March 2022 Archives

She is a piece of work - always has been.  From The New York Post:

Rep. Maxine Waters warns reporter over LA homeless story: ‘You’ll hurt yourself’
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) tried to stop the publication of a news story about Los Angeles’ homeless crisis this week, reportedly telling a Los Angeles Times scribe: “You’ll hurt yourself and the community trying to put this together.”

The Wednesday story by investigative reporter Connor Sheets detailed a March 25 incident in South Los Angeles, where hundreds of homeless people tried to obtain Section 8 housing vouchers after being misled by social media rumors.

The would-be applicants crashed an event held by nonprofit advocacy group Fathers and Mothers Who Care, which had been meant to help the unhoused obtain emergency shelter. 

And it gets better:

At one point, Waters told the crowd: “I want everybody to go home,” triggering an angry response.

And, of course:

Waters’ office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

So homeless people hear that they can get Section 8 housing vouchers from their favorite poverty pimp.  They show up and are told by her to go home. Classy Maxine - very very classy. Much more at the site - she is a perfect example of why term limits are a really good idea.

The WA State governor signed a really stupid bill a couple days ago (here):

The bill says that all vehicles of the model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in the state must be electric.

Now, Canada says: "Hold my beer"  From Engadget:

Canada will ban sales of combustion engine passenger cars by 2035
Canada is joining the ranks of countries and states planning to ban sales of combustion engine cars. Canada has outlined an Emissions Reduction Plan that will require all new passenger car sales to be zero-emissions models by 2035. The government will gradually ramp up pressure on automakers, requiring "at least" 20 percent zero-emissions sales by 2026 and 60 percent by 2030.

Canada is mostly prairie (long distances) and it gets pretty cold there which is hell on battery life. Optimal conditions for an electric vehicle.

Looks like Joe is really being thrown under the bus if CNN is bringing this to light:

Going from Russian Disinformation to something resembling the truth in three years or so.
Better late than never but better never late - must be why their ratings are so abysmal.

It had a taint of fake around it.  From Wayne Dupree:

New Conspiracy Theory Emerges After It’s Discovered Pfizer Sponsored Oscars And Has New Alopecia Drug in Trials
Right now there’s a race between several pharma companies to be the first to get an FDA-approved alopecia drug on the market.

And Pfizer, who was behind in this race, is taking the lead.

There are currently no FDA-approved treatments for alopecia, an autoimmune disease characterized by hair loss, but multiple drugs could come to market in the indication over the coming years.

And then, there is this:

What’s interesting is that Pfizer just hosted the Oscars, where, oddly enough, everything centered on alopecia.

The entire world is now talking about alopecia, thanks to the “slap” that happened at the Oscars between Will Smith and Chris Rock.

Jada Pinkett Smith, Will’s wife, claims she has alopecia.

That was a classic example of a pseudo-event.  Something staged to sway our opinions. To make news or bring awareness to something that the big-pharma wanted us to know about. Just two buddies and two actors doing a bit of theater on national television to promote a drug company.

I am very interested in herbalism and various alternative medicines.  Our western tradition is great but there is a lot out there that they are not looking at.  Add to this the craven profit-driven actions of the "Big Pharma" and you have a recipe for mis-diagnosis and improper treatment.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of practitioners who make unwise claims and who really muddy the waters for those trying to do real alternative medicine.  One of them just got taken down.

From the United States Department of Justice — U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington:

Former Port Angeles, Washington, Naturopath sentenced for scheme to profit on ‘COVID-19 cure’
A former Port Angeles, Washington, naturopathic physician was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 8 months in prison and one year of supervised release for a federal felony related to his misbranding, and sale in interstate commerce, of products he claimed could prevent and treat numerous serious diseases, including COVID-19 and MRSA, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas W. Brown. Richard Marschall, 69, was convicted in October 2021, following a 4-day trial. The jury found Marschall guilty of Introduction of Misbranded Drugs into Interstate Commerce, his third conviction for the same crime following earlier prosecutions in 2011 and 2017. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said, “It is extremely dangerous during the COVID epidemic for people to be engaged in conduct that would lead other people to defer and wait to receive medical care.”

“Mr. Marschall has a history of lying to patients about their health and his proposed treatments. His lies in this case are particularly troubling because he employed them when advising others about a deadly pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. “As people became fearful and searched for answers, Marschall touted an unproven treatment as a miracle cure for the deadly disease. Such conduct can prevent patients from getting the legitimate treatment they need if they become ill.”

Full details at the site.  His liscence had been revoked a few years prior yet he was still practicing. 
This is his third Federal conviction.  More at Quackwatch (October28th, 2021):

Government Actions against Richard A. Marschall, N.D.
Naturopath Richard A, Marschall operated the Natural Healing Clinic in Port Angeles, Washington. for many years. In 1998, the Washington Board of Naturopathy disciplined him for unprofessional conduct that involved treating an out-of-state patient he had not examined for “functional hypothyroidism”—an alleged condition sometimes referred to as “Wilson’s Syndrome.” In 2010, Marschall was criminally convicted of illegally marketing a growth hormone product (HCG) for weight loss. In 2013, in response to this conviction, the board disciplined him again. In 2015, he surrendered his naturopathic license. In 2017, he was convicted again for illegally marketing HCG. In 2018, in response to this conviction, the board revoked his license with no right to reapply for it. In 2021, he was convicted of a federal felony related to his attempts to promote a misbranded drug as a prevention for COVID-19. This article describes these enforcement actions in detail.

Wilson's Syndrome is bunk. 60+ symptoms described by one doctor and "aleviated" with "a special thyroid hormone treatment"   Again, more at that site too.  People like Marschall are giving alternative medicine a bad name.

Been really disapointed in the new New York City mayor: Eric Adams.  Looked like he might be the one to clean it up but he's just another clueless useful idiot. Out of touch.  Don Surber had this story and analogy today:

ITEM 6: The New York Post reported, "Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday that the Big Apple has become 'a laughingstock' as it grapples with surging crime and homelessness — and claimed he’s the 'wartime general' who can fix it."

He's more like a North Korean general with lots of medals and little experience. Like a North Korean general, Adams is skilled in sucking up but not much else.

Ouch but the truth hurts.  100% on point.

From Music Radar:

Remembering Mira Calix, acclaimed electronic musician and visual artist: “I almost can’t believe how lucky I’ve been”
Acclaimed electronic musician and visual artist Mira Calix has died, her label Warp Records has confirmed. 

“We are devastated to learn about the death of our dear Mira Calix (born Chantal Passamonte),” said Warp in a statement.

“Mira was not only a hugely talented artist and composer, she was also a beautiful, caring human who touched the lives of everyone who had the honour of working with her.

She did a lot of really beautiful work.  Film and dance scores too. Personal website here: Mira Calix

51 is way too young.  No word as to cause but can not help but wondering if it was vaccine related.  Too many questions.

No crime there - none at all.  From the Chicago Sun—Times:

CPS has lost 8% of schools’ ‘tech assets’ during COVID, tens of thousands of computers, even air purifiers, defibrillators
Computers and other devices that amount to at least 8% of the Chicago Public Schools’ “technology assets” have been listed as “lost” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Among the missing items: tens of thousands of computers, iPads and other high-tech devices. They were lent to students during remote learning but weren’t returned.

The police suspect that much of the other property CPS listed as missing actually was stolen by people with access to school buildings during the pandemic.

It isn’t just computers. Air purifiers, defibrillators, a treadmill, lawn equipment and other property also vanished from schools since the beginning of the pandemic.

Old Chicago is great - museums, the Shedd Aquarium, etc...  Now?  Forget it. Toxic shit-hole city.

Talk about spewing out waffle words - here is Representative Matt Gaetz interviewing the Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division:

Comedy gold. With all the objections, what are they hiding?

From The Liberty Daily with links to source materials:

“SUBPOENA HUNTER BIDEN”: Rep. Matt Gaetz Entered the Contents of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Into the Congressional Record
Congressman Matt Gaetz was able to have the contents of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop added to the Congressional Record, though not without a fight with the FBI and Congressional Democrats.

On the surface, this is a symbolic move that drives House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler crazy, along with Democrats across Capitol Hill and throughout the White House. In reality, this is a major move that opens the door for Congressional investigation into both Hunter Biden and his father, Joe.

Expanding why this is such a powerful move:

The reason this is important even though the contents of the laptop are confirmed and have been made public is because being in the Congressional Record obligates Congress to act on anything unlawful that is found in it. Democrats will stall for as long as possible but if Republicans take back control of the House of Representatives following the midterm elections, this will streamline any investigations that could come from the laptop against Hunter Biden, his family, his accomplices, and even his father.

Exactly.  Earth shattering Ka-Boom...

Lots of chatter, very little matter.

Packing boxes and loading them into the van.

Heading out for morning routine and then back home to pack more boxes.

Looking forward a couple of months, it will be nice to finally be unpacking for the last time in North Carolina.  Very happy to be moving out of WA State.

From the London Daily Mail:

Woke Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has secret unit of 70 cops protecting her in addition to her 20-officer bodyguard detail: 660 cops retired in 2021 under the one-time Defund the Police advocate

• • Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, once an advocate for Defund the Police, has a secret group of cops protecting her alongside her bodyguard, it's been revealed
  • The unit of 65 officers, five sergeants and a lieutenant are providing protection for the city’s mayor together with her bodyguard detail of about 20 officers
  • The revelation comes after Lightfoot proposed slashing $80 million from the Chicago Police Department budget in 2020 during Defund the Police protests
  • The proposal was later scaled back and $59 million of the budget was cut
  • She has since denounced the movement and pleaded with the AG to send ATF agents to the city for six months after it saw its murder rate jump to 25-year high

Chicago has draconian gun laws but it is one of the worst cities for gun violence.  Another Democratic shithole city.  Been there - used to be nice. Last time was 30 years ago.  I would not go there today at all.

My IQ drops by 50 points every time I have to listen to him. From FOX News:

He is denying his own words. Either gaslighting or dementia.
I love that other journalists are finally starting to call him on this - not just Peter Doocy

When you find yourself in a deep hole, stop digging. Woke movies simply do not bring eyeballs in to the theater.
Now they are doubling down - from LA Magazine:

Are the Oscars Over?
Have you heard about Aperture 2025?

It may sound like a Roland Emmerich sci-fi movie, but it’s actually more frightening. And much more controversial. It’s the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s latest initiative to make Hollywood more equitable and diverse—more woke—by changing the rules by which films are eligible for Best Picture nominations. Here’s how it works: Starting in 2024, producers will be required to submit a summation of the race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status of members of their movie’s cast and crew. If a particular movie does not have enough people of color or disabled people or gays or lesbians working on the set—and what is “enough” will be determined by a knotty tangle of byzantine formularies—then that movie will no longer be eligible for an Oscar.

