Archive for the 'Politics' Category

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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow thinks it’s very interesting that Republican vice presidential contender J.D. Vance named his venture capital firm after a magical object from the series The Lord of the Rings (LOTR).

“Lord of the Rings is sort of a favorite cosmos for naming things and cultural references for a lot of far-right and alt-right figures both in Europe and the United States,” said Maddow on Wednesday.

She further noted that Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture capitalist and supporter of Vance, also named one of his companies, Palantir, after a LOTR item.

It is absolutely true that Vance and Thiel are fans of The Lord of the Rings, the fantasy series by J.R.R. Tolkien. Many arch-conservative and probably alt-right figures are as well. Moderates also love LOTR. So do liberals, lefties, and the completely apolitical. That’s because LOTR is one of the most popular and best-selling book series of all time. The films, adapted for the screen by Peter Jackson, were among the highest-grossing movies of all time.

Rachel Maddow is an unstable, screaming little girl.

If I could visit one place in fictional history, it would be The Prancing Pony. Imagine the people you would meet?

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U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position on Tuesday after her evasive testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, the Associated Press reports.

Well, bye. Maybe for good.

I predict: She knows too much. She is now in danger. Like the folks associated with Blackrock and Austin Private Wealth who shorted Trump’s stock the day before the assassination attempt.

One comment at the link above: “I cannot believe how very few people (almost nobody) are talking about how the AR15 is laying 15 feet from where the sniper shot the 20 year old kid. That kid did not even have a rifle in his hands when the sniper took out his brain pan. Did he even fire a shot?”

Yeah, I mentioned it. But I estimated 20′.

Massie is one of the very few good men in Congress.

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Rhonda Massie, the wife of U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY, has died, the congressman announced Friday morning.

Outdoor Life.

An aerial program to remove predators from caribou calving grounds in Southwest Alaska has wrapped up its second year with a total of 81 brown bears and 14 wolves killed between May 10 and June 5, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on June 14. The removals are intended to improve calf survival of the Mulchatna caribou herd, which has declined by about 94 percent since 1997.

This spring ADFG employees tracked caribou in the western half of the herd’s calving grounds while patrolling for evidence of predators chasing or actively feeding on caribou. The removal of the 95 total predators was conducted on state land only, according to officials, with efforts focused on an area of about 530 square miles. That’s half the size of the 2023 predator-control area, when 104 total predators were removed (94 brown bears, five black bears, and five wolves). The herd’s eastern calving grounds were not subject to predator removal this year, as officials plan to compare calf survival between the two regions.

No, don’t sell tags to let hunters cull the predator populations. Only the king’s men get to do it, you see. Because only the king’s men hunt the royal forests.

James gives the rundown. I’ll just say this. I’m skeptical. For the time being, I’ll leave this in the category of “politics.”

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Forty-five Republicans U.S. senators filed a Congressional Review Act resolution to block a Biden administration Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule from being enforced that would require anyone who sells firearms to register as federal firearm licensees.

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Cornyn, who was booed at a Republican Party of Texas convention after he pushed through the bill, is now saying he will fight “this lawless rule tooth and nail to ensure the God-given right to keep and bear arms is preserved and this flagrant distortion of congressional intent of our landmark mental health and school safety law is struck down.”

Some Texas Republicans oppose Cornyn for any consideration as the next Senate majority leader, citing what they argue is his anti-Second Amendment stance, The Center Square reported.

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, who did not join the CRA, but was a cosponsor of the bill being cited by the Biden administration to implement the rule, said it was “outrageous that the Biden Administration decided to take a good faith effort to curb the mental health crisis across our country and turn it into an unconstitutional attempt to restrict firearms from law-abiding American citizens. This overreach is exactly why Republicans don’t trust this Administration, and it will setback any attempt on future bipartisan legislation as long as President Biden is in office.”

Yeah right.

He’s a real 2A champion at the moment, isn’t he?

