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:

------

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.

--------------

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

Vote For The Crook! - Convicted Felon!

Back in 1991, Louisiana was a one-party state, the Republicans having gone moribund, and it was an election year. The leading Democratic wannabe for Governor was Edwin Edwards, who had just been released from the state prison after serving 5 years for official corruption. Challenging him for the nomination was KKK leader David Duke. Duke changed his party affiliation after losing to Edwards in the party primary, and petitioned himself onto the general ballot. Edwards and Duke finished 1-2 and moved on to the runoff.

Humorous unofficial bumper stickers were created in support of Edwards over Duke, despite Edwards' negative reputation. One bumper sticker read "Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard", while another read "Vote For The Crook: It's Important."

FWIW, the Wizard was never really a republican and the “crook” won.

Trumps Staff

 A piece in the WSJ today announces that Trump may be considering  an advisory role for Elon Musk. This would be the first time in my memory that a president has brought on someone with actual knowledge of a topic to advise him.

Rumor has it he's also courting Vivek Ramaswami, who at this point is not terribly enthusiastic about joining the Trump team.

While he's at it, he might consider Christie Noem in a position relating to down sizing the government. This should work well and prove to be a fairly smooth operation as many government employees would take the hint and either resign or take early retirement.

Fun With Headlines - Lost In Translation

 From IOTW:

WLT Report: Drew Barrymore invited Kamala Harris on her show and made an embarrassing mistake.

During the show, Barrymore, in a soft emotional tone, told Harris, “We need you to be ‘Mamala’ of the country.”

Harris responded, “Yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I know.”

Barrymore was attempting to join the words mom and Kamala together, but in doing so, she called Harris “Mámala,” which, in Spanish, means “suck it.”

AI vs Natural Stupidity

 The Colorado legislature, or at least one member of it, has decided that AI represents a threat, or something, to themselves, or maybe someone else, and has offered legislation that would somehow regulate AI development in Colorado, to protect us. Or at least protect the politicians.

Money quote:

“The technology is literally changing on a weekly basis, just like the early days of the World Wide Web. It’s mind numbing how fast it’s moving,” said Kyle Shannon, CEO and founder of Denver-based Storyvine, which is using generative AI to add transcription and summaries to its videos. “I also know from experience how stifling a bill like this would have been in the mid-’90s. And I know that overregulating AI right now is going to put Colorado businesses at a significant disadvantage.”

Warning that letting the famously stupid legislature regulate anything is generally a bad idea. I used ChatGPT to write a bill calling for a top-level audit to be performed on statewide elections, and sent it to my representative, and to the Secretary of State. The rep never answered, and the SOS claimed we already did this, citing the reg that allegedly called for it. I read the reg. It DOES NOT call for any such thing, but rather sets up a checksum count to verify that the original count was correct. 200 ballots mailed in from a "residence" at a gas station is just fine as long as they all get counted. 

Technology Report

 Getting humanoid robots through the "uncanny valley". Here's an article about a company building companion robots. They look very realistic, although they lack human level strength and mobility, they're getting closer, and it looks like newer developments in high power electric motors will go a long way toward getting those 'bots up and running, so to speak.

“They had hired an actress to pretend to be a mannequin — and she was really good at it,” McMullen recalls. “For some reason that stuck with me, I was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a mannequin that looks so real, that people would think that it was?’ Kind of like an inverse of that experience. I started coming up with this, like, crazy idea of a hyper-realistic, pose-able mannequin.”

To this end, McMullen founded his own company, Abyss Creations in 1996, which is perhaps best known for developing the RealDoll adult companion mannequin, the most deluxe versions of which can fetch over $10,000.

He’s sold thousands of them.

McMullen then founded Realbotix in 2014 to bring a similar realism to robots.

 

Modern Campaigning

An article shows that an aspiring candidate can buy an AI that can work his or her name into daily news releases in a favorable way. The candidate can then do a quick fact check, and pass the releases on to the press, or incorporate them into fliers to be distributed to the constituents. The AI in question is written in Israel, but if that's a problem, others are available. Word is that they turn out workmanlike prose at very little cost.

