There is no such thing as a recovering political junkie.
At least not in my house. Here at Mo Saoirse Hermitage, the entire household (with the exception of Ava-dog and the cat) have had their eyes glued to news screens even through days of post-election existential emptiness (“Biden has gained 34 new v*tes over Trump in Pencaronevia, while Trump’s lead in North Georgvania has slipped from 1.6662 percentage points to 1.6661!”).
Why a free-market anarchist and small-town Outlaw should be so engaged with Stupid National Politics, I can’t explain. But so it is.
And you know, the news isn’t all bad.
Even if we end up with President Biden Harris, as seems likely, the wokest of the woke left has had its arse handed to it. If the Dems win the presidency, it’ll be more because of Trump loathing or sheer desperation than because American’s approve of rioting in the streets, Medicare for All, or college educations made “free” for the chosen by the sweat of “racist” working-class people (who should have given up “shoveling coal” and “learned to code,” after all).
For the second election in a row, the D’s had their arrogant assumptions shattered. “We’ll gain 15 seats in the House!” “We’ll take the Senate!” “We’ll turn Texas blue!” Um … no you won’t. (They could still possibly take the Senate, but most likely only if one of their post-election desperation plans (“Move all the blue folk to Georgia in time to register for the January runoff elections!”) miraculously came to pass.)
The polling profession? Limping and blinded. The mainstream media? In shock that their propaganda scarcely moved the electoral needle. Social media? Their censorship may have worked against Trump, but in the long run, it’s turning the country against them. Billionaires? Oh, there’s still so much they cannot buy!
If the R’s do keep control of the Senate, they’ll be able to stop a lot of nonsense. NOT, of course, because they’re such a bulwark of freedom principle (ROFL, gasp, choke), but simply because they’re now so into the bloody-minded eternal standoff with The Other Party.
And Pelosi and Schumer? Humiliated and repudiated. Though of course that won’t necessarily stop them from being re-elected to their undeservedly august positions. The Dems are shockingly slow learners.
But they’ve just (finally!) GOT to pay attention to the way the v*tes of blacks, Hispanics, and LGBT people swung toward Trump. Quit whining and raging as if your house servants betrayed you, Democrat Massas, and realize something’s happening here and you’d better learn what it is.
The working classes and common sense still live. That’s big.
IMHO, one of the best things to come out of Tuesday’s v*tes was the utter repudiation of the drug war. Every single place where cannabis was on the ballot, cannabis — and freedom — won. And Oregon, demonstrating that “progressive” values do actually have some uses, not only v*ted to decriminalize small quantities of recreational drugs, but to legalize and set up a therapeutic structure for psilocybin to take effect within the next two years.
Libertopia? Hardly. But it beats the available alternative of locking everybody up under one of Biden’s favorite laws.
On the more local/regional scale (or as the pundits like to say “granular” — I’ve always wanted to use the word granular like the smart people do), a lot of small good stuff happened, too. In a state that went resoundingly for Biden, I nevertheless watched several formerly very popular local Dem politicians get knocked out of their seats despite months of mailbox-clogging ad barrages. Does this change anything much? No. But it’s all part of the larger Message: “We may think Trump’s an a**hole, but that doesn’t mean we love you clueless, arrogant Blues and your attempts to remake our country into Venezuela, either. Be forewarned.”
Anyway, those are the thoughts of this particular freedomista non-recovering political junkie. What are yours?
FRIDAY FREEDOM QUESTION:
What’s the best thing to come out of Tuesday’s election?
And what’s the worst?
1. What’s the best thing to come out of Tuesday’s election?
The Dem election fraud on such a blatant, in your face, “Yeah, we did it; whaddya gonna do about it?” thumb-nosing-America scale that everyone knows it now.
2. And what’s the worst?
That it still won’t matter.
So…
There was an “election” a contest by two opposing parties?
Four years ago, a second rate actor was placed in a role,now another second rate actor has been placed in the same role.
Trump and Biden were never in any contest, just like professional wrestling, it’s a sham.
