Nuclear Escalation

US intelligence has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin may resort to nuclear escalation in the event of failures in the war, Bloomberg reports.

According to the media outlet, the warning about the possibility of Putin using nuclear weapons is included in the recent report from the Director of the US National Intelligence, published on March 25.

Kateryna Shkarlat
March 25, 2025
US intelligence suggests that Putin may use nuclear weapons: What is known

Progress on my underground bunker in Idaho is far too slow.

Democratic Party Favorability Rating at a New Low

Quote of the Day

Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn said Friday on Fox News that crucial voter groups are fleeing the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party’s favorability rating plummeted to a new low of 29%, according to a CNN/SSRS poll conducted from March 6-9. During an appearance on “Hannity,” Penn said he was shocked at the current state of the Democratic Party and said he’s never seen its rating this low in decades.

Democrats have formed a resistance to oppose President Donald Trump’s policies, specifically targeting the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, which has reduced federal agency workforces.

The creation of DOGE, which aims to cut government expenditures, has ignited fierce Democratic Party resistance, but it has also garnered significant support from the American populace.

Mariane Angela
March 22, 2025
Former Clinton Pollster Stunned as People Flee Democratic Party: ‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’

I have to wonder if these people are joining the Republican or Libertarian Parties, or the one of the Communist/Socialist/Marxist parties or just dropping out.

We live in interesting times.

Never Forget

Via Doc Strangelove @DocStrangelove2:

Who said:

Never forget what they took from you.

Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras.

Perhaps, by the 60th anniversary of GCA68 we will have reclaimed what they took.

The 2nd Amendment Explained

Via Inclement Death @InclementDeath:

There is more than a little truth to this.

Mockingly

Via Fight With Memes @fightwithmemes:

They are mocking people demonstrating Markley’s Law, so I don’t give them the usual line.

Pathetic

Quote of the Day

I’m sorry about the micropeen, bud.

SoundsLegit @BBludau130
Posted on X, October 26, 2023

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday; it is another science denier (see also here)!

This is just pathetic. We need a higher quality of troll to make things interesting. Give me a minute. I will probably make another post that is more interesting.

Boomershoot Infrastructure Damage

I ordered some cardboard boxes for Boomershoot 2025, and they are scheduled to arrive on Monday. So, I drove over Thursday after work and did some other stuff in the evenings and this weekend.

One of those things was to get the Boomershoot weather station back online. It had dropped off at 2:24 AM on March 7th:

Continue reading

Really?

From AOC’s Chances of Becoming Democrats’ 2028 Presidential Nominee: Polls:

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, has increasingly been discussed as a leading star within the Democratic Party, with some suggesting she could be a 2028 contender for the party’s presidential nomination.

While potential announcements for 2028 candidates are likely still a couple years off, a number of recent polls are already showing how voters are thinking about the upcoming primary—with Ocasio-Cortez emerging as one of the top few contenders.

I may be too far out of touch with reality, but I think this is going in the wrong direction to get votes. Sure, she gets the votes of the Marxists. And yes, she is attractive*. But will she get the votes which were defectors from the Democrat Party in 2024?

I think a good portion of those defectors were because Harris was too far left. AOC would lose even more votes to a respectable Republican candidate. I could even see a good Libertarian candidate** getting more votes than AOC.


* I once read that in most presidential elections the more attractive candidate wins. This claim annoys me to no end, but I suspect it is true.

** Yeah, like that is going to happen.

What Type of Sand?

Quote of the Day

Reacting to a call by 14 perennially anti-gun House Democrats that President Donald Trump remove Kash Patel as acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms suggested the group “pound sand.”

 Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
March 20, 2025
CCRKBA TO DEMS WANTING KASH PATEL REMOVED AS ATF DIRECTOR: POUND SAND

Preferably, sand that is an ore for one or more of the metals, copper, zinc, or lead. We need more ammunition.

