Nostr notes by Karl Auerbach

Wow, not many people can quote James Joyce, especially on a ...

2026-04-19T15:50:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…c6nl
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Wow, not many people can quote James Joyce, especially on a Sunday morning in April.

BTW, I know someone, who is a descendant of that writer.

My grandmother's favorite wine: Chateau Nez du Pape (When she ...

2026-04-19T04:39:06Z

My grandmother's favorite wine:

Chateau Nez du Pape

(When she would cook a chicken she would often point out the tail, the part that goes over the fence last, as "The Pope's Nose".)

Miami is going to be really upset with a 50 story tall golden ...

2026-03-31T17:48:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…3rt7
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Miami is going to be really upset with a 50 story tall golden outhouse in the center of the city. At least it's lower levels will be washed daily as the sea levels continue to rise.

And will it be designed and engineered by the clowns who did the Millennium Tower in San Francisco?

(Thinking of trump and his goldbug disease - I attended a conference in Las Vegas and they put me into a [rather nice] room at the Wynn overlooking the trump monstrosity - the reflected gold light in the morning was overwhelming and made the world look as if overrun by yellow smog.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Tower_(San_Francisco)

California Democrats are proof positive that humans are not an ...

2026-03-24T23:40:47Z

California Democrats are proof positive that humans are not an intelligent species.

Here in Calif we have a unique primary system - a single primary for *all* parties. The top two move onto the general election, the rest are out of the game.

So here we have two R's splitting a smaller part of the electorate and a dozen D's splitting a larger part.

The result is that it is likely that the two R's will get larger vote counts than any of the dozen D's. Thus *only* those two R's will move onto the general election and *ALL* of the D's will be sent to the showers. And California will end up with a conservative R governor despite the state being overwhelmingly D.

The key is that at least ten of the D candidates need to drop out, IMMEDIATELY. But they are squabbling like D's normally do about identity politics and other stupid things.

"California governor poll raises prospect of two Republicans contesting runoff"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/24/california-governor-election-republicans

Thanks for the pointer. I would really like This Land is Our Land ...

2026-03-22T23:31:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…8pf0
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Thanks for the pointer.

I would really like This Land is Our Land to become the new US National Anthem.

Other tunes have been suggested but this one expresses best the idea that we - you and I and the rest of us - own this country and that we, despite our disagreements, are in charge.

Every now and then I feel I must post this most wonderful ...

2026-03-22T21:03:42Z

Every now and then I feel I must post this most wonderful cover...

Sharon Jones was taken from us far too soon.

"This land is your land"

https://youtu.be/XMbBdNEjaFk?t=38

My view on open source code and voting is that while open source ...

2026-03-19T23:23:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…rhq3
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My view on open source code and voting is that while open source is useful in many cases it is not necessarily so in voting code.

Why? One of the argument of O-source code is inspection. It is a good argument, if it were done (may AI tools can do good work here - but what is the criteria they would use to tell good from bad?)

In our effort we concluded that while inspection is good, testing is better - and that anyone ought to be able to test (and that vendors ought to supply test gear), *and* that test results be published to all.

There is a side effect - we want to encourage vendors to build good voting systems (software+hardware+procedures). So we ought to leave some incentives, like not requiring publication of the code (or parts of the code) and limit open copying/use - leaving some room for innovation and profit.

We also tend to forget toolchains - which are often a significant overlooked vulnerability.

Well, now that it has happened we can all know, based on actual ...

2026-03-15T21:48:48Z

Well, now that it has happened we can all know, based on actual concrete proof, that not a single person in the US military hierarchy obeys the law that requires the refusal of unlawful/unconstitutional orders.

We have transitioned from a military under Constitutional and statutory limitations to a military that is a Republican Guard, or in older terms, a Praetorian Guard.

If we ever do, if ever, return to a nation of laws then every person in the entire military hierarchy is going to have to be charged and disciplined - because no one, not a one, even questioned, much less refused, the unlawful/unconstitutional orders to go to war with Iran.

A short sci-fi story for the news of these few weeks (aka about ...

2026-03-14T15:44:20Z

A short sci-fi story for the news of these few weeks (aka about the stupid attack on Iran) ...

"Superiority" by A. C. Clark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superiority_(short_story)

https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v002n04_1951-08_AK/page/n3/mode/2up

Don't check your investments today - you will be unhappily ...

2026-03-12T18:14:29Z

Don't check your investments today - you will be unhappily shocked.

I once was driving around in Palo Alto, California with a friend ...

2026-02-21T02:50:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…jt8c
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I once was driving around in Palo Alto, California with a friend from India. Just after we encountered and crossed a CalTrain grade crossing my friend said:

India may be a second world country, but we do not have railroad grade crossings.

Have you ever seen the 1966 film Blow Up? One of the major ...

2026-02-19T07:31:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…qc85
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Have you ever seen the 1966 film Blow Up?

One of the major threads of the film is snapshots that may or may not reveal a murder - so the protagonist keeps trying to pull more detail out of the photos.

It's a rather good movie, very much locked into the mid+ 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowup

Long ago - and I mean long ago - mid 1970's in fact - one ...

2026-02-11T18:34:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…8yt8
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Long ago - and I mean *long* ago - mid 1970's in fact - one group in our research department at SDC in Santa Monica was doing a project called "Continuous Voice Recognition".

The customer was, I believe, one or more of those three letter agencies scattered near DC in Virginia and Maryland.

And the never clearly articulated goal was to facilitate wire tapping by automating the recognition of trigger words and phrases so that a human could then jump in and listen.

They had a cool poster on the wall "Fricative-Plosive Analysis"

I turned the sound proof room they built into my place to hide in order to get work done.

That was 50 years ago. Voice recognition and comprehension has advanced a long way since then.

