At Liberty, Summer 2025
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, v. 2
I don’t tell any man what he should do – everyone has to make that decision for him- or herself. Mine was made for me by Fate, so I just play what I’m dealt. I can’t say it started innocuously, but I can say with certainty that it started innocently – at least if that word still has any meaning.
I know this will hurt my supporters’ feelings, but I just wrote a few fucking articles. That’s it; that’s all. And I have a hard time attributing what followed to the Divine… But what do I know.
I had a friend who said that if you predict wrongly and keep your job, you either work for the Gov or the Media… and as things have played out, that’s a distinction without a difference. If, however, you’re not either of the former and you predict correctly, you either get rich or – worst of all – you become a goddamn Prophet.
I wrote a few articles. Less than five-thousand words; a few riffs basically, nothing more.
But boy, did I ever get it right when I decided to say some sooth as to how The Conflag would start. Fucked my life up real good by popping off at the mouth… Again.
Fucked up a lot of people’s lives… but I promised I would tell the Truth, with a capital T.
I have not Faith, nor Love, and I am nothing.
* * * * * * * *
Reuters, July 21, 2025; 2:47 PM CDT
Last Updated an hour ago
An explosion rocked the quiet, and now mostly abandoned, downtown area of Detroit, Michigan, just three hours ago, in what is now the Progressive States of America. Details are sketchy, but the explosion was felt for miles away, some people believing that an earthquake had struck E-V City. Local law enforcement have not provided any information, but members of the FBI’s vaunted Counter-Resistance Strike Force (CRSF) were dispatched and on the ground within an hour. The name that no one wanted to speak was mentioned in hushed tones: El Unico. The One and Only.
A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity told a reporter that there were definitely victims of the attack and that first responders are still combing through the rubble for possible survivors. This would be a marked escalation on the part of El Unico and his/its supporters. Before now, the group has left videos taking responsibility for what appears to be an escalating wave of attacks on the current popularly elected government. El Unico is believed to have started with spreading disinformation on social media, then vandalism, hacking of government and large corporate databases, and now, we can add blowing up buildings to the list of crimes against the peaceful people’s democracy. Administration officials have so far refused to comment or provide any details about the attacks, the status of the investigation, or the most recent explosion, but El Unico’s name has quickly become synonymous with any disruption to the consolidation of the Progressive Party’s most recent election victory, which has not been without its controversies.
Administration sources in the past have said that El Unico was nothing more than a nuisance, with barely any followers, but it will be increasingly difficult to sell that to a justifiably concerned public, especially now that a building lies in rubble in downtown Detroit, heart of the Administration’s new revitalization and government-private partnership to revitalize and turn what was the Motor City into the more climate-friendly Electric Vehicle City.
2025 seems a bit close for a near future story…
Think back to January of last year – if anyone had accurately predicted in precise detail the gigantic increase in authoritarianism in a bit over a year, would you have believed them?
Now do four years from now …
Besides gym bro twitter guy.
This is gonna get fun, I’m looking forward to it,
Thanks Ozy!
Its just a J-V team, no need to worry. Great start and fun. Thanks Ozy!
Really good start. I look forward to more.
This. Like the renaming of Detroit as E-V City.
Delta City was already done.
Speaking of serials set in a grim, dystopian society:
Where’s muh Dick Slashballs?
I think he has writers block.
Less thinking, more drinking, more writing!
Little bit of that and a little bit of heavy commitments at work.
If *you* can’t find them…
Remember remember the 5th of November…
Good start, Ozy!
That comes up a lot now a days…it is as if nothing can be done, what has already been done.
The Progressive Party is the name of the unified Democratic and Republican parties, isn’t it.
Sort of off topic, but you’ve noticed with the exception of Massie and Paul, none of the Republicans in Congress came out against the Biden’s CDC extension or the rent moratorium. Spineless fucks.
I think we’re see the Pelosi -Schumer Branch of the Democrats and the Romney -McConnell Republican’s joining forces, while the Massie’s and Paul’s brand of Republican will create their own party, and we’ll also see the emergence of a Progressive Party with the likes of Sanders, AOC, Cori Bush, and Omar.
I’d love to see that happen. 3 or 4 parties much more aligned to what their supporters want, and in order to get anything done they would have to align based on their party platforms.
Unfortunately, our system is structurally inhospitable to more than two parties.
Or, apparently, more than one party with two separate fundraising arms.
I watched The Swamp on YouTube and HBO and was disgusted at how much fundraising is needed to be in politics. I get that elections are expensive but it’s fucked up how Congressional committee seats are doled out based on how much you fundraised for the party.
AOC didn’t outraise the incumbent. Neither did Dave Brat.
Money just makes it easier; it isn’t essential.
That’s true.
Some significant percentage of what they raise winds up in their pockets, or the pockets of their inner circle. Spending to win an election is ancillary, and is done mostly to keep the money coming.
I’m not the biggest fan of the Parliamentary system but I do like that at times, they have to form coalitions in order to govern.
Whether the coalition be internal to the party or external – there will always be one in majority and one in opposition. Having multiple parties doesn’t really change that. Not here and not anywhere else.
