The Origins Of "The Narrative"

(hat tip to Deplorable Bloggers Alliance, where Pastorius notes: The fact that this video is "Age Restricted" on Youtube proves that what he says is correct)

If only more "true believers" indoctrinated in our education system would watch the video below!  Perhaps the eyes of some would be opened — if only a little.
 

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)
This weekend, enjoy Spring, Opus 34, by Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936):

[About Alexander Glazunov and a must read!] 

One of the YouTube comments about Spring:

Glazunov, pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, teacher of Shostakovich, composed this lovely piece in 1891, yet it sounds so modern ... as if it could have been written only yesterday!...

Beyond Fragile Little Snowflake Status

From the Left Coast comes this video clip of this pathetic creature (hat tip to Deplorable Bloggers Alliance):

Woman has mental breakdown and assaults another woman in an elevator since she can’t maintain social distancing. pic.twitter.com/v8247Rd0FB

— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) April 6, 2021

Comment at Deplorable Bloggers Alliance: 

revereridesagain said... If you have an "extremely compromised immune system", what the hell are you doing riding elevators at all? The rest of the world cannot and if it wants to retain anything of its freedom will not stop everything to accommodate people like you. Get a damn face shield to go with your designer mask and stop throwing tantrums when others are just living their lives.

So Weary Of The Narratives (Lies)

As regular readers of this blog know, I took month-long break from blogging because of Mr. AOW's death.   So much to do!

 As a result, I often have the television on for background noise while I am sorting through papers or on hold with one entity or another.  I have been inundated with narratives from the Left!

 I am especially weary of the narrative (lie) debunked below:

I'm hearing it repeated as gospel truth that "nearly all" American mass shooters are white. Here are the photos of mass shooters from 2019 (defined as four or more shot in a single incident). It shows quite a diverse set of faces. #Boulder #Atlanta pic.twitter.com/z4eGq8mCiW

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) March 24, 2021

And then there's this...  

Myth vs. Fact: The Georgia Election Law, the full text of which is below:

Mr. AOW Has Gone Home

This morning, Mr. AOW (1949-2021) passed peacefully at the hospice facility: end stage renal failure with complications.  His passing was expected the past ten days or so.  He was at the hospice for eight and one-half days.

I was on my way to the hospice for my morning visit with him when I got the phone call.  

The hospice didn't see the usual signs in advance in order to summon me.  Just as well.  Mr. AOW and I decided years ago that I shouldn't sit bedside for the end.  

One moment, he was cracking a joke.  The next moment, he was gone.

While Mr. AOW was at the hospice for that brief time, he had more visitors and phone calls than he'd had in eleven and one-half here at home under post-stroke care.  What an irony!

I am grateful for the excellent care my husband received at the hospice.  This is what end-of-life care should be!  I'm also grateful that Mr. AOW was lucid right up to the very end.

Any blog friends wishing to know the arrangements should contact me via email, as shown in the right sidebar. 

Sad News

Corrections from Always On Watch in red.  Somehow I miscommunicated where Mr. AOW is on the timeline of life.

Mr AOW is on the verge of passing away after a brief struggle with kidney disease caused by long-term diabetes and high blood pressure.  He is now under hospice care.

Mr. AOW is a US Army veteran, Vietnam Era. He and Mrs AOW began dating 49 years ago this month.  They  married on June 17, 1972.  A lifetime with each other and living in the same house all those years!

He has been in poor health for years, and I just want to say that AOW is an incredibly strong and Godly woman who has taken care of her husband in their house while also teaching children. AOW is a stellar example of living one's wedding vows "in good times and bad, in sickness and in health."  Let's keep her and the soul of her soon to depart husband in our prayers.

Here is Mr. AOW's "ABOUT ME" from his blog:

I am a veteran of the Vietnam War Era and a political conservative even though I'm from Southern California.

I have been married over 40 years to the best blogger on the web: Always On Watch (aka AOW and Mrs. AOW).

Severely disabled by a brain hemorrhage in 2009, I still love life!

I have the use of only one hand, so my seek-and-find typing is very slow.  However, I do read and appreciate comments to my blog.

I believe that laughter is the best medicine.  Send me jokes!  I'm an equal opportunity insulter.  Heh.

Rest in Peace when your time comes, Mr. AOW.

Dems Play Politics, Repubs Play Pocket Pool

Silverfiddle Rant!

