Open Thread

USA is a failing society from top to bottom, though the Rot started at the Head, well no, that’s inaccurate, it runs bottom to top and top to bottom. A vicious settler-colonial society, like many others, most of us know which is worst of all, but still–

So examples from my neighborhood recently. There’s a grocery store nearby, I used to walk to it , carrying home a 45 or 50 lb. grocery bag and maybe a big bottle of wine was good exercise, 1/3 of a mile . . . last week they had an electrical fire, it’ll be closed a week soon, all the perishable food had to have rotted by now AND there were 4 giant carrier trucks outside. The 5th day after 3 of them were emptied and I saw the 4th being emptied, maybe it was non-perishables. But all this stuff went to waste, dozens or hundreds of people aren’t getting their shifts in, while an idiotic war is making prices skyrocket, in an area that is poor. (Albuquerque is notoriously ghetto with rampant crime, Santa Fe is better as it’s the Capital and historic center of the Yanqui conquest.)

Nobody in the store management did what would be the humane thing, which I’m sure their parent corporation would have fired them for. They could’ve paid the employees to bring the food outside and just give it away to all the poor people, instead of letting it rot. (I guess they’ll probably get a tax cut for this action, so it’s a limited “win” for them.) Disgusting!!

I barely drive my car because Insurance is 3x as much in this state as it was where I lived previously and I don’t feel like throwing money away. I might’ve shared when I waited too long to do my taxes, the fool who did them didn’t submit them as per law they are not allowed to, but didn’t tell me that. So money bleeds from other sources.

My luck comes in cycles, sometimes extremely positive and sometimes very bad. It’ been pretty rough lately, the only consolation I get is that of thinking out solutions, a greater cognitive boost than doing a crossword, etc. Started having computer problems several days ago. (Astrology and planetary transits have real fx; the bad luck started on the day the Sun was directly opposite my Sun in Libra and conjunct opposition to my natal Mars conjunct Sun.) So the problem seemed to start with just a Charger to the computer overheating and going bad. But it immediately took out the ability to use my monitor, and going to Target to get replacement parts was a nightmare. They simply do not staff their Electronics section (defies common sense, those are big ticket items), 2 visits in one day to get a replacement, first I got a cheap, crappy one that would only charge a phone, person who helped me get thru the locked plastic knew nothing, no advice or help, had to go back to get an acceptable one, and both times it took me 20 minutes to get help, multiple other customers walked away the 2nd time because they’re just negligent. Right after Covid I knew people were quitting and things were understaffed; in this area it seems this has never been overcome.

Then the computer problems cascaded even after I’d gotten a working charger. My main Browser Mozilla-Firefox, is garbage, I learned for the 2nd time in 3 years. Previously I’d made the mistake in 2004 of clicking on one of the Entry pictures, it was a beautiful building, I wanted to see where. The whole thing froze and then crashed when I clicked on that, lost all my saved data including 6-7 Patreon subscriptions. Patreon only allows cancellation when you have access, when you’re locked out of access you can’t do shit. I wrote them an email but it was ignored, they were stealing from me, I had to do a Credit Card Dispute, by the 2nd month cut them off. Then I started a new account and cancelled 5 of the 7 subscriptions I had so good content creators (Ian doesn’t go thru Patreon so he wasn’t hurt) lost out in the future., just because Firefox is buggy. Shouldn’t have used it in the future . . .

So I keep 2 browsers on my laptop, you always need that 2nd one for backup. I had to do a Mercy Killing of the Mozilla browser I mainly use because somehow with the other problems triggered by the overheating charger, some Malware evidently got past my very solid Security Program (which does daily scans, is generally very good, I’ve used it for 2 decades with different computers) and the Mozilla browser started making demonic changes, like turning my background from White to Black withoug my consent. I can watch the YouTube Videos and repair (a bit of a time-suck) crap like that, but as soon as I fixed one, other weird shit was happening so I killed the link as it has no value. Now I’m locked out of one of my main emails, thankfully I have a 2nd account. The one that locked me out is completely un-user friendly, I eventually had to call the Customer Service line, run by deliberately retarded AI. It asked me the first 3 letters of my email, could not “understand” the 3 letters I said in standard English. Locked out for 24 hours after multiple tries to get backed in . . . .

Now beyond my petty life, this society is just set up to fail at the most basic things. Let’s look at some news. Colonel Daniel Davis had a good piece up today on Trump’s failed war, showed a grisly Fox “News” segment with some ghoulish monster woman named “Coates” speaking, an elderly formerly attractive blonde Fox Bimbo whose face was frozen up with chemicals, botox or whatever, and the typical male idiot. The Coates fool was bragging Iran is “defeated” they must immediately surrender or they will all be killed!! No contact with reality. Davis himself said he’d been on an MSM program earlier that morning, one moderator and 2 others who screamed at and abused him for telling the truth, both the others said “We’ve won, they’re collapsing, we are the greatest Empire ever!!” Etc. (He didn’t show the segment, too depressing I guess, predicted he’d never be allowed on there again.)

Speaking of Failed Wars, however, some sunnier news. Recently my Movie-platform had an excellent movie from last year on it, about the 114 or so places the Pentagon has for training new cannon fodder to die in our endless wars. It was set in 2006, in a desert area of California, supposed to resemble Iraq. Professional actors and people with serious injuries bought in to “simulate” what the Green Troops will soon see, woman with most of one arm chopped off, a couple folks with prosthetic legs, etc. People from or trained in the languages of our “enemies” who play roles to teach the troops appropriate responses to “threats”, ongoing events.

Alia Shakwat was the central propagandist, I knew her from Arrested Development first, she played the boy George Michael’s cousin “Maybe” who he had incestuous desires for, later she was in the raunchy comedy series “Broad City”, very talented actress who stays busy. She played an Iraqi, American who’d never lived there and spoke only fragmentary Arabic, she’s caught out by her romantic interest, a Veteran who learned the language while there and was depicted as having great respect for the culture. Mayhem ensues, Alia’s character wants to springboard the job to being a professional actress, so she keeps doing dangerous stunts. But the main interest for me was the comedic use of actual George Bush Jr. clips. Seeing his simpering, inane, incoherent face I recalled what comedy gold he was.

I could only compare him to Trump now, as the latter is just a BizarroWorld iteration of W. Junior, without the residual likability. Now I never liked li’l Bushy, I knew his background, born on Home Plate (daddy was born on Third, as the late Texas Governor quipped), coke-fiend and boozer from age 14 or 15 to 40, a complete moron and fail-son who came from Connecticut Royalty, but played a brush-clearing Texas Redneck Good Old Boy, all hat, no cattle. In college he told his professors the beaners and the n—–rs are just stupid, lazy people who deserve no respect. Thinks torture is cool and funny.

And yet, on the Scale of Monstrosity he falls so far short of Trump. He’s funny as Hell, “People misunderestimated me”, under the Demmies “people can’t put food on their families,” “Is Our Children Learning?” to push school charters and privatization. And every President and presidential wanna-be after him is just a Bush-McCain clone, who pushes just the same violent insanity.

I now belatedly understand why tons of morons thought he would be “better to have a beer with” than the Stiff Wooden-Metallic AlGoreBot Model 3.0. That his completely doofy moronic affect makes him “likable” to some, and gave Will Ferrell’s career a giant boost on SNL, just as Gerald Ford did for Chevy Chase.

Trump is another kettle of fish entirely, a screeching bully, doesn’t know as Jr. did partly that he is an utter moron, trained in Mafia “negotiation” tactics by the self-hating gay Extortionist Roy Cohn. (Trump is Gender Queer, look at all his interest in critiquing the other ladies’ dress at celebrity events, his bitchy put-downs, love of Show Tunes, etc. Did Roy Cohn rape him? Not impossible.) Back to Bush Jr., Aaron’s dad the internationally famous therapist Gabor Mate once shared that when you see W. Jr. on a television turn the sound off and watch the expressions on his face. A Mr. Bean type foolish dope trying to trick everyone he’s relevant.

