QOTD - Islam

 Found at Ace of spades, regarding Trumps optimistic view of the Iranian position on Hormuz. I've seen the Iranian statement "agreeing" to open the straits, filled with weasel words that render it virtually worthless. As well I've seen Trumps statement happily accepting Irans "acceptance" of his terms. Both sides are blinking here, and I personally don't expect much to really come of it. The Iranian regime is not changed, and Trump is giving them 2 weeks to rebuild. Note that the Israelis are not party to the agreement, and any actions on their part will be construed by Iran as a U.S. violation of the deal. 

The Iranian view:

Iran’s embassy in India has since claimed the US is “fundamentally committed” to lifting all sanctions against the Islamic Republic, accepting enrichment and agreeing to Tehran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz. “You started the war, but Iran will set the conditions for its end,” the embassy warned. ..

The Ace view: 

Mr. President with all due respect that's not going to happen until Islam itself disappears either via a mass cultural shift among its over one billion adherents or some black swan event that brings about its utter defeat and dismantling and defanging.

The Politboro

 Amidst much speculation as to who, if anyone, was running the country during the last administration, here's a piece from a whistleblower naming the 5 people who had their hands on the autopen, setting policy, and seemingly not informing the meat puppet behind the big desk.

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The pardon attorney identified three individuals as key “gatekeepers”: Ron Klain, who served as President Biden’s White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023 and returned last year to assist with debate preparations; former senior Biden adviser Anita Dunn; and Robert Bauer, former personal attorney to President Barack Obama.

Martin later added two more names to the list—Steve Ricchetti, former counselor to President Biden and chairman of his 2020 campaign, and “obviously Jill [Biden],” the First Lady.

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We're finding out. Slowly.

Happy Birthday to Billll

 No, it's not my birthday, it's the blogs. It's 17 years old today, celebrating along side of Earth Day and Lenin's Birthday. Such exalted company. Those of you who still follow me may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately. In fact, this is my first post this year!

My commentary has moved to Face Book, so it's still there, although much reduced. Tales of repairing old motorcycles and the like. Also occasional observations on the deplorable state of humanity. If I come up with a controversial enough thought, (Controversial? Moi?), I'll put it here to avoid the dreaded FaceBook Gulag.

'Tis the Season...

 It seems it's become a de regieur for the Dems, when they finally over reach and get the boot from the people, to, on their way out, short-sheet the beds, figuratively speaking. Free the criminals, expand the government, authorize huge expenditures, pardon villains', on and on.

Just to be ornery.

Kei cars

 I may have written about this back a while, but Road and Track just published another article claiming that Kei cars are legal in Colorado. This is not so. The director of DMV is empowered to write "rules" that carry the force of statute law and remain in effect until he leaves. Way back when, one of them decided that Kei vehicles would NOT be recognized as motor vehicles in Colorado, which relieved the DMV of having to process paperwork on them. The biggest argument was that the 25+ year old kei cars didn't meet current safety standards.

Boo Hoo! I guess I'll have to keep riding my motorcycles.

Anyway, here's the article:

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a63228977/colorado-scraps-kei-car-ban/

The ban is still in place. The catch in this is that for a brief while, you could bring in a kei truck or car if it was over 25 years old, and get a title for it. If you did, and kept it up, you could drive it on the streets. I still want a kei truck.

Non Political Fun

 You get bored, you start cleaning out the garage, and you find a couple of parts, and next thing you know, you got a(nother) hare-brained project started:

It's intended to replace the sign twirlers you see on the sidewalks announcing sales or tax services. Powered by a windshield wiper motor it featured eyes made from motorcycle turn signals, and a skull made from a dog dish. eventually it should include arms to raise and lower a sign. I envision this as a terminator-like assembly, outside a Victorias Secret with a sign warning women not to let their men be seduced away by a robot.

Sorry for the cluttered background. Next update I'll have a cleaner one.

Hitler?

 It's not just the Dems calling the Reps Hitler. It seems to have started as early as 1936. FDR unilaterally moved Thanksgiving from the (usually) fourth Thursday in November, to the fifth, which occasionally happens. He did this at the behest of some department stores, bothered by holiday shopping being spaced too closely. It didn't go over very well:

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Political criticism followed as well. Former Kansas governor Alf Landon, FDR’s opponent in the 1936 presidential election, accused him of having forced the change on “an unprepared country with the omnipotence of a Hitler.” Other Republican governors refused to honor the changed date. Fewer than half of the states celebrated it that year.

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The tradition has persisted

Victory! Final?

 Colorado passed a law that dictates that our electoral vote total shall be given to the candidate who wins the national majority of votes regardless of how the citizens of Colorado voted. Below is the WSJ final (?) tally regardless that Arizona and Nevada are still counting. This will make little difference as the number of outstanding ballots will not affect anything.

Note that Trump has collected about 4M more votes than Harris, thus entitling him to Colorados 11 electoral votes, and making the final score 215 - 323. Definitely landslide country. Haven't heard the press on either side mention this yet. We probably should be reminding them.