Casey Stengel is up there with fellow baseball great Yogi Berra for colorful quotes. Here are a couple that could apply to the fumble-fingered GOP:

"Been in this game one-hundred years, but I see new ways to lose 'em I never knew existed before."

"Can't anybody here play this game?"

Democrats know how to play the game.  Sandy Cortez scored bigtime and helped the beta boy in the process:

"Wow. We officially raised $1 million for Texas relief at 9:17pm.," she tweeted. "Thank you all so much. Folded hands I'm at a loss for words. Always in awe of movement work."

By Friday, she tweeted, that figure had risen to $2 million and she announced she was going to fly to Houston to join with Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia to distribute supplies.

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz hit himself in the head with a ball bat... while striking out...

After returning to Houston on Thursday afternoon, Cruz told reporters outside his home it was "obviously a mistake" and that "in hindsight I wouldn't have done it."

Love her or hate her, Sandy knows how to play the game.

Meanwhile, the GOP can't catch a break.  Can they catch a clue?

Mega Dittos!

Silverfiddle Rant!

Rush Limbaugh has died.  Conservatives are mourning, and many sick, pathetic leftists who live bitter, shriveled lives are celebrating his death.

I am already on the record stating I gave up conservative talk radio years ago (is Hannity still on the air?) but I did hear Rush every now and then because my rightwing wife is a Rush 24/7 subscriber.

  

The man was indeed a unique talent, and I don't see anyone wearing the talk radio crown the way he did.  Big national talk radio is waning, and radio will eventually transition to something else, as it has continually done since Marconi and Tesla.

What is Rush's lasting legacy?

What did he mean to you?

Open forum, please stay on topic.  Be warned, if you respond to a cut-and-paste boilerplate spammer or a slobbering leftwing troll, your comment gets zapped along with the main comment.  That is just how Blogger works.

The Maoist State of America

Silverfiddle Rant!

Another day, another un-woke celebrity cancelled by the Red Guard...

The persecution of Gina Carano
Her sacking perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy and intolerance of the woke elites.

So far, she has not opted for a self-flagellating Maoist Struggle Session, which seems to be all the rage lately.  She must be smart enough to realize you cannot appease the baying mob.  

"The guillotine's thirst for blood is never slaked."

These theatrical self-shaming debasements all hit the same notes.  You could play word bingo with them: Systemic racism, inexcusable, painful, white privilege, people of color, etc...

...but the most disturbing aspects of the public self-accusations are the admissions of "ignorance," and the promise to "learn" (be reeducated).  This ends in a dark place.  I leave you with a few examples that could have been taken directly from historical accounts of Mao's Cultural Revolution:

NY Times food critic offered this obsequious self-mortification for criticizing a woman of color:

“I’m a white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege and I recognize that makes what I said even more inexcusable and hurtful. The fact that it didn’t occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred percent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury).

My favorite, a florid burst of self-censure from the Poetry Foundation:

“To our community of contributors, subscribers, partners, and visitors which includes,” it noted, “but is not limited to, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, Asian, trans, non-binary, and queer people, undocumented and other immigrants, people with disabilities, and those struggling financially: we apologize for our silence in the face of crisis amid the call to dismantle institutional racism.”

The host of "The Bachelor" fell afoul of the Social Control Ministers at Ingsoc when he did not collapse into an attack of vapors and immediately organize the horsewhipping of a woman contestant who attended an antebellum themed party when she was in high school. 

His groveling self-rebuke hits all the required notes with an economy of words:

“What I now realize I have done is cause harm by wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism, and for that I am so sorry.”

"By excusing historical racism, I defended it. I invoked the term ‘woke police,’ which is unacceptable. I am ashamed over how uninformed I was. I was wrong,”

Here are quotes from a college professor's particularly operatic apology for the crime of extolling the virtues of college football: 

"I am sorry for the hurt, sadness, frustration, fatigue, exhaustion and pain this article has caused anyone, but specifically Black students in the higher education community and beyond," writes the Ohio State University professor. "I am struggling to find the words to communicate the deep ache for the damage I have done."

My center is as a learner, so movement for me will involve unlearning and relearning by listening, reading, dialoguing, reflecting and writing as a means for increasing my awareness and knowledge about systemic racism and the experiences of people of color and people who hold marginalized identities different from my own."

