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Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020: The Year Our Most Cherished Myths Went Belly Up

It's the season for reviewing the year, and I found James Bovard's review of 2020 to be particularly trenchant:


The Year in which Comforting American Myths Were Ravaged


What I'll do is provide what I take to be Bovard's major headings and add a few comments. You can follow the link for his thinking in detail. And note that he doesn't even get into the state sponsored violence. At any rate ... here we go:


Thanks in large part to Covid lockdowns, this year has left vast wreckage in its wake, ...

But the casualty list for 2020 must also include many of the political myths that shape Americans’ lives. 

Perhaps the biggest myth to die this year was that Americans’ constitutional rights are safeguarded by the Bill of Rights. ... Politicians and government officials merely had to issue decrees, which were endlessly amended, in order to destroy citizens’ freedom of movement, freedom of association, and freedom of choice in daily life.


Also exposed was the practical futility of seeking remedies through our courts. Yes, there have been victories for our rights as free citizens rather than "subjects of the crown"--as we were pre-1776--but the real lesson of 2020 in this regard is: Justice delayed is justice denied. In exceptional America, if you want justice you'd better be willing to pay through the nose for it.


The Rule of Law is another myth impaled by 2020’s dire developments. ... How many governors and mayors have you seen on the television news being led away in handcuffs after their arrest for violating citizens’ rights this year?

Another myth that 2020 obliterated was the notion that politicians spending more than a hundred billion dollars every year for science and public health would keep Americans safe. 


There's another myth that died with this one: the myth of "scientific objectivity." Scientists have covered themselves in ignominy in going along to get along. And that's when they haven't been consciously conspiring with the Globalist elite. Yeah, I know--we should have been prepared for this by the Climate Hoax, but the scale of devastation wrought by the Covid Hoax goes far beyond such comparisons.


The benevolence and compassion of public school teachers was another myth that 2020 obliterated.

This was part of the collapse of the broader myth that the rulers and ruled have common interests.


No, we're not all in this together. As someone else recently put it, the view of the elite is that the great majority of people were born with saddles on their backs. That's us.


Another myth that perished in 2020 was that social media and the Internet could be a powerful propellant of free information.


From politics to Covid to social commentary to humor--it was all fair game for the censors.


This year’s presidential election put a helluva dent in the credo that politicians rule with the “consent of the governed.”

Perhaps the saddest casualty of 2020 is the myth that average Americans cherish their personal freedom.


Ouch!


States and cities across the country set up snitch lines that were soon deluged with complaints of people outside without a mask, meeting friends, or having more visitors in their homes than could fit in a phone booth. 

As the Harvard International Review warned, “The very methods that liberal democracies are currently using to effectively fight the virus are the same tactics that authoritarian leaders use to dominate their people. The tools that have been temporarily deployed in the fight against a once-in-a-lifetime disease may become permanent.”


Hats off to Bovard--he tries to end on a positive note, which is difficult in these times:

 

It is still possible that the catastrophic and pointless losses imposed by Covid crackdowns will finally awaken enough people to their growing subjugation. But the most dangerous myth is that Americans will finally become safe after they cease making any efforts to leash their rulers.

 

Nevertheless, there are signs of America awakening. Protests of parents at the shutting down of education (a blessing in disguise?). The recall campaign in California. The growing resistance to society wide shutdowns and the enforced vaccination measures.

And yet--how much damage has already been done? Can we recover?


66 comments:

  1. "how much damage has already been done? Can we recover?"
    Odds are against that, if Biden takes office, given the power/ ferocity of his allies.
    Archdruid Greer likes to refer to Dmitri Orlov's view (in his analysis of the fall of the USSR), that any government survives *solely*, because most of the people it rules play along, obeying its laws and edicts, no matter how absurd those happen to be.

    My caveat is, that the Brezhnev etc. USSR fell partly, because it chose not try to keep power, by resorting to wholesale purging of the populace.
    This, possibly, because the brass knew, that orders to massacre the populace wouldn't be carried out by the typical apparatchik.
    Whereas, I can easily imagine Wokester apparatchiks implementing orders to massacre the Deplorable populace.
    If this populace can be decimated, Wokesters may well expect the remainders to passively kowtow to the onslaught of Wokester propaganda/ surveillance, esp. since the Wokesters can likely gin-up endless virus-etc. scares, that the CPSU didn't think (?) of.

