Women's misplaced nurturing instinct, per Unz Review's Kylie
Posted On: Tuesday - December 13th 2022 8:27PM MST
In Topics: Feminism Female Stupidity
Kylie is one of the many very good commenters that write on The Unz Review, most especially under the Steve Sailor blog there.
This comes from the thread under an iSteve post title Eno's Neologism: "Prop-Agenda" from ~ a week back. Not all commenters may discuss the exact subjects of the posts, and this one was open-ended to begin with. Peak Stupidity hasn't covered Feminist stupidity in quite a while, so it's time for this one.
Kylie's comment here reminds me of the recurring comments from AnotherDad on those threads. He and Kylie here may not rail against Feminism per se, but I can tell you that all Feminists would be angered by this truth, and it's their constant pushing the opposing lies that have helped destroy the American nuclear family.
The following is this great comment in its entirety. That first bit is in reply to another commenter, and this comment starts off in reference to an embedded tweet left by Reg Caesar (long-term frequent commenter) that had the image we show above. The hot one in the middle is Nancy Pelosi. I kid, I kid...
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“>same race
Look at the pic again.”
Don’t need to. They wouldn’t be what Steve calls “nice white ladies” if they didn’t reach out and include some of their dusky sisters. They only see color when they want to discuss victimhood and the evil of white men. As to why the others are willing to join a club that would have them, not every WoC aspires to be an ABW.
These females are not really hard core seekers of world destruction (i.e. the capitalistic West) in the name of social justice (gibs to non-whites and other marginalized groups) . They haven’t really thought that far ahead; indeed they haven’t really thought. Their driving force is a pernicious blend of their flock mentality and their maternal instinct unmoored from the private sphere.
When nice, white women want to lift up oppressed people, it’s really just mothering in overdrive. They’re smother mothers. They want to help needy people so they themselves feel needed rather than enabling the needy to become truly independent.. That’s what makes them so determined, and also ensures that they will invariably get it wrong. Because what works, more or less, in a family dynamic is disastrous when translated into public policy. Even better for the younger, more selfish ones, they don’t have to become mothers. They can just endlessly patronize non-whites and the marginalized and condemn white men, all in a very motherly way– without ever having to change a diaper or worry about postpartum weight. Win/win!
This is very generalized but overall, pretty accurate. It’s all so personal for them. And the personal is so political. And so here we are. Thanks again, guys!
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I'm not sure which guys the sarcastic "thanks" are for, but I'd start with those who supported Amendment XIX to the US Constitution.* Then, there's been a half century with not a whole lot of pushback by men against the destruction called Feminism.
Thank you for the great explanation of how these women think and feel, Kylie!
* That's a 3-parter. Here are Part 2 and Part 3.
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[UPDATED 12/14:] Title changed to better reflect the comment.
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Comments (5)
A righteous youtuber
Posted On: Monday - December 12th 2022 4:43PM MST
In Topics: Humor Race/Genetics
The title of the video below is YouTuber Satirizes BLM Activist Demanding A George Floyd Bill At TX City Council Meeting. The city in which this meeting was held is Frisco, Texas, a part of the huge Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, part in Denton County, and part in Collin County, north of the 2 cities. The youtuber's name is Cassady Campbell.
This is pretty damn good! I got pretty put off at first by the accent. I can't even tell if it's the way Mr. Campbell normally talks, but it would have been even more fun and perhaps a little courageous if you figure he did the ghetto accent only as part of the parody.
The demographics of Frisco are only 50% White, but then only 8 1/2% black. The City Council members don't seem amused. I sure am.
BTW, this showing up at City Council meetings and having fun with the stupidity of the world seems like a nice hobby. Peak Stupidity featured another such thing in our post Alex Stein 99 - Prayers for the Ukraine + Tranny Sports. That one was also from near Dallas - Plano, Texas.
Comments (10)
Bizzaro Cold War
Posted On: Monday - December 12th 2022 2:23PM MST
In Topics: Genderbenders The Russians Race/Genetics Bread and Circuses
The Peak Stupidity staff would not respect ourselves if we didn't at least mention the stupidity of the Bai Dien prisoner trade between America and Russia.
This prisoner swap deal reminds me of WWII history, but even more, the Cold War of 1949-'89 and movies about the same.
The most famous prisoner swap of the Cold War may have been that for the downed U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers Powers on February 10, 1962. He, along with U.S. student Frederic Pryor*, was exchanged for Soviet KGB agent Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, aka, Colonel William Fisher. Regarding this swap, wiki has an interesting take on what happened during and after Powers' shoot-down (search for the heading "CIA opposition to exchange").
Those prisoners were exchanged at the famous Checkpoint Charlie. In the movies, it's often on some bridge in some classic European city where the prisoners get exchanged, each carefully coming out of a Mercedes. "Look for a black Mercedes." C'mon man, what other colors do they have?" With Brittany Griner, if he's not paid careful attention to this news, one may wonder where the exchange took place. "She'll be coming out of the side exit of the Popeye's Fried Chicken just south of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge."
During the Cold War, I'm sure there were plenty of mutually beneficial deals made, lots of politics involved on who's chosen, and I imagine a few stupid deals done.
On this one, I'm gonna have to channel Donald Trump. "This is a terrible deal." Instead of someone more worthwhile militarily, politically, whatever, we trade this big Russian arms dealer for a black tatted-up lesbian** druggie basketball player? You know that evil laugh that you see that Russians in the films viewed by the American rocket scientists on The Right Stuff? Yeah, they've got every reason to laugh like that and even bite their pinkies if it comes to that.
I call this whole thing stupidity, because that's the business model of this site. However, that's just how it appears to those who don't want to think about the souls of those of the Potomac Regime. If you think about it, what this really is, again, is the support for Wokeness. Brittany Griner checks a lot of boxes that indicate a non-traditional American The Regime is demonstrating once more its disdain for, and program to persecute, traditional Americans. The Russians, in the meantime, just want Brittany Giner the hell away from their prisons ... cruel and unusual punishment and all... for the rest of the prisoners.
* This guy was a Doctoral student in Economics in Berlin, caught in some confusion in East Berlin just days after the wall had been erected. He was likely a good guy, but was it so very important to get one of our vital Economists back? We'd have been better off trading for one of those Russian "Economist" mail-order brides who don't know the proper term "Home Economist", aka, housewife.
** BTW, a guy talking to me about this story mentioned "her wife". I am not used to hearing it like that, and I DON'T WANT to get used to hearing it like that.
Comments (11)
The Marksman hits the narrative bullseye
Posted On: Saturday - December 10th 2022 5:08PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Movies
Or, at least a better fence...
This will be short movie review on The Marksman, starring Liam Neeson, some hot blond chick, and a couple of Mexicans. Though the IMDB page linked-to just above says it's a '21 movie, it was released in January of that year but finished up (as in, "It's a wrap!") in October of '19. I wouldn't normally care about these dates, but that is important to this post. I wouldn't be writing this review either but for the fact that there's a political agenda to mention, and, hell, I already watched it, so ...
The reason for my watching this "film"* in particular this was a matter of staying at a friend's house until he got done with work and he suggested one of the Liam Neeson movies on the Netflix-like deal on his big-ass TV. I should have known a movie about the southern border and Mexicans would have something of an agenda, any movie not still in Black & White, at least. However, it did have some good action, and definitely fooled me on this for more than half way into it.
I won't get long-winded about the plot. That scene above showing the fence and illegal entry through as cut in it is from the beginning. These violent cartel guys, see, are after the senora and her ~10 y/o nino, so you gotta feel sorry for them.** Liam Neeson is no Glenn Beck with the Teddy Bears, as he's a rancher on the American side and doesn't want illegal entries any more than I do. In fact, he has the phone number of the nice-looking blond BP agent for such instances as in The Marksmen's beginning. She too, is not messing around with the illegal aliens. One can tell - well, if this were real - that the scenes at the BP office were surely not filmed during the Bai Dien Administration.
There's lots of good action in the first portion of the movie, and the rest involves Liam Neeson and the boy on a long road trip trying to lose these cartel thugs who have (yeah!) illegally entered the US to chase down these two and kill them. They also want that bag of money on the floorboards of Mr. Neeson's pickup. The director didn't give me time to count it up, but it looked like a decent sum.
One worthwhile theme in The Marksmen is the portion of the plot in which one can see how difficult it is to remain anonymous. Neeson's use of credit cards for buying gas is tracked, but then, there's a suspension of disbelief when you get to see who is doing the tracking. He's a cartel guy who's a hacker. Now, I know those criminal organizations have money out the wazoo, but it's just really hard to make some Mexican cartel guy look like a geek!
Yeah, and the cinematography, the casting, the lighting, and the best key grips, sure, whatever... this movie is worth watching if you go take a piss during the few times the movie-makers' agenda comes out.
Here it is: Liam Neeson took charge of taking this boy to safety due partly to the fact that he'd be killed if he were sent back to Mexico by the professional-looking border patrol office. At some point late in the movie, he is on the phone with his BP friend, blond Sarah, from the road and he explains why it is he cannot turn the boy in. I wish I could remember the wording, but then came the line from Sarah that, well, sigh, she wish it didn't have to be this way. This was a direct dig at President Trump and his serious efforts to control the border. If only we took care of all these poor kids the cartels are trying to kill!
