Sick Commie Fuck Michael Brune v John Muir - Part 2
Posted On: Friday - July 31st 2020 9:50PM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity Political Correctness Treehuggers Environmental Stupidity ctrl-left
(Continued from this post.)
Stupidity comes and stupidity goes, but for some reason nothing has pissed me off about stupid/evil fuckers lately more than this Sierra Club cancellation of naturalist John Muir.
Oh, come on! "Nature" is just a dog-whistle for stuff White people like. #WildernessTooRaciss!
John Muir was an instigator for, an activist, one might call him now, for the saving of millions of acres of beautiful wildlands for millions of Americans to enjoy. That was with the help of this guy, not my favorite President politically-speaking by any means, but a real tough guy and a man who also loved the land:
John Muir was a co-founder of the Sierra Club, with its 128 year history, most of that time working to save the wilderness, with its generous almost-all-white members who also enjoy the wilderness and money from White people all over America. But the problem is, he didn't have herd immunity ... to racism... or something...
And Muir was not immune to the racism peddled by many in the early conservation movement. He made derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes, though his views evolved later in his life. As the most iconic figure in Sierra Club history, Muir’s words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color who come into contact with the Sierra Club.Well, yeah, there was that one darker-looking guy that came to the meeting back in November. He pretended to have never even heard of John Muir, so he was probably hurt about this. Then, the San Pedro chapter had that other foreign guy with the weird Science Officer Spock-like ears, and that guy seemed pretty alienated by our membership flyer... About these Indigenous members, Peak Stupidity may very well agree with a comment or two by John Muir, as we have wondered before Are American Indians slobs?
The whiteness and privilege of our early membership fed into a very dangerous idea -- one that’s still circulating today. It’s the idea that exploring, enjoying, and protecting the outdoors can be separated from human affairs. Such willful ignorance is what allows some people to shut their eyes to the reality that the wild places we love are also the ancestral homelands of Native peoples, forced off their lands in the decades or centuries before they became national parks. It allows them to overlook, too, the fact that only people insulated from systemic racism and brutality can afford to focus solely on preserving wilderness. Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color continue to endure the traumatic burden of fighting for their right to a healthy environment while simultaneously fighting for freedom from discrimination and police violence.I hope Mr. Brune will show his enthusiasm for this effort by resigning by end of the business week (conveniently, that's today, even in California!) and hand picking some indigenous mofo to run the place, when he's not busy with the traumatic burden of fighting for freedom from discrimination and police violence (cops are too hard on drunk Indians, I guess). Perhaps the new hire could work from home or from the rain forest to save on the long commutes in overcrowded California, to have extra time for all that fighting.
The persistence of this misguided idea is part of the reason why we still get comments from our own members telling us to “stay in our lane,” and stop talking about issues of race, equity, and privilege.I couldn't have said it better myself. Stay in your lane, Brune! And I'm not even a member, and,
DON'T DONATE ONE RED CENT TO THE SIERRA CLUB, EVER!!
But as writer Julian Brave NoiseCat says, “The environment is no longer a white sanctuary. The messy business of society, power, and race is everywhere and intertwined.”Julian Brave NoiseCat? Hey, man, I'm hip to your music, man, but can you cats turn that noise down? OK, seriously, this will indeed get messy. Yosemite will get messy. The Sequoia National Park already got messy from a 5-times deported Mexican illegal alien burning 44 square miles of old growth forest. Can't get no respect from these people for the wilderness, I tell ya, no respect.
The Sierra Club has got no choice though. They must get into the fast lane on the immigration issue, as they got told in no uncertain terms, 100 million of them, what is now the first rule of Sierra Club: YOU! DO! NOT! TALK! ABOUT! HOW! IMMIGRATION! AFFECTS! THE! ENVIRONMENT!
That above is what we hear from the Executive Director, no less, of the organization founded by the great naturalist John Muir. It doesn't sound too promising.
Per his Sierra Club bio, this guy is a family man, with 3 kids with names that sound whiter than "John Muir" by a long shot - Olivia, Sebastian, and Genevieve. They live in Alameda, California*, at 11% Hispanic (and 8% black), not the most diversified place in California by any means. Need more
Mr. Brune's biggest claim to fame, and it got him into Time magazine for it, was his Rainforest Action Network** convincing (in some way) the Home Depot chain to quit selling wood from old growth forest. Now, I don't know how this coercion actually went down, but at least that sort of thing is something one could definitely see as part of the Sierra Club's mission, in their lane, if I may. (Sure I may, it's my own blog.). BTW, I'm not at all sure that John Muir would have approved, as this was wood from private lands, not National Park land. Men had principles back in the day. That Home Depot deal was all back in 1999, though. It's a different planet now.
Then, Mr. Brune became aware of Global Climate DisruptionTM due to his parents' basement being flooded during a big storm:
In October 2012, the need to solve the climate crisis was brought into sharp relief when "superstorm" Sandy ravaged the East Coast, including Brune’s hometown. The storm flooded his parents' home, which had been built by his father and uncle nearly fifty years before.It was a SUPERSTORM, man, and it should be pretty obvious to anyone but a complete 'tard that when your basement gets flooded, the climate is changing. They never do that!
We will create a dialogue with, and resources for, our members about the intersection between racism and environmental justice issues, and invest in our HR and training capacities to ensure that staff, volunteers, and members are held accountable for any harm they inflict upon members of our Sierra Club community who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color. We will also spend the next year studying our history and determining which of our monuments need to be renamed or pulled down entirely.OK, so,
In subsequent posts in this series, we'll talk in much more depth about the steps we’re taking to rebuild the Sierra Club on a basis of racial and social justice and to try to repair the harm we’ve caused. I know that the steps I’ve outlined above are only the beginnings of what will be a years-long process to reckon with our history, regain trust from the communities we have harmed, and create a diverse and equitable Sierra Club for the 21st century.
DON'T DONATE ONE RED CENT TO THE SIERRA CLUB, EVER!!
The result are not all in yet, at least for our assessment of the Commie Fuck Michael Brune***. I can see into the near future, though. With donations going down, the Sierra Club's best bet is to beg from the US Feral Government for money stolen rather than donated from Americans. (OK, you can call it donated if you want, if it makes you feel better next April 15th.) However, without white people running the chapters of this club, things will go downhill fast, no matter how much money they steal from us. Then, how is the Sierra Club going to get people of various colors out into the wilderness, via gunpoint? That's just not good optics, I don't care who you are.
We're heading out into the wilderness for daytime hiking pretty soon. It will be nice to get away from hearing anything from or about any of these anti-white Commie sons of bitches of the Sierra Club or any other organization for a while.
That's the "Grizzly Giant" tree, a Giant Sequoia still standing in the Mariposa Grove area of Yosemite Park. The volume of wood is 34,000 ft3.
Oh, the winner, I forgot because it was too easy, is John Muir. Mr. Muir beautified the lives of millions of Americans, while the hatred espoused by Michael Brune will make us more miserable in the future.
Winner: John Muir by a Giant Sequoia!
* On the island off of Oakland that used to have the big Navy base. I guess they closed it because the Global Climate DisruptionTM is fixin' to cause the waters to rise and ships can't ... wait ...
** Its non-PC title being the Jungle Agitators.
*** I just realized that I've seen this guy before in a debate on youtube (very likely Tucker Carlson). It was about the immigration issue, I believe, and this guy was a real ass on that clip too.
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Lyin' Press on display - Portland, Oregon edition
Posted On: Friday - July 31st 2020 8:10PM MST
In Topics: Media Stupidity Anarcho-tyranny
As Peak Stupidity stated a week ago in our short mention of Feral Government intervention in the on-going rioting, in Tales from two pundits, we are not in favor of Federal intervention ... in pretty much ANYTHING. We'll have a post tomorrow with more discussion on the idea of the Country Sheriff as ultimate authority (well, after the US Constitution). For now, let me just say that I take for granted that Federal agents can be involved with criminal activity on Federal facilities and Federal land.
That intro. was just written to make sure the reader knows that my point in showing the video below is not about Feds vs. the City of Portland, OR, or whomever. No, the short excerpt of this > 11 minute-long video is to show the sheer unmitigated bias of the Lyin' Press these days. It is not lying by commission or lying by omission in this case. It's "lying by definition", if that's a term.
The Fed building seen has been graffitied-up like a 10-car freight train that spent a month in the rail yards of Detroit. The guy being interviewed, US Attorney Billy Williams, noted that the front door to the building has not been there since July 3rd*, so there's no doubt that there has been destruction.
Yet, the lady reporter from KGW TV, refuses to call this for what it is. Mr. Williams comes across very sensible. He just got tired of the reporter's continual use of "nighttime demonstrations", or worse yet, "nighttime activities" to describe what's clearly vandalism. It's about a minute in of what I include here (10:15 and then 10:35) in which the lady is just insistent on things like "I'm not a police officer so I can't...." meaning calling out vandalism as criminal activity. No, maybe that's modern art and is SUPPOSED to be there. (You know, those Federal programs for starving artists and all, on our tax money... I could believe it, actually, so ...)
