August 2020 Archives

From Law Enforcement Today:

Chicago mayor supports riots in other parts of the city, then has protesters arrested outside her own home
In recent months, protesters have shut down streets, shattered storefronts and marched the Magnificent Mile.

However, try to protest six miles away from the Mag Mile, outside Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Logan Square home, and that appears to be grounds for arrest. Six protesters learned that lesson earlier this month.

On August 22, police arrested the group who had gathered outside the mayor’s house. The Police Tribune reported that none of the six are from Illinois.

Mayor Lightfoot lives near West Wrightwood Avenue and North Kimball Avenue.

That’s where police were reportedly called to intervene late at night, after protesters showed up and refused to leave.

They ultimately arrested four women and two men.

Of course. The rioters can loot the fancy stores and invade people's housing areas but the Mayor is sacrosanct. Can't go worrying her little malformed head now can we... I love that they are out of state talent. They crossed state lines to riot.

Meanwhile, the violence continues unabated. From Hey Jackass:

Week in Progress (8/30 – 9/5)
Shot & Killed: 5
Shot & Wounded: 33
Total Shot: 38
Total Homicides: 5

Rember, this is looking at yesterday (Sunday) and the first couple hours of today.  38 shootings and five homicides. She really has that city under control.

Another memorial - Hans Gruber

| No Comments

From America's Newspaper of Record:

Large Turnout At Memorial For Hans Gruber Who Was Thrown From A Building By A Police Officer
LOS ANGELES, CA—A huge crowd turned out Sunday for the Hans Gruber memorial service. Gruber was the victim of police violence, having been thrown from Nakatomi Plaza by police officer John McClane, which many consider one of the most excessive uses of force ever witnessed. After the incident, there were protests all week, and now thousands from all over the country came to pay respects to Gruber, widely described as an “intelligent and witty soul.”

“That man was a hero,” said Doyle Graham, who traveled from Nevada to pay respects. “I mean, I don’t really know much about him other than that some police officer killed him, but he seems like someone we should all honor and emulate.”

Gruber was part of a mainly peaceful protest against the Nakatomi Corporation, which was goaded into violence by the actions of McClane. Ultimately, McClane threw Gruber from the 30th floor, even though Gruber was completely unarmed (or at least he was when he hit the ground). Even LAPD Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson denounced the actions, calling McClane a “nutcase” who should have “just stayed put.”

We must protest this police violence. Video of the event can be found here. Sickening. Backstory here.

From Jason Rantz at Seattle station KTTH:

Gov Inslee refuses in-person debate with Republican Culp
Incumbent Governor Jay Inslee refuses to debate Republican challenger Loren Culp in-person, a source with the Washington State Debate Coalition tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.

Inslee is saying that it is about wearing a mask but:

While at group press conferences in the past, Inslee has worn a mask when not speaking and removed it when he does. And that’s while sharing the same microphone with other people. It’s standard practice across the country and safe. He’s even refused to wear a mask during one recent press conference saying, “I only took mine off because of the First Amendment.”

The Debate Coalition had it all planned out:

The plan from the Washington State Debate Coalition was to separate the two candidates by ten feet on a stage in a TVW studio in Olympia. Three moderators would also be separated by ten feet to ensure social distancing. There would be limited staff members from TVW on site during the debate to allow for less crowding. Though this wouldn’t look especially appealing, the coalition prefers in-person debate for the best product.

Loren Culp's idea as to why?

“I didn’t want him behind a computer screen where his high priced consultants can tell him how to answer questions,” Culp tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “I wanna have it live, you know, like in the real world. And I told him he could be as far away from me as he wants to. He can even wear two masks if he felt safer.”

But no. Governor Inslee is afraid. He knows that he is in waaay over his head. He is owned by Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon. He is not representing OUR interests.

Catch and release - criminals

| No Comments

A lot of the rioters in Portland, Oregon have been arrested but then turned lose with minimal bail if at all. The charges are usually dropped. This needs to stop. This policy murdered someone. From The Oregonian:

Man under investigation in fatal shooting after pro-Trump rally allegedly took loaded gun to earlier Portland protest
A 48-year-old man who was accused of carrying a loaded gun at an earlier downtown Portland protest is under investigation in the fatal shooting Saturday night of a right-wing demonstrator after a pro-Trump rally.

Michael Forest Reinoehl calls himself an anti-fascist and has posted videos and photos of demonstrations he attended since late June, accompanied by the hashtags #blacklivesmatter, #anewnation and #breonnataylor.

And this:

On July 5 at one of the demonstrations, Reinoehl was cited at 2:10 a.m. in the 700 block of Southwest Main Street on allegations of possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police

He was given a date to appear in court later that month, but the allegations were dropped on July 30 with a “no complaint,” according to court records. The documents don’t indicate why prosecutors decided not to pursue the accusations. Reinoehl spent no time behind bars.

He is a real choirboy - The Oregonian mentions a number of other priors including carrying unlicensed firearms.

Add Aaron Danielson to the list of martyrs for freedom and against tyranny.

A new commercial flight route

| No Comments

This is huge. From OAN News:

White House Officials Make Historic Flight To UAE With Israeli Prime Minister
Trump administration and Israeli officials landed in the first ever direct commercial passenger flight to the United Arab Emirates from Israel. The two delegations took off from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport early Monday in an Israeli commercial plane landing in Abu Dhabi.

This came just a couple weeks after the Trump administration’s historic UAE peace deal, which established open relations between Israel and the UAE.

“We hope that that this will start an even more historic journey for the Middle East and beyond,” stated White House senior advisor Jared Kushner. “I prayed yesterday at the (Western) Wall that Muslims and Arabs from throughout the world will be watching this flight, recognizing that we are all children of God, and that the future does not have to be pre-determined by the past.”

Kushner and security advisor Robert O’Brien made remarks upon landing in which they noted that they aim to lay the groundwork for the peace deal on this trip. This is part of Kushner’s greater tour of the Middle East with hopes to tie more countries into the peace deal.

A major victory by President Trump completely ignored by the mainstream media. We are seeing the formation of Peace in the Middle East happening before our very eyes. Anyone could have shown the leadership to do this. Only President Trump actually did it.

Absolutely - Loving America

| No Comments

Up an' at 'em

| No Comments

Slept in - the rain stopped around 4:00AM and it is overcast and cool. Dressing warmly for the day.

Working on a few things this morning - some emails for Wednesday's meeting. Out for coffee in 90 minutes or so.

Nothing much on the internet - slow news day.

Groundwater project

| No Comments

Discovered Apple Drains when looking for videos on french drains and groundwater problems. Really clear and concise. He has a bit of a slow pace in presentation but one of the controls at the little gear icon in YouTube is playback speed so I watch Chuck's videos at 1.75X speed. The software pitch-shifts so his voice comes out normal in spite of the fast playback.

Check out Apple Drains

Feeling drowsy

| No Comments

Comfort food in my belly and some good physical labor this afternoon.

Early bedtime. Got a meeting Wednesday so planning for it tomorrow a bit. Need to email a few people.

Time to watch a few videos.

The gods make mad

| No Comments

A great essay at World Net Daily:

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." – Euripides (Greek dramatist 484-406 BC)

Ah, but that was a long time ago … ancient history, man! Well, it is in fact ancient history. That's why the years decrease on the date line, but the people still got older.

Like so much of ancient history, this observation is every bit as true today as it was during the days when Greek tragedies filled the airwaves (at least as far as the actors could project their voices out into the audience).

Some examples for the political left:

    • They saw an economy lifting all Americans away from poverty, and it drove them crazy.
    • They saw a real border wall being built to control illegal immigration from the south, mixed in with illegal drugs, sex and human trafficking victims, gangs and violence beginning to be controlled, and the criminals (already here) deported, and it made them unhinged.
    • They saw international agreements being renegotiated to stem the flow of jobs out of this country, reduce our unemployment and raise our wages, and it made them disturbed!
    • They saw China's Wuhan lab release COVID-19 on the world (domestic flights from Wuhan were banned, but Chinese airline passengers were free to travel the world), and they were raving that it was somehow President Donald J. Trump's fault.
    • They saw Democratic governors release COVID-19 infected patients from hospitals into nursing homes, where the most vulnerable lived, and it was this president's fault more people died.

And the response from the left?

The Democratic politicians' response (and they do seem to be responding in lockstep) is that it is OK to riot, loot and burn down the city, attack the police and innocent bystanders, but by God don't you religious bigots go to church and sing a hymn! We will not only lock up the pastor, we'll shutter the damned building! Left unsaid?
The state is God, and we are the state: you will do what we tell you!

Emphasis mine - the problem in a nutshell. Tried many times. Sucess? Never. Failure? Always.

The rain gods are pissed

| No Comments

My starting in on the groundwater project has got them quite hacked off. It is raining quite steadily now. Got the room nice and warm with the space heater and have the electric blanket warming up the bed so I will be comfortable. Still, this taste of fall is way too soon for my liking. Got a couple days of this and then it is forecast to go back to sunny and warm. Let us hope.

Too cold for tacos

| No Comments

Put everything into the fridge and put a couple spuds in the toaster oven - it is baked potato weather for sure. Starting to rain. Serve it with some of the shredded pork and some sweet onions.

Civil war 2.0 is heating up

| No Comments

Soooo frickin' glad I do not live in a large city. I can not imagine being in Seattle or Portland after President Trump's landslide re-election in November. From NOQ Report:

Breaking: SWAT responds as Pro-Trump caravan on Ventura Blvd in Woodland Hills hit by gunfire
S.W.A.T. units have surrounded an apartment in Woodland Hills, California, on Ventura Boulevard following reports of gunfire directed at a pro-Trump vehicle caravan. Officers responding to reports of a person with a gun in Woodland Hills Sunday have evacuated some buildings in the area, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Reports indicate at least three suspects are currently barricaded in the apartment. At least one tire on a vehicle that was part of the pro-Trump vehicle caravan was shot out by one of the gunmen.

More at the site. The communists are getting desperate. We are seeing the Cloward-Piven strategy in full flower.
From Zero Hedge:

Cloward-Piven Strategy To Destroy America Resurgent Amid BLM/Antifa-Led Riots
Richard Andrew Cloward and Francis Fox Piven are two names that are largely unfamiliar to the average American, but, as Jason Brown notes, their historical relevance is being seen all over the country today as we watch civil unrest in the form of riots ensue.

As Brandon Smith detailed previously, in the mid-sixties at the height of the “social revolution” the line between democratic benevolence and outright communism became rather blurry. The Democratic Party, which controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress, was used as the springboard by social engineers to introduce a new era of welfare initiatives enacted in the name of “defending the poor”, also known as the “Great Society Programs”. These initiatives, however, were driven by far more subversive and extreme motivations, and have been expanded on by every presidency since, Republican and Democrat alike.

Much more at the site - worth reading in full as it explains the backstory to what is happening right now.

Cooling off quite a bit - got the windows all closed and two space heaters running. Changed into a sweatshirt and pants. Took care of some stuff and getting dinner ready.

A new strategy - Biden

| No Comments

Bad news - Portland

| No Comments

The Peaceful protests have crossed a major line. Two stories from Gateway Pundit:

Glad that they were able to identify the thug. Professional snowboarder. Yeah. Professional asshole more like it.
Murderer. A sociopath just like his paymaster.

UPDATE - you guessed it. There is a Manifesto - from Small Dead Animals who found it on the murderer's Instagram account (still up for now):

Every Revolution needs people that are willing and ready to fight. There are so many of us protesters that are just protesting without a clue of where that will lead. That’s just the beginning that’s where the fight starts. If that’s as far as you can take it thank you for your participation but please stand aside and support the ones that are willing to fight. I am 100% ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters! Even if some of them are too ignorant to realize what antifa truly stands for. We do not want violence but we will not run from it either! If the police continue to pick on and beat up innocent citizens that are peacefully voicing their objections, it must be met with equal force! We are currently living through a crucial point in Humanities evolution. We truly have an opportunity right now to fix everything. But it will be a fight like no other! It will be a war and like all wars there will be casualties. I was in the army and I hated it. I did not feel like fighting for them would ever be a good cause. Today’s protesters and antifa are my brothers in arms. This is a Cause to fight for This truly is fighting for my country! I have children that need to live in a world run by Common Sense and human decency. And I will do anything to make sure that happens. Now is the time to change the course of humanity. If we fold now just because they show some Force we will be lost for another hundred years. And I don’t think the planet will let us live that long if we don’t straighten shit up. Please be safe strong and United. I love you all
#Antifa #blaklivesmatter #fuckthepolice

Delusional.

This one law

| No Comments

This one law may well change the political makeup of the Virginia State Government - from World Net Daily:

State bill reduces assault of police officer to misdemeanor
Along strict party lines, the Democratic-majority Virginia General Assembly has advanced a bill that would allow an assault against a law enforcement officer to be a misdemeanor if the officer is not hurt.

The Virginia Senate voted 21-15 on Wednesday to pass Senate Bill 5032, WSLS-TV reported.

The bill was approved despite the strong objection of Republicans who argue it disrespects police at a time when they are the targets of nationwide protests.

The measure now heads to the House of Delegates, where Democrats are also in the majority.

And if that was not bad enough:

The bill also removes a mandatory minimum six-month jail sentence for assaulting a police officer.

Betting that enough Virginians are fed up with the Democrat malarkey and will get out and vote conservative this time. Really looking forward to November.

Behind the scenes

| No Comments

Go to http://www.antifa.com - I dare you.

No surprises there.

Got some stuff done in the yard - not as much as I wanted but a decent start with the sump pump and some digging. Cooling off a bit and clouds moving in so calling it quits.

Fixing some of the Costco smoked pulled pork for dinner tonight - tacos. The stuff is a really good good starting point for the money - some seasonings and a bit of BBQ sauce, heat it up in a double boiler and really tasty. Picked up fresh tortillas yesterday (made on site - they freeze really well too).

Clean house for a little bit, load of laundry, harass Cat and put food out for them. Need to pick up a laser pointer as Cat shows excellent hunting skills and I bet he would enjoy the play. Already have a couple but they are either too powerful (blinding), a presentation clicker or mounted on a gun. Looking on Amazon, there is a whole industry for laser toys for pets including automated ones like this. Picked up a cheap red one. See how it goes.

And what time is it now?

| No Comments

It's coffee time. Back in a little while.

Spending today starting on the yard - drainage issues so need to get things buttoned up before the rains return.

A bit of proposed legislation. From Big League Politics:

Republican Congressman Introduces Legislation to Strip Convicted Rioters of Federal Welfare Benefits
Republican Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana introduced legislation to strip coronavirus unemployment benefits and other federal welfare payments to individuals convicted of felony riot offenses. The Support Peaceful Protest Act was introduced in the House of Representatives on Friday.

The legislation would remove eligibility for buffed coronavirus unemployment benefits for anyone convicted of criminal conduct at and during the course of a protest. The federal government has been paying for buffed welfare payments in the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, and Banks raised concern that left-wing rioters are taking advantage of the welfare to embrace a lifestyle of full-time riot agitation and political crime.

The Support Peaceful Protest Act holds rioters accountable for their criminal activity.

Great idea and it will be a fantastic bellwether to see who votes for or against this. Is your Congressman a true conservative or are they a RINO.

Still 2020

| No Comments

20200830-2020.jpg

Interesting report from Law Enforcement Today:

Heads of police unions in NYC call for resignation of Mayor de Blasio: ‘You have until sundown’
On Friday, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins called for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s resignation, demanding that he quits by sundown.

The Post Millennial reported that de Blasio was heavily criticized during the Republican National Convention’s (RNC) closing night on Thursday by many including former mayor Rudy Giuliani, public housing residents, and Pay Lynch, who is the president of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA).

A lot more at the site - copies of twitter posts. Lots of angry words flying and DeBlasio is losing it. Never really had it - first serious crisis and he flips out. No leadership ability at all.

From the New York Times no less:

Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be
Some of the nation’s leading public health experts are raising a new concern in the endless debate over coronavirus testing in the United States: The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.

Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time.

Hmmm... But then, being the chief narrative-slinger for the progressive left they go on:

But researchers say the solution is not to test less, or to skip testing people without symptoms, as recently suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Instead, new data underscore the need for more widespread use of rapid tests, even if they are less sensitive.

We need the numbers to be high - even if they are false positives. A bit more on how this all works:

The PCR test amplifies genetic matter from the virus in cycles; the fewer cycles required, the greater the amount of virus, or viral load, in the sample. The greater the viral load, the more likely the patient is to be contagious.

This number of amplification cycles needed to find the virus, called the cycle threshold, is never included in the results sent to doctors and coronavirus patients, although it could tell them how infectious the patients are.

In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found.

On Thursday, the United States recorded 45,604 new coronavirus cases, according to a database maintained by The Times. If the rates of contagiousness in Massachusetts and New York were to apply nationwide, then perhaps only 4,500 of those people may actually need to isolate and submit to contact tracing.

The guy who invented PCR is a lot of fun - his autobiography: Dancing Naked in the Mind Field
Website here: Dr. Kary Banks Mullis
He was working on a fascinating idea:  Altermune - Chemically Programmable Immunity
Sadly, he passed away at 74 last year.

Some very good reporting from Joe Hoft writing at Gateway Pundit:

This Week CDC Quietly Updated COVID-19 Numbers – Only 9,210 Americans Died From COVID-19 Alone – Rest Had Other Other Serious Illnesses
So get this straight – based on the recommendation of doctors Fauci and Birx the US shut down the entire economy based on 9,000 American deaths to the China coronavirus. 

We were first to report that the Director General of the WHO on March 3, 2020 a set off the panic with his highly flawed statement:

While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease.

Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected.

This statement caused a global panic.  We, however, knew it was wrong and we wrote about it on March 17, 2020. Here is the video of Dr. Ghebreyesus’s remarks.

Joe goes on to talk about the USA response:

Doctors Fauci and Birx were next to push ridiculous and highly exaggerated mortality rates related to the coronavirus:

    • Dr. Tony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx used the Imperial College Model to persuade President Trump to lock down the ENTIRE US ECONOMY.
    • The fraudulent model predicted 2.2 million American deaths from the coronavirus pandemic
    • The authors of the Imperial College Model shared their findings with the White House Coronavirus task force in early March
    • Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx then met with President Trump privately and urged him to shut down the US economy and destroy the record Trump economy based on this model

But the Imperial College model Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx pushed was garbage and they recommended the destruction of the US economy using this model.

And the Centers for Disease Control - they updated their numbers:

The CDC silently updated their numbers this week to show that only 6% of all coronavirus deaths were related to the coronavirus alone.  The rest of the deaths attributed to the China coronavirus are attributed to individuals who had other serious issues going on.  Also, most of the deaths are related to very old Americans.

Much more at the site including some interesting graphs plotting the number of tests, the number of positives and the number of deaths. The number of positives may be increasing but this is just an artifact of the increased testing. With the most common test (PCR nasal swab), someone who had it and recovered tests positive, someone who had the flu last year will test positive (similar antibodies which the PCR test amplifies) and some variants of the common cold also test positive (some are coronaviruses). The number of deaths have been falling steadily since April.

You can download the raw CDC data here: Provisional COVID-19 Death Counts by Sex, Age, and State (use the EXPORT button at the top right) The deaths are published as COVID-19 but they are also bringing out the data for COVID-19 PLUS Pneumonia and/or Influenza. Subtract these complications and you are left with a very small number of COVID-19 ONLY deaths. They also do not publish COVID-19 PLUS heart, cancer or other illness - this data just looks at mortality from pulmonary problems.

We have been scammed. Our economy was shut down over something very innocuous and minor.

Halloween is coming up

| No Comments

Great mask from BoingBoing:

This "Karen" Halloween mask will have every manager cowering in fear
Leatherface with a chainsaw or Karen with a cell phone – who really strikes fear into the hearts of men in 2020? This latex mask sculpted by artist Jason Adcock captures the true horror underneath the haircut. Be sure to talk your partner into dressing up like the manager of Arby's for an unbeatable couple's costume this year.

20200829-karen.jpg

Truely frightning. One runs into Karens from time to time. Repulsive and ignorant termagants.

A veritable utopia. From Zero Hedge:

"She Hasn't Done Her Job": Looting, Riots, & Mayoral Ineptitude Prompt Mass Exodus Of Chicago Residents
While mayor Lori Lightfoot continues to try and assure the public that she has everything under control, the exodus from Chicago as a result of the looting and riots is continuing. Citizens of Chicago are literally starting to pour out of the city, citing safety and the Mayor's ineptitude as their key reasons for leaving.

Hilariously, in liberal politicians' attempt to show the world they don't need Federal assistance and that they don't need to rely on President Trump's help, they are inadvertently likely creating more Trump voters, as residents who seek law and order may find no other choice than to vote Republican come November.

And even though residents understand the looting and riots in some cases, they are not waiting around for it to get better on its own, nor are they waiting around for it to make its way to their house, their families or their neighborhoods.

One 30 year old nurse that lives in River North told the Chicago Tribune: "Not to make it all about us; the whole world is suffering. This is a minute factor in all of that, and we totally realize that. We are very lucky to have what we do have. But I do think that I’ve never had to think about my own safety in this way before.”

From Hey Jackass we can see that they have enjoyed 2,757 shootings and over (509) gun homicides so far this year. The city is being run so well - best of hands. There is a fantastic picture (and article) of the Mayor at American Digest:

20200829-groot.jpg

The Thing currently ruling Chicago

Time for another U-Haul rate comparison - Chicago and Dallas, Texas.

20200829-ctod.jpg

And the other way?

20200829-dtoc.jpg

167% difference. Can you say "collapsing tax base"?

And out the door

| No Comments

Nothing on the internet - back in a few hours. "Normal" schedule resumes tomorrow.

Back home - running a few errands

| No Comments

Done with the event. Ham radio drill was a lot of fun too.

I had ordered a sump pump a few days ago (Zoeller M98) and it arrived today - heading out to get some pipe. Spending the next couple of days exploring the drainage system, cleaning it out and upgrading it to something that works. Fall is not that far off and need to get everything tied in before the ground gets wet again.

Get some Thai food while I am up there. Good stuff. Been on quite the kick these last two weeks.

Got another one - China

| No Comments

From the United States Attorney's Office:

University of Virginia Researcher Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets and Computer Intrusion
Haizhou Hu, a Chinese national conducting research at the University of Virginia, was arrested today and charged via criminal complaint with a pair of federal crimes just days after he attempted to board a flight to China. United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen and David W. Archey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division announced the arrest.

Hu, 34, is charged with accessing a computer without authorization, or exceeding authorization to obtain information from a protected computer and theft of trade secrets.

According to court documents, investigators first became aware of Hu, who is in the United States conducting research studying bio-mimics and fluid dynamics at the University of Virginia, on August 25, 2020 when he attempted to board a flight to China at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. A routine screening conducted by authorities revealed that Hu was alleged to be in possession of bio-inspired research simulation software code that he was not authorized to possess, and which represented the result of years of research and resources in its development by members of the University of Virginia academic community.

Great - no reason China should be able to steal our own work.

Day two

| No Comments

Heading out this morning for the second day of volunteering for the local center. There is also a ham radio drill this morning so bringing my radio.

Coffee place opens in about 30 minutes - packing a lunch and getting Bear ready for hanging out in the van.

She grew up in a household where Marxism was considered normal.
From the front page of The Stanford Daily, May 13, 1975

20200828-harris01.jpg

20200828-harris02.jpg

Don Harris would be her father. She was corrupted from her very beginning. I love the line about: "A conservative faculty member, who wished to remain anonymous" and:

He also added that "as far as I'm concerned, [Harris] is not in the same field I'm in."

So true - Marxist science is 100% made up out of nothing. Karl Marx was a real dummy and his basic theory was dead wrong. It sounds good to the low-information types and Karl had great facial hair and looked good on a Tee Shirt so he became the poster child for tyrants everywhere. A useful idiot.

The Democratic National Convention

| No Comments

From America's Newspaper of Record, the Babylon Bee:

Biden: 'If You Thought The Republican Convention Was Good, Just Wait 'Til We Have Our Convention!'
Joe Biden conceded today that the Republican Convention was "alright," "pretty inspiring, to be honest," and "a real gas."

But Biden says the Democratic Convention is going to be "even better."

"Just you wait -- our convention is going to blow this one out of the water," he said to a department store mannequin. "Man alive, I tell you what: we're gonna have fireworks and flags and all kinds of stuff. That nice, clean, articulate woman of color is gonna be there: what's her name again? It's like the same name as some wrassler: Hulk? Hogan! That's it, Hogan. She's a real swell broad."

It was unclear how Biden got into the department store, as it's been out of business since 2013. Aides located him after putting out an Amber Alert and coaxed him into a windowless van by writing "FREE HAIR" on the side. They were then able to transport him safely back to the basement for storage until the election.

His campaign basically boils down to Elder Abuse by the people running it. He does not know where he is.

Home again and pleasantly stuffed

| No Comments

Belly full of carbs. Feeling sleepy so early bedtime. Long day tomorrow too - early start.

See what the internet fairies brought in...

Now that explains it

| No Comments

20200828-unicorn.jpg

Touching base - back home

| No Comments

Turned into another lovely day - cool all morning but started warming up around 11AM.

Stopped at the Farmer's Market after the event. Also stopped at a thrift store in town as today was 50% off all kitchen appliances and there was this warming tray that I wanted. It had three stainless steel inserts - small hotel pans - and will be perfect for cleaning and degreasing small metal parts. Been looking for something for that for a while.

Heading out again for a big bowl of spaghetti - don't feel like cooking.

About half-way through reading the entire internet and nothing catches my eye. Probably another quiet day there.

And out the door for a few hours

| No Comments

Nothing much happening online.

I will have to watch President Trump's speech when I get back - seems he knocked it out of the ball park last night.

Swing by my coffee place for a cuppa first.

Getting ready for the day

| No Comments

Long day today and tomorrow - volunteering for the local community center as they have a weekend event. Fixing breakfast and packing a sammy.

The usual weather - overcast and cool but supposed to clear off shortly.

And dinnertime

| No Comments

Bowl of brown rice and some steamed veggies. Very virtuous. Starting off with two ears of corn and some shrimp.

The morning fog cleared off completely - Whidbey Island and the Olympic Mountains are back where they belong.

Had fun dropping the PA system off today - they have a wedding Saturday and most of the farmers there (communal operation with up to 20 people) play a musical instrument so some really good tunes at their events. Hung out there for an hour or so - really nice place. Good "vibes" and the stuff they are growing is incredible - luminous. They already have some equipment but really poor quality - lots of distortion. Not using my system these days so letting them use it whenever they need.

Have to try it sometime

| No Comments

Local peaceful protests - Kenosha

| No Comments

From FOX29 Philadelphia:

9 arrested after 'suspicious vehicles with out-of-state plates' stopped on 4th night of protests in Kenosha
Three vehicles, a black school bus, bread truck and tan minivan were stopped by Kenosha police Wednesday evening, Aug. 26 after police said officers suspected the occupants "were preparing for criminal activity related to the civil unrest." This, on the fourth night of protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, and a night after two people were fatally shot during demonstrations.

Police said this began with a citizen tip that the vehicles planned to meet in a remote lot near State Highway 50 and Green Bay Road.

Officers began surveilling the vehicles after locating them, assisted by U.S. Marshals -- and confirmed the out-of-state plates.

Police said officers followed them to a gas station near Washington Road and 30th Avenue, where officers observed the occupants of the bus and bread truck exit and attempt to fill multiple fuel cans.

Just some choirboys heading to a church concert and needing to make sure they don't run out of gas on the road:

Yeah:

According to police, the vehicles contained various items that included helmets, gas masks, protective vests, illegal fireworks and suspected controlled substances.

Good - crossing state lines makes it a Federal offence - 18 U.S.C. § 2261

Pushing the narrative - COVID-19

| No Comments

The Wuhan flu is going to kill us all. There was a motorcycle rally at Sturgis a few weeks ago. Looks like a lot of fun. About 500,000 people. Half a million. All the media were saying that this would be an optimal opertunity for COVID to be spread. It was. CNN has the facts:

Experts feared the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally could be a superspreading event. More than 70 coronavirus cases are already linked to it
More than 70 Covid-19 cases have now been linked to an event that drew thousands of tourists to a small South Dakota city earlier this month, CNN surveys of state health departments show.

The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is a 10-day event that usually brings about 500,000 people to the city. This year, the rally attracted attendees on more than 460,000 vehicles, according to the state's transportation department.

Experts feared the rally, which drew people from all over the United States -- including coronavirus hotspots -- had the potential to become to become a spreading event, not just in the state but across the country.

500,000 and 70? We are looking at 0.00139%

Granny lock the door and bar the windows. We got ourselves an epidemic on our hands. (snoring sounds)

Kyle Rittenhouse - three headlines

| No Comments

Good - one of the three people he shot fired first. Another of the three clubbed him with a skateboard. This was an act of self defense. The facts are starting to come out:

But that's not what the narrative says. Screw the narrative.

Out for a bit

| No Comments

Picking up the speakers from my storage unit for this afternoon. Have some cables there I want too.

Coffee, read for a little while and then down to the farm to drop them off. Wonderful people and always fun to see what is happening. They have two baby alpaca crias - about three months old - watching them grow up. Cute. They have goats too - I love goats. They are 100% crazy but very lovable.

