Home » Open thread 1/12/23

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Open thread 1/12/23 — 40 Comments

  1. Hello Neo,
    An unrelated topic here. I think you may know of Gerard VanderLeun’s site,
    “American Digest”, (americandigest.org.). That’s where I discovered your site and I have seen him comment here also. He’s been in the hospital for a couple of weeks and it looks like it could be a while before he gets back to his normal life. Just thought I would get the word out to people who might know and appreciate him and his work.
    Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

  2. I am now waiting for the announcement that a Third Batch has been found, maybe in an outhouse at the official VP residence.

  3. I don’t think former VPs get Secret Service protection. So, these classified documents were in Biden’s residential garage in Wilmington, where crackhead Hunter could have accessed them.

  4. Flashback of horror! Watching my college gf do foot stretches. Even then her feet were misshaped.

    OK, a small amusement at my expense.

    Class (~50 f & me) practicing lifts w/ both facing forward and m lifts from f arched back (way too long ago to remember name). Sequence: place hands, both plie, f springs/m lifts, f arches back, slowly lower against front.

    Unfortunately, one partner’s sequence was place, plie/spring…..

    I remember 50 women in a circle looking down at me as I awoke.

  5. “AG Garland To Make Statement”—

    Off-mike: “For the love of Pete, I TOLD him a thousand times NOT to put the freakin’ stuff in the freakin’ GARAGE!”
    On-mike: “Ahem, good afternoon. Thank you for attending. I think we all know why we are here today. Allow me to explain: Some of you may be under the impression that the President has done something wrong. Something untoward. Something illegal…. NOTHING could be further from the truth. The President had the good sense to place the items under question in secure, pre-approved locations, unlike his…um, predecessor…who in the most foolhardy fashion, risked a serious security breach by hiding highly sensitive information INSIDE HIS OWN HOME, going so far as to place top-secret documents amongst the former First-Lady’s First Undergarments. AND THEN LYING BLATANTLY AND BRAZENLY ABOUT IT. Such heinous recklessness—TOTALLY UNBECOMING A PRESIDENT OF OUR BELOVED COUNTRY—should be obvious to you all. Thank you. No questions, thank you very much….”

  6. Birth rates are falling in the United States. After the highs of the Baby Boom in the mid-20th century and the lows of the Baby Bust in the 1970s, birth rates were relatively stable for nearly 50 years. But during the Great Recession, from 2007-2009, birth rates declined sharply – and they’ve kept falling. In 2007, average birth rates were right around 2 children per woman. By 2021, levels had dropped more than 20%, close to the lowest level in a century. Why?

    Is this decline because, as some suggest, young people aren’t interested in having children? Or are people facing increasing barriers to becoming parents?

    -=-=-=-=-

    Its a mystery… with feminism teaching women to hate having kids, hate men, hate their lives, hate society, hate economy, etc… with the men catching on its a sour deal to risk half your life on someone that risks little all for the same odds of having your transmission replaced at meineke… with the majority of feminists being white, their mates being hated to the grave much like certain class in germany over time…

    however… NO article says anything… its a total mystery..
    despite the SAME THING causing the crisis in Russia…

    as long as they keep looking for the heffalumps
    the woozles will slowly exterminate them

    do it slowly..
    and no one cares
    its a mystery down to the last one

    be funny when the new regime that eventually will come goes after the people and children of the old regime… like in slovakia no one read about… or other things i mentioned… cant figure things out, you have to be taught… if you can figure it out, then its no good… its worthless… but if you cant… then you have gold as they try and cant escape… they beome ants in a jar all milling about looking and assuming an out and pontificating all the way… and ignored not getting into the jar in the first place..

    the end is a done deal now..
    there isnt a way to facilitate even teaching.

  7. Biden’s response to Peter Doocy’s question about the new set of documents in his garage was particularly awkward. After admitting that they were in his garage next to his Corvette (“not in the street!”) he transitions to his prepared statement, which in typical Biden fashion he is barely able to mumble and stumble through.

    So if Biden was “surprised” about the documents “found” at the Penn Center, is he also surprised about the documents in his garage? However did they get there?

  8. Garland has appointed a Special Counsel to investigate these classified documents. He pretty much had to . There is, so far, no Special Counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s connections to Hunter’s international “businesses.”

    Jonathan Turley points out that the Biden Penn Center office in Washington did not open until 2018, so the documents found there had to have been moved at least once, by someone. When? Who? Who had access?

  9. “After admitting that they were in his garage next to his Corvette (“not in the street!”) ”

    A while back he did a vid with Jay Leno which included his Corvette. Suspect the documents were strewn haphazardly in the interior and had to be removed in order to get the ‘vette out of the garage.

