Cataract surgery went well. Stayed awake during it—had thought would be put to sleep, but no.
Three eye stents added for pre-glaucoma, and may not need to continue taking eye drops if pressure drops. Smallest stents to go into human body.
Not sure why a driver is needed for to and from, and then wait during the process. IMHO, having eyes dilated during a checkup is more difficult to drive than this was. Guess some major suits for driving after cataract surgery started it, but seems dilated would require driver and wait…?! Fuking rules… 😉
Got a pair of real Terminator sunglasses! A patch to wear all day today, and then just for sleeping after that.
Like the color in Left eye more than the now bright color in right eye (blurry right now after surgery). Left eye has a slight haze dark color like, but TV colors were like those former TVs – started with a p, if I recall correctly (?). Of course, cataract would’ve kept getting darker until real dark. Night driving is supposed to improve. Day sky is incredibly blue ‘n bright.
Karmi:
Great! Mind the drops.
Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
It seems as if, wherever it looks, the folks at DOGE are finding massive expenditures of taxpayer’s money which are waste, fraud, and abuse.
It is starting to look as if, hidden below the shiny surface, a lot of our government has become just a collection of various scams, and ways to funnel enormous amounts of money to favored Leftist groups and causes, to enrich various people and institutions, and to aid in the Left’s “fundamental transformation” of our country, and other countries around the world.
As well, I’m wondering, for instance, what the percentage might be of various government payments being paid out to people who are actually faking eligibility for those benefits, being paid to someone who has succeeded in hijacking those benefits for themselves, or to the relatives of recipients who have died long ago, but who have kept up the pretense that that recipient, who was eligible for those payments, still lives.
I’ve been binge-watching “The Dog Whisperer”:
That’s interesting! I’ve been doing some binge watching as well. A friend got me started on the series Supernatural. 15 seasons! I remarked that the show reminded me of The X-Files a little bit. Then I noticed that Kim Manners is a producer/director of both of those shows. Ah ha!
There is also a new season of Reacher on Amazon Prime.
______
Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer. The following is an old story that is about Cesar’s advice and one of his fans.
My late wife & I had a German shepherd that was a very muscular 83 lb. dog. He was generally well behaved, but during walks if something caught his interest, he might lunge towards it. Those lunges were brief and very manageable while on a leash because: 1) you could see it coming, and 2) the yank to your arm was mostly straight forward.
We left our shepherd with a pet sitting friend for about 9 days once. When we came back, we learned that the sitter/dog walker friend had been studying Cesar Milan and had partially retrained our dog. (My wife had spent a lot of time training him when he was young.) First of all, who does that? Did we ask you to retrain our dog?? No!
So subsequently, the dog would walk behind us, instead of in front of us, while on leash. No big deal, pehaps? Except now, when this muscular dog lunges you can’t see it coming, AND your arm is getting jerked backwards instead of forward. Think orthopedic surgery! What a disaster.
I don’t know Milan’s teachings well, nor do I care at this point. But I was not happy with my friend’s interpretation of his teachings. Which may or may not a good reflection of his work.
Now for real cultural enrichment purposes you could watch ” Swamp People”, where they follow alligator hunters around in the swamp and use sub titles for the Cajuns accented words. Lol
Cesar is an asshole
From NY Times media reporter Ben Mullin, “Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
Naturally, this still leaves a lot of leeway, but it’s a move in the right direction.
The problem I have with reality TV is that when it’s something I know about, like real estate, it’s essentially a fake storyline with manufactured drama; the couple seeing their dream house “for the first time” was already contracted to buy it before the filming. Or the cooking shows where a famous chef makes something obviously inedible and gross and raves about it.
I don’t know about dog training but I don’t have Gell-Mann amnesia.
But honestly I think what’s worse is the exotic pets–beavers and cougars and otters and sugar gliders and whatnot–on YouTube. You’re seeing someone who, if they’re actually showing a fair representation of what owning that pet is like, has basically won the lottery in terms of how well that pet is working out. Sure it’s cute to see the beaver making a dam in the hallway out of towels or whatever, but it’s less cute that the beaver chews through your cabinetry.
For example, one account of what pet raccoons are actually like:
Birth to 3 months, you will be head over heels in love with your kit. They are so much like a human baby in habits, and like fluffy cuddly bear cubs in play. They will adore you and pet you and love you like there is nobody else in the world. You will feed a purring soft body a baby bottle, burp them over your shoulder and cuddle all through the night. You will take your infant around town with you everywhere and make big plans about the raccoon jungle gym you will build in the middle of your living room. You will take a roll of film a day and will put your baby in your will. Nothing foreseen will ever interfere with your immense dedication.
