Quote of the day—Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on by

American politics will be even more poisoned and polarized than it has been for the last four years. Tens of millions of Americans will see themselves as disfranchised and believe that the greatest champion they have had in decades was illegally driven from power by the same deep state-media conspiracy he fought for four years.

…

What lies ahead?

Some see secession. But though secession is unlikely, a secession of the heart has already taken place in America. We are two nations, two peoples seemingly separated indefinitely. Can a nation so divided as ours, racially, ideologically, religiously, still do great things together, as did the America of days gone by, to the amazement of the world?

Patrick J. Buchanan
December 10, 2020
Is Our Second Civil War — also a ‘Forever War’?
[Via email from Chet.

Good questions. I have no answers. I only have half-baked guesses.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Joshua Eaton

Posted on by

Almost everyone agrees that the ATF is in trouble. But this obscure federal agency may be President-elect Joe Biden’s best chance at having a real impact on gun policy—if he takes the opportunity to restore the beleaguered agency’s reputation and revive its mission. In fact, experts told The New Republic that the ATF may be Biden’s best bet at leaving a mark on federal gun policy without having to rely on an intransigent Congress.

Joshua Eaton
December 25, 2020
This Beleaguered Federal Agency Is America’s Best Hope to Curb Guns
[I find it very telling the author and people quoted in the article don’t even suggest there might be something wrong with restrictions on a specific enumerated right. Let alone making such changes without going through the legislative process.

This is literally the encouragement of a single politician to be a tyrant and restrict the rights of hundreds of millions of people who have a written guarantee their rights would not be infringed.

Such people, and the tyrants they help create, should be prosecuted.—Joe].

Quote of the day—David Codrea

Posted on by

Why citizens wanting to know what the rules are even had to ask – and why that was being evaded – only becomes clear when you come to grips with the obvious: ATF knows it doesn’t have a consistent set of standards by which to apply its evaluations. And it’s not like everyone hasn’t been aware of the problem for a long time.

David Codrea
December 23, 2020
ATF Rules Capricious, Arbitrary, Political, and Stupid
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Kevin Maxwell

Posted on by

In my legal opinion the Rare Breed Triggers FRT is a perfectly legal, semi-automatic, drop-in trigger. And my opinion is further supported by the opinions of whom I believe to be two of the most significant subject matter experts in the industry.

Rare Breed Triggers FRT – Full Video from RARE BREED TRIGGERS on Vimeo.

Kevin Maxwell
December 2, 2020
[As Greg said in a private post on Facebook:

pretty genius, I doubt it will last long on the market.

If you’re into this type of fun then get them while they last!

FRT is an acronym standing for “Forced Reset Trigger”. And that tells you all you need to know to have your giggle box kicked over.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brad Smith

Posted on by

As much as we appreciate the commitment and professionalism of so many dedicated public servants, it is apparent to us that the current state of information-sharing across the government is far from where it needs to be. It too often seems that federal agencies currently fail to act in a coordinated way or in accordance with a clearly defined national cybersecurity strategy. While parts of the federal government have been quick to seek input, information sharing with first responders in a position to act has been limited. During a cyber incident of national significance, we need to do more to prioritize the information-sharing and collaboration needed for swift and effective action. In many respects, we risk as a nation losing sight of some of the most important lessons identified by the 9/11 Commission.

One indicator of the current situation is reflected in the federal government’s insistence on restricting through its contracts our ability to let even one part of the federal government know what other part has been attacked. Instead of encouraging a “need to share,” this turns information sharing into a breach of contract. It literally has turned the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations upside down.

Brad Smith
December 17, 2020
A moment of reckoning: the need for a strong and global cybersecurity response
[Free markets have their faults. But if you want something really messed up then have a government do it. Why else do you think they are so good at war? You send your government to some other country and they mess up that country.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Egon von Greyerz

Posted on by

It is quite ominous that 100 years after Weimar, the world is standing on the cusp of a  similar debt and currency collapse with hyperinflation as a consequence.

