We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Samizdata quote of the day – the blackouts are coming The UK’s energy crisis results from years of neglect, unrealistic ambitions, and misplaced priorities. MPs are more interested in their public profiles. Industry lobbyists push profitable yet impractical solutions. And the media constantly prioritises speed over substance.
As we edge closer to inevitable blackouts—if we indeed continue to follow the aggressive push toward “carbon neutrality”— the question isn’t if the wheels will come off but when.
– JJ Starky
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
I’ve been hearing this for years. In the mid-00s I was told by an energy expert that rolling blackouts would start in the early 2010s. They didn’t.
I’m sure the alarmists will eventually be right. The current energy production in the UK is definitely nutty. Expensive wind energy backed up by natural gas which is actually the primary source of electricity because the wind is so unreliable. We import natural gas as LNG and we import electricity from France, mostly produced from nuclear. It’s certainly made us very vulnerable to interruptions and energy shocks. That said, we’ve already had some extremely serious energy problems which has led to the current high prices of electricity in the UK. It certainly seems that the blackouts, rolling or otherwise, probably _aren’t_ coming any time soon, as the interconnectedness of the European energy network gives many options to avoid that. However managed decline will continue apace.
You will be unlikely to see ‘rolling blackouts. That’s what Smart meters are for. Energy demand management.
It’s now technically possible to reduce the power delivered to a dwelling or other consumer, and can interrupt power entirely. The point being, you won’t see whole districts without power ( barring infrastructure failure), the energy management outfit can just switch off half a dozen consumers here, and another dozen there. Net, net, you look outside your window, see your neighbours power is on and then spend the next two hours trying to get the telephone robot to put you through to a human, to help,
Good luck with that.
In the 18th and 19th centuries Britain was an example to be followed, in the late 20th century Britain became an example to be avoided, and in the 21st century we may become a nightmare – a warning to the world of what bad policy can do, even to what was (within living memory) the heart of the largest Empire the world had ever known.
The Empire was not the source of British wealth – it was the result of it, the source of British wealth was, at first, efficient farming in England and Wales – the profits of this English and Welsh farming (not “the slave trade”) provided most of the investment into industry – the industrial revolution being legal here because Britain did not have compulsory guild laws and other regulations (as France and other nations did in the 1700s).
Even as late as 1890, the year the United States overtook the United Kingdom as an industrial power, the United Kingdom had been the greatest industrial power the world had ever seen (although such things as Disraeli’s Trade Union Act of 1875 started to undermine British competitiveness – it was a gradual process), now we are not even in the top ten manufacturing countries.
We can not feed ourselves – domestic farming produces less than half of the food needed for this overpopulated island (there have been around ten million immigrants in the last couple of decades alone) and manufacturing being undermined by higher taxes, increasing regulations (especially in the labour market – where the regulations are, bizarrely, called “rights” – as if a right was an expansion of government power not a restriction on government power) and YES higher energy costs – due to the “Green” agenda.
“Invisibles” “The City” (financial services) can not pay for all the food and raw materials that Britain needs (again we are not America or Russia – we need to import food and raw materials) only manufacturing exports can pay for this – and what is left of manufacturing is being wreaked by higher taxes (such as the National “Insurance” Tax increase), more regulations (especially in the Labour Market) and the higher energy costs of the “Green” agenda.
The conclusion is obvious and brutal, incredibly brutal.
The future of this country is going to be grim indeed.
In the United States during the “Gilded Age” started by President Grant and ended by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, local governments could if local taxpayers wished to, do various things – in Britain under Disraeli’s Act of 1875 local governments had to about 40 things, at the expense of local taxpayers, whether the taxpayers wanted these expenses or not. “Local democracy” becoming, to some extent, a legal fiction in Britain after 1875.
Under another of Disraeli’s Acts (also in 1875) British Trade Unions were, partly, put above the law – with them, for example, being allowed to impose para military “Picket Lines” (a military term) to obstruct the entrance to a place of business – in the United States such para military tactics were also used (sometimes with great violence) – but they were responded to with very strong measures by people protecting their property – these strong measures against obstruction and against the intimidation of people who choose to go to work “black legs” or “strike breakers” (sometimes also involving great violence – violence came from both sides) were not allowed in Britain – so employers were forced to make deals which gradually, over time, undermined British industrial competitiveness – especially after the 1906 (Liberal Government) Act put British Trade Unions almost totally above the law.