Trump’s mental degeneration now means he is just a shrieking Maniac, losing his own base and alienating every former Subordinate puppet globalist “ally” that we used to have. He is, as Pepe Escobar quips, the (obese, orange) “Neo-Caligula”, the perfect person to destroy this failed Racist Armed Madhouse and burn it mostly (he can’t do all, any more than he can destroy all of Iran) down to the ground. He was kicked out of a Situation Room meeting by Dan “Raisin'” Caine who wouldn’t give him the Nuclear Codes last week, now pretends he wouldn’t use Nukes. Only ‘coz he was denied, just like the Pentagon Heads wouldn’t let him leave Syria, he is not in control.

I find it ironic that a supermajority of the duopoly US Federal politicians repeat their donor BigTech/other Big corporate employers of H1-B immigrant talking points, that “not enough Muricans are capable of doing these jobs”, in the big occupational categories of H1-B visas including InfoTech occupations, engineering, nursing, etc.

In my view, in a supermajority of cases, the H1-B visa use is about getting a 6(?)-year indentured servant whose immigration status is tied to that corporate employer (can’t even work at McDonald’s for extra money or if laid off) and on average is paid meaningfully less than a comparable US citizen or permanent resident worker. There are also stats on a high percentage of US citizen & perm residents say BS Computer Sci grads working in unrelated fields, incongruous with the US BigBiz “worker shortage” propaganda.

Meanwhile based on multiple anecdotal examples of South Asian immigrants, I would say “US Federal politicians” would be an ACTUAL occupational category where H1-B usage might be warranted. Shout out to Kshama Sawant, Lina Khan, & Zohran Mamdani. To be fair, iirc Sawant immigrated as an adult, whereas the other 2 as children with their parents. My point is that this Sawant/etc group is so superior to a supermajority of US Federal politicians in both parties in terms of work ethic, knowledge, IQ, & humanitarian ethic to actually help regular Murican citizens.

If this were basketball, they are in NBA players, whereas Trump/Mike Johnson/Thune/Schumer/Jeffries/Pelosi/0bama/Biden/Clintons/Romney/Bush43/Cheney/John Boner/etc are on the 8th grade girls basketball team. I would LOVE to see the latter cohort bitching & unironically paraphrase the South Park “they took er jawbs!” skit! (Yes, I know that most of this cohort views being a US Federal politician as a low-paid internship for legalized corrupt paydays (lobbyist/ $250K speech speaker/etc), still it would be schadenfreude to see these grifter dbags lose their jobs!)

Where the Red Fern grows. Don’t know how often I read that book during primary school, but it made me cry every time. There was a movie, but never mind.

I’ve had a lifetime love of our canine friends and was even once known as a dog whisperer. No more. You don’t want to die before your dog, and my situation no longer supports the intensity of dog care. Most of my dogs died ugly deaths btw and none from old age or natural causes unless you consider tick fever or stomach cancer or vulvulis natural causes.

I didn’t start out to riff on this. No I wanted to comment on victimizers claiming victim hood. As in Israel and its apologists. But the moment’s passed, except to say all the goyim ain’t dumb and ignorant, so you can shove that plastic (anti-S) Jesus where the sun don’t shine.

That’s all for now, folks

And in other news, Timothy Leary’s dead. Yeah, Frank Zappa rightfully claimed him a CIA asset, and btw, if any CIA types are following this site, fuck off and Have a Nice Day along the way.

So, tune in, turn on, drop out. Gonna turn you upside down and give you the business. Step right up, bend right over.

Yawn, ho hum, so ok, yeah, I repeat myself, I scare myself.

