November
1 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I opened the refrigerator this morning to find that a bowl of my yogurt with fruit had slipped from its perch and made a mess. So did some refrigerator clean up that was truly needed with more that I should have done but I’ll put it off.
That is about all that I will do today that you could call constructive. I have the novel on Kindle Fire to read. It has been moving right along but I’m not favorably inclined to the author’s style. He does include some good thoughts which he has his characters speak but the style of the book is what has been off- putting. I’ll try his nonfiction and see if I like it better.
The quote is from a Chinese military advisor speaking in this novel but what he is saying is not fiction. Korea and Vietnam were past examples with Afghanistan being the current one.
…once they’ve [Americans] begun a military venture, the political leaders don’t have the option of backing out if they fail to achieve their goals. To do that, even to advocate that, is enough to end a career or worse, because a nation that has only known victory can’t tolerate even the semblance of defeat. So, once committed, they keep on trying to achieve victory even when the only rational decision is to withdraw. Escalation has always worked for them in the past; more precisely, escalation has never caused them to lose, and so it’s the only thing they know how to do.‐Twilight’s Last Gleaming by John Michael Greer
The term “blowback”, invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force globalIn a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.–Book promo at goodreads.com
“What exactly is your ‘fair share’ of what ‘someone else’ has worked for?”—Thomas Sowell
2 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Tomorrow will be the climax of the 2020 presidential campaign. Then the counting will begin. That will not end until January 6, 2021when a joint session of Congress will count electoral votes and declare the next president.
I predict that Trump will be the ‘winner’ right up until that count in Congress is made. At that time there will be enough “faithless electors” to swing the final tally in Biden’s favor and the United States will be looking at four years or more of chaos. However, it will be president Harris that ‘leads’ the country during most of those years.
I finished distilling water again last night. There are enough 'linners' prepared for about a week. So all I have to do now is finish reading the novel I have been reading and start another. The only question being fiction or nonfiction?
Vote early and vote often!
3 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The only thing that I have to report today is a change in our walking routine. We have been doing three miles in the morning and two in the afternoon.
Yesterday we did 2.5 miles both times and another route of 2.5 miles this morning. We have not decided what the routes will be but there are not a lot of choices. Out and back is all that is available.
I will not be staying up late tonight to see what the election returns are. There will not be a presidential candidate elected until January 6, 2021 so why waste my time. There may be a new House of Representatives and Senate elected but even that will be undecided for days or weeks. It just needs to be sorted out by January 6, 2021.
A chilling high-concept geo-political thriller about a declining United States versus a resurgent China.Part military-political thriller, part stark warning of an uncomfortably likely future, Twilight’s Last Gleaming promises to be one of the year’s most controversial novels.‐Book promo @ goodreads.com
I resemble this meme:
The older I get the more I side with the witches from fairy tales who moved out to the woods and killed someone who bothered them.
4 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
There is going to be a lot of ‘talk’ about the election through the weekend. However, I don’t think there will even be a tentative decision by Monday. The final decision will be on 6 January 2021 when the electors vote is counted by the joint meeting of Congress. There the decision may hinge on how many faithless electors there are, there were 10 of them in 2016, and which way they swing. Lots of drama between now and then.
Ex-senator McSally got beat soundly by the now senator Kelly. She ran a poor campaign against Sinema in 2018 and did no better against Kelly in this election. If Trump manages to get re-elected she may have a place in his second term administration. If not then I think there will be some military contractor that will have a nice plush job for her.
I’ll probably be checking on the status of the House of Representatives and the Senate as the day goes by. The presidential numbers today will be meaningless. Most of my time will be spent reading the latest novel. Maybe some time spent reading the PHP book for beginners that I have on Kindle Fire as well that I read a little at a time then contemplate.
5 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Into town for groceries and other stuff. The first other stuff was to fill Desperado’s tank with gas. Then breakfast at Country Pride the same place where I have been going but it is a truck stop so that is where I got gas also.
When I finished eating I drove a couple blocks to Exit 342 Truck & RV Wash to give Desperado a bath. I think the lockdown has hurt their business because there was only one person there with no waiting. Some years ago I went there and I seem to remember there were 3-4 people working and I had to wait.
Then went to Safeway and got groceries. When back in the Park I dumped holding tanks before hooking up to electricity and water to fill the fresh water tank. I have noticed that there has been a ‘build up’, I’m trying to keep this posting clean, in the black water holding tank.
So yesterday I added five buckets of water to the tank and before dumping today I added five more which filled the tank. When dumped the ‘build up’ was gone although I could see that there was still some scum on the bottom of the tank.
Last night I did not have enough house battery power to run the 12v lights. Fortunately the water pump still worked but I had a Lo Bat message flashing on the refrigerator and it had no interior light. The short drive today was enough to charge the battery up enough that the Lo Bat message has gone away but I know it will probably be back soon. I’m also fortunate that the refrigerator is still working on 110v because without the 12v I’m not sure I can get it to switch over to propane. I need some help!
That is all I have going on for now. Go to bed when it gets dark and get up when it is light. The new normal for me without electricity.
6 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 6, 1932
The election drama continues. The good news is the House of Representatives is not filled with as many Democrats as the last term. There is also a very good chance that Nancy will not be the Speaker when the 117th Congress convenes for the joint Congress Electoral College vote on the 6th.
I now believe that Biden/Harris will get the necessary votes and will become the next two presidents of the United States. Hillary has to be mad as hell that Kamala will become the first female president, most likely before the end of 2021.
I was getting the Low Bat message at the refrigerator again this morning but the interior 12v lights were still working. Started up Desperado and let her idle for about 10 minutes to give the house battery some charge. The Low Bat message went away immediately but I continued to do the charge. This will probably be necessary both tomorrow and Sunday then on Monday the battery will get a good charge as I drive to Tucson.
