If Destruction Be Lot, It’s Our Fault

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This day being the anniversary of Lincoln’s Lyceum address let’s ponder “The Perpetuation Of Our Political Institutions”:

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address

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48 thoughts on “If Destruction Be Lot, It’s Our Fault”

  3. Bill Maher has changed up his jokes but I remember when the pair of them were Douchbag Von Fuckface and Thurston Von Shitbag the 3rd

  6. Hey, you are back!

    Least we forget.

    Today in 1945 the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz where over 1 million people, most of them Jews were murdered.

  9. After Action Report:
    Our outage this morning was due to our server company, Network Solutions, doing something with our security settings that shut the place down. It now seems fixed. For what I pay them this is not good, but overall they’ve been great through the years so I’ll cut them some slack. After all, they were just trying to protect us from the bad guys. For the curious with tech knowledge, our SSL certificate got corrupted somehow in a routine update and they had to uninstall, then reinstall it.

  10. BTW, that 17% drop by chip maker Nvida resulted in a loss of 468 billion dollars in market cap. A record loss for the US stock market.

    Jack

  11. Market fluctuations aside, i am seeing AI-generated images of celebrities that are impeccable

    With how stupid phones have made everyone, manipulation and scamming is going to be so easy for nefarious actors

  12. The reason for the market drop is that the Chinese have rolled out their own AI product. They are having some technical problems in the roll out which they are blaming on foreign interests attacking their platform.
    Yeah, and the dog ate my homework too.
    I liked this paragraph from a Bloomberg article.(behind the paywall)

     DeepSeek, which was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, has said it’s produced a chatbot that competes with the latest technology from OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. at a fraction of the cost.

    Why does the thought “stolen goods are aways cheaper” come to mind?
    Jack

  13. AI graphics are to art what Velvetta is to cheese, yet McDonalds asks “Do you want cheese with that?” and the masses say yes. All the while knowing that it isn’t real cheese.
    As I learned years ago in the construction business, it doesn’t pay to do quality work when everybody will pay the same for crap.

    Jack

  14. Jack – Last week I posted a link about the financial brains expecting a 30% market correction. That’ll get the attention of some who think nothing is going on.

    So, Adolf spent hundreds of thousands on military transports instead of ICE charters that cost far less,,l and are the norm, because he wanted to look tough, How ~efficient~ of him.

    Holman is an idiot, a liar, or both. If illegal gangs members are young teens, they are not sitting in a classroom.

    Pulling away farm labor will raise food prices in the short term, and cause wide shortages down the road. Stock up on canned goods and start planting seeds when it’s warm enough.

    Other countries are now making trade agreements with each other, cutting out the US because we are now an undependable trade partner. That is exactly what Putin wanted. By exploiting divisions in our society and using propaganda to foment hate, tRUMPsky got a second chance to destroy democracy.

    There are some blind congresspeople helping Adolf. Not blindly loyal, just blind. They think this helps them, Nope, it destroys our standing in the world and they is what Putin wants.

    ps – The evening news won’t show it, but there are protests around the world. We are not alone.

    pps – I would still like to know the details of Elon’s “surprise” that Adolf talked of at the n@zi rally in NY, and Elon’s vote counting machines that he spoke of after the Inauguration.

  15. i doubt the billionaire class is enthusiastic about their global business models being vulnerable to the temper-tantrums of an enabled man-child

    nice job, billionaire class 👍

  16. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-growing-threat-of-accelerationism-how-billionaires-want-to-reshape-global-stability/ar-AA1th06R?disableErrorRedirect=true&infiniteContentCount=0

    “Accelerationism, is a radical ideology advocating for the deliberate intensification of societal collapse to create a new order, has gained alarming traction among both extremist groups and influential elites.”

    “While traditionally associated with extremist groups, the ideology is increasingly resonating with certain billionaire figures, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and others who envision a “reset” of current government structures. By leveraging significant financial resources and technological platforms, these high-profile advocates are pushing for sweeping changes that bypass traditional governance.”

    Word of the day: Accelerationism

  17. Border Kaiser Tom reminds me of Bull Connor. He even looks like him. He will be on thin ICE as he escalates his crimes against humanity.

  20. Also, Bill Maher’s interview with Jesse Eisenberg was intriguing. Will look for the movie when I see it hits the Netflxer.

    After the episode’s opening monologue, Maher was joined on stage by Jesse Eisenberg. The two have a long history, apparently, and Maher asked why they hadn’t seen each other in a while. Eisenberg brought up his move to Bloomington, Indiana, which led to a general conversation of both the city and state in question.

    The two men shifted from there to discuss the film A Real Pain, for which Eisenberg was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. Eisenberg described the process of writing it and the people in his life who had inspired the film’s storyline. He also explained why he had chosen to play the character in it that he did and not the more chaotic role for which Kieran Culkin was Oscar-nominated.

    https://www.insidehook.com/television/real-time-bill-maher-jesse-eisenberg-real-pain-tech-ceos

  21. HOUSEKEEPING: Expect occasional slowdowns on page building. Site is coming back gradually from our morning outage, but we’ll get there.

  22. Hah, from the “Shoe’s on the other foot” department. WaPo

    Democrats in Congress are considering forcing a showdown over the debt limit to rein in President Donald Trump’s vast plans to reshape the U.S. economy and remake the federal government.

    For 30 years, Republicans have used the threat of a national default to make Democrats negotiate over GOP demands. But as America hurtles once again toward a potential debt crisis, Democrats see an opportunity to turn the tables to cut off Trump’s agenda and take the debt limit off the table in future legislative battles.

    Last week, the national debt hit the legal limit of $31.4 trillion. (The debt limit does not directly cut spending, but it bars the country from borrowing more money to pay for spending Congress has already approved.) Unless Congress acts to lift or suspend the cap, Trump’s Treasury Department will be forced to stop borrowing sometime this spring. That could trigger a calamitous default, probably tanking the U.S. economy and causing a global crisis.

    Republicans control both chambers of Congress as well as the White House and could lift the debt limit on their own. But internal divisions over spending block that path. As the House GOP huddles this week at Trump’s golf resort in Doral to try to resolve their differences, Republican leaders recognize they are likely to need Democratic votes to raise the debt limit — and Democrats know it.

    “It’s inevitable that they’re going to need us,” Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Massachusetts) told The Washington Post.

    The question for Democrats is what they want in exchange.

    It’s a stark role reversal in Washington. Republicans have been weaponizing the debt limit since at least 1995, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) threatened to let the government default unless President Bill Clinton gave in to his budget demands. Gingrich ultimately backed down, but House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) picked up the cudgel in 2011, pushing the nation to the brink of a catastrophe that roiled financial markets. The country was two days from default when Boehner cut a deal with President Barack Obama to raise the debt limit and slash spending.

    […]

    Saddle up. Looks like an interesting time coming up.

  25. Today’s anti-Transgender action by sfb is to kick out all Transgender members of the military. How sadistic 2025/sfb and cult is towards a small number of active duty and reserve members.

  26. Costa Rica is looking better every day. Although the rainy season and the creepy crawlers in your house give me pause (apparently way worse than Florida). But retirement visas are only $50 a year, and health insurance is about half the price it is here.

  27. Will they allow seniors who move abroad to collect Social Security?

    Ivy – Yeah, at what point will Holman or someone get charged with crimes against humanity?

    ps – Orange Adolf is out of the office today. Golfing.

  28. A thought about the Chinese “artificial intelligence” computer machine. I put it in the same category as the new Chinese super fighter, not seen flying, guarded from anyone getting close to it, but the pictures show it held together with screws, pieces of stuff and what might be duct tape. Or the news that the Chinese economy is still expanding, when it is shrinking. Stuff that the orange liar would be happy with, total lies.

    Yes, they have something, best check to see what networks and other computers it is tied into, perhaps a chat system and uses that output to feed the media. Never trust a computer, especially one the Chinese are touting.

  29. Craig, we stayed in Costa Rica for two weeks in 2020, part of the time in a friend’s house in the jungle. Crazy high speed terrifying driving, the best coffee, wild toucans coming to the deck for a close peek, an earthquake, many areas where no one spoke English, no flushing of tp or other items down the crapper, delicious food even at roadside places, but again, no English. We loved it luckily departed the day before they locked down or we would’ve been stuck there for months. I’d go back.