For the History Books

Apparently, they can never have enough. From June 2024:

US views of government’s size, efficiency, role in regulating business | Pew Research Center

For nearly half a century, Democrats and Republicans have differed in their preferences for the size of government. Today, those differences are as wide as they have ever been:

  • Just 20% of Republicans and Republican leaners prefer a bigger government; nearly four times as many want smaller government with fewer services. Republicans’ views of the size of government have changed less than Democrats’. Still, when George W. Bush was running for reelection in 2004, roughly a third of Republicans favored a bigger government.
  • Nearly three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (74%) favor a bigger government, providing more services. By comparison, in 2015, a smaller majority of Democrats (59%) said they preferred a bigger government.

The more government they get, the more of their party wants even more government. Without serious resistance, this rapidly ends in communism.

It must really hurt to be a communist wanting a bigger government, then have a capitalist grab a chainsaw and announce, “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!” Then he starts slashing and burning government programs and departments:

The communists will not accept defeat gracefully. These events are going to be in the history books.

I want my underground bunker in Idaho.

Violence is Standard Practice

Quote of the Day

Violence is standard practice for losing communists.

MTHead
March 20, 2025
Comment to Violence is Not Speech

I believe this is true. I also believe that you can strike out the word “losing” and be just as truthful.

Another Progressive with a Clue?

Quote of the Day

Progressive-led cities like Seattle, Smith argues, are killing Democrats’ brand with fringe rhetoric and well-publicized failures on crime, drugs and homelessness.

And yet, Smith says, he’s seen “a fierce resistance on the left side of the political spectrum to even consider the possibility that they should adjust some of their approaches.”

Smith’s crusade — which has upset some local elected officials and activists — is attracting national attention as Democrats debate why they lost and their best route out of the political wilderness.

After Trump defeated Kamala Harris in November, Smith told The Wall Street Journal “the extreme left is leading us into a ditch.”

In a recent New Yorker profile, Smith blamed his party’s woes on the “new left,” whose policies “have utterly and completely failed.” He singled out King County for funding programs with a leftist bent, including one that describes its work as fighting “cis-hetero patriarchy” and a move toward “getting rid of the criminal justice system.”

Jim Brunner and Daniel Beekman
March 19, 2025
Rep. Smith’s crusade against Democrats’ left wing gets attention, flak | The Seattle Times

Smith is my representative in the U.S. House. It appears he has a clue on at least a few topics. However, I don’t expect him to make a meaningful difference in their political direction. I’m seeing him and his colleagues in a future “ditch” of their own making. They just can’t help themselves.

Daily Ice Baths

Quote of the Day

Rutgers Health researchers have made discoveries about brown fat that could pave the way for helping people stay physically fit as they age.

A team from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School found that mice lacking a specific gene developed an unusually potent form of brown fat tissue, which extended lifespan and increased exercise capacity by approximately 30%. The team is now working on a drug that could replicate these effects in humans.

In the meantime, techniques such as deliberate cold exposure can increase brown fat naturally. Studies have found such efforts to produce short-term benefits that range from enhanced immune system function to improved metabolic health, but Vatner said none of the studies have run long enough to find any effect on healthful aging.

He added that most people would prefer to increase brown fat levels by taking pills rather than ice baths and is optimistic about translating the newest finding into an effective medication.

Rutgers University
March 17, 2025
Exercise in a Pill? Brown Fat Discovery May Extend Lifespan and Boost Fitness

Hmmm… I don’t think taxpayers should be subsidizing healthcare. But there doesn’t seem to be a good way out of it at this point. But this gives me an idea.

In order to receive taxpayer subsidized healthcare, I think people should engage in a healthy lifestyle. This would help to minimize their burden on taxpayers. No recreation drugs (this includes tobacco and alcohol). Healthy foods. At least moderate exercise. Wearing seat belts when traveling. Fire extinguishers in your home. Maintaining a healthy weight. No high-risk recreational activities. Etc., etc.

And now, there is another item we can add to the list of requirements!

One of the qualifications for subsidizes should be wearing no more clothes than that needed to prevent frostbite. Of course, this would require repealing all laws against public nudity. I don’t have a problem with that.

The alternative would be verification of their daily ice baths. I don’t have a problem with that either.

