Scott Adams has thrown in the towel and now recommends voting for Johnson. Bookworm, whose posts I love reading, is unusually gloomy today. She thinks the America she loves is dead and gone. Western Rifle Association blog has been putting out posts to prepare readers for a civil war. They think we will start shooting one another soon. I won't mention Ryan anymore than stating that he is part of the problem and acting as expected.
Recently I saw a movie on YouTube called Durak, which was made in 2014. It is loosely based on Dostoyevskiy's "The Idiot". The movie's protagonist is a young man who works as a plumber and at the same time studies to become a civil engineer. He gets called late at night to look at a busted pipe in a building he is assigned to supervise. After going there, he realizes that the building has a bigger problem than a pipe, and is in fact on the verge of falling down. The building is home to 800 poor; kids smoke pot, the adults drink, and old women pensioners are hiding behind closed doors. He tries to alert the town's mayor and after convincing 2 of her staff that the building needs to be immediately evacuated, he is left to wait her decision with administrators. During that time, each person in the government accuses each other of gross negligence, theft, and corruption. The building is a metaphor for the country. The administration sees all the people in the building as cattle and their only care is to avoid being hurt. Eventually, the mayor tells the chief of police to kill the messengers. As they stand under a bridge about to be shot, the old and corrupt building safety administrator asks the police to spare the plumber. The police let him go, instructing him to get out of town. He runs back home, has his wife and son quickly pack and drives off. However, the fate of all these people tortures him and he cannot let it go. He abandons his family and as they drive off, runs to the crumbling building which is due to fall down any moment, and bangs on doors yelling "get out, the building is falling". They leave and stand outside waiting for someone to come and get them. The drunkard puts his arm around the plumber and pronounces look at this man - a real man, rescued all these people... And then punches him in the stomach. A number of other tenants join in and start beating the plumber senseless. The movie ends with the naive idiot lying on the ground, and people returning into their crumbling building.
That is the state of the union and it is the same in Russia, USA, and Europe. The liars, thieves, and murderers are in charge and the sick electorate doesn't want to know how sick their world is.
On the other hand there is a glimmer of hope. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Trump leads among the likely voters. I know that Trump is no angel and I know that he made his money as a crony capitalist. But maybe he is like that old administrator in charge of upkeep; maybe there is still some sense of honor left in him. Maybe it hasn't all collapsed yet.
Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/24/2024
25 minutes ago