Caption: When I go to a grocery store or a hardware store (or even a gun store) – the places I tend to shop, I’m always astounded by the variety of goods available that are within my capacity (from an economics perspective) to purchase. It’s not an ‘American’ thing, but it is very much the result of capitalism. The system that brought us prosperity is not government overregulation. It’s important to ‘make things safe and regular,’ but there is a slippery slope. The government will ALWAYS work to gain more power and to create more ways to tax the public. It’s rare for taxes to be reduced without some sort of revolution that compels it. Every American state has a different tax scheme. Some rely on sales tax (consumption tax), others tax real property and land. Some rely on excise taxes (gasoline/car registration, etc.) and ‘sin taxes’ on alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. Then there is income tax. Striking the balance is the key.
Socialists (a scheme and philosophy based on envy) howl that the rich must be punished for industrious success. You were never hired to work by a poor, homeless person. You were hired by a person or company who has more than you do. It’s a system based on the idea that a snake can always eat its own tail. Socialists are the ultimate entitled because they believe that somebody or something owes them a living. However, you will always run out of other people’s money.
The goal has been that our children live better than we do. I live better than my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. My four daughters are all married with children. Some live as well as I do, some struggle. The era of your children doing better than you may be somewhat illusory these days. I mentioned to a neighbor (I have two sets within a mile of the mine) that I help out kids and grandkids, and they asked why. They are a childless couple. It’s difficult to explain to them in a way they’d understand. Then there is this.
Bullet Points:
** Question of the Day: What should be done to fund Social Security? There are many options and many pitfalls, and Boomers and the follow-ons are nervous that there will be nothing left for them when it’s time to cash in. The attendant question is what should be done about Medicare? Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid account for over 75% of all mandatory spending. I receive Social Security and was forced into Medicare when I turned 65. It’s not discretionary for the recipient. Point of the bayonet and all that. Many of this blog’s readers are either in the same boat or soon will be. The nation is graying. Those of you who rely on Social Security as your only source of income are squeezed. Those of you who have it as a supplement have a little less stress. Yes, the fund has been mismanaged, and it should never have been looted and put into the general fund (the full faith and credit of the USGOV and all that). But here we are.
As a side note, as we get older (not just the ‘royal we’ – it impacts me too), we are less able to work gainfully, and the time will come, if it hasn’t, when you can’t work even if you wanted to for a host of reasons that have everything to do with aging – timing out.
** Fun with the trebuchet.
** Tastes like Chicken (Science Daily) Dinosaur DNA may still be out of reach, but scientists are uncovering something almost as exciting—ancient blood vessels hidden inside fossilized bones. In a massive Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Scotty, researchers discovered a network of preserved vessels within a rib that once fractured and began healing 66 million years ago. Using powerful synchrotron X-rays from particle accelerators, they peered inside the dense fossil without damaging it, revealing intricate, iron-rich structures left behind by the healing process. (h/t Claudio) Science could grow them and drop them in Africa to provide a food source for natives. Or something like that. Trust the science.
** Costco has introduced its first major change to the $1.50 hot dog combo in 40 years, allowing members to swap the 20-ounce fountain soda for a 16.9-ounce bottled water.
** The MQ-25 – in production – maiden flight.
** The siege of Acre. and the rise of the Teutonic Knights. Napoleon dissolved them in 1809. Hitler banned them in 1938, seized their properties, and modeled the SS on their structure. The Habsburg Empire attempted to absorb them entirely three times. In 1945, the order was reconstituted in Vienna — in the same building they had occupied since 1395 — with no announcement and no fanfare. They simply resume.
** Frank e-mailed me to ask if the skulls of our enemies are dishwasher safe. You need to epoxy them before you use them for everyday drinking (and washing). Some say that if you stick to mead, the alcohol content means that they don’t need to be washed in between uses. Your experience may differ.
