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Friday, June 28. 2024

How Very Happy People Get That Way

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Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 09:30 | Comments (39) | Trackbacks (0)

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How Very Happy People Get That Way

Becoming happy is very much like running a profitable business, where the first rule is "In order to MAKE money, you first need to stop LOSING money."

Stop doing things that make you unhappy. For example, material things (new car, new clothes, etc) seldom make you happier. Follow Hannibal Lecter's advice: "You covet what you see," and just stop looking.

And do some simple things that make you and those around you happy. My wife adores muffins, so I make her a batch every week.

This shxt ain't hard. And slow, but steady wins the race.

#1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2024-06-28 10:10 (Reply)

And get a dog. You should start out in life with one and end your days with one. They are born comedians and pass their attitude off on you. They love the simple free things in life and pass that on to all of us.

#1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2024-06-28 13:47 (Reply)

"And get a dog."

Yes!

#1.1.1 JJM on 2024-06-29 07:36 (Reply)

Mike's right. Don't envy. That will make you happier.

#2 Maniac on 2024-06-28 10:37 (Reply)

I recall a conversation with my Father when I admitted that jealousy is the absolute worst emotion I have ever experienced. It is nothing less than hatred of your own self. Spiritual poison.

#2.1 Lord Heathen on 2024-06-28 11:21 (Reply)

With respect to replacing Biden, I think this is the prime reason the Democrats pushed to have this first debate prior to the convention. It gives them a pretty firm data point as to whether they think he's up to a second election campaign. It's interesting to consider what could happen if even with a near lock on the delegates now, the superdelegates just said "no."
The second point still available is the Electoral College, where an obviously weakened candidate could be swapped out were Biden to win.
One important note that the article did not mention is that swapping in Gavin for Biden would mean getting rid of Harris as well, since both Gavin and Harris are from California and the party could not stand to lose California's electoral votes and still have a majority.

#3 Another Guy named Dan on 2024-06-28 10:56 (Reply)

I pretty much agree but I think the debate was actually a setup so that Biden would get the hook. Everybody in the Democratic camp knew of Biden's cognitive issues. It has been hard to cover up his "senior moments." Lately, the presses softball questions about the southern border and the economy have gotten a bit harder. Certainly, the hope was that he could pull a rabbit out of the hat and stun everybody but beneath all the claims that in meetings he is sharp as a tack and focused, etc. they knew he had to go.

One question I have is will any opponent to a Democrat congress critter bring up the fact that Biden was obviously not all there but his opponent swore that he was at the top of his game? That his opponent put party politics, not even national politics, ahead of the country?

As for Harris, I think she'll remain a punctuation mark - a comma - in the national Democratic politics.

#3.1 mudbug on 2024-06-28 14:07 (Reply)

'Sharp as a tack' - no, Ol' Joe was never sharp as a tack. At his best he was about as sharp as a dull spork. Never Presidential material, but he's a living example of the Peter Principle, someone who's been promoted far above his competence.

His 'staff', the handlers who've had their way implementing their goals for the last four years, have got to be panicking at this point. The only way they can keep things going their way is by getting another 'qualified' Dem in place, which would be either Biden or Harris. Newsom may be controllable, but his record in California's clear. Whitmer's record in Michigan during Covid shows she's got no problems at all being an authoritarian, but is she willing to keep everything going?

It'll be fun to see who knifes who in the back.

#3.1.1 JLawson (Link) on 2024-06-28 18:37 (Reply)

“Chevron is overruled.”

QUOTE:

This is a major blow to the administrative state. Chevron was the 1984 case doctrine that essentially enabled the bureaucracy to run wild and held that courts should defer to their judgment and administrative lawmaking. This ends today

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/06/the-three-happiest-words-in-the-english-language-today.php

#4 feeblemind on 2024-06-28 11:16 (Reply)

The great thing about the Chevron decision is that it gets us out from beneath the admin state. They were unelected politicians that had the stink of an authoritarian socialist state.
SCOTUS has done us well with the Dobbs, Bruen, and Chevron decisions. They are gradually ridding us of the lingering, authoritarian FDR courts.

#4.1 indyjonesouthere on 2024-06-28 14:00 (Reply)

Should Electric Vehicles Be Illegal?

