Happy St. Padraig's Day and the flight from American
Posted On: Friday - March 17th 2023 10:47PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Political Correctness Race/Genetics Holiday from Stupidity
That's Padraig... or something like that. I'm sick of the multi-culti stuff, even if it's from the Irish, even from people descended from Irish people that came here 150 years ago who know nothing more of that heritage than getting sloshed on green beer once a year... and every other weekend on regular-colored beer.
Peak Stupidity posted thoughts on this last summer in our post Local Multi-culti, thoughts that came from our time spent in the British Isles. There was even that story of a friend of Irish background who gave his best shot at Scotland the Brave on the pipes in our front yard at midnight. (He used to wear and even make kilts, but that didn't mean the bagpipes came naturally ...) Everyone but regular Americans is supposed to be so proud of their people from the olde country.
You're American now though, right? No matter what those old Irish wives tales said, you were always White* and you still are now. So act it, and quit with the damned ridiculous spellings. Meighan instead of Megan? Graeme for Graham? Now, it Padraig? I saw this header on VDare today:
This Padraig Martin has written an important and first-hand account of the Anarcho-Tyranny that was applied in Charlottesville, Virginia at the "Unite the Right" rally* back in the summer of '17. Though this multi-culti business irks me, I won't let it detract from my respect for this guy and my intention to read his book. This "Neil Kumar" post, “Unite The Right Was The Last Day Of The United States”—Padraig Martin’s A WALK IN THE PARK, is a great reminder of what happened and a review of Padraig's book.
Still, Padraig?? WTF? Spellcheck is not helping me it this either. Just call yourself Patrick, man, and be DONE with it!
Steve Sailer has long had an idea he calls "flight from white". Any American who can find some way to be considered other than a White person in the eyes of government or Big Biz does so. This phenomena is fairly new, maybe 30-40 years old, as the various new actual demographic groups or made-up ones, are all treated better than the White man, especially.
Now, even pure White Irish people** feel the need to distance themselves from those plain old Americans. This isn't about AA or any free stuff. The multiculturalist brainwashing has just taken hold.
Well, I'll tell you what. If I were to get this book from the writer, I'd want it signed by Patrick Martin. Otherwise, keep it - you aren't a uniter, of the right or anyone.
PS: Is that too harsh? I could blame this on Padraig's parents, I suppose.
* Peak Stupidity wrote a number of posts about this travesty and this early reminder by the Regime of what happens when those on the right try to assemble peacefully and in not large enough numbers. (Maybe just assembling peacefully at all is something we can no longer do.)
See Anarcho-Tyranny at Charlottesville.
** Conveniently, VDare has a James Fulford article on this point today too - St. Patrick's Day Is NOT Immigration Day—Irish-Americans Are White, And Being Replaced Like The Rest Of Us.
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Donald Trump's New Statement on the War(mongering)
Posted On: Friday - March 17th 2023 12:41PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '26 The Russians Trump World Political Stupidity
I don't know if Trump had already made his March 16th (yesterday) speech or published it, at the time of Peak Stupidity's posting of Trump v DeSantis: Round 5 - The Ukraine/Russia War(mongering). Either way, this is a better attempt at equal time in the question of whether Trump or DeSantis have the better attitude on the Ukraine/Russia war. We can see by the ire of the Neocons later.
We have never been closer to World War 3 than we are today under Joe Biden. A global conflict between nuclear-armed powers would mean death and destruction on a scale unmatched in human history. It would be nuclear Armageddon. Nothing is more important than avoiding that nightmare. We will avoid it, but we need new leadership. Every day this proxy battle in Ukraine continues, we risk global war. We must be absolutely clear that our objective is to immediately have a total cessation of hostilities. All shooting has to stop. This is the central issue. We need peace without delay.Wow! That there's George Washington material! (Well, the last bit being lifted from him, that is...) I mean, even Ron Paul would agree 100%. Let me look over this statement some more:
In addition, there must also be a complete commitment to dismantling the entire globalist neo-con establishment that is perpetually dragging us into endless wars pretending to fight for freedom and democracy abroad while they turn us into a third-world country and a third- world dictatorship right here at home. The State Department, the Defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the Deep Staters and put America first. We have to put America first.
Finally, we have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally re- evaluating NATO's purpose and NATO's mission. Our foreign policy establishment keeps trying to pull the world into conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia based on the lie that Russia represents our greatest threat. But the greatest threat to western civilization today is not Russia. It's probably, more than anything else, ourselves and some of the horrible, USA-hating people that represent us. It's the abolition of our national borders, it's the failure to police our own cities, it's the destruction of the rule of lave from within. It's the collapse of the nuclear family and fertility rates like nobody can believe is happening. It's the Marxists who would have us become a Godless nation worshiping at the altar of race and gender and environment. And it's the Globalist class that has made us totally dependent on China and other foreign countries that basically hate us.
These Globalists want to squander all of America’s strength, blood, and treasure chasing monsters and phantoms overseas while keeping us distracted from the havoc they are creating right here at home. These forces are doing more damage than Russia and China could ever have dreamed. Evicting the sick and corrupt establishment is the monumental task of the next President and I am the only who can do it I'm the only one who can get the job done. I know exactly what has to be done.
"We've never been closer to World War III..." Well, nah, I know it's hard to find many tweets from that era, but the Cuban Missile Crisis, and earlier, the whole 1950's (with lots more possibility of a "fail-unsafe" event) had us closer. What's going on now can be de-escalated by anyone who desires to, i.e., all but the Neocons and Neocon sycophants. Ron Paul would do it in an hour. Ron DeSantis would do it in a day. Yes, you too could ... talk about it for 40 days and tweet about it for 40 nights, and still ... Oh, yeah, you like to have a meeting and make deals. That might work, but then, you've been suckered by Neocons before - weren't Javanka your foreign policy advisors for 4 years?
About NATO, no don't mend it, END it. You talked about this same thing 7 years ago - nothing happened. Was that the time you were distracted by "Russian collusion!" for nearly 3 out of 4 years? No, maybe it was something else that distracted you. Then you even mentioned the old cry about getting US out of the UN, and getting the UN out of the US while we're at it... or jack up the rent, if nothing else. Yes, Peak Stupidity remembers. What's this, you're going to finish what you never started?
I just read the current issue of The New American from the John Birch Society. The middle 2 paragraphs of Trump's speech especially could be an editorial in this magazine. I am glad that re-candidate Trump said this. I think he believes all this.
Sure, I agree with all of this, but will a 2nd-term President Trump DO ANYTHING about any of it? Sure, let's talk ... if you want to kick off a correspondence with Peak Stupidity, Mr. Trump, use the handle "Lucy", and I'm Charlie Brown.
* This goes back to the John Birch Society - proud member here!
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[UPDATED 03/18:] Substituted text from Adam Smith via OCR for the images of the speech. Thanks, Adam!
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Big Bankers call on Uncle Sam to preclude seizures
Posted On: Thursday - March 16th 2023 6:01PM MST
In Topics: Music Humor Global Financial Stupidity
Imagine if the world's bankers had to exist in the free market. The invisible hand would slap the BeJesus out of most of them for such acts as the loaning out of 4 years worth of tuition money to Womyn's Studies majors and the hiring of CROs - Chief Risqué Officers who spend much more time on DIE stupidity than risk management.
It's important that the FDIC* and its Credit Union sister (also Feral Gov't) NCUA at least act like they can insure us all, like more than one of us at a time, for this Ponzi Scheme of an economy to stay afloat for a bit longer. In this latest case, the Feral Gov't seems to be backstopping the SVB and Signature Bank depositors, digging the debt hole that much deeper.
We'd probably be better off if we had a real economic system, with banks, and hell, bankers too, subject to seizures. With our usual Peak Stupidity warning to readers, especially including bankers now, let's all Wang Chung tonight, if only for 4 minutes:
* It has in the neighborhood of 0.1 % of the assets in those < $250,000 accounts it insures. I happened to run into a guy who was a big shot in banking during the Carter Administration and got to pick his brain for a few minutes, including asking him about this.
Comments (13)
Trump v DeSantis: Round 5 - The Ukraine/Russia War(mongering)
Posted On: Thursday - March 16th 2023 8:44AM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '26 The Russians Trump US Feral Government The Neocons World Political Stupidity President DeSantis
Note: A post on the heat transfer from an ACTUAL greenhouse vs the "Greenhouse Effect", just for some closure on this one-measly-piece-of-the-climate excuse for the Climate Crisis™ and the disarming and alarming video by Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder is in the works. However, I want to do some real calculations (convection, conduction, and radiation), so it may be a while. As I wrote, I'm not being paid for this, so the deadline is the next round-to-it I get.
This post was inspired by the inclusion of a statement by (hopefully future President) Ron DeSantis on the Ukraine/Russia war by commenter E.H. Hail under this post, along with more commentary by Mr. Hail on the necocon feedback. I had not intended to continue the Trump v DeSantis series, but I figure we'd better give Donald Trump equal time, and this fits in. Those previous posts were Part 1 - Personalities - - Part 2 - Immunity to Kung Flu Panic - - Part 3 - Immigration Invasion and Part 4 - Tag Team?. None of them covered foreign policy, so this will help on that score.
For the DeSantis statement, I wanted to find a web source to link to, and, believe me, it took me the 2nd page of the duckduckgo search to get off of the Lyin' Press outlets that would be annoying and biased. Since the New York Post is as close to Peak Stupidity's "Newspaper of Record" status as any other big outlet, here is their article of 3 days ago by Victor Nava with Governor DeSantis' statement - it indeed matches Mr. Hail's post, but with interruptions by pictures and an ad or two. This was not from ON the Tucker Carlson show, but the NY Post article says:
The host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” asked declared and potential candidates whether the US opposing Russia in Ukraine is a vital strategic interest for America; what the US objective in Ukraine is and how the US will know when it has been achieved; should there be a limit on weapons and money sent to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; have US sanctions against Russia been effective; and does the US face the risk of nuclear war with Russia.Here's Governor DeSantis Statement, titled Ron DeSantis says helping Ukraine fend off Russia not a vital US interest
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests -- securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party -- becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. The Biden administration’s virtual “blank check” funding of this conflict for “as long as it takes,” without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges.Bravo! I don't think I have anything to add here beside just simply: US, GTFO!
