The Mine-Laying Lawnmower of Death

June 19th, 2023

I try to keep up with the latest drone developments out of the Russo-Ukrainian War, so this funky remote-control mine-laying device caught my eye:

It looks like someone took a lawnmower chassis and replaced the mower blade and engine with a mine-laying servo.

RATEL is evidently the name of the device, and not connected to the South African Ratel IFV (though it wouldn’t shock me to see those show up in Ukrainian inventories, despite being fairly long in the tooth).

I first saw this mentioned in a Reporting from Ukraine video:

Not a whole lot of information there, either, but he did say “Recent combat footage shows that Ukrainians finally started using mine-laying drones in large numbers. Even though such drones cannot be driven far behind the front lines, they are very effective at mining the roads that go along the front line, especially those that connect Russian positions between the tree lines.”

There’s very little information available on this device online, but speculation on previous prototypes suggested they were trying to lay mines under enemy vehicles, which makes no sense. The Reporting from Ukraine description of them as an area denial weapon makes much more sense.

We think of mines as buried items, but laying them atop roads can take out unwary or distracted drivers, or cause them the to stop to clear the mines (a risky proposition, since they could be designed to explode at any removal attempt, and which subjects stopped targets to possible hostile fire), or to divert around into areas that may have buried mines (and we’ve seen plenty of video from Ukraine of Russian vehicles hitting mines buried to the side while trying to avoid some obstacle).

The Mine-Laying Lawnmower of Death (MLLoD) looks a bit more purpose-built than The Flying Yeet of Death or their wheeled RC bombs.

A whole lot of low-cost, low-tech drone innovation is coming out of this war…

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Posted in Military, video | 18 Comments »

How A 120mm Tank Round Works

June 18th, 2023

Here’s something informational for Sunday, Nicholas Moran explaining exactly how a modern 120mm (AKA 120×570mm NATO, the type used by the M1A2 Abrams and the German Leopard 2) APFSDS round works.

  • He has a dummy blue round to demonstrate the features. “All the projectiles are color coded. Explosive, for example, would be green with yellow lettering.” APFSDS rounds are black.
  • “The aft cap is the one piece which is left behind after a modern round is fired, and this takes up a lot less room than a traditional shell casing rattling around inside the tank once you fire it.”
  • A long primer rod runs up the middle for more even propellent burning.
  • “A modern tank does have a firing pin. It’s electrically fired, but it has a firing pin. It looks just like a firing pin you’d expect from a rifle, except it’s about yay long…Electricity goes through the firing pin, sets off the primer, which sets off the propellant, which gives you the big boom.”
  • There are even emergency hand crank firing systems with dynamos to use if the electrical system goes down.
  • “The rest of the shell casing is made of a form of cellulose, and it is burned up in the explosion. So the aft cap is sufficient to seal the breach instead of requiring the entire casing to expand as you you’d find on a traditional round.”
  • “The catch is that this is simply not as robust as a metal shell.” Which is why the loader has to inspect rounds for scratches or bulges to the water-resistant coating. That could cause the round to break apart or misfire. “This is a bad thing.”
  • Which is why tank crews practice misfire drills to ensure safe handling of rounds so they don’t spread loose propellant all over the tank’s interior.
  • “The kinetic energy penetrator is itself a dart… it’s got fins at the back to keep the pointy end forwards, and it is kept centered as it goes down the tube by these sabot petals.”
  • “Modern sabots seem to have settled on three of these petals per projectile. Once the projectile has left the muzzle, the air is caught by the petals and they are peeled away.”
  • The discarded petals are a danger. “This is why sabot rounds such as APFSDS or M-PT should not be fired over the heads of friendly infantry.”
  • “The dart goes that way, hits metal, and basically punches through, taking little bits of metal inside with them. This is called a spall. These little fragments metal are extremely unhealthy to anyone or anything inside the vehicle which it hits.”
  • “However, if the armor is too thin to produce spalling, you get what is known as over-penetration. So you make a dart-sized hole on one side of the vehicle, a dart-sized hole on the far side of the vehicle, and dart sized holes on anything in-between, and outside of brown pants for the crewmen, quite possibly nothing else.”
  • “If so you’re firing such a target, you’re probably better off using a shaped charge round such as HEAT.”
  • He then show off a dummy HEAT projector, which has a funky blunt circular head that “in effect clears the air as a wind shield for the decidedly non-aerodynamic flat bit. The main body of the round also performs something of a stabilizing function and thirdly provides adequate standoff or room for the penetrating jet to form.”
  • “Here is a metal cone surrounded by explosives. The explosives detonate, the cone collapses the liner.”
  • Text popped up on screen at 9 minutes in notes that the penetrating jet is not high temperature plasma.

