No matter the system, it seems every country now has a “president.” Including “presidents” (for life) like Vladimir Putin of Russia, formerly the Soviet Union. Which – more honestly – once upon a time had a general secretary or a premier.
It was once the case that only America had a president. Other countries – many of them very un-American, like the old Soviet Union – appropriated the title, with the idea that doing so might linguistically convey a don’t-examine-it-too-closely message of democratically elected legitimacy.
Of course, in those days, everyone knew the difference between a premier or general secretary and a president. Hence the importance of eliminating the distinction.
Everyone’s a “president” nowadays.
Because there is no longer much distinction – functionally – between a “president” Putin and a “president” Biden.
Neither presides.
Both rule.
One for an indefinite period, the other a defined period. Does it make any meaningful difference?
The modern “presidency” is in fact a kind of disingenuous autocracy, in some cases (as in ours) episodically elected.
Whoever holds the office wields the power of a premier or general secretary. He – or she – issues “executive orders,” another form of linguistic legerdemain meant to flim-flam the minds of the not-every-thoughtful by giving decrees the imprimatur of “democratic” legitimacy.
The general secretary/premier-president makes vast pronouncements about the “leadership” he will provide; about the “policies” he will pursue. Makes promises – and issues threats – like a Third World el presidente. All that’s missing are the sashes, medals and epaulettes. In fact, it’s confusing to not have those visuals. To see an el presidente/general secretary/premier in a suite and tie, as if legitimate. To see a group of these autocrats gathered together for a Ted Bundy-smile photo op, as if they were normal people.
It was never meant to be such. At least, not here – initially. And for about the first 73 years, it wasn’t.
The Constitution of 1787 – which remained largely in force until 1860 – established the presidency as a kind of administrative office, held by the person elected to assure that the laws passed by Congress were “faithfully executed.” The president was not elected to issue decrees, nor to pursue “policies” of his own.
That changed in 1860, when the office of the president was replaced by a general secretary/premier who styled himself “president” – so as to retain the linguistic legitimacy associated with the title.
For the same reason, the general secretaries/premiers of our time – at home and abroad – are also now in the habit of styling themselves “presidents.”
For the same reason that War Departments are now Defense Departments.
Speaking of democracy . . .
That is another word that used to be used to describe countries that had general secretaries and premieres. For example, the Deutsche Demokratische Republic – the former East Germany. Led – at the end – by Erich Honecker, the general secretary thereof. There wasn’t much “democracy” in the DDR, though. Just as there is a lot of general-secretaryship in the modern “president.”
And there’s not much “democracy” here, either.
Certainly, there is none in the Constitution – in which the word doesn’t appear even once. Yet it is used everywhere, by the general-secretary/premier who play-pretends to be the “president.” He claims to be its protector – and enforcer. He refers to it as the basis of his lawful authority – though, again, there is nothing in the actual law regarding “democracy.”
What is this “democracy”? In theory – and in fact?
In theory, it is majority rule – via the ballot. If 51 of 100 people vote for X then X becomes not only the law, it becomes right, by dint of the majority having voted for it.
A tautology.
This facade of morality gives “democracy” its veneer of legitimacy – in the same way that calling the person who has the decreeing power of a general secretary or premier a “president” – and having him wear a suit and tie rather than a one-piece jumpsuit or sashes and epaulettes – softens it up and makes it sound like something kinder and gentler (to use a phrase used by a general secretary/premier play-pretending at being a “president”).
In fact, “democracy” is minority rule – often, by a general secretary/premier posing as a “president” claiming to rule on behalf of “the majority,” which isn’t.
A minority of one – as in the defunct DDR.
As is becoming the case in the almost-defunct United States, where the latest “president” was (s)elected by a majority of digits finagled into a black box and even if one sets that aside, at best was elected by about 26 percent of the eligible electorate, about half of which didn’t vote for anyone. This “president” acts on behalf of a minority – and even that is a fiction, because he is restrained by not much more than his personal whims.
It sounds an awful lot like the general secretary or premier of a communist country. Which is precisely why they prefer to be called “presidents” instead.
. . .
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20,784 characters versus billions of the usual suspects, each one a chip off the Keyser Söze block:
“The Republican Party is “The Party of Lincoln,” came up here recently. Now “Presidents.” See this bit, somewhere below (all the bits are from the real meaty, not fake meaty, The Menace of the Herd, or Procrustes at Large, by Kuehnelt-Leddihn – where’s the beef herd? Big chunk of it’s in this book. Mises org sells it.): “Democracy” under present conditions is bound to compromise with political elements taken from aristocratic & monarchical forms of government. A parliament is always a compromise with the former & a president a compromise with the latter political ideology.”
This is the craziest party there could ever be – don’t turn on the lights cuz I don’t wanna’ see ♪♫♪!
How does one go about enslaving slaves? (Another good title: Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men, by Hummel…ain’t just another figurine, either.)
Maybe it’s like spraying coat after coat of emperor-lacquer, with hand-rubs in between each few coats? Mirror-mirror finish of the cave/cell wall, whose the prisonerest of ‘em all?
And even if that could be figured, how to enslave slaves, ain’t it obvious that that double negative just doubles the negative – over∞&∞over∞&∞over – that it doesn’t Flip positive, Wilson?
Well, from liberty’s perspective, anyway, the direction of “here comes the judge” is all one way. The “freedom is slavery” majority is partisan, & will never see their enslaved mirror reflection as negative…they never have, & they never will.
“Say, what do I care about Napoleon? What do we care about what they did 500 or 1,000 years ago? I don’t know whether Napoleon did or did not try to get across and I don’t care. It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” ~ the noble mass manufacturer of consent: “any color they want, so long as it’s black”
If you’ve met a few of the current crop, over a few Springs & Winters you’ve met ‘em all, & you know the growing season & the harvest & the ever-current crop (or, you could know, if you were born with the OEM stuff it takes to know)…is a flat disc, with groove-furrows in it, chemical drenches atop it & in it, that spins, while it waits on the eternally recurring whirlwind to blowback again…yet again.
Tradition do traduce. And the moolah to be skimmed from Fix-Or-Repair-Daily is ooh-la-la. But the “power” all that oodle concentrates is boodle that spends even better. Entropic heat exchanges – unto martyred death – is the humanimal way. Mostly.
