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Happy Fourth of July! — 56 Comments

  3. I don’t care for the song as a whole but that “whatever’s left of you” is affecting and all too apropos. As is the last verse about voting.

  4. Things MUST get better with the 2022 elections, but hope is the triumph over reality. Apparently some 50% of Americans are getting some monies from DC now. And, since the large majority, especially old geezers on Social Security and Medicare, continue to watch mainstream TV, from which, in addition to the major print media, they get their “news”, I am not as hopeful as those who are close to me, including the crowd here, my political friends. The Medicaid crowd watches the same garbage. And they all vote.

    Socialism is the state we are in. It is but a short jump to government by rude force, i.e. communism.

    Aided by the Wuhan virus, bureaucrats shut down primarily small businesses. The Russell 2000 index (small – medium sized businesses) was down 9% for 2020, while the S&P 500 and the Dow-Jones industrials both gained.
    Typical of totalitarian states is to crush the small businesses first, then the gubmint will have fewer entities to surveil and, next, control. The economically hardest-hit states, it will come as no surprise, are those run by Democrats, and Democrats are totalitarians in disguise.

    Look at Democratic Administrations the past 100 years. Wilson got us into WWI, created the income tax, which has greatly empowered the federal bureaucracy. FDR presided over many ruinous policies which fall under the socialist umbrella, did not get us out of the Great Depression, threatened to pack the Supreme Court, and gave all of Eastern Europe to the USSR instead of letting Patton take it. LBJ’s “Great Society” yielded legislation that has turned monstrous, with “equality” giving ground to “equity”, sowing the seeds of black racial hostility as seen in “The 1619 Project” and CRT, and cries of “white supremacy”. Clinton was a tool of his hideous wife, could have killed bin Laden but declined. Finally, we have Obama, who continues to “fundamentally change America” even after his two terms.

    And now we have Biden, a sham human who gladly signs all the crap the DNC and its buddies in the Administration lay before him. His appointees, approved by the Senate Democratic majority of 50+1, are outrageous. DOD’s great mission is no longer extranational combat preparedness but enforcement of CRT within its ranks. China will soon be the sole superpower, and Dopey Joe is doing nothing about that. NO, he canceled a pipeline from Canada to USA, and removed the impediments for building a pipeline from Russia to Germany!

    You think we can turn this around in 2022?

  5. Cicero @ 3:47;

    You forgot to mention that FDR officially recognized Stalin’s USSR, notwithstanding Stalin’s mass murderous policies.
    Not even Woodrow Wilson – a man who despised the US Constitution – did this. And neither did Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.
    FDR simply did not care; he was a first class elitist who never in his life held a real job (i.e., outside of the govt. dole) prior to becoming prez.
    If not for WWII, FDR would go down as one of the worst presidents in US history, even though he believed “Uncle Joe” Stalin was a decent fellow.

  6. FDR and TWW worse presidents than GWB? Inconceivable! 🙂 🙂

    Have a happy July 4th nonetheless!

  7. Still, it’s a beautiful, sunny, summer day. Here’s a song which came out when I was eleven and didn’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’, but I knew it was a a happy song.
    ________________________________

    Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
    Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
    Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
    Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer

    –Nat King Cole, “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZrNDtRltg

  8. Well, we’ve got problems and Cicero may be right. But on this day, the video I like is this one:
    https://biggeekdad.com/2014/09/john-wayne-1970/

    We’ve been in rocky straits before. There are still 75 million Americans who would prefer John Wayne’s celebration of Independence Day. I’m one of them and I’ll bet that most here are too. God bless America, my home, sweet home!

  9. Cicero,
    Regarding the older crowd that gets their news from mainstream sources. Perhaps a gift subscription to the paper copy of the Epoch Times might be of some value? A bit expensive, but if you have the money and the right target….

