Posted On: Thursday - March 21st 2024 6:36AM MST
In Topics: Global Financial Stupidity Economics US Feral Government Taxes
That's from some guy who tweets about stuff - that's all I know about him. It doesn't take a PhD in economics or anything else to understand when one is in
A little more from the Independent Sentinel site is here:
Personal income tax is half of what the government takes in. That isn’t good.Well, it's more simple, and it gives more understanding of the situation, to just say that last month the US Gov't had to spend just under 1/3 of all money taken in on interest payments on that $34,000,000,000,000 "note".
About 50 percent of federal revenue comes from individual income taxes, 7 percent from corporate income taxes, and another 36 percent from payroll taxes that fund social insurance programs. The rest comes from a mix of sources.
Peak Stupidity has warned this nation many times. The financial stupidity will be the first one to stop, due to, what CAN'T go on, WON'T go on.* The rest of the stupidity may die with it, but, as we've also warned, that's only if the result isn't that we go Communist. In that case, as stupidity goes, the sky's the limit.
PS: This post's title comes from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?
* H/T due Herb Stein, from what I am told.
Comments (15)
The days of the HuWhite pages
Posted On: Wednesday - March 20th 2024 7:43PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Internets History Americans
This post is a continuation from Let your fingers do the walking.
We discussed the difference in society and the divide (per Mr. Hail) between the days of the Yellow Pages as THE way to look up businesses and the internet searching of today in that last post. We saw the change as generally an improvement - that's one of the very few! Here, let me give a summary of the use of the White Pages, used for looking up people... to like, call them, on what was simply a telephone. (Imagined younger PS readers, please don't make me put up Captain Picard again, mmmkayyy?)
Going along with what commenter E.H. Hail discussed in some detail in the comments last time, back in the long heyday of the phone books, life was more structured in this way. This book, dropped on the porches of all houses and apartments, even in the ghetto, I gotta assume involving hazard pay, was THE listing of the phone numbers of anyone one might know by name and want to call, with exceptions. It was the comprehensive listing, and the only one. The big phone company - even after being broken up into "Baby Bells" - had this information. Nobody else had it, well, besides the NSA, maybe the FBI, but no other company (OK, besides "The Company" too). "The phone company" owned those smaller insulated lines* up on the, you know, telephone poles.
Yeah, telephone, the old term for those phone apps most of us have on our.... errr, phones.
"Oh, yeah, I have that app. It seems to come installed on every phone I get. Whaddya' need that app for so bad? All it does is let you talk to people. Who needs THAT? They should call these things texters, Tik-tokers, Browsers, or something we use a lot. Or, call them Personal Computers.***
How would one get in this "phone book"? I never thought much about it then, but obviously it would go by names used for billing for the land lines. Having one's name in it meant adulthood, and it was a very big deal to some of us.
Well, after all, Steve Martin had finally gone out on his own. He'd have not been listed before, with the landline having been listed under his family name when he was a poor black child.
It was a different world. Even with the Bart Simpson style pranksters and some annoying human sales calls of the day, people did not feel the need to get away from others by hiding their info, as now. One could indeed have an "unlisted number", but it seemed really weird, and, as I recall, one had to pay extra for that each year. (Once the books came out, it was a done deal, one way or another. There were no daily "updates".) Women had a reason to keep their man's name in the book for security - it was a White Pagiarchy, I tell ya'. Addresses were in there too, right alongside the phone numbers.
Nowadays, with various cell phone companies around, one encompassing big book or website of numbers would be hard to come by. Either way, a big difference in life now is the lack of societal trust. We are very careful what information we give out and to whom. If you want to reach someone the old-fashioned way, even knowing his name, you must make contact with some other method, including meeting him in person. of course, in order to be able to call him. That seems normal now. It was not normal back in the day of the White Pages. The way it was: Got a name? Look him up and call. Simple. He, possibly she, really didn't want to hear from you? He, or she, could hang up in style. That's really hard on phones that are no longer made of bakelite plastic.
* They weren't all small either. In the big city, as this one crew was digging up an old big line (probably to replace with fiber optics), they let me have one piece, about a yard long, that was about 1 1/2" O.D. Inside that black insulation, I couldn't count, but estimated, over 1,000 conductors, each non-stranded copper surrounded by its own color-coded insulation.** I had 0.6 miles of wire for projects, this back when I could strip the ends with my teeth. I don't do that anymore.
** A cool job for a math or crypto guy would have been figuring out the best scheme for the color-coding.
*** Aren't these things the real personal computers, more than those IBM AT desktops were?
Comments (9)
Let your fingers do the walking.
Posted On: Tuesday - March 19th 2024 10:04PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Internets Humor History Americans
We're running into Peak Stupidity mission creep here. This is one of these deals by which one potential post has quickly turned into four in my head. The original is about what I think is somewhat of a scam on-line - partly my bad search capabilities, I'll admit - but I needed some background that would make it go on too long. Therefore, here I'll give that background, and it's kind of a fun look at the recent past. The Curmudgeonry tag won't even appear this time, as I believe this change is generally for the better.
For those PS readers under 30 y/o, maybe even 35, if there are any, this may be an interesting revelation and for the rest, hopefully it'll be some nostalgia. For the former, let me explain that the internet has not always been "there".
"When you needed to know something, what did you do then?"
We might have asked someone who knew, or failing that, would have had to go get a book. One might have had to buy one or perhaps find one at the library.
"Yeah, your phones were these old "brick" things, right?"
No, they were on the wall or on a desk.
"OK, so you couldn't use them for this, but you could just sit down and search it up..."
No, I mean there was no internet.
"Surely, you could go to the library to use the computers and ..."
No, I mean there was no internet, and don't call me Shirley.
"Hah, that's a new one! Anyway, what the... well I guess you'd just have had to look up an expert on LinkedIn or, well, no, then email a bunch of people who might be able to help ..."
See that guy - his name is Jean Luc Picard. His predecessor in the 1960s Star Fleet didn't have the internet either, and neither did this guy, in the 1980s.
