Saturday, January 12, 2019

Streaming conscious type post, 1.12.19



There is this mental block sometimes, and it is hard to post what is on my mind.  The thoughts are there, but breaking the logjam, and getting them into a post, sometimes seems more difficult than it should be.

So, I am going to note in real time what I am thinking, and then write it.

Just before I began this post, I had the idea for this kind of post.  Guess what?  I forgot
what I was thinking about just prior to that.  You see?  That is the problem.

I do remember what I was thinking about last night.  This was in regard to a previous post about money not being wealth.  That thought, about giving out money for nothing, spurred another thought:  I am receiving plenty of free stuff myself from Uncle "Sugar".

It may seem hypocritical of me to criticize giving away money when I receive it myself.

Yet, I have always been critical of Obamacare, even before it went into effect.  At first,
I obeyed the law, because I didn't want to pay the penalty for not doing so.  After a few
years, I get the cancer diagnosis, and now I rely upon this program for my health care.  Yes, I do need a lot of it now.  Whereas before, I was in relatively good health, and felt no
need for such a program.  The consequences of no Obamacare would mean that my health care now would be a matter of private charity, or a moot point as I would be dead.

As for the Social Security payments I receive, I figured I paid for them.  But that is not
quite so.  The program is not a forced savings program.  It is a transfer payment program.

The point here is that it may be hard to cut through the bee-ess, and get to the truth of
things.  You can fool yourself in so many ways.  Or politicians can fool you, if you allow
it.

It has been said elsewhere that it takes two people for a lie to succeed.  You have to be
willing on some level to be deceived in order for the liar to deceive you.

The mind is a tricky thing.  It is so easy to deceive yourself, and to be deceived.

The thought I had last night was that the moral thing to do would have been to not comply with the Obamacare.  But that also means noncompliance with Social Security.  This is not possible without running afoul of the government.  If you don't comply with the government's laws, you are subject to loss of liberty, property, and even your life.

As I complied, I got the benefits.  Seems like a carrot and stick way of manipulating
people.  You get the benefits if you comply, and the punishment if you resist.  I chose to
comply.

Does this make me a hypocrite, then?

I hope not.  I believe that you can comply with the law, but also protest it.  This is legal.  At least, it is legal for now.  At the rate this country is going, it won't be legal even to protest.

Our constitution was written so as to limit the power of the government.  The limited type
of government that I would prefer would have probably resulted in my being an object of
charity or in a graveyard.  Is this optimal?  No, not for me.  But it may be better policy
for the nation.  Or is it?  Is limited government better?

Something tells me that limited government is not going to last.  It hasn't lasted in this
country, as the trend is toward more and more powerful government.  Unless something
changes the trend, the eventual result will be no limits on government at all.

The reason for this may well require a book to discuss.

Since this is only a streaming concious type post, that would seem to be too ambitious a
project to undertake.  Undertake?  Sounds too much like a word I don't like to think right
now.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Wealth and money are not exactly the same thing

Comment:

There's this mayor in the Big Apple that's going full blown pinko, and he hopes to ride this to power.

It is the promise of easy money, or money for nothing.

No doubt that it is true that many people who have money may not really deserve it.  It may also be true that people who deserve money may not have it.  This is a matter of equity, and to address it is to some extent worthy of some merit.  However, it can easily morph into an platform for demagoguery.

I am not rich myself, nor have I ever been...  But this mayor's talk requires some kind of response.

When this mayor says that there's a lot of money in New York, but it is in the wrong hands, how does he propose to change this?  How do you decide who should have it, and who shouldn't?  In short, who and how does this get decided?  It should be easy to see who this mayor has in mind.

Another thought that came to me is that by simply spreading money around does not make people wealthy.  For that, you have to define what wealth is.  Let's put it this way--- wealth isn't just passing out greenbacks.  If you could make everyone wealthy that way, it would be a trivial exercise.  If the government wanted to make everyone a millionaire, why they could print out a check for a million dollars, and give it to everybody.

But that diminishes the significance of the money.  If everybody had a million bucks, there would be no significance to having a million bucks.  Surely, this is not hard to see why.  Nobody could outbid anybody for services.  There is just so much of the good stuff to go around.

Would having a million bucks make you any better at what you do?  Would it change you at all?  It would not distinguish you from what you were before.  You have to do something in order to get better at whatever you do.  Handing a million bucks to someone doesn't make them smarter, wiser, or more accomplished.

