That South Korean Thing
The pithiest take on the abortive Marshall Law declaration in South Korea I had seen was actually by Pixy, who described the situation as the Korean president having "stripped a gear somehow".
Pixy's take is not far off. However, Nick Frietas and crew have a discussion of the matter that is the very antithesis of pithy, but is quite informative.
Interview with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
This is from 2 months ago and is an excellent post-mortem on the COVID19 fiasco as well as an overview of the issues facing the health care establishment. Dr. Bhattacharya suffered personally and professionally for his policy recommendations during the COVID pandemic (recommendations which have proved largely correct)
2hrs 8 minutes
This is a broad ranging discussion and is both literate and understandable to the layman. Both Bhattacharya and "Dad" make a strenuous effort to avoid jargon and make these policy conundrums understandable to the general public. Dr. Bhattacharya has worked in healthcare for many years all over the world and did a stint of work in Indian slums. As a result of his experience he is most decidedly NOT a vaccine skeptic. He does have a fairly nuanced view of the current skeptics given the very understandable skepticism of policy experts as a whole by a wide swath of the public.
This is just a very good discussion and deserves to be watched.
Interestingly Dr. Bhattacharya has recently been tapped to head the N.I.H. It remains to be seen if he gets approval.
We Have Nothing to Learn From History
For we live for the future, not the past.
The past was full of stupid people who believed silly things and weren't as smart as us because they did not know the depth and breadth of their ignorance which we, in our profound wisdom, understand.
Indeed there is talk that that something happened on this very date in the past.
People used to make a big deal about it, which is silly because it's in the past and can't affect me because it happened and therefore it's over.
I think i had to read a book on it.
OH YEAH! I REMEMBER!
"That one about the NAZIs"
In any event, we have nothing to learn from the past.
Our Navy is concentrated mainly in 3 locations where they are safe, our Air Force's main strike capability is in 5 or 6 bases, and most of those are missile bases that we'll never need because we're smart.
So there is really no point in commemorating whatever it was that happened back in the before times, because it doesn't have any relevance whatsoever.
Schedule Change!
Streaming schedule on the Twitch Channel is in a state of flux at the moment because of my IRL job schedule that is going to be a tad insane for the rest of this month. Tentatively, I'm going to experiment with later streams and then going DIRECTLY to work.
The first attempt at this will be tonight,
Join us at 10:00pm EST / 03:00am UTC for about two hours. as we explore the world of Teyvat in Genshin Impact. We're currently caught up on the main story quest and are exploring this wild and wacky world in a rather more in depth manner than we have been previously (when we were monomaniacally pursuing the plot). We're also trying to level up our newest gacha recruit, a cute nerd girl who is just.....uh....sweet.
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The very prolific Sci-fi writer, David Weber, developed medical issues in his hands and arms many years ago that would have curtailed his ability to write novels that sometimes make the US Code of Federal Regulations look like a quick read. To combat that, he became an early adopter of Voice-to-Text software and wrote most of his longest books that way. If you are having trouble with long form typing, it's something worth considering as such software is easily and cheaply accessible these days. Probably best to avoid using it during gaming for the hand-eye coordination development, though. Anyway, the advice is worth what you paid for it.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Sun Dec 1 13:37:39 2024 (mETmT)
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I've considered that, but I'm trying to discipline myself. I do think I'm getting better gradually. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Dec 2 08:59:42 2024 (3NtfN)
Stanford Torus Overview
Issac Arthur takes a Deep Dive into the Stanford Torus, the winner of a NASA study from the 1970s on space habitats. The math on this design was worked out 40 years ago. It was viable then (given the then fantastic conceit of cheap access to space) Breakthroughs in space transportation like Musk's starship might well make it viable. The advances in most areas of tech over the last 40 year can only make it more refined.
I am much more on board with this sort of space settlement than I am with terraforming. (Though I'm not opposed to the latter in principle). There are really only two viable terraforming candidates in the Solar System. (Mars & Venus...the latter of which would require a truly VAST infrastructure, and, likely, starlifting technology. ) Whereas we can build rotating habitats with earthlike gravity in numbers that boggle the mind.
