Home » Open thread 3/16/21

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Open thread 3/16/21 — 62 Comments

  1. Still waiting on my first. Group 1A in PA and not enough doses.

    Have a glass of wine with a nice meal out of the house.

  2. Hey, you are clearly one of those insurrectionist deplorables…. set fire to the Capitol.

    😛

  3. Write a thank you card to Biden for making it possible for you to enjoy this hallmark of white privilege. (/snark off)

  4. Use your link and buy “ The Complete Harvard Classics – ALL 71 Volumes: The Five Foot Shelf & The Shelf of Fiction: The Famous Anthology of the Greatest Works of World Literature Kindle Edition.” FOR $1.99!!! That’s 37,452 pages! That’s .00005 cents a page. If you read 10 pages a day, that 2 dollars will keep you entertained for 10 years! My folks had a whole wall that contained the Great Book series that cost about $1500. Now you can not read the same books for $1.99. And so far it seems to be well organized – not like a lot of other very cheap collections. Of course as these works start getting cancelled the collection will start getting smaller. So read fast!

  5. I’ve seen an 18 month old kid I’ve been waiting to meet twice since I passed the safety threshold. That’s been the best part for me.

    Going to rehearse tonight. First one since last February.

  6. Ace’s site has this quote from magician, Penn Jillette:

    It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people yourself is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral, self-righteous, bullying laziness.

    How is it that all adult Americans do not understand this? It amazes me that so many religious people, even religious leaders, cannot comprehend this basic reasoning. Psychologists, psychiatrists, educators. They all understand human motivation, and what gives people satisfaction, pride, a sense of worth. (Hint: envy and vengeance are not a recipe for personal development.) What drives people to improve and succeed.

    I imagine every human has someone they know well, in their immediate family, who struggles with life. We know firsthand how difficult it is to change that person’s behavior. Why do we believe methods that don’t work with one person somehow work when done for thousands by government bureaucrats emotionally disconnected from the situation?

  7. Hold off on the celebrations until this fall. That’s when they will roll out the booster jab to take care more virulent strains.

  8. Charge up the ear buds, charge up the phone, load “Stayin’ Alive,” select repeat mode, and ….

  9. When you’re down and you’re feelin blue
    Go out and buy a new pair of shoes
    Then go down
    Down to Tangie Town

  10. Regarding my prior comment:

    Yesterday I listened to a conversation between Brett Weinstein and Jordan Peterson. At one point Dr. Weinstein was discussing his Doctoral (?) thesis work; studying human evolution in relation to the holocaust perpetrated by Germany in WWII. He and Peterson were discussing how it is important for us to understand that Hitler and most of the Germans were behaving rationally, from a literal perspective of human behavior. Their actions were horrific (almost incomprehensible), but when we think of them as “monsters” or “inhuman” we ignore the reality that they were behaving in a manner in which humans can readily behave. The Third Reich did not invent genocide and ethnic cleansing. Unfortunately, the holocaust is not a one-off in human history.

    Dr. Weinstein was speaking in a rather clinical manner and at one point Dr. Peterson interjected, “We must not fail to give the devil his due.” That has really stuck with me.

    As I’ve mentioned here before, I am a practicing Catholic with an emphasis on the word, “practicing.” Regarding the concept of a devil working in our lives I have told my children, “It sometimes feels like the devil exists, but knowing what I do about humans I’m not sure we humans need the help.” In other words, I believe humans are capable of incredible evil without supernatural intervention.

    Leading up to Obama’s first term I heard about Cloward and Piven and their strategy to collapse the system as an effective way to push the U.S. into Communism. It’s not the first time I’d heard that suggestion as a way to expedite an outcome. Such talk is common in GOP circles. The idea with some Conservatives is that electing the worst possible opposition will wake people up to how bad the other side is. About 80(?) years ago Buckley coined the phrase, “emanitize the eschaton.” Or, to paraphrase Mencken; “give them what they say they want, good and hard.”

