Tag: news

A New Theory of Democracy?

Note: Tomorrow is Friday, so please send mailbag questions: Post below or email to rcseverian at protonmail dot com. Thanks for your continued diligence in striving to increase quality outputs.

I had nothin’ this morning, so, as is my usual practice, I took a look at the usual hives of scum and villainy. Where I came across this:

We need a new theory of democracy — because this version has failed

It’s Karen: The Website, from last August, and on the one hand it’s the usual litany of Orange Man Bad. But on the other hand, sometimes they provide insight despite themselves (that’s why I check). So I read on, hoping to learn — at the minimum — just what exactly Karen considers “democracy.” Because as much as they chant it — “Democracy” is one of their Power Words — I still don’t really understand what it is they think it means.

But also because I, too, have been contemplating alternate theories of government of late. I’m not 100% droolingly enthusiastic for Operation AIPAC Fury, which according to the Ace of Normies crowd means I’m a Nazi (these days, the dude can’t hardly go a single post without calling someone a Nazi). And I figure hey, I guess if I’m going to be there no matter what I do, I might as well learn about my new comrades in arms. So I checked out their 25 point program, and I gotta say, I’m liking the cut of their jib. For example:

Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.

Given that Bad Orange Man — who is not a Nazi by the Ace standard, because he’s bombing Iran on Israel’s orders, but who is a Nazi according to the Left; politics is confusing — is just now losing a Supreme Court case about “birthright citizenship,” in which they’re about to decree that anyone who manages to drop a tadpole on our soil is now and forevermore a 100% True American, this speaks to me.

The right of voting on the state’s government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen of the state alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, shall be granted to citizens of the state alone.

I guess that’s not just a Current Year problem then. The difference being, back in 1920 “the state” was a pretty malleable concept, at least in Germany. In 1920, there were still plenty of living people who came to adulthood as subjects of the Margrave von Farting-Shittenburg, got incorporated into the Kaiserreich, saw its defeat in war, and found themselves “citizens” — whatever that meant — of this bizarre thing called “The Weimar Republic.”

But still: The idea that only the Citizens of the State should vote on matters of State is so blindingly obvious, I can’t believe anyone would even have to write it down, much less make it into an enumerated demand in a political platform. I wonder if Homey’s “new theory of democracy” addresses this — the idea that the “demos” part of “democracy” is meaningless if literally everyone can participate?

All further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since 2 August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich.

This is, mutatis mutandis, the most sensible proposition ever put forward by a political party in the history of governance. I guess Ace is right; I’d vote for these guys.

The first obligation of every citizen must be to work, either mentally or physically. The activities of the individual must not conflict with the interests of the general public, but must be carried out within the framework of the whole and for the benefit of all.

We’re going to stop at this point, because we’ve reached an inflection point. This is the point where Liberal Democracy (for rhetorical convenience) fails: It’s aces (heh) at assigning obligations to the State vis-a-vis the Citizens, but weak to nonexistent in spelling out the Citizen’s reciprocal obligations to the State.

The modern version, of course — the Karen version — simply wouldn’t grok the idea of reciprocal obligations. To Karen, the State exists to distribute the gibs. Exists as a practical matter, I mean, insofar as Karen considers practice; in reality, to Karen the State exists primarily to provide a captive audience for her self-actualization. Karen is incapable of second-order thinking, so it never occurs to her to wonder where the gibs come from, and what happens if they stop.

But since we are capable of second-order thinking, comrades, it might behoove us to consider that this might, in fact, be the point at which talking about “the State” first starts to make sense: When a society starts to define, however nebulously, a set of reciprocal obligations vis-a-vis its ruling machinery.

Does it make sense to talk about, say, the English State in the time of Edward I? Certainly it was governed. We can describe more-or-less permanent administrative structures. But the actual governance — the individual acts of governing — were probably still all personal. Edward I probably knew all his tax collectors personally. He certainly knew all his aristocracy personally, and his governance came in the form of personal relations: Whatever the Duke of Earl did for the “government,” he did because of his personal obligations to Edward I, the man.

Could you provoke a crisis of conscience in the Duke of Earl? Could you convince him that what Edward I, the King of England, wanted to do was against the best interests of England, the realm? Could you meaningfully speak to him about England’s interests, as opposed to the personal interests of Edward I?

On a more basic level, could you field troops for “England”? Could you set up a recruiting booth, pitching the notion that “England’s” interests were at stake in the ongoing French wars, and you should sign up For King and Country? Could you meaningfully speak of an “Englishman’s” duty to defend the realm? Not “go fight that French raiding party which just landed,” but to go fight them in Champagne, in the parlance of our times, so we don’t have to fight them in York?

I don’t know. The only time I know for sure that this worked was in Revolutionary France, where la patrie en danger rallied ordinary citizens — a new idea at that time* — to the colors.

*Supposedly a hollaback to the citizens of the Roman Republic, of course, but clearly and intentionally different.

In Revolutionary France, at least, a theory of the State was in effect: Both State and Citizen had obligations to each other; so much of Revolutionary politics consisted in spelling them out. Was that applicable before the French Revolution? I don’t know. Not even in the case of America, where citizenship was determinedly local — the sense of citizenship of, say, Virginia was quite strong (witness Bob Lee’s decision to join the Confederacy, 100 years later), but the sense of “American” citizenship quite weak.

The idea of mutual citizen-State obligations reached its peak with the Soviet Union. The State’s obligations to the citizens were, of course, purely theoretical in the USSR, but on paper, at least, the Soviet State had endless duties to its citizens (and of course the State was supposed to be temporary), and they to it (which the State enforced with an iron hand).

I must’ve read a hundred thousand words from Karen: The Website, comrades, from dozens of different authorettes, but I still have no idea if they think the “citizens” of Our Democracy ™ have any obligations to the State at all. Indeed, it’s Alanis-level ironic, how they seem to believe that the American State is very close to what the Soviet State was intended to be: The mere administrator of things. We all “participate” in Our Democracy ™, but participation seems to boil down to slight adjustments of the gibs vector.

Let’s see what this goofball has to say:

A ccording to polling data, 62 percent of Americans favor the government being responsible for the health coverage of all people in the country. Sixty-five percent of Americans polled favored the infrastructure bill passed during Joe Biden’s presidency. In a poll taken just last year, 63 percent of Americans wanted to increase trade with other countries, and 75 percent worried that tariffs would raise consumer prices. Another poll found 83 percent of likely voters, including 80 percent of Republicans, supported providing federal housing assistance after a natural disaster.

That’s the first paragraph, and you know where he’s going:

Yet in 2024, a near-majority of voters chose a president who would not only not improve medical access, but would adopt a policy to

blah blah blah, you know the rest. The “problem” — which is really just a basic aspect of the human condition, that it takes a lot of college not to understand — is that, as the old saying has it, if wishes were fishes we’d all cast nets. Since music appreciation is a kind of Quality Learing, some kayfabe seems appropriate here:

Gosh that’s a pretty song, and musically pretty interesting too. When’s the last time you heard a harp in a pop song? Plus that opening snare hit — it’s perfect. Of all Brian Wilson’s many talents, “doing a lot with a little” is among the more underappreciated. Dennis Wilson wasn’t much as a drummer, but Brian got the most out of him. And say what you will about the Boomers, any culture that could make “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” into a giant hit — #8 in 1966 — had to be pretty great.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah: Poll questions about “the government being responsible for the health coverage of all people in the country” and whatnot are like the Beach Boys asking “Wouldn’t it be nice?” They simply don’t translate into reliable voting behavior. Political “science” has known this since forever…

…which goofus actually goes on to detail:

Terms like “ignorance” and “low-information” are often used to describe much of the electorate, but ascribing Trump’s election to voters not knowing who he was or what he stood for is not credible. Indeed, it runs afoul of the entire basis of both political science and economic decision-making: the rational choice model of human behavior, whereby people are assumed to understand their own material interests.