It’s like that in the UK. For a while, the Liberal Democrats were in a coalition with the Conservatives, but the moment Cameron didn’t need them anymore, they went back into obscurity and even lost seats if I recall. The two major parties in the UK, like everywhere else, will always create a system that will prevent any other party from taking their spot.
Liberals* should never have merged with SDs, AFAICT.
*classical sense
Well the Liberals eclipsed the Whigs way back when, then in turn were overtaken by Labor. If not for Churchill, the Tories might have been replaced by a different kind of right-wing (had peace been made with Nazi Germany). Here and there, we have had the most stable party structures – good lord, look at France the last couple of decades.
It was like that in the Hawaii State Senate, when for a two year period from 2016 to 2018 there were 25 Democrats and zero Republicans, and still four factions: the “moderates”, the hard left, the closet socialists, and the closet communists. Now that it is 24 Democrats and 1 Republican, there’s five factions, one entirely irrelevant.
I should say as long as simple majorities are required to govern. If we had a 2/3rds requirement or even a 60% threshhold, that would change things a bit – though still one in power and one out. Our Constitution came into being out of the effort to address the defects in the Articles of Confederation. The shame these days is how many people fail to appreciate the genius of it; no doubt every one a product of our system of public education.
“defects in the Articles of Confederation” – stolen base. Got a link to these alleged defects?
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/white-papers/the-constitutional-convention-of-1787-a-revolution-in-government
The people who wrote it seemed to think it ultimately defective, but you can of course argue they were wrong.
Juris – thanks for the link about the advantages of the Articles of Confederation.
But, I was looking for a link to the * disadvantages * of said Articles …
They lived with it, you didn’t. I’ll take their opinion about it’s flaws over yours.
I get it — you’re an anarchist. They tried something close to that and found it wouldn’t work. As E.O. Wilson said about communism – right theory, wrong species.
“I’ll take their opinion about it’s flaws over yours.”
Argument from authority. I don’t need to take the opinion of some long dead Statists Lite TM to see how the Constitution has played out since its inception. If the Articles were still in effect, I suspect there might be a wee bit less tyranny going on, even with the inevitable “interpreting” of its meaning.
I won’t fault the authors of the document for the flaws of their successors; we’ve allowed a govt to exist beyond it’s legitimate bounds. That is our fault, not theirs. No written word of any type is going to stop human stupidity in its tracks.
And GOP leaders seem to be going along with the “infrastructure” pork, too.
Hence my speculation that they might as well join forces. They already have in all but name.
Made a point along these lines over at Taibbi’s substack; both parties belong to what Gurri calls the Center. The left is normally as frustrated with the Dems as the outgroups on the right (libertarians included for convenience) are with the Repubs.
That mention yesterday (or the day before) about Reagan and I’m from the govt and I’m here to help is a reminder that Reagan himself was an insurgent against the then Republican establishment. Sanders conducted two insurgent campaigns in a party that he isn’t even a member of.
I’m not the biggest fan of Reagan, but you have to hand it to him for battling against the country club Republicans in the 80’s who were content to be in the gracious opposition.
Yeah, too bad he lost that battle.
The problem with being a party that doesn’t want to govern – and I think we can all agree the Republicans don’t know how to do that – is you’re going to lose to a party that wants that.
If you aren’t going to win elections on promises about what govt can do for people, you better have a real good message about how you are going to govern in a way that persuades people that less is more. Right now, the average voter has been trained to expect govt will do shit for them. So vote for one party or the other based on what they promise the govt will do.
What you need is a party that wants to actively anti-govern. Whatever form that might take.
And how have the Libertarians fared the last 7 or 8 elections?
It isn’t that the party for that doesn’t exist, it’s the constituency that doesn’t.
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum….”
― Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
Back when Noam had something worthwhile to contribute.
I actually found Manufacturing Consent to be a hard to refute thesis. Even Chomsky couldn’t refute it, so like Marx, he ignored his own implications and claimed that with the right Top.Men in charge it would be different. But that just isn’t true if you accept everything leading up to that, instead, the supposedly-noble are just another bunch of liars that really only want power for the sake of power.
He’s an odd and frustrating character.
Things we know. “Power corrupts …”
the supposedly-noble are just another bunch of liars that really only want power for the sake of power.
I don’t entirely buy that. I think it ignores the fact that power, itself, is corrupting. The noble only survive if they follow the rules of power and those rules fundamentally are at odds with nobility. And the old information problem leads the noble to acting without regard to considerations that diverge from their ostensibly noble goals. It isn’t that nobility doesn’t exist. It’s that concentrated power makes the noble vile.
You might be using your own definition of nobility there. In Chomsky’s account, power is sought on the basis of deceiving the masses, and of course the masses are utterly incapable of perceiving this deception. Look, he makes an iron-clad case for this, which he then violates by saying that there could be a faction that does not seek power based on deception, the faction he supports of course. Never once does he allow that this is a deception too. In fact it is the easiest deception of all – of the self.
The idea that power corrupts isn’t necessary because power is corruption. If I were to guess, you could probably trace some line of influence in him back to Rousseau.
“If I were to guess, you could probably trace some line of influence in him back to Rousseau.”
Good observation. It’s probably also why he was deluded enough to support Pol Pot.