Isn't that Mexico's problem? Doesn't this problem sometimes originate from the stupidity of stealing bags of money from the drug cartels? Just don't do that, for starters.
Just a couple of more things:
The reader of this review may have already wondered, "Yeah, it's hard to remain anonymous, but it would sure help to use cash. Didn't you write that they had a bunch of cash?" Yes, I did, and then the idiot marksman burned it! I'm sorry, you may feel guilty or something, but NEVER burn the money!*** Not only would they have escaped from the cartel guys more easily, but if you're trying to start a new life, this would be a great start.
That brings me directly to the next part, the ending. (Yes, I've spoiled the movie already, but it was very predictable.) Liam Neeson finally got this kid to his, likely also illegal alien, aunts and such in Chicago. It didn't look like the best neighborhood (that money could have really come in use). I don't know Chicago that well, but this was the South Side of Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown fame, or maybe some other nearly-baddest part of town. I noted the neighbors near the house that his boy came to, to be reunited with his kin. After reading about how well the Hispanics and black population get along, I really wonder if the kid ended up better off in Chicago than he would have in ole Mexico.
The Marksman hit the bullseye of the sob story narrative of Open Borders, but for this critic, it was an errant shot. I saw the movie as demonstrating why we need to BUILD! THE! WALL!, or at least a better fence than what you see above. I mean, now you've got 2 more really pissed off violent drug cartel members on THIS SIDE. NOT! DONALD! TRUMP'S! FAULT!
* That's the term we critics use for what you rubes in Flyover Country call movies. Peak Stupidity is full of critics, on EVERYTHING! Two thumbs down, bitchez!
** See the VDare post mentioned in our previous post for some more of the real sob stories from just one more big country that's full of people who want to come here.
*** That is, unless you're Chinese and it's Tomb-Sweeping Day. Even then, you don't burn REAL currency - you burn fake currency ... that you buy from people for this express purpose... with REAL currency. I know, it doesn't translate very well.
Comments (7)
Estimation and Extrapolation on •Illegal •Indian •Immigration
Posted On: Saturday - December 10th 2022 8:37AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity
On the story of •Illegal •Indian •Immigration, VDare's James Kirkpatrick has some details, a sob story excerpt, and more in A Variation On Punishment Migration—Eternal Victim Migration. On immigration in general, there are VDare writers, specifically (lately) "Federale", "Former Agent, "Washington Watcher II, and A.W. Morgan, who give lots of insider informative details on the many immigration routes and/or scams. (Note the pseudonyms, as it's not "nice" to do this reporting.). Then, the whole rest of VDare has articles with lots of numbers along with any kind of political information on the immigration invasion you could imagine.
You've got Steve Sailer out there noticing stuff and providing stats. Well, Peak Stupidity doesn't often have all the comprehensive information on this subject or others. (We tend to jump from stupidity to stupidity with the frequency of piece of iCrap.) Sometimes we do a few calculations. Often there's not the time, we don't have the source data, and I don't often trust some of it, especially the Social "data" that comes from polling.* Then, there are people whose "job" it is to do this. It's not mine
Therefore, this post is kind of an expanded reply to commenter Dieter Kief on the way this blogger does things. Mr. Kief wondered about my using only one anecdote or some small amount of observed information - or reported from trustworthy people in China, for example - to make a pronouncement on some issue. It's like this: Rather than "noticing" or "detailing", Peak Stupidity's thing is estimating and extrapolation.
I'm pretty good at estimation, I've found. No, I don't guess the number of pieces candy corn in the Ball jar right on the money***, but getting within 25% or so is no problem. I wish I could think of some very specific examples right now, but on serious matters, I can usually do pretty well: the size of a crowd, the amount of money that comes into some random business daily, the weather conditions - wind, ceiling, temperature, dew point, the area of a lot.
There are more accurate estimations, of course, such as the cost of materials for this residential add-on down the street. Knowing roughly how many 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's, sheets of plywood and drywall, bundles of shingles, how much hardware, etc., one can get a good idea. However, this is about estimation based on no specific details, just what I see with my eyes.
Extrapolation is another important thing. In lower Manhattan, my seeing thousands of Chinese people won't do for the immigration issue, and same for the number of well-dressed slim ladies in downtown Manhattan on obesity in America, or the number of Cuban restaurants in Miami for cuisine. You've got to know when you're seeing a big exception. I HAVE lived in different parts of this country, and I still do get around quite a bit. Where I live, for the things I extrapolate on, we are not any kind of exception.
One of those is the immigration question and the numbers. We are nothing special on that here. Hispanic people are not in every area of the community. If I think of which areas I've seen them in, and estimate how many people live in these areas, I can get a pretty good number to extrapolate to much of the rest of the country. (Plus there ARE good maps, so I can
It's more than just numbers estimations. Some of the anecdotes on this blog represent my gaining of information that I had no details about previously. An example is the massive hiring of Chinese illegal aliens by Chinese restaurants. In The China to King Buffet pipeline, I reported information from someone I know fairly well whose good friend is directly involved in this (as an owner of a large Chinese buffet place). He had lots of details.
Now, as for the extrapolation, there's no reason this type of thing would be only going on in my town (in fact, the guy told me otherwise). It's not likely that some type of corruption of the immigration system is just a one-off fluke. Well, there are - wait, here's that estimation again - I would have written "10's of thousands", and the web says 45,000 - Chinese restaurants in the country. In that 4 1/2 y/o post I gave the number 1/2 a million illegals in this business alone. Yeah, it's just an estimate based on number of employees - some, as the one in question have 20 people working at one time - others are family outfits with 3 or 4, some of them (illegal) Mexicans, so we don't want to count them twice, haha.
In the case of this illegal Chinese immigration work, I have another source that backed me up, just on the general goings-on, not the numbers.
Our post I went down to the crossroads ..., described how I again ran into something I hadn't had much idea about. This instance, with this •Indian guy at a rural gas station who had really no idea where he lived, was more speculative, I admit. I didn't ask him if he was an illegal alien, because I needed to use the bathroom without any trouble. Is this just one weird fluke though? Why would it be? In the lower-budget motel industry, I'd notice not just •Indian owners but the housekeeping staff too. Did they all come over on special visas? I wouldn't put that past the Potomac Regime's Great Replacement Program, mind you. I'm guessing, though, that many are illegally there, working for peanuts, as ordered up from the mother country by the motel owners. (As I wrote regarding the Chinese buffet crowd, these people are more organized that the stragglers out of Guatemala.)
No, of those •Indian •Illegal •Immigrants, I don't have the stats. How would one get those stats, when these people have gotten by the system, and nobody has the incentive to even ask them****? When it comes to the immigration invasion, I really don't think one can go wrong by estimating on the high side. Those estimates usually wind up being conservative!
Well, that's the way the Peak Stupidity blog rolls. You can't really make accurate and precise calculation based on some good data, when you're missing all the data from whole other portions of the problem.***** Noticing is good, but estimating and extrapolating help too ... and talking to trustworthy people who will give you the inside scoop.
* I really like the former blogger Audacious Epigone**, but on lots of his posts that discussed said surveys, I have no confidence that the poll questions get down to real straight answers. The problem is, I know, because I've been polled.
** I linked to The Unz Review there, as Ron Unz is really good about archiving writing that could easily otherwise be lost for good. However, VDare has an archive of lots of Audacious Epigone's posts here. (Also, the UR has lots and lots of comments. They are often informative and usually entertaining.)
*** My boy did with 2 different jars! I got worried for a bit he'd be the next Rainman (actually the Dustin Hoffman character, as "Rain Man" was his brother Raymond - Tom Cruise). We thought about a trip to Vegas, but then I threw some toothpicks on the floor, and all he came up with was "I dunno."
**** Yes, I probably should have asked the gas station clerk, in hindsight. Lots of people are pretty straight about things, and sometimes the reaction itself is all you need to know to answer the question.
***** This is very much the problem with even the most well-intentioned Climatologist's efforts at modeling the changing climate of the world.
Comments (6)
Nurture over Nature - Meta version
Posted On: Friday - December 9th 2022 8:14AM MST
In Topics: Race/Genetics
This post is a continuation of It's not a lie if you believe it? from Tuesday. I'm adding more just because I'd meant this to be in the original post, and I thought it a pretty neat idea.
That last post gathered 30 comments - thank you all!. (Only 7 were mine.) The post discussed a can-do, hardworking, leader-type guy and family man with 4 White kids. Yet, surprisingly to me, at least, he has a job in which he places young folks into IT positions based proportionally race/sex-wise on their numbers in the community. In the comments, the discussion was about "who is this guy", along with whether I would try to disabuse him of his policy. (Can't do that.)