At the same time, clever programmers can take images of their candidate and make videos of said candidate making speeches endorsing, or condemning, whatever issue is hot in any given district. This makes it possible for U.S. Grant to campaign effectively from his tomb. It also makes it possible for Joe Biden to come out in favor of reinstating slavery. So watch out. Still, it could get Trump out of the courtroom and back on the campaign trail in short order, rendering the Dem interference moot. 

Testing, Hamas position

Hamas says the IDF has killed some unlikely number of civilians in Gaza. The IDF thinks otherwise. Here's a 'toon to help you tell the difference:

 

I'm too lazy to put much effort into drawing this, but I think you get the idea.

Dems Calling For Trump Assassination

 As the lawfare drags on, and begins to look as though it won't work, in spite of the distractions and expense it causes, the Dems are now pretty much actively calling for Trump to be assassinated, and publicly describing exactly how this should be carried out.

James Carville, longtime Dem poo-bah, is calling for "surrogates" to be hired to do the parties "wet work" in the case of Trump.

As a long time friend of Hillary, he could probably farm the job out to her, and just wait to hear of Trumps "suicide" a couple of weeks later. Probably from jumping from a 25th floor window in one of his N.Y. towers about to be stolen by the N.Y. D.A in a "fit of despondency".

Yeah, that sounds plausible. And anyone seen leaving the room from which he "jumped" will be described as cleaning people on their way back home to Russia to visit their families, and the WAPO and NYT will report it as such.

Edit #1: Mike Flynn predicts a "Black Swan" event.

Edit #2: Rep Katie Porter is predicting a heart attack.

The Iranian Gambit

 The FBI has announced that a disgruntled Iranian assassin is running about loose in the country with the avowed intent to whack Mike Pompeo in retaliation for the killing of General Soleimani in Iraq. Just before an election? The conspiracy theories write themselves, so here's my take:

The Iranian assassin gambit:

1. Iranian assassin whacks Pompeo or some similarly positioned figure. Biden expresses outrage and allows U.S. To bomb Iranian assets in Syria and possibly in Yeman. American public miffed.

2. Iranian assassin whacks Trump. Desantis or Ramaswami immediately moves up to the nomination promising strikes on Iran. Gets elected.

3. Iranian assassin whacks Harris. Hillary immediately volunteers to replace her. Biden expresses outrage and allows U.S. to bomb Iranian assets in Syria and possibly in Yemen. American public miffed but figures Biden won't last 2 weeks post inauguration. Election very close, Biden wins by 2% in spite of fires in swing state counting centers which are blamed on Trump supporters. Early Feb. Biden succumbs to heart failure.

4. Iranian assassin whacks Biden. Harris moves up and issues strongly worded letter of protest to Iran. Trump wins election 60/40 in spite of fires in swing state counting centers, which are blamed on Iranian saboteurs.

Modifications to the above:

A. Assassin is killed in the operation. Elizabeth Warren commission investigates and concludes he acted alone with no outside support.

B. Assassin is captured, and whisked off to an undisclosed location. FBI says he's being interrogated, but won't say what they've learned. NYT protests “inhuman treatment and torture of captured freedom fighter”. Email leaks suggest he received substantial assistance from the FBI. FBI announces that he has died of natural causes while in their custody in spite of their best efforts. They denounce the email leaks as “Russian disinformation”. Elizabeth Warren commission concurs.

Biden Walks

The DOJs investigation into Bidens mishandling of classified documents  has ended with no charges. 

DOJ: 

DNC: Also a trial would interfere with his presidential campaign. Can't have that.

Colorado Joins Cali, N.Y., Ill

 For 2022, Colorado joined the abovementioned 3 states in having more people move out than in. The overall population moved up a bid, but the moving stats tell the story.

The story about Denver being swamped with illegals is too new to show up on these graphs, but next years numbers should be eye-popping.

NICS Checks - Dec 23

 Having kept this log for 13 years, I'm out of enthusiasm for it. The big surprise, which surprised no one, would be the 2022-2023 spike when the Dems nearly took the trifecta in Washington but were unable to solidify uncontested 1 party rule.