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    1. Chernobyl was the incident that finished the USSR. It could not be hidden and it affected so many people, Within 2 years the Berlin Wall was go and soon after the USSR was gone. People stopped obeying. If you watch the movie Chernobyl, pay attention how the miners treat a hight party official.


      Rob S

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  2. On the myth of "scientific objectivity", it's a bit more complex, in that such objectivity is only worth a damn, insofar as (our *glimpse* into) the peer-review process isn't sabotaged, e.g. by MSM conglomerates, DS-chosen "experts" (e.g. Fauci?), etc.

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    1. Michael Mann, the environmental fool, stated in his web page, I am an activist first a scientist second. That is all you really need to know.


      Rob S

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    2. That is (almost) all you really need to know, insofar as the MSM slobbers all over him.

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  3. The US Government is like a super tanker, it’s takes time to make a change in direction. The positive is Trump revealed the corruption in the US Government.

    My guess is you will see a huge amount of pushback against those that backed the election corruption. That was huge over reach. And those that did not support actions against voter fraud will also be punished.

    I don’t think they can repeat what was done against the tea party again. Where both the eGOP and Dems worked together to destroy them.

    And what of Trump? He is not going away.

    Trump is just a symptom of the anger among voters at the system. And the stolen election just made it worse.

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    1. Maybe they can't repeat what was done against the tea party again, but, as I say above, I can easily imagine Wokester apparatchiks implementing orders to massacre the Deplorable populace.

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    2. I don’t see actual massacres happening. The amount of blowback a pattern of massacres would get would be off the scale. It’s interesting how the Las Vegas and Scalise shootings by Bernie supporters have been portrayed as isolated, non political crazies.

      A lot of mass shootings by followers by the religion of peace were labeled workplace violence under Obama.

      And for some reason, White Supremacists are strumpeted as our biggest terrorist threat. I guess it’s more PC. And Antifa is ignored.

      I’m not sure what will happen due to the huge increase in crime due to the defund the police movement and Antifa. And the places being hit hardest are blue states. The Soros backed DA’s are having a big impact.

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    3. I don’t see massacres happening, but I believe we will see:

      1. Continued migration from blue to red states due to crime and economics.

      2. Continued biased prosecutions of non liberals, and leftists / anarchists are ignored in any violent confrontations. Andy Ngo is an example of this.

      3. Physical attacks of Deplorables for any rally in blue areas. San Jose Trump rally attendees were attacked, police were told to stand down, and 4 years later after a lawsuit an apology is issued.

      4. Use of government agencies against high profile deplorable. This was done under Obama against the tea party.

      5. Continued willful blindness to racial attacks by Blacks against Whites by the MSM. I have to go to the Daily Mail to figure out races involved. The term used for that Manhatten mob was “youths”.

      6. Police in blue areas are going to be less proactive. Atlanta is a poster child for this. I see more prosecutions by the Feds for police use of force under Biden. Lots of consent decrees and such under Obama.

      I may be wrong. The language being used by some on the left, including Biden people, against Deplorables is insane.

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    4. You missed national lock down a-la-LA; draconian national red flag laws; heavy taxes on ammunition and an expansion of the NFA to tax all semi-auto's out of existence, or render their magazines limited to 5 rounds or less; wink and nod from DoJ for Tech and Global corps to full speed ahead on doing business/employment/allowing access according to one's "social credit score"; NLRB regulation requiring compulsory re-education under the rubric of Critical Race Theory in all workplaces, with a guest appearance by LGQWERTY, same from DEd in all schools while basically making home schooling illegal; a "reordering" of theology using the CCP model, churches essentially beg gov't permission to function now (I especially like the CCP rewrite of the Bible that has Jesus save the adultress from the mob only to drag her down an alley and stone her to death himself because the mob doesn't have the power to punish sin but the State has an obligation to. Thanks for approving that Francis, how very Liberation Theologically tolerant of you).

      These are all things that have been promised by Harris/Biden. No reason to think they won't deliver.
      Tom S.

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    5. Roy, my point was, that the Brezhnev etc. USSR chose not try to keep power, by resorting to wholesale purging, once the public refused to go along as had happened before.
      Whereas, the Dems may well be willing to use such means, once the public refuses to go along.

