Merely to have ready to hand, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Section 3:
Section 3
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Another open-thread comment about something I read.
The British Library is probably the world’s most important library. By any measure, it’s disappearance from the internet is important, but somehow not big news. This happened almost two months ago, but today is the first time I’ve heard of it. How can that be?
______________________________________________________________
“On Halloween, 2023, the British Library suffered a massive cyberattack, which rendered its web presence nonexistent, its collections access disabled, and even its wifi fried. Moreover, the cyberattack also swept the personal data of the British Library’s humans—its users, but, far more extensively, its staff—into the hands of an outside party. During the final week of November, images of the stolen data were presented for auction on the dark web, for sale to whoever’s willing to pay 20 bitcoin, or about £600,000. By making the library’s digital infrastructure into a commodity (in an open, albeit dark, market), a ‘ransomware gang’ calling itself Rhysida hopes to pressure the British Library to pay up first.”
I am sad to say I live in the Dictatorship run by Polis. And very angry. Colorado used to be fairly evenly divided but now it is Deep Water Blue. I was surprised though that 3 of the justices voted against the majority. The CO SC is all Dem. Will the ruling stand? The US SC doesn’t like to get involved in state voting rules, unless it is redistricting.
We can’t even write Trumps name in. Some Democracy isn’t it.
I arrived in Colorado in the late 60s when it was still very much a culturally western state and, apart from leftist pockets like Boulder, quite conservative. And even then, Boulder was more of college jock-farmer-town than the leftist bastion it came to be. E.g., there was angle-parking on Pearl Street, in what passed for a business district, and a couple of feed stores.
Some 18 years later my wife and I fled Colorado and I returned to my Chicago home. Chicago was then still a vastly enjoyable, rocking city, still a predominantly white-ethnic neighborhood city (albeit mostly culturally Irish and Polish), where great fun was to be had. That is no longer the case, of course. Which is why now I live in NW Indiana.
Anyway, I hate hate hate Colorado. It’s full of shit. Same goes for my once-beloved Chicago.
It is properly the empire of the ikwan or brotherhood whose capital is doha
I grew up in Denver and left Colorado in 1977 when I moved to Georgia to pursue my doctorate. My brother still lives there. I’ve seen the transformation from a nice medium city to its growth into a Colorado version of LA. Along with that growth, they have destroyed the mountain beauty as the urbanization moved also far up the mountains to Evergreen and Idaho Springs. My family had a small vacation house in the old mining town of Ward and would go to the Indian Peaks area for fishing and hiking. Now, one needs a reservation (!) to even access the area…sad.
What happened, in my view, is total greed that was unchecked by the citizens and the government. Explosive growth was allowed to happen with little or no regard to the consequence. As a result, Denver, in essence, stretches from Ft. Collins to south of Castle Rock and is expanding ever eastward. Where did all these people come from? A whole lot came from California, and others who wanted an urban environment and access to the mountains. Take Boulder’s typical resident and then duplicate them across the whole city of Denver….Californication. All those new people brought their blue politics with them.
There are people like my brother who have watched this transformation while living there and are powerless to stop it. Outside of the Denver metroplex the state is still conservative. A sad situation, but for the liberal/left, a blueprint for how to turn a state blue….they are now trying it with Texas.
Like IrishOtter, I now hate Denver and am so sad as to what has happened to the state. The locusts came in and destroyed the place.
I’m worried the same will happen to my beloved Utah.
So people in southern states couldnt vote for lincoln
Assuming the Colorado decision is not overruled by a Federal court (how come states can’t enforce immigration law but they can enforce an obscure provision of the 14th amendment?), is there anything to stop the Colorado GOP from nominating Trump-supporting convention delegates and presidential electors, as long as Trump’s name does not appear on the ballot? They could run as “unpledged” electors, or they could be pledged to a stand-in candidate, maybe even to somebody named Trump, such as Donald Trump Jr.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been running across more and more separate postings on Youtube, the common topic being signs of China’s impending (and accelerating) economic collapse–major foreign companies pulling out, U.S. restrictions preventing China from being able to buy the high end chip technology it needs, once bustling factory districts deserted amid massive layoffs, shopping districts in major cities also deserted, malls whose shops are mostly shuttered and closed, orders for Chinese exports drastically down, normally very busy ports clogged with empty cargo containers piled up to the sky, the three largest real estate developers going bankrupt, hundreds of thousands of apartments sitting empty, the recent Census apparently inflating young cohort numbers by 100 million individuals, thousands of ghost cities, shoddy construction leading to all sorts of building and highway collapses, banks and stock markets heading downward, the eminent failure of China’s multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the suspicious deaths or disappearances of major figures in China’s ruling elite (some of which is thought to have happened on XI’s orders) etc., etc.
And now, we have the Houthi attacks affecting commerce through the Red Sea, and it’s impact on China’s vitally necessary energy imports (China reportedly imports most of the energy it needs)–all this against a backdrop of a seemingly endless round of various pulmonary viruses in China (in this, since the release of the Wuhan virus, it seems as if the Chinese not only screwed the world but, in the process, they have also screwed themselves.)
It’s just one disaster after another.
