A review/analysis sparked by two books: The Revolt of the Public (And the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium) by Martin Gurri, and the The Revolt of the Elites (And the Betrayal of Democracy) by Christopher Lasch.
Gurri is a first-time author whereas Lasch has mined the hard rock of social criticism for years. The first book of his that I read was The Culture of Narcissism; it was written in the late 70s and I believe I first read it in the early 90s. I re-read it a year or so ago and was struck by how you could follow the arc he traced to our current circumstances. The Revolt of the Elites was Lasch’s last book, and was published posthumously. Gurri’s book was published in 2014 (the version I read has an addenda written after the 2016 Presidential election); although Gurri did not anticipate Trump specifically, you can certainly see Trump as an outcome of the conflict central to his analysis. The addenda addresses Trump’s election and Brexit. I was tipped to Gurri and his book by a Matt Taibbi interview.
Both books begin with a nod to José Ortega y Gasset and his work, The Revolt of the Masses. Gurri then spends time focusing on why he chose the public in lieu of the masses, and he gives considerable thought to Walter Lippman’s ideas on the public. Since Lasch was a man of the left (though pretty thoroughly disillusioned with what was left of leftist thought in the latter half of his life) he naturally gravitates to the political significance of the elite. Whereas Gurri will build on Lippman, Lasch will respectfully reject him in favor of Dewey’s contemporaneous counter-argument (particularly around how the public can/should be informed in order to retain legitimacy in consent of the governed). Despite the rhetorical ablutions of progressives with regard to democracy, their commitment to rule of experts puts them into a quandary on the legitimacy of democratic governance. What’s interesting is that despite the titular differences, these two are working the same field – the disconnect between the elite and the public. Gurri will use the Center as his term for the institutions (not limited to government) that operate as the legitimate sources of authority in society, and these are the home of the elite. Having discarded the masses in favor of the public, Gurri will identify the home of these folks as the Border. A very simple example illustrates: in media terms, CNN is a component of the Center and this website is of the Border. Gurri will talk about the expansion of communications that allows the Border to have “vital communities of interest” where the virtual results in live, real-world manifestations – generally at odds with the machinations of authority in the Center. Lasch doesn’t adopt the bifurcated focus, and keeps his eye on the elite with the result that he tends to see effects in the public mostly as result of mimicking elite behavior (positive or negative).
Gurri’s analysis is heavily focused on the problems of now – since it represents a crisis point in his thinking. He also is looking globally, not just domestically for incidents and trends. Lasch complements this nicely by tracing where we (in this country) are now (or at least in 1995 when the book was published) from points and trends reaching back decades if not a century or more. I particularly like this as it places the why of how we degenerated in a more organic (purely American) flow than those who tend to rely on the Gramscian narrative. In the case of education, Lasch identifies part of the problem starting from the work of Horace Mann with the specialization of education as an institution, and later the conflict in the mission of education (identifying and educating an elite versus making an elite education accessible to a greater portion of the populace [this is better explored in his Culture of Narcissism]) – without a word about any long march through the institutions.
Gurri sets up the conflict of Center and Border as resulting most prominently from the growth of modern communications, specifically the internet – such that the Center no longer enjoys the control of information it previously had. Though the Border is informed by a multitude of sources, and can organize protests – that isn’t a way to construct an alternative institution to what exists in the Center, nor do vital communities build up around that kind of idea. They very easily coalesce around the negation of some failure of the Center, but cannot coherently articulate what should happen instead. The classic examples here are the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street – both of which expressed outrage with behavior and externalities emanating from the Center, but neither of which could summon a solution to those problems.
With Lasch’s penchant for history he gives a valuable discourse on equality, and what it meant as a social concept in the early years of the republic vice what it has come to mean now (particularly in light of how the social justice movement has warped the civil rights movement). All of the recent fuss about economic equality misses the point about the equality that had meaning early on; that was a socio-political equality without much regard for economic status. It is a sad result of materialist thinking, not limited to the Marxian school, that has reduced us to what we talk about today (both in terms of income inequality and with regard to social mobility and opportunity). All of our talk now is decidedly impoverished: intellectually, spiritually and socially.
An interesting thought, at least to me, is that Lasch would have no knowledge of September 11th, or the Obama Administration, and though Gurri does, it doesn’t change how well their thoughts tie together. This is illustrated by the emergence of Trump. Both of these books were written before Donald Trump launched his 2016 campaign for the Presidency. Lasch anticipates in 1995, what would happen in 2016:
At this point in our history the best qualification for high office may well be a refusal to cooperate with the media’s program of self-aggrandizement. A candidate with the courage to abstain from “debates” organized by the media would automatically distinguish himself from the others and command a good deal of public respect. … A refusal to play by the media’s rules would make people aware of the vast, illegitimate influence the mass media have come to exercise in American politics. It would also provide the one index of character that voters could recognize and applaud.
