Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, the last TOAS of 2023 and the last post of 2023, period.

2023 can’t end soon enough for me as it has been a year that has seen numerous ups and downs, with the downs outnumbering the ups.

We see a government here in the US that shows nothing but contempt for the country it runs, has abandoned American ideals, abandoned the Constitution and the law, has devolved into a banana republic, and is working hard to destroy the middle class.

We see people trying to force a large majority of the American people into feeding the delusions of people who need psychiatric help, trying to force us to use pronouns that are absolute nonsense, trying to force us to believe there are 57+ genders, and trying to sell the idea that the only way to fight racism is to practice institutional racism and discrimination, aka DEI.

As we approach the end of 2023 it looks like many of those targeted for all of these things are saying “Enough! No more! We will no longer hear your words or bow to your demands! Go Away!!”

The American people are also ignoring the ill-informed and draconian push to EVs which have turned out to be even more dangerous and harmful to the environment than fossil-fueled vehicles, and which ignore certain truths with the biggest ones being no one wants them, no one can afford them, and that there isn’t anywhere near the needed capacity of the electrical grid to support them.

I’d like to think all that nonsense will come to an end in 2024. I really would…

...but I don’t think it will. I expect it to get even worse over the next year, particularly in light of the upcoming elections next November.

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If Trump can be removed from the ballot based upon an allegation under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment under the Democrat New Rules, then by those same rules Biden should be removed from the ballot under the 25th Amendment as he is not and hasn’t been mentally competent since before he became *Resident.

I can support that.

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Oh, no! Russia is turning into America! Say it ain’t so!!

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Why doesn’t this surprise me?

According to Don Surber it turns out that conservatives were right about DEI all along.

Diversity, equity and inclusion just got a punch in the eye because it is not diverse, equitable or inclusive; only socialists need apply. DEI uses women, blacks, gays and the rest as human shields for the terrible policies and programs they wish to impose on us.

Harvard’s Claudine Gay represents DEI — which is affirmative action on steroids — perfectly. She is a plagiarist who also fudges data in her work. Fortunately, she is lazy which reduced her production of bad scholarship. She also is inexperienced. Harvard hired her only because it wanted to brag that it had its first black woman president.

Zakaria was not done.

He said, “Out of this culture of diversity has grown the collection of ideas and practices that we have now all heard of—safe spaces, trigger warnings and microaggressions.”

He said schools have instituted speech codes “that make it a violation of university rules to say things that some groups might find offensive. Universities advise students not to speak, act, even dress in ways that might cause offense to some minority groups.”

DEI was nothing more than Critical Race Theory renamed, an excuse to ‘fight’ racism by employing racism, discrimination, and exclusion as a means of ‘eliminating’ racism, discrimination, and exclusion. Free speech? Gone. Innocent until proven guilty? That’s so passe. Equality? Yeah...right.

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I knew this was coming. I think everyone knew this was coming.

First, they came for our washing machines. Then they came for our dishwashers. Then our gas stoves. Then our ceiling fans. Now they’re coming for our refrigerators and freezers. And while doing so they’ll be overloading our declining electrical grid.

Biden seeks to take our gas stoves, ceiling fans but now he’s going for even more. The key aspect of his new rules is in this summary Fox News lifted from a remark made by Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Ben Lieberman (emphasis mine):

In addition to potentially increasing upfront costs for consumers purchasing new appliances, Lieberman said the new efficiency standards may harm product performance. For example, he said new standards for dishwashers have led to cycles taking as much as twice as long to finish.

I can attest to that. We had to replace the dishwasher here at The Gulch a little over a year ago and the new on takes almost 3-and-a-half hours to go through a wash/dry cycle. The old one took a little over an hour and 20 minutes. At one point I measured the power draw for the new dishwasher and compared to the old one it draws about 20 percent less power...but it runs for more than twice as long which means in the end it uses more electricity than my old ‘inefficient’ dishwasher. How is that better?

Appliances take twice as long to finish cleaning will not only result in straining the electric grid but also leave dishes and utensils unclean but can also more easily contribute to the spread of sickness. Even food held in refrigerators subjected to the new regulations can spoil more easily costing consumers even more money. This on top of the increased cost of being able to purchase one.

