Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a nice day yesterday, relatively warm with sun on and off throughout the day. Today is not quite as warm, with it being cloudy during the first part of the day with a few snow flurries here and there. In other words, a typical late winter weather cycle. We do have more snow on the way on Tuesday, but only a few inches.

The kids are heading back to school after last week’s February vacation. At least our town’s high school has something to celebrate with its Boys Basketball team winning a state championship on Saturday. Our Girl’s team was also participating in a state championship game but unfortunately lost. So, it was a 50:50 weekend to celebrate.

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I have been taking in the news about the US and Israeli strikes against Iran all I can say about it is “It’s about friggin’ time.”

A lot of the people against this “illegal” war action weren’t alive back when the fledgling Islamic State of Iran declared war on the US, invading the US embassy and holding diplomatic personnel hostage for 444 days. That in itself was an act of war. That war never ended…until now. Time has also shown what a brutal theocratic dictatorship it was.

Ironically, as one post on ‘X’ put it:

Muslim countries that support today's U.S strike on Iran: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, Bahrain

Muslim countries that DO NOT support today's U.S. strike on Iran: France, United Kingdom

If you don’t believe that Iran was a brutal dictatorship, look at this little bit of life in the Islamic Republic:

Now I want to introduce you to a brave Iranian woman who understood America better than you ever will.

Her name was Sara Saeidi.
Born and raised in Iran.
39 years old.
A mother of two daughters, 19 and 6.

She was hot in the head for the “crime” of peascefully protesting while wearing a sweatshirt that said MANHATTAN, with the American flag beneath it.

While you stood in Congress under that flag, she carried its name on her chest, not as symbolism for a photo opportunity but as a dream.

She was addressing Ilhan Omar’s tweet about “No War With Iran”. Talk about hypocrisy! Look up the term “hypocrite” and you’ll see Omar’s picture next to it as we know she’s been working hard to undermine America from within and has no intention of keep her oath of office.

This is something that has been brewing for a long time and I hope that it is the beginning of the end of brutal Islamic Republic of Iran.

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Do we need any more proof that Virgina Democrats don’t really believe in the US Constitution, particularly the 2nd Amendment?

Virginia Democrats are advancing a bill that would prohibit adults under the age of 21 from owning, purchasing, or transporting certain types of firearms in the state.

Virginians aged 18–20 will no longer be allowed to possess handguns or any guns liberals have decided to call “assault firearms.”

The National Rifle Association pointed out that the prohibition would apply to “those who already own such firearms.”

So first they restrict the right of 18- to 20-year-olds to own, buy, or carry handguns and “assault firearms” unless they are in the company of an adult. However, Virginia law defines adults as anyone who is at least 18 years of age. Talk about a contradiction. If they redefine adults as those who are at least 21 years of age, then does that mean that 18- to 20-year-olds would no longer be allowed to vote? After all, they would no longer be adults under Virginia law.

If they manage to weaken the 2nd Amendment, I expect they will go after the 1st Amendment next.

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To quote the Instaprof, “They Aren’t Even Hiding It”:

Think about this:

Leftists cheered the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and condemned the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Good. Evil.

They chose evil.

‘Nuff said.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is trying to make up its mind, Town Meeting is getting closer, and where Monday is returning to ruin our weekend.

The Hypocrisy Is Reaching A New Low

When I read the following, I was not surprised:

The New York Times ran a piece on their homepage about a guy getting deported even though he had lived in the US since a teenager and had been here for 20 years, and waited until the end of the article to mention that 19 of those years were spent in prison for murder. (Emphasis mine.)

The comments thread in the linking Instapundit page did provide some links to the NYT post as well as related stories about others who were “here for ‘x’ years” but most of that time was spent in prison for felonies they committed after arriving in the US.

I find it hypocritical that the Propaganda Department of the DNC, i.e. the MSM, are working so hard to paint these illegal immigrants as victims of our immigration policies when what they really are is convicted felons who shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

We can see that even our media are all for protecting illegal immigrants - using a false narrative to do so - and not American citizens.

And while the media keeps trying to paint the anti-ICE sentiment is nationwide we’re finding that it is primarily limited to just a few cities – blue cities – and trying to convince people that the American people are against the Trump Administration’s efforts to undo the damage done by the Biden Administration’s open border debacle. But it turns out that a good majority of the American people, including a good many Democrats, are in favor of expelling the millions of illegal immigrants, particularly those who are murderers, drug traffickers, sex traffickers, rapists, pedophiles, and so on. It seems the only ones who want them to remain are the true believers in the Democrat Party leadership and the Progressive financed organizations working hard to dismantle the US and turn it in to yet another socialist dystopia.

Friday Funny - I Couldn't Believe My Ears

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s the “calm before the storm” as a Nor-easter develops along the mid-Atlantic coast. While we aren’t going to see a lot of snow up here at Lake Winnipesaukee from that storm, we will get some. The folks in southern New England will be seeing at least a foot of snow.

With a couple of small exceptions, all preparations have been made in case the storm is worse than predicted. The Official Weekend Pundit Generator has been prepositioned and was fired up just long enough to ensure it would start if needed. A stop by one of our favorite farm stands on the way home from church this morning let us stock up on storm snacks. We’re set to go.

I still have to move the trusty RAM 1500 into position in front of the garage and everything should be all set, but won’t do that until later today in case I need to run any errands.

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By way of Instapundit comes this story from the Babylon Bee:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the United States Senate progressed toward voting on the SAVE Act, Democrats warned that requiring voter ID would disenfranchise their key voting demographic of people who are too stupid to get an ID.

Party leaders made the urgent plea as Republicans prepared to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, stressing that people who were not intelligent enough to obtain legal, valid forms of identification would be locked out from selecting who should be in charge of the country.

"We cannot shut out our voting block of morons," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "If this bill becomes law, then our most important demographics — dead people, illegal aliens, and people who are too stupid to know how to get an ID — will be lost to us. We can't allow that to happen. Total morons must have their ability to vote preserved for future generations."

I question whether this is satire…or maybe a bit of truth…or even worse, the absolute truth.

Scary to think about, isn’t it?

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Canadians are now poorer than Alabamans. Many wonder how that has come to be. All Canadians have to do is look towards Ottawa to find the answer. After all, this didn’t really “happen out of nowhere”.

When you have a government that is hostile to large scale economic engines like oil, gas, mining, and agriculture, what do you expect? It is this hostility from Ottawa that has driven the so-called “Wexit” movement by the western provinces to leave Canada and either go independent, form a new nation, or join the US. The dismantling of the Canadian economy has been ongoing since Justin Trudea was Prime Minister and has continued under Carney.

That Alabama has been working to strengthen its economy shows they are serious about leaving the bottom of the state economies list and it’s been paying off.

Canada importing millions of people from Third World countries certainly hasn’t helped things either.

==++++++==

Why does this not surprise me in the least?

