The shit in our food is evidence of what I've been banging on about in comments here since the start: We only think that the name at the top of the ticket makes a difference when in reality most of the decisions that impact our lives, our health, and our fortunes are being made by unaccountable government actors in league with malevolent multi-national corporate interests to whom they regularly go for big paychecks when not "serving" in government.
This must stop, and it will only stop by application of deliberate and overwhelming force. That force is available to us through the ballot box and the jury box...for now. And if we don't make use of it real fucking quick we'll be stuck resorting to the cartridge box and friend you do not want to live in that world because there is no coming back from it. It will involve acts of violence that will absolutely destroy the soul of anyone involved. Imagine someone going to a private elementary school where the scions of our self styled elites are being educated to continue the evil empire their parents have profited from and utterly destroying every living soul there and the person who did that being hailed as a hero by 1/4 of the country and another 1/4 saying "Well, what did you expect to happen?" in response.
That's only the beginning of the future if we don't get a handle on this shit and get everybody to remember that the constitution was an agreement between a bunch of people who didn't trust anybody else to keep behind some lines so we don't devolve into violent bedlam.
And unfortunately what I'm talking about ain't the future, as anyone who bothered to look at the hot takes on Twitter in the aftermath of the shootings at the Nashville School or Osteen's church or the cheering for Hamas happening at Harvard could tell you. *It's the present.* But it takes putting it as something happening in an elite NY prep school before somebody will recognize it's happening right now and that our fate as humans is that there is an equal and horrible reaction for every such action.
People who fantasize about government troops jackbooting the shit out of people who refuse to give up their AR15...door to door confiscation by the national guard was actually proposed in the Virginia legislature...don't understand what happens next.
And I'm on bended knee begging with tears in my eyes, put the fucking pin back in or you WILL kill us all. Civilization is a gossamer thin construct that will evaporate right in front of your eyes. Slowly at first, and then all at once. And when that happens you and your children will never again see a peaceful day.
That kind of devolution is a choice, and one we don't have to make.
From an email I sent to a group of like minded friends: "Call me a coward, but as something of an amateur historian of 20th century conflicts and having a glimpse of what was going on when my cousin was in Iraq in 2007 I would do almost anything to avoid an open conflict on US soil. "Loss of life" does not even begin to describe what happens in a modern civil war."
I don't agree. I think a great deal of the public has been misled by false narratives and that they are waking up to reality. I see a potential reckoning of epic proportions on the horizon...and I'm not alone in seeing it. I think there are people inside the giant unaccountable machine who recognize the beginnings of a popular revolt against their rule that will wipe them out completely and that they're trying to get ahead of it.
The deep state is at a crisis point on what to do. Doubling down on authoritarianism in an ever more nakedly open ways is what a chunk of them are most definitely doing by reflex, and in so doing only making it more and more evident what's happening. The deep state nakedly subverting the Constitutional order makes it impossible for the deep state to continue existing. The more sophisticated actors with in it realize that their power exists only so long as it is not clearly seen by the man in the street.
What I think is most likely is a realignment. I think the smarter people within the deep state/shadow state recognize that some sort of reckoning will be necessary. And I think they'll offer up the dumber ones responsible for some of the more excessive acts as an acceptable sacrifice as they look to make a deal with an emerging political reality that makes even business as usual 25 years ago impossible.
To survive, I think they'll make a deal that has the appearance of reform without having nearly as much function as I would like. Give the "intelligence community" and other assorted would-be masters of our universe the choice between quiet survival or an all-out war of annihilation that they know they cannot win and I think they pick survival all day. It will mean a purge of their ranks but I think they'll happily offer up the foaming-at-the-mouth fanatics in their number with glee...because, after all, who the fuck wants those people around anyway?
That, too, is not new. The Church Committee came to be due to overreaching during the 60's, producing accountability that they had to work hard to manage. And they did it successfully, finding new casus belli in fighting the Cold War. And viola, in a few short years the institutions that had murdered JFK, MLK, RFK, and Malcom, that had plotted terrorist acts across the nation to justify starting a war for Cuba, that had planted cells in Europe to destabilize even NATO partners, that had partnered with organized crime to run drugs guns and people across the world filling cities with poison that would enslave entire generations...POOF...suddenly wrapped themselves in the flag of patriotism and fighting the communists to protect FREEDOM AND LIBERTY AND MOM AND APPLE PIE.
So successfully, I might add, that Benji Shapiro and Sean Hannity practically trip over themselves to defend those actors to this day.
"Dude, that's hardly a rosy picture." Yeah, it's not intended to be. But the optimistic part is that not all utterly corrupt power brokers are simultaneously catastrophically stupid on top of it. And thus survival and even some level of recovery is entirely possible even if purging their corruption from our body politic entirely isn't.
If you look at the Trump verdict, you can understand what the Left is dealing with.
They hate Trump so badly, and are so afraid of his return to the presidency that they've completely thrown the mask away. They stand revealed as totalitarians who'll go to any length to get their man...
...but everything they do digs them deeper into this public-relations pit they've made for themselves. They really can't win peacefully at this point.
You do know that what he's talking about in regards to the school thing did actually happen in a european country (I won't say which) and the man who did it is regarded as a saint now?
He's regarded by CERTAIN people as a saint, anyway. Not sure the man on the street there agrees. Of course, the media of the state had their say on it.
Indeed. But his elevation from homicidal monster to what some twisted minds would laud as some sort of freedom fighter has been a more recent phenomenon, and that in light of how things have...evolved or degraded...since. With the Nashville shooting the blood hadn't even stopped flowing before radicals who still have a place in polite society were on twitter lamenting there weren't more dead Christian kids or insisting "what did you expect" when Tennessee's legislature has expressed doubts about chemically and physically castrating teenagers.
The lack of a gap there is the disturbing part. I was pretty online in various discussion forums when Brevik did his evil deed and I don't remember a single contemporaneous statement about it being an act of spiritual or social hygiene. With Nashville the bile and vitriol was instant.
The steps between the people doing that and the people who gleefully filmed themselves raping and murdering innocent people at a music festival for peace in Israel are short and few...and that genie can't be stuffed back in the bottle.
Oh no, there were a lot of people who made some 'back handed' comments about just who the people were he killed. The 'freedom fighter' bit isn't recent. I heard about it form folks over in Europe after the initial fuss has settled down.
Everyone knew over there that he'd targeted the children of the ruling class. Everyone quickly saw that he gutted the ruling class that most people despised (or at least most of the ones I heard from). The effect on the nation's politics has been profound too.
And no, I would not say the 'steps are few'. I would not say that at all. There are zero similarities between the two events.
FirstNet (public safety cell network, ran by ATT) is out as well.
I've said this here before. Buy a $20 Baofeng and learn how to use it. Ideally get a few of them and have your friends/family learn.
I could go on and on about prepping, but the face of the matter is that there's plenty of little things people can do that do not require a lifestyle change or investing significant time/money into.
One of the MANY ways that our government has failed us is by not pushing preparedness amongst the populous. You would think that with all the crying about the forthcoming climate apocalypse and the accompanying natural disasters that we would place some emphasis on these sorts of things. Hell, we went through a deadly pandemic and STILL didn't use that as a way to educate people. Instead, we just encouraged people to keep buying plastic dogshit from Amazon and pay "essential workers" a few dollars per hour to deliver our groceries.
You'd be surprised at the standards set for meat by McDonald's, particularly in the Quarter Pounder. That's in the USA, however. I don't know how it's done in Europe.
Trump and Biden are both good examples of how unaccountable the state is to constitutional authority. Trump's own administration was at war with him before he was even sworn in, fomented by his predecessor's administration. And it strains the boundaries of credulity to assert that Biden's hand is firm on the controls of the ship of state. Remember that in the 2020 election there were national news outlets publishing pieces that literally argued for Biden's mere corporeal presence as adequate for the presidency because Orange Man Bad.
Biden, Obama, Bush...they have some impact but mostly they are just avatars for a much deeper and more sinister thing that really runs the show. Trump was most definitely not approved by the shadow state and was cowed into cooperation on a number of things by threats of impeachment votes going the other way. Keep in mind that none of the excesses of our security state that occurred against Trump could have happened without the full cooperation and participation of the USSCI. McConnel did to Trump what he did to the Tea Party. Cozied up to it so he had a good spot to put the knife.
Trump, of course, had unforced errors...but those, too, were conditioned by the absolute state of corruption.
"Trump made awful picks!" Yes he most certainly did. None worse than Sessions. But all his big picks had to be approved by...the senate. Controlled by the same people running an intelligence coup against him.
Trump talked about draining the swamp but had no idea what the swamp really was or how deep and far it went.
What will actually drain the swamp is a sustained movement of like minded citizens. Trump does not build movements. He'll ride on the back of one, but he's never going to be the guy who builds one. It's not in his nature.
The interesting thing is that no president is going to be a movement builder. It's not a leadership characteristic. Building movements is the domain of unknown wingnuts. Even MLK surfed a movement.
Fundamentally, most of Trump's mistakes were driven by his own ego. Yes, certain people pushed him, but they also knew how to manipulate him. If someone sat down to dinner with Trump and did nothing but compliment him he'd come out later and say the person was the "best" and yet the person had done murdered 5 people.
trump was the best prez since coolidge. he had np ida how wide and deep the swamp was. wait till next time! nobody can save this country but he'll cushion the drop for awhile
The irony here is that she failed for the same reason her husband got elected: a general and growing sense across the country that no member of any ethnic minority can ever be called to account for anything they've done, said, eaten, molested, spindled, or mutilated.
OR...We as a society consciously decide that parking your ass in front of a glowing screen for 12 hours a day is actually a shit job, and that greater physicality is necessary.