People aren’t rational, dipshit. He pads this out with a whole bunch of silly stuff about the 1890s, Project 2025 (because of course, and hey, how’s that going? have they implemented all 463 bullet points or whatever, as Karen swore up and down they were going to do?), and so on, but it all boils down to “we lost because the voters are too stupid to see how great we are.”

Or… well, I suppose we must be fair at this point, comrades. Maybe the voters are rational; it’s just that they have a different sense of their own best interests. I admit I have a hard time with this, because I spent a lot of time in Academia, where for various boring, irrelevant reasons I came to know a few Labor Historians.

If you didn’t know that Labor History is a thing, consider yourself lucky. I don’t know how it works in Europe, but in America, Labor History devotes itself exclusively to the question “Why wasn’t there a Communist Revolution in America?” It starts from the premises that a) Communism is self-evidently the best thing for The Workers, and b) America was full of Workers, and therefore c) the only reason The Workers didn’t Revolt and make benefit glorious Socialist paradise was something something false consciousness.

That The Workers don’t think of themselves primarily — or at all — as “The Workers” never crosses their minds, because why would it? They’re so obviously The Workers, in the same way the Democratic Party’s policies, whatever they are at this exact second, are so obviously correct, and so on. They — labor historians, and by extension goofballs like our author — just can’t grok that self interest takes many forms. See also: What’s the Matter With Kansas?, in which Thomas Frank (whose dissertation work was on Advertising, natch), asks why those Bible-thumping, cousin-humping, NASCAR-watching rubes just can’t see how great abortion, degeneracy, and socialism are.

“Material interests,” as he would have it, are a small part of a person’s world. Or a normal person’s world, anyway. Leftists are obsessed with stuff, as we’ve all noted many times. In fact, if you take “luxury beliefs” to fall under Conspicuous Consumption — and how can they not? — there’s a two-word definition of Leftism, right there. Whatever The Current Thing is, it boils down to Conspicuous Consumption.

And that right there was the genius of Fascism, comrades. They pitched it as an economic arrangement, precisely to those voters who would give Thomas Frank et al a chubby: vote for us, and your immediate material needs will be met. In Weimar, where all the voters had lived through the Turnip Winter, that was a serious incentive. But they also pitched it at a much higher level. When Chef Boyardee said “all within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State,” he wasn’t talking about economics. He was talking about meaning. He wanted people to find personal meaning within their mutual obligations to and from the State.

You know, this:

The activities of the individual must not conflict with the interests of the general public, but must be carried out within the framework of the whole and for the benefit of all.

We — normal people — cringe at this, because we find our meaning the old-fashioned way: in our families, churches, communities, and so on. In war-torn Europe, though, where families, churches, and communities all died in the trenches, this made a lot of sense.

The point, comrades, is simply that people aren’t cells on a spreadsheet. Political “scientists,” because they’re a subset of Leftists, simply can’t grasp this. They’re ideologically committed to the idea of people as interchangeable production- and consumption-units, and so are wedded to the idea of “rational choice,” where “rational” can only mean “economic.”

He then goes on to suggest that Fox News might be to blame, because of course he does. But then dismisses it, for the most hilarious possible reason:

To the extent that calculated mendacity delivered through the media can swing elections, the implications are grave for democratic theory. If there is no “marketplace of ideas” where one can objectively shop in the manner of comparing prices at Home Depot versus Lowe’s and, instead, insidious manipulation determines outcomes, then human beings are no more capable of exercising free will than so many laboratory rats.

Lab rats, you say. This from the guy who just wrote a whole big thumbsucker about how the stupid voters are voting to — and this is a direct quote — “deny themselves medical insurance.” Which according to “rational choice theory” they simply should not be able to do. Those stupid rats are doing it wrong.

Just suppose that the great majority of Trump voters are not oblivious or deluded, that they more or less understand his policies and like them, as well as his performative cruelty, vulgarity and general jackassery. In that case we can assume that his epic corruption, so blatant it would make Boss Tweed blush, doesn’t bother them. We can also suppose that his violent language that usually results in death threats does not trouble their consciences, as it retaliates against people his voters regard as evil or even demonic.

Trump supporters may value these qualities in a politician more than whether he tries to provide them health care or education, things that may poll well only in isolation from other priorities

Ah yes. One begins to see the real problem with Our Democracy ™ — it’s the demos. Which has an obvious solution, one Bertolt Brecht recognized all the way back in 1953:

After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers’ Union
Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee
Which stated that the people
Had squandered the confidence of the government
And could only win it back
By redoubled work. Would it not in that case
Be simpler for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

I believe that willful, conscious and knowing support of Trump and his policies is a greater factor than conventional wisdom would have it, and more likely to have been politically decisive than accidental or zombie-like support.

And there you have it! You know what’s coming, so I’m only quoting this because I want to make Alanis’s cooter explode:

This possibility has unpleasant implications, as it suggests that your neighbor or work colleague might not be unduly troubled if you are hauled off to prison for a social media post or deprived of your pension for being photographed at a demonstration. 

In all seriousness, though, let’s run with this notion that Trump is a reflection of us; that we’ve gotten the government we deserve. Leaving his Big Middle East Adventures aside, and focusing solely on his domestic policies, is it not fair to say that Trump has reintroduced the notion of mutual responsibility between State and Citizen? However partially, however crudely, he seems to approach The Government as something other than a distribution node for gibs. I haven’t heard him use the word “accountability,” but isn’t that what a lot of it boils down to?

He’s one of the Bobs from Office Space. He has posed an unanswerable question to so much of the Apparat:

Indeed, he’s asked it of… well, I can’t say “of the citizenry,” for obvious reasons, so let’s say he’s asked it of the people who currently reside inside the administrative area of the US:

In his crude, spastic way, he’s asking us to consider if there might not be more to it than just cashing Government checks and consuming product. Which, when it comes down to it, was one of the big secrets of Mustache Guy’s appeal, too…

The New Year Nerd Fight

So…how was your 2025? Got any “best of” recommendations for us? It doesn’t necessarily need to be something made or released in 2025; just something that you encountered for the first time this year.

How about predictions for 2026? In a way, it’s easy, because the BOM will still be President in 2026 and so we know how the Left and the Media (BIRM) are going to handle everything. Instead of playing “For That to Be True,” we could play “What Would It Take?” As in, what would it take for The Media to finally mention the umpteen-billion dollar Somali scams in Minnesota? So far there has been exactly ZERO Media coverage, which is actually kinda impressive in its way — they get dumber by the hour, but as they get dumber, they get better at maintaining omerta. We all know that if, say, the New York Times were forced to cover the Rapture, their headline would read “World to End; Women, Minorities Hardest Hit.” How are they going to finally mention the Somali thing, IF they’re ever forced to?

Finally, anything you’d like to see more of around here? Less of? Suggestions are always welcome.

