Taking out the trash

Forecast 2025 -- by James Howard Kunstler 

"A core reflex in these decades of postmodern insanity was constant rejection of things we thought we knew in favor of New, Improved Beliefs packaged from above.” — Matt Taibbi, Racket News

Read on Substack

Comment:

Worth a read.  You may want to bolster yourself with something first...  not entirely pleasant reading.

Nikki Haley v Ramaswamy

12/28/24:

Perhaps this needs explaining, perhaps not. I grew up in an era of strong anti-communism. Consequently, I tend to be hostile towards it. I suppose it is part of being the product of the times. These days, it seems fashionable to churn out perfect little commies. All I'm saying is that the pendulum has swung a bit too far on one side. The commies have succeeded in driving the country over the brink into full-blown communism. But that's my opinion.

When a member of the more conservative party starts talking commie-speak, I think it is time to be at least a bit concerned. When Kamala Harris is saying things like we should all end up in the same place, that sounds like equality of outcome. Equality of outcome is just another way of saying communism. Communism destroys all merit. For if everyone ends up in the same place, then what is the use of trying? When Little Jebbie Bush wants to be a commie when he grows up, that is worrisome. When Nikki Haley says there's nothing wrong with our culture, when our culture has people taking a dump on the sidewalks, I think we've got a problem in the culture.

Putting your head in the sand isn't going to do anything about the problems building up around us.

12/27/24:

In my opinion, America has lost something in its culture once it embraced communism, which is the fanatical desire for failure as some sort of badge of honor.  Ramaswamy doesn't say that, but I wish he would.

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

Haley wants to normalize failure, and therefore is nothing but a commie useful idiot.  I note in the article linked to that "conservatives" were taking the side of the commies and are promoting failure now, just like the commies.   They aren't conservatives, they are neo-luddites.  The promotion of immigration is the easy way.  It will be a lot harder to fix what's wrong inside the culture.  These "conservatives" are part of the problem, not the solution.  The solution is far more difficult.  How do you change a culture that is on the fast track to oblivion?

Might could?

I've lived in Texas my whole life, and I have never heard that expression.

The comparison is not apt

12/26/24:

 

Heh. Sure are a lot of folks who don't want you see things that might get you to thinking too much. That Pottersville scene must have hit too close to home.

 

12/25/24:

 

The GOP is definitely not the George Bailey party. For that matter, neither are the Democrats. Now Trump is trying to play the George Bailey role. They'll point out that he's a billionaire. That doesn't matter. Caesar played the George Bailey role in ancient Rome. FDR played the role and gave America the New Deal. Trump's just the latest incarnation of the same story. A patrician taking the part of the plebians is nothing new.

 

The GOP has fought Trump as much as the Democrats have. But their hostility has been more subtle, as they at least have to pretend to be on the side of the ordinary American. The Democrats have gone elitist for a long time now. They've long abandoned the party of the common folk. Even Ronald Reagan could see that, and this was 40 years ago. It has been a long road from the party that drove the "money changers out of the temple" line that FDR gave on his inaugural. The Democrats ARE the money changers now. The GOP has always been their junior partner. Ask Paul Krugman on that one.

 

Therefore, the GOP is definitely not the party of George Bailey. Neither of them are. It's funny that this comparison is made. I note how the rhetoric today more closely matches the tone of the Pottersville nightmare that George Bailey had before he realized that he wanted his old life back. We now live in "Pottersville", not in Bedford Falls. There are plenty of Potters, but only one George Bailey.

 

We need somebody to oppose them just like Bedford Falls needed the Building and Loan for no other reason than not to have to crawl back to the Potters of this world. Know what I mean, Vern?

 

Don't piss in the wind and tell me it's raining

 

There was a tweet of Joe Manchin, in which he says that the Democrat party is now "toxic". All of it is toxic, including the GOP. Why has this happened? Incidentally, I won't include the interview here, because he started talking in the manner of the Marxist dialectic, which I reject. He ought to be looking at THAT. If you accept their premises, then why would you expect any other result besides the one we are witnessing?

 

The Marxist dialectic has got to go. Otherwise, you are just pissing in the wind.

 

 

Let's stay united, they'll say. United? With what????

'The View' Panelist Says Problem for Dems Is That Gov't Won't Regulate Social Media https://t.co/8OWJHO06kk --- So the GOP finds this hard to beat??? The GOP should have won the election by 40 points. Regulation of speech is against the law, but you'd never know that from this.

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 26, 2024

Ghosts of Christmas's past

The more things change, the more they stay the same

I noticed that on some of these I looked at, I did not post anything at all.

Christmas 2016 was pretty rough. I didn't post. There was a pretty good reason why. Things are somewhat better this year. I should be grateful for that, but why not? Well, at least some spirits didn't show up last night. Or I'm worse off than what I thought...

 

Sanity Clause

 

You can't fool me either. I think.

 

 

 

Excessive spending is the DOGE goned problem

 

Trump Begins Slashing Government Waste One Month Before Assuming the Office of President https://t.co/9ZBw1caDOt

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 24, 2024

 

 

 

Lite posting lately

Scraping the bottom of the barrel here

Before I leave off and start doing something else besides this blog, I thought I'd put up something. The news doesn't interest me much, hence the lite posting. But what's there to post about? How about breakfast?

I am no gourmet by any stretch. Cooking around here stresses convenience over high cuisine. Nevertheless, I like certain things, so I don't really suffer for my laziness. Not much, that is. In order to realize the least amount of effort, I boil up a couple eggs in my dash egg cooker thingie. Then I lay out some aluminum foil, but two slices of bread on it, and a couple pieces of bacon. Then it goes into the air fryer for 9 minutes. Out it comes, and the bacon is mostly cooked, as is one of the pieces of toast. Off the top piece of toast goes, with the bacon placed on the bottom piece, and back into the air fryer for 3 or 4 minutes. By this time, the eggs are done. The eggs get shelled, while I munch on the one piece of toast. I slice up a tomato for extra taste for the bacon, and in a few minutes, it's time to chow down.

Clean up time is minimal. A decent breakfast and it doesn't take all that long.

A scientist is a seeker of truth, a communist cannot be not a scientist

 

 

 

 

Communists like to claim science, but as usual, the communists are liars. If communism wins, mankind loses. That's my opinion. This tweet doesn't say that, but does not embrace communism either. So it is not half bad.

 

 

 

 

The rise and fall of Western science https://t.co/0Otu5FTVa4 via @theconwom

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 23, 2024

 

 

 

 

Mind control run by idgits

 

Not really intellectual, and not really elite.