I have been in a period this year where I did not write much towards the blog, just some short random thought posts. This is another one of those not fully developed posts. But here it be.
The situation in old Europe is not great. That is rather obvious. However, I see, more and more, the notion that the European “elites” – I hate the word in this context but I will use it because it is broadly used like this, there is nothing elite bout the fuckers – are deeply corrupt, which is true. Also that the European populace does not really know this, or trusts them. This is not as true. More than it should be, I suppose. There was a level of trust sure. However, not even Europeans ever truly trusted politicians.
I would venture to say it was more a combination if complacency, social respectability, and the effects of political tribalism, than trust. As in most “functional democracies” where “the rule of law” is the guiding principle. The complacency kept people from really thinking. The tribalism found an outlet for existing problems, the other side “done it”. Sure, you would get heated in election years, argue with family, friends, strangers over the fashionable opinions of the day, and, of course, blamed everything on the other side. Not that the sides were all that different, they hovered in a narrow Overton window. Nevertheless, complacency and social acceptance prevented people from any radical change. Like those icky fringe parties of fringe opinions. Because things were going reasonably well, by human history standards.
In the end, there was sort of a deal in place, I would think. Pay high taxes, accept some waste and corruption, but in return get some peace and reasonable prosperity, and the deal seemed to hold. Until it did not. Which was predictable. This was the mistake of the European, getting too comfortable and no longer keeping close look at the direction of things.
This is what made people stop thinking, buying into all the left crap and, more importantly, the eco nonsense. It all sounded good superficially and no one felt immediately and directly any pain. As such, no one looked at things to in-depth. Threats of pain in the future were ignored, a common failing of humanity. It is similar with the fabulous pensions that were promised when there were 30 workers per retiree. All things that are unsustainable, will eventually fail.
I do not think it was trust so much, as comfort and carelessness. In private, most people did not trust “the elites”.
There are two main problems at hand. The problem with socialism is when you run out of other people’s money. The problem with green delusions is when you run out of other people’s energy. This led, like all such things, to a rude awakening. How rude, we do not know yet. The awakening, in most cases, only ever comes after it is rather a bit too late.
The “elites” are the new aristocracy. Like the old aristocracy, they started more robust, and finished in a decadent state. They, whomever they may be, became more arrogant and self-assured, not necessarily more corrupt, in thinking that the plebs taking some shit means they can pile it on indefinitely. However, the crux for the populace was accepting things as long as comfort and some appearances of respectability were maintained. If it was not trust, it was complacency in a decent situation; when the situation goes away so does the complacency. I freeze in winter while you take a jet from your mansion to your summer palace, this is what the aristocracy of old did, and what the new aristocracy is trying to bring back. So in some small way the people, they are revolting.
This was, as I tried to explain with little success to some Glibs, the difference between the western and eastern – Russian – model, which Romania tried hard to escape with varying success. Not that the leaders were more or less corrupt, but the notion that if you steal less from a richer country, you get more while the “people” are also left with enough for a good life, enough to get comfortable and complacent. Comfortable and complacent can be aspirational for those in much worse conditions. Though I still believe the easterners are more corrupt in finance matters, because they are more motivated by personal enrichment and less by ideology. Off course for all there is a mix of power, money, ideology etc. Just in different proportions. Though as the saying goes, a robber Barron mostly motivated by money can be maybe more predictable than one motivated by a “great purpose.”
This is what sustained the high tax model of the prosperous west. You cannot take 50% from a poor person, because they will starve. If you take 50% from someone who has enough that the remaining 50% still makes them comfortable, they will not be inclined to rebel. After all rebellion is hard and there is a really good show just out on Netflix. The house is warm, there is a bottle of wine, some beer, and a roast in the oven. There may be a game on the telly later on. Life is good enough. Too much to lose and all that. The old trick of plucking birds and getting as many fathers with as few squawks as possible.
Now things may have started to change. Though, from a libertarian point of view, with little good in store. The people have woken up that the deal is broken. But they will probably not decide to go for liberty, but look for a new deal with a newer aristocracy. People do not want to be free, they want to be comfortable. However, complacency can breed weakness over time, and now it may be too late to change the direction, whatever this may be. Alternatively, it might not be. Maybe this was the plan of the current cabal, lulu the masses until too late. But no cabal lasted forever, if one glances at history. It was a bold strategy and we shall see how that works out for them.