Not surprisingly, the plan is not being universally applauded in Hollywood. Critics say it’s invasive, anticreative, opens the door to privacy issues, and is spectacularly unfair to actors and crew members, who may want to keep their sexual orientation or health profiles to themselves, not to mention to producers and directors who have enough to worry about while shooting a movie than to be saddled with the thankless task of tallying up the identity markers of their creative partners.

A lot more at the site - this is unreal.  Time and again, woke movies have bombed at the box office. When will they poke their little heads out of their self-imposed bubble and see what the rest of us think... Selling out college art cinema houses certainly panders to the ego but it doesn't bring in the moolah.

Nothing happening out there.  The event at last night's Oscars seem a bit staged. A pseudo-event  (author info here)

Heading to Bellingham today but the usual routine first.

Rosatom? The Russian state-run atomic business.  In 2013, they purchased a 20% stake in the US and Canadian Uranium business Uranium One.  A deal of this magnitude had to be agreed-upon by the Secretary of State. Which would be Hillary Clinton. Whose hubby received a $500,000 honorarium for one speech delivered in Moscow. As well as major "donations" to the Clinton Foundation. More here and here.

From Gateway Pundit:

Russia Sold Its Stake in Uranium One Shortly Before Invading Ukraine – The Same Company Clintons Helped Turn Over to Russians
We knew before the 2016 Election that the Clintons made a lot of money in the sale of US uranium, owned by Uranium One, to Russia.

As previously reported, the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were involved in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering in order to benefit Vladimir Putin prior to Obama admin handing over 20% of America’s Uranium to Russia, according to a devastating report by John Solomon via The Hill.

Who was right in the middle of it all? HILLARY CLINTON. MILLIONS of dollars flowed to the Clinton Foundation as our Uranium rights were sold to Russia while she was Secretary of State.

They then link to this press release from Rosatom:

Today we’ve uncovered that Russia sold its stake in Uranium One in November 2021 shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. According to Russia’s state-owned energy company, Rosatom, Russia sold its stake in Uranium One in November 2021.

Uranium One has entered into an agreement with the American company Uranium Energy Corp. for the sale of all of the shares of its subsidiary, Uranium One Americas, Inc. (Uranium One Americas).
The assets of Uranium One Americas are situated in Wyoming, and include seven uranium projects in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and five in the Great Divide Basin. The total purchase price is comprised of $112 million in cash and the replacement (with certain corresponding payments to Uranium One) of $19 million in reclamation bonding.
The sale is carried out within the framework of the strategy of Uranium One to optimize the portfolio of uranium mining assets, aimed at increasing economic efficiency. The closing of the sale is subject to certain regulatory approvals.

It looks like the Russians knew the US would take back their stake in Uranium One after their invasion of Ukraine so they sold their piece in the company before the US took it over.

Nothing illegal here, just covering their assets.  Still... Meanwhile, the Clinton family skates again.  She really needs to spend time in prison.

One of the elite - credientialed but clueless:

Encouraging news from NBC News:

Biden's job approval falls to lowest level of his presidency amid war and inflation fears
Amid Europe’s largest land war since World War II, 7 in 10 Americans expressed low confidence in President Joe Biden’s ability to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a new NBC News poll, and 8 in 10 voiced worry that the war will increase gas prices and possibly involve nuclear weapons.

And during the nation’s largest inflation spike in 40 years, overwhelming majorities said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy.

Those are some of the major findings of the new national NBC News poll, which found that Biden’s overall job approval rating had declined to 40 percent, the lowest level of his presidency. The survey also found that Republicans enjoyed a 2-point lead in answer to which party should control Congress ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Especially interesting in that NBC is reliably a sock-puppet outlet for the Democrats.  When THEY are reporting trouble — batten down the hatches Nellie.  Gonna be a big one...

Spiraling into lunacy - from NBC News:

Washington state plans to ban most non-electric vehicles by 2030
Washington state plans to ban most non-electric vehicles by 2030, according to a newly signed bill by Gov. Jay Inslee.

The bill says that all vehicles of the model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in the state must be electric.

"On or before December 31, 2023, the interagency electric vehicle coordinating council ... shall complete a scoping plan for achieving the 2030 target," it reads.

Full bill is here: SB 5974 - 2021-22 Addressing transportation resources

Slight problem - what are we going to use to charge the batteries?  Moonbeams? WA State is running out of electricity as it is. Another problem is vehicle range.  E-cars may be fine for tootling around Seattle but try to take them any distance and you run into the hard limits of physics. One pound of gasoline holds about the same energy as 15 pounds of Lithium Batteries. Try to improve the range and you increase the weight.  A never-ending spiral.

So glad I am outta here this year.  Looking forward to the move.

Some good observations from lawyer Jeff Childers this morning.
From an email:

Yesterday I reported on the untimely, sudden and unexpected death of 50-year-old Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins, which is now creating controversy. Also yesterday, following a preliminary autopsy, Columbia’s attorney general issued a statement claiming that no fewer than TEN psychoactive and recreational drugs were found in Hawkins’ system, including pot, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, LSD, cocaine, heroin, and opoids. Basically the entire list. According to Columbian officials, he was a walking pharmacy.

So, for a brief moment, it looked like just another sad stereotypical “rock star overdoses on drugs” story.

But some facts didn’t seem to fit the overdose narrative, and now there’s a controversy brewing. First, the Columbians didn’t release a cause of death, despite finding all those drugs. Next, Columbian newspaper Semana reported that the autopsy also revealed Hawkins’ heart was enlarged, weighing over 600 grams, twice the weight of an average adult male’s heart. According to Semana, local officials said the drummer’s enlarged heart must have played some part in his death.

Next, the Daily Mail reported that witnesses at his hotel said Hawkins called the front desk for help due to “chest pain” before being found dead in his room when help arrived. The fact that father-of-three Hawkins called the desk and communicated intelligently about his condition, asked clearly for medical assistance, lucidly described concerns related to his heart — not issues typically related to overdosing, has generated some skepticism in the developing official story.

Next, a compelling recent interview video shows Hawkins discussing his health, his kids, the demands of touring, and saying he lives a normal, boring, healthy lifestyle. He said he doesn’t go to parties and his family doesn’t “live that kind of Hollywood rockstar life.” He says he doesn’t hang out with actors, is an avid cycler, and admits if he could just quit smoking he would be “the picture of health.”

Finally, alert readers pointed out this is the second sudden, unexpected tragedy for the band in under a year. Last June, the Foo Fighter’s stage manager, Andrew Pollard, also died suddenly and unexpectedly. The 45-year-old father of two young children, Arlo and Ren, was — ironically — also found dead in his hotel room after retiring for the night. Pollard’s death came just a few weeks after the band began requiring proof of vaccination for fans to attend its concerts.

Being in the Foo Fighters — a band that has been stable for over 20 years — is starting to look like it might be bad for your health, for some reason. Or possibly like a real-life game of Clue. Did they check whether Mrs. Green was in the Library with the Candlestick?

Some very good questions there...

What is it about these two?  They seem to go together like cookies and cream.
Even our own *Resident is overly fond of sniffing a young girl's hair.
From FOX News:

Former candidate in Maine arrested on child porn charges
Two-time Maine gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler was arrested for possession of child pornography on Friday, two days after search warrants were executed on his two homes in the state.

Mover and shaker and one of the lawyers at the beginning of the environmental movement:

In Washington, Cutler served as an aide to the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie and later as former Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s top adviser for environmental and energy issues.

Cutler went on to serve as an environmental attorney and helped found a law firm in Washington, D.C.

One of the comments sums it up about the environmental part:

I find it hard to believe that an environmentalist would have 2 homes or maybe 3

It's a grift.  Just like BLM, global warming, carbon, fusion, etc...

Their drummer Taylor Hawkins passed away the other day.  The official story is drug OD - from the New York Post:

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins found with multiple substances in hotel room: report
There were multiple drugs found in the room where Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died, according to a report out of Colombia which cited official sources.

“Colombian authorities found: marijuana, antidepressants, opioids, heroine [sic]. At least 10 different substances found,” tweeted journalist Luis Carlos Velez on Saturday afternoon, citing Fiscalia Colombia, the national attorney general’s office.

Or did he?

Velez initially reported that Hawkins had overdosed, but later appeared to backtrack in a follow up tweet.

“Colombian authorities press release confirming 10 substances found #TaylorHawkins – Oficial release does not say overdose. Investigation continues,” he wrote.

He did have some drug problems in his history  From The SUN:

Back in 2001, Hawkins overdosed on heroin and landed in a weeks-long coma - just four years after joining the Foo Fighters.

But, he has been clean ever since — that was 20 years ago...

Cause of death?  From the London Daily Mail article again:

Taylor Hawkins had reportedly complained of chest pains to hotel staff before his passing.

Sounds like a classic heart attack symptom.  Wonder if he was one of those who bought into the whole vaccine bullshit?  From Variety, June 15, 2021:

Anti-Vaccine Protesters Picket Outside Foo Fighters’ First Full Capacity Show Since Pandemic
Anti-vaccine protesters congregated outside of Foo Fighters’ show at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, Calif. on Tuesday night (June 15).

And:

The Foo Fighters’ show — the band’s first full capacity concert since the start of the pandemic — required proof of COVID-19 vaccination to purchase tickets.

A life cut short by the vaccine?  Probably.  The drugs were probably brought in as a cover.

Ran into this on the internet:

Joe was not tracking very well today - London Daily Mail:

'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power': Biden says Putin should no longer be leader of Russia in fiery speech in Poland - but the White House is forced to walk back his comments and insist he's NOT calling for regime change

• • Biden went after Putin in emotional address in Warsaw
  • 'For god's sake this man cannot remain in power,' he said of Putin
  • He also warned Putin not to take his ambitions outside of Ukraine
  • 'Don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have sacred obligations,' Biden said
  • White House quickly cleaned up Biden's remark
  • 'The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,' a White House official said
  • Putin will still see it as a threat
  • Earlier Biden called Putin a butcher after he visited with Ukraine refugees
  • 'He's a butcher,' Biden said when asked what he thought of Putin after what he has done to the people he was meeting.
  • Biden spent nearly an hour meeting with refugees, including women and children, who have fled Ukraine
  • Poland has taken on bulk of refugees, nearly 2 million
  • His comment came as Russia bombed Lviv, a city in western Ukraine around 245 miles from the border with Poland

Needless to say:

The Kremlin reacted furiously at the quote and the White House moved quickly to clear it up, saying Biden was not calling for a regime change in Moscow. 

His meds are not working. He was rambling a bit during the State of the Union address.  Now?  Off script.

Lots of chatter but nothing substantive or new.

Heading out to my volunteer shift and then back here to pack.