Fog bank

| No Comments

Funny weather this morning - clear and sunny right here but a huge dense fog bank about five miles away. It is completely obscuring Whidbey Island and the Olympics from view - looks like I am on the edge of the continent looking across the Pacific:

20200827-ocean.jpg

Hurricane Laura - some images

| No Comments

Two videos from Brett Adair at Live Storms Media:

Brett also has this video from Lake Charles Regional Airport - sad to see the airplanes so damaged.

Here is one from Reuters:

Working on stuff

| No Comments

Getting ready for a meeting next week so need to get the agenda out in advance. Also dropping my PA system off at the farm this afternoon - checking it out first, make sure I bring all the little bits - cables, etc... Couple more hours here and then coffee time. Volunteering for the community center tomorrow and Saturday. Ham radio event Saturday as well. Busy couple of days.

Gray morning - clouds are starting to burn off so looks like another glorious day in paradise.

If 2020

| No Comments

Great meme from Eat Liver:

20200827-2020.jpg

Some background from Vox Day:

Antifa are hired convicts
Consider criminal backgrounds of the three "victims" who were shot, two of them fatally, after attacking an armed teenager in Kenosha, Wisconsin this week:

    • Joseph Rosenbaum, convicted pedophile. Served 12.5 years for sexual contact with a minor.
    • Gaige Grosskreutz, a convicted burglar who was illegally carrying a gun.
    • Anthony Huber, convicted domestic abuser. Convicted of multiple domestic abuse counts, ADW, battery, false imprisonment, and "strangulation and suffocation".

They shouldn't be charging Kyle Rittenhouse with murder, they should be giving him a medal! And these "protests" are about as genuine as the astroturf in the Superdome.

Best and brightest. The three of them assaulted a single man openly armed with a rifle. What were they expecting?

The democrats own this.

Heh - three memes from Instapundit

| No Comments

In no particular order. From here:

Our new Air Force One. Nice technology transfer from the Zeta Reticulans
They really like our Cheese Whiz and Hot Pockets:

20200826-AF1.jpg

20200826-2020.jpg

20200826-hillary.jpg

Thai food sounds really good

| No Comments

Heading north for some chicken phad thai. Sounds really good. 

Hurricane Laura - update

| No Comments

She is now CAT3 CAT4 - from The Weather Channel:

Hurricane Laura Strengthening and Is a Category 4; Catastrophic Strike Ahead Near Louisiana and Texas Border
At a Glance

    • Laura has rapidly intensified into a Category 4 as it approaches landfall.
    • Laura will make landfall Wednesday night into early Thursday near the border between Louisiana and Texas.
    • Catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds will affect areas near where Laura makes landfall.
    • Storm surge could penetrate as much as 30 miles inland in southwest Louisiana.
    • Laura is also an inland flood risk as far north and east as Arkansas and the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.
    • Isolated tornadoes are also expected from Laura.

Not unexpected and not anything outside the norm for this time of year. Still...

Here is how you do it - riots

| No Comments

When he was the Governor of California, Ronald Reagan had to deal with riots. Her's how he dealt with it. From the Reagan Battalion:

Now that is leadership on full display. Sorely lacking these days.

More phony hate crimes

| No Comments

There is so much racial enmity in the united states that race warlords and poverty pimps have to invent it.
Latest example comes from Denver Colorado:

Denver councilwoman falsely accuses police of pulling gun on her, other protestors
Tensions continue to run high between one member of the Denver City Council and the Denver Police Department — with the latest battle playing out on Twitter.

Candi CdeBaca, who represents District 9 on the Council accused a Denver Police officer of pulling a gun on her and others using a video taken at a recent protest as evidence. The video she retweeted on Twitter drew dozens of responses, most against CdeBaca.

See if she gets re-elected to her position. Classic progressive politician - lying to support the narrative. Ignoring the truth.

Taking positive action - fentanyl

| No Comments

From New York Post:

US sanctions Chinese fentanyl ‘kingpin’ for mailing lethal drug
The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled sanctions against an alleged Chinese fentanyl distributor deemed “one of the most significant drug traffickers in the world.”

Zhang Taotao is accused of shipping large amounts of the powerful synthetic opioid to the US. Fentanyl is less expensive than heroin and prescription painkillers, but can kill in very small doses.

Fentanyl sourced largely from labs in China has driven a spike in US drug overdose deaths. More than 31,000 Americans died after taking synthetic opioids in 2018, continuing a five-year surge.

“Zhang has shipped synthetic opioids to the United States via multiple individuals and freight-forwarding services and used false labelling to disguise parcel contents and avoid seizure by authorities,” the State Department said in a statement. “Once a package is received in the United States, U.S.-based distributors press fentanyl into counterfeit pharmaceutical pills for further distribution and domestic consumption.”

The Treasury Department will apply sanctions against Zhang and Hong Kong-based Allyrise Technology Group Co. under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

Good - get that crap off our streets. China is asshoe.

And out for a few hours

| No Comments

Coffee and hang out for a bit. Finished a stack of paperwork - feels good to get it done.

Cat has been hissing at Bear - they get along well otherwise, something is up his butt this morning.

Really foggy this morning and it took a long time to burn off. Nice day now - warming up. Grocery deliveries this afternoon.

Something is up at the Naval Air Station - lots of big airplanes flying around. A constant rumble.

Investing in the future

| No Comments

Very good move - from Tech Crunch:

White House announces $1B investment for AI and quantum computing hubs
Building out its previous commitment, the White House is announcing a $1 billion investment into two of tech’s most promising frontiers, AI and quantum computing.

Last year, the Trump administration rolled out an executive order on AI declaring its intention to bolster U.S. dominance in the field, but the order didn’t address much in the way of funding its plans. This February, the Trump administration called for more than two billion dollars to be invested in non-defense AI and quantum research by 2022.

Excellent - these are two areas where you can not develop new technologies in a garage somewhere - a large investment needs to be made. The rewards will be huge.

So... If the Wuhan Flu doesn't get us, the nanobots and Skynet will. I for one welcome our new robot overlords.

Hurricane Laura

| No Comments

Looks like CAT3 - Key Messages from NOAA:

Key Messages:

    1. Unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Sabine Lakes. This surge could penetrate up to 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline. Only a few hours remain to protect life and property and all actions should be rushed to completion.
    2. Hurricane-force winds are expected tonight in portions of the hurricane warning area from San Luis Pass, Texas, to west of Morgan City, Louisiana, with catastrophic wind damage expected where Laura's eyewall makes landfall. Hurricane-force winds and widespread damaging wind gusts will spread well inland across portions of eastern Texas and western Louisiana early Thursday.
    3. Widespread flash flooding along small streams, urban areas, and roadways is expected to begin this afternoon into Thursday from far eastern Texas, across Louisiana and Arkansas. This will also lead to minor to isolated moderate freshwater river flooding. The heavy rainfall threat and localized flash and urban flooding potential will spread northeastward into the middle-Mississippi, lower Ohio and Tennessee Valleys Friday night and Saturday.

Keeping them in my prayers. Fortunately, the Texas government is a lot better prepared than we had in New Orleans with Katrina.

Good news - some leadership

| No Comments

Looks like the Wisconsin governor sees BLM and Antifa for what they are. From President Trump's twitter feed:

Any questions?

| No Comments

The Dems are shooting themselves in the foot:

Russian collusion

| No Comments

Unraveling the Matryoshka doll - from Real Clear Investigations:

Top Kerry Aide, Key Conduit for Dossier, Once Worked for Russian Oligarch, as Did Steele
Jonathan Winer, a former top aide to Secretary of State John Kerry who was a key conduit for disseminating the discredited Steele dossier in the U.S. government, worked as a lobbyist for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in years preceding the Russiagate affair. This revelation raises new questions about Russian efforts to influence American foreign policy -- far afield from any Kremlin efforts to favor Donald Trump.

Winer’s connection to Deripaska came to light through last week’s release of the fifth and final volume of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. The Senate report also found that at different times ex-British spy Christopher Steele had worked for the powerful oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin, and sent scores of reports from his intelligence firm on to Winer, who admitted to the panel destroying many of them before leaving the State Department. Further, the Senate developed evidence that Glenn Simpson – whose company Fusion GPS contracted with Steele for the dossier – also did work for Deripaska. Simpson denied that, telling senators, “I don’t think I’ve knowingly had any contact with his organization.”

The Russian collusion story has always been curious. You only have to look at President Trump's dealings with Russia to know that they would be far better off if Hillary was in the Oval Office. Why Russia would want DJT as President makes absolutely zero sense. Hillary and her progressive fellow travelers would be much better for them financially and ideologically. Biden as well.

The "H"

| No Comments

Heh:

20200826-honesty.jpg

Unintended consequences - Portland

| No Comments

Shrinking tax base? So sad. Too bad. From FOX Business:

Businesses leaving downtown Portland over 'lawlessness'
The months of protests and riots in Portland have prompted some businesses in the city to opt to move out completely or relocate outside its central district, according to a report on Monday.

Greg Goodman, the co-president of the Downtown Development Group, said in a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler and members of the Portland City Council that the exodus of companies wasn't related to the Black Lives Matter movement “but does have most everything to do with the lawlessness you are endorsing downtown.”

“The number is like nothing I have seen in 42 years of doing business in downtown,” he wrote, according to Portland's KOIN.

Goodman said companies include Daimler Trucks North America, Airbnb, Banana Republic, Microsoft, Saucebox, and Google, which he claimed: "leased 90,000 square feet in the Macy’s building [and] has stopped construction of their improvements."

"The list goes on and on. If you know a retail or office broker, give them a call and ask them how many clients they have are trying to leave," he continued.

No leadership. No accountability. No common sense. The once-great city of Portland deserves what it is getting.
As H. L. Menken would say: "Good and Hard"  That is why we have a Republic and not a Democracy. A Democracy is two wolves and one sheep talking about what is for dinner. Checks and Balances are needed for anything.

Absolutely spot on - so much cruft on the internet. From Assistant Village Idiot:

Douglas2's Law
Frequent AVI commenter Unknown/Douglas2 weighed in over at a post of James's at I Don't Know, But...

I liked it well enough to reprint it.

I've even postulated versions of "Douglas2's Law", which are:
a) if you can't get to primary sources within 3 clicks of hyperlinks (such as to a transcript or video of the talk or interview, the actual court decision, or the journal precis of the scientific paper), they are intentionally lying to you.
b) sensational articles will include links but trust that very few of their readers will actually click and read what is linked, as it nearly always contains the refutation of their headline claim.

I always follow the breadcrumbs back to the primary sources. Got to do that. Anything else is just clickbait and we all love clickbait. (the ascended master: here and here)

Had a fun time but...

| No Comments

She was a lot of fun to talk with and certainly attractive but there was no connection. We will be building a good friendship but nothing beyond that - we both recognized it. Very happy to meet new people so this evening was a major plus. Not what I was hoping though...

Surf for a bit and then to bed. Paperwork tomorrow morning and grocery deliveries in the afternoon. Loaning out my PA system to a local farm Thursday for an event they are doing this weekend.

Volunteering for the local community center Friday and Saturday and have a ham radio event Saturday morning - will be operating mobile from the community center. Great PR for a very fun hobby.

And out the door

| No Comments

Meeting someone - might be interesting...

Got to watch out for those Foxes

| No Comments

Great infographic from Terrierman's Daily Dose:

20200825-fox.jpg

Heh...

Interesting - Tsar Bomba

| No Comments

The Russians finally declassified the information about it. Tsar Bomba was the largest (by far) nuclear device ever detonated. A good representation in this graphic:

20200825-bomb.jpg

Much more information at Zero Hedge:

Russia Declassifies Footage Of Biggest Nuke Ever Tested: "Mushroom Cloud 7 Times Higher Than Everest"
Russia has for the first time released full declassified footage of the Soviet Union's monster nuclear bomb known as the 'Tsar Bomba' hydrogen bomb (codenamed “Ivan”).

Widely considered to be the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested, it was detonated 4,000 meters above a sparsely populated archipelago in the Barents Sea on Oct. 30, 1961 as part of a secretive test nevertheless detected by US intelligence.

The bomb had a yield of an estimated 50 megatons, or the equivalent of 50 million tons of TNT, and though poor-quality images had already been released, just days ago the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation published a 40-minute full documentary featuring the new declassified video of the bomb detonation after being dropped by a Tu-95 Bear bomber on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Russia’s nuclear industry.

Much more at the site. The 40 minute documentary can be found at Rosatom - Russian voice-over with English subtitles:

The thought was that it was too large to be delivered as a weapon. Much smaller than expected.

Seattle descends into chaos

| No Comments

From Seattle station KTTH:

Rioters tried to burn Seattle police alive, sealed door during fire at East Precinct
Seattle rioters used a substance suspected to be quick-dry concrete to seal shut the door to the East Precinct, the Seattle Police Department has confirmed. At the same time, the rioter attempted to set fire to the building. Photos reviewed by the Jason Rantz Show show the concrete mix and tools used.

Now, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is working with the Seattle Police Department on this investigation.

Rioters assaulted Seattle’s East Precinct on Monday night. This marked another night of violent, criminal activism against police officers unconnected to anger over a recent police shooting in Wisconsin.

Interesting. Having the BTAFE join in gives it some measure of Federal jurisdiction. Wonder if they will start arresting people?

Coffee first of course. Van goes in for brakes at 2PM. A friend of mine is setting me up with someone tonight - we are meeting at a local at 6PM.

Started off cool and cloudy but warming up nicely - good day to be running around doing things.

Hurricane Laura

| No Comments

Turning into a major hurricane. From the National Hurricane Center's twitter feed:

Jacob Blake

| No Comments

Real choirboy - lots of priors. From the internet:

From Mike the Cop….
I’ve been inundated by people asking my thoughts on the Kenosha/Jacob Blake shooting. Here’s my take:

1. Don’t forget the media has an agenda and it tends to not involve waiting for full information before rocketing their version in front of as many uninformed people as possible.

2. Police were called because Jacob Blake was waving a knife around and in conjunction with a domestic situation (not because he was roaming the countryside as a non-violent friendly fellow). While en route, dispatch informed police that Blake had an outstanding warrant in regard to his recent sexual assault and domestic abuse charges.

3. Police deployed a taser and it failed, as they are prone to do more than we’d like, despite being a great tool.

4. My research thus far, very early, is showing that Blake said he had a gun in the car and was going to go get it. He continued to brandish the knife while disregarding officer commands to drop it, which would have ended the situation PEACEFULLY, if he’d have complied with such lawful orders.

5. When he reached into the car, officers fired. Why? Because he already has one weapon and says he’s getting a gun next from the location he’s reaching into.

I’ll continue to weather the public opinion storm and wait for all facts but these seem to be what has been established for me thus far.

All of these charges of "police brutality" are from people who were non-compliant and combative with officers who wanted to talk with them. If they submitted and talked peacefully with the officers, none of this would ever have happened. There are a few bad apples - Abner Louima - but they are a lot less common than the media would have you believe.

Biden in bed with China

| No Comments

Talk about Chinese collusion - from 90 Miles From Tyranny:

Chief Of Staff To ‘Biden Whisperer’ And ‘Biden Admin Power Player’ Chris Coons Just Registered As Lobbyist For The Chinese Communist Party-Owned Alibaba
Adam Bramwell leveraged his credentials as the Senator’s Chief of Staff and General Counsel from 2016 to 2019 to procure the role of Managing Director at the consulting behemoth Mercury Public Affairs.

On August 1st 2020, he registered as a lobbyist for Alibaba, a Chinese company whose founder Jack Ma is a member of the Chinese Communist Party who insisted he was “in love with them.”

In 2015 Forbes reported the “Chinese Government Has A Huge “Stake” In Alibaba” and The New York Times unearthed the company’s “deep political connections of the investment firms, Boyu Capital, Citic Capital Holdings and CDB Capital, the China Development Bank’s private investment arm” in 2014.

The Times also noted Alibaba’s “senior executive ranks included sons or grandsons of the most powerful members of the ruling Communist Party.”

No surprises there.

California in a little while

| No Comments

From A. F. Branco:

20200825-green.jpg

Schadenfreude - the GOP Convention

| No Comments

Looks like Hollywood is having a bit of a cry with their cornflakes this morning - from Breitbart:

Hollywood Celebs Melt Down Over Republican National Convention: ‘Is Anyone Else Throwing Up Right Now?’
Hollywood elites expressed disgust and even physical revulsion during the first night of the Republican National Convention, ruthlessly mocking the evening’s speakers for supporting the reelection of President Donald Trump. “Is it just me or is anyone else throwing up right now?” Rob Reiner asked at the top of the broadcast.

Celebrities including Alec Baldwin, Bette Midler, Dave Bautista, and anti-Trump comedian Kathy Griffin joined in the mockery, providing snarky commentary of Monday’s virtual convention. Many of those same stars were quiet during last week’s Democratic National Convention in the latest indication that the left’s hatred of Trump outweighs their passion for Joe Biden.

Rob Reiner asked if anyone else is “throwing up right now?” at the start of Monday’s convention.

A fun compilation of tweets. Reminds me of that wonderful rant from 2017: Dance, monkey, dance!

Oh - and Schadenfreude? From the Infogalactic entry

Schadenfreude ... is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This word is taken from German and literally means "harm-joy". It is the feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffer misfortune. It is also borrowed by some other languages. An English term of similar meaning (but with no noun equivalent) is "to gloat"; which means to feel, or express, great, often malicious, pleasure, or self-satisfaction, at one's own success, or at another's failure

Sitting here sipping from my glass of chilled Liberal Tears. A perfect way to start the day.

Last night's convention - some numbers

| No Comments

Last night was the first evening of the Republican National Convention. Some of the speeches I saw were really good and really connected with me - glad to see people waking up. The numbers were interesting too - from The Hill:

First night of GOP convention delivers nearly six times more views than start of Democrats' event on C-SPAN livestream
C-SPAN's livestream of the first night of the Republican National Convention has attracted nearly 440,000 views, marking a substantial increase over the start of the Democratic National Convention, which drew 76,000 views.

The numbers for Monday night come ahead of traditional TV ratings from Nielsen Media Research, which will be released on Tuesday afternoon.

It will be interesting to see the Nielsen Numbers - they represent all of TV watching, not just C-Span. Shows that there is a lot of public interest.

I think I am in love - Kim Klacik

| No Comments

Posted her campaign video one week ago (it went viral - more here)
Here is her presentation at the GOP Convention tonight:

You can not argue with truth.

Glad to see that Lyndon Baines Johnson's prediction is falling short by 140 years or so - the President famously saying about his "great society"

I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years

Looking forward to America returning to its roots again.

I would love to see them try this

| No Comments

Seriously. From The Western Journal:

California Bill Would Apply Wealth Tax to Residents Who Fled the State in the Last 10 Years
A new so-called wealth tax in California would send tax bills even to people who have moved out of the liberal state.

The Democrats’ proposal for “an annual tax of 0.4 percent upon the worldwide net worth of every resident in this state,” according to the text of AB 2088, which would create the tax on a vast list of untaxed assets California wants to tax.

The tax would target not only current residents but anyone who has what the bill classifies as wealth and who has lived in California any time in the past 10 years. It would use a sliding scale based on the number of years a taxpayer lived in the state.

Jon Healey, the deputy editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, cast a jaundiced eye upon the proposal in an Op-Ed in which he noted that “the tax would also be imposed on former residents who left within the past decade, presumably to catch those who fled the state’s income tax rates, which already are the highest in the country.”

“It also would apply the highest wealth-tax rate to anyone who’d spent a decade or more in California, a bizarre choice that would only increase the incentive for longtime residents to move out,” he wrote.

How about making a budget and sticking to it. How about maintaining your infrastructure instead of funding "sexy" new projects (hello high-speed train to nowhere, hello going carbon free, hello...)

Time for another UHaul index - how about San Francisco to Butte, Montana
(been to Butte a couple times - gorgeous old town with a lot of culture and fun stuff to do):

20200824-sf-butte.jpg

20200824-butte-sf.jpg

$2,187 one way and $583 the other. That is a 375% difference. Almost four times. Again, this is You and Me doing the move - people with more money will hire the whole process out. Even if this DOES pass, I would love to see them try to collect.

This is downright brilliant

| No Comments

Great video - perfect response to all the Karens out there:

Never heard of Media Bear before but subscribed to their channel.

And it's off to the dump

| No Comments

Got the van loaded up. Getting the brakes worked on tomorrow (slight shimmy when I brake at highway speeds - nip that in the bud) and figured it would be good if it wasn't filled with bags of trash so doing the dump run today.

Heading north for Chinese food after.

Projection again - Nancy Pelosi

| No Comments

Another classic case of Projection - from her speech this afternoon:

I have moved from "Basket of Deplorables" to "Enemy of the State"

Stay classy Nancy - go back to your $24,000 freezer stuffed with $13/pint gourmet ice cream.

Great idea for a weathervane

| No Comments

Going to change to a different design but definitely too good of an idea not to swipe:

20200824-wind.jpg

There is quite the history of logging on the island during the 1900's - a major industry. This whole area is very focused on timber - still a lot of activity where I used to live near Mt. Baker. The early loggers used to call this place Crow Island and it is from this that I got the new name for my blacksmithing business: Crow Island Forge

"Music" these days

| No Comments

Nails it:

20200824-rap.jpg

Not a new thing - mail-in ballot fraud

| No Comments

Been around for a long time. From the Houston Chronicle:

Mail-in ballots were part of a plot to deny Lincoln reelection in 1864
Traveling to Baltimore in the fall of 1864, Orville Wood had no way of knowing he would soon uncover the most elaborate election conspiracy in America's brief history.

Wood was a merchant from Clinton County in the most northeastern corner of New York. As a supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, he was tasked with visiting troops from his hometown to "look after the local ticket."

New York legislators had only established the state's mail-in voting system in April with the intent of ensuring the suffrage of White troops battling the Confederate Army.

The results of the 1864 elections would heavily affect the outcome of the war. Lincoln and his supporters in the National Union Party sought to continue the war and defeat the Confederacy outright. Meanwhile antiwar Democrats, also referred to as Copperheads, looked for an immediate compromise with the Confederate leaders and the end of the abolition movement.

Troops from New York were allowed to authorize individuals back home to cast a vote on their behalf. Along with their mail-in ballots, troops would assign their power of attorney on slips that required four signatures: the voter's, the person authorized as a recipient, a witness to the signed affidavit and a fellow officer. These documents would be sealed in an envelope and shipped back home to be counted in the final vote. This was the process that Orville Wood intended to uphold, he would testify in court later. He quickly found out what a challenge that would be.

Much more at the site - quite a story.

And once again, it was the Democrats who did this. They had nothing to run against Lincoln so they tried to cheat.

The two major ringleaders were sentenced to life in prison. Wish that we could do this today - it would go a long way to discourage the Deep State's activities. Serious actions should have consequences to match.

Tip of the hat to 90 miles for the initial link.

Turning into a nice day

| No Comments

Finished puttering around here for the nonce - time to head into the nearby small town for two small errands and then to the coffee place for an hour. Got more crap in the van for the dump run - maybe today but I have a lot to get rid of and might as well maximize the load. 

Sun is shining, clouds are burning off and all is well in my immediate local world. It's the rest of the world that is fscked

Back in a while...

Police report

| No Comments

No word as to where this is but it looks like they got a couple of quack dealers off the streets:

20200824-quack.jpg

Drizzly morning

| No Comments

Woke up to light rain. Skies are overcast. Forecast is for a couple days of this and then a return to sunshine.

Working in the garage this morning and getting ready for a dump run later this afternoon.

A good question - counting

| No Comments

20200824-count.jpg

Another round of flooding is going to hit China next week. From the South China Morning Post:

China on alert for Yangtze River flooding as storms close in
Heavy rain is expected across China’s southwest, northwest and northeast in the next three days, raising flood risks and pressure on dams, weather forecasters have warned.

The Ministry of Water Resources urged local authorities to be on alert, particularly along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Yellow, Hai, Songhua and Liao rivers.

The National Meteorological Centre said Sichuan province in the country’s southwest would be particularly hard hit, with up to 300mm (11.8 inches) of rain forecast for Monday.

Here is the video accompanying the article - two more good videos as well as some photos at the site:

Nice people, asshoe government. This is very unusual weather. Normally, this is their rainy season but the intensity and duration is beyond previous bounds.

Dinner was delicious

| No Comments

Ahi tuna marinated in ginger/shoyu. Seared for a minute on each side (leave the inside raw). Serve with some white rice and some sauteed baby bok-choy with a bit of sesame oil. Hit the spot. The Hawaiians really know how to do fish.

Cat is not leaving me alone for one minute. He is settling in to be a very affectionate little critter. I know nothing of his history but he certainly likes living here.

Doing another load of laundry, catching up on some paperwork and watch videos for a while - nothing much on the internet.

Solar panels have a useful life of about thirty years. Guess what? The first major push for solar electricity started thirty years ago. From Wired:

Solar Panels Are Starting to Die, Leaving Behind Toxic Trash
Solar panels are an increasingly important source of renewable power that will play an essential role in fighting climate change. They are also complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of electronic waste at the end of their lives—and right now, most of the world doesn’t have a plan for dealing with that.

But we’ll need to develop one soon, because the solar e-waste glut is coming. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their life, and that the world will be generating about 6 million metric tons of new solar e-waste annually. While the latter number is a small fraction of the total e-waste humanity produces each year, standard electronics recycling methods don’t cut it for solar panels. Recovering the most valuable materials from one, including silver and silicon, requires bespoke recycling solutions. And if we fail to develop those solutions along with policies that support their widespread adoption, we already know what will happen.

“If we don’t mandate recycling, many of the modules will go to landfill,” said Arizona State University solar researcher Meng Tao, who recently authored a review paper on recycling silicon solar panels, which comprise 95 percent of the solar market.

Solar panels are composed of photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert sunlight to electricity. When these panels enter landfills, valuable resources go to waste. And because solar panels contain toxic materials like lead that can leach out as they break down, landfilling also creates new environmental hazards.

The primary component is silicon - beach sand. No value there. A little bit of copper and aluminum. Some numbers?

Tao and his colleagues estimate that a recycler taking apart a standard 60-cell silicon panel can get about $3 for the recovered aluminum, copper, and glass. Vanderhoof, meanwhile, says that the cost of recycling that panel in the US is between $12 and $25—after transportation costs, which “oftentimes equal the cost to recycle.” At the same time, in states that allow it, it typically costs less than a dollar to dump a solar panel in a solid-waste landfill.

Pissing money (our tax dollars) down the renewable rat-hole. Nuclear anyone?

From My Pensieve:

Mike Gallagher, the 8th most recognized talk radio personality, in the U.S.A., is heard by over 2.25 million listeners weekly. He compiled and wrote the following essay entitled,

Obama: It was You

    • It was you who spoke these words at an Islamic dinner - “I am one of you.”
    • It was you who on ABC News referenced - “My Muslim faith.”
    • It was you who gave $100 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to re-build foreign mosques.
    • It was you who wrote that in the event of a conflict- “I will stand with the Muslims.”
    • It was you who assured the Egyptian Foreign Minister that - “I am a Muslim.”
    • It was you who bowed in submission before the Saudi King.
    • It was you who sat for 20 years in a Liberation Theology Church condemning America and professing Marxism.
    • It was you who exempted Muslims from penalties under Obamacare that the rest of us have to pay.
    • It was you who purposefully omitted - “endowed by our Creator ” - from your recitation of The Declaration Of Independence.
    • It was you who mocked the Bible and Jesus Christ’s Sermon On The Mount while repeatedly referring to the ‘HOLY’ Qur'an.
    • It was you who traveled the Islamic world denigrating the United States Of America.
    • It was you who instantly threw the support of your administration behind the building of the Ground Zero Victory mosque overlooking the hallowed crater of the World Trade Center.
    • It was you who refused to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, but hastened to host an Islamic prayer breakfast at the White House
    • It was you who ordered Georgetown Univ. and Notre Dame to shroud all vestiges of Jesus Christ BEFORE you would agree to go there to speak, but in contrast, you have NEVER requested the mosques you have visited to adjust their decor.
    • It was you who appointed anti-Christian fanatics to your Czar Corps.
    • It was you who appointed rabid Islamists to Homeland Security.
    • It was you who said that NASA’s “foremost mission” was an outreach to Muslim communities.
    • It was you who as an Illinois Senator was the ONLY individual who would speak in favor of infanticide.
    • It was you who was the first President not to give a Christmas Greeting from the White House, and went so far as to hang photos of Chairman Mao on the White House tree.
    • It was you who curtailed the military tribunals of all Islamic terrorists.
    • It was you who refused to condemn the Ft. Hood killer as an Islamic terrorist.
    • It is you who has refused to speak-out concerning the horrific executions of women throughout the Muslim culture, but yet, have submitted Arizona to the UN for investigation of hypothetical human-rights abuses.
    • It was you who when queried in India refused to acknowledge the true extent of radical global Jihadists, and instead profusely praised Islam in a country that is 82% Hindu and the victim of numerous Islamic terrorists assaults.
    • It was you who funneled $900 Million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Hamas.
    • It was you who ordered the United States Postal Service to honor the MUSLIM holiday with a new commemorative stamp.
    • It was you who directed our UK Embassy to conduct outreach to help “empower” the British Muslim community.
    • It was you who funded mandatory Arabic language and culture studies in Grammar schools across our country.
    • It is you who follows the Muslim custom of not wearing any form of jewelry during Ramadan.
    • It is you who departs for Hawaii over the Christmas season so as to avoid past criticism for NOT participating in seasonal White House religious events.
    • It was you who was uncharacteristically quick to join the chorus of the Muslim Brotherhood to depose Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, formerly America’s strongest ally in North Africa; but, remain muted in your non-response to the Brotherhood led slaughter of Egyptian Christians.
    • It was you who appointed your chief adviser, Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian, who is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
    • It was you who said this country is not a Christian nation.

