No Smoking Within

By
eric
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A reader pointed out an interesting parallel between the wearing (or not) of the Holy Rag and smoking (or not).

Both are moralizing crusades – in the name of public health.

Smokers were systematically excluded from public (and private) areas, beginning with a general campaign of pariah-ization. Second-hand smoke is killing people! It is a health hazard to expose people to your filthy habit.

Smokers were portrayed as almost subhuman and certainly low-class. They quickly became second-class citizens.

After a few years of this, it was easy enough to outright forbid smoking pretty much everywhere – even outdoors. It came to pass that the only place you could still smoke was in your own home – and even then, only if you owned (rather than rented) it and so long as no kids were inside the home, else the CPS could and just might Hut! Hut! Hut! you.

It is now the case that many employers – especially corporate employers – demand blood/urine as a condition of employment and if those samples, when tested, show evidence of nicotine it can be grounds for dismissal, even if the smoking happens outside the workplace.

The anti-smoking crusade – a religious term – was arguably one of the first instances of mass hysteria and junk science used to greatly expand the power of the government-corporate nexus, which acquired the power to forbid smoking in private establishments and to punish those who violated the new commandments.

Of course, smoking is actually bad for you (and hence, increases your costs to the employer if you develop lung cancer or COPD) and the smoke itself is real insofar as others within the vicinity are concerned.

Still, sSecond-hand smoke’s dangers have been grossly exaggerated – as the danger of practically everything slightly risky has been grossly exaggerated, as it serves to justify exaggerated methods to ameliorate the supposed danger (e.g., the absurd over-salting of the roads at the first hint that snow might fall).

While there is no denying the existence of the smoke – and the smell, an objectively noisome thing to some and perhaps an obnoxious thing to emit in the presence of others, not unlike the deliberate release of flatulence – it has never been proved to have caused the asserted degree of harm. But it has been used to impose great harm, like the assertions about showing your face to members of the Sickness Cult.

Face-showers are the new “smokers.”

They are being pariah-ized in the same manner as smokers but on completely specious grounds. They emit nothing that harms anyone but are deemed a potential health hazard, which is an interesting construction in that it amounts to something worse than denial of service on the basis of possession of a pack of cigarettes in your pocket, without actually smoking any of them.

The pack of cigarettes – though harmless when unlit – nonetheless being real and so at least a potential smell.

The face-shower is deemed a threat not on account of anything actually present – i.e., “the virus” – but on the supposition that it might be present. This is no different than pariah-izing someone not because they are actually smoking or even because they are carrying a pack of cigarettes but because they might have cigarettes in their pocket.

You look like you are thinking about smoking… get out of here!

Or don’t come in at all.

Face-showers are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a smoker, only worse because they aren’t even “smoking.”

Cafes and restaurants won’t serve face-showers or serve them second-class, in segregated areas far apart from the faceless or reduce them to “curbside” pickup, the food hurriedly passed through the window via gloved hands and sometimes even via a chute, so that as to avoid “contamination” with the person who shows his face.

The showing of one’s face has become grounds for dismissal from work, the same as if the offender had been caught smoking crack in the restroom.

It may well and probably will become grounds for denial of transportation even to the extent of private transportation, as by making it a requirement not only that you not show your face at the DMV to get your faceless face photographed but also that you produce a certificate of vaccination as a condition of being given permission to drive your own vehicle.

You will have to choose between not getting the permission – the “license” to drive – and assuming the risk of being caught driving without permission. Or run the risk of being vaccinated, as well as the certain degradation of not showing your face.

The same is likely to be applied to all employment as well as transactions, leaving the victim in the same position as the smoker – either give it up or give up being able to earn a living, have something to eat and so on.

With the difference being that the face shower’s pariah-ization is based on nothing more than we don’t like your looks.

Face showers aren’t the smokers of our time. They are the niggers of our time. People set apart not for anything they’ve specifically done but because of general assertions about what “their kind” might do.

Rape your wife, get you sick.

It’s equally sick.

But it’s also very easy because of the sick inclination many people have to blame other people for things they haven’t done to assuage their frustrations and anger about the things that might be done to them.

This is the sickness of every time, not just ours.

. . .

Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!

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Related posts:
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  2. Cops Detain Man for Suspicion of Smoking Tobacco, Ticket Him for Loitering After They Won’t Let Him Leave
  3. You Didn’t Think it Would End With Seat Belts. . . Right?
  4. smoking in cars
  5. Today’s Hut! Hut! Hut!

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107 COMMENTS

    • That is very sad news. I had the pleasure of meeting Walter Williams at a libertarian function quite a few years ago. He was an amazing guy with an incredible intellect and a passion for personal liberty and freedom. He will be sorely missed. R.I.P.

    • I hope someone picks up that phone because I called it months ago. I knew we had one shot at heading off vaccine authoritarianism, which was to get rid of masks as soon as possible so that people would have time to forget about The Virus before they got the vaccine ready. But no. “Bruh, just wear a mask, it doesn’t infringe on your rights, it’s not that hard!”

      Well, I’m looking more and more right by the day. Please fasten your seat belts and return to the upright position – this is gonna be a little bit bumpy.

  3. I started smoking when I was a teenager, knowing it was probably bad for me, mainly because the government was blanketing the radio and TV with ads telling me not to do it.

    Then I quit, because I got tired of it. It wasn’t really all that hard, for me. YMMV.

    • I’ll bet much more harm is done by convincing people that they will get sick/get cancer/etc. than is actually caused by many of the things which they say are bad for us. Live in constant fear of getting some disease or believe that doing something will cause a certain disease, and there’s a good chance it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and even more when one adds i the stress caused by such worrying.

      • I have enough real problems to worry about, no need to add fake problems to the pile. Must be nice, I guess…but why do they have to dump their invented problems on us?!

  4. Earlier this year some doctors in France were saying smokers didn’t get Wuflu. Haven’t seen that lately, though. The best is when you see someone smoking with a face diaper around their neck or dangling off of an ear. Ya see, they take public health recommendations seriously. LOL. The way things are going, I’d say smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em…

  5. Completely off topic, but do you know who I really miss? George Carlin. I just sat and watched several of his comedy routines and laughed while sitting there and pretty much agreeing with everything he said….elections, immune systems. you have no rights, etc. He was so astute about life, especially government. He died before Obama won his first term, but I wonder what he would have thought about him, Trump, Clinton, Biden, and god forbid mask wearing. Personally, I don’t think he would have worn one.

    • Imagine what they would be doing to him now? He would probably never be on tv again, as he would be fighting this nonsense with all of his being. And yep he wouldn’t have worn a mask in a million billion years.

      His stances probably stunted his overall career, but he was among the best. We really need more like him.

    • Morning, RG!

      I am a big fan of Carlin’s. He was liberal, but an honest one; what the Jews call a Mensch. His cynicism was born of realism. He didn’t buy the flag-humping state religion of this country (now supplanted by the Sickness Cult). The guy was one of us.

      • Hi Eric,

        I always thought of his leanings as libertarian. He seemed to call out both sides pretty steadily. That why he never voted – he was well aware that both sides were freaking morons. 🙂

        • Hi RG and Eric,

          Carlin loathed politics, politicians and corporate America. He correctly saw these creatures as belonging to a club that “we’re not in”. Was he a liberal, a libertarian or something else? I don’t know what he was but he certainly wasn’t a liberal in the modern sense and he never identified as a libertarian. He was a radical individualist, a cynic, a skeptic and one who instinctively feared and hated “authority”. He understood, like “we” do, that those who claim “authority” are frauds, masquerading as “public servants”, while ruthlessly pursuing their own interest. He was, in my mind, an instinctive anarchist, interested in exposing the cons, the carnage and the hypocrisy of the “ruling club”, but uninterested in theory.

