It’s been one of those days, dear reader…nothing’s going on, but I’ve been edgy.  I had a Jack and Coke Slurpee with lunch, which I really thought would take the edge off, but it didn’t work.  Which is just weird, cuz that always works.  Be that as it may, it was, excuse me here, dear reader, fucking delicious.  But still…I’m edgy.

Update: Trader Joe’s got apple cider donuts in today.  There’s still one more stupid day of summer, but fall’s apple cider donuts are already here.  Fuck you, summer.  Everything’s better…at least for now.  No promises about tomorrow.

N.P.: “Dead Mantra” – Dead Skeletons

The criminally negligent Minneapolis City Council had a special meeting last week to discuss orders of magnitude crime rate has increased since they’ve been bad-mouthing, not supporting, accusing of racism, and trying to defund the police department.  Jamal Osman, the newest member of the Council of Idiots actually said, out loud, “Residents are asking, ‘Where are the police.'”  Well, shit, Jamal…that is a good question…wheresoever could they be?  Osman went on: “[The police department is the only public safety option they have at this point.  MPD.  They rely on MPD.  And [the residents] are saying they are nowhere to be seen.”
Jamal needs to have some sense slapped into him.  Seriously.  If he and the rest of the city council are some moronically myopic as to honestly wonder why crime might skyrocket when you allow criminals and thugs hiding behind the BLM™ moniker to destroy your city nightly whilst ordering your police force to stand down, to not let them use their assigned weapons to defend themselves, when you prosecute them if they do dare to defend themselves, when you do nothing but join in the chants of the idiotic mob.  Dolts.
Lisa Bender, the president of the Council of Incompetence, reported that she is hearing that the word on the street is the police are purposefully, intentionally not arresting criminals.
This level of failure to understand the most rudimentary cause-and-effect relationship is indicative of some kind of moronic psychosis.  Their entire City Council should be jailed.  Fortunately for them, there aren’t any cops left to arrest them.

N.P.: “Plasma” – Stahlmann

Today was just weird as hell.  I was enjoying my first at-a-restaurant lunch since March, al fresco, of course, due to plague, when a car crashed into a bunch of diners at the restaurant next door.  Several hours later, I almost got into a fight at the gun store.  But then I remembered it was the first day of Rosh Hashanah, so I just went home and drank whiskey.
My hair wants cutting.

N.P.: “Under My Thumb” – Streetheart

Kind of a long day, but a good one.  Got to drive fast…that’s always invigorating.  Too many pesky errands to get any real writing done.  There is still tonight.

N.P.: “Sid Vicious in a Dress” – Powerman 5000

The United States brokered a peace deal between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, normalizing relations between two Arab countries and the Jewish state.  This is fucking huge.  This is the only concrete step to peace in the Middle East in decades.  Oddly, it wasn’t really covered by American media.
The reason is happened, and the reason this is likely only the first in what will likely be several formal agreements normalizing relations with the rest of the Arab states in the region (I’m not a betting man, but Oman and Jordan will likely be next) is because of a significant policy shift the part of the U.S.  The Palestinians and the Iranians have had a stranglehold on the region, keeping Arab countries from even recognizing Israel.  Previous administrations have, for whatever reasons, allowed this to happen.  The new policy is for the United States to ignore the protestations of the non-starter Palestinians and the Persians, and instead get all of the Arab countries on board with normalized relations and peace, and if Iran and the Palestinians wish to continue their anti-Israel stance, they will be totally isolated, impotent, and soon completely broke.  At that point, the only option for the Palestinians, who have squandered every single chance to make peace with Israel that they’ve had,  to ever have their own country will have to be carved out of Iranian land, and the possibility of that happening are nil.  Iran, already broke, will be unable to export oil, and its straits will become truly dire.  The government of Iran, will, unfortunately, let its entire population starve to death before sitting down with the Israelis.  But the Iranian people will rise up before that happens.  The ayatollah will be literally decapitated, the Islamic government overthrown, and guess what one of the first things the new government will do?  Yep….normalize relations with Israel.  The new Iran will be welcomed into the coalition with open arms, and the country and its people will thrive.  It’s brilliant, and I’m glad it’s happening in my lifetime.