PLEASE! Distribute this far and wide

20200823-truth01.jpg

20200823-truth02.jpg

A good day

| No Comments

Church was interesting. They are a bit too literalist in their interpretation of the Bible but they have the strong sense of right and wrong that I like and that has dissapeared from the Episcopal Church I grew up with. I love the Bible but suspect that there are too many translation errors to take it at face value - a lot of wisdom and insight in there, just not the "Word of God". Ran into a couple people I know today - very popular congregation. Good messages. I liked it so will check it out next week.

Went up to Costco - needed some gas for the Toyota and lo and behold, they are now carrying the same San Marzano canned tomatoes I found briefly in their business store in Lynwood last April. They are a buck more for three cans but the same product and still 1/3rd cheaper than the cans I used to get in Seattle.

Unload the car, start dinner (thawed out a tuna steak so searing that with some rice and bok-choy) and surf for a bit.

Got nothing for tonight

| No Comments

Went out for Thai food and had two beers at my local. Someone there (who knows me pretty well) is setting me up on a blind date for this Tuesday evening.  Interesting times ahead?

Gorgeous sunset - cool and nice "mares' tails" clouds (Cirrus Uncinus) - these portend moisture moving in in about 48 hours but they are really pretty now. Next couple of days are calling for partly cloudy with a 10% chance of rain so we will see what happens.

Nothing much on the intarwebs so time to watch some videos and enjoy an early bedtime. Going to try out a church tomorrow - see how good the fit is.

Just wow

| No Comments

Wonderful video. The text is actually from Charlie Chaplin's 1940 movie The Great Dictator (the scene in question)
Still very relevant today - beautiful adaptation by Solentgreenis people:

Getting a bit uppity there - BLM

| No Comments

From The Gateway Pundit:

Chicago BLM Militant Issues Threat: “We Have Demands and They Need to Be Met…You Can Listen to Us Or Get Ran Over”
A Black Lives Matter militant in Chicago this week issued what many have interpreted as a terroristic threat.

Taylor Norwood this week unleashed on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a press conference for allowing the police to arrest her ‘innocent friends’ who were just exercising their Fist Amendment right.

Norwood accused Lightfoot of protecting the whites in North Chicago from blacks in Southside Chicago by blocking off exits to the north following back-to-back weekends of BLM terrorists looting Magnificent Mile.

“This is our city and we’re taking our shit back!” Norwood said. “We have demands and they need to be met and I feel like I’ve been saying this too much — we’re not asking you anything. We’re telling you what’s about to happen with your permission — or not! You can listen to us or you can get ran over.”

Always tearing down. Never building. Always trying to re-write history. Never learning what really happened. Being stupid really hurts. That these people are being willfully stupid makes it even worse. The real history is not going to be kind to them.

The United States Postal Service

| No Comments

The Democrats outrage du jour. Now that Orange Man appointed someone who is actually turning the organization around, they are screaming that they will not be able to vote by mail commit election fraud.

20200822-cages.jpg

Turned into a glorious day

| No Comments

73°F right now - perfect weather. Nice puffy clouds on the horizon but clear skies here.

Picked up some of the first of the local corn harvest - a peaches and cream variant. Looking forward to it for dinner. Love corn season almost as much as berry season.

Got the doors and windows open, airing out the house - working in the garage today and doing laundry and getting ready for a dump run tomorrow or Monday.

Lots of activity out on the water - people having fun.

A reminder - President Trump

| No Comments

From 90 Miles:

20200822-trump.jpg

The German newspaper Die Welt (The World) has published an excellent investigation on the Beirut blast and followed the money.

German: Die explosive Spur führt zur Hisbollah

Google Translate: The explosive trail leads to Hezbollah

After the disaster in the port of Beirut, Hezbollah was suspected of having been involved in the storage of the explosive ammonium nitrate. Now WELT has exclusive information from Western secret services. According to this, the militia bought large quantities of the dangerous substance.

After the devastating explosion in Beirut the week before last, there were numerous indications that Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militia had repeatedly operated with the chemical that triggered the detonation in the Lebanese capital: ammonium nitrate, a salt that is used as an explosive, but also Can be used for making fertilizer.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has since vehemently denied that his organization had anything to do with the chemical supply that caused the explosion. However, according to information from Western intelligence agencies that is available to WELT, Hezbollah in Lebanon received large deliveries of ammonium nitrate, which are closely related to the material detonated in Beirut.

As far as we know, the explosion was triggered on August 4, when a stock of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire, which had been stored in a hall in the port of Beirut since the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. Who exactly had it delivered and who was responsible for storage is currently being determined.

I would have expected none other. Scum of the earth. Sons of pigs and monkeys.

Who?

| No Comments

Kamala Harris?  Don Surber has some interesting numbers:

20200822-kamala.jpg

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
--- Oscar Wilde

Democrats are barely mentioning their vice presidential nominee.

Axios listed the 10 most talked about people from the DNC.

Kamala Harris was barely mentioned. She wasn't even an afterthought.

Michelle Obama got half the mentions among the Top 10 people.

Kamala got 1/2 of 1% of the mentions.

Michelle got nearly 100 times as many mentions. She should run.

Axios, which broke the story, said, "No speaker at the Democratic National Convention came close to generating as much online enthusiasm as Michelle Obama, according to NewsWhip data shared exclusively with Axios.

"Why it matters: By these measures, the most effective messenger in the Democratic Party is not even a politician."

Anyone who runs with Biden is going to be tainted for the rest of their career. That is why Hillary and Michelle are staying the hell away from this hot mess. They know they are going to lose bigly - they have nothing. They seriously miscalculated and overshot with the loony left and will probably be trying to claw their way back to relevancy in the next four years. As that venerable sage once said: "Rotsa Ruck"

As I have said before many times, if John Fitzgerald Kennedy were running in this election, I would vote for him in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, he was the last of the classical liberals and America has suffered for this loss.

Another day in paradise

| No Comments

Slept like a baby - woke up every two hours crying. Not. Slept really well and woke up nice and refreshed.
Getting that massage yesterday was a good idea.

Saw a couple of lightning flashes last night but nothing to really stand outside and watch. They were about 10-15 miles away. Started this morning quite overcast but the clouds are burning off.

Puttering around the house today - heading out for coffee in two hours or so. Dropping a thumb drive to another board member and running a few errands. Working at home today - dump run in the offing - today or tomorrow.

Time to make some breakfast.

But of course - WA State and money

| No Comments

Not surprising - from Seattle station King-5:

Nursing homes accuse Washington state of diverting millions in federal COVID-19 funds to other state coffers
Nursing home administrators and advocacy groups across Washington state are accusing state officials of withholding federal dollars allocated by Congress to help them care for their residents in the time of COVID-19.

At issue is emergency funding authorized by Congress to help Medicaid-funded programs in every state. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act provided for a 6.2% increase in all Medicaid programs. In Washington, the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) calculated the nursing facility portion of the money: $42 million from January to June, which would support an increase of $29 per day for all Medicaid-funded residents.

Costs inside nursing homes have skyrocketed during the pandemic with new expenditures associated with protective gear, testing and increased staffing needs. In addition, most facilities cannot admit new residents or patients because of coronavirus restrictions.

But in a move that surprised those who run these facilities, the state slashed the $29 per day allotment to $5 per day beginning in July, even as Congress extended the state of emergency funding.

And where did the money go (our money because it came from our taxes):

A spokesperson for the Office of Financial Management (OFM), which provides budget services to the governor's office, said the reduction was made to be more fiscally responsible and that there is “belt-tightening across the state budget” to keep future funding cuts at bay.

Advocates said the state is “pocketing the money” and is knowingly putting skilled nursing facilities, especially, in an impossible financial situation.

Yup - not surprising. These bureaucrats are unelected and not held to any measure of accountability. And, of course:

A spokesperson for DSHS said the state agency is carrying out funding decisions made by the legislature and OFM. A spokesperson for OFM didn’t say where the additional federal money is going.

It is Inslee's (lack of) leadership that is causing this rampant failure in our state government. The inmates are running the asylum.

Took them long enough - from Red State:

And There It is: WHO Director Uses COVID to Push Worldwide Climate Change Agenda
It was only a matter of time. Now that COVID is indelibly etched on the collective world psyche, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that even if an effective vaccine is developed, the world cannot go back to the way it was, pre-virus.

Shocking? Of course not; consider the source. And there’s more.

What else wasn’t shocking during his Friday press briefing was how Tedros connected the dots from the virus to climate change. Again, hardly shocking — but we’ll get to that in a bit.

The World Health Organization is not a scientific or medical group. It is pure politics - it uses its office to drive the progressive narrative and "nudge" the rest of us down the path towards one-world government and the overarching state. Communism essentially although they dress it in fancy clothing. Defund them, tear down their headquarters and salt the earth. They serve no legitimate function to our society.

Nice happy family vacationing somewhere tropical. Note the odd building highlighted by the yellow arrow:

20200821-temple01.jpg

Here is a better view of the building - note proximity to the cliff. Matches the first picture:

20200821-temple02.jpg

Second photo from this story at Insider:

Why did Jeffrey Epstein build a temple on his private island?
The federal charges against Jeffrey Epstein, unsealed on Monday morning in New York City, open the latest chapter in the very public campaign to bring the financier to justice. They also underscore how little is known about his life, including the source of his wealth, and how what is known doesn't quite add up. For instance: Is that really a temple on his private island? And to what?

More speculation at the article.  Looks like Obama and fam had at least one visit to Pedo Island.

Title? Two pictures at 1,000 words each.

Vote by mail - out of balance

| No Comments

From The Detroit News:

Michigan election officials call Detroit's primary voting problems 'appalling,' 'alarming'
All four members of the State Board of Canvassers on Friday blasted problems with counting ballots in Detroit's primary election as "alarming" and "concerning," and one asked whether Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson should intervene this fall.

"I think we need an investigation with a conclusion that somebody else is going to run that election or not," said Norm Shinkle, one of two Republicans on the board that's in charge of certifying statewide election results.

The criticism came a day after The Detroit News reported Wayne County election data that showed 72% of the absentee voting precincts in Michigan's largest city had ballot counts that were out of balance by at least one vote for the Aug. 4. primary. That means the number of voters tracked in precinct poll books did not match the number of ballots counted.

Out of balance? They mean that there were more ballots turned in than registered voters in the precinct. Stuffing the ballot box. Fraud plain and simple.

Not just Michigan - from PJ Media:

WE TOLD YOU SO: New Jersey Election Invalidated Because of Mail-In Voter Fraud
A New Jersey election has been invalidated by a judge, and a new election has been ordered to be held, due to rampant mail-in voter fraud.

On Wednesday, State Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela ruled that the election for a Paterson City Council seat had been irreversibly tainted. A new election has been ordered to take place in November.

The Dems have nothing to offer that people want. Cheating is the only way they can hold on to their power.

An interesting bit of word-play

| No Comments

On our presumptive VPs name - from Google Translate:

20200821-quemala.jpg

Dinnertime

| No Comments

Pot of brown rice is done. Sauteing some veggies. Treating my body right after the wonderful massage this afternoon.

Time to make some more nectar for the hummingbird feeders - doing this about every five days. Almost done with the second 25 pound bag of the season. The first bag was half-way through in January - there is a resident population of Anna's that overwinter so I keep the feeders up all the time. Pick up some more at Costco next week. Need dog food and cat litter too.

Just took delivery of this litter shovel - looks awesome. Came highly recomended.
Cleaning Cat's litter box - my entertainment for this evening.

Thunderstorms and rain showers in the forecast for tonight.

Not that bright - stupid criminals

| No Comments

Unreal - the mind boggles. From Law Enforcement Today:

Florida police say three men broke into homes while wearing GPS ankle monitors: ‘Organized burglary ring’
Years ago, there was a television show named the “World’s Dumbest Criminals” that aired from 2008 until 2014. The show highlighted criminals who made the dumbest mistakes while committing crimes, like one where a would-be robber did not notice there was a uniformed police officer standing inside the store prior to pulling his gun.

If the show was still on today, these three people who conducted a string of burglaries, all while wearing court ordered GPS monitors, would certainly be a part of the show.

A group of at least three criminals thought they were smart as the allegedly committed at least thirty residential burglaries.

Willie Nelson

| No Comments

Great collection of stories by two dozen people who have worked/played/partied with the legend. From Texas Monthly:

“That’s Just the Way Willie Rolls”
When Texas Monthly set out to create a special issue celebrating Willie Nelson, we knew it wouldn’t be enough just to assign new stories, comb our archives for favorite old profiles, or even rank and review all 143 of Willie’s albums. So we reached out to some two dozen of Willie’s longtime friends, fans, and collaborators and asked them to share one favorite Willie story. From “Whiskey River” writer Johnny Bush’s memory of a portentous moment on tour with Willie back in 1962 to current producer and songwriting partner Buddy Cannon’s description of what it’s like to work with Willie right now, this collection of anecdotes offers an inside look at what Willie’s like when the spotlight shuts off.

Fun stories - the guy has had an amazing life.

Got another one - Russian spy

| No Comments

From the United States Department of Justice:

Former Army Special Forces Officer Charged in Russian Espionage Conspiracy
According to court documents, from December 1996 to January 2011, Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, a former member of the U.S. Army, allegedly conspired with agents of a Russian intelligence service. During that time, Debbins periodically visited Russia and met with Russian intelligence agents. In 1997, Debbins was assigned a code name by Russian intelligence agents and signed a statement attesting that he wanted to serve Russia.

“Two espionage arrests in the past week — Ma in Hawaii and now Debbins in Virginia — demonstrate that we must remain vigilant against espionage from our two most malicious adversaries — Russia and China,” said John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “Debbins violated his oath as a U.S. Army officer, betrayed the Special Forces and endangered our country’s national security by revealing classified information to Russian intelligence officers, providing details of his unit, and identifying Special Forces team members for Russian intelligence to try to recruit as a spy. Our country put its highest trust in this defendant, and he took that trust and weaponized it against the United States.”

Life in prison. Hope that was your desired exit strategy because that is what you are looking at.

Heh - cute acronym

| No Comments

iggest
diot
emocrats
ver
ominated

Yikes - Antifa escalating

| No Comments

From Sara Carter:

FBI Investigating Threats To Federal Buildings In Portland
All federal government buildings in Portland, Oregon have were shut down Friday, after threats targeting the government were intercepted by law enforcement. The FBI is currently investigating the situation in the city, which has been mired in rioting and violence for more than 70 days. Federal law enforcement is currently assessing the extremity of the threat, according to local reports..

Moreover, the Federal Bankruptcy Court and Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse was also shut down out of extensive precaution on Friday, as the city continues to struggle with growing rioting and looting.

Catherine Herridge, senior investigative reporter with CBS News, said on Twitter that the threat was non specific “but may involve explosives.”

She quoted the FBI in Portland saying they are “aware of recent reporting regarding the threats made against federal buildings in Portland. We are investigating…”

I bet that the federales have pulled waaay back from these buildings. Publicly.
I bet that these buildings have more surveillance cameras and cell-phone sniffers than any other place in the USA at this moment.

If something happens, they are going to be swimming in actionable evidence. Good. Cut the head off this evil serpent. Destroy it. No catch and release.

Heh - pants on fire - DNC

| No Comments

At the Democratic National Convention they featured "Michael from Rhode Island".
John DePetro is a Rhode Island talk-show host and he did a little bit of research. MfRI is not who he seems:

Video : Fraud DNC: Michael from Rhode Island is a registered Democrat not Republican
All week the DNC has run a video of people supporting Joe Biden. One is identified as ” Michael from Rhode Island a long-standing Republican” now voting for Biden. Who is this long-standing Republican? He is town of Foster electrical inspector Michael Paolucci. His voting record speaks for itself: 4 out of  5 primaries he has voted as a Democrat. No wonder he appears each night during the DNC not using his last name since he is a registered Democrat.

Rhode Island is a small state and it was not difficult for John to find out his last name and city of residence. Voting record metadata is a matter of public record and Mr. Paolucci has a spotty record of voting and most of the times he voted, it was Democrat. Lies - the Democrat tradition.

Back from the market

| No Comments

Wound up getting a massage - local place I have been to before and was feeling a bit stiff.  Wonderful - should have done it months ago.

Raining off and on - the market was good - some vendors were sold out of what I was looking for. No heirloom tomatos left - 'tis the season and I was hoping to snag a couple for sanwiches and some pasta sauce. The egg vendor was sold out too. Picked up some beans to pickle and some blueberries. Had fun talking to people.

A word to the wise - voting by mail

| No Comments

Do not mail your ballot - drop it off at your district voting office, there are ballot drops for every county.

Now this is unreal - the DNC

| No Comments

Seems like there was a bit of video trickery at the Democratic National Convention - from Steve Watson at Summit News:

Video: DNC Uses Duplicate ‘Fans’ During Kamala Harris Livestream
In a bizarre move, the DNC appeared to duplicate members of a livestream audience to fill out the screen during Kamala Harris’ speech.

Following Harris’ speech, which leftist talking heads gushed over, dropping any pretence of bipartisanship, admitting that it ‘made them cry’, The DNC cut to a shot of individuals watching online.

However, critics noted that some of the individuals seen clapping like sealions were duplicated, apparently in an effort to make it appear that there were more excited Democrat voters watching.

From Andrew Clark:

More photos and a video at the site. Once you see it, it is obvious. They are grasping at straws. November 4th will not be a time to be in a big city. Going to be some serious butt-hurt out there when President Trump is re-elected in a landslide. People who live in delusional worlds can get violent when their delusions are successfully challenged and broken.

The new trailer - Pee Wee Park

| No Comments

The horror. From the creative people at Pixel Riot:

Watching some of their other work - fun stuff.

Workplace accident - Taliban go boom

| No Comments

From 90 Miles:

Taliban IED experts blown up by own bomb in a mosque in North of Afghanistan
A group of Taliban sustained casualties as they were busy manufacturing an improvised explosive device, roadside bomb, in a mosque in North of Afghanistan.

The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said the incident took place in a mosque in Chahabar Bolak district of Balkh.

The statement further added that a group of 8 Taliban IED experts were busy manufacturing a bomb inside a mosque in Sikandar Khel Village.

The premature explosion caused by IED killed four Taliban militants and wounded at least four others, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement.

Best and brightest. Cound not have happened to a nicer group of people.

From The Weather Channel:

Tropical Storm Laura and Tropical Depression Fourteen: Track the Storms
For the first time since the Great Depression, it's possible that two tropical systems could make landfall in the mainland United States at virtually the same time. There will be a lot to keep track of, so bookmark this landing page as your go-to for important information and maps on both tropical systems.

Tropical Storm Laura
Tropical Storm Laura will affect the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as a tropical storm with rain and gusty winds by this weekend. This system may then head toward Florida and the Gulf of Mexico early next week, possibly as a hurricane. However, its forecast intensity and track at that time are highly uncertain.

Tropical Depression Fourteen
Tropical Depression Fourteen has formed in the Caribbean Sea and is expected to first impact parts of Central America and Mexico as a tropical storm or hurricane before emerging into the western Gulf of Mexico. This system faces an uncertain future in the western Gulf of Mexico, but it could affect parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast next week as a hurricane.

Both are forecast to hit the Gulf Coast around the same time - talk about double whammy...

Quiet morning

| No Comments

Rain sprinkling down - solid overcast and cool.

Spent some time playing with cat and cleaning the kitchen. Working in the garage later this morning and afternoon. Farmer's market today as well.

Quick trot around the internet...

Heh - another 2020 meme

| No Comments

So very true:

20200820-2020.jpg

Crap - I blew it - tide photography

| No Comments

There were king high and low tides today and had the camera set up to do a time-lapse but I moved the tripod by accident so the sequence was wasted. That was the last chance for this year - there are two more king tides but they occur after dark.

Next option is May 27,2021 at just after noon. High tide is 7:43PM and the sun sets at 8:55PM so it will be quite dark but still within range of the camera. I'll set it up for Bramping - there is free software for this for both the arduino and the Raspberry Pi. A fun winter project.

20200820-french.jpg

Yersinia pestis in 3... 2... 1...

| No Comments

From the London Daily Mail:

Rat sightings are up 60% in NYC since Mayor Bill de Blasio slashed Sanitation Department's budget by $100M - leaving piles of garbage to stack up on sidewalks as officials warn city will be 'overrun' by rodents without action

    • The troubling spike in rodent encounters has been attributed to a recent change in procedure spurred by a $100M cut to the Department of Sanitation's budget
    • instead of collecting trash in the Big Apple every day, trash collections are now made by the sanitation department just three times per week as of June
    • In April less than 1,000 rat sightings were reported in the city, but after the collection change was implemented that number ballooned to 1,650
    • The growing infestation is having a profound effect on local restaurants and tourism – two industries already reeling from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
    • A number of politicians gathered in Harlem on Tuesday to pressure the city, insisting the collection change has created 'a welcome mat for the rats'

A number of politicians gathered in Harlem on Tuesday to pressure the city's government to reverse course. New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said the current policy has created a ‘welcome mat for the rats of our city’.

‘These rats have the run of New York City,’ Stringer continued about the infestation. ‘These rats are walking around waiting for a table at outdoor seating.’

Yersinia pestis? From Infogalactic:

Yersinia pestis (formerly Pasteurella pestis) is a gram-negative, nonmotile, rod-shaped coccobacillus, with no spores. It is a facultative anaerobic organism that can infect humans via the Oriental rat flea. It causes the disease plague, which takes three main forms: pneumonic, septicemic and bubonic plagues. All three forms were responsible for a number of high-mortality epidemics throughout human history, including: the sixth century's Plague of Justinian; the Black Death, which accounted for the death of at least one-third of the European population between 1347 and 1353; and the Third Pandemic, sometimes referred to as the Modern Plague, which began in the late nineteenth century in China and spread by rats on steamboats claiming close to 10,000,000 lives. These plagues likely originated in China and were transmitted west via trade routes. Recent research indicates that the pathogen may have been the cause of what is described as the Neolithic Decline, when European populations declined significantly. This would push the date to much earlier and might be indicative of an origin in Europe rather than Eurasia.

In other words, the Black Plague. Lovely.

Another labor union for Trump

| No Comments

This is big - from New Jersey's NJ.COM:

New Jersey’s largest police union endorses Trump as lawmakers weigh more policing reforms
New Jersey’s largest police union has endorsed President Donald Trump for re-election, as lawmakers and state officials continue to debate policing reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

The New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, which represents about 33,000 of the state’s approximately 36,000 full-time officers, made the announcement Tuesday.

PBA President Pat Colligan said he was concerned Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, “isn’t in charge of his campaign,” and in the pocket of groups hostile to police officers. Biden had ignored calls from the National Association of Police Organizations, Colligan said, despite a decades-long relationship between the former vice president and the union coalition.

“I’m not going to say we don’t need change,” Colligan told NJ Advance Media Thursday, but “I’m concerned some of the ideas that are being put out there will profoundly affect policing.”

Union officials met with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence late last month.

Large unions tend toward endorsing Democrat cantidates. For them to meet with President Trump and then switch sides shows that they are profoundly unhappy with what the Democrat party is doing. As I said, this is big.

Talk about spending other people's money - from the New York Post:

Chirlane McCray enjoys $2M staff of 14 amid NYC budget crisis
There’s no money for regular trash pickups or to maintain city parks, but Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife enjoys a 14-member staff — including a $70,000 videographer who captured her baking cookies during the pandemic.

And the staff:

McCray has a core team of eight staffers, according to a recent list provided to The Post following a Freedom of Information Law request filed in October 2019. This is despite the city facing layoffs of 22,000 municipal workers over the coronavirus-induced budget crisis.

There’s a $117,000-a-year speechwriter, even though McCray held that same position under former Mayor David Dinkins, and a $150,000-a-year senior adviser who was recruited in April after de Blasio announced a hiring freeze to help close a $7 billion deficit caused by the coronavirus.

But she has at least six other city employees deputized to her office from other public agencies, as was first reported by The City. That makes a robust roster of 14 staffers– double the amount she had in 2018.

They include the $70,000 videographer McCray brought on in February. The shooter, who is listed as a Department of Health employee in city records, filmed the first lady making ginger snaps on April 2 during the coronavirus lockdown.

My comment on spending other people's money comes from the great Margaret Thatcher:

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

So true...

Quiet morning

| No Comments

Puttering around the house this morning.  It did sprinkle around 3AM but the clouds are burning off a bit and going to be a cool partially overcast day with rain in the offing for tomorrow.

Heading out for the usual and then working in the garage most of today.

Now this could be interesting

| No Comments

The Deep State trying a last-ditch effort before the election? From The Gateway Pundit:

How Convenient – US Attorney from Southern District of New York Arrests Steve Bannon — Five Days Before RNC Convention!
Steve Bannon was arrested Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Stuart Varney announced the charges and said it had something to do with the border wall.

But it smells like a deep state hit.

The charges were filed by the U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss from the Southern District of New York.

US Attorney Audrey Strauss replaced crooked US Attorney Geoffrey Berman as US Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

So what is the Southern District of New York doing charging the “We Build the Wall” movement?

What does New York state have to do with the US border wall with Mexico?
Who are these people?

Meanwhile, the $2 Billion that the Clinton's stole from the Haiti relief efforts go unmentioned.

An excellent analysis of the fatalities from the Wuhan flu - Sweden was right. New York State was wrong.
From the Mises Institute:

Why Americans Should Adopt the Sweden Model on Covid-19
Figure 1 illustrates the daily mortality attributed to covid-19 in Sweden, New York, Illinois, and Texas. The figure plots the daily number of deaths per million population. This figure illustrates the rise and fall of deaths from covid-19 in four different policy environments. The data were obtained from Worldometer.

20200820-covid.jpg

Sweden: The Control Group
Sweden (blue dots) has served as a control group to compare policies intended to decrease deaths from covid-19. Sweden has been unfairly criticized for its policy despite having an outcome more favorable than places with authoritarian lockdown policies. Sweden did not close its schools. Other than stopping gatherings of more than fifty people, the Swedish government left decisions of closing businesses, using masks, and social distancing to the Swedish people. The government encouraged the use of masks and social distancing, but there were no requirements and there were no penalties for those who declined to follow the advice. Mortality attributed to covid-19 hit a peak value of 11.38 deaths per day per million population on April 8, 2020. This mortality was matched on April 15, and mortality has decreased since then. Daily mortality has been less than one death per day per million population for the previous eighteen days. Cases are very low. For all practical purposes, the covid-19 epidemic is over in Sweden. Almost certainly herd immunity has been achieved in Sweden irrespective of any antibody test results. Testing is usually only for IgG antibody and the herd can become immune via IgA antibody or cellular mechanisms that are not detected by the usual testing. Whether covid-19 will reappear this next fall or winter remains to be seen.

New York: Locking the Barn Door Shut after the Horse Has Already Left
New York (brown dots) has been a catastrophe. On March 20, 2020, a full lockdown was implemented. Nonessential businesses were ordered to close. Workers in nonessential businesses were ordered to work only from home. Pharmacies, grocery stores, liquor stores, and wine stores were deemed to be essential and allowed to remain open. Restaurants and bars could only deliver to homes. In addition to the lockdown, nursing homes were ordered on March 25, 2020, to accept patients positive for the covid-19 virus in transfer from hospitals. On May 10, this order was changed such that patients had to test negative for the virus before being transferred to nursing homes, but the damage had already been done. By April 7, 2020, within three weeks of the nursing home order, a daily mortality of over fifty deaths per day per million population had been reached. This daily mortality rate was almost five times the peak rate observed in Sweden, where no lockdown was implemented.

Much more at the site - about the author:

Gilbert Berdine, MD is an associate professor of medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and an affiliate of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University.

New York failed. The Swedish model was dead nuts on.

20200819-conspiracy.jpg

And do not forget your Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie - more here.

What leadership looks like

| No Comments

President Trump gave a brief news conference tonight. During the question and answer session, this line caught my attention:

REPORTER: QAnon believes you are secretly saving the world from this cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Are you behind that?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Is that supposed to be a bad thing? We are, actually. We are saving the world.

Heh - pure truth to power...

Can't get a break - China

| No Comments

Don't like their politics but feel horrible about the weather that they are having. Crops were ruined two months ago and the storms are not letting up.
Lots of photos and video from Reuters:

China evacuates 100,000 as floods threaten heritage site
Floods on the upper reaches of China’s Yangtze river forced authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 people on Tuesday and threatened a 1,200-year-old world heritage site.

