I’ve been thinking a bit about precession of the Equinoxes. Since the Earth is slightly oblate due to rotation and the axis is tilted relative to the plane of the elliptic, solar tidal forces exerts a “torque” on it that causes it to precess, like the wobbling of a top that’s a bit off center. It works out that the “wobble” takes 25,772 years to make one complete circuit. Now, as it wobbles, the dates on which the equinoxes and solstices occur will change. As it stands now, the Northern Hemisphere is angled toward the sun in June and away from it in December (why we have Summer and Winter. In 12886 years, the Northern Hemisphere will be angled toward the sun in December and away from it in June, giving us winter in June and Summer in December.
The year, per the Gregorian Calendar is 365.2425 days long. Divide the period of precession with the length of the year and you have that the equinoxes/solstices will shift 1 day for every 70.56 years. Now, I’m not clear on which direction it changes but I wonder, if it changes toward “earlier” then, it’s been 438 years since the Gregorian Calendar was first created. That’s enough to shift the Winter Solstice 6.2 days. This leads me to wonder if perhaps Christmas was originally intended to occur on the Solstice and they missed by couple days (early) and the current date of the Solstice is the result of precession of the Equinoxes.
Edit: On reflection, I think the Gregorian calendar is synced to the solstices (although unlike some historic calendars, they don’t start the year on the Solstice, the length of the year is based on solstice to solstice, rather than the Earth’s position in its orbit around the sun per se). Which would explain why 200 years ago it was still December 21st. The switch from the solstice being on December 10 (give or take a day) to December 21st (ditto) was in 1752, the same year the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the colonies that would become the United States.
I have long had a particular posture issue, in particular a certain forward lean when walking. As I have discussed before, I have speculations as to why but I don’t really know. I just do. Back in Air Force basic training this caused issues. Guy behind me when we were marching in formation noted that my shoulders were in perfect line with those on either side of me but my feet were back far enough to cause him trouble.
I’ve been working on that, particularly since it’s a definite fault when it comes to ice skating. Even so, you can get away with it for a while in some of the basics. But as you advance in learning techniques you soon reach a point where it just doesn’t work. And by the time you start learning spins, even beginning two-foot spins, that postural flaw makes them undoable as we see here in one of my early efforts:
So, I’ve been working expressly on posture. When doing just general skating around the rink, I’d glance over at my reflection in the glass and see how straight I’m standing, try to adjust, and then continue. The main problem I’ve found is that when I tell myself to “straighten up” my body interprets that as “lean back”. This gets my weight too far back on the skates and I fall over backward–which is a particularly painful direction to fall on the ice.
What I’ve found working better is to think not of “shoulders back” but “head up” and not just looking up (although that’s important too) but stretching my head up toward the ceiling. The body follows along and I get a much more upright posture. You can see that I’ve made progress in this collection from this past weekend’s work:
And going back to two-foot spins, you can see here when I stay straight, I do better. When I bend at the waist, I lose it:
Extremely short one today but this message is important to share.
China, specifically the Chinese Communist Party, is monstrous. Period.
I’m sure the Chinese people, like all peoples, have their good and bad individuals. But the CCP is pure, unadulterated evil–a term I don’t use often but which applies here.
One of the two techniques I need to learn to complete “Adult 5” in the Learn to Skate USA progression is beginning two-foot spin. We worked on that in class a bit some time ago but I never really did anything with it in my practice time. Too busy working on other things. Well, this afternoon (November 14, 2020) I spent some time working on it.
First I tried turning to the left. Being right handed (mostly) that’s supposed to be my “natural” direction. That didn’t work well, so I tried to the right. That worked better. I found the same thing when working pivots some time back as well. I recorded the practice session:
If I counted correctly, I think my best in that set was 2 1/2 revolutions. If you can listen carefully, you can hear me say at the end of one spin “eyes open.” I had closed my eyes during the spin, which, of course, is a mistake. The main, persistent mistake I made though that is forward body lean. Not keeping my body straight throws off my balance and there we are.
It’s a perennial problem I have with all my skating. You can see it as well in today’s work with forward consecutive edges.
There was a bit of a false start there as a kid on hockey skates cut across my path. I did forward outside edges down (away from the camera) and forward inside edges back. I’ve done better than this session, but overall it is improving. But, as you can see, the forward lean is still an issue.
