Kurt Lash: The Meaning and Ambiguity of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment

Instapundit

The post being linked to is from Reason, and it has the same title as the title in this post.

DC math

Update of yesterday's post:

The left is trying to destroy free enterprise, such as Starship, My Pillow, the oil industry and others.

These companies have run afoul of the Biden administration and they are retaliating. The government then replaces the lost jobs with government jobs. Meanwhile, the debt explodes. As if that wasn't bad enough, there are certain Republicans who see fit to fund the leftist priorities to destroy free enterprise and freedom. That's why McCarthy was booted out of the Speaker's chair. The GOP for its part, sides with McCarthy of all people. This demonstrates the perverse leadership America is receiving right now. Just thought I'd mention all this before the hammer comes down, and nobody will be able to say anything the "leadership" doesn't like.

end update:

There's a lot of bragging on the September jobs report in Biden world.

An alternative view is at the tweet.

If you look carefully, it is not that great. Lots of government jobs and healthcare. Lots of part-time jobs.

Biden is celebrating the new jobs report showing 336,000, but when you actually break it down, it’s terrible:

70,000+ are Gov’t jobs

151,000 are part-time

Full time jobs actually went *down* 22,000

If someone has 2 part-time jobs, Biden counts that as 2 new jobs

DC Math! pic.twitter.com/Q1tnCrmbAG

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) October 6, 2023

Biden to blame for Hamas attack on Israel says Trump

Just the News

Note: There was an embed available from Truth Social, but the Google platform won't display it. So, I guess that doesn't work anymore on Blogger. Censorship? That happened before with Rumble, but I found a way around it.

Biden's responsibility for Hamas' attacks

A youtuber says: "Joe Rogan is wondering what I'm hiding!"

A lot of what this guy may surprise you. A lot of what this guy says may frighten you. My reaction is that it doesn't really surprise me at all.

I won't do anything to hype this. But it is good info. Perhaps somebody watching this can profit from it.

Gaetz spells out McCarthy's failure in 44 seconds

Update of yesterday's post:

Silly me. I forgot that the rules changes require a FULL vote of the House, which includes Democrats. It may not be so easy to change the MTV rule, as the Democrats may want to keep it for now.

end update:

Update:

This Speaker business won't last long. Gaetz is showing signs of backing down. Typical wuss-out.

end update:

This could get ugly, I have read. Okay, then let it get ugly. Guess what? There can be no more CR's until there's a new Speaker. Let this go on indefinitely.

JUST IN: Matt Gaetz calls Kevin McCarthy a “feature of the swamp” after reporter tells Gaetz that people think he is a narcissist.

“It's the benefit of this country that we have a better Speaker of the House than Kevin McCarthy.”

“Kevin McCarthy couldn't keep his word. He made… pic.twitter.com/58I9DCFpjs

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 3, 2023

You want Privacy? Ditch Android & Apple and install GrapheneOS (in 8 minutes)

I've thought about this stuff for years, but haven't done anything about it. Possibly because stuff like this requires the expenditure of MORE money, and that is a problem around here.

This video and others can show you how to get up to speed on this, if you've got the money and the time.

If you don't, or if you haven't, be aware that the Big Techies and the Big Government entities are keenly interested in watching you constantly. I've always resented that...

Dump Boca Chica?

This is a two-part video by the Angry Astronaut and Ellie in Space.

My own two cents is that this is political. If Musk had played ball with the Democrats, then he would have launched already. He might have launched twice already.

There's a political situation in the country right now that figures into this. Since the government is essentially out of control, an attempt to rein it in could yield a more reasonable FAA. At least, that is my hope.

An argument could be made that shut downs won't help. I don't think that shut downs will last if the GOP "rebel" faction stands firm. I think that the factions in control would have to negotiate. If the so-called rebels stay firm, the Establishment will lose the argument eventually. This is really a test of the resolve of the so-called rebels.

If the rebels succeed, then maybe a more reasonable government will emerge. For the record, holding back SpaceX because of the Fish and Wildlife bunch, who claims a problem with the new launch plate, is not a reasonable position to take. There's no issue here except political. It has nothing to do with the environment or public safety.

