"Monsters of The Id" (opens in separate window)

planet pennywise hatches the hydra

friday, june 24th, 2022

The monster that was born when we got together to dig the splinters out of our minds is an existential nightmare for the globalist class.

Something very interesting has been happening over the last few years, and very few people have been noticing it.

[FULL TITLE: "The Great Convergence I - Planet Pennywise Hatches the Hydra"]

Most of the time we're so caught up in the Current Thing, whether supporting or opposing or just laughing at it and rolling our eyes, that it's hard to take a step back and notice the subtle, large-scale patterns that have been knitting themselves together as history unfolds before us. We've been so busy navigating the choppy waters of medical tyranny, censorship, cancel culture, groomers in the kindergartens, CRT in the schools, ESG in the corporations, DIE in the academy, shenanigans at the ballot box, supply chain shortages, hyperinflation, mass shootings, mass replacement migration, and the onset of the Third World War between the Globohomo Empire of Lies and the Russo-Chinese Alliance of Sovereign Nations that it's hard to get our heads above the heaving waves to see the big picture. I do not think that word means what you think it means.

These are terrifying times. A cult of sociopaths, narcissists, and megalomaniacs organized under the banner of the World Economic Forum (as merely the most visible face of the cult) have quietly infiltrated every institution that matters in the Western world. They're in elected office, state agencies, media, non-governmental organizations, the upper echelons of corporate management, the commanding heights of high finance, the platforms of Big Tech, the universities, the mainline churches. Their political penetration extends from the international to the municipal. Their messaging is ubiquitous. A huge segment of the population is fully hypnotized, their minds putty in the hands of the WEFites. The monied elite openly discuss the transhumanist plan to re-engineer Homo sapiens into a sessile slave species, and the entrained populace gabble 'conspiracy theorist' at anyone who draws attention to the words of their masters -- or even to the masters' very existence. Menticided by mass formation, they move implacably towards this cosmic failure mode with the dumb will of a herd of lemmings, dragging the rest of the species kicking and screaming into the Great Filter going by the name of the Great Reset.

Meanwhile the culture rots around us, decaying so fast its like watching a stop-motion movie of a decomposing apple. Testosterone levels plummet, endocrine systems go haywire, high-fructose flesh bloats and bubbles, sex appeal disappears into nauseating androgyny, the people on the streets mutating before our eyes into abominations driven mad by depression, alienation, atomization, psychiatric drugs, synthetic opiods, and scientifically designed propaganda that hits their amygdalae like laser-guided cruise missiles. Music descends into a cacophony of autotuned vocals and re-re-resampled beats that seems to echo straight out of the Court of the blind idiot god Azathoth. Film becomes an endless Frankensteinian pastiche of masterpieces and recycled schlock repurposed to hammer Message and Narrative into the popular mind without care for the craftsmanship of plot-line, world building, or character development. The discourse of intellectuals breaks down into a schizoid blend of word salad and hysterical emotionalism, as some desperately veer away anything smelling too much like truth lest they summon the baying mob, while others seek through ritual incantations of the magic words of power to summon he whose name is Legion to do their bidding. The professions have become a malignant incompetocracy: doctors who cause disease, officers of the law who enforce injustice, educators who spread ignorance, credentialed experts of every sort revealed as ignorant charlatans.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchotyranny is loosed upon the world -- and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Davos to be born?

It turns out Clown World has more in common with Pennywise than with Krusty.

Many of us have had a sense for a long time now that things aren't right. Some, like me, have had it since we were kids. Long before we could point to anything really specific, it was there, "like a splinter in our minds", this feeling that our world was fundamentally not as it should be, that there were vengeful shadows moving within it, that things didn't quite make sense, that nothing was as in its proper place.

About a decade ago something unexpected happened within right-wing politics. For generations, the conservative movement (a misnomer if ever there was one) had acted as gate-keepers for the ideological hegemony of left-liberalism. Whereas liberalism excused or even embraced the radicals of the far left, conservatives were quick to distance themselves from the radicals of the far right, writing out those deemed beyond the pale from participation in public conversation. This started with the racists, the anti-semites, the white nationalists, the KKK, the neo-nazi skinheads -- unsavoury groups with catastrophically bad optics. It then moved on to paleoconservatives, civic nationalists or really nationalists or even garden-variety patriots of any variety, libertarians of almost every stripe, Randian objectivists, and so on, until, by 2010 or so, the only acceptable political position within conservatism was one slightly right of left of right of centre. Meanwhile, the political program of the liberal mainstream drifted ever leftward, since they were under no compulsion to disavow their own radicals but, to the contrary, preferred to make them into heroes. Thus, terrorist bombers of the Weather Underground could get out of jail and walk into tenured faculty positions, as but one example. Thus, the common joke that conservatism has conserved nothing; thus, the barb that a conservative is merely yesterday's liberal. Thus, the inexorable drift of the political centre towards the left.