Staff, police and volunteers used sandbags to try to protect the 71-metre (233-foot) Leshan Giant Buddha, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southwestern Sichuan province, as muddy flood water rose over its toes for the first time since 1949, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Sichuan, through which the Yangtze river flows, raised its emergency response to the maximum level on Tuesday to cope with a new round of torrential rainfall.

And to add insult to injury - say hello to my little friend. From The Diplomat:

Typhoon Adds to Southern China’s Rain and Flooding Woes
China suffered a double blow Wednesday of flooding and landslides from unusually heavy seasonal rains and a typhoon that came ashore on its southern coast.

And:

Typhoon Higos drenched Hong Kong overnight before making landfall in Zhuhai, a city in Guangdong province, in the morning with maximum sustained winds of 126 kilometers (78 miles) per hour, China’s National Meteorological Center said.

It weakened to a tropical storm as it moved west toward the neighboring Guangxi region. More than 65,000 people were evacuated, schools were closed, and many fishing boats returned to port along the coast, according to Chinese media reports.

Maybe when they see how well centralized government deals with this, they will rethink their politics. Really nice people, shitty government.

Great video - Obamagate

| No Comments

From You Know Who:

Very interesting - follow the money

| No Comments

From The Washington Free Beacon:

Multimillionaire Obamas Haven’t Donated to Joe Biden’s Campaign
Barack H. Obama and his wife Michelle became fabulously wealthy after leaving the White House in 2017. For whatever reason, they haven't given a single dollar of their massive fortune to Joe Biden's presidential campaign.

President Obama has hosted virtual fundraisers for his former running mate and urged Democrats to give "any amount you can" to Biden's campaign. Michelle addressed the virtual Democratic convention on Monday, but didn't even show her arms. Barack is scheduled to give the primetime address on Wednesday night. But neither have personally contributed a dime to Biden's campaign, according to federal election records.

It's not as if they can't afford it. The power couple received a joint book advance worth as much as $65 million for their post-White House memoirs. (Barack still hasn't finished writing.) They also inked a deal with Netflix worth more than $50 million.

The Obamas have used their giant piles of money to make a difference in the world by promoting economic justice. For example, in 2019 they purchased a waterfront mansion on Martha's Vineyard for $11.8 million. Two years earlier, they bought a mansion in Washington, D.C., for $8.1 million.

It is always about himself - always the narcissist. Never ever help anyone else out. Classy couple.

Back home again

| No Comments

The Thai food hit the spot except that someone in the kitchen got a little too enthusiastic with the hot stuff. I finished it and it was delicious but my sinuses are now squeeky clean. Used up a couple paper towels in the process. Have not had anything that hot in quite some time. That was two hours ago and I can still feel it.

Stopped off at my favorite local - some regulars took it over so it is back up and running same as it always was. J.C. (original owner) is keeping on there for a month bringing them up to speed. They hired a sweetheart of a new waitress. Cute as a button.

High overcast - the forecast for rain for tomorrow has been recinded. Light showers if anything. Showers on Friday. Cooled off - really really nice outside. Got the windows and doors open airing out the house. Perfect weather.

Surf for a little bit...

Obamagate - some headlines

| 1 Comment

The perfect storm - downtown Portland

| 1 Comment

All Democrat manufactured. The COVID pandemic and Antifa. The Democrats own both of these. From Portland station KGW-8

Why insurance company employees and other businesses are moving out of downtown Portland for now
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies and nonprofits are planning for the future around office space they're not using and may never use again.

The Standard Insurance Center at 900 SW 5th Avenue is part of downtown Portland's cityscape and until this spring, was home base for most of Standard's 2,100 Oregon employees. Nearly all of those employees are working from home now because of COVID-19.

Recently, Standard confirms, the company relocated a "small segment" of remaining employees requiring office space downtown, to Standard's Hillsboro campus.

The devil is in the details

Speltz told KGW the reasons for the changes are COVID-19 and "current disruptions and unsafe conditions in the neighborhood."

"Our downtown properties have sustained significant vandalism and a number of employees and contractors have been assaulted in recent months," Speltz said in an email.

Their own actuaries can read the writing on the wall. Take a hit on the property values and get out because this stupidity is not going to go away anytime soon. Other stores at the site too - not just Standard. Other large businesses are bailing out of Portland. Used to be a really nice city.

Going green - epic fail - California

| No Comments

Great writeup from Bloomberg:

There’s a Lesson for the Energy Transition in California
California’s first rolling blackouts since the 2001 energy crisis are a stark reminder that achieving 100% carbon-free energy is harder than it looks.

With the worst heat wave in generations fueling near-record electricity demand, the state’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels is making it difficult to ensure that the lights stay on. California, guided by one of the world’s most ambitious clean-energy policies, has shuttered a massive amount of natural gas-fired generation in its bid to for carbon-free power. Now, the blackouts are raising questions about whether that shift happened too quickly.

And a bit more:

During a heatwave last year, nuclear plants helped keep the lights on in Paris. In London, utilities relied on coal and gas plants. But California, which has one of the cleanest grids in the country, has retired more than 9 gigawatts of gas generation in recent years in a bid to green its grid by 2045. While the state still gets more than a third of its power from gas, that isn’t always enough meet demand at peak hours -- especially in the evening, when solar production wanes.

Solar and wind are not baseload. They cannot deliver 24/7. Nuclear anyone? Modern designs are cheap to build, cheap to run, walk-away failsafe and have minimal waste problems.

Slow morning

| No Comments

Been up for a couple of hours cleaning house and hanging out. Glorious day - just a few scattered clouds and temp is already reaching the 70's. Rain forecast for tomorrow and Friday though.

The lunar cycle is giving extended tides - several feet above and below normal - setting up a time-lapse camera to catch them tomorrow.

Heading out shortly and have grocery deliveries later this afternoon. Might go out for thai food later if I feel like it.

Filmed in Shasta County, California - very conservative part of the state:

From Nationalist Review:

“Good Citizens Are Going To Be Turning Revolutionary Pretty Soon” Angry Veteran Confronts Lawmakers Over Quarantine, Warns Of Uprisings
Carlos Zapata, a veteran and local business owner, had some of the most moving lines during the 6 hour meeting that took place a week ago in Shasta County (video below).

Please note: the video misidentifies the speaker as “Carlos Piccata” Nationalist Review has reached out to the correct individual, Carlos Zapata and we are awaiting comment.

“You guys can sit here with your jobs, you can sit here and fall asleep like that gentleman is with the mask on,” Zapata began before turning it up a notch. He delivered his remarks before the Shasta County Board of Supervisors at a packed hearing with over 80 different speakers. Zapata was just one of many who came with a warning, but his words were particularly to the point.

The times are getting interesting real to say the least...

Heh - some fun numbers

| No Comments

Yesterday, I posted about Kim Klasek's campaign advertisement - Walking the streets of Baltimore

Turns out that advertisement has gone viral in a very big way - from The Daily Wire:

‘A Star Is Born’: GOP Candidate’s Ad Trounces Michelle Obama DNC Speech In Digital Metrics
As noted by The Daily Wire on Monday, Republican strategist and congressional GOP candidate Kimberly Klacik released a hard-hitting ad slamming Democrats for their apparent fake concern for black lives, highlighting the devastation in Democrat-run cities, particularly Baltimore. The ad went viral online, racking up millions of views within hours and earning astounding social media engagement, such as shares, likes, and comments.

The ad was so hot, in fact, it seemed to have eclipsed former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech given on the same day, at least digitally, said The Post Millenial’s Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Ballingall.

“By digital metrics, Michelle Obama bombed at the DNC last night. The former first lady was completely outdone by an unknown house candidate, [Kimberly Klacik],” he said in a Twitter thread posted Tuesday.

Numbers?

The mere two results populated for Klacik show over 12.5 million views, whereas Obama’s numerous results totaled just shy of three million views, including views from conservative pundit Graham Allen criticizing her speech.

“Even on Twitter, Klacik has 25% more views than Michelle Obama,” Ballingall noted. Obama’s video, posted on the former First Lady’s Twitter account, shows 3 million views, whereas Klacik’s has 4.1 million.

Her fifteen minutes are over - time to get off the political stage and go back to your $11 million oceanfront mansion. Grow petunias or something, just go away and stop bothering us. We did not listen to you then, we certainly do not want to hear from you now.

Sitting here chortling - those numbers have to hurt 😁

Projection - loud and clear

| No Comments

From CNS News:

Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan: 'Donald Trump Personifies Political Corruption & Malfeasance’
Former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan sent out a tweet on Aug. 5 saying that President Donald Trump “personifies political corruption & malfeasance.”

More at the site. From the entry for Psychological projection:

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is habitually rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. It incorporates blame shifting.

Brennan is as dirty as they come. He sympathizes with Communism. He is at the heart of Obamagate. More?
Communism: Here, here, here, here and here 
Obamagate: herehereherehere, here and here  
And some great news: here

Cloth masks bad - from 2015

| No Comments

Paper from April 22nd, 2015 in Science Daily:

Cloth masks: Dangerous to your health?
The widespread use of cloth masks by healthcare workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections and their global use should be discouraged, according to a UNSW study.

The results of the first randomized clinical trial (RCT) to study the efficacy of cloth masks were published in the journal BMJ Open.

The trial saw 1607 hospital healthcare workers across 14 hospitals in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, split into three groups: those wearing medical masks, those wearing cloth masks and a control group based on usual practice, which included mask wearing.

Workers used the mask on every shift for four consecutive weeks.

The study found respiratory infection was much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks.

1607 is a solid sample size - good p-value. Makes a lot of sense - bacteria like thrive in a warm moist environment and here you go keeping God's own petri dish a few millimetres from your nostrils taking in an aerosolized dose with every breath.

I thought that it was completely understood by everybody on either side of the political spectrum that Elizabeth Warren has zero indian blood in her. She invented her initial claim when going to college and it got her preferred status. Minority. So, what gives with this? From The Federalist:

Democratic National Convention Puts Elizabeth Warren On Native American Panel
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) featured Elizabeth Warren on its Native American panel Tuesday on the second day of its virtual convention.

Warren’s political career has been followed by controversy about her self-identification as a Cherokee Indian. For decades she justified her claim to Native American ancestry in the absence of any evidence because she had “high cheek bones like all of the Indians do.” The Massachusetts senator went as far as to contribute recipes to an Indian cookbook titled “Pow Wow Chow,” labeling herself as a Cherokee under each.

When gearing up for a presidential run in fall 2018, Warren released the results of a DNC test in an attempt to prove her ancestry after years of mockery from political rivals including President Donald Trump, who nicknamed the leftist senator “Pocahontas.”

The results failed to offer any proof of Warren descending from Native Americans, let alone the Cherokee tribe. The test merely revealed there was “strong evidence” to suggest she might have one Native American relative from six to 10 generations ago in her family history. Therefore, if she were to have a Native American relative, Warren would only be anywhere from 1/65 to 1/1,024 Native American, which is less than the average American today.

The Cherokee Nation, long offended by Warren’s ancestral claim to tribal ancestry, demanded Warren apologize in the aftermath of the test results and rescind her false assertions of blood association with the Native group. Warren has since apologized several times and said she no longer identifies as an American Indian. Yet still the DNC put her on its Native American panel today.

What is it with Democrats and lying. They just seem to go together.

A day spent doing nothing

| No Comments

Nice but not productive. Did some emails for the arts group this morning between surfing and some house cleaning. Went out for coffee - never made it to the post office. Stopped at Costco, food coop, the Tuesday farmer's market and now home. Piddled away the whole day but feeling great and there was nothing immediate on my plate.

Turned into a nice day - cool and clear but rain is in the forecast for Thursday. Grocery deliveries tomorrow. Quick surf and fix dinner.

Slow morning

| No Comments

Nothing happening here.  From what I see online, the Democrats had some sort of online convention yesterday. Nothing caught my eye.

Nice cool morning - the marine air moved in overnight. A sprinkling of rain - 0.1" or so. Dry now and supposed to clear up later this afternoon. Rain moving in Thursday and Friday.

Putter around for a while longer and then head out for coffee. Quiet day.

Walking the streets of Baltimore

| No Comments

Kim Klacik is running for the US House of Representatives - from her twitter account:

From her bio at Twitter:

Republican Congressional Nominee in MD-District 7. ProTrump. Anti-Squad. Zero Tolerance for Corruption. TERM LIMITS, no lifelong pensions. Vote Nov 3rd

I like her style - very powerful message. The Democrats have nothing.

Went pretty well - the meeting

| No Comments

I have been in the position of running meetings quite a few other times so it is nothing new. Used Google Meet tonight - audio quality was a bit poor but the service is free so can't complain. Conducting a meeting online is like trying to herd cats. It will be easier next month. 

Our evil President

| No Comments

Look at what he is doing now - from America's Newspaper of Record, The Babylon Bee:

Trump Drives Around Playing Mailbox Baseball In Latest Voter Suppression Scheme
President Trump's vote suppression efforts seem to know no bounds, with his main efforts focused against the USPS to stop mail-in voting. In Trump’s latest attack on democracy, he is now riding around in an SUV playing “mailbox baseball” -- smashing mailboxes with a baseball bat to make it impossible for people to mail in their ballots.

“Try and vote for Biden now!” Trump was heard yelling as he knocked a mailbox off its post.

Trump is said to be traveling all over the country destroying mailboxes, and people are powerless to do anything. “I was going to send a letter to the police that they need to stop him,” said one concerned citizen, “but I don’t have a mailbox now, so I don’t know what to do!”

Trump has reportedly roped Vice President Pence into helping him, despite Pence’s wife telling him to stay away from Trump since he is a “bad influence.”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Pence reportedly told Trump. “Plus I don’t really get how this helps us, since people have to vote for us, too.”

“Shut up! This is my smartest idea ever!” Trump shouted back. “Now speed up! I want to send this next one flying! Oo-ee!”

Heh... The sad thing is that there are people out there who would believe this.

From Glen (puppy-blender) Reynolds at Instapundit:

SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “My friend Jay asks a pertinent question. Since we have to have total mail in voting because of the ‘Rona, what other civil rights should be permitted via mail? Can we get guns via mail order again? Why should our citizens be forced to brave illness and death in order to purchase their 2nd Amendment guaranteed arms?”

Wising up - California / Electricity

| No Comments

Even the blind have moments of vision from time to time. From Breitbart:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom: Time to ‘Sober Up’ About Green Energy’s Flaws
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state had to “sober up” about the fact that renewable energy sources had failed to provide enough power for the state at peak demand, and needed “backup” and “insurance” from other sources.

Newsom addressed journalists and the public in the midst of ongoing electricity blackouts that began on Friday, as hundreds of thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customers in northern and central California lost power.

There is currently high demand for electricity across the state, as the entire West Coast has been hit by a heat wave and record-breaking temperatures.

One reason the state lacked power, officials admitted, was its over-reliance on “renewables” — i.e. wind and solar power.

Nuclear anyone? The most common reactors in use today are direct decendents of designs first sketched out on cocktail napkins 70 years ago.

There have been some wonderful advancements in basic reactor design. Liquid salt reactors do not need a pressure vessel, there is no danger of melt-down and they are walk-away safe. Fukushima would never have happened. Add to this that these designs are a lot more efficient (they use about 70% of the available fuel as opposed to the Pressurized Water reactors that only use 5%). The waste from these reactors is dangerous for only about 400 years. Plus, they can burn the waste from the original reactors and use that for energy.

The cherry on top is that the salt reactors use Thorium as fuel. Thorium is about as common as lead in the earth's crust. Dead common. Uranium is about as common as platinum - much more rare. Cheap to build, cheap to run and cheap to deal with the waste.

A sobering thought - Portland

| No Comments

From Chris Lynch:

Really think Portland should just go ahead and re-name the city New Detroit because that's the fate the public officials have deemed for the city anyway

If the shoe fits...

If they had any measure of intellegence, they would not be parroting failed marxist theories. From The Washington Times:

'Be a star': Rioters snared by own social media videos, grandma's review
It’s possible the feds may never have caught up with Javon Hardy without Facebook.

But prosecutors say he is the man in a Facebook Live video from the May riots in Rochester, New York, wearing a black hoodie and blue bandana and carrying a milk jug to a construction trailer. Moments later, the trailer ignites and the man on the video says, “If it’s not on fire, I didn’t do my job.”

Across the country in Portland, Oregon, investigators closed in on a man after spotting the distinctive vest he was wearing at the protests, captured in an online video, and then matching it to a photo his grandmother posted of him wearing the vest in an online product review.

And the level to which they were gathering:

The Washington Times reviewed 23 cases brought in federal courts from Seattle to Tampa, Florida, over the past three months of racial justice demonstrations. At least 14 of those cases showed indications that investigators used social media to help them make arrests.

The court documents also make clear just how much data they are collecting.

When a cop car was torched in Salt Lake City, investigators told a judge they had scoured at least five social media platforms and video from four news agencies, as well as security cameras and police body-cam footage, to build a database of more than 80,000 video clips and 1,700 images.

Good - get evidence. If I were doing something like this, I would stay as far away from cameras as possible. These kiddies are idiots.

From the United States Department of Justice:

Former CIA Officer Arrested and Charged with Espionage
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 67, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, was arrested on Aug. 14, 2020, on a charge that he conspired with a relative of his who also was a former CIA officer to communicate classified information up to the Top Secret level to intelligence officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Criminal Complaint containing the charge was unsealed this morning.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii Kenji M. Price, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division Alan E. Kohler Jr., and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office Eli S. Miranda made the announcement.

“The trail of Chinese espionage is long and, sadly, strewn with former American intelligence officers who betrayed their colleagues, their country and its liberal democratic values to support an authoritarian communist regime,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “This betrayal is never worth it. Whether immediately, or many years after they thought they got away with it, we will find these traitors and we will bring them to justice. To the Chinese intelligence services, these individuals are expendable. To us, they are sad but urgent reminders of the need to stay vigilant.”

“The charges announced today are a sobering reminder to our communities in Hawaii of the constant threat posed by those who seek to jeopardize our nation’s security through acts of espionage,” said U.S. Attorney Price. “Of particular concern are the criminal acts of those who served in our nation’s intelligence community, but then choose to betray their former colleagues and the nation-at large by divulging classified national defense information to China. My office will continue to tenaciously pursue espionage cases.”

“This serious act of espionage is another example in a long string of illicit activities that the​People's Republic of China is conducting within and against the United States,” said Alan E. Kohler Jr., Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division. “This case demonstrates that no matter the length or difficulty of the investigation, the men and women of the FBI will work tirelessly to protect our national security from the threat posed by Chinese intelligence services. Let it be known that anyone who violates a position of trust to betray the United States will face justice, no matter how many years it takes to bring their crimes to light.”

Good - get them behind bars where they belong. We have been too lax for the last 40 years and these chickens are coming home to roost.

Decoupled from reality - Nancy Pelosi

| No Comments

Unreal - from CNS News:

Pelosi Falsely Claims That 'Social Security Benefits' Are Delivered by Post Office Mail
In a letter to her Democratic colleagues in Congress about President Trump's alleged manipulation of the U.S. Postal Service, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) falsely claims that "Social Security benefits" are delivered by mail.

This is not true because, as the Social Security Administration states in its own literature, "If you get Social Security benefits, you must receive your payments electronically."

They stopped mailing checks March 1st, 2013.

A really good point - the Tulsa rally

| No Comments

From My Penseive:

20200817-mail-in.jpg

So so true

| No Comments


"The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better."
--Thomas Sowell

And that is it for now - quiet news day

| No Comments

Nothing on the internet catches my eye.

Back in a little while - coffee, etc...

Another day in paradise

| No Comments

Clear skies. Never saw any lightning last night but there were isolated strikes all over the place - nearest one I saw was about 30 miles distant. Forecast is for zero precip, slightly cooler than yesterday with some moisture moving in over the next few days.

Surf for a bit, head out for a bit and then my first Board of Directors meeting as President tonight. Wooo Hooo. Hope the power doesn't go to my head. It would die of loneliness there (rimshot)

From the New York Times:

Konrad Steffen, Who Sounded Alarm on Greenland Ice, Dies at 68
Konrad Steffen, an Arctic scientist whose work showed that climate change is melting Greenland’s vast ice sheet with increasing speed, died on Saturday in an accident near a research station he created there 30 years ago. He was 68.

And the irony?

A fellow scientist at the station, Jason Box, said the crevasse, or large crack, was a known hazard. But he added that high winds and recent snowfall had made visibility poor and landmarks harder to spot.

Global warming is causing Greenland to lose ice at an unprecidented rate. Oh. Wait.
Our sun is entering a cooling cycle. From Electroverse - August 11th, 2020:

YESTERDAY, IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER, GREENLAND GAINED A RECORD-SMASHING 4 GIGATONS OF SNOW AND ICE
Usually in mid-August, Greenland’s surface mass balance (SMB) is LOSING 4 Gigatons of snow & ice a day. Not yesterday, however — on Aug 10, 2020, the ice sheet GAINED a record-smashing 4 Gigatons of global warming goodness (and just listen to the silence coming from the MSM, it has so much to say).

Before this year, the Greenland ice sheet had never grown anywhere-close to 4 Gigatons in any of the months of June, July, or August, according to DMI records (which go back to 1981). In addition, the DMI record books also reveal that yesterday’s 4 Gt GAIN smashed the previous mid-Aug record by over 2 full Gigatons.

Here are the latest (Aug 10, 2020) measurements:

These are not the climate models. These numbers are coming in from satellites measuring the data. From scientists poking sticks into the ice. From real-world data, not from some computer simulation. It was the record snowfall from the current cooling cycle that caused Dr. Steffen to miss the warnings.

Stormy weather - UPDATE

| No Comments

UPDATE: - 20 minutes later, rain is starting to fall. Still zero rainfall in the forecast but it sure looks wet. Sprinkle for now. Lots of lightning but nothing closer than 30 miles or so. 489 customers without power in Everett.

Not much but it is heading north towards here. Some gorgeous clouds now. Yes, I did tweak the contrast and the gamma a little bit but not much and only to emphasize what was already there. Quite dramatic:

Looking towards the East:

20200816-c01.jpg

And towards the West:

20200816-c02.jpg

Stuffed - tacos tomorrow

| No Comments

FInished the salad and the corn and I was full. Packed all the fixings away for tomorrow night's dinner. This will give the beans time to come to full flavor and for the roasted pineapple salsa to meld.

Good night for a beer or three - surf for a bit. The evening is staying very warm and muggy - humidity is up to 60% which is unusual. There is a little bit of lightning developing to the south east - Snoqualmie and North Bend area. Nothing local yet - good conditions for something to develop though...

Feeling sleepy - good night for an early bed. Yesterdays farm dinner was delightful as always - they had a Seattle Yogi visit and tell stories from the Mahabharata. Wonderful people, really good food all grown on the farm (except for the rice and some seasonings).

And back

| No Comments

Did a quick run to the grocery store - lettuce was looking a little off and the local farmstand was out. 94°F there (central island near coffee shop) - currently 78°F here by the water. Hot. Summer was nice but it is time to get some cooler weather now. Lots of clouds moving in - will be looking for lightning in the area later tonight. Perfect weather for it - lots of convective zones.

Fresh corn on the cob, a salad and tacos for dinner - hungry. I picked up a pineapple a few days ago and will be grilling some slices with the meat. Charcoal almost ready. Mmmmmm...

Here's how you do it - leadership

| No Comments

The Governor of South Dakota does it right - from Breitbart:

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Declines Extra Federal Unemployment Aid
South Dakota turned down extra federal unemployment aid Friday due to the high rate of job recovery in the state.

“Gov. Kristi Noem (R), a vocal ally of the White House, said South Dakota did not need the additional funds because workers in her state have been rehired and that its economy is rebounding after suffering economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic,” according to The Hill.

In a statement, Noem praised President Donald Trump’s leadership during recovery and said her administration was “very grateful for the additional flexibility that this effort would have provided, but South Dakota is in the fortunate position of not needing to accept it.”

If you make a budget and stick to it, amazing things can be accomplished. Nothing special, just leadership and dicipline.

Last night in Portland, Oregon

| No Comments

The Peaceful Protests continue - some headlines:

From the last link:

Portland Antifa and Black Lives Matter terrorists assaulted and threatened to murder a group of nonviolent men during a riot on Saturday night, calling them “fascists.”

The group of men who peacefully showed up, calling themselves American Wolf, were subjected to lasers pointed in their eyes and projectiles thrown by Antifa and BLM.

During the confrontation, the far-left extremists can be heard telling the men, “you’re playing with gang members, we’ll shoot every one of you.”

The best and brightest. Videos at each site. Livin' the democrat dream. This is America on Socialism.

The current progressive narrative

| No Comments

In three memes - from My Penseive

20200816-privilege.jpg

20200816-education.jpg

20200816-slaves.jpg

All 100% true - people are plugged in to the progressive narrative and not seeing the truth. They are playing this big game of identity politics to divide us. To isolate each community from each other. The schools are complicit.

For your convenience: George Soros, Saul Alinsky, Bill Ayers, Agenda 21, and Cloward-Piven. Just a taste - these are very deep and interconnected rabbit-holes. A lot going on that 99.9% of us are not aware of. The Red Pill v/s Blue Pill decision again. Me? Red Pill - always have been, always will be. I seek the truth.

Working at home

| No Comments

Was 94°F when I left the coffeehouse. 79°F at home by the water. Got some cooler weather moving in tomorrow though. Today is the hot one.

Hanging out downstairs (the room upstairs is uncomfortable) doing some house cleaning, laundry, etc... Got some more meat going in the sous-vide - tacos for dinner tonight.

Gonna be a scorcher

| No Comments

Zero precip and temps in the 90's - heading out for coffee and then laying low at home.

Got my first meeting as President tomorrow so want to start off with a bang - be prepared.

You don't say:

| No Comments

Welcome to the Red Pill world:

20200816-attention.jpg

How to make

| No Comments

A blockbuster movie trailer - from Auralnauts:

More at their channel: Auralnauts

Now this is cute - Hamas tricked

| No Comments

From Fortune magazine:

Federal agents tricked Hamas into sending Bitcoin to Uncle Sam
Criminals have long seen cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as a stealthy way to transfer money. But in an unusual sting operation, federal agents not only infiltrated a terrorist group's Bitcoin operation, but tricked its supporters into sending the digital currency to the U.S. government.

On Thursday the Justice Department revealed details of the sting, which was part of a sprawling investigation into the financial operations of three global terrorist organizations: Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and Hamas.

The investigation involved the seizure of hundreds of cryptocurrency accounts containing more than $1 million, as well as four Facebook pages that the Islamic State was using to sell phony personal protective equipment.

According to the Justice Department, all three terrorist organizations have been encouraging supporters to send them cryptocurrency. This encouragement included propaganda like the Hamas poster shown below. (The poster was included in the Department's release; we've added circles to show the Bitcoin solicitation.)

Not that smart - if they were, they would not be terrorists.

Well crap - RIP Robert Trump

| No Comments

And out the door for reals this time

| No Comments

Dinner starts at 4PM

That's all folks...

Start 'em young

| No Comments

Back home for a little bit

| No Comments

Was going to run some errands but the traffic was backed up heavily so decided to come home instead. There is only one road on/off island and this being a gorgeous Saturday, there are a lot of tourons visiting. They spend lots of money so we let them visit but SR-532 is a small bottleneck for a largish island.

Aaaaand - I am out the door

| No Comments

DId some emails and some writing for the upcoming board meeting for the arts group. Meeting is Monday so need to get the agenda written and distributed.

Heading out for coffee and read for a little bit - picked up the new Clive Cussler book from the library. Farm dinner starts at 4PM so heading over there for the rest of the day. Gorgeous weather.

Nothing more today.

Leadership - Chicago and New York City

| No Comments

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Rolling blackouts hit up to 250,000 PG&E customers as ‘heat storm’ drives up energy use
California’s energy-grid operator imposed rolling blackouts Friday evening for the first time in 19 years.

With the rare move, the California Independent System Operator sought to preserve the stability of the system that provides power for tens of millions of residents and businesses. The last time grid managers implemented this kind of power cut was in 2001, when the state was in the throes of an electricity crisis.

The effect was felt promptly in Northern California, as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. began shutting off power to large blocks of customers for up to an hour at a time. In a news release, the utility said that each rotating block of blackouts could affect up to 250,000 customers.

Geee - if they only had a cheap and reliable source of baseload energy. Nuclear? Naaaaaaa...

New York City is dead - James Altucher

| No Comments

One of my favorite thinkers - he has a good essay on why New York City will not recover from the self-imposed bad management and Wuhan Flu lockdown. From LinkedIn:

NYC IS DEAD FOREVER. HERE'S WHY
I love NYC. When I first moved to NYC it was a dream come true. Every corner was like a theater production happening right in front of me. So much personality, so many stories. 

Every subculture I loved was in NYC. I could play chess all day and night. I could go to comedy clubs. I could start any type of business. I could meet people. I had family, friends, opportunities. No matter what happened to me, NYC was a net I could fall back on and bounce back up. 

Now it's completely dead. "But NYC always always bounces back." No. Not this time. "But NYC is the center of the financial universe. Opportunities will flourish here again." Not this time. 

