10:08 – We’re back at reasonable stock levels of the FK01A forensic science kits and CK01B chemistry kits, or we will be once I finish boxing up the kits. Then I need to get chemicals bottled for a custom order of 25 sets. Once I finish that, I’ll start on another batch of 30 BK01 biology kits.
Barbara is going out to dinner with friends tonight, so Colin and I will watch Heartland reruns. We’ll finish series six this evening and may have time to get started on series seven. CBC starts broadcasting series eight in a couple of months, but it won’t finish its run until next April or May. I’ll download HD copies of each episode every week and accumulate them until we have all 18 episodes, at which point I’ll burn DVDs and we’ll binge watch series eight. Between now and then, I’ll have time to re-watch the first seven series two or three more times.
Does Barbara ever take you out for dinner?
“Worst Hurricane”
http://xkcd.com/1407/
Ike was pretty bad in 2008 here in the Houston area.
I have a picture of my grandfather walking down 5th street in Freeport in 1961, the day after Carla hit. The water was at his waist.
Scratch that, I had it totally wrong.
Do you ever take Barbara out for dinner?
Yes, Barbara and I go out to dinner, either by ourselves or with Mary and Paul. She also goes out to dinner on her own frequently with her sister and various female friends, one or several at a time. She enjoys being out of the house, going to concerts, etc., while I try to avoid leaving the house as much as possible.
Another study on Vegas water now says we’ll run out in a year! Should I start loading the Atoz-mobile for the Leavenworth bugout? I guess NV could stop all water going out to other states and Mexico.
What’s keeping you in LV?
I do know that if I had my choice between Nevada (or any other dry state) and Kansas I’d pick Kansas in a heartbeat. This water problem is serious, it’s real, and it’s not going away. There are simply too many people, businesses, and farms for the available water to support.
Short-term, the problem is going to get worse and worse. Medium-term, it’s going to become critical. Farms will have to be abandoned and businesses shut down, with all that means for the local economies. Long-term, I suspect we’ll be back to the population densities of a hundred years ago. Nevada and the other dry states have been pumping fossil water for decades now, and it’s running out. In decades, they’ve drained aquifers that took literally tens to hundreds of thousands of years to accumulate. Once that’s gone, it’s gone.
I guess NV could stop all water going out to other states and Mexico.
Wars have been triggered for less. Water has become the number two natural resource after energy resources.
I see huge water desalination plants in the the western USA future. Unfortunately, these are extremely energy intensive for pumps and capital / maintenance intensive all the equipment that rapidly wears out.
Long-term, I suspect we’ll be back to the population densities of a hundred years ago.
Are all the people going to move back to the Carolinas? I doubt it.
In addition to huge desalination plants on the west coast, I see huge pipelines from the eastern states to the western states. We pipeline oil and gas everywhere, why not water?
This:
“…while I try to avoid leaving the house as much as possible.”
And this:
“… I’ll download HD copies of each episode every week and accumulate them until we have all 18 episodes, at which point I’ll burn DVDs and we’ll binge watch series eight. Between now and then, I’ll have time to re-watch the first seven series two or three more times.”
Yikes. I’m starting to worry about ya a little, Dr. Bob. I don’t get outta the house much myself other than errands and suchlike but hell, I have an excuse, haha, I’m a damaged and deranged PTSD vet! Seriously, they tell me to get out more and do more stuff for myself that I like to do; I of course realize it’s two different things going on but really, wouldn’t it be better/healthier if you got out more? None of my beeswax, just ruminating…
To that end and for any others interested, including me, I highly recommend the short book “Outside Lies Magic,” written years ago by a historical landscape academic (Professor John Stilgoe) but well worth looking into. When we’re out on foot or on bicycles or horseback, there’s a lotta interesting chit going on that we maybe don’t think about much, places we live, what’s overhead, what’s around, what was around before, etc.
“Nevada and the other dry states have been pumping fossil water for decades now, and it’s running out. In decades, they’ve drained aquifers that took literally tens to hundreds of thousands of years to accumulate. Once that’s gone, it’s gone.”