“In a sense, we can hold no one responsible. I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will. … Practically, I am, nevertheless, compelled to act as if freedom of the will existed. If I wish to live in a civilized community, I must act as if man is a responsible being.” ~ Einstein
But no big surprise that “as if” (The Philosophy of As If – Vaihinger) & “is” don’t dovetail all that much amongst the humanimals. Prerogatives? What’s that? Perhaps an emergent property albeit that rarely emerges.
What about it being an evaporative property? Leaving reigns behind it dissipates-disappears upwards, comes raining down elsewheres. Water, water everywhere, but precious few drops to drink, cuz all the lack of grok.
(”It must be recalled in this connection that the liberal Rousseauan spirit pervading the more old-fashioned democratism was instrumental in dispelling the fear from such a ghastly & undignified end; it was repeatedly emphasized that no establishment based on force was able to last. Liberal optimism, conceiving man as a courageous being without original sin endowed with an inordinate thirst for liberty & justice, showed little interest for our megalapolitan straphanger & viewed humanity predominantly as an agglomeration of bons sauvages. Yet the white race consists largely not of human beings but of employees. Facing the choice of cash or liberty they always choose the former because it spells safety.”)
So getting back into that bunk, where all the prison sex, consensual & not, gets swapped…the only animal that’s got “history” is humanimal.
T-i-i-i-me is on my side, yes it is ♪♫♪ insist the transhumanimals. (Mick & that lot, & other similar lots, are still “rocking & rolling”.)
And “how” the vinyl siding of time gets sold, & bought – whether via angels, or demons, or via technology, or via space aliens bestowing science fictions – matters not. Cuz neurotic projection-addiction don’t care how it gets what it wants, so long as it gets it (& between here & “there,” faking it to the making it is the Tao).
Possession is 9/10ths of “the law” saith those wraiths, those thusly possessed Dostoevskian dust bunnies under their back(or front)-strapped mattresses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ44q_5uMM4
History could use a hysterectomy – his & hers. It’s already been lobotomized – but that doesn’t slow its bunny reproduction rate at all. Going for the gonads is going for the throat – from which also emanates & reverberates all the Lilliputian wordsounds Gullivers like to lay down before – of the double-backed beast.
And, would it were, especially the gonads of the ones that are going for the gonads “now” were the ones being gone for. Gates et al beaks Billed, since that’s where the proverbial buck’s ‘sposed to stop, but doesn’t, so starting at that uppermost mountain Vanguard from whence BlackRock oyster-stuff rolls downward just might be an efficacious efficiency. Striking at the priapic, libido dominandi root, not the leaves…except, yes, that bio-design sap runs through almost the whole treasonous family tree…catch-22 is an evergreen, a hemlock carrot & stick, & way more toxic than the one Socrates quaffed.
Plenty talk about the Peter Principle in terms of incompetence, but less about sociopathy, & all the codependent incompetents that float that scum up. The Hitlers just give the orders. It’s the stagnant unter that makes orders manifest. You won’t submit? Good wo/man. That only leaves 96 others who are glad to go along.
Cuz there’s way too many made to be paid off vinyl time (is a flat disc) siding saleswo/men out there. That supreme court’s packed. So Roe’in against those Wages is just takin’ good money to Las Vegas. (Gramps usta’ call that place Lost Wages. Reality: Them who take their wages to such places are already lost. Maybe lost vagus nerve.)
But just cuz ya’ can’t beat the spittin’ into the wind’ers don’t mean ya’ should join ‘em, tho. Bukkake pathology is a freakshow, & all enablers of it, passive to active, are complicit.
But that’s just what those animals are – so don’t fall prey to the edu-religion predator what says those sinners can be redeemed through dictionaries debated, or bibles thumped…if you do, you’re da’ bait, & bye-bye pie is your just desserts, chum-in-the-waterworld friend-o.
Voting is criminal. And not merely because those voted for are criminals. Political Parties? ‘Good cop bad cop‘ gangs colluding. Votin’ others’ pockets into your pockets ain’t no different than gunning others’ pockets into your pocket…except that gunning is more honest.
Just dusted off Boardwalk Empire. That came out 2010 – can ya’ believe it? Setting’s 1919-20. Volstead act progressivism has sent the bull market for booze parabolic. And the long suffering suffragettes are “finally given the right” to vote – by that criminal class that polishes perception’s doors opening onto, into, division’s conquest. (And despite being fraududlent from the get, still more election fraud is still piled atop, too. Evidently too much of a good thing is no such thing.) The smoky backrooms & private clubs are still good ol’ boys only, in 1920, but now that can be “improved.” Eventually there will be seats at the booty table for women, too. Corruption, criminality, “power”lust knows no gender.
(And what goes ‘round, really goes ‘round: “Once the two-party system became obsolete on account of the plurality of opinions the result was a “House divided against itself” by metaphysical oppositions. These conflicts could only be ended by the artificial silence imposed through the firing squad or the concentration camp. The abysses dividing the philosophical parties could not be spanned – least of all in countries without the ochlocratic-protestant tradition of compromise; their dogmas made them mutually exclusive. Thus we should not be in the least surprised to see “democracies” dying a form of death which was considered since the days of Plato & Aristotle to be the natural form of their demise – their transition into tyranny, the absolute rule of a former party leader.”)
Unknown fundament that it is to so many, that nothing is more practical than the inherent & inalienable moral prerogative headwaters – the source…which is also continuously dammed & diverted & silted & eminent domained &&& from within & from without – onward & downward fracking into the “practicalities” of groundwater contamination – a mcchicken tender in every clay pot & a septic tank under every clay foot bone attached to all those clay pot boneheads:
“Happily enough we find that even the most fanatic ochlocrats seldom try to carry out their quantitarian collectivism & egalitarianism & to reduce them to absurdities. There are still some inequalities of a biological order which they must respect; the franchise has not yet been extended to the children – if we do not take into account the efforts to “make democracy work” in certain schools where boys & girls determine what they would like to hear from their teachers & how much work they will condescend to do.
