cranakis

My two rescues living the life.

I'm double dipping. This is coffee again. Can you find him?

It's their first year of life still so I'm keeping them indoors, under light this winter. I'm cutting back some on light and water until spring though.

I am posting this with the intent of soliciting help. The following is from pages 13 and 14 from Project 2025. I'm reading it in an attempt to understand what is coming for me as an American. As an Atheist, I have many thoughts on and disagreements but I also see in this (and this whole 2025 book) how the right is hooking the religious.

I'm interested in anyone willing to read the following's take or opinion on any or all of it. Help me parse this. We (Americans) need all ideas we can get to counter this type of nonsense. The whole pdf is linked if you want to read it all (it's 900 pages and I will get through it, Spaghetti Monster Damn It).

Without poisoning the well further, see below from the pdf (linked above). Cranakis

PROMISE #4 SECURE OUR GOD-GIVEN INDIVIDUAL RIGHT TO ENJOY “THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.”

The Declaration of Independence famously asserted the belief of America’s Founders that “all men are created equal” and endowed with God-given rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It’s the last—“the pursuit of Happiness”—that is central to America’s heroic experiment in self-government.

When the Founders spoke of “pursuit of Happiness,” what they meant might be understood today as in essence “pursuit of blessedness.” That is, an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained—to flourish. Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought. This pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family—marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners,and the like. Many find happiness through their work. Think of dedicated teachers or health care professionals you know, entrepreneurs or plumbers throwing themselves into their businesses—anyone who sees a job well done as a personal reward. Religious devotion and spirituality are the greatest sources of happiness

— 14 —

around the world. Still others find themselves happiest in their local voluntary communities of friends, their neighbors, their civic or charitable work.

The American Republic was founded on principles prioritizing and maximizing individuals’ rights to live their best life or to enjoy what the Framers called “the Blessings of Liberty.” It’s this radical equality—liberty for all—not just of rights but of authority—that the rich and powerful have hated about democracy in America since 1776. They resent Americans’ audacity in insisting that we don’t need them to tell us how to live. It’s this inalienable right of self-direction—of each person’s opportunity to direct himself or herself, and his or her community, to the good— that the ruling class disdains.

With the Declaration and Constitution, our nation’s Founders handed to us the means with which to preserve this right. Abraham Lincoln wrote of the Declaration as an “apple of gold” in a silver frame, the Constitution. So must the next conservative President look to these documents when the elites mount their next assault on liberty.

Left to our own devices, the American people rejected European monarchy and colonialism just as we rejected slavery, second-class citizenship for women, mercantilism, socialism, Wilsonian globalism, Fascism, Communism, and (today) wokeism. To the Left, these assertions of patriotic self-assurance are just so many signs of our moral depravity and intellectual inferiority—proof that, in fact, we need a ruling elite making decisions for us.

But the next conservative President should be proud, not ashamed of Americans’ unique culture of social equality and ordered Liberty. After all, the countries where Marxist elites have won political and economic power are all weaker, poorer, and less free for it.

The United States remains the most innovative and upwardly mobile society in the world. Government should stop trying to substitute its own preferences for those of the people. And the next conservative President should champion the dynamic genius of free enterprise against the grim miseries of elite-di-rected socialism.

An ode to the old Finnish joke from their Winter War against Russia in 1939-1940. When Russia attempted to take over Finland while the rest of the world was busy with Germany;

A Russian commander on the invasion front pushing into Donbas comes to an open field with a forest on the far side. He has a full compliment of infantry with armored transport for all of them and an impressive line of tanks. Once he has set up operations, he sends two BMPs with troops,and a tank escort across the field. His coms officer reports hearing some unencrypted traffic on the radio. "2 Ukrainians can beat 20 Russians."

"There are only 2 of them, too easy" the Russian commander says.

Halfway across the field, two ATGMs slam into the tank causing an instant fireball. 2 FPV drones already in the air head toward the BMPs, disabling them, troops pile out. As more drones arrive dropping grenades on the surviving troops, the Russian coms officer says "Listen to this Commander:"

"2 Ukranians can beat 100 Russians! Ha ha ha! Pathetic"

The Russian commander is furious. "Send in half of what we have. Crush them!"

12 tanks head out. Russian troops pile into BMPs and any other transport they can find and begin tearing across the field from several angles toward the forest. 2/3 of the way across the field they start to hit the mines. Several BMPs and tanks are total losses, others are disabled. FPV drones scream in to destroy the disabled. Previously unseen Ukrainian artillery rains down. The field becomes littered with burning Russian assets.

One Russian BMP nearly makes it to the forest and a few of the Russian soldiers that bail out manage to find cover at the edge of the woods. The squad leader sends one man in each direction to reconnoiter and report back while he sets up coms. After several minutes his runners return and he radios the Russian commander.

The squad leader's panicked voice comes over the radio: "Don't send in anymore, it's a trap. There are 10 of them!"

Its good to hear her speak. A sane adult. The full interview had some further policy detail. I'm encouraged. I hope she keeps opening up. Its refreshing.

“Not everybody has Secret Service,” she said. “Members of the LGBTQ community don’t feel safe right now, immigrants or people with an immigrant background don’t feel safe right now. Women don’t feel safe right now.”

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/25361855

Another gardening lesson in not giving up: The progression of pictures here are 3 of the same plant, a Trepadeira Werner pepper, taken over the course of this year.

1st pic: I grew them from seed indoors and a few days after putting them out in early April, I found the local deer had visited and eaten the plant down to the stem. I considered it a loss but didn't deal with it or pull the plant up. I just walked away, then went out of town for a bit the next day.

2nd Pic: When I came back into town it had new leaves so I figured I'd let it try again for kicks. It had fallen over under its weight so I staked it up. I did try a few things to keep the deer away, I think with moderate success.

3rd Pic is from last week. I see some evidence of deer nibbling but I believe the heat of the pepper may be keeping them away from it now. I'm still blown away remembering this thing when it was eaten to the stem.