Something wicked this way comes. And darn soon.

^{(I’ve been trying and failing to complete this post for nearly three weeks. While it’s no closer to “finished” than it was on Day One, I have to face the fact that it will never be. The situation is moving too quickly for me to ever hope to keep up with it. Apologies for the delay, and for the rather obvious disjointed nature, which I’ve cleverly taken advantage of to learn about “separators“. Anyway, here it is.)}

The TL;DR version: Build your monasteries while you may. The darkness is closing in.

Recall that I’ve said before that “collapse is a process, not an event” and noted the Hemmingway quote “How did you go bankrupt? Two ways: Gradually, then suddenly.” Well, the process is proceeding along and if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, it’s starting to turn from gradually to suddenly.

I’ve watched this country, our culture and our world since I was a teenager. As a teenager, I read the afternoon newspaper every day. I didn’t read it all, but I did look at everything, from the front page, the stock quotes and the editorial page all the way through to the classifieds. One of the achievements I’m proud of was the publication of a letter to the editor taking them to task for their coverage of a KKK rally. Their reporter was editorializing in a news story, something that I had learned by that time was a no-no to old-fashioned newspapermen–one ran our high school newspaper, and I was on the staff. I even got a letter from the reporter, taking issue with my taking issue. It was the early 80s late 70s (Mistake #1, get your facts correct), and it’s the first event I recall that told me things were not as they were “supposed to be”–although I didn’t realize it as such at the time.

Also while in high school, I was on the debate team, and you had to be informed if you wanted to win matches. I subscribed to several news magazines and read the majority of each issue. (I was a dork and had no life, in case that isn’t painfully obvious.) I was able to see the late 70s in all their “glory” through those magazines–or at least what they wanted us to see. And I was young enough, gullible enough, ignorant enough, to buy into the nonsense.

As I got older, I gained experience, got my fingers burned more than a few times and possibly got a little wiser. In high school, I worked for a Democrat candidate for governor once. Then it was Republicans during my 20s–the Regan era–and after that Libertarians. After giving up on the Libertarians (vs. the libertarians) I returned to the Republicans. 2020 and the aftermath has left a bitter taste in my mouth. Now, I’m just a tired and irritated old White guy who wonders what the hell happened to my country.

We all know the answer to that question. While we were in the military, college, working and building families, the Left was on the Long March Through the Institutions. I remember how we all laughed and laughed at things like “political correctness“. Well, we aren’t laughing now, are we? The inmates, our children and grandchildren, have taken over the asylum, and they know it. The 2020 elections were their “In your face!” moment, and we simply took it. We made all the correct legal moves and found out that every hand was turned against us. We failed to do what the Left does when they are thwarted–take to the streets and burn down the things that offend them. Instead, we had a trademark Trump pep rally followed by the January 6 “insurrection”, the best-behaved insurrection in history. All that did was get a lot of our people locked up forever and a few of them killed. Democrats treated us to the sight of our capital in chain-link and armed troops and an inauguration for *President Joe Biden where they couldn’t give away tickets.

To paraphrase someone, “Well-behaved people don’t make history.” No, they get even more “elections” force-fed to them. I’m over the experience, thanks.

When we do win in court or in a legislative arena, the Left goes into histrionics, runs into the streets, blockades roads, smashes businesses and generally causes (Mistake #2, verb tense) much mayhem. Ever ready to prove our moral superiority, we wait for the cops to stop them. It hasn’t happened so far and it won’t be going forward. The Left has successfully defunded the police, and where that’s failed, they’ve cowed them. Those that remain are either True Believers themselves or are demoralized and trying to get to that magic retirement number without crossing anyone who can ruin it for them.

The Left lies, constantly. They spout whatever their masters give them to spout. “They” lie and we know it. So? It isn’t like anyone is holding them to account for it.

All the politicians belong to one party–the “What’s in it for me?” party. They’re bought and paid for until the next bag of bucks comes their way and they plug in a new messaging chip. The Deep State runs deep, but there are powers behind them that run deeper. I guess we can call them The Elite.

But just because someone holds power, that doesn’t make them the brightest bulb in the hardware store. The Elite is too clever by half. Unfortunately, they’re not as smart as they think they are. They are smart enough to get themselves and the rest of us into more trouble than we can handle. Where is their divine guidance taking us?

30% of the world’s governments are under sanctions THAT AREN’T WORKING and probably never will if history is our guide. The sanctions will, however, continue hurting us and the few actual allies we have left. Meanwhile, the conflicts they were meant to stop, or at least slow down, continue on their bloody courses.

