The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that our buddy Lawdog, whom most of you know, is having a fundraiser to cover legal expenses for what I regard as a trumped-up, malicious charge. You can read more about the case at Old NFO's place. Follow the links he provides to see what Lawdog's friends are offering as raffle prizes to those who contribute.
The fundraiser has been pretty successful so far, raising over $40K. However, I know what lawsuits can cost in terms of legal fees, and $40K doesn't leave much margin for error at all - particularly when taxes have to be paid on funds raised like that. I'd love to see Lawdog's fundraiser hit $50K, which would be enough (I think) to meet all likely demands on his bank account over this matter.
If you've already donated to the fundraiser, thank you very much! Your generosity is greatly appreciated. If you haven't - or if you have, but are willing to consider more - please click over to his fundraiser and do what you can to help. Lawdog's a good man, as I said in my earlier post, and I really want to see him come through this free and clear, without being tied up for years in debt to his lawyer and expert witnesses.
As the political discussion centers on the 2022 wins and losses from the midterm election, one thing that stands out in similarity to the 2020 general election is the difference between ballots and votes. It appears in some states this is the ‘new normal.’
Where votes were the focus, the Biden administration suffered losses. Where ballots were the focus, the Biden administration won.
. . .
The effort to attain votes for candidates is less important than the strategy of collecting ballots.
It should be emphasized; these are two distinctly different election systems.
The system of ballot distribution and collection is far more susceptible to control than the traditional system of votes cast at precincts.
A vote cannot be cast by a person who is no longer alive, or no longer lives in the area. However, a ballot can be sent, completed and returned regardless of the status of the initially attributed and/or registered individual.
While ballots and votes originate in two totally different processes, the end result of both “ballots” and “votes,” weighing on the presented election outcome, is identical.
While initially the ballot form of election control was tested in Deep Blue states, through the process of mail-in returns under the guise and justification of “expanding democracy,” a useful tool for those who are vested in the distinction, I think we are now starting to see what happens on a national level when the process is expanded.
. . .
Now that ballot collection has been shown to be a much more effective way to maintain political power, Democrats in a general sense are less focused on winning votes and more focused on gathering ballots.
When ‘ballot organization’ becomes more important than ‘vote winning,’ you modify your electoral campaign approaches accordingly. It might sound simplistic, but inside the distinct difference between ballots and votes you will find why refusing debates is a successful strategy.
If you are trying to win votes you could never fathom campaign success by refusing to debate an opponent. However, if your focus is centered around ballot collection, the debate is essentially irrelevant.
. . .
Republicans are running around trying to convince people and win votes. Meanwhile, who needs voters? Democrats have skipped all of that old fashioned stuff and modified all of their electioneering systems to quietly and efficiently collect ballots. [Last Tuesday] you saw the outcome.
That hypothesis certainly seems to fit Democratic Party "get-out-the-vote" efforts. They used to focus on getting people to the polls. Now they focus on collecting people's votes and getting those to the vote counters, often by "helping" voters fill in their ballots. There are reports out there of postal votes being collected even before they were filled in, with a promise to do that on the voter's behalf! If true, that's electoral fraud - but it probably has willing accomplices who are unlikely to report it.
A ballot collection network also does away with any possibility of challenging the eligibility of the voter. If we see a person at the polling station who's exhibiting suspicious conduct, we can challenge his right to vote, and have his identification and/or registration verified in one way or another. If the voter never has to appear in person at all, we lose that safeguard. I wonder how many of the postal votes this last election were deliberately intended to achieve precisely that?
That may also explain how some candidates were elected despite seemingly overwhelming evidence that they weren't fit for election. Fetterman in Pennsylvania comes to mind. Before the debate that exposed his mental unfitness for office, Democratic Party postal ballot harvesting had already gathered several hundred thousand votes for him. Those who'd cast those votes might have wanted to change their minds after seeing the debate: but it was too late for them to do so. They were already committed. I think that's probably one of the main reasons, if not the single most important reason, why Fetterman was elected. I'd love to know what percentage of the votes cast for him comprised those early ballots. I think it'd be eye-opening.
(As Phil of Bustednuckles put it: "Congratulations, Pennsylvanians, For Electing A New Senator! Just don’t forget to water it regularly and fertilize it occasionally and you should be just fine.")
The question now becomes: can - and will - the Republican Party put in as much effort as the Democratic Party to build a ballot collection and processing machine of its own? If it doesn't, it's probably doomed to play second fiddle for years to come. Some states appear to be moving in that direction. Others appear to be playing dead.
Meanwhile, those of us who support a constitutional Republic may as well accept that our nation is about to be irrevocably changed. We're dealing with a ballot harvesting system that can gather enough support to pass any and all constitutional amendments the progressive left desires. The Supreme Court can rule as it wishes, but before long it's likely to be "packed" with progressive judges who'll aid and abet the process. We can no longer rely on the protection of the rule of law, because the law itself will be administered in a partisan political manner.
I see everyone on the right fighting about Trump vs DeSantis for 2024 and I just laugh to myself. The presidency in 2024 is a pipe dream, with DeSantis or Trump on the ticket. To be frank I don’t know if we’ll ever see a Republican president again. Millions and millions of illegals pouring over our border and being distributed to key swing states. An electorate trained to believe that hundreds of thousands of mail in ballots appearing is normal. Demographics is destiny. He who controls the machines controls the outcome. We didn’t fix 2020 and we didn’t build the wall so don’t expect another “free and fair” election.