    • Here’s another video that provides a visualized simulation of how APFSDS rounds work.

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    Posted in Military, video | 5 Comments »

    Abbott Carries Through With Threat, Vetoes Slew Of Bills

    June 17th, 2023

    If you’ve read BattleSwarm long enough, you know I view Texas Governor Greg Abbott as a cautious, careful politician. He generally pursues conservative policies, but not with the drive and fervor of, say, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The bussing illegal aliens to blue cities ploy was a welcome departure from Abbott’s caution, but here too his sentiment trailed rather than lead conservative consensus.

    But it appears that Abbott has finally found the issue he’s willing to play hardball on: Property tax reform.

    fter Gov. Greg Abbott indicated Wednesday he could veto a large number of bills if no compromise is reached between the House and Senate on property tax relief, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Abbott is threatening to destroy the work of the legislature.

    Abbott made his comments during a bill signing ceremony on Wednesday, with just days left until Sunday, June 18—the last day he can sign bills into law or veto them. In Texas, any legislation not specifically vetoed by the governor becomes law.

    There were 4,550 pieces of legislation passed by the Texas House and Senate and sent to the governor as part of the 88th Session of the Legislature. As of Wednesday night, Abbott had signed 873 pieces of legislation into law and vetoed five.

    “As we get closer and closer to this Sunday, all of these bills that have yet to be signed face the possibility, if not the probability, that they’re going to be vetoed,” said Abbott.

    Abbott has called for all of the $12 billion currently allocated to property tax relief to be used for compression—or buying down local school property taxes. While the House approved this plan on the first day of the current special session, Patrick and the Senate have stood firm in their desire for some of the money to be used to increase the homestead exemption. According to Patrick, this is a way to prioritize relief for homeowners over businesses.

    “In a ploy to apparently get his way, Governor Abbott suggests he is threatening to destroy the work of the entire 88th Legislative Session – hundreds of thousands of hours by lawmakers doing the work the people sent us to do,” wrote Patrick on Twitter.

    I usually back Patrick over Abbott, but looking at the list of bills he’s vetoed, I can’t say I’m broken up over them. (Some snippage for brevity.)

    SB 2613
    Author: Sen. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound)
    Sponsor: Rep. Lynn Stucky (R-Denton)
    Caption: Relating to the creation of the Tabor Ranch Municipal Management District; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes; granting a limited power of eminent domain.
    Veto Date: June 16
    Abbott’s statement: “While Senate Bill No. 2613 is important, it is simply not as important as cutting property taxes. At this time, the legislature must concentrate on delivering
    property tax cuts to Texans. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.” [Most of Abbott’s veto statements for subsequent bills are of the “X is important, but not as important as cutting property taxes” formulation, so I’ve snipped those.-LP]

