Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a 50:50 weekend in the weather department, with snow yesterday and sun today. No complaints, at least not from me. We got about 2 inches of snow yesterday, an amount that is on the verge of the “Do I shovel this or not” amount. Since I didn’t have to go anywhere yesterday, I didn’t shovel...much. I just cleaned up what was left after clearing off the trusty RAM 1500.

Since this is the last weekend of the school vacation weeks (New Hampshire this past week and Massachusetts the week before) things will calm down a bit and we’ll see most of the ski folk only over the next few weeks. (Our local ski resort closes the first weekend of April to start prepping for the summer season.)

Thoughts of the upcoming boating season have been intruding and I have been making plans for the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout to be taken out of storage, serviced, and prepped for being returned to the water in a little over two months.

==+==

It seems that one state, Georgia, is taking the 2020 election irregularities seriously and changing its election laws to address them. Not surprisingly, the Georgia Secretary of State isn’t behind the changes and thinks they go too far. What are these ‘radical’ changes the SoS is against?

One such bill that has passed in the state senate would require all voters to present either a driver’s license number, a state identification card number, or a photocopy of some other approved form of identification in order to be allowed to cast an absentee ballot. Another bill, which has been approved by a state senate subcommittee, would force voters to provide a legitimate reason for voting by absentee ballot rather than in-person. The swath of new bills is in response to widespread allegations, backed by credible evidence, of voter fraud in the state in last November’s elections.

I wish New Hampshire’s legislature would take action to close the non-resident voting loopholes that presently allow out-of-state college students, campaign workers, and other ‘temporary’ occupants to vote in our elections. There are actual requirements that need to be met in order to be eligible to register to vote, but the same-day voter registration part of our election laws have created one heck of a loophole that allows these otherwise ineligible non-New Hampshire voters to cast ballots in our elections. I think we are the only state in the country that allows ineligible voters to vote in our elections, an abuse that must be stopped.

==+==

Another state looking deeper into election irregularities is Arizona, particularly after a Superior Court judge ruled that Maricopa County must turn over 2.1 million ballots to the Arizona State Senate as part of their investigation into ballot count irregularities during the November 2020 election.

The county fought the state senate subpoenas for the ballots, but the judge ruled “There is no question that the Senators have the power to issue legislative subpoenas. The subpoenas comply with the statutory requirements for legislative subpoenas. The Senate also has broad constitutional power to oversee elections.”

What are the county election officials so nervous about? If everything is on the up and up there shouldn’t be any problems, right?

==+==

This says it all.

Leftists Cook Up Crazed Fever Dream to See Nazi Symbolism at CPAC.

Leftists are convinced that the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is a nefarious conclave of secret Nazis plotting an insurrection. Many activists on Twitter have seized on the shape of the CPAC stage at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Fla., claiming it is shaped like a secret rune to cater to Neo-Nazis. Partially for this reason, activists have demanded that Hyatt Hotels stop hosting this “hateful” confab. Hyatt rightly stood up to this absurd cancel push.

--snip--

Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which organizes CPAC, definitively debunked this absurd conspiracy theory.

“Stage design conspiracies are outrageous and slanderous,” Schlapp tweeted. “We have a long standing commitment to the Jewish community. Cancel culture extremists must address antisemitism within their own ranks. CPAC proudly stands with our Jewish allies, including those speaking from this stage.”

It seems the just about anything can be called a “Nazi symbol” and used by the Left to cast conservatives as Nazis. Yet it is the Left who have the thugs who resemble the Brown Shirts of Nazi Germany. It is the Left who shelter blatantly antisemitic members of Congress from their party. It is the Left that uses eliminationist rhetoric against the Right. It is the Left that censors speech.

It comes down to this simple rule they follow: “Accuse your opponents of acts you are committing.”

==+==

From The People’s Cube:

Could Comrade Biden be our first Neuro-Proxy “President”?

I’d say the chances are even.

==+==

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

Two California Assembly members have proposed legislation that will fine stores for having separate boy’s and girl’s clothing sections.

WTF?

What’s next? Legislating what goods or brands will be allowed to be sold in various stores? Legislating that all foods being sold will have to be organic and farmed in a sustainable fashion (‘sustainable’ being defined by the legislature and not reality) or they can’t be sold? Making it illegal for deliveries to stores to be made by anything other than electric trucks?

I wouldn’t put it past them as they’ve done stupid things like this before.

==+==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is trending warmer, the skiing is still great, and where Town Meeting season starts soon.

Not Just "No", But "Hell no!"

It isn’t often I post a rant, at least not here. I will occasionally rant when making a comment on one of the Wall Street Journal forums or at one of the various blog/news/opinion sites. It isn’t my usual form of commenting. But every so often a blog post, comment, Tweet, e-mail, or face-to-face discussion will trigger a rant. This is one of those times. I must warn you that this rant won’t necessarily be in logical order and will be tinged with emotion. Rants in general tend to be so, and mine are no different. Here we go...

[rant]

I was pondering a topic worthy of posting, wondering if I should delve into my being reduced to a “stick figure” judged entirely by the color of my skin, such skin color being the sole defining factor of my “beliefs, biases, and prejudices”. The content of my character doesn’t matter, just my skin color. How screwed up is that?

My life experiences no longer matter, nor do the people with whom I associate, or my political leanings, or my actions, or my work. Because I am white I am automatically a racist, a “white supremacist”, and I must atone for my supposed racism be it explicit, implicit, subconscious, or imaginary, and I must do so in a fashion someone else has decided for me. I have been judged guilty for no other reason than I am a white heterosexual male of Northern European descent. I haven’t abased myself before those who deem themselves ‘woke’, those who believe themselves of superior wisdom, knowledge, and foresight and I will not be considered worthy of them until I do.

They have a long wait ahead of them because I will not bow to the deluded visions of the willfully ignorant and indoctrinated ‘true believers’ of what has become something akin to a politically active religious cult.

I do not bow to the ‘enlightened’ when their actions are contradictory to their stated goals. None of what they want from me or anyone else ‘not them’ will eliminate or reduce racism or any other “-ism” that is their cause du jour. It doesn’t bring people together. Rather, it divides them, generates intolerance, hatred, and prejudice all in the name of correcting some wrong, real or imagined, or for some elusive and twisted idea of equality.

They seek equity which has nothing to do with equality, though you might have a tough time convincing them otherwise. Equity is nothing we want as it is nothing anyone should inflict on others.

They seek to silence those who do not bow to their beliefs. (See cancel culture.)

Some of them feel any actions they take upon the “unwoke” are justified, including violence. Some have even suggested “deprogramming” for the unwoke (Katie Couric being just one of them doing so in public). Others have gone so far as to suggesting re-education “camps” for their opponents. (We’ve seen these before. Does the Gulag Archipelago ring a bell? How about Sobibor, Dachau, Bergen Belsen, or Auschwitz? For a previous generation of willfully ignorant and indoctrinated ‘true believers’, these “camps” were a solution to a very similar problem as they saw it.)

Do I think they would go so far? Ninety-nine percent wouldn’t...but that remaining one percent wouldn’t think twice about doing so. Certainly 20^th century history has proven that more than once.

I have some very firmly held beliefs, these beliefs being derived from my upbringing and my experiences, some from those whose experiences and knowledge far exceed my own, and from a couple of thousand years of history, with a focus on the past 600 years. From those sources I have come to see what works, what doesn’t, and more importantly, why. I have seen that history does indeed show us what will come again if the lessons it teaches are not heeded.

What I see from many of our ‘woke’ brothers and sisters is nothing new, despite what they might believe. It was seen in Russia starting prior to World War I. It was seen in Italy starting in 1919 and in Weimar Germany around 1925. It was seen in China in 1949 and again in 1966. It was seen in Korea in 1950, in Vietnam in 1956, and in Cambodia prior to 1975. Nothing our present day ‘woke’ have been taught or are doing is unlike what has been done in those other times and places.

Getting back to the main theme of my rant, it seems everything is being examined by the ‘woke’ for any hint of racism, sexism, and whateverism, then denounced when ‘someone’ finds any such hints, even if they aren’t there. The subject of such scrutiny is either canceled or pressured to change into something unrecognizable. The two latest victims of this deluded scrutiny?

Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head.

I kid you not.

To quote one of my favorite politically incorrect movies, Johnny Dangerously: “This is fargin’ war!!”

This ridiculous crap must come to a stop. It serves no useful purpose, causes hate and discontent, and fixes nothing. It’s only purpose is to destroy, period.

As such, there are two questions that must be asked.

The first: Cui bono?