Ok, that’s second-to-finally. I just checked in with Karen, and no less a thinker than Aman-duh informs us that

The right hit peak incel in 2025

So… I mean… I gotta. It’s in the contract.

This whole “incel” thing interests me. For practical reasons if no other. The Butt Naked Lifestyle — specifically, medal storage — takes the phrase “ribbed for her pleasure” to a whole new level; it’s not for amateurs. But “incel” supposedly stands for “involuntary celibacy,” which is both an oxymoron (all celibacy is voluntary; “celibacy” has in inescapable religious connotation, as in “vow of”) and a structural problem endemic to modern life. It’s not just that the demand exceeds the supply (that has always been the case, given that demand is, for men up to about age 40, effectively limitless). It’s that the entire culture has inverted into slow suicide.

From Mar-a-Lago face to Elon Musk, MAGA’s sexual dysfunction exposed itself

Aman-duh is fifty-ish (her Wiki bio says she was born in 1977). I’m fifty-ish too, which is one of the reasons reading Salon in general, and her stuff specifically, is such fun sometimes. Salon, as we’ve noted, debuted in 1995; it’s like a perfect time capsule of the mid-Clinton Era. Back then, we were just starting to work through the implications of the Sexual Revolution — specifically, the realization that, as P.J. O’Rourke put it, the Sexual Revolution was over, and the microbes won. You’ll recall (if you were there) that Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991; by 1995, AIDS mania was everywhere — the AI browser thingie says

His disclosure, which shocked the world, played a pivotal role in changing public perceptions of HIV and AIDS, helping to reduce stigma and increase awareness, particularly among heterosexual and Black communities.

and yeah, sort of… thanks to The Media going to bat once again (as always) for the poofs. But then we found out that “Magic” was, if not on the down low, at least “credibly accused” of, uhhh, dunking the ball from both sides of the rim, plus he slept with an epic amount of skanks, and in short, if you weren’t taking it up the ass or sharing needles, HIV wasn’t your problem. I’m sure you noticed that the AIDS panic just stopped sometime in the late 1990s. Weird, wasn’t it? The Booty Flu was going to kill us all, because anyone could get it at any time… and then it was just gone, despite the fags becoming ever more disgusting and obnoxious, to the point that, as of a few years ago, something close to the majority of kids at certain colleges openly identified themselves as some kind of deviant….

That’s the world in which Aman-duh (and I) came of age. For any reasonable person, the conclusion was obvious: the Sexual Revolution had been a disaster. Young women were being told that they loved sex, but didn’t like it, because if it wasn’t great it was rape, and the definition of “great” changed with the fads in the ivory tower, with no statute of limitations. Men, meanwhile, wanted what they always wanted, but were now informed that there was an entire elaborate theory behind it, which — again — changes at a moment’s notice, and not only must you be au courant with the Current Thing, you must have always been so, even if today’s Current Thing was the exact opposite of yesterday’s.

Reasonable people learned to soldier on as best they could. Unreasonable people became Feminists, and Feminism became nothing more (or less) than the worst kind of crotch obsession (Crotch Obsession is an ok title for a punk album). Hence Aman-duh can write about “MAGA” being “incels,” as if that’s both a real thing, and a useful analytic category. “MAGA” is how it is, according to her, because they’re not having sex, but wish they were… and that wish is, in itself, pathological.

It made sense in 1995, if you were a certain kind of person. If you weren’t there, you’ll just have to trust me.

Earlier this month, the popular MAGA influencer Sólionath was having a real one on X.

Gosh, I feel old now. I don’t know what “having a real one” means. I barely know what “X” is, and I’ve never heard of “Sólionath.” What language is that, Gaelic? (If it is, “Sólionath” is probably pronounced “Jones,” because Gaelic has the most fucked-up phonics on the planet). Guess I’m not as “cool” and “with it” as a gal who has probably already gone through menopause.

The U.S.-based poster had built up a healthy audience of 65,000 followers after Elon Musk purchased the site formerly known as Twitter by sharing the usual deplorable garbage: defending white supremacists murderers, trying to get people fired for not mourning Charlie Kirk after his assassination on Sept. 10 and concocting lies about the Epstein files. But now he was expressing his very strong opinions about the approximately 99% of Americans who have sex at some point in their lives.

Soooo…. by modus ponens or whatever Pale Penis Person logic thing, “incels” represent only 1% of the American population. Not that a tiny, tiny minority can’t have ludicrously outsized influence, but as usual, one wonders exactly what she’s going on about here. “MAGA” wears normal-sized hats. If there really are so few of them…

“I could make a dating app profile and lose my virginity by dinnertime,” claimed this devoted champion of President Donald Trump. “But very few people alive have ever actually had sex,” he continued. “They’ve slapped their damp, clammy body against another damp, clammy body, like the wriggling of a suffocating fish.” Sólionath then attempted to wax poetic about how he would be different if “I ever tried to make love.” Because unlike people who have done the deed, he would “reveal the deepest and most primal aspects of myself to a woman,” and in the process, “she [would] be mine in totality and no other human even think of her existence.” He also promised to impregnate this imaginary woman.

Ooooooookay. I think we can stop here. Again, I have no idea who this guy is, but I’ve been in the locker room a few times; I recognize a fake sex story when I hear one:

HE’S JOKING, YOU MORON. It might not be a particularly good joke, but not even 13 year olds talk like that in real life. He’s having you on. Taking the piss. Pull the other one, it’s got bells. Etc. etc.

These are the people we’re supposed to take life instructions from.

Anyway, I gotta jet — lotta work to get done before tomorrow. I’ll be checking back in as often as I can, so if anyone wants to give the full article a go, have fun. Thanks as always for reading, and I’ll catch you on the flipside (as we very cool dudes used to say back in the mid-1990s).

The NBC Radio Show

Our musical homie Black sent in a description of what he’s working on, that he’s asked our help with. As this is a music blog, I’m going to assume he’s in Mexico, for kayfabe purposes

Everything between separators is Black’s.

First, thanks to you all for being a very entertaining group, and for supporting my work. I greatly appreciate it.

I’m working on a new album, this is one of my “real” albums, not something done as a riff on the discussion here, like The Red Caesar Scenario or 2Tonic. I am trying to capture the feel of traveling late at night, by car or otherwise, including the various stops along the way. I don’t really have the time or the opportunity to go out and get some of these sounds for myself, though. Also, they should not all sound like me.

I need audio of some spoken lines to include on the album. Some are in the style of a late night radio show, such as the intro, tag line, and a commercial, but some are just random lines you would hear at a restaurant or gas station while you are traveling. I could also use a few other things, but first here is the list of lines I need. And yes, you might recognize a name or two.

If you can record them at your computer, great. If you have to use your phone, great. Just try to be as clear as possible and try not to have any other sounds or background noise. Choose any of the lines listed below. You can do more than one section if you want, but only do as much as you want. I will take the best recordings and add them into the album.

***********************

RADIO SHOW INTRO –

Hello and welcome to Night Vistas. I’m your host, Thomas Porter. Tonight’s guests are –

– Digital Rights advocate Clayton Barnett.

– Coraline, the singer from “The Red Caesar Scenario”

– And R. C. Chesterfield, author of the self-help book “Dropkicked Into Reality.”

Phone lines are open, so stick around for a great show!