The British government responded to the higher UNEMPLOYMENT which its Acts of 1875 and 1906 had created, by such things as creating “Labour Exchanges” (largely a Public Relations measure – to pretend to be doing something) and by starting to pay people not in work – unemployment benefit, which came in under the Act of 1911 (government old age pensions had come in a few years before), this did not exist, at that time, in Germany (let alone the United States) – and the British Government also introduced government financed health care under the Act of 1911 (not 1948 – 1911), which did not appear, at the Federal level, in the United States till the 1960s.
Income Tax in Britain reached its low point in 1874 – and then started to creep up, whereas in the United States the Civil War Income Tax was abolished under President Grant (gold money was also restored at this time) and did not return till after the Act of 1913.
The above paragraphs explain why the United States overtook the United Kingdom as a manufacturing power.
The hatred, among American historians and the establishment generally, for the “Gilded Age”, really comes from the same source as their endless stressing of corruption under President Warren Harding but ignoring the much greater corruption under the Administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman (Mr Truman being a associate of the Pendergast Machine of Kansas City Missouri – very much an example of Organised Crime, if anything the “FDR” Administration was even more corrupt).
The hatred is of liberty – specifically economic liberty, reducing government spending, lowering taxes, deregulation, and-so-on.
It really is that blatant – the double standards among historians (and other establishment intellectuals) being obvious.
For example, how many people know that the American “Gun Control” movement started by the New York State “Sullivan Act” of 1911, was started by Mr Sullivan (Democrat politician and Organised Crime boss – who eventually died from a disease he contracted from one of his own prostitutes) so that people could not fight back against his goons.
I suspect that this is not taught in school and university in the United States.
The UK energy crisis is entirely down to renewables. First, their variability and unreliability. Secondly, the grid is no longer adequate due the locations of the renewables. Thirdly, the cost of renewable energy is inflated by the need for a reliable backup system (eg gas).
When the wind does not blow in the UK the same may be true in Germany, so both countries will be competing for French nuclear and Norwegian hydro power. Not only does this raise the price but when there is a shortage the consumers in those countries will be given priority.
Those Norwegian interconnects may not there in a couple of years, if this at WUWT is true.
KJP – I will make a prediction that the policy will be (already is – so it is not really a “prediction”) more extreme in Britain than in Germany – and will last longer.
I am not young (to put the matter mildly), I have many years experience watching the British establishment at work (on various things) – and once something has become the practice of the bureaucracy here, it is almost impossible to stop (no matter what arguments or evidence one uses) – it will be carried on (and on – and on) regardless of the amount of harm the policy does.
There is a bit of pragmatism (small “p”) in Germany that does not exist here in the United Kingdom.
What is going to happen here is going to be like a horror film – but it is going to be real, brutally real.
I know that, here in the US, if the power companies began to use ‘smart’ meters to turn off some individual consumers and not others, the time it would take for someone to develop a solution – either to over-ride the smart meter, or simply to bypass it – would be measurable with an egg-timer.
llater,
llamas
It is blindingly obvious. Nuclear. It has been blindingly obvious for decades. Obvious the Adenoidal Twat Ed Millipede doesn’t see it that way and wants to play Windy Miller.
Just three questions… How many people have died because of nuclear?* Have you seen the hellish conditions of the mines in Africa for the metals to make turbine generators? Have you seen the conditions in Chinese factories?
Far be it from me to play the “expert’s card” but it seems to me that the more people know about the physical sciences the less they are against nuclear power. It is not about the absurd abstraction of “Level of Education”. Both me and the Edward have postgraduate degrees from the University of London. Mine is in astrophysics from QMC and the Millipede went to LSE where he studied… Does it really matter? I suppose it could be marginally worse – he could have gone to SOAS…
And, yes, Paul the deliberate decimation of the UK’s industrial base is a travesty but… Jaguar will soon be building Barbie’s Batmobile so we shall all be saved! Yeah the salvation of British manufacturing is to be found in making cars that only appeal to a 1970s Elton John. And he’s going blind anyway. FFS. Here’s a rad idea… Why not make high value-added products ordinary people both like and need?** Because that might actually work. I can here the deafening silence of all the MBAs in the room…
*Leave out Chernobyl because that shouldn’t be seen as a disaster caused by nuclear power as much as one caused by central government power.
