Good morning one and all to another exhilarating day!
Trump orders Justice Department to investigate Democrats’ top fundraising platform
EPA head demands answers from company putting sulfur dioxide into the air to address global warming
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to Streamline Permitting Time from Years to One Month
Department of Transportation Eases Safety Regulations for Self-Driving Cars
Tren de Aragua in league with Maduro, Gabbard & Patel say, after ‘illegal’ classified leaks
Data Reveal Drop in US Imports From China Amid Tariff Showdown
China weighs exempting some goods from US tariffs as economic fallout looms
Texas Passes Nation’s Largest Universal Education Savings Account Program Into Law
Ex-New Mexico Judge and Wife Arrested for Allegedly Harboring Illegal Alien Tren de Aragua Member
Letitia James’ Lawyer Responds to the DOJ
Democrats Spent Years Running Their Cities’ Budgets Into The Red. Now That Tab Is Finally Coming Due
Shedeur Sanders falls out of 1st round of NFL Draft
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Sup homies! Tren de Aragua over MS-13 for the gang win!
Crooked democrats all the way..
“Trump orders Justice Department to investigate Democrats’ top fundraising platform”
I am hoping they go far beyond just looking at the use of foreign credit cards and other crap and actually look at the practice of claiming US citizens that they know don’t donate political money, are giving money to democrats. I sure as hell wish I had kept my evidence from catching them using my name to donate money to donkey polls more than a decade ago to share.
Here’s hoping they smurf them right up the smurfing smurf.
What do you mean 34,000 donors don’t live at PO Box 12 in Pueblo, Colorado?
That’s just wingnuttery.
Democrat judge: Case dismissed, that sounds totes legit…
Wait, it’s not normal for a person to donate $136 a day for 80 days straight to a political party?
Every time I hear “Pueblo, CO” I think of this song:
https://youtu.be/fEp0aKCsrig?si=N_kMqW0igYSUXy46
https://youtu.be/zXDBozEbqU0
‘Zactly.
Keep going. We haven’t cut enough.
Completely decouple, unless we want to end up their bitch in the coming conflict (more than the political and Wall Street class has already made us).
Y’all know I’m in complete agreement here — no trade with avowed enemies. If Razorfist is to be believed (and it is so obvious a ploy… I can’t help but think his data is probably right here) we need to watch other Southeast Asia (and then probably Africa and Latin America… any Belt and Roads country right off) for being masking points / dumping grounds as well.
I’m for free but fair trade with countries that don’t want to subjugate us…. no letting enemies control supply chains (preferably domestic defense self-sufficiency given the ample resources in our territory), no slave or near slave labor (because no one can compete with that), no forced acquisition of IP and only reciprocal markets / tariff policies.
China’s CCP has been with us since they bought Bill Clinton for a $2 million dollar donation to his second campaign in 1996. I don’t blame them for concluding they should be able to cuck the US in less than 3 decades (their calculations at the time) since if Americans were stupid enough to elect a man like that, and to give up their prosperity by offshoring the most important capability of a super power’s abilities – their manufacturing ability & capability – so easily, they would be facing a hollowed out opponent by then. And then everything that followed kept validating their beliefs. Bush 2 the idiots and his ME adventures, Obama and the criminalization of the US bureaucracy as they talked with envy of how the criminal CCP bureaucracy got to steal whatever they wanted and still keep the serfs in line, the decline of the country by the very people that were supposedly fixing things. One calamity after the other. The CCP spread it’s tentacles everywhere, investing money they then used as leverage to force the fools that took it from them to become subservient, while all the US did was lecture other countries & people about how they needed to accept stupid marxist shit that destroys society. It was America’s fast & furious decline and fall, until they got crazy Trump asshat.
We either accept we are in a new Cold War with another marxist entity – one that realized pure marxism is a failure and adopted a lot of the fascistic economics – and act accordingly, or we will face global calamity from the CPP or the marxist globalists.
Yeah but the whole point of globalism was to take advantage of poor countries’ cheap or even slave labor and also to export our pollution to them.
With “fair trade” we might as well make stuff here and what’s the fun in that.
You can have both free and fair trade, but only for values of fair that exclude theft, fraud, and coercion, and nothing else. Otherwise, you wind up with managed trade.
That exploitation worked out well for South Korea in the long run.
That, however, is a cultural thing.
See https://x.com/WomanDefiner/status/1915404626754494957
fair trade
The problem I see with that is “fair” is a political decision.
There is an argument for protectionist policies with regard to industries that are vital for defense. It is obviously bad when your munitions are all made in factories in a hostile country. All the other arguments for protectionism are economic illiteracy. Fair means whatever the speaker wants it to mean in this context, and is a bullshit distinction when you are talking about trade. I am deeply skeptical that the best way to bring key industries back home is to blow up trade with China and hope that necessity forces some domestic company to start a factory. It seems backwards. Protectionism has a spotty record in preserving existing domestic industries; it has no track record at all of creating them from nothing by blocking imports.
your munitions are all made in factories in a hostile country.