BRM (Peter Grant) will be in the area next week and by hook or crook, we’ll meet up and within the hour, we will have solved ALL of the world’s problems in this epic summit. I’ll either see him coming west on I-40 or headed back east a week later, but it will happen. The fate of Western Civilization hangs in the balance.
Let's see . . . A grizzled veteran of the US Navy SEALS and long-time law enforcement narcotics and cartel expert meets up with a former South African military vet, pastor, and survivor of the quasi-civil-war in South Africa from 1976-1994. Between the two of us, I daresay we've caused a fairly significant amount of mayhem over the course of our lives. We both write novels and we both blog. We've also both chosen to move to parts of the country where we can be free to be ourselves.
If we put our heads together, who knows what might happen?
My wife and I have made a habit of getting our annual flu shots as a matter of routine. Both of us have health issues that affect respiration, and need to avoid serious congestion or breathing difficulties; so, for us, it's been almost an automatic reflex to get the shot. However, we've refused from the start to be vaccinated against COVID-19, even though it affects respiration, due to serious misgivings about the safety of those medications - misgivings that have been validated and magnified by the horrific total of side effects that have been reported. They far outnumber the combined total reports of all other vaccines in human history.
That's why this news is likely to force us to abandon our annual flu shot "fix".
Pfizer and BioNTech have launched a clinical trial to test a combination vaccine targeting influenza and Covid-19, the companies announced on Thursday, one of several efforts to combine the two recommended shots as experts increasingly suggest yearly coronavirus boosters will be needed.
. . .
Both flu and Covid components are built using the mRNA platform underpinning the companies’ joint Covid vaccine.
. . .
Pfizer and BioNTech are not the only companies pushing ahead with a combination Covid-flu vaccine. Moderna, which uses the same kind of mRNA technology as Pfizer and BioNTech and was their main pandemic rival, is also testing its own mRNA flu shot and a shot combining this with its Covid booster vaccine. Novavax, which uses a more traditional style of vaccine technology, is also developing a combination shot. BioNTech’s Sahin said the Covid-flu trial will give the company more information on combining mRNA vaccines to address multiple pathogens, which he said will help guide its product pipeline in the future.
Moderna is also testing a three-pronged shot to protect against RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), Covid-19 and influenza. All three are potentially serious respiratory infections...
Not just no, but HELL, NO!!! Given the damage that mRNA vaccines have already caused - cases number literally in the millions - there's absolutely no way I'm going to allow any of that stuff into my system.
However, it's a major concern that hospitals may make such vaccinations part of their treatment protocol for any admission. If you get admitted, you'll get the shot whether you like it or not - perhaps without being fully informed about what they're injecting into your body. Personally, I regard that as equivalent to assault with a deadly weapon, but I'm sure the law won't see it that way - or permit me to respond appropriately. Sadly, as I grow older, the chances that I may not be able to make my objections known prior to getting the shot (for example, if I have another heart attack and am admitted in a comatose condition) are increasing. That's a deeply worrying development.
What say you, readers? Are you willing to take a chance that your hitherto-benign annual flu shot might now inject you with potentially dangerous mRNA?
We still don't know the outcome of yesterday's elections. However, we know enough to be sure that many of the infrastructural and procedural problems with the 2020 elections have not yet been satisfactorily resolved. Voting in some states appears to have been marred by difficulties, and Arizona's electoral system has now become something of a national joke in that respect. Why can't they get it right? Why are Maricopa County's electoral officials so inept and/or incompetent? Verily, the mind doth boggle . . .
Fox News star Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night ... [claimed] that the use of electronic voting machines “shakes people’s faith in the system” and shows America is “not serious about democracy.”
. . .
“And what happened today in Maricopa County, where some huge percentage of voting machines… 30 percent, they claim these are Dominion voting machines, but it almost doesn’t matter,” Carlson insisted. “Electronic voting machines didn’t allow people to vote apparently.”
. . .
“Whatever you think of it, the cause of it, it shakes people’s faith in the system,” Carlson continued. “That’s an actual threat to democracy. The core problem: We’re not serious about democracy if we’re using electronic voting machines. You’re going to have these moments where everybody in the country fears volatility because one side doesn’t believe the result is real.”
Claiming that distrust in voting machines runs on “both sides” and is not “just the crazy right,” Carlson said he hoped there would be a “bipartisan” demand to ban electronic voting machines and “require voting IDs.”
I can only endorse Carlson's comments above. There's a reason Canada and many European nations reject the use of vote-counting automation. It's because it's simply too easy to interfere with or hack, and is therefore untrustworthy. They'd rather go with paper ballots, counted by hand, in constituencies small enough that they can count their votes within a few hours of the polls closing - not giant county-wide processing facilities where everything takes longer, is more complex, and costs more. What's more, if there are issues with the totals, it's a simple matter to recount the paper ballots, with observers able to see and hear everything that goes on. Transparency does away with trust issues on the spot.
Some political pundits also have egg on their faces. Many forecast a Republican "red wave" that simply has not emerged. I'd like to know why that happened - the miscalculation, I mean. Where were they getting their data? Clearly, it wasn't accurate. One hopes they'll learn from their mistakes, but being journalists and politicians, that's doubtful. They never seem to learn from anything, much less their own mistakes. "My mind's made up - don't confuse me with the facts!"
As for our nation's Congressional representatives and Senators . . . nothing could more clearly illustrate that we're a house divided. The "United" States aren't. Far too many individual States are divided against themselves. Cities are divided against rural areas. Old are divided against young. Races are divided against each other - aided and abetted, let's remember, by identity politics. I have dwindling hopes that our nation can survive as a constitutional republic. Too many groups want to run it by "pure" democracy, disregarding constitutional restrictions and balances. That's a very comfortable thing for a 51% majority, and a very uncomfortable one for a 49% minority.