Indeed. Lost Wages is one of the last places I’d care to be when the wottuh runs out. For obvious reasons.
“Should I start loading the Atoz-mobile for the Leavenworth bugout?”
Yes. You’ve got a several-year window, probably, but not much more than that; wottuh isn’t the only problem/issue/challenge. Why stick around? Oh wait–aren’t your kids in college there? Still, it would probably pay to at least get set up in Kansas for now so you’re good to go when the time comes.
Our little potential refuge way up in northern Noveau Brunswick is about to slide off into the north Atlantic so we need, maybe, a new site. I dunno, though; what’re we gonna do if the shit really hits the fan? We’re both around sixty years old, not in the utmost physical/medical condition, and we’ve got a pretty solid house here now, close to many square miles of flat, extremely fertile farmland, and the sixth-largest lake in the U.S. Plus twenty minutes from an international border. Even if we had a bug-out site way up in the Maritimes or the Adirondacks or the western Maine mountains, we’d still have to get to it, with the associated problems of gas supply, road and bridge conditions, and whether or not we have something set up already at such a location, which we don’t.
We’re probably just gonna stick it out here and let the chips fall where they may. I’m working on building neighborhood relationships, the local gun club/range guys, the parish, and the American Legion people in town. Mrs. OFD doing likewise with her arts and crafts operations and business in the area. If masses of zombie looters show up eventually, they’ll have plenty of empty and abandoned summer homes and cottages to plunder; why take on an armed ‘hood with people on their last stand?
We hope, of course, things won’t get that bad. But again, why tempt fate? Other countries found themselves on the skids real fast and people ended up fleeing for their lives, still going on in some parts of the world.
You don’t seriously think the eastern states are going to go along with that? Especially since water is becoming an issue even in the eastern states.
Even if you could come up with a source for the water, building the pipelines to distribute it would cost tens of trillions of dollars. Remember, we’re not talking about a low-volume material like liquid fuels; we’re talking water, for which the demand will be in the billions of gallons per day. What are you gonna do? Drain the Great Lakes?
As I’ve said, I’m borderline Asperger’s, although I can convincingly fake being sociable if the need arises. I don’t like people whom I don’t know, so being around groups of strangers is uncomfortable for me. I hate to travel because that means I’m in unfamiliar surroundings and don’t have all my stuff at hand. If it weren’t for having to walk Colin, I could go literally weeks without leaving the house.
Understand, I can function perfectly well in society. If I need something, I don’t hesitate to drive to where it is and buy it. If I need to pretend to be sociable, I can do it with no effort. I’d just prefer not to have to do it.
Understood. I guess I’m not far behind you in all those regards but for different reasons, which I’m told I should try to move beyond now, since it’s been forty years, after all, LOL.
I really, really do not like enforced socialization events, like the kind companies and other organizations put on, and I’ve gone to several functions that Mrs. OFD had to go to for her benefit but I loathed doing so and like you, had to pretend to be sociable. She tells me I put on a real good act.
I think I’ve gotten worse instead of better in this regard but am supposed to make an effort to get my ass out and about and talk to people, etc., etc. If I end up with this particular Windows IT gig in the near future, I’d have to do just that, mainly interaction more frequently with lusers, which I had nearly zero of at my last gig.
Steady rain here today; got some junk removed, including a dozen old tires; also heard from the garage and our $1,000 bill for Saab repairs. Did my VA appointment group meeting and we discussed impending deaths of loved ones and how to deal with it, very cheery.
Now off to chop at more jungle vegetation and keep an eye peeled for Charlie in the wire…
Speaking of Charlie in the wire, do you have wire?
I don’t know if it’ll grow in your climate, but if so you might want to look at Trifoliate Orange as an alternative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifoliate_orange#Cultivation
You don’t seriously think the eastern states are going to go along with that?
