He Who Has The Gold Makes the Rules

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/when-the-partys-over/

We all love to remember when we were right, and hate to remember when we were/are wrong. As a moderate depressive, I tend to remember being wrong pretty well, and being right, not as much as your average bear. (being a moose, that is understandable). 

So, I've been wrong about the coming massive financial crash since "1990" ... and have forgone a lot of market gains because of that belief. Fortunately not ALL of the gains, and my much more optimistic wife continues to beat me in the market like a rented mule. 

The linked is a pretty good summary of what I've thought would happen for a long time ... but hasn't. I hope it doesn't happen at all. I don't speak Mandarin, I have grandchildren, and while I think I'm pretty well situated for "whatever comes", evidence shows that I'm frequently wrong, although for the last year or so, my TIPs investments have been looking not as wrong as usual. 

Somebody needs to remind President Biden about the Golden Rule — the real Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules, and we are clean out of ducats.

Jim Rogers, the famous investor, offered a version of that golden rule when explaining why he decamped to the Far East and has raised his daughters speaking Mandarin: “You know where the assets are, and you know where the debts are.” President Bill Clinton, enraged at the way the financial markets constrained his grandiose ambitions, observed ruefully that in his next life he wanted to be reincarnated as the bond market so that he would finally know what it’s like to have some real power. Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht, goes the Yiddish proverb: Man plans, and God laughs.

The Jim Rogers linked article from  2010 is worth looking at as well. This part resonated with me ...

And that’s where Rogers’s start-a-farm pitch comes in. He pitches farming the same way he pitches Asia, like it ought to be obvious to you, but, because of some intellectual defect on your part, it isn’t: “It sounds radical, but it’s based on simple facts. Food inventories are the lowest they’ve been in decades — not months, not years, decades. And there’s a shortage of farmers. Japan has vast empty fields where all the farms have died, and the kids have all gone to Tokyo and Osaka. Japanese dislike foreigners, particularly Chinese foreigners, but they’ve started importing Chinese farmers to farm the fields in Japan that don’t have anybody to farm them. The farmers are going to have a future. Smart guys on Wall Street are going to learn to drive tractors, because the guys who can drive tractors are going to be driving Lamborghinis.” Foreseeing a unified Korea, he recommends buying now, just south of the DMZ: cheap land for hardy, self-reliant homesteaders looking to make their fortunes in a new world. Sound familiar?

Sitting here in Iowa, considering buying a couple acres of land so at least hunger would not be a problem. I don't fit in a Lamborghini, but I can drive a pretty sophisticated tractor, so there is that.    

Mass Shootings, Whiteness, Media Playbook

https://spectator.us/topic/mass-shootings-colorado-presumption-whiteness-ahmed-al-aliwi-alissa/ 

The outcry of Whiteness, racism, etc was was immediate and loud when it was assumed that the Boulder shooter was "White". "If he had been black, he would be dead" was one of the instant memes. 

When it was discovered he was Syrian, Muslim, and likely mentally ill (not that the mental illness would have mattered if he was white), it was basically "never mind" ... oh, Gun Control! 

Certainly we would not need any sort of AI to replace the MSM. A simple table lookup would do ... I'm not going to do anything extensive here, but enough to get the idea. 

• White police shoot black man ... armed, unarmed, etc it really doesn't matter. (media) GO CRAZY! 
• Back police officer kills black man? (media) We will have to carefully (and quietly) look into this. 
• Police shoot and kill a white unarmed woman veteran when she was not a threat to the officer? (media) Not only is there no outcry, we don't even know the officers name, and no charges are recommended. It appears the officer is black (not that in a sane world, that would matter). 
• White man, shoots and kills a 8 sex workers, 2 of which were  Asian? (media) Not a lot of outrage, little finger pointing because he may be "christian", and a little murmur of "sexism". 
• Comfortably wealthy white man shoots and kills 60 mostly white Country Music fans in Vegas, with no known motive? (media) Short lived coverage (it is a record after all, but in this case it counts for very little. No real interest from MSM ... after all, most of the victims were white, and likely a high percentage of Trump supporters! 
• Black man kills another black person? Crickets. 

Naturally there will be bunch of demands for "Gun Control". If you factor out large Democrat controlled cities, the US would be on par with Switzerland. Even as it is, we just barely make the top 100 (94th). If you want to take the time to look at the rankings, you might just consider cultural difference as a factor. Russia is 56th, Jamaica is 3rd. 

As Solzhenitsyn sadly said, "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being".

Can mass shootings be stopped? Probably, at least private ones if we go totalitarian as we seem to be heading. Then the mass killings will be buried in trenches dug with backhoes, and the victims will just be "disappeared". So no outcry! Progress! 

Humans have always killed each other, and always will until Christ returns. When we broke our culture in the 1960's, the mass killings increased ( although they are still a tiny percentage) ... most likely. as we continue break our culture, they will continue to increase. 

The Military Media Complex

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/why-is-our-military-choosing-new-enemies/

The mission of the military used to be to protect the US from all enemies, foreign and domestic. What is its mission today? 

