Independence Day mean a lot of things to a lot of people. This year I'll just focus on this:

The United States of America was founded on the belief that God meant for people to be FREE -- not "better governed."

Have a Happy Independence Day!

These are some strangely named fireworks I've purchased over the years:

A few years back there was another Golden Shower Fountain hiding in the pack!

Stay safe out there, and keep a hose close by.

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Voter confidence in Joe Biden has gone down sharply following this first debate. Those numbers are reflected in a recent CBS – YouGov poll.

These are two of the most important issues as it relates to the presidency (at least as far as I’m concerned). Which candidate will positively effect your finances (which indirectly relates to freedom) and which candidate even makes sense?

Do you think that you’ll be in a better financial situation under this candidate? This is the #1 most important question – to most people out there.

Does the candidate even make sense. Do they understand what they are talking about, or just regurgitating stuff they’ve heard before? If a candidate can’t get the point across in a friendly debate, how are they going to push back against their advisors? More importantly, do they even understand what they are talking about?

Another important question is, “Does the candidate have a strong dislike for the American people?” We know that the “elites” within the Democrat Party don’t like average American citizens. They don’t like “smelly Walmart shoppers” or "[a] basket of deplorables" as Hillary Clinton so aptly put it.

I had to correct that last part. It was Peter Strzok (Peter Struck/Stroke) who said, “Just went to a Southern Virginia Walmart. I could smell the Trump support.”

It was Hillary Clinton who said, "You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? [Laughter/applause]. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

Biden is likely on the way out

Because of Biden’s poor debate performance. His potential as a serious candidate is being questioned by pretty much everyone. There are many big democrat donors that want Biden out. After all, you can’t buy influence through someone – who has no influence.

Still there are many within the Biden camp, who want Joe to stay in. They are pushing to have him keep moving forward with the campaign.

But there’s another side to this issue, a side that I don’t think many have considered.

Those who want Biden out are setting things up to use Jill to take down Joe. They’ll blame Jill for everything. She somehow “shielded” Joe from everyone, so they couldn’t witness his cognitive decline – even though we all saw it from day one – even before day one.

Remember Biden was known for his “gaffs” during the Obama administration. He was ‘Ole Uncle Joe. The uncle that you just don’t talk about at “the family barbecue.” Joe Biden’s cognitive decline was never in question amongst people paying attention – it was always noticeable.

They have simply lied too long to back out now. Letting it be known that Biden was never capable of running the show – even before 2020 – will void the last bit of enthusiastic support that the Democrat/Biden voters might have had for any potential candidate.

They’re going after Jill?

The Democrat leadership has to be careful in their criticism of Jill Biden – because she’s the first modern female president. I only make the distinction of “modern” because Woodrow Wilson’s wife was considered to be running the country for a while after his stroke.

You heard that right, Jill Biden is the first female president.

Once it’s more widely known that Joe Biden hasn’t “been all there” mentally for the entirety of his time in office, people will want to know, “Who’s been running the show?”

But this is a game of political chicken. It all hinges on whether or not they boot Biden at the DNC convention – and more importantly, if they choose a woman as his replacement!

If they go too hard after Jill Biden, it will reflect badly if they chose a female candidate. After all, Jill Biden really screwed things up without Joe Biden’s wit and insight, right?

Who will the DNC pick?

I think this question will be answered by how they treat Jill Biden. If they do go after her, they’re going to pick Gavin Newsom, or some no-name dude.

If they allow things to play out in a more “natural seeming way” they might pick Hillary Clinton as their candidate. She still claims that the Russians are the reason that she lost in 2016.

Keep in mind, the Democrats don’t expect to win the presidency, that ship has sailed. You have to imagine everything going down, as if the MSM narrative is believed by everyone. That’s how the Deep State/Permanent Government operates. That’s why so much of this is confusing to people who are paying attention – because it doesn’t really make sense.

The narrative is that Biden has been keeping tight control of the government, and is making all the big decisions. The reality is Biden was never really president. He was just paraded around, while his advisors ran the show.