    SB 2605
    Author: Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton)
    Sponsor: Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Killeen)
    Caption: Relating to the creation of the Knob Creek Municipal Utility District of Bell County; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2598
    Author: Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney)
    Sponsor: Rep. Frederick Frazier (R-McKinney)
    Caption: Relating to the creation of the Honey Creek Improvement District No. 1; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments and fees.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2597
    Author: Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe)
    Sponsor: Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. (R-Magnolia)
    Caption: Relating to the creation of the Montgomery County Municipal Utility District No. 237; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 1979
    Author: Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola)
    Sponsor: Rep. Caroline Harris (R-Round Rock)
    Caption: Relating to an annual study by the Texas A&M University Texas Real Estate Research Center of the purchase and sale of single-family homes by certain institutional buyers.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2616
    Author: Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Brownsville)
    Sponsor: Rep. Maria Luisa Flores (D-Austin)
    Caption: Relating to the creation of the Travis County Municipal Utility District No. 27; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2604
    Author: Sen. Boris Miles (D-Houston)
    Sponsor: Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston)
    Caption: Relating to the creation of the Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 589; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2453
    Author: Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio)
    Sponsor: Ana Hernandez (D-Houston)
    Caption: Relating to certain regulations adopted by governmental entities for the building products, materials, or methods used in the construction of residential or commercial buildings.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2379
    Author: Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown)
    Sponsor: Caroline Harris (R-Round Rock)
    Caption: Relating to aquifer storage and recovery projects that transect a portion of the Edwards Aquifer.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2260
    Author: Sen. Cesar Blanco (D-El Paso)
    Sponsor: Rep. Toni Rose (D-Dallas)
    Caption: Relating to management review of certain investigations conducted by the Department of Family and Protective Services.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 2052
    Author: Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville)
    Sponsor: Rep. Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin)
    Caption: Relating to permit fees for groundwater wells imposed by the Southeast Texas Groundwater Conservation District.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 1712
    Author: Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock)
    Sponsor: Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo)
    Caption: Relating to the purchase, sale, or lease of real property on behalf of a limited partnership or a limited liability company.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 1568
    Author: Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels)
    Sponsor: Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano)
    Caption: Relating to the persons authorized or appointed to exercise the power of sale under the terms of a contract lien on real property.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 1431
    Author: Sen. Chuy Hinojosa (D-McAllen)
    Sponsor: Rep. Bobby Guerra (D-Mission)
    Caption: Relating to the confidentiality of certain information for a current or former administrative law judge for the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 526
    Author: Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas)
    Sponsor: Rep. David Cook (R-Mansfield)
    Caption: Relating to requiring prior approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to offer a degree or certificate program to certain persons who are incarcerated or subject to involuntary civil commitment.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 485
    Author: Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas)
    Sponsor: Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress)
    Caption: Relating to designating the second Saturday in October as Hospice and Palliative Care Day.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 361
    Author: Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin)
    Sponsor: Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple)
    Caption: Relating to the eligibility of a person employed by a school district as a teacher to serve on the appraisal review board of an appraisal district.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 348
    Author: Sen. Drew Springer (R-Muenster)
    Sponsor: Rep. Morgan Meyer (R-Dallas)
    Caption: Relating to the prohibition on posting on the Internet information held by an appraisal district regarding certain residential property.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 315
    Author: Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood)
    Sponsor: Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos (D-Richardson)
    Caption: Relating to the definition of telephone call for purposes of regulating telephone solicitations.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 267
    Author: Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford)
    Sponsor: Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock)
    Caption: Relating to law enforcement agency accreditation, including a grant program to assist agencies in becoming accredited.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 247
    Author: Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston)
    Sponsor: Rep. Mary Ann Perez (D-Houston)
    Caption: Relating to specialty license plates issued for honorary consuls.
    Veto Date: June 16

    SB 1080
    Author: Sen. Lois Kolhorst (R-Brenham)
    Sponsor: Rep. Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville)
    Caption: Relating to a mitigation program and fees for the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.
    Veto Date: June 15

    SB 2493
    Author: Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston)
    Sponsor: Rep. John Bryant (D-Dallas)
    Caption: Relating to repairs made pursuant to a tenant’s notice of intent to repair and the refund of a tenant’s security deposit.
    Veto Date: June 15

    SB 1998
    Author: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
    Sponsor: Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple)
    Caption: Relating to the calculation of certain ad valorem tax rates.
    Veto Date: June 15
    Abbott’s statement: “Senate Bill No. 1998 requires data reporting on property taxes, but does nothing to cut property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

    HB 2879
    Author: Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress)
    Sponsor: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
    Caption: Relating to venue in certain actions involving a contract for an improvement to real property.
    Veto Date: June 15
    Abbott’s statement: “House Bill No. 2879 would insert the government into private negotiations involving the work of contractors, subcontractors, and materialmen. Laws about venue selection are simply not as important as cutting property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

    HB 2138
    Author: Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station)
    Sponsor: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
    Caption: Relating to the sale of charitable raffle tickets by certain nonprofit wildlife conservation associations.
    Veto Date: June 15
    Abbott’s statement: “Though House Bill No. 2138 would expand gambling for a worthy cause, our oath obliges us to take a second look at statewide sales of online raffle tickets so that they do not run afoul of Article III, Section 47(d) of the Texas Constitution. Laws authorizing online raffle ticket sales are simply not as important as cutting property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

