09:12 – The weather is turning cooler here, at least for a couple days. Our high today is to be in the 30’s and the low tonight well below freezing. It’s also been windy lately. I’m not sure if that’s just normal for an exposed area in the mountains or if it’s been windier than normal. At any rate, today will be a good day to stay indoors and work on getting things organized.
Kit shipments are behind last year’s for this time of year, but from what I’m hearing from other small businesses that’s pretty common. It seems that the economy in general is slowing down and has been all year. We’ll be taking steps to increase sales in 2016, including introducing new kits and a new line of economy kits.
Things have also been slow on the prepping front. We’re in reasonably good shape now, so we’ll be making only incremental improvements in the coming weeks and months. Here’s what I did to prep this week:
- I started compiling a list of local progs for future reference. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there don’t appear to be any. This is not a prog-friendly area.
- I went through our current inventory and annotated it with a prioritized list of things to be acquired if, as, and when.
So, what precisely did you do to prepare this week? Tell me about it in the comments.
I am far too busy prepping for Christmas and a week of vacation to do any prepping other than study for the amateur radio licensing exams. Time for that will probably be limited until after the 25th.
Prepping this week has been selecting gifts for my adult son. I got him a light carbine in .40 S&W that takes the same magazines as his carry pistol. Also 250 rnds of .40 S&W for him to sight it in with. I’ll throw in an extra red-dot I have on hand. He will also get a pair of Motorola FRS / GMRS radios and some basic comms training. He is my bug-out destination if things go to hell. Need to ensure he is prepared.
My prepping is including a new direction, minimalizing. I came across this site and these hip looking young guys have some good points: http://www.theminimalists.com/
They also have a YouTube page (doesn’t everyone these days): https://www.youtube.com/user/jmillburn
Of course they are also selling their ideas on the speaking circuit, but they do produce some information to consider that you get for free.
This was a week full of actual paying work, so prepping was slow.
Had a branch take out an antenna during a wind storm. One bolt head pulled thru on the bracket, so a washer will fix that. Need to DO it though.
Downed branches got chainsawed and added to the woodpile.
Yard sale provided 50ft of new heavy antenna cable for my 2 m antenna, when I find the time….
Yard sale also provided 3 hip pocket sized ‘write in the rain’ notebooks.
Took out the lettuces that tasted bitter and never produced heads, and planted beets, turnips, and a couple of radishes in their place. They’re in the ‘window boxes’ on the fence, and will be easy to cover with poly sheeting. I’m gonna try that as an ersatz greenhouse this winter. Experiment!
The carrots look like they are doing well in the raised bed. Beets all died, beans and peas are very slow growing. According to our Ag Extension, they should grow.
Transplanted some collards to one of the raised beds in place of the dead vines.
Lemons and limes are ready. Will get them in this weekend. Don’t know if I’ll candy some or just squeeze them and freeze the juice.
Rotated a bit of food from secondary location to home.
Ordered and received stuff to make up a dozen of my ‘altoids tin, everyday survival’ kits. I’m gonna give them as gifts this year. The inclusion of a mini-Leatherman and a tiny gerber knife brings the BOM to about $12. It would be $25 or more, but I’m using TSA seizures at a couple of bucks each for the hardware. This gives me mixed feelings. Good to reuse and get back into the hands of the folks, bad because they were confiscated from citizens. I’m thinking of selling the kits at $25 as a cottage industry at local gun stores, anyone got any opinion on using the TSA seizures? Would it put you off buying one or would the otherwise un-doable low price compensate?
Ordered and received a selection of the wide cable tie straps I looked at in another post. I realized I had no ‘kid size’ trauma care in my bag. I’m going to try out the various sizes as compression bandages (ala poor man’s kid size israeli bandage) and tourniquets. I’m thinking, put a roll of Kerlix or ace bandage under the strap, cinch it tight. I’ll have to experiment to find a method that works as a tourniquet. (I acknowledge that this is one of those unlikely ‘specific threats’ that sometimes afflict otherwise well balanced preppers. With 2 young kids, a mass casualty event with kids involved is kind of a personal nightmare. This will help me sleep. YMMV.) Looking around, I see that once again, self defense/disaster response/trauma doctrine and preparedness has a blind spot when it comes to kids. The prepacked mass casualty packs are all adult sized. And who is making kid sized CATs or compression bandages? No one. (where was the need?) And yet we have the clear evidence of school shootings, and the Beslan massacre RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. For Pete’s sake, there’s millions available to add locking doors to every school in America, and surveillance cameras out the ass, but no THOUGHT even of a kid sized mass casualty kit for the nurse’s office.
Picked up a couple of ‘dive’ style watches at estate sales. Added new batteries and I’m getting back in the habit of wearing a watch. One downside is that it does make me look more ‘operator-ish.’ No one wears a watch like that with cargo pants except cops, .mil, EMTs, or preppers. Next thing you know, I’ll be sporting a paracord bracelet…. Look at the pix of these guys. Earthtone pants, watches, operator hats, beards. Not exactly grey man. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3365394/US-Special-Forces-photographed-time-secret-mission-Libya-embarrassingly-told-leave-local-commanders-shortly-arriving.html I guess this is what a “handful of gravel in a bucket of spit” looks like.
Time to do the grocery shopping. Keep stacking while there’s time. (Dow down 215, 1.23% ATM, lots of funds at risk, geopolitical shenanigans heating up all over….)
nick
Financial capers in play big-time about now; Ball-more had a mistrial, so for now, no riots and mayhem.
A harsh take, with some bad language, on what our Republicrat saviors have done to us, repeatedly; I have a much longer memory than these guys:
http://www.dethguild.com/you-wanted-your-1850-moment/
Our host was preparing to make a list of prog types in his AO; not a bad idea; these people aren’t giving up. I believe we are, indeed, in a contemporary variation of the 1850s period before our previous civil war, with some aspects of between-the-world-wars Germany and late antiquity Roman Empire thrown in.
Teutoburg Forest>>>1850s U.S.>>>Weimar>>>Civil War 2 Cube
Not much prepping this week thanks to family and holiday stuff which continues toward the new and interesting year ahead on 01/01/16. I did manage to RTFM for a couple of power tools I’ll be putting to extensive use here shortly; clean out and organize the office here and move various gear and radio stuff up to the planned attic workshop; download and save several series of firearms-related videos; prioritize firearms mods and training for us both here; and continue recon activities of the local AO and examine potential choke points and fields of fire. Pathetic, really, but every little bit counts.