Indeed. Atlanta is running out of water and wants to tap the Tennessee River where it dips low in the state. The claim is that the border between Georgia and Tennessee was established incorrectly and should be redrawn, in Georgia’s favor naturally.
Of course Tennessee is having nothing to do with such effort nor are the people that would become residents of Georgia and subject to the Georgia 6% income tax. It will end up in the Supreme Court and who knows how those collective idiots will rule.
If Georgia were to get access to the water Georgia would drain a significant chunk of the Tennessee River. That river is a navigation river and thus a certain level has to be maintained by TVA. Sucking water out of the river would significantly impact Alabama which is downstream from Chattanooga.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/17/water-wars-georgia-wants-slice-tennessee-river/
What’s keeping you in LV?
Right now we have tons of work in CA, WA, TX and Vegas is ideal for flights everywhere. Also, now kids are in college and get the Millennium Scholarship. This fall will get them a credit of $1,800. Since they are staying at home, that’s over half the tuition. My wife even mentioned before getting on a flight yesterday we could always move to our house in Leavenworth. Currently rented, comes open next summer. By the way, water is really cheap in Vegas. I remember my San Antonio bills were at least twice as much.
I think the new *straw* being dug into Lake Mead will stay off the H2O crisis for 5-10 years at normal water gulping consumption in Vegas. That’s scheduled for 2015 (if something doesn’t happen). Vegas needs a plan other than taking over the dam from the BLM when the aqua-zombies hit.
Again, on cue, Sharpless has convicted the cop in MO .
Al Sharpton: I’m not a snitch. (Not true) But today I want to tell the feds about a cop that needs to go to jail.
What are the odds the cop is Black? Wouldn’t that be the shit.
And race baiter Jackson is writing “there is a Ferguson near you” . I guess he’s shooting for a national riot this time.
This is interesting and apropos in looking for a place to go:
http://www.businessinsider.com/half-of-the-united-states-lives-in-these-counties-2013-9
Or should I say: looking for a place to avoid.
Oh, speaking of water volume, here’s how much water Tiny Town — accurate population around 12,000 — pumps to users (both residential and industrial) every day:
2,800,000 gallons
That is every day.
Bob is right that the volume needed to be piped anywhere to be useful will be stratospheric figures.
Water was horrifically expensive in Berlin. It was hard to understand, coming from America. It rains more days than not in Germany and most of northern Europe and run-off in the Alps causes avalanches and mudslides; opposite in the US. Which always made me wonder why water was so dear there (nobody gives it away — not even restaurants). Maybe they have the better long-term outlook than we do.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to have moved out of one of the two counties in Indiana that made the list
At only 233 gallons/day/person, that sounds like almost exclusively residential use. I assume that there is very little business, manufacturing, or farming going on in that service area.
Yeah, Guilford Country (Greensboro) adjoins us and is on the list. I can’t imagine that Forsyth County (Winston-Salem) is far behind.
You don’t seriously think the eastern states are going to go along with that? Especially since water is becoming an issue even in the eastern states.
I did not know that. I am thinking specifically about the Mississippi and Missouri rivers though.
Even if you could come up with a source for the water, building the pipelines to distribute it would cost tens of trillions of dollars. Remember, we’re not talking about a low-volume material like liquid fuels; we’re talking water, for which the demand will be in the billions of gallons per day. What are you gonna do? Drain the Great Lakes?
I suspect that pipelines from the Mississippi and Missouri rivers would be far cheaper than that. At least into Texas.
BTW, they are now forecasting that Texas’s population will go up by 50% in the next ten years. People are “flooding” in from both the North and the South. My county population is forecasted to double in the next ten years which just blows me away. 600K to 1,200K people.
This is interesting and apropos in looking for a place to go:
http://www.businessinsider.com/half-of-the-united-states-lives-in-these-counties-2013-9
Or should I say: looking for a place to avoid.
Fort Bend County made the list. How … special.
“Suicide Bomb Trainer in Iraq Accidentally Blows Up His Class”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/world/middleeast/suicide-bomb-instructor-accidentally-kills-iraqi-pupils.html?referrer=&_r=1
Sounds like something out of a Jeff Dunham special.
