May 21, 2024
One view of history.
"As the lockdowns of 2020 and following consumed the globe, we all reached for historical analogies about what was happening to us. The Great War is what came to my mind. It was planned wreckage, conceived out of an optimistic desire to see how science and power can combine to force the world into a new shape. It ended in disaster for everyone.
Have you noticed how no one today is really ready or willing to defend what happened in that war? There were hearings that followed, and the war profiteers developed a bad reputation. But there never was any justice. The wreckage was never really fixed. It was the end of one world and the beginning of the new, and we’ve struggled ever since to regain what we lost.
It will be the same with our times. We are all still in shock and awe at what has happened to our societies, laws, and liberties. There is already growing regret and sadness all around, even admissions that elites went way too far. There seems to be a quiet repudiation taking place."
Jeffery Tucker
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I knew he would revert to type. He is a Kennedy and a Democrat, after all.
RFK Jr. vows to give black farmers $5 BILLION in reparations if he wins the White House and says funds are 'not money, that is entitlement' despite white counterparts labeling it racist
Tim adds:
This is pure pandering. The black community has had over sixty years of reparations, in the form of "race norming" for government jobs, in the form of affirmative action programs, in terms of AFDC and Welfare and special college funds and admissions programs. When will it be enough?
I didn''t enslave them, nor did my parents, nor grandparents. As far as I know my family never owned slaves. Why do I have to pay?
Why do the children of people who immigrated after slavery was banned have to pay?
Why do black people who immigrated after slavery was ended have to pay? Why do the children of black slaveholders get money? Or those who never were slaves?
Reparations are nothing but a massive money grab, a shakedown. If RFK doesn't know that he has no business near the Oval Office.
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Some legal scholars are arguing - and will argue before Judge Aileen Cannon - that the appointment of Jack Smith was wildly unconstitutional.
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Senator Mike Lee discusses Biden's scheme to take nearly half of investments via capital gains.
FTA:
Read the rest.
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They either figure the lawsuit will fail and want to look like they are championing the "People's right to know" or they figure it will succeed and need to be prepared to defend against what comes out.
ABC, AP, CBS, and NBC Join Heritage and Judicial Watch in FOIA Request for DOJ to Release Biden’s Special Counsel Interview
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Joel Pollock looks at how Biden has blown up U.S. foreign policy and made the world a much more dangerous place.
He recounts 14things Biden reversed from the Trump era and how it has led us to the precipice of war.
These include:
1. Restoring funding to UNRWA and the Palestinians.
2. Dropping sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
3. Rejoining the corrupt UN Human Rights Council.
4. Trying to restore the Iran nuclear de
5. Taking the Houthis off the terrorism list.
Read them all! He analyzes each and explains why it was so bad.
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As the US economy falters and people continue to fall behind, the Austrian business cycle theory provides the best explanation for what is happening, even if the elites don’t want to hear it.
Riding the Economic Rollercoaster: The Austrian Business Cycle Theory | Mises Institute
mises.org
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AI may well use more energy than we can produce with any and all renewables.
American AI data centres may use as much energy as new US solar farms produce
ft.com
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Parents and grandparents
FYI….Consumer Reports released a report on phthalate contents in common food items.
-reduced testosterone and estrogen levels
-blocked thyroid hormone action
-decreased pregnancy rates
-increased miscarriage rates
-anemia
-toxemia
-pre-eclampsia
-early menopause
-abnormal sex steroid hormone levels
-reduced fertility + can affect fertility across multiple generations.
-developmental exposure to phthalates affects gene expression
-increased risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.
-elevated blood pressure
-obesity
-elevated levels of triglycerides.
This could explain the gender dysmorphia and contributing to the low birth rates in developed countries.
Tim adds:
All part of the plan to depopulate the Earth. The powers that be read and believed Paul Ehrlicht and the Club of Rome Study "limits to Growth" and have been trying to implement population control measures ever since. I think they knew all this stuff was bad but went ahead with it anyway to reduce fertility and cow the public.
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May 20, 2024
Energy Absurdity: The Massive Scale of Wind Turbine Foundations and construction are not "green.”
For today's corporate onshore wind industrial sites, this is actually a small tower, with some developments putting up dozens and dozens of towers as high 700'.
Now, think about the volume of rebar, cement and other materials that go into putting up just a single smallish tower, with the foundation buried underground to keep it out of sight of prying eyes. Does anyone in their right mind think wind developers have the slightest plans to dig all those things up and restore the land when their industrial sites finish their useful lives, unless required to do so by effective, proper regulations that do not currently exist in any state in America?
These things are supposed to have a 25-year useful life. A quarter century from now, the cost involved in taking down dozens of these towers/turbines and their enormous bird-killing blades, digging up and breaking up all those tons of reinforced cement, properly disposing of it, and remediating the land that's been destroyed will cost far more than it did to build the damn things in the first place.