    Since hearing about Cloward – Piven it often appears there are powerful people in multiple areas of U.S. society, even the world, working towards the goal of collapsing the U.S. system. Robbing the treasury to enact policies that not only will NOT work, but will actually accelerate the tragedies they are purported to fix cannot be chance. Can so many truly be so ignorant? I don’t recall ever seeing so many politicians, news personalities, entertainers… advocating envy and vengeance, and belittling the most basic foundations of human relationships; community, family, educating our children, greeting one another openly, unmasked… Hugging!

    It appears we’ve gone beyond, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” Far beyond. And I wonder if imagining an organized cabal of powerful people pushing these things is a conspiracy I consider to mollify myself. And I hear Dr. Peterson’s voice, “We must not fail to give the devil his due.”

  11. I’ve been registered for the vaxx a couple weeks now. I’ve gotten two emails, which I assumed were appointments but were needless advisories not to show up for a vaxx if I didn’t have an appointment and to inform them if I got the vaxx elsewhere.

    I suppose it makes sense, but I’m sure tired of the constant public service Covid messages about the bleeding obvious. The authorities are long on my obligations to do what they say and short on making my life better.

    Meanwhile I’m wondering if my vaxx application has gone to the bottom of the pile because I refused to disclose my racial information.

  12. I’m glad it went well for you. I’m still not convinced of the risk-benefit and am holding off. My 94-year-old mother got her second shot last Wednesday, and the next day ended up in the ER weak and disoriented. She’s fine, but lucky that someone happened to be coming by (she lives alone) to take her to a doctor’s appointment and found her.

    Of course I may be forced to get it if it becomes a requirement for travel or work.

  13. Kurt Schlichter’s piece yesterday, at Town Hall: https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2021/03/15/how-many-times-must-we-tell-you-to-never-apologize-to-these-scumbags-n2586224

    For those of you who have not been paying attention, it’s not about “racism” or “sexism” or whatever -ism or -phobia these tools are pretending to be upset about this week. The left actively supports racism and sexism – leftists are affirmatively in favor of those things, so it’s not like their performative pouting is a good faith critique of their victim’s words.

    It’s about power, the power to force others to comply by guaranteeing a tsunami of hate toward anyone deviating from the ordained narrative.

    You have to understand that you can’t obtain their forgiveness, though you shouldn’t want it in the first place. They already know you did nothing wrong. Right and wrong is irrelevant. Your life is a human sacrifice to Lib Moloch, the demon demigod of the left, and they wish to feast upon your soul. Saying “sorry” won’t save you. Keep your dignity and don’t try.

  14. What should you celebrate?

    1. That you got the version that does not enter the cell nucleus, and that therefore you will probably not turn into a human-bat hybrid over the next couple of years.

    2. That you got the shot so I won’t have to. Thus, contributing to herd immunity, and either relieving me of the annoyance, or giving me time to build myself up to a state of perfect indestructibility through implementation of a plan of heavy workouts and a diet of carrot juice. So far, I have managed to dust the barbells off, and find the cupboard where the blender was hidden.

  15. DNW:

    You will truly become Orange Man Bad (ass). I knew a guy who went whole hog on the carrots and wound up with a Trumpish pigmentation (not tan in a can either). It was in the early ’90s so he was ahead of the curve.

  16. huxley,
    Have you tried CVS pharmacies for vaccination, or Walgreens? My county health officials micromanaged the process to death. Walgreens enforced all the zip code micro nonsense, but CVS just followed the state guidelines and I was able to get in. Got my first shot two days ago. My local hospital reputedly runs a nice vaccination operation, but I couldn’t get in.

  17. DNW and om,
    I assume DNW is joking or did not mean that he would only eat carrots.

    You’ve heard of anorexia nervosa? There also have been cases of orthorexia nervosa, or people obsessed with eating only correct or perfect foods.

    There was a guy who only ate carrots. Eventually, he got sick and the doctor told him he was overdosing on beta carotene or some such substance. The doc warned him to eat a balanced diet or he could die. He died.

  18. I had dose #1 of Pfizer-BioNTech last week.

    How does the effectiveness work? Is it linear? Exponential?

    Has anyone researched this?

    Perhaps it really isn’t important.

    I’m still pretty much self-isolating and masking in public. And I’ll continue to do so even after my second shot waiting period is over.