"Yeah, well, sure, when you're thousands of parsecs away, the signal can be pretty weak, and ..."
Do you want me to have to paste this picture in again?
No, see, to look up the phone numbers for people and businesses there were these big books we'd get from the phone company every year called "the White Pages" and "the Yellow Pages", respectively. (In case you're wondering, no, there were no Black! pages for residences and people of the ghettos, and the Yellow pages didn't just cover Chinatown. We were all integrated, phone book wise.).
In a small town, the white and yellow pages might be combined into one book 1/2" or 3/4" thick, while in a medium sized city each of them could be up to 2 1/2" or so thick. They'd get delivered to one's house every year around the same time. Though the white pages had the names that appeared on residents' phone bills in alphabetical order, the yellow pages had business names and bigger ads categorized, then in alphabetical order within. I imagine categories would come and go. Buggy and Buggy Accessories might have been taken out in the 1940s or '50s, while Internet Companies* may have been added in either 1995 or '96, by my best guess.
Speaking of internet companies, it took a few years before there was enough information on the internet to make a search for people or businesses worthwhile. Of course, there were websites made based on the old white pages and yellow pages information, such as, well, yeah, whitepages.com and yellowpages.com. At this point the latter don't work worth a damn for the finding of phone numbers. Those land lines for which information used to be (at least) readily available are almost a thing of the past, and people are loath to give out their cell numbers due to the robo and other junk calls.
I'm no early adopter of "Tech", but by the turn of the century it was usually easier to sit down and try a search for a business before going to the yellow pages. Something we are used to now is that we can find out information for places out of town. Well, no, it was NOT easy back with the phone books! To get information on businesses out of town one might have to go, yes, to the library, where they'd have at least phone books for around the State. Being able to search nation- and world-wide for stuff is something we take for granted, but it has been thus for only one quarter of a century.
There was a long lag, when the phone books kept coming, and they were good for the shooting range only, for most of us. Interestingly, at one point, we got more than one, maybe even three different, yellow page books. There was competition, but this was late in the game. I don't know exactly, but I will say it's been 8 to 10 years since the phone books stopped coming. The web had been more useful for a decade prior already.
That was a lot of paper being used and a big effort with the yearly delivery of these millions of 5 lb books. Peak Stupidity has noticed that Green is the new cheap-ass, meaning not so much that becoming more efficient and saving on materials and energy makes one a cheap-ass. It's just that this being economical is usually advertised as "going green" because "we care about the carbon", rather than what it is, good economics.
Now, about the post title here. That was an ad on TV - "Let your fingers do the walking". I got the clever line, but I didn't get the point. The yellow pages were the yellow pages, with no competition then. Who were they selling this service to? By this time, even contemporary oldsters would not have found walking all around to shop useful. The small Mayberry downtowns were gone, and the walkable White inner cities were LONG gone.
That's some background for people under 30-35. I want to relate some humor about the yellow pages, then write a short post about how the white pages worked, and finally get to my point about internet business searches.
* "Providers" was the term used later on.
Comments (19)
20th Century Mike Pence
Posted On: Tuesday - March 19th 2024 7:14AM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 US Police State US Feral Government The Neocons
Peak Stupidity has had it with Mike Pence. He is of absolutely no use to this country! (His use by the Potomac Regime - that's a different story.) We rightly railed on this Indianan, and former Vice President last summer - see GOPer Mike Pence - Another dumb Trump hire - - The stupidity of Mike Pence and More on Alleged Mike Pence Stupidity. Note that the "More" post was a rethinking of my disparagement of Mr. Pence from one interview, based on comments by E.H. Hail. From what you too can see, below, I think I'm reverting to thinking this guy's not just slow but well-meaning. He's not on our side.
First of all, yeah, he was a stupid hire by Mr. Trump, as I explained in that 1st post. My thinking now is that Trump wanted to make sure he had someone bland who would not get in the way of the spotlight on Trump. The latter's ego is so big, that this is more important than having someone more intelligent and capable than a Mike Pence, and, most importantly, loyally on, if not the side of Donald Trump, the side of Americans. This is why he will not pick the splendid Marjorie Taylor Greene for VP candidate. She's smart as a whip and truly on the side of Trump and Americans. However, she will gladly and competently do the disparagement of the ctrl-left Regime, especially its media arm, that Trump
I came across the following video from Face the Nation. I had NO IDEA that was still on TV, and therefore no idea who the woman is. I'm including just a minute of this, in which Pence says that Trump should not call the J6 Political Prisoners "hostages". (Oh, yeah, he explains himself more, and one can watch the whole 11 minutes. It doesn't get any better.)
Now, look, I could quibble with the use of the word "hostages" too, based on dictionary definitions. Because there are no demands being made by the Communists holding them in return for their release, the word hostage is not really accurate. I explained this already here.
No, the over 1,000 J6 prisoners are being held to discourage anyone else from even trying to hold a big protest against the Regime again. We also all know that their sentencing and treatment is much, much harsher than the consequences were for the Black! thugs of BLM and the Commies of antifa, for much more serious destruction, looting and burning. Almost all of the latter were never even arrested. Those on one side of a political divide are being held for visibly being in opposition to the other side, the ruling Potomac Regime. The proper term is "Political Prisoner".
However, Mike Pence didn't quibble about that definition. He deflected the question toward some American hostages being held in Gaza. The Peak Stupidity reader may note that WE DON'T CARE here so much about anything going on there. We want the American military and American taxpayer money to stay out, that's all. Yet Mike Pence obviously cares more about a conflict 1/3 the way around the world than he does about a very obvious Communist takeover right here at home. He has no idea how far this has gone already and how far it is going. The dude is living in the last century! That's my most generous take on the man.
A less generous take on Mike Pence is that he is playing his part in the politics of the Potomac Regime. American patriots should have nothing to do with him.
