The United Colonies of America

by | Oct 3, 2023 | Musings, Opinion, Politics, Social Justice, Society | 117 comments

In pondering the current scene, I’ve started to think of our society as one that has been colonized.  Culturally colonized at a minimum, and in some sense/to some degree politically colonized.    Consider:

America today has two cultures (let’s leave aside the innumerable micro- and sub- cultures that characterize any large society).  There is, to borrow a term from our Native American friends, a dominant culture, and what I will call a remnant culture.

The dominant culture is the one that infests our education system in particular (more on that in a moment) and is widely held by members of our ruling class.  You all know it, as it is impossible to avoid.  It is the worldview that believes in (to use its terms) anti-racism, ESG, the mutability of identity and especially sexual identity, cultural relativism, the inherent toxicity of men, the whole bundle of beliefs that Right-Thinking People™ share.  It has a certain quasi-religious flavor, most on display in the millenarian belief in pending ecological/climate catastrophe.  Our Romanian friend did a nice job of summarizing the dominant culture belief system recently.

Remnant culture is, tautologically, the culture that it replaced.  I find it hard to describe, like a fish trying to describe water.  I suspect cultures are best described from outside.

In a typical act of projection, the dominant culture accuses the remnant culture of imperialism, when I can find no better example of cultural imperialism than the rise (and especially enforcement) of the dominant culture.

Why do I think of the rise of this dominant culture as a colonial event?  The dominant culture is, at its root, neo(?) crypto(?) Marxist and collectivist, in sharp contrast to the remnant culture.  This Marxist culture was imported, not an evolution of the remnant culture.   Marxism itself, of course, is European, and the roots of the dominant culture run especially to a group of Marxists known as the Frankfurt School.

What’s more, the spread of this culture in America was very much a conscious project (and not an organic evolution of the remnant culture).  It was always opposed to the remnant culture and was intentionally driven by its proponents to displace the remnant culture, as one would expect from imperialists.  It has been supported, financially and otherwise, by foreign countries – prominently Russia and China, both at least nominally Marxist countries.

So, the dominant culture is foreign in origin and propagated to replace the remnant culture.  So, it’s no surprise that the dominant culture has done two things that imperialists do.  First, it proselytizes the young through the education system.  America (and Canada) famously did this with their Indian school system, which were instituted to turn Indians into, well, not-Indians by prohibiting the use of native languages, ignoring or deprecating native history and religion, promoting the dominant culture of the time, and turbocharging this by separating children from their families.

The current education system in America does all these things.  Language is under assault, history is re-written, religion is deprecated, the family is under attack with educrats openly seizing power over children from parents, and the new dominant culture is relentlessly propagandized, even at the expense of basic skills.

Second, the dominant culture is ripping out American history by its roots.  Historical figures are slandered and/or erased, statues and artwork are destroyed, and American history is recast as a parade of evils, which the dominant culture will (somehow) redeem.  This is also the behavior of conquerors.

The rather shocking speed with which this dominant culture has risen from a set of fringe beliefs only reinforces my impression of it as colonial and imperialist, something imposed on the primitive natives.  The ruling class’s view of remnant America as backwards primitives, bitterly clinging to their remnant culture, is yet another point in favor of America as a colonized society, as this is how imperialists view the natives.

Which brings us to our ruling class.  As is typical of imperialists, the ruling class is increasingly closed and self-referential to the point of nepotism.  We’ve all marveled at how all the players in the government, the media, academia, etc. have innumerable cross-connections – family, business, social.  And they rely on these connections to ensure their continued wealth and status, regardless of how poorly they actually perform or what damage they do.  Political dynasties have become commonplace.  As has the use of political power to enrich family and hangers-on.  Pretty much how imperialists act in their colonies, and quite foreign to the remnant culture.

They view America, not as their home, a place to be nurtured and strengthened, but as a place to exploit.  They devote themselves mostly to extracting wealth, not creating it, via the financialization of everything and massive government spending on, mostly, themselves.  They are increasingly internationalists/globalists, who view themselves less as Americans, but as wealthy and sophisticated urbanites most at home with their fellow globalists regardless of origin or place.  Many of them are as much Davosians as Americans.   Their indifference to the flood of foreigners crossing the southern border is of a piece with this – they don’t really view themselves as Americans, don’t attach much value to being an American, and so see little reason to care that many Americans object to unlimited immigration or the erasure of American as an identity.

