February
1 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I drove only 78 miles this morning to reach my new camp but that was about twice what the shortest route would have been. Either way I was going to stop at Sunny D’s for breakfast. Was disappointed that they did not have any homemade tortillas but the omelet was good.
I wanted to go past the Warren Ballpark which I have not seen since about 1952. We would go there to watch the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings play while living on Frontier road. When we moved closer to Douglas we would go to the Douglas park because the team rotated between the two parks for the games when played at ‘home’.
The route today: W. Newell, S. Naco Hwy, W. Purdy Ln (Naco/South Bisbee), Arizona St (Warren), AZ80, W. Double Adobe Rd, N. Frontier Rd, W. Davis Rd, AZ80, S 4th St, E Toughnut St, S Summer St (Tombstone), W. Charleston Rd, AZ90 (Sierra Vista) & AZ82.
Keraban is determined not to pay the tax required to cross the Bosphorus by boat, so he journeys by land around the Black Sea. 2 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I got an email from D & J RV Center yesterday after arriving here that said my water manifold was rebuilt. I thought I could wait until the 3rd when I have to go to town as a shopping day but didn’t want to go another 36 hours without running water.
Went to town this morning with a stop at the Landmark for breakfast. Then to the RV shop. It only took about an hour to get the new water manifold installed with most of the time spent getting gaskets in the lines that would not leak. While there I saw the broken dump valve handle so got that replaced also.
The new manifold is made from some material that the builder claimed is more forgiving to cold than PCV. It was an expensive replacement of the old manifold but looks better and hopefully will last as long as the old one did. No freezing lows in the 10 day forecast so will not have the basement heater connected. Plan on connecting the heater when the forecast is for freezing plus drain the water lines if the forecast is for 20° and below.
This quote is from another good article by Romanoff that tells some ‘hard truths’.
The elites in the US government and corporatocracy invented, and for 200 years promulgated, the concept of “manifest destiny”, a theological proposition that “merged religious delusion with boundless hypocrisy and racism” into a popular theory that God was entrusting Americans to rule the world. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that what promised no end of grief was Americans’ arrogant conviction that “Providence has summoned America to tutor all of humankind on its pilgrimage to perfection”. These ideas of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny rest on a cornerstone of a pervasive political culture infused with the religious concept of a kind of covenant with God. “The packaging of wars of aggression, genocide and imperialism in the tattered camouflage of liberty with a Divinely-directed spin are old propaganda tricks which have been used to delude the US masses throughout the history of the country to the present moment.” To this day, most Americans fervently believe all of their nation’s unjustified and criminal wars were conducted to “make the world safe for democracy”.–If America Dissolves, Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog
3 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Another trip into Sierra Vista this morning. First order of business was to do laundry. Then move only a few blocks to Café Olé for their Vegeta Omelet without cheese. This is almost the same as their Garden Omelet but it does offer me some choice.
From there it was a stop at Fry’s for groceries, my bank for more laundry quarters and back to the Park. I’ll be back in town again tomorrow for a VA appointment then get to stay parked for a few days until I need to get groceries again.
I have pinto beans cooking in the Thermal Cooker for more succotash that I’ll put together tomorrow. Also have the distiller working to give me more drinking/cooking water. That is about all that I have happening except there are now three books on Fire 10 that I’m reading. First one then another depending on my whim.
4 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The eye exam appointment went well this morning at the VA. No change in my prescription and the cataracts are stable with no surgery anytime soon.
Stopped at Sunny D’s on the way back to the Park. They had a much bigger crowd than when I stopped there on Monday.
I'll now have a few days that I can stay here in the Park and do much of nothing. I have the succotash cooking and should finish doing the water distilling today. I need to dump tanks and add water but can put that off until tomorrow. There is a lot of reading to be done. HA
5 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: February 5, 1933
The forecast low this morning was 34-36°. I dressed for that and was underdressed when the low was 30, might have been underdressed for the forecast. There are still no freezing lows in the 10 day forecast so I won’t plug in the basement heater but need to watch the forecasts closely.
I’ll get out there and do the tank dumps and add water when it warms up some. That is about all I have on my To Do List for today.
Not much News until next week when the Senate show trial of former president Trump is scheduled to start. Is it just me? I don’t understand how you can impeach someone from an office that they no longer hold. I do understand why the Democrats would want to do it but would think any court of law would throw the case out.
6 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The weather guessers continue to forecast the low to be in the 30s but above freezing. The actual low reported by the Weather Underground station near me was below freezing again this morning at 28.9°. The forecast for tomorrow morning is 38 but I expect that it will freeze again. Then the rest of the 10 day forecast shows the low to be in the 40s — that would be nice.
I have only the books on Fire 8 to read on my To Do List for today. Maybe finish one of them. They are all nonfiction so I have been reading a little of each one – whenever.
