Guard Dog

Exclusive footage of the Biden transition team cleaning out the White House

Finished up my real work around 1 o’clock today so I played fallout four this afternoon. You know, out of all of the things my sole survivor has accomplished It all just pales in comparison to saving and bringing back to good neighbor the drinking buddy robot. If Nate is known for nothing else he should be remembered for that!

Link when it comes out!

LOL, I never said these things could be dispensed with entirely. I thought I’ve made that clear but maybe I’m not making my points clearly enough. My biggest contention with Hobbs particularly in leviathan is the proper role of the crown and commonwealth to establish and direct the order of society. I would much prefer a system where that kind of thing grows organically constrained by a few rules enforced by the state. Not unlike the society we have just with a lighter touch. anyway the discussion, while certainly interesting, is entirely academic. We have the society we have and if some of us would have it differently that would not make it so. And it’s not terrible.

I have. And came to entirely different conclusions than he did on just about everything. Particular ideas about social contract.

I don’t think the rule of law is there so much to compel right action as to punish wrong actions. It what is good or bad really comes down to your own definition of them. My own opinion only Bad = any action that deliberately harms another person or runs the risk of doing so past the point of reasonable acceptance. And by harm I mean not just their person but also property. This is what law and law enforcement is about at its corps. Protect the humans from the other humans by punishing the ones who hurt them. Drunk driving for example places every motorist and pedestrian you pass at unacceptable risk. So it must be punished. But where the law goes too far is when it tries to protect you from yourself. Smoking marijuana is illegal. But seriously who gives a damn if you are sitting in your living room or even on a public park for example bothering no one. Prostitution for example is illegal. Why? All it is is a private business transaction between two consenting adults. Occupational licensing. Do you really think your state and local government give a damn about your safety? This is all about fleecing people who were looking to start a business. Right now I am a minority owner and a real estate and landscape remediation business. Why do we have to get down on our knees and humbly beg the state of Tennessee, Shelby and Tipton County’s, and the state of Mississippi for their blessing to conduct private business. and that blessing cost money. Why? I can except that there is a compelling public interest in the proper storage of hazardous materials, in the case of restaurants in the cleanliness of their locations. I certainly would have no qualms with requiring inspections that the restaurants would pay to have done. Why do they need a license on top of that? It’s all about money. Governments at any level are no different than the greedy corporations they tell you to be afraid of. All they care about is goddamn money. Only they don’t earn it, they take it by compulsion. you are right. There are bad people out there and it is the governments job to protect and punish. But I am a firm believer that no victim equals no crime. And no society cannot be a victim. Just my $0.02 EDIT: this entire post was done via speech to text. I tried to enunciate clearly but Siri did the best she could with my accent. Any problems with grammar or spelling is all on her!

That rifle has no sights on it. She probably couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn more than 20 m away

Actually I believe this one most of all. And to answer your question about slaves reread what I said. No one should be compelled to behave in a certain way by another person. That includes the slaves. No gods, no masters. Only those you take for yourself. now of course the governments job is to make and enforce law. That is it’s singular function when you get right down to it. I am no anarchist. I thought I had made that pretty clear. “Government “ in the generic sentence has a vital role to play in society. But like all things when it goes to far it becomes not just a problem but the problem. as far as how many people it would take to change Amazon? I don’t know but it would be a pretty hard sell to get me to go along. I love my Kindle. But if your personal ethics demand that you punish Amazon well then you do what you can do. Which is don’t do business with them and try to persuade other people. You lose me when you talk about forcing other people or taking the option away. Another example. I hate the entire concept of abortion. To me that is nothing short of cold blooded murder. But I am 100% pro-choice. Who am I to impose my ethics on one of my fellow humans? Everyone Hass to be free to choose what is best for their lives. I wouldn’t make that choice for them and I don’t want the government to do it in my stead.

Consumers. If you don’t like a company’s business or political activities you can deny them the one thing they want the most. Your business. I don’t like Colin Kaepernick. Nike sponsor’s Colin Kaepernick. I don’t do business with Nike. See? Easy. Boycotts work. Convince enough people to agree with you when you can make a difference for that business. And if people don’t agree with you well no one should be compelled to act in a certain way by another person. Freedom of association. Edit: I don’t actually give a damn about Nike or Colin Kaepernick. That was just an example. Gromnir disclaimer

Thought this was funny so I am sharing. First I must deliver the Gromnir disclaimer; The following image is being posted for the purposes of humor and amusement only. Guard Dog (herein referred to as poster) Makes no claims of the veracity of the image, draws no comparisons between this impeachment or the last, or suggest the hobbit or hobbits of middle earth would be on board. The following image does not represent the opinions of the poster the Tolkien estate, the Dunedain Rangers, or any other persons living or dead. The poster is not responsible for the creation of the post and assumes no liability for anyone who is triggered by it.

I was not aware that draft was not meant to be released. There were a number of amusing details in it but that’s the one that stood out is just being slap down impossible. edit: text doubled up for some reason.