** While we’re on the subject of conspicuous consumption, should unhealthy food be banned from schools?
** Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) says – you have to tell your friends the truth. It’s time for the United Kingdom’s political leadership to embrace adulthood and pay its own bills for a while. He could have gone further, but as Sen. Kennedy pointed out, it’s not up to the US to tell the British how to spend their money.
That’s also true for the Canadians. Alberta and possibly Saskatchewan are thinking of leaving Canada. Quebec has its own referendum running. Alberta has been strident in that they don’t want to be part of a welfare state based on stupid woke that drains them of resources while offering nothing but scolds in return. If Alberta leaves Canada, America will recognize it as a sovereign state the same day. I expect there would also be the option to use US dollars as their currency, as in Panama, Zimbabwe, and US territories. If Alberta and Quebec leave Canada, the weak Canadian dollar will only become weaker. It would be a smart move for both the US and Alberta. As I understand it, there is already an offer on the table for the US to lend Alberta US$95 billion to bridge its finances until it can completely separate from Canada. This is not a 51st State thing. We recently made a similar move with Argentina. It’s something that friends do along with exchanging ambassadors and building trade agreements.
** The cluster-fk security gaggle at the Hilton Hotel at the Correspondent’s Dinner a week ago was shameful. 5 rounds fired. None of them hit the scrote. Time to review training. I mean, seriously, review. The uniformed Secret Service officer who took one in the trauma plate likely had been hit by his own people. Yes, somebody tackled the moron, and they took him alive so he can be interrogated and his meat can be warehoused, but whoever was in charge should be fired. I think I said that before, but the video is damning. And the President, Vice President, their families, the senior White House Staff, and the entire cabinet were there. All the eggs in one basket. I don’t think there is a mistake they didn’t make. It’s good they were up against a fool. They seemed to have a good reaction force, but proaction beats (trumps) reaction every time. Watch the security people do their circular firing squad on the video.
** What happened to Rock Music? (Walsh)
Dan Bongino’s FBI Experience
(LL commentary)
Dan Bongino, now back to podcasting after a year of serving as deputy FBI Director, has just done a revealing podcast — about 2-1/2 hours long — with FOX News’ Sean Hannity. First, let’s get it out of the way that Bongino says he encountered a “sh*t-show” when he came to the FBI last year. “Snakes’ is being nice,” he said of some of the people he encountered there. There were two FBI’s, he said, and he couldn’t always tell which one he was in.
Even the “permanent FBI people” find this to be the case based on my experience. It’s an institution that prides itself on absolute uniformity and theory X-style central control, but the undercurrents of an FBI inside the FBI that is wicked and remorseless raise its head when you least expect it.
He and Hannity began their talk by discussing Bongino’s goal in taking the FBI job. Bongino had said when he took it that it was “probably one year out [of my private-sector work],” and that’s just about what it turned out to be. “I’ll flip the calendar for ya,” he had said to Director Kash Patel. He had his own notebook full of “things we had to do to fix it.”
“I went in and saw things I had not seen before,” he said of his first days at the FBI. When you go in at that high a level, “you’re read into everything, and you see things,” he explained. For example, with Russiagate, he had thought he knew everything, but it turned out to be “10x worse.”
On the other hand, there were other issues that he’d made assumptions about, but that turned out not to be what he thought they were. BUT…“We walked into a mess,” he said. There were what he called “Level A” problems, things that REALLY needed an immediate fix, and then Levels B and C. “D, E, and F got handled by someone else…people out in the field [etc.].” But if you’re trying to handle these problems, “there are two FBIs trying to help you, [and those are] FBI1 and FBI 2.” FBI 1 refers to the “bust-your *ss” agents, dealing with crimes against children, white-collar crimes, and violent crimes, serious stuff. “I was just honored to be in the room [with them],” Bongino said.
“But then you have this other FBI,” he said, “which was populated with…snakes…” And you couldn’t always tell which snakes were which. “So you’re trying to solve a Level A problem…and it’s almost like a coin toss, because either way, someone’s gonna get hurt.” When you’ve been there only a couple of weeks and are seeking advice, he said, you don’t know if the adviser is from “the good FBI or the bad FBI.” Sometimes, people outside the FBI whom he and Director Patel would rely on about this would get it wrong. Someone they said it was okay to trust might end up leaking to the media.
