Many years ago, on a Cruise ship, we went through Drake’s Passage. Oh yes, big waves, cold and windy. We passed through then turned around and went up to The Straights of Magellan. Two very famous and dangerous ocean passages. How they did it in those very small ships is a truly amazing feat of Seamanship.
They served very think Pea Soup to help keep out the cold.
The 20K figure is a guess.
As Art keeps up with French current events, I do my best to stay abreast of the German beat. I return to Germany several times a year for short visits. I have observed many changes since the 30 plus years I first moved there. During my recent visit I came across this article in the Bild Newspaper, Germany’s largest volume daily paper for the masses with a somewhat conservative bent.
“Germany, we still have a problem!”
“50 rules for our coexistence should make our country better. But three years later, society is more divided than ever. What went wrong?”
Almost all of the rules are aimed at improving the behavior the millions of third world immigrants that have entered Germany during the past 10 years.
Several examples; 12 Many Germans eat pork. Freedom also goes through the stomach. 19 Women wear bikini’s or swim suits in the swimming pool. 20 Men and women are equal. In every way. 26 We don’t burn flags of countries we do not like. 28 Women who cheat are not….beaten nor stoned. 31 We do not marry children and also men do not take more than one wife. And my favorite 40 here in Germany, beer and wine are part of our culture. Let it be.
A short time ago, such a printed manifesto would have been laughable. Now it is an instruction manual for the millions of the uncivilized living among the Germans. Frau Merkel has a lot to atone for. In a recent interview she stated that she had nothing to be sorry about. Her phrase “Wir schaffen das!” ( We can do it!) has not worked. The problem according to her lies with the German people and not with the barbaric millions she allowed into the country.
The full list of rules is linked below. A translation program will provide English translation.
Quick description. The author went to write a novel, as historically accurate as possible, about Darwin’s trip on The Beagle. During research he concludes Darwin isn’t the most interesting man on the boat – that would be the captain Robert Fitzroy. A prodigy produced by the Royal Navy tasked with mapping the southern tip of South America. From memory I believe he was the youngest man to ever captain a ship for the Royal Navy. He does the job spectacularly well, and in very clever fashion. His maps were so accurate they were used by just about everyone until satellites were invented. Upon returning to England – it was an around the world trip – he is immediately sacked. He pissed off powerful people in England for a variety of reasons including his insistence on Darwin. The naturalist assigned to him resigned assuming Fitzroy could never actually accept the resignation because he was so well connected. Fitzroy not only accepted it, but dropped him off in Lisbon on the way out. Lots of unknown facts (to me) throughout the book and crazy twists and turns in the story. If you like historical fiction, I think you’d love it.
See also: Dallas Murphy, “Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives, a Deck’s Eye View of Cape Horn”
Robert Gouviea has scooped Viva Frei on the new documentary videos showing that Brian Cole, Jr who was nowhere near the RNC or DNC buildings when the J6 bomber placed the bombs by getting reporter Steve Baker to present the video first, this morning.
Cole is being prosecuted while Shauni Kirkoff is suing Baker for defamation because he fingered her as the likely bomber last year, a Cap Hill cop turned CIA employee.
And this morning we have news that, yes, the NFL is going forward with next Sunday’s game at Stade de France (about 4 miles north of the Louvre).
Steelers vs. the fleur-de-lis adorned Saints, who will lose, probably badly.
I wonder how the current festive-minded and celebratory Paris inhabitants will take that?
Brian Cole’s alibi is secured. He’s innocent of the charge. FREE BRIAN COLE!
Sorry, I meant Huxley, not Art.
This is going to run a bit long. This is partly about why the GOP is having trouble with elections they should be walking away with, but it won’t seem like it immediately. I’ve been thinking about how these things relate for a few days, my chain of thought was touched off by our hostess’ printer issues:
I haven’t had a working printer for a long time. I bought one many years ago, and after a short while it stopped working. My ex-husband tried to fix it – he’d never had any trouble with printers – and he couldn’t make it work, either. So any time I wanted something printed, I just had him do it at his place. It didn’t happen often, and it seemed to work out.
Now that he’s gone, I decided that because his printer is very old and somewhat of a problem I’d get a new one. They’re not expensive, and surely there have been improvements in the many years since I got mine. And so I bought one and tried to set it up.
Hours later I was still stymied. It would not – simply would not – connect to the Wifi. I have free access to the Geek Squad, and so I tried to make an appointment. The page I was directed to online would only let me change an already-existing appointment; it would not let me make one. So I called the handy dandy phone number and got an AI voice. She (it was definitely a she) kept directing me to a Geek Squad in a store an hour away, despite the fact that there is one about ten minutes away.
Why? Why? In my frustration, I said something like, “this is ridiculous; why won’t you take me to the right store?” She replied, “I can understand your frustration,” to which I replied, “No you CAN’T; you’re not even a person!” She answered, “I know I’m not human, but I’m doing the best I can.”
I asked to speak with a human, and indeed was connected to one somewhere in Asia. This person ultimately informed me that the Geek Squad cannot help set up printers because connecting to the Wifi in the store wouldn’t help; it has to be your own Wifi, which necessitates a house call.
How much does a house call cost? One hundred and twenty-five dollars. How much did the printer cost? Sixty-nine dollars.
I returned it.
— neo
My sympathies about the printer, BTW, I’ve had my own troubles with the devices over the years. In my case they’ll connect but don’t seem to want to print, the print job wants to hang in the queue, or else the print cartridges dry shut because I don’t print every day. My current one is a bit more expensive and is the first I’ve had that mostly works right.
But that’s not my point. Look at the issues neo had trying to get this thing to work.
I have free access to the Geek Squad, and so I tried to make an appointment. The page I was directed to online would only let me change an already-existing appointment; it would not let me make one.
We’ve all been there, the automatic menu simply doesn’t have the option you need. A while back my credit card was damaged. Not stolen or lost, just physically damaged so you couldn’t easily use it in a scanner. When I tried to get it replaced the menu of options had choices for lost, stolen, to review my account, etc. Nothing about replacing a damaged one, and no easy way to get to a person.
