10:30 – Barbara left about an hour ago to drive down to Winston, where she’s running some errands and having lunch with a friend. She was originally planning to go yesterday, but the weather forecast was iffy, so they rescheduled for Friday. Yesterday afternoon, the revised forecast said today would be fine, so Barbara re-rescheduled for today. She should be back mid-afternoon with another load of boxes to be unloaded and sorted out.
My new desktop system from Costco is supposed to arrive today, although I won’t have time to set it up until the first of next week. I’m still busy with administrative stuff, some of which has a submission deadline of 31 January. UPS is also supposed to deliver a “USB” camera cable from Amazon. I put that in quotes, because it’s not a standard USB cable. The A end is standard, but the B end is a proprietary connector that looks kind of like a mini-B, but isn’t. Apparently, that non-standard connector is widely used by camera manufacturers. I actually had to order a mini-B and find out it didn’t fit the camera connector before I realized the cable was proprietary. Sometimes I hate learning something new every day.
Not to sound like one of those crazy prepper types, but reading the headlines lately makes me think it might not be a bad idea to keep a few extra days worth of canned food and water on hand.
That last is a quote from an email I got from a guy I’ve known since I was in grad school 40 years ago. Ordinarily, I’d say they could use a picture of him next to the word “oblivious” in the dictionary, so apparently the prepping phenomenon is spreading even to the general public.
Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) exploded on launch 30 years ago today killing the crew of STS-51-L.
One of Reagan’s better speeches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7icmqgsow
Even though it’s spreading, some still refuse to see.
My sibling, who has a desk and computer at a secure backup facility, where s/he has to sit one week a year, fails to see the need for personal preparation. I mean, for pete’s sake, s/he’s part of the freaking business continuity plan for the [medium sized financial institution.] But no stored food, no GOOD bag at work, no weapons at all (very anti location, often compared to a war zone.) Really nice secondary location (lake house in a much more friendly state) but nothing stored there. It’s maddening. I’d like to have it as a distant refuge for my family, but there is NOTHING stored there. My attempts to get a couple of boxes into the basement have met scorn and denial.
The awareness might be building, but the actions aren’t there to back it…
nick
Because A: nothing bad will happen to US. And B: the gummint will take care of the problem.
Only one of my four siblings is bothering to do anything and thinks along the same lines, pretty much, as I do. And he’s down there in the Belly of the Beast southwest of Boston. The town where they live is increasingly crowded with coarser, brutish louts and immigrants and not a day goes by without some ugliness. Some jerk cut him off the other night at a mall parking lot and then gave him the finger, too. My brother gets enraged and wants to kill people and I’ve told him a hundred times to calm the fuck down and these aren’t the type of things you wanna get exercised about; save it for when you really need it.
But he’s aware of their situation and beginning to store food and water, look at alternative heating solutions, and has several firearms and the ammo and was an auxiliary LE down there for a while. And as all too often, a mostly uncomprehending and uninterested spouse and daughters. Everything is swell and they can just keep shopping and driving around to malls and stores and nothing to worry about. Think nothing of swanning off to NYC or Floriduh for family social events and when in those places, pretty much in Condition White just like at home in MA.
I think that’s pretty typical human behavior. It’s on the same level as people in poor health who keep talking about their need to diet and become more active, but their ass never actually leaves the couch. Or, those that live paycheck to paycheck and talk about needing to curb their spending and get on a budget but never do. People are pretty decent at recognizing, on some level, how they should be living and what they should be doing. Unfortunately, people are much worse about actually DOING something.
I’m not trying to scold anyone. I’m as guilty of that type of behavior as most others are.
“Report: Israel’s Electricity Authority Duped by Ransomware”
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2498535,00.asp
“If security experts have said it once, they’ve said it 1,000 times: don’t click on or download strange email attachments.”
As RBT has opined, and I agree, unless immediate drastic measures are taken, Europe is toast, writ large:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/bracken-maoris-moors-and-migrants/#comments
Next up after them? Us.