What the two-foot spin is supposed to look like:
What the forward consecutive edges are supposed to look like:
The clutch on my 2009 Kia Spectra started slipping so I had to replace the clutch. I looked at having a shop do it but estimates available online were talking the high side of $1000. This made a lot more sense once I saw that the “shop” method involves removing the front sub frame which…yeah, no.
Now I’m decent shadetree mechanic and while I haven’t done this particular project before, I have done things of similar scope…or so I thought. So, I bought a clutch kit and dove in.
First time through there were issues and the upshot was that after it was done, the car wouldn’t start. That was trepidition enough but it also looks like the throwout bearing didn’t engage the pressure plate. Read on to find out about that. The result of all that is that I’m having to tear the whole thing down again. This time I’m getting step-by-step pictures. This is the result.
Most car engine projects start by disconnecting the battery. This one starts by removing the battery and battery holder plate.
Here’s the battery in its original position. You can see the air filter box behind and to the left..
With the battery gone, you can see the battery holder plate. It is secured by three screws. You can see the battery securing clamp at the bottom of the plate, held by one of the screws. A lip at the bottom of the battery fits under that clamp and another fitst under a flange at the back of the plate. The battery is removed by loosening that screw, which releases the battery and allows it to be removed. You can remove the holder plate entirely by removing all three screws.
With the battery plate removed, I loosely screw the bolts that held it into their holes in the engine compartment. When possible, I do this both to keep track of what bolt goes where but also to prevent their loss. Failure to do this is why I lost a bolt in the first go through, but more on that later.
We now begin to remove the airbox. The first step is disconnecting the air filter box cover from the hose. There is a screw clamp at this point. Unscrew the clamp to loosen the hose.
Once the clamp is loosened, you can remove the air filter box cover by unfastening the two clips at the front of it and lifting and pulling it away from the hose.
Like the battery holder plate, the air filter box is held in place by three screws. Use a 12 mm socket to remove them.
Once removed, set the air filter box aside. In this case, I simply fit the screws into their holes to help keep track of them later.
Now we remove the hose from the the throttle body. This uses a screw-type clamp the same as the other end which connects to the air filter box.
There is another hose that connects to the hose you just removed via a barb connection. Simply pull it free.
Set this hose aside. There is a sensor cable that attaches to it which you can leave. I really tend to minimize any disconnections I don’t have to make. They save attempts to figure out what needs to be reconnected later and the risk of forgetting something.
Get the car up on jackstands before beginning work underneath it. Do not rely on just a jack to hold the car in place.
Now we crawl under the car to drain the transmission. The drain plug is on the differential portion of the transaxle on the left side of the car (facing front). Driver’s side in the US. Put a catch basin under the drain hole and remove the plug. I’m not sure exactly what size it is. It didn’t match any of my sockets or wrenches. I ended up using an adjustable wrench to loosen it and it then came off by hand.
We begin removing the axles here. Start by removing the front wheels and tires.
Remove the cotter pin and the axle nut. You’ll need a 32 mm socket for this. You probably should replace them at the end (that’s recommended). At the very least, expect to replace the cotter pin. An impact driver is a big help here. Otherwise you’ll need some way to hold the rotor and hub in place while you break loose the axle nut. The axle nut is backed up by a thick lockwasher. Set both nut and lockwasher aside for now.
Remove the brake caliper and its mounting bracket and use zip ties to hang it out of the way. You don’t need to separate the caliper from the bracket. Just unbolt the two 17 mm head bolts securing the bracket to the disk brake dust shield and remove bracket, caliper and pads as a unit.
The rotor is secured to the hub with two screws. I haven’t seen that before in other cars and didn’t notice at first resulting in my doing a lot of fruitless tugging the first time through. Use a Philips screwdriver (“+” type) to remove the screws. The rotor slides off easily after that (or maybe not if there’s significant rust sticking it to the hub).
I have seen instructions for three ways to get enough motion in the steering knuckle and hub to be able to get the axle free at this end. The first was the one in my Haynes manual to remove the nut securing the ball joint to the lower control arm and pop that loose. That did not work (and thus is not shown here). The ball joint simply would not come free of the control arm. Indeed, it didn’t budge. The second was to remove the nut securing the ball joint connected to the tie rod. Same problem there (and, again, thus not shown here). The third method, which did work, is to disconnect from the strut.