      Tom, indeed, the squeeze is on, likely aimed to provoke Deplorables into resisting, in ways which will then provide excuses for wholesale purging.

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    6. Indeed. Every "driveway Alamo" enacted as a result of a Red-Flag confiscation will be ballyhooed across the land as justification for ever more stringent firearms restrictions and justification for ever more forceful police action, as will any physical resistance of any kind.

      By '91 Gorbachev had taken the USSR too far down the perestroika road for the military and hard-liners to reverse it without a civil war circa '18-'21. They were a different generation than Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, et. al. They lacked the willingness to spill blood. Too many in the Party already had their fingers in the economic pie and lacked the ideological commitment to hold power rather than loot the assets they considered their right to pillage.

      Different than our situation, I think. The current revolutionaries, the oligarchs, already possess the loot. Their goal is the power and, since they regard Deplorables as hardly human, dissent suppression tactics largely come down to a utilitarian cost/benefit calculation.
      Tom S.

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    7. "dissent suppression tactics largely come down to a utilitarian cost/benefit calculation."
      Exactly, Tom.
      A major likely calc could be, how much damage to the US$ position in int'l markets, would news of such suppression tactics inflict?
      And, who amongst Sil. Valley/ DS, would be hurt how much, by whatever news of the use of such tactics would hit the wires?

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    8. @Ray, "govt's like a super tanker". These are institutions. Changing the culture of institutions takes years if not decades. What we're experiencing has been in the making since at least Bill Clinton. This has been building and will take some huge, significant event to change the culture. Trump came into the equation as a whirlwind, gained momentum, and they the Republican congress(See Paul Ryan), state legislatures, and above all the Supreme court has pushed back on conservatives bent to follow the rule of law, integrity, personal liberty etc....

      What's evident to me is that the normal person on the street doesn't recognize this. Go with the flow mentality is all to common. This lack of recognition, while minimally threatening for now (economically, financially, politically, socially), may seem a necessary "hardship" (See Covid lockdowns/masks), it's not enough to drive a wedge into regular folks common sense. Perhaps something significantly larger, epic IMO needs to happen. But at what cost?

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    9. @AmericanCardigan. For a glimpse at a long march poster child, please read Mike Ford on West Point @ Redstate:

      https://redstate.com/darth641/2021/01/02/opinion-west-point-soon-to-be-yet-another-casualty-of-the-lefts-long-march-part-i-n303092

      Why are athletes at West Point unable to pass calculus? Why is our officer corps (or as Obama would pronounce it, officer corpse)brain dead? Why do we get Alexander Vindman, and not John Boyd (USDAF)?

      If you move over to an analysis of Annapolis, you will learn why our million dollar ships crash into tankers and why a commander on a U.S. submarine obliterated a Japanese boat on surfacing.

      And how about, in the UK, switching out JP4 with some kind of biodegradable grease to save the planet? Our American military is more worried about saving the planet than winning a war.

      And they will not follow Trump.

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    10. @ Titan 28

      Indeed the U.S. military is wholly unprepared for a peer level adversary and the problem rests squarely with the leadership. Exhibit A would be USN Lt Nartker of Farsi Island fame.

      Lt Nartker was on the fast track for promotion/ career advancement but an accident instead revealed that, not only was he utterly incompetent as a seaman and man-o-warman, but dangerously ignorant as a leader. The fact that he held, and apparently still holds, that his conduct, before and during the incident, was above reproach is indicative that leadership, by example or instruction, is an unknowable concept in the modern Navy. Lt. Nartker, an Annapolis grad., was the best the U.S. Navy was capable of producing. Adm Stockdale would have wept.
      Tom S.

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  4. "The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God."

    Jefferson - His last letter, ten days before his death

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    1. There is a reason "the light of science" is being smothered and replaced by the soft soothing fluorescence of "expert" bureaucratic shepherding.
      Tom S.

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  5. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/12/29/steadfast-doesnt-mean-when-its-easy/

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  6. We will learn a lot on January 6th. Will a mass of citizens just march around DC, going from speech to speech? Will they strike FEAR into our leaders with some other action? Will they accept the usual antifa attacks--or turn on the thugs and pummel them?

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    1. philly, unless a leader (DJT?) has a plan, and ways to convey it to this mass, the rather likely outcome is Charlottesville 2.0.

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    2. I all-but expect his Twitter acct. to be outright blocked Mon. or Tues.