We won! So What?

It seems the Republicans have won the presidency and control of the Senate and look to have narrowly* retained control of the house. This means Trump will be able to replace any retiring or expiring justices on the Supreme court with younger people over the wails of sorrow and despair from the left. It's something.

It looks right now that the Republicans have added 3 seats to their majority in the house, so no more impeachments. A republican win like this, in the past, meant, well, nothing. The traditional Republicans would pass continuing resolutions on the budget, and wobble on everything else, proving their position that the government couldn't actually do anything.

The possibility of real change exists, perhaps.

Government employees are traditionally immune from downsizing for any reason at all. Thus the government grows at about 6%/year weather we need it or not. OTOH, if a department or agency is simply erased, the employees in it will find themselves unemployed for no reason at all, and will be forced to find other employment on their own merits. Initially, many will simply move to another agency. If the erasure policy continues, however, this will become more difficult.

My question is what is required to eliminate a department or agency from the government? Ronald Reagan remarked that a government agency was the closest thing to immortality you would find in this world. Congressional approval is required before anything can be downsized or discarded. Congressional approval is directly proportionate to the amount of money the agency drops in a congressional district. The way around this is to point out that the monies sent to a district, were originally taken from that district, and skimmed about 20% before being sent back. Eliminate the agency, keep your money, and eliminate the baksheesh. Makes sense, sounds good, get re-elected, sure! Hopefully Elon Musks persuasive skills will be up to this job.

*Very narrowly. Getting good info on this is difficult at best.

Using A.I.

 Here's a useful use of A.I. in which a montage of lefty talking heads have their speeches/reports revised to replace the word "democracy" with "bureaucracy". It works quite well.

https://notthebee.com/article/when-you-use-ai-to-replace-democracy-with-bureaucracy-suddenly-the-corporate-news-starts-to-make-sense/

Election Predictions

 Here's an accidental prediction from ABC for Penn. Let's see how close the the actual fix they get.

Results are in! margin not bad, just reversed from reality. Better luck next election.

Fun With Lawn Signs

 First off I read that Warren Buffet, of Berkshire Hathaway fame, who usually puts out a simple white yard sign with a blue dot on it to encourage people to vote Democratic, has decided to do without any signs this year. I like his approach, so I tried making one myself, a blank white sign with a simple red dot. Problem with this is that it looks like a Japanese flag. Changing the dot to an oval solves that problem, as would changing the dot to a square box. Problem solved.

Meantime, up the block, someone got a very fancy yard sign, in pink, with lace and feminine script reading "Madame President". Beautiful sign, wonderful sentiment. Only problem is that Margret Thatcher isn't on the ballot. To clear up the confusion that might result, I generated a modification to the sign. See below:

The only improvement I could think of was to make the feet separate pieces, with springs between each foot and a clip to attach them to the sign, gibing the assembly a dynamic aspect. Making the feet easily removable would probably result in them getting easily removed though, so I'll just stop here. I get 2 reactions to this picture: Shock and horror, vs guffaws of laughter. The originators might have picked a better font, as I had to explain that it doesn't say Maclam.

Fun With Headlines - CRINKS

 CRINKS is a new one on me although I seem to vaguely remember hearing it somewhere. It stands for Chinese, Russians, Iranians, and North Koreans. The modern day Axis of Evil. Here's a picture of 3 of them, missing the junior partner.

I can just imagine what each is thinking:

Khamenei: As soon as I finish with the Jews, those two are next.

Xi: As soon as I'm done with the Uhigers, those two are next.

Putin: As soon as I finish the Ukrainians, those two are next.

Lil Kim (not shown): As soon as those 3 finish each other with the arms I'm supplying them, I win!

Michigan voting

 The July 2023 U.S. Census population in Michigan was 10,037,261, with 7,929,426 citizens over 18. But interestingly, according to Check My Vote, Michigan's most recent Qualified Voter Files (QVF) show 8,415,767 registered voters on Michigan's QVF, a stunning difference of 486,331 voters! 

Check My Vote is also suing MI SOS Benson over her recent decision to hide the coding on the QVF, which shows each voter's voting method.

The Ballot Truck Song

 Remembering all those trucks that showed up at the counting station with hundreds of unfolded absentee ballots, all machine marked for Biden, at 2:30 AM the day after election day?

"Day-O (The Ballot Truck Song)"

Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-o
Daylight come and de truck gone home

Work all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Stack dem ballots till de morning come
Daylight come and de truck gone home

Come, Mister tally man, tally all me ballots
Daylight come and de truck gone home
Come, Mister tally man, tally all me ballots
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot stack
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Shove 'em all in to de counter hatch
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan' go home

A beautiful bunch o' pre marked ballots
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Hide the deadly one for Trump
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot stack
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Shove 'em all in to de counter hatch
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Come, Mister tally man, tally all me ballots
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally all me ballots
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Billll