Rebane's Ruminations

Christmas – 2023

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.  Matthew 1:23</i>

George Rebane

The Rebanes are more grateful than usual to be here at the end of this eventful year.  We are celebrating the birth of Christ with our local family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, one of whom joined us in January.  And here Jo Ann and I wish all of our readers an equally joyous Christmas (or holidays of choice), and a healthy and prosperous new year.

Sandbox – 22dec23

[This reissues a call for anyone to point out only ONE THING that Biden has done to benefit America and/or Americans.  Everything that Team Biden touches has turned into shit.  As a sample of the latest Bidenomics offal, consider his new forest plan that will restrict logging on tens of millions of acres of national forests to fight climate change.  Implementing this plan will increase CO2 emissions, eliminate thousands of jobs, increase the number of catastrophic wildfires, and increase the cost of all wood products from houses to kitchen implements (more here).  That guy and the evil idiots who manage him are an ongoing disaster for the country. gjr]

Sandbox – 12dec23

[It pays to contemplate more often than not of how absolutely ignorant cum stupid the majority of the American electorate has become in not understanding one whit about the objectives of collectivist politicians for whom they religiously vote.  They are totally and consummately convinced by the lamestream media of a world that does not exist and of causes that have effects opposite from those reported.  As our Founders predicted, the republic is doomed.  gjr]

Ruminations – 8dec23 (updated 18dec23)

George Rebane

Idiots on parade. ‘Court allows New York to ban guns in sensitive places’ (here)  None of these idiots understand that 1) mass shooters don’t care a crock about such prohibitions, 2) such prohibitions have never reduced the frequency of mass shootings, and 3) mass shooters take comfort in knowing where law abiding citizens must go unarmed.  Shouldn’t there be an IQ test or something similar for judges to pass before being allowed to sit on the bench?

New cohorts of ragheads are waiting in the wings for word from Iran to replace Hamas if Israel is ever successful in wiping out those low-life thugs.  We have to remember that it’s the entire Palestinian population that teaches its children to kill Jews and install terrorist organizations for their governance.  So what’s Plan B?

[10dec23 update]  The use of ‘some’.  Out of a cohort of a hundred people, a colleague reports that “some of them were wearing green sweaters.”  What does that communicate to you in terms of the range of the number of people wearing green sweaters – i.e. what is your max and min range for ‘some’?  After you determine your range, take a look at this link to see how the use of 'some' compares to your own sense of its meaning.

[17dec23 update]  A post-Singularity landscape is offered in this video that is sufficiently detailed to evoke interesting discussion.  The link was sent to me by a friend and RR reader who sometimes comments on these pages.  He asked for my thoughts, which I offered, and now I ask those interested for their assessment of the prognostications offered in the video (here).

[18dec23 update]  Donors From The Richest Zip Codes In America Are Throwing Their Support Behind Biden.  More proof that having money doesn’t make you smart, and that corporatism is now an indelible part of the state – companies that pay-to-play could not survive without the backing of the government gun to suppress their competition.

Ignorance Meets Evil

George Rebane

Here is an example of gross ignorance that begets the evil in our land.  This letter to the editor by a rabid leftwinger in the 6dec23 Union illustrates the historical gulf that separates us into two nations with irreconcilable ideologies.  The correspondent does not make a single assertion that speaks truth – where/when did Trump do anything that he claims?  And he is joined by tens of millions of like- and no-minded Americans.

&&&&&&

Let’s refresh our memories on what Trump said last week in a speech:  “We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country—that lie and steal and cheat on elections. They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”

We will never vote for Trump because he and his MAGA extremists want to dump American democracy, dump “We-the-People” pluralism, and replace it with white Christian nationalism implemented by their authoritarian cult leader. It's dangerous and un-American.

Trump’s disastrous presidency can be summarized with these 9 acts:

• passing huge wealthy and corporate tax cuts (pushing us 8 trillion $ further in debt),
• separating children from their parents at the border,
• basically ignoring covid,
• appointing unqualified ideologues to the Supreme Court and lower benches,
• damaging our global alliances, especially with NATO,
• promoting hatred against minorities, especially Blacks, Mexicans, Muslims, LGTBQ,
• attacking democracy through gerrymandering and suppressing votes,
• attacking women’s reproductive freedoms, and
• promoting an insurrection on January 6.

Will our election be safe from the GOP’s cheating and intimidation? Will Trump’s 91 felony counts assure us his dictatorial ambitions will not come to light?

Voters' memories will need to be refreshed.

Robert Gould, Nevada City 

Scattershots – 1dec23

George Rebane

In the Desantos/Newsom debate last night the California governor demonstrated to all what kind of a sleazebag politicians he and his ilk are.  Newsom did not give a straight answer to a single question asked of him – all of his responses were prevarications or more bald-faced lies.  Moderator Hannity illustrated many of his questions with data from various government agencies that compared and contrasted Florida and California.  The only good things California has left to recommend it appears to be the scenery and weather.  All of its public policies, overwhelmingly put in place by Democrats, have done nothing but promote an exodus of workers and companies, having left behind a list of what best may be described as shithole cities in the once Golden State.

Expatriate Californians are not welcome in red states.  This has become clear in news stories and reports from our friends who have sought greener pastures elsewhere.  Arriving Californians find themselves shunned by the longtime residents of their destination states.  The fear that the rest of the socially non-polluted country has is that our emigrants bring with them the dreaded ideologies for which California is now notorious.  Unfortunately, quite often such fears are misplaced because many (most?) Californians in their new homes arrive there to enjoy and preserve the values, mores, and social policies they find.  Shunning newcomers without first vetting them also allows insular leftwing cliques of immigrants to form and begin politically polluting their new nests.  A better policy would be to at least attempt assimilation of the newcomers.  I have yet to find a leftwinger contemplating a move who understands what has put our state into its dire straits.  And those concentrations already ensconced in red states are notorious for aggressively working to degrade the social fabric of their new homes.