Trump on Scooby Doo
Posted On: Tuesday - February 2nd 2021 7:26PM MST
In Topics: Humor Trump
To be precise, this is Trump impersonator James Austin Johnson on Scooby Doo. This guy is REALLY good. If you take your eyes off the video, you will see Donald Trump in your head. It also helps make it funnier if you know something about the old 1970s cartoon Scooby Doo.
While this video is hilarious, it'd have put me in an even better mood if this guy, Trump, not Mr. Johnson, and not Scooby Doo, had come through for Americans a lot more than he had. Mr. Trump is a fun guy, and I'm sure he'd not be upset at the imitation. I wish we could laugh with him as friends. I don't think enough of him to want to laugh with him now.
Well, OK, just a couple of criticisms. Why does James Johnson need to take his video while walking around? This is a guy with 100,000 views on this video, and a couple of million on his next one (but I thought this one was funnier). Is he that busy to where his time is that valuable? In the next one, he is driving. These Millennials, always on the move... and on the internet while on the move. Oh, and he wouldn't have felt obligated to wear a face diaper for part of his routine, had he just sat the hell down, or stood up, in his apartment making this. And, for cryin' out loud, hold the phone sideways for the aspect ratio!
Nice job though!
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Why is it always "China, China, China"?! - Part 2
Posted On: Tuesday - February 2nd 2021 8:16AM MST
In Topics: China Economics
(continued from part 1.)
I guess not all PS readers got the joke of the title and image last time either. It's from an old famous scene in The Brady Bunch, in which sister Jan, the middle girl in age, is jealous of all the attention given to he older sister Marcia. Go figure. Marcia Brady was cute!
This post gets to why Peak Stupidity IS all "China, China, China!", as opposed to Part 1, in which we expounded on why we need to get over China as a military threat of any kind, at least for now.
"It's the economics, stupid", in the words of a guy who was one of the most guilty of giving away Americans manufacturing might to the Chinese. (Getting attention and getting laid by anyone, ANYONE, but the Hildabeast was much more important to Bill Clinton than some silly thing like the future of America.)
I have mentioned this before, in that post about Paul Tsongas, that I can recall a snippet of a conversation I had with a friend about this subject, way back in the middle 1990s. We used to talk politics for an hour or so each week. He asked me how it's going to turn out for America when all these jobs we had (still a lot) went off to China for the Chinese to do at cheap rates. He was very prescient, but I, being a hard-core Libertarian economically (and not knowing the history of tariffs in America) argued for these free trade deals. "Well, it'll work out to whoever can get the job done for less. That's the way it should be. Thing will equalize out." Ooops, yeah, I don't show enough humility on here, but sure, I was wrong. This equalization had happened, as our former solid middle class gets down to a level of the Chinese pseudo middle-class, and it'll get lots lower if we don't start creating our own wealth.
I don't want to repeat things said before many times on this blog, most recently in the 6 part series Will America be looted by China? - - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6. Therefore, I'll just restate that we have been losing an economic war with China for a long time. OK, not just losing, but giving away territory for the simple hell of it. As we wrote last time, giving Most Favored Nation status to, and making unfair (to us) trade rules with, China for 25 years is like having started the Pacific war with Japan by first renting out our bases in Hawaii, the Aleutians, and the entire West Coast to them in 1940.
I give ex-President Trump lots of credit for being the first high official to do a few things, or even talk about, for that matter, the problem with our unfair trade deal with China. This is why, no matter his incompetence, bumbling, and bullshitting, I still think Donald Trump was on the side of actual Americans. With Zhou Bai Dien in office, I think things will get back to normal or worse for us in the economic war.
The reason Peak Stupidity has fixated on China lately is not that I didn't already know about this economic war for a long time. I've inherently known that this Service Economy* wasn't gonna cut the mustard for America. Perhaps for a decade now, especially as I got into Zerohedge for a spell, I could see that this massive outflow of US dollars was getting us into big trouble. The numbers (i.e. the yearly trade deficit vs. the value of American assets) are scary.
The thing is, I didn't see China as so much of a threat until I learned, very recently, how the Chinese Communist Party has such control of the place still. It's much worse since even 3 years ago, as Xi Jinping has become President for Life (head of the CCP comes with that). This isn't a benign economic juggernaut, as perhaps the Euro Zone may have been thought of, that we are dealing with here.
Americans had better realize how important this economic war is, because we don't want to lose this one. It won't be those nice Chinese small businessmen, the software guy you know, and those cute illegal alien waitresses at the King Buffet that we'll be dealing with.
Problem #1 for us is the likely civil war to come. Problem #2 is the economic war during which we've been taking a huge beating, whether we see it or not.
* That's a link to Part 1, here's Part 2, and Part 3 is linked to above with mention of Paul Tsongas.
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No more Polack jokes, please!
Posted On: Monday - February 1st 2021 8:05PM MST
In Topics: Genderbenders Humor Political Correctness Cars
It's not that Peak Stupidity is in the throes of a period of Political Correctness here. Polack jokes have been fun. I didn't really get the "Polacks are stupid" premise to begin with, though, having never really known any Polish people besides one roommate long ago, and he was bright enough. (I don't remember asking him to screw in a light bulb, so I'm not completely sure about him.)
No, our request here for the cessation of these jokes is simply based on embarrassment. Who are Americans and other English speakers to make jokes about any foreigners now, with the stupidity going on that can be made fun of so easily by others? Even Volvo of Sweden, a PC heaven, has seen fit to make fun of the English-speaking readers of their ad, yet leave the Polacks alone:
The American/Euro joke in this case was about our Genderbender nonsense, spread far and wide as a most important issue. Note that the English language ad has an interracial gay couple with a daughter, adopted I guess, but who knows, while the Polish ad shows a normal couple (although the guy does look a little too swarthy for a Polack).
This is an ad not for the car itself, but for employment. The virtue signaling in it is likely there to sell cars too though. If they think this ad will help sell cars to any normal Americans, or make them more likely to consider Volvo for employment*, well, no, surely they are joking with us. I don't see a Polish joke in the Polish ad's graphic.
It's now time for the world to make fun of Americans, I guess. Peak Stupidity will refrain from Polish jokes in the hopes that the Polacks won't notice us and the stupidity here. Wetback, Negro, Wop, Jap, Chink, Kike, and Canuck jokes are still strongly encouraged.
* I suppose even for normal people, if the wife is about to pop out a few kids in the next few years, one could take advantage of this offer. Otherwise, this ad just screams "HR ladies! Ahhhhhh!"
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[UPDATED 02/02:] Commenter Alarmist informed me that "EMEA region" in the ad means European Middle East Africa region. I changed the wording. As The Alarmist wrote, I don't think the Moslem world would take any more kindly to this crap that Peak Stupidity does (a mark in their favor). I'm guessing the idea was to virtue-signal and put some Wokeness in the face of the English speaking world, while still advertising their employment policy.
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Comments (14)
Why is it always "China, China, China"?! - Part 1
Posted On: Monday - February 1st 2021 8:20AM MST
In Topics: China US Feral Government The Neocons World Political Stupidity
I could well understand the average Peak Stupidity reader having gotten fed up with all this posting about China recently. Just about a year ago, near the beginning of this Kung Flu PanicFest (back then, it was still the Chinese version), we were still of the opinion "live and let live." The attitude has changed, and we'll explain this in a couple of quick posts.
