The unraveling
Long long ago I often used to travel by Greyhound bus. I was in college, and it was a lot cheaper than other forms of transportation. Some of those bus trips were very long, and I’d pass the time by knitting.
I remember one trip I took that lasted about sixteen hours, and I spent a good deal of the journey knitting a sweater for my boyfriend. It was a midnight blue color with an intricate self-pattern, and I knit an entire sleeve while my seat companion – a young man of about my age – watched. We had chatted a bit, and he had admired the sweater – and then I noticed a mistake that I’d made way down towards the beginning of the sleeve.
It probably wouldn’t have been noticeable to anyone but me. But I was seventeen and I was a perfectionist in those days, and there was only one way to fix it: rip the whole sleeve out and start again.
As I started on that task, the guy next to me begged me not to do it. He had watched me knit that thing for about twelve hours at that point, and he couldn’t bear to watch me undo it. But I was relentless, and I destroyed that sleeve and started all over again, while he shook his head.
I feel a little bit like that guy now, only much worse. And I’m not seventeen anymore.
The Trump administration was a very strange experience for me. As my longtime readers know, originally I was not the least bit keen on him. But quite early in his presidency it became clear to me that most of what he was actually accomplishing as president was good. Nevertheless, the whole time I was worried about the election of 2020. The hatred being drummed up for Trump by the MSM and the Democrats was phenomenal, and I couldn’t help but notice that most of my friends and family – mild-mannered though many of them may have previously been – were fully involved in thinking that getting rid of Trump was worth just about anything.
Now that goal has been accomplished. Do they notice what’s being unraveled – an entire sleeve of successful actions? Did they even notice the sleeve in the first place, or was it loaded with errors as far as they’re concerned and do they watch the unraveling with joy and celebration? Or are they unaware of what the Biden administration is engaged in doing?
Many of the new administration’s actions have been by executive order, an unprecedented number. Some are just the undoing of things Trump had done (which in turn were often the undoing of things Obama had done), but some are quite new and radical. Some are being done through the DOJ, for example this latest, which is the dropping of the government’s lawsuit against Yale for allegedly discriminating against Asians and whites.
The DOJ no longer cares about such discrimination. Correction: such discrimination is now the foundation of the policy of the Biden administration. Other recent changes that might be going unnoticed by most people are this and this. And I expect many more to come on a daily basis.
Watching the unraveling is hard, even though I fully expected this to happen. As for Biden voters, if any of the ones I know become distressed by anything Biden is doing and express that distress to me, I intend to ask them why they’re surprised, since this is what they voted for.
It makes me very sad Neo. All I can hope for is buyer’s remorse in the elections of 2022.
It is very distressing, how the people that voted for Biden seem to be just fine with his Executive Orders. The MSM has done their job well. Hate is a very powerful force with the Left.
The unraveling of the fabric of the nation is a terrible thing to behold, and one is reminded of the famous line from Hemingway about things falling apart. It happens first gradually, then suddenly. One might also recall a famous nursery rhyme concerning the impotence of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.
Neo:
One of your best posts. Like you, I wasn’t a Trump supporter in the beginning. But over the four years of his Presidency it became very clear that he accomplished many good things. He really did a great job despite 24/7 opposition from the Fake News and Deep State.
As bad as his EO’s have been, his appointments are equally bad. John Kerry, of course, is horrible. He made, perhaps, the greatest admission against interest of all time when he flat out stated that even if the USA went to zero carbon emissions it would not make a difference. Why are we doing this?
I have a personal animus towards the new Sec. of Transportation; the failed Mayor of South Bend. He called me a racist and got lots of pub over that.
Do people not realize that China intentionally destroyed our economy and owes us about $5 trillion? Biden, of course, won’t do a thing to collect the money. As Power Line has noted, a number of pro-China people are already in the Administration.
My biggest fear is that we will face a major crisis. Nearly every President does. Biden is not up to the task. Who will be the Decider? Dr. Jill Biden? Susan Rice? Ron Klain? Kamala Harris? None of those people got a vote for President.
Its especially bad because the unraveling was in part-like your example-self inflicted
People with TDS think that anything is better than Trump. Even if they could admit that some of Biden’s EOs and broken promises trouble them, they would still be confident that we’re better off than we’d be with Trump.
“Do people not realize that China intentionally destroyed our economy and owes us about $5 trillion? Biden, of course, won’t do a thing to collect the money.”
That’s why I’ve come to believe the whole Wuhan flu thing was destructive by design. Now we’re finding out our own bureaucrats were a big driver of “outsourcing” somewhat virus research to China, to the same lab where it all originated. The bureaucracy was going to take Trump down, short of poisoning his food or drink.
The Chinese and the Democrats KNEW that a stellar economy would keep Trump in for another term. Therefore, that entire economy HAD to be destroyed. The dead were “collateral damage” in the pursuit of taking Trump out. They cared not about the grief or the depression it would cause. So, they did it. They took it all down. They made people poorer, but they don’t care. “More prosperous people mean we are not in power, so screw them. They should have never voted for him,” they think.
And their current actions indicate both China and the Democrats will NEVER AGAIN allow an outsider take the reins of power, as a warning to others who dare to do so.
And no, there won’t be a 2022 or a 2024. Don’t even think about it. They’ve already fixed them well in advance, and they will keep it all fixed and themselves in power until Kingdom come.
To paraphrase an old saying: “if I didn’t have bad expectations, I would have no expectations at all”.
My expectations were bad; but, Biden has exceeded them. The pace is simply shocking; and you wonder what will stop it, and when.
Buyer’s remorse. I fervently hope that it hits like a stroke of lightening. Given the protocols the Progressives (I choke on that word) have enacted, I think it will take a serious backlash among Democrats, uniting with “us” to make a difference.
Leaving aside the question of whether or not all the electoral fraud was decisive, you have north of 45% of the electorate who quite willingly have placed themselves in the situation they face right now. Since some of them are my relatives and quondam co-workers, I get to see how street-level Democrats ‘think’. It isn’t pretty. If you want to understand what’s up, you have to delve in to how the different components of the Democratic electorate come to have the self-understanding they do and why that has an expression in the public square.
