Two Choices

Well, here’s confirmation of something we’ve all been suspecting for a while:

Our government is preparing to monitor every word Americans say on the internet—the speech of journalists, politicians, religious organizations, advocacy groups, and even private citizens. Should those conversations conflict with the government’s viewpoint about what is in the best interests of our country and her citizens, that speech will be silenced.

Research by The Federalist reveals our tax dollars are funding the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) technology that will allow the government to easily discover “problematic” speech and track Americans reading or partaking in such conversations.

Then, in partnership with Big Tech, Big Business, and media outlets, the government will ensure the speech is censored, under the guise of combatting “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

Originally used as a marketing tool for businesses to track discussions about their brands and products and to track competitors, the DOD and other federal agencies are now paying for-profit public relations and communications firms to convert their technology into tools for the government to monitor speech on the internet.

The areas of the internet the companies monitor differ somewhat, and each business offers its own unique AI and ML proprietary technology, but the underlying approach and goals remain identical: The technology under development will “mine” large portions of the internet and identify conversations deemed indicative of an emerging harmful narrative, to allow the government to track those “threats” and adopt countermeasures before the messages go viral.

One would hope, of course, that this gross breach of the First Amendment would not pass judicial muster, but in true fascist form, the State has simply farmed its bastardy out to the private sector, thus creating a Clinton-like “technicality” that creates plausible deniability.

I also have no faith — none — that the Supreme Court will act in the Constitution’s best interests.  (Okay, maybe a couple of the conservative  justices may throw a hissy fit, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t put money on a full court decision because the Communist bloc will never vote against the socialist government, and the chief justice is a craven little fart who seems to caste his vote according to the New York fucking Times  editorial opinion.)

The two choices one faces in confronting this looming catastrophe are therefore:

  1. Try to go “underground” (e.g. using the Soviet-era samizdat  method) and hope that one can go undetected by the feral ferrets, or
  2. Stand astride the barricades, shouting “FUCK YOU!” at the top of your voice, at every opportunity.

The first choice is probably doomed to failure, if The Federalist is to be believed, because these bastards have already the tools to do what they want to do.  Remember, the power of samizdat lay on the fact that it used actual paper — hidden printing presses and such — to spread the counter-State “disinformation”.  Consider that your Epson or Brother printer already records everything you print and can therefore point a finger right at you, if you are judged to have written doubleplusungood crimethink, and the paper option disappears pretty quickly.

Longtime Readers will know that I’m far more likely to take the second choice, simply because that’s the path I’ve always chosen.  Yes, it’s most likely a stupid, futile gesture just like the Delta frat’s destruction of the Animal House town parade;  but always remember that in such a situation the Niedermayer character — the State — won’t be the only one carrying live ammunition.

And as I’ve said several times in the past that when it comes to dying I’d prefer to die in my wife’s arms;  but spitting and cursing at the State from the barricades surrounded by expended brass doesn’t hold much terror, either.

I’m speaking figuratively, of course, in the latter scenario — but unfortunately for the State apparatchiks, I took an oath when I became a U.S. citizen, and I take that oath really seriously.  My allegiance is not to the State — in whatever flavor it comes — but to the ideals and promises contained in the Constitution.

And I don’t need the fucking lawyers on the Supreme Court to interpret them for me.

The Kissinger Statement

I haven’t had much to say about the whole Russia / Ukraine thing because I’m somewhat ambivalent about the whole business.

On the one hand, yes, Vladimir Putin is a megalomaniac Russian bastard like so many of his political predecessors (Lenin, Stalin, Peter the Great etc.), and Russians themselves are a bunch of assholes (see:  Russian oligarchs, Russian mafia, Russian hackers, Russian corruption etc.).

Unfortunately, the Ukrainians are not exactly little angels themselves.  While they lack the global power of Russia, Ukraine is just as corrupt as their next-door neighbor, as shown with their dealings with our very own Biden criminal enterprise, to name but one example of their bastardy.

In other words, if Russia is the #1 Asshole in this area of the world, Ukraine is very definitely #1a.

Hence the Kissinger Statement, first spoken about the Iran / Iraq War of the 1980s:  “It’s a pity there has to be a winner.”

I’m not saying that the Ukrainians shouldn’t resist Putin’s invasion with might and main and kill as many Russians as possible;  I’m just saying that we should reserve our sympathy for Russia’s next target, e.g. the Finns, who definitively do not deserve the Ukrainian treatment.

Failed States

From Reader Tony H. comes this little bit of realism, South Africa’s Brave New World.  It’s a long but very clear-headed look at what has happened in post-apartheid South Africa since the sainted Nelson Mandela came to power, and his political descendants’ activities.  Here’s a brief taste:

That whole “sophisticated economy and infrastructure” that got “handed over intact” now by and large no longer exists. Consider something as basic as running water: in 1994, South Africa had some of the most sophisticated water infrastructure on earth, with a whole system of dams, reservoirs, and long-distance inter-basin conduits working together to conquer the geographical challenges of having several major cities and mining centers located on an arid plateau. All of this water was safe, drinkable, and actually came out of the tap when you turned the handle. This picture was marred of course by poor delivery to black rural communities and squatter camps, but in the early 90s the government was making rapid progress towards serving more of those people too.