She (it was definitely a she) kept directing me to a Geek Squad in a store an hour away, despite the fact that there is one about ten minutes away.
Why? Why? In my frustration, I said something like, “this is ridiculous; why won’t you take me to the right store?” She replied, “I can understand your frustration,” to which I replied, “No you CAN’T; you’re not even a person!” She answered, “I know I’m not human, but I’m doing the best I can.”
Oh, yes, the combination of being blocked from a real person by another mindless machine, combined with the insult of it pretending to be a person and trying to emotionally manipulate you. As bad as the automatic call menus have been for a while now, ‘AI’ pseudo-personality makes it more frustrating and infuriating.
Topped off with:
I asked to speak with a human, and indeed was connected to one somewhere in Asia.
Naturally.
This person ultimately informed me that the Geek Squad cannot help set up printers because connecting to the Wifi in the store wouldn’t help; it has to be your own Wifi, which necessitates a house call.
How much does a house call cost? One hundred and twenty-five dollars. How much did the printer cost? Sixty-nine dollars.
I returned it.
OK, so the culmination of the chain of frustration is that the customer is not satisfied and the vendor lost the money for the sale and subsequent support (printer ink, which gram for gram is more expensive than caviar at times).
In another post, neo writes:
Years ago, I remember going to a supermarket when its computers were down. Things pretty much came to a standstill. Among other things, the cashiers didn’t know how to do basic math.
— neo
Again, been there. Several years ago I went to a local Wal-Mart to buy something, I don’t even remember what, and the power was down. No data connections to central office. No sales possible. It wouldn’t have mattered if the cashiers knew how to do the math, they had no physical way to make a sale even if they did.
And that was before most of the cashiers were replaced by self-check machines (which I generally refuse to use when possible on the principle that I have no desire to help employers cut staff and they aren’t paying me to be their cashier). The self-check wouldn’t make it any worse, because the cashiers were helpless before anyway, but now the cashiers aren’t even there.
What does this have to do with GOP’s issues?
We’ve discussed why rage at ‘the billionaires’ has become so powerful a motivating force. Yes, it’s partly just human nature, envy and jealousy. Yes, the educational system and other lefty institutions encourage it. But there’s more to it than that. The rage is spreading over to GOP voters as well, because it’s not just about individual billionaires. They’ve become the symbol for something much more basic and much more dangerous.
For decades now, the American (or rather the global) business class has been making themselves unpopular. Really ever since the mid-90s. It started out gradually and continued steadily, slowly, mostly in little individual things but a slow drip accumulates over time. About twenty years ago it started being big stuff, too.
Every time a customer goes through something like neo did with her printer, some frustration and resentment builds up. Every time someone has to navigate a mindless automatic menu, with no options that fit their needs and no easy way to bypass it, anger and frustration are added to the growing pile of resentment.
Every time something that was always just ‘part of the product’ gets fenced off and you have to pay extra for it, resentment.
The computer gaming industry has gone from a place where you bought a game on a CD disk and owned it afterward, you could play it forever if you had a compatible machine, to one where the game must be downloaded, slowly, on-line, it’s released buggy and has to be patched on-line, you often can’t even play it without a current active Internet connection, even though it’s taking up huge space on your hard memory, and if the company discontinues it you suddenly can’t even play it anymore, even though you theoretically own it. While you can play it, to get full value from it you have to pay extra as you go, ‘micro-transactions’.
It’s like this all the time, the business class constantly trying to squeeze a little more money out of you, while providing less for it. Monitoring you, trying to control how you use the product. Imposing ‘upgrades’ that quite often make the upgraded product worse or at least inconvenient to use.
Cory Doctorow is himself a socialist writer, but he’s coined a term: ‘enshitifcation’ that precisely describes the process and it went universal overnight in 2017 because everyone recognized what he was saying.
That’s the little stuff side. It also includes the constant, unremitting pressure for open borders immigration and endless amnesties. Business wants that quite simply because endless immigration lowers wages and imports customers. It really is as simple as that.
Likewise, the support for ‘free’ trade. They want to pursue cheap labor around the world. ‘Chainsaw Jack Welch’ said it aloud years ago: “Ideally, you’d have every plant you own on a barge to move with currencies and changes in the economy.”
Offshoring has been hugely profitable for business, but the ‘negative externalities’ fell squarely across working class communities across America (and other first-world countries too).
One can believe in free markets, but still recognize that sometimes letting them work is not in your interest or your nation’s interest, and that such interests are legitimate.
The business class has pursued these policies, sometimes mindlessly, Note neo’s experience above, the net result of all their ‘money saving’ procedures was to lose the sale while angering the customer. When they recognize this, their usual response is not to fix the problem but to try and force the customer to buy their product anyway.
The international business class has no loyalty to any country or culture. They don’t care, and probably to a large extent don’t even perceive, how getting a foreigner who barely speaks English on a support call, from halfway around the world, is like fingernails on a blackboard for many people. That’s if you can reach a human being at all.
A recent study in the UK indicated that 80%(!) of all new jobs created in the last five years went to immigrants.
Think about that. It’s not just a British thing.
For people born since 1989, this has been their primary personal direct experience of the marketplace and business. One reason socialism seems appealing to them is simply that it isn’t the status quo that they’ve grown up in, and that they are angry and frustrated about. Even those of them who aren’t fooled by socialism’s promises are still angry at the status quo.
Bush II teamed up with John McCain and Teddy Kennedy in 2006 to try and do another blanket immigration amnesty. That failed due to tremendous resistance from both partisan bases. It cost them the 2006 midterms, and they responded by trying again in 2007. In 2012, the TEA party movement, responding to Obama’s initial troublemaking, gave the GOP a win in the House of Representatives.