One thing I’d suggest is that you look up the controversy at the Dalton School in New York, which The Naked Dollar blog has been covering. The behavior of the board, the administration, and most of the faculty is insane and they are doing things that no prudent fiduciary would ever do. You might try getting inside their heads.
The hatred of Trump was and is mindless. Also mindless is the universal approbation of the Biden regime among my LIV Democratic friends and acquaintances, many of whom — apart from voting against Trump, of course — openly said they were voting for President Kamala Harris. Heaven help us.
@ Art+Deco: One thing I’d suggest is that you look up the controversy at the Dalton School in New York, which The Naked Dollar blog has been covering. The behavior of the board, the administration, and most of the faculty is insane and they are doing things that no prudent fiduciary would ever do. You might try getting inside their heads.
I try to get inside their heads and fail. Michael Lind has a recent piece arguing that this PC/SJW/CRT stuff is a class marker. OTOH, Glenn Loury and John McWhorter have maintained for a while that “anti-racism” (as practiced by the Dalton School) is a religion. I see all their points but still have trouble imagining how anyone halfway intelligent, with access to a wide range of information, gets into the state of mind we see at Dalton.
I try to get inside their heads and fail. Michael Lind has a recent piece arguing that this PC/SJW/CRT stuff is a class marker.
I agree with you. What’s interesting about the Dalton School business is that the school’s archetypal constituent is a high-income professional-managerial type. Indubitably, there’s old money there too. It’s a reasonable inference that describes the board. The faculty and the administration, while affluent next to the man on the street, are less tony. The board, the administration, and the faculty are shoving it down the throats of educated professionals. I’d put $1,000 on the proposition that the impetus for this among the clientele was close to nil. There’s now organized pushback. Note, the faculty deal with these youngsters every day and they’ve come to the madcap conclusion that the young need to be subjected to harassment and gaslighting.
Growing up, I got familiar with that class of people in a more provincial setting and in a less affluent age. Inter-ethnic antagonisms were not an obtrusive or important character defect among them. If I’d grown up in South Carolina, I might have come to a different conclusion. The Dalton School’s not to be found in South Carolina.
We are not reasoning machines. We are fallible, physical, emotional beings with profound limitations and vulnerabilities. We can’t fully reason our way beyond these constraints, although it’s important to make the effort.
These days reading National Review, with the exception of Victor Davis Hanson, isn’t all that different from reading Nate Silver’s 538 site. To them it’s an utter mystery how any intelligent person could be defending Trump.
I’ve reached political positions similar to most here. However, I’m not boggled that anyone might disagree with me.
Well said Neo. It breaks my heart to see so much of what President Trump achieved being destroyed.
From the Reason article New linked to: “HHS officials cited concerns about whether the department had the authority to issue guidelines that bypassed regulations set by Congress.”
I have wondered on numerous occasions why members of Congress would cede their legislative mandate to unelected bureaucrats. Do they not want to legislate? Then why did then run for the legislature? It makes no sense: they get elected to Congress and then neglect to pass a budget or laws. What the heck do they think voters sent them there to do? Go on talk liberal talk shows in the hope they can make enough of a name for themselves that they’ll be re-elected a dozen times?
What a mockery they make of our electoral and legislative processes. What a total travesty! It really makes no sense to me that someone would offer themselves to be elected to Congress and then not do what the Constitution mandated them to do.
These days reading National Review, with the exception of Victor Davis Hanson, isn’t all that different from reading Nate Silver’s 538 site. To them it’s an utter mystery how any intelligent person could be defending Trump.
Which tells you they never had any actual rapport with Republican voters. They’re subsisting on endowment income, liberal patronage, and inertia in the form of institutional subscription revenue. Their only function is to sluice salaries to the people on the payroll. One hopes their residue of worthwhile contributors can slide over to other publications. Let it die.
“Or are they unaware of what the Biden administration is engaged in doing?”
________
Well, the libs are aware, and delighted. Unfortunately, they are joined by a lot of decent people who believe the BS. I play bridge with several nice ladies, who think Trump is a monster.
And the trans-cons? They’re mostly in the same boat as my bridge partners, but with no excuse.
I started reading NR in 1967. Continued into the Obama years. But throughout the 21st C, I noted how it was ruined under Lowry. They created a false narrative of a unified “fusionist” conservatism, which effectively excluded the debates that made them so fun in the 60s and 70s.
I started reading NR in 1967. Continued into the Obama years. But throughout the 21st C, I noted how it was ruined under Lowry. They created a false narrative of a unified “fusionist” conservatism, which effectively excluded the debates that made them so fun in the 60s and 70s.
I’m afraid the palaeo types went out of their way to make themselves unpalatable.
Not many people in 1995 could make a living in the world of opinion journalism and after that date the change in communications technology has made it ever moreso. NR had a stable of occasional contributors who were engaging to read. Over time, they disappeared through ordinary attrition and were replaced with insipid characters. Lowry could not or would not recruit people who were willing to contribute material about which one might bother. A number of the people he did recruit seemed to have only the most tenuous interest in NR‘s foundational mission. (That would be Messrs. Foster, ver Bruggen, Steorts, Frankovich). One of the more astringent authors he did recruit (Kevin Williamson) has a grotesque attitude problem. He has for 16 years employed as ‘managing editor’ a man named Jason Lee Steorts. Steorts most notable contribution was to push elements of the gay agenda and to cut Mark Steyn from the magazine’s list of contributors (for asinine reasons). Presumably, Steorts is the person who has commissioned updates of their online site which has made it at certain times wretchedly buggy and at all times less functional than the site was 20 years ago. No clue what he has on Lowry.
One curious thing about NR, which in 1995 had a New York office and a Washington office, is that it’s now a telecommuting operation. Its online editor lives in Florida. Its managing editor lives in Utah. Lowry lives in Connecticut.