Finally, there's the electorate. Pennsylvania can serve as an example for the whole. How anyone there could vote for a Senator - irrespective of political party - who's clearly even more mentally damaged and impaired than President Biden is utterly beyond me. Have they lost their minds? Do they really want such a Senator making national decisions in their name?
Nothing more clearly illustrates that voters can be manipulated like so many mindless drones, driven like cattle to the slaughterhouse. That should scare the hell out of any thinking person, of any and every partisan perspective.
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
So, once again, America gets to vote on who will be its representatives in Congress and the Senate for the next couple of years.
The question of whether those representatives will, in fact, be truly "representative", or merely political golems and automatons who've been shoehorned into office over - and often despite - the votes of the electorate, will be neither asked nor answered by our political powers that be. That's a pity, because it's the single most important question that this election will raise. If the same sort of shenanigans take place today that took place during and after the November 2020 elections, we'll know that the USA has become just another banana republic, just another corporate state, where "we the people" have effectively been stripped of the powers allocated to us in the republic's constitution, and we've become nothing more than "we the peons" or "we the pitiful". Three out of the "four boxes of liberty" will have been demonstrated to be ineffective, for all the world to see. If we want to see change, that will leave only the fourth box ... and nobody in his right mind wants that to happen. I've seen it too often in too many other countries, and the outcomes are unspeakable. The further we can keep that from our shores, the better!
It behooves all of us to pay very, very careful attention to how the votes from today's elections are counted, and to demand accountability from electoral officials at any sign of anything untoward, including delays, vote counting being stopped, additional "mysterious" batches of votes being "found" for a particular candidate, statistically impossible voting patterns, and a host of other irregularities. We tried in 2020, only to have the courts largely refuse to hear the cases. (Do note that. It's not that there was no evidence of electoral fraud in 2020 - there was evidence, out the wazoo. However, the courts refused to admit or examine that evidence on procedural grounds, often very flimsy. It was very instructive to watch how the "deep State" manipulated the proceedings.)
Those who manipulated that election are bound and determined that they won't be called to account for their misdeeds. There's simply no way they're going to sit back and allow the voice of the people to override their political imperatives.
That observation still stands. They're going to try something - anything - that will prevent their losing power in this election, and forestall their being called to account. Depend upon it.
In a functioning democracy, you're not simply allowed to raise questions about elections, you're encouraged to. You're encouraged to because it's your government. There's no such thing as election-denying in a free society. It's called free speech. You're allowed to say it if you think it, period, and yet our media, which exists to defend free speech, is doing its best, day after day, to shut it down. "How dare you raise any questions about next week's midterms! Why are they telling you that? It's ominous."
. . .
First of all, if people have questions about the last election ... there's a really simple way to put those concerns to rest, to stop the conspiracy theories, and that's produce the evidence. Show us the facts. If people are worried about vote totals in a specific state from 2020, first of all, they have a right to have the party in charge prove that that election was fair, but moreover, they have a duty to ask because the only way you have a free and fair system is if everybody is free to ask questions about it and demand real answers.
. . .
There's nothing wrong with asking questions — period — and if that's banned, this is a totalitarian country.
If we'd had a lot more transparency after the 2020 elections, I wouldn't be so concerned about those taking place today . . .
Martin Armstrong, who's proved to be a prescient and largely accurate economic observer, goes so far as to warn that if the same shenanigans occur today, manipulated as always by oligarchs and pressure groups like the W.E.F., there may not be an election in 2024.
"The cheating in the midterm election next week is going to be so great that it is almost impossible to make a prediction. . . . In a fair midterm election, the Republicans would win the House and the Senate."
. . .
"It’s going to be tight, and the Republicans have a shot at taking the House. Technically, they should take the House and the Senate. I am just not sure. The corruption is so bad, it’s crazy. Pennsylvania sent out hundreds of thousands of ballots to people who are not documented or even American. I’ve gotten emails from people in Canada, they are getting mail-in ballots. They mailed them to Canada. . . .Where this ends up, who knows? It’s just so corrupt, it is over the top. It doesn’t matter who wins. Nobody is going to accept this thing, and that is the problem."
. . .
"We may not even have an election in 2024. It is not looking very good, and it’s probably because this election is not going to be accepted. When it is so over-the-top corrupt, what do you do for the next one? The United States will not exist after 2032. After 2028 and 2029, we are going to have to redesign a government from scratch. America is being destroyed. Republics always end in absolute corruption. We just saw the same thing happen in Brazil. They staged a major effort to take Bolsonaro out. . . . This is a worldwide effort. They had to get rid of Trump. The other one who stood in their way is Bolsonaro. Then there is Putin (Russia) and Xi Jinping (China). I think you are going to have historians look back at this 50 years from now, and they will call this period ‘The Climate Change Wars’. . . .They are trying to take down as much oil energy capacity as possible."
. . .
"Our computer is showing it’s going to be a rocket launch for volatility and civil unrest next year."
I wish I could believe that Mr. Armstrong was exaggerating, but he's not. Think about it. Those who most fervently support the 2020 election results and the resulting government are going to be all-in on expecting the same thing again in 2022. If they don't get it, they'll reject the result as "unrepresentative" and/or having been "manipulated", and probably cry electoral fraud and mismanagement. If the opposite happens, and the 2020 results are repeated, everyone on the conservative side is going to claim exactly the same thing. Neither side trusts the other; neither side is willing to listen to the other; and neither side is willing to examine the evidence objectively and in full, in order to resolve any doubts using "just the facts". When facts no longer rule, opinion, conjecture and emotion dominate. None of them are reliable, and none can be objectively verified. That's a recipe for disaster - and for no future free and fair elections, because nobody will trust them or accept their outcome.