The GOP then tried to team up with the Dems yet again to pass Comprehensive Amnesty, because business wanted it. Cue another base revolt and Eric Cantor, the GOP House Majority Leader, lost his seat in the primary in 2014. That was the first time a majority leader was ousted by his own base voters in over a century.
(Of course there was a burst of news stories immediately afterward, including from Murdoch’s FOX, about how it wasn’t immigration that cost Cantor his seat, but everyone knew it was precisely the Gang of Eight Amnesty bill).
On leaving Congress, Cantor then received a very plum job as vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company. It was Wall Street and the business class sending a message to other Congressmen: “Do what we want, and we’ll take care of you if it costs you your position.”
Trump ran and swept aside the GOPe in the primaries in 2016, and I stil remember with amusement the desperate attempts by GOP pundits on FOX and elsewhere to explain how free trade benefited the working class. It always boiled down to ‘their stuff is a little cheaper’. Emphasis on ‘little’, most of the arbitraged gains went to the investor class. All the negative externalities fell elsewhere.
But during Trump I they just kept trying. Paul Ryan tried to disguise a partial immigration amnesty as an Obamacare repeal bill at one point, and later went through the motions of pretending to be unable to stop the GOP House from sending Trump an amnesty bill.
As late as 2024, Senator Lankford and some of the other GOPe players, together with Dem leaders, tried to disguise an amnesty/open borders bill as a ‘bipartisan enforcement bill’. Business wants cheap labor.
This whole huge post is simply me trying to express why the GOP, faced with a Democratic Party that has essentially gone insane, struggles. Why that resentment of the rich that is increasingly found on both sides of the partisan aisle at base level is not purely envy. Thirty years of frustration and resentment over things big and small have left deep pool of anger. Trump taps into it, so do the DSA.
Sorry about the length, but this is a big thing.
Dude. Take a deep breath. Chill.
Forget the midterms. We have less than 12 days to stop neophiles who fail to see the evil of candy corn (a.k.a. beelzebub’s teeth) from handing out bags of BUG EXCREMENT to unsuspecting children! Spread the word!!
The shine on candy corn is bug resin. Brach’s calls it confectioner’s glaze.
The bag reads sugar, corn syrup, then 2% or less of salt, dextrose, confectioner’s glaze (shellac), gelatin, honey, artificial flavors, sesame oil, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40.
Shellac is what a lac insect leaves on tree branches in India and Thailand. It gets scraped off the bark, cleaned, dissolved in alcohol and tumbled over the candy, and it dries into the same hard coat that goes on a hardwood floor. That’s the shine, and it’s why the pieces don’t glue themselves together in the bag. The gelatin is pork or beef collagen, there for the chew. The honey Brach’s puts on the front of the bag is under 2%, behind the salt.
I confess I don’t care for candy corn at all, but I suspect consumption once a year won’t kill people.
As a child, for four long years, I was forced to study French. I thought it was a waste of time, and nothing has since disabused me of that notion. Unfortunately, I’m now curious about the pro-algebra peaceful student protests in France, but my research is limited to the English-speaking media. Maybe the French media is just as bad, but I’ll never know.
In short, I know next to nothing about what’s going on in France, but would like to recommend a short article in “The Spectator” that I think is worth reading: France’s riots have left the country more divided than ever / Gavin Mortimer (https://tinyurl.com/4e3xpuxm).
Here are two paragraphs from the article:
“Many of the looters appear to be opportunistic idiots who lost control of themselves in the carnival of destruction. On Sunday twelve young men appeared in a Grenoble court to answer charges of looting. Among them was a builder, two fast-food workers, a student and an apprentice for an electrical engineering firm. Three of the defendants were from North Africa and in the country illegally. Asked why they had participated in the riots, only two of the twelve cited the death of Nahel as the reason.
Those responsible for more serious crimes – such as the 6,000 vehicles torched, the 1,100 buildings damaged, the 270 police stations attacked and the 800 police officers wounded – have a different profile. According to the French intelligence service they fall into three categories: young men from the inner cities with a long history of confronting the police; veteran far-left extremists ‘driven by the logic of chaos’, and a third group, described by the intelligence service as ‘clueless’: the immature middle-class youth who turns up at any protest against the government.”
France, we are told, has an army. They could shut this down if they wanted to, but they fear enabling the “far right.”
Cornflour writes, “Among them was a builder, two fast-food workers, a student and an apprentice for an electrical engineering firm.”
When hearing news from Western Europe I often think of Wells’ Eloi and Morlocks.
‘I don’t like foreign wars. I don’t like six-dollar gas. I don’t trust anybody telling me to shut up and vote for people who keep promising this won’t happen again,’ he told me.
This 80 yo man is feeling about the same…tho I do support wars with countries like Iran. Gas in Old Town, FL was between $3.89 & $3.99 today. Food prices? Ramen noodle soup is cheap and Walmart’s Bar-S Classic Franks (12 oz, 8-count package) have sold for $1.00 in Chiefland, FL for years.
I’ll still be voting against TCS MAGA GOP this time — in Federal election but GOP for GOV in FL (Byron Donalds). Can’t stand Russian supporters and/or Russia…
And why does Brilyn Hollyhand of The Daily Mail deserve any attention?
I’ve made 4 round trips across the Drake for a total of 8 passages, and yes, some are definitely better than others! The worst was on a flat bottom Russian Ice Breaker, the Kaptain Klebnikof, on the way to see the Emperor penguins. We hit a storm in the middle of the Drake and were trying to tack to avoid it but the seas were so rough we were being thrown back and forth across our room and I even had a chair I was sitting in thrown over–luckily just bad bruises but the trip was totally worth it for the penguin photography!
DigiGal:
Your comment was totally worth it for the last line!
Hope to hear more from you.
@Kate: France, we are told, has an army. They could shut this down if they wanted to, but they fear enabling the “far right.”
Quite. I saw more groups of Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) patrolling the streets yesterday with automatic weapons and they look plenty tough. They are dedicated riot police.
France also has the Gendarmes, part of the French armed forces with similar duties.
