"What Happened to the Shoe Repair Man?" (opens in separate window)

burning down the house

saturday, july 11th, 2026

Who are all these Democratic Socialists of America, anyway? ,p>“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” one of their spoxes declared on Instagram in 2024.

Hmmmm . . . . I wonder if you can be a little more specific. Like, including democracy and socialism, two western civ constructs? Kind of looks like a baby / bathwater situation, followed by burning down the house where the baby lived. Do we get a chance to debate this proposition in the midterm election?

Likewise, a St. Paul, Minnesota, school board member, one Chauntyll Allen offered the following policy recommendation on the We Love Our Dog Park Facebook page:

A bad moon is rising on our nation’s 250th birthday. The country is in a rancid mood. You begin to see what happens when political ideas are carried to their last limits. Question is: does all this add up to a winning party platform? You must suppose that higher-ups in the Democratic Party are asking themselves the question now. What do Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer think when they see these Angels of Death on the march (or in flight) over the midterm battlefield?

Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Melat Kiros are going to Congress to link arms with “The Squad” — AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley — and they will bring their cargo of DSA policy ideas with them: racial, gender, and social justice; abolish ICE (no more deporting anybody); defund the police; end incarceration (no more jails); free housing and medical care; green this-n-that; government ownership of business; abolish the Senate and the electoral college; pack the SCOTUS. . . .

The platform apparently has a lot of appeal to a certain demographic — which, I suspect, includes the many young recent graduates of the diploma mills who are pissed-off that Mr. Trump & Company are methodically shutting down the NGOs that were supposed to furnish these young race-and-gender studies majors with cushy, six-figure jobs doing “activism.” Alas, that pathway is increasingly blocked and the country only needs so many baristas. What to do then? Take it to the limit! Be communists. . . with all that entails. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine, too.

This new gen of Democratic Socialists is arguably worse than the Confederates of 1861. Those Rebs only wanted to secede from USA and go their own way in one corner of the land. They didn’t want to piss on Johann Sebastian Bach, Leonardo DaVinci, Jane Austen, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson as they walked out. The Democratic Socialists of our day are fully aligned with their avatars: Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot, who operated human meat-grinders at scale to tamp down the opposition. Not a great look to align with the great mass-murderers of history.

It must be agony for Schumer and Jeffries. Eradicate Western Civ. . . ? Piss on white people’s corpses. . . ? Are they really going to get behind that? No-o-o-o-o. But they will try to wriggle around this steaming pile for some weeks to come until it is obvious that the Democratic Party has blown itself up, hoisted itself on that old petard. It may be too late for the party’s old guard. No matter how many rain-dances Elizabeth Warren does, nothing will put out this dumpster fire.

Another question for the months ahead: can that party control its increasingly maniacal street warriors, the Antifas, the Pink Pistols, the Transgender Armed Defense forces, and whatever remains of BLM. There is still a lot of money in circulation for public demonstrations and disruptions from George Soros and other sponsors. And apart from that are the forces of jihad, with their own foreign patrons. Gawd knows how many jihadis came into the country during “Joe Biden’s” orchestrated alien invasion. Not just a few, you can be sure.

By the way, can somebody at the Office of Management and Budget do an audit of the $370-billion that “Joe Biden” handed over to John Podesta in the fall of 2024 to administer “climate-related provisions” of the Inflation Reduction Act, and figure out how much of it bounced right back into Democratic Party-adjacent NGOs and down to party capos like Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Brandon Johnson in Chicago, and Karen Bass in LA?

Meanwhile, the big celebration of America’s 250th is only hours away. There will be a lot of bangs and flashes the next couple of days. Let’s hope they are not really big ones. Stay alert and safe out there. And happy 250th birthday to you, America — if you can keep yourself.

A Day In The Life.