  10. Happy Independence day everyone, now we may have to fight for it again from Leftists but it’s still worth it.

  11. jon baker:
    I have gifted Epoch Times to multiple people. Some not, but they are the hard Leftists, and are mostly in Massachusetts and North Carolina (a state taken over by Yankees over the past 40 years because it was such a nice place). South Carolina remains pretty conservative, with a black (R!) Senator, but its AA vote in the 2020 primary gave Dopey Joe a big boost post Clyburn’s endorsement. Without Biden’s SC result we would have had Sanders as the Dem. nominee, probably. And Trump in his 2nd term now.

    I get ET on my computer daily. They do a marvelous job.

  13. Happy Fourth of July.

    If you and your descendants do the Needful Things, you’re going to end up one day with a new date and name for your national holiday.

    Even if nothing changes, some surgery on the nomenclature is called for. I don’t see much ‘Independence’ in the current year.

    Love your Country, love your people — in fact do it more (in my experience the average Indonesian or Thai loves their country *more* than you think you love yours)… and hate your abortion of a mis-Government and your vile Ruling Class with the fire of a thousand suns.

    Do you want those #$%^ers presiding over the 250th anniversary in 2026? I think not!

    If (Trigger Warning) Tomorrow Doesn’t Belong to You… then whatever the hell was it all for?

  14. “By today’s standards King George III was a very mild tyrant indeed. He taxed his American colonists at a rate of only pennies per annum. His actual impact on their personal lives was trivial. He had arbitrary power over them in law and in principle but in fact it was seldom exercised. If you compare his rule with that of today’s U.S. Government you have to wonder why we celebrate our independence..”
    ? Joseph Sobran

  17. Joseph Sorban’s opinion of then vs Thomas Jefferson’s experience. Which to believe?

    Joseph Sorban’s experience of progressive oppression now, well that is not exactly a hidden phenomenon or one requiring a rocket scientist, or a babblebox to discern.

  18. @om:

    Don’t forget to take a reflexive dump on Dan.

    Jefferson? No different than your garden variety Hungarian Magnate ca. 1848 thru the Compromise of 1867. Except that Hungarian Magnates did beaten hunts in better style. Jefferson rolled the dice and did what was good for Jefferson and wrote stirring #@$% about it being good for everyone.

    Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That.

  19. Zaphod,

    Happy 4th of July

    Good post and thank you for the Daniel Greenfeild link.

  20. @JHCorcoran:

    “Ya Think?”

    — Woodrow and Mrs. Wilson.

    Goddamn Presbyterians. Every. Single. Time.

  21. JH Corcoran:
    What’s it going to take to “turn things around”?
    How much is “around”?
    10 degrees?
    180degrees?
    And by whom or what entity? I remember Pinochet’s turning around of Chile, and that took a coup d’etat and several thousand deaths. But he saved Chile from communism, though the Left never gives up, and Chile is turning socialist again.

  22. I can see I had Daniel Greenfield confused with a more mainstream Dan Greensomething from the past.
    ______________________________________

    Empires function by draining every drop from their possessions to cover their costs. The British Crown tried to drain America to pay down its debt, resulting in growing protests from the population and eventually a revolution. Now the Empire of Co-Dependency is draining its independent subjects for the benefit of its dependent subjects and the dependency infrastructure that employs its numberless bureaucrats who govern it all.

    –Daniel Greenfield
    ______________________________________

    I recall a funny scene from the “Jeeves & Wooster” TV series. J&W are in America and someone brings up the War of Independence. Jeeves’s face takes on a hurt expression. He refers to it as “The Unpleasantness” and says, “I prefer not to speak of it.”

  23. I always agreed with patriotism, but it runs alot deeper these days. I think America ?? has areas that need work, but it is a good Country. The ‘useful idiots’ that March in the streets, do not have a clue about how a communist country would treat their freedoms. Ask the people of Hong Kong.

    Toby’s song is sobering. Sad. The only consolation about the leftist is that they repel old traditional liberals (yes, they exist) who are Democrats as well as Independents. These people and the Conservatives are digging in and pushing back.