Stephen Green asks “Where are the Gendrames?” and offers a speculative theory:
__________________________________
The problem isn’t Macron. The problem is Marine Le Pen and her so-called far-right National Rally party perhaps taking power in the April 2027 presidential election. Macron is term-limited out, and Le Pen leads the early polling, albeit with a weak 32-36% plurality. A runoff will follow on May 2 if no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote.
Or maybe there won’t be an election.
…
If France is to have the kind of national emergency that more or less protects the status quo by keeping Le Pen out of power, ordering the riot police to crack skulls and restore order is exactly what Paris would refuse to do.
There’s a simpler explanation, however. It could be that Paris is simply paralyzed — terrified by Le Pen’s National Rally in April, and the Red-Green alliance out on the streets right now.
“Trump wants to rename New Mexico as ‘New America’”
The president, writing on social media, said the Southwest state should rename itself as “New America,” reasoning it would add “great value and prestige to the state.”
“Home Values and Incomes would rise, and you would be even prouder while saluting our beautiful American Flag!” Mr. Trump said on social media.
Another example of another way that socialism destroys a nation.
All downhill since 1917.
HC68 has a beef with billionaires.
Billionaires have “become the symbol for something much more basic and much more dangerous.
“For decades now, the American (or rather the global) business class has been making themselves unpopular….” Or has the media who once loved billionaire’s like Trump simply been turned against wealth creators by Marxist Educrats?
The top fifth income group diminshes by almost 3X. Of the bottom poorest fifth, only 2% are as poor in 2017 as they were in 1967. And nearly all of the second, third, and fourth quintiles now occupy what was the richest fifth, 50 years ago.
John Early, et al, “The Myth of American Inequality.” 2023.
“One reason socialism seems appealing to [the young] is simply that it isn’t the status quo that they’ve grown up in, and that they are angry and frustrated about. Even those of them who aren’t fooled by socialism’s promises are still angry at the status quo.”
They are so because they’ve been mal-educated, if not indoctrinated. The title from Rich Baris’ new book characterizes Gen-Z too, “Burn It Down.” They hate so much because because they know so much that ain’t true.
“One reason socialism seems appealing to them is simply that it isn’t the status quo that they’ve grown up in, and that they are angry and frustrated about. Even those of them who aren’t fooled by socialism’s promises are still angry at the status quo.
Last I heard, the census bureau estimate there are 27 millionaires in the US.
If you want hatred against America’s wealthy, there’s a lot of them – or us – to hate.
But Rufus, at least it doesn’t consist *primarily* of bug excrement, only a little bit. That fact about candy corn is fascinating, though.
HC68, thanks for that writing. It was a bit long, as you say, but it does help and I’m not sure that it could have been shortened without losing something.
Re HC68 at 1:19 pm
Another excellent post!
Cornflour at 3:46 pm
The link you posted is three years old. You would have saved any potential clickers’ time by posting an unobfuscated link.
= = = = = = = =
I haven’t followed the French riots closely, but reportedly at least 2400 people have been arrested. I’m wondering if/when in recent years the USA has arrested as many.
“I’m wondering if/when in recent years the USA has arrested as many.”
1500+ were arrested for the Jan. 6 riot, per NPR – only source I could find in quick web search: https://apps.npr.org/jan-6-archive/
In not so recent years:
The 1971 May Day protests against the Vietnam War were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., protesting the United States’ continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. The protests began on Monday morning, May 3 and ended on May 5. In all, more than 12,000 people were arrested, in what was the largest mass arrest in U.S. history.
Yes and thousands upon thousands were arrested during the George Floyd entirely peaceful protests and summarily executed.
Millions are now forced to work for Elon Musk on chain gangs after being rounded up by ICE.
Elon is going to exile people to the Moon and then Mars once the Moon is full!
(sarc x 11)
But Socialism and true Communism has never been tried.
(sarc x 11 x11)
For the uninformed TCS MAGA GOP voters:
Brilyn Hollyhand is a 20-year-old American conservative political commentator, activist, and author. Known as a prominent young voice in the Republican Party, he frequently appears on major media networks to discuss Generation Z perspectives, youth voter outreach, and contemporary conservative politics.
Early Life and Media Ventures
• The Truth Gazette: Hollyhand began his political journey remarkably early, founding the online news source The Truth Gazette and The Brilyn Hollyhand Show podcast in July 2017 while in the fourth grade.
• Media Presence: As a teenager, he became a frequent contributor and commentator on national cable networks, including Fox News, CNN, ABC News, NewsNation, and Newsmax.
Political Leadership and Activism
• RNC Youth Advisory Council: From May 2023 to September 2025, Hollyhand served as the inaugural co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) Youth Advisory Council, focusing on mobilizing young voters ahead of the 2024 elections.
• Project Future Generation: In early 2026, he partnered with the Alabama Republican Party to launch and chair “Project Future Generation,” a targeted youth outreach initiative designed to engage teens and young adults in conservative activism.
• Campus Outreach: Following the death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk—who had been a mentor to Hollyhand since elementary school—Hollyhand partnered with Turning Point USA for the nationwide “One Conversation at a Time” college tour to promote civil discourse and empower conservative students.
Published Books
Hollyhand is a national bestselling author with books focusing on youth civic engagement and polarization:
• One Generation Away: Why Now is the Time to Restore American Freedom (July 2024)
• Make America Talk Again: How to Save Humanity from a Screaming Culture (2026)
He is currently a student studying political science at Auburn University.
huxley, good to know the CRS are patrolling the streets in Montpellier. At least some parts of France have decided to enforce public order.
And Hollyhand is entirely modest and not self promoting. Never heard of him until yesterday. And will likely never hear of him again.
Some people will bet on anything. What are the odds of that?
I will be there in December. Hoping for enjoyable weather and calm seas.
Selfy on October 20, 2026 at 1:05 am said:
Cornflour at 3:46 pm
The link you posted is three years old. You would have saved any potential clickers’ time by posting an unobfuscated link.