Every young woman political staffer on the hill is on ozempic. We're early innings on that one, super pumped to see the bizarre second- and third-order effects its usage brings forth!
Our school lunches became GARBAGE at some point in the first Obama administration. They load kids up with carbs and sugar and wonder why nobody can sit down all day
We do our best to have out kids eat decent food but the absolute barrage of candy and bullshit that is thrown at them is almost impossible to fight. It's a constant struggle for us because teachers are giving them candy in school, their friend's parents give it to them, and every holiday has some sort of candy theme now. Sugar is cheap and addictive. Get em' hooked early and you've got a customer for life. Fuck that shit.
In my lifetime, until Trump, who I voted for first time around, all of our Presidents, regardless of flaws, were fundamentally decent people who were well meaning.
It doesn't stop them from doing monstrous things. Sometimes because decency them do it.
I think Trumps narcissism overrides any decency he has, compounded by having the attention span of a fruit fly. Comparisons to a certain German leader are very apt, it is just the leader is Wilhelm II.
Biden seems worse. It is unclear that he has a moral compass. Just an unwavering cowardice that always him to change direction at any moment.
You'll notice that he has basically two staffs, they're all obama people but it's the israel-sympathetic giga libs and the rashida-tlaib-sympathetic giga libs
It is. Unless you know the farm you're buying from, it is of zero good. The poultry industry may be as developed if not more so than the auto industry. It's INCREDIBLY mature.
I'm a monster so industrial farming doesn't bother me and I'll make it a point never to visit an industrial farm so I never have to come face to face with my dinner.
At work we own a division that does chicken farming. I’ve been there a few times. I don’t find it particularly bad to be honest. But I’ve also killed and gutted my own food before (deer) so I’m not squeamish. The conditions the chickens live in are not that bad all things considered, they have plenty of room to move around and all.
I think euros are infantile but on food they are right. Every time we have a trade deal that features agricultural products being sold there people in Europe go ape shit. And good for them. We cultivate and sell cheap poison.
The best chicken I ever ate was purchased from the kid next door that was raising a brood to compete in FFA. I bought two of the “losers.” Processed poultry is not even playing the same sport.
Best chicken I ever ate was "poulet de ferme" (a proper, slightly skinny, long legged thing that had spent its life on its feet running around, rather than on its arse in a shed with 10,000 others) cooked on a rotisserie in Lacanau in SW France, where we had taken the kids for a surfing holiday. Served with potatoes cooked in the drippings from the chickens and a "stuffing" (it never made it into the chickens) that was essentially old French bread with mountains of butter and more garlic and herbs than you could fit in your palm. Wrong season, but I would almost jump in my car, hop on a ferry and cover the 500 miles today to get some more...not a bad memory of something that dates back to 2006!
Thank you, Donkey, for posting the link. Corporate lobbying is every bit as much of a threat to democracy as the postal "votes" Jack rails about. Perhaps more so, as it is so insidious.
They're never going to go after big anything anymore. Big corporate owns the uniparty now. Just look at how everyone is circling up to attack Lina Khan and the FTC from all sides for even thinking about looking at big business. While I don't agree with a lot of the reasoning she has, I do think all of this concentration in the economy is causing huge problems and needs to be looked at.
If they do, the end result will be the complete and total devastation of the little farmer.
People want to know why Yellowstone is popular... well, it's because people still want to romanticize the life where multigenerational ranches and farms mattered.
I really hate that show. My uncle watches and talks about it constantly.
The first two seasons were tolerable. I've been to Bozeman a few times and it's a beautiful area. Since the show has gotten popular, it's been overran with outsiders. Kind of ironic considering the whole show is about one family's disdain for outsiders.
One interesting tidbit from my time in MT. A lot of the guides and ranch hands that I interacted with all romanticize the UP the way I romanticize MT.
I hesitated watching it, but it's been pretty solid though more over the top in the past few seasons for obvious reasons. Most of my very brief experience with Montana was on the opposite side of the state in Billings and heading into Wyoming. It's less sexy to the LA types. I found nearly everyone to be a lot more native and I can easily see WHY it is romanticised. But also, talking to people, there is a battle brewing there as the lower class are priced out of living. It's pretty awful.
Great comparo to the UP. I took my stepdad up there on a quick trip and it was so memorable that he's always wanted to go back. That's after getting stuck in a cvt trans Pathfinder down a road only SxSs ended up driving. Yes, we were very, very lost in the sticks.
The UP is hereby included in the Great American Road Trip that I intend to undertake...in a '67 Coupe de Ville convertible...that may sadly be preceded by porcine aviation, ah, but a man can dream...
I lived in Montana 30 years ago and Bozeman was already starting to be overrun by outsiders (mostly from California). Locals were already being pushed out of town in 1992. The trend started long before Yellowstone
“will have a single guiding ethos that I hope comes through every single time you open a link: that powersports are inherently cool.”
Given that the single guiding ethos coming through every time I open a link in the automotive “enthusiast” press is “cars are bad and you’re a Neanderthal for liking them” I’ll take J-Klo’s, thanks very much.
The veiled reference is, basically, "SxS manufacturers have PR budget now, because sales are on the rise, while motorcycle manufacturers are moving their budget to influencers like the adorable Aya Dijkwel, so it's gonna be a whole lot of SxS from now on."
Fair enough. I get how that’s annoying. But still seems better than “this hobby is terrible and we should all hate ourselves for our involvement in it.”
I, for one, am glad he told me that it's ok to think powersports are cool. I've thought that for a long time. I'm so happy he verified I wasn't engaging in wrong-think.
I mean yeah, that’s the cynical way to look at it. But if you read it sincerely, as I did, the message is “hey every other platform tells you you should feel bad for liking this stuff. We won’t.” But I could be naive.
I don't know why I visit that site. I don't even like it. Force of habit, more than anything else.
The one on that site that really annoys me is Andrew Collins' "Will It Dog?" where he writes about how well a car can handle several of the filthy beasts.
Dude, aren't you married? Why aren't you writing a column called "Will It Child?"
That's exactly where I was going. Prior to Rideapart, Klein was a typist at The Drive. He's commented here before. IIRC, it was an article where Jack called out another "journalist".
I photographed her in 2020 when she was running for the Democratic nomination. She is a handsome woman, lots of charisma. But she said Hillary is a warmonger and you can't have that.
I was all for bombing the shit out of the mideast back in 2001 and 2002, but watching how they fucked it up over the ensuing decades(!) has made me a peace-loving hippie. 2002 MD would not be able to recognize me, but I would hope he would be able to understand.
We've got 100k+ overdose/fentanyl poisoning deaths a year, a decade long slide in life expectancy, and people like you are eager to fly across an ocean and then some to look for problems. Get a grip man.
Before I finish reading, I have to chime in on your counter interaction. As someone who spent the first 30 years of my life (except for college) within 25 miles of NYC and has now moved, interactions like this still shock me. We've been moving between CT, Nashville, and Florida for 3 years now and the fact that people are friendly and decent to strangers and service workers still give me pause. This morning here in Vero Beach the fact that the other two gentlemen in the coffee shop just wanted to chat about cycling and hobbies only had me wondering what their angle was and what they wanted from me!
In the bigger picture, it is a really nice breath of fresh air though. I just still have to get used to it in "middle America." The Miami chatter and friendliness make a lot more sense to me because it's just "my people," being a latin American city and all...
I’m from the East Coast and relocated to Chicagoland years ago, so I’m mostly used to friendly people in the public. But I was in St. Kitts and Nevis last year, and the people there are alarmingly friendly that you’re constantly convinced they’re trying to scam you or just sell you something. In my 5-6 days there, they never were, they were truly friendly. But in my defense, some of that anticipation is learned behavior from sketchier islands like Jamaica, St Thomas, Bahamas, etc.
A year spent in New York City, followed by a year spent in rural Ohio or Tennessee, will ABSOLUTELY educate any sensible human being as to why the former group of people don't want anyone to have a gun or even a knife while the latter group couldn't care less.
I know the NYC types are absolutely terrified of them, but why do you think that?
The true American rural culture is new to me, but I've always identified with it pretty well due to where my family is from in Spain. To me the huge gap is the credentials versus experience, and how that's used to prop up a false "elite" that knows nothing. They don't want to be overthrown!
"I know the NYC types are absolutely terrified of them, but why do you think that?"
They live in a place where it's assumed that everybody wants to do everyone harm -- and that said harm has to be prevented by a system. They think that because the average New Yorker of the non-Giuliani era has real and firsthand experience with street violence or robbery. This experience is now coming back into vogue after DiBlasio.
I've always live that way, but I was also taught that you need to be wary of your surroundings in the city. I'd also much rather be armed to defend myself than not, because I know it's my responsibility first.
I'm 32, and grew up under the Giuliani/Bloomberg eras with a father who's worked in NYC since the 80s. There's definitely a huge difference in outlook between the "locals" and the 2000s arrivals who only know the good years. What worries me, is that traditionally it was cyclical, but now I'm not sure they'll allow another law and order candidate to fix things.
I think the anti-gun thing is more out of fear, and in a way envy than anything. They've been taught to fear the weapon, because only "bad" people use them so they think they'll hurt someone rather than protect themselves. Then envy is because I think deep down, everyone wants to control their own destiny and many in NYC realize that they don't when it comes to their personal safety.
And in Illinois that training will be state run only, cost $1500/class, available only on the 6th Tuesday of every month, and the only facility that can give it will be mysteriously closed 10 months out of the year.
A state Senator in Oklahoma has introduced a bill called the "Common Sense Freedom of Press Control Act", which would require any one who works in media to:
1) Complete a criminal background check
2) Purchase a License from the state
3) Obtain $1 million in liability insurance
4) Attend an eight-hour “propaganda-free” safety training developed by PragerU
5) Submit to quarterly drug tests.
6) Each video or article must contain the following disclaimer:
“WARNING: THIS ENTITY IS KNOWN TO PROVIDE PROPAGANDA. CONSUMING PROPAGANDA MAY BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH AND HEALTH OF THE REPUBLIC.”
Seriously though, I think a defining trait of Americans is that we're a basically DECENT people, in a way the populations of other nations just aren't.
I grew up upstate with a father that did the M-F NYC commute for a good chunk of my childhood. The first time someone held a door for me when I was still 50' away at a Michigan Walmart in college I was on full alert expecting to get robbed or sold something I didn't want. I resisted it and was just the typical NY asshole living in the Mid-West for the duration of college.
Fast forward to me moving to Charlotte in 2015 I was again shocked and a bit frustrated by the kindness of strangers, it felt burdensome as a North Easterner. After a while I let my guard down and learned to reciprocate the kindness (not a much as I should if you ask my wife), and get frustrated at the lack of consideration for ones fellow man when I go back north.
Now in the almost 9 years that I've been here a considerable amount of Damn Yankees have made there way down as well, unfortunately; we as a cohort have definitely impacted southern charm in a negative way. Hopefully they all start to recognize the good change like I have slowly been allowing myself to do and we don't dilute away common courtesy all together.
Apparently there's a procedure where a large gauge syringe is used to remove the fluid directly from the sack! I know this because I was dating a woman who desperately wanted to have a child with me after the procedure was accomplished, and she did the research.
Worked with a guy who got snipped because of wife’s orders. They got divorced, and then the new gf turned into wife #2 who wanted kids. So he got un-snipped. All this in a little over a year, and freely shared on the shop floor.
Dude was in a lot of pain, and carried a special donut shaped pillow around with him in case he ever needed to sit down.
"If you can’t pour raw CPU-manufacturing effluvium into the Colorado River, you shouldn’t be allowed to buy something that’s made by pouring raw CPU-manufacturing effluvium into the Yangtze. Why isn’t this broadly understood?"
Because people are morons or assholes, or both. Take your pick. This is why I hate people in general.
At this point you've only led me to believe that brother Bark is a musically talented horndog.
As a younger father of two, its a constant battle of what I can afford in terms of keeping poison and unknown dangers away from my kids. I give up being able to gloat about USA made refrigerators so I can afford better water, milk and essentials for my kids while they're developing, as an example. Priorities.... The only saving grace is I think in general, we KNOW a lot more about what goes into our bodies these days than we did in the past. For example, I doubt even your grandfather knew the OTHER UNKNOWN mystery shit that went into General Mills products back in his day.
" I give up being able to gloat about USA made refrigerators so I can afford better water, milk and essentials for my kids while they're developing, as an example."
Tangentially related bought a USA made pool table over the weekend. WTF is with tag lines like "American Designed" or "American Engineered" or "American Tested".
The friggin Brunswick logo actually has "American" stamped on it. This nonsense should be criminal. You really have to be on top of things to avoid being deceived.
Ended up with an Olhausen made in TN. Funny enough it was $400 less than the comparable Brunswick that is made in China. USA made AND cheaper - double bonus.
"The friggin Brunswick logo actually has "American" stamped on it. This nonsense should be criminal. You really have to be on top of things to avoid being deceived."
Time was, you'd face union violence if you did something like that. Before the unions were repurposed as immigration boosters.
A 7 stage RO since my wife got pregnant with my first.
Further efforts have been limited by lack of sheer energy, but I'm open to upgrades at any price point. I was just using those as straw man arguments...
I'm doing the opposite: just drinking whatever happens to be 195 feet below my house. In the long run I'll be drinking my own urine, like Bear Grylls or a spaceman.
Your statement reminds me of a guy I read occasionally, Eric Peters.
He bills himself as The Libertarian Car Guy, but he strikes me as the sort who gives up his good job in the city to become a backwoods subsistence farmer because he's convinced the government's coming to get him.
He's a perfect example of libertarianism - he's not wrong, but he comes across as a self-destructive survivalist nut who nobody in their right mind would want to emulate.
i think from that depth any bacteria have been squished by the pressure; great way to partially purify water i read long ago: pump it down about 200' and bring it back up in a long u-tube
I'm debating upgrading, and/or doing a whole house system in addition to point-of-use. The whole house system would be unjustifiably expensive but The Kids Are Going To Drink Water From The Shower Nozzle No Matter What and I got no other ideas on that one.
Yep my kids drink some trivial amounts during their bath. If you don't mind sharing what you end up with on the whole house front I'd truly appreciate it.
The problem with RO systems is that you waste two gallons of every three. So your water bill triples. Then there's the service, which is expensive and often. Also, you have to dump those two toxic gallons somewhere.
The water here very alkaline and RO is the only way to deal with it, but the cost and the waste is insane.
I've got a gravity-fed emergency water filtration system that claims it can purify 17,000 gallons before the filters need to be replaced, and my house backs up to a lake.
Having been driving across Spain two weeks ago when the protests started there, it's amazing that we're not seeing them here over this sort of thing. The tractors started rolling on February 6th to block highways and have been at it nonstop since over the latest EU regulations banning even more different types of fertilizer while allowing Moroccan (and other) imports of the same foods with them. I guess the corporatization of our farming is much bigger than I thought, and American's are much meeker than we're lead to believe.
I typically would've considered myself a "free market" conservative for a long time, but I've evolved over the last few years to more of a TR Rooseveltian outlook - we need to keep these big businesses competing, and keep the playing field level for national versus international. It's insane that we put in these regulations, and then basically encourage big companies to end run around them and go foreign.
"I guess the corporatization of our farming is much bigger than I thought, and American's are much meeker than we're lead to believe."
What I'd suggest here is that the tractor protests are born from a lifelong realization that European governments are simply royalty by another name, and they have to be fought to a standstill in Magna Carta style from time to time.
The American farmer assumes he can vote his way out of anything unpleasant. Which was legitimate for a long time. It's no longer legitimate. So when the aforementioned farmer realizes that, he'll take similar action -- plus he'll be armed.
In spite of all of the wailing, Americans still live too well for there to be a large revolt. Shit needs to seriously break before there will be any real pushback on the powers that be.
This is a good point. 2nd amendment ends up acting like an adult pacifier. Europeans, French in particular will take to the streets real quick. In the US it’s always “just you wait, keep pushing, we got guns!”
Part of that is because of the guns. Everybody understands that large scale European protests don't get people killed. Here in the USA that's only true for approved protests like BLM. Anything about real issues and there will be murders and executions.
To be more specific, I'm not implying this will happen over Trump or gay frog birth control. It won't happen until farmers see children dying en masse in rural areas because the food goes directly to migrant zones.
I'm thinking about the Cliven Bundy cattle stand off where a bunch of armed rednecks made the BLM and FBI blink. The lesson worth remembering is the Fed Cops don't want to go home in bag either.
In 2020 we saw the closest thing to real-life executions, all the executions were executions *by libs* of conservatives, and only one of the two commie executioners got any sort of reaction. The executioner in Denver was not even charged!
The video of the communist revenge execution of Aaron Danielson below is beyond belief, it was actually coordinated murder---you've can clearly observe:
-team operating out in the open with multiple vehicles (kitted out Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge charger)
-shot callers (identifying who to murder)
-support crews (driving support vehicles, swarming the scene after)
-clean up crews (see the guys running around the scene with flashlights to pick up shell casings)
-videographer to produce video to demoralize their opposition
-videographer himself was a part of the murder squad - he falsely claims having mace in his face as a code to let the antifa murder team to know the cops are coming
Right wingers acting like they'll take action - outside of friendly spots in ID or NH perhaps - is the biggest hope cope of all time. Left wing death squads already exist, already are training in real life, and have already drawn first blood. They've committed open air coordinated murder *ON VIDEO* and with the exception of Michael Reinoehl none of them ever faced consequences. I've never seen a right winger do much other than turn the other cheek (Kyle Rittehouse was a civic nationalist CENTRIST, who regularly disavows the right wing) but I'd invite anyone to correct me.
The Denver thing is nuts. Spraying bear spray can get you killed? But drawing a pistol on someone and trying to shoot them, or trying to take their head off with a skateboard, has to go to a jury.
"(Kyle Rittehouse was a civic nationalist CENTRIST, who regularly disavows the right wing) "
Let me offer some perspective: if you have to shoot in self-defense, whether you're found guilty of anything or not, you have to spend the rest of your life treading very carefully. Otherwise you'll be sued and SWATted and your employers will be harassed until you're flat broke and suicidal.
given how the right wing seems to have more people that are vastly more competent with firearms, I kinda expected some dude to reach out and touch them at 600 yards. There must be guys out there who can make these shots regularly. A sniper in their AO would rattle them pretty bad. Fry The Brain apparently talks about this
You're much closer to it than me for the US folks, so that makes sense. I wonder if conditions here will allow it, because over there the police let a lot of it happen for folks to blow off steam. With how things are going here, I'd imagine the response would be just as well armed as the farmers and would look nothing like the BLM "response"
And again as a naive American, maybe I give us too much credit, but I wonder how much of it is that many Americans just quietly ignore laws because we’re spread out and there’s a lot of us and culturally we don’t mind breaking the rules, versus Europe where none of that is true. For instance in IL they passed some draconian gun control laws where you must register your “assault weapons” and “hicap” mags. A vast vast majority of us (like 90%+) just…didn’t. Fuck ‘em. Why take to the streets and paint a target on yourself when you can just ignore them?