100 years ago it was primarily the problem of one country whose debt the world could afford to write off. Well they had no choice since it was worthless anyway.

But this time it is a global problem with every country in the same situation. There will be no one to save individual countries or the global financial system. Yes, all major central banks will print endless amounts of money. But that will only exacerbate the situation.

A debt problem can never be solved with more debt. And a dying currency cannot be resurrected.

So the world is in for a major shock in the next few years. The problems will be at all levels – financial, social, political and geopolitical.

Egon von Greyerz
December 2020
Gold Vs Bitcoin & The Death Of Money
[Chet and I used to discuss this sort of thing for hours back in the 2009 to 2010 timeframe. It was impossible for us to put a due date on the implosion we imagined we saw coming. One could claim that since it hasn’t happened yet that we were wrong about it happening at all.

Perhaps.

Still, it seems to be impossible that the national debt can ever be paid off. And from a political standpoint I doubt it can even be reduced. And that has to have consequences, doesn’t it? I keep seeing a reset of some sort in the future. And no matter how the reset goes down I see rough times for a lot of people.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—NRA @NRA

Posted on by

[Or just have an honest relationship with your spouse and put the gun you want on your wish list.—Joe]

Transparent aluminum

Posted on by

Interesting. I didn’t know transparent aluminum has been around since 1980. And I always thought it was science fiction in 1986:

Still, it’s very cool stuff. 1.6” (4 cm) can stop a .50 BMG AP round.

Franklin ghost town

Posted on by

Yesterday I had to deliver a simple, homemade Christmas gift which the local UPS refused to accept. Barb agreed to come with me and found a hike we could go on which was fairly close to our gift delivery route. It was Franklin Ghost Town. It was short enough that we could delivery the gift and complete the hike before the heavy rain forecast for the afternoon hit. It didn’t include any stunning views but it was interesting enough and had excellent trail conditions.

First a clue about the simple homemade gift:

image

And on to the trail and the ghost town:

20201219_102839The area used to be the site of a coal mine and small town. At the peak the town population was 1,100 people.Over the course of over 100 years the mine produced over 4 million tons of coal.

20201219_110851

The number 2 shaft was over 1,300 feet deep and went 500 feet below sea level:

20201219_105405

You could see as deep into the mine as you had enough light for:

20201219_105450

image

I found it odd that there was an obvious “vein” of coal left in plain sight. I have never seen coal in nature before but close examination convinced me the dark patch just above and to the right of center in this picture is the real thing:

image

We didn’t really see anything we could imagine was part of the town. We found this which I image to be a filled in mine shaft:

20201219_103059

20201219_103317

IMG-20201219-WA0000

20201219_103347

It was a pleasant, short, hike for a somewhat dreary December day.

This is what they think of you

Posted on by

Via Hank Archer and Matthew Bracken @Matt_Bracken.

From the Washington Post:

RepublicansAsRats

Toastrider comments:

Once again, WaPo dives in where even Occasional Cortex fears to tread.

Not the sharpest tools in the toolbox, are they?

Bracken comments:

So now the Washington Amazon Bezos Post is printing propaganda cartoons comparing Republicans to Rats.

Anybody remember what followed this kind of propaganda in Germany in the 1930s?

If you don’t remember here are some clues:

jewrat

“udryd den” is Danish for “eradicate it”.

nazi-germany-rats-cartoon

“deutschland den deutschen” is German for “Germany for the Germans”.

“demokratische lander” is German for “democratic countries”. I’m not sure about the rest of the text. But you should be able to get the idea.

One has to wonder if the Washington Post cartoonist has a final solution to the problem of the Republicans.

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

Posted on by

If the election goes to Biden there’s a good chance that the Democrats will then control the two branches of Congress and the White House. And considering the kinds of things that they’re proposing, that could well be the point of no return for this country.

