Hmmm.
Jun 072023
Jun 052023
It seems that the issues that caused me to both ramp up use of Twitter and get the “backup blog” continue. It now appears that every weekend the servers at the hosting service get overloaded and I can’t log into the blog until Monday morning when the staff get in and clean things up. Last weekend was a three-day weekend, and the problem persisted until Tuesday. Consequently… no new blog posts on the weekend, it seems. So if you want to make sure to keep up with my thrilling adventures and opinions, this isn’t really the place for it. Instead:
Jun 022023
Today I swung by “The Davenport,” the century-plus old apartment building that partially collapsed a few days ago. Roads were closed off for a radius of a block or two around it so I couldn’t get very close in my car, and I didn’t have the time to find someplace to park and walk. Ehhh, oh well. Anyway, a lot of information has come out about it; the city of Davenport has released a bunch of inspection reports and other documents going back several years showing that it has been falling apart for some time. Bricks have been popping out of the face of the building for years. It looks like the sort of place that your average person would have been able to look at and go “Nope” and run to some other accommodations.
Someone’s gettin’ sued.
The City of Davenport website with the documents:
https://www.davenportiowa.com/cms/One.aspx?portalId=6481456&pageId=19580321
In retrospect this sort of thing is not too surprising. A lot of the buildings around here are old brick structures, and The Davenport was only a few blocks from the Mississippi river. “500 year floods” seem to happen every few years now; this had *got* to have an effect. Whether water seeps into the ground that far inland I don;t know, but having tens of thousands of tons of new watery overburden from time to time has got to cause the ground to flex at least some. There are also the occasional earthquake; small by the standards of even Utah, but if you have a brick building not built with earthquakes in mind… that’s not so great.
In all honesty, “The Davenport” looks like a *lot* of buildings in this part of the midwest. Built a century ago, having seen better days. Like our roads and bridges, the infrastructure has not been well looked after. I won’t be surprised if the next few years are filled with increasing tales of buildings and bridges falling. Imagine if the dozens of trillions dumped down the black hole of welfare were instead spent on repairs, maintenance and replacements of structures that needed it.
May 272023
It seems obvious by this point that a rational corporation would, when presented with the option of weighing in on politically decisive “culture war” topics, just stick their fingers in their ears and hum real loud until whatever -themed month it is ends, and spend their time trying to sell their normal merchandise to their normal customers. But, no. Due to the insidious and invasive influence of “woke” ideologies and diversity initiatives, companies have been led to believe that they *have* to build up their diversity social credit scores, or else… something.
Target stores are the latest to discover that attempting to appease a small group of weirdos ticks off a far larger group of people who don’t want to sterilize, mutilate and drive insane their children.A lot of customers have expressed outrage; a few by pestering the employees (these are just regular folk trying to earn a paycheck, leave ’em the frak alone); a few others by causing damage (come on, you’re not on the left… the law *will* go after you for vandalism). But by far, from Targets perspective the biggest threat to the corporation are the large number of customers who are simply not spending their increasingly thin dollars there. Apparently Target has lost about nine *billion* dollars so far. So Target has decided to move their displays of child-grooming-friendly products further back in the store where they’ll be less conspicuous. This, supposedly, is in response to threats to the stores, products and employees from customers who don;t like those products.
But now they’re getting threats from the *other* side… bomb threats from weirdos ticked off that Target is now attempting to appease right wingers.
You know who’s not getting bomb threats from *either* side? Companies that didn’t delve into goofy identity politics in the first place. There might be a lesson there.
Utah Target Evacuated After Reports of Trans Extremists Threatening to Bomb Multiple Target Locations for Removing Satanic Groomer Products
May 232023
… that the market for them is being filled by non-white people. There was the “white supremacist” Mexican, and now this guy who was supposed to have tried to ram his U-Haul into the White House:
19-year-old Missouri man arrested in U-Haul crash at White House security barriers
U.S. Park Police on Tuesday identified the driver as Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, of Chesterfield, Missouri.
That’s a weird name for a Whitey McWhiteGuy.
This is Sai Varshith Kandula, the Missouri man who drove a U-Haul into the White House gates
The media is referring to him as a “white supremacist” after authorities found a Nazi flag in the vehicle
Just wanted to share his driver’s license photo
PC: @karol pic.twitter.com/15PgcmsGTz
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) May 23, 2023
NEW: Investigators pulled what appears to be a Nazi flag out of the U-Haul, but they haven't provided any further details.
Here's what we know: https://t.co/cXt81Ji2NA pic.twitter.com/jBsb1uPJA3
— Troy Pope (@troycpope) May 23, 2023
Behold, modern “journalism:”
19 year old who rammed White House barrier threatened president
News of the arrest just feet from the White House comes amid a climate of fear and hostility as Republicans continue to demonize diversity programs while downplaying the threat of white supremacist violence.
Yeah. *THAT’s* the big problem plaguing society… white supremacy that’s so
May 212023
History is *filled* with astonishingly bad ideas. And who would have guessed that some of the worst would come out of collectivist totalitarian systems like Nazi Germany?