Bongino started testing FBI officials on this, giving a selected one some innocuous information, even just his schedule, and seeing if references to that showed up in the media. Sure enough, they did. Matt Margolis at PJ Media was so impressed by his “trap” that he wrote about it.
The Russians call it a berium enema.
Bongino told a story we haven’t heard — and are not likely to hear — in the media, about Donald Trump, being the “fixer” that he is, coming to DC and really wanting to remedy the problems that he saw there. For example, when he was being driven around the city, he hated seeing the homeless people and crime on the streets. Bongino, as the deputy, handled the day-to-day problems, so he would be the one to hear about them. Director Patel, he said, was “hands-off,” a big-picture guy, so the solution would fall to Dan, who (wisely) recommended Giuliani-style “broken windows” policing.
At the end of the interview, Hannity asked Bongino to rate former FBI Director James Comey for evilness on a 1-10 scale. “Easy,” Bongino said, “10. Easy.”
“Jury’s still out” on Chris Wray, but he’s in the upper range; Bongino’s still not sure how much of Wray’s ignorance might have been deliberate. As for Brennan and Clapper, he said, “Only because 10 has to mean something, I’ll give Brennan a 10 and Clapper a 9. Clapper’s probably a 10, too…”
Clapper is more of a wingman. He gets a 9, but he’s not a shot caller. More of a ‘worm tongue.’
“They’re all in that 8-to-10 range,” he said, noting that another one who rates a 10 is Peter Strzok. Bill Priestap and Andy McCabe as well. “McCabe would be almost, like, a 10.5.” This assessment comes after seeing him repeatedly lie on-air as a CNN contributor.
There was quite an exodus from the 7th floor after Patel and Bongino came in. Officials hadn’t covered their tracks very well, to say the least, and they knew they’d better get out of there.
Firearm Silencers/Suppressors (from Ammo.com)
Can you legally own a suppressor? Well, you’ll have to consult with every level of government to get the right answer to that question. Or, you can read our latest publication that explains where it’s illegal to purchase, possess, or manufacture firearm “mufflers.”
Here are a few quick notes from the article that we discovered during our research:
- Suppressors are illegal in eight states.
- Suppressors are legal in 13 states if they comply with ATF guidelines.
- Eight states have no standalone statutes regarding the possession of suppressors, but federal laws still apply.
Arizona does not restrict the possession of suppressors. Federal laws apply. I have friends who have placed their silencers in a firearms trust, with an attorney managing it. They retain possession of the equipment. Is that necessary? Up to you, the owner. The way I see it, silencer ownership and regulation are 10th Amendment issues. Allow individual US states to regulate them. Interstate commerce is another thing where the Federal Government has jurisdiction to extend its claws. Keep it legal.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
Hints in the photo: a racing aircraft later fitted with floats and used as a military aircraft; limited production; narrow your search to the UK.
3
436 built
Parting Shot
End
Pension age in Australia was raised from 65 to 67 about 5 years ago.
Everyone (with jobs) pays federal taxes that is used to fund it though not specifically like the USA.
My wife and I don’t receive it as I had a successful business, saved money and bought investments. So we are “too rich” in spite of paying a lot of tax over the years. You can own your own house but any shares, cas or property counts against you.
We occasionally joke about selling the rentals, blowing the money and applying for a pension.
As I understand it, people can apply for Social Security as early as 62 and receive a reduced number. I think that full retirement age for Soc Sec is 67 here too. At 65 you must apply for Medicare and pay the premiums even though you’ve been paying into the fund for your whole life or they fine you.
Took mine at 62…did the math, not a huge differential…and who is to say these fools won’t change the rules…again? Figured I might as well get some of my stolen money back that started with my paper route as a kid.
