Month: August 2023

I saw this thumbnail image at gunbloggers, with headline Elvis Presley’s S&W Model 53 Revolver Sold For Almost $200,000.

I immediately thought, “That couldn’t be Elvis’; it ain’t gilt.” But when I saw the larger image…

Actually, for Presley, that’s pretty damned restrained. He generally went overboard on overly tacky glitz.

Hiram’s, a gun shop in California, commissioned the work and gifted the gun to Presley in November of 1976.

Which explains it. If Presley had the work done, it would’ve been gold-plated, with mother of pearl grips, and a diamond for the front sight.

I never did a FOIA to confirm that, but given that I’ve been questioned by the feds, ran the old Doing Freedom! webzine, helped organize and attended an event that was infiltrated by the feds, and other disapproved activities, I can’t see how I wouldn’t have one. Certainly the DOJ showed up regularly  in my web site visitor stats.*

The FBI likely has a case file on Oliver Anthony already, whistleblower says
What’s a bit more shocking is the possibility that Anthony’s heartfelt song and outspoken views may have resulted in unwanted attention from a different source: the FBI.

Edward Snowden, the famous whistleblower who blew the lid on the National Security Agency’s unlawful surveillance program, recently hinted that there’s a good chance the FBI has already opened a file on Anthony.

“After hitting topping the iTunes list and tweeting like this, the FBI will be making space for him another kind of list, too,” Snowden tweeted. “Think I’m kidding? The FBI had a file on John Denver for attending *one* anti-war protest.”

I rather expect that the ATF has a file on me, too. If not for my other writings, then almost certainly after I wrote a white paper for a congressman on the ATF determination “procedures.”

ATF rulings resemble the reasoning of a bi-polar schizophrenic, constantly changing and conflicting.
[…]
The ATF does not merely lack adult supervision, they are the the adult… If mommie were a deranged nutjob bound and determined to drive her kids insane with frustration as well, with constantly changing rules and standards, surprise edicts, and bizarre reversals.

Yeah, that was in a formal paper written at the request of the congressman’s office. Being formal, I had to tone it down a bit.

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* I used to get a lot of NASA visitors for a couple of years. Those tapered off, and an anonymous birdie told me they blocked my site, at least at his/her location. Does NASA keep files on citizens?

Kalifornia has a solution for its energy problems.

Power the electrical grid with… electric cars.

PG&E’s CEO wants electric vehicles to save California’s power grid
Referred to as “vehicle to grid,” two-way charging works by sending power to the grid from an electric vehicle’s battery while the car is parked and plugged in.

-psst- People generally plug their cars in because the battery needs charging.

The idea seems to be similar to grid-tied residential solar power. When your home system is generating more power than you’re currently using, it can feed the excess back to the grid, essentially turning the meter backwards (early systems could literally do that). But instead of a solar power system, the electricty comes from your EV’s battery.

What PG&E is proposing is forcing car owners to be its grid-scale battery plant, instead of investing in actual grid-scale batteries, which saves PG&E lots of money. But to make this work at all (never mind the ineffiencies in generating “renewable” DC power, converting it to AC, conducting it to the charger where it’s converted back to DC and stored in the car batteries; then reversing the whole conversion/transmission process back to the grid), they’d have to mandate that the cars are plugged during peak solar/wind generation periods — even if you need to go somewhere — and then mandate plugging them in again when generation doesn’t meet load demands (brown and black outs)… even if you need to drive somewhere. Just leave the vehicle plugged in and never use it again.

Yep, aside from the cost of the car itself, they want to make you pay for the electricity they force you store store for them and give back. After you bought their batteries for them out of pocket.

If they actually push this, consider buying PG&E stock, because this will be one hell of a money maker for the company.

Apparently Pantyfa is going to attempt to shut down the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Again.

That didn’t go well for them the last time they tried.

Adam Schiff wants Trump’s federal trials telecast live.

“Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings. If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses,” the lawmakers wrote.