Thomas Sowell
July 13, 2020
[H/T Kevin Baker.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Doug Casey

Posted on by

The government has no alternative but to “do something.” They will—they have to—print more money to keep the rotten house of cards from collapsing on itself.

The Democrats have already said that they want to increase the next stimulus to over $3 trillion. The fact that most of the last round of stimulus was either overtly wasted, went to cronies, or can’t be accounted for, is completely lost on them. They recognize that unless they give a lot of money directly or indirectly to the hoi polloi, there are going to be millions of them on the streets.

Approximately 11 million renters and 4 or 5 million mortgagees are now in forbearance. They’ll be kicked out of their houses and apartments come January 1, barring a huge bailout. Where are those people going to go?

If Obama had made good on his ridiculous promise about shovel-ready projects, there’d be a lot more bridges that they could camp out under. But he didn’t. They have a real problem on their hands. Millions of people have been living above their means and have no savings. At this point, if they let landlords and banks kick all those people out, a number of things will happen. Residential property prices will collapse. Millions of people will be scrambling for somewhere to live. Lots of banks and landlords would go bust.

The longer the government kicks the can down the road, the bigger the inevitable bust will be. The stimulus money will have to continue because Biden doesn’t want it all to come unglued on his watch. The State is not only going to have to pay individuals and business owners that their idiotic policies have busted. They’ll be subsidizing banks, landlords, and utility companies—because you can’t live in a house or an apartment without water and electricity.

It’s worse than that because even if you cover the bare essentials, there’s no money leftover for maintenance. There will be millions of buildings across the country suffering from deferred maintenance. The South Bronx, East St. Louis, and Baltimore will be replicated across the country.

Doug Casey
December 2020
Doug Casey on What Happens When the Suspension on Evictions Ends
[You might also want to watch Fight for the Soul of Seattle and The Worst Economic Collapse Is Starting Now. And this is real:

If someone trespasses by pitching a tent on private property or walks out with a handful groceries from the corner market or steals power tools with the intent of reselling them online in order to pay for a basic need like food or rent, the city of Seattle may be OK with that.

The cities are driving productive people out and inviting the lazy and criminals in. The tax revenue is way down and is responding by raising taxes.

I can’t imagine it improving with their mindset. They are in a death spiral that is likely to pull the entire country, if not the world, into it.

Another data point is that, as a construction guy I know was telling me recently, “No one wants to work anymore. They just want to stay home and collect their checks.”

Free money isn’t free. There will be a price paid. And the one, probably, good thing that may come out of the Biden/Harris administration is that the coming collapse will be easier to place on the heads of the Marxist rather than the free market advocates.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Sean D Sorrentino

Posted on by

When people talk about rioting if the Supreme Court takes any action, they’re not talking about Republicans rioting. They’re talking about the Left. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. So when people tell you they’re worried about “unrest” they’re telling you two things.

1. That they know the Left will riot.

2. That they know the Right will not.

So game it out.

If everyone knows that the Right will calmly accept the decision to give the win to Biden despite evidence (though not “proof”) of election irregularities, and they know that the Left will react with violence to anything but a Biden presidency, why should they choose anything but a Biden presidency?

I’m not advocating violence. I’m sure not going to start rioting. But haven’t we taught them that they can ignore us and suffer no consequences while the Left has taught them to fear? Haven’t we allowed them to take our kindness for weakness? Haven’t we basically told them that there’s zero consequences for making us mad?

Sean D Sorrentino
Posted on Facebook December 17, 2020
[The above is in reference to this.

A1: I can think of some reasons. Like, it’s their job to do the legally correct thing.
A2: Yes.
A3: Yes.
A4: Yes.

This isn’t a tough quiz. Lots of other people will figure it out too and take away “interesting” lessons from it.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Update: The basis for this is probably false.