F:
I think many members of Congress are in it for the ability to declaim and have people listen to them and for the money they can make on the side. I think many of them have no interest in legislation and are just as happy if a president who is in their own party does it for them.
If the exceptions are in the minority, there’s nothing they can do to change things. And if people keep electing the same folks, then it will continue that way.
Soon we will all learn to goosestep in time to the administration polka…
I am glad i am old, i wont live to see the worst of it…
Art Deco; John P:
I don’t have time right now to go back and look it up, but I read something about the Dalton brouhaha awhile back that made me think it’s something like what happened at the NY Times. That is, the older guard in the organization hired a bunch of younger people in recent years, and the new hires were far more radical as well as being members of certain racial and other favored minorities. These new hires, who are now quite numerous, were originally the ones driving the radical changes. The members of the older guard are afraid – of being called racist, of being drummed out of their jobs, of being cancelled. They also don’t have much of a spine. And so they capitulate – willingly, in many instances. The situation is somewhat parallel to what Allan Bloom and others described as having happened at Cornell in 1969. Please read this, for example. At Cornell the pressure mostly came from students, and at Dalton it comes from employees of the school. But the idea is the same, only more so.
That is, the older guard in the organization hired a bunch of younger people in recent years, and the new hires were far more radical as well as being members of certain racial and other favored minorities.
Apparently at Dalton it’s being driven by the board and the headmaster. Most of the faculty is on board. It’s the clients who are objecting (and, presumably, some component of the faculty due to be fired).
In re Cornell, Bloom’s account had it that the professional schools took the position that the arts and science faculty was the locus of the dispute and ‘closed their doors’; the natural science faculties were perfectly feckless and figured the other segments of the faculty would handle incompetent students; the humanities faculty largely cheered ‘the revolution’; and the social science faculties put up what resistance their was.
Art Deco. Lowry lives in Connecticut. Is that for-real Connecticut, or just-east- -of- the- Hudson Connecticut? My first few years were in Norwich, north of New London. That’s a different Connecticut. Which means…likely Lowry doesn’t actually live in Connecticut-Connecticut. Might mean something.
To address one of Neo’s points. I can’t see buyer’s remorse. Either they don’t know it’s happening, or they don’t see the problem, or they can’t afford to admit it. And it’s all justified by MEAN TWEETS, anyway
“would have been worse”
Won’t stop me from pointing it out.
Which brings up a related question: Since the dems were counting on an anti-Trump vote plus fraud, they could have run anybody. This obviously corrupt, senile, mendacious mediocrity (I am stealing that) whose best days are behind him backed up by the least popular dem in the nom field was going to win on account of badorangeman. Which, since practically speaking, the dems ran Nobody and expected to win, why didn’t they run Somebody? Maybe puppet masters didn’t think they could control a somebody. Imagine, say, Tulsi Gabbard vs. The Machine.
NPR’s White House reporter this morning admitted that Uncle Joe has issued more EOs, and faster, than any previous President.
He also mentioned (without prompting from the host to characterize them) that most were were statements of intention, direction, or priority… more like plans for a plan, not a real plan, God forbid specific actions!
I wonder if he still has a job, or just got a good ass-chewing from the News Editor?
Ps. Isn’t it a truism in American politics that few Senators become successful Presidents? Uncle Joe will always be more a Former Senator in my mind, more than a Former VP!
“Cages” for illegal immigrants of all ages under Obama–good.
Those exact same “cages” under Trump–bad.
“Cages” for illegal immigrants of all ages under Biden–good.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/03/biden-house-migrant-children-texas-facility-closed-under-trump/4378699001/
Richard Aubrey: “Since the dems were counting on an anti-Trump vote plus fraud, they could have run anybody.”
And for hitting the bloody obvious gnat with a sledgehammer… thanks!
Ps. And damned if they didn’t!
“Do they notice what’s being unraveled – an entire sleeve of successful actions? Did they even notice the sleeve in the first place, or was it loaded with errors as far as they’re concerned and do they watch the unraveling with joy and celebration? Or are they unaware of what the Biden administration is engaged in doing?” neo
They characterize Trump’s actions as hateful and in their minds, that’s all that counts. That bias prevents them from anticipating the predictable consequences of the Xiden administration’s actions.
The irony is literally biblical, their willful blindness and prideful bias is enabling the fashioning of the chains of their future enslavement.
If their willful blindness could suddenly be removed, they’d have to wonder how they could possibly have not seen where the Xiden administration’s actions must lead…
But they will fully deserve their enslavement, for they will have had a hand in the fashioning of every link.
And their children’s children will curse their memory.
If Democrat voters didn’t take the time to look past the rhetorical prairie fires and understand what Trump was actually accomplishing, instead of being fed by that long-handled media spoon, then why would it even occur to them that they should have buyer’s remorse at this stage? They’re still feeding from that same spoon. What’s not to like??
I think the only hope (if that’s the right word) for these conversations, if they should occur, is not to ask “what did you think you voted for,” but to ask instead “what were your expectations of Biden?”
The problem with all of this is that intellect is only tangentially involved. All of the Trump hate was, and is, channeled emotion – not structured critical thinking. That is always the most difficult part when talking a Democrat off the Trump ledge: Getting them to think at all, on their own, using their own frames of reference. For many of them, it’s akin to communicating in a previously-unheard foreign language.
Cornhead,
This administration’s people are its policy.
We are NOT doing this, they are doing this to us.
China unleased this biological attack upon the world and America but the democrats enabled it. Medical ‘authorities’ are now admitting that the HCQ protocal works. In the democrats blocking its implementation, they became participants in mass murder. And did so for both political gain and to facilitate the fundamental transformation of America, necessary to enable the Globalist’s Great Reset. If that doesn’t fully qualify as evil, it begs the question… what does?
Art Deco, I have enjoyed reading your comments at The Naked Dollar. Scott Johnston is one of my best friends in the world. He obviously has great sources among the Dalton parents, and he is former Dalton parent himself.
theduchessofkitty,
That is exactly correct.