Now of course Trump didn’t abstain, but he bent the rules – overtly and contemptuously – and reaped both the nomination and the Presidency. In Gurri’s terms – this was the Border, politicking against the Center via negation. It really should be little wonder that Trump struck a chord with as many voters as he did – they’re fed up with the status quo. It isn’t that Trump had to really see them for who they are, he merely needed to be perceived as one who wouldn’t see them as the elites routinely did – so perfectly summarized with the “basket of deplorables”.
Gurri eerily outlines the vitriolic response of the Center to the Trumpian intrusion (and again, he was published in 2014, so writing for a year or two prior to that). When you read him now, you have to remind yourself that he isn’t writing from the perspective of 2019 or later, not even in his addenda.
The upshot of all of this – we’re in uncharted waters, and the winds aren’t favorable. The loss of confidence in government might be tolerable if our other institutions had survived more or less intact. But authority in the Center is collapsing under both it’s own hypocrisy and the fact that it can’t hide when it is incompetent, and unable to take accountability for that incompetence; this is true of every institution that exercises any kind of authority – government, church, education, even social organizations. Whereas Gurri finds some hope in the vital communities (mostly virtual) in the Border, Lasch is more pessimistic about the decay of the actual neighborhoods we live in. Gurri is most concerned that the natural end-point of our skepticism and disenchantment is nihilism.
Lasch – The Soul of Man under Secularism
The final chapter of Elites is a cheekily titled allusion to Wilde’s essay The Soul of Man under Socialism. Now Wilde was proposing his own iconoclastic view of socialism, not anything remotely resembling Marx (the sensibilities of Marxists being tweaked with his own title). Lasch argues that Wilde actually has the last laugh, as his thesis is better represented in modern society than anything from the dogmatic left. This concludes a fair amount of contemplation on the state of spirituality in our age in the preceding chapters (collectively The Dark Night of the Soul). The tireless advocates of the free market need to, but generally do not, assess what the relentless tide of creative destruction has wrought – for that carries far beyond the merely economic. Our individual pursuit of our own interests comes at the cost of the time and energy we could invest in our families and communities. Those are the places we need to invest ourselves in, and not in grand political programs that cannot possibly ameliorate the damage in those places. For conservatives (at least the traditional variety) this isn’t stunning news. For conservatives that are tempted to ape progressive thoughts and tactics (turned to conservative ends) – this is a most cogent warning. Following progressives down the path of all-consuming government is doomed. It has failed them and will fail anyone else in the attempt.
Gurri – Choices and System
This is the penultimate chapter in Public (not counting the addenda Reconsiderations), and in it Gurri seeks for a way forward. He eschews prophesy and prediction, which are fundamentally incompatible with his analytic stance but realizes he can’t leave his reader (or himself) in a state of despair or denial (which is where you might well be at this point in the book). How to avoid the trap of nihilism and with it the death of democratic governance?
I am persuaded by Paul Ormerod’s argument: even the colossal machinery of modern government has been unable to ordain the future. The crisis of democracy arose from the denial of this fact. We want to build Brasilia over and over again, to leap ahead 50 years into a future that is always more rational than the present. At a minimum, we demand that our politicians talk as if the power of government to perfect the human condition, when we have known, since 1991, that they have no notion of how to do so.
Drill down into the networks that have enabled the public to confound authority, and you soon arrive at what I would call the personal sphere. This is the circle of everyday life, experienced directly, in all its local specificity. Here the choices meaningful to an individual get generated: spouse, children, friends, career, faith. Government and high politics fill in the background. To image they can ordain or legislate happiness at this level is a modern illusion.
Somewhat surprisingly, we find Gurri on similar ground to Lasch – speaking to regeneration of local connections. He has argued that technology, the internet specifically, has been a key element in the divergence between Center and Border, and yet finds that real human connection cannot be discounted.
Ultimately, these are both excellent books about where our society has broken and our institutions failed us. I can’t say that I’ve done full justice to either in this space. Reading either will give you insights not just into other people’s behavior, but your own. Reading both is my strongest recommendation.
Good Work, a lot to digest,
/You guys are smart,
Relevant:
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-revolt-of-the-public
Very late reply, but the critic you cite there had this to say…
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
This is so obvious, NASA never heard of a vacuum pump? di anyone pressure test the fucking lines? 4.6 Billion? for what?
Quit Bitching about Elon, he provides value,
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/10/19/NASA-Boeing-Starliner-capsule-delay/9131634659504/
“Everyone is Revolting”
That’s not nice.
Get em outta here!
Ah yes! I like this one, been a while,
Remember this one?
I can’t wait one minute more
Still a Favorite! I’m still a Punk!