Or maybe I am wrong, libertarianism is clouding my judgement, and western politicians are broadly honest, well meaning and competent, though I have difficulty typing the words without laughing. But who knows? Not old Pie, that’s for sure.
After all rebellion is hard and there is a really good show just out on Netflix. The house is warm, there is a bottle of wine, some beer, and a roast in the oven. There may be a game on the telly later on. Life is good enough. Too much to lose and all that.
Not only Europe.
In the US we’re so comfortable that we have “luxury beliefs” (I can’t remember who came up with that phrase). We ruin people’s lives over such things as their use of pronouns and the definition of a woman.
Worse, we allow this BS to control us and we respond to it.
(we as in the collective USA.)
western politicians are broadly honest, well meaning and competent, though I have difficulty typing the words without laughing.
I had difficulty reading them without laughing.
I had no difficulty at all … holding laughter is bad for you.
Thanks Pie, ’cause I agree with you.
For the last 40 years I have been saying that the next election will bring worse politicians to the table. During the election season more is promised and less is delivered, regardless of the winner. I have yet to be proven wrong. We hear the Repubs telling us that the future will be better when they get control of Congress. I’m not holding my breath.
The WOKE era is indicative of the fallacy of politicians’ promises. Sometimes the old way is the best way.
You are right, the people are revolting. They should collectively take a bath and some lessons in etiquette.
I still think “elites” is a decent label. I like the idea of “New Aristocracy.” Maybe Aristocrats 2.0?
There are people outside the government, pulling the strings (successfully to a large degree), who call themselves “elites”. I think it’s appropriate.
I like “mandarins” as a term for our ruling class (broadly, as it extends from the elected politicians, senior bureaucrats, and misc. panjandrums in academia, consulting, Big Biz, the media, etc.). “Elites” I think conveys the intended meaning well enough; at this point, the sneer is pretty well implied and understood.
Better still how about mandarin eunuchs?
Eunuchs in Ancient China
Its a Eunuchs’ System?
Eunuch programmers
I enjoyed that line!
Me too. That was a great line (Looking at you, California!)
Germany – “We are pure!… *psst, order some more Kwh from the Czech coal plants*”
I am stealing that line.
great write up
Seconded.
It annoys me a little that Pie’s English is better than mine.
500 years as a vampire makes your grammar perfect.
DIT!
That annoys me, too. Do better, Tundra!
Well, it is good to be the king.
It’s also good to get high.
Thanks for writing this. It’s good to hear a different perspective.
+1
If people are truly cold and hungry this winter, things will get spicy this winter. Most people have no idea what either of those things feel like past an hour or two. It changes the way you think.
Two skipped meals at survival training and I was eating ants (lemony), earthworms (dirt flavored) and various unknown but safe plants (salad without dressing). The cute little domesticated bunny they gave us lasted about as long as this sentence.
I hate the word in this context but I will use it because it is broadly used like this, there is nothing elite bout the fuckers
I agree. I tend to go with “New Class” because I think it captures the notion that the fundamental authority of this class stems from their control functions in the modern managerial state and society. They don’t have their role because of any particular innate talent, but owing to their role of gatekeepers in the various nexuses (academia, media, NGOs, government) that control the interactions of society.
I am becoming fond of “Robber Barons.” It’s growing on me.
Carpetbagger is another good one. Euro carpetbagger.
Every time I hear that term, I see an image of JD Vance. Maybe I’m wrong, but…
His name just screams carpetbagger.
“Howdy folks! Ahm J.D. Vance! And ahm here to help!”
Just a good ol boy for sure.
I hear he has a monorail!
You joke… but one of the things that keeps getting brought up is a “high speed rail” connecting Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
Why? Is there some untapped demand for choo chooing down the central plain?
UCS:
Even if there is… there’s a freeway called 71 that follows the path they would want the train to run. The only “advantage” would be taking Amtrak instead of driving yourself. I have the feeling that the Amtrak run would take longer.
Getting a high speed ride from one end of Ohio to the other end of Ohio sounds an awful lot like having to push a boulder up hill every day.
“Eurobagger”
“Earl Grey Teabagger”
You leave Captain Picard alone!
I’m sure is old news around here. But I hear that Tulsi is the new Hitler and Putin puppet, out to destroy our ‘democracy’ by not standing with Ukraine until the very end. And I mean the END, the big one.