          Would a liberal mercilessly skewer the climate cult and call them out as rich, virtue signaling hypocrites?

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c

          Would a liberal condemn the holy sacrament of voting, tell voters that they have no right to complain and compare voting unfavorably to masturbation?

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxsQ7jJJcEA

          Carlin was undefinable, probably undefined in his own mind, certainly a radical, an individualist, a champion of freedom, a man who loathed the elite but also mistrusted the “people”; an intellectual who hated intellectuals and understood how easily they were co-opted, how powerful was their vanity, matched only by their impenetrable lack of self awareness, and outraged at the horrors they unleashed upon the world. Who was Geprge Carlin? He was Mencken, with a microphone and a ponytail. God bless that heretical son of a bitch!

          Cheers,
          Jeremy

    • Hi RG,
      I had the good fortune to attend one of his shows many years ago; during his routine he specifically mentioned how he and his friends went swimming in the East River when they were kids, and hardly ever got sick. I had all the usual diseases back in the day – measles, mumps, chickenpox – plus we all played in the dirt, so I have a decent immune system. Our old family doctor once told me that the so-called childhood diseases are a workout for your immune system. He was right about that, I’ve seen many studies showing how this obsession with sanitizing everything in sight is the reason so many of today’s kids have allergies and autoimmune diseases.
      Can’t wait to see how this present insanity of wanting to live in a germ free bubble affects these idiots general physical health down the road, their mental health being already gone.

      • Hi Mike,

        I would have liked to seen Carlin live. I remember the comedy routine though. They swam in sewage. 🙂

        I am in my early 40s, but my sisters and I all had the chicken pox (at the same time, too). It was a rough week for my mother. I remember at one point wearing oven mitts so I wouldn’t scratch. I never had the measles and mumps, but have read that many of these diseases immunity can be transferred from generation to generation.

        I grew up in the country and us kids were constantly outside – riding three wheelers, go karts, horses, trampling through our backyard creek with no shoes on. I am happy I grew up when I did. It was fun. I agree with you regarding the kids today and the amount of autoimmune diseases circulating. Hubby and I raised our kids the same way we were reared. They climbed on top of the dog, played in the potted plants, and ate Cheerios off the kitchen floor. Neither of my kiddos are allergic to anything (that we know of) and knock on wood they have been pretty healthy into their teenage years with just the occasional cold or strep throat.

        It will be years from now before they realize that the masks increased the spread of this virus, but at least we figured out how to cure the flu. 😉

        • Reminds me of my Psych 101 class at the local junior college in 1971. The instructor, who was excellent and I believe had at least a master’s, brought her child to class for show-and-tell one time. At one point the kid was literally eating Cheerios off the floor, and a horrified student alerted her to it. No big deal, she said, kids are going to get germs. Then she went back to her lecture.

      • That is SO true, Mike!
        If these stoopit masks do actually do anything- between them, and the anti-social distancing, I fear that in the near future we will see people REALLY starting to drop dead from viruses, because so many people’s immune systems will have been rendered useless by being isolated from the normal mix of germs.

        When I was a kid, I spent glorious days swimming in a small lake on Long Island. At the time, that lake had some storm sewer pipes exiting directly into it (I remember checking out one of the pipes- it was about three feet in diameter). Never had a problem.

        Funny though- I did have psoriasis when I was a kid- which the fambly doctor attributed to swimming in the lake- but I knew that was BS- and my mother half suspected as much too. And of course, once I was old enough to refuse vaccines…the psoriasis disappeared!

        Today, that lake is closed to swimming about 75% of the time, even though the storm sewer pipes are long pipe- because “the bacteria coiunt is too high”. The fools who pay $16K a year in property taxes to live near that lake don’t seem to care…I guess they believe they’re being “kept safe”.

        Oh, and you’ll appreciate this: Went shopping last week. Before handing the rather burly-looking black man cashier my cash, I said “Oooo! Better ‘sanitize ‘ my hands first”, and then proceeded to rub my hands on my pants in an exaggerated fashion. I look at the cashier, expecting a hearty smile..and then realize he is wearing a mask…so I can’t even tell if he is smiling…. 🙁

  6. My dad smoked his entire life, and lived to be 88; us three kids breathed nothing but “second hand smoke” in the house and we’re all still healthy today. My first project in metal shop was an ash tray, and there were lots of ash trays made back then, if you screwed up what you were making it got turned into an ash tray 😆. Wonder what they have kids make nowadays for their first project……dumb question since they don’t teach useable skills anymore. Might not be a bad idea to hang onto any ash trays you have, be collectibles some day.

    • Hey Mike!

      Ditto… one of my aunts, who smoked half a pack a day for 70 years. Just had a slight touch of COPD when she died at 95 (from natural causes)- and that was probably more from living for most of her life within a stone’s throw of the Grand Central Parkway/Triboro Bridge* than from the cigs.

      [Oh, excuse me….I mean “Jackie Robinson Pkwy/RFK Bridge” now…tomorrow it’ll probably be the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge and Chuck Shumer Pkwy”…]

      I think I know what those kids make as projects now-a-says: Pink triangles to hold over faggot’s heads. They don’t really work…it just seems like they do, since no one is left to poke fun at/beat-up the fags!

      • Hi Nunz,

        Think of the WWII generation; they almost all smoked – but they had more guts and grit than today’s neurotic pansies. I’d smoke if I could stand the habit!

        • Mornin’ Eric!
          The connection between smoking and not masking goes deeper than it might first appear. Smoking was more than a mere personal habit- it was often also a social custom and social binder, in the sense that one might be standing in a line or waiting in a waiting room, and someone’d pull out a pack of cigs to have a smoke, and a stranger might ask if he could bum a cig- and they’d strike-up a conversation….

          By contrast, today, most just stare at their tracking devices, often while being isolated by headphones, and now not even showing two-thirds of their face. The idea of striking up a convo with a stranger- much less sharing something with him, is cause for alarm and panic now!

          What we have lost! When a tradesman could take a 5-minute break and have a smoke, and then get back to work reinvigorated and “fresh”, having had a few moments of pleasure and time to think and observe and relax!

          All that has been replaced by a neurotic fear of sickness and premature death- now, even if you’ve never touched a cigarette in your life! It’s no longer just ‘Do Not Smoke’; Now it’s ‘Do Not Live!’, ‘Do Not Work!’, ‘Do Not Fellowship or even look at the person next to you!’.

          I’ll buy a pack of cigs maybe once every three or four months, just to enjoy over the course of a few days- I love the thoughts it brings back of when we had a functional society! Of course, a lot of people went overboard, smoking multiple packs a day for decades, which of course is no good for one’s health….but in moderation, I’m inclined to believe that tobacco is actually beneficial- and I don’t believe the BS about it being ‘addictive’- It’s only ‘addictive’ like any other pleasurable endeavor- and no more so than eating french fries or ice cream. (That, or else something is seriously wrong with me!).

    • Hi Mike. I do have an ashtray that could be a collectible. It’s stainless steel, made about 70 years ago. The logo of the manufacturer of the steel is stamped on the bottom: Sharon Steel. Though relatively small for the industry, Sharon Steel was known for the exceptional quality of their stainless. After 7 decades of use by my father and me, the ashtray is in near perfect condition.