4 to 5 months, your scratches are beginning to heal as you have finally weaned the walking weed-eater. The laceration inside your lip however is infected. Must get that checked. The mattress on your bed has begun to smell funny and you haven’t seen your computer mouse in weeks. The jungle gym forgotten, your head begins to plan a really big cage. You want to go purchase the materials for it, but you shelled out you entire paycheck to replace the contents of your mother’s purse, which disappeared during her last visit. You think you saw a twenty in the garbage disposal this morning and her lipstick was in your shoe..OPENED. Yet another hole in the carpet. Time to rearrange the furniture, but where were those other two holes at? Oh well. Hit the garage sales and find another chair.
6 to 7 months, you have booted the rotten little beast outside and to get back at you, your raccoon has somehow broken into your car and shredded the seat cushion. To make matters worse, he left you a nice present of something smelly under the seat…somewhere…You try to get to the carwash, but you turn the key to absolutely nothing. Upon inspection under the hood, you search for broken wires…unplugged wires…ANY WIRES…there are no more wires. They are all gone.
At 8 months old your kit hates your living guts unless you have a marshmallow in your hand. You carry them in your pocket so you can get into your house. He waits blatantly on the step for you EVERY DAY and if you forgot your marshmallow, you prepare a tactical plan of entering through the chimney, otherwise, you have the pleasure of sharing your house with a 30 lb nightmare who will torment your every breath.
This is the point when I usually get a phone call from someone who called me months ago to find out what to feed the “precious new baby”, and hung up on me when I wouldn’t give care instructions and demanded they bring it to me now since we do not accept imprints. They always voice their regret for not listening to begin with so PLEASE, leave the raccoons to the experts and get a cat. You will thank me later.
The economic model that Democrats hope to impose on America is one where regulations inspired by leftist values—generally falling within two broad categories, “equity” and “green”—lead” to a government that can micromanage every aspect of economic life. The weight of these regulations and the taxes required to enforce them drive households and businesses into dependency on government aid and subsidies, driving small businesses into bankruptcy and enabling big businesses to consolidate their control of products and markets…
…This is not a battle against socialism because corporations are driving the Democratic Party. Calling it “corporatism” is too fancy and hard to understand, and calling it “fascism” evokes extraneous connotations that don’t add clarity. But it’s something of all those.
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs. They are not looking for the workers or the state to own the means of production. What they are working for is an administrative, micromanaging state that works through big organizations of all kinds: government, NGOs, large corporations. Everybody working for someone else within the bounds established by Top Men in government, tied by subsidized carrots and regulatory sticks.
(You can’t tie people with sticks and carrots, sorry that is an awful use of language.)
What the American Greatness article is trying to summarize is the managerial state.
What Kate said: Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
I also did not have any problems with my two cataract surgeries, but I had done some foot surgeries the week before, so I would only be “laid up” once, and AesopSpouse made a very nice nurse. 🙂
I haven’t done a report on the seemingly normal democrats that I know who have turned into complete looney tunes (apologies to Bugs).
1) Guy posted that everyone one needs to support Gov. Mills of Maine in her “heroic efforts”. As a father of 2 girls, now women athletes since age 4, I had to respond. I was greeted by a woman who said I must be transphobic (funny, I have absolutely no fear of transgenders) if I don’t want such playing against my daughters. Irony: my daughters now play in co-ed adult rec soccer leagues in which there is a very strict rule that no male player can challenge a female.
2) This one is really out there: just posted today, the reason park rangers are being fired is so that Trump can shut down all the national parks and open them up for oil drilling. sigh….
The french would call them difigistes one might call them rent seaker
Leninists were about creating a new feudalism maybe marx really thought the state would wither of course robert michels and the self dealing social democrats were more correct
The American Greatness article is very good, and IMO spot on.
One of the commenters linked to a post by Jeffrey Tucker that is an important commentary on the way DOGE is operating, and why President Trump is letting Elon run his chainsaw at full speed.
Along with other evidences that our Intelligence Community is a club that we’re not in, it also shows at least one group of employees that are also devoid of intelligence; they couldn’t see the writing on the wall and take the buyout.
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs.
–Niketas Choniates
That’s long been a pet peeve of mine. I recall arguing this years ago with FredHJr. I have a conservative friend who still claims that the real problem with Republicans is that they won’t call out Democrats as Marxists or commies.
To me that’s like calling out Muslims as Jews. Yes, there is an historical relationship and yes, there are structural similarities. No, Muslims are not Jews.