Even allies aren’t forever. We were allied with the Soviets for WWII. Here’s an interesting thought, turn the perspective here to U.S. war material products and our allies dependence on that.
“Tren de Aragua in league with Maduro, Gabbard & Patel say, after ‘illegal’ classified leaks”
They need them for the coming “chaos” they want to create in summer of love II, now that their ability to fund lazy American marxists through NGOs doing criminal and illegal shit, has been severely hampered. These are the people that will do the dirty work unpaid marxist Americans won’t do for team blue.
whaddup doh’
Banjos- how YOU doin?
Tres, was thinking of you…my group that is gathering tonight is having TALL CANS!
Of EARFQUAKE?
Been a while for this one.
“Ex-New Mexico Judge and Wife Arrested for Allegedly Harboring Illegal Alien Tren de Aragua Member”
Now you know why they choose the 20% side of obvious differences American voters approve by 80% in the usual 80/20 divides.
Waiting to be allowed to leave the plane. I believe the remarkably spherical lady would be to Tres’ liking.
Does she roll down the aisle?
She under 4′ 6″ and over 300 lbs?
Definitely over three bills, but too tall. The gum-chewing kid in Willy Wonka? Like that but not blue.
Mmmm…
Is she visiting various university physics departments so they can finally test all those assumptions?
Financial news magazine Caijing reported on Friday that Beijing was preparing to include eight semiconductor-related items, but not memory chips.
A list of more than 130 categories of products eligible for exemptions – ranging from vaccines and chemicals to jet engines – was circulating widely among businesses and trade groups on Friday.
130 categories. Huh. I distinctly remember being informed that “we don’t make anything, anymore” here in the United States.
We don’t. The list is fiction.
“Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to Streamline Permitting Time from Years to One Month”
Wonderful, wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and beyond that out of all hooping.
Yeah, this is probably the most important thing this admin could do. Stripping the regulatory powers will both be incredibly cost effective for citizens, and whack the knees of the administrative state.
It will be nice — but they damned well need to get Congress to formalize it so the next district judge doesn’t mandate they require 3 years of regulatory studies because they said so or something. (Yes, JI… I know the odds of that… I know it is the electorate’s fault…. I said need to, dangnabbit… let me dream!)
Congress ain’t going to do jack shit, Zwak. What’s their incentive? The current system is one very much to their liking, on both sides of the aisle. They make bank, they get to swan around as big shots and posture and preen, they have delegated the actual making-laws work to the agencies. They suffer no ill consequences from bankrupting the country and crushing it under the squatting behemoth of the state.
So why would they start voting against their own interests? Ain’t gonna happen.
Where did I say “congress”?
Sorry, Zwak, meant to address that to SDF.
Since the Dems win on immigration by ignoring due process to import millions of people while claiming due process is needed to deport said millions –
What sorts of things should Team Red be doing to flood the system and make it nearly impossible for future Dem presidents to undo? Fire federal employees with 20 or more years of experience? Release the Epstein files? Mandate constitutional carry? Provide gun purchase vouchers? Slash nuclear plant regulations so long as they are completed by 2028? Build more oil refineries and rare earth mines provided they are completed by 2028?
“China weighs exempting some goods from US tariffs as economic fallout looms”
The people telling you this hurts us more than it hurts the CCP are all lying to you. The CCP holds power, not just because of its Orwellian authoritarian state, but because the people of China, like all serfs do, have given up their liberty in return for a promise of ever growing prosperity. The moment that prosperity even falters, that compact is under duress, and the CCP will fear the consequences and act. The most powerful move the CCP has is to blame the guy at the top, and then get rid of that person.
Their economy has been fake for more than a decade. All the lies and backroom baloney is unraveling now that their ability to over manufacture and dump cheap shit is under sever attack. Their move to use the construction industry to overinflate their actual GDP has hit a wall and entire cities sit empty. And their demographic aging problem is unsolvable. Xi knows that. And he knows even though he has really changed things to be all powerful, he can’t stave off this calamity of losing the US market.
China will talk real though until it gets real for Xi, but then they will acquiesce, and hope to break the deal as soon as a weak ass democrat or a republican they own is back in power.
Or they’ll try to take Taiwan causing as little damage as possible to inject that manufacturing base into their economy. And then likely eye India and Japan. Fun times in Southeast Asia! (Or given the kowtowing and bootlicking they’ve been getting from Australia… maybe they’ll work a deal there…)
I suspect that, if need be, we could wreck the semiconductor fabs in Taiwan if it looked like China was about to succeed in conquering the island. China isn’t going to war with a regional nuclear power, either (India already is one, and I suspect Japan could be one in a matter of months once it decided to).