    • Hi Mike,

      I also grew up around smokers – as many Gen X kids did. We are much healthier than today’s kids, a cohort afflicted by astounding rates of autism, allergies and so on.

    • Hi Mike,

      “us three kids breathed nothing but “second hand smoke” in the house and we’re all still healthy today.”

      Interestingly, the only statistically significant result from the WHO study was a slight decrease in the risk of lung cancer among the children of smokers.

      http://www.davehitt.com/facts/who.html

      Cheers,
      Jeremy

      • So true, guys!

        The 5 kids of my late sister grew up in constant smoke, from my sister smoking 4 packs a day of unfiltered 100’s! Despite their other problems from living unhealthy lifestyles, not a one of them has ever had asthma, allergies or any respiratory problems- and they are all middle-aged now.(Of course, my sister died from COPD/emphysema…4 packs a day!)

        Meanwhile, my other sister’s kids grew up in an antiseptic environment, and one has had asthma from a very young age, and one has emphysema, despite only having smoked lightly for a while when he was young.

        So much for their ‘second-hand smoke’ nonsense!

        Sad thing is though, those under 40 today have no first-hand experience which would illustrate the folly of the 2nd-hand smoke ruse, so they virtually all believe the BS- even thionking it is “child abuse” to smoke in a home or car in the presence of a sprog.

        I think we have arrived at the point where the propaganda- about everything- has won-out. Humanity has become a lost cause. 🙁

    • Oh, and Mike In Boston,

      For the girls: Their school project will be to organize the boys into a stage production of It’s A Castrati Christmas, Charlie Brown!”.

  7. In the bar last night to buy beer, nobody wears masks in the bar, difficult to drink your favorite alcoholic beverage.

    My older than the hills mother sent me to the store to buy cigarettes for her when I was twelve years old.

    That was some 57 years ago now, she has been smoking tobacco for probably more than 70 years, she’ll be 95 early next year. The store never balked at selling a pack of cigarettes, they made money.

    My uncle farmed for 60 years, never smoked tobacco his entire life, died of of lung cancer. There are known lung cancer viruses, oncogenes, and they can’t be stopped from existing, can be controlled somewhat, but will never be eliminated.

    “When you let people do whatever they want, you get Woodstock. When you let governments do whatever they want, you get Auschwitz.” — Doug Newman

    http://www.thefot.us/oldhome.html

    Metallicman has some good stuff about what’s going on.

    https://metallicman.com/laoban4site/what-the-progressive-liberals-have-in-store-for-conservatives/

  8. The comparison between face masking and smoking is instructive — because it betrays the fact that the act of not wearing a mask or the act of lighting up is not in and of itself the issue. Rather, compliance with norms imposed by the elites is the issue.

    Back in the 1950s and 1960s, when the elites smoked, smoking was commonplace and ubiquitous. The proles were allowed to do it because the elites themselves did it and sanctioned it. I’m old enough to remember when smoking in one’s office was accepted as the norm — kids over 16 were even allowed to smoke in my high school as late as 1980 or so!

    As elite norms changed, recreational drug use became accepted among college graduates — as long as the drug was NOT tobacco! Today we are seeing the legalization of marijuana and the decriminalization of hard drugs, while simultaneously cracking down on tobacco use. Medically — health-wise — this makes no sense. Tobacco smoke is bad — but marijuana smoke is not? It only makes sense relative to what the people in power consider to be acceptable or unacceptable.

    Another example is anal sex. Not long ago, it was considered perverse, deviant, and filthy. Starting in the 1980s it became the primary method of transmission for HIV (not to mention other diseases like hepatitis and gonorrhea). 700,000 Americans have died of AIDS. Yet you do not see the ridiculous COVID restrictions imposed on all of us imposed on gays, do you? Can you imagine if the government shut down every gay business, gay social event, restricted gay travel and forced gays to identify themselves publicly to avoid transmitting the virus? Of course not — because the social elites of today not only tolerate, but approve of and encourage homosexuality.

    None of this does, or ever will, make any sense other than as a raw power trip in which the socio-political elites simply impose their whims on the rest of us.

  9. I’m a former smoker.

    I have a job that has me driving a lot and I basically have to get oil changes once a month. Two months ago, went to the usual place, asked for the usual service, expected the usual diaper-less waiting room experience, and the guy behind the counter offers me up a free disposable diaper. Pretty insistent. I said “no thanks” and waited outdoors during the entire time my vehicle was being serviced. I did not notice the parallel that had I still been a smoker, I’d have already been outside as an outcast.

    Now this last time around, I was prepared to stick it out outside (Yes, I could find another place, but for fleet service and in/out when time is rarely available, I had to go with them until I can find better, not easy.). It’s colder now, so I was getting ready to be warm with outer wear, had my beverage, my phone but forgot my backup battery from home, a camping chair since they have no seating outside and proceeded inside. Of course, “masks required” on the door, but I walked through without a diaper. Regular guy behind the counter, no diaper. People in the waiting room, no diapers. No free diaper offered other than sitting on the counter in a box. I did not have to wait outside.

    Upon inspection, the work vehicle needed more than an oil change and had to stay in for repairs. I spent nearly the whole day at the shop so I watched other customers come and go. Early on, we had a guy come in diapered and keep himself to a corner on the floor next to an electrical outlet with their phone plugged in. At first, it appeared he was avoiding us crazy super spreaders sitting in the waiting room, but eventually, he came and sat down in a chair, and removed his diaper for the remainder of his stay. Then a husband/wife came in with a tire issue. She was diapered, but he wasn’t. It didn’t take her more than a couple minutes to remove her diaper. (I have heard women fear being embarrassed or shamed more than men and are more likely to diaper to avoid confrontation. I think she only removed hers when she felt safe to do so.)

    As my time in the waiting room progressed, so did the diapered. More and more they were coming in diapered and remaining diapered as my backup un-diapered patrons had already been fixed-up and had departed. At first, it seemed the majority of un-diapered gave inspiration for those who virtue signal to stop and for those who go along to get along, to well, “get along”. But as time went on, conditions changed.

    Further, the phone battery started running critically low. I already knew they had usb phone chargers they hand out to customers if needed and asked to borrow one. That’s when the guy behind the counter (I’m guessing at this point sensing the balance of sickness cult to rational had changed) offered up a chair with an electrical outlet next to it they had set up behind a couple of tire displays. Basically, they carved out a spot, on the complete other side of the waiting room/front counter area, behind a couple of displays, a spot where someone can hide from the cult. A VIP area or segregated area (“smoker section” when there were still days of choice). I spent the last of my time in that spot and was quite happy with my own private Idaho. I almost felt like I could watch the cult from behind a duck blind and observe them in the wild.

    Looking back, I think the guy behind the counter two months ago was trying to save me from a patron in the waiting room whom would have surely raised a stink. His persistence to wear a mask and offering it to me was probably the equivalent of the stereotypical lady in the movie answering the front door under duress trying to signal with her eyes something is wrong to the AGW.

    It still stinks to yield to hypochondriacs, smoker or not.

