Notably and inexcusably, the FBI initially proclaimed this was not a terrorist attack, with the FBI Special Agent in Charge making that statement after New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell had already confirmed it was one. //
surfcat50
4 hours ago edited
Funny how the FBI “may never know the motive” of obvious terrorists but have no problem declaring the intentions of random groups of unarmed protestors are insurrectionists.
Without an understanding and appreciation of the culture we seek to preserve and protect, the defense of Western civilization is fundamentally futile; a culture that believes in nothing cannot defend itself, because it has nothing to defend. The past not only still has something to tell us, but it also has something that it must tell us. In this profound and wide-ranging historical survey, Michael Walsh illuminates the ways that the narrative and visual arts both reflect and affect the course of political history, outlining the way forward by arguing for the restoration of the Heroic Narrative that forms the basis of all Western cultural and religious traditions. Let us listen, then, to the angels of our nature, for better and worse. They have much to tell us, if only we will listen.
"I have no concerns about Elon Musk. I have been looking at pictures of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden meeting with Chinese political leaders lately that we were told didn’t exist," Jennings responded to Phillip.
Not only did Joe Biden get nailed — again — lying about not meeting with his son's [Chinese] business associates by the new pictures, but they didn't release them until after the election so they wouldn't hurt the Democrats. The media, like Phillip, want to ask about Musk, who has done nothing wrong, but they don't want to press on why Joe Biden lied and Biden's conflicts. Where is the investigation from the media into all the money the Bidens got from foreign nationals? And there hasn't been any real oversight/accountability for Joe Biden's actions on this for all his time occupying office.
"So for all the people who are really concerned about Elon Musk having a very successful international business that actually produces things, that actually produces vehicles or rockets or whatever they're doing," Jennings said.
"The Bidens produced nothing, yet were also 'doing business in China.' So I don't accept this.". //
St.Elder
32 minutes ago
Why don't they talk about/bring up John Kerry talking with Iran secretly when Trump was POTUS.
anon-x8p1 St.Elder
25 minutes ago
How about St Jimmy Carter writing all the heads of state in secret to ignoreBush and the US, when it was ready to go into its Iraq debacle?
the Amish of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have risen like cream to the top. This is not even their region of the country, but a group of them with “Cabins for Christ” came down in October, created campsites for themselves away from the wreckage so that they would not disrupt the cleanup and assessment, and set themselves to build homes for the people who had lost theirs.
Matt Van Swol @matt_vanswol
·
🚨#BREAKING: Boone NC officials have confirmed that 62 members of the Pennsylvania Amish community have completed the construction of 12 tiny homes in under 48 hours.
The total cost of the project for #WNC was over $300,000, all of which was donated by the Amish community.
8:48 AM · Dec 31, 2024 //
Matt Van Swol @matt_vanswol
·
🚨#BREAKING: FEMA has officially confirmed that out of the 26 families that were told they would receive a temporary home before Christmas...
...only 3 families received one
You read that right. THREE.
9:39 PM · Dec 30, 2024. //
Twelve homes in 48 hours versus three homes over three months. Really awful optics for FEMA. Maybe all that disaster money should be given to Amish communities.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his annual New Year's Eve address, reiterated his claim that Taiwan would "surely be reunified" with China.
His message comes ahead of Taiwan's crucial 13 January elections that will determine the island's cross-strait policy for the next four years. //
In his speech, Chairman Xi also struck a more diplomatic tone towards the United States:
Mr Xi noted that "adhering to mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation is the correct way for China and the United States to interact", according to Reuters, which cited Chinese state media outlet CCTV.
The problem with that is that, as we all know, the art of diplomacy consists primarily of saying "Nice doggy, nice doggy" until you can find a rock. China is making moves in the western Pacific, and at the moment, the United States is far from in the best position to counter any Chinese efforts.
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Research results and inventions have been converted to use by evil people with evil intentions. The thought of Communist China or Mideast terrorists using swarms of mosquitoes as "flying syringes" against those they seek to destroy is beyond terrifying.
Steve Guest @SteveGuest
·
.@ScottJenningsKY: “In the run up to the Persian Gulf War, [Jimmy Carter] wrote letters, to all of our allies, and to Arab States, asking them to abandon their cooperation and coalition with the USA.. if it’s not treasonous, it’s borderline treasonous.” 🔥
11:18 PM · Dec 30, 2024
JENNINGS: In the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, he wrote letters to all of our allies and to Arab states, asking them to abandon their cooperation and coalition with the United States of America. If it's not treasonous, it's borderline treasonous, and so I hear what you're saying about the humanitarianism, but when you're an ex-president, and you have served in that office, I think you have a duty to the United States and only to the United States, and when he did that and other instances, to me, it showed that he cared more about his own legacy than he did about the country, and I think that is wrong. //
Scott Jennings @ScottJenningsKY
·
My thoughts on Jimmy Carter’s legacy last night on @cnn: terrible president, soundly rejected by the American people. Even worse ex-president, whose meddling in US foreign policy & virulent anti-Israel/anti-Semitic views must not be forgotten. Undermined US interests repeatedly.