Caitlin understands the US election better than the ‘analyst’ in the US.
It is good that people are criticizing the Democrats’ garbage performance against a cartoon character opponent. But let’s not kid ourselves: as soon as they get Biden in the line is going to be “We’re doing fine; nothing needs to change. Biden beat the socialist and then beat Trump. Where’s brunch?”–Electoral Musings: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix , Caitlin Johnstone
This quote is from an excellent article that I recommend.
So, the engine keeps chugging on, driven my by its own self-interests and completely oblivious to what is going on around it. The irony is that the crisis in confidence that simultaneously is besetting the United States in part reflects a very real, largely self-inflicted decline in America’s place in the world due to insistence that it maintain global hegemony. It comes at a time when the empire is entering into a phase of increasing irrelevancy which many of the key players involved are either unable or unwilling to recognize, no matter what their political affiliation might be. That means that the United States is locked into a pattern of behavior that it is incapable of changing. It is a nation that has become addicted to war for no good reason, and that addiction has brought neither security nor prosperity.–Imperial Overstretch Arrives: Americans Do Not Need the American Empire, Philip Giraldi
I’m not quoting from this article, How a Wise Decoupling May Be a Good Thing for Both China and the West, by Matthew J.L. Ehret – only linking.
7 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Ww got a few sprinkles this morning with virga in the east with the sun coming up behind it. You get those great Arizona sunrises when there are clouds. The weather guessers think there is only a 30% chance of rain. I give it a 50% chance; it will or it will not.
I ran Desperado at idle yesterday morning and in the afternoon. Will do that again today to keep the Low Bat message off the refrigerator and give me some 12v for the water pump and the short use of lights. So far so good.
With 1919, the second volume of his U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos continues his “vigorous and sweeping panorama of twentieth-century America” (Forum), lauded on publication of the first volume not only for its scope, but also for its groundbreaking style. Again, employing a host of experimental devices1919 opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos Passos’s characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into the snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl, a young poet, a radical Jew, and we glimpse Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Unknown Soldier.–Book promo @ goodreads.com
This quote is from part one of a two part article; I look forward to the second part. Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for PressTV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He therefore has a point of view that is not beholden to the Establishment.
It’s Day 3 of the US Election Debacle and – as we’re still mid-debacle – it’s very possible that Donald Trump will be the only conservative casualty, because it’s already certain the US election was an undeniable disaster for Democrats.
The Democrats had everything on their side in 2020: the mainstream media, the Deep State, the (self-professed) moral high ground, more campaign money than ever, a hysterically-motivated base – and yet if Trump does end up winning Democrats will have nothing to show for all that.
That should be stunning news. Here is the roundup of the non-presidential elections:
Republicans now hold 60% of state legislatures (where the most far-reaching policies are decided in this extremely decentralised, pioneer-influenced system), half of all state governorships, they’ll almost certainly keep a majority in the Senate, they shockingly reduced the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, conservatives just got a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court, and at the local judicial level Americans judges are already so conservative that it’s infamously said that they “never see corruption”.
(In the United States “corruption”, much like “propaganda”, is something only found in other countries, of course.) –Results are in: Americans lose, duopoly wins, Trumpism not merely a cult , Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog
8 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
We did only a short potty walk yesterday afternoon. There was a strong wind blowing lots of dirt plus a light rain. I thought we would soon be covered with a thin coating of blowing mud so called it quits. It never rained much but I could see heavy rain not far to the south of us.
The sky was mostly clear this morning and the wind has died down. I can only hope it stays that way through tomorrow. I’ll be going to Tucson to get the electric problem fixed in Desperado - maybe. Also hope to get the toilet fixed; I have higher expectations that will happen.
Then on the way back to the Park, if time permits, I’ll drop my Chromebook off in Benson at a shop. There I hope to get the Chromebook converted from a Chrome Operating System to a Linux Gallium OS. If that alone does not fix the battery charging issue then I want that fixed also.
The mainstream media in this country is trying to create act IV in the 2020 election drama. However, I tend to agree with Caitlin - the kabuki play is over. We now must settle back and watch tragic theatre unfold while doing all we can not to get caught up in the play itself.
Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States is now all but certain.
In order to have any chance of successfully advancing his legal narrative of electoral shenanigans President Trump would have to both (A) really want to remain president and (B) have the backing of sufficiently large power structures, neither of which appear to be the case. When you’re a Republican president and Murdoch is actively fighting against you, it doesn’t matter what the facts are. The narrative war is lost. Trump is done.–US Murder Machine Now Under Competent Management, Caitlin Johnstone
There is a significant takeaway from this two part article “The only thing I will absolutely promise is that the cultural division wreaked to suppress Trumpism will continue to have have hugely debilitating and polarising domestic affects effect for the rest of this decade. “ I recommend reading them both.
Trump the man seems on course to lose, yet Trumpism helped the new so-called “Trumpian Republicans” sweep to dominance.
Call it the Flatworm Phenomenon: Democrats may succeed in chopping off the head but the body will undoubtedly live, election results prove.
Mother nature is a mad scientist, but realise that we are examining a phenomenon which exists in the world’s most effective duopoly: What has been verified this week is that the Republican Swamp has so very effectively absorbed the blow of Trumpism, which should have been enough to create a new third party.
This will allow the Republican elite and establishment to eventually dilute and soften “Trumpism”, rather than giving America a truly new start and somewhat revolutionary clean break. This is how extremely effective the duopoly is when confronted with any grassroots movement. The only winners in the American duopoly are the richest 1%, of course, not ever a grassroots anything.–Results are in: Americans lose, duopoly wins, Trumpism wasn’t a cult of personality (2/2), Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker
9 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
This posting will probably be made much later in the day than usual. After a slightly shorter walk this morning I drove to Tucson with the breakfast stop at the TTT Truck Stop. The restaurant has received poor reviews from their repeat customers since they remodeled. They are very expensive, so I will not be stopping there again.