My take on it all

I believe this all makes for good theater really. From what I can surmise, the outcome of the 2024 presidential election won’t matter as much as we would like it to. I’ll explain why.

It seems likely that Trump will win in a landslide, regardless of who the Democrats put up as their nominee. That being the case, I believe that the Democrats are going to “make sure” that they keep, or take more senate seats, effectively neutering Trump.

Trump won’t be able to remove Deep State/Permanent Government actors – without the help of the senate. Keep in mind Republicans couldn’t manage to oust Alejandro Mayorkas, who is arguably the worst Homeland Security Secretary.

Meaningful (pro-American) legislation will never make it past the senate – for Trump’s entire second term. That leaves only executive orders as a means to get things done for the American people.

Trump’s second term will likely be a continuance of “exposing the crooked system as a whole.” Don’t expect things to be fixed – that’s up to us now.

Everything has to keep working its way from the ground up. That’s the only way this country gets back on track. It can be fixed from the top. The unelected bureaucrat class is too well protected, and congress has abdicated too much of their power to rein it in. Everything falls back on the American people. This involves fixing things at the local level, then pushing uphill.

What do you think?

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I've always had a love for sound. So when it came time to purchase a new stereo receiver as a gift for my wife's parents, I went to work finding the best stereo I could find for the price.

This was in 2003, before Amazon was really what it is today. I would shop in large chain stores to find really good products. Stores like Sound Advice, and BestBuy, then try to see if someone sold them online for cheaper.

I found this stereo receiver.

Here is a quick look at the specs:

The JVC RX-8040 features premium performance with high current 130 WATT x 6 This receiver also incorporates new convienience features such as Virtual Surround Back and Quick Speaker Set-up. The DSP processor enables the RX-8040 to provide the highest level of accuracy in decoding Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES and Dolby Pro Logic IIx. It also makes possible All Channel Stereo, and the JVC exclusive DAP soundfield.

• 130 watts x 2 min. RMS, both channels driven into 8 ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz with no more than 0.08% THD
• 130 watts x 6 min. RMS, into 8 ohms, 1kHz, 0.8% THD
• DVD Multichannel Audio Compatible (5.1 channel analog input and 5 separate amps) for connection to existing and future multichannel sources such as DVD Audio
• Texas Instruments 32/64-bit Floating-Point DSP
• Virtual Surround Back: allows users to playback 6.1 channels without adding a surround back speaker

If you noticed that little white sticker at the top of the receiver. It's a warning not to put anything on top of it, because it might catch on fire. But two pets put themselves on top of it, two of our cats. The receiver is powered on most of the time, and it gives off a decent amount of heat, just what cats love.

I never worried about it much, because the cats would just get off of it, if it was getting too hot. What I didn't consider was their hair!

I know that cats shed, but you wouldn't imagine that it's much when all they are doing is sleeping. They were never moving around on top of the receiver, they would just get on top and sleep, they didn't clean themselves, or do much moving around at all. But alas, the hair came out anyway. And man, did the hair come out!

Once I removed the cover, I was greeted with this. Mind you, there was never any hair on the cover ever -- because the cats were dusting it off with their bodies.

Cover first removed

Power transformer to the left

Discrete amplifier boards

As you can see, there was quite a bit of hair in there!

Cleaning the receiver was not too bad. I used a vacuum cleaner and shop air to get all of the hair out.

The next part was to come up with some way to keep the cats off of the receiver. I was bouncing around a few ideas, when my wife reminded me of "hostile architecture" video we saw a while back.

For those who don't know I'll show some examples. Hostile architechture was placed in various cities across the country, to keep homeless people from being able to sleep on park benches, or in store windows.

There's no sleeping on these benches.

The plan was to create something uncomfortable for the cats, but not block airflow through the receiver. After looking around my garage I came up with an idea.

I found some aluminum angle stock that I bought a few years ago, but haven't used it yet. I decided to make angle iron strips that would be good for airflow, and hopefully just uncomfortable enough for the cats.

