How Can Anyone With A Brain Vote Democrat?

I’ve been trying to answer this question for years. With what’s presently going on here in America but also around the world, the mess having been created and perpetuated by Leftist/Democrat ideology and policy, the question is acutely relevant.

I’ve written in the past about how a dumb-downed, feeble-minded, intellectually lazy and lemming-like half of the nation or the honestly naive (e.g. children) get their news, thus their perception of reality, from the propagandist-legacy media, “The View”, late-night ‘comedy’, social media, among themselves at cocktail parties, play-dates, and worst of all, from college lecterns and from behind teachers’ desks. Even children’s cartoons have a Left-slant to them. Have you ever noticed how adults/parents, particularly those with traditional views, are always portrayed in them as doofuses, bad guys, tyrants, unfair, authoritarians, clueless or inept?

I’ve argued that no amount of logic, no amount of REAL reality, no actual consequences phase Democrats. They continue to vote and act in concert. Leftist ideology is constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY, shoved into our faces and into our ears. For those without either the will or the ability to use even an ounce of critical thinking; for those unwilling or unable to recognize cause and effect and the impact of Democrat policies on their daily lives; for those who’s perception of reality is formed by high-production-value Hollywood propaganda… it’s ingrained. It’s imprinted.

I’m reminded of a frightening scene from the Will Smith movie, “I am Legend”. It’s a post-apocalyptic thriller where zombie-humans come out at night to kill and eat anything living but during the day hide in dark places because they are repelled by sunlight. One day the protagonist’s dog goes missing. He follows him into a dark garage and comes upon a group of zombies clumped together, all facing inward, moving only slightly as they breathe heavily. (The picture above is a screen grab of this scene.)

THIS is what Democrats remind me of! They clump. They all look the same, repeat the same words, vote the same way, irrespective of what it does to them and those around them!

Another author, Greg Salsbury, writing in American Thinker had a complementary spin on the answer to the question.

He suggests in his article: Understanding the ‘Always Blue’ Mindest (American Thinker 11/19/23) that “simple association” is what drives Democrats in zombie-esq fashion to pull the blue lever at each election. By association he means the constant barrage of “Red is bad, Blue is good”, in-your-face messaging that really does brainwash a brain-addled thus receptive population. As he states, “The concept of “Always vote blue, no matter whohas been programmed into tens of millions of voters.”

A conclusion he reaches, with which I mostly agree, is “Republicans must understand that there are no magic facts or talking points, no silver bullet arguments, no game-changing photographic or videographic evidence that will suddenly open the eyes of most Democrats. Gravity still exists, and so does the “always blue” mindset. Republicans need to forget conversion and focus on the base and independents—exclusively.

However, in my opinion, concentrating on the base and independents (do the latter really exist? – a topic for another time) is not enough. Couple the corruption, cheating, rigging, ballot-stuffing and other Democrat tactics to steal elections with the impact of attractive and enticing “celebrities” touting Leftist drivel with the implication that Blue is Good, Red is Bad and we will get the kind of results we got in the elections a couple of weeks ago and are at risk of losing big next November!

THE ONLY WAY to counter this tsunami of cancerous and evil indoctrination is to encourage the few celebrities with brains and courage to create the reverse association: Red is good, Blue is bad. It’s happening in small drips and drabs already. If only we could get rid of Ronna McDaniel and all the rest of the tired and anachronistic GOP implants and replace them with fighter, competent, articulate, Celebrity-Leaders who could face the media and champion conservative principles, then MAYBE we’d have a chance to turn our country around. Kari Lake would be an obvious choice but there are many others who could fill the bill. How about Tom Selleck, or Dana Loesch, or Tom Brady or someone like them (I’m just throwing darts here…)

That SOMEONE is out there. He or she, like us, has had enough and has the courage and is sufficiently secure to speak out, speak loudly, instruct, influence and convince the brain-addled that the path to greater peace and prosperity is through Conservative/Traditional policies and actions…

Red is Good. Blue is Bad. Rinse, repeat.

Think Technology Just Saves Time? Think Again!

