They get off on our outrage at their hypocrisy. And their hypocrisy makes them feel powerful.
* * *
OMG the regime is going to have to cancel this song and the man singing it:
...because holy shit did that punch me right in the feels.
I'm not someone who thinks profanity is appropriate in music, but for certain exceptional circumstances...and every last cuss word is appropriate here.
* * *
Media is trying like mad to spin Biden's first "press conference" as a complete success...and failing. You see, they haven't gotten to the point that they can make us ignore the evidence of our "lying eyes".
* * *
Ah, this is why Biden can't resign. Right now the senate is split 50-50 along party lines. The democrats aren't counting on the republicans to help them confirm Harris' VP selection, which means it's got to be someone even more fucking horrible than she is.
I mean, for Murkowski and the rest of the RINOs not to vote to confirm Harris' VP pick--oh, come on, that was hopelessly naive of me. Whoever is running the show right now, it's not Harris, and her VP pick wouldn't be hers at all.
...but the democrats must think that the rethugnicans won't play along with whoever that person is, which means it's got to be someone extra-special heinous, someone no republican would vote to confirm. As soon as the democrats can steal another senate seat, though--that's when Joe kicks and Harris becomes the president.
* * *
They are going to monitor every step you take. This isn't to fund "infrastructure"; that's just an excuse. No, this is meant as a way for the government to make you pay to have a tracking dongle installed in your car, so that every time you go anywhere in it, they can track it. Ostensibly, "So we know how much you owe!"
People who discount this as paranoia don't get it. They say, "You're not important enough to track!" Of course I'm not...right now. But let's say that the feds decide that the old Fungus is a hotbed of sedition and insurrection, and they decide to put its owner into a gulag for having the temerity to be critical of government, only its owner decides he's getting out of town first.
With the tracking device: they know right where he is and can pick him up any time they want.
Without the tracking device: the first cop that sees his vehicle can stop it for "operating without a tax transceiver" and the feds get him that way.
You see?
But it's not just that. They can track the comings and goings of a person of interest and see where he spends his time, who he meets, where they meet, and for how long. Enough data like that and they can pinpoint where a great many people go and how they spend their time. Analyzed correctly, they can use that information to decide who is a threat to the regime: "Those four men are part of an underground cell. Arrest them."
Imagine that you get lost and you pull into a parking lot long enough to do a search on your phone and get your bearings. Two weeks later your boss calls you into his office, and HR is there, and he says, "You're fired."
"What? Why am I fired?"
"Two weeks ago, your car stopped for several minutes at a known meeting spot for white supremecists. Because we have government contracts, we can't chance having an insurrectionist working here." And the FBI is waiting to pick you up as you exit the building, because they want to know what you know.
Eh? "Innocent until proven guilty," you say? The government hasn't punished you. Your employment situation is between you and your employer. And the FBI is just asking you some questions; you're not under arrest or anything.
...but you get flustered during the interrogation and they trip you up, so you get jailed for "lying to a federal agent", and your trip to the gulag is counted as "another racist insurrectionist off the streets!" and of course anyone you've associated with is under suspicion now.
You think I'm exaggerating. You think I should just put on my tinfoil hat on now and get it over with. This is how totalitarian states operate and the FBI turned into the American version of the KGB years ago.
* * *
I'm starting to think that Heinlein's "Year of the Jackpot" was hopelessly optimistic. In that story, statistician Potiphar Breen observes that the world is going steadily crazier with each passing day. The story ends with the Sun exploding.
Anyway, the housing market--right now there are a lot of mortgages which are "on hold". The banks aren't allowed to foreclose because of the Wuhan Flu "emergency". But as the article makes plain, that will change, sooner or later...and when it does.
Whoo.
* * *
Meanwhile, one of the most massive container ships in the world is aground, fore and aft, in the middle of Suez Canal, blocking it completely. We're looking at "supply chain disruption" all over the freaking world because of this.
There is a shortage of semiconductors, did you know that? Automakers are having trouble making cars because they can't get the ICs that run various systems in them. The shortage is blamed on Wuhan Flu but I really wonder about that; this shortage didn't start until December, and that timing is strange since, well, what else was going on in November-December?
The ship stuck in the canal ran aground because there was a sandstorm, and visibility was shit. What about radar? GPS, charts, anything? I'm not an expert at the navigation and pilotage of superheavy cargo ships, but it seems to me that when you're sailing down a canal which is arrow straight for fifty fucking miles--even with a sizable crosswind in a ship with the aerodynamics of a crate--it should not be that damned difficult not to run into the sides.
Look: you don't just saunter up to the canal in your cargo ship and steer your ass across the isthmus; you take aboard a pilot, someone who knows the waters, to steer the ship. An expert, in other words. So you mean to tell me that this container ship had aboard a pilot who couldn't cope with a sandstorm? Was the sandstorm uniquely powerful or something? Was it due to global warming or something? Was he distracted by a mean tweet from Trump?
So the ship goes sideways, rams into the bank at speed, such that not only does the bow get inextricably embedded in the bank on one side, but the stern of the ship swings around (because of inertia) and embeds itself in the other bank, completely blocking the damned waterway! Why was the "experienced" pilot going that fast in an unprecedented sandstorm?
I have a lot of questions. I have no theories that explain all of them.
Hell yes I think it was done deliberately.
* * *
I am so very, very glad that it's Friday.
I haven't gotten a ship notification about my CPAP yet. I placed the order on Tuesday, paid 100% the same day, so why is it still in the "we'll tell you when it ships" stage on Friday?
* * *
I am going to try to paint the bedroom this weekend, though. All I need to do is wipe down the walls, stir up the paint, and slap it on (two coats) and the job will be done.
* * *
Saw Just Because on Amazon for $20 shipped, so I bought it; and I've been watching it over the past few days. It is so good.
* * *
I'm watching a video by a guy who put a 420cc Harbor Freight engine into a Honda Insight. Now he's talking about putting a turbocharger and fuel injection on it. The fuel injection kit is $300 by itself. Still--none of this shit existed when I was messing around with go karts.
Not that it matters, because I couldn't have afforded any of that stuff.
But I still have the motorizing kit for my mountain bike, and once I finish the other chores--well, it's spring, and now's the time for fun stuff like that.