These Lyin' Press people just won't give up any ground. The narrative comes first, terminology like the word "criminal activity", and God forbid, "rioting" be damned.
Oh, for just a little Kung Flu angle here, if you replay this from the start, you can see Mr. Williams take off his hospital-style face mask in the first few seconds. That's what I've been saying - nobody can understand all you say with one of these on. At the end, I believe that is the KGM reporter, and she has a mask on. Did she put it on at the end for walking in front of the cameras? Her stupidity comes out just too clearly to have come through a mask. Those masks not only block the COVID meanies, but they've been known to filter out some of the stupid molecules too, just the higher octane stuff.
* I'm not really sure whether that's due to normal Federal Bureaucracy or that the door keeps getting smashed up.
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City cops vs. Sheriffs
Posted On: Thursday - July 30th 2020 8:22AM MST
In Topics: US Police State Liberty/Libertarianism Anarcho-tyranny Legal Stupidity
While reading Michelle Malkin's first-hand account of being on the bad end of Anarcho-Tyranny in Denver a week-end ago, as Peak Stupidity wrote about in the previous post, I noted a comment by a cop in the thread. The guy somewhat defended the cops, really only in the sense of, to paraphrase, "no, we don't all just want to obey the chief, whatever he says, and collect our pensions. We don't make that much."
Well, it may be true that in some locales the job is not as lucrative as in NY City and such places, but it is a pretty good deal. There are the perks of not going through any hassle to carry a gun in self-defense, driving and parking in whatever manner one likes, and retiring early with some pension*, large or small, at a young age. These are pretty big incentives to lay low, and "just do things the way they pay us to do them." (That's a line I've heard a WHOLE LOT lately in my job.)
In American large and medium sized cities, the cops are not at all beholden to the local population, i.e. we are not their "customers". The mayor picks a chief, both of these jobs being very political, and then the cops answer to the chief. They are not men, women, or what-have-you of the people. They may even really try to "protect and serve", but after a few years in, they will understand that they can't last long like that. Gotta "serve" out those 20 years. So, that "protect and serve" crap on the side of the cars (not really the idea anyway) is about protecting serving the years and protecting the jobs.
To the contrary, the local Sheriffs of at least the rural counties of America are a different story. If you go back to the body of law that was passed on to America from our British Founders, you will first of all realize that, hey, there were no police officers back then. There was no police. The establishment of a police force would have disgusted the Founders of our country, as, from their very recent experience, they abhorred the idea of a "standing army". However, the Sheriff was a local elected official of the people. We all have heard of the evil Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood, and whatever you want to make of that story, there were Sheriffs going way back into British history.
(Sanders County, not one of the very biggest ones out west, has ~ 11,000 residents on 2,800 mi2. That's the way to run a country.)
Now readers, our law/Constitution-minded commenter Adam Smith may need to chime in in the comments, as Peak Stupidity does not claim to be a team of legal eagles. I will say that per my reading of the Constitutionalists types on the web over the years, the Sheriff of the county, whether it IS in a big city even, is the highest authority, higher than the State and the Feds. Well in the cities, there is the Police. No matter what is Constitutional, you won't hear of the Sheriff of Bronx county overruling the Police Chief and Mayor De Blasio.
Out in the rural counties, it's a different story. When you have a population of as little as 450 (this was in a county in central Montana about 1/2 the size of Massachusetts) the people are going to know the Sheriff and be able to tell HIM what to do. That's the low-end in population, of course, but even with 15,000 people in the county, a significant number (vote-wise) can be in personal touch with the guy. Instead of the Feds saying "jump!", and law enforcement saying "how high?", oftentimes, the local Sheriff can (at least try to) tell the Feds where to go.
The local Sheriff is the guy that Americans of the old days relied on as "the law", and he was elected by them. That's the key, but it only works with relatively small populations, as otherwise the more global politics are overwhelming. That's the case today with the cops in the cities, such as in the case with the Anarcho-Tyranny Michelle Malkin personally witnessed in Denver, Colorado. The attitude of the cops could come down the chain of command from a George Soros hand-picked official.
It's too bad the United State is not mostly rural, as it was the first century and a half. We might not have the Anarcho-Tyranny we see today if that were the case.
* Oh, about those pensions, yeah, if you men in blue were to read a little Peak Stupidity on the Global Financial Stupidity going on, you might know this: Even if your pension plans somehow remain officially solvent during this era of (12 years already) basement-dwelling interest rates, then then you might indeed get your $6,500 a month (wow!) in 2032 based on your last salary with the O/T, but ... how to break it to you ...
Uh, that condo in Sarasota that you plan to buy? It may have been hyperinflated to $4.5 Million by then, and you'll be lucky to living off of happy meals and and an occasional Dunkin Donut, for old time's sake, with your retired LEO discount (of course!) at $27 and $8.99 respectively. You could probably get a good deal from a buddy on an old cop cruiser... to sleep in. "Got a cop motor, cop shocks, cop tranny ... sharing the back seat of your dwelling - she's a man, baby!" Good luck with all that!
** There's a story behind this picture, as, per Idahoans for Liberty Sheriff ABC was involved in the events out in Malheur County, Oregon 4 years ago. Says the post: "Sadly, he [Sheriff Rummel] stops short of ordering the feds to say out of his county entirely."
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Anarcho-Tyranny at the Support-the-Police rally. We're finally on our own.
Posted On: Wednesday - July 29th 2020 8:10PM MST
In Topics: US Police State Pundits ctrl-left Anarcho-tyranny
I'd meant to post about the latest Michelle Malkin column last week. She has done a bang-up job banging on the Kung Flu (Season 1!) stupidity, along with Ron Paul (both can be read on the unz.com site - here and here, respectively). Mrs. Malkin's latest writing was on a different subject entirely.
One Nation Under Anarcho-Tyranny was written as a personal account, very personal, in fact, as Mrs. Malkin and her conservative co-horts were in just about in the middle of a street battle with the usual antifa types. In this account of what happened in Denver, Colorado a weekend ago, the writer appropriately brought out the term Anarcho-Tyranny, one of Peak Stupidity's topic keys. We've been discussing this, what's basically policy by government in America now, on and off since the Charlottesville, Virginia street battle 3 summers ago.
It was anarcho-tyranny as usual* in Denver, as the local police, besides one cop, per the account, stood down and not only let the speakers be harassed (one could say it's not their job to break it up), but prevented Michelle Makin's conservative crowd from defending themselves. This is how it's been going. Ironically, and not in the Morrisetteian sense of that word, Miss Malkin's rally was a "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" rally, meant to show support for the "men in blue".
Of course, it's easy to write in hindsight "what'd you expect was gonna happen?" It is still unexpected that the law would just completely favor one side during a political conflict, at least by people who still assume we are living in a country with law & order and all that. Secondly, this was specifically a rally to show support for law enforcement, as a group, what with all the defund the police efforts going on. You'd really expect the cops to help you if you need help, if you came out to rally on their behalf.
Nope, the difference now is that the orders from on high are for the police to stand down when conservatives are being attacked and only enforce the law, good and hard, on any conservative in the least bit out of line. (Well, defending one's self is not out of line, but they don't want you to do that either.). It is to be perfectly expected, though, that the cops, with a few exceptions, will follow those orders, rather than doing the right thing. Like lots of people, they care about their lifestyle and finances more than they care about doing the right thing. Why hold a rally for these people, next time? They are just the enforcers of Anarcho-Tyranny, just doing their jobs, dontcha' know.
Peak Stupidity has never had a great respect for LEOs**, possibly due to our being a water sign, not at all compatible with Leo's. They are not by any means all bad guys, as I've found out through the multiple interactions involving traffic stops. One nice interaction is related in our post "First Responders!" - The Cops. Michelle Malkin did mention one exception in her column, a guy who did do the right thing when things got violent at her rally. Still, I'm of the opinion that there shouldn't be many times in one's life in which one should call the cops, as it's asking for MORE trouble, most of the time.
We need to all realize that at this late stage of what has just been a Cold Civil War between the ctrl-left/diversity crowd and traditional Americans is going hot . At this late stage, the left has infiltrated ALL the institutions of society. We thought Big Biz was somehow not against us, but that has been proven wrong. Some thought that law enforcement and the judicial system, if not on our side, would at least be impartial. That has been proven wrong.
I haven't included any excerpts this time, so please click on the link above to see how that support-the-cops rally went down, in this era of AnarIt seems like Mrs. Malkin learned a hard lesson in Denver a week and a half ago. The lesson is, as the song said: we're finally on our own.
PS: OK, just one excerpt from the end of Michelle Malkin's article:
[UPDATE: On Wednesday morning, the Denver police union president APOLOGIZED and confirmed that a “retreat order” was in place, effectively abandoning the duty to protect and serve the peaceful, pro-police rally attendees.]At least we've all come to an understanding now.
