazing deficit that rhymes with 38-6.  It was winter.  The rain that was coming down on the field was freezing creating a wet yet frozen field.  It was a miserable day, but still better than watching a Disney® movie made in the last 20 years.

Our head coach then said to the team, “Listen, guys, go on out there and play like it’s zero-zero.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever gone into a locker room, realizing you were going to have to go back out onto the field and spend the next hour of your life going toe-to-toe against another team that was, statistically speaking, certain to win.  It’s as unpleasant as spending time in an elevator with Bill Clinton and his old-man onion breath.

Bill Clinton thought that the only thing that could make him cry was an onion.  Then Hillary started throwing ashtrays at him.

Now, I may not be a math major, but our team was down by 32 points.  Playing like we were zero-zero was like assuming that we were not already getting hammered like Hunter Biden on a Tuesday morning.  To me, this didn’t make sense, I even thought it was borderline delusional.  It wasn’t zero-zero.  It was at least 32 points below zero-zero.

As I got older, I began to figure it out.  What the coaches were trying to help us overcome was simple.  Demoralization.  We weren’t winning.  We weren’t going to win, since our quarterback couldn’t throw farther than about forty feet, and couldn’t count higher than 12 without taking off his shoes.  Of course, having six fingers on each hand did improve his grip, so he rarely fumbled . . .

But there is a choice in life.  You can live, knowing that you are going to fail, and acting like you’re going to fail.  Or you can live, and just do your best in every moment, knowing that you’ve left it all out there, like a monkey in a minefield, when everything goes ba-BOON.

It’s a fact:  humans eat more bananas than monkeys.  Personally?  I find that monkeys are more filling.

Living life as a failure is demoralization.

But what is demoralization?  Demoralization is depriving people of spirit, of morale, of courage.

I don’t know about you, but I was proud to go back on the field when we were losing.  Not proud that we were losing.  But proud that we had the guts to go back out there, again and again, and give it everything we had on each play.

I’m not telling any secrets when I say that it’s the goal of some groups to demoralize the people of the United States.  The news in 2020 has been a constant drumbeat to demoralize anyone who would oppose the Leftist, globalist agenda.

If you were to take them at face value, there’s no way that Americans could ever be sovereign in their own nation again.  And certainly, we should live in fear of disease for the rest of our lives and put everything on hold because of it.  Masks?  Why not make them mandatory forever.  To me?  That sounds like giving up.  And also, Wal-Mart® may not enforce the mask policy, but they still get pretty upset when I show up without pants.

Uncle Hunter always said, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”  Uncle Hunter did crack.

That demoralization is not where it ends.  Looking at the news, we have seen our cities burn for months.  Sure, I don’t live in Minneapolis, and I’ve only been there a few times.  But Minneapolis is an American city.  To watch it burn is demoralizing – I don’t live in Minnesota, but if I’m an American it does hurt to watch an American city burn.  How bad is it?  BLM® and Antifa© have made cops look good.

It also shows us how far we’ve fallen.  Just like when we see people beaten on the streets for the crime of wearing a red hat that shows support for the president they voted for is a defeat for law and order.  I even heard where a protest started because an amputee’s limb got stolen – that was completely out of hand.

How do I know this?  Despite being the very example of an iron-willed observer of American politics, I occasionally admit to being human, too.  I don’t want Seattle to burn.  Or Minneapolis.  Or Portland.  These are American cities, built with American hands and American material and American labor.  We should be proud of them – we should want them to thrive.  Watching evil people destroy them?

It’s demoralizing.

Man, I hope I can get the two gyros for $6 deal there.