There are two bolts that secure the steering knuckle to the strut. The bolts take a 17 mm wrench or socket (socket used here). The nut, however, takes a 19 mm wrench or socket (wrench used here). (Note: picture taken before rotor removal.)
Here the hub is with the bolts out and the rotor off.
At this point you can pull the hub to the side and begin to work the axle out of it. It may take some creative prying and flexing, but it will come loose.
With the axle free, I thread the castle nut and the lockwasher onto the end for safekeeping. Then it’s under the car to remove the axle from the differential. Get a pry bar between the end of the inner CV joing and the body of the differential (in this case I just used a very large screwdriver as the pry bar.
A quick “pop” of the prybar causes it to push past the snap ring that normally keeps it in place.
You then repeat the process on the other side.
Once the axles are out, we’re almost ready to start disconnecting the transmission from the engine. There are still a couple of preliminary steps. First we need to support the engine. This is done by putting a jack underneath it with a wooden block to distribute the support. You don’t want to dent or otherwise damage the oil pan as that can crimp the oil pickup which is very bad indeed for your engine.
The manual and several online descriptions of the process recommend another jack, preferably with a proper transmission support cradle, to support the transmission. I, however, found that it was easier to support it from above with a two-by-four across the fenders. Rubber pads distribute the weight on the fenders and to protect the paint. A ratcheting tie-down strap can then support the transmission giving a bit better control of position and angle than trying to wiggle it around on a jack:
Next I need to disconnect the clutch linkage. There’s a spring clip that holds the pin between the slave cylinder and the clutch lever. Originally it was installed so that it was on the bottom of the assembly. When I first reassembled it, I reassembled it so that the spring clip is on the top. There’s a curved section that runs around the pin and a straight piece that goes through a hold in the pin. You need to pry the hook part away and then the clip slides out of the pin. I’m sure there’s a special tool for this but I just used a screwdriver to do the prying.
Once I had the slave cylinder disconnected, I wanted to double check whether the throwout bearing was engaged with the pressure plate. The reason for this is that if the throwout bearing is engaged, it is not removable and it’s not possible to put the transmission back on and engage the throwout bearing with the clutch fork with it in place. I wanted to be sure before doing that.
I used a large socket which fit over the clutch lever with an extension in the back of it as a lever to give me purchase on the lever:
I was able to move the lever against strong resistance. After a certain point the resistance let up slightly, but only slightly. This was exactly what I would expect with the throwout bearing engaged and the geometry of the “fingers” that apply pressure to the clutch.
So, whatever problem there was with the car, it wasn’t that the throwout bearing was not engaged–installed backwards or whatever–and I could console myself that I hadn’t made such a boneheaded mistake. But I still did not know why the car would not start.
Having no better ideas, I reconnected the clutch linkage, temporarily reinstalled the airbox and battery, got in the car, pressed the clutch pedal (it felt about right this time), and inserted and turned the key.
Damned if the engine didn’t start.
So, at that point it was a matter of reinstalling all the various pieces-parts of the car (mostly a reverse of the removal)–I may edit this to add those pictures in later–and try out the car.
It ran. Clutch felt great. A little “grabbier” than it was before (no great surprise) so it took a little getting used to exactly where the “grab point” was to avoid stalling the engine when starting out but otherwise running quite smoothly.
Last thing to do is to replace the transmission fluid. What’s in there right now is a mix of the “right” stuff (75W90 GL-4–do not use something that’s both GL-4 and GL-5), something that’s not quite right but I had on hand (GL-3 and…unknown weight), and the old oil put back in. I ordered a supply of the correct oil (none of the local stores I’ve see have the correct oil) and simply have to get back under the car to drain the old and put in the new.
If the various legal challenges fail and Biden is actually confirmed as our new President (with the Democrats being given a green light that even the most blatant and obvious of fraud can go unchecked ensuring their continued victory), then we can expect more from the likes of “Stevie”:
So there was this:
“It’s my job” he says. Which is just one step away from “I was only following orders.”
Sorry, Stevie. May I call you “Stevie”? Don’t really care, actually. Going to call you that anyway.
Look, Stevie. Short version: “It’s my job” is never an excuse for doing something unethical, let alone illegal, and certainly not unconstitutional. “It’s my job” does not make a wrong thing right. Period. End of short version.
