Long live Clarence Thomas

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I found this interesting:

Clarence Thomas is at the peak of his power

Clarence Thomas is suddenly, for the first time since his confirmation, the main character at the Supreme Court.

Why it matters: Thomas is more powerful than he’s ever been inside the court, and ideas that the legal establishment once treated as his quirky hobbyhorses now carry increasing weight.

…

The big picture: Thomas has spent years essentially laying out a whole parallel understanding of the law. He’s one of the court’s most prolific authors of solo dissents, according to Adam Feldman of Empirical SCOTUS, and has also written a slew of solo concurrences similar to last week’s.

  • Thomas doesn’t just write a dissent here and an additional point about a majority holding there, but rather has created a whole ecosystem of opinions that build on and reference each other almost in the same way as the court’s actual precedents, except for the fact that they are all one man speaking only for himself.
  • Thomas’ solo opinion in last week’s abortion case cited 11 of his past opinions, 10 of which were solo opinions. It drew more heavily from the Clarence Thomas Cinematic Universe than from the rest of the court’s historical precedents, dissents and non-Thomas concurrences.

But as the makeup of the court has shifted around him, Thomas’ views have gotten more influential. And that influence will only grow.

Thomas is a huge influence for good. Not just in the gun rights arena, but in rolling back the power of big government.

Fusion reactors soon?

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When I was in undergrad school I took several classes related to energy conversion, generation, and transmission. I ended up not getting a job in that field but I still have some interest in the topics. Hence, I sort of follow what’s happening with fusion reactors.

So what is going on? I’m seeing two divergent stories in the media. This is the long running, slow progress, version:

ITER announced last year that it hopes to complete the construction of the world’s largest tokamak nuclear fusion reactor by 2025. The goal of the project is to prove that commercial nuclear fusion is possible by demonstrating that a reactor can produce more energy than it consumes. But even if the ITER experiment is successful, it would likely take until at least 2050 for a nuclear fusion power plant to come online.

And another:

A PROTOTYPE nuclear fusion plant with a value predicted value of £1billion has been tipped to generate £11billion and create thousands of jobs as the UK races to create limitless clean power and solve the energy crisis.

…

So far, no fusion reactor has been able to use up less energy than it produces.

But the UK is racing to crack the code, and the prototype for a proposed site to host a nuclear plant near Goole in East Yorkshire has been given the green light by the Government.

…

This is the programme, which was supported by an initial £222million by the Government, to construct a prototype fusion energy plant that will one day create limitless clean energy.

This is the version from some alternate reality:

The U.S. government wants to send a tiny nuclear fusion reactor into space, and it has partnered with a private company to get a prototype operational by 2027.

There are even stores about do it yourself nuclear fusion but I suspect these are probably getting radiation from something other than fusion. And if there are actually some fusion occurring it is producing less energy than the input to the reactor.

But the “tiny reactor going into space in 2027” story seems to be in a different class than the DIY reactors. My hunch is that it is just wishful thinking by someone who doesn’t really know what they are doing. But they managed to tell a good enough story to get a government grant from some agency that needed to get rid of some money before they lost it for lack of use.

Thoughts anyone?

Quote of the day—Edward-Isaac Dovere

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After string of Supreme Court setbacks, Democrats wonder whether Biden White House is capable of urgency moment demands

Edward-Isaac Dovere
CNN on July 6, 2022
[Read the entire article! It is as if they were writing some of their best fiction about President Trump.

When the Democrat President has lost CNN you known things are really bad.—Joe]

No concept of overstating things

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You have to wonder how they imagine people will take them seriously when they say things like this:

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is a threat to the world

The Supreme Court spent recent weeks triggering political and legal earthquakes across America. But its latest audacious blow could affect the entire planet.

After advancing the Republican Party’s agenda by overturning the federal right to an abortion and loosening gun laws, the conservative court majority built by former President Donald Trump on Thursday limited the government’s capacity to fight climate change.

In a 6-3 ruling, the justices held that US law did not give the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to set caps on planet-warming emissions from power plants.

The lies are so outrageous they are funny!

I regard the fact that the legacy media and the politicians they support get away with such extreme lies more of a threat than anything SCOTUS has the power to do.