PS: At the beginning, there is a clip of Trump speaking to a crowd about the J6 Political Prisoners. He's soft. He never said clearly that he will pardon them. In that previous post, Hostages or Political Prisoners, I wrote "Finally, if Donald Trump gets elected this November and then doesn't pardon these people on January 20th of '25, then he is just the tool I often think of him as."
Comments (11)
Kung Flu PanicFest retrospective: Common Sense
Posted On: Monday - March 18th 2024 8:33PM MST
In Topics: Educational Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
"Common sense is not so common", they'll tell you. I agree. It's not something you're born with or not, IMO. Common sense comes from getting out and about, and with using what one's learned from all that getting out and about.
After finishing that 4-year retrospective on Peak Stupidity's stance on the PanicFest at the time, I felt I should add more explanation of this stance at the time based on common sense. I mentioned the school closings as that was the thing going on right at 4 years back.
This Kung Flu Infotainment had been going on already a month and a half when the various States closed the schools. You'd have to have been in permanent RTC - - Responsible Thinking Center, aka Detention*, to have not heard about the Covid 19 ("the Corona" being the phrase most used at the time, IIRC) by that date, Yet, out of a few hundred kids, we did not hear of ANY of them being hospitalized by this disease. Had one been, we would have heard - that's my common sense. Had one child DIED from it, believe me, there would have been no need for a mandated closure of the school. Every parent would have said "fuck this shit, absence warnings or not!" and kept the kids inside the house for a long while.
Yet, this is what the park/playground we hung out at our 2 hour recesses looked like for the next month or more:
"Well, maybe they're worried about the kids spreading this virus more quickly than it would if everyone stays home", I thought of. But, no. Most of the parents are young and in good health, and I'd not heard of any parent who'd gotten hospitalized or died from the Corona either. We would have heard, if so, and all those the kids would probably have not been out in the sunshine at the park either.
It was just common sense. This was an Infotainment PanicFest - good for governments and good for the media.
"Wait, now, but maybe others, with no kids in the schools didn't know wha you did. You can't blame them, right?" Perhaps they should have gotten out more themselves, so they wouldn't have been fixated on the Lyin' Press on TV and the internet. Then too, nobody, not even the fairly large number of old people around, was heard of dying from the Corona.
Well, was this some exceptionally good or lucky area? We weren't in Wuhan or New York City, but no, we had the big circles of "cases of Corona" covering our area too on those thematic maps that came up for every search on the news. Common sense would have helped a lot of people from getting sucked into the Panic vortex.
Back to the kids, even on this totally bogus bar graph - due to cases of the disease being defined as only people hospitalized with positive tests - the kids' numbers were small.
Why'd they close the schools, then? Exercise of Totalitarian tendencies, for the most part, is what I came up with.
* RTC is what they called it at the local school. They're not fooling
Comments (13)
The Pretenders - Thumbelina
Posted On: Saturday - March 16th 2024 7:30PM MST
In Topics: Music Peak Stupidity Roadshow
Tonight we will continue* our Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders music from their excellent early 1980s Learning to Crawl album with Thumbelina. Thumbelina is a little girl whose Mom, the song lyricist narrator**, is taking across this country on a road trip from somewhere in the northeast on the way to Tucson, Arizona... where her Mama's waiting, wearing a low-necked sweater, ... and the cat was cool and he never said a mumblin' word ... or something ... sorry, confusing my music here.
No, but there's no doubt what this song is about, going along with the concept of this album. I'll put all the lyrics here:
Hush little baby. Don't you cry.
When we get to Tucson, you'll see why
we left the snowstorms and the thunder and rain
for the desert sun. We're gonna be born again!
What's important in this world -
a little boy, a little girl.
Hush little darling. Go to sleep.
Look out the window, and count the sheep
that dot the hillsides and the fields of wheat
across America, as we cross America.
What's important and here today -
the broken line on the highway.
All the love in the world for you, girl.
Thumbelina, in a great, big scary world.
All the love in the world for you, girl.
Take my hand, and we'll make it through this world.
Hush little baby, my poor little thing.
You've been shuffled about like a pawned wedding ring.
It must seem strange. Love was here then gone,
and the Oklahoma sunrise becomes the Amarillo dawn.
What's important in this life -
Ask the man who's lost his wife.
Even MORE IMPORTANT, to us listeners, is that this song has a great Carter/Cash style flat-picking sound. Even that fade ending sounds like a country song by Johnny Cash, this one, which is about not one road trip, but many road trips. I've been everywhere in this here land.
What a fantastic song! (... though it's only my 2nd favorite on the album.)
I want to again thank the illustrious and ebullient Peak Stupidity commenters and all the other readers whose mood I have no idea of, since they don't write. We've got something different about the yellow pages and hotel reservations scams, a story out of Harvard good enough for the Babylon Bee, were it not unfortunately real, something about Mexican quality roofing, and plenty of stuff I'll remember next week. Happy Sunday, all!
* The first 3 songs we featured were Middle of the Road - - Back on the Chain Gang and Time the Avenger.
** It's written by Chrissie Hynde.
Comments (5)
SCROTUS Case: Missouri v Dark Brandon
Posted On: Saturday - March 16th 2024 7:41AM MST
In Topics: Websites Pundits US Feral Government Orwellian Stupidity Legal Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity Zhou Bai Dien Anti-Social Media
That one is no humorous title, (in PS's opinion) as we use here on many posts written to compare and contrast, as the old English teacher would say. No, State of Missouri v. Biden is an actual court case that has made it up to the SCROTUS, with oral arguments to be made there the day after tomorrow - Monday, the 18th.
Peak Stupidity can't cover every Supreme Court case, even those that do concern the material we write about. However, it so happens that Mr. Jim Hoft, owner/operator of The Gateway Pundit, is one of the 7 plaintiffs. He is one of 5 individuals, while the other 2 are the States of Missouri and Louisiana.*
Jim Hoft has really made the big time with this, and I am glad for him for that. Regarding Jim Hoft's site, our review of Gateway Pundit noted that he/it is a force for good - we just hate a couple of minor things about the site, the sick and overwhelming ads and the hype.