So the message is loud and clear. When push comes to bloody shove in End Stage America, under the rule of the anarcho-tyrants, we, the law-abiding, are the enemy. Those in uniform sworn to protect and serve will turn their backs on us because their bosses don’t answer to the public. They protect and serve the mob.
* Here's just another example out of many from Paul Kersey's blog: - - Black Police Chief of Raleigh Sides with Black Insurrectionists, Ceding Monopoly on Violence to the Mob; Says Will Not Put Police in Harm's Way to Protect Private Property (you won't find many short title's on his blog). I happened to have had this a tab open in the browser from a good while ago.
** I HATE HATE HATE that term and only wrote it here for the joke.
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Sick Commie Fuck Michael Brune Cancels Founder John Muir of the High Sierras
Posted On: Tuesday - July 28th 2020 8:35PM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity Political Correctness Treehuggers Environmental Stupidity ctrl-left
I'm sorry to have to put cuss words in post titles now, but this latest news out of the Sierra Club has me boiling. It's making me angry to write this post, and I'll have to break this into 2 posts just to not get carried away.
(Note the lack of Northface colorful rain-proof gear and water-bottles and tools hanging off anodized carabiners. This guy's in too nice a dress suit to even wear to church these days.)
John Muir was out hiking the back country of California in what's now Yosemite National Park a century and a half ago, and then spent time doing the same in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He passed up a professorship at Harvard (if that means anything to anyone anymore) to stay in the wilderness he loved. He was the co-founder, along with Univ. of California, Berkeley Professor Henry Senger, of the Sierra Club, a group of hikers and naturalists, 128 years ago.
More importantly, John Muir pushed for the designation of Yosemite as a National Park. Peak Stupidity readers will know that this blogger is as Libertarian as the rest of them, but these beautiful national parks are something I'm very grateful men like John Muir (and Teddy Roosevelt) created. Any backcountry hiker who hasn't heard of the man is just ignorant and ought to go live with the bears for a while like Timothy Treadwell. Here's what John Muir saved for Americans:
(For this and the follow-up post, all the color pictures are of Yosemite Park.)
The Sierra Club itself was instrumental in the creation of Yellowstone Park in (mostly) NW Wyoming and Glacier and Mt. Rainier Pars in Washington State.* (The latter has a Camp Muir at 10,000 ft. up in which climbers can stay till they start out for the summit of 14 1/2 thousand at about 4 AM.)
Because it is now somehow the most important thing in the world that John Muir was not even necessary a race realist of his time, but ASSOCIATED with someone or other, the Sierra Club is cancelling him as a person. He is the FOUNDER of the club! These people such as cocksucking fuckwad Executive Director Michael Brune** who are now throwing all the history of environmental stewardship away for Political Correctness, wouldn't even be able to hike in that beautiful wilderness, much less make a living off of donor money, had it not been for John Muir.
OK, I've mentioned the mission creep before in this organization - see Mission Creep by the Sierra Club - 3 1/2 years back. That betrayal of the cause of environmentalism for 30 pieces of silver (OK, more like 4.1 Million pieces at today's spot price) to open borders pusher/donor David Gelbaum was more than mission creep. It was an evil deed, selling out like that, but I guess if all you have is the love of money, it at least makes sense.
This latest stupidity is beyond making sense. I don't think this crap would have happened even in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Those sick fuckers hated the landlords and "capitalist roaders" and such. If they weren't too messy, and were more blessed in the first place, to ever have kept pristine a place like Yosemite Park, I really think they'd have not sent the owner to a pig farm in Manchuria.
Another thing about this that made this even worse is that I'd first though it was just the SJW set of the Sierra Club that possible was agitating for this cancellation of John Muir. I followed a link to this Sierra Club page and realized this was the damn Executive Director writing, well, read the following:
The Sierra Club is a 128-year-old organization with a complex history, some of which has caused significant and immeasurable harm. As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, we must also take this moment to reexamine our past and our substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy.See, John Muir was friends with the badwhite guy. OMG, he'd have probably LIKED Mr. Osborn on twitter if they were around today! So, the Sierra Club has got to evolve. I'm guessing the means your donation will not beautify the wilderness or allow you better access to it. Your money will be used to tell you what a piece of shit you are for being a white man (or woman now). They need a lot, too, because that's who comes to the meetings and goes out hiking in the wilderness, the white people. It takes a lot of money to tell all of them how much of a piece of shit they each are. So, ante up, Bitchez!
It’s time to take down some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the Sierra Club’s early history. That will be followed by posts on how we’ve had to evolve on issues of immigration and population control, environmental justice, and Indigenous sovereignty. We will also devote a post to a discussion of how the Sierra Club is working to center the voices of people we have historically ignored, so we can begin repairing some of the harms done.
The most monumental figure in the Sierra Club’s past is John Muir. Beloved by many of our members, his writings taught generations of people to see the sacredness of nature. But Muir maintained friendships with people like Henry Fairfield Osborn, who worked for both the conservation of nature and the conservation of the white race. Head of the New York Zoological Society and the board of trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, Osborn also helped found the American Eugenics Society in the years after Muir’s death.
That's some angry facetiousness there, so please don't ante up. I should put this somewhere in every post on Environmental Stupidity, or at the top of every post here:
DON'T DONATE ONE RED CENT TO THE SIERRA CLUB, EVER!!
That's it, I gotta quit now. More on this in a later post.
* The name is just Spanish for mountain range, but I assume it's named after the Sierra Nevada mountain range* in California, in which Yosemite sits, as do Sequoia also and King's Canyon National Parks.
Unbelievably, when I looked on duckduckgo to just check on the naming of the Sierra Club I got pages and pages about the sick shit that is the subject of this post.
** His email address is michael.brune@sierraclub.org. Tell him Peak Stupidity sent you!
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For Everything there is a Season ..
Posted On: Monday - July 27th 2020 7:04PM MST
In Topics: Music Bible/Religion Poetic Stupidity
..turn, turn, turn.
(Like a number of other days when I get fixated on unz.com commenting, I didn't leave enough time for a period to right up a good post. I have plenty in the works, as stupidity is not winding down anytime soon, from what I see.)
The Biblical book Ecclesiastes contains some poetic writing that most of us have heard. It's Chapter 3, verses 1 through 8:
To every thing there is a season,If you recall this from somewhere else beside the Bible, it is from the 1960s rock band The Byrds. There wonderful song Turn, Turn, Turn comes almost directly from the Book of Ecclesiastes, with only slight changes to the poetic wording. I heard the song first, myself.
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.
Where does America stand? What time is it?
The Byrds has the sound of a 1960s band, and it was in the middle of that decade when they had their heyday. I love that bright guitar sound.
The Byrds
Roger McGuinn – lead guitar, banjo, Moog synthesizer, vocals
Gene Clark – tambourine, rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals
David Crosby – rhythm guitar, vocals*
Michael Clarke – drums
Chris Hillman – bass guitar, rhythm guitar, mandolin, vocals
Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman formed the aptly named McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman in the late 1970s. They had the same sound.
* Famous also, of course, from Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and sometimes Young), featured on Peak Stupidity with Teach your Children Well and Southern Cross. David Crosby left the Byrds in 1967.
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F.U. Money, F.U. Skills, and F.U. Attitude
Posted On: Saturday - July 25th 2020 7:49PM MST
In Topics: Music Political Correctness Economics ctrl-left Big-Biz Stupidity
(Peak Stupidity couldn't justify 3 of the same cuss words in the title of a post for fear of cancellation - not enough Fuck You money. Yeah, it's OK in the body. Wait, but we've got the attitude, at least.)
You've likely heard the term "fuck you money" before, meaning one has accumulated enough assets to have no fear of losing employment or even ability to make more money in what is now called a "cancellation". With F.U. money one can then speak his mind more freely, do the job the way he would like to with low regard for the HR weenies or even customers, and just feel more his own man in his workaday world. It would be a really nice thing for any conservative writer whose purpose in life involves pissing off the kind of people who like to cancel him.
Ron Unz, proprietor of the site with his easy-to-type-in-the-browser-bar own name, is an example. He features some writers who are just whacked-out, but some of them, along with the many non-whacked-out writers are those that trouble the Establishment greatly. Steve Sailer is a great and prolific example, being just too truthful and too far off the narrative. Mr. Unz is just not worried about not being able to pay his rent, mortgage, insurance, eat well, etc.* (He made a lot of money in the finance and finance-software business way back. I listened to a good over hour-long interview. He came across well, BTW.)
Most Americans just don't have quite that much money. Hell, most Americans don't save enough to be able to go 2 months without a paycheck without being in arrears on stuff. Peak Stupidity has discussed this problem multiple times. It's not the obvious problems of financial stress, insecurity, etc, that are the results of this financial stupidity but also the effect of causing American wage workers to be forced to act like obedient cucks and suck-ups to the SJW policies and environment on the job - see Credit? Forget it! You got it? You get it!, More on living paycheck-to-paycheck, and Poor Feral workers living paycheck-to-paycheck. They don't have "Fuck You" money - they have "Fuck Me" debt.