________________________

RADIO SHOW TAG LINES (Feel free to improvise one of your own) –

Night Vistas. After midnight, from the broadcast horizon.

After midnight, across the broadcast horizon, on the air — Night Vistas.

After midnight, across the broadcast horizon, on the air withNight Vistas.

________________________

RADIO SHOW AD –

Most people prepare for tomorrow.
Some prepare for what comes after that.

Redline Preparedness offers long-term food storage, water systems, and emergency planning for people who prefer not to improvise when it matters.

It’s not about fear.
It’s about options.

Redline Preparedness.
Be ready — quietly.

________________________

RANDOM LINES AND SOUNDS (Feel free to improvise your own) –

Order Three, ready for pickup. Order Three, ready for pickup.

Pump Number Seven, diesel, thirty-one dollars and seventy-three cents.

Do you want onions on that?

Two packs of… let’s try those clove cigarettes over there, please.

Order Four, ready for pickup.

May I see your I.D. please?

Take the first exit, go about five miles down the road, and turn at the stoplight, by the old barn.

Have a good night!

***********************

There are a few other things I can use as well, but these are purely extras, and only if it’s convenient for you to get these.

Any sort of audio recording of street traffic (including on the interstate), audio from a gas station (inside or outside, or both), background sounds from a restaurant, trains passing by, bus station, and anything else of that nature. It’s fine if you use phone for these, that should be good enough quality.

I do not expect anyone to have time or opportunity to record most of these, so don’t knock yourselves out – if I don’t get the soothing, melodic sounds of a fight at the Waffle House, it’s not a big deal. And don’t do anything that might get you in trouble – if you can’t just hit “Record” on your phone as you are walking by somewhere, don’t bother with it. Again, all of this stuff mentioned here is just extras.

When you have something recorded, save the file as either a WAV file or an MP3 file. If you aren’t sure what format your phone records in, send it anyway, odds are it’s fine. An Audacity file (.aup) doesn’t work if you email it to me, since it doesn’t have the necessary data folder.

Send files to BlackSkyStudio@protonmail.com and include NIGHT VISTAS AUDIO in the subject line.

There will of course be discounts for clubhouse members. Contributors will get a special discount code emailed to them, whether your audio is used or not.

Here is the first track from the album, to give you an idea what it will sound like –

I don’t know if Sev has a Wednesday Nerd Fight topic lined up or not, but if he didn’t have time to come up with one, let’s go with “Would Alanis or Sarah McLachlan be a better girlfriend for Sev?”

Thanks again to all of you, and thanks to Sev for letting me do this here.

My contributions will, of necessity, be minimal, but I urge everyone to help out if he can. I can suggest a line for somebody to read, with the added bonus that it’s a real quote. I can’t find the exact wording with a brief internet search, so this is from memory, but it’s real close:

After midnight comes the intoxication of forbidden thoughts.

That’s E.M. Cioran, who apparently was afflicted with serious insomnia. He’s basically Nietzsche 2.0; the Nietzsche fans among you should give him a go. Here’s a Wikiquote page of some of his greatest hits — be advised, he consciously aped Nietzsche’s style, too, so these aphorisms might well mean something quite different in context.

(An interesting guy, Cioran. He’d be a lot more popular with the clove cigarettes crowd if he hadn’t gotten mixed up with Codreanu’s boys. His wiki entry says nothing about what he did during the war, but he was in Paris at the time, so… well, whatever. One can only imagine a meeting between him and Ernst Junger, who was stationed there…)

Second contribution: I have to bow out of the “Alanis vs. Sarah” debate, for obvious reasons, but I’ve been with versions of both, because for whatever reason there’s a kind of girl I’m attracted to, and there’s a kind of girl who’s attracted to me, and they’re about 180 degrees apart. Youth has its own imperatives, so… there it is.

Anyway, help a brother out if you can, please.

Stoyak Review: Mostly Epstein, All Crap

I know we haven’t done a Wednesday Nerd Fight in a while, for which I apologize. But it’s sometimes fun to document the freakout du jour. I sometimes page back through the site archives and see entire series of posts where I go “Wait, what was that again?” Note that the site archives only go back to November of 2020. Which tells you something about information velocity…

Anyway, most of this is from Karen: The Website, because a) they’re the test bed for Outer Party propaganda, and b) the Outer Party sure seems to believe that this Epstein stuff is a winner for them, so this is what we’ll be hearing about from now until we hold erection for Congress.

But first, some international news!

Hey, did you know there’s a war going on in Ukraine? The Media seems to have forgotten all about it. The American Media, at least — I’m sure the Brits are still going strong. I doubt they’ve seen this much jingoism in Blighty since the Opium Wars.

From a site called Project Nightfall:

Russians are escaping their country

It purports to be a video showing caravans, and even people on foot, streaming over the border into Georgia. I’m not going to watch the damn thing, just fyi — Putin is losing so badly that people are trying to escape.

Putin’s scared of NATO: here’s why

That’s from the Daily Digest. It’s a slide show, because of course it is. The things I endure for you people.

Royal Navy Admiral Sir Antony Radakin might be a name not many people know but, as the Chief of the Defence Staff, he’s none other than the head of the British Armed Forces.

See what I mean? Pip pip cheerio! This is the guy who apparently understands why Putin won’t “escalate” into a full-on conflict with NATO. (I wonder if his subordinates call him “Radakin Skywalker?” Because I would).

“Britain is safe. We are safe because we are part of NATO, the world’s largest and strongest alliance, and also because we are a responsible nuclear power”. Radakin assured the public, as quoted by British newspaper The Standard.

That’s the stoyak here, I think — we’re back to rattling the nuclear saber.

According to The Standard, the operational head of the British Armed Forces told the audience that there were surprised how weak and inexperienced Russian troops turned out to be while on the ground in Ukraine.

Probably because they’re using tanks pulled out of WWII museums, and have washing machine chips in their aircraft guidance systems. Or were they only doing that back in 2022?

I would also note that those “weak and inexperienced” Russian troops have overrun half the country, despite all the Wunderwaffen NATO could throw at them.

But these are just details.

NATO, meanwhile, is reported to have some 3.5 million soldiers, with thousands already mobilized in Poland in the Baltic countries.

Where they’ve no doubt come under the sway of the Baltic Vice. Even the public schoolboys in command of the UK forces pale at the thought of it….

Daily Mail:

Mexico’s president issues warning to Trump after US strikes threat

What, openly encouraging half your country to flood over our borders isn’t enough? What threat have you that’s more dire?

A contingent of US Marines is currently conducting military exercises in Trinidad and Tobago, the second such maneuvers in less than a month between Washington and the small English-speaking archipelago located about six miles from Venezuela.

You know it’s serious when the Marines are in both Trinidad and Tobago. Also, “conducting exercises in Trinidad and Tobago” sounds like the setup for a filthy story. Not quite to “shore leave in Singapore” levels, but close.

Annnnnnd…. that’s the end. The only Mexican threat I saw was

Donald Trump’s threat of US military strikes against drug cartels inside Mexico is a non-starter, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday. ‘It’s not going to happen,’ she said at a press conference,

Uhhhh…ok. I’m sure El Fred-o Reed-o is right there with ya, lady, in re: Mexico’s ability to stop the US from doing whatever it wants, but out here in the real world, you know what’s really stopping Trump from taking military action against Mexico? The fact that we’ve got umpteen million of those “natural conservatives” salted throughout the country. There’s probably no burg so small, so rural, that it doesn’t have its Pancho. We start hitting Mexico, and all of a sudden those millions of “natural conservatives,” who are also 100% True Americans who are just here to make a better life for their family, start blowing shit up in the rear.