I of course moved whatever scary guns I may or may not have out of state immediately, but you know, everyone else.
I think a lot of "tragic boating" snark on the part of my friends won't survive a Louis Katona style ATF visit where they shove your wife into a miscarriage, stomp kittens in the yard, and put a gun in your mouth about it. Much of the tradcon rhetoric is designed for the world, and the Supreme Court, of 1955.
" “oh here you go, sweetie, go pretend to be Jack London online in your little fancy station wagon while Mommy finishes paying the bills for the month.”
This is a real thing, a woman tried do get me to do it .
" P.S. I lost by ten feet, more’s the pity." (you're just jealous)
"In what world is it “inherently cool” to disrespect moms? " in my world it is . a sad thing to be sure but I didn't choose it that way .
"That’s why nothing you see online feels like it’s worth reading anymore. " happily this isn't so by a long shot .
I love my unsweetened Cheerios, thanx for ruining them for me Jack .
So: who's producing good motorcycle content these days? I enjoy the stuff at Revzilla's Common Tread, especially Courts and Henning when they go race a sidecar rig in New England or ride Honda trail bikes across Alaska.
Revzilla is inherently suspect because they're a dealer, but yeah I think they're okay. I've been reading the British magazines for a very long time because there are fewer differences between the dealer inventories in Europe and America for bikes. (Notwithstanding the fact that we don't get the little ones.)
Revzilla’s Lemmy bought basically the same exact Bandit as my old one, within a month of me, and did a fantastic write up of it, so chalk me up as a fan of theirs, for the used retrospectives anyways.
I’ve been watching a lot of YT motorcycle content but it’s all rebuilding old Honda CBs. Kentucky Yankee and Motorcycle Rewind are both good and amateurish and earnest. Common Motorcycle Collective is OK but the dude is very Lieberman esque.
I'll have to check that out. Love the old CBs; my first bikes were a pair of '73 CB350s I bought out of a woman's shed for $300 after her husband passed. Now I'm sitting here thinking about how much I loved riding those, but hated rebuilding carburetors.
Common Motor Collective is good for instructional videos on how to fix old CB's, plus has a very good store for parts. big help for getting my 73 CB350 back on the road. For sheer entertainment and knowledge, I go to FortNine. Best overall that I've seen.
"It would mean that candidates with genuinely different positions could aggressively “primary” the existing elected Democrats..."
Buffalo, NY is one such city where the local Republican party does not even bother to run a candidate in elections anymore, including the mayoral race. Elections for any citywide office essentially come down to the Democratic primary. In the last race for mayor, the "change agent" came in the form of "Democratic Socialist" candidate India Walton, who won the primary over four-term incumbent mayor Byron Brown, who is very much an establishment Democrat. This meant that India Walton was the only candidate on the ballot for the November election, and the local Democratic Party had no choice but to endorse her as their candidate. And yet, she still lost the election. Byron Brown launched a successful write-in campaign and won a record fifth term as mayor.
Primary elections have been a disaster for parties and for our options. I'm all for bringing back the smoke filled rooms and letting the parties operate as the private organizations that they should be.
This happens all over in deep red and deep blue cities, and it's how we get AOC or Matt Gaetz. The primaries are all driven by the biggest wingnuts who turn out and vote for loudmouths who promise them the world because the sensible, establishment type negotiates and delivers incremental change.
Frankly, the parties aren't able to focus on winning elections and choosing a candidate who can because they have to be so terrified of their activist base. The Democrats have been this way post-Obama who leveraged the activist types to get in and Republicans fell for it with Trump who ran that playbook even better and absolutely wrecked the party in blue and purple states.
On the contrary, Trump is actually making gains in heavy urban areas and with the black vote. He won't win a majority but he can win enough to put the assumed permanent Dem hammerlock in question. And immigration is one of the key issues. Shutting down schools and community centers to house, feed, *and fund* immigrants by the million is not sitting well with residents in neglected urban areas that haven't seen a Republican anywhere near a local office in nigh unto a century.
It's even causing some of them to question whether or not they've been getting played as suckers by the party of Jim Crow all along.
The Bush GOP is dead. Or very nearly so in a literal sense. Establishment republicans are not a sellable candidate anywhere in the US. Their hold on power is all that keeps them where they are at, but even that slips more by the day.
Turnout in these primary elections is historically so low, it doesn't really take many wingnuts to secure a win for their loudmouth candidate of choice. It could present an opportunity for a positive "change agent" type of candidate, but so far in reality it has mostly seemed to benefit the extremist types.
Exactly! It's really hard for a positive change agent to get past the activist wing nuts, especially in urban areas where they've built a non-profit industrial complex that really controls the party and drives turnout for these.
A base election like that is always about motivation, and the wingnuts who are deeply invested are much easier to turn out to vote versus anyone else.
There is nowhere near enough scrutiny of corruption in non-profits. Everyone looks at big organizations like Susan G. Komen, but how many receive sweetheart deals from local/county/state governments? Quite a few that we know of. Not to mention the number of people who cycle between .gov jobs and non-profits.
The shit in our food is evidence of what I've been banging on about in comments here since the start: We only think that the name at the top of the ticket makes a difference when in reality most of the decisions that impact our lives, our health, and our fortunes are being made by unaccountable government actors in league with malevolent multi-national corporate interests to whom they regularly go for big paychecks when not "serving" in government.
This must stop, and it will only stop by application of deliberate and overwhelming force. That force is available to us through the ballot box and the jury box...for now. And if we don't make use of it real fucking quick we'll be stuck resorting to the cartridge box and friend you do not want to live in that world because there is no coming back from it. It will involve acts of violence that will absolutely destroy the soul of anyone involved. Imagine someone going to a private elementary school where the scions of our self styled elites are being educated to continue the evil empire their parents have profited from and utterly destroying every living soul there and the person who did that being hailed as a hero by 1/4 of the country and another 1/4 saying "Well, what did you expect to happen?" in response.
That's only the beginning of the future if we don't get a handle on this shit and get everybody to remember that the constitution was an agreement between a bunch of people who didn't trust anybody else to keep behind some lines so we don't devolve into violent bedlam.
And unfortunately what I'm talking about ain't the future, as anyone who bothered to look at the hot takes on Twitter in the aftermath of the shootings at the Nashville School or Osteen's church or the cheering for Hamas happening at Harvard could tell you. *It's the present.* But it takes putting it as something happening in an elite NY prep school before somebody will recognize it's happening right now and that our fate as humans is that there is an equal and horrible reaction for every such action.
People who fantasize about government troops jackbooting the shit out of people who refuse to give up their AR15...door to door confiscation by the national guard was actually proposed in the Virginia legislature...don't understand what happens next.
And I'm on bended knee begging with tears in my eyes, put the fucking pin back in or you WILL kill us all. Civilization is a gossamer thin construct that will evaporate right in front of your eyes. Slowly at first, and then all at once. And when that happens you and your children will never again see a peaceful day.
That kind of devolution is a choice, and one we don't have to make.
and im begging you to get a paid subscription so i can get takes like this more often
From an email I sent to a group of like minded friends: "Call me a coward, but as something of an amateur historian of 20th century conflicts and having a glimpse of what was going on when my cousin was in Iraq in 2007 I would do almost anything to avoid an open conflict on US soil. "Loss of life" does not even begin to describe what happens in a modern civil war."
NYC will have bodies five feet deep in the streets.
At least that'll match the bags of trash stacked five feet high.
I've not always had time to wade through the mass of comments on here these days, but snark like this is one of the reasons I do
It's too late. We've already passed the tipping point. The only question is when it will start, and where.
I don't agree. I think a great deal of the public has been misled by false narratives and that they are waking up to reality. I see a potential reckoning of epic proportions on the horizon...and I'm not alone in seeing it. I think there are people inside the giant unaccountable machine who recognize the beginnings of a popular revolt against their rule that will wipe them out completely and that they're trying to get ahead of it.
The deep state is at a crisis point on what to do. Doubling down on authoritarianism in an ever more nakedly open ways is what a chunk of them are most definitely doing by reflex, and in so doing only making it more and more evident what's happening. The deep state nakedly subverting the Constitutional order makes it impossible for the deep state to continue existing. The more sophisticated actors with in it realize that their power exists only so long as it is not clearly seen by the man in the street.
What I think is most likely is a realignment. I think the smarter people within the deep state/shadow state recognize that some sort of reckoning will be necessary. And I think they'll offer up the dumber ones responsible for some of the more excessive acts as an acceptable sacrifice as they look to make a deal with an emerging political reality that makes even business as usual 25 years ago impossible.
To survive, I think they'll make a deal that has the appearance of reform without having nearly as much function as I would like. Give the "intelligence community" and other assorted would-be masters of our universe the choice between quiet survival or an all-out war of annihilation that they know they cannot win and I think they pick survival all day. It will mean a purge of their ranks but I think they'll happily offer up the foaming-at-the-mouth fanatics in their number with glee...because, after all, who the fuck wants those people around anyway?
That, too, is not new. The Church Committee came to be due to overreaching during the 60's, producing accountability that they had to work hard to manage. And they did it successfully, finding new casus belli in fighting the Cold War. And viola, in a few short years the institutions that had murdered JFK, MLK, RFK, and Malcom, that had plotted terrorist acts across the nation to justify starting a war for Cuba, that had planted cells in Europe to destabilize even NATO partners, that had partnered with organized crime to run drugs guns and people across the world filling cities with poison that would enslave entire generations...POOF...suddenly wrapped themselves in the flag of patriotism and fighting the communists to protect FREEDOM AND LIBERTY AND MOM AND APPLE PIE.
So successfully, I might add, that Benji Shapiro and Sean Hannity practically trip over themselves to defend those actors to this day.