Without question, peace should be the objective. The U.S. should not provide assistance that could require the deployment of American troops or enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders. F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table. These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable.
A policy of “regime change” in Russia (no doubt popular among the DC foreign policy interventionists) would greatly increase the stakes of the conflict, making the use of nuclear weapons more likely. Such a policy would neither stop the death and destruction of the war, nor produce a pro-American, Madisonian constitutionalist in the Kremlin. History indicates that Putin’s successor, in this hypothetical, would likely be even more ruthless. The costs to achieve such a dubious outcome could become astronomical.
The Biden administration’s policies have driven Russia into a de facto alliance with China. Because China has not and will not abide by the embargo, Russia has increased its foreign revenues while China benefits from cheaper fuel. Coupled with his intentional depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and support for the Left’s Green New Deal, Biden has further empowered Russia’s energy-dominated economy and Putin’s war machine at Americans’ expense.
Our citizens are also entitled to know how the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being utilized in Ukraine.
We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland, especially as tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from narcotics smuggled across our open border and our weapons arsenals critical for our own security are rapidly being depleted."
Right, so this guy is "controlled opposition"*, a Deep State operative, or one with the Jewish lobby? I didn't think so before, and I sure don't now. As Mr. Hail notes, the usual ACTUAL opposition, the Neocons are plain freaking out. I'll paste in here a comment by Mr. Hail regarding the Neocon pundit David Frum:
David Frum, the neoconservative, has released an emergency editorial in The Atlantic today attacking DeSantis. ("Is Ron DeSantis Flaming Out Already?" by David Frum, The Atlantic, March 14, 2023.)I had originally thought that "emergency editorial" was Atlantic or David Frum wording, but I like the idea. We should pull right off the side of the road, pull out our phones, and click that Atlantic link STAT! This is a Neocon Red Alert: Someone important cares about Americans more than Israel!
Frum says that Ron DeSantis' opposition to the Ukraine War is reckless, dangerous, stupid, callous, and signals that DeSantis is FINISHED as a politician on the national stage. Frum believes DeSantis is such a poor political strategist and of such weak character that he is "flaming out" before even taking off.
David Frum claims that he suspected DeSantis might have been a traitor to the cause of Holy Ukraine when he declined to greet the returning Florida National Guard members who had, for some reason, been in Ukraine in winter 2021-22. Frum said his suspicion grew when DeSantis refused to "praise" the Florida National Guard members who had been in Ukraine.
The suspicion that DeSantis is a traitor to the Ukraine Cause (and therefore--implied--a traitor to the USA), which had formed David Frum's mind in 2022, was confirmed yesterday with DeSantis' anti-war statement.
"DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president," says neoconservative David Frum.
Yeah, I know, Ron DeSantis had some meeting in Jerusalem. He does have a mass of Jewish voter in southeast Florida, well, or "voters", anyway. Would they vote for him at all no matter whether he kowtows? Maybe he's figured out, "NOT", and maybe some of those voters will come around too at some point. They are not all followers of your David Frums, Jonah Goldbergs, Bill Kristols and the official political Neocon sellouts**.
Mr. Hail notes:
Bill Kristol, the neoconservative godfather figure, has been on a 48-hour rage spree against DeSantis for the latter's opposition to the Ukraine War. Kristol is said to be seeking ways to ensure DeSantis loses funding.So far I'm very pleased to see the enemies that Ron DeSantis had been making.
Now, what's the word from The Donald? He responded to Tucker Carlson's request for a statement too, per Kent Masing of the Business Insider - Here's What Trump Has To Say About The Ukraine-Russia War. Because it's very hard to get anything resembling a "statement" out of Trump's mouth, I don't blame the site for inserting his answers piece by piece. Here's most of it:
"Both sides are weary and ready to make a deal. The meetings should start immediately, there is no time to spare. The death and destruction must end now!" Trump said, Fox News reported.There are no principles, like the idea of a Declaration of War being required, or George Washington's words of wisdom here. No, Trump is Mr. Wheeler-Dealer! He doesn't need no principles, political strategy and all that. He's gonna set them down and MAKE A DEAL! Oh, go screw yourself with all that, you egotistical bullshitter!
Trump, who is running for president for a third time, said the U.S.'s objective in the Ukraine war is to "help and secure Europe." However, the former president castigated Europe for not helping in the war.
Trump said the U.S.'s limit to providing assistance to Ukraine would "strongly depend" on his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin while insisting that Europe "must pay."
The former president also argued that the U.S.'s sanctions against Russia "have not been effective" in deterring them from attacking Ukraine.Admittedly, he guy makes good political points, comparing what's going on with what we SHOULD be doing. The comment about replacing Biden is one, but would he be just OK with that, were it Ron DeSantis replacing Zhou Bai Dien?
Trump also believed the U.S. faces a high risk of a nuclear confrontation with Russia under President Joe Biden.
When asked if the U.S. should support ousting Putin from power, Trump said it is "more important" to support replacing Biden than supporting a regime change in Russia.
Trump's comments about the ongoing war in Ukraine echoed his previous remarks that he would have allowed Putin to control "certain areas" in the beleaguered country to avoid the conflict.
In his radio interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the former Republican president said he could have negotiated a deal with Russia and Ukraine while boasting that Russian forces did not occupy any region in Europe under his watch.
During his speech at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump said he would solve the Russia-Ukraine war in one day, arguing that he knew what to say to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.Yes, he's just going to sit them down and work this all out. Bullshit works, apparently... only this is not an Amway meeting, that's the problem.
The clear difference seen here between these 2 men is not necessarily the specific answers to the questions from Tucker Carlson. The clear difference is that one man has a clear idea of the principles that decide this matter as written out in a statement, while the other says he's just the greatest dealer and talker around, so he'll just do all that stuff he's so good at and fix everything. The latter man can't even MAKE such statement, as his style of bullshitting doesn't cover "statements".
Winner by knockout here: Future President Ron DeSantis!
PS: Just out of completeness, I found that Fox News detailed the responses of not just Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, but also Mike Pence and Kristi Noem to Mr. Carlson's questions, in the format of one question at a time. See Republican 2024 hopefuls respond to Tucker Carlson's questions about their stance on Russia-Ukraine war. The already traitorous (to the State of South Carolina) Neocon Nikki Haley's responses were added to this article too.
* I never really thought too much of this whole concept. The only people I think are the controlled opposition are those folks who continually comment negatively about anyone who fights, these commenters, bloggers, or pundits themselves being the closest thing to controlled opposition, IMO.
** Mr. Hail had more on the Neocon hive reaction (I mean, as in "the hives") in his comments:
The periodical "Jewish Insider" has sounded out the opinions of prominent persons who are condemning DeSantis for treason over Ukraine. This group of luminaries is led by Elliot Abrams, the neoconservative thought-leader. Also joining the chorus, per Jewish Insider, are Senators Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Roger Wicker, John Cornyn, and Mitt Romney, and others. Rich Goldberg, a Republican bigwig, is said to donning warpaint as we speak to rally allies to the anti-DeSantis political warpath. Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and "Nikki" Haley have also now lashed out at DeSantis in similar terms. Also condemning DeSantis for treasonous disloyalty to Ukraine is Danielle Pletka. She is of the American Enterprise Institute and is the current Georgetown University chair of the Center for Jewish Civilization.Try to remember these names the next time any one of them talks about "peace".
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The Greenhouse and Beyond - Part 3: Summary of Sabine's Story
Posted On: Tuesday - March 14th 2023 10:17PM MST
In Topics: Global Climate Stupidity Science
(Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.)
(As Mr. Kief has informed us (twice), her contention is that modern physicists - the last 40 years worth - want the math to be nice and complete, making the physics "beautiful", holding up new physics theories.)
In that very long Part 2 post, I don't think I summarized my views on the story of the real Greenhouse Effect per Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder and her take on the Climate Calamity™ very well. Here goes:
I don't pretend to know about the details of radiation heat transfer within, from, and to, the layers of Earth's atmosphere. I don't pretend to know EVERYTHING that would be involved in a model of the climate of the Earth. However, I know enough about radiation heat transfer to know that Dr. Hossenfeld did not include a number of details needed to explain her point to me. These one could have been explained simply, as, yes, she did say at the end that things are much more complicated than what she explained in the 5 minutes of "the PdD version" of the explanation of the real Greenhouse Effect.
In my post, I probably went too much into "shape factors", with not much obvious reason. My point was to note that everything is radiating to and/or absorbing radiation from, everything it "sees". That means these layer of the atmosphere, though, granted, they are nice clean hollow spheres, radiate to each other and through each other. There's a LOT to it, and I am doubtful Dr. Hossenfelder knows that complicated picture.
Even so, let me assume that this science popularizer is absolutely right about everything in the video*. It's a heat balance of the Earth, right? Ein - Eout + Egen = Eacc. Oops, what's the "gen" one? Oh, yeah, the Earth still has stuff going on in the core. Radioactive decay goes on there, and then that big molten ball has a lot of energy to release. If the latter is not counted as "generated", it's yet another part of the model, or should be.
There's that whole Troposphere at the bottom, the very bottom portion being where we live. Weather and climate happen there. "Sure, OK", one might say, "but that doesn't effect this large scale radiative heat balance." Yes, though, there are plenty of effects of the climate down here on this heat balance. Clouds have a different albedo (reflectivity) than land surfaces, for example, and what is their effect on outbound radiation transferred from the surface?
The biggest point against Dr. Hossenfelder's or anyone's alarmism is their assumption the this Greenhouse Effect alone is all that is changing or can change the climate of the Earth. In the Troposphere, all kinds of convection and transfer heat involving freezing/melting, evaporating/condensing water is going on. Nobody can predict the next El Nino or La Nina, and not the biggest Climate Calamity™ we'll ever see, barring the sun going Supernova, which is the Ice Ages. The interglacial periods are shorter than each Ice Age. Yikes! Shouldn't we first learn the causes of them to know all about those effects before we even start worrying if we should stop "emitting" CO2 or perhaps burn down the forests to help stave off the next one?