The Good Citizen offers some gloomy - but soundly argued - thoughts about that.
[Electoral politics has] become another corporate-state money laundering operation while attention snatching to distract and demoralize a public that desperately grasps for ‘hope and change’ every few years only to find there is little of either on offer anywhere.
The spectacle of elections has ballooned into a multi-billion dollar corporate-government bribery scam that reveals the most plainly crooked state in the history of human organized systems. No other country or perhaps even empire comes close in shamelessness of open bribery. Until money is removed from the process, nothing will ever change.
As a result, there is no sign of a heartbeat for a Constitutional Res-Publica any longer ... The political structure of the American government today resembles a three-layer cake: Oligarchy - Corporatocracy - Kakistocracy, in order of power.
. . .
The word Democracy today is nothing more than a rhetorical political weapon to wield in justifying tyrannies whenever rulers need to gaslight their constituents. The assumption is always that whatever is a threat to their tyranny is a threat to democracy itself, so they use the word like a club to beat their slaves into submission to keep them voting every few years. It’s a protective shield to hide from the blowback of their own atrocious incompetency while projecting the offer of change if their debt slaves simply lend their minds to the charade of slum and spectacle that is American electoral politics.
Despite all that doom and gloom, my wife and I will still be voting today. After all, if you don't play, you can't win: and, as Robert Heinlein famously observed, "Always cut the cards". You never know what might happen. Let's all proceed on that hope. If our hopes are unfounded . . . well, at least we tried. Nobody will be able to accuse us of letting things slide over the edge into chaos without doing our best to prevent that.
As for assessing the election results tonight and over the next few days, the American Spectator has some very amusing suggestions as to how to assess what's going on.
We on the red team will know we’re having a rough night if these things happen:
John King is working the big CNN election map with a drink in one hand.
We’re shown film of Antifa members serving as poll monitors in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
A conservative-heavy precinct with long lines is reported to have run out of ballots at 10 a.m.
Late in the day, NBC, coming out of commercials, is playing “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
. . .
But if the following is happening, then the red team is having a nice night:
Rachel Maddow is taking off her glasses and wiping her eyes a lot.
PolitiFact is reported to be rehiring the 500 fact-checkers who were laid off after Biden won the presidency and Democrats won the Senate.
Hunter Biden is seen boarding a flight to Brunei, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.
CBS is going to commercial breaks and coming out of commercial breaks to [the] strains of Mozart’s Requiem.
That's the opinion of Amanda Little, writing at Bloomberg.
Preppers, as the community of bunker builders and food hoarders is known, emerged during the Cold War as fears of nuclear holocaust drove some people to go to great lengths to prepare for survival in a burned-out world. But as the movement persisted over the decades, it has been mostly ignored by mainstream society, myself included, which came to view preppers mainly as paranoid radicals.
So it's more than a little uncomfortable to confront the reality that this fringe industry is increasingly mainstream. In fact, in an era of growing environmental volatility and geopolitical unrest, Augason and his competitors appear downright prescient, maybe even pragmatic.
Disaster after disaster has reminded us all of the disturbing premise underpinning prepper thinking: We’re increasingly at risk of being cut off from our normal food supply. One recent report predicts that the survival food industry, which now produces very roughly $500 million in annual sales (privately held manufacturers don't like to share their numbers), will grow by $2.8 billion by 2026.
The growth of this industry speaks volumes about the fear mindset that has crept into mainstream consumer behavior. You probably have at least one friend, colleague or neighbor who has been toying with the idea of becoming a “prepper.” Maybe not building a full-on bunker, but lining their pantries with long-storage food in the event that another major storm, blizzard, wildfire or another public health crisis hits.
I've never been a prepping extremist. I simply grew up in Africa, where in most countries the supply of food is precarious at best, subject to interruptions of many kinds, from drought or other natural disaster through banditry to all-out civil war. Anyone with any sense there stores at least a few weeks' worth of essential supplies, because one never knows when one might not be able to buy more of them. After coming to the USA, experience with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita drove home the lessons I'd already learned in Africa, and reinforced them.
I began pounding the "prepping" drum in earnest after those hurricanes, because I could see how simple population growth was putting the world's supply of food at risk. It's not that there isn't enough food in normal times; there is - but it has to be moved from where it is to where it's needed, and that's a whole lot more difficult when shipping is tied up with moving consumer goods, and older ships are retired because it costs too much to keep them in service, and airlines can't carry bulk food because it's not cost-effective, and trains are short of the fuel needed to move from one country to another. What our cities need in the way of food is available, but it's hundreds or thousands of miles from the shops and distribution facilities closest to those who need it, and we can no longer take it for granted that it'll be able to cover that distance. The current diesel shortage is only one element of the problem. There are many more.
Thousands of tons of wheat and canola is stranded in Canada after rain has hampered deliveries at the country’s largest port during peak shipping season.
Grain terminals in Vancouver are having trouble loading and unloading grain amid heavy, persistent rain in British Columbia, creating a backlog of trains that are unable to deliver to the port, said David Przednowek, assistant vice president of grain for Canadian National Railway Co. At least 12 fully-loaded unit trains, carrying more than 100,000 tons, are parked on the Prairies waiting to deliver, he said.
“Nobody wants to see those trains idle,” Przednowek said Friday by phone. “Everybody wants to move it. We just can’t.”