The ability to be free to speak one's mind and ignore the SJW narrative in this country is not just a function of money, however. Even if you don't make a killing and haven't saved a bunch, you can have this ability or status if you have some mean skills. This could be at the top end or at the lower end, so I'll explain each in a couple of paragraphs.
Let's say you're some kind of business consultant or engineering/technical type who has been around a long time and is considered an expert this one area. Sure, the customer can get another consulting firm, but they really don't have anyone else that they can really trust to do it right. If they've got a plant that loses a million dollars an hour when the production lines are down, they don't want to screw around with anyone else. You tell them when you're coming, and they get everything ready for you. Some of these guys like this could quit anytime, and get other customers that they haven't had time for, in a day.
Yeah, sure, you don't want to purposefully rip down the BLM sign in front of the plant (though even then, the HR ladies will make sure there is a fuss, but then they'll have to just "hug it out" with you, because, dammit, the lines cannot go down!) You can say what you want. If they don't like it, they don't have to call you again. In fact, some of these guys do have F.U. money in addition to F.U. skills, but they either enjoy it, have nothing else to do with their time, or even just feel obligated to make sure this production keeps on, just out of integrity.
At the lower end (but no insult intended here), there are the skills that are called "the trades" by many. I just never used that term much, but hands-on craftsmanship, wood-work, mechanical, electrical, plumbing work, etc. is what I mean. There's another post coming in agreement with many conservatives who, for reasons of both the stupidity of the modern university educations, and the financial aspect of it, encourage young men to go into this kind of work instead of going to college. I will agree for this other reason in the upcoming post: one can obtain mad F.U. skills.
Illegal (and some legal) Mexicans and Central Americans have been hired for cheap - because the true costs are socialized - for residential roofing, framing, and such by the millions over the last 20 years. That's not a good thing, of course, but there are the precision skills that these people don't in general have that are still in demand. A guy who does a good job with millwork, or kitchen jobs, or wiring, is someone who will remain in high demand, especially in high-end neighborhoods, just by word of mouth after a while. People do want jobs done right.
A good and trustworthy car mechanic is pretty rare, and customers know that. The shops of the car dealers, with the huge overhead, the bureaucracy, and the high rates and parts prices, are to be avoided if possible. The big worry with anyone you don't know, including the guy at the dealer, is that he will make some more work for himself or the shop, sometimes good for you in the long run and some times just fraudulent. You can't know easily though. You'd better not piss off a good mechanic.
Imagine, if you will, a good shade-tree car mechanic who has said the wrong thing in the wrong place, and has local SJWs up in arms. Facebook and Twitter are crawling with comments. The hard-core twitterers and FBers with nothing better to do than to try to enforce Political Correctness, have called for him to be fired .. from like ... what ... by whom? OK, they will tweet for a boycott then, yeah, that's it, shaming all the current and potential customers with the threats of being called names like racist, xenophobe, oh and that he is "creepy".
As a customer, what do you do? I mean, you don't want to be known by any of those names all over Social Media. What if your boss sees that? But, well, you really like your Beemer, and the guy said you'd better get the timing belt done within 10,000 miles or so. You don't want to get stuck by the side of the highway with an economically totaled Beemer**. It's a real dilemma, and perhaps the solution will be to get the work done surreptitiously by getting your lawn guy to bring the car into the shop, maybe at night, through the back. You can be cancelled if you're not careful.
A good mechanic will not lack for work, and can't be cancelled. It's the same for a good handyman. Political Correctness is one thing, but ... So, there are F.U. skills too, and in times like these, it's got to be a good feeling to have them.
If you want to have that F.U. attitude, having F.U. money and/or skills will help you attain this. Or, you may have the attitude because you're fed up and just don't give a rat's ass anymore - this works for the fairly young and the fairly old. Otherwise, watch your mouth constantly or be ready to live off the grid till this Cultural Revolution is over, one way or another.
No doubt it was easier in the 1970s, during Johnny Paycheck's time:
* Now, it's another story about whether he can maintain his ability to "broadcast" the views of all these alternative writers with these "interesting, important, and controversial perspectives" (per the banner up top). I would like to comment in another post about his interesting "Lord Voltemorte Effect", which you can read from him here.
** I was told by my mechanic that most of the modern cars have interference engines. That means during the time when the cam shaft is not turning, but the engine is, starting in a fraction of a second after the failure, your pistons will hit the valves. A timing belt failure on a non-interference engine will just result in tow charges, but otherwise the engine is toast. (I've seen both happen.)
Comments (8)
Tales from two pundits
Posted On: Friday - July 24th 2020 8:57PM MST
In Topics: Pundits Liberty/Libertarianism
This post is just a little bit of commentary on the latest columns from Peak Stupidity favorite pundits, Ron Paul and Ann Coulter. The long-term reader should understand by now that, here at Peak Stupidity, we got BOTH KINDS of ideologies, Libertarianism AND Conservatism.
Uhhh, yeah, where were we? Dr. Paul has been doing a bang up job documenting the totalitarianism of the Kung Flu Panic-Fest, especially now during Season 2. His latest writing on this is Big Holes in the Covid 'Spike' Narrative . Here's the first 1/3 or so of the column:
Motorcycle accidents ruled Covid deaths? In the rush to paint Florida as the epicenter of the “second wave” of the coronavirus outbreak, government officials and their allies in the mainstream media have stooped to ridiculous depths to maximize the death count. A television station this weekend looked into two highly unusual Covid deaths among victims in their 20s, and when they asked about co-morbidities they were told one victim had none, because his Covid death came in the form of a fatal motorcycle accident.I've hardly had any real disagreement with Ron Paul. It's not a disagreement really to think that he is just a bit naive on the immigration issue, perhaps thinking that a significant number of new arrivals to America will be the Libertarian Ron Paul-voting type. That's because I never really read anything from him pushing the immigration invasion. He just does not come across as understanding the existentially of the problem.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. In fact the “spike” that has dominated the mainstream for the last couple of weeks is full of examples of such trickery.
Washington state last week revised its Covid death numbers downward when it was revealed that anyone who passed away for any reason whatsoever who also had coronavirus was listed as a “Covid-19 death” even if the cause of death had nothing to do with Covid-19.
In South Carolina, the state health agency admitted that the “spike” in Covid deaths was only the result of delayed reporting of suspected Covid deaths.
I did have an unz commenter give me a pretty convincing argument that Dr. Paul wasn't exactly straight honest, covering his ass regarding accusations of his being associated with the alt-right, in the '12 primary campaign. I do remember some of that. Other than these two problems, I've agreed with the man 100%. In reading his words on the COVID-19 stupidity, he comes across as the sanest man in the room ... any room. Please take the couple of minutes (if that) to read his latest.
Next, our favorite literary pundit, discussed too many times under the Pundits topic key to list links, we have Ann Coulter. We noted 3 1/2 years back New Column by Ann Coulter proves she is a Libertarian. Miss Coulter bats a .980 by our estimation. This one brings her average down.
The column is Dems Are The Party Of Antifa .
In Portland, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Atlanta and elsewhere, children are not merely being blocked from the schoolhouse door—they’re being killed. They’re being maimed. Citizens are having their property looted and their public spaces destroyed, all with the connivance of local Democratic officials.Miss Coulter points out the left-wing's hypocrisy (4th paragraph), as she always does so well, but it's just that I happen to agree with the policy the left is being hypocritical on here.
And once again, the Democrats are championing states’ rights to protect domestic terrorists.
“Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.”—Nancy Pelosi
Democrats and the media want the federal government to brutally crack down on people who don’t wear masks—whatever the states say—but faced with an actual violent rebellion, the feds are supposed to stand back and let the governors lead!
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called the federal officers protecting American citizens “an attack on our democracy.” Yes, Orval, Portland is “occupied territory”—just like Little Rock in 1957!
Sorry, maybe it's too hard-core a Libertarian position even for Ann Coulter, but just as with the segregated school houses in Arkansas 63 years back being none of the Feral Government's business, neither are the riots in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere today. OK, one can pick the loophole that the destruction of Federal property should be prosecuted by the Feds. That's a good foot in the door.
Sure, we'd probably all like to see President Trump send troops into Portland to kick in some heads. Other than in defense of piece of Federal property, however, no, the left is right, even if for their own evil reasons. The people of Oregon should petition the Governor, or their State Reps. With no help there, it is up to the people themselves to stop this destruction. That's whose business it is.
Peak Stupidity has bad-mouthed the President to no small degree lately for not doing things that ARE the job of the US Chief Executive. Other than the use of the bully-tweet, to encourage the people of Oregon to do something, sorry, it's not the President Trump or any part of Fed-Gov's job. This is a good example of the American people thinking the one guy is supposed to do it all.
Still, you may want to read Ann Coulter's column for her description of what's been going on in Portland over the last 7 weeks or so. You probably can't get all this from the Lyin' Press.
Enjoy these two tales from these two favorite pundits.