“I suspect that, if need be, we could wreck the semiconductor fabs in Taiwan”
This is the CCP’s biggest conundrum to solve. The moment they start an invasion, the plan calls for all the semiconductor manufacturing and engineering people to be evaced by plane. The CCP could soot those planes down, but then the end result is the same. The key machinery would also be destroyed. But even if the CCP managed to capture the machines, the complexity of the maintenance cycle for them is so high, that they would be useless in 6 months. The CCP machine has been trying to build up 2-3 nm chip making and chip maintenance capability, and failing for over 15 years now. Which is also precisely why they want it even more.
Re: opting out of college.
I learned a valuable lesson about college. I have an MBA, and deliver garbage to people’s mailboxes for a living.
I am pushing my children to go to trade schools, or only take college courses in areas that provide viable skills for steady careers.
Are we facing an oversupply of tradesmen? I was chatting with our HVAC repairman earlier this week (he was doing the semi-annual checkup to get system ready for air conditioning season) and he said that after he was finished with me, at 11am, he had no work lined up for the rest of the day.
He claimed there are so many competitors now in the business that he only has jobs about 30 hours a week. His firm keeps raising the hourly charges in order to stay profitable, but that only encourages customers to skip maintenance or move to one of the new entrants that are under-trained, under-insured, and can’t be found when their substandard work breaks down. [This is in an affluent Philly suburb- mileage may vary where you are.]
“Are we facing an oversupply of tradesmen? I was chatting with our HVAC repairman earlier this week (he was doing the semi-annual checkup to get system ready for air conditioning season) and he said that after he was finished with me, at 11am, he had no work lined up for the rest of the day.”
I can tell you for a fact that the answer is that there is a massive shortage, and even with the infusion of new people in the pipeline, the people I talk to tell me they see that not going away for a decade. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, car mechanics. You name it, and there is a shortage. But they have a ton of women studies people looking to do admin for those companies. Of course, the smart ones send those idiots packing, cause the alternative is always a lawsuit from the DEI college types claiming there was discrimination of some kind.
Labor and material costs are up, economy is slowing. I dunno about too many but in places where’s there’s regulatory barriers, wages are high. Fewer barriers, wages are low. Unskilled/semi skilled is getting slaughtered by migrant/illegals. But hot tamales at the job site!
My son got into a fender bender. Needed the front grill replaced on the car and a new hood. No other damage. Wait time was 5 months for the body shop, it took 3 weeks once I gave them the car. The shop was so full there was no where to park the car to drop it off.
Talking with others in the neighborhood, they had similar experiences with other shops. There aren’t enough people doing body work. And this wasn’t even real body work since they were literally bolting/unbolting parts and taking it to paint. It’s not like it needed the skills of bumping out a bent panel.
Mike Rowe says that plumbers are pulling six figures and setting their own work schedule.
There it is. If only we could force people in other states to pay for our local transit, schools, etc.
Not even that — if only we could force people’s great-grandchildren in other states to cover our mythical money to pay for our local transit now! Yay modern monetary theories and deficit spending off a cliff!
Have some compassion. We want free shit now.
But you can totally force people in other states to pay for your local transit, schools, etc. due to a pandemic that ended years ago. That’s just good policy.
It is either forcing folks in other states or cities to pay, or facing a 40 cents per ride fare increase. If you grew up in a culture where looting was ordinary and expected, which would you choose?
Democrats top fundraising platform. They are a criminal cabal. When all is revealed what will happen? The story recently about the billionaires funding the left to manipulate energy prices….I am not sure the significance of that is appreciated.
I thought we were all doing to die from SO2 causing acid rain? That is not a thing anymore? Block out the sun? Get solar panels?
The point of homeschooling is to be free from govt control. If the govt is going to start funding homeschooling there will be strings….
Dont take the money. Dont do it.
Our enemies are training and funding criminal gangs which are then spirited into the country by those enemies with the assistance of our own NGOs and Dem operatives. No shit.
“We dont hate america” my ass.
I will say this again because I think it is at the heart of the problem. We know what is going on. We know what the problem is. We know what the solution is but no one wants to do that. Too many people are making money off of the problems to actually solve them.
If I’m being forced to pay for schooling, I want backpack funding or nothing.
But it will be clear backpacks.
Public schooling today is basically expensive baby sitting and marxist indoctrination optimized to fuck people up mentally and keep them as dumb a s a rock, wrapped in one. Kill it.
“EPA head demands answers from company putting sulfur dioxide into the air to address global warming”
That takes me back. Remember when the acid rain from sulfur dioxide emissions was going to strip all life from the planet? Good times, good times . . . .
Like I said yesterday, millenarianism goes way back. There is always some irrational fear of modernity lurking about the middle class.
All of the continent, north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border was to be a dead zone, ashen grey and devoid of life… I mean, if the Ozone Hole didn’t kill everything first, and we didn’t all die from Alar on our apples.