I read Propaganda 1 January 2018 and did not like it much. I also overlooked this very good quote. It was brought to my attention in this article, Bernays and Propaganda, by Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog which is a suggested read.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.— Edward Bernays, Propaganda
7 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The forecast low this morning was 38 but I was right, the reported temperature was below freezing at 29.3°. The weather experts have reduced their guess for tomorrow morning to another 38 and have dropped some of the other days in the 10 day forecast to also be in the 30s. I don’t expect more than 3-4 mornings during the rest of this month to not be freezing.
Yesterday I didn’t finish any of the books that I have been reading. Maybe today. One of them is a borrowed book that has a time limit so I need to read some of it each day. That does not mean I read only it but I do have to keep the limit in mind.
Nothing else on the agenda for today.
This book was first published in 1952 then republished in 2008. What the author said more than a half century ago remains true to this day – ‘this expansion cannot go on forever’.
When the frontier ceased to provide for the expansion of opportunities, our superior technology created ever new frontiers for the ambitious and adventurous. In one sense the opulence of American life has served to perpetuate Jeffersonian illusions about human nature. For we have thus far sought to solve all our problems by the expansion of our economy. This expansion cannot go on forever and ultimately we must face some vexatious issues of social justice in terms which will not differ too greatly from those which the wisest nations of Europe have been forced to use.–The Irony of American History, Reinhold Niebuhr
It was never the Soviet Union but the United States itself that is the true revolutionary power. We believe that our institutions must confine all others to the ash heap of history. We lead an economic system that has effectively buried every other form of production and distribution—leaving great wealth and sometimes great ruin in its wake. The cultural messages we transmit through Hollywood and McDonald’s go out across the world to capture and also undermine other societies. Unlike more traditional conquerors, we are not content merely to subdue others: We insist that they be like us. And of course for their own good. We are the world’s most relentless proselytizers. The world must be democratic. It must be capitalistic. It must be tied into the subversive messages of the World Wide Web. No wonder many feel threatened by what we represent.–Ronald Steel @ The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, Thomas L. Friedman
8 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Not doing much of anything today. I’ll have another week like the last one; shopping day, VA appointment and go to the RV shop. That means three trips to town and three breakfasts that are not my daily gruel.
I ❤ this meme.
Amazon just got approved for drone delivery. We now have skeet shooting with prizes.
In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, offers an engrossing look at the new international system that is transforming world affairs today. Globalization has replaced the Cold War system with the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders—uniting Brazilian peasants, Indonesian entrepreneurs, Chinese villagers, and Silicon Valley technocrats in a single global village. You cannot understand the morning news, know where to invest your money, or think about the future unless you understand this new system, which is profoundly influencing virtually every country in the world today. Friedman tells you what this electronic global economy is all about and what it will take to live within it.I thank you very much but I’ll give the Coronavirus® vaccine a miss.
At this link is the VAERS Covid Reports (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) through January 29, 2021.** There have been 11,249 Reports through January 31.
**VAERS HHS releases COVID Data weekly, but they release LAST WEEK'S data. So an update will always lag a week behind. When launched, OpenVAERS used the Download date. We have switched to the "data through" date provided by VAERS.
Please keep in mind the CDC says only 1% of adverse reactions are reported. I expect that percentage to be a bit higher for the Wuflu “vaccine”.
So far we have 501 deaths, 1066 (interesting number) hospitalizations, 2443 urgent care, 1447 office visits, 147 anaphylaxis, and 128 Bell’s palsy.–Contemplating having the Wuflu “vaccine”?…, Adrienne
This quote is the closing to one of Caitlin’s better articles. You need to read her postings everyday to catch the good ones or let me point them out for you. HA
That’s all electoral politics is. That’s all the Democratic Party is. That’s all we were seeing when Americans shook the earth with Black Lives Matter protests last year while the entire establishment told them “I hear you, I agree with you” without ever actually making any changes. It’s a locked facility we are forbidden from leaving with a bunch of staff members pretending to want what we want.
But the fact that the managers of empire go to such lengths to avoid a direct confrontation with us means that they desperately want to avoid that confrontation. We are not an elderly dementia patient, we are the many. They are the few. If we can ever collectively stop falling for the redirections to the circular pathways and stand and face our oppressors, they do not stand a chance. And they know it.
They cannot arrest us all. They cannot kill us all. All they can do is keep us confused and distracted, and hope we don’t remember our true power. That’s all this is.–Containment Strategies As Alzheimer’s Facilities, Caitlin Johnstone
9 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
This was a shopping day that started with breakfast at the Landmark. Then gathered groceries at Fry's where I was in the checkout line almost as long as it took me to do the gathering. But no bother, it was wait there or wait for my UPS Store to open. When I got there they were open with no waiting in line.
Picked up my package that had the food ordered from Mount Hope. The one different item that I bought from them was some large white hominy. The kernels are twice the size that I get in the canned product. These are dry so will require more cooking time than the canned — will see how they cook up.
Just another reason for me to say no thank you to any of the Coronavirus® vaccines.
On Monday [8 February 2021], the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed that the emergence of new coronavirus mutations poses the problem of the effectiveness of existing vaccines. At a media briefing he suggested that it was “concerning news” that existing vaccines may not work as well against the new variant, first detected in South Africa.
It [second Trump impeachment trial] has been heralded by some as the trial of the century. Others though believe that the Democrats are simply preening their feathers in a public display of political peacocking to showcase their power.–Graham Eardley, Commentator at The Bruges Group
Another meme I ❤.
Shot my first turkey yesterday. Scared the shit outta everyone in the frozen food section.
It was awesome! Getting old is so much fun.
10 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
There were a lot of clouds this morning but the forecast shows only a slight chance of rain. That changes to possible rain on Monday with a low of 33° forecast for Tuesday morning. I think I’ll plug in my basement heater.
I only had the Wave 6 working for a short time this morning but with the clouds it is warming up very slowly. I may have to fire it up again if the sun does not do its job.
There is more hulled barley and oat groats in the Thermal Cooker for future breakfasts. The three in town breakfasts this week have been reduced to two. The VA canceled a morning appointment and rescheduled it for the afternoon. That will happen tomorrow. The rest of my day today will be devoted to more book reading; I still have that book with a borrow limit to finish.
With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts here his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. First published in 1957 to critical and popular acclaim, his memoir has become a cult favorite in intelligence circles. He chronicles his experiences from his time as a junior officer fleeing a tedious training assignment in Louisiana to his rigorous OSS training rituals in the United States, England, and Scotland for its Special Operations unit. Quick to pick up on the skills necessary for behind-the-lines intelligence work, Hall became an expert instructor, but was only reluctantly given operational duties because of his reputation as an iconoclast. This is a serial meme; part #1 today.
Think about this:
COWS
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
11 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
It was colder this morning at 34.5° than it has been for the past couple of mornings. Still above freezing which has surprised me considering the experts past record for guessing the lows.
It is warming up quickly today versus yesterday when it stayed cold until midafternoon. There is a good chance that it will even get warmer than the expected 68° but rain and cold are still in the forecast for next week.
I’ll be going to the VA later today. That is all I have planned. Then tomorrow the posting might be late because I’ll be at the RV shop getting the stove hood replaced. More reading on Fire 8 of course with the possible finish of the book that has a borrow time limit.
I have not quoted from this long article, The headless chicken and the bear by The Saker. It is very good and a suggested read, you will not read anything like it in the mainstream media.
Former president Trump was criticized by the mainstream media for signing 30 Executive Orders during his first 100 days as president. President Biden is praised for signing 29 during his first three weeks in the office. That does not show evidence of bias however since Trump was bad and Biden is good.
However unprecedented his executive order spree might be, Biden’s imperial approach is normal. Congress for decades now has ceded power to the White House. Gone are the speakers and senators who zealously defended their institution against other branches; they are party hacks who mortgage away tough decisions in favor of getting their side reelected. Regulations and executive orders outnumber bills signed into law. The president is treated as a celebrity, a shaman, a repository for all our hopes and hatreds. This is democracy in America today, under which every four years we get to say yea or nay to a new sun god. The latest one just happens to have a nice smile.–Joe Biden, Imperial President, Matt PurpleThis is part #2 of the serial meme that I started yesterday.
Think about this:
THE CONSTITUTION
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq … why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we’re not using it anymore.
12 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: February 12, 1933
Istopped at Country House for breakfast on my way to the RV shop. The main objective today is to get the existing stove hood removed and the replacement wired so that the light and fan work. They were not working with the old hood. The water pump, hot water heater and generator need to have switches that also work for this to be considered a successful replacement. The new water manifold is leaking so that needs to be attended to as well. I suspect I’ll be coming back next Monday – hope not.
Tim Severin took up the challenge offered from antiquity by Marco Polo. Using the great explorer’s journals as a route guide, Severin followed him all the way from Venice to Afghanistan – on a motorbike.This is his witty and enthralling account of a latter day caravan through Armenia and Persia, across deserts and mountains, as Severin and his companions overcome crashes, floods, sandstorms and linguistic muddles with zest and ingenuity.
…must not make us oblivious to the larger pattern of history. In that larger pattern we face a revolt of impoverished peoples of the world against the centers of technical power in which justified and unjustified resentments are so curiously mingled, and legitimate desires for greater well-being are so inextricably intertwined with illusory hopes that decades upon decades will be required to bring order out of this chaos.–The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr
This is part #3, the last, of the serial meme that I started a couple days ago.
Think about this:
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this –– you cannot post: ‘Thou shalt Not Steal’, ‘Thou shalt Not Commit Adultery,’ and ‘Thou Shall Not Lie’ in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.
13 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The hood replacement appointment was for 9:00 yesterday morning. I got there at 8:30 and the guy that was to do the work was not there until about 9:30 and didn’t start doing anything until 10:30. I got home at 7:00 last night.
I did not take the hood out of the box, just picked it up at my UPS Store and then dropped it off at the RV shop. I thought I had ordered a non discharge hood, that is one that does not vent through the wall to the outside. But that is not what I got. When I checked my order I guess I was so happy that I found what I thought I wanted in white versus black that I ordered it. That added some time to the job because the exterior vent was a different size and the hole in the wall had to be expanded.