Lara Logan’s warning on “X” yesterday:

Contact tracing is surveillance. Your phone, ipad, laptop etc – all surveillance devices. Your cameras, Alexa, Google Nest – surveillance devices. The computers in your car? Surveillance devices. Smart dishwasher, smart thermostat, smart fridge etc? Surveillance devices. If you use technology to lock and unlock your front door….do you realize you can be locked out of your home by whoever controls that technology? Anytime they want. If you think you’re doing nothing wrong so it does not matter that you are being surveilled, then it is possible you literally do not have a brain. Wait until you are surveilled 24/7 by AI, every move, every thought, every wish, everything. AI will control the power, water, transport, education, information, entertainment, access to food – all of it. You will no longer be giving commands to Alexa – Alexa will do whatever those behind the technology want. Your needs & wants & your current ability to direct technology will be a thing of the past. If you did not write the program, you have no power. If you do not own the cables, software & physical infrastructure that moves data, you have no power. Unless you stop the techno power grab while we still can. It’s only inevitable if you surrender while there is still time to protect humanity from the humans driving this threat. Lara Logan on “X”

A Stark Warning That Nails It!

I’ve been trying to come up with words to express my cognitive and emotional revulsion at what is transpiring in our country right before our eyes. Lots of cute phrases and labels, like “banana republic” are being thrown about, but they are just headline/attention grabbers.

Now Newt Gingrich has really nailed it for me and I urge all my readers to look at the following article on Gateway Pundit: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/newt-gingrich-issues-stark-warning-trump-georgia-indictment/ which summarizes his comments on Hannity. I’ve placed the transcribed quote in the quotes section of this site to the left, but the warning is indeed stark and accurately reflects, in my opinion, the harsh reality of how bad things are.

Could The Tide Be Turning?

It’s depressing to witness what’s happened to our country over the last ten to fifteen years. The leftist ideologues since the 60’s have infested and polluted every one of our institutions. There is no need to list all the evidence of leftist infiltration and rot here. Readers are well aware of it all (see my previous “Sitrep” post).

But there’s a whiff of fresh air amid all the leftist pollution. It’s just a whiff, but there is cause for optimism that the pendulum may have started to swing to the Right, that the long slide down the slippery slope has stopped, or at least slowed. I suggest readers read Ian MacConnell’s excellent March 2023 article in American Thinker for an inspiring and hopeful look at the landscape.

As he notes, the turning point, in retrospect, may have been Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter last October 2022.

Twitter’s penetration and influence cannot be denied. Truth or falsehood, it became the journal of record, and it was exclusively dominated by the Left. It was utilized very effectively to brainwash whole swaths of society.

Musk’s purchase began to peel the onion of leftist control, indoctrination, ideology. For the first time, the corruption we on the Right always knew about and spoke of was exposed to the masses, the already brainwashed, the dumbed down who inhabited and dominated the “Twitter-Verse.”

In the last few weeks leading up to the 2022 election the “Twitter Files” exposed how the federal government hid a ton of information from the public on everything from COVID to the Hunter laptop. They exposed how conservatives were censored and cancelled. The result was not the red wave we were all expecting, but, thank God, we at least got back the House!

And despite the rocky start, Kevin McCarthy started some of the payback so sorely and urgently needed. Among other things, he kicked the Swalwell and Schiff scum off committees. He started investigations into the leftist corruption, appointing the solid James Comer and Jim Jordan to lead the inquiries.

Now, the general public, even those who watch MSNBC and CNN, know about the corruption: of the FBI, the DOJ, the Bidens. They now know the January 6th narrative was nonsense, about all the lies and misinformation surrounding COVID, about the canceling and censorship of anyone who spoke against leftist ideology.

What’s happened to FOX News is a harbinger. Aside from Trump hurting the Rupert Murdoch’s feelings, their viewership growth had stalled. In a bid to gain viewers from the Left, it moved more to the middle in its reporting and its opinion shows, allowing leftist commentators more and more airtime. The Murdoch sons, upon inheriting the helm from their father, advanced the leftist slide at the network until the pressure to go full woke got to the point where it fired or lost various conservative hosts. The last straw was firing Tucker Carlson. Bad move.