To summarize the video and what I now think of Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder:
1) She's not very good at explaining things, at least as taken from what I viewed here.
2) That she just now learned and tried to explain the REAL Greenhouse Effect theory and did a poor job of it doesn't give me confidence that she is worth listening to on subjects other than her field of Astrophysics.
3) She has an agenda on the Climate Calamity™ with the usual oversight of the bigger picture.
* That'd be the theory at least, because that data on Stratospheric cooling did not really show what she said it did.
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[UPDATED 03/16:] Added picture and caption.
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Potentially lethal combination of Cheap China(?)-made crap and low competence
Posted On: Monday - March 13th 2023 5:10PM MST
In Topics: Cheap China-made Crap General Stupidity The Future Peak Stupidity Roadshow
I am not sure that the long-lasting light bulbs in the traffic signal lights near me are Cheap China-made Crap or not. I could ask someone from the city Street Division, but I'd probably have to see one of the bulbs and look it up. I wouldn't be even thinking about this if there weren't more and more burned out traffic lights around.
I think back to about 5 years ago, when I could talk to my son about this. We discussed the problem. It COULD potentially just be my imagination or noticing bias, but I really don't think so.
It's the red light bulbs* that are worrisome. These small intersections have 2 sets of red/yellow/green for each direction, so 24 bulbs total. There is redundancy for each until a bulb burns out.
The yellows don't burn out much, because they aren't on for long. Were both out for one direction, it might be odd for some drivers, hearkening back to I don't know how long, but I would hope drivers would be able to deal with it.
If both greens burn out for one direction, I see even less of a danger, and only a problem with slower traffic, as those who know the intersection would slow to almost a stop before they can see the reds for the crossing road.
If that 2nd red in that direction goes out, it's an accident waiting to happen, by my guess, within the day. These are stoplights within a neighborhood. Most of the traffic is drivers who know there is a stoplight there. Not all of them, however, are good enough drivers to stay off the iCrap and not miss things like this. All it would take is for an unfamiliar or distracted (or both) driver to come through in the direction that should have a red light while a non-defensive driver comes through the intersection in the crossing direction.
Worse yet, many of these neighborhood intersections don't have good sight lines. In other words, defensive driving doesn't help much, unless you drive like Grandma. I don't blame people for loving their trees, bushes, and brick walls, but I don't think all the code is being followed. Due to simply the lay of the land, one intersection has the busier road in an ~ 30 ft. lower valley, as the lower-traffic crossing street comes downhill to the intersection for both ways. There are houses on all corners, and in one direction, you can't see to the left without being IN the intersection. People speed up due to the downhill and their wanting to catch the light. Years ago, probably without burned-out bulbs being involved, my friend witnessed a fiery crash there.
I happened upon one of the city guys once and told him about a burned-out red light. It got fixed within a few days. Now, I see this problem quite often, in fact the usual 2 stop lights I go through in one direction almost always have 1 or 2 of the 24 lights out. This is not the way it used to be. I know that for sure. Things are getting shoddy.
I believe it's a combination of lower quality bulbs and incompetence in keeping up with one of the primary jobs of the city, maintaining the infrastructure. Where's the money going? How big is the budget of the Office of Diversity? Let's get some DIE people up there on cherry pickers before people DIE.
PS: LED-based signals have been around for 25 years, by my recollection, but I've seen rows/columns of the individual LEDs go dark, so maybe they are not working out as well as I figured they would.
PPS: The style of traffic light fixtures in the image above is classic, but there aren't many left around of these all-12-in-one types. We usually have 8 (x3) fixtures instead of the 2 (x12).
* By that, I mean (red light) bulbs, not red (light bulbs), as the colors come from the lenses in front of the clear bulbs.
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The Greenhouse and Beyond - Part 2: Radiation and other heat transfer
Posted On: Saturday - March 11th 2023 5:51PM MST
In Topics: Global Climate Stupidity Science
(Continued from Part 1)
Here again is the video of German Astrophysicist Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder on the actual process of the "greenhouse effect":
First, I gotta say this: Mrs. Hossenfelder, please, please, consider letting your upper and lower teeth come apart while you're talking! Her English is fine. Her accent is not bad at all. It's just, well, if she would leave a gap for the words to come out... they could come out to me, and I'd have an easier time listening. (It's not THAT bad, but you've got to concentrate more than you should have to.)
This video lecture is all about radiation heat transfer and almost solely about that to/from layers of gas in the atmosphere. Scientists study radiation heat transfer usually to from/to surfaces and to/from fluids (normally gases), and engineers do the same. For the latter, if they actually WORK with it, the results have to be right. That means, ALL processes and effects must be accounted for if any types of models are to match reality. Radiation is one of 3 modes of heat transfer, the others being conduction and convection. There's a lot to ALL of the modes, but we'll get to it regarding radiation shortly here.
Put simply, the idea of the greenhouse effect and Carbon Dioxide is that energy of certain wavelengths transferred from the Earth's surface (again keeping it simple) to deep space are absorbed by the CO2 up there. Those wavelengths blocked are not so much of the spectrum of the incoming solar radiative heat transfer, so the result is more energy staying within the control volume of the Earth and its atmosphere than with less CO2 up there. The equilibrium average temperature of the whole deal gets slightly higher, IF, and that's a big one, all else doesn't change.
What I just wrote is something of a misunderstanding of it all, Dr. Hossenfelder maintains. Besides explaining more about the radiation emission frequency spectrum of the 3 "greenhouse gases", water, CO2, and "meethane"** and the absorption of infrared by CO2 especially - nothing that negates the last paragraph (the "high school" explanation) - the importance of the altitude of that layer of CO2 is what she says has been misunderstood.
Let me use a few paragraphs now to summarize radiation heat transfer. Like all heat transfer, the rate goes up from 0 with objects (in the case of radiation, surfaces or masses of gas) at the same temperature and increases with temperature difference. Unlike in conduction and convection***, rather than the heat transfer rate being a linear function of ΔT (Temperature difference), along with other factors, of course, radiation heat transfer is odd on that score. It comes out in the math that the rate is a function of the difference of T's to the 4th power. Note: That's NOT (Th - Tc)4. It's Th4 - Tc4. If you're wondering about the units, the temperatures must be in degrees Kelvin (K) or, for the English units system, degrees Rankine**** (R) - these are both referenced to absolute zero, i.e. no molecular movement.
Peak Stupidity is about the last place you'll get engineering derivations (almost every single one is based on Newtons's laws and/or the 1st law of Thermodynamics, BTW). Here, though, at least, is the very basic radiation heat transfer equation, from a surface to another surface or to/from the oft-used non-body called the sky: qnet = 𝜎ɛAS(𝑇h4 - Tc4), where
qnet is the net heat transfer rate (units could be Watts) between surfaces.
𝜎 is the Stefan-Boltzman constant, equal to 5.67 x 10 -8 W/m2K4
ɛ is the emissivity of the surface, from 0 for a "white" surface (poor emitter and poor absorber) to approaching 1.0 for that theoretical "Black!" body (a good absorber and a good emitter).
A is the surface area.
S is not in your standard science equation, but this "Shape Factor" is necessary for real-life problems.
Th and Tc are the absolute temperatures of the hotter and colder surfaces (or gases) respectively. A positive rate of heat transfer is always the case from the hotter body to the colder one.
"What's all that got to do with the price of tea in China", you ask? Well, it'll go way up if the seas boils, I'm here to tell you! No, this is likely fairly straight forward to the reader, but let me give you a cool real-world example of one part of this, the Shape Factors that come into play in real life ENGINEERING problems. (I am not completely sure if Dr. Hossenfelder gets this with respect to the layers of gases in the atmosphere, but we'll get to that.)
Take my old muscle car,
I pick the dew because that's when I noticed, a few times, that the window on one side had dew but the one on the other didn't. This rules out natural convection as the cause, because its effect would be symmetric. What was going on? There's a row of bushes on one side, close to the car. Let me digress from this digression to the Shape Factors. Engineers use the term "see"***** a lot, as in, the car roof sees the night sky about 50%, it sees the house walls for 30% and the bushes 20%, like that, the "S" for one radiative heat transfer path being 0.50 for the sky, 0.30 for the house, etc.. It's more complicated than that even, because unless you have a plane surface with the other components (surfaces or the sky) far enough away, one point on the surface "sees" more of this other surface than another part of that hotter surface does******. Some engineers may divide this up in a common-sense fashion, but for the really fastidious, Calculus, Bitchez!
The side next to the bushes was radiating mostly to them, at a much higher temperature than the night sky. No dew was present. The other side was more in the clear, so it got colder than the other, and it had dew on it... mostly. The really cool part was the portion of window near the side mirror on the dew side. I brought up that this is an old muscle car to explain that it has the old close-in small mirrors. Well, there was a dew-free zone on the window the exact shape of the mirror. How convenient for driving! What will nature think of next? Well, go figure, this portion of the glass was in a sky shadow (yes, cue up Cat pre-Moslem Stevens), radiating to the mirror and mirror housing. Those had an absolute temperature much higher than the night sky, probably near the same T as the window. Oh man, then there's the reflection of IR from the mirror ...
Before I forget, let me add: There are surfaces, and then there is the deep sky. For layers of the atmosphere radiating outward, deep space is taken, if I recall correctly, taken to be at an average of 4 K (way down near absolute zero) for calculations.
The point of all this is to explain to the reader not just that this stuff can get complicated fast, but even in the atmosphere with those nice hollow-spherical layers, everything radiates to or gets radiation from, EVERYTHING ELSE. Dr. Hossenfelder, even in her "PhD version" 2nd half of the video either doesn't really get that, or has explained it poorly. I do lean toward the latter, but she had a chance to explain this when she told her viewers toward the end (16:30) that she had been misled by the arrow directions in the previous "greenhouse effect" schematics she'd seen in textbooks.