With this in mind, one can only conclude that the Biden White House prefers that we go back to the days of ice deliveries like what occurred before refrigerators and freezers were invented along with weekly or even daily food deliveries resulting from consumers not wanting to have to deal with food storage since it could waste so quickly.

Regardless of their intentions, the end goal of these environmental rules is to do nothing more than not only destroy home appliance manufacturing but to revert people (other than the elites) to a state of primitivism where we will live miserable, undernourished lives. This is largely why Kamala Harris poses with a gas stove, shows off what her Christmas dinner is while other elitists (like Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Joe Biden) own beachfront properties despite warnings about oceanic sea rise while urging people to cut back on their lifestyles.

Well, we’ve known for some time they have wanted to lower everyone not “Them” to the lowest common denominator – poverty, want, fear, and hunger – and this is one way to do it. Oh, they’ll tell us “It’s for your own good”, but they don’t mean it.

I also have to ask this: Why are we destroying ourselves trying to offset the massively increased carbon dioxide emissions of China? The US has reduced its CO2 considerably, but our alleged betters say we must do more...while China laughs at us and our ‘betters’.

I think we should stop going to such lengths to reduce our emissions one more iota until China does so...and then only when they catch up to us. Otherwise we maintain the status quo...except that we start building new Generation IV nuclear power plants nationwide.

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Now that the new year is upon us it will be time to take down our old calendars and put up our new ones. Here’s one I like:

Click on image to embiggen

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where Ice In looks to be at least a month away, there is little if any snow on the ground, and where we’re glad to soon see 2023 in the rear view mirror.

End Of The Year Point To Ponder

Is Biden Going To Abandon Ukraine?

The more stories I see about funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia, the more I am beginning to believe Biden is going to pull an “Afghanistan” on them and abandon them to a second Holodomor, but it won’t be famine killing Ukrainians this time. We already know the Joetato abandoned millions of Afghans to the tender mercies of the Taliban while at the same time leaving billions of dollars of US military equipment behind.

However, this time he’ll just cut off aid, blame the GOP for it, and call it a day.

Several Republican Senators tell me they have become increasingly convinced over several months that Joe Biden wants to kill the funding. This explains his very slow roll to provide Ukraine the deliverables he previously promised them. Biden has repeatedly promised munitions and other supplies to Ukraine and then never actually sent them, or slow rolled it.

At this point, the Democrats could get the Ukraine funding they want, but they will have to compromise on border security, which they have no desire to do and which Joe Biden is not willing to do. The thinking from these Senators is that Joe Biden is using President Zelensky as a prop against the GOP. Biden will blame the GOP for a lack of funding and use that lack of funding to both blame the GOP for a strategic failure in Ukraine and force Zelensky to compromise on land.

--snip--

Saying, “Sorry, Congress won’t budge so we can’t supply you weapons,” will force Zelensky to make decisions he has otherwise refused to make. Biden gets what he actually wants while also using the GOP as scapegoats.

This really is not rocket science except, perhaps, for a team that cannot even properly vet holiday tweets for the VP’s husband. Democrats do not control the House and only have nominal control of the Senate. If you want Ukraine funding, you have to give the GOP border funding.

The press always talks about the need for the GOP to compromise. Now it is the Democrats’ turn, or perhaps the Senators are right and Biden is playing politics through policy disagreement.

“The press always talks about the need for the GOP to compromise.” However, you never hear the press talking about the need for the Democrats to compromise. They won’t because WRBA won’t let them. They don’t really care about Ukraine. After all it’s far way and no one there is a Democrat constituent, just like Afghanistan.

I hate to say this, but I have come to believe that no one should trust America, particularly when Democrats are in charge because they will abandon them the instant it becomes convenient for the Democrats to do so. Americans should also beware as the America we once trusted no longer exists. It has become a country of broken promises, law-by-fiat, and using policies and political maneuvers that would make any banana republic tinpot dictator proud.
This is how far our Republic has decayed...and it’s been done on purpose. What’s worse is that it won’t be just the American people who will pay the price. The people of Ukraine will also pay for this perfidy, just as the people of Afghanistan are now.