___________________________________
Yikes. My apologies for the error, and thanks for catching it.
…is entirely modest and not self promoting.
Trump?
Your man Hollyhand, Karmi.
Trump is not the issue, given the alternatives. But you know that?
Another example of why the old White Christian GOP can’t dominate a party of Child Butchers and Communists/Socialists, etc. — totally deaf to young GOP voices…
So speaks the Oracle of Doofus (or is that the sticks of Florida).
For the voice of the young GOP his horn is pretty small, with a small toot to boot.
But the Oracle needs to boost him. Sad.
HC68 on October 19, 2026 at 1:19 pm
About frustrations with our modern life, a thought provoking comment.
In the political realm we like to think we can vote the bastards out at least every two years.
But in the commerce realm we thought we had control to reject a product or supplier any time we went to the store.
But with the real and semi-monoplies and inability to complain to a human, we end up with no or limited options to reject those products and companies. Sometimes a feeling of real helplessness. A realistic growth in frustration becomes reasonable, if sometimes misplaced.
But the clear history of socialism/communism and the death and poverty and corruption (see mondern day Russian military, probably Ukrainian still, too?) should be part of the GOP message if they don’t want the Leftists to gain real control. Eventually the other side of the aisle will be so large they won’t need captive R’s to play footsy with.
Why more people are not picking up on the Trump and MAGA side of things is a puzzle, but it is a complicated thing to explain that sometimes a near term pain is necessary for a longer term gain. As a culture we have lost some of that insight [possibly even starting with 30 year mortgages and then leading to too-easy-credit-card debt, etc.??]
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Many years ago, on a Cruise ship, we went through Drake’s Passage. Oh yes, big waves, cold and windy. We passed through then turned around and went up to The Straights of Magellan. Two very famous and dangerous ocean passages. How they did it in those very small ships is a truly amazing feat of Seamanship.
They served very think Pea Soup to help keep out the cold.
The 20K figure is a guess.
As Art keeps up with French current events, I do my best to stay abreast of the German beat. I return to Germany several times a year for short visits. I have observed many changes since the 30 plus years I first moved there. During my recent visit I came across this article in the Bild Newspaper, Germany’s largest volume daily paper for the masses with a somewhat conservative bent.
“Germany, we still have a problem!”
“50 rules for our coexistence should make our country better. But three years later, society is more divided than ever. What went wrong?”
Almost all of the rules are aimed at improving the behavior the millions of third world immigrants that have entered Germany during the past 10 years.
Several examples; 12 Many Germans eat pork. Freedom also goes through the stomach. 19 Women wear bikini’s or swim suits in the swimming pool. 20 Men and women are equal. In every way. 26 We don’t burn flags of countries we do not like. 28 Women who cheat are not….beaten nor stoned. 31 We do not marry children and also men do not take more than one wife. And my favorite 40 here in Germany, beer and wine are part of our culture. Let it be.
A short time ago, such a printed manifesto would have been laughable. Now it is an instruction manual for the millions of the uncivilized living among the Germans. Frau Merkel has a lot to atone for. In a recent interview she stated that she had nothing to be sorry about. Her phrase “Wir schaffen das!” ( We can do it!) has not worked. The problem according to her lies with the German people and not with the barbaric millions she allowed into the country.
The full list of rules is linked below. A translation program will provide English translation.
https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/drei-jahre-nach-dem-bild-manifest-deutschland-wir-haben-immer-noch-ein-problem-6acf73ed85ec8093bcfbdf3d
Which brings to mind a book recommendation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Thing_of_Darkness
Quick description. The author went to write a novel, as historically accurate as possible, about Darwin’s trip on The Beagle. During research he concludes Darwin isn’t the most interesting man on the boat – that would be the captain Robert Fitzroy. A prodigy produced by the Royal Navy tasked with mapping the southern tip of South America. From memory I believe he was the youngest man to ever captain a ship for the Royal Navy. He does the job spectacularly well, and in very clever fashion. His maps were so accurate they were used by just about everyone until satellites were invented. Upon returning to England – it was an around the world trip – he is immediately sacked. He pissed off powerful people in England for a variety of reasons including his insistence on Darwin. The naturalist assigned to him resigned assuming Fitzroy could never actually accept the resignation because he was so well connected. Fitzroy not only accepted it, but dropped him off in Lisbon on the way out. Lots of unknown facts (to me) throughout the book and crazy twists and turns in the story. If you like historical fiction, I think you’d love it.
See also: Dallas Murphy, “Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives, a Deck’s Eye View of Cape Horn”
https://www.amazon.com.au/Rounding-Horn-Williwaws-Windjammers-Missionaries/dp/0465047599
Robert Gouviea has scooped Viva Frei on the new documentary videos showing that Brian Cole, Jr who was nowhere near the RNC or DNC buildings when the J6 bomber placed the bombs by getting reporter Steve Baker to present the video first, this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Qh_qtkcxA
Cole is being prosecuted while Shauni Kirkoff is suing Baker for defamation because he fingered her as the likely bomber last year, a Cap Hill cop turned CIA employee.
Reposting this from Barry Meislin from a few hours ago in yesterday’s open:
https://instapundit.com/830068/
And this morning we have news that, yes, the NFL is going forward with next Sunday’s game at Stade de France (about 4 miles north of the Louvre).
Steelers vs. the fleur-de-lis adorned Saints, who will lose, probably badly.
I wonder how the current festive-minded and celebratory Paris inhabitants will take that?
Brian Cole’s alibi is secured. He’s innocent of the charge. FREE BRIAN COLE!
Sorry, I meant Huxley, not Art.
This is going to run a bit long. This is partly about why the GOP is having trouble with elections they should be walking away with, but it won’t seem like it immediately. I’ve been thinking about how these things relate for a few days, my chain of thought was touched off by our hostess’ printer issues:
— neo
My sympathies about the printer, BTW, I’ve had my own troubles with the devices over the years. In my case they’ll connect but don’t seem to want to print, the print job wants to hang in the queue, or else the print cartridges dry shut because I don’t print every day. My current one is a bit more expensive and is the first I’ve had that mostly works right.