But still, the political franchise is not given to minors & there is little doubt that by this fact the democratic principles are already violated. The Utopia runs into troubled waters. If neither knowledge, nor work, experience, sex, or taxes make any difference, why then, we ask ourselves, should age be taken so seriously? One could imagine that a European university student at the age of 19 is more intelligent than a street cleaner at the age of 30, or that a wounded young soldier at the age of 20 has merited more of his country than a prostitute at the age of 45. Even if one lowers the age limit there will always be some who are younger & who will complain that they are tyrannized over by a gerontocracy, a rule of old men. (Democratic rights for school children have been postulated by the disciples of John Dewey, while David Lloyd George demanded in all earnestness plebiscites for the Central African Jungles – in a public speech on Jan. 5, 1918.) Pure “democracy” is for this & other reasons a political impossibility & we have to ask ourselves whether it is prudent to adopt such a form of political existence which defies all efforts to make it work without a tremendous amount of alloys. Utopias never mature over a certain transitory stage in which they ensure their survival by endless compromising. “Democracy” under present conditions is bound to compromise with political elements taken from aristocratic & monarchical forms of government. A parliament is always a compromise with the former & a president a compromise with the latter political ideology. Aristocracy & monoarchy – both taken in a literal, not a traditiuonal sense – are essential & indispensable political elements; there is even “government” in the case of the population being entirely passive. We have to face the bitter fact that the (inner) consent of those governed is under modern conditions rather an accidental than an essential of government. There may even be a good government without popularity & a bad government enthusiastically supported by the “howling mob.” Not even the moral question is solved by the presence or absence of support, & there will be few political casuists who will have an inherent right to wickedness which may be enforced against a good but unpopular government.
To be continued, maybe.
In a story that will not surprise any regular readers here. Electric truck “maker” Lordstown is finally getting to the end of its phony business. Admits it has no firm order for its “trucks” and will likely go out of business.
https://www.cleveland.com/business/2021/06/lordstown-motors-reverses-says-it-has-no-firm-truck-orders.html
Posted here because the article includes a photo of former VP Pence at the introduction of the truck that seems unlikely to be ever be produced. Shows that even Republicans favor big government, if it was the opposition would never support this scam. But it does.
I wonder how many taxpayer dollars were wasted on this farce. Plenty I am sure. Even with the government tilting the scale in the favor of electric vehicles, it cannot survive.
Great points, all of which I used to make to students, but fell on deaf ears while they were mesmerized by cell phones.
The U.S. was founded as a federal republic (not a “democracy!”) of limited and enumerated powers. But that republic died in 1865. The more I tried to teach the Constitution of 1787 the more I began to realize that this was a fruitless task. At least it could be said that the rulers of — let’s call it the “second American republic, 1865-1970” — took the Constitution seriously enough to amend it. They made the country more “democratic” by the 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd and 26th Amendments.
But the rulers of our current country — let us call it “corporatist post-America — have no constitution at all, other than the unwritten constitution of wokeness. The guiding principle seems to be radical sexual and racial egalitarianism, enforced by a commissariat of bureaucrats and apparatchiks prophesied by Orwell in “Animal Farm” and Kurt Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron.” We are currently living under a regime of corporate bureaucrats, government bureaucrats, judges and presidential executive orders — not under a constitution with any real meaning or any real “rights.”
The whole notion of representative government is silly: a fourth-grade civics class fairy tale.
Josh Hawley supposedly represents me in the U.S. Senate. But he also represents my neighbor. Let’s say there’s a bill before the Senate. I want him to vote No but my neighbor wants him to vote Yes. How can he represent both of us? If he votes Yes, he is representing my neighbor but he is not representing me. If he votes No, he is representing me but he is not representing my neighbor. If he abstains, he is not representing either of us. So if he can’t even represent two of us, how can he represent 6 million? Only a sucker believes this nonsense.
When someone truly represents you, he does exactly as you say, all of the time. If you’re a professional athlete, and you instruct your agent not to settle for less than $1 million per year, what would you say if he came back from negotiations with, “Great news: I got you $80,000!”? Would you agree that you have to “be reasonable” because he also has to represent the team owners’ interests? Shut up and keep paying him. Maybe next time he’ll do what you want instead of what they want.
Do the math. The numbers do not lie.
http://tktn.com/blog/?p=12
Haha, that’s good.
The point of representative government is that what you or your neighbor want does NOT determine your representatives vote. That if you are attentive, you elected someone who’s judgement can be trusted more often than yours. No it doesn’t always work that way, but it beats the hell out of democracy, gang rape being democracy in action.
Roland,
I get your point, and this is splitting hairs, but senators represent the states, and are supposed to do what is best for the state. Our representatives should do what is best for the people in the district they represent, and we know how that turns out. Before 1913, senators were chosen by state legislators. The nefarious 17th amendment of 1913 changed that, and made election of senators a popular vote. Senators were never meant to represent citizens in as much they were to represent states interests. This amendment really changed the balance of power for good or ill, and since we are talking about government, you can guess which one. 1913 was a really bad year if you think about it. It gave us popular elections of senators, the income tax, and gave us our friends at the federal reserve.
If one believes the average age of republics is 200 years, the USA went over its “Best by Date” July 4th 1976. We have been living on borrowed time ever since, and rapidly degenerating. Never before has there been such a vile group of cretins running the USA. Blowhards such as Obummer insanely scream “Diversity is our strength”, and maybe one time it was when immigrants dreamed of becoming Americans, living the American Dream, and contributing to society. Now, we are overrun with grifters who believe Uncle owes them everything and contribute nothing. Ask the people of the former Yugoslavia how diversity worked out for them. We are a Balkanized country, and the ending will not be pleasant. We should find out how it all ends within the next 10 years.
Then there’s the matter of “Agenda 21”: According to the current schedule of ten years per your estimate, the decline is right on time for the enemy within, the United Nations, to take over as the coup de grace. And who better than The Orange Fail to snooker us all to usher it in?
Speaking of which, there are even people so deluded that they have openly admitted to placing faith in Fail45 and his return, a blasphemy regarding Faith in the Second Coming of Christ! Yes, these people believe that False Prophet is Jesus! So I’m not surprised by the decline. I pray that everyone prepped (I especially pray that I have prepped enough… but enough is never enough).
Indeed, Rush –
I think America reached its apogee with Apollo – and its decline began with the cancellation of it. Not that I am expressing support for government spending; that isn’t what defined Apollo. Apollo involved government spending, absolutely. But toward something ennobling, heroic. That was what Apollo was all about. Achievement; a celebration of human brains and bravery. As opposed to the sentiments expressed contemporaneously by Gil Scott Heron’s Whitey on the Moon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nzoPopQ7V0&t=30s&ab_channel=Funkeymonkey88Funkeymonkey88
Listen to that paean to flea-bitten savagery. And then watch the lift-off of Apollo 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXIW1eEzrFM
It makes me so sad.