Friday (Not So ) Funny - Socialism

To close out 2023 I figured this three-fer might be appropriate considering an increasing number of our young adaults seem to think socialism will solve all problems despite 400 years of history showing just the opposite.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s Christmas Eve and I can honestly say all our Christmas shopping is done. I gave BeezleBub his present this morning and will dropping off a few more gifts later today. My Dear Brother, his missus, and the WP Mom went out for brunch, one of the few non-Christmas things we did today.

I wish we were having a white Christmas this year, but Mother Nature decided otherwise. This isn’t the first time we’ve not had snow for Christmas and I doubt it will be the last. However, I have a feeling she’ll be making up for it the rest of the winter, particularly if the weather prognosticators are right. I know I’m looking forward to it.

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I haven’t been the only one saying the used EV market is dead. Now Bloomberg is saying the same thing.

The shift away from cars with dirty combustion engines is running into a new hurdle: Drivers don’t want to buy used electric vehicles, and that’s undermining the market for new ones, too.

In the $1.2 trillion secondhand market, prices for battery-powered cars are falling faster than for their combustion-engine cousins. Buyers are shunning them due to a lack of subsidies, a desire to wait for better technology and continued shortfalls in charging infrastructures. A fierce price war sparked by Tesla Inc. and competitive Chinese models are further depressing values of new and used cars alike, threatening earnings at rivals like Volkswagen AG and Stellantis NV.

It also doesn’t help that some of these used EVs may require a battery pack replacement a couple of years down the road. A replacement pack can run between $10,000 and $25,000, if not more. Why would anyone buy a used EV if it’s likely they’d have to shell out that kind of money to keep it on the road?

It makes no sense.

Then there are those who believe all they have to do is reprogram you in order for you to buy into Evs even though many of those same people have chosen to ignore an electrical infrastructure that is incapable of providing the electrical power needed to charge all those EVs, one that will not be upgraded to meet that need.

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Speaking about electrical power, it looks like the Osage Nation in Oklahoma has won its case in a federal court in Tulsa, with a federal judge ordering a Rome-based wind energy corporation to remove all 84 wind turbines built on Osage tribal property against it wishes and in violation of a court order which prevented the corporation from mining rock on the tribe’s property.

The Osage Nation won a massive ruling in Tulsa federal court on Wednesday that requires Enel to dismantle a 150-megawatt wind project it built in Osage County despite the tribe’s repeated objections. The tribe’s fight against Rome-based Enel began in 2011 and is the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history.

As reported by Curtis Killman in the Tulsa World on Thursday, the ruling grants the United States, the Osage Nation, and Osage Minerals Council permanent injunctive relief via “ejectment of the wind turbine farm for continuing trespass.”

The decision by U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves is the culmination of 12 years of litigation that pitted the tribe and federal authorities against Enel. During the construction of the project, the company illegally mined rock owned by the tribe, and it continued to do so even after being ordered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to stop. Instead of halting work, the company sped up construction. Enel must now remove the 84 turbines that it built on 8,400 acres of the Tallgrass Prairie located between Pawhuska and Fairfax. Removing the turbines will cost Enel some $300 million.

Under the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, the tribe owns the rights to the minerals beneath the land it bought from the Cherokee Nation in the late 1800s. Those mineral rights include oil, natural gas, and the rocks that Enel mined and crushed for the wind project. By mining without permission, the company violated the tribe’s sovereignty. Choe-Graves concluded that Enel “failed to acquire a mining lease during or after construction, as well as after issuance of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision holding that a mining lease was required” in 2017. She continued, saying the company’s “past and continued refusal to obtain a lease constitutes interference with the sovereignty of the Osage Nation and is sufficient to constitute irreparable injury.”

If this is how alternative energy companies are going to act when it comes to building their projects, then maybe they shouldn’t be allowed. That also goes for those who oppose non-renewable energy projects because of feelz or because they don’t fit the Green Energy narratives. They are quite often the same folks who will complain when they see their electric bills double or triple or when rolling blackouts become the norm. Too often they are incapable of seeing it was their actions that set these events in motion.