Quadrillions of people such a program would produce will produce a much larger number of Einsteins, Martin Luther Kings, Ada Lovelaces, Aristotles, Jeffersons, Margurite Harrisons & Issac Newtons, with a corresponding benefit to all civilization from their mental bounty.
Anyway, this is a VERY comprehensive overview of the concept.
A Few Links Regarding Current Affairs
First off, Nick Freitas and his crew discuss the thorny issues that face the incoming administration.
Note that this was recorded in the heady days before Trump made his Education and Labor secretary picks when there was still hope that he would at least TRY to deal with these issues.
Still, there is stuff that Vivek & Elon can do, but as this very thoughtful discussion makes clear (@1:34:00), even if they are 100% effective (a thermodynamic impossibility) it will not be enough. Some actual options on how to deal with the situation are discussed though.
2hrs 15minutes
Meanwhile: on Joe Rogan, the post election future is also discussed. This is typical of Rogan's long form interviews, in that, love or hate what the guest is saying, it's an erudite and fairly interesting discussion. This one is particularly interesting because Marc Andreessen, one of the pivotal figures in the IT explosion of the last 30 years, leads off the interview with (I'm paraphrasing only slightly) 'yeah. we're living in an alternate timeline and it's CRAZY'. Andressen also makes the case (@ 0:27:30)that the mindset of a lot of Medieval folks, (and by possible extension, certain extant different cultures) are/were better equipped psychologically to deal with the craziness of the modern world. On a tangentially related note, is a discussion of the sad current state of Blue Sky that can be found at 30:28. There is also a terrifying discussion of de-banking (@ 1:34:25).
3hrs 9minutes
Rudyard, is also known for being extremely literate, conscientious, and studious (as well as occasionally having takes that are hotter than liquid tungsten). Here he looks at something I've been contemplating for a few years and actually been struggling make a post on. Specifically, he is analyzing the deleterious and to an extent actively parasitical effects of bureaucracy on a civilization.
It seems that NASA has been doing studies of the information gleaned from the various probes that have visited Jupiter and in the process of simulating the environment of Jupiter's moon Europa they have concluded that this is what it looks like on its night side.
The NASA/JPL article linked note that this phenomena has a lot of potential for analyzing the composition of Europa's ice and its subsurface ocean, via spectroscopy. However, there would seem to be other potential implications of this discovery.
Given that:
Currently, any life on Europa is assumed to be based on relatively inefficient chemosynthesis and to be dependent on discharges from equally hypothetical volcanic vents.
Cherenkov radiation is blue light, meaning it's pretty high energy visible light.
Water is an excellent ionizing radiation shield.
NASA says the sea ice is literally glowing blue, and seems to imply that this light is visible to the naked eye..
So, if the sea-ice over the ocean is, in fact, glowing in blue light, then this light could represent another potential source of energy beyond the hypothesized volcanic vents. As happens on Earth, this would only be complimented by any black smokers spewing nutrients.
Using the vast depth and breadth of biological and radiological knowledge that comes with a History degree, I find myself asking, "Can you grow plants with Cherenkov radiation?" It seems likely, given that blue light is pretty high in energy, and that they make blue grow lights.
The ice and water should protect against the hard radiation that ultimately causing the light, so in theory there might well be a very habitable region in Europa's ocean, one where actual photosynthesis, could potentially take place. Photosynthesis is vastly more efficient than the chemosynthesis that has been postulated as making life on Europa plausible, and (rather more so than chemosynthesis) might even support multicellular life.
Additionally, life or no life, Europa's oceans might be well lit...in an eerie blue glow (dependent, of course upon the thickness of the ice and brightness of the glow).
There are a whole bunch of variables that need to be looked at regarding this, and I'm sure SOMEBODY knows if Cherenkov radiation is devoid of anything that plants need, but I'll be damned if I can find any info in the matter at the moment.
Photosynthesis aside, there is a model put forth by a Richard Greenberg (presumably, his degrees are not in history) that Europa's ocean may be as oxygenated as earth's if not more so, due to the creation of Oxygen and Peroxides created by the radiation bombardment of the icy surface.
Europa's just looking better and better for life.
UPDATE:As you may note from the comments, this entry is from 2021, one of the last posts before my stroke. It was unlinkable and unsearchable due to a glitch involving an identical post title and I wanted to point it out to someone who had expressed an interest in it. Enjoy the blast from the past. Posting will resume soon, I promise.
