Facebook Ain't Flagging This Story? My Goodness!

[ABNARTY]

When I think solid, nuts and bolts journalism, only one name comes to mind: Raw Story. Those who soak up their sanctified words are simply better human beings too. Just ask them. 

And when I consider my intellectual and emotional safety, I sleep well at night knowing Facebook has my back. For weeks now they have been flagging anything and everything that even hints the election may have had some problems. 

But there is a disturbance in the Force. 

I'm not sure why FB seems to have missed this forced post on my feed. That must mean.... it's true! So I went to the source.  

BUSTED? Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up

The entire election for all offices nationwide was pure as the driven snow. Only nut-job conspiracy theorists would think differently. But not with "The Turtle". 

OBVIOUSLY there has to be fraud here. Why? Statistical anomalies! Raw Story has broken the case wide open with charts and stuff. They even have a map and some guy saying things. 

//sarc off//

Absolute, in your face, hypocrisy. Not that it's surprising. Swamp Critters take care of other Swamp Critters. Why do you think ol' Mitch told the Senate to ignore everything and accept Biden? The R or D is meaningless. Swamp Critter Inc. has a winner with Dominion.

[Ninurta]

Reading the article, I can tell two things right off - the first is that the author is about as partisanly anti-Trump as they get, and the second is that the author is not from Breathitt County, or indeed anywhere in the Appalachians.

The questions postulated are, for the most part, easily explained by a native of the area. For example, an 18% approval rating (i.e. McConnell) can pretty easily translate into a landslide win provided the voters trust the competing candidate even less. Kentucky in general, and the eastern, Appalachian portions in particular, have had about enough of Democrat Socialist policies driving their state into the mud.

While many of the counties around here were, 40 years ago, reliably Democrat-voting, that has changed over the years. The last time my county voted for a Democrat for President was Jimmy Carter - they learned a hard lesson during his tenure, and have never gone back. Neither have they forgotten the LBJ promises of a "war on poverty" that were first uttered just across the state line in Ashland, KY. That's been 50 years ago or so, and we've not heard the first shot in that war yet. As a matter of fact, Democrat policies have driven it entorely the other way, into MORE pverty rather than less, by ending coal mining and tobacco growing, which were the only two pillars holding our economy up here. Our economy has since crashed and burned, resulting in higher poverty rather than lower.

Just across the county line, Trump won a handy victory, yet the sheriff was elected as a Democrat. Knowing the people there, I have no doubt that the Trump victory was real - it was hard to find someone there who disparaged Trump or praised Biden. I know of exactly two people in that category, out of the hundreds I know there. The sheriff, BTW, promptly changed his affiliation from D to R after he was elected. The Democrat Party raised hell when he did - they have so few already - but he stood his ground, citing the Democrat calls to defund police, which, as you might imagine, would have a direct impact on his livelihood. He could not, in a clear conscience, maintain his lifelong affiliation with a party that only wants to end him. The electorate voted for his character, not his party affiliation.

So, things are changing, demographics are changing, and people some times split their votes in the own perceived interests. It seems the partisan pundits may be unable to keep up with trends, especially when those trends involved laughed-at outsiders and outcasts like us hillbillies. We register as "R", "D" or "I", but we don't vote that way. We vote, instead, to maintain our freedom, and for whomever we think will best accomplish that.

For all the good that does us in the face of overbearing, authoritarian urbanites and unabashed vote thieves. They can certainly attempt to vote our freedom away, but problems are going to arise when they try to come and take it.

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[ABNARTY]

All good points. 

Wonder why FB and msm is not beating Raw Story up for such conspiracy non-sense.

[Ninurta]

All good points. 

Wonder why FB and msm is not beating Raw Story up for such conspiracy non-sense.

I believe you can see it, but I'll point it out for others who may not - it's because it's Left-wing conspiracy theory. Only right wing conspiracy theories are to be censored...

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[Snarl]

I believe you can see it, but I'll point it out for others who may not - it's because it's Left-wing conspiracy theory. Only right wing conspiracy theories are to be censored...

[F2d5thCav]

@"Ninurta" 

That's been 50 years ago or so, and we've not heard the first shot in that war yet. As a matter of fact, Democrat policies have driven it entorely the other way, into MORE pverty rather than less, by ending coal mining and tobacco growing, which were the only two pillars holding our economy up here. Our economy has since crashed and burned, resulting in higher poverty rather than lower.

Yep.  The country turned its back on Appalachia a half century ago.  When the region was noticed, it was for exploitation by the creatures of Hollywood with shows like Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, etc.  NEVER a serious look at life there or the abandonment of the region by the rest of the country who imagined they were too sophisticated for the likes of Appalachia.

For a brief period, the book series "Foxfire" looked at real people and their lives in the region.  Those books are mostly forgotten today, I'd guess, but they are worthy of at least occasional dips and can be read in non-sequential bits.



Cheers

[Ninurta]

Yep.  The country turned its back on Appalachia a half century ago.  When the region was noticed, it was for exploitation by the creatures of Hollywood with shows like Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, etc.  NEVER a serious look at life there or the abandonment of the region by the rest of the country who imagined they were too sophisticated for the likes of Appalachia.

For a brief period, the book series "Foxfire" looked at real people and their lives in the region.  Those books are mostly forgotten today, I'd guess, but they are worthy of at least occasional dips and can be read in non-sequential bits.