What political conflict we see in the halls of power is mostly intra-(uni)party maneuvering, with hot button issues generally used as a tool for fundraising and distracting the natives.  They are not answerable, as colonial rulers never are, to the natives.  Elections, even if not fixed, rarely disturb the ruling class as such.  As one would expect in a colony, the natives are mostly irrelevant to the course of political events.

The biggest difference between classic colonization and what has happened to America is that, while the dominant culture is an import, the ruling class is still home-grown, although increasingly non-, if not un-, American in any meaningful sense.

With all that in mind, ask yourself this:  If America were colonized by a new ruling class with a new dominant culture, what would be different?

About The Author

R C Dean

R C Dean

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117 Comments

  1. Pine_Tree

    Good article RC. Had not thought of it in those terms, but it’s spot-on.

    And it’s unfortunately gotten to the point that there’s really only one solution. And if it happens, it’s not going to be pretty. And if it doesn’t happen, it’ll be worse.

    • R.J.

      What does post communism look like? That will be us.

      • kinnath

        Russia

      • R.J.

        I figured.

      • Swiss Servator

        I’d take “Poland”.

      • kinnath

        we can only hope.

      • Chafed

        The juxtaposition is between states that internally adopted communism and those states that had it forced on them from outside.

  2. Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

    This some heavy, thinking type stuff, and after today I might need a bit of time to digest and think about this. I love it.

    As always, awesome stuff.

    • juris imprudent

      Reading RC is like reading something I was thinking but hadn’t put into coherent structure yet.

      • dbleagle

        I know. RC really puts the brain box into gear.

        Huzzah!

  3. juris imprudent

    The dominant culture is, at its root

    Hegelian. Lorenzo Warby has been mining this vein (and you even use some of his terminology – the colonialism aspect). Which is to say, this is the Enlightenment unfolding to its ultimate endstate. The dominant culture may be the representation of what Nietzsche called the last man (in contrast to the super man, who lays down a new set of values).

  4. Robonerfherder

    Thanks RC.

    I do think you need to add one more angle to your analysis, and that is monetary policy. Because from that, almost all things flow.

    It’s the one thing that gives me some hope as I’m watching the Fed go to war with the Treasury. It says to me that not everyone is batshit crazy.

    • juris imprudent

      The Fed is on the verge of bankruptcy – per any real accounting rules, which don’t seem to apply to them. The bigger problem is there is no policy, and there is no monetary theory. It’s dead and the Fed killed it. Which isn’t to say there won’t be consequences to their actions (past and future), but right now I’d say no one has the slightest ability to predict what those consequences will be.

      • Robonerfherder

        The Fed is still the best looking turd in the punchbowl. And right now the other turds are sinking, particularly the ECB. Which in turn raises the punch level and elevating the Fed turd.

        I think I broke my turd metaphor.

        So if Powell wants to try to save the dollar, I say more power to him. I’m not into collapse, particularly when collapse will put me under the thumb of even worse people than I am under now.

      • juris imprudent

        It isn’t even a matter of what Powell wants – his machine is broken, badly.

  5. creech

    Be on the lookout for opportunities in your community to influence the “America 250” observations. The remnant needs to fight back or 1776 is going to be portrayed as some evil project that needs to be utterly destroyed instead of an exceptional dawn of Liberty that acknowledged the principles of its further reform.

    • dbleagle

      Good point Creech.

      In 1975-1976 the year 1776 was seen as a huge deal.

      • Suthenboy

        Yes. The ‘Spirit of ’76’ saturated the entire country. I remember it well. I was a bit annoyed that my TV shows were cancelled and replaced with endless firework shows and parades. No one could shut up about it. Our constitution is the oldest working constitution in the world. Everyone else has been changing constitutions like they change underwear.
        The rest of the world sneered at us then and do now in envy but still cannot not see the reason for that.