Funny thing – since this went into “pending” I haven’t had access to it because – like a moron – I didn’t copy and paste it/save it anywhere else. So I’ve been writing the succeeding chapters slightly “blind” – or at least, without 100% recall as to what I wrote.
Gotta tweak a few things I already wrote that I can think of offhand. Nothing major, but…
Anyway, hope you enjoy. Gotta get my KS driver’s license, so I’ll be out for a bit.
Note to Glibs Writers: Because WordPress is asshole I strongly advise composing your work someplace else, like in a word processor. Yes, WP may do a STEVE SMITH on your text, but that can be fixed.
If nothing else, it allows for working offline.
I learned that the hard way, also number your serialized stories,
/Duuuuuh
/taps head
Besides this way you’ve also got a resource to compile everything together later if you want.
And I finally put together the mocktail piece to get Swiss off my back.
I compose everything in word anyways but then I cut and paste to glibs so I don’t keep it. I have been thinking of going through all my posts and copying them somewhere else just to have in case the government kills this fair website
I save everything, in case I want to publish it later.
“Ink and Infatuation”, “Banker of Stirnberg”, “Prince Errant”, and “Rite of Passage” are all slated to be in other volumes of fiction.
I’m currently writing a piece for Glibs that may end up in the same volume as “Ink and Infatuation.”
then again you are writer I am just some dude writing shit
Nice, I liked that one.
I hated the other ones. /jk
I liked “Ink and Infatuation” also.
I’m glad.
I aim to entertain.
Today has a wierd schedule because people want me on meetings outside of my work hours.
At least in the gap in between I got to write.
I have ~3500 words together as a complete story for you lot. I just need to proof it and make sure it’s up to minimum quality standards.
Shame I have a meeting to attend.
We had a group on the East Coast that kept trying to set calls with me at 6 or 7 am Tucson time.
I finally told them that was never going to happen. Ever. So stop it.
Yeah, but 3:30 pm eastern time on a thursday isn’t that outrageous for someone in that same time zone.
I am still cogitating my gender-flipped Krampus and Santa, but I have to build the rules of magic and also I have a moral dilemma.
Not every child gets Christmas so Santa doesn’t come to every child. Likewise, Krampus can’t visit every naughty child.
I’m trying to find a good explanation for why not every child gets Christmas, even/especially the ones who do or want to believe in Santa.
If Santa is magic, he has no excuse not to visit every child whose humans can’t/won’t provide their Christmas.
Getting the occasional 4 – 5 AM meeting request, but then, I’m an hour behind Pacific time.
I try to take an even strain – I knew the time zone when I moved here, and am more than willing to put up with these consequences.
They wanted our money, rather than the other way around. I’m more flexible when we are the ones getting paid.
@ Moj – What if He is magic, but can only reach places where the ground has been prepared for his arrival – so if a household is ignoring the christmas rituals, he can’t break in.
Hmm. And if they haven’t done the rituals, they are open to being visited by Krampus.
But sometimes, the belief of a single child can burn through . . . . I mean, if you’re going for that kind of happy holiday ending.
I don’t want to punish a child for the actions of his family. I have a setup like this:
Santa has a “dreamscape” where he takes people who need comfort and hope. His main purpose is to minister to those who are unjustly imprisoned, so…adults. The dreamscape is maternal. Its magic is sweet and comforting, but it’s insidious. But I can’t get around the nice child conundrum.
Krampus has a “hellscape” where she takes kids who need to be scared straight. Her main purpose is to serve the good parents with “bad” kids so they maybe will wake up on Christmas morning with a scared-straight kid. The hellscape is paternal. Its magic is brutal, but honest and up front. She visits naughty children and decides if they actually need to be scared straight, so she has some agency in this. Also, her legend is not as well known so I can get away with saying that she visits everyone and does what she thinks is wise.
Santa is fun daddy and Krampus is mean mommy.
It’s really a God question: Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad ones?
Hrmm… I don’t know then.
My interest is piqued. Good start!
Looking forward to more stories from this series.
Watch this space on Thursdays at 11:00 Central. He has several more episodes written.
I am stoked. Spending my M-F, 8A-1PM EST time checking in on Glibs has been pleasant and good for my mental health.
Glad we can be of some help waffles. You’re out in the Eastern PA area right? I’m going to be out in that area this weekend for the ska/punk show going on Saturday.
I’ve been absent most of the week planning said show. I’ll try to make it a article once I’m out of the weeds. My partner and I met last night to review what still needs to be done. Little left to do except for execution and trying to have some fun.
Catbite is our second act, but if we planned this show today, they could be headlining. They have blown up over the past 6 months and have anew record being released on Friday.
https://www.readjunk.com/news/music/catbite-announce-new-album-nice-one-and-premiere-new-music-video/
Cool I’ll go see them on Sunday. I live in Bethlehem and can walk to the show.
The show I’m putting together will be on Sat outside of Wilkes Barre.
Cool cool. I’ve got to stay around town and look after some friends pets this weekend so I’m local.
I was hoping it would be before that. I’m not sure I can hold out another 4 years. A 4 year forecast may be optimistic, OZY, life changing events sometimes come without warning.