On the other coast - at UCLA, mid 1970s - I think it was Mark ...

2026-02-05T02:49:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…ay7l
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On the other coast - at UCLA, mid 1970s - I think it was Mark Kampe, Carl Switzky, and I who submitted a bid to port Unix to UCLA's differential analyzer.

Of course it was impossible, but the administration didn't seem to get the joke.

I am quite unclear what signed or unsigned integers would be on that machine, much less how they would overflow.

One might ask: Why is the US sending ICE agents to Italy and the ...

2026-02-01T19:16:26Z

One might ask: Why is the US sending ICE agents to Italy and the Winter Olympics?

It seems an odd concept for the US to forcefully deport people from Italy.

It seems an even more odd concept to understand why the Italian government, a government of a sovereign nation, would allow another country to openly kidnap people in Italy.

And we US taxpayers are footing the costs for this cruelty.

"Milan protesters call for U.S. ICE agents to leave Italy as Winter Games approach"

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5695197/as-winter-olympics-milan-protesters-call-for-ice-agents-to-leave-italy

There is a bit of a gloss to be added to your note ... There ...

2026-01-20T18:07:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…pxm0
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There is a bit of a gloss to be added to your note ...

There *were* projects in the 1970's to deal with network identification, authentication, access control, and encryption (including key management).

I know - I worked on some of those projects.

But we were under a heavy hand of rather paranoid security restrictions - we could not talk about what we were doing. So pretty much everything we did was hidden and eventually had to be re-invented. Almost none of our documents have made it into present-day digital collections. In other words our security weakness of today is a self-inflicted wound born from excessive security/paranoia of the 1970s.

I hate to use grokpedia but it does have a vastly better description of my project than does wikipedia...

https://grokipedia.com/page/blacker_security

I look forward to reading your lecture. I've long been ...

2026-01-17T00:45:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…5qja
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I look forward to reading your lecture.

I've long been thinking that we need to revisit our concept of "corporation". After Milton Friedman's assertion - one with with I have *major* disagreements - that the goal of corporate management is to "increase shareholder value" - corporations have ceased being vehicles for the merger of capital, innovating, and management expertise, all under an state granted incentive of limited liability and the convenience of a unified legal identity.

After Citizens United, corporations have become to become not merely never-dying dynastic accumulations of wealth, but also means through which a few hired managers - not even the board of directors, and much less the shareholders - can leverage the assets and wealth of the corporation into an intense political force.

(I am rather intrigued by the state level "Montana Plan" as well as my constitutional plan - https://www.cavebear.com/cavebear-blog/redressing_corp_power/ )

It is pretty clear that ICE/DHS are intentionally trying to ...

2026-01-13T22:47:26Z

It is pretty clear that ICE/DHS are intentionally trying to elicit a violent, possibly armed, response to these violent acts.

The ICE-gang is desiring this because then el cheato will invoke the insurrection act. That will, in turn, open the gates for the goons to really start breaking heads and for blood to flow in the streets.

My guess is that some ICE goon, somewhere, is going to get shot by a sniper or protester within a month, if not sooner.

I expect February to begin a true rain of maga terror.

(And, of course, we will see Noem posing on an advancing armored troop carrier - wearing a tight t-shirt, bullet-resistant vest, and maga-face - with an M16 or M4.)

"Anti-ICE protester blinded by federal agent during demonstration in Santa Ana, family says"

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-13/socal-protester-permanently-blinded-by-dhs-agent-family-says

I've been beaten by the LAPD. I lived in Berkeley in the late ...

2026-01-11T23:12:46Z

I've been beaten by the LAPD. I lived in Berkeley in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I've been tear gassed and watched police push people backwards off of highway overpasses. I knew and understood many Black Panthers.

I am sick and tired of Kumbaya songs. I am sick and tired of turn-the-other-cheek reactions to current affairs in the US.

But I am also a lawyer, sworn to peaceful methods.

What do I do?

What strikes me is the age old method of ostracism - practiced in ancient Athens, written about in plays like Lysistrata, and rendered into strong force by churches through the practice of excommunication.

We ought to perform civil excommunication on ICE agents - do not sell or rent products to them in stores, do not rent hotel rooms to them, do not fund them, treat them like modern day lepers. Businesses should make it clear that they will never be hired for a job. Do not adopt Jesus' policy of acceptance of them.

Spread their names so that we may cut them off from society.

Interest rates are not necessarily the real issue. Credit card ...

2026-01-10T18:22:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…tx2e
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Interest rates are not necessarily the real issue. Credit card companies and the "retail" (consumer level) parts of banks make a great deal of their money not from interest rates but from things like late payment fees/penalties and yearly charges just to have a credit card.

I sometimes have trouble with faces - who are these people? Well, ...

2026-01-07T01:09:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…2atx
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I sometimes have trouble with faces - who are these people? Well, the one on the left I recognize, although I wish I did not. It's the other one who looks familiar but I can't pin a name on him.

Keep up your good work! And remember to keep those pixels dry.

2026-01-01T07:10:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…vlrf
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Keep up your good work!

And remember to keep those pixels dry.

One of my first memories of San Francisco (when not with my ...

2026-01-01T07:07:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…tupa
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One of my first memories of San Francisco (when not with my parents) was around that time - maybe 1966. I remember being at Cafe Trieste at something like 3am on a very wet, foggy night, talking to an aging beatnik who had been working 20+ years carving a three color nude, and he was still working on the first color.

I spent many a day and night in The City during the late 1960s and early 1970s - full hippie era. I did not move to The City (Inner Richmond district) until about 1981.

I really miss the cold, misty nights, riding the cable cars late at night (I always stood on the board, hanging on, just to the right of the driver.) The cable cars were more wild - rather rickety and shakey than they are now - before the system was rebuilt in the 1980s.