P.S. Parenthetically, the establishment of formerly unknown to the area diseases to now be endemic to areas of China was one of the effects of the biological warfare experiments which Japan’s (Biological and Chemical Warfare) Unit 731 carried on in Manchuria and China during WWII.
From what I have seen reported, some of these transplanted diseases are still endemic to some of these areas.
Donkeys kept Lincoln off the ballot. How did that work out?
well chinese flagged vessels will likely not be attacked, (point of personnel privilege)
one is reminded of cixi the dowager empress and her stone fleet,
What happened, in my view, is total greed that was unchecked by the citizens and the government. Explosive growth was allowed to happen with little or no regard to the consequence. As a result, Denver, in essence, stretches from Ft. Collins to south of Castle Rock and is expanding ever eastward. Where did all these people come from? A whole lot came from California, and others who wanted an urban environment and access to the mountains.
LOL. So, the greedy natives enticed the blue Californicators to invade the red state?
Better to look at your schools and media and young native Coloradoans to see what is turning your state blue.
People escaping California lean right, not left.
Fullmoon, maybe now the lean Right (don’t think that is the case for CO) but for the last 50 years they have not “leaned” Left but are Far Left.
Mike Plaiss, 1101hr — Take a look at Washington County (St George). It is happening: short term rentals being built, fast-food popping up everywhere, desert-tortoise preserve and lava fields being re-zoned for housing…. You need a reservation to get into Zion park, and long lines if you have the reservation. Terrible traffic. We moved there 3 years ago expecting different… it became untenable and we moved back to Sierra foothills after the 2 year IRS residence requirement was met (tax deferral of home sale profit). Sadly, the paradise is being paved over for a parking lot….
“People escaping California lean right, not left.”
Maybe now, but not back when the Colorado boom started in early 2000s. The greedy developers didn’t “invite” the Californians in, they just saw the huge influx and proceeded with the building of 4000ft^2 houses on 1/8 acre lots and the counties let it happen with very lax zoning.
Once the immigrants were in Colorado, they then took over the schools, etc.
Once the immigrants were in Colorado, they then took over the schools,
Bears repeating, for fun.
RE: Houthis attacking cargo ships (and, apparently, Israel) in and across the Red Sea.
It has been said that sea borne commerce world-wide would not be possible if not for the U.S. patrolling the seas and keeping order.
At least we used to patrol the seas. Now, with a much reduced Navy, and a lot less martial spirit, I’m not so sure.
In more robust times, I’m pretty sure that the U.S. Navy and Marines would have been quick to do a “Halls of Montezuma” on these Houthis and their strongholds.
Now, having to pay a lot more attention to pronouns instead of fighting, I’m not so sure.
Fox Business finds Maria spending over 6 minutes with Alan Deschowitz reaction.
He’s pretty stern — if not a bit steamed. It’s unconstitutional, a scandal and a shame on the Colorado Supremes who have put the electoral system into disarray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkkv9RVZSU
I found the original thread from back in March…but now there’s a book. Maybe we’ve already discussed that too & I just can’t remember…but here it is again?
“The greedy developers didn’t “invite” the Californians in, they just saw the huge influx and proceeded with the building of 4000ft^2 houses on 1/8 acre lots and the counties let it happen with very lax zoning.” – physicsguy
It’s not the developers, although I’m sure they don’t mind the rules. The Growth Management Act in Washington State (passed back in the 1990s), was designed to force developers to do this kind of housing developments. Concentrate the homes in small areas and leave “open spaces” for nature and to fight against CAGW. Provide good public transit to these high-density areas to get people out of their cars. It’s a utopian view of leftist urban planners. And it doesn’t work.
Every blue state has policies that aim toward those goals. They want us all to live in hives, use public transit, leave nature untouched, follow their rules (Oppressors come last, the oppressed come first, incomes must be “equitable,” CO2 is a pollutant, humans are bad for nature, etc.), and be dutiful comrades. They don’t couch it in those terms, but that’s the gist of it.
And we’ve wondered why. Well, if you’ve ever seen any communal apartment buildings in Russia or China, you get what the left admires, and aims for.
Another Mike,
Yes, I’ve seen it too. The photo of me is in very remote Capitol Reef National Park. I hike there and in the Grand Staircase, where I’m often out for more than a week at a time. I discovered southern Utah right around 2000, and it was all just perfect. Every time I go there now it just gets worse. So much great is being lost. Very depressing.
The influx of California leftists to Boulder took place in the early 1970s. I know, I was there, at ground zero as it were. For the most part the California migrants hailed from San Francisco, the Bay Area, and coastal points north, and the stimulus for their leaving was the fall of the hippie Haight-Asbury cultural milieu — it’s degeneration into hard drugs and violence. The interlopers were reasonably well off, and they were hard core counterculture leftists, and as soon as they established themselves they began working to take over the governmental machinery and institutions of Boulder. Very quickly the town council became dominated by leftists, and they wasted no time in promulgating a leftist-counterculture agenda. A gay bookstore opened on the Hill and in short order the Hill was taken over by “street people” including zoned out heroin-addict hippies nodding off and shitting on the sidewalks and STP and LSD trippers wandering around shouting insane gibberish and violently accosting passersby. The stink of body odor and patcholi oil filled the air. The old-timers — ranchers, farmers, and decent folks whose families had lived in the region for generations — were outraged and did what they could to stop the process, but it was a losing battle. What had been a fun, charming, and beautiful college town with a strong rural component deteriorated into a facsimile of the Haight in its death throes.