Almost worth the jail time if I tried:

Nuttin' out there. Maybe later.

Still do it from time to time - you get caught up in the rhythm of the welding, the bead is laying down nice.
Looking like a perfect stack of dimes.
Flip the helmet up and DOH!

A bit of non-news from FOX News - you can ignore it.  Nothing to see here...

Harris' new press secretary deleted over 10,000 tweets before taking job
Vice President Harris’ new press secretary appeared to nuke over 10,000 of her tweets during the hiring process for her new White House gig.

On Wednesday, Fox News confirmed that Harris tapped Kirsten Allen, her former deputy national press secretary during the 2020 Democratic primary race and current national press secretary for coronavirus response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to be her new spokeswoman.

Allen, amid the months-long vacancy for Harris' chief spokesperson role, deleted more than half of her posts on Twitter between Jan. 2 and 10 of this year. According to Social Blade, a social media analytics tool, Allen had 17,880 tweets on Jan. 2, 2022, but then about a week later she only had 7,286 tweets, which means she deleted over 10,000 tweets.

Over 3K comments - a fun read.  Sending 17K tweets - someone has a lot of time on their hands...

Love it.  Russia is playing hardball with the globalists and winning bigly.
From Karl Denninger at Market Ticker:

The Economic Side Dish
Russia has announced that it will soon require payment for its natural gas (and, presumably, all other exports) in Rubles.  This is of course quite reasonable, since the resource depleted is theirs, and thus payment should be in their currency.

I smelled this coming when the sanctions were announced.  Russia's GDP is about 25% energy sales (Ed: Note for the peanut gallery -- this is the entire production chain, not just the money received -- remember that to produce it you must drill it, build and maintain the infrastructure, etc. and all of that is GDP); this is not "small ball" by any means, and since they've been sanctioned acquiring the Rubles with which to pay will get quite interesting.

The first lessons in economics all deal with supply and demand, and how that impacts price.  What do you think happens when you have to obtain Rubles and there aren't many available?  Uh...... yeah, Russia not only evades the sanctions they make a monstrous profit as a direct consequence of the stupidity of Western Nations in implementing them and since you can't replace said Russian energy the only way to stop it is to drop the sanctions!

Now let's talk about the impact right here when it comes to monetary policy, because there is impact -- but its not, as so many people have howled about over the years, "de-dollarization" or any such tripe.  It's much simpler and again, is a function of nothing more than basic economics.

Much more at the site - a really thourough look.  Russia has Europe over a barrel - literally.  Does not hurt that Putin has been funding the enviro activists who got Europe to go off reliable baseload energy in the first place.  Insecure energy and massive government subsidies for intermittent "replacements" - of course Russia profits.
Vladimir is chuckling...

From Safe Space Cafe

Speaking truth to power...

The fruit does not fall far from the tree.  From Just The News:

Amid Capitol riot, FBI released files from Kennedy-era investigation into Nancy Pelosi's father
While Washington, D.C. was riveted Jan. 6 on events at the U.S. Capitol, the FBI quietly released a trove of files from an "urgent" — yet seemingly controlled — investigation 60 years ago into Nancy Pelosi's father.

The files reveal the results of an intense two-month investigation into Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., a Maryland politician who served in a long career as a member of Congress and mayor of Baltimore.

John F. Kennedy's White House ordered the investigation after JFK planned to appoint D'Alesandro to a government post. A routine FBI name check revealed "allegations" against D'Alessandro, according to a Feb. 6, 1961 teletype from "FBI Director."

A few excerpts - organised crime:

"In 1945 it was alleged that one Charles F. Cammarata had been able to get away with all sorts of criminal activities in Baltimore, Maryland, and had operated almost unmolested due to his friendship with and the protection of Congressman D'Alesandro," one unnamed agent wrote in a Jan. 30, 1961 memo to the White House.

And connections to Communism:

Elsewhere, the memo cites a "confidential source, who has furnished reliable information in the past," reporting that D'Alesandro appeared onstage at a 1943 rally for the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, which was formed in 1943 by the Communist Party USA as a Soviet front group, according to the FBI.

The following year, the memo notes, D'Alesandro was reported as the main speaker at an event for the International Workers Order, an insurance organization placed on a list of subversive organizations by the U.S. attorney general in 1947 and later disbanded by order of the New York State Insurance Department for being too closely aligned with the Communist Party, in violation of regulations prohibiting political activity in the industry.

And of course:

Speaker Pelosi did not respond to questions from Just the News

She is just another tool of the deep state.

From Knuckledraggin'

Discovery should be fun - from the New York Post:

Trump sues Hillary Clinton, DNC over ‘unthinkable’ Russia ‘plot’ in 2016 election
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, accusing them of “an unthinkable plot” to tie him to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida, also accuses others in the Clinton campaign and DNC of shielding the former secretary of state from the plot.

“In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot — one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” the lawsuit says.

“Acting in concert, the defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty,” it says. “The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme — falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources — are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the Watergate [scandal] pale in comparison.”

Going to be interesting - the first real shot across the bow of the deep-state.

He went off-script today and the optics are not good:

The reporter understands very well - it is Slow Joe who is out of touch.
Vladimir is watching this and chuckling...

Louis Rossmann's video channel is fascinating.  He started off doing very deep-level repair of computers - replacing components on the circuit boards instead of just swapping modules.  He got into the right to repair movement (here, here and here for starters) and is now in Washington, D.C. working with some farmers regarding having the ability to repair your own stuff. He was walking around and noticed something curious:

From *Resident Biden's official twitter account for today (03/23/2022):

Minor question...  Those are deciduous trees in front of the White House.  It is March and they are fully leafed out? Quick check of the weather shows a 95% chance of rain and scattered t-storms.  Joe seems a bit underdressed for the weather - no umbrella?   Sunglasses while it is raining?

Our Southern border is wide open but  *Resident Biden and Doctor Jill want a high fence for their own property.
From Creative Desitruction Media:

BREAKING: Joe & Jill Apply For Variance To Make Fence Higher Around DE Beach Home, While Southern Border Remains Wide Open

An observant resident of Rehoboth Beach, DE, Joe Biden’s home community, brought to our attention that Jill Biden has applied for a variance from the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission to make the fence around their compound higher.

Allright for me but not for thee...

Working away on thinning out my crap precious belongings to good result.  Got plenty to sell on Craigslist and Nextdoor and some stuff to donate to the thrift store.  Time to rehome a bunch of things that I no longer use or have interest in...

Lunch, surf and back to work.

These poor fools are willfully ensconced in their bubble with zero clue how the world really works.  But everyone we know agrees with the narrative and we are the elite - it is our job to lead the masses out of their darkness and confusion and into the workers utopia.
From the London Daily Mail:

The blind leading the blind! NYC Mayor Eric Adams turns to Chicago's Lori Lightfoot for ideas on how to tackle subway crime and gun violence... even as violent crime surges 34% in the Windy City

• • Adams and Lightfoot met privately and had a 'hastily scheduled' presser Friday
  • The mayors of New York and Chicago pledged to work together to fight crime
  • Crime in NYC is up 45% compared to last year - in Chicago it's up 34%
  • Transit crimes are also up in both cities, with Adams saying that he hopes to 'learn' from what Lightfoot and Chicago officials are doing to combat it
  • Crime, a major part of Adam's candidacy, continues to go up following a staggering 60% increase in the month of February over the same period last year

Sad - I had hopes for Adams. Chicago?  A write-off. One person is shot every 3:25 minutes and one person is murdered every 16:16 minutes.  Unnecessary and this could be fixed in a few years.  The liberals would clutch their pearls and cry about justice but you know what?  Screw them.  Let them get shot and see how it feels.  Let one of their family members get murdered.

And yeah, Chicago has some of the most draconian gun laws in the US.
How is that working out for you?

Very plausible given the prior involvement of the deep-state children of Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, Romney, etc... in Ukraine.   Again, I feel horrible for the Ukranian people but the government is about as corrupt as it can be.  Massive PR campaign to promote Zelenskyy as the plucky underdog anti-hero standing up to the big bully.

Instead, it's deep-state business as usual.  Nothing new here.

Placed an order with ULINE

I have a lot of fragile things as well as things that are sensitive to vibration.  Picked up a couple rolls of foam wrap as well as some sheets of rigid polyethylene closed-cell foam.  The Poly foam is great stuff - it gives under pressure but is stiff enough to hold its shape. Also, being closed-cell, it does not shed and it does not absorb dirt or liquids.

My trailer is 5' wide by a bit over 8' long so, yeah, a lot of shipping materials...

From Project Veritas:

Microsoft Corporation Legal Documents Show Biden DOJ Spying on Project Veritas Journalists; Hides it from Federal Court Judge

• • Microsoft Corporation legal documents obtained by Project Veritas show that after a U.S. District Court Judge rejected the DOJ’s argument to ignore Project Veritas’ “journalistic privileges,” the DOJ went behind the judge’s back to obtain an extension on two sealed non-disclosure orders from a magistrate judge to conceal the fact they already had unsupervised and unfettered access to privileged emails and contacts of eight Project Veritas journalists.
  • Judge Torres had ruled that prosecutors must operate under the supervision of a Special Master to ensure first amendment protections are upheld for Project Veritas journalists and their source material.
  • These documents reveal that the government not only ignored that order, but also attempted to hide the fact they had obtained emails for time periods far outside the scope of the investigation.

A lot more at the site. Just one taste:  (SDNY = Southern District of New York — ie: New York City)

The documents reveal a peak into the SDNY’s covert surveillance of American journalists, commenced by Assistant United States Attorney, Robert B. Sobelman.

The surveillance culminated in a search warrant seeking every email sent to or from Project Veritas founder and CEO, James O’Keefe, for a three-month period, along with every contact he had ever saved. By virtue of these orders, the SDNY gained unsupervised and unfettered access to O’Keefe’s emails – including privileged communications with his attorneys and notes to and from O’Keefe’s confidential sources, among other constitutionally protected communications.

The SDNY also managed to convince a rotating cadre of magistrates to give the SDNY unchecked access to seven other journalists’ emails and contacts.

Not one iota of shame - hanging is too good for Sobelman.  They need to bring back drawing and quartering - used to be the common punishment for treason.  Pressing would be good too.

The world is blowing up but nothing really catches my eye.  Enui.

Time to take the dogs for a walk, get some coffee and come back home and pack some more boxes.  Looking at getting this place listed at the end of April.  Farm in June.  Feels really good to be moving on.

Much much more at the site. Some history and some current events. The truth in all cases:

These are people who think they’re clever enough to deal with powerful foreign countries run by sane people. They’re not, and those foreign powers have taken note of that fact. The kind of Americans the world fears or respects have been put out of government and military leadership and replaced by a menagerie of nursing home patients, human resources ladies, affirmative action hires, sexual degenerates, and obese four-star generals angling for board seats on the next Theranos start-up. The day of reckoning has arrived. Leaders like Putin, Xi, and Mohammed bin Salman are no longer amenable to being pushed around and morally browbeaten by the circus freaks that constitute the United States Government.

