09:20 – We got enough chemical bags made up yesterday to build another 15 or 18 each of the biology kits and chemistry kits. With what we have in stock, that takes us to a comfortable finished goods inventory level for this time of year. Sales will be slow for the rest of this month, and then pick up again through December and for the first half of January. Then they’ll slow down again through about tax day.
Anti-Trump rioting continued for a fifth night in many large cities and a few smaller ones, although it seems relatively restrained compared to what it might have been. It almost seems like the only people rioting are those paid by Soros to do so, and they’re having a hard time getting unpaid people to help them riot.
As expected, Trump is already backing off from many of his campaign promises, notably his plan to expel illegal aliens. He now says he’ll focus on expelling only the worst two or three million of them and worry about the rest later. He’s also said he has no problem with same-sex marriage, considering it settled by the Supreme Court decision. No doubt that’ll upset a lot of social conservatives. My advice to Trump on this issue is to repeat what I’ve said before. Trump needs to get the federal government completely out of the marriage issue. He can do that by directing the IRS to eliminate any reference to marriage in tax regulations. Everyone should file their federal income taxes as either single or married filing separately. And the tax rates for the latter should be the same as for the former. A married couple with $40,000 of taxable income should pay the same amount each as a single person does on $20,000. Marriage status should become a personal and contract issue, not a tax issue.
My main concern about Trump at this point is that he’s being disturbingly conciliatory towards the progressives, the GOPe, and so on. Perhaps that will change once he’s actually in office. I hope so. I think Trump’s main priority should be to complete the destruction of the Progressive/Democrat/Republican establishment, leaving them nowhere to run.
This week, we’ll build more science kits, wash and dry a bunch of 2-liter bottles, and fill 20 of them with pinto beans and oxygen absorbers. We also have a bunch of pasta to be repackaged, and more on order. That’s not time-critical, as even in their original plastic bags their best-by dates are 18 months to two years out.
If you want to grab some macaroni, now would be a good time to do so. Last night, using my Kindle Fire, I noticed that Walmart had dropped the price of a 5-pound bag of their Great Value macaroni to $3.17, so I added 20 bags to my cart. This morning, when I sat down at my main desktop to place the order, the price had fallen to $2.64/bag, or $0.53/pound. I boosted the quantity to 30 bags and placed the order, with free shipping. Walmart says it should arrive by this Friday.
We’ve tried the GV macaroni, most recently for dinner last night, and found it indistinguishable from Barilla or Mueller’s. It’s packaged in a heavy plastic bag and has a best-by date 18 months or more out, so you won’t need to repackage it immediately, if at all. My guess is that it’d remain perfectly usable for at least five years if not longer, as long as rodents can’t get to it.
My UPS and FedEx guys are no doubt starting to hate me. That’s more than 400 pounds of bulk staples so far this month.
Or mark you down as a potential resupply point……
n
Hear here!
Nowhere in the constitution is marriage mentioned. Thus, it is none of the federal government’s business. Sure wish they’d get that pounded into their heads.
Oh, they don’t know what’s in the boxes, just that I order a lot of heavy stuff from Walmart and Amazon.
Well, as a long-standing minister of the Universal Life Church, I’ve offered to marry anyone who wants to marry. That should be good enough for anyone.
Oh, and prepping/LTS food stuff is the least of what they have to haul in here. They all know that we have a science kit business, so they probably assume most of what they’re delivering is related to that.
“Well, as a long-standing minister of the Universal Life Church, I’ve offered to marry anyone who wants to marry.”
You’re not my type… 🙂
The UPS and FedEx guys probably love you for keeping them in a job.
Maybe. Also, our UPS and FedEx guys are local, which means there’s a pretty good chance that they’re preppers as well. As a matter of fact, when UPS delivered my solar starter kit last week, the UPS guy noticed the manufacturer’s label on the box and commented that with everything going on he thought he should expand his own solar power system.
That order I just placed with Walmart also included another four dozen wide-mouth quart canning jars, but that’s pretty much par for the course up here.
I just read this article
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-12/real-civil-war-possible
I usually agree with Doug Casey, who’s an anarchist libertarian like me. I think he got it wrong this time, though. Yes, the demographics of the US are rapidly changing and it’s all in favor of the progs. But he’s assuming that things will hold together long enough for voting to still matter. My belief is that things will continue to go downhill to the point where voting will become immaterial, eliminating the prog advantage.
The thing about progs is that they’re mostly effete, incompetent SOBs who think food originates at the supermarket. Very few of them can actually do anything useful. Trump’s constituency is the exact opposite.
FTA:
“Is a real civil war possible? Unlikely. The electorate is too degraded to actually get off their couches to fight, apart from the fact few know how to use a gun anymore. Besides, 25% of the US is on antidepressants or other psychoactive drugs; they’re too passive to want radical change. Almost half the country is on some form of the dole; they fear having their doggy dishes taken away. More than half the country is obese; fat people tend to avoid street fights. The median age in the US is 38; old people don’t usually get in fights. Anyway, everybody lives on their electronic devices, not the real world.”
He’s certainly right about the prog electorate, but not Trump’s supporters. A very large majority of rural folks own guns and know how to use them. And will use them, if necessary.
And a bit of disruption in the food supply will solve a couple of those other things too. The electronic devices will just make it easier for the restless, hungry parasites to swarm, until they go away.
When you see the local hispanics disappear, you will know it’s bad. One, they are only here for economic reasons, when those economic reasons evaporate so will they. Two, they live primarily in meatspace, so they are tuned in to the local ‘feel’. Three, many come from places with long histories of unrest and violence, and they’ve learned to avoid it. When the streets empty, you know it’s coming.
nick
We have a relatively small permanent hispanic population. This time of year (Christmas tree harvest), that population booms and the crime rate skyrockets with burglaries and similar crimes.
As expected, Trump is already backing off from many of his campaign promises
So far, I am not encouraged. Trump has announced many on the same old establishment hacks will be his advisors. Reince Priebus, Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, for example. Steve Bannon might shake things up. I am afraid we’ll have more of the same stateist, pro Wall Street, pro big bank government we have had for too many years. I didn’t expect any better from any of the “major party” candidates.
I voted straight libertarian in this election, except in one race where I voted for a Republican who had a chance to defeat a Democrat sleazeball. In fact, he won.
Rick in Portland
Agreed with RBT and others; get marriage away from government mitts entirely, across the board.
“I am afraid we’ll have more of the same stateist, pro Wall Street, pro big bank government we have had for too many years.”
Ditto. The only thing I can applaud from this “election” is that we now have a much better chance of avoiding war with Russia or anyone else, for that matter. And he is much less likely to screw with 2A and take our guns. Other than that, same old, same old.
Prospects for another civil war continue simmering and will heat up fast if we get some kind of major event/s that leave store shelves empty and the lights out for longer than a week or two. Of course lots of derps will panic in the first few days and accelerate the trend.
If the State can maintain the Grid and keep the masses entertained and well-fed, i.e., fat, dumb and happy, then we will likely avoid a shooting war in most of the country. But the cities are a mess and that’s where I’d expect the most trouble to start, as Mr. Nick says, when more and more peeps take a hike and the streets are temporarily empty.
The people marching around the streