Why is it always "Fentanyl, Fentanyl, Fentanyl!!"?
Posted On: Thursday - October 5th 2023 1:05PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '26 Immigration Stupidity Pundits Media Stupidity President DeSantis
The great Ann Coulter has scooped Peak Stupidity yet again. Since I watched VDare's immigration-invasion highlights of the recent Red-Squad candidate debate, I have meant to write a post that Ann Coulter just covered very well + she's got lots more than just this point.
It seems that it's still NOT OK to mention the reasons we don't want America to be swamped by multiple millions of non-White, strange, sometimes disease-ridden and violent foreigners YEARLY. The GOP candidates - other than 2016 Donald Trump - apparently feel this way. If they were not going to put forth our minor qualms about population replacement (death to the White Middle Class) due to being-called-names, could they have at least mentioned the dozens of other problems, without even taking race into account? How about discusssing the simple economic problems such as the burden on the Welfare State and healthcare "system" or the biggest economic result, the depression of wages?
Coincidently, as I took a break to read Unz Review - iSteve comments, I came across this comment from an anonymous guy in reply to "AnotherDad" (The latter's ideas about this are the inner quote)::
That latter stuff, notice, is also off the main point. I do get that "whatever works", I guess, but being totally honest in stating that you don't want the American people replaced ought to work too shouldn't it? Oh, except for the name-calling - can't have that ...Tie it [to] jobs. Tie it to inflation. Tie it to unaffordable housing. Tie it to “affordable family formation” and collapsing marriage.Tie it to environmental destruction, to carbon emissions, to global warming. Tie it to harm to our water supply, our fisheries, our open spaces. Tie it to displacement of Americans from the best paying and higher status jobs. Tie it to getting dragged into other people’s blood feuds and territorial ambitions, tie it to foreign wars.
Hey, these are not your Grandfather's malted milk balls!
No, no, gotta come up with something that doesn't make us one of those bad names. Let's see, let's make this whole border invasion a question of Fentanyl. That seems to be the ticket they've chosen, from my viewing of the VDare generated Immigration Invasion highlight reel of that debate. I don't like this. Well, all we hear all day long at debate class is how bad Fentanyl is at this or how nasty Fentanyl did that. Fentanyl, Fentanyl, Fentanyl!!*
Seriously, Fentanyl is some bad stuff. I'm glad I don't know any more than that. However, the increased drug smuggling across the southern border is just a bonus for those with the goal of destroying America. It's not the idea at all. Secondly, all those other terrible effects of the invasion listed incompletely above deserve to be heard about, not just freaking Fentanyl!
As usual, Ann Coulter really kicks ass with her opinion columns. I came across this yesterday - It’s Not About Fentanyl, GOP! It’s The Immigration, Stupid, and I was all, "there goes my post." This will be a combo post then, from 2 great minds. (Haha!)
Miss Coulter comes out strong (not the beginning, but I can't paste in the whole thing) with a jab at the moderator, who, now that I recall too, was from ¡Coalooombiah! Can't they find a native English speaker out of the remaining 200 million of us for this job? She's obviously pro-immigration, so not so unbiased on this most existential of issues. Ann had a lot to say about this narrator's handling of this issue: She brought up a really good point - as a good lawyer (the famous "one percenters") would - showing how the Asylum claims are bogus. Check that out, but I like the way she closed this part:
Luckily for the inadvertent whistleblower, only 15% of Americans could understand what she was saying on account of her accent. But thank you, Miss Calderon, for giving up the game on phony “asylum-seekers.”Hah!
Rather than go over the factors that bring major Sociological and Economic damage that massive immigration brings, Miss Coulter went a different route and linked 3 other bad factors to the Q&A of the debate. While she excerpts parts of the Q&A transcripts, she provides her own answers:
FIRST, as soon as they get here, immigrants start demanding that we admit an endless supply of their fellow countrymen. This raises the question: If they wanted to be around a lot of Latin Americans, why’d they leave?Calderon states the these immigrants vote for gun control due to American gun violence. Yet, these people are all coming from places with higher levels of gun and all other kinds of violence. Again, why not stay TF home?
SECOND, Immigrants bring their Third World voting habits with them. This is where Miss Coulter finds the contradiction from Senora Calderon.
THIRD, immigrants really get off on insulting Americans—as is evident from Calderon’s exposing the “asylum” scam, just so she could call our country violent.Oh, and regarding this third problem with immigration, here you go:
Naturally, she lectured Americans about slavery—because Latin America’s record on that front is unblemished! (Only 6% of trans-Atlantic slaves went to North America; the rest went to Latin America and the Caribbean.) Plus, we haven’t heard a thing about slavery recently, so I’m glad she brought it up.[That was OUR link.] Again, while trying not to feature Ann Coulter's whole column here, I'll add only this final bit on the smuggling of the Fentanyl across the border. The Coalooombia native-narrator makes a point to say that 57% - then how exactly would you know?! - of the smugglers are US Citizens. Miss Coulter helps clear this up for us by providing a complete list of names from a DEA report. Here are the names of those arrested in the last few weeks:
Felix Herrera GarciaAnn Coulter notes: “U.S. citizens” all!"
Grei Mendez
Carliston Acevedo Brito
Renny Parra Paredes, aka “El Gallo”
Jose Cruz Ivan Aispuro
Adrian Montalvo
Jose Lora
Ray Urena
Ruben Davila Cardenas
OK, then, one little erroneous paragraph of opinion in another otherwise good column 2 weeks back can be forgiven. Ann Coulter still rocks, and we both agree here - stop the babbling about the freaking Fentanyl, guys.** People don't have to take it. They will have to deal with all the rest of this though.
PS: Oh, yeah, about the winner of this immigration invasion portion of the debate: Ron DeSantis, of course. It's all just talk right there, but then I've seen action from that man, but not from the others.
* I tried to remain true to the original Marcia Brady meme this time as much as possible.
** I don't even listen to Nikki (Traitor-SC), so, yeah, "guys".
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Apples in Tinfoil - avoid FEMA's Blaring Alert
Posted On: Wednesday - October 4th 2023 10:13AM MST
In Topics: US Police State Preppers and Prepping Orwellian Stupidity iEspionage
Is it tinfoil hat time yet? It's long been tinfoil hat time, really, ever since the roll out of the ubiquitous pieces of iEspionage knows a Apple iPhones. At least one can think of plenty of reasons to put these things in tinfoil, or, to be less an in-your-face SHTF Prepper and more fashionable to boot, those Faraday cages are nice.
To be comprehensive about blocking the iEspionage, additional devices for blocking video, audio, GPS, and - this is going FAR OUT, MAN! - maybe a rock tumbler to mess with the attitude gyros*. Oh, and you'd want a magnet to screw with the compass... and possibly all your memory, hence your pictures of your trip to China ...
So, yeah, unless you learn a lot, buy some hardware, and are ready to put up with a lot of inconvenience (relative to not having these things, that is), whatever the Government wants off of your iCrap, it can get at any time, so, why worry about this shit today?:
Long answer short? Bottom line you? For fun. Let's just fuck a little bit with FEMA, formerly the people whose commandeered basement shelters we were to get into were the Soviets to let the missiles fly. (Spoiler alert. I and 3 other Boy Scouts ate a lot of the Saltine crackers one day. Glad the nukes didn't fly!)
My wife forwarded me a warning from the My Patriot Supply site to ALERT! us: "US Government Test Will Break into Your Phone Oct 4." Why today at 11:20 MST?** They can break into my phone at any time, if I don't take highly inconvenient precautions using perhaps a few of the items that might even be sold on your site.***
“FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) this fall.Wait a minute, 14:20 Eastern Daylight or 14:20 Eastern Standard? Surprise us! It won't matter. Phones will be off and wrapped ("Off" means exactly Jack F. Squat when it comes to electronics.), the router will be unplugged, but what about our TV? It's not connected to any outside signal, and this 14 y/o thing can't be THAT SMART if it still plays The Rockford Files. I may leave it plugged into the wall just to see if there's any way the US Feral Gov't can get to it. (I don't see how.)
The national test will consist of two portions, testing WEA and EAS capabilities. Both tests are scheduled to begin at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
The WEA portion of the test will be directed to all consumer cell phones. This will be the third nationwide test, but the second test to all cellular devices. The test message will display in either English or in Spanish, depending on the language settings of the wireless handset.
The EAS portion of the test will be sent to radios and televisions.”
As I wrote earlier in the post, this is just for fun. My wife asked me to do all this, so, sure, let's fuck with the Government today. I don't need some blaring signal messing with ME time. If it's really important, say, America has screwed with the Russians one too many times, well, they can call me in person. They've got the number. We'll be in the crawl space with the cat and the roaches.
* Hey don't laugh, OK, don't laugh so hard, because there are these things called Inertial Nav(igation) units that can keep position within a mile or two for 8 hours after a flight across the ocean. No external signals are involved. If The Powers That
** That's Peak Stupidity's time zone, and we're stickin' to it!
*** That's the silver lining to come out of this: I've found a new Prepper supply site.
Comments (6)
Motion to Vacate
Posted On: Wednesday - October 4th 2023 6:19AM MST
In Topics: US Feral Government
Would that not be a great name of for a movie about legal eagles, battling it out in the courtroom to save... I don't know, the whales or something? Robert Gere should be cast as the lawyer protagonist with
No, instead, this motion is more about vacating the bowels of the UniParty, as performed by Florida Panhandle* Conservative
Now, you all can read, and have probably already read, more about this than I feel like discussing here. From my reading about the now-former Speaker over the last few years, he did not use the power of Red-Squad unity to get done what he could have gotten done. The actual Conservative members of the GOP in Congress, Matt Gaetz being one, have not appreciated this lack of will to fight, hence the take-it-to-the-limit 15 ballot voting battle to extract some promises out of McCarthy during his election to be Speaker this past January, start of the 118th Congress.
Matt Gaetz caught up with Kevin McCarthy and vacated his ass back to non-Speakerdom. Is it a worry what will happen next (as per that funny tweet featured by iSteve)? Hell, could it be worse having no leadership than the leadership of a UniParty cuck? I don't think so. We'd be better off if they ALL went home and did not interfere in Americans and the States' solving of our problems ourselves.
Anyway, Congressman Gaetz can appoint anyone, so even Donald Trump is eligible, as is your blogger here. Matt, remember me? I drove through Niceville one time, but I don't have to be nice. I can DO this.
Finally, whilst trying to decide what I want to write about this - not too much, really - I went through the wiki pages of these 2 men. Man, is it strange to try to get what I want off Wikipedia when it comes to a biography of a Conservative! Matt Gaetz's page is basically made up of one accusation paragraph after another. Most of them, such as:
In June 2021, Gaetz was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6.... had me rooting for him all the more! You go, Matt! There are dozens of other factoids on that wiki page, designed to smear the guy, but not designed very well, apparently. To be fair to Rep. McCarthy, here's one from his page:
In July 2021, the delta variant of the coronavirus prompted the Attending Physician of the United States Congress to reimpose a mask requirement in the House chamber. McCarthy called this "a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state", prompting Pelosi to respond to reporters, "he's such a moron." On July 31, 2021, members of Tennessee's Republican congressional delegation gave McCarthy a large gavel with the words "Fire Pelosi" inscribed on it. McCarthy told them, "it will be hard not to hit her with it, but I will bang it down."Yes, bang away, Kevin. They won't throw you into a Washington FS dungeon like the J6 guys, because you are still OF the UniParty (outer circle). Credit where it's due though...
PS: One thing I read about in detail about Kevin McCarthy was his hanging of immigration Patriot Steve King from Iowa out to dry during a brewhaha regarding one of Congressman King's statements to the NY Times ~5 years back. Peak Stupidity covered this in our review of his book Walking through the Fire:
That this one mis-step cost Steve King his Congressional career says a lot about the cowardice that prevails in the GOP. The minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, took the side of the Lyin' Press and backstabbed Congressman King even later on in the game, as King begged for his committee assignments back...
* This guy went to High School in Niceville, just north of Panama City. I've been right through there, and it didn't look big enough to HAVE a High School.
Comments (6)
Peak Stupidity is FOR the alleged Depopulocalypse - Part 2: READ the Substack essay
Posted On: Tuesday - October 3rd 2023 4:33PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Pundits The Future
Remember this Sci-Fi picture?
The title has more of a past-tense meaning with a missing subject, not an imperative to the reader. It's been nearly a month since the our post Peak Stupidity is FOR the alleged Depopulocalypse - Part 1: Substack essay, written to start off some essays arguing against the worries about decreasing population (in MOST of the world). In fact, my point in bringing up the essayist John Carter and his Postcards from Barsoom* site up was to argue against what he wrote.**
I wrote last time that I wanted to read these 3 long essays by this substack writer first before I continued on my discussion here. Well, that was just last week, and, not only that, but after reading it all, I agree with so much of his writing that I don't have so much of an argument! I'll first use this post to highly recommend the reading of these 5 (Roman Numerated) sections in the 3 posts of his series:
Depopulocalypse
Depopulocalypse II – Solutions That Don’t or Won’t Work
Depopulocalypse III – From SINK to FLOAT
Besides the very brief intro and conclusion (plus standard promotion of his substack world) his 5 sections are:
I. The Depopulocalypse: This is a definition and explanation of what's going on with world populations. Yes, he does note the extremely problematic exception of sub-Saharan Africa. He is not the least bit woke about it either:
On the current trajectory, by mid-century the only geographical region with a surplus of young humans will be Sub-Saharan Africa, and uh ... well if your plan is to try and maintain an advanced industrial civilization with Bantus, all I can say is good luck with that.You are welcome at Peak Stupidity any time, Mr. "Carter".
II. Factors Reducing Fertility: He breaks these many factors along the division of Biological factors, Economic factors, and Sociological factors. I can't say I agree with it all 100%, maybe even not agreeing with certain particular changes to people, economics, and society being factors at all for a few of these. However, it's VERY interesting reading.
III. What We’ve Already Tried: The writer's 2nd web page (of the 3) has the title Solutions That Don’t or Won’t Work, but it basically starts here. Since even the widespread discussion that there IS this fertility problem in the world is very new***, most of what is discussed here, actions by certain countries, is recent. Not nearly so much attention has been paid, and not nearly the amount of hot air, money, and attempts at control-freakery has been spewed, grubbed, and laid down upon us compared to the massive Climate Calamity™, and it being a complete farce at that. (That's why I'm much more prone to enjoying this guy's writing now.) One can argue about this fertility crisis - is it bad? - but it's plain to see in simple statistics.
IV. Dystopias Born of Desperation: This part gets pretty Science Fictioney. It also assumes that the medium-term problem of heavily-older populations being supported by so few young people is part of the big problem. It is a problem, of course, but it's not any part of the long-term issue here, and that's where I disagree with the writer, leading to a disagreement on whether the long-term issue is ANY kind of problem at all.
V. Solutions to the Fertility Crisis: Here are the factors from Mr. Carter's Section II, and per his note, in no particular order:
1) ObesityI could have listed these while summarizing Section II, but anyway, his particular solutions to each are discussed. Are they all necessary? No. Is solving any ONE factor alone going to fix things? I don't know. We do both agree that number (5) is self-correcting.
2) Hormone-disrupting chemicals
3) Urbanization
4) Difficulty finding a spouse
5) High expense of housing and children
6) Long duration of education
7) Incompatibility of family and professional lives
8) Child-rearing being seen as low-status
OK, so rather than I start writing lots about this Depopulocaplypse (Full attribution here - LUV his term!), I will ask the reader to check out these 3 essays on Postcards from Barsoom. It's an hour or two of very interesting and fun reading... except if you have to read the text over the brown background on a phone! I had no choice there at the time, but, see what I mean, it was worth it for the interesting reading.
We are living in the times described in 1970s Sci-Fi books, in a lot of ways, most of them not so good. As Instapundit bemoans, "where are my flying cars?!" Really, they aren't so out of the question, but flying cars for us fairly few enlightened souls with lots of disposable time and money in a non-Idiocracy was supposed to be the deal. That's not what I see.
There will definitely be a post here soon arguing against the basic premise of Mr. Carter's that decreasing population numbers are inherently bad.
* Substack pundit "John Carter" is definitely a Sci-Fi fan, as "John Carter" is the main character in the Barsoom tales, that took place on Mars in a century-ago Edgar Rice Borroughs series of Science Fiction novels. The cool futuristic paintings, such as the one above, adorn his blog posts. It'd make sense for Mr. "Carter" to be writing about the future, as it is coming most quickly.
** More particularly, in that month-ago post, I noted that it was one Climate Calamity™ reference in the beginning of one of his posts that almost turned me off to reading him at all - sarcasm is not always easy to detect. As it turns out, this John Carter is against the Global Climate Stupidity, just another point in his favor. I'm so sorry to have even mentioned this!
*** In my mind, it's only a decade old, but then I'm no Sociologist or other type of bullshitter. Perhaps this was discussed 2 decades ago, but there's been a residual effect of the only half-century ago talk about the "Population Bomb" from the Club or Rome types that couldn't be overpowered in a couple of decades.
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We're full, apparently: Romeike - German Homeschooling family being deported by Bai Dein
Posted On: Tuesday - October 3rd 2023 9:32AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Anarcho-tyranny Educational Stupidity Zhou Bai Dien
It is one sick, sick freaking government we live under nowadays. Anarcho-Tyranny is what makes it all work for the Bai Dein Administration and the Potomac Regime Deep State.
This is a follow-up from Peak Stupidity's reporting* - Homeschooling - poking the Beast in the eye with a big stick - Part 3 and Freedom and homeschooling in Germany and America with Lame-O Trump on a different German homeschooling family, in America taking asylum from a German Government that doesn't allow homeschooling at all. Must learn from zie State! Jawohl,
While we'd reported on the Wunderlich family - with 4 homeschooled children, in passing we did reference this other German persecuted family, the Romeike's, White Evangelical Christians with (now) 7 children. They had bailed out of the repression in Germany to East Tennessee, an excellent choice, in my opinion! (They are/were(?) in Morristown, outside of Knoxville on the road to the Tri-Cities - Kingsport/Johnson City/Bristol.) It was the Øb☭ma administration that had tried to deport these people.