California Politicians Propose Law Hiding Corruption from the Public

California’s ‘train-to-nowhere’ program started with a $10 billion budget in 2009 which shot up to $135 billion with no end in sight. The Trump administration has tried to cut off billions in federal funds for the money pit on rails and there are signs that even state voters are growing sick of it.

But California Democrats had an answer.

Around the same time that the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery after an appearance with Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrating the progress of the ‘train-to-nowhere’, Democrats were moving forward a bill to ban the public from getting crucial information about the project whose budget is more than 5 times that of NASA.

The cost of returning to the moon is estimated at under $100 billion. California is spending more than that on a rail project that still hasn’t gotten anywhere and which no one is interested in.

California Democrat legislators had already become infamous for covering up their own corruption. The California legislatures claimed that disclosing how much they were spending on defending their members against investigations would “violate attorney client privilege”.

The California State Senate had refused to release records of federal law enforcement subpoenas and search warrants, claiming that “the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.”

The public interest in this case is that of members of the legislators being raided by the FBI.

Heaven forbid the public get a glimpse of how their legislators and state government officials have been wasting and/or stealing billions of dollars from California taxpayers…and constantly increasing taxes and fees to make even more money available. Is it any wonder California is becoming an economic basket case as it chases an increasing number of businesses, investors, the wealthy, and the Middle Class out of the state?

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I am working on updating something my dear brother and I have been advocating for a good 25 years or more, that being a constitutional amendment that would change how members of Congress, more specifically the House, are selected. This would also roll in a repeal of the 17th Amendment that would return election of the Senate to the state legislatures with additional provisos that would ban the use of referendum or plebiscites to do so.

While in the past it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I have come to think it is something we need to do to fix problems we have with the existing means of filling the seats in Congress. It also removes the possibility of being a member of Congress as a career. For too long we’ve had that problem plaguing us and it needs to be fixed.

Hopefully I’ll have it squared away in the next week or so.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where winter weather is coming for another visit, thoughts of the upcoming boating season are intruding, and where many of us are getting ready for Town Meeting next month.

Old Fashioned New England Winter

Back in November I said I hoped that the coming winter would be an old fashioned New England winter.

It looks like I got my wish.

The only thing that wasn’t part of the ‘old fashioned’ winter has been the well below normal temperatures we’ve experienced. But that has helped preserve the snow that has fallen. The Weather Guys^TM mentioned last week that so far, we’ve seen a more normal amount of snowfall but did remind us that winter is not yet over. They also mentioned that some of the heavier snowfalls we see tend to be in late February and through much of March.

We had about 5 inches of snow here at The Gulch between Friday evening and Saturday morning. It was a heavy snow because the temperature was close to freezing overnight. Much of that snow is still hanging on the branches of the trees, though I have been seeing it falling of the trees as the sun has warmed things up.

However, we have more snow on its way as a Nor’easter is predicted to hit New England overnight starting Sunday night. While we’ll see maybe 4 to 6 inches of snow here at the lake, southern New England will see a lot more. Katy, my friend from Connecticut, told me they’ve predicted between 12 and 18 inches of snow down her way.

I had mentioned to here how this was turning out to be a more normal winter for us and she replied “Maybe more like a winter when I was a kid!”

While I will be making the usual preparations for a big storm – the Official Weekend Pundit Generator being moved from the rear of the garage to the front and some extra storm snacks to be bought when I head to Walmart Sunday morning – I won’t be doing anything out of the ordinary in case the Nor’easter tracks a but farther north than predicted.

NOTE: I realize this post hadn’t been published last night until I started on my usual Thoughts On A Sunday post. I hit ‘Save’ rather than ‘Publish’, so it’s a day late!

Friday Funny - Highest Rate Of Divorce

A Snapshot

Seen in the comments to this Instapundit post about NYC getting it good and hard from their new mayor:

NYC residents are about to learn the meaning of an average day - Worse than yesterday. Better than tomorrow.

This Is An AI Movie I Can Get Behind!

Unlike the AI generated movie highlighted on Instapundit, the one below is one I can get behind without reservation!

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been quiet here at the lake. The weather has been decent with little or no precipitation. It’s been sunny but just below freezing which means we have been getting some melting on the roads and roofs. It’s also meant cars and trucks are covered with salt which has in turn meant the local car washes have been busy. I will admit that I have not as yet run the trusty RAM 1500 through the car wash nor has the WP Mom’s Nissan been washed. I may get both of them washed a little later this week in order to make room for more road salt to be deposited. It is one of the things that we up here in the snowy north must put up with during the winter.

It’s a small sacrifice.

The only thing we must be cognizant of is the temperatures of the upcoming night (and days) to prevent a newly washed car or truck from having its doors and windows frozen shut should the temps drop well below freezing.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, it seems our local concert venue is hosting a lot of acts and artists dating back to the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, or as I called it the “Before We Get Too Old Or Die” Tour. I thought we’d seen enough of that over the past two years, but it appears that tour will be continuing during this upcoming concert season as I’ve been seeing announcements about who’s going to be appearing this summer. Some of the artists on the list so far:

James Taylor

Paul Simon

Motley Crue

Chicago

Styx

Out of the 21 acts already booked, 6 are part of the “Before We Get Too Old Or Die” Tour. I cold have added one more - Weird Al Yankovic – but he’s still current and I think he’s a lot younger than those in the other six acts, so I didn’t count him as a member of that tour.

Generally our local venue books between 35 and 50 acts per season, so I have no doubt we’ll see at least a few more added to the “Before We Get Too Old Or Die” Tour.

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In my TOAS post back on January 18th I mentioned I was seeing a lot more AI ‘hosts’ reporting news, specifically news about the goings on in California.

This is what I wrote back then:

The one thing (other than California) that they all have in common?

They are all hosted by AI “talking heads”. The image you see, and voice you hear are all AI generated.

I didn’t notice at first. I was more interested in what was being talked about. It wasn’t until after I started paying closer attention to the videos that I realized the images were AI generated as were the voices.

I did say I would dig deeper and provide some examples. I bookmarked almost two dozen examples I was going to use to show what I meant, stitching small segments together to show the weirdness. Imagine my surprise when I found that all but one video is now “unavailable”. The only one I found still available is this one which covers the self-inflicted gas station crisis, and I have no idea how long it will still be available. You’ll see the ‘reporter’, Ava Sterling. Is AI generated. Her facial expressions and head movements aren’t natural.

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Can Gavin Newsom get any more clueless than he already is? After seeing this, I have to say he can most definitely get even more clueless than he is now.

He “goes to Germany and compares American law enforcement to Nazi stormtroopers.” Hmm, it seems to me he’s pointing his finger to the wrong group as antiFa seems more like the Nazi SA than US law enforcement. (Yes, I know the SA weren’t the stormtroopers, but they sure as heck act and sound like them.)