No, Peak Stupidity has not turned into a den of Neocons overnight (on the lunar calendar?). We are Libertarian, or maybe "Constitutionalist" is a more acceptable term nowadays. We have written many times, such as our introduction to the Neocons (here) and just reiterated by commenter "Some People Call Me Maurice" a couple of days ago, America is way too broke for this policing-the-world crap, even if it WERE the right thing to do. It's not.
It's completely unConstitutional for the American military to be defending anyone or anything but the land and people of the United States. I was about to write "and IN the US", but then the Marines and Barbary pirates having it out very early on in this country, 217 years ago, was Constitutional in that the Navy is the ONLY branch of the military even allowed and they were defending American men. That's water (get it?) under the bridge now, of course, the business about having no standing army.
So, you know we are bonafide here, with that digression. Let me get to the point, which is Taiwan. Taiwan is the island where the Nationalists of China retreated from the Communists to 70-odd years back, as the Commies under Butcher Mao took over the mainland of the country. Keeping that place away from the hands of China and the CCP was a worthy endeavor throughout that 4 decade period through the end of the Cold War. The 3 more decades since have been the time of the Neocons. It's been about having a blast, blasting people all over the world on whims, as the sole superpower till, well, about now. Much of the Neocon effort was in support of Israel, no doubt, but not all.
Can we let go of the idea that "we must defend the South China Sea shipping lanes", "but, the Spratly Islands!", and "what about the Koreans and the Japanese?!"? Hey, every one of these nations (and we can count Taiwan as one for now, airline, since-defunct, in-flight magazines* notwithstanding) have huge trade surpluses with America. We have been selling out our manufacturing capability to all of them. Let's just let them take care of themselves. They can spend their own money on defense against China. "Oh, but we come out ahead by having bases all over there." Again, for what?? We're broke, and we'll be lucky to keep our country intact even without any wars overseas.
Let's think about the treaty with Taiwan that we have. I'm not gonna read the thing, but whether it says Taiwan is obligated to reciprocate in our defense or not, they never were going to do that. They will worry about themselves only, and it may lead them to capitulate to the CCP at some point.
Sorry, the Cold War has been over for 32 years. Taiwan, from what I've read, is a nice place, much cleaner and more orderly than China. I've never been. It would be a shame if it gets absorbed into what's turning into another totalitarian world over there in the Middle Kingdom. Life's a bitch.
After I'd already planned on writing this post, I read the latest transcription** of a "Radio Derb" podcast by John Derbyshire. In segment 04 of this one, he gives his opinion of the likely near-future Taiwan situation. Please read the whole segment, which is a reply to a reader's confusion over the pundit's opinion, but here's the summary:
We can't save Taiwan, except at a cost the American people will not — and should not — accept. That's a grim truth that I say with no pleasure at all.I agree except for that very last part. The military brass who push the SJW social experimentation on the military will only learn the problem with their stupidity if they end up personally lying in ditches with serious wounds. The Neocons that cheer on these wars would probably have to be dead before they changed their minds.
My own acquaintance with Taiwan goes back nearly 50 years — to July 23rd 1971, according to the entry visa stamped in my passport. I love the place; I have fond memories of it; in a just world Taiwan would be an independent country; I shall weep to see them fall under the horrible lawless ChiCom tyranny. I just don't believe we can stop it; and if we try, the best outcome will be a humiliation for us. The worst doesn't bear thinking about.
And, looking on the bright side, the humiliation may be salutary for Americans. It may end our fantasies of imperial power and our futile missionary wars.
It may also prompt us to reform our military, from a colossally-expensive stage for the acting-out of social-justice and world-policeman fantasies to a real, meritocratic fighting force concentrated on homeland defense.
Now some of the American Cold War and longer-term allies around the world, such as Australia and New Zealand, pretty nearby, may be having some 2nd thoughts about having given the Americans so much grief for being the world's policeman. They have gotten used to the American military umbrella, nuclear and otherwise. Again, the Cold War is over, so we do need to get out. However, those countries, with their lefties that have been giving us crap all these years, may need to buckle up. One thing they SHOULD HAVE done is not let the Chinese infiltrate as immigrants. Most of them are not spies, mind you, but what exactly is going to be the mindset of a 5-year Chinese Australian resident when the shit goes down? Just whose side will he be on?
Not my problem. We need to GTFO of China's business, militarily. The reason Peak Stupidity has been going on about China a lot lately is that our war with them is economic, and it's been going on quite a while already. We didn't get the best start. Giving MFN status and making unfair (to us) trade rules with China for 25 years is like having started the Pacific war with Japan by first renting out our bases in Hawaii, the Aleutians, and the entire West Coast to them in 1940.
The next post on this will be about the economic war with China We'll try to explain why we write so much about it.
* See also the prequel to that story.
** I used this wording because Mr. Derbyshire usually has his podcasts out for about a week before he publishes the transcriptions, which take < 1/5 the time to read vs. listening. So, he may have a "more latest" podcast, but you can't read it yet.
Comments (4)
It's the World Gone Crazy Cotillion
Posted On: Saturday - January 30th 2021 11:14PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Music
There are 4 or 5 other posts I was thinking of putting up for the end of the Peak Stupidity week. My mind got interrupted by some additional disturbing Kung Flu Panicfest shit that my wife passed on to me as I'd just gotten back from a fun trip out of town with some friends.
It seems even the local park is not a stupid-free zone anymore. (I never saw any flyers about a meeting!) A set of parents we both know, the Mom friendlier than the Dad, have 2 kids, the oldest who plays with ours and the rest of the fun park crowd most days. That kid* has been forced to wear a face mask for a couple of weeks now. I'd heard his Dad chide him about it a while back, and now the Mom was told to do the same ("told" is what I think, since she was in no way a panicker even 2 months back).
Now, since I was gone and my wife was out there, she was told that I seem to be under the impression that this Kung Flu is not real, and our kid should be wearing a face mask too. Well, with my not being there to defend myself, I didn't have a chance to tell the other Mom that, yeah, I agree there's this virus, but we all know that the kids are not vulnerable and they've been playing close together for 6 months now. Whatever they may have in their systems, germ-wise, has already spread around the group.
Do these people even remember the common cold and the flu, and how this works? They seem to have forgotten all common sense regarding infectious disease. They have lost all perspective about this.
When I hear this from people I know pretty well, I really have to sit there for a few minutes (luckily I was sitting down at home) and think "hey, am I missing something? Many of these people think I'm the crazy one about this, not caring about this most important Kung Flu." It's an unnerving feeling, thinking that maybe I'm the nutty one here. That only lasts for about 10 seconds though, as my perspective kicks in.
It's just the World's Gone Crazy cotillion here.
This one, co-written with Shel Silverstein, is from Waylon's 1979 album What Goes Around Comes Around.
It's the world's gone crazy cotillion.
The ladies are dancin' alone.
Side men all want to be front men,
and the front men all want to go home.
The meek they ain't inheirited nothin'.
The leaders are fallin' behind.
So I'm singin' my song to the deaf man
and dancin' my dance to the blind.
Nope, my boy ain't wearin' a face diaper to the park. Those parents can take their stupid elsewhere where it sells better. So I don't have to hear about it, I guess I'll sit or stand WAY WAY FAR away from the Crazy Cotillion, throwing the frisbee or writing blog posts.