Really? You us to witness the bias, prosecutorial misconduct, withheld evidence, and jury shennanigans that are virtually inevitable in the DC trial. You don’t think seeing that live might piss off one or two million people, and eliminate what little confidence in the fed couts they might still have?

Pencil-neck also makes this claim.

The current policy of the Judicial Conference permits judges to authorize broadcasting, televising, recording, or photographing for certain criminal proceedings.

Again, really? Where are those exceptions to Rule 53?

Rule 53. Courtroom Photographing and Broadcasting Prohibited

Except as otherwise provided by a statute or these rules, the court must not permit the taking of photographs in the courtroom during judicial proceedings or the broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom.

That’s pretty simple and straightforward. So show me the exceptions. Please, because I’d dearly love to have the DC kangaroo kourt proceedings exposed.

Added: Personally, I think Schiff-head is delusional enough to think broadcasting the DC trial would inspire confidence in the system. But, knowing Schiff, it is possible that he wants the kangaroo court broadcast as a warning to all us wrong-thinkers: Piss us off, and we will railroad your peasant ass, and get away with it. So just shut up, lest you draw our ire. If we can do it to a former president, can sure as fuck do it to you.

I’m seeing some stories like this:

Jack Smith May Have Doomed His Case Against Trump
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team has acknowledged they incorrectly claimed that they had submitted all the necessary evidence as mandated by the law in the classified documents case against Donald Trump.

That’s basically a euphemism for getting caught committing prosecutorial misconduct.

Attorney Reveals the “Exculpatory” Evidence Jack Smith Possesses that Exonerates President Trump
It turns out that Special Counsel Jack Smith either failed to review evidence that exonerates President Trump and Mayor Rudy Giuliani or he ignored the findings altogether.

Tim Parlatore, the attorney for former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, told CBS News that Smith’s office has within thousands of pages of records turned over by Kerik that contains “exculpatory evidence.” The exact reason why Smith has not disclosed this critical information remains unclear.

Of course, in a sane legal system, Trump would be acquitted, because even the indictment admits that he’s being charged with exercising free speech.

The Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won. He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election

But the folks who seem convinced there will be an acquittal are overlooking an important point. The trial is set in DC, with a DC jury. That’s a jury pool — that in other J6 cases — freely admits anti-Trump and anti-MAGA biases, and already believing defendants to be guilty — and still getting seated on the juries.

Note that Smith declined to charge Trump is the federal district where Trump lives. He understands the DC biases and wants to use it. He could charge Trump with the terroristic destruction of Alderaan and a DC jury would happily play along, just to screw Orange Man Bad.

To be fair, I have seen one or two stories acknowledging the DC problem, but most ignore it.

It seems the leftist, race-baiting, looting Dim-ocrats have a new idea for attracting white voters: Double down on race-baiting and “equity.”

Yep, calling me a privileged, racist white guy who’s holding down the colored people people of color (why is one phrase bad while the other is good?) is definitely going to induce me to vote Dim, so they can do it to me even more. [/sarc]

Dems launch a new effort to shore up white voters — by leaning into race
A new Democratic-aligned initiative — dubbed the White Stripe Project — has a novel idea for winning white working class voters back to the Democratic Party: lean more into talk of equity and race.

What that’s going to induce me to do is hold my nose and vote — for first time ever, and over serious objections to his Second Amendment problems — for Trump. Protest votes for Libertarians or Mickey Mouse won’t do it. As bad as the Republican wing of the uni-Party is, the Dims’s insane drive to destroy American has fully metastasized.

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WIN FOR PISTOL BRACES: A BATTLE, NOT THE WAR
The Fifth Circuit just ruled against the feds in the Firearm Policy Coalition case on the new ATF rule on pistol braces as short-barrel rifles.

Federal Appeals Court Finds ATF Pistol Brace Rule Is Likely Unlawful: ‘Impossible For A Regular Citizen’
Smith wrote that the rule makes it “nigh impossible for a regular citizen to determine what constitutes a braced pistol” and whether “a specified brace pistol requires NFA registration.”

No kidding. The Zelman Partisans noted that more than two years ago, when the Notice of Proposed Rule-Making was published.

[Read more]

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