Moral cowardice

Posted on by

Via daughter Jaime:

The following is my transcript in case the original goes away:

It was written by someone is a current staffer for one of the Supreme Court Justices…

I’ll just describe the report to you the report which I just read and you can make of it what you will.

He said that the Justices they always do [sic] went into a closed room to discuss, you know, cases they are taking or to debate. There’s no phones, no computers, no nothing, no one else is in the room except for the nine Justices.

It’s typically very civil. They usually don’t hear any sound. They just debate what they are doing.

But when the Texas case was brought up, he said he heard screaming through the walls as Justice Roberts and the other liberal justices were insisting that this case not be taken up.

And the reason, the words that were heard through the wall when Justice Thomas and Alito were citing Bush versus Gore, from John Roberts were, “I don’t give a [blank] about that case. I don’t want to hear about it. At that time we didn’t have riots!”

So what he was saying, was that he was afraid of what would happen if they did the right thing. And I’m sorry, but That. Is. Moral. Cowardice.

And we, in the SREC, I’m a SRC member, we put those words in very specifically because the charge of the Supreme Court is to openly be our final arbitrator, our final line of defense, for right and wrong. And they did not do their duty.

So I think we should leave these words in because I want to send a strong message them.

See also 1:32:31 (Its Texas Congressman Matt Patrick Texas Cong. Dist. 32) for more context.

This is, literally, hearsay evidence. But if true, SCOTUS is sending a very clear message of how to get your way if the law and evidence isn’t on your side. The message will be heard loud and clear and the lesson learned will have dire long term consequences.

Update: This is probably false, at least in part. They have been meeting via video conferencing for months.

H/T to https://twitter.com/AdamPiersen/status/1339804928479473665

It’s possible something like this happened on a video call, but we have no evidence of that.

Quote of the day—Alex Woodward

Posted on by

Mr Biden’s platform includes a proposed ban of AR-style rifles and high-capacity magazines as well as implementing universal background checks, closing “loopholes” allowing gun sales to at-risk individuals, and hold gun manufacturers accountable for their products – all of which are expected to face uphill battles from a GOP-dominated Congress and legal challenges from a ruthless gun lobby.

Alex Woodward
December 14, 2020
Joe Biden pledges ‘common sense’ gun control on anniversary of Sandy Hook massacre
[“Ruthless gun lobby”?

Bias? What bias?—Joe]

Quote of the day—Tom Luongo

Posted on by

The arguments against the electoral college are simply veiled arguments against Federalism. And while I’m happy to entertain arguments against any coercive form of government, in the case of the U.S. our Federal system is a flawed but robust system which has given ground slowly to these political terrorists over the past couple hundred years.

It is in a terminal state of collapse today and the odds are long that it will survive these challenges in any practical sense.

Tom Luongo
December 9, 2020
Less Electoral College? No, More Electoral College
[I don’t see them as veiled. And not arguments either. More like threats or, on really bad days, telling us this is how they plan to execute us.

I just hope we have enough strength of character to exercise our veto power if it comes down to that.—Joe]

It is 2020 after all

Posted on by

Seven year-old grandson Bryce shared this in his parents Christmas letter:

Q: What’s the worst vision to have?
A: 2020!

Barb and I know we have been extremely fortunate compared to a lot of people. Still, there are some things that have been depressing to me in the last month or so.

I’ve lost three former classmates:

  • Verl Presnall was a good friend throughout most of grade school. He was also on the board of directors and past president of the East End Rod & Gun Club in Milton Freewater, Oregon. He died of prostrate cancer on October 14th.
  • Kathy (Fargo) Deyo was a high school classmate. We were never close but with a class of only 125 everyone knew everyone else. And she was always such a happy person. It was always a pleasure to be around her. She was one of those people who you think, “Life is so unfair that he/she should die so young.” She died November 13th.
  • Terry Thornton was also a high school classmate. Again we weren’t close but we had a lot of connections in the last 15 years or so. And he was another one of those people that you think shouldn’t have been one to leave us so early. Terry died December 1st of COVID.