I'm not going to go into all the details of our own agricultural situation, and inflation, and supply chain bottlenecks, and all the other ramifications. We've talked about them a lot in recent months. Suffice it to say that our cities and supermarkets are not ready to deal with an interruption of even a week in the arrival of foodstuffs and critical supplies. Our transportation system is increasingly broken, from drought affecting the Mississippi, to diesel fuel prices and availability affecting trucking, to supply bottlenecks affecting everything. It's never made more sense to have a food reserve in your home, so that if such interruptions arrive (perhaps I should say "when"), we can get through them. If we can afford it, there's no reason not to prepare for longer shortages.
If you haven't already done so, I can only urge you to make what preparations you can, even at this late hour. They probably won't be adequate (unless you have very deep pockets and can afford to pay through the nose to buy and have delivered all that you'll need), but they'll be a lot better than nothing.
Yesterday I heard the sad news that a man I'd known for almost two decades had died of a drug overdose. I'll call him Steve (not his real name), because his family is in mourning right now, and they wouldn't want his name or location shared. I daresay many of you have known Steves in your own life.
Steve got into drugs and alcohol in his teens, because both were freely available in the city where he lived. Drug pushers used to hang around high schools, offering free hits to students in the hope of ensnaring them in addiction so they'd become long-term customers. At that time Steve only indulged in marijuana, but as so often happened, it proved to be a "gateway drug" for him. He cleaned up his act to serve a term in the US armed forces, but had some experiences in the invasion of Iraq that left a profound impression on him. He began to use marijuana again, and was caught. His commanding officer had enough compassion to simply refuse to allow him to re-enlist, rather than charge him with an offense. In hindsight, it might have been better for Steve to be charged and convicted; it might have given him a wake-up call. Sadly, that didn't happen.
Steve parlayed his military training as a driver into a commercial drivers license, and spent long days on the road while studying part-time to become a diesel mechanic. He continued to use marijuana, and to drink, which led to a couple of brushes with the law. Again, sadly, the officers concerned "gave him a break" and didn't charge him; just told him to "straighten up and fly right", took him off the road until he'd sobered up, then let him go. Eventually, he was caught by an officer who played it by the book, and his employer fired him when he was convicted of DUI. His CDL was also endorsed and suspended.
He spent a couple of years completing his mechanics training, working wherever he could find a job to earn enough to support himself. During that time he met the lady who would become his wife. They married the same week he graduated, and began to build a family together. Three kids would come along over the next decade. Sadly, Steve slid further and further down the slope of drug and alcohol abuse. That put his marriage under severe strain; I think his wife was something of a saint, because she didn't move out and take the kids with her. She had a lot of support from her own family, who made it clear to Steve that if he lifted a finger to her or the kids, he wouldn't have a finger left to do it again. He knew they meant it.
Steve began using harder drugs over time. By 2015 he'd tried methamphetamines, and a couple of years later began using heroin. I was far from where he lived by then, but I heard about it occasionally from a mutual friend. By 2020 he moved out of the family home and lived on the street. His wife and her family tried to get him the help he needed, but he wouldn't accept it, and refused to enter a residential detox program. As always in such cases of addiction, one can't help the addict unless and until they face up to the reality of their problem, and realize that it's up to them to change. One can't change them from the outside.
Steve's long decline and fall came to an end last Friday. The cops suspect his last purchase of heroin was contaminated with fentanyl. The autopsy will reveal the truth.
His widow and kids have had to do without him for a long time, but their strong family network has helped them get through his absence. Perhaps now, with his malign influence no longer hovering over them, however distantly, they'll be able to make a fresh start together.
I've had far too much experience with drug and alcohol abuse, from working with street people in a church program in South Africa as a teenager, to serving alongside abusers in the military and the commercial world, to dealing with them as a pastor and prison chaplain. The latter was the worst. One would think that drug dealing and use could be more easily controlled in a high-security prison than on the street, but you'd be wrong. Inmates can get what they want in various ways, and they usually succeed. I've had more than a few long support sessions with inmates trying to break the habit; but their own cellmates and fellow prisoners all too often actively try to sabotage their efforts. It's almost as if they think that if one of their own can break free, it's a black mark against the rest of them, a revelation of their own weakness; so they constantly try to drag others down to their level. I never did understand that.
At any rate, I thought it might be informative to listen to some of the many songs about addiction that are out there. Some of the most famous singers and entertainers in the world have fallen into that trap, and put it into words and music later on - those who survived, that is. Many did not. I need only mention Jimi Hendrix as an example. Think of the music that died with him, that we've never heard!
Let's start with Johnny Cash and "The Junkie's Prayer".
During 1989, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard made a trip to Dublin, Ireland. He says of it: "I was distressed beyond belief to see so many heroin addicts just sitting around on the street corners, just shooting up in plain sight of everybody. I got home and I just couldn't stop thinking about it, so I decided from a lyrical point of view that this song was going to be written from the inside. In other words, it was going to be the heroin singing, or talking, or narrating the lyric to the listener." That's what Def Leppard called the song: "From The Inside".
In 1994, Nine Inch Nails produced the song "Mr. Self Destruct". I don't like this song at all: but I have to say, as an example of so-called "industrial rock" and a portrayal of the internal dissonance experienced by many drug addicts, it's ground-breaking and very important. Its very nature portrays the reality of its title.
In 1997, Creed introduced the song "My Own Prison" on their first album. Here's an acoustic version.
