56 Comments

Don't forget fear. They must employ fear daily. The public sucks up fear like a sponge. They know what they can do with their fear as far as I am concerned. You folks are wise to the game;think for yourself. But I preach to the choir once again as most can not discern truth. Happy new year all and enjoy the dear Lords blessings.

Expand full comment

A) I would have stopped the car.

B) I believe in ghosts, or at least in the existence and presence of spirits.

C) Regarding Muslims, or any other top-down, our-way-or-else outfit, by their fruits, ye shall know them.

Happy New Year, everybody. Best always. PM

Expand full comment

I hit like. BUT! Having said that, never stop a vehicle for a rabbit a deer or anything other than a person. It is absolutely life-threatening. A basic safety rule for professional truck drivers is. "HIT THE DEER!" Any stopping or a evasive moves at speed are very dangerous. I understand I am way off the point in terms of bpr. But it is an important safety lesson.

Expand full comment

So true. I once rolled and totaled a brand new pick up truck (3 days off the lot) whilst swerving to avoid a racoon that jumped in front of me early in the morning on the way to work.

Some might ask "Well how did you know he was on his way to work?", while others might inquire if the racoon "had insurance?"

I can't answer either of those questions, but I DO know my ex-wife was pissed...

Happy New Year, all!!

Expand full comment

Even a slowly moving vehicle may be being tailgated, and is put at danger by swerving to avoid an animal.

Expand full comment

I apply "by their fruits, ye shall know them" to all religions.

Expand full comment

Or any other organization. All religions, at least those (Abrahamic) practiced in the West, are top-down, get-in-line, do-it-this-way-or else situations, and, as such, can be pernicious. I say this as a thoroughly practiced religionist for most of my life. I am happy when it works for the various adherents, but I chafe at the idea which they severally promulgate that they are universally right. That's when the trouble begins. Best always and Happy New Year. PM

Expand full comment

Indeed. Most wars in history have probably been caused by religion, and if you treat following a dictator or a Japanese emperor as a religion that is even more likely.

Expand full comment

One thing I’ve never been able to understand (and there are many) is why the elites’ hunger for money and power can never be satiated. At some point their acquisitions are so substantial that they could never truly be exploited if they had a dozen lifetimes. I understand their delusions of grandeur, but do they actually go so far as to include immortality?

Expand full comment

Have you ever seen the film version of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not"? At one point, the gangster, Johnny Rocco (Edward G., Robinson), is holding the Bogart and Bacall characters against their will. At some point the Bogart character says rhetorically, "What's Rocco want?" and then he answers his own question with, "More. Rocco wants MORE." And a rhapsodic look comes over Rocco's face as he muses, "Yeah...more!" Best always. PM

Expand full comment

I understand that the US health system appears to promise immortality. Perhaps the rich are just saving up for it. I agree though, and the diminishing "utility" of additional money as economists call it should make the rich and high income individuals *less* annoyed at progressive taxation, not more.

Expand full comment

I live out in the country. I stop for animals all the time. I have had animals stop me, too. I lost a cherished '87 Buick Wagon to a deer who had the nerve to jump out in front of me one night. I once had a big buck come crashing into the passenger door as I slowed to a 4-stop. I saw him take aim on me while bounding across the field. He bounced off the car, but left a helluva dent. He was a little dazed but walked away. I will not swerve to avoid contact with an animal, but I will stop and let a flock of geese past, and one time I gave cover to a family of raccoons sauntering down the middle of a country lane. I repeat; I would have stopped the car. Thanks for your advice. Happy New Year. Best always. PM

Expand full comment

In other words, in Bonner's view, people (the masses) are ignorant morons who follow whatever the elites tell them - no better than the rabbit that has been programmed from previous experience. That means most or all of us who read and comment on these pages. That being said, I don't reject what Bill is saying out of hand. There is a kernel of truth to it. After all, FDR got elected to four terms, not to mention many of the presidents and other politicians of dubious quality that followed him. We have increasingly swallowed the welfare state idea which is a refutation of a basic fact of reality - that one must be productive in order to live and flourish. It is also true that the progressives started to take over our education system in the early 20th century and have "progressively" graduated an increasingly larger population of ignorant morons every year. Of course, some of this could be appearances as the morons out protesting on the street don't have jobs apparently, while most of America is hard at work.

