Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day—Per Bylund

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Government’s track record in creating public goods that are of actual value to people and that do not waste resources is nothing short of dismal. Then add the public choice aspect to the whole thing, that politicians have their own interests and therefore may not pursue the public good even if they know it. The assumption that government will fix the economy and increase our standard of living beyond what entrepreneurs can do is unbearably naïve.

I do not think these problems matter much to proponents of MMT, however. Because it is not a theory of how the economy works and so does not concern itself with worldly things like production, innovation, entrepreneurship, scarcity (other than as potentially causing inflation), or time. It is a pseudoreligious conviction that anything is possible and that the one and only solution is always Glorious Government.

Per Bylund
September 14, 2021
The Political Alchemy Called Modern Monetary Theory
[This article is the best explanation I have read on why MMT cannot work.

Some of big takeaways not outlined in the quote above:

  • Government creation of currency is not the same as creating money.
  • Government spending diverts resources from meeting the demands of the public markets.
  • Reducing the production of goods and services in the market result in inflation.
  • Idle/unused resources are sometime idle/unused for a good reason and are best left that way for now.

Previous critiques have left me somewhat unconvinced. I was certain MMT was fatally flawed, but I couldn’t find the clear flaws and conclusively prove to myself it was a terrible disaster in the making I was certain it had to be. This article was a huge help to me.—Joe]

A step in the right direction

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Via email from Rolf.

Thousands cleared by judge’s ruling will seek gun arrest damages

A decision by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in another fight over guns created by the local government in Washington means it could be getting costly for taxpayers there.

It’s because the judge’s decision “has cleared the way for claims for damages by as many as 4,500 people” who were arrested under the now-defunct law against carrying handguns in public.

The problem was outlined by constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, who explained the specific case applies to six people, but the damages could be claimed by thousands.

“Those rising costs do not seem to register with the D.C. City Council,” he explained. “The city could appeal and argue that, at the time of the arrests, it was not clear that the underlying law was unconstitutional.”

Lamberth, however, already rejected that claim and ruled that the law was clearly unconstitutional when the city passed it.

The decision from Lamberth noted how D.C. effectively had “banned non-residents from possessing a firearm,” and prevented anyone “from carrying a weapon in public.”

It’s not a prosecution under 18 USC 242, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Bolt action

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I recently received a gift from son-in-law Jacob:

20211002_135905

20211002_135703

Yes, it’s a bolt action pen in a nice box.

I’m using it to sign documents associated with guns and explosives.

Free to a good home

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I recently sorted through all my all reject brass from years of reloading. I discovered I had a fair number of 357 Sig cases. I cleaned, dried, and bagged them. My guess is there are between 100 and 125 pieces.

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I have no interest in reloading them so they are free to a good home. Send me an email or text message if you can meet in the Seattle area or near Moscow or Orofino (or Sandpoint or Coeur d’Alene the 14th –> 16th of this month) in Idaho. Or if you want to pay the postage I would ship them to you.

Quote of the day—Catherine Clifford @CATCLIFFORD

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There have to be more people at different levels in the organization, in different parts of the organization, who are given the platform and the ability to initiate, to mobilize, to move things forward. It doesn’t only live at the C-Suite.

And ideally, if it’s done well, each person, no matter what part of the company you’re in, feels that they have a stake in this climate change response. Nobody is exempting themselves because they don’t know enough about climate. An effective response is one where everyone has something to add here and is a part of the response.

Catherine Clifford @CATCLIFFORD
September 26, 2021
Climate psychologist says neither gloom-and-doom nor extreme solution-obsessed optimism is the best way to discuss climate change productively
[I knew there were dog psychologists, horse psychologists, and I found out there are cat psychologists and even cow psychologists. But climate psychologists? Wow!

I wonder if she has a heavy client load. Are there a lot of climates in need of a shrink?

To be fair, I poked around a little bit I can can’t find where she claims she helps climates with their mental health issues.

I do wonder about her mental health some though. She seems to presume facts not in evidence. I’m fairly certain her claim that everyone should feel “they have a stake in the climate change response” is not true. For example, there are those who are more concerned about another ice age putting a sheet of ice a mile thick over southern Canada and the northern states than the possibility of a dozen feet of ocean rise. Hence, if we really think we can affect the climate then we should error on the side of keeping the earth warm rather than on keeping it cool.