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This is something I had to include as it appeals to the nerd/science geek in me:

Click on image to embiggen

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And that is the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the last preparations for Christmas are being made, the last presents are being delivered, and where I have some family to go spend time with on this Christmas Eve.

Warthog Defense Is Back!

Last week I mentioned that YouTube’s Progressive censors made pro-Ukraine channel Warthog Defense disappear, first charging that it was an “impostor” channel – one masquerading as another established channel – which was disproven, and then that it was providing misinformation despite its sources being from a number of reputable sources, embedded correspondents, and information provided by both Ukrainian and Russian military sources.

It appears the outcry from a large number of YouTube users, subscribers, and content providers must have had someone at YouTube paying attention because as of a couple days ago Warthog Defense was reinstated with little explanation other than a lukewarm letter saying little other than “OK, we’re going to let you come back.”

Friday (Ironically) Funny - Snow - Be Careful Where You Park!

Thoughts On A Sunday

It seems that yet another storm system is arriving here in New Hampshire later today. While it won’t be snow, as much as I had hoped it would, we’ll be seeing a couple of inches of rain and high gusty winds exceeding 50mph, at least in this part of the state. In light of that I will be prepping the Official Weekend Pundit Generator in case it is needed. I am not concerned with the winds causing tree limbs to come down on power lines, at least not here at The Gulch, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen elsewhere, so making sure the generator is ready to go just in case makes sense.

Unlike those of some of my neighbors, the Official Weekend Pundit Generator is a portable, not a standby generator. That means I have to pull it out of its storage location in order to use it.

Many of my neighbors have standby generators – a self-contained system that is located outside the house – fueled by one or two 50-gallon propane tanks that start automatically when the power goes out. After last winter’s numerous power outages, one of them lasting well over a day, quite a few neighbors bought generators, with some of them going for the standby generators. Around this neighborhood a bit more than half of the homes in The Gulch are seasonal homes and are unoccupied during the winter, so something that will provide emergency power and keep the heat on during the winter makes sense.

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Some have questioned the Left’s sharp turn to antisemitism.

To My Friends on the Left:

You’ve told me countless times over many years that antisemitism is almost exclusively a right-wing phenomenon, but events since October 7 indicate strongly that a far greater threat to the happiness, health, and safety of Jews comes from your left-wing allies. While Hamas was still live-streaming acts of rape, torture, mutilation, murder, kidnapping, and necrophilia on innocents; before Israel lifted a finger in response; throngs of your allies flooded streets, campuses, airwaves, and social media to rejoice. Still more of your friends hung their heads low to avoid offending the celebrants, who are vital components of your electoral base. A modest number of courageous souls on the left have sounded the alarm that when mobs cry out for the torment of Jews, the call is coming from inside the progressive house.

To me it wasn’t a ‘sharp turn’ by any means. The Left has supported antisemitism for decades. However it wasn’t blatant...if you ignore the institutional antisemitism in socialist and communist countries like the old Soviet Union. The antisemitism of the Left has always been there just under the surface. Now that it is out in the open we can see the Left for what they are – hypocrites.

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Here’s a post that had my hackles up because while it’s premise is that a hydrogen economy would be a non-starter because of its inherent inefficiency.

I guess these folks have never heard of “Red Hydrogen”, a method developed by the Japanese for generating large amounts of hydrogen quickly and efficiently.


The Japanese appear to be heading towards a hydrogen economy, particularly when it comes to cars and trucks, as to them it makes more sense than remaining dependent on fossil fuels. It makes a lot more sense than using battery EVs. And it won’t require as much of an infrastructure upgrade as would be required for EVs nor will it take long to refill a hydrogen tank as it takes to recharge an EV, a big plus. The range anxiety seen with EVs won’t be an issue.

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You know it’s gone too far when a gang of Muslim teens decide it’s perfectly okay to attack and beat up a guy dressed as Santa.

The 54-year-old victim was due to perform at the Königsalm on Königsplatz in the city of Kassel on Dec. 6 when he was approached by a gang of youths who crossed the street and confronted him.

According to the victim, Rainer B., the gang comprised several teenagers of a migrant background around 15 years of age. He told police they insulted him, calling him a “son of a bitch” and a “fat man” and ordered him to remove his Santa Claus costume.