PS: That Dad is a hard core lefty. Mr. E.H. Hail has noted that this panic/anti-panic divide does not fall along traditional American political dividing lines. I think crazy still does.
* The younger of the 2, about 2 1/2 years old, gets around the playground some of the time, with no mask on, which is somehow different. OK, he won't wear it because he's too little and it's cruelty, but how does this fit in with the narrative of the Panicfest, in that we're dealing with Black Plague 2.0 here? Shouldn't he be at home, though, in that case?
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For want of a washer - Part 2
Posted On: Friday - January 29th 2021 4:57PM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Economics
This can be considered a continuation from the old Peak Stupidity post For want of a rubber washer, 45 minutes was lost.. This time, it was a fender washer, not enough difference to warrant another blog post, except for the Kung Flu tie-in. What CAN'T the COVID-one-niner do?!
The point of that previous post is that the draining of American manufacturing/human capital is making it harder to get things done as a DIYer. That is Do It Yourselfer(s), who were, in former America, probably # 1 in the world, yet we wondered, with a self-rebuttal, whether this ability would shift to China.
The local hardware stores are mostly gone, with Ace stores a middle ground between those local guys and the big-box stores. My problem was that I had forgotten that fender washer when I got the rest of the parts. I came close to manufacturing a part that would do the job (didn't have to be round, just take up the right space), when an errand I did for a friend took us close to a Fastenal. Well, I'd forgotten about those guys, but when it comes to that chain, they have any nuts/bolts/washers/screws, well, OK, fasteners, that I could ever want. (One often must buy in bulk though, but I could deal with that rather than spend 1/2 hour extra going/coming/at the big box store.)
Nope, I should say "HAD" everything ... because their closed sign telling us about the COVID sounded like this was permanent. It said wholesale customers only could make appointments or something, and get on the internet.
This is the problem, as related in the old post of ours. You can't just do every damn thing on the internet. If this little project was already working, and I wanted to engineer a bunch of them (not the idea, in this case), sure, I could wait for parts that I'd specified carefully, weed out the crap, and get a supply going. I just wanted a damn fender washer, though. On to the big box store it was, then.
I'll give 'em this, the big box store has a good hardware selection. You can get onesies of these washers, so I picked out 4 of each of 3 sizes of fender washers*. You just write down the 5-digit SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) on the bag. OK, but no pen was there, and I didn't have one. Not so bad, the first 2 digits were the same, so I repeated the 3 sets of remaining digits in my head on the way to the register. The point was to avoid the 10-minute price-check process.
Luckily there was almost no wait at the customer service area, as I needed to return 2 things I had thought I might need but didn't anyway*. "Hey, no pen, I gotta give you these numbers quick." Well, she didn't get half of them right, but I didn't care. 2 bucks, 3 bucks total, whatever, time is money. I could tell she wasn't getting it straight when one of them came up with "bolts XXX XXX " on the register. Who cares?! Just take the money. Were it one of the really uncaring black girls, I'd have been out of there.
I, even without a face mask on, realized the we couldn't communicate this way with the plexiglass. Since this cashier wore a mask for her job's sake, even with no foreign language problem (very common nowadays) she was coming through about 2 x 4 (like a 2 by 4 upside the head). I had to lean down to the 8" gap in the shielding down near the counter, put my face halfway through, and give her the SKU numbers! Peak Stupidity, my friends, is not just a URL anymore.
* That's what it's coming to, building up your own hardware store, it seems, just for when you might need something. How efficient is that though? Or I could go into the hardware business, or we could have a small community one close by, but we're going back to the beginning here...
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The Reddit penny-ante crowd beats The House
Posted On: Thursday - January 28th 2021 7:34PM MST
In Topics: Global Financial Stupidity Big-Biz Stupidity
"The House always wins", they say. The odds favor the Casinos in the "gaming"* world of cards, craps, and one-armed bandits that don't even spit out coins anymore (and that was 10 years ago). They've got to earn a living, provide that free beer when you push that button on top of the nickel slot machine**, and pay off the politicians that work out the deal with gambling on the river. Fine.
In the
This is by far the favorite news national story I've heard of in quite some time. This comment by commenter Talha under an Audacious Epigone post on this story has an image from Reddit with a very good explanation of shorting stocks and what happened in this case. By bidding up Gamestop stock up by something like 700% they cost The House, aka, the Big Finance guys, LOTS of money, as covering shorts can be very costly. It's a risky business, but then The House is used to arranging things so that the risk is minimal. Not this time! The House doesn't like to lose, though ...
The Big Finance guys are now out there on TV, apparently (I only read about it here and there) going on about REGULATION!! We must not allow people to game the system, dammit! How obviously hypocritical is this? Shoot, I wish I'd thought of this, but I'm not even a penny-ante guy. I don't like games of chance, hence I choose Chess over Trouble and Tetris over Solitaire.
Now, about Gamestop and video games, there was a store near us that closed more than 5 years ago. Yeah, can't people download it all from the "App Store"? Even I, a non-playing character in the market, would not have been buying up GME. Why are people in the market gambling and trying to beat The House to begin with?
That's an easy one. When the price of money, that is, interest rates, are forced down to values that don't even keep up with inflation, there aren't many choices when it comes to finding a place to store the value of one's labor. Inflation is not the low 1-2% that the BLS advertises. The loss of one's money to theft via inflation is significant. Because I had once believed this same thing, I think lots of people think that's all interest is supposed to cover, inflation. When one finally gets to thinking about the basic point of borrowing money, and the point of lending it, one gets to the concepts of the time value of money, and interest as the "price of money".
After more than a dozen years of the Federal Reserve forcing interest rates down in the basement, and housing purchases as investments being seen as not always a great move, the stock market is all that's left for people who want their money to "grow" (as in, at least be there in value for them in a few decades.)
So, ordinary people feel they have to gamble ("game"?) just to keep even. The House has to win though, and for every stock share bought, that's a stock share sold, a zero-sum game. The House doesn't want any more of this crazy losing shit, and they have already used Big-"TECH", that Robinhood site, to try to put the kibosh on future efforts to beat them like this.
Who knows, though? This Gamestop thing, nothing really about the video stores at all, but just the game, was very heartening. Maybe the penny-ante people will rise up and beat the living out of The House. That same Italian guy who's on all those mob movies explains:
* "Gambling" sounds too, I dunno, risky and addictive, so we say gaming now, meaning, like, gambling.
** Long ago, in Lost Wages, I was trying to show a friend how to push that button somewhere on the slot machine to get free beer (to even the odds), and I couldn't find it, so a rent-a-cop came over thinking we were somehow out to break into the machine, then figured out one of us was under the age to be in the joint, and kicked us out.
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The Farewell to Kings didn't take
Posted On: Wednesday - January 27th 2021 10:06PM MST
In Topics: Media Stupidity US Feral Government
I just cannot walk by a working TV set these days, even for 5 seconds, without coming up with a blog post. This time, it was the Lyin' Press Infotainment with a story about Joe Biden's being rude or aggressive to someone, I guess a reporter, pundit, or maybe politician.
The video this screenshot came from was about an incident back in late November '20.
"What's the problem?", the reader may ask. It's amazing that the Lyin' Press is saying something bad at all about this President, knowing that they are nothing but another branch of the Feral Gov't, and we know where it stands. Yes, Peak Stupidity could write bad things about Zhou Bai Dien for months itself, but we don't want to bore the readers or cause a Peak Stupidity staff suicide of some sort.