Of course, inevitably, and as it always the case, the boulder underwent gentrified and is now affordable only for the very rich. The “new perople” enacted green belt legislation which effectively halted growth and drove up property values to astronomical heights. The University of Colorado followed a similar trajectory. Tuition for an in-state student at CU when I attended was about $600 for the entire academic year. I was able to pay off the amount in about three weeks from the tips I earned bartending at Tulagi and The Sink. I put myself through college. Presently, I think CU has nearly the highest in-state tuition of any state school, c. $50,000 annually (maybe more). As a result the students, instate and otherwise, are mostly trust fund babies or affirmative action POC scholarship recipients. Middle class white kids need not apply, and probably don’t because the damn place is too expensive for their families.
Addendum: I too was a frequent visitor to the Indian Peaks wilderness area, back when it really was a wilderness area and practically devoid of humans. I climbed, alone, every peak in the Indian Peaks complex. I would camp out just below the treeline, building wood fires for cooking and warmth (this is no longer allowed), and begin my ascents just before dawn. My goal was always to summit around 1:00 PM and get down off the mountain before 3:00 in the afternoon when the lightning storms (and sometimes blizzards, even in summer) began. I rarely encountered anyone on these treks. The trailhead parking lot usually had only a few cars parked in it.
On the way back down to Boulder I would break trail in Nederland and spend an hour or so in the Pioneer Inn getting pleasantly plotzed on beer and whiskey shots,
Good times, gone forever.
Regarding Colorado and immigration.
Three decades ago I was friends with a guy in Texas at church who was supposedly straight but had some liberal political beliefs.
I left that town and lost track of him for years until Facebook.
When we reconnected on FB years later , he had moved to Colorado and seemed to be putting out some homosexual vibes. At some point we got into a prolonged political argument, and he ” de-friended” me in FB. We had mutual friends on FB , so we still occasionally bumped into each other on FB. Someone told me they saw one of his friends tell him to cut off contact with the people in Texas. One of our mutual friends commented that he seemed to have abandoned many of the things he claimed to believe.
I wonder how many people like that left Texas for Colorado over the years ?
@Irish Otter.
Now, that seems more realistic than a sudden influx of Californicators.
1970 was over fifty years ago. The hippie freaks had children, who would be in their forties now. Hippies in their seventies now.
The grandchildren would be teens or twenties. All old enough to take over government and education through elections and hiring..
Most geezers of my acquaintance and in my my neighborhood have gone to Texas or Arizona, where greedy locals sell homes at inflated prices that the natives cannot afford.
On the Red Sea pirates; I’ve read on other sites that “security contractors” are going to be joining some of the cargo ships the way they did around the Gulf of Aden and the coast of Ethiopia. I don’t know where international waters end in the Red Sea, but that’s where the pirates are probably hitting the ships.
‘Cause the police in Denver
Lord, they don’t want none of them long hairs hangin’ around
And that’s the reason why
Ooh well well, they want to tear Canned Heat’s reputation down
You people in Denver
Will know what I mean
Yeah, the things I’m gonna tell ya
Yeah, you’ve all heard and seen
You remember when a cop on the beat
Used to rob and steal?
Today they’ve gone, but the others get it on
So you’ll know just how I feel
‘Cause the police in Denver
Lord, they don’t want none of them long hairs hangin’ around
And that’s the reason why
Ooh well, they’re tryin’ to tear Canned Heat’s reputation down
Yeah, they’re tryin’ to tear it down, boy
Ain’t gonna do it though
Let me tell you this just one more time
Just one more thing I wanna tell ya
Before I go
It’s a shame the Man in Denver
Has to lie and mistreat people so
Now, six months ain’t no sentence
One year ain’t no time
When I hear from one to ten
It worries my troubled mind
‘Cause the police in Denver
Lord, don’t want no long hairs around
And that’s the reason why
Ooh well well, they’re tryin’ to tear Canned Heat’s reputation down
sdferr, thanks for the link to Lee Smith’s masterful analysis of how the pursuit of murder and butchery—and the destruction of the Jewish State—has become a significant part of the world’s moral imperative.
Related:
Several days ago, there was another article (also in Table Magazine) about the aesthetic and cultural manifestations of the above phenomenon—viz. the pursuit of murder and butchery having become a moral imperative—the subject of the article being the killing during the latest war of a globally-renowned Palestinian poet in Gaza and the moral inversion and perversion that marks his poetry:
“If I Must Die …
“On the intifada generation that sacrificed its poets”— https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/if-i-must-die
“why do we have a task force, in the red sea…”
Optics… (once again rearing its ugly head)…to—once again—conceal the Alliance that Dare Not Speak its Name…
And/or to prevent the Houthis from being attacked (by You Know Who)…as has already been suggested elsewhere.
neo on December 20, 2023 at 2:12 pm said:
Fullmoon:
The people I know who moved from California to Colorado in recent years all lean left.
We are both correct, because my peers lean deplorable lower and middle class, while yours are more likely educated and middle and upper.