"Dude, that's hardly a rosy picture." Yeah, it's not intended to be. But the optimistic part is that not all utterly corrupt power brokers are simultaneously catastrophically stupid on top of it. And thus survival and even some level of recovery is entirely possible even if purging their corruption from our body politic entirely isn't.
If you look at the Trump verdict, you can understand what the Left is dealing with.
They hate Trump so badly, and are so afraid of his return to the presidency that they've completely thrown the mask away. They stand revealed as totalitarians who'll go to any length to get their man...
...but everything they do digs them deeper into this public-relations pit they've made for themselves. They really can't win peacefully at this point.
I disagree. They're not that smart and they're not that charitable.
There's going to be a war.
Look at history.
Nothing can stop it. The only question is: when?
We're already in the opening stages of it.
Pinned.
You do know that what he's talking about in regards to the school thing did actually happen in a european country (I won't say which) and the man who did it is regarded as a saint now?
He's regarded by CERTAIN people as a saint, anyway. Not sure the man on the street there agrees. Of course, the media of the state had their say on it.
Indeed. But his elevation from homicidal monster to what some twisted minds would laud as some sort of freedom fighter has been a more recent phenomenon, and that in light of how things have...evolved or degraded...since. With the Nashville shooting the blood hadn't even stopped flowing before radicals who still have a place in polite society were on twitter lamenting there weren't more dead Christian kids or insisting "what did you expect" when Tennessee's legislature has expressed doubts about chemically and physically castrating teenagers.
The lack of a gap there is the disturbing part. I was pretty online in various discussion forums when Brevik did his evil deed and I don't remember a single contemporaneous statement about it being an act of spiritual or social hygiene. With Nashville the bile and vitriol was instant.
The steps between the people doing that and the people who gleefully filmed themselves raping and murdering innocent people at a music festival for peace in Israel are short and few...and that genie can't be stuffed back in the bottle.
Oh no, there were a lot of people who made some 'back handed' comments about just who the people were he killed. The 'freedom fighter' bit isn't recent. I heard about it form folks over in Europe after the initial fuss has settled down.
Everyone knew over there that he'd targeted the children of the ruling class. Everyone quickly saw that he gutted the ruling class that most people despised (or at least most of the ones I heard from). The effect on the nation's politics has been profound too.
And no, I would not say the 'steps are few'. I would not say that at all. There are zero similarities between the two events.
I don’t? Norway?
Sweden
FirstNet (public safety cell network, ran by ATT) is out as well.
I've said this here before. Buy a $20 Baofeng and learn how to use it. Ideally get a few of them and have your friends/family learn.
I could go on and on about prepping, but the face of the matter is that there's plenty of little things people can do that do not require a lifestyle change or investing significant time/money into.
One of the MANY ways that our government has failed us is by not pushing preparedness amongst the populous. You would think that with all the crying about the forthcoming climate apocalypse and the accompanying natural disasters that we would place some emphasis on these sorts of things. Hell, we went through a deadly pandemic and STILL didn't use that as a way to educate people. Instead, we just encouraged people to keep buying plastic dogshit from Amazon and pay "essential workers" a few dollars per hour to deliver our groceries.
I suspect this "solar flare" outage was a state-level actor doing proof of concept on something.
nah that cant be it
the sun just burped or whatever
Also see: Blackout of 2003.
You'd be surprised at the standards set for meat by McDonald's, particularly in the Quarter Pounder. That's in the USA, however. I don't know how it's done in Europe.
They envision a world of subsistence farming, with them in orbit.
Who would have thought we'd so quickly be ruled by people named Surita Sandosham. I swear to God the Raj was the real life Dosadi Experiment.
Trump and Biden are both good examples of how unaccountable the state is to constitutional authority. Trump's own administration was at war with him before he was even sworn in, fomented by his predecessor's administration. And it strains the boundaries of credulity to assert that Biden's hand is firm on the controls of the ship of state. Remember that in the 2020 election there were national news outlets publishing pieces that literally argued for Biden's mere corporeal presence as adequate for the presidency because Orange Man Bad.
I'm not kidding:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/stay-alive-joe-biden/608614/
Biden, Obama, Bush...they have some impact but mostly they are just avatars for a much deeper and more sinister thing that really runs the show. Trump was most definitely not approved by the shadow state and was cowed into cooperation on a number of things by threats of impeachment votes going the other way. Keep in mind that none of the excesses of our security state that occurred against Trump could have happened without the full cooperation and participation of the USSCI. McConnel did to Trump what he did to the Tea Party. Cozied up to it so he had a good spot to put the knife.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/politics/hamby-midterms/
Trump, of course, had unforced errors...but those, too, were conditioned by the absolute state of corruption.
"Trump made awful picks!" Yes he most certainly did. None worse than Sessions. But all his big picks had to be approved by...the senate. Controlled by the same people running an intelligence coup against him.
Trump talked about draining the swamp but had no idea what the swamp really was or how deep and far it went.
What will actually drain the swamp is a sustained movement of like minded citizens. Trump does not build movements. He'll ride on the back of one, but he's never going to be the guy who builds one. It's not in his nature.
The interesting thing is that no president is going to be a movement builder. It's not a leadership characteristic. Building movements is the domain of unknown wingnuts. Even MLK surfed a movement.
Honest, hand of God as much as Sessions was bad, Bill Barr IMHO was even worse. I think if folks took a step back, they'd agree.
And I liked Sessions as AG in my own state of Alabama. The only thing I significantly disagree with him on was for asset forfieture.
Fundamentally, most of Trump's mistakes were driven by his own ego. Yes, certain people pushed him, but they also knew how to manipulate him. If someone sat down to dinner with Trump and did nothing but compliment him he'd come out later and say the person was the "best" and yet the person had done murdered 5 people.
you're claiming the biden adm. is is as 'harmless' as the trump adminstration? good grief!
trump was the best prez since coolidge. he had np ida how wide and deep the swamp was. wait till next time! nobody can save this country but he'll cushion the drop for awhile
Say what you will about him, but Obamna tried to take on Big Chicken.
Spoiler - he did not succeed - but not clear that anyone from any party would have succeeded in his place.
Source: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2012/11/09/obamas-game-of-chicken/
The irony here is that she failed for the same reason her husband got elected: a general and growing sense across the country that no member of any ethnic minority can ever be called to account for anything they've done, said, eaten, molested, spindled, or mutilated.
I've started referring to her as "Big Mike."
OR...We as a society consciously decide that parking your ass in front of a glowing screen for 12 hours a day is actually a shit job, and that greater physicality is necessary.
Now they are putting them on Ozempic and such. And the junkfood mongers are panicking.
Every young woman political staffer on the hill is on ozempic. We're early innings on that one, super pumped to see the bizarre second- and third-order effects its usage brings forth!
My younger colleagues are still bitter about the vending machines' removal from schools thanks to her efforts.
Our school lunches became GARBAGE at some point in the first Obama administration. They load kids up with carbs and sugar and wonder why nobody can sit down all day
We do our best to have out kids eat decent food but the absolute barrage of candy and bullshit that is thrown at them is almost impossible to fight. It's a constant struggle for us because teachers are giving them candy in school, their friend's parents give it to them, and every holiday has some sort of candy theme now. Sugar is cheap and addictive. Get em' hooked early and you've got a customer for life. Fuck that shit.
It's funny, america is always very liberal when there's harm to the populace to be done, but incredibly draconian when public benefit could accrue.
Starting to notice a pattern
I'm having a hard enough time battling our parents on this, and to a lesser extent, my wife.
He isn't even in school yet and someone is throwing sugar at him every other day.
In my lifetime, until Trump, who I voted for first time around, all of our Presidents, regardless of flaws, were fundamentally decent people who were well meaning.
It doesn't stop them from doing monstrous things. Sometimes because decency them do it.
I think Trumps narcissism overrides any decency he has, compounded by having the attention span of a fruit fly. Comparisons to a certain German leader are very apt, it is just the leader is Wilhelm II.
Biden seems worse. It is unclear that he has a moral compass. Just an unwavering cowardice that always him to change direction at any moment.
You'll notice that he has basically two staffs, they're all obama people but it's the israel-sympathetic giga libs and the rashida-tlaib-sympathetic giga libs
These two factions are tough to reconcile
Chicken farming is perhaps the most horrifying modern industrial process. It's almost alien.
It is. Unless you know the farm you're buying from, it is of zero good. The poultry industry may be as developed if not more so than the auto industry. It's INCREDIBLY mature.
I'm a monster so industrial farming doesn't bother me and I'll make it a point never to visit an industrial farm so I never have to come face to face with my dinner.
I know a delightful and incredibly iconoclastic Iranian-born Canadian fellow who worked in a chicken CAFO for some time.
Perhaps his experience impacted his delightfully sardonic wit. What he told me suggests it'd be better to starve to death than work in a chicken CAFO.
At work we own a division that does chicken farming. I’ve been there a few times. I don’t find it particularly bad to be honest. But I’ve also killed and gutted my own food before (deer) so I’m not squeamish. The conditions the chickens live in are not that bad all things considered, they have plenty of room to move around and all.
I think euros are infantile but on food they are right. Every time we have a trade deal that features agricultural products being sold there people in Europe go ape shit. And good for them. We cultivate and sell cheap poison.
A childhood friend of mine is a “protein broker” (i.e., he sells chicken in large quantities).
He no longer eats chicken (his choice).
Was he henpicked for the position? I'll show myself out.
The best chicken I ever ate was purchased from the kid next door that was raising a brood to compete in FFA. I bought two of the “losers.” Processed poultry is not even playing the same sport.