Me?  I’ve done several things to stop being personally demoralized:

1. I’ve stopped listening to/reading things that sap my spirit.  I used to listen to NPR® – they used to tilt left, but still provide a decent coverage that wasn’t unhinged. Not after 2015.  I got very sick of the constant partisanship and anti-Americanism.  In one segment, an NPR™ correspondent told us how awful it was that we followed our own immigration laws and that it was immoral to report illegals.  In the very next segment?  Another correspondent told us how human trafficking of illegals was evil.    I’m gonna need a bigger scorecard for this one.  Which laws are we going to enforce this week?  Are pants optional?
2. Drudge® used to be a great source of news. I thought he was balanced.  Now, after the Chinese bought his site?  Horribly tilted to the Left.  Me?  Scott Adams put me on to Ground News (LINK).  It’s a great site that actually analyzes the news in the most nonpartisan way that I’ve ever seen.  It shows which news stories are being slanted by the Left, and which ones are being slanted by the Right.  Goodbye, Drudge.  Last I heard he had an opinion about North Korean journalism:  “Can’t complain.”

I hear Best Korea is great at geometry.  They have a supreme ruler.

2. I increased listening to/watching/reading things that add to my spirit.
   1. I like Scott Adams while I’m exercising.  There are more that I like and will share if you’re interested, but I’d love to see your suggestions below.
   2. Lots of new movies are just awful. They’re preachy, but to make up for that defect, they’re also not good.  Give me the Outlaw Josey Wales any day of the week over almost any movie not made by Mel Gibson in the last five years.  I think I enjoyed three new movies in all of 2019, and none of them were as good as Sean Connery’s home videos where he just eats crunchy breakfast cereal on camera and then asks for a bottle of gin.
   3. New books are, mostly, not as good as older ones. Missing?    Missing?  Humanity being the goal, not the problem.  Missing?  Girls in metal bras on the cover.
3. It also helps to maintain or increase positive habits.
   1. Get enough sleep. This is one where I’m a chronic offender, at least during the week.  I’ll make it up on the other side of the dirt, I guess.
   2. Eat better. That’s been off and on this year.  Sadly, more off than on.  But I have found that what food I eat is very, very significant on my mood.  Also?  Rubbing butter on my chest may not help my attitude, but it does make my skin shiny and the dog will play with me.
   3. Exercise more. This is one that has immediate payoffs and long term payoffs.  The sad part is my employer seems to take a dim view of me just hanging out all afternoon in the gym with the weightbrahs.

A Canticle for Gibson?  At least one reader will get this.

There are some other things that can help, too:

• Get rid of habits that make you feel bad. Which habits?  I know mine.  Do you know yours?
• Fix things about your environment that upset you. Or don’t let them upset you.  I have a banister that’s been hanging for the better part of a decade now.  I walk by it at least once a day.  It doesn’t really bother me.  It’s also on my list.  I’m sure I’ll have it fixed by 2030 or so.
• For me, prayer works. Your mileage may vary, and I certainly don’t criticize readers that think that all of the splendor and wonder and amazing complexity of humanity that lead to symphonies and sonnets and songs and Gilligan’s Island around us are random effects of a cosmic fluctuation.  Because all of that random probability is more likely than God, right?  Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have put Gilligan’s Island on the list, though that might be proof of Satan if it weren’t for Mary Ann.

A friend in college grew up next door to her.  She would come over and have coffee with his mom.  He had, um, conflicts about this.

We all own what goes into our minds, at least at this point in 2020.  We cannot be forced to consume media.  We choose what we watch, what we hear, what we read.  We don’t owe it to anyone, anyone at all to consume lies in the news that have more holes in them than Batman’s parents.

To be clear:  this isn’t an attempt to avoid reality.  We must face truth unafraid.  Each of us must be ready to go back onto that field in the freezing rain after halftime, down by 32 points.  And I’ll agree with you if you said we lost the game – the scoreboard would agree.  But we didn’t fail.  We played every down as hard as we could.

I’m not saying we should be deluded into thinking we’ll win every game we play, but giving in to fear about possible futures is demoralization itself.

The truth is that we cannot be demoralized without our own consent.

The easiest path?  Don’t consent.  Understand that, in the end?

We win.