You lost freedom during the Trump administration, and you’llose freedom during tbe Biden administration.
The powers that be have people cheering their own oppressors.
I used to be angry about this, and attempted, in vain, to change things, then I was depressed, I couldn’t figure out why people would give their freedom away, for the pathetic goal of getting those people (fill in the blank with your enemy of choice)
Now I just laugh, I learned that you can’t save fish from drowning.
People are happy screaming at the people they’ve been told to hate, those bad folks comming to get them (fight them thete so you don’t have to fight them here)
Bear +100
At least the Wizard showed some embarrassment and shame when Toto pulled the curtain back. These people are just so blatant and uncaring about it.
1, The best thing? We now definitively know voting doesn’t matter, and except for the blip in 2016 political outcomes are predetermined.
2. Worst? After knowing #1 for so long that it still bothers me to watch it happen.
Is it still too early….?
As another pathetic political junkie, this is shaping up to be very entertaining. As usual we had one guy who was the wholehearted enemy of freedom (D) against another guy that didn’t understand what freedom was (R). What was unusual is that the second guy recognized that not only was the (D) an authoritarian, he was also a criminal. What was even more unusual he called him out on it. So of course the D’s pulled out all the stops to steal the election, else they might be arrested. They were so blatant, even liberal sheeple now know the system is rigged. So maybe it was worth something.
1. The Mole Hunt continues…
2. The Mole Hunt continues, and now WE know which ones are rino’s.
Whichever happens (snicker), Something has been awakened in this country and will sadly still lead to some sort of armed conflict. Some say, “Marxism Won”, some say Capitalism Won. The free market is too big to go away. Possibly ethereum replaces the dollar in the now re-organized fed. Whatever the case, even the marxists (“not-fascists” lol) will still need bread-winners. Hmmm, somehow I don’t see that going well.
So, Whatever happens the Masons still have to clean up their own house. They have been sending code back and forth. If (and that’s a big if), the Harris, Bi-den admin. takes over the WH-I see violence and assassinations coming(blamed on the right-to invalidate the ‘conspiracy theorists’). If Trump retains his POTUS position-I see trials and executions(or disappearances) and rioting and burning for a little while until the Rule of Law is re-established-if it even can be.
They will have gotten what they wanted in the short term and then a years, maybe decades long conflict will continue in this country of ours. All the CoVid 21, the ‘Great Reset’, ‘Transition Integrity Project’ and all other things Agenda 2030 will be foisted on Children in there living room-classrooms and the unsuspecting not-smart-enough-to-turn-off-the-TV(brainwashing device) Plebs and Normies will start getting onboard with ULW, HarrisCare, Vax and endless lockdown’s until “THEY” will only need your conciousness to vote and they can already upload that to the Cloud.
Dystopian? Hell yes. Well thought out, Ummm-I don’t think so.
FWIW, YMMV.
The divide between urban and rural, is pretty stark. I’ve also noted little islands of blue, where institutions of higher indoctrination reside, in seas of red. Pretty much a 65-35 split, in favor or either red or blue, depending on population density or educational establishments. What is it about the urban/educational elite or the rural experience that generates such different value systems and mindsets? Seriously…this puzzles me because it is such a uniform phenomenon.
A small observaton:
Trump lost the popular vote, I’m told by my liberal family and friends. But is that the whole story? Popular vote…where? He lost the popular vote by 3.9 million votes (so far), but that is entirely accounted for with California’s lopsided 4.1 million excess votes in favor of Biden. The other 49 states, taken as a total, went for Trump. I take some comfort that the rest of the nation cannot be dragged into left coast liberalism by California alone, thanks to the Electoral College.
I don’t feel like a junkie; maybe that’s exactly what it is, but I still would argue that it’s more like a life lived perpetually and involuntarily in Condition Orange, where you have to keep your eyes on the grinning motherf**ker who keeps on closing off your escape pathways.
Voltaire famously said that those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Well, brethren and sistren, behold the absurdity and stand by for the atrocity. Remember when we used to joke that the modern world wouldn’t pass as credible fiction any more? Yeah, good times.