Thing is, here in SF Bay Area, average boomer who dropped out of high scholl and went to work in a factory or in the orchards, was able to easily afford to buy a home in the ’60s. Said home now paid off and worth over a million, while boomer is living on social security which barely pays the bills. So, sell the house, buy nicer, but less expensive home in another state, and unintentionally drive up prices there.
I climbed, alone, every peak in the Indian Peaks complex. I would camp out just below the treeline,
Oh yes, this is exactly the kind of thing i love to do. I don’t even consider it hiking if I’m on a trail or below the tree line. There are still a few places left to do it, but getting fewer all the time. I spent a week earlier this year in the White Goat Wilderness Area in the Canadian Rockies. Over-the-top beautiful, and rugged! It absolutely kicked my ass – it was great.
EVERY TESLA VEHICLE RECALLED!!!!
Oh, wait, my bad. Simple, automatic, software update. No trip to dealer or effort by owner required.
Wonder why the media overstated the situation.
Ran into an opportunity to show my courteous reticence.
Was in a meeting recently including some reasonably accomplished women. Two were nearly hysterical. Trump was going to be a dictator. Close the border and start drilling on his first day! Hitler! Mein kampf!
Honest fear.
I could have pointed out that Biden did the dictator thing early on; close the Keystone Pipeline costing 65k jobs, and opened the border. So that’s dictator, too. Right?
But that was not the moment to start open-mouthed, blank-eyed brain lock. Would have been hilarious. Maybe another opportunity….
IrishOtter,
Surprised we didn’t run into each other..I was at CU 70-74. Went to both the Sink and Tulagis many times. For one year lived on the Hill in the apartments behind the Flatirons theater.
I thought Richard Lamm was preventing Colorado from being “Californicated.” I guess it didn’t work. Maybe the Democrats realized that “Californication” was a winning strategy for them. Lamm was also a big opponent of illegal immigration (and possibly an advocate of less legal immigration). He wasn’t one of today’s Democrats.
physicsguy:
We must certainly have run into each other. I lived for a year in the College Townhouses behind the Flatiron Theater. Attended CU from 70-74 and stayed in Boulder for several years after graduation, eventually moving to Denver. If you went to Tulagi (singular) between 70-74 you would have encountered me, working the door. I also tended bar and was, for a little while, assistant manager. When the Sink was shorthanded I would fill in there — Tulagi and the Sink were both own by the same person, Herbie Kauvar. Were you at Tulagi during the famous/infamous Flash Cadillac concert? Wild!
huxley:
Thanks. I am indeed feeling much better. I feel a little better every day, mostly. But I’ve got a long way to go. Some serious medical issues to deal with and overcome. I am, however, optimistic.
Maybe another opportunity….
Forget it, Richard. It’s Blue America. 🙂
In response to the Colorado “justices” topic, I was looking up “See what you made me do”, which I think goes back to Laurel & Hardy in some classic bit.
Google’s first page of entries were all about male domestic violence. Sigh. So I decided to talk to my new best friend, ChatGPT 3.5.
Chat has become quite the soft-shoe politician. He would neither confirm nor deny. Then he (that’s the gender of the voice in my head) shifted into useless generalities.
I decided to test Chat. I asked Chat about “See what you made me do” in Eric Berne’s work, knowing that SWYMMD is a chapter in his 70s bestseller.
Chat replied that SWYMMD “may not be explicitly mentioned.”
Chat, you weasel, you! So I called Chat out:
_____________________________________
huxley: Actually “See What You Made Me Do” is one of the specific games Berne analyzes in “Games People Play”. I can’t tell how much you really know.
ChatGPT: I appreciate the clarification. You are correct. “See What You Made Me Do” is indeed one of the specific games analyzed by Eric Berne in his book “Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis.” I apologize for any confusion in my previous response. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, and I’m here to provide further information or assistance if you have more questions.
_____________________________________
Chat does HRSpeak well!
I run into this repeatedly. I now understand that Chat is not a search engine. I rarely get a truly insightful response. However, Chat is uncanny when it comes to questions about French.
I see Chat as the Apple II of the coming AI revolution. Sure, it’s got noticeable flaws. It doesn’t equal the hype … yet.
But this is only the beginning.
BTW, there is a new job title:
AI Prompt Engineer
Let that sink in a moment.
It’s not totally stupid. When I talk to Chat, I often feel like a trial lawyer trying to construct the right specific question which the witness cannot evade.
Lee Smith, Tablet Mag, “The Global Empire of Palestine”: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/global-empire-of-palestine
Merely to have ready to hand, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Section 3:
Another open-thread comment about something I read.
The British Library is probably the world’s most important library. By any measure, it’s disappearance from the internet is important, but somehow not big news. This happened almost two months ago, but today is the first time I’ve heard of it. How can that be?
