Month: May 2025

Four-day workweek, and I’m kind of shutting things down for the weekend.

I’ve been trying to tune out some of the news.

Still following a lot of what’s been put out on TheFP.

First notable one was this about the DSA folks who don’t want to condemn the shooting in DC. I shared the story on Facebook, quipping something about this being horseshoe theory in action, but I’m not sure that even fits.

So what do I do? I’m tempted to retreat into the hedge Homer Simpson mem-style. But, more likely, I’ll add DSA-aligned candidates to the never-support list.

Also really appreciated Kat Rosenfield’s piece here. This is actually the sort of thing I was worried about when I was in college, and this sort of thing was just starting to seep into academia.

SMDH.

“I told you so” is rarely helpful, and even more rarely appreciated.

I also really appreciated this from Reason. The hosts’ reaction reminds me of their

Reminded of their interview about Iran. This stuff really makes my brain hurt; Is there a Murray Rothbard quote that kinda-sorta applies?

Day off tomorrow, then the three-day-per-week exercise bit starts. Ugh. But I am kind of seeing benefits.

More tomorrow, maybe.

I listened to Original Sin after hearing Megyn Kelly interview the authors on her show (podcast). This is kind of going to be stream-of-consciousness based on notes I scribbled throughout.

The authors truly thinks that had Biden dropped out, Democrats would have won. 

I suppose I understand this, but there was almost an abandonment of even the notion of journalistic neutrality. I suppose I understand this; they were educated that newspapers (and TV+radio because in so many instances affilates were owned by publishers) were really captured outlets. This has changed. I don’t think you could ever call these legacy outlets, anymore, anything other than DNC mouthpieces. The Biden admin tried hard to portray The Wall Street Journal as a right-wing counterpart for actually trying to do fair reporting on Biden’s mental ability. This from the LA Times kind of points towards the problem, but I’m not sure it captures it fully. The audiences are slipping. Is that because they’re not hard enough on one candidate, or is it something else?

I would imagine the demographics of the various cable channels are facing similar graying. Pharmaceutical ads. Life insurance. Medical products for the elderly. Even if the product was consumable, the audiences continue to shrink; they’re dying off.

Obama met with Biden Summer 2023. 

Some back-and-forth about how much Biden could have gleaned from such a meeting, and that he (and his people) were really being cast out of the White House. Even if Obama could have/did notice something then, there’s probably not a lot he could have done about it.

Interesting bit about calling on Rosen/OAN

I guess Biden was taking questions from “new” media at one event. It did not go well at all. The reporter was from OAN. Um. Okay. Yeah. I suspect that that won’t give you good questions. (So the responses’ quality will correspond accordingly…)

Lots on big fall-off after Beau’s death

Biden’s sharpness seemed to wane after Beau Biden’s death. I suppose that’s understandable. Is that what pushed Obama to back Hillary in 2016?

Relied on cards *after* press conferences 

Part of the reaction to that OAN interaction is that Biden was pretty much forced to go on to teleprompter/cards for interactions with the press after the press conferences.

Lots of love and hate on Garland

The Biden handlers were not happy with Merrick Garland. I seem to remember that they were a little upset that he’d seemingly slow-rolled the prosecutions (Jack Smith), but they were also really unhappy that he couldn’t pull off getting Hunter completely off-the-hook.

Nothing about the disaster that was the Inflation Reduction Act 

I made note of that. It’s possible that I just missed it, but probably a lot of the reason inflation is so out-of-control is what they were trying to do with Green Alchemy.

Debate was panic to boost fundraising 

I do remember some of the discussion about why this happened in the first place. That the DNC was already starting to hurt for money provides some insight. They started the big time fundraising after the SOTU. Trump would be out there debating a convicted felon. Even if it wasn’t great, it’d paint a stark difference between the two candidates.

Lots on Hunter 

Significant amount of time discussing the situation(s) with Hunter. Only a bit on Blinken’s role in getting the former intelligence officials to sign the letter in 2020.

Really thin on the nobody had been killed 

Some discussion of Biden’s statements about how no US servicemembers had been killed on his watch as president. They did mention the Afghanistan disaster, and a few others I’d forgotten about.

I can remember my dad talking about the closest he came to resigning his commission was after “Desert One” in Iran in 1980. What happened in Kabul might have actually been worse than Iran.

Binary choice fallacy

The authors echoed some of the Democrats’ discussion about how the debate performance probably ushered people into a bad binary choice. Hey, y’all! I was going to vote for Biden just because I wanted to see him get his deserved blame for the economic and budgetary problems that were created by what he and his party did in the early part of Biden’s term. Naturally, all of it would be blamed on Trump. With Biden gone, I couldn’t bring myself to ever vote for Officer Harris and SMA Walz. So back to the LP even after their convention had absolutely cemented that I’d not vote for Trump. No, Oliver wasn’t good. Still the stink of the NeoHip AntiWar crowd, but he was about the only thing left.