If you think all the wind blade graveyards popping up all over the place today are a problem being created by this useless, needless industry, well, you ain't seen nothing yet.
The Making of a Wind Turbine | Exceptional Engineering | Free Documentary
youtube.com
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China has the largest and easily mined graphite mines in the world and have a virtual lock on the market. If they wanted to, they could put some hurt on EV batteries as well as cell phone batteries and mobile computing.
Canada has undeveloped mines and the U.S. already has a huge synthetic graphite plant in Georgia.
The small batteries for cell phones, I-Pads and laptop computers will get priority and a major cost will be thrown on EVs.
I knew China could be our friend.
Bring it on !!!
North America’s largest graphite factory is launching in Georgia
electrek.co
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I headed to the Ozark Hilton, that glorious mansion in the chigger and tick-infested woodlands of southern Missouri, over the last weekend. It was a beautiful day, a summer day really, and I needed to get down there to continue clean up the mess made by thieves and rats and who knows what.
I had trepidations about going. There are certain criteria that need to be met for so intrepid a venture. I must have a bowel movement before ago (my option down there are a couple of cinder blocks andt a toilet seat I leave down for said purpose). I must NOT, on the other hand, have too much bowel movement for the same reason. I have to feel well enough to go. I generally require a good amount of sleep first; no point in going down there and missing my afternoon nap. Being tired at the OH is like rebeing tired at Disneyland only there are fewer rides. Lots of mice though.
I hadn't slept much the night before but the other criteria were working so I loaded up the truck and began the long trek to that sylvan paradise.
Like clockwork I felt my bowels brewing into a tempest just as I passed the state park where the Timothy Birdnow Memorial Outhouse sits. I needed to do some sitting myself, so I pulled in. There was a great throng of people, children mostly, and it reminded me of the Book of Revelation "a great multitude of every race and nation and tongue". I eschewed my favorite philosopher's shack for the spiffy new one they built about two years ago. It's st ill just a hole in the ground but it's a newer, cleaner hole.
Some person - a woman or a young boy, I never did see the face, barged in on me despite the fact I had locked it; guess the lock didn't work properly. But other than that rude interruption I managed to do some great philosophizing and continued my trek undisturbed.
It really was a beautiful day, the kind that makes driving a pleasure. The state road was quiet and soon I hit the turn to my grand estate.
I had no problems until my "junk box", the toilet paper case box I fill with all my gear, lost it's bottom just as I was entering the cabin. The box contains all my stuff, including a portable dvd player, cords and adapters, movies and cd's, and tools I will need. My medications (that alone takes up a huge amount of space). Ziplock bags for food. Battteries and electric lights. I used to be able to leave a lot of it down there but the thieves stole them all so now I have to shlepp it all down in my box.
At any rate all my stuff spilled all over the floor. DRAT! I had to pick it all up and then carry the box with my hand under the bottom for th rest of the trip.
The cicadas were going bananas and in response the other cratures had to sing all the more loudly. It was a cacophanous symphony of chirping, warbling, and hooting and I thought about fashioning earplugs in the din. The wife could actually hear them over the phone! I envied Fonzie from Happy Days,who simply told them "cool it" the one time he went camping. I'd have done the same had I had that power. But then I'm way, way cooler...
I started getting very tired and wound up just setting up for the night and doing nothing else. The rats are already at work trying to rebuild their trash piles and I really needed to clean it all out again but I didn't have the energy for much else. I got set up for the evening and sat in a plastic chair out in "the yard" hoping to get some sun.
But I soon rejected that plan; I started picking ticks off myself, black ticks. They are easier to catch than the red seed ticks but still, if I sat there I would wind up with one implanting for certain. So I had to move up on the porch (which faces eastward and so gets no afternoon sun).
So I sat in the shade and dozed and tried to keep my stomach from forcing me out into the tick laden woods for a cinder blocking.
I also wasn't feeling very well. But it went away when I drank some water and I realized it was just dehydration. Last week I had the "fluid flu" as I call it; I was retaining fluid (thanks to congestive heart failure) and had pneumonia-like symptoms. But they had passed and I was clearly no longer retaining; my feet and legs were looking svelt and shapely again (I get Mickey Mouse feet when I'm over-hydrated) and I was breathing easier. Sucking for air is the worst part of the fluid flu. At any rate I needed water, which I allowed myself.
So by evening I felt pretty good and I did a few chores around the cabin. I fixed one of the two lanterns the thieves left (it would blow out and that was because the wick was shot; I found a spare wick I kept in a drawer and the thieves hadn't stolen and it worked like a charm. Sadly I dropped the other lantern they left and the globe broke. You can still use it provided it doesn't catch any breeze.