Does Governor Hair Gel really think he is appealing to anyone outside of the West Coast Blue enclaves?

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I figure they’re going to find a way to blame Trump for this and paint it as Bad News.



After all, if it wasn’t the Democrats who pulled this off, it must be bad by definition because it doesn’t fit The Narrative.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re going to be seeing some warmer daytime temps (above freezing), there’s no snow in the forecast…for now, and Monday is returning.

New Hampshire Going Nuclear? I Hope So.

Despite claims by people who support so-called “green energy” like wind and solar, we’re finding out that neither technology can meet the growing demand. It doesn’t help that both are heavily dependent upon taxpayer money in order to be built and that they never meet the energy demands or provide the return on investment promised by proponents. On top of that, even though these are claimed as “clean and green energy” technologies, we’re finding that they are neither clean or green.

Proponents keep pushing the “energy is free” meme and even though that is true, it is the cost of harnessing that energy that is expensive, something they choose to ignore. If they are cognizant of the actual cost, they downplay it because they can’t have facts contradicting the green energy narrative.

New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte is well versed in the green energy promises and is smart enough to know they don’t work anywhere near as well as proponents claim. She understands that a reliable energy supply is needed for economies to keep operating efficiently. But it seems that over the past couple of decades there has been a war on more traditional energy supplies like natural gas, hydro, and even coal. (New Hampshire has the last operating coal powerplant in New England.) When the governor of a neighboring state, Massachusetts, worked hard to kill not one, but two new pipelines that would bring much needed natural gas into New England, and then complained when there was a natural gas shortage last winter, you know the leadership needed to ensure adequate electricity supplies is lacking, or worse, they are bought and paid for by the green energy true believers. (It’s gotten so bad that not one, not two, but three powerline projects that would have brought clean, renewable, and inexpensive hydropower into New England were killed off by the same people who then complain about their ever rising electricity bills.)

This is where Governor Ayotte differs from the governors in the other New England states, something that become evident during her recent State Of The State address back on February 5th:

Which brings me to an area of our lives here in New Hampshire that is not where we want it to be – and that is our electric rates. Let’s understand why we are here: Our neighbors, that govern a lot differently than we do, are busy pushing up regional rates with their net zero religion, and lack of pragmatism and consideration for the consumer.

While at the same time they are battling to block new energy projects that would lower costs for all of us by delivering much-needed energy into our region, such as the Constitution pipeline.

Here at home, our Public Utilities Commission has been too willing to go along with the wishes of the big utilities boosting their bottom line instead of being focused on keeping rates as low as possible for the residents of our state. The Commission must provide transparency to residents when it comes to their electric bills and put the needs of ratepayers first.

Looking toward the future of energy in New Hampshire, we can build on the successes of our homegrown power. There are numerous groups, lawmakers and stakeholders looking into the next steps of Nuclear. Today, I am directing our Department of Energy to build pathways to foster the next generation of nuclear power generation here in New Hampshire. I have asked the Department to bring together stakeholders, lawmakers and organizations focused on nuclear generation to ensure our state is at the forefront of this pivotal technology.

She understands that our future when it comes to electricity is going to be nuclear. Whether people want to admit it or not, nuclear power can be a lot cleaner and greener than what we have been told over the past 50 years or so. Too many of those against a nuclear renaissance are stuck back in the 70’s and 80’s when it comes to nuclear technology. Modern Generation III and Generation IV reactors are safer, more efficient, easier and less expensive to construct via Small Modular Reactor (SMR) designs, and some of the new reactor designs can use ‘depleted’ nuclear fuel from Generation II reactors for fuel, eliminating the need to store long half-life depleted fuel for 25,000 years or more. What’s not to like?

I have heard some people who are against nuclear power make the claim that we have no experience with modern technology, particularly SMRs, that it’s all still just theoretical. I beg to differ as there is plenty of experience with the newer nuclear reactor technology. Who has experience with that technology, you may ask? One of the largest users of nuclear power in the world: The United States Navy.

Between nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines, there is plenty of experience with the technology. The Virginia-class nuclear submarines employ an advanced Generation IV reactor, and I have no doubt the new Columbia-class submarines will do so as well.

Nuclear powerplants run 24/7/365, and the newer Generation III and IV powerplants will be able to run for even longer as some of the designs do not need to be taken offline for refueling like the old Generation II plants.

I have a feeling I’ll need to dig into this technology a bit deeper as I don’t want a topic like this to be dismissed because “It’s just his opinion. What does he know about the technology?”

Friday Funny - Who's Stronger

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was -2°F here at The Gulch this morning. It helps make sure the ice on Lake Winnipesaukee is good for this weekend’s Ice Fishing Derby. There are lots of bob-houses out on the lake, something that is needed as the wind chills are brutal if you don’t have any shelter from the wind.

We’re expecting overnight temps to be around 0°F or a little higher over the next couple of days, though the daytime temps might get close to freezing. Maybe.

I still have to clean off the couple of inches of snow from the trusty RAM 1500, seeing no reason to do so until it gets a little warmer outside as I have no plans to go anywhere today. About the only plans I have is to take care of a couple loads of laundry and to watch the SuperBowl early this evening.

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It is SuperBowl Sunday and the New England Patriots are trying to win their 7^th Lombardi Trophy. All the TV news has been covering over the past 2 weeks has been the SuperBowl. Almost every report includes some reference to the game. Over the past couple of days about 50% of the news coverage has been about the SuperBowl. Frankly, I’ll be glad once it’s all over. Mind you, I’ll be particularly pleased if the Patriots beat the Seahawks.

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After the recent layoffs at the Washington Post, I have to wonder how much longer Jeff Bezos will hold on to that money-losing fish wrapper? As more than one comment at the linked post has said, they brought it on themselves.

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I’ll admit that Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has had me confused over the years. Between some rather bizarre behavior and a stroke, I’ve had a tough time figuring him out.

However, it seems that Fetterman has been shifting his political views away from the Left and more towards the center. As the Babylon Bee stated “Weird. Man Becomes More Conservative As He Regains Brain Function.”

Maybe not so weird.

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This is a really abbreviated TOAS as I am going back downstairs to watch the SuperBowl!

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And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s back in the single digits, the winds have been brutal, and where Monday is returning…again.

Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour

I was perusing Instapundit this morning when I came across this post about a number of music artists and groups canceling tours due to health issues, advancing age along with health issues, or possible political disagreements.

Among the artists/bands canceling upcoming tours have been Neil Young, Twisted Sister, and the Rolling Stones. What gets me is just how many artists and bands from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are still out there touring. That their music is still popular, particularly among much younger people – Millennials and Gen Z – affirms to me that good music is good musing no matter how old it is.