The other thing that took more time, at added expense, was the guy cut holes in the face of the hood and installed switches that match those that came with the hood for the light and fan. So I have switches for the water pump, water heater (with a warning light) and generator plus the generator hours run meter mounted on the hood.
A much better looking installation than what I thought I was going to have to have. All the wiring was redone as well so the hood and all switches are plugged in using one multiple line plug. Even I could remove it and be able to get it plugged back in. HA
Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr’s masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the My VA appointment on Thursday was made with the intent that pictures of the areas of my body that had psoriasis and a flare about a year ago would be taken. I first gave the VA Team nurse the prescriptions that the VA Dermatology in Pugent WA had sent me after receiving the pictures a year ago. I took none of them, the bottles were still sealed.
I then explained what my diet has been since those pictures were taken. Also told him that the intent of the diet was to reduce inflammation, that I was convinced that inflammation was causing the flares and I have not had one now in almost a year.
Last, I showed him the body areas. He was amazed and said there was nothing to take a picture of. He said that he would write up everything that I told him and what he saw and send it to VA Dermatology. Also told me repeatedly that he could hardly believe the improvement that he saw and for me to keep doing what I have been doing.
14 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I received a reply from the guy that is to do the countertop replacement and now have an appointment to get it done next weekend. He claims he can get it done on Saturday but I’ll be happy if he gets it done by Sunday night.
I have also sent an email to the computer repair guy in Benson asking him to finish up the conversion of my laptop and send me an email when it is ready to be picked up. I told him there was no hurry to get it done but I wanted it in February - it is now February and now I want it.
The low this morning was 41.7° which would have been very nice if the wind had not been blowing. It felt much colder. The high today is expected to reach only 54 so I’ll probably have the Wave 6 working off an on. Then tomorrow morning is forecast to be 30; the basement heater gets plugged in tonight.
The cult of the masks is but an indication of just how quickly entire swaths of the population can succumb to the pervasive fear of death, its ever-present knowledge percolating just beneath our consciousness, kept in check by whatever immortality project holds sway at any given time. With the fading influence of God in American life, the collapse of organized religion and the waning conviction in the existence of a heavenly future, America has embraced a new faith rooted in the sterile soil of Science! Experts are the new clergy handing out advice in the same way priests once sold dispensations, vacillating wildly from month to month as the devout don the garments of their faith. The new promise of immortality is rooted in the fiction of The Singularity, a concept where our technological advance will one day eliminate death by turning us into technological hybrids capable of living forever in ease. The pronouncements of the Cathedral, slogans created by groups like the World Economic Forum like “In the future you will own nothing and be happy” do not sound at all different from the teachings of Christ – “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth” and appeal to the same anxieties and fear present in all of us.–The Immortality Project, Hardscrabble Farmer
Liberalism’s perpetual push towards advancing the rights of the individual at the expense of responsibilities towards the community, has traditionally been balanced by a formidable conservative movement. The Enlightenment project assumes that progress entails a linear progression towards the rational thereby gradually displacing the past. Progress is thus defined not by a balance between the progressive and conservative, but rather by the former defeating the latter. The nation-building process of homogenising the population is subsequently undergoing a reversal.…
The victory of liberalism over classical conservativism eventually leads to the demise of both as the common cause of the liberal nation-state erodes. The delicate balance in the US between ethno-cultural and civic identity has gradually unravelled.–The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia, Glenn Diesen
15 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
This was another shopping day plus other stuff. The breakfast stop was at Sunny D’s where I got almost the same thing except had some sourdough toast rather than a tortilla. The sourdough was not very sour, I should stick with tortillas.
A gas fill up for Desperado at Fry’s which was at a price that was 16% higher than what it was on 1 January. I think this is just the beginning of much higher gas prices. Biden has shut down the pipeline from Canada, curtailed new drilling and the shale oil miracle is going dry. A quick gathering of groceries while there at Fry’s.
Then went to D & J RV Center where they put sealant around the outside exhaust of the hood vent. I then asked them about strengthening the hood mount and adding doors to the existing cabinet above the new hood. They had two doors that are going to work and I have an appointment with them to get that work done.
Last stop was at my UPS Store where I picked up a package of boxer shorts that I bougt online from Wal*Mart. Everytime I have gone into a Wal*Mart I never can find what I want but can usually find it online.
Had a problem yesterday with someone trying to access my Amazon account. Amazon locked it down and I needed to change the password. I was able to do that today. Received a similar notice that Microsoft had also locked my account down. Didn’t know that I had a Microsoft account but could not change the password because they send the required code to a phone which I don’t have.
This is the closing to a good article which is also the partial review of a newly published book, Disintegration Indicators of the Coming American Collapse by Andrei Martyanov, that presents the same arguments that are in The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia by Glenn Diesen.