OK, now, finally, let me get to the video in a more direct fashion. Much I attribute to poor explaining and some to possible non-understanding. Early on (03:25) and near the middle (10:38), she describes infrared emissions as "light". She's not technically wrong, but if you're going to make this clear, you should be certain to call all of it radiation. Visible light too is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. She knows this, but the non-difference between "light" and "radiation" would confuse the "high school" version viewer. Along with this, near the end of the video, Dr. Hoffenfelder said (about the incoming radiation to Earth's surface at 16:38) "It's converted to infrared radiation...", a really confusing way of putting it. Nothing is being "converted". The ground absorbs energy at some wavelengths and emits at some others. (At least she got the light/radiation bit right by this point.) She said this correctly earlier on (4:40) though.
I get that this science popularizer is not an atmospheric scientist. That does not excuse her, seeing as the video is almost all about the atmosphere, from not knowing what the Tropopause is. In the first half of the video as she tells us, in the "High School version" that the atmospheric temperature decrease with altitude (07:10), she notes (09:30) "If you go further up, it remains constant for a bit..." A bit?! It's 8 to 10 km thick right there in the diagram. In the diagrams her Stratosphere includes the Tropopause. Is that just her wanting to save time? That notwithstanding, what I think is a true lack of understanding on the part of this Astrophysicist is the explanation of the increase in temperature with altitude in the thick (not materially, but geometrically) layer of the atmosphere called the Stratosphere. Much of the 2nd half of the video concerns the Stratosphere.
The idea gas law doesn't explain it, as pressure continually decreases with altitude. Why does the temperature go up with altitude in this layer? "That's because the atmosphere up there absorbs some of the incoming sunlight." (09:40 and 14:45) (Make that "solar radiation", please!) OK, but then during the rest of the presentation, there is this natural assumption that when CO2, or other greenhouse gases exist at higher levels they are at a lower temperature. "... at higher altitudes, where the temperature is lower". At 12:48 she says "if the concentration of Carbon Dioxide increase further, then the emission of more and more wavelengths of the spectrum moves up to higher altitudes, so they move to lower temperatures." I get that the temperatures anywhere in the Stratosphere are lower than the bottom ~5 km of the Troposphere (the entire Troposphere******* is our realm, and where the weather occurs). However, why is this additional CO2 MUCH higher up? If it's just higher WITHIN the Stratosphere, it'd be warmer at higher altitudes. Earlier, at 09:55, we are told: "Pushing the effective altitude of emission up reduces the temperature of emissions, and that brings the system out of balance." (More on those last 3 words to come.)
This is utterly confusing to me. Either there's something more to the explanation, or she's contradicting the established fact she herself mentioned that T's go up with altitude in the Stratosphere. It's the Stratospheric cooling that's her gotcha in this entire presentation as to why she is right and they, those "Climate Change Deniers", are wrong. Yes, this is the point in question at which the agenda of Sabine Hossenfelder comes out in the open. Here's the line:
"If you've ever had the pleasure of interacting with a climate change denier, this is Exhibit A."She's a 1967 paper that she says shows that more CO2 increases Stratospheric cooling, which she says has been observed, and she maintains that this shows us that the warming of the Tropopause, questionable as that is, and the cooling up higher, demonstrate that the questionable warming is NOT a function of an increase in solar radiation influx. OK, but, her satellite data upper Stratospheric cooling graph displayed at 16:00 show (with the eruption interruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in1991) a 1.5 C decrease from 1980 through 1996, a level period from then till about 2002, a 0.5 C decrease from then through 2009, then level or a slight increase since. That's not so very conclusive.
(12:17, or start at ~12:05 for more context)
In addition to less radiative heat transfer to deep space, wouldn't a cooler layer up high also result in increased transfer TO said layer from material and surfaces below? Of course
Finally, let me get to one more type of wording out of Dr. Hossenfelder that I believe is a combination of poor explanation AND an agenda in the wording. That would be that "out of balance" business that I mentioned, which appears a few times. Whatever you think of it, the Climate Calamity™ theory is a long-term process. Atmospheric composition changes, so absorption and emission of electromagnetic radiation changes, but there's no such thing as anything being "out of balance" involved. Things don't just jump. As concentration gets gradually higher, absorption gets higher (just a vague example), T goes up, so radiation in a certain direction gets higher. A new Equilibrium is established, but the physics don't and can't allow for anything to be out of some kind of balance. That terminology would make one wonder whether this lady understands the idea of changing the equilibrium. She does, I'm sure, but then I think she uses this phrasing as a scare tactic. How about, as she does admit at one point, something like "the temperature at the lower levels will increase this small amount"? The Earth is still balanced! Don't be alarmed! Stay where you are! Stand in the place where you live, now, just ... OK, more REM nonsense at the end there, but you gotta love a Geography song!
Near the end of this video, Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder does note that the whole thing is "vastly more complicated" (14:15) than what she explained here. I can be generous and allow that this means the radiation heat transfer in both directions (inward and outward) within this whole atmosphere and the land cover... ooops, and cloud cover, etc. is taken into account. That is, between everything and everything else.
What if I told you ... what if I told you, though ... that all this modeling is only about the radiation heat transfer and doesn't account for all the climate phenomenon in the Troposphere below? No, God! No, God! Please No!******** Is that sufficient? What if I told you that Dr. Hossenfelder is, in my opinion, no expert on Atmospheric Science, much less Climatology? What she IS, though, is the "What if I told you?" lady to match Bart Simpson's "I didn't do it" guy. She's a popularizer of something, but I'm not buying it.
This was by far Peak Stupidity's longest post EVAH! I will follow up with my discussion, as a repeat of material in posts 6 years go, on how complicated the whole climate modeling idea really is. Sabine Hossenfelder doesn't know the half of it, even if she has somehow been right on the money in this video.
* CO2 is not just sitting there in one layer though, but that's just more of the complications that she glosses over, even in her PhD simplified explanaton.
** Sorry to make fun, Dieter. I can't say I'd be able to give ANY kind of lecture in German.
*** The phenomenon of convection is really a mix of conduction and fluid flow. It gets complicated and unworkable FAST.
**** Spell check doesn't know "Rankine" #SAD
***** A totally different example, this from solid mechanics, might be, "this part sees a bending and torsion loading from ..." Engineers know that mechanic/structural parts don't have eyes, but this is a useful way to discuss things.
****** Oh, and possibly the house walls are warmer than the car, so that portion of radiative heat transfer goes the other way. I know what you're thinking: Criminey!
******* It is much narrower near the poles than toward the equator.
******** I gotta appreciate the Michael Scott clip at 09:02. This is a scene of his reaction on seeing that HR guy Toby Flenderson is not gone from The Office for good after all.
Comments (16)
The Greenhouse and Beyond - Part 1: Sabine "Sagan" Hossenfelder
Posted On: Friday - March 10th 2023 10:28AM MST
In Topics: Global Climate Stupidity Media Stupidity Science
Peak Stupidity's illustrious, poetic, and highly-literarily-aware commenter Dieter Kief suggested the viewing of a 20 minute video on the "Greenhouse Effect" by German Astrophysicist Sabine Hossenfelder for our possible erudition. I watched it, and this one is worth a post on, what, with 20 minutes invested already.
I will not present any diagrams, due to laziness and my not getting paid a cent for any of this. I'm not claiming a degree in Astrophysics. I'm not claiming a degree in Climatology. I do know about engineering though, and specially heat transfer/thermo, enough to not necessarily refute or support Dr. Hossenfelder's talk, but to to be able to point out where I think she is missing knowledge and missing the big point on the alleged Climate Calamity™.
The entry to the whole world of Climate Crises is the so-called "greenhouse effect". Our youtube speaker would probably agree with the term "so-called" (but for not as many reasons as I do - more on this) as her main point in her video is that this effect (the absorption by high-atmospheric CO2 of surface or lower-level emissions of IR radiation) is not exactly what happens in a greenhouse. She admits to not understanding the real process till now, and she explains this in I Misunderstood the Greenhouse Effect. Here's How It Works..
From the get-go, that title alone is bound to turn off some skeptics of the Climate Calamity™ narrative, as in "if you didn't understand this till now, Doctor Hossenfelder, why do you expect us to believe you just now got it all figured out?" In her defense, she is neither a Climatologist nor Atmospheric Scientist, but just a country (Germany, that'd be) Astrophysicist, Jim! Mrs. Hossenfelder's field does include the understanding of radiation absorption and emission to the molecular or atomic level. That's what she gets into in this video. She must have detailed knowledge of the Earth's atmosphere to related this to the long-term Climate, as in, the energy balance of the Earth.
This post was to address the science/engineering only, which is all I had in my head until a few minutes ago. Since I decided last minute to look up Dr. Hossenfelder's marital status for the use of "Mrs." vs. "Miss"*, I got some more background on her in the process. The first part of the short wiki page is discouraging:
Sabine Hossenfelder (born 1976) is a German theoretical physicist, science communicator, author, musician and YouTuber. She is the author of Lost in Math: How beauty leads physics astray, which explores the concept of elegance in fundamental physics and cosmology, and of Existential Physics: A scientist’s guide to life’s biggest questions.Uh, uh, is that what this is about, another "sciencey" person, using the status of the field to push wokeness rather than actually DOING science? No, but she has a good resume, as far as university education, and her work has been actual science... until... Well, yeah, what you see from wiki and what I found on her blog, called Backreaction tells me that Sabine Hossenfelder has designs on being the next Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan was an Astrophysicist too, an American who got popular in the 1970s and '80s (partly from being on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show) and let it all go to his head. His big, big "nuclear winter" push was the point when his political mind ate up the remains of his scientific mind. Oh, yeah, major nuclear war would be bad ... mmmkaay... we got that. However, his scenario that the fallout, dust, or whatever changes to the atmosphere would cause a deep cold "nuclear winter" was far-fetched. This is when the American public started switching from "Choose Life" T-shirts to "Choose Beer" T-shirts. (That was along the lines of "Nuke the gay whales for Jesus.")