**I’m not a rich man but I do have an Omega Speedmaster Automatic and a Swatch/Omega Apollo watch. When I win the lottery I’m getting a Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris.
There’s a movie-TV trope that has a passenger in a plane going up into the cockpit and then returning to tell everyone “there’s no one up there! There’s no one flying the plane!”
Government ought to have its group of subject-matter experts minding the store – and we all sort of expect this to be.
As Starky points out, it’s now an illusion. It’s all vacuous wanna-be celebrities, all the way down.
And we voted them in.
If society no longer has the judgment to pick competent and curious leaders – if we’re all just People-Magazine worshippers instead of contemplative voters – maybe we really are due for a disastrous tumble.
NickM – yes and now that the old patents (which, I am told, the U.S. Navy had) have run out, the path is clear to small and simple nuclear reactors, which we should have had decades ago.
llamas – I do not have a “smart meter”, not because I bravely resisted (sadly I am not a brave man), but because Corporate bullying is matched by Corporate incompetence. The first time a person from “E.ON” came round to fit a “smart meter” he said his energy levels were too low (translation, he was too lazy to do the work – this is very British, I often have “low energy levels” as well, hence my failure to get the leafleting done and write out that CPF report today), the second time someone from the Corporation came round they started to order me about in my own home (they seemed to get a kick out of doing this) – eventually I, in spite of being a devout coward, lost my temper and removed him from the house. I have not let another person-from-the-Corporation in my home – again not because I am brave, but because I am scared of what antics they would get up to if I let them in.
Remember the other power companies are-the-same.
bobby b – experts? Please Sir NO – just please NO. Government by experts is what the United Kingdom already has – such things as the Covid lockdowns and Net Zero (and most other things) were designed by experts – with elected persons doing what they are told to do (we have to – or we are punished, in one way or another).
I am a councilor – indeed supposedly the most “powerful” form of councilor, a member of a “Unitary Authority” no less – yet a hundred yards from my home, locked behind a plastic screen, is a notice advertising a Christmas event – and “what is wrong with that?” you might ask, but it is for a Christmas event in 2019 – yes 2019.
I have asked for this poster to be removed – many times I have asked, and nothing is done. Note I wrote “asked” – if I tried to give an order I would be guilty of “bullying” and I would be punished, and my own group would certainly not support me (quite the opposite).
Of course, I could smash that plastic screen and take down the poster myself – but then I would be guilty of vandalism, criminal damage, and the authorities would be delighted to prosecute me – as I would have given them the perfect excuse.
So there it is – the piece of paper which shows the true state of democracy in this nation. Yes, before someone jumps in with counter examples, elected people can do SOME things – I have myself, but things are NOT as they should be a lot of the time – far too much of the time we have “government by experts”.
I am told that, under expert guidance, the government is legalising euthanasia (Parliament has already voted YES PLEASE – with the normal vague and meaningless “safeguards” of course) – so there may be an alternative to trying to survive the blackouts, food shortages, and the other things that expert made policy is to impose on this land.
It is all very unfortunate. Although it will be “strictly voluntary”.
As a libertarian, I’m in favour of voluntary euthanasia. There are definitely concerns over how ‘voluntary’ grandma’s decision might be, but that particular Pandora’s box of ethical dilemmas is already open in late-stage medical interventions, care homes and assisted living, wills and intestacy and numerous other minor legal technicalities. How much say should a patient have over their medical treatment when there are big questions over their mental capacity? It’s all very good for medicolegal dramas but in practice there’s plenty of shenanigans that go on already.
I knew an old lady who was diagnosed with cancer at 11:59 in her life, her doctors didn’t even tell her – she was dead a few hours later. I wasn’t altogether happy that no-one even told her or even told her that she was dying, but in practice what difference would it have made? Should she have had a conversation with one of those doctors about what treatment was available? In the NHS system she was simply quietly put on the “Liverpool Care Pathway” and was dead by the end of the day. I was just an observer, a friend of the family. Her daughter made all the calls and she was adamant that no-one tell her mother what was happening, what she’d been diagnosed with. It wasn’t my place to say anything, but I was troubled.