Comments (8)
To IRS: One hundred million and 00/100 ~~~~~_ Dollars
Posted On: Friday - July 24th 2020 10:28AM MST
In Topics: Humor US Feral Government
You probably should put in a squiggly line so the IRS can't fill in a few extra hundred dollars for themselves. [There it is! You're welcome. - Ed] Still, I'm sorry, but your check will be declined due to your failure to adequately read the 1040 Instruction packet (in convenient .pdf format). There may be some interest accrued during the correction period, and no, we don't charge the FED discount rate, but our normal 8% ...
I spent a lot of damn money on these people a week ago, so I may as well get something else* out of this income tax business. I was ctrl-f'ing (not the cuss word, the short-cut key) for "check" in the IRS 1040 on-line tax instruction .pdf when I ran into the little gem above. That's right, make sure you don't write any checks for over "Nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine
Does anyone imagine that there are rich guys around who, first of all even look at the IRS 1040 tax instructions, even have accountants that look at the 1040 tax instructions, or, much less, just pay the, let's see, Taxable Income x 37% (0.37) - $35,012.50? (Oh, but if you're married still you can subtract off $61,860. Whew, what a break!) This is the system for the middle class in that .pdf, maybe more like the lower- and middle- middle-class. Check out Peak Stupidity's Americans' attitudes on the income tax for a thorough speculative run-down of the income tax system as it applies to 4 classes of Americans. (I spent a lot of time on that one, so ...)
The tax system set up for the people who actually pay anything in the neighborhood of $100 million is one arranged by the Feral Gov't regulators with the help of the people who end up paying nothing near the neighborhood of $100 million when it's all said and done. The whole thing is an art that requires as much creativity as, you know, one of those guys from the Renaissance. You know, the fancy hotel downtown where the accountants of these money-makers stay.
The people who should be paying $100,000,000 in income tax have accountants who make so much money saving them money that these accountants have their own accountants to do their taxes. Who does those OTHER accountants' taxes, you ask? Listen, I don't kn... it's just ... it's accountants all the way down.
So, please, Mr. IRS publications man, don't try to bullshit me and make us all think that the system is the same for everybody. The middle class gets screwed as is the usual thing these days. That's why I was the one cntr-f'ing around your .pdf looking for information on who to cut a check to, not the guy who is required to cut 2 checks. Maybe you have this text in there to rope in that one occasional naive nouveau rich guy. Good luck with all that.
Most Americans are going to find the next paragraph slightly more relevant: "What if You Can't Pay?"
* We ran into and posted about one interesting tidbit during the tax calculation process before.
Comments (2)
Scenes from the Kung Flu Summer re-Panic - Part 7
Posted On: Thursday - July 23rd 2020 8:52PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Humor Big-Biz Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
It's been just about another week since the last COVID stupidity, at least anything new for me and worth writing a post about.
We've been to the bank a number of times since the Kung Flu Panic-fest started. They didn't want anyone going into the actual bank building for a spell. I come from a family that never adopted the drive-through lifestyle, so, if you can believe this, it was a new thing to put the paperwork into the canister and watch the air blow the thing over to the tellers and see it come back with money and receipts. Kids LUV it!
During the Panic-Fest intermission, or break between Seasons 1 and 2, the banks opened up. One was supposed to wear a mask and stay apart from others (uhh, I can't see how much she's counting out from 6 ft away, so, just sayin', "please... don't ... stand ... so ... far from me.") They also controlled how many people could get in at a time. That was especially applicable to any bank robbers, cause, you know how they can be sometimes.
The face mask wearing has been enforced with a Stalinist intensity since Season 2, "Return of the Panic", started. I was putting one on as I entered the main lobby, and the lady was already on my case. "Where's the little podium thingy?" (where you get the slips of paper and use one of the chained-down pens - they must be very dear) I asked. Gone for the duration or something, she told me, due to, what now? Therefore, not only are you supposed to stay apart, keeping people out once a crowd forms, but the process is slower since anyone waiting can't do anything till he's at the teller window. Stupid, it seems, but then this virus... I mean it's so deadly that you don't even know you've got it until you get your test results back.
I recognized the teller girl, even with her nice designer face mask on. It was all friendly enough, as usual, and I tried to keep in good humor. I did have the thought, "hey, how are they supposed to ID robbers nowadays?" The girl did ask me to lower my mask as I showed her my driver's license to take out money, along with the other transactions. At that point we were 2 1/2 feet away, so ... OK, I'm just sayin'... That's even more silly, as it was just procedure and not necessary at all, since she DID know me.
I guess she knew me pretty well to have not hit some red button behind the counter (or do they use an app now) when I asked "what are you going to do about bank robbers now that we all are wearing these masks?" By "we" I didn't mean "we bank robbers", but more, "we people forced to wear these stupid masks." That COULD be taken the wrong way, but then, again, she knows me and had ID'd me, after all.
It's very hard to have a really original idea, it seems, as there is nothing new under the sun. During the H1N1 flu epidemic in 2009, there was a bank robber in San Diego - that's the gentleman in our photo above - who made a special effort to not spread the swine flu during his un-surprisingly successful heist. Per this Baltimore Sun article,
The FBI and San Diego police are asking for the public's help to identify a man who robbed four bank tellers Friday while wearing a surgical mask with the letters and numbers "H1N1," the swine-flu virus designator.Now that's some good citizenship, warning your robbees about a very contagious disease, even when very busy with a job. Oh, the article was from 2009, so I'm guessing the FBI and San Diego PD did not get the help they needed.*
I'm telling you, between the Anarcho-Tyranny that used to only let antifa Commies wear masks but put the hammer down on anyone
* I couldn't find anything on-line saying the case was solved. However, I did learn just a little bit about the Geezer Bandit who performed a string of many bank robberies around southern California. Man, I tell you, even in retirement, Californians really stay active and don't just sit around collecting their Social Security checks!
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Jeff Sessions, Tommy Tuberville, Trump, The South, and worship of Football
Posted On: Wednesday - July 22nd 2020 8:40PM MST
In Topics: Trump Bread and Circuses
Peak Stupidity urges our readers again to not regard this site as a primary new source (haha!), as we can be weeks behind sometimes. In this case, it's just over one week, but we read a few days ago about the loss of prospective returning immigration patriot to the US Senate, Mr. Jeff Sessions. Mr. Jeff Sessions lost in a GOP primary race for Senator from Alabama to former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville on July 14th.
This loss of the great immigration patriot Jeff Sessions was due in part to support give by President Trump, acting like a bitchy, on-the-rag 15 y/o schoolgirl out for revenge. I looked back just now and am very surprised I haven't mentioned this at all on the blog, not even anywhere in the Trump-bashing posts of late. I feel bad for having written the one post, Good night, Sleepy Jeff, taking Trump's side in Sessions dismissal 1 2/3 years back.
Peak Stupidity is nothing if not self-referential most of the time, so if you don't feel like reading that post, I'll just say that my beef against Mr. Sessions was not about his gentlemanly self-recusal from the Russia-hoax hearings. It was about the Justice Department not coming down on the Anarcho-Tyranny of the Charlottesville, Virginia travesty and other pro-White America stuff the the DOJ could have gotten involved with. Things did not get much better on this score after Mr. Sessions' dismissal anyway.
VDare had numerous posts/articles about the AL primary, coming down squarely on Mr. Sessions side. He is a staunch immigration patriot, as greatly opposed to Coach Tuberville. This is why Trump's little hissy fit, turned a year and a half later into a prissy, revenge-filled effort to work against an immigration patriot like Jeff Sessions was so #SAD. No Ronald Reagan master strategist is he.
Mr. Tuberville won the primary election. An unz.com commenter the other day brought up a very good point the other day. (I'll link to it if I can find it again soon.) Tommy Tuberville was the head coach of Auburn University's football team, one of the 2 biggies, Auburn and 'Bama itself (Univ. of Alabama in Tuscaloosa). It is very likely that for most Alabamans, the rivalry between Alabama and Auburn in football is more important than the primary race, or any election held anywhere, for that matter.
The South takes college football very seriously, much too seriously in my opinion. Sure, pro football is just not as big, and there used to be not much of it around. People LUV LUV LUV the tailgate parties and spending the big bucks to SUPPORT THE TEAM! Rah, fucking, rah... I mean, there are people that fly in from around the area, drive in caravans down the interstate with their four flags flying, and even many housing units that one can BUY (not rent) to have a place to hang out during those 6 or 7, tops, home football game weekends. There are people that never even graduated from the institutions that know more about their football team's plays than the best engineering students know about Newtons' laws of motion.
These coaches get paid the big bucks and are more widely known and talked about than anyone's US Congressman.
This aspect of the Bread & Circuses really wouldn't bug me in normal times, say the 1980s (and, granted, I went to a number of games back then myself). These aren't normal times, though. There are things going on and decisions to be made that are much more critical to our future as a country and a people... than who's got the best passing game.