    HB 4158
    Author: Rep. Mike Schofield (R-Katy)
    Sponsor: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
    Caption: Relating to the determination and reporting of the number of residence homesteads of elderly or disabled persons that are subject to the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed on the properties by school districts.
    Veto Date: June 14
    Abbott’s statement: “House Bill No. 4158 appears to require more paperwork about property taxes, but does nothing to cut property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

    SB 467
    Author: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
    Sponsor: Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano)
    Caption: Relating to increasing the criminal penalty for the offense of criminal mischief involving impairment of a motor fuel pump.
    Veto Date: June 14
    Abbott’s statement: “Senate Bill No. 467 would impose a harsher sentence for tampering with a gas pump than for damaging the electric grid or cutting a livestock fence. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

    SB 2035
    Author: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
    Sponsor: Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake)
    Caption: Relating to the issuance of certain anticipation notes and certificates of obligation.
    Veto Date: June 13
    Abbott’s statement: “Senate Bill 2035 has too many loopholes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

    (My apologies for your eyes glazing over skimming reading that.)

    I’m split between my admiration for Abbott having the balls to veto these bills, and the lazy and generally false statement of saying “X is important, but not as important as property tax relief,” given that most of these bill are not very important at all, save to a few special interests. Some of them, such as SB 2453, should have been vetoed on its merits for the government sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong. Without reading the full texts of each and every bill (not my job, because I’m not Governor of Texas), almost all the one with Democratic sponsors seem like they should be vetoed on the merits, and the rest seem pretty special-interest geared. At a glance, the only veto I actually disagree with is SB 467, because gas pump skimmers have recently become a big fraud vector.

    But Abbott is right on one big issue: The 88th Texas Legislative Session should have spent the time to pass property tax relief, an issue that directly impacts the pocket books of millions of Texas homeowners. I have not researched the issue enough to determine whether compression or a raising the homestead exemption are more desirable. Abbott and the Texas Public Policy Foundation favor compression, while Patrick favors raising the homestead exemption. Though I can well understand his rejecting House Speaker Dade Phelan’s “let’s pass this and adjourn so you have to accept our bill without negotiation” tactic.

    But I’m not upset with Abbott’s vetoes. He should have done a lot more of them, a lot earlier on, to cut down on the growth of government spending and regulation.

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    Posted in Budget, Communism, Regulation | 6 Comments »

    LinkSwarm for June 16, 2023

    June 16th, 2023

    ï»żMore Biden corruption comes to light, California gets even more crazy, and two former European Prime Ministers step out of the spotlight in different ways.

  • “House Oversight Chairman Says There Is Evidence Of $20-$30 Million Of Illegal Payments To Bidens.”

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer revealed Thursday that he expects there is evidence of at least $20-$30 million being made in illegal payments by foreign nationals to the Biden family.

    Appearing on Fox Business, Comer stated “We have more bank records coming in but we’re gonna exceed $10 million this week but I think we’ll get up to $20-$30 million.”

    He further noted that it is becoming clear that the Bidens potentially engaged in bribery, influence peddling, and money laundering.

    “This is going to be hard for Biden to explain, this is not going to go away, and I think eventually the mainstream media is going to start asking the real questions,” Comer added.

    “They know there’s something wrong here. They know all the allegations have merit, because of where Joe Biden was, because of what we’ve seen on tape before, where Joe Biden bragged about firing that prosecutor,” he added,

    “They know that this family created these shell companies. They know this family was money-laundering, they were profiting off Joe Biden’s influence,” Comer asserted, adding “The media knows that – they’re just not covering it.”

    “I can assure you: there is more money that we’re going to be able to identify, that was transferred between foreign nationals in other countries and the Biden family,” Comer further emphasized, adding “I think, eventually, the mainstream media will turn on Joe Biden and start asking the real questions: ‘What did your family do to receive all this money?’”