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  7. Movements led by idealists seem to have a predictable life cycle. They begin as fringe movements consisting of a handful of zealots, grow to a significant (although still a small minority of the total population) and highly partisan super-zealots, manage to take power from the majority through the use of various instruments and practices of terror and corruption, exact revenge on those who opposed their rise to power, purge their own followers as they attempt to blame others for their failings, and decay into a form of corrupt corporate power for the benefit of the elite which remain in power.

    The Bolshevik revolution, the CCP, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and many others have followed that arc, some more rapidly than others. It has taken a long time, but it appears that the Democrat party have followed the same process.

    They were the slave owners, for the most part. They caused the Civil War. Following the Civil War, they carried on a campaign of terror against blacks and those who supported them. They co-opted their political opponents (what we refer to as the GOPe), the institutions, and the media. They continue their terror tactics, now using BLM and Antifa rather than the KKK, augmented by Democrat elected officials unlawfully exercising dictatorial powers. And, they are a form of corrupt corporate power, exclusively for the benefit of the elite.

    If this is ballparkish, the future looks dim. Once the corrupt elite are firmly in power, there is little hope for other members of the population. I can't think of a single instance of full recovery, and believe that even partial recovery will involve great and continuing pain.

    My personal opinion is that armed revolution, as bloody and brutal as it would be, is preferable to and less costly overall than long-term submission. It would at least have the advantage of getting it over with relatively quickly so that the next generations could have the opportunity to live as we thought we were.

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    1. This morning driving to Mass my wife and I were discussing, Will people wake up? We both figured that that isn't about to happen. Short of what you point out.

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    2. Half the nation is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. You don't just wake up from that spontaneously.

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    3. Having watched what happened in California when the people finally woke up to the tyrant governor Gray Davis, I still have hope that they can do it again when the pendulum swings far to a Joe Biden. And a Kamala Harris. So often the lines are blurred between the Republican and Democrat “leaders”. Not so now. President Trump took us so far toward freedom and prosperity that I believe Joe Biden et al will be the cold shower we all need. Regulations and increased taxes pinch everyone’s toes, not just ours. Regular everyday Democrats made a lot of money during the Trump years. They will notice when it is taxed away. The harshness of the change will have to grab them, too. I put a sign on our house bulletin board a while back to keep us going. GUMPTION! The antithesis of Eeyore… You either have it or you don’t.

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    4. There do appear to be signs that Dems overplayed their hand in CA. It looks to me as if McConnell may be overplaying his hand, too. Hawley appears to recognize where any future GOP presidential candidate will need to look for votes. That can't be missed on other GOP senators--even those without presidential ambitions. For the long run, however, your point re economic hardship may mean a lot.

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    5. Ordinarily, Bebe's point re economic hardship would matter hugely, but these are not ordinary times.
      Davis didn't have a DS with its current unprecedented options (e.g. new viruses/ strains), to propagandize regular everyday Dems into accepting their declining living standards, and to surveil (and frame) those regular everyday Dems who fail to kowtow to such propaganda.
      As long as Sil. Valley and the DS work together, opposing forces should be easily sabotaged.

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    6. Yeah, Finley, idealist-led mov'ts seem to have a predictable life cycle, complicated somewhat by intervention from outsiders.
      The Bolshie regime may've lasted longer than 74 yrs., but for huge Western pressure, esp. after 1940, first from the Wehrmacht, and then NATO (+ ChiComs!).
      The Russia of 1917-21 was nowhere near as centralized as we are now, but Trotsky was still able to pick-off resistance groups, piecemeal.
      Unless resistance groups here can congeal quite quickly, the Regime should be able to pick them off with relative ease, unless outside forces can bring pressure akin to that brought upon the 1941-1991 USSR.

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    7. Economic hardship always matters. Taking hard-earned money out of pockets to squander on foreign or domestic boondoggles. Gray Davis was his own deep state. His declaration was that the state legislature was there to carry out his “vision”. President Trump is bold and blunt, but no one ever doubted whose side he was on. Ours. These Dems are arrogant tyrants. Despots.

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    8. Pretzel logic may have the Democrats kowtowing to all sorts of propaganda. But not all are the far left. Many are moderates. And then there is also a large voter group that prefers not to declare either Republican or Democrat. I never write off the moderate Democrats as they were the ones who bolted and went for Reagan for President - were even called the Reagan Democrats - and helped oust Gray Davis.