And the rulers of this disintegrating country are fomenting conflict with China, Russia, and Iran. The question is whether the United States will disintegrate before it is militarily destroyed.–America’s Catastrophic Disintegration, Paul Craig Roberts
Postmodernism is an attractive political philosophy as it embodies what Nietzsche referred to as ‘slave morality’. The weak rationalise their position of weakness as a virtue by suggesting there is something intrinsically good about the underdog, while the powerful and assertive epitomise evil. The seemingly benign intention to stand up for the little guy can inadvertently encourage victimhood narratives. There is a tendency to bestow authority to marginalised people, suggesting that whoever is most oppressed has a greater understanding for the faults in society and is therefore correct and virtuous. There are strong incentives to become offended rather than resolving disputes as victimhood becomes a political, social, and moral currency. The subsequent outcome is high sensitivity to any offence, and the weakening of the individual as there is a growing moral dependency on third parties.–The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia, Glenn Diesen
16 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Isaw that the ShoutBox had gone black yesterday afternoon and when I tried to bring up my account at yellbox.com the site was not responding. They may just be down temporarily or maybe down for the count. We will see.
The low was higher than the forecast this morning which is unusual. It was 42.4° versus the expected 41 but felt colder with a southwest wind blowing in a lot of clouds that have been given a 30% chance that they will deliver rain. Cold today with the high forecast to reach only 55.
I had yellow split peas with mustard greens cooking in the Thermal Cooker last night. This is a food experiment; if it turns out well I’ll talk about it. Also started the distiller working yesterday and through the night which will happen again today and tonight.
That is about all I have going on. There is one fiction and one nonfiction book on Fire 8 that needs to be read. Neither of them are nearing completion.
QUERDENKEN is a revolutionary mass movement directed against the US-controlled German regime, similar in essence to the revolution of the Iranian people in 1978 against the US-run dictatorship of the Shah in Iran. It should be emphasized that the Iranian revolution was a peaceful revolution in the course of which the Iranian security forces refused to fight against their own people. The same type of revolutionary movement seems to be emerging in countries under the dominance of the United States of America.
Instead of serving their own people, European regimes serve the interests of Washington, which seems driven to obtain supremacy over the world for material reasons and also as a way out of the economic crisis in which it finds itself.–Is a Revolutionary Movement Developing in Europe?, Klaus Madersbacher as quoted by Paul Craig Roberts
A couple of very true memes.
Don’t worry about getting older. You’re still going to do dumb stuff, only slower.
People who confuse the words “burro” and “burrow” don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.
17 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Ihave been attacked. Had to change my Amazon password a couple days ago because of suspicious activity. Then yesterday I changed my eMail password because that account got hit with a rash of Fail To Deliver messages that I never sent and it got locked down also.
The YellBox problem may have been the start of this. Their website is mostly down and I can not sign into my account with them. Just a guess but I think their account base got hacked.
That is the bad News. The good News, that is as bad as it has become. The yellow split pea with mustard greens experiment was not a complete failure but I will not do it again. I have beans in the Thermal Cooker today for more succotash. The distilling will be completed today and I might finish one of the two books that I have been reading.
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time –– when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.–The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan; partially quoted in – The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia by Glenn Diesen
I do like a good pun.
Just read an incredible 13th Century account of a feudal uprising where a duke's son was killed by rebels who used a trebuchet to knock him off the battlements with the only available ordnance: a peasant’s decapitated head.
Apparently it was the first serf-face-to-heir missile.
18 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I was a Dittohead for many years. Started listening to Rush Limbaugh sometime in 1989 while he was still in Sacramento. Then continued to listen to him until my hearing became so poor that I could not understand what he was saying on the radio so read the transcriptions on his website.
One of the first messages that I left for president Trump in 2017 was “Give Rush Limbaugh a Medal of Freedom.” I’m sorry that he is gone. The Left hated him and wished that he were dead, he is now dead and they still hate him - there is no satisfying them.
Texar’s Revenge, or, North Against South is the full title of the English translation of the novel written by the French science-fiction author Jules Verne, and centers on the story of James Burbank, an antislavery northerner living near Jacksonville, Florida, and Texar, a pro-slavery southerner who holds a vendetta against Burbank. The low this morning was 22.3° which I was expecting and dressed for except I should have had my mittens on versus gloves. I’ll have mittens tomorrow morning and it will not be as cold as I expect. HA
Just staying warm for the next couple of days is all that I have planned. Saturday will be devoted to getting the countertop and drop ins installed; probably Sunday as well. Posting will be delayed but don’t worry that my site has been taken down. At least hope not.
19 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: February 19, 1933
The forcast low was 30° with a recorded 24.8 this morning. I have had the basement heater working these past two nights but will unplug it today. The forecast low for tomorrow morning is 42 so I expect it to be above freezing – below the forecast but above freezing.
The distiller has had a significant build up of minerals from the water in every Park where I have stayed this past year. But, the build up from the water at this Park is by far the worse. It is rock hard and I have been trying to get it all off the bottom of the boiling chamber for two days now. Vinegar and a little ‘elbow grease’ will usually do the job but not here. It takes a LOT of scouring; like what you would do to wear down a rock.