I looked over Sabine Hossenfelder's blog, and yes, I see she wants to be a Carl Sagan. It's that same maniacal belief system, with that intelligence and love for science but that inexperience with the reality that the world is more complicated than even she says, and that same attitude that "we should", "Germany shouldn't", or "the world's gonna need to!" do some massive centrally-planned projects and massive changes to the economy based on some cool physics phenomena. Exhibit A: An Air Condition for the Planet: How Could It Work? It's not a 45 Gazilion ton window unit, but still, it's pie-in-the-sky stupidity.
Again, for Mr. Kief in particular here, I want to state that it was not my intention to even look anything up about Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder. My intention was to address the material in the video. I don't know if you'd call this post so far an ad hominem attack of any sort, but I now do know that she's got an agenda besides just popularizing science (of which I've got nothing against, if it's done right - more on that too). There's a point in the video that I can't help feel would be not be at all necessary had this science popularizer not had a political agenda. Perhaps it's more a personal agenda, as she may be going for that Carl Sagan style scare-the-Bejesus-out-of-people fame and fortune.
OK, that latter bit is bordering on the ad hominem. With the scientific points in my head still, I'll end this post here and start on that from here, keeping it all to the science (except that one little thing). If I don't finish that today, it'll be on here tomorrow. I left the video, as the reader may want to watch the whole thing before the next post.
* Yes, I'm (purposefully) old-fashioned like that. I could have just used "Dr." everywhere, I guess.
Comments (18)
Billions Of Lives Saved By Man Wearing Mask While Alone In Car
Posted On: Thursday - March 9th 2023 6:18PM MST
In Topics: Humor Kung Flu Stupidity
Having the wherewithal and energy to write smart-ass comments here or on The Unz Review is one thing. Getting my stuff together to write a serious post, say on the Climate Calamity™ claims of a German Astrophysicist, is another. It's not like I'm modeling the whole of radiation heat transfer to and from the Earth and crunching the numbers to refute the video (recommended by commenter Dieter Kief) either, but I do have plenty of questions and concerns about the way even this German Professor thinks about the problem.
So, in the meantime, since commenter Alarmist reminded me to check The Babylon Bee for this hilarious post, I did that and saw one of their great videos. The regular reader, at least for the last 3 years, should know that the Kung Flu stupidity is our forte. Enjoy!
Comments (16)
Competence is dying
Posted On: Tuesday - March 7th 2023 2:02PM MST
In Topics: Political Correctness The Future Race/Genetics
The motivation for Peak Stupidity's post Demographics to DIE
It turned out after a quick reading, though I'm glad this writer M.B. Mathews sees the same trend I do, the first bit of the article,
Have affirmative action hiring practices caused overall competence to plummet? The record appears to show exactly that.... does not actually describe what appears further into it. This guy's anecdotes are more random than Peak Stupidity's, "random" being a word that nowadays means not so awfully organized. This next bit is what I completely agree with:
For no good reasons whatsoever, competence was allowed to die on the vine in order to give the less competent a leg up. Not superiority but "equity" rules the hiring, firing, and education of Americans. Worse, many of those who were affirmatively hired do not do as good a job as those whose excellence was obvious. You can see it in customer service, which for many businesses is abysmally incompetent. There is a resentful casualness in those who are hired to serve others that would not have been acceptable even two decades ago. The competence level one deals with on a daily basis is on life support.2 decades ago? I'd say 3 years ago, right before the PanicFest, is far enough back from which to note a change for the worse. Hmmm... if this was purposeful as part of the Kung Flu PanicFest to promote Big Biz and squash small business, this writer's praise of Amazon bears this out.
The rest, as I wrote is written, well, without a lot of competence, I must say. I'm just glad to read others noticing the big picture. Mr. Mathew's solutions are pure naivety or purposeful racial ignorance:
Bring back real education so that those we pay to serve us will be competent and will stop pointing fingers at the other guy who was supposed to take care of it.Yes, well, what about these diversity programs? The writer doesn't get to the roots of why diversity doesn't guarantee competence. Don't give people degrees? Hell, many of those degrees give one competency mostly in bitching and complaining, if you graduate Summa cum Laude.
Bring back competence by bringing back a cultural work ethic of purpose and individual responsibility, which can only happen when people truly care about competence and doing an excellent, not just an adequate, job. Stop giving people degrees in fields where they are not competent, and for God's sake, stop the diversity programs. Diversity doesn’t guarantee competence.
No, "diversity", "inclusion", and "equity" don't work because they replace White men who are naturally more competent with people who are generally incompetent, mainly GENETICALLY. Ya' gotta tell the plain truth, people.
Commenter SafeNow brought up a good point in the comments under that previous posts. Once, the White men get down to a minority or even only small-margin majority, the incompetence rubs off on them too. It's not just that they will get weary of keeping the show going by covering for the rest. The corporate/work culture will just get shoddy in general - laziness and worse ethics are becoming the norm. To the 3rd World - Warp Speed, Mr. Sulu!
Back to the White man's weariness of the DIE workplace, here's an old anecdote of my own:
This was a summer physical labor job I had long, long ago. Bushwhacking and digging was mostly what we were doing, all with hand tools. It was a diverse group of young people working together, the reason being that this was a government job. For most of a week, our group of 8 was digging a pit, with shovels and pick-axes. Once 6" down, it was nothing but hard red clay down there The whole big pit could have been done with a backhoe in an hour, but this was a government job for young people. As the government boss, a decent guy, could have told us, had he watched the right movies, "There are 2 kinds of people in this world, those who have backhoes and those who dig. You dig!"
I think there were 3 or 4 of us White guys. The 2 or 3 black guys worked hard, though one had to put up with some stupidity from them. It was the 2 black girls that were not pulling their weight. They couldn't be fired or even scolded, I knew that much. By the 3rd day, a guy named Chet*, who'd been working hard like the rest of us, got tired of them, threw down his government-required hard hat, said "fuck this shit", and walked off. He wasn't at my High School, so I have never seen him since that day.
We may see a lot of that in the future ...
* I remember his full name to this day, in fact.
Comments (26)
Glenn Reynolds' Kung Flu Instapology
Posted On: Monday - March 6th 2023 9:06AM MST
In Topics: Websites Pundits Kung Flu Stupidity
With the start of the American version of the Kung Flu PanicFest now 3 years ago, besides us Libertarians and those analytical types who wonder "just what the hell happened", there have been recriminations and requests for forgiveness from some of the Kung Flu dupes of the literary world. 3 months ago, Peak Stupidity featured 2 posts from those who wanted this all behind us: Kung Flu PanicFest - Forgive and Forget? and More Kung Flu PanicFest Recriminations.
Neither of the 2 "journalists" heard from and discussed in those posts ever understood what they'd done wrong though. It's hard to forgive or forget when the Totalitarian in question does not even yet see her stupidity. (Both of them were women, so any wait for an actual statement of wrongdoing would be an exercise in futility.)
Now, we're talking THE Instapundit himself! A the self-proclaimed Godfather of bloggers, Glenn Reynolds' site was the first political blog I remember reading. It was at least 20 years ago when I'd peruse the Instapundit site daily. At some point, 10 years back, I'd say, this tailed off, as I came upon other interesting sites. Though Instapundit is 1 of only 4 sites on our measly blogroll (that I need to expand), from then until only a year or two back, I very rarely looked at the site. This means that I missed Professor Reynolds' and his co-bloggers' takes on the PanicFest.
It turns out, I'd not have been happy with that coverage, at least from man in charge. As I became at odds and well upset with Steve Sailer, Ron Unz, and a few others for being duped by the PanicFest Infotainment, I never noticed this from the good mostly Libertarian, but, alas, still Neocon, Instapundit. Two days back Glenn Reynolds set us (me) straight with a flat out apology on his substack site*: How I Was Wrong About Covid, subtitled When even libertarians trust the government too much.. It's a REAL, honest-to-goodness apology. This substack post is a quick and entertaining read, so I advise the reader to spend the 2 or 3 minutes. I will just present the 2 Instapoligetic bits here (plus just a tad more):
And yet Covid was, it turned out, not as bad as I anticipated. In the early days, I was a Covid hawk, but I was wrong to be. It seemed right at the time.Indeed.
In retrospect, I should have been more skeptical. It’s hard to believe that I, of all people, trusted the government too much, but there you are. Well, lesson learned.Faster, please!
Thank you for being a man about this, Glenn Reynolds. I can't say "it feels good" or "I told you so", simply because, as I wrote, I didn't keep up with your posts** during the darkest depths of
So that’s where we are now. And the lesson is that the “expert” class failed us again. How much was failure, and how much was deliberate malfeasance, remains to be seen, though the evidence keeps piling up in favor of the latter.Yep, this IS the 21st century, after all.
And in fact, that’s the biggest lesson of the past few years. Again and again, claims to expertise turn out to have been cloaks for politicized misbehavior. “Professionalism” has turned out to be no protection against partisanship. And America’s cold class war between the Gentry Class and the normal-American community has escalated.
Covid is basically over, but there will be something else. You can, alas, bet on that.
Regarding the Totalitarian PanicFest or anything else, there's no use apologizing or asking for forgiveness, if you don't even understand what you did wrong. Glenn Reynolds does, so, yeah, thank you and you got it!
* I didn't know he had one. It'd be a better place to put a word in that the Professor might well read, as comment count seems to be at least an order of magnitude less than those seen on Instapundit. (When I read the latter site a lot, more than a decade back, there weren't comments yet.)
** From what Professor Reynolds says, it was not all of his "staff" that were with him on the PanicFest, and he let them blog against his opinions on the PanicFest, an admirable thing. (BTW, Ron Unz did and does this too, in the extreme! He'll put up with people ragging on him on his own blog in the comments, and he'll keep on the writers that think his opinions are crap. They often are.)
Comments (14)
See Oh Two Ain't Real Pollution!
