I'm so sorry to hear about your nephew, Matt.

Ig, I liked your 3:39 on how no one knows the day or the hour that pretty much anything will happen. Those who say that our republic is now done are over-reading what is going on. We just don't know how it will turn out. I differ with you a little on UNC. I don't think they kow towed to radicals and then were humiliated. I think they were thrilled to think they were going to get this radical star of the moment. Then they were shocked to be hit with the backlash and were forced to delay the tenure decision. True that they are now humiliated, but only because they had to reverse themselves once again and then had it thrown in their faces. I am humiliated and disgusted by what UNC has become since I was tenured there.

Ig, I agree with your analysis of China quietly gobbling up the rest of the world, but I think that Xi did not come out in the open and punch the US in the face. Rather, Trump pointed out what they had been doing for decades, and took action. Maybe Xi over-reacted at that point, but Trump ripped the cover off China's game. We found out about the deep penetration of Chinese military in our academic institutions even before Covid.

sorry Davod

Davod I look at OAN every day because at least initially they were doing the most coverage of the Maricopa audit. I think they have a nice site and pretty predictable news stories as many other sites do. Nothing noteworthy

New Thread

rse Immigrants from E Europe and Russia become very loyal Americans. We should have more of them.

rse Kudos to you for digging this up. Now you need to learn Ukranian.

In 1840 William M. Murrell published a book entitled Cruise of the Frigate Columbia Around the World. In it he recounts how men received twelve lashes for trivial offences such as having dirty pots or failing to close the door of a toilet. He himself received twelve lashes for failing to properly mark a piece of clothing and for accidentally spilling ink on the deck. Murrell condemned the flagrant use of authority, but he believed that flogging should be retained for some offences such as stealing... when Senator Hale succeeded in getting a law passed in September 1850 abolishing flogging in the Navy and merchant marine, there were a number of naval officers who thought that the legislation was misguided. history.navy.mil. Delaware whipped people... until 1952 for many crimes ranging from petty theft to rape in what often were public displays outside local jails and prisons. USAToday 7/1/2020.

rse Very interesting about how few of your ancestors were slave owners. It would be instructive to look at the manuscript census for 1860 and see what most white people were doing to make a living. Of course, the idiots would say that while not all white people were slaveowners, the rest were overseers.

Bannon's newsletter says that up to 20% of ballots are missing from some pallets in Maricopa, and that the election will be decertified. Sounds presumptuous to me. Does anyone know more about this?

Great article, Clarice. But my take is different. It is because the wackos both demand an end to fossil fuels and also oppose all efforts to move a single stone in the effort to produce clean energy that they will bring themselves down. This is shown by for example the bullet train fiasco, where it can't get built because of lawsuits. It's too simplistic to say they just want to shut down everything. No, they assume they can keep living their modern lives while trying to stop all development, including environmental projects. This is good news, because it will turn the public against them.

Henry, I think the Lindell complaint is pretty weird, and doesn't lay out the evidence as it should, instead it is a long polemic. But the DG Frank presentation is very good.

I am reading Lindell's lawsuit brief, and watching DG Frank present his statistical evidence of voting machine fraud. This is the best I have seen so far. I hope it doesn't end up in the trash bin like everything else has so far.

jobs report: +559,000 vs. +675,000 expected and a revised +278,000 in April. Sucks.

No one here has yet mentioned that in some states, the right-of-way in a roundabout goes to the cars in the roundabout, and in some states it goes to the cars entering the roundabout. Haha. Have fun when you are visiting another state!

Here in Pasadena the rotaries they installed are completely disfunctional. first of all, there are still stop signs. So now we have to stop and then negotiate a big object in the middle of the intersection. Secondly, they cause a traffic backup. They installed one a short block from the end of the Pasadena Freeway which caused traffic to back up onto the freeway so badly that after only a few months they dug it all up and went back to a traffic light.

Hyperinflation happens when the public realizes that inflation is increasing rapidly, and the public takes actions to get rid of their cash as fast as possible, which causes an acceleration of inflation. The government prints money faster and faster to allow it to have enough purchasing power to pay for what it needs. These two factors cause a spiraling of inflation until the real economy collapses. I once had a student who had lived in Brazil during high inflation. He said he was paid daily, and he spent about 1/3 of his day moving money around to spend it to keep ahead of price increases. This is a tangible reason for the economic collapse. People spend time getting rid of their cash instead of doing real work.

Regarding hyperinflation, there is a formal measure, namely when the monthly inflation rate exceeds 50% for 30 consecutive days. The Hanke-Krus World Hyperinflation table, published in 2013, had 56 historical examples. In 2016, Venezuela was added to the list.

Congratulations to you, Marlene. And thanks to all. A great group of people here. When my only son used to say he didn't want children, I thought well that's the end of this branch of the family. But really it wasn't that. I just wanted grandchildren. Still have two daughters who are in their mid-twenties, so lots of possibilities yet.

A year ago or more I mentioned here that a daughter was applying to medical school. After a long struggle and seeing a 20% increase in applications this past year, she finally was accepted, and to the program she most wanted. There is joy and anticipation at our household. At the same time, my son who swore for years he did not want to have children is newly married and they are expecting a boy in September. It's been a great year so far, if you don't count the loss of our country and all, of course.

I saw Dylan in concert in Chicago in 1965. I have always found the stories he tells in his songs interesting. My favorite Dylan song is "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" about coming to America. It can be seen as social criticism, but it just seems fun to me. Why does it start with his being on the Mayflower with "Captain Arab (Ay-rab) instead of Ahab (Ay-hab). The song is filled with great one-liners. I most recently saw Dylan at the Hollywood Bowl a few years ago. He was completely unintelligible. But his band was great.

Hi Davod jinx

I was just watching Caitlyn Jenner's much-praised ad for governor. It's really a MAGA ad for California. My impression is--not a chance. Getting past the great decathlon past, what was Bruce Jenner after that? A celebrity, but a minor one. I had completely forgotten he was around until the Kardashians made him a household name again. So what does Kaitlyn offer? Just an attitude that a lot of us on the right agree with and maybe an appeal to disgruntled small business owners, who are greatly outnumbered by the great mass of low wage workers who are not working but don't particularly feel like working right now.

Of course I was thinking of Chekhov's line that if a gun appears in a play, it will be used. I hate that he said that, because it makes me notice when a gun appears casually in a movie, and I then know it will be used. I like clues in murder mysteries, but that one is too obvious.