This CRA, whatever that is, can’t even garner the support of all of the republican senators, much less the majority it needs to prevent a presidential veto.

This is all carnival light and action show, fit for nothing more than electioneering. Cornyn and Tillis are both communists and knew this would happen. Now they get to blame the ATF for it in election season.

Georgiaboy61 explained it in more detail than I have patience for. I hate all of these controllers.

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Good. He should never have been charged to begin with.

That is enough said. Unless readers want to add more about out-of-control prosecutors playing political games to prove a point.

You’re a little person. The rules always apply to you.

If you’re politically connected and believe in disarming the public, the rules don’t apply to you.

🚨Here is the summary regarding Miranda Viscolli from @NMPGVnow purchasing firearms for gift cards and not properly destroying the firearms per the @NewMexicoDOJ and the @ATFHQ:

– If an individual surrenders (gift or donation) to a non-profit entity without consideration and…

— Rep Stefani Lord (@Lord4NM) March 28, 2024

The only reason his opponent advocates handing hard-earned money over to the Chamber of Commerce and doing their bidding is that he wants to fleece middle class taxpayers to fund his own constituency.

The representative is right. It’s called socialism, and it has never worked anywhere. By another name it’s theft.

South Carolina Rep finally SNAPS in chamber, PERFECTLY lifts veil of political corruption in middle of lion's den in two minutes🔥

“I will ALWAYS fall back on the common sense of my constituents FAR MORE than I will EVER listen to you unelected bureaucrats and other… pic.twitter.com/4ir7g7psfK

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 13, 2024

This is a mildly interesting video, but I neither have heroes nor get involved in drama.  The most interesting part to me was this comment.

Hop is spot on about where the RD’s come from. I do have one caveat about the claim about the PCBs however. I’ve worked in the industry as a consultant and the number one question I was getting from CEOs and CMOs was how to make sure they stay legal with “Made in USA” and “Assembled in USA” regulations and how much in fines they can expect to pay when they violate them. And almost everyone violates them. In many countries, including the United States, there are strict regulations governing these labels. To be labeled as “Made in USA,” a product generally must be “all or virtually all” made in the United States. This means that a significant portion of the product’s total manufacturing costs must be incurred in the US, and the final assembly or processing of the product must also occur in the U.S. This is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. The supply chain for everything is global and massive. You’d be shocked if I told you how few things are “honest to God” made here (that actually satisfy FTC compliance). The number of US-located CNC machines, the cornerstone of modern manufacturing, is such a tiny percentage of World’s CNC fleet that I immediately distrust the “Made in USA” certification of origin of some small part (and large parts too). I’m also highly skeptical when manufacturers claim that their PCBs are made here. We’d need to have 20-25x more PCB manufacturing plants for the amount of PCBs that are claimed to be “Made in the USA”. Don’t believe me? Just call up some of the PCB manufactures and try to get some quotes and lead time. You’ll quickly realize that your product will be ready in 2 years time and it will cost 2-3x what your C-suite is asking for. Even the F-35 contractors got into hot water when it was found that most of the PCBs that were “Made in the US” were actually Made in China. Even today, most of the multi-layer, high-speed/high-frequency, PCBs for F-35 are Made in China. A fact that everyone sweeps under the rug now.

This is honestly a very sad thing.  America lost its ability to do large steel construction long ago with the demise of that work in Pennsylvania, the ports in Virginia and a couple of places in Alabama. Thus, today we can no longer fabricate large sea-going vessels such as battleships or carriers. Even the reactor vessels for Catawba Nuclear Station were made in the Rotterdam shipyard.

Optical quality glass is obviously made now only in Germany and Japan.

I guess it’s the same for printed circuit boards. What a shame and a sham that we cannot make our own electronics. You can blame our rulers for that as they whored themselves after globalism.  The whole thing is ridiculous and it’s not only a sad commentary on our competitiveness, but national security as well.

I thought after the Covid scam Ford intended to start up manufacturing of PCBs in America? I don’t know how that’s going.