Your government, ladies and gentlemen. Priorities: not you.
Homeless vets are being booted from NY hotels to make room for migrants: advocates
Suggestion: give the homeless vets jobs. On the border. Repelling the invasion.
May 132023
May 122023
This fan-made prop is damned impressive. Had something like this been available *and* *affordable* back when Next Generation was still on, it would have some like Furbies that distribute crack.
May 122023
Anti-paramilitary training laws the next threat to private shooting ranges
After municipal and environmental laws failed, town officials approached Vermont State Senator Phillip Baruth for help. He quickly sponsored a bill making it a felony to operate a “paramilitary training camp” within the state.
Baruth, a liberal Democrat from Burlington, admitted he introduced the bill after Pawlet officials complained there was no state law that they could use to force Banyai to shutter his private ranges on his private property.
This week, Vermont’s Gov. Phil Scott – a Republican – signed the bill into law.
4071. PARAMILITARY TRAINING PROHIBITED
(a) A person shall not:
(1) teach, train, or demonstrate to any other person the use, application, or making of a firearm, explosive, or incendiary device capable of causing injury or death, or techniques capable of causing injury or death to persons, if the person knows or reasonably should know that the teaching, training, or demonstrating is intended to be used in or in furtherance of a civil disorder; or
(2) assemble with one or more other persons for the purpose of practicing or being taught, trained, or instructed in the use, application, or making of a firearm, explosive, or incendiary device capable of causing injury or death, or in techniques capable of causing injury or death to persons, if the person knows or reasonably should know that the practicing, teaching, training, or instruction is intended to be used in or in furtherance of a civil disorder.
It’s the “in furtherance of a civil disorder” that is the wedge in the door. Who could argue with a law against training someone to commit a crime? Well… how *exactly* do you determine what a civil disorder is? The law states: The term “civil disorder” means any public disturbance involving acts of violence by assemblages of three or more persons, which causes an immediate danger of or results in damage or injury to the property or person of any other individual. Three people in a fight is a “civil disorder.”
We’ve seen people arrested for committing acts of self defense. So is defending yourself against subway psychos (one psycho, two or three people holding him down) or mobs of murderous arsonists (one kid with a rifle against multiple armed assailants) “civil disorder?” I bet it can be to a creative prosecutor. And you can bet that if anyone who taught firearms safety, marksmanship or even basic self defense teaches the general public, chances are that one of their students will, at some point, use that training. And if there is a creative prosecutor, not only will the trainee get arrested… so will the trainer. Will the prosecutor win the trial against a guy who ran a karate school and who once taught a kid who then went on to karate chop another kid in a schoolyard brawl? Maybe, maybe not. But the prosecutor might well bankrupt the karate teacher in the process, so… that’s a win for the prosecutor, even if there’s a “not guilty” verdict.
May 102023
Back in the Good Old Days of above-ground nuclear testing, a series of solid propellant smokey-trailed rockets would be launched just before detonation. They would leave vertical trails in the sky near the detonation. The video below explains just what they were for, as well as some of the physics of the detonation itself… the radiation front and the shock front. It’s interesting.
May 102023
A new Supreme Court case seeks to legalize assault weapons in all 50 states
The Supreme Court could hand down a decision any day now in National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville, a case that could legalize assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in all 50 states.
“Assault weapons:” Normal semi-automatic rifles
“High-capacity magazines:” the standard capacity magazines that come with the gun
Most of the article, apart form the above bit of Scare Text, is pretty straightforward. However, there’s this bizarre bit:
And there is good reason to fear that this Court could, at the very least, decide to make semiautomatic assault rifles legal throughout the United States.
“Fear:” a funny way to spell “hope.”
Anyway, “National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville” is on the Supreme Court “Shadow Docket,” which means they could issue a ruling without the usual trouble of oral hearings. This would speed things up a *lot.*
The concept of a Shadow Docket is a bit strange, and one I’m not entirely sure I’m entirely behind. However, I would accept any Shadow Docket ruling *IF* that ruling came down in favor of rolling back government power, impositions on the citizens or curtailments of rights. If s Shadow Docket ruling was in favor of the government, then it should automatically be set aside in favor of a full court proceedings.