I didn’t know it until a couple days ago but Eric Engstrom died on the same day as Terry.

Eric had a larger impact on my professional life than anyone in the world. The impact was huge. I would never have gone to work for Microsoft if it hadn’t been at Eric’s urging. He knew I had written tons of assembly language code for various graphics boards. Eric needed people to write video drivers for Direct Video (as it was called in May of 1995) for Windows 95. It had to be done by August so game developers could have games ready for Christmas. That was the wildest ride I have ever been on. Read Renegades of the Empire. Whenever you read something in there that sounds too far out to be believable double the “far out” quotient and you will be in the ball park of reality. I saw a hole kicked in a wall when I reported a bug I had found and fixed. I didn’t create the bug, it was from the manufacture of the video board. It was extremely obscure and absolutely deadly when it showed up. And it wasn’t found until after the code had been “frozen”. I was there when a keyboard was repeatedly bashed against a desk at 3:00 AM. From my office the key tops falling to the desktop sounded like broken glass. The motorcycle, spinning it’s tire in the hallway, burned a hole through the carpet all the way to the concrete. There was the illegal fireworks on campus, the Humvee driven across the grass field on campus (and getting stuck there), and the persistent thief who kept stealing RAM out of our computers in the middle of the night making it problematic as to whether we would be able to work when we came in the next morning.

That was just the first few months of my time at Microsoft and with Eric in “full bloom”. After a few years I was his first employee for his first startup, Chromium Communications.

That path changed my life forever. I made at least twice as much, if not three times as much, money because of Eric. Working with Eric and others at Microsoft was an alternate reality for me. I had never met such smart people before. I was used to frustration at explaining the same things over and over to co-workers. During those first years at MS people would “get it” before I had finished my first sentence. That changed my standards for the type of working environment I was willing to be in.

On a personal level Eric was so incredibly funny and happy and could even find humor on the darkest of days when his companies were imploding during the dot com bubble implosion. His probably (you frequently couldn’t tell) insane ideas and ambitions were amazing. When I was working in Richland, WA I would drive 200 miles, one way, to have dinner with him in Kirkland, then drive back to Richland to go to work the next day. It was more than worth the drive.

I’m certain I thought of him at least once a week even though I hadn’t had contact with him for years. I kept putting “things on the list” I want to share with him. My accomplishments and bits of news or inside knowledge about things I knew he had an interest in.

Eric had a personality (and ego) which could fill the largest ballroom in the largest hotel. He could make you believe the impossible was not only plausible but he was going to do it and it was going to be FUN! He planned to live forever and I though he probably would succeed. He failed and the shock will be with me for a long time.

2020 sucks.

Then this morning, this is just minor punctuation mark on the 2020 ledge, some thief stole the presents from our font steps. Daughter Jaime had Amazon ship them to us and we didn’t notice they had been delivered last night. Amazon didn’t put them in the package box. I checked the video this morning and saw this:

FullScreen

Package theft in Bellevue is up 72% last month compared to last year. We just contributed to the statistics for December.

It is 2020 after all.

I did get some good news late yesterday. Dad tried to buy a particular piece of prime properties to add to the farm on August 16, 1978. He was not successful. My brothers and I tried again in the early 1980s without success (the owner would barely talk to us).

In 2008 there was a verbal agreement between brother Doug and a third party. The third party wanted some of our land. Doug agreed that we would trade it for the land we really wanted. We knew the land we wanted was for sale but the owners wouldn’t have anything to do with us.

In May of this year, yes 12 years after the verbal agreement, they FINALLY, signed a contract to follow through with their verbal agreement. The contract said the deal would closed by November 29th. Uhh.. okay. That seems like an awfully long time to sign a few papers. We signed our papers in the middle of November. Wow! That took a long time (almost all of the hold up was on the side of the other party). But at least we are going to make the deadline. The other party still took what seemed like forever. Twice they sent papers to the title company without the signatures being notarized.