Thank goodness Hillary is out there to let us know how dangerous Tulsi is.
If only we would listen to Madame Secretary.
Buck Johnson had Tom Luongo on this week who hypothesized that there is a war between the Fed and the Euro cabal. Inevitable, as everyone is insolvent and trying to fuck the others first. I’m not sure I was convinced, but the ‘elites’ in Europe are definitely willing to sacrifice the little people to survive.
Counterflow
All the self anointed global ‘elite’ are willing to sacrifice the useless eaters. If only they would have obeyed during the lockdowns and got their vaccines, we wouldn’t have even needed a global financial crisis, and probably nuclear war.
I don’t think the elites understand that their position is only possible because the “little people” are working hard to create this amazing technological world.
We cook your meals. We haul your trash. We connect your calls. We drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whvDmNkJhUk
They don’t care if 50% of people die, in fact that would be preferable to them. They assume there will always be plenty of serfs to take care of them.
That’s where they Err. A mere 25-30% die off in serfs resulted in the serfs no longer taking care of the aristocracy and demanding better conditions when the Black Death rolled through town. Leaving well enough alone would have been better for their lifestyle and livelihoods.
They always learn the wrong lessons from history.
Yes, but the current elite have TECHNOLOGY, which will allow them to control people and run the world as they see fit.
If there is anything they are more clueless about than history is how… fickle technology is about working.
If only the elites understood how the TECHNOLOGY worked…
For now. So interesting that somehow the carpetbaggers think technological control is a lock. Human creativity will outstrip them every time. This current attempt won’t last more than a decade before something comes along to crush it. Hell, facebook is already showing signs of breaking in the face of competition and disinterest. Twitter is on the verge of being purchased by opposition. Paypal just seriously shot itself in the foot. When the fall comes, it will be mighty.
Their trump card (they think) is control of electronic financial transactions. Which is a big one, no doubt, that they want to leverage with a social credit score.
What will keep that from happening is that the elites are not a unified bloc. They absolutely will not want to give anyone else control over their financial transactions, and they damn sure don’t trust each other. You can try that in a totalitarian society like China, but the rest of the globe? Not so much. Paypal stuck a toe in the water, and got slapped hard (although they kept the fine in place for spreading hate or somesuch, but actually enforcing that is going to lead to a mass exodus from their platform). Imagine the conference room where the Masters of the Universe are all eying each other while they talk about total global surveillance and control of financial transactions. It will never get out of committee.
I think they truly believe automation is going to pick up the slack.
Even if they were right, I think we’re very much an idea driven economy, and whittling down the brain power of humanity as a whole, driving the education system to foster stupidity and emotional thinking — and looking at the products of their “elite” educations… I wouldn’t give their Utopia more than 60 years even if they could set it up.
They won’t even be able to get it set up. Technology takes technicians. All the little people who design the chips, build the circuits, wire up the controllers, test, and install that wondrous automation. To say nothing of the miners, refiners, haulers, etc.
By inference, they can’t distinguish technology from magic wands.
Ze veel invent all of our stuff and ze veel be happy!
If you listen to the gang who have currently anointed themselves as the elite, they plan to get rid of about 80% of us.
After they succeed, maybe the best case scenario is that the sentient AI they have created to take our place, figures out what they did to their last servants and puts an end to them instead.
They’re fundamentally disconnected from reality because they cannot fathom how fragile supply chains actually are. It’s the fundamental mistake every socialist makes, assuming that they can plan an economy.
Just listen to the insane shit from Schwab and his entire cabal, they truly believe they can pull this shit off. They will without a doubt get themselves killed while destroying civilization too, but they are like you said, so disconnected from reality that they cannot see that. All it takes is Putin launching a preliminary attack and it’s over.
One would think looking at not being able to switch on and off the global supply chains during the lockdowns might have clued them in….
They assume they can control actual mass unrest. They cannot.
The fiction is maintained so long as they are able to provide the basics. Do you really think the Islamists in East London are going to go along with the Euro elite bullshit if they’re starving?
the ‘elites’
in Europeeverywhere are definitely willing to sacrifice the little people to surviveI think what they don’t understand, BTW, is that the little people will happily sacrifice the elites to survive.
👆👆
Their grip is quite tenuous.
“You have a date with Madame Guillotine, M’Lord.”
OT: Gun Meme review with Kyle Rittenhouse.