1. To advance Wokeness 
2. To advance leftism/fascism and attack conservatism/freedom. 
3. To enrich the top brass, along with the wealthy

How might this work?

Last summer, during the civil unrest agitated in part by Antifa and Black Lives Matter, more than 280 retired military officials and diplomats signed a letter blasting the idea that Donald Trump might send in federal troops to restore calm. They claimed that the mere idea “risks sullying the reputation of our men and women in uniform in the eyes of their fellow Americans and of the world.”

Yet none of the signees voiced objections to the presence of some 30,000 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.

Using the military to restore order in US cities being burned and looted would "sully the reputation of our men and women in uniform in the eyes of their fellow Americans and of the world". Turning DC into an armed camp under one party rule is fine as long as it is the "right" (left) party.  

Yes, in the eyes of the US woke, the US media, and the Davos elite and their followers domestic and foreign. 

The military has announced it is now conducting an internal probe to root out American soldiers suspected of harboring supposedly dangerous ideas.

If you want Stormtroopers,  "crimethink" must certainly be removed from their minds before they begin to enforce "domestic tranquility".  

Perhaps we need a "Ministry Of Truth"? 

Biden At The Pump

 Who says having elections you can trust doesn't matter?

Sovereign Crime Level Voter Fraud

 https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/the_sovereign_crime_of_industrial_scale_vote_fraud.

Just go read the excellent article. Trust in elections is OVER! 

Sovereign crime is not something we see a lot of in America as our governmental institutions are generally not organized to commit, support or hide a crime.

Most Americans have never seen an organized crime take place, in plain view, supported by or covered up by governmental institutions. But it happens all the time around the world, even in some countries that are quite Westernized.

Sovereign crime means your government was a participant, active or passive, enabling vote fraud.

Governors and secretaries of state refusing to cleanse voter rolls, refusing to check signatures for mail-in ballots – even during recounts, changing the voting rules weeks before an election, qualifies as your government messing with your vote.

The national government refusing to investigate the most egregious examples of voter fraud like hundreds of thousands of more ballots than voters in several states, that is a pretty good indicator that they are passive participants in industrial level vote fraud.

Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order, 12 More Rules For Life

 This review from the Guardian seems decent, though I quibble with parts of it. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/02/beyond-order-by-jordan-peterson-review-more-rules-for-life

If you have read 12 rules, then reading this one is a good idea, but not an urgent one. I loved "12 Rules For Life", I really like "Beyond Order".

Rule V, "Do Not Do What You Hate", is a good one for our time. It opens with the story of a woman struggling with the daily idiocy of life in a large bureaucratic corporation in the age of Woke ... something I have lots of sympathy with after a 34 year IBM career. Her specific example was "Flip Chart" being banned in her workplace because it was problematic to Filipinos ... a claim supported here.  

I personally know of a case where "blacklist/whitelist" had to be removed from a computer tool for racial concerns. In the age of Woke, EVERYTHING has racial, sexual, or God knows what hidden implications. 

This makes it virtually impossible to not to end up stepping into a PC pothole -- as Dr Seuss, Pepe Le Pew,  and unfortunately, Aunt Jemima have. Tragically, Aunt Jemima was once a great success story. Even if you ARE very careful, as was Amy Coney Barrett, when she said in her confirmation hearing in the AM that she had never discriminated on the basis sexual preference". Webster agreed that was fine in the AM, by the PM it was "offensive". 

Corporate, government, families, and basically everything are  becoming Woke minefields, and it is hard to love working and living in a minefield. 

Rule X, "Plan and work diligently to retain the romance in your relationship" ought to be read by every couple, and especially by people considering, or avoiding marriage. The overarching of the chapter is NEGOTIATE! Which means you are both honest and you both talk rather than evade. It points out the now sad fact that virtually all women deep down want to be mothers, and sometime as they approach 30, their biological clocks start screaming. For the secular society that worships evolution, it is hard to understand why this is not obvious. Procreation is a MAJOR foundation for natural selection. 

Perhaps nature is just weeding out those too blinded by ideology to figure that out? Rule VI, "Abandon Ideology" would aid in clearing this hurdle. 

Like pretty much all of Jordan's (and the Bibles) or for that matter, Buddhist, teaching, the necessity of Rule XII "Be Grateful in spite of your suffering" is woven through the book. "Life is suffering" (Buddha), "Take up your cross" (Christ).

As with "12 Rules", being a practicing Christian would cover 90%+ of what Jordan preaches -- but the number of us practicing Christians is shrinking. Can Jordan "save" you / us / Western civilization ? I surely don't believe so ... we are in a condition where we require GRACE to save us. Even AA says one needs a "higher power" to escape addiction to alcohol. Alcoholism is just one form of avoiding the reality of suffering ... workaholism, video game addiction, constant entertainment distraction, and many others are other pitfalls. 

I highly recommend both "Order and Chaos"  ;-)  for both Christians and secularists. The advice is good -- I'm just not sure you can keep much of it without the Holy Spirit. 