I am pretty sure this is not the only decent job this former Army Lieutenant Colonel could get, so I am positive he's a true believe in Nurture over Nature determining these people's abilities.* Possibly that's not really 100% Nurture and 0% Nature, but just that Nurture can beat Nature enough to develop all these young people into decent-enough IT workers. Thinking about the comments before, I could say that with a small group he COULD find matches he wants. However, that's not "scalable" (in IT terminology), AND he's really screwing over White Men, no matter what. I have no doubt there are a greater proportion of White Men who can do IT work well than the proportion of them in the area.
Now here comes the meta idea here, so hold on, Dieter: What is it that makes this competent White man believe in Nurture over Nature? Is it Nurture or Nature? There's been lots of writing along the lines of Evolutional Psychology that posits that the Europeans, especially NW europeans, and most especially the Scandanavians, have evolved to be less competitive with each other and more supportive of each other due to their development in very tough environments. That includes being extremely welcoming of other tribes often even at the expense of their own, something they had NOT evolved for in the abscence of those others. That would be his nature that is the cause for this guy's naive belief in Nurture over Nature.
OTOH, is it his own upbringing? I don't know, and I don't know him well enough to learn anything there. How about the nurturing of the US Army at the high level of Lieutenant Colonel? Yes, I believe that's more what this is about. It's easy to keep believing in a lie if there are no repurcussions because you're living off the US taxpayers' money... excepting if there's a serious war...
* Also, he as much as told me this.
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Chinese people properly pissed after viewing the outside World Cup Soccer
Posted On: Thursday - December 8th 2022 5:59PM MST
In Topics: Pundits China Kung Flu Stupidity Totalitarianism
I was ready to write this post since last evening, after I'd read Segment 4* of the transcript of John Derbyshire's latest (December 2nd) podcast. Then, it so happened that E.H. Hail of this Hail to You blog published an article on the exact same thing - The World Cup caused the Chinese anti-Lockdown protests.
(I wouldn't know - I'm not a fan.)
Peak Stupidity reported on the fatal (27 killed) bus crash in Guizhou province in Thrown under the bus on the road to Covid~Zero back in September, and there's been that fatal fire due also to this latest Totalitarian stupidity in Xinjiang.
It wasn’t just the one bus crash and the fire though. The Chinese have been suffering these extreme indignities since early Spring of this year. The resuming of LOCKDOWNs started off in Shanghai due to politics (If you care about that part, the death of the big-finance Shanghai guy involved in the political strife with Mr. Xi is noted in Mr. D’s same segment.) There have likely been many of these “tragic” (if you would call something based on the stupidity of absolute power “tragic) accidents over these months. Not all get out into the mainstream in China, as the CCP has lots of control of the social media. It’s just not always prompt enough.
However, the Chinese being at least more interested n soccer than Americans, the World Cup has been viewed by 100's of millions of Chinese people during the time these protests against Covid~Zero cranked up. Both Mr. Derbyshire and Mr. Hail believe the views of un-masked un-panicked and un-regulated people packed together enjoying these games was the real impetus for these protests. From John Derbyshire:
Mrs. Derbyshire tells me the general level of dissent went up mightily during the soccer World Cup, which was at first widely televised in China. When Chinese viewers saw throngs of maskless people in the World Cup stadiums, they realized that the rest of the world had shrugged off what for them was still a crisis of the first magnitude, and blamed their government.Note that, per this post of ours, the Chinese have been told lies about Americans laying up in hospitals with Long Covid** and all sorts of BS.
Now ChiCom state TV is no longer showing the crowds in the stadiums, just keeping their cameras fixed on the field.
Mr. Hail has 10-20 x more on this subject, but I'll try to excerpt a decent blurb here:
The Communist Party graciously allowed the World Cup FIFA televised feed to be shown to its locked-down subjects.I would substitute "stupidly" for "graciously" there in the 1st paragraph, but yes, this was a glimpse for the Chinese people into the truth in the West or almost all the rest of the world. (For Mr. Hail, what about the Chinese team? Were they acting what you and I would call normally, with no masks one anywhere and nothing else special?)
Exactly how much did they see? I believe FIFA — a big-big-money operation — runs one single feed which they send out to all the world TV networks and streaming services. This feed is a many-camera, high-tech operation. Their camera-teams also give regular shots of the crowds of fans and spectators. Sometimes these are incidental shots of fans en masse shown at certain camera angles from the field/pitch, sometimes they are close-ups of particularly enthusiastic groups of fans to enliven the mood. Here is where the Communist Party of China met a little dilemma out of its control: No one has a mask at any of the games. There is no one “social distancing.” There are no masked masses of obedient locked-down losers. There are no capacity restrictions evident. None of it.
Also, note that a lot of young people (at the universities, for example) are involved in the protests – they must be heartbroken to see the outside as compared to how they’ve been forced to live this year. Doesn’t this sound very East Bloc/USSR-like to you?
Since the end of the Cold War, and before that in China, once Deng Xiaoping took over, then with the advent of the internet, I really thought there wouldn't be any more places quite like the old USSR and East Bloc. (OK, there's North Korea, but even there ...) I refer to populations who are told big lies about the outside world by their governments and have no idea exactly what the rest of the world is really like. We have the stories of the Russians who defected to America and looked at the stocked up shelves in the grocery stores and cried.
I can see some Chinese young people who have been under the not necessarily false impression that life will be like it's been for the 8 months for the rest of their lives. Random LOCKDOWNs are announced, and new testing protocols come and go. One's phone can just turn yellow and change all his immediate plans in an instant. Besides thinking about killing myself, I wouldn't know a way out of it all.
That glimpse into now-normalized life in the West was not just intolerable for someone with his whole Chinese miserable-seeming life ahead of him. It also showed many of them how much the CCP has been lying to them.
Regarding the USSR/East Bloc in that Cold War again, the big difference now is that the Chinese aren't hurting so much materially. Just their freedom, as in the old Communism, has been taken from them. Unlike the USSR which had been outspent toward bankruptcy, quite the opposite is going on between American and China. Also, there's no Ronald Reagan around to tell them "Tear down that Great Firewall, Mr. Xi!" I don't think this protesting will result in the end for the CCP and Chinese Totalitarianism. There will be no upbeat Jesus Jones songs.
PS: This is the 2nd week in a row that old China hand John Derbyshire has had something insightful to write about the Covid~Zero blowback going on lately in China. It was taken from a friend of his, but he speculated on a reason this huge Kung Flu stupidity revival may be happening. Regarding this latest of his, well, it helps to have a Chinese wifely source of info ...
* Normally, this link would get you scrolled to the proper place, the beginning of that section, but I think the # (anchor) tag is missing.
** My term for "Long Covid" is "Ran-out-of-my-paid-sick-bank-itis".
Comments (12)
The Pearl Harbor attack of 81 years back
Posted On: Wednesday - December 7th 2022 6:51PM MST
In Topics: Commies History
It's not a round number, and the date is inching toward the century-ago mark. I guess that's why google and bing have no remembrance images. Though it's long ago, it's never to long ago to learn something new about, in the Unzian sense. (I guess this wouldn't come under American Pravda, but pretty much just Pravda, with the Commies involved.
From the M. Stanton Evans book Blacklisted by History on Senator Joseph McCarthy - a review is pending - Peak Stupidity learned something interesting about the instigation of the American war with Japan (Pacific theater of WWII). Out of a chapter of this book, the question arose, "Did American Commies cause the attack on Pearl Harbor?".
Comments (8)
To vote or not to vote?
Posted On: Wednesday - December 7th 2022 2:17PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 General Stupidity Americans US Feral Government
"That is the stupid question."
- Billy Shakesphere (You know, like shaking the magic 8-ball? Nah? Nevermind.)
This is a catch-up post. There is an abundance, nay, a real cornucopia, if I may, of stupidity all around to write about, and this is not timely either, but I decided to write more on this a month back, and gosh darnit, I will. (Today is also the 81st memorial of the Pearl Harbor attack - the date above reminded me.)
If they were Indians, they would be called "The People of the I-77/40/85 Corridor" or, in the tradition of the usual racist Indians, just "The People". Sometimes the Washington Post can actually be useful for something.
The question came up under the Peak Stupidity post "Well, it beats Sportsball." written this past election day, which was a month ago tomorrow. Why bother voting? The election system has been voting in various ways, and one can't make a difference even if it were fair. We voted though, as per the post - beats a game of thug football, IMHO.
I wrote in an iSteve comment that perhaps the only reason was to get out in the fresh air and take a walk. After all, our Congressman would win whether we came out or not.
Firstly, this area has been gerrymandered all to hell. The original idea of the Congressional districts was to have somewhat even boundaries around areas that were proportional to population, possibly using natural boundaries, but at least roads or railroads. Exact lat/long boundaries may not work. After all, you don't want to take a line right across someone's living room - come to think of it, that might work for some families. ;-} Nah, but we all know the deal now. No matter what squad of the UniParty these people are in, they all are agreed on the idea that each should get to stay in this big Washington FS (cocktail) Party as long as possible.
So, State Legislatures work this out, definitely with some thought to consolidating power - I'll give them that - to where this one guy is bound to win here, and this other guy is bound to win there. That's where we stand. On one side of a particular street, the guy I'd rather see win, WILL win, and on the other side of that street, the guy I'd rather see lose, WILL win. We went over there and voted for one of those guys*. It didn't matter.