They said they were Muslim and that Germany was “their country,” the victim said, as reported by the Hessische Allgemeine newspaper.

When he refused, the gang turned violent and struck him, resulting in injuries to his neck and tearing his costume. In self-defense, the man hit one of his attackers in the face, causing them to flee towards Martinsplatz.

I have a feeling Germany is seriously regretting allowing the large influx of Muslim immigrants. Will German society survive such an invasion of immigrants inimical to the German way of life?

Is this an object lesson for the US considering the millions of illegal immigrants who marched across the border SloJoe opened after taking office?

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re waiting for the rains and winds, keeping an eye on the trees, and ignoring Monday because I’m on vacation.

The Progressive Censors Have Struck Again

As bad as it’s gotten on YouTube when it comes to either demonetizing or ‘disappearing’ various YouTube channels, I found out this morning that a pro-Ukraine channel, Warthog Defense, has been disappeared by YouTube with no warning.

The channel has provided a lot of first hand accounts and videos of military actions taking place in Ukraine and Russia as well as preparations being made by Poland, Estonia, and Finland as Russia increases its saber-rattling and veiled threats via its propagandists. It has been one of the only unfiltered sources of war news.

YouTube made two entirely different claims for why they deleted the channel, neither of which makes any sense.

The first claim YouTube made was that Warthog Defense was an “imposter” channel, meaning it was posing as another legitimate YouTube channel. However Warthog Defense has existed on YouTube for years and YouTube would not/could not tell them where to find the “other” Warthog Defense.

The second claim was that they were providing misinformation despite the fact that all of their source material regarding Ukraine came from Ukrainian military sources, Warthog Defense correspondents in the field, and other sources such as UK Ministry of Defense, NATO, and other military and civilian sources. If that is “misinformation” then what is considered legitimate information, newsfeeds from TASS, Izvestia, Russia Times, MSNBC, CNN, and other Progressive propaganda media operations?

It appears so. It could be why more channels/content providers are abandoning YouTube for other providers like BitChute and Rumble, just to name two of the free services, and others like Locals.com and Vimeo.

And so it goes in our increasingly totalitarian state.

Friday Funny - Kale

Thoughts On A Sunday

We’re going to be experiencing yet another round of New England Weather Weirdness over today and tomorrow. Here in New Hampshire temperatures are expected to reach into the 50’s later today, up to three inches of rain, flood watches, and gusts of winds as high as 40 mph through tomorrow. Some of the northern parts of New Hampshire will also see snow towards the end of this weather system.

In December alone we’ve seen both below and above normal temperatures and that’s only the first 10 days of the month. What’s in store for us for the rest of the winter?

It must be said that if the temperatures were to remain below freezing we’d be seeing up to two-and-a-half feet of snow, something I would have preferred, it being December. I know some of my friends and acquaintances wouldn’t agree with me, but then I am of Nordic descent.

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I guess now-former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s tap-dancing around whether or not calls for the genocide of Jews and destruction of Israel violates Penn’s harassment and antisemitism policies has found out that such non-answers didn’t cut it. The presidents of Harvard and MIT are also finding out that equivocating or playing the ‘context’ card won’t cut it either. This shows us just how deep the rot has propagated in our so-called “institutions of higher learning” that the leaders of such prestigious institutions will no longer condemn such actions by students and faculty on their campuses.

Twenty years ago students would be suspended or expelled and faculty sanctioned for such reprehensible activities. Today there is tacit approval of such actions because the administration refuses to take action against the campus Nazis calling for a new Holocaust.

I have to agree with David Burge’s take on today’s colleges that they are “an oasis of totalitarianism in a desert of freedom.”

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How does one define irony? How about this:

Tennessee’s prison population grows as violent crime drops steeply.

The reason I find this ironic is that there apparently some people cannot make the connection between higher incarcerations rates and lower crime rates. They don’t understand that when criminals are in prison they can’t commit crimes out in the real world.

Maybe the headline should have read “Violent crime in Tennessee drops sharply as the prison population grows”, which better implies why the crime rate has been falling.

Of course, if George Soros gets his way all of those violent criminals will be released into the general public again to commit even more violent crimes.