The plan of these persecuted Christians is called "seeking asylum". The American government allowed many Jews to escape the Nazis of that previous era and come here. Americans were fine with those under Communist repression and persecution coming to stay too, that is, if they could get out. Well, it's easy to get out now, and it's easy to come in. It's even easy to stay... if you are one of the many MILLIONS of Venezuelans, Haitians, Black! Africans, and other potential scum from trashed-out shitholes around the world. White Christians, though? We gotta lay down the law here, guys - can't just let anybody and his brother into the country willy-nilly, ya know.
I've read about the Bai Dien Administration's taking up the cause now to deport these scum of society, shown in the image above, a decade later on various websites. My go-to site, VDare, has an article by long-term regular writer Mr. James Fulford on this story: Biden Regime Suddenly Decides To Deport German Home-Schooling Romeike Family—WHY NOW?.
There's so much hypocrisy in this story that even VDare writers with 2 decades of immigration ins-and-outs under their belts can't point it all out. Then again, Anarcho-Tyranny is not quite the same as simple hypocrisy. (That'd be a good post to come.)
One thing that I see is that the deportation of this family of 9 means that there would be separation of the family if the Germans didn't let the 2 American-born kids in. How about those big sob stories about the dark foreign kids, brought in by Coyotes on a dangerous trek through the desert, were separated - separated I tell's ya! - from their parents. (As are American children whose Dads commit grand larceny, rape, or murder- freaking family separation!)
I will insert this little bit of the great discussion of this stupidity by James Fulford. (The first part is his excerpt of a wiki paragraph on homeschooling in Germany :
I have no idea what constitutes sex education in modern day Germany, and I’m not sure I want to, but I’m not reassured by stories like this: It’s not all anal sex’: the German schools exploring love, equality and LGBT issues, by Abby Young-Powell, Guardian, November 23, 2016.The illegality[In Germany] has to do with the prioritization of children’s rights over the rights of parents: children have the right to the company of other children and adults who are not their parents. For similar reasons, parents cannot opt their children out of sexual education classes because the state considers a child’s right to information to be more important than a parent’s desire to withhold it.
Germany started modern sex education in 1969, and made it mandatory in all schools in 2002.This is why the Romeike's wanted out. It's a decent case for political asylum. The millions of cases EACH YEAR of foreigners obtaining this status are not, so we know what this is about, don't we? It's pure anti-White and anti-Christian hatred by the Regime.
I read an an article for some more info on the life of the Romeike family in Tennessee. Evan Mealins of The Tennessean reports German family in Tennessee faces deportation. Everything we know about the case. It's a good unbiased article, but, man, are these people still clueless about the invasion!:
How many people are granted asylum?This is from 4 days ago. Read VDare, Evan. They are getting "asylumed" by the hundreds of thousands MONTHLY!
According to Syracuse University, nearly 2 million people applied for asylum in the U.S. from 2001 through 2022. Just over 600,000 were granted asylum in that time period, according to Homeland Security. From 2013 to 2022, about 15,000 people from Europe were granted asylum. None of those appear to be from Germany. Asia has had the most people granted asylum in the United States with nearly 120,000 people from 2013 through 2022.
Final question for the Bai Dien deportation squad: Would it have been OK if the Romieke family had used the App? Would they have been just given a date to come to a hearing - or not - in a half a year, no harm, no foul - had they broken into this country via Ecuador, the Darien Gap, and then a another gap, provided by the helpful US Border Patrol, in the razor wire, on the American side of the Rio Grande?
* From almost 6 and from 4 years back respectively. Regarding the title of the latter, just read that one, and you'll understand the insult "lame-o" when it comes to Donald Trump.
** From the 1st of our previous posts cited here, to get the German a little better, it was NEIN! ISS VERBOTEN! You must turn ofver der kindervolk to zie STADT!
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Good news from New Mexico
Posted On: Saturday - September 30th 2023 5:06PM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism Guns
This picture is from a CNN article. They wanted this picture to scare readers, but it made my day instead.
This is a short follow-up from our post New Mexico Commie Governor declares guns health emergency from a couple of weeks ago. Even when I wrote that, I was behind in reporting that this New Mexico attempt at a gun ban is a feel-good story. We could sure use one!
I've read a few more posts on the resistance to the unConstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious (yeah, OK, egregious!) action taken by the overly emotional New Mexican Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. (Women high-office politicians, yeah, I'm agin them.) I like the title of this one by Mr. Dan Zimmerman of The Truth About Guns. He says Gun Owners Owe New Mexico’s Inept, Authoritarian Governor a Debt of Gratitude.
Not only are the good New Mexicans of Bernalillo County, which encompasses the city of Albuquerque, scoffing at the ban, but even the local and other State politicians of this D-squad-dominated State not going along with it. The problem with the Governor's move, per Mr. Zimmerman:
It’s one thing to be a budding authoritarian who doesn’t care about violating state law and individuals’ civil rights. It’s another thing to be an inept, incompetent authoritarian. For that, we call all be thankful for New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.Good, but as Dan Zimmerman continued, explaining how a more logical, organized, unemotional politician would have done this "right", I kept thinking "Hey, hush up - don't give them any ideas"
Grisham isn’t just your run-of-the-mill anti-gun Democrat politician. She’s also a bumbling fool who — we can all be grateful — is terrible at her job and clueless as to how the laws and constitutions of New Mexico and and the United States work.
One lesson of this story is that well-organized large groups of patriots can do a good job of resisting the Potomac Regime and its minions. That would be gun owners / 2nd Amendment advocates. Say what you want about the NRA, but they have 5 million members. There is Gun Owners of America and others. The patriotic would-be resistance to the immigration invasion, arguably an equally important problem at this time, just don't seem to have quite the manpower ready to go outside and do that resisting.
Americans right now are depending mostly on the Texas National Guard, as we've posted about here and here and with new news and video from VDare's Eugene Gant just today: More Video Of Biden’s Border Treason: Border Patrol Cutting Razor Wire, Fist Bumping Great Replacement Illegals.
Anyway, congrats to the good Patriots of Bernallilo County and New Mexico! Thank you, inept government "leaders" everywhere. Thank you for reading and writing in, Peakers. The list in my head of future posts is long, but available time is short. Happy Sunday to all.
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Dispatches from The Middle Kingdom: Planes, Trains, and **Automobiles-II**
Posted On: Friday - September 29th 2023 10:57AM MST
In Topics: Music Cars China iEspionage
(Continued from **Planes**, **Planes-II**, **Trains**, **Trains-II**, **Trains-III** and **Automobiles** of our Dispatches from The Middle Kingdom: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles series.)
"Yo, Taxi!!"
No, that's not how you do it in China, not even in Chinese. You walk up to one of them when it's in traffic, maybe see someone in the back and still have a conversation through the open window with the driver about whether we can work out a deal. The passenger in the back sits calmly, and the driver figures this out. I gotta say, it's very impressive to see this kind of cooperation. In America, the guy wouldn't stop, and if he'd talk to you, it be to give you shit for bothering him with a rider in the back. I really appreciate the calmness and respect, but then read on about a not so nice story.
I am pretty sure one can use cash too, though the Chinese people seem all fine with the money app on their phones.* This is what I saw mainly in the small(er!) Chinese village though.
What they've got in China, though, is an uber-Uber system, using the "Didi" app. There are others, but I imagine this most popular program will become another web monopoly. I also am pretty sure the Chinese Gov't is involved, if not directly, behind the scenes, whether the company is private or a State owned company. This thing is ubiquitous.
Here at home, I have gotten away without personally loading Lyft or Uber, but I've ridden many times. From what I saw, the Chinese app does even more. Go figure. The app there probably sends even more info on what's going on back to (eventually) the Government. Gotta keep track of people - the taxi driver's version of the software gets other info, but the main thing is that this forces those using taxis in this way to have that piece of iEspionage on-board.
Holy crap, though, for a smart population, these people are just as, or more, dependent on their phones than the average American. I mean, this taxi driver in the village has got to know the main streets at least. The general friendliness among the unified Han population means that you take a rider in the front seat (for economics too, as these are small cars) and can discuss the route. Yet that big screen is up there displaying the route and barking away in Mandarin.** Same as at home, "we got it! STFU!" (That's ME, at home, anyway, when my wife leaves it on.)
As it turned out one time, app or no app, the driver was taking us the long way to make more money. Oooh boy, did she get chewed out by the passenger in our party riding shotgun... the whole way back, haha. This was not a one-off thing. I asked what the lecture was about, after we'd gotten to our destination. "I told her you people have no morals ..." Also, how do you get away with this anyway, by putting a new way-point on the app somehow, or did she just ignore the moving map.
Now, about the economics of it all, it MUST be subsidized. The numbers just didn't work out for me. We'd go 10-15 minutes in traffic, say 3-8 miles, and pay the equivalent of a dollar, a dollar fifty tops. Here's the problem:
That's 8.85 gallons for $38*** = $4.29 per gallon. There's a big monopoly gas station chain called Sinopec, but the color scheme is green. This may have been another. This was not some high outlier though, or we wouldn't have been there. Prices were cheaper by 5-10 % in Peking.