______________________________________________________________
“On Halloween, 2023, the British Library suffered a massive cyberattack, which rendered its web presence nonexistent, its collections access disabled, and even its wifi fried. Moreover, the cyberattack also swept the personal data of the British Library’s humans—its users, but, far more extensively, its staff—into the hands of an outside party. During the final week of November, images of the stolen data were presented for auction on the dark web, for sale to whoever’s willing to pay 20 bitcoin, or about £600,000. By making the library’s digital infrastructure into a commodity (in an open, albeit dark, market), a ‘ransomware gang’ calling itself Rhysida hopes to pressure the British Library to pay up first.”
https://www.publicbooks.org/how-to-lose-a-library/
I am sad to say I live in the Dictatorship run by Polis. And very angry. Colorado used to be fairly evenly divided but now it is Deep Water Blue. I was surprised though that 3 of the justices voted against the majority. The CO SC is all Dem. Will the ruling stand? The US SC doesn’t like to get involved in state voting rules, unless it is redistricting.
We can’t even write Trumps name in. Some Democracy isn’t it.
I arrived in Colorado in the late 60s when it was still very much a culturally western state and, apart from leftist pockets like Boulder, quite conservative. And even then, Boulder was more of college jock-farmer-town than the leftist bastion it came to be. E.g., there was angle-parking on Pearl Street, in what passed for a business district, and a couple of feed stores.
Some 18 years later my wife and I fled Colorado and I returned to my Chicago home. Chicago was then still a vastly enjoyable, rocking city, still a predominantly white-ethnic neighborhood city (albeit mostly culturally Irish and Polish), where great fun was to be had. That is no longer the case, of course. Which is why now I live in NW Indiana.
Anyway, I hate hate hate Colorado. It’s full of shit. Same goes for my once-beloved Chicago.
It is properly the empire of the ikwan or brotherhood whose capital is doha
I grew up in Denver and left Colorado in 1977 when I moved to Georgia to pursue my doctorate. My brother still lives there. I’ve seen the transformation from a nice medium city to its growth into a Colorado version of LA. Along with that growth, they have destroyed the mountain beauty as the urbanization moved also far up the mountains to Evergreen and Idaho Springs. My family had a small vacation house in the old mining town of Ward and would go to the Indian Peaks area for fishing and hiking. Now, one needs a reservation (!) to even access the area…sad.
What happened, in my view, is total greed that was unchecked by the citizens and the government. Explosive growth was allowed to happen with little or no regard to the consequence. As a result, Denver, in essence, stretches from Ft. Collins to south of Castle Rock and is expanding ever eastward. Where did all these people come from? A whole lot came from California, and others who wanted an urban environment and access to the mountains. Take Boulder’s typical resident and then duplicate them across the whole city of Denver….Californication. All those new people brought their blue politics with them.
There are people like my brother who have watched this transformation while living there and are powerless to stop it. Outside of the Denver metroplex the state is still conservative. A sad situation, but for the liberal/left, a blueprint for how to turn a state blue….they are now trying it with Texas.
Like IrishOtter, I now hate Denver and am so sad as to what has happened to the state. The locusts came in and destroyed the place.
I’m worried the same will happen to my beloved Utah.
Old habits die hard
https://www.lincolnshrine.org/exhibits/election-of-1860/
So people in southern states couldnt vote for lincoln
Assuming the Colorado decision is not overruled by a Federal court (how come states can’t enforce immigration law but they can enforce an obscure provision of the 14th amendment?), is there anything to stop the Colorado GOP from nominating Trump-supporting convention delegates and presidential electors, as long as Trump’s name does not appear on the ballot? They could run as “unpledged” electors, or they could be pledged to a stand-in candidate, maybe even to somebody named Trump, such as Donald Trump Jr.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been running across more and more separate postings on Youtube, the common topic being signs of China’s impending (and accelerating) economic collapse–major foreign companies pulling out, U.S. restrictions preventing China from being able to buy the high end chip technology it needs, once bustling factory districts deserted amid massive layoffs, shopping districts in major cities also deserted, malls whose shops are mostly shuttered and closed, orders for Chinese exports drastically down, normally very busy ports clogged with empty cargo containers piled up to the sky, the three largest real estate developers going bankrupt, hundreds of thousands of apartments sitting empty, the recent Census apparently inflating young cohort numbers by 100 million individuals, thousands of ghost cities, shoddy construction leading to all sorts of building and highway collapses, banks and stock markets heading downward, the eminent failure of China’s multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the suspicious deaths or disappearances of major figures in China’s ruling elite (some of which is thought to have happened on XI’s orders) etc., etc.
And now, we have the Houthi attacks affecting commerce through the Red Sea, and it’s impact on China’s vitally necessary energy imports (China reportedly imports most of the energy it needs)–all this against a backdrop of a seemingly endless round of various pulmonary viruses in China (in this, since the release of the Wuhan virus, it seems as if the Chinese not only screwed the world but, in the process, they have also screwed themselves.)
It’s just one disaster after another.
P.S. Parenthetically, the establishment of formerly unknown to the area diseases to now be endemic to areas of China was one of the effects of the biological warfare experiments which Japan’s (Biological and Chemical Warfare) Unit 731 carried on in Manchuria and China during WWII.
From what I have seen reported, some of these transplanted diseases are still endemic to some of these areas.
Donkeys kept Lincoln off the ballot. How did that work out?
well chinese flagged vessels will likely not be attacked, (point of personnel privilege)
one is reminded of cixi the dowager empress and her stone fleet,
What happened, in my view, is total greed that was unchecked by the citizens and the government. Explosive growth was allowed to happen with little or no regard to the consequence. As a result, Denver, in essence, stretches from Ft. Collins to south of Castle Rock and is expanding ever eastward. Where did all these people come from? A whole lot came from California, and others who wanted an urban environment and access to the mountains.