I’ll be back at it today. Will also finish the nonfiction book that i have been reading - maybe. That and finish cooking the pot of succotash is all that I plan on doing today. Tomorrow, and probably Sunday, there is the kitchen remodel project to be done. I sure hope it goes well.
This quote is describing Russia after the USSR Empire collapsed but it sounds a lot like the United (sic) States today.
Marxist political economy divides the world into class warfare between the oppressive bourgeois and the oppressed proletariat. Cultural postmodernism similarly interprets the tensions in society as a class conflict between the narratives of the privileged and the marginalised.
The Russian nation and the traditional community suffered greatly under the onslaught of communism, and the absence of capitalist tools resulted in insufficient modernisation of society. The decline of Russia’s status as a gemeinschaft–based civilisation due to the fragmentation of community and reduced social capital has been the source of its most pressing social problems. The breakdown of the family unit, rise of single–mother parenthood, low birth rates, high mortality and abortion rates, emigration, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, crime, and incarceration are some of the social problems burdening Russia. Furthermore, the absence of a unifying national identity that instils meaning with ideals, tradition, and spirituality can lead to the rise of nihilism, rival loyalties, radicalism, and even secessionism.–The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia, Glenn Diesen
20 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The 9:00 appointment to do the countertop project appears to be a bust. I was at the appointment at 8:30 and the guy never showed by 9:30. I'm going to sit here and send this posting then go home if he does not show up. Disappointed!
The low this morning was 33.3° and that was the temperature inside Desperado also. I found that I had left a window open during the night. It did not feel that cold and has warmed up quickly. There is a good chance that we will exceed the expected high of 75 today.
Members of labor unions, and unorganized and unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers Mdash; themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else. At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots … Once the strongman takes office, no one can predict what will happen.– ‘Achieving our country: Leftist thought in twentieth-century America’, R. Rorty in The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia, Glenn Diesen
21 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Went back to town again today for my usual shopping trip. I could have done it yesterday but most of the morning had been used up and I didn’t want to face the crowd in Fry’s. There is a big enough crowd early in the morning. That is where we went after breakfast at the Landmark.
What explains the rise of populist movements across the West and their affinity towards Russia? UKIP’s Brexit victory, Trump’s triumph, and the successive elections and referendums in Europe were united by a repudiation of the liberal international order. These new political forces envision the struggle to reproduce and advance Western civilisation to be fought along a patriotism-cosmopolitanism or nationalism-globalism battlefield, in which Russia becomes a partner rather than an adversary. Armed with neomodernism and geoeconomics, Russia has inadvertently taken on a central role in the decay of Western civilisation.This volume will be of interest to scholars of international relations, political science, security studies, international political economy, and Russian studies.–Book promo @ goodreads.com
Sent an email to the guy that set an appointment to do the countertop project and have not received a reply. It is just as well, he will not be doing the job. I’ll go to D & J on Tuesday and see if they can give me an appointment to get it done before I leave the area.
I also sent an email to a shutters and blinds shop in Tucson asking them if I need an appointment for them to take a look at what I want for Desperado. Maybe get a response tomorrow but probably not; it will most likely take more than one email. Businesses now have time for telephone calls but not so much for emails.
22 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
I have nothing planned for today. So I should be able to get it all accomplished. I have a historical fiction and a nonfiction book on Fire 8 that will keep me entertained.
Tomorrow I’ll go to D & J’s and see if I can get an appointment with them to do the kitchen countertop project.
So much for the “sustainabilty” argument that the Green new Deal will lead to sustainable energy by using ‘renewables’. Said renewables are manufactured using the hated fossil fuels that are are limited.
To be sustainable, something — a technology, a lifestyle, or what have you — has to be able to keep going indefinitely no matter what the future throws at it. Two things the future can throw at it deserve particular attention in this context. The first is ecosystem limits. If a technology that’s supposedly sustainable depends on using nonrenewable resources, for example, or on using otherwise renewable resources at a rate that exceeds the biosphere’s ability to renew them, it’s just flunked its sustainability test. In the same way, if a technology puts things into the biosphere that disrupt the natural cycles of matter, energy, and information that keep the biosphere going, it’s not sustainable no matter how much green spraypaint you apply to it.–Green Wizardry Conservation, John Michael Greer
They [Lippman and Bernays] concluded that in a multi-party electoral system (a democracy), public opinion had to be “created by an organized intelligence” and “engineered by an invisible government”, with the people relegated to the status of uninformed observers, a situation that has existed without interruption in the US for the past 95 years. Bernays believed that only a few possessed the necessary insight into the Big Picture to be entrusted with this sacred task, and considered himself as one member of this select few.–Bernays and Propaganda – Democracy Control, Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.–An Autobiography, Theodore Roosevelt
23 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
A bout an hour and a half wasted this morning. I went to D & J’s but they could not look at the countertop project until next Friday. So maybe then I can get an appointment or they will tell me at that time that they can not do it.
Stopped at my UPS Store and mailed a letter. Was hoping that they had received a package that was scheduled to be delivered yesterday. No package, maybe get it on Friday.
