Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Warns About Losing Free Speech Battle

The Conservative Treehouse

Comment:

What can be done? CTH puts up a video that is 4 hours long. Who has the time to watch all that?

From what Sundance says, the TikTok acquistion was a bad thing. If not, maybe I'm reading it wrong. The impression to me was that TikTok was controlled by the ChiComs. So forcing a sale to an American corporation doesn't help anything?

Content-control is what Sundance is warning about. The powers-that-be want to control what we see and hear, so in the end, they control US. Again, What can be done?

I don't like worrying. Let's be constructive and figure out a way to handle this. This kind of thing just makes you feel bad.

A suggestion: if the corporations want to control US, then why not flip the script? The corporations are created by government. The government can take away their charters, or force them to run their corporations in such a manner as to protect the rights of the people---as opposed to letting the corporations run amuck and controlling our lives. Just remember this: the corporations are an adjunct to government, because the government creates corporations through the charter.

Gold is just another asset bubble

10/10/25:

 

With the way that gold is moving up, could it be that some arch-nemesis is acting in such a way as to send gold prices soaring? Not necessarily a Goldfinger, but the principle could be the same---which is to cause chaos in the financial markets. Whatever moves there are, it will likely result in a bust at some point. Then what?

 

 

10/7/25:

 

There's too much money floating around, and folks are starting to buy into gold a bit more than what is justified.  There's no way gold is worth as much as it is priced right now.

The same is true for a lot of assets.  Generally, inflation is in assets, or so it seems to me.  The cost of just basic necessities aren't all that bad.

The inflation numbers had the biggest increases in housing.  This is related to assets mentioned above.  Ironically, high interest rates will cause the cost of living to rise, if you factor in the mortgage rates.   Those who rent are paying those costs in their leases.

Auto prices are sky high though.  The last new vehicle I purchased was back in 1994.  I used to buy a new one every year or two.  Obviously, I don't do that anymore.  The years since then, I could've bought new ones, but sure as heck not these days.  Luxury vehicles back then are what people pay now for basic transportation.

If you think about it, an auto is now an asset like houses.  It's pretty crazy.

I  went into that off-grid project because I could see the writing on the wall.  Or I thought I could see it.  Anyway, the most solid investment now is land.  You can't eat gold, but you build your own shelter and live off the land.  

If things get bad enough, you can also buy a horse.  Let's go Amish!

 

 

 

Democrats in failure mode

As their fortunes swirl down the drain, it would seem that the only thing left for them is to lash out.

Democrats have no soul

 

This has to be one of those times when I cannot see why the Dems could possibly win. But they could in this Virginia governor's race. It is understanding, though. That's because the Democrats are the party of government, and that's the only thing that seems to count with those people. Government is big business in Northern Virginia, which is right next door to Washington D.C..

 

I don’t know how you could watch this video and not conclude that Abigail Spanberger is a sociopath pic.twitter.com/TXMU8Mh5Mv

— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) October 10, 2025

 

P.S.--

 

Disaster for the Democrats? I should think so. However, if it is NOT, then it is surely clarifying as to implications. For the Democrats seem to want the lordly right to kill off the opponents on the basis of whim, and the opposition has no rights at all---even to live. If you vote for that, and if that is a winning mandate, then there can be no peace in this society.

The Democrats Are Not as They Appear

American Thinker post by Taylor Grant: "There is a fundamental misconception about what is happening politically in this country, and it may be helpful to reconsider a particular assumption that is creating cognitive dissonance throughout American culture. That assumption is that Democrats are a political party"...

continuation of the quote yields this:  "members have now been completely subsumed into a Communist Death Cult"

Stoke Space said to be raising as much as $500 million in private investment capital

Behind the Black blog

Comment:

A regenerative heat shield plus some other goodies make this an advanced system.  It looks like it will be rather small too.  

SpaceX goes big, Stoke goes small.  Both will go fully re-usable.  

Stoke will compete with the Falcon 9, but SpaceX wants to retire the Falcon 9.  Once the Starship gets going, there will be little need for it.

It looks like Stoke will fill that gap that SpaceX leaves behind.