May all beings everywhere plagued by sufferings of body and mind find an ocean of happiness and peace, including the spooks and haters and all their enablers.

All your sea sick sailors they are going home/yonder stands your orphan with his gun.

Anyone bothering to read this ever been an orphan or known one? They tend to be circumspect rule bound types with suppressed rebellions. That’s my limited understanding.

So go go Kokomo, don’t you do that Kokomo no mo.

Ciao from the hinterlands.

Where the Red Fern grows. Don’t know how often I read that book during primary school, but it made me cry every time.
——

I have a hypothesis that if one of the first books someone reads is one that makes them cry they are likely to turn out to be prolific readers. People especially those growing up in shallow, materialistic, anti-community cultures want to feel something real.

——
And in other news, Timothy Leary’s dead.
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In a “Brave new world” the lower classes are sedated, pacified and stupefied by the use of drugs such as Soma, and obsessions with sex. They are purposely brain damaged as infants, and so poisoned through out life that the life expectancy doesn’t extend past middle age. This is how the ruling class controls the population.
The author also had a quote Medical science is making such remarkable progress that soon no one will be healthy.
This is a spot on description of our current society.

The book was written by CIA asset Aldous Huxley. He also extolled the wonders of LSD and drugs just like CIA asset Timothy Leary. His grandparents were in movements and secret societies whose goals were along the lines of eugenics, elite control and world domination.

This information makes a re-read of “Brave New world” and it’s prophecies take on a whole new meaning. Prophecies don’t predict the future, they set the stage for it’s creation.

Ian’s commenters tend to be a darkly “pessimistic” lot, I guess, expecting worse and rarely disappointed

I was thinking the other day as the algorithm was shoveling crap at me — I have dropped X.com and Tiktok but I still let Substack and YouTube tap into my addiction to doom-scrolling and I glance at legacy media and the occasional podcast and visit NC for a daily dose of links — that I am not giving up the em dash just because it makes everyone think I am an automaton. Also, I have no idea what most people are absorbing from “the news” or “thinking” about it.

Is there a “most people” anymore? I remember when people would puzzle over the prejudices of the “median voter”. Polls were treated as oracles. And accurate, within a margin of error. Now, it’s prediction markets and sports betting. There are some big differences between a poll and a prediction market. One measures ambivalence across a representative sample of the population. The other indirectly discloses the corruption of “insiders” while fleecing the clueless. I am sure there’s a viral substack on that moral and political shift waiting to be written — or already written but buried in the mountain of slop.

Addict that I am, I snuck back onto TikTok with a new, virgin account a few weeks back. Curious I was about what it would show a stranger before the algorithm focused on my anxieties, obsessions and fetishes, the better to sell me vitamin supplements and household junk gadjets.

Five or six years ago, TikTok could still be quirky and charming — the apotheosis of the clever 1970s television commercial and 1980s MTV lipsync music video — now, it is just dreadful. Maybe it would get “better” as the algorithm focused on my feeding my narcissism but oy vey! Greed and fraud driven cheap formulaic AI content in place of creative expression.

I am old-fashioned enough to think vox populi must be latent somewhere out there, waiting to start fights at Thanksgiving dinner and throw things at the teevee screen in the basement. Do you think any one cares enough to throw things at Ben Shapiro or Hasan Piker?

The commentariat almost uniformly believes that everything is bad, every actor is malevolent, ineffectual, or both, and that nothing can be done. Not realistic and pretty much the definition of deeply pessimistic.

Yeah, a bunch of doomers, maybe shroomers , a bunch of downer Dougie gloomers. Check your prescription, your predilections and your attitude at the door. Don’t want to hear it no more no more no more. Hit the road Jack and dontcha come back no more. What I say.

Here, from the nextfuckinglevel subreddit, is a video by a very talented man of many voices.
“This guy got the greatest voice”
https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/1t0e1x6/this_guy_got_the_greatest_voice/

Why? Because. Just . . . because.