My sentiment exactly Eric. I too believe Appollo was the apex of the USA. Think about it. Kennedy announced in 1961 we were going to put men on the moon, and bring them back to earth. The 60’s were pretty turbulent times with lots of peaceful protests around the country. The scientists designed spacecraft using slide rules and protractors. But, even with the obstacles, the USA did it. Too bad it was Uncle and his government spending that did it, but how or why would the private sector even have attempted anything like Appollo? Every American could feel proud. What has the USA done since? Bring democracy to the Middle East by murdering millions of brown people, raining bombs down on their infrastruture, and littering their country with depleted uranium? Now, the Selected One says it is wonderful when confused young boys are castrated, and confused young girls have mastectomies to allow them to change their sex. We, as Americans are supposed to feel pride over ruining our young childrens lives? I could go on, and on, and on about the rot that infects our culture, but I will leave it at that.
Amen, Rush…
I am just old enough to have a few memories of the afterglow of Apollo. Of the America that still existed, for awhile, after Apollo. It was a place where men smoked but were civilized; did not behave like feral animals nor look like them. A place where people had “one for the road” but didn’t assault people in stores over “masks.” Where women were usually moms and families were usually intact and kids played freely in neighborhoods, riding bikes without wearing helmets. A place that was not Mogadishu or East Berlin and clearly so. A less profane, not as vulgar place than it is now. Where most people spoke intelligibly and achievement was respected expected and thus desirable to earn. A place where popular culture was not generally loathsome and in which disgusting conduct was considered . . . disgusting.
It was not a perfect place, of course. But it was pretty special, regardless. I miss it.
Indeed, if all the things we are now prohibited from doing were so dangerous, we would already be extinct. Now our culture is invested in actions that really do threaten to extinct us. Like poking nuclear armed nations in the eye with a sharp stick, all the time. Which is a thing that was NOT done during the height of the cold war.
Indeed, John –
From my reading about the Cold War, there were maniacs – but they weren’t in charge, thank god. I’ve read that Curtis LeMay wanted to launch a “pre-emptive” nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, and he had the support of other maniacs on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thankfully, JFK was not a maniac – and neither, as it turns out, was Kruschev…
Probably another reason JFK was murdered, Eric, he was willing to push back on the insane war mongers. LeMay was an extreme example of these psychos, having said “if nuclear war breaks out between the US and the Soviet Union and all the Russians die but one American is left alive then we won”. Right, quite the Pyrrhic victory.
>scientists designed spacecraft using slide rules
Actually, there were electronic digital computers in those days. 🙂
Crude by today’s standards, but very advanced compared to what came before.
The Golden Gate Bridge, built in the 1930s, *was* designed strictly by hand calculation. The first nuclear weapons (early 1940s) were designed using only hand operated mechanical calculators (rooms full of them).
If you go to YouTube and search on “Apollo Guidance Computer,” you will find many interesting videos. Here is one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mMK6iSZsAs
Some things to note:
1. Computer memory was magnetic core memory, invented by a man named Jay Forrester. These are on display in the video referenced above.
2. Disk drives were the size of washing machines. They had removable disk packs, which were about the size of a cake display you might see in a coffee shop.
3. There were very few integrated circuits, and the first ones were expensive, being packaged in metal TO5 cans, just like transistors. The first epoxy “blister pack” ICs from Texas Instruments came out in 1967, IIRC. This was a big deal, because the blister packs cost less than 20% of the TO5 cans. They were about the size and color of a pencil eraser, and had eight gold leads. IIRC, the price was ~$0.89, when minimum wage was $1.00/hour.
4. Early ICs came with a circuit diagram, and all the components in the IC had a part number which corresponded to that for discrete components, such as transistors (2Nxxx). It was theoretically possible to build the circuit using discrete components.
5. Data entry for most computers was via punched cards, using the infamous IBM 026/029 card punch machines. Software development using such systems was much slower than it is today.
6. Time sharing, with remote data entry via terminals, was a hot item, and not universally available. Teletype machines, which could punch paper tape , were probably the most common type of terminal. A “sexier” terminal was a modified IBM selectric typewriter, which could be connected to a 300 bps modem via an acoustic coupler (look it up!). All terminals used wide carriage, tractor feed, fan fold paper, and therefore generated voluminous amounts of waste paper.
One very vivid memory of my youth was sitting in a darkened room in a student co-op in Berkeley, CA and watching Neil Armstrong (on B&W TV) set foot on the moon. There were about fifty or sixty people in the room, of all political persuasions, but *everyone* cheered when Armstrong’s boot hit the lunar surface. The Apollo program did, in my opinion, give all Americans (actually, all humans) something in common.
Thanks for the history lesson Turtle!. I came into the IT field in 1993, and remember working with some of the things you mentioned such as the punch cards, and teletypes. The teletypes I worked with operated at 75 baud. I must admit, I have forgotten the formula for converting baud to bps, such as the 300 bps typewriter you mentioned, but they were damn slow. However, since it was a text only teletype, they did the job. They could even be used over HF radios.
Before I transitioned to IT, I was and avionics technician. I remember very well unsoldering/soldering many, many transistors (The pencil eraser sized ones) onto circuit boards. Some of the manuals I used for the systems I worked on were printed in 1958. By the time I left Avionics in 1993, you could not replace the actual transistors/capacitors etc. anymore due to damaging the components with heat, and you really had to be careful of ESD. You had to make sure you were grounded before even touching the circuit boards, whereas you could flick your cigarette ashes on the old ones, and manhandle them, and they would still work. Is that a sign of progress? The MTBF certainly went down with the new stuff, but so did your knowledge on how to fix it since you were just swapping out circuit boards. Kind of like working on an ICE from the 60’s compared to one today I imagine although I am not a mechanic.
Some of my first vivid memories were of the moon landing too, although I was only 4 at the time. I was in m grandparents house sitting in their living room watching it. Both of them were so excited, and made such a big deal out of it, how could a little kid NOT remember it? I also remember being a 4th grader during the Bicentennial. Our class wrote to all the state capitals and requested any info they had how they were celebrating the Bicentennial. Each state sent us something. Some more than others. We spent what seemed like the whole year learning about the states and the USA’s first 200 years. I’m sure it was all rah-rah-rah propaganda now looking back at it. I doubt if any controversies such as slavery or the treatment of the Native Indians were mentioned. But, it did instill pride in being an American. Call it state propaganda if you wish, but where is our pride today? Some libertarians say the state is evil, and it certainly does evil things. Unmentionable evil things, and I’m not defending the state, but shouldn’t a group of people, even a group as large as the USA have bonds that hold them together, and feel pride together (Not really Gay Pride)? This can certainly be accomplished without Uncle, and maybe that’s where we need to go: A world without Uncle.
