Albert Bierstadt, Mountains, 1867

One of many variations on what is the same painting, redeemed by Bierstadt's technical expertise and rich sense of natural drama.

 

Three years ago I wrote:

A spear is naturally intimidating. "Action at a distance" seems to puzzle wildlife and physicists preferentially. The same menacing animal that ignores a magnum revolver will respect a spear, so they can commonly be kept at a distance, and should it not, be righteously impaled even by first timers. Perhaps it's primeval muscle memory.

In it's simplest form a serviceable spear can be made in short order. As I said then, "Cut a length of pole timber, sharpen, fire harden, done. Make it taller than you are so you don't impale yourself should you fall". Use it as a walking stick and you also have a weapon in your hand at all times. And a fishing pole or fishing spear. And a cudgel. It's a versatile tool, and a necessary one should you get separated from your pack or escape empty handed. I left it at that.

Lately I've considered carrying a metal spear tip as as part of my woods cruising pack, with more penetration than slicing in mind. Something that can be attached quickly even with hands numbed by cold. Something that wouldn't lock me into a specific diameter. I think two inches is about right for a combo spear and walking stick, preferably ash, maybe an inch and a half for a spear only, but no matter how much I threaten it, pole timber refuses to grow in even increments so a little bit either way.

Just when I thought my pack was fully optimized I ran across the "Titan Two-Sided Mylar Emergency Survival Space Blankets, 5-Pack". Twenty-one bux. 52" x 82", is 12u thick, weighs 1.75 oz and cammy on one side. Amazon . Looks like a serious upgrade to what I have now in terms of durability. Then I saw this one, "Swiss Safe Camouflage Emergency Mylar Blankets", four for ten bux. Amazon . The specifications look identical, or near enough, so I went for the Swiss Safe. I'll swap 'em out with what I have, one for one.

Here's a note to all those white folks wringing their hands because they're being insulted without consequence and elbowed to life's periphery. Hah! Now we're all Appalachian trash. Welcome to my world. I've kept a light on for you all this time.

Next

Vox Day sees a different kind of generational change:

The big difference between Generation Z and its predecessors is that their knowledge of identity politics is real and formative, whereas that of the older generations is mostly symbolic and theoretical. The Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials love to feel that they are helping poor unfortunate minorities through their virtue-signaling, whereas Generation Z looks around and realizes that they are in the minority themselves and they are surrounded by a Diversity that hates, envies, and fears them.

Next

"Wish I'd said that" gems.

James Quillian at Fantasy Free Economics:

Modern socialism, the kind that has its claws dug into the United States at this very moment, is transferring wealth and income from the bottom to the top faster than it can be created.

John Q. Publius at Anatomically Correct Banana:

We can’t even have our own neighborhoods, let alone countries.

Bill Buppert, on the education complex, at ZeroGov:

There is no way to fix it but to raze it to the ground, cashier all the administration and faculty and not let a single red cent of government money onto any campus across America ever again.

Next

From Hugh Latimer at Survival Blog

The new report released by the military on the EMP vulnerability of America "suggests that the threat of an attack is significant. While the report is mostly focused on the impact an EMP attack would have on the military, it appears to support the congressional warning that up to 90 percent of the population on the East Coast would die within a year. It’s important to note that those fatality numbers are not directly attributable to the EMP hit itself, but to the failure of infrastructure. Without electricity, transportation, food processing, and healthcare, the mortality rate would be significant. The report suggested that up to 99 nuclear reactors could melt down without the ability to cool them. Failures may include long-term loss of electrical power, sewage, fresh water, banking, landlines, cellular service and vehicles".

Next

From Dystopic at Liberty's Torch:

The assumption is this: You are not permitted your own standards. We, the Left, will set them, and you are required to meet them... A Rightist argues that Capitalism will decrease poverty relative to Socialism, and this is why Capitalism is better. Yes, it's actually true but it omits an implied assumption: namely that we must meet the Left's standard for what is satisfactory before we are permitted to prefer Capitalism over Socialism. This is a mistake.

Next

A Veritable Feast of Reality, Choice, and Consequences—a great read by Uncola at Toll Online

It's been said wisdom comes from experience. I believe that now more than ever. It's also true that time is a teacher that kills all of the students.  Indeed. The inevitableness of reality requires honesty and acceptance.

Next

This one made the rounds a while ago. Somehow I missed it. It's been verified as an accurate transcription from page 2 of the Washington Post on November 2, 1922:

The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen, Norway.

Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

Next

These articles posted at the MIT Technology Review's home page show there's too much Massachusetts in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The headlines:

Climate change’s highest cost: Overheated employees too miserable to work

Cutting emissions could prevent tens of thousands of heat deaths annually

DNA databases are too white. This man aims to fix that

The term for SJW domination is "converged", meaning progressives take over an institution and use it like a skin, trading on its former reputation. Smithsonian and other formerly benign institutions are being repurposed from within. The New York Times is a classic example. Once a respected news outfit, it's now another tedious outlet for the party line. For a more entertaining description of convergence, see this seven minute clip from the classic 1956 movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the "pod scene".

and finally,

This July and August when I was mostly incapacitated I ran low on ready-to-post old photos and ads, barely keeping ahead. Since then I've gotten a half year ahead on both. Fifteen minutes to an hour each to bring them to Woodpile Report Standard. The paintings generally take twice as long. When I have time I'll rewrite my subroutines for what will become the Intergalactic Standard of Excellence. Gotta have goals, right?

Well gang, enough aimless chitchat. Let's check, is Paris burning? Why, yes. Yes it is . What von Choltitz wouldn't do, Parisians will. On the plus side, it started as a protest against the Climate Change fuel tax. There's even more botheration chronicled in Yer Ol' Woodpile Report. We'll get to it after this old ad.

 

1938. Oldsmobile magazine ad

 

The '38 Olds was the all new '37 with tweaks. Curiously, a rumble seat and a side mounted spare were still offered. Other manufacturers had dropped these dated options long before. Among the features of the '37 carried into the '38 was the optional "Automatic Safety Transmission", a clutchless but not automatic gearshift.

Standard was GM's "knee-action ride", a suspension that reduced unsprung weight but required meticulous maintenance. Oldsmobile sales reflected the '38 recession, half of 1937's total.

 

Remus's notebook

 

Washington Standard - Facebook Allowed Child to Be Sold in a Post After Banning Alternative Media to ‘Promote Online Safety’ ... removed the post after the auction had ended and the girl had been sold

Breitbart - GOP Senate Document Lists 20 Violent Crimes Eligible for Early Release Under Criminal Justice Reform Bill ... strangling a spouse or an intimate partner, violent carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury, assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon

Phys Org - Students at every grade need to learn climate science, expert says ... also be critically analyzing the scientific validity of sources used in political debates about the causes of climate change

South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Brenda Snipes says she'll fight suspension by Gov. Scott, and rescinds resignation ... replaces her with a close ally

Ms. Snipes , the Supervisor of Elections for Broward County, was suspended for "misfeasance, incompetence and neglect of duty". For this she was paid $178,865 annually, with a $130,000 a year pension.

American Thinker - The stomach-turning 'ballot-harvesting' that enabled Democrats to walk off with California ... winning Republican candidates were all unseated as the ballots just kept arriving, and arriving, and arriving, until the results flipped

Red State - During a Heated Lawsuit Pabst Blue Ribbon Is Saved from Death Sentence ... the anti-craft beer is brewed by Miller-Coors, it outsells Coors and Sam Adams

Daily Caller - FBI Raids Home Of Whistleblower On Clinton Foundation, Lawyer Says ... seized information he confidentially disclosed to the IG and Congress

If there's no more to this than meets the eye, the FBI has confirmed it's a rogue agency acting as the left's secret police.

Fox News - One-third of migrants in caravan are being treated for health issues, Tijuana health official says ... respiratory infections, tuberculosis, chickenpox, HIV/AIDS, skin infections, lice

Power Line - Why We Hate the Media, Chapter 12,186 ... as if we need any more reason to distrust media bias, this juxtaposition says it all

Yale Insights - White Liberals Present Themselves as Less Competent in Interactions with African-Americans ... more words related to warmth

Daily Mail - Florida girl, 16, who was born without arms qualifies as an army cadet after learning to do everything with her feet ... she taught herself to draw, she actually can tie other people's shoes, she feeds herself

Recruiters have discriminated against the armless for too long

Science Daily - The potentially deadly bacterium that's on everyone's skin ... antibiotic resistant and it's present on the skin of every person on the planet

Vintage News - Burying the Civil War Hatchet, The Great Gettysburg Reunion of 1913 ... over 53,400 veterans of the battle meet again

Electroverse - One of the Most “Miserable” Starts to Winter on Record ... 74 cities have seen an extreme season-to-date of cold and snow

History Net - Who Leaked FDR’s War Plans? ... In December 1941, someone leaked America’s top-secret blueprint for war for all the world to see

Excerpt: The German general staff saw the story as an intelligence coup and seized on the 1943 date. German war planners believed total victory in the West might be within Germany's reach if they could neutralize Britain before then.