QUOTE:

Where is the Consumer Products Safety Commission? Where is the Congressional investigation? In what other context are products that spontaneously burst into flames legally marketed? If electric vehicles, e-bikes and batteries for wind and solar installations were not darlings of the “green” scam that controls government at most levels, would they even be legal?

These are serious questions.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/06/should-electric-vehicles-be-illegal.php

#5 feeblemind on 2024-06-28 11:20 (Reply)

feeblemind: In what other context are products that spontaneously burst into flames legally marketed?

Oh, oh! Over here!

Phones, vape pens, laptops.

#5.1 Zachriel on 2024-06-28 11:46 (Reply)

Not the win you seem to think it is. Laptops, phones, and vapes can all use battery technology that doesn't pose the risk lithium-ion batteries (especially large ones) do. Unlikely that that is currently true for EVs.
Feeblemind's question is a legitimate one. Try to come up with a decent response.

#5.1.1 James4HJ on 2024-06-28 17:52 (Reply)

James4HJ: Not the win you seem to think it is. Laptops, phones, and vapes can all use battery technology that doesn't pose the risk lithium-ion batteries (especially large ones) do.

When a laptop bursts into flame on a plane, whether in the cabin or in the hold, it can bring down the plane. Did you even read the article?

#5.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2024-06-28 20:27 (Reply)

Unclear on your point. It's like you didn't read my comment.

The nickel based battery chemistries have less problems with overheating and react with less volatility to moisture than the lithium based battery chemistries. The memory problem nickel based batteries have is easily overcome with small batteries but not with larger batteries. Additionally, the use nickel based batteries in EVs would require an increase of over 10000% in nickel production. Which is impossible. Don't make me spoon feed everything to you.

#5.1.1.1.1 James4HJ on 2024-06-29 20:59 (Reply)

The question was “In what other context are products that spontaneously burst into flames legally marketed?” It’s not a trivial problem as it can affect aircraft safety.

#5.1.1.1.2 Zachriel on 2024-06-29 21:41 (Reply)

Cut all the tax credit subsidies and they will mostly disappear. And end the free phone scam.

#5.2 indyjonesouthere on 2024-06-28 14:07 (Reply)

Divided by Virtue, Separated by Hate

QUOTE:

One of the requirements of a retaliation-free democracy is the broad acceptance of equality among the parties who comprise the polity. A stable democracy is divided by opinion, not by fundamental nature. This underlying similarity makes reconciliation an available option. If the differences ran deeper there would be trouble. It would be difficult, for example, to arrange an acceptable election between angels and devils; they have nothing in common. You can never have an acceptable election between a side that can do no wrong and a side that can do no good.

In a divided society where some are utterly convinced that they're on the right side of history, the only way the self-appointed visionaries can lose an election to reactionaries is if something is wrong with the election itself. The famous "nooo" uttered by a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2016 exemplifies this rejection of this unnatural event. She couldn't possibly lose and therefore didn't.

. . . The fundamental premise of left-wing politics is that the right is not merely wrong but inferior and despicable.

https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2024/06/25/divided-by-virtue-separated-by-hate-n4930087

#6 feeblemind on 2024-06-28 11:44 (Reply)

QUOTE:

the only way the self-appointed visionaries can lose an election to reactionaries is if something is wrong with the election itself.

Al Gore (2000): "Now the US Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt. While I strongly disagree with the court's position, I accept it. . . there is a higher duty than the one we owe to political party. This is America and we put country before party. We will stand together behind our new president."

Hillary Clinton (2016): "Last night I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a president for all of our country."

Donald Trump (2020): "This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."

#6.1 Zachriel on 2024-06-28 11:52 (Reply)

“...he’s an illegitimate president. I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they used, from voter suppression and voter purging to hacking to the false stories — he knows that — there were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did.”

Hilary Clinton, 2019.

Thus spake the...lady who paid the Russians for disinfo that her supporters in the FBI used to open up surveillance on her opponent. And who, according to the FEC, falsely declared the money she spent to do so as a lawyer's fee and not a campaign expenditure.

Here she is saying it something like a half dozen times over the years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO-Sw8CCxxY

Lots more of those types of vids out there from other fun folks on the left saying the same thing--super entertaining!

But please, keep at it. It's fun to watch!

#6.1.1 SK on 2024-06-28 15:13 (Reply)

SK: Thus spake the...lady

And yet Clinton conceded the election. Did Trump ever concede the election?