But I do think the common American is not so stupid and has finally lifted his head from his daily concerns and quest for a living and is starting to pay attention - at least those that still have a functioning brain which I still hope is the majority. I am hoping that the reckoning for these so-called elites is coming soon. I'm hoping it's by the citizens taking control of our government again rather than a complete collapse. The only way to prevent a collapse and to have a successful turnaround is to turn to the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as well as a full recognition of individual rights. As I believe Ayn Rand once wrote to the effect that individual rights is the principle that subjects "society" to morality.

Once again, my beef with Bonner is that he sees "elites and masses" and takes them for the metaphysically given. He doesn't delve deeper into why all this is so, how it can be changed, by exploring fundamental principles.

Expand full comment

Preach on, brother. The idea that we have a labor shortage in a country of 330 million is preposterous. Yet, that's the excuse we're given for "immigration". Get rid of welfare and subsidies and see what kind of labor shortage there is. Restore competition. Get rid of the huge retardant known as government. Best always. PM

Expand full comment

You are correct! Just today I upped a certain group of folks thirty seven percent pay increase. I have one employee..his 53rd birthday was yesterday. He asked that I not give him a raise. He'll only work a day or 2 at a time. Because he doesn't want it to mess up his benefits. Bogus disability,subsidized rent ( I had to fill out forms to show how much she actually makes) et cetera. Im talking about a hundred thousand plus a year job full time. Is he the rabbit? Maybe. Probably too recent for conditioning.I don't know the net of benefits. But I know he's choosing not to work because percieves it as more beneficial to him. A very common thread and it will burn them. All who are dealing with us as the replacements are being lit in by the millions. All the best every new year!

Expand full comment

He did delve deeply into why all this is from an evolutionary standpoint. The pace of technical and other change in modern society is so much faster than human evolution through genetics that we are very much still cavemen in our responses.

Expand full comment

I'll take your word for it that Bonner delved into it from an evolutionary standpoint - I don't recall. In any event, it is irrelevant. After all, it is humans that are affecting the pace of technical and other changes in modern society. What can't keep up with this is the regulations the politicians put on technology (e.g., nuclear power and much more) that rapidly become out of date along with other economic controls. Just about everything they do gums up the system because they don't recognize that free markets based on individual rights actually works. Ayn Rand explained why 50-60 years ago.

Expand full comment

I was commenting on Hardwired for Disaster. That was not about politicians and their regulations. Be careful what you write. Commenting that they cannot keep up with something will just make them add more laws and regulations in order to try to keep up. They never repeal anything! There should be a law that they have to repeal two laws for every new one, and delete two regulations for every new regulation. I do not know Ayn Rand but he seems to have a lot of trouble getting his point across to people not on Bonner, or he is on a very slow burn.

Expand full comment

I agree with your comments on regulations, but I would add that I suspect 99% of new regulations are not warranted. And you know that if they did what you propose, they would repeal an innocuous regulation and impose a very disruptive one. So, even though I initially agreed with your comment, and it was certainly well-intentioned, even that wouldn't work.

I'm not sure what your last sentence means, but I suppose it is a result of your unfamiliarity with Ayn Rand. She was one of the greatest novelist/philosophers of the 20th Century and I would say of all time. Her fourth and last novel published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged, is considered her "magnum opus". After that she wrote many non-fiction books about her philosophy which she named "Objectivism". She was a staunch defender of individual rights and because of that, you will find a lot of derogatory and false comments about her on the internet. She died in the early 80's.

