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