      • rhywun

        Even the Welsh got into the spirit of ’76.

      • Chafed

        I still haven’t forgiven them.

      • Rat on a train

        At least they are pro-guns.

      • Rat on a train

        I remember the Prado Dam mural

    • MikeS

      A good reminder. Please keep reminding us

  6. kinnath

    Great article RC

  7. Derpetologist

    Samuel Huntington said that the people of the world could be divided into about 8 different civilizations on the basis of race and religion: Western, Orthodox, Latin American, Islamic, African, Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, and Japanese.

    To answer the question RCD posed, things that would change would include: language, religion, education, economy, military, and foreign relations.

    The KGB taught a country only has three important sectors: military, economy, and foreign relations. That is to say, these are the only essential sectors needed to control a country.

    For example, when the British ruled India, they didn’t spend much time or money trying to alter Indian culture. They only intervened (such as banning suttee) when Indian culture was an obstacle to their imperial goals.

    The antidote to a global, secular culture is a religious, nationalist culture. It is hard for nationalism to coexist with pluralism, but it has been done before.

    • juris imprudent

      Color me slightly skeptical about the wisdom of the KGB. They couldn’t maintain their own country, and there’s no real reason to assume they were more or less competent than the CIA (since both are bureaucracies first and foremost).

      • Swiss Servator

        They sucked at maintaining, but they could ruin things…

      • Derpetologist

        Well, the KGB got communist governments installed in half a dozen eastern European countries without firing a shot. A communist wrote an interesting book about that: https://robertwelchuniversity.org/Not%20a%20Shot.pdf

        ***
        Most Americans are falsely conditioned to believe today that elective governments are
        permanently established and practically invincible to destruction, so long as elections are
        free from fraud and consumers can buy Big Mac hamburgers in the market. And Not a
        Shot Is Fired authoritatively disproves that myth. This document is a “how-to” manual for
        totalitarian takeover of an elected parliamentary system of government through mainly
        legal and constitutional means. Kozak did not pontificate fuzzy theories of how
        “revolutionary parliamentarianism” might be accomplished. He wrote from personal
        experience and intimate knowledge of how this seizure of power actually was
        accomplished. Kozak’s manual is especially important for contemporary Americans
        because most of the same methods described in this book are at work in the United States
        today, although those methods are not being followed directly under communist
        ideological auspices.
        ***

      • Derpetologist

        A relevant nugget

        ***
        Mafiosi and other criminal gangs typically have their own language that serves both as verbal handshakes and to communicate without attracting the notice of the law. And like the lingo of gangsters, Communist dialectics changes frequently in order to preserve its esoteric qualities. (Few would think that “wise guys” today would utilize antiquated terms such as “rubbed out,” “greased,” or “squeezed” anymore, because they have long been in the common parlance.)
        ***

        Examples: social justice, privilege, folks, safe space, trigger warning

        https://publicautonomy.org/2014/01/27/the-rise-of-the-post-new-left-political-vocabulary/

      • Gustave Lytton

        One man, one vote, one time.

  8. Fourscore

    Thanks RC, very good explanation. What puzzles me though is if the remnant culture seizes power do they not become the dominant culture and we begin the whole charade again? If I was elected to office I would bring my ideas with me, the previous dominant culture would get their butts kicked, exploited, etc because I would be in charge and I’m one of the ‘Good Guys” and I would be bringing justice to all, except those that the with the wrong ideas.

    In 46 days we’ll wake up in the morning and nothing will have changed. The revolution will be over and it’s back to business as usual. At some point and we may have reached that point the economy will not sustain any more abuse. We can not fathom what the changes will be.

    • juris imprudent

      Going back to Breitbart (and Franklin before him) culture is upstream of governance. Getting elected only means running (to a limited degree) the machinery of govt.

  9. rhywun

    Historical figures are slandered and/or erased, statues and artwork are destroyed, and American history is recast as a parade of evils

    The turning point for me was when statues of Frederick fucking Douglass got iconoclasted in my hometown during the recent summer of love. It really drove home the vacant stupidity of the forces we’re dealing with.

    • Suthenboy

      The forces driving this are not stupid. Their acolytes most certainly are.