  • Speaking of Biden family corruption: “House Oversight Panel Subpoenas Former Hunter Biden Associate Devon Archer…[The committee] is particularly interested in Archer’s involvement in the family’s international business deals, which included countries like China, Russia, and Ukraine.” Archer was in Global Seneca Partners with Hunter Biden and John Kerry’s stepson.
  • Meanwhile, Robert Hur, the special council charged with investigating Biden, seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.
  • Biden recession update: Average real weekly earnings have dropped for the 26th consecutive month. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • California advances bill to help shoplifters steal.
  • “Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison stepped down this week as the progressive-run city struggles with homicides, a drug crisis, and a troubling rise in violence involving teenagers.” Time to pull this out again:

  • Illegal aliens try to hijack merchant ship with knives. Italian commandos demonstrate that’s a bad idea.
  • Jihadis kill nine in Congo.
  • The Netherlands are closing the largest natural gas field in Europe.
  • Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving prime minister, dead at 86. Berlusconi revived Italy’s economy, but then couldn’t keep it out of the PIIGS. But for a whilehe kept the wolves at bay.
  • Also stepping out of the spotlight this week: Former UK Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned from Parliment. Other than getting Brexit accomplished, Johnson’s tenure seemed all sizzle and no steak.
  • California’s unrealistic environmental policies are creating a trucking nightmare.

    In April 2023, an unelected Board in California voted to force trucking companies to buy zero-emission trucks. This technology is at early-stage adoption in limited segments, and infrastructure buildout is lagging behind what is required to support electrification in our industry. The Board unanimously advanced the Advanced Clean Fleet rule to accompany California’s equally tough electric vehicle sales mandate regulation, the Advanced Clean Truck rule, that would require truck manufacturers to sell zero-emission vehicles. These two regulations together are designed to create an artificial electric vehicle market sooner rather than later.

    This new rule was made at the behest of the environmental lobby, which pushed for unrealistic targets and unachievable timelines that will undoubtedly lead to higher prices for goods delivered to the state and fewer options for consumers. ATA has strongly opposed this rule from the outset and testified at a hearing in Sacramento to express the trucking industry’s concerns directly to the Board.

    Snip.

    Today’s clean diesel trucks can spend 15 minutes fueling anywhere in the country and then travel about 1,200 miles before fueling again. In contrast, today’s zero-emission trucks:

    • Have significantly less range of about 150-330 miles between charging or refueling;
    • Need to be charged or refueled more often and for longer periods of time leading to unproductive downtime;
    • Cost two to three times more than a comparable clean-diesel truck; and
    • Weigh thousands of pounds more, reducing payload capacity and requiring more trucks and drivers to move the same amount of freight.

    Also: “The California Energy Commission estimates that 157,000 chargers will need to be installed by 2030 to support California’s heavy-duty vehicle electrification goals.” Assuming there’s enough Lithium in the world for the batteries… (Hat tip: TPPF.)

  • Hope for San Francisco? Residents replace drug-addicted transients on their local sidewalks with large planters.
  • Two Russian oil tanks collide for exactly the reasons you would expect.
  • “DNC Generously Offers To Host Rally For Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By Grassy Knoll.”
  • “Satan Asks LGBTQ Community To Please Tone It Down A Bit.”

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, video, Waste and Fraud | 4 Comments »

    Federal Court To Biden: “No, You Can’t Have A National Guard Vax Mandate. Not Yours.”

    June 15th, 2023

    Slowly but surely the relics of governmental overreach in the name of containing Flu Manchu are being rolled back. Texas Governor Greg Abbott finally announced he was letting his three year old emergency declaration lapse. (Are you sure you’re not rushing there, governor?)

    Now a federal court has slapped down Biden’s vaccine mandate on the National Guard.

    Just hours after Gov. Greg Abbott finally ended the COVID-19 disaster declaration, he announced that he won an appeals case against the Biden administration for attempting to enforce vaccine mandates on the Texas National Guard.

    In January 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden to stop him from forcing the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard to get coronavirus vaccinations.

    Over a year later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued its ruling that the Constitution and laws of the United States deny Biden the power to punish members of the Texas National Guard if they refused to get injected with the vaccine.

    Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham stated in his opinion that he rejects the president’s assertion of power over the members because they were not called into national service.

    In this case, President Biden imposed and then repealed a mandate requiring State militiamen to take the COVID-19 vaccine. And now that the President has rescinded the vaccine requirement, he wants to retain the power to punish militia members who refused to get the shots while the mandate was in effect—all without calling them into national service. We reject the President’s assertion of power because it would undermine one of the most important compromises in the Constitution. If the Constitution’s text, history, and tradition make anything clear, it’s that the President can punish members of the Texas militia only after calling them into federal service.