The history of the motion to vacate

CNN lite ( bare bones page )

With the respect to the motion to vacate, one Cocaine Mitch is opposed to it. He wants the House to abandon it. It makes it to hard to govern, he says.

How does it make it hard to govern? If McCarthy had stuck to the agreement, he'd still be Speaker. There might have been a shutdown, but so what? There have been shutdowns before. There was no doom. The shutdown threat is just a scare tactic being used to force matters to flow in the direction guys like Cocaine Mitch and McCarthy likes.

After losing the vote to keep McCarthy, the losing side wants to eliminate the motion to vacate? This is the loser getting the spoils. The defeated party now gets to call the shots?

Trying to be realistic here. If only 7 GOP'ers refused to be stepped on, then it is going to be hard to get a better Speaker. Keeping the motion to vacate might avoid getting one who is actually worse, and giving him a license to do whatever he pleases.

It really is worse than I thought

Complaining about lack of unity while not offering unity

The caterwauling about McCarthy continues. I've got a theory about certain people that will remain unnamed. They'd prefer to complain as opposed to actually doing anything about the problems they complain about.

If you want unity, offer unity. If you want cohesiveness, offer cohesiveness. If you want loyalty, you offer loyalty. You don't get anything of value without offering some value in return. What values are they offering now with this continuing wailing and moaning?

Something going on here?

This is a thing, but what the thing is, is not exactly clear. ( officially)

Ilhan Omar mirin' Matt Gaetz
byu/somosextremos82 inmirin

Starship Update, 10/5/23

This video has no narration. That's okay. There's too much talk these days.

The one thing that struck me is the vulnerability of Starbase to storms. If a Cat 5 hurricane ever hit the area, the whole place will be wiped out. In other words, Starbase is doomed. Eventually, there will be a storm. It is just a matter of time.

GOP Senators push for regular order

This is what the ouster of McCarthy is about. While they are complaining loudly about the ouster, the Senate moves to support the goals of regular order as opposed to continuing resolutions to fund the government.

There needs to be more Senators though. This may not be sufficient to stop another CR.

Gingrich---tsk, tsk, tsk

Update:

This could be much more serious than I figured. This could be the beginnings of a complete breach between the two wings of the GOP. I call them the two wings. One wing is the money men. The money men control most of the Party. The other wing is the actual voters. It is the actual voters who don't like what the money men are doing.

That'd be my take. For me, I never did like the Romneys and McCains. I thought the Bushes were okay at first, but I figured out later that they really weren't. The money men have been in control. Was Reagan a money man? Well, I'm not sure that he was, or if he was, he was very careful about not appearing that way.

So I think that they are really misreading the public rather badly here. If the idea is to win elections, then what Gingrich is doing is exactly the WORST thing that he could do. A lot of the people would like to see the GOP be more assertive with respect to the Democrats. Trying to cast this as Gaetz joining the Democrats is just ridiculous. Nobody is going to buy that, and they should not let themselves be bullied into submission. There's been too much of that already.

end update: I wonder how many people are being persuaded by this nonsense.

If they have such a majority, then why don't they just ignore us? The answer is that they can't. Insults won't help. If it is meant to intimidate, then that won't work on ME, but who knows who it might work on. I don't speak for anyone, but I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of the people who tend to vote GOP are sick and tired of stuff just like this.

Airships

Update to post of 10/13/21:

The question is: Should airships make a comeback?

The conclusion is that they are specialized vehicles that could have a niche market. They probably cannot solve certain kinds of problems.





end update:

Comment:

Just for the record, I'm not interested in the "carbon footprint" of anything. Let those who are concerned about that read elsewhere. Like everything else with the political left, climate change is a hoax as far as I'm concerned.

The thing that interests me is the practical aspect. Can you do something with this info? Of particular interest to me is some sort of private transportation on to my property out west. The roads aren't good, and they can flood easily during a storm. Not only that, those are dirt roads, and you can get stuck in the mud.

Consequently, some kind of aerial transport could be of interest to me. This would have to be much smaller, like the size of a standard automobile. The trouble is, lighter than air transportation involves big stuff. It may not be possible to get something compact as an automobile that can float into the air.