  19. TommyJay, what a thought – perishing through carrot monoculture. I wonder how many foods could be prepared using carrots as the main ingredient. Carrot cake, of course (though it could be argued that this doesn’t fit the requirement, since, as we all know, it’s really about the frosting); carrot soups of different sorts; is there a carrot casserole? Oh, and roast carrots.

    I liked the suggestion that Neo should hug somebody. Just as long as it’s not too violent. All that pent-up feeling and all. 🙂

    Tuvea, I would expect sigmoid, like a typical dose-response curve.

  20. That you got the version that does not enter the cell nucleus, and that therefore you will probably not turn into a human-bat hybrid over the next couple of years.

    If I may ask, which one is that? From what I know now, if forced to get one I’d opt for the J&J, if only because it’s just one and done. But since neo had two shots I presume it was either Pfizer or Moderna, and I thought they used a similar mechanism.

  21. Eva Marie wrote:

    “Use your link and buy “ The Complete Harvard Classics – ALL 71 Volumes: The Five Foot Shelf & The Shelf of Fiction: The Famous Anthology of the Greatest Works of World Literature Kindle Edition.” FOR $1.99!!! ”

    Yes, but save them onto a separate device and convert them into text.

    Amazon can edit or remove any content on your Kindle at any time without notice. Amazon believe they own the content, not you. If you die, no one can inherit the content either.

  22. TommyJay:

    I assumed DNW was completely serious in both his points (not). There are purple carrots too so he could wind up as the Purple Man Bad(ass).

    He was the “One armed, one eyed, Purple People Eater” who whispered “Shhsh. We’re hunting wabbits.” when asked “What’s up doc?”

  23. Rufus T. Firefly:

    I definitely plan to visit the grandkids, although probably in late spring. I am very much looking forward to it.

  24. @ Rufus,

    … and regarding Nietzche, malice, and immanentizing the (naturalist) eschation – all in, you know, a good sense.

    When the other day I remarked to you that you had prompted a critical reflection on my part that finally answered my nagging questions regarding progressives as to: “What they are thinking and how do they intellectually justify it at the most basic level?”, I was not being facetious, nor even casual.

    Beneath the superficial social progress and loving-kindness blather, lies the notion of progressive (not so-called social Darwinian) evolution as a self-justifying metaphysical and social organizing principle. As a progressive critic said angrily to me: “you have not internalized it!” – meaning morally, and with feeling. So I had not, and so he had.

    Thus, out with the old social Darwinism, and in with the new “mutant diversity which deserves your worship, is our greatest strength` version. The new doctrine is that there are no natural kinds, and that intrinsic ends-directedness or teleology does not exist. But that now, according to the ‘We be the new” set, divine mutation is constantly creating new and very real varieties yearning to express their intrinsic natures freely; and it is their destiny to do so, and your obligation to enable it.

    It is at this point wherein you are invited to ignore the fact that they have just deployed the same rationales on their behalf which they denied were valid on yours. Yes, there are 67 [ or something] genders existing out in the spaces outside our heads, we are assured. Really. Really, really!

    For the conservative [I exclude religious fundamentalists here] evolution is not a thing in itself, much less an expression of a crypto divinity guiding force, but a term which refers to different so-called processes [ sexual selection, mutation, environmental filtering] leading to what may sometimes come to be described as speciation. It deserves, the conservative thinks, an acknowledgement, at best like electro-magnetism say, but not the exalted status of a universal organizing and justifying principle.

    But, as I found out many years ago in discussions with them, at the base of the progressive liberal ideologue’s moral sensibiliies rests the bedrock of a crypto-religious interpretation of (a progressive) evolution – which is due they feel – our deference, almost our worship. It is all part of that “process thing” that is so liberating psychologically (and morally) , once you get the hang of it.

    And as was demonstrated in the comments section of Ed Feser’s blog many months ago, there is on the part of strident secularists and naturalists who otherwise could be called complete moral nihilists, a tendency to reify evolution and to invest it (again, “it” being an accumulation of process descriptions) with an ITness; as a quasi if not actual, metaphysical process that is not to be gainsaid.

    Of course exactly what in terms of verbal formulations is not to be gainsaid by the hoi polloi, are those interpretations developed and promulgated by the divine oracles, i.e., the progressive hierophants of divine naturalism.