I also have noticed Joe Biden's aggressiveness. That time he got in the face of a factory worker (in Ohio, I believe) who politely asked the candidate a question got me wondering how much seniority the guy had. Were it me with less than 15 years in, I'd have been likely to have just took a quick swing at the guy's face. Yeah, Mr. Biden could use to spend some time in an Anger Management class.
Again, what's my problem? Here's the problem: I miss the old American Republic, or what was left of it in my younger days, where the President did his thing, and only the National Enquirer cared about these little personal stories. The President is supposed to be Administrator of the Executive Branch. Congress did the lawmaking, the courts didn't do so much of it, and the President could push an agenda verbally with that "bully pulpit". However, I don't recall it was all about Executive Orders so much back in the day.
We posted I'd thought we'd bid Farewell to Kings a couple of years back (yes, of course we included a Rush song). That post was about flags being lowered to half-mast for G.H.W. Bush dying, which was just too much obsequiousness for this guy. Now, it's constant reporting on every little detail, that just evokes thoughts of the USSR or North Korea. "Oh, our Dear Leader sneezed. What does that mean for our future?" "So and so visited the White House yesterday. How will that affect policy?" "He's wearing a red tie today. What's that mean?"
It could be partly that the 24/7/365-6 Infotainment must fill up all that air time. It's also the huge amount of power the President is let to wield these days, should he see fit (Biden, lots of it, Trump, not so much). I long for the days of Calvin Coolidge. "The President hasn't been heard from for 2 1/2 weeks." "Good!" America's Founders bid Farewell to Kings, but it seems the belief in Kings has come back to America.
The constant harassment of President Trump was for other reasons, but even this negative "story" about Joe Biden's personality quirks turns me off as just too Soviet or North Korean for my tastes. We need to know what kind of horror is in the new legislation coming down the pike and the names of all the assholes voting for it. That'd be news I can use.
Comments (6)
Magic? Politics? Science? Did President Biden Cure Covid?
Posted On: Wednesday - January 27th 2021 12:07AM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Pundits Liberty/Libertarianism Healthcare Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
The post title is the title of former Congressman Ron Paul's latest weekly edition of his Liberty Report. I thank a friend for sending me a link, though I should be watching this every week for a number of reasons:
1) I should support this guy, one of the few real Constitutionalists ever in Congress, one of the few ever in the pundit world (here's another), and one of the few left in the world, period.
2) I can get some more material for this site.
3) It is a breath of truthful fresh air in an atmosphere of lies. It is so relaxing to watch these videos, and I can spare 1/2 hour a week for this guy.
Ron Paul's co-host Dan McAdams doesn't do as much of the talking as Dr. Paul, but he think he does more of the "leg-work", searching for examples to illustrate the points, etc. He had a bunch of comparisons of Lyin' Press narrative output, errr, reporting from just before and just after the Zhou Bai Dien inauguration. This is my favorite, from the smooth, polite .... you're getting sleeeepy ... folks at NPR:
Yeah, the story seems to have changed over a couple of days there around mid/late January*. We used to worry, but it's all over now...
I've said good and bad things about Ron Unz, creator and proprietor of the unz.com site, but of the good, the most important is that Mr. Unz will host the words/videos of guys like Dr. Paul. He had hosted Ron Paul's Liberty Report videos before, but they are not on there now. Because I trust Ron Unz on this sort of thing, this is NOT because he wants to "cancel" the guy. It may be that he's boycotting youtube at this point and will put bitchute videos of the Liberty Report on at some point. Mr. Unz still has Dr. Paul's columns here.
* For you higher math dudes - I mean if you can read our masthead... - when you have an "acceleration", as in an increasing slope, just before a peak, doesn't that mean there's going to be a discontinuity? I hate
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Kung Flu, or just the Flu?
Posted On: Tuesday - January 26th 2021 8:13PM MST
In Topics: Healthcare Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
On the first day of this year, commenter Mr. Anon noted under the Peak Stupidity post Prognosis Positive that's it's been a really quiet flu season. I mean really quiet, just too freakin' quiet to be believable. All we anti-panickers have wondered about which types of deaths were being marked down by coroners or doctors as being FROM the Covid-19, rather than a death of someone WITH the virus, or, for that matter, WITHOUT some times too. There are plenty of incentives to do so.
Now, when we hear of or read about the "excess death" count, as Steve Sailer wrote about (with a slew of 10 graphs from some guy), it's easy to get baffled by all that excess. After all, if more people are dying, period, than what IS the deal. We noted in the comments that these baselines (or base curves, actually) that are being subtracted out to determine these excess deaths are, shall we say, "unsound". Are the actual general rises in deaths of a rapidly aging American population being taken into account?
Even if that base curve represented some "normal" year of people dying, can't there be significant rises in other deaths of any sorts that should be subtracted off of these large supposed Kung Flu deaths? With the LOCKDOWNS having (purposefully) caused an economic depression, there must be higher levels of some types of deaths - (suicides, for example) along with lower levels of others (traffic accidents, for example).
Let's just look at the flu though, or to speak technically, the influenza. The wonderful CDC itself, as reported by the United Press Int'l, says about the current flu season (defined as a period centered on the wintertime) Flu continues to have 'low' impact as COVID-19 pandemic rages. In the words of a different Satan, not in the employee of the US Feral Gov't, How convenient!
Our good friends, by this point, at the Statista.com site show the death counts for 10 of the most recent flu years on this page:
An average year over that decade had 35,000 to 40,000 deaths from influenza. Here's a table from a wiki page with the same data along with the number of hospitalizations:
OK, now what did the CDC have to say? Oh, yeah, here:
Only 136 people across the country have been hospitalized with the flu so far this winter. No flu-related deaths have been reported, the agency said.Now, that's a little far-fetched, don't you think? Oh, but it's because we have been diligent in wearing our masks and keeping our 6 ft. distances, the short UPI article says.. That's not reality, though, and why do those Kung Flu filled droplets still hit their marks, while the influenza filled droplets don't? Is the former really that much more contagious? We've been told different stories on that, often from the same people.
By this time last winter, more than 15 million people in the United States had been sickened with the influenza virus, with 140,000 requiring hospitalization as a result, the CDC estimated.
This last wiki table has 10 years worth of Flu-symptomatic Illnesses and medical visits due to flu. Man, those are big numbers. What happens to those people that get sent to the hospital for the flu this season? Well, they get tested for the COVID-19 antibodies, and, if positive, whatever problems they've got will be chalked up to the Kung Flu rather than the "normal" flu. Peak Stupidity has already noted the big incentives, both monetary and political, in place to encourage this to happen.
OK, with 425,000 supposed total Kung Flu deaths in this country as of today, an average flu season would be 8-9% of that. Is it no big factor? Yeah, how do we know this wouldn't have been a killer flu year, if we'd been logging them? What happens when patients with these typically elderly patients with normal flu symptoms get sent to the hospital? They are getting more crowded now. The patient cannot have visits with his loved ones, and bad things happen at the hospital. I think the sorrow alone can kill a lot of the elderly, and there's plenty of sorrow to go around now.
Comments (5)
Bad news, good news.