The current last comment is freaking awesome: “Moral of the story? Don’t be the long pork.”
Yo, dass right, homes. See “Lucifer’s Hammer” or WWII history in eastern Europe and Stalingrad.
The FSA could be greasing up truck axles in the city shit-holes as we speak. They know the EBT and ATM cards could fail at any moment…
I doubt it. The FSA is the epitome of “low-information”. They have no clue that all of their “entitlements” aren’t. And their EBTs will be the last to go. They are, after all, the primary clients of the federal politicians and bureaucrats. Gotta keep them in beer and Doritos.
I think when things do get frisky, the inner cities will be even more hellholes than they are now. Historically, when they’re upset, the FSA burns down their own areas. Granted, they’ll eventually realize they need to look for greener pastures, and many of them have just enough brain cells to realize they need to head out of town. But people outside the large cities aren’t the easy marks that the FSA is used to.
It’s natural to believe that others are like us. The FSA isn’t like us. For one thing, they’re unbelievably stupid. Vicious and cunning and violent, yes. But stupid. And smart wins every time.
If the cities do ever empty out, not many of the FSA will make it this far. They’d soon be on foot, and the death toll would be incredible. I doubt that 0.1% would make it this far. Yeah, that 0.1% would be the most cunning, nasty, and dangerous ones. Natural selection is a bitch. But they’d then run into a buzzsaw if they tried to get here. And a bunch of pissed off Good Olde Southern Boys defending themselves, their families, their homes, and their community is a pretty fearsome thing. We’re not like them, we don’t like them, and we’d do whatever we needed to do.
When I see FSA I keep thinking “Flex Spending Account.” 🙂 What is the alternative meaning being used here?
FSA = Free Stuff Army
Thanks, Lynn. Found this on Urban Dictionary:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=F.S.A.+(Free+Shit+Army)
And the Feds might decide to use the boiling-over cities to try out all their toyz and new strategies and tactics learned from their recent exercises around the country. Or maybe the plan is to recruit them and use them against us out here, with loyalist mil-spec cadres training and commanding them.
Otherwise, sure; they’ll consume themselves amidst towering toxic smoke from flaming slag heaps and some may flee to the ‘burbs and rural areas, but they won’t last long.
The natural-selection fittest who make it out this far may be up to using fairly sophisticated weapons and fire team tactics on easy targets, however. A couple of platoon-sized groups decide that somebody in the VT or NC or TX hills is a viable target, so they hit it at night from all sides with incendiaries and automatic weapons fire, overwhelming force. This is where AO intel and community cooperation are gonna be effin crucial.
boffo laffs:
http://earloftaint.com/2016/01/25/bill-to-advise-hillary-on-campaign-tactics-and-strategy/
The FSA could be greasing up truck axles in the city shit-holes as we speak. They know the EBT and ATM cards could fail at any moment…
Gonna take them a long while to eat all the Long Pork in the cities. I doubt that they will ever leave and travel into the countryside.
BTW, in “The Book of Eli” movie, eating Long Pork caused people’s hands to shake. Weird.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Eli
Any idea how long canned chicken from Sams Club might really last if I keep it below 80 F ?
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/dc-chicken-breast-5-pk-13-oz/prod6790290.ip
Or canned tuna?
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/starkist-solid-white-tuna-in-water-8-5-oz/192963.ip
“…eating Long Pork caused people’s hands to shake. Weird.”
Possibly from consuming inadequately cooked parts or brain and nervous system tissue. Not recommended.
And canned long pork would probably last as long as chicken or tuner if you keep it below 80 F. Saute it up in an iron skillet over that nifty Coleman propane stove you bought for just such an occasion, dump a mess of salsa on it, and Bob’s yer uncle!
Probably 100+ years.
Neighbor on one side is retired SEAL, on the other it’s a retired Marine. I don’t worry much about FSA marching down our neighborhood. We may not be young but we can bring a hell of a lot of experience and firepower to the fun.