For you, Ian Dury,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-VeOakGGPQ
Also can’t wait one more minute
You said it, they stink on ice.
Reading? LOL.
I used to do all my reading during my commute.
I don’t have a commute any more.
Thanks for the think-stuff anyway.
I does, pronounced ‘dooz’ the bathrobe commute. It’s the bestest commute.
Gary Oldman prancing through the apartment is still pretty horrifying.
If I get my Lowes gig, I’ll be commuting 25 miles each way, a mellow drive, but Winter always sucks, yippee….
25 miles in an area like you’re in is still way less bad than a 10 mile commute in an urban area. I’ve done both, so I know.
True, I’m a spoiled SoCal boy, I don’t deal with traffic anymore,
I wouldn’t recommend reading and driving at the same time.
I agree, spotify is a good thing, Now it’s heavy rain, woohoo!
Midweek Glibzoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89294027164?pwd=cHRHbURuME4wdGY2Q0lGVUV4QTJ2UT09
Everyone Is Zooming?
Nope, Sup rhy?
Tall tumbler. Watching local soccer. My team hasn’t scored a goal in 5½ games.
PS. They were 2nd in the East a month ago. Now they are 8th.
LOL I’ve slammed them for being the worst-managed team in MLS for years but this is getting a little ridiculous.
Heh,
¡Goooool!
Look out, league – we’re coming for you now.
I heard that in Authentic Mexican…..
It was a golazo, too.
We drew! We got a point.
Nope only 6 right now
Negatory. Updating the wife’s resume for some additional hours she’s picking up at another gym. Trying to stay away from the liquor cabinet because I have the pre-game jitters something fierce right now and taking the edge off is mighty tempting.
Good luck on the asserting your God-given rights thing.
I’m going with the liquor cabinet.
‘Lasch is more pessimistic about the decay of the actual neighborhoods we live in. Gurri is most concerned that the natural end-point of our skepticism and disenchantment is nihilism.’
Yeah, Gurri may have the edge here…at least from my perspective.
All the Covid nonsense aside, which I’m completely numb to at this point, the decision to hire tens of thousands of new IRS employees followed by the announcement to go after everyone’s banking records aside from the poorest among us has just completely deflated me. I’ve been team …not necessarily Black Pill but team Opt Out. So now I guess I’m going to have to stop using my credit union to hold my money and either buy money orders or drive to the place that let’s me pay for utilities in cash.
Think about that. A guy who gets paid in cash and has to 1099 but fib a little to help keep his boss from getting heat and just moved into a shithole to save hundreds of dollars a month yet still has a few thousand bucks to go to get completely out of a jam is sitting here worried about being investigated by the fucking IRS because of his banking history and how he pays for his utilities and rent.
I own fuck all. I’m worth fuck all. The amount of taxes I may owe it not owe is spent in a blink of and eye. Hell, it was spent before I blinked. Yet now I’m fretting about putting myself back on the “Grid” just to save money…I realize this legislation isn’t set in stone but I’m far too cynical to think it won’t come to pass eventually, much like the mileage tax.
Point being: Nihilism, FTW.
The federal government which I’m subject to has declared an unofficial war on me. All I can do now is try to ride out this lease while carefully moving my money and hope to be too small a fish to notice.
I’m browbeaten, dejected and see no immediate hope in the future.
Excellent article/reviews, ji.
Look, your betters have to spend trillions of your money, for you own good. And they have to pay for it. How do you expect them to do it? They can’t, so you have to. It’s only fair.
You know that shit they’ve been saying, for like forever, about millionaires and billionaires paying their fair share? That means YOU, comrade.
Hopefully they don’t mean to go after small fish like most of us (?) here.
/glass half-full
“Hopefully they don’t mean to go after small fish like most of us ”
Ha! we are who they want to get, we have no lawyers, and so the Law doesn’t apply to us,
You of all people should know better.
I know… ?
TH, you and me are in the same spot, and if they look at my bank records, I’m fucked, I have nothing, I won’t get the Vax, I also have nothing to lose, YMMV
Indeed, sir. I thankfully
I think I’m going to sporadically call you “Uncle Bob”
Uncle Bob can always crash on the couch for a spell if the need should arise.
I honestly am humbled, i am Uncle Bob to a lot of folks and my own relatives, I thank you, and may take up your offer, i’ll bring supplies and guns,
Sweet! I’ll supply the *bacon and bourbon.
HT/sean
In what realm do you dwell?
I was neighbors with Mo for several years but recently moved a bit South East. KC Metro area. Honestly dude, worst come to worst, you could get by in KC. We have have around five Glibs here that I know of so you would always have a helping hand if you really needed one. The KC government is solid blue but has no teeth. The significant majority of the population here, aside from the truly elderly (whom I sympathize with), and the Woke Youth(whom I hold in contempt) have abandoned Covid Theater.