“Prepping this week has been selecting gifts for my adult son.”
Outstanding. I’d do the same for our adult son, but A: he lives out in wunnerful Kalifornia, B: he evidently thinks everything will be rosy and he’ll continue to pull down the big bucks forever, and C: he has zero interest in prepping or firearms, and we’re told he drags himself back through the door on early weekday evenings, exhausted and cranky, which is not surprising after 90 minutes of commuting every day to and from a high-pressure biz intel job in downtown SF.
Another overcast day with temps dropping and steady wind gusts from the south off the lake. Working on more winter prep stuff as best I can accordingly.
@dadcooks,
I’ve noticed a trend for the last couple of years, and it is gaining momentum. People telling us to have less stuff. Be satisfied with less. Lower your expectations.
Minimalist, tiny home, apple fanbois…drive a small car, reduce your carbon footprint…
You know who has nothing? Prisoners. Refugees. The extremely poor.
You know who will starve when there is the least disruption in world order and the supply chain? Minimalists. Which businesses will fail? Lean. JIT manufacturing.
That whole idea and lifestyle is predicated on the idea that you can easily get something from OUTSIDE your own life, when you need it. And that’s great, if things are normal. New Yorkers famously don’t need private cars. Taxis are always available, and for longer term, just rent one. Until Sandy heads their way. Then there isn’t any way to leave town. Who needs food in the house when you can get fresh from the bodega on the corner or takeout, until they don’t get their delivery or the scooter boy doesn’t come in.
I am not a believer in buying things you don’t need. I’ve just got a different idea of what NEED means than those two affluent urban hipsters. I need to know my family can eat. I need to know I can shelter in place if there is a problem that limits my ability to move freely. I need to know I have repair parts if something breaks in the middle of the night, or when the stores are closed. I need to have a fire extinguisher, medical kit, and weapons for when 911 calls AREN’T being answered.
Their lifestyle is brittle. The least disturbance and it falls apart. Mine is resilient. Even losing everything here at the house wouldn’t mean going hungry.
Now, I do believe that most people have stuff they don’t need. I am especially aware that I am in that category. Preppers have the constant fight against hoarding. If you or anyone is feeling trapped by stuff or their life is affected negatively by their relationship to stuff, then a change is in order. But I’m extremely suspicious of well off people telling me I would be happy with less.
And preps don’t have to be cluttered. They SHOULD be well organized. There is nothing cluttered about shelves full of food. And if there is, hang a cloth in the front or install some roller shades at the top. Use cabinets with doors. Dedicate one room, and organize it.
nick
Oh, and you’ve got kids. A couple of childless urban DINKs do not have a lifestyle anyone raising children can aspire to.
@nick – very good points in your comment. I am approaching this “minimalist think” in a manner that follows a more self sufficient preparedness direction than the less is more that these guys are preaching, depending on things being there when needed.
I am going back to the attitude of my maternal Grandfather and my paternal Grandmother (she outlived 3 husbands). To reduce it to a extreme basic concept, it does no good to have a supply of parts if they are scattered all over the farm and not properly organized or protected from the elements. That went from the tiniest screw to the big machinery. As I am reorganizing I am finding many items that I put away 30+ years ago that I knew I had, just not where they were. This is also going to make things easier for my Wife and Kids when I am no longer around, Dad’s piles of stuff will have some sort of logic and not just be so much clutter that gets thrown out.
As to the minimalist thing, I can see some appeal to the idea. I have a bunch of stuff collecting dust in the garage and basement. Also books I’ll probably never read again. We have lots of movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. A lot of the ones really like are also on Netflix.There is a part of me that wants more than anything to throw out our Cable TV boxes.
At the same time I would like to move to a larger house for more garage space and another bedroom. So I’m definitely not going to go minimalist. Though, I have maybe a half dozen hobby interests, and I might have more fun by focusing on one or two.
“You know who will starve when there is the least disruption in world order and the supply chain? Minimalists. Which businesses will fail? Lean. JIT manufacturing.”
I’ve noticed this same trend, and I think it mainly applies to others like themselves, who enjoy living stacked like caged rats in “convenient” urban blocks and not out in flyover country with all those crazed fascist rubes clinging bitterly to their guns and their religion. Their abodes and ‘hoods will become deathtraps, of course, and the only sympathy I can muster is for their kids, who have no say in the matter.
And don’t get me started on the “lean” business fads, and others like them, such as “Agile Framework” and scrum sessions with a “scrum master,” an actual cert you can get now. Again, I’m ancient enough to remember similar fads that came and went over the decades, like “quality circles,” “management by objectives,” and even sending captive employees to wacky shit like Werner Erhard’s EST seminars, so they come back “actualized.” One thing that seems different now, however, is that the PHB manglers make it absolutely mandatory that you get on board with this and do the rah-rah thing with it or you don’t get in the door.
Like Mr. DadCooks, I’m finding stuff as I go about cleaning and organizing that I forgot I had, and now putting it together where it belongs. OFD ain’t gonna be around forever, either, and maybe Mrs. OFD and any other survivors will need to make sense of it all. Of course an unpleasant fact here is that I might possibly survive her, which as others sadly know here, sucks pretty bad. She’s actually said several times she wants to go before me as she can’t take losing another husband.
On that cheery note, back to hustling here at This Old House and finding new chit every day, practically, that should have been done by previous owners, just really BASIC stuff.
That is the tension, between having stuff and not š
@Dadcooks, that is an admirable goal then. Get rid of the truly useless (a lot of what you put up is probably ruined or for things you no longer own) and organize the rest.
@dave, I’m going thru my books too. A lot of SJW crap that I bought years ago I will never read again. And even though I REALLY like physical books, I buy most things (outside of reference books) electronically now. Reference books should be hard copy. We can still read and understand books from 4oo years ago (disregarding translation), that is NOT likely to be true with digital media. WRT cds, dvds, and streaming. If you like it you should own it. Films vanish from streaming all the time. Changing laws made a whole decade of music essentially disappear from public view, unless you physically owned it (use of samples in early rap- none of that music can be played on air any more due to the copyright issues.) There are films that are “out of print”. Books too. And with CDs, rip them and store the discs. I found I listen to a lot more music when I can just dial it up… BTW, you can rip the DVDs and BluRay too.