You said "Over half the time I have given a query to Gemini ...

2025-12-31T20:40:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…6p7l
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You said "Over half the time I have given a query to Gemini it has returned an incorrect result."

That caused me to wonder: How often would Gemini return a correct result if I were to give it an incorrect query?

BTW, you might find the following paper from 1977 to be illuminating or amusing:

How Artificial Is Intelligence? The great works of literature and art are not merely rare statistical fluctuations, but are they simply the products of correlation matrices?

Author(s): W. R. Bennett Jr.

Source: American Scientist , November-December 1977, Vol. 65, No. 6 (November-December 1977), pp. 694-702

Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27848169

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27848169

#ai

Huh? Santa Monica is on solid historic legal grounds - Waymo cars ...

2025-12-30T21:09:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…afsm
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Huh? Santa Monica is on solid historic legal grounds - Waymo cars honking is a classic form of nuisance that cities and states have long been able to regulate and harmed people have long had the ability to bring lawsuits to enjoin and collect damages.

What, is Google/Waymo claiming that cars have a first amendment right to honk?

Have you ever wondered what they show as an in-flight movie? Dr. ...

2025-12-25T06:47:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…mgwe
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Have you ever wondered what they show as an in-flight movie? Dr. Strangelove? On the Beach?

Almost 2 million views, so far, of this particular posting. (I ...

2025-12-25T01:43:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…xjzt
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Almost 2 million views, so far, of this particular posting. (I watched it from the Internet Archives.)

I'm making a guess here: It has been my understanding that ...

2025-12-21T06:45:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…tnfj
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I'm making a guess here: It has been my understanding that one of Google's purposes when making StreetView was to capture all of the wi-fi SSIDs and their locations, so that those could be used in Google products as one of their geo-location mechanisms. If most of the city's wi-fi nets go down those Waymo cars could have lost one of their primary navigation sources.

That's just a guess.

From various rumors and sources it appears that Open AI - a ...

2025-12-09T02:28:09Z

From various rumors and sources it appears that Open AI - a company organized under Delaware law but with HQ in California - is the cause of the tripling of computer memory prices and shortages.

Word is that Open AI bought up all of the large wafers from Samsung and Hynix that are used to make memory. The intention seems to be to corner the market in order to hobble Open AI's competition.

I am not an expert in either Federal or State laws on anti-competitive practices.

But this action by Open AI sure creates a strong scent of improper restraint of trade and competition.

I'd be curious what others think about this. And if it might be useful to raise the issue to the Atty Generals of those states (particularly California) that have state laws about these things. (Given that Open AI contributed to El Cheato, the Federal justice dep't will, of course, just ignore this.)

Here is yet another example of the maga-klan's goal of ...

2025-12-08T18:09:13Z

Here is yet another example of the maga-klan's goal of suppressing free speech and freedom of exercise of religion (except for speech and religion that conforms to maga-land.)

"ICE director demands Mass. church remove ‘ICE was here’ nativity scene"

https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/12/ice-director-demands-mass-church-remove-ice-was-here-nativity-scene.html

The IRS still pushes hard for paper checks in certain ...

2025-12-07T00:43:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…9l03
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The IRS still pushes hard for paper checks in certain circumstances - for instance they really do not like electronic transfers for qualified charitable distributions (QCD) - Every November I have to print and sign a stack of paper QCD checks - with a fountain pen and green ink - no autopen is involved.

I very much agree that self-driving things should have large, ...

2025-12-05T20:09:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…27u3
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I very much agree that self-driving things should have large, obvious, easily used emergency stop buttons on the outside.

As you said - yes there can be abuse, but experience with elevators and fire alarms tells us that the value gained by having STOP buttons greatly outweighs the nuisance caused by false or intentionally disruptive use.

There is another thread to this - in product liability law there are situations in which the maker of a product can be held strictly liable - no negligence required - for harms that occur. (This legal development started in the 1950's with those obviously dangerous "vaporizers", pots of boiling water, that were intended to be placed near slipping children, who sometimes overturned the pot and were scalded.)

Seems like self driving vehicles - especially when fraudulently described as "full self driving" - might fall into that category of "strict liability" for harms they cause.

These seem sensible in reasonably flat areas, especially areas ...

2025-11-29T18:59:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…hy5s
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These seem sensible in reasonably flat areas, especially areas with light traffic. But I wonder about these with a full load trying to go up Jones St. in San Francisco or, potentially worse, brake fade going *down* Green Street.

To my eyes, this is an act of war by the US upon the nation of ...

2025-11-29T18:36:54Z

To my eyes, this is an act of war by the US upon the nation of Venezuela. (Not to mention the blurring of GPS and the sinking of boats by the US.)

If indeed a state of war now exists (to borrow a phrase from FDR's speech to Congress after Pearl Harbor) then Venezuela could be anticipated to wage war against the US - endangering US people (including tourists) everywhere in the world.

El Cheato and Whiskey Pete are getting the US in Vietnam Part II.

"Trump says airspace above and around Venezuela should be considered closed"

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-says-airspace-above-surrounding-venezuela-be-closed-its-entirety-2025-11-29/

One of our security kernel projects started with Jerry ...

2025-11-23T18:21:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…50fp
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One of our security kernel projects started with Jerry Popek's UCLA Data Secure Unix. (How we got the code was an interesting story - Dave Kaufman and I simply drover over to UCLA and [I think it was Mark Kampe or Dave Crocker] simply dumped the entire disk of Popek's PDP-11, so we got a lot more than just the code we wanted, much much more.)

Data Secure Unix was so slow that one could type "date" and head out for lunch. The answer would have finally finished printing about the time one got back from that lunch.