I am just beginning to understand how I have harmed communities of color with my words. I am learning that my words—my uninformed, careless words—often express an ideology wrought in whiteness and privilege. I am learning that my commitment to diversity has been performative, ignoring the pain the Black community and other communities of color have endured in this country. I am learning that I am not as knowledgeable as I thought I was, not as antiracist that thought I was, not as careful as I thought I was. For all of these, I sincerely apologize.

I know it's not anyone's job to forgive me, but I ask for it—another burden of a white person haunted by his ignorance.

In this last sad example, a former fighter pilot and Boeing executive apologizes for writing an article opposing women in combat.  33 years ago:

In an apology upon leaving the company for an article he wrote in 1987 opposing women in combat, then-Boeing executive Niel Golightly said the article was “painful because it is wrong. Painful because it is offensive to women. Painful because it reminds me of the sharp and embarrassing education the uninformed and unformed ‘me’ of that time received as soon as the piece appeared.”

This will not end well.

Links:

The Humiliating Art of the Woke Apology

Ohio State Professor Apologizes.  He is so very, very, so very sorry

Alison Roman apologizes again to Chrissy Teigen for her 'tone deaf remarks'

Jonathan Chait and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Take Friendly Fire for Defending Fired Star Wars Actor Gina Carano: ‘Stop This Bullsh*t’

Swing and a miss! Strike two

Silverfiddle Rant!

CNN's Chris Cillizza splains...

Why Democrats blinked in the Senate impeachment trial

Poor Dems in government and the press are like the guy in the gay cowboy movie, still clinging to President Trump and declaring, "I just can't quit you!"

What say you?  Please sound off on the election, the aftermath, and this shabby impeachment.  Its an open thread.

How the Election was Stolen

Silverfiddle Rant!

Molly Ball has come out bragging about how she was privy to a cabal of powerful special interests that colluded to steal reelection from President Trump.

Joy Pullmann at The Federalist has the best analysis. I recommend it to anyone wanting to understand what happened.  

No voting machine corporations risking financial ruin to oust the bad orange man, no Russia-China-Venezuela conspiracy, no krakens, just good old fashioned political chicanery, Democrat party lawsuits, and changing the voter rules enough to provide space for mischief.

Here's the salient point from Pullmann's analysis:

Mail-in ballots are known as an unreliable voting method, even without its potential assistance to criminal fraud such as ballot-stuffing, because they create margins of error well within the margin of actual votes in a close election. That’s why labor unions, Jeff Bezos, and many foreign countries refuse to use them.

What that means is, the number of mail-in votes this election--which usually have rejection rates of 5 to 20 percent--was much greater than the margin of Biden's victory in the key battleground states he won, and rejection rates this election were miraculously almost zero.  

"They Rigged It"

First, the conspirators invented a crisis:

One of the core problems with the 2020 election is that many states did not follow their voting laws, suspending them with the excuse of COVID (which the Centers for Disease Control said the day before the election, after most votes were already cast, was not necessary).

The lawyers moved in to protect these ad-hoc changes, and then the press blanketed us with propaganda crafted to psychologically condition us to their planned outcome:

The article shows how these activists pushed a narrative that election results would not be known on election night as part of their campaign to box out Trump. It then openly admits to a subsequent orchestrated attempt to anoint Biden the winner before all the votes had been tallied. This is how leftists made their “fever dream” a reality.

The next part was easy. Poll workers had wide latitude to accept or reject mail-in ballots, the number of which was greater than the overall election margin:

Therefore, in a mail-in election such as 2020, in which half of the total votes and most of the Biden votes were mail-in, one can control the outcome simply by controlling the poll-watchers and vote-counters. Even if they are honest, their unconscious bias or the simple mayhem of unreadable handwriting and signatures creates the conditions for untrustworthy results.

We have no way of knowing how many of the approximately 65 million 2020 election mail-in ballots were legal — meaning, how many fully complied with all applicable state laws to be validly completed by eligible voters. It could be all of them. It might not be. Nobody with power seems to care to find out.

Please go read the whole article. If you must insist the election was stolen, this is the most logical theory.

See also:
No, the 2020 election wasn’t stolen — but yes, it was underhandedly tilted

LARPing towards Armageddon

Silverfiddle Rant!

We need to rise above "automated bot-level arguments" and beat back the "hyenas of social media"

The Realignment Podcast, Ep. 89: Eric Weinstein, Reckoning with Capitol Chaos and How to Save America

Eric Weinstein crystalizes into coherent thought so much of what is going on right now. He also points to the way out of the nuthouse and back to some societal sanity.