The hypothesis behind it is that increasing SO2 levels reduce the amount of sunlight (and therefore heat) reaching the ground. That the Clean Air Act and other anti-pollution legislation and the resultant industrial practices removing SO2 from emissions and the air have been a significant cause in rising temperatures (another is a higher than predicted increase in the amount of atmospheric H2O, which many people forget is ALSO a greenhouse gas, and one that is orders of magnitude greater in level than CO2).
Commenters on Judity Curry’s blog https://judithcurry.com discuss this in some detail with links.
“No one can compete with slave labor.”
That’s why the American South was an economic powerhouse, while the Northern States were economic backwaters.
If the North moved all the factories down South to be staffed solely by slaves and the South didn’t allow any of the money to transition back North your analogy might hold.
Yes, productivity boosts and innovation can compete against slave labor — but it is difficult in the current climate of globalization where the companies will take productivity innovations and then apply them to their slave labor factories. I was going to say the lack of regulatory overhead also plays into it — but I wonder what the cost ratios of paying off the local political structure is in the forced labor countries versus paying off the union bosses, political structure and eternal legal “studies” in ours…. those beaks get wet in either system.
Running so efficiently that all the physical labor is now done by a single Australian man!
“If the North moved all the factories down South to be staffed solely by slaves and the South didn’t allow any of the money to transition back North your analogy might hold.”
He shoots, he scores!
We didn’t need to compete with slave labor. I remind everyone that China, and all the other countries that benefited from a money hungry blind investor class chasing immediate profits over long term economic value, would still be struggling to stand up a manufacturing base without that investment in cash and IP. And that last part, the IP is what is critical.
Money isn’t magic pixie dust
More like decades.
The whole racket was that they would then get their blue state governments to bail them out, and then, when the states were in financial ruin, have the states go to D.C. to demand the US tax payer bail the states out. In the mean time connected team blue scum would loot as much as they could. How long have CA & NY been trying to make that model work, already? Since the mid 2000s, right?
And they would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling voters.
Time for some Scooby snacks!
I tend to agree with the EPA that messing with the sole planet we have based on theories and models that haven’t proven particularly accurate in the past, with a chemical that was regulated to cut down on acidification especially isn’t a great plan.
I also fully expect that the amount they’re going to be able to deliver will be dwarfed by the next volcanic eruption — so their credits are going to be about as effective as the Medieval Church’s indulgence program with similar costs (to the sinners) and benefits (to the priests).
“The outlet contended that “the intelligence product found that although there are some low-level contacts between the Maduro government and Tren de Aragua…the gang does not operate at the direction of Venezuela’s leader.”
That, of course, does not refute the administration’s position that TdA cooperates with the Maduro regime. Do they? I have no idea. But I know rhetorical trickery when I see it.
Yeah, that is horseshit. They absolutely are a tool of both the Maduro regime and the pinkos here.
“Ex-New Mexico Judge and Wife Arrested for Allegedly Harboring Illegal Alien Tren de Aragua Member”
This pleases me. I was thinking the other day that the gangbanger may have dropped a dime on himself to get away from the wife’s insatiable sexual demands.
Was the guy being cucked? And I now hear he was banging the daughter too.
So…national security, domestic policy, international relations etc all greatly affected by some gangbanger’s primal urges.
We really are just a bunch of monkeys.
Everything we do is to get laid, man…
Society exists because chicks hated dirty caves, so Og went out and did all that stuff to get to tap that ass..
And here I thought Og invented agriculture so Ooga-ooga would finally be able to make him a sandwich.
I’m surprised the judge did not know about this law or disregarded it.
8 U.S. Code § 1324 – Bringing in and harboring certain aliens
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1324
“Gen Z workers increasingly opt out of college and into the trades: ‘There are about 2 million fewer students,’ says expert”
A Daily Ray in the links. Good work, as always, Banjos.
Unless you are getting an engineering, medical doctor, economics (and not of the marxist kind), or business degree, I am telling you no college degree is worth it. The most important change that needs to happen with colleges is that they can’t uniformly demand all students pay the same annual tuition regardless of degree track. If you are doing a liberal arts degree, and especially one in the “studies” category, even Ivy Leagues schools should not be allowed to charge more than $10K a year for that. These degrees simply do not provide the ROI to justify a higher cost, and the “studies” ones actually have a sever negative ROI, except for the DEI machine that propped that shit up for a while. Without that change, colleges should be doomed to fail.
Trade jobs are not gonna be taken over by companies offshoring either.
Huh? No. Let the colleges charge whatever they think people will pay. Either people will pay and go (and then complain that they made a bad decision), or they won’t and the programs will dry up.
More importantly, get the government out of guaranteeing and administrating the loans.
“More importantly, get the government out of guaranteeing and administrating the loans.”