I know who.

The second question is: Do you know?

[/rant]

Thoughts On A Sunday

As I know many of you (all 17 of you reading this blog) may have noticed, I haven’t been posting as much as I usually do. Between a heavier workload at my primary job and additional work at my secondary job, I am generally busy 12+ hours a day, 6 days a week. On the ‘free’ day I have I am usually busy around The Gulch, helping the WP Mom clean the house, making a dump run, a Walmart run, a Tractor Supply Company run, a grocery run, or any other duties or chores needing to be done. It doesn’t leave me nearly enough time to take care of things like starting up a new business (in the works), working on my third novel, or blogging.

Once we get past mid-March I’ll be back to a normal workload (whatever ‘normal’ is these days) and I can devote more time to this...and corresponding with one of the WP Nieces with whom I have been discussing and debating the events taking place as well as politics, ideology, and history.

==+==

This must be true...or rather, it needs to be true, at least for President *, AOC, and the DNC-MSM propaganda machine.

DHS has released a statement reporting that “right-wing extremists were responsible for the majority of fatal domestic terrorist attacks last year.”

But there’s a problem with that statement, being that “It’s long on vague assertions and decidedly short on facts.” “...as Yahoo News points out, “the government has released no data on historical activity or the current threat landscape.” Apparently we’re just supposed to take their word for it.”

The attacks by antifa and BLM – hence referred to as “Burn, Loot, and Murder” – are downplayed, minimized, if not devoutly ignored by the media, local government, and bought-and-paid-for DA’s and prosecutors (elected using George Soros’s money). While some members of antifa and BLM hew to their original raison d'être, both organizations have abandoned any pretense and are openly Marxist, anti-government, anti-capitalist, and anti-constitutionalist. The leaders now come right out to say their purpose is to dismantle the country. Of course they don’t say what they’ll replace it with, but then the New Bolsheviks rarely do.

==+==

Remember this?

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

With the push to force Critical Race Theory down everyone’s throat, that dream is dead.

Under Marx’s Critical Race Theory (also used by the National Socialists in Germany), just the opposite is pushed: The color of one’s skin is the most important thing as it defines who you are. Rather than uniting people, it divides them, separates them, limits them. But to hear the proponents tell it, this racist theory is the only way to solve the racism problem.

Excuse me? The only way to solve racism is to commit racism?

This issue has become more telling when Jody Shaw, a staff member at Smith College in western Massachusetts, resigned in protest over the college’s “hostile atmosphere”.

It appears that Ms. Shaw ran afoul of critical race theory fanatics who forced her to “participate in racially prejudicial behavior as a condition” of her employment.

Shaw, being a normal, intelligent, woman rebelled. She blew the whistle on the racialists at Smith College in a scathing video she posted to YouTube.

“I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,” she said. “Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color.”

This is the essence of critical race theory. In order to make “progress” in “combatting racism,” everyone is reduced to a stick figure. It’s so much easier to define individuals when you identify them as members of a specific group, with specific beliefs, biases, prejudices.

In her resignation letter to the university president, she didn’t pull any punches.

Every day, I watch my colleagues manage student conflict through the lens of race, projecting rigid assumptions and stereotypes on students, thereby reducing them to the color of their skin. I am asked to do the same, as well as to support a curriculum for students that teaches them to project those same stereotypes and assumptions onto themselves and others. I believe such a curriculum is dehumanizing, prevents authentic connection, and undermines the moral agency of young people who are just beginning to find their way in the world.

It’s important that we realize that this didn’t have to happen. Small-minded, even ignorant people see salvation in controlling the minds and lives of others. Is it a mass delusion that they believe they are actually “fighting racism,” that they’re doing this for white people’s own good? Or are these the same efforts at control that have been around since humans created civilizations?

Fighting racism by committing acts of racism?

Yeah...that’ll work.

==+==

And that’s the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter weather keeps coming and going, we’re in the midst of the second week of February school vacations (Massachusetts last week, New Hampshire this week), and the ski areas are very busy.

Compare And Contrast - Outrage/No Outrage

(H/T Powerline)

Has Venezuela Finally Figured Out A Socialist Economy Doesn't Work?

Imagine that. It appears the Socialists running Venezuela have come to the conclusion that top to bottom Socialist control of the economy, particularly when it comes to the means of production, doesn’t work.

So what are the Venezuelan socialists going to do to fix this problem of their own making?

They are abandoning socialist doctrine by offloading key enterprises to private investors.

In 1998, Venezuelans voted in [Hugo] Chavez, a populist and self-described Marxist. He was re-elected in 2000 (59.8% of the vote) and in 2006 (62.8%), at which point he began to nationalize various sectors of the economy—including agriculture, the steel industry, transportation, and mining—and confiscating more than a thousand companies, farms, and properties.

At the time of Chavez’s death, his socialist policies were heralded by Salon as an “economic miracle”—but in reality the Venezuelan economy was already in a free fall.

By 2014, with the price of oil collapsing, Maduro’s government admitted it was in severe recession and Venezuela was suffering from the highest inflation in the Americas. By January 2016, the country was on the verge of “complete economic collapse.” Not long after, the Venezuelan government abandoned any pretense of being a “democratic” regime.

--snip--

The collapse of Venezuela, once the most prosperous country in Latin America, is hardly a secret. But Maduro’s pivot toward private enterprise in an attempt to stabilize the collapsing country is a new revelation.

--snip--

Maduro’s effort to quietly form private-public partnerships, a strategy that began in 2017, reveals the total failure of Venezuela’s command economy. Bloomberg points out, for example, that once-successful food processing plants have been “mostly idle” since being seized by the government, plants that could have been feeding a starving population.

This revelation is both tragic and infuriating, but it’s not surprising. By their very nature, command economies are doomed to fail because they lack the basic incentive and price structures that are present in a market economy.

But what Maduro is building is something that has been done before, something dating back to the 1930’s…in Italy and Germany: Fascism. Is Venezuela’s economy shifting to fascist economy, once described by Sheldon Richman as “socialism with a capitalist veneer”?

Time will tell.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been colder than normal here in central New Hampshire for this time of year. It has meant the lakes have been freezing up hard, with ice thickening quickly. On most parts of the Big Lake the ice is thick enough to support vehicles, so we’ve been seeing folks pulling their bob houses out onto the lake in order to partake of ice fishing. The timing is good because the annual Meredith Rotary Club Ice Fishing Derby started Saturday and concluded today.

At least Covid hasn’t stopped the Derby. Then again the Derby is outdoors, the participants are spread out all over the 72 square miles of the Big Lake and the temperatures are well below freezing. It certainly helps that these conditions work in favor of participants maintain social distancing.

==+==

One thing I have noticed since the first of the year has been a major change in the people commenting to various posts. Not so much the makeup as the names/ID’s people are using.

What do I mean, or in this case, who do I mean?

Trolls.

Any of you out there who have been around the ‘Net understand exactly what I mean: People commenting on posts and about other comments, such comments being basically contradictory, make false accusations about something or someone, make inflammatory statements, perform what I have seen called ‘drive-by accusations’ – drop an accusation with no corroborating links or evidence – then disappear for a while, try to present straw-man arguments, and worse, try to push outright falsehoods as ‘fact’ (think “Russia! Russia! Russia!” as one example).Many of these trolls spend hours online every day, posting dozens of comments every day, 365 days a year. One I found posted an average of 112 comments a day and did so for over nine years. That’s almost 41,000 posts a year. This one was most likely a shill, paid to post this kind of tripe and stir up trouble.

Trolls are a fact of life on the ‘Net.

But one thing started happening right after the first of the year – trolls started abandoning their IDs in large numbers and started using new ones. From my observations I’d have to say a good 75% of the trolls I am familiar with have ‘disappeared’, reappearing with new IDs.

It didn’t take long to figure out who was who, even with their new IDs because they all had their own commenting style. Some had created new IDs and within the first couple of days had posted several hundred comments. Others had ‘spare’ IDs they had created years ago, rarely used with just enough comments made to keep it active, then after they burned their old IDs their dormant IDs came to life, and again dozens, if not hundreds of comments were posted every day.

Fortunately it is usually easy to figure out someone is a troll because of the comments they post. One giveaway is those using the Disqus commenting system tend to have ‘private’ profiles which means no one can see their commenting history. They either have a very small Upvote-to-Post ratio or a very high Upvote-to-Post ratio (they will use their other IDs to up-vote themselves).

==+==

What’s worse than a sore loser?

A sore winner.