Does she want those people to feel like they have a stake in the climate change response? Or is she is living in a delusional world where everyone agrees with her view of reality. In other words, is she a liar or delusional? It could be both, but I have insufficient evidence to conclusively determine which.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jim Bovard

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The FBI’s power and federal legitimacy are far more tenuous than Washington recognizes. Beyond the nation’s big cities and the coastlines, federal authority hinges largely on the consent of local citizens. Once that consent vanishes, FBI agents are left to sit in their cars eating their lunches all by themselves. But plenty of pundits and congressmen still clamor for the government to confiscate everyone’s guns or forcibly inject their children. If the feds came in and started shooting mountain men who refused to surrender their firearms, they would likely quickly find themselves in a worse plight than Custer at the Little Big Horn.

Jim Bovard
September 27, 2021
He Thought I Was an Undercover Fed
[Consent of the governed is a concept in our country’s founding documents. With a nearly $30 Trillion debt, incredible overreach of the U.S. Constitution’s limits, and blatant violation of our specific enumerated rights, it is long past time to revoke consent.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jefferson Mack

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LEADERS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED AND FOLLOWED, THEY ARE TO BE CONTROLLED AND LIMITED.

Jefferson Mack
1986
Secret Freedom Fighter: Fighting Tyranny without Terrorizing the Innocent, page 61.
[Lots of good stuff in this old document.—Joe]

$1 trillion platinum coins

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This reminds me of something:

There’s a loophole in the law that prescribes the types of coins that can legally be minted in the US, and it would allow the Treasury Department to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin, deposit it at the Federal Reserve, and then continue paying its bills as normal. This simple solution would let Congress sidestep what Rep. Bill Foster of Illinois told Insider was a “silly rule that we make up for ourselves,” which requires Congress to vote on raising the debt ceiling every time the US reaches the borrowing limit.

It’s an idea New York Rep. Jerry Nadler has long promoted. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Tuesday that Nadler raised the possibility of minting the coin in a meeting with Democrats to bypass the partisan fights on raising the debt limit. In 2013, when Republicans were refusing to raise the limit under President Barack Obama, Nadler told Insider that he was disappointed the Obama administration would rule out “one of the very few bargaining chips it has,” referring to minting the coin.

.Oh, yeah, now I remember:

I’m sure it will turn out different this time. After all, this is just a few coins distributed only to the Federal Reserve. That makes it totally different, right?

It would be more honest if they made the coins out of lead. But honesty is not their strong suit.

These people can’t be so ignorant and/or stupid so as to believe this is anything other than a means to destroying the nation. This must be a deliberate plan of destruction.

I hope they enjoy their trials.

Quote of the day—Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs

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We should have left our guns for the Australians not the taliban.

Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs
Tweeted on September 26, 2021
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

First treated as the Second

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Via a tweet by JPFO.

Quote of the day—JPFO

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The tyranny of BATFE must end. It’s corrupt purpose is self-evident: You would never consider leading the Aviation Administration with people afraid to fly—you pick pilots, aircraft designers, industry leaders, so the industry can flourish. By proposing an agency head who hates the industry under its thumb, it’s obvious what feds seek—not protection of our property and rights.

By trying to put people in charge who detest America’s 120 million gun owners, the federal government shows its disdain for the Bill of Rights. Can you imagine if this industry that supplies us with arms and keeps us all safe had people in government they could trust? No? Of course not, all the more reason to scrap this unconstitutional gang of criminals. We do not need hostile anti-rights partisans associated with the ungun cabal like the Bradys, Giffords, Bloomberg astroturf Moms. That’s like asking landlubbers to be lifeguards.

JPFO
September 24, 2021
WHAT IS THE LOGIC OF HAVING A FEDERAL AGENCY LED BY PEOPLE WHO WANT THE INDUSTRY TO DIE?
[It is a rhetorical question. Of course everyone knows what the logic is.

This latest insult of nominating David Chipman as the head of the ATF should go in the evidence file to be used at their trials.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Pam Carlson @PamCarlson3

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Keyboard commando who has to carry a gun everywhere because his penis is so tiny says what?

Pam Carlson @PamCarlson3
Tweeted on September 24, 2021
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! H/T to In Chains @InChainsInJail.

Keyboard commando who can’t bring anything but childish insults to the discussion says they lost the argument.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Annalee Armstrong

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HIV integrates its genetic material into the genome of a host cell, meaning available therapies just can’t remove it. A team of scientists at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center managed to remove the virus completely from mice during preclinical testing using a combination of CRISPR and antiretroviral therapy. They also found no adverse events that could be linked to the therapy in the study, published back in 2019.

…

The company is also working on similar treatments for other viruses, including herpes and hepatitis B.