The Washington cabal has long treated Ukraine as their own personal playground. From Hunter Biden’s adventures with Burisma to U.S.-funded bioweapons labs to Ukraine’s status as the top source country for Clinton Foundation donations and child sex slaves, the place is a base for the most corrupt of the Western elite. They don’t want to let it go, which is partly the reason they’ve propagandized the entire Western world into a frenzied mania over a military operation that has thus far avoided the civilian population to a far greater extent than NATO’s past operations in Libya and Yugoslavia.

Read the whole thing.  We need some adults in the room stat.

Liberals love to excercise a very selective memory when it comes to decrying the evils of colonialization.
From Knuckledraggin':

They see the future and want no part of it. From The Washington Times

Kamala Harris’ national security adviser steps down amid Ukraine crisis
Nancy McEldowney, the national security adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, has stepped down, the White House announced Monday.

The White House did not give a reason for her departure but issued a statement saying Ms. McEldowney was “a close and trusted” adviser to Ms. Harris whose work “made a significant positive difference.”

Ms. McEldowney sees the writing on the wall - Joe and Kamala will not finish out their terms of office.  Better for their career to bail out early than to go down with the ship.  McEldowney is the tenth Harris adviser to leave.

Sad story - the Spanish government is socialist and they have bought into a lot of the green energy scams.  Here, they were selling solar arrays to citizens with the idea that they would be subsidised, that the citizens would pay to buy these for a few years and than after they had been paid off, the citizens would then recieve revenue from the sale of electricity to the grid.

The subsidies were so much of an incentive that they oversold the program and subsequently ran out of money leaving this poor guy (and everyone else) high and dry and deep in debt.

From France24:

Once again, central planning simply does not work. Never has. The people involved in centra planning think that they are smart.  They are not.  They are credentialed.  There is a huge difference...

Good to see Facebook get what's coming to them.  When I hired on at MSFT in 1997, the same thing was happening - the stock price was still crashing from the dotcom bubble so the vestments were not worth anything.  Still, it was a blast - a very fun five years. Got to work with some amazing people and some amazing equipment.

From the New York Post:

Meta employees look to ditch jobs amid stock crash: ‘Feeling like s–t’
Shares of Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have plummeted more than 40% over the past six months — and some employees saddled with underwater stock options are eyeing the exits.

“Joined Meta near [all time stock high], now feeling like s—t,” one Meta employee said this week in a popular thread on Blind, a corporate message board with verified members. “What should I do?”

“Leave this crap place,” another “Metamate” responded.

“Same boat,” a third said, adding that they’re “already interviewing” at other companies.

“Duh, you’re supposed to think Meta, Metamates, and me. Ask yourself if this train of thought is good for the company,” a fourth joked. “Just kidding… it super sucks.”

They (and Twitter and Google) started out OK but their management was seduced by the dark side.  I thought that sort of crap was only supposed to happen in the movies.

Sucks for the employees though - they were probably hired for shit wages with the understanding that they would get shares of META that they could accrue and cash out. Channeling my inner Nelson Muntz

Uneventful trip up and back - got home about 90 minutes ago. Quick dinner and spending the evening working on a few projects here.

Been eating lunch as the main meal of the day and having almost nothing for breakfast.  Intermittent fasting and feeling quite good now that I have been doing it for a couple months. Also lost about 15 pounds - want to do another ten or so...

Surf and then some videos.  Lisa made it to Florida this afternoon - she is working there until later in April.

Rain is starting to move in - perfect timing for my run North today.  Stuff in the trailer would have gotten too wet tomorrow or for the rest of this week.   Spending tomorrow doing some shopping and working in the storage garage.

Bringing some tool cabinets up to the conex boxes today.  Got a pineapple express atmospheric river forecast to hit tomorrow and the rest of the week is supposed to be quite wet.  Sneaking this load in before all the weather.

Time for a bit of coffee...

From his twitter account:

As they say: "Change my mind"

Sounds about right - from Roger Kimball at American Greatness:

Biden’s Handlers Are Preparing to Eject Him (and Kamala)
I sense a disturbance in the force. In fact, I’ve been feeling the tremors for a while. Back in January, I wrote a column for American Greatness called “The Coming Dethronement of Joe Biden.” In it, I noted that Biden’s appalling performance as president would sooner or later—and probably sooner, given the ostentatious nature of his multifaceted failure—lead to his removal as president.

I should have added that it wasn’t Biden’s performance per se that would lead to his downfall. The problem, rather, was the way his performance was undermining his—and therefore his minders’ and puppetmasters’—political power. As Saul Alinsky, community organizer to the stars, noted, the “issue is never the issue.” Accordingly, the people who put Joe Biden in power—I cannot name them, but I know they are the same people who keep him in power—do not care about inflation, rising gas and food prices, COVID lockdowns or mask mandates, the porousness of our Southern border, the threat of war with Russia, or the myriad other issues that worry ordinary voters. I am quite certain, in fact, that the word “voters” brings a vaguely contemptuous smile to their faces.

They are not troubled by the suffering of the people, indeed, they approve of a certain amount of suffering. Suffering produces dependency; and dependency, in turn, is like an insurance policy for those who cater to it: the bureaucrats who fill the troughs that feed the populace. The point, of course, was never to end the dependency but to manage in such a way as to perpetuate and expand it. Joe Biden is an errand boy, a figurehead, in the metabolism of this great (not to say Great Society) act of political legerdemain.

Wonderfully written, good sense of history and spot on. Going to be an interesting lead-up to November...

Expecting nothing less from big pharma and our putative elites - from FOX News:

COVID-19 rapid test recalled for 'high number' of false positive reports
The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that a healthcare company has recalled 45,500 COVID-19 rapid tests due to a "high number of false positive reports."

Pharmaceutical company Celltrion USA announced on Feb. 28 it is recalling specific lots of the DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test due to the high number of false-positive reports, an FDA recall webpage read on Wednesday.

Should never have left the shipping dock if there was the slightest chance of error or doubt. And the investigation and fines?  Not holding my breath...

Fun comment from an interview with Tucker Carlson. From Slay News:

Kid Rock Tells Tucker Carlson Why He’s ‘Uncancelable’: “Because I don’t give a f*ck, there’s nobody I’m beholden too”
Music legend Kid Rock sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson and told the Fox News star his secret to avoid getting canceled by the left, their friends in the media, big tech and corporate America.

Tucker played a short clip to promote the appearance writing: “The legendary Kid Rock sits down with Tucker for a rare one-on-one interview. And nothing is off the table. You’ll see part of the fascinating discussion Monday on Tucker Carlson Tonight at 8 pm ET on Fox News.”

In the video you can see below, Carlson asked Kid Rock, “Why haven’t you been canceled? People aren’t allowed to say what they think, you are.” Kid Rock revealed his secret to rise above the hysterical left:

“I am uncancelable,” Kid Rock said.

Carlson asked, “Why’s that?”

Kid Rock said:

“Because I don’t give a f*ck and I’m not in bed with any big corporate things at the end of the day, there’s nobody I’m beholden too, no record companies, no nothing.

So true.  The funny thing is that their record sales are booming.  People like Kid Rock and Tom MacDonald are speaking to We The People and We The People are responding with our dollars. Ain't capitalism grand...  Funny too as "traditional" media outlets like Billboard Magazine try to skew the numbers - promote the agreed-upon music while supressing the independent "inconvenient" artists. (video:  part one and part two)   This is so plain to see that it really highlights the dinosaur media and how they simply need to die.  They are not adapting.  They are not changing with the times.

Mental illness? Liberalism.  From the NY Times:

Covid and the ‘Very Liberal’
The left-right divide over Covid-19 — with blue America taking the virus more seriously than red America — has never been the pandemic’s only political divide. Each partisan tribe has also had its internal disagreements.

Republicans have long been split over vaccination, with many eagerly getting shots while many others refuse. Democrats have their own growing schism, between those who believe Covid precautions should continue to be paramount and those who favor moves toward normalcy.

The key dividing line appears to be ideology. Americans who identify as “very liberal” are much more worried about Covid than Americans who identify as “somewhat liberal” or “liberal.” Increasingly, the very liberal look like outliers on Covid: The merely liberal are sometimes closer to moderates than to the very liberal.

That is a central finding of a poll conducted last week by Morning Consult for this newsletter. The poll is a follow-up to one from January. This time, to go deeper than partisan identification, we asked respondents to choose one of seven labels: very liberal, liberal, slightly liberal, moderate, slightly conservative, conservative or very conservative.

Makes perfect sense - the more liberal a person is, the less comfortable they are stepping outside the confines of their "bubble".  The less prone they are to listening to stories that differ from their collective 'narrative'.

Great comment - from The Washington Times:

Kremlin takes swipe at Biden’s mental capacity in pushback to criticism of Putin
The Kremlin on Friday took a shot at President Biden’s cognitive ability after he called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator.”

Speaking with reporters in Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced Mr. Biden’s frequent gaffes at public events.

“Given Mr. Biden’s irritability, his fatigue and sometimes forgetfulness … which ultimately leads to aggressive statements, we probably will not give any sharp assessments so as not to cause more aggression,” Mr. Peskov said.

Love that last line...  No arguments there. Three more years and hopefully, the kiddies go back to kindergarten and we have some adults at the table again.

I am reminded of this advertisement from a few years ago - that's Joe in a nutshell:

Say it ain't so...  From ABC News:

Secret Service: Nearly $100B stolen in pandemic relief funds
Nearly $100 billion at minimum has been stolen from COVID-19 relief programs set up to help businesses and people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday.

The estimate is based on Secret Service cases and data from the Labor Department and the Small Business Administration, said Roy Dotson, the agency's national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator, in an interview. The Secret Service didn't include COVID-19 fraud cases prosecuted by the Justice Department.

They are working on clawing that money back but still - they could have been a little more careful:

The Secret Service said it has seized more than $1.2 billion while investigating unemployment insurance and loan fraud and has returned more than $2.3 billion of fraudulently obtained funds by working with financial partners and states to reverse transactions. The Secret Service says it has more than 900 active criminal investigations into pandemic fraud, with cases in every state, and 100 people have been arrested so far.

The Justice Department said last week that its fraud section had prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and had seized over $75 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with the proceeds.

Pulling shit like this needs to hurt and it needs to hurt bad.  They should make a very public example of a couple of people from each city.  Long sentences.  This is our money they are stealing - the fed.gov does not have any other real source of income.  Our tax dollars are what make it run.