Ripping your media is a great way to “declutter” without depriving yourself. Buying all your books electronically (if they’re even available) would be the same….
nick
Stack it high fellas.
http://www.zerohedge.com/ has a bunch of doom and gloom. Notably Caterpillar is widely considered a proxy for and a leading indicator of the world economy. Down 3 years in a row. Not getting better.
nick
I wish I could rip books as easily as disks. We buy content on CD & DVD, then pass them through Daddy’s desk for processing. The kids don’t ever get a chance to damage the disks that way. I have boxes of them in storage for if & when. All the kids pay attention to is how to find it on the media server.
Books, on the other hand, are usually electronic to start. If I need paper (like an auto manual), I go ahead & print it & store it. Good reference manuals start out as dead trees, and I wish I _could_ rip ’em to an electronic version. C’est la vie. Some day…
RE: Living Minimal. When we were working our way around the world we could put all we needed in a few suitcases. We rented furnished apartment and houses, bought other necessities from charity stores so we could easily leave them behind when we moved on. There is a freedom when you have and need so little. But now we are back in the US, bought a house, filled it with nice things, art, and furniture. And I feel so enslaved by it all. I’d hate to loose the art but I could easily let go everything else, the one big TV, recliner, nice bed, etc.
BTW: I am lucky with my grown son. A former Marine who took disability and spent a decade in a small town police force. Now he runs my business “empire” (4 small businesses) and is the best son a man could want. I have two brothers living in San Francisco, one has drunk the Kool-Aid and been converted to a tax loving liberal by his wife. The other is still conservative and wants desperately to move to a sane state but his wife will NEVER leave her local family unit. Poor guy.
apple fanboisā¦
Hey, cheap shot!
Pseudo-prepping: Laid in a supply of bingo daubers since it looks like I’ll end up a city dweller in Vegas š You’ll probably find my bones in a bingo hall; picked over by zombies, gremlins and goblins. Dauber in hand.
I purchased a Honda 2K geni. Not specifically for prepping, but to drive a PA system so MrsAtoz can take her courses direct to the migrants out in the field.
My el cheapo Harbor Freight solar panels continue to work. One of the panels PVC legs completely broke off due to intense Vegas sun. It leans on a rock in the backyard next to the other one that survived. You would think I lived in a desert or on Mars with the accumulation of dust. I have to clean them once a week. Still charging the 12VDC battery and charges my portable batteries fine.
Looking at putting together another solar system so I’m researching the controller, inverter, panels, cables, etc. I hope to start with three 100W panels and grow.
I still hope to convince MrsAtoz we need a small house. Maybe by my brother in Port Orchard, WA.
There are a lot of solar generators on the crowd funding sites. Here’s one I’ve been watching.
The Kodiak is the worldās first solar generator that expands to fit your needs without requiring you to purchase another entire system. Itās simple ā if you want more battery storage, just connect deep cycle batteries to the external battery connection on the side of the Kodiak. Any connected batteries will charge and discharge at the same rate as the internal batteries. Thus acting as one fully-integrated system.
” I have two brothers living in San Francisco, one has drunk the Kool-Aid and been converted to a tax loving liberal by his wife. The other is still conservative and wants desperately to move to a sane state but his wife will NEVER leave her local family unit. Poor guy.”
Spousal normality bias is a tough thing; I have two married brothers who will never get outta Megalopolis down in MA because their wives simply won’t ever move, mainly because of THEIR families and their being used to the easy and convenient availability of SHOPPING and stores and restaurants and the airport for vaycay travel to Maine, Floriduh, Kalifornia, the Bahamas, etc. One of the brothers would dearly love to get out and is getting some prep stuff done as best he can but wifey would rather not have to think/worry about that kinda stuff and it’s more fun to visit her sisters down the Cape or Florida and shop for stuff online and at the malls. My middle brother and sister have zero interest in anything outside the house and Fox News, nightly sitcoms, and going to restaurants. Nobody reads. (of course we’re the opposite extreme here with reading.)
“I still hope to convince MrsAtoz we need a small house. Maybe by my brother in Port Orchard, WA.”
From your hope to God’s voice to her ears. Ā”Fuera de regate aunque bueno del gettin.
I’ve already started to build a solo BOB. When it comes down to it, not gonna let the zombie strippers get me.
“USA: Muslim ārefugeesā ā 91.4% on food stamps, 68.3% on Cash Welfare”
https://muslimstatistics.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/usa-muslim-refugees-91-4-on-food-stamps-68-3-on-cash-welfare/
From Senator Sessions:
http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/9/more-than-90-of-recent-middle-eastern-refugees-on-food-stamps-almost-70-on-cash-welfare
From Day by Day political cartoon (NSFW):
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/comic/cracker/
What the heck is going on here? Boot them out.
I got a very slightly used gas generator (7000/6000W). Purchased supplies for it (cable lock, 5-gal gas can (another one will be purchased later), gas stabilizer. Already have the heavy-duty extension cords. Researching for a manual bypass switch. Got a circuit tracer to identify which plugs are on which breakers so I can determine which breakers to move to the bypass panel.
Taking a trip to Utah next week. Watching the weather reports to find the least-snowy day for that drive. Will have some supplies in the car (FLASHLIGHTS, trail mix, water, tire chains, gloves, blankets, basic tools, etc.).
Series of storms forecast for the next week, so trying to determine the best day and route (I-90 over Snoqualamie pass, or I-84 up the Columbia River gorge). Have a Highlander with AWD, but still might be an interesting trip.
“What the heck is going on here? Boot them out.”
You missed your calling as a stand-up comedian. They’re not getting booted out; just the opposite, in fact. You don’t think rolling in hundreds of thousands of hadjis and millions of Hispanics has a point? If the ruling class wished to create an unsustainable strain on the country’s financial resources and foment ethnic, racial and religious tension, polarization and violence, how would they be going about it differently?
Which is why I’m developing a list of progs …
A blurb from the net: Ryan’s giveaway to the Dumbocrats lets in more Mooslims this year than Redumblican voters in IA.
lol Game over, man…Game over.