“We may not be young but we can bring a hell of a lot of experience and firepower to the fun.”
That’s the spirit! My next-door neighbor ain’t a vet but he’s tooled up and in pretty good shape and knows the score. Neighbor across the street is an Army ‘Nam vet. Yours truly is a semi-retired (lol) USAF ‘Nam vet who was trained in the entire small arms inventory of the AF Security Police and is also tooled up, plus ex-cop with nasty and cynical attitude. FSA cadres swarming into this ‘hood are gonna rue the day.
Of course, if it ain’t the FSA we should be worrying about, but Fed goons in APCs and Hellfire-firing drones, all bets are off.
A cynical and pessimistic bastid would probably say we gotta worry about BOTH.
Hellfire-firing drones,
Did someone say drones? I am there.
Probably a misunderstood reference to kuru, which was basically mad cow disease. As OFD said, it would be from eating the brains, but I don’t think cooking “denatures” the prions.
Only on this blog could one find discussions in the same hour concerning the eating of human brains, and green boners.
@OFD: Um, I think I’ll change the subject. Ewww…
I haven’t been following it all that closely, but… Apparently, Trump won the most recent Republican debate? By not showing up?
Equally apparently, Megyn Kelly is a narcissist? One would have thought that the role of a moderator was to showcase the people being interviewed, but half the articles seem to be about her, instead of the debate itself.
Google tracks searches during the debates (well, they track searches all the time) and Trump made up 30% of the searches during the debate.
And while on statistics, this morning’s our local paper (The Tri-City Herald) reported that our local Audubon Society conducted their annual Christmas Bird Count on Jan. 2 (what’s a few days). A total of 118 species were spotted. The previous high was 110 species in 2012.
For the first time, a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker was confirmed in the Tri-Cities. Another rare sighting was a Say’s Phoebe. Ten Tundra Swans were seen (BTW, I saw that flock as they flew over our house, impressive birds).
Counters reported 60,000 birds. Information will be compiled into a national annual report with data to look for trends, including whether global climate change may be expanding ranges for some species.
Google searches are good, as they will likely expose people to sources outside the MSM.
Not really surprising that someone on air is a narcissist, is it? It’s rather surprising when they AREN’T!
It is true that Trump probably shouldn’t get personal with media (never get into an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel) but also, he’s not the type of person to let sh!t slide. Nice bit about the saudi prince owning Fox. Nothing like our friends the saudis… (with friends like these….)
nick
“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
~ ~ ~ George Bernard Shaw
Trump? MSM? Who is the pig here?
“Trump? MSM? Who is the pig here?”
Does it matter? FWIW, I think they both are. We the people are the ones getting dirty.
Can’t wait to get past Iowa. An insignificant bunch of ethanol producers getting way more attention than the deserve.
Good one @JimL, I’ll agree with that.
BOHICA
The Stupid Half of the Party hierarchy has a few tricks left up its sleeve to get rid of Trump and nominate one of the RINOs, who, of course, would be guaranteed to lose against Cankles. One of them is to arbitrarily increase the number of “super-delegates” at the convention, combine normally disparate forces and factions, and shut him out. Other loudmouths in that half of the Party have been making a lotta noise about how they’ll leave and start a third party if Trump is nominated, thus generating more FUD, of course. They apparently would rather lose and have Cankles in the WH than nominate Trump.
Hey, so be it. Laissez les bon temps rouler, mes amis. Bring it.
“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
~ ~ ~ George Bernard Shaw
Trump? MSM? Who is the pig here?
The MSM. They are the ones wearing lipstick.
Are you blind? It’s Cankles. I mean, just look at her. No, wait, don’t look at her. Maybe that’s how you went blind in the first place.
Cankles is even fuglier than Merkel, if such a thing is possible. Medusa was a centerfold hottie by comparison. As was the MILF witch in the Wizard of Oz.