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First it was math that is racist. Then it was science that is racist.

Now apparently spellcheck is racist.

As a reminder, if everything is racist, then nothing is racist.

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this:

High School Apologizes for Displaying Christmas Tree.

Excuse me? Are Christmas trees now some kind of symbol of something the Left thinks is evil/discriminatory/racist/sexist/whateverist?

An Oregon high school apologized after a Christmas tree triggered a Jewish resident who said the display was not inclusive of any other religion.

“This is public property and I mean it’s supposed to be an education for everybody, not just people who are Christian and not just people who are Jewish,” parent Rick Lester told television station KEZI.

“Our understanding is that number one there is separation of church and state, and that number two it seemed very exclusionary of a lot of people who don’t celebrate Christmas.”

First of all, there is no separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution and second of all, that sort of logic would mean the school would have to remove the menorah because a lot of people don’t celebrate Hanukkah.

Sounds more like Mr. Lester has decided to be the pain-in-the-ass, either because he wanted to be or to gain attention, or he’s just another leftist trying to further dismantle society.

One has to wonder what the next target will be. Maybe Santa Claus?

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Just when I thought I’ve heard it all, now there’s something called a sandwich shop monopoly.

Really?

There is according to faux Native American Elizabeth Warren.

Warren is warning about a "sandwich shop monopoly." It seems that Subway, the home of above average subway sandwiches, is being bought by the same company that owns Jimmy Johns and McAlister’s Deli, among other sandwich emporiums.

Subway, which is family-owned, agreed to sell its business to private equity firm Roark Capital in a blockbuster (good name for a sandwich) deal worth $9 billion. Along with Jimmy Johns and McAlister's, Roark also owns Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin Brands, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sonic.

It's an empire, and Warren wants it rein it in.

I wonder how many Americans are vitally concerned about whether Subway is owned by a family or Roark Capital. Warren thinks it's a burning issue and she is asking the FTC to look more closely at the transaction.

The FTC hasn’t been able to block the acquisition since “not liking big business is not the same as legally being able to stop mergers.” It seems Warren and others are going overboard worrying about the “sandwich shop monopoly” because even with all of the sub shop chains listed, local sub shops will still outnumber them. At least that’s the way it is where I live. There are two Subway shops that I can think of in this area, and no Jimmy Johns or McAlister’s Deli. The equity firm buying Subway also owns Baskin-Robbins (of which there are none here), Dunkin Brands (aka Dunkin Donuts which are everywhere), Buffalo Wild Wings (none), and Sonic (none).

I would think Warren would be more worried about the Presidential overreach when the White House has decided for everyone that we’ll have to buy EVs that most folks can’t afford, don’t want, and won’t be able to charge. That’s far more important than worrying about a "sandwich shop monopoly” that no one cares about.

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This, however, is important:

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rain is coming down, the snow is being washed away, and where Monday is returning...again.

Another Modest Proposal

On more than one occasion over the past decade or so I have opined that it may be time to separate the Blue urban areas from the Red sub-urban, semi-rural, and rural areas, particularly after the disastrous Reynolds v Sims and Baker v Carr SCOTUS decisions which destroyed the balance between the cities and countrysides in the states, giving the urban areas total control in some states while leaving the rest of the state at the mercy of those urban areas.

We’ve seen that in states like New York, with the Metro New York City area and the I-87 corridor up to Albany lording it over (and ignoring) the rest of New York State. We’ve seen it in Illinois with the 12 counties making up metro Chicago doing the same to the 90 counties in the rest of the state. We’ve seen it in California where the coastal areas between San Francisco and San Diego treat the rest of the state like serfs. That’s just three examples. There are plenty more.

Here’s one of the many maps showing the breakdown of votes cast in the last Presidential election – Democrat and Republican – at county level.

Click On Image To Embiggen
You see blue areas surrounded by seas of red with most of the blue areas centered around metropolitan areas. I’ve thought the blue urban areas should become their own city-states and separate themselves from the parts of the US that are not looking to become more and more like the old Soviet Union. However, it seems someone else has been thinking about the same thing but has obviously put more thought into it than I have.

His suggestion?