New York Times - Accusers Will Get Their Day in Court ... preyed on girls who were in a bad way, girls who were basically homeless

If it's an open and fair trial he'll take down most of DC, half of New York and all of Hollywood

Chicago Tribune - How gun-free zones invite mass shootings ... Of 97 countries the U.S. ranks 64th

Prepper's Will - Long-term Food Preservation Using Dry Ice ... step by step procedure

Vintage News - The Secret Ingredient in 7-Up Which Eased the Pain of the Great Depression

"Until 1950, the lemon-lime flavored 7-Up contained the compound lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug that is still used today for treating bipolar disorder and depression".

Raconteur Report - Nostalgia, Not So Much ... in 1933 unemployment was 25%, breadlines and soup kitchens to keep people from starving outright were a daily reality

Heartland - Failed Oregon Solar Equipment Plant Leaves Behind Millions in Taxpayer Losses ... and a heavily polluted manufacturing site

Thanks, Obama. And thanks, EPA, you're doing a terrific job.

Planet Free Will - Have We Reached Peak Soros? ... George Soros is losing. He still thinks he’s winning. But, in reality, he’s losing

Techxplore - A new way to provide cooling without power ... initial proof-of-concept testing achieved a cooling of 6 C (about 11 F)

Science Alert - A Mysterious Seismic Wave Recently Shook Earth, And Scientists Can't Explain It ... tremors can't be accounted for by tectonic movement alone

Zero Hedge - In Europe "Criticism Of Migration" Set To Become A Criminal Offense ... criticism of migration will become a criminal offense. Media outlets that give room to criticism of migration can be shut down

Traditional Right - An Emerging Dimension of 4GW? ... “transvaluation of all values”

History Net - Battlefield as Crime Scene: The Japanese Massacre in Manila ... In acts of shocking brutality, Japanese soldiers and marines massacred tens of thousands of civilians as American troops advanced into Manila in early 1945

Japan of the 1940s got what it deserved, in fact, they got off too easy. Even so, I read detailed accounts of the Empire's defeat with satisfaction. I'm not going very far out on a limb when I say a large part of war is revenge, in both the making and the doing.

Red Pill Jew - Never Again? Why are most American Jews ignoring history and today's reality? ... time after time a disarmed people learns, bloodily, the cost of losing the ability to resist

Oroville Mercury-Register - Hellbent bikers provide security to Camp Fire evacuees at Chico church ... robbery and abuse by transients halted

Washington Examiner - Dick's Sporting Goods admits suffering gun policy backlash as sales slide ... stopped selling AR-15 style rifles, "negative reaction" could affect future results

Primal Survivor - What to Know before You Buy a Mylar Space Blanket ... if you know how to use a Mylar blanket, they actually can help you survive

 

c. 1932. Berlin, Germany

 

A meeting of Antifa—Antifaschistische Aktion—newly formed by the German Communist Party—the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands or KPD—in 1932 to fight the Nazi Sturmabteilung, popularly known as "storm troopers". The poster at left vilifies their political enemy, the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, or SPD. "Es lebe die rote einheitsfront" translates to "long live the red united front".

It's been eighty six years since this picture was taken, but Antifa is still around, and they're still communist street thugs. To wit:

Gateway Pundit - Antifa Thugs With AR15’s Intimidate Journalist Andy Ngo at Seattle Rally, Police Threaten Arrest for Filming ... officers of the Seattle “police” said Ngo’s presence was “inciting conflict” and ordered Ngo to leave the public area

 

Stuff you may want to think about
Synopsis with links

 

Rebellion, Town Hall - They aren’t even pretending anymore, and they are giddy at the idea that they can shut us up and make us serfs in our own country. But they can’t do it. Acts of oppression against your own people do not provoke fear. They provoke hate. Eliminating the ability to channel dissent within the mainstream causes radicalization. The left’s soft tyranny, where your livelihood and ability to participate in society are held hostage to ensure your acquiesce, cannot and will not continue. Those subjected to it are not going to just shrug and give up the idea that they have a right to live as they please. They are going to rebel. In fact, they have already started.

 

Civilian disarmament, Survival Blog - Gun control laws and decrees should be called out for what they really are: Systematic Civilian Disarmament. In Western nations, most such legislation usually starts small, progressing from registration to wholesale confiscation. First one category of weapons is banned, and then another. Gradually, these draconian laws can ramp up to the point where most citizens can’t even possess air rifles and crossbows. There is a distinct psychology of humans who gain positions of power. They almost immediately develop a “we/they” outlook on life that can eventually develop into narcissism and paranoia. This is most pronounced in dictators, but even petty bureaucrats display the same sinful tendencies.