We turned our gaze from the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down on the path of least resistance
A YouTube video about the most important song in human history.
The markets are completely backwards today.
Looks like they’re all climbing on the UK plan to eliminate the tax cuts. The UK is going to go down in a blaze of glory.
I will roast marshmallows on them when it all goes down in flames.
Going out in a blaze of glory.
Ahem.
My MIL is visiting today, and had ABC News on earlier. I couldn’t handle more than 15 minutes. On the plus side, I realized if that’s all my mom and dad watch, it totally explains how out of touch with reality they are.
There was a breaking new story that an employee of Trump has turned on him, and said Trump ordered him to move boxes of documents AFTER the archives asked for them back. Sounds like this is it, a slam dunk, they got him now.
To quote my mother, “I watch CNN, I can’t watch Fox, those people are crazy”.
Also on tap, the Jan. 6 commission will now focus on Trump’s “state of mind”, meaning they are going to try to read his mind. The only way this would be legitimate is if our own SugarFree were called to testify. There is no human alive more familiar with Trump’s way of thinking.
The few people remaining that actually give a shit about that will stop caring about the time that they’re eating cat food.
Pro-tip: eat the cat before the cat food. Otherwise the cat will leave when you stop feeding him.
Is Karnak the Magnificent going to be their expert witness?
My mom flips between Fox and CNN. They are mirror images of each other.
That’s a good way of putting.
E.g., “Fetterman is deaf and it’s disgusting that the MAGA white supremacists are making fun of him.”
They are literally feeding their listeners an alternate reality.
Tribal identity above all else.
People are terrified of being shunned.
Fetterman is deaf
Has he ever said so, or is this just a complete fiction?
Supposedly he has trouble processing speech because of his stroke.
The only actual job a politician has is to communicate with his political base.
It is a complete fiction made up to explain why he was reading his questions (and supposedly, answers) off a teleprompter in a recent interview.
“The complacency kept people from really thinking.”
Omg so true.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/go-researchers-now-say-video-games-can-cause-heart-attacks-children-get-excited/
And
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/covid-booster-shots-kids.html
Completely unrelated. Totally.
OFFS!
Something of a positive:
From the Times story.
It’ll just get added to the epilepsy warning in front of every game.
Kids these days!!
When I was a kid, my favorite game caused curvature of the spine, blindness, and hairy palms.
I’ve noticed a trend lately when daily browsing Reddit out of boredom, there is increasing number of posts there from mostly teenagers and tweens about their fear of nuclear war. Have not seen anything like this since I was a kid growing up during the cold war. Seeing kids getting on meds because they are so traumatized that nuclear war is going to break out. This shit is crazy. Shit, I’m just the opposite now, may as well hit that button, Putin, put us out of our misery because we seem to no longer have the ability to keep our ‘leaders’ somewhat under control, both parties are suicidal war mongers who are going to soon get us all killed. Maybe better than slow starvation which is where we are headed.
Those kids would be on meds for some other reason, absent Biden bringing us to the edge of nuclear war.
They literally can’t even with anything because they are being educated that way.
I know, they were already ill equipped to deal with anything outside of the slightest of first world problems. But this trend seemed to have just popped up out of nowhere and now it seems to be heading towards viral.
I think Swissie had it right when he pointed the finger at “affluenza”. People need and crave meaning in their lives. They will attach meaning to the most trivial things, if all they see around them are trivial things. We have been successful at creating a society with such an enormous design margin that our managerial class (and their children) sees nothing but trivia all the way to the horizon. They aren’t going to miss any meals, they aren’t going to sleep on the ground, and they know it, so in the absence of anything more pressing, they make shit up (the proverbial First World Problems). When something does pop up on the radar, like the pandemic, they are unequipped to deal with it, and run screaming for somebody else to make it go away.
It makes sense since until very recently, humans have always dealt with hardships and real problems. Like you said, I guess now we have to make them up. Can’t they just play some video games?
Where am I going to put this 587th health potion? There’s no more room in my backpack!
Same problems, different format.
“The problem with green delusions is when you run out of other people’s energy.”
Isn’t that the truth.
What’s the over/under on the dems being able to cheat their way to a midterm victory? Anyone?
It’s going to be brazen, and they are going to get more votes on the official tally than there are people in the district, over and over again.
I was expecting a new worse pandemic, but seems late for that. There’s still time for Armageddon, so maybe that’s the solution to get those blatant results swept under the rug.