    Enjoy the 4th of July!

  24. @Huxley:

    I almost wish they’d sink another USS Liberty just to see what Dan would write.

    Until then, he’s living proof that there’s still a chink (*not one of those, Om!) in my armour and my mind isn’t totally closed. Dan’s my Thomas Sowell and long may he prosper!

  25. @JHCorcoran:

    America has all the ingredients of Greatness and has come closer than most in the past.

    Right now too many cooks in the kitchen. I’d argue the pantry needs a spring-cleaning too.

  27. Cicero;

    I hear you about Chile. I have friends that immigrated here from Chile. They have grave concerns about the unrest that is occurring there.

    Falun Gong started the ET. They are a very oppressed and victimised religious group in China. They are used for organ harvesting and other atrocities. I am a fan ET. But Mr. Biden insist that we are not allowed to criticise China on their domestic affairs. Pathetic man.

  28. It is passing for farsical to have an expat Brit living under the thumb of the CCP
    who most days can’t see deeper than melanin on July 4 opining about Thomas Jefferson and what is needed in the USA.

  29. I hope that everyone had a great day.

    I know I’m speaking to the choir here, but it would do us all good to remember that, as Skip notes above [@6:14], this was a celebration of Independence Day, not In Dependence Day!

    All the best to you all.

  30. @om:

    I’m not a Brit. Gods be praised! My dentist will attest to this.

    FWIW: Colonial Hong Kong of Fabled Yore was ruled by Scotsmen.

  31. Distinction w/o a difference. Something about United Kingdom, or sucks to be You K? Keep your social credit score tidy.

  32. I almost wish they’d sink another USS Liberty

    They didn’t sink the first one. You can’t get out of your own way.

  33. OK Boomers… Time to liven things up a bit and move things on. It’s past midnight in the Imperial Capital now, so your holiday is officially over.

    This being a hotbed of Glenn Greenwald Groupies, I know you’re all going to want to go read this:

    https://niccolo.substack.com/p/the-kinshasa-interviews-glenn-greenwald

    He’s a Very Interesting Fellow. And it’s a very interesting interview. Suggest you take your blood pressure meds before beginning to read. Don’t give up after the first few paras… that would be Gay. Keep on Trucking. I mean Reading. No pain, no gain!

    This one’s not bad, too:

    https://niccolo.substack.com/p/the-agrigento-interviews-curtis-moldbug

    If these articles leave you with a creeping suspicion that the Bright Young(ish) Things of today are Very Different… You’re not wrong.

  34. Zaphod:

    You don’t seem to understand the commenters on this blog, and I’m not at all sure you understand Glenn Greenwald either.

    Nothing in that interview was the least bit surprising or especially upsetting if you’ve read a lot of Greenwald and/or a significant amount about Greenwald (I’ve done both). I value Greenwald because of three things: he’s smart, he applies the same principles across the board, and he cares about liberty.

    The reason I say you may not understand Greenwald is that it’s my impression that you take that first part of the interview seriously. It is obviously tongue-in-cheek. The giveaway is that he says to the interviewer “most of the straight boys were similar to you: obnoxious, uncouth….” Clearly, he’s pulling the guy’s leg – and then it is underlined when Greenwald says: “Also, my mother was extremely beautiful and I knew early on that no woman would ever measure up. Her name was Norma Bates.” Norma Bates was the name of the mother of the Tony Perkins character (Norman Bates) in “Psycho.” If you’re familiar with the film, I think you get the joke, but if you’re not, you wouldn’t.

  35. Can Do! it ain’t all about you.

    Boo hoo.

    Keep your nappies tidy and your social credit in happy space.

    Yep the bright youngish things that need 12 genders? Otay, babblebox.

  36. “They didn’t sink the first one.”

    Ah, but I think his deeper point is that they could have sunk it. (Which is all that counts, isn’t it?)