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Cherenkov radiation, IIRC, should just be an EM wave. Under the usual model for EM waves, the frequency would be the main thing that matters.
That would depend on there being a biochemistry that can photosynthesize at one of the available frequencies. Which probably isn't something we can theoretically or numerically calculate any time soon.
Greenberg was a planetary science faculty, and most of his doctoral students were in planetary science. With one in applied mathematics. Looks like he retired in 2015 or so.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Aug 1 11:15:11 2021 (DHVaH)
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Yeah, Given that Cherenkov Radiation is visible and blue I'd THINK it would just be blue light ie: fairly high energy visible EM radiation. It should be fine for plant growth, certainly if the plants evolved around it, but I'm not sure I'm not missing something in particular about it.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Aug 1 11:27:26 2021 (5iiQK)
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Spectral content, and power.
Sun is on a bunch of frequencies. Power, by the time it hits Earth, isn't entirely negligible. So, any photosynthesis chemistry operating in that frequency range of high intensity, has enough power to support a biological process. In fact, trees etc., use several chemistries to exploit sunlight.
The basic question is how much power does the cherenkov radiation output, and whether it penetrates deep enough into Europa for our otherwise undetectable life.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Aug 1 12:42:02 2021 (DHVaH)
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I think one of my favorite explanations for Cerenkov Radiation came in a reply to the original Can of Ravioli as a Relatavistic Weapon thread: "Cerenkov Radiation is the lightspeed police flashing their lights at you."
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Aug 4 00:54:28 2021 (Ix1l6)
5
I'm actually closer to understanding how to study this problem than I was in 2021. Largely by accident. It 'should' be 'straightforward' to look at the scattering etc of the ice and water, except that ice has more than one phase, IIRC, and I think that the different phases would have different scattering properties.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Nov 24 09:21:03 2024 (rcPLc)
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OT but I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Rick C at Sat Nov 30 10:55:50 2024 (NEIix)
Wow.
I've been pretty exhausted the last few weeks, with medical issues, family emergencies and being run into the ground at work. it's been challenging just to keep to a schedule of anodyne rants and lamentations regards my poor video game skills as a cartoon muppet on the internet, let alone do research for thoughtful posts. I've also been quite blackpilled of late, what with assassination attempts, my own trepidation regards the less bad candidate, and what to me were grim portents with regard to polls and societal trnds.
Trump did partially allay my fears by reaching out to a diverse cross section of american right and left-wing polity, whose only common thread is that they are a bit crazy and have been rejected by the establishment, so I did not hold my nose this time when I voted for him against the horrid and strangely vapid politico he was running against. However, I had little hope that the cultural and media headwinds could be overcome.
OMG.
He won the popular vote. HE WON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE! And did both so convincingly that it seems unlikely that any new surprise pallets of ballots can reverse this.
I'm keeping my head down as I'm surrounded by very angry people at work and in my neighborhood, but I am secretly quite pleased at the moment.
Time will tell if his dream team of eclectic intellectuals, visionary industrialists, and entertaining whackaloons can deal with the myriad issues the country faces, some, like the debt, seem unlikely to be solved by someone of Trumps predilections and temperament, and others, both economic and military are quite challenging to anyone, even someone with Trumps negotiating skills. But the one thing I am sure of is that Trump and his happy band of lunatics will TRY to make things better.
And that is a vast improvement over the current situation and a white-pill I did not expect.
UPDATE:
Bill Whittle implores us to take the high road and facilitate the nations healing. This is an excellent video, watch it in full.
It behooves us to remember that the other side is very much where we were 4 years ago when the rug was pulled out from us. They are more emotional, hence their histrionics rather than the quiet despair that set in for us, but the grief they feel is genuine. Most of their rank and file (as opposed to their leadership) really do believe their sides rhetoric and are genuinely confused and scared.
(of course SOME thoughtful snark is still allowed)
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Gloating is not necessary, because watching the best part of elections, i.e. the recriminations, start flying will fill the need very nicely.
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Nov 6 19:05:39 2024 (ZLF73)
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First off, great to hear from you 'Muppet. I was beginning to wonder if everything was okay.