Even if this were a true small-scale democracy, has a candidate ever won by one vote, MY vote, that is? There'd be a recount, and even the fairest of elections will probably have some error somewhere. OK how about 2 votes, then? I've not seen that either. It's gotta be even worse for those married to the political enemy. Why bother walking over there? It'd all be the same if it were 35F outside, pouring rain, and too miserable to go vote... well, unless I were carrying over a couple of hundred ballots straight off my Brother laser printer. (Man, those things are solid!)
Those are all answers in the negative to this question. Are there any "pro"s?
Regarding the big elections, especially for US President, back in the day there were serious 3rd-party candidates - one might call one a 2nd-party or opposition party today. Not going too far back, I remember a Mr. John Anderson from the 1980 election who got 6 1/2% of the vote. Of course, he won no States. I have no problem with our system in that sense. It just means you've got to get BIG eventually, if you're gonna have any influence as a 3rd-party candidate.
Mr. Anderson was not my style anyway, but a dozen years later, 30 years ago this past summer/fall, Ross Perot was. I see him now as a more knowledgeable and more capable proto-Trump. Even after he dropped out of the race in the summer (due to Deep State shenanigans I imagine, but that I couldn't imagine at that age and time) and got back in, he still got almost 19% of the votes cast. Again, he got no States, but his Reform Party tried its best to become an alternative to the UniParty.
From the time G.H.W. Bush talked in Spanish for 30 seconds or so as part of his campaign in 1988, I voted 3rd party. "All they need is to go from 2% of the vote to something like 5%, so they'll matter, and THEN the media will notice them!", I remember thinking. "One more vote for the L guy would make much more difference than another for the Red squad**", I also figured. What I didn't figure on then was the the Lyin' Press wanted nothing to do with these alternatives. Part of their job has been to marginalize those guys. Even when Ron Paul decided to run on the GOP ticket, they marginalized him away from everybody else by early Spring of the '12 campaign.
What is the point again in voting? I have been told in the comments that there is more of a point to NOT voting. The Establishment will get the idea that we think it's the waste of time that it is. I'm not sure about that. I don't think they care. If there's a 25% turnout, they can just save money on campaigning and cheating, or, they'll force us to vote as in Australia. Lotta good that does for anyone. (Then, you've the people that don't even care what happens voting along with you.)
No, we're not voting our way out of the mess America is in. Guys like Pat Buchanan, one of those former reformers I mentioned above, just don't get what's going on anymore. As Peak Stupidity discussed in "I pity the pundit...", his view of American politics as the somewhat civil and law-following environment of the 1980s is naive. From that post (and there's a follow-up post:
I don't read Mr. Buchanan much anymore, because his solutions to our ills are laughably naive. Oh, we just need to wait for the mid-terms, get someone on our side (really, is there anyone?) into the House blah, blah committee, build up a new coalition, wait until the ctrl-left politicians reach across the aisle**, make a better compromise looking forward to 2028 ... while in the meantime one or two MILLION newcomers who don't give a damn about the old Republic enter the country yearly and the ctrl-left just introduces new programs of extreme stupidity to screw the White man continually that Conservative, Inc. won't even fight against.That was harsh, but that's the way it is now.
So, to answer the question posed in our title. YES, if it's nice outside and you could use the exercise. Otherwise, NO, spend the time inside inventorying the ammo.
* Getting into too much detail on boundaries and the squad of the winner/candidate might give too much info for some doxxer. I gotta admit, that'd be a fun project.
** This was back when the GOP was blue and the Democrat red, for a while - they flipped for the TV stations, until it got to obvious that Americans were getting too comfortable with what that red color meant. They had to make it opposite, and damn if it doesn't trip me up about 1/3 of the time!
Comments (7)
It's not a lie if you believe it?
Posted On: Tuesday - December 6th 2022 2:38PM MST
In Topics: Race/Genetics
How long will Americans keep believing a big lie, for their purposes of virtue-signaling, respectability, career advancement, etc? It's a lie that, when believed and adhered to, just does more to destroy the American society that many - not all, by any means, of these believers DON'T want destroyed. I'm talking about nature vs. nurture when it comes to race, with those who go with the nurture only lie rightly derided by the alt-right as believing in "magic dirt" and "the blank slate".
This is not Peak Stupidity's bread & butter, but we do broach the subject occasionally in posts with the Race/Genetics topic key. Additionally, we have surely gathered a goodly portion of our readers from The Unz Review in which the writers Steve Sailer and Paul Kersey cover this topic very well in their blogs there (the latter almost full time). This post is an anecdote of my running into a "blank slate" believer head on... figuratively, that is.
This acquaintance is heavily involved in one of the local kids' organizations. At a 2-day long event, the subject of what his occupation was came up at one point. I wouldn't have expected it from the guy - more on this - but he works at a non-profit organization, run by a well-off entrepreneur, that helps young people get trained for and/or get placed in, software, aka IT, jobs. I would not have asked but the guy proudly volunteered the information that his organization was about equity. No, he didn't use that word, but he specifically told me that the goal was to get proportional numbers of young people based on race and sex, as compared to our community, into this workplace, which was, did I say IT?!
This man is a true believer in the blank slate, and I suppose it's not a lie if you believe it - we all can do just as well at anything (excepting maybe basketball) if we have the right environment. If that's not the perfect characterization, then he maybe he thinks the black kids need more help, because those White kids are privileged... somehow, but they'll end up just as good IT employees.
Here's what make this worth writing a post about, though: This race-denying individual is the farthest thing one can possibly imagine from one of the purple-haired Professors of Grievance Studies that Steve Sailer regularly features, based on some editorial of hers in The Atlantic. This guy has 4 White-as-can-be kids*, he works his ass off, and he already finished a career as a soldier, which shows in that he's a highly-motivated real leader of this group. (I mean, the reason I was talking to him then and not helping is that I found I could only help him with a few things, as he already had the work so down pat.)
I would not say that about any army veteran, of course. It's a different story with this guy, though, as he simply exudes leadership. It's part of what he teaches to these kids, such as mine.**
I hung out there pondering exactly how a guy with this much going for him believes that he will produce equally good IT people out of all races and all (haha, both) sexes. I do understand why he WANTS to believe it, as he explained that directly to me. He and his wife "want to do some good in this world, even if on a small scale". Believe me, if anyone can, this guy can. However, it's a lie that this equity he will achieve for this organization will be a good thing for this world.***
Not knowing a whole lot about the military, I didn't have much to talk about regarding his experience. However, as I wondered just this, he did give me a chance to ask about his final rank: Lieutenant Colonel. I think that explains this whole post.
* One of them, about 9 years old, got in a discussion with me of how many people in the world have red hair and blue eyes like one of his brothers. I mean, the kid could have been commenting on Steve Sailer's old HBD blog, for cryin' out loud!
** To keep this clear, our group has nothing to do with the organization that is this gentleman's workplace.
*** See our series on "Harvesting the fruits of a half-century of Affirmative Action": Part 1 - - Part 2 - - Part 3 - - Part 4 - - and Part 5
Comments (30)
Clorox Correction and Music Mix-up
Posted On: Monday - December 5th 2022 6:52PM MST
In Topics: Music Preppers and Prepping Inflation Kung Flu Stupidity
I wasn't in the mood for an organic from-scratch post today, but this one was due anyone, to set the record straight.
The biggest question beside when will The S HTF, that a prepper ought to keep up with is the shelf life of things. Peak Stupidity has failed our readership on this with regard to our advise about the storage of bleach. The post Cloro-Prepping was a demonstration of the high inflation of the last decade more than anything.
However, our example, taken from our actual purchases, was not good prepping advice. I have learned from commenter only recently something I could have looked up on the prepper sites*, that bleach loses its effectiveness fairly quickly - that's over half a year, a year, or a couple of years, depending on what you want out of it. I am not kidding when I say that this explains a lot about our laundry! This had been shameful, but as long as nobody took our advice to "go long Clorox", I see no reason for anyone to get any lawyers involved. [In case though, PS Legal is currently out of the office - please visit our "contact" page... good luck finding that shit ...]
The prepper sites are great about keeping one apprised of shelf lives and the ways to rotate out materiel, but I'll add something of my own. I HATE HATE HATE shopping for clothes so I'd accumulated 12 pairs of sneakers that worked for me (fit, color, price) from Target over a couple of years. By the 8th pair or so, at least 5 years into this, they'd fail from Day 1. It was the glue holding the soles on. Yes, Cheap China-made Crap.
Back to bleach though, all is not lost. What I HAD bought along with bleach long ago is a box of pool shock, this one based on prepper recommendations. Per the Organic Prepper, rather than the sodium hypochlorite that is 6-8% of bleach, Pool Shock (pure stuff, without anti-algae ingredients) has calcium hypochlorite and can be mixed with water to make a type of bleach. One 5 lb. box can make enough "bleach" for to purify over 100,000 gallons of water, but, again, the bleach made with it has a short shelf life. The pool shock doesn't, apparently. News you can use! Or in ZeroHedge parlance, pool shock, bitchez!!
