1. Shortages.
I was at the grocery store and I overheard three of the senior people – decades of experience – talking about how it’s harder to get items to stock on the shelves. I mentioned that to some of the stock clerks whom I have gotten to know and they concur: they’re having to get creative to keep shelves visually full.
The supply chain is getting strained again.
In parallel, doing my preps, I have been buying certain supplements for myself and the kids (getting the wife to take even a simple multivitamin approaches the level of getting a cat to take a pill). One, in particular, is nowhere. Speaking with one of the stockers, they said they have not had it for weeks. Other places where it is normally sold are also devoid of that item. Even Amazon shows out of stock, or exorbitantly priced.
Between the worker shortage affecting production & logistics (I see Help Wanted signs everywhere), a potential follow-on lockdown coming, panic over the Delta (and the now-emerging Lambda) scariant, never mind inflation… harder times are coming again. And IMHO they’ll be worse than last time.
Two prep sites I read daily, amongst many:
There’s a paragraph in the above that’s a nice coda to things (link in the original):
Germany is already recovering from the recent series of floods that caused many deaths and lots of destruction. The population and authorities acted in unity, with solidarity, efficiency, and order. The nation will learn lessons and, as a whole, improve from this situation.
Despite the insane influx of migrants, Germany still has a dominant culture and shared vision of themselves as a people. Does the US? I would argue that in some parts of the country, yes, we do – but in some parts that’s been intentionally shattered by wokeism. Assuming a collapse of some form as given, and assuming (praying!) that outside actors (*cough cough* Russia and/or China, possibly Iran with a freighter-launched EMP) don’t kick us when we’re down… which parts do you think will recover and which will be smoking ruins for decades?
The only relevant questions are:
- When will it start?
- How bad will it get?
- How long will it last?
- What will recovery look like?
- What can I do to protect myself and mine – and in a broader sense those in the community I care about?
(HT to Surak for this video.)
2. Shut up, they explained.
This video dates from several years ago but it still captures the typical argumentation tactic of the Left:
In the wee hours one morning, having been physically awakened by a coyote yipping away, the brain woke up too and started to hamster-wheel run. Sigh. I was reflecting on several emails I’ve received from people I’ve known for a long time to the effect that I’m a conspiracy theorist and tin-foil hat brigade loon for daring to question Saint Fauci and the Holy Jab Sacrament. Forming connections between disparate datapoints has been a habit of mine since forever (links in original):
In my youth I loved the PBS show Connections, and subsequently Connections 2 and Connections 3, all hosted by James Burke. Thanks to prompts and an emphasis on education by my parents, plus a (cough) rather high IQ, I became someone who often could see disparate things and put them together into patterns to understand the larger tapestry far sooner than most. Admittedly, this is an imperfect science and I do not claim infallibility, but I’ve been told, as one example at a place where I worked, that I was “easily the most intelligent person who ever worked there…”
So I was thinking about that, and a Bill Whittle video came to mind where he discussed how the Left uses the accusation of RAAAAAACIST to shut down any debate. Because once you’ve been smeared with that, anything else you say can be safely ignored and dismissed. You’re a RAAAAAACIST, so you don’t count – you are outside the pale of “polite society” and thus a pariah. And it suddenly occurred to me:
Conspiracy Theorist is the new racist.
It is routinely used to say SHUT UP to anyone questioning The Narrative. Tell me I’m wrong.
“You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, they will fight to protect it.”
— Morpheus, The Matrix
3. Thomas Edison was right.
I keep a journal for my kids. It’s not a standard thus-and-such happened today thing, but rather life lessons, my biography, a smattering of their geneaology, transcribed or at least abstracted articles on all sorts of things, selected quotations that I salt-and-pepper sprinkle in, plus advice on multiple things they will experience in their lives. (Whether they take that advice is another matter!)
I am on Volume 6. One of the things I have hammed on throughout the series is the idea of THINKING, and emotional control so that you don’t jump to conclude things based on feelings, but rather facts, logic, history, evidence, etc. Also, to not “go with the flow” simply because someone else thinks something.
So in flipping through the latest one to get back to writing, I stumbled on this Thomas Edison quote:
“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think, and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”
Doesn’t that mirror the vapid, blank smile of the Eloi? And now a piece at the Grok states:
If by this point, you have not realized, that the COVID measures have NOTHING to do with health and are and always have been about political power … you are a hopeless, pathetic FOOL.
We need to get this through our heads: We face an opposition that has concluded they are right based on emotion, and that we are insane for disagreeing with their enlightened selves.
We might nibble around the edges of convincing a few here and there, and that’s all to the good. But in general, they’re lost souls… and the clock is ticking towards “Spicy Time” lighting off.
>>>>>=====<<<<<
4. Everything that serves The State is important; anything that doesn’t, isn’t
And a closing question – discuss in disqus: How do you say “Life unworthy of life” in German again?
Scientists Want People Fitted With Euthanasia Chip That Kills You at First Sign of Dementia
Do not forget Cuomo-cide (and the other “D” governors too) sending Covid patients to nursing homes. IMHO that was not accidental – it was intentional with two goals:
First, increasing the death count as a political weapon against Trump.
Second, killing off the “unproductive useless eaters” with memories of freedom and times before the Dems were taken over by the Commies, and we had a free country. Remember that to a Socialist, a person only exists as far as they serve The State:
Remember, in socialist societies, an individual’s worth is measured, not by being a unique person made in the image of God, but by that person’s utility to the state. If you’re no longer useful and, worse, if are an economic drain on society, you’ve got to go.
Elderly people in homes, dementia-ridden people, and IMHO soon the institutionalized mentally ill and even terminal cancer patients, etc., will be similarly considered for the Liverpool Pathway.
Death panels, anyone? Utopia always has a dark foundation.
And for those who say I’m a conspiracy nut (see above)… over 100 million civilians were murdered by committed Socialists in the 20th century. Knowingly, intentionally, deliberately murdered. You think that can’t happen here? Really? You’re a Twenty-Niner:
“Twenty-Niners”. People who cannot grasp that anything that could radically change the situation in which they live are actual possibilities, and completely dismiss concerns that others present even when backed by evidence.