It seems the Democrats are famous for that and it’s no different this time. As Tucker Carlson has asked, “The Democrats 'Won Everything,' Why Are They So 'Crazy-Person Mad'?”

Fox News host Tucker Carlson began his opening monologue on Thursday with a simple question. “So why are the Democrats so angry?” “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Setting aside the fact that liberals are, by nature, far more consumed by what angers them than by what makes them happy, Carlson noted that the Democrats “won everything” in November and now have full control of the federal government. “Winning seemed to enrage them even more,” he said — correctly so.

Why is this?

==+==

From Donald Trump after his acquittal in Impeachment 2.0, this one statement sticks out more than the rest:

It is a sad commentary on our times that one political party in America is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law, defame law enforcement, cheer mobs, excuse rioters, and transform justice into a tool of political vengeance, and persecute, blacklist, cancel and suppress all people and viewpoints with whom or which they disagree.

From a comment made to a related post in another blog comes this:

It is as if you need to have a scorecard to keep track of the whipsawing back and forth Democrats do on what is considered allowable.

2001 - 2008 Dissent is "Patriotic".
2009 - 2016 Dissent is "Racist".
2017 - 2020 Dissent is "Fashionable" and complete with pink headgear resembling genitalia.
2021 - ? Dissent is "Treason".

Democrats in autumn of 2020: Trump is using the USPO to rig the election.
Democrats in December of 2020: Claims of rigged elections are conspiracy theories.

It seems that it depends upon whether something works for or against the Democrats whether something will or will not be allowed, and that can change from moment to moment.

That’s one good way to destroy the cohesion of a nation.

==+==

Even with Trump’s acquittal, Pelosi and Schumer have promised to continue their campaigns to destroy Donald Trump. To me, this further proves that this has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with vengeance for slights real or imagined.

They are misusing their offices to go after someone they hate. They keep pointing a finger at Trump, not understanding (or caring) that three fingers are pointing back at them. Their persecution of Trump is not playing well with the American people, even among Democrats. There are far more important things Congress has to deal with, yet the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader are wasting their time and the taxpayers’ money on something that will be more divisive than what has already occurred.

During the defense portion of the impeachment trial, the attorneys representing Trump presented video showing various members of Congress using inflammatory, murderous, insurrectionist, seditious, and even treasonous language aimed at the President, the GOP, and anyone with the audacity to disagree with them or get in their way. Their language egged on antifa and BLM rioters, made it seem they were all in on the rioting, burning, looting, and murder that took place over the past few years. Their language was far worse than President Trump has been accused of using (but didn’t). Where are the impeachments of those elected officials, the censure, the condemnation? What do we hear from the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the DNC leadership instead?

Crickets.

As needs to be stated again and again and again, if Congressional Democrats didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.

==+==

It looks like we’re in for a little bit of snow today and a bunch of snow on Tuesday, something we need. (Some folks may think I’m crazy for saying so, but we need the snowpack for a proper spring thaw come April.) At the moment it looks like we’ll be in for between 6 and 10 inches here at The Gulch. I am looking forward to it!

==+==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow will be falling, the snowpack will be growing, and where I’ll be shoveling some of it away once it’s all done.

Coronavirus Rhapsody (With Apologies To Queen)

In light of the news of the presence of the the UK Variant of Covid-19 here in New Hampshire, I felt we needed a break from the incessant “We’re gonna DIE!” panic being pushed by much of the media. Instead, providing some levity seemed to be the correct response to this endless pandemic. (Or should we start calling Covid-19 ‘endemic’ rather than being a pandemic?)

One Business Being Proactive About $15 Minimum Wage

One national business is taking action regarding a possible increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

What business am I taking about?

Kroger.

This is the same Kroger that is closing two of its marginally performing food markets in Long Beach, California after the City Council rammed a $4/hour pay increase – so-called ‘hero pay” - down the throats of only a few selected businesses in the city. Kroger decided it was no longer worth the effort to continue doing business there because the two marginal markets, Ralph’s and Food 4 Less, were now money-losing businesses and it no longer made sense to keep them open.

What is Kroger doing to help mitigate the effects of the possible rise in the federal minimum wage?

Launch a pilot test of a 100% self-checkout store in Dallas, Texas.

I expect the “usual suspects” will scream bloody murder about “greedy capitalists” stealing from and “exploiting the poor” for profits by eliminating all of the cashier/bagger jobs. But if businesses don’t make a profit they don’t stay in business long, something these economically ignorant/delusional Social Justice Warriors choose to demonize. If the cost of labor rises to the point where a business stops making money and is now losing money, the business has only a few choices: raise prices which may cause customers to go elsewhere; reduce costs by reducing staffing, i.e. lay off employees; go out of business.

The first choice is a ‘Devil’s’ choice, meaning all it may do is delay the inevitable, but the end is still the same: going out of business.

The second choice isn’t much better because people will lose their jobs, the business owners will have to put in more hours to cover the work an employee would normally cover, and maybe the business will survive.

The third choice is the worst of the three because the business owner will reach the conclusion it’s no longer worth the time and effort needed to keep things going, or will see that the only future for the business is bankruptcy and will pull the plug. The jobs the business was providing will disappear along with the business.

The argument could be made that raising the minimum wage hasn’t caused businesses to go out of business, but there have been times when it has cost people their jobs, and even then the increase in the minimum wage was nowhere near the level being suggested, in this case more than doubling the federal minimum wage. On average, federal minimum wage increases have been between 9 and 13% since the 1960’s. The minimum wage increase being proposed is a 107% increase, something unprecedented. It will also have a much larger effect on the economy than previous minimum wage increases since for a lot of younger inexperienced workers it means the end of their jobs even of they aren’t receiving the present minimum wage. (Someone making $10/hour would also get a hell of a pay raise – 50% - something many of the $15/hour minimum wage proponents have chosen to ignore.) They may also lose their jobs if they can’t return $15.01 in economic gain to their employers.

If Kroger’s experiment works well enough, we may well see more supermarkets going the same route – no cashiers, no baggers, and fewer jobs. That could extend to other retail operations if Kroger’s experiment succeeds.

As such, we need to remind the aforementioned economically ignorant/delusional Social Justice Warriors of one simple fact that no amount of ‘feelz’ or excuses can explain away:

The actual minimum wage is $0 and always will be.

(H/T Granite Grok)

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, SuperBowl Sunday, and the Kansas City Chiefs will be playing the Tom Brady...err...Tampa Bay Buccaneers in SuperBowl LV. While no longer the quarterback for the New England Patriots, he still has a lot fans here in New England.

Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots, offered a number of health care personnel throughout New England tickets to the SuperBowl and a ride to and from the game in the Patriots team jet.

That’s just how much fans here like TB12.

==*==

The final transformation of the New York Times from the Newspaper of Record to the Propaganda Wing of the Progressive/Socialist/Democrat Party is almost complete.

The latest action moving the Times into State Propaganda Organ territory?

The removal of linguistic intent regarding ‘judging’ the guilt of any party, particularly the staff of the Times, means that any ‘unwoke’ words used by the staff, regardless of intent, is enough grounds to dismiss the miscreant in question.

There are so many things wrong with this that even journalists from other publications are wondering what the heck is going on at the Times.

Glenn Reynolds has an explanation that makes sense:

On the one hand, watching far-left institutions eat themselves should be amusing, but it bodes poorly for the rest of society, especially now that we have an administration that supports this kind of thing, unless it affects the nomenklatura.

And remember, as the powers that be attempt to force a “Great Reset” in which institutional authority is re-established, this is what those institutions are like: Stupid and crazy. And vicious.

Indeed^TM.

==*==

Moving Forward To The Past!

It looks like the Tech Oligarchs are working to bring back an old tradition, one that trapped so many American workers into endless servitude back in the late 19^th and early/mid 20^th century: Company Towns. Unlike the old company towns, these would include a touch of Big Brotherism.

Forget about dismantling the power of Big Tech. If a Nevada bill becomes law in the state, tech companies would be given a jolt of steroids. They would be able to start their own governments...

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a plan to launch so-called Innovation Zones in Nevada to jumpstart the state’s economy by attracting technology firms, Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday.

The zones would permit companies with large areas of land to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts and provide government services.

The measure to further economic development with the “alternative form of local government” has not yet been introduced in the Legislature.

From the 1890s or thereabouts to the first couple of decades past World War II, the “company town” and the “company man” were inextricably a thing. Companies that were mining coal, extending the railroads, building the telegraph, and generally moving America’s borders and cities west or industries forward were able to establish what amounted to jurisdictions and even forms of currency on land they owned. Workers would live their entire lives in the company town, shop at the company store, and were even often paid in scrip, which was company currency. When you took such a job, you “sold your soul to the company store,” as the old song goes.