It’s no surprise that most refugees are on welfare, and will be for life. Generally, they have little education and no skills of use in a technological society. If they are genuine refugees, i.e., they have been rescued from death or severe persecution, then perhaps paying to support them is fair. If they are simply economic migrants, then it is definitely not.
Regardless, many of the problems seem to come from the second generation. The first generation may truly realize how lucky they are, but the kids are different. Their parents make no effort to get them integrated, so they hit school not speaking the local language. Without heroic efforts by the schools, they are thus doomed to poor education and no useful skills. They know nothing of the difficulties their parents escaped; they only see their personal problems.
It’s not unusual for kindergartens in certain areas here to have 30% to 50% of their new intake each year speak no German. If it were 10%, it would be no problem – kids learn fast. But too many, and the kids form cliques and stick to the language they know. How do you force parents to immerse their toddlers in the local culture? This is a serious question, because this is where integration fails.
“Demand for Firearms Soars in Sweden as Reality Sets In”
http://pamelageller.com/2015/12/demand-for-firearms-soars-in-sweden-as-reality-sets-in.html/
At least people can own firearms in Sweden unlike the UK and Germany.
From the WTF files:
A police officer who pepper sprayed, beat and kicked a man who was harassing an endangered Hawaiian monk seal by throwing sand at it could face police brutality charges.
Cop Ming Wang was called out to a beach near Nanakuli, Hawaii, after reports that a man was bothering a seal.
A video taken at the scene shows Jamie Kilani Rice, 41, throwing sand at the animal as it basks on the beach.
From the prog comments on the article, I see this prog rule:
Harass Monk Seal = Get shit beat out of you by cop. Guy looked Pacific Islander, good thing not BLACK!!! RAYCISS!!!
Surprised he didn’t empty his mag into the guy next, just to be sure.
The cop get five days in jail, no mention of being fired.
MrsAtoz works frequently with the LA school district. They briefed her that there are over 100 different languages and dialects spoken by students.
Again, game over, man…game over.
“How do you force parents to immerse their toddlers in the local culture?”
My parents and grandparents had no problem with this; go to skool, fit in, learn what they want you to learn, or ELSE! Make friends in the ‘hood, play with them, use the local library, take swimming lessons, participate in sports with local kids, mind their parents like you mind yours, and of course speak, read and write in the predominant language, English. Nazi and Soviet and Chicom regimes have no problem with this, either, nor do the hadji regimes in the Sandbox countries. Why is it such a gigantic issue for us here in this country? Fuck all those other foreign languages; learn English and become proficient in it and assimilate to the country you just crossed a continent and/or ocean to get to and live and work in. Otherwise GTFO. And meanwhile receive not a farthing or a pfennig in welfare bennies.
@MrAtoz
I looked at the Kodiak solar power , and their prices seem high to me. I can get a 100 Watt solar panel from Amazon for a little more than they are charging for a 50 Watt panel. I guess what really matters is how good the battery and inverter are.
I’m thinking I could get a lot more for $1260 or $1517 than what they are offering, but I don’t know.
Today Michael Savage is giving a good lesson on the similarities between Mao and Obola.
I listen to Michael Savage and Mark Levin via an App for KSFO (http://www.ksfo.com/).
Sorry to just be teasing you with Michael and Mark, but these fellows have a depth of education and knowledge of history that is without compare.
Get ready for your long march.
Regarding solar panels and batteries:
Not all solar panels are created equal, first they are still notoriously inefficient and very few respond to the full light spectrum. If you have a solar panel that uses PVC anywhere be very suspicious. The majority of PVC is not UV resistant, painting will gain you a few years if the paint is UV blocking. As @MrAtoz has found out, you have to keep the surface clean.
For life you really cannot beat a deep cycle lead acid battery, but you need to learn how to care for it. I do not recommend mixing brands or sizes. If you mix you will find that you are not getting the capacity or life you expect as the different batteries are spending their time trying to equalize the charge across the different batteries. You also need to get a good temperature compensating hydrometer and practice routine maintenance. This site is basic but it gives you an idea of what you should be doing: http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-basics.html
My life in a submarine gave me a great respect for the humble, simple, and reliable lead acid battery.
Finally, unless you can afford to get a surplus Navy motor generator, get the best full sine wave inverter you can buy. The inverter cannot be the weak link in your power system.
I looked at the Kodiak solar power
I agree. I’ve found some solar sites with 100W panels for a little over $100. They do have a LiOn battery and pure sine wave inverter built into the box. That’s a plus. Mobility is a plus. I definitely could build something with more wattage, but would have to work to get the mobility. That’s the tradeoff. One big turn-off was “if the battery needs maintenance or replacing, only we can do it”. It can’t be that hard to open the box and swap out the battery. I guess they are trying hard for after market sales.
There are other solar generators on the crowd funding sites, but this one caught my eye for portability, power and expandability.
Dumbocrats are all over the net laughing at the Redumblicans after Ryan gave away the farm. They got everything, Redumbs nothing. The Mighty Trump ™ will fix all this.
Trump 2016! “The Great White Dope ™”
I don’t understand any surprise anyone might have over this; there were pics and vids a good while back when Lyin’ Ryan was busy sucking up to Obola and the latter was pleased as punch that he would get that job. Yet another treasonous bastard who belongs in front of a firing squad or up on a gallows, like everyone in the current WH, all but two of the SCOTUS and all but a handful of Congress.
I see Limburger and a few other media talking heads are feigning outrage but really, seriously? Do these people just not get it yet? The country is being destroyed, and now we’re on a fast track as Obola wraps up his reign of being the Forerunner and the actual reign of terror begins under Field Marshal Rodham.
Trump is just a sideshow, now that the media has pretty much blacked out Sanders. Sooner or later the Trump caper will disappear, too, as the Repub hierarchy forcibly nominates some other RINO loser, or they simply have him taken out somehow, involuntarily. Not like it hasn’t been done before. But again, Murkans don’t read anymore, and have very short memories; there’s a reason the late Gore Vidal called it the United States of Amnesia.
@brad,
in my local school district, some schools have 90+ % non-white, non-english speakers. Our surrounding neighborhood is 40%white, 40% hispanic, 10%black, 10% other, mostly asian.
Down the street the school has 7 kindergarten classes, and 6 are some version of English as Second Language.