May 092023
The James Webb Space Telescope recently took a shot of deep space, showing a multitude of galaxies lensed *spectacularly.* Full-rez version at the link.
https://esawebb.org/images/potm2303a/
That view is *littered* with lensing, especially on the right.
May 092023
And dubious reliability… and dubious manufacturing quality. Kentucky Ballistics tests a knife-gun from the 1980s.
May 082023
Every now and then I see posts, tweets, comments, etc. mentioning that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a net worth over a billion dollars. For a comedian to be that rich, especially when his nation is gettign bombed into gravel, is suspicious to say the least. The implication, of course, is that there is financial chicanery goign on… likely American tax dollars being funneled directly into his pockets.
But as with so many Interesting Stories, this appears to be complete BS.
An article from Forbes:
President Zelensky Is Not A Billionaire. So How Much Is He Worth?
In short, he’s nowhere near a billionaire. Forbes estimates he’s worth $20 to $30 million, which is a surprisingly high amount. But there is a fair explanation for that:
His main asset: an estimated 25% stake in Kvartal 95, a group of companies that produce humorous shows, which he transferred to his partners after being elected president, though he’ll likely regain his shares after leaving office. Kvartal 95 produced and owns the Servant of the People series, a popular political comedy starring Zelensky as a Ukrainian high school teacher who is elected president. Netflix, which previously streamed the show between 2017 and 2021, snapped up the rights again in March. With estimated revenues of $30 million annually, Forbes Ukraine values Zelensky’s stake at $11 million.
He was an entertainer, and prior to the war had a goodly stake in an entertainment company. This makes sense.
If there is evidence that he’s substantially richer than that, in the “Russian Oligarch” category, I’m sure the world would be interested to see it. But “evidence” has to be more than the say-so of some Russian talking head.
May 072023
Interesting times *here* and interesting times forthcoming. In the past day or so Texas has seen a mass shooting with 8 dead, and an SUV *apparently* intentionally rammed a group of “migrants” at a bus stop, killing at least 7. In both cases it appears that the killer was a narrative-busting Hispanic male. In the former case, the shooter has been ID’ed as one Mauricio Garcia… and HERE the narrative is being spun that this Hispanic guy, who had a prominently displayed tattoo for the “tango blast” Hispanic prison gang, was a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi. In the latter case the suspect has been arrested but not yet identified, but a potato-cam video of him being arrested *appears* to show a Hispanic guy, though that’s uncertain.
With hundreds of thousands to potentially *millions* of illegal aliens preparing to invade in the coming days and weeks, expect this sort of thing to only increase. You’ll get a vast increase in third-world cartel members in the US here to sow chaos, and who knows how many native Americans losing their minds and going buggo. When you couple that with the Just In Time For Summer deaths of a nutjob on a subway train in Manhattan and a thief in Oakland, BLM and related activists are getting ready to start up another summer of burning cities to the ground. Stock up on essentials while you can; if you live in cities, your favorite stores may well be ashes and bits of broken glass before you know it.
UPDATE: A photo reportedly of the SUV driver:
He has multiple Rio Grande Valley Tango Blast gang tattoos. From bottom lower left RGV for Rio Grande Valley, above the R Valluco, above the V is the 956 area code. above either side of the RGV block letters are the two palm trees. And those are just the ones I can see. pic.twitter.com/rqAf0UssbB
— 🍊 🍊 🍊 🍊 MrsLibertyBelle pronouns: bad/bitch (@MrsLibertyBell1) May 8, 2023
May 062023
In 1983 “Science Digest” ran an article that 13-year-old me lost his tiny little mind over. Illustrated by Rick Sternbach, designer of, among other Star Trek vehicles and artifacts, the USS Voyager, it described a series of possible means of interstellar travel. While the physics and engineering of some of them have proven dodgy in the years since (the Bussard ramjet has serious problems with the proposed magnetic fiend, the Enzmann starship has turned out to not be as well thought out as many had assumed, etc.), it remains a tantalizing glimpse of what might be. The article has been scanned in full color and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers at the above-$10 level.
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.