Jumping on the leftist bandwagon, Anheuser Busch and Disney not to mention scores of other ESG/DEI compliant companies, also went full woke. The Bud Light and Disney results are evidence of the backlash to which I’m referring.

School board meetings where parents, particularly mama-bears, have drawn the line, the leftist media forced to cover the Biden corruption, more and more whistleblowers appearing before Congressional Committees publicly exposing the leftist rot in all our institutions…all of these represent the beginnings of what may be a turn in our country’s fortunes.

Now, if we can just clean up the elections and eliminate the censorship so we don’t have a repeat of 2020 and 2022 (we SHOULD have had a RED WAVE!!!) , take back the Presidency and the Senate and hold the House, so long as we can keep the RINO’s and Swamp Republicans on a leash, we may, just may, be able to start the long climb back up the slippery slope to restore America to its traditional roots and rightful place in the world.

Fingers crossed, hands clasped, arms folded in hope and prayer.

An Updated SITREP

SITREP means “Situation Report” and here’s an update of just how bad things are under this administration. It’s in the form of a simple list of things we’ve all heard about. There’s just so much, however, that it’s a fog of acidic filth and it’s difficult to keep tabs on everything. That’s of course exactly how the Left wants it…create so much chaos that as more and more people give up fighting, government will step in to take everyone under wing and “save us.”

See if any of these things have fallen off your radar:

Fundamental Transformation
The Laptop
Obamacare
Energy Dependence
Tech spying and intrusion
Afghanistan
China
Military Wokeness
Police Resignations
California’s demise
Chicago’s demise
The 1619 Project
Critical Race Theory
LGBTQ++
The Open Border
Stolen/Rigged Elections – You honestly believe Biden got 81 million LEGITIMATE VOTES???
Judicial Activism – Soros’ prosecutors and judges unhinged
Persecution of Christians and Jews
Radical Envirofascism
Snowflakes
COVIDIOCY
Tech Censorship
Social Media Addiction
Government Unions
The World is Laughing at Us
FBI abuse of power – 51 Signers, they won’t tell us who brought the cocaine into the White House???
Biden’s Dementia and physical incapacity
Kamala Harris – Border and now AI Czar! “AI is two letters that mean artificial intelligence…” So profound!
AOC
The Squad
Joy Behar, Adam Schiff, Anthony Fauci, Stacy Abrams, Louis Farrakhan, Greta Thunberg, Al Sharpton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and so many other grifters, incompetents, liars and anti-American idiots I can’t even list them all!
CBDC (that’s Central Bank Digital Currency)
The war on the suburbs
Biden’s forgiveness of student debt despite the Supreme Court Ruling
Transgenderism/Child Mutilation
Assault on Conservatives (Rand Paul, Justice Thomas, etc.)
BLM
ANTIFA

Need I go on?

God help us!

Rumblings of Revolution

Yesterday I attended a training meeting organized by an emergency response team to which I belong. The topic was those actions we might undertake outside of our official capacity when happening upon an emergency, before first responders arrive. The instructor included in his preamble something along the lines of the following: “Today Trump was indicted so we should all be particularly mindful of the potential for insurrection and violence anywhere we go.”

What unadulterated BS! This guy has clearly been watching too much Fake News. The leftist talking heads WANT there to be violence. They WANT to show images of “white supremacist nationalist racist homophobic transphobic ultra MAGA Trump followers” engaging in violence to support their false narrative. They ignore the Biden corruption and breathlessly show video of snipers on roofs and any possible example of raised voices in order to be able to point, “There, see, they’re violent extremists”. So of course the instructor, a Leftist, virtue-signaler who get his news from MSNBC just HAD to parrot the idiot talking heads hyperventilating in hopes of “if it bleeds it leads” headlines.

It is, of course, the Left that riots, burns buildings and cars, kills people and engages in violent insurrection, not Trump supports or the Right! But let’s not let facts cloud the story!