Looking at the Bongino commentary, plus the ‘tax this and that mode’ these bums employ at will to fleece us further into debt, it is no mystery how WTP are mandated to pay into some nebula for our entire working lives (poof! there goes that money into the blackhole), then are forced to pay for said program to receive our money back from said ‘program’…what TheThey call ‘benefits’…even if we don’t want or need it. This operation is Socialism Lite. Nothing but ‘Governmental sleight of hand’. Thieves and crooks, the entire lot of them (okay, maybe it’s only 98%).
In 2007 the notice from SSA showed the benefit monthly amount according to which age I began payments.
.
.
Ten years later, 2017, the same notice showed a decrease in dollar amount of monthly payments.
This even though the 2017 notice showed an additional $40k in SS taxes after 2007.
.
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I keep those notices for side by side comparison if I ever need reminding of the criminal enterprise.
I signed up for Medicare A at 65. I paid nothing for 7 years.
There is no payment to be made until Part B.
You must sign up for Medicare Part B which you do pay for, roughly $180 a month, if you have no private insurance.
I did this last October at age 72.
If you don’t there’s a 10% penalty you pay for the rest of your life when you do sign up, as I’m given to understand.
I may be messed up, Ed. I have Part A & B AND private insurance.
Without a supplemental, or advantage policy, Medicare can bankrupt those without either. Medicare is an 80/20 policy for most, with a monthly premium of around $180, “conveniently” taken from Social Security benefits. Supplemental policies can add hundreds to monthly costs, while some advantage plans even pay policyholders money each month, although the trade-off may severely limit availability of medical providers, which can lead to expensive, sometimes fruitless trips that eat up monthly income. I now have a PPO advantage plan, which saves me over $500 a month over my supplemental plan, and so far, all my doctors take the insurance, With some, there is no copay.
You can have both, but you don’t have to have part B if you have private insurance.
If you do not have other “creditable” coverage (like from a current employer) when you turn 65, you should sign up for Medicare Part B to avoid lifetime late enrollment penalties and gaps in coverage. While Part B is voluntary, delaying it without qualified coverage results in a 10% penalty per year,
I was told my private insurance was going to be canceled by my last employer in October.
I signed up for Medicare part B (and D).
The company forgot to cancel my insurance and between the two of them I was paying nothing towards medical bills.
Like coordinated coverage between spouses used to be.
Even worse, the yearly increase in Medicare is higher percentage-wise than the yearly cost of living for Social Security. The break is around $1,000 for SS. Above that you are still making a small increase after deducting Medicare, which, of course, doesn’t mean you are keeping up with inflation. Under $1,000 for SS, you are on a rapid slope, depending on the less amount of SS you get, of losing money on SS due to Medicare deductions.
–
It’s a crap shoot.
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As to funding or refunding the SS bank, first make it not part of the General Fund. Then pour moneys from tariffs and fines and such into the SS bank. It may take a while, but the upcoming great die-off of people over 70yoa will correspondingly reduce the drain on SS. And so will getting rid of all the freeloaders, illegals and fake accounts while prosecuting the malfeasance on the system.
I began collecting as soon as I stopped practice in ’08, began paying in in ’56: I figure I’ve collected, maybe, 1/20 of what I put in; in inflated $ maybe less than ~1/10,000.
SS is not, repeat not a Ponzi scheme; particularly when you consider that we’re being paid back in highly inflated $, it’s just outright theft.
Don’t disagree…I only couch it that way (Ponzi Scheme) because as more people age and collect in comparison to fewer kids being born, and by some numbers fewer and fewer pay into ‘the system’, the program is in jeopardy…which is why the ‘what do we do to save SSA from collapse’, or ‘SSA will dry up n X years if we don’t do something to fix it’ arguments have been brought up for decades. Yes, they raided it and placed an IOU there (thievery, plain and simple)…but SSA is a poor return, especially when one considers a long term investment plan would have given larger returns, by a lot. SSA will be toast if the same ‘talk but do nothing’ approach remains, which so far is basically kicking the can around the dithering cul-de-sac because no one wants to own the problem. More critically, Congress can’t even pass The SAVE Act to guarantee less fraudulent elections let alone fix a decades old problem they created.