>shouldn’t a group of people, even a group as large as the USA have bonds that hold them together, and feel pride together
Well, I think so, and so do you, eh?
Hi turtle,
A quick thought before taking Father’s Day off:
Yes, I’m all for such bonds. But in the USA, they should be based on liberty, i.e., freedom from government coercion. In addition to the obvious stuff like speech and religion, we should feel pride in being free to use our property as we wish, to trade as we see fit, and to keep what we earn.
This is the kind of pride I want to see, not pride in grandiose collectivist shows like shooting things into space because Dear Leader thinks it’s good for us. That trains people to cheer the state – and to accept its orders in any “emergency.”
>change their sex
it is not possible to change one’s sex.
Sex is evidenced by chromosomes, which are determined at conception, *NOT* “assigned at birth.” Males have XY, females have XX. That is basic biology. Biology is science, i.e. measurable and repeatable.
“To measure is to know.”
– Lord Kelvin.
So far, it is not possible to change one’s chromosomes, thus not possible to change the sex of an organism. There is no such thing as “transgender.”
There are, unfortunately, people who are conflicted about their sexual identity.
There are, unfortunately, people who have paid money to doctors to mutilate, or excise, their sex organs.
To such people, I can only say, my heart goes out to you. To the medical people who performed such nefarious deeds, I can only say, may you rot in hell. To the rest of us, I say, we certainly will *NOT* be ruled by, nor cater to, sexually mutilated freaks, who are more to be pitied than censured.
It’s child abuse, pure and simple. Taking advantage of adolescents who are quite often sexually confused, and crave attention, and destroy their bodies to accommodate their temporary confusion and craving. Even if t were a thing, the last number i saw was they compose about 0.05% of the US population. Hardly enough to rearrange the world do please. How can such monsters criticize Muslim clitorectomy, do deny any sex, when they are doing similar to “change” sex.
You are 100% right, but you should ignore this. It is a deliberate provocation and distraction- exactly like earlier barbarians capturing and torturing your kids to get you to lose your head and abandon your defense of your home. Enough with the sexually ill, and the race rabble. We have a home and life and liberty do defend, and if we’re all so busy bitching among each other about what those nutjobs and freaks did now.
Talk to your neighbors, reach common ground, practice your life skills including the art of weaponry. We’re in the midst of a full blown Bolshevik revolution and they won’t allow themselves to be voted out any more than they are in North Korea.
Well said, Erewhon.
Hi Rush,
“…but how or why would the private sector even have attempted anything like Apollo?”
It probably wouldn’t have. That’s how you can tell it’s a scam. Nobody wants it enough to pay for it voluntarily with their own money, so the government steals the resources from the private economy and then says, “See? Isn’t it awesome what WE can do?”
The purpose of the U.S. space program is the same as it was for the Soviet Union’s: the aggrandizement of the state. I can’t think of a single way that my life is better because government employees walked on the moon.
But what about the “spinoffs”? Please. If there is a thing, X, that would meet a need but has not been developed, then you put a few engineers and inventors to work designing X. You don’t spend billions accomplishing Y, with the hope that you will stumble upon X along the way.
Hi Roland,
I don’t disagree with any of your specific points. I do, however, maintain that at least Apollo was about achievement. It was heroic and spectacular and so, in the sense at least, admirable. The guys who designed the Saturn V were brilliant; the men who flew it were ballsy. Today, we have neither – because neither is admired.
Morning Eric!
No argument about the brilliance or the balls, or the need for both. I just wish they had been employed to produce something at a profit. That’s how we can tell that it’s truly the best use of the resources available.
I’d argue that government space exploration is partly to blame for today’s willingness to admire and obey politicians. JFK set a seemingly impossible goal and “we” achieved it! We can do great things again if only we elect the right leader!
The trouble with government space exploration for those of us who love machinery and techie things is that is just so darned cool and fascinating. They suck us in with that. Having a lifelong fascination with how things work, and having owned a machining business, I could spend weeks marveling at the parts in a space museum.
A Ford class aircraft carrier is an awesome technological achievement, but does that imply we should be paying billions of our tax dollars to build a fleet of them?
Don’t think so. But I wouldn’t turn down a tour of one.
Neither would I. 🙂
Hi Turtle,
So also a skyscraper and these were for the most part built with private capital!
I wonder how one of those floating football field aircraft carriers would handle some of the hypersonic missiles the Ruskies, and Chicoms are rumored to have? The ones the carriers supposedly don’t have a defense against? Because if we ever find out, it will be time to head to the hills, but, can you get far enough away to be safe from the aftermath?
Hi Rush,
I suspect carriers are the battleships of our time. Impressive as hell – and vulnerable as hell to cheap attack. In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck was the most powerful warship afloat, the state of the art of its type. It was crippled by fabric-covered biplanes, the ship’s mighty 15 inch guns and heavy armor unable to stop them. I suspect a similar fate awaits the Ford. Aircraft carriers are lightly armored and depend almost entirely on their air wing and screen of surface ships to protect them. One missile gets past these and – kablooey.
Hi, Eric,
I suspect you may be right.
Question is, what would happen after that, with carrier battle groups obsolete? Fortress America as the only viable base for long range stealth aircraft? Some other 10X more expensive concept? Who knows?
But, hey, it’s “national security,” so spare no expense.
Amen, Roland. And, me too – as regards marveling at the gear. I did so as I kid, spending countless hours at the Air & Space Museum in DC.
I suppose my lament is that if we must live under an authoritarian government, at least let it be one that encourages and promotes excellent and achievement. Even the Soviets didn’t venerate Loserdom.
Only the U.S. has sunk to that low.
Yeah: loserdom and victimhood. What a combination.
Hi, Roland,
You’ll probably enjoy this video, if you haven’t already seen it.
From raw Al to rocket:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0fG_lnVhHw
Notice the difference between iso grid on the older rockets and ortho grid on the new one. Narrator says the more efficient design only became possible because computer analysis tools improved. That is absolutely a manifestation of Moore’s Law.
For a somewhat better view of the fabulous Moon missions,
https://centerforaninformedamerica.com/moondoggie/
Wagging the Moondoggie
I bought the routine at the time, but it smelled fishy.