Okay, Nothing I'm about to say should be taken to mean I would support in any way inflicting the J6 and Trump show Trials or rampant abuse of Gov't power on the losing side. I oppose that.
With that said, I don't want to hear from people about "Take the High Road." We did that during the prior Trump years. We did that during the TEA Party years. We even did that during the W Years. It's never been paid in kind. It's always been taken by our adversaries as an opportunity to walk over us and use us like a cheep suit. In fact I would say that taking the High Road is part of what has lead us to our current pass as it emboldened our Adversaries to believe there would never be consequences, so they could do to us what they wanted. No More.
This go round, we need to break them. Break their hope. Break their will to fight. Break their their belief they are the future and leave them on the ash heap of history they sought to consign us to.
The opportunity to do this is there. With a clean sweep and a slim advantage in the Courts, plus the Dems facing an almost certain power vacuum at the top and a Game of Thrones to see who survives to lead them, plus Hollywood imploding in on itself as the cultural touchstone, there is opportunity to rebuild everything outside the grubby paws of everyone from the Obamas and Clintons through the McConnells and McCains and all the Power 'Elites' and Faceless Illuminati Bureaucrats. But we must be prepared to take it. Our Adversaries picked a knife fight in a swamp, we shy away from it not just at our own peril, but our descendants and successors peril. So no, do not take the High Road, but Rage Against the Night until that dieing light of Freedom burns bright again.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Thu Nov 7 17:54:01 2024 (KA0tm)
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Stargazer5, I do not want to become the monster, as that makes the whole exercise worse than pointless, but you are correct that mercy has not been reciprocated. For one thing, Hillary Clinton walks free today because Trump did NOT "lock her up".
However, I am from the southeast and know what happens when an effeminate thirst for vengeance takes over and stymies the need to build bridges and heal. Lincoln's admonition to go forward "with malice towards none, and charity to all" did not survive his assassination at the hands of a Democrat-sympathetic actor. Long after reconstruction, the south was not allowed to prosper for a century with knock on effects to the overall economic strength of the U.S. Additionally the misplaced resentment fueled the darkest angels of the losing sides nature, which with the death of the "40 acres and a mule" proposal to the Homestead Act, left the African American part of our population far less liberated than they should have been, even after the healing began in the 1950s and 60s.
There are parts of the right that have been truly tormented by their opponents and like all victims of trauma are inclined to react in unproductive ways. The sad fact is that those tormentors don't think that they've done anything wrong, indeed are convinced that they have been been kind. The cultural divide between the two is astonishing, approaching the historical examples of completely different cultures that have come to cross purposes. The two sides truly don't understand each others most basic motivations. To say this has the potential for much discord is quite the understatement.
SOME examples have to me made to be sure. The Lawfare in particular, as well as the collusion with foreign governments (the false accusations of which led to Trump's impeachment), but we must not be sadistic and have to be meticulously fair.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Nov 7 19:14:21 2024 (3NtfN)
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I'm mixed on the high road/vengeance bit myself. I'm currently of the opinion that if our defeated enemies show any sign of reflection and acceptance, we can take the high road. If they dig in, keep trying to prevent Trump from actually doing anything as president, going after anyone remotely connected to him... well then, time to make the rubble bounce. And so far, that looks like it's the way we'll need to go.
I very nearly broke my self-imposed rule of "no politics in my Facebook posts, stay underground" when a friend posted something to the effect of "we lost, but we're going to accept it, and that's the difference between us and them." I so badly wanted to ask him if even knew about the inauguration riots in DC in 2016...
Posted by: David Eastman at Thu Nov 7 20:21:39 2024 (aAyxl)
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I'm not ready to say "water under the bridge" to the people who kept calling us Nazis and Fascists and everything else they could think of. And the last time we were conciliatory and "Shared power" with the dems because we were sorry we beat them, and put them on committees as chairs, they completely shut us out by way of thanks.