--snip--

Imagine, though, what woke technocrats will do with their newfound territorial powers. Imagine “mayors” or whatever title the local tech government leaders take answering directly to Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. Twitter already acts like it has a foreign policy and it censors all kinds of things including actual news. It could take on a domestic portfolio/personality cult at the local level.

It is something that must be contemplated. There must be legal protections in place to protect the residents of such company towns, to preserve Constitutional rights, to prevent the creation of new serfs or indentured servants who will be forced to live in high tech gulags.

As the saying goes, Read The Whole Thing.

==*==

Is North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor, Mark Robinson, a member of the KKK?

If he is, then it shows the KKK has become more diverse and has entered the 21st century.

This past November, Robinson was elected as North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor. Not that we care, but his election was historical in the sense that he was the first black man to be elected to the office. (We don’t care because we don’t care about the color of his skin.) Obviously, in electing the Robinson, the people of North Carolina displayed their deeply embedded racism. (/sarcasm off)

In North Carolina, the duties of the Lieutenant Governor include presiding over the Senate and sitting on different government panels such as the Board of Education and Energy Commission.

--snip--

In response to the debate [over proposed new “inclusive” education standards], television station and website WRAL published a political cartoon by Dennis Draughon – who happens to be a middle school social studies teacher.

The message of the cartoon is clear: if you are on the Board of Education and are a conservative, you must be a member of the KKK.

Imagine that. A black man is a member of the KKK. Who would have guess[ed] that the violent and racist organization founded and supported by Democrats would have a black man as a member.

Imagine that!

==*==

Does President* Biden truly believe it will take 10 years to bring jobs back to America?

Apparently so:

In the Oval with Democrats, President Biden comments on the grim jobs report, saying at this rate it would take "10 years before we get to full employment. That's not hyperbole. That's a fact."

"We can't do too much here. We can do too little. We can do too little and sputter."

Really?

President Orange Man Bad brought back millions of jobs in less then a single term, a part of that being re-shoring jobs Obama had incentivized to be shipped overseas, made it more attractive to create and keep jobs here. Much of the rest was getting overly restrictive and unnecessary regulations out of the way which allowed businesses to expand and hire more workers.

If the jobs that President* Biden is talking about are those killed by over-the-top Covid-19 restrictions placed upon businesses by state governors and city mayors, then there is little he can do. But one must remember that many of those restrictions were put in place at the behest of the CDC and Dr. Fauci. Maybe he needs to ask the governors and mayors to loosen the business restrictions, specifically those that are known to be ineffective and get Americans back to work.

But it isn’t likely he will. That wouldn’t fit the “Covid-19 is gonna kill us ALL!” narrative.

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s snowing again, we’re getting ready to do more laundry, and where once again Monday is rolling along all to soon.

Time Magazine Admits Democrat Conspiracy To Ensure Biden Election Win

Over the past year we’ve heard the Democrats and their MSM propaganda wing continuously play down or deny any machinations regarding the national elections in November, putting it down to Republican paranoia and that there were no shenanigans going on.

It turns out the Republicans weren’t being paranoid at all.

How is it we know this? Because Time magazine has published the story of how a ‘cabal’ and ‘shadow campaign’ worked behind the scenes to make sure Biden would win.

Reading this first part of their multipart story details the work by a coalition of a number of powerful special interest groups.

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

So, they rigged the election to prevent the rigging of an election?

You know that if it had been a Republican cabal doing exactly the same thing, the Democrats and their propaganda wing would be screaming bloody murder about election fraud, voter fraud, voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing, and a lengthy list of other election ‘irregularities’ being committed by their political opponents.

Instead, we have one DNC media organ explaining exactly how they pulled off one of the biggest election frauds in American history. Not that they’re trying to sell it as such.

What is described in the entire story has nothing to do with democracy or the consent of the governed. Instead, it represents a bargain between unions, corporations, activist groups, and the political elite. It is a precursor to the triumvirate of unions, big business, and the government becoming more evident every day. Put another way, the political elite, the very wealthy, the bureaucracy, and those willing to subsidize struck a bargain.

Anyone paying attention knows it will only get worse and will devolve to the point where elections will no longer matter, the ‘proles’ (meaning everyone not them) will be marginalized, ignored, and eventually, dehumanized and demonized by the self-anointed elite.

Then things will get even worse.

A Point To Ponder

Updating One Of Einstein's Observations

“Insanity” is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

“Psychosis” is doing the same thing over and over, ONLY HARDER, and demanding different results.

The actions I've been seen being taken by the present administration and the Nancy Pelosi/Chuck Schumer cabal certainly seem to no longer fit the first definition and have been slipping closer to the second. Therein lies the problem.

(H/T DBD commenter rickn8or)

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was another frigid night here at Lake Winnipesaukee, with single digit temps (0ºF here at The Gulch) and wind chills well below below zero. In other words, a normal day/night in late January. The furnace would run a little more often than usual, but it was nothing that was unexpected considering the time of year. The winds have made it brutal to be outside for more than a few minutes at time, but it isn’t the worst it’s ever been by any means. I expect we’ll see much colder temps before the end of February.

One thing we can look forward to is an upcoming snowstorm on Tuesday, something we’ve actually needed. The Weather Guys^TM are still unable/unwilling to commit to a prediction about the storm track, but one means we might see 6+ inches here which would be a good start. We really need a couple of feet to get where we should be. Only time will tell.

==*==

I have to wonder how long it’s going to take before someone in Congress is going to say “Enough!” when it comes to President SloJoe’s endless Executive Orders, some of which have been challenged by the states affected. I expect we’ll see more of that, particularly if Joe’s actions regarding EO’s continue. It was SloJo who, just back in October, stated “...you can’t [legislate] by executive order unless you’re a dictator.” It’s ironic that he’s issued so many EO’s in the 10 days since he took office.

So it’s a bad thing to do when someone else is in the White House, but perfectly fine if he’s the one sitting in the Oval Office?

What is it they call it? Oh, yes: hypocrisy.

==*==

One has to wonder if the endless stream of Executive Orders from President* SloJo will result in a rebellion by the American people. I’m not talking about violent rebellion. There won’t be any armed conflict, pitched battles between citizens and government forces, or guerrilla warfare.

Instead it will be quiet. It will be silent. It will be widespread and the Progressive elites who believe they are running the show and can force those they consider Deplorables to fall into line will find out they can’t.

It will be “Irish Democracy”, where the people will ignore edicts and laws they see as oppressive, illegal, and unconstitutional. They won’t comply. State, county, and local government officials won’t enforce them either. The ‘sanctuary’ state movement will grow, much as we’ve seen Progressive-led states and cities do likewise regarding immigration and illegal immigrants. But this time it will be ‘Second Amendment’ sanctuary states, ‘First Amendment’ sanctuary states, ‘Non-Green Nude Eel” sanctuary states, and so on.

I would like to think my home state, the Live Free Or Die state of New Hampshire, will join the sanctuary movement and practice Irish Democracy as the Progressive federal government starts curtailing one freedom after another ‘for our own good’. (History shows that it is never ‘for our own good’, but for the good of those in power to make sure they stay in power.)

==*==

Is Dementia Joe’s incoherence contagious?

Seeing John Kerry’s ‘return to glory’, I’d have to say the answer is ‘Yes’.

...at the press conference the 77-year-old Kerry seemed to have been infected. All dialogue guaranteed verbatim:

“And we don’t have to have uh you know the the burning of a fuel uh which uh uh clearly contributes to a scientifically-arrived-at conclusion about the warming of the planet and the dangers to this planet. This is so logical uh I I don’t understand the opposition. I don’t think there’s any gain in it politically.”

--snip--

“We could go to zero (emissions) tomorrow,” he admitted, “and the problem isn’t solved.”

The only way we could go zero emissions tomorrow would be to kill everyone on the planet. We can’t get to zero emissions in 30 years, even with the Green Nude Eel to lead the way.

==*==

Considering I have to get to actual ‘work’ work, I have to keep this TOAS rather short. It didn’t help that I had some town-related duties to perform today as well. With that in mine, that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the lake has finally frozen over from shore to shore, the temperatures will be a little warmer over the next few days, and where we might get up to a foot of snow on Tuesday.