  37. “…a sham…”
    Alas.
    But it’s an interesting word: A shambles? A shaman? A shame? Actually, all of the above….

    And while our resident sham (i.e., SOTUS) is doing “his” very best to cause America to fall apart at the seams, “he”—joker that “he” is—regales us deplorables with the most uplifting and fragrant of cowpies:
    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/561545-biden-america-is-coming-back-together

    Yep, we sure get the message!

    (BTW, yes—absolutely—the “Epoch Times” is terrific. Should really be THE paper of record, that is, after the “Bee” and, quite possibly, the “NY Post”…. Am also very partial to “Just the News”….)

  38. @Neo:

    I have a fairly good nose for when things are being hammed up — and more to the point I’m very familiar with Mister Fisted By Foucault’s House Style, being a subscriber and all.

    What I was getting at was not particularly the undeniable weirdness of aspects of Greenwald’s private life… let’s not kid ourselves that it’s anything remotely normal… but the fact that the longer the interview goes on the more he comes across as almost the Long Lost Leftist Twin of Curtis Yarvin the Mischling Madman. And I think his critiques of USGov *are* a bit of a mind-stretch for some of the commenters here:

    “The most respected and celebrated news outlets and foreign policy analysts spent all of 2002 and the first part of 2003 telling Americans and the world that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons and an active nuclear weapons program: easily the most toxic conspiracy theory of this generation. Because of their lies, by September, 2003 — six months after the invasion of Iraq — roughly 70% of Americans believed that Saddam personally planned the 9/11 attack. Yet other than the scapegoat Judy Miller, nobody suffered any career harm. The leading disseminators of this maniacal fiction were promoted and rewarded: Jeffrey Goldberg went from telling good liberal pseudo-intellectual New Yorker readers that Saddam was in alliance with Al Qaeda to running The Atlantic.”

    Which is interesting. When both the Oldish Left and the Goose Steppers are seeing eye to eye on this^^^ and plenty more, it might be wise to pay more attention to their critiques. And while I appreciate the occasional nod to Greenwald in these parts, I never seem to notice much curiosity about the other end of the Overton Window. This I think is to miss a lot.

    The other thing I was making a stab at was that around here there is a laudable fixation on analysis and perhaps in some quarters a slightly obsessive thing about Facts and Who Said What.. The colourful Gonzo-on-amyl-nitrate style of the Interviewer I think allows for a more three-dimensional picture of interviewees and their arguments to appear. So it seems to me.

    Compared to corners of Gab and the wider MemeVerse the above seem like Quiet Time in the Shaker Meetinghouse.

  39. They sure gave sinking it the Old College Try — always said that canning the admissions quotas would end in tears.

  40. Fulun Gong Silly Sausage Dharma Dudes are great fun. Every time they set up on a street corner here, the United Front Muppets feel obliged (they’re ordered to) set up a counter-demo right next to them with garish posters calling them an evil cult. Falun Gong guys have their own garish posters claiming that Dr. Mengele is alive and well in the Celestial Empire. And in normal times, other guys in plain clothes have to hang around taking photos and hoovering up cellphone data of any Mainland Tourists who take any of their leaflets. Always good to see Leviathan’s resources being stretched even if only a little bit.

    Mind you, were I Emperor, I’d squash them flat per Dostoevsky’s Inquisitor. China, folk religion, and Syncretism are a volatile mix:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion

    That outbreak of religious enthusiasm killed 30-50M people and drove a stake through the heart of the Qing Dynasty.

    Epoch Times isn’t too bad. It does have some QAnon / Gordon Chang type excursions every now and then. Filter the overly optimistic stuff and enjoy.

  41. Come to think of it.. given their relatively healthy religiously-determined lifestyles… their organs are more likely to be in very good condition and good candidates for involuntary donation. Were I the Founder of Falung Gong, I’d quickly issue a Fatwa mandating smoking and drinking of hard liquor — Moutai ought to do the job.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maotai

    The really good stuff is getting bizarrely expensive these days now that China has a billionaire oversupply issue. It tastes like badly distilled Vegemite, so you can save your money. Also if you have seen this famous Zhang Yimou film, you’ll be suspicious of any Chinese beverage tastes too good:

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093206/

  42. “…every now and then…”
    But that’s just for entertainment.