    It is they who are anointed to tell us the intentions which the intention-less force behind the curtain is decreeing. Because they are IT’s highest manifestation, the best and the yada yada , and they would therefore know best, you see. Like, when your time is up, and you should turn over the keys, for instance.

    Now, whether there is an additional devil in the details there somewhere, I will not speculate.

  25. Iowaan, thank you. I do store large collections on different devices but I never realized I could convert into text. I will do that with the books I value. It ticks me off that the games I play (Spider Solitaire) stop working after a while until I reconnect the device to the internet.

  26. Go have coffee with your liberal progressive friends and ask them why Biden supports open borders and should not all immigrants seeking entry into the USA be required to follow immigration laws?
    Ask them if it would be OK with them if Biden signs some EO that puts them, your friends, out of a work and why they then should not go and build solar panels or learn to code.
    Ask your friends how many illegal aliens they plan to take into their homes (or garages or allow to camp on their front lawns) ?

    It will make for an interesting 5 seconds of your time.

  27. iowaan, I bought ‘With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa’ by E. B. Sledge the other day. The paperback was a buck less than the kindle version. I got the paperback.

    DNW, the intentions of drifting sand.

  28. Philip Sells,

    Thanks so much for the sigmoid dose-response curve answer!

    I’m old and naturally lazy anyway. My search of the internets yielded no informative results. Likely because I wasn’t framing the query correctly.

    There is always someone on here that can provide the proper answer.

    So thank you Philip. And thank you Neo for this wonderful spot on the web.

    Everyone, vaccinated or not, please be safe!

  29. Jimmy on March 16, 2021 at 1:11 pm said:
    That you got the version that does not enter the cell nucleus, and that therefore you will probably not turn into a human-bat hybrid over the next couple of years.

    If I may ask, which one is that? From what I know now, if forced to get one I’d opt for the J&J, if only because it’s just one and done. But since neo had two shots I presume it was either Pfizer or Moderna, and I thought they used a similar mechanism.

    Moderna is a messenger RNA single strand vaccine and does not enter the cell nucleus. I am informed that Pfizer is the same.

    J&J is the DNA type.

    As far as I am aware, the official advantages of an mRNA vaccine are unrelated to scenarios related to DNA replication within the cell nucleus. Nonetheless, some people feel more comfotable knowing they will not wake up a bat in the morning. Immune to covid, but a bat. Or a human covid petri dish. LOL

    http://www.modernatx.com/pipeline/therapeutic-areas/mrna-therapeutic-areas-infectious-diseases

    Note: My original “authority” for this, is my vaguely science guy brother whose recent graduate doctor son had been advising him, and providing me with the Moderna links. My phone was so overloaded with technical releases that I had to clear it out.

    Sorry about the resulting delay in responding.

    Take it all for what you will.

  30. Neo,
    How big was the needle? In all the “get your shot” PSAs, the needle looks about 3 inches long. Ouch.

  31. Chases Eagles on March 16, 2021 at 2:27 pm said:

    DNW, the intentions of drifting sand.”

    Ahh, but there, the sensitive progressive can uniquely detect the commanding if soothing voice of the one who must be obeyed. And the progressive will be sure to let us know what those commands are.

    For now, the one who must be obeyed says, “Forget that Yaweh guy, and go dance in a circle till I tell you to do something else.”

  32. jvermeer, when I got my 1st moderna shot nearly a month ago the needle was pretty long but I did not even feel it going in. It’s a muscle shot, not a vein. I’m getting the 2nd dose later this week.

  33. DNW,

    We are likely on a similar page regarding evolution and how the theory is being bastardized by some today. As an aside, I pretty much run everything through two filters; evolutionary and theological. What would evolution do and what would God do? (I personally believe in God but I don’t like Deus ex machina solutions and I imagine He doesn’t either). In almost every area I find they converge; which gives me some comfort. Not to be callous, your thoughts on evolution and how it is being abused in the West are astute and relevant (and a bit over my head), but I think you are focused on a subset of a larger concern.

