buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 7:37:06 AM

1

Looking at Instapundit, I can see that the Cadmus Strategy is in full force during this election season.

Cadmus, you will recall, is the Greek-mythology hero who was given the task of plowing a field and sowing it with dragon's teeth.  The goddess Athena warns him that when the dragon's teeth hit the ground, they will turn into a host of armed men who will attack him; his only chance for survival was to take the helmet in which the dragon's teeth were carried and toss it in amongst them; when it struck one of the men, they'd begin quarreling amongst themselves as to who threw it, and they would kill each other off. 

Trump may be the current front runner, but he is also the helmet; the insistence by his fervent supporters that this severely-flawed and severely-damaged candidate can and must win, and that consequently all his challengers' flaws, however minor, must be magnified with daggers-drawn opposition, merely ensures that whoever actually does win the nomination will have the unenviable task of leading an exhausted and deeply riven party to battle against an opponent with all the power of hostile voting procedures backing him up.  

Who is Cadmus here?  Is it Trump himself, is it the Republican establishment, or is it the Democrats?

Occasional Reader 8/8/2023 8:31:00 AM

2

You know how we keep comparing the Leftist tech tycoons to James Bond villains?

Well. 

Occasional Reader 8/8/2023 8:32:59 AM

3

Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 1:

See, also, the theory that the Biden administration is deliberately stoking Trump's popularity via the indictments, because they would prefer to face him in the general election than (say) DeSantis.

I don't know if I believe that theory, but I don't think it's a crazy one.

buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 9:02:28 AM

4

Reply to Occasional Reader in 3:

I wouldn't discount it either.  For one thing, the mail-in ballots and other irregularities from 2020 have never been addressed.   They will doubtless be brought to bear against anyone who runs against the Demcratic nominee, but if the Republican candidate is Trump, and he goes down in flames, the current spate of indictments will make it impossible for him to contest the election results a second time.

buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 9:04:10 AM

5

Reply to Occasional Reader in 3:

On the other hand, if Trump doesn't cinch the nomination, there are plenty of indications that his supporters will play Achilles and spend the election sulking in their tents instead of going to the polls, thus increasing the Democrats' voting margins.

Occasional Reader 8/8/2023 9:13:56 AM

6

In #5 buzzsawmonkey said: there are plenty of indications that his supporters will play Achilles

I would say anecdotal evidence certainly supports that.  But, again; anecdotal (as far as I know). 

JCM 8/8/2023 9:32:25 AM

7

Reply to Occasional Reader in 2:

Bond villains, *snort* hell what do you think the New Soviet Man was?

Why are leftist so all in on abortion and assisted suicide? The unconstrained vision holds they can make man better. 

buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 10:42:54 AM

8

In #7 JCM said: Why are leftist so all in on abortion and assisted suicide?

They're trying to show they support capitalism and individual initiative by outsourcing the traditional Socialist mass-murder to the private sector.

JCM 8/8/2023 10:49:16 AM

9

Reply to JCM in 7:

Stalinism adopted Lamarckian evolutionary theory. By creating the socialist paradise, individuals would conform to the environment created.

The leftist STILL buy into this social engineer philosophy of Stalin / Lamarck. Poverty cause crime, eliminate poverty eliminate crime. Lack of equity causes grievances, force equity will eliminate grievances.

What is the method of handling dissent? Social media suppression, hate crimes, cancellation, social credit scores, with the end as inevitable as the sun rise... camps and killing fields.

It HAS TO END that way.

Because the Rousseauian philosophy of the noble man is wrong, and the leftist will not, can not accept that corner stone they built the entire edifice of their world view is mere sand.

buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 11:19:26 AM

10

buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 11:31:46 AM

11

The FDA advises on tattoo removal:

When you got it you were groovin', but now you are removin'
It's flayin' alive, flayin' alive
The technical term is removing epidermis
It's flayin' alive, flayin' alive
Argh, argh, argh, argh
Flayin' alive, flayin' alive
Argh, argh, argh, argh
Flayin' alive, flayin' alive
Flayin' aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive
Hey look, it's still there
Somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah...

---the BeeGees re-purpose their "Saturday Night Fever" hit for the FDA

buzzsawmonkey 8/8/2023 3:43:11 PM

12

Remember when "Power to the People" was a Leftist slogan?

Now, with all the "climate change" nonsense, my---how times have changed.

Kosh's Shadow 8/8/2023 4:58:24 PM

13

Seen on an ad for a t-shirt:

"If men are from Mars; women are from Venus; are the other genders from Uranus?"

Kosh's Shadow 8/8/2023 7:28:40 PM

14

Verizon Wireless pissed me off too much.

DSL is flaky, so we got a VZW hotspot device. And it has stopped getting internet access last Wednesday, fixed in 15 minutes in a phone call, and today, with the incompetents they put on chat where it was not fixed in an hour; *Should be time and a half or double time at $75/hr)

Filed an FCC complaint.

Also, I believe there was false advertising when I was told I had an unlimited plan, only to find it throttles to too slow after 150 GB, and we typically can use 10 GB/day.

I think they will be giving me an unlimited plan or a big refund for the plan and the device. FCC complaints go somewhere.