Next, it's also unforgivable for Peak Stupidity to have used a Twisted Sister song to go along with our anti-vax post called We're not gonna take it. when there is another, better rock song with that phrase in the title and lyrics. Well before the Kung Flu and the W.H.O., there was The WHO - that'd have been Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon. As the concept of the "concept album" took hold, this band went further than that to make a "rock opera"**.
Tommy, about that deaf, dumb, and blind kid that could sure play mean Pinball (OK, it's more than that) had a number of great songs, but only the one hit Pinball Wizard, which Elton John subsequently made an even better version and a bigger hit out of.
However, this one fits our anti-vaccine rant just as well as Twisted Sister's song, and this has a better melody and sound. Oh, and there was a Tommy movie too! This one is not from the movie but has a better sound:
We're not gonna take it,
never did and never will.
Don't want your religion,
and as far as we can tell.
We ain't gonna take you.
Never did and never will.
PS: Back to Clorox for just one minute here. To follow up on our post making fun of a Clorox Kills Covid sign (Continuing Covid-one-niner Coverage on Clorox and China), that actually says "Proven to kill COVID-19 virus*", I saw that sign again, and took a picture of the asterisked line. It said "*Kills SARS CoV-2 on hard, non-porous surfaces. Use as directed." Okaaay, so, I guess one could kill the germs on his car door handles, but what is this "-2"? They've been up to -19? Better not take the risk. Stay inside ... forever ... with plenty of Pool Shock.
* That's why I ought to find a good one to read regularly, as I did over a decade back.
** Actually, they wrote 2 more rock operas Quadrophenia and (one I'd never heard of till just now) A Quick One, While He's Away also.
Comments (6)
Come Sail Away
Posted On: Saturday - December 3rd 2022 9:31PM MST
In Topics: Music
It somehow turned into Covid~ZeroFest here at Peak Stupidity this week. There are 2 correction posts to make, the stuff that was supposed to appear this week, plus a new personal one from today on that nature/nurture "blank slate" stupidity. If I can remember (or remember where I wrote notes!), I'll have something about some scenes from old TV I watched on seat-back entertainment.
To sign off for the week, we will feature some real 1970s music. The band Styx has only appeared here once before, and that's shameful.
As per a comment I just wrote under the previous post, with Idiocracy coming on so rapidly, I really want to be able to Come Sail Away in that star ship ASAP.
This song is from Styx's very popular album The Grand Illusion, released 45 years ago.
Thank you all for reading and commenting!
Comments (7)
John Derbyshire on the Chinese Covid~Zero not being stupid
Posted On: Saturday - December 3rd 2022 6:33PM MST
In Topics: Pundits China Kung Flu Stupidity Totalitarianism
This image would have been better for our previous post. I truly didn't mean to click on the odious NY Times. I was searching for an image and got sucked in by the headline.
The Peak Stupidity commenter Sam J. and I had a pretty long argument, no discussion, ok argumentative discussion most of a month back on the topic I could describe as: Are Chairman Xi and the CCP* being smart or stupid with their Covid~Zero program? If you're not a regular PS reader, let me tell you that we have been covering the living
The comments under our two posts China Covid~Zero policy additional info. and China Covid~Zero Policy - Hu is Gu? have this discussion. It was just just way too long to insert anything comprehensive on here, or else I would do that.
The illustrious pundit and old China hand John Derbyshire had something to say on this question. Unfortunately, this writing was not on one of his monthly diaries - they always appear on The Unz Review where one can comment. This was from one of his Radio Derb weekly podcasts. Contrary to a sprinkling of the his segments from the transcripts of these podcasts, this one did not become a stand-alone post on either VDare (no commenting anyway) or on the UR. Look, right here** for this.
Anyway, web pages aside, in that segment, Does Zero COVID make sense?, Mr. Derbyshire didn't necessarily back up Sam J.'s opinion, but he considers the possibility that the Chinese are being smart due to massive fear of a new highly dangerous virus. I'm gonna insert the whole thing. (He won't sue me - he still owes me a pizza dinner, alas, Chicago style...)
Does Zero COVID make sense? I had a rather alarming conversation the other day with a friend who is well-acquainted with the region where medical science intersects with politics.Note, BTW, that Mr. Derbyshire does not blame every damn thing on "the Americans".
We got to talking about the ferocious lockdowns in China. After some relaxation, the country's been hit with a new outbreak, said to be the worst yet. The lockdowns are going on again, more intense than ever.
Mrs Derbyshire has an old school friend in southwest China. Retired now, she lives with her husband on one of the upper floors of an apartment block. They are allowed out, properly masked up, for brief periods, strictly monitored, once or twice a week. My wife was actually on the phone with this lady when in the background she heard a voice call: "Come and get tested!" They have to go downstairs to the lobby to get tested for COVID every day. If you test positive, you're hustled off to a quarantine camp.
For a retired couple like them it's bad enough. If you're young and trying to make your way in some kind of career, or just doing regular paid work, it's been devastating. For the small service businesses and stores that working people patronize, it's been a killer.
There have been big protests and disturbances, this week at the iPhone factory in the city of Zhengzhou, in the old Yellow River heartland of Chinese civilization. The Chinese economy is choking.
My friend pointed out that the Chinese government's strategy makes no epidemiological sense. As The Washington Post pointed out today, quote:A coronavirus outbreak on the verge of being China's biggest of the pandemic has exposed a critical flaw in Beijing's "zero covid" strategy: a vast population without natural immunity. After months with only occasional hot spots in the country, most of its 1.4 billion people have never been exposed to the virus … Opening to a world that's now mostly living with the virus would cause a wave of deaths, officials fear.
End quote.
There is far more natural immunity in countries like ours, where every other person you know got COVID and recovered; and far less damage to our national economy.
So why have the Chinese authorities taken such a destructive approach? Why have the ChiComs done this to themselves? I had been assuming it's just the instinctive control-freakery of despots not restrained by law; but my friend told me there's a disturbing theory going round among specialists.
It's taken for granted, he said, that the ChiComs have been doing biological-warfare research for years, as we and other nations have. It's an arms race; you can't not do it when other countries are. The research may produce killer pathogens, but it also shows how to defend against them. If you don't do the research, you don't have defenses.
It may be, my friend said, that the ChiComs accidentally discovered or developed a very lethal pathogen; one that, if it got loose in China, would kill tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions. They are naturally terrified of that happening.
He asked me if I'd heard about the virus created by Boston University that killed eighty percent of the lab mice researchers infected with it. Yes, I remembered spotting that in the news last month. Was it for real?
Hard to say, my friend said, with peer review not yet out, but it's the kind of thing we're playing with here. If the ChiComs created something super-lethal, possibly in the same lab the original COVID escaped from, they might very well be scared out of their wits.
Walking away from that conversation with my friend—a sober and thoughtful guy, not a conspiracy nutcase or end-of-the-world alarmist—I have to admit, I was pretty scared myself.
OK, look, but as I wrote in the 2nd of the 2 PS posts linked-to above:
Well, the thing is, if it were the case that this was a wise policy, saving China from future bio-destruction, the Covid~Zero policy over there could be more like a bunch of drills, in which you gather in one spot, get your health score verified regularly by officials, and test yourself every day. Oh, they do that stuff, but these are NOT drills.People have been getting the full treatment, as if this WERE the BIG ONE. Do the Chinese officials think the deadly strain that could have come from the lab is out and about already? Are many people dying, as would be the case from this deadly strain, and we are just not hearing about it? They can hide a lot, but then my China source hasn't heard anything about people dying or not coming back from quarantine camps. They are not scared of anything besides the "Big Whites" and the stupidity of the CCP.
Too bad Donald Trump got cheated out of a 2nd term. He could have gone along with this theory and really shut down the immigration invasion. Call it "Visa~Zero".
* That'd be a great name for a band! (It doesn't rhyme in Chinese though...)
** I can read in 1/8 or 1/10 the time I can listen, so I wait for the transcripts. For some odd reason, when those transcripts get published on VDare, one must click another "here" link to get to a page with both the podcast and the transcript. That seems to me like an extra step for no reason.
Comments (30)
This picture tells the story of media hypocrisy
Posted On: Friday - December 2nd 2022 1:28PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media China Media Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity Totalitarianism
Peak Stupidity could write 2,000 words on the subject of the media hypocrisy regarding Western Kung Flu PanicFest Totalitarianism and (too damned mild) pushback and the same in China of late. However, this set of images will take care of it.
How about a few hundred words or so from us nonetheless? From scores of internet pundits and commenters I've heard the theme that says China is to the Right what Russia is to the left.* I don't agree. I have learned over the last few years that the Chinese Communist Party, though not Communist in the economic sense by any means, is a real force for evil. No, they are not a militarily enemy (at this point, though, we sure aren't helping keep it that way), but they have been winning an economic war handily.
Peak Stupidity has our sources. We don't claim to have moles within the CCP or anything, but just Chinese people who know what's what and can read on Chinese apps what we sure can't.