I imagine those little engines may get, being generous, 35 mpg in traffic, but still, that's 75¢ to a buck in gas, while making a buck to a buck fifty. There's wear on the car, so for even these working class Chinamen and -women taxi drivers to make only $2 to $4 an hour stressing out in traffic and driving continuously before other expenses doesn't seem right. (I don't mean in the moral sense, just economically.) Keep in mind that tipping is not a thing in China. Oh, and Didi or whoever takes a cut too.****
I was told that the gas is subsidized for taxi drivers, but even if it were half, I don't see how these people can survive - must be more to it.
Interestingly, China is like New Jersey. "How, so?" the reader may ask. C'mon, ask it! The gas stations are not self-service. Boy, that's a throwback to long ago. Is it a jobs program, or are there some tricks that drivers would play otherwise?
The convenience of taxi transportation at near-nominal rates is just another part of the transportation world we don't have in America. OTOH, people have got to make decent money too.
As a driver making peanuts and no tips in stressful traffic conditions in China, I don't know... would I rather be in China or be a Harry Chapin in long-ago Frisco, taking tips... and getting stoned ... he was gonna learn to fly, you know.
* OTOH, I didn't get a chance to talk to someone about this - whether there are many people who are against this Orwellian system but don't want to stand out railing against it.
** I suppose... I wonder if it can be set to the local dialect. Did these apps come at a time (last 5 years) by which Mandarin is understood by almost everyone, if need be?
*** The exchange rate at the time was ~ 7.12 元 : $1
**** Do these Chinese folks do the same irresponsible thinking as many Uber and Lyft drivers in ignoring long-term big maintenance or vehicle replacement in the calculations? I've been meaning to write a post on that.
Comments (4)
Do we NEED the US Police State?
Posted On: Wednesday - September 27th 2023 11:55PM MST
In Topics: US Police State Liberty/Libertarianism Race/Genetics Educational Stupidity
The courageous Paul Kersey* wrote some of his racial commentary a few days back about a Salt Lake City TV station article that asked "Will weapon detectors at Salt Lake high schools disproportionally affect students of color?" ("SOC"s, I presume?) The reader may well ask "Salt Lake City?! Isn't that a Whitetopia?" That depends on whether you mean the city or the whole metro area, something discussed by commenters under Mr. Kersey's post In 59% Non-White Salt Lake Public Schools, Weapon Detectors Are Required in High Schools and Elected Officials Worry It Will Disproportionately Affect... Non-Whites Carrying Weapons Mr. Kersey does go for those long titles, but you get his point quickly from them anyway.
Though Mr. Kersey's commenters discussed some of this too, I want to mention an ideological point about this story. When it comes to idealogy Peak Stupidity claims our Libertarianism as well as Conservatism. We have a topic key for the former - the Conservatism is a given, I suppose - along with US Police State.
For almost my whole life I've agreed with the Libertarian/Constitutionalist Ron Paul's, Lew Rockwell's, and Vin Suprynowicz's* on the encroaching, now almost fully extant, US Police State. I still do, but I can see much more clearly than I use to the problem with trying to resist it while there exists certain segments of the American population.
This is an area in which pundits like Paul Kersey have taught me a few things. Rather than immediately want to retort (and there's a place for comments too!) "What you write is simply unConstitutional!", I understand that the US Constitution wasn't written with a large black population in mind as citizens. It's not just the non-understanding of it by black people, most immigrants of the that have come in over the last half century, and plenty of White people too. It's not just the lack of support for this document as the Law of the Land by said modern Americans. It's that certain contingents - taken as a whole, of course - can't behave well enough to allow the freedom we used to enjoy. That's what Paul Kersey means by "This is why we can't have nice things." (It's not his only point by it, but part of it.)
Is it just due to the lack of the technology that there were no metal detectors in schools going back 50 years or so? No, that's not the case. It would have seemed abhorrent, an affront to Liberty, going back to the 1980s even. That they were in airport terminals before then for a very specific purpose (not that I agree) was already the case, but in one's kids' schools?! That'd have been considered very Police State-like then.
When a respecter of Freedom sees the picture above today, he will still see this as an abhorrent piece of the US Police State. The need for this sort of thing is not worth the humiliation and loss of Liberty. Then, one will see the picture - or scene in real life - below.
Oh.
In answer to the question in our title, no, WE don't need the US Police State for ourselves. However, we've got people in the country whom we often don't see any other way to handle. I don't see any way out of this conundrum without separation of those who CAN maintain and live under a free society and those who CAN'T.
PS: I do think of "Paul Kersey"***, he being very wise not to use his real name, as one courageous guy for writing the truth about racial matters daily. I'll also add that I like his variation in subject matter, something that was not so much the case in the past. It used to be kind of repetitive, truthful and important as it was, with most posts about crime in specific far-gone cities, shootings at funerals, and city/private efforts to "stop the violence" by black "leaders".
* See also Part 2 and Part 3 of that series.
** BTW, "weapons detector" must be the new term for metal detector. This is about guns and large knives, I guess. You can make a weapon out of other materials. The racial contingent in question is not so creative about it, really because it's their impulsivity and lack of foresight that has them bringing in and using guns.
*** ... taken from the Death Wish series of movies. Charles Bronson played the part of vigilante Paul Kersey.
Comments (11)
Gaige Grosskreutz: Just a whole lot of 3 year-old Karma comin' down
Posted On: Monday - September 25th 2023 6:54PM MST
In Topics: Commies Music Cars Race/Genetics Poetic Stupidity Guns
The picture above comes from the Glorious Summer of '20, Glorious for thug looters and antifa Commies alike. Only, for a few moments in Kenosha, Wisconsin during the taking of that video including the shot (pun works) above, a real hero showed that we Americans don't actually have to take being attacked by Commies. However, Kyle Rittenhouse was just lucky that he didn't get railroaded by the Regime in the courts in Wisconsin for his defense of his person against a murderous Communist aiming a handgun at him.
The man who had his right bicep about shot off by Mr. Rittenhouse in the latter's self-defense goes by the name of Gaige Grosskreutz. OK, he WENT by that name, as he is now somehow known as Paul Prediger. I'll just go by his actual name here.
On this just past September 2nd, Mr. Grosskreutz was physically "attacked" yet again. This time it was not due to his own violent murderous intentions but due to some extremely careless black guy driving an SUV on the mean black streets of Milwaukee. Writer Keven Downey, Jr. at PJ Media reports that Mr. Grosskreutz suffered more serious injurious to his person.
Grosskreutz suffered a lacerated liver and broke multiple bones according to a report.If that vehicle hadn't been an SUV (of sorts) with a decent ground clearance, Grosskreutz would have probably been killed. Oh, the black guy drove off - a hit and run. Whaddya, whaddya??
Yet Black! Lives Matter, and they shouldn't be subject to harassment by the police for driving they way they would like based on their diverse culture. Gaige Grosskreutz would have said that 3 years ago. Now, he's helping with an investigation by... get this... the COPS, to find out who ran over him. Whaaa? He should feel honored to have been run over by a Black! man! This kind of destructive thing is what the Communist Grosskreutz wanted for this country, and the motivation behind his coming after Kyle Rittenhouse with a gun three years ago. He's getting it too, good and hard, like a transmission case coming at you...
Is the guy accident prone or what? I think it's the "what", that what being called old-fashioned Karma comin' down.
There's just a little fashioned karma coming down,
just a little old fashioned justice going round,
a little bit of sowing and a little bit of reaping,
a little bit of laughing and a little bit of weeping,
just a little old fashioned karma coming down.
Coming down, coming down,
just a little old fashioned karma coming down.
It really ain't hard to understand.
If you're gonna dance, you gotta pay the band.
It's just a little old fashioned karma coming down.
I wish Willie had a few more lyrics here, as this is the most ironic piece of Karma that's come down in a while. Perhaps Willie should have sat down with Alanis Morissette for a spell and hashed out a tune together. If they could have somehow gotten John Lennon involved, well now we're talking:
Old fashioned irony's gonna get you.
Gonna knock you right on the head.
You better get yourself together.
Pretty soon you're gonna be dead.
[where's the confounded bridge?!]
Like an AR ... on your protest day,
like eating asphalt under a Chevrolet.
I'm butchering it - needs work. Take it, Willie...
********************************
[UPDATED: 09/26:] Per Adam Smith's correctional comment, changed Grosskreutz's weapon from knife to gun.
********************************
Comments (16)
Global Financial Stupidity v Global Climate Stupidity
Posted On: Monday - September 25th 2023 4:34AM MST
In Topics: Global Climate Stupidity Pundits Global Financial Stupidity
As I wrote about in the PostScript in the last post, on Saturday, I have one serious disagreement with favorite pundit Ann Coulter on one paragraph of her writing. Is that a big deal that I disagree with her 1-2% of the time? No, but this is an argument that I've seen made before.
It goes like: You Conservatives with your anti-vax*/anti-abortion/anti-Big Government talk sound just as stupid as the ctrl-left with their Global Boiling talk. Let it go, and concentrate on the REAL issues! Oh yes, there are other real issues, some more existential. Before I excerpt Miss Coulter's example, let me ask the reader, if he hasn't already, to read her column. The 2 paragraphs around the following and the rest of it are right on. No, talking about government spending is NOT getting anyone riled up about the actions of the Bai Dien Administration. Their traitorous enablement of the border invasion IS what should be brought to light in front of everyone.