What really happened was that thousands of people absolutely appalled by the judicial travesty that unfolded yesterday came out and PEACEFULLY protested the abuse. The Cuban refugee community prayed for Trump in a popular local restaurant he visited, and hundreds turned up for a fundraiser at Trump’s club in Bedminster, NJ last night to support him. No violence, no armed rebellion, no looting or burning or lascivious acts.

Every day our country descends further and further into the abyss of tyranny and oppression. Tucker Carlson, in the third installment of his Twitter monologues (see it here) puts it succinctly and in far more eloquent terms than I could ever articulate. His topic was the hypocrisy of the Uniparty, i.e. the Swamp, i.e. institutional Washington, but the underlying message was further explanation of why our country is going to hell.

As I have noted repeatedly over the last few years, short of Divine Intervention, only a Black Swan, Unknown-unknown, cataclysmic or catastrophic event will eliminate the evil that has permeated every corner of our institutions and our society. We have gone way past the point of no return. We are now careening down the slippery slope to a second-rate world power, no longer to be a land of peace and prosperity, a beacon on a hill.

An article by Glenn Elmers of the Claremont Institute goes so far as to suggest that a Revolution MAY be possible, may even be inevitable given how out of control the government aka the Biden administration has gotten. His article, which cites the Declaration of Independence and the factors that compelled the original Revolution can be read here. So, yeah, at some point the Left may push so hard against sanity and the American traditions that millions upon millions of pissed off people, having lost their freedoms, having lost their livelihoods, having lost their property and their way of life, WILL revolt.

I also commend to your reading the article by Kevin Slack, author of a brand new book entitled, “The War on the American Republic:How Liberalism Became Despotism”. The article, found here, is entitled, “The Constitution, Citizenship, and the New Right” and pretty well summarizes his thesis. He argues that it is the fact that the people ARE armed that forms a bulwark against tyranny, a deterrent to ultimate subjugation of the people into servitude.

The Left keeps baiting us. They want to foment armed conflict in order to be able to declare martial law and/or exert control by force. But as Slack notes…

“The only force that can oppose this servitude is an armed citizenry with a stake in society, angry about its managed decline, and insistent upon its rights. Thus the kleptocrats’ fear is an armed citizenry above all, and they seek to register, then confiscate, AR-15s to render the people defenseless against state coercion. Such tyranny could trigger open conflict—Americans own some 500 million firearms. And while the Left celebrates revolution, its marchers have never seen the systematic ordering force of conservatism when prodded to destruction. The Left can claim control of the bureaucracy and military command, but of actual fighting forces it holds few—it has alienated local police and the 3.3 million veterans who have returned from recent imperial wars. The Right, after such a long train of abuses, must confront whether it would be willing to leap into the revolutionary abyss. This willingness and preparedness for war may be the way to prevent open conflict, to force a common recognition of some table of values, of inalienable rights not subject to negotiation.”

Yup.

Leftist Vocabulary & Euphemisms

I’m so fed up with the Left redefining terms and creating euphemisms. “Progressives”?? Hardly! How about “Socialists” or “Leftists” which is what they really are! They so bastardized the term “Liberal” they had to come up with something else. (Ironically, it’s now Conservatives/Traditionalists who are Liberal!)

“Gay”? How about “Homosexual”?

“Undocumented Immigrant”? How about “Illegal Alien”?

“Immigration Reform”? Nonsense! It’s really “Amnesty”!

“Equity”? This is a particularly devious bastardization of “Equality”. It goes to the heart of socialism versus meritocracy, to the issue of equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome.

“Fair Share”? More like “Disproportionate Taxation of the Wealthy” and the underpinning of obscene redistribution.

“Cognitive Decline” (particularly as used in connection with Joe Biden). Really, it’s “Dementia”

“Abortion”, “Euthanasia” or “Assisted Suicide”. How about simply “Murder”, the immoral taking of a human life.

“Pro-Choice”…not really. It’s really “Pro-Abortion”.

“Investments” = “Government Spending”

“Fetus”? How about an “Unborn Child”

“Gender Reassignment”. Really, a sex change.

“Economically Disadvantaged Area”? How about, simply, “Ghetto”?