…Port-A-Potty guys forgot to read my detailed ‘where to place’ instructions…picked it up with the tractor forks and carefully drove to the other end of the property where it was supposed to go…an hour I’ll never get back but took me to fix it. Same thing, and sort of the same subject matter when dealing with government ‘help’.
Because I had a state public safety pension, my social security payout was 2/5 of what I would otherwise be entitled to. They collected the SS money at the full rate, by the way. Then Congress acted, and now I receive what I’m entitled to, same as everyone else. It was equitable to pay me what I was entitled to. I recieved a few dollars in back pay, not close to the whole but things were set right as far as they ever will be. As Boron says, it’s a scam.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Henschel Hs 123
2. Gloster Mars
3. Gloster Javelin
Outstanding, Surly!
That security goat rodeo – looked like only one guy way facing the entrance. The guy inspecting the container could be given a pass, but the others were looking the other way(were the guests considered to be a bigger threat?). Then that first guy drew and fired…with officers on the other side of the crasher. Reminded of early flight stories where pilots got so fixated on hitting the target they would auger into the ground. Would a tackle have been a better option? Like the planes, that looks like a training issue. And where were the supervisors who should have been keeping everyone else from standing around with their thumbs up their backside? Keystone Kops in the 21st Century.
There are about 1000 lessons (learned?) that we could review, but one of the key points has to be that the ENTIRE hotel and every room (closet, facilities, kitchen, storage) has to be swept and secured. Nobody wants to do it because it’s ruinously expensive and a great deal of work. They could do it in the East Wing of the White House but that is a very small room for events. Not all of the grandees could fit. Maybe the Kennedy Center would be a better place for this? You could secure that location and you could lock it down while it’s managed.
Hope the Trump White House Entertainment Center is up and ready for business soon.
The courts are still blocking it. May the fleas of 10,000 camels infest the pubic regions of the judge and multiply twice daily.
Will this video clip end up in the training curriculum?
Time to build the Big Beautiful Ballroom…friggin’ hotel is not the place for such an event, especially considering this Dementor booked in beforehand. As for the metal detector run-thru…maybe put a glass doo pr on it next time…jeez, what a stupid thing to think a Dementor would stop. Thing is before…anyone see him running down the corridor wielding the shotgun do anything? Obviously not, most people have little situational awareness and understanding of OODA Loop tactics…but bet if they had a slight heads up they’d pull out their ‘at the ready’ phones to video him running down the hall so they could post it on Instagram…before shots were fired.
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Thanks for the Bongino interview heads up…need to give it a listen…won’t help the blood pressure (firing squad, hangings, prison…all sound about right for some of these bums, and would help the BP)….but it sounds like everything I suspected with Patel, Bongino…even Bondi. I figured Bongino told PDJT a year then evaluate if he’d stay, which is what happened…and now we know why. Bottom line is WTP have ZERO clue what these DC fools are doing…it is beyond corrupt, if there is such a thing.
***
SSA Funding? How does one ‘fund’ the only legal Ponzi Scheme where the monies collected were stolen by the fund managers? Easy-peasy, cut it off totally from paycheck takings, DOGE every department then use those ‘saved’ funds to continue paying those who paid in until this hamstringing idiocy disappears to the dustbin of history. Might take a decade or more. Same goes for Medicare, another sham-holycow garbage program.
***
School Lunches: Got a quarter as a kid, milk, regular or chocolate was a dime, in the brown bag lunch was a baloney sammich, apple or orange, and some chips, leftover was a candy bar (not the tiny ones we have now. Fridays were pizza day, got 2 quarters to buy lunch. No one was fat. And most kids did well on the Presidential Physical Fitness test. Might have something to do with over-processed garbage being sold as healthy, and Big Food fiddling with ingredients; Canola toxic oil, and a bunch of other things we likely don’t know about. Create the problem so you can generate a need for the cure, despite decades of ‘healthy alternatives and the exercise craze.