Up at 4:30a on Saturday, a VERY warm, 81°F, very humid, clear and sunny, zero breeze morning, I left the AC at 73°, made coffee, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let its 32 million lines of code load, skipped breakfast, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. I scanned the weather and the breaking news websites, drove to the CC (Country Club facility) where Sis and I'd attend our cousin Buddy's memorial service. Back after an hour, I hit the LR couch, and after a Tramadol 50mg, I could sleep for a couple hours, since I only had 2hrs last night. Sucks to be me, today.

Happy Independence Day!

I had a couple errands to do, so before it got so hot, I left around 9a. Traffic was almost non-existent, until 10, and then it got busy. Errands done, I drove home and unloaded. After a light breakfast, I did a few minor condo chores, and with 102° on the back patio, and no breeze, it was difficult to have any smokes back there. I also had no appetite, due to the heat.

Just after 7p, violent t-storm cells blew thru the York area, as I was talking to Sherry, affecting her North York area, and very little, for my East York locations. Horizontal rain, 50-60mph wind and a 15-20° temp drop. Nice. More t-storms for tomorrow after, forecasted. I enjoy storms, blizzards etc. I went back to watching a few minutes of POTUS' fireworks display, but heh, if you've seen one display, you've seen all of them. By 12 midnight, I was fading fast, so I unplugged and headed upstairs.

Up at 7:30a on Sunday, a heavily-overcast, very humid, 74° morning, with ***FLASH FLOOD*** Warnings posted throughout the Susquehanna Valley on websites, TV and radio, from last evening's storms. Hells bells, we needed the rain. I made coffee, scanned the weather and news sites, and America's coming-off its July 4th 'hangover'. I watched the F-1 British GP at Silverstone highlights, had breakfast, and got ready for the day. I also watched the Indy Car Mid Ohio Race -- I got my 1984 SCCA Class "<" License at that same racetrack. 2 loads of laundry to do -- nothing compared to what Sherry does each week -- and I was already tired from the 3 trips on the stairs.

Here's some videos and a slideshow of the local damage from the past 3 t-storms in the Susquehanna Valley.

Temps hit 96°, warmer than forecast, and the humidity was oppressive. The forecast t-storms hit this area around 7p, and although the wind wasn't as bad as last evening, the rainfall was YUGE. ***FLOOD WARNING*** Warnings were posted everywhere in the Susquehanna Vally. I watched part of the evening news, and Sis stopped by to check my L/S calf's swelling. She wanted me to go to York Hospital's ER, fearing it coud be a DVT, but I resisted, so she called Life Line Co's EMT Ambulance, and got an ambulance and 2 techs to come here and examine my leg. Net net: take aspirin and call my PCP (Primary Care Physician) tomorrow, to get an ultra sound done on the calf. Finally, by 11p, Sis and the EMT techs had left, and I could get to bed. Lights out.

I sleptt-in until 8:30a on Monday, an overcast, more t-storms/heavy rain forecast. 74° morning. I made coffee, had a smoke in the garage, and tuned into the "CP Show" 9-12. My PCP called around 9:30a, to schedule an Ultra-Sound procedure, for tomorrow at 9:45a, at Apple Hill Med Ctr, so all is going according to "Plan A", so far. My PCP called back wioth a 9:45a app't at Apple Hill Med Ctr to get an Ultra-Sound done, for the L/S calf, shin and foot. It just hit me that my life is at severe risk. I hope this goes well tomorrow. I bagged it at 11:30p. My cleaning lady's in at 8:30a.

Up at 6a (with the alarm) on Tuesday, an overcast, humid, warm 74°, I made coffee, got ready for the dy, JoAnne arrived to clean, and I left at 9a for the Apple Hill Imaging Center. The Imaging Center Building was YUGE and very busy, but I was taken in 15mins, had the procedure in 20mins, and was home by 11a. JoAnne had left, I had some breakfast, and took a 3hr nap on the LR couch.

My L/S calf had shrunk and the hardness knot was softened, so I knew 'something' was going on. I got the Ultra Sound Report via the Wellspan Website My Portal, and it was ***NEGATIVE*** ! NO BLOOD CLOT! I called Sis and Sherry with the news, and felt 100% better. I stopped taking the Lasix, but did take another 250mg Bayer Aspirin. After dinner, I watched the evening news, and switched to Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" and History's "Secret at Skinwalker Ranch", until 12midnight, and unplugged.