  10. Speaking of B.S. and Joe Biden, I wonder if he is aware of how many times he has been busted. The Purple Heart whopper was pretty bad. But, if nobody tells him and aides edit his news sources, he may still think everyone believes him. Just like pre internet and smaller audience days.

  11. Oligonicella:

    Those over-arched feet in the video certainly were scary. I’ve never seen that extreme a case, although I’ve certainly seen people with a tendency in that direction. They often would sew into the pointe shoes some sort of strong elastic around the arch to try to keep things in check.

  12. jd:

    Thanks. I published a post here on the subject when he first was in the hospital, but I’ll update.

  13. So will this special council investigation be a smoke show? Or do the powers that be really want to excise Biden from the 2024 race?

  14. Kate,

    Pretty sure former V.P.s get Secret Service. To the Ineternet…

    Well, I stand corrected. Their secret service support extends to six months after they leave office.

  15. I think the people who hold Biden’s puppet strings will be pushing him out, soon. He’s become a liability to them. He will undoubtedly be impeached and Hunter will be investigated, and really bad stuff will come out. At this point, Kackles would be better – for the Dems, not for the country.

  16. I think the people who hold Biden’s puppet strings will be pushing him out, soon.

    CapnRusty:

    I understand what you’re saying and it’s a valid point.

    However…the Dems must win in 2024 yet Biden looks like he wants to go for it. Unfortunately (for them), who would run in Biden’s place?

    The string pullers may decide to go with Biden ’24 (barring a strong impeachment), then 86 him after the White House is in their clutches.

  17. Just for funsies…

    I missed this novelty in 1966 and who the heck was Norma Tanega anyway? Still a great little song.
    ___________________________

    Me and my cat named Dog
    Are walkin’ high against the fog
    Singin’ the sun, singin’ the sun

    –Norma Tanega, “Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog” (1966)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPZVrmJ2HH8

    ___________________________

    A more recent alt-rock group, “They Might Be Giants”, covered this with much better production and a totally charming animated video:

    –They Might Be Giants, “Walking My Cat Named Dog” (2015)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0XwJC6FbtA

    Next time someone asks me what I’m up to, I’ll tell them I’m “Walkin’ my cat named Dog.”

  18. @artfldgrOr are people facing increasing barriers to becoming parents?

    Sometimes it’s the little things. In my state every child must have a car seat or booster until they reach 4′ 9″. To have more than two young children, you need a bigger car. The requirement to buy a bigger car is not explicit but it is significant.

    If both parents work, day care goes up with every child and coordinating schedules around school hours and holidays is harder. The requirement to live on one income or else spend a lot more time and money is not explicit but it is significant.

  19. Re: The modern world and fewer children

    It’s not just feminism and increasing regulation, though they play their part.

    Since the 19th century and industrialization there has been a vast migration from the rural to the urban.

    On a farm, the more children the more free labor plus retirement benefits later. In a city, children are expensive, inconvenient hobbies.

    The urban, modern pressures are severe. Even in the face of the evolutionary imperative to reproduce, the global birth rate is dropping. In the first world we have dropped below replacement rate.

    It’s a better problem than the Population Bomb, but the Birth Dearth will pose its own challenges, which will be more severe than most realize.

    All our economic models are based on increasing numbers of younger people. We don’t know how to cope with a world of fewer young people.

    We are going to find out.

  20. Kudos to Peter Doocy for asking Biden “What were you thinking?!”… a pitch-perfect send-up of Biden’s fatuous interview remark about Trump’s alleged misdeeds with classified documents!

    Unfortunately, I doubt Biden even caught the zinger made from his own words! But to be fair, I seldom pay heed to his words either.

  21. It’s not just feminism and the move to the cities and the increased costs, but there is a decline in fecundity. Men have lower testosterone levels and women seem to have more difficulty conceiving — not just because they wait too long, but even at younger ages, there’s been a general trend towards that in younger ages.

  22. @ huxley > “All our economic models are based on increasing numbers of younger people. We don’t know how to cope with a world of fewer young people.
    We are going to find out.”

    The Japanese and Chinese already have.
    (see below for references)

    Fewer young people supporting the pensions for old people is one of the drivers of mass in-migration in Europe, and to a lesser agree in America, to generate taxes to pay the bills.
    (Japan & China IIRC do not import foreign workers.)

    No one has explained convincingly how putting many or most of those migrants on welfare will generate those taxes.

    (Waves HI to artldgr)

    https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/japans-population-problem

    Well, the predominant issue is that it is rapidly aging. It’s currently considered the oldest country in the world in terms of the proportion of the population that’s already over 65. It’s approaching about 30%, and it will be more than that in about 10 years. And the population has also been declining for the last decade. So there are a lot of old people and fewer and fewer young people.