SK: who paid the Russians for disinfo

That is incorrect. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS, a U.S. based firm. Fusion GPS hired a British former intelligence officer, Christopher Steele. Steele did not pay for information, but used his existing network of contacts to write a raw intelligence report.

In addition, many of the allegations in the Dossier have been confirmed, including that Putin ordered an influence campaign to harm the Clinton campaign and undermine faith in the U.S. electoral process; and that there were numerous clandestine contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. Notably, the dossier wasn't published until after the election.

#6.1.2 Zachriel on 2024-06-28 15:39 (Reply)

Clinton used Fusion GPS as the middleman and any so called 'evidence' of Russian interference is just another promotion by the 17 intelligence agencies and especially the infamous 51 IC prostitutes who were ALL involved in creating the Russia narrative. The IC were as incompetent as Biden and Hillary. Nice narrative you have there.

#6.1.2.1 indyjonesouthere on 2024-06-28 16:53 (Reply)

You've already established that you're fond of proforma statements (IOW, lies). Hillary makes a onetime statement publicly then spends the next 4+ years behaving completely contrarily to that statement. You credit her for the lie because you're a liar and she's LW like you.

I'll take Trump's crude, don't BS me honesty over the sanctimonious, manipulative, performative lies of people like you and Hillary. It is far more virtuous.

But let's get to the nub. The left hates representative government and democratic elections. Hence the constant bleating about Trump being a threat to democracy.

#6.1.2.2 James4HJ on 2024-06-28 18:09 (Reply)

The Russian disinfo was not done to hurt the Clinton campaign. That notion is completely contrary to the facts and would have required Putin and Russian intelligence to not just be completely incompetent but also stupid. It was to coopt the Clinton campaign into undermining the public's confidence in US elections. The Clinton campaign was all too eager to help Russia achieve that goal.

Your constant repeating of such tropes and your pretense that the Russian disinformation about Trump was true make you a Russian stooge.

#6.1.2.3 James4HJ on 2024-06-28 18:44 (Reply)

The Russian disinformation was not done to hurt the Clinton campaign. That notion is completely contrary to the facts and would have required Putin and Russian intelligence to not just be completely incompetent but also stupid. It was to coopt the Clinton campaign into undermining the public's confidence in US elections. The Clinton campaign was all too eager to help Russia achieve that goal.

Your constant repeating of such tropes and your pretense that the Russian disinformation about Trump was true make you a Russian stooge.

#6.1.2.4 James4HJ on 2024-06-28 18:46 (Reply)

James4HJ: The Russian disinformation was not done to hurt the Clinton campaign.

The Republican-led, bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had access to the underlying intelligence, and they found that Trump’s campaign manager had regular contact with a Russian agent, that members of his campaign were eager to exploit Russian interference, that Putin wanted to damage Clinton’s campaign, and that contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian agents constituted a “grave intelligence threat”.

#6.1.2.5 Zachriel on 2024-06-28 20:13 (Reply)

That was the uniparty SSCI and it still remains pretty much the same. Even the House IC is pretty much uniparty other than the last two republican members that were added to the committee. And where does that committee get its intelligence information? Yup, from the corrupted 17 intelligence agencies and the 51 corrupted IC laptop deniers. Corrupted information laundered through committees to give the appearance of fact rather than narrative creation.

#6.1.2.5.1 indyjonesouthere on 2024-06-28 22:43 (Reply)

All of which is entirely consistent with the CIA or the FBI having run an operation to harm Trump politically. Odd that you can't see that. The FBI claims to have had knowledge of a possible Russian operation against the Trump campaign. in 2016. SOP and common sense dictate that they inform the campaign of that possibility including identifying the potential agents. No such warning was provided.

If it was indeed a Russian operation, the target was not Trump, who they obviously wanted to lose the election. It was the Clinton campaign, The Clinton campaign went along, and you've been repeating Russian disinformation.

#6.1.2.5.2 James4HJ on 2024-06-29 21:08 (Reply)

James4HJ: All of which is entirely consistent with the CIA or the FBI having run an operation to harm Trump politically.

The Trump campaign welcomed Russian election interference to their benefit. Even without relying on the intelligence investigations, there is more than enough publicly available information to show that the Russians hacked the Democrats, then released the information for maximum advantage for Trump.