Bacon, Egg & Cheese Bread

Awake several times in the early morning with vivid dreams, I finally got up at 8a, on Wednesday, a mostly cloudy, humid, 69° morning. I made coffee, fired-up the HP Desktop, and scanned the wether and news. I tuned into the "CP Show" and listened to some of it, got ready for the day, and for Sherry, who'd be here around 1p. I got ready for the day, had breakfast and Sherry arrived.

We had a great time together, as usual, driving to Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market, and then stopped at Saubel's Market on the way back to my condo. Lots of goodies. We talked for another couple hours, and Sherry left around 6p. I watched the evening news, had dinner and switched to Discovery's "Secret at Blind Frog Ranch" until 11:30. Lights out.

Up at 6:30a on Thursday, an overcast, very humid (welcome to York in the Summer), looking-like-rain, 74° morning. I left the AC at 73°, made coffee, fired-up the HP Desktop and scanned the weather and news, and laid down on the LR couch for a "few minutes". 2hrs later, I was wondering what happened and drinking more coffee to wake-up. Meh. No errands, so I decided to stay inside, and keep my left leg elevated, so some more of the swelling would go down, since the blood clot test turned out to be negative.

I watched the evening news, and then switched to History's "Ancient Aliens" until 11p, and bagged it for the day.

Up at 6a on Friday, a heavily-clouded, warm 73°, very humid (79%), no air moving, morning. I made Kona Coffee, scanned the news and weather on the HP Desktop, tuned into the "CP Show", and did some paperwork. The R/S Sciatica pain was back with a vengeance, and with no errands to do, I stayed inside.

After lunch, I did a couple of minor condo chores, until the pain got the better of me, took a 250mg Bayer Aspirin, and hit the LR couch. After a few hours, I watched the evening news, talked to Sherry, switched to Discovery's "Gold Rush: Mine Rescue" and History's "Mysteries From Above" until 11:30p, and quit for the night.

Tomorrow starts a new week, here in the "Journal" and it's a clear one for me. I'll talk to Sherry over the weekend, but right now we're tenativelky planning on going back to the Amish Market at Shrewsbury, on Thurtsday.

The Party of Algae and 'Our Democracy'

Okay, convince me that gay-Islamic-race-communism is a “progressive” political program America is going to buy like corn flakes. The Lefty-left wants to think so, as it lurches from one peak of mental illness to an even greater one in the 130 days to the midterms. Look how successful they’ve been with open borders, defunding the police, men in the girl’s swim lane, no cash bail, sex-change surgery for kids, free-for-all elections, hatin’ on white people, and open Medicare fraud. The new re-branding strategy as “Democratic Socialism” only tells you that reality has ceased to interest them.

No, winning electoral districts stuffed with illegal aliens in bright blue cities with tiny overall voter turnouts won’t sweep the nation like love. More likely it’s a harbinger of the party’s approaching death, like the Whigs going down the drain in 1852, gurgle-gurgle. Advocating to destroy American society is a poor sales pitch. The party’s old-line leadership frantically seeks some way to neutralize the rising influence of Zohran Mamdani and his disciples, but so far nothing works. An odor of desperation fills the air.

One thing you can say about the gay-Islamic-race-communists is that they are well-organized, which is understandable since their political program resembles an ant farm, a dis-individuated collective with insectile characteristics, workers and soldiers toiling in mindless solidarity to occupy more electoral territory so as to vanquish their “oppressors,” Trump and the big feet of his capitalist minions.

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Meanwhile, though, the money flows dry up as the old Big Donor Dawgs freak-out at the prospect of having their fortunes confiscated, eaten by this advancing ant-swarm, while Scott Bessent and Todd Blanche work to disassemble the giant, hive-like matrix of NGOs that, for years, laundered US taxpayer dollars through the Democratic Party’s patronage system. In New York City, Philly, LA, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Portland, the NGOs furnished comfortable salaries for young activists churned out remorselessly by Higher Ed, but all that’s starting to look like a bygone Shangri-la, a lost world.