    Along with not liking Deus ex machinis, I don’t like conspiracy theories. I believe it’s difficult to get two humans to behave and stick to a plan, let alone hundreds. And human ego tells me eventually someone would blab. But more and more I see coincidences in things. The other day on this blog we discussed the Jussie Smollett fraud and its coinciding with legislation Kamala Harris and Corey Booker were pushing. That almost certainly cannot be coincidence; lynching is such an arcane topic in the United States in the 21st century. But what must it mean if it is not coincidence? That at least three people (one of them the present Vice President of our nation); Smollett, Harris and Booker met in some dark alley somewhere and hatched a plot to fake a lynching for political purposes! As incredible as that seems, the best evidence points to that being the reality. Either that, or a marionette’s hand further up the ladder hatched the plan and motivated all three actors to play their roles without sharing the entire plan; which is even more disturbing.

    Again, I don’t even like to consider theories that require clandestine groups of people to execute long range plans across time and space, yet, time and time again Occam’s razor keeps pointing to such things occurring. How did BLM rise up so quickly and massively the second after there was an unfortunate death in police custody in Minneapolis involving a white officer and a black suspect? Why wasn’t the Capitol better defended on January 6th? Why don’t we know what happened to Officer Sicknick? General Flynn. The Russian collusion hoax. COVID data. Illegal immigration. Lies about the Trump administration. Trans rights. I could write sentences like this for hours and many of them involve international efforts beyond our borders.

    It seems beyond human folly and it also seems beyond coincidence.

  34. jvermeer:

    When I was a young child, my mother told me to look away and never look at the needle. It was great advice that I follow to this day.

  35. “DNW:
    You will truly become Orange Man Bad (ass). I knew a guy who went whole hog on the carrots and wound up with a Trumpish pigmentation (not tan in a can either).”
    ________________
    “I assumed DNW was completely serious in both his points (not). …”

    Aye, but I have a plan, don’t ya know now.

    Along with me diet of carrot juice and fish oil capsules, I’ll be bibing a 3oz dose of silver suspension, in ‘colloidal form’ as the man says, daily.

    So you see, it will not be orange I’ll be a-turning any time soon.

  36. Tuvea,
    The function of the vaccine is to present one of the most active antigens present on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to your body’s immune system and then let the the adaptive or acquired immune system respond to it. The adaptive system is slow in responding.

    Here is more than you want to know from Wikipedia.

    The money line from the above is:
    In humans, it takes 4-7 days for the adaptive immune system to mount a significant response.

    Not much info on the speed of the adaptive system. As Neo suggests, two weeks is likely very good, while three weeks might be a little better.

  37. DNW:

    Aargh!

    Works for purple carrots too? Since the vaccine could be an adjuvant in the PPE transmogrifaction of the philosopher formerly known as DNW. 🙂

  38. When I was a young child, my mother told me to look away and never look at the needle. It was great advice that I follow to this day.

    I always look straight at it, so that I know I (still) can. My daughter passes out if she looks.

  39. TommyJay:

    When I follow the links it appears there is no CVS/Walgreen vaxx distribution. The state controls it, so far as I can tell.

    New Mexico is pretty blue and has had some of the strictest lockdown. The state tells me they are also at the top of best vaxx distribution. Maybe.

  40. huxley,
    Is there a CVS on an Indian reservation that’s not too far away? The last time I drove to NM, I took a different route through the NE part of AZ and through Indian country. Very pretty. But I think there are reservations closer to ABQ?

  41. Had my second Moderna two weeks ago. It is so nice to be able to “see” in the dark now with my Bat like radar.
    Neo, I would say burn the mask but the powers that dictate say you can’t do that either.
    I would also say go run through the grass, but here in CO we had 2 ft of snow Sunday. It would be slow running.

  42. TommyJay:

    Indian reservations? Sure. Sandia, Santa Ana and Isleta are within 25 miles. Tell the truth, I’ve never wanted to intrude.

    I did enjoy seeing Indian families at the local McDonald’s in Bernalillo.