Still, here's the false analogy in question:
Government spending is Republicans’ ”climate change.” We’ve gotten frantic warnings that the world will end if we don’t cut spending for the last 50 years—exactly as long as we’ve been warned that the world will end if we don’t cut carbon emissions. Year after year, we do nothing, and yet the world doesn’t come remotely close to ending.There's a big difference, Ann. You are smart enough to know it too, but maybe you just don't follow economics and the numbers.
Global Climate Stupidity (we like the alliteration of Climate Calamity™) is based on a dream of a working mathematical model of the myriad of complex and not all well-understood and described physical processes that comprise the energy balance of the Earth's climate. I have nothing against the science, called Climatology. I've got a whole lot against the use of basic science research by innumerate journalists and politicians to claim an ability to predict details and an understanding in order to blame said rectal extraction on one factor, man-produced CO2 in the atmosphere.
The effects of Global Financial Stupidity** are based on simple arithmetic, the numbers and economic results of which are right in front of us. No modeling is required. One can study a couple of pie charts (monthly snapshot here), go shopping for groceries, building materials, you-name-it, or talk to a prepper.
"Deficits don't matter", President Reagan's advisors told him, and us, 40 years ago. I don't think those guys knew (or they weren't telling us) how much of the American economy would be given away since then, and how far the Feral Gov't and FED would go with creating US Dollars out of nothing.
I guess it sounds smart to equivocate the two, but Global Climate Stupidity is a huge Totalitarian control scheme at this point, based on bogus science, while the Global Financial Stupidity is real enough and will end in tears soon enough.
PS: If I ever met Ann Coulter and brought this stuff up, I'd recommend for her a reading of Lionel Shriver's prepper novel The Mandibles. We got carried away, so Peak Stupidity has a 6-part review: Introduction - - Part 2 - - Part 3 - - Part 4 - - Part 5 - - Conclusion. (NOTE: Part 5 is a spoiler of the story.)
* Inaccurate term here notwithstanding - I'm not against all vaccinations, and not necessarily even against old and new Kung Flu vaccinations, so long as Americans are not forced to take them - I'm just using the terminology as they use it.
** Why Global? That's how I labeled the topic key, but also: a) What happens to the American economy still affects the whole world and b) Most other countries are doing the same stupid shit.
Comments (10)
Impeachment - What's the point?
Posted On: Saturday - September 23rd 2023 6:07PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Pundits Hildabeast US Feral Government Zhou Bai Dien
Ann Coulter's most recent column, dated September 20th:
Peter Brimelow's 2nd most recent post on his website VDare, dated September 13th:
Ann Coulter very likely reads VDare regularly, but then again, the two pundits could have had this same idea independently. No matter what the deal, I agree with their point.
Bai Dien and friends and family are corrupt greedy bastards with no concern over the future of this country., well, none for a good future. (More on this...) They, and a few dozen others ( take the Hildabeast, please) take the cake for in-your-face corruption, but, as they say, "they all do it".
At the Presidential level, one may have to go back to Ronald Reagan to get to a man (not necessarily the administration) who wasn't involved in some shenanigans for personal gain. Donald Trump is not innocent, but then I think he'd admit himself that in the New York City real estate business, corruption if part of business. After the bad things Peak Stupidity has written about him regarding his capability as President, I will say that this man cares more about his country than his own personal gain, pretty obviously In the meantime, Zhou Bai Dien may do the bidding of China due to his wayward son (carry on!) and starts wars for business reasons.
Peter Brimelow's and Ann Coulter's point is that the corruption Impeachment charges may get Americans riled up, but for no purpose. Bai Dien must be Impeached with treason charges for his actions to destroy America via the immigration invasion, so that this existential issue is loud and front and center. I said that Zhou Bai Dien is not concerned about America, but then, actually, he is concerned that the destructive plans of his puppet masters come to fruition.
One difference between Ann Coulter's and Peter Brimelow's view of the supposedly anti-invasion politicians involved in this is that the former believes they are stupid, while the latter assumes they are evil:
Meanwhile, the not-stupid—but unfocused—conservative Freedom Caucus is threatening to shut down the government unless they get concessions, primarily cuts in government spending.OK, not stupid, but "unfocused".
Republicans, are you awake?They are just unfocused or asleep. Are you sure that's all it is, Ann? Mr. Brimelow:
I fear the reason is obvious: The last thing the GOP Leadership wants is to stoke up rage in the base about immigration. McCarthy has always obstructed meaningful action—see Kevin McCarthy Cucks On Border Security—No Immigration Provisions In Debt Ceiling Bill. Undoubtably, they plan to obey their big donors and stifle meaningful action as they did after President Trump’s election.What a downer of a way to end the blog week, but then, this invasion has gone full Camp of the Saints - in America and Europe*. I hope you will keep reading anyway. Have a pleasant Sunday, all!
PS: There's one paragraph in this column of Miss Coulter's that I don't agree with and don't like one bit. Regular Peak Stupidity readers would be able to pick it out in a jiffy.
* See John Derbyshire's latest article
"Preventable Evils"?—Lawfare Crippling European (And U.S.?) Immigration Patriots. (He separates out England from Europe so discussed three invasions.)
Comments (4)
Texas v Feds - still the BIGGEST story?
Posted On: Friday - September 22nd 2023 6:22PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity US Feral Government
A couple of months ago Peak Stupidity asked Is the biggest American story of the 21st Century developing?. The story was the conflict between the Feds and Texan law enforcement/military over the invasion underway across the Texas/Mexican border. The Texans are trying to control the situation to some degree, and the Feds are purposely destroying the efforts of the Texans.
Regarding that title, Peak Stupidity has been wrong before. We haven't given up on a President DeSantis yet (got a nice "Make America Florida T-Shirt and hat, if that helps) it doesn't look likely for '24, and obviously there was no real People's Revolt of 22. On this border conflict turning into THE BIG STORY that changes America's course, we'll, I'm encouraged from what I've been reading on VDare.com. I have not found another site that is truly all things immigration as VDare is.
The immigration invasion has been going on for a long time. Let's face it: This is an EXISTENTIAL issue. I wrote about this somewhat facetiously in the long-ago post Too many posts about immigration, you say? - GIT! OFF! MY!
ex·is·ten·tial /ˌeɡzəˈsten(t)SHəl/ adjectiveCheck out the Oxford Dictionary's example:
concerned with existence, especially human existence as viewed in the theories of existentialism.
relating to existence. "the climate crisis is an existential threat to the world"No, that doesn't work for me at all as an example. How about "The Immigration Invasion is an existential threat to Americans."?
Let me put it this way: If this problem or plan (to be truthful about it) comes to fruition, there is no use in us worrying about any other plans or problems. If it's not my country, why should I care? It can go Communist for all I care. I'm OUT. That's why it's a good thing if this problem comes to a head, and soon.
OK, now let's get to the recent articles about what's going on in Texas, at the border and in the government in Austin. First of all, there is no comprehensive* plan by Texas for the full border. It sounds like Governor Abbot is trying to get Texas LE/Guard/etc. to plug the big holes. Eagle Pass, in Maverick County, about 2/3 of the way down the Rio Grande from El Paso to Matamoros at the Gulf, and ~50 miles down from another important part of this story, Del Rio, is a hot spot in this conflict. It is the location of the report by Federale linked-to in that previous post of ours.
The conflict is ongoing still, or just beginning in terms of Feds v Texans (and Feds v Governor Abbott), as opposed to Feds helping illegals and Texans standing down. 4 days ago, this same VDare writer Federale said that The War On Texas’ Border Security Actions Is Beginning.
Yesterday, writer A.W. Morgan reported: Great Replacement Update: Biden Released 100K Illegals In The Last 20 Days yesterday. Also yesterday, Federale noted the words and hopefully actions of the Governor with Governor Greg Abbott Lays Down A Marker: Texas Will Deport Invaders. Interestingly, if as a State official, you're still going to follow the LAW on this (exactly why at this point, I don't know), you - Governor Abbott - have to do it right:
The key for Governor Abbott, if he has the courage to actually begin removing invaders, is that it cannot be called a deportation. It must be worded at every level that the invaders being detained are POWs, illegal combatants, and war criminals, therefore subject to being removed from the battlefield, i.e., being returned to Mexico."Federale" is a Federal insider, after all, but I'm not sure this letter-of-the-law business change the minds of the Feral Government's purposely destructive stance one iota on this. I like his next suggestion better:
A further suggestion for Abbott is to close the bridges on the Rio Grande. Those bridges are under the jurisdiction of Texas and punishing Mexico and Mexicans is the only way, aside from military action along the river, that will force Mexico to end the invasion.I can't excerpt all of the interesting and important reporting in these posts, but I urge the reader to check them out, along with clicking on the few tweet-embedded videos therein.