This case is about censorship and violation of Amendment I of the US Constitution by the Dark Brandon Administration. It's not just the big "TECH" Anti-Social Media "platforms" that are being accused of wrongdoing. Were it these companies doing it on their own, that gets into the discussion Peak Stupidity joined in October '20 with Big-"Tech" censorship and Section 230. (That was just before the election, and President Trump had just gotten around to thinking hard about this! "Oh, yeah, I was busy tweeting last year ... guess I dropped the ball on this one ...") In this case, as per the accusations, the Bai Dien (switching back-and-forth at will here) Administration was involved. They'd been directing these companies to censor information. From the Justia Law site linked-to above:
The Plaintiffs—three doctors, a news website, a healthcare activist, and two states —had posts and stories removed or downgraded by the platforms. Their content touched on a host of divisive topics like the COVID-19 lab-leak theory. Plaintiffs maintain that although the platforms stifled their speech, the government officials were the ones pulling the strings. They sued the officials for First Amendment violations and asked the district court to enjoin the officials’ conduct.The Feral Gov't official defendants claimed that no,
... they only “sought to mitigate the hazards of online misinformation” by “calling attention to content” that violated the “platforms’ policies,” a form of permissible government speech.Yes, just calling attention, as they happened to be following it all, and enjoy reading the legal disclaimer pages in their spare time, and were just trying to make sure the platforms' policies are being followed, like a good nosy neighbor ... sure, that's the ticket.
Back to the 7 plaintiffs, just below is the list of them. For 3 of the other 4 individual plaintiffs, seeing as he has his website, Mr. Hoft has interviewed these doctors, one by one. (There are videos and transcriptions.) The name-links go to his GP pages on these three, from today and last week.
* Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
* Dr. Martin Kulldorff
* Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya
* Jim Hoft
* Jill Hines
* The State of Missouri
* The State of Louisiana
The 5th individual, Jill Hines, is a Conservative healthcare policy activist out of Ruston, Louisiana, Without going to facebook (a no-go site in these parts), the best short bio on Mrs. Hines is here on the Citizens for a New Lousiana site - she is 4th one down, just below Tiffany with the big ta-tas.
I am familiar with the location of the States of Missouri and Louisiana. I assume the reader is too.
This case is about big violations of Amendment I by the Feral Gov't. That the Fed have been violating most of the Bill of Rights for arguably half a century is nothing new. I like that this one has gotten to the SCROTUS, but also, this one heavily involves the Kung Flu PanicFest. One can see another process by which the narrative was formed. Because I'm not at all an Anti-Social Media guy, I might now have missed anything blocked via the censorship anyway. I'd been avoiding the mass Lyin' Press TV and websites for years already, so I'd find my own material on the PanicFest. However, I've chalked up the narrative control to American's proclivities to still follow TV and other big media. After seeing the complaints made by Jim Hoft, Missouri, et al, we can suppose that during the PanicFest many Americans would have gotten more truthful news off of these platforms and not been so... damned panicked.
Will the SCROTUS show integrity? We need 5 black-robed people with integrity. I think that's a lot to ask. I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty more from The Gateway Pundit on Monday, and then, IIRC, a few weeks later, when the SCROTUS decision is excreted.
* I don't know why Missouri gets top billing. Did they start the lawsuit up?
** We also posted an Addendum.
Comments (6)
4 years later, and still...
Posted On: Friday - March 15th 2024 5:20PM MST
In Topics: Humor Kung Flu Stupidity
I took this screenshot off of yahoo a few weeks back. 4 years after the start of the Kung Flu PanicFest, I'm not miffed by the advice given by yahoo, that after being sick with fever, we should return to our normal schedules. I'm miffed that someone at yahoo thinks there's anyone left on the internet who gives a rat's ass about CDC guidelines.
I looked at the Peak Stupidity posts that appear with the Kung Flu Stupidity topic key on or about the middle of March of '20.
Yesterday, 4 years ago, found Peak Stupidity somewhat miffed but also glad that that School's out For Ever! OK, too optimistic, but I saw the silver lining in this cloud of stupidity:
One really cool result of this Wuhan-Willies infotainment panic-fest may be what happens after the kids are at home for a month or more in a large number of school districts all around the country. The parents may get hip the to idea that these schools have served as not much more than social gathering places, welfare distribution facilities and expensive playgrounds. I think they would realize there's a better way.3 days from today (still 4 years back), Peak Stupidity officially borrowed the name Kung Flu, naming the topic key and giving this plenty of use over the next 2 1/2 years. (I later regretted not using "Flu Manchu", which I'd first seen in an Allan Wall - VDare writer - column, a couple of years later.) In that post, Beware the Kung Flu!, I was wrong though, not on the location of origin, but on the origin process:
Why are they mostly from Asia? We all know that people over there have more exotic tastes, eating animals that we wouldn't even have as pets here. Some we would. I guess these animals are closer in some biological sense to humans, as we never seem to get anything viral from our best friends here, the cats and dogs. Also, the fact that there is just no damn extra room in most livable parts of Asia so people have to live quite a bit more like bats has got to be a contributing factor, allowing for a quick initial spread of these new strains.Either way, by this date I was not worried about the disease itself, only the PanicFest. The question asked the next day was The Kung Flu - SHTF or Infotainment Panic-Fest? I affirmed it was the latter here:
Listen, I've been around. I remember quite a few of these viruses coming over from Asia over the last couple of decades. People died then too, mixed in with plenty of other people that were fairly old and/or susceptible to disease a lot more than your healthy < 60 y/o's down to babies**. I'm of the pretty solid opinion right now that this Kung Flu is truly an Infotainment Panic-Fest.However, what I was more worried about was the effect of this PanicFest, if it kept going long, on the economies of the world. Hence, at the end of the post, I changed my reply to "BOTH", explaining:
In answer to the question posed by this post's title: BOTH. The Kung Flu Infotainment Panic-Fest has triggered a financial crisis, bound to happen someday anyway, that may lead to a SHTF situation, if the media and governments keep pressing their luck and don't leave the people the hell alone for a while to get things done.The SHTF hasn't happened here yet, because, as the other Adam Smith said, "There's a lot of ruin in a nation.".*
That was 4 years ago. Yet that yahoo headline reads as if the average American is still falling for this garbage. I don't want to read about it, unless it's about admissions of wrongdoing, apologies or stories of mass hari-kari by government officials worldwide.