Going 'Green' Doesn't Add Up

The frigid temps we have been experiencing (1ºF/-17ºC this morning with a wind chill of -15ºF/-26ºC) prompted me to think about heating The Gulch. The house isn’t all that big which means it doesn’t require nearly as much in the way of a heating system to keep it warm. At worst the system will use about 200 gallons of heating oil over a period of 10 weeks. (That’s about how often we get an oil delivery during the heating season, according to the checkbook.)

My old abode, The Manse, used both propane and wood to keep it toasty warm, with 90% being handled by the woodstove. We’d burn anywhere between 2-1/2 and 4 cords of wood between late October and mid-April. The propane furnace would be used sparingly, usually if we weren’t going to be around to stoke the stove or if the outside temps were going to be well below zero. (The woodstove couldn’t quite keep up when it got that cold, so the propane furnace made up for the deficit.)

All of this got me thinking about a post I’d read about ‘green’ energy and eliminating our dependence of fossil fuels by 2050. The premise of the story was those pushing the Green Nude Eel keep choosing to ignore the math. Proponents tell us what their goals are, but don’t tell us how we’re going to meet them. Their ideas sound great, but they don’t reflect reality because the math doesn’t work and no amount of wishing will help them meet their stated goals.

...if we are going to zero emissions by 2050, we will need to replace about 193 petawatt-hours (10¹⁵ watt-hours) of fossil fuel energy per year. Since there are 8,766 hours in a year, we need to build and install about 193 PWhrs/year divided by 8766 hrs/year ≈ 22 terawatts (TW, or 10¹² watts) of energy generating capacity.

Starting from today, January 25, 2021, there are 10,568 days until January 1, 2050. So we need to install, test, commission, and add to the grid about 22 TW / 10568 days ≈ 2.1 gigawatts/day (GW/day, or 10⁹ watts/day) of generating capacity each and every day from now until 2050.

We can do that in a couple of ways. We could go all nuclear. In that case, we’d need to build, commission, and bring on-line a brand-new 2.1 GW nuclear power plant every single day from now until 2050. Easy, right? …

Don’t like nukes? Well, we could use wind power. Now, the wind doesn’t blow all the time. Typical wind “capacity factor”, the percentage of actual energy generated compared to the nameplate capacity, is about 35%. So we’d have to build, install, commission and bring online just under 3,000 medium-sized (2 megawatt, MW = 10⁶ watts) wind turbines every single day from now until 2050. No problemo, right? …

Don’t like wind? Well, we could use solar. Per the NREL, actual delivery from grid-scale solar panel installations on a 24/7/365 basis is on the order of 8.3 watts per square meter depending on location. So we’d have to cover ≈ 96 square miles (250 square kilometers) with solar panels, wire them up, test them, and connect them to the grid every single day from now until 2050. Child’s play, right? …

Of course, if we go with wind or solar, they are highly intermittent sources. So we’d still need somewhere between 50% – 90% of the total generating capacity in nuclear, for the all-too-frequent times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

The article goes on to clarify a few points, so I suggest you Read The Whole Thing.

As such, ignoring the math is anathema to me, being one of those engineering types. The math defines what can and cannot be done. The math says it isn’t possible to meet the 2050 goal, no matter what proponents claim. Construction on that scale would take up a good percentage of the world’s economic output for three or more decades. Financing such an effort would likely bankrupt every nation involved in such an endeavor. In the end, would it actually be worth it or would it end up a boondoggle that never delivers on the promises made? Of the two, I am inclined to believe it would be the latter. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but having seen so many other Grand Plans follow that route to oblivion, is it any wonder I think this one would be no different?

If I was of the suspicious sort, I would come to think those pushing ‘green’ energy don’t really care whether their public goals are met. It would be perfectly fine if energy supplies plummeted, forcing many of those they see as not being worthy into an 18^th century existence. What do they care if the unworthy are forced into subsistence farming to survive, or worse, don’t survive at all?

More than a few ‘green’ energy proponents have come right out and said they would prefer to see two-thirds of the human population ‘go away’. They didn’t come right out and say they would like that two-thirds actively eliminated, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few of them have thought just that kind of heinous thought. Some few have actually voiced such thoughts. I would be OK with that...if I was the one who got to select who lived and who died. I’d start with eliminating them...and then decide everyone else deserved to live. (Would I have been a bastard for doing such a thing? Maybe. But I would have also prevented genocide on a scale that makes those committed by the socialist regimes of the 20^th century look like rank amateurs in comparison.)

This is something we should stay as far away from as possible.

As We Say Up Here In N'Hampsha: Ayuh

Seen at Instapundit:

They have rigged everything, silenced dissent with tech censorship and financial deplatforming, rigged the economy with insider trading, rigged democracy with lobbying and mass immigration, and they'll tell you with a straight face that racist rednecks are the problem.

Now if we only could covince them that pissing on our heads and telling us it's raining doesn't actually work. Maybe a swift punch to the mouth or a kick to the nads when they say that might do the trick. (No, I am not condoning violence. I am saying that negative reinforcement is a useful training tool. Soon enough they'll stop doing that.)

Seems Some Folks Think The Bill Of Rights Are Conditional

Why is it the picture below really doesn't surprise me considering the attitide I've seen from the products of our institutions of higher "learning"?

(H/T Powerline)

Thoughts On A Sunday

Winter temps have returned, with night-time temps in the single digits and day-time temps below 20ºF and wind chills well below zero.

Some may not care for the cold temperatures, but I am not one of them. I’ve been waiting for them to arrive because without them the lake won’t freeze over properly, ice fishing becomes problematic as does the local pond hockey tournament, and one of the annual Winter Carnivals becomes impossible. The colder temperatures also allow snow-making for the ski areas to be more efficient with much finer snow than when it is just below freezing. It also helps keep the existing snow from melting or sublimating away, something that is always important. What we really need is a good Nor’easter like the one we had about a week before Christmas that dumped over three feet of fine, powdery snow. The snow would allow the snowmobile and cross-country trails to be open border to border.

The winter started with a lot of promise...that lasted about a week before warm temperatures and a lot of rain made most of the snow disappear on Christmas Day.

==*==

If we want a preview of what Joe Biden, AOC, and the rest of the Watermelon Environmentalists have in store for us with the hypocritical Green New Deal, then all one needs to do is look to Germany to see what’s in store for us.

Before the days of climate alarmism and hysteria, the job of deciding how to best produce electricity was left to power generation engineers and experts – people who actually understood it. The result: Germany had one of the most stable and reliable power grids worldwide.

Then in the 1990s, environmental activists, politicians, climate alarmists and pseudo-experts decided they could do a better job at generating power in Germany and eventually passed the outlandish EEG green energy feed-in act and rules. They insisted that wildly fluctuating, intermittent power supplies could be managed easily, and done so at a low cost.

Fast forward to today: The result of all the government meddling is becoming glaringly clear: the country now finds itself on the verge of blackouts due to grid instability, has the highest electricity prices in the world, relies more on imports and is not even close to meeting its emissions targets.

--snip--

So what solution does Berlin propose today? You guessed it: more meddling and interference, more outlandish bureaucrat solutions. Included among them are shutting down the remaining baseload coal-fired and nuclear power plants, and relying even more on the power sources that got the country into its current mess in the first place.

And new are restrictions as to when power can be consumed by consumers and industry! Energy rationing and targeted blackouts.

I can hear those who think we should follow Germany's example telling us “Oh, that won’t happen here! We won’t make those mistakes!” But of course they will.

The people making those claims don’t have a clue about how things actually work, what it takes to build, run, and maintain an electrical grid, particularly a stable grid. All they see is ‘free’ energy, choosing to ignore that it is expensive to collect and transmit that free energy and darn near impossible to make it stable and impossible to make it dispatchable (turning it ‘on’, ‘off’, or adjusting it up or down as needed).

There has been plenty of talk about how energy storage will solve the problem, but again those making that claim do not understand the magnitude of what they proposing, have no idea what it will take and what it will cost to create enough storage. All they choose to know is that it as an answer, but not that it isn’t workable. They also choose to ignore how the green energy ‘solutions’ they are pushing have already caused so much damage to the environment and will do so much more should they get their way. The rare earths needed to make all of these solutions work will require more mining to obtain them, one or two orders of magnitude more mining. The mining required will cause widespread damage to the environment.

I could go on and on, but I have written about this more than once over the years.

Do we really want to follow Germany down the same “green” energy dead end road? It certainly appears Slow Joe and AOC do. That should tell us everything we need to know.

One last thing. Here’s a new take on a not-so-old joke:

“What did the Germans use for light before candles?” “Electricity.”

==*==

From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this from the Pyrite State.

California Congressman Calls For $23 Minimum Wage.