We know exactly how they would have acted had they won. there's a difference between being the Better Man and being a sucker.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Nov 8 21:08:23 2024 (nk1Z+)
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The failure to follow up "Lock her up" with action and instead Take the High Road is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Instead of Taking the High Road, Trump should have opened up a Special Council to do a RICO investigation of the charges, Yes, spare Hilary if we ultimately must. But force her and Bill to sacrifice their middle management to protect themselves. Expose the corruption to the light and destroy Clinton, Inc. The Clintons were the most Machine Politicians of the last century, and if it was broken up in 2017/2018, then The Clinton Machine wouldn't have been available to play it's part in the... oddities of the 2020 election. Taking the High Road also carries a Price, and the 2020 election was a portion of that.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Fri Nov 8 21:50:56 2024 (xnpli)
Zenless Zone Zero is...weird. A supernatural / cyber-punk story by the makers of, and with similar mechanics to Genshin Impact, The combat mechanics seem more forgiving, but also more random and mysterious.
The story itself, at least as far as we got on stream Monday night, is genuinely intriguing. It also leans much more into Manga/Manhwa/Comics than anime or light novels for its storytelling style (particularly noticeable in contrast with Genshin)
I've only played one day and I'm not at all clear on some of the mechanics (like pulls), but I'm actually liking it so far and find it quite interesting. The slightly scuffed V.O.D. from Monday's toe dip into the game from is here. Note that ZZZ doesn't actually start until 18 minutes in, due to channel bidness and the fact that I sat through the whole ZZZ opening bit, thinking it would be a lore dump. (it is not, it just sets the mood)
Buy Toilet Paper.....While You CanIt appears that there is a lot of panic buying of posterior fecal defenestration rolls that is being fueled by the longshoreman's strike.
A quick perusal of local store shelves confirms a report I heard on the radio.
This is weird for 2 reasons:
1:We don't import more than 10% of our toilet paper.
1
We bought a hanging shelf for the garage, we call it "the biden shelf". It's full of paper products: not only TP, but also Bounty, Kleenex, napkins, etc.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Oct 6 20:46:12 2024 (LZ7Bg)
Well: Another Win for the Cats and Geese
It appears that ANOTHER assassin has taken a shot at former President Trump.
The story is only two hours old, and I'm sure more information will come out. Here is a selection of news stories at the moment from the AP, Clown News Network, FAUX, the oldest newspaper in the country and Reuters . Megan Kelly is doing a live show on it as I type this I assume the link will still be good for the V.O.D.
.
This is twice now that things have gone awry with secret service protection for the former president. This time it appears that they missed and the gunman escaped, though there is a report that a suspect has been arrested.
The gunman’s arrest was given a big boost by a bystander who spotted the suspect running out of the bushes and getting into a black Nissan, even photographing the man and reporting the sighting to law enforcement, who then blasted it out statewide leading to his arrest after a felony stop on I-95 a short time later.
Wow.
We are on perilous ground. I think that if/when Trump finally eats a bullet, (they can't all miss) the disenfranchised half of the country and especially the angry young men I alluded to in the previous post will react to their last ray of hope being plucked from their grasp....poorly.
A major segment of society firmly believes and not without some reason that the fix is in on them and their advocates. IF they come to believe that we cannot vote our way out of this mess, then the reaction will be dreadful.
The reaction to such a reaction will be brutal and totalitarian....and I firmly believe will be gleefully sadistic.
The times we find ourselves in are akin to the Roman Republic's Dénouement, the English and Spanish civil wars and a myriad of examples amongst out neighbors to the south. They are much more applicable to our current situation than the failed secession of the 1860's.
What we may be facing is far worse: a true civil war. And there are few things in the human experience that are more terrible.
There is still hope. But hope is not a plan. Start making preparations for a serious disruption of services...and worse.
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The most horrible aspect of a potential civil war is that unlike our first one, people are not clearly divided geographically. At first it will be impossible to know whom to shoot, and anyone with any brains will just hunker down and not signify anything.
Which to some people will be a sign of "guilt".
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Sep 15 22:07:45 2024 (nk1Z+)
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Yeah. Absolutely. That's a real problem when people stop looking for converts and start looking for heretics.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Sep 16 06:32:42 2024 (3NtfN)
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I heard a funny Russian joke today. Unfortunately, a lot of it is in its delivery. You have to shiver a little and say: "Haah, only two, three more assassination attempts on Trump, and it's New Year already!"
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Sep 18 00:58:09 2024 (LZ7Bg)
My hope, based in what I read in the historical record of American culture, etc., is that IF we cannot avoid excitement, it will be fairly targeted, deliberate, and contained.