      White, black, gender whatever-the-fuck, POC, blah blah blah ad infinitum. These words do not mean to them what they mean to you when you hear them.
      Anything against collectivism is ‘white’. Anything against socialism is some flavor of bigotry. Any cultural norms that fortify against their total power is oppression. Just for fun I will toss this in: The flood of invaders the left has invited here and laid open a welcome mat to are all from collectivist cultures. They are die hard collectivists in that they cannot see that the conditions they are fleeing are caused by their collectivist culture and mindset. The left very much wants that to take root here.

      RC – A good perspective but I would point out that when the Frankfurt School shitbirds arrived on our shores they found a ready and willing host. I would have had them all shot before they could land a toe on our soil but I wasn’t there so no one asked me.
      In reading the history of that movement the Nazis are usually blamed for their failure to take hold in Germany. I would argue that they have no small degree of responsibility for the rise of National Socialism as a response to their ambitions.

  10. Brochettaward

    In another example of sports media are asshoe:

    It’s fine if Rodgers believes the COVID vaccine (or any other vaccine) isn’t for him. It became a problem for others only when he lied about his status at a time when it was a fairly important subject for the league and those who cover it. But why do he (and others who reject the COVID vaccine) feel compelled to advocate so loudly for others to reject science, too?

    Maybe the most disingenuous thing I’ve heard all day. It’s a pretty competitive title.

    • rhywun

      I was just looking at a furniture store near me for a kitchen table and the home page was all “we are all jabbed please wear a mask”.

      Yeah, no, go fuck yourself.

      compelled to advocate so loudly

      That’s fucking rich. Gee I dunno, because your side has complete fucking control of everything?

    • Chafed

      If a sports writer can’t be trusted to tell us about well established scientific facts, then who can?

  11. milo

    Apparently, McCarthy is out. Ordinarily I would consider this a good thing.
    These days, I’m trying to figure out what the catch is…and the ones past this one.

    • rhywun

      The catch is the Dems will lockstep their way to more power somehow.

      • Fourscore

        They will fear taking responsibility for Bro Biden’s shenanigans. We’re seeing the blue states starting to reject Bidenism, the crime/illegals are getting close to home.

      • Brochettaward

        Woh woh woh…WOH!

        The Chette earned his Bro’ness. How dare we give it to Joe fucking Biden.

      • milo

        I am kind of ashamed to admit that I was a little shocked at watching federal agents cutting fencing in Texas and letting ILLEGALS through. I honestly thought I was way cynical enough to laugh that off.
        My grandfather was in Patton’s 3rd. He died in 91. I am so goddamned glad he didnt even imagine this insanity. And I am so depressed that I am living it.
        Living in the Apocalypse is survivable if you young and Conan or Mad Max.
        I’m pissed that I’m an old, fat man during the beginning of it. Zombies…mobs…either way, if you can’t outrun them…you are dinner.

      • Fourscore

        For a long time I believed I would miss the turmoil. Now I’m afraid I won’t.

      • milo

        I feel your pain, Sir.
        I call you sir because I am a southern fella and I have never met you in real life. No offense intended…just that way I was raised.
        I read through the discussion about being respectful the other day.
        I would much rather live in a society that is polite.

      • Swiss Servator

        He was an officer, so “Sir” is not completely foreign to him… 🙂

      • milo

        I was enlisted. Not foreign to me either.
        Lot of military in the South. Never really thought much if that is what influences our habits as far as the sir/ma’am thing. Might be.
        At the end of the day, someone of my generation that was disrespectful could count on an adult “reminding” him of the errors of his ways.

      • rhywun

        someone of my generation that was disrespectful could count on an adult “reminding” him of the errors of his ways

        I was two weeks into my year in Germany as a teenage exchange student when an older lady did that to me.

        I said “was?” to her (meaning “what?”) which is a bit more impolite than in English. She immediately corrected me to the proper “wie bitte?”

        I will never forget it, and I appreciate it to this day.

      • milo

        To Rhywun:
        My “reminding” involved some physical contact, so you learned the lesson quickly without any confusion.