"NYC has experienced worse". No it hasn't. 

A Facebook group formed a few weeks ago that was for people who were planning a move and wanted others to talk to and ask advice from. Within two or three days it had about 10,000 members. 

Some really trenchent observations - this is what socialism and bad management looks like. Let this serve as a warning. I doubt it will make the marxists STFU like it should - they will just whinge and say but it wasn't really tried properly

Now this is something - an endorsement

| No Comments

Labor Unions traditionally endorse Democrats. It is a quid pro quo agreement - we support you, you support us.
Not this union in New York City - from One America News Network:

New York City Police Union Endorses President Trump
New York City’s largest police union has thrown its support behind President Trump’s reelection campaign. The Police Benevolent Association (PBA) made the announcement on Friday at the president’s private club in New Jersey.

The PBA President Patrick Lynch highlighted the importance of the endorsement and noted he couldn’t remember the last time the union had endorsed anyone for a presidential election.

“Mr. President, today it’s an honor for me to stand at this podium and be the voice for 24,000 New York City police officers, proud police officers, that are here today chanting ‘USA,’ chanting ‘Trump for president,’” stated Lynch. “They mean it each and every time they say it.”

Good - writing on the wall and all that stuff...

It's Miller time

| No Comments

Heading over to the local that is closing. They are only open tonight, Saturday (but I have the farm dinner) and Sunday for brunch. - I am planning to go then for breakfast and to say goodbye but they close at 4PM which is too early for a beer. 

Dinner was delish. One of the ears had some friends along for a ride. Cut that part off the cob and everything else was wonderful. Peaches and Cream variety - very sweet and tender. My favorite.

Back in a bit - sleeping in tomorrow if I feel like it but need to put in 2-3 hours tomorrow for my new responsibilities as President of the CAA (mwaaahahahahaha).

Dinner time

| No Comments

Heating up a pre-baked potato and some fresh corn on the cob. Salad with farm-grown tomatoes. Love this time of year.

You got a point there...

| No Comments

This is truth:

20200814-got-a-point.jpg

A riot-free zone

| No Comments

There are pockets of these in any large city:

20200814-no-riot.jpg

Trusting a Doctor

| No Comments

From America's Newspaper of Record - The Babylon Bee:

Study Finds Most Americans Trust Dr Pepper Over Dr. Fauci
A new study has found that far more Americans would trust Dr Pepper than Dr. Fauci.

While Dr. Fauci has made some questionable claims over the past few months, Dr Pepper hasn't made any erroneous predictions about the virus or recommendations when it comes to masks and other protective measures. So the soft drink has rocketed up the charts as the most-trusted medical professional in America.

"Dr Pepper has 23 delicious flavors that combine into a cool, refreshing taste that's just right," said Texan man Greg Bolar. "Dr. Fauci has none of these things. He can't even give you diabetes, for crying out loud."

"Dr Pepper has never let me down." He then cracked open a cold, thirst-quenching Dr Pepper and chugged it in one gulp. "Ahh -- that's good stuff -- and it has none of that nasty deep state aftertaste left by competing brands like Dr. Fauci."

Of course. Fauci is a hack. He has been a political critter for the last 50 years. Did good work at the outset of the AIDS epidemic 40 years ago but he has been coasting ever since.

Press conference today

| No Comments

Great little clip from today's presser with President Trump - Alicia Powe from Gateway Pundit asks a good question:

Got to love his comment about Biden not even knowing the names of the countries over there. Biden is trying to claim credit as part of his and Obambam's (spelling? - memory is fading) legacy.

Welcome to the side of truth and light

| No Comments

Besides, we have milk and cookies. From the Northwest Indiana Times:

Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor switches parties over concern of national Democratic platform
Mayor Brian Snedecor has joined the Republican Party.

Surrounded by family, elected officials and supporters, Snedecor became emotional as he made the announcement Wednesday at Festival Park.

“I must be true to my God, my family, myself and those that have supported and believed in me,” Snedecor said. “So today I am formally announcing that I am leaving the Democratic Party and that I am joining the Republican party.”

Snedecor said his leadership won’t be altered after switching political parties. He promised to remain vigilant to the city’s needs and to continue working to make Hobart a safe, strong and thriving community.

“Although my party has changed, my concern, care and love for the citizens of Hobart has not,” Snedecor said. “I want Hobart to be a place for business to come and the American Dream to be achieved.”

Snedecor, who is serving his fourth consecutive term in office, said work to enhance the community will be collaborative.

Fourth term in office so he is not some flash-in-the-pan. Focus is on the community and the American Dream. This is what leadership looks like.  Hobart, Indiana is a town of about 30,000 people 40 miles southeast of Chicago.
Sounds like they are doing allright.

Farmer's market this afternoon

| No Comments

Heading out in a few - farmer's market opens in 10 minutes. Pick up some fresh 'maters and maybe some corn on the cob. I love this time of year. I do miss the berries but everything else is so tasty.

Got really good weather in the forecast for the next couple of days - going out to a farm dinner tomorrow evening.

And home from the meeting

| No Comments

Went out for coffee after. 

I have been involved in a local arts group for the last two years. Camano Island has an unusually high percentage of artists in its population - all of them really wonderful and a huge assortment of visions and media.Being a blacksmith, I fit right in. Joined the Camano Arts Association two years ago (they have over 100 members) and last fall, during the annual elections, I got put in the position of Vice President. I am still busy with closing down my place up north and getting it ready for the market so I figured that I could do this and so far, it has been relatively easy - six hours/month or so (involved in planning an event next year). A week ago, the President (a busy mom and entrepreneur) resigned from her position as she needs to see to her kids education this fall (what with the lockdown) and other reasons. Her business is booming and she does not have the time to fully devote to the organization. Which makes me the President. My 6 hours/month just got expanded to 20-40 hours/month - very do-able but not what I was planning at this time.

This morning's meeting was to transfer all the paperwork over to me and go through everything. There is a board of directors meeting Monday so I need to get ready for that - plan the agenda, get two people lined up for presentations.

The fun never stops...

The Beirut explosion

| No Comments

Good article at Asia Times:

More questions than answers in ashes of Beirut
Lebanese President Michael Aoun has rejected any international probe into the Beirut explosion that has so far claimed 154 lives, injured hundreds of others and destroyed the dwellings of between 200,000 and 300,000 people. 

Despite growing protests in Lebanon, the authorities are blocking any serious investigation and don’t appear to be trying to do any on their own. Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah categorically denied that Hezbollah was storing any arms in Beirut’s port and has warned against any attempt to blame his group for the disaster. 

The Beirut Port Manager and Customs Chief have both been arrested, though it isn’t clear they are at fault. At least 16 others have been arrested so far. What we do know is that there were multiple warnings before the devastating blast.

In 2018, the Israeli military (IDF) publicly identified at least three locations stretching the short distance from Beirut’s docks to the outskirts of nearby Beirut airport where Hezbollah was reputedly building precision-guided missiles. The IDF published overhead photos of the locations and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the United Nations on December 17, 2018, raised alarm about the Hezbollah missile program.

Much more at the site - lots of links. Similar build-up in England and Germany a few years ago but they acted. Germany went so far as to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

That's about right - facebook

| No Comments

Great insight:

20200814-facebook.jpg

Her fifteen minutes happened about 20 years ago. Please. From FOX News:

Hillary Clinton suggests she's willing to serve in Biden administration: 'I'm ready to help any way I can'
Hillary Clinton's days as a public servant may not be behind her.

Speaking at The 19th Represents Summit on Thursday, Clinton was asked if she would accept a job in the Biden administration.

“I’m ready to help in any way I can," Clinton responded, "because I think this will be a moment where every American -- I don’t care what party you are, I don’t care what age, race, gender, I don’t care -- every American should want to fix our country... So if you’re asked to serve, you should certainly consider that.”

That termagant is what is wrong with America. She and the rest of the deep state have no love for this Nation, they see it as an opportunity to personally profit and to gain power.

Heh - President Trump and Twitter

| No Comments

Sometimes he goes nuclear - love it!

Nothing much happening out there

| No Comments

Productive day. Nothing of note on the internet.

Meeting tomorrow morning (cutting into my coffee time dammit)

YouTube, a beer or three and then bed.

Just to be sure of the distinction

| No Comments

Two kinds:

20200813-looters.jpg

From My Pensieve:

20200813-slaves.jpg

Not exactly a convenient truth now is it...

Out the door for a while

| No Comments

Working on the photo processing - an interesting project for a client.

Turning into a really nice day - warm and sunny. Temps are forecast to get hot for the next week or so. High 80's

Time for a little break - coffee, read for a bit and then a few errands.

Well crap - RIP Russell A. Kirsch

| No Comments

Russell A. Kirsch? He invented the pixel. From Digital Photography Review:

Russell Kirsch, inventor of the pixel, dies in his Portland home at age 91
Computer scientist Russell Kirsch, best known for inventing the pixel, passed away August 11 at his home in Portland, Oregon. He was 91-years-old.

Kirsch, who was of Jewish descent and the son of immigrants from Russia and Hungary, was born to in Manhattan, New York City, in 1929. It was there in New York City he would go on to graduate in 1946 from the Bronx High School of Science before heading off to New York University in 1050, followed by Harvard University in 1952 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In 1951, While still in school, Kirsch joined the National Bureau of Standards as a member of the Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) team, which was in charge of handling the U.S.’s first programmable computer, which was created just a year prior.

It was in 1957 though that Kirsch would forever make his mark on the world when he, alongside a team of researchers, developed a small 5cm by 5cm digital image scanner for the SEAC that went on to capture the first digital images, including a now-iconic image of Kirsch’s three-month-old son, Walden.

20200813-walden.jpg

More at the site - a fascinating life.

Seven points - National Public Radio

| No Comments

Seattle metorologist Cliff Mass wrote about the events in Seattle and for this, was fired from his job at the Tacoma, WA NPR radio station. Today on his blog, he goes through the events in detail. It does not look good for the station. He starts off with seven points:

1. The leaders of KNKX justified my firing based upon my August 5th blog post that criticized violent individuals in downtown Seattle, criticized the City Council, supported Chief Best, and noted some similarities to what happened in Germany in the 1930s.
2. The leaders of KNKX terminated me the next day without speaking to me before they made the decision. They also did not discuss the matter with the KNKX Advisory Council.
3. KNKX put out a statement that was factually untrue and easily can be proven false.
4. Activist groups have been trying to get me dismissed from KNKX for over a year because they are unhappy with my science-based to climate change.
5. KNKX did not oppose my advocacy when I supported progressive viewpoints, but was uncomfortable with my moderate stances.
6. KNKX management is beholden to and attempts to please left-leaning activist donors.
7. That NPR is full of examples of calling Republicans and police Nazis and brownshirts, but if someone suggests the violent left have evinced Fascist behavior, that is reason for termination.

And a bit of backstory:

Now I have probably written more papers and done more research on Northwest weather and climate than any other individual.  I know the literature. I attend the seminars. I wrote on book on NW weather and climate. I have spent a lifetime learning about it.  But a bunch of climate activists, such as groups like 350.org decided they knew better. They were particularly unhappy when I exposed some of the hype and exaggeration promulgated by the activist crowd (e.g., that climate change is a short-term existential threat to mankind). There were also some wealthy, activist KNKX donors that were unhappy with my blog.   These climate activists demanded that I talk about "existential climate threats" on KNKX and stop my climate fact checking on my blog.   I was a threat to them:  knowledgeable, credible, and with access to the media.  And they wanted that to end.

Just wow. Read the whole thing and see what a cess-pit the liberal narrative is. Total hypocracy.

Bringer of Peace

| No Comments

What with all the strife and craziness at home and what with how the media does not give President Trump a break, events like this pass unnoticed:

And, of course, the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to President Trump in  3... 2... 1...
- - - crickets - - -

Choose the true enemy

| No Comments

Summed up in one infographic - found at Chris Lynch's

20200813-enemy.jpg

Now this will be a fun read - new book

| No Comments

From National File:

Jill Biden’s Ex-Husband Exposes Joe’s Adulterous Affair, Lies, And Campaign Bribery
Jill Biden’s ex-husband Bill Stevenson has completed an autobiographical book manuscript to be published before November’s election in which he devotes 80 pages to new bombshell details about Joe and Jill Biden, NATIONAL FILE has exclusively learned. The book claims that Joe and Jill began their romance in Delaware earlier than they have publicly stated, while Jill was still married to Stevenson, and that their affair led Stevenson to break up his marriage to Jill.

A few bits:

Bill Stevenson also blows the whistle on a bribery scheme in which Joe’s brother Frank took $3,000 from Stevenson ahead of Biden’s first Senate race to hand to the boss of the teamsters union to ensure that copies of the Wilmington News Journal, which endorsed Biden’s Republican incumbent opponent J. Caleb Boggs, were delivered three days late — after the polls had already closed.

And this:

Joe Biden has a close friendship with John Cochran, the former CEO of the Wilmington, Delaware-based credit card company MBNA, which was absorbed by Bank of America in 2006. Cochran purchased Biden’s Wilmington-area house from Biden in 1996 for $1.2 million. Cochran now chairs the University of Delaware Board of Trustees, where he is fighting to keep Biden’s records stored at the university from coming out in the public as concerned parties try to find information in the records pertaining to Tara Reade, the woman who has accused Biden of sexual assault.

More at the site. The Bidens are dirty - every one of them. Our next President?

PaulStretch

| No Comments

Ran into a reference to this yesterday and will be checking it out. PaulStretch is a tool for stretching out audio samples well beyond any "normal" quantity. It is not used for musical applications such as pitch correction - instead, it devolves the sound into an interesting rhythm or timbre.

Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch was first developed by Nasca Octavian Paul, a fork has been started by Xenakios and some development has been done adding new features and revising the UI.

Looks really interesting - will be checking out once I get the music room up and running.

John Walker. Developed the first practical Computer Aided Design program as a tool so he could work on his projects. You know it as AutoCAD. His website is Fourmilab and there is a lot of really wonderful stuff to read. Well worth your time. I am thinking specifically of this essay he wrote in 2011 - prescient:

Enemies
Opponents or Enemies?
In any conflict, it is a deadly error to mistake or underestimate the adversary's capabilities, will to employ them, or ultimate goals.

Around the globe, what was once confidently deemed “Western civilisation” is in an end-stage battle with champions of a collectivist and statist ideology which, over the last century, has enacted programs of redistributive taxation, borrowing, and spending whose unsustainability has now become self-evident and which, unless the present course is altered, will collapse in at most ten years. Further, the second- and higher-order effects of these policies have led to demographic collapse in the societies which have adopted them, crippled capital formation and the creation of productive enterprises, and been used as a justification for mass immigration from regions hostile to the culture and values of the West which have been responsible for its prosperity.

Those who would destroy a society, destroy first its language. As Orwell observed, when the terms of discourse are corrupted, the corruption spreads into every domain the language is used to debate. So deep has this language rot penetrated, that it is difficult to write an essay like this without succumbing to it—that is the intent of those who spread the contagion. The present-day culprits identify themselves as “progressives” or “liberals”. Take a step back and ponder how manipulative this is: if you're a “progressive”, then you must obviously be on the side of progress, even though the outcome of the policies you advocate will ultimately roll back all of the advances in individual liberty and prosperity made since the Enlightenment; if you're a “liberal”, surely you must advocate liberty, notwithstanding that the consequences of your prescriptions will be descent of society into serfdom for the masses, deemed property of the state, ruled by an unelected, unaccountable élite.

These so-called “progressives” or “liberals” are not advocates of progress or liberty: they are enemies of them, and the sooner champions of liberty acknowledge what they are, the better our slim chances for defeating them will be. Libertarians and conservatives are inclined toward civil discourse and respect for the rule of law. They must come to terms with the fact that their enemies—not opponents—are implacable, bent on winning whatever the cost may be, willing to use any means whatsoever to prevail and, once triumphant, to deprive their opposition of the means to reverse or even impede the implementation of their agenda.

And how to deal with the enemies - some tools we can use:

Reclaim the language from the enemy. We should have a “swear jar” for every time we utter the words “liberal” or “progressive” except in scornful irony. May I suggest “statist”, “collectivist”, “socialist”, or “communist” as alternatives?

Do not trade with the enemy. Do not patronize businesses which support enemy causes; by doing so you support them yourself. While an individual choosing not to be a customer of a mega-corporation has negligible impact, millions of like-minded people deciding to go elsewhere can. On the local scale, telling the owner of the pharmacy who's posted a petition supporting socialised medicine that he's just lost your business and why does have an impact—I did this two weeks ago myself.

Don't be taken in by enemy propaganda. The mainstream media are almost entirely in the hands of the enemy. Help to make them the legacy media by ignoring everything they say, not subscribing to their enemy propaganda. Rely instead on first-hand reporting on the Internet whose veracity you can judge based on a network of trusted sources who comment upon it.

Do not entrust your children to the enemy. So-called “public schools” (the correct term is “government schools”, since in recent decades the public—parents—have lost all control over them) have been entirely captured by the enemy and become institutions of indoctrination and moral corruption which fail at teaching even basic skills. It is parental malfeasance verging on child abuse to send one's offspring to these corrupt, corrupting, and nonperforming schools. If you cannot afford a well-run private or religious school (most have per-pupil costs well below that of government schools, but of course you have to pay that tuition on top of your taxes supporting the failed government schools), consider home-schooling your children, perhaps in conjunction with other like-minded parents. Even if you can afford it, don't assume a private or religious school supports your values; talk to parents of students enrolled there and teachers: if they show signs of being enemies, don't send your kids there.

Do not become indebted to the enemy. Higher education is overwhelmingly in the hands of the enemy. One of the greatest scams in recent decades has been the explosion in tuition and fees, which results in graduates of four-year and postgraduate programs burdened with six-figure debt they're forced to pay off in the key years they should be saving to accumulate capital for starting a family, buying a house, educating their children, and retirement. This is not accidental: by blocking capital formation in people's key earning years, they are rendered dependent upon the state for their retirement and health care in old age, which is precisely the intent.

What élite universities and professional schools provide for the exorbitant fee is a credential which offers entry into the ranks of the enemy, and the “education” they provide is indoctrination in the enemy's belief system. If you need a credential, shop around and get what you require at a price that doesn't sink you into debt throughout your peak earning years. Unless you've bought into the enemy's credential game, where you went to college will be irrelevant after you've had a few years of job experience.

Much much more at the site - well worth your time to read.
His diet is brutal but effective. Just one line from the introduction:

People who thrive on unscrewing the inscrutable—figuring out how complicated systems work and controlling them—sometimes fail to apply those very techniques to maintaining their own health. How strange to on the one hand excel at your life's work and on the other, XL in girth.

It works.

Darktable update

| No Comments

I had been a faithful user of Adobe products up to a few years ago. Photoshop became too bloated for my tastes - trying to be everything to everyone. I was a faithful user of Lightroom - this is their photo organizer and "developer" program. Wonderful for sorting incoming images into categories, indexing them, making overall corrections for color balance, lighting, etc... Then, Adobe went to the subscription model. You did not purchase a license to own, you "rented" the software and if you did not want to keep renting it, it went away.

Darktable is an excellent substitute for Lightroom and it is Open Source and free. While working on some images today, noticed that they came out with a major upgrade and it is really good. Rico has the details (12 minute YouTube). Digital Photography Review has a nice writeup.

For image editing, I use Skylum's Luminar - it's a commercial product but only $70 and you own it forever.

Well crap

| No Comments

Stopped by one of my favorite locals and found out that August 16 was going to be their last night of operation.

Governor Inslee's incompetent management of the Wuhan Flu has sunk another family-run business and will be putting 14 employees out of work. This is especially bad as the owner took a look at what was happening, saw a couple-month open and shut medical issue and spend a bunch of money during the initial lockdown to do some major remodeling. Had a bunch of events lined up for the summer (music, car shows, etc...) and now all of these have now been canceled by a party hack who is in way over his head and does not realize it.

I love where I am now - living on the ocean shoreline has been a dream. If I was not here, I would be looking at moving to South Dakota or some place like that.  I was in Rapid City in July 2012 for a Blacksmithing convention and loved it there. Their Governor is awesome - a very well-run state filled with great people.

Nice night for a beer

| No Comments

Heading over to one of my favorite locals for a pint or two.

Nothing on the web. Unusually quiet.

Hmmmm - going vegan...

| No Comments

From James Woods' twitter (with a passing tip of the hat to Vanderleun)

Now this is cute

| No Comments

Bats roosting - the camera is upside down. Set to some disco music. From Das Kraftfuttermischwerk

Great question - George

| No Comments

20200812-george.jpg

A poke in the eye - Arecibo

| No Comments

The radio telescope at Arecibo suffered a mechanical malfunction - from University of Central Florida:

Broken Cable Damages Arecibo Observatory

20200812-arecibo.jpgOne of the auxiliary cables that helps support a metal platform in place above the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, broke on Monday (Aug. 10) causing a 100-foot-long gash on the telescope’s reflector dish. Operations at the UCF-managed observatory are stopped until repairs can be made.

The break occurred about 2:45 a.m. When the three-inch cable fell it also damaged about 6-8 panels in the Gregorian Dome and twisted the platform used to access the dome. It is not yet clear what caused the cable to break.

“We have a team of experts assessing the situation,” says Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory. “Our focus is assuring the safety of our staff, protecting the facilities and equipment, and restoring the facility to full operations as soon as possible, so it can continue to assist scientists around the world.”

The 'scope has been in operation for 50 years. Gone through many upgrades and continues to do fantastic science. A treasure.

Seriously? I mean seriously?

| No Comments

What the fsck are they thinking - do they want to encourage this kind of behaviour or is there something going on that we are not being told. A backroom deal. From the Portland Mercury:

District Attorney Mike Schmidt to Limit Criminal Charges Against Protesters
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt has announced a new policy that will limit the types of charges pressed against protesters in Portland.

Schmidt announced at a Tuesday press conference that he is only pressing charges against protesters arrested for assault, theft, or property damage. That means he'll be dropping lesser charges that the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) often arrests protesters for, such as rioting, disorderly conduct, and "interfering with a peace officer"—a catch-all term for not following orders or bothering a cop. The policy will apply to all protest charges dating back to May 29, when the protests began.

This decision is downright stupid and will only lead to more rioting and violence. You do not yield to terrorists. Ever. Do your fscking job Mike. This is not about being "nice" - this is about standing up to thugs who want to destroy civilization so that they can build their own communist utopia.

What a wonderful idea

| No Comments

Pick some up next time I am at Walmart:

20200812-hibernate.jpg

What a maroon

| No Comments

Leave it to the vegans to do something like this - from FOX News:

Man starts controversy with meat-only club after coworker has vegan club
This story about a workplace food dispute has people online going bananas.

An anonymous poster on Reddit’s "Am I the A--h---" subreddit said he started a meat-eating club at his job in response to a coworker’s vegan-only club.

He claimed that one of his colleagues started a vegan dinner club exclusively for their coworkers following a vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diet. Other coworkers “will not be able to join the club,” the poster said the group’s “statement of purpose” read.

In response, the poster claimed that he and some other meat-eating coworkers started a burger and steak club to go out and try new restaurants each week. They only allowed meat-eaters to join. However, members of the vegan club filed a complaint with the company’s human resources department.

Emphasis mine - probably complaining that the meat eaters were not being tolerant. The irony escapes them. 4,500+ comments - fun to read.

Maroon? That great philosopher B. Bunny

A nice way to phrase it - VP Harris

| No Comments

Nothing so far this morning

| No Comments

The internet is quiet - no news worth reporting.

Puttering around the house, playing with Cat and hanging out in general.

Heading out for coffee in a little bit and then working on a photo and doing some paperwork. Grocery deliveries this afternoon.

Sweet dreams

| No Comments

Watching a few videos and then to bed. Got the grocery deliveries tomorrow as well as a couple of projects - some photo processing that is very overdue and some paperwork.

Clouded over tonight - more cloudy weather expected for the next couple of days.

Supply chain issues

| No Comments

What with the stupid lockdown, the movement of goods and materials is hampered. This causes interruptions in the supply chain. I was near Walmart this afternoon and stopped in for some cat food and a few other items. Noticed that supply chain issues are really starting to show up there - enough so that I got my phone and snapped a few photos:

20200811-wal01.jpg

20200811-wal02.jpg

20200811-wal03.jpg

20200811-wal04.jpg

20200811-wal05.jpg

20200811-wal06.jpg

20200811-wal07.jpg

This is not one of the Walmart "Superstores", just a largish branch (Mt Vernon, WA) and usually very well stocked. No recent holidays and no cause for panic buying. Just abnormally low stocking levels. Been like this for a while but getting noticeably worse in the last two months - enough so that I got my phone and took photos today. See what it is like in a month or so.

From the New York Times:

Retail Chains Abandon Manhattan: ‘It’s Unsustainable’
For years, Bryant Park Grill & Cafe in Midtown Manhattan has been one of the country’s top-grossing restaurants, the star property in Ark Restaurants’ portfolio of 20 restaurants across the United States.

But what propelled it to the top has vanished.

The tourists are gone, the office towers surrounding it are largely empty and the restaurant’s 1,000-seat dining room is closed. Instead, dinner is cooked and served on its patio, and the scaled-down restaurant brings in about $12,000 a day — an 85 percent plunge in revenue, its chief executive said.

A bit more:

In the heart of Manhattan, national chains including J.C. Penney, Kate Spade, Subway and Le Pain Quotidien have shuttered branches for good. Many other large brands, like Victoria’s Secret and the Gap, have kept their high-profile locations closed in Manhattan, while reopening in other states.

Michael Weinstein, the chief executive of Ark Restaurants, who owns Bryant Park Grill & Cafe and 19 other restaurants, said he will never open another restaurant in New York.

Yeah - people are voting with their feet.
Time for a U Haul index - looking at New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Middle of the week and middle of the month - the lowest demand for rental vehicles so the cheapest rates:

20200811-nycchr.jpg

20200811-chrnyc.jpg

$440 compared to $1,904 - looking at a 433% difference between the two directions. A lot more people leaving NYC than Charlotte.

Remember too - this is the "common folk" who are doing the moving. Anyone in upper-middle and higher would be hiring the moving job to a company. These moves do not enter into this equasion.

A simple lack of accountability, fiscal planning, making a budget and sticking to it and then, a lack of leadership at the top. A Democrat utopia. They own this lock, stock and barrel.

From Big League Politics:

THE SWAMP…HOW? Hunter Biden Resolved $450k D.C. Tax Lien In SIX DAYS, Months After Settling Paternity Suit With Stripper
Hunter Biden settled a whopping $450k tax lien he was found liable for last month in a prompt six days, raising questions as to how the younger Biden settled the tax liability in such a speedy manner, despite having no discernible employment or income.

Biden was only declared to be legally liable for the $450k debt on July 9th, when the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer ruled he owed the tidy sum. Yet the Chief Financial Officer confirmed that the “tax issue was resolved” to the New York Post on July 15th, only six days after the agency ruled that Biden was liable for it.

Multiple members of the Biden family have found themselves in tax liability proceedings in several states over the years, usually owing back taxes they declined to pay that total in the hundreds of thousands.

Answer me that. No corruption in the Biden family at all.

Pot use while pregnant - from Nature Medicine (the abstract):

Maternal cannabis use in pregnancy and child neurodevelopmental outcomes
Cannabis use in pregnancy has increased, and many women continue to use it throughout pregnancy. With the legalization of recreational cannabis in many jurisdictions, there is concern about potentially adverse childhood outcomes related to prenatal exposure. Using the provincial birth registry containing information on cannabis use during pregnancy, we perform a retrospective analysis of all live births in Ontario, Canada, between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2012. We link pregnancy and birth data to provincial health administrative databases to ascertain child neurodevelopmental outcomes. We use matching techniques to control for confounding and Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine associations between prenatal cannabis use and child neurodevelopment. We find an association between maternal cannabis use in pregnancy and the incidence of autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. The incidence of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis was 4.00 per 1,000 person-years among children with exposure compared to 2.42 among unexposed children, and the fully adjusted hazard ratio was 1.51 (95% confidence interval: 1.17–1.96) in the matched cohort. The incidence of intellectual disability and learning disorders was higher among offspring of mothers who use cannabis in pregnancy, although less statistically robust. We emphasize a cautious interpretation of these findings given the likelihood of residual confounding.

This study has a very large sample size. Almost double the chances of autism? NBC News has a report:

Using marijuana in pregnancy may heighten baby's risk of autism
The risk of autism may be greater in babies born to women who used marijuana during pregnancy, a new study suggests.

In an analysis of data from more than 500,000 Canadian mothers and their children, researchers found a 50 percent increase in the risk of autism spectrum disorder in kids whose mothers had used cannabis while pregnant, according to the report, published Monday in Nature Medicine.

“Cannabis is not a benign drug and any use during pregnancy should be discouraged,” the study’s lead author, Daniel Corsi, an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and a scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Ontario Research Institute, said.

No chance of error - sample size to big for any question. Now the question is what else? We do not have a history of studied pot use - what happens to your cognitive facilities after 30 years of toking?

I think I will stick with my beer and wine and an occasional single malt.