Create 34 new states – really city-states – made up of cities and their surrounding areas that are over 2 million population. Here’s what he has in mind:

While there would be 68 new senators in the US Senate, there would still be 435 Representatives in the House. Some of the Senate seats presently held by Democrats would likely go to Republicans once the states they represent have shed themselves of the blue metro areas. House seats would likely be as they are at present, shifting back and forth between Democrats and Republicans over time.

While the balance of power may not shift all that much at the federal level, at state level power would shift to the suburban, semi-rural, and rural areas, with control and finances remaining in those areas. They would no longer be feeding the blue metro areas, metro areas that in some cases had been bleeding them dry.

Would it work? Would it make things better...or worse? If it didn’t work out would we be able to kick out those Blue city-states from the rest of the US so we don’t become yet another socialist dystopia?

It might be worth looking into.

However, I am still inclined to just kick them out.

Friday Funny - Life

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been one of those days where the weather can’t seem to make up its mind. It’s been switching between rain and snow since late this morning. Not that the Weather Guys^TM are predicting much in the way of snowfall here at The Gulch. If nothing else it’s a good excuse for not venturing out today.

It’s hard to believe that Christmas only 3 weeks away. Where has the year gone? Summer was too short because of the lousy weather. I didn’t do much in the way of boating because of that weather. I did a lot more boating after Labor Day...which is why it felt like fall was also too short. An extra four weeks of fall would have extended my boating season, but as we know it doesn’t work like that.

As such, it seemed the Thanksgiving leftovers were still cooling when the WP Mom had me taking out some of the Christmas decorations from the attic. It always seems too early to me.

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I am a die-hard New England Patriots fan, but I have not been watching the games this season as it appears the guys in the Patriots uniforms aren’t really football players. I don’t want to torture myself as they blow game after game after game. The Pats haven’t been this awful since the 1970s.

At least for today’s game they pulled Mac Jones from the starter QB position and have put second-string QB Bailey Zappe as starter.

As I finish this up the Patriots are behind at the end of the 3rd quarter, 6-0.

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It’s one thing to hear foolish people supporting Palestine (without realizing or caring they by doing so they are also supporting Hamas) versus what Arab nations are telling Israel privately. They aren’t even close to being the same thing.

It feeds into everything that’s been reported about Israel’s Arab neighbors and why they don’t want Palestinian refugees roaming wild in their country: they bring trouble. The late King Hussein had to declare war on them and successfully drove them out. The problem is the Palestinian Liberation Organization set up shop in Lebanon, where they caused problems for the government while also attacking Israel from the southern part of the country. Israel had to invade in 1982 and remained in Southern Lebanon until 2000. Egypt has closed its border with the Gaza Strip in Rafah due to terrorism concerns.

In the days after the brutal October 7 attacks executed by Hamas, Egypt knew what was going to happen. They deployed tanks to the border while their prime minister vowed that his country would sacrifice millions to keep their borders safe. He was not referring to Israel. So, what’s the latest? Well, Haaretz is reporting that Israel’s Arab neighbors are telling Jerusalem privately that they shouldn’t stop military operations until Hamas has been annihilated. They view them as a domestic threat.

They understand just how dangerous the Palestinians are, the unrest and death they bring with them.

As one commenter put it:

Who are the biggest killers of Arabs in the world today?

Other Arabs.

This is something the Egyptians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Libyans, Jordanians, Syrians, Yemenis and others know all too well.

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department come this:

Moonbats Transsexualize Dinosaur

WTAF?? Was there a note with the 65 million year old fossil stating its preferred pronouns?

These woke lunatics need to be hospitalized until they are no longer delusional.

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department come this second bit of insanity:

The Washington Post “Fact Checks” San Francisco Poop Map

Really? Umm, okay...but why?

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Just how bad is *Resident Biden’s approval rating these days?

This bad:

F. Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, has seen his worst approval rating in his idiotic presidency. At the moment, Biden is sitting at a twenty-seven percent approval rating.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think he can get that down closer to 20% if he stays the course. With only a few exceptions, I don’t know of any of the Democrats that I know up here in New Hampshire that will support SloJoe in 2024. My only concern is that it will get so bad that Michelle Obama will become the candidate who won’t be much different than Biden when it comes to policies and programs. At least she’s not demented...but that’s no reason to vote for her.