You can listen to the podcast here on this blog, at the Realignment podcast website, or on your smart phone with Spotify or Google Podcast app (all free).  I enjoy podcasts because I can listen in little bites on the way to work or while doing chores around the house.  The podcast player keeps track of where you were and you can pick it back up anytime.

Weinstein's Key Points:

Post WW II America has been a rare period in time and place blessedly free of the societal ructions and human catastrophes so common in human history. 

We have to "deprogram" our fellow citizens out on the fringes, offer redemption and welcome them back.

We must stop canceling people, even those we vehemently disagree with. Redemption is a basic human need.  It is healthy for people and societies.

Institutional Media is driving our societal destruction.

The extremes of MAGA and Woke are cults.

We are LARPing to Armageddon.

Joe Biden is worse than Neville Chamberlain. 

The Wuhan Lab Theory is viable, much of what the "experts" are telling us about covid is confusing and often not credible.

Our leaders have failed us.  Everyone born before 1964 needs to get off the stage. Younger people need to "stop playing in the present and prepare for the future."

Weinstein's interview starts at the 7 minute mark. Skip to the 8 minute mark if you are impatient.  The first 10 minutes or so are Weinstein describing how deception, fakery and role-playing are a big part of the public displays we are witnessing.  From there he proceeds to criticize the talking heads who ascribe "meaning" to unfolding events as clueless, incurious, historically-ignorant half-wits no more qualified than you or me to provide commentary.

Taking A Break From The Web

Time for me to take a break from blogging, from Twitter, and from Facebook — and from watching and reading the news, too.  

We are helplessly watching the systematic dismantling of our republic.  As far as I'm concerned, every person who voted for Joe Biden is the enemy of our republic — and my enemy.  Really.

I can't keep watching and cataloguing the decline of our beloved republic:  

The watching and cataloguing of the above are literally making me sick.

Moreover, Mr. AOW's condition has declined, and he needs more caregiving now. 

It's all I can do to teach a few hours a week and keep up with the home front. 

The last thing that my mother said to me before she died in 1987: "Don't hurt your health."

I'm going to take Mom's advice.  For the sake of my health, after over fifteen years of intense blogging, I'm not going to spend much time on the web for the foreseeable future.

Take care.

Comments are closed.  If you wish to reach me, please do so via email, the address of which is in the sidebar.

The Road Ahead

Silverfiddle Rant!

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.”  -- Kurt Vonnegut

I ceased being a conservative years ago, mostly over tone and tenor issues.  Also, I don't like being herded and branded.

Its not about destroying Democrats or leftists.  Its about recapturing the American ideal of a place where we can all voice our opinions and live our own lives without using the power of the state and global corporations to smash and silence our fellow Americans who don't share our views.  I respect your right to gay marriage, and you respect the right of my church to not perform them.

The pain behind the protests of 2020 goes back hundreds of years, and we've got to be in solidarity with our fellow Americans.  Successive Democrat and Republican governments have failed to take concrete action, just as they have allowed whole working communities to be hollowed out, factories carted off to China, and good people and their communities left to rot, all in the name of free market capitalism.  

As my favorite poet has said, "the old road is rapidly aging."  The way ahead is neither left nor right.

I've probably angered some of you lately, but I value honesty, and I know you all do too.   I hope I didn't insult anyone, that sure wasn't my intent.

“There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—G-d damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” -- Kurt Vonnegut

Sean Hannity Won't Save You

Silverfiddle Rant!

... but Tucker Carlson, Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald just might.

  

Salvation from totalitarian progressivism will not come from the Republican Party, nor will it come from the right.  It will come from the liberal left and non-aligned allies, including the Intellectual Dark Web .  

Many good liberals are getting stomped as well (Bret Weinstein and Anna Khachiyan for example), and are fighting back. 

Contrary to popular opinion, Sandy Cortez is not the future of American leftism; she is the last baby bubble burp of the old socialism of that shabby communist Bernie Sanders.  

I don't know how many people are in Sandy and Grandpa Bernie's neo-bolshevik camp versus how many are in the anti-totalitarian camp, but I know there is a substantial number of people on the left who are fed up with all this warmed-over 20th century totalitarian bullshit. 

Scholars of color like Glenn Loury and John McWhorter are blatantly calling Ibrahim Khendi, Robin DiAngelo and Nikole Hannah Jones frauds.  Professors at Cambridge have pushed  back recently on minor issues involving speech, and have won.  