Expand full comment

Come on, a new law or regulation could be the opposite of one you do not like now! All you need is competent lawmakers instead of self-seeking career politicians and lovers of self-perpetuating bureaucracy. If you cannot elect them, elect a self-proclaimed dictator and you can forget about all the laws and regulations that upset you. Be very careful, though, that he agrees with you 100% in every respect and does not make statements that have been described here as "jokes", i.e. statements that I do not have to worry my little head about. Thank you for the history lesson. I do not read books any more. I have no storage space left and there is plenty of material online. I am a very objective person, so I guess I will do OK.

Expand full comment

I'm not sure what you seem to be upset about. I essentially agree with what you wrote, but then I found a potential loophole. Yes, a new law or regulation could be something that I support.....or not. Instead of playing around at the edges, how about a law (might have to be an amendment to the Constitution but maybe a law would do) that does not allow any laws or regulations that infringe on individual rights? That would have to be painstakingly defined of course, but at least it would eliminate most of the regulations that are being promulgated today. What I am trying to do, and what Ayn Rand did, is to get people to think in fundamental principles. In politics, that fundamental principle is individual rights which is largely supported by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. If we adhered to those principles, a huge chunk of the government would go away. We would make a government job so boring that all the power lusters wouldn't be interested because they couldn't impose their ideology on the rest of us.

Expand full comment

"There should be a law that they have to repeal two laws for every new one, and delete two regulations for every new regulation. "

"elect a self-proclaimed dictator and you can forget about all the laws and regulations that upset you. Be very careful..."

Oh my --

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-signs-executive-order-requiring-that-for-every-one-new-regulation-two-must-be-revoked-234365

Is this the "dictator" you continue to disparage because you are ignorant about so many excellent things that he did, or is it just the TDS infesting your "objective"-wallowing, old mind?

Be very careful, indeed...

Expand full comment

Disagree.

I think you are selling the "awake" Humans short, Mr. Symons. We are MORE than smart enough to see what is happening, accurately extrapolate where this is going, and do all we can to prepare accordingly. That preparation will likely turn out to be in vain, but the final outcome will in no way signify that nobody saw it coming...

Expand full comment

I did not for a moment suggest that people like you cannot see what people like you see. If whatever you see coming is not dealt with by your preparation, I am just as well off not seeing it coming.

Expand full comment

I finally saw The Great Taking documentary. Must see video. There's also a pdf, but I don't read anymore, I just watch stuff. Do a search for 'The Great Taking documentary,' it's on various platforms.

Expand full comment

Excellent, none of my friends will read it. Now I can send them the lazy version.

Expand full comment

Now they can say, 'I didn't watch it.' :)

Expand full comment

"That’s why there is so much pressure to not think independently, but instead, to go along with whatever cockamamie program is in the news." Its no coincidence the educational system is designed to teach you what to think rather than how to think. Its all by design folks :-)

Expand full comment

I think it is the same in all countries until the university stage, especially Masters, where the research *process* learned is supposed to be of general application later in life. The extent that learning how to think is inadequately covered in primary, secondary and Bachelors tertiary education is partly the result of under-spending on public education. Education systems that allow mathematics (especially statistics) and science (especially physics) to be stopped at an early stage are also to blame.

Expand full comment

Hmmmm, partially wrong, again.

In the US, we spend more per student than any other Country in the world. The problem isn't Money. It is the application of those funds and the disposition of the majority of "teachers." Most are not there to teach - they are on a mission of Indoctrination, many of them unwittingly. Bottom line - the ones "instructing" just ain't that smart and the ones that are have bought into the cult progtarde mentality...

Expand full comment

Star. Under spending???😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Expand full comment

Much more than partially wrong. As you suggest and in addition to your excellent points, it's not under-spending, but spending on the wrong things like administration positions, diversity BS, etc.

Expand full comment

Have you noticed how the woke, progressive, Marxists' (aka democrats') solution to every problem entails throwing more money at it?

Expand full comment

Hola BROTHER DAVE!! Hope all is well in the great beyond and Happy NEW YEAR!!