  10. Here it is, straight from the horse’s ass at Johns Hopkins University:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20201126223119/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19

    Some golden nuggets:
    Interestingly, as depicted in the table below, the total decrease in deaths by other causes almost exactly equals the increase in deaths by COVID-19. This suggests, according to Briand, that the COVID-19 death toll is misleading. Briand believes that deaths due to heart diseases, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia may instead be recategorized as being due to COVID-19. ”

    The CDC classified all deaths that are related to COVID-19 simply as COVID-19 deaths. Even patients dying from other underlying diseases but are infected with COVID-19 count as COVID-19 deaths. This is likely the main explanation as to why COVID-19 deaths drastically increased while deaths by all other diseases experienced a significant decrease.

    “If [the COVID-19 death toll] was not misleading at all, what we should have observed is an increased number of heart attacks and increased COVID-19 numbers. But a decreased number of heart attacks and all the other death causes doesn’t give us a choice but to point to some misclassification,” Briand replied.

    And then they let the 3rd-world collectivist get the final word:
    During an interview with The News-Letter after the event, Poorna Dharmasena, a master’s candidate in Applied Economics, expressed his opinion about Briand’s concluding remarks.

    “At the end of the day, it’s still a deadly virus. And over-exaggeration or not, to a certain degree, is irrelevant,” Dharmasena said.

    And, of course, the article was swiftly memory-holed.

    We’ve got the TRUTH on our side. Fight! Fight! Fight!

    • This matches with the fact that all cause mortality is the same this year as the last several- there is NO pandemic- they’re simply shuffling numbers. There probably is some kind of moderately nasty virus going around- this is natural and normal. All these “COVID” deaths are natural causes.

      On a personal note, one of my brothers in law died last week after a positive COVID test. They are calling it a death from COVID. It absolutely is irrelevant that he had his stomach and most of his intestines removed 13 years ago due to cancer (farmer, ag chemical causes, like the other BIL who died a few years back), that he’s been drunk for the interim 13 years almost continuously, or that the cancer had returned recently. It’s definitely caused by COVID…

  11. One of trumps many mistakes was hiring – and not firing – that evil toad fauci. This non-doctor is now saying we’ll all need yearly covid vaccines. Has to be a special place in hell for this guy

    • Now that you mention it, I think that hiring Fauci MAY be another example of Trump playing three-dimensional chess.

      What if the President had researched Fauci, knew what sort of loathsome Ivory Tower intellectual he was and hired him as part of a plan to discredit the expert class he understands to be responsible for a lot of the insanity running around loose in America today?

      The President has consistently played the Road Runner to the ruling class’ Wile E. Coyote. I wouldn’t put the above scenario beyond him.

      • Hi Ice,

        I want, almost desperately, to believe that Trump has some Master Plan. That the “Kraken” – whatever the heck that is – will be released and that the crew behind this farcical (s)election will be exposed and punished. That the senile pedophile front-man for the coming Marxism will not be enthroned in January.

        But I’m losing any hope I may have had as Trump flails pathetically, each day that passes making the end of his presidency a fait accompli, each week some new ceding of ground and statement to the effect that he will abide the “results” and transfer the scepter to the new Decider.

        Once the EC “certifies” this it’s over – and it’ll be back to pathetic speech giving and fund-raising (like the NRA does) with the obviousness of the con only inapparent to the clueless.

      • Hi Ice Age,

        “What if the President had researched Fauci, knew what sort of loathsome Ivory Tower intellectual he was and hired him as part of a plan to discredit the expert class he understands to be responsible for a lot of the insanity running around loose in America today?”

        Well, nifty idea except, it didn’t work. In this supposed 3D chess game, Fauci won, overwhelmingly. It’s disturbing to see that TDS is alive and well in “our” circles, not just the left. How much evidence do we need that Trump isn’t playing a long game, isn’t going to drain the swamp, arrest Hillary, put all the corrupt pols in prison, neuter the “ivory tower intellectuals”, end Covid insanity, etc..? Trump has always been a self serving narcissist, he is not a stealth warrior on behalf of the average Joe, his claimed populism is a fraud. If he were sincere about any if this, he would have acted on them in his first term, when he had time. The fact that he did not, proves he was not sincere. Many here claim that he could not because powerful politicians and the media opposed him, that he had to wait for a second term. BULLSHIT! These people would oppose him no matter what he did. What was he waiting for? There will never be a time where he is free to act without opposition.

        If he were sincere, he would have understood that he was almost certain to be a one term President and acted accordingly; burn it down, end the wars, fire all the permanent bureaucrats, like Fauci, destroying the country, tell them all to FUCK OFF. Had he done so, he would likely still be President. Sure, the entire political and media class would have wailed in outrage, but so what” They do that now anyway. His base would have loved him for it. He had a monumental opportunity and he blew it. Actually, I doubt he ever had any intentions of acting on that opportunity.

        Cheers,
        Jeremy

        • Hi, Jeremy- do you think that he actually could have done all that? It is vital and good to have goals, but you must understand that the system is a kind of living corrupt organism and will fight back to survive don’t you? If he had proceeded to take it apart, his brains would have been adorning a sidewalk or escalator 3 years ago.

          The POTUS cannot simply fire Fauxchi without cause- look what they did when he fired Comey FOR cause. Nobody else for decades even tried to stem the tide of immigration and regulation. I give him some credit, but look within for salvation- not to “leaders”. However, lend some support when you see them doing or trying to do right and not wrong.

          • Hi Ernie,

            “…do you think that he actually could have done all that?”

            Yes and no. He didn’t have the authority to arrest Clinton or put the corrupt pols in jail, but he did have the authority to end the wars and bring the troops home. As for Fauci, Trump appointed him to the Coronavirus task force and certainly had the authority to fire him from that position, but not from his position as the head of the NIAID. He certainly had cause to fire Fauci from the task force, as he lied to the American people about the lethality of “the Covid” in a congressional hearing, which I demonstrated here:

            https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2020/11/20/hacking-at-the-root/#comment-753044

            He also could have called upon the writings, and public testimony, of dozens of experts, all of them more qualified than Fauci, to support this decision. He could have pointed out that Fauci, by his own admission, is not qualified to make public health policy pronouncements, which I demonstrated here:

            https://www.ericpetersautos.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?s=Jeremy&comment_status=all&pagegen_timestamp=2020-11-30+19%3A04%3A59&_total=218973&_per_page=20&_page=1&_ajax_fetch_list_nonce=6d56e4db96&action=-1&comment_type&paged=2&action2=-1

            Key passage, “Fauci, in Senate testimony, admitted that his concern was directed solely at reducing Covid deaths and that he was not considering the impact on overall health of his policy recommendations. But, considering overall health, when recommending policy, IS THE JOB of a public health expert. Trump should have fired him after this and explained why.”

            Would Trump have been hysterically criticized for doing so, would he have been opposed by powerful people? Of course but, again, so what? Such animosity from the elite WAS WHAT ENDEARED HIM to the “deplorables”. Would “his brains would have been adorning a sidewalk”? Maybe, but unlikely. Of course, I don’t know, and also don’t know how I would have responded if I were in his place and believed that such an outcome was likely.

            Still, he never really tried, just grandiose statements, followed by caving, and then complaining about the unfair treatment he was getting.

            Cheers,
            Jeremy

          • Hey Ernie,

            It is impossible to know what, if any, actual threat to Trump’s life would have occurred if he had done some of these things. Of those, threatening to reign in the empire, end the wars and bring the troops home, seems most likely to have brought on the lethal wrath of the Deep State. But, firing Fauci and holding a press conference with actual experts like Sunetra Gupta, Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, Michael Levitt, John Ioannidis, etc.. (there are many more) to explain why the policies promoted by Fauci and others were ineffective and enormously destructive, would not have resulted in his “brains being splattered on the sidewalk”. Would the left have gone berserk? Of course, but again, SO WHAT?