Yet another economic ‘genius’ heard from, one incapable of second-order thinking, meaning that once more the Law of Unintended Consequences will raise its ugly head and will make things even worse for the people this is supposed to help should he get his way.

==*==

Now that the inauguration is over and done with, why is Washington DC still an armed camp?

What makes it worse is that so many of our supposed ‘betters’ have no historical context, have no concept about about how political parties have used false flag operations to paint their opponents as monsters/seditionists/traitors as a means of taking and keeping power. The thing is, if done properly, most of the people won’t even question the narrative even if unassailable evidence that it was a put up job were presented.

==*==

How is CNN still on the air? It seems if they can’t report actual news that they just make it up. One case in point, CNN’s wholly inaccurate and apparently fabricated story about vaccine distribution and the Trump Administration’s lack of a distribution plan and that the Biden Administration would have to “build everything from scratch.”

Still worse than the regime’s blame-shifting is CNN’s eagerness to tell a blatant lie. Even other liberal journalists are taken aback. Sam Stein works for left-wing Politico:

Biden folks are spinning here or trying to lower the bar strategically. There was, indeed, a plan from Trump. I listened in on govs calls on vaccine distribution. The plan had obvious shortcomings. but to say there’s nothing to rework is not true.

If there was no plan before Biden’s handlers took power, how does CNN explain the tens of millions of doses that have already been distributed?

As noted at Fox News,

Biden has called for vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be one million per day. Bloomberg Business data indicates that rate had already been reached as Trump left office.

So Biden says he’s planning to do something the Trump Administration had already achieved, but claimed it had not. Hmm. That sounds familiar. It sounds entirely Biden-like. And CNN has helped support a narrative it knows is totally false.

Like I asked at the beginning, how is CNN still on the air?

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter temps have finally returned, it’s wicked cold outside, and where avoiding the wind chill is almost a sport in itself.

Two Inauguration Days - Four Years Apart

Seeing the circus that was the inauguration – 25,000 troops, razor wire, empty streets, and maybe 2,000 attendees – and comparing it to previous inaugurations, I had a paradoxical response.

First, I thought it was farcical, meaning all of that security at the Capitol, along with FBI ‘warnings’ about armed protests in all 50 state capitols, and what happened?

Absolutely nothing.

Here in New Hampshire there were maybe a half-dozen protesters in front of the State House. Were they armed? If would say the probability was better than 50%. Would it matter if they were? No, not really.

A lot of people here are armed and no one either notices or cares. We don’t have shootouts in the streets. There are no recreations of the OK Corral. There aren’t numerous firearm murders.

There was no armed confrontation at the State Capitol on Inauguration Day.

So much for FBI ‘intelligence’.

Second, in contrast to Inauguration Day four years ago, nothing other than the swearing in of the President and Vice President took place.

This was Inauguration Day in 2017:

Those depicted above certainly weren’t Radical Right Wing White Supremacists/Trump Supporters, were they? In many cases they were the same miscreants who have been burning down cities like Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis over the past four years (and are still at it). Where was the outrage from the Left back then? All we heard was silence. All the rioting, looting, and arson that took place and there was little from the MSM other than there were disturbances.

Quite a contrast, wouldn’t you say?

An Unanswered Question

Thoughts On A Sunday

Winter is trying very hard to re-establish itself here in central New Hampshire. While we’ve had above freezing temps during the daytime, there has been some snow during a few of the evenings even though it didn’t amount to more than a couple of inches at best.

Seeing the storm that graced us with 3 feet of snow a week before Christmas, we were hoping that would be the pattern this winter would follow. Alas, it appears that storm was a outlier and not a harbinger of the winter to come. Goodness knows we could use a foot or so of snow right about now to help the ski areas and to get the snowmobile trails opened from border to border.

We could also use some well below freezing temps to get the lake frozen over shore to shore, something needed for some of the upcoming winter festivities like the annual Meredith Rotary Lake Winnipesaukee Ice Fishing Derby and the Winter Carnival on Alton Bay, just to name two.

==*==

Some words of wisdom from the Instaprof:

“15 years ago, the Internet was an escape from real life. Now real life is an escape from the Internet.”

Truer words have not been spoken any time in recent history.

==*==

I have seen some of the reports about the preparations being made in the state capitols for the “massive armed protests” the FBI has claimed are being planned in all 50 states. The MSM is making it sound like there will large scale armed rebellion and there will be blood flowing down the streets.

Wouldn’t it be a kick in the head to the FBI and the DNC-MSM if there were no incidents in any of the state capitols, that the very large protests were in no way insurrectionist, no way violent.

If the American people really want to freak out the new Socialist government and their organs, the protesters in all 50 state capitols should stand silently, unmoving, staring at the gathered law enforcement forces. No motion. No actions. No sound. Eerily silent.

Then when the protest is over, everyone silently turns and walks away, making sure to leave the protest grounds cleaner than when they arrived.

Do it Every. Single. Time.

Show them the Silent Majority is large, is watching them, is questioning everything they do, and if necessary, will act.

These protests would by no means unarmed. Everyone attending will decide for themselves whether or not to be armed. But be silent. Make The Powers That Be get the willies looking out over a city square or park and seeing hundreds, if not thousands of silent people staring at them. Make them nervous. Make sure they know they are being watched by people who do not share their morally bankrupt, corrupt, and willfully ignorant political ideology.

==*==

What are Nancy Pelosi’s real motives behind her second attempt at impeachment? Could it be that she wants to wear the crown, or perhaps be the power behind the crown? (There is something to be said for being a kingmaker rather than being on the throne itself.)

So why is someone supposedly so worried about the safety of our nation holding back the articles of impeachment instead of sending them to the Senate? The answer’s simple: politics.

It is the same answer to the earlier question of why the House wasn’t passing additional Covid-19 relief. Sen. Bernie Sanders “admitted that fellow Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were responsible for delaying urgently needed coronavirus relief by walking away from the White House’s offer of a $1.8 trillion coronavirus package.” Her hatred for Trump and everyone who supported him is so great she had no problem withholding much needed relief funds–and blaming the President for the delay.

So is it any surprise she’s playing fast and loose now?

Two days ago, she flexed her legislative power by refusing to forward the articles to the Senate even when senior Democrats urged her to do so. Her response? She’ll turn them over “when I’m ready.” Wow, that crown must look awfully good along side her designer masks. Perhaps it is also a little tight. What else explains her belief that she is the one in control of the country?

And why is her own party letting her get away with it?

As we get closer to Biden moving into the Oval Office, she seems to be digging in even firmer in an attempt to maintain control of Capitol Hill. Yesterday, she said it was “urgent” Trump be impeached but she continued to refuse to forward the articles to the Senate–or to say when she would do so. Her excuse? She claimed her priority is “ensuring the security of the Capitol and lawmakers before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration on Wednesday.”

Wow, now she’s not only the wanna-be queen (or dictator), but a superhero as well who is going to hold back the ravening mobs of Trump supporters and protect her pal Joe.

Read the whole thing.

==*==

From the “If It Weren’t For Double Standards They’d Have No Standards At All” Department comes this reminder about what occurred about 4 years ago on the morning of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

As the FBI continues to arrest dozens of people allegedly involved in the Capitol Building riot earlier this month ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, it was just four years ago when similar rioting took place throughout Washington, D.C., as newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump began his term.

Only then, instead of right-wing protesters, it was a riot dominated by supporters of anarchist groups like Antifa and left-wing organizations including Black Lives Matter.

Video footage that was taken the morning of Trump’s inaugural shows black-clad mobs occupying streets, smashing storefront windows, attacking police officers, overturning trash cans, and generally causing mayhem in protest of what they perceived as a stolen election.

Reports at the time noted that more than 214 people were indicted on felony rioting charges.

“On the morning of January 20, protests over Donald Trump’s inauguration turned violent when black-clad ‘anti-fascist’ protesters smashed storefronts and bus stops, hammered out the windows of a limousine, and eventually launched rocks at a phalanx of police,” CNN reported Feb. 22, 2017.

--snip--

But in the end, not a single rioter who was arrested during Trump’s inauguration was actually tried or convicted; the U.S. government dropped all charges against the more than 214 people arrested that day, the Associated Press reported.

Does anyone think that should riots like that take place on the day of Biden’s inauguration that any of those arrested will see the charges against them being dropped? I certainly have my doubts.

==*==

I have to apologize for the heavy quoting in this week’s TOAS as I got in rather late last night from a family dinner at one of our favorite eateries. We try to do this as often as is practical, even during this whole Covid-19 kerfuffle. (Yes, all of the appropriate precautions were taken before, during, and after our dinner, just in case you’re wondering, Karen.)