Democrats are not reading Marx and Engels’ “The Communist Manifesto” or carrying around Mao’s “Little Red Book.”
Worse, calling out Democrats as Marxists or commies makes conservatives sound foolish, like they are fighting not the last war but one from the 1950s.
I do see Democrats more as authoritarian grifters.
What is the root of the philosophy when you get down to it (marxism) note i dont say leninjsm they may be following the fiscal crisis as recommended by o neil and cloward and piven
@huxley:I do see Democrats more as authoritarian grifters.
I think there’s been a generational reluctance to see politics as motivated by personal gain rather than by ideals, even mistaken ideals. I think that reluctance has been made use of by politicians who grift, and that these people are not found primarily on one side of the aisle.
But the competition to direct the flow of tax money and extract rent through privileges has been more or less the same since the Founding, and well before that in Parliamentary history. You can see it in The Gilded Age (1873), and just as well in the early episodes of Parks and Recreation (2009) before the writers just went all in on openly cheerleading big government. The big public works projects of the Thirties and Forties, not to mention the war, fostered a lot of dependence on public money. The COVID public health emergency was extended to May 11, 2023, because insurance companies and hospital systems and state governments wanted to keep the money coming in.
It’s too much to hope that this is ending, but at least a lot of the trough-feeders may get kicked out, and replaced by new ones who may be easier to get rid of. I think it will be easier for citizens to keep on top of things if they remember that politics is a lot more about people’s wallets than the principles they claim to espouse.
@miguel:What is the root of the philosophy when you get down to it (marxism)
No, it’s that old serpent, that says you work while I eat, and that I deserve a share of what you have. Marx is a distraction. He was once the excuse de jour. Those people have moved on, and have never read a word of Marx. Only our side of the fence even knows or cares who Cloward and Piven were.
Sure, 150 years ago they’d have been Marxists, 90 years ago they’d have been Marxists, but the excuses are new. The progressive stack and intersectionality are new ways of dividing up spoils, but it’s the urge to spoil that precedes Marx and is still with us.
About the only thing about the modern western left that is quasi-Marxist is its paradigm that people are either oppressors or oppressed. Otherwise, they favor a centralized authoritarian state. They don’t see that as bad because they claim good intentions.
Given the discovery by DOGE of the mine in Pennsylvania where all government employees retirement document packets–in paper form–are stored, and that the antiquated system used to send those packets down into the mine’s tunnels and, then, process them by hand, limits the number of such retirement packets which can be processed each month to ten thousand, I’d believe anything.*
They don’t seem to be joking, and from what was just said by Musk and President Trump in Trump’s first cabinet meeting, one of the functions of the letter to all government employees–asking them to list five things they accomplished in the past week–was to get some idea of how many government employees might not actually exist, but be fictitious.
(From what Musk said, the literal function of the technical experts at DOGE has often really been “technical support,” needed to manage and keep running extremely outdated government computer systems and their glitchy programs. If I remember correctly, I recently saw a report which said that some government systems still use the old massive tape drive systems which were current technology back in the 1970s.)
Hard to believe things are so bad, but I take this to mean that they’ve discovered that some of the government’s personnel/employee records are so badly kept and incomplete that it would be possible for people to somehow fake an identity as a government employee, leave a government job, move away from their supposed duty station, work another non-government job and, somehow, still get paid as a federal employee.
Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s close adviser in 2014, said in 2024 that Minsk II “legitimized the first partition of Ukraine.” Surkov’s words confirm Russia’s goal to destroy Ukraine as a state and to use the Minsk deal to do so. He added that “peace is nothing more than the continuation of war by other means.”
Another weak deal today would validate Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion and give Putin hope to gain more over time. Hope for Putin means more war. More war means a larger war: An absolved Russia that bears little or no cost for its invasion will want more and will rebuild its capability to do more. A larger war would mean a higher cost for the United States, risk to American lives, and risk of a catastrophic escalation.
The Trump Administration has a historic opportunity to break Russia’s cycle of overt war and war through “peace” in Ukraine. To do so, the United States must learn the lessons from the Minsk deal:
1. Russia will seek to transfer the responsibility and cost for its war onto someone else’s balance sheet.
2. Putin’s demands are stand-ins for his goals – controlling Ukraine and making the United States bend to Putin’s demands to create a world order that favors Russia.
3. Putin will fight as long as he believes he can outlast the West and Ukraine. Ending the war requires stripping Putin of hope that he can destroy Ukraine as a state in his lifetime — militarily or through a “peace deal.”
4. Russia can accept failure.
Minsk II Flaws
Minsk II absolved the invader. The deal let Russia pose as a mediator in a conflict that it started and prolonged. Ukraine was conflict-free until 2014. Then Russia invaded.