    In Paxton’s lawsuit, he argued that neither the president nor federal military officials can force the state’s National Guard to comply with vaccination mandates.

    “Neither the President nor federal military officials can order the Governor of Texas and non-federalized National Guardsmen to comply with a vaccination mandate or to direct a particular disciplinary action for failure to comply,” Paxton’s office wrote in a press release. “President Biden is not those troops’ commander-in-chief; Governor Abbott is.”

    There seems to be no constitutional limit statists won’t override in their eternal, all-encompassing quest for dominion over others. Eternal vigilance is still the price of freedom.

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    Posted in Regulation, Texas | 1 Comment »

    I’m Really Satisfied With My Maytag MVWP575GW Washer

    June 14th, 2023

    Here’s a bit of appliance review that, alas, I probably can’t profit from in any way, since Amazon doesn’t seem to sell the model.

    My old Whirpool washer died in December, so I did some research as to what washer I should be. And most of my research was watching this video:

    And the two brands he recommended were:

  • The Speed Queen TC5000, for which I was quoted delivery times of 6-8 weeks, and
  • The Maytag MVWP575GW, which I could order directly from Maytag in about a week for around a grand, plus shipping and install. So that’s what I did.

    • That’s more than you’re going to pay for an average washer these days. I’ve been using it for six months now, and I’m pretty satisfied.

    What’s so special about it? It uses commercial grade mechanical parts instead of cheap plastic parts and fragile electronics.

    It’s a dumb washer rather than a smart one. This has many benefits:

  • Once you press Start, instead of spending 20 or 30 seconds with the “Sensing” LED lit up, it simply starts filing the tub with water.
  • If you forget to add something you meant to wash, you press the same Start button, lift the lid, put it back down, and press it again, and the washer simply starts washing where it left off. It doesn’t blink lights at you accusingly and refuse to run until you unplug and replug the machine.
  • So far it’s never stopped mid-cycle for no discernible reason.
  • It finishes washing quicker, even with a presoak and extra spin.

    • America’s misguided energy- and water-saving regulations have left us with an array of devices that inferior to earlier generations of dumb devices at the main job they were designed for.

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    Posted in Regulation, Uncategorized, video | 12 Comments »

    Why Disney Fails: Their Blindness To Real Geek Culture

    June 13th, 2023

    Here’s a nice, short rant from Paul Chato (who I’d not heard of before) on why Disney’s social justice re-imagining of classic franchises fail: It’s not just their woeful ignorance of their own franchise, it’s the woeful ignorance of the vaster connected universe of fandom/geekdom/nerdom.

  • “The thing that really ties those of us who grew up reading comic books together is not the primary properties like Superman, Batman, Spider-man, or even Lord of the Rings, but the peripheral stuff or peripheral interests. When we talk to each other, we’ll also reference video games, anime, manga, computers, astronomy, network protocols, synthesizers, cars.”

  • Put a bunch of us nerds together, even complete strangers, into a room, well, Heaven help you, and soon we’ll be talking about Cowboy Bebop or Akira Kurosawa, or NES, Atari, ColecoVision, Ultraman, Kirby, Adams, McFarland, Studio Ghibli, second breakfasts, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Fireball XL5, Scooby-Doo, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Matrix (only the first one), Terminator, Blade Runner, Aliens, Herge, Miller, Robert E. Howard, Harryhausen, Lasseter, good scotch. Has anyone heard Kathleen Kennedy talk about any of those things? Of course not, and I can hear you laughing.

    • That’s a pretty good name check list, though I’d add Robert A. Heinlein and H. P. Lovecraft (among others).

    But it’s an interesting point: Social justice showrunners are woefully ignorant of vast swathes of knowledge held by the fandoms they hold in such withering contempt.

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    Posted in Media Watch, video | 27 Comments »

    This Is Your City On Democrats: Philadelphia

    June 12th, 2023

    Evidently it is the deepest desire of Democratic Party activists to turn the streets of American cities into needle-strewn wastelands of drug addicts openly shooting up and shitting on the street. Because that’s the results that the Democratic Party drug- and crime-tolerant policies create time and time again.