Yet, the Coach won the primary, albeit with help from President Trump, if he is of any help anymore, his mojo seeming to have vanished up Jared Kushner's ass. As this country goes even more to hell, I wonder if the good people of Alabama will think about how important having an immigration-cuck Senator that was the famous Auburn football coach really was.
PS: From the Fox News article on the election result, we read:
On Saturday, after Trump tweeted that “Jeff Sessions is a disaster who has let us all down. We don’t want him back in Washington!” – Sessions returned fire – calling Trump’s tweets “juvenile insults” and emphasizing that “Alabama does not take orders from Washington.”No, Alabama takes orders from cucked-out football fans. I'm so sorry, Jeff Sessions and America.
Comments (7)
From the "You can't make this shit up!" department
Posted On: Wednesday - July 22nd 2020 4:13PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Humor Movies Educational Stupidity
Without the one cuss word in there, this was Dave Barry's bit, wasn't it? I confuse him a lot with P.J. O'Rourke, but I believe it was the very humorous Dave Barry of the Miami newspaper. That and "that'd be a great name for a band" were my favorite lines.
From across the pond, on an island of stupidity, call it the Stupidity Annex, comes this laugh-a-sentence story from the Beeb, which is what the Dweebs there call the BBC (Government British Broadcasting Company). The humor starts in the title - Hakim Sillah death: Teen stabbed at knife awareness course. First, we read:
The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named*, knifed Hakim Sillah, 18, twice in the chest at the west London centre on 7 November last year, Isleworth Crown Court was told.Yes, isn't that ironic, like ray-ay-ain on your wedding day ... but bloodier? I can't skip a single paragraph, as the irony just keeps on ...
Prosecutors said there was "a cruel irony" that Mr Sillah was stabbed while attending a weapons awareness course.
The teenager denies murdering him.He stabbed him in the chest with a knife multiple times and the guy died, but still, he denies murdering him (maybe the other "gentleman" dies of the COVID-one-niner - "Chalk up another one, Liam!") You just can't get a good Barrister these days.
He also denies two counts of wounding with intent and one count of unlawful wounding.
Sorry, this is not a fisking here. This post simply contains people-of-color commentary.
Michelle Nelson QC, prosecuting, said all participants at Hillingdon Civic Centre had been risk assessed before the session, which was run by the Youth Offending Teams (YOTS), and "those classified as high risk were precluded from attending".Yeah, we're all assessed in here, I'm assessed, he's assessed, my grandmama's assessed. None of us would think of bringing our knives, but, well, this one guy may not have been perfectly assessed, so I'm gonna bring just the one knife in case he starts anything.
"Both the young men must have been risk assessed, but the sad reality is that both attended that course carrying knives," she said.
Then comes a few words about the DNA evidence and the "Rambo Knife" found in the woods near the defendant's home.
"He says he did not intend to kill or to cause really serious harm and told the police in his caution interview that he had acted in lawful self-defence. [He] had intended to stab Hakim Sillah in the arm, but he moved.FIFY, Beeb. Heh! Defence? My spell check bill is gonna be intense this month.
"The prosecution say the defendant took a deliberate decision to stab the deceased to the chest twice, we say, lawful self-defence does not arise."
Thetrialstupidity continues.
I don't know how much guys like these two knife awareness students had kept up with Western culture, what with being in England and all, after all. You'd think they might have watched a little Indiana Jones at some point in their lives. Never bring a knife to a knife awareness class when you could have brought a gun.
Peak Stupidity included this scene before in one of our other 2 posts about stabbings in formerly-Great formerly Britain, Knife, immigration policy Clash on the streets of London. The other post was an earlier one, Knife control in London - some well-forecast stupidity.
It's one thing to have to deal with this violence from black thugs in America. They've been here a while. It's the utmost in stupidity to import them in large quantities after you already (should) know better! "Madness!", as the man said.
* I dig, I dig. Some of those names are hard enough to pronounce, but spelling them correctly is not worth the trouble. I don't blame The Beeb for not even trying.
Comments (10)
Pictures from the end of America?
Posted On: Tuesday - July 21st 2020 7:25PM MST
In Topics: Economics The Future Peak Stupidity Roadshow
Yeah, I realize that the post's title sounds like unz.com writer Mr. Lin Dinh's column title, "Postcards from the end of America". For whatever reason, I have not read but one of Mr. Dinh's columns, and didn't like what I read. Is it because he is anti-all-things-American, as the proprietor, Ron Unz, seems to be? I read a lot from young people who have no idea of the country this used to be. I can't blame them for that, but I can blame them for writing on what they no nothing about. It doesn't help that I see Mr. Dinh (obviously Vietnamese) as a foreigner writing about America, though perhaps he has lived here his whole life (until his recent traveling, going by his titles that I see). I have not bothered to check.
That initial digression completed, this view of a seemingly disintegrating America presented here is of the runways, taxiways, and ramps of the northeast side of the Minneapolis airport, one of the hubs of Delta Airlines from a while back. To get these nice views shown here, I'll give the airline traveler some advice here, at least for those spending some time at the MSP airport.
If you have extra time beyond what it takes to get to your next gate and perhaps get something to eat from the Somalians, go over to the D-concourse. You may not know there IS one, as it's smaller than the stretched out C and G ones, and the fairly big E and F, and the A/B complex. From the main "mall" area, go as if you're heading to the C concourse, but go straight instead of hanging a right toward the first C-gate (and that white tram). You'll see a McDonalds (wasn't very busy) on the left, and you can go through a door to your left right after the McD's that says "restricted, blah, blah" (ignore the sign) or a stairway with no door on the left that's just at the entrances to the D-concourse.
Either way, you must lug your luggage (pun? unintended) up about 30 steps, or 1 1/2 flights of stairs, I'd put it. You'll find yourself in what must have once been a ramp tower, that is, not an air traffic control tower, but one used to direct traffic in the ramp areas. It's an observation area that obviously most passengers don't know about, as it's nice and quiet up there with nobody else, or a TSA guy on lunch, and an occasional other passenger. Classical music is playing. Is that to keep away the riff-raff, and/or Somalians? Nah, I think the music is playing throughout the airport, but it's drowned out usually by too much noise elsewhere.
While at peace up there, I noticed how dead the airport really was. With only 2 parallel and sometimes an angled-off runway normally used for landings and take-offs, it'd normally be a great view for kids that like airplanes. Don't they all? There would be one after another, rolling out or taking off, and the view, even though from only 50 ft high or so, is very nice, though it's only of this runway on the NE side (12R/30L) and the ramp/gate areas of E, D, and C concourses. Nope, I think I saw 2 or 3 take-offs and the same number of landings, in about an hour and a half. This is not normal*.
In the sunshine, the huge expanses of concrete were bright and clean, the planes looked beautiful, and ground vehicles and planes just occasionally did what they do. The terminal, the parts that were open, had a few restaurants open, and things were clean enough. People were perhaps extra friendly with the extra time due to low levels of business. This huge airport terminal**, however, costs a lot of money to keep like this. The airport itself costs lots and lots of taxpayer money of various sorts too - FAA, surcharges on tickets, etc. - to keep the cracks in the pavement fixed, keep weeds out, clean the signs, paint markings, chase out critters, keep the many fire trucks in good shape, and lots of things I've probably missed.
This running of < 25% of the flights compared to normal out of there, with them < 1/2 filled, and the loss of revenue that goes with that is not, errr, sustainable. It can't go on like this. If it can't be paid for long term, this nice hub airport would eventually have to go to rot. That's all there is to it.
I sat there and imagined the hard work in building the runways, taxiways, and terminals, the setting up of jet bridges, laying of fuel pipelines, and all that being ignored by hordes of ignorant masses taking over this weed-overgrown place for shelter, farm land, and scrap metal, in a Planet of the Apes sort of way. The engineering of flying machines, and the art of flying them are long forgotten. "You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"
Looking due north, one can see a gleaming city about 10 miles away, with the larger buildings poking out over the horizon and trees. It looked nice and peaceful from 10 miles and a couple of months after the Kung Flu Infotainment intermission rioting. I was imagining how it would have looked for those few days when the thugs and Commies were setting things alight. Could one have seen the smoke rising in the distance from my same vantage point? Come to think of it, Minneapolis has already experienced a Planet of the Apes moment.
Anyway, it's quite nice out there right now still. Business better pick back up, though.
* Granted this was on a Sunday, but it was Sunday afternoon. The slow time for the passenger airlines is Saturday afternoon through Sunday noon-time. Business travelers mostly travel home on Fridays, not the weekend, and don't go out until Sunday afternoon. The short-term vacationers are where they want to be in the middle of the weekend, but many are traveling home (in normal times) on Sunday afternoon.
** It's one out of 2, as there is a Humphries Terminal (Hubert? Nah.) completely separate on the SW side where Southwest, Sun Country, and few other airlines park. The big one, where mostly Delta, but also United and American too, park, is called the Lindbergh Terminal.