  43. Recommended, esp if your area is starting to extol tolerance for the homeless and putting forth “policies” like buying hotels so that the “unhoused” can be taken care of.
    Only about 18 minutes. Packed full of info about the current situation of homelessness in SF.
    https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-lockdown

    There’s also a transcript

  44. Walk into a grocery store without a mask, head held high, defying anyone to rebuke you.

  45. huxley,
    I checked for NM vaccine availability. The only corp. pharmacy that was operating was Walgreens and they took me straight to the state gov. registration system. I hate the bureaucratic hoop jumping. Don’t call us; we’ll call you. Try AZ or TX or wait?

  46. Don’t die from an adverse reaction? Or from anything else really…
    Just spitballing here.

    But I do like Roy’s answer…although I do that anyway even without a jab.

  47. Neo, how to celebrate?

    I think JohnTyler sports the best answer, methinks. But I’d combine it with a wine/cocktails/beer drinking evening party invite.

    Give ‘em a drink, then tweak friend’s noses? Gently? Yeah. But that’s just me.

    On the malice currently manifest in politics, Rufus T. Firefly is aghast, as am I:
    “Since hearing about Cloward – Piven it often appears there are powerful people in multiple areas of U.S. society, even the world, working towards the goal of collapsing the U.S. system. Robbing the treasury to enact policies that not only will NOT work, but will actually accelerate the tragedies they are purported to fix cannot be chance. Can so many truly be so ignorant? I don’t recall ever seeing so many politicians, news personalities, entertainers… advocating envy and vengeance, and belittling the most basic foundations of human relationships; community, family, educating our children, greeting one another openly, unmasked… Hugging!

    “It appears we’ve gone beyond, ‘Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.’ Far beyond….”

    A culture of self-hatred is now in power, and all must comply. Michael Anton posited the “Flight 93” election in the fall of 2016.

    If the surprise victory failed, revealing the incompetence and hatred of the Ruling Class but with stolen “victory” as demented and wheezened,, then what is the best revised metaphorical label for our crisis situation?

    Going down in the Hindenburg airship? A hot air balloon?

    What?

    We need a new and compelling analog to sell clarity to the masses.

  48. Those of you who are fans of Thomas Sowell might want to give this L&L article a quick look: https://lawliberty.org/encountering-thomas-sowell/

    From the article ” … the release of a new documentary from the Free to Choose Network, Common Sense in a Senseless World, … ”

    Seems this documentary may not have been as well done, or go into his work as deeply, as Sowell fans would have liked.

  49. A culture of self-hatred is now in power, and all must comply. Michael Anton posited the “Flight 93” election in the fall of 2016.

    TJ, Rufus T. Firefly, et al.:

    Anton has a new article which applies and is well worth reading:
    ________________________________________

    when before has an entire ruling class sided with the forces of evil, ponying up billions to fuel the fire, all the while preening over its superior morality for supporting death and destruction?

    The answer, so far as I know, is never. The very idea is unthinkable without the mainstreaming of the Weather ideology.

    –Michael Anton, “The Weather Underground’s Lasting Victory”
    https://lawliberty.org/forum/the-weather-undergrounds-lasting-victory/

    ________________________________________

    His article is in part a reply, a fisking of a Jay Nordlinger article covering the Weather Underground with a “pox on both houses” loftiness.

    (Even when I was still aboard the USS National Review, Nordlinger had gotten on my nerves. I could smell his writing just from an article title. He seemed to be a somewhat more believable character than Iowahawk’s elite creation, “T Coddington Van Voorhees VII.”)

    Back in the 70s/80s I was still a leftist and I read the Weather Underground communiques with some sympathy — though it was clear to me they had Gone Too Far — but mostly with a science-fiction, alt-history curiosity, like What if the Nazis had won WW II?

    And now I seem to have awakened, like Rip Van Winkle, in an America where the Weather Underground won, not by Cloward-Piven and revolution, but by a stealthy Gramscian march which penetrated not only academia and the arts, but to the top of the wealthiest corporations, by far, in human history.