All of those excluded groups didn't cease existing when they were excommunicated. Having been booted out of the tent, they collected in the seedy dive bars of the Internet and, since no one else would talk to them, started talking to one another. Aside from being considered ideological lepers they had little in common, but you have to talk to someone after all.

This led to an uninhibited, open-ended conversation between libertarians frustrated by Ron Paul's systematic exclusion from the power process; ideologues who had, shall we say, a relaxed attitude towards fascism; human biodiversity nerds whose particular scientific fascination - the differences between the races -- was considered an unacceptable topic in the universities; students of various European philosophers who had been edited out from the fashionable academic curriculum1; neo-pagans and traditionalist Christians whose hard-line faiths were irreconcilable with modernity; and the 'manosphere' or 'red-pill' community, which had emerged from the pickup artist forums of the naughty noughties.

This conversation took place at a number of levels, ranging from the anarchic food-fight of 4chan's /pol/, to the elevated discourse of the neoreactionaries or NRx movement, the most famous alumnus of which is Curtis Yarvin or, as he was known in those days, Mencius Moldbug2. Disagreements were intense and bitter, as you'd expect for a fractious group composed of high-openness/low-agreeableness adherents of disparate and incompatible ideologies. Yet at the same time, all were united by a common ethos: that nothing was off the table for discussion; that any sacred cow was fair game for goring on the sacrificial altar of political haruspicy; that any assumption could be called into question, most especially those assumptions that polite society considered non-negotiable. Since humour is largely the violation of expectations and taboos, this conversation, as spirited and angry as it could become, was frequently extremely funny. The meme culture of the contemporary internet is almost entirely a descendent of this period.

Each of the communities that contributed to what came to be known as the alternative right had originated around an obsession with a certain inconsistency or injustice in the prevailing order - each had formed like a callus around one of the many splinters in the collective mind. For the paleoconservatives, it was the abandonment of national interests in favour of the imperatives of global capital. For the white nationalists, it was the demonization of Europeans and European solidarity, expressed in the invasion of European countries by mass migration, as well as the hypocritical attitude towards white vs. Jewish power. For the libertarians, it was the progressive infringement on liberty by the regulatory apparatus of the managerial state and the prudish speech codes of an increasingly unforgiving political correctness. For the manosphere, it was the broken social technologies of courtship, the falsehoods propagated about sexual relations, and the overreach of a feminism that had morphed from an advocacy for women to an all-out assault on everything male.

The manosphere is an especially interesting example, because it didn't start out as an ideological group, but rather as a purely practical, results-oriented community. Guys started noticing that essentially nothing their mothers or the television had told them about female behaviour was true. Every time they acted on those ideas, they were met with rejection. Female behaviour being mysterious at the best of times, they started getting together on Internet forums to compare notes. Over time, proven techniques emerged that actually worked to get dates; thus was born the pickup artist community. It turned out that these techniques required jettisoning all the pleasant lies they'd been fed about what women want, and relearning human sexual psychology from the ground up. It also turned out, upon further investigation, that they were simply re-discovering perennial truths about human nature that had simply been kept from them. In short order this led to these men wondering what else they'd been lied to about. After all, if society had misdirected them on something as fundamental and important to human happiness as 'how to find a mate', there weren't really many limits, were there?

So all these groups got together and compared notes. In the ruthless agon of anonymous internet fora, right-wing podcasts, social media, and an archipelago of blogs, over time what worked, and what made sense, was selected for; what didn't, was discarded. It was a very similar process to what happened when UFC brought together every fighting style on the planet: the brutal competition of the octagon rapidly weeded out the bullshit and distilled what was left into Mixed Martial Arts, itself primarily a combination of Brazilian jiujitsu, Muay Thai, and boxing. So it was on the alternative right. What began as a collection of incompatible ideologies gradually coalesced into a semi-coherent worldview crystallized around the forbidden truths governing human nature.