We pay for 3 meals a day, after school care, health care and apartment, and also welfare benefits for the family as a whole.
we’ve lost our country.
nick
“weāve lost our country”
Hater.
Hey, this wouldn’t be America if we didn’t take in all these people and take care of them and be nice to them forever and ever, world without end, amen. Haven’t you read the inscription on the Statue of Liberty by the very late Emma Lazarus?? Where is your humanity? Your compassion? These poor souls came here fleeing brutal oppression and persecution and the least we can do is care for them when they get here after so many terrible trials and tribulations.
And what’s so great about English, anyway? You better check your privilege, mister.
better press check my load….
nick
in my local school district, some schools have 90+ % non-white, non-english speakers. Our surrounding neighborhood is 40%white, 40% hispanic, 10%black, 10% other, mostly asian.
Down the street the school has 7 kindergarten classes, and 6 are some version of English as Second Language.
We pay for 3 meals a day, after school care, health care and apartment, and also welfare benefits for the family as a whole.
So what happens when this all goes away? Are they going to go home? Or are they going to prowl the streets looking for food?
There is absolutely no way that we can grow ourselves out of this mess. The number of taxpayers are shrinking and the number of eaters are growing.
And what about the old people (65+) who are living off of social security, a little savings, and medicare? Are they going to be forced to give up their checks for all these new eaters?
And whatās so great about English, anyway? You better check your privilege, mister.
It is the language of business. I understand that 90% of the world’s transactions are in English now.
All of these English challenged kids growing up here in the USA do not know what they are being offered. And half of them reject that gift, it is sad, very sad. Not knowing English condemns them to a life of being a second class citizen.
I need to think of the antonym for Hater. Eater?
I am beginning to think that the financial failure of the USA in 20 years may be advancing to just 10 years away. All of us here will be old, some very old. Too old to last very long in the various civil wars across the fruited plains. I am wondering if the RINOs in Congress will even let Trump fix these issues (balanced budget and term limits amendments).
“Or are they going to prowl the streets looking for food?”
Yes. It’s gonna get very ugly very fast. The stores will run out in three days, after all.
“There is absolutely no way that we can grow ourselves out of this mess. The number of taxpayers are shrinking and the number of eaters are growing.”
Agreed. But they keep bringing in more eaters anyway, knowing all this themselves. So what’s their plan, d’ya think?
“And what about the old people (65+) who are living off of social security, a little savings, and medicare? Are they going to be forced to give up their checks for all these new eaters?”
I guess we’ll find out; like the Germans are finding out, who’ve actually been turned out of their homes for these invading scum. Who then bitch and demand even more.
“Not knowing English condemns them to a life of being a second class citizen.”
Yes. But they don’t care. We’re supposed to cater to their language instead. What’s even sadder is that our native-born Murkans these days can’t manage English very well, either. Hell, our own Princess, who knows eight or nine foreign languages now, sucks at writing in English. Why is that, you ask? Because she doesn’t READ. At least not in English. People who read a lot of English are usually pretty good at it. Those who don’t read ANY suck.
“I am beginning to think that the financial failure of the USA in 20 years may be advancing to just 10 years away. All of us here will be old, some very old. Too old to last very long in the various civil wars across the fruited plains.”
Yup, about ten years, would be my reckoning, tops. I’ll be 72 and humping a ruck with extra ammo all over this frozen northern tundra/taiga, along with a rifle, pistol, commando knife strapped to my manly thigh, ham-radio-station-on-a-belt with long whip antenna, armor plates, and some homemade grenades. I’ll have to slow up regularly to let the whippersnappers catch up to me.
“I am wondering if the RINOs in Congress will even let Trump fix these issues (balanced budget and term limits amendments).”
No. Wonder no more. None of that is ever gonna happen. Unless elephants fly and pigs learn to whistle. The country will have long since broken up by the time any one or more constituent regions have learned some common sense and we’ll all be long dead and cold in our graves.
“The people looking to attack us next are most likely here already. They are either Syrians who came here with evil intent or those who have come here and became sympathetic to ISIS after they arrived.”
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/12/10-times-the-number-of-syrian-refugees-that-obama-wants-to-bring-to-the-us-are-already-here/
“… the latest sellout of the American people brought to you by House Speaker Paul Ryan, whom Breitbart is reporting has fenced in his entire estate which houses a $421,000 5,786 six-bedroom mansion.”
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/12/paul-ryan-wont-fund-border-fence-but-does-fence-his-421000-mansion/
I assume the “5,786” figure refers to square feet. Our house here is around 1600 SF. With no fence around it yet. Maybe Paul can loan us the dough to put one up, you know, just in case Syrians start showing up on the bay shore in overloaded rafts. Oh wait–he and his ilk don’t give a flying fuck about us out here.
So, I guess you guys are on the pessimist side?
I don’t think these bastards stand a chance against a bunch of angry, well-armed Anglo-Saxons.
I imagine that the Secret Service is funding the fence around Ryan’s home. People having to scale the fence gives them more profile for the sharpshooters.
As one of the articles at that same site points out, however, we can expect more strenuous efforts to disarm us here, bit by bit, little by little, like they’ve been doing all along, just chip-chip-chipping away. We’ve already lost a LOT since the 1960s. I think they intend to disarm us as much as they can, hobble us in other ways as best they can manage, and keep the floodgates of invaders open.
I also think that at best, we’ll be fighting a hot war in the streets eventually against these foreign invaders, the MUY’s fanning out from the cities, and, at least at first, some of our own police and troops tasked with property confiscations. Yes, we may well win in the end but it’s gonna be a long and painful struggle.
Bracken’s books and articles discuss the cities exploding and increasingly repressive government measures; I think we now also have to look at the very real possibilities of multiple simultaneous terrorist attacks that will quickly exhaust the capabilities of police to deal with them (as in Paris recently), subsequently necessitating the movement of military forces to do so. And martial law.
There may be a lot of angry armed Anglo-Saxons and Celts out here but there are also a shit-load of couch potatoes who don’t wanna know nuttin’ and don’t wanna do nuttin’ and would be just as happy under martial law if there was security and order and they can still watch tee-vee, drink their beer and surf the net within State-administered “guidelines” and technological parameters. While their tee-vees spy on them 7×24.