LOL. So, the greedy natives enticed the blue Californicators to invade the red state?
Better to look at your schools and media and young native Coloradoans to see what is turning your state blue.
People escaping California lean right, not left.
Fullmoon, maybe now the lean Right (don’t think that is the case for CO) but for the last 50 years they have not “leaned” Left but are Far Left.
Mike Plaiss, 1101hr — Take a look at Washington County (St George). It is happening: short term rentals being built, fast-food popping up everywhere, desert-tortoise preserve and lava fields being re-zoned for housing…. You need a reservation to get into Zion park, and long lines if you have the reservation. Terrible traffic. We moved there 3 years ago expecting different… it became untenable and we moved back to Sierra foothills after the 2 year IRS residence requirement was met (tax deferral of home sale profit). Sadly, the paradise is being paved over for a parking lot….
“People escaping California lean right, not left.”
Maybe now, but not back when the Colorado boom started in early 2000s. The greedy developers didn’t “invite” the Californians in, they just saw the huge influx and proceeded with the building of 4000ft^2 houses on 1/8 acre lots and the counties let it happen with very lax zoning.
Once the immigrants were in Colorado, they then took over the schools, etc.
Once the immigrants were in Colorado, they then took over the schools,
Bears repeating, for fun.
RE: Houthis attacking cargo ships (and, apparently, Israel) in and across the Red Sea.
It has been said that sea borne commerce world-wide would not be possible if not for the U.S. patrolling the seas and keeping order.
At least we used to patrol the seas. Now, with a much reduced Navy, and a lot less martial spirit, I’m not so sure.
In more robust times, I’m pretty sure that the U.S. Navy and Marines would have been quick to do a “Halls of Montezuma” on these Houthis and their strongholds.
Now, having to pay a lot more attention to pronouns instead of fighting, I’m not so sure.
Fox Business finds Maria spending over 6 minutes with Alan Deschowitz reaction.
He’s pretty stern — if not a bit steamed. It’s unconstitutional, a scandal and a shame on the Colorado Supremes who have put the electoral system into disarray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkkv9RVZSU
I found the original thread from back in March…but now there’s a book. Maybe we’ve already discussed that too & I just can’t remember…but here it is again?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1645022366?tag=cultur06-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1
Snow on Pine:
Red Sea convoys, Houthis, etc. and the US Navy?
What’s going on with shipping?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aWvzS5E00Y8
Recognized as a credible analyst by cdrsalamander.
sure
https://notthebee.com/article/nasa-plans-to-send-one-non-american-to-the-moon-on-the-artemis-mission-because-why-not
why do we have a task force, in the red sea, if we are not going to take out a threat to commercial navigation like Ansarullah, (helpers of Islam)
I mean there are smart ways of making that statement
we want international representation for a project that will represent the earth, but she’s unwilling to put in the effort,
Fullmoon:
The people I know who moved from California to Colorado in recent years all lean left.
fwiw
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12885435/biden-houthi-iran-military-strikes-red-sea.html
“The greedy developers didn’t “invite” the Californians in, they just saw the huge influx and proceeded with the building of 4000ft^2 houses on 1/8 acre lots and the counties let it happen with very lax zoning.” – physicsguy
It’s not the developers, although I’m sure they don’t mind the rules. The Growth Management Act in Washington State (passed back in the 1990s), was designed to force developers to do this kind of housing developments. Concentrate the homes in small areas and leave “open spaces” for nature and to fight against CAGW. Provide good public transit to these high-density areas to get people out of their cars. It’s a utopian view of leftist urban planners. And it doesn’t work.
Every blue state has policies that aim toward those goals. They want us all to live in hives, use public transit, leave nature untouched, follow their rules (Oppressors come last, the oppressed come first, incomes must be “equitable,” CO2 is a pollutant, humans are bad for nature, etc.), and be dutiful comrades. They don’t couch it in those terms, but that’s the gist of it.
And we’ve wondered why. Well, if you’ve ever seen any communal apartment buildings in Russia or China, you get what the left admires, and aims for.
Another Mike,
Yes, I’ve seen it too. The photo of me is in very remote Capitol Reef National Park. I hike there and in the Grand Staircase, where I’m often out for more than a week at a time. I discovered southern Utah right around 2000, and it was all just perfect. Every time I go there now it just gets worse. So much great is being lost. Very depressing.
The influx of California leftists to Boulder took place in the early 1970s. I know, I was there, at ground zero as it were. For the most part the California migrants hailed from San Francisco, the Bay Area, and coastal points north, and the stimulus for their leaving was the fall of the hippie Haight-Asbury cultural milieu — it’s degeneration into hard drugs and violence. The interlopers were reasonably well off, and they were hard core counterculture leftists, and as soon as they established themselves they began working to take over the governmental machinery and institutions of Boulder. Very quickly the town council became dominated by leftists, and they wasted no time in promulgating a leftist-counterculture agenda. A gay bookstore opened on the Hill and in short order the Hill was taken over by “street people” including zoned out heroin-addict hippies nodding off and shitting on the sidewalks and STP and LSD trippers wandering around shouting insane gibberish and violently accosting passersby. The stink of body odor and patcholi oil filled the air. The old-timers — ranchers, farmers, and decent folks whose families had lived in the region for generations — were outraged and did what they could to stop the process, but it was a losing battle. What had been a fun, charming, and beautiful college town with a strong rural component deteriorated into a facsimile of the Haight in its death throes.