All,
Regarding the ‘insanity’ prevalent at the Dalton School and every school where CRT is bein promoted, I suspect it to be less a loss of reason by the powers that be and more a case of virtue signaling to the mob.
The children are just… collateral damage.
F,
“I have wondered on numerous occasions why members of Congress would cede their legislative mandate to unelected bureaucrats. Do they not want to legislate? Then why did then run for the legislature? It makes no sense: they get elected to Congress and then neglect to pass a budget or laws. What the heck do they think voters sent them there to do? Go on talk liberal talk shows in the hope they can make enough of a name for themselves that they’ll be re-elected a dozen times?”
Once you set aside your justified moral outrage, its not so hard to understand. Bureaucrats setting regulations based upon intentionally vague legislation provides “plausible deniability” to Congressional ‘representatives’. That goes far in enabling reelection. Nor do they care what the public thinks, evidenced by the recent ‘election’. As for the rest, its hardly coincidental that regardless of party they all end up millionaires. Bernie Sanders just being the most hypocritical of them.
Well, it appears that more than a few in the “administrative class” – or whatever the institution nesters might best be called – are boggled: Boggled by guns and bibles, and the valuing of autonomy over inclusion; boggled by loyalty to family ****; boggled by the idea of objective right and wrong, as opposed to “evolving sensibilities” as divined and then proclaimed by the high priests directing our sacred journey along the arc of history.
They are boggled most of all, because they have spent their entire lives driven to seek social niches from within which they may be insulated from the consequences of their own actions by the bodies and life efforts of others. And because once they have wormed their way into the center of that all-important scrum, they have begun to imagine themselves as smarter, braver, and more worthy than those who have the physical courage and moral fortitude to face life outside.
Epoch Times e-mail. I actually read it for once.
*** And you can see from the movies they make why they have no use for family, as their families are invariably just collections of genetically related ass-wipes sharing the same roof and similar psychological and moral dysfunctions. Look at the Hollywood treatment of holidays; count the swath of premature dead in terms of both Kennedys and Kennedy in-laws this effen family has left behind it. Look at Bill Clinton. Look at Joe Biden and his crack head, influence peddling whore chasing son. It’s not even debatable.
Since the new year, China has flown military planes into Taiwan airspace twice without even a “boo” from the Biden administration.
International strength and other international accomplishments that Trump fixed are beginning to unravel and has the possibility of people losing their freedoms.
It is indeed scary times that we are going to live in.
Folks, Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20. It is now February 3. How much regret or buyer’s remorse did you expect after two weeks? Even for the folks who saw their jobs destroyed, it’s still only been two weeks.
Forget about the economy. Forget about CRT. Forget about Islamic terror. Forget about China. How long you think it’s going to be before there’s a civil war in this White House over who gets to tell President Extra Applesauce At Dinner what to do? Six months?
Mike
Chill, Dr Jill is just getting into her “Edith Wilson.” 🙂
Re: Buyer’s remorse…
I still believe a backlash is building.
How many people, even Democrats, take seriously the transgender agenda, that if a man says he’s really a woman, then shazam he’s a woman, with full rights to use the women’s room and compete in women’s sports?
Not many I wager. Yet with a stroke of the pen, Biden has made it so and if this policy remains in place, Biden will have killed women’s sports.
People will reject this and other dangerous absurdities. However, they won’t call it buyer’s remorse.
PJmedia and Instapundit linked to daily job approval from Rasmussen after the two’s inaugurations, Bidet and Trump.
Despite the Propaganda machine, “likely voter” data isn’t even close: 50% and lower for B; 55% and higher for T.
Here’s Insty “ NOTHING DOES: Biden Approval Index: This Sure Doesn’t Look Like the Mandate Democrats Think They Have.” https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/429788/#respond
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/02/02/biden-approval-index-this-sure-doesnt-look-like-the-mandate-democrats-think-they-have-n1422395
I suppose someone ought to do a direct difference gap from these data, showing a chasm closer to 10%, perhaps?
Not enough time has past yet. The impeachment will suck up oxygen for a few weeks and the failures of the administration to tackle COVID will not be seen.
Give it some time to marinate. Let the impact seep into the Biden voters. The efforts to uncover fraud will start bearing fruit. The alternate media platforms will get off the ground. Politics is not static. In nine months Trump can put up billboards saying “Miss Me Now?” Zhou Bae Den mental decline is accelerating. They can’t hide it anymore. What will bring it into focus is if North Korea starts tests again and it’s threats or Iran actually gets a bomb. They will try to blame Trump but it will ring hollow.
Until then, live your best life now. Keep your powder dry, your shelves stocked up, gas in your tank and a portable electric generator. Always tell them, Be happy. YOU voted for this. Put the responsibility on them.
The Dalton School dance withe Devil of CRT? Wasn’t that the same school that George Packer wrote about in The Atlantic or New Yorker some 20 months ago? Two years?
Packer wrote about the anti-racist parting of ways, where the PC stampede was to abolish and ignore IQ and ability testing for all!
This was a bridge too far for Packer and his wife. They rebelled, knowing that this tool was important to know for their child’s future interests.
Can someone help us about and correct me if I’m wrong on this?
“We are not reasoning machines. We are fallible, physical, emotional beings with profound limitations and vulnerabilities. We can’t fully reason our way beyond these constraints, although it’s important to make the effort.
These days reading National Review, with the exception of Victor Davis Hanson, isn’t all that different from reading Nate Silver’s 538 site. To them it’s an utter mystery how any intelligent person could be defending Trump.” huxley
Reason is not the enemy of emotion. Emotion is the result of what we think and believe to be true about a person or situational issue. Reason, grounded in principles supported by logic is the ‘governor’ to the engine of emotion. Unexamined premises form the ground within which ungoverned emotions flourish.
Humanity’s fallibility is decreased when principles examined in the light of reason are embraced. Humanity’s fallibility is increased when unexamined premises are accepted without reasoned examination.