Correct: no serious industry to speak of in Tiny Town these days. Everything but chain restaurants has left. This is a retirement town for former auto industry factory workers (which industries left completely when Chrysler sold their plant here that once employed 3,500 people; new owners shuttered it at the beginning of the Great Recession), home to working farmers, chain restaurant employees, those restaurants being the last remaining businesses in town, and people like me who commute to Indy or other towns for work. New Castle, Indiana (named by my forebears after New Castle, Pennsylvania — NOT New Castle, Kentucky, which the plentiful Kentucky locals believe, but who never check to see that NC, IN was named before NC, KY ever existed) is just like Detroit: it has lost well over half of its population, which peaked in the 1960’s.
“…Trifoliate Orange as an alternative…”
I’d mos def use it as a marmalade or grated condiment but sadly it won’t grow in our zone here. For fruit trees we’re pretty much limited to apples, pears and plums, plus various berries. And in our particular site here, we don’t even have enough sunlight for the dwarf varieties.
“It will end up in the Supreme Court and who knows how those collective idiots will rule…”
Wottuh wars, coming soon. Worldwide.
“I guess he’s shooting for a national riot this time.”
If so, he’s a much bigger damn fool than I thought; way more militant black guys, I mean the real deal street militants, are telling their guys to cool it; it’s suicide going up against Whitey, although they used different language, with a lot of m-f’s in it. White folks got the firepower way beyond anything the inner-city guys can come up with. Jackson, Sharpless, et. al., are all old-school “leadership” and race-baiters; they’re on the way out. Newer, younger guys are looking to form separate enclaves and regions; Mississippi looks good; it’s already at 40% and climbing. Aztlan in the Southwest and New Africa in the Deep South. Snowmen and icicles up here.
“Or should I say: looking for a place to avoid.”
Indeed. And a huge percentage along the coasts. I wouldn’t wanna be them.
“My county population is forecasted to double in the next ten years which just blows me away. 600K to 1,200K people.”
That’s more people than in this whole state. By fah, with the latter figure, twice as many. And we have wottuh here until it’s coming out of our ears. Corn crop was stupendous this year. Frankly, I would not care to be in TX or NV, guys. Or the southern two-thirds of Kalifornia. Or Florida and the Megalopolis which runs north of there to Portland, Maine. If we absolutely had to move out of Vermont and couldn’t go north to the Maritimes, I believe our best shot would be Wyoming. But it would be such a drastic change on many levels for us.
Having chopped away a ton of jungle vegetation this week from around the shed/studio, I will now endeavor to set up ladder racks for at least the kayaks and maybe one of the canoes.
I see huge water desalination plants in the the western USA future.
Maybe the Pournelle/Niven idea from Oath of Fealty will come to pass: tow icebergs from the Antarctic and use the water from them.
“… it has lost well over half of its population, which peaked in the 1960′s.”
They’re all moving to Mr. Lynn’s back yard.
““This is so funny,” Mr. Hashim said. “It shows how stupid they are, those dogs and sons of dogs.””
See, this is yet another reason I am not at all comfortable with our rulers flinging ordnance all over the Sandbox, which has seen way more than enough by now with shit for results that mean anything good to us here. There are ordinary human beings over there under all that ordnance, just trying to get through the day like the rest of us, and they clearly hate these bastards more than we do. Of course over here I suspect that regular folks would also be blowing the bastards away that kept doing stuff like that, assuming the cops and military wouldn’t or couldn’t handle the gig.
Errrp! Looks like somebody from the coroner’s office posted a head and neck shot of the damage Mr. Williams did to himself with his belt. Reminds me of the pic of John Lennon taken at the morgue, which made the rounds after his death.
My uncle was an undertaker — and a good one, — but this stuff is just plain creepy and sick. I suppose with the electronic interconnectedness in the world, there is no way to control it.