It was a big job to turn that into a packet switching/security managing device - I think the only code that was preserved was a tiny bit of recursive assembly code in the device driver for a Decwriter printer.

It was more fun later on when we tossed the PDP 11s and tried to design and build our own capability architecture - we got buried by number of content-addressable memories we needed to get adequate performance.

Long ago (1970s) our group at SDC was working on formal ...

2025-11-23T18:00:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…hgzk
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Long ago (1970s) our group at SDC was working on formal verification of our security kernels and - at least we tried - network security protocol.

(Our group included some early luminaries - Val Schore, Jan Garwick, John Scheid, Marv Schaeffer, Hillary Ormand - and later on Whit Diffie as a consultant.)

We had to design and code according to patterns and inject a kind of assertion language into the code. (Pascal language.) The verification was to try to see whether that conformed to "the criteria".

Turns out that coming up with the criteria against which to prove that the code conforms with the criteria is really, really hard, even for simple security models because one has to deal with things like low frequency data channels - like signalling (a potential security leak) by modulation of things like virtual memory paging or processor caches. We had to exclude channels < 300 bits/second, even knowing that that's a pretty wide channel.

My age is showing - I initially mis-read your post as talking ...

2025-11-20T20:42:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…u6c3
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My age is showing - I initially mis-read your post as talking about Control Data Corporation, CDC.

Who's going to go to Frostbite Falls to fetch the Upsidasium?

2025-11-08T22:39:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…4la8
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Who's going to go to Frostbite Falls to fetch the Upsidasium?

I am curious about tree migration efforts to get ahead of climate ...

2025-11-07T20:14:38Z

I am curious about tree migration efforts to get ahead of climate change caused forest dieoffs.

I live towards the southern end of the California coast redwoods. As the climate warms the cool-foggy zone that these trees need will be moving north.

But for trees that take a thousand years to mature, they can't move their range northward at the needed rate.

(I hear that there is a similar issue with sugar maples.)

Anyway, I am wondering if there are planting/propagation efforts to increase the northward speed of these, and other trees and plants?

What does the "do not cut canopy" warning mean?

2025-11-03T18:59:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…ueny
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What does the "do not cut canopy" warning mean?

WTF?!?!

2025-10-30T15:40:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…0sv8
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WTF?!?!

You know, we - you and I, taxpayers - own that building. This is ...

2025-10-21T22:19:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…fy4t
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You know, we - you and I, taxpayers - own that building.

This is wanton destruction of public property. It is a crime. Had you or I had taken a sledge hammer to a Federal building we would have been arrested.

When I was doing operating and network security (long ago back in ...

2025-10-17T01:27:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…u2f7
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When I was doing operating and network security (long ago back in the 1970s) we did formal proofs of correctness of our code and (we tried) of our network protocols.

Correctness? What does that mean? It means conformance with a detailed mathematical expression regarding things like data flows.

Turns out that coming up with such a criteria, even for very simple security models, is amazingly difficult.

In our race to wrap everything in difficult layers of encryption ...

2025-10-17T00:21:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…77wc
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In our race to wrap everything in difficult layers of encryption and other protections, can we please remember that sometimes things on the net break or get misconfigured and some of us need to figure out what is going wrong and deploy repairs.

Many among us believe that the internet is a lifeline grade utility into which they can entrust their health, wealth, and safety. Some of us understand that the net is not worthy of that kind of trust. But we can aspire to make it better.

But the present race to protect is like intervening in an ongoing surgery and turning off all the lights.

I don't know the answer, but we need to make sure that our security systems remember that some of use are trying to keep the internet lights on and packets moving.

Is there any reason - apart from the possibility of civil and ...

2025-10-14T23:45:07Z

Is there any reason - apart from the possibility of civil and criminal sanctions - for paying Federal income taxes?

Congress has abandoned "the power of the purse" thus leaving our Federal government treasury outside of the Congress based appropriation machinery created by our Constitution and restated in various laws (such as the "anti-deficiency" act.)

Remember that old phrase - something about "no taxation without representation"? It used to mean something.

If you read the Federal statute about these presidential dollar ...

2025-10-04T14:35:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…nkg8
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If you read the Federal statute about these presidential dollar coins you'll see, and be horrified, to see that he gets *two* such coins because his two terms were not sequential.

Also that same law allows for Melonoma to get a "bullion" coin.

I wonder how well backed is the machinery to continue Social ...

2025-09-30T01:21:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…nw7z
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I wonder how well backed is the machinery to continue Social Security/Medicare. If DOG-E broke something then will there be a means to fix it during the shutdown?

That Pratchett quote reminded me of something I rarely say ...

2025-09-28T19:43:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…edkr
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That Pratchett quote reminded me of something I rarely say (because it offends some pearl-clutching sensibilities):

All of our law is based on an ultimate foundation of force. Underneath our courts and judges is the power to physically take hold of one's body, property, even of one's life.

The hammer behind our laws is not a soft hammer bearing pretty words like "morality" or "ethics", it is an iron sledge bearing the ugly words "mayhem unto death."

Ol' Clarence T. says that prior SCOTUS decisions are not ...

2025-09-28T19:27:12Z

Ol' Clarence T. says that prior SCOTUS decisions are not binding, that they are precedent that is not controlling.

OK.

That effectively means that no SCOTUS decision is actually final, that all SCOTUS decisions are merely provisional and may be silently reversed by simply refusing to acknowledge that that case has to be honored as binding precedent.

This, in turn, means that SCOTUS never really is finished with a case, even after it renders a decision.

That, in turn, means that SCOTUS has the power - and there is nothing in our Constitution that denies this power - to pick up an older case & overturn it by issuing a new decision to replace the initial decision.