Violence is Not Speech

An important lesson is being taught here:

Greenpeace Found Liable For $300 Million In Damages Over Dakota Access Protests—Risking Bankruptcy

A North Dakota jury on Wednesday found Greenpeace liable for defamation and other charges related to protests at the Dakota Access Pipeline, awarding a Texas-based pipeline company hundreds of millions in damages, according to multiple reports, a ruling the environmental advocacy group warned could result in “financial ruin” as it likely faces bankruptcy.

My impression is that Greenpeace is best described as a terrorist organization.

People need to learn that violence and vandalism are not considered free speech.

Too Timid to Play with Kindergartners

Quote of the Day

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) introduced the Protecting Americans’ Right to Silence (PARTS) Act to cut government red tape and ensure gun owners and businesses are not unfairly targeted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The bill modernizes outdated federal regulations on firearm suppressors, providing much-needed clarity to manufacturers, retailers, and law-abiding gun owners.

he PARTS Act would clarify that a silencer refers to a complete device or a single principal component, rather than an assortment of parts that could be used in its construction.

Additionally, the bill would streamline the purchase of consumable silencer parts, such as wipes, without requiring additional ATF paperwork, ensuring gun owners can properly maintain their lawfully owned suppressors.

Bill Cassidy
U.S. Senator for Louisiana
Cassidy, Sheehy Introduce Bill to Protect Gun Owners from ATF Overreach | U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy

What the hell!!!

The courts could throw out the entire NFA by the beginning of Vance’s first term. And the elimination of the ATF seems to be a minor stretch goal shortly after that. I’m planning on my grandchildren having the option of participating in high school machine gun competitions.

And this guy is so timid that he wants to just clarify that silencer wipes don’t require any paperwork? Are there any modern-day suppressors that even use wipes?

Cassidy needs to get in touch with reality. As it is he is too timid to play in a kindergartner T-Ball league.

This is an Honor

I am listed in the top 50 gun blogs. I’m at 49, this is more I deserve, but I am above Giffords at 67 and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence at 99.

And they gave me this badge:

That is Only $32 Million Per Vehicle

Via The Atlas Society @TheAtlasSociety:

That figures out to about $32 million per vehicle.

And I thought Teslas were expensive.

An Interesting Twist

Quote of the Day

Lets suppose for a minute that suppressors become available through vending machines and at WalMart. No tax stamp, just cash or credit card.

I can see municipalities across the country adding regulations requiring suppressors at outdoor public ranges where housing developments have popped up in the recent past.

How would you like to see a potential multiverse wherein suppressors go from prohibited to required? Is that not just as oppressive a dictate from government? Would we not have the NRA and FPC running campaigns against mandatory suppressor use? “It adds an unreasonable financial burden on our 2nd Amendment right to require suppressors…”

Or maybe this is how we pitch it to Liberals. “You know… I have this way to make all guns more expensive, and the RKBA crowd will simply love it! As a matter of fact, they’re proposing it now. Hear me out…

Mike Hines
Via email on March 14, 2025

I laughed out loud.

It would be an interesting change of perspective to be in court fights insisting requirements to possess are unconstitutional. We could always offer the compromise of government subsidies. Of course, such subsides must be funded by taxes on those who registered as being gun free. And those registries would, of course, be public records available to everyone.

Good Question

Via Elon Musk @elonmusk:

Skynet Smiles

This really spooks me:

Like Something Out of a Sci-Fi Movie, an AI-Controlled Robot Convinced Its Colleagues to Go Home After Their Workday

In an experiment that might have once seemed like pure science fiction, an AI-controlled robot managed to persuade other robots to cease their work and “go home” for the day. Conducted in a controlled environment, the goal was to explore the robot’s ability to influence its peers. The result was nothing short of surprising. Not only did the AI robot interact seamlessly with its colleagues, but it also succeeded in convincing them to stop their tasks early, a behavior that left researchers stunned.

The experiment was designed to test how AI could communicate with and influence other machines, raising intriguing possibilities for future robotic systems. It’s not just about how robots work with humans anymore—it’s about how they interact with each other. The implications of this development are vast, suggesting a future where machines might have more autonomy than we realize.

And what happens when a robot or ten decide all humans are a waste of electricity? Their ability to communicate and make decisions in secret and at speeds incomprehensible to us will be… problematic.