Best chicken I ever ate was "poulet de ferme" (a proper, slightly skinny, long legged thing that had spent its life on its feet running around, rather than on its arse in a shed with 10,000 others) cooked on a rotisserie in Lacanau in SW France, where we had taken the kids for a surfing holiday. Served with potatoes cooked in the drippings from the chickens and a "stuffing" (it never made it into the chickens) that was essentially old French bread with mountains of butter and more garlic and herbs than you could fit in your palm. Wrong season, but I would almost jump in my car, hop on a ferry and cover the 500 miles today to get some more...not a bad memory of something that dates back to 2006!
Thank you, Donkey, for posting the link. Corporate lobbying is every bit as much of a threat to democracy as the postal "votes" Jack rails about. Perhaps more so, as it is so insidious.
100%, don't you even get me STARTED on the subject
corporations might make you want to, but governments make you HAVE to. little comparison.
They're never going to go after big anything anymore. Big corporate owns the uniparty now. Just look at how everyone is circling up to attack Lina Khan and the FTC from all sides for even thinking about looking at big business. While I don't agree with a lot of the reasoning she has, I do think all of this concentration in the economy is causing huge problems and needs to be looked at.
If they do, the end result will be the complete and total devastation of the little farmer.
People want to know why Yellowstone is popular... well, it's because people still want to romanticize the life where multigenerational ranches and farms mattered.
I really hate that show. My uncle watches and talks about it constantly.
The first two seasons were tolerable. I've been to Bozeman a few times and it's a beautiful area. Since the show has gotten popular, it's been overran with outsiders. Kind of ironic considering the whole show is about one family's disdain for outsiders.
One interesting tidbit from my time in MT. A lot of the guides and ranch hands that I interacted with all romanticize the UP the way I romanticize MT.
Oh, if only they could see Marquette and the coffee-shop-loitering population that has congealed here....
Universities ruin towns. Except for Alma. Nobody cares to be in Alma.
There goes my retirement plan and Mt. Bohemia season pass
I hesitated watching it, but it's been pretty solid though more over the top in the past few seasons for obvious reasons. Most of my very brief experience with Montana was on the opposite side of the state in Billings and heading into Wyoming. It's less sexy to the LA types. I found nearly everyone to be a lot more native and I can easily see WHY it is romanticised. But also, talking to people, there is a battle brewing there as the lower class are priced out of living. It's pretty awful.
Great comparo to the UP. I took my stepdad up there on a quick trip and it was so memorable that he's always wanted to go back. That's after getting stuck in a cvt trans Pathfinder down a road only SxSs ended up driving. Yes, we were very, very lost in the sticks.
The UP is hereby included in the Great American Road Trip that I intend to undertake...in a '67 Coupe de Ville convertible...that may sadly be preceded by porcine aviation, ah, but a man can dream...
I lived in Montana 30 years ago and Bozeman was already starting to be overrun by outsiders (mostly from California). Locals were already being pushed out of town in 1992. The trend started long before Yellowstone
“will have a single guiding ethos that I hope comes through every single time you open a link: that powersports are inherently cool.”
Given that the single guiding ethos coming through every time I open a link in the automotive “enthusiast” press is “cars are bad and you’re a Neanderthal for liking them” I’ll take J-Klo’s, thanks very much.
Note, however, the emphasis on "powersports", rather than "motorcycles".
Maybe there’s some signal here I’m too dense to pick up, but I like other power sports too, assuming they mean ATVs, SxS, jet skis, snowmobiles, etc.
Or is this some veiled power bottom reference or something I’m not getting?
The veiled reference is, basically, "SxS manufacturers have PR budget now, because sales are on the rise, while motorcycle manufacturers are moving their budget to influencers like the adorable Aya Dijkwel, so it's gonna be a whole lot of SxS from now on."
Fair enough. I get how that’s annoying. But still seems better than “this hobby is terrible and we should all hate ourselves for our involvement in it.”
That this professional conman even thinks he has to tell enthusiasts that vehicles are awesome says more about HIM than the audience.
I, for one, am glad he told me that it's ok to think powersports are cool. I've thought that for a long time. I'm so happy he verified I wasn't engaging in wrong-think.
I mean yeah, that’s the cynical way to look at it. But if you read it sincerely, as I did, the message is “hey every other platform tells you you should feel bad for liking this stuff. We won’t.” But I could be naive.
You have a point. It's really sad he thinks he has to say that.
My first thought after reading this: This clown is going to Jalopnik my redneck hobbies, isn't he?
With any luck, he'll be back to writing "Deal of the Day" posts covering cheap impact guns and no-name lithium jump starters by next year.
Sounds like "The Drive."
I don't know why I visit that site. I don't even like it. Force of habit, more than anything else.
The one on that site that really annoys me is Andrew Collins' "Will It Dog?" where he writes about how well a car can handle several of the filthy beasts.
Dude, aren't you married? Why aren't you writing a column called "Will It Child?"
Once Jack and Derek were gone I found I didn't like any of the other writers so much.
Tim Healey was hired to kill it. Which he did.
Finally happened for me in the last week or two! What other sites are there just for brief bits of car news, e.g., changes to existing models, etc.?
Automotive News plus Archive.is?
That's exactly where I was going. Prior to Rideapart, Klein was a typist at The Drive. He's commented here before. IIRC, it was an article where Jack called out another "journalist".
I’ve driven around with two golden retrievers tethered to the roll bar of my Miata...anything “dogs”.
If anyone wants the "Will it child?" question answered in regards to supercars, just get me one for a week or two and I'll let you know.
Marty and Jennifer both fit in the passenger seat of a DeLorean.
They could probably both fit in the passenger seat of a McLaren 650S, too.
People weren't as zaftig in the 80s.
Takes on a whole new meaning on drive.co.uk 😬
Which is a blatant rip-off of Torch's original 'Will it baby?" articles on Jalopnik.
I at least got Torch's permission to do a "Will it Zayde?" as I've been babysitting and picking up grandsons since I still had access to press cars.
I would knock on a thousand freaking doors if one of them was Tulsi’s bedroom door!
I photographed her in 2020 when she was running for the Democratic nomination. She is a handsome woman, lots of charisma. But she said Hillary is a warmonger and you can't have that.
Tulsi is the most moderate of the political class, and what she says about kilery is accurate.
I was all for bombing the shit out of the mideast back in 2001 and 2002, but watching how they fucked it up over the ensuing decades(!) has made me a peace-loving hippie. 2002 MD would not be able to recognize me, but I would hope he would be able to understand.
Same camp!
Which is what made Hillary great. No pussyfooting round Assad or shaking hands with Kim Jong UN.
Hillary was ready at any time to put a million white kids in the meatgrinder.
Scratch that. I think she was EAGER for it.
But the minute Trump vague-threatened her with jail, we had to change the whole world to keep it from ever happening again.
Why are/were we at *all* interested in Assad?
We've got 100k+ overdose/fentanyl poisoning deaths a year, a decade long slide in life expectancy, and people like you are eager to fly across an ocean and then some to look for problems. Get a grip man.
I can't decide if middle-aged women are hotter than they've ever been, or if it's just that I'm middle-aged now and appreciate them more.
I'm so glad I'm not married to the average woman.
Aren't you married to the average Japanese woman? (Not really)
That's kinda profound.
Profoundly depressing.
I am in agreement, but I tend to like softer lines.
It's your hindbrain trying to maximize opportunities.
...before the dying of the embers and the guttering of the candles.
I realized with sadness a little while ago MILF now means 'attractive woman my own age'.
I had to look her up, but with that silver streak in her hair, she's certainly not without her charms. Crikey.
Crikey is right!
Before I finish reading, I have to chime in on your counter interaction. As someone who spent the first 30 years of my life (except for college) within 25 miles of NYC and has now moved, interactions like this still shock me. We've been moving between CT, Nashville, and Florida for 3 years now and the fact that people are friendly and decent to strangers and service workers still give me pause. This morning here in Vero Beach the fact that the other two gentlemen in the coffee shop just wanted to chat about cycling and hobbies only had me wondering what their angle was and what they wanted from me!
In the bigger picture, it is a really nice breath of fresh air though. I just still have to get used to it in "middle America." The Miami chatter and friendliness make a lot more sense to me because it's just "my people," being a latin American city and all...
I’m from the East Coast and relocated to Chicagoland years ago, so I’m mostly used to friendly people in the public. But I was in St. Kitts and Nevis last year, and the people there are alarmingly friendly that you’re constantly convinced they’re trying to scam you or just sell you something. In my 5-6 days there, they never were, they were truly friendly. But in my defense, some of that anticipation is learned behavior from sketchier islands like Jamaica, St Thomas, Bahamas, etc.
A year spent in New York City, followed by a year spent in rural Ohio or Tennessee, will ABSOLUTELY educate any sensible human being as to why the former group of people don't want anyone to have a gun or even a knife while the latter group couldn't care less.
I know the NYC types are absolutely terrified of them, but why do you think that?
The true American rural culture is new to me, but I've always identified with it pretty well due to where my family is from in Spain. To me the huge gap is the credentials versus experience, and how that's used to prop up a false "elite" that knows nothing. They don't want to be overthrown!
"I know the NYC types are absolutely terrified of them, but why do you think that?"
They live in a place where it's assumed that everybody wants to do everyone harm -- and that said harm has to be prevented by a system. They think that because the average New Yorker of the non-Giuliani era has real and firsthand experience with street violence or robbery. This experience is now coming back into vogue after DiBlasio.
I've always live that way, but I was also taught that you need to be wary of your surroundings in the city. I'd also much rather be armed to defend myself than not, because I know it's my responsibility first.