That being said, my residence is in an extremely shitty part of town. Within the last hour alone I’ve heard at least three gunshots and several police sirens pass by.
https://image.spreadshirtmedia.com/image-server/v1/products/T210A2PA3176PT17X33Y54D12398352FS11263CxFFFFFF/views/1,width=650,height=650,appearanceId=2.jpg
Is that shirt issued to new arrivals, or do you have to
buysteal your own?I hear gunshots regularly where I live, but it’s people plinking.
I hear noises which I am not sure if they’re gunshots or not. My neighborhood is stupid safe but it is NYC so WTF do I know.
It’s best to have it given to you by a resident with bullet wounds.
You don’t really belong until then.
*Owns said shirt via a gift from my best friend’s older brother…who got shot in the leg by his baby momma’s daddy*
This metro area is so ginormous, we’re still neighbors. I moved, too, just 3 miles west, same high school, but entirely different zip code.
My wife suggested I should get hired as one of those thousands and parlay it into extorting taxpayers under review. Give me a cash fraction and I’ll make the IRS go away.
Can I get your number?
It’s “10% for the big guy”
TH the $600 threshold was a proposal, not an enacted law. As of today, it’s now $10,000. It’s still bullshit but should take you out of range.
20 years ago, original Red hair, full teeth, a tan and a Cat, life Rocked!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CZfRo8rgpXsfkJFn9
Yusef is feeling Michiander, but looking California, oh yeah….
Outshined
I still look waay out of place here, but they know me and like me, small town,
Great tune!
Hah, my wife and I are moving to official Hillbilly country soon. I told her ‘Don’t worry, they’ll think I’m one of them’, in fact, they’ll know it.
I already felt like a Redneck, now I are one!
Cornell would blow up Condenser mics in the studio, 2 grand a pop, a Big voice,
Oh HELL yeah.
Damn he was hott.
Nice! That hair.
LOL I found a representative pic of me from around 20 years ago. I’m 32 years old and apparently still a college student. My favorite part is the giant serving bowl of Parliament cigarettes. Delivered from Switzerland back when that used to not be a crime.
The hair Right? I never saw that before, I think he looked great,
Geek! your setup looks like mine did, Bravo!
That was three apartments ago and I still have that POS desk in my (now) spare bedroom.
Everything else you see in that picture belonged to my (now ex-) best friend – long story.
When I moved here I had Zero, so I bought a 120$ L desk and love it!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D1LV93H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
great value, and convertable,
Heh I have almost the same one on my wish-list to replace the POS.
But that fell off the radar when I moved all my shit back to the office at the beginning of summer. Except, now I WFH in my living room, and my spare bedroom is a dumpster fire again.
*looks for 8th grade football pic*
Nope, nothing from 20 years ago.
*whistles innocently while closing digital photo album*
^ kid
I’m 58, I tore the back 12 down, and it was the forest, come on young Man! show us us a picture!
Hang on, I need to blur out some family members. You get a very nice half smiling me in awkward 13 year old fashion.
20 years ago
” OK, if I have to”
Great stuff trashy!
Stud!
‘Twenty years ago’
Ah, yes. I remember twenty one. I was fervently patriotic freshly after 9/11. As we’re nearly all of us. I’ve never seen the country more unified. I was all in with the collective blood lust, American Empiralism, apologies for torture, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent bystanders, destabilizing the areas controlled by the enemies if my God…
…”The Soviets are gone! Now’s the time turn the whole world American! The Patriot Act will keep those evil brown heathens from stoping us! MIC, do your magic!”
To be young, dumb and Republican again.
I was more or less apolitically clueless then. I may have voted for a Democrat or two. But not with any kind of vigor. It was just sort of expected.
My father made it perfectly clear to his children than if Christ were to decend upon Earth and could only cast one vote to save humanity from itself it would be for an American Republican…
Now consider that as a contrast to the story I shared about selling multiple types of illegal narcotics for him after he manipulated me into being a junky so he could use me to push product.
…my late teens/early twenties were pretty fucked up.
Yikes!
I can’t even.
PS. I always thought I had a crazy upbringing but nothing even remotely like that.
I credit my mom and her eventually settling on the right boyfriend.
I caught my father cheating with a coke whore. Then he tried to talk her up and turn me against my own mother. When that didn’t work, he got me hooked on dope so he could milk profits out if me to finance the addiction of the coke whore he was fucking…
Little did he know that one evening I was so spun out and angry that I was ready to drive to her trailer and stab both of them to death.
Thank God for multiple friends who outweigh you and are able to sit on/restrain you before you can destroy multiple lives including your own .
You may be the white David Goggins.
Well… I did live in Buffalo for a while but I’m not six foot seven or ripped so maybe not.
” the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent bystanders”
Um…not anywhere I was operating.