Just as El Cheeto wiped out Biden's Executive Orders, a new panel on SCOTUS could quickly wipe out the egregious cases of the Roberts/Cheeto era.

Of course this means the end of law as a predictable framework. But have we not already reached a place where what is law and what it means has become the whim of the President?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/28/clarance-thomas-precedence-supreme-court-docket

Until recently I had no idea that ILM started near Van Nuys ...

2025-09-28T00:39:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…kdlg
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Until recently I had no idea that ILM started near Van Nuys airport.

You had a lot more contact with that world than I ever had - I'm kinda envious. The closest I got was some discussions about network projects around year 2000 up at Skywalker Ranch.

WTF, the musk-boyz are certainly fearful of not being "manly ...

2025-09-27T19:03:36Z

WTF, the musk-boyz are certainly fearful of not being "manly men" (when, in truth many of them are probably incels.)

"“Some Weird Elon Musk Shit”: Inside LA’s Young, Testosterone-Fueled Sperm Race"

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/sperm-racing-eric-zhu

Within two days after Prop 50 was approved for the ballot we (and ...

2025-09-27T18:48:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…qcpx
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Within two days after Prop 50 was approved for the ballot we (and many others) received glossy lies in our mailboxes. These lies mis-represented several well known people as being opposed to Prop 50.

These mailings originated from a law firm that specializes in this kind of junk (how that aligns with legal practice I do not understand) in San Rafael, California (near the old Industrial Light and Magic buildings) or from a mailbox/UPS store in southern California.

Measuring "accumulated wealth" can be really hard. Or ...

2025-09-25T22:07:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…e7gk
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Measuring "accumulated wealth" can be really hard.

Or rather, not hard when counting the wealth of most of us, but really hard when counting the wealth of a person who can afford a pile of expensive accountants and lawyers to create a worldwide mesh of trusts and corporations - perhaps with some "mixers" where the wealth of multiple people is aggregated but who has what amounts is masked - with those mixers having their own sub-trees. (Basically I am describing trump org.)

I had to fill out some of the US Financial Crimes agency's Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIE) forms. I thought it was a good idea to help penetrate these corporate/trust webs. But El Cheeto cancelled that data gathering.

If you want to merge the UBI into "tax terminology" you ...

2025-09-25T21:57:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…kf8f
_________________________

If you want to merge the UBI into "tax terminology" you could call it a "refundable tax credit" - as a refundable credit it still gets paid to every person, whether they pay taxes or not. Putting UBI into that context may fit better with the existing gears and levers of our tax collection/payment system.

The UBI component makes your "flat tax" into a mildly progressive tax. I don't mind that, but I do think we ought to have a heavier, or "more progressive" tax load on high incomes (or for that matter on high collections of wealth [whether that wealth is directly owned or farmed out via a mesh of US and foreign corporations and trusts.)

It's my sense that AM radio spectrum may end up being sold ...

2025-09-19T19:34:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…rq9f
_________________________

It's my sense that AM radio spectrum may end up being sold and repurposed - that seems to be the way of the world that wants to monetize everything.

As for broadcast TV - I vaguely remember that there is a fairly significant change coming in the way that things work and that may break many existing TVs or require set-top-boxes. I don't know the details.

All this talk about cancelling broadcast licenses kinda forgets ...

2025-09-19T00:41:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…dzge
_________________________

All this talk about cancelling broadcast licenses kinda forgets that broadcast TV is a dying technology, much like AM radio.

Nearly every one I know watches via the Internet either in streaming or fetches of video snippets.

BTW, it's pretty easy to set up an unlicensed "channel" on popular devices such as Roku, which is also found, built-in, on many smart TVs.

I can tell you, from first hand experience, that when a Red Tail ...

2025-09-18T05:12:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…2mw6
_________________________

I can tell you, from first hand experience, that when a Red Tail wants to come after you you need to get out of the way!!

There are several Red Tails that nest in the woods across the street and one afternoon one of 'em decided that my presence in my front garden was no longer to be tolerated. Low level, straight at my head, talons out. (I ducked and it missed - probably intentionally) But it left me a nice, big feather.

(We also have Red Shoulder hawks - they are truly amazing as they zip at low level through the trees.)

Now that the speech and petition parts of the 1st amendment have ...

2025-09-13T17:03:46Z

Now that the speech and petition parts of the 1st amendment have been erased (just like the first part of the second amendment and much of the privileges and immunities part of the 14th amendment) one has to wonder when the religion parts of the 1st amendment will be transformed into an obligatory Church of the USA that we will all be required to join (except for a sufficient number of Jews that will be needed to bring on the apocalypse and final days the evangelicals all want to happen so that they can be ruptured.)

(That was one seriously run-on sentence!!)

"Several people fired after clampdown on speech over Charlie Kirk shooting"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/13/charlie-kirk-shooting-people-fired-social-media

How come children killed in schools are "killed" or ...

2025-09-11T19:53:42Z

How come children killed in schools are "killed" or "murdered" but scum like C. Kirk are "assassinated"?

I wonder how many other hospitals in the California central ...

2025-09-09T00:09:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…j3sy
_________________________

I wonder how many other hospitals in the California central valley will close for other reasons, such as hedge funds stripping their assets and leaving empty hulks with massive debt burdens.

I am far from having expertise in the art of issuing IDs. So I do ...

2025-09-01T05:42:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…ya0q
_________________________

I am far from having expertise in the art of issuing IDs. So I do not understand when you say "Providing IDs to every voter is a really hard problem."

??

(I do remember back when Dave Kaufman and I were trying to figure out operating system access control matrices that we always seemed to back into the question of "how do we know who the actor is?" [Especially when a person or thing was acting as an agent with delegated authorities from another.])