I hear and concur that getting government out would be needed. But that is also the thing I do not see happening. Team blue wants colleges to be indoctrination factories, and thus, government wants to be involved in that to push the woke & DEI shit. Team red wants the inverse (or to do their own indoctrination, and not the woke shit, depending on perspective), and that means they want to control those institutions. So, it looks like you can’t get government out. The government guarantee, and the government donations, are vehicles to control that access.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see the loan racket completely dismantled, but it will be a difficult thing to get.
Yeah, historically college was more for the elites to loaf around and learn some liberal arts. It wasn’t really career-oriented.
But there’s room for both.
“I hear and concur that getting government out would be needed. But that is also the thing I do not see happening. ”
Yes, with a ratio of 13 million students in public colleges to 5 million in private colleges, the government has a huge stake in continuing to enroll kids in their Team Blue/Team Red indoctrination factories.
Bullshit with this “from each according to his ability nonsense”. The arts degrees should cost MORE than engineering or business degrees since the value provided to society both in future tax dollars and productive output is lower.
This explains why that generation is leaning more Republican. The article had a number of people who were freelancing or started a business. That will turn people against Democrats real fast.
Hmm… that seems like a sop to Friend Elon, and frankly not really an area I want a lot of “innovation” in given the increased government tracking and infantilization of the population (as well as the huge additional cost per vehicle for all the radars, cameras and electronics).
Too many “If it saves one life we should all live in Matrix pods!” in the government… I don’t trust these assholes.
As long as you have humans – people driving, biking, or walking – in the same space as self-driving cars, the self-driving cars will be unsafe. Not because the cars will do bad, but because humans are fucking idiots.
You can strike “self-driving” from that first sentence, Alex. Not a day goes by in Tucson without at least one vehicle on pedestrian and/or bike accident. Not to mention the routine vehicle on vehicle accidents.
*upvotes*
I do a fuckton of driving in city streets across SF every day for my biz, and I would say that traffic here is almost up to 5% self driving vehicles. I like driving with them. They are highly predictable, unlike the human operated ones.
“I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t drive you there.”
Industry vs slavery north vs south…..
The factor that made the difference was that the north had fast rivers to drive mills. The rivers in the south were slow and could not be harnesse in the same way. They did, however, deposit a lot of silt and are in a warmer climate – perfect for agriculture but without the fast rivers they had to have slavery to power them.
Very different environments favoring different economies.
*looks at steam engine, scratches head*
That’s why they started diggin’ that thar coal from my grandpappy’s land up in the mountains . . .
Which were installed where the mills already existed with the rest of the heavy equipment.
There was no incentive to sink large amounts of capital investment to industrialize the agrarian south.
By the time the steam engine came along the economies were fairly entrenched. Then there is pig-headedness. Slavery was a dead man walking because of steam and the industrial revolution already underway yet the south was willing to burn the country to the ground to preserve the relic of chattel slavery.
Well, the South wanted to leave the Union peacefully (per the Declaration of Independence prescription) but were not allowed to.
So they fought back – a losing effort, to be sure – and it was their “country” that ended up burning down. One can spin all sorts of outcomes had the Confederacy had been left to their independence.
Oh yes the declaration that was followed by the Articles of Confederation that was quite explicit about bring perpetual.
If it persisted, the slavers would have just moved the slaves indoors from the fields.
Didn’t stop them from trying – see sharecropping and the wonderful treatment of blacks in the South following the war.
The South ultimately won the war, since the mint juleps, wrap around porches, fried chicken, and debtante balls are still legal to this day. So much blood shed over those peculiar institutions.
Yep. Even back to the earliest days, the English recognized the inherent geographical difference between Southern colonies and Northern ones. And a great big one was the proximity of the Fall Line to the coast. When it’s pretty close you could develop early pre-steam industry much closer to port cities and populations. There were lots of investment options in Northern colonies that were the foundation for later industrialization. There were virtually none in Southern ones, hence either poor subsistence farms or large-scale plantations for agricultural commodities.
I was jammed up yesterday so couldn’t participate in the comment on the chocolate article, but wanted to respond to a few specific items:
I had some Scharffen Berger 62% with nibs. I wasn’t impressed. (Sean)
Scharffen Berger is an interesting story. They were one of the first American craft chocolate makers, and for a long time, they were the only “good” chocolate we could reliably find locally. However, in 2005 they were bought by Hershey’s, the founders sold out due to (IIRC) a pressing financial need to pay medical expenses. Hershey’s swore they wouldn’t screw with the product… and then moved production and changed the recipe. So depending on when you sampled it, Sean, you may have gotten the Hershey-ized product. I was not aware that the brand has been sold again in 2024, and is now owned by Harry and David.
Any preferred online sellers? (Not Adahn)
The two that I go to are the two I linked, Caputo’s Market and Bar and Cocao. I asked my wife about Chocosphere, she thought they were European based, but I see their website says they’re in Oregon. I do see a lot of the same brands that she typically purchases. She actually prefers to buy directly from the maker’s websites, to maximize their revenue. I have no such compunctions.