Slightly longer version. Stevie, don’t think I didn’t notice how you just breezed over things with a boss telling you to “do something.” (Like “Some people did something”?) This vague generalization allows you to mask the truly monstrous idea you are attempting to justify here.
Look, if my boss tells me to clean up the warehouse, I clean up the warehouse even if it doesn’t fall under my normal job duties but still falls under “other duties as assigned.” Oh, in many places using a Senior Analytical Scientist as a janitor might be a poor use of scarce resources that have alternative uses but we’re a small company and we have to wear a lot of “hats” so you do what needs to be done when it needs to be done and don’t worry that much about official “job titles.”
But, if my boss said “Rob the office next door” do you think that would fall under “other duties as assigned”? (Spoiler: It doesn’t.) If my boss were to lose his mind and give me that order, I would tell him to F-off (in so many words) and I would then promptly warn the neighboring office and the police of his plans.
It’s called “ethics”, Stevie. You, apparently, don’t know anything about that.
Let’s take that a step farther. Suppose I, too, lost my mind and actually obeyed that ridiculous order thinking “I’m just doing my job.” Do you think that “it’s my job” would make it okay? When the police came to arrest me (after all, I don’t think I’d make a very competent crook) and I told them I was just doing my job would they say, “well, all right then. You can go”?
I didn’t think so.
Oh, and my first job after leaving the Air Force? I did tell my boss to F-off (albeit not in so many words–I was more polite then) when he asked me to do something I considered unethical. Not even illegal, just in violation of my personal ethics. Left that job and went working elsewhere–preferred washing dishes in a restaurant to violating my ethics.
It being “your job” doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it acceptable. A hit man for the Gambino family is just “doing his job” when he pops a rival boss. But he’s still a murderer and a criminal. He’s still morally repugnant.
Just like you would be, Stevie, to participate in the confiscation of arms from previously law abiding (law abiding until unconstitutional laws were passed making them criminals) members of the community.
Just like you would be, Stevie, to participate in that blatant violation of the Constitution and fundamental human rights. (Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness)
Just like you would be, Stevie, as a Jack Booted Thug.
I’ve continued to progress in the ice skating. We’ve just started a new 8 week block of classes, so now is a good time to review where I am.
“Learn to Skate USA” has two basic skills progressions for people learning to skate. For the children (6-14) they have the Basic 1 to Basic 6 progression. For “Adults” (15 and up) they have the Adult 1 to Adult 6 series. There are some differences between the two progressions, some things introduced at different levels in one compared to the other and some things included in one and not the other.
I’m currently working on things in the Adult 5 to Adult 6 range, with a few things from pre-Free-Skate as follows. Bold indicates things I’ve more or less learned. Italics means things I’m actively working on. Plain text means that I’m still working up to it. In addition to the Adult progression ranking, I’ve listed here where the various things are introduced in the Basic progression.
Adult 4
Forward outside edge on a circle, R and L (Basic 4)
Forward inside edge on a circle, R and L (Basic 4)
Forward crossovers, clockwise and counterclockwise (Basic 4)
Backward one-foot glides, R and L (Basic 4)
Backward half-swizzle pumps on a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise (Basic 4)
Hockey stop, both directions (Basic 5)
(Yes, I have now finished Adult 4)
Adult 5
Backward outside edge on circle, R and L (Basic 5)
Backward inside edge on a circle, R and L (Basic 5)
Backward crossovers, clockwise and counterclockwise (Basic 5)
Forward outside three-turn, R and L (Basic 5)
Forward swing rolls to a count of six (Not included in “Basic”)
Beginning two-foot spin (Basic 4)
Adult 6
Forward stroking with crossover end patterns (Not included in Basic)
Backward stroking with crossover end patterns (Backward stroking is Basic 6, the “crossover end patterns” is not included)
Forward inside three-turn, R and L (Basic 6)
Forward outside to inside change of edge on a line, R and L (Not included in Basic)
T-stop, R or L (Basic 6)
Lunge (Basic 4)
Two-foot spin into one-foot spin (Basic 6)
There are some additional skills included in the Basic progression, not included in the Adult progression. Since I plan to continue with Free Skate once I complete Adult 6, I think it advisable to learn these as well:
Basic 5
Advanced two-foot spin — 4–6
«Bonus skill: Side toe hop — R and L
Basic 6
Forward inside open mohawk from a standstill (R to L and L to R)
Moving backward to forward two foot turn on a circle — clockwise and counterclockwise
Bunny hop
Forward spiral on a straight line — R or L
«Bonus skill: Shoot the duck — R or L
In the last block of classes my instructor had me doing some pre-free skate work and free kate work as well.