30 years ago I predicted a Mexican invasion by the peasantry. It’s not playing out (yet) exactly as my forecast but maybe the drug cartels are the military conflicts I had envisioned.
I’m holding out for the biggest Glib invasion ever on Sep 19th. That’s about as far out as my fortune telling is anymore. We won’t be wearing masks, checking vax cards or testing. Kids welcome, too.
My illegal immigration nightmare scenario is Mexico’s descent into a failed state, like Venezuela, with a similar outmigration – around 20% of the population. That would be 25mm Mexicans, and won’t any of them head south.
The odds and timing of this are unkown, of course, but I don’t think “never happen” is what we should be counting on.
If the 20% are anything like the Cubans who successfully fled Cuba, that might not be the nightmare scenario you envision. I’m guessing the people who GTFO of Venezuela have a sizable contingent who are mighty disillusioned about the wonders of socialism.
I’m assuming the 20% will be comparable to Venezuela, the (vast?) majority of which, regardless of their politics, are basically peasants who can provide unskilled labor. I posit that, while America generally benefits from high-skill immigrants, I question whether the same is true of unskilled immigrants, especially in high volumes over short periods of time.
If a sizable contingent of those low skilled immigrants work as hard as the horde of Latinos who built our housing development, I’d say they would be, on average, a distinct improvement. Nothing quite says “great work ethic” like standing on the second story of a roof being constructed, with no safety line to stop a fall, in 100 degree weather,.
This is, to my mind, the hard part of immigration policy. I believe, and of course this is subject to dispute, that immigration policy should promote the “general welfare” of the US and, importantly, its citizens. I understand the general welfare to be, essentially, Pareto-optimal or efficient. Meaning, immigration policy should be set so that it makes some citizens better off, and no citizens worse off. As a policy, of course, we shouldn’t be looking at anecdotes or one-offs, but using our best judgment of (I know people will hate this, but its inevitable when you are setting policy) the collective impact of immigration.
So, what level of low-skill immigration doesn’t make some citizens worse off? I suspect its a very low level, indeed, not millions a year. Because I count “being on welfare” as being worse than “having a job”.
You’d be saddened: many Venezuelans are of the “they just did socialism wrong” variety of idiot.
So are quite a few former Californians dogpiling into Texas.
My Venezuelan friend despises socialism and what’s currently happening here in the US.
I attended the oath of citizenship ceremony for a friend of mine (who came from a formerly Communist country). Each person taking the oath (about 30 in that “class”) had the opportunity to say a few words to the assembled audience, if they wished. Not many did, but one was a woman originally from Venezuela. She spoke eloquently and sincerely about cherishing the freedoms available to us in the USA, and implored everyone there to take their preservation seriously, as she had experienced the horrifying effects of what transpired in Venezuela under socialism.
The surge across the southern border isn’t Mexicans anymore, it is mostly Central Americans.
You might note that my “nightmare scenario” is just that, a scenario, not a description of the current wave of illegal immigration.
In my darker moments, I dream of a new Manifest Destiny, and an annexation of everything South to the Panama Canal. It could hardly be worse than the current status quo.
It would be worthless if we didn’t take Canada too.
One America, North America
But who could trust any of those who might attempt this, let alone pull it off, to create anything other than a dystopian nightmare?
I full expect dystopian nightmare but there’s a lot of backwoods to hide in once you include Canuckistan.
That’s your dakrer moments?
Pfft, Noblebright.
Ambitious and misunderstood?
I feel like if Mexio went failed-state, L0b0t’s Manifest Destiny play would happen.
I’ve long believed that the three countries of North America were unstable states that had only two possible outcomes: Balkanization along regional socio-cultural-economic lines or the creation of “the Federation of North America.”
If the latter, perhaps we’d finally be able to get everyone else on the planet to refer to us as “North Americans.”
You’ll still be canukistanis.
And you’ll still be Canada’s Underpants, but I’m okay with that. ;-)
Mexico is just heartbreaking. Abundant natural resources, deep water ports on both coasts, weather phenomenally suited to agriculture, a population of hardy, hardworking folk; the fact that are such basket case is shameful.
I don’t buy that the only thing holding Mexico back is the gringo’s insatiable hunger for narcotics. There’s gotta be more to it.
I think a full explanation would be little more than “Ruled by a spectacularly corrupt leftist government for 100 years”.
This little book does a wonderful job of explaining that.
A Mexican friend once told me, “Mexicans would make the best engineers, if they didn’t like beer so much.”
So there is a reason the Mexican and Irish flags are so similar.
The Corinthians quote makes me think of Goethe’s Faust – both of Goethe swiping the interplay of God and Satan from Job and of Faust’s own ruminations on the emptiness of his knowledge.
Thanks Ozy!
Speaking of conspiracies today’s WSJ has a really interesting long form article on Who Assassinated Haiti’s President
Wow
That’s a Gordian Knot.
Somebody knew exactly what they were doing and how to do it.
Most Elaborate Suicide Evah?
Yes, it would appear as of today that the Columbian Mercs were a distraction. But that could change tomorrow.
wow
Just got my high school alumni magazine featuring a photo of current students wearing masks on the cover.