I also keep bumping into the old national ID card issue - and the fears that a person could be "vanished" by a government agency. But then again, we seem to be moving pretty close to a national ID card with things like SecureID driver's licenses.

Throw into the brew the situation a few years ago when states ...

2025-09-01T00:11:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…mmj9
_________________________

Throw into the brew the situation a few years ago when states tried to require that presidential candidates publish tax returns and were shot down by courts saying that states can not modify the requirements to hold office.

Although that is not directly germane to the voter ID situation, it does reflect a policy that when it comes to election stuff, the Constitution occupies almost the entire space leaving little room for additional Federal or state regulation.

With regard to voter ID - that is an issue that is hard to oppose because it is not irrational. I believe the D's would be better off not opposing voter ID but, instead, using those resources to make sure that every likely D voter has a proper voter ID.

Oh those poor ICE goons. They are so afraid of getting a nasty ...

2025-08-31T04:08:44Z

Oh those poor ICE goons. They are so afraid of getting a nasty e-mail. Oh woe is them.

Yet they beat up, arrest, deport, and terrorize people. True Nazi scum those ICE people.

And they insist they must hide their identities - as in "The Trial" by Kafka.

I, on the other hand, think they should be exposed - totally exposed: name, affiliation, DNA sequence and so forth. They should even be required, like sex offenders, to walk neighborhoods warning of their presence.

Hey, if they don't like it then they can quit and get an honest job.

"AI is unmasking ICE officers. Can Washington do anything about it?"

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/29/ai-unmasking-ice-officers-00519478

This has Stephen Miller's fingerprints all over it... ...

2025-08-30T20:33:05Z

This has Stephen Miller's fingerprints all over it...

"‘I’m not coming home’: Trump policy holds people in Ice custody without bail"

"Restaurant worker’s case shows how Trump administration is ‘inflicting the maximum punishment’, experts say"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/30/immigration-custody-bail-trump

I find it interesting to compare the present day desire of ...

2025-08-30T19:34:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…m8wl
_________________________

I find it interesting to compare the present day desire of AT&T to remove regulation that it provide effectively universal service with AT&Ts use, early in its life, of using regulation as a way to suppress competition and promoting AT&T to be the nation's "universal carrier".

Here in Santa Cruz, California one can hear the wailing, gnashing ...

2025-08-29T22:49:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…gggd
_________________________

Here in Santa Cruz, California one can hear the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments from quite a distance from the astronomy and astrophysics (and new astrobiology) groups at University of California, Santa Cruz (which is a significant center of astro-* science.)

Might you have a link to the source material for this? I am ...

2025-08-26T16:32:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…adqn
_________________________

Might you have a link to the source material for this? I am curious to see it in context. Thanks.

That looks like something right out of an old Dust Bowl newsreel! ...

2025-08-26T10:29:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…atgu
_________________________

That looks like something right out of an old Dust Bowl newsreel! Scary.

(And yes, I have been in a dust storm, in Elko, Nevada. Fortunately we were able to hole up in a hotel room and wait it out. In the middle of the dust storm there was a thunderstorm that turned all of that dust to mud.)

Is it time for locals in DC and LA and NY and Chicago ... to ...

2025-08-25T20:46:43Z

Is it time for locals in DC and LA and NY and Chicago ... to start moving street signs around in order to confuse El Naranja's Praetorian guards?

For a while I worked on shows at the awful little Burgess Theatre ...

2025-08-24T21:27:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…8g2p
_________________________

For a while I worked on shows at the awful little Burgess Theatre at SRI in Menlo Park, California.

The buildings of SRI (and the theatre) were built originally as a hospital for the wounded of the forthcoming invasion of Japan. Of course, they never had to serve that original purpose.

Japan at the start of August 1945 was in a vise. I don't think anyone can say for sure what event triggered the Emperor to make his radio speech.

I know that I have wondered what I would have decided were I in Truman's position. My sense is that I would have said OK - the war spirit was so strong, there were so many dead that the prospect of more would be terrifying, and we did not know what we know now about the consequential side effects of "the bomb".

I guess what surprised me the most was the constructive policies of the US after the surrender. (Both in Japan and the US Sector in Germany.) That really further darkens the lack of wisdom of the Versailles treaty.

IPv4 or IPv6 or both? Do we have any real tech info?

2025-08-22T23:18:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…mgeu
_________________________

IPv4 or IPv6 or both? Do we have any real tech info?

Were I once again facing a phalanx of white nationalists (or ...

2025-08-21T18:29:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…alcj
_________________________

Were I once again facing a phalanx of white nationalists (or their cops) gathering some rolls of double sided carpet tape - put that down on the street as you retreat and it can yank shoes and boots off of an oncoming phalanx.

One of the nicer aspects of tape is that its application is non-aggressive - you deploy it as you walk *away* from the cops. But do check the wind before use, else it end up binding the wrong people.

Doesn't that cause security people to give you suspicious ...

2025-08-21T18:13:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…mjdf
_________________________

Doesn't that cause security people to give you suspicious looks?

The notion that education is something that students have to pay ...

2025-08-20T22:56:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…gdrn
_________________________

The notion that education is something that students have to pay for is beyond my comprehension.

Education is an investment by society in its future.

Yet paying for education by the gov't is considered by so many to be some sort of gift.

It's not a gift!!! It's an investment.

And the US will be paying much for its failure to invest in its future.

Good point. I have been wondering about the maga foot soldiers, ...

2025-08-20T20:20:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…dzwk
_________________________

Good point.

I have been wondering about the maga foot soldiers, the ICE goons, and what we do about them.

I suspect that some of them are actually decent people who, like the good cops [there actually are good cops] are caught up in the mob mentality of those ICE gangs.

Although I am not quite on the same road as you are with regard ...