So, with the caveat that the week of what George Carlin used to allude as National Public Masturbation Day always leaves me a bit…despondent, I’ll nonetheless make my entry this way:
Best part about this election? Probably that the fraudsters truly cast their lots, in a way that they haven’t “had to” before. That’s useful in the long game. I can see, too, that outside of the more obvious shenanigans for the Office of the One Ring, the wokester in-crowd seems to have suffered across the board–outside the “margin of fraud”–in most of the down-ticket contests. And I have overheard at least one conjecture I really hope does come true: a vindictive, outgoing Orange Man just might pardon Julian Assange and/or Ed Snowden, if only out of spite. (Wouldn’t that be fun?)
Worst part? Fraud that massive, that blatant, done that badly, that widespread, evinces desperation; and desperation is always in service of some cause, some aim, some reason. That reason is still unclear, and I do not believe it’s just explainable as simple results-based TDS. Not on that scale. Claire, you once observed that one does not spy on everyone in a nation simply to catch “mere criminals”, and this has the same sort of stench about it.
I’ve gotta hand it to the puppeteers: the setup for this shitshow was good. Groundwork prep (including arguable trial runs in other election cycles) was at least months in the making, and arguably years, if you consider the conditioning of public opinion for the precise sort of swill we’re being asked to swallow now. Our enemies may be horrible, misanthropic creeps, but at least the planners among them are not stupid–they left themselves an impressive lot of options. I suppose it should be encouraging that among the tools in their toolkit for use during game-day, they had to use so many of them, and so dramatically, to bridge the gap–again, I’d normally expect better track-covering than this–but something about that same blatancy still bugs me.
Because not only is this shitshow not over, it still could swing either way. Yeah, I know, I’ve also joked “…and is there ANY DOUBT what the outcome of this new exception/aberration/anomaly/irregularity will be…gee, what a wonder…”, but that presupposes that the puppeteers’ goal is simply to get the public to accept this “election” in a traditional way. What if the goal isn’t actually that at all, but simply to provoke a civil war by rubbing everyone’s noses in the sheer audacious mendacity of it all? We’ve already got agitators chomping at the bit for a “let’s you and him fight” race war; others calling for most glorious revolution, more of that mostly-peaceful violence, etc. They’ve carefully trained us to hate each other, and clearly they’ve done a frighteningly good job at it.
So maybe the blatancy is a deliberate play to get all those deplorable mundanes, who have long been the undeserving targets of relentless psychological projection of the most awful sorts of things, and who have suffered the slings and arrows with incredible politeness over an impressive vastness of years, to finally flip that “vote/shoot everybody” switch we all joke about.
Anyone here think those orchestrating these kinds of events are above that?
“…may posterity forget that ye were my countrymen”, indeed.
1) The Best Thing? It is over.
2) The Worst Thing? I really have no more hope that we are going to have anything like a sane policy on anything.
Wow Kevin. May I quote that?
JW, I try not to post anything that I wouldn’t be comfortable getting posted somewhere else, with or without my knowledge. Have at it if you like. 🙂
On another topic entirely: is this for real?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7sPNXFSwfs&ab_channel=NewsmaxTV
If it is–I admit, I’m a bit confused.
> Fraud that massive, that blatant, done that badly, that widespread, evinces desperation;
There’s some argument for that, I’ll admit, but I don’t think so. Prep for this going back years – certainly. The Colorado Plan was a successful trial run. But in truth, this is simply the continuation of a process started … in the 1930s? This is Fabian Socialism, the Long March, brought to fruition with Alinsky’s rules. What I get from this isn’t so much desperation but that the Progressives have decided, with ample reason, that they can get away with almost anything now.
That’s the worst part.
We seem to be approaching H.L. Mencken’s prophecy.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe
Sam Hall – This is an amazing quote – and frighteningly accurate probably now and for the rest of time, or at least until something new arises from the ashes.
“Why a free-market anarchist and small-town Outlaw should be so engaged with Stupid National Politics, I can’t explain. But so it is.”