    Couples are waiting longer to get married, are working more and having fewer children, and there’s a huge cultural difference. Within around 20 years it’s going to be Losing 1 million people a year; the size of a city.

    So first and foremost, obviously, is that the government will have to spend more to take care of the elderly in Japan, be that in health care costs, or be it in pensions.

    The second is and it’s related also to the government, its revenue and that is that the working population, as it gets smaller right as more people retire and then the population doesn’t grow the share of the people who are working-age diminishes and that means less revenue, less taxes, less income taxes specifically. So there’ll be fewer Japanese taking care of a larger proportion of the population. So that ratio between working and retiree will shift considerably.

    Japan is kind of a place where the world can look to see what the future looks like, right? We now know that the population is declining in the United States. China’s going to be facing this. South Korea is already facing this. So there are a lot of lessons that could be learned by looking at Japan.

    A little bit of history. We go back to after the war when Japan was occupied by the United States until early 1950s, and then after that, it kind of took off economically. And the way they accomplished that, by and large, was creating this work culture where everyone sort of were pulling together as part of what they call Japan Inc to kind of rebuild the country and make it an economic superpower. And it was largely men, and the men would devote their entire lives to the company, not just in terms of their entire careers, but literally every day of their lives, that they were there long, long hours. They often worked weekends. And the structure that enabled that was having a very strong traditional nuclear family with women at home taking care of the children. Then the bust came when the kind of real estate bubble in Japan collapsed in the very early ’90s, and then women were starting to go back to work partly because of necessity. If they were part of a nuclear family, the family needed more income, the women were entering the workforce. Then there was this sense, a little bit of, trying to empower women and actually allow women and encourage women to have their own careers. And then at the same time, Japan was not kind of changing those standards of what was expected of women in the home. So if they wanted to have those careers but also marry and have children, they were expected to do so much at home, that many women were looking at that and saying, “We can’t do that. We can’t do both.” I mean, these are similar themes that are now just starting to play out in the United States, but Japan has been kind of ahead of the curve, if you will, on that trend since the ’90s.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57154574
    2021-05-25

    A once-in-a-decade population census has shown that births in China have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s – leading to calls for an end to birth control policies. [which happened – AF] But some in China say these policies aren’t the only thing that’s stopping them.

    Despite being hassled by her mum about it, Beijing resident Lili* is not planning to have children any time soon.

    The 31-year-old, who has been married for two years, wants to “live my life” without the “constant worries” of raising a child.

    China’s census, released earlier this month, showed that around 12 million babies were born last year – a significant decrease from the 18 million in 2016, and the lowest number of births recorded since the 1960s.

    While the overall population grew, it moved at the slowest pace in decades, adding to worries that China may face a population decline sooner than expected.

    Shrinking populations are problematic due to the inverted age structure, with more old people than young.

    When that happens, there won’t be enough workers in the future to support the elderly, and there may be an increased demand for health and social care.

    …experts say China’s situation could be uniquely exacerbated given the number of men who are finding it difficult to find a wife in the first place, let alone think of starting a family.

    After all, there is a severe gender imbalance in the country – last year, there were 34.9 million more males than females.

    Which generates a different set of problems.

  23. The Japanese and Chinese already have.

    AesopFan:

    Japan is a good case, though Japan is not exactly “We” in the sense of humanity at large. And Japan is propped up by existing in a world which is not yet experiencing a Japanese level of demographic decline. The Japanese can still sell products to the young in other countries.

    China has not reached the Japanese level but it is tipping into it and its decline will be more precipitous.

    I find Peter Zeihan’s analysis persuasive that within the next ten years we will see China crash to the point where it will cease to exist as the China we know.

    The question on my mind is what happens when most of Europe and Asia hit that level of demographic collapse.

    To be sure the US has demographic problems too, but not so severe or advanced. American boomers had more children and those children have had children. Plus we get a lot of younger immigrants, legal and otherwise, from other countries. They are not all welfare burdens.

  24. How about a little GOOD news:
    https://www.city-journal.org/recapturing-higher-education?skip=1

    The most significant political story of the past half-century is the activist Left’s “long march through the institutions.” Beginning in the 1960s, left-wing activists and intellectuals, inspired by theorists such as Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci and New Left philosopher Herbert Marcuse, made a concerted effort to embed their ideas in education, government, philanthropy, media, and other important sectors.

    This process came to spectacular fruition following the 2020 death of George Floyd, when it seemed that every prestige institution in the United States got busy advancing the same ideological line on race, gender, and culture—which, whether they knew it or not, mimicked the precise themes that the old radicals had originally proposed.

    The long march through the institutions, in other words, was complete.

    But conservatives, too, have updated their playbook. They have read their Gramsci and have begun to understand that ideological capture poses a grave threat to the American system.