Then came Trump's declaration of candidacy for the 2016 election, and the meme war that defeated the legacy media and propelled a reality TV star into office. This was when the political establishment, and the population at large, became aware of the Alt-Right. The defining moment was a speech by Hillary Clinton, in which, hoping to tar Trump by association, she first named the deplorable nature of the Alt-Right in front of a mass audience. The moment the words 'Alt-Right' escaped her wrinkled lips, some shitlord Anon in the audience cried out 'Pepe!' and the Internet erupted in laughter. Her speech only served to pour energy into the meme war. Anons ran circles around the focus groups and message control of the Clinton campaign, the OODA loop of the chans effortlessly outpacing the sedate duty cycle of public relations firms and media campaigns. Quickness of thought and lack of inhibition is the stuff creativity is made from, and the nuclear meme reactors of /pol/ and Twitter were able to put out better propaganda, funnier propaganda, and truer propaganda, much faster, and much cheaper, than a traditional political campaign. So much faster, in fact, that the moment the legacy system released a new campaign, it was repurposed by the malign creativity of the prankster hydra to devastating effect, usually within hours.

The establishment woke up in November of 2016 to find that the unthinkable had happened. Trump had won the election. The horrifying realization dawned on them that a monster had been born.

Not Trump. Trump was just one man - a vain, egotistical, willful but also naive man. One man could be controlled.

No, the monster that terrified them was the Alt-Right.

It wasn't the ideology of the Alt-Right that was frightening. Many within the Alt-Right itself made this mistake, with catastrophic consequences for the nascent movement shortly after in Charlottesville. The powers that be didn't much care that there were racists or sexists or Nazis on the Internet - that had more or less always been the case. What chilled them to their cores was what the Alt-Right represented. It was a fundamentally new kind of entity that had emerged: an egregore that had gestated under their noses in fibre-optic cables and wireless signals, a cybernetic hive mind formed at the intersection of silicon and flesh and light. It was everywhere and nowhere. It was endlessly adaptable. It wasn't an ideology; it was a system.

That spooked them bad. They knew full well the power of such a system. Their own oligarchical control network is based on the same principle, a distributed, centreless cephalopod, a 'vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly shoving its blood funnel into anything that smells like money', in Matt Taibi's immortal Occupy-era description of Goldman-Sachs. This isn't just a metaphor drawn from political theory. Almost a decade ago, some Swiss physicists did a network analysis of global corporate ownership structure, and found that the vast majority of the planetary economy is ultimately controlled by a knot of tightly interlinked financial entities they termed the economic 'super-entity'. Inside the super-entity, there's no one locus of control, no one person giving the orders. There's just a network of rich people, gathered around the Schelling point of increasing their power and wealth, their collective activities driving the global economy relentlessly in the direction of greater control over more resources in the hands of fewer people.

The oligarchy isn't only financial. It's also academic, technological, regulatory, legislative, and cultural -- a rusting Iron Pentagon that can't be defeated by taking out any one person or organization. That's precisely the source of its strength. Individual people and individual organizations are no match for it. A self-organizing hydra developed on the same principles, on the other hand....

The global class tried to kill it with the Great Shuttening. Rounds of bannings on social media, sometimes en masse, sometimes targeted and coordinated against high-value targets. Censorship, a growing list of words and even topics that would bring down the banhammer. Cognitive infiltration by troublemakers, the old COINTELPRO tactic of spreading distrust and mutual suspicion ("He's a Fed!") while poisoning the well with misinformation. Shadow-banning of prominent voices, intended to gaslight them into thinking they were shouting uselessly into a disinterested hurricane. Lives destroyed by doxxing: people made unemployed and unemployable, expelled from universities, disowned by family and friends. Internet backbone services - payment processors, DDoS protection, even DNS servers - pulling support from websites deemed too much a part of the hyrda, if only in their refusal to ban its participants themselves.