(Furthermore... Sotomayer is probably in contact with their genius leadership, and she thought ordering the Seals to kill specific people was a viable plan. We are also talking about people who openly say that they think it is a good and viable idea to order airstrikes on supply chains and maintenance locations that support airstrikes. IE, they are stupid enough that they might get themselves immediately arrested.)
Anyway, my repeating stuff would be boring, and not very timely. I'm still optimistic in several ways, and think we have a chance at avoiding any escalations of violence. I'm seeing a lot of little indicators (1) I interpret as heartening.
But, that and a fifty will buy a cup of coffee. No one should be trusting my word without any knowledge of my background or character, and sharing verifiable/testable arguments gets tedious. I also have analytical biases, and my attempts to keep my head clear may be turn out to be deliberate blindness on my part.
I dunno. We shall see.
(1) Forex, this time, the secret service detail may (2) have done their jobs correctly.
(2) I don't think I have reliable sources of information, and I also know that I personally have no skill in managing protective details.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Sep 25 19:57:54 2024 (rcPLc)
I don't agree with Kisin about everything, but he's dead right about this.
This is going to get some peoples hackles up, as on the face of it, criticizing/boycotting/cancelling a broadcaster for "platforming' someone with odious views is pretty much Woke 101. So an argument might be made that we must not become like them. In the absence of the actual context I'd generally tend to agree with that statement and I did not speak up when Tucker face-planted in his Putin interview, and Moscow grocery run, which took place in a literal Potempkin grocery store. I racked it up to a combination of historical ignorance and being rolled by a master of manipulation and a likely tight schedule. However, describing a holocaust-denying, Churchill-hating 2-didgit Jew-hating Chud as "The most respected independent historian in America" and not confronting him with hard questions about his asshattery is pretty low.
The most charitable possible explanation is still pretty bad, that is, Tucker is so guilt ridden over his support for the late unpleasantness in Iraq that he is basically becoming a mirror image of the corporatist establishment, believing anything that contradicts their view. No matter how odious. Even if you assume that the baseline worldview of the Uni-party is cackling, sadistic, young-adult-novel level villainous, sadistic evil (to be fair, not an unreasonable conclusion) it is important to not reject things that they might get right (like, oh, I don't know, the NAZIs were actually...bad...or that antisemitism is a particularly stupid notion that leads one to VERY dark places). If this is the case, the Tucker has been so traumatized by his experiences that he's become reactionary.
"Reactionary" is another of those terms that has been ruined by the left in their never ending battle against words and the ability to express non-leftist ideas as anything other than an epithet. However, it just means that someone is identified not by what they are for, but what they are against. They will react against anything seen as good and proper by those they oppose, even things (few as they might be) that are universally agreed upon; sort of a shallow hipster contrarianism. When someone has descended this far into demoralization then they really can't be taken seriously, since their views are simply an inverse of their opponents, rather than ideas that were weighed and thought out. I can probably be persuaded that Carlson, who has been, along with his family, viciously attacked, gotten fired, and received death threats from the left and their 5th columnists on the neocon-right has descended into this tar-pit of the mind. But I will need to be persuaded, and remember that this is the most charitable explanation for his behavior during this interview.
A less charitable view is that Tucker is chasing the algorithm and making bank off feeding the demoralized reactionaries and the old school, unreconstructed darkness that sees in the possibly ascendant right, something to attach themselves to, remora-like, and ride to power. Tucker in this case is nothing but a later day Father Coughlin playing footsie with the American political sewers that represent the darkest angels of human nature.
The woke left is a thing of abominable evil, supporting the butchery of Hamas, the genital mutilation of children, race hustling, violence, and policies, that even if well intentioned will result in (and are resulting in) disaster. It is natural to oppose them on all things, but even the stereotypical blue haired harpies wielding Gurkha castration knives probably think that the sky is blue and NAZIs are bad (the latter, somewhat ironic given that they support Hamas). It is not, therefore, advisable to adopt a position that the sky is brown and the NAZIS were poor oppressed victims of international Jewery, cruelly being denied their rightful lebensraum.