Cheers

Those are great books. Not only do they explain what life is like here, they also explain in some detail how to git 'er done when technology and civilization bypass you on the interstates.

Appalachia has become something of a patchwork. You can still find places exactly like that, and you can also find places where modern civilization has encroached on us, not always for the better. A lot of it has been brought back by kids who went out into the world and then returned, but found they just couldn't live any more without the conveniences they found out there. Some of it has been brought in by megacorps like Walmart. Grundy VA has, as far as I know, the only Walmart on Earth with a shopping cart escalator. Grundy is a bitty little former coal mining town that, when I was growing up, tended to get washed away with every flood, the entire town disappearing every 30 years or so, being washed downstream on Levisa Fork of Big Sandy. Now that the coal industry has been ridden out on a rail by the Democrats, the economy of that entire county (Buchanan) suffers. Walmart is now the largest employer there. They didn't bother cleaning up the mess that the coal mines left, either. There are warning signs on Levisa Fork that you can't eat the fish you catch out of it. So, no work there, and tougher to fend for yourself.

It's almost like they're trying to drive folks into an ambush in the cities.

The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, and the spinoffs from them, were all hill folks, from the same general culture, but from quite a bit farther west, in the Ozarks. I dunno how many times I was asked when I was out in the world how often I went home to Bugtussel to visit. Folks were not trying to be nice when they asked.

But, if the rest of the world ever turns into Appalachia -  and I believe the Globalists/ Marxists are trying to do just that - the Foxfire Books are a good resource to have for folks that don't have old hillbillies around to teach them how survival is done on a smallhold farm in hard times. They were written in the 70's to record and preserve that way of life that was disappearing at the time. My dad grew up in the Great Depression, in the Appalachians, so I learned it from him. He made sure I knew how to do to it... by making me do it. I've plowed and cultivated with a horse, because he made me do it to make sure I knew how. When he was growing up, shells were at a premium, so every shot had to count. He used to count out my shells whenever I went out to hunt, and count them again when I came back, and there had better be enough game coming with me to account for all the missing shells. I've done blacksmithing and farrier work on a home-made forge. We used a truck tire rim standing on water pipe legs for a mud box, and "fire bricked" it with red clay. A two pound hammer and a 150 pound anvil mounted on a section of tree pulled out of a firewood pile and left unsplit rounded out the set. I've split wood with a double bitted axe (there's a trick to that) and learned to make my own wedges out of wood when the axe was not enough, which was not often.

And I still used the Foxfire books to learn other things. I particularly like Book 5 - it tells you how to make stuff that will blow shit up, from scratch, i.e. black powder from charcoal, horse piss, and sulfur. I don't know if they are out of print by now or not, but I do know PDF's of them can be found here and there in the shady corners of the internet.

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[Snarl]

My dad grew up in the Great Depression, in the Appalachians, so I learned it from him. He made sure I knew how to do to it... by making me do it. I've plowed and cultivated with a horse, because he made me do it to make sure I knew how.

That's probably the only way to learn that kind of life skill.  Most people wouldn't have the first clue of how to take a flat piece of earth and turn it into a crop producing field.  They'd probably cross their fingers and hope they could bring in some semblance of a crop first year.  Waste a lot of good seed in the process.

I've done blacksmithing and farrier work on a home-made forge. We used a truck tire rim standing on water pipe legs for a mud box, and "fire bricked" it with red clay. A two pound hammer and a 150 pound anvil mounted on a section of tree pulled out of a firewood pile and left unsplit rounded out the set. I've split wood with a double bitted axe (there's a trick to that) and learned to make my own wedges out of wood when the axe was not enough, which was not often.

I got a minor introduction to blacksmithing as a kid.  My uncle didn't think it was a safe activity and quit teaching.  I've swung the hammer several times since, but have no clue when it comes to heat.

And I still used the Foxfire books to learn other things. I particularly like Book 5 - it tells you how to make stuff that will blow shit up, from scratch, i.e. black powder from charcoal, horse piss, and sulfur. I don't know if they are out of print by now or not, but I do know PDF's of them can be found here and there in the shady corners of the internet.

They're out there.  Expensive to buy.  I'll have to go look later and see if I can find 'em in .pdf format.

Am glad you guys still find the time to read.  Off to the range once the sun lights things up.

[ABNARTY]

The Firefox books are good reading. 

Thanks for mentioning them.

[Ninurta]

I've done blacksmithing and farrier work on a home-made forge. We used a truck tire rim standing on water pipe legs for a mud box, and "fire bricked" it with red clay. A two pound hammer and a 150 pound anvil mounted on a section of tree pulled out of a firewood pile and left unsplit rounded out the set. I've split wood with a double bitted axe (there's a trick to that) and learned to make my own wedges out of wood when the axe was not enough, which was not often.

I got a minor introduction to blacksmithing as a kid.  My uncle didn't think it was a safe activity and quit teaching.  I've swung the hammer several times since, but have no clue when it comes to heat.

It's the color. The iron in the steel runs through different colors at different temperatures, from a dull red to a bright yellow. Cherry red for forging, more into the yellow for welding, It was the quenching that always got me. If you get it too hot and drive out too much of the carbon, it will get too hard and brittle, and sometimes shatter like a piece of glass when you quench it. It can be a fine line between something that will hold an edge and something that will fly to pieces when you dunk it. Sometimes, you have to leave it laying in the coals for a minute to draw in enough carbon not to shatter it.

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