The truth is that most medical systems quietly kill many patients and not necessarily altogether wrongly. Life extension without dignity or any hope of quality of life, just days marked in a hospital bed is not meaningfully life. Opening up the debate about euthanasia, and accepting that in certain circumstances euthanasia may be the patients best option, would make a marked improvement over a doctor quietly putting someone on a death pathway without any discussion of it, and that’s exactly what’s happening up and down the country right now.
There are experts, and there are “experts.”
I’m not talking about letting the NGOs and woke science orgs run the show.
I want the type of politicians – elected government officials – who have the intellectual curiosity and ability to grab hold of a subject – “global warming”, or power distribution, or monetary policy – and learn it and make it their own, and then make reasoned and informed decisions about which they can educate others.
Too many officials now are simply gladhanders, celebs, marketers, party-line spouters. I want informed and educated and motivated experts of my type running the show.
As it stands, you could quiz 100 Senators or Members about any techie subject, and they’d be frantically trying to find their last party position paper.
I want an elected official to be able to discern that CO2 follows temps. I want one who understands what shutting down this port will do in a month. I want one who knows transportation issues.
The “experts” you speak of – no, I have no use for them. Hired hands looking for the next grant.
Agreed, but there is a deeper problem here.
Senators and Members are supposed to represent their constituencies’ interests on all issues, not just one issue.
Is it reasonable to expect all congress-critters to understand all tech issues, as well as all non-tech issues?
I think not, but i have no suggestions as to how to solve this problem.
Paul I never thought about it from a IP view. Those (relatively) dinky USN PWRs could actually be mass produced, right? So…WTF isn’t anyone doing anything about this?
My vague understanding is the USA built it’s last TV in 2005. A couple of years ago I (in the UK) bought a new TV. A Philips. I was astonished that it was actually made in Europe – in Poland. Is it that, quite simply, we in “The West” have largely forgotten how to have a manufacturing base or at least one that isn’t part of the GIC – Government Industrial Complex – which “renewables” definitely are. Yeah, anything is “sustainable” if you give enough government funding to it. Until the government goes broke, obviously and then it’s back to banging rocks together and waiting until one of your fellow cave-dwellers has the bright idea of bringing fire into the cave.
bobby,
When I was a primary school kid in Gateshead in the ’80s the council (Labour) went big on making the town a Nuclear Free Zone. They delayed the Queen Elizabeth Hospital getting a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance scanner (now rebranded as MRI) and they celebrated their self-righteousness by putting posters declaring a Gateshead a Nuclear Free Zone (like that was gonna stop the Sovs). The posters feature a cheery smiling cartoon sun. I knew, even then, how the sun shone. Clearly they didn’t.
Re Starkey’s claim that “people are going to die”, I suspect he’s right. Notwithstanding the smart metering function.
And when people die (freeze to death; die early because they could not get treatment), what will the Green’s response be? “Oh no, we were so wrong about Net Zero, renewables, and the rest. We are so sorry.”
Nope. They will double down: “you see what happens when you don’t listen to us and don’t implement every one of our brilliant ideas as fast as possible!?”
At which point, we have a decision to make: keep allowing this nonsense or grab our pitchforks and rout the bastards.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, we’d be better governed by a Parliament of 650 randomly chosen brickies, plumbers, sparkies and chippies than the shower of ‘educated’ people we have today.
bobby b – I can think of a couple of United States Senators who fit your requirements – Ron Johnson and Rand Paul.
As for Members of the House of Commons – sadly I can not think of anyone in the present House of Commons who fits your requirements, which is just as well for elected politicians – as if they offered the sort of dissent you are looking for, they might well be sent to prison here.
NickM – the United States has become so Byzantine (or Hapsburg) in its bureaucracy that it is a wonder that it achieves anything, but it still does. As for the United Kingdom – I try not to think about this land too much because I might start screaming in mental anguish, and that would upset my neighbours.
