Branch Line

Running off at a tangent from yesterday’s train of thought (about simpler cars), I need to add the following.

As Longtime Readers know well, I’ve always preferred simple, reliable guns such as  Mausers and AK-47s:

…over the vajazzled option-heavy tricked-up “operator” guns that all the cool kids are buying these days.

So needless to say, when the Great Day Of The Barricades finally comes, you’ll most likely find me lying dead on the ground with an AK-47 clutched in my cold dead hands, with a cherry-red barrel, smoking handguard and an absolute shit ton of slowly-cooling brass lying around me.

Next to me will be some amateur “operator” also dead on the ground, clutching his Mattel gun with lights, cameras, red-dot sights etc., but only half a mag of brass lying next to his corpse, because that was all he managed to get off before his supergun malfunctioned.

I’m not saying that this is the way I’d prefer to draw my last breath, of course, but under extreme circumstances (like this:  45% of Democrats want the unvaccinated sent to internment camps), it’s certainly better than the alternative:

or:

Just sayin’.

Stop Screwing Around

You know what?  I’m getting sick of all this shit.

Never mind the “war games”, Lefties.  Why don’t you just let slip the dogs of war, and let’s see how it pans out for you.

 

Here’s a tip.  Each of us has already war-gamed the scenario.  All you have to do is make the first overtly hostile move.

Virginia Strikes Back

Seems like the new (Republican) regime in the Virginia has wasted no time in kicking ass and taking names.

Virginia’s New AG Fires Civil Rights Division, Will Start Prosecuting Cases Dropped By ‘Social Justice’ DAs

Jason Miyares notified around 30 staff members they’re being let go – including 17 attorneys and 13 staff members.  The attorneys include the solicitor general, Herring’s deputies, and reportedly Helen Hardiman – an assistant AG who worked on housing discrimination.

Take that, Soros, you miserable old Nazi fucker.

Clueless

I know that politicians are completely ignorant about everything not political or legal — and even then, they’re not especially bright — but Elizabethan ignorance on everything can only be truly appreciated by acknowledging her academic credentials.  [/snark]

Even by her own heritage of ignorance, however, Elizabeth Warren’s latest broadside against Big Grocery must rank among her greatest cock-ups.

“What happens when only a handful of giant grocery store chains like Kroger dominate an industry? They can force high food prices onto Americans while raking in record profits.” Warren claimed that “a handful of giant chains” had replaced the wide selection of smaller stores that used to dot the American landscape, and she called for the use of the government’s antitrust power to “break up these giant corporations.”

Ah yes… let’s blame an industry for price gouging — an industry that traditionally runs on 0.75% net profit margins.

Remember, by the way, that while I know a few things about some things, and almost nothing about a whole lot more, when it comes to the supermarket business, I know everything about it.  That’s not a brag, nor even an exaggeration;  it’s what comes from close to a third of a century of experience in and around the industry.

So hear me now when I saw that Reason Magazine’s Joe Lancaster has it exactly right:

In actuality, for much of the last year, grocery stores have seen enormous boosts in revenue, but not increased profitability, for the simple reason that everything has been costing more:  not just products, but transportation, employee compensation, and all the extra logistical steps needed to adapt to shopping during a pandemic.  Couple that with persistent inflation—which Warren also recently blamed on “price gouging”—and it is no wonder that things seem a bit out of balance.

She is clueless, a fraud and incompetent.  All she has is Marxist dialectic by which to formulate her idiotic positions on every topic under the sun — dialectic which when translated into policy has boasted a record of 100% failure — and the sooner the citizens of Massachusetts vote this moron out of office, the better the country will become.

Smoke And Fire

One of the worst decisions ever made — by a whole bunch of people, not just one — was to allow Chinese scientists to come to the United States and study in our peerless university research facilities.  No doubt this was done for all sorts of noble reasons, such  as spreading scientific discoveries around the world for the betterment of all, etc.

However:

Former GlaxoSmithKline Scientist Pleads Guilty to Stealing Trade Secrets for Chinese Pharma

and:

Chinese Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing Trade Secrets From St. Louis-Based Company To Benefit The Chinese Government

That’s just in last week’s news.  There have been many, many more such incidents, and they were all completely preventable.

What bothers me is that there has been no concerted effort to stop this theft / espionage, by deporting all Chinese-born scientists out of our universities and research institutions.

That inactivity can be laid at the feet of our government.