There is crazy, and then there is Liberal Crazy

Jon Caldera and the Independence Institute

A Colorado conservative treasure, he skews (P)regressives on a regular basis with facts and humor. You can find him here.

https://i2i.org/

A brave man, he continues to live in Boulder and admits to being University of Colorado alumni. An example.

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There should be a law

During my mortgage delinquency work I often find a renter at the address where I’m sent. Said renter has no idea their landlord is in default. I think there should be criminal, not just civil, consequences for property owners who use rental income for purposes other than paying mortgages and taxes. Profits, yes, do what you want.

 In 2009 Congress passed the Mortgage Re-form and Predatory Lending Act after the sub-prime collapse. Some modifications have been made since but conflicts exist with state laws. I doubt many renters have the means to hire lawyers and get into protracted legal battles.

This is why I believe there is a need for criminal penalties. Perhaps someone with legal expertise can explain what can be done.

Every Blade of Grass Gift

This past Christmas Dr Jim and SLW invited Sisty and I to dinner at their home. Jim gave me three train posters that I finally got around to framing and putting up. Much appreciated.

 My apartment has a chest high half wall separating the living room from the kitchen with a blank gray wall on the living room side. I think the posters look good in that location.

I confess to being a train “nut”, especially the old steam engines.

 For the OCD among you, the picture is somewhat distorted. The space between the posters is within ¼” of being equal. Close enough for me.

As always, YMMV

Going off the rails

 

But First, A Feel Good Story – Wyoming Tech

Trade schools are important, IMO, but too often have been scams. This one fell into that morass but has been saved and is once again thriving. 

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“Gun” Control, mindsets, and priorities

A relative recently started a conversation and then heatedly declined to debate. The facts I presented shut her down. This was not a victory. She didn’t change her mind at all.

This relative is an intelligent person, high energy, not afraid of work and accomplished. She is also a completely woke university administrator who has drunk deeply of the kool-aide.

 People like her don’t recognize, or accept, an inalienable right. What they want is for all guns to go away. If that can’t happen immediately, they want to make owning firearms as difficult and expensive as possible. Lawfare on steroids if that is an appropriate analogy.

While they expend energy fighting the ‘good fight’ and feeling righteous they can ignore real and present problems. Problems that can be mitigated with focused, likely painful, effort. Illicit drugs. This article explores teenage drug overdose deaths.

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Doesn’t confronting this problems means confronting the source, the importation, border security, and society mindsets?

Meanwhile, in Colorado.

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“We’re not going to incarcerate ourselves out of this,” said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat and one of the legislature’s fiercest gun safety voices. His son, Alex, was murdered in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting. ***

***Careless reporting. His son was killed in the Columbine shooting April 29, 1999

Why not, Senator? Double the costs of the state prison system, incarcerate more criminals for longer periods, and watch crime rates go down. Just might save money overall and likely to improve lives of law abiding people. A disproportionate impact on “people of color”, you say? Equal justice for all includes that portion of the population doing more crime.  What about law abiding “people of color” being able to live safely in their communities? They don’t count?

Great Society and LBJ’s horrible legacy

As a naïve twenty year old soldier, I remember standing in the cold rain at Pioneer Kaserne, Hanau, listening to his speech on a cheap transistor radio. I was moved, elevated and thought, “Yes, this is the world I’m fighting for”. Little did I know.

if black people are going to vote, they might as well vote for democrats as President Lyndon Johnson 1963-1969 was purported to have said about the civil rights act — “I’ll have them niggers voting democrats for 200 years.”

Two things continue to disturb my conscience. First, I’ve always rooted for the underdog having been one much of my life. Second, the world I’m leaving my children and grandchildren. Could I, should I have done more?

 Ah, WSF, go get another cup of coffee and then take your dog for a walk.

As always, YMMV

 

Advice: Never let the same snake bite you twice

 

Wyoming in one picture

Down the Unicorn Trail – Green Energy Edition

Hydrogen may someday replace petroleum fuels with an emphasis on may. Toyota, for one, is betting it will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji9IXHc-AH0&ab_channel=TechMachine

Producing hydrogen is complicated with carbon dioxide, the environazis whipping boy, often a byproduct. There are some promising alternatives.

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Noted in this article is the use of ruthenium, a rare earth mineral from the platinum family. Past blogs have covered rare earth deposits in Wyoming, hence my interest. 

Platinum Group Elements, or PGEs, are a group of six metallic elements with similar chemical and physical properties that are often found together: platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), iridium (Ir), osmium (Os), rhodium (Rh), and ruthenium (Ru)

My contrarian nature immediately wonders where the supply of sufficient quantities of water  will come from. Can sea water be used? Other sources of non potable water?

Will there be byproducts and will they be pollutants?

What burns my ass? Fucking politicians

Due to gerrymandering and slick maneuvering Kevin Priola is my State Senator. He has never faced the voters in the district created to protect his turncoat ass. Once an Adams County Rino he did have the decency to changes his party affiliation. He is part of the idiots determined to stop petroleum extraction in Colorado.