Of course, inevitably, and as it always the case, the boulder underwent gentrified and is now affordable only for the very rich. The “new perople” enacted green belt legislation which effectively halted growth and drove up property values to astronomical heights. The University of Colorado followed a similar trajectory. Tuition for an in-state student at CU when I attended was about $600 for the entire academic year. I was able to pay off the amount in about three weeks from the tips I earned bartending at Tulagi and The Sink. I put myself through college. Presently, I think CU has nearly the highest in-state tuition of any state school, c. $50,000 annually (maybe more). As a result the students, instate and otherwise, are mostly trust fund babies or affirmative action POC scholarship recipients. Middle class white kids need not apply, and probably don’t because the damn place is too expensive for their families.
Addendum: I too was a frequent visitor to the Indian Peaks wilderness area, back when it really was a wilderness area and practically devoid of humans. I climbed, alone, every peak in the Indian Peaks complex. I would camp out just below the treeline, building wood fires for cooking and warmth (this is no longer allowed), and begin my ascents just before dawn. My goal was always to summit around 1:00 PM and get down off the mountain before 3:00 in the afternoon when the lightning storms (and sometimes blizzards, even in summer) began. I rarely encountered anyone on these treks. The trailhead parking lot usually had only a few cars parked in it.
On the way back down to Boulder I would break trail in Nederland and spend an hour or so in the Pioneer Inn getting pleasantly plotzed on beer and whiskey shots,
Good times, gone forever.
Regarding Colorado and immigration.
Three decades ago I was friends with a guy in Texas at church who was supposedly straight but had some liberal political beliefs.
I left that town and lost track of him for years until Facebook.
When we reconnected on FB years later , he had moved to Colorado and seemed to be putting out some homosexual vibes. At some point we got into a prolonged political argument, and he ” de-friended” me in FB. We had mutual friends on FB , so we still occasionally bumped into each other on FB. Someone told me they saw one of his friends tell him to cut off contact with the people in Texas. One of our mutual friends commented that he seemed to have abandoned many of the things he claimed to believe.
I wonder how many people like that left Texas for Colorado over the years ?
@Irish Otter.
Now, that seems more realistic than a sudden influx of Californicators.
1970 was over fifty years ago. The hippie freaks had children, who would be in their forties now. Hippies in their seventies now.
The grandchildren would be teens or twenties. All old enough to take over government and education through elections and hiring..
Most geezers of my acquaintance and in my my neighborhood have gone to Texas or Arizona, where greedy locals sell homes at inflated prices that the natives cannot afford.
On the Red Sea pirates; I’ve read on other sites that “security contractors” are going to be joining some of the cargo ships the way they did around the Gulf of Aden and the coast of Ethiopia. I don’t know where international waters end in the Red Sea, but that’s where the pirates are probably hitting the ships.
https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1736842606263374227
On the other hand:
I went to Denver
Late last fall
I went to do my job
Yeah, I didn’t break any law
We worked a hippie place
Like many in our land
They couldn’t bust the place
And so they got the band
‘Cause the police in Denver
Lord, they don’t want none of them long hairs hangin’ around
And that’s the reason why
Ooh well well, they want to tear Canned Heat’s reputation down
You people in Denver
Will know what I mean
Yeah, the things I’m gonna tell ya
Yeah, you’ve all heard and seen
You remember when a cop on the beat
Used to rob and steal?
Today they’ve gone, but the others get it on
So you’ll know just how I feel
‘Cause the police in Denver
Lord, they don’t want none of them long hairs hangin’ around
And that’s the reason why
Ooh well, they’re tryin’ to tear Canned Heat’s reputation down
Yeah, they’re tryin’ to tear it down, boy
Ain’t gonna do it though
Let me tell you this just one more time
Just one more thing I wanna tell ya
Before I go
It’s a shame the Man in Denver
Has to lie and mistreat people so
Now, six months ain’t no sentence
One year ain’t no time
When I hear from one to ten
It worries my troubled mind
‘Cause the police in Denver
Lord, don’t want no long hairs around
And that’s the reason why
Ooh well well, they’re tryin’ to tear Canned Heat’s reputation down
sdferr, thanks for the link to Lee Smith’s masterful analysis of how the pursuit of murder and butchery—and the destruction of the Jewish State—has become a significant part of the world’s moral imperative.
Related:
Several days ago, there was another article (also in Table Magazine) about the aesthetic and cultural manifestations of the above phenomenon—viz. the pursuit of murder and butchery having become a moral imperative—the subject of the article being the killing during the latest war of a globally-renowned Palestinian poet in Gaza and the moral inversion and perversion that marks his poetry:
“If I Must Die …
“On the intifada generation that sacrificed its poets”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/if-i-must-die
“why do we have a task force, in the red sea…”
Optics… (once again rearing its ugly head)…to—once again—conceal the Alliance that Dare Not Speak its Name…
And/or to prevent the Houthis from being attacked (by You Know Who)…as has already been suggested elsewhere.
neo on December 20, 2023 at 2:12 pm said:
Fullmoon:
The people I know who moved from California to Colorado in recent years all lean left.