The cicadas stopped singing come sundown. In fact it got eerily quiet and I sat out on the porch wishing for a critter to visit. I miss the armadillo couple who used to live there. Haven't seen them in a couple of years now; I guess they died. I would have been happy with anything; an owl, a deer, a bobcat. But the animals seem to have been spooked by the cicadas, or by me, not sure which. When the cicadas quit the rest of the animals seem to have been spooked.
Anyway I had plugged my cellphone in the night before but I ran out of juice, leaving me incommunicado and without a clock so I really don't know what time I got to bed. I watched two movies - Truth or Consequence (starring Kiefer Southernland) and a crime comedy called Crooked Lines. I dozed during the second (which is a shame; it's pretty funny). Woke at first light. Everything went smoothly and I was loaded in short order and on my way. Stopped for breakfast at McDonalds in Piedmont and that was the last interesting thing.
I know I often go on about seemingly inconsequential things when I do the Ozark Hilton, but it's the small stuff that winds up having interst for me. There are no grand deeds at the Ozark Hilton; just an old city dude woefully out of his element trying to live like a pioneer. Pioneering is for the birds (not the birdnows) and there is a reason why people sought to build cities and towns. Everything is so hard and uncomfortable when you rough it. There are pleasures and there are rewards and it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. On the other hand there may come a time when it could be the only option.
So raise your coffee cup, or you beer, or whatever you like to drink, and join me in a toast to the clubhouse I never had as a kid! I would put up a sign saying "No Girls Allowed" only I would definitely welcome girls or anybody else there. It can be a lonely sojourn in the wilderness and it's not everyone's cup of tea. Oh, if you come you'll have to bring your own tea, by the way.
I doubt I'll get many takers.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
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May 18, 2024
Verry interesting. Geologists have discovered what could be the largest supply of domestic lithium, certainly the most accessible, largest except for maybe the untapped lithium found in an extinct supervolcano in California.
They have discovered that fracking waste water contains vast amounts of lithium. Which should be an economic boost to Pennsylvania where most U.S. fracking is done. BTW, currently the U.S. imports most of its lithium from Chile and from Australia. Not China.
Quote: "Mackey and his colleagues have now found that when wastewater is dredged up from the deep by fracking activities, it contains an astonishing amount of lithium."
"We just didn't know how much was in there," says Mackey.
Note: Elon Musk has said that mining for lithium is like printing money.
A Vast, Untapped Source of Lithium Has Just Been Found in The US
sciencealert.com
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Are you paying attention West Virginia? Pennsylvania?
U.S. Proposes Ending New Federal Leases in Biggest Coal Region
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Biden administration was running a color revolution against Netanyahus’government and due to the infiltration of the State Department and Agency by Palestinian terror supporters and Iranian assets like Robert Malley, Maher Bitar, and Ariane Tabatabai at the Pentagon. I know from a source in the IC.
Biden like Obama finances terror from Iran, Hamas and Hezbell.
Dems openly tolerate blatant anti semetism from the "SQUAD"
An outrage.
Charles Kasner
https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/1791485442212151724
The US Intelligence Community (USIC) and State Department knew about the October 7th Attack weeks in advance and deliberately withheld the Intelligence from Israel hoping that the attack would topple the Netanyahu government. Over the past few months, we’ve seen a proliferation of contradictory narratives leaked by the US IC and the State Department regarding what/when/how they knew about the October 7th planning of Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel and the largest single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.Many observers suspected that the US IC was fully aware of the upcoming attack weeks before October 7th, especially Maher Bitar, and opted not to share the details with Israel in part because the Biden administration was running a color revolution against Netanyahus’ government and due to the infiltration of the State Department and Agency by Palestinian terror supporters and Iranian assets like Robert Malley, Maher Bitar, and Ariane Tabatabai at the Pentagon. I know from a source in the IC that the State Department, the FBI, and the CIA have long viewed Palestinian terrorism as a threat to the United States and American citizens. HAMAS violence against Americans was the reason why Congress passed the 2018 Taylor Force Act to prevent the United States from funding the "Pay for Slay” program, by which hundreds of HAMAS terrorists and their families benefited financially from over half a billion dollars that the US funnels every year to the Palestinian Authority.
The IC source confirmed that the United States trained and assigned intelligence assets to monitor HAMAS worldwide, and had actionable intelligence about the pending attack. The source also confirmed that the monitoring and attack details came from several NSA listening posts in Egypt, Jordan, and the US Central Command base at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. This is the same base that happens to regularly host HAMAS chief Ismail Haniyeh and former Hamas chief Khaled Mashal.
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Dem Dan Goldman, according to the FEC, has been sending tons of cash to "Authentic Campaign”
• "Authentic Campaign” has a Richmond, VA address that just so happens to be Loren Merchan, Judge Merchan’s daughter
—— the same judge on Donald Trumps "Hush Money” trial.