Pre-Free Skate
Backward crossovers to a backward outside edge glide (landing position) clockwise and counterclockwise).
Backward Outside Edge to a forward outside edge transition on a circle. (Note: I am doing a backward inside to forward inside edge transition, which I don’t see specifically listed.)
Two forward crossovers into a forward inside mohawk, step down and cross behind, step into one backward crossover and step to a forward inside edge, repeat three times, CW and CCW.
On foot upright spin, minimum 3 revolutions.
Mazurka jump.
Waltz Jump.
Backward inside pivots.
Free Skate 1.
Forward power stroking, clockwise and counterclockwise
Basic Forward outside and inside consecutive edges (4-6)
Backward outside three turns (R and L)
Upright spin entry from back crossovers (min. four revolutions)
Half flip jump
Toe loop.
Waltz jump to waltz jump sequence.
My forward edges are actually coming along well. Unfortunately, when I set up to record them I accidentally had the wrong camera on my phone set so I got a nice video of empty bleachers. So here’s Coach Julia showing how they are supposed to be done:
My Three-Turns, however, are coming along nicely as well:
Forward Inside Mohawks, however, are proving a bit of a challenge:
And the backward outside edges are also presenting a challenge.
In honor of the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month
BY JOHN MCCRAE
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
There is a statistical observation that has long been known, that in tables of numbers, statistics, etc. numbers whose first non-zero digit is “1” occur with more frequency (just under a third of the time) than other digits and the probability falls with each succeeding digit (3 is less common than 2. 4 is less common than 3. And so on.
And this is very broadly applicable. Newcomb, in 1881, noted that the first pages in log tables (this was before calculators and electronic computers; calculating things like logarithms was a long, painstaking, laborious task, so they were compiled into large tables and bound into books so people could just look them up) were invariably more worn than succeeding pages.
Benford’s law can be an excellent indicator of whether a set of numbers occurs “naturally” or if someone has been manipulating them. Manipulation tends to throw things off. As just one example, the IRS uses Benford’s Law as one of its “red flags” to see whether an audit is needed for possible tax fraud.
Now, we come to the recent election. For the most part, results actually follow pretty closely to Benford’s Law with no more variation than you would expect from chance. Example being Miami-Dade:
But there are a few places where things are a little different. Most of the candidates results follow a normal distribution, in accordance with Benford’s Law. But, well, one of these things is not like the other:
Now, this isn’t proof of anything. But how strange that only one candidate’s results violate Benford’s Law, and only does so in a handful of places which just happen to be the places this candidate needs to swing certain states leading to that magical 270 Electoral College votes.
And this same candidate just happened to rack up large numbers of votes in the dead of night, bug chunks without a single vote for other candidates. And this candidate just happens to have a lot of ballots cast where the only vote was for President, not any of the down-ticket races. And…
Well, my friend Larry Correia, a former accountant with a great deal of experience with audits and also in recognizing the red-flags that indicate the need for an audit lists some of the many red flags here and more here.
But the media (including Fox, which appears to have sold out completely at last) is all:
And you can believe as much of that as you want to.
We are in risk of losing the republic. And if we lose it it’s going to be very hard to claw our way back. It could take centuries. So I’m going to suggest we don’t lose it. I’m going to suggest we refuse to stop being Americans. In fact, I’m suggesting we become so American they can’t hold us, and have to vomit us forth whole.
They want us? They don’t know what they want. They want to be our rulers? Do you know that the US is the only country in which presidents age 10 years per year in office? (Which means Joey the pedo, Xi’s turtle boy, will be a mummy in two months.) And do you know how much more they’d age and how much harder it would be if Americans, instead of trying to be good and cooperative and productive citizens, just went out of their way to be obstinate pains in the ass?
This is something we the people can do. Something that doesn’t depend on courts, or institutions, and which is not the fourth box. G-d knows it might yet come to the fourth box (the magic eight ball tells me “it’s almost inevitable”) but perhaps not. And if it does, maybe we can be in a position of strength when the music starts to play.