One could argue that it’s [white chocolate] not actually chocolate. (Kinnath)
I’d agree, personally I have no use for white chocolate. But because of the way “cacao” is defined, white chocolate is still technically chocolate, and as we all know, technically correct is the best kind of correct.
Last, Fourscore, re: honey, we tried to keep bees for a while. The first year we had a hive, they went gangbusters, we had gallons of honey. The early stuff was very light, we figured the girls were working on the plethora of black locust we have around here. After that first year, we never had another good year, and kept losing hives over the winter (we’re in Ohio). We eventually gave up. If we wanted to start back up, we’d have to replace all our frames.
And now I go back to being jammed up.
Oh, and thanks for the kind words and discussion on the article.
What about the unkind words and arguing?
It was a case of 24 bars in Jan 2011 from Amazon.
Under $20 bucks.
That doesn’t sound keto.
Keto was 2015 ish. Well after those bars.
There was some Atkins-ish stuff 2009/2010.
I remain vague where Atkins, low-carb and keto differ (if at all)
I went (back) to low carb in January after having done Atkins around 2000. It’s amazing how many “keto friendly” options there are now.
I’m (usually) in ketosis, so I guess I’m doing keto.
Morning Grummun,
“The first year we had a hive, they went gangbusters, we had gallons of honey. ”
We have to buy new bees every year, just too difficult to get them to survive a MN winter. We have some years better that others, a drought 2 years ago cut production by a half. We’re still learning…
Out of curiosity, how many hives do you keep 4×20?
I hear that complain from people everywhere. About the bees surviving winter… Have a buddy in NH that has 4 of them bees thingies, and he loses 2-3 every winter. This last one he lost them all and had to replace them.
Suthen,
I have a partner and we have 4 hives. I keep 2 on my property, my partner has his two on a friend’s property about 5 miles from mine. We’re not in farm country so no farm crops. My partner’s bees have access to vacant fields plus all the local flowers from the lake cabins. Here I’m limited to whatever wild flowers the bees can find.
You can buy mixed bags of wildflower seeds. If it’s far enough from the house, you can clear a patch of trees and leave the stumps.
Rip Harry & David’s. They’ve gone downhill since 1-800-Flowers bought them. Their pears are still good. Better sold in bulk at their store instead of the packaged boxes.
I was going to make a comment about how if a player doesn’t go in the first round, he really shouldn’t have his jersey retired…but then again Unitas went in round 9 and Louisville retired his number.
Tom Brady was a 6th round pick. Joe Montana was picked in the third round. Kurt Warner went undrafted.
But did Michigan retire Brady’s jersey? I mean, he was decent there, but nothing special.
He did win a national championship (or at least part of one) as a backup.
From what I understand about Brady, he was mediocre starting out. He had a good quarterback coach and worked really really hard to get better.
Yes, it’s his crazy drive that set him apart more than any vast natural talent (although he has plenty).
Michigan coach couldn’t decide between him & Drew Henson and alternated them a bunch.
The Brady Six is a delight.
You probably shouldn’t retire your son’s jersey number when he wasn’t even the best player on your team, and your team wasn’t really very good anyway. There’s a strong streak of hubris in that family.
No idea of the veracity, but I heard that Shadeur had a special draft room built. I’m just hoping to not see the Browns linked to him, we’ve had more than enough locker room cancer.
“This bill takes direct aim at Senator Scott Wiener’s controversial 2021 “Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act” law (SB132) that has been flooding female prisons with male inmates. Sen. Wiener sits on the committee that will decide whether to kill the bill or let it move forward. Wiener has stood solidly with the transgender community even, or especially when that stance is harmful to females. Wiener recently lashed out at Governor Gavin Newsom for stating that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports is “deeply unfair,” saying that the governor’s stance is “profoundly disturbing” and standing with “a vile bigot” a reference to Charlie Kirk who raised the issue on Newsom’s failing podcast.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/california-bill-seeks-to-bar-trans-identified-male-sex-offenders-from-womens-prisons
The worst politician in California is a high bar.
It’s hard to believe anyone is actually worse than Newsome but yeah, Wiener easily beats him.
Also… shockin, I know, but hating women is rampant in the gay male “community”.
Worse than Newsome, Harris, and Pelosi. It’s almost impressive.
First big shooting match of the year is tomorrow, and I can’t get rid of this goddamned cold…
We got a new member at our gym that is sure to be Glib-approved. She’s around 50, a power lifter, and a competitive shooter. Soon she’s going on a trip to Africa to hunt cape buffalo, which will then be donated to feed people in a local village. She’s also single.
Well, if the buffalo doesn’t win.
The news around here is that a guy who went to the same high school as my wife was drafted in the first round. Local boy does good.
How long before we hear some news story about them losing their life or contract? Look at Shannon Sharpe..