Ultimately, none of it worked. The hydra proved too nimble, too adaptable. With a plethora of options available, members simply maintained a presence on multiple platforms, kept lines of communication open with distributed, encrypted, uncensorable messaging services. Banned accounts could re-emerge under new pseudonyms almost effortlessly. Banned topics could be discussed easily by avoiding banned words, and by adopting an esoteric lexicon that left the censors, whether algorithmic or human, baffled and confused. A parallel economy was built out: the example of Gab is instructive, which developed its own servers, and ultimately its own payment processor, in order to harden itself against external attack. The doxxed found that their status as unpersons was only temporary: most quickly found employment with sympathetic members of the network, while others learned to monetize their activities within it, becoming full-time soldiers in the meme war. Doxxing itself became more difficult, as tips and tricks for opsec against Antifa OSINT propagated through the hydra's nervous system.

The hydra was antifragile. Attacks could disrupt it here or there, but the rest of the organism would react by hardening itself against that form of interference, while the disrupted nodes would quickly reform. Kill one head, and two more regrow in its place.

Then the coronavirus was released, and everything kicked into overdrive.

© June 5, 2022 by John Carter, "Postcards From Barsoom".

A Day In The Life.

Up at 9a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and breakfast, had a couple smokes in the warm garage and checked the leftover errands list. It was already 79°, after the violent t-storms, coming southeast down thru Harrisburg and into Lancaster, just catching the eastern edge of York, last night. No tornado, though. The humidity was stifling by 9a. Other than coming mid-90s temps and oppressive humidity, it was a beautiful start to the day. I feel for the people in the Southwest and Midwest getting hammered by the hot weather -- NOT the "climate change" crap -- and we're getting a small taste of it now.

I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was.

I made a Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Chives & Dill Sandwich for lunch, mmmmmm good. I did another finger stick to check my afternoon BSL, and it was within range (under 150). I had some errands to get done -- Weis Market, Rite Aid, New Eastern Market and a nearby convenience store -- my Jeep's outdoor temp gauge read 97° with 45% humidity, but it felt a lot worse than that. With my COPD, I had to use my Combivent Respimat Emergency Inhaler often.

After unloading the Jeep, I stayed-in the 73° for the 97° outside heat, until the sun abated and temps dropped. It was 117° on the back patio, and 105° on the front porch, so I had smokes in the shady garage. I grabbed a 2hr snooze, had some food I'd gotten at the New Eastern Market, and watched some Discovery's new episodes of "Gold Rush" TV series, thru the evening. I decided to try to stay-up for "Gutfeld!" at 11-12. Sherry and I are going to her Daughter's BEES & BEANS Art Festival"", tomorrow at 1-2p, so I don't want to be tired for it. I unplugged at 12:30a.

Sleeping-in until about 9:30a on Saturday, it was a cloudy, cool, low humidity, 65° start to the day. I did the usual BSL routine, made coffee, took a Tylenol Extra Strength for my R/S back pain, delayed breakfast for a while and listened to a few "The Chris Stigall Show" Podcasts from last week. It was a beautiful day outside, compared to last week's 90s temps. But they'll be coming back next week. Summer is just beginning.

We all live two lives: the one we learn from, and the one after that.

Sherry arrived just after 1p, and we took my Jeep over to the annual "Bees and Beans" art/ crafts festival, across from York's legendary Belmont Theater. We had a great time, and I met a lot of new people, and visited with a few I'd met before, last year at this event, and at Hollie's Virtue Arts & Crafts Market, in Hallam. After two or so hours, we left and came back to my condo, and talked for hours. Sherry left around 6p -- always hate to see her go -- I had some dinner and got some daily condo chores done. After a BSL and a light dinner, I watched some various TV episodes until 11:30p, and called it a night. I have to get up early for tomorrow's Father's Day trip to Mt Rose Cemetery.

Up at 6a on Sunday, I made coffee, did the finger stick routine, turned-on the heat as it was a nice, sunny and cool 49° (no complaints) morning, and checked the weather and news, on my computer. I picked-up my Sister and we went to Mt Rose Cemetery to leave a card for Father's Day, as we'd done for Mother's Day. I also took pics and many measurements for a detailed sketch and estimate, for the outside of the Victorian Chapel of Memories, for both the hardscaping and landscaping work. The F-1 Canadian Grand Prix was on at 2p, and it was a good race. Nothing worth a crap after that, so I made a deliciousSmoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Chives & Dill-on-Rye Sandwich for a late lunch, did 2 loads of laundry, and then slept for 3+ hours on the LR couch, doors' screens open and cool breeze blowing thru.

I skipped dinner, watched some news shows and bagged it at 11:30p.