There's a lot not to love about China. However, the media supports the Chinese protestors because, right or left, they are simply anti-China without knowing a thing about the place due to "USA! USA! USA!" and "Beacon of Freedom!" Yet, that American "Beacon of Freedom" was taken out of service for the last 3 years for
Lastly here, there are those in the media who are beyond hypocrisy when it comes to the Kung Flu PanicFest. In other words, there's this Taylor Lorenz freak, who our readers may have read the stupidity of on other topics. Well, WaPo's Taylor Lorenz defends China's zero-COVID policy while blaming US for killing 'millions' by reopening**. At least here is a member of the media who is very consistent. She's gonna panic about the Kung Flu until reality slaps her in the face with something to REALLY panic about. "Panic Today! Panic Tomorrow! Panic Forever" - Taylor Lorenz
There is no lasting 'natural immunity' to COVID," she wrote. "You can get covid over and over and over again bc there are so many endlessly evolving strains and antibodies wane. Also, choosing not to kill off millions of vulnerable people (as the US is doing) isn't a 'critical flaw',' the internet culture reporter argued.In all fairness, that article does state that Miss*** Lorenz says she had some more nuance. Yeah, put me down for some of that nuance.
PS: We will be offline for posts or comments for about 24 hours. I'd really like to address that Sam J./ J. Derbyshire theory on the Chinese Covid~Zero stupidity late on Saturday.
* That's in the current era, of course. The ctrl-left LUVED them some Soviet Russians back in the day. Nobody had a lot to say about China 50 years ago, because it was a dark hole.
** BTW, the page with this article has an MSN logo and a Fox News logo, while it refers to a Washington Post reporter. I don't know!
*** I tried to look up if she is married, but wiki only says that she was engaged in '15. It also notes that "In an interview with MSNBC, Lorenz said that she has "severe PTSD" from experiencing online harassment.". Want Dr. Stupidity's bedside advice? Take 2 aspirin and get the hell off the internet! It's bad enough you're on TV!
Comments (22)
Communication Gap
Posted On: Thursday - December 1st 2022 10:18AM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Artificial Stupidity Muh Generation
It's time to mix things up a little bit here. I mean, why is it always China, China, China?! OK fine, this one comes from a few weeks back, when I was traveling.
I took an "illegal cab" to LaGuardia Airport based on the advice of somewhat I'd met. I put that in quotes because, Libertarianism. The guy was taking me from point A to point B for money, which is pretty much the definition of a taxi ride. Whether someone needed to pay a million dollars and/or a bribe to the City of New York for some cab medallion* doesn't have much bearing on the matter for an individual like me.
The guy was Brazilian per the Brazilian guy who recommended him, and his charge was less than half of the official fare. (It was also higher than what the 1st Brazilian had told me it would cost, but, yeah... that's probably a Brazilian thing ...)
After I determined the guy knew enough English to understand the deal, he told me "Yes, I take you. It will be about 15 minutes before I pick you up." He told me where to be and I had plenty of time no matter what.
About 15-20 minutes later, I called to check on this guy. Instead of answering the phone, seemingly easier if you ask me, he texted back "5 minutes." Sounds like a plan. The weather was beautiful - I stood outside waiting.
"??" came another text from this number. Thinking the guy had fat-fingered something, I stood outside in the beautiful weather waiting.
Now, he calls. "Hey, what's going on?" he asks. "Nothing. Are you here?" "I text you, but you didn't write back." "The question marks?" "Yeah." "OK, I'm not 14 years old, man. I'm an American. I told you I'd be outside, and I'm outside. What you do is show up when you said you would. That's how it works, or used to." "Well, I didn't know if ..." "I'm here. Where are you?"
He drove right up, still on the phone. Rant only partly over, I just said nicely that it used to be that one said something and the other guy trusted him, with no constant texting necessary. Though the guy in my file photo above is not of the same nationality, he's probably in the same age range. This guy was in his 40's. He ought to know the old ways, shouldn't he?
OTOH, This guy may deal with Millennials all the time who can't deal with not being in continual communication. He may in the future want to try to distinguish those people and those of us who grew up without the constant communication ability available. "Mom, I was supposed to meet Gary here at the front of the store at 6. He'll probably call you. Tell him I'll be right inside the store, but if he doesn't come by 7, I'm heading to his house."
Or, we could go all MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and just not worry about the exact timing of our lives. We wait for the whole afternoon shooting the shit and eating the khat. If he doesn't show, we don't care. Nothing gets done in places like this though. However, how do the Millennials get anything done when they spend half their time staring at 5" screens?
* For the amount I've read, something like a million bucks, those medallions had better be made out of platinum! At least a couple of pounds of .999 gold would be nice. I don't know if there are many of those sweatsuit gold-chain-wearing imported Middle Easterners(?) there that Steve Sailer sees in LA, but that'd suit them well. "I got my track suit and my 2 lb. gold medallion, and I'm wearing sunglasses. Hit it!" No, the gas pedal, not the hot dog stand!
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Goodbye to Christy McVie
Posted On: Wednesday - November 30th 2022 7:11PM MST
In Topics: Music
Christine McVie, of one of the best rock bands in history, Fleetwood Mac, died today. Her maiden name was Perfect, until she married the band's bass player John McVie.
It's just opinion, but my blog, my opinion, Christy McVie was a better singer than the other, more well-known, woman* lead singer in the band, Stevie Nicks. They had much different voices, Stevie Nick's being sort of gravely, like that of a smoker, and Christie McVie's silky smooth.
It's not the case that Peak Stupidity features only hit music - we often lean the other way, toward the great songs that did not get played much on the radio, as they were not "released as singles". (That's in quotes, because anyone under 40 may have no idea what the heck those words - except "the" mean. I don't have time to explain it to ya', sorry.) However, it happens that Christy McVie's songs were some of the overplayed hits. Even so, they're STILL great to listen to. At least these 3 are:
Over My Head is from the album Fleetwood Mac the band's 10th album and 2nd self-titled one(!)
You Make Loving Fun is from the most famous and best-selling Rumours album.
This 3rd one is a song Peak Stupidity featured long ago already, in this post about Christy and the great bass guitar line** in the song by her husband, husband at the time still, I think. It's my favorite of hers. Even though it was played like hell on the radio, it's still great to hear. She may have had great singing on other songs, but none of those others had as great a melody as these 3 do. Thank you for the great music, all of you.
Say You Love Me was also on that self-titled album.
I went to a Fleetwood Mac show for Boomers about 12 years ago. Christine McVie was not playing there. I appreciated the free tickets I was given, but sorry, without her, that wasn't Fleetwood Mac.
Fleetwood Mac was:
Lindsey Buckingham – electric,and acoustic guitars, banjo, vocals
Stevie Nicks – vocals
Christine McVie – keyboards, synthesizer, vocals
John McVie – bass guitar
Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion
* Guitar player Lindsay Buckingham sang lots of the songs too. Check out Blue Letter and Second Hand News, both excellent but very obscure songs, as they were not singles. Hmmm... I wonder who made these choices.
** He had great bass lines in many of the songs though - can't hardly tell on an iPad though.
Comments (11)
Winter break will continue until morale improves
Posted On: Wednesday - November 30th 2022 3:15PM MST
In Topics: University History China Totalitarianism
Please accept our apologies for being AWOL for the most of yesterday. Your Chief Blogger was visiting with a good friend. If they even care to, our readers can get more on the fairly big news, IMO, of the protests against Chinese Totalitarianism anywhere. I've meant to write more on this - this post will be on just one aspect.
I've heard this news from a different Chinese source, a local lady who is from Peking, the heart of the Middle Kingdom and the CCP, or at least the latter. This lady, per ANOTHER Chinese source, is CCP-adjacent, aka, she'd probably be a fully-brainwashed Party member were she not enjoying a better life in this country. From her, from the web, and per Commenter Ganderson here, the Universities in China are giving the students an extra long break to
My son works at a university in Canton- they are currently on remote, and are getting nearly a month off for New Years (Chinese New Year). No word from him on protests, but I’m guessing he won’t talk about political matters on WeChat, aka “Commie Facebook”.Thank you for using the old, English, much more mellifluous term, Mr. Ganderson. When will they start the break at your son's college? I don't use the lunar calendar myself, but I know that even on the years of the earliest Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, if they left now, it'd be closer to a month and a half.
From this article in a publication called The Week - one I know nothing about - it doesn't seem biased toward China's Totalitarians, but it sure is biased toward Kung Flu Panic - yes, STILL, amazingly!:
Police showed up in force at places protesters gathered over the weekend, and they checked smartphones at transportation gateways in Shanghai for foreign apps like Twitter and Telegram and for virtual private networks (VPNs). Several protesters were arrested. Other people who participated in protests over the weekend are now being contacted by police, BBC News reports. "We are all desperately deleting our chat history," one Beijing protester told Reuters.(Ha, that last part is just included here to remind me to include this in a post to come about the hypocrisy of the West, as most support those people against Totalitarianism THERE, but not HERE.)
Chinese universities also started sending students home after the weekend's protests, including at several prestigious universities, The Associated Press reports. The universities said the students were being dispersed to protect them from COVID-19, and classes and final exams would be conducted online. "But dispersing them to far-flung hometowns also reduces the likelihood of more activism" like the protests that flared up over the weekend, AP notes.