Some doosh nozzle at vox.com (lmao libturd heaven) is trying to make Mr. OFD’s prediction come true. Since vox.com is backed by GE, maybe this is the beginnings of Emperor Odoosh the I.
It could be that by rendering second-term presidents ineligible for future terms in office, the 22nd Amendment is slightly undermining the quality of governance by eliminating the basic mechanism of electoral accountability.
RE: Water
Farmers in the great plains have been draining the Ogallala Aquifer dry for decades trying to farm land that should have never been been used for row crops. You have to drill much deeper these days to access it than 50 years ago (especially in the Texas panhandle, western Oklahoma, and western Kansas).
I am all for desalination, but then there’s the problem of what to do with the salt sludge? The environmentalists will have a heyday with that. I wonder if you could dry it into large blocks and stack them in the vast deserted deserts (what a funny word combo) that are conveniently located in the part of the country most in need of the fresh water.
The Los Angeles and Las Vegas metropolitan areas are monumentally stupid. Those places were never meant to support that kind of population. The California Aqueduct should have never been built. I read somewhere that water is around 4¢ per gallon in LA (you have to do the math on the price per hundred cubic feet and then there are different tiers of pricing, etc. etc.). It should be closer to $1 per gallon. A 2500% increase in water prices ought to correct the situation.
“Looks like somebody from the coroner’s office posted a head and neck shot of the damage Mr. Williams did to himself with his belt.”
If I was “law enforcement” out there, I’d find out who and charge them with everything I could and lock ’em up. Then facilitate the family’s suit accordingly.
“…trying to make Mr. OFD’s prediction come true.”
I sincerely hope I’m wrong about most of my predictions here. But I would not be surprised in the least if Obummer’s handlers found a way to keep him in there for another four years, assuming that’s in their interest. He’s done a fine job so far of wrecking the country, a job begun by his predecessors, both Dem and Repub. That seems to be their main function.
“Those places were never meant to support that kind of population.”
Exactly. Like fire, geography and climate can be fine servants but they are masters to be feared.
Indianapolis has been plagued with underground electrical explosions for decades. Never saw those anywhere else I lived. Another one occurred this afternoon.
http://www.wthr.com/story/26271453/2014/08/13/underground-explosions-reported-in-downtown-indianapolis
We talk here about how many people fail to get away from danger. In the one video, you can hear people yelling for bystanders to get away from the place where the explosions were occurring, but you can see people heading right toward the danger spot, just as more explosions go off. Wish the camera were tighter on those folks so it could be determined if they are make or female, but I think I know.
Meanwhile, Kevin Ward’s father has pretty much accused Tony Stewart as the cause of his son’s death, with what is exactly my line of reasoning: how is it that every other driver avoided Ward, while Stewart drove right up to him? Time for Tony Stewart (a Columbus, Indiana boy, BTW) to be retired from racing by the sanctioning bodies. Of course, I am the only person in Indiana who holds that view.
But I would not be surprised in the least if Obummer’s handlers found a way to keep him in there for another four years, assuming that’s in their interest.
Well, Giuliani nearly got it done. My dad thought Larry the K would extend himself in office, but that never happened. No doubt Miss Monica made it difficult.
wonder if you could dry it into large blocks and stack them in the vast deserted deserts (what a funny word combo) that are conveniently located in the part of the country most in need of the fresh water.
You could ship them to Vegas and make a new “salt” casino. As long as Dirty Harry Reid is in office, I’m sure the rest of the States will have to pony up water credits for Vegas. Thanks guys!
” I guess NV could stop all water going out to other states and Mexico.”
Well, they could shut down all car washes. Then the illegal alien workers at them might go back to Mexico saving car wash water and personal use water.
How about that for the one stone two bird solution?