    Here’s a video of the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

  • “This is Kensington Philadelphia the center of America’s drug epidemic overrun with a drug known as tranq, a mixture of horse tranquilizer and Fentanyl that’s turning people there into real life zombies.”
  • Needles are everywhere on the streets, despite the remaining law-abiding occupants and shop owners sweeping them up in the morning.
  • “People come here from all over. They drive here and then they never leave. So everyone comes out here to get drugs. This is the hub, and you can shoot them up and cops wouldn’t do anything about it.”
  • “It’s crazy. You’ll see one block that looked clean, and then you go to the next block over: feces.”
  • “A new problem 24/7 gambling [machines]…they’re in every store.”
  • “Everyone’s using tranq.”
  • Even the drug addicts call frforom bringing the military in to clean up the place.
  • Unmentioned: Philadelphia’s DA is Larry Krasner, another George Soros-backed stooge. Vote for a Soros stooge, get 24/7 open air drug markets in your city, absolutely free!

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, video | 7 Comments »

    Even The Unibomber Couldn’t Stand College Lefties

    June 11th, 2023

    I assume you saw that Unibomber Ted Kaczynski died in federal prison. Serial murder of strangers in the name of destroying modern civilization is no laughing matter, but this was too funny not to point out:

    Evidence that college leftists are so annoying that even serial murdering environmental lunatics can’t stand them…

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

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    Posted in Crime, Social Justice Warriors | 2 Comments »

    Abbott Gets His Slush Fund Back

    June 10th, 2023

    Remember the old Chapter 313 program Texas used to dole out incentives to favored companies to relocate to Texas? It’s back under a new name.

    House Bill 5, which author State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi) calls the “Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation Act,” would create a new statewide economic incentive program to replace the state’s controversial Chapter 313 program, which ended after lawmakers declined to renew it during the 2021 legislative session.

    Although both the Republican Party of Texas and the Democrat Party of Texas oppose corporate handouts in their platforms, State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R–Georgetown), has said “the majority of the Legislature does see value in a job-creating, economy-growing incentive program.”

    HB 5 was a priority of House Speaker Dade Phelan (R–Beaumont) and approved by a vote of 120-24 in the House and 27-4 in the Senate.

    However, Jeramy Kitchen, executive director of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility told Texas Scorecard the new law is a “contradiction and nothing more.”

    “On one hand, he is telling Texans that he wants to see historic property tax relief and the elimination of the property tax, or more specifically the school M&O portion of the property tax,” explained Kitchen. “Both of those are things that TFR supports and encourages the legislature to take action on.”

    “His signing of House Bill 5 however, points to a contradiction, as it ultimately will do nothing more than burden those same individual property taxpayers he purports to provide historic relief to, as large qualifying corporations receive a property tax abatement under the guise of economic development,” said Kitchen.

    Like Chapter 313, HB 5 allows businesses to apply for a 10-year abatement—or reduction—of school district property taxes, which the state pays instead. To receive an abatement, the business would have to show it plans to hire a certain number of employees earning above-average wages for its particular industry.

    Unlike the previous incentive program, HB 5 requires not just the applicant and school district to agree to the abatement, but also the comptroller, governor, and a seven-member legislative oversight committee composed of lawmakers from the state House and Senate.

    This committee would have the final say on approving proposed projects and would provide periodic recommendations to the Legislature regarding which types of projects should be considered.

    The problem with the old program was that it let government use taxpayer money to pick winners from the politically connected. Abbott has wanted the restoration of his economic incentive “carrot” ever since it expired. The new law even creates another level of politicos for businesses to suck up to get tax rebate goodies, and I bet competition to get assigned to that new “oversite committee” will be fierce.

    The old program probably did incentivize a few edge-case businesses to move to Texas who wouldn’t otherwise, but Texas’ low-tax, low-cost and business-friendly regulatory environment already provides plenty of incentives to move here, as evidenced by the fact that businesses kept relocating here even in their absence.

    At least there’s one improvement in the new version: “After Chapter 313 received much criticism for its funding of “renewable energy” projects, which Texas Scorecard previously examined in an extensive investigation, lawmakers also blocked such industries from receiving taxpayer funding through HB 5.”

    Taxpayers are better served by keeping their own money than theoretically enjoying the down-the-line economic benefits of government functionaries showering their money on corporate welfare for businesses willing to do the requisite sucking-up to political figures in order to get paid to move here.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Republicans, Texas, Welfare State | 2 Comments »

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