On Monday, the garbage trucks woke me up at 9:15a, or I'd have slept for another couple of hours. I did the usual finger stick routine, made coffee, took a Tylenol Extra Strength for my R/S back pain, had a couple smokes in the cool 72° garage, retrieved the empty recycle bin at the curb, and tuned-in the Chris Plante Show, hosted by a sub. The Kona Coffee was delicious. I had a very large croissant with Kerrygold Irish Butter and sugar free Smucker's Blueberry Preserves.

I had no idea that the black local holiday, "Juneteenth", held in Galveston (TX) was made a National Federal Holiday, until midday, yesterday, and that almost everything would be closed today. Well, at least the stock market won't be losing any more of our hard-earned monies, for one day; that's the bright side. President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War, so I wonder why it isn't celebrated on that day? I guess they'll make anything a federal holiday, these days, just to get a 3-day weekend and time-off, on the US Taxpayers' dime.

I left around 1p for Red Lion, about 15 miles south, to p/u and drop-off shirts and jeans, and came home without stopping at Rite Aid, since both Rxs won't be ready until after 10a, tomorrow. No, I somehow missed the Strawberry Moon, last week. After lunch, a 3hr snooze was in order. I started getting reply-phone calls -- so I couldn't mute the phone -- had dinner, and was up for the rest of the day and until 11p, alternating paperwork and TV. Lights out.

Up at 8:30a on Tuesday, First Day of Summer, it was cloudy 64°, with morning rain forecast. I made coffee, did the finger stick routine, and had breakfast. I needed to get a couple errands done, so I left at 9:30 to get those done, and get ready for my after "pruning expedition" with one of the CHCA Board Members, at 1p. The rain passed the York area to the east and west, so we got a few drops, but nothing measurable. I had a late, light lunch, and walked over to Pam's unit to start the "pruning tour" of the smaller trees, which have been in for 2-3yrs, and are now 8-10ft tall. I lost count at 23-25 trees. We finally finished in 2½hrs. The other, much larger trees will be done by an arborist with the proper equipment and personnel. I can't and won't do the climbing/pruning, any more.

Very tired, I laid down and had a 3½hr snooze on the LR couch. Back-up by 6p, I made a Roast Beef, Mayo, Horseradish, Slaw, Lettuce, Tomato & Swiss Cheese on Rye Sandwich w/ sweet peas, talked with 4 neighbors, watched Discovery's "The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch" until 11p, and Fox' "Gutfeld!" until midnight. Good night, Irene.

Awake at 8:45a, to a cloudy, humid 72° Wednesday morning, I got the morning routines done, had coffee, breakfast and some smokes on the back patio, before it got hot. I put-off food shopping until late tomorrow morning, since I was to meet Sherry at the massive York Galleria Mall, at 1p. I fed the birds and squirrels with some old (not moldy) potato bread, and listened to the Chris Plante Show, still hosted by a boring sub. The days's forecast included severe t-storms for the afternoon and evening, but after checking the detailed weather maps, I don't see any within 1,000 miles, or beginning to form. Yet. By 12:30p, temps were already up to 88°. I left at 1:50 for the Galleria.


***SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING***
From
2:00pm EDT, Jun 22 2022
until
11:00pm EDT, Jun 22 2022

IN PENNSYLVANIA, THIS WATCH INCLUDES 33 COUNTIES IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA:

ADAMS, BEDFORD, BLAIR, CAMBRIA, CAMERON, CENTRE, CLEARFIELD, CLINTON, COLUMBIA, CUMBERLAND, DAUPHIN, ELK, FRANKLIN, FULTON, HUNTINGDON, JUNIATA, LANCASTER, LEBANON, LYCOMING, MCKEAN, MIFFLIN, MONTOUR, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERRY, POTTER, SCHUYLKILL, SNYDER, SOMERSET, SULLIVAN, TIOGA, UNION, WARREN, AND YORK.

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF ALTOONA, BEDFORD, CARLISLE, CHAMBERSBURG, CLEARFIELD, COUDERSPORT, DANVILLE, DUBOIS, EMPORIUM, GETTYSBURG, HARRISBURG, HERSHEY, HUNTINGDON, JOHNSTOWN, LEWISBURG, LEWISTOWN, LOCK HAVEN, MANSFIELD, MCCONNELLSBURG, MIFFLINTOWN, MOUNT UNION, NEWPORT, RENOVO, RIDGWAY, SELINSGROVE, SHAMOKIN, SOMERSET, ST. MARYS, STATE COLLEGE, SUNBURY, WAYNESBORO, WELLSBORO, WILLIAMSPORT, AND YORK.