That water system is now basically non-functional. It’s estimated that something like 10 million people no longer have reliable access to running water. When the water does run, it’s frequently filthy and contaminated with human sewage. South Africa had its first urban cholera outbreak in the year 2000, and they are now a regular occurrence. Again, this isn’t for lack of money or effort. The state has spent billions on trying to fix the water problems, and the government’s water bureaucracy has tripled in size since 1994. Something else has gone wrong.

And that’s just part of the story.  I urge you to read the whole review.

And now, part 2.  With the above reading in mind, please read Victor Davis Hanson’s Life Among The Ruins.  Again, a taste:

How did all of this so quickly erode our great country? Our crisis was not the next generation of foreign Hitlers and Stalins. It was not earthquakes, floods, or even pandemics. It was not endemic poverty and want. It was not a meager inheritance from past generations of incompetents. Nor was it a dearth of natural resources or bounty.

Instead our catastrophe arose from our most highly educated, the wealthiest and most privileged in American history with the greatest sense of self-esteem and sanctimoniousness. Sometime around the millennium, they felt their genius could change human nature and bring an end to history—if only they had enough power to force hoi polloi to follow their abstract and bankrupt theories that they had no intention of abiding by themselves.

Feel free to draw the many parallels between South Africa and the United States, as the two nations have become similarly degraded.  The methodologies may have been somewhat different, but the outcomes are eerily similar.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the range.

One Way Or Another

Nothing makes me chuckle quite like this kind of idiocy:

Christopher Woolf Mapelli Mozzi was born in 2016 and is the son of Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and American architect, Dara Huang. He was recently pictured with his father and step-mother, Princess Beatrice, at the Christmas Day service in Sandringham.

While very little is known about Wolfie, his mother recently expressed her gratitude for her son being educated in the UK, rather than in the US.

Writing on social media, the Florida-born architect said: “I’m glad my son doesn’t go to school in the USA. I can sleep at night knowing he won’t die at his desk tomorrow morning.”

She’s referring to the jillions of American kids killed each year in classroom shootings. [eyecross]

Leaving aside that untruth, here’s something that isn’t untrue:

etc.

Truth is that our precious princeling is FAR more likely to be stabbed to death in the UK than he is to be shot in the US — unless he happened to live in South Chicago, that is.

One More Thing

When I mentioned above that I’m sick of writing about politics, I should have mentioned that chief among these are articles describing how California has fucked up and how terrible things are going to be.

Yawn.

Even articles by brilliant writers (Jennifer Hernandez, Victor Davis Hanson, Heather Mac Donald etc.) get short shrift from me when the topic is Fucked-Up California.

We all know how the Golden Shower State is in thrall to Lefties, race hustlers, criminal apologists and other such filth.  We all know that California’s heading down the tubes to such a degree that The Big One is more likely to be a blessed relief than a catastrophe.  And we all know that Californian cities have become dystopian pits, drowning in shit, needles, crime and rampant homelessness, almost all of which can be ascribed to their insane laws and regulations.  It’s all going to crash and burn, and California will end up worse off than New Mexico, and become America’s Greatest African Paradise.

And I, for one, no longer care enough to write about it.

Going Dutch

Looks like even the placid Dutch have had enough with the Gree Nude Heel:

The upstart populist pro-farmer party FarmerCitizenMovement (BoerBurgerBeweging, or BBB) shook the foundations of politics in the Netherlands overnight, securing a significant victory in Wednesday’s provincial elections on the back of growing resentment against the globalist government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his plans to introduce Great Reset-style environmental policies.

At the time of this reporting, BBB is expected to pick up an astonishing 16 seats in the 75-seat Senate, after previously holding zero. With 94 per cent of the vote counted, turnout is projected to have been around 57.5 per cent, the highest since the 1980s.

…and with good reason:

The driving factor for the groundswell of support for the pro-farming party was opposition to the government’s plans to implement EU-mandated cuts on the use of nitrogen fertilisers by as much as 70 per cent in some areas of the country by the end of the decade, with 92 per cent of BBB voters citing the policy as a motivating factor for their vote.

The elections, which also will determine the makeup of the provincial governments, could see the BBB take power in the very regions that the government is trying to impose its green agenda, potentially spelling more problems for the globalist governing coalition, which saw its total number of seats fall from 32 to 24.

However:

Despite the trouncing in last night’s elections, the government’s minister for nature and nitrogen policy, Christianne van der Wal signaled on Thursday morning that the controversial nitrogen policy will continue to be on the agenda because the government believes it is mandated to push it through under EU law. 

From the newcomers:

In response, the BBB leader Van der Plas said that her comments were “complete bullshit” and that “everything can change, if you want.”

We could use some of that plain language Over Here.

Well done, Dutchies!