When working with metal, I always like to make it look art-deco, because why not? People like that style now. Here's what I came up with.

Angle piece with markings

Angle piece once cut

The basic layout with angle pieces

Here are the angle pieces once attached using aluminum baling wire

How I twisted the aluminum baling wire to make it flush with the cover

The part where it says "HOT RESISTORS ARE 1.8Ω 2W" was from around 2010. My wife's parents purchased a newer receiver because they wanted one that could switch HDMI video. My wife's dad gave me their old one (this JVC). I cleaned it out, but noticed that there were resistors which had been so hot, that their color bands were almost gone. I wrote down the values in case I needed to change them some day.

It paid off, because some time around 2016, the receiver died. Once I started checking it out, I found that one of those resistors had burned open! I looked everywhere but couldn't find a replacement. Finally I found one on NewEgg. It was a 1.8 Ohm 25 Watt wirewound resistor, used for elevator controls, and made in Russia. 25 Watts is way more heat dissipation than was required, but that's fine because it just means it's overkill. I replaced all of the old resistors and it's been doing find ever since.

Replacement resistors

View from the front

View showing where I sanded the angle pieces to make them look swank

This is the cat that normally sleeps on the receiver checking it out

He's looking around trying to figure out what has happened

Success! He finally he decides that there's no way he's going to sleep on this "hostile" receiver anymore

Now my surround sound receiver should stay cat hair free for years to come. Also, it will have an edgy art-deco look about it. Haha!

It's always something...

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As a kid growing up in the 80s, I always made fun of the whole backwards music stuff. With a record, you couldn't spin it in reverse well enough to hear anything (plus it's bad on the needle) and regular tapes can't be played backwards.

You would need a fancy turn table for mixing/spinning records, or a reel-to-reel tape player to even hear anything played backwards. The idea that there were hidden messages in songs always seemed silly to me.

Some of you might remember "Bunchie" that weird green llama GIF file from 2003.

But what you might not know, is that there's a super secret hidden messages when you play the GIF backwards!

Fast forward to modern times, and playing music backwards is not a complicated task at all. In fact, there are many open source tools that can play any audio in reverse. Audacity is the first that comes to mind. I've used it for around 20 years for a number of audio editing tasks.

Back around 2016, there was a list of songs in an article, where some parts of songs actually did sound like they're saying something when played backwards. And you don't have to “listen closely,” it's actually pretty clear.

Being a skeptic. I downloaded these songs to see if I could hear the same thing, when reversing the audio using Audacity.

Here's what I found:

• Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time" - It sounds like she's saying, "Sleep with me I'm not to young."
britainy spears - baby one more time - backwards.mp3
• Missy Elliot "Work It" - She says, "I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it" twice. (This song is widely known for this, as it was not "hidden."
missy elliott - work it - backwards.mp3
• Pink Floyd "Empty Spaces" - It says:
  –Hello looker...
  –Congratulations, You have just discovered the secret message.
  –Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont...
  –Roger, Carolyne's on the phone!
  –Okay.
pink floyd - empty spaces - backwards.mp3
• Queen "Another One Bites the Dust" - It sounds like he's saying, "It's fun to smoke marijuana."
queen - another one bites the dust - backwards.mp3

I'm sure there are more songs out there, but these were some where you could more easily hear the wording. Some backwards words are definitely in there on purpose. The one from Pink Floyd, and the Missy Elliot song are obviously not "hidden." But the others are much more likely to be coincidental.

I brought up the reverse music after seeing a Substack Note about the Supertramp album "Breakfast in America." Where there were some theories that perhaps the cover made references to 9-11 and the Twin Towers coming down. It made me think of the super secret hidden messages in songs.

Here's a link to the file Barbara was referencing.

My first question was, "Who has time to listen to all this music backwards, just to see if there's something hidden in it?" Or, perhaps some people can hear the backwards messages the first time they hear the song.

I've never known anyone that could pick up on backwards speech hidden within a song, but maybe some of you have?

What are your experiences with this?