Hi Erie,
Carl Sagan once said (and I agree with him) that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. I’m the last person to take at face value anything the government says as truthful. But I don’t believe the Moon landings were faked – though I do believe some aspects of the mission (e.g., some of the photos) may have been. I also suspect – here comes some Weirdness – that we (humanity) may have been waved off the Moon. And that could account for why no men have returned to it since Apollo.
The Moon is itself anomalous in a number of respects. Where did it come from? What a happy coincidence that it is just the right size and in just the right place to stabilize the Earth’s wobble… und so weiter.
Then we have the phenom of Whitey on the Moon – and the political pressure to cancel the program for the sake of sister Nell’s rent, and because the rat don bit her arm, und so weiter…
Hi Eric,
Realizing this could be a whole other discussion for another time, but…
As an “astronomy buff” from an early age (I could identify most all the constellations, major stars, and planets in grade school, and read up on all the manned and unmanned missions), I’m interested and in what you mean by “waved off” the moon — do you mean by extraterrestrial being themselves, by a “force” or “signal” from space, etc.? Could you give a brief synopsis or a link about that, I’d be interested in reading more!
+1, I’d like to know more too Eric.
Hi Chris,
In re the Moon and the “wave off”: It is interesting to look into what some of the Apollo astronauts had to say, both on record (confirmed) and off (supposedly). Here is one of them, Edgar Mitchell: https://www.military.com/off-duty/navy-astronaut-and-6th-man-moon-believed-alien-intervention.html
Buzz Aldrin has said some interesting things as well.
Great site. Some footage from the, ahem, 700?! lost tapes showed up on Lew Rockwell’s blog at the end of last year. Clearly filming out in the desert somewhere with all the usual suspects. So many anomalies. To quote the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Californication”, “space may be the final frontier, but it’s made in a Hollywood basement.”
Here’s the link…
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/wikileaks-releases-moon-landing-scenes-filmed-in-nevada-desert/
I disagree. I think that if not for government we would likely have colonies on Mars to support mining operations in the asteroids. All that money that NASA spent was taken out of our economy. If left there, who knows what might have been done with it. Lest you forget, LBJ’s “great society” also came to be in that time frame, which of course was an abject and extremely expensive failure, but is still being pursued today, cost being no object, since it’s not their money.
Our Germans (Herr Doktor Werner Von Braun et al, brought over thanks to “Operation Paperclip”) were better than the ones captured by the Soviets.
“Diversity” is *NOT* our strength.
Shared values are, or at least were, our strength.
>Blowhards such as Obummer
You got that right.
Along with “You didn’t build that.”
Excuse me?
I did not see anyone else in the room when I was working nights and weekends to
make it happen. Every small business owner knows this. Just got off the phone with my sister, who is wondering if there is something wrong with her because she is working (only) 40 hours per week.
Obama said, “Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.” It’s clear that by “that,” he meant roads and bridges. When attacked by Republicans, he immediately gave that explanation, which makes sense. But they had their gotcha, and they weren’t going to let it go.
There is so much to criticize about this creep that we don’t need gotchas. It reminds me of the left’s “racist” smears. Somebody has a slip of the tongue or constructs a sentence poorly, and suddenly he’s a racist. No amount of explaining or context-adding will do. Everybody with a brain knows exactly what he meant, but there is no going back. This is uncivilized.
In that same campaign speech, Obama said, “I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.” Baloney, but I’ll bet 100 percent of the Republicans who jumped on him for “You didn’t build that” would agree with him. No imagination or curiosity whatsoever.
Libertarians should be the adults in the room who explain that government spending is not “investing,” and yes, all of those things really could be done privately.
Well….
Point taken if O’Bummer’s remarks were taken out of context.
Wouldn’t be the first time the press tried to slime a politician.
OTOH,
My position is that politics is a necessary evil, which can be thought of as a *very* low efficiency heat engine. Get three people in a room, you have politics, like it or not.
You want the highway which passes by your property paved?: Great. The paving company will require a minimum contract, and you will have to come to an accommodation with your neighbors, like them or not.
You want electricity from a power grid? Terrific. As far as I can see, he regulated monopoly concept is the only one which can work. Try to picture a dozen sets of power poles from “competing” electric power providers. I see no way this could possibly work.
Ditto for roads. There is this (not so) little matter of right of way, which is a scarce resource. I live at the eastern end of Santa Ana Canyon, home to CA SR 91, one of he busiest highways in the U.S., if not the world. Years ago, a private consortium based in Orange County secured a concession to build a toll road in the median of SR 91. The venture failed, and local government took it over. Toll road still exists, now government owned.
Ah, 1976. The year I graduated from high school. The world was big and awesome and full of possibilities. And I took advantage of them.
But now… I can’t imagine the world my boys need to navigate through with the woke bullshit, the climate hysteria, the snowflakes demanding a piece of everyone else.
I agree. This republic lasted 200 years, and not a decade longer. Today, we’re in a post-America something or other.
With the attempted destruction of it by Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, and similar, it’s actually remarkable it stayed together until 1976.
Here is what the late, great Blaze Foley had to say about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNCEMeQ1iig
One of the lines in the film Borat that made me laugh hardest was a throw-away:
First stops on our journey was Washington, D. C…
…home of mighty U.S. warlord, Premier Bush.
I’m sure Sacha Baron Cohen wrote it just to emphasize the voice of Borat, but it really is an apt description of the modern Commander and Chief/President.
Which is a segue into the other title of the man in the White House, Commander in Chief. They all love to surround themselves with military types because everyone (well, everyone who votes along party lines, or is employed by the military-industrial complex, or owns stock in Boeing) loves a man in uniform. And as long as the Commander in Chief doesn’t do anything to “fix” the veterans administration, or negotiate with people before bombing them, or stop bombing, they’ll keep the military optics front and center.
Now we have China building up their army and navy because they’re afraid of their biggest customer. Insanity! Oh sure, “President” for life Xi Jinping might have delusions of empire, but it won’t take much for us to start converting those war factories over to consumer goods, drying up their Capex. Note that the Biden administration hasn’t rolled back “Trump’s” tariffs, and you still can’t buy Huawei switches in the US. A few well-placed executive orders put in front of Biden and we can cut ties with China for good. And we’re still their main food source despite their attempts to cultivate Africa. Dangerous times, dangerous games.
Good points Eric.
Exemplified by the intolerable content of high school Civics classes, having change during the 60’s.
Now, with the predominance of CRT, we white folks have been labeled (liibled?) su-prem-e-cysts.