Greg WA – yes and that would be very British, after all…..
When the increase in the Poor Law Tax in Ireland (introduced in 1838) in the late 1840s led to upsetting results, the response was to increase the tax more – and more, and more. Till over a quarter of the population were dead or had fled the country – and even after all that, the reaction (in all the history books) is that the government did not intervene enough in Ireland, that it should have intervened MORE.
And, famously, when frontal attacks (infantry in line) led to vast casualties in the First World War – the response was to do it again, again and again.
When a General refused to send more men “over the top” on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme that General was sent home in disgrace as a coward (he had in his life done such “cowardly” things as go into Khartoum to try and rescue General Gordon), and the General responsible for getting 20 thousand British soldiers killed and 30 thousand wounded on July 1st 1916, just sent more men on suicide attacks the next day – he got an Earldom, his name was Douglas Haig (someone who, in a life time in the army, was never wounded – he tended to have the “bad luck” to be places where he was not required to fight – or, by some innocent mistaken judgement, to happen to move to an area of the battle space where the enemy were not, although he did shake his pistol and say “we will sell our lives dearly” in 1914 – with the Germans several miles away from him when he said this, and they continued to be away from him, regardless of where the Germans moved to – he was a deeply unlucky man who would have loved to be in combat, many British Generals were killed so it was not a matter of rank, but just happened not to be in combat – again and again).
So Chris Whittey and Patrick Vallance getting kighthoods for their despicable antics is par-for-the-course.
Ed Miliband?
For destroying what is left of British industry and reducing us to blackouts and food shortages (hunger), I would guess he will get a Dukedom – specially restored (the Crown does not give them out any more) for him.
In the past, we’ve had many senior Senators and Reps who, mostly by dint of their committee memberships and chairmanships, have become the knowledgeable guiding lights for specific subject matters.
They can afford to become a bit narrow in their coverage because there are huge advantages for an electorate in having a senior member as their elected representative. Senior members, because of their privileges and power, can really bring home the bacon, so to speak.
We’ve had some great longstanding Ag Committee chairmen, farmers who know the topic and lead development of the field. The Armed Services committee has had some good ones, as has the Transportation committee.
We’ve had few great ones of late.
bobby b – you have Senator Ron Johnson and Senator Rand Paul.
For those who do not know – Chris Whitty and Patrick Valance were the scientific medical experts in charge of the despicable Covid antics – which have done such terrible harm, and for which they both got knighthoods.
The General who refused to slaughter the North Midlands Division at the Battle of the Somme was General Edward Montague Stuart-Wortley – after the first attacks had clearly failed he was still ordered to send in more men, rather than disobey orders he “interpreted” the order in the least damaging way he could – sending in a unit of 20 men (the smallest he could), of which two (2) men returned.
Due to his action the North Midlands Division survived the battle and did good service later in the war – he was, of course, sent home in disgrace. One can achieve things in Britain (such as saving the North Midlands Division) – but only if one is prepared to get disgrace as one’s reward.
Stuart-Wortley had “form” – the previous year (1915) he had opposed suicide attacks at the Battle of Loos – the suicide attacks were launched anyway and the men were (of course) slaughtered – Haig and co blamed Stuart-Wortley for the failure, supposedly if he had shown more “enthusiasm” he would have “inspired” the men to shrug off getting bullets through their bodies and being blown up with shells, and they would have gone on to victory.
Another “cowardly” General was General Horace Smith-Dorrien – who, by some strange chance, tended to be rather nearer the Germans in 1914 than Douglas Haig was, people with a lack of the expert military judgement of Douglas might say that Smith-Dorien prevented the collapse of the British army in 1914 – but that can not possibly be correct.
The “cowardly” Smith-Dorrien (who had been repeatedly wounded in combat in his life in the army) had been one of the few survivors of the Battle of Isandlwana against the Zulu – Smith-Dorrien also saved the life of another soldier, but as-he-admitted “anyone would have done it”.
See says Douglas – he ADMITS it was nothing special, and there were only a few thousand Zulus, it is just my bad luck that I was not there, I would have saved several men, not just one! Just as I, Douglas Haig, would have got into into Khartoum – just as Stuart-Wortley did, and unlike that coward I would have succeeded in rescuing Gordon – even though he was already dead.