*spits*
Better than your class photo masquée.
That’s a thing?
Huh.
Not where I’m from.
Hell, I don’t even know if my college has one. Probably, if only to beg for money money into its overflowing coffers of anti-freedom activism.
Great start.
I’m sure we’re on another list somewhere now.
That ship sailed long ago.
I hope they send us all to the same camp.
That’s not the way it works. Separate the leaders from the followers. The problem is that Glibs are neither
Fours, you are saturnine today! XO ed abbracci
glibs get out of the way?
Dibs on the top bunk.
Love it! And how do I join El Unico?
Avatar checks out.
A mighty Dick has fallen.
Apologies for the OT, but the Catholics have issued a review of the use of fetal tissue in the various vaccines.
If by “morally compromised” they mean the AstraZeneca vaccine doesn’t work worth a shit, then yes. Seems to me they’re using a utilitarian argument in a deontological situation (at least for them).
I think they mean “too closely connected to the abortion-sourced fetal cell line”.
That’s what they mean to imply, but is it just a coincidence that it doesn’t work either? Certainly makes it an easier target since it is in danger of being pulled altogether.
Rand is stepping up.
Nice.
Indeed.
I’m tempted to look for my checkbook.
Done and done. Months ago. The only mandates I worry about are the ones I’m paid to comply with.
Mostly done. I was so visibly agitated by the arsehole on my recent flight back to Austin who threatened to sic the FAA on me if I didn’t follow his Gavin Newsome-esque orders re: masking that my wife said she was OK with me not taking another flight anywhere until they drop the mask mandates.
Which I assume will happen about the time they disband the TSA and we can walk to the gate without having to go thru the Surrender-O-Thon RapeyScan 3000 machine.
I don’t give to any causes that will put me on a private list (see Swamp above) or alert the IRS. Small cash or goods donations, locally.
Would consider donating to his ophthalmology charity. I hear Trump did (how much, IDK).
+1
I want to donate to his campaign but I’m also fearful that some asshole with an axe to grind will use the list to harass people into submission.
Submission to what?
Fuck you, eat shit and die is an answer to anything. Even as they march you to the gallows, that can still be the reply, though they take everything else from you. Indeed, those who have been taken over my Marxists eventually realize that’s all they have left in the end.
That’s true. I’ve donated to Massie, so I’m probably on some list anyway.
Practically speaking, I once read a suggestion about blacking out your name and address on a check. Don’t know if that would work.
He is my Senator and I have donated.
Mostly I get some odd requests from other out-of-state more assholish members of the Freedom caucus to fund their issues.
I donate to him and Massie.
If I’m on a list because of it, so be it.
List can’t be that extensive anyway, since my gun background checks still go through.
Aw heck, see my name below.
As a white male over the age of 30 that believes in the 2nd amendment and often votes third party, I was deemed a greater risk to the country than Muslim extremists during the Obama years. As a patriotic American, I reported myself to Attack Watch, even though I have zero intention or desire to harm anyone.
Link?
This? https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mask-mandates-lockdown-choose-freedom-sen-rand-paul
One of my neighbors seems to like Adam Carolla; rather endearing.
Email fundraising blast
Rand is El Unico?
Rand, of course, already had the disease, so he doesn’t need the vaccine.
It appears to me that lately Fox News (the news readers) have really jumped on the conservative (Repub/Trump) bandwagon. It’s hard for me to call it propaganda since the Biden admin seems to keep digging the hole deeper. Science is a scarce commodity, reality is a bitch.
I always thought the title of Ursula K. LeGuin’s book The Lathe of Heaven would also make a good name for an insurgency group. It’s vaguely threatening, has some of that good ol’ fashioned religious zealot overtone to it, and is just obtuse enough to allow for the free run of imagination.
I agree – that’s a great name for an insurgency. Anything in the book tie into that at all? Or was it just the title? (I could never get through the Earthsea Trilogy. Never.)
Just the title. Well, sort of.
“The Resistance” if there was one, was George Orr himself, who tried to thwart his psychiatrist’s continuing attempts to make his power — the ability to “dream true” (i.e., dream something that would become reality) — bend to the psych’s vision of what a “perfect world” would be. Each attempt made things worse, rather than better.
If you don’t like reading the novel, a very creditable TV movie of it was made (by PBS, fer cryin’ out loud!) back in the early 80s; superior to anything done since, even though SFX and CGI has progressed by leaps ‘n bounds since then.
Because LeGuin was a mediocre storyteller, and Earthsea was boring and stupid.
WHAT’CHU TALKIN’ ‘BOUT Willis? The trilogy was fantastic and then, years later, the nutpunch from the fourth book was hurtful but well written. Also, Rocannon’s World is wonderful.
Wow! That was cheerful!
You’re a good writer, Ozy. I’m looking forward to the series.
I think.
😉
And so I just dropped my friend off at the hospital and they made me leave the building. It took some doing to get her there, then instead of oyr closest ER which is very close, she wanted to go to this BFE ER or that BFE ER. She couldn’t make up her mind so I made it up for her. She’s not happy but I’ll live with it.
If I had to go to the hospital for COVID, I’d be taking a copy of the FLCCC’s MATH-Plus protocol with me and making sure my doctors read and understood it.