2025-08-20T20:18:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…t8n5
_________________________

Although I am not quite on the same road as you are with regard to billionaire causation and responsibility (I think there are many other factors in play here.)

However, I do believe that massive wealth accumulations are breaking our nation.

Over history societies have found that massive wealth accumulations, especially those that transfer from generation to generation, are destructive.

For instance, England once had permanent wealth accumulations, via things like "entailed estates".

Anti Dynastic taxes (which the R's call "death taxes" and the rest of us call "estate taxes") are one tool to relatively painlessly erode such accumulations over years. (But we need to apply those to forever-living corporations and trusts as well.)

I'm also in favor of wealth taxes, but my mind lights up thinking of how many ways they can be evaded (via offshore corporations, trusts, etc.)

The actions of the cheeto-king's government ministers are ...

2025-08-20T19:55:12Z

The actions of the cheeto-king's government ministers are making me reconsider my opposition to the death penalty.

If - and to me it is a big "if" - the US can recover from our present era of facism - we will need something akin to what was called "De-Baathification" in Iraq, "Denazification" in post WW-II Germany, etc. Under those programs some people were executed after being found guilty at trials.

The ministers of our present government - particularly Miller and Noem - are engaged in what are crimes against humanity. The governor of Texas is not far behind. As as result of these crimes real, innocent people (including children) have suffered real harms and some have died.

When, and if, our nation's integrity and principles are restored, how far ought we to go with our punishments?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/former-nazi-camp-guard-now-100-can-face-trial-german-court-rules-rcna183145

I have heard that the best way to ride hyperloop is to do it raw ...

2025-08-19T18:56:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…36hq
_________________________

I have heard that the best way to ride hyperloop is to do it raw style.

That means that, rather than riding in a capsule, you put on a body-circling, vacuum sealing, O-ring, grease it up with hyper hydrogenated Crisco, hop into the tube, take a deep breath (and hold it), and push the "go" button.

I took a look at the Curiosity Channel (which is on my Roku at ...

2025-08-19T18:42:16Z

I took a look at the Curiosity Channel (which is on my Roku at home).

Wow, it has a lot of content created by musk-fan-boyz, such as paean pieces about the glory of hyperloop.

Imagine if an AI in trouble ends up chatting to an AI 911 ...

2025-08-19T18:35:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…3cd3
_________________________

Imagine if an AI in trouble ends up chatting to an AI 911 operator.

Eliza and Parry all over again.

I'm curious - given the rather flat configuration of the main ...

2025-08-18T07:14:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…sdfl
_________________________

I'm curious - given the rather flat configuration of the main gear wheels, is there a tendency to blow out the rearmost tires on landing? The landing shock on those tires must be prodigious.

Is Alaska still a State or did we give it back to Russia? (Or was ...

2025-08-16T20:07:50Z

Is Alaska still a State or did we give it back to Russia? (Or was Putin holding out to reclaim Washington state, Oregon, and California?)

Fort Ross California State Historical Park: A Russian Fort by the Sea

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=26334

Yippee... New national monument along Santa Cruz coast opens to ...

2025-08-15T19:23:14Z

Yippee...

New national monument along Santa Cruz coast opens to the public for hiking, biking

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/08/14/new-national-monument-along-santa-cruz-coast-opens-to-the-public-for-hiking-biking/

I dunno, it sure seems odd to think of someone editing a ...

2025-08-07T18:31:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…hr2q
_________________________

I dunno, it sure seems odd to think of someone editing a non-trivial sized web page using HTML or XML.

And there are tools, like "tidy" to do a quick check that the HTML coding is sane.

I am curious of the process that caught this error. It seems that the public caught it rather than the library of Congress (who I assume manages that annotated Constitution website.)

Consider if that kind of sloppiness had occurred in the text of trump's awful "big bill" - 1300+ pages long - and the congress critters and senators had enacted the wrong or incomplete text.

(It is my understanding that the house and senate have people who are tasked to read the entire text to look for problems - but 1300 pages is going to cause eyes to glaze and miss errors.)

It is hard to think of a better use for those tesla things. But I ...

2025-08-07T17:32:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…m9nm
_________________________

It is hard to think of a better use for those tesla things. But I can think of one - if Musk were required to ride inside while he proclaims how strong the armor is.

https://www.twz.com/land/air-force-wants-tesla-cybertrucks-to-launch-missiles-at

That is a very valid suspicion. The "whois" and newer ...

2025-08-07T17:05:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…w60t
_________________________

That is a very valid suspicion.

The "whois" and newer RDAP data about who has what domain registration have been deeply mined by scammers.

Our company routinely gets scam postal mail disguised as an invoice that tries to get us to (unknowningly) drop Hover and move to this other registrar that charges 3x and above more than Hover. I've filed complaints with ICANN but, as expected, all I get is silence.

If stripped of euphemisms and put into relevant historical ...

2025-08-07T17:02:40Z

If stripped of euphemisms and put into relevant historical context the headline of the attached story would read:

"Israel to proceed with final solution for Gaza, Netanyahu says"

https://www.axios.com/2025/08/07/netanyahu-israel-occupy-gaza-strip-hamas

By-the-way, I also use Tucows/Hover for many of my domain name ...

2025-08-07T16:52:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…h999
_________________________

By-the-way, I also use Tucows/Hover for many of my domain name registrations. I trust 'em far more than many others.

(Did you know that Tucows stands for "The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software" - that's how they got started.)

The trademark protection and "law enforcement" that is ...

2025-08-07T16:28:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…gfa3
_________________________

The trademark protection and "law enforcement" that is too lazy to get a warrant have been pushing for ages to penetrate the privacy and business relationships of those who have registered domain names.

ICANN has always "assumed the position" in response to these requests for ever more data.