Déjà vu…
Glad your cataract surgery went well Karmi- my experience was similar to yours. I had a procedure for glaucoma at the same time as well, and now I’m off the drops.
P.S. DOGE’s discovery of the antiquated Iron Mountain retirement document storage facility makes me wonder.
Could there possibly be long forgotten government offices, here and there, where government, “scriveners,” wearing green eye shades, are sitting at wooden desks equipped with inkwells full of India ink, and writing out documents using pens made out of goose quills?
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs. They are not looking for the workers or the state to own the means of production. What they are working for is an administrative, micromanaging state that works through big organizations of all kinds: government, NGOs, large corporations. Everybody working for someone else within the bounds established by Top Men in government, tied by subsidized carrots and regulatory sticks. — Niketas Choniates
This is what a “political machine” writ large looks like in the 21st century. See Tammany Hall
It became the main local political machine of the Democratic Party and played a major role in controlling New York City and New York state politics
Also interesting is the super short Wiki descriptor: A Democratic pressure group
It should read “Democrat” not “Democratic.” Nothing democratic about it.
Domestication is among other things selecting for neotany, retention of juvenile characteristics (less fierce or prey-driven) in the adult. So a kit or cub is cute and cuddly but grows into a ball of barbed wire in a fur suit, that has a hair trigger. To say nothing of instincts and hormones.
This comment from a zerohedge article today isn’t quoted as a TDS rebuke of our president, more as advice to perhaps use a little caution in foreign policy. But it’s indicative of unintended consequences even as we celebrate the good things happening here.
The comment by Canadian “Albertarocks” follows the article “Tariffs Will Continue Until Morale Improves”:
2 hours ago
(Edited)
“Well one massive effect of Trump’s tariffs will be that after all these years of western Canadians working hard to finally get a federal Conservative govt back in power after 15 long years of Liberals… conservative Pierre Poilievre had it in the bag. Even the filthy evil Canadian MSM had surrendered and admitted that Canada was finally going to have a Conservative majority government a few months down the road when the election happens. And then along came Trump and fucked up that entire wonderful scenario from happening.
“Thanks to Trump, eastern Canadians have changed their minds and are now flocking back to the fucking Liberals again. Because it’s the Liberals who have 100% support from the media and they are spewing more shit and lies than ever before. All the Liberal debates are about right now are Trump and his evil tariffs. Those Liberal fuckers would prefer to fight Trump than just wake TF up and fix things, sounding tough because there is also a leadership race going on right now for the Liberal Party.
“Even though Trump is doing unbelievably wonderful things inside the US, he has just fucked over western Canadians with the worst back stab in human history. As you can imagine… no, I take that back… you can’t even imagine the rage and hatred that western Canadians (the sane conservative ones) now have for Trump… after having cheered and supported him for the entire year prior to the election.
“The next federal government in Canada will be labelled as Trump’s Liberals. Just think about this… two months ago the Conservatives had an absolute lock on winning later this year. And Emporer Trump just fucked us over because he’s just not smart enough or careful enough to have even noticed how Canadians had it all under control before he and his big angry ass kicked our door down and started meddling so that he could look like some sort of warrior hero at home. In a nutshell, Trump fucked everything up with his mean spirited and mindless attack on Canada… big time. I’m starting to wonder if he could even find Canada on a map.
“And western Canadians will suffer for it horribly. God damn it!!”
@TheOtherChuck:But it’s indicative of unintended consequences even as we celebrate the good things happening here.
Always worth remembering unintended consequences, but Trump doesn’t have mind control rays to make Canadians vote liberal, and none of us voted for Trump because we wanted to Make Canada Great Again.
They’re adults and have their own sovereign country which they need to fix and stop blaming us. Or confess, like the Dominion of Newfoundland did back in 1933, that they can’t maintain responsible government and get absorbed into a country that can.
The United Kingdom, concerned over Newfoundland’s likelihood of defaulting on its war-debt payments, established the Newfoundland Royal Commission, headed by a Scottish peer, Lord Amulree. Its report, released in 1933, assessed Newfoundland’s political culture as intrinsically corrupt and its economic prospects as bleak, and advocated the abolition of responsible government and its replacement by a Commission of the British Government. Acting on the report’s recommendations, Alderdice’s government voted itself out of existence in December 1933.