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Just to affirm they are caring, they plan to set aside monies to help displaced oil patch workers find other employment. How nice of them. This cynic says the only jobs created  will be for those party hacks administering the programs.

Things that make you go Hmmm – self driving vehicles

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Beg s the question of what is more dangerous? A drunk, or a self driving vehicle?

Colorado Primary – (P)regressive Fail

Trump is on the ballot and Jena Griswold (Secretary of State) has made an ass out of herself on the national stage. Does it matter? Californicated Colorado is so blue Trump’s chances of carrying the state in a general election is about the same as the Dallas Cowboys playing in the Super Bowl.

About the click bait title. Recently there was a scuffle between two residents. I was sitting three feet away looking directly at the participants. Now some residents are trying to keep the issue alive with more and more lurid stories. My eyewitness account is now being diminished as, “taking sides”.

The umbrage locker is  empty, for now.  As always, YMMV

"Gun" Control. Yeah, That Will Work

Firearm control hypocrisy- Ronald Reagan edition

  "The Mulford Act was passed really directly in response to the Black Panther Party bearing arms and self-defense legally." The bill limiting the right to openly carry loaded guns was supported by the National Rifle Association and signed into law by then Gov. Ronald Regan in 1967.May 27, 2023

That framework is the basis for many of the ‘gun laws’ enacted since.

Speaking of Regan, to many he was a hero. I’ve always thought he was a bought and paid for shill.

Kindness of Strangers – Banner specific

Several residents of our apartment complex are concerned he may be starving. There are two ‘treat’ stations on our floor. At least three other residents carry treats with them.

 

Rather than fight the situation, I supply the treats. The wrong treats give him extreme flatulence.

 The joy he and the treat givers enjoy brings smiles and laughs to everyone (except the miserable haters – f**k’em).

 Blasted dog will eat almost anything. So far the only thing he has rejected is garlic stuffed olives.

Give me a home

Urban screwing rural

Wyoming state senator telling it like it is – not that the ‘elites’ will care.

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Letter to the Editor – ‘Gun Control’

I will be amazed if it is published. At least one leftist puke will read it before hitting ‘delete’.

Gun Violence.

Once again we see some state legislators feverishly working on gun violence. What a waste of time. Per the FBI published reports, we have an annual firearms death rate of about 80,000 per year in a country of 316,000,000 people. About half are suicides.

We have a crime problem. Criminals use guns, duh. Will criminals obey even more draconian laws?

All the time and energy expended by legislators posturing to their voters, “Look, we are doing something!!!!”, takes away from tackling real problems, like drugs. As an example, how many babies are born each week with drugs in their systems just here in Greeley?

Legislators, let law enforcement deal with gun violence. Tackle real problems instead of posturing and fear mongering.

Red Mountain Pass – Highway 550 – Million Dollar Highway

Some readers may have traveled this road. North out of Durango to Ouray, it is a challenge. A section is at the edge of a canyon with no guardrails. Recently a man ran off the road in a snowstorm and survived

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 As always, YMMV

Clear and Present Danger - Politicians

 More Nanny State – Colorado Winter Highways

Colorado highways across the mountains are inadequate, and will always be inadequate. Winter increases the challenges.

State law already decrees the left lane on four lane highways is for passing, not travel. Rarely enforced, in my experience. Now two ‘legislators’ who live along I-70 and need to drive to Denver on business think they have a solution to an intractable problem.

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Commercial carriers pay taxes, too, a lot of taxes and are as entitled to use the highways as anyone. I’ve no problem with requiring everyone using the highways to be equipped to deal with the conditions.

Driving anywhere involves delays. Trucks taking miles to pass another truck with a 2 mph difference in speed governors is a frequent nuisance. Two elected officials being delayed in traffic doesn’t warrant more burdensome regulations, IMO.

More Nanny State b.s. Tax pets. OK, tax people who own pets.

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Climate Deniers are sane, or crazy, or something.

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If you bother to read this maybe you can determine what point, or points, are made. Or not.

Climate change derangement – the newest mental health crisis

Don’t be alarmed; just a college ‘professor’ twit.

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One point of view is universities should present a broad spectrum of viewpoints. Is it too much to hope many of the intelligent students will be able to discern babbling bullshit? Apply that discernment to their post education lives?

Old Age, Wisdom, and Auto Repairs

At my age my skin is so thin I cut and bruise easily. My right turn signal bulb needed replaced. That, on a Taurus, requires the whole assembly be removed. The trunk liner needs to be partially moved. The whole process is a fifteen minute job that only took me an hour. Foolish not to wear gloves and my blog title remains accurate.

As I often brag, I’m a piss poor mechanic but my hourly labor rate is unmatched.

Rhetorical question, for sure, but why did Ford elect to use an 11mm nut?

Wolves are introduced – lawsuits follow

No surprise. Long article focused on the government being sued. Along those lines, Emperor Polis needs to keep his trophy husband happy.

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Bashing Biden

Not that it will change a damned thing.

 As always, YMMV