      • rhywun

        I’m an old, fat man during the beginning of it

        I hear that.

        federal agents cutting fencing in Texas and letting ILLEGALS through

        I vaguely heard about that; was there some back-story? Like, were they being chased by reavers or something?

        Otherwise… yeah, it’s disheartening that even the “front line” has given up.

      • milo

        The reavers thing made me laugh. Thanks for that.
        One of the vids had a Fed fist bumping one of the “migrants” as he came past the concertina wire.
        Sure didn’t look like a life and death situation. I’m an old, fat whitish man.
        What do I know?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Fucker went down swinging the same shit. Putin is Hitler and it’s 1930s Sudetenland. GFY.

    • milo

      I have to thank Suthen here. He introduced me to that Yuri Bezmenov video a few years ago.
      It may be wishful thinking to believe that outside forces (KGB, Communists) are responsible for the insanity occurring now. Well, put me down as a wishful thinker.
      Something has sure as hell changed in my lifetime. And not for the better. No one will ever convince me that we are moving in a better direction now.

    • milo

      I have to thank Suthen here. He introduced me to that Yuri Bezmenov video a few years ago.
      It may be wishful thinking to believe that outside forces (KGB, Communists) are responsible for the insanity occurring now. Well, put me down as a wishful thinker.
      Something has sure as hell changed in my lifetime. And not for the better. No one will ever convince me that we are moving in a better direction now.

      • Suthenboy

        Wow. Two thanks’esez. I am flattered.

        *in all seriousness, you are welcome sir. I wish more people would hear what the man had to say. It is what they are doing here, word for word, letter for letter. It is deliberate and calculated with pure malice.

      • milo

        I completely agree. And I do have to thank you for showing me that interview.
        Not sure how I missed it…no internet in those years is my only excuse.
        Funny how that was all a crazy conspiracy theory…up until it started to explain a lot of things.

      • Brochettaward

        The Obama administration doesn’t get the credit/blame it deserves. People look to social media and the internet and all this other crap.

        Wherever you look behind the scenes to see woke crap being forced down our throats, you’ll see an Obama administration lackey.

      • milo

        He did indeed promise to fundamentally transform the country.
        I just have trouble believing that he the mad genius behind it all. He always came off as a doofus to me.
        May be my biases.
        Fook that.
        He’s an idiot.

      • Brochettaward

        Didn’t really take much. He had a cult of personality around him and it’s the way they protected him. He had 8 years to build a foundation. Every administration that lasts 8 years leaves a deep imprint on the deep state and cozies up to the institutions. Under Bush The Lesser, it was mostly the neocons they inserted everywhere. Clinton people dominated throughout the left. But Obama had a different level of devotion to him being the first black president. His administration were also far further to the left than Hillary and Bill who were just pure will to power types.

        It was under Obama that all criticism, all conservative thought really, was labelled as inherently racist. It started there. All of this. This is the most overlooked aspect of the anti-free speech movement. When you label all dissent as evil racism, it’s only a short half-step to start talking about things like hate speech don’t deserve protection.

        People in his administration worked overtime to influence things on college campuses. They started the believe all women thing on campuses.

        The Human Rights Campaign was started by former staffers of his. The ESG scores and everything. Who do you think is running the social justice movements at Black Rock?

        His administration cozied up to Hollywood execs. Weinstein and others. There’s a reason Obama got tends of millions from Netflix when he was back to private life.

        His administration had its tentacles deeper into the media

        The entire movement against Trump? Hillary played her part, but the investigations and leaks to the media that started Russiagate and the cries of disinformation started with his administration. 50 years from now, historians may look at this soberly. If we are lucky.

        This stuff isn’t speculation. It is all easily documented. Wherever you look and see fascism masquerading as human progress, the attempt to suppress freedom of thought, you will see Obama people. They will be intimately involved.

      • hayeksplosives

        I totally agree. Obama has more of an impact than is typically recognized. He told us what he was going to do and then he did it.

        Don’t overlook the fact that he’s the first former president to continue to live in Washington DC after his term(s) completed.

        He’s not retired.