From the Gateway Pundit:

NEW ACCUSATIONS: Russia Allegedly Presents More Evidence of US Biolab Research in Ukraine at UN Security Council Meeting (VIDEO)
The Russian Ambassador to the UN Security Council Vassily Nebenzia  charged that a “US-implemented program” of biological research in Ukraine may have triggered “uncontrolled dangerous infections in Ukraine”, including rubella, diphtheria, tuberculosis, measles, polio, and swine flu during his speech last week.   Nebenzia added, “By March 2016, a total of 364 people died of swine flu in Ukraine.”

“While the US itself shut down military-purpose biological research on its territory due to high risks it posed to American population, the Kiev authorities actually agreed to turn their country into a biological testing site and have their citizens used as potential test subjects,” Nebenzia charged.  Materials confiscated by the Russian Defense Ministry “prove that all serious high-risk research in Ukrainian biolabs was directly supervised by US experts who had diplomatic immunity,” Nebenzia claimed.

And the statement from the United States UN Ambassador

The US responded,  “This is malarkey, there are no biological weapons programs in Ukraine, this is a dark conspiracy theory.”

Guess which one I believe...

Coffee, thrift store and then to the storage garage.  This is on a large piece of property so letting the pups run there today after work.

Brain transplant on the older computer went perfectly - much peppier now.

Nothing much happening out "there" Same-old same-old.  Lisa is on her way to Austin, TX for the day - making good time.

More posting later this afternoon...

Western Digital SSD and some more ram into an older system. WD included a copy of Acronis but it fails to recognize the new SSD.  Windows 7.1 (so sue me - it's an older machine and it works)  Using the free version of Macrium Reflect and it works perfectly.  Acronis also has an app that runs when the computer boots and you can not kill it except through task manager.  I do not need this cruft and do not want to buy software that has it.

Acronis used to be nice and compact and lean - it snuffers from bloat.

Time to watch some videos.  Lisa is in Texas visiting a friend. Heading Eastward.

What a tone-deaf idiot. He said that in front of Taoiseach Michael Martin.  
Taoiseach is the position of head of government or Prime Minister.

To make things more interesting, Mr. Martin has departed the White House and will meet with our *Resident "virtually"  Covid 'ya know...

Normalizing perversion? From Twitchy:

WH gets snippy, calls Josh Hawley’s thread on Ketanji Brown Jackson and her record of going easy on sex offenders ‘toxic’ (but they can’t really disprove it)
As Twitchy readers know, Josh Hawley put together a quite frankly terrifying thread about Biden’s SCOTUS pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and her history of going easy on sex offenders. He actually pointed out that she would let ‘child porn offenders’ off the hook, and highlighted several cases where this was her ruling.

You’d think if Hawley’s accusations were out of line they would just claim he was wrong, with a simple, ‘No, this is incorrect’ sort of response. Instead, they called his thread toxic, got pretty snippy, and claimed he cherry-picked cases. When you think about it, it makes sense since he’s looking for things that could be an issue.

That’s not really cherry-picking, that’s doing his job.

They can not deny it. Lots of pedophilia cases in the news these days - they got four Disney employees recently. Judge Jackson was hand-picked by *Resident Biden's handlers. Lots more at the site.  Twitchy is a Twitter aggregator - it will combine the tweets to extract the story - they publish the links to the originals as well as preserve screen-captures in case of deletion.

If it had not been him, there would have been someone else but jeezzzz...  What a putz.  A couple of times I actually tried to read his writings - talk about impenetrable and turgid.  He was not smart at all.

Cold, raining and dismal - got plenty to do on the island.  Heading back to the farm next week.

Surf, lunch and then to work...

7.3 Magnitude 63.1km depth so not as strong on the surface but still...

No tsunami warning for CONUS or Hawaii 

Out for coffee and then up to the farm.  A busy couple of days.  Back tomorrow for the weekend.

Nothing much happening online - heading up to the farm again tomorrow.  Lisa is on her way East - visiting some family. Signing off for now...

From Bleeping Computer:

Microsoft is testing ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer
Microsoft has begun testing promotions for some of its other products in the File Explorer app on devices running its latest Windows 11 Insider build.

The new Windows 11 "feature" was discovered by a Windows user and Insider MVP who shared a screenshot of an advertisement notification displayed above the listing of folders and files to the File Explorer, the Windows default file manager.

As shown in the screenshot, Microsoft will use such ads to promote other Microsoft products, for instance, about how to "write with confidence across documents, email, and the web with advanced writing suggestions from Microsoft Editor."

As you can imagine, the reaction to this was adverse, to say the least, with some saying that File Explorer is "one of the worst places to show ads," while others added that this is the way to go if Microsoft wants "people ditching Explorer for something else."

Well, the good news is that as a Linux enthusiast, this will bring more and more people over to it and away from the dark side (I include Macs in that category). Talk about a bone-headed idea and I can see the goblins in management salivating at the thought of monetizing that piece of real-estate...

All we are talking about is shifting the clocks so that they no longer agree with our natural world.

The sun is at its highest point around Noon.  High noon?

If we wanted to "gain" extra light, why not just shift business hours from 9-to-5 over to 8-to-4 — that would accomplish the same exact thing, it would keep our time in line with the solar system and we would not be at "odds" with the other nations on this planet who do not participate in this foolishness.

From Reuters:

U.S. Senate approves bill to make daylight saving time permanent
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, ending the twice-annual changing of clocks in a move promoted by supporters advocating brighter afternoons and more economic activity.

The Senate approved the measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, unanimously by voice vote. The House of Representatives, which has held a committee hearing on the matter, must still pass the bill before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign.

I think that they have more important things to be working on. This is unreal.

Going to get the username and password from my manager there so I can resolve this.  Only network location that gives me problems. Curious...

Heading to the farm in a few minutes - loaded up and ready to roll.

Given the network issues I had last time, I will probably not post until Tuesday late afternoon.

From Tom's Hardware:

'China's Silicon Valley' Locked Down, Could Affect Supply Chains
The Chinese government has acted decisively today to try and stem a Covid-19 outbreak in Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people that borders Hong Kong. The metropolis has now gone into total lockdown, which means people must work at home if they can; otherwise, all businesses must "suspend production." Shenzhen is a well-known tech and finance hub, and impacts on the former may send a shock through the IT industry supply chain.

Commodities analyst Eric Yeung shared the official notice from the Shenzhen Epidemic Prevention and Control Department. He also commented, "RIP US supply chain." The message says that essential organizations delivering medical, food, and fuel supplies may continue, but all non-essential businesses and services must close. The lockdown, started today, has a preliminary end date of March 20. However, the lockdown experience suggests the government can shift the date further into the month.

The Associated Press has more background on the lockdown and the period leading up to China's entire Shenzhen lockdown decision. It notes that 60 new cases of Covid were recorded in Shenzhen on Sunday, and this number was sufficient to nudge the government to implement a complete lockdown.

And from 9TO5 MAC:

Foxconn halts iPhone factory operations in China due to COVID lockdown
Foxconn, one of Apple’s major suppliers, has halted operations in Shenzhen, China, due to a lockdown imposed by the local government following a new COVID-19 outbreak. There, the Taiwanese company has factories responsible for assembling iPhones and other Apple products.

As reported by Bloomberg, the lockdown has led Foxconn to suspend operations at two of its campuses in Shenzhen. To reduce the impact of the lockdown, the company has relocated production to other sites that are still operating regularly. The lockdown is expected to last until March 20.

Lockdown is short - ending March 20th but still.  This is a bit drastic for something that is about as serious as a bad cold...

Heading out for coffee, linger over a book for a while, pack the van and head to the farm.  Rain in the forecast (another pineapple express) but working inside.

Nothing much on the internet - another similarity between Wuhan Flu and AIDS has been written about in a new paper.  Waiting for corroboration on that.  Also, just as politicians have "foundations" to hide their shady dealings and grift (think Clinton Global Foundation), it seems that government agencies benefit by these as well - from an email:

One of the primary vehicles for kickbacks and fraud seems to be foundations associated with federal agencies. This article will highlight and expose yet another way we are being conned and manipulated by examining the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health1 (FNIH), whose board is plastered with major Big Pharma players.

This raises serious questions about conflicts of interest, seeing how the foundation oversees the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars — unregulated funds that typically go right back into the coffers of the drug industry. It’s a very clever strategy to extract even more funds from the American taxpayers.

This conflict of interest also, at least in part, helps explain the actions of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and now-retired director of the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins.2 Both have gone out of their way to protect the makers of COVID shots and dismiss evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was created in and escaped from a lab.

Interesting in that, of the FNIH's eight board members, one is from BlackRock, one is from Goldman Sachs, one is a Sackler (opioid epidemic) and four are big-pharma managers.  BillG's own foundation donated $96M in 2020 - 15% of the FNIH operating budget.  These goblins are setting policy with no transparency. We have no laws to pull their teeth. Pure evil.

Helping the poor and downtrodden in the black communities?
Not on your life - helping themselves to a luxe lifestyle is more like it.

From RedState - referencing this article at the Boston Globe:

Another Black Lives Matter Scandal Emerges
It might surprise you to learn that Black Lives Matter (BLM) appears to be going through another financial scandal. Well, perhaps after the news exposing the reality that the global organization appears to have gotten funny with the money broke late last year, it might not exactly be a shocker.

The Boston Globe reported about a community organizer in the city who became well-known after organizing protests in the wake of the George Floyd murder. She is now under federal investigation over allegations that she and her husband misused donations given to her nonprofit, Violence in Boston Inc. The author writes:

Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, who started her charity with $1,000 in 2017 and now operates out of a 4,000-square-foot headquarters in Hyde Park, has come under scrutiny as part of an investigation by the US Attorney’s office that led to the October arrest of her husband, Clark Grant, and the raid of their Taunton home.

A federal grand jury issued a subpoena for records from the Suffolk District Attorney’s office, which is one of several public and private entities that donated to the activist’s organization. Investigators are attempting to ascertain whether any of the donations or grant money the organization received were used for personal expenses.

And hubby Clark?

“Federal prosecutors allege he collected $67,950 in COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits between May 2020 and September 2021 although he was employed full time during that period, according to a 15-page criminal complaint,”

And this little item:

There isn’t much information on the nonprofit’s finances yet because it has not yet filed tax documentation that is required of public charities.

Remember the line above: Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, who started her charity with $1,000 in 2017  That's four or five years of unfiled returns.  The IRS would come down on me like a house of bricks if I tried to pull that kind of crap on my personal and business accounts let alone a non-profit where the supposed records-keeping is a lot more stringent.

Groups like this get away with literal murder while We The People are treated like domestic terrorists.  Must be nice.