To quote myself using one of my nom du wordprocessors about this:

At our local concert venue, we've been seeing a lot of the older acts and artists over the past couple of seasons. I've been calling it the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour." This past summer I saw Rod Stewart's farewell tour concert. The opening act was Cheap Trick. I saw Chicago two summers ago and they were back this past summer. It may have been just me, but it seems half the acts performing at our local venue over the past couple of years have been part of the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour".

Not that I'm complaining as it seems a lot of people want to see the old acts, including a lot of younger people. As I've heard my Millennial son say, "You guys had all the great music!"

One of the other things I’ve noticed is how many younger people have been making reaction videos on YouTube, reacting to music from ‘back then’. As I also mentioned in one of my comments, “Probably the two groups that have had the most enthusiastic reactions have been Pink Floyd and Boston. Two PF songs that bring out a lot of positive reactions have been Great Gig In The Sky from the Dark Side Of The Moon album and Comfortably Numb from the 1994 Pulse concert with one of the best guitar solos ever, Dave Gilmour's 4 minutes of guitar solo heaven.”

Dark Side Of The Moon came out in 1973 and Boston’s first album came out in 1975 and they are both still very popular.

I saw Boston play in our local concert venue some years ago with Tommy DeCarlo as lead singer. (This was a few years after their original lead singer Brad Delp died.) I saw Pink Floyd in 1990 in Berlin, Germany – The Wall 1990 concert – courtesy of my then employer because they sent me there for business.

Our local concert venue has already been advertising the acts that will be playing in the upcoming concert season and it looks like it will be a continuation of the "Before We Get Too Old Or Die Tour".

I can’t wait!

Friday Funny - Pick The Right Wife

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a long stretch of cold weather up here at the lake, with many mornings having temperatures in in the single digits below zero. This morning it was -6°F here at The Gulch and -8°F down at the lake itself. (The Gulch is approximately 140 feet higher in altitude than the lake, so it tends to be warmer.) Monday morning will be the first day when it will be above zero in the morning. Over the past two weeks we’ve only had two days where it was above zero in the morning, and on those two days it was snowing. (We got about 20 inches of snow out of that storm.)

One thing that colder than normal weather has brought is increased heating bills. I know we’ve used more than the usual amount of heating oil at The Gulch as well as my neighbor’s home. (I keep an eye on the place as it is only their seasonal home, and they mostly come up from the Boston area during the summer months.) I’ve had to leave the thermostat turned up to keep the inside temperature from dropping to 60° overnight and taking hours to get back up to 68°. That’s not something we usually have to worry about. But with the lengthy bout of below normal temperatures and overnight temperatures being below zero, it has become the reality.

One thing that did give us a piece of mind was that just before the snowstorm arrived last weekend our local heating company topped off our oil tank. Our neighbor’s tank was also topped off right around the same time by a different heating company, meaning we were good to go for heating fuel despite higher use due to the frigid weather.

==++++++==

New York City’s new mayor has barely been in office and he’s already having to backtrack on many of the promises he made during his campaign. Frankly, none of that surprised me as his understanding of economics was crippled by the usual socialist indoctrination in Marxist economics.



There won’t be all those free buses he’s promised. Rent control is likely to remain as it exists now. Those ‘free’ daycare centers won’t come into being. All the folks the mayor was going to tax the heck out of to pay for all those things are leaving New York and taking their businesses and money with them. (Gee, where have we been seeing happening recently?)

Anyone paying attention to history, particularly when it comes to socialism/communism economics, know that they have never worked. Ever. Yet somehow it was going to work this time?

Welcome to the real world, Mayor Mamdani. Oh, and when New York City goes bankrupt, don’t waste you time calling the White House for a bailout because it ain’t gonna happen.

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I wonder when someone will draft a Constitutional Amendment that allows the use of ellipses to modify the Constitution and its Amendments as needed? Oh, and add a Press Immunity clause to the First Amendment so ‘media’ can be excused from committing crimes if they have their press credentials on them?

As one of the commenters stated:

The freedom of the press does not protect an individual leading a riot to shut down a religious service, or any other crime by the individual. Freedom of religion is also a Constitutional right Lemon was abridging.

Indeed.

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And speaking of Don Lemon, there’s this:

DOJ Charges Don Lemon With Federal Civil Rights Crimes

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged former CNN host Don Lemon with federal civil rights crimes after he live streamed anti-ICE protesters storming a church in Minnesota. Lemon, who was arrested on Thursday, was charged with “conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a January 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul…

--snip--

Everybody’s joking about the insane argument that being a journalist provides carte blanche to defy any law whatsoever.

This is going to be interesting, to say the least. It certainly opens up the limits of press immunity, particularly when it is used to deprive people of their First Amendment rights regarding religion and free exercise thereof.

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I have to wonder how long it will be before the whole anti-ICE conspiracy falls apart? Seeing some of the polls about the whole illegal immigration issue, and particularly about ICE enforcing federal law, show a majority of the American people are in favor of deporting the millions of illegal immigrants that flooded across the border when the Biden Administration opened the borders. This is particularly true of the criminal illegal immigrants who have been found guilty of criminal acts back in their home countries, in the US since they’ve been here, or both, I find it hard to believe anyone would support not deporting them…or even imprisoning them.

They are acting like these criminals are somehow above the law merely because they entered the US illegally.

Somehow all of this is going to backfire on them and those funding them, particularly should some of those convicted criminal illegals commit even more heinous acts going forward.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s still colder than normal, the ice is pretty much thick enough to drive on, and where ice fishing has been in full swing.

Will Physical Money Ever Go Away?

Over the past few years, I’ve been hearing that eventually we’ll no longer use physical money – bills and coins – because electronic ‘money’ is so much easier to use. Some may think nothing of this, believing it’s just progress. But I have two questions for those who think this would be a good idea.

First, do they realize that every single transaction they make will be traceable? It won’t matter if they’re ordering something from Amazon or buying a sandwich or lottery tickets at the local convenience store, there will be a record of everything they buy or service they pay for. Nothing will be anonymous. Nothing.

But that isn’t the thing that bothers me most. It’s the second thing.

Second, if there is no power and/or no Internet there will be no money. Keep in mind the latest Snowmageddon that took place almost a week ago knocked out power and comm services here and there across the nation. That means that stores would be unable to sell you anything because you don’t have any actual money on hand to pay for anything. You won’t be able to pay for food. You won’t be able to pay for clothing. You won’t be able to pay for gasoline. (Yes , this assumes the gas station has power. I know of a few around here that do have their own emergency generators.) It won’t matter if you have hundreds, thousands, or millions of dollars in the bank because you won’t be able to access any of it because it doesn’t really exist. It’s just 1’s and 0’s in a computer somewhere, a computer that you won’t be able to access.

Will physical cash ever go away?

Lord, I hope not.

Friday Funny - Things You Can Say About Your Dinner...