And yes, I’ll explain:
If the election results stand, despite obvious, obscene, skirts-up fraud on the street, in front of G-d and everyone (And please tiresome trolls, go here and read this, and learn to count above five. And stop trying to comment. I’m just going to spam you. Tell Comrade Xi he doesn’t pay you enough. Even better, kick him in the balls. Be a little American, you. Learn from Hong Kong.) and if they sit Gropey China Joe and Commie LaWhorish, I expect war by July, but it could take a year or more. Only because our side is slow to anger. On the other hand — and the left might want to remember this — we are ACTUALLY very thorough when we flip over. Y’all cosplay revolution. We just get pissed and steamroll everything. Remember that. It won’t be pretty.
The problem is if they have at least nominal power, they will have at least some of the armed forces. Which means the conflict will go on forever. Unless we soften the hell out of them, first, and give them nervous breakdowns. (Which is not as hard as it seems, since most of them are extreme neurotics.)
If OTOH Trump carries this in the courts, the left is going to try to amp up the sort of shit they’ve been doing for the next four years and burn the country down and destroy our economy, unless we let them have their little red wagon and fifty scoops of commie cream.
One way or another, we need to fight them. We. Us. Right now. On the ground. And not with bullets.
I confess until this morning I was in flat despair over how to do it, until Larry Correia, bless him, threw off an off-hand comment:
“Yet while I watched this, Twitter kept deleting the accounts sharing the file list. They’d block somebody, and then ten minutes later someone else would share it and get blocked too. In the half an hour or so I scrolled through dead voters the people sharing the list kept vanishing. It was kind of amazing to watch real time. But one would get blocked and somebody else would take their place.If the thing that saves America from turning into a cyberpunk dystopia run by ruthless tech oligarchs… is 4chan… I’m gonna laugh because I truly did not see that coming. : )”
Larry Correia
I’m not sure about the history of 4chan BUT it is an American thing. Sure, it’s all over the world, but it works like America only crossed with where the devil goes potty, of course. Like them we’re autistic, we’re broken, we’re irreverent, we’re unique among the nations of the world. And that’s what we need to play to.
A lot of you play various forms of RPG. I don’t. Not because I disapprove of it, but because I never had the patience to do it and because the one game I played “felt” too much like writing, and NO ONE pays me to play these, while they pay me for books. (If you want to pay me to play RPG I’m willing.)
But I think those of you who play RPG will agree: The monster always has a flaw. It might be a stupid flaw, like you need to hit it on this one dime-sized spot behind the left ear. BUT THE MONSTER ALWAYS HAS A FLAW.
And here I must smack all of you, and me too, because we forgot to be Americans these last four years, and we tried to fight the monster on its terms. That’s the way to lose. That’s the way to ALWAYS lose.
For four years, while we held the presidency and one house, we acted like losers, and screamed because we let the bureaucrats pull our strings and get under our skin. NO MORE.
The left’s flaw is a mile wide. No, seriously. We don’t see it, because we don’t fully understand them, the way they don’t understand us. We’re better at predicting them, but we look at them and go “How would someone get so fucked up.”
Well, that’s a subject for an entire dissertation, but what you need to GET this are two keys:
a) They are more social than us. FAR MORE SOCIAL. They take their cues from where they perceive the herd to be. And they’ll accept all sorts of bizarre things, for the warm fuzzies of belonging. They’d rather be miserable with the group, than happy alone. They might not understand “happy alone.” (Even though they have an image of themselves as low heroes. ALL OF THEM. Go figure.) This is why there are no decentralized movements on their side. There must be a leader to follow. To be outside the group is their biggest fear.
b) They never had to think about their positions. To stay on the left, because they’ve controlled the culture so long that to be on the left, all you have to do is coast along, taking what professors and authority figures tell you as revealed truth. This means their opinions are very vulnerable. We read their sites — though it needs blood pressure medication — but they want ours shut down, because they can’t stand any intellectual challenge to a system they didn’t reason themselves into. And they can’t let go of the system, because it would destroy them to be outside the group.