Okay. Are you seriously contending that hundreds of thousands of people who had nothing to do with the actions of their government have died over the last twenty years in the middle east and north Africa because our military actions?
Heh…I actually looked for my last year of competitive hockey to show off my awesomeness. But yeah…couldn’t *find* it
“I’m 32 years old”
Get off my lawn, Millennial.
That’s not even half plus 7, I call foul!
/at least 37 for me,
He was 32 twenty years ago. Not a Millennial.
One of us! One of us! One of us!
I was 38 twenty years ago, ya Kid!
Fourscore says “settle down young lad”.
Touche’
Either that or I look really old for a 12-year-old.
Damn. That could be me 20 years ago.
Now I am wishing I had a photo of me from 20 years ago. I was so non-technical at home that I didn’t have a cell phone, personal email, a personal computer, camera of any sort, in short, nothing but a CBR, a few guns, and a shit ton of books.
Oh, and a divorce, a kid, and the start of a drinking problem.
20 years later, hmmm
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oGxnoTitwVn6Ee1LA
Most of my current office,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/u8c5LUSHiSsWRxtX6
The rest,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ER8ZXsCWU4r1bYEs7
I run a 12 channel mixer with a 2 track stereo preamp for each of my computers, one runs my DAW, and the other PC runs a specific synth program that is critical to my Electronica. With 12 channels, I can run up to 8 synths at once, Drums included, Hella fun!
I got this guy a month ago, and set it up in my living room. I’ve been meaning to catch up on the piano lessons my older brother gave me 40 years ago.
It’s not connected to anything. But it’s leading to a nice new hobby that I’m enjoying.
I have the 25 year old version of the exact same keyboard, play it alone, or use 1/4″ jack into an amp, even a 15 watt, you will dig it,
Smoked up, works perfect, 35$ at a yard sale, with stand, it’s your keyboards older Brother,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LSDNPj3vtbKNzHN87
Yeah, very similar.
I’m baffled at all the buttons but I stick with the simple piano mode and I’m teaching myself with the Alfred piano book but I like to switch to an Organ tone cuz synth is my jam.
They are all MIDI, try #88 for a cool keyboard, IMO, and don’t sweat all the buttons, just have fun!
This thing has 600 tones and they all sound really good. It’s nuts.
Like the oboe sounds like an actual oboe and shit.
The one button that is very welcome is the metronome button. And it’s really easy to slow it down which I need to do.
Friend of mine had a similar setup in his living room – and today I learned that he’s on Youtube.
Apropos of nothing, is Blackjack MIA? Did I miss something?
Right? I know he was taking heat at his job several weeks ago but I haven’t seen him check in for awhile.
For that matter, anyone seen Lackowsky?
Haven’t seen Blackjack in a while.
Lach’s probably busy with kid and job stuff.
I think he pops in every once in a while.
“Everyone is Revolting”
I’m not but my cock is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GPBbIFQuI0&list=OLAK5uy_lpoKlkHf5fLrRvxR-vZZ7Qp7tfqFNvR4c
Yeeee haww!
My fave.
Oh Hell yes! I love this!
Your blackpill video for the evening.
https://youtu.be/qobuy3cQdwc
Her voice is so Cool,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUZeQ9_R6o
Nice! I’m reminded of GLaDOS for some reason. But also reminded of lots of nineties partying.
I love EDM,and play the shit out of it, Donna Summer! and Giorgio Moroder!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHfrdQ8h2Pw
AS in, I actually play the synths for this Shit,
Oh hell yeah. Giorgio was genius.
I’m even more into Tangerine Dream-y less dancy stuff.
And chiptunes and so much…
I’m good with that, I like that 120 bpm Fucking sound, as in Fucking,
Same chick, but now she’s a Stalker, great fun! Listen to it all, it’s a story, for the now time,
Internet friends, by Knife Party,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luJJBeCFeM0
Good article JI. That was the reminder I needed to pick up Gurri’s book. I’m unfamiliar with Lasch but he sounds worth reading too.
Thanks and Lasch is very much worth reading.
https://twitter.com/GASLlGHTER/status/1450156351456530434
WTF??
A smartass,
I think parts of Twitter have crawled up its own ass.
A black hole swallowed by a black hole.
Exactly. BTW, I don’t know what a sexual panzer is but I like the sound of it.
While carrying the seed of The Great Firster, abstaining from Firsting has been difficult. When I am jonesing for a First, I just think about the ultimate euphoria that will wash over me as The First That Will Change Everything is released.
I recommend the epidural.
The Great Firster demands it be painful.
My wife hated the epidural. Hated not having control over the situation.