Didn't take long - part two

| No Comments

Now that didn't take long

| No Comments

It's official - Kamala Haris is Creepy Joe Biden's running mate. Cue the Trump War Room in 3.. 2.. 1..

Done for the day

| No Comments

Nice and productive - taking a break really helps.

Worked for a couple of hours, went out to the farmers market and got salad fixings. Dinner tonight is a baked potato stuffed with the last of the taco meat and beans. Two fresh ears of corn and a small salad.

Quick surf while the spuds are in the oven. I bake several at a time and save the rest to reheat. No sense wasting the energy.

And that is it for a while

| No Comments

Heading out to run a few errands, get some coffee and back home to work on a project as well as some other paperwork. Back in the saddle again.

Refilling (and cleaning) the hummingbird feeders today too - made some fresh nectar yesterday. Need to do this every five days or so - lots of birds around. Part of the weekly routine.

Woke up to a cold overcast morning - the sun is trying to burn through but no luck yet. Lots of cold marine air off the coast so looking at a couple days of this. Here is the last four days from this buoy off the coast of Westport, Oregon:

20200811-temps.jpg

Definite temperature cycles between day and night but an overall drop in temperature. The weather here moves from the west to the east so the offshore buoys let us know what is in store for the coming week.

Visit Portland

| No Comments

Fun mashup of an Expedia travel video:

Only a small part of the party

| No Comments

Pat Cross gets it:

20200811-marxists.jpg

Heh - from Salon Magazine (hint: Salon is very liberal):

"Friday Night Massacre" at US Postal Service: Postmaster General boots top brass ahead of election
Government watchdogs, Democratic lawmakers, and pro-democracy advocates declared it a "Friday Night Massacre" for the U.S. Postal Service after news broke in a classic end-of-the-week dump that Louis DeJoy—a major GOP donor to President Donald Trump and the recently appointed Postmaster General—had issued a sweeping overhaul of the agency, including the ouster of top executives from key posts and the reshuffling of more than two dozen other officials and operational managers.

"Trump is actively sabotaging the election under our noses—this isn't theoretical, it's happening RIGHT NOW." —Brian Tyler Cohen, political commentator. According to the Washington Post:

The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections.

Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles.

Already under fire for recent policy changes at the USPS that mail carriers from within and outside critics have denounced as a sabotage effort to undermine the Postal Service broadly as well as disrupt efforts to carry out mail-in voting for November's election amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the moves unveiled late Friday were viewed as an overt assault on democracy and a calculated opportunity to boost Republicans' long-held dream of undercutting or privatizing the government-run mail service while also boosting their election prospects in the process.

Where to begin... The most obvious point is that if the Republicans were carrying out a long-held dream of privatizing the post office, why would they be spending so much time and effort streamlining it and making it efficient and cost effective again. If they were going to privatize it, they would just sit back and let it collapse under its own weight.

As for cries such as: "Trump is actively sabotaging the election under our noses" - this is nothing but pure Psychological Projection.

Looking forward to a fresh batch of liberal tears to drink this evening. There is nothing sweeter or more satisfying.

Seattle police chief - I am outta here

| No Comments

This is a real loss for a once-great city. She has worked there for 28 years coming up through the ranks. She knows the city, she knows the force and she has the support and respect of the officers. From Seattle station KOMO:

Seattle Police Chief Best makes stunning retirement announcement after department cuts
Police Chief Carmen Best announced her stunning retirement Monday evening from the department in the wake of Seattle City Council voting to defund her department by 14 percent.

Best said her retirement from the Seattle Police Department will be effective Sept. 2 in an email to staffers in the department.

The police chief's retirement follows the City Council proposing deep cuts to her pay and the compensation for 12 members of her command staff.

Best, the first Black woman to lead the Seattle Police Department, was appointed the city's police chief in July 2018. She spent 28 years with the Seattle Police Department.

This is going to bite them bad. The Seattle votors need to get some adults in the city council as soon as possible.

And I will leave you with this

| No Comments

Time for some YouTube and bed. Dipping my big toe back into the waters tomorrow and dealing with my usual responsibilities. Enough lollygagging.

Speaking truth to power:

20200810-fools.jpg

20200810-healing.jpg

Justice in Chicago

| No Comments

The high-pitched tone you hear is the sound of Elliot Ness spinning in his grave. From The London Daily Mail:

Top Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx's office has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including murders, shootings, sexual assaults and Jussie Smollett's 'hoax' attack

    • Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx dropped charges against 29.9% of felony defendants during her first three years in office, the Chicago Tribune found
    • Foxx's case dismissal rate is more than 35% higher than that of her predecessor
    • The state's attorney told the Tribune that its analysis gave an 'incomplete picture of her commitment to keeping the public safe'
    • She said she's dropped cases against low-level, nonviolent offenders so prosecutors can focus on violent crimes
    • But data showed Foxx's office has dismissed cases involving murder, shootings, sex crimes and serious drug offenses at a much higher rate than her predecessor
    • Foxx gained notoriety last year when her office dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the actor accused of staging a racist, anti-gay attack on himself

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including many involving charges of murder and other serious crimes - in her first three years on the job, a new report shows.

Foxx gained notoriety last year when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday published an analysis of Foxx's overall record on dropping charges, revealing that she has done so at a rate that's 35 percent higher than her predecessor.

In the first three years after Foxx took over as Cook County's top prosecutor in 2016, her office dismissed all charges against 29.9 percent of felony defendants, the Tribune found.

By comparison, Foxx's predecessor Anita Alvarez dropped charges against just 19.4 percent of felony defendants over her last three years in office.

I thought the idea of being a County Attorney is that you are supposed to prosecute the criminals. It is not your job to be lenient and to drop the charges.

Reading between the lines, the population of Cook County, Illinois is 5,132,000 people. It is interesting to note that for the last five years, the growth rate has been negative with 24,000 people leaving in 2019. Compare this to 362,650 people moving in in 1970 and 620,930 in 1960.

Foxx dismissed about 30% of the total felony convictions - more than 25,000 felony cases. This makes the total number of felony cases a bit under 84,000 (83,333.33). That makes a felony rate of 1.64%. To rephrase this, in a population of 100 Cook County citizens, 1.6 of them have been arrested for felony charges.

I do not see any quick reference for crime demographics but I am betting that this rate is a lot higher than many other urban areas.

Welcome to the third world and it is not getting any better.

A second night of tacos

| No Comments

Better than the first night. The dehydrated refried beans tasted really good today - the flavors developed over the 24 hours in the fridge.

Next time, I am going to buy a pineapple and char slices when I char the meat. A party in my mouth... Stuff left over for one more meal.

I knew he was giving a news conference today at 2:30 my time but was starting to work on some other stuff and figured I would just get the top bits and read the transcript later. Turns out that the Secret Service hustled him out of the room for a few minutes as there was a live shooter outside the White House. From the U.S. Secret Service twitter feed:

He returned, answered a few more questions and his last question was from OAN News (which I read regularly) and he talks about the Obamagate scandal a little bit - names names:

The photographer's reaction (0:38) as she asks the question is priceless - WTF???

Heh - figured that this would happen

| No Comments

From Tyler at Zero Hedge:

Police Comb "Thousands Of Hours" Of CCTV Footage, Make Looting Arrests Months After George Floyd Protests
Police across multiple US cities that months ago were scenes of often deadly rioting linked to George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests are pouring through thousands of hours of surveillance footage to nab suspects far after the crimes.

This comes after business owners whose stores were subject of severe vandalism and mass looting pressured authorities to act after many police departments appeared helpless when the mayhem was initially unleashed during those spring and early summer weeks.

Philly Voice reports this is especially the case in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where "Police Chief Henry White announced the arrests Thursday, pointing to a lengthy investigation that relied heavily on video evidence recorded by public and private cameras."

The arrests do not have to happen at the time of the event. They are compiling a list of persons of interest and start rolling it up. The marxists have tried to bring the US down for a long long time. Time to put an emphatic halt to these morons. We really need to reverse the damage they have done to our educational system too with their long march through the institutions.  The link is chilling to read as it has essentially happened and we are reaping the rewards. Read this one too for the background: The Frankfurt School. We can see the genesis of all of todays social problems in these two links.

No surprise there

| No Comments

President Trump is bad for you - from SKS Cartoon:

20200810-bad.jpg

Brilliant idea

| No Comments

From Yahoo/Reuters:

Samsung Electronics to halt production at its last computer factory in China
Samsung Electronics Co will halt operations of its last computer factory in China, the South Korean tech giant said on Saturday, the latest manufacturer to shift production from the world's second-biggest economy.

Companies are rethinking their production and supply chains amid rising Chinese labour costs, a U.S.-China trade war and the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around half the 1,700 employees on contract at Samsung Electronics Suzhou Computer will be affected, excluding those involved in research and development, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday, citing a notice to Samsung staff.

The factory shipped $4.3 billion worth of goods out of China in 2012, a figure that had sunk to $1 billion by 2018, the Hong Kong newspaper said.

The world bent over backwards to give China some very favorable trade conditions and they failed to reciprocate. Time to pay the piper.

Heh - senility is showing up all over

| No Comments

Chick Schumer just had another memory lapse on television - from CNS News:

Chuck Schumer Suffers Mental Lapse: ‘Uh, Um, Uh—I Got to Remember the Words’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) suffered a mental lapse when appearing on MSNBC on Monday morning saying, as he did so, “uh, um, uh—I got to remember the words.”

Biden is obviously the worst-off but Pelosi and Clinton have been showing some major signs recently. Schumer is playing catch-up but doing a good job of it.

Now this is a no-brainer - from Breitbart:

Cuomo: ‘Have to Be Blind’ to See Nursing Home Investigations as Not Political, Dismisses Idea of Independent Inquiry
During a press conference on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) dismissed the inquiries into the state’s nursing home policies during the coronavirus pandemic as something that “you’d have to be blind to realize it’s not political.” And dismissed the idea of having independent experts look into the matter by saying that he already did and there is no one who is trusted by all members of both parties.

In other words, he knows he fucked up by forcing COVID-positive old people to go back to the homes after they were diagnosed and he is trying to cover his ass and deflect.

Cuomo responded to a question on the investigation by state lawmakers, his past characterization of other investigations as partisan, and whether he would support an independent investigation by saying, “I wouldn’t do an investigation as to whether or not it’s political. Everybody can make that decision for themselves. I think you’d have to be blind to realize it’s not political. Just look at where it comes from and look at the sources and look at their political affiliation and look at who wrote the letter in Congress and look at what publications raise it and what media networks raise it. It’s kind of incredible. Look at the basic facts on where New York is versus other states, right? You look at where New York is as a percentage of nursing home deaths, it’s all the way at the bottom of the list of states. So, I don’t think anyone — what’s political, what’s not political, everyone can make their own decisions.”

Lots of 50¢ words, zero content. Typical Democrat CYA

New York City circles the drain

| No Comments

This is unreal - these people are on the state Sex Offender Registry having been convicted of child molestation.
From the New York Post:

NYC ‘illegally’ placed pedophiles near Upper West Side playground
The city dumped at least six homeless pedophiles, all still on parole, at a luxury Upper West Side hotel just a block from an elementary-school playground — an apparent violation of state law, online records show.

The outrage is only the latest slap in the face to residents of the Manhattan neighborhood — who as The Post reported have had to deal with everything from public urination to open drug use since the city began moving hundreds of homeless into the area amid the coronavirus.

“Completely unacceptable,” seethed Sabina Popovic, 32, who was at the playground with her daughter, 5, and son, 1, Friday.

The six parolees — including a man who had forced sex with a 4-year-old girl — were listed by the state Sex Offender Registry as current residents of the Belleclaire hotel at Broadway and West 77th Street as of Friday night.

The hotel is just under 1,000 feet from the playground of PS 87 — and New York state law bars such high-risk sex offenders on probation or parole from “knowingly entering into or upon” schools or other facilities or other facilities “primarily used” by children if a minor is present. Courts have interpreted that to mean they must keep 1,000 feet away.

The bureaucrats who did this are unelected, they are unionized and there is no accountability - they cannot be fired from their jobs. Life in a Democratic utopia. All told, I would rather live in a third-world shithole because someone there with a modicum of "hustle" can advance and become prosperous. A place like New York City is heading down the drain and taking everyone with it.

It's coffee time

| No Comments

Coffee and a pastry and read for a little bit.

My kind of town - Chicago is

| No Comments

The year 2020

| No Comments

Two memes:

20200810-swing.jpg

20200810-2015.jpg

And another "down" day

| No Comments

Slept in a little bit today too - must be needing the sleep. Feel really good, just need an extra hour or two. Woke up with the sunrise and rolled over and went back to dreamland.

Cool and overcast today - may work outside as the forecast for precip is zero. Got a couple things that could use my tender ministrations.

Tacos were delicious.  I added some crushed pineapple to them - added a nice acid component to the sweetness of the BBQ sauce. Putting a char on the flank steak really brought out the flavor. Good ol' Maillard Reaction working miracles.

Stuffed and plenty left over for two or three more meals.

Tried reconstituting some freeze-dried refried beans from the restaurant supply store - they came out just fine and take up a lot less room in the pantry. Use the tea-kettle to boil some water; add a little and then let it sit before adding any more. Takes a little while to fully rehydrate. Taste and texture are fine for eating with something. A little bit bland on their own.

Earthquake in North Carolina

| No Comments

Big 'un too - 5.1 Magnitude and only 3.7km depth   From The Weather Channel:

5.1 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee; Roads cracked, dishes broken
A moderate 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook several states in the Southeastern U.S. on Sunday morning.

The earthquake struck at 8:07 a.m.ET about a mile south-southeast of Sparta, North Carolina, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Sparta is in Alleghany County on the North Carolina-Virginia border about 90 miles north of Charlotte, North Carolina.

It was the sixth earthquake in the area in a little more than 24 hours. A series of small quakes began at 7:05 a.m. Saturday. The strongest of those was a 2.6 magnitude tremor that struck about 2 miles south of Sparta at 1:57 a.m. Sunday, the USGS reported.

The USGS reported that the quake was felt as far south as Augusta, Georgia, and as far north as Staunton, Virginia.

And from the South Carolina Department of Emergency Management:

Earthquakes
Many people are unaware of how common earthquakes are in South Carolina. Approximately 10 to 15 earthquakes are recorded annually in South Carolina with 3 to 5 of them felt or noticed by people. About 70 percent of South Carolina earthquakes are located in the Middleton Place-Summerville Seismic Zone. The two most significant historical earthquakes to occur in South Carolina were the 1886 Charleston/Summerville earthquake and the 1913 Union County earthquake. The 1886 earthquake in Charleston was the most damaging earthquake to ever occur in the eastern United States. In terms of lives lost, human suffering and devastation, this was the most destructive United States earthquake in the 19th century.

Was not aware that the area was so seismically active. I knew about the New Madrid earthquakes in Missouri but those are quite some distance and a completely different system of faults.

Just wow

| No Comments

Nothing else to say - gives me goosebumps. I do love this country.

The Biden / China alliance

| No Comments

In one frame - from A. F. Branco:

20200809-branco.jpg

Yikes - the plague

| No Comments

Being that it is still 2020, I am not surprised.

United Press International:

New Mexico man in his 20s dies of septicemic plague
A New Mexico man in his 20s has died from septicemic plague, health authorities say. It is the first human plague death in New Mexico this year and the second case this year in the state.

According to the New Mexico Department of Health, the man lived in Rio Arriba County and died after being hospitalized.

And, of course, our bestest friend and trading partner - from the Express:

China bubonic plague spreads: Beijing orders second lockdown after new horror death
Sadly, a man died in the region's city of Bayannur from multiple organ failure after contracting the deadly disease that caused the Black Death. Authorities tracked the man's movements back to his village and sealed it off. This is the second village to be placed in quarantine within the past few weeks.

And:

Last Thursday another person died from the bubonic plague.

This was in the adjacent city of Baotou.

Not a good thing.

Perfect day for tacos

| No Comments

Flank steak came out just right. Got the charcoal started for a quick sear and then start making dinner.

Wonderful day - almost cloudless sky. Mt. Baker is standing over the ocean with its majestic snowcap. Lots of people out on the water playing.

20200809-baker.jpg

Glad I took the day off - the last week has been busy and with the arts association changes, I will be even busier.

Now this is interesting

| No Comments

Also, a blatant display of media bias - re-writing history. From Vijeta Uniyal writing at Legal Insurrection:

India Starts Building Temple on Hindu Site Destroyed by Muslim Invaders in 16th Century
While most Western leaders silently watched the conversion of Hagia Sophia, one of Christianity’s holiest churches, into a mosque, India’s Hindus seem to have bucked the trend. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a temple on the holy Hindu site destroyed by the Muslim invaders in the sixteenth century.

“Centuries of waiting is over today. Some people will not be able to believe that they are seeing this during their lifetime,” the Indian prime minister said at the foundation-laying ceremony. The temple “will be a modern signifier of our ancient culture, it will be an example of our patriotic fervor, it will be a symbol of the strength of will of our citizens,” he added.

The site in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya is regarded by Hindus as the birthplace of their deity Ram. According to medieval chroniclers, the ancient temple at the site was razed in 1528 and a mosque erected in its place. Indian archaeologists who excavated the location in the 1970s found remains of an ancient temple below the mosque. The ceremony took place after the country’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hindus, giving them possession of the site.

Vijeta goes on to cite the media reporting - the Fake News drones ignore that the site was originally sacred to the Hindus so that they can push their narrative:

Washington Post saw this as an insult to Muslims. “India marks another day of erasure and insult against its Muslim citizens,” the newspaper reported. According to CNN, the move was a “blow to India’s estimated 200 million strong Muslim minority.” Muslims make up around 14 percent on the Indian population, while the Hindus account for about 80 percent (Christians are 2.3 percent of the population). 

Rebuilding the “temple is but a symbol of the humiliation of Muslims and liberals,” Bloomberg News complained. While London’s Economist noted that “Narendra Modi cements a victory for Hindu nationalism” by his actions. 

According to NPR the temple is being “built on the ruins of a 16th century mosque destroyed by Hindu extremists.” The broadcaster made no mention of the atrocities carried out by Muslim invaders and rulers. “One prominent Muslim group called today’s events unjust and oppressive,” NPR concluded. 

“Prime Minister Modi provokes Muslims,” German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel insightfully noted. This is not the first time Modi ‘provoked’ India’s Muslims. His Hindu Nationalist government outraged many Muslims when it passed a new law opening a path to citizenship for Hindus, Christians, and others facing religious persecution in neighboring Muslim countries (mainly Pakistan and Afghanistan). Angry Muslim mobs set fire to vehicles and threw fire bombs at police in response to the ‘offensive’ law.

Fake News is real. Liberals are comfortable in their bubble and do not want to wrap their brains around an idea that does not conform to the narrative. Kudos to India and PM Narodi - that is one nation I have never been to and would love to sometime. Definitely on my bucket list - spend 3-4 months traveling...

Time for coffee - hang out for a bit

| No Comments

Nothing happening online to speak of. Heading out for some coffee, check the mail and sit and read for an hour.

Need some downtime and today is a perfect day to be doing it.

Slow start to today

| No Comments

Slept in and not planning to do anything except go out for coffee. Last couple of days have been busy and taking a break for a day or two. Putter around here but nothing planned for the nonce.

Quiet day on the internet as well.

Thawing out some skirt steak - sous vide that for tacos tonight. Gorgeous day - sun is out and 0% chance of precip.

Not a conspiracy if

| No Comments

Something actually happens...  There have been a few interesting comments from our President in the last week or so. A few "unusual" occurrences as well. Joe Hoft at The Gateway Pundit provides a list of them (with links, etc...) and ties them together. Going to be a lot of fun if this is the case but I am not holding my breath.

RUMORS SWIRLING: President Trump’s Recent Actions Indicate Something HUGE Is About to Drop
President Trump’s recent actions indicate the time may be very close where the Deep State and the Obama gang might finally have to face the music.

On Friday we reported that President Trump spoke to workers at a Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio, to tout his efforts to restore America’s manufacturing base. During the speech Trump also spoke about his work to reform prescription drug pricing by the pharmaceutical industry.

While speaking about reducing drug prices by cutting out the middlemen, Trumpdrop this line saying, “So, I have a lot of enemies out there. This might be the last time you’ll see me for awhile.”

This was a very unusual and purposeful statement that he made.

Joe follows up with some facts, some speculation and some conjecture. Could be interesting if this happens - the Obama administration set a record for corruption and the Clintons are in the thick of it. Trump has certainly had enough time to collect the information needed to roll the deep state up and lock it away for a very long time. There is a lot more at the site - makes for some interesting thinking. 250+ comments with some interesting additions.

Got about a half-pound of popcorn in the pantry - should be enough for a week or two.
I may have to pick up some more on my next Costco trip...

Very clever. Congress (ie: the Democrat-run Senate) wanted all kinds of delicious pork included in any aid bill so Trump did an end-run around them. From Powerline:

TRUMP’S POLITICAL MASTERSTROKE [UPDATED]
President Trump says he will sign an Executive Order to ease the suffering of those harmed by the pandemic-related shutdowns and to stimulate the economy. Congress has failed to agree on a new package to accomplish these things.

Trump’s Executive Order would include these four components: (1) a payroll tax holiday until the end of the year, (2) an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits until the end of the year, (3) an extension of the eviction moratorium for federal subsidized housing, and (4) a suspension of student loan payments until further notice.

Questions surround the legality of accomplishing at least some of these things via executive order. Trump’s response to that might be, “so sue me.”

And Paul's analysis?

However, as a political matter, Trump’s move looks like a masterstroke. Since the days of FDR, the public has always seemed to approve of presidents who act to ameliorate suffering while Congress diddles. A flurry of activity, even of the futile or potentially counterproductive kind, makes a president look energetic and caring.

In this instance, Trump’s move might well force congressional Democrats to reach a deal. That outcome, too, would be a political win for the president.

UPDATE: Trump has now signed the Order. The obvious displeasure of The Washington Post is further evidence that Trump has made a smart political move.

Heh - win/win Another victory on the 4-dimentional chess-board while the liberals are still playing checkers.

From Dilbert's creator Scott Adams:

Najaf is a city of over 1,000,000 in central Iraq - the center of Shi'a political power in Iraq.

UPDATE at bottom of post

From the National Arrows and Spears Administration:

NASA to Reexamine Nicknames for Cosmic Objects
Distant cosmic objects such as planets, galaxies, and nebulae are sometimes referred to by the scientific community with unofficial nicknames. As the scientific community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful. NASA is examining its use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects as part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As an initial step, NASA will no longer refer to planetary nebula NGC 2392, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star that is blowing off its outer layers at the end of its life, as the “Eskimo Nebula.” “Eskimo” is widely viewed as a colonial term with a racist history, imposed on the indigenous people of Arctic regions. Most official documents have moved away from its use. NASA will also no longer use the term “Siamese Twins Galaxy” to refer to NGC 4567 and NGC 4568, a pair of spiral galaxies found in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Moving forward, NASA will use only the official, International Astronomical Union designations in cases where nicknames are inappropriate.

“I support our ongoing reevaluation of the names by which we refer to astronomical objects,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters, Washington. “Our goal is that all names are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion, and we’ll proactively work with the scientific community to help ensure that. Science is for everyone, and every facet of our work needs to reflect that value.”

The administrators that green-lighted this move should be fired. They are not operating in alignment with NASA's founding principles. Astronomy has no need of political correctness and those that seek to inflict it are not benefiting science.

UPDATEAmerica's newspaper of record published this handy infographic:

20200808-nasa.jpg

A cool tool - Bullseye Bore

| No Comments

Attaches to your drill - makes sure you are drilling straight and square: Bullseye Bore

Does not seem to be in stores yet but I would buy one for $40. Looks very handy.

Love it - brilliant lateral problem solving. From The Western Journal:

‘Evangelicals for Trump’ Defy Nevada Church Restrictions by Worshiping in Casino
In Nevada, you can’t have more than 50 people meet for a religious service. However, the state’s lifeblood — casinos — can operate at 50 percent capacity, a much less strict restriction.

If you’re Evangelicals for Trump, there’s an easy workaround to that: Hold a church service in a Las Vegas casino.

The event took place at the Ahern Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, according to Fox News.

The venue is one of Vegas’ numerous facilities that combine hotel and convention space with casino facilities.

These restrictions are 100% politics and 0% public health. These actions are going to change a lot of voter's minds in November much to the detriment of the Democrat narrative. They are just not that smart and do not see the potential consequences of their actions.

Speaking truth to power

| No Comments

And back home - good day

| No Comments

Event worked well and then went out to another Craigslist deal. Picked up some electronics stuff - very happy. Rack mounting and shelving.

Surf for a bit and then work - laundry and general housecleaning.

And out the door

| No Comments

Day two of the event starts in about an hour.  Back later this afternoon...

Just shoot me now:

20200807-madmax.jpg

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

| No Comments

Summer just got started:

20200807-year.jpg

Portland, Oregon in the news

| No Comments

Another Portland story - was thinking about moving there a long long time ago. Settled on Seattle and glad for my choice then and now. Both are beautiful states but both cities are whacko. Seattle? Much less.

From The Gateway Pundit:

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Now Begs Criminal Antifa Terrorists to Stay Home So Trump Won’t Use His Failed City in His Ads
It’s a toss-up but Democrat Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler may have squeaked out a victory against Democrat Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Democrat New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio as America’s worst mayor.

Just two weeks ago Mayor Wheeler blamed President Trump and federal agents for the 50-plus days of BLM-Antifa rioting in Portland.

But that didn’t work because it was complete nonsense so now Wheeler is begging BLM-Antifa rioters to stay away from Portland because Trump is going to use their violent acts in his campaign ads.

Talk about ten pounds of "Leadership" in a five pound bag. Someone call the whaaaambulence.

The rallying cry for Portland Oregon for the last month or so. One big-ass problem.
From Legal Insurrection:

Violence in Portland Still Rages With No Fed Involvement
Portland, Oregon has long been a hotspot of antifa violence, and that has only intensified in the months since the George Floyd protests began and were quickly turned into widespread riots, looting, arson, vandalism, and murder.

The situation became so bad that the Department of Homeland Security sent in federal law enforcement to protect federal property, particularly a federal courthouse that antifa and its cohorts in BLM were vandalizing and attempting to torch.

Instantly, the leftist narrative became that the violence in Portland was simply a reasonable reaction to “Trump’s stormtroopers.”  And/or that Portland antifa violence was a “myth.”

Absolutely no one believed that for one second.  Not the right, not the left, certainly not antifa and BLM who were well aware of their activities prior to the arrival of federal officers, but the lie kept getting told and retold.

So what happens when the federal law enforcement agrees to leaves Portland?  Yep.  More rioting, looting, arson, and mayhem.

Lots more links, photos and videos and links to other posts about this. The "peaceful protests" have always been violent. The alibi that it was a result of Federal involvement is just a lie. Protect the narrative.

Now this is perfect.

| No Comments

I can get behind this 100% - from My Pensieve:

20200807-COV-test.jpg

Long long day

| No Comments

Finished the event, had to head North to do some things, went out for a bowl of pasta and now home feeling rather tired. Staying up until 10PM so I don't wake up at 4AM - need to keep a "normal" sleep schedule.

Had a bit of a wrench in the gears yesterday - I am involved in a local arts group - their Vice President. Last evening, the President resigned unexpectedly. Looks like my plate just went from overflowing to critical mass. Was not expecting this so needing to re-arrange priorities. Life remains interesting.

Anyway, quick surf, a few videos and then to sleep. Get up tomorrow and do it again.

Out the door - for reals this time

| No Comments

Working at a local event today and tomorrow - starts at 8:30 so heading out for coffee. Got the van packed with lunch. The weather looks nice - clearing up with sun but still cool.

Taking Bear along - people like him and he is comfortable saying in the van. That is his den.

Looks like it will be an interesting fight - from Seattle station KIRO:

With Primary in rearview, Loren Culp gears up for fight against Jay Inslee
With a bulk of Washington’s Primary results now in, Republic Police Chief Loren Culp appears poised to take on incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee in November’s General Election. Culp joined KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show to talk about his plans in the days ahead as his gubernatorial campaign continues to ramp up.

“I’m ready for it,” Culp said. “I don’t back down. I love a good challenge, and I have the rule of law, the Constitution, and law and order to bring back to this state. I look forward to the fight.”

Culp first made national headlines in 2018, when he became the first law enforcement leader in the state to announce that he would not enforce new gun laws laid out in Initiative 1639. That marked the beginning of a journey that inspired him to enter the political realm, after 10 years with the Republic Police Department.

“My stand for citizens’ rights back in 2018 is what has led me down this path to being the Republican nominee for governor right now,” he described. “When they restricted 18 to 21 year olds from buying a semiautomatic rifle, I stood up — that was a bridge too far for me.”

A year after that, he announced his run for governor of Washington, which will soon see him pitted directly against two-term incumbent Jay Inslee.

He will be a really good governor and Inslee has shown that he is simply in over his head. He is phoning it in.

I posted earlier about the NY State dingbat who is trying to dissolve the NRA.
Atomic Fungus has some observations that have me grinning:

This is going to go over really well, too. At a time when guns are being sold in record numbers, some New York Democrat hack is suing to have the NRA dissolved.