N.P.: “Big Boy’s Blues” – Yello

You wanna know why I despise The Herd so much, dear reader?  There are myriad reasons, of course, but up near the top is their intentional ignorance.  Critical thinking is far too taxing to their atrophied minds, and they’re not all that interested in reality, fact, truth, or knowledge anyway.  They couldn’t care less.  They only want an Echo.  They need other people to tell them that they are right.  That they are victims.  That they are oppressed.  That they are innocent.
Their minds, personalities, and psyches are unbelievably weak.  Paper thin…shamefully delicate.  These are people who played soccer or little league and score wasn’t kept because the concept of winners and losers was too harsh for their delicate little world views.  And then they spent their adolescence on social media getting serotonin shots from likes.  And thus social approval is something that they simply cannot even imagine existing without.  And they were taught that the most instantly devastating thing for social approval is to be at all offensive on absolutely any level.  And so desperately do they need the continued stream of likes that they soon realize that anybody can get offended at anything, so it’s best to not say anything.  But you have to post everyday, because no posts = no likes.  So it’s pictures of puppies, pictures of dinner, pictures of “my girlz” making the duck face.  And that’s it.  For years.  But likes are like any other drug…one develops a tolerance.  One must get more likes just to maintain.  The pictures of dinner just aren’t cutting it.  So one of those cool frames is deployed.  A cute little colorful frame to go around one’s profile picture with the hastag du jour on the bottom to show You Really Care.  And one gets a like spike, because of course all one’s friends are going to smash that like button…if they don’t, that means their anti- whatever the hashtag was, and that is patently offensive, and one wouldn’t want that, would one?
And this continues to feed the fragile ego.  But it is also clear that as soon as the flow of likes stops, the result is catastrophic depression.  Keep the flow going at all costs.
But then one day, somebody who doesn’t post much ever, someone with whom you haven’t had any contact with in several years, someone who does not need likes at all, comments on one of your posts, and dares to challenge or even question it.  That is not why you posted it…you posted it to get likes, not have a fucking debate.  Who the hell is this person to disagree with me…with “us” (because you’re only saying what all your friends have already said).  Surely anybody who would even think to question the hive mind is a sexist, racist, misogynist, et cetera.  Which you say in a reply and holy shit the likes!
And so in goes.  On and on.  Someone recently asked me for advice on dealing with being yelled/threatened online because of something she’d said.  She thought I must have to deal with a lot of negative feedback from things I say on this site.  I told her there is exactly no negative feedback…none.  The reason is that comments aren’t allowed on this site.  That’s it.  The only reason members of The Herd will yell at you, threaten you, call you racist or whatever, is because other people can see them doing it.  And nothing scores likes like calling someone a racist, misogynist, blah blah blah.  But if no one sees them doing it, they completely lose interest.  Anyone will hit a “like” button to express their “outrage.”  No one will take the time to actually compose an original email expressing their views on topic.  Fuck that…takes way too long, and if nobody sees it, then there’s no point.
The problem today is not Cancel Culture…it’s Conformist Culture.  And we free thinkers find it pathetic.

N.P.: “Strange People Doing Strange Things” – Powerman 5000

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I was part of a discussion this morning about potentially heading to Compton to find that shitbag who attempted to execute two cops over the weekend.  Because there’s not much else going on right now, and the reward for this idiot is $100K, which would a bonus, as everybody in the discussion was more than willing to do it for free.  There was somewhat lively debate about the details of the reward being specifically for “information leading to the arrest and conviction” of this shitbag, which is generous, but the consensus of the group was that this wouldn’t be a fact-finding mission meant to produce “information,” and why can’t the reward have balls and be for the “capture of the suspect, dead or alive,” either way.
I opted out of all the plans and of the discussion itself (I had some other, less shooty things to discuss this morning), but the reason I mention it is because this sort of discussion is becoming increasingly common around here.  The worm has been slow to turn, but if the BLM™ terrorists and antifa brown shirts continue on their present course (which they undoubtedly will), they will see their ranks dwindle precipitously this fall and winter as their members succumb to lead poisoning as they start to come up against Americans who actually know how to fight, do not back down, are increasingly heavily armed, and have had about enough of a mob of entitled, ignorant, guilty white suburbanites who lost their gig at Jamba Juice during quarantine and now think they’re revolutionaries because it turns out they’ve never actually met a black person and boy do they feel guilty about that and now it’s time to play catch-up with The Struggle.
This will not end well for them.

N.P.: “It’s a Great Day to Whup Somebody’s Ass” – Paul Thorn

These are indeed “interesting” times, dear reader, in the Chinese sense of the word.  It is clear from the number of idiots still walking around making idiot noises that the initial iteration of this plague wasn’t nearly effective enough.  Perhaps Round Two will prove more effective.

N.P.: “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” – Disturbed

Did some experimental stuff today.  Experimental for me…just meta, self-referential stuff.  It was kinda fun.  And into the vault it goes.
Getting toward the end of the planning stages on the new studio.  Just a few more t’s to cross and I think I’ll be ready to pull the trigger.
I really miss The Rain.

N.P.: “Ramunder” – Garmarna