Now, to lighten things up, Peak Stupidity has posted many of the funny videos and (a few) memes that ridiculed the PanicFest. You may want to look for them. I did just find this one from 4 years ago. It may bring back some bad memories though...
* See also Part 2 and Part 3.
Comments (17)
IDs, please!
Posted On: Friday - March 15th 2024 1:07PM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism
A couple of weeks back in this post I mentioned in the 2nd (**) footnote a must-post follow-up based on the video clip embedded therein. Below, I've got the same clip, but it should (initially) play only the portion that I want to write about. You'll see what my problem is, if you noted the the title here.
It's been a while since Peak Stupidity has gotten into the long-term stupidity of the US having lost its Libertarian principles, both as a people and in the Government. (I suppose the latter follows the former, mostly, but then there's that slow-boiling frog thing...) We broach the subject of the loss of our rights, but most of our writing on the specific subject here is from 6 years back - "Papiere bitte!" - "Your papers, please!" and memories of Mr. Vin Suprynowicz - - "Papiere bitte!" - "Your papers, please!" - Part 2 and "Papiere bitte!" - "Your papers, please!" - Stories from the real deal.
As I noted in the first post discussing this video, it was good to see decent sounding, reasonable black people refute the stupidity* of the lefty White Berzerkelyites of earlier in the video by stating that, no, it's not so hard - they can easily get an ID and all do. I note people mentioned driver's licenses most, but not all of the time, a small bugaboo that I'm sure commenter Adam Smith would have something to say about. He has regaled us of his stories of holding his Constitutional ground on the lack of a requirement for this in the comments before. (Some of us get in plenty of legal trouble trying to get down the road even WITH these things.)
I did not like seeing that brainwashed mindset in everyone who responded to interviewer** Ami Horowitz with "everyone knows you have to carry your ID with you" bit. It wasn't his point, but I guess the responses would have been mostly the same even if he'd broken out that question - carrying it vs. being able to obtain one in order to vote.
I shouldn't have expected anything different out of that crowd. Black folks are not known to be Libertarian. There's no African version of the Magna Carta - they're just doing good not going full Haiti. OTOH, how many White, especially young White, Americans would have made it clear to Mr. Horowitz that, other than for voting security, "I don't neeeeed no steeenking IDs!"? Other races/ethnicities? Nah. As we noted (also long ago), we're not importing the kind of people who will be pushing their kids to obtain their Citizenship in the Nation merit badges. The whole thing is #SAD.
I've had a wallet "on my person", as they like to say, for many years, well most of the time, for driving. However, I'd carry nothing but my keys and whatever cash I had for a number of years when I was already driving. During the dozen or so times I'd been pulled over already, the cop was satisfied with a DL # he could call in. Then, one day, after having done NOTHING wrong, I got the "papiere bitte!" treatment at a DUI traffic stop. That is, of course, a complete violation of Amendment IV that has had no Americans riled up about it for 3 decades***.
The fine of 80 bucks for not having my driver's license on my person was $250 in '24 BaiDienBucks, I'd reckon. Also, it was a lot more to me then due to my circumstances. I put a nasty note in the memo field of the check I sent in. It was sent back to me for that with a note about the bad language - I kid you not!
Here's the relevant part of that video:
* ... or maybe it was lying excuses, if that's what they were really up to. It's not always stupidity, I know.
** ... not really surveyor, as he may seem to be.
*** That was Part 1 of When did the Feral Government get OUT OF CONTROL? There's a Part 2.
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Dead Commie Pi Day
Posted On: Thursday - March 14th 2024 6:56PM MST
In Topics: Commies General Stupidity Holiday from Stupidity
That's not a tasty dish served by the current "leader" of Haiti. It's two separate things we can celebrate today and each March 14th.
From Instapundit, I learned something from this meme:
Good riddance to the instigator of what became a most violent and destructive ideology. That was 141 years ago today.
Also, one of the most important ratios in geometry, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its radius, 𝜋, is an irrational number that today's date comes closest to. It's 3/14, the first 3 digits of 3.14159.... It's not just about circles, but all sorts of engineering equations end up with that 𝜋 in them.
There are contests in which people try to recite the highest number of digits from memory. People get well over 100. I think 3.14, with 3 significant digits, is good enough for most calculations. Hopefully, I can keep the 3.14159 precision in my head for as long again as it's been there already.
So, friends, happy Pi and Karl Marx Death Day!
PS: Hmmmm, there's that number 141 again, hidden as the first 3 digits right of the decimal. Does it mean that Communism has come full circle today? I could believe that. If you believe in Numerology, well, become a number theorist, and you'll be able to find a reason for everything.
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Pizza Pizza
Posted On: Thursday - March 14th 2024 4:29PM MST
In Topics: Environmental Stupidity Big-Biz Stupidity
Yes, it's been an extremely slow blog-week so far, Peakers. It's not that there not lots of stupidity to point out, though. This is one of the minor instances that make for short, easy-to-write posts.
We have plenty more to say about the Climate Calamity™ scam, in which I've been sorely disappointed. I really thought that it'd been left behind sometime in the midst of the Kung Flu PanicFest. Alas, and probably BECAUSE the PanicFest did not "reset" humanity, the pedal has been put to the metal on this one. This post, however, is NOT on that aspect of what used to be called Environmentalism, though. We're talking actual particulate pollutants this time, that come out of the smoke stacks of New York City pizza jernts.*
Some garlic powder, oregano, and maybe hot pepper would make it a perfect meal!