Kind of glosses over actual election loss

They really didn’t go into the actual election very much. Or I was distracted by something else. The strength of Trump’s win over Officer Harris can’t, and shouldn’t be, underplayed. There wasn’t a single candidate on the ballot last year I would have been proud to vote for. Not a one.

Not good on post-election loss

I have similar criticism for the lack of post-election coverage. Maybe it’s because people are tired of Hillary’s “WHAT HAPPENED” stuff, but very thin in that section, too.

Gets into the Biden pardons, but doesn’t really address the potential illegality of them.

That note kind of describes it. The volume of pardons is remarkable, but they didn’t really get into that.

Says the pardons inspired the J6 pardons

Yes. Duh. I don’t think Trump would have given pardons to the J6 people if not for the ones Biden issued. This went along with his commutations for pretty much everybody on Federal Death Row, and commuting many other life sentences. Including Peltier. Guess Mumia was incarcerated on state charges out of Pennsylvania, so couldn’t get him out.

Nothing I noted about the Fauci/NIAID pardons.

I did listen hard for that, and must have missed it. The Fauci, et. al. pardon is incredibly shameful.

Millions of People Are Dead Because Of What They Did

Maybe there’s something Senator Paul will flesh out in the Senate, but I’m not going to hold my breath on it. Thankfully, it seems like things are under control disease-wise, but history should not forget.

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So, something to listen to while I was doing more paperwork and cleaning up some more today. Was the book worth what I paid for it? Um. I’ve paid more for drinks and appetizers I ended up not liking, so it’s fine. You might like it. Full-throated endorsement? Not so much. Was it garbage? Nope.

It’s really not that big difficulty to, you know, be courteous towards others with whom you disagree.

I do what I do, which is leave. It’s not a proud thing, but it’s where I am, how I react.

Lots last night on X about this guy, one of the Edgelords, who made me leave the LP again.

One of the Übermenschen was showing that he was going to give FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to support this now-unemployed Edgelord.

*polite golf clap*

I really don’t have a ton of money to spread around after heading to disability, but I’d certainly come up with more than that.

But the reason he got fired is exactly the reason why he’s not worth listening to. Or, in his employer’s case, having on the payroll.

You can believe whatever you’d like. But, understand that those beliefs might result in negative consequences if anyone ever finds out.

Obligatory backstory posts.

This is what you asked for Mises Caucus. Are you unembarrassed yet?

Or just unemployable?

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Other stuff……

Saw more than a couple of people on Facebook about the bombing of the IVF clinic. He had to be a prolife activist, who wouldn’t have done this without the return of Donald Trump.

Young dude who’s a Pro-Mortalist? What the actual…..?

Move on. I was tempted to go and see who had deleted the post, but why bother? I should probably make myself scarce again.

Oh, there was the new 757 story. That was a big scandal.

All to avoid paying attention to the Moody’s downgrade on US debt.

I started writing something a couple of days ago, but got distracted. My complaint was about how I was having to hurry up and wait for things to start moving.

But things actually are moving, and I feel a bit better about how it’s going.

I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to really get at things, but I’m moderately-confident about the overall directions.

I have been to work out a few times, and have been trying to do strength things where I can off of the equipment.

Most people don’t have to think at all about stepping deliberately. I do. Lift foot, place foot, rebalance.

But it will come.

Things will start calming down, I think. Same applies with what’s been going on in the news. Shock, shock! DOGE isn’t going to cut nearly enough spending to do anything about the fiscal problems the US Government has. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Moody’s downgraded the US credit yesterday.

Top story on the news? Nah, that’s something about how Trump is getting a used airplane to use because Boeing couldn’t build a new 757 within a reasonable amount of time.

THERE MIGHT BE LISTENING DEVICES

Okay, then.

(And I really miss <BLINK> at this point….)

So, try and catch up on things like Netflix queue. But I get distracted by other things. MS brain fog is a real thing.

Yes, I’m trying to start a Substack based on a meme.

But it’s kind of how I’m feeling.

Why? Today is my first day of disability. It’s short-term disability now, but should transfer to long-term disability sometime this summer.

There’s a few reasons why I’ve chosen to finally take this. I could portray it is entirely benevolent — my absence means others keep their jobs, but, really, I’m just finished.

It’s taken me a long time to accept that, but it’s where I am.

What really pushed me over the edge on it was a dream I had. I’d wake up, work out, take care of the dog, shower, clean, write, cook dinner, spend the evening with my wife.

My doctors have been kind of pushing me in that direction for a few years now. 50 is my next milestone birthday. My dad and both of his brothers didn’t make 60. Okay. Let’s do this.

I’m okay with it.

It’s going to be different, but it’s somewhat refreshing.

Tempted to go and play Let Go.

At the same time, there’s a bit of “here we go,” too. All of that happened, and it’s time for something different.

I’ve started setting up a Substack so I can draw some income. Technically I can’t be working while I’m on disability, and will probably have my disability payments reduced based on earnings, but it seems to be the thing to do. Given that basically nobody reads here, anyway, I don’t expect anything significant.

We’ll see where it goes.