“We can’t fully reason our way beyond these constraints”
Which is why God has sent his prophets (those he’s ‘illuminated’ ) and ‘son/sun’, to light the way, to lead the ‘blind’ out of the ‘ditch’. Metaphor: a computer infected with a virus cannot purge itself of the virus, it needs outside intervention, i.e. a “clean install”.
It’s an utter mystery to them due to willful blindness. Denial always springs from fear, an emotion backed perception that something important to that person is threatened.
Charles,
Hopefully, the ChiComs are smart enough to wait until the USS Roosevelt Carrier Group has departed the S. China Sea and is far enough away to prevent interference by it when they launch their inevitable attack upon Taiwan.
If not, ala WWI it could descent into a conflict between the US and China which would either stumble into nuclear war or a Xiden directed retreat of US forces, which would effectively signal to the ChiComs that when push comes to shove, we’ll surrender.
MBunge,
Any ‘civil war’ within the W.H. won’t last a day, everyone there knows that it’s Obama who’s really in charge. He calls the shots, period.
huxley,
No one in the W.H. not even Richard “Rachel” Levine actually takes seriously the proposition that women can compete on a level playing field with men in athletic contests. But to argue otherwise is to signal that one is insufficiently a’woke’n. Which immediately brings out the knives. From this point forward, young women competing in athletic contests are simply ‘extras’ i.e. “collateral damage”…
Hello. I found the opening anecdote engaging. It took me back to the days when I used to ride the Greyhound (well, Indian Trails) on occasion. That was in college, of course, though I never took a ride of more than about 4 hours one-way back then, I think. Sixteen hours sounds pretty long, but maybe not unbearably so. Could get a lot done, such as knitting. Neo, did you successfully get that sleeve fixed up?
{pause for daydreaming about taking a long bus tour around the Great Lakes}
I think this unraveling thing has the makings of an interesting subject in the sense that it can focus attention on things that had been done and are now being undone. That is to say, reversed rather than merely altered or introduced fresh for the first time. With this focus, I suppose we could say that it draws attention to the paradoxically reactionary element in the new administration.
TJ:
Packer’s article was about a public school.
huxley,
Sorry if you posted this on another thread, but may I ask how your voter roll cleansing work is going? Thanks.
My new personal plan of resistance is to increase my emails to my elected (Dem) representatives. I sign a lot of online petitions which go to them, mostly from Life Petitions and American Family Association, and my representatives usually send me replies.
I am planning to answer every email from them that I can, at least until the dialogue is played out. A much less pleasant activity than enjoying this blog!
No objections = acquiescence!
Related:
https://sipoftea.blog/students-at-elite-ny-school-denounce-teachers-as-racists-and-oppressors-in-anonymous-social-media-campaign/
As for “buyer’s remorse”, how can anyone that’s been—and continues to be—saturated, infected, contaminated by the unceasing and unstinting lies of the mendacious and corrupt MSCM have “remorse” about anything (except that there still continues to be a Republican Party cohort—though that will be Biden’s next dragon to slay, and following that, the State of Israel)?
That is, if they don’t know about that tree that fell in the forest, how are they going to be able to express any opinion about it?
What they do know is (as has been mentioned several times above) that the ^%#*&@ Trump is gone and that’s enough, thank the powers that be.
And that’s “all ye need to know….”
Was just writing to friend tonight: This last elections voters voted based on hate more than using brains God gave them. And yet they will be surprised because the hate was roiled up by MSM for those who thirstily slurped up all that was served in the time time they allot for listening to news. And if it’s not real news, most don’t want to further complicate their lives by having to even consider that. They don’t want to know if there was cheating (omg! cheating?!) if politicians lied to them (as if!), or if issues they heard about probably didn’t affect them. Until edicts are issued from on high and, oops, it affects them. And so will go next 4 yrs.
We survived 8 yrs of Obama. But will 8 more years of him tugging the puppet strings (behind the curtain) and the far Left hacks being appt’d to govt. positions based on gender and skincolor be survivable? (Late nite musings)
(Meantime, neo- knitting? Over all these yrs & still finding more things we have in common… Interesting (then again you’ve done just about everything from dance to law to psychology to writing AND your favorite jelly beans are Stover’s! How many more reasons to follow along would I need, even if it’s usually in more silent participation than old days. You know, I still look up Jell-O art every once in a while.
You did redo the sleeve successfully. What is the error in the analogy?
Is the error that the events of the last four years were the result of a very very unusual individual and not the work of an understanding group, a movement. IMO Trump was the result of an unfocused reaction against Obama and Academia. That reaction can repeat with a much clearer set of objectives that win landslides and are implemented because they are the best approach.
A new leader like Reagan will emerge with a set of objectives and viewpoints that will redo the sleeve.
It seems like years, but it has only been days since Biden took office.
Dick Illyes:
I was not making an analogy between my actions and those of the current left. Not at all.
It was meant to be an image only – the idea of something being created, built, constructed, and then suddenly undone. Obviously in my case the maker was also the undoer. That isn’t even remotely what’s happening now, of course,
csimon621:
Hi – nice to see you commenting again.
Interesting article: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/new-national-american-elite
“Both sides miss the real story of the evolution of the American class system in the last half century toward the consolidation of a national ruling class—a development which is unprecedented in U.S. history. That’s because, from the American Revolution until the late 20th century, the American elite was divided among regional oligarchies. It is only in the last generation that these regional patriciates have been absorbed into a single, increasingly homogeneous national oligarchy,”
“Woke speech is simply a ruling-class dialect, which must be updated frequently to keep the lower orders from breaking the code.”
This class sees much of the country as uncorrectable. It has decided that it is racist, determined to create a theocracy to protect the unborn, and dangerous in its belief that gun ownership is actually a right. This class is a group remarkably isolated from the world outside it.
