Billions

You owe it to self to read up this piece. It's the RRW going all bananas.

Klingenstein and the Claremont Institute push a harder-edged rightwing politics, and he appeared in a series of videos released in 2022 where he argued that American conservatives are in a "cold civil war" with "woke communists", and that "education, corporate media, entertainment, big business, big tech... together with the government function as a totalitarian regime".

What's amusing about such blather is that many of his billionaire brethren spend a shitload of their moolah engaging in sportswashing, which practice Saudi has taken to a new level and visibility. At least in the USofA (and, it appears, the UK as well at least), professional sport leagues engage in very explicit, very aggressive 'communism' in the form of draft lotteries, salary caps (for players, only, of course), luxury tax (oohhh!!) and the like all in the quest for 'balance' among the various teams; make sure the playing field is level (well, really; tilted to aid the incompetent) so even a shitty team can win soon. One of the stated excuses for this communist ideology is that 'large market' teams would dominate the sport if left unchecked, destroy the 'small market' teams due solely to having more moolah. That's Communism with a capital K. Given that billionaires (almost?) universally got their moolah just by destroying their small fish brethren.

Sauce, geese, ganders. Well, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

How many professional teams are owned by billionaires? A lot.

Of course, Steve Cohen is the counterargument to the jibe from the RRW: "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" Batshit J. Moron is, of course, the legacy method. Money and brains don't have a high correlation.

Thought For The Day - 4 August 2023

Ya wanna know some ting? One might wonder why is it that Mad Dictator Don's mouthpieces haven't been blaring that he can't be prosecuted? I suck up a lot of news, but have not seen any reporting of such blaring.

The reasoning, such as it is, goes like this: the Jan. 6 cases flow from conduct that happened while he was President, and for which he was impeached, and from which he skated. So, since the Constitution makes punishment of Presidents through impleachment, which has already done and dusted, why can he be prosecuted criminally for conduct he was acquitted of? I don't buy it, but it seems strange that Lauro would claim First Amendment coverage, when that claim is nonsense. Enquiring minds need to know.

Sweet Home Alabama

It is said that Batshit J. Moron's favorite President is Jackson.

If it were possible to have a bromance across the centuries, Presidents Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump would almost certainly qualify.

Well, here's the money quote:

"John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it."

All these years later, a Son of The Confederacy has gone and done it. Again. The government of Alabama has told the Supremes to go to hell. Whether the 6 RRW Supremes invalidated the Map in an attempt to burnish a truly soiled image, one can't know. Now someone is up agin it. Does Sleepy Joe send the National Guard to enforce a proper Map and protect all the polling places in the now 2 majority Black districts?

Only the Shadow knows.

Lawman

While I started out as a chem major, P. Chem did me in. But not before I'd had a dose of physics. The current issue in the Red West is the confluence of global warming, possibly El Nino, and the many decades old lie about water flows through the Colorado. Many chickens have come home to roost. We well watered and temperate New Englanders will not accept climate refugees from the Red West; especially not Texas.

All of which reminds me of the Laws of Thermodynamics. You can find many articles on the innterTubes, but one professor (of many, I suspect) put it thus:
- the first law says you can't get something for nothing
- the second law says you can't even break even

Some wag I read long ago blamed our current level of political dysfunction on the invention of air conditioning, particularly central and window units for houses. Air conditioning made it possible for hordes of sub-GED rednecks to procreate at break neck speed, thus leading to them asserting that their brand of society (ante-bellum) is superior; and all that.

One can also find on the innterTubes estimates of the added burden of global warming due to those two laws: that air conditioning unit next to your 70° house in 110° Phoenix spits out hot air. Who wooda thunk it?

By The Numbers - part the thirty fourth

So now Farmers Insurance has bailed, Gov. DeMented's fief has to rely on Socialist Insurance (at a nice profit for Gov. DeMented).

With nearly 1.14 million policies as of December 2022, Citizens is the largest home insurer in Florida — with 50% more policies since January 2022.

And, of course, premiums through the roof.

I guess the Social Darwinist streak in Gov. DeMented knows no bounds. And, of course, there's no global warming (this is just woke lies) or climate change.

I guess he'll be blaming God for punishing all those trans people in FL, as well as the horde of sub-GED rednecks who voted for him. A guy can't catch a break.

Here's a list of the 30 such state plans (not all states, hmmm?) as I type.

Most sources list Florida as having the most 'insurer of last resort' policies; some say California. One water, the other fire. How Biblical.

Thought For The Day - 20 July 2023

Dear Jason:

Just so yeah know - small towns make small brains. You want the decisonmakers of the land, public and private, from this bunch? I guess that would Make America White Again, but all progress would be stopped. I guess that's also the point?

I Told You So - 17 July 2023

Some essays ago, I opined that Rush didn't get fluids physics. Well, here's some proof that such is what led to the implosion:

Carbon fiber, though, is much more effective in resisting pulling forces than crushing forces, such as compression. It resists pulling for a while before breaking, but collapses or buckles if pushed on or compressed.