***
Parting Shot: like many, would love to be wrong…but this scumbag will never see the inside of a prison, and somehow he knows it.
Ahh, posted in the wrong place.
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2050013838481727564?
I may have screwed up trying to post this link; I am a technological Neanderthal. What’s up with the three security personnel who trip over themselves (literally) trying to run the other way from the threat?
Where was the supervisor who should have addressed the lack of coverage while the gates being disassembled?
That camera angle doesn’t show the first guy shooting at the intruder – he’s firing off shots with the three on the other side of the intruder. Maybe they were trying to get out of the line of fire from Mr. Friendly Fellow Officer?
Kids / wealth / helping – a couple things to consider about doing better than your parents. First off,
it isn’t automatic, you have to bust your ass to the extent that you want to achieve, and even then
there’s no guarantees. Lots of kids are hard workers, and lots of kids set lesser goals in exchange
for lesser stress and effort and wear and tear, but then there seem to be a lot of kids these days whose
eyes are bigger than their stomachs. The other thing is that the wealthier people get, the harder it is
to do better. Societally, the US is crazy rich nowadays – a lot of folks here remember what things used
to be like just like I do. And the constant refrain of the damned Marxists that only the rich are wealthy
and they stole it from the poor is bullshit. Even bums are rich nowadays – when I was a kid, they were
lucky to have an old Army jacket stuffed full of newspapers and some thrown-away shoes, and they smoked
cigarette butts they picked up off the ground. Now they have smartphones, and thousand-dollar mountaineering
tents, and keep pets, and usually have nicer clothes than I wear. Another good indicator of American wealth
is things like crowdfunding and YouTube millionaires – those business models can’t exist w/o wast disposable
income. So, we have come to a point where it’s pretty easy to not do as well as your parents, and still be pretty
well off. As for helping kids, we never had any, but we still help out nieces / nephews / greatnieces / greatnephews
etc. We (well, mostly my wife) can, so why not?
*
Trebuchets – we’ve known about the supersonic thing for a long time, it’s why whips crack. There’s no “Shouldn’t
be possible” about it. Cool, though.
*
MQ-25 – too damn small for the tanker role. We need a real tanker at sea.
Actually, we probably need a secondary smaller logistics carrier just to operate air tankers, built
off a fast replenishment ship hull with huge fuel stowage, for high-intensity ops. We could
probably run some of the other support aircraft off it too.
*
Press dinner shooter – yeah, the only good thing about that shitshow is that the outer perimeter
was at a great distance from the high value targets. I’m so old, I remember when the Secret Service
was (or at least appeared to be) top-notch.
– Kle.
Woof, that was a wall of text; sorry.
*
Even so, I forgot to address Social Security – take the shortfall from everyone in Congress,
until they are penniless. Then repeat with everyone in the SSA. Won’t fix it, but vengeance
is it’s own reward.
– Kle.
Excellent fodder from our host this morning…sparked a similar long comment from myself as well. Thing is, WTP have felt so disaffected for far too long that when some truth we suspected comes to light and we are validated, that opens the floodgates of despisement for these bums and we can’t help but comment accordingly.
Things just do not cost, relatively, now what they cost when I was a kid in my 20s. I very happily tootled around for four years (before I left for N. Dakota) in a used ’56 Saab 93 that I purchased in Sep ’62 for $45 and sold for $45 in Jun ’66: you simply cannot find the equivalent of such bargins today and should you run across them, a lot of towns and cities will stick a sensor up the auto’s tailpipe (while sticking a similar sensor up yours) and say NO! – this car just will not pass our requirements.
The only true bargin in the U.S. today is the $1.50 hot dog at Costco.
The executive/engineer/programming manager making $150K/ still can’t afford the luxuries I did making $15K/ in ’62.