      • milo

        I still say his handlers are not retired. I think he has as a figurehead goes. He has the luxury to do so.
        Unfortunately for us there are now several generations of fellow travellers embedded in many departments..if not all of the Executive Branch.
        And the Legislative…the DOD…the Border Patrol…etc.
        In other words..we may be fooked.

      • hayeksplosives

        I’ve flip-flipped on that

        He’s not particularly intelligent. Not even that well educated. His speeches are shallow garbage.

        But he is cunning, and he somehow motivates his minions. That makes him dangerous.

        You know who else was average IQ but managed to climb the ladders of power and inflict permanent damage on the world?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Nice grin, deep voice, could read from a prompter, poor extemporaneous speaker. hadn’t even heard of him until early ’08.

        https://frinkiac.com/caption/S05E18/385551

      • Brochettaward

        This is far more concrete than some nebulous explanation involving social media (which didn’t just take off in 2013 or 2014).

      • Brochettaward
  12. cyto

    Yup… too many people are sticking their fingers in their ears and pretending it will all go away.

    But the “dominant culture” is stronger together…. and if you are not against them, you are with them.

  13. R C Dean

    Busy this evening. Thanks for reading (and your kind words).

  14. Gender Traitor

    Pardon me for not addressing the interesting and important topic, but I just got home from a Manhattan Transfer concert – a stop on their 50th anniversary/farewell tour – and I’m still coming down from the high.

    Terrific show, even down one of the four voices. (“The new guy” was sick, so no bass part, but great harmonies nonetheless.) Hot, tight four-piece band behind them. A nice mix of old favorites and songs that were new to me, and despite their understandable caution about illness, I was able to go backstage after the show and “renew” the autographs I’d gotten on some of my LPs of theirs at a show in Dayton way back on my 20th birthday. 😊🎶

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hot, tight four-piece band behind them

      I uh…you do you?

      • Gender Traitor

        I knew I could count on someone to go there! 😁

    • milo

      Don’t mean to be insensitive…those guys are still alive and touring? Is it all the original members?
      I remember watching them on Solid Gold. I think. Don’t quote me on that.
      I do remember watching them on TV in the 70’s.

      • Gender Traitor

        Two of the members from their start in ’72, and the gal who joined them in ’79. “The new guy” joined just a few years ago after the “leader” passed away in 2014. ’72 gal (Janis Siegel) in particular can still belt one out with the best of them!

      • milo

        Hard to believe they started in 72.
        I remember them after the gal joined.
        Some of my fondest memories are watching Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw at my grandparents house back then.
        Honestly, I miss those days more and more.

  15. Gustave Lytton

    If America were colonized by a new ruling class with a new dominant culture, what would be different?

    Be on the outside looking in, in a way that most Americans still don’t feel today. It’s becoming more like that, though. Bureaucratic FYTY, arbitrary and capricious, without recourse. Colonized by an exterior power and culture would be on whole new level.

    • hayeksplosives

      I’m still slogging my way through The Gulag Archipelago.

      It sounds all too plausible now.

  16. Mojeaux

    I would posit one exception: The Norman invasion of England.

    English was a gutter language and the invaders brought their language. It still survives in our courts, but effectively, the invaders lost to the peasant populace. English was so agile (perhaps facile) that it could change, morph, assimilate, and redefine anybody else’s language (which it is STILL doing). (Insert joke about dark alleys and loose grammar.)

    The invaders got assimilated and they pretty much just gave up once alll their good bones had been picked clean.

    Genghis Khan may have populated 2/3 of the world, but the world’s lingua franca isn’t Mongolian. The Roman empire may have ruled vast, vast lands, but the world’s lingua franca isn’t Latin or Italian. Germans may represent a higher percentage of immigration than other western European countries, including England, but the world’s lingua franca isn’t German (although it is germanic). William may have stormed England in 1066, but the world’s lingua franca isn’t French. (*ducks narrowed gaze*)

    The only language that shows any promise whatsoever is Spanish, but it’s a distant second.

    So. There’s something very, very special about the English language, and once ideas are transmuted into English, they take hold of much larger areas. The language morphs and changes and serves the will of the speaker, and the more committed psychopaths among us are horrifyingly adept at using it to control, manipulate, deceive, and gaslight.