While the VDare writers in general, and I too, are hopeful and looking forward to serious action against the Fed-supported invasion by Texas Governor Abbott - see writer Washington Watcher II's Texas AG Paxton’s Acquittal Clears Path For Gov. Abbott To Throw Down With Biden To Save The Historic American Nation From The Great Replacement (also by Federale), writer Former Agent is worried that Abbott is just a typical disingenuous politician. On this he is supported by the words of Tucker Carlson, as can be seen in video in the very concerning post of his, Which Way, Governor Abbott?
Who knows what's in the mind of Greg Abbott? I mean, were I in his position - and I really wish I were in the midst of this thing in Texas - I would be happy to have a chance to be a part of history. This guy could be remembered as well as Sam Houston, this time as the start of real Federalist resistance to the Potomac Regime. Is he simply afraid of Fereal Government power and consequences? Is it more the typical deal that he's simply working for the donors while making sure to sound bona fide to the people of Texas?
Patriots around the country would like to see this thing get started. I don't mean a real war right now, mind you, but I think the sooner anyone with some power stands up to the Feds, the better this will turn out. Either way, the invasion is existential. The Potomac Regime is behind it, and patriots and the State of Texas are trying to stop it. We have to win this. The eyes of the Nation should be on Texas and Governor Abbott right now.
* I know, "comprehensive" is ordinarily a bad word in immigration patriot circles, as that normally goes with "reform". Together, the phrase means Amnesty.
Comments (9)
Dispatches from The Middle Kingdom: Planes, Trains, and **Automobiles**
Posted On: Thursday - September 21st 2023 7:44AM MST
In Topics: Cars China Peak Stupidity Roadshow
(Continued from **Planes**, **Planes-II**, **Trains**, **Trains-II**, and **Trains-III** of our Dispatches from The Middle Kingdom: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles series.)
Peak Stupidity already has one cars-in-China post up, call it **Automobiles-0**, mainly because I was enamored with the brand TrumpChi.
I could pull up a "file photo" for you readers, with some big mess of traffic over in China or any big Oriental city. Instead, I'll just keep using my own photos. I didn't think to snap - "snap", that's old school, huh? - any shots of traffic in general, but more regretful for me is that I never took any video long ago when the traffic was even crazier.
I don't mean there's less traffic now, no, far from it. It's just that more barriers have been put up to keep the flow more sane. 15 years ago, I stayed for a while on the 8th floor or so of a hotel that overlooked an INSANE intersection. For people used to some rules of the road, and, more so before the PanicFest, traffic cops around, it was insane, but the Chinese drivers, truckers, bikers, scooter riders, pedestrians, you name it, did a pretty sane job turning, merging, and stopping wherever without so much as a scratch. I was impressed. I could have stayed there watching for hours.
That wasn't one of them, but I saw blind T-intersections at which Chinamen and women on all types of conveyances would not stop moving and somehow all merge onto the bigger road. I'm not saying nothing every happened - saw one fairly minor incident just after the fact - but, if this were the US, I can just tell you that drivers couldn't handle it. There'd be blood on the streets, and not necessarily from the vehicle injuries either.
We joke about Oriental drivers, such as middle-aged ladies creeping down the fast lane with their turn signals on for miles at a time. It's funny cause it's true! I've seen it myself. I figure that this reputation and fact is due to immigrant Chinese people in the past having learned to drive here, and often at a more advanced age then we Americans. Learning at 40 y/o vs 15 y/o is so much different regarding reaction times, nervousness and judgment. In China itself, I imagine the average driver today learned at a more advanced age than we do here.* Then, why the amazing job over in China? It's stressful mind you, but they're pretty good.
The random horn honking that I remember from the past seems to have subsided some. What I noticed was that auto horns are used for their ACTUAL purpose, which is as a warning device. Drivers use quick taps on it to warn another driver that the former is getting really damn close to the other and no so sure that he knows that yet. There are still those drivers that apparently are under the impression that without continual honks of the horn, the vehicle will brick up.
That's enough about the drivers. In that "TrumpChi" post I already wrote a little about the types of cars I saw. I will mention now that there is some innovation in traffic signaling hardware (and software) that I like. See, we have countdown timers at certain intersections for pedestrians, which, if the view is OK, help drivers figure out approximately when the light will turn.** In China, the engineers have formalized this, as seen below.
That was not in the big city either. It's from that "village" of about a million. Good idea, anyway.
As with everything in China now, it's all going electronic. I'll write about the taxi service in the next "Dispatches" post, but, man, the reliance on the phones is worse than it is here. They've got their navigation apps, but, seriously, this is part of a hour and 3/4 trip down the Interstate*** that the driver has taken dozens of times. You just go down the road. You surely aren't going to lose your way in the tunnel!
(Note: Signs look weird due to blogger redaction. Who knows what it said anyway?
* If one went back maybe 35 years to the mid/late 1980s, I bet he'd find that 90% of Chinese families had no one able to drive a car. There was a lot of Mao/Communist ruin still in the nation.
** It's not quite that easy, as they have widely varying lag times between that "0" for the pedestrians and the change to green. You've got to know the place.
*** OK, the Freeway if you're a Californian. In China, the Interprovince, perhaps?
Comments (6)
Drea de Metteo v Big Tone
Posted On: Wednesday - September 20th 2023 6:40PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Humor Kung Flu Stupidity
"In this corner, wearing the tight white trousers and low cut sweater,
"In this corner, wearing spectacles and the shame of the whole world stands the Eyetalian Faucist ... ist ... Big Tony ... eee... yeah, dis fuckin' guy!"
Peak Stupidity reports to you tonight from Hollywood, California. Is that not a first? Don't mistake us here, we hate the place and all it stands for. We do have an appreciation, though for the old Sopranos TV show and particularly right now the actress Drea de Metteo. I had never heard the actress' name before reading something a few days back, but I remember her as Adriana La Cerva (didn't ever know her show last name even), the girlfriend of Tony Soprano's nephew and loyal "associate" Chris.
Yes, I could find better pictures, but the one above reminds me of what I like about Italian life, the great food - I could tell Carmela's cooking was excellent even through the TV! - and those Italian restaurants* with the checkered tablecloths... yeah, it's all fun and games until someone pokes
Alright, the article from, yes, Hollywood in Toto**, says Drea de Matteo Unloads on Fauci: ‘The Real F***ing Mafioso’ . I really just like the headline, but there's quite a bit about this actress' turn from being the usual lefty to something of a Libertarian. The Kung Flu PanicFest done done it.
The actress said watching her country, and especially her fellow Hollywood liberals, give up their freedoms during the pandemic alarmed her.Is "Front Man" the Hollywood word for miserable fucking Totalitarian? I'm not an insider.
She saved special ire for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s pandemic front man and someone who pretends he didn’t demand the country lock down during the outbreak.
But he did.
“They wanna f***ing do it all over again,” de Matteo said about virus protocols, including mask dictates that ignore the growing body of evidence that masks do little, if anything, to help prevent exposure.Ha, she sounds the same as on the TV! It's very catchy, this Italian talk, with the f-words and such ...
She hissed at Dr. Fauci without uttering his name.Pauli, you and Big Pussy, take care of this... wait, I forgot, we whacked Big Pussy. OK, you and Chris, whack this Totalitarian fuck and bring him down to the pine barrens, South Jersey. North Jersey and New York are too crowded already with whacked fuckin' psychos, live and dead!"
“Public enemy number one, that other Italian. The real f***ing Mafioso …the little tiny Italian…. If there’s ever been a f***ing thug,” she said of Fauci, her voice trailing off in anger.
In addition to Big Tony Fauci, Adriana had hit Neil Young hard too.
“I cannot tell you how f***ing fast I stopped listening to Neil Young … at that time [Rogan] was gathering more information,” she said of efforts led by Young to deplatform the comedian.I'm in LUV!!! Well, I already was.
“Who the f*** do you think you are, old man? Old man, take a look at your mother f***ing life now,” she added, quoting one of his classic hits.
“And he’s Canadian, and these truckers have a convoy lined up and you’re not fighting for the average man right now?” she added, alluding to a push to protest draconian government measures to fight the virus.
Adriana appears in this scene from The Sopranos. It's possibly my favorite scene from that series:
"A bottle of reds, a bottle of whites ..."
* See our very first post for the song that is now in your head.
** No, we're not actually there, but we are reading the magazines, online.
*** uck. Don't all Italians talk like Tony Soprano? What's with the asterisks, you miserable fucks?
Comments (2)
Resistance to the Thacker Pass Lithium mine
Posted On: Tuesday - September 19th 2023 7:21PM MST
In Topics: Economics US Feral Government Environmental Stupidity Geography Peak Stupidity Roadshow
I've driven all over the State of Nevada, almost always on the way to somewhere else, at 80 - 100 mph. Much of it is the "Basin & Range Country". The two-lane highway goes up a couple of thousand feet over 5 10, or 20 miles and then goes back down. Except near the crests of the ranges, one can see the glint off a cop car windshield - yes, I'm paranoid - for 5 miles. That's nicely out of radar range.
Wide open spaces are great. This is just one of the reasons Americans should work to defeat those who want a Billion Americans. However, if you're going to do mining with as little disturbance of the way of life and the views as possible, Nevada (and parts of a handful of other States) is the place to do it.
