On Focused Pitting & Fraud

 

You want a war, you get a war

And usually get more war than you can handle. Such, of course, was the case of Dishonest Abe Lincoln, one of the last casualties, but by no means the last of the war he started. Such was also the case of the Sioux at Wounded Knee who, acting on the theory that Winchesters beat Springfields, forgot that Hotchkisses beat Winchesters and starting a fight when you're surrounded is not the best of strategems.

By now, you've heard about how the massed Armies of the Night have tried to turn Gotham into Paris, complete with No-Go zones. Back when La Madeleine had leaders with some cran, young Bonaparte put down a royalist uprising with his famous "whiff of grape". Laissez les bon temps roulez.

Similarly, in 1863, when the Micks decided that, while the WASPs' motto of "No Irish need apply" reflected their disdain for the average Hibernian, the fact they were still good enough to die in the cause of freeing slaves who might just take it into their heads to seek employment on the Great White Way. Thus, the New York draft riots began (there were others in NY and PA, including the City of Brotherly Love*) and took 5 days to put down with at least 1200 dead.

Our current disturbance is aimed at driving ICE out of the city and would appear extremely well-organized. A point of interest is that New York's Finest began arresting the hooligans on the spot and may reflect the true outcome of Madman's and Trump's meeting 10 days ago. Since the usual Commiecrat  municipal establishment would shrink from such ferocity, so we must conclude the God Emperor of the Cherry Blossom Throne has made his point with the help of the Schumer Shutdown. 

PS Fun fact: for those panicking, or just fear mongering, at the fact Moslems played a key part in Madmani's election, keep in mind Germans and Irish made up half the population of NYC in 1863.

* See Bruce Catton's Glory Road.

On Footprints & Backtracks

 

On Gathering Together in Black, White & Color

 

On Counting & Giving Thanks

 

On Poison Fruit & Tainted Turkeys

 

On Pick-ups, Pirates & Picked Pockets

 

On Arrivals & Expectations

 

I could have used this one several weeks ago, following the time change when the darkness descended, the Christmas music started up on XM, and the shops in town started putting out their lights and Winter Holiday décor.  From my perspective this shift seemed to have taken place even earlier than last year. 

However, the biggest surprise, and most recent irritation involving change, was the arrival of Amazon's AI, Rufus  It showed up last night as I was trying to follow a link on YouTube to an item on Amazon.  What turned up in place what I was looking for was a orange screen full of AI's recommendations for me, with no obvious way to close it down.  In order to move past the visual clutter of that intrusion and find what I was looking for, I had go back to the link, get the name of the item, and type it in the Amazon search bar.  Taking those extra steps finally brought me to where I'd have immediately gone without Rufus blocking the way. SonM says there might have been something off with the link I was using, as others I've tried since from that same site have led me right to the item, without "Rufus" bringing up my past history along with a host of fabulous deals it thinks I might want.   I haven't yet decided what to do about this latest AI assist other than feel visually assaulted and along for a another ride I'm not sure I want to take. 

I'm tired of being pushed and sold, and once again will need to sort through the clutter, figure out what matters most to me, and look for ways to enjoy "The Holidays" and the winter months to come.   We did manage to drop 500 tulip bulbs and daffodils for naturalizing into the yard before the weather turned,  using a new 2" auger attached to the cordless drill.  That method worked great, better than the old step-on bulb planter my brother welded up for me years ago, and I now have the imagined surprise of those bulbs blooming in the spring to hold me through the cold and snow! 

 Another late fall surprise encountered this year (which I hadn't noticed before in the the seven years we've been here), was a woods full of blooming Witch Hazel with hundreds of tiny yellow spider-like flowers decking out the branches of bushes situated around the oaks.  Turns out there is a nocturnal moth that stays active during freezing weather, and flies around in November pollinating them. And that leads to the formation of seed pods (w/ 2 seeds per pod) capable to "discharging" (shooting!) those seeds 10-30 feet when they open the next fall.  Sometimes all it takes is something as unusual and naturally wonderful as this amid all the hype to help me find center again.  

On Playbooks & Finger Pointing

 

On Privilege & Disfavor

 

On Cover-ups & Truth Trickling Out

 

"According to Patel’s findings, the CIA took extraordinary measures to conceal the truth. The agency used public money to manipulate analysts, rewrite assessments, and bury an origin story that threatened the political storyline the left had banked everything on. Trump was right about China. Fauci was wrong. The media was wrong. And the bureaucracy moved heaven and earth to keep that reality under wraps...Fauci played the patronizing scientist. The legacy media enforced the talking points. Big Tech censored any dissent. The establishment insisted the virus emerged from some Wuhan wet market and treated anyone who questioned that tale like a threat to democracy.