Worst hurricanes:
For my long-previous neck of the woods, southeastern Maffachufetts, they were the unnamed 1938 horror, which my parents lived through as children; and the 1951 and 1954 buggers. For the earlier one, my mom’s neighborhood in Fairhaven, across the hahbuh from New Bedford, became an island and she and the family had to be evacuated with the other neighbors by rowboats. I have a book here of photos from that storm and it was amazing; they found boats three miles inland. A whole church picnic group, around thirty men, women and children, disappeared without a trace. It was boat traffic only in downtown Providence, Rhode Island.
Also a result of the 1938 hurricane; bridges and dams in central MA had to be replaced; I hiked and x-c skied through woods there in the 80s and saw the “1938” carved in the granite on many of them. A bad year all the way round…
how is it that every other driver avoided Ward, while Stewart drove right up to him?
Target fixation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_fixation
Don’t make yourself a target for a fast mover.
Can we send the next hurricane directly to Vegas, please. I’ll be out on the corner with a tin cup to hold my daily water ration.
Speaking of tin cups; any of y’all who play golf (I only played once, years ago) and/or enjoy a bit of sports comedy, check out the flick of the same title, starring Kevin Costner and Don Johnson; also “Dead Solid Perfect,” with Randy Quaid.
We had our fill of hurricanes in Vermont for a while, and the associated flooding. Now for the coming blizzards and ice storms…saw leaves changing colors over the past couple of weeks…about right for timing…
Can we send the next hurricane directly to Vegas, please. I’ll be out on the corner with a tin cup to hold my daily water ration.
Actually, the big water droppers are tropical storms. They sit off the coast in the world’s biggest hot tub (the Gulf of Mexico) and pump water into some really unlucky person’s world (we have had up to 42 inches of rain over 24 hours here in the Houston metropolitan area):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Allison (40 inches of rain)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Claudette_(1979) (42 inches of rain)
What you really, really do not want is storm surge. Hurricane Ike in 2008 had a 24 ft storm surge that went 10 to 20 miles inland with salt water from the Gulf. Destroyed anything it touched.
Target fixation
Yeah, Stewart definitely thought of Ward as a target.
… a “twofer” solution: “Have the feds take back all the armored vehicles they’ve given to police departments and send them to the Kurds.”:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/193348/
Speaking of hurricanes, Randall Munroe (draws xkcd) drew this, from info in the hurricane database and NOAA historical rainfall totals based on the worst hurricanes in the last 100 years. Hard to read, but this is the highest-def pic of it I could find.
http://www.cfact.org/2014/08/13/cartoon-worst-hurricane-people-remember-spans-many-years/worst-hurricane/
1938 Mass. and RI (before names) and 1951 Esther are indeed included.
Ah, wait! BBC now reports those images of a supposedly dead Robin Williams were photoshopped. His daughter Zelda has quit Twitter, where they first appeared, as a result.
You know, it has been commented here a few times that US domestic police and military will not shoot our own citizens. The Ferguson thing is changing my mind. Pictures in the British media showing police (no one is identified as military) with fingers on the triggers of automatic, military-grade weapons, pointed at protesters with their hands up in the air, are pretty frightening.
As is this report.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2724528/Ferguson-turmoil-Police-use-tear-gas-demonstrators-fourth-night-violence-arresting-two-journalists-protests-death-Michael-Brown.html
“… a “twofer” solution: “Have the feds take back all the armored vehicles they’ve given to police departments and send them to the Kurds.””
That 1033 caper has been around a long time now; the local and state cops, plus very mundane Fed agencies, have acquired many thousands of tons of military-grade hardware, some of it sitting in small-town and village garages, gathering rust and dust. It’s so stupid as to beggar belief, unless you’ve been citizen here for the past fifty years and watched all the crazy shit go down. Read Balko’s book on “The Warrior Cop;” it’s a good introductory eye-opener to a lot of the shenanigans. I wasn’t joking when I mentioned SWAT caving in doors to jack people up for overdue library books and growing organic veggies in their gardens; this kind of crap goes down all the time. Why, you ask? Because they have nothing else to do; SWAT was designed for major incidents and those are rare as hens’ teeth in real life. So they use ’em for dope warrants and pot farmers instead, gotta get the training, gotta get the practice…
As for sending stuff to the Kurds; sure, why not? Since ISIS has a bunch of our stuff already; let’s arm the Kurds with more of our stuff, watch all those bastards go at it. Or we could just mind our own biz—oh wait—I’ve said this before here.