As I read a little about the Thacker Lithium mine mentioned yesterday on both the wiki page and in the Extreme Tech article I linked to yesterday, I noted the lamentations of the environmentalists and the resistance of the Indians to the project being well covered. For the latter, this was specially the case on wiki, on which every page on some piece of American geography seems to have a paragraph on who the "Indigenous Peoples" were, who used to live there, apparently forever before.
Bill H. wrote about the environmental problems with these big mines in the comments yesterday. Those enviros who are on the
Now, Chinese 1/4 ownership or not, I like to see productive work, creating wealth and requiring decent jobs, be done in America. Therefore, I am square on the side of the Moar EVs! crowd on this one, not at all due to any of their stupid ideas, of course. The battle between them and the more knowledgable enviros that can see the bigger picture here is, well, just an impetus to stock up on Orville Redenbacher's finest. (OK, that's just a meme - it'd be Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip!)
What struck me as kind of humorous about other effort of resistance to the Lithium mining projects was the claims by the Indians. As I wrote, these places are wide-open pieces of NOWHERE. Yet, the small Indian tribes that say they were first to the land. Wiki includes this quote from the Reno Sparks Indian colony - that's a couple of hundred miles away:
"Just because regional tribes have been isolated and forced onto reservations relatively far away from Thacker Pass does not mean these regional tribes do not possess cultural connections to the Pass."Sure, and I've got cultural connections to the Little Saint Bernard Pass* where I shoveled elephant shit as Hannibal crossed the Alps (in a previous life). Seriously, I've got cultural connections to the Molas Pass, where my too-rich-running muscle car could barely climb up from Durango to Silverton, Colorado, and I pulled off there to take a piss and nap in the car.** Yet, I don't deign to interfere with development of the region.
The Paiute tribe is upset because 31 of their number were massacred by US Gov't soldiers in 1865 at Thacker Pass, but evidence has some put the location outside of the mining area. Either way, it's not like the Indians marked their people's graves, so how much do they care, really? Are they worried about poltergeists rising up through the mine tailings? I don't think they'd last an hour among that sulfuric acid.
The Extreme Tech article reports:
“The Caldera holds many first foods, medicines, and hunting grounds for tribal people both past and present,” the People of Red Mountain, a committee representing all three tribes and others, wrote in a statement.First foods?? First, you need enough of ANY food. This isn't the place. The comedy routine of one Sam Kinison comes to mind...
“The global search for lithium has become a form of ‘green’ colonialism. The people most connected to the land suffer while those severed from it benefit.”Connected, hell. It's unfortunate, but they are connected more closely to the US Feral Gov't than are most of the White men. At some point, you've got to make some money yourself. And there's that "colonialism" slur that's supposed to block any progress. I'm worried about economic colonization.
... threats to sage grouse habitat, old growth sagebrush, golden eagle nests, endemic springsnails, and Endangered Species Act–listed Lahontan cutthroat trout, bighorn sheep, and pygmy rabbits.Yeah, but see, most of that fauna is Endangered. The White man tries to save it, but it's always OK for the Red Man to take it.
You've got your knowledgable enviros that care about ACTUAL pollution against the Climate Alarmists that, if you grant them their stupidity, still miss the big picture. Then, there are other splits in the Coalition of the Fringes (TM-Steve Sailer), such as:
The next day, an article describing the acrimonious split, stated that the People of Red Mountain fired Falk because Falk and Wilbert, co-founders of 'Protect Thacker Pass', are also members of Deep Green Resistance (DGR), and there were concerns over DGR's beliefs about transgenderism. Further articles followed on the rift.While I enjoy the wide open spaces for driving and plinking, I don't see how these big mining projects aren't one of the best uses one can think of for the land. The West has solved REAL pollution problems partially by outsourcing the nastiest industries to China, where they don't care about it nearly as much yet. That word "industry" is important though. Without that, you can't keep your own country. Remember, he who hath the gold, maketh the rules. Hathing 40 million metric shit-tonnes of Lithium helps too.
Oh yeah, if they could just pull out a few tons annually, if nothing else, that amount of this element would be enough to make a big dent in the mental state of the most psychopathic head cases that "run" our country. The benefits of a saner, albeit institutionalized, group of leaders would more than pay for the biggest Lithium project in the World, environmental degradation accounted for.
PS: Much of this is BLM - no, not THAT BLM, but the Feral Bureau of Land Management - land. I have no respect for the BLM as any kind of Constitutional agency and have always rooted for those Westerners who were against the US Gov't "owning" big chunks of land in their States. Nevada has by far the highest proportion of land owned by the Feral Gov't - 80%. (Utah, Alaska and Idaho come next with somewhat over 60% each. Connecticut and Iowa are tied for lowest at 0.3%)
* Historians and archaeologists are not certain that it's not one of 4 other passes that Hannibal crossed, but this was a previous life, so... and I was too busy shoveling elephant shit off the road to read the sign.
** This was on the way to Grand Junction, Colorado and points northwest, so not on one of the routes I've taken across Nevada.
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Big Lithium and the Golden Rule - a tailing of 2 elements
Posted On: Monday - September 18th 2023 7:18PM MST
In Topics: China Economics Geography Science
Just a couple of decades ago, the idea of a realistic electric vehicle was not very easy to imagine, because the energy storage ability was just not there. Running practical EV's is all about the ability to store energy in batteries. The physicists, electrical engineers, chemists, chemical engineers and materials scientists have made some great headway as of late. Of the new materials that are used, Lithium is a component of the biggest, newest battery technology*. The lithium ion batteries that are used in electric vehicles are also in all the iCrap now, a 2nd big market (with many more instances of use, but at a couple of orders of magnitude lower energy storage).
The lithium ion batteries store a LOT of energy, an amount unimaginable last century. That these batteries can cause serious and difficult-to-extinguish fires and ought not to be let ride in the un-reachable cargo compartments of passenger aircraft give us an idea. These are not your Grandaddy's Dry Cells. They are not your energizer bunny power supplies, unless you like to see your bunny running energetically down the bunny trail with its fluffy tail on fire.
To be fair now to "fossil fuels", let me say that, as of right now, these batteries are said to have an energy density of ~ 1 MJ/kg tops, while the chemical potential energy in gasoline is 45 times that much, 45 MJ/kg. Batteries, you got a long way to go, baby!
It's not as blessed as America is with many resources, but when it comes to the newly-in-demand Rare Earth metals (for motors) and Lithium, China has been indeed blessed. (It helps that nobody is let to get in the way of the big projects too, but that's a subject for another China post.) However, Nevada, "The Silver State", has been blessed with material resources too. Whatever else would you do out there but ranching, playing blackjack, operating the oldest profession, burying your silver stash, and digging some more to get stuff OUT of the ground.
The biggest news there is the finds of massive amounts of Lithium in what's called the McDermitt Caldera in northwestern Nevada. A large mine has been started up at Thacker Pass. The latest find, after this, has resulted in back-o-the-envelope calculations of 20 to 40 million tons of Lithium there, off that dirty Winnemucca Road, near the Oregon border in an area of ~600 mi2. If you've ever driven through the State, as I have on probably 6 different full routes across, you may understand that this is a small chunk of land in Nevada.
It's a YUGE find. This is some good news. Granted, mineral extraction is not manufacturing - it, along with farming and lumbering, are known as "primary industries". Manufacturing, to me, is somehow more important, just one of the reasons for which I'll explain shortly. Still, this mining of Lithium is wealth creation, in America, something to see, baby... Less reliance on the Chinese economy is a good thing for us.
While reading about the Thacker Pass mine on the wiki page, I ran into something concerning. The company that's operating it is 1/4 owned by the Chinese! Great, so we're trying to be less reliant on that economy, but with a 1/4 share, I'm pretty sure the Chinese investors will have a bias as to where much of this Lithium will go. Sure, one may say, this mineral is a commodity, and it'll go to the highest bidder, but then the Chinese are one people, a tribe, if you will. That free market stuff is used for their purposes, when it helps, but they do not play fair when it's not good for China.
Will America, like Australia pretty much is right now, become an economic colony of China? Right now, lumber is cut down here and in Canada, shipped across the Pacific freaking Ocean, made into furniture in China, and shipped back across the Pacific freaking Ocean... bulk one way, and bulky stuff in containers the other way. We are a colony when it comes to this furniture industry (albeit, not completely). That's what an economic colony is about, as with the sugar and coffee plantations in Latin America. Extract raw goods and ship 'em home, manufacture finished goods out of them, and sell some of that back to the colonies.
"Well", one may say, "just make some laws about the ownership of companies - and real estate while we're at it - by foreigners". I ask the reader at this point, if he's still interested, to read the 2 3/4 y/o Peak Stupidity series Will America be looted by China?:
Part 1: Intro.
Part 2: Housing
Part 3: Big Biz
Part 4: The Fruited Plain
Part 5: The Wilderness
Part 6: Conclusion - The Golden Rule
That title of Part 6 does not refer to the Christian Golden Rule about "Doing unto others..." The much more widely adhered-to International version goes "He who hath the gold, maketh the rules." America is figuratively and literally giving the gold to China on a yearly basis to the tune of about half a Trillion dollars.
Yeah, so who's in charge of our economy again and these big Lithium mines?