I also have to get some ‘work’ work done before tomorrow morning, so time has been wanting today.

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter can’t seem to make up its mind, this weekend has been too short to get everything I’d hope to get done completed, and where once again Monday has returned all too soon. (I don’t have MLK Day off!)

Respect

This is something more of our people need to remember:

The opposite must also remembered for today’s world: Treat the CEO with the same respect as the janitor.

Or more simply, treat them with the same respect, period.

Double Standards in Social Media (As If We Didn't Know)

As anyone who has been paying attention over the past four years, we know that social media has displayed their double standards when it comes to postings from conservatives versus nominal ‘liberals’. The recent deplatforming of many conservative voices by Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon Web Services is one of the more egregious examples.

While those who believe there should be restrictions on speech (the First Amendment be damned), at least when it applies to speech by people who “aren’t us”, they are particularly blind to egregiously hateful and eliminationist speech from those whom the ‘censor squad’ consider politically acceptable.

When those on the Left can push the idea of assassinating a sitting president, push the idea of destroying Israel and all Jews, expressing the wish anyone supporting Trump should die of Covid-19, or using social media to plan and coordinate riots can do so with impunity while those on the opposite side of the political spectrum question election integrity out point out bad behavior by political opponents can see their words silenced by the censors.

Did any of the people posting such hateful or destructive messages see their accounts suspended or deactivated?

No. Why?

Could it be because the ‘censors’ agree with those posting the aforementioned “egregiously hateful and eliminationist speech”?

Ike's Farewell Address - A Warning Not Heeded

By way of the comments over at Chris Muir’s Day By Day strip comes this from commenter ‘Interventor’:

The portion of Ike’s [President Dwight D. Eisenhower] Farewell Speech warning of the necessity for a military/industrial complex. But, carefully watched over, is often cited. The portion warning of the growth of the technocrats is rarely quoted.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Is that not where we are now?

We have a technical elite who aren’t elected and who believe they are not answerable to the public, telling us who we can and cannot read, listen to, watch, or correspond with. They define what is and is not acceptable speech, regardless of the First Amendment. They have also been trying to tell us how we should live (and I expect that may change to how they will force us to live whether we want to or not). It will reach the point where they do not answer to government, but government will answer to them, assuming we haven’t already reached that point, appearances notwithstanding.

Unless things change, will we soon be living in the world of John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider where the only free people were the hackers who could rewrite their identities as needed and delete their old ones at will. Or worse, we’ll be living in a real-life version of The Hunger Games.

Thoughts On A Sunday

I will admit to ignoring the kerfuffle taking place in The Swamp because, quite frankly, I don’t care. To listen to the MSM tell it Trump practically had tanks rolling down The Mall. As such, I realized it was unlikely we would hear the truth any time soon, so I have been faithfully ignoring all of the sensationalized news coming out of Washington. (It’s what the media does, regardless of their biases.)

I figured it was better to wait a while to find out what happened after all of the hysteria, speculation, and rumor-mongering faded away and the facts revealed themselves. In the meantime, I am paying more of my attention to what’s going on in the rest of the country, and specifically, New Hampshire, my home state.

==*==

Now that Trump’s term of office is coming to an end, the tech oligarchies are showing their true colors and wiping out free speech, wiping out the accounts of people with whom they disagree, redefining free speech they disagree with as ‘hate speech’, thereby ‘violating’ their terms of service. (In other words, if you post speech they do not agree with they will do away with it, with no appeal possible.) One thing I have to point out is that speech that is truly hateful, eliminationist (“Trump supporters should put up against a wall and shot,” and “They should be sent to prison and if they don’t reform, executed.”), or obvious prevarication is perfectly acceptable to the social media censors because it’s aimed at non-Progressives. (If they didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.)

Two of those tech oligarchies have gone so far to ban social media apps that don’t censor. Both Apple and Google have banned Parler from their app stores unless they impose the same draconian censorious terms of service as Facebook, Twitter, and the other Progressive social media providers. At least those and others are available via a web browser and do not require an app to use. An app is a convenience but not a requirement to use those alternative social media platforms.

It is time for these social media giants lose their Section 230 protections because they are no longer providers, but publishers. But I doubt that will happen because it gives the Progressives in Congress control over a wide swath of the American people’s speech...unless those social media giants start censoring governmental Progressives. Then and only then will Congress act to remove those protections because only then will they see them as “dangerous to free speech”.

==*==

I have performed a few WiFi upgrades here at The Gulch, restaging an unused 802.11ac wireless router and setting it up as a second WiFi network. I have been moving everything from 2.4GHz to 5GHz because the former is so crowded. Looking at the available 2.4GHz WiFi access points (AP) I can see from The Gulch, I counted 47 different APs. The spectrum plot showed every single channel being used, with a lot of overlap from edge to edge. Looking at the 5GHz WiFi APs in the area I saw three (one of which was mine), so it made sense for me to shift everything at The Gulch over to 5GHz.

5GHz has a number of advantages and a few disadvantages in relation to 2.4GHz. A few of the advantages:

More bandwidth – up to 80MHz/channel on 5GHz versus 20MHz/channel on 2.4GHz – which means higher data rates. This comes in handy when one’s connection to the ‘Net is high speed. (The Gulch enjoys a 250Mbs download/20Mbs upload connection.)

More channels to choose from.

Shorter range which means more 5GHz APs can be located in the same area with lower incidences of interference between the access points.

One of the disadvantages is also on the list as an advantage: Shorter range. Sometimes users need longer range and 2.4GHZ has a longer range than 5GHz, all other things being equal. There can be a trade-off between range and data speed, so it is something that needs to be kept in mind.

But wait! There’s more!

One of the biggest upgrades to WiFi in two decades is being rolled out that will increase users’ options. One of those options is the addition of the 6GHZ band which adds more usable bandwidth for WiFi, in this case over 1200MHz of bandwidth. (The 6GHZ band takes in the upper 200MHz of the 5GHz band which has not been used for WiFi until now.) The two present WiFi bands offer about 400MHz of spectrum total. The new 6GHz band will allow channels of up to 160MHz in bandwidth while the present bands are limited to 20MHz, 40MHz, or 80MHz in bandwidth. This means data rates of up to 9.6Gbs are possible.

It is unlikely such data speeds will be reached during actual usage as the conditions to achieve the theoretical maximum assumes no other users on the frequency and an unobstructed line of sight between the wireless access point and the device, just to name two. But is anyone really going to complain about not reaching the theoretical maximum data speed? Unlikely.

It must be understood that one of the big limiting factors for the effective data speed is going to be the connection speed to the ‘Net. It won’t matter if you have a wireless router and device capable of 9.6Gbs if your connection to the ‘Net is 100Mbs. However, connections to other devices on the same network will be considerably faster.

Devices that can use this new band – wireless routers/access points, laptops, phones, TVs, etc – are expected to become available during the first few months of this year.

==*==

We are already seeing the effects of the creation of the New Soviet Union here in America.

A self-important and thoroughly indoctrinated Progressive 18-year old doxxed her own mother, aunt, and uncle for attending the Trump-inspired rally in Washington DC.

It appears she feels no guilt in turning in her family. She was upset that her mom, once a Democrat, became a Trump supporter. What would one expect from an ignorant, inexperienced, and fully indoctrinated Young Pioneer?

One has to wonder if her creed is “The State is Mother. The State is Father.” It would certainly explain a few things about the little snitch.

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we see Washington going to hell, people are starting to realize it is time for the government to be afraid of the people and not the other way around, and where we’re hoping for more snow.

In Case You Needed Reminding - This Is Socialism

"Crisis" In The Capitol

I borrowed the title for this post from ABC News, though I used scare quotes around the word 'Crisis'.

Why?

Because I have to wonder whether the 'storming' of the Capitol Building was a false flag operation. Out of all the people who gathered to protest outside the Capitol Building and the surrounding area, 99.999%+ of the protesters had absolutely no idea what was transpiring when supposed Trump supporters broke into the building. All it would take is about a half dozen to a dozen outside instigators to motivate on otherwise peaceful protesters to follow them. Then once the action started they would slip away. (The Bolsheviks, Soviets, and the Nazis were famous for pulling stunts like that in order to put a bad spin on their opponents in order to discredit them.)