Antisemitism has been overwhelmingly a fixture of the left in the last 120 years. Even the vile German socialists were trying to make Marx's ideas work., We on the right have grown accustomed to pointing this out and the fact that "woke" ideology, with its general dismissal of competence & equality in favor of equity is inherently antisemitic. We on the right are mostly correct about this, but there IS an actual strain of this awful mental malignancy on the populist right. It's origins are much as in Europe, frustration with ones station, seasoned with envy and a belief that jews, who, do to their success-enabling culture and high IQ's are over represented in the upper echelons of society, must have somehow "cheated" this astutely avoids and self reflection and self improvement, perpetuating this vile meme and the socio-economic stagnation amongst losers of all stripes.
Today, we have a whole class of young men who have actually been singled out for torment by "the powers that be" both as a matter of intentionally vindictive policy as well as the side-effects of monetary and economic policy. These same young men are tormented in school and told that they are the cause of all the worlds problems and that they are monsters. They are also taught that true virtue and power is rightly held by the oppressed. It is inevitable that a percentage of these young men, given by their teachers only the binary choice between supplicant and master will choose the later and embrace the monster-hood they are told (ironically enough) is their birthright, especially if, as is so often the case today, they have no fathers to guide them through those difficult years. What we are NOT teaching is history, except in the most bizarro funhouse-mirror sort of way.
Into this mix comes a bunch of folks like Tucker, who take the fight to the tormentors of these young men. If those influencers do not point away from the abyss, but rather encourage their followers to stare into it and become one with it, then we are truly in for some dark times.
This utter demoralization of a whole generation of young men is why the last few years have seen Phenomena like Andrew Tate, the rise of antisemitism and various other vile crap on the right. I have a degree in history and this sort of thing, frankly scares me shitless, even as I understand the evolutionary and social dynamics that make it all too likely.
The left in it's current form is a monstrous thing and it must be opposed, however American Conservatism is fit to do so because it has historically been a movement based in the Scottish and English enlightenments, as opposed to the American left's current ideological roots in the French Terror and post-modern philosophy. If we allow our movement to become the monsters we are fighting, then not only do we lose any ethical or political argument to reform, we will trade one emerging dystopia for another.
I think free speech is vital. I support it's curtailment only in a few cases that can be counted on one injured hand. Child pr0n, actual military secrets, true death threats and doxxing. I cannot think of anything else that would justify actual censorship.
Free speech is profoundly important, and one of the reasons is that it allows folks to debate ideas and know where people stand. I do not call for Tucker to be banned. I do call for folks to engage in some pushback and not let the fiends like Daryll Cooper hijack the opposition to the left, and then leave us with no hope or choice. Free speech only works if it is a two way street.
23 Years On
As those of us in the U.S. watched those brave firefighters and policemen run fearlessly into danger from which 403 of them and nearly 3000 of their countrymen would never return, we drew inspiration from the first responder's sacrifice and resolved to pursue the perpetrators to the ends of the earth.
23 years on, the results of our nation's efforts to address this atrocity would be unimaginable to most of us at that time.
The "experts" predictions of how the next 20 or so years would go proved far less accurate than writers of dystopian science fiction.
Ignoring most of the the bat-scat insanity of current year, and focusing on the perpetrators of the debacle and terrorism in particular, the prognostications of foreign policy wonks and intelligence analysts proved to be bunk, leaving us with thousands of our best dead in Mesopotamia and the Hindu Kush. The Taliban, who, with their allies in Al Queada, perpetrated the vile act of mass murder we commemorate today, are now in charge of Afghanistan, as they were when our punitive expedition went in to slay them. These barbarians leveraged this administration's shameful withdrawal under fire and it's associated incompetence to acquire vast quantities of ordinance abandoned in the pell-mell retreat;
...ordinance that they are using not only to oppress their own people, but to finance themselves by supplying very bad actors with weapons as well as spread their medieval ideology around the world, but this time with purpose built munitions to supplement those extemporized from airliners.
Far from making us safer, the security measures implemented after Sept. 11, have instead focused with impressive effectiveness on rooting out grass roots dissent and engaging in censorious policies to attack those who take umbrage at the Acela Corridor's consensus.
This laser-like focus on political opponents has necessarily come at the expense of vetting the vast multitudes of individuals who stream across our boarders with the blessing of the current administration, apparently in the hopes that they will swing elections in their favor, since, being quite disappointed with the American Citizenry, they have resolved to import another, more compliant one.