They were sitting patiently waiting for me to finish loading the trailer:

As in content thereof - from Eaton Rapids Joe:

From 90 Miles:

Sobering:

It has been an interesting experience with Truffle - a 20 pound pug/boxer rescue.  She has been living with us for about a year and it took the longest time for her to realize that she was, in fact, NOT Alpha of this pack. Bear (an 80 pound and very mellow German Shepherd) was amused.  I needed to get some training done so it was a bit of a battle for the first few months.

Never thought about it with cats - they would have the same initial assessment of their status and it would come as a shock that they were not revered as the gods they are.

Swipped in full from Chris Lynch:

Heh Heh

"The Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Two neighbouring houses are projecting blue and yellow onto its facade. The ambassador is reportedly 'apoplectic.'" - Roger Hutchinson

Indeed - super easy to implement and there is nothing they can do about it.
Perfect loss of face to the general public.

Slow news day. Spent the morning at the thrift store - back here for some lunch and then off to the storage unit to sort and box more stuff.

Looked online but nothing really catches my eye...

Looks like our new home is in for a spot of winter weather - weather.com

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO 1 PM EST SATURDAY...
WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches. Winds gusting as high as 40 mph.
WHERE...Cherokee and Clay Counties.
WHEN...From 4 AM to 1 PM EST Saturday.
IMPACTS...Snow and ice covered roadways are possible, mainly across the higher elevations, secondary roadways, bridges and overpasses.

From what I heard talking to people, the whole county will shut down if there is even a dusting on the ground.  Not used to it.  The whole East Coast is getting hit - London Daily Mail:

More than 20M people are under winter weather warnings as powerful 'bomb cyclone' storm heads toward the Northeast: New York and New England to bear the brunt while South and Midwest brace for treacherous mix of thunderstorms and snow

• • Snowfall totals range from 1-3 inches in Alabama and Mississippi to more than a foot in northern Maine
  • The storm is heading from the central US to the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast
  • Georgia, the Panhandle and the Carolinas could get severe thunderstorms
  • More than a foot of snow is possible in places like New York and New England
  • Schools from Kansas City to Pittsburgh have announced weather closures
  • A cold front on Friday is bringing temperatures down by 30 degrees below average from Texas to Minnesota

Certainly could use some of that Global Warming about now.  Where's Al Gore these days?

Older sister of Willie - a really nice obituary at Texas Monthly:

Sister Bobbie Grounded Willie Nelson in His Music—And His Life
No musician has sung, played, and written more different kinds of American music than Willie Nelson. And no musician was more important to Willie than his older sister Bobbie, who died March 10. She was 91. The two played together for an astonishing eighty-plus years, from the time they were children in tiny Abbott, Texas, to their last show at the Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels on October 9. Through all those performances—in their humble living room growing up; at Austin’s scrappy, surreal Armadillo World Headquarters in the seventies; at the later, near-nightly triumphs in storied halls like London’s Royal Albert—Bobbie grounded Willie. She gave him security and direction. Sometimes she led him; other times he led her. They shared something sacred that everyone else could only admire. “When we get into music,” she once said, “something happens. There’s magic between me and Willie.”

But while fans have long appreciated the wonders the two created onstage and in studios, few outside Willie World know how pivotal Bobbie was to his life and career. At shows, she was the quiet one, sitting demurely at the piano bench, focused on the keys, and interacting little with the crowd, her long, dark hair spilling out from a wide-brimmed black hat across her embroidered shirt. Each night Willie would draw attention her way, moving to the piano and watching intently while she played her showpiece, the instrumental “Down Yonder.” Casual fans likely thought he was being polite; Bobbie never made a big show out of what she was doing. But Willie would tell you she was the most important person onstage. The myth of Willie Nelson—the Austin renaissance after years of frustration in Nashville, the ensuing five decades of continued creative rebirth and international stardom—is a true story and one of the world’s favorites. But none of it would have happened without Sister Bobbie.

Really thoughtful and well written. A life well lived.

From Knuckledraggin'

There has been a big dietary shift over the last 60 years or so.  Saturated and animal fats got a really bad rap. Everyone switched over to seed and vegetable oils.  Whoops... From The Epoch Times:

Groundbreaking Conference Reveals Health Risks of Seed Oils
Medical doctors, researchers, and other experts spoke on March 3 at the “Future of Fat” virtual summit, the first-ever meeting dedicated exclusively to the harmful effects of oils made from vegetables or seeds, including canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil.

Such oils have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, cancer, macular degeneration, and other chronic diseases.

“There are other conferences that focus on oils and fats broadly speaking. We don’t know of any other that have brought together MDs, Ph. Ds, doctors, and environmental scientists to discuss the impact of vegetable/seed oils specifically,” said Jeff Nobbs, co-founder, and CEO of Zero Acre Farms, in an email interview with The Epoch Times.

“Vegetable oils are ubiquitous in restaurants and fast-food and packaged food including bread, crackers, cereal, granola, chips, dried fruits, salad dressings, mayonnaise, sauces, fried foods, ice cream, baked goods, and other snacks,” he said. “Vegetable oils now account for 20 percent of our daily calories, which represents the greatest increase in sources of calories in the last 100 years, since the globalization era began.”

The conference website is here:  Future of Fat

Just preliminary information so far - it will be interesting to see how much traction this gets with the general public. Lisa and I are both watching our diet and it was amazing how much Omega-6 I was consuming.  Dropped a lot of it out a few months ago and feeling great.

From Associated Press:

Security Council to hear Russian claim of US labs in Ukraine
The U.N. Security Council scheduled a meeting Friday at Russia’s request to discuss what Moscow claims are “the military biological activities of the U.S. on the territory of Ukraine,” allegations vehemently denied by Ukraine’s leader and the Biden administration.

“This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack,” Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said late Thursday. “We’re not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the U.N. Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation.“

The Russian request, announced in a tweet Thursday afternoon from its first deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, follows the U.S. rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine is running chemical and biological labs with U.S. support.

Heh - Putin has the dirt on the deep-state - it will be fun to watch them spin their little hearts out...

Been working out in the fresh air - feeling nice and sleepy

Watch a few videos and then to sleep...

Might learn something - 150 days is about right.
He could stand a few lessons on humility and respect.
Some clickable headlines:

• Bigoted Race Hoaxer Jussie Smollett Sentenced to 150 Days in Jail . . .
• Jussie Smollett sentencing (Update: Judge Linn 'You put the noose around your own neck.') (Update: Smollett: 'I am innocent! And I am not suicidal')
• Jussie Smollett Request for New Trial Denied

But but but...  He dindu nuffin

It was branded as a conservative-friendly alternative search engine.

No more.

They are not returning searches on conservative websites - from Breitbart:

Diet Google: DuckDuckGo Will ‘Down-Rank’ What It Decides Is ‘Disinformation’
Popular privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, commonly considered an alternative to Google, has announced that it will be “down-ranking” sites associated with “disinformation,” along with adding “information boxes” to “highlight quality information.” The announcement received widespread backlash from DuckDuckGo supporters, who view the changes as adopting the censorship policies of the Masters of the Universe.

Screw them.

I switched over to Bing as a temporary fix - Microsoft's search engine.  I'll explore other options and report back when I settle on one.

The Breitbart article has 1,200+ comments — all along the same lines.  Dead duck.

Interesting - more soon...

UPDATE:

The store uses Comcast. When I tried to log in last Tuesday, I was presented with this screen:

Odd - I run security checks regularly and zero problems.  I checked with several online DNS blacklist and whitelist websites and my domain came up clean and green for all of the above. I also tried several different browsers.  Of course, my employee who handles such things is off during the first of the week and Comcast would not speak to me - the business owner - as my name was not on the account.

I could not even look at the site - it gave me the same error.  Curious...

Nothing much happening out there.  Ukraine but nobody is talking about any of the other issues.

Packed and ready to head North. Bringing the laptop.

Out for coffee and a few errands.  Heading to the farm later this afternoon - up there for two days.

More posting in a couple of hours...

From Associated Press:

Biden to ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia’s economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The move follows pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to U.S. and Western officials to cut off the imports, which had been a glaring omission in the massive sanctions put in place on Russia over the invasion. Energy exports have kept a steady influx of cash flowing to Russia despite otherwise severe restrictions on its financial sector.

Biden was set to announce the move as soon as Tuesday, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before his remarks. The White House said Biden would announce “actions to continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine.”

Most of our oil is coming in from Canada. Still, Russia accounts for a significant percentage and this will raise the price at the pump.  Remember when gas used to cost about $2/gallon? Back in the good old days - about a year ago? Remember when we used to be a net-exporter of oil?

Now, we are talking about importing from two hostile regimes - Venezuela and Iran

The Democrats own this.

Sleepy and nothing much on the internet.

Time to see if anything catches my eye on Rumble and that other video site.

Vladimir Putin still has his twitter account

President Trump's account was permanently "suspended" Friday, January 8th, 2021

Bias writ large

Ukraine this, Ukraine that - everyone is distracted.
Just what they want.

Foggy and cold morning.  The usual people are getting away with the usual bullshit.  Nothing else catches my eye on the internet. Busy day today so heading out.

From The Epoch Times:

Russia: Countries Allowing Ukraine to Use Their Airfields ‘May Be Regarded’ as Entering Conflict
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday warned that any country that offers the use of its airfields to Ukraine’s military for attacks on Russian assets could be considered as having entered the conflict.

“The use of the airfield networks of these countries to base Ukrainian military aircraft and their subsequent use against the Russian armed forces may be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the Interfax news agency on Sunday evening local time.

Konashenkov said Russian officials are aware of “Ukrainian combat plans which earlier flew to Romania and other neighboring countries,” without elaborating.

Since the conflict started on Feb. 24, the United States, its NATO allies, and other European nations have flooded Ukraine with missiles, anti-tank missiles, ammunition, weapons, and other supplies. There have also been reports claiming that European and NATO countries are working to sent fighter jets to Ukraine.

A small nit - this is not as bad as it sounds. The Russians are not doing anything about airfields that are being used to transship materiel and ordnance, just (in their own words) "offers the use of its airfields to Ukraine’s military for attacks on Russian assets"  Still, quite the escalation. Putin has backed himself into a corner.

I feel sorry for President Zelensky - he seems to genuinly care for his people and for Ukraine.  Unfortunately, Ukraine is under control of the deep state and is where the Western elite's send their children to launder their money.  Biden is common knowledge.  The fact that Pelosi, Kerry and Romney's sons are over there too is not as well known. The poor citizens (and soldiers on both sides) just happen to be caught in the middle.

President Zelensky may have palled around with Trudeau but remember, he is not a member of the deep state.  Neither was Trump and when someone like that gets in office, the deep state has two choices - recruit them or destroy them.  I think that President Zelensky was probably very flattered that some of the world "leaders" would spend time with him.  I bet that his eyes are opened now - I hope he survives long enough to write a big book... 