    Regarding the Falun Gong hard liquor defense, you’re onto something revolutionary here—thinking outside the liquor box(?); but in fact, if anyone should implement such a pragmatic fatwa, it’s the Uighurs, under the rubric of “we’ll destroy our livers and kidneys before the enemy can get their hands on them”.

    (I realize they’re not supposed to drink; but it’s entirely possible that the mullahs, ayatollahs, imams and khalifs will throw their full support behind them, given the support they’ve been giving them up until now.)

  44. “…the Old College Try…”

    No doubt a case of: those idiot Israelis couldn’t even sink an American spy ship even after three bombing/strafing runs?

    Perhaps. Perhaps not.

    So what did happen? (There’s a lot of livid and/or perplexed and/or embarrassed and/or saddened people out there.)

    Was it a mortifying case of mistaken identity? (In spite of that American flag waving high?, Hmm.)
    Or an unfortunate tragedy brought about by confusion, AKA the “fog of war’. (What might Occam say?)
    Something that we can’t ever know for certain because of the circumstances underlying of the tragedy? (Well, THEY WOULD say that, wouldn’t they….)

    We may never know… (Except, of course, for those who already are sure that they do…)
    FWIW:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
    https://azure.org.il/article.php?id=290
    https://www.usslibertyveterans.org/files/randa/commentary/ahrons-loftus/analysis.html
    http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/10/31/former-israeli-ambassador-to-u-s-affirms-that-uss-liberty-was-tragic-friendly-fire-incident-as-al-jazeera-america-prepares-to-air-shocking-report-by-conspiracy-theorist/

  47. “No doubt a case of: those idiot Israelis couldn’t even sink an American spy ship even after three bombing/strafing runs?

    Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

    Intent will be debated until the heat death of the universe. Would that people would be on my case for so long — I’m a bit jealous, doncher know? 🙂

    Sinking ships must be a lot harder than made out in movies:

    RIMPAC Boys Will Be Boys Ship Sinking (for Research Purposes!) Exercises:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imwLc2T3oks

  48. Can Do! is blowing smoke again: how long it took to sink the HMS Hood vs Bismark, or HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Rodney vs IJN Yamato or how long it took to sink the USS Johnson? In all those cases details matter. But Can Do! worrries the USS Liberty like a cur because it suits his hate.

  50. Can Do! poke holes in their bottom and the sea does the rest. Details matter bozo, crew training, damage control, how crew handles splodey stuff. How your ship is built. Details, or just blow smoke, as is your propensity.

  52. Can Do! see the HMS Sheffield for a story of when someone in an airplane really wants you sunk. There were other ships that fared poorly in that war. Details matter, babblebox.

  53. @om: Just as well the Exocet didn’t come online until 1975. Also, you being a details kind of guy would know that what did for the Sheffield was its fashionably new burns like a bitch under right conditions aluminium superstructure — how that got by all the brains and brass one can only wonder. It’s a miracle they didn’t make it out of magnesium to save even more weight.

    Now you can have the last word on this.

  54. Iron bombs delivered by A4 Skyraiders sank most of the ships. IIRC.

    Regarding aluminum in warships, that’s called engineering and tradeoffs. War is a harsh thing. Stick to coding and bloviating.

  55. Falkland’s war detail correction, (danged memory!). They were served ordnance mostly mostly by the Douglas A4 Skyfigter, a small single engine jet fighter bomber, not by the Douglas A1 Skyraider, a single engine propeller fighter bomber (a larger plane BTW). Details matter, tome off.

  56. Danged, danged memory Skyhawk, it didn’t sound right when I typed it … 🙂

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