Aw. Whut??
You did right, Mo. When the fever goes down she’ll be thanking you.
No fever but she couldn’t breathe. Sats in the tank.
oof.
Just found out a day or so ago that my sister-in-law has been hospitalized with COVID.
Sorry. ?
She is the poster child for people that should not get COVID. A 60ish, obese, diabetic, chain-smoker with a sedentary lifestyle.
My wife’s family is somewhat fractured. We typically only hear about how anyone is doing when we get the funeral notice.
So, I was somewhat surprised to hear that SIL is alive and hanging on.
Sucks about the condition, good she is hanging on. Hope you continue to be surprised
Yeah, needs a hospital for that. Hopefully, the one you took her to is current on what to do – the magic words are “heated high-flow oxygen”, with intubation and a ventilator as an absolute last resort.
I would be shocked if the doctors would follow any kind of ivermectin/zinc/quinine etc. protocol. They are herd animals, mostly in thrall to the CDC which has submarined those treatments. For which the CDC should be dismantled, their buildings demolished, and replaced with a park, including a large plaque explaining “This is what happens to agencies that fuck up.”
She really needs a living will and a health care agent, if she doesn’t already have them.
“This is what happens to agencies that fuck up.”
A fellow worker-bee in the hive and I were discussing the inevitable failure of programs. He quipped “we need an implant that when the program dies, you die” since so many are responsible for the failure and so few in charge when it happens.
My friend was ranting about how there are good treatments available, but they aren’t using them. That’s why she took the zinc and tonic water I gave her.
She said, “If Biden had gotten this, they’d be using all the treatments.”
Yeah, that’s not good. As the charge nurse who took care of my Mom in hospice once said, “At one level, all deaths are deaths due to lack of oxygen.” Which is why, when my Mom’s sats dropped below a certain threshold, we got the call to come to her bedside ’cause she’d passed a “milestone.”
Hopefully they’ve started your friend on O₂ already.
She is also a transplant patient.
Oof.
Definate high-risk category.
Had a coworker hospitalized last week with breathing issues (Covid positive). He’s out now.
I hope your friend follows the same path.
Sorry about your friend, good on you for taking charge. Sounds like she is where she needs to be, hope they do the right thing by her.
I was supposed to go to a viewing tonight for a friend my age who died of COVID-related pneumonia.
I don’t KNOW that I am contagious, but I have been in the home of and in my car with my friend, so I’m trying to decide if I’m a legit carrier. After all, they wouldn’t let me stay in the hospital at all and basically shooed me out immediately. I would hate to miss this viewing.
No symptoms? No fever? Should be OK. But Fauci says otherwise.
No, but there will be people there who know where Mr. Mojeaux and I have been, and a couple of people were super-spooked by my friend #2’s death, so things could get dicey. Face masks are required for the visitation, which is a small ask, all things considered, so that doesn’t bother me. My mom isn’t going, but she’s 77 and not in the best of health, and while she isn’t afraid of death at all, she is doesn’t want to go out vented and alone, so I get that, too. It’s all so messed up.
she is doesn’t want to go out vented and alone
She needs a living will that specifies “do not intubate”, and a health care agent willing to enforce that if need be.
Oh, she has one and I’m it, and I’m it because I WILL enforce it.
Glad to hear it.
If she is hospitalized, make sure the hospital has copies.
If they give you any crap, let me know. I am well versed in the pain points of hospitals. These days, I’m kind of in the mood to to strap on my steel-toed boots and put them to good use.
Thanks, I appreciate it, and I will do.
I take copies with me every time she has to go to the hospital for something.
The hospital’s visitation policy has nothing to do with whether they think you are a particular risk.
We treat everybody like virus-ridden pustules of DOOM.
You’re in the window for having caught it from her. I still believe that if you aren’t symptomatic, you pose minimal risk. Your call, of course.
Re donations known privately: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12762002
Massie!
Just to reset with prolefeed wrt Statists Lite.
Guilty as charged. Human beings in social groups will have rules. Breaking the rules will consequences. Enforcing those consequences means coercion. It’s built in to being a social group. You want to be not subject to rules – then live as a solo organism with no interaction with other members of the species. All the navel gazing in the world isn’t going to change that.
Even then, the state will find you. See that CT guy living in the woods this past week.
I hear China is the place to be more free…
Dude was not gamboling in the commons, he was trespassing on someone’s land. Though granted, the landowner was notified by the state of the problem on his land.
I think there’s a serious question about how the land actually belonged to, under adverse possession doctrine.
wrt China
That’s kinda the point (sarcasm aside) – we are all statists, so being a Lite one isn’t a bad thing. You can White Indian all you want, but that isn’t how human social behavior plays out.
No vaccine mandate, no mask mandate, because they don’t have to pretend to care about “IF IT SAVES JUST ONE LIFE!!!!” Everyone knows they don’t give a fuck.
And everyone just works and does their thing. Until the govt decides you can’t. Which I don’t see as being very different from here.
Maybe I found the liberation of being utterly hidden in the sheer mass of humanity there. I’m serious – at a certain size and scale, human cities over 20MM for example – especially how old those cities are, there is a certain anonymity. The govt just can’t cover THAT many people continuously.