In 1934, the British Parliament passed the Newfoundland Act, 1933 which suspended Newfoundland’s Legislature and established the Commission of Government. Letters patent passed under the act provided that Newfoundland was ruled by the governor, who reported to the Colonial Secretary in London, and the commission, appointed by the British government. Newfoundland remained a dominion in name only. The Newfoundland Supreme Court held that the surrender of responsible government and the establishment of the commission of government “… reduces the Island to the status of a pure Crown colony”.
Niketas Chroniates: That is one great troll, on a par with the master himself, our esteemed president Donald J. Trump. Bravo.
The kerfuffle over the request for government employees to submit by e-mail five things done in the last week reminds me so, so much of helping my granddaughter with her math homework. Ten minutes of whining, obfuscation, delays, and complaining to do a problem that only takes a minute. Seriously, folks could have typed a few lines, sent it in, and there wouldn’t be a news story.
Bluegreen kayak,
I worked in a remote location to my manager and had to fill out a regular review of tasks in process-completed tasks-future tasks. It was a pain, but I don’t think asking for an email with five things you’ve done during the week is too much. Even if it became a regular part of the job.
I will say, in a previous job as a manager I had to lay off/fire employees and it can be a very traumatic event for the person losing their job. You sometimes had to act as a counselor and let the employee go through an abbreviated grief episode.
I hope there is a more formal process for engaging with employees than an email with the iconic “your fired.”
During my last job (before retirement) I was part of a large RIF (do to the Great Recession) and the company had counselors and had worked out with the state employment agency to have a packet for unemployment benefits to soften the blow. The worst part was they also hired security guards to walk you out of the facility. That was kind of demeaning, but there was a possibility out of the hundreds of people being laid off that some might react violently.
Karmi:
They gave you a sedative for your cataract surgery, didn’t they? I suppose that’s why you needed a driver.
Best wishes, Karmi. (Thanks for letting us know what’s been going on.)
M J R
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
1 down – two to go …
Cataract surgery went well. Stayed awake during it—had thought would be put to sleep, but no.
Three eye stents added for pre-glaucoma, and may not need to continue taking eye drops if pressure drops. Smallest stents to go into human body.
Not sure why a driver is needed for to and from, and then wait during the process. IMHO, having eyes dilated during a checkup is more difficult to drive than this was. Guess some major suits for driving after cataract surgery started it, but seems dilated would require driver and wait…?! Fuking rules… 😉
Got a pair of real Terminator sunglasses! A patch to wear all day today, and then just for sleeping after that.
Like the color in Left eye more than the now bright color in right eye (blurry right now after surgery). Left eye has a slight haze dark color like, but TV colors were like those former TVs – started with a p, if I recall correctly (?). Of course, cataract would’ve kept getting darker until real dark. Night driving is supposed to improve. Day sky is incredibly blue ‘n bright.
Karmi:
Great! Mind the drops.
Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
It seems as if, wherever it looks, the folks at DOGE are finding massive expenditures of taxpayer’s money which are waste, fraud, and abuse.
It is starting to look as if, hidden below the shiny surface, a lot of our government has become just a collection of various scams, and ways to funnel enormous amounts of money to favored Leftist groups and causes, to enrich various people and institutions, and to aid in the Left’s “fundamental transformation” of our country, and other countries around the world.
As well, I’m wondering, for instance, what the percentage might be of various government payments being paid out to people who are actually faking eligibility for those benefits, being paid to someone who has succeeded in hijacking those benefits for themselves, or to the relatives of recipients who have died long ago, but who have kept up the pretense that that recipient, who was eligible for those payments, still lives.
I’ve been binge-watching “The Dog Whisperer”:
That’s interesting! I’ve been doing some binge watching as well. A friend got me started on the series Supernatural. 15 seasons! I remarked that the show reminded me of The X-Files a little bit. Then I noticed that Kim Manners is a producer/director of both of those shows. Ah ha!
There is also a new season of Reacher on Amazon Prime.
______
Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer. The following is an old story that is about Cesar’s advice and one of his fans.
My late wife & I had a German shepherd that was a very muscular 83 lb. dog. He was generally well behaved, but during walks if something caught his interest, he might lunge towards it. Those lunges were brief and very manageable while on a leash because: 1) you could see it coming, and 2) the yank to your arm was mostly straight forward.
We left our shepherd with a pet sitting friend for about 9 days once. When we came back, we learned that the sitter/dog walker friend had been studying Cesar Milan and had partially retrained our dog. (My wife had spent a lot of time training him when he was young.) First of all, who does that? Did we ask you to retrain our dog?? No!
So subsequently, the dog would walk behind us, instead of in front of us, while on leash. No big deal, pehaps? Except now, when this muscular dog lunges you can’t see it coming, AND your arm is getting jerked backwards instead of forward. Think orthopedic surgery! What a disaster.
