If You 'Content' It, They will Come

 “Today, you can create content, gain the audience, build the bots, pick out the election and even the voters that are valued the most in swing states and actually insert the right content in a deliberate period.”

-- Clint Watts, counter-terrorism expert and former FBI agent back in the spring of 2017 in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

This comment came to revolve around the dangers facing the Electoral College and how it might be destabilized.

What Is/Was A Serf?

 Well....originally (going back over 500 years)...a serf was a local guy who usually couldn't read/write, and they served the local 'estate'.  You were 'bound' in some way to the property and the local 'lord'. 

The neat thing about this status....you could actually be a free-guy (non-serf) and make some stupid debt issues....thus finding your name on papers....putting you into serf status.

On the books in England, serfs ended around 1807.  In Russia, it officially ended in 1867.

I noticed today an argument being waged on Twitter....suggesting that Americans (with college debt) are getting themselves into serfdom status. 

It's an interesting argument. 

Officially, I'd agree....once you pass a limit....owning nothing much other than a car at age forty....you might present some evidence that you've entered serf status.

The Stoic Guys in a Storm

I see a fair number of comments made by young individuals in Florida....over the impending storm.  For those under 25....it's like hurricanes have never occurred in their life (I admit....it's been over a dozen years since the last one).  For those over sixty years old....they don't over-react....they've got a chest full of medals having dealt with at least twenty hurricanes in their life, and there's some list up on the kitchen-wall with forty items listed.

If you grew up on a farm as a kid, you tend to know the stoic route and the reactions required.

At the first suggestion of storm activity....the farm reaction is....did such-and-such weather-guy from the local channel say this, or was it that idiot from the national channel?

Then the farm guy will ask....show me the Doppler-radar....as if they have a vast knowledge level of Doppler and can explain this in great detail.  Doppler radars often rank up there with International Harvester tractors, and McCulloch chainsaws.

Then the farm guy will ask if this is wind-related, rain-related, hail-related, hurricane-related, or tornado-related.  He'll let you know that he has a particular action list for each one (maybe forty task lines) and each is treated different.

Then the farm guy will go out and note the fuel-level in the truck.  The dog will take note of this and realize that we've moved from regular daily business....to near-chaos business.  A half-full truck will require a trip to the general store where you converse with eight guys on the latest gossip, their weather interpretation, the upcoming funeral for Brother-Jim, and you will pick up a case or two of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Then the farm guy will find the appropriate jacket for the event.  Most of them have not been washed in twelve years.

Then the farm guy will start to follow events via the weather-radio network and occasionally pull up the Doppler picture off his cellphone.  The dog will follow along because he senses that utter catastrophic events are likely to follow.

Then the farm guy will check his fencing to ensure no problem really exists prior to the storm.  It's wasted time because the cows have already checked all weak fencing points and know the best place to escape the farm.

Then the farm guy will note some Baptist minister stopping by and attempting to pray for him and his farm.  It usually takes sixty seconds to let the minister know that some Catholic Priest already did the prayer and spilled a bit of water on the drive-way.  Things are fine, and he can move on.

Then the farm guy will note the last hour prior to the storm....mostly pulling the lawn furniture in and roping up any loose items.

Then as the storm lays in and power goes....the farm guy will pull out the $2k generator he bought and find that it won't readily start up and he wastes an hour of the storm cranking it up.

As chaos and turbulent winds occur....the farm guy sips through a cup of coffee and lays out the better choice dog biscuits for dog.  A surreal calm comes over the dog....like the calm that comes after leaving the veterinarian office without any shots.  

Then the farm guy goes into repair mode....cleans up on limbs in the yard....cracks up a beer or two, and assesses his situation as ''acceptable".  Actually....it doesn't matter what happens....the end result is always "acceptable".

He'll drive around now and visit other farm guys who generally say the same thing.  Some will offer up a beer.  Some will remark about such-and-such storm from 1982 or 2008.

Then he'll do another fence review....to find a dozen cows standing there some point where a tree is leaning against the fence.  The cows...sensing a chance to escape...pause and wait.  In five minutes, the tree is cleared....the fence tightened up a bit, and the cows have a frustration moment.

