Open Thread - 03-07-25 - Spring Has Sprung
Spring has arrived here in Southeast Texas and the grass is getting green and it's growing. I've never before had to access the battery under the seat on our zero turn lawn mower until now. I went out to start it yesterday and the battery was dead. I pushed the lever that locks the seat in place and went to lift the seat but it was a no go. After much angst and effort I finally checked the mechanics of the seat latch and it turns out that two hooks that lock the seat into place aren't clearing the bracket which should release it. To fix it I'll have to file the points of the hooks back to where they will clear the bar. This zero turn is a Gravely, a higher end model, one would think that quality control would have caught this defect upon manufacturing, but that wasn't the case. So much for quality control. I guess it's make 'em and sell 'em in the corporate world and let the buyer beware, even on the higher end products.
The grass isn't going to wait so fixing the mower is on my agenda for today. Because of that my open thread today will be a bit truncated with just a couple of quick thoughts.
I like bits and pieces of what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish, but I've pounded a couple of his projected programs pretty hard since he's taken office. Specifically the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and his Stargate Project initiative.
Yesterday Trump signed an executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve & Digital Assets Stockpile as anticipated. My original consternation about the Bitcoin Reserve was that he was going to use tax payer monies to fund it. Well, that consternation was assuaged by the fact that only confiscated bitcoins will be used, as per this X tweet from White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks yesterday:
Just a few minutes ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it…
— David Sacks (@davidsacks47) March 7, 2025
Here's the tweet in full:
Just a few minutes ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime.
It is estimated that the U.S. government owns about 200,000 bitcoin; however, there has never been a complete audit. The E.O. directs a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings.
The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called “digital gold.”
Premature sales of bitcoin have already cost U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value. Now the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings.
The Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers.
IN ADDITION, the Executive Order establishes a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, consisting of digital assets other than bitcoin forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings.
The government will not acquire additional assets for the Stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings.
The purpose of the Stockpile is responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department.
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT
President Trump promised to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. Those promises have been kept.
This Executive Order underscores President Trump’s commitment to making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”
I want to thank the President for his leadership and vision in supporting this cutting-edge technology and for his rapid execution in supporting the digital asset industry. His administration is truly moving at “tech speed.”
I also want to thank the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets — especially Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — for their help and support in getting this done. Finally Bo Hines played a critical role as Executive Director of our Working Group.
That's somewhat of a relief and I have to offer some kudos for not using tax payer monies to fund it. Maybe the fact that congress would have to allocate the tax payer money to fund the project had some bearing on the decision.
I still have some concerns but I'll take a wait and see approach for now.
What in the blue blazes is up with Europe? Are they collectively insane? I should qualify those statements and narrow them down to the European leaders who seem hell bent for war with Russia since I'm pretty sure most of the European citizens would have a different take on the situation.
I do have to admit though, that much of the European bravado is just that, bravado, because they can't seriously think they can take on Russia, right? But I have to look back at the history of Europe and world wars and how they have a proclivity for starting them and drawing the rest of the world into their boneyard. Just like the other two world wars, it looks like the US will take an initial isolationist position. I then have to ask myself "will history repeat itself" by Europe getting in over its head and subsequently will the US enter the war at a later date to save Europe from destruction, just like the last two world wars?
Anyway, I think that question is moot because I think all the saber rattling is bluster with the specter of nuclear annihilation rearing its ugly head.
That's all I've got today folks, the rest is up to you.
As our gone but not forgotten brother would say: Peace Out!
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
I'll be working on the mower but should be able to reply to comments.
A big problem with much of what Trump wants to accomplish is they're being enacted by executive order. Which means that if his projects aren't codified into law by congress then they can easily be unwound by a later administration.
I still have huge concerns over his Stargate Project that has the potential to change society for the worse, in my humble opinion anyway.
Crapification Rules
The computer age makes it easier than ever to squeeze pennies out of every transaction along the way from initial concept to design and manufacture, on to marketing and sales. This applies for-profit enterprises, as well as non-profit organizations and government. The philosophy of neo-liberalism deems penny pinching to be the only sensible way to function. From your lawnmower to your national government, you get ever more crap as time goes by until it all grinds to a crapified halt.
The perfect exemplar of this reality swept through Los Angeles County last month with thousands of buildings destroyed. Before the embers flickered out, the political snarking and blaming cranked into high gear.
We are getting to the point where the only meaningful question is Whose fault is it?
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
It's all about...
the corporate bottom line and the bane of humanity, unquenchable greed. If humans can't get over the greed then I'm afraid we're destined for a collective Darwin award.
Good luck with the mower repairs.
I find these small batteries to last only 2 seasons, maybe 3.
The first thing I do with a new mower is to disconnect
or bypass all of the "safety" switches. They become more of
a problem as time goes on. It gets more complicated with each
new model. The friggen key switch is Mexico junk.
Still quite a ways to spring here. Ground still frozen.
Wind gusting to 50 knots today and cold! But some sun.
edited to add tractor blues
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
The backing up...
kill switch is the one that drove me up the wall. It was the first one to be disconnected on my riding mowers. This zero turn doesn't have one.
Most excellent video, thanks for that. The tractor engine keep perfect time.
Whooda thunk it?
.
Pavlov chickens.
My grandpa made a doorbell for his dawg. A bell beneath a piece of wood that when stepped on would ring. Eventually he moved it to the side of the room and the dawg would go press it when she wanted to go out.
I went the lazy way and got mine a dawg door.
The Washington Generals should probably sue the Democrats for copyright infringement.
Wow...
those are ingenious! Thanks for that snoops, that gives me some ideas.