I received no reply from the shutters and blinds shop in Tucson so sent the same message using their Contact Form on their web page. I have my doubts that I’ll receive a reply to that before tomorrow if I even get a reply. It may take a couple more emails and a couple more Contact Form submissions.
This quote is a very good description of what happened in Texas during their recent freeze; store shelves became bare. We will see more and more of this in the years to come. We will also see Amazon’s Prime become part of retailing history along with the Sears catalog.
An efficient use of a resource — any resource, whether we’re discussing energy, matter, or information — is thus a use that puts as little of the resource in question as possible into places where it sits around doing nothing. The just-in-time ordering process that’s now standard in the retail and manufacturing sectors of the economy, for example, was hailed as a huge increase in efficiency when it was introduced; instead of having stockpiles sitting around in warehouses, items could be ordered electronically so that they would be made and shipped just in time to go onto the assembly line or the store shelf. What few people asked is what happens when something goes wrong.–Green Wizardry Conservation, John Michael Greer
24 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
This is going to be another day that I plan on just reading the two books I have on Fire 8. Maybe do some cooking but most likely will put it off until tomorrow.
The high temperatures have been great these past few days. The mornings have been near or below freezing although the forecasts have been in the lower 40s or upper 30s. That is going to change this weekend with colder days, colder nights and winds. Winter is not through with us yet.
This quote points to the problems that the grid failure in Texas has brought to the nation’s attention. What is to be done? Investigate why the grid failed and find some low level smuck to take the blame.
Beyond the daydreams that insist we can replace half a billion years of prehistoric sunlight and geological heat and pressure with our own supposedly limitless cleverness, though, there’s a simple, straightforward alternative waiting to take up the slack as fossil fuels go from cheap and abundant to expensive and not nearly abundant enough. What’s the alternative? Using a lot less energy.…
There are many reasons for thinking, in fact, that trying to maintain a large-scale electrical grid in a future of scarce energy is a fool’s game. To run a large-scale grid, you need to be able to produce huge amounts of power every second of every day. It’s hard to get that much power that reliably by any means other than burning a lot of fossil fuels, or by pursuing other gargantuan power systems — for example, nuclear power plants or giant wind turbines — that can only be built and maintained by a society with ample fossil fuels to run a transportation network, power machinery to mine rare minerals, and so on. These won’t be viable in a future where fossil fuels and other forms of concentrated energy are in very short supply.–Green Wizardry Conservation, John Michael Greer
25 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
The low this morning was just above freezing. That will change tomorrow morning and through the weekend with forecast lows in the 30s. Maybe back above freezing next week.
I have hulled barley and oat groats in the Thermal Cooker this morning. They should be ready by later today but I don't need them until Saturday. Tomorrow morning I’ll go out for breakfast again on my way to D & J’s to get a countertop replacement appointment – maybe.
Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown’s School Days. The papers are attributed to Flashman, who is not only the bully featured in Thomas Hughes’ novel, but also a well-known Victorian military hero. The book begins with an explanatory note detailing the discovery of these papers and also discussing the supposed controversy over their authenticity. A reference is made to an article in The New York Times from 29 July 1969, which puts these claims to rest. Fraser hints that the article supports the papers’ authenticity, although the opposite is true.The quote is the opening for an interesting article. Biden is tearing up Trump’ domestic executive orders which the Establishment does not care about but he is following their script on foreign policies.
Biden’s foreign policies are putting Democratic Party lipstick onto the Republican Party’s pig. That’s his ‘change’, on U.S. foreign policies.
Though U.S. President Joe Biden is publicly critical of Donald Trump’s foreign policies, he’s continuing almost all of them and is changing only minor ones. The changes are almost entirely in rhetoric, not in policies, as will be documented here.–Secretly, Biden’s Foreign Policies Are Trump’s Foreign Policies, Eric Zuesse
26 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: February 26, 1933
I stopped at Sunny D’s for breakfast on my way to town. Then did a grocery gathering at Fry’s before continuing onto D & J’s. It was a day early for a grocery gathering but I saved making a seperate trip. Then for a last stop I went to my UPS Store and picked up a package that arrived soon after I left there a few days ago.
The countertop replacement project is now scheduled for 5 October 2021. I had two choices offered to me by Tim, the guy that I now trust to do good work. I could try getting Home Depot to custom make a countertop OR he would do it but not before 6 months. He is replacing countertops in his home as a learning experience and will not be ready to do it for a customer for 6 months. So I’m going with door #2.
For the last thirty years and more, Americans have been pushing their nervous systems into continual overload with various kinds of stimulation. A mind that’s constantly flooded with noise from television, video games, or what have you, is a mind that never has the time or space to think its own thoughts. In a nation that’s trying not to notice that it’s sold its own grandchildren down the river, that’s probably the point of the exercise. Be that as it may, recovering the ability to think one’s own thoughts, to clear one’s mind of media-driven chatter, manufactured imagery, and all the other thought stopping clutter we use to numb ourselves to the increasingly unwelcome realities of life in a failing civilization, is an indispensable tool for surviving the challenges ahead.–Green Wizardry, John Michael Greer
This is News in the United (sic) States. I did a DuckDuckGo search using “lady gaga dog” as the search term and got a full page of websites with the story. I then did a search using “Ashli Babbit” and found one story dated 2 February, all the other stories were from a few days in January. The one, the only one, that I found had this to say;
Investigators have determined the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the U.S. Capitol riot should not be charged with any crimes, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told NBC News.…
The officer, who has not been identified by Capitol Police or investigators, "used clear appropriate use of force. It's not even a close call," said the officer's lawyer, Mark E. Schamel.