Easy money is not the way to easy living.  It is just the siren song that lures you to the rocks.  It is folly.  But politically, it is highly effective.  In my opinion, the people most attracted to it are the politicians themselves.  People are also attracted to it, but find to their ultimate dismay that it is ruinous.

Venezuela is an example.  Chavez was elected, you know.  There are many others.

Will people ever learn?  Probably not.  Especially since the culture does not truly inform anybody.




Memo to Trump: Declare an Emergency

Pat Buchanan

Quote:
Since FDR, we have had presidential government. And when U.S. presidents have been decisive activists, history has rewarded their actions.
comment:

The reverse may also apply.  That is to say, if the president fails to act, he may well be punished.



Live or Memorex?


I say Memorex.  It follows the studio recording exactly.  The odds of that happening are low, in my opinion.



George Wont

Comment:

George Will beats himself, so he says.  I suspect that this may be true.






"Don't call my bluff"?

Comment:

The article describes a bit of dialogue in which the President was alleged to say what I am questioning in the title.

Of course you call a bluff, if you think someone is bluffing.  Saying that you are bluffing is an invitation to call it, for crying out loud.  In other words, "don't call my bluff" is admitting that you are bluffing.  So, of course you call it.

Unless you like to lose without a fight.  Come to think of it, that describes the GOP perfectly.




Don Surber: NBC's myth of sawing through the wall

Don Surber: NBC's myth of sawing through the wall: NBC reporters showed they know as much about saws as they do AR-15s.


comment:

There was a comment to the post that tickled my funny bone...

"Eating cheese balls and nachos is no way to go through life."

Reminded me of the scene in Animal House when Dean Wormer said something like that to "Flounder", and then Flounder threw up on him.

Bwah, hah, hah!


POWELL: How Did The Wife Of A Mueller Protege End Up Hearing Mueller’s Case?

Note:

Here is Sidney Powell's "about" page on Amazon.


Comment:

This has got to be the biggest thing going in DC right now.  Not this particular story, but the larger story that Powell has written about.  It's about the "swamp".

There has always been a big stench about this Mueller thing since day one.



Thursday, January 10, 2019

Green New Deal Sucks

There was a write up in National Review on that legislation.

I would link to it, but my browser went nuts while I was trying to read the article.

Anyway, they would ban cars, fossil fuels  ( even natural gas ), and nuclear energy.

They would also cut the military by more than half. 

If this ever came to pass, along with their other ideas, such as open borders, then Katy bar the door.


Dick Morris: Trump scores big on Border Wall Speech

Comment:

I haven't even read the transcript.  Or watched the speech.

Anyway, I don't need to.  In my opinion, if the border had been properly secured, the 9-11 terrorist attack could have been avoided, and the country could have saved blood and treasure.

The cost of the wall is inconsequential when considered in that light.




Zimmerman Behind the Black blog: Visit to Nogales

Comment:

Of special interest to me because of my possible move to El Paso, which is a border town.






Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Sign the Border Wall Petition





Please take action on this important item from Dickmorris.com. The site will deliver your messages to your elected officials.

https://dickmorris.rallycongress.net/ctas/tell-trump-to-demand-the-wall/letter


Idea for a video

Once upon a time,in the early days of this blog, I tried my hand at making videos.  It didn't work out too well at all.  Nevertheless, I get ideas from time to time, and one just popped up in my head this morning.

In those old days, so to speak, I used Extranormal to make the videos.  Maybe sometimes I would include myself, but either way, they didn't work out too well.

So, my video days have come and gone, but maybe not.

However, what platform would I use to make a video?  Nah!  I won't make the video.  I'll just describe the ideas in the video, and you can use your own imagination to fill in the blanks.  Who knows?  There may be somebody out there with the capabilities to make a video out of this.

The idea involves the destruction of American and Western Civilization.

Rather grim, is it not?  But guess what?  Such things might actually be a smash hit.  What I had in mind was Lady Gaga's  Bad Romance, which would be one of the elements.  If you are familiar with the song, and the video, she ends up victorious over a dead lover.

Why victorious?  Because I see the song as a battle of the sexes.  Clearly there is conflict in the song, and she survives in bed next to a burned out skeleton that was at one time her lover.

What does this have to do with the destruction of Western Civilization?  It is pure debauchery.  There is nothing here that sustains a civilization.  America and the West is saturated with this kind of thing.  The country is on the path to self-destruction, and the debauchery is one symbol of it.