I don’t know Milan’s teachings well, nor do I care at this point. But I was not happy with my friend’s interpretation of his teachings. Which may or may not a good reflection of his work.
Now for real cultural enrichment purposes you could watch ” Swamp People”, where they follow alligator hunters around in the swamp and use sub titles for the Cajuns accented words. Lol
Cesar is an asshole
From NY Times media reporter Ben Mullin, “Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
https://x.com/BenMullin/status/1894758476955435327
Naturally, this still leaves a lot of leeway, but it’s a move in the right direction.
The problem I have with reality TV is that when it’s something I know about, like real estate, it’s essentially a fake storyline with manufactured drama; the couple seeing their dream house “for the first time” was already contracted to buy it before the filming. Or the cooking shows where a famous chef makes something obviously inedible and gross and raves about it.
I don’t know about dog training but I don’t have Gell-Mann amnesia.
But honestly I think what’s worse is the exotic pets–beavers and cougars and otters and sugar gliders and whatnot–on YouTube. You’re seeing someone who, if they’re actually showing a fair representation of what owning that pet is like, has basically won the lottery in terms of how well that pet is working out. Sure it’s cute to see the beaver making a dam in the hallway out of towels or whatever, but it’s less cute that the beaver chews through your cabinetry.
For example, one account of what pet raccoons are actually like:
Good article at AG about what the Left today is really about:
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs. They are not looking for the workers or the state to own the means of production. What they are working for is an administrative, micromanaging state that works through big organizations of all kinds: government, NGOs, large corporations. Everybody working for someone else within the bounds established by Top Men in government, tied by subsidized carrots and regulatory sticks.
(You can’t tie people with sticks and carrots, sorry that is an awful use of language.)
What the American Greatness article is trying to summarize is the managerial state.
What Kate said: Congrats on good results, Karmi. Do the drops exactly as ordered.
I also did not have any problems with my two cataract surgeries, but I had done some foot surgeries the week before, so I would only be “laid up” once, and AesopSpouse made a very nice nurse. 🙂
I haven’t done a report on the seemingly normal democrats that I know who have turned into complete looney tunes (apologies to Bugs).
1) Guy posted that everyone one needs to support Gov. Mills of Maine in her “heroic efforts”. As a father of 2 girls, now women athletes since age 4, I had to respond. I was greeted by a woman who said I must be transphobic (funny, I have absolutely no fear of transgenders) if I don’t want such playing against my daughters. Irony: my daughters now play in co-ed adult rec soccer leagues in which there is a very strict rule that no male player can challenge a female.
2) This one is really out there: just posted today, the reason park rangers are being fired is so that Trump can shut down all the national parks and open them up for oil drilling. sigh….
Deeds rewarded
https://x.com/seanmdav/status/1894807174955901050
The french would call them difigistes one might call them rent seaker
Leninists were about creating a new feudalism maybe marx really thought the state would wither of course robert michels and the self dealing social democrats were more correct
The American Greatness article is very good, and IMO spot on.
One of the commenters linked to a post by Jeffrey Tucker that is an important commentary on the way DOGE is operating, and why President Trump is letting Elon run his chainsaw at full speed.
https://x.com/jeffreyatucker/status/1893787435659674034
Miguel’s link to Sean Davis leads to a Federalist post that is another win for MAGA.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/26/scoop-trump-to-tap-democrat-lawfare-target-jeff-clark-as-white-house-regulation-czar/
I wouldn’t be surprised if Clark had a hand in crafting some of the DOGE targeting.
The sidebar at The Federalist covers a lot of the stories that popped up this week, porn chat rooms, for instance.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/25/chat-logs-show-queer-nsa-employees-discussing-perverted-acts-at-work/
Along with other evidences that our Intelligence Community is a club that we’re not in, it also shows at least one group of employees that are also devoid of intelligence; they couldn’t see the writing on the wall and take the buyout.
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs.
–Niketas Choniates
That’s long been a pet peeve of mine. I recall arguing this years ago with FredHJr. I have a conservative friend who still claims that the real problem with Republicans is that they won’t call out Democrats as Marxists or commies.
To me that’s like calling out Muslims as Jews. Yes, there is an historical relationship and yes, there are structural similarities. No, Muslims are not Jews.
Democrats are not reading Marx and Engels’ “The Communist Manifesto” or carrying around Mao’s “Little Red Book.”
Worse, calling out Democrats as Marxists or commies makes conservatives sound foolish, like they are fighting not the last war but one from the 1950s.
I do see Democrats more as authoritarian grifters.