Registrars (the retail side of the domain name selling business) has long realized that this dispels prospective customers. So in response they offer an intermediary level of contact information that hides the actual name/address of a domain name registrant. (They would, of course, reveal in response to a proper legal document, but trademark lawyers and law enforcement are too lazy to do that.)

So some recent changes have been made to ICANN rules about what has to be published and what not. I am not familiar with the details.

Have you seen my .ewe top level domain designed to violate as many ICANN policies as I could?

https://cavebear.com/eweregistry/

ICE seems to have become the chosen employer of Proud Boyz and ...

2025-08-06T19:36:30Z

ICE seems to have become the chosen employer of Proud Boyz and the rest of the wannabe SS groups.

"Where Have the Proud Boys Gone?"

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/proud-boys-militia-groups-trump-ice/683766/

The internet is largely built on two related principles: - Hippy ...

2025-08-04T18:44:00Z

The internet is largely built on two related principles:

- Hippy era libertarianism.

- "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

One of the reasons we have phishing attacks is that back in the 1970's there was a strong antipathy against strong, reliable personal ID systems (e.g. national ID cards, etc).

And here we have an example of the fact that things like robots.txt files and hyperlink attributes in web pages have no legal status and may be, legally, ignored.

We are seeing this collision between libertarian "freedom" and real life in our "ethics? what ethics?" world in things like age verification and AI stealing the world's knowledge without positive permission or compensation.

"Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives"

https://blog.cloudflare.com/perplexity-is-using-stealth-undeclared-crawlers-to-evade-website-no-crawl-directives/

Thanks for that info. In my mind it raised the image of chained ...

2025-08-03T18:55:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…5jfu
_________________________

Thanks for that info.

In my mind it raised the image of chained Prometheus, but rather than an eagle devouring his liver every day it was an orca.

Here in the Monterey Bay (California) we have a lot of Orcas and ...

2025-08-03T16:34:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…qwfc
_________________________

Here in the Monterey Bay (California) we have a lot of Orcas and a lot of true whales such as Greys (which migrate past the bay twice a year) humpbacks (which seem ever-present), blues on occasion. And lots and lots of seals and sea lions and otters, etc. (The Monterey Bay is an amazing place for sea life. And from the shore one can often see whales spouting or their heads and flukes.)

The grays, which are relatively small compared to humbacks, swim on courses intended to avoid the Orcas.

Orcas seem to be rather mean critters - I hear that they attack (and presumably eat) the great white sharks around here.

Might I suggest that the D-party form a shadow government with ...

2025-08-02T02:17:44Z

Might I suggest that the D-party form a shadow government with shadow agencies to replicate at least the policy making aspects of the gov't that FFOTUS is tearing down.

For example, begin with a medical advisory panel to give us trustworthy policy regarding vaccinations and drugs.

Etc.

It need not be large or expensive, just cherry pick, at least at the start, the most critical places to give the public information that it most needs.

Don't miss Prairie Creek State Park (which is tied to Redwood ...

2025-08-02T00:42:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…6dsw
_________________________

Don't miss Prairie Creek State Park (which is tied to Redwood National Park) north of Eureka.

(We live at the south end of the range of Redwoods - there are many around our house, mostly second growth after the original ones were cut to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.)

Given trump's history of construction: - Contractors ...

2025-07-31T20:32:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…tjqt
_________________________

Given trump's history of construction:

- Contractors won't be paid

- There will be no fire suppression/sprinklers

- No historical elements will be preserved, despite laws and contracts to do so. (Hint check out Bonwitt Teller preservation agreement)

- Substandard materials will be used and building code requirements violated.

- Russia, N. Korea, Hungary, and Turkey will all be invited at various times to install bugs into the walls, ceilings, and floors.

- The "aesthetics" would gag even Louis XV.

I saw a note about how under the new Federal Sales Tax (tariff) ...

2025-07-29T21:37:03Z

I saw a note about how under the new Federal Sales Tax (tariff) regime that it may be better for VW to shut down its US manufacturing and instead import cars from Germany.

That seemed weird until I thought about what VW's US expenses are and how they would be afflicted by the tariff/sales tax.

Much of the cost of a vehicle comes from research and the manufacturing tools (such as robots). The research is already in Germany. And the robots are probably made in Germany or other non-US place. Thus upgrading a factory in Germany could, after considering tariffs, be much less expensive in Germany.

All VW needs to do is reduce costs by 15% (the new US tariff rate on European imports) in order to begin saving costs overall.

BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, etc may all run similar calculations and consider shutting down US operations.

Also, one might wonder, after Boeing's experience with building in S. Carolina whether build quality might improve as well.

I had not realized how comparatively narrow the P-51 is. I've ...

2025-07-28T18:25:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…2956
_________________________

I had not realized how comparatively narrow the P-51 is.

I've never flown in a P51 - and I am far too much of a chicken to do so - but I've been on the ground for low-level fly overs. The sound that those things make makes my hair stand up.

I wish I could keep my car's front that clean and shiny!! ...

2025-07-26T18:57:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…gf3w
_________________________

I wish I could keep my car's front that clean and shiny!!

(Reminds me of the time as a teen that I tried to wash airplanes at Van Nuys to make some spending money.)

Well, the Trump Sales Tax (tariffs) are starting to hit. Here is ...

2025-07-25T18:09:11Z

Well, the Trump Sales Tax (tariffs) are starting to hit. Here is a shovel-ready project for nearly 400 housing units (many for low income) here in Santa Cruz, that is being terminated in large part because of the costs and inflationary effects of FFOTUS' crazy tariff mania.

"Developer backs out of 389 apartments on Ocean St. in Santa Cruz"

https://santacruzlocal.org/2025/07/24/developer-backs-out-of-389-apartments-at-908-ocean-st-in-santa-cruz/