27 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
This short month is almost over and I haven’t started on my month end chores. Need to get on that today. I’ll start with the Will Rogers weekly article preparation. Also need to get out there and dump tanks plus add water. Maybe do some house cleaning but most likely that will get put off until tomorrow
Let’s repeat that, just for the sake of emphasis: There is no way to make a modern middle-class lifestyle sustainable.
That’s the elephant in the living room, the thing that most of a continent and much of the industrial world has been trying not to see, and not to say, for all these years. The middle-class North American lifestyle, to borrow and extend James Howard Kunstler’s useful description of suburbia, is an arrangement without a future; it’s utterly dependent on the rapid exploitation of irreplaceable resources, and the longer that it’s pursued, and the more people pursue it, the worse the consequences will be for children now living, and for a great many generations not yet born. It really is as simple as that.–Green Wizardry, John Michael Greer
Since 1934 past presidents have traditionally given a speech to Congress during their first year in office, often in February. The White House has not yet scheduled a date for President Biden to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress –– even though the president had suggested it would take place this month.
How long will it be before the public realizes that Mr. Biden is being strictly concealed from view by his managers? And how long can they keep it up? A few more weeks, maybe, I’d guess. What did they think they were doing when they engineered the election of this empty suit, this blank cartridge, this political mannequin, this man-who-isn’t-there? Of all the hundred-million-odd adults over 35-years-of-age in this country, they picked this empty vessel to lead in a year of obvious crisis?–Shadowland, James Howard Kunstler
28 February 2021
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ
Today will be house cleaning day. These end of month chores certainly cut into my book reading time but you do what you have to do.
Weather Underground has been partially offline the past few days. Don’t know what the actual temperatures have been at any of the nearby reporting stations. Continue to turn on the basement heater based on the forecast which they are showing.
Patches spotted three javelina yesterday afternoon while we were on our walk. They were close to the intersection of AZ90 & AZ82. Patches barked and two of them took off into the brush. The third one seemed to be acting as the rear guard; didn’t retreat and stood his ground as we walked away. Any dog that was stupid enough to have charged him would have had a hell of a fight on its hands.
Merlin, Gandalf, Voldemort—these well-known sorcerers from popular culture are famed for their amazing spells and spectacular magical powers. In ancient times, however, a wizard was actually a freelance intellectual whose main stock in trade was good advice, supported by a thorough education in agriculture, navigation, political and military science, languages, commerce, mathematics, medicine, and the natural sciences—in essence, the true Renaissance man.John Michael Greer proposes a modern mage for uncertain times; one who possesses a startling array of practical skills gleaned from the appropriate tech and organic gardening movements forged in the energy crisis of the 1970s. From the basic concepts of ecology to a plethora of practical techniques such as composting, green manure, low-tech food preservation and storage, small-scale chicken and rabbit raising, solar water heating, alternative energy sources, and more, Green Wizardry is a comprehensive manual for today’s wizard-in-training.
Providing a solid practical introduction to the entire appropriate tech toolkit, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about decreasing our dependence on an overloaded industrial system and, in a world of serious energy shortages and economic troubles, making life a great deal less traumatic and more livable.–Book promo @ goodreads.com
This is only two paragraphs from an excellent article.
The more that Silicon Valley and the Mainstream Media have extended their control over the United States, the more they have lost control of the actual population of the country. Now we see the ruling international, free trade liberal elite hypnotized by their own dreams, by the very fantasies they have used to control their populations for so long, making them blind to the forces of rebellion and rage are rising up inexorably to destroy them.
Utterly blind to their own failures and their direct responsibility for them, US liberal and European leaders project their own guilt outwards on to their own victims — the despised “Deplorables” as Hillary Clinton contemptuously called them — the hard-working decent working classes of America in industry and agriculture, white, black and Hispanic alike. And they blame Russia and China, independent remote nations on the other side of the world, for the very conditions they themselves have labored so long and hard to bring about.–The Versailles Hall of Mirrors as 21st Century Washington and Brussels, Martin Sieff
No nation likes to have some other nationality come to their Country to teach ’em something.… I may be all wet, and probably am, but when an American starts telling a Chinese “How to live,” why it’s like a new dude telling an old cowman how to run his ranch. Now I can see some sense in a Chinese coming over here and trying to teach us, ease, contentment, no worry, greater appreciation of our parents, and a tremendous regard, affection and veneration for old age. Every one of those qualities are things that every American knows we are lacking in, yet those things are bred into the Chinese. All those things China has got to offer us. What have we got to offer them?–Will Rogers