LOL you realize her idea encompassed tearing down and replacing all of the buildings in the United States right? And that was just one aspect

I would frame the debate as maximum government versus minimum government. Obviously too much is a bad thing and none is a bad thing. Where on the scale should we be. I think it goes without saying I would have us somewhere much closer to none than too much. As far as whether it is good or bad opinions are certainly going to vary on that one. As far as shooting themselves in the foot and working against themselves well they are all human. All of them subject to the same foibles as everyone else. A lot of times I wonder why we are supposed to be leery of big greedy corporations made up of people but not of a big greedy government made up of people. as for my own opinions on things I’ve reached the point where I’m too old to much care about it anymore. Idealism and political philosophy are all well and good and make for interesting conversation. But that’s really all there is to it. Biden and the Democrats are going to do what they’re going to do. I’ll pay my taxes and mostly follow their laws. As long as they Don’t take my money, don’t take my home, don’t mess with my private property, my dog or my chickens or any other critters I end up with I really don’t care. I will willfully disobey any laws they pass I find morally objectionable. Gun control for example not that it will happen but if it did I would never give them up. If they want them they’re going to have to come take them. But I have no interest in fighting this government or the last one or the next one. For me sedition and insurrection ends at my property line.

I don’t think, as some have suggested, that the Democrats want to birth a new Soviet union on the North American continent. But they definitely envision a world where the government is a big part of your life and they are in complete control of the government. When it comes to radical ideas like the Green New Deal and even seemingly innocuous ones like Medicare for all they are happy to talk the talk. But most of them know it IS impossible. And economically ruinous if it were. Schumer is a big proponent of aggressive gun control for example. But he’s not stupid. Much as he might want prohibition and confiscation he knows what that would lead to. They might seem incompetent because they never deliver on things that cannot be delivered. But they CAN do small things over years that gnaw at the edges and undermines systems they hope to replace with government programs down the road. It’s smarter to take a long view on the expansion of the state in a country where half the people are averse to such. so when he says “fundamentally transforming the United States“ I don’t look at that so much as an eminent threat. More like a road sign.

Actually what sets me off is when you hear them say as Charles Schumer did two weeks ago “we are close to fundamentally transforming the United States”. Barack Obama said that kind of thing quite a bit too. My response is “into what”?

Grasping ambition and incompetence are hardly mutually exclusive.

NY Times on Rift Between Pence and Trump This is worth reading. But you should probably do so quickly. It’s not behind a pay wall yet but likely will be soon.

The words communism, socialism, facisim, Nazi, Left, right, etc I’ll have real world definitions. And maybe one in 10 Americans actually know what those definitions are. The rest of it just throw the words around to mean whatever the hell they want it to mean in the moment.I’ll have real world definitions. And maybe one in 10 Americans actually know what those definitions are. The rest of it just throw the words around to mean whatever the hell they want it to mean in the moment. Because of that they’ve lost all meeting.

Tell you the truth my friend I’m not real enthusiastic about any third parties either.

The Republicans are losing registered voters in several states. This from PA: Republicans In Pennsylvania Changing Party Registration Following Deadly Insurrection At US Capitol – CBS Philly (cbslocal.com) I have to say I am surprised at recent events. Political power in the US is like a pendulum. It swings from left to right and back again. Never long enough on one side for either to do much. I ALWAYS figured one side or the other would one day attempt to grab the pendulum and break the clock. But I always assumed it would be the Democrats and the left. They already have a real strong totalitarian bent. They ruthlessly punish dissenting thought in their caucus. They favor an almighty state that regulates everything it does not control. Now that description suits the GOP as well, if not better. So, don't talk to me about "lesser evils". There aren't any.

Strange FM signal discovered coming from one of Jupiter's moons Ganymede‐Induced Decametric Radio Emission Fascinating stuff. The radio signals from the four big moons have been known for a long time. But being frequency modulated means Ganymede has a magnetic field. Now THAT is unusual for a moon. On a lighter note what would a radio station on Ganymede play? Train - Drops Of Jupiter - YouTube

You probably are pretty close to the mark here. People have become so politically insular and segregated that the people who voted for both Trump and Biden literally don’t know anybody who did otherwise. As far as I can remember this is a fairly new aspect of American life. Where peoples social circles are politically homogeneous. It’s far from unusual for Americans to sort themselves on one side of the issue or another. Slavery and temperance were good examples. But what we are seeing today seems rather unusual to me.

So primary contention is that there was voter fraud in Pennsylvania and Georgia right? So tell you what. Let’s do this. Let’s move Georgia and Pennsylvania over to Trump. Trump won forget the recounts Trump actually won. Guess what? Joe Biden still won the election. that’s why it’s so pointless to talk about this. No combination of two states gets Trump over 270.

Barring a Complete collapse gold will never be worthless. The thing that scares me about any commodity is it has an actual real world value and when the price gets too far away from that value I get very leery of it. Sooner or later it’s going to snap back like an elastic band. Like you I am very conservative when it comes to investing. Preferring income generating real estate over most anything else. I’ve gotten out of stocks all together with the exception of an IRA. But even that I am focused largely on dividend paying stocks and other large caps. My one foray into crypto is the single bitcoin I bought when the price crashed two years ago. We’ll see what comes of that in years to come I guess. Although I will admit I was getting very anxious as the value started to climb. I heard Mortimer Duke in the back of my head saying “sell sell sell“ LOL!