Finally, one of Def Leppard's guitarists, Steve Clarke, died of alcohol and drug abuse in 1991. In his memory, the group recorded the song "White Lightning", released on their album "Adrenalize" in 1992. In my opinion, it's one of the most powerful songs about drug addiction I've ever heard. Sadly, the lyrics are sometimes obscured by the instruments, but if you need them, you'll find the lyrics here. These two verses stand out in my mind as an epitaph for so many addicts I've known.
You wanna leave but you can't let go You wanna stop but you can't say no (You never laugh about it, you just can't live without it) You've had enough but you just want more You never get what you're looking for (You never laugh about it)
You've got both ends burning Like a moth to a flame You're going off the rails Like a runaway train It's a no-win situation And there's no way out And no one will ever hear you - Scream and shout
May all of those who have lost their lives to addiction, and all those fighting it, and all those who love them who are trying as best they can to live with them and help them, receive God's blessing and mercy; and may they all be given the grace to respond, preferably in this life, but if not, in the next.
Spammer accounts have cropped up en masse over the past couple of weeks. I'd hoped they'd go away after finding all their comments deleted, but they've stuck around.
Therefore, until further notice, all comments on this blog will be moderated. I can't look at them very often, so it may take several hours between your making a comment and it appearing here. I'm sorry about that, but on the Blogger system there's no way to ban an IP address, so I have to apply moderation to every comment.
I hope that'll be less frustrating than having to read gormless idiot comments from gormless idiot spammers.
I woke up to some very bad news about a friend - terminally so - and I'm really not feeling up to formatting and posting a long excerpt from a book. I'll tell you more tomorrow morning in my Sunday Morning Music post, which I'll orient around the subject.
Say a prayer for those suffering from substance addiction and abuse, and for those who don't make it.
PRESIDENT BIDEN:There's something else at stake: democracy itself. I'm not the only one who sees it. We must vote knowing what's at stake and not just the policy of the moment, but institutions that have held us together as we sought a more perfect union are also at stake. We must vote knowing who we have been, what we're risk of becoming. This is a struggle we're now in, a struggle for democracy, a struggle for decency and dignity, a struggle for prosperity and progress, a struggle for the very soul of America itself. Make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us.
"Democracy is on the ballot," says Joe Biden. No, Joe Biden. The names of candidates are on the ballot. Democracy is not on the ballot because democracy is not determined by the outcome of an election. Democracy is the election itself. Democracy is the process by which citizens choose how they will be governed according to their own desires. That's their choice. It's not yours, but Joe Biden is telling you the opposite and you should know that.
He's telling you that unless you arrive at a very specific outcome, the very outcome he commands you to arrive at, the system itself is illegitimate. We control the system. We have a moral right to control the system. Therefore, if we lose control of the system, the system itself can no longer exist. This is a dramatic misreading of what American democracy is. In American democracy, the people who control the system only have a right to control that system to the extent the public grants them that right through voting. What Biden is describing is the Soviet version of democracy where elections exist to ratify the status quo, to bolster the cabal already in power. That's effectively with the Democratic Party is saying out loud.
Now here's Barack Obama.
BARACK OBAMA:I understand that democracy might not seem like a top priority right now, but we have seen throughout history and we see right now around the world what happens when you give up on democracy. You can see it in countries where the government tells you what books you can and cannot read. Countries where if you dissent, you get put in the jail. Countries where reporters are silenced.
Oh, he's slick. But it's hard to believe he really means that. "I understand that democracy might not seem like a top priority right now," said Barack Obama. Really? The opposite is so obviously true. Democracy is very much a top priority for so many Americans this November and that's why you're seeing record turnout in these midterm elections, because voters are using the only power they have, their ballots in our democracy, to punish their reckless and incompetent leaders and replace them with somebody else.
What you are seeing unmistakably is democracy in action. That would be very obvious to anyone who believes that democracy means representation. But to those who believe that democracy means supporting the Democratic Party, no matter what it does, to those people, this moment has a very different feel. This moment feels like an emergency.
A rejection of Joe Biden's party, from their perspective, is the end of the system itself and they clearly believe that. They mean it. That's why the Biden administration has spent the last two years destroying the two prerequisites for American democracy. Those would be free speech and the rule of law. It's why they've silenced disobedient reporters. It's why they put their political opponents in jail. It's why FBI agents with automatic rifles dragged Christians from their homes for the crime of praying in abortion clinics. It's why nonviolent protesters remain in jail tonight for daring to walk into what used to be called the "People's House" because as far as the Democratic Party is concerned, that house no longer belongs to the people. It belongs to the party, along with the entire U.S. government and the nation itself.
. . .
Here's Ron Klain, Joe Biden's all-powerful chief of staff, issuing an explicit threat to anyone who might be thinking of voting the wrong way next Tuesday.
RON KLAIN:The president decided a few days ago that it was important to issue one final warning on this issue, to make very clear, to leave no doubt that we have people out there still peddling the big lie, people now raising the issue of election denial in this election.
One final warning? One final warning, really? Who do you think you're talking to, Ron Klain? Illiterate villagers? We're Americans. We are free people. You don't get to warn us of anything, much less for the last time. This is your final warning? Yeah. Don't think so. You don't get to say that, Ron Klain.
True, all of it . . . except in the eyes of the cabal currently running the Democratic Party. The Republicans aren't much better, of course: you could probably interchange Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and have their respective parties carry on almost as usual, without noticing the switch. The Uniparty is alive and well and living in Washington.