  31. The stupidity is stunning. WaPo

    Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been ordered to immediately stop engaging with the World Health Organization, a move that affects critical work on influenza surveillance and disease outbreaks across the globe, according to emails sent to staff Monday that were reviewed by The Washington Post.

    President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. exit from the global health body last Monday, citing what he described as a mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and other international health crises. This is Trump’s second attempt at withdrawing the United States from the WHO.

    According to an email sent from CDC’s deputy director for global health to staff Monday morning, “effective immediately all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual — must cease their activity and await further guidance.”

    The memo continued: “Please ensure your impacted staff receive this message. CDC detailees to WHO have been instructed to pause engaging in any work on behalf of WHO as part of their respective details, and to no longer go to WHO offices until further notice.”

    “This goes beyond what they tried to do in 2020,” said one federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “Last time, they didn’t forbid us to engage or even talk. That’s what’s unusual in this circumstance now.”

    The WHO has 71 collaborating centers based in the United States, including 18 at CDC. The work affected includes consultation about the makeup of influenza vaccines, which must be updated every year because of the constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses.

    One of the biggest effects on the CDC will be in its global immunization division, which usually has between 20 and 30 staff assigned to WHO regional offices in more than a dozen countries, said the federal health official.

    First Secretary Dead Brainworm. Now hello Mumps, measles, rubella, whooping cough and polio? (And this is only on the public health issue).

  32. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/women-wore-red-lipstick-hitler/

    “The lip color returned in fashion during World War II. As soon as women in Allied countries and in the resistance learned of Hitler’s distaste for it, they adopted it as a show of resistance. In Britain, Felder says, the women were so intent on wearing red lipstick they would stain their lips with beet juice if they could not find or afford the tubes.”

    OK, then. Red. MAGAts may think it’s for Shitler, to match their asshats, but we’ll know better.

  34. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/27/jan-6-pardon-police-killing-matthew-huttle

    “An Indiana man who was pardoned by Donald Trump for taking part in the January 6 insurrection was killed by police during a traffic stop on Sunday.
    Matthew Huttle, 42, was shot by a sheriff’s deputy after allegedly resisting arrest and getting into an altercation with an officer…”

    Well, one J6er is dead, already, and one back in custody.

    “Another January 6 participant who was pardoned last week was rearrested on federal gun charges. Daniel Ball of Florida was detained for an illegal firearm possession charge, a case that predated but emerged from his involvement in the 2021 Capitol insurrection.”

  35. bId – I heard there is another one on the run for child sex crimes. Not sure all the particulars as it was like a follow on to the one that committed suicide by cop. (sorry for the description being so blunt, he could have just held his hands up).

  37. Poobah, my uncle had a one year assignment to Panama back in the 60s. My memory’s a little dim on it but I believe they were stationed in or near Panama City. My aunt loved it from the perspective of how far US money went down there – she’d never had a housekeeper who worked mostly full time for her before (on an Air Force Lt. Col. pay). She loved the people, loved the food, but had her reservations about the weather and I remember her talking about monkeys. Aside from that, …?

  38. Mr. Ivy had a number of projects in Panama and always would speak of how “American” it felt whenever he was there.

  40. Panama? Isn’t that kind of risky? We might end up living in/under the US after going to all of the trouble to move there.

  42. Google is hiding info on searches, too. I get really old stuff. Never had that problem before last week.

    Is it time to revive Jeeves?

  45. this is NOT an endorsement of football which probably contributed to the downfall of our society

    but

    that was an obvious first down

  46. Trumpism may fall fall apart more quickly than i tend to predict- consumers and employees too unsettled to leave the house isn’t great for the economy

  47. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2524842/texas-teacher-jason-buchanan-doxed-after-inviting-ice-to-raid-school-over-immigrant-students

    “Buchanan, who worked at Northside High School, used his X (formerly Twitter) handle @HookEm232 to urge U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target the school, claiming that many of its students “don’t even speak English.” His remarks quickly drew backlash, and Buchanan soon found himself doxed—his identity and personal details were shared widely online.”

    Sometimes resistance looks like doxing a n@zi snitch. Good to know.

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