It's a big environmental problem, youse guys, says the apparently otherwise unburdened government of New York City, per (yet again) The Gateway Pundit, reporting thusly: NYC’s Green Rule Could Shutdown Upwards of 100 Pizza Joints [sic] in the City – March 20th Protest Announced. Green rules? Perhaps the use of more Bell Pepper toppings would increase compliance with the green rules, but then, my rule is YOU! DON'T! PUT! VEGETABLES! ON! PIZZA!
That's the rule, at least for my pizza, or I send it back:
This is more of that diminishing returns stupidity that the government of California is the most famous for. Is New York City a big hazy ball of particulate smog, full of smoke stack industries at this point? It may have been long ago, but Big Finance has been holding the city up pretty well (till the recent immigration unpleasantness). Cars don't pollute particulates, or even much of anything, like they used to. Is a small amount of pizza oven exhaust really something to worry about? It smells great - I'll take my chances. Of all the things that city is known for, a wide variety of eateries, I mean, as The Foodies would surely tell you, is one right on top there.
NY Pizza is known and loved by all. OK, not all - that statement may cause a lot of friction here at Peak Stupidity, Thick Chicago style vs. thin NY style - well there's no contest. I am happy to have a place nearby, far from New York, that does make this style, so I don't need to go to NYC to get some. Then too, last time I took a pundit to lunch there (you all would know him), he didn't really know the area and we ended up at freaking Unos.
That brings up the serious part of this story:
The NYC ‘rule’ will essentially require pizzerias with pre-2016 ovens to invest in a filtration system that will reportedly cost upwards of $20,000, according to the New York Post back in June.As GP writer Brian Lupo noted, this tyranny that's screwing over the pizza jernts with highly burdensome regulation and fines is just great for those bland Big Biz chain pizza places, isn't it? Other than having had that old ad (our title), Little Caesars sucks. With these little guys out of business, Pizza Slut can
Next time I'm at Unos in NYC, I'll check behind the toilet tank in the men's room, hell, maybe the women's room too - they have to let me in. If I see a gun duct-taped back there, I'll figure all is still right with the world.
* Think Archie Bunker here, who lived in TV NYC, and you'll know this word.
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History Lesson: Bring your own women
Posted On: Tuesday - March 12th 2024 11:39AM MST
In Topics: History Geography Race/Genetics
As a likely welcome change from the recent Peak Stupidity discussion of all things immigration invasion (we WILL get back to it), the fixation on the stupidity of Zhou Bai Dien, Dark Brandon*, if you will, on The Gateway Pundit and all this not-so-secret admiring of Georgia Rep MTG, we'll try to branch out this week. This particular race/genetics tagged post is not on the usual suspects for a change, though they may be mentioned in passing.
The map above is in a hotel room in the Florida Keys. I like maps and all Geography, so I enjoy perusing these old maps where they appear, normally in touristy areas. Who was around when the explorers/adventurers were drawing these maps centuries ago? Well, if you've been to The Keys, you'll know they are pretty White. Without any stats, I could tell that from the way the hotel was run, far from the level of incompetence of a Hotel Haiti. (See also: - on Competence - - - on Caring and Conclusion.)
One can look up said stats quickly anyway, as I just did. Monroe County, Florida includes the Keys long chain of islands, though they are only 13% of the area of the county. However, the rest is all Everglade swamp, with, per wiki, 17 - yep, you read that right, seventeen - residents. (That's not counting alligators, of course.) So, Monroe County IS The Keys. (The county seat is Key West, naturally.)
66% White does not sound so high for comfort, but then the black proportion of residents is 5 1/2%. The rest are largely Hispanic - 24%. Yeah, the residents down there, maybe more than many, deem the service work unworthy of them and depend on that cheap labor. One of the Key's mayors extolled this crowd. "Industry" down there, besides the naval base, is Tourism. The White residents can live the relaxed life of the Conch Republic and depend on retirement income, real estate booms, and entertainment for income, hoping the tourists will leave them along for half the year.
That territory in the above map was Spanish with the rest of Florida, per their claims and deals. However, there were really not many people down there besides Cuban and Bahamian fishermen and pirates. Well, this Key West and Conch Republic story is too long for this post, but I'll get to the subject, which is what the above map brought up in my head.
The Spanish, with their better deal over the Portuguese, ended up settling most of South America, all of Central America, the Mexico, and for a while, that now-important land of Florida, while the other Europeans (mostly English and some French) got that still huge, but smaller, land which we call America and Canada. What is wrong with the Spanish that explains why their settled lands, civilized to an extent, became nothing like the organized, law-abiding, prosperous lands that the English settled? (Of course, that's with the later help of Germans, Scandinavians, etc, but still northern Europeans.)
I think of the Spanish people, in Spain, that is, as Europeans. That goes along the lines of the Italians and Greeks in southern Europe. Sure, things never were as organized as they were in northwestern Europe, most especially Great Britain and Germany (just as the biggest examples). Still, the Italians and Greeks in America (eventually) worked out pretty well... just don't let them run governments or anything.** The Spanish are tanned Europeans, like the others in the south of Europe. How about the influence of all the centuries of the occupation by the Moors? I'm not an HBD guy by the numbers - I'll leave that to Steve Sailer.
Though the answer to come is obvious, I did think a little about the fact that the northern Europeans got the more temperate lands, for the most part. The part of Latin America that does have a temperate climate is the "cone" of the ice cream cone-shaped S. America, the countries of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. They DO run better and just seem a tad bit more organized and industrious than the rest of the Spanish-conquered New World. Is it all about the climate, you know, before it changed and all? Well, see, that southern cones of S. America is better because more Europeans immigrated, whether Spanish, Italian, German, or even English.***
Of course, it's obvious that the answer to why Latin America has sucked since the time of the conquerors compared to America and Canada is the large intermixture of the Spanish "newcomers" with the natives. Even though the native inhabitants down there had some big civilizations compared to those in our land, they were still civilizations based on worshipping Sun gods and tearing out live human hears vs ones based on a saner religion and things like science and technology. It didn't take very many Spaniards with Euro developed gunpowder-powered projectile weapons to overcome the mass of natives.