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EVs (Electric Vehicles) were advertised as a replacement for standard automobiles. And that's the entire problem.

We've Got To Get These EVs Out There!

EVs were advertised as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and many people believed that, until they had a chance to use one. That's where the rental car industry comes in.

I believe the rental car industry sparked the downfall of the EV market. The prohibitive cost of EVs combined with their limited range likely kept most people from purchasing them. But the rental car industry is where many people get to truly test drive cars. Like they say, "Nothing runs like a rental!" You're not scared to slightly abuse a rental car, you paid for the insurance right? You're also likely to use it to do things you might do in your day-to-day life. Such as, run up to the store, run back up to the store for whatever you forgot, go out to dinner, then go out for drinks afterwards. Things that you would likely not do when you test drive a car from a dealer.

The rental car industry was pushed hard in 2021 through ESG and other financial incentives, to buy into the EV market. That's when the consumer side finally started to get a chance to test the EVs they've heard and read so much about.

Not long after Hertz Global Holdings emerged from bankruptcy last summer, reorganized after the Covid-19 pandemic stalled the entire car rental industry, the Estero, Florida-based company boldly announced a $4.2 billion deal to purchase 100,000 Tesla fully electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of 2022. Just like that, the race was on within the industry to transition to EVs from internal combustion engine (ICE) models.

While Hertz was first off the starting blocks, its two biggest rivals, Enterprise Holdings and Avis Budget Group, have since joined in. But just like the full-scale adoption of EVs among American drivers is going to take years, the rental car shift also will be a marathon, not a sprint. “Companies that operate fleets at our size cannot just turn on a dime and next year go all EV,” said Sharky Laguana, president of the American Car Rental Association. “Our industry wants to move as fast as it can, but there are some serious and challenging constraints.”

The initial one, Laguana said, “is just getting your hands on the damn things.”

But they did get their hands on the damn things. And with that, came the new rental agreements. Like this one from Avis/Budget.

If your battery runs dry, and you call for road side assistance, you have to pay to have the car towed -- back to the rental place. Not only that, they replace your EV with a gas-powered vehicle. That's not because they don't trust you with the EV. It's because, if they drive an EV out to where you are, the battery in the freshly charged car will likely be too discharged for you to go anywhere.

I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of mess I would like to deal with -- especially when I'm out of town, most likely on a budget, perhaps on business, likely with limited time and planned engagements.

It All Comes Down to Range

With military fighter/attack aircraft you have two ranges. For example let's look at the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. There's combat range, and ferry range.

Combat range relates to flying out and returning back to base. Ferry range is based on a one-way flight. Remember that rental agreement? One-way rentals are not allowed, you'll need an ICE vehicle for one-way travel.

With a car, it's nearly always combat range. You expect to drive the car somewhere, and return home. An electric vehicle with a range of 200 miles, is measured as 200 miles one-way. You can only drive it out 100 miles, and 100 miles back. But that's maximum range on a full charge. Most of the time you won't have a full charge, at least not with a rental.

Now you have to consider quite a few things with your EV. If you picked it up at an airport, you'd better find a hotel with a charging station. There's a lot to consider when your charge time could be hours.

Your biggest challenge in renting an electric car will be charging it. If you’re only driving a few miles a day for the period of your rental, it might not be a big deal; as long as you return your car with a minimum of 10% charge (like Hertz requires of its Tesla rentals), you’ll be fine. But if you do start running down the battery and need to charge, knowing where and how you can do this before you set out on your journey is helpful.

First, determine what the car requires. All EVs can charge on a Level 2 charger, the public chargers you see in a lot of parking garages or sometimes at hotels or shopping malls. You should assume these are good for adding around 20 miles of range per hour to your EV (some may be faster, some slower). Charging a Tesla at a non-Tesla charger requires an adaptor, which rental car companies typically provide with the kit. Most new EVs can also use a DC fast charger, which are more powerful chargers that can recharge the car a lot more quickly than the slower Level 2 chargers; assume these chargers can add anywhere from 10-20 miles per minute when plugged into your EV.