Posted On: Saturday - March 4th 2023 4:14PM MST
In Topics: Music Global Climate Stupidity
In the Peak Stupidity post Derailments and Bai Dien's coming, Pollution in Ohio of about 2 weeks back, I foresaw an additional explanatory post on the Climate Calamity™ nonsense. That was based on the following paragraph in that post:
Instead [that is, instead of reporting on ACTUAL pollution], for the last 20 years, going on 30, we are barraged with talk about Carbon Freaking Dioxide. It is a part of the atmosphere, and it's simply NOT a pollutant in any way. The term "carbon" (rather than CO2), "pollutant" and "emissions" are used to fool the non-Chemistry-inclined (or those whose chemistry involves the intake of chemicals with very long names) into thinking we're talking soot or that stuff that people inhale to die in their garages, something you should NEVER inhale, and the production of said substance, respectively.I looked back at some posts with the Global Climate Stupidity topic key and realized I'd already said it all about a year ago in the post It's almost as if yahoo wants me to click this....
However, we were remiss in not including the AC/DC song that this subject reminds me of. That would be Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution!. It was the 4th single that the band released from their very successful album Back in Black, back in 1980.
CO2 ain't real pollution.
CO2 won't make ya' die.
CO2 ain't real pollution.
Yeah, the planet will survive!
We're big AC/DC fans here at Peak Stupidity. I'll get around to linking to the rest of them on the site some time soon.
AC/DC was (at the time):
Brian Johnson – lead vocals
Angus Young – lead guitar
Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, background vocals
Cliff Williams – bass guitar, background vocals
Phil Rudd – drums
Next week's blogging will include that MTG/AOC battle of the hot politicians, the post on the decline of competence, some immigration stupidity, the coverage of which has been sorely lacking lately, and Kung Flu memes, to say the least. Thank you all for reading and commenting. Happy weekend - what's left of it.
Comments (25)
Demographics to DIE
Posted On: Saturday - March 4th 2023 9:30AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Political Correctness The Future Race/Genetics
Back last Fall,Peak Stupidity posted a 5 part series titled Harvesting the fruits of a half-century of Affirmative Action: Part 1 - - Part 2 - - Part 3 - - Part 4 and Part 5. This post was to be made in reference to an article, actually more like an editorial in The American Thinker maintaining that "Competence is dead and diversity killed it". That'll have to be a post for early next week, as I'd first like to expand on the points in our series of 5 posts on AA.
This is somewhat of a correction too, as AA has been pretty much superseded by the new program dubbed D.I.E. DIE is not just more intense Affirmative Action, but there's a fundamental difference.
Going back to that series, the biggest point made out of all of it is that AA, though clearly unfair to White men, was not a real threat to the workings of our society in the early years. The reason was in the numbers. In an 85-90% White country and early on with a big majority of men in the workplace, the black and female deadweight could be dealt with. The competent White men could cover for them, or if their positions were too critical for them to put up with that, the deadweight could be thrown into special areas (HR, anyone?) where they couldn't do any harm... uhh, well, directly, against the workplace's main goals, no, they couldn't yet.
Demographics is destiny, they rightly proclaim, and the change in the demographics of America over the last half century portend a dubious destiny. With much larger numbers of people falling under the AA umbrella, the placing of incompetent people into work positions, the universities, and more, cannot be covered by the White man anymore.
That was the recap. Expanding on this, the "D" in DIE stands for Diversity. That, apparently, means anyone who is not a normal White man. Well, the numbers are a lot higher now, with the workplaces full of women and their being huge numbers of Hispanics and then Oriental*, •Indian, and black African immigrants.
The "I" in DIE stands for Inclusion. That's a real boost from the old AA programs, as inclusion means we gin up terms for any kind of freak, of any race, color, or creed. People who in the past were just crazy stories and perhaps 0.001% of the population, such as trans-genders, are included now. If you're gonna bring the numbers up for the DIE program, you've got to gin up way more of them than that tiny percentage though, so you hire more school guidance counselors and the like to "help". Presto, chango, they are a significant part of the DIE population, coming to a work site near you. What were once freaks are now associates.
The "E" in DIE stands for Equity. That is the most important one when it comes to a fundamental change from AA to DIE. The old Affirmative Action proponents assured us that, though the idea was to increase the amount of black people and women, there would be no quotas. That was very obviously a crock of shit from the get-go. I mean, if there wouldn't be quotas, then employers would hire people based on qualifications and ability. Almost all employers with any sense would have already been doing that for a black or woman before AA. No, there were quotas, publicized or not, BUT, and this is the point, the requests were lower and more open to interpretation and variation.
That Part 3 of our AA series was, as we like to include, an anecdotal interlude. The fact that a country music radio station felt enough pressure (from the FCC) to hire a black DJ is humorous at this point, but it wasn't to a White guy I know well, for which this was his dream job**, and who needed that money for college. It was just the one black guy though, and when he left, I don't think there was any more obligation felt by this small-time employer.
Equity is different. It means that a workplace or other organization must include numbers of all the various diverse peoples in proportion to their proportion of the US population.*** (Note that I have nicely included "include" and "diverse" in that sentence. GoDaddy server monitors can be proud.)
Going back to AA, there was this term used in tens or hundreds of millions of job advertisements over the half-century, "Equal Opportunity Employer". If the reality of it had really been equal opportunities, then that'd have just meant "hey, we're not blatantly racist or sexist in hiring". Nah, there WERE quotas against us, but at least the people pushing to hurt the White man had the decency (?) - well or lack of outright visible hatred - to pretend otherwise. That's not the case with Equity, as blogger Steve Sailer has noticed and commented about numerous times. Equity means, we want proportional employment, no matter about quailifications, etc. DIE is not just about employment. As Mr. Sailer has wryly noted in regard to black demands for DIE within the realm of housing, they take the "equity" literally too. You built up that equity in your house over the years, and they want it.
Look, the people behind this and the people who take advantage of it are like the Commies of old. They are Los Resentidos. They want to take your shit and destroy your society.
In summary, between the demographics of today, with White men and other competent people in the workplace being a shrinking minority and the hiring based purely on DIE, the level of competency in America is declining quickly. I have been seeing this with my own eyes over the last few years. I have no idea how we can avoid this death of the old competent White male run society.
* Often, but not always excluded from AA, cause, competence ...
** I absolutely do not shit you on this. Being a Disc Jockey was the coolest job imaginable.
*** Well, OK, I know, basketball teams must have gotten some kind of waiver for black people, as also the interior decorating businesses have for gay men. There must just be some paperwork involved...
Comments (13)
Posted: The Stupid need not apply
Posted On: Thursday - March 2nd 2023 6:38PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity
I don't know why one gets the story from a Tampa, Florida TV news website for goings-on in Columbus, Ohio, but that's the world we live in, and this was Instapundit's link - Pizza shop catches attention with ‘now hiring non-stupid people’ sign.
I like it. The owner claims this was just a joke (more on that), but there's truth in this joke. It's very hard to hire good employees now, especially if you have the work-a-day world of the '00s, '90s, or earlier in mind. It's hard to get these people's minds off their iCrap for long enough periods for which they can get basic tasks done. The 1 to 2 year (depending on location) Kung Flu PanicFest free ticket to leisure made any work ethic hard for employees to fathom when/if they've come back to work. Hence the sign pictured above.
A Santino’s employee inside told WCMH that the signs were intended to be a joke, but referred further requests for comment to the pizzeria’s owners. The worker was well aware of the online attention Santino’s request for “non-stupid people” had received, with people calling the store to discuss the sign.The owners couldn't be reached, and I don't blame them for that. This sign is only funny because there's truth to it, but you can't even make fun of the stupid anymore. Look, I do know that using the word "retard" can be hurtful to those few parents or siblings. "Stupid" on the other hand ... isn't it under one's control? They do say "you can't fix stupid", though, but just come into work on freaking time, use your iCrap only when you have a break, and put your mind into the work as much as is required.
Santino's, this Columbus, Ohio pizzeria, got some pushback against the sign:
The “non-stupid” signs drew attention online that turned into retaliation, with a man posting on social media that he ordered $110 dollars worth of pizza without paying, then never picked them up.Goodness gracious, even the pushback is getting stupid! That's not how you do it. In my day, if you really have it in for someone, you order pizzas every night to his apartment, until the place cancels him (we didn't call it that). You don't tell anyone but your friends that you did it, because YOU don't want to get banned from ordering pizza pies.
I was pleasantly surprised that there are no Yelp commenters with their panties in wads due to discrimination against the
I took a look at Santino's pizza on their menu as scanned and displayed on yelp* shows "Traditional Thin Crust Pizzas". There ya' go - New York style. I may be pissing off half the Peak Stupidity customer base, but, if these people sell that thick cheesy greasy stuff, they need to read their own sign and revamp the menu accordingly.
* Speaking of stupid, the restaurant's own website is slow and clunky and doesn't actually display the nice Italian-themed menu in pictures anywhere. (You might want to view it that way to decide whether you want to come in for a meal.)
Comments (7)
Is Ann Coulter stealing our material now?
Posted On: Thursday - March 2nd 2023 11:33AM MST
In Topics: Pundits Kung Flu Stupidity
There's nothing I could do about it due to the Peak Stupidity legal team having forgotten to renew our ©'s while out on a Vegas junket this winter (they're still there!), but I'd be happy were that the case.
Really, though, this isn't even the same as an independent similar observation, as we noticed a few times before: here - - here and here. We just both have had the same experience with our family, friends, and acquaintances during the madness we call the Kung Flu PanicFest.
In a sort of 3 year retrospective I! TOLD! YOU! SO!, 15 Days To Flatten the Truth—Covid Truth Slowly Leaks Out Three Years Late Ann Coulter reported:
Contrary to hysterical warnings in 2020 that “people you know” will die from COVID and “it’s definitely not just the flu,” I still don’t know anyone who knows anyone who died from COVID. For most people, it was “just the flu.”While discussing the Chinese Covid~Zero stupidity last summer, Peak Stupidity reported the following in our post Inside info on the latest Oriental Kung Flu Stupidity:
However, who the heck hatches a big plot to damage the world with a virus for which I don't even know anyone who knows anyone who died from it!? [Bolded then, bolded now.]OK, well first of all, if I count Peak Stupidity commenters as "anyone", and they are more than "anyone to me, MBlanc46 wrote under that post:
I know someone who died from covid.Fair enough. I can trust the Peakers, and there likely have been other bloggers/commenters who had personal knowledge of deaths due to the Kung Flu. Therefore that last phrase, which basically mathematically squares our denominator (assuming people average the same number of friends/acquaintances) is no longer strictly correct. I'm not sure if Ann Coulter took into account on-line friends or acquaintances.