That has happened in other universities as well, and it is left liberals within the institution, speaking the institutional language and appealing to the foundational principles of the institution.  That is how freedom wins. We can join in by stating our values clearly in a non-inflammatory way while respecting the considered views of others. And it will have to happen everywhere:  Hollywood, social media, the press, government, and private business. And I think it can.

We are not alone.  There is a whole world of thought and speech out there pushing back against the progressive totalitarians.  They seriously analyze, joyfully mock and openly flout totalitarian progressive orthodoxy and speech codes.  Many are self-described leftists and liberals, some are libertarians, but they all share a love of truth and liberty that transcends boundaries and labels. 

I commend to you the following individuals, web sites and podcasts in no particular order.  You won't always agree, but you will be educated and entertained. 

In no particular order...

* Matt Taibbi - Astute observer, brilliant liberal journalist taking down progressive totalitarianism 

* Glenn Greenwald - solid gold journalism

* Spiked Podcast (Brendan O'Neill) and Website

* Quillette podcast and website - IDW Flagship - Always excellent discussions

* Glenn Loury podcast - Wise professor who shares lessons learned

* Bret Weinstein podcast - Scholarly discussion

* Eric Weinstein podcast - Scholarly discussion

* Making Sense podcast (Sam Harris) - He will probably make you mad, but he is a great example of how to properly characterize the point of view you disagree with and then civilly argue against it, while conceding points and empathizing with those who you disagree with

* Joe Rogan - Trenchant discussion.  He brings on smart people and asks questions everyday people would ask.

* The Fifth Column - Raucous, rambling discussion of current events.  Irreverent and often vulgar, traditional conservatives would not like it.

* Blocked and Reported (vapid sounding lefty gurls busting on political correctness).  Also probably not for traditional conservatives

* Red Scare (Anna Khachiyan and and Dasha Nekrasova)

Intellectual Dark Web

Top 10 Anti-Woke Heroes of 2020

Meet the anti-woke left

Tune in Thursday!

You Are Here

Silverfiddle Rant!

I'm not a conservative anymore, nor am I a liberal.  These words are meaningless now, they are used only for tribal identity, and I'm done with tribes.

Donald Trump was a threat to the Establishment, so they spied on him and sabotaged him.  Props to our always-honest friend Jez for stating the obvious:

"Looks like intelligence agencies were monitoring the Trump '16 campaign, and continued to cast a weather eye on him thereafter. I don't have a problem with that, merely winning an election is no guarantee that you're not a criminal."

You and What Army?

Trump did himself no favors.  He kicked in the door to the clubhouse of the dirtiest, nastiest most dangerous gang in the world and announced he was going to kick everybody's ass, but he didn't have the tough people behind him to make it happen.  Also, he set himself on fire daily and routinely shipped truckloads of ammo to people wanting to destroy him.  

Team Trump was full of outsiders and that made them a danger to institutions and special interests, if not to the US itself thanks to their having no experience steering the ship of state through very dangerous waters.  I'm sure that's how the saboteurs, ratfinks, bedbugs and moles justified their actions.

Challenging China was itself enough to rally his enemies.  Too many people and businesses make too many billions selling out our nation and our workers to China. There is an interlocking global cartel of billionaires, powerful people, governments and bureaucrats, and their one focus is protecting the franchise.  The US citizens in that cartel don't give a shit about Democrat or Republican.  They don't give a shit about the United States of America and her people, either, unless it increases their bank accounts or gives them more power over others. 

Global War on MAGA

John Brennan and Stan McChrystal are aiming insurgency and terrorism rhetoric at Trump supporters, and they need to back it down.  Such talk is reckless and irresponsible, and its fueling  even more irresponsible propaganda emanating from Establishment revanchists and their clueless leftwing handmaidens, hoping to drive a new Patriot Act to bring the War on Terror home to the US.  

I understand the old adage that to Hammerin' Stan, every problem looks like an insurgency nail, but for all his and his fellow Establishmentarians' wisdom, Afghanistan is a lost cause and Iraq--instead of being the Germany of the Middle East--barely limps along.  

All Stan and his fellow generals accomplished--at the behest of their Establishment masters--was wrecking nations, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and enflaming even more hatred against the US.  Thanks for all your brilliance, Stan, but please don't bring your shitshow here to America.  