    Last week, DeSantis raised the stakes and proposed, for the first time, a strategy for reversing the long march through the institutions, beginning with what Marcuse believed was the initial revolutionary institution: the university. The governor appointed a slate of new trustees to the board of the New College of Florida, a notoriously left-wing campus, similar to that of Evergreen State in Olympia, Washington. DeSantis tasked the new board with transforming it into, to quote the governor’s chief of staff, the “Hillsdale of the South”—in other words, a classical liberal arts college that provides a distinctly traditional brand of education and scholarship.


    I was honored to be appointed to this board, along with friends and colleagues from the conservative movement, … Governor DeSantis has tasked us with something that has never been done: institutional recapture. If we are successful, the effort can serve as a model for other states.

    The premise of this reform is simple. Voters in Florida, who charter and fund the public-university system through their legislative representatives, deserve to have their values reflected and transmitted in their public institutions.

    Conservatives and old-line liberals, however, did not heed Boorstin’s warning [in 1968]. Decade after decade, they ceded institutional territory to the radical Left until, a half-century later, the basic narratives of the Weather Underground and the Black Panther Party, translated into the language of critical race theory and “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” had prevailed almost everywhere.

    We hope to reverse this process, beginning on the Sarasota campus of New College. The board of trustees will assemble in the coming months, but in the interim, I have proposed various policy changes that will help the college to begin the reinvention.

    Ours is a project of recapture and reinvention. Conservatives have the opportunity finally to demonstrate an effective countermeasure against the long march through the institutions. The Left’s permanent bureaucracy will be dead-set against this gambit, but if it succeeds, a new era for higher education—and for the country—is possible.

  25. @ huxley > “They are not all welfare burdens.”

    This is true, and I know some of them.
    They came here legally, studied and worked, and are now naturalized citizens.
    I know some, who came here illegally, who work hard, are otherwise law-abiding and honest, and have sacrificed for their children’s educations (and some of them are Gateway Pundit fans!).

    However, the Biden Invasion is not in that league.
    Indications are convincing that they are intended to be new Democrat voters, not necessarily tax-payers. What that will do to Social Security and the Welfare System is among the mysteries of the age.

    Also, the situation is much worse in Europe, where many countries (I’m thinking particularly of Sweden) discovered that the “workers” they imported were more of a problem than a solution.

    I fully support legal, rational, and compassionate immigration laws.
    I do NOT support end-runs around the laws we have, even though I think some of them are none-of-the-above.
    Repeal them or enforce them.
    And rationalize the ones that are mutually incompatible (yes, they exist).

  26. sdferr @ 4:59 pm:
    Yes, the timing and 24/7 media intensity of Russiagate ENSURED, as it was intended to, that the Democrats would grab the 2018 mid-terms. (Only after that larcenous achievement, Mueller WOULD admit that there was NO EVIDENCE of anything…while the usual suspects would CONTINUE to warn, threateningly, with righteous indignation, “BUT! where there’s smoke there’s fire…”)

    The rest (as they say) is history. Grossly—and criminally—manipulated history.
    Perverted history.
    And it’s continued ever since, given the perversely dishonest, energized and non-stop proclivities of the media machine.
    The methodology: Weaponize EVERYTHING and then use it all to utterly demonize and delegitimize your opponents…and with it the entire political fabric.
    (Now where have we seen THAT before….?)

  27. TWO FACED POS BASTARD JOURNALISTS.

    Not that this is, in ANY regard, surprising:

    The Democratic governor of Colorado has been shipping illegal migrants to New York City, to the chagrin of Mayor Eric Adams. But this isn’t cruel, unconscionable kidnap-busing of illegals, as with Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis. This, per Governor Jared Polis, is “carrying out our values of treating every human being with dignity and respect.”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/democrat-colorado-gov-defends-busing-migrants

    Do you hear about this? Naw….
    You hear… < *crickets* >

  28. Also, the situation is much worse in Europe, where many countries (I’m thinking particularly of Sweden) discovered that the “workers” they imported were more of a problem than a solution. –AesopFan

    I continue to wonder.

    Maybe the West's effectively open borders policies aren't just to destroy its traditional foundations and political support, but at some level the backroom boys and girls are hoping to address demographic problems.

    –Dusty Springfield, "Wishin' and Hopin'"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycbgHM1mI0k

  29. Powerline on immigration trends.
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/01/the-daily-chart-immigration-update.php

    And behavior.
    https://www.foxnews.com/media/migrants-drinking-all-day-having-sex-in-stairs-taxpayer-funded-new-york-hotels-whistleblower

    Hoarding clothes they’ve been given, but tossing massive amounts of free food because they don’t like it.

    What demographic problem is being addressed here?

    Repeating: I have no problem with legal, regulated, coherent, socially responsible, and economically effective in-migration,
    That’s not what’s going on.

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