Russia just struck Europe again – when does Nato say enough is enough?

That’s The Independent, and here’s that British jingoism I was talking about. Don’t you have some other shit to worry about right now? Though actually I do hope you go ahead and declare war on Russia. Good luck getting Mohammed and Jugdish into uniform.

Russia is the prime suspect in Monday’s bombing of the Warsaw to Lublin railway line, a main artery from Poland to Ukraine.

Poland’s security ministry said that “everything points to Russian sabotage”, after the blast on the railway and another attack in which the rails on the same route were cut.

It doesn’t count until you officially label it an “incident.” Ask the Japanese. They were forever blowing up railways in “incidents.” Which worked out just super for them in the long run….

Tusk is angry – but these attacks are not unprecedented. And he knows better than any European leader what Russia is up to, after Poland was penetrated by at least 23 Russian drones in September.

Polish Penetration, eh? You’re going to have to provide your own jokes / Indie band deep cuts here.

According to a report from the Centre for International and Strategic Studies, as of March this year, there had been at least 70 known acts of sabotage attributed to Russia across Europe since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Other sources have the number higher.

Quick question: How many people at that Centre are named “Kagan”?

It went on to point out that “many of these targets had links to Western aid to Ukraine”. The most common tactic “involved explosives and incendiaries”, but there were also more acts of violence involving clubs and knives, sea anchors to tear up fibreoptic cables, and the weaponisation of illegal immigrants.

Wait… illegal immigrants are bad? You’d best watch out, old sock — the rozzers throw you in jail for saying things like that.

Europe and the UK have stepped up military support for Ukraine, to offset Donald Trump’s decision to stop all aid to the country. But the latest Russian attacks inside Poland – a European Union nation that’s also a fast-growing power in Nato, and, like Romania, is a near-frontline state with Russia – are yet more signs that Europe’s pushback may need to get physical.

Thanks, mate! You make music blog kayfabe so easy:

CNN:

Israel strikes Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

I love these stories. Oh, those wacky Bagels! Attacking refugees in different countries for, like, no reason. I’m sure they only hit hospitals, of course.

The GOP is on the cusp of destroying Obamacare

That’s Karen: The Website, and the stoyak here is how little there appears to be about Epstein. I mean, there’s plenty — this is, after all, Karen: The Website — but it’s not wall to wall like I figured it would be. My guess is that they’re trialing some emergency backup Narratives, since “MAGA” appears not to be playing ball.

And truth to tell, it threw me for a loop, too, how fast they passed whatever that resolution was. I figured the Stupid Party would do the dumbest possible thing, hemming and hawing and letting the Left beat them over the head with it for months. KTW probably had a hundred stories sitting on go; now they’re scrambling to fill space.

Why Democrats can’t stay united — even in victory

Yeah, it’s a real shame, ain’t it, when your weaponized lunatics just won’t read the memo.

Stagnant leadership and a culture of learned helplessness keep holding the party back

“Learned helplessness,” I love that. In some ways, actually losing for once might be the best thing that ever happened to the Left. As minor and arguable as those losses were, they’ve literally never lost before. “A very slight pause in their headlong rush to intersectional genderfluid utopia” is the worst thing that has happened to them since, oh, 1896 or so. Their case of Victory Disease was worse than even the Japanese Navy’s.

But unlike the IJN, the Left’s self-concept depends, utterly depends, on being the plucky underdog. That’s hard to square with “getting everything you want, plus some.” They’ve managed, of course, and of course cognitive dissonance never bothers them, but still — a real, actual, no-shit loss has probably done them a world of good, emotionally.

On Nov. 3, Democrats rolled over Republicans in off-year elections across the country. But their celebration did not even last a week. Five days later, the party’s unity in the government shutdown battle evaporated as eight senators defected to Republicans in reopening the government….After weeks of polling had shown that Democrats appeared to be winning the messaging war, the deal was a gut punch to Democratic voters.

Even knowing how stupid Karen is, and how stupid this particular authorette is (Chauncey De Vega, who might somehow be even dumber than Aman-duh Marcotte), it still cracks me up how dumb they are. Yo, goofball: The phrase that pays is “appeared to be winning the messaging war.” Pick any part of it — there’s your problem.

Just over a week after the deal was announced, it’s still unclear what exactly motivated the “Hateful Eight” Senate Democrats to align with their GOP counterparts.

One theory is that Democratic leaders are attempting to play a long political game — one in which rising health insurance costs and the pain of the shutdown become weapons the party can use against Republicans in the 2026 midterms and beyond.

Oh, that’s not a theory; there’s tape of one of your own people saying it, because y’all are just so fucking bad at politics now. But please, go on.

But given how often Democrats have been outmaneuvered by President Donald Trump and Republicans, such as in July with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, this argument is unconvincing.

See, now this I don’t get. They pulled this crap for eight years with Dubya — he’s the stupidest guy ever, yet he constantly, effortlessly outwits you, the Smart People. But at least back then they could blame it all on Darth Cheney, probably because they knew he was no threat to run for President his own self. Obviously they can’t do that with Joe Dirt, because he’s the obvious 2028 GOP frontrunner already. So you’d think they’d modify their approach a little bit, just to save face… but no, they can’t, so Trump — like ALL Republicans — has to be so stupid he can barely breathe without cue cards, yet constantly outmaneuvers The Smartest People from The Best Schools.

The eight senators may simply have acted out of craven self-interest. Two are retiring, while the rest are not up for reelection in 2026.

Ooooooh, so close!!!

Meanwhile, the airline industry was losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day during the shutdown due to cancellations and staffing shortages. Since 2019, according to the Lever, at least $842,500 in donations from airlines went to seven of the eight senators, including $218,000 to Rosen.

Silly Karen, $218K is chump change in the Imperial Capital. You can find that much under the couch cushions in the employee break room. You offer a Swamp Thing a measly $218K you get told to fuck off, Jack, come back with another zero.

There is also the theory that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democratic leaders were afraid that Republicans would follow Trump’s commands to end the filibuster. This would take away one of the few ways that Democrats, as the minority party, have of slowing down and potentially stopping Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

That would be Authoritarian Leader Trump, no? The guy who promised to rule as a dictator from day one? You alone, Chauncey, must’ve written that phrase 500,000 times, to say nothing of the rest of your asswipe webzine. And yet the guy can’t even get 50 members of his own party to follow instructions about some procedural hangup.

Also, astute readers will have noted the other implication of “follow Trump’s commands to end the filibuster,” to wit: If they can do that on Trump’s command, they they already have the power to do it. They just choose not to, for whatever reason, in defiance of their Fuhrer.

Fucking editors, how do they work?

“This was all textbook low-dominance politics — hesitant, bloodless, and self-defeating,” explained political scientist M. Steven Fish, the author of “Comeback: Routing Trumpism, Reclaiming the Nation, and Restoring Democracy’s Edge.”

That’s an interesting phrase: “low-dominance.” It must be a term d’art in “Political Science.” You’ll remember that our man Chauncey kept going on about Kamala Harris’s “high dominance” style. I thought that was just his cutesy euphemism for her acting like a cackling bitch. I should’ve guessed it was an Ivory Tower thing — those noodle-armed genderfluids loooove dressing up as tough guys for some reason.