A Time for Choosing

It's time to reject the old order.  The "experts" have brought us nothing but failure.  Winning WW II and  paying off the enormous debt of that war was the Establishment's last achievement.  Government has since developed an auto-immune disorder and is attacking We The People. The Establishment hollowed out American factory towns, selling it all lock, stock and barrel to China, leaving working people with no jobs and destroyed communities, all in the name of GOP "free market capitalism."  

The Establishment starts wars it can't win, or even finish.  We need to stop listening to Democrats and Republicans preaching us into wars, and we need to stop listening to hubristic generals selling us winning strategies that always end up losing. 

Everybody over 50 needs to get the hell out of the way.  I would take Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard over a GOP Establishmentarian any day.  So, my penultimate piece of advice is to throw your support behind whoever vows--Trump-like--to dismantle the DC Criminal Cartel but--unlike Trump--actually has the rhetorical skills and a top-notch team of smart bureaucratic infighters to get it done.  No more marginal revolutions.

My final piece of advice?  Pray.

Tune in Tuesday...

Weekend Music Break

Silverfiddle Rant!

Apologies for not bringing the classical music break, but this cracks me up.  I remember watching Honeymooners reruns instead of mopping and cleaning when I had bay orderly duty way back when.

Fast forward 100 years and the kids and I are listening to the Grateful Dead's "Fire on the Mountain" as we head up the mountain to go skiing. The kids ended up hating the song because it was one of those famous Dead jams that went on forever.  My son jokes that he fell asleep when the song was playing, woke up an hour later and it was still on...

Dysphoria

Silverfiddle Rant!

I am suffering a dysphoria.  I don't know what is going on and I can't make logical sense of it.  I can abide someone or something being good, bad, left, right, mean, ugly, whatever, but illogic drives me crazy. 

Were intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement really spying on the Trump campaign?  Did they really do this as a pretext to keep spies on the inside of his administration?   Looks like. 

Has our press really gone over the edge and into full-blown progressive propaganda?  Ample evidence says so. 

The entire transcript is out there for Trump's "fine people on both sides" comment, where he specifically excluded the racists and neo-nazis, yet the press continues blaring out the lie that he called racist white supremacists "fine people."  What more can we do?

Is our society--independent of government--devolving into a self-policing totalitarianism?  I think so.

Have the Silicon Valley World Controllers established a government-outsourced Ministry of Truth that can do what the government itself cannot:  Silence US citizens?  Yes indeed.

I have been saying for years our nation is heading down a very bad, dangerous road, and we're seeing it now.  Putting people on notice, Maoist struggle sessions or auto-da-fé for the guilty, forcing people to repeat phrases from the Little Red Book, silencing, censoring, de-platforming, un-hosting, doxxing people, getting them fired from their jobs...  

Lean Gulag

We are living the rudimentary beginnings of a Chinese-style social credit system, enforced not by a tyrannical government, but by tyrannical fellow citizens.

We are in an ugly place.  Russian émigré Anna Khachiyan off-handedly called it "Lean Gulag."  "Lean" being a business term for an operation like manufacturing without all the warehouses and heavy machinery, and I think she nailed it.  

Nowadays, governments don't have to march people off to the gulags.  Now, we gulag people in place, encircling, impoverishing and silencing them within an ever-shrinking space where you're still granted the "freedom to say two plus two make four," but no one hears you. 

There is hope.  Please tune in next Monday.

Red White and Blue Scare

Silverfiddle Rant!

The 2016 election of Donald Trump encrazened Democrats and the political establishment.  His refusal to concede the 2020 election and instead wave the stolen election bloody shirt culminated in his most ardent supporters mobbing the Capitol.

The Democrat-Press-Political Establishment Axis has responded by unleashing a Red White and Blue scare, a hysterical over-reaction that will make the Red Scare of the 1950's and the Muslim scare of the 2000's look like a pillow fight.

Can I ever again climb into my pickup with my buddies and our guns and ammo, going out hunting or for target practice, and not be under suspicion?  Indeed, even law-abiding citizens with no criminal background are now considered dangerous ticking timebombs.  

It's All About Revenge...

The left is giddy.  "The Capitol Siege" is the moment they've been waiting for.  An opportunity to take the conservatives' Islamist terror rhetoric and antifa domestic terror talk throw it all back in the rights' faces, flaming hot:

"Who are the anti-American terrorists now, you rightwing racist extremist bastards?"

These are heady times for the MAGA haters, always happy to dispense morality tales.  This one is even more powerful than their favorite one about the deplorable Covid scoffer who ended up dying of Covid:  This is what happens when benighted morons refuse to listen to the enlightened progressives and insist on electing a populist orange monster.  *tongues clucking* "We told you it would end badly." 