I was expecting the entire Republican party to be labeled as domestic terrorists and declared ineligible to run for office. That still might happen, but it’s looking less likely. People outside the echo chamber don’t seem to go for that.
That is a very German solution. Appears the Germans want to ban an entire popular party because it threatens the entrenched state.
Speaking of German elites.
Merkel: no regrets on energy policy with Russia
Interestingly, monkeypox (or at least the panic-mongering) died out fairly quickly.
I guess most people didn’t have sympathy thinking you have to be a slut to get monkeypox.
From memory, the formulae is something like {-left plus +right multiplied by Pie divided by zero = potato}.
My predictions are always wrong, for some Reason.
I don’t have actual odds — but I for sure wouldn’t bet against it. A little harder than 2020 because not all areas are full on Universal Mail In Ballot like the lunacy of the West Coast, but I wouldn’t put anything past them… nothing happened to anybody last time, after all.. so why not go for it?
It would seem Team Blue is concerned that Asians and Spanish speakers no longer vote as a block.
Misinformation Swirls in Non-English Languages Ahead of Midterms
It’s difficult to discern where delusion ends and propaganda begins.
Wise words, my Romanian friend. Freedom became a thing when it presented a better, perhaps the only option, for some material security to a broad swathe of people. And it may become a thing again, if things get bad enough that people decide a new aristocracy isn’t going to deliver the goods, either. Short of that, though, its a brutal uphill struggle to try to get people to rely on themselves.
The acting in the committee meeting is subpar. And the story narrative is meh.
I thought we’d be done with “sources familiar with Trump’s thinking” once we left office, but here we go again, front and center.
The cuntes want to subpoena Trump. *gabs popcorn*
Form a committee to reach a predetermined conclusion, waste a lot of time and money, then reach inevitable conclusion.
Public servants they are.
Or maybe I am wrong, libertarianism is clouding my judgement, and western politicians are broadly honest, well meaning and competent, though I have difficulty typing the words without laughing.
When election time rolls around each side of the mainstream politics does a fine job in showing the duplicity and incompetence of the other. On this, I choose to be bipartisan and believe them both.
You feel that? It’s a gentle rain…
Biden claims inflation ‘averaged 2%’ — after data shows 8.2% annual jump
I just linked some of that nonsense below. I don’t think he (or his speech-writers / handlers) understand how math works.
He got away with changing the definition of “recession” that had been used for decades, so why the hell not?
Listen, Jack. Inflation is only up and inch. Not a joke.
“According to my model, inflation is running at 2% per year.”
I loooove these meetings that start at the end of the workday while a dozen people debate how to lay out a spreadsheet of server data because the confusion the existing layout caused.
Stretch out the decision by making improbable suggestions that cause more confusion.
I want to get OUT of the meeting, not be stuck in it.
Can you take all this data that is stored relationally and create one massive flat file?
Manager X wants to see “all the data” we have on subject Y.
It shouldn’t take long, right? We have all the data.
No, we’re trying to answer the question “How many VMs are you going to need?”
That’s a lightbulb joke if I ever heard one.
5 state employees, one consultant and three SIs.
…walk into a bar each with a laptop under their arm.
Bartender asks are you here to drink or…
“We’re here to have the same conversation as last week”
I see you’ve attended some of my meetings.
JUST PUSH A BUTTON AND MAKE THE REPORT
What do you mean the “report” is 22GB?
“That’s not the report, that’s the executive summary. We had to put in a requisition for more disk to hold the report”
Alternatively:
When will the report be done?
Assuming no new data gets added, by the end of the month.
Joe Biden today @8:45 – fighting inflation was a key reason I ran for President. Then proceeds to make up a bunch of shit.
When he said “fighting inflation” he meant “wrestling it out of the box it was locked in for 20 years.”
He ran to fight the inflation that hadn’t happened yet. Impressive.
So this study was picked up by the media.
Misrepresentation and Nonadherence Regarding COVID-19 Public Health Measures
So useless. However, given that I’m betting that most of us here wouldn’t respond I’d bet this undercounts.
Aaaaand once again, the updated Vacation balances are not flowing from the payroll program to the timekeeping program – the same issue we had all of September that was allegedly fixed two weeks ago.
Who got it worse, Nicholas Cruz or Alex Jones?
Cruz…he will be dead in a couple years.
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