Thoughts On A Sunday

As I write this (8AM) it is about 1°F here at The Gulch. The sky is cloudy and all is calm. Snow isn’t expected to start here until sometime around 2PM. With a couple of exceptions, we’re all set, and those exceptions will be taken care of well before the snow starts. One of those exceptions is moving the Official Weekend Pundit Generator from the back corner of the garage to the front near the garage door, something I will take care of around noon before the snow starts falling. Not that I expect we’ll need it as we will only be seeing snow here, and a light ‘fluffy’ snow which will pile up quickly but won’t have much weight. There won’t be any sleet, freezing rain, or heavy wet snow falling during the duration. However, that doesn’t rule out traffic accidents that could knock out power.

I still have to move the trusty RAM 1500 to leave the shared portion of the driveway open so the contractor will be able to plow it without obstruction. It does mean I’ll have to shovel out the pickup when the time comes, but I do have the Official Weekend Pundit Toro Power Shovel to help with that task, though I probably won’t be doing so until late tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Update – Noon: It just started snowing here at Lake Winnipesaukee.

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Everyone knows there’s been another fatal shooting of an anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis. What gets me is that ‘everyone’ knows exactly what happened and why, meaning the Lame Stream Media and the anti-ICE folks. They all point to the few seconds of video being shown which ‘proves’ what happened. This is no different than when Ms. Good was fatally shot after she struck an ICE agent with her SUV – ‘everyone’ knew there was no reason for the officer to shoot her…until additional video proved that she had indeed driven her SUV towards the ICE agent and struck him with it.

Frankly, I am going to withhold my judgement about the latest shooting because, quite frankly, I don’t believe either side. I don’t know what happened. I haven’t seen all of the video. I (and everyone else) have seen just the last few seconds of what occurred. I cannot be sure it shows everything in context. And therein lies the problem.

The anti-ICE folks don’t want it shown in context, particularly if it goes against The Narrative.

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Here is yet more proof of the old adage “That which is old is new again.”

It looks like Minneapolis is following the bad idea from Seattle – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone or CHAZ – creating an Autonomous Zone by dragging dumpsters “to barricade entire city blocks while the anti-ICE protests rage on.”

This will turn out no better than CHAZ did in Seattle. But that won’t stop them from doing it anyways.

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In line with the big winter storm that has stretched from New Mexico to Maine, there’s this to worry about:

Report: Huge Winter Storm Is Your Fault

Isn’t everything our fault when it comes to climate change…even if climate change has nothing to do with this?

I recall the Big Storm of 1993 that was quite similar to the present storm, except that it stretched only between Texas and Maine. No one thought it was unusual other than it hit some of the southern states, something that wasn’t all that unusual given the proper time scale.

So climate alarmists say climate change causes too much warming and too much cold when it isn’t. The goalposts are constantly moved ignoring all of the winter storms of the past that were entirely natural. The alarmists overstretched their hands with their hype so people moved on convinced that the climate will change no matter what they do and no longer see any point in worrying about it.

Yeah. That sounds just about right.

It could be why the “climate change scam has been collapsing.”

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I’d like to hear Minnesota Governor Tim Walz explain away this one:

INDUSTRIAL SCALE FRAUD: $400 Million Minnesota Medicaid Scheme Operating Out of Single Building

Is this yet another nail in the coffin of Walz’s career?

Another massive Medicaid fraud operation has been uncovered in Minnesota, centered on the Griggs Midway building – a former linen factory allegedly converted into a hub for fraudulent billing. Roughly 400 Medicaid “businesses” operated out of the building, generating about $380 million in taxpayer-funded claims—an average of nearly $1 million per entity—despite the site’s implausible industrial setting. The revelations, made during a visit to Minneapolis, come amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on welfare fraud and have triggered fresh congressional scrutiny over how state oversight failed to flag an operation of this scale.

Massive Democrat fraud is standard operating procedure.

This is on top of the $9 billion of taxpayer money that has gone to organizations, people, and businesses that was acquired through well-organized fraud. What’s worse is that it looks like Minnesota officials knew it was happening and looked the other way or were part of the efforts to steal that taxpayer money.

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It will be the New England Patriots going to SuperBowl LX! They beat the Denver Broncos in Denver 10-7 in the AFC Championship Game.

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This doesn’t really surprise me.

Red States Have Reliable Power Because They Embrace an All-of-the-Above Strategy

My state, New Hampshire, which has a Republican Governor, Legislature, and Executive Council, has been trying to keep some of the more traditional power generation systems operating as well as seeking a nuclear power renaissance. Thinks like solar don’t bode too well up this way and wind is restricted as a lot of the land in the state is restricted by conservation easements.>br>
We shave the last operating coal-fired power plant in New England. We have a number of bio-mass powerplants. We have some trash-to-energy power plants. We have natural gas combined cycle power plants. We have hydro dams. We have a large nuclear power plant. But some folks want to shut down everything except the solar, wind, bio-mass, and hydro dams. Many of the folks wanting this are also against powerline projects that would bring clean, cheap, and abundant hydropower into New England, something that is paradoxical to me.

However, we also have a governor who sees the advantages of nuclear power and wants to build new nuclear plants. She understands the advantages of the present Gen III and Gen IV technology and the advantages of small modular reactors. She ran on building more nuclear power as part of her campaign platform. Let’s hope she can pull it off.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s snowing heavily, the snow is piling up, and schools have already canceled classes for Monday.

Snowmageddon 2026

I’ve heard the storm that is sweeping across the country being called Snowmageddon. A lot of areas not used to either snow fall or freezing rain or sleet are receiving a couple of years’ worth in only a day or so. On TV we’ve seen long lines of people waiting to get into supermarkets to stock up on storm supplies. We’ve seen equally long lines of people waiting in the checkout lines. Some store shelves are empty. There are also long lines at gas stations as people fill the gas tanks on their cars and trucks as well as gas cans for their generators.

It isn’t often we see something like this, but then it isn’t often we see a storm system that affects people from Texas to Maine. The last time I can recall something like this was the Blizzard of 1993 which followed a similar storm track. The biggest difference being that storm and the one we’re seeing now is that temperatures were not below zero just ahead of the storm. It was -6°F here at The Gulch this morning with a wind chill sitting somewhere near -30°F. That certainly didn’t make it feel any less cold when I had to go out to shovel the driveway as we got just under an inch of snow overnight as the frigid air swept into New England. I also went next door to check the neighbor’s home after they called me, asking me to set their thermostat higher for the duration of the frigid temps today and overnight and the 12 to 18 inches of snow predicted to fall starting tomorrow afternoon.

Normally I do my weekly shopping on Saturday or Sunday morning but considering that the morning temperatures on both days this weekend were forecast to be below zero, I took care of it Friday afternoon. I knew the local Walmart where I do my shopping would be busy due to the approaching storm, but it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. I didn’t buy anything different than I would have on my normal weekend shopping trip, so my shopping cart wasn’t nearly as full as many of the others being pushed around by other customers. In fact, it didn’t really take me much longer to complete my shopping as I thought it would.