We walked over a mile, had a couple of rest stops, and came back to my place around 2:30p. Today was Sherry's 73rd Birthday, so I had made a special card in MS-Publisher 2007 (yeah, it works fine), sat and talked about a myriad of things, as we always do. Here's a YT Video of Sherry's Dasughter's (Hollie) "Virtue Local Art Market" in nearby Hallam. Nice video done by an independent film-maker. Enjoy the short video; I'll wait.

Sherry left around 5;30, and I had some condo chores to get done, since my cleaning lady, JoAnne, was coming at 8:30a, tomorrow. As the skies began to darken, around 6:30p, I re-checked the weather maps, with everything moving from north-to-south, and massive t-storms were forming and appearing on the radar screens. The t-storms and rain arrived just after 8p, and continued for much of the evening. After a light dinner, I watched the new season premier episodes of Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" tun "Gutfeld!" at 11. I unplugged at 12:30a.

The alarm went-off at 6am on Thursday, with steady, heavy rain continuing, very humid and 63°. Groggy, I made Kona Coffee, had two mugs in the garage with some smokes, fired-up the computer to check the weather and news. We got the badly-needed moisture for the flora, for sure. I like rainy, cool days; I can do without the oppressive humidity, though.

JoAnne arrived at 8:30a and got to work, and on a couple tasks I'd asked her to help with. Meanwhile, I just stayed out of her way, and listened to the Chris Plante Show, hosted by the same sub. I needed to get to Weis Market after JoAnne left, so I put together a short shopping list. She finished the cleaning at 11:30, and left, but I decided to wait until 12noon to go to Weis Market, to avoid the "lunch rush". The rain had stopped, for now, so I left for the market early.

Weis Market was swamped with the elderly, zig-zagging every-which-way with carts and scooters, causing traffic jams and aisle blockages, but at least the self-checkout lanes, which I always use, were open. Most unusual to see so many large carts overflowing; I guess people are finally stocking-up. Better late than never. Back home by 1:30p, I unloaded, put stuff away and just relaxed for a little while. I fell asleep on the LR couch for 3hrs; nice nap. I have a 7p meeting tonite with the tree service people, and my Sister will attend, to go over tree removal/stump grinding at the Mt Rose Cemetery. After waking-up, I had a late lunch/early dinner and prepped for the meeting.

New documents released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), show that the US Military Academy at West Point is instructing its cadets on “Critical Race Theory,” and “queer theory” and teaching that “Whiteness” entails structural advantages and race privilege. I'm filled with anger, hate and rage about that BS! They're supposed to be taught to "break things and kill people", NOT be a bunch of moron-idiot SJW (Social Justice Warrior) faggot punks. China is laughing at us, bigtime.

This Bidet&Co asshole's socialist, communist, leftist, fascist handlers get nuttier and more dangerous each and every day. Instead of using unused Covid billions to help America with the economy, shit-for-brains Joey is spending it on utterly worthless "green projects", like "environmental justice" and "climate change programs" promoting activities like tree planting, "pruning workshops," and achieving "greater acceptance of trees" in cities". I like trees, but this is total mental illness commie bullshit.

My 7p app't called to reschedule, since he was mired in rain and mud on-the-job, in Lancaster County, cleaning-up damaged and downed trees after the tornado two weeks ago, so I went back to the couch for a 1hr snooze. I caught most of "Tucker" and "Homestead Rescue" until "Gutfeld!" at 11p. Lights out at midnight.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and it's a clear week, so far. Summer's coming back over the weekend, and the heat and humidity are ramping-up.

When The Trucks Stop Running.

Diesel prices are setting records, nationwide, as a gallon of the fuel now averages $5.72 as of Wednesday.

Drivers fueling up at a truck stop in east Houston said the pain at the pump is crippling as rising prices force some to park their rigs.

Houstonian Raymond Mayberry said he’s been a truck driver since 2003. He’s a self-employed trucker.

Even with the help of fuel-saving apps and a rewards program at the truck stop, Mayberry said he’s counting “every penny” because the almost-daily rise in diesel price affects his bottom line.

“It comes out of our profit. If you make $3,000, you’ve got to know $700 of that is coming out of your profit.”