The MQ-25 is a full production item, but it’s also a demonstrator. We’ll see how the tech works, and Boeing or whoever will improve it. These things take a very long time from concept to deployment with an air wing.
The Costco Dog (loss leader) is not only inexpensive, but it’s also a good hot dog.
When I read, “What happened to Rock Music? (Walsh)”, my brain autonomously inserted Joe before the last name, so I watched about a quarter of it before I started asking where Joe Walsh was and if it was worth listening to.
Did the same :) You went away and left me, long time ago…
Follow-up – I wanted to hear him do a cover of this song. I think he’d rock it.
The only good rock is old rock.
“Just take those old records off the shelf
I’ll sit and listen to ’em by myself “
You just turn your pretty head and walk away.
I remember when Rock was young…..
In the security video we saw where ‘LARP the magic assassin’ comes running through from the hall, all the agents (including a very small woman about whom my wife asked “are they actually hiring midgets as a part of DEI?”) drew their weapons and moved towards the runner. This left the hall they had been guarding wide open, and if they had been dealing with a committed team effort from, oh, say… Iran, where the lead man was followed on by five or six more heavily armed men (or worse, bomb-vested suicidals) the entire head of The Great Satan could have been wiped off the board.
I’m an old retired ER nurse, not a security professional, but it seemed pretty obvious to me.
Somebody needs to have a come-to-Jesus meeting. I expect that happened, but we’ll see. They seem to handle security poorly at a macro level. Much of the individual effort is very well done.
I’m a little amazed Trump hasn’t used personal funds to ensure his security is way better than what the Secret Service has provided. I know I would have, and public events would start with a limited number of people that have to strip naked before entering the event, and any intruders would be shot on sight if they wander within 300 yards of the event. Outside events would be out of the question, and Secret Service qualification demands would amaze even the best of special forces. Until the likes of the beer brewer are taken to task, Trump is a target, and every crazy wants to take a chance on becoming infamous.
During Trump45 he “deputized” his personal security people and made them Secret Service Special Agents.
“Conspicuous Consumption”
AI is doing better and better and I now have further understanding of the three-fingered beings pictured.
What I don’t know is:
are they depictions of 雷神 らいじん (raijin) – a race of mythological beings created by the Shinto gods of thunder and lightning or
Δάκτυλοι (Dáktyloi) / Daktyloi – a race of mythological beings said to have sprung from the fingers of the Earth Mother (Rhea/Cybele) as she gave birth.
I’ll have the graphics AI do something for you.
I was considering there was the possiblity I might run into them in “Broken Toys” #3
You might meat your maker…in BT3 (or in a Martin Baker ejection seat if you fly one). I’m going to play that one very close to the vest.
.
Meanwhile, Book 4 of the Duelist series is at Chapter 10.
Our kids now in their 50’s are all doing well and own their own homes. Thank you Jesus. Thank you!
Took SS at 62 and never looked back.
Hopefully Kash will solve the Fibbie mess. Try watching a network show about what the three letter agencies are doing. Might as well be watching Larry, Curly and Moe!
I built my own suppressor, J K Armament, and yes it’s legal with a certified ATF stamp. 121 days.
There’s no reason not to suppress your firearm.
I actually enjoy the noise.
yeah! me too! but the OL complains I can’t hear her for at least 2 days after I return from the range.
And that’s a downside? :-)
I am nigh unto the 7th decade. As far back as I remember on this subject, perhaps in middle school, there has been the fear and drama that SS is out if money.
Ask who gains the advantage by such talk?
I reckon this will continue until that monster is finally destroyed.
.
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My daughter was friends with the daughter of the man who found an insect encased in amber. (circa 1990, dug up at Reef Ridge near Kettleman City, CA)
Naturally there was the desire to extract DNA.