Which is more effective?

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Via the NRA:

Which sign is more effective? It’s not rocket science…

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Quote of the day—Mark Oliva

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President Biden stood on the campaign stage in one of the early debates and said that firearms manufacturers are the enemy; not an adversary, not an opponent, an enemy. That is compelling when our commander in chief views the industry that provides the means to protect our nation, protect our communities, and protect ourselves, as the enemy.

Mark Oliva
Managing Director
National Shooting Sports Foundation
July 4, 2022
Gun Makers Go South
The firearms industry abandons blue states to avoid crushing regulations
[Not that it should be a surprise to anyone. But it is something to keep in mind. This is what the current administrations thinks of our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. It, and those that exercise it, are their enemy.—Joe]

Boomershoot private event

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A week before Boomershoot 2022 we held a private event for a local company, Erber Auto. On Sunday I received a link to their final video of the event.

It is awesome!

Quote of the day—John @6102cd

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A self-centered political philosophy.

“This thing scares me, so ban it” (guns)

“This thing is difficult for me to get, so provide it.” (Healthcare)

“I want to break this law, so don’t enforce it” (drugs)

John @6102cd
Tweeted on June 13, 2022
[In response to the question:

Ultra progressives seem to want both more laws (e.g., gun control) but also less punishment for breaking laws (e.g., criminal justice reform).

How can we interpret this seeming contradiction?

It appears to be a very strong hypothesis.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Navy Gunner @TroyBaisch

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I like Paul Lee Teeks’ version:

image

Navy Gunner @TroyBaisch
Tweeted on April 10, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

When the most productive thing you can contribute to a public discussion are insults you can always count on anti-gun people to deliver.

Via a tweet from In Chains@InChainsInJail.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Timur

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Propaganda that knows what strings of human nature to play is a powerful weapon. In fact, propaganda is more dangerous than the atomic bomb. Because it is propaganda that sooner or later will justify its use.

Timur
June, 2022
A Russian journalist asked his former classmates about the Ukraine war. The answers were disturbing.
[Propaganda of the anti-gun people is of this type.

Of course, if you look at the fundraising propaganda of any successful political organization it will play on the “strings of human nature”. Use cold reason and be especially wary of crowds cheering a charismatic leader.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brad Polumbo

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While our constitutional republic is meant to give the people the ultimate power over our government, the Bill of Rights specifically serves to constrain the will of the majority when it comes to individual rights. The idea was that some things are off-limits, even if 51% of the population would vote to restrict them. Pure, absolute democracy leads to the tyranny of the majority. At different points in our history, things such as slavery, segregation, denying women the vote, speech bans, and more would have garnered majority support among voters. That’s why we added amendments to take these egregious injustices off the table.

In the same way, the right to defend your life is an inherent human right, one that the Second Amendment simply recognizes. And the very point of the Bill of Rights is that such rights aren’t supposed to be up for debate at the federal or local level.

Democrats should realize that it’s not an argument against the court’s ruling to point out that a majority of New Yorkers support restricting this right — it’s a reminder as to why the court’s decision is so desperately needed.

Brad Polumbo
June 24, 2022
What Democrats get wrong about Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decision
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Ironic

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The Medal of Freedom is going to an anti-freedom activist:

President Biden announced he will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 individuals including ex-lawmaker and gun control activist Gabby Giffords…

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/1/biden-medal-freedom-giffords-trump-critic-khan/

She, and Biden, should be prosecuted.

Quote of the day—Alan Gottlieb

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This is incredibly good news. The importance of Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion in the New York right-to-carry case may not be fully understood until all of these other cases have gone through lower court review. What we’re seeing today could be the beginning of court actions that eventually fully restore rights protected by the Second Amendment.

Our attorneys are already reviewing earlier cases to determine which ones can be re-filed for further action based on the high court ruling in Bruen and we are confident other cases now remanded back for further review will also fare better in the lower courts.

It is also important that the high court granted all writs of certiorari in these Second Amendment cases as they were being remanded back for further review. That tells me we have a Supreme Court willing to rein in lower court activism and limit how far they will allow local and state governments to reach when it comes to placing burdens on the exercise of a fundamental, constitutionally-enumerate right to keep and bear arms.