Sweet
If you build any I hope you share with the class.
I thought it was amazing that the chickens understood that playing with the wooden pieces would release some food. How do they figure that out?
The Washington Generals should probably sue the Democrats for copyright infringement.
would have to guess they were trained
.
peck here and get food
pull that knob and get seeds
behavioral psych 101
easily trained critters
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Good morning Johnny, thanks for the OT. I don't even know
what a zero turn mower is, nor anything about the construction details, but I am essentially lazy, so my first reaction was to wonder if one couldn't shim the bracket out or up or whatever rather than filing all damn day.
Today, the SCMP opinions section includes the following head
No doubt, but what's this "turning rogue"? The US has been a rogue nation for a very long time, exceptionally so, if I may say so.
meanwhile, RT tells us that Albania is shutting down tiktok for a year due to concerns about
violence and bullying on the platform, particularly among children. https://www.rt.com/news/613848-albania-tiktok-ban-children-safety/
but buried in the article is the fact that
Note that
bullshit, blaming the app for some of its content, representative of how the EU thinks (and the US, sorry to say) but also having fits about the fact that failure to silence a political candidate that they dislike for failing to toe the EU party line is considered to be a horrible thing. This fron an organization that, along with its members, claims to support the cause of "liberal democracies" but which is/are acting completely contrary to the alleged principles of so-called "liberal democracies"
Finally, a scary headline from SCMP:
Uhhh, stagflation? Scary thought.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
A zero turn mower...
is one of those fancy ones that have two arms for steering rather than a steering wheel. They're capable of a zero turn radius so you can actually make a sharp right or left turn with them and you can do a tight 360 circle. They're great for getting up close around things you need to trim around. They go fast too, that cuts down on mowing time. They're tricky to get used to, but a lot of fun when you get the hang of them.
It's hard to believe that Europe is considered the cradle of democracy, they've gone full circle.
Thanks for the ancillary news, old buddy.
I was finally released
from my post-surgical incarceration at the local crash house. It took some doing, but I’m now back at home, treating the remaining discomfort with my personal choice of locally-legal botanical edibles instead of the Sackler’s damnable oxycodone.
It was mind-boggling, getting them to release me. They told me that I was released, and then rescinded the order, and required me to stay another night. Needless to say, this pissed me off. They then came and took my blood pressure, and told me “See? Your blood pressure is high. That’s why we need to keep you.”
Well, my BP was high because you pissed me off, you cretins.
This then created a 24 hour spin cycle of them doing something to piss me off further, and then immediately afterwards taking my BP again- and remarkably, and against all odds, still finding it high. Once, they decided that I needed to speed-walk a lap of the floor, pushing my IV Christmas tree in front of me- then to take it before I even sat down. Once, they decided to ignore my call button for half an hour to come turn off the bed alarm that was supposed to protect me from falling- and then they decided that they needed to take it before they would let me go *pee*, which was why I pushed the damned call button in the first place. Once, they decided that their chaplain needed to come pray at me (despite the fact that I’d registered as atheist), and then took it before I could throw her out of the room.
But the real winner was when they said they would release me again- but then sent in the charge nurse to talk about my expressed displeasure with their procedures, and then decided to take my BP during that conversation. They concluded once again that it was too high to release me, and that they would need to keep me yet another night.
I informed the charge nurse that 1) they were mistaken, and 2) that they were all to shut the fuck up, leave me alone for 15 minutes, and then to have my doctor come in and take it himself, with no nurse or chaplain involvement. I cranked up my Dead Kennedys/Cramps/X/Gang of Four mix songlist on my headphones, loud enough that they could certainly hear it, and sat back to relax. And when my doctor took my BP after the specified 15 minutes, lo and behold, it was 128/89.
I was out of there like a scalded cat. And it will be a cold day in Hell before I darken the doorway of any religion-based medical facility again, for any reason… Guess I really am getting a bit cranky in my old age.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Free at last!
.
.
sounds like a very similar playbook a hospital tried on me
to extend my stay. Had to be very firm with them. Guess I
wasn't properly medicated? Glad you are out.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Thanks much!
Things are definitely healing up. But, having said that- I also don’t mind having an excuse to take a few days off work. As one does, of course. (;-)
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Glad you escaped
be as well as you can and have the best day & weekend yu can
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
You, too, my friend-
hope everything is getting better from your recent trip through the looking-glass as well!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Thanks, I'm doing fine, 3/4 done with recovery.
I have an excellent plan with a great provider, thy don't try to game me or anybody else.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hey UFS...
here's what you should have done.
You were on the corporate greed assembly line to gouge the insurance company, but I'm sure you know that already since you lived it.
Glad you're home and get yourself well, partner.
Good point!
I have to admit that what was really going through my head was “Dem Dry Bones”, as performed by Alexis Kanner as Number Forty-Eight in the final episode of Patrick McGoohan’s brilliant TV series “The Prisoner” (“Fall Out”). I was feeling rather unmutual just then…
Be seeing you!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
loved that episode
.
being drawn thru the streets of London
in a wagon cage after escaping the island.
Big fan of the series.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Yeah, mon!
One of the best things ever on the teevee. It blows my mind that it ever made it onto the air at all…
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
The homesteaders lament...
Mowers, weed eaters, chainsaws, tractors, ans so on ... all farm machinery is a challenge. Great when it is working, a curse when it is not.
I sure am glad for my fairly reliable 1964 ford 4000RC tractor.
Wish mine looked as good as this one.
but mine runs well and takes care of the holler...grading roads, dragging trees and brush, and bush hogging. You can't ask for a better partner...
except maybe a mule.
All the best my friend!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”