Yup, about ten years, would be my reckoning, tops. Iāll be 72 and humping a ruck with extra ammo all over this frozen northern tundra/taiga, along with a rifle, pistol, commando knife strapped to my manly thigh, ham-radio-station-on-a-belt with long whip antenna, armor plates, and some homemade grenades. Iāll have to slow up regularly to let the whippersnappers catch up to me.
I hope one of those whippersnappers has a defibrillator machine.
“I imagine that the Secret Service is funding the fence around Ryanās home.”
Does Joe Biden have one around HIS house? Does Pelosi? Or Reid?
And if so, he better just STFU about “gun violence” and “gun control” for the rest of us accordingly.
“I hope one of those whippersnappers has a defibrillator machine.”
Yup, the combat medic. Hope he catches up to me in time.
Yes the public schools are practically all attended by non-white non-us born non or poor enlish speaking lower class welfare students. The remaining white middle and upper class students are all in private schools.
Am I racist? No just the facts.
Do we know how many of the parents of the white middle and upper class students supported all this immigration/invasion and integration? Once again, I am ancient enough to remember the Boston busing “crisis,” a manufactured crisis if ever there was one. The rich libturd families who rabidly pushed for busing and had the Feds and the courts in their pockets took their own kids out of the newly “integrated” schools, which they then left to rot. Hypocritical rat-fucking scum. And the kids, white and black, who were left in them, paid the price and bore the burden.
Oh my goodness gracious, the wunnerful cinema impresario Michael Moore has been at it again:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/michael-moore-we-are-all-muslim-a-flat-fatty-campaign-t17340.html
Warning: graphic and disturbing pics.
No we most certainly are NOT all muslimes. Deranged doesn’t even begin to describe that fat ass.
And I know that the ‘skim the news’ contingent, a large and growing percentage, with barely engaged brain, will pass their eyes over that image, and the words will go right to their brains, and part of them will go “hum, yep, guess we are.”
And the progs will march on, just that much closer to their personal utopia.
Stack it up, now. Time for some panic buying if you’ve been putting it off. Notice the DOW was down 2% today? Another 2% in after hours. Maybe this isn’t the weekend when it all comes apart, but maybe IT IS.
bayourenaisanceman posted some links to a couple of articles about terror attacks or mass shootings, and what to do, or not.
http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2015/12/remember-what-i-said-about-security.html
Scroll down for the links. Not much that hasn’t been covered, but well presented with some serious food for thought.
nick
The former VP candidate and now the most visible, recently, of a RINO traitor:
http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2015/12/why-trump-is-rising-in-one-photo.html
“Stack it up, now. Time for some panic buying if youāve been putting it off. Notice the DOW was down 2% today? Another 2% in after hours. Maybe this isnāt the weekend when it all comes apart, but maybe IT IS.”
I agree with the writer that if we get through the Holiday Season Formerly Known As Christmas without another Paris- or San Berdoo-level attack, I’ll also be nicely surprised and thankful. Putting myself in hadji scumbag shoes, I’d mos def wanna ratchet up my game this next week or two and create more savage havoc.
Next check here will entail me doing a bit of panic buying accordingly in a couple of crucial areas we’re short on currently.
The moronic Murkan derps who skim nooz like that and figger, yeah, we’s all just good folks and muslims trying to get along won’t last long when SHTF.
I get more radicalized by the day lately; socialists and moslems are our two main enemies while we have to also worry about being stabbed in the back by our own “brass.” Almost like being back in ‘Nam again or on the nasty city streets being Officer Friendly on the night shift.
By the way, “islam” is not a religion, in case anyone mentions this tired canard in your presence; it’s a violent criminal political system of conquest, slavery, perversion and murder. Makes La Cosa Nostra look like choirboys. And outnumbers them by many geometric factor-levels.
By the way, āislamā is not a religion
Youse a h8tr white boy.
I have had enough. When the New Year arrives, I will be prepping seriously. I posted something about this incident earlier in the week. Evidently the same rectum made another threat tonight against a mall in the same town. The town in question is less than an hour from here, and is also the site of an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial.
Anyone care to guess where my wife and I went to have dinner and watch a movie tonight?
“Anyone care to guess where my wife and I went to have dinner and watch a movie tonight?”
I hope y’all or at least one of youse was carrying heat and prepared in Condition Yellow at least for whatever. That’s how it is nowadays and we’d best all get used to it. This ain’t my 1950s Whitinsville, Maffachufetts anymore.
Me and Mrs. OFD will be avoiding crowds, malls, concerts, theaters, any large public events, etc., which, admittedly, is not all that hard to do up here in northwest VT Retroville. Unfortunately her job often takes her to or close to, large cities around the country and of course, airports. I intend to impress upon her the necessity of Conditions Yellow to Orange on her travels and we’re scheduled for lots of range time this next year. We have a deal: she teaches me how to ride and handle horses and I show her how to shoot various firearms and incapacitate an attacker with just her hands and feet. She’s 5’10” and 180 and pretty solid, so it’s just a matter of techniques and the will to use them.
I also have a bunch of personal range time coming up; and continuing on the shortwave/ham radio license study and antenna research.
We do, however, have a ways to go before we’re capable of living comfortably here during a typical cold snowy winter completely off the Grid, which is our immediate goal; we’re good for maybe two months, currently. I want us at six and then a full year by this next year.
Glad y’all didn’t actually run into anything out there, Mr. Dave.
Lover.
Haters, as currently used in the US, want to limit or stop immigration. They typically have jobs, real jobs, making things or providing services that people want. They typically support traditional American culture and values and believe in American exceptionalism. They typically distrust government’s ability and increasingly distrust government’s intentions.
Lovers are the immigrants, who come here from love, and their supporters already here. They may have jobs, most commonly in government or as hangers-on. They often are on the dole one way or another. They support ever-bigger government, as the provider of the dole. They also support ever-more-powerful government in order to provide the physical security they don’t provide for themselves. They typically dislike American culture and values and they despise capitalism. They wish to make the US more like the rest of the world, demographically, economically, and culturally.
Lovers and haters are natural enemies, but the haters are only just coming to realize it. The lovers, of course, have hated the haters for decades.
There it is.
I want to first thank Mr. Barry Soetero and Field Marshal Rodham for being the best ever firearms salespeople in the whole of human history.