Their flaw is composed of exactly that. They can’t imagine anyone not acting like them. They think the things they do cause them to be liked and belong, or to intimidate some horrifying — but always laughably weak — other. IOW they take themselves VERY VERY VERY seriously. They’re important people, doncha know. And the rest of us would be like them if we were as smart as they are. Their biggest flaw is their self importance, their utter seriousness, and their stupid inability to see that others are different from them.
Look, Zombie Biden and his handler Roundheels McClownLaugh want to take us into — duh — a Chinese like system of credits and silencing, and gullags and the whole panoply of horrors of the Fascist mind.
Do you ever wonder why Fascism took so well in Germany and China? Compliant population. (Communist terror is different, but that also requires a different type of mentality. And yes, the idiots think they’re communist, but as we found out under Obama, they’re mostly fascist.) That’s cultural. And we don’t have it. Though we’ve been much too nice for too long.
So, be American. See, I was in Portugal when checking speed by radar was introduced. The entire extent of their non-compliance (and Portugal isn’t precisely law abiding, itself) was the blinking lights of drivers on the other lane to warn you. In the states? My husband had a little thing on his dashboard that warned him to slow down because radar was being taken.
Someone had designed this thing to circumvent enforcement measures. SOMEONE HAD SOLD IT. It was in every catalogue at the time. And the populace GLEEFULLY embraced it.
All of the fascist (well, commie too) enforcement and spying services call for constant surveillance, total vision into what you do on line, and who you hang out with, and what you read.
What actually is wrong with you people with tech knowledge? I need a software spoofer that shows them every day first thing in the morning I visit the Daily Worker. At noon I read the Nation. And I post comments at whatever the heck antifa uses to organize.
I’m sure a few of you geniuses can do that.
What about those who aren’t very techy? What can we do?
Well, you know, kiddies, the problem we face is that most of the populace SIMPLY doesn’t follow politics. They don’t. They just see a digest and THINK this means that it’s all above board, etc. I mean, they see the election map and think it’s real, and that it must be absolutely true.
So? Make doggerel verse. Find out how to rhyme something with Commie Lawhorish and laptop from hell, and election fraud. For extra credit make a stamp or stickers. Put them on phone poles. Put them on bus stops. You have to use a public toilet? Put it there. Let the knowledge penetrate from below. It doesn’t even have to be very funny. People tend to startle-laugh at those who speak the forbidden.
Oh, and Joe Lying and Commie LaWhorish are going to lock down the country and take the economy down for three months. Which should finish us off. Don’t let them finish us off. Seriously. This can go anywhere from refusing to obey stay at home orders (do you know how easy it is to fake the essential work papers? I mean most are printed on a home printer. And you can put a phone # on them that’s a buddy’s who will vouch for you.) to creating an underground economy. This is hardest, btw. for distributing food, but we’re more or less managing it now. Find a local rancher or farmer. And create networks of friends till you find one.
And while this might seem like an odd time to start a business, it is the perfect time. For instance younger son and I are going to start a non fic, subscription only site, where there will be something every day of the week (Off on weekends) by one of us. And I’m goinng to make a subscription only site for my earcs for fiction. Some of you have said you’d subscribe to the daily output? Well, you might end up reading three novels in chunks, at once, but you’ll be able to do it.
What can you do that you can make money from? Most Americans have more hobbies than you can shake a big stick at, from handywork to oh filk. (BTW a filk about Commie LaWhorish and Zombie Joe and the election heist would be hilarious. Also, who knows, people might pay or send you a tip for it.) And if the stores are going to be closed, we can spin our own, right? DO IT. START NOW.
Have you ever seen a two year old who doesn’t want to go somewhere being carried by a parent? The parent is almost ten times that kid’s size, but if the kid is determined, the carrying can become living hell.
That’s what I want you to do. They want power so badly, and they think we’ll be compliant sheep?
Borrow a motto from Hong Kong and be like water. Be funny, be fluid, move from thing to thing, frustrate their attempts at tracking and controlling us.
Start NOW. Start by disseminating the story of Grand Theft Election in cartoon and song, in meme, in funny rhyme and dramatic play that reveals just what corrupt and ridiculous the hell spawn who’d rule us are.
Be the first kid on your block to give the left a “curl on the floor in the fetal position crying tears and snot” mental breakdown. Do it today.
No power on Earth can make you be compliant and gentle and sweet.
So don’t.
BE AMERICAN. With both feet. And as hard as you can.
The Writer in Black 