Of course, there are those who say it's pointless to vote, because we can't change anything. For example, The Good Citizen notes:
The word Democracy today is nothing more than a rhetorical political weapon to wield in justifying tyrannies whenever rulers need to gaslight their constituents. The assumption is always that whatever is a threat to their tyranny is a threat to democracy itself, so they use the word like a club to beat their slaves into submission to keep them voting every few years. It’s a protective shield to hide from the blowback of their own atrocious incompetency while projecting the offer of change if their debt slaves simply lend their minds to the charade of slum and spectacle that is American electoral politics.
I can't argue with a word he says . . . but it doesn't have to be that way, if only we the people will stir our stumps and do something about it.
Let's do all we can during next week's election to make that begin to happen.
If you don't own pets, you can ignore this post. If you do, then read on.
Friends of ours recently bought a Colorado Mountain Dog puppy. She's a delight, very intelligent and playful, and is growing up to be a real family asset (she can herd kids as well as animals, to their parents' occasional relief!). We were struck by her luxurious long hair, and asked what they were feeding her. They told us about Gentle Giants pet food, which is her exclusive diet, and we were impressed by the visibly good results. They feed her only the dry food, but GG makes wet food for dogs too. Best of all, as far as I'm concerned, it's all made right here in the USA using local ingredients, and they list them all. No toxic Chinese food additives here!
We did some more research, and found that GG makes cat food too, both dry and wet. We ordered a 9lb dry food bag to test it, and had excellent results. Both our cats like it, and they eat less of it than they did of their old food with no loss of weight or ill health results. In fact, I think they're more energetic now. Our 13-year-old senior cat passed her annual vet checkup this morning with flying colors after a month or two on the new food, and was even more obnoxious than usual (freely translated from growls and hisses, "I hate this place - it's where they stick needles and other nasties in you!"). She was clearly in fine form, to the vet's amusement.
Therefore, I'd like to give an unhesitating Thumbs Up to Gentle Giants pet food for dogs and cats. We're impressed enough with its results that we're standardizing on it, and recommending it to our friends as well. It's freely available from the makers via mail order, and it's no more expensive to buy from them than through outlets such as Petco, Chewy or Amazon. Also, the price is very reasonable, and although you have to pay shipping, buying two or more packs at a time lowers the transport cost per packet, making it much more affordable. (I just bought two 18lb packs of cat food, and even with shipping added found the combined total cost to be less than a single 17.6lb pack of Royal Canin cat food from the local pet supply store. I'll take a bargain like that any day!)
(No, I'm not getting any sort of compensation or free product for endorsing Gentle Giants here; they don't even know I'm writing this. I just like my readers to know about good products and good deals.)
Our mutual friend Lawdog, who's a blogger and a writer as well as a recently-retired peace officer, has been fighting a legal battle for the past two years.
I can't say too much about it prior to the court case, but basically he was accused of unprofessional conduct - which I don't believe for a moment. It involved a very violent situation that had to be resolved right then and there, for fear of injury to others, and he did so very effectively, IMHO. As one who's worked with law enforcement in a prison setting for a number of years, I applauded when I heard about the incident - and I still do. Sadly, some of the "woke" influence in law enforcement appears to have rubbed off on others involved, resulting in bleating, moaning and misdemeanor charges against him. You can hear the man himself talk about it on a recent livestream with Old NFO. The video is here: the relevant excerpt starts at 14 min. 4 sec. into the clip. Please click over there to view it.
I give Lawdog my highest possible personal seal of approval. When my wife and I moved here almost eight years ago, it was primarily because of his presence; being friends, we wanted to be closer to him, as well as live in an area offering greater security and peace and quiet. He's become an even better friend since then, to both of us. If my wife's life were in danger for any reason, and I desperately needed someone to get her out of it, Lawdog is one of the top three people in the world I'd call upon for aid; and she and I know he'd respond without a second thought. He's that kind of guy. It goes without saying that, knowing him as I do, I regard him as innocent of the charges brought against him.
Sadly, Lawdog has expended his available funds on pre-trial legal costs and other defensive measures. A peace officer's salary isn't great at the best of times, particularly not in smaller towns and cities in Texas, so he's never had the opportunity to accumulate much in the way of savings. He's launched a fund-raiser to help pay for future costs. My wife and I are already all-in on that, and will remain so. I'd like to ask you, dear readers - particularly those who've read Lawdog's books - to please help him out as well. I can't think of a worthier cause than his. I'll be personally very grateful if you'll please click over to his fundraiser and do what you can to help. Good lawyers and expert witnesses ain't cheap!
The drumbeat of propaganda from the Democratic Party, warning of all sorts of sinister plots and administrative delays and other nasties in next week's midterm elections, is growing to a crescendo. Methinks the party doth protest too much - about its own intentions. Examples:
Yesterday I linked to Phil's readers' comments about the current situation in their various parts of the country, and cited several of their comments. If you missed that blog post, you might like to read it before continuing with this one.
I think it's very important to keep up-to-date with what's actually happening on the ground in our country. The USA is big enough that one region may be experiencing problems that might not yet have reached others; but we're all interconnected, so sooner or later those problems will make themselves felt in our areas too.
For example, last week it was announced that the diesel supply in the USA is down to no more than 25 days. The shortage is particularly apparent in the southeastern states, especially on the Atlantic coast. For those living there, this should be a wake-up call to make sure their food reserves are well filled, because every - literally, every - food delivery to distribution centers and supermarkets and restaurants relies at some point on diesel-powered transport. The food may be available, but if it can't be shipped to where you and I can buy it, we're S.O.L. Those living in other regions may be tempted to relax and say, "Well, the shortage isn't as bad here, so we'll be OK" - but they won't be OK, because their "excess" supply is sure and certain to be tapped to send more diesel to areas where the need is greater. This sort of problem can spread with alarming speed.