    • milo

      I agree with you on several of those points. Forgive me as I am kind of nervous about going up against the Mojo on a few things.
      All the empires you listed were not global. They controlled most of the landmass around the Med and beyond. All of them.
      The English were the first to truly become a planetary empire. The Sun never sets, right?
      I do agree that there is something facile about English. It may be that it is because it is under a pressure from outside speakers…unconsciously inserting their words…not their language…but a few words that might serve better in a given situation.
      Not saying that diminishes English in any way…that is a strength. One you recognize.
      Latin survived past the supposed end of the empire. Mostly because it gave guilds the ability to communicate amongst themselves with no eavesdropping.
      To believe that it is a dead language, you have to agree that the Roman Empire is gone and done. Personally, I think it morphed into the Holy Roman Church and exists to this day.
      Pope…Pontifex Maximus.
      A little obvious, I know.
      Still. As a Romaphile, I love to think it is so.

      • Mojeaux

        All great points! But

        Forgive me as I am kind of nervous about going up against the Mojo on a few things.

        Dude, look. I’m the stupidest person here, cuz I don’t understand about 4/5ths of what everybody says. I’m just glad they let me stick around and say stupid shit.

      • milo

        Nope. Refuse to believe it. The Mojo is good.
        I’m the dumbest person at this joint. It took me years to comment because I didn’t know what most of the people were talking about. I thought Mises was a misspelling of Moses. I’ve never read all the libertarian screeds.
        Felt stupid for not doing so. Then I finally figured it out from reading what everyone was saying.
        I decided that labels on any level are bullshit. The only thing that matters is, are you a person that will try to leave me alone as much as possible. Respect my choices as far as they don’t PHYSICALLY affect you. Really don’t give a shit about your emotional state.
        Whatever I am doing won’t kill you…unless you are suicidal. Then I MIGHT feel a little bad about your passing.
        That is as far as my involvement with you is warranted. Your emotional state is you and your family’s problem.

      • milo

        Nope. Refuse to believe it. The Mojo is good.
        I’m the dumbest person at this joint. It took me years to comment because I didn’t know what most of the people were talking about. I thought Mises was a misspelling of Moses. I’ve never read all the libertarian screeds.
        Felt stupid for not doing so. Then I finally figured it out from reading what everyone was saying.
        I decided that labels on any level are bullshit. The only thing that matters is, are you a person that will try to leave me alone as much as possible. Respect my choices as far as they don’t PHYSICALLY affect you. Really don’t give a shit about your emotional state.
        Whatever I am doing won’t kill you…unless you are suicidal. Then I MIGHT feel a little bad about your passing.
        That is as far as my involvement with you is warranted. Your emotional state is you and your family’s problem.

      • milo

        What in the hell. I have a .22 in the closet that has killed squirrels before.
        I’m warning you little furry bastages.

    • Brochettaward

      and the more committed psychopaths among us are horrifyingly adept at using it to control, manipulate, deceive, and gaslight.

      One could also add that the great among us use it to First.

    • hayeksplosives

      Good comment, Mo.

      It’s significant that Winston Churchill’s 4 volume book is entitled “The History of the English Speaking Peoples”.

      My Aussie love and I have realized after all our separate travels and adventures leading us up to where we are now have taught us that we two are descendants of Britain and always will be, and that it’s part of our fundamental shared character and view of the world. We’re also rebellious colonists, but we’re British rebellious colonists.

    • Fatty Bolger

      “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” ― James D. Nicoll

  17. hayeksplosives

    BWAH-hahaha!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12591743/Nancy-Pelosi-office-Capitol-Patrick-McHenry.html

    One of interim US House Speaker Patrick McHenry’s first official acts in the temporary role was to oust Nancy Pelosi from her honorary office at the Capitol, while she was away in California to pay tribute to late Senator Dianne Feinstein.

    Pelosi, who was dubbed ‘Speaker Emerita’ by the Democratic Caucus after the party lost its House majority in the 2022 midterms, had retained a coveted hideaway office in the complex.

    Elections have consequences.