On Monday, students at Beijing's Peking University and alumni from Tsinghua University, Xi's alma mater, posted letters demanding an end to China's invasive health surveillance system, mandatory testing, and censorship. China's zero COVID policy's "negative impact" has "become more obvious," the Peking University letter said. "It has even gone beyond the damage the pandemic itself does to the society."
At the same time, some local governments started loosening COVID restrictions Monday and the central government stepped up its vaccination of vulnerable seniors. Authorities tried loosening restrictions earlier in the month, but the resulting spike in infections led them to clamp down again, helping fuel the protests.
Xi's push to maintain zero COVID cases has kept China's death toll lower than in other large countries, but international public health officials see diminishing returns as the virus mutates and becomes more contagious. And three years of the sudden lockdowns and other restrictions have clearly worn on the patience of China's citizenry.
"Obviously, there are people in China that have concerns about" the zero COVID polices, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday when asked about the protests. "These protesters are speaking for themselves," he added. "What we are doing is making it clear that we support the right of peaceful protest."
The local CCP-adjacent source was of the opinion that (to paraphrase) "yeah, this way the students can calm down. It's better they all mellow out and keep order." In our comments section, Mr. Hail has been trying to get across his view of the Oriental mindset. For me it's particularly the Chinese one. Do they lean toward wanting order over freedom? I am no scholar of Chinese history. Over the 35 centuries of that nation, there have been major upheavals (one example we discussed) that make America's 1960s seem like a cafeteria food fight in comparison. I do agree with Mr. Hail in general, though. They'll put up with the lack of serious rule-of-law as a trade off for more order. After 8 months of Covid~Zero Totalitarian stupidity, however, the Chinese people can see a problem being a part of that "order".
I wanted to quickly discuss the fact that the university students are a big part of, these protests against Covid~Zero. I see a big contrast there with respect to the American university students of the present. I assume that the Chinese university students are there because they ARE the brightest of their ages, and their parents scrimped and saved, tiger-mommed the living out of them, had them cramming for months for the entrance test, and yeah, maybe used up some guanxi or bribed someone instead (or additionally?). I don't know how high the pro-CCP indoctrination gets in the universities there vs grade/high school.
Here in America, the indoctrination level at the university level is as high as it gets anywhere. Wokeness trumps all. We have some experience from the '20-'21 PanicFest years, and it tells me that most of the students here are the last to be protesting against Totalitarian measures. (There are still vaccine-promoting banners all over the place at the U near us. The masking signs - "Choose to wear a face mask" have only been gone for 1/2 a year max.)
Going back 5-6 decades, I'd say the situation was the reverse, for the most part. Even though the hell-raising 1960's protesters leaned heavily "Liberal" in America, they made use of all the freedom that had been EARNED by the REAL Liberals since the founding. They extolled all this freedom, and railed against Totalitarianism, though now we can see that it was just a ploy to get power. The Conservative Establishment of the day didn't send these students home to calm them down, because the Establishment played fair... and then, some of the students took over buildings and made their own rules.
During that same time period in China - starting a little later and lasting a little longer - from 1966 to '76 - the university students, if you could even call them that after a while, were some of the biggest pro-Mao destructive Commie Red Guard types. (Granted, it's not like they had so much of a choice.) From what I've read and heard from Chinese people, learning pretty much came to a halt. The students didn't need to be sent home, as they were doing Chairman Mao's bidding.
It looks like American university students have gotten dumber since that half-century ago, while Chinese university students have gotten smarter. However, Xi and his gang have the power to keep them away from the campus and separated from their like-minded anti-CCP friends and brave fellow protestors.
PS: There was also the Tiananmen Square protesting a little over 1/2 way back in time from now to that Red Guard period. That was 33 years ago - Peak Stupidity discussed this event on its 30 year anniversary. See Freedom in China? On the Tiananmen Massacre 30 years ago., Freedom in China, Tiananmen Square, and Freedom in America,and Tiananmen Square and the American Press.
The personal knowledge I have is from a brother of my main China source's neighbor. This guy was a promising Electrical Engineering student. He did not go to Peking in that Spring/Summer of 1989, but he did participate in his own, far-off university's demonstrations. It's not like the CCP dragged him away and locked him in a hole. However, he was expelled from college and was not let to attend any other. He became a TV repair man.
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4 years later, Communist Kickball LIVES!
Posted On: Monday - November 28th 2022 8:51PM MST
In Topics: Humor Globalists Curmudgeonry
Peak Stupidity would like thank commenter and Hail to You blogger E.H. Hail for the suggestion of the Simpsons video shown here*. That was in the comments under his recent post [World Cup 2022] Wales National Team: 91% White, majority with firm Wales ties — thoughts on the World Cup and Welsh nationalism. Now, Mr. Hail, and probably many Peak Stupidity readers too, are infinitely more excited than this blogger about the game.
We explained the reasons for our dissatisfaction with the game they pronounce "futeboll" (in the on-and-off-again Commie Latin American countries) 4 years back - previous World Cup time - in On Communist Kickball. For what it's worth, Ann Coulter agrees, but I happen to agree with her on only 1 or 2 of her points against the game.
Basically, my biggest beef is that the Globalists seem to have wanted to push this game on Americans for homogeneity. (That's NOT some kind of gay slur there.) Actually, I think it's a better game than American football, but don't push this stuff on me, Globalists.
This Simpsons clip is pretty funny:
* Also, a day or so after I saw it on Mr. Hail's site, the BlogFather himself, Glenn Reynolds, aka, the Instapundit, showed this video on his site.
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The Chinese people fight Covid~Zero and the Totalitarianism of Xi
Posted On: Monday - November 28th 2022 11:00AM MST
In Topics: China Kung Flu Stupidity Totalitarianism
Peak Stupidity has meant to put up a post on the latest Covid~Zero stupidity in China, one more particular incident, back just after we heard about it, on Thursday or so.* However - this happening has turned into a lot more than an incident.
"Thank you for saving us from Covid Non~Zero! We love you, Pooh Bear!"
If I do state so here myself, Peak Stupidity has covered the '22 Chinese re-start of the Kung Flu PanicFest, which started in March or so under the catchy but still asinine moniker Covid~Zero, pretty well. Before the post on the "domino theory" of health score apps and continual covid testing, we've had posts on this ongoing stupidity in China. (There are too many to list here, so just look under the Kung Flu Stupidity topic key.)
It's one thing to be ruled by the CCP as led by Totalitarian Xi Jinping, 4 decades after the dropping of economic Communism. The Middle Kingdom is an order of magnitude more prosperous as it's ever been before, and more powerful in the World in all kinds of ways than every before. The Chinese people can put up with a little, no, actually, a LOT of Totalitarianism, when "their" government provides not only the Iron Rice Bowl that Chairman Mao reneged on, but a Golden Rice Bowl**.
Over the last decade, besides increasing Totalitarianism from Xi JinPing's CCP, the Chinese people have experienced the greatly increasing Orwellianism*** that could only have been done with modern electronics, something that the Chinese are very very good at. Well, how convenient!
Chairman JinPing could have had it very good. I'd thought of him as a smarter version of Chairman Mao. He's rich, of course - that should go without saying. He's got at least as much power, especially with the help of the electronic Surveillance State but without the sheer stupidity of a guy like Mao who thought the melting down of farm implements for steel production would be a Great Leap Forward... or so I'd thought. Alas, or better, NMPBGTS****, it turns out modern CCP Chairmen can be just as damnably stupid as ancient CCP Chairmen.
Our posts about the simply retarded Chinese Covid~Zero - same great case fatality rate, less filling - have been noting just that: Trying to eliminate the now-benign Kung Flu virus mutants doesn't make any sense. This is as if the world tried a Common-Cold-Zero program. I've read speculation right here in the comments on what the reasons for screwing with the Chinese economy and lives of the people might be. I'm sorry (Sam J.), but I don't believe the CCP heads are preparing the people for a worse, seriously (this time) deadly viral attack.
It's easy to imagine shrewd evil human beings doing terrible things to whole nations when oftentimes they are just stupid evil people doing it. I'm sure Xi JinPing thinks he's doing right by the Chinese people by getting COMPLETELY rid of the many forms of a now-benign airborne virus. That's just as Chairman Mao thought he was doing right by the Chinese people by implementing his new plans for farming and making steel. NO! Both of these men were/are just high-powered, high functioning retards, that's all.
The indignities and the interruptions to daily life that the Chinese people have been subject to, in a willy-nilly fashion, for the last 8 months are something that no population should stand for. They have, though. Apartment complexes get subject to LOCKDOWN ("oh, only a week or two this time"*****), people get en masse subject to continual daily testing, health scores can change based on one's standing next to someone or not, and one can get taken away to a quarantine camp based on said testing or scoring.
Some of this information has been obtained by Peak Stupidity directly from persons in China. One story that was not from this source, but was almost the spark that set things off, was the death of a couple of dozen people due the wreck of a bus on the way to a quarantine camp - see Thrown under the bus on the road to Covid~Zero.