Alan Gottlieb
Executive Vice President
Second Amendment Foundation
SAF HAILS SUPREME COURT FOR SENDING BACK GUN CASES FOR FURTHER REVIEW
[See also SUPREME COURT REVERSES LOWER COURT RULINGS ON MAG BAN, “ASSAULT WEAPONS” BAN, CARRY BAN

The lower courts will, of course, drag their feet. My guess is that it will be months, at best, before we see real change in things like “assault weapon” bans and restrictions, and magazine bans.

But this does make for a very happy 4th of July.

And be sure to make your lists and document all the anti-gun politicians infringements of our rights. A right delayed is a right denied. Perhaps sometime in 2025 we will have a glimmer of hope that these criminals will be prosecuted.—Joe]

Earth and sky

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I was in Idaho yesterday. Among other things I was getting the Boomershoot weather station and webcam back online. A bunch of weeds had grown up high enough that the solar panels were severely shaded and the batteries had discharged to the point that everything shutdown.

20220629_191509

Despite the “bird repellent” wires, birds had used the rain gauge as a toilet:

20220630_172958

Everything is now fixed.

It was nearing sundown as I was leaving and I noticed an unusual cloud formation:

20220629_204757

The sky picture goes with the earth pictures I took not too far away earlier in the day:

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20220629_161922

This was formed where there was standing water on clay which dried up.

When my brothers and I were growing up we would sometimes marvel at a similar formation a short distance from the house. There was the added thrill of seeing sparkles in the “mud chips”. We wondered if it was gold or silver. It was probably just fine sand, but still we found the formations fascinating.

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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If the Left got the “bodily autonomy” they claim to want, there wouldn’t be much of their State remaining.

So, you really want bodily autonomy do you, including autonomy in time, resources, property, wealth, speech and health, do you?

Naw, thought not.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on June 26, 2022
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

She probably doesn’t trust numbers

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This is very telling:

She probably feels this way because she doesn’t trust numbers to give her the correct answer.

Quote of the day—Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs

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Politicians should be limited to two terms: 1 in office and 1 in prison.

Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs
Tweeted on June 20, 2022
[This merits serious consideration. In a few rare cases, after completing their term in office, the death penalty is probably too harsh.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Michael Snyder

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A historic economic nightmare is here, and the guy in the White House is all out of answers.

So buckle up and try to enjoy the ride.

The months ahead are going to be quite chaotic, and you probably don’t even want to think about what is coming after that.

Michael Snyder
June 2, 2022
Americans Will Never Forget The Historic Economic Collapse During Joe Biden’s Presidency
[I want an underground bunker in Idaho.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Mark @mark_melbin

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Big gun = tiny dick.
Also.
Small gun = tiny dick.

Mark @mark_melbin
Tweeted on April 12, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

Or, in this case, “doesn’t know what science is”.

Via a tweet from Ben Rondeau@BenRondeau4.—Joe]

They want you to die shivering, hungry, and in the dark

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This is fascinating in a horrifying sort of way:

Why we must nationalize Big Oil

… the government should nationalize Big Oil. That would allow the government to manage the industry’s drawdown, a process the private sector is ignoring.

…

“We will likely need to take over and decommission the large fossil fuel extraction corporations that are both one of the leading causes of climate change and one of the primary institutional impediments to addressing,” Hanna concludes.

…

The federal government typically nationalizes companies to save them. In this case, it must nationalize Big Oil to save us all from a future we don’t want.

“Drawdown” is this character’s euphemism for controlled destruction.

They are referring to the manufacturer of a product that provides the energy to produce and transport food to billions of people who would otherwise die. This product is the basis of the worlds greatest triumphs over poverty, hunger, shelter, transportation, and pestilence. And these people want to deliberately destroy access to it.

To the best of my knowledge nothing of this sort has ever before been advocated, not even by the most evil communist regimes the planet has ever seen. This would be the deliberate murder of the vast majority of the world population.

Yes, people have been saying the deliberate and violent extinction of humans is what the environmental fascists “really want”. But prior to this the worst I have actually seen is the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

Prepare appropriately.