"Civics Secures Democracy Act" Secures CRT

 https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-greatest-education-battle-of-our-lifetimes/

"CRT" Is "Critical Race Theory" ... BLM, Intersectionality, "Be Less White". etc. 

So we have a bill to attempt to make CRT the standard curricula for US students. 

In effect, we are looking at an effort to impose a new federal Common Core in the politically explosive subject areas of history and civics. Worse, the program in each of these areas does more than just lean a bit toward the left side of the political spectrum. Instead, it sharply breaks with fundamental assumptions in American education, first by promoting illiberal Critical Race Theory, and second by turning what should be a politically neutral classroom into a training ground for leftist advocacy and lobbying.

Another term we need to understand is "Action Civics" ... essentially teaching how to protest America. 

Action Civics conceives of itself as a living laboratory in which mere civic theory is put productively into practice. Students, it is held, best acquire civic know-how through direct political action, for example by protesting in favor of gun control or lobbying for legislation to address climate change.

You must "teach your children well" to hate their own country.  

New Edition Of Old Fake News Story

 https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/the-story-was-a-hoax-donald-trump-hits-out-after-stunning-washington-post-retraction/news-story/4316de0c552800a040bc59332cd79964

The media makes up stories that are harmful to Republicans. Wow, news at 11! 

Why would anyone believe fake media? Certainly not me ...  very rarely even turn it on. Mostly I just listen to the retractions in the rare cases they get caught and actually report it. 

Savage Messiah, How Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization

 https://spectator.us/book-and-art/jung-love-jordan-peterson-jim-proser/

The title is over the top, as is the book. I do however love the title if the review, "Jung Love" ... just the kind of sophomoric humor that I know I'm not supposed to like, but do. Sort of like "Spinal Tap" ... whose appeal is becoming "more selective" ...

Much like Biden, who went to the basement to be on the same level as his core supporters, the dead, who don't care about energy, because they consume very little. At least they were really happy to mail in their votes. 

The book is blatant hagiography fan mail ... much like the MSM "reporting", or lack thereof on the Biden "presidency". I hate the title, thought it is a proper warning -- Jordan is in no way a "messiah", nor does he claim to be. He is also totally not "savage" ... he is very compassionate and easily emotional. 

Spectator is honest about the "fanboy" nature of the book, and the review is still useful as long as you keep that in mind. It does give some insight into the life of Jordan, his struggles both personally and publically as he fearlessly (and correctly)  points out the dangers of the totalitarian left. Will that save us? No, but being aware of danger is better than being clueless -- even if you can't do much of anything to mitigate it.

We live in the age of one dimensional hype and marketing on all sides and everywhere. It is all leftist politics all the time. This book is on the other extreme. 

Since I share Jordan's depressive nature, as well as to a lesser degree his drive (compulsion?) to read, study, and write, I somewhat share Prosser's possibly over compassionate and admiring view. 

Prosser reminds me a bit of the Obama fawning groupies ... BO thought he WAS the "messiah" as did the MSM. 

HR 1, Feel The Fascism

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/h-r-1-is-a-partisan-assault-on-american-democracy/

I hate it when they say "American Democracy". Yes it is true that we are sliding closer and closer to mob rule ("democracy"), however I'd really like more people to understand that we were founded as a REPUBLIC for very good reasons that I'm not repeating here, because anyone that wants to be an American, as opposed to a subject of Wokeistan (which we now all currently are), and as HR1 shows, we are probably going to take another step toward even more pure totalitarian fascism. 

It would be an understatement to describe H.R. 1 as a radical assault on American democracy, federalism, and free speech. It is actually several radical left-wing wish lists stuffed into a single 791-page sausage casing. It would override hundreds of state laws governing the orderly conduct of elections, federalize control of voting and elections to a degree without precedent in American history, end two centuries of state power to draw congressional districts, turn the Federal Elections Commission into a partisan weapon, and massively burden political speech against the government while offering government handouts to congressional campaigns and campus activists. Merely to describe the bill is to damn it, and describing it is a Herculean task in itself.

Democrats are intent on cementing their policy of massive voter fraud by making it illegal to even marginally attempt to regain election integrity.  (not that we have had any for a very long while)

State voter-ID laws are banned, replaced simply by a sworn voter statement. The dramatic expansion of mail-in voting during the COVID pandemic is enshrined permanently in federal law. States are banned from the most elementary security methods for mail-in ballots: They must provide a ballot to everyone without asking for identification and may not require notarization or a witness to signatures. States are compelled to permit ballot harvesting so long as the harvesters are not paid per ballot. Curbside voting, ballot drop boxes, and 15 days of early voting are mandated nationwide, and the bill micromanages the location and hours of polling stations, early voting locations, and drop boxes.

If this bill becomes law, we will have catapulted farther down the path where the 70 million people that loved what was once America and voted for Trump, will be further silenced to the point that the tiny number that courageously vote against fascism will be identified and  punished up to and including incarceration and worse.