Next will come the public struggle sessions, forcing apologies and confessions from Trump supporters, with the progressive crowds poised with thumbs sideways, deciding whether to accept the contrition or condemn the former MAGAt to a marginal life sitting alone in a cafeteria muttering to herself that two plus two equals five.  

The left is wallowing in an orgy of fear-mongering, sanctimonious scolding, and vengeful recriminations.  Calls from the left include purging people from social media, government control of public speech, government 'reining in our media,' blackballing "Trump collaborators,"  reeducation and deprogramming, expelling most of the GOP congressional delegation, and much, much more.

Where does this end?  Will the hysteria die down, or will it gain an out-of-control life of its own?

Please tune in this Friday.

One Last Election Post...

Silverfiddle Rant!

Donald Trump lost this election.  Less hijacking the Covid briefings with rambling nonsense and a little more theatrical fatherly concern would have done him much political good. His first debate performance encapsulated his entire boorish, bombastic persona and probably sealed his fate.

If there was election fraud, it happened in the irresponsible broadcasting of absentee ballots, and the GOP-agreed upon standards for accepting them.  All those ballots go into the pile and the fraud is undetectable.  How did all this happen in GOP-controlled states, or states with a GOP controlling majority in the state house? 

Maybe it was good old fashioned Democrat organizing, combined with GOP apathy.  Stacey Abrams is now a political powerhouse, and she beat the Georgia GOP like bongo drums.

Trump lost the election in April, when Democrats used the Covid scare to irresponsibly expand mail-in balloting (once again, with GOP consent or passive acceptance).  Where was his legal team then?  Team Kraken's post-election hijinks, including connecting communist China, Dominion Voting Systems Inc, and the ghost of Hugo Chavez, was a farce.

The press is complicit.  This election loss and the lack of trenchant investigative reporting and audits has left Trump voters wandering in cavernous lacunae, seething, disconnected and discombobulated, while the vengeful left trucks in brick and mortar to wall us up inside. Forever. 

What say you?

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down) 

Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord No. 1 in E Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach:

 

Music that matches my mood....

The Real Plague

"Wokeness," self-righteousness masquerading as enlightenment, is the real plague upon the land.  Better definition: "authoritarianism masquerading as righteousness."

A few manifestations of "wokeness":

 Deplatforming. 

But deplatforming is not enough. 

Moreover, deplatforming should not be limited only to Donald Trump: Trump's de-platforming could reshape the internet. 

And we also have this: Forbes warns companies not to hire Kayleigh McEnany, and other Trump "fabulists."

How long before any and all Trump supporters — identified via facial-recognition software, posts in social media, and donor lists — are banned from the public square and even from employment?  For example, Teachers In Jefferson County, WV That Attended Rally At the Capitol Threatened With Termination.

Related video to watch.

Stalin-esque.

Kafka-esque.

Weep for our lost American Republic:

Orwell Warned Us.

Today, in the 21st Century, we are reaping the whirlwind of "Everybody should go to college":

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down) 

"The Stars Shine," composed by Kile Smith:

 

Lyrics:

The stars shine with more pleasing grace when a storm has ceased to roar and pour down rain. 

After the morning star has dispersed the shades of night, the day in all its beauty drives its rosy chariot forth. 

So thou hast looked upon false happiness first; now draw thy neck from under her yoke: so shall true happiness come into thy soul.

Crowds

Silverfiddle Rant!

The blame for the violence at the Capitol lays squarely with those who broke the law. No doubt they were MAGA people, but I also don't discount some of that damage and breaching was done by professionals of whatever ideology. A lot of the rioters last year, the ones showing up with professional gear and training, didn't give a crap about black lives or progressive causes, they just got off on causing mayhem. There was probably a component of that Wednesday.

It is absurd to call this an insurrection.  Our press is hysterical.

Indeed, if 30K enraged, violent people, many with guns, had attacked the Capitol, it would have been a bloodbath.

I have seen a few of these situations go down, here at home and in different foreign countries.  I have also analyzed footage and studied accounts of riots, disturbances, protests, and other crowd actions.  They usually have some common components:

1. A mass of people--the vast majority of the crowd--there to voice support/protest, whatever, not equipped or intending to commit violence.