PS - specifically for commenter Adam Smith: Per our conversation on the iSteve thread regarding image meta-data, I'd like to experiment on this one, if you could help. Could you let me know which if any of these 3 images has meta-data? (I know you used a different term, but I'm sure you know what I mean. You have the program that you downloaded to display the values. I'd rather you not give all the values, even the dates, but there really is nothing much anyone could get out of them to track me. I'm a little bit careful.
You could just write in what you found quickly in the comments - just referring to image 1, 2, or 3, I suppose. Thanks. This will be kind of fun.
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Reason-TV: People will die!
Posted On: Monday - July 20th 2020 1:25PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Websites Humor Liberty/Libertarianism Poetic Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
Peak Stupidity has done its share of disparagement of Reason magazine. I used to read the print version about 15 years back, but quickly got sick of their ridiculous support for open borders for the US. How many of the writers there were/are stupid enough to not understand that the 50 million or so people who have come here over the last 50 years do not lean in any way Libertarian? (It seemed like most of them, but I don't know now because I quit reading Reason - paper and website - cold turkey long ago.) This is not the way to get greater market penetration, if that was all that this pro-immigration-invasion writing was about.
However, we give credit where credit is due here, and I came across this video in an unz.com comment thread. This very humorous rap-style political skit is not just big laugh at the Kung Flu Panic-Fest, but about lots of the stupidity seen in recent American politics and culture. I take it that Reason magazine doesn't think so much of this Kung Flu situation, but maybe it's just this guy Remy that doesn't.
OK, with no further comment, here's one of the funniest videos I've seen in a while - People Will Die!
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Boogie On Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder
Posted On: Saturday - July 18th 2020 6:28PM MST
In Topics: Music
Wasn't it great when black people made great music regularly? There was plenty of good music to go around in the 1970s, but guys like Stevie Wonder added a lot to the pop music scene. There may be some black musicians playing great music right now, but I sure don't hear any of it. Is this rap or hip-hop crap what people really want to hear most? That doesn't say much for the audience, if that's the case.
This is my favorite song by this artist, though I have ~ 10 others I'd feature here too. Wiki says that, song title not withstanding, this song is neither boogie(-woogie) nor reggae. I think the extremely funky bass sound, created on the Moog synthesizer by Stevie, does have a missing-beat reggae sound to it. Yeah, you'd call this funk, though, with that fuzzy sound.
Except for one other guy playing conga drums, all the instruments were played by Stevie Wonder. Boogie on, Reggae Woman has a great melody and a great sound. The lyrics are good too, but this is unimportant, as Peak Stupidity noted long ago.
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The long arm of the Infernal Revenue Service
Posted On: Saturday - July 18th 2020 5:56PM MST
In Topics: Globalists US Feral Government
This is at the top of the 2019 tax-year 1040 form.
I noticed a number of things while filling out the income tax forms on or about the 15th of July. (You can't prove I didn't finish on the 15th, not in a court of law you can't!) I think there are 2 more posts coming on this, but today I just want to point out one small change.
I saw the last line in the graphic above, a place for one's foreign country and such. Something clicked, so I checked. That was not on the form last year.* Very interesting! What's the deal here? Have enough tax-paying Americans gotten the hell out to where this line needed to be added? Was it an oversight before. Was this line added for the Globalist elites?
Although commenter Adam Smith is someone I think may have a great handle on this too (be glad to hear about it), from a website that reads fairly straight-forward and knowledge-full on this issue, Premier Offshore**, I got information that fits in with what I'd heard before about our lovely IRS: From their page on taxing of foreign income by different countries:
The only major nation that taxes its citizens (and green card holders) regardless of where they live is the United States. So long as you hold a U.S. passport or green card, the Internal Revenue Service wants its cut of your profits and capital gains.With the exception of the Philippines, I see we're in with a great crowd there!Some lists of countries that tax citizens and legal residents on their worldwide income include Libya, North Korea, Eritrea and the Philippines. The tax systems of these countries are not well developed and data is limited.The United States taxes all U.S. persons on their worldwide income. A U.S. person is a citizen, green card holder (who is a legal resident but not necessarily present in the United States), and residents. A resident is anyone who spends more than 183 days a year in the United States.
There's more to it, One can stay out of the US for 11 out of 12 months of a year (not on a monthly basis, but one must be away 330 days) and have ~ $102,000 excluded, which may suffice for lots of ex-pats.*** Failing that, one can obtain residency to avoid this same amount of money.
I'm no tax man or ex-pat advisor. My point here is that the IRS, as instructed by the US Congress, acts with an unmitigated gall that's not the norm throughout the world. They will not leave you alone unless you:
a) Renounce citizenship. It's not as simple as, say, getting a divorce in Islam-land, such as "I renounce thee, I renounce thee, I renounce thee!" One must pay an over $1,000 fee, and fill out paperwork.
OR
b) If you don't plan on ever coming back, it's a lot easier. Just leave no phone number or forwarding address and blow them off. Above all, don't let them sucker you into filling out that last line on the top of the 1040!
* I pull out the previous ones to see if I'm missing anything that will save me money, and more importantly, keep some money from flowing to the Feral Government.
** I just found this one with my duckduckgo search on this question. I am not fixing to move to S. America at this point in time or anything like that.
*** Don't confuse the >183 days (1/2 a year) in America - with the 330 days (as in < ~ one month in America). The former is for definition of a "resident", while the latter is about the exemption on that $102,000.
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Trump Fail
Posted On: Friday - July 17th 2020 9:01PM MST
In Topics: Trump US Feral Government
Before I get too far with this post, let me categorically state a few things: Yes, I will vote for Donald Trump in November, if I vote at all. Yes, Joe Biden would be a whole lot worse. Yes, President Trump is pissing off the kind of people that I'd like to piss off, as they are our enemies. That all said, this continuation of our disparagement of the President in yesterday's post is warranted. He has been a severe disappointment.
(Thanks. commenter Adam Smith for the meme suggestion.)
OK, this meme is perhaps too harsh. I can't really say that President Trump has been lying with his promises. As Elwood explained to his brother Joliet Jake*, "It wasn't a lie; it was just bullshit". Yes, Trump is a real bullshitter, an art that I guess he honed in his high-level real estate business. When a man doesn't keep his word, though his intentions may be good, do you call that a lie? Nah, but it just doesn't say much for him as a man.
Here's what I wanted to add to that last post: I realize that the President is not, and should not be, anything like a King, with absolute powers. It's good that he can't just do ANYTHING. What he IS supposed to be, however, is Administrator of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government**. Congress writes the laws that enable the powers of the various Departments, bureaus, and offices of the Executive Branch, tasking them with certain functions. How things are carried out within those functions are up to whoever runs things in each of these, with everyone eventually reporting to the President.
There are Federal judges all over the country ready to stop every little move by the Trump Administration, to be sure. They cannot directly block actions by the bureaucrats and other employees of the agencies of the Executive Branch though. By that, I mean legally, possibly they can, but practically they cannot. ICE, as is this example, can just keep on doing its job, with the details left to the employees and lower-level managers. There is nothing stopping President Trump from simply telling high-level managers that if this new visa policy doesn't get implemented, they will be fired. In turn, the middle and lower level people are motivated in the same fashion.
The revoking of foreign student visas for those enrolled in now-remote-learning universities is/was not some new law passed by Congress. It was just going to be the way the visa offices were to handle things now, based on this change in university policies. There are a myriad small decisions that have to be made within these agencies. Under the last I don't know how many Administrations, many asylum seekers, for instance, have been let into the country, from Africa, by way of Ecuador, then Mexico, or something, with any BS story about people hot on their heels ready to persecute them. That was not based on law, but based on men (and women), who operated based on the will of the Administration, all reporting up to the Chief Executive.
Many times, the Chief Executive, the President, that is, may not care about day-to-day bureaucratic decisions, or let the status quo continue. However, if he wants things to change, he has every right to administer it his way. The key word is "administer", and that means having people loyal to you at the top, and letting them know they won't be there long if the word doesn't get sent down, and changes don't start happening. Every single employee can be fired by the President, and that's no business of the US Congress!
The left knows how to handle these things. Even when laws do get passed to stop their policies, they seem to get the bureaucrats to just keep on keeping on in the direction they desire. Why can't our side do the same? Ignore the pesky Nancy Pelosies and the "rulings" by judges. Administer the Government. Unfortunately, we don't have an Administrator - we have a Bullshitter.
* Wow! The Blues Brothers movie is 40 years old. What a different world America was then! I can't find the scene on youtube, but the quotes are on the IMDB page.
Elwood : Well, what was I gonna do? Take away your only hope? Take away the very thing that kept you going in there? I took the liberty of bullshitting you, okay?
Jake : You lied to me.
Elwood : It wasn't a lie, it was just bullshit.
** Speaking of which, there are things he's NOT supposed to be, one of them being top "General" of the armed forces when there is no declared war ongoing. This Commander-in-Chief role is only supposed to be put on the President during a war declared by Congress. Maybe they wrote up an open-ended declaration of war, with the enemy and cause left "TBD" while we weren't paying attention.