Things went differently down there. Up north, the English came to live brand new lives in a land of unlimited resources, unfettered by the rules back home that they'd had a problem with. They came to build a new and better civilization. You need women, and they brought them.
The history of the Spanish Conquistadors reads as an effort to claim land for Spain and officially convert the natives to Christianity, resulting in accolades back home from Government and The Church. Then, there was the gold and silver. You didn't need accolades, as becoming filthy rich was a worthy goal too. Up north, timber and furs were the exports, but that wasn't the be-all-to-end-all for the settlers, just a way to initially support the colonies.
As for the Spanish, still, horney is as horney does, so what'ya gonna do? Now, as big a Neil Young fan as your blogger is, I don't at all trust his lyrics on the beauty of the "Cinnamon Girl"**** natives. Most look more like previously deported literal heartbreakers than Las heartbreaking Usurpadoras.
Still, in the New World without other options, the Spanish had to make do. This mixture of the native genetics in Latin America is much much higher than that in the north, where women and even intact families were imported. One might surmise that had Ponce de Leon***** actually found that Fountain of Youth, the Spaniards might have imported their wives from back home. After a few pitchers, I'd imagine they'd look pretty good. (Same goes for beer.)
That component in the resulting genetics in Latin America had not just the codes to looks and skin color, but to that savage inner nature of the Aztecs, Incas, and such. (This is reminding me to write that post on Venezuela and Venezuelan "newcomers".) A few centuries later, that's what we're dealing with.
The thing is, you don't have to continually import women to your far-away settlement. After a few generations, your own people's genes can proliferate on their own. It's a shame that the Spanish did things differently.
The city of Seattle has a piece of history involving the importation of women not from over overseas, but from across this land. Seattle and the Puget Sound region was a fairly newly developed region, as American history goes, there being almost no White presence until the middle of the 1800s. One Asa Mercer imported these "Mercer Girls" or "Mercer Maids" ("maid" not being strictly about doing laundry) from long settled and established Boston and nearby Lowell, Massachusetts. Sailing still beat overland travel, so these girls came around the ENTIRE new world, around Cape Horn and back up. They did not settle in Latin America, or settle for Latin Americans. Per wiki, regarding Mercer's 2nd, larger effort that didn't go smoothly, the initial number of women being 500, but ending up at only about 100, @ $300 apiece. Three hundred dollars!:
When Mercer returned to Seattle, he had to answer a number of questions about his performance. At a meeting on May 23, public dismay softened, probably because the women were with him.At the top of Queen Anne Hill*, on the east side of the main street, there are Boston, Newton, and Lynn Streets. At the foot of this neighborhood, just north of the "Seattle Center" Space Needle tourist complex, there is Mercer Avenue. All of them are situated east-west. I mean, 300 bucks, come on!
Mercer ended up marrying one of the women, Annie Stephens, a week later, and most of the others found husbands as well.
Bring your own women. Immigrant settlers or invaders, whatever the case, know this too. Idiotic Feral Gov't chain migration allows people to bring in wive, older relatives to babysit and collect SS, and even slaves to this new world of theirs. There's a lesson to be learned here. What other land is there to settle for us though? We could take this lesson to space even.
Then again...
* I REALLY like this one!
** OK, big exceptions should be made for Rudy Giuliani and Ron DeSantis.
*** Unfortunately, the Argentine government decreased Euro immigration a century ago to their detriment. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
**** Peak Stupidity has a post, but it was not about that song, but on Cortez the Killer. "The women all were beautiful..." I've been on the Res, and I beg to differ. Still, great guitar solos, man!!
***** ... and it's Lee-own' country for you folks in Tallahassee, if you want to get historic, not Lee'-on, as in Leon Spinks.
****** This is a leafy tony neighborhood ( with probably a few Tony's but not any To'niqua's). It sits just north of downtown and is 400-500 feet up above sea level with stupendous views on all sides.
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The cashless agenda: Good new and bad news
Posted On: Monday - March 11th 2024 7:01AM MST
In Topics: Globalists Economics Orwellian Stupidity Big-Biz Stupidity
Most people want the bad news first. The cashless society concept being pushed by Globalists, Big Biz, etc. has been a recurring subject* here at Peak Stupidity. We simply realize that Revelation Chapter 13, verse 17 is not supposed to be part of some business best practices guidelines.
The bad news is that while traveling recently, in the big hub airport terminal I spent 20 minutes trying to pay cash for food. The place that would take cash looked open, but closed till an undetermined time, per an employee. This was more of the new lower competence level U.S. of A.
I hadn't eaten all day, and it was about 5P. I went to get a slice of pizza. "Cards only", the sign said. OK, never mind, but then I saw that the slice was 8 bucks! It was a good thing they didn't need my money - I don't need pizza that BAD! Next, there was a shop that had packaged sandwiches. I knew it would be pricey, but I remember these ones are good and more healthful than a slice of pizza. There was no sign. She wouldn't take cash. Telling the cashier lady that it was the law got me absolutely nowhere - I left the sandwich there on the counter.
I think I was just on the wrong concourse, as I know that airport terminal is not totally cashless. I won't patronize places that won't take cash now, hungry or not.
The good news is from Norway:
HUGE!?? Well, I wouldn't call this "huge". That's a Gateway Pundit thing.
The Norwegian government is proposing a new law that will FORCE shops to accept real cash as payment. In other words, they will not be allowed to be “cashless”.Wait a minute! What is this guy saying? The government of the country is on the side of the people, not the Globalists? Unpossible!
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security want to change the law of the land to make sure that real cash can always be used as a form of payment.
You go, Norway! (... and Sweden. The article mentions the same policy in Sweden too.)