• Loren Merchan is the President of "Authentic Campaigns”
—— Dan Goldman sent these payments to "Authentic Campaign” deliberately leaving out the , to hide the fact he’s literally funding the daughter of the Judge who’s overlooking Trumps trial.
It sounds like congressional Dems are inadvertently funding the trial against Donald Trump.
According to FEC records, the address that NY Democrat Congressman @RepDanGoldman sends his checks to when he pays "Authentic Campaign” is a Richmond, Virginia address that happens to be the personal home residence of Loren Merchan, Judge Merchan’s daughter.
Loren Merchan is the President of Authentic Campaigns AuthenticH Q and her father is overseeing Trump’s trial in NYC.
Additionally, the record in the FEC was documented by Democrat New York Congressman Dan Goldman deceptively as "Authentic Campaign” instead of "Authentic Campaigns”, deliberately leaving the S off the end as a way to cover up the fact that Congressman Dan Goldman, who admitted on MSNBC last week to prepping Alvin Bragg’s Star MichaelCohen before his testimony in the Trump trial, has been sending his payments to THE PERSONAL HOME ADDRESS OF JUDGE MERCHAN’S DAUGHTER.
The address on the Schedule B FEC form for Congressman Dan Goldman as it relates to independent expenditures to "Authentic Campaign” is the same address listed in the Richmond, Virginia Department of Real Estate Assessor database, which lists the address as the personal residence for Loren Merchan and her husband Taylor Murray Harper.
The home Loren Merchan lives in where the Democrat Congressman (who advised Michael Cohen before his testimony in Trump’s trial which her father is overseeing) is sending her payments is a 2 story home with a value of $639,000.
Records show NY Democrat Congressman Dan Goldman has sent Loren Merchan over
$162,091.92, with the last payment being made on March 26, 2024, right before the Trump trial began on April 15th, 2024.
This should be enough evidence to force Judge Merchan to recuse himself and to acquit Donald Trump all together.
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May 17, 2024
Inflation has not fallen in a single month since January 2021, according to Zerohedge.
This means that overall prices are up over 19.5% in less than 4 years.
That is an average of 5.5% per year effectively wiping out ONE FIFTH of the US Dollar's purchasing power.
We have not had a year-over-year inflation print below 3% in 37 consecutive months.
Since the pandemic, the purchasing power of the US Dollar has lost ONE FOURTH of its value.
It all escalated after $4 trillion in stimulus was handed out.
Inflation is the biggest involuntary tax of all time and yet Biden and Congress continues to push for billions in spending that needs to be cut to tame inflation.
Inflation is now building on previous years of inflation; we effectively have compounding inflation.
How is this a "strong" economy?
Tim adds:
And the inflation rate does not even take into account shrinkflation - the practice of reducing portion sizes to avoid sticker shock. That isn't factored into the calculations of inflation rates, I do not believe.
But it's inevitable; the Federal Reserve has exploded the money supply to pay off the huge debt incurred by this Administration and by Congress (the GOP is equally at fault for refusing to rein in spending). You can't do that without triggering runaway inflation. This will turn into hyper-inflation if spending isn't brought down and efforts aren't taken to boost American output in all ways. Biden and his ilk want to import evertyhing so Americans will be on the dole and under their thumbs.
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Vote for blieden and the inflation will go sky high, and new taxes will erode any money you may try to earn. This is JUST THE BEGINNING with the trade imbalance and NOT manufacturing our own products..
***U.S. import prices rose by the most in two years in April amid rising costs for energy products and other goods, suggesting that domestic inflation could remain elevated for a while.
Import prices surged 0.9% last month, the largest increase since March 2022, after an upwardly revised 0.6% rise in March, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected import prices, which exclude tariffs, to advance 0.3% following a previously reported 0.4% gain in March.
In the 12 months through April, import prices accelerated 1.1%, the largest gain since December 2022. Prices rose 0.4% in March, which was the first year-on-year increase since January 2023.
The firmer import price readings cast a shadow on the inflation outlook. Data on Wednesday showed inflation resuming its upward drift after surging in the first quarter, with consumer price growth moderating in April after posting solid gains for two straight months.
Subsiding price pressure together with easing labor market conditions have strengthened expectations that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates in September.
The U.S. central bank has kept its policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range since July. It has raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by 525 basis points since March 2022.
***Imported fuel prices increased 2.4% in April after vaulting 5.4% in March. The cost of imported food increased 1.7% after rising 1.6% in March. Excluding fuels and food, import prices jumped 0.6%. These so-called core import prices gained 0.1% in March. Core import prices rose 0.4% year-on-year in April.
Prices for imported capital goods edged up 0.1% last month. The cost of motor vehicles, parts and engines rose 0.3%. Imported consumer goods prices inched up 0.1%.
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