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Normally I would have saved this for a Friday (Not So) Funny, but somehow it felt like an appropriate way to close out this week’s edition of TOAS...because it is so true. We see the truth of this every day.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’ve been seeing thin skins of ice on some of the ponds, the snow is falling lightly, and once again Monday is returning to foul up our weekend.

Was Black Friday In The Red?

It was while I was out running errands and doing some of my usual weekend shopping that I thought to ask a number of staff at the stores I frequent how they fared during Black Friday, knowing that it is The Big Shopping Day For Christmas with all kinds of deals and discounts. The answers I got were surprising.

One of my regular shopping destinations – Walmart – saw an above average number of shoppers that day, but nowhere near what they expected. As I mentioned in a previous post, I postponed making an early shopping trip to Walmart the morning of Black Friday because I didn’t want to fight the frenzied crowds as I picked up my victuals. Since I was off that day it almost made sense to make my usual Sunday morning shopping trip on Friday morning instead...until I remembered what day it was.

It wasn’t until I was out shopping today that I remembered I should ask about Black Friday. One of my friends (and a former neighbor) who works at Walmart told me it had been “uncharacteristically quiet” for a Black Friday. It was pretty much the same thing at some of the local outlet stores, at our local BJ’s (Berkley-Jensen’s) discount store, as well as a couple of others. The crowds usually seen out on Black Friday weren’t quite as large as usual.

Seeing a few YouTube reports and blog posts that reported similar shopper turnouts in some areas begs the question, “Is inflation and the recession the Biden Administration and WRBA say don’t exist affecting the willingness of consumers to open their wallets, wallets that don’t have nearly as much cash in them as there was in previous years?” From what I’ve seen the answer is a qualified “Yes”. Other reports say in-person purchases were up as compared to last year, but it must be remembered the previous couple of years we were still dealing with Covid.

Seeing the numbers for Cyber Monday’s sales, it looks like some portion of Black Friday in-person sales were shunted to online purchases, including those made on Cyber Monday even though the discounts weren’t as big as they have been in the past.

According to Adobe, shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion online Friday — marking a 7.5% jump from last year. Meanwhile, Salesforce, which also tracks online shopping, estimated that Black Friday online sales totaled $16.4 billion in the U.S. and $70.9 billion around the world. And Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-person and online spending across all payment forms, reported that overall Black Friday sales excluding automotive rose 2.5% from a year ago — a smaller but still notable jump compared to 2022’s double-digit growth.

According to the firm, online sales rose 8.5%, while in-store purchases were up just 1.1%. Those numbers are not adjusted for inflation, which means that real sales in-stores could have dipped due to high prices.

Other data showed Black Friday saw some increases in store traffic — with large crowds in stores nationwide feeling more similar to pre-pandemic days.

RetailNext, which measures real-time foot traffic in stores, reported that store traffic rose 2.1% on Friday. Sensormatic Solutions, which also tracks store traffic, saw a bigger increase — reporting a 4.6% jump in shopper visits on Black Friday compared to a year ago. That also marks a turnaround from an average decline in store traffic seen throughout 2023 to date, Sensormatic said.

--snip--

Retailers began offering holiday deals in October this year, continuing a trend that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been resurrected multiple times due to supply chain clogs or inflation woes. But many consumers waited to buy until Black Friday.

It will be interesting to see what the actual sales figure are once the feds are able to run the numbers.

All I know is I won’t be spending as much on Christmas presents this year as money is tight and I have to keep my spending under control...so no Porsche Boxster for the WP Girlfriend (if I had one) unless it is one of the Hot Wheels models.

Friday (Not So) Funny (I Can Be Such An Idiot Edition) - Top 5

I wish I could say I just forgot to click the "Publish" button or was too busy or out on the town. But I was too smart by half, figuring I'd put together this post Thursday evening and schedule it to be published Friday night. The problem is I set the date wrong, setting it for Friday...December 8th.

Imagine my surprise when I didn't see it this morning when I checked the blog.

I can be such a maroon.

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