Posted On: Monday - January 25th 2021 9:16PM MST
In Topics: China
After our 6-part series of speculation about looting of America by the Chinese (Part 1: Intro, Part 2: Housing, Part 3: Big Biz, Part 4: The Fruited Plain, Part 5: The Wilderness, and Part 6: Conclusion - The Golden Rule), it's time for a little good news. Good news for us, not for the Chinese, that is. This is purely anecdotal, but I think I can extrapolate some.
It's about the Chinese middle class. Even with a few hundred million rural people still in poverty, that middle class is bigger than the entire U.S. of A., even with 30 million illegal aliens. The question is, what kind of middle class is it. I know from experience in the country, the salaries people make, and the cost of living, that this Chinese middle class in NOTHING like the American middle class of the 1950s through the 1990s, well even what's left of it now.
The Chinese economy is booming, because they make all the stuff. (OK, some is being outsourced for cheaper labor, but they are a manufacturing powerhouse.) The hardest working of the Chinamen are not the ones getting the biggest benefit of this economy though. The Chinese Communist Party runs the show there, and it's those high-up and those connected, who unfairly reap the big bucks via corruption. The owner of a 200 employee plant that I'd visited (a lean, mean operation, with an office staff of 8, including said owner) was able to get a nice Toyota, but that was the extent of the extravagance.
The people we know there are working couples, both working long days to support one or two kids. The grandparents, if not living with them, are close by to take care of the kids during the daytime outside of school hours. This for the equivalent of $3,000 a month* tops for the family. In the big city, cars are expensive to own, and the public transportation can make for a long working day. Plenty of Americans do the same, but this is LOWER middle class, at best.
Peak Stupidity has mentioned before the situation that has arisen from the 1-child policy, which has been pretty much rescinded only in the last 5 years or so. With 1 or 2 kids getting attention from 6 parents/grandparents, there are a lot of spoiled Chinese young adults by this point. There are stories of divorce, kids dropping out of school, etc, that we heard. Life is not easy for the middle class, but more of the social problems the US has had for half a century may be cropping up there too.
I will write a post on the "demographic collapse" some time soon. That's in quotes because declining population, especially in a place with 1.4 Billion people is not in itself a bad thing. Right now, though, China, is not so much the place of family formation (affordable or not) that it once was.
No, I don't have the stats on me. These thoughts are just along the lines of: China is no monolithic juggernaut, at least as a people. We can hope that they have enough social problems of their own that they don't get a chance to do all that looting. OTOH the CCP big money guys are the ones that would do the big looting and they are doing well. We can hope that the hard-core turn toward Totalitarianism of Xi Jinping will do to the economy what it usually does. I'd like to see that before our SHTF. It's a race of competing lumps of shit headed toward their respective fans. Get some real assets and go long Orville Redenbacher.
* The Chinese discuss their salaries on a monthly basis.
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He's leavin', on a jet plane, don't think I'll give a crap again...
Posted On: Saturday - January 23rd 2021 4:38PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Trump Dead/Ex- Presidents
That's it. We knew we couldn't expect this guy to make it all better for us, but most of us expected a lot more help out of him than we got. The reader will find plenty of posts of disparagement, discouragement, disappointment, and distain for the (mostly) words, actions and lack thereof from President Trump. He will also find a number of posts with hope and encouragement. The former are likely more in number than the latter, as this guy was a really big failure compared to what he could have been.
John Derbyshire lays it out pretty well too, in his recent column The World of Null-T—Next Time, We Need A Cadre Who Know Their Way Around*. "Failure" is the word he uses too. There's no hope here for "yeah, wait for the midterms!" or "2024!" The hope we have is based on those of us, in the dozens of millions, who put some hope in Donald Trump but realize now that things can't be fixed by one man anyway. More realize now that the GOP is just one of 2 major squads of The Party, and The Party is not on our side, and, no, "we ain't in it."
It would have been nice for Donald Trump to at least done a few decent gestures and said a few good words for his supporters at the end. Nope, instead of pardoning some Conservatives or the Deep-State nemisae(?) Ed Snowden* and Julian Assange, he pardoned some assistant to an Israeli spy and some black dudes for I don't care what. And, nope, instead of at least saying words to minimize and fight the BS infotainment barrage about that "insurrection", and giving a little support to the Capitol Gang, he just left us with some more about HIM, HIM, HIM. Hey, man, we don't care anymore. This wasn't all about YOU! We just thought you'd be a good help for our cause.
Sayonara, suck...., oops, we're the suckers.
* See also another 2-part review of the movie - Part 1 and Part 2
Comments (9)
Katherine Tai - our man in China
Posted On: Friday - January 22nd 2021 6:50PM MST
In Topics: China US Feral Government ctrl-left
Steve Sailer has a post out, Has Biden Nominated Any White Protestants to the Cabinet?. I'm sure we'll get the usual culturally destructive nation-destroying set that you'll get when the blue squad is in office, somewhat worse than the swamp creatures
Next here are Biden’s existing appointments and nominees for these 21 positions and their ethnicities:The reader can go, or probably already has, to that post for commentary. I just figured I'd put these names out there with possibly a post on them later, but this post is only about one of these minions.
Secretary of State (Antony Blinken – WHITE-JEWISH)
Secretary of the Treasury (Janet Yellen – WHITE-JEWISH)
Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin – BLACK)
Attorney General (Merrick Garland – WHITE-JEWISH)
Secretary of the Interior (Deb Haaland – MIXED RACE (Red Indian + Norwegian))
Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack – WHITE-CATHOLIC)
Secretary of Commerce (Gina Raimondo – WHITE-CATHOLIC (Italian American))
Secretary of Labor (Marty Walsh – WHITE-CATHOLIC (Irish American))
Secretary of Health and Human Services (Xavier Becerra – HISPANIC (Mexican American))
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Marcia Fudge – BLACK)
Secretary of Transportation (Pete Buttigieg – WHITE-CATHOLIC)
Secretary of Energy (Jennifer Granholm – WHITE-CATHOLIC (Scandinavian + Irish))
Secretary of Education (Miguel Cardona – HISPANIC (Puerto Rican))
Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Denis McDonough – WHITE-CATHOLIC (Irish American))
Secretary of Homeland Security (Alejandro Mayorkas HISPANIC-JEWISH)
Trade Representative (Katherine Tai – ASIAN (Chinese American))
Director of National Intelligence (Avril Haines – WHITE-JEWISH)
Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Neera Tanden – ASIAN (Indian-American))
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (William Burns – WHITE CATHOLIC (Irish-American))
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Michael S. Regan – BLACK)
Administrator of the Small Business Administration (Isabel Guzman – HISPANIC-JEWISH)j
I’ve been looking up some info on this Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative. She is full-out Chinese and was born in Connecticut. Both her parents were born in mainland China. However, (and I haven’t found those details yet), I’m guessing her folks were hard-core anti-Commies, as I read that they “grew up in Taiwan”. They must have gotten out of Red China with the rest of the Nationalists in the “Great Retreat” in late 1949, pretty young I guess, since Mrs. Tai was born in 1974.
Going to the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, FS, then Yale and Harvard Law School, can knock the Conservatism right out of a guy, or gal, though. Mrs. Tai taught English at a university in China for 2 years – this had to be between the late ’90s and ’07. That was kind of a weird deal for a young woman law graduate, as that is a better deal for young Western men with Yellow Fever who can live on a low budget and pick up chicks.