            Many libertarians see foreign policy as the dominant issue, but convincing normies of this is a hard sell because most Americans don’t have “skin in that game”. But, all Americans, except the privileged elite, have “skin in the Covid game”. He could have meaningfully challenged the Covid hysteria, backed up by science, and with the support of credible experts. He did not.

            Cheers,
            Jeremy

      • Getting a little late in the game for that 3D chess, doncha think? If he’s playing 3D chess, it’s long past time for his checkmate. Where are the pardons for Assange and Snowden? Why hasn’t he “locked up” Hillary? What happened to the Durham report? Why isn’t the swamp drained? In fact, why did he hire swamp creature after swamp creature like Bolton, etc? Why has he kept on creatures like Barr who refuse to do anything about obvious crimes? Sorry, Trump ain’t playin 3D anything. He’s an egomaniac who just gets off on being the Grand Poobah. While I don’t think he’s truly evil, like Hillary and Biden, I don’t think he’s all that smart either, certainly not enough to be playing 3D chess. He just wants to be the big shot, the winner. No principals, no grand plan, no vision, no beliefs, just wants to be “the man”. His intentions are purely self satisfying, and I’ll guarantee he doesn’t give a flying fuck about you or the USA. His only concern is self aggrandizement.

        • You nailed it Floriduh man, Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone but himself. He lives to be large and in charge and plaster his name on everything within reach while stiffing all the people around him. If he really meant to end the forever wars, get out of long past its expiration date NATO, and drain the swamp the time to act was during his first weeks in office, while he still had momentum. Sadly it was all BS, he’s just a world class grifter.

        • Hi Floriduh,

          I agree with your assessment of Trump. It is getting very late. For four years, I’ve been waiting for him to do something… as opposed to saying (clumsily) that he will do something. Things are now at the wishful thinking stage, like a patient with Stage 4 cancer who is hopeful of a cure in Belize….

        • Actually, if you want to know something about the character of DJT, do a little digging into the Central Park Ice rink debacle. That was decades ago, and doing something good while annoying leftist meddlers has to be very ego gratifying, but it is instructive.

          It was a case study in my engineering ethics class in the late 80’s, and the first time I’d ever heard of Donald Trump.

          • Ernie, I’d say Trump’s use of eminent domain in many instances, and use of bankruptcy to avoid paying millions in debts to legitimate creditors is probably better indicator of his character. (He just grabbed them by their pussy, I guess…)

      • If Trump is playing 3D chess, then he has lost every game and isn’t even in the tournament, because he hasn’t accomplished one damned thing, other than drastically reducing our liberties and destroying our economy, more swo than any other president in our lifetimes.

        It was under his watch that this scamdemic was allowed to be foisted upon us, which has instantly changed our country and our lives for the worse more so than anything else in the last hundred years- and between that, and his appointment of rubber-stamping government sycophants to judgeships and other high federal positions; his championing the erection of the 5G surveillance network; his massive multiplication of the military and “law enforcement”, etc. etc., if he is playing 3D chess, then he must be doing so in the employ of the Democrats, because he has swept a nice path for them and primed the pump for their throwing of fuel on the fire.

        • I agree, Nunz.

          I’m tired of waiting for the Kraken – whatever that means – or for any other imagined/hinted-at thing the OM is “going to do.” The hideous sore-gummed truth is he hasn’t done anything – except make everything worse. Whatever small reprieves we got – as from the “shared responsibility payment” – will be triple-reversed by the creatures he assured would take power by his buffoonery and incompetence.

          He is either too dense to understand that WuFlu was the tool to be used to dislodge him – or he was in on it from the get-got. It really doesn’t matter which it is because the end result – for us – is the same.

          I am, as the Lord Humungous once said, gravely disappointed.

          • I’m afraid that Trump is not going to do squat, Eric, aside from make a lot of noise. About all we really got out of his presidency was a short reprieve from the statist bulldozer ready to roll over us. Pretty much what I expected going in 4 years ago. Even if we ascribe good intentions to the Orange one. he was simply not capable of dealing with the forces lined up against him. Whether this entire scamdemic was manufactured to get him out of office or the elites saw the timely opportunity it presented and took advantage of it, the result is the same: we’re screwed.

            Get ready because with the new Marxist regime ready to sweep in it is going to be a very, VERY rough ride for anyone who values liberty and freedom, and sees through the blatant frauds of climate change hysteria and Red China flu fakery.

            I’d like to be proven wrong on this but unfortunately I don’t think that is going to happen.

            • Hi Jason,

              Sadly, I agree. OM was either not capable – or not willing. And now we face a juggernaut of authoritarian collectivism under the rubric of “keep us safe.” Perpetual Hysteria for Perpetual Control.

              It’s really amazing that it took this long. America was free – reasonably so – for more than 200 years. That’s a long run – and I’m grateful I was able to live half my life before it came to an end. I will use the rest of my life to fight for a better future – but I foresee a dark future first.

          • Hey Eric,

            That is why we should never get caught-up in statist politics. It’s all a show- Hegelian Dialectic Theater! Heads, I win; tails, you lose.

            What really illustrates Trump’s folly, is that here’s senile sicko Creeper Joe- a doddering fool- but unlike Trump, he has his players already lined-up and is ready to swoop in and take drastic action on day one! Trump, meanwhile, did nothing. He kept half of Obama’s people employed, and surrounded himself with the usual hacks, RINOs, Neocons and traitors- and I refuse to believe that he could be so stupid so as to do that merely out of ignorance or ineptitude.

            The Marxist pedophile Biden has essentially done more before even being officially declared president, than Trump has done in four years. Sickening- on both ends.

            And by OM’s refusal to obliterate Obozocare, as you say, the individual mandate will return in SPADE! (Which is why Trump didn’t obliterate Obozocare, like he promised to- He threw us just a tiny crumb, but had no intention of touching any sacred cows, like Obozocare or immigration).

            But what REALLY gets me, is how MORE scandals have come to light in the last 4 years than in the last 40 years combined! Scandals which could have, and should have destroyed a majority of the Swamp-dwellers, and which sould easily have done so. This opportunity was just handed to Trump on a silver platter, through no effort of his own- a gift- which he could have used for the good of his country and the world, and even for personal prestige and power- and what did he do? FREAKING NOTHING, other than wasting the opportunity, and letting injustice prevail, and proving that he is an obedient tool who will do anything to protect his own kind.

            If this hasn’t cured us of ever again having the remotest hope in statist politics…nothing will.

    • Hi Mark,

      Fauci is a typical government apparatchik (like Biden). A tool to be used by powers behind the throne, in return for a well-paid sinecure and the “prestige” that comes with a government title.

      • oh fauci LOVES the celebrity and far left adulation this scam gotten him. You can see it every smirking time someone talks to him. but yet trump doesnt fire him.

    • I am going to play both sides here.

      Trump is not a strategist. Never was, never will be. He is a big picture guy. He hires others to do the behind the scenes stuff. Small details are insignificant to him. He was probably good at Monopoly, he sucks at chess.

      There is a Kracken, unfortunately, it will be years for it to be discovered and the media will sweep it under the rug. I think Powell is a smart lawyer, but time is not on her side. As a woman who has been through a few client audits I can tell you that on my end these things take months to prepare for. It will take a year or two to actually wrap up (and these are small businesses and individuals). It is impossible to find election fraud in six weeks time.