      Ronald Reagan was an example of what I’m talking about. After years as a self-admitted “liberal Democrat”, he switched parties saying that he had not left the Democrat Party. “The party left me."

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    9. Bebe, if Davis was his own deep state, he was still a Ma & Pa operation, esp. compared to the current Orwellian scale these folks can bring to the table.
      Whatever power Reagan Dems had then is trivial now, in the face of Sil. Valley gatekeeping.

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    10. I used the Reagan Dems as an example of those moderates for whom the far left is a bridge too far. Just an example of what can happen.

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    11. OK, Bebe, but such an example of what can happen means little, if the most crucial factor is (as Uncle Joe said), not who casts the votes, but who counts them.

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    12. I believe I agree with @Mouse; the Gray Davis scenario seems different to me. The Dem party is so engrossed in various aspects of gov't now between Soros, Obama, Clyburn, etc... 10+ years ago the shift to influence SoS's, judges, DA's, etc... caught us all flat footed. This time if Newson get's recalled, the next person in line will do the same thing he's doing. Powers in place to ensure this. (See Willie B.)

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  8. Has anybody else hit a wall?

    This new year's morning as I scrolled through my stable of usual sources, I found myself clean out of gumption. Critical issues across multiple dimensions of our country's culture and politics are in play right now, yet I just cannot stir myself to think about any of it given the huge uncertainty surrounding the final resolution of the presidential election. All the smartest legal analysts are clear. Biden will soon be declared the winner if events continue to follow the narrow, legally circumscribed path where courts rule solely on procedural issues. Infuriatingly, no court has yet seen fit to allow the introduction of evidence of fraud. As long as sophistry continues, Biden will win. I think we need to forget about a legal or Constitutional solution. What form might any other solution take? God knows.

    Having just lived through eight years of Obama, we all know what to expect of a Biden administration. Almost everybody is penning articles that are speculative, predictive. If Biden wins, speculation will quickly be replaced by reality and we can all decide from there how we will respond. I’m booked to fly to D.C. next week, but I must admit to second thoughts. I want to show my support for PDT, but will BLM and Antifa attack, and will Bowser’s police stand down? What a sh*t show America has become.

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    1. Will BLM and Antifa attack, and will Bowser’s police stand down?
      If, once you recon the terrain, such results look likely, you may want to be near the outskirts, where you have more chance to quickly escape the carnage.

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  9. I don't know what news sources the rest of you are getting but mine paint a better picture.

    1. Trump is not going to allow a certified CCP criminal like Biden to take office. He is exhausting all remedies but one way or another Trump will remain president. One Twitter savant (whom i forget) expressed it in terms of earthquakes and Richter scales. So far Trump has gone to the courts and state legislatures...Richter 2 or 3. Then the SCOTUS to overturn...Richter 4 or 5. Next it is Congress and the Pence option.. 6 or 7. If that doesn't do it he will go military, a full 8 or 9 Richter. And that may be the kind of shakeup our corrupted system needs to get right, sad to say.

    2. We are witnessing the birth of a new political movement that will likely become the dominant party. I'd call the Patriot Party or First American Party but the essence is a broad coalition of Americans who see themselves as Americans first and foremost, not races, ethnicities, classes, or special interests. Trump won a landslide on this basis. It just remains to close on the win as Bannon says.

    3. The CCP is teetering. They bet it all on taking out Trump and colluded with many influential Americans to do just that. Once Trump prevails, their economy will collapse and there will be a new birth of freedom in China and the world that will dwarf the fall of the USSR.

    4. With the cleansing of American institutions, we may need a convention of states to pass several, new amendments that will, to name a few, rein in the SCOTUS, dismantle the entire federal administrative state, mandate electoral reforms like in person only voting by paper ballot on one day, counted by hand and audited with voter ID, limiting federal powers to specific national issues and no more. America is poised to take off with abundant energy and renewed manufacturing and the opportunities of space open before us.

    The only thing needed to see this come to pass is courage by Trump and patriotic Americans to win this war. We will know before the end of this month.

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    1. I propose calling us the new party “Federalists.” And yes, we need to restore state and local sovereignty. Here’s hoping that 20th century American centralization will go the way of Soviet and European centralization. It’s no accident that, on the heels of Brexit, we’re now taking about Texit.