The Case of The Radioactive Toothpaste
Curiously, the toothpaste in question was filled with Radium, the radioactive element of choice for insane and/or stupid product manufacturers in the early 20th century, but Thorium. Why Thorium? Well… “why not” seems to have been the answer.
May 202023
So, what is the current form of American government? To the simple, it’s a democracy. To those who actually have *some* understanding of the theoretical workings of the US Federal government, it’s a representative republic. But to those who have watched how the Feds and a startling number of state and local governments work, a more accurate descriptor is one that most probably haven;t heard of… but rest assured, you *will* be hearing it a lot so long as the means of communications remain reasonably free and accessible:
Anarcho-Tyranny
Coined in 1995, “Anarcho-tryanny” is a form of government that is characterized by taking a hands-off approach to dealing with actual criminality at all levels… but exercising draconian oppression upon the average citizens. Sound familiar? Cities that let criminals loot and burn and protest and terrorize at will… but toss people who defend themselves into the hoosegow for show trials. States that do diddly to deal with gangs and murderers of all stripes, but ban common firearms and standard magazines. Federal law enforcement agencies that welcome in whole armies of invaders, and hire armies of armed bureaucrats to hunt down small business owners who might have made small mistakes on the deviously complex tax returns.
And then there are the “glowies.”
If you, as an average, law-abiding citizen who wants nothing more than to be left alone to live your life and pursue happiness, fear the government descending upon you more than the guy breaking into your car or shoplifting your store does… you may be in an anarcho-tyranny.
May 192023
So the latest internet distraction is the case of a white pregnant nurse who was declared a “racist” and a “Karen” because she tried to use her White Privilege to steal a bicycle from some black guys, and get the cops called on them to get them killed. Shock of all shocks, it turns out that that narrative was in fact a lie; the guys stole the bike from *her* and filmed her and released a video in order to smear her.
How the fraudulent narrative got going:
This is unacceptable! A white woman was caught on camera attempting to STEAL a Citi Bike from a young Black man in NYC. She grossly tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat. This is EXACTLY the type of behavior that has endangered so many Black men in the past! pic.twitter.com/CLUMNzjSDY
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) May 15, 2023
How it’s going:
NYC hospital ‘Karen’ paid for Citi Bike at center of viral fight with black man: lawyer https://t.co/VZ07f7iW7t pic.twitter.com/IuHBgJ8GTr
— New York Post (@nypost) May 18, 2023
She has apparently lost her job and been chased out of her home due to threats from the usual mob. A Gofundme has been set up to generate some living expenses… presumably, after her lawyer gets done reaming her former employer, she’ll be set for a good long time, but that will probably take a while.
Help Sarah Comrie fight being branded a “Karen”
Now here’s where I’m spit down the middle. The story as related above, if that was the sum total of it, would make Sarah the aggrieved party and fully worthy of sympathy. But this is what’s written on the Gofundme:
My name is Bob Roe, and this past Saturday, my niece, Sarah Comrie, a Physicians Assistant at Bellevue, became embroiled in a much-publicized incident with a Citibike that unfairly painted her as a racist “Karen.” The facts have since proven this is a lie, but the damage has been done. In fact, Sarah is a dedicated healthcare worker who is six months pregnant. She holds racial justice and equity dear, and has dedicated her life to serving NYC’s most challenged individuals. She does not wish to become a cause celebre, but the legal bills to save her livelihood and her reputation obviously are mounting. Please help!
Ummm… She holds racial justice and equity dear
Does she now. If that’s the case… she just got a good dose of racial justice and equity. She got what she holds dear. This would seem to make her about as sympathetic as the proud mayor of a “Sanctuary City” getting upset about all the buses of migrants showing up.
Now, I don’t know. Perhaps her uncle just made that up, spewing the sort of virtue signalling that far too many people think needs spewing in the futile hope of staving off the unthinking hordes of protestors. After Bud Light and Target and Ford and Miller Lite, I have lost the last little bit of patience I have for this nonsense.
May 152023
Whenever there’s an “incident,” no matter how horrifying, that can be used for political purposes, it *will* be used for political purposes. But sometimes those attempting to do so go about it in such a brazen and dishonest, yet bumblingly incompetent, manner that you just have to sit up and take notice.
For instance, the mass shooting in Allen, Texas. One of the first witnesses to dash before the cameras was one Fredd Steven Spainhouer, who said he rushed to render aid to the wounded, performing CPR on three of them.
He used this soapbox the argue against civil rights by way of disarming citizens:
He seemed to be out in front of cameras rather a lot. Turns out there’s a reason for that: he’s a Texas State Democrat Party Executive Committee member. It was an opportunity to not just tell his story, but to spin a political narrative. But there’s a problem, one the Allen Police Department has gone public with: he’s lying.
His history is not exactly an exemplary one. He fits in with the Dems just right, I guess.
Police Say Democrat Activist Lied About Statements in Mass Shooting
He has also been indicted for tampering with government records, and terminated as a law enforcement officer.
May 132023
Your government, ladies and gentlemen. Priorities: not you.
Homeless vets are being booted from NY hotels to make room for migrants: advocates
Suggestion: give the homeless vets jobs. On the border. Repelling the invasion.