After breakfast it was only a short drive to Carl’s RV where I had a 10:00 appointment. I got there early which gave me time to show them what I wanted done today.
I am faced with a lot of expenses plus I’ll be here until some time on Thursday the 11th. I think I’ll have my work around power while staying alongside the RV shop until they get the New, New converter, both upper and lower parts installed. The shop in Springerville installed the lower part with loose wires, we think, and it has burnt up a lot of the upper part. I need a New toilet as well, they don’t just make the replacement part that has failed. It is a throw away consumer world that I live in.
Greer makes a good argument that what we, as a civilization, face with ‘peak oil’ and ‘climate change’ are not problems but predicaments. What the politicians keep promising are solutions to problems but none of them fix our predicament.
The difference is that a problem calls for a solution; the only question is whether a solution can be found and made to work and, once this is done, the problem is solved. A predicament, by contrast, has no solution. Faced with a predicament, people come up with responses. Those responses may succeed, they may fail, or they may fall somewhere in between, but none of them “solves” the predicament, in the sense that none of them makes it go away.–The Long Descent by John Michael Greer
10 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I was urban ‘boondocking’ along the RV shop’s fence to their lot last night. With any luck at all the New, New converter will be installed today. That will give me house power again - maybe. Then tomorrow I hope to get the new toilet and be on my way back to the Park in Willcox. I’m showing that I still live at the CattleRest and just treating this as a brief vacation away from ‘home’. HA
Warriors of the Storm is the ninth historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in October 2015. It is set in 10th-century Mercia, Northumbria and Northern Ireland and continues to follow the fortunes of the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg.
Some deeply, deeply evil agendas are set to be rolled out during the Biden administration. It’s not going to be pretty. The empire hasn’t gotten less desperate since the Obama administration, it’s gotten more desperate. Get ready.
Biden will be the first president in recent memory who promised to be more interventionist and attacked his opponent for being insufficiently hawkish. Trump ran on reducing interventionism, so did Obama, even Bush. Biden’s starting out from a much more hawkish position.–Totalitarian Dictator To Leave Office After Losing Election: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, Caitlin Johnstone
History is littered with the wreckage of movements that convinced themselves that the world was about to be transformed into what they wanted it to be. Not uncommonly, such wreckage includes a tumbled heap of human lives. The trajectory of Marxism — from the bright dreams for a better future of 19th century intellectuals to the 20th century nightmares of Stalin’s purges, the Cultural Revolution, and the killing fields of Cambodia — is a route followed all too often by those who believe they know which way history is headed.–The Long Descent by John Michael Greer
11 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The New, new converter arrived around noon yesterday. The guy working on the install replaced another part that did not come with the converter but could have caused my problem on the upper half of the old one that I did not replace in Springerville. I’m guessing that he is maybe half finished. The replacement toilet is to arrive later the morning or around noon. I might get back to Willcox today but sort of doubt it; maybe by Saturday.
This morning I went to Sunny Daze Cafe for breakfast where I got a build-your-own veggie omelet. However, I asked that it be made as scrambled eggs with the veggies rather than an omelet. More expensive than what I am used to but cheaper than TTT Truck Stop. I may go back when in or passing through Tucson.
With restricted power and almost no lights I’m doing a lot of reading on my Kindle Fire. Maybe finish the nonfiction book that I started only a few days ago.
This leads to the fourth symptom of knowing only one story: rage. The third symptom, failure, can be a gift because it offers the opportunity for learning, but if the gift is too emotionally difficult to accept, the easy way out is to take refuge in anger. When we get angry with people who disagree with us about politics or religion, I’m coming to think, very often what really angers us is the fact that our preferred story doesn’t fit the universe everywhere and always, and those who disagree with us simply remind us of that uncomfortable fact.–The Long Descent by John Michael Greer
12 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I have electricity! The New, new converter is installed and working. With any luck the 12v house battery is fully charged this morning. Last night I was plugged into 110v and everything seems to be working; the refrigerator, the A/C and the 110v circuits that power my computers and other devices.
It seems silly that I need 110v so I can plug in converters to drop the voltage down to what all those devices use but that is the way our electronics world works.
The new toilet did not get delivered yesterday as thought. It did not matter, the guy was still working on the electric issues and would have been able to install it even if it had arrived. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow if not then maybe next week. I don’t much care anymore now that I have electricity who needs a toilet.
What happened, in effect, was that most people in North America made the consumer economy their model for political participation. A consumer’s role in the economic process is limited to choosing from a selection of lavishly advertised and colorfully marketed products provided by industry. In the same way, most people in the industrial world embraced political systems in which all they had to do was choose from a selection of lavishly advertised and colorfully marketed candidates provided by the major parties.… Until this attitude changes, nothing will bring back democracy. No institutional change, however drastic, will create a democratic nation unless the people of that nation are willing to invest the time, effort, forbearance, and resources that a democratic system needs. Nor will throwing one set of rascals out of office, in order to replace them with another set of rascals more to one’s taste, have any noticeable effect on the character of the system as a whole. Until people come to the conclusion that the costs of democracy are less burdensome than the costs of doing without it, they will continue to have a government of the people in name only — not because some elite group has taken it away from the people, but because the people themselves have turned their backs on it.–The Long Descent by John Michael Greer
Trump, the “white supremacist” candidate, won the highest share of non-white voters of any Republican presidential candidate since Nixon in 1960 —double Romney’s 2012 count and nearly triple Bush’s count in 2000.
The realignment is real, and Republicans are faced with unprecedented opportunities. Renowned conservative intellectual Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, says that the message for the GOP is clear.