I did stop at our local gas station to fill the tank in the WP Mom’s car and there wasn’t a line of cars waiting to gas up. Fortunately, it didn’t take long as it was brutally cold due to the wind chill and standing outside the car as I pumped gas was not a pleasant experience.

We are as ready as we can be for the coming snowstorm as we can be at this point. Hopefully the only time I’ll need to step outside tomorrow is when I check on the status of my neighbor’s house to make sure everything is okay and when I need to rearrange things in the garage to move the generator near the garage door in case it is needed. The WP Mom will be attending church online tomorrow morning so she won’t need to brave the subzero temperatures.

Friday Funny - Hard And Wet

I'll Tell You The Story - Snowblowing Binky

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s another snowy weekend here at the lake. We had about 2 inches yesterday, an amount barely worth shoveling. We’re due for another 4 inches which will start falling sometime early this evening and will end sometime early tomorrow morning. It won’t be a heavy snowfall by any means, but it will make the roads slippery.

It also means that it will be snowing down in Foxboro, Massachusetts during the New England Patriots game as they play the Houston Texans. I wouldn’t think it would negatively affect the Patriots but I have no idea if it will affect the Texans in any way.

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I admit that I spend a lot of time watching YouTube. Sometimes it’s to be amused or to catch the news from various sources across the globe. At other times to learn how do something that I have little or no experience doing. There are times when I watch dashcam videos to see just how bad it can get out there on the roads. Some of my favorites are webcam videos at intersections that see lots of traffic accidents, with two of them being at the intersection of Friant and Shepherd in Fresno, California and near 783 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

However, something I’ve been noticing over the past few weeks are the number of videos reporting on problems in California that run the gamut from multibillion dollar corporations moving operations from the Pyrite State to other states, decisions made by the oil industry to close refineries and abandon offshore oil operations, to the aftereffects of the much hated AB5 which has recently forced over 70,000 owner-operator truckers to abandon California and mandates that required gas stations to have dual-walled gas tanks or be fined $5000 per day which has caused almost 500 gas stations across the state to shut down.

The one thing (other than California) that they all have in common?

They are all hosted by AI “talking heads”. The image you see, and voice you hear are all AI generated.

I didn’t notice at first. I was more interested in what was being talked about. It wasn’t until after I started paying closer attention to the videos that I realized the images were AI generated as were the voices.

Facial expressions and head motion didn’t look natural and eye blinks that also looked wrong. There were also hand motions that looked wrong. In most cases when someone is moving their hands while talking, the motions sync with the speech. However, in these videos the hand motions seem random and are rarely in sync with the speech. Here’s one example.

When it comes to speech there are sometimes ‘hiccups’ where some words have a nonsense pronunciation or the emphasis on the wrong syllable. There are also times when pauses in speech that I would expect from a human being are absent, telling me what I’m seeing and listening to is AI generated.

I’m going to keep watching these videos and I will have a follow-on post linking to some more of the videos. Watch them yourselves and tell me I’m wrong.

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Via Instapundit comes this: What Blue Zone Collapse Looks Like.

While Chris Bray’s Substack post is looking primarily at California, many of his observations are true of other Blue Zones as well.

As one commenter to the Instapundit post observed:

California is following the same paths that led to the downfall of many socialist countries. It doesn't matter how many sheep they have to shear as those people and companies that employ the 'sheep' leave, taking their jobs and money with them. We're seeing multibillion dollar corporations pulling up stakes and relocating to more business-friendly states. Investment is starting to dry up as investors look for safer places to put their money as they see California being too risky, particularly if they do pass more confiscatory taxes that tax "unrealized capital gains".

We will need to keep an eye on New York City as I do not find it difficult to believe that it too will collapse if Mayor Mamdani gets even half of what he’s promised to the useful idiots who voted him into office. Because you’re dealing with a smaller area and a smaller population it’s possible the collapse will happen sooner than it will in California.

These Blue Zones will end up being an object lesson to those who think the Progressives/Left have the answer – socialism – to the nation’s problems. They don’t understand that the Progressives/Left are the problem

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Speaking of Blue Zone collapse, here’s John Hawkins on one idea that will help hasten the fall: Wealth Taxes.

Wealth taxes are pretty much always bad ideas, the sort of thing nations turn to when their backs are against the wall, and they’re headed down the tubes. However, the wealth tax being floated in California is particularly disastrous to founders of companies and makes it extraordinarily dangerous for them to stay there.

Granted, California is already a poorly run state with high expenses, even higher taxes, and insufferable politicians and activists, but it has advantages, too. Big cities, great ports, lots of tech talent, and beautiful countryside. I just got done vacationing for a week in San Francisco. Setting aside the amazing food and pleasant weather, when you look at…pictures I took in San Fran and the surrounding area, you can understand why ludicrously wealthy people might be willing to pay more to live there.

--snip--

Still, there’s a difference between paying a premium to live somewhere, which pretty much anyone who pays taxes in California is already doing, and having greedy parasites take a significant part of the money you’ve earned IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE just for the privilege of having their state as your primary residence.

The incredibly wealthy tech bros who live in California have been a huge asset to the state. They pay staggering amounts of taxes, create lots of other high-paying jobs, and have turned California into one of the biggest technology hubs on the planet.

So, what happens when they leave?

John goes on to write that they are already leaving the Pyrite State. That doesn’t bode well for those who are still living there as it means they will have to shoulder the increasing burden as those people and corporations leave California for less expensive and restrictive states.

Looking at the history of wealth taxes, it can be shown that they don’t work and never have. Yet that doesn’t stop the “tax-and-spend” folks from trying it again…and again. And they will fail again and again.

And so it goes.

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I found this ironic, but not surprising.

The US State Department has ended all aid to Somalia.

Considering how much money Somali immigrants, legal or otherwise, have managed to scam from the American taxpayers, sending quite a lot of it ‘back home’ to Somalia, would Somalia even notice that US government aid has ended?

Probably not.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where Ice In was declared this past week, the ski areas are plenty busy, and where I don’t have to worry about Monday this week because I have the day off.

The Ongoing PR War - ICE Shooting In Minneapolis

I came across the following in this post about the PR battle taking place about the shooting by an ICE officer in Minneapolis and how the GOP can win it. A commenter to the linked post did a deeper dive put forth what should be done and gives examples of how PR has been used by the Left in the past to push false narratives that didn’t even come close to reality and that they shouldn’t be allowed to do that in this case.

The main thing is the local Chief, Sheriff's, Federal Agent-in-Charge, whoever should get an accurate briefing as to what happened and get the story out quickly. Then add film as soon as possible, if not at the initial briefing.

So much damage was inflicted by the Left because LE Leadership was more worried about getting a comprehensive investigation done in preparation for a distant Court date or trial. You have at best hours to get an accurate story out before the Left, via social media spreads a false narrative of endless lies. Months later a comprehensive Report is released of the incident that debunks every lie--and it's instantly ignored.