There's also the fact that diesel fuel comes from the same distillate stream as home heating oil (here's looking at you, north-eastern USA!), jet fuel, farm diesel and other essential fuels. If road diesel is in short supply, all of them will be short, too. If refineries are forced to reconfigure their equipment to produce more diesel and associated fuels, the production of other fuels - for example, automotive gasoline or lubricating oil - must necessarily be reduced to accommodate that need; and that may have a knock-on effect when it comes to filling our tanks at the gas station every week. We live in an interconnected world, where a problem in one area can very easily become a problem in another before we have time to think about it.
Let's look at the availability of food. In the past we've discussed the current drought, and how farmers and ranchers are being forced to reduce their herds due to the lack of fodder and grazing. There doesn't appear to be much relief in sight for the next year or so, what with a third consecutive year of La Niña being forecast, which will produce ongoing drought in many of this country's most productive farming regions. It's been predicted that meat may become so scarce (once herds have been depleted) that a pound of ground beef may fetch as much as $50 next year - more than ten times its present level (at least where I live). Vegetable crops are also way down from normal levels. Remember that the vegetables we've been eating this past year mostly come from 2021's crops, which were canned and/or frozen after being harvested. The 2022 harvest is much smaller, so there'll be less to preserve and put on the shelves next year. We're going to feel that pinch in higher prices in 2023 - while hoping for a better harvest to provide food in 2024. La Niña may make that a pipe dream.
(EDITED TO ADD: See this news report for more on the coming meat shortage.)
A couple of years ago I noted that official government figures about inflation were ridiculous, and offered this rule of thumb:
To know the true rate of consumer inflation in the USA, take the official rate declared by the government and multiply it by 3½. The result will be much closer to reality.
My wife and I have consistently found, over the past year or more, that our personal rate of inflation (i.e. the cost increases in the products we buy and consume, as opposed to general products that we don't buy or need) is 25%-35%. That tends to fit in well with that guideline. If you look at the inflation being experienced by Phil's readers, as mentioned in some of their comments ("Most food items are 30 to 40% higher than this time last year", "canned veggies are double what they were last year", "Currently running my own little CPI on groceries, current annual rate of 57%", "The little food we purchase is up 30~45%", etc.), food inflation overall in many parts of the country now appears to be exceeding that guideline. There were those who thought I was being unduly pessimistic when I offered that multiplier almost two years ago. Now? I think I was being optimistic, at least as far as food costs are concerned.
Let's face it. Most of us simply can't afford to stock up on an extra year's worth of food and essentials. We don't have the spare cash, and we don't have enough storage space for it (let alone being able to handle the hazards involved in storing materials such as fuel or propane). However, we can't afford not to prepare for the sort of dangers that are bearing down on us. Even if it's in a small way, we should be striving to build up a month or two's reserves of essential foodstuffs, so that if we get laid off work, or a system outage makes credit cards temporarily unusable, or we find that meat prices suddenly double or triple in a month, we can get by until things improve.
In that light, look at what's absolutely essential for you, and what you can do without. It's also a good idea to look at replacements. For example, if no meat is available or affordable, rice and beans are (currently) cheap and form a complete protein when eaten together. Grains such as quinoa and amaranth may seem fancy and exotic, but they're also protein-rich, and very easy to prepare (almost as easy as rice - they just take a bit longer to cook). What's more, all these foods can be easily preserved for years (I use mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and a heat sealer). If we have to stretch a soup or stew to feed more people, adding some of those grains (or oatmeal) to the pot will bulk it out, and the grains will absorb the flavor of the main dish, making them just as appetizing. For that matter, we can cook such grains in bouillon, broth or stock of some kind, to provide a meat flavor even if there's no meat in our meal that day.
When it comes to clothing, get used to swapping T-shirts or similar clothes with family and friends. Go to thrift stores such as Goodwill to look for clothes, rather than buying new. If your kids need school uniforms or similar wear, find out whether their school offers any sort of swap facility (many do). Do the same with services and skills you may have that others need. Mow someone's lawn in exchange for them teaching you how to change the oil in your vehicle's engine. Do someone's laundry in exchange for them babysitting for you. There are all sorts of possibilities if cash is short.
Our ancestors knew how to do this as a matter of routine. Remember the Depression-era motto? "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." That was my parents' watchword during the Great Depression. I guess we're all going to hear it - and apply it - more often in the years ahead.
Thousands killed in nursing-homes by deliberate government policies?
Untold millions of children affected in their development by mask policies that were unnecessary, ineffectual and unscientific?
Millions of people ostracized, vilified and scorned for refusing to adopt a "knee-jerk" emotional reaction to the situation, and instead demanding facts and rigorous investigation before acting?
Vaccines that have proved not just utterly ineffectual, but actually dangerous to many of their recipients, including a vast number of adverse reactions ranging from fertility problems, to cancer, to heart conditions, to death?
Hitlerian policies forced upon us by jackbooted thugs disguised as politicians?
This isn't a matter of faith, where forgiveness is required - it's crime and punishment. After every person responsible has been dismissed from their office(s), or defeated in elections, and disbarred from ever again holding any appointed or elected public office, and put on trial for what they did, and punished... when all that's taken place, and they no longer pose a threat to my or society's well-being, then we can talk about forgiveness. I suggest that our post-COVID-19 response should be along the same lines as the de-Nazification of Germany after World War II (provided it's done more thoroughly and more quickly).
I think I'll let Ace Of Spades summarize my further response. Go read.
Peter
EDITED TO ADD: The Good Citizen has some apposite comments. Go read.