PS: That one article I linked to and the wiki page on that Thatcher Pass mine have a lot of info on objections to this industry by various usual suspects. We'll have at least one more post on that subject.
* See, we're talking actual technology that doesn't mean a software package, though software is involved in getting these things charged and discharged efficiently, I'm sure.
** Don't take the quote marks for my not believing at all in the theory of these fuels originating from fossilized life. I'm no geologist, biologist, whatever - I don't know, but one wonders ... Quote marks are there just to delineate the term.
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Do! Not! Read! Scab post!
Posted On: Saturday - September 16th 2023 8:03PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Humor
I would have never thought that Bill Maher and I would ever have anything in common. However, like the ctrl-left punditard Maher, I too am in defiance of the writer strike. Must ... keep.... writing .... I have no control of the post titling and the editing during this contentious period, however. [Damn straight - go strait [sic] to hell, you f**ing scab! - Ed.].
I got away with mostly pictures yesterday, so we'll see how far this one goes. With the China reports and the gun story (more on that coming will be good news) taking up half the blog-week and my fatigue from the beat-downs at the picket line, I didn't get to the rest of the verbal destruction of High-Holy Communist Leon Trotsky, nor more on the Depopulocalypse. Then, there's plenty more on the front burner... wait...
OK, I'm back. I finally clicked on that yahoo link. I'd only seen about 3 headlines on this writer's strike over the last month or so, without clicking of them, and it turns out that blog writers, not being members of any union, are not part of this strike after all.
Good! It's about TV writers or something. Why the heck should I care about the people that write the stuff that's said on TV? I've not been hooked up since early 1999. I hope that you don't care either. This strike could go on for the rest of our lives, and Peak Stupidity readers might never notice.
Now, if it were really all writers, would we miss them? So long as Lionel Shriver is a scab too, I'd be fine with that. Moby Dick must have been finished by now, right? (Don't know for sure - even the Cliff Notes for it were too long for me!)
Have a happy and restful Sunday, readers, commenters and The Editor! [Thank you. I hope we're good... just have to tell you that Peak Stupidity corporate is not responsible for damages to employees' property... say car doors that have been keyed and such ... no, just sayin'... - Ed]
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Dispatches from The Middle Kingdom: Planes, **Trains-III**, and Automobiles
Posted On: Friday - September 15th 2023 12:20PM MST
In Topics: China Peak Stupidity Roadshow
(Continued from **Planes**, **Planes-II**, **Trains**, and **Trains-II** of our Dispatches from The Middle Kingdom: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles series.)
I wrote that I'd put up some pictures of the high-speed rail journeys in China. (We made 2 HS rail trips.) To really get the idea of it all, you'd need video. I took lots, but as Adam Smith noted, this takes up lots of memory on the server. I am thinking of starting a youtube channel for things like this.
In some later posts on general life in China, I'll embed more pics taken from the trains too. The top picture here is from out in the sticks.
This is the big station where we started off our 12 hour trip. We were ahead in line, so these are the first few people trickling onto our train. Seats are reserved. There may have been 20 different tracks, and they turn around the trains fairly quickly - I'd guess less than 1/2 an hour.
That was an intermediate stop. No, see, that's not graffiti. Those are Chinese characters that say I don't know what, but our American minds expect graffiti at the stations, on the cars, everywhere. I HATE it.
I've written that Chinese words are usually small, one or two syllables long. This town is one of the exceptions. For the big cities, Chengdu, Chongching, Peking, etc. there'll be a "bei", "nan", "gong", or "xie" on the end, for north, south, east, or west, as these cities have more than one big HS (and other) rail stations.
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The Camp of the Saints - Happening right now
Posted On: Thursday - September 14th 2023 8:17AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity The Future Books
Peak Stupidity posted The Camp of the Saints 6 years ago yesterday. It was a review of a review of the prophetic book on immigration invasion by French author Jean Raspail. It was published right at 50 years ago.
I read the book. The ways and means, and the type people, of the immigration invasions into almost all Western White countries have been different from the book. It's the idea of the massive numbers let in due to guilt and stupidity of the residents (not to mention malevolence of "their" governments) that has made "Camp of the Saints" a good metaphor.
Now, as VDare's A.W. Morgan reports, a Camp of the Saints scenario is literally going on right now on the Italian island of Lampedusa: Great Replacement Update / Lampedusa: Literal Camp-of-the-Saints Illegal-Alien Invasion Swamps Italian Isle . This island, only 60 miles off of the closest point on Africa, on the east coast of Tunisia, has had many of these "refugees" land there before, on their way to continental Europe via Italy.
I put "refugees" in those quotes. Yes, they are refugees of sorts, but being a refugee from a shithole country simply because it is, after all, a shithole country, well, that's pretty much the premise of The Camp of the Saints and of Steve Sailer's World's Most Important Graph.
Per Mr. Morgan, 100 boats brought 8,000 to 10,000 Africans to this island with a normal population of 6,000 Italianos, in half an hour! Regular readers would know that I am no fan of TPFKAT*, but the multiple videos shown within the X's in the post show how very much like the dystopic novel this situation is.
The tweets, X's, whatever have writing that calls from those being attached for war and violence. That'd have been better accomplished long ago, and in fact made not even necessary if proper steps had been made. Right now, the best move would be to bring in 1,000 Italian troops ready to herd these people into camps or directly onto boats for the return voyage. Word will get out, but it would take a while. In the meantime, all other boats on the way should be escorted toward Tunisia and sunk if not in compliance. It's getting all too real now, this Camp of the Saints.
Here's some video, but not necessarily the same as is in the VDare post.
Looking at the invaders, I'd say they are mostly sub-Saharan, as in black Africans rather than Middle-Easterners. So, this is not the 1st country they could have taken "refuge". OTOH, Tunisia is not an insane country, so, why would the Tunisians let them invade. Trespassing the country on their way across, that's OK. As for Italy, like most of the Western ones, it IS an insane country. I don't know which type of invaders it'd be worse off with, along with the rest of Europe, where many will eventually be headed... if this true "Camp of the Saints" invasion isn't headed off NOW. Yes, violence will be necessary, the longer they wait, the more of it...
Oh, why don't we have a look at that simple Steve Sailer graph:
PS: I do have this problem with TPFKAT (X, Twitter) videos. Where I am now I cannot use speakers, but I have CC on. Holy crap, the stupidity of some of the narrative is something else! I was just reading closed captioning from one Natasha Ghoneim of Al Jazeera about all the logistics and money paid by these poor... INVADERS! Then, the former Mayor of Lampedusa now "Activist", comes on there bitching that "we aren't treating these people in a humane way". It's kind of hard to do so, you insane broad, when it's a small island fit for 1/2 this many Italian people. Of course it's a dirty mess. They didn't have to come, and they weren't invited, except by dumb broads like you!
Then, one Giovanna de Benedetto, with the Cher Moonstruck look, comes on about saving the 300 miners [cc sic] with their psychological trauma and getting them painting their homes (yeah, their homes!) and the boats, drownings, and sharks. Perhaps the parents should be put in prison for a few years for child abuse before the ride back.
* The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter.
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Hurricane Lee staying out at Sea
Posted On: Thursday - September 14th 2023 6:56AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Global Climate Stupidity US Feral Government
In the comments under this recent post, Adam Smith and The Alarmist - no, not a rock band, just 2 guys who like Peak Stupidity - discussed Hurricane Lee for a bit.
Would this one make landfall somewhere on the mid-Atlantic area of the US, say, Washington, FS, maybe NYC? That was the speculation and the hope. I looked a couple of days later, was even more hopeful, but just now deleted that image and grabbed the one above from the very nice National Hurricane Center site. (Please, NHS, don't change the page! It's good, and I'm used to it! Nah, that won't' stop 'em.)
Here's the page for Hurricane Lee. This isn't good. We need
This post sounds pretty malevolent - thank you, Jordan Peterson (and Jordan Peterson imitators) for getting this term stuck in my head. Well, yeah ... The Regime in Washington, with large branch offices in New York, HATES me and HATES you, the average PS reader. When it comes to the illegal alien invasion, they enjoy the benefits** without the pain. When it comes to devastating storms, Regime figures and media have openly hoped for Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, Hurricane Central, to look bad for not helping people enough. There's a memory of George Bush and Hurricane Katrina involved. DeSantis does a great job there, so no joy for these folks.
It'd be nice to see the Regime Capital inhabitants feel the pain personally, as they are, finally, with the illegal alien invasion.
So, yeah, I'd like to see a Category 5 storm hit one of these places. If nothing else, it would shut them up and down for a good while. That's really all we want. General Lee came close to defeating these people 160 years ago this summer. We'd like to see Hurricane Lee give it a good shot.
PS: The New York Post's Eric Spitznagel sounded pretty hopeful last year with his article/book review How a Category 5 hurricane could wipe out New York City for good.
* Sandy in '12 was not even a hurricane but just a Tropical Storm, but it dropped a lot of rain. The biggest was what they just called "The New England Hurricane" 85 years ago, which was from a Category 3 to 5. Edna in 1954 was a doozy.
** Votes for one squad, cheap labor for donors to both, and the overarching wish for the demise of the White Middle Class.
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