But that’s not my point. Look at the issues neo had trying to get this thing to work.
I have free access to the Geek Squad, and so I tried to make an appointment. The page I was directed to online would only let me change an already-existing appointment; it would not let me make one.
We’ve all been there, the automatic menu simply doesn’t have the option you need. A while back my credit card was damaged. Not stolen or lost, just physically damaged so you couldn’t easily use it in a scanner. When I tried to get it replaced the menu of options had choices for lost, stolen, to review my account, etc. Nothing about replacing a damaged one, and no easy way to get to a person.
She (it was definitely a she) kept directing me to a Geek Squad in a store an hour away, despite the fact that there is one about ten minutes away.
Why? Why? In my frustration, I said something like, “this is ridiculous; why won’t you take me to the right store?” She replied, “I can understand your frustration,” to which I replied, “No you CAN’T; you’re not even a person!” She answered, “I know I’m not human, but I’m doing the best I can.”
Oh, yes, the combination of being blocked from a real person by another mindless machine, combined with the insult of it pretending to be a person and trying to emotionally manipulate you. As bad as the automatic call menus have been for a while now, ‘AI’ pseudo-personality makes it more frustrating and infuriating.
Topped off with:
I asked to speak with a human, and indeed was connected to one somewhere in Asia.
Naturally.
This person ultimately informed me that the Geek Squad cannot help set up printers because connecting to the Wifi in the store wouldn’t help; it has to be your own Wifi, which necessitates a house call.
How much does a house call cost? One hundred and twenty-five dollars. How much did the printer cost? Sixty-nine dollars.
I returned it.
OK, so the culmination of the chain of frustration is that the customer is not satisfied and the vendor lost the money for the sale and subsequent support (printer ink, which gram for gram is more expensive than caviar at times).
In another post, neo writes:
— neo
Again, been there. Several years ago I went to a local Wal-Mart to buy something, I don’t even remember what, and the power was down. No data connections to central office. No sales possible. It wouldn’t have mattered if the cashiers knew how to do the math, they had no physical way to make a sale even if they did.
And that was before most of the cashiers were replaced by self-check machines (which I generally refuse to use when possible on the principle that I have no desire to help employers cut staff and they aren’t paying me to be their cashier). The self-check wouldn’t make it any worse, because the cashiers were helpless before anyway, but now the cashiers aren’t even there.
What does this have to do with GOP’s issues?
We’ve discussed why rage at ‘the billionaires’ has become so powerful a motivating force. Yes, it’s partly just human nature, envy and jealousy. Yes, the educational system and other lefty institutions encourage it. But there’s more to it than that. The rage is spreading over to GOP voters as well, because it’s not just about individual billionaires. They’ve become the symbol for something much more basic and much more dangerous.
For decades now, the American (or rather the global) business class has been making themselves unpopular. Really ever since the mid-90s. It started out gradually and continued steadily, slowly, mostly in little individual things but a slow drip accumulates over time. About twenty years ago it started being big stuff, too.
Every time a customer goes through something like neo did with her printer, some frustration and resentment builds up. Every time someone has to navigate a mindless automatic menu, with no options that fit their needs and no easy way to bypass it, anger and frustration are added to the growing pile of resentment.
Every time something that was always just ‘part of the product’ gets fenced off and you have to pay extra for it, resentment.
The computer gaming industry has gone from a place where you bought a game on a CD disk and owned it afterward, you could play it forever if you had a compatible machine, to one where the game must be downloaded, slowly, on-line, it’s released buggy and has to be patched on-line, you often can’t even play it without a current active Internet connection, even though it’s taking up huge space on your hard memory, and if the company discontinues it you suddenly can’t even play it anymore, even though you theoretically own it. While you can play it, to get full value from it you have to pay extra as you go, ‘micro-transactions’.
It’s like this all the time, the business class constantly trying to squeeze a little more money out of you, while providing less for it. Monitoring you, trying to control how you use the product. Imposing ‘upgrades’ that quite often make the upgraded product worse or at least inconvenient to use.
Cory Doctorow is himself a socialist writer, but he’s coined a term: ‘enshitifcation’ that precisely describes the process and it went universal overnight in 2017 because everyone recognized what he was saying.
That’s the little stuff side. It also includes the constant, unremitting pressure for open borders immigration and endless amnesties. Business wants that quite simply because endless immigration lowers wages and imports customers. It really is as simple as that.
Likewise, the support for ‘free’ trade. They want to pursue cheap labor around the world. ‘Chainsaw Jack Welch’ said it aloud years ago: “Ideally, you’d have every plant you own on a barge to move with currencies and changes in the economy.”
Offshoring has been hugely profitable for business, but the ‘negative externalities’ fell squarely across working class communities across America (and other first-world countries too).
One can believe in free markets, but still recognize that sometimes letting them work is not in your interest or your nation’s interest, and that such interests are legitimate.
The business class has pursued these policies, sometimes mindlessly, Note neo’s experience above, the net result of all their ‘money saving’ procedures was to lose the sale while angering the customer. When they recognize this, their usual response is not to fix the problem but to try and force the customer to buy their product anyway.
The international business class has no loyalty to any country or culture. They don’t care, and probably to a large extent don’t even perceive, how getting a foreigner who barely speaks English on a support call, from halfway around the world, is like fingernails on a blackboard for many people. That’s if you can reach a human being at all.
A recent study in the UK indicated that 80%(!) of all new jobs created in the last five years went to immigrants.
Think about that. It’s not just a British thing.
For people born since 1989, this has been their primary personal direct experience of the marketplace and business. One reason socialism seems appealing to them is simply that it isn’t the status quo that they’ve grown up in, and that they are angry and frustrated about. Even those of them who aren’t fooled by socialism’s promises are still angry at the status quo.