The FBI did warn Trump soon after he became the Republican nominee about Russian possible attempts to infiltrate his campaign.

#6.1.2.5.3 Zachriel on 2024-06-29 21:49 (Reply)

James4HJ: You've already established that you're fond of proforma statements

The peaceful transfer of power is the bedrock of representative government. The proforma statement of concession is an important norm of democratic governance, as is showing up for the inauguration. It’s a conservative virtue.

#6.1.2.6 Zachriel on 2024-06-28 21:42 (Reply)

We had a peaceful transfer of power on Jan 20, 2021. Trump's refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the legal outcome didn't change that one iota.

Nor did Hillary's BS "congratulating Trump on his win" mitigate the immoral and likely illegal dirty tricks her campaign engaged in against Trump. Nor did it make her, the media's and every democrat's attempts to constantly undermine Trump while he was in office any less harmful to the country.

#6.1.2.6.1 James4HJ on 2024-06-29 20:48 (Reply)

James4HJ: We had a peaceful transfer of power on Jan 20, 2021

Huh? Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the electoral count.

James4HJ: Trump's refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the legal outcome didn't change that one iota.

It’s a norm. Like not having your supporters storm the Capitol to stop the electoral count. It’s a conservative value which reinforces the constitutional foundation of the Republic.

#6.1.2.6.1.1 Zachriel on 2024-06-29 21:56 (Reply)

You poor, deluded dear.

Notably, you're defending a presidential campaign and the FBI using foreign misinfo to interfere in an election.

You probably still believe Tonkin Bay.

You're like one of the Good Germans from '38 or so. I used to think you were a troll--it's become clear you're really naive enough to believe it all.

Keep it up--the more this kind of hypocrisy, criminal stupidity, and lack of critical thinking is exposed the better.

#6.1.2.7 SK on 2024-06-29 12:48 (Reply)

SK: Notably, you're defending a presidential campaign and the FBI using foreign misinfo to interfere in an election.

The Steele Dossier wasn't published until after the election. The established facts, many found in the Steele Dossier and as supported by multiple investigations based on original intelligence, remain:

Trump’s campaign manager had regular contact with a Russian agent
members of Trump's campaign were eager to exploit Russian interference
Putin wanted to damage Clinton’s campaign
contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian agents constituted a “grave intelligence threat”.

#6.1.2.8 Zachriel on 2024-06-29 13:04 (Reply)

I think it is very foolish to believe that the Democrats in charge do not understand that they have to get rid of this ASAP. They are insane but not dumb enough to believe that they can run this guy again. They have known for at least a year now that they would not run him this November. HOWEVER, they will hold onto him until he either crumbles completely, or more like until they get to Chicago. They will and have planned to for sometime, come out of the convention with a NEW candidate. I believe that candidate will be a white female.

#7 faculty wife on 2024-06-28 11:58 (Reply)

Why won't Biden step aside?

It doesn't matter how many of the Democrats want Biden to step aside. His real masters, the Communist Chinese, want him to run. And they want to use the most-blatent forms of election fraud to re-elect, knowing full well how destabilizing that will be to the US.

"you create an election so obviously fraudulent that america will not accept it and spark civil war or, at the very least, a full de-legitimatization of the US system. you cannot really lose. either your guy gets 4 more years to play the wrecker on a newly demoralized nation, or you spark a constitutional crisis and perhaps internal uprisings. it’s the final denouement of a decades long play to destroy US institutions"

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/was-there-ever-really-any-debate

This is the cost of allowing a traitor to become POTUS through a fraudulent election the first time.

#8 ruralcounsel on 2024-06-28 16:20 (Reply)

Biden was Obama's third term and was never meant to be anything else. Planting more chaos and faggotry to dethrone the republic.

#8.1 indyjonesouthere on 2024-06-28 19:11 (Reply)

What ever else might be said of Trump or Obama, I do believe there is one thing Americans can say in their favour:

"They kept Hillary out of the Oval Office."

#9 JJM on 2024-06-29 07:44 (Reply)

on balance, Hillary would have been less harmful in her policy positions/decisions. She would have been less successful in implementing them because she would have had smaller, or possibly even negative coat tails and thus had smaller majorities in both houses.

#9.1 James4HJ on 2024-06-29 21:17 (Reply)

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Friday, June 28. 2024

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