Oh, from CNBC:
Tai, who is Asian-American, would also be the first woman of color to serve as the USTR. She is fluent in Mandarin.No shit? I would never have known, had I not read the enlightening article. Did you see that “first woman of color” bit? I had thought Oriental people were not part of that P.O.C. crowd. I guess it’s good for the stats without having to hire some dumb corrupt black lady.
Whose side is Katherine Tai on regarding trade? I’d guess she’s on the side of all the Establishment, meaning she’s down with giving all that’s left away. Zhou Bai Dien says he’s not going to take away Trump’s tariffs yet, but we’ll see. I think he’s on the hook to the CCP, and they will both do whatever they are told.
Comments (12)
Et tu, Ann?
Posted On: Friday - January 22nd 2021 12:44PM MST
In Topics: Trump Pundits Americans Liberty/Libertarianism
(Image stolen off VDare, a regular thing here.)
Ann Coulter's latest column is First Duty Of The Press—Make It About Race!. Says Miss Coulter, in her intro. paragraph:
Why can’t liberals ever just let Trump hang himself? Isn’t what he’s actually done bad enough? No, the media always have to punch up the story, layering lie upon lie, until normal people are forced to say, I don’t want to defend the guy, but that didn’t happen.I've got no problem with Ann's basic point of this column. Being called a "racist" is currently the worst it can get, insult wise, worse then bum, philander, dog-torturer, pedophile, or your standard asshole, jackass, shithead, fuckface, hell, even all of the above. (Where's George Carlin when we need him?) Of course, we don't have to let it be that way, with a little courage. "Racist!!" "Yeah, what about it?"
Miss Coulter is right that if any story can be made about race it helps the ctrl-left, the Lyin' Press being a solid part of this crowd. I haven't read a lot or listened to/viewed anything but that one line in passing, on the Jan 6th festivities in Washington, FS*. That's because, having some perspective and not being a lying sack of shit**, I do know that the event was not any big deal. In the sane America of 1955, yeah, it would have been a big story. Compared to a summer of BLM and a year of LOCKDOWNs, no it's surely not. So, yeah, lying to make this event about race is a usual trick of the Lyin' Press to make stories worse and more horrible. I! GET! THAT! ANN!
Then we get to the ending:
The raid was disgusting, appalling, sickening, but it’s not a license for concocting imaginary accusations. Trump is bad. The thugs who stormed the Capitol are bad. You don’t need to manufacture evidence against them, media."Raid"? "Disgusting"? "Thugs"? All those 3 terms are lies out of Ann Coulter.
Raid - Definition:- Nope, nobody on the patriot side was armed. I wouldn't say it was a surprise in the sense of a pre-planned surprise attack like George Washington and his men on Trenton, New Jersey either.
n. A surprise attack by a small armed force.
n. A sudden forcible entry into a place by police.
n. An entrance into another's territory for the purpose of seizing goods or valuables.
- Forcible entry is questionable too, and nope, they were not police.
- Seizing goods or valuables? Does that count Nancy's laptop? (I wish.) This protest was not made for the purpose of seizing goods or valuables.
You are a liar, Ann.
Disgusting - Definition:
adj. Arousing disgust; repugnant. synonym: offensive.
Causing disgust; offensive to the taste, physical, moral, or esthetic.
adj. That causes disgust; sickening; offensive; revolting.
- People were amused. "Our" leaders were fearful, for no honest reason. Others were worried (as they don't want patriots to actually ever get organized). Nobody found it offensive to their physical, moral, or esthetic taste.
- Well, if it were a real revolt, I guess one could call it revolting, but it was not. Sickening? Nah, that doesn't it. Offensive to what? Even if they didn't like the implications of this protest, many thought it a pretty fun crowd.
You are a liar, Ann.
Thug - Definition:
n. A cutthroat or ruffian; a hoodlum.
n. One of a group of professional criminals, devotees of Kali, who robbed and murdered travelers in northern India until the mid-1800s.
n. A member of a confraternity of professional assassins and robbers formerly infesting India, chiefly in the central and northern provinces.
- Not one of the patriots cut anyone's throat, though one was shot in the throat at close range by a cop. My image of a hoodlum is someone who usually lives in the hood, and is 180 degree from the images I saw of these patriots.
- Nah, most of the people in this MAGA crowd have real jobs, though some may indeed be professionals. I saw hardly any •Indians in the crowd (not a very patriotic bunch), plus they would be technically infesting American, not India. Who is this man Kali of which you speak?
- NRA members? Sure. Ducks Unlimited members? Yeah, probably. Members of a confraternity of professional assassins and robbers formerly infesting India, chiefly in the central and northern provinces? I doubt there were more than one or two of them, and they would have been way in the back, out of the fray, shitting on the grass over behind the Lincoln Memorial.
You are a liar, Ann.
I've gotten a lot of truth out of Ann Coulter over the last 15 years, along with great snarky humor. As of late, she's had a lot of courage, too, delving into the race issue, as in this very column. I've described her as batting a .980 with her views. Other than some big thing against "the pot" and then her clueless support for Affirmative Action (only if it's fair, though. Wait, that's an oxymoron.), there's not been anything substantial I've disagreed with her on since 9-11.
This one paragraph has got me pretty pissed off at Ann Coulter. I don't understand how she could have such a great perspective and then see these events in this fashion. Sure, maybe someone got to her. Maybe she realized on her own that she'd better put this paragraph in some column, before too long, if she wants to stay in the high-status punditry position that she occupies.
I don't care about all that, though. I don't like being lied to. You've figuratively stabbed these patriots in the back with this writing. Shame on you, Ann Coulter.
PS: Oh, and Miss Coulter, if you really want to be truthful on the race issue, why do you still support Affirmative Action?
* That's Federal Shithole, for those who are new here at Peak Stupidity.
** About the cusswords on this post, in for a pound, in for a metric shit-tonne.
Comments (13)
The People of GoDaddy
Posted On: Thursday - January 21st 2021 1:06PM MST
In Topics: Internets Political Correctness Race/Genetics Big-Biz Stupidity Customer Care
I should spend more time on office center roofs, apparently, if I really want to go far with this site. I think I'll just send the HR department up there, maybe next tornado warning, you know, as entrepreneurial, like, look-outs, or something...
Yeah, Godaddy is our hosting company. I was hesitant to write this post a couple of weeks back when last dealing with the tech support people for assurance regarding our SSL certificate update. This was due to the fact they they do a very competent job in a nice way, and I just didn't want to piss off any of them who look at the site to check problems or verify things. Some may still be reading regularly even today, so, Welcome Aboard, GoDaddies! (Don't use your real name - Peak Stupidity won't be able to hire you on full time, much as we'd like to, if your HR ladies get wind of what kind of trouble you're up to.)
If voice is any indication, to a guy that's been around a while, everyone but one of the GoDaddy tech-support or billing support (they are x-trained) was white or very damn close*, and about 2 times out of 10 or so, they were women. I don't recall names, which I assume are real first names, not the fake American ones you hear from "customer care" people in India and the Philippines. Nobody even used one of those fowe-French style black names, even. (Perhaps management has put the kibosh on that due to too many disconnected calls.)
Yet, on a page that one can click through to see these very helpful people that I talked to, or will, I haven't seen but 1 or 2 that I just might have gotten help from.