“The elections of 2016 and 2020 seem to show that there is a large constituency for a combination of social conservatism and economic populism,” he told me. “That was Donald Trump’s message, and it worked —outperforming even Trump himself in 2020, as the down ballot races tended to show. The GOP is becoming a working (and small business) class party. Its supporters are saying: ‘Uphold our moral and religious values; protect our industries against unfair practices and unfair competition, thus securing our jobs and reasonable prospects for real wage growth; and protect and improve programs that we rely on such as Social Security and Medicare.’”–The Realignment Is Real, Jonathon Van Maren
13 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 13, 1932
I’m back in my space at CattleRest; it is good to be home. Left Tucson around noon yesterday with working electrical systems and a new toilet. Stopped in Benson where I dropped off my Chromebook at a computer repair shop. I hope to pick it up when it no longer has a Chrome Operating System but will have a Linux Gallium OS.
I am now working with Ubuntu on my old Toshiba. The keyboard is different and some of the keys require a lot of pressure compared to the Chromebook. That has made the typing of today’s post somewhat of a challenge. Almost all my Bookmarks from the Chromebook were saved to a Google Doc which is better than not having them but it is sure not the same. By the time I get comfortable with this new way of doing things I’ll get to learn Gallium.
The Internet writings of John Michael Greer - beyond any doubt the greatest peak oil historian in the English language - have finally made their way into print. Greer fans will recognize many of the book’s passages from previous essays, but will be delighted to see them fleshed out here with additional examples and analysis. The Long Descent is one of the most highly anticipated This quote is from the Prologue. I am looking forward to reading the book.
The danger I foresee is that the United States is embarked on a path not unlike that of the former Soviet Union during the 1980s. The USSR collapsed for three basic reasons —internal economic contradictions driven by ideological rigidity, imperial overstretch, and an inability to reform. Because the United States is far wealthier, it may take longer for similar afflictions to do their work. But the similarities are obvious and it is nowhere written that the United States, in its guise as an empire dominating the world, must go on forever.–The Sorrows of Empire, Chalmers Johnson
14 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I did holding tank dumps yesterday after it warmed up. Then added some ‘tank cleaner’ to the black water tank with the hope that it will remove some of the scum on the bottom of the tank. Can’t see the bottom of the grey water tank but it probably has a soap scum on it.
I also plugged in the basement heater. The forecast low yesterday was 37° and we got 30.4°. So this morning was forecast to be 35 and I expected it to be below freezing again. Probably will have the basement heater plugged in from now until what passes for spring in Cochise County.
The lamestream media has declared Biden to be president elect although there are still state results in dispute with lawsuits filed. They keep demanding that Trump concede the election so the country can move on to ‘unity’. Good luck with that since the ‘leaders’ of his political party has called half the people in the United States deplorables, chumps, irredeemable racists, proto-fascists or tyrants for the past four years. Just remember when there was a dispute over the Florida vote in 2000 that Gore did not concede until 13 December. I say that Trump deserves the same consideration and know there will be no ‘unity’ if he wins re-election.
The connection between population dynamics and instability is indirect, mediated by the long-term effects of population growth on social structures. One effect is the increasing number of aspirants for e´lite positions, resulting in rivalry and factionalism. Another consequence is persistentThe author has some books that I have added to my To Read List. The list is growing faster than I can read however. inflation, which causes a decline in real revenues and a developing fiscal crisis of the state. As these trends intensify, they result in state bank-ruptcy and a loss of military control; conflict among e´lite factions; and a combination of e´lite-mobilized and popular uprisings, leading to the breakdown of central authority.–Arise ‘cliodynamics’, an Opinion Essay by Peter Turchin @ Nature 3 July 2008
15 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The forecast low temperatures for the past two mornings have been in the low 30s but above freezing. What we got was lows of 29.3° and 27.9°. Those same forecasters are now expecting the next 10 days lows to be in the upper 30s to mid 40s with one morning to be 49. I don’t believe them and will dress for freezing mornings when they expect it to be in the 30s.
I asked the RV shop in Tucson if they could replace my stove top and hood. They could not find any slide in cooktops or hoods that were the same size. Both of the existing items are now 20 years old which is obsolete in our throw away culture. I’m now looking at replacing the countertop and putting a drop-in cooktop plus replacing the cabinet over the stove that once held a microwave and put a modern hood vent under the new cabinet. Expensive, yes probably but it doesn’t look like I have a lot of options.
A good article about coronavirus®.
If we carefully observe the techniques used by the presstitutes and public health officials during the COVID crisis, it appears that they have conditioned the masses to accept totalitarianism as a solution through the covert use of psychological conditioning techniques used in the military. When new recruits are drafted into the military part of their training is to be broken down via intrusive physical and psychological processes. The training involves confinement and suppression, control and conformity, deindividuation, stress and punishment, and others. By means of these processes, the personality and character of recruits are reshaped such that they, for example, will obey orders from superiors at all times. In regard to the coronavirus, the masses have been terrified, suppressed, isolated, subdued, impoverished, and demoralized. Is COVID being used to reshape and resocialize the masses in order to prepare them for massive changes, such as transnational digital dictatorship?The New 9/11: A Global Virus Pandemic, Søren Roest KorsgaardAlso from that article there is this that might be an influence when considering a Bill Gates vaccine. He has publicly identified vaccines as a way of fulfilling his personal goal of depopulating the Earth: “Now the world today has 6.8 billion people that’s heading up to about 9 billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15%.–Innovating to zero! Bill Gates
16 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The morning low was above freezing at 35.1° but not the 40 or above that the forecast expected. But the forecasters are maintaining their guesses that the next 10 days lows will be in the 40s. Above freezing will be good enough for me.