2. Mouthy blowhards or normally timid people emboldened by the crowd, issuing empty threats, not prepared to carry out what they are saying, and not realizing they are on the brink of something they don't really want.

3. A small core of troublemakers with an action plan and the tools and training to carry it out.

4. Amid the mayhem you also have joyriders, who still think this is a peaceful protest and don't know what's going on beyond their horizons, or who just happily stampede along with the crowd, not thinking of themselves as rioters and not cognizant of serious violence taking place.

This is almost universal, and it doesn't excuse those who commit criminal acts.

What say you?

What's going on?

Silverfiddle Rant!

** Please see Friday's Post and chime in there **

The simplest explanation for the violence yesterday at the Capitol, and the violence in cities all over the US the past year is, some of our fellow citizens are anarchists with a bloodlust for violence, murder and mayhem.

Another factor could be foreign and domestic provocateurs and false flag operators stoking the flames with a continuous stream of inflammatory comments.

More possibilities...

Black people tired of living in shitty neighborhoods and too poor to escape?

White people, especially white males, fed up with being called everything from violent to fragile?

Sinister forces--within and without--purposely fomenting societal chaos?

Powerful interests inciting racial strife?

White people turning violent because they are fearful they are being demographically swamped by foreigners?

Unseen interests carrying out a concerted effort to goad angry white men to rightwing violence, terrorism and murder?

What is the Infotainment Media Complex's role in all of this?

Young people, powerless and helpless, unable to attain the standard of living enjoyed by their Gen X parents? 

Are politicians to blame?

Where does this end?

Pardon Julian Assange?

Silverfiddle Rant!

In an age of interminable titty-twisters, here's one more: Clown car conservatives are joining the Pardon Julian Assange circus.

Should President Trump pardon Julian Assage?  Here are some facts.

DoJ initially charged Assange with conspiring with Private Chelsea Manning to steal classified government documents and publish them to the world. In 2019, the US government issued an 18-count superseding indictment.

People and organizations big and small worldwide have been protesting US prosecution of Assange since the initial indictment, usually citing freedom of the press.  The US counter-argues that Assange is not a reporter and that he was in on the conspiracy to steal government secrets.

Assange is not a US citizen and does not have a security clearance, and anyway, what makes his actions any different from that of the Washington Post, NY Times, or any other news outlet that gleefully publishes purloined government secrets to advance the outlet's and the leaker's political agenda?

The crime lies with Private Chelsea Manning, a cleared US citizen who violated federal law and betrayed her nation by turning over classified information to people not authorized to receive it. Instead of doing the right thing and executing Chelsea Manning on the battlefield in Iraq, the government treated her leniently, giving her 35 years, but President Barack Obama commuted her sentence on his way out the door. 

The initial and most unambiguous charge against Assange is that he received a password hash value stolen by Manning (I laughed when the DoJ indictment called the Linux operating system used by Manning "special software.")  Assange used publicly available tools in an unsuccessful attempt to derive the password from the hash, which would have allowed Manning to continue her theft under the cloak of a different user account. 

Manning did all the work and paid for it with a grand total of four years in federal prison before Obama let her go.  

How many years should Assange get for conspiracy and attempt to crack a password?

MORE INFO:

DoJ Initial Indictment

DoJ Press release: 18-Count Superceding Indictment

Glenn Greenwald - The Kafkaesque Imprisonment of Julian Assange Exposes U.S. Myths About Freedom and Tyranny

Kyle Smith - The Real Reason Assange should not be Pardoned

The Milgram Experiment & The Social Experiment Of 2020

***************

I know that this video is longer than most people are willing to watch.  But it's important to consider what is presented here (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance):
 

Related reading: The Milgram Shock Experiment.  Excerpt [my commentary]:

Milgram suggested that two things must be in place for a person to enter the agentic state: 

1. The person giving the orders is perceived as being qualified to direct other people’s behavior. That is, they are seen as legitimate.  [Dr. Fauci?  Other scientists, including the various departments of public health?]

2. The person being ordered about is able to believe that the authority will accept responsibility for what happens.  [Government stimuli packages?] 

Agency theory says that people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. This is supported by some aspects of Milgram’s evidence. 

For example, when participants were reminded that they had responsibility for their own actions, almost none of them were prepared to obey. In contrast, many participants who were refusing to go on did so if the experimenter said that he would take responsibility.

Please read it all HERE.  

Your thoughts as to if the COVID-19 Pandemic is being used to program Americans to be both the inflicters and the submissives of the agentic state?