* If you haven't read the posts, see Chipotle - no credit, no debit, and hold the E. Coli - - Cash is King - (Part 2) - - Cash is King - (Part 3) - - Tubmania and a cashless economy - - Cashless Covfefe - - Keep Kash King! - - Keep Cash King II - the Tower of London. - - Keep Cash King II(a) - Follow-up on the muffin place and Cash is King, continued: Tipping in cash -, for starters. One might even say this is a fixation here.
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Time the Avenger
Posted On: Saturday - March 9th 2024 9:57PM MST
In Topics: Music Female Stupidity Poetic Stupidity
This is the 3rd song* on The Pretenders' album Learning to Crawl. The theme of the album is obvious from the lyrics here. This one can't be strictly biographic, as it doesn't sound like it's about any musician such as her Ray Davies at all. The songs on this album, at least half of them, are about a family splitting up, with the woman (singer) being bitter about it.
Nobody's perfect, not even a perfect stranger.
Oh, but what a gal. She was such a perfect stranger.
And you're the best in your field, in your office,
with your girls and desk and leather chair.
So the guy was fooling around on her, but the women's biggest weapon is described. Let me skip a couple of lines:
Nobody is permanent. Everything is on loan here.
Even your wife and kids could be gone next year.
And with what you have left, you'll be forever, under pressure to support her.
Yep. However, the mistake the woman makes here is thinking Time, the Avenger is after the man more than the woman. Time is harder on women - it's just the way life works. Yet she sings:
Thought that time was on your side,
Now it's time the avenger.
then, later:
Time, time hear the bells chime
over the harbor in the city.
Time, one more vodka and lime,
To help paralyze that little
Tick, tick tick tick ...
Sorry, Chrissie, but you've probably learned by now that you had it backwards, and the man should be singing this.
It doesn't matter. Music is not so much about the lyrics. I really like this fast beat, the bass line, those chords (are they 6th chords?), and especially the long ending that sounds like it's a fade ending but stops abruptly. I could use 5 more minutes of that jamming.
Thank you for reading, maybe listening, and writing in this week, Peakers! I'll get to that genetics post - it's not developing very well anyway - a couple of more Climate Calamity™ posts, some odds and ends, and who really knows?
* The first 2 are Middle of the Road and Back on the Chain Gang. Peak Stupidity may not embed them all, but we'll probably feature most of the songs.
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Bai Dien on "Lincoln" Riley and Illegal vs LEGAL murder
Posted On: Saturday - March 9th 2024 12:07PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Zhou Bai Dien
First off, that in his SOTU speech, Zhou Bai Dien called the young lady murdered by an illegal alien in Athens last week the wrong first name is not much of a gaffe. These non-normal, often last-name first names that have been around more than a decade are difficult for me too... and I'm neither an android nor demented. Bigger gaffes were expected, but ... drugs, good drugs in a well-engineered combination.
Then again, this might mean, even in a heightened drug-induced state, Dark Brandon* had not considered this story as related to any cough big issues, cough, cough, America might have right now. That doesn't say much for him, but then Peak Stupidity's favorite member of Congress, MTG, made the effort to set him straight.
Did I tell you I'm in LUV with this woman? TMI there, or a later post, one ... I like that she got him to mention this, (without either of them close to tears either). Heckling? Yeah, that was heckling. Heckling is the least of the options that Americans will have to resort to soon enough.
Well, you've probably seen this scene.** My point in this post is about Dark Brandon's answer here. VDare's Former Agent brings up the first part of Bai Dien's answer: How Many Of The Thousands Of People Are Being Killed By Legals? Some may rightly call that a gaffe, as even the best of politicians do that sort of thing, telling the truth by accident. So, what if the violent Venezuelan Jose Antonio Ibarra was a bona-fide paper-signed LEGAL immigrant, something pretty easy to be right now?***
Any immigration patriot would tell you that it's the same problem. Even for the immigrants that are REALLY on the up-and-up, and not just by Peak Stupidity's sarcastic commentary, if America has more violent people coming, there will be more murder.
However, I would go farther than that. If America has more people, period, other factors equal, there will be more murder. Depending on who's been coming legally, that might mean a higher or lower per-capita rate. However, think about it - we're already here - they're not... yet. Do we want more murder? There's also a thing called Immigrant Mass Murder Syndrome.
That's one thing. It's the additional answer to MTG's point by Brandon that brings up some stupidity I haven't seen comment on yet. I can't find it written out****, but let me write here the gist of this (my wording):
People are paying 8 thousand dollars to smugglers to get taken into the US. When they get here they get notices that say they have to appear at a hearing in a year or two. That's no good. [Interruption by me: Hell yeah, that's no good, but then ...] We need to make it 6 months, no, 6 weeks, so the whole "dynamic" (Bai Dien wording) will be changed.
I don't know what retarded puppetmaster put this line
Look, we need more BP and ICE agents to process the Newcomers at the border. That was all in the Senate border bill, that, errr, also allowed an illegal quota of 1.8 million entries yearly, but never mind that. You people were against that bill. More agents could have gotten these hearings scheduled more quickly. The aliens would then know that they'd have a hearing real soon, so they wouldn't even think about coming to begin with! Different dynamic! I mean, it's not like they can skip the hearings. They have to attend! It's all required... by law, dammit!Who is supposed to believe this garbage? Yet, that was Dark Brandon's reply to MTG's, Senator Britt's, and most Americans' concern. Change the hearing schedule. That's his answer... to keep young women from getting brutally murdered on the running trails.
Oh, and fix those trails, why don'tcha'?
* I really like this one, but I won't lose "Zhou Bai Dien" completely.
** ... especially if you are a Gateway Pundit reader - their on every little word.
*** I mean, they are giving these people "Parolee" "paperwork" with apps now, when they aren't even here yet! The "t"s are crossed, and the "i"s are dotted, strickly on the up and up!
**** I'm in a location where I can't get loud, so let me find this later on today.
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