I finished distilling six gallons of water yesterday. Will start preparing some more succotash today and reading the non-fiction book in earnest with only a few switches to one of fiction.
Take a journey on a giant raft with Joam Garral down 800 Leagues on the Amazon. Garral, a Brazilian, lives on a I think the Democrat voters and the elite financiers will discover their mistake as did the supporters of the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution. It will be too late. The Biden administration in waiting is greasing the tumbrel axles and setting up the guillotines for those that disagree with them. I think there will be a military coup in the United States at some point to overthrow the one-party that Roberts thinks is coming.
Few Democrat voters understand that the party has been transformed into an ideological revolutionary party that intends to overthrow “white culture.” The elite financiers of the Democrats have yet to catch on that once the Democrats have one-party rule they no longer need the billionaires and the lobbies. I don’t think it has dawned on the military/security complex that its power is reduced by the rise of the one-party state.
Wars will be fought for revolutionary reasons against insufficiently “woke” white governments and not for the power and profit of the military/security complex or for Israel’s dominance in the Middle East. It will be like the early stages of the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution and very unlike the American Revolution. Already Biden’s team is calling for restrictions on the First Amendment. It will simply become impossible to dispute official explanations or for white Americans to defend themselves against false charges and demonization. The Democrats Are Aiming for a One-Party Government, Paul Craig Roberts
“Again, the new oligarchy must more and more base its claim to plan us on its claim to knowledge. If we are to be mothered, mother must know best. This means they must increasingly rely on the advice of scientists, till in the end the politicians proper become merely the scientists’ puppets. Technocracy is the form to which a planned society must tend. Now I dread specialists in power because they are specialists speaking outside their special subjects. Let scientists tell us about sciences. But government involves questions about the good for man, and justice, and what things are worth having at what price; and on these a scientific training gives a man’s opinion no added value. Let the doctor tell me I shall die unless I do so-and-so; but whether life is worth having on those terms is no more a question for him than for any other man.” – C. S. Lewis
17 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Another trip into town with some shopping and some time wasted. Breakfast was at Country Pride where I got the same things but forgot to say that I wanted the toast dry. It came dripping with butter and I ate it. I have now been off oils for so long that it did not taste good – that may be good.
Went to Safeway and got a big grocery list, big for me, which cost more than usual but less than what I would have paid in Springerville. Then went to the one barbershop in town and found it closed. Went to two nearby businesses that were open and the second one said that the barber was usually open ‘around’ 9:00. I waited until 9:10 when the barber showed up but she said that I would have to wait another 15-20 minutes until she was ready for business. I’ll try her again next week after I do laundry.
There is very little doubt that the United States has become an empire based on militarism. That is now crossing over domestically where the one word describes both - OBEY!
The onset of militarism is commonly marked by three broad indicators.
The first is the emergence of a professional military class and the subsequent glorification of its ideals.
The second is the preponderance of military officers or representatives of the arms industry in high government positions.
The third is a devotion to policies in which military preparedness becomes the highest priority of the state.–The Sorrows of Empire, Chalmers Johnson
18 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
There is not much happening here today. I cooked some succotash yesterday and have garbonzos on the stove this morning for more pottage. Maybe finish the non-fiction book today but certainly by tomorrow.
I have sent out three emails to companies in Sierra Vista that claim to offer countertops and cabinets. Have received two responses from one company.. One came from a sales rep saying yes we can help, the second from the office manager saying we don’t do RVs. I await a response from the other two companies.
Alzheimer Joe will become president unless Trump can pull off a legal and political Hail Mary. But, no matter the outcome, all of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men will never put America together again.–Chaotic Considerations, an Empty Space, a Thanksgiving Prayer, and the Dreams of America as Founded , Doug “Uncola” Lynn
The more I read about Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. the better I like him. I think he will play a big part in the 2024 presidential election - if there will still be an election.
“I write to express my support for President Trump’s plan for the prompt withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan,” Hawley wrote to the acting Defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller. “The costs of the war in Afghanistan continue to mount, and they are borne disproportionately by working Americans. … For these reasons, majorities of Americans, including veterans of the war itself, have long called for an end to the war in Afghanistan. Yet most of our nation’s policymakers have ignored them.”…
Hawley has now staked out new territory, putting finishing touches on a Afghanistan policy he has been developing for some time. In September, he told this magazine: “It’s time for a strategic refocus. …We have spent too much time on adventures in the Middle East and elsewhere that do not serve our strategic aims and place enormous burdens on the class of working men and women who fight our wars.”–Hawley Bucks Trend, Backs Afghanistan Exit, Curt Mills
19 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The low temperature for the past two mornings has been above 40°. The weather guesses are on a roll. I don’t think they forecast the high to reach 85.1° yesterday but that is what happened and I ran the A/C for about an hour after we finished our walk. Fall here is a lot like Spring; they switch back and forth with winter.
No response to my emails requesting help with a countertop and cabinet for Desperado. Too much work that they do not want any more or they are not in business anymore?
There is no known case in which globalization has led to prosperity in any Third World country, and none of the world’s twenty-four reasonably developed capitalist nations, regardless of their ideological explanations, got where they are by following any of the prescriptions contained in globalization doctrine. What globalization has produced, in the words of de Rivero, is not NICs (newly industrialized countries) but about 130 NNEs (nonviable national economies) or, even worse, UCEs (ungovernable chaotic entities). There is occasional evidence that this result is precisely what the authors of globalization intended.–The Sorrows of Empire, Chapter 9 by Chalmers Johnson
20 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 20, 1932
I did get another email reply from a countertop & cabinet shop that said they do not do RVs. The interesting thing about this shop is that it is owned by one of my cousins. I did not know this until I received the reply and saw the sender’s name and wrote back asking if we were related. I would not know him if we were to pass on the street and may not have ever met him when we were growing up.