The govt just can’t cover THAT many people continuously.
The social credit system says “hold my beer”.
So here’s a question that I have no idea the answer to: does the social credit system only govern some of the population, and the proles live below the radar? Or does it actually extend to all 1B+/-?
I thought it was everyone, but really don’t know for sure.
I think it’s “You can only access these services if you have a social credit score of X+”, and so being invisible is possible if you never signed up, but you trade off everything gated or linked to the system. It’s probably incomplete, but will creep into more areas over time.
The Karens would rather not know the Bocephuses and Billy Bobs and Barbie Brendas exist. There are plenty of people who will fly under the radar because they will be ignored, sort of the way black folk are being ignored on this vaccine. They’re hesitant to push it in that population because of the history.
I don’t know if you were around when I posted this:
Man builds home in the side of a mountain.
Couldn’t do that here.
Wife undergoing surgery today. Would appreciate any prayers you got. Thanks.
?
You got it.
How serious is it?
I know there’s a danger every time you go under the knife, but some surgeries are riskier than others.
Theoretically not very serious, but we won’t actually know until they open her up.
Well, you still have what support I can give.
Hopefully it’s all minor as these things go.
My thoughts and prayers for her.
Done.
Thanks all, surgeon is running 2 hours behind, so just chilling still.
Incoming, here’s to a speedy recovery.
2nd and 3rd the concerns of the others. Thoughts from the Glibs carried a lot of weight for me, I didn’t want to disappoint y’all.
Get Well Soon, Mrs Lack!
One of the many strange things about our rapidly crumbling empire. As government processes break down and executives grab more power – our military is cranking “special” forces faster than ever. People trained specifically to take down governments.
I do believe our special forces are trained specifically to take down insurgents these days, not governments. They’ve spent the last generation or more fighting insurgents, and as far as I can tell have not even attempted to take down a government (other than the Taliban in Afghanistan).
I thought they were being trained to recite wokist pablum these days.
The better to fight white supremacist American insurgents.
In between squeezes of the trigger, hopefully.
Either way, they have to be experts in asymmetric warfare.
Another interesting question – does that mean they train to do things we consider utterly unethical as Americans? Things that violate both the constitutional bounds they are sworn to uphold and the Geneva conventions? I can imagine a number of techniques that could be ‘effective’ but would probably be deeply frowned upon even by those in power let alone by common folk like us.
In retrospect, the Sneaky Pete types record, didn’t contribute much to the success (or lack thereof) in VN or the ME.
Interesting thing. I went looking for Paul’s fundraising request online. In the process (squirrel!!), I ran across a news story with this headline:
Trump asks if Rand Paul has ‘learned lesson’ on endorsements
Sounds pretty damning, doesn’t it. And you read down, and at the very end of the article there’s this:
“Rand is a different kind of guy, but I like him a lot anyway, and I’m proud to have endorsed him when when he ran,” he said. “Do you think he learned his lesson?”
Yeah, huge fight there. In effect, all its saying is that Trump and Paul, although getting along well together, disagree on some matters. Anyone paying attention already knew this.
But of course Trump had to grunt out his tribal dominant position.
Amazon Prime is paying me $5 to stream a video in a minimized window with the sound off. Thanks Herr Bezos.
Can you get the same deal on all of their other streams, too?
That’d be SCHWEET!
How does that work
“ ‘Privacy Company’ Apple Plans To Monitor All US iPhones For Evidence Of Child Porn”
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/apple-plans-monitor-all-us-iphones-evidence-child-porn
Not that I’m going to be perusing CP but holy shit, goodbye Apple. The chances for screwups, either unintentional or intentional frameups, are almost endless.
Disappointing. I guarantee this will result in false positives, doors kicked in, children seized from parents who have done nothing at all wrong.
When I’m in the market for new devices (probably not for a year or two, anyway), I will be giving a very hard look at some of the small companies making privacy-oriented stuff.
Feature? Not a bug.
Won’t be abused. At all.
Related: https://rawnews1st.net/accused-of-soliciting-sex-from-14-year-old-claims-to-work-for-nancy-pelosi-hillary-clinton-caught-in-pedo-sting/
Another Dem operative…
*lights the Q Anon signal*
Think how good the omelettes will be with all them broken eggs.
Dur d’être bébé: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7IiLZ0dvDWU
Yeah fuck Apple. Unfortunately, the only way to win this game is not to play, no matter who the provider is. I assume all my online activity is being monitored and there’s not much to be done about it.
Watch Samsung/Google follow suit.
As long as so many people make their livings online, we’re all sitting ducks. Manual laborers, tradesmen, retail employees who stay off the net may have an easier time going gray.
The national center for missing and exploited children is the largest known holder of child pornography in the world. I will try to find a few court appeals where defendants found this out through discovery.
So Apple is going to store child porn in encrypted files on your device to compare to any child pictures you store on your apple products? Parents taking innocent pictures of their kids are so fucked.
Sorry to be a downer on the thread.
Ozy, can’t wait for more!