Bush II teamed up with John McCain and Teddy Kennedy in 2006 to try and do another blanket immigration amnesty. That failed due to tremendous resistance from both partisan bases. It cost them the 2006 midterms, and they responded by trying again in 2007. In 2012, the TEA party movement, responding to Obama’s initial troublemaking, gave the GOP a win in the House of Representatives.
The GOP then tried to team up with the Dems yet again to pass Comprehensive Amnesty, because business wanted it. Cue another base revolt and Eric Cantor, the GOP House Majority Leader, lost his seat in the primary in 2014. That was the first time a majority leader was ousted by his own base voters in over a century.
(Of course there was a burst of news stories immediately afterward, including from Murdoch’s FOX, about how it wasn’t immigration that cost Cantor his seat, but everyone knew it was precisely the Gang of Eight Amnesty bill).
On leaving Congress, Cantor then received a very plum job as vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company. It was Wall Street and the business class sending a message to other Congressmen: “Do what we want, and we’ll take care of you if it costs you your position.”
Trump ran and swept aside the GOPe in the primaries in 2016, and I stil remember with amusement the desperate attempts by GOP pundits on FOX and elsewhere to explain how free trade benefited the working class. It always boiled down to ‘their stuff is a little cheaper’. Emphasis on ‘little’, most of the arbitraged gains went to the investor class. All the negative externalities fell elsewhere.
But during Trump I they just kept trying. Paul Ryan tried to disguise a partial immigration amnesty as an Obamacare repeal bill at one point, and later went through the motions of pretending to be unable to stop the GOP House from sending Trump an amnesty bill.
As late as 2024, Senator Lankford and some of the other GOPe players, together with Dem leaders, tried to disguise an amnesty/open borders bill as a ‘bipartisan enforcement bill’. Business wants cheap labor.
This whole huge post is simply me trying to express why the GOP, faced with a Democratic Party that has essentially gone insane, struggles. Why that resentment of the rich that is increasingly found on both sides of the partisan aisle at base level is not purely envy. Thirty years of frustration and resentment over things big and small have left deep pool of anger. Trump taps into it, so do the DSA.
Sorry about the length, but this is a big thing.
Dude. Take a deep breath. Chill.
Forget the midterms. We have less than 12 days to stop neophiles who fail to see the evil of candy corn (a.k.a. beelzebub’s teeth) from handing out bags of BUG EXCREMENT to unsuspecting children! Spread the word!!
From The Food Manufacturing Guy (https://tipofthebanana.com/):
I confess I don’t care for candy corn at all, but I suspect consumption once a year won’t kill people.
As a child, for four long years, I was forced to study French. I thought it was a waste of time, and nothing has since disabused me of that notion. Unfortunately, I’m now curious about the pro-algebra peaceful student protests in France, but my research is limited to the English-speaking media. Maybe the French media is just as bad, but I’ll never know.
In short, I know next to nothing about what’s going on in France, but would like to recommend a short article in “The Spectator” that I think is worth reading: France’s riots have left the country more divided than ever / Gavin Mortimer (https://tinyurl.com/4e3xpuxm).
Here are two paragraphs from the article:
“Many of the looters appear to be opportunistic idiots who lost control of themselves in the carnival of destruction. On Sunday twelve young men appeared in a Grenoble court to answer charges of looting. Among them was a builder, two fast-food workers, a student and an apprentice for an electrical engineering firm. Three of the defendants were from North Africa and in the country illegally. Asked why they had participated in the riots, only two of the twelve cited the death of Nahel as the reason.
Those responsible for more serious crimes – such as the 6,000 vehicles torched, the 1,100 buildings damaged, the 270 police stations attacked and the 800 police officers wounded – have a different profile. According to the French intelligence service they fall into three categories: young men from the inner cities with a long history of confronting the police; veteran far-left extremists ‘driven by the logic of chaos’, and a third group, described by the intelligence service as ‘clueless’: the immature middle-class youth who turns up at any protest against the government.”
France, we are told, has an army. They could shut this down if they wanted to, but they fear enabling the “far right.”
Cornflour writes, “Among them was a builder, two fast-food workers, a student and an apprentice for an electrical engineering firm.”
When hearing news from Western Europe I often think of Wells’ Eloi and Morlocks.
Young men helped put Trump back in the White House. Now they’re telling me they may never vote Republican again: BRILYN HOLLYHAND
This 80 yo man is feeling about the same…tho I do support wars with countries like Iran. Gas in Old Town, FL was between $3.89 & $3.99 today. Food prices? Ramen noodle soup is cheap and Walmart’s Bar-S Classic Franks (12 oz, 8-count package) have sold for $1.00 in Chiefland, FL for years.
I’ll still be voting against TCS MAGA GOP this time — in Federal election but GOP for GOV in FL (Byron Donalds). Can’t stand Russian supporters and/or Russia…
And why does Brilyn Hollyhand of The Daily Mail deserve any attention?
I’ve made 4 round trips across the Drake for a total of 8 passages, and yes, some are definitely better than others! The worst was on a flat bottom Russian Ice Breaker, the Kaptain Klebnikof, on the way to see the Emperor penguins. We hit a storm in the middle of the Drake and were trying to tack to avoid it but the seas were so rough we were being thrown back and forth across our room and I even had a chair I was sitting in thrown over–luckily just bad bruises but the trip was totally worth it for the penguin photography!
DigiGal:
Your comment was totally worth it for the last line!
Hope to hear more from you.
@Kate: France, we are told, has an army. They could shut this down if they wanted to, but they fear enabling the “far right.”
Quite. I saw more groups of Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) patrolling the streets yesterday with automatic weapons and they look plenty tough. They are dedicated riot police.
France also has the Gendarmes, part of the French armed forces with similar duties.
Stephen Green asks “Where are the Gendrames?” and offers a speculative theory:
__________________________________
The problem isn’t Macron. The problem is Marine Le Pen and her so-called far-right National Rally party perhaps taking power in the April 2027 presidential election. Macron is term-limited out, and Le Pen leads the early polling, albeit with a weak 32-36% plurality. A runoff will follow on May 2 if no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote.