But not all DC fast chargers are created equal, and not all EVs can charge at the same power, either. For example, if an EV can only accept 150 kilowatts of power, plugging into a 350-kW charger won’t make it charge any faster than 150 kW. One of the reasons Teslas are so popular is that there’s a large network of Tesla Superchargers that can recharge the vehicles fairly quickly, depending on how empty the car is and how powerful that Supercharger station is. There are three primary Supercharger types: 72 kW, 150 kW and 250 kW. They’re also dead easy to use — pull up, open the charge door, plug in and it automatically does its thing.

As soon as people began renting EVs and dealing with the realities of limited range, and limited charging options, they started realizing that they like their time, more than they like feeling "green."

The Push

The big idea backfired. The investors said, "If we just get the EV cars out there, people will love them. After all they sound great!" But, the investors don't drive EVs, nor are they likely to.

This is where the ESG (Environmental, Social, [and] Governance) nonsense comes in.

This is from a 2023-2024 ESG report by Avis Budget Group.

Most of the ESG report is a bunch of "feel good" word salad, with a few parts about EVs. Those parts list some of the issues they are running into as it relates to EVs being in their fleet. That's not very promising.

Reality Comes For Us All

The EVs are on their way out almost as quickly as they came in. This article is from January 11, 2024.

Hertz’s investor report makes it clear it’s not just about consumer demand. It’s about Tesla.

The headline we (and others) are using to describe Hertz selling off some of its substantial fleet of EVs is true. Hertz is dumping 20,000 EVs, a not-insignificant portion of its roughly 50,000-EV fleet (as of October) and a third of its total EV fleet globally. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to the sale, Hertz "expects to reinvest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine ("ICE") vehicles to meet customer demand."

Tell me you're lying, without telling me you're lying. Hertz is ditching their EVs, because of decreased customer demand, and buying more ICE vehicles -- to meet customer demand.

If the overall customer demand didn't go down, then people are still requesting cars -- just not EVs.

If rental car companies, in the business of fleet management, can't make EV rentals profitable -- why would anyone assume that they would work out for a private owner? The article also points out the increase in accident related repairs for the EVs. Does that not effect auto insurance costs? Insurance on a high-end car is always more because of increased repair costs.

The Final Nail in The Coffin

I saw this article the other day, and it cemented the idea that EVs don't have a bright future.

BAE & Cummins to Make Hybrid Drivetrain for Transit Buses

Hybrid electric buses don't require investment in extensive charging infrastructure.

BAE Systems and engine maker Cummins yesterday announced a new collaboration on the integration and certification of a B hybrid-compatible diesel engine and hybrid electric drivetrain for the transit market. The targeted product launch is 2027.

BAE Systems will supply its electric drive hardware to interface with the engine and form a full hybrid electric drivetrain, as well as provide engineering support and system integration expertise.

BAE and Cummins have worked together to develop hybrid electric solutions for buses since 1994.

Hybrid electric buses facilitate workforce development for training on high-voltage systems and do not require investment in extensive charging infrastructure.

Public transportation doesn't have an answer for EVs either. The proposed answer is hybrid vehicles. Is there a demand problem with public transportation, such that EV busses are not a good idea?

It seems that everywhere transportation is important, internal combustion engines are used. Where are all the EV firetrucks, or ambulances? You won't find them, because EVs don't have the range, and are not reliable enough for serious tasks.

There won't be an extensive charging infrastructure, because there is no demand for electric vehicles that don't compare with existing internal combustion vehicles.

EVs were always fighting an uphill (cart before the horse) battle. Government policy shouldn't be used to "create demand" in any market. It just doesn't work well, because government policy is rarely driven by real need. There is a demand for vehicles, but it's already been met. The "demand" for electric vehicles is because of the "Climate Change" scam.

Maybe it's time for governments to come to the same conclusion that those with EV experience have. EVs are not all they are cracked up to be.

Are we going to start seeing bumper stickers on EVs, "My Other Car has an Internal Combustion Engine."

What do you think?

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