Somewhere along the line the scriptwriters heard of this. Go ahead, guess where this leads to.
there is another video angle on “officer tatum” on youtube. the k9 and handler are looking at the shooter seconds before he starts his dash down the hall and somehow miss the great big shotgun. being all in a gaggle was stupid to begin with, one suicide bomber followed up by the shooter/s would have been devastating. i can see why some tards say it was staged. who could believe the good guys could be so incompetent? fire the whole crew and hire that blackwater founder? idk but better get done before the iranian assassins start coming.
**They are a childless couple. It’s difficult to explain to them in a way they’d understand**
They have no stake in the future, their own life is all they know.
Well, we ‘know’ from our military experience that Theory X managers don’t work… McGregor, decreed micromanagement, strict control, and carrot-and-stick (do what I tell you or you get written up) would drive productivity ‘effectively’. Yeah, right… The ‘leaders’ ignored that BS and led by example. The Xers raced to the bottom of the pile.
It’s difficult to beat “Follow Me” – there’s a statue and everything. Nobody likes a bully.
No they don’t! :-)
Regarding the Trebuchet, duh, it’s just an increase in scale and size of the little old shepherd’s sling or a staff sling. Yes, the bigger you make it, the more things like friction and air resistance and other fiddly little physics and material science effects take place. Which was known as soon as they started making the darned things.
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Curiously, the really interesting thing about Trebuchets (tree-buckets as we called them in the SCA) is that, roughly, the mass of the ammo has little to do with the final speed of the projectile or the distance it is shot down range, roughly, relatively. I know, sounds weird, but here is a good explanation. You have a nice spinning reel fishing rod. You can toss a hook with a 1oz weight about the same speed and distance as a 3oz weight. The only real factor is the ability of the rig to handle the max weight you should be slinging down-range.
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It’s that simple. The Trebuchet, using a sling, is the original Nautilus machine, and fires the ammo using basically a Fibonacci sequence. They’re very pretty to watch.
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Using modern materials like steel or aluminum tubing or carbon fiber or even laminated wood aids in making the throw-arm faster (reducing the throw-arm mass, which makes the arm faster. Putting good bearing surfaces well-greased or modern super-bearings on the main rotation axle and on the weight axle (at the not-sling end of the trebuchet) reduces friction which means the arms rotate better which makes the arm rotate faster which, of course, makes the sling move faster thus throwing the ammo faster. Making a moving shuttle and/or greasing the slide the ammo slides over when still on the ground before becoming airborne also makes everything move better and faster which decreases friction and increases rotational speed which increase acceleration and maximum velocity which results in being able to put greater weight farther down-range.
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They are amazing examples of applied mathematics, physics (which is, of course, just applied mathematics with some voodoo thrown in) and materials science.
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And, properly build, they are amazing to watch and amazing to crew. Not built properly they are friggin dangerous and you really don’t want to be anywhere near them.
As to Rock-and-Roll, of course it’s dying. The music industry is purposefully killing it. Doesn’t help that any popular music movement has pretty much a limited lifespan. Just listen to a ‘good’ rock station and all it plays is late 60 to late 70 music. Acceptable rock stations play early to mid 60 up to late 80’s music. Considering Rock-n-Roll started in the 50’s, where are the stations that play the old music? Hmmm? Considering late Queen is still considered rock-n-roll, and that’s mid-80s. Where’s the Chubby Checker? The Big Bopper? The Four Seasons? Elvis?
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The music industry chose to de-emphasize Rock. In favor of Rap and other garbage crap. And the club scene went from Rock to Disco (Rock with a good dance beat, which was started in Europe and not amongst blacks) and then to electronic music. Rock-n-Roll clubs don’t exist except maybe in some large cities.
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Music evolves. Even old music, going from medieval to late medieval to Renaissance to Baroque to Classical to Romance to to to. And that’s just in snobby music. Popular low-income music? We have no idea how many different styles and movements there were before, really, the late 1800s when some music researchers started getting interested in where music came from and where it’s going. Which explains the ‘Childs’ ballads’ which were folk ballads collected by a guy named Childs who was trying to figure out how many variations of ‘popular’ (what we call Folk Music now) music and where all the variations are and came from.