I did the calculations. To get something that small, it would have to be very, very light. It would also have to be very very strong for its weight. I don't so any materials out there that could do the job.

Yep, the numbers don't work. It was a thought.

Using the Martian atmosphere as a resource

Martian Resources

The Mars atmosphere cannot support life. But can it be used to sustain life? Maybe. Let's look at the basic components of the Martian atmosphere. Over 95% of it is carbon dioxide. Although it isn't fit to breathe, it can support plant life. A little over 3% of the Martian atmosphere is nitrogen. This can be used for fertilizer. While it isn't poison, it isn't oxygen. Close to 2% is argon, which is a noble gas. Argon has its uses, but it isn't going to help sustain life processes. This almost covers it all, but there are a few trace gases of interest. Water vapor is available too.

On Mars, oxygen is a trace gas, as is carbon monoxide. Although they are trace gases, there may be a way to harvest these gases. Carbon monoxide is combustible, and oxygen supports combustion. There's about three times as much oxygen as there is carbon monoxide. Therefore, you can burn off the carbon monoxide for energy with some oxygen left over. There may be enough to make it worthwhile to collect it so as to run the distillation process.

As space enthusiasts know, it gets cold on Mars. Also, the Mars atmosphere is pretty thin. Therefore, if you are going to use it for in situ resourcing, you will need to gather a lot of it, and compress it. Or should you? What if you were to lower the temperature to freeze out the carbon dioxide? If you do that, you remove 95% of the gas you started with. The gases remaining will be more concentrated.

The concentrations will be about 8% oxygen. Very interesting! Not much higher than that would make it capable for us to breathe. How about that?! As for nitrogen, the new concentration would be about 55%. The Earth's atmosphere is 80%. That's also very interesting. But carbon monoxide would be 3%, and that's bad. Argon would make up 34% or so or the remaining, and argon isn't that interesting in this context. The rest would be trace gases of this processed batch of gases.

Now it may make sense to compress it, as these gases are only small parts of the Martian atmosphere, and we need to process a whole lot of it in order to collect useful amounts. When you compress a gas, you will heat it up. By the time you've heated it up, you will need to cool it down again to reach cryogenic temperatures for air distillation. At these temperatures, the gases will condense into liquids. They'll do so at specific temperatures, which gives the opportunity to separate them out one at a time. We use a table to see this better.

• co2   194.68°K    dry ice (carbon dioxide)
• o       90.188°K    to liquid o2 (oxygen) 
• ar       87.302°K   to liquid ar (argon )
• co      81.6°K       to liquid co (carbon monoxide) 
•  n       77.355 °K      to liquid n (nitrogen)
• sym     °K             results  (name)     NOTE:   0° C =  273.1°K

Science question:  What temperature K will yield water ice?

The trick is to lower the temperature of the entire batch and the gases will separate out, starting with oxygen. A little lower will yield argon. Lower still yield carbon monoxide. Since the remainder is nitrogen, just collect the gas, and your left with liquid carbon monoxide. Some impurities may remain in each fraction, but the results should give fairly clean parts of each with a final temperature of just under 81.6 kelvin.  (kelvin is centigrade, but starts at absolute zero)

The hope is to be able to run the entire system on a self sustaining basis by burning the carbon monoxide with oxygen. That will supply heat needed to run the apparatus that yields these products. That may be asking a lot, since a lot of gas has to be processed, and the Martian atmosphere is very thin. To judge that is beyond my pay grade, so I'll stop without an analysis of the economics.

Since Mars is already cold, it should be relatively easy to get temperatures down to the point of a freezing of the carbon dioxide. It's already cold enough in the polar regions to do that naturally. At night, temperatures may fall pretty close to that in even in equatorial areas.

It doesn't stay cold all the time, but if provisions are made, it may be possible to keep it cold all the time. Thin air is a poor conductor of heat, so insulating a cold trap shouldn't be as difficult as on Earth. Starting cold and keeping cold could be further achieved by using the dry ice to cool down the incoming air to be processed. Therefore, the initial separation could be made fairly cheap on the energy expenditure.

Processing the rest will require cryogenics, and that's where the problem may be with respect to using the carbon monoxide and oxygen gathered in the first step to run the energy requirements of the entire apparatus. If not, then perhaps it could be possible to use solar power.