Central banks worldwide are on a gold-buying binge and Zimbabwe–Zimbabwe for Pete’s sake–is setting up a gold-backed digital currency. Credit for builders is drying up. While central (Mistake #3, poor sentence structure) banks are trying to slow down inflation and failing, they’re succeeding at destroying capital. While being rescued by UBS, Credit Suisse lost another $69 billion in deposits. This week, another bank was taken over by the feds and sold off to whomever the FDIC could arm-twist into buying the carcass, while the former head of the Dallas Fed says that things are “more serious than we currently understand“. However, lawmakers sold their stock before things went south, so it’s OK. Meanwhile, we’ll just get the next one teed up.

While central banks are trying to slow down inflation (Mistake #4, poor sentence structure and duplication of information) they’re also talking about “Central Bank Digital Currencies” (CBDCs) that “would be used in a ‘limited’ way to control the payments that individuals can make.”

Yeah, how does that last one grab you? Better brush up on those barter skills, and make sure you have stuff to barter. (Mistake #5, just plain old bad writing)

Our government’s war on inexpensive energy is morphing into a war against energy. First, it was wood stoves, then cook stoves, then your heat and your air conditioning. And while they’re at it, they want your incandescent light bulbs, too. Let’s not even go into the electric vehicle madness. I’m telling you, expect a BTU tax, and now I think it will be sooner than later. (I’m surprised that this was a thing as far back as 1993.)

But wait, there’s more! Manufacturing is slowing down and has been for the last year. The UN’s WHO wants to establish a global health system. Layoffs have been going on for a while and aren’t slowing down. The little guy’s outlook for the future is off the bottom, but barely.

Don’t forget, as bad as all this seems now, IT WILL GET WORSE. Bank on it, if you can find a bank you trust.

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In a previous post, I mentioned that the world is in the midst of a demographic crash. I’m not kidding about that. Read this Daily Mail article on the subject. Watch Peter Zeihan. These guys say the global population could decrease to 6 billion by the end of the century. The second, third and fourth order effects of this will change almost everything for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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Our popular culture is rapidly becoming the laughingstock of much of the world. Seriously, when Vladimir Putin can make points off your culture, you’re in a bad place.

A Washington school district wants to cancel music for fourth grade because music promotes White Supremecy. A beer company allows a “low-level employee” to crater one of its leading brands. Patrons sing The Star-Spangled Banner at a restaurant and the Woke of the World lose their minds.

Not only has our pop culture become a bad joke in about half the world, but it’s utterly toxic here. I haven’t watched cable with any regularity in years, and the last time I was exposed to it I simply left the room. Apparently, every family has two interracial dads/moms, one gay/lesbian/transsexual relative and children who I would feed to the wild animals if they would eat them. If you’re straight, White, heterosexual, married to someone of the opposite sex and discipline your children, then you’re literally a Nazi, you racist transphobe.

The rot is everywhere. Our Navy is using a “drag queen influencer” to attract “diverse talent”. Males with gender dysphoria are making a mockery of women’s (you know, real women) sports–here’s the latest example. *President Joe Biden is coughing up $500k of our tax money for Pakistani teachers to help transgender youth.

A hundred or so years ago, Europeans used to sniff that the United States was too young to have a culture. It took a while for us to prove that they were correct.

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Ol’ Remus always warned us to “stay out of crowds”. I’d love to know what he’d be saying now. I know what I’m going to say.

Get out of Blue cities, counties, states, RIGHT EFFING NOW. I don’t care that great-great-great-great grandpappy braved the Oregon Trail and helped tame whatever. Great-great-great-great grandpappy left the place he was living and risked his and his family’s lives to go somewhere where they had more opportunities. I don’t care that your family has owned this farm since colonial times. Sell it to some sucker before our government decides to follow the EU and ban farming to save the environment. Wake up, smell the place burning and get on with getting out.

However, have a care where you move to. When out-of-staters ask about relocating to North Carolina to get away from some Blue hellhole, I have to tell them North Carolina ain’t reliably Red. We’re Red trending to Purple and fighting a pitched rearguard action against Blue. By the time I die, probably here, I won’t recognize the place anywhere from the mountains to the sea. Charlotte, Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area are already not North Carolina-at least not the North Carolina I grew up in. It isn’t just the population growth, it’s the people who are moving in. For the majority of them, their beliefs and their attitudes aren’t compatible with the North Carolina I grew up in. I have as much in common with them as I would with a space alien. I hope my kids have the good sense to get out while the getting is good.

When you’re picking your new home, remember that you may be doing this again.

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So, yeah, I believe something Bad is getting near. Everything I see points to it. The occasional good thing happening isn’t going to change or even delay that. I hope you used the four Trump years to get some things done. Heck, I hope you used the last two years or even the last two months to get things done. (Mistake #6, sentence fragment) Because in the dark, you’re going to need a lot of candles.

Don’t forget the matches.

(5/6/2023: I’ve corrected a number of mistakes. Each is noted inline.)