The financial pain is enough to make Mayberry wince.

“Oh yeah. When I first started, diesel was $.99," he said.

Analysts expect fuel prices will continue to rise through the summer. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico could drive prices even higher, which is why other truckers are counting their blessings.

Do you know what DEF fluid is? It’s Diesel Exhaust Fluid. Every Diesel truck that has been made since 2010 is required to use it. It’s a product made of 67% Urea fertilizer and 33% distilled water. Every diesel truck you see driving down the road today has to have this product to drive. The engines won’t start without it. There are regulators inside the engine that mix DEF with the Diesel to reduce Diesel emissions. That’s the purpose of DEF.

Right now, Russia is the largest exporter of Urea by a wide margin. Qatar is second. Egypt and China are Tied for 3rd. Both Russia and China have decided to no longer export Urea. On top of that, India is the largest manufacturer of Urea in the world even though they consume most of what they make. What little they would export -- they no longer do. They are now stopping the exportation of any and all Urea minus a deal they just cut with Sri Lanka.

What does this mean for you and me? Well, first, the United States imports most of it’s Urea fertilizer. We are the third largest importer in the entire world. We depend on other countries to eat, drive and ship our products.

Secondly... Flying J is the largest Service provider for Truckers around the Unites States. I’m sure you’ve seen their massive gas stations when traveling around the country. Flying J gets 70% of their DEF fluid from shipments via Union Pacific railroad. UP has single user access to the Fertilizer plants that Urea/DEF fluid comes from. No other rail provider has access to these distribution points. This means Flying J can’t just go around Union Pacific. Union Pacific is in charge, for a reason I’m gonna mention in a few paragraphs.

Flying J provides 30% of all DEF consumed in the United States. UP has told Flying J to reduce their shipments by a whopping 50%. And if they do not comply then they will be completely embargoed. That would in effect bankrupt FJ. This means that 15% of all DEF consumed by truckers in the US is no longer available at the largest travel service center for the entire trucking industry.

Rome rotted from the inside out. It was easily invaded because it was occupied with internal problems. It appears we have discovered the Trigger. DEF fluid. If this holds up, DEF shortages will be the catalyst that causes food shortages in the coming months. Not only is there a shortage of fertilizer to grow crops in drought-stricken states (See Kansas’ drop in wheat production for 2022) -- but -- now it looks like, unless the Federal Government intervenes via the Defense Production Act, which I am no longer confident they will. There is gonna be an absolute massive shortage of trucking in the coming months.

There simply isn’t going to be DEF fluid sufficient to keep the engines running and moving. Home Depot is now limiting the amount of DEF you can buy in their stores.

I would think long and hard about the decisions you are making right now. Where you live. What you spend money on. How you prepare. This is so real that the CEO of Flying J, Shameek Konar was summoned to a Surface Transportation Board hearing to give them all this info.

Blackrock is the majority shareholder of Union Pacific railroad. How is that important? Americas biggest fertilizer producer is CF Industries. Their largest shareholder is Blackrock. Blackrock controls the fertilizer industry in the US. Union Pacific has exclusive rights to distribution points of fertilizer. Urea is fertilizer. Flying J needs Urea/DEF.

© June 8, 2022 by Melissa Correa, KHOU-11 TV.

Face it, Joe: You Were Never
Supposed to Be President.

A famous drama coach said, “When the actor you hired begins to believe he’s the character he plays, fire him.” That’s the trouble with Joe Biden. He believes he really is the president of the United States.

Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972, at the ripe old age of 29, four years after he graduated from law school -- lots of real-life experience there. Once he had the Democratic nomination in True-Blue Delaware, he was set for life. In Joe’s case, life was 36 utterly undistinguished years. No one can remember a major bill he sponsored that became law.

The first time he ran for his party’s presidential nomination in 1988, he was forced to quit after it was learned that he’d plagiarized a speech by British Labor Leader Neil Kinnock. Someone smarter would have changed a word here and there, to make it seem original. Someone smarter ain’t Joe Biden, who used it word for word.

Just when it seemed like the rest of his career was destined to be a footnote in history, Barack Obama plucked him out of obscurity to be his running-mate in 2008.

Obama was then untested, having served less than four years in the Senate. He needed to reassure insiders, and who better than good, old reliable Joseph – a Democrat lackey through and through.