      The executive branch nor the federal government has any control on how state elections are run. We don’t have water crested security seals that can be linked back to each ballot, no bar code, nada. We have 50 states all running amok and making up their own rules on a whim.

      Trump is not a stable genius. He is a call as you see it RE developer NY bred. He is aggressive, tough, and likely can compromise as long as he holds the upper hand. Academic Einstein? No. I think if Trump was given an honest chance he would have been a good President. Deep down I think he loves the country and he wanted it to succeed. Whether you like him or not he did some good things for America. He lowered taxes for individuals and businesses. He pulled this country out of the Paris Climate Accord, the TPP, and called out NATO and reduced the amount of funds sent to the WHO. He kept us out of war for 4 years and decreased federal regulations across the board. He also filled the courts with conservative judges including three Supreme Court justices which will influence the direction of this country for decades.

      I am willing to give the man credit for what he was able to accomplish, but I also realize he has made several mistakes along the way. His hiring of Swamp creatures, for one. His inability to be thick skinned and brush off the shit flung at him. His narcissism and constant need for attention. I voted for him both times, but he is not the Savior, no matter what QAnon says.

      I can only hope on his way out the White House door he tosses a match.

  12. Mentioning driver’s licenses….just received my 5 year renewal in the mail that I have to update before the end of February. I have not been to the DMV in ten years. I abhor it. I was scared this renewal would require me to set foot in one. Nope, the letter stated I could renew online….again. My DL has been using the same pic for now, 10 years. If I renew again the same pic will then be 15 years old. It is sufficient to say that I have changed a bit in 10 years and I expect will look even more different in another 5. Which goes to show it us all about the money.

    The letter stated that if I wanted a REAL ID (the requirements for many states to fly domestically) I would need to come in to the nearest branch. Since I don’t ever see myself flying again this was irrelevant. So I will renew online. This saves me a day of missing work and having to show up in a Halloween mask to see the Damn Money Vultures.

      • Hi MM,

        True and I do have a passport, but with the talk about a CommonPass to board the airlines and a set of required vaccines soon to be forthcoming I don’t see me ever taking a commercial flight again. I can only hope if I have to travel somewhere a car or a boat is an option.

        • I’m in the same boat. If it were just the mask, I WOULD fly in an emergency. However, I draw the line at the vaccine, especially since it’s a DNA changing mRNA vaccine! No way in hell am I taking that; no way in hell am I going to take something in my body that alters its genetic code.

          Alan Joyce, the Qantas CEO, was giving a speech after he said that a vax would be rquired for international flights. He got a PIE in the face! So hopefully there will be enough pushback to stop the CommonPass. That’s BS for a bug that has a 99.7% survival rate…

          • Hi Mark,

            I will probably never fly again as I will not wear a Diaper nor be needled. Being treated as a presumptive terrorist and getting a testicular cancer exam from a government geek was almost too much to bear, even for the sake of going to my dad’s funeral. I’ll never put myself in that position again.

          • Many are saying that the Quantas thing will be pushed back – but unfortunately the way I see it that was just a test shot to see how the public will respond. Then slowly all come the campaign to get more to accept it. And then in a little while…. well you know where it will go…. just preemptive conditioning the way I see it…..

            Personally, the way I see it I need to do all the travel I can as soon as possible because the future we just wont be as free… I recommend anyone else who wishes to travel do it now. Flights are cheap, places are empty, and the people who work in the tourism industry have been royally shafted by all this…..

            • Hi Nasir,

              I would love to see Anguilla again (one of my favorite islands) or visit Antigua, but I am not submitting to the COVID testing swab up my nose or sitting on a plane for four hours with a mask as they forbid me to drink mimosas only to be inundated with a temperature check and another swab test when I land…..I won’t even mention quarantining.

              The masks are never being removed from the airports. I agree with you the Common Pass or Immunity Card will be here shortly. This is why I keep telling hubby I need a boat. I see this as my only form of escape. I can house it in Florida and cruise over to Bimini or Marsh Harbor where there may be some form of sanity still remaining.

              • RG,

                I was thinking of getting a boat for the same reason. I was also thinking of getting a good sized sailboat so I can LIVE on it too; unlike my paid-for house, I’ll actually OWN the boat!

              • RG – my advice…. learn to half ass these things…. (i know I wish I had the balls to outright protest). Like with the mask – in and out of the supermarket before they get you. On the plane – mask up as little as possible, with it sliding at every opportunity. With a covid swab – well here are many ways to get that thing moist….

                I was so proud of my 8 year old on our trip over the summer. At the airport lounge during our transit through Qatar they kept telling us to mask up… after looking around – she went to the bar, asked for an orange juice, put it on the table next to her – and whenever the guy came to tell her to mask shed just point to the glass with a smirk on her face!! (because apparently the virus doenst get you when you’re eating or drinking)!! But found her first loophole to a pointless gov reg at 8…..

            • Nasir,

              There’s some hope. The Danish gov’t was going to mandate the vaccine for everyone in Denmark. The people protested for nine days straight, so the legislature pulled the bill.

              • Mark – like your optimism but I dont know – they are a small country nobody notices till one looks for it (i didnt even know this). Again a test to see how the public reacts, and indirectly condition them to whats coming. In Britain, they dont let such things happen. Those who protest will quickly be done under some sort of anti terrorism laws. The times reported that apparently the top most spy agencies are working to spy on “anti vax militants” (imagine they are described as militants)…..

                Remember millions here protested against Iraq – we still went in…

      • You need a passport to travel domestically — think about that.

        When I was a kid in the 1970s that’s what they used to tell me that the Soviet Union was like.

        • Spot on X, I remember that as well; looks like the Soviet Union didn’t disappear after all, it just moved to North America.

        • Growing up, we were propagandized to believe that most Russians hated communism and dissidents like Solzhenitsyn were seen by them as heroic figures. As the US trends more like the Soviet Union every day, I am realizing that characterization probably wasn’t true until the very end, when it was clear that it was over, like the late 80s. What made the Soviet Union last 70 years was probably that it was supported by people whose position/status was tied to it, whose interests aligned with it, who benefited in some way, who were simply afraid to dissent or who, despite all the obvious death and failure, were hard core believers in the ideology of communism. That would encompass a lot of people. You see that same thing today with Wuflu cult. When it inevitably leads to the same kind of civilization destroying catastrophe, Americans will turn on it like the Russians turned on communism but for a lot of folks it will be too late.

          • I dunno about that, Hatt.

            In Soviet Russia, since communism was imposed by overt force and brutal violence, the state was an enemy which could easily be recognized- and was, by many. They simply had no power to resist; no weaponry; no power to even criticize, much less organize; and, being kept near the brink of starvation and exposure perpetually, they pretty much had to choose to either ‘go along’ in order just to live…or starve/freeze/end up in the Gulag. Such gave the impression that there was little dissent…because dissent was not allowed.

            Here it has been much different, until just recently- since the average schmoe thought they were free (“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free”), and haven’t (and still don’t) recognize who their true enemy is- since the revolution here was waged mainly by propaganda and “education” without the overt violence…until recently.

            The revolutions in both nations started at roughly the same time: The nineteen-teens. In Russia, it was the Bolsheviks with guns and soldiers…here it was Coolideg and Wilson with the Federal Reserve and Income Tax- and thus began the great experiment- ending with the propaganda and making people think they are free winning out over overt violence in not only achieving the same end, but in making the slaves much more productive along the way.