“Hate Speech”? Anything the Left disagrees with.

“Homophobia” – what the Left ascribes to anyone who disagrees with the LBGTXXX agenda.

“Rainforest” = “Jungle”

“Substance Abuse” = “Drug Addiction”

“Unpaid Sex Worker” = a “Wife” or “Girlfriend”

“Wetlands” – what the Left call “Swamps”

“World Community” – a euphemism for the “New World Order” of “Globalism”.

“Community” = “Government”

“Climate Change” (aka “Global Warming”) which really is a rallying cry for rabid environmentalism.

 “Thought Crime” – anything the Left doesn’t like.

The secularization of language by the Left in an attempt to banish all references to God is another thing that really angers me. There are dozens of examples, but one that particularly galls me is the change of B.C./A.D. which means “Before Christ” and Anno Domini (In the Year of Our Lord) to the godless “B.C.E. and C.E.” which mean “Before the Common Era” and “Common Era.”

I’m getting angrier and angrier just writing this! Truly, the Left seek to “fundamentally transform” our God blessed Nation into a communist/socialist/totalitarian/atheistic hellhole. They think secularization is the foundation for Utopia. Anyone with half a usable brain and a basic knowledge of history knows that every time Leftist policies have been enacted or practiced they have only succeeded in necrotizing society.

I say we reject accepting their alternative definitions, their euphemistic terms and revert back to the words and terms that accurately describe the cancer they’re trying to spread!

The Topics Are Being Covered

I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks. It’s not because I don’t have anything to say. It’s because there has been a groundswell of commentary by others far more articulate than I who cover just about everything on which I might opine! Authors like Victor Davis Hanson, Brian C. Joondeph, Matt Vespa, Derek Hunter, Katie Pavlich, and so many others write superbly, say it like it is, and often take the words right out of my mouth, and before I can form them!

And it’s not just the conservative websites and blogs that carry their thoughts. Increasingly, and finally (!) even leftist media outlets are starting to react to the never-ending stream of BS that emanates from the mouths of the government and their lackies.

Actually, it’s the other way around. The lackies are running the government. The leftist demagogues in big tech, the media, academia, the Marxist implants in the judicial system, the use(less) idiots seeking their fifteen minutes of fame…all are formed into an assault on traditional values. Think the scene from the Battle of Helms Deep in Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers.

The topics are at this point, familiar. There is, like clockwork, an idiocy or atrocity or two or three stemming from the Left each and every day. It truly is like the scene shown above. The forces of good and evil are arrayed against one another, and for the moment, it’s as if evil has the upper hand.

Here’s the problem:

On the Right we have free thinking, self-governing, independent, solo practitioners of Life.

On the Left, we have lemmings, sheep, sycophants, utopian-fantasy, “can’t we all just get along”, head-in-the-sand, dumbed-down, addled and brainwashed followers led by power-and-wealth-hungry demagogues.

It’s extremely difficult for individuals to stand up to the crowd. Especially when the crowd has megaphones and billboards the size of jumbotrons!

It’s not a matter of the Right “waking up”. We’re fully awake. It’s that INDIVIDUALS cannot beat the COLLECTIVE without HELP.

Where does that HELP come from? Is it a charismatic, righteous leader? Is it a conservative institution that rises above all others? Is it a Black Swan/Monumental event that draws us together by forcing us to concentrate on the traditional things that matter? Is it Divine Intervention?

I think nothing short of a catastrophic or tipping point event that compels the weak-minded Left to set aside their foolishness and return to level-headed basics together with the aggregate pleadings of millions upon millions of God-fearing individuals imploring Divine Intervention will break the back of the cancer that has affected our nation and the rest of the Western World.

Another 9-11. China invading Taiwan. The Israelis nuking Tehran. NORKO bombing Japan. Russia using tactical nukes in Ukraine or invading Poland or Finland. Or less likely: a CME (coronal mass ejection) wiping out our electrical grid or Ebola/Marburg exploding in Africa and spreading throughout the world.

These are all what we’d call “known unknowns”. Then there are the “unknown unknowns”. By definition, we can’t see it/them coming.