6:58 AM · Dec 31, 2024
https://x.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1874062472384307315
Ricardo Dale
4 hours ago
Carter handed us the current terror state that is Iran. Then he called Israel an "apartheid state." He is only partially redeemed by the fact that Joe Biden was worse by a large margin...
Dawn Buckingham @DrBuckinghamTX
·
Washington bureaucrats have had their chance, and they’ve failed. It’s time to let states lead the way. Local control means better schools, less red tape, and more opportunities for our kids. Eliminating the Department of Education is a step toward empowering states and communities to decide what’s best for their students.
2:24 PM · Dec 29, 2024. //
Robert Bortins @TheRobertBshow
·
Jimmy Carter - R.I.P. 2024
Department of Education - R.I.P. 2025
7:54 PM · Dec 30, 2024
Ahead of a January 23 shareholder meeting, Costco is urging shareholders to vote against a measure that would limit the company's DEI commitment after receiving a proposal about doing away with what was described as "discriminatory practices." //
The proposal also reveals a curious move on the part of Costco, that of a revamping of the name of their DEI program to the innocent-sounding "People and Communities.". //
Costco may have renamed its DEI policies, but it is the same old playbook. The program still adheres to a "commitment to equity," not outcome and opportunity, and there is still a position for a "Chief Diversity Officer," whose job entails picking suppliers "based on their race and sex," and appears to "continue to factor in race and sex in hiring and promotions," and what should get the attention of many shareholders, the proposal states that the program "still contributes shareholder money to organizations that advance the discriminatory agenda of DEI.”
it's an opportune time to refresh ourselves on some of the traditions and rituals that occur on the death of the person who wore the illustrious mantle of the leader of the free world.
The liberal-left reaps what it sows. It was not merely Trump that was chosen. It was the not-Democrat, the option that wasn’t in power. A vote is a middle finger aimed to the sky. In the heat of all this, the liberal-left will have to recalibrate or dissolve. Radical chic is fading. The Hitler analogies are played out. So are the speech wars. They will have to, somehow, consider material conditions. This is never easy if you’ve never lived anything close to a precarious life. Harder, still, if you’ve allowed condescension and indignation to become the pillars of a worldview. The smug never inherit the Earth. If only the Bible printed this, or someone took it to cable television in time. Much grief could have been saved.
The smug never inherit the Earth.
RACING COCKPITS, LITE SERIES, F-GT LITE SERIES
F-GT LITE
RACING COCKPITS, LITE SERIES, GTLITE SERIES
Joe Biden spent the first half of his presidency enacting plans to steer at least $1.6 trillion to transform the economy and spur a clean-energy revolution — only to watch those programs become afterthoughts in the 2024 election.
Now the core of his domestic legacy stands unfinished, with hundreds of billions of dollars left to deploy, and imperiled as Donald Trump prepares to take office.
Keep in mind, essentially all the money mentioned above was appropriated back in 2021, with the rest coming via the Inflation Reduction Act of mid-2022. This wasn't a case of Biden simply running out of time because he passed an infrastructure bill six months before the election. The administration had years to expand broadband and build the electric vehicle charging stations it promised, but the actual results were disastrous. //
A $42 billion expansion made in November of 2021 to expand broadband has connected zero homes to the internet. Meanwhile, and this garnered several mentions during the 2024 campaign, $7.5 billion appropriated for EV chargers has produced just 47 stations nationwide. For context, the program promised 500,000 chargers.
What's so comical about this, though, is that the primary reason Biden's agenda fell flat is because of the very bureaucratic state he and his party created and protected. Much of the money was allocated to various government agencies that are staffed by far-left, career bureaucrats who wouldn't know efficiency if it punched them in the face. On the contrary, being as inefficient as possible represents job security for the bureaucracy. If they don't solve problems, then the money just keeps flowing.
Hilariously, in the case of the EV chargers, government DEI requirements played a role in stifling the program. //
There is an obvious lesson here, which is that the bureaucratic state is terrible for America and needs deep reforms to stop the waste and inefficiency that infests it. Will Democrats who are crying about Biden's agenda being hampered support that? Of course, they won't. Instead, they'll keep making excuses and protecting the bureaucracy as if it were one of their own children because it is currently their sole source of power. Still, it is deeply ironic that their sacred cow played a role in Democrats face-planting in 2024. It was well-deserved.
All types of resistors have their own resistor symbols which are used when a circuit diagram is drawn. This page will explain the different standards which are used for resistor symbols and display the most common symbols.
A female pygmy hippopotamus calf was born at the Metro Richmond Zoo in early December, marking the third calf of the endangered species to be born at the zoo in the last five years, officials said.
The mother hippo Iris gave birth to the yet-to-be-named calf on Dec. 9 and the zoo is currently holding a contest to name the new calf. //
The new baby had a neonatal exam and weighed in at 15 pounds, a mere fraction of the 600 pounds officials say fully grown pygmy hippos can boast. //
When the hippo was declared endangered in 2015, there were only about 2,500 mature ones left, and even then officials were pulling that from a 1993 population estimate, according to the Zoological Society of London.