Additionally, Peak Stupidity does NOT maintain there was no such virus or disease (the virus being the "SARS-##&&%" or whatever, and the disease being that "Covid-19"). I am no virologist. Did/does this virus resemble the flu? In its effect on humanity, I would say it did and does. The PanicFest is another story. Just before the excerpt above, Miss Coulter also came very close to copyright infringement (ya' got lucky, kid!) with this bit:
Millions upon millions of wrecked lives later (including 170,000 excess non-COVID deaths), the people who lied to us for their own selfish motives—getting on TV, high ratings for their panic porn, the joys of bossing other people around—are quietly admitting the truth."Panic porn" instead of "PanicFest". OK, we'll [what still remains of the PS legal team] let you off with a slap on the
You all know the copyright stuff is just in fun here, but note how Miss Coulter's opinion of this whole thing is very close to ours. Read the whole column of hers - you won't be disappointed in her common sense assessment.
Next, with new reporting on it, we've got to re-iterate our points about the "lab leak" theory of the origin of the Kung Flu soon, keeping in mind that, the origin was not the BIG STORY. The PanicFest was!
Comments (15)
The Religion of Recycling
Posted On: Wednesday - March 1st 2023 7:16PM MST
In Topics: Treehuggers Economics Environmental Stupidity
This post could be considered a follow-up to a 5 /y/o Peak Stupidity post with, IMO, one of our best titles, Toward Sustainable Stupidity. After clearing up the proper use of the word "sustainable", in that post we discussed the sustainability of recycling of garbage.
The point was, the decision to recycle should be based on economics, not feel-good virtue-signaling or some bull about "saving the planet". Said economics may include quality of life factors as pollution, unsightly messes and such do detract from value of property. When it comes to recycling of the various materials in our garbage, much of it wastes money, as it's not profitable*. We are not running out of room for landfills**. It's more like the (understandable) NIMBYism of not wanting to be near a landfill causes them to be located farther away from the population, causing higher garbage transportation costs. Sure, if doing something useful with that cardboard is cheaper than trucking it way out there, then you do the least expensive thing, if you actually care about the taxpayers and not so much about Greta.
Recently John Stossel published a short article, The Recycling Religion, on his Stossel TV website.
I have nothing bad to say about John Stossel. I remember him from my TV watching days in the mid '90s. Since I've seen him and read some of this stuff, he's always been a great Libertarian. His digs against the stupidity in government have been entertaining as they hit their mark. That kind of stuff doesn't get on TV today. The ctrl-left doesn't want it on, but the diverse America of today doesn't seem to care about that anyway, as opposed to "give my people our due, government!"
As a follow-up to that old Peak Stupidity post on recycling, Mr. Stossel's article goes even farther. He's into sentence-sized paragraphs, for some reason, so I'm just grouping them together in the excerpt:
The ugly truth is that many “recyclables” sent to recycling plants are never recycled. The worst is plastic.Now, see, that hits home even for me. Due to certain family members' shunning of one thing the Romans did for us, we have been compacting and (thinking we were) recycling water bottles for years now. Has that been all for nothing? Probably.
Even Greenpeace now says, “Plastic recycling is a dead-end street.” Hoffman often trucks it to a landfill.
Years ago, science writer John Tierney wrote a New York Times Magazine story, “Recycling Is Garbage.” It set a Times record for hate mail. But what he wrote was true.
“It’s even more true today,” says Tierney in my new video. “Recycling is an industry that uses increasingly expensive labor to produce materials that are worth less and less.”
This news about more of our trash going into, well, the trash, than I had thought pisses me off too. In my case, Green is not my religion, and recycling is not my sect. The planet itself doesn't need saving. I'm with George Carlin on that one - "The planet's fine. It's the people that are fucked!"
It's wastage that I really don't like. I grew up around some people who experienced Great Depression 1.0. They lived "waste not, want not". To me, it's just a shame all those plastic bottles were produced for one use. If one can make playground base material, decking, or whatever else out of it, I like the idea.
However, I'm not for the taxpayers footing a boondoggle. These boondoggles have the benefit of making those for whom Recycling IS a religion feel so much more holy and better about themselves. I don't want that to be on my dime.
PS: There was a 2nd big point in that old post on "Sustainable Stupidity". That was that any population increase, which in this country is due to immigration alone, works against any actually sustainable environmental policy. As the Environmentalists said in rebuttal though, "blah, blah, blah, I can't hear you!!"
* I will write a short post soon about what does pay off by its recycling and what doesn't, noting especially the highly-recycled automobile.
** Go to bing maps and just try to spot one. I'll give you 1/2 an hour.
Comments (9)
How to use Wikipedia
Posted On: Monday - February 27th 2023 4:20PM MST
In Topics: Internets Websites ctrl-left
Nope, Peak Stupidity is not becoming the new Stack Overflow, (gotten LOTS of help there) or writing a new addition to the Idiot's Guide series. This is about how to use the part of the internet BUILT BY idiots. Don't get me wrong - user-provide content is a great idea. Amazon.com, with its idea of letting users voluntarily provide book review (only the beginning) being the first I can remember, is one I discussed in the old post The F.A.G.S. space and user-generated content.
I'm sure Wikipedia started out with the best of intentions. Most of the people who edit want to set something straight. The old "someone's wrong on the internet" cartoon (I'll dig that one up) syndrome makes well-read Wiki some low-hanging fruit, as they say. As I wrote in All Hail the Editing King of Wikipedia! about a guy who is one of the biggest editors, I would hope most people have the honesty to only edit pages on subjects they know well.
However, unless you're talking programming languages or something, things get political very easily, for example, the pages on, well, politics and politicians. Was Wiki co-opted by the Deep State at some point or other nefarious actors? It probably didn't need to be, as the editing of the biggest and most-used body of "factual" knowledge is bound to give people swell heads and penchants for dirty edits, done dirt cheap.
In general, I'd say the ctrl-left has more time on its hands for this sort of thing. Additionally, they are more politically minded than the right who would just like to be left alone, and those on the left are also prone to dishonesty pretty much by definition.
When I wrote up the post on US Congresslady from Georgia (R-7th district) Marjorie Taylor Green (MTG) and her writing about a "National Divorce last week, I used Wiki for some basic facts. That image in the top has got some basic facts. The rest of that Wiki page, like most others, must be "used" a certain way. This is new to lots of Americans. Most Russian people could have explained this to us, had they had access to Twitter, in the years 1917 to 1989.
The first sentence of this biography goes:
Marjorie Taylor Greene (born May 27, 1974), also known by her initials MTG, is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right conspiracy theorist who has been the U.S. representative for Georgia's 14th congressional district since 2021.See, OK, I get that the latter bit is her bent, but it's just not a normal part of a description of who someone is. Does Wiki start off calling AOC and hard-left Socialist? Wiki-"simple", all I could get besides bikini pictures, does say "Socialist" but not "hard-left". Could they have called MTG simply a "Conservative" at the beginning? (That's our next post on MTG, though, a battle of MTG v AOC.)
The slurs and sleights continue with almost every sentence. Nothing about her is put in a good light, that is, for the average reader looking for the basic facts.
Greene has promoted antisemitic, white supremacist, and far-right conspiracy theories, including the white genocide conspiracy theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate. Other extremist conspiracy theories she has promoted include government involvement in mass shootings in the United States, murders perpetrated by the Clinton family (Clinton body count), and 9/11 conspiracy theories. Before running for Congress, she supported calls to execute prominent Democratic Party politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. As a congresswoman, she equated the Democratic Party with Nazis, and compared COVID-19 safety measures to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, later apologizing for this comparison. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Greene promoted Russian propaganda and praised Vladimir Putin. Greene identifies as a Christian nationalist.Just the facts, Ma'am? Well, they are not all made up, but the use of certain adjectives and this synopsis of MTG's political life in this way is not something that'd be done for someone of the left. The way you use Wiki for political information is to sort out the simple facts from all the opinions of the opinionated editors.
OTOH, for someone like me, the Wiki page has me smitten with MTG or "Large Marge". She apparently recently got divorced too, so ... what are you all waiting for? Sure enough, Wiki is in error about MTG's writings on the Hildabeast and Øb☭ma**, but I'd have no problem with it, along with most of what she's said and done per Wikipedia.
* Wierdly, a year before the Kung Flu PanicFest, I used the term "non-essential employee for this Feral Gov't worker/Wiki uber-editor.
** Again, one must read carefully to get at the truth on this Business Insider article too. See, the "hanging" was in the political sense:
CNN reported that in one Facebook post in April 2018, Greene spread baseless information attacking the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was one of President Barack Obama's key policy achievements. Someone commented on the post, asking Greene, "Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H & O???""Let people off" meant politically let them off. She wasn't talking setting up nooses... not that there's anything wrong with that ...
The person was referring to Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Stage is being set," Greene replied, according to CNN. "Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off."
Comments (24)
Thank you, Early Bird!
Posted On: Monday - February 27th 2023 5:44AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Peak Stupidity Roadshow
OK, it's not too awful likely that the driver I address in the title is a Peak Stupidity reader. This post then, will be to thank those helpful and experienced drivers out there in general.
Sometimes, on the road, I miss the Kung Flu PanicFest, in which there was hardly anyone on the road, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Besides that, traffic cops were either off the road due to the worries about a possible hands-tires-road contagion vector (the SCIENCE!, you know) or, a few months into it, doughnut-shop-bound due to Floydism, and getting paid anyway.
Your lead blogger here has a history of being pulled over on the road that is probably in the 99th percentile, for your normal White guy, anyway. For a few suspected reasons and others unknown, I've had not nearly as many problems over the last 10, going on 15, years. Even when doing a routine 200 mile round trip, all but 10 miles Interstate. weekly for a few years back before the Kung Flu, I'd do a steady 78-81 mph in a long 70 mph limit zone and never see those blue lights in the rear view.