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    2. Well, Tschifty, Kunstler today, in his post "Forecast 2021...", makes similar bold predictions, incl. about a full 8 or 9 Richter, tho he adds a slew of dire warnings about financial crises (as is often his wont).
      I myself doubt that DJT has the horses to make this Richter approach work, seeing as his prior "allies" (Barr, and his SCotUS picks) became such duds.
      These next 6 days will say so very much.

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    3. I personally tap a broad spectrum of sources, from staid to lunatic fringe. Nobody in this unprecedented environment can make any special claim to credence. All bets are off. All any of us can do is expose ourselves to alternative points of view—and I do so constantly. I won’t be surprised by a Richter 8 or 9 event, but I also will not be surprised if the Richter 4 energy releases that we’ve already experienced are dispositive to the election process. I do think, however, that if the 2020 election ends with a whimper, the ultimate end will be a not-necessarily-political Richter scale 10 event.

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    4. Kunstler today:
      "If even the so-far publicly revealed evidence of the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes overseas is true.... — then it would be Mr. Trump’s *duty* to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president."

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    5. @aNanyMouse January 1, 2021 at 3:23 PM

      I have read today's Kunstler. As often the case, very entertaining. But I would be willing to short most, if not all, of his economic predictions. Not saying there won't be pain in 2021 as we deal with the consequences of the lockdowns, but Kunstler doubles down on every negative indicator and ignores every positive indicator. Just not realistic.

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    6. My impression, too. For example, he took a very short term approach to the financial crisis of 2008, as if it came about pretty much over night. In fact the roots of it went back over a decade. But he builds his analysis on similar narrow vision approaches which he tries to expand into a big picture--not very successfully, IMO.

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    7. I'm much with you guys, on Kunstler's (shorter=term) economic predictions, as with Denninger's.
      Sometime this decade, their calls will be vindicated, but the timing of that will hinge hugely on political events.

      I put much more shorter-term weight, on the economic/markets views of Gary Savage, see his 2021 calls at
      https://blog.smartmoneytrackerpremium.com/2021/01/a-look-ahead-for-2021.html .
      In the vid there, at c. 4:00 - 7:00, he lays out his call, that stocks will finish this bubble in a few months, and that the ensuing crash will bring a worldwide depression, as such bubbles tend to do.
      Among his concerns are, that the Financials' failure to make all-time highs quite suggests, that smart money dislikes the smell of what's really popping.

      He expects that, once the stocks' crash really starts, big $$ will flee into (recently-neglected) commodities, esp. precious metals, which should, this decade, appreciate for at least a few multiples from their current levels.

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    8. Savage's calls have made his subscribers slews of money, these last few years or so.

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    9. "the ensuing crash will bring a worldwide depression, as such bubbles *tend* to do."
      The big anomaly, of course, being in '87, but stability quickly returned, likely helped by hugely bullish events in the Red Empire, and fairly stable oil prices.
      Unless DJT gets it done in the next few weeks, I can see *no* remotely-comparable bullish events on the horizon.

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  10. Mark writes: “Nevertheless, there are signs of America awakening.”

    Take me as a case in point. For most of my adult life (I’m 53) I have been critical of American politics as a pseudo-religious exercise. Even under the Obama regime, I remained fairly apolitical. His cult, I reasoned, was merely the flip-side of W.’s.

    By 2016 I realized this wasn’t quite true as the Left were showing their radical stripes. So, for the first time ever, I was motivated to vote for a presidential candidate as if it mattered. I didn’t like Trump, but Clinton scared the hell out of me. Trump’s victory seemed (and still seems) like a miracle.

    The unprecedented events of the subsequent four years effectively put the nails in the coffin of my old political apathy. But it took the election of 2020 election to actually light a fire under my ass (pun intended). I used to roll my eyes at organized protests. But now I can’t wait to join other patriots in D.C. on January 6 to make it clear that Trump isn’t the only one who’s “not going away.”

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  11. I don’t see it.

    Unions rule the Ca Government and the GOP is MIA. There is a huge amount of anger. My non political barber is livid. Lots of Hispanic business owners are frustrated. I was surprised a gop assembly member was defeated in Costa Mesa due to a million dollars from the prison guard union. He is a cpa and questioned spending, so had to be made an example of.