A characteristic of this group is their total isolation from news from unapproved sources. If it is not on CNN, WAPO, NYT, and maybe LATIMES it doesn’t exist. I call it a Blue Bubble with remarkable opaqueness. I am a political junky and subscribe to the online editions of WAPO, NYT, LATIMES as well as several other sources outside the Blue Bubble. I know several people who self-identify as Elites as defined in the article, and they become almost violent if confronted with information outside the anointed sources.
In Gone With The Wind we saw a society completely isolated from the outside world. The field slaves were managed by low class drivers, the house slaves knew their place, the young adults of that society had no control over anything and no agency in their own sufficiency. All they could do was feel an endless fear that something will destroy their world, and get crazier and crazier as described so well in Madness Rules The Hour, Charleston, 1860 and the Mania for War.
Academia and the Boomer Democratic Party are the new Planter Class.
Aspirants for the upper class have borrowed themselves into terrible debt for their fine arts degrees, and find themselves stuck in low paying jobs with no hope of the sort of success that earlier generations experienced. Like all young people they want to do heroic things but there is no good war or Civil Rights Movement to take part in. They can’t buy their first house and start families because of their debt. Their only outlet is to try to imitate the upper class with the latest Woke craze in an attempt to escape their failed identities. They are the sans-culottes of the Woke revolution.
Neo, I saw the analogy as between undoing the sleeve and watching the Trump era being undone. I see the lesson as being that the sleeve will be redone without the error, which means it won’t be dependent on one man of unusual characteristics.
I am Spartacus said “In nine months Trump can put up billboards saying “Miss Me Now?” Zhou Bae Den mental decline is accelerating. They can’t hide it anymore. What will bring it into focus is if North Korea starts tests again and it’s threats or Iran actually gets a bomb. They will try to blame Trump but it will ring hollow.
Until then, live your best life now. Keep your powder dry, your shelves stocked up, gas in your tank and a portable electric generator. Always tell them, Be happy. YOU voted for this. Put the responsibility on them.”
Good advice…That is EXACTLY what we should all do.
It’s time for Yale to join the HBCU crowd.
I know some Biden voters who have had tragedies in their lives. Their views of politics seem different from those of other Biden voters on some level of affect. Facts and falsehoods are the same; immediate dismissal of reality is the same. Anger at those who disagree is the same.
But they seem to be approaching the issue, or resisting reality, from some different room in the hall.
I wonder why this is. Is Biden going to be the Play Doh in the room, with fewer sharp edges to impact those already hurting?
But results are the same.
I might feel some reluctance about shoving Biden’s failures in their faces, but considering what they’ve allowed themselves to do to the rest of us….
To Theduchessofkitty “And no, there won’t be a 2022 or a 2024. Don’t even think about it. They’ve already fixed them well in advance, and they will keep it all fixed and themselves in power until Kingdom come.” You are exactly right! There will never be another fair national election,now that they have gotten by with the massive fraud this time. And like other commenters my only positive thought is that I’m old enough not to see too much more of the tyranny. But I do grieve for my children and grandchildren.
The word unraveling is apt. Imagine, though, what a competent politician could have done with the opportunities that Trump squandered. For example, watching Ron DeSantis over the last year had been a revelation. He deals with all of the crazy hate from left that Trump did. He certainly fights back like Trump. Unlike Trump, though, he’s actually effective. He has command of the facts. He actually understands how the government works. He doesn’t retweet crazy conspiracy theories or mangle the English language such that it requires 10 minutes of someone’s attention to explain that he didn’t actually say white supremacists are fine people. (I really hope DeSantis keeps it up and that he doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet.)
Our host’s post yesterday about the rationalization of Biden voters applies here too. Trump really did a lot of good things from a policy perspective, especially with judges. The hate and lies directed at Trump really were unbelievable, unprecedented, and frightening. All of that is true, but it shouldn’t make us overlook that Trump’s own faults were legion and that his faults were largely responsible for his political demise and our own (hopefully short term) political pain.
Dick Illyes…”A characteristic of this group is their total isolation from news from unapproved sources. If it is not on CNN, WAPO, NYT, and maybe LATIMES it doesn’t exist. I call it a Blue Bubble with remarkable opaqueness. ”
See my post Narrowing Horizons, in which I cite William Shirer:
“Often in a German home or office or sometimes in casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for the truth, said they were.”
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/64952.html
The difference between our current situation and your knitting analogy is this: you intended to remake the sweater and had the skills to do so. The current political leadership likes to unravel and they don’t know how to knit.
Also, you (presumably) liked the boyfriend for whom you were making the sweater. The current political leadership doesn’t much like the people of America.
Speaking of knitting, I’m reminded of a post by a long-defunct Italian blogger who called herself Joy of Knitting:
““Cupio dissolvi…These words have been going through my mind for quite a long time now. It’s Latin. They mean “I (deeply) wish to be annihilated/to annihilate myself”, the passive form signifying that the action can be carried out both by an external agent or by the subject himself…Cupio dissolvi… Through all the screaming and the shouting and the wailing and the waving of the rainbow cloth by those who invoke peace but want appeasement, I hear these terrible words ringing in my ears. These people have had this precious gift, this civilization, and they have got bored with it. They take all the advantages it offers them for granted, and despise the ideals that have powered it. They wish for annihilation, the next new thing, as if it was a wonderful party. Won’t it be great, dancing on the ruins?””
“Erasing classic literature for kids” by John Kass in The Chicago Tribune:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/john-kass/ct-classics-in-schools-kass-20210130-k2uluwpt2jdtxmz7zp4hl2xz2i-story.html
Not just statues, or school names are being purged in San Francisco – so are books.
Seriously, these crazy, evil people are delusional. Their dangerous success means then death of Liberty at the hands of these Nazis.
Bauxite is again concerned that Trump was not good enough for the fight he found himself in. Something about fighting a war with the army you have instead of the army you wish for seems applicable IMO.
I expect the same groups that served up Jeb! and Kasich will fight bitterly (with the assistance of media) a Ron DeDantis.
Is that a concern Bauxite?