“Trump 2028 merchandise, including t-shirts, hats, and can coolers, are now available for sale in Trump’s official online store. The t-shirt says “TRUMP 2028 (Rewrite the Rules),” and the ad copy adds cheerfully: “The future looks bright! Rewrite the rules with the new Trump 2028 t-shirt.” ”
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2025/04/25/trump-2028-hats-appear-in-his-online-store-and-the-left-goes-mad-n4939221
LOLOL
How many children does he have that could be running for that job?
I bet team blue will actually lose it over this shit, and fail to actually focus on real things… he is playing them like a banjo.
If it’s just trolling, great.
If serious, he needs to GTFO with that nonsense.
There’s another election between now and 2028. I’m predicting it will be the other side of the 2010 election coin: Tea Party riled up at Commie Obama and Dems still basking in glory and not turning out to vote. 2026: Trumpsters basking, Woke Dems rushing to the polls to take back the House from Hitler. The last internal GOP poll I heard about was a predicted loss of 23 seats, and that was before the peak of the stock market turmoil over Trump’s tariff tantrums. There is still time for Trump to turn it around, but 2026 will be about – as it always is – how is the economy effecting your wallet, and not about some dude with a dick playing on a girl’s volleyball team six states over.
Your GOPe friends must be orgasmic at being able to deliver an outstanding principled concession speech that the crowd will cheer for.
The Dems could always engineer another plague.
I’m not sure how much basking the Trumpsters are going to be doing with his agenda under siege in the courts and not getting a lot of support in Congress. Although I do think there’s a very real risk that the Congressional Repubs will succeed in giving Republican voters no reason to turn out for them.
You are right about the economy being a big driver, but I wouldn’t underestimate the importance or cultural issues. They drive the Dem base, why wouldn’t they also motivate Repubs?
The troll is strong in this one.
I watched this yesterday. Long but extremely interesting and well done history of the Ford four cam Indy engine. Back in the days when Ford was a powerhouse and cubic dollars could be thrown at engineering projects.
Bitches got caught
“A fruitarian diet is a vegan diet primarily focused on consuming raw fruits, with some variations including nuts, seeds, and some vegetables.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14642651/celebrities-ditched-keto-vegan-fruitarian-diets-Gwyneth-Paltrow.html
What could possibly go wrong?
Does she spit or swallow?
If they want to get serious, they need to go full breatharian (which is a thing. A crazy, crazy thing.)
You would die of thirst in days.
You see, Tater, that’s just your body clinging to habit. Eventually, you just survive on prana and don’t need water.
Self-deportation in action…
It’s all about the motivation… Set the right motivations in play, and presto..
Mid level bureaucrat rolls his eyes at the top? Say it ain’t so, Shoeless Joe.
Do you see the turmoil Trump is causing?
UCS – I decided to give FramePack another shot. It’s incredibly creepy.
This is the random image I selected.
Hastune Miku Race Girl for our F1 Fans…
This was the output.
Rubber Woman
Pushing the narrative
“Everyone has been jockeying for position,” said a second person familiar with the office dynamics, who was granted anonymity like others to discuss a sensitive issue.
The staff infighting and firings have led to a slowdown in paperwork moving through the system, the person said, including critical decisions on the Golden Dome, President Donald Trump’s signature effort to build a national missile defense system. The turmoil could also affect the rollout of the Pentagon budget next month, which is expected to rise to a record $1 trillion and include a major restructuring of the military’s procurement programs.
The staff instead is focused on building an aura around Hegseth by pushing out videos of his memo signings and early morning workouts, causing fears from current and former defense officials that some of the less photo-worthy events could face delays.
“The longer these positions sit vacant, the longer the department will be rudderless and without leaders who can provide cohesive direction,” said Chris Meagher, who served as the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for public affairs in the Biden administration.
Who better to judge Hegseth’s performance than former Biden administration officials?
Is Hegseth incompetent? I couldn’t tell you, but he is undoubtedly fighting a lot of “institutional inertia”.
Blood in the water. The establishment is sensing there’s weakness in Team Hegseth and knocking him out would get a feather in their cap.
Senior staff usually guide and prepare the secretary for meetings. They also supervise the dozens of special assistants and other advisers, and handle issues that rise to the attention of the office but might not warrant Hegseth’s involvement.
“They will do lots of pre-meetings and scope all the meetings in such a way that the main events don’t waste the secretary’s time,” said a former defense official who has served in similar roles. “They develop clear agendas and have some purpose to them. They write the secretary’s talking points and essentially enable he or she to run the meeting.”
Sounds like a nightmare.
Standard bureaucracy at “work”.
“T]he uniformed military — from junior enlisted to four star generals — see right through these clowns, from their backstabbing and their inexperience to their cavalier treatment of highly classified information and their bungling policy rollouts,” said Alex Wagner, the former assistant Air Force secretary for manpower and reserve affairs during the Biden administration.