I was not in control of the process any more or less with or without the epidural. I had ZERO control during 16 hours of hard labor (I was induced) without progress. I begged for a C-section; nope, ORs are full and booked all day. I held off on the epidural because it caused problems the first time around. Finally, the only thing I COULD control was getting the damned epidural, so I did. It caused lots of problems, but the baby finally deigned to show his face.
My wife does too.
Related
https://youtu.be/UEwPy31vWZ8
Demon Seed is an underrated movie. Freaked me out when I was little.
I’m starting to think you really need to rub one out.
Totally off the subject. I’m looking to hire. Anyone have an idea where to look for some likeminded employees/sub contractors?
What industry do you work in?
where are you?
The Bro is always available for hire, though you must be able to accommodate my pregnancy. I will need both paternity and maternity leave. I also require my own locked bathroom that only I will have a key to.
Mining support.
I’m looking for someone in the central PNW with mechanical aptitude, the ability to electrical troubleshoot, available Friday through Mondays and holidays with a class A or B CDL with air brakes. The job is a welding gig that you don’t really have to know how to weld to do. Training is included. Must be able to lift 70 pounds and climb a ladder. I’ve got a fake ankle and a crap ton of ortho injuries and I do it.
Average number of jobs a year is 26.
It’s a Jack of all trades job. My uncle has been doing the job for thirty years and gave me the curtsy of giving me six months notice.
Pay is based on the work done. I pay 60c mile, $1.00 pound applied going up to $1.15 after training. Plus a perdiem after training. It’s a good second gig or a career for the right person. Works out to 60-90k.
I prefer to 1099 as it’s better for everyone involved. Part of the like minded I mentioned.
It took me two months to hire a production welder this summer.
Good thing I’m not looking for a welder. I’ll teach that part.
Derpy?
Pffft. Get in line.
I’m still hiring too, and I’m a cooler boss than you. ?
New hire #3 didn’t work out after two days.
Where did you advertise? I’ve done a bit word of mouth in the past looking for a third part time guy but now it’s real.
Back to normal, rain and thunder, it really impedes your game,
Lewiston Idaho area. I work throughout the NW.
I kinda like that town. The last time I was there, pandemic hype, I stayed at a funky semi-corporate hotel on the main drag (?) wandered around downtown, and the next day took the long way over the mountains. It was pretty. Couldn’t find a brewery that was open though.
Clarkston has the brewery, and there is a new one on Snake River Ave. both are decent. The one in clarkston dosent serve food but welcomes you to bring your own which is cool.
At this point in our history the best qualification for high office may well be a refusal to cooperate with the media’s program of self-aggrandizement. A candidate with the courage to abstain from “debates” organized by the media would automatically distinguish himself from the others and command a good deal of public respect. … A refusal to play by the media’s rules would make people aware of the vast, illegitimate influence the mass media have come to exercise in American politics. It would also provide the one index of character that voters could recognize and applaud.
That’s impressive insight. Thank you for this essay JI. I could curse you for adding to my already never-gonna-finish-all-these-fucking-books pile, but it is interesting how thinkers from different eras reach similar conclusions.
It actually makes me fell like we aren’t completely fucked.
Look at Mr. Optimist over here. Do I have show you our national debt?
Oh, that. Pfft.
I’ve decided I’m gonna go to the wall as an optimist. I know we may be fucked in the macro, but I remain constantly amazed at all the cool shit that happens in between.
The Center/Cathedral/Establishment have massive power, but they have no soul.
You need soul to win.
I know you are right. I even enjoy the moments. But when I think about the big picture I’m really concerned.
I’ve often thought the same thing when reading the ancient Egyptians or Greeks or Romans make equivalent statements to “The kids of today will never amount to anything.”
Then I remember that although the human race went on, all those empires collapsed (with much suffering) and many of their cultural and intellectual achievements were lost.
…all those empires collapsed (with much suffering) and many of their cultural and intellectual achievements were lost.
But what came afterwards? If we are teeing up amazing progress through our destruction then OK.
For funsies since Yusef posted some young pics…
First was my last year playing with Ontario at a low level
https://pasteboard.co/jz2hHrO3R93u.jpg
Here a coach realized…you need to play at a higher level.
https://pasteboard.co/xx5MpuvHfjuQ.jpg
And action shots!
Roller hockey was played a lot cause ice time was so expensive in Socal
Here making a power move
https://pasteboard.co/u0yUXoPAdsXw.jpg
Head up, both hands on the stick read for the play
https://pasteboard.co/axPlTt4rDS2i.jpg
Today was day 2 of The Great Unpacking into the new house. Actually it was the first whole day of unpacking, and though there seem to be endless stacks of boxes, we made enough headway to cook dinner in the kitchen and make the bed up.
The cat is so thrilled that we’re not going back to the hotel that he’s lying right between us, taking turns on which of us to head butt for affection. Poor little dude has had a stressful week and a half.