Here's the thing. Affirmative Action has been around my whole life. As much as I know there are plenty of competent black or Hispanic and women software people around (have run into both, and I'm not counting •Indians either), I just can't be very confident that your average one is nearly as competent as the White guys. This is due specifically to Affirmative Action. White guys are the only people who have not benefitted (and of course, being left out of the hand-outs, are being screwed by it).
Were there no AA, then I'd just assume the managers and even dipshit HR ladies had hired the most qualified people. Why not? I know that's hard to imagine after 5 or 6 decades of this shit, but why not? Just charity? There are well-meaning people who want to lift up those poor competency-challenged People of Color and women, but you really don't want to piss off the customers or (in other businesses) get someone killed. However, with Big Gov involved, if you don't do this hiring, they will end up being the ones to shut your place down.
It's not always the case, by any means, but due to AA, I've just got to assume that I'll be better off with a White or Oriental guy helping me, and I've asked specifically before**. That's just the odds, and pretty good odds at that.
Back to GoDaddy specifically now, I've never talked to anyone on the phone whom I thought didn't have much of a clue. Some were more helpful than others, but that could vary over the course of time even for the same guy, based on time pressures. I will also assume that all of the people shown on the GoDaddy help pages that I got these pictures from are real. However, I'd bet whole lot of money, based on location (Scottsdale, Arizona) and the great help that I've gotten, that the place is staffed by mostly young intelligent white guys.
Fine, GoDaddy, make your site however you want. Political Correctness will get you in good with the authorities, so I can also understand that reason, as cucked-out as it is. However, what about the great guys that helped this customer out a number of times? How do they feel about being relegated to non-entities as far as your website, hence initial customers are concerned?
Dear hardworking white guys of GoDaddy,
Please stop emailing us with questions about having your photos and names on our external website. We've got your photos from your orientation day. We don't need them. We will not be able post any of you on the site due to ... reasons. You are not worthy.
Keep up the good work guys...
... or we will replace you with $3/hr cheaper •Indians.
Sincerely,
GoDaddy HR Team
* Maybe one or two were very, very light-skinned blacks who have gotten with the program, and don't even say "let me axe you a couple of questions about our service today." For most of them, no way even that. They sounded Whitey White.
** Can't find the post in question - link will come when I can.
Comments (6)
Borat 15 years later - what's so funny?
Posted On: Wednesday - January 20th 2021 4:02PM MST
In Topics: Movies Trump ctrl-left
I was quite a bit younger when the movie Borat* starring comedian Sasha Cohen, came out, even when I finally watched it on DVD. At that age, I was a bit too naive to understand what the actor was doing with that movie.
Just the guy with the funny Eastern European accent trying to be an American and asking stupid questions ("Does this car come with chick magnet?") was funny enough for me. Some of the jokes are still funny now. The Americans that character Borat interacted with were helpful and hospitable. To me, it was very much an example of what VDare has often stated, of being anti immigration (at least massive amounts of it) without being anti immigrant.
From watching youtube clips much later, I understand now that Sasha Cohen was using the movie to make fun of Americans and Americans' politics. It helped him that those he interacted with were too trusting, drunk in one case I recall, and asking stupid questions** usually elicits stupid answers. Mr. Cohen took real advantage of trusting people to make Borat funny, and to make Americans look stupid.
Sasha Cohen let Americans speak freely, as they were still used to doing in 2006, and there were no Americans calling for he to not be able to do the same with his movie. Mr. Cohen has apparently changed his mind about free speech:
Hey, I don't get it. What's so funny?
That's how the ctrl-left rolls. Since the 1960s, the left has been pro-free-speech and any other Constitutional rights when it helps them... not get thrown in jail, get off on technicalities when they do, and be able to spout off any manner of inciting anti-American garbage. Conservative Americans may have been quite triggered, had that been a word then, by much of this, but they understand the whole concept of free speech. The ctrl-left only pretends to when it's of help to them.
They don't need this help nowadays, as they have taken over all the institutions of American society. This idiot Borat is part of this new establishment. I wonder how long it will take Conservative patriotic (normally white male) Americans to understand that we are the counter-culture now. We're not going to get any breaks from that old US Constitution though, sorry.
* The full title is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Yeah, that's funny, and there are still some lines from it that I borrow today for this very blog.
** In one of Mr. Steve Sailer's posts on Sasha Cohen, Borat is Back, he has a clip of Cohen, in his character "Ali G", interviewing Donald Trump. It is stupid enough for Mr. Trump to have terminated the "interview" after a minute and a half after being very patient and humoring the guy. "Humoring" was necessary, as I didn't find Ali G one bit humorous.
Comments (9)
Just a quick question
Posted On: Wednesday - January 20th 2021 8:20AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Humor Healthcare Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
Oh, and this is post number 1776!* That ought to mean something, but 1776 doesn't ring much of a bell anymore to me. "Bell" get it? Liberty bell? Wait, did they they throw that out too, due to wokeness and that crack?
Here's the question about these face masks. We are told that the masks are for other's benefit. No, they can't screen out all the Kung Flu germies. They can prevent droplets from flying from here to there and everywhere... up to 6 +/- 0.01 ft. (I give an eight inch tolerance for people not being centered on their appropriate floor stickers.)
Wait, what's the question? OK, why are we told that these masks must be over our noses in addition to our mouths? Do droplets come flying out of our noses too, other than during the sneezing process, at which point, I don't recommend catching it all in one's face mask anyway?
I haven't experienced this, personally. I have seen spittle fly out of my mouth though, especially when I'm in an argument about the mandatory wearing of face diapers. It's great when they catch the sunlight, and just ballisticly settle in the spinach bin at the grocery. I've just gotten a real attitude about the germophobia at this point. That attitude about germs is "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
* There are 2 or 3 fewer posts than this, though, due to database table incrementation after deletes. I figured out how to fix it a year ago or so but may not have taken any notes ...
Comments (8)
I Wear my Face Mask in my Car
Posted On: Monday - January 18th 2021 6:59PM MST
In Topics: Music Humor Healthcare Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
A hat tip goes to Adam Smith for posting this video on unz recently. I hesitated to put the "music" tag on this post just because we like to have quality music (IMO, of course) on the site, at least with the music tag. The singer ain't the best at singing, and he reminds me of Al Yankovich. Hell, maybe that's from singing through his face mask. Either way, this was a nice creative job, making fun of the face-diapering 'tards that are ubiquitous in early '21 America.
I had to look on the webs to to find the original artist. It was Canadian Corey Hart with (I wear my) Sunglasses at Night from way back in January of 1984. Wiki also says that the video is of a "fashion police state". Hey, we resemble that remark!
For another funny take-off from when the Kung Flu PanicFest was still just a silly joke, see SHUT DOWN THE DISCOS!
Comments (7)
Will America be looted by China? - Part 6: Conclusion - The Golden Rule
Posted On: Monday - January 18th 2021 6:22PM MST
In Topics: China Economics The Future
(continued from Part 1: Intro, Part 2: Housing, Part 3: Big Biz, Part 4: The Fruited Plain, and Part 5: The Wilderness.)
In parts 2 through 5 of this series on current and upcoming looting of American assets by China, be it housing, big business, farmland, or even the preserved wilderness, I see the same problem for us. I don't think it'll be easy to stop this. It's simply about money, and money talks.