The situation is beyond “out of control” at this point. We can hope and pray that the consequences of “wokeness” keep materializing. Corporations (Disney, Anheuser Busch) and Schools (school board attendance/protests) are just a couple of examples of the swinging of the pendulum. Late-night comedians (Maher, Gutfeld) are picking up on it. Legislatures are putting their feet down in various red-districts. Churches are sheepishly (.sic) returning to traditional dogma.

Voices more powerful than mine are becoming more bold, more heard, more acknowledged and maybe, just maybe, the ground is being prepared for the final battle. We must win or perish.

The State of the Union Address

I admit. I didn’t watch it. I am so disgusted by the continuing marionette show I prefered to simply review the commentary afterwards. Others far more informed than I have already pointed out all the lies and distortions that spewed forth from the mouth of the puppet-in-chief. I’m going to, rather, address the peripheral question as to whether the GOP over-reacted and/or inappropriately reacted to the deliberate, pre-meditated misrepresentations and accusations hurled at them. Should they have sat quietly shaking their heads as Kevin McCarthy did, or should they have stood and yelled, “liar”, as Marjorie Taylor Greene did?

I’ve listened to both sides of the argument. Some on the Right say that not only was it uncharacteristic of members to shout out their opposition, but unseemly at best, rude and obnoxious at worst. They suggest that having done so, the GOP descended into the mud pit and acted no better than the Democrats. “Take the high road” has more often than not been the admonition of the Right.

What good has taking the high road done? I’m all for nobility and decorum, but when your opposition elevates their game from name-calling to defamation, censorship and character assassination (not to mention threat of REAL assassination – e.g. Kavanaugh), i.e. nonsensical speech to verbal kinetics, and has destroyed all means of civil undertakings to oppose him, the decision has to be made whether to take off the gloves and fight back, or not. The Democrats have so destroyed the principles by which we as a nation have governed ourselves for over three hundred years, so twisted and perverted the vocabulary, the rules of engagement, our history, even FACTS, that we have no choice, really, but to fight fire with fire.

This does not mean that we should simply resort to the kind of perverted antics so cherished by the Alinsky/Cloward and Piven brainwashed Left. Throwing the BS flag onto the floor of the House as was done during the SOTU isn’t a duplication of their style. Rather, it was a transparent, for-all-the-world-to-see return of fire akin (but more honest) to the ripping up of Trumps SOTU speech by Pelosi.

While some on the Right have argued that we gave the MSM a golden opportunity to castigate us further, I could almost hear the unified voices of the Traditionalists and Conservatives in America joining MTG, in unison!

Just as the Chinese push and push to see how far they can go, what our limits are, the Democrats have pushed and pushed to determine how far THEY can go. And once our limit is reached, and we push back, they cry, “See, you’re pigs and fascists and racists and anti-democracy and insurrectionists and threats to America.”

This is projection of the first order! Their banal vituperations are so childish, so outlandish, so petulant, so descriptive of precisely what THEY are and what THEY do, it would be laughable if it were not so destructive.

Shouting “liar” may be rude, but it’s factual, and for many brain-addled, MSNBC/CNN/NBC/CBS/ABC-watching Americans, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen any opposition to the BS spewing forth from their “leaders”.  The MSM has so distorted and censored the truth, they have created an alternative reality that millions of our fellow Americans actually believe! They are shocked to see the Right stand and call “BS”. They are puzzled when the MSM is forced (follow the money!) to cover the Democrats’ patently obvious treachery and deceit, their attempts to hide their failures and the results of their destructive policies and actions.

Is vocal opposition such as that witnessed during the SOTU enough to turn the tide? Does it help push the pendulum back? Will the probes by Comer and Jordan and the continuing exposure by what remains of conservative media start to repair the damage done to the hearts and minds of so many Americans who have fallen for the Leftist “alternative reality”?