I sent a second email to a shop that has not responded and a first email to another one. If I do not get replies by next week I’ll see if the RV shop in Tucson can help. That is about all that I’m doing; sending email messages out into a cyberspace black hole.
This book was published in 2004 and I think the four sorrows have become worse since then.
[The 4] sorrows, it seems to me, are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative impact guarantees that the United States will cease to bear any resemblance to the country once outlined in our Constitution.
First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a growing reliance on weapons of mass destruction among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut. Second, there will be a loss of democracy and constitutional rights as the presidency fully eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from an “executive branch” of government into something more like a Pentagonized presidency.
Third, an already well-shredded principle of truthfulness will increasingly be replaced by a system of propaganda, disinformation, and glorification of war, power, and the military legions.
Lastly, there will be bankruptcy, as we pour our economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchange the education, health, and safety of our fellow citizens.–The Sorrows of Empire, Chapter 10 by Chalmers Johnson
…because of the following…which is the king-hell financial fiasco that will attend a Joe Biden presidency and the monumental unwind of activity that will present as implacable depression. The global banking system is ten-months pregnant with Rosemary’s Baby. The Covid-19 winter lockdowns will put a bullet in the brain of any remaining small businesses, and the giant zombie companies are next to fall. Rent, mortgage, and loan forbearances run out in December. If they are not renewed, many families stand to lose their homes; if they are extended, many creditors and landlords will be screwed, unable to meet their own obligations. Few in the media or in officialdom seem to comprehend that unpaid debts thunder through the system, and eventually undermine the whole system, especially the currencies that circulate like the system’s blood supply. Not only will there be no money for Progressive economic experiments, there will not be enough money to arrest the fast-sinking standard of living in America. Biden & Company, so triumphal in these days of dwindling daylight, are in for shock with 2021. In the looking-less-likely event that Mr. Trump prevails in this election quarrel, he and his people will be subject to exactly the same thing, which is the onset of the epic crisis or “fourth turning” that I call the long emergency.–The Many Layers of Travail, James Howard Kunstler
21 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
This is shaping up to be another day for not doing much. I may have to dump holding tanks and add water before the day is done but I am trying to put it off until tomorrow.
I do have another novel and a nonfiction book on Kindle Fire that will keep me entertained today and for the next few days.
In the years after the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe’s “lone superpower, ” then as a “reluctant sheriff, ” next as the “indispensable nation, ” and in the wake of 9/11, as a “New Rome. ” In this important national bestseller, Chalmers Johnson thoroughly explores the new militarism that is transforming America and compelling us to pick up the burden of empire.Among Johnson’s provocative conclusions is that American militarism is already putting an end to the age of globalization and bankrupting the United States, even as it creates the conditions for a new century of virulent blowback. The Sorrows of Empire suggests that the former American republic has already crossed its Rubicon-with the Pentagon in the lead.
Whether Donald Trump in the White House or Joe Biden, whether a Republican or Democrat as president, the cynical reality is that American foreign policy remains constantly aggressive and militarist. That is the reality of US power in the world and the imperative of serving corporate capitalism and its diktats. What only ever changes is rhetoric and personal style. American presidency truly is a puppet show to conceal the war machine.
Perhaps sometime in the future if the US begins to break up its oligarchic, corporate power structure through a genuinely democratic revolt, then we might be able to talk meaningfully about “transition”. Until then, the world can only brace itself for more of the same American rogue-state misconduct and its nauseating veneer of virtuous “exceptionalism”.–‘Transition’ and Constancy of Washington’s Warmongering, Strategic Culture Editorial
Clarissa asks the very question that I have wanted an answer to. Why do the elites want to quarantine the well rather than just the sick? Note: She copied this data from a tweet and I have edited it.
In Canada:
71% of people who have died of COVID have been over 80.
89% have been over 70.
96% have been over 60.
.3% have been under 39
Can anybody explain why we lock up everybody and not the people who are actually in danger?–Look at the Numbers, Clarissa
22 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I was able to put off the tank dumps and water add until today. I’ll get out there and do that when it warms up some. It was 38.8° while we were doing our walk and the forecast has now been revised with all the days after tomorrow morning to be in the 30s. Most of them will be in the mid 30s but two mornings will most likely be freezing for sure and I’ll plan on most mornings being below freezing.
I found another RV repair shop in Tucson that has a web page that discusses, with pictures, a big repair job that included a countertop. I sent them an email last night and maybe hopefully will get a response tomorrow. I want to stop and get an estimate and/or start the replacement on 1 December when I'm reasonable nearby for a dental appointment.
It is a longer drive than to the shop that did the converter but I didn’t get a feeling that shop was very interested in doing anything with the countertop or cabinet. I think this other shop will be cheaper as well IF they will do the work. They get a lot of good reviews.
I have hulled barley and oat groats on the stove this morning for future breakfasts. That and more book reading will fill my day. The Greer book is the nonfiction one, although some people may class it as Speculative Fiction, that I am reading now off and on. It is a genre that I enjoy as much as historical fiction.
Culture death is a traumatic experience, and I suspect that a great deal of the shrill anger and self-pity that fills American society these days has its roots in our unwillingness to face up to this trauma. As the age of cheap energy comes to an end, though, I suspect there are worse traumas in store. A nation that has sold its culture for a shiny plastic counterfeit risks a double loss if that counterfeit pops like a soap bubble in its collective hands.–The Ecotechnic Future by John Michael Greer
23 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
A shopping trip plus more. Started at Country Pride where I remembered to get the toast ‘dry’, swimming in butter is their default. Then a quick stop at Safeway to pick up groceries for the week.