The agents of the destruction is the political left through this debauched and debased cultural garbage.

Another symbol is socialism, as expressed through the likes of the left's new superstar--- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  She is also rather bug eyed and thinks she is rather cute.  It is this kind of "look at how cute I am" sort of attitude, maybe you would call "narcissism", that so much a part of this culture today.  She likes to dance, evidently.  She looks like the bug-eyed girl in the video--- bingo!  A new video idea.

The song is kind of like a marching song.  Marching off to war.  AOC could lead a high school band off the cliff.  They would all be carrying symbols of American ascendance of the past, which they wish to do away with.  That's because America is a bad place, you see.

It would be like Lady Gaga presiding in triumph over the destruction of this country with her misguided notions of morality, which is no morality at all.  It would only be the celebration of their own depravity, which in the end would be the end of their future for any kind of happiness.

That is my opinion, at least.  Maybe you can be happy if you destroy the basis of your own civilization, but I think that proposition holds nothing good for our future.

That's about it.

It would take some professional people to put together a video of this which might get the point across.  Lord knows, my efforts heretofore have come up empty.


Don Surber: Trump lied. People died laughing.

Comment:

Not really, I can't back that up.  But not much seemed to happen.  No emergency, just a canned speech, or so I have heard.  I didn't watch it myself.  Speeches aren't my bag, baby.

The thing might go down to this:  Trump will fight Congress, and they will either support him or they won't.   If they don't, and override his veto, he can declare an emergency and build it.  If the courts stop him, then what can he do? 

Maybe that is how it will play out.  Who knows?  I think that the shutdown should continue until they get it sorted out.  Hopefully, Trump sticks to it until they have an actual vote on a bill to reopen the government.  We need to have these people on record, and that includes Trump himself.



Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Monday, January 7, 2019

The answer to the question is "No"

Comment:

In my opinion, they are overestimating her.   Don't know where all this fear of the occasional cortex is coming from, but it might be the Establishment trying to feed us more bravo sierra.

If you cannot beat the likes of this numskull, it means the country is lost, or you are, or both.

The article discusses her latest false comparison between morality and facts.  Two different things, but mutually necessary.  Without facts, where would morality be?  And vice versa?

If you cannot argue the facts logically and persuasively, it won't matter if you are morally right or not.

Claiming higher morality in the absence of facts is just another way of lying.  She is just trying to b.s. her way out of her bee ess when somebody called her on it.

Unless you want to be mesmerized by her "likability", I suppose.  What?  Do you surrender yourself to this shrieking idiot because she dances to a video, and looks "cute"?  These kind of people are a dime a dozen.

Don't build up this fool.  She deserves enormous ridicule, and she should receive it in abundance.




Man's Gotta Know His Limitations




Epic Rap Battles of Heestwa: The Eyes had it, or...

...was it "have" it.  Either way, it is bad.

Once I saw those peepers, I had to click on it.

The Musk dude didn't make me laugh, though.


Rather dark turn of mind


Comment:

I recall a scene from the TV series called "Deadwood", in which Calamity Jane says that about the Doc.   Yep, this is a dark state of affairs.  What's more, it doesn't surprise me a bit.  I think a GOP House would have been much more preferable.  That is why this threat can be made.

Bottom line:  I don't trust the dude.


Oh no! If you think you got it, you got it.


The way it works is that anything new is subject to "confirmation bias".  So, if you encounter a new phenomenon, you look for evidence of this, and it becomes somewhat of a self-fulfulling prophecy.

Oh, no!  Mr. Bill.



Sunday, January 6, 2019

Sunday Talks: Mick Mulvaney Outlines Democrat "Negotiations" as Political Resistance Ploy

Comment:

Didn't watch the video.  However, in the written part of the linked post, it seems likely that the negotiations are fake.

If so, it fits the fake that so often typifies the existing power structure.

Down with the fake.

I would hope that if the administration feels that the Dems are merely stalling, without any real good faith effort at negotiating, then the negotiations should be terminated.

Let the shutdown run until election day.  Let's see how they hold up to it.





Revolutions happen

But they aren't always to the good.  Know what I mean, Vern?

Identifying with the yellow vests in France may not be a good idea, but if they turn out to be okay, then it could be okay.  However, we don't know yet.

Macron is an ass.  But that doesn't indicate that they should go commie or muzzie, if you grasp my meaning.