By this point, the farm guy will return.  He'll settle back to watch such-and-such weather guy, who will have a full slide of comparison against the spring 1972 storm, versus the April 1958 storm, versus the November storm of 2009.  The farm guy will write down some notes, in order to have some commentary at the general store for tomorrow.

Storms come and go.  If you asked the guy about the last forty storms, he'll rate each and note how things came back to some normal stage.  As much as some journalist or 'snowflake' would get hyped up....the stoic nature kicks in and restores the sense of balance in the real world.

Ten Things

 1.  It just seems, at least once a day....I identify or suggest something being scam.  In the 1990s....I might have done this once a week.

2.  I noticed there's some pressure being applied to bone-diggers/anthropologists....to stop identifying genders of cave-peoples they dug up.  

I contemplated this scene....44,000 years ago....Yorg talking to Nog with a language of 66 word.....trying to describe his gender-confusion....that he felt different inside.  Nog felt after the hour long conversation....that mostly what Yorg was talking about....was some big 'cat' they saw on the hunting walk in the morning.

3.  I've come to the opinion that VP Harris never attended a single class in college, and someone must have done the home-work or tests for her.

4.  There is some fake reality going on where a political agenda is presented....suggesting if you just adjusted (conditioned) to live with less, you'd help save the world from various 'demons'. 

The guy/gal on the convincing end?  They usually wear $300 Italian-made loafers, a $200 sports jacket, and seem to have a college debt of $75,000 still lingering after a dozen years of employment.

5.  Joe Rogan says Canada is a communist country.....end of the story. 

Some American college kids will start to cite evidence of communism working, and their one/only example....will be Canada.  You can't make this BS up.

6.  Just odd....how many people are having a mental health crisis these days, and why all of the sudden?

7.  Because of woke-scripts....I think Marvel will shutdown by 2025 for a period of three years....to review how they script out stories.  

8.  If anyone ever cornered President Biden and asked him what his pronouns were, he'd probably respond with 'cherries and cream'.  

9.  Best anti-woke TV show in the past decade?  Peaky Blinders....from Netflex.

10.  NPR creating a 'new' disinformation team?  To replace the present disinformation team?  The way it sounds....there will be a disinformation management crew, over the top layer of the current disinformation team.  In a year or two.....I expect a super-duper disinformation 'chief' to be brought in...to manage things.  

The Thing About Perception

 

It's interesting how thing change over a 31-year period.

You start off worrying about the ice age coming, and you reach a point where you worry about dire warming.

Then you repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

'Reality-phobic'?

 I saw someone use the phase today in social media.....'reality-phobic'.  Basically meaning.....a fear of reality.  

Applying to woke-folks....the pronoun people....and 'racism-is-everywhere' crowd?  Yeah.

But in most cases of phobias.....there is supposed to be a rehab program that can get you back to a safe condition.  I just can't imagine how this rehab would work.

Ten Things

 1.  Nothing done in moderation....will kill you.  So two slices of bacon, with a biscuit...is acceptable.  A dozen slices of bacon, with six biscuits loaded with honey/jelly.....probably aren't healthy.

2.  If your government is hyped about Nazis in the US Army.....it's some chance that Putin is somewhere in the middle of this....grinning.

3.  Whether you like it or not.....you are still speaking the 'kings English'.

4.  Something called NewsNation is considering hiring Chris Cuomo (formerly of CNN).  Maybe there are sixteen people consumed with hearing Cuomo.....but he's number three on my mute-reaction list.

5.  It seems now that some 11-year-old kids hold more conventional wisdom than people finishing up four years of college.

6.  If a guy can self-identify as a woman.....logic dictates that the same guy could identify as a PhD-holding individual (with no college), a NFL quarterback (with no football background), and a gourmet cook (no experience other than flipping burgers).

7.  The more that VP Harris speaks in public.....the more you wonder about her college years and if she really attended college.

8.  Once you utter 'experts say'.....I usually hit mute.

9.  If aliens arrived from Space....got all friendly....then proclaimed that Trump was really a smart guy....would the anti-Trump crowd brand the aliens as unacceptable and demand they leave ASAP?

10.  Isn't it odd....Biden comes out of talks saying Saudis will pump more oil....Saudis come out of meeting say they already hit max pumping.  You have to wonder....were the two groups in the same meeting?