Amen, West Va –
My girlfriend homeschooled her kids; no surprise, they are pretty squared away. Government schools are little better than Maoist indoctrination centers at this point. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
‘we white folks have been labeled (liibled?) su-prem-e-cysts.’ — WV mom
‘The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has pushed back an emergency meeting on post-vaccination heart inflammation seen in Americans, primarily young people, because of a new federal holiday.‘ — Epoch Times
Juneteenph, homeys!
Priorities… priorities… the Communist Death Cult (CDC) was never about “health”. And with Commies, the false religion of Marxism always comes first. It fits right within the sacramental continuance of the depopulation agenda, given the High Scores of Socialism in general.
Venus and Mars are out in the southern sky this morning. The birds begin to sing their songs right around 4:30 am.
Ain’t nobody going to do a thing about that, it happens with or without humans making a mess of everything in sight.
Everywhere. All the time. har
Uncle Joe won’t be mandating much until after his morning routine, which nobody wants to see at all.
Tariq Aziz was the deputy prime minister of Iraq. He was raised Catholic.
Depleted uranium ammunition works wonders on the human genome.
Long live Bill Clinton! Long live Hillary!
Long live George Bush and the rest of the Bushes.
Long live Donald Rumsfeld.
Long live Dick Cheney.
Long live Vladimir Putin! Long live Varack Obama!
Long live all of the rest of the shitheads making life a miserable living hell here on earth.
Fuck your covid bullshit along with all of your lies and deception.
You get to burn in hell, forever. Enjoy your final resting spot, assholes.
Harumph.
Presidents, schmesidents.
At this point, what difference does it make?
The majority of adults in any democracy are unrepresented. That’s not democracy.
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/04/25/president-nobody/
Also, a rip from Brandon Smith’s latest title:
Business Rights ARE NOT More Important Than Personal Freedom.
I like the ‘ring’ to that.
https://alt-market.us/vaccine-passports-are-business-rights-more-important-than-personal-freedom/
Hi Helot,
Indeed. “Businesses” have no rights. Only legal protections. Individuals have rights. And one has the right to oppress another human being, outside or inside a “private business.”
I’d argue that businesses, particularly corporate businesses, have both greater rights and greater legal protections than individuals, since both have become nothing more than whatever one can squeeze out of the system. How things are, versus how they’re supposed to be.
All rights have devolved to being a matter of ‘grants’ from the supreme entity.
I agree, karalan –
Corporations have a greater “right” to free speech as a for-instance since they are free to spend vast sums of money to propagate their point-of-view; sums almost no mere individual can afford to spend.
Hi Eric,
Also notice that most corporations are now titled as “LLC”, meaning limited liability corporation. Good luck trying to get that label for yourself if ever faced with a lawsuit; would also wreck the business model of the insurance mafia.
Just a correction Mike. LLC stands for limited liability company, not corporation. LLC is a type of entity structure, but not a taxation structure. A corporation can be an entity and taxation structure, either an S or C Corp.
A disregarded entity (single owner business) can be an LLC, but that doesn’t make their business a corporation. If a business is an LLC and wants to be taxed as a corporation then additional forms need to be filed….Form 2553 for an S Corp or an 8832 for a C Corp.
Yes RG, this is confusing as heck when it comes time to send 1099s.
I’ve read a lot of B. Smith’s stuff over the years and generally agree with him. In this piece he argues he has property rights in his “little” web site (he actually banned me from commenting on his site in ‘18 over a disagreement about the origins of fascism so it’s clear to me he he takes this seriously) but the owners of “big” websites, let’s call them Big Tech, do not. Rendering the principle of private property “situational” or “contextual” in order to deal with the internal contradictions of this position is exactly like what the left does to justify it’s contradictory positions because why… the ends justify the means.
The difference falls on the type of business, corporate or private. Corporations have no rights their creator doesn’t give them, which would be government. A person has rights that predate the state, and are guaranteed protection by the now nullified US Constitution. Which is only brought out to “justify” actions it actually forbids. As in corporations, being creations of the state and in partnership with it, magically having the same rights as real people who were born with them.
Because representing one’s bank account is much more rewarding and long lived than representing one’s constituents.
I was president of our HOA — big whoop, I know. I didn’t “run” to be president and I was appointed to the board in the first place. They decided to make me president. So what did I do? I created the meeting agendas, “ran” the board meetings, signed our contracts, and walked the storm water management and lawn people around the development a few times. Too many times.
People in the neighborhood didn’t seem to like me much. I don’t care… to me… that’s “job done right”. I wasn’t there to sugar coat the reality of our stupid budget versus the pie-in-the-sky dream list of the residents. They didn’t like me saying things like, “Oh? You can get a better HOA deal over in XYZ neighborhood? GOOD! Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you move there.” (etc)
They acted like I was slapping them in the face for NOT being their freaking charismatic leader… of a 178 unit… dumpy neighborhood in the sticks. Freaking communist bastards anyway.
That’s what our President is supposed to be. No, not a charismatic leader obviously but a contract signer, hand shaker, tour giver, and basically administrative guy that does what the rest of the people say needs to be done. A grunt job.
I know why I didn’t understand this previously but I think that, as an adult, you’re kind of supposed to know this and also supposed to know that what is actually going on is bullshit. We don’t have a republic that our founders created. We have a pseudo monarchy and it needs to end.
Pretty good comment, Eure Majestat.
Nicely put.
I like your attitude.
“A grunt job.” – that’s what every goobermint position is supposed to be, eh? … ‘supposed to be’ is the key phrase, I guess.
I have often thought that the BEST government would be a monarchy, with a benevolent king. Of course it would only last as long as the benevolent king.
Indeed, John –
One thinks, for instance, of Augustus. Or Marcus Aurelius. Or even Napoleon, for that matter. Then one thinks of Tiberius. Of Commodus.
Or perhaps more pertinent today Caligula.
Or maybe Sir John Crapper, the Englishman who invented the flush toilet! At least he DID something tangible of benefit to all mankind!
It would certainly lower the chances of being ruled by opportunistic psychopaths.
If someone made me president of an HOA my first and only agenda would be to nullify the HOA. They’re the most basic, purest form of communism. Oh, you want to put brown shingles on your house?