Yet another “cowardly” General was General Broadwood – killed at Passendendaele in 1917.
Broadwood’s orders in the Sudan (which led to victory in a battle) were, by an entirely honest mistake, credited to a young Douglas Haig – credited to Douglas Haig by an anonuymous writer who turned out to be Douglas Haig.
And we must not forget General Plumer – who committed the terrible crime of failing Douglas in a military examination, Douglas Haig had a habit of failing examinations, when he bothered to sit them at all – but could always find friends to see what a truly talented man he was and why he should be an officer and get promoted anyway.
One good friend of Douglas Haig was James Edmunds – who did “some” (how much?) of the work of Douglas for him at Staff Collage – dictating answers to him and so on (so that Douglas could pass some examinations – in his own handwriting) – by a total coincidence James Edmunds wrote the official history of the First World War (after the person first chosen to write it – was removed).
So historical background into how the British establishment operates means that we should not be shocked by Covid lockdowns and toxic “vaccines”, or by “Net Zero”, or by anything else.
Very true. Would that we had more like them.
Yes indeed bobby b – yes indeed.
Paul Marks:
This is very interesting. Back in the last century, I never heard British people complain about energy levels. Rather, i heard excuses, mostly blaming other people.
(But also ad hoc excuses, e.g. “there is no point in publishing refereed journal papers because people look in conference proceedings for the most recent research!”)
I myself find that my energy level is the main mental problem that has not been resolved by an improved diet. I am making a New Year resolution to eat more beef, in the hope that it will make a difference (as it seems to have done in the past).
(I could also cut down on the booze, but let’s change one variable at a time!)
I find my mental energy is much higher when I stick to my walk regimen.
A reminder. There is an alternative
https://meme.aho.st/frack-or-freeze/
I’d like to ask bobby for details about his walking regimen.
I do walk almost every day, at least to get some beer.
I don’t keep a strategic beer reserve, specifically so that i have to walk every day.
Some other tricks that seem to marginally increase my energy levels:
vegan evening meals (but, importantly, without sugars and almost always without cereals other than lager);
eating yogurt;
ingesting moderate amounts of potassium and magnesium (at least 1h before or after meals);
stretching my calf muscles.
Six years ago, 220 pounds, mild depression.
Downloaded a walking-mapping app – mapmywalk.com – and started with a minimum of 1 mile per day, every day, outside. Raised that min with time.
The app makes it more fun, and quantitative. (Oooo, I did 3.962 mph average today! I did 859 feet of elevation change today! That kind of thing. Turns a hobby into a near-obsession, which is good.)
Now at 160 pounds and happy. My daily min is 5 miles. Did a 9-mile loop yesterday. Still sore, but it’s a good sore.
(Improvements are likely a combo of walk and diet. Keto.)
Snorri and bobby b.
You are both nicer people than me – I just assumed the man was a lying turd. I did not occur to me that he had some form of medical problem.
Laziness is very common here – I am lazy myself, I doubt there is any medical cause.
Paul – I was very lazy and sedentary at 220 pounds.
At 160, I’m much more active, and quicker, and I just generally feel fitter and happier. And younger.
It’s hard to lift 220 pounds out of the comfy chair. And so that’s where I’d stay.
No, Paul, i am not nice. Sometimes you have to be harsh to be nice; but sometimes i am harsh just because i feel like it.
But i am nicer than i used to be, before detox from seed oils, gluten, and refined carbs (other than beer).
Congratulations to bobby for getting down to 160 pounds. My ambition, however, is to get back to 5 pull-ups.
I start from the assumption that we are all insane, in qualitatively and quantitatively different ways; because of what we ate when our brains were developing and/or in the last couple of years.
Therefore, all psychological problems are forms of insanity.
In the long term, RFK Jr might be the most revolutionary member of the Trump team.
PS: Just to brag: i walked about 44 Km in one day, in the Canadian Rockies (Berg Lake trail, back & forth) with a group of people almost as crazy as i was. But that was almost 40 years ago.
And Paul must have been a fit fellow too, since he was a security guard.
bobby b and Snorri – congratulations to both of you! You have both done well.