It’s been six months for this baby site, so what have we learned so far?

By David McElroy · November 13, 2011

On May 13, I opened the digital doors to this site for the first time. I’d never heard of most of you fine readers, and you’d never heard of me. So what have those six months brought?

Most importantly, I’ve met some pretty amazing people who just happened to start reading here. I’ve enjoyed your insightful comments and I’ve enjoyed private correspondence with a number of you. You know who you are. Especially you and you and you. If you think I’m talking to you, I probably am.

I’ve learned that a lot of people see the same tsunami of economic and social collapse that I do — and many of those people are scared and searching for answers. I’ve discovered that many people expect things to get bad, but they believe there’s nothing they can do about it. Over time, I hope we can start addressing more of that. (We’re still trying to attract more people to have a big enough group to pull that off.)

I’ve also learned that a lot of people just can’t see that the majoritarian system can’t bring about freedom. Four years ago, many people were certain that they’d somehow get Ron Paul elected, for instance. This year, I’m encountering many people who are the same way. They get angry when you explain that it’s not going to happen. If you still believe in the electoral system, good luck with that. The people I’m seeking are looking for alternatives.

I’ve also learned that people argue about things they haven’t read. Many of the most interesting discussions of the articles here take place on Facebook. (Send me a friend request if you haven’t yet.) I frequently find that people debate the merits of the articles without having first read them. I’m still confused about that.

I’m excited about the future. The past couple of months have brought a tripling of the daily average readership, so I’m hoping that will continue. (I’m also hoping that people will click on ads they find interesting, so we can pay the bills around here.) The site has had 100,000 visits in six months, which is about 99,500 more than I expected in the beginning. In addition to all the U.S. states, we’ve had visitors from 142 countries. Some of you even write to me from places such as Fiji and Pakistan and Nepal. Thank you. Keep it up.

Just last week, we talked about the possibility of adding a discussion forum. More than 30 people expressed interest in one way or another, so I might start looking at that seriously. (I’m going to need some people to be moderators and discussion leaders, so please let me know if you’re interested. I don’t want to have to twist arms when the time comes.) In the longer term, I’m also looking at a possible weekly podcast to make available through iTunes. And even longer term than that, there might be a book or two in the works. Stay tuned for more on all those things in time.

I really appreciate those of you who share some time with me every day. I know you have plenty of choices about what to read — online and offline — so I’m honored that so many of you are choosing to share some of your valuable time here. I appreciate you and I’m looking forward to a celebration of bigger things in the days to come.

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Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

The Republican Party is dead. It still exists in name, of course, but it’s nothing but a shell. All that’s left are idiots and stooges and con men of the MAGA party. When Donald Trump is gone — which won’t be long — those populist idiots and pragmatic fools will have no one to follow. Democrats will thrive. They will take more power than ever and they will push the federal government further to the radical far left than ever. When that happens, don’t just blame Trump if you’re a conservative. Blame every person who has claimed to be a conservative and has given up on principles, character and everything else that Republicans once claimed to stand for. As someone who worked as a GOP political consultant for many years, this is disgusting and disturbing to me. Those who have enabled Trump to have almost unchecked power are going to be shocked when they see what they will unleash in the long run. It’s been plain all along what this narcissistic con man is. It’s your fault that you chose to pretend not to see what he really is.

We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

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