Annalee Armstrong
September 27, 2021
Excision’s CRISPR gene editing therapy for HIV is heading into human testing after FDA clearance
[A few months ago a male friend (who I suspect is bi-sexual) pointed out that COVID-19 is not the first pandemic our generation has lived through. My thinking about this enabled a quick response to different friend just a few days later who was pontificating on how COVID-19, “Hit the sweet spot of infectiveness and lethality.” I disagreed, “It could be a lot more lethal.” “Not really”, he replied, “It would be hard to be more lethal and still infect a lot of people because it would kill people before they could infect as many people as it does.” I had a three letter acronym response, “HIV”.

He immediately conceded. A disease as infectious as chickenpox with the silent latency and deadliness of HIV would have the potential to exterminate humanity.

I fear that as long as we have global trade if we don’t develop the ability to respond to new diseases in timeframes of weeks, or perhaps days, some disease will, “Find the sweet spot” (or be engineered) to close the curtain on humans.

HIV was first recognized as a new disease in 1981. At the time I figured scientists would have it figured out and curable in “five or ten years”. Forty years later a promising cure is going into human trials.

Herpes too was a pretty big deal in the mid 1980s. Like HIV, herpes is now treatable but incurable. That may be changing in the next few years.

Think of all these diseases as practice for the future.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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Eventually tyranny has to put boots on the ground. A totalitarian system can function for a time on color of law and implied threats, but it will crumble unless it is able to establish a physical presence of force. Once those jackboots touch soil in a visible way and the agents of the state try to expand oppressive measures, rebels then have a free hand to disrupt them or bring them down. But this only works if there are objectives and enough decentralization to prevent misdirection of the movement.

Brandon Smith
September 22, 2021
Organizing Patriots In The Face Of Government Informants And False Flags
[Interesting post and associated comments.

See also my Boots on the ground blog post.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Michael Walsh

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Loosening our bounds to reality is attractive also because calling things by whatever names serves our immediate purpose liberates us from the hard work of understanding things not of our making, and gives us the illusion of mastery over our environment. It is especially attractive to those who have power over others, because it frees them from having to persuade the rest of humanity. For society’s mob of lazy under-performers, pleasing the leaders is an easier way of securing one’s place than competing for merit. Anyhow: intellectual/moral deterioration has ever been an easier sell than the hard acquisition of skills and virtues.

Michael Walsh
September 22, 2021
The Prince: Angelo Codevilla, 1943-2021
[The redefining, or perhaps it’s better called undefining, of words is a source of great irritation to me. Words mean things. And when people start ignoring the true meanings of words we no longer have a basis of communication. Such people might as well use a few grunts and snorts rather than multisyllable words.—Joe]

Quote of the day—neo

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These lies have a function that is similar to what was going on with the Soviets – the lie as mockery and insult and sadistic tease. In that regard, obvious lying is a feature, not a bug, and it helps that the lie is absurd. It’s a show of power meant for the opposition to view, a way to say, “we can state any stupidity we want as truth, things both you and I know are ridiculous, and will we say it with a straight face to illustrate the extent of our power over you. We don’t have to pretend to make sense. We’re in control and you’re not. We are laughing at you.”


That’s the point we have reached.

neo
September 21, 2021
The Biden administration: lying with impunity
[I want to say, “Maybe, but I think there is a better chance that they really believe their own untruths.”

I’m not nearly confident enough of that claim to say it with any certainty. I fear she is 100% right.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Doyle Rice

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The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.

Using this new paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts.

Doyle Rice
September 17, 2021
Scientists created the world’s whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning.
[Of course it will make the building cooler in the winter as well.

Still, I love living in the future.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Accountability @Nocte_Insanire

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Do not be confused. YOU are the carbon they want to reduce.

Accountability @Nocte_Insanire
Tweeted on September 19, 2021
[They’re not wrong. A good case could be made for this assertion.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Cantankerous Socialist (@Cante12175815)

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you are a loud mouth pussy that would piss their pants if you had to get in a real fire fight and can’t get a hard-on without his AR15 penis extension so stop dreaming Cletus!

Cantankerous Socialist (@Cante12175815)
Tweeted on September 15, 2021
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! H/T to In Chains @InChainsInJail.

I find it interesting that there are some people delusional enough they believe they know the sexual functionality details of someone they have never met. And yet, their friends and relatives have not insisted they spend time attempting to recover while in a comfortable facility wearing a straitjacket.

Perhaps Obama Care doesn’t fund mental health care as well as is required to help such people. But, what can you expect from socialized medicine?—Joe]

Marge Greene should attend Boomershoot

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I hope she “triggers” all the right people:

Boomershoot appears to be a good match for her public persona.