            • Even with the coercive violence, I suspect that, over 70 years, some people were complicit for pecuniary or status reasons and there were some true believers. Some people benefited. The issues I mentioned can cement the power of a small group by incentivizing compliance by at least a plurality.

              My point though, is that what’s going on here now is that some folks know it’s wrong but won’t actively dissent so as to not damage their wealth or status. For instance, under the “emergency law” in NC, any gov’t employee or official will be fired if they do not implement every aspect of the govking’s decree. The paychecks keep coming. Stock jobbers benefit from the inflation. Markets at all time highs. Big-everything corps choke out smaller competitors. Monopoly profits. We’re getting towards at least a plurality here…

              • Hatt, I think it’s even worse here, because most of the people truly “believe”.

                It’s kinda like “the troops”:
                Some are in it just for the perks.
                Some are in it because they enjoy the power trip.
                A few dullards may even think they “fighting for our freedom”.

                But in the end, they all do what they are told, and let themselves be used as the tools of evil as they kill and oppress people in the name of the tyrants, and they actually think they are doing good- and so do most of those around us.

                • Your troops analogy is spot on. Ron Paul warned us about the empire “coming home.” Don’t be surprised if it happens at “warp speed.”

                  • It’s largely happened already, Hatt. A very large percentage of the pigs (AGWs) these days are ex-military. WE are the enemy. Between the PTSD, the ‘roids, the mercenary mentality, and the fact that they were trained to kill without thought or conscience, it is no wonder that they have become the number-one threat to all good people right here in the good ol’ Jew-S-A.

                    Add to that, that probably the majority of these mass shooters lately are also ex-military….. and one realizes that “our” military is probably killing more people right here then they are even in other sovereign nations. (Watch for the mass shootings to suddenly drastically increase as soon as the senile pedophile gets sworn-in, so they can advance their “gun control” agenda)

  13. No, you’re wrong. They DO have a religion.

    The Religion of Marxism.

    Rush Limbaugh once put it like this:

    “…but man is a spiritual being. He needs to believe in something larger than himself. Historically, that thing has been God or gods. But if man’s faith in God is destroyed, he’ll replace it with something else, and too often that thing has been a manmade god called The State – and untold crimes have been committed in it’s name.”

    • Hi Ice Age,

      You’re right, they do have a religion, but it’s not Marxism. As Gush Windbag correctly observes, it is Statism; a religion shared by almost all liberals and far too many conservatives. The particular denominations of this religion vary, but all share the belief that the “good”, as they see it, can and should be forcibly imposed on “us” through the power of the State. Marxism is one particular denomination of Statism, but most Statists are not Marxists. Outside of most college professors, and a few brain addled college students, Marxism is NOT what these people clamor for. Most of them have never read Marx, know nothing of its tenets and would NEVER apply its strictures on themselves. These people are what Nietzsche called, “revenge merchants”, weak and petty, obsessed with the achievements of others and, incapable of achieving greatness on their own, lust after the power of the State to acquire what they envy in others. They seek to build themselves by crushing others. Referring to all Statists as Marxists is as sloppy and imprecise as referring to conservatives and libertarians as Fascists.

      Cheers,
      Jeremy

      • Hi Jeremy and Ice Age – thats so true – nowhere is this more obvious than Europe, where most people do not believe in traditional organised religion. Which doesn’t mean that they dont believe in a “religion”, they just worship different branches of the gov. Just look at how they were coming out and cheering the NHS (national health service) every thursday at 8, banging pots and pans, as if some sort of religious ritual… ever try to criticise it or look for flaws…. well you’ve basically had it…

      • Jeremy-
        Well put. The Wuflu cult has played to these characteristics, which are active in a plurality of people but can be activated in a majority with the right stimulus. Add in some electoral fraud by a core of true believers and, voila, you’ve got what we have in store for us today.

  14. Nobody ever died of second hand smoke. There is no traceable evidence that occasional nor prolonged exposure directly led to cancer. No death certificate has ever stated second hand smoking as a cause.
    Nobody ever actually dies of Covid. It is either pneumonia or your lungs failing to provide enough oxygen that causes your co-morbidity to kick in and cause death. This is why *some* doctors with ethics will not sign a death certificate as a *Covid* death.
    My wife’s brother passed away 2-weeks ago from liver disease. He was in and out of the hospital the last month of his life and took 4 Covid tests; all negative. We couldn’t get a death certificate for over 10 days due to some doctors refused to sign due to *ethical reasons*? We pressed and got the hospital to release the death certificate but I think these doctors were being pressured to sign this off as Covid. Why else would there be an *ethical reason* under such simple straight forward cause?

  15. Several other ironies.

    “Liberals” seem the most hell-bent on erecting smoking bans yet, in my casual observance, they seem the most likely to smoke. Also, they are also the ones caterwauling about human caused devastation of the planet, calling for Zero Population Growth and abortion on demand. Yet these same folks demand masking to “stop the spread”.

    You would think that if smoking and non-masking are so deadly that they’d want to push that, at least for the bigoted, racist, misogynist, homophobic deplorables whom they seem to accuse of wanting to go maskless, at least.

    I guess if it weren’t for conflicting values they’d have no values at all.

  16. It’s the puritan thing, or the Yankee thing, which are the same, and from which the modern busybody liberals emerged. The ridiculous notion that collective salvation can be achieved by edict. That ALL sin is a crime, and must be punished. Unfortunately for us, those who now define sin, and virtue, are far worse than the puritans or the Yankees. They do not adhere to any tradition or religion, but instead they make it up as they go along.

    • Hi JWK. Murray Rothbard did a masterful job of showing the relationship between Puritan/Yankee beliefs and the progressive movement that has grown to the point where it is strangling our society in his book “The Progressive Era”.

    • One of my favorite books is “Yankee Boyhood,” by R.E. Gould. It’s his memoir of his childhood growing up on a farm in Maine in the 1880’s.

      One of the more interesting paragraphs in that book was Gould stating that, “I never had the Old Time Religion, so I cannot write about it like someone who did, but it seemed to me, as I observed it, that it was based on the idea that anything you enjoyed doing was sinful and should be deplored. Many claimed to have it, but their claim was open to suspicion since their actions seemed to indicate that they merely went through the forms in order to make a good impression. They seemed to feel that they were going to fool the great Judge on the last day by citing what they hadn’t done. They were given to attending church and observing a code of morals that had its origin in New England. The things most often condemned were smoking, drinking, swearing, dancing, card playing, gambling and absence from church.”

  17. Driving through NY has become insufferable, with every highway sign, plus some added along the way, flashing covid warnings and reminders to wear masks and wash hands. It’s over-saturation to the point I was happy to see click-it or ticket signs flashing once crossed back into CT, as at least it wasn’t mask propaganda.

    But more to the point, just so tired of all these in-your-face nanny state proclamations about cigarettes, seat belts, rona, ad nauseum. Life is just so much more interesting with risks. And without the infantilization of every facet of our existence.

    • BAC, if at all possible, you should get out of that place while the RE prices are still strong (When the economic destruction caused by their COVID BS catches up to realality, that whole part of the country will be the next Detroit). Life is still normal in some places (Well…’cept for seeing a lot of the other idiots wearing the rag).

      Moving out of that place bought me 19 years thus, which would have been miserable had I stayed…but which have been wonderful, being I moved. Virtually no COVID enforcement (except by a few small business-owners)…and being to carry a rod without a CCW permit…priceless!