Note:  Looks like a lot of google links got inserted here.  The first sentence has one, and I highlighted it.  If I click on the button, google will insert these.  There's a lot of them, and I won't highlight them all.  If there's one, there's others!  It may require a change in my conventions for my blog.

WSJ says GOP advising Trump not to cut anything nor fire anyone

 

It appears that there's some talk in the GOP about not inflicting any pain on the Dems for this shutdown. If it is a true story, and not some Dem propaganda, then the GOP appears to want to fold again.

 

Think of it. If true, the GOP is so pathetically weak, that it would prefer to give the shutdown Dems a victory, than taking a victory with a stunning slap against the left. This is true despite the fact that Trump is doing what he was elected to do. No $$$ for illegals! That should be good enough to win on, but the GOP seems determinded to LOSE.

 

It kinda plays in to my suspicion about the GOP all along. They absolutely refuse to be an opposition party. They might as well be Dems themselves.

 

Holy moly! An affordable electric car.

10/9/25:

 

The price points for this car seem to be all over the place---anywhere from 10k to 30k. Which is it?

 

10/6/25:

 

Speculation about the new affordable electric car?

 

 

9/12/25:

 

You could knock me over with a feather...

 

New Tesla Giga Press makes a $15k Model 2 possible, or so it says...



But wait! It gets better than that...

$10,595 Model 2! Is it hype, vapor-ware, or real? Supposedly, it will be available by years end. That's not long into the future, and this is a freshly published video...





P.S.

The aluminum ion battery--- it is said to be in the new affordable Tesla Model 2.

How do Dems win? They cheat

 

10/9/25:

 

Oh, how could I forget? They lie too. Not to mention, they get violent. It always helps if you can murder your opponent.

 

10/7/25:

 

Just between you and me, I don't believe that hardly anybody approves of this... The only ones who vote legitimately for the Dems are folks who belong behind bars, or are already there. The others are folks who trust the media to tell the truth, but don't get the truth.

Houston’s $1.5BN Bridge DISASTER: Engineering EXPOSED

 

The title makes it appear worse than it really is. The "disaster" wasn't in a massive failure that cost lives. It was a financial disaster, because it had to be rebuilt from scratch after a design review which showed design flaws. If this review didn't take place, it might well have been a catastrophe waiting to happen. The title should have said something more akin to what took place--- a catastrophe averted...

The left only has a short window remaining to stop its violence before the hammer strikes it hard

At Behind the Black blog, Robert Zimmerman

Comment:

Did something sneak up on me and pass me by without notice?  I've always discounted any notion of a Civil War II.  There's no armies to fight, and nothing is organized for fighting.  Riots aren't wars.  There's been many riots over the years--- none of these produced the long protracted war visited up the country during Lincoln's years in the White House.

There could be civil disorder and civil disobedience.  I see it as a public relations game that seeks to influence the outcome of the next election.

That's how both sides of the divide are playing it.  Whether it is the shutdown or the ICE protests, it is all the same.  Stuff like this happens, and likely will happen again in the future.

Which implies that I think there will be one.

Stay cool out there, maties.  Times are a bit rugged, but this will get resolved one way or another.  Then things will calm down.

Part III - Covering Up the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History

The Conservative Treehouse

Comment:

Technically speaking, if Obama really wasn't qualified to be President, and was sworn-in anyway, then what does that make this country's status? I'd say the status may very well be "all f'd up".

For if Obama was not legit, then everything he did was illegitimate too. Indeed, the entire Constitution is in jeopardy. A lot of stuff that should not have happened already HAS happened. Whatever follows is a bit of pretension that the situation we're in is actually legit.

If you want to take that to the logical conclusion, anything can, and probably WILL happen at some point.

Anything else is probably just kidding yourself.

It's rather chilling, and the safest thing is to pretend... The more risky thing is to do something even more radical, and then get that legitimized. That may be what the commies are trying to pull off. But they want to do it so that it appears legit. The Dems don't want to appear illegitimate. Neither does Trump and the GOP.

But what if it isn't anyway? The die may already be cast. This renders the "crossing the Rubicon" stage of the American Republic. During Roman times, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and the Republic was dead. The Age of the Emperors soon followed.