    I’m afraid of doxing if I sign the recall.

    >There do appear to be signs that Dems
    >overplayed their hand in CA.

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    1. I’d be afraid of doxing too.
      If DJT leaves the WH, we'll need to play our cards rather carefully, esp. once Sil. Valley/ DS / ChiComs get their plans in place.

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    2. Ray, we signed three Newsom recall petitions...

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    3. Safety in numbers?
      In person, likely. In databases, not so much.

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  12. I wonder how many of what I call the “laptop commandos” would actually rise up if the kind of armed resistance they advocate actually came to pass? Internet anonymity is a blessing. If they have a mind to, posters there can be almost anything...

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    1. I don't think its time for arms and when it is there will be.

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  13. I’m surprised at something I just saw in Ca today, New Year’s Day.

    A bunch of vehicles with Trump flags on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena - rose parade route (canceled this year).

    Cars were driven by all ethnic groups, from Asians to Hispanic to Blacks and whites. Vehicles varied from a couple of compacts to trucks to a Tesla.

    I saw a couple of F*** Biden Flags.

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    1. More than 1,000 vehicles with thousands of Trump supporters caravanned New Year’s Day, Friday, Jan. 1, along the famed Rose Parade route on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

      https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2021/01/01/trump-caravan-travels-usual-rose-parade-on-colorado-boulevard/

      My home town...

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    2. Bebe - I was there at 4 pm, per the article the parade started around noon.

      Not what I expected in Blue California.

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    3. Ray, I don’t know how long you have been in California, but it was not always “blue”. I don’t know how a state that gave us many Republican presidents and senators over decades can be judged as being blue because of the Brown dynasty, the disgraced Gray Davis and Gavin Newsom.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governors_of_California

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    4. Some of the biggest, noisiest Trump pre-election rallies were held in South Pasadena and Beverly Hills. The one in Beverly Hills included signs identifying the ethnicities of those present for the rally… A real mixed bag of Americans...

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    5. Born and raised here.

      We had family stuff from 1849 from the Oregon Trail and an organ that went around the horn.

      The gas lighting from the LA Times amazes me.

      And the way re-districting, powerful unions, term limits, ballot harvesting, motor vehicle voter registration (Clinton), and top two primaries have destroyed the GOP presence among elected officials in Ca.

      >Ray, I don’t know how long you have been in
      >California,

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  14. Doe v. Reed Is a case that the Supreme Court decided releasing initiative signer info is ok in Wa. Thomas dissented, one one. Initiative has something to do with gay rights.

    In Ca, those that contributed to the anti Gay marriage initiative got doxed, Brendan Eich was forced out of Mozilla. Ca requires those that contribute $50 or more, is a public record.

    Seems as long as you are not contributing anything anti gay, you won’t be doxed. Chris Rock made a joke about the alphabet mafia in Hollywood, and how vicious they can get, especially the “T”.

    My wife having grown up in a dictatorship, is a bit paranoid about being public about our political beliefs. My daughter the same since it could be a career and friend killer. A lot of her classmates, coworkers, and friends are very left. I’ll discuss with them about signing the recall for newsom.

    Seeing the car Trump parade today did bring a smile to my face!

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  15. On a separate O/T; seems GA Gov. Kemp is getting some extra scrutiny. w/the Pulitzer analysis, news of ballots now being shredded suddenly, do you think Gov. Kemp is compromised? What's the over/under on whether it's a deal w/China (whom he's dealt w/recently) or w/Stacy Abrams to get her to back off the illegitimate Gov. claim? Giuliani's pressing him as well as Trump and others.

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    1. I don't understand this election system at all. How can you not keep all the paper ballots.

      We had the election, we destroyed the evidence of this, but Biden won believe me.

      Can't they at least have fake ballots to count to prove they won?

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    2. They were fine with storing the fake ballots, until American ingenuity kicked in and someone said, "I can prove conclusively/scientifically what's fake and what's not," then they suddenly developed a pressing need to free up that warehouse space an a Sunday afternoon. Don't know about your state/county gov't but in mine it's easier to lift the Midgard serpent than to get a gov't employee to work on Sunday, much less with the feverish energy displayed by the folks in the video over at TGP.
      Tom S.

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  16. People need to pay a price for flucking with the tax payers freedom.

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