So our country is filling up with people who share the ideology and goals of those who inflicted upon us such torment 23 years ago today.
This does not include those from less feral but no less troubling regimes, particularly China, which as Dr. Weinstein notes here, is placing a vast number of individuals in our nation for an unclear but likely not benign purpose.
Time stamp is not working for some reason: the relevant dialog begins at 04:06
Far from being safer than we were, I fear we are vastly less so.
I further fear that we stand on the precipice of something far worse than the events we so solemnly commemorate today.
What is likely coming down the pike is dark indeed. I fear that what is on the horizon is going to be far worse in many ways than the events of 23 years ago.
So do not forget them.
Get to know your neighbors.
If you can, get out of the cities.
Be as prepared for utility and societal disruptions as you can make yourself.
And be not afraid.
For dark times may well be coming, but dark times do end eventually.
I'm Beginning to Suspect that Mr. Herrera MIGHT be a Nerd
The Cybertruck is weird, but it is technically interesting...NOW it can be a technically interesting technical.
Cacodemons, Imps, Deimos, Phobos and Science
Join us TONIGHT at 7:30pm EST/11:30pm UTC over on Twitch as we explore the Martian Moon Phobos, search for secrets, while we rip, tear, and otherwise perform necessary pest control in Doom (1993).
In between my many inevitable ignominious deaths, we'll be discussing various types of polyculture farming and their possible implementation in the context of a Martian settlement, particularly as it applies to animal proteins. (No really!) Stop by and meet one of my crack team of science babes! Then join the discussion! This will be fu...uh...This will be different.
1
I managed to catch about 20 minutes of it around the 2 hour mark. Haven't played those old Doom games in ages.
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Aug 23 08:50:07 2024 (MItL9)
2
This whole twitch-tubing thing is harder than it looks. Dr. Heinous and I were going to run a stream together under my Krimsonsplat channel, and we couldn't get the game to cooperate. The stream worked fine though. I'd have guessed the opposite.
Posted by: ubu at Tue Aug 27 12:45:52 2024 (jH+gB)
This is a bit of a longer video which is quite interesting, (Anderson's stuff usually is) but I really think this is the root of the intractability of many of today's problems.
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When I worked for Houston's Public Works, I had the opportunity to sit in on a phone conference discussing a very old section of ordinance regarding testing/inspection of fire suppression systems in buildings. It had been the responsibility of the Fire Department for decades, not PW as the ordinance suggested. Lots of back and forth, but at NO time did anyone raise the issue of public safety or even the possibility thereof. It was all about the bureaucracy. Just to answer an obvious question, no, I didn't raise it either, as I was not supposed to be present, and it would have caused problems for my supervisor if I'd revealed my presence (and for him, if he'd raised it, as he was the most junior official attendee).
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Wow. Glad everything eventually worked out ok. Until the bills arrive, anyway....
Posted by: ubu at Fri Aug 23 16:39:43 2024 (jH+gB)
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I echo Ubu's sentiments. Also, depending on finances, insurance, etc., there are, or at least used to be, private hospitals with ERs that don't have to honor EMTALA. As a result, they're not flooded with illegals, druggies, etc., and thus you can get in and out of them much faster, and there's generally a lot less of the craziness you experienced. Found this out by accident many years ago when I took my wife to the ER for something or other.
I'm glad your Mom's on the mend.
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Aug 23 22:48:00 2024 (MItL9)
3
A bit late here - my dad had a blockage. Independent farmer that he was, he drove himself into town to get to the hospital. Can't imagine being able to drive while in that kind of pain. Hope things are working out for your mom.
Posted by: Frank at Sun Sep 1 11:24:10 2024 (+i6Xr)
IRL Happenings....
....have been coming fast and furious. Currently, my Mom has had medical issues and is in the hospital again this time, looking at surgery tomorrow evening. As a result I will be going back to visit her tomorrow. This and other issues have kept me from commenting on the current, very dark season of CURRENT YEAR: a Civilizational Collapse Story.
I haven't even been streaming much (there is no internet at my folks house) however, I will be doing an extended Genshin Impact stream tonight, which will be my last for a while, so stop by tonight at 7:30pm EST/11:30pm UTC to chat and catch the scuff and the cringe while you still can.
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