  50. Now, for a fun palate cleanser and a reminder of Iowahawk’s genius, here’s T Coddington Van Voorhees VII’s call to arms in his fictional 2012 campaign for the presidency, “Together, I Shall Ride You To Victory”:
    _________________________________________

    In the long steeplechase of human events, the course ofttimes wends its way through a dense forest of uncertainty; into which the horseman must dash headlong through the hazardous branches of Doubt, surmount the briary hedgerows of Fear, only to confront the crossroads of Destiny. Here, the wizened old course-keeper Fate drops a gauntlet of challenge: down one path awaits doom, down the other victory and apres-race cocktails. Which path shall the rider choose? It is the fortunate horse indeed upon whom is mounted a rider equal to Destiny’s challenge, and wise to Fate’s trickery; for he can be sure that with every whip of the rider’s crop he is one gallop closer to the stables of security. And thus, today, I dismount to retrieve Fate’s gauntlet, strike him smartly across his face, and declare my official candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

    To be certain, this is not a decision I have undertaken lightly; it comes only as the result of months of careful self-deliberation and dockside focus groups with the finest minds of contemporary conservative campaign strategy. Notwithstanding the surprising electoral vulnerability of Mr. Obama, our analyses have made abundantly clear that the current field of Republican challengers possess neither the intellectual acuity nor the deft touch for the common man needed to lead America into an inspiring new era of moderate bipartisan compromise. In the days ahead I will have much more to say about their shortcomings; but for now let me assure those millions of commonsense Republican voters who have yearned for a candidate who shares their values for stability, flexibility, and pedigree: rejoice, for your standard-bearer has arrived.

    –T Coddington Van Voorhees VII, “Together, I Shall Ride You To Victory”
    https://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/t-coddington-van-voorhees-vii/

  51. Rufus: yes, it’s a conspiracy, and it is huge.

    The biggest problem with keeping conspiracies under wraps is the number of people involved, and the possibility that some one eventually would spill the beans.
    The advantage now is that, even if someone talks, there are enough clean-up crews to sweep up any random legumes.*

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/the_sovereign_crime_of_industrial_scale_vote_fraud.html

    The WaPo aka FakeNewsCentral break-out story on the fraudulent “Trump quotes” from Georgia may indicate that there are some holes somewhere, but we’ve actually seen published articles of people bragging about their conspiratorial doings (“fortifying the election” with pre-emptive fraud-friendly procedures comes to mind) and no one seems to care that about the whirled peas.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/05/delingpole-presidential-election-wasnt-rigged-it-was-fortified-says-time-magazine/

    *FTR, there are enough historical studies of some veracity now to indicate that almost every surprise secret “conspiracy” that wreaked mayhem was in fact known to some government agency or media outlet or both; they chose either to “not see” the facts, or to not report them, or both.

  52. I wanted to add this excerpt from the Delingpole post because it is of general utility and should be tucked away for future reference.

    I’m reminded here of an old article from the Times (of London), which described the process whereby political projects are advanced by stealth.

    It is at first denied that any radical new plan exists; it is then conceded that it exists but ministers swear blind that it is not even on the political agenda; it is then noted that it might well be on the agenda but is not a serious proposition; it is later conceded that it is a serious proposition but that it will never be implemented; after that it is acknowledge that it will be implemented but in such a diluted form that it will make no difference to the lives of ordinary people; at some point it is finally recognised that it has made such a difference, but it was always known that it would and voters were told so from the outset.

    This is where we are headed now with the”‘stolen” election. Columnists who blithely assured us that the election was above board may now begin to finesse their position.

  53. About that fortified election:

    https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2021/03/16/mi-court-michigan-secretary-of-states-absentee-ballot-order-broke-law-vindicating-trump-claim/

    Signature validation rules created without the approval of a legislature was one of the issues the Trump campaign and Republicans claimed was done illegally in the 2020 election.

    Trump’s campaign and Republicans argued in cases nationwide that Article II of the Constitution requires state legislatures to make the rules governing presidential elections, and state election officials and courts lack the authority to change those rules.

    Murray’s ruling undercuts the Democrat narrative that Republican legal challenges to 2020 election procedures were without merit and had therefore all been rejected by the courts. The original suit was filed October 6, 2020 — prior to the presidential election — but was not decided until March 9, 2021.

    The deadline for certification and inauguration plays into the hands of the fortifiers, when combined with the slow mills of justice.

  54. jack:

    I’d like to visit some friends inside their houses. But first I have to find someone who will let me in 🙂 .

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