And I wish to applaud and thank Mr. Paul “Lyin'” Ryan for finally exposing the Stupid Half hypocrisy and venality so that today, all over the innernet, peeps and derps are outraged at their betrayal.
(of course this outrage will last all of a couple of days, at most, and then we’ll be smack in the middle of the Holiday Season formerly known as Christmas and the merchants and scribes will be hovering with baited breath over how much Murkan derps will blow on Chicom-slave-manufactured junk and some of us will be a tad nervous about whether or not our little musloid buddies are gonna light off more Paris-level attacks here at home, in the United States of Amnesia….)
Might as well blow my disposable income on Chicom-slave stuff since Rino Ryan is going to take it all away. I wonder how long MrsAtoz and mine’s pension will last to sustain us in our lovely condo in Lost Wages.
That’s a very good question, MrAtoz. But you may be committing a micro-aggression there; better check yer privilege.
Better learn to bow and scrape for the mandarins. If you get that down, a whole world of employment opens to you.
Especially in Vegas.
The world’s elites will always need sycophants.
nick
(and if you get good enough, maybe you can poison one or two)
The best written bit about priviledge, smarmy progs, etc occurs in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. The “Dinner Party Scene.”
”
Then the topic of the Information Superhighway came up, and Randy could feel faces
turning in his direction like searchlights, casting almost palpable warmth on his skin.
Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik had a few things to say about the Information Superhighway. He
was a fiftyish Yale professor who had just flown in from someplace that had sounded
really cool and impressive when he had gone out of his way to mention it several times.
His name was Finnish, but he was British as only a non-British Anglophile could be.
Ostensibly he was here to attend War as Text. Really he was there to recruit Charlene,
and really really (Randy suspected) to fuck her. This was probably not true at all, but just
a symptom of how wacked out Randy was getting by this point. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik
had been showing up on television pretty frequently. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik had a couple
of books out. Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik was, in short, parlaying his strongly contrarian view
of the Information Superhighway into more air time than anyone who hadn’t been
accused of blowing up a day care center should get.
A Dwarf on sojourn in the Shire would probably go to a lot of dinner parties where
pompous boring Hobbits would hold forth like this. This Dwarf would view the whole
thing as entertainment. He would know that he could always go back out into the real
world, so much vaster and more complex than these Hobbits imagined, and slay a few
Trolls and remind himself of what really mattered.
That was what Randy always told himself, anyway. But on the Night in Question, it
didn’t work. Partly because Kivistik was too big and real to be a Hobbit–probably more
influential in the real world than Randy would ever be. Partly because another faculty
spouse at the table–a likable, harmless computerphile named Jon–decided to take issue
with some of Kivistik’s statements and was cheerfully shot down for his troubles. Blood
was in the water.
Randy had ruined his relationship with Charlene by wanting to have kids. Kids raise
issues. Charlene, like all of her friends, couldn’t handle issues. Issues meant
disagreement. Voicing disagreement was a form of conflict. Conflict, acted out openly
and publicly, was a male mode of social interaction–the foundation for patriarchal
society which brought with it the usual litany of dreadful things. Regardless, Randy
decided to get patriarchal with Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik.
“How many slums will we bulldoze to build the Information Superhighway?” Kivistik
said. This profundity was received with thoughtful nodding around the table.
Jon shifted in his chair as if Kivistik had just dropped an ice cube down his collar. “What
does that mean?” he asked. Jon was smiling, trying not to be a conflict-oriented
patriarchal hegemonist. Kivistik in response, raised his eyebrows and looked around at
everyone else, as if to say Who invited this poor lightweight? Jon tried to dig himself out
from his tactical error, as Randy closed his eyes and tried not to wince visibly. Kivistik
had spent more years sparring with really smart people over high table at Oxford than
Jon had been alive. “You don’t have to bulldoze anything. There’s nothing there to
bulldoze,” Jon pleaded.
“Very well, let me put it this way,” Kivistik said magnanimously–he was not above
dumbing down his material for the likes of Jon. “How many on-ramps will connect the
world’s ghettos to the Information Superhighway?”
Oh, that’s much clearer, everyone seemed to think. Point well taken, Geb! No one looked
at Jon, that argumentative pariah. Jon looked helplessly over at Randy, signaling for
help.
Jon was a Hobbit who’d actually been out of the Shire recently, so he knew Randy was a
dwarf. Now he was fucking up Randy’s life by calling upon Randy to jump up on the
table, throw off his homespun cloak, and whip out his two-handed ax.
The words came out of Randy’s mouth before he had time to think better of it. “The
Information Superhighway is just a fucking metaphor! Give me a break!” he said.
There was a silence as everyone around the table winced in unison. Dinner had now,
officially, crashed and burned. All they could do now was grab their ankles, put their
heads between their knees, and wait for the wreckage to slide to a halt.
“That doesn’t tell me very much,” Kivistik said. “Everything is a metaphor. The word
‘fork’ is a metaphor for this object.” He held up a fork. “All discourse is built from
metaphors.”
“That’s no excuse for using bad metaphors,” Randy said.
“Bad? Bad? Who decides what is bad?” Kivistik said, doing his killer impression of a
heavy-lidded, mouth-breathing undergraduate. There was scattered tittering from people
who were desperate to break the tension.
Randy could see where it was going. Kivistik had gone for the usual academician’s ace
in the hole: everything is relative, it’s all just differing perspectives. People had already
begun to resume their little side conversations, thinking that the conflict was over, when
Randy gave them all a start with: “Who decides what’s bad? I do. ”
Even Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik was flustered. He wasn’t sure if Randy was joking. “Excuse
me?”
Randy was in no great hurry to answer the question. He took the opportunity to sit back
comfortably, stretch, and take a sip of his wine. He was feeling good. “It’s like this,” he
said. “I’ve read your book. I’ve seen you on TV. I’ve heard you tonight. I personally
typed up a list of your credentials when I was preparing press materials for this
conference. So I know that you’re not qualified to have an opinion about technical
issues.”
“Oh,” Kivistik said in mock confusion, “I didn’t realize one had to have qualifications.”
“I think it’s clear,” Randy said, “that if you are ignorant of a particular subject, that your
opinion is completely worthless. If I’m sick, I don’t ask a plumber for advice. I go to a
doctor. Likewise, if I have questions about the Internet, I will seek opinions from people
who know about it.”