Even if they're successful and get the NRA dissolved, there is absolutely nothing stopping someone from starting a new NRA; but it's hardly necessary, considering how many pro-gun groups there are out there.

The thing is, the NRA is moderate compared to the other groups.

NRA's been around long enough to be a "country club conservative" organization. How hard has the NRA fought to ease legal controls on suppressors? Has the NRA ever lobbied to loosen the regulations on machine guns? What has the NRA done to try to overturn the federal firearms laws that unduly reestrict our rights to keep and bear arms?

...the organization that rises to replace the NRA might not be so moderate.

When I imagine an organization with the money and reach of the NRA that advocates for a complete repeal of the machine gun ban etcetera, I get all tingly.

I think that owning a machine gun would be a lot of fun. I have no reason to buy one but they are very cool technology. Gopher problem anyone?

Let's see now. Money donated for a political campaign has to be spent on that campaign. It can not be siphoned off and used for personal enrichment.  Oh. Wait. You are a politician - the rules do not apply to you then. From Breitbart:

Karen Bass’s Campaign Gave Nearly $100K to Nonprofit She Co-Founded Which Paid Her $70K+ for ‘Consulting’
Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) nearly doubled her income in 2010 from consulting fees she received from a nonprofit she co-founded, and Bass’s re-election campaign donated nearly $100,000 to that nonprofit between 2008 and 2011, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Bass, a vice presidential contender on Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden’s VP shortlist, co-founded a South Los Angeles-based nonprofit called the Community Coalition in 1990. Her community organizing with the Coalition laid the groundwork for her successful run for the California State Assembly in 2004, where she would eventually rise to the position of Speaker in 2008.

A Los Angeles Times review of Bass’s financial disclosures found that her State Assembly campaign committees paid the Community Coalition nearly $100,000 between 2008 and 2011. And in 2010, the Community Coalition paid Bass a total of $70,500 in consulting fees, an amount that nearly doubled her State Assembly salary that year.

The word you are looking for is: Money Laundering and the Federal laws against it were codified in the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986. Yeah - she committed a Federal felony. How come she does this if she is so hot-to-trot for socialists like Castro and Chavez. I thought that socialism was all about living on nothing and giving all the money to help the poor people. Liberté, égalité, fraternité and all that good stuff...

What is in the water there and how can I avoid it. From Press California:

San Fran is crawling with drugs. DA shows more concern for dealers
District attorney Chesa Boudin acknowledges that the Tenderloin District of the city is plagued by drug sellers from Honduras, but frets that arresting them isn’t really worth it.

Boudin, a former public defender who vowed as a candidate to prosecute fewer criminals, is not inclined to address how the surge in drug sales during Covid lockdowns was affecting city residents, and instead focused on the plight of the drug dealers themselves.

Many were trafficked and their families were at risk at home if they cooperated with authorities, Boudin said in a webinar last week.

Therefore, authorities shouldn’t arrest or prosecute them, said Boudin.

Apple - tree. The Chicago Sun-Times has a bit on Chesa's family:

Raised by radicals in Chicago, he’s about to become San Francisco’s new top prosecutor
Chesa Boudin’s life story sounds like something out of a right-winger’s nightmares.

The son of two left-wing radicals convicted for their roles as getaway drivers in an infamous 1981 armored-car robbery, he was raised in Chicago by adoptive parents Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, former leaders of the Weather Underground, a militant offshoot of the group Students for a Democratic Society.

During graduate school, Boudin headed to Venezuela to explore that nation’s revolutionary upheaval.

A bit more:

On Oct. 20, 1981, just two months after Boudin’s first birthday, his mother Kathy Boudin dropped him off at a babysitter’s house. Then, she and Boudin’s father David Gilbert took part in the robbery of a Brinks armored car to fund their revolutionary activities. The heist resulted in the killings of two police officers and a Brinks guard. Kathy Boudin, sentenced to 20 years to life, was paroled in 2003. Gilbert remains in a New York prison.

Dohrn and Ayers had come out of hiding only a year earlier, following their own involvement with the Weather Underground, a small group that led a campaign of politically motivated bombings in the 1970s.

Dohrn and Ayers are neck deep in Obama's Presidency - Obama made the decision to become a Senator and then run for President in their living room. Both Michelle and Barry had close ties with them when they were starting out their "community organizing" careers. They are still deeply involved in "progressive" (AKA - Communist) politics in Illinois and still seek to overthrow the government of the US. Stories here and here. When Obama was called on his association with these known terrorists, he prevaricated: This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

Pants on fire. I wonder when and IF California will come to its senses. Beautiful state and some fine people live there but the big cities?

Hit the spot - Thai dinner

| No Comments

Glad I made the drive - really hit the spot.

Back home, surf and watch videos for a little bit and then an early bedtime. Feeling quite sleepy as I did not get enough last night. Could not fall asleep and finally took an over-the-counter sleep aid around 11PM - they work like gangbusters but I always feel groggy the next day.

Working tomorrow and Saturday - got a potential Craigslist deal Saturday afternoon. Someone is selling off a bunch of commercial audio equipment and they have some electrical power conditioners. These retail for a couple hundred bucks each - see if they are in decent shape and what they will take for them... No need for anything else, already have it.

Points North - Thai

| No Comments

Thai food sounds really good. Heading up to the food coop and then to get some takeout (restaurant is so tiny that in-house seating is an impossibility).

Found a great history of where I visited today at the Everett Herald:

The ghosts of English Boom stand watch over this Camano park
In the 1920s and ’30s, the bounty of the virgin forest east of Stanwood and Mount Vernon wound up at English Boom, a bustling operation at the island’s north end.

Nearly 75 years later, the desiccated skeleton of the boom clings to a lonesome expanse of tide flats on Skagit Bay. Hundreds of decaying pilings are all that’s left of a log yard that stored up to 15 million board feet of timber at a time — enough to build 1,500 homes.

Thanks to the efforts of Friends of Camano Island Parks, Island County acquired the property that became English Boom Historical Park in 1997. It was the first park on Camano Island that was purchased with Island County Conservation Futures money.

The 6-acre park is modest: a parking area with space for perhaps a dozen cars, a picnic shelter, some interpretive signage and a short trail across a salt marsh. The beauty of the place, however, is not modest. It’s a great place for birdwatching, or just enjoying a quiet stroll. Unless U.S. Navy jets are drilling overhead, birdsong and the occasional distant train horn from across the bay are pretty much the only things you’ll hear.

More at the site - a lot of history in this little island.

The eagles were out in force - could hear them all over. This is a place to visit in the morning for a better light angle - two snapshots:

20200806-english01.jpgNest on the left with Mom in the crotch of the branch and Dad on the right.

20200806-english02.jpg

Big tidal flats. The clouds really washed out the light - I will definitely be back though. Morning should have better light. The view is towards the Northeast.

From Breitbart:

Michelle Obama: Coronavirus an Opportunity to Change ‘How Wealth Is Distributed’
Wednesday on her new podcast, former first lady Michelle Obama called coronavirus an opportunity to think about “how wealth is distributed” to lower-income essential workers.

Obama noted the “power” that would enable what “we” could do to allow such actions.

Pure Marxism and... wait for it... Marx was dead wrong on this point.  Marx's whole philosophy was constructed on the idea that there is a fixed pool of capital and that all social ills can be traced to an inequitable distribution of said capital.

Unfortunately for poor innumerate Karl, the fixed pool of capital is an absolute myth. Capital is fungible - it can be created and it can be destroyed.

For a good look at the liberal's hero, check out this article: Socialism’s God—Karl Marx: Was He Stupid, Insane…or Possessed? - stuff you will not find out in today's universities or public schools. And the answer is Yes - all of the above.

Quite the legacy - President Obama

| No Comments

The list - from My Pensieve:

Quit trashing Obama’s accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. Here is a list of his impressive accomplishments:

    1. First President to be photographed smoking a joint.
    2. First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
    3. First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
    4. First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.
    5. First President to violate the War Powers Act.
    6. First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
    7. First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
    8. First President to spend a trillion dollars on “shovel-ready” jobs when there was no such thing as “shovel-ready” jobs.
    9. First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
    10. First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
    11. First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S., including those with criminal convictions.
    12. First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
    13. First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
    14. First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.
    15. First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
    16. First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
    17. First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
    18. First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
    19. First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
    20. First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
    21. First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
    22. First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
    23. First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
    24. First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
    25. First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
    26. First President to golf more than 150 separate times in his five years in office.
    27. First President to hide his birth, medical, educational and travel records.
    28. First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
    29. First President to go on multiple “global apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours.
    30. First President to go on over 17 lavish vacations, in addition to date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.
    31. First President to have personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
    32. First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
    33. First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.
    34. First President to repeat the Quran and tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
    35. First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).
    36. First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”
    37. Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.

The loonies are coming out of the woodwork. Marginally leftist organizations are displaying their true colors.
From San Diego, CA station KUSI:

Los Angeles Teachers Union says public schools should not reopen unless their demands are met
The SDUSD on Monday issued a joint statement with the Los Angeles Unified School District, which also announced it will start the school year with online-only courses. In the statement, the districts acknowledged that schools have successfully reopened in some parts of the world, but said the conditions are different locally.

SDUSD = San Diego Unified School District. But, it gets better:

The Los Angeles Teacher’s Union is one of the largest in the state, and the “United Teachers Los Angeles” say public schools should not reopen unless their demands are met.

Their demands include implementing a moratorium on private schools, defunding the police, increasing taxes on the wealthy, implementing Medicare for all, and passing the HEROES Act, which allocated and additional $116 billion in federal education funding to the states.

The unions demands also took aim at charter schools.

Now the Marxism comes out. We Have Demands and They Must Be Met. Excuse me but you work for the taxpayers in your districts and your job is to educate the taxpayers children. Unfortunately, the Teachers Union has morphed into a political entity directly responsible for this graph from Cato Institute (page two):

cato_education.jpg

Seriously overdue for some detention time - send the Union leaders to the Principal's Office. They need to sit down, shut up and do their damn jobs.

Unions very much had their day - they were needed 100 years ago. Unfortunately, most of them have failed to keep up with the times and now serve no useful function for either the worker or the employer.

Those Florida COVID deaths

| 1 Comment

They are grasping at straws - from the Alachua, Florida  Alachua Chronicle:

Local COVID-19 death certificates all show multiple co-morbidities
Alachua Chronicle has received information from Medical Examiner District 8 about 17 of the 20 deaths that have been attributed to COVID-19 in our county.

Quite the shopping list follows - a few examples:

One woman had already been in hospice for “management of her senile degeneration of the brain” and was admitted to the hospital for “evaluation of altered mental state and a fever” and “acute kidney injury that was likely due to sepsis.” She was transferred back to hospice 11 days later “for continuing end of life care and management of her COVID-19” and died 5 days after the transfer.

And this classic:

Another case at Shands, a 35-year-old male, was listed as a Dade County death from COVID-19: “[The decedent] was working on the roof of a home in Middleburg on 5/28. It started to rain and the decedent and his coworkers stopped working. Bystanders in the neighborhood and the workers on the roof observed a flash of lighting and heard a loud explosion, and several workers were thrown off of the roof. Immediately following the lighting strike, a worker on the roof observed the decedent collapse, fall off of the roof, and land facedown on grass. The decedent’s muscles were reported to be contracted and shaking, and caused the decedent’s body to roll over onto his backside. It was also reported by the workers that the decedent’s eyeballs were rolled back into his skull. Bystanders in the neighborhood observed the decedent on the ground, called 911, and started CPR until EMS arrived on scene. Following the lightning strike, the workers observed a large hole on the roof that appeared burnt. According to medical records, the decedent was transported via EMS to Orange Park Medical Center and was found to have spinal fractures with spinal cord transection, a skull base fracture, and pulmonary contusions. He was transferred on the same day to UF Health Shands Hospital for further management and was admitted to the surgical intensive care unit on mechanical ventilation.

He tested positive for COVID so the cause of death was listed as COVID. They want to keep us locked down until November and this is how they are justifying it. Nothing more than a political power play done by a party that has nothing else to offer.

Looking at the National Rifle Association (yes, I am a member) - they are a pro-2nd Amendment lobbying group.

Two headlines - says it all:

Of course, there are all sorts of Democrat lobbying groups shilling for the various candidates but touch one of them? Heaven's No! (clutching my pearls).

And out the door - take two

| No Comments

Heading out for coffee, running a few errands and then back home.

Quiet news day so far. The starling found its way out the door with no problems. Spent the morning doing housework - cleaning, etc...

Sun has come out sort-of - trying to be a nice day but still heavy overcast. Going to swing by a place later - supposed to be an eagle's nest with good visibility from a trail. Bring the new camera and see what I can get. Got one of my Moose Filters adapted to the lens but with the overcast, probably will not need it.

Gropey Joe Biden - a bit of history

| No Comments

Thirty seconds from Johnny Carson - 1987

Thirty seconds from Robin Williams around 2012

Tip of the hat to PowerLine for the links. Comedy gold.

And out the door

| No Comments

Woke up to the pitter-patter of raindrops - just as forecast. Sooo tempting to roll back over.

Got my crap together and heading over there. Back in six hours but may go out for Thai later. Minimal posting today.

UPDATE: DOH!

The event is Friday/Saturday and not Thursday/Friday - back home.

Came home to find a starling flying around the living room - got the doors open, finishing my coffee and will see what I can do. A broom has worked well in the past. Do not want to give Cat any ideas...

And that is it - busy day tomorrow

| No Comments

Working two days for a local organization. They do good work and this is a fundraiser. Early morning though - before my usual coffee place opens so I have to shop at Vendor #2 - they make a decent cuppa as well so no hardship. Got a sandwich in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch and my rain jacket out and ready. 60% chance of precip in the forecast.

20200805-2020.jpg

Vote by mail, they said

| No Comments

It's secure, they said. From the New York Post:

Over 80,000 mail-in ballots disqualified in NYC primary mess
The mail-in ballots of more than 84,000 New York City Democrats who sought to vote in the presidential primary were disqualified, according to new figures released by the Board of Elections.

The city BOE received 403,103 mail-in ballots for the June 23 Democratic presidential primary.

But the certified results released Wednesday revealed that only 318,995 mail-in ballots were counted.

That means 84,108 ballots were not counted or invalidated — 21 percent of the total.

New York State was encouraging people to vote by mail (different from registering for an Absentee Ballot) because of the Wuhan Flu. How fscking convenient. You can stand cheek to jowl at a "peaceful" protest but not wait 15 minutes in line (socially distanced of course) at a neighborhood polling place.

Seems that they had caches of it around Europe - from The Jerusalem Post:

Hezbollah stockpiled chemical behind Beirut blast in London and Germany
Hezbollah kept three metric tons of ammonium nitrate, the explosive thought to be behind the mega blast in Beirut this week, in a storehouse in London, until MI5 and the London Metropolitan Police found it in 2015.

The Lebanese terrorist group also stored hundreds of kilograms of ammonium nitrate in southern Germany, which were uncovered earlier this year.

More at the site.  There is still too much missing information. NH4NO3 is the oxidizer, it still needs the fuel (such as the fuel oil or diesel in ANFO).

Still way to early to know what really happened.

Hackers will hack.

| No Comments

Love it!  The kid who did the big Twitter hack hacked his bond hearing. From Vice-Motherboard:

Twitter Hack Zoom Court Hearing Interrupted by Ass-Eating Porn Video
A judge was forced to suspend the virtual bond hearing of the 17-year-old accused of being the “mastermind” behind the recent massive Twitter hack, after several people got into the Zoom meeting posing as CNN and BBC staffers and played loud music and even a porn video.  Multiple reporters who attended the hearing via Zoom on Wednesday confirmed the incident.

According to independent security journalist Brian Krebs, the problem was that the judge and his clerks did not set up the meeting in a way that would mute attendees and prevent them from taking over the screen (these are features that can be easily set when one creates a Zoom meeting).

Love it. If you are going to hack - go big or go home. This was Graham's résumé and he is going to have a long and prosperous career doing internet security if he so desires.

Getting used to online meetings

| No Comments

You can actually get work done with these. The group I am involved with has them twice/month and very productive. Not as fun, not as social but more efficient.

Life in San Francisco

| No Comments

Just wonderful - from Oakland, CA station KTVU:

Meth lab found at San Francisco hotel room used as city COVID-19 shelter
Police arrested two adults accused of operating a low level meth lab at a San Francisco hotel designated as a safe shelter for people on quarantine, at risk for COVID-19, or without housing.

The call came in about a strong chemical odor coming from a hotel room and officers responded to the Civic Center Motor Inn about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Police and residents had to wait for a hazmat team to determine the safety of the site.

"I was just like shocked," said one hotel guest named Samantha who says a police officer knocked on her hotel door. "He's like, there's a meth lab right above your room so we need you to evacuate cause it could explode at any time."

Hey - free lab space and you do not have to bother with decontamination when you are done cooking. Win/Win

And then, there is this:

The hotel is one of the many businesses that are contracting with San Francisco's Shelter in Place program, which pays to provide rooms and meals for people who need to be quarantined, are at risk for COVID-19, or have no home.

Hotel full of homeless people getting free room and board? That is a built-in customer-base. Win/Win/Win

Got a point there - President Trump

| No Comments

Considering what the media says about the man:

20200805-trump.jpg

Fun news from WA State - from The Post Millenial:

Far-left congressional candidate Joshua Collins gets fewer votes than a dead man
A socialist congressional candidate running on the Essential Workers Party platform in Washington State lost to a guy who died in April. That candidate was running on the Congress Sucks Party platform.

The results show that for Washington's 10th congressional district, Joshua Collins came in fifteenth out of 20 candidates, taking 0.9 percent of the vote. This was less than the one percent earned by Richard Boyce, who died on April 20.

Door. Ass. Bang. Take your mental health problems and get off the political stage. Go home to your mommy's basement.

Ed Buck is a major behind-the-scenes figure in the Democrat party. He is from California and has donated large amounts of money to various campaigns. He is gay but is also a sexual abuser and he got busted for the latter.
From the United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California:

Grand Jury Charges Ed Buck with Four Additional Felonies, Including that He Enticed Victims to Travel Interstate to Engage in Prostitution
A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment charging Edward Buck with four additional felonies, including that he allegedly enticed victims – including a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after he administered drugs to him – to travel interstate to engage in prostitution.

Buck, 65, was arrested in September 2019 after being charged in United States District Court with providing methamphetamine to a man who died after receiving the drug intravenously. Since that time, federal authorities have continued to investigate Buck for additional crimes.

The four additional counts charged today – bringing the total number of charges in this case to nine counts – include one count alleging that Buck knowingly enticed 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to travel to the Los Angeles area to engage in prostitution. Buck allegedly provided methamphetamine to Moore, who overdosed on the drug and died on July 27, 2017.

Buck also is charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.

The superseding indictment also charges Buck with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and one count of using his residence for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.

Last year, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging that Buck “engaged in a pattern of soliciting men to consume drugs that Buck provided and perform sexual acts at Buck’s apartment,” which is a practice described as “party and play.” Buck allegedly solicited victims on social media platforms, including a gay dating website, and used a recruiter to scout and proposition men.

Heh - good riddance to bad trash. Trial starts on January 19, 2021.

Still nothing

| No Comments

Home for a bit - nothing happening out there.

Slow Joe Biden is still melting down before our eyes. The people (Dr. Jill - looking at you) propping him up need to be cited for elder abuse. He just looks confused and angry.

Big delivery today so taking the van.

Been thinking about the Beirut bomb - the smoke was reddish-brown. HMX? It is used for solid rocket fuel which would correlate with Prime Minister Netanyahu's 2017 and 2018 presentations to the United Nations about Hezbolah's missile factories at that site. Netanyahu's map pinpoints the blast center. Still way to early to tell but looking more and more like a workplace accident. Getting acquainted with their 72 raisins of exceptional purity sooner than expected.

Beirut explosion - ammonium nitrate

| No Comments

The official story so far - from gCaptain:

Beirut Blast Blamed on Chemical Cargo Removed From Ship in 2014
The volatile chemical that Lebanese authorities blame for Tuesday’s lethal blast in Beirut had been lying in storage at the city’s port for six years in spite of warnings from customs officials about its hazards, documents show.

The ammonium nitrate arrived as cargo on the ship Rhosus in 2014, according to two letters issued by the director general of Lebanese Customs. For reasons that are unclear, dockworkers unloaded the chemical, which can be used to make fertilizers and explosives, and put it into storage.

Customs officials later asked judicial authorities at least twice to issue orders for the ammonium nitrate to be confiscated or re-exported, according to the letters. In one of the letters, dated May 3, 2016, the director general at that time, Shafik Merhe, warned of “the extreme danger” from storing the chemical in a warehouse “in these unsuitable weather conditions.” The material posed a risk to the staff and the port, he said.

Something does not ring quite right - pure ammonium nitrate does not burn very easily. It is an oxidizer and will not combust or explode unless there is a fuel present and mixed throughout. Once fuel has been mixed in, it still takes an awful lot of effort to discharge - dynamite has been used for this. An open flame is not sufficient.

The most common form of explosive is ANFO - ammonium nitrate + fuel oil. This is used for blasting. It is what was used in Oklahoma 25 years ago. Makes me wonder what the real story is...

Nothing much so far today

| No Comments

Quiet morning. Puttering around the house and getting ready to head out for coffee. Grocery deliveries this afternoon and an online meeting at 6:30.

Back in a couple of hours

Very early but... WA State Primaries

| No Comments

Looks like Loren Culp is running for Governor. From Seattle's Q13-Fox:

2020 Washington State Primary Election Results
Democratic incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee and Republican challenger Loren Culp advanced Tuesday night through Washington’s top-two primary to the November ballot.

In early returns, Inslee had 52% of the vote. With nearly 17% of the vote, Culp, the police chief of Republic, had the largest share among 35 other candidates.

A good man. I voted for Joshua Freed as he has more business and political experience but Culp is ethical and very smart. He will choose good advisors - unlike Inslee.

There was a series of novels written by Craig Johnson made into a television series called Longmire. Loren reminds me a lot of Walt Longmire. Very happy that Tim Eyeman did not get in. He is too political. One of the swamp creatures.

6:30 minute video of the blast and some commentary:

And do not forget that in 2017 and 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went before the United Nations.
From the August 28th, 2017 Chiang Rai Times:

Netanyahu tells UN Chief Iran Building Missile Production Sites in Syria and Lebanon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Monday that Iran is building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel.

At the start of a meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu accused Iran of turning Syria into a “base of military entrenchment as part of its declared goal to eradicate Israel.”

“It is also building sites to produce precision-guided missiles towards that end, in both Syria and in Lebanon. This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept,” Netanyahu said as the two spoke during a joint press conference.

And from the September 27, 2018 Jewish News Syndicate:

At UN, Netanyahu reveals hidden Iranian nuclear site, secret Lebanon missiles
In his address at the U.N. General Assembly’s 73rd session on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visual in hand, revealed a hidden Iranian nuclear facility and secret missiles in Lebanon’s capital.

And the location:

“Hezbollah is using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields,” said Netanyahu, holding up a photo of a missile site beneath a soccer stadium. “Israel also knows what you are doing.”

The soccer field is very close to where the blast took place. And then, there is this warning from a few days ago:
From July 27th, 2020 - The Times of Israel:

Netanyahu: Hezbollah is playing with fire; any attack to be met with great force
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued warnings against Hezbollah and its backers in Iran after the terror group’s failed attempt to infiltrate Israel and attack IDF soldiers on the northern border earlier Monday.

The Israeli military said no IDF soldiers were injured during the border incident, which saw Israeli forces open fire at a number of fighters from the terror group that entered Israeli territory, according to the army. Hezbollah denied the clash took place, calling it “absolutely false.”

So, my guess is either a surgical strike for which the Mossad are well known or a simple workplace accident. My bet is on the latter as Israel respects innocent lives. They are death to terrorists but do not harm innocent civilians.

My bet is that Hezbollah was ramping up to something big and somebody accidentally dropped a wrench on the wrong piece of bangy stuff. Could not happen to a nicer group of people. As always, the best and the brightest.

Fifty-nine seconds of truth

| No Comments

This tweet:

Tip of the hat to Vanderleun

They are profiting from the lockdown and rioting - from Bloomberg:

Bezos, Zuckerberg Are Taking Tech Wealth to a Whole New Level
The message from Jeff Bezos: Big Tech’s not so powerful.

The message from his personal fortune: Oh yes it is.

As Bezos and three other technology magnates defend their businesses at a Congressional hearing on antitrust worries Wednesday, their fast-growing wealth provides a breathtaking measure of their companies’ economic might. The Amazon.com Inc. founder has seen his net worth soar by $63.6 billion this year. On one day this month, it leaped an unprecedented $13 billion. The world’s richest man is now on the cusp of another record: a fortune exceeding $200 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Another chief executive officer testifying, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc., has grown $9.1 billion richer this year, placing his fortune within reach of the centibillionaire status already held by Bezos and Bill Gates.

Nothing wrong with making money. Weaponizing our nation's Political System to tilt the playing field is wrong, very very wrong. Time for a little bit of anti-trust action. The Congress-critters will scream as they are getting sweet campaign donations but let them holler.

Just makes my day - Antifa

| No Comments

It is hard to get food into my mouth while I am grinning so much - from FOX News:

FBI has opened 300 'domestic terror' investigations as a result of riots, attorney tells Capitol hearing on Antifa
The FBI has opened more than 300 domestic terrorism investigations since George Floyd's death in Minneapolis kicked off nationwide unrest and riots, a federal attorney revealed Tuesday in a hearing on Capitol Hill on Antifa and violent protests.

Erin Nealy Cox, a U.S. attorney tapped by Attorney General William Barr to lead a task force on violent anti-government extremists, said the feds have opened hundreds of federal criminal investigations surrounding the violence and rioting since May 28.

"They have since May 28 [opened] over 300 domestic terrorist investigations," Cox told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on preventing violent protests. "That does not include any potential civil rights investigations or violent crime associated with the riots."

Burn down City Hall or take over a police station, that is one jurisdiction. Touch a Federal building or threaten a Federal employee with bodily harm and you open up an entirely different can of whoop-ass on yourself. I hope that they hand out years like candy at Halloween. 20-30 years in a Federal slammer will shut these children down for a long long long time. I am hoping that enough of them rat out so the Feds can get the propagandists and the ringleaders. Betting that they will.

Massive explosion - no concrete news as to cause, etc... Some of the videos are pretty damn scary.

AMA is a TLA for Ask Me Anything (there is even an RFC). From Medium:

Is the Black Lives Matter Organization a Money Laundering Scheme?
Just yesterday, the Managing director for the Black Lives Matter organization— Kailee Scales — conducted a disastrous Reddit AMA, during which she was hard pressed to disclose where and how exactly the money received from donations to BLM was being used. Interestingly, she refused to answer said questions, and the ensuing controversy was enough for moderators to lock the thread.

The suspicions didn’t die there, however. And the internet got to work to find out what exactly was going on behind the scenes at BLM. It didn’t take long to figure it out.

In other words - they are about as financially dirty as you can imagine. The parent BLM organization is not registered as a 501(c)(3) - they do not want the scrutiny that this entails.

Life in New York City

| No Comments

People are leaving in droves - from the New York Post:

Business leader says wealthy New Yorkers ‘don’t want to come back’ to the city
Wealthy New Yorkers who fled the city during the coronavirus crisis “don’t want to come back” — and may be further deterred by talk of rising taxes, an economic watchdog warned Sunday.

“They want to go to the office, but they don’t want to come back to the city,” Partnership for NYC President Kathryn Wylde said Sunday on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable” radio show.

“It’s hard to move a company… but it’s much easier for individuals to move,” she said, noting that most offices plan to allow remote work indefinitely.

The top one-percent of earners currently account for 40 percent of New York state tax revenue, according to numbers crunched by Wylde’s pro-business group last month.

New York state faces massive deficits due to the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, leading some left-wing politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to suggest raising taxes on billionaires.

Wylde warned that rich New Yorkers will be even more inclined to stay in the Hamptons or Palm Beach, Florida, if New York raises taxes.

People like Occasional-Cortex are innumerate - they do not have the mental ability to see the consequences of increased taxation. They will get less money. So they raise the taxes more. And they get even less money. They choose to ignore the Laffer Curve at their peril.

Waiting for dinner to heat up

| No Comments

Worked at home for a while this early afternoon and then went to the market at 4PM - it runs from 3-6. Had a nice conversation with some friends and hung out for a little while - turned into a warm day so had some ice cream while hanging out.

Decided against the left-over spaghetti so doing some Brazilian Feijoada instead - rice and beans with some ham, bacon, tomatoes and onion - all good stuff. Picked up a small cabbage at the market - feijoada is usually served with some steamed greens but using the cabbage instead for tonight - saute with some butter.

Back for the evening. Fix dinner and surf.

Out for a bit - the usual

| No Comments

Dump and recycling run, get some coffee, hang out and read for a little bit. Finish paying the bills.

Farmer's market later this afternoon, got grocery deliveries Wednesday and volunteering at the local community center Thursday and Friday for an event.

Back in a while - nice cool overcast day today. The marine air has definitely moved in - rain forecast for Thursday morning.