His eight years as vice president were marked by a string of successful banquets and funerals. Obama’s assessment of his vice president can be summed up in a remark often attributed to him, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fu-k things up.”

In 2020, the future president ran a lackluster campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Then Bernie Sanders began moving up in the field.

Terrified that they’d have to run with an avowed socialist at the head of the ticket, the party elite settled on Biden the Bland to stop Bernie the Bolshie. The other candidates were bribed or pressured into dropping out and throwing their support to the Anointed One, including Kamala, who practically accused him of being a racist in one debate.

Once he had the nomination, instead of the proverbial back-porch campaign, with COVID as the excuse, Biden hid in his basement to minimize voters’ exposure to his wit and wisdom.

The party sold him as the adult in the room -- a seasoned statesman who would spare us those embarrassing Tweets. “Senior” turned out to be a euphemism for senile. Instead of a statesman, we got a hack who outsourced his ideas to the DNC.

Still, he did manage to give us a hint of what his presidency would be like, when he punched down at a Detroit factory worker who prophetically proclaimed that the candidate wanted to “take away guns.” To this, the future president replied that his questioner was “full of sh-t,” and told him, “Don’t be such a horse’s ass.” With Churchill, Biden will never be confused. Our 46th president mobilized the English language and sent it marching off a cliff.

The lapdog media ran interference for the Democratic nominee, like burying the Hunter laptop scandal and pushing the Steele Dossier, cooked up by Crooked Hillary.

Now we have a president who trips as he tries to walk up the steps of Air Force One, can’t quote created-equal part of the Declaration of Independence (you know, “the thing”) gets lost on the White House lawn, stares vacantly into space, and had to be led away from a crowd by the Easter Bunny, when it looked like he’s going to gaffe again.

There should be a Secretary of Walking Back.

In March, Biden declared that Putin “cannot remain in power.” While the Russian ruler is indeed a wicked man, and we should help Ukraine to defend itself, there’s nothing like poking a bear with a nuclear arsenal.

In March, Pretend President said we would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan from Chinese aggression. (So much for strategic ambiguity.) Beijing can’t be allowed to take Taiwan, but why telegraph your punches?

Of late, the leader of the Free World has fussed and fumed about the tendency of his aides to contradict his offhand comments by explaining what he really meant to say and how it dovetails administration policy.

It makes him look weak, indecisive and not in control, the president grumbles. But the president is weak, indecisive and totally not in control. Since Woodrow Wilson had a stroke in 1919, and his wife became the de facto chief of state, never has a president been less in charge of his administration.

So, who’s driving White House policy – Bernie Sanders and the Squad, Pelosi and Schumer, the Easter Bunny or (my personal choice) Barack Obama?

Never in our history has a president managed to screw things up this badly (the withdrawal from Afghanistan, shutting down domestic energy production, inflation, border security and law enforcement) in so short a period of time. It’s painful to recall that his administration still has over two and a half years to go.

Confronted by multiple crises a home and abroad, never have we needed a steady hand more. Instead, we have an empty suit with an empty head sitting in the Oval Office, or on the “Jeopardy” set, babbling whenever his eyes wander from the teleprompter.

God save the Republic.

© June 8, 2022 by Don Feder, "FrontPage Mag".

One Photo Of An IRS Cafeteria Overstuffed With Paper Shows Why You Haven't Gotten Your Refund Check Yet — And Just How Underfunded The Agency Is.

The IRS is underfunded and understaffed, and had to deal with new pandemic responsibilities.

The result has been a massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, many of them on paper.

A photo from the agency's Austin facility shows just how much paper the IRS is dealing with.

The IRS is still full of paper.

The agency has been contending with a historic backlog of unprocessed tax returns amidst new pandemic responsibilities, understaffing, and underfunding. The result: A massive build-up of unprocessed tax returns, many of which belong to Americans who have been waiting on refund checks.

Natasha Sarin, a tax policy and implementation counselor at the Treasury Department, shared a photo on Twitter of the cafeteria at the IRS's Austin site. In it, the room is "overrun" with paper returns awaiting employees.....

Increased funding for the IRS could make filing a lot more efficient, according to the Treasury Department. In a blog post, Sarin looked at what an "adequately funded tax administrator" might mean for filers, noting that in other countries it's free and easy to file your taxes. In Sweden, for instance, many taxpayers just have to reply "yes" to a text to confirm their filing.

[© 6/2022 by anonymous email.]

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