Secondly, LE Leadership is often worried about optics and appearing fair and balanced. So they try to please the media instead of doing what's right. You see this when a shooting occurs in a minority area and the Left immediately claim police brutality. The next thing you see is the local Chief telling the public that a comprehensive, unbiased, and fair investigation will be done--and if it's found that early reports of the officer screaming "white power" as he unloaded into an innocent black child is true, that officer will be found guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison; or get the death penalty. This is where you see useful idiots and activists in the back of the room whooping and hollering and the Chief grins this idiotic grin believing he's done a good thing. Later the media only show the clip of him saying "that officer will spend the rest of his life in prison"--cut to the News Anchor: "Strong words from the Chief of Police to a community in pain--but is it enough? Let's talk to the head of 'We hate Cops' for their fair and balanced opinion." Cue a detailed, and well supported Report of the shooting getting released months later that finds none of the narrative was remotely true--it's a damn shame the defamed officer was fired a week after the shooting in order to "bring down the temperature" or some other stupid line. He's now suing. A billion dollars in property damage--terrible. A few will wonder why the truth, along with a strong LE response to any rioters, wasn't a better option.

Remember the false narratives:

A white police officer, for no reason, confronted a black teenager walking home from the store and executed him. The black teenager, who was starting college soon, died with his hands in the air begging the officer to not kill him. The media later released a photo of the adult that was taken at his junior high school graduation.

The truth. A police officer spotted an adult robbery suspect walking down the middle of a street. He tried to detain the suspect. The suspect trapped the officer in his patrol unit and beat him, he then tried to murder the officer with his own gun and almost succeeded, ran away after being shot in the right hand, but then turned around and tried a second time to murder the officer.. He was shot before he could reach the officer.

A young black teenager was walking home from the store when he was confronted by a white-hispanic racist who had profiled him. When the innocent black teenager asked why the man was following him--he was shot dead. A photo of the innocent black teenager was released that depicted him when he was 13-years old. A booking photo of the white-hispanic was released that depicted him when he was arrested seven years prior for a incident in a bar. In both cases the media had access to current photos of the two.

The truth. A 17-year old high school football player who had been sent to live with his father after his guardian/mother had determined he was violently out of control, and who was also credibly suspected of multiple burglaries. One night the young man went to a local store to buy the ingredients of a drug called LEAN that he had previously spoken about on social media. While walking back to his father's house, he spotted a local neighborhood watch member. This man had previously been honored by the NAACP for his speaking up about a police brutality incident he had witnessed. He was a local hero. This man also knew that his area had been victimized by a number of burglaries and for some reason, the 17-year old was looking in the windows of various houses.

The man called the police, gave a detailed description and location of the person he was watching from a distance. When asked for a street name, the man got out of his car, ran down to a corner, and relayed the information while out of breath. He had lost sight of the young man. The 911 Operator told him not to follow the young man and the neighborhood watch guy agreed and started walking back to his vehicle--the police were now enroute and were going to meet him. That is when he was suddenly confronted by the young man who knocked him to the ground and started slamming his head on the ground while the older man screamed for help. Luckily, the man being attacked was armed. He managed to get his firearm and fire one round at his attacker killing him. What followed was one of the biggest smear jobs in American history by both the United States Government and the State of Florida. The older man was charged with murder. Despite this, the man was easily acquitted of all charges.

A 911 Call was made by a man walking in a local park about a young black child causing a disturbance. A two-man police unit responded to the park. When they arrived they saw an 11-year old boy walking. One of the officers got out of the patrol unit and for no reason, shot the child down, killing him. Video was provided to the media and the country saw images of a police car stopping in front of the child--that is where they stopped the video. Cut to various activists who called it a clear murder. Cue the protests.

The truth. A 911 Call was made. The caller said a young man was walking around pointing a firearm at people. The man was frightened and left after making the call. A patrol unit was dispatched. When the unit arrived at the park they saw the suspect--who was about 5'8 and almost 200Ibs. Since it was winter the person was wearing a heavy jacket. The patrol car attempted to stop some distance away from the suspect. Unfortunately, the patrol unit skidded on some ice and mud and finally came to a stop directly in front of the suspect. As the passenger officer got out of the car--the suspect walked towards him, lifted up his jacket, and pulled what looked like a semi-automatic handgun from his front waistband. The passenger officer immediately shot him dead. He put out a radio broadcast stating he had shot a suspect who appeared to be in his 20's.

The firearm turned out to be a pellet gun that resembled a 45 caliber handgun. The suspect was 11-years old and had been pointing the gun at various people in the park. He might have been "playing," and wanted to show the cops that the gun wasn't real? The 911 caller stated it "might" be a kid--but he wasn't sure. The media edited out the part of the video where the kid pulled up his jacket and pulled out the gun. That version of the video was played thousands of times--usually followed by an immediate cut to an "expert" who told the audience how unjustified the shooting happened to be. The kids family received millions from the city--the officer was fired and demonized as incompetent.

I won't even go over Eric Garner who was supposedly "choked to death" when he actually died of a heart attack. Or Freddy Gray, who was supposedly murdered by cops in the back of a transport vehicle, when it turned out he had tried to self-inflict an injury on himself in order to sue the police--he had done it before--but this time he ended up killing himself. Then we have St. Floyd of Fentanyl OD which led to mob justice at its finest.

Does any of this mean the police don't overstep at times? Nope. Or that unjustified shootings don't occur? Clearly not--we've seen them. But none of that means anything to the media and their fellow Democrats. Every police shooting is unjustified no matter what the circumstances and the death of a black man only matters if a white cop, or civilian kills him.

Ayuh. I’d say that covers it.

Friday Funny - Women Are Magical

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a busy weekend. So busy that I didn’t get a chance to post last night. Part of that was due to celebrating the WP Mom’s 92nd birthday. Family was up today to take her out for lunch after church. All in all she had a great time.

We were expecting a small amount of snow to fall overnight into Sunday morning, but Mother Nature saw fit to make it rain instead. Not that we were expecting all that much – just a coating – but the overnight temperatures were high enough to keep all the precipitation as rain. Not that I’m complaining. On the contrary. It helped melt more of the ice on the driveway and more snow from the roof of The Gulch. We’ll see sunny skies and temperatures just above freezing on Monday. It shouldn’t affect the ice on the lake all that much…at least I hope it doesn’t. However, we’re also expecting windier conditions overnight which might break up some of the thinner ice covering the lake. At least it is likely to be below freezing over the next few nights so maybe the ice won’t be affected all that much. Only time will tell.

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In last week’s TOAS I mentioned the gas station ‘meltdown’ in California caused by the mandate for double-walled underground tanks at gas stations. Well over 450 gas stations across the state had to close on January 1st when the mandate went into effect or face a $5000 per day fine if they remain open.