I'm 32, and grew up under the Giuliani/Bloomberg eras with a father who's worked in NYC since the 80s. There's definitely a huge difference in outlook between the "locals" and the 2000s arrivals who only know the good years. What worries me, is that traditionally it was cyclical, but now I'm not sure they'll allow another law and order candidate to fix things.
I think the anti-gun thing is more out of fear, and in a way envy than anything. They've been taught to fear the weapon, because only "bad" people use them so they think they'll hurt someone rather than protect themselves. Then envy is because I think deep down, everyone wants to control their own destiny and many in NYC realize that they don't when it comes to their personal safety.
Or as my friend Dan, a native of Brooklyn, used to describe New York:
"Hey, look at that guy with no pants wavin' that machete."
"What, him?"
"No, the other one."
Nothing wrong with firearms, they just need mandatory training before being allowed to have one .
-Nate
Replace 'firearms' with 'voting'.
And in Illinois that training will be state run only, cost $1500/class, available only on the 6th Tuesday of every month, and the only facility that can give it will be mysteriously closed 10 months out of the year.
A state Senator in Oklahoma has introduced a bill called the "Common Sense Freedom of Press Control Act", which would require any one who works in media to:
1) Complete a criminal background check
2) Purchase a License from the state
3) Obtain $1 million in liability insurance
4) Attend an eight-hour “propaganda-free” safety training developed by PragerU
5) Submit to quarterly drug tests.
6) Each video or article must contain the following disclaimer:
“WARNING: THIS ENTITY IS KNOWN TO PROVIDE PROPAGANDA. CONSUMING PROPAGANDA MAY BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH AND HEALTH OF THE REPUBLIC.”
https://www.kosu.org/local-news/2024-01-19/oklahoma-state-senator-authors-bill-to-limit-freedom-of-the-press
Redditors were outraged; I think putting "Common Sense" in the title was the coup de grâce.
Then why aren't schools teaching it?
Also, do you feel the same way about speech?
Welcome to America! The shitter's full!
Seriously though, I think a defining trait of Americans is that we're a basically DECENT people, in a way the populations of other nations just aren't.
i mean canada is pretty great if you only deal with canadians
you lot are pretty amicable too
I grew up just outside of NYC in the 60's and 70's - even some of the 80's.
The place has changed radically from what it once was, and I honestly have no desire to go anywhere near it (though family wants me to visit).
There used to be a lot of nice people there. Not anymore.
The government used to care about fighting crime. Not anymore.
It's another socialist hellhole now.
I grew up upstate with a father that did the M-F NYC commute for a good chunk of my childhood. The first time someone held a door for me when I was still 50' away at a Michigan Walmart in college I was on full alert expecting to get robbed or sold something I didn't want. I resisted it and was just the typical NY asshole living in the Mid-West for the duration of college.
Fast forward to me moving to Charlotte in 2015 I was again shocked and a bit frustrated by the kindness of strangers, it felt burdensome as a North Easterner. After a while I let my guard down and learned to reciprocate the kindness (not a much as I should if you ask my wife), and get frustrated at the lack of consideration for ones fellow man when I go back north.
Now in the almost 9 years that I've been here a considerable amount of Damn Yankees have made there way down as well, unfortunately; we as a cohort have definitely impacted southern charm in a negative way. Hopefully they all start to recognize the good change like I have slowly been allowing myself to do and we don't dilute away common courtesy all together.
“I can’t miss.”
YOU JUST SAID YOU GOT SNIPPED IN THE LAST COMMENT THREAD
On Tulsi: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13107019/Donald-Trump-VP-Ramaswamy-Noem-Gabbard-DeSantis.html
Apparently there's a procedure where a large gauge syringe is used to remove the fluid directly from the sack! I know this because I was dating a woman who desperately wanted to have a child with me after the procedure was accomplished, and she did the research.
Yes there is, and it painful from what I hear.
I wouldn't mind hearing more about whether her wish came true, and if not, why not?
It didn't happen because I met the woman now known as "Danger Girl" through a mutual friend.
Without that, I think I'd have two more sons now, with this other woman.
As if the snipping weren't bad enough, now there's large gauge needles. Directly in the sack.
Speaking of pain and wishes…
Worked with a guy who got snipped because of wife’s orders. They got divorced, and then the new gf turned into wife #2 who wanted kids. So he got un-snipped. All this in a little over a year, and freely shared on the shop floor.
Dude was in a lot of pain, and carried a special donut shaped pillow around with him in case he ever needed to sit down.
This is like the Michael Scott skit in the office.
how on earth do they unsnip anyway
just put a bit of shrink wrap tubing on it or what
Did the un-snipping work?
"If you can’t pour raw CPU-manufacturing effluvium into the Colorado River, you shouldn’t be allowed to buy something that’s made by pouring raw CPU-manufacturing effluvium into the Yangtze. Why isn’t this broadly understood?"
Because people are morons or assholes, or both. Take your pick. This is why I hate people in general.
At this point you've only led me to believe that brother Bark is a musically talented horndog.
As a younger father of two, its a constant battle of what I can afford in terms of keeping poison and unknown dangers away from my kids. I give up being able to gloat about USA made refrigerators so I can afford better water, milk and essentials for my kids while they're developing, as an example. Priorities.... The only saving grace is I think in general, we KNOW a lot more about what goes into our bodies these days than we did in the past. For example, I doubt even your grandfather knew the OTHER UNKNOWN mystery shit that went into General Mills products back in his day.
" I give up being able to gloat about USA made refrigerators so I can afford better water, milk and essentials for my kids while they're developing, as an example."
FINE.
GO HAVE HEALTHY AND HAPPY CHILDREN.
WHO WILL BE GETTING THEIR DECENT FOOD
FROM YOUR EVIL REFRIGERATOR!
My kids don't know what cereal is, yet....
I hope you aren't feeding them chicken nuggets either, the universal symbol of bad parenting.
We happen to be vegetarians, but when the day arrives that my kids want to eat meat, it'll be straight up top grade...
I have never given my son a chicken nugget.
Because we call them "tendies".
Tangentially related bought a USA made pool table over the weekend. WTF is with tag lines like "American Designed" or "American Engineered" or "American Tested".
The friggin Brunswick logo actually has "American" stamped on it. This nonsense should be criminal. You really have to be on top of things to avoid being deceived.
Ended up with an Olhausen made in TN. Funny enough it was $400 less than the comparable Brunswick that is made in China. USA made AND cheaper - double bonus.
"The friggin Brunswick logo actually has "American" stamped on it. This nonsense should be criminal. You really have to be on top of things to avoid being deceived."
Time was, you'd face union violence if you did something like that. Before the unions were repurposed as immigration boosters.
100% correct.
What are you doing for water for your kids? We have an RO system but knowing what I know about PFAS i doubt its enough.
A 7 stage RO since my wife got pregnant with my first.
Further efforts have been limited by lack of sheer energy, but I'm open to upgrades at any price point. I was just using those as straw man arguments...
I'm doing the opposite: just drinking whatever happens to be 195 feet below my house. In the long run I'll be drinking my own urine, like Bear Grylls or a spaceman.
THe long run is the problem given the way septic drain fields work.
I would prefer to live rural but I think about logistical problems like this and have a hard time figuring the best way to do it.
Then again, IIRC I read that there's now PFAS in rainwater. Hopefully that's false but if not we're fucked in the long run
Your statement reminds me of a guy I read occasionally, Eric Peters.
He bills himself as The Libertarian Car Guy, but he strikes me as the sort who gives up his good job in the city to become a backwoods subsistence farmer because he's convinced the government's coming to get him.
He's a perfect example of libertarianism - he's not wrong, but he comes across as a self-destructive survivalist nut who nobody in their right mind would want to emulate.
i think from that depth any bacteria have been squished by the pressure; great way to partially purify water i read long ago: pump it down about 200' and bring it back up in a long u-tube
Very nice!
I'm debating upgrading, and/or doing a whole house system in addition to point-of-use. The whole house system would be unjustifiably expensive but The Kids Are Going To Drink Water From The Shower Nozzle No Matter What and I got no other ideas on that one.
Yep my kids drink some trivial amounts during their bath. If you don't mind sharing what you end up with on the whole house front I'd truly appreciate it.
seconding what boom said
ive been (very easily) led to believe that shower water can also impact the condition of your skin
The problem with RO systems is that you waste two gallons of every three. So your water bill triples. Then there's the service, which is expensive and often. Also, you have to dump those two toxic gallons somewhere.
The water here very alkaline and RO is the only way to deal with it, but the cost and the waste is insane.
I've got a gravity-fed emergency water filtration system that claims it can purify 17,000 gallons before the filters need to be replaced, and my house backs up to a lake.
i regret being satisfied with a brita filter
now i need my own water treatment plant
Having been driving across Spain two weeks ago when the protests started there, it's amazing that we're not seeing them here over this sort of thing. The tractors started rolling on February 6th to block highways and have been at it nonstop since over the latest EU regulations banning even more different types of fertilizer while allowing Moroccan (and other) imports of the same foods with them. I guess the corporatization of our farming is much bigger than I thought, and American's are much meeker than we're lead to believe.
I typically would've considered myself a "free market" conservative for a long time, but I've evolved over the last few years to more of a TR Rooseveltian outlook - we need to keep these big businesses competing, and keep the playing field level for national versus international. It's insane that we put in these regulations, and then basically encourage big companies to end run around them and go foreign.
"I guess the corporatization of our farming is much bigger than I thought, and American's are much meeker than we're lead to believe."
What I'd suggest here is that the tractor protests are born from a lifelong realization that European governments are simply royalty by another name, and they have to be fought to a standstill in Magna Carta style from time to time.