The Perserverance rover now on Mars, is using a device called MOXIE, which gathers oxygen. I'm not familiar with how it works. That process may split off an oxygen atom from the naturally abundant carbon dioxide. If so, it will produce more carbon monoxide. That too could be used to run the gas separation apparatus. Otherwise, the carbon monoxide will be a waste product. Why not use that as a resource? After all, that's was in situ resourcing is all about.

McCarthy is out. For now.

Update II: Some folks are having trouble accepting this... Perhaps the matter can be cleared up quickly. It all depends on how they respond. If the guy wants it, the Majority Whip could take the job. Steve Scalise is next in line, but he has cancer. The Majority Whip is Emmer, and if he's that high up the ladder, what's the trouble? Not familiar with the guy, though.

McCarthy screwed up. He made a secret deal with the Dems. If he stayed within the lines, this may not have happened. They should settle this quickly and get this fixed up. If these people want to keep arguing, that won't look so good. Besides, McCarthy won't run again.

end update II...



Update: The GOP's Gaetz's critics view of the McCarthy situation. There appears to be another update at this link with respect to the fast moving situation. McCarthy may not run for Speaker again. Instead, there may be another GOP Establishment type who will take his place. If so, then what?



end update:



This surprises me in terms of the way the vote went. McCarthy got almost all the GOP vote, except for the small number who oppose him. The Democrats went all the way against McCarthy. That was a surprise.

So what's next? There's nothing preventing the same outcome as before. But we have the experience of McCarthy, who didn't keep to his agreements. Would the GOP insist upon returning him anyway? Don't know if I'd rule that out. There were multiple votes last time before there were some concessions that McCarthy discarded anyway. Clearly, he cannot be returned. But will they try him yet again?

If not, there will be a new Speaker. But who? That much wasn't thought out, I suspect. Perhaps that was the reason the Dems voted against McCarthy's return. This may give them some talking points about "chaos". Maybe the Dems would like to have the GOP twist in the wind for awhile. Whatever the choice, it should be done quickly.

I don’t think voting against @SpeakerMcCarthy is chaos.

I think $33 Trillion in debt is chaos.

I think not passing single-subject spending bills is chaos.

I think being governed by continuing resolutions and omnibus bills is chaos.

Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their… pic.twitter.com/e3Nx2kIdyZ

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 3, 2023

MTG debunks Bowman's explanation for setting fire alarm

Trending politics news

Let me show you how easy it is to exit the Cannon building if doors are closed for the weekend.

No need to pull a fire alarm, you simply have to walk down some steps.

Jamaal Bowman knew what he was doing. He was trying to interrupt the vote.

Bowman needs to be arrested and… pic.twitter.com/PQuI6kk0sX

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 2, 2023

Gaetz follows through

Saw this video on CTH. Some of the questions are just too dumb, so I stopped about 2/3rds of the way through.

Gaetz says that the only way McCarthy remains Speaker is if the Democrats bail him out

Update:

A thought has occurred to me. Perhaps Gaetz only wants to show that McCarthy doesn't keep his word. That may be, or not be, enough to sink McCarthy. The truth is that McCarthy gave his word and broke it. It remains to be seen whether or not that matters to anybody.

I don't see where Gaetz has asked anything for himself of anything personal.

end update:



Same thing as passing the 45 day CR deal. The logic is impeccable. He cannot remain Speaker unless the Democrats bail him out. OR IF THE GOP BLINKS. The trouble with the GOP is that it always blinks.

Matt Gaetz will move to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House:

"The only way Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House at the end of this week is if Democrats bail him out." pic.twitter.com/o9EIn2BBlG

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 1, 2023

Democrats laughing at McCarthy

Hakeem Jefferies said "complete and total surrender".

From Politico: All you need to know about @mattgaetz struggle with @speakermccarthy to bring spending under control. All the knives out at @fox and the “smart” Republicans denouncements says it all. Uniparty be on notice: Party is OVER. pic.twitter.com/NVxQ1lM0um

— Carla Sands (@CarlaHSands) October 1, 2023

McCarthy isn't keeping his word.