The explanation is that one refuses to let go of the superstitious collectivist belief that politics matter and that one’s own freedom and happiness is in some way a social issue, not an individualist one.
Rilly. How very simple — and simplistic, RC Saunders.
Amazing how you can both unfailingly summarize and harshly judge the psychological makeup of someone you don’t know.
It couldn’t possibly just be that I find politics morbidly fascinating. Or that watching elections is an old habit born of being the progeny of generations of political activists. Or that in a crappy childhood, election-watching was one of the few truly exciting and joyful experiences and one of the few deep bonds I had with my mother and that those memories helped form my adult self. It couldn’t possibly be that I understand full well that my own freedom is individual — but that the overall political climate of the world nevertheless influences how I manage my personal freedom and my community relationships.
Oh, no. It couldn’t possibly be any or all of those things. No, it can only be that I and all other politics watchers are secretly superstitious collectivists.
All these years I’ve spent in the freedomista world, learning and teaching and living and doing, and all this time I’ve merely been pretending to be an individualist! Deluding myself. Fooling the rest of the world. Thank you for enlightening me. I now know my true — dreadful, ignorant, benighted, unenlightened, deceitful — nature.
Gosh, thanks for bestowing your stunning puddle-deep wisdom on us mere superstitious peasants.
Claire…take a bow, that was hilarious!
Stipulating that there may be backstory there of which I am unaware: I dunno, Claire, I just don’t know that I read that much judgment into RCS’ comment. I have certainly asked myself, during all this, if for all my own efforts, I might still somehow be chained to ideas I want no part of.
Now…the notion of you, in particular, being somehow unaware of this dynamic…is indeed oversimplified at best, and really is just kinda funny.
Again, maybe there’s something else there I don’t know about–and maybe I’m just wrong–but most of the real malice going on right now out there seems much more…obvious to me. 🙂
Self-deprecation does not suit you even in sarcasm. You’re better than that.
My comment was not intended as a criticism (of you or anyone else), but an observation of the whole problem of politics.
It was actually Sam Hall’s Mencken quote that brought it to mind. The whole quote is actually:
“When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost… All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Intended or not, to take politics seriously assumes individual freedom and success are in some way dependent on some social or political system, but no political system will ever make a single individual free. It really doesn’t matter, because those who choose to be free can be. Most do not really want to be. I agree with Mencken there, too:
“The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.”
You ought to understand that. At least the last part.
I accept that you didn’t intend judgment and I agree that politics are an incalculably large problem. I also agree that many of us, including me, are conditioned to put too much emphasis on the political. It’s something I have to fight all the time.
But to say that anyone who happens to be fascinated by politics is simply and solely a person who refuses “to let go of the superstitious collectivist belief that politics matter and that one’s own freedom and happiness is in some way a social issue, not an individualist one” is grossly simplistic.
To reduce the complexity of an area of human interest to such a blanket declaration struck me as the sort of ivory tower libertarian purist posturing that I’ve never been able — or perhaps I should say willing — to abide.
One can have an interest in politics without being a secret, superstitious collectivist.
If I misread your intent, I apologize. But I still disagree with you.
Thank you Kevin and Stryder — Stryder for the levity and Kevin for the typical common sense.
“But to say that anyone who happens to be fascinated by politics is simply and solely a person who refuses “to let go of the superstitious collectivist belief that politics matter and that one’s own freedom and happiness is in some way a social issue, not an individualist one” is grossly simplistic.”
Absolutely. It was simplistic, but intentionally so. I’d be glad to expand the concept. It is not an, “interest,” in politics so much, as the belief, whether implicit or explicit, that politics is anything more than a grand deception. So long as one’s interest in it does not include a belief that there is some, “political solution,” or that some, “right political program or party,” can actually make things better, as though government could be fixed, the interest is harmless and academic. I’ve just never met a, “political junky,” who does not believe (and waste a lot time and emotion on) political issues that really do not matter and will never be, “fixed.”