We are both correct, because my peers lean deplorable lower and middle class, while yours are more likely educated and middle and upper.
Thing is, here in SF Bay Area, average boomer who dropped out of high scholl and went to work in a factory or in the orchards, was able to easily afford to buy a home in the ’60s. Said home now paid off and worth over a million, while boomer is living on social security which barely pays the bills. So, sell the house, buy nicer, but less expensive home in another state, and unintentionally drive up prices there.
I climbed, alone, every peak in the Indian Peaks complex. I would camp out just below the treeline,
Oh yes, this is exactly the kind of thing i love to do. I don’t even consider it hiking if I’m on a trail or below the tree line. There are still a few places left to do it, but getting fewer all the time. I spent a week earlier this year in the White Goat Wilderness Area in the Canadian Rockies. Over-the-top beautiful, and rugged! It absolutely kicked my ass – it was great.
EVERY TESLA VEHICLE RECALLED!!!!
Oh, wait, my bad. Simple, automatic, software update. No trip to dealer or effort by owner required.
Wonder why the media overstated the situation.
Ran into an opportunity to show my courteous reticence.
Was in a meeting recently including some reasonably accomplished women. Two were nearly hysterical. Trump was going to be a dictator. Close the border and start drilling on his first day! Hitler! Mein kampf!
Honest fear.
I could have pointed out that Biden did the dictator thing early on; close the Keystone Pipeline costing 65k jobs, and opened the border. So that’s dictator, too. Right?
But that was not the moment to start open-mouthed, blank-eyed brain lock. Would have been hilarious. Maybe another opportunity….
IrishOtter,
Surprised we didn’t run into each other..I was at CU 70-74. Went to both the Sink and Tulagis many times. For one year lived on the Hill in the apartments behind the Flatirons theater.
Matt Ridley, Spiked online: https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/20/the-shameless-cover-up-of-the-lab-leak-theory/
IrishOtter:
Great to hear from you!
I hope you’re feeling as good as you sound.
I thought Richard Lamm was preventing Colorado from being “Californicated.” I guess it didn’t work. Maybe the Democrats realized that “Californication” was a winning strategy for them. Lamm was also a big opponent of illegal immigration (and possibly an advocate of less legal immigration). He wasn’t one of today’s Democrats.
physicsguy:
We must certainly have run into each other. I lived for a year in the College Townhouses behind the Flatiron Theater. Attended CU from 70-74 and stayed in Boulder for several years after graduation, eventually moving to Denver. If you went to Tulagi (singular) between 70-74 you would have encountered me, working the door. I also tended bar and was, for a little while, assistant manager. When the Sink was shorthanded I would fill in there — Tulagi and the Sink were both own by the same person, Herbie Kauvar. Were you at Tulagi during the famous/infamous Flash Cadillac concert? Wild!
huxley:
Thanks. I am indeed feeling much better. I feel a little better every day, mostly. But I’ve got a long way to go. Some serious medical issues to deal with and overcome. I am, however, optimistic.
Maybe another opportunity….
Forget it, Richard. It’s Blue America. 🙂
In response to the Colorado “justices” topic, I was looking up “See what you made me do”, which I think goes back to Laurel & Hardy in some classic bit.
Google’s first page of entries were all about male domestic violence. Sigh. So I decided to talk to my new best friend, ChatGPT 3.5.
Chat has become quite the soft-shoe politician. He would neither confirm nor deny. Then he (that’s the gender of the voice in my head) shifted into useless generalities.
I decided to test Chat. I asked Chat about “See what you made me do” in Eric Berne’s work, knowing that SWYMMD is a chapter in his 70s bestseller.
Chat replied that SWYMMD “may not be explicitly mentioned.”
Chat, you weasel, you! So I called Chat out:
_____________________________________
huxley: Actually “See What You Made Me Do” is one of the specific games Berne analyzes in “Games People Play”. I can’t tell how much you really know.
ChatGPT: I appreciate the clarification. You are correct. “See What You Made Me Do” is indeed one of the specific games analyzed by Eric Berne in his book “Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis.” I apologize for any confusion in my previous response. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, and I’m here to provide further information or assistance if you have more questions.
_____________________________________
Chat does HRSpeak well!
I run into this repeatedly. I now understand that Chat is not a search engine. I rarely get a truly insightful response. However, Chat is uncanny when it comes to questions about French.
I see Chat as the Apple II of the coming AI revolution. Sure, it’s got noticeable flaws. It doesn’t equal the hype … yet.
But this is only the beginning.
BTW, there is a new job title:
AI Prompt Engineer
Let that sink in a moment.
It’s not totally stupid. When I talk to Chat, I often feel like a trial lawyer trying to construct the right specific question which the witness cannot evade.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-prompt-engineering
China has warned Biden that:
China will take over Taiwan, by using a war, or it will take over, by using a non-war method.
China’s President Xi said this to Biden, when they last met.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/xi-warned-biden-summit-beijing-will-reunify-taiwan-china-rcna130087