Back in a while - left-over spaghetti for dinner tonight. Yummy!

Increased sunspots = increased overall activity. From the SpaceWeather site:

SOLAR CYCLE 25 STRENGTHENS
There's no longer any doubt. New Solar Cycle 25 is coming to life. The latest sign came yesterday with the emergence of a new sunspot group, AR2770, inset in this magnetic map of the sun's surface from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO):

20200804-sun.jpg

AR2770 has two dark cores (each about the size of Mars) and is crackling with minor B-class solar flares. Its potential for even stronger flares will become clear in the days ahead as the sunspot turns toward Earth, more fully revealing its magnetic complexity.

Active regions from Solar Cycle 25 are now strewn across the sun's northern hemisphere. These are places where magnetic fields are intensifying, creating islands of magnetism on the sun's surface.

And this cautionary note::

The appearance of so many active regions at once is a clear sign that Solar Cycle 25 is gaining steam. However, that doesn't mean Solar Minimum is finished. These are just "starter sunspots," pipsqueaks compared to the behemoths expected when Solar Cycle 25 reaches its peak a few years from now. Solar activity should remain generally low despite this uptick in sunspot counts.

We could still be looking at an overall cooling period.

Heh - renaming the Wuhan Flu

| No Comments

Makes perfect sense to me...

20200804-commoncore.jpg

Poetic justice - removing the police

| No Comments

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Student activist killed in shooting weeks after protesting police presence in CPS
A student leader with a youth activist group that has been prominent in the push to remove police from Chicago Public Schools died Sunday morning after he was shot two days earlier in the West Rogers Park neighborhood.

Caleb Reed, a 17-year-old junior at Mather High School on the North Side, just weeks earlier had spoken about his traumatic experience with officers at his school at a news conference with public officials ahead of a Board of Education vote on a $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.

Late last week, officers found Reed lying on a sidewalk about 1 p.m. Friday in the 1900 block of West Granville Avenue, authorities said. He had been shot in the head and was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, according to Chicago police.

Maybe some social workers will have a deep and meaningful conversation with the person who murdered him. Just maybe...

The H-1B program allows people to come in to America to work if there is nobody here that can do the job. A good idea but this program has been seriously misused. People are being hired at significantly lower wages and domestic workers are being fired - Disney did this a while ago and there was a big uproar as outgoing DIsney employees were forced to train their replacements (here, here and here) From Just the News:

Trump bans U.S agencies from firing citizens to replace them with foreigners, fires TVA chief
President Trump on Monday signed an executive order banning federal agencies — with particular attention on the technology sector — from firing U.S. citizens or green card holders only to replace them with foreigners.

The order, which the White House is calling the Executive Order on Hiring American, challenges federal contractors' use of H-1B visas to bring in temporary foreign labor for high-skilled jobs rather than relying on American workers

"This Executive Order follows his Buy American, Hire American Executive Order from April 2017 and takes further action to prevent Americans from being displaced by foreign workers," the White House said in a statement released Monday. "Under President Trump’s leadership, the firing of hardworking Americans in the pursuit of cheap foreign labor will not be tolerated."

And the connection with the TVA?

At the White House signing ceremony Monday, Trump said he's pushing for the removal of authority CEO Jeff Lyash and called on its board to make sure Lyash "does not receive a lavish compensation package upon his departure too."

"He gets $8 million a year, so that was just a succession of deep swamp things happening, and it's a disgrace," Trump said. "So let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board. If you betray American workers, then you will hear two simple words, 'You're fired.'"

Good - he is not worth that much money. Gaming the system not adding value. Door. Ass. Bang.

Minimal posting tonight - new toy

| No Comments

Doing a firmware upgrade and spending this evening learning the new camera. Of course, the lens diameter does not match any of my other lenses so none of my filters will fit directly -BUT- I do have some adapter rings which will make this work. Looking at polarizing and neutral density.

Here are three snaps to give you an idea of the zoom range of this lens:

20200803-n900-01.jpg

20200803-n900-02.jpg

20200803-n900-03.jpg

Now that is what I call some nice telephoto. This is not as fast-acting nor does it yield as good an image as my "better" camera but it will do fine for keeping in the car and taking the critter shots that usually get away. Lots to learn...

Now that you mention it...

20200803-rifles.jpg

Details keep coming out. What with the three-times lethal quantities of Fentanyl in his system and his heart attack, the cause of death is becoming less and less certain. They released the bodycam videos and George's actions do not fit the popular narrative - do they ever? From the London Daily Mail:

Police bodycam footage shows moment-by-moment arrest of George Floyd for the first time - from terror on his face when officer points gun at his head, sobbing before he's shoved into squad car and begging to breathe as his life drains away

    • The terror on George Floyd's face as a rookie cop points a gun at his head while he sits in his car can be seen today for the first time
    • DailyMail.com has exclusively obtained video from the bodycams of officers Thomas Lane and Alex Kueng, who were part of Floyd's fatal arrest on Memorial Day in Minneapolis
    • Floyd died after Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25
    • The tapes show in minute detail how Floyd begs 'Mr. Officer, please don't shoot me. Please man,' before the struggle that ended with his death
    • It also shows how Floyd resisted as the cops tried to force him into the back of the squad car, telling them he suffers from claustrophobia and anxiety
    • The video begins with Lane knocking on Floyd's car window with a flashlight and once Floyd opens the door, Lane pulls out his gun and points it at Floyd's head
    • Floyd, 46, begs him not to shoot, saying: ''I'll look at you eye-to-eye. Please don't shoot me man. I just lost my mom, man'
    • He sobs as the officers pull him out of the car and handcuff him, as his ex suggests he was undergoing mental problems and was afraid of police
    • After the struggle to get Floyd in the cop car, he is suddenly on the sidewalk with Chauvin's knee on his neck
    • Floyd says he can't breathe over and over again and calls for his 'momma' but his voice slowly gets weaker as his life drains away, even saying 'I'll probably just die this way'

Bodycam footage from two cops accused in the murder of George Floyd is revealed exclusively by DailyMail.com today — and it shows a rookie officer terrifying Floyd by pointing a handgun at his head and another callously picking a pebble from the squad car tire just inches from the dying man and seconds before he draws his last breath.

The tapes show in minute detail how a very distressed Floyd begs 'Mr. Officer, please don't shoot me. Please man,' before the struggle that ended with his death on May 25.

It also shows how belligerent cops cursed at and manhandled the sobbing suspect, ignoring his pleas for compassion.

No word as to what Aracely Henriquez was saying when Floyd held a gun to her pregnant belly while he was doing a home-invasion robbery. He had been in jail five times and was dealing drugs and passing counterfeit money when he died. And, of course, there were no nationwide protests when Justine Damond was murdered by Mohamed Noor. Damond was Caucasion and Noor was a Somali member of the Minneapolis, Mn police force - a police officer.

Love the ending - tip of the hat to Don Surber for finding this gem:

And back home

| 1 Comment

Picked up enough storage bins to last me a lifetime - 200 of them:

20200803-bins.jpg

Bear is watching out for them for me. Good dog😊

Also stopped by my favorite camera store - they were processing a bunch of Nikon equipment from an estate and I was looking for specific lenses (extreme telephoto and one specific macro). They did not have these but they did have a Nikon Coolpix 900 that came home with me. I have been curious about these cameras as they have an extremely large optical zoom range (83X) - the 35mm equivalent of 24mm to 2000mm. Cowabunga! The price was right. There are newer models out there but this is a rock-solid design with excellent optics so was able to get a good camera for quite cheap.

Fixing some dinner - a tuna sandwich. Stopped by Trader Joes on the way back home and picked up some fun stuff.

And out the door

| No Comments

Nothing happening this morning - working on some stuff and got the bills paid.

Heading out for coffee and then up to Bellingham for a possible Craigslist deal. Someone is selling off a bunch of plastic storage bins that are perfect for hardware. Gives me an opportunity to do some more work at the Condo and check in at a couple of vendors.

Slow day on the internets.

Great line

| No Comments

Was watching the latest from the CrafsMan SteadyCraftin. He was surprised at how well a mold came out and he said:

Well. Dip me in shellac and call me glossy

Cute.

That's all for tonight

| No Comments

Watch some video, have a pot of tea and an early bedtime.

Spaghetti was delicious. Stuffed and lots of leftover sauce. The local food coop has an in-house butcher shop and they do a good spaghetti blend - pork and beef with spices. Really good. Compliments the San Marzano tomatoes very nicely.

alt.energy - some numbers

| No Comments

A good essay on the futility of alternative energy and it outlines just how wasteful and resource intensive most of these scams (wind, solar, etc...) are. From the Manhattan Institute:

Mines, Minerals, and "Green" Energy: A Reality Check
As policymakers have shifted focus from pandemic challenges to economic recovery, infrastructure plans are once more being actively discussed, including those relating to energy. Green energy advocates are doubling down on pressure to continue, or even increase, the use of wind, solar power, and electric cars. Left out of the discussion is any serious consideration of the broad environmental and supply-chain implications of renewable energy.

As I explored in a previous paper, “The New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking,” many enthusiasts believe things that are not possible when it comes to the physics of fueling society, not least the magical belief that “clean-tech” energy can echo the velocity of the progress of digital technologies. It cannot.

This is quite a long article, very well footnoted with the data to back up its claims. Here are a few observations:

Among the material realities of green energy:

    • Building wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity, as well as batteries to fuel electric vehicles, requires, on average, more than 10 times the quantity of materials, compared with building machines using hydrocarbons to deliver the same amount of energy to society.
    • A single electric car contains more cobalt than 1,000 smartphone batteries; the blades on a single wind turbine have more plastic than 5 million smartphones; and a solar array that can power one data center uses more glass than 50 million phones.
    • Replacing hydrocarbons with green machines under current plans—never mind aspirations for far greater expansion—will vastly increase the mining of various critical minerals around the world. For example, a single electric car battery weighing 1,000 pounds requires extracting and processing some 500,000 pounds of materials. Averaged over a battery’s life, each mile of driving an electric car “consumes” five pounds of earth. Using an internal combustion engine consumes about 0.2 pounds of liquids per mile.
    • Oil, natural gas, and coal are needed to produce the concrete, steel, plastics, and purified minerals used to build green machines. The energy equivalent of 100 barrels of oil is used in the processes to fabricate a single battery that can store the equivalent of one barrel of oil.
    • By 2050, with current plans, the quantity of worn-out solar panels—much of it nonrecyclable—will constitute double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste, along with over 3 million tons per year of unrecyclable plastics from worn-out wind turbine blades. By 2030, more than 10 million tons per year of batteries will become garbage.

Much much more at the site. The papers are available as PDF files for you to download. Lots of links to reference numbers.

alt.energy is an economic rathole. If we spent the same time and money on liquid salt Thorium reactors, our energy problems would be solved for the next 5,000 years.

President Trump's 404 page

| No Comments

When someone navigates to a website and types in a URL for a page that does not exist on the site (spelling error, expired page, etc...), the web server will issue an HTTP error code 404. The web designer can creat a generic page to inform the user of their error and to point them to a directory or back to the home page. Sometimes, they can be really cute or funny. Amazon, Google

Check out the 404 page for Donald J Trump:

20200802-trump404.jpg

Talk about comedy gold...

Could have told you that - liberals

| No Comments

From Powerline, April 13th, 2020:

DOES LIBERALISM CAUSE MENTAL ILLNESS?
The great Zach Goldberg, the youngish Ph.D student who has been quantifying the explosion of “wokeness” in the news media and elsewhere over the last decade, has been looking through the raw data in the Pew Research Center’s latest American Trends Panel Survey, and unearthed some interesting findings, which you can see here. Top line: liberals are more than twice as likely as conservatives to be found to have a mental health condition.

20200802-liberal.jpg

Especially notable is the lower chart, which shows that “very liberal” whites are much more likely to have mental health problems than “very liberal” non-whites. I’d love to see this broken out further by income, as I suspect that problem is especially strong with rich white liberals.

Turns out this isn’t an isolated finding. There’s a preprint paper posted in February on ResearchGate from Emil O.W. Kirkegaard of the Ulster Institute for Social Research entitled “Mental Illness and the Left.” The entire paper is available for download, but here’s the abstract:

It has been claimed that left-wingers or liberals (US sense) tend to be more mentally ill than right-wingers or conservatives. This potential link was investigated using the General Social Survey. A search found 5 items measuring one’s own mental illness in different ways (e.g.”Do you have any emotional or mental disability?”). All of these items were associated with left-wing political ideology as measured by self-report. These results held up mostly in regressions that adjusted for age, sex, and race. For the variable with the most data, the difference in mental illness between “extremely liberal” and “extremely conservative” was 0.39 d. This finding is congruent with numerous findings based on related constructs.

Much more at the site. Numbers do not lie - makes perfect sense. Straight out of the DSM-IV.

Blame it on the COVID Wuhan Flu

| No Comments

Couldn't be anything else now could it? From the New Orleans Times Picayunne:

A disturbing phenomenon: New Orleans' killings, shootings have risen sharply since coronavirus
A 9-year-old boy gunned down in front of his family in Treme. A 34-year-old man shot and killed in a dispute over a car title. Three men shot, one of them fatally, on a sunny afternoon in St. Roch.

The events of the past month illustrate a disturbing phenomenon: Killings and shootings have risen steeply since the coronavirus hit New Orleans, mirroring a national trend that has further rattled communities reeling from the pandemic and its economic fallout.

Non-fatal shootings and gun homicides were already up before the pandemic, but the increase accelerated since then. The rate of gun homicides since New Orleans began allowing more economic activity to resume on May 16 is up more than 50% compared to where things stood in the months before the COVID-19 outbreak, and non-fatal shootings are up 48%, according to an analysis of 911 call data.

And a bit more - looking at numbers nationally:

“It’s been such a weird year in so many ways that it’s impossible to say what’s going to happen the rest of the year and what specifically is driving the changes and what, if anything, can be done about that," said Jeff Asher, a data analyst and consultant for the New Orleans City Council who has detected similar trends nationally. "It’s such a remarkably unique year in so many respects that in a lot of ways it's not surprising to see remarkably unique changes in a host of fields, including crime trends.”

Nationally, violent crime was down 5% in 25 major cities through the end of June, but murder was up 16%, according to Asher's analysis. In New Orleans, major indicators point sharply, but in different directions.

Murder up since May/June?  Got to be COVID - can't be anything else now can it.  Hmmmm...  George Floyd? Died May 25th, 2020? Nevermind. Peaceful protests anyone?

What is it about...

| No Comments

...the Allium family that makes them smell so wonderful when cooking. Taste is pretty scrumptious too.

Must be all of the Spem

Helping out small businesses

| No Comments

Small businesses are the lifeblod of a community. They have helped us. Now, it is time to give back:

20200802-business.jpg

And not for our best interests:

20200802-fauchi.jpg

A bit of inconvenient history

| No Comments

True but they do not want you to remember their legacy:

20200802-kkk.jpg

Tip of the hat to 90 miles.

Try to rationalize this away Mayor DeBlasio. From The New York Post:

NYC has had more shootings so far this year than in all of 2019
There have been more shootings so far this year in New York City than in all of 2019.

A 24-year-old man who walked bleeding into Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx on Saturday night has pushed the city’s total number of shootings this year to 777 — topping the 776 recorded in all of last year, NYPD data compiled by The Post reveals.

They have five more months to go. Nice job of leadership there Mayor (and Governor).

She is a harridan. President Trump has been minimizing Dr. Fauci's role in the Wuhan Flu because he has shown to be wrong so many times. Fauci is on the side of the lock-'em-up Democrats who are trying to minimize President Trump's chances of re-election. Fauci promoted the use of stunningly bad computer models when predicting the lethanily and spread of the virus.

Dr. Deborah Birx on the other hand is very much fact-based and President Trump is moving her into the spotlight.

Of course, from The New York Post:

Pelosi says she has no confidence in White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Birx
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday attacked White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx — accusing the physician of helping spread misinformation about the pandemic.

“I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no,” Pelosi told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning when asked if she had confidence in Birx.

The salvo comes after a Politico report on Friday leaked that Pelosi (D. Calif) reportedly chewed out Birx during a meeting with White House officials on Thursday night, calling her “horrible.”

The attacks appear to have been prompted by a New York Times article published last month that offered an unflattering portrayal of Birx as someone eager to provide President Trump with only good news about the pandemic.

Only good news? Therein lies the problem. The truth is very good news. We were seriously misled. The disease is pretty benign, the absolute majority of fatalities come from people with some kind of comorbidity or ill health. The overall death rate has been falling since April. The recent increase in new cases are because of the increase in testing. Pelosi does not want the truth to get out as it takes away the Democrats ability to control the population.

From our President:

No more having to pay the Russians to lift us up there.

Chicago - third-world shithole

| No Comments

Latest numbers from Breitbart show that nothing is getting better, no leadership is being shown.

21 Shot, 6 Dead, Friday-Saturday Afternoon in Mayor Lightfoot’s Chicago
Twenty-one people were shot, leaving at least six dead, between Friday evening and Saturday night in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago.

NBC5 reports the first fatal shooting of the weekend occurred at 6:25 p.m. Friday, when someone opened fire on a nine-year-old boy in a parking lot. The boy was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the hospital.

A 26-year-old man was shot numerous times in the head and chest just at 12:30 a.m. Saturday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Less than 10 minutes later officers responded to the sound of gunshots “in the 100 block of North Laporte Avenue,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Officers discovered a backyard party where a 23-year-old had been shot and his wounds proved fatal.

This is all black-on-black violence so the mainstream media stays silent. Does not fit the narrative. Numbers so far?

Year to Date
Shot & Killed: 415
Shot & Wounded: 1923
Total Shot: 2338
Total Homicides: 454

So glad I do not live or have to visit a city.

Donations to them are routed to a Democratic party fundraising organization. Their brownshirts are shaking down small businesses.  From the Louisville, Kentucky Courier Journal:

Cuban community plans rally at NuLu restaurant in response to Black Lives Matter demands
Members of Louisville's Cuban community plan to gather Sunday in support of a NuLu restaurant owner who says he was threatened by Black Lives Matter protesters during a recent demonstration.

Fernando Martinez, a partner of the Olé Restaurant Group, was one of dozens of business owners in the downtown Louisville district who recently received a letter from protesters laying out demands that aim to improve diversity in the area, which is known for its locally-owned shops and restaurants.

Martinez has publicly denounced the demands on Facebook, calling them "mafia tactics" used to intimidate business owners. And on Thursday, a small group of protesters confronted him outside his newest restaurant, La Bodeguita de Mima, on East Market Street.

A bit more:

The release states that La Bodeguita de Mima was forced to close July 24 during a demonstration that shut down East Market Street, at which several protesters presented Martinez with the list of demands and said he "better put the letter on the door so your business is not f*cked with."

The restaurant remained closed the next two days because "management and staff were concerned about safety," according to the release. "30+ staff members (mostly immigrants) were unable to earn a paycheck."

And the demands:

The demands and an attached contract, which were created by local organizers and activists, ask NuLu business owners to:

    • Adequately represent the Black population of Louisville by having a minimum of 23% Black staff;
    • Purchase a minimum of 23% inventory from Black retailers or make a recurring monthly donation of 1.5% of net sales to a local Black nonprofit or organization;
    • Require diversity and inclusion training for all staff members on a bi-annual basis;
    • And display a visible sign that increases awareness and shows support for the reparations movement.

Phelix Crittenden, an activist who works with Black Lives Matter Louisville, said the demands and related "NuLu social justice health and wellness ratings" were not meant to be a threat but were instead intended to start a conversation with owners about how their businesses can better reflect and support Black people.

Phelix Crittenden is lying. These ARE threats. This is not a conversation, this is nothing but a shake-down.
The problem with paying the Danegeld is that you never ever get rid of the Dane.
As Rudyard Kipling put it so very well:

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
   For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
   You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
   No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
   And the nation that plays it is lost!"

The whole poem is short and worth reading. Now more than ever.
Tip of the hat to Legal Insurrection for the initial link.

Just too nice of a day to spend it driving and packing up crap.  Hung out over coffee for about an hour reading, went to a park I like and took a walk, ran a few errands and back home again.

Picked up some fresh spaghetti so making a pasta sauce for dinner tonight. Using another of my precious cans of San Marzano tomatoes. Really wish that the commercial Costco would stock those again - really delicious and about 1/3 the price of buying other packages. The taste is amazing.

Surf for a little bit, get the tower moved around to the side of the house and do some laundry. Got some bills to pay too. The fun never stops.

Out the door

| No Comments

Truck unloaded and ready to roll. Coffee and then a nice drive to the farm. Clear day and it is warming up a bit but not as hot as it was last week.

Back sometime this evening.

Problems with China

| No Comments

China once again proving that China is asshoe. From Yahoo/Associated Press:

260 Chinese boats fish near Galapagos; Ecuador on alert
Some call it a floating city, a flotilla of 260 mostly Chinese fishing vessels near the Galapagos archipelago that is stirring diplomatic tension and raising worries about the threat to sharks, manta rays and other vulnerable species in waters around the UNESCO world heritage site.

Yet the vast fleet is in international waters, outside a maritime border around the Galapagos and also outside coastal waters off Ecuador, which controls the archipelago. That means the fleet, one of the biggest seen in years off South America's Pacific coast, is likely to fish with minimal monitoring until its holds are full.

The Chinese fleet is “very close" to the edge of the exclusive economic zone around the Galapagos, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the archipelago, said its governor, Norman Wray. He said that, because of overfishing in recent years, “what we're seeing is that each time fewer species return to the Galapagos."

The floods and heavy monsoon has cut into their food supplies so they are looking elsewhere. This is nothing new - from The Guardian:

The Ecuadorian navy has been monitoring the fishing fleet since it was spotted last week, according to the country’s defence minister, Oswaldo Jarrín. “We are on alert, [conducting] surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” he said.

The 2017 incident he referred to was the capture by the Ecuadorean navy within the Galápagos marine reserve of a Chinese vessel. The Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, part of an even larger fleet than the current one, was found to be carrying 300 tonnes of marine wildlife, mostly sharks.

“We were appalled to discover that a massive Chinese industrial fishing fleet is currently off the Galápagos Islands,” said John Hourston, a spokesman for the Blue Planet Society, a NGO which campaigns against overfishing.

This article at Forbes highlights their domestic food problems:

China Food Crisis? Rising Domestic Prices And Large Import Purchases Send A Signal
China has a food problem. To a nation whose leaders are old enough to have been directly impacted by The Great Famine, the seriousness of food shortages cannot be overestimated. China’s burgeoning population, growing industrial economy, and expanding culture of consumerism are all contributing to a steady rise in demand for agricultural products.

But agricultural production, lest anyone forget, is subject to the biblical forces of floods, fire, pestilence, and a host of other variables, some of which are right now upsetting China’s delicate food stability. The world’s most populous nation will certainly not run out of food, but prices are rising and hints of tightening supplies are beginning to appear. Things may get worse before they get better.

And, lest we forget, The Great Famine was a direct result of Mao's meddling in things he did not understand. Nobody could tell him anything different because if they did, they would be considered disloyal to the communist leadership and they would be murdered before they could spread their capitalist heresy to anyone else. It lasted from 1959 through 1961 and 70 million people died. Socialism and communism never work. Never have. Never will.

Surf's up

| No Comments

Early bedtime tonight - busy day tomorrow. Unload the tower and head up to the farm. Temps are a lot cooler than they were last Sunday so will be able to move some of the heavy crap down - my good anvil, the big drill press and maybe the vertical bandsaw (yes, I have two horizontal ones as well).

Dinner was a baked potato and large salad. Nothing fancy but good stuff and good for you.

Nothing much on the internet.

True words

| No Comments

From 90 Miles:

20200801-sowell.jpg

This is just too easy - like shooting fish in a barrel. From Breitbart:

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Sees 139 Percent Increase in Murder
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago witnessed a 139 percent increase in murder during July 2020 when compared to July 2019.

ABC7 reported there were 105 murders in July 2020, up from “the 44 reported in July 2019.”

Moreover, there were 406 “shooting incidents” in Chicago during the month of July 2020, an increase of 75 percent “from the 232 last July,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Over a longer span of time, murders were up 51 percent from January 1, 2020, through July 31, 2020, compared to murders for the same period of time in 2019, according to the Sun-Times.

Lightfoot blamed Chicago mayhem and bloodshed on gun friendly states during a July 26, 2020, appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.

According to The Hill, Lightfoot told CNN, “Our gun problem is related to the fact that we have too many illegal guns on our streets, 60 percent of which come from states outside of Illinois.”

Actually Mayor Lightfoot, the facts are very pesky here and they do not support your narrative. 

If these neighboring states were playing so fast and loose with their firearms, how come they do not have increased gun violence. Also, California has gun laws that are downright draconian - just as bad as Chicago. They also have neighboring states with very liberal gun laws - why doesn't Los Angeles or San Francisco have as bad a murder problem as Chicago? Hmmmmm???

I guess to Mayor Lightfoot, Black Lives do NOT matter. She may say differently but it sure shows in her actions.

And out the door - points North

| 1 Comment

UPDATE BELOW

Heading out for a couple of errands. Check the mail, pick up some fresh tortillas, Costco (groceries and gas) and then check out the antenna tower I saw on Craigslist. If it is in decent shape, it will be perfect for what I want.

UPDATE
Tower is perfect - deal was for $250 - saved about $1,000 over new cost and it is in amazing condition:

20200801-tower01.jpg

20200801-tower02.jpg

Weathered but zero corrosion, no bends or cracks. Towers like this normally sell for about $800 and the antenna rotators for about $400 so I got a screaming good deal. From one ham operator to another. Unpack the truck tomorrow before heading to the farm.

From The New York Post:

Barack Obama’s half-brother rips ‘cold and ruthless’ ex-president
A “cold and ruthless” President Obama abandoned his Kenyan family in their greatest hours of need, according to a new tell-all by estranged half brother Malik Obama.

“He got rich and became a snob,” Malik, 62, told The Post via Skype from his home in the Kenyan village of Nyang’oma Kogelo. “What I saw was he was the kind of person that wants people to worship him. He needs to be worshiped and I don’t do that. I am his older brother so I don’t do that.”

The book, “Big Bad Brother From Kenya,” a self-published memoir which Malik Obama spent 22 years writing, hit Amazon with little fanfare on July 11. In its 435 pages, Malik covers the long and gradual falling out between him and the former President, which culminated in Malik publicly endorsing Donald Trump for president in 2016.

Both Malik and Barack Obama share the same father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan economist who died in a car accident in 1982. Malik first met his half brother in 1985 when Barack was a 24-year-old Chicago community organizer, and they enjoyed warm relations for more than a decade. Malik spent years working in the United States, where he has dual citizenship, and frequently traveled between the US and his homeland. Malik was the best man at Barack Obama’s wedding in 1992. When Barack became president, Malik was a regular visitor to the Oval Office. 

A good long review with some photos of the two of them. Lots of anecdotes. President Obama is not a nice man but we knew this already. On order at my local library.

Those COVID numbers - inflation

| No Comments

Interesting that this is coming from the Centers for Disease Control - horse's mouth and all that. From Breitbart:

CDC Chief Agrees There’s ‘Perverse’ Economic ‘Incentive’ for Hospitals to Inflate Coronavirus Deaths
United States hospitals have a “perverse” monetary “incentive” to increase their count of coronavirus fatalities, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s director Robert Redfield indicated under questioning from a Republican lawmaker during a House panel hearing on Friday.

Asked to comment on what Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) described as the “perverse incentive” during a hearing by the House Oversight and Reform Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Dr. Redfield responded:

I think you’re correct in that we’ve seen this in other disease processes too, really in the HIV epidemic, somebody may have a heart attack, but also have HIV — the hospital would prefer the [classification] for HIV because there’s greater reimbursement.

So I do think there’s some reality to that. When it comes to death reporting, though, ultimately, it’s how the physician defines it in the death certificate and … we review all of those death certificates.

So I think, probably it is less operable in the cause of death, although I won’t say there are not some cases. I do think though [that] when it comes to hospital reimbursement issues or individuals that get discharged, there could be some play in that for sure.

According to Congressman Luetkemeyer, Adm. Brett Giroir from the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Department has conceded that there is an economic incentive for hospitals to inflate their coronavirus fatalities.

Giroir “acknowledged that the statistics he is getting from the states are over-inflated,” the Republican lawmakers said.

Follow the money - people (and bureaucracies) will do amazingly evil things for money. Of all of the professions, I would think that Medical Care would require complete honesty. Guess not...

Two memes and then out the door

| No Comments

20200801-august.jpg

20200801-calvinist.jpg

Quiet morning

| No Comments

Nothing much happening online - slow news day.

Got a Craigslist deal happening later this afternoon - ham radio tower for sale. The nice thing with this is that it is already apart and lying on the ground. Too many of these are 60' in the air and need to be taken down. Often, the gin pole has been lost which makes any work problematic. This one is six 8' sections which will give me two 24' tall masts - just what I want. Comes with a rotator which is perfect.

Done working here, heading out for coffee in a few minutes - farm tomorrow.

March 2023

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from August 2020 listed from newest to oldest.

July 2020 is the previous archive.

September 2020 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9