It’s like all the arguments about how public schools should be fixed. The problem with schools is they are run by the government–trying to fix them is trying to find the right way to do the wrong thing.
For the record, I’m not attempting to convince anyone or change what they think or choose to do. I think most people will always seek a political or social means to the things they value but for those who choose to, like everything else in life, if they are to be free and live as they choose, they must achieve that freedom for themselves.
No one needs to agree with me. Almost no one ever does. Everyone has their own mind and most think and choose for themselves what to believe.
Claire,
You stated “I understand full well that my own freedom is individual — but that the overall political climate of the world nevertheless influences how I manage my personal freedom and my community relationships.” I so agree! It could even help to understand how to keep out of the gulag or keep away from the firing squads.
I am no longer interested in the opinions of those elites who are above the fray. Their indifference for many years has led, in my opinion, to the miserable state of affairs we are witnessing today and I must include myself in that group, if only occasionally.
Thank you and Bless you Claire, for your awareness, your philosophy and your writings in your continual fight for Freedom!
And jed, thanks for the tip about the Fabians. It was an eye opener to me. https://fabiansociety.wordpress.com/.
Keep it up Claire!
After settling into office, the predictability of Trump wasn’t half as bad as imagined. Media and Democrats screamed for four years about everything and got little if anything right, but damn, did they ever entertain. Still, the nukes didn’t get launched even with so very many feelerz getting ouchy-boo-boos – often Trump’s himself.
But… now with the media returning to cheerleader status, the predictability of Biden/Harris has an even greater chance of running its course. No doubt, we will need “saved” by whatever enemy is hoisted upon the alter — and there has been plenty of indication it’s ourselves we will be finding upon this new alter; somewhere between the cow farts and the belching cars is where I imagine I will be. Yet, that leaves whomever is left to 4 years of globalization requiring equalization, always moving in the direction of less freedom for the 1%ers, (which, btw, is all of us here in the US).
But just think how great our standing will be in this new world! yippee… yippee…
1) What’s the best thing to come out of Tuesday’s election?
Some politicians got kicked out of power.
2) And what’s the worst?
They were replaced by other politicians.
What’s the best thing to come out of Tuesday’s election?
Increasing polarization. The wilder the demands get from the liberal self-loathing death cult, the less likely they are to be obeyed.
[…] https://www.clairewolfe.com/blog/2020/11/06/friday-freedom-question-well-that-wasnt-so-bad-was-it/ […]
Best things:
Progressives pumped mega-dollars into the Texas election at a rate of 3:1 and utterly flopped. Likewise Florida.
Texas counted 11,231,799 votes by 3 a.m. Wednesday, and Florida more than 10,000,000 votes in about the same time. Comparatively, certain other states are still counting. Clown-shows aren’t good for the image.
Even California voted against the destruction of the gig economy, and against racial preferences.
“BIPOC” voters turned out for “Trump-the-racist” in record numbers, reflecting the #Walkaway videos on YouTube. Trump won Zapata County on the Texas border by 52 percent, which is 98 percent-plus Hispanic, and hasn’t voted Republican ever.
The MSM has apparently forgotten the 2020 Census. The results should be very interesting when the House of Representatives is reapportioned. If Progressivism is so wonderful, why are people fleeing Blue states and flocking to Red states?
Given that their polls were out past the Left field fence in the weeds, and the way the race was called, the MSM gave up all pretense of being “mainstream.”
Worst thing:
The fragile Mideast and Eastern European peace progress will vaporize, and the U.S. military better get used to being sent into every conflict that will result.
“Progressives pumped mega-dollars into the Texas election at a rate of 3:1 and utterly flopped.”
I’d hardly call winning a presidential election “flopping.”
The Democrats knew that if they looked like a threat in Texas and Georgia, the GOP would spend money there that it then couldn’t spend in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc.
At least as of September, Trump was spending twice as much in Georgia as Biden, and spent more on Facebook ads targeting Texas voters than any candidate spent on that kind of advertising in any other state, while slashing ad spending in real battleground states to defend those two castles.