Patel explained the cost of this cover-up: “We’re two years down the road from that, three, and that story has been written, you know? That iron has been cast. So half the public is like, ‘What are you guys talking about? That’s a right-wing conspiracy.’” That describes the fallout perfectly. The establishment spent years gaslighting Americans. They told the public to ignore common sense. They mocked anyone who dared say the virus came from a lab, even though the evidence pointed straight toward Wuhan. Now the truth trickles out in slow, frustrating drips, and millions of Americans shrug because the lie has calcified—just like how millions of leftists still believe that Trump colluded with Russia."

Quote from Matt Margolis' Nov 16, 2025 post on "Kash Patel Drops Covid Origin Bombshell", with cartoons from several years ago added here as accompaniment. 

On Smoke & Wood Chucks

 

On Name-calling of One Kind & Another

 

On Confusion & Ownership

 

On Board For the Ride & Free Stuff

 

On Life Support & Insertion

 

Theyt've been promising a civil war,

but it's getting awfully uncivil on the Left.

The big showdown on the shutdown is a disaster for the Demos and, if the real purpose was to deliver last Tuesday for their machines, they may find it wasn't worth it.

What we have is a brewing all-out war between the crazies and the old Commies. If the Demos aren't careful, we may see Congressional (and judicial) term limits.

The showdown was a disaster for the Demos. Anytime Donald Trump offers a carrot to the other side, the other side better watch out. This time was no exception. Chuckie had a chance to give in, but didn't take, assuming, as always, the Rs would fold. They didn't and the Demos got zip, absolutely nothing for a month of Sturm und Drang. Moreover, many Demos tried a little CYA by admitting that, yeah, the whole "starving babies" gag was all they had and the "natives" (fake but accurate) were getting restless as the hardcore screamed about a cave, which, let's face it, is what it was.

Now you have Kathy Hochul refusing to fund Madmani's little Animal Farm, along with Donald Trump. And the illegals are still on their way out the door.

I can only hope all the people who did those TikTok videos where they're crying over the starving people and broken families got paid well. Some of them were quite credibile.

Until you noticed there were no tears, no wet faces, no sniffling, no quivering lower lips.

And there will be tons of ads next year showing people like the Dick from IL denouncing the whole thing for what it was, holding people hostage for their eating money. If this doesn't convince a lot of Demo voters the the memorable advice of the Silhouettes                                  

yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip
Mum-mum-mum-mum-mum-mum, get a job

I'm afraid there's little hope.

On Show & Response

 

On Escapes & Rent Free Living

 

On Turnarounds & Exceptions

 

On Show & Pay

 

On Brand & Optics, Performance & Story

 

From today's article in PJ Media, on "The Missing Hero's Journey: Why Our Culture Can’t Grow Up" by Jamie K. Wilson: 

"Jonathan Gottschall, in The Storytelling Animal, argues that humans are wired for story. Narrative isn’t a cultural ornament; it’s how the brain organizes reality. We turn chaos into sequence, conflict into purpose. Our minds insist on meaning and structure in a chaotic world. We need the Hero’s Journey because it mirrors the way consciousness matures.

This is why the postmodern dismissal of truth as illusion is so destructive. The mind cannot live without a through-line. When we deny objective meaning, the need doesn’t disappear; it mutates. Instead of seeking truth, people construct identities. They perform coherence. Story becomes branding, not belief.

Gottschall’s insight explains why even in a cynical age, the same mythic pattern keeps resurfacing in pop culture. We hunger for it. The Hero’s Journey is how the psyche metabolizes experience: departure, ordeal, and return. Strip away the ordeal, and the story — and the self — collapse into fragments.

Our young are not just starved for struggle; they are starved for truth. Illusion can flatter the ego, but it cannot forge the soul. A culture that replaces pilgrimage with performance leaves its children with only one possible quest: to be seen, not to become.

When truth is replaced by illusion, the journey becomes theater. The old pilgrimage, a test of endurance and faith, has become a performance for an audience. The self is no longer tempered; it is curated....

We have spent a generation trying to skip the middle, though the impulse began half a century ago when comfort and theory first conspired to make struggle seem unnecessary. It hasn’t worked. The result is visible everywhere: anxiety, fragility, disillusionment, and a desperate search for authenticity."

On Spitting & Bridge Selling

 

On Handouts & Outrage