Well, the latest horrible result, probably just the latest KNOWN horrible result, of the Covid-Zero program happened in the northwest of China, in Urumiqi. It's the capital of Xinjiang - Uigher territory - but I think it was Han Chinese people of whom 10 or so perished in a fire due to their inability to escape a burning apartment building due to its being locked shut ... for their own safety, of course. Well, guess what, Xi, this one WAS the spark. Since Saturday, Chinese people have been protesting and doing more than protesting, in cities across that country.
These are brave people, even the ones who've come out peacefully with blank or other white signs. There are lots of young people, who, even being patient, non-violent, high-IQ Chinapeople, have had enough. For some, the time has come to BECOME violent. Peak Stupidity has documented some of the Totalitarian and ridiculously stupid at the same time Covid~Zero measures for 8 months now with incredulity. That's because this stuff HAS BEEN incredible. At some point, the people involved get tired of the incredibility. I think I would have snapped long ago. It takes longer to snap when you don't have guns though and are up against the mass of Big Whites and Yellow-Vested Goons.
I am very happy to see this. I will have to write another post on this tomorrow, but let me just say that I am greatly encouraged by the brave Chinese people. I am hopeful for the Chinese people. With that, I'll write here that, unless these protests get big enough to rival some from Chinese history a lot bigger than Tiananmen 33 years back, the Chinese people don't stand a great chance.
They have let - perhaps I should write, not individual Chinamen, but the mass of the Chinese people, have let - the Orwellianism get so powerful over the last few years that the control that the CCP can exert is almost omnipotent.
(Mr. Strittmatter's book*** notes Chinese officials claims that the facial recognition software can work with masked-up people too. I don't know if I believe that - I'd be on the safe side too and go ahead and wear one. Plus, you won't get sick, when they drag you away!)
By tomorrow morning in America we'll see how much further this Chinese unrest will get. Peak Stupidity will also have a post then or later comparing the Chinese protest against "their" government with whatever efforts haven't been going on against the Potomac Regime in "our" country.
* BTW, the very last part of Saturday's post was left off somehow - the "coming features" and a greeting for a happy Sunday, right after a dash - too late now, but that text was in my back-up file, so I re-inserted it for "closure".
** Gold and red would be the colors, as those seem to be THE colors of China.
*** See the 4-part Peak Stupidity review of German author Kai Strittmatter's recent book We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State: Part 1 - - Part 2 - - Part 3 - - Part 4. If you thought Revelation was bad enough, this will really scare the Bejesus out of you.
**** Not My Problem, But Get This Shit! - not as well known an exclamation, but this fits better.
***** Note that somewhere on this blog - I'll find it when I can - we've written that this is the future since these precedents have been set.
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CDC v NOAA
Posted On: Saturday - November 26th 2022 7:52PM MST
In Topics: Global Climate Stupidity US Feral Government Science Kung Flu Stupidity
Here's another post that has cropped up from ideas in a previous Peak Stupidity post on the Kung Flu PanicFest. As we discussed articles on the regrets, recriminations, forgiveness, and forgetting of this huge 2-year-long ball of stupidity (see Kung Flu PanicFest - Forgive and Forget? and More Kung Flu PanicFest Recriminations), one thought that came to mind is this: Why is it that some small US Feral Gov't advisory agency somehow had the ear of, and could direct the actions of, the biggest Totalitarians this country has ever seen?
WHO the hell... ? (Wait, not that WHO, as it's the World Health Organization, so Americans can rightly tell them to go screw themselves. Who the hell is the Centers for Disease Control to be directing governments to lock people in their homes, shut down businesses, force people to wear "protective attire", and force them to take experimental gene therapy treatments?!
The CDC started as the Communicable Disease Center, founded in 1946, for Malaria control, Malaria still being a problem in the South at that time. The CDC (same initials, but different name at the time*) was part of the US Public Health Service, and had and has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. It had a $1 million budget back then. There were 369 employees, and their biggest job was to spray DDT around to kill mosquitoes. That worked!
The CDC was meant to be a science-based RESEARCH and ADVISORY organization. You run labs** to investigate disease spreading organisms and non-organisms (viruses are closer to the latter). You gather statistics. You make pretty, colorful bar charts and pie graphs to inform the public, so members of said public can make decisions for the safety of themselves and their families. You inform local agencies on where are the most important spots to spray for malaria-spreading mosquitoes. You inform the Feral Gov't as to which countries immigrants and tourists should be banned from due to disease risks.
Slight digression here: Until I gave up and went to the wiki, I found that it is damnably difficult to find the ACTUAL TOTAL budgets for these US Feral Gov't agencies. I mean, you'll get lots of numbers on how this portion of their budget is higher by x much than last year. There's lots of these difference values given (almost all with a big + in front). Lots of web pages tell me about the discretionary portion but not the entire buget. They really don't seem to like for someone to be able to find that one number that says how much the taxpayers are spending. I looked at a 500 page CDC budget report, as a last resort, and gave up on that thing. Sometimes I'm pretty thankful for Wikipedia. I don't think the ctrl-left liars have doctored up those numbers yet.
What I do see is only the '18 budget total for the CDC, while wiki has the '22 budget total for the NOAA. Wiki says $11.1 Billion for '18, but a pie chart (Figure 2) on this Congressional Research Service page adds up to $16.4 billion for '22. The CDC had 10,900 employees 7 years ago. That's a lot of pie charts!
I'll state right off the bat here, that I like these guys. The NOAA and the NTSB are a couple of agencies, and I could probably come up with a dozen more, that I actually appreciate being part of the US Government. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization was established as part of the cabinet-level Department of Commerce in 1970, but its history goes way back to some of the oldest agencies in the Federal Gov't. Per wiki:
Now, these are some agencies that had REAL men doing the REAL science of the day! A hard-core Libertarian could make a case for private versions of these, but I do understand the need for groups of scientists, technicians, and surveyors that could gather nationwide information of use for all the various States. (OK, that'd be many, in the case of fisheries.) In fact, a sort of State crowd-funding or even private crowd-funding of the gathering of this type of information would be, if anything, MORE feasible today with the internet. "Yeah, that's my buoy out there at 25 degrees, 35 minutes north, 65 degrees, 10 minutes west in the Sargasso Sea! See my cloud cover data? For the price of a cup of vente latte cappuccino every hour, you too ..."
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, formed in 1807.
Weather Bureau of the United States, formed in 1870.
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, formed in 1871 (research fleet-only).
Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, formed in 1917.
For '22, the NOAA had a budget of about $7 Billion, less than 1/2 that of the CDC, with 11,000 employees. That's almost the same number of employees that the CDC had 7 years ago.
The NOAA guys come out with their various weather and climate "products" (uggh, yeah, Peak Stupidity has written about every service being a "product" now) for boaters and aviators, and lots of other stuff that I'm sure is just as useful. Except for those unfortunate folks in the Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, and occasionally spots northward, we all enjoy watching the progress of the winds and water involved on those Hurricane Center maps of many kinds. Even if you can't enjoy them, those maps are pretty darned useful.
For aviators, there are prognostic charts, maps of surface conditions, winds aloft, icing forecasts, any kinda thing anyone could possibly want, updated daily, every 12 hours, every 6 hours, whatever...
All that I have seen come from the NOAA is what one should expect, RESEARCH and ADVICE. As of yet, I don't hear of governments ruling the population based on what the NOAA tells them. That could change ... this NOAA page - yeah, I was trying to look up their budget ... - has the title: NOAA FY 2022 budget advances America’s response to the climate crisis. Ahh, geeze! Oh, BTW, the page shows $57.9 million for Equity, no wait, that's a $57.9 increase in the Equity budget! I just hope they can still give us decent terminal forecasts with all these new Equity people.
This foray into the Climate Calamity™ by the NOAA is worrisome. It's not just mission creep. When one of these organizations hits the big-time "working" in an area that his a current favorite of the Globalist, Communist destroyers of the nation, the money starts pouring in, and the
That's what happened with the CDC. The government and Lyin' Press big shots treated them like omniscient gods for their coming out with charts and advice about that virus out of the Orient. They made the big time and loved every minute of it. They will budget for '23 accordingly. From the CDC Statement on President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget:
In addition, the CDC budget includes new proposed mandatory funding to establish a Vaccines for Adults program and to invest in pandemic preparedness.Interesting. So, they are ready to develop adult vaccination schedules as there have been for the kids. Hey, what do you want them to do, return the funding back to the people or something?
That's what it comes down to: Do the high office holders treat these organizations as gods, or do they just understand that they are research and advisory agencies, for the benefit of the American people? The CDC made the big time, and I hope the NOAA never does.
In this match anyway, it's the NOAA by a knock-out!
Thank you all for reading and commenting this week! Next week, we need to get to that last AA post, there will have to be one more post on the Chinese Covid~Zero stupidity - this one got people killed - there's always more immigration stupidity, and we may finally write more on the J6 Political Prisoners. How 'bout some good music, at least, if you don't care for any of that. Have a happy Sunday, Peakers!
* Its name was changed to the current one, keeping the initials, in 1980.
** Such as the Biosafety Level 4 labs, built in 2013.
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