“Funny how all of the technocrats seem to be in favor of the Internet,” Kivistik said
cheerily, milking a few more laughs from the crowd.
“You have just made a statement that is demonstrably not true,” Randy said, pleasantly
enough. “A number of Internet experts have written well-reasoned books that are sharply
critical of it.”
Kivistik was finally getting pissed off. All the levity was gone.
“So,” Randy continued, “to get back to where we started, the Information Superhighway
is a bad metaphor for the Internet, because I say it is. There might be a thousand people
on the planet who are as conversant with the Internet as I am. I know most of these
people. None of them takes that metaphor seriously. Q.E.D.”
“Oh. I see,” Kivistik said, a little hotly. He had seen an opening. “So we should rely on
the technocrats to tell us what to think, and how to think, about this technology.”
The expressions of the others seemed to say that this was a telling blow, righteously
struck.
“I’m not sure what a technocrat is,” Randy said. “Am I a technocrat? I’m just a guy who
went down to the bookstore and bought a couple of textbooks on TCP/IP, which is the
underlying protocol of the Internet, and read them. And then I signed on to a computer,
which anyone can do nowadays, and I messed around with it for a few years, and now I
know all about it. Does that make me a technocrat?”
“You belonged to the technocratic elite even before you picked up that book,” Kivistik
said. “The ability to wade through a technical text, and to understand it, is a privilege. It
is a privilege conferred by an education that is available only to members of an elite
class. That’s what I mean by technocrat.”
“I went to a public school,” Randy said. “And then I went to a state university. From that
point on, I was self-educated.”
Charlene broke in. She had been giving Randy dirty looks ever since this started and he
had been ignoring her. Now he was going to pay. “And your family?” Charlene asked
frostily.
Randy took a deep breath, stifled the urge to sigh. “My father’s an engineer. He teaches
at a state college.”
“And his father?”
“A mathematician.”
Charlene raised her eyebrows. So did nearly everyone else at the table. Case closed.
“I strenuously object to being labeled and pigeonholed and stereotyped as a technocrat,”
Randy said, deliberately using oppressed-person’s language, maybe in an attempt to turn
their weapons against them but more likely (he thinks, lying in bed at three A.M. in the
Manila Hotel) out of an uncontrollable urge to be a prick. Some of them, out of habit,
looked at him soberly; etiquette dictated that you give all sympathy to the oppressed.
Others gasped in outrage to hear these words coming from the lips of a known and
convicted white male technocrat. “No one in my family has ever had much money or
power,” he said.
“I think that the point that Charlene’s making is like this,” said Tomas, one of their
houseguests who had flown in from Prague with his wife Nina. He had now appointed
himself conciliator. He paused long enough to exchange a warm look with Charlene.
“Just by virtue of coming from a scientific family, you are a member of a privileged
elite. You’re not aware of it–but members of privileged elites are rarely aware of their
privileges.”
Randy finished the thought. “Until people like you come along to explain to us how
stupid, to say nothing of morally bankrupt, we are.”
“The false consciousness Tomas is speaking of is exactly what makes entrenched power
elites so entrenched,” Charlene said.
“Well, I don’t feel very entrenched,” Randy said. “I’ve worked my ass off to get where
I’ve gotten.”
“A lot of people work hard all their lives and get nowhere,” someone said accusingly.
Look out! The sniping had begun.
“Well, I’m sorry I haven’t had the good grace to get nowhere,” Randy said, now feeling
just a bit surly for the first time, “but I have found that if you work hard, educate
yourself and keep your wits about you, you can find your way in this society.”
“But that’s straight out of some nineteenth-century Horatio Alger book,” Tomas
sputtered.
“So? Just because it’s an old idea doesn’t mean it’s wrong.” Randy said.
A small strike force of waitpersons had been forming up around the fringes of the table,
arms laden with dishes, making eye contact with each other as they tried to decide when
it was okay to break up the fight and serve dinner. One of them rewarded Randy with a
platter carrying a wigwam devised from slabs of nearly raw tuna. The pro-consensus,
anti-confrontation elements then seized control of the conversation and broke it up into
numerous small clusters of people all vigorously agreeing with one another. Jon cast a
watery look at Randy, as if to say, was it good for you too? Charlene was ignoring him
intensely; she was caught up in a consensus cluster with Tomas. Nina kept trying to
catch Randy’s eye, but he studiously avoided this because he was afraid that she wanted
to favor him with a smoldering come-hither look, and all Randy wanted to do right then
was to go thither. Ten minutes later, his pager went off, and he looked down to see Avi’s
number on it.”
That excerpt was long and boring. Just like Obola.
Such dinner-table ramblings will be few and fah between in the coming conflagrations. Professorial and academic types like that won’t last long; they, like the dumbass derps they have contempt and loathing for, don’t know how to do anything. They’re totally dependent on others to bring stuff to them, and services to them.
And that sort of conversation was going on back when I was at grad school, nearly a quarter-century ago; excruciatingly tedious and often like a Nork POW self-criticism session.
To the wall!
Come on man, so much gold!
“consensus clusters” ” more air time than anyone who hadnāt been
accused of blowing up a day care center”
“deliberately using oppressed-personās language,… etiquette dictated that you give all sympathy to the oppressed.”
“Others gasped in outrage to hear these words coming from the lips of a known and
convicted white male technocrat”
“members of privileged elites are rarely aware of their
privileges.ā
Randy finished the thought. āUntil people like you come along to explain to us how
stupid, to say nothing of morally bankrupt, we are.ā
Gold man!
nick
Oh, and he wrote it a decade ago.
Stevenson is one of my favorite writers. His “Baroque Cycle” of novels is a great explanation of the origins of modern science and modern finance. His family are academics, so he’s gotten a first hand look at their habits.
I’m probably about ready to try the Baroque Cycle again, this time without alcohol. One frustrating thing for me was my lack of euro history. I couldn’t identify many of the people hinted at and described, which reduced my satisfaction somewhat.
Crypto is my favorite, but all are good. Anathem was MUCH better without the blurring effects of wine, and I got a lot more of the math jokes. Missed some, just smart enough to recognize that there WERE jokes….
nick
ADD and his style has changed with the newer stuff. Much less digression and vignetting. That’s kind of what I liked the most.