Expand full comment

Happy New Year my Brother! I'm just trying to rehab after breaking my femur and having a total hip replacement surgery (don't ask). I hope 2024 is a good one for you. We're going to be in your neighborhood at some point this year.

Expand full comment

WOW! Sorry to hear about the injury and hope you recover quickly and completely.

Let me know when you'll be around if you can. I'd love to grab a bite with you...

Expand full comment

More per student out of tax revenue? I was not writing about spending through student loans, or spending based on what private schools, colleges and universities decide to charge. I am sorry - progtarde? Even Bing AI does not know what that means.

Expand full comment

"In 2019, the United States spent $15,500 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student on elementary and secondary education, which was 38 percent higher than the average of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries of $11,300 (in constant 2021 U.S. dollars)."

National Center for Education Statistics (.gov)

https://nces.ed.gov › programs › coe › indicator › cmd

Yessir - public funds aka TAX DOLLARS. And look at what we get for all that fiat - kids graduating who can't read, write, do arithmetic, read a map or tell you jacksh*t about History. Thanks dimocrats and "Teachers Unions" who, BTW, have had complete control of "public" (government) schools for over 60 years and donate to the dims at a rate ABOVE 96%. Just another tax dollar money laundering operation through the wholly-owned "unions" by the treasonous lefties. Facts.

"Progtarde" is a copyrighted, trademarked word I came up with myself. It combines the "progressive" (Regressive) ideology with Retardation - an apt descriptor of the left in our Country. I hereby give unconditional permission for any and all to use the term freely and often. You will find it fits MANY situations we are currently encountering...

Expand full comment

Great. You have copyrighted and trademarked "progtarde" and give that unconditional permission for its use. You really love wasting your time and money, don't you? The bloated legal and bureaucratic system must love you. "Reptarde" has a hint of reptile about it, doesn't it? Not all reps are tardes, though, any more than all progs are.

Expand full comment

Didn't spend a penny nor a minute doing any of that. It was an OBVIOUS joke. What is it with you lefties? ZERO sense of humour (I added the "u" just for you.) Y'all can't meme, you've effectively murdered modern comedy and you can't tell a joking or sarcastic remark when it slaps you in the face.

Sheesh...

Expand full comment

John. Under spending ???????

Expand full comment

Yes, as I have already replied to someone else, under-spending by the state on public education accessible to all. Of course you can spend more than any other country if most of it is on what private schools, colleges and universities decide to charge the better-off. Your health spending is also high, but most of it goes on profit margins all along the supply chain.

Expand full comment

Calling BS on your first point, and in a BIG way. The VAST majority of the public "funds" spent on "education" goes directly to the government schools, often being allocated by the desires of the "unions."

As to the second point - tsktsk. There's that pesky Capitalism again.

You're not a "centrist" John, you're a lefty and it is more obvious with every post. But since the majority of those you agree with have totally lost their sh*t lately, it is understandable that you need to tell yourself whatever you have to to make it through the day...

Expand full comment

Along these lines, I’m currently reading Walter Kirn’s “Lost In The Meritocracy.” He’s writing about English theory at Princeton. He could have been describing progressivism today. He wrote, “... we skipped straight from ignorance to revisionism, deconstructing a body of literary knowledge that we’d never constructed in the first place,” p. 121. There it is, today’s “heros” in action, attempting to destroy a society it never understood and never built.

Expand full comment

Hello, Mr. Obama...

Best always. PM

Expand full comment

Language is not science. I can imagine the study of the practice of a language over time, through literature or linguistics, but not theory except for the question " why does what happens happen?".

Expand full comment

Today I started receiving Bill’s private research letter again. Even though I have it marked as vip, it comes to my junk folder. You will have to look in your computer to see how much of a credit is due me for all the months that I didn’t receive it.

Expand full comment

I hope Bill does not use read receipts. He would have to look into *your* computer and hope that you do not empty your junk folder. I presume he looks at the number of likes and the number and nature of comments, though.

Expand full comment

It is your email clients problem, not BPR!

Expand full comment