After that it was laundry time which was not as quick but probably not more than an hour. I was then able to stay in the same parking place and walk to the barber shop where I had to wait with one customer in the chair. Not too bad, I was back in my space at the Park soon after 10:00.
I was afraid that FedEx would be delivering a Chewy order while I was in town but no worries. The shipment was coming from Dayton, OH whereas I thought they would ship from Tucson. I’ll get it in a couple more days.
The shopping trip cut into my reading time a little bit but I should finish the novel I’ve been reading and get started on another. This next one I downloaded from the Springerville Round Valley Library where I was able to find one a month ago. They seem to get the more popular books with the two that I have now borrowed both being best sellers in 2018. I think they will be my ‘go to’ for the more current publications.
History will not be kind to the neoconservatives. Their plan was poorly conceived and ineptly carried out, its goals are now utterly out of reach and its unintended results may yet include the implosion of American economic and military hegemony. Whether it succeeds in bringing about that final irony, the neoconservative consensus that unites both major parties in the US and its close allies is falling to pieces. The attraction of that consensus was simply that no one else had a plan that would let the United States cling to its precarious position as the world’s dominant power. In the wake of the neoconservative debacle, the American political debate has begun to shift slowly from the maintenance of empire to the raw necessities of national survival. It is anyone’s guess how long that shift will take, and how much of the world’s remaining fossil fuels will be wasted in an attempt to maintain a failing status quo.–The Ecotechnic Future by John Michael Greer
24 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I received an email reply from another RV shop in Tucson that said they can not do a countertop replacement. They did suggest another shop. The fact that they responded is a good sign, I may ask them to do other work although they also said that they only do mobile RV service. I sent an email to the suggested shop but do not expect a reply and if I get one I expect them to say that they can not help.
I guess I need to ‘get with the program’ and join the consumer culture. Junk my old obsolete RV, take on multi thousands in debt and buy a new RV. That is the true American Way ‐ fixing stuff is so ‘old school’.
Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world.70% of America’s economy is generated in fewer than 500 counties; the other 2,500 counties are left with the remaining 30%. The nation’s productive capital is even more concentrated in a few hands and regions, and since income and political power flow to capital, the financial disparity / inequality far exceed the 70/30 split depicted in this political map.…No quote, just a link to Fighting Words by David Horowitz a recommended read.
America has no plan to reverse this destructive tide. Our leadership’s “plan” is benign neglect: just send a monthly stipend of bread and circuses to all the disempowered, decapitalized households, urban and rural, so they can stay out of trouble and not bother the elites’ continued pillaging of America and the planet.
There’s a lot of big talk about rebuilding infrastructure and the Green New Deal, but our first question must always be: cui bono, to whose benefit? How much of the spending will actually be devoted to changing the rising imbalances between the haves and the have-nots, the ever-richer who profit from rising debt and the ever more decapitalized debt-serfs who are further impoverished by rising debt?–The One Chart That Predicts our Future, Charles Hugh Smith
25 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The forecast low this morning was 30° so I had on my wool capote and thermal bottoms. By the time we finished our walk I knew it was colder than the forecast and I should have worn my thermal top also. Found out that it had been 23.4° while we were out there. It continued to get colder with the low of 23° coming at 7:20 and was still below freezing at 8:30.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 30,000 for the first time ever this week. In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. What are people thinking? Are home evictions driving the dow index up? For companies listed on the S&P 500, profits are down about 48 percent compared to last year; is that what is driving the index up? I don’t understand.
The U.S. is facing a tidal wave of evictions at the end of the year unless the federal government, in the eleventh hour, extends key pandemic-related protections for millions of renters and homeowners.
More than 5.8 million adults say they are somewhat to very likely to face eviction or foreclosure over the course of the next two months, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey completed Nov. 9. That represents about one-third of the 17.9 million Americans who were behind on their rent or mortgage payments last month.–Fox Business
This quote was taken from a blog posting by Diogenes Sarcastica™. A suggested read.
When he [the king] arrives before Bel [also known as Marduk], the high Priest leaves, taking the mace, the loop and the scepter. He [also] takes the crown of his kingship. He then brings them before Bel and places them on a pedestal before Bel. He leaves and strikes the king’s cheek. If, as he strikes his cheek, tears flow, Bel is friendly. If tears do not flow, Bel is angry. The enemy will arise and bring about his downfall. He places [the king] behind him and brings him before Bel. He drags him in by his ears. He forces him to kneel down on the ground. The king says the following only once.Another oh so true meme:I have not sinned, Lord of all Lands. I have not neglected your divinity. … I have not struck the cheek of those under my protection, I have not belittled them.After [The High Priest] has spoken, the king retains his dignity as usual. [The High Priest] retrieves the mace, loop, scepter, and crown and hands them back over to the king.– The Babylonian Akitu Festival: Rectifying the King or Renewing the Cosmos? Benjamin D. Sommer. Northwestern University. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies 27(1):81-95.
If you think you are smarter than the previous generation…50 years ago the owner’s manual of a car showed you how to adjust the valves. Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery.
26 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The weather guessers thought it would be a little warmer this morning with the low at 31°. They were half right; it was a little warmer at 25.9° but not as warm as they guessed. This weekend the morning temperatures are going to be colder yet with the forecast lows to be 28. I think I’ll wear all my thermals.
I received an email reply yesterday from a RV repair shop in Tucson that said they could do the countertop. I’m now waiting for a time and date when they can look at what needs to be done, do the measuring and select a material and color. They said they are very busy and would not be able to do anything until 2021 but I was not sure if that was the install or just to look at the job. We will see.
I have the distiller working again which is adding some welcome heat inside Desperado. Last summer I was complaining about it adding heat now I welcome it - I dither.