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a snowy start for the first weekend of 2021. Not that we got a lot of snow – just under 3 inches – which started Friday night and ended late Saturday, but it was enough snow to cover the roads, roofs, and ground to make it look like winter should. I did have to hovel a little bit, but nothing like I had to after the last storm. If I spent more than 5 minutes clearing the driveway and the front steps I’d be surprised.

The only negative thing about this weekend was that on Monday I have to return to work after a long overdue two week vacation. Getting back into the work mindset is going to take a few days.

I wasn’t the only one from work that took the last two weeks of the year for vacation. A lot of us had taken little, if any vacation time during 2020. Why would we? Where would we go? Most of us were working from home for a good portion of 2020, so what would be the difference if we were working or not? As it is, most of us left vacation time on the books, something we rarely do. I wonder how many other people were in the same position as we?

==*==

Seen over at Powerline:

Does anyone else feel troubled by the fact that name of next this year is literally 2020 won?

==*==

I have seen more than a few comments and memes about politicians issuing lockdowns orders and then violating those same lockdown orders with impunity. They are definitive examples of the “Do as I say, not as I do,” and “Laws are for little people” mindset so many of our ‘betters’ have. We have certainly seen that with the governors of California and New York as well as Mayor Bill DeBlasio in New York City, just to name a few.

What a bunch of jerks.

==*==

Along the same lines is the constant harping about people wearing or not wearing masks. I know I’ve had more than enough of it.

While ‘experts’, many of whom have no expertise when it comes to epidemiology, medicine, or the efficacy of PPE, keep telling us the only way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to wash our hands, wear a mask, and sequester ourselves away from everyone else. In most cases, two of the three don’t work very well, if at all.

Have you ever read the label on the side of a box of disposable masks of the type that 99% people are wearing? Here’s what the one in my home says:

These masks help protect against certain particulate contaminants but do not eliminate exposure to the risk of disease or infections.

These masks can reduce exposure to bacterial particulates but are not known to be effective against viruses.

These masks should be disposed of after each use.

Other manufacturers have similar language in their disclaimers. With the exception of N95 masks, none of them will protect against viruses. As has been seen here and there, masks are more of a psychological PPE and don’t do a very good job of protecting healthy against viruses. People also do not dispose of their masks anywhere near often enough, sometimes wearing the same the same mask all day, if not for more than one day. After 20-30 minutes of use the efficacy of the masks starts to fall off until it is almost zero.

==*==

If all of California’s draconian Covid-19 precautions work, then how does Governor “French Laundry” Newsom explain his state’s record number of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths plaguing it today?

Ambulances waited hours for openings to offload coronavirus patients. Overflow patients were moved to hospital hallways and gift shops, even a cafeteria. Refrigerated trucks were on standby, ready to store the dead.

For months, California did many of the right things to avoid a catastrophic surge from the pandemic. But by the time Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Dec. 15 that 5,000 body bags were being distributed, it was clear that the nation’s most populous state had entered a new phase of the COVID-19 crisis.

Now infections have been racing out of control for weeks, and California has routinely set new records for infections and deaths. It remains at or near the top of the list of states with the most new cases per capita.

Experts say a variety of factors combined to wipe out the past efforts, which for much of the year held the virus to manageable levels. Cramped housing, travel and Thanksgiving gatherings contributed to the spread, along with the public’s fatigue amid regulations that closed many schools and businesses and encouraged — or required — an isolated lifestyle.

Perhaps all those liberals in California are just not wearing their masks, right? Right! California is basically looking like Italy in March/April.

It has been shown again and again that lockdowns do not work. Better to take extra precautions for the vulnerable population and to isolate the sick. That isn’t what’s been done. It’s been just the opposite and what’s happened is the economy of many states has been damaged, countless small businesses have been destroyed, the mental health of otherwise healthy people has deteriorated, yet the bug has spread like wildfire. The lessons of previous pandemics was forgotten or ignored, either through the arrogance that “We know better than our predecessors because we’re smarter” (we aren’t), or it is human nature kicking us in the nuts by reminding us the same lessons have to be learned again and again. Perhaps it is a bit of both.

In either case, our leaders, experts, and ‘betters’ keep pushing the same responses to Covid-19, even though experience has shown us the more draconian responses don’t work, or worse, some of our experts have been lying to us. (Dr. Fauci, anyone?)

==*==

One other thing to look into relative to the whole Covid-19 debacle that puts it all into perspective: The 1918 Spanish Flu.

As compared to the Spanish Flu, the death toll from Covid-19 is minuscule, particularly on a worldwide per capita basis. But to hear some people tell it, people are dropping dead in the streets and carts are rolling down the streets of our towns and cities as the drivers call out “Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!” (Hyperbole? Yes. But some folks I’ve read on the various forums are claiming it’s almost that bad, but provide no corroborating links to prove their claims.

The world population today is around 7.79 billion. In 1918 it was around 1.9 billion.

To date, Covid-19 has killed around 1.83 million worldwide, or about 0.02% of the world population. The Spanish Flu killed between 17 and 100 million worldwide (estimates differ), or between 0.9% and 5.2% of the world population. Covid-19 has not been nearly as deadly as the Spanish Flu. It’s not even close.

Let’s try to keep it all in perspective, shall we?

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter weather has returned, the new year has begun...sort of, and where Monday is returning all too soon.

Congressional Democrats Have Defective Memories

To hear the Democrats tell it, challenging Electoral College certification is unprecedented and un-American. However, they have chosen to ‘forget’ they have been challenging Electoral College certification for years. It’s amazing just how selective their memories can be when it suits them.

Perhaps they are exercising Alinsky’s rule about “Accusing your opponent of acts that you yourself have been committing.”

Democrats are outraged that Republicans are planning on objecting to the certification of electoral votes. It’s “conspiracy and fantasy,” says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“The effort by the sitting President of the United States to overturn the results is patently undemocratic,” the New York Democrat said. “The effort by others to amplify and burnish his ludicrous claims of fraud is equally revolting.”

“This is America. We have elections. We have results. We make arguments based on the fact and reason—not conspiracy and fantasy,” he added.

There’s only one problem with Chucky’s “argument based on fact and reason.” Democrats have been challenging the electoral vote certification for 2 decades.

The last three times a Republican has been elected president — Trump in 2016 and George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004 — Democrats in the House have brought objections to the electoral votes in states the GOP nominee won. In early 2005 specifically, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., along with Rep. Stephanie Tubbs, D-Ohio, objected to Bush’s 2004 electoral votes in Ohio.

Hmm, seems Chuck forgot about those Democrat challenges. He can’t claim he knew nothing about it because he was in office at the time, after all.

Or maybe he did forget.

He seems to have chosen to forget that he single-handedly caused the failure of Indymac Bank by mouthing off on TV that they were on the verge of failure, even though they were not. (They were having some difficulties but weren’t anywhere near failure...until Chuck released confidential information to the public.) It caused a $3 billion+ run on the bank and the bank then failed. Of course back then Senator Schumer claimed that he did not cause the failure of the bank, even though he did cause it. If anyone else had revealed that confidential information they would have been arrested, charged, and tried for that action. But Chuck got a pass because he’s a senator, and specifically, a Democrat senator. That it caused between $4 billion and $8 billion in losses for the bank and depositors didn’t seem to bother Chuck at all.

To quote the CNBC report, “Why would a New York Senator attack a Pasadena bank, acting as some sort of amateur, self-appointed, long-distance bank examiner?” Because he could.

And so it is that he’s also forgotten the Democrats’ challenges to Electoral College certifications.

I have to wonder what color the sky is on the planet Chuck Schumer is from?

What about the rest of the Democrat faithful? Do they also have the same kind of memory issue regarding challenges of Electoral College certification? It appears they do, reading what they’ve said about it all.

Then there’s New Hampshire’s own Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) who says a constitutional mechanism being used by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Representative Mo Brook “borders on sedition or treason”. Really?

Yet, over a perfectly good and legal mechanism, due to someone willing to stand politically to your Chosen Ones (Dementia Joe and the Powers that will be actually wielded by Commie Kamala), you want Republicans in front of a firing squad...

--snip--

Yeah, just another lying politician where Power is the only thing that matters. And you’ll whatever you have to gain and keep it. Happy New Year. Aren’t you the angry one. Along with Senator Chris Murphy, that unhinged Democrat from CT – why, it’s almost like talking points being passed around freely – and undermining our Republic in a more insidious way. But then again, Power.

BTW, dear, did you say the same thing when then Democrat US Senator Barbara Boxer did the same thing in 2004?

To answer the question: No, she did not. That kind of thing only goes one way.

For My First Post Of 2021

A bit of important advice for the New Year:

The first rule of 2021: No one talks about 2020.