I fear not. As good as it felt to hear someone voice what I would have said in the House chamber that night, it’s all talk. Until the GOP uses its power to halt the idiocracy created by the Democrats, until it garners and uses every tool at its disposal to pierce the dark fog of BS with which the Democrats have filled the airwaves, until more MTG’s, Gaetz’s Jordans, Kennedys, etc. create enough headlines with truth bombs to get the lemmings to break from their rush to the precipice, we will continue to simply hurl invectives at one another and continue sliding down the slippery slope.

As I have come to conclude, it’s going to take something monumental to wake America up. Not a balloon, not the Hunter laptop, not yelling “liar”. Something truly nasty may need to happen that will cause us to apply chemotherapy combined with radiation to kill the cancer that has metastasized. The Democrats have skillfully exploited the ratchet effect to incrementally destroy our values, our principles, our country.

We need to strip the ratchet.

A Black Swan May Be The Only Thing That Will Stop This Madness

In my previous post I concluded that it may take a cataclysmic event to restore sanity to our nation. I’m not talking about the price of eggs or gas skyrocketing, or store shelves being empty for a few days. I’m talking about something that will cause even the most dumbed-down, brain-addled, handheld-screen-addicted person to pick his or her head up and say, “Wow, maybe some things are more important than what the Kardashians are up to this week!”

I’ve long said that Economics is the dismal science, an academic exercise in futility, and while it may be fun and may earn a whole raft of propeller-heads an income, even wealth, it’s really only mental masturbation of the highest order.

Why do I say this? Because economics deals with building “models” that describe what the panoply of pulled levers have caused in the past with the hope that those models will help us predict the future. The fundamental problem with these models, however, is that they depend on two flawed assumptions: 1) the “rational man” and 2) the “absence of an outside shock”.

In case you haven’t been paying attention let me state the obvious:

First, there is no such thing as a rational man (or woman). All human beings are driven, at least in part if not entirely, by feelings, perceptions, etc., what I’d characterize as “squishy stuff”, NOT rational, analytical thought.

And, as we have all seen, “outside shocks” OCCUR ALL THE TIME! They differ in magnitude, of course, but they destroy models’ explanations of the past and their usefulness as predictors of the future.

Nevertheless, thousands of economists and bureaucrats pontificate endlessly on the overarching topics that impact our daily lives and GET PAID TO DO SO! Sometimes they’re right, more often they’re wrong, but they persevere.

In his famous book, Nassim Nicholas Taleb defines a Black Swan as an improbable event with three basic characteristics: it is unpredictable, it has massive impact, and after the fact, explanations are concocted to make it appear less random.

Examples of past Black Swan events include: the 2000 Do-Com Crash, 9-11, the Fall of Lehman Brothers, the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear Disasters, BREXIT, and most recently, COVID.

None of these were severe enough to wake people up. The effects, though severe, were not of such duration that people got serious about paying attention to things that matter.

Now we’re sufficiently far down the slippery slope, there is sufficient chaos, there is enough “information” flak in the air, that only a really BIG Black Swan of significant duration will, in my opinion, bring us back to REAL Reality!

So, what might such a Black Swan consist of?

China invading Taiwan
Israel nuking Tehran
The North Koreans launching a nuke at Japan
The San Andreas fault creating Nevada beach-front property
Tactical nukes get used in Ukraine
NATO deploys troops to Ukraine
The Stock Market crashes
The Yellowstone Volcano erupts
Biden resigns and Harris becomes President and Michele Obama becomes Vice President (threw this one in because it is such a frightening nightmare!)
A terrorist attack on the 9 key substations takes down the electrical grid for from 3 months to a year
Another, more deadly virus gets out of a lab
A coronal mass ejection REALLY hits Earth and wipes out much of what is electronic

I could conjure up more… These are just some “known unknowns”. A Black Swan is by definition an “unknown unknown”!

That one about a protracted blackout is the one that worries me the most. Three weeks without electricity and we’re in trouble. Three months without electricity and we’re in a shit-hit-the-fan, possibly even TEOTWAKI (The End of the World As We Know It) situation. I urge my readers to think about this stuff. The time to prepare for a Black Swan walking up your driveway isn’t after it’s already at your front door. It’s not as if we haven’t been forewarned and as if we don’t see how vulnerable our country and society is.