“A characteristic of this group is their total isolation from news from unapproved sources.“
This can’t be underestimated as a problem for our political discourse. Even if you consume nothing but conservative media, you will still be exposed to a lot of writers/pundits engaging with liberal arguments and criticism. Heck, even actual Leftist media will engage with the Right. Mainstream media, however, now simply just ignores anything that doesn’t fit the narrative.
Mike
Bauxite,
Perhaps, but I think you’re overlooking the TOTAL WAR that was declared on Trump (and on his supporters) by the Democratic Party, its supporters and its Media (as well as academic) apparatchiks from the moment Trump was elected.
Which war included denying that he actually won the election, along with TOTAL delegitimization, scurrilous plots, constant 24/7 lies and systematic, across-the-board misrepresentations of what Trump said.
All this in addition to slighting any of the many accomplishments he achieved (if these were even mentioned at all).
Nor should one forget or downplay the weaponization of the COVID pandemic against him.
What we are dealing with here is a level of evil—and a level of concerted agit-prop—that is unprecedented in American politics. The kind of evil that demonizes its opponent while fabricating accusations against that opponent of precisely that which it itself is guilty of.
We’re talking of off-the-charts hypocrisy (or if one prefers, off-the-charts chutzpa)…to go with the unprecedented, systematic criminality.
All this from the vaunted, mightily self-righteous delusional, insane “We can destroy you but you can’t fight back” crowd”.
Might these be mitigating circumstances?
MBunge –
“Mainstream media, however, now simply just ignores anything that doesn’t fit the narrative.” True,
As said above, academe and elder Dems are our new planter class. Media licks their boots.
And re-reading William Shirer is fashionable again? Not as history, but for insight about today’s travesties.
Sorry if you posted this on another thread, but may I ask how your voter roll cleansing work is going? Thanks.
Oliver T.:
Nice of you to ask.
I was told I would be given 10-12 houses to visit in a few precincts and it would take an hour and a half. Instead I was given 30 on the grounds that many of them were probably rentals, which I could skip.
The paperwork was disorganized and confusing to this newcomer. I also needed to do some prepwork — figure out where the houses were ahead of time and try to group them together; also to understand what the various fields and comments on the papers meant and what to do about them.
Unfortunately, it came up the first weekend after school started. Because I’m a senior (age) and an unusual case I don’t know what my classes are until late in the week. Classes start at full speed, so by the weekend I was already behind and the vote work took a big chunk out of the weekend, which has left me scrambling in my classes since.
I also discovered I really dread going door-to-door, hat in hand, to talk to strangers. It wasn’t bad as I feared, but not fun either.
So, it’s necessary work though not easy for me. I don’t know if I’ll do more.
There are real problems with the voter rolls. I was working to sort out the 50,000 ballots which were mailed in 2018, but returned as undeliverable, yet the same voters are on record voting in 2020.
Trump will be blamed, one way or another, for every single “bad” policy implemented by Bidet.
This is a slam dunk.
It will go something like this:
“Bidet implemented (or was forced to implement) ……..(insert here whatever Bidet does) …… in an effort to undo / fix Trump’s disastrous policies.”
Bidet’s Minister of Truth, Jen Psaki, and the demokrat party media boot licker’s will make sure the “proper” message is conveyed to the unwashed masses.
Those who voted for Bidet will absorb the “proper” message, agree with it and repeat it.
And come 2024 will vote, once again for Bidet (if he is still around) or Harris.
Honestly, I really do not understand how everybody does not realize this.
Bauxite @ 8:02 am – “The word unraveling is apt. Imagine, though, what a competent politician could have done with the opportunities that Trump squandered. For example, watching Ron DeSantis over the last year had been a revelation.”
DeSantis would not have been possible without Trump. Trump lead the way. Trump hitting back over and over allowed others to do the same. Also Trump had to initially fight all the institutional powers the full four years. He broke the stasis and will allow his successors to continue. People are aware of what is going on and react accordingly.
I do hope that DeSantis keeps on making progress. I have also been impressed with his actions like cleaning up Miami Dade voting rolls and process. A great counter point to all the other states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. I have mentioned him as potential presidential material.
Our host mentioned several weeks ago that Trump’s pugnacious attitude is part and parcel of what makes him effective. You can’t unwrap one attribute like hit back tweets to his refusal to back off policies like China trade and the border. His will to win is tied up in it too. But in the end, he is a lawful man. I honor and give him kudos for that.
John Tyler – “Trump will be blamed, one way or another, for every single “bad” policy implemented by Bidet.”
But of course. Look at Obama blame Bush clear into his 5th year.
The answer is simple. Refute the charge by saying whatever the issue was things were better under Trump. Now even the COVID management is being screwed up. How do you lose 20 Million doses?
Always end with the tag line. “You should be happy. YOU voted for this!” Make them own their vote and their choice. I have done it several times already. The most recent time telling a pacifist that the troops rolled back into Syria the day Biden was inaugurated and that the Pentagon lied to Trump about the actual number of troops in Syria. The War Machine must be kept humming along. “AND YOU VOTED FOR IT”.
It puts them on notice and they don’t complain so much in front of you.
Speaking of DeSantis, a FB friend posted this morning about the optional mask policy in Florida. There was an immediate outpouring of hateful comments of how evil he is and how Florida is spreading the virus to everyone else. Looks like they found their new object of hate.
F*ck ’em. Picking teams for the inevitable dodgeball game coming has already begun in earnest and they chose their side of the gym. I’d recommend trying to feel out your immediate neighbors and keeping a mental (or secure written) list, just in case.
Elections have consequences and Biden’s first two weeks in office have been the most left-wing administration in memory.
In addition to rolling into Syria, we’re staying indefinitely in The ‘Stan. Did any of the US media outlets tell you we rolled back into Syria? I heard about it from middle eastern news source I was dubious about.
Oh, and subjecting the troops to Critical Race Theory. Good luck to the people whose job is to keep retention numbers up. I suspect you’re in for a challenge. Especially for the National Guard troops who got quartered in a parking garage with one port-a-potty & one electrical outlet.