I came across this video from Elizabeth Davis delving a bit deeper into this mandate, outlining why so many stations weren’t able to replace their old single-walled gas tanks.

A lot of the blame for the gas stations not being able to meet the deadline can be laid at the feet of the California’s inertia bound bureaucracy which made it impossible for them to do so.

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I have been reading and watching the responses to the shooting of the anti-ICE protester who was shot by an ICE officer. When I first saw the original video, particularly in slow motion, it looked to me that Ms. Good’s SUV struck the ICE officer as she tried to leave. Now that other videos have also been released, including one from the officer’s phone, I am convinced she did strike the officer, knocking him over. Whether it was purposeful or an accident doesn’t make any difference. It still came down to that she struck him with her vehicle. It may have been a glancing blow, but he was still hit. This same officer had been struck and dragged by another anti-ICE protester some months ago.

Did this affect his decision to fire on the driver? Maybe.

Despite some claims made online, Ms. Good and her wife were not there by accident, did not block ICE vehicles by accident. Their presence and action were premeditated. That it ended in tragedy is something that was always a possibility under the circumstances.

However, “The problem isn’t ICE. It’s ICE Watch.”

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Oh, this will work out well for Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Authorities Threaten to Arrest ICE Agents

Liberals seem to be serious about civil war. Larry Krasner is District Attorney of Philadelphia, having been installed by top Democrat donor George Soros.

What crimes are ICE agents committing by enforcing immigration law? Whatever crimes the moonbats running Philadelphia see fit to fabricate. As with the call by leftist senators including Mark Kelly for the military to disobey undefined “unlawful” orders, Krasner is committing sedition.

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, who has previously declared her unwillingness to cooperate with federal law enforcement, will be happy to make the arrests.

I dare say that those same Philadelphia officials are likely to be arrested by the FBI or US Marshals for interfering with federal law enforcement officials performing their duties both under US law and the Constitution. It could also lead to martial law if the city is declared to be in insurrection, or worse, rebellion.

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If the rumors are true, it’s possible that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is set to resign next week.

It’s possible he’s considering it because he’s “been referred for criminal indictment over massive Somali fraud within the state.”

That he’s dropped his reelection bid because of these issues may be the first sign that he’s in trouble.

But like any rumor, I’ll believe it when I see it.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where we’re in the midst of the January Thaw, the Patriots are playing the San Diego Chargers in a Wild Card Playoff in Foxboro, and Monday once again is returning to plague us again.

Friday Funny - When He Hears The Drill

Thoughts On A Sunday

Just a note to let you know that today’s TOAS will be rather abbreviated as I am deep into resurrecting two computers here at The Gulch. They failed almost 2 months ago and I have been careful in trying to resurrect them so I don’t lose any data.

It’s been a lengthy series of below normal temperature days here at the lake starting back in early December. This has led to thin skims of ice appearing on the main waters of the lake over the past few days. I noticed them this morning when I was on my way back to The Gulch after my pre-church shopping at our local Walmart. The bays and coves around the lake have been frozen over for some time but not so much that ice fishing is possible except here and there. Monday will be one of the last below normal temperature days before we experience a few days of the January Thaw, those days seeing daytime highs in the 40’s or even 50’s here and there. It isn’t likely to cause too much loss of ice in the coves and bays, but it will likely affect the skims of ice on the lain part of the lake. That will definitely delay the time it will take for the lake to be frozen over completely, but I have no idea how long it will do so.

This will affect the upcoming ice fishing derby next month and the opening of the ice runway on Alton Bay. (It is the only ‘official’ ice runway in the lower 48 states.)

Monday (tomorrow) is also my first day back at work after over 3 weeks of vacation which I thought would be relatively quiet and uneventful. I was wrong.

I am actually looking forward to returning to work so I can get some rest!

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California doesn’t get half the punishment it deserves.

The latest ‘brilliant’ idea that just went into effect with the new year? So-called “Mom-and-Pop” gas stations were required to replace their single-walled gas tanks with dual-walled tanks by January 1st, 2026. What is the average cost to do so?

$2 million.

What this means is that hundreds of gas stations across California are being forced to stop selling gasoline and diesel because they either couldn’t afford to replace their tanks or couldn’t get the required permits in a timely fashion or find a contractor whose schedule wasn’t already filled.

Yeah, this is going to help California’s economy and business climate thrive.

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Sometimes the woke parody themselves and they are totally oblivious to it. Case in point?

The Metropolitan State University of Denver deciding that Standard American English is “a tool of white supremacy.” WTAF?

The initial Campus Reform report, published Dec. 8, detailed a Writing Center page titled “Linguistic White Supremacy,” which offered guidance for creating “anti-racist” assignments and described “Standard American English” as a “social construct that privileges white communities and maintains social and racial hierarchies.”

So I suppose that Standard British English and Standard French and Standard Swedish and any language with its roots in Europe is automatically “a tool of white supremacy”?

These folks need to stay on their meds, or if they aren’t already on meds they should be. Just how twisted can their thinking and logic become before society realizes they are seriously mentally ill and should be institutionalized?

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And that’s the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’ll see another night of single digit temperatures, deal with some light snow, and deal once again with Monday now that my vacation is over and I have to return to work.

A Few Thoughts On Venezuela

Imagine my surprise when I heard about the US military operation in Venezuela that resulted in President Maduro and his wife being taken into custody in Caracas with extradition to the US, specifically New York, to face charges of drug trafficking, to name but one crime he’ll be answering for.

Reading some of the reactions to Operation Absolute Resolve one would think nothing like this has ever occurred before. However, folks making this ‘claim’ are wrong. All one must do is look back to the US military operation that found and detained Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega who was arrested, extradited to the US, and indicted for drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering. He was subsequently convicted, imprisoned, and then released in 2010 after serving 17 years. He was then extradited to France where he tried and convicted of money laundering and sentenced to 7 years. He was then extradited to Panama in 2011 to answer for crimes he committed during his rule.

Maduro has done some of the same things as Noriega as well as ‘weaponizing’ crime syndicates like Tren de Aragua. Many syndicate members entered the US illegally during the Biden Administration’s unofficial “open borders” debacle and have been responsible for drug smuggling and human trafficking into the US.

One must remember that once Venezuela was the wealthiest nation in South America and was a democracy until Hugo Chavez convinced the people that socialism was the only way to ‘save’ the country. However, after years of rule by Chavez and the Maduro, Venezuela is now one of the poorest nations in South America, its economy is a shambles despite its vast oil wealth, and it more resembles what used to be seen in the old Soviet Union during the Bad Old Days.

Other than some of his leftist allies and admirers here in the US, I haven’t heard too many others angry that Madura has been arrested. On the contrary, it has been just the opposite, particularly among Venezuelan refugees here in the US and other countries.

Friday Funny - Bro Test

I'll Tell You The Story - Fern Flirts