Case closed.
When we think if the Biden admin, the first word that comes to mind is “professional”.
And then grabbed his own nose. *honk honk*
When I want to get expert opinions on clowns, I go to Biden appointees.
You are supposed to leak classified information to favored journalists.
Shocking
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. But unlike in his first term, Trump’s efforts have not sparked the kind of widespread condemnation or protests that led him to retreat from some unpopular positions.
Instead, immigration has emerged as one of Trump’s strongest issues in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment that is driven in part, interviews suggest, by anger at the policies of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
——-
“America’s changed,” said pollster Frank Luntz, a longtime ally of Republicans who has been holding focus groups with voters to discuss immigration. “This is the one area where Donald Trump still has significant and widespread public support.”
Luntz said voters dismayed by the historically large influx of migrants under Biden are now “prepared to accept a more extreme approach.”
“Make no mistake,” he added. “The public may not embrace it, but they definitely support it. And this is actually his strongest area as he approaches his 100th day (in office).”
Who could have seen this coming?
Strangely enough, Democrats not only didn’t see it coming, but still can’t grok it even with their noses rubbed in it.
The story of the last election was that the top issues for 75% of people were the border and the economy, and for the Democratic party they were climate change, trans rights, and abortion. But they still think they lost because of messaging.
Don’t forget racism.
In the 2020 election, few voters considered immigration the most important issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of registered voters in all 50 states.
Four years later, after Republicans and conservative media had hammered Biden for his policies and often cast migrant U.S.-Mexico border crossings as an invasion, immigration had risen above health care, abortion and crime. It was second only to the economy.
It were the vast right wing media smear campaign against Comrade Joe what sunk him.
Just the media, not seeing the large influx of Spanish language storefronts and taco carts everywhere.
Bigots unwilling to fund their cultural enrichment.
I’d pay a few thousand more for AWD but it’s not available. For a road legal second vehicle with minimal crap to break I’d be interested.
2027 Slate Truck EV Will Be Very Customizable, Priced Under $28,000
I expect it will be both later than promised as well as more expensive. As a result it will fail and everyone will crap on it because it’s an EV and not because it was too expensive.
I’ve been told paying more for EVs is a bargain because of all the features.
The ones that on Tesla automobiles people are paying to do alpha testing and on the other OEMs beta testing? Those features?
The best part was the people clamoring to do so on Tesla autos circa 2017-2020.
With a 150 mile range why would you need cruise control? For those long trips to re-charge?
Fourscore my speculation is because of the FedGov mandatory driving monitoring and safety stuff it was low or no cost to add.
Minnesoda Blue
When I think things can’t get crazier I’m always wrong.
Missed this
https://www.willmarradio.com/news/gov-walz-chosen-grand-marshal-of-twin-cities-pride-festival/article_90977713-da98-4560-a768-cba015b3a36c.html
The Slate Truck is a bare-bones pickup optimized for manufacturing and cost efficiency. To achieve that aim, Slate ditched most convenience features from the Truck. Apart from its digital gauge cluster that also serves as the rearview camera display, power locks, cruise control, and a forward-collision-warning system with automated emergency braking, the Truck offers little in the way of luxuries.
Utilitarian and efficient. Just like an ’80s Toyota pickup, right?
Get back to me when they’re spotted in the wild with an antiaircraft gun welded to the bed.
I have the Tacoma and the flip flops, I just need the bed mounted gun for the next family vacation in Somalia.
https://toyotasofwar.com/
If it can be done to this …
Can they make a sedan?
Tesla for the win…
Ask stupid questions….
Pronatalism: threat or menace?
While discussions about the economic challenges of falling birth rates exist across the political spectrum, the right has increasingly taken up the cause under the banner of “pronatalism” to promote higher birth rates. The Trump White House is reportedly soliciting suggestions to boost births from married couples, even as it continues drastic reductions to social services and public health funding.
In recent years, a revitalized pronatalist movement has brought together parts of the religious right, tech types and dedicated “new right” anti-feminists. These camps have some disagreements over government policy, technologies like in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering and the rehabilitation of eugenics. But most are united in the belief that modern culture has failed to adequately prioritize the value of nuclear families and making lots of babies.
How can you say you’re in favor of more children if you don’t want the government to subsidize them? NPR wants us to be concerned, so they profile crazy self-promoting “movement leaders”.
“even as it continues drastic reductions to social services and public health funding”
Citation needed.
Interesting piece of news from Apple. Looks like all iPhones will be made in India by end of next year.
https://fortune.com/asia/2025/04/25/apple-aims-build-most-iphones-us-india-end-2026/
Makes sense. When you call support you can talk to the person who made it.
[rimshot]
“I was hoping you could help me figure out how to make my iPhone do the needful.”
“We have been waiting for exactly this call. Thank you sir, we certainly can.”