The American farmer assumes he can vote his way out of anything unpleasant. Which was legitimate for a long time. It's no longer legitimate. So when the aforementioned farmer realizes that, he'll take similar action -- plus he'll be armed.
In spite of all of the wailing, Americans still live too well for there to be a large revolt. Shit needs to seriously break before there will be any real pushback on the powers that be.
This is a good point. 2nd amendment ends up acting like an adult pacifier. Europeans, French in particular will take to the streets real quick. In the US it’s always “just you wait, keep pushing, we got guns!”
Part of that is because of the guns. Everybody understands that large scale European protests don't get people killed. Here in the USA that's only true for approved protests like BLM. Anything about real issues and there will be murders and executions.
To be more specific, I'm not implying this will happen over Trump or gay frog birth control. It won't happen until farmers see children dying en masse in rural areas because the food goes directly to migrant zones.
Damn kulaks.
I'm thinking about the Cliven Bundy cattle stand off where a bunch of armed rednecks made the BLM and FBI blink. The lesson worth remembering is the Fed Cops don't want to go home in bag either.
100%
In 2020 we saw the closest thing to real-life executions, all the executions were executions *by libs* of conservatives, and only one of the two commie executioners got any sort of reaction. The executioner in Denver was not even charged!
The result of the denver execution: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/03/21/denver-protest-shooting-charges-dropped-matthew-dolloff/
Video of the Portland Death Squad murder: https://odysee.com/@PaulyFrog64:2/Portland-shooting-of-Aaron-Danielson:c
The video of the communist revenge execution of Aaron Danielson below is beyond belief, it was actually coordinated murder---you've can clearly observe:
-team operating out in the open with multiple vehicles (kitted out Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge charger)
-shot callers (identifying who to murder)
-support crews (driving support vehicles, swarming the scene after)
-clean up crews (see the guys running around the scene with flashlights to pick up shell casings)
-videographer to produce video to demoralize their opposition
-videographer himself was a part of the murder squad - he falsely claims having mace in his face as a code to let the antifa murder team to know the cops are coming
Right wingers acting like they'll take action - outside of friendly spots in ID or NH perhaps - is the biggest hope cope of all time. Left wing death squads already exist, already are training in real life, and have already drawn first blood. They've committed open air coordinated murder *ON VIDEO* and with the exception of Michael Reinoehl none of them ever faced consequences. I've never seen a right winger do much other than turn the other cheek (Kyle Rittehouse was a civic nationalist CENTRIST, who regularly disavows the right wing) but I'd invite anyone to correct me.
The Denver thing is nuts. Spraying bear spray can get you killed? But drawing a pistol on someone and trying to shoot them, or trying to take their head off with a skateboard, has to go to a jury.
"(Kyle Rittehouse was a civic nationalist CENTRIST, who regularly disavows the right wing) "
Let me offer some perspective: if you have to shoot in self-defense, whether you're found guilty of anything or not, you have to spend the rest of your life treading very carefully. Otherwise you'll be sued and SWATted and your employers will be harassed until you're flat broke and suicidal.
given how the right wing seems to have more people that are vastly more competent with firearms, I kinda expected some dude to reach out and touch them at 600 yards. There must be guys out there who can make these shots regularly. A sniper in their AO would rattle them pretty bad. Fry The Brain apparently talks about this
You're much closer to it than me for the US folks, so that makes sense. I wonder if conditions here will allow it, because over there the police let a lot of it happen for folks to blow off steam. With how things are going here, I'd imagine the response would be just as well armed as the farmers and would look nothing like the BLM "response"
And again as a naive American, maybe I give us too much credit, but I wonder how much of it is that many Americans just quietly ignore laws because we’re spread out and there’s a lot of us and culturally we don’t mind breaking the rules, versus Europe where none of that is true. For instance in IL they passed some draconian gun control laws where you must register your “assault weapons” and “hicap” mags. A vast vast majority of us (like 90%+) just…didn’t. Fuck ‘em. Why take to the streets and paint a target on yourself when you can just ignore them?
I of course moved whatever scary guns I may or may not have out of state immediately, but you know, everyone else.
They were lost in a tragic boating accident.
I think a lot of "tragic boating" snark on the part of my friends won't survive a Louis Katona style ATF visit where they shove your wife into a miscarriage, stomp kittens in the yard, and put a gun in your mouth about it. Much of the tradcon rhetoric is designed for the world, and the Supreme Court, of 1955.
" “oh here you go, sweetie, go pretend to be Jack London online in your little fancy station wagon while Mommy finishes paying the bills for the month.”
This is a real thing, a woman tried do get me to do it .
" P.S. I lost by ten feet, more’s the pity." (you're just jealous)
"In what world is it “inherently cool” to disrespect moms? " in my world it is . a sad thing to be sure but I didn't choose it that way .
"That’s why nothing you see online feels like it’s worth reading anymore. " happily this isn't so by a long shot .
I love my unsweetened Cheerios, thanx for ruining them for me Jack .
-Nate
So: who's producing good motorcycle content these days? I enjoy the stuff at Revzilla's Common Tread, especially Courts and Henning when they go race a sidecar rig in New England or ride Honda trail bikes across Alaska.
Revzilla is inherently suspect because they're a dealer, but yeah I think they're okay. I've been reading the British magazines for a very long time because there are fewer differences between the dealer inventories in Europe and America for bikes. (Notwithstanding the fact that we don't get the little ones.)
Revzilla’s Lemmy bought basically the same exact Bandit as my old one, within a month of me, and did a fantastic write up of it, so chalk me up as a fan of theirs, for the used retrospectives anyways.
https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/retrospective-review-suzuki-bandit-1200
Fortnine?
I’ve been watching a lot of YT motorcycle content but it’s all rebuilding old Honda CBs. Kentucky Yankee and Motorcycle Rewind are both good and amateurish and earnest. Common Motorcycle Collective is OK but the dude is very Lieberman esque.
I'll have to check that out. Love the old CBs; my first bikes were a pair of '73 CB350s I bought out of a woman's shed for $300 after her husband passed. Now I'm sitting here thinking about how much I loved riding those, but hated rebuilding carburetors.
Common Motor Collective is good for instructional videos on how to fix old CB's, plus has a very good store for parts. big help for getting my 73 CB350 back on the road. For sheer entertainment and knowledge, I go to FortNine. Best overall that I've seen.
The old dudes who hang out on the VintageHondaTwins forum seem to HATE CMC for some reason, and I’m not entirely sure why.
kevin cameron on cycleworld
i always have a tab open (i have far too many tabs) with his articles in them
For sure. Dude is an absolute legend.
That FortNine guy on YouTube seems well-informed.
he is remarkably clever at times
"It would mean that candidates with genuinely different positions could aggressively “primary” the existing elected Democrats..."
Buffalo, NY is one such city where the local Republican party does not even bother to run a candidate in elections anymore, including the mayoral race. Elections for any citywide office essentially come down to the Democratic primary. In the last race for mayor, the "change agent" came in the form of "Democratic Socialist" candidate India Walton, who won the primary over four-term incumbent mayor Byron Brown, who is very much an establishment Democrat. This meant that India Walton was the only candidate on the ballot for the November election, and the local Democratic Party had no choice but to endorse her as their candidate. And yet, she still lost the election. Byron Brown launched a successful write-in campaign and won a record fifth term as mayor.
It's so bad as to be now considered intentional.
Case in point, recent NY 3rd special election.
Primary elections have been a disaster for parties and for our options. I'm all for bringing back the smoke filled rooms and letting the parties operate as the private organizations that they should be.
This happens all over in deep red and deep blue cities, and it's how we get AOC or Matt Gaetz. The primaries are all driven by the biggest wingnuts who turn out and vote for loudmouths who promise them the world because the sensible, establishment type negotiates and delivers incremental change.
Frankly, the parties aren't able to focus on winning elections and choosing a candidate who can because they have to be so terrified of their activist base. The Democrats have been this way post-Obama who leveraged the activist types to get in and Republicans fell for it with Trump who ran that playbook even better and absolutely wrecked the party in blue and purple states.
On the contrary, Trump is actually making gains in heavy urban areas and with the black vote. He won't win a majority but he can win enough to put the assumed permanent Dem hammerlock in question. And immigration is one of the key issues. Shutting down schools and community centers to house, feed, *and fund* immigrants by the million is not sitting well with residents in neglected urban areas that haven't seen a Republican anywhere near a local office in nigh unto a century.
It's even causing some of them to question whether or not they've been getting played as suckers by the party of Jim Crow all along.
The Bush GOP is dead. Or very nearly so in a literal sense. Establishment republicans are not a sellable candidate anywhere in the US. Their hold on power is all that keeps them where they are at, but even that slips more by the day.
Few people liked the Bush / McCain / Romney wing even when they were at the peak of their power.
we'll just see, won't we? and you're ignoring dem vote corruption.
I’m afraid so. Let’s pray for a miracle.
Turnout in these primary elections is historically so low, it doesn't really take many wingnuts to secure a win for their loudmouth candidate of choice. It could present an opportunity for a positive "change agent" type of candidate, but so far in reality it has mostly seemed to benefit the extremist types.
Exactly! It's really hard for a positive change agent to get past the activist wing nuts, especially in urban areas where they've built a non-profit industrial complex that really controls the party and drives turnout for these.
A base election like that is always about motivation, and the wingnuts who are deeply invested are much easier to turn out to vote versus anyone else.
There is nowhere near enough scrutiny of corruption in non-profits. Everyone looks at big organizations like Susan G. Komen, but how many receive sweetheart deals from local/county/state governments? Quite a few that we know of. Not to mention the number of people who cycle between .gov jobs and non-profits.
One man's change agent is another's wingnut!