 

After NATO, CDR Salamander - I have been warning my European friends for two decades the USA is one election away from leaving Europe to its own devices. The great advantage Eastern European NATO has against the Russians is their strong economies. If they are smart, even small increases in military spending can buy quality kit and training - quickly closing the gap with Russia. Eastern Europe does not have to think that Germany, France, Britain, or the USA are the only things keeping Russia away, they can do most of it all themselves. Eastern Europe has no threat from the west while Russia has much to concern her to her east. If Russia wanted to move west, she could not bring her full force to that effort.

 

Geo-engineering, Red State - NBC News offered this gem: “A last-ditch global warming fix? A man-made ‘volcanic’ eruption” to cool the planet.” Since the best climate experts say that we can expect a gradual cooling over the next few decades as the Sun weakens, the last thing we should be doing now is artificially cooling the planet still further. At about 410 parts per million we are near the lowest in the last 280 million years. As plants evolved over that time, the average level was 1200 ppm. That is why commercial greenhouses boost CO2 to that level to increase plant growth and yields by a factor of four. The IPCC has been wrong in every prediction it’s made since 1990.

Also see Karl "Hang 'Em High" Denninger's screed, Moonbat 'Final Solution' Rising, at Market-Ticker

 

1935. Nicholson Hollow, Virginia

 

Nicholson Hollow is now in Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north-central Virginia. The tiny Appalachian settlements have long been abandoned. Many cabins were burned by the Civilian Conservation Corps to prevent the return of former residents.

 

More stuff you may want to think about
Synopsis with links

 

China, Fred On Everything - China rises whlle the US flounders. They must be doing something right. In terms of economic systems, the Chinese are clearly superior. China runs a large economic surplus, allowing it to invest heavily in infrastructure and in resources abroad. America runs a large deficit. China invests in China, America in the military. China’s infrastructure is new, of high quality, and growing. America’s slowly deteriorates. China has an adult government that gets things done. America has an essentially absentee Congress and a kaleidoscopically shifting cast of pathologically aggressive curiosities in the White House.

 

Socialists, Declination - To say California is a mess is an understatement. We on the Right often assume this is due to incompetence. And while I acknowledge that possibility, I ask my readers to entertain an alternative: this is quite probably intentional. Marxists don’t want to deal with the dirty, teeming masses in their living rooms, or even their zip codes. Socialists have had the run of California since the early 90s, and yet their vision has resulted in the second-highest poverty rate in the United States. Consider the possibility that it is intentional, that this is what they wanted all along, and all the mouth-noises about the proletariat is just a cloaking device for sending us back to the age of Feudalism and rule by nobility.

 

Winnowing, Eric Peters Autos - GM’s announcement the other day that it will no longer make cars – or rather, just a few – follows Ford’s previous announcement along the same lines. Ford has already shed its entire Mercury division and GM its Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Saturn divisions. Chrysler has almost nothing left to sell. One minivan and one car, the venerable 300 sedan. Fiat has not committed to new anything for Chrysler, which slowly twists in the wind. A great winnowing – and consolidation – is under way. This homogenization of transportation may not be deliberate, it’s mostly the result of decades of government mandates.

 

Meritocracy, Red State - The agenda being pushed by the left on the software community has a good chance of becoming the dominant governing framework for much of the software that powers our lives. “Meritocracy benefits those with privilege”. Yes the privilege of working insanely hard to get good at what is a rather difficult and constantly changing discipline. Naturally seeing as merit derives from unfair privilege it must be abandoned. It’s an amazing that this kind of idea could be promulgated, but there it is. You wouldn’t accept it for your doctor, your lawyer, your realtor, your contractor, or any other profession you might actually depend on.

 

Harper's, Taki's Magazine - There’s a certain type of black public intellectual who is becoming increasingly common. A leftist identitarian, his constant subject is racism—namely, what he believes to be the ongoing systemic white oppression of blacks. He references group differences and the past slavery and other past mistreatments of blacks, as if these things by themselves suffice to prove his case. They don’t—not even close. For all his indignation and high-toned words it’s plainly he himself who is the racist. What really bothers this hypocrite is not racial injustice, but lack of black dominance. He is motivated by envy, not righteousness. He wants power, not equality. So it is with the black writer Mychal Denzel Smith.

 

Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto, Blue Division

 

Six days after Germany's invasion of Russia, Spain recruited volunteers to join the attack although Spain itself remained officially neutral. The quota was met many times over within a week, mostly fanatically anti-communist regular army and Spanish Civil War veterans. Their Blue Division, officially the Wehrmacht's 250th Infantry, fought alongside the Germans for three years.

Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto, b.1964, is Spain's leading historical-military painter. The action takes place in early 1943 at Krasny Bor, 20 miles southeast of Leningrad, during Zhukov's Operation Polar Star. It was designed in part to open the highway connecting Leningrad to Moscow.

Detail

Sketch

This is number
556

4 Dec 2018