Full size here

You actually believed them?

The US government is getting pressured to stop buying Russian oil. Currently, 1/3rd of our oil comes from there.  Where are we looking? At a Russian satellite nation - the people's republic of Venezuela. From FOX News:

Biden admin courts Venezuela as Russian economy takes hits from sanctions
Several senior Biden administration officials from the White House and State Department traveled to Venezuela on Saturday to meet with the Russian ally as Moscow’s economy begins to crater under the weight of sanctions, according to a report.

The U.S. is hoping to capitalize on Russia’s economic weakness three years after the Kremlin – along with China and Iran – came to Venezuela’s financial aid when the Trump administration cut diplomatic ties with Caracas and imposed sanctions on oil exports in the Latin American country amid Western accusations of an illegitimate election, The New York Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Venezuela used to be the most prosperous nation in South America.  They used to export food.  Now? They can barely feed their own people.  Amazing what 64 years of socialist governance will do.

The elites are suffering from Dunning Kruger but they have amassed the power to try to implement their ideologies.  If you look at history, you will see that most of these ideas have not ever worked.  They will not work now or in the future.  No mater how much technology you throw at something, tyranny is still tyrrany and it is repulsive.

JP Sears usually does humorous videos - this one is serious and well worth your time to watch:

Not just a "horse de-wormer" - Ivermectin's anti-viral properties are well established.  It is also cheap and harmless to mammals so even if it does not work, it will do no harm and cost pennies. I have some and have been taking a dose every other week - have not had a cold or any other illness in two years.  Works for me.

From Rumble: A Letter to Andrew Hill

Dr. Hill is a useful idiot for big pharma.  Video is really damning against him and against the whole big-pharma medical establishment. They did it for the money, not for the healing.

One week ago I had written about these people: An interesting idea - Bonds for the Win

Here is a story about this tactic being met with great success.
From MAGA Institute:

“You’ve Been Served!” Citizen Activist Angela Matthews Tells Us How We Can Hold Our Politicians Accountable
North Carolina CPA, mom, and now County Commissioner candidate Angela Matthews joins the MAGA Institute Podcast to discuss how she and a group of like-minded patriots served the Iredell-Statesville (NC) School Board members with claims against their surety bonds.

Angela is part of a local Iredell County grassroots group called Moms For Liberty, which is advocating for the 20,000 children in their local school district. After a FOIA request for emails by school board members revealed that the members were colluding to “boost the numbers” in order to keep students masked, despite every reputable study showing that not only are masks not effective stopping transmission of SARS-CoV-2, they are immeasurably detrimental to both physical and mental health.

And her tactic:

Under NC Statute 159-29, each elected official is required to carry a Public Official bond to ensure that elected officials faithfully perform their duties as elected. If a public official has a claim made on his or her bond, they ban be removed from office and barred from ever holding elected office again.

Angela also discovered that each school board member was in violation of NC Statute 160A-61, which requires each elected official to physically sign an Oath of Office, which is to be kept by the County Clerk and available for public inspection at any time. Indeed, Angela found that the school board was in violation of an ADDITIONAL TWENTY-SIX state, federal, and international laws that child abuse, showing pornographic material to children under the age of 18, and improper disposal of toxic substances (the masks).

And, like any good little tyrant:

Despite being in a public building paid for by taxpayers, exercising her right to free speech, and serving legal papers on public officials, the school board attempted to weaponize the School Resource Officers at the meeting to have Angela arrested. When they called “for backup,” the local police officers outside asked why they would need backup, because Angela wasn’t breaking any law.

Wonderful - we have put up with the long march through the institutions for too long. Time to get this small minority of social malcontents out of power and get We The People back in. They have had more than enough time to express their ideas and we reject them. Time to go back to what works. What is good for our Nation, good for our civilization and good for our citizens.

Your fifteen minutes of fame were over 20 years ago.
Bring an emesis bucket and visit here - they're back: 

Clinton Global Initiative

Seriously - haven't they fscked the world over enough?  All for personal gain.

UPDATE BELOW:
Click for the rest of the story:

CNN to Stop Broadcasting in Russia After Putin Signs Military ‘Misinformation’ Law

Still spreading misinformation here though.  Sigh...

UPDATE - not just CNN and Russia is showing some sharp teeth to the media.
From the London Daily Mail:

CNN, ABC and CBS News to stop broadcasting in Russia after Putin's threat to lock up journalists for 12 years: Bloomberg, BBC and Canada's CBC 'temporarily suspend' operations

• • CNN has said it would stop broadcasting in Russia while Bloomberg and the BBC said they would temporarily suspend the work of their journalists there
  • CBS News stated that it is no longer broadcasting from the country
  • ABC News has several correspondents working in the country currently but none were broadcasting from Russia on Friday night
  • CBC Canada 'temporarily suspended' the work of their journalists in the country

CNN International, the global arm of CNN, ABC and CBS News will stop broadcasting in Russia, after the Kremlin introduced a new law in the country that could jail anyone intentionally spreading 'fake' news.

Bloomberg News, the BBC and Canada's CBC also said they were temporarily suspending the work of their journalists inside Russia.

The teeth?

Lawmakers in Moscow passed amendments to the criminal code making the spread of 'fake' information an offense punishable with fines or jail terms. They also imposed fines for anyone calling for sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Gee - the journalists actually have to start reporting the truth.  That has to hurt.

Maybe they might even grow some ethics...

It has been below $3.40 for the longest time.  Something had to give
Elections have consequences...

From Sundance at Conservative Treehouse:

Surgeon General Asks Social Media Companies for Target List of COVID Skeptics and Influencers
Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, Vice Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service Surgeon General of the United States, is married to a woman named Dr. Alice Tu Chen. If you look into the past of the surgeon general’s wife, you will discover Alice Chen is essentially a ghost – from the perspective of: who were her parents, where is her family? The lack of early childhood, parental and familial history is a key characteristic of CCP plants in the U.S.

When the U.S. Dept of Justice recently announced they were dropping the Chinese spy initiative, a program to review how CCP officials had been working for years to seed the U.S. with Chinese operatives, indications are the DOJ motive was connected to serious internal discoveries surrounding the wife of the U.S. Surgeon General, Alice Chen. I do not say this lightly.

Unfortunately, a tangential outcome from eliminating the FBI “China Initiative’, is recognizing we now have a completely compromised U.S. Surgeon General who is a controlled mechanism for the Fourth Branch of Government to leverage. This is the background context for this story.

And the story gets more and more interesting from there.
160+ comments well worth reading.

From CNS News:

Government Grew by 24,000 Employees in February
Government in the United States grew by 24,000 employees in February, according to numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In January, government employed 22,174,000. In February, that increased to 22,198,000.

Big government needs to shrink, not grow.  President Trump had the right idea - he was able to do this.

Great observation - from musician John Rich:

New one from Tom MacDonald - he keeps getting more and more powerful in his writing
Worth noting that it was released about 12 hours ago and currently has 1,206,782 views
People are hungry for the truth.  CNN would kill to get such ratings:

And they wonder why their ratings are in the terlit:

From The Daily Beast:

Democrat Drops Congressional Bid After One Day Over Wacky Old Tweets
That didn’t take long.

A South Dakota Democrat who announced plans to run for Congress on Wednesday dropped out a day later, after his old Twitter posts came to light and raised eyebrows—and then some—in the prairie state.

Ryan Ryder, who planned to challenge GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson, emailed a statement announcing he was leaving the race after a single day. He apologized for the posts, which included fantasizing about creating a cartoon video of killing Johnson’s family, another one wishing Jan. 6, 2021, rioters had gotten their hands on the Republican congressman, and a third alluding to his masturbating to a photo of Gov. Kristi Noem.

The Democrats are operating on the level of six-year-olds.  They are not functioning adults. The only way to explain their actions and it fits.  It fits too well to be ignored. It sounds like the good citizens of South Dakota agree with me:

South Dakota Democrats last won a statewide race in 2008.

Sounds like a great tradition - let's keep it going well into the future.

From the Los Angeles Times:

LAPD bomb technician’s warnings were ignored before ill-fated fireworks detonation, report finds
Before members of the LAPD bomb squad destroyed part of a South L.A. neighborhood by exploding a stash of illegal fireworks last summer, they repeatedly ignored warnings from one of their most experienced technicians that the plan was not safe, according to a new report by the LAPD’s inspector general.

The member who raised concerns, identified only as “Bomb Technician C,” told investigators with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he had flagged both the volume and weight of fireworks being placed into the LAPD’s “total containment vessel,” or “TCV,” as excessive and too powerful for the vessel to control all at once.

“Based on my experience and everything, I said, uh, this is too much to do one shot, we’re gonna break them up, right?” the technician recalled saying to a colleague.

He said his colleagues and his supervisor told him that he was wrong and that he should “relax,” and the fireworks were loaded into the vessel all at once anyway, the inspector general found.

And the TCV in question?

A slight miscalculation...  That will buff right out...
No "before" photos unfortunately.

The Earth-shattering Ka Boom?

The subsequent blast, on June 30, ripped open the containment vessel and destroyed much of the surrounding neighborhood, damaging nearly 40 vehicles and 35 properties, injuring 17 people and displacing dozens more residents — many of whom have never returned.

Somebody has some esplainin' to do...

Great cartoon by Bob Moran:

From 90 Miles:
Backstory here

The enviros can be such hypocrites at times.
They are unaware of the reality outside of their very small bubble:

How many days can Biden actually function given his drug protocol?  They have to be dosing him pretty heavily to hide the decline and they are probaby only good for 12 hours or so.  Wondering when some video is leaked of him on a down day...

From TownHall:

As War Rages, Biden Has Weekend Plans
As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his unrelenting assault on Ukrainian citizens, committing war crimes through the use of cluster bombs and attacking nuclear sites in the country, President Joe Biden is headed home to Delaware for the weekend.

"In the evening, the President will travel to Wilmington, Delaware, where he will remain over the weekend," the White House daily schedule states.

Biden also went to Delaware last weekend for a family funeral. He has spent 35 weekends at home since taking office in January 2021.

Well, it's not as though he is actively involved in planning anything...  Still, spending half of his time in his basement is not a good optic.

No reliable news from Ukraine and the deep-state is sucessfully using it to deflect the media's attention from anything else. From what I hear, the damage to the nuke plant was minimal - the fire was in an administrative building and is out now.

Walkies, coffee, thrift store and packing.

Perfect solution — simple and cheap
What's your plan?

Funny how he completely dropped off the face of the planet.
Here is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases website for his Press Statements:

Go to the site and you can see three press releases for 02/17/2022, three for 02/16/2022, a scattering of releases (four total) for the first two weeks of February and then back to a couple/day before then.  It's like he was really actively promoting himself up through the end of January 2022, he was taken offline for two weeks at the beginning of February, surfaced for a few days around the middle of the month and then has dropped clean out of sight since then.