“1938 Mass. and RI (before names) and 1951 Esther are indeed included.”
The 1954 storm was also pretty bad in southern New England; I was only one year old, though, so probably slept through it; I would have been living in New Bedford when it hit there.
“His daughter Zelda has quit Twitter, where they first appeared, as a result.”
I hope she sues Twitter and whoever put that shit out there. I never joined Twitter and won’t be on FaceCrack much longer, either; only reason I was was so I could stay in touch with family members who are on it constantly. They’ll have to find another way soon.
“You know, it has been commented here a few times that US domestic police and military will not shoot our own citizens. The Ferguson thing is changing my mind.”
Mr. Chuck and I x-posted:
If anyone thinks that, all they have to do is remember Ruby Ridge and Waco and a host of other incidents since at least the 1960s; a lot of them documented in Balko’s book. They look for excuses now to spray and pray.
I’ve said this before, too; if any of y’all get stopped by them, for whatever reason, say as little as possible, hand over whatever documents they demand, and keep your mouth shut. If you’re detained or arrested, get a lawyer ASAP and say nothing until then. And keep your hands in plain sight and don’t make any odd or sudden moves, not that this guarantees your safety any longer, as we have ample incidents documented by now where people were on their knees with hands in the air and begging for their lives, obviously unarmed, before they were riddled like Swiss cheese.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/08/marc-j-victor/surviving-a-cop-stop/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/08/gerald-celente/soaring-police-violence/
The situation in the sandbox is just great. They did a news special on it last night, based on footage from some incredibly gutsy reporter who is living in the region that ISIS now controls. It’s bad news – I mean, really bad news – all around.
On the social front, the ISIS guys have achieved a strange combination: on the one hand, they have the local population totally intimidated. They think nothing of going into people’s houses to have a look around, see if they have any alcohol, whatever. But on the other hand, the local population seems totally happy to put up with this repression, because ISIS has stopped the warfare. Which means that ISIS has the support of the local population, in the areas it controls.
On the behavior front they are absolutely barbaric. Dunno if it is thought through, but the effect is pure intimidation: resist and you will be murdered (if you are lucky), otherwise they start with your kids. Torture, crucifixion (literally, no joke), they do it all. This has got to be hugely intimidating in areas they are attacking, so I imagine lots of villages roll over immediately, in hopes of escaping the worst of the atrocities.
On the military front, lots of pictures of ISIS soldiers and equipment. Lots of vehicles – APCs, artillery, even tanks – which gives them mobility. Quite a difference from the stuff that terrorist bands usually have at their disposal. Essentially all of it is US equipment, mostly pretty darned new, coming from the equipment provided to Iraq.
So the Obama administration (with their predecessors’ help, of course) has succeeded in turning a ragged band of fanatics into a well-equipped army. Good job, well done, mission accomplished.
A last note, purely my personal take: arming the Kurds is too little too late. They’ve already lost, they just don’t know it yet. The bigger question in my mind is whether ISIS will be bold enough to chase them across the border into Turkey.
This whole deal is known as “blowback,” and evidently our rulers have either learned nothing from the previous decades of nearly continuous war, or know full well and it suits their purposes somehow.
know full well and it suits their purposes somehow.
I don’t know that any of them are that smart.
our rulers have either learned nothing
I think that is the more relevant statement.
Protesters!? Not really. Protesters would be in front of city hall during the day. What they have are rioters burning and looting pretending it’s about a police shooting.
They may well have a police problem in Ferguson but they have other problems as well.
Protesters, rioters, whatever; if they’re not an immediate lethal threat to those police officers, said officers should not be pointing their loaded weapons with fingers on the triggers at them unless they intend to shoot them. Basic rule of firearms usage.