      I bought myself some more time- and you can still by yourself maybe a little, even now.

      • Hi Nunz

        My wife and I were just discussing this very thing. The exodus from NYC has homes here flying off the shelf immediately, with bidding wars.

        It’s been so depressing of late; literally living among statist zombies, who adore the likes of Lamont, Cuomo, and Murphy (and Biden, of course), who exude hatred, derision, and contempt for folks like us, and who dutifully comply with masking at nearly 100% – science is real! Not everyone, certainly, but a goodly majority. I want to be far away from them.

        But where to go? Our families are all here. Aging parents (you know that drill). Teen/tween kids – can’t just uproot middle schoolers. Friends and familiarity count for something, too. And it sounds like most of the rest of the country is falling down just the same. Wish there was a Mayflower heading to a new land somewhere – might hop that ship.

        I know better, but I cling to the hope that this may all end soon. That life will ease back to a peaceful coexistence. Need time enough to clear the personal hurdles, then we will flee, far far away from this communist shithole.

        • Morning, BAC!

          I wrestle with the same dilemma. It’s not great here – SW Va – but where is it meaningfully better? The Diaper Dupes abound even in North Dakota. Generations of inculcation with risk-aversion (the Safety Cult) has done its work. It seems the chief life concern of a majority of Americans is “safety” – even when there’s little to no actual risk.

  18. I’d be curious what would happen if someone refused to take the diaper off for the photographer at the DMV, and then screamed hysterically at him for being selfish and not caring about granny and the children.

  19. All based on the insane belief that one might live forever if one abides by each and every edict put forth. Put forth by a government. A government like all others, that has only proven truly effective at one thing. Killing people, which indeed they are quite good at. What a tragedy that COVID has killed 260k or so Americans. Never mind the millions that the US government has killed around the world.
    I’m a smoker, so I am somewhat biased, but I contend that we were better people before the assault on smokers. We were more tolerant of each others idiosyncrasies. Far less likely to throw a fit over another’s vice. I believe it highly unlikely the mask religion would have gotten nearly this insane back then, if it even arose at all.

    • Hi JWK,

      I agree with your idea that America was more tolerant when smoking was common. I can remember that world, too. If you didn’t like smoking, you went someplace where there wasn’t smoking. Noblesse oblige, in a way. I miss that world.

      • It’s the puritan thing, or the Yankee thing, which are the same, and from which the modern busybody liberals emerged. The ridiculous notion that collective salvation can be achieved by edict. That ALL sin is a crime, and must be punished. Unfortunately for us, those who now define sin, and virtue, are far worse than the puritans or the Yankees. They do not adhere to any tradition or religion, but instead they make it up as they go along.

      • Morning Eric and JWK,

        The anti-smoking crusade is indeed very similar – bad science, indifference to economic harm, active promotion of intolerance, etc…

        “Second-hand smoke’s dangers have probably been grossly exaggerated – as the danger of practically everything slightly risky has been grossly exaggerated, as it serves to justify exaggerated methods to ameliorate the supposed danger”.

        They were, outrageously so. The 1993 EPA study that provided the legal justification for the smoking bans that further eviscerated the property rights of business owners was a fraud, and declared so by federal judge William Osteen in 1998. This study was a masterpiece of selection and confirmation bias, it began with a conclusion and then cherry picked the data, and ignored standard epidemiological methodology, to support the predetermined result. In his decision judge Osteen wrote, “In this case, EPA publicly committed to a conclusion before research had begun; excluded industry by violating the Act’s procedural requirements; adjusted established procedure and scientific norms to validate the Agency’s public conclusion, and aggressively utilized the Act’s authority to disseminate findings to establish a de facto regulatory scheme intended to restrict Plaintiffs, products and to influence public opinion. In conducting the ETS Risk Assessment, disregarded information and made findings on selective information; did not disseminate significant epidemiologic information; deviated from its Risk Assessment Guidelines; failed to disclose important findings and reasoning; and left significant questions without answers. EPA’s conduct left substantial holes in the administrative record. While so doing, produced limited evidence, then claimed the weight of the Agency’s research evidence demonstrated ETS causes cancer. Gathering all relevant information, researching, and disseminating findings were subordinate to EPA’s demonstrating ETS a Group A carcinogen.”

        This study was, and still is, used to justify increasingly draconian anti smoking policies. Much like the Ferguson study, junk science is employed to justify an authoritarian agenda.

        Shortly after the EPA study, the WHO conducted a methodologically sound, case control, study on the risks of SHS but, got the wrong results; they found no statistically significant risk, in any morbid condition, due to exposure to SHS. So, they buried the study and refused to publish it. Finally, under pressure from the Telegraph, they released the results with the following statement, “Passive Smoking Does Cause Lung Cancer – Do Not Let Them Fool You.”

        To those interested in this topic (even if you hate smoking, the anti smoking campaign opened the door to all sorts of intrusions on our rights) this site has a lot of information.

        http://www.davehitt.com/facts/

        “…I contend that we were better people before the assault on smokers”.

        Indeed, prior to the bans, most people found ways to accommodate each other and many business owners, responding to customer demand, had already instituted voluntary non smoking policies in their establishments. In Santa Fe, before the no exceptions ban went into effect, over 90% of the restaurants, and over 50% of the bars, were already smoke free places. The market had already “solved” the problem, voluntarily and without force. But this elegant solution was not good enough for the health Nazis of the day, they simply could not tolerate the fact some bad people could still smoke somewhere in public, this was unacceptable! As usual, Mencken nailed what motivates such creatures, “Puritanism — The Haunting Fear That Someone, Somewhere, May Be Happy”.

        At the time, there was some push-back along these lines, “you’ve already got 90% of the restaurants, isn’t that enough?” So, rather than reveal their petty vindictiveness in all its sordid glory, they invented an excuse, “it’s about protecting bar and restaurant workers”. Anti smoking groups ran ads claiming that such employees had higher rates of cancer than the general population, which is true, and claimed this was due to SHS, which is false. What they failed to mention is that this group SMOKES at a much higher rate than the general population, which accounts for the discrepancy, not SHS.

        All of the loathsome traits of the modern day Karen, false concern for others, the lust to control, the call for mandates and bans (force), the smug self righteousness and virtue signaling and the desire to condemn/marginalize others, became acceptable, even virtuous, during the anti smoking purge. JWK, you are right, that campaign legitimized rudeness and hostility, we live with the aftermath today.

        Cheers,
        Jeremy

        • Currently, I’m working on a graphic novel and as I write & refine the villains, I keep in mind that it’s easy to come up with believable bad guys – I just base my antagonist characters on real-world leftists.

          Their sneering air of superiority, their nannying puritanism, their sheer humorlessness, their pervasive hypocrisy, their obsession with power and their baseless faith in the inevitability of their cause.

          And that doesn’t even address their enthusiastic willingness to commit genocide, condemn entire populations to slavery and consume their own insufficiently-useful people in the name of their insane vision of utopia.

          Really, you couldn’t ask for a better inspiration for a fictional villain than a real Marxist.

      • I just finished watching the chase scene from the original “Gone In 60 Seconds” on YouTube and despite the God-awful clothing and appalling – APPALLING – hairstyles everybody had in that movie, 1974’s version of America really WAS a better place.

        • In 45 years people will look at the haircut you have right now–at the second you read this–and squawk about how APPALLING it was.

          Jeering at dead fashions is an exercise in complete unawareness.

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