Let me cheer you up:
Agile Cyborg
April.30.2015 at 12:34 am
Life bends like orgasms of petals,
it flows into a tempest of leaning shrieks
and ponderous rock jams where we
seek elevated cries and shrills for inner
locks to be open on the stones and brooks
of revelation the minuses coagulate on the
tight bends in the modded moss filters
shaking, vibrating lights dance like fools
in the innocence of nature, killed instantly
throught slight untoward revolutions like
existence and time and Notorious GKC
needs to let life love and live like
the greatest droplets of stars concerning their
offed old echoes, this thread visitier is a glossy
formulation reflecting the dregs and bows of
deep space vibratos wracking the sub particles
of great vibrations so minuscule on the
strings of collectia progressia and expressia
and those enjoined cries for waterfulls of mars
and universal touch hover like floating porpoises
gifted smooth escapes and these letters capture
my eyes and I live in these words and my face
believes in the power of undulation emanating….
I miss AC.
#metoo
He would start out the day relatively coherent. Come evening and late night, though, his comments got more dense, but I could still make them out if I took it slow and read with my lips moving.
Ive said it before: Agile Cyborg is what drugs take when they want to get fucked up.
SpaceX is connecting the SN20 to the crane to lift it to mate with the booster 4. Not sure if they intend to do the lift today, or if they’ll get the rigging complete and make the lift tomorrow.
Well fuck… This isn’t going to end well:
https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqOQgKIjNDQklTSURvSmMzUnZjbmt0TXpZd1NoTUtFUWlEMk8tM2s0QU1FZDlkS3JPYjc1QmlLQUFQAQ?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen
Thot Thursday.
https://archive.li/6w2u6
Its Thursday?
Shit, I have to work tonight.
I had a very strong feeling Tuesday that a false flag op is imminent. The Delta Variant scare isn’t gaining the traction needed to last another year to justify mail-in ballot cheating in 2022. A new distraction is needed. Been trying to think what that could be to effect the same result.
Too early for a false flag to justify stripping away election security. Middle part of next year, would be my guess.
Delta was never going to do that; the panic around Delta was solely the public health nazis feeling their power slipping away as the pandemic receded.
The amount of sanctimonious piece of shit local school government busy bodies who couldn’t resist reasserting their dominance is kind of ridiculous. I’ve decided I’m going to refer to this event as “The Karening.”
It was for… THE SCIENCE! or some shit.
The AZ Governor prohibited school mask mandates.
Several school districts (including Tucson) have defied him, to the delighted screeching of Karens everywhere.
The Governor’s response? Nothing. I would have cut off their state funding the next day, but he’s a giant pussy, really. So he does nothing.
DeSantis threatened the funding and they folded like a lawn chair. Governors who fail to do the same are in on the grift.
Don’t underestimate pure cowardice.
Could be but it takes a brave coward to disappoint
one’s own supporters. Or maybe they’re just afraid of the other side but they should be booted if that’s the case.
If he wasn’t going to enforce the order, he should have never made it.
This stinks of the usual empty gesture to placate the rubes.
Iowa actually passed a law signed by the governor that schools cannot impose mask mandates and leaves it in the hands of the governor’s office.
School officials are moaning about delta and that their hands are tied.
Oh well.
Copy that. Until then, more ammo and range time.
I’m betting the false flag won’t be COVID-related. By next spring, it will have run its course.
I’m thinking it could be the “discovery” of “militia groups” planning to attack polling stations. Meaning, no in-person voting, all mail-in ballots.
The Dems are one vote away from federalizing elections, so Scenario B is they finally buy that vote, and don’t need a false flag at all.
Expect a democrat tactic to murder a republican or noncompliant democrat senator or congressmen in a democrat controlled state and then be replaced by the democrat governor.
Democrats are sick of not being able to fully take over because of election consequences.
Excel screenshot seen on dailysceptics.org the other day.
Hmmm, can’t open it. “…server cannot be found.”
Ah, “sceptic”. Singular.
An “org,” eh? Is it one of those “think tanks”? A sceptic tank, if you will?
*poke*
I sent you an email.
::jumps and squeals from being poked:: Got it! Will peruse attachment thoroughly this evening.
Didn’t mean to startle you.
Great story Ozy, and thanks again for your time. I look forward to part 2 here!
/Holds up beer/
Welp, Coonman ordered all VA state employees have to be vaccinated or submit to a weekly covid test. Fucking scumbag.
We need more lawsuits.
You misspelled “woodchippers.”
I do not want a date with Madame Guillotine.
Y’all, if you’re Steely Dan (and jazz) fans, this is a really good concert.
*MikeS faints*
I keep mentioning Steely Dan Steely Dan Steely Dan hoping MikeS shows up.
He’s too smart to fall for such a trick.
OK, now I need to hop off the phone and on to my desktop to download this. Will listen while curled up on a beach chair with a good book ?️
?
This is the waiting room music in hell. Not a doubt in my mind.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ashli-babbitts-mom-nancy-pelosi-orchestrated-killing-daughter
Holy crap – Messi is leaving Barca; the financial problems for the club mean they can’t get his contract approved with La Liga.
Which Manchester got him?
I can’t imagine any club that can afford him.
$165M a year – JFC
? I love reading about dystopia that is not the dystopia that is happening now.