That picture of the el presidente and that cheesy smile is hilarious. It shows how such clowns should be mocked for the ridiculous people they are. It’s the perfect metaphor for the recent G7 shit show, with its pathetic array of geriatric losers on display. Demonstrating how far world politics have fallen, and how undignified our so-called leaders are. Showing why they carry so little credibility, and why all they can do is congratulate themselves in between changing their Depends. The veneer of their pantsuits hiding the face of satan that lies beneath. To think how so many people look to these frauds to run their (and our) lives.
American president = minor monarch
this system is broke
everything we are led to believe ends up being a farce, and the answer is always a benevolent govt that will be needed to save you
why do we need a president, or govt at all for that matter?
all they do is take your $, tell you what to do, then send your kids to war
Hi Dan,
Yup. All one need do is ask oneself an honest question – and give oneself an honest answer. Which is: How much would you willingly pay for government “services”? Most of us don’t want – and don’t use – these “services,” which is precisely why we are forced to pay for them.
There is no such thing as a tax payer. Taxes are collected, at gunpoint.
Exactly right, Eric. But we have to apply that to grandiose “services” like NASA too. How much would people pay for grainy black & white video of guys hopping about on the moon? Or pictures of Martian rocks? Or to get their kids’ silly experiments carried to a space station (most of which amount to: “What is the effect of weightlessness on [fill in the blank: crickets, spiders, salamanders, chewing gum…]”)?
I once criticized NASA on a conservative site, and hoo boy, I found out pretty quickly how much those small-government people worship the state.
The US president is a servant of a ruling class with very rare exception.
JFK became an exception.
Trump was an exception.
There haven’t been any others in over a century.
Exceptions, if you don’t look at them too closely.
What happens when a president’s administration decides to target so-called “domestic terrorists” (i.e., anyone who doesn’t like the current government and has certain, let’s say, anti-government political beliefs) and calls for more mass surveillance and encroachment of civil liberties than we’ve ever seen in this country, turning what was once America into something the Stasis would have loved to have been able to do? What happens when “the president” who’s party is always claiming how sacred “democracy” is and how we need to protect it at all cost wants to directly attack and unperson a large portion of their country that they don’t agree with and take despotic actions against them similarly to that which provokes them to invade other countries so as to “liberate” their people? What happens when he is literally promoting snitch lines to target individuals for wrongthink and reeducate them?
Will this finally be the tipping point, the final nail in the coffin for America and what was left of the bill of rights, or will freedom loving people fight to protect their rights and not let themselves get thrown in the gulags now that they themselves are directly being targeted and not some supposed terrorists in some desert thousands of miles away?
When I first figured it out I was routinely panned as you’d expect for being too leftist for the Republicans, too right to my Democrat friends and family. I asked, with some hyperbole I thought, “What’s it gonna take for people to understand, tanks rolling down the street?” It seems now that maybe not even this will open their eyes and minds to the reality.
Apparently, most people wouldn’t recognize tyranny if they slapped a mask on their face and forced them to stand 6′ apart.
‘in 1860 … the office of the president was replaced by a general secretary/premier who styled himself “president” ‘ — EP
Lincoln’s reign of blood is STILL yielding sweet dividends for tax feeders:
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will sign legislation marking Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday.
The president will sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act at 3:30 p.m. in the East Room of the White House.
The law will take effect immediately after Biden’s signature. “As the 19th falls on a Saturday, most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18th,” the U.S. Office of Personnel Management wrote in a tweet.
https://tinyurl.com/yp9vrjds
Note in the law’s title the phony term ‘National Independence Day,’ when it was no such thing.
Long-term strategy here is to phase out July 4th (commemorating a document signed only by white males, thus double-plus ungood) with Juneteenth, recalling an empty proclamation decreed by the butcher Lincoln — unaccountably one of our designated federal saints, despite his atrocious record of mass slaughter and his oft-repeated view that black people should be deported.
In that article in the link the woman in front is carrying a sign that says “celebrate freedom” while wearing a face diaper. Cognitive dissonance much? 😝
‘It is left entirely up to the State legislature to determine how electors are selected.” — John Kable
As Arizona’s audit of Maricopa County ballots (roughly two-thirds of the state vote) approaches completion, attorney general Mark Brnovich fired a warning shot at raccoon-faced ringer Merrick Garland in the imperial capital:
‘Brnovich announced Tuesday via his campaign that he had sent a letter to Garland on Monday. That letter accused Garland, the nation’s top law-enforcement officer, of showing “an alarming disdain for state sovereignty.”
“My office is not amused by the DOJ’s posturing and will not tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our State Senate’s audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections,” Brnovich wrote.
“We stand ready to defend federalism and state sovereignty against any partisan attacks or federal overreach. … Arizona will not sit back and let the Biden administration abuse its authority, refuse to uphold laws, or attempt to commandeer our state’s sovereignty.”
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/06/15/mark-brnovich-merrick-garland-letter-arizona-election-audit/7704454002/
Two roads diverge in a darkening wood: in one fork, the audit basically confirms the original count, say within 0.1%. It fades from the news after a day, though a useful precedent is established.
But the other road reveals a serious discrepancy. Anyone who paid the slightest attention knows which party will have ended up with extra votes.
The Big Gov/Lügenpresse united front already has made clear, with its dismissal of election challenges as ‘baseless’ and even ‘lies,’ that such an outcome is intolerable regardless of inconvenient facts.
This is where Big Gov’s hobnailed boot stomps down hard to crush an unacceptable affront to the established narrative, using the same scorched-earth tactics applied to Jan 6th Stop the Steal protesters.
There are many quips equating democracy with negative connotations. My by far most favorite is “Gang rape is democracy in action”. It demonstrates in a very violent and offensive manner exactly what democracy is.
As you correctly noted, the Constitution ended in 1860. Before then, it was commonly accepted that any State or States had a legitimate right to secede. Which was the one and only method of enforcing the Constitution. “Play by the rules or we’re quitting and taking our marbles home”. After killing about 650,000 Americans, more than all other wars combined, to dispel the notion of secession, the very political unit the Constitution was meant to limit, the Federal government, was the only protection it had. Leaving the fox in charge of the hen house. The result is exactly what we now experience. No effective Constitution at all. Power to determine the Constitutionality of this or that government action was usurped by the SCOTUS. I is NOT granted such power by the Constitution, and it has a horrible record of using it. Allowing POTUS to become dictators, from Lincoln to Biden.
A case in point. There is no Constitutional requirement for there to even be a public election for POTUS. It is left entirely up to the State legislature to determine how electors are selected. They can use chicken entrails or astrology if they so prefer.