  18. Beau Knott

    Good morning all!
    Some jazz to start off your day. Rumor has it these were all first takes…
    From Chick Corea, Return to Forever, featuring Flora Purim on vocals:

    What Game Shall We Play Today

    Sometime Ago/La Fiesta

    Share and enjoy!

    • Gender Traitor

      Why, yes, I AM in a jazzy kind of mood this morning! Why do you ask? 😁😉

      • Beau Knott

        I hope you enjoy these. There’s a lot of fun in them, along with some great musicianship.

      • Gender Traitor

        I did! Thanks! Fun fact: The Manhattan Transfer recorded an entire Chick Corea Songbook album! I confess, I had previously never listened to it, but I certainly will now.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Good film IIRC.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Mawnin’, UCS!

      Mawnin’, GT!

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, TO’G, U, Sean, and Beau!

        Now let’s see if the cats will let me get to the coffee.

      • UnCivilServant

        How’s everyone’s Wotan’s Day getting off to so far?

        I made it to the office. There was a nice level of predawn haze on the road that haloed all the lights, unfortunately, there were too many lights because people decided to commute in force this morning.

      • Gender Traitor

        So far so good! This is my boss’s weekly WFH day, so he’ll only pester me by phone.

        It’s supposed to be another warm day – probably the last one of the season, with a predicted high of 85. By Saturday, the forecast high is only 58. My Tranq Base weekend mornings may be over for the year. 😞

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah sorry. It appears I brought Vegas weather with me…

    • Ownbestenemy

      Mornin’

      I just realized I have been taking a road that goes around the airport to get to my work but there is another road that goes straight to where I need to be. Google can suck it. I am really tempted to go out and buy paper maps again; if I can find them.

      I used to study Thomas Guides while my parents drove me to hockey games.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, OBE!

        Google Maps can drive me crazy when I want to click & drag to reroute and the route goes all wonky!

      • UnCivilServant

        I want a GPS setting that says “Stay at least X miles away from City Y”.

        I know that there is a tiny ramp that lets me Bypass NYC and head straight onto the NJ Turnpike, but if I miss it – I’m in NYC, and I don’t want to risk it. Send me down 88 instead. I’ll cross Pennsylvania.

      • Ghostpatzer

        +1 Billy from Family Circle.

      • UnCivilServant

        With the location of my house and the work garage, there is really only one viable route. It is possible to take other roads, but they all have to deal with the nasty snark that is downtown Albany surface roads… and eventually get on the same ramp that feeds from the highway to the garage anyway.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I still have all my old Thomas Guides. If the editions become obsolete, at least they become primary historical records. (Although I am annoyed by the trap street they put near my parents’ house.)

      • Rat on a train

        I’m not sure if it is a trap but some maps have the wrong type (court) for my street. It could just be a mistake because there is no method to the type around here.

  19. Rat on a train

    Swimming World Cup category for transgender athletes cancelled after no entries received

    “Following the close of registration for the open category competitions at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup – Berlin 2023 meet scheduled for 6-8 October, World Aquatics can confirm that no entries have been received for the open category events,” it said.

    I should have registered and won by default.

    • slumbrew

      Assholes don’t want to compete against each other – may as well keep losing as men if they do that. They want to compete against women so they can finally “win”.

      • Sean

        “Look at meeeeeee!”

      • rhywun

        Yeah, the question is are they still allowing that?

      • Rat on a train

        World Aquatics’ decision to bar transgender women from elite female competitions if they had undergone male puberty came after research showing trans women retained a significant advantage over female swimmers even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication.

      • Ghostpatzer

        I don’t understand the attraction of cheating, in any endeavor. I play online chess, and there are a considerable number of players who compete using chess engines (I have been accused of this, I must be doing something right). Satisfaction comes from accomplishing something; how does that work when cheating is involved?

      • Rat on a train

        Some people only care about the ends.

  20. Ghostpatzer

    Mornin’, reprobates!

    Taking a day off to recover from being up half the night. No, I was NOT drinking heavily. You people…

    • Sean

      Hookers & blow?

      • Ghostpatzer

        ^^^ Who are you, so wise in the ways of debauchery?