The first human mission to land on the Moon is one of the only NASA mission patches that does not include the names of the crew members, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. This was a deliberate choice by the crew, who wanted the world to understand they were traveling to the Moon for all of humanity.
Another NASA astronaut, Jim Lovell, suggested the bald eagle could be the focus of the patch. Collins traced the eagle from a National Geographic children's magazine, and an olive branch was added as a symbol of the mission's peaceful intent.
The result is a clear symbol of the United States leading humanity to another world. It is simple and powerful. //
With the space shuttle, astronauts and patch artists had to get more creative because the vehicle flew so frequently—eventually launching 135 times. Some of my favorite patches from these flights came fairly early on in the program.
As it turns out, designing shuttle mission patches was a bonding exercise for crews after their assignments. Often one of the less experienced crew members would be given leadership of the project.
"During the Shuttle era, designing a mission emblem was one of the first tasks assigned to a newly formed crew of astronauts," Flag Research Quarterly reports. "Within NASA, creation of the patch design was considered to be an important team-building exercise. The crew understood that they were not just designing a patch to wear on their flight suits, but that they were also creating a symbol for everyone who was working on the flight."
In some cases the crews commissioned a well-known graphic designer or space artist to help them with their patch designs. More typically they worked with a graphic designer on staff at the Johnson Space Center to finalize the design. //
In recent years, some of the most creative patch designs have come from SpaceX and its crewed spaceflights aboard the Dragon vehicle. Because of the spacecraft's name, the missions have often played off the Dragon motif, making for some striking designs.
There is a dedicated community of patch collectors out there, and some of them were disappointed that SpaceX stopped designing patches for each individual Starlink mission a few years ago. However, I would say that buying two or three patches a week would have gotten pretty expensive, pretty fast—not to mention the challenge designers would face in making unique patches for each flight.
If you read this far and want to know my preference, I am not much of a patch collector, as much as I admire the effort and artistry that goes into each design. I have only ever bought one patch, the one designed for the Falcon 1 rocket's fourth flight. The patch isn't beautiful, but it's got some nice touches, including lights for both Kwajalein and Omelek islands, where the company launched its first rockets. Also, it was the first time the company included a shamrock on the patch, and that proved fortuitous, as the successful launch in 2008 saved the company. It has become a trademark of SpaceX patches ever since.
if the deal goes through it would create the world's third-largest OEM in 2026. //
Beleaguered automaker Nissan is going to throw its lot in with Honda. The two Japanese OEMs want to merge by 2026, creating the world's third-largest car company in the process. In fact, earlier this year the two signed memorandums of understanding to create a strategic partnership focused on software and electrification. Now, the changing business environment calls for deeper integration, they say. //
Altaira Pilgram
This merger is about the rise of Chinese auto companies affecting their domestic markets and for now exports across Asia soon to be global. Over the last few years Chinese domestic auto manufacturers have gutted the sales of companies like GM, VW, and others in China and are now looking to aggressively reshape the international automobile markets. BYD for example is building factories Thailand, Hungary, and Brazil. Nissan, by its own estimates, has said at times it was unclear if it would last through 2027 if it stayed independent thus forcing it to seek out of desperation a strong partner. It also seems the Japanese government had a hand in propping up Nissan with this merger presumably with the goal of protecting its economy and jobs. The hope here is that the merged companies can pool R & D resources to develop not just finished cars but the myriad technologies and finished components that go into them in an timely manner, at scale and at costs that allow them to compete with the Chinese manufacturers. To me it is unclear that any of this is going to work. Saddling Honda with a duplicate but a worse company has to bog them down for years while they figure out what Nissan parts to keep and which parts to shutdown precisely when Honda needs to be nimble. The game of thrones, automobile edition, has begun in earnest.
December 23, 2024 at 4:46 pm
440-pound 1980s behemoth rescued from an Osaka restaurant days before demolition. //
For those who want the absolute largest CRT experience possible, Sony's KX-45ED1 model (aka PVM-4300) has become the stuff of legends. The massive 45-inch CRT was sold in the late '80s for a whopping $40,000 (over $100,000 in today's dollars), according to contemporary reports.
That price means it wasn't exactly a mass-market product, and the limited supply has made it something of a white whale for CRT enthusiasts to this day. While a few pictures have emerged of the PVM-4300 in the wild and in marketing materials, no collector has stepped forward with detailed footage of a working unit. //
Enter Shank Mods, a retro gaming enthusiast and renowned maker of portable versions of non-portable consoles. In a fascinating 35-minute video posted this weekend, he details his years-long effort to find and secure a PVM-4300 from a soon-to-be-demolished restaurant in Japan and preserve it for years to come. //
The full video includes lots of footage and details of the shipping and unboxing process, and confirmation that the TV still works after its incredible journey. Shank Mods also includes a breakdown of the internal design and processing hardware that went into such a uniquely large CRT and an extended discussion of the intricate process of calibrating and tuning the tube to deliver a sharp, color-corrected picture after years of magnetic and electron beam drift.