With manufacturing having been eviscerated over the last 3 - 4 decades, America just doesn't create as much wealth as it consumes. Trade deficits have ensued, and, by far, the biggest one is with China. As one can see from this same graph seen before in Part 4, the difference between our imports from China and our exports has gone from a piddling amount in 1990 to $419,000,000,000 in 2018:
The US Census site, for some reason, has a nice month-by-month chart of the balance of goods trade between the US and China on this page**. Way on back, in 1985, while the Japan imbalance had already gotten a little worrisome (nearly $50 billion in 1985 dollars***), America had a small even-Steven trade with China, at $3.86 billion in exports, and $3.86 billion in imports. (To be more precise, there was a very small trade deficit of $6 million - that's "million".) Things went downhill from then on, or uphill if you're Chinese. That balance in 1985 went to a $1.5 billion deficit a year later, $10 billion by the end of that decade, $83 billion by 2000, and from 2005 onward, it was in the $200 billion and higher, to the moon, Ai Leitz!
For the last 15 years, we've really just been giving away the power to buy up our country to China. The numbers are staggering now. Almost half a Trillion bucks flowing out of the US economy and into Chinese hands happens yearly.
The money talks. Even if this country had non-Chinese sympathizing, blackmailed, or bribed officials encouraging the selling out of our country, it's just not that easy to prevent the Chinese big money guys from purchasing assets. There were laws passed in Canada, from the province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver, to put higher taxes on the purchase/holding of property to try to stop the conversion of Vancouver to Hongcouver. There were raises in both sales taxes and property taxes. This did send more Chinese business to Seattle, San Francisco, and LA.
However, there can be front owners that are citizens, Chinese of course, to get around it. China is well known for corruption, and the CCP is about nothing but corruption, so who's to say officials won't be bribed to let it slide? Then, the last step is to increase your population share so much that your influence, and money too, can change the laws to lock open the barn door.
It can be the same story for land. The sale goes to the highest bidder, and no seller of farmland is going to lose money selling to a known American over foreign money, even if it were not hidden. If he did, the American would be ready to just "flip it", same as with houses.
I don't even need to get into the situation with the Globalists that will sell out Big Biz. As for the wilderness, the influence will have to go a little higher, on up to the Pai loe qis and the Zhou Bai Diens.
Perhaps the hope is with local jurisdictions making laws requiring residency for purchase of real estate. Again, there are ways in which the money talks louder though.
Let me wrap this up with a comparison to the looting of Russia in the 1990s. The USSR had fallen. The place was an economic shambles. The still solid economy of the US, with it's almighty reserve-currency dollar let the big NY City finance boys treat Russia like a yard sale. Well, we don't have too long before the this economy fails. You don't just print up 1 to 3 Trillion bucks yearly and expect it to keep its value. Now, if we created more wealth to back it, that'd be one thing. The Kung Flu PanicFest sure hasn't helped, but even without it, our social and demographic problems are making it harder and harder for this country to compete with the rest of the world in manufacturing.
I don't see why that Russian experience couldn't be repeated here, with America as Russia, and the Chinese CCP oligarchs as the NY City finance boys. Can we prevent this during the SHTF to come? If not, we will not just be buying everything from the Chinese, but we will be working for them, renting from them, and getting priced out of everything nice that was built by Americans.
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."**** I wish it were the same people that looted Russia that would get their comeuppance, but it doesn't work like that. In large economic matters the golden rule is slightly different anyway. It goes "He who hath the gold, maketh the rules."
* The trade in services is not insignificant, as, per the US International Trade Commission, in '16 the US "exported" $54 billion in services vs. importing $16 billion. That's a $38 billion surplus, not even 10% of the goods trade deficit. (That's the most recent data I could find on short notice.)
That page is interesting in that it has a breakout of the types of services. A whopping 62% of the service exports are travel services. Just seeing who's been doing the flying back and forth since then, even pre-Kung Flu, that will get more than balanced out shortly. The Chinese airlines have been growing fast, both domestic and international. Without the former imbalance, when the US dominated the skies, that service surplus will be, or is already, insignificant.
** It's easy to look year-by-year there too.
*** Japan is no slouch itself, with $166 billion yearly surplus with us as of late, very significant even compared to China. It's just that the Japanese just don't seem to be the same type of economic threat.
**** From Mathew 7:12, but there are 4 to 5 other instances of it.
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Anarcho-Tyranny and the murder of Ashli Babbitt
Posted On: Saturday - January 16th 2021 6:31PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media US Police State Media Stupidity Anarcho-tyranny
The above graphic is from VDare, but I've seen videos too. Ashli Babbitt was shot from just what sure looks like 8 ft away or less. She was on the other side of a door with a partly bashed-in window, trying to find a way in. She was of absolutely no imminent threat to this cop who shot here in the neck, and would have been no threat even if she were right next to him.
Yet, the Lyin' Press will treat her as the villain to go along with their narrative that the events at the Capitol on Jan 6th were part of an insurrection. As commenter Mr. Anon put it, "Right, a bunch of guys who all own guns break into the Capitol without their guns, and that's an 'insurrection'? Sure, they staged an "unarmed insurrection". Perhaps, history's first."
I doubt that cop will lose a day of pay, much less get fired, and much less get deserved jail time for at VERY LEAST manslaughter. After all, he was putting down an insurrection against the revered legislative branch of the US Government, so he is possibly a hero. Hey, they are barraging people with the big lies so heavy that they may as well go with "hero".
It's just all part of the Anarcho-Tyranny that has been ramped up over the last decade. I wrote a comment to question the premise of Michelle Malkin's latest column, Amnesia of the Anarcho-Tyrannists. Mrs. Malkin's asks:
Is it just me or has the entire universe of establishment media, politics and Hollywood forgotten that this country has endured an entire year of relentless violent anarchotyranny?With all respect to, and admiration for, this brave pundit and activist for the right, I would like to answer the question:
There's been no forgetting. Anarcho-Tyranny has been working well for them. We all can see it in the treatment of these slightly-over-exuberant-at-worst Capitol Gang, as the BLM and antifa have destroyed private businesses and beat and killed people in cities all over the country last year. Michelle Malkin gets that. What she doesn't get is that this Lyin' Press effort itself is part of the Anarcho-Tyranny. Why can't the press get in on this too? The treating of this small single protest of the right as an insurrection not seen since the French Revolution, causing the need for a new, domestic version of the Patriot Act, while the BLM "peaceful protests" are treated as pleas for fairness and more taxpayers cash IS the Anarcho-Tyranny here.
It's Anarcho-Tyranny all the way down. What of the murdered Ashli Babbitt? Speaking of heroes (earlier), is she a hero? No, Peak Stupidity is pretty tight with our definition of "hero" - see First Responders and Heroes. She is a victim of the evil system we live under in which conservative white people are on the T end of the Anarcho-Tyranny. We all know the fuss that would be on the Infotainment for months had a white cop shot an unarmed, unthreatening black lady trespassing in the "people's house" to demand Social Justice.
If White people got their act together, the late Mrs. Ashli Babbitt could be a martyr for the cause. To some degree, there are already millions, men especially, kept out of careers they could have thrived in, kept out of universities, screwed in courts, and vilified in the media. The martyring of Ashli Babbitt is just more visible and complete. Don't let the Lyin' Press Anarcho-Tyranny make you think otherwise.
Murdered - 01/06/21, Washington, Federal Shithole
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