Well, early in the morning the other day, I was doing 12-15 mph over the limit in a clear spot within town, in those wee hours of the morning. Some car coming the other way had the headlights flashing back-and-forth dim/bright about 1/8 mile away. You know how fancy car lighting has gotten recently, so I didn't know what his deal was - maybe there's a setting and they're supposed to do that. Maybe it was some emergency vehicle or cop that had forgotten to activate the rest of the lights and noise.
Wait, maybe.... well, that's not the way you do that cop warning thing though. You turn your lights on and off, right? That's the way I was taught ... somewhere, no I don't think it was in one of the 3 driving schools I have forcibly and proudly matriculated from. (It's possible we did though, in one of them.) As soon as you get past the cop, you start turning your lights on/of for every vehicle you see coming, for maybe 3 miles even. That was the case for me during my heyday of ticketing. Good drivers should know this, or drivers who want to remain good drivers. See, you aren't considered a good driver anymore by the State and the insurance companies if you get pulled over and ticketed.
It turned out this fine morning that, yes, that's what the driver meant to do, helpfully warn me and whoever else was coming that way that a traffic cop was aiming that radar gun right at us. I saw him right there in the grass. I had slowed early enough. Thank you so much, Sir!*
Do any young people know this stuff, even if they get the procedure a bit wrong? Probably not, as they use the apps, I guess. I've gotta admit, Waze, etc. are more powerful than headlight-flashing or CB channel 19. I need to pay this back, and forward too.
* No, I couldn't see, but I will assume "Sir", as no women I've known do this thing.
Comments (11)
Roll away... the dew... roll away, with you ...
Posted On: Saturday - February 25th 2023 6:16PM MST
In Topics: Music The Dead
With the exception of that RealNovella story, it's been long serious posts this week. We haven't even featured any music in 2 weeks and not any Grateful Dead songs since, geeze, July 4th of last year (the usual US Blues).
I looked and was seriously surprised that Franklin's Tower has not been featured here long ago. Nope. Of course, almost all Dead music is better heard live or from live recording, as is this one.from the Buffalo, NY Memorial Auditorium on May 9th of 1977. The song came from the band's '75 album Blues for Allah.
This may seem repetitive as far as chords and melody, but the Jerry solos are excellent. Let you mind go with it. Additionally, if you can't dance to this one, you have no business dancing at all!
It's not like we have a crush on her or anything, but there'll be 2 more posts next week about the Congresslady known as MTG. More Global Climate stupidity is coming, and we've got posts built up out the wazoo, in fact. Thank you all for reading and writing in!
In Franklin's tower the four winds sleep.
Like four lean hounds, the lighthouse keep.
Wildflower seeds on the sand and wind.
May the four winds blow you home again.
Comments (14)
HailToYou from the Anti-War rally - yearly rallies against the Regime
Posted On: Saturday - February 25th 2023 3:28PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '26 Liberty/Libertarianism US Feral Government Kung Flu Stupidity Guns
Mr. E.H. Hail, proprietor of the Hail To You political blog and often Peak Stupidity commenter, has a very nicely written detailed report up with his personal account of the Rage Against the War Machine rally in the FS this past Sunday: Scenes from the anti-war rally in Washington (Feb. 19, 2023). Mr. Hail noted at the beginning that it's a long one, about an hour's worth of reading (about right, per my reading). It is enjoyable reading, and I like the way the writer organized his report. (I am also surprised about the details Mr. Hail was able to report, as I'd have forgotten half of them by the next day, without notes - taking notes, as he did, takes away from the experience for me though, IMO.)
This rally was specifically against the US involvement and support of the Ukraine in its war against Russia, not all wars in general. It wasn't even about their being a war, per se. It's not up to Americans, at least me, to go rallying against a war between the Ukraine and Russia. That's their business, well, or SHOULD BE. However, America had a big part in causing the trouble that started his war, and, if nothing else, we should not be sending $100 Billion and other aid, pushing things toward WWIII, or at least Cold War II.
A couple of more points from the HailToYou article, though I'll make comments there later. I agree with Mr. Hail that the name of the rally was not the best. It sounds hard-leftist. Per this report, the rally had elements of the old-left and the Libertarian Right. Yes, when rallying for a common cause, I can get along to an extent, but it's not like I trust those Commies I'd be standing next to one bit!
I do agree with the effort though and would have considered joining it had work obligations not been already determined. This brings me to mention the series of 3 rallies in the Shithole (that's what we wonks call FS, formerly DC, for short) that have been held, along with a big one in Richmond, Virginia, all over the last 4 years, in 3 January's and a February (the last one).
Actually, I'll go back one full decade before the first, which was a gun rally I attended in northern Virginia just across from Washington, FS in early Spring, AIR, of 2010. It was a fairly small crowd of purposely blatantly armed individuals - rifles for the most part. I'd say there were no more than 50 people there, listening to speakers like the late Mike Vanderboegh. This one did get into the national news for a day or two. It didn't particularly solve anything, as it was just a show of support for Amendment II in general. It was good to be part of it... until 10 miles into the long road trip home, still on Regime property, when the engine quit on the little Ford, due to the failure of a cheap-ass timing belt pulley*.
10 years later, the people of Virginia, being worried about impending additional gun control, staged another of their yearly rallies on Jan 20th, but with this one somehow morphing into a HUGE rally, the likes that had probably never been seen before from the gun rights patriots.
(Peak Stupidity image.)
I was able to attend - see There's great power in numbers - Case study: Richmond, Virginia - but it was purely a lucky thing. The work obligation that weekend took me to a city within 100 miles of Richmond, Virginia. I was able to go, but with the idea that I MUST be back at a certain hour. With all the hype about "violent gun owners", let me tell you, my biggest worry was being able to park the rent-a-car (got lucky on that) and later would I get back through the outbound traffic at the end.
I had a great spot out there in the cold for 2 hours until I got nervous (about making it back!). I did some calculations based on what I saw as roughly 100 people, how big is a crowd of 10 of those, and then how many of those 1,000s filled these streets on one side of the Virginia State House. There were multiple 10's of thousands out there, most of them openly armed. A great time was had by all, and nobody in authority would have tried arresting anyone in it.
A year later, well we all know the date now, a still-President Donald Trump held a rally in protest of the massive cheating in the '20 election. As I wrote that evening, it was only logistics that kept me from going. Better planning a few days before would have had me in the midst of it all. I still don't know if I feel more regret than relief, based on the way the Potomac Regime decided to make an Anarcho-Tyrannical "example" of these "Insurrectionists!" If Peak Stupidity had stopped publishing a few months later, you all would have figured what happened, right? How about tried to break me out? Too soon?
There is too much to write about 1/6/21, but even with the huge crowd (said to have been in the multiple 100's of thousands) at the rally itself, nothing changed for the better afterwards. The cheatfest was let stand, and the frivolity in the Capitol by a small few (as likely planned to a degree by provocateurs** ) resulted in the holding of ~1,000 Political Prisoners and lots of discouragement of those who aren't yet wanting to get violent about it all.
At a time a year later, most Americans had had enough of nearly 2 years of Totalitarianism by Kung Flu PanicFest adherents. Additionally, this was still at the time that Big Biz, government, universities, the military were still mandating, or trying to mandate, the Covid gene therapy shots called vaccines. From what I saw and experienced, Americans were no longer complying, and then there was the trucker convoy in Canada's capital Ottawa, raising hell and enjoying the chance to push back. In January '22, a "Defeat the Mandates" rally was held in FS, as documented by Mr. Hail, who was at that one too: Scenes from the “Defeat the Mandates” rally (Washington D.C., Jan. 23, 2022) and thoughts on its place in Corona-Panic history.
Work again interfered, but I was able to watch some of the talks on video - see our post Dr. Robert Malone and E.H. Hail at the anti-vax-mandate rally. Per Mr. Hail in his post and his excerpt in a comment from one Jeffrey Tucker, there were tens of thousands of protestors, even in that cold weather (as I could tell even on video). My personal opinion differs from Mr. Hail's in that I think the end of the PanicFest and the end of attempts at mandatory vaccination were already coming, protest or not. However, seeing that crowd and those speakers on video, the Totalitarians might have then understood fully that they were not going to win this one.
Someone coincidentally, Lyin' Press media coverage switched within a month to nonstop Ukraine/Russia. I doubt it's that the war was triggered at this point due to the failure in extending the Kung Flu PanicFest another season, but more that the barrage of coverage indicated it would be the new Infotainment for the American masses to take the previous one's place. (By early March of '22, Peak Stupidity asked and answered the question Is the Russia/Ukraine War another piece of Infotainment?)
This latest round of warmongering or war-instigation by the US has not just drained more money and goodwill from this country, with with Nordstream sabotage being part of the latter. It's brought fears of a greater conflict and nuclear war that hasn't been seen since the end of the Cold War.
(Image from E.H. Hail.)
That's yet one more wintertime protest by Americans. This was a smaller crowd, optimistically at 10,000 people***. You can read Mr. Hail's great report to the end to see what his conclusion is on the protest's potential "efficacy", as they say.
That's every winter for 4 years - Americans have had a major beef with the policies and dictates of the Potomac Regime. I agree with the Americans involved in all 4 of them. Well, the 1960s saw protests bigger than these weekly or monthly though. However, they weren't all protests I would have agreed with, many being held simply to help overthrow the system. It didn't need overthrowing then. Now it does.
Let's summarize ... attempts at gun control, massive election fraud, mandatory experimental "vaccine" attempts, and, finally, another war that this broke country is deeply involved in... only the first and last issues rhyme with history, and there were no protests against the 1st back in history. The Potomac Regime has got to go. "Regime Change NOW" ought to be the overarching rallying cry during all protests and rallies to come.
* This was a "non-interference" engine, so the car was able to live another day.
** See Mr. Hail's report of this latest rally for some more of that, albeit of a smaller fashion.
*** Mr. Hail's estimate of the maximum complicated by the fact that people had to leave and come back for food and drink.
Comments (5)