Yesterday the title company sent an email saying the papers had been recorded at the local courthouse.

It took over 42 years, but now we own that property. Maybe we can close out 2020 on a happy note.

Update: 12/15/2020 was also a good for another reason. I did the final review on a new patent application from the lawyer. I’ve solved tougher problems but I’m more proud of this patent application than any of the others. I thought of Eric a lot when working on this. Last January through March I worked an average 16 hours a day 7 days a week (except for a week in Hawaii for our first wedding anniversary) to find the solution and demonstrate its validity. I really wanted to tell Eric about this accomplishment.

Quote of the day—Ida Auken

Posted on by

Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city”. I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes.

It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

…

All in all, it is a good life. Much better than the path we were on, where it became so clear that we could not continue with the same model of growth. We had all these terrible things happening: lifestyle diseases, climate change, the refugee crisis, environmental degradation, completely congested cities, water pollution, air pollution, social unrest and unemployment. We lost way too many people before we realised that we could do things differently.

Ida Auken
November 11, 2016
Here’s how life could change in my city by the year 2030
[Auken also says:

Author’s note: Some people have read this blog as my utopia or dream of the future. It is not. It is a scenario showing where we could be heading – for better and for worse. I wrote this piece to start a discussion about some of the pros and cons of the current technological development. When we are dealing with the future, it is not enough to work with reports. We should start discussions in many new ways. This is the intention with this piece.

The “devil’s in the details” as they say. If you think about it just a little bit you realize it isn’t even possible. A few examples:

  • Auken’s statements are self contradictory. Everything is free? Then what is “employment” about then? They claim, “It is more like thinking-time, creation-time and development-time.” Do they get paid for this or not? If yes, then who are the consumers and do they pay for the products and/or services? If they don’t get paid, then what is their motivation to product a product and/or service someone is interesting in using?
  • They don’t explicitly say this but it’s implied that all the services are supplied by artificial-intelligence/robots. So what of crime control? Even if one were to concede there was no physical need for sustenance, shelter, entertainment, etc. there will be still be crimes of violence. Conflicts over relationships, insults, broken agreements, etc. Who pays for the cops, lawyers, judges, and prisons? Keep in mind that in a place where everything is free fines are meaningless.
  • Accommodations are not all equal. Who gets the penthouse overlooking the ocean and who gets the street view of the recycling center? They’re both free you know.
  • They don’t own anything, really? Not even clothes they say. Yet, I just demonstrated that a claim on quality of accommodations is going to occur. What about the dress they were married in? Or the food they ordered which just arrived from the robot pizza joint down the street? And what of the food they made themselves? Or the photographs they took, the art object they made, the diary they kept, or the book they wrote?

There will always be markets with sellers and buyers of property. They may be black markets in a time and place where thugs attempt to create a utopian world of free everything and equality for all, but markets will always exist.

Auken vision is not one of “for better or worse”. It’s one of reality or delusion.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Stephen Michael Stirling

Posted on by

Which is why vaccination should be compulsory, unless there’s independently-corroborated medical reasons for not taking it.

And by “compulsory” I don’t mean fines and scolding; I mean the cops will come to your house and physically hold you and your family down while the shot is administered, and if you resist beat you to a pulp or shoot you.

Stephen Michael Stirling
Posted on Facebook December 12, 2020
[Via a private post by Jonathan.

Best response (also private) by Vector Victor:

“Alexa, vacuum the doormat.”

I find it interesting so many people are so casual about advocating egregious violation of basic human rights.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Random thought of the day

Posted on by

Via Kevin Baker on Facebook:

Seen elsewhere:

Both sides think they’re right.
Only one side is censoring you.

That doesn’t guarantee one side or the other is telling the truth. Both sides could be wrong.

But it does guarantee which side I’m going to oppose.