Update:

Gaetz was right. There was a secret deal. Listen to Biden's own words.

end update:

Gaetz in his own words.

JUST IN: Matt Gaetz to file motion to vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy..

DO YOU SUPPORT THIS MOVE?

pic.twitter.com/eHCWR7sjst

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) October 1, 2023

Vociferous

I vociferously disagree with her vociferousness.

AOC: "I vociferously disagree with any assertion that progressivism is somehow incompatible with fiscal responsibility." pic.twitter.com/QBxwDNlwAu

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 1, 2023

Stopgap budget bill includes three-month extension of regulatory "learning-period"

Stopgap budget bill includes three-month extension of regulatory "learning-period"



Comment:

The topic in the post is unfamiliar with me. I take it this way: The GOP would rather defer to everyone else as opposed to actually exercising any leadership. The times require some leadership. The Constitution is written so that the Congress would be able to assert itself, but as long as the GOP is in control, it doesn't assert itself.

Dick Morris says that a budget shutdown isn't the fight. The election is the fight. But they're always running for election. Sometimes or other, they have to do some governing.

Robocop world

What can you believe about these guys?

They're giving the impression that they're out for blood. Now if they punish Gaetz, I'll believe that.

Gaetz has been reported to be willing to go the whole route. We'll see. In response, there's threats to expel Gaetz. That would require a 2/3rds vote in the House to expel him completely, or a vote by the GOP to expel him from the Party and such.

Politico said that Gaetz approached some Dems for the possibility of removing McCarthy, now they are going to try to use that to expel him. It seems that there ought to be some accountability for McCarthy violating rules himself. As for the Democrats talking to Gaetz, the Politico article also said that it was a private meeting with the Democrat who talked to Politico---meaning the Democrats revealed this for the purpose of causing trouble within the GOP caucus. But you'd expect betrayal from the Dems. What about the GOP? Sadly, they do it too.

There's a lot of talk that frankly surprises me. You learn something new all the time. It doesn't seem anti-Republican to me to remove a Speaker when he violates an agreement made in order to get the gavel, but that's what Gingrich is reported to have said ( or something similar).

Wow.@SpeakerMcCarthy made a side Ukraine deal with Democrats and didn’t tell House Republicans until after his Continuing Resolution passed.

More deceit. https://t.co/LC91laLyTp

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 1, 2023

Guns, guns, guns!

Smells like another fake.

https://t.co/e8ECYirYhM pic.twitter.com/CnU3DEaz1p

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 1, 2023

"Game changing" machine that makes potable water from seawater

You can always make fresh water from seawater through evaporation and condensation. If that is all this is, then it isn't really new.

Does Rep. Gaetz have a plan?

Update:

It should be noted that substantial support is in the GOP caucus for funding Ukraine, and therefore Ukraine will get the funding anyway.

end update

After the latest CR, the onus is now on Rep. Gaetz to make good on the threat to remove McCarthy as Speaker.

The tweet below shows that McCarthy cannot advance a Ukraine funding bill without violating GOP conference rules. It seems that McCarthy may have already violated conference rules in order to advance the CR bill though.

Could Gaetz use that and other tactics to show that McCarthy should be ousted? If the CR violated Republican conference rules, then the complaint about Gaetz using Democrats to oust McCarthy will not hold water. There are those who complain that for Gaetz to appeal to Dems to oust McCarthy is dividing the Republican conference. Gaetz can ask the pertinent question---What is more divisive than to go over the heads of the conference, and to appeal to Democrats to pass a CR that may not have passed through the conference either?

If Gaetz appeals to Democrats to oust McCarthy, they'll cry hypocrisy. But they are already hypocrites themselves. Actually, it would be poetic justice if McCarthy goes down this way.

This is a big test for Gaetz. If he succeeds, his stature will increase.

I'd be more worried about McCarthy. Surely he knows this, so he may have his own plan.

Last night’s vote marks a major moment in changing perceptions on how House Republicans view Ukraine.

101 Republicans voted to send more money.

117 Republicans voted against.

Ukraine Funding has now lost “the majority of the majority” and cannot be brought up again on the… https://t.co/DulCo6tksf

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) September 29, 2023