What happened? He was such an easy target to poke fun at — especially given his history of (mis)managing the AIDS epidemic. Kind of miss the little guy...

This is not going to end well - from the London Daily Mail:

Europe's biggest nuclear power plant is ON FIRE after being attacked by Putin's tanks: 'Increased radiation levels are detected' says Ukraine government after generating unit is hit - foreign minister warns meltdown 'would be 10 times worse than Chernobyl'

• • Live feed from Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station showed flames at site, with officials issuing dire warnings
  • Earlier, tanks had been seen firing at buildings in the facility in south-east Ukraine, setting buildings ablaze
  • Reports said that a generating unit at the plant had been hit, citing the Ukrainian atomic energy ministry
  • Ukrainian officials urged Russia to stop the attack to allow for emergency service crews to put out the blaze
  • The plant has six nuclear reactors, making it the largest in Europe. It produces around 25% of Ukraine's power
  • The country' Foreign Minister said an explosion at the site would be '10 times worse than Chernobyl'
  • Earlier there had been fierce fighting as Russian troops pushed towards the nuclear power plant
  • Missiles were been fired by Russian forces in battle, and fire and black smoke was seen earlier today

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest of its kind in Europe, was on fire in the early hours of Friday morning after coming under attack by Russian troops.

A live feed from the station showed flames at the site in the south-east of the country, and showed tanks firing at buildings - sparking fears of a radiation disaster in the nation currently under invasion by Russian forces.

As the chaotic scenes unfolded, a government official told The Associated Press elevated levels of radiation had being detected near the site of the plant. A plant spokesman later said they remained at normal levels.

The Ukrainian atomic energy ministry said that one of the six generating units at the plant in Enerhodar had been struck by Russian fire. Zaporizhzhia has six nuclear reactors and accounts for almost a quarter of Ukraine's power.

No word in the article as to what design the reactors are - the Chernobyl unit was an open graphite pile (RBMK), exposed to the atmosphere so ignition and burning was a very easy thing to happen.  If they are pressurised water reactors, the pressure vessel should provide a good measure of protection. I am hoping that the operations crew were able to shut it (SCRAM) down before the attack.

Sucessful journey - got stuff done.

Time to unpack the van and see about dinner.

Short dog walk and long coffee.  Heading to Bellingham and then the farm this afternoon. Thrift store tomorrow.

Cyrano is a lot of fun - Lisa saw it last night and loved it.

Bullet Train:

And then Free Guy

Interesting paper from English website The Expose:

Whilst you’ve been distracted by Russia’s Invasion, the UK Gov. released a Report confirming the Fully Vaccinated now account for 9 in every 10 Covid-19 Deaths in England
The latest data published by the UK Health Security Agency confirms deaths are rising dramatically among the triple vaccinated population whilst declining steadily among the not-vaccinated population in England.

With the most recent figures showing the fully vaccinated accounted for 9 in every 10 Covid-19 deaths over the past month; and the triple vaccinated accounted for 4 in every 5 of them.

Pretty damning stuff - the numbers are plain to see.
Here is the paper: COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report

Set up a zoom meeting for our local arts group yesterday - was there to run it tonight.

14 people there and 16 people logged in - good meeting but a bit long.

Surf a little bit and then to bed.

Governor Kim Reynolds was picked to deliver the Republican reply to *Resident Biden's SOTU speech.
Pitch perfect - transcript here:

Read Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' full prepared remarks for her response to the State of the Union
Good evening. I’m Kim Reynolds, Governor of the great state of Iowa.

Like you, I just watched the President’s address. I listened as the governor of our state, as a mom and grandmother of 11, who’s worried our country is on the wrong track.

We’re now one year into his presidency, and instead of moving America forward, it feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time—to the late 70s and early 80s.

When runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing on our cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map.

Even before taking the oath of office, the President told us that he wanted to “make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.”

He’s failed on both fronts.

Video of her speech from C-SPAN

Jeff Childers is a lawyer practicing in Florida. His daily Coffee & Covid column is a daily read for me.
From today - a bullet list of Biden's points from last night:

The most hilarious feature of the speech was Biden’s ghastly and inept attempt to co-opt conservative messaging. As democrats kept leaping to their feet to applaud punch line after punch line, Biden claimed he was going to:

• • crack down on illegal immigration (after manufacturing a gigantic crisis on the border), I am not making that up,
  • lower prescription drug prices (after revoking Trump policies that actually did lower most drug prices, like insulin),
  • re-fund the police (after leading a two year charge to de-fund them),
  • support the troops (after getting them killed in a hasty Afghanistan withdraw and using them as human pincushions for experimental drugs),
  • rebuild manufacturing capacity and direct the government to “Buy American” (after encouraging employers to fire unjabbed employees and discriminate against them, and locking down US manufacturing for a year — just ask Elon Musk, who had to move his whole operation to Texas),
  • cutting child-care costs “in half,” somehow (after driving costs up astronomically by quarantining school-age kids every ten minutes using witless contact tracing),
  • crack down on social media giants (after pressuring them to become vastly powerful government censors),
  • end inflation by lowering the deficit (after almost doubling the amount of circulating currency and while calling for even more infinitely expensive programs),
  • cure cancer (after coercing Americans into taking jabs with known cancer risks), and
  • support mental health (after bombarding adults with military-grade propaganda and mentally torturing kids for two years).

Gee, I guess all those conservative talking points are resonating with the people for some reason. On the other hand, completely missing from the Former Vice-President’s speech was any reference to: equity, diversity, critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, police violence, gender reassignment, Afghanistan, student loans, unvaccinated people, school board investigations, January 6th insurrectionists, Capitol attackers or even rioters, misinformation, disinformation, Fauci, Walensky, overwhelmed hospitals, China, the CDC, or the FDA.

I watched the C-SPAN livestream for a little while - skipped around a good bit.  His drugs were working well for the first fifteen minutes but he really lost focus after then - mispronunciations, slurring, rambling a bit.

Delightful - the time code is generated electronically but the mechanism for moving the numbers is 100% electromechanical - switches, cams, gears and motors. Beautiful design and construction. Yeah, you could do something with three servo motors and an Arduino but this is a lot more elegant:

From Busted Knuckles:

Saturday Night Live is funny again:

*Resident Biden - lots of empty seats in the house.
C-SPAN has it here: State of the Union (starts at 1:07:00)

Doped up to the gills - squinting.

Couldn't take more than a few minutes of it - I'll wait and see what the pundits have to say.

...is not all pixie dust and unicorns.  From Zero Hedge:

New Yorkers Lash Out At ConEdison Over Soaring Electricity Bills
Sky-high electric bills on the front page. Europe? The U.K? No, just north of New York City, where local politicians criticized Consolidated Edison of NY, the local electric utility. And further, local business people noted that they had warned of this potential problem a decade ago when the last governor decided to close down the nearby nuclear power plant, Indian Point. Some customers complain that their supply bill (for their electricity usage, not the lines or wires) has tripled in past months. For the typical consumer this is a noticeable increase.

Con Edison—which in the past has taken the stand that it just delivers the electricity (they don’t actually produce it) so go complain somewhere else—announced that it “was reviewing our practices…” and will work out programs to help customers who are struggling to pay these rapidly escalating electricity bills. Meanwhile the staffer of a local member of Congress said, “At the end of the day, it is Con Edison that bills New Yorkers, and, therefore Con Ed that bears direct consumer responsibility for this egregious price hike…” Politicians have focused on how to help consumers pay their bills this winter, both here and in Europe. They don’t focus on the possibility that the existing wholesale electricity market, set up three decades ago to make electricity competitive, may bear responsibility for the mess as well.

And this little bon mot:

Well, in a way, utility deregulation almost always results in the same outcome. Go for the cheapest fuel source and assume nothing will go wrong. And when it does, let the consumers pay. The only thing we find remarkable here is that consumers continue to accept this.

Yep - shut down the cheap oil and nuke plants and go for unreliable wind and solar and watch the rates spike.  The consumers voted for this for themselves.  Let them enjoy it good and hard. WIthout the benefit of any lube.

From Busted Knuckles:

NATO was formed after WWII to serve as a counterbalance to Russian Communist expansion. Ukraine is not a member but has a "working relationship" and it is applying for full membership now.  Looks like Finland is heeding the call - from the London Daily Mail:

Finland will today debate joining NATO despite threat from neighbours Russia that they will face 'military and political consequences'

• Finland will today debate joining NATO after a petition calling for a referendum reached 50,000 signatories in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine
• Russia said if Finland joins NATO there will be 'serious repercussions'
• Finnish MPs will discuss petition calling for vote on NATO membership

Finland will today debate joining NATO after a petition calling for a referendum reached 50,000 signatories in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The move to debate Finland's NATO membership comes despite neighbouring Russia threatening the country with 'military and political consequences' if they join the military alliance.

Finnish MPs will discuss the possibility of their country joining NATO on Tuesday after an opinion poll showed a historic change in attitude in the traditionally non-aligned country after Putin waged war on Ukraine.

'I fully understand that the view of many Finns on the issue of NATO membership has changed or is changing as Russia has started military action against Ukraine. This is understandable,' Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said.

Putin is losing.  Badly.  He underestimated the response and the repercussions are going to damage Russia for a long long time.  The people in back of him are probably very pissed at him right now.

From The Guardian:

How to pronounce and spell ‘Kyiv’, and why it matters
As Russian forces menace the Ukrainian capital and thousands flee, the very least onlookers around the world can do is learn how to say the name of the city under siege.

The short answer is simple: Ukrainians call their capital “Kyiv” (kee-yiv), the spelling, a transliteration of the Ukrainian Київ. The Russian version is “Kiev” (kee-yev).

The latter, based on transliteration from the Russian cyrillic Киев, became the internationally accepted name through the Soviet period and into the first years of this century, its recognisability enhanced perhaps by the eponymous chicken dish that became popular in the west in the 1970s.

But it is now associated with the Russification of Ukraine, and in recent years more and more publications, governments, airports and geographical dictionaries have switched the spelling to the Ukrainian variant.

Good to know.

Setting up a computer for a zoom meeting for the local arts group today.

They are meeting tomorrow evening.  No longer active in them but still help out.

Dog walk and coffee first.

These notes from an upcoming case:

Unnnhhhhhh...  Has anyone bothered to explain photosynthesis to her?  How plants take in sunlight, water and carbon dioxide and using chlorophyll as a catalyst, make glucose.  The resultant waste product is oxygen gas. If you eliminated all CO2 on this planet, you would eliminate all green plants and algae.  You would condemn the planet to death by starvation.

Carbon dioxide is not a toxin - it is plant food.  Simple as that.