“Many Democratic primary voters, however, are in no mood for defensiveness. As they see it, they’ve been failed by a cautious, compromising establishment, and they’re going to overthrow it.” —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times.

Of course, the loss of those cushy jobs and perqs has pitched that young demographic into a yet greater rage, prompting them to wreak vengeance and havoc on the system that took their “entitlements” away. Activists want to do activism, which is not necessarily the same as working for a living. It’s working for an ideal, a cause — to abolish the very society based on working for a living and replace it with a parent-like, hovering, all-powerful government that provides your every need by “seizing the means of production.”

The trouble is, this has been tried before, many times in the previous century, and the track-record is discouraging, exhibit-A being the old Soviet Union, the experiment that failed. Why? Because after seizing the means of production, the state bureaucracy lacks the skills, the spirit, and the creative juice to produce much of anything, and especially to do it well. All it can actually contribute to the process is its intrinsic bureaucratic entropy and, to put it ultra-simply, entropy is just not a force for good in this world.

The Republican Party is laboring through its own parallel, but rather different sort of crack-up, a breach based more on pure enmity to President Trump’s personality than necessarily to ideas or policy. The Right still uniformly subscribes to personal liberty and economic enterprise, but factions on the right have a long-running investment in the Deep State apparatus and its protection against Mr. Trump’s impending prosecution of the so-called “grand conspiracy” (the ongoing seditious coup), as well as his dismantling of the money-flow architecture that keeps Beltway types rolling in dough. Former AG Bill Barr is exhibit-A for that faction, as when he concealed the FBI’s possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop through Trump Impeachment No. 1, when he refused to investigate ballot fraud after the 2020 election, and when he managed to let Jeffrey Epstein off himself in the Manhattan federal lockup.

Then there is Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the emptiest suit to ever occupy that job, who refuses to explain his aversion to common-sense election reform or his failure to allow confirmation of the president’s nominees to important federal posts. He is so committed to doing nothing that he makes “Joe Biden” look like a prodigy of action. They say Sen. Thune represents the old-school “country club” Republicans, but he looks too dim to even tote up an 18-hole golf card.

There are also Tucker, and Candace, and Nick Fuentes, and MTG, and other pouting and shouting former MAGA superstars throwing down against the president and his program. Tucker has exposed facets of his personality that seem every bit as cuckoo as the beliefs of the Democratic Party — his Bible literalism, his romance with space aliens, and especially his vehement antipathy for the Jews. It has all become rather unappetizing, though rumors swirl of Tucker seeking to build a whole new party to replace the GOP and MAGA. As Homey de Clown might put it: I don’t think so. . . .

Candace Owens, of course, seems clinically insane, with her year-long program of intense defamation and vilification of Charlie Kirk’s widow, as well as her fleering Jew hatred. MTG just looks like a sore loser, and Nick Fuentes. . . ? He’s like something that crawled out of the kitchen baseboards after the lights went out. I doubt that any of them will succeed in destroying MAGA, but they’re making the movement uncomfortable. Let’s face it: they’re embarrassing.

On the other hand, the Party of Algae and “Our Democracy” is incapable of being embarrassed, and that has been obvious for a long time based on the absurdities they attempt to foist upon our country. The Iran War seems to be fading in the rear-view mirror now, despite all their yelling about how we lost it. Oil is hovering just below $70-a-barrel as I write. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are reduced to a pitiful vaudeville act in the face of Mamdani-ism. Bernie Sanders is lost in a rain-dance for Utopia. And James Carville is on-track for a three-week vacation in the Rubber Room. Don’t bother praying for them. Just wait for gurgle.

"What Happened to the Shoe Repair Man?" (opens in separate window)

burning down the house

saturday, july 11th, 2026

A Day In The Life.

The Party of Algae and 'Our Democracy'

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