Yay! And head butts from cats are sure signs they will not eat you tonight
??⬛
My pups settled in amazingly fast. I hope your kitteh does, too.
Met any neighbors, yet?
Yeah one neighbor came over and introduced himself on Monday while the unloaders were moving furniture and boxes into the house.
We chatted briefly, he told me the history of the previous owners, and we exchanged phone numbers. He also told me which mailbox was ours (they have the little USPS boxes in clusters throughout the neighborhood.
Lots of new construction going on here too, so we won’t be the last “new” neighbors.
Congratulations on your new place. Cat head butts are the best.
They so are.
Yep. However when I’ve attempted to imitate the behavior with ladyfriends none of the recipients thought it was cute 🙁
Thank you. He’s finally had his fill and is sleeping on a wingback chair in the corner of the master bedroom.
And nothing else happened.
https://redstate.com/scotthounsell/2021/10/20/breaking-nih-confirms-fauci-lied-ecohealth-alliance-violated-terms-of-virus-research-grant-n460349
That confirmation will be memory holed before the Sun appears in the Hawaiian sky tomorrow.
Found this interesting. Local news found a parent that was not having the push for 5-11 year old children stuck with the vaccine…but counter it with a doc that says..’well ya…but that is misinformation’
https://www.ktnv.com/news/parents-react-to-white-house-plans-to-vaccinate-young-kids
Appeal to authority is strong in this article.
And this local study has some promising numbers
https://news3lv.com/news/local/side-effects-safety-worries-among-top-vaccine-hesitancy-reasons-in-nevada
It is discouraging that only a quarter of those polled don’t trust the gov.
I imagine that some don’t trust the pollsters not to tell the government their answers so they say “yes.”
The other items indicate distrust of the government, the respondents just haven’t had the revelation yet.
I stopped there.
Biden’s leadership on display.
The Tragedy of the Common Core Math.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10113711/Biden-urges-warring-Democrats-come-pass-agenda.html
Nice joke…. But it is way more venal and insidious than that. I have been astonished at the transformation over the last decade. There was a time when the press and the politicians pushed a narrative. They would hew to a party line about an issue, promoting the version of reality that best supported the party line.
That pretense is gone. They do not even bother to have any relationship between reality and their narrative. They just state slogans. Even the leaders have quit bothering to read the legislation they are pushing.
It really is worrying. I don’t see how you can push multi-trillion dollar off-budget packages, one after the other, and have them change in size by trillions of dollars from day to day with zero discussion… Even zero understanding of what it does, what it is, what changed…. Nobody even cares.
The answer to spending is “more”. They don’t even seem to care exactly what it is spent on.
It really is horrifying to watch… A huge swath of society, deluded into zombie-like serfdom, blindly parroting anything they are told, regardless of how silly.
That whispering thing he does is like a supervillain’s verbal tick from one of those crappy Batman movies: it’s creepy. Two trillion won’t increase the debt? Bullfuckingshit (unless they’re planning on printing and inflating their way out of it which of course has problems of its own).
Narrator: They’re planning on printing and inflating their way out of it.
Joe’s whisper = Just the pinky
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cdc-warns-people-to-throw-away-onions-from-chihuahua-after-salmonella-outbreak/ar-AAPMgm5
Your onions are trying to kill you.
So now I have to get a new belt ?
Need to finish building the wall. These immigrants are getting out of hand.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey! Speaking of homey, we got home yesterday from our adventure in southern Ohio. Had a lovely time, got back to find the house intact (or as intact as it had been when we left) and the cats having neither starved nor killed each other.
I’m still on vacation, but I have to go to the dentist this morning. ?
How’s by you?
Despite being up since midnight and drinking beer, Im steady holdin’ down the NW. I have the news on- I keep getting older and greyer, Gabrielle Enright just gets cuter and cuter.
Welcome home to some actual autumn weather.
Anyone remember when AOC wanted to spend $12 trillion on her Green New Deal and everyone said she was crazy?
How close are we to spending an extra $12 trillion in a 3 or 4 year window? If you include quantitative easing… We are probably already there with these new packages.
Her proposal seemed completely insane. Nobody could spend an extra $12 trillion (and wasn’t it over a decade or something?). Yet here we are… $2 to $6 trillion per year in extra, off budget spending is the new normal.
They really do seem to be hell-bent on bringing back stagflation. 20% interest rates, zero or negative growth, double digit inflation…. Yeah, good times.
They’ve managed to run us into the ditch, the only question is whether it was by accident or on purpose.
Notice how silent she is about the latest bill(s).
It’s because all the “green new deal” bullshit is in there – and the American people don’t seem interested in learning about it.
God do I hate insomnia. Went to bed at 10, finished my book and lights out by 10:30.
Wide awake a 2 am. Finally decide it ain’t gonna happen, so here I am.