What is the root of the philosophy when you get down to it (marxism) note i dont say leninjsm they may be following the fiscal crisis as recommended by o neil and cloward and piven
Some sharper reasoning
https://x.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1894809832936612026
Who are you again
https://x.com/redsteeze/status/1894746077359915174
My contempt for tapper goes back a quarter of a century
https://x.com/matt_blackwell/status/1894552583013834892
Um a good first step
@huxley:I do see Democrats more as authoritarian grifters.
I think there’s been a generational reluctance to see politics as motivated by personal gain rather than by ideals, even mistaken ideals. I think that reluctance has been made use of by politicians who grift, and that these people are not found primarily on one side of the aisle.
But the competition to direct the flow of tax money and extract rent through privileges has been more or less the same since the Founding, and well before that in Parliamentary history. You can see it in The Gilded Age (1873), and just as well in the early episodes of Parks and Recreation (2009) before the writers just went all in on openly cheerleading big government. The big public works projects of the Thirties and Forties, not to mention the war, fostered a lot of dependence on public money. The COVID public health emergency was extended to May 11, 2023, because insurance companies and hospital systems and state governments wanted to keep the money coming in.
It’s too much to hope that this is ending, but at least a lot of the trough-feeders may get kicked out, and replaced by new ones who may be easier to get rid of. I think it will be easier for citizens to keep on top of things if they remember that politics is a lot more about people’s wallets than the principles they claim to espouse.
@miguel:What is the root of the philosophy when you get down to it (marxism)
No, it’s that old serpent, that says you work while I eat, and that I deserve a share of what you have. Marx is a distraction. He was once the excuse de jour. Those people have moved on, and have never read a word of Marx. Only our side of the fence even knows or cares who Cloward and Piven were.
Sure, 150 years ago they’d have been Marxists, 90 years ago they’d have been Marxists, but the excuses are new. The progressive stack and intersectionality are new ways of dividing up spoils, but it’s the urge to spoil that precedes Marx and is still with us.
About the only thing about the modern western left that is quasi-Marxist is its paradigm that people are either oppressors or oppressed. Otherwise, they favor a centralized authoritarian state. They don’t see that as bad because they claim good intentions.
Given the discovery by DOGE of the mine in Pennsylvania where all government employees retirement document packets–in paper form–are stored, and that the antiquated system used to send those packets down into the mine’s tunnels and, then, process them by hand, limits the number of such retirement packets which can be processed each month to ten thousand, I’d believe anything.*
They don’t seem to be joking, and from what was just said by Musk and President Trump in Trump’s first cabinet meeting, one of the functions of the letter to all government employees–asking them to list five things they accomplished in the past week–was to get some idea of how many government employees might not actually exist, but be fictitious.
(From what Musk said, the literal function of the technical experts at DOGE has often really been “technical support,” needed to manage and keep running extremely outdated government computer systems and their glitchy programs. If I remember correctly, I recently saw a report which said that some government systems still use the old massive tape drive systems which were current technology back in the 1970s.)
Hard to believe things are so bad, but I take this to mean that they’ve discovered that some of the government’s personnel/employee records are so badly kept and incomplete that it would be possible for people to somehow fake an identity as a government employee, leave a government job, move away from their supposed duty station, work another non-government job and, somehow, still get paid as a federal employee.
* See https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-retirement-pennsylvania-mine-paperwork-doge-musk-crosshairs-real-2025-2?op=1
See pictures of the mine here at https://x.com/DOGE/status/1889437908094042277
For example, one account of what pet raccoons are actually like:
LOL!
Ukrainians don’t Russia ruling them again – nor do they want any Ukrainian puppet ruler that Russia wants to install.
Lessons of the Minsk Deal: Breaking the Cycle of Russia’s War Against Ukraine
Déjà vu…
Glad your cataract surgery went well Karmi- my experience was similar to yours. I had a procedure for glaucoma at the same time as well, and now I’m off the drops.
P.S. DOGE’s discovery of the antiquated Iron Mountain retirement document storage facility makes me wonder.
Could there possibly be long forgotten government offices, here and there, where government, “scriveners,” wearing green eye shades, are sitting at wooden desks equipped with inkwells full of India ink, and writing out documents using pens made out of goose quills?
Calling today’s Left “Marxists” is about as relevant as calling them Whigs or Guelphs. They are not looking for the workers or the state to own the means of production. What they are working for is an administrative, micromanaging state that works through big organizations of all kinds: government, NGOs, large corporations. Everybody working for someone else within the bounds established by Top Men in government, tied by subsidized carrots and regulatory sticks. — Niketas Choniates
This is what a “political machine” writ large looks like in the 21st century. See Tammany Hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
It became the main local political machine of the Democratic Party and played a major role in controlling New York City and New York state politics
Also interesting is the super short Wiki descriptor: A Democratic pressure group
It should read “Democrat” not “Democratic.” Nothing democratic about it.