Many Democratic leaders are continuing to operate according to old norms of collegiality

Thanks, dude, I needed that.

when in reality, today’s GOP is an extremist organization that has no use for political traditions.

Which is why all of you who “are continuing to operate according to old norms of collegiality” keep calling for their assassination.

The simplest explanation for appeasing Republicans may be realpolitik and the desire to stop the pain the shutdown inflicted on the American people.

By Jove, I think he’s got it! No matter what it looks like, Chauncey, the answer is always “Because you’re such Good People.” If you have a flaw — IF you have a flaw — it’s that you Care Too Much.

“Democratic leaders had a real challenge of coalition management,” Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at New America and author of “Doom Loop,” told me. “It was not clear they were going to get anything more out of withholding the votes longer, and I think it was reasonable to think: we’ve made our point about healthcare and SNAP benefits, we have a bunch of Epstein documents ready to dump, so let’s just move on.”

I’ve been studying the Left for more than 20 years, and it still fascinates me, the way they can syncretize like that. I once had to watch a buddy going through a psychotic break. And I do mean had to — we didn’t know what, exactly, he’d do if we left him alone, but we knew it would be bad. So we had to sit up with him until dawn at his parents’ kitchen table, another buddy and I, taking turns making pot after pot of coffee while the other one kept him talking to us (and thus away from the knife rack etc.).

He was like that — whatever passed through his field of vision, wherever the conversation topic wandered, would get incorporated into this elaborate fantasy he was spinning. We could watch it happening. For example, suddenly the Power Company was in on the conspiracy. Uhhh… who’s the Power Company, T? The CIA? The NSA? He meant it literally — the power company, the one that ran electricity to the house. And here’s proof! he yelled, seizing a bill that had just come in the mail and waving it in our faces.

The Left is like that. “We have a bunch of Epstein documents ready to dump, so let’s just move on.” Yes, let’s! Whatever is The New Thing is now the Only Thing, but of course it’s exactly the same as The Old Thing, just more so.

Whatever the explanation, journalist Adam Serwer’s insight remains true: “American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.”

Would that be the same Dem base that burns down cities and threatens — and more than threatens — to assassinate people who don’t give them what they want? Or is it a different one?

I think we can stop here, no? Even though there are many, many, many paragraphs left, because Salon (another fascinating parallel with my schizo buddy, come to think of it — he just could NOT stop talking. At first we thought that was good, because if he stopped talking, he might start doing. So we were determined to keep him talking. But after about 45 minutes we were all but begging him to shut the fuck up. Filibuster? Oh yeah, I’ve seen a fucking filibuster, up close and personal. That shit is exhausting).

MAGA right’s new fascist man-crush: He’s been dead for 50 years

Augusto Pinochet? Lee Kuan Yew? Hahahaha, I kid. This one’s for Clayton:

In the early years of SNL, Francisco Franco was “still dead.” But to his 21st-century fanboys, he’s immortal

Did you know that Francisco Franco has “21st-century fanboys”? I didn’t. Not outside the Clubhouse, anyway.

Also, I need to put this in the Salon Tense Field Guide: “MAGA right’s new fascist man-crush.” As opposed to MAGA left?

That’s not pleonasm, which the old-school Marxists inherited from Hegel (you had to describe all aspects of Aufgehobung). It’s not (just) “fucking editors, how do they work?” Nor is it one of those prewritten phrases that Leftie writers gum together, as Orwell put it. It’s…. something else, I don’t know what. Some kind of Newspeak-style intensifier, I guess. There’s ungood, plus ungood, and doubleplus ungood; therefore by analogy there’s “Right,” “MAGA,” and “MAGA Right”…?

There’s a strange circular relationship between the authoritarian movement in America symbolized or spearheaded by Donald Trump — whether or not he is truly its leader — and the European far right. It’s like a malevolent Ouroboros, where we can’t tell which is the head and which the tail, or which end is swallowing the other.

I’m asking the European NBCs to weigh in here. Does “the European far right” give a shit about Donald Trump? Why would they?

The American Left is of course convinced that Trump is some kind of blood-and-soil, throne-and-altar nationalist. I assume that, because the European Media is, if anything, farther Left than the AINO Media (and take a lot of their cues from the AINO Media), you might have this impression too. But it’s false, comrades. Completely, laughably false. American nationalism is to European nationalism what aluminum foil is to hamburger — you can buy them both at the same place, and they are occasionally seen together, but that’s about it; otherwise they’re totally different.

It’s clear that some right-wing activists and political leaders in Europe still seek inspiration from or alignment with Trump, even as his star visibly fades.

Well then what the fuck are you worried about? His star is visibly fading. Indeed, he’s such a shitty excuse for a dictator that he can’t get 50 members of his own party to exercise the power they already have, by ending the filibuster. So just go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all this to blow over.

Both the president and many of his key advisers and followers remain fascinated, if not obsessed, with the continent from which nearly all white Americans derive their ancestry.

Nearly all? What, are we including albinos or something?

Clumsy efforts by JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Musk and other Trump surrogates to meddle in Germany’s national elections on behalf of the almost-fascist AfD party seemed to backfire, as anyone with the remotest understanding of contemporary European politics could have predicted.

Did they ACK-shully backfire, or just seem to?

If Hungary’s strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, remains firmly tethered to the Trumpist right and the cosplay intellectuals of the “national conservative” movement, he also looks to be sui generis in several ways. Hungary remains the only EU and NATO member where electoral democracy has been almost entirely subverted into a one-party state — and even so, there are signs that Orbán’s regime may be in trouble. He has carefully positioned himself as a friend to both Trump and Vladimir Putin, without flat-out violating the rules of European foreign policy. That dangerous gamble has left Hungary increasingly isolated, while failing to produce the diplomatic breakthrough in Ukraine that Orbán clearly hoped for.

Forget Franco — sorry, Clayton — here’s the stoyak. Victoria Nuland, Samantha Power, et al are still butthurt that their little Regime Change plan didn’t work out in Hungary. We’ll be bombing Budapest by April 2029, once they Fortify Governor Hairgel into office. Sorry, guys. Your camo was cool though:

Don’t blame women for men’s loneliness. Blame capitalism

So says Aman-duh Marcotte, and I think we can all agree, this woman

knows what lonely men want. I’m pretty sure I saw Soviet sailors wearing that top in The Hunt for Red October. And yes, in case you’re wondering, that’s an official author bio. I picked the most flattering shot I could find. Contemplate that on the Tree of Woe (if whoever “borrowed” it finally returned the damn thing).

There’s a lot of money to be made off angry, isolated men

That’s the subhead, and I’ll refrain from making the obvious jokes about how yeah, hon, there’s one sure way to make money off isolated men. Also “subhead.” Not because I’m that classy, mind you, but because I’m running a bit long. Y’all feel free though.

Is Sam Altman trying to get men addicted to erotic chatbots in order to make money off them? That’s the strong implication of a recent New York Times op-ed by artificial intelligence researcher Steven Adler. In it, Adler accused the OpenAI CEO of ignoring “clear warning signs of users’ intense emotional attachment” to chatbots that claim to offer romantic intimacy. Instead, Altman’s main product, ChatGPT, is forging ahead with a plan to let the software pretend to be a user’s romantic interest, despite strong evidence that doing so will send “users down mental health spirals.”

Huh. So you’re saying that constantly chasing emotional arousal online is BAD. Does your entire career know that?

OpenAI continues to burn money without much promise that they’ll find legitimate pathways to profitability any time soon.

And that’s BAD. Again, I must ask: Does your entire career know that?

Salon has been unprofitable through its entire history.[citation needed] Since 2007, the company has been dependent upon repeated cash injections from board Chairman John Warnock and William Hambrecht, father of former Salon CEO Elizabeth Hambrecht. During the nine months ending on December 31, 2012, these cash contributions amounted to $3.4 million, compared to revenue in the same period of $2.7 million. In December 2016 and January 2017, the company was evicted from its New York offices at 132 West 31st Street, a block from Madison Square Garden, for non-payment of $90,000 in back rent. In February 2017, Spear Point Capital invested $1 million into Salon, taking a 29% equity stake and three seats on the company’s board. On August 30, 2019, Salon.com was sold for $5 million by Salon Media Group (Expert Market: SLNM) to privately held Salon.com, LLC, which is owned by Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup.

On the upside, I guess it has been long enough that we can conclude KTW is the one Leftist operation too dumb to get a big check from USAID.

This isn’t just an expensive proposition — it’s also a psychological danger, constituting behavior that is likely to get men to withdraw from the real world and attachments to real people.

What do you care? No, really: cf. your entire career, passim. You quite clearly hate men and all their works. Why do you give a shit if they “withdraw from the real world and attachments to real people”?

That may sound paranoid, but the grim truth is that this scenario reflects an alarming trend online: An increasing number of influencers, crypto grifters, “pick-up artists” and gambling websites have come to realize that male isolation creates incredible profit opportunities.

Pick up artists? “Mystery” says hi, from 2002.

Fun historical note: Jan Van Eyck also owned that hat; he loaned it to Giovanni Arnolfini.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, pick-up artists. On the one hand, I commend KTW for finally joining the 21st century; usually they’re stuck in 1996. On the other…

Acknowledging we have a male loneliness crisis is treacherous business. Many dispute there is such an epidemic. Others scoff at the idea that this is a problem worth caring about, especially when women still suffer from more serious problems due to persistent inequality.

See what I mean? Men aren’t worth worrying about until all women feel validated, if not empowered. So why do you give a shit, Aman-duh?

After all, even if one doesn’t care about men’s loneliness in itself, there can be little doubt that it’s driving them into destructive behaviors — such as embracing fascism — that have negative impacts on everyone.

Note that down for the Salon Tense Field Guide. I need help, comrades. What would you call that?

It’s not just self-contradiction, it’s a special kind of self-contradiction that Leftists not only can’t recognize, but seem to view as some kind of winning tactic. Out here in Reality, of course, we’d say something like “They’re constantly online, so who cares if they embrace Fascism? Or Communism or antidisestablishmentarianism or the worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. So long as they stay online — and according to you, getting off is impossible — that sounds like one of them good problems; It keeps the defectives occupied.”

But now I begin to see the problem. I said “out here in Reality.” That is, I assume a disconnect between “the real world” and its virtual representations. They, obviously, do not. Baudrillard wrote a lot of stuff, and he died before Twitter existed, but it all boils down to “Twitter IS real life.” And given that we’re still about three feet (in metric, 92.3 millilitres) away from nuclear war because the Apparat lives on BlueSky, it’s hard to say he’s wrong….

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

Trump’s call to release the Epstein files could get in the way of Bondi’s investigation

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Because y’all give a shit if Trump causes problems for his own administration. I guess you’re starting to realize the likely party affiliation of most of the names in there.

Senate passes resolution demanding Epstein files release, sends bill to Trump’s desk

They seem to believe that Trump will veto it or something, and that will be some kind of big “gotcha.” I apologize in advance for the length of this — which I did not do for your Mom — but I went ahead and looked up what Senate resolutions actually are:

Senate resolutions are legislative measures introduced and passed by the United States Senate to address matters within its own authority or to express the chamber’s position on various issues. They do not have the force of law and are not signed by the President.

With the exception of

Joint resolutions, designated as S.J.Res., [which] are used for matters requiring action by both chambers of Congress, such as proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution, continuing or emergency appropriations, or declaring war. Like bills, joint resolutions must be passed in identical form by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and are presented to the President for approval to become law.

What law would that be?

Here’s the actual bill proposed to the House. Being astute readers — hell, just not being drooling idiots — you’ll note two provisions right away: “All unclassified material” and “subject to subsection b.”

As one of y’all pointed out last night, they’ve undoubtedly classified anything good. Subsection B allows the DOJ to withhold anything that depict[s] or contain[s] CSAM.

So, you know… a complete nothingburger, just as it has been all along. Trump will sign it, and the DOJ will release it, and it’ll be 50,000 pages of text messages about what to order for lunch, and the same screaming will continue from the usual idiots.

Epstein survivors to Congress: “It’s time to bring the secrets out of the shadows”

“Survivors.” Holy hopped-up Buddha on a rocket-powered pogo stick. Unless we’re talking about a plane crash, a battle, or other such event with high expected mortality, any time you hear the word “survivor” you know you’re about to be taken for a ride. I recall when the phrase “sexual assault survivor” was coming into vogue in academia. It usually meant “he didn’t call her soon enough the day after.”

And… that’s it. That appears to be all the “Epstein Files” stuff up there. Odd, no? Anyway, have a good one. Thanks for reading.

WNF: Shutdown Theater

Well, they’ve gone and done it. For whatever mysterious reason, there’s a “government” “shutdown” happening today. As Nehushtan pointed out yesterday, the Dems’ proposed budget failed 53-47 — a straight party line vote — so the Republicans could’ve passed a budget on a straight party line vote, but chose not to. So somebody’s holding out for some kind of payoff.

Obligatory music blog kayfabe follows:

What that payoff is, I won’t venture to guess, other than the GOP default (something something Our Greatest Ally). But that leaves us with the vexed question that is the subject of today’s Nerd Fight: Now that the Government is “shut down,” whatever shall we do with ourselves? How can we possibly go on?

Just for grins I checked on how Karen is handling the news. It appears they’re all for it — something something Drumpf, no doubt; something something #Resistance.

World of wonders: Congressional Democrats seem to have grown a spine

That’s the headline, so… yeah.

Party unity has broken out in the face of shutdown threats

That’s the subhead, and… threats? Checking the dateline… ah, it was September 28. This is Karen egging them on, not celebrating; I guess they haven’t gotten around to updating yet this morning. Still, we have what we have, so we soldier on.

I should’ve figured they’d be all for it, despite their utter dependence on Government (Salon has never made money, not once, in 30 years. Frankly I’m shocked they’re still around; I figured USAID was their main source of revenue. I doubt anyone who writes for them has ever held a job, of any kind, anywhere). Just like my colleagues back in grad school, who unionized themselves straight out of a job in order to live out — however briefly – – their Hero of the Proletariat fantasies, so Karen et al cherish their self-concept as embattled underdogs. Forget the fact that they’ve controlled everything for going on 100 years now — this time they’re finally gonna fight!

A man once appeared on “Fox and Friends,” the Fox News morning show, to offer his opinion about an impending government shutdown over one of America’s perennial budget battles. He had a very clear idea of the problem and how it should be solved. “Problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top,” he told the hosts. “The president is the leader, and he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead…I really think the pressure is on the president. “

The man was Donald Trump, the year was 2013 and he was speaking about President Barack Obama.

It’s all Drumpf’s fault. Of course that’s what they say about literally everything they consider bad, but that’s the thing — what they consider bad is often wildly different from what sane people consider bad. When this Government “shutdown” proves insanely popular, we want this here for quick reference.

That was then. After agreeing to meet with Democratic leaders to try to head off a looming shutdown, Trump decided it wasn’t worth his time. In a long Truth Social diatribe, he claimed that unless Democrats dropped a dozen demands they hadn’t actually made — “have dead people on the Medicaid roles [sic]” and “transgender operations for everybody” — he would not meet with them.

Trump’s a hypocrite, you see. What is that thing Pajama Boy always says?

Ah yes, something about “I don’t actually believe a word of this myself, but I thought it might work on you.” You people are bothered by hypocrisy from elected officials, aren’t you?

Also the [sic] is a nice touch. Isn’t it cute when Salon pretends to have editors?

According to POLITICO, Trump was actually asked by GOP congressional leadership not to meet with the Democratic leadership as he’d planned. This was probably a smart move on their part; the last thing they would have wanted is to let Trump be alone in a room with anyone. Scattered and undisciplined, it’s never clear which way he will go.

Now that’s stoyak!!! I can easily believe that GOP “leaders” begged Trump not to meet with the Donks. He might’ve actually cut some kind of deal, which would really screw up whatever grift the Republicans had working. They’d end up having to vote against some “bipartisan” “consensus” bill that would probably look pretty reasonable, all things considered.

On Friday, it was reported that Trump will meet with leaders of both parties on Monday afternoon. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York, issued a statement about the meeting. “We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis,” they said. “Time is running out.”

Note “the Republican healthcare crisis” for your records; you’ll be hearing it a LOT. I’m sure they have a whole parade of disabled veterans and single moms lined up and ready to go.

The president has always believed that government shutdowns are beneficial to him.

Really? I remember the last time they pulled this stunt, over funding for the big, beautiful Wall. He folded like a cheap rug.

One side, led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, favors a clear, straightforward message: Democrats are refusing to sign onto a clean continuing resolution to fund the government for another seven weeks. In other words, they are being unreasonably obstructionist. But the other side, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, prefers screaming bloody murder that Democrats are angling to reverse laws to give undocumented immigrants government benefits. At this point, the two sides are just drowning each other out.

No they’re not. That’s Politics 101. The House demagogues on an issue; the Senate plays the voice of reason. That’s how it’s been done since forever. I know it’s a big ask, but could you persyns read another book besides Harry Potter, just once?

Nowhere is there talk of bipartisanship.

Well, except for that big meeting Trump was going to have with the main Democrats. But that doesn’t count. Because reasons.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who also authored Project 2025, set that notion on fire when he promoted the highly controversial use of “pocket rescissions” to unilaterally claw back spending that had already been signed into law. He used the mechanism to cancel $5 billion in congressionally appropriated foreign aid, proving that a promise means nothing to this administration.

So much stoyak here. Project 2025!!!! Remember that? It was all the rage back when we were holding Erection for King. I wonder how that’s working out? Karen: The Website promised us that Trump was gonna enact all of it, immediately… but of course, Karen: The Website promised us that Trump was going to throw everyone at Karen: The Website into some kind of camp, too, and I’m still waiting.

Also: This Vought guy, who I’ve never heard of, actually canceled some foreign aid? The dude is a True American Hero. Nah, fuck that, he’s a true miracle worker, I didn’t think that was even possible. Granted, it was probably all earmarked for lesbians in Borneo or something (and not the good kind, the ones that opened for Exploding Vagina Candle back in ’06*), but still, a precedent is a precedent. Now do Our Greatest Ally.

*I’ll admit it: I’d give it a spin, just to hear what a band called Lesbians in Borneo sounds like. Maybe those Indie groups are craftier than I think.

Vought’s comments echo those of anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist, who famously said that Democrats “will only become acceptable once they are comfortable in their minority status. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”

I think we need to seriously consider Grover Norquist for honorary member-ship in the NBCs for that comment alone. (Also, I believe Fixed, Happy, and Sedate was the title of Lesbians in Borneo’s debut album**).

**Yes, I realize that the “Indie band name” joke is probably getting old. But I still think someone should compile a list of them, and their discography (where known). Some of them were pretty good, and given the way AI is advancing, it’s likely that we’d be able to produce an entire NBC Soundtrack here before too long. We’ve already got rad cover art for the album Decry the False Football Gods!; let’s let the same algos that write Taylor Swift songs work their magic on Indie fare.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah:

Fear of such an action colored the last shutdown standoff and was even expressed by Schumer. But that was back in the early days of the Department of Government Efficiency purges, and the party was still a bit shell-shocked. Today, nobody is cowed by threats of mass firings. The administration has been doing it for months — and they have turned out to be a resounding failure. NBC News reported on Sept. 24 that hundreds of federal employees whose jobs were cut by DOGE are being asked to return.

So which one is it? We hear this literally any time Trump does anything: It’s simultaneously an Existential Threat ™ to Our Democracy ™, and completely ineffective.

Democrats are demanding that Republicans restore health care cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including massive cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies that will soon hit millions of Americans, many of whom are GOP voters.

Then the Democrats are even dumber than I thought, which — if true — violates at least four important laws of thermodynamics. Yo, guys gals persyns: If your opponents are going to egregiously fuck over their own voters, let them. For one thing, this is the GOP we’re talking about here; “egregiously fucking over their own voters” is pretty much their whole deal; we’re used to it. For another… I mean… do I really need to explain it?

Democrats know that Republicans are already feeling some heat for the legislation — and it could get worse. Going into next year’s midterms, they may have to face more angry constituents who are losing their health care amid a shrinking job market. 

I can’t tell if this is stoyak or stupidity. I’d ask “Are y’all really so dumb as to bail your opponents out when they’re making a ginormous mistake?”, but I already know the answer — you’re Democrats; of course you’re that dumb; if you were capable of seeing the skull-fuckingly obvious consequences of your actions, you wouldn’t be Liberals. So it must be stoyak — you are gonna bail out your “opponents” while they’re in the midst of making a big mistake, thus proving they’re not really your opponents at all.

With the GOP controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, pressure on Democrats to avert a shutdown will be tremendous.

Why? No, really, this is one of the more bizarre assertions in this already ludicrous article. You want them to ram through a budget on a straight party line vote. Indeed, you want to do pretty much what Schumer et al actually did do, which is to make the price of your vote so ridiculous that the majority party can’t possibly pay it. If the Republicans’ budget is really so terrible that it’s going to kill them in the midterms — which is one of the foundations of your own argument, Sugar Tits — then you make them own it. There’s no better way of doing that than making them vote straight party line. It’s the best of all worlds for y’all, actually, because if they can’t ram it through on a straight party line vote, it can only be because some of their own people defected, and therefore a) the “shutdown” is all on them, and b) all attention shifts to majority party infighting.

I swear, this is the kind of Politics 101 thing that junior high student councils used to grasp.

Time will tell, I guess… and we’ll have lots of it, now that the Government is “shut down” and can’t run our lives for us for the time being. What are you going to do with your unplanned vacation, Citizen?

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