I do remember how you were not a Trump fan initially. As you may remember from way back when, neither was I. We voted for him with great qualms but he proved to be an effective and innovative president. There were some bad tweets and some chaos, but even so, his policies – -many of them – were fantastic. I think Trump also showed us what DC is about, the “swamp”, the entrenched bureaucracy that will not let go of any challenge to its entropy and power easily. That alone is invaluable. I see the world differently now and am more jaundiced regarding DC and the Federal government. Trump inspired mad hatred because he did expose these people and because his policies were for putting American interests first, the interests of working Americans and he wanted a border. It’s really about globalization now vs. nation-states. Or at least western nation-states vs. globalization. Something like that… this paradigm is emerging. We are in trouble now as you point out so well because what is being put into place Neo is abhorent to American ideals. Critical Race Theory and the demonization of anyone not going along with it, for one thing. I am, again, really worried.
Liberty Wolf:
I’ve been really worried for a long, long time. Now I’m more worried, of course. But back in the summer and fall of 2008 I began to worry in earnest because I realized that Obama was a leftist and very ruthless as well. I remember expressing that worry to a friend who looked at me in a very puzzled way. I could not make her understand.
That’s not a problem as they see it, but an opportunity, to bring back compulsory “service” for both sexes. It’s an opportunity to rid the combat teams of gung ho surburban and country boys ( as that old WSJ article laid out) and force an allegiance and if possible self-sacrificial attitude and dependency relationship with official ” society” and its “evolving” values.
And their plan is not to stop until they do squeeze people so hard they eother react before they are ready, or collapse. It’s just good management of the evolutionary trend, don’t you know.
It’s important to understand that a lot of this “unraveling” is actually being done because the people doing it are just idiots. They don’t actually have any long term plan, They’re doing what feels good to them in the moment.
For example, this tweet from “journalist” John Harwood about the Democrats voting to kick that Georgia Congresswoman off her committees because of things she said/posted on social media before even running for Congress.
“John Harwood
@JohnJHarwood
the problem w/Republican warnings that Democrats will one day get the MTG treatment is that no Democrat in Congress is remotely comparable to MTG”
The painfully obvious reality that escapes this moron is that if the GOP takes back the House, it won’t be him and the Democrats deciding who is “comparable to MTG.” It will be the Republicans.
You literally can’t argue with someone that dumb.
Mike
You just have to be electable, anything else is superfluous.
huxley,
Thanks for the update on the voter rolls cleansing. Good on you for doing it!
I didn’t realize you were back in school, too bad the timing didn’t work out!
Somebody (actually, lots of people) have noted that the Climate Scam is part of the Biden/Obama unraveling scheme, and that John Kerry let it slip that all the interventions and Green Nude Eels don’t make a bit of difference.
He’s incorrect, but in the wrong direction.
https://notthebee.com/article/guess-what-not-polluting-during-the-pandemic-led-to-more-global-heating-so-i-guess-were-just-done-for-no-matter-what
Some more of what the unraveling will entail.
https://notthebee.com/article/as-a-result-of-long-beachs-decision-to-pass-an-ordinance-mandating-extra-pay-for-grocery-workers-we-have-made-the-difficult-decision-to-permanently-close-long-struggling-store-locations
Quotes the letter from the grocery chain management, outlining the things we all know happen when minimum wage is higher than the local equilibrium of labor supply and demand.
I’m sure many of you have already seen this post or its source story, but we wouldn’t want to deprive the rest of some master level snark.
https://notthebee.com/article/biden-on-his-bazillion-executive-orders-im-not-making-new-law-im-eliminating-bad-policy
I’m just going to put up both of these together.
https://notthebee.com/article/holy-cow-check-out-these-pics-of-amazons-insane-new-hq-in-virginia
https://notthebee.com/article/so-amazon-kept-62-million-given-by-customers-to-its-drivers-as-tips
But do check out the architect’s renderings of the planned building.
@Richard Aubrey:Since the dems were counting on an anti-Trump vote plus fraud, they could have run anybody. This obviously corrupt, senile, mendacious mediocrity (I am stealing that) whose best days are behind him backed up by the least popular dem in the nom field was going to win on account of badorangeman. Which, since practically speaking, the dems ran Nobody and expected to win, why didn’t they run Somebody?
During the primary season they didn’t know who they wanted, except that it was Not Bernie. Bernie is controlled opposition. He’s there to keep the progressive shock troops engaged in the process. He comes real close, and then they appeal to party unity; just like Charlie Brown comes real close to kicking that football…
But then it looked like Bernie would win, so the word went out and in short order all but Biden and Tulsi dropped out. (Tulsi is not in on it.)
The fraud plan came later, when COVID gave them the excuse to change all the voting laws (by decree if necessary).
The key to fighting back against this unprecedented overreach by the federal government must be done by the states– a federation of conservative states that all agree to bring suit in unison to everything the government is attempting to do.
We also need a compelling rationalization to a new found right of states to be free from federal compulsion in areas that exceed the constitutional parameters.
I could see a new right that rules concerning federal land in a state must consider the best use that benefits the state the land is in. The government can make rules severely harming a state. We need federalists to actually earn their keep.
“I could see a new right that rules concerning federal land in a state must consider the best use that benefits the state the land is in. The government can make rules severely harming a state. We need federalists to actually earn their keep.” -Brian E
Wow. Better proofread before clicking– especially when you’re in a hurry to get back to work.
We need a legal theory that land owned by the federal government must be used for the benefit of the state the land is situated in. If any use of the land– for some national interest must first consider the benefit or harm to the state. That harm or benefit must be weighed against the national interest. Where there is no compelling national benefit– the interest of the state must win.
Looking at the states that voted Red, that federal compact would make sense for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Other states could join. This is the exact same thing blue states were threatening if President Trump won re-election– though in their case they were threatening succession.
If Liberals can create new rights out of whole cloth in the, surely a stronger case for federalism can be found. New appreciation for the 10th amendment.