It’s a fairly standard campaign tactic, especially for the campaign with more cash in the first place.
Here’s an explanation of why the GOP took the bait.
Someone again just looking for a fight, I’ll pass, tldr.
But Claire, this is for you.
Homeschooling away here and working through US history, discussion came up of all those woke children, (most actually rich, white old-enough-to-know-better adults), in the streets screaming about this horrible society. The boy, walked away. Undeterred I simply raised my voice — it’s cold enough outside he can’t go that far. Yet, he promptly comes back in the room carrying a book and starts reading to me from number 9.
“Anyone endorsing the view that all products of European, male-dominated culture are oppressive to women, people of color, and people holding “intuitive,” rather than “limited, linear” worldviews are expected to do the following:
a) Refrain from crossing all bridges which are the product of the most linear and therefore most limiting of sciences, mathematics, and engineering.
b) Do not travel in any conveyance using either wheels or an engine for motivation.
c) Avoid entering any buildings whose construction is beyond the technology level of a brick hut.”
I know most here will know the rest, 😉 so I’ll just skip a few down to the most important for those who might not.
“g) Most important, do not claim the protections of the Bill of Rights, including that of free speech. This document was not only composed by Dead White Males but it was conceived, written, and ratified by that most evil of all DWM classes that of hypocritical slaveholders. Therefore it is of no value at all and will naturally be shunned by all right-thinking persons who hold your worldview.”
Thank you Claire. Looks like we can both take the rest of the day off.
{Insert clapping hands emoji here}
Refrain from crossing all bridges
For today’s young folks, I remind them their phone won’t communicate unless it’s on precisely the same frequency as the nearest cell tower.
There are many great comments in this thread. Bear really set the tone; the Commentariat is impressive.
I understand why so many people are political junkies. It is the best “reality” show on earth. I found myself getting sucked into it as well. I had begun watching presidential elections with my parents in 1964. 2020 was building up to be the most exciting one ever. I even found myself thinking about voting (for the first time in 20 years).
So, about a week before the election, I stopped reading/viewing anything that had to do with politics. I distracted myself by watching “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on Amazon prime. I thought it was better for my psyche.
This week I began paying a little attention, and it’s all fraud all the time. We still have no idea who the next POTUS will be. The show must go on!
Voting fraud is a longstanding tradition in the U.S.A. It goes back to 1787/1788.
When the constitution was presented for ratification, most people suspected it would lead to totalitarianism. Historians estimate that up to 80% were opposed. Only one state held a general election (Rhode Island). There the vote was 11% in favor. The split then, as today, was mostly rural vs. urban. In the census of 1790, the population was 94% rural.
The rest of the states elected delegates to special ratifying conventions. The voting was rigged so that the majority of delegates were city folk. Kamala Harris won.
FishOrMan — What a great little story, and what a great family you must have. Yes, you and I can both take some credit and rest a moment on our laurels.
Additional credit for “The Law in Hardyville” goes to Charles Curley, who co-created that with me way, way back when.
One thing I like about this blog is that no matter what I think I know or deeply believe about situation, the discussion here will always present me with some idea from somebody that will challenge me to reconsider my worldview or my local political view. I frequently disagree with statements made by many of the commenters but there is always at least one of you who brings up some point that I feel I’ve either omitted considering or to which I’d not paid enough attention.
I didn’t even come here to make a comment about the election because I think it’s one of those scripted dramas where you have to see the end before you understand the process of getting there. There were some comments to which I wanted to “get picky“, but due to the effect some of you have had on my thinking I’m not going to do that either. I have to mull over some of the points made here, before I will be able to determine what I would want to say.
I will say that in general I believe government is to a society nothing more than a parasite which will feed on the host until the host dies. In terms of individual lives, government is a cancer that will sap your strength and life until you have neither. In my opinion a person’s safest course regarding government in general is to avoid it as diligently as you would a vomiting street beggar staggering out of an alley.
david — You’re a mensch. And a good observer.
You flatter me Claire. It’s undeserved, but I’ll take it. Thank you.