Or maybe there won’t be an election.
…
If France is to have the kind of national emergency that more or less protects the status quo by keeping Le Pen out of power, ordering the riot police to crack skulls and restore order is exactly what Paris would refuse to do.
There’s a simpler explanation, however. It could be that Paris is simply paralyzed — terrified by Le Pen’s National Rally in April, and the Red-Green alliance out on the streets right now.
Whatever the case, France burns.
–Stephen Green, “Where Are the Gendarmes?”
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2026/10/19/where-are-the-gendarmes-n4958460
“Trump wants to rename New Mexico as ‘New America’”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/oct/19/trump-wants-rename-new-mexico-new-america/
There is a movement to spin off downstate Illinois counties into a new state called “New Illinois.”
Another example of another way that socialism destroys a nation.
All downhill since 1917.
HC68 has a beef with billionaires.
Billionaires have “become the symbol for something much more basic and much more dangerous.
“For decades now, the American (or rather the global) business class has been making themselves unpopular….” Or has the media who once loved billionaire’s like Trump simply been turned against wealth creators by Marxist Educrats?
Take a look at the bar graph at 26m, comparing US real income distribution by quintile between 50 years, namely 1967 and 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzLykjB6dyc
The top fifth income group diminshes by almost 3X. Of the bottom poorest fifth, only 2% are as poor in 2017 as they were in 1967. And nearly all of the second, third, and fourth quintiles now occupy what was the richest fifth, 50 years ago.
John Early, et al, “The Myth of American Inequality.” 2023.
“One reason socialism seems appealing to [the young] is simply that it isn’t the status quo that they’ve grown up in, and that they are angry and frustrated about. Even those of them who aren’t fooled by socialism’s promises are still angry at the status quo.”
They are so because they’ve been mal-educated, if not indoctrinated. The title from Rich Baris’ new book characterizes Gen-Z too, “Burn It Down.” They hate so much because because they know so much that ain’t true.
“One reason socialism seems appealing to them is simply that it isn’t the status quo that they’ve grown up in, and that they are angry and frustrated about. Even those of them who aren’t fooled by socialism’s promises are still angry at the status quo.
Last I heard, the census bureau estimate there are 27 millionaires in the US.
If you want hatred against America’s wealthy, there’s a lot of them – or us – to hate.
But Rufus, at least it doesn’t consist *primarily* of bug excrement, only a little bit. That fact about candy corn is fascinating, though.
HC68, thanks for that writing. It was a bit long, as you say, but it does help and I’m not sure that it could have been shortened without losing something.
Re HC68 at 1:19 pm
Another excellent post!
Cornflour at 3:46 pm
The link you posted is three years old. You would have saved any potential clickers’ time by posting an unobfuscated link.
= = = = = = = =
I haven’t followed the French riots closely, but reportedly at least 2400 people have been arrested. I’m wondering if/when in recent years the USA has arrested as many.
“I’m wondering if/when in recent years the USA has arrested as many.”
1500+ were arrested for the Jan. 6 riot, per NPR – only source I could find in quick web search:
https://apps.npr.org/jan-6-archive/
In not so recent years:
The 1971 May Day protests against the Vietnam War were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., protesting the United States’ continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. The protests began on Monday morning, May 3 and ended on May 5. In all, more than 12,000 people were arrested, in what was the largest mass arrest in U.S. history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_May_Day_protests_against_the_Vietnam_War
Most were released without charges.
Yes and thousands upon thousands were arrested during the George Floyd entirely peaceful protests and summarily executed.
Millions are now forced to work for Elon Musk on chain gangs after being rounded up by ICE.
Elon is going to exile people to the Moon and then Mars once the Moon is full!
(sarc x 11)
But Socialism and true Communism has never been tried.
(sarc x 11 x11)
For the uninformed TCS MAGA GOP voters:
huxley, good to know the CRS are patrolling the streets in Montpellier. At least some parts of France have decided to enforce public order.
And Hollyhand is entirely modest and not self promoting. Never heard of him until yesterday. And will likely never hear of him again.
Some people will bet on anything. What are the odds of that?
I will be there in December. Hoping for enjoyable weather and calm seas.
Selfy on October 20, 2026 at 1:05 am said:
Cornflour at 3:46 pm
The link you posted is three years old. You would have saved any potential clickers’ time by posting an unobfuscated link.
___________________________________
Yikes. My apologies for the error, and thanks for catching it.
Trump?
Your man Hollyhand, Karmi.
Trump is not the issue, given the alternatives. But you know that?
Another example of why the old White Christian GOP can’t dominate a party of Child Butchers and Communists/Socialists, etc. — totally deaf to young GOP voices…
So speaks the Oracle of Doofus (or is that the sticks of Florida).
For the voice of the young GOP his horn is pretty small, with a small toot to boot.
But the Oracle needs to boost him. Sad.
HC68 on October 19, 2026 at 1:19 pm
About frustrations with our modern life, a thought provoking comment.
In the political realm we like to think we can vote the bastards out at least every two years.
But in the commerce realm we thought we had control to reject a product or supplier any time we went to the store.
But with the real and semi-monoplies and inability to complain to a human, we end up with no or limited options to reject those products and companies. Sometimes a feeling of real helplessness. A realistic growth in frustration becomes reasonable, if sometimes misplaced.
But the clear history of socialism/communism and the death and poverty and corruption (see mondern day Russian military, probably Ukrainian still, too?) should be part of the GOP message if they don’t want the Leftists to gain real control. Eventually the other side of the aisle will be so large they won’t need captive R’s to play footsy with.
Why more people are not picking up on the Trump and MAGA side of things is a puzzle, but it is a complicated thing to explain that sometimes a near term pain is necessary for a longer term gain. As a culture we have lost some of that insight [possibly even starting with 30 year mortgages and then leading to too-easy-credit-card debt, etc.??]