On the other hand, if the conservatives and MAGA want to pretend that something isn't amiss, then things will coast along like it has. Once the Democrats get their sorry asses back in, then they won't foul it up, and they'll just do their revolution.

Stuck on stupid

10/8/25:

Canceling out. This was a silly dream.

10/6/25:

Python course is completed. Now on to Linux.

Update later: I'm moving through Linux pretty fast. There's a crap load of courses to take in this project. It will take quite awhile, even at this pace.

10/4/25:

Getting close to the finish line for the first subject of this course.  So close that I can smell it.   If anyone's curious, the first course is Python.  Python is a computer language.  I'm so out of it with this coding business that I don't know what good Python's for.   It's been over 20 years since I did any coding at all.  A lot of catching up to do.  I'm so old that I could remember writing code in Fortran and Cobol.  Plenty has changed from those days.

10/3/25:

The going's getting rugged...  It's already near noon, and just now I'm getting to this blog.  It's because it is so doggone time-consuming to do programming.  This blog also is time-consuming.  Therefore, posting is going to suffer a bit.

Bottom line is this:  If the blog doesn't pay $$$, then I need to find a way to make some money.  Life as it is too-constraining without the $$$ to do things.

No intention to monetize blog, but that could change.   However, I won't do anything to lose my independence to say whatever I please.  Bear with me on this.  It really does look like time-management may be an issue.

10/2/25:

Rut roh! Another toughie popped up on my radar, and it shot me down! Ayeeeeeeeee! I must've lost some pep in my step or something. That one shouldn't have been tough as it was. The solution seemed "elegant", but I've got a headache now.

10/1/25:

Actually, I am plowing through this course pretty fast.  The online course keeps track of your progress, and compares it to others' progress.  Stimulates competition, I suppose.  Anyway, I am catching up pretty fast.  It may take awhile to see how I really stack up.  Compared to the beginners, which I am NOT quite that, but a beginner with regards to the course material itself, I am kicking butt.

But I won't get too proud about that.  Heck, it wasn't even my idea anyway.  You know, all this competitive stuff isn't always a good thing.  It's like Murphy's Law.  It's not always best, but that's the way to bet.

9/30/25:

As I dilly-dally my ways through the muck and mire of modern life, I am sometimes struck in the head by something from somewhere unknown.  ( don't take me literally )

This morning I had a helluva time solving a moderately hard programming exercise.  In the old days, there was just one time in which I could't figure it out on my own.  This morning was a repeat of that experience.  I said "uncle" on the problem because I didn't want to make a career out of a programming exercise.

After awhile, the commonalities of the old days and the current day came back to me.  I was stuck on stupid.  That was why I couldn't solve the problem.

Maybe because I'm not physically up to par this morning.  But what was the excuse back in the old days when I was a young whippersnapper?

Sometimes there's just no excuse for being a dummy.  Just trying not to get stuck on stupid.  The fail-safes didn't work this morning, drat it.

 

Wapo sez: "Supreme Court will be forced to grapple with Trump in new term"

 

And a post on Free Republic sez to cue up this scene below

But first, how do you cosplay this one? Is Trump the Good, the Bad, or the Ugly? MAGA will say that Trump is the Good, The Democrats are the Baddies, and the Ugly is? Take your pick amongst the three amigas on the liberal side of the Supremes--- Kagan, Sotomayor, or Jackson. The Dems will say they're the good guys, and Trump is both bad and ugly. I say let's shoot the bastards and get it over with. (Not really, I won't back that up just yet.)

DC cosplay

The scene from the Big Lebowski. The Establishment Dems will be "the dude", the Establishment RINOS will be "Donny", the commies will be the "nihilist gang", and The Donald will be "Walter". Whatcha think??? Why set up the characters like that? The dude tries to buy off the gang cheap, Donny has a heart attack and dies, the gang gets their asses kicked by Walter. I think that sums it up.

 

Very interesting

 

DOGE may have been on the trail of something big. What became of this???

And here is:

Elon Musk: “Effectively, there’s a giant fraud loophole: the government can send money to an NGO that is no longer governed by the laws of the United States.”

“Has USAID’s DOGE team found any evidence that any of the radical left Democrats — such as Maxine Waters,… pic.twitter.com/0Zy2FeI0Fj

— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) October 4, 2025