Have you tried melatonin? I’m finding quite efficacious. I’ve been waking every hour or so to get up and pee, but with a melatonin before bed, I sleep through the night.
I have to be very judicious with melatonin, likely due to the 12-pack or so I have before taking it.
I sleep like Im on propofol, but get the worst hangover.
I use that from time to time, but I had an outpatient procedure today, so they want me to be real careful. I am thinking it is mostly from the meds wearing off, but it still sucks. Then again, I have always been a shit sleeper.
Thats why I have a 3rd shift job.
Copious amounts of alcohol helps.
Time release melatonin every night an hour before bed whether you think you’ll need it or not. I’m a terrible insomniac myself but with that routine I manage to average around six hours a night now. The early morning wake ups are the worst because the drowsiness seems to kick in again about the time the sun comes up.
I apologize to my Glib-friends for being such a dopey cry-baby yesterday. Now that it’s out of the way, I’ll go back and RTFA.
Mornin’, Festus. No apology needed here, Glibs take diversity seriously. Also, we’ve all been there.
Never apologize, dude.
Can’t help it. Canadian.
“oops Im sorry eh”
/after I bumped into you
TALL CANS canuckistani!
Fuck. Now I know that I am indeed the dullest Glib! I couldn’t write that screed if you handed me a million monkeys with a million lap-tops. Shit-flinging here we go! Nicely done, JI!
Thank you kindly good sir and a top of the morning to you.
Look on the bright side, you’re not facing your last meal while having to confront some home truths like poor Crim Hollingsworth. https://youtu.be/Wkht7ksjKNU
I wanted to love that show because I adore KITH but never made it past the first two episodes. I’m really bad at this Canadian thing, I guess. Soory! 🙂
Bob & Doug haz sadz
“White people are people too”
Lol. How long before YT pulls this one?
Don’t beat yourself Fest. You are a great person to talk to as we watch the world burn,
So, I get updates from Reason in the emails, cause of course I do, and there was an article about how Abbots NOVAX mandate in TX is just as bad as the gov’t mandate for VAX. And once I waded through all the BS in the comments, which really came down to 1.) the usual pissing match, but 2.) people actually discussing, so good faith, some not so much, perfect world libertarianism vs. don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good libertarianism. Stupid article from Sullum, but some good thoughts about this in the comments. I was mildly surprised.
The novax mandate is as bad as the vax mandate is the angle they’re pushing? They’ve lost the damn plot. I swear to Christ that’s a bad take.
Oh, were is SugarFree when we need him most? We have a new version of the Necronomicon!
“a sordid tale of corrupt bureaucrats, conniving conspiracists and an international terrorist plot to detonate dirty bombs on US soil ”
So, an autobiography.
Needs moar Vince Foster.
“”Prepare For The Worst” – Caribou Coffee Panic Hoards Arabica Beans Amid Global Deficit”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/prepare-worst-caribou-coffee-panic-hoards-arabica-beans-amid-global-deficit
Oh man, not the coffee too. That’d be almost as bad as a booze shortage.
Worse, in my case. They better not come for my tobacco!
Hear Hear!
They will come for your tobacco but you’ll be fine so long as you can prove your Native ancestry. He will not divide us! Rheeeee!
*Kif sigh*
Kudos to JI for the article. I like the idea of Center/ Border. Similar to Cathedral/ Bazaar in software in the sense that the establishment (Center/Cathedral) cannot react effectively to rapid change. It’s actually somewhat optimistic, and I need a little of that.
That makes more sense to me. Dull mind goes hmmm.
Thanks. I think we have to re-scale, starting with ourselves, to make any real progress, and work on what is close to us. We [literally we] aren’t going to fix the Center.
Paging SugarFree.
What Joe was actually thinking:
“Must sniff hair. Goddamn mask! Turn off the cameras!”
OFFS.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/joe-biden-pitches-build-back-better-agenda-scranton-will-take-literally-millions-automobiles-off-road-off-road-video/
o_O
The fun part is that the automobiles most easily “taken off the road” are those owned by urban dwellers who use them only infrequently for pleasure jaunts, not those that rack up mileage because their owners need them to get around to jobs, shopping, etc.
I had a weird dream yesterday. I was pursuing a young gal and when I tried to kiss her she kept her eyes open and said “I don’t want to be hurt.” That’s when I woke up and realized that I’m an old man in this version. It was so vivid. Stuck with me even now. I went from 25 to 56 then I woke up. I’ll be incorrigible when they stuff me away. Just running about in my own head. God help my step kids.
Nobody will read this but my Ex’s Granddad used to escape his confinement quite regularly. He’d push the pins out of the hinges in his room. He would walk the few blocks to his house and make coffee. Grandma had to call one of us so we could corral him. He was a cool old feller. Used to say “Swell”.