Comments (18)
Scenes from the Kung Flu Summer re-Panic - Part 6
Posted On: Friday - July 17th 2020 10:12AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
It's been a whopping 4 days since we at Peak Stupidity got upset enough about the Kung Flu (Season 2!) stupidity to write a Scenes from the Kung Flu Summer re-Panic post. Here we go...
It really is sad, what you see in that picture. You don't have to be a out-of-control full-of-compassion women voter to feel bad for the kids. What kind of life is this for them? It's been 20 years since the helicopter parenting has been big, meaning kids just don't run outside to play with friends and get told to come back for dinner*. They've had to have their parents arrange "play-dates".
That's bad enough, but over the last 4 months, they've had to get their parents to lend them their phones or computers just to talk with friends or see them on zoom. That's no way to interact, just on a screen, not for months at a time! (We've been lucky enough to deal with some other parents that don't mind the kids all being out together ... no masks, no muss.)
Can you imagine what the little ones are thinking, though? If you are a 2 y/o toddler, you may have solid memories only going back 1/2 a year or so. You will think this is the way the world has always been. Adults don't show their noses and mouths in public, in the same way that they don't show their pee-pee's and ass-cracks... OK, well, some of them. If this goes on for, well what will it be, another year, two(?), what kind of impression of the world will this be?
The kid on the right below might have an obsession with not showing his face when he grows up. He may have the same dreams about leaving his face mask at home, you know, like those dreams where you go to the office and realize you forgot to put your pants and underwear on. (Usually it's just the pants, unless it's one of THOSE dreams... with Ivanka working in the same cube as me ... Jared is my reporting manager with his web cam... we've all probably had this one ...)
We went to an outside deck at the restaurant/bar nearby, so I could do a little training with a friend in a field we both work in. I and my boy went up the wooden stairs straight up to the deck, outside the whole time. "Oh, you have to wear a mask", the waiter said. "What? We're outside, and look, they don't have any masks on." "They" were 6 20-something people having a good time about 8 ft. away. "No, you don't need a mask here, but you have to come in through the inside, with a mask on." WTF?!
OK, I know part of this is about being carded, something they all feel obligated (more like, pressured by THE LAW) to do to anyone, no matter how old or young**. They want you to come through the door that would have the bouncer, were it not daytime in the COVID-19 era. "Yeah, well, we're already out here, so ..." I should have added "and I don't want to take a chance on my boy picking up the Kung Flu walking through the crowd", but I'm just not that quick on my feet. The guy let us just sit down.
Next, where's the friend? He thinks the same way as I do on this whole business (and really a whole lot of my co-workers do too, from my informal surveys). I was looking forward to some fun when he showed up! It turned out he was parked, down below the deck, ready to also go up the wooden stairs. "Hey, Joe, here's a mask! Put it on!" I yelled from up top, as I pulled out a balled-up face mask from my pocket and threw it down toward his car. It ended up on the asphalt, and, then the waiter told him to head around the front. He didn't want too much trouble so he came through the inside unscathed. What a country!
* There are lots of reasons for this that may or may not have been discussed in a previous post, but would be good for another.
** See "You need to know how to pick your battles."
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Amazing prescient Peak Stupidity prediction that Trump will renege on policy
Posted On: Thursday - July 16th 2020 11:27AM MST
In Topics: University Trump US Feral Government
(This one was from the last weeks's article by Federale, with the original good news.)
Yes, you heard it here first, readers, President Trump's promises are not to be trusted. This goes for almost every single one of them, even small pieces of immigration policy, as per the link to the story about yet another type of visa that leads to non-immigration visitor "students" staying here for good.
I'd really thought Peak Stupidity had already posted something about this, but I it must have been only in a blog comment on unz.com where I specifically mentioned the latest encouraging little tidbit, as reported by Federale at VDare, Trump To Expel 3000 Chinese Graduate Students For Espionage—Why Not ALL Chinese Students?. Yeah, the excellent idea was to at least use the Kung Flu re-Panic as an excuse to cut down on the Chinese student visa numbers. I mean, if you're going to be learning remotely on Zoom, you can learn just as well from China. What's the point in even being here, right?*
Though Federale noted that the anti-American Kushner crowd was already trying to soften this ICE policy, per:
Sadly, it appears that Jared Kushner and openly anti-Trump university lobbyists are working behind the scenes to soften the blow, instead of expelling all Red Chinese students and prohibiting all future students from Red China, only a select few will get the chop.... he was still ebullient about it, after noting the original NY Times article (written by one Ed Wong - no conflict of interest there! - and a Julian Barnes) admits this is all about the Benjamins for the U's:
American universities are expected to push back against the administration’s move. While international educational exchange is prized for its intellectual value, many schools also rely on full tuition payments from foreign students to help cover costs, especially the large group of students from China.Federale again:
But aside from the direct national security threat of Red Chinese spies, the more damaging threat is the American jobs Chinese students steal through Optional Practical Training, Curricular Practical Training, mass numbers of H-1B NIVs, employment visa fraud, and illegal employment, not to mention those who stay illegally after graduation.There's that ebullience for ya'. Those VDare guys and gals are nothing if not hopeful.
More than 3,000 Red Chinese need to be expelled, all 360,000 should be expelled. Imagine the fury of the pointy headed intellectualoids in the universities who all hate President Trump! Just for political reasons alone the President should order all Red Chinese deported. This will also cause a fury in Red China, undermining the implicit agreement between the Chinese and their Red government; the government gives the population prosperity and a chance to study in America in exchange for the tyranny and corruption, but if the Reds can’t deliver prosperity and a ticket to America, things get hot. But the best part is the financial impact on leftist universities losing hundreds of millions of dollars in tuition.
I was not at all very hopeful. In an unz comment 3 or so days back, I predicted with great confidence that President Trump would renege on this small, but worthwhile, step in immigration enforcement. Now, I know what you're thinking. How can Peak Stupidity have this much insight? How did we know that President Trump would change his mind within a week? Just to put to to rest the hope that this Peak Stupidity blogger is the 2nd coming of Nostradumbass, let me put it this way:
President Trump is full of shit most of the time! That doesn't even mean that he doesn't WANT to put this small ICE policy into effect. It means that he said that he would go this without having an idea of how you get things done as the damn head of the Executive Branch of the US Government! The employees of ICE work for Donald Trump, period, judges, rulings, and BS from Congress notwithstanding. I'm gonna elaborate on this in a 2nd post, but for now, let me point you to the let-down that was amazingly prognosticated by this blogger.
I just understand that President Trump's word is worth absolutely nothing. A man is as good as his word, so what does this say about Donald Trump?
VDare writer James Kirkpatrick, in a post about another subject, (OK, no more Polish jokes out of this guy - time for American jokes out of the Poles.), notes in passing:
Depressingly, in the face of Establishment opposition, the Trump Administration has just backed down from a policy that would have banned foreign students from receiving visas [A link follows to an article that I just don't even feel like reading. WTF is new?]There you go. Not a week later, the weak non-leader Trump has let us down again, even on just another small piece of what could have been encouraging policy.
No, it didn't have to go this way. Again, that's another rant for another post.
* We know the real reasons, a chance to live in a better environment, get the kids immersed in English in one of the good schools (you know, with the white and other Asian kids), and work on staying permanently.
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The new cruelest month and day
Posted On: Wednesday - July 15th 2020 9:18PM MST
In Topics: US Feral Government
Peak Stupidity noted the cruelest day of the cruelest month last April 15, the date by which income tax returns are normally due.
We really need a few new topic keys here, one being "Taxes", but the reader can find a number of posts on the income tax under the US Feral Government topic key for now. That post linked-to above was written last April 15th, as I inserted my tax return into the middle of the big pile of procrastinators. (I'm not a procrastinator on this, but I have my other reasons, as explained in Tax withholding and Leverage and Another reason to owe the IRS money.)
This evening has not become a lot of fun, as the 3-month extended time limit for filing the tax forms has run out today, and I had much better things to do the rest of the day. There's also the fact that some quick and surprising calculations done in late January resulted in the knowledge that I would be writing out a decent sized check this time. It's not that I don't have the money, but his is by far not my favorite way to spend money.
I don't let the IRS run my life, though either, so I'm just not that awfully concerned about getting this stuff in the mail exactly on even the new date. With all the other cancellations and postponements due to the overreaching Kung Flu response, this seems like another thing that people are probably not "getting around to" so much in 2020.
Trying to get a certain book or movie at the library? Sorry, COVID-19. Want to send the kids off to school? (WHY?!!) Sorry, COVID-19. Planning on taking a girl to dinner and movie? Sorry, COVID-19. All this business has rubbed off on me just a bit after 4 months. Income tax return due on July 15th? Sorry, COVID-19. I owe the IRS 2,100 dollas? Fuck me, pay you? No, fuck you, COVID-19!
Now, if I could only say this with the accent of one of the Goodfellas, or like Joe Pesci, at least:
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