Domestication is among other things selecting for neotany, retention of juvenile characteristics (less fierce or prey-driven) in the adult. So a kit or cub is cute and cuddly but grows into a ball of barbed wire in a fur suit, that has a hair trigger. To say nothing of instincts and hormones.
Crazier than fiction?
https://x.com/gabbycuccia/status/1894555719048786076
This comment from a zerohedge article today isn’t quoted as a TDS rebuke of our president, more as advice to perhaps use a little caution in foreign policy. But it’s indicative of unintended consequences even as we celebrate the good things happening here.
The comment by Canadian “Albertarocks” follows the article “Tariffs Will Continue Until Morale Improves”:
2 hours ago
(Edited)
“Well one massive effect of Trump’s tariffs will be that after all these years of western Canadians working hard to finally get a federal Conservative govt back in power after 15 long years of Liberals… conservative Pierre Poilievre had it in the bag. Even the filthy evil Canadian MSM had surrendered and admitted that Canada was finally going to have a Conservative majority government a few months down the road when the election happens. And then along came Trump and fucked up that entire wonderful scenario from happening.
“Thanks to Trump, eastern Canadians have changed their minds and are now flocking back to the fucking Liberals again. Because it’s the Liberals who have 100% support from the media and they are spewing more shit and lies than ever before. All the Liberal debates are about right now are Trump and his evil tariffs. Those Liberal fuckers would prefer to fight Trump than just wake TF up and fix things, sounding tough because there is also a leadership race going on right now for the Liberal Party.
“Even though Trump is doing unbelievably wonderful things inside the US, he has just fucked over western Canadians with the worst back stab in human history. As you can imagine… no, I take that back… you can’t even imagine the rage and hatred that western Canadians (the sane conservative ones) now have for Trump… after having cheered and supported him for the entire year prior to the election.
“The next federal government in Canada will be labelled as Trump’s Liberals. Just think about this… two months ago the Conservatives had an absolute lock on winning later this year. And Emporer Trump just fucked us over because he’s just not smart enough or careful enough to have even noticed how Canadians had it all under control before he and his big angry ass kicked our door down and started meddling so that he could look like some sort of warrior hero at home. In a nutshell, Trump fucked everything up with his mean spirited and mindless attack on Canada… big time. I’m starting to wonder if he could even find Canada on a map.
“And western Canadians will suffer for it horribly. God damn it!!”
@TheOtherChuck:But it’s indicative of unintended consequences even as we celebrate the good things happening here.
Always worth remembering unintended consequences, but Trump doesn’t have mind control rays to make Canadians vote liberal, and none of us voted for Trump because we wanted to Make Canada Great Again.
They’re adults and have their own sovereign country which they need to fix and stop blaming us. Or confess, like the Dominion of Newfoundland did back in 1933, that they can’t maintain responsible government and get absorbed into a country that can.
Niketas Chroniates: That is one great troll, on a par with the master himself, our esteemed president Donald J. Trump. Bravo.
The kerfuffle over the request for government employees to submit by e-mail five things done in the last week reminds me so, so much of helping my granddaughter with her math homework. Ten minutes of whining, obfuscation, delays, and complaining to do a problem that only takes a minute. Seriously, folks could have typed a few lines, sent it in, and there wouldn’t be a news story.
Bluegreen kayak,
I worked in a remote location to my manager and had to fill out a regular review of tasks in process-completed tasks-future tasks. It was a pain, but I don’t think asking for an email with five things you’ve done during the week is too much. Even if it became a regular part of the job.
I will say, in a previous job as a manager I had to lay off/fire employees and it can be a very traumatic event for the person losing their job. You sometimes had to act as a counselor and let the employee go through an abbreviated grief episode.
I hope there is a more formal process for engaging with employees than an email with the iconic “your fired.”
During my last job (before retirement) I was part of a large RIF (do to the Great Recession) and the company had counselors and had worked out with the state employment agency to have a packet for unemployment benefits to soften the blow. The worst part was they also hired security guards to walk you out of the facility. That was kind of demeaning, but there was a possibility out of the hundreds of people being laid off that some might react violently.
Karmi:
They gave you a sedative for your cataract surgery, didn’t they? I suppose that’s why you needed a driver.
Best wishes, Karmi. (Thanks for letting us know what’s been going on.)
M J R