Religion isn’t disappearing, it has just changed its form. The world has become too small for widespread belief in omnipotent deities creating the universe in six days and controlling all our affairs, so now people tell new fairy tales about a liberal world order which must be preserved by a beneficent superpower and its allies. In reality it is nothing other than propaganda for a murderous, tyrannical theocratic empire, of just the sort once presided over by Rome.–Oligarchic Imperialism Is The New Dominant World Religion, Caitlin Johnstone
27 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 27, 1932
I would not have known that yesterday was Thanksgiving if I didn’t have the Internet. It was only when I was checking the News that I discovered that it was Thanksgiving and I could have no more than some State proscribed number of people in my home.
I hope that those of you that continue to celebrate with friends and family had a good day. This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended Americans celebrate Thanksgiving “at home with the people you live with.” Therefore, once I realized that it was Thanksgiving I took the CDC’s recommendation to heart and Patches and I celebrated by eating the same things that we eat every day. She slept most of the day and I read my latest novel on Kindle Fire.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now.A tour de force.– Review @ Kirkus
Today is Black Friday, the commercial shopping holy day in the United States, in which I will not be a participant. What spending I do this ‘shopping season’ will almost all be for improvements to Desperado. The converter and toilet was a great beginning to “Build Back Better “. A new countertop with stove, sink, cabinet and hood should get me a letter of commendation from the Biden administration.
Personally, I take a very dim view of “Trumpism”, but whatever its (many) flaws, this ideology, however vague, has “redpilled” millions of US Americans who now realize that they are living in a fake democracy or, to use a Russian expression, “democracy” in the USA only means “power of the Democrats”. Simply put: we can call them “1%ers” or the “US Nomenklatura” or the “deep state” or whatever other term which comes to mind, but the bottom line is obvious: the USA is not a democracy or a republic, it is a dictatorship of the few over the many, the “best democracy money can buy” and a system based not on one man one vote, but one dollar one vote. Whether they realize it or not, most US Americans are serfs of an occupying parasitic regime which sees them solely as a (cheap) commodity.–Trump’s last hurrah?!, The Saker
28 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
I got another month of Will Rogers weekly articles copied and formatted yesterday. It took longer than usual since I was doing it on the Toshiba for the first time in a long time. It was different than doing it on the Chromebook.
I also got the bathroom and kitchen cleaned up. Not the countertop and stove but everything else. If it will warm up today I’ll get Desperado’s cab and her windows cleaned. All these household duties are cutting into my reading time but they need to be done.
The forecast low for this morning was 28° and we got 23.4; only 24 at 7:30 and still freezing at 8:30. Patches and I have been scrimmaging for a place in front of the Wave 6. My feet are cold. Tomorrow morning will be even colder if the forecast 26° low is any indication. Top and bottom thermals and I’m warm while walking except for hands and feet. Need warmer gloves and some thermal socks.
Nothing planned for today other than stay warm.
29 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
This was another shopping day with another breakfast at Country Pride at the start. They had the biggest crowd that I have seen in there since I have been here. Not much of a crowd in Safeway and I got everything I wanted except non-dairy yogurt. I got Greek Gods again and hope for the best for my psoriasis.
After leaving Safeway I drove a few miles to the west on I-10 to a gas station that also sold propane. I was down to about an eighth of a tank. With these cold mornings I needed to fill up.
This morning the low was 19.9° which I think happened about the time we finished our walk. The forecast had been that the low would be 26 so the actual has been coming in about 5-6 degrees lower than forecast. There are a couple more lows forecast to be 25-26 then the rest in the lows in the 30s during the next 10 days. All of them will be below freezing and below 30 is my guess.
Sandhill cranes will not fly over a moving train? That is what I observed this morning. There were 4-5 ‘flights’ of sandhills flying north to their feeding grounds just like more that had already passed over. However, there was a train coming from east to west which they would have to fly over. They didn’t.
Each of the flights coalesced on the flight leader into a tight mob and flew in circles until the train had passed from the flight path. They then reformed their ragged ‘V’ and continued on to the north. I never saw this before so don’t know if it is a one of occurrence or this is usual sandhill behavior.
30 November 2020
CattleRest RV & Saloon
Willcox, AZ
The low this morning was 27° with a 33 forecast. That low happened after we finished our walk and I could feel it getting colder as we were out there. Tomorrow morning is going to be as cold, maybe colder, than yesterday with the forecast expecting 26. We might shorten the walk some.
I said that I wasn’t going to be participating in Black Friday but that I needed thermal socks. So I got a jump on Cyber Monday, which is today, and ordered them from Amazon yesterday. Got new mittens to replace gloves that have a split seam as well. Then while I was there I checked my Wish List and found that one of the items I had on there was reduced 30% so bought that also. Christmas presents that are to arrive in a couple weeks. HA
Britain is at an uneasy peace. After their bloody defeat of Danish-held East Anglia, the West Saxons stand victorious while the Mercians have taken back their land on the border of Northumbria, the last kingdom of Britain still ruled by the pagan northmen. A precarious truce exists between Æthelflæd’s Mercia and Northumbria, now ruled by Uhtred of Bebbanburg’s son-in-law, Sigtryggr.FROM TODAY’S PERSPECTIVE, the possibility that science may need saving is practically unthinkable. Scientific research plays a huge economic role in modern society, and science has also become a source of collective meaning that fills many of the roles occupied by religions at other times. Nowadays, when people wonder how the Earth came into being or speculate about the future of humanity, the resources to which most of them turn first are those of science. Scientific institutions have profited accordingly, building an immense network of universities, research institutes, foundations and publishers, subsidized by billions in government largesse. Many of the same things, of course, could have been said about the priesthoods of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and his fellow gods in the glory days of the Roman Empire or the scribes of the Low-land Maya in the days before Tikal and Copán were swallowed by the jungle.–The Ecotechnic Future by John Michael Greer