“You can’t tell the players without a scorecard”

And maybe not even then.

On Friday, a coalition of three Antifa factions reportedly launched a counter-protest against an “anti-vaxxer” and “anti-mask” protest on Boston Commons in Massachusetts.

In lieu of the Herblock Cartoon (can’t find an image online!)

As I understand it, the “Rise Against Tyranny” protest was organized by an organization called “Super Happy Fun America.” Yes, it sounds like a Laurel and Hardy comedy.

Players
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What is wrong in Wyoming? And why?

The cracks in American society grow wider and deeper daily, it seems.

[A clarification (thanks, Tom!) is added in the main body of this article. Please read below.]

Some States have it worse than others: consider Virginia or New Jersey, where elections are now an excuse for MORE disagreement, argument, and possibly even action by both sides. With less and less reason to restrain themselves, as the prizes to be seized by the victors (immediately and longterm) are more and more enticing.

But perhaps the poster child for 2021 for dysfunctional societies and government is Wyoming. I know that comes as a surprise for many who know a little bit about the Cowboy State. Sadly, it is only what some of us have been expecting. And of which we have seen warning signs for years.

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The “civil discourse” becomes less and less civil

The new phase (campaign) of the COVID War is just one of the ways in which the social and political scene in the States and around the world have been ramping up.

COVID is definitely a problem, with its masking, vaccine, and recurring lockdown issues and mandates. But we also have the Parents-versus-Schools battle, exemplified by the very nasty Virginia governor’s race. On the issue of climate change, we see the proponents of massive reaction to global warming ripping each other apart, even while damning the climate deniers and climate sceptics. The screams of racism, white supremacy, and insane wokeness during election campaigns is not ending with the elections themselves: there seems to hardly be an opportunity to catch a breath as they move immediately into the 2022 campaign season.

It is daunting, and worrying, on many levels.

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Ignorance is no excuse

We hear this headline constantly. And yet, time and time again, people constantly try and excuse their actions on this very basis.

Of course, we should not that the people who quote this old saw to others are government employees. Especially cops. Usually when they are writing out and issuing a ticket for a violation of some petty regulation or law (or interpretation of the law) that the (automatically assumed to be guilty) offender wasn’t aware of.

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Special greetings: Guy Fawkes Day!

“Remember, remember, the fifth of November.” More than ever, we need the encouragement…

READ THE POEM ITSELF
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The “COVID War” enters its next phase?

The OSHA “Emergency Temporary Standards” requires all PRIVATE employers with 100 or more employees to mandate “The Shot.” (That is, the COVID-19 “vaccine” jab which often seems NOT to vaccinate people against the dreaded disease.) Its publication yesterday (Thursday, 4 NOV) elicited screams of outrage and immediate action to fight it.

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Is there a limit to the madness, or are we just taking a break?

A few days ago, Tom Woods reported

An NBC poll finds Americans souring on vaccine mandates, perhaps as they begin to observe their consequences.

The question: “Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose requiring that everyone who is now eligible must get a COVID-19 vaccine?”

Favor 47% (34% strongly)
Oppose 50% (41% strongly)

Now expect those numbers to change if the northeast has a bad winter, even though nothing about the vaccines themselves or the issues involved will have changed.

Kaiser Family Foundation poll published Thursday found that less than 30 percent of parents of 5- to 11-year-olds plan to get their children vaccinated

Agora Financial’s folks also are chipping in with some words of encouragement and wisdom:

Vaccine mandate madness has reached new heights of absurdity. To be clear, the absurdity is in the mandate, not the vaccine. The COVID vaccines do not stop the spread of the disease. Those who are vaccinated can become infected, as we saw in the recent case of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. For that matter, vaccines can increase the spread of the disease because the vaccinated remain asymptomatic longer and build up viral loads that are ten times greater than the unvaccinated, who show symptoms quickly. That said, vaccines do reduce severe symptoms and reduce fatalities. If you want the vaccine, get it. If you don’t want to take it for one of many valid reasons, that should be your choice. Our problem is not with the vaccine; it’s with the mandate. You should not lose your job or be threatened with other punishments just for exercising free choice. Forcing people to take vaccines ignores the 46 million Americans (probably more) who have had COVID and survived and have much greater antibody protection than the vaccinated. Mandates also disregard women of child-bearing age and those with conditions that may be greatly aggravated by predictable side effects. Still, our neo-fascist government agencies don’t care about any of this. For them, it’s get vaccinated or be treated like a leper. How far has government taken this non-scientific nonsense? This story reports that New York City has had to close 20 FDNY fire companies because of suspensions, retirements and layoffs of fire fighters who chose not to be vaccinated. The same personnel losses are being reported in the NYPD, emergency medical workers, nurses, teachers, sanitation workers and others performing critical tasks needed to keep society running. Politicians don’t care. For them, it’s vax or be fired. For the rest of us it means more fires, unsafe streets, rats feeding on garbage, and no medical care. The economic cost of this is huge on top of the social costs. It’s one reason economic growth almost stalled out in the third quarter. It will get worse.

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Supply chain collapse

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan Johnson published a very interesting piece in Medium.com. He explains (1) the current shipping crisis – key to the supply chain collapse we are living through – is very likely a LONG-TERM problem, and (2) none of the proposals being made by the government policy makers (and the lobbyists and even the radical “progressive left”) are going to make a dime’s worth of difference. Since then, the accuracy of his observations is more evident than ever.

The friend who shared this with me called it “the craning article” because Johnson explained the heart of the problem and how we got into this mess: the lack of infrastructure and manpower to offload and handle shipping containers at our ports. A big problem and with no sign of a solution in sight.

Johnson’s thoughts and writing are both very interesting and enlightening – if discouraging.

It ties in with some other things, also. 

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Enough with this foreign aid stuff, anyway!

 

As I closed with in the last commentary, let’s call it quits and in this last piece, look at the fears and the REAL things the States would gain from ending federal foreign aid. Thanks to Tom and others (public and private comments) for their thoughts on foreign aid.

Whatever the claimed purposes and benefits of dispensing foreign aid, it is nothing but another wasteful and government-promoting scheme of those governments. Most foreign aid fails to provide any real benefit to any ordinary people – especially those really in need of assistance – and instead further enrich the wealthy and powerful, and promote criminal prosperity. Especially corruption.  But these practical reasons for opposing foreign aid are not the major thing wrong with it.  At the heart of the matter: there is no moral or ethical or constitutional justification for foreign aid.  It is NOT benevolence, and there are better, moral and ethical ways to provide assistance to the poor and disadvantaged. (Spoiler: it is PRIVATE, VOLUNTARY ACTION.)

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Stop foreign aid? Are you nuts?

The headline is the typical response from virtually every politician, including the vast majority in Congress, to anyone that dares to challenge the idea that because the States are “rich” we have a moral obligation to transfer billions of dollars to “poor” countries. (That is, “Third World” countries – we can’t use that term as it is politically incorrect because it is racist, bigoted, and displays attitudes of American exceptionalism and white supremacy.)

Why do we (and other western, “wealthy” countries) give foreign aid? For many countries in Europe, where church and state are united (that is, the church is ruled by and funded by, the state, and used to have some influence over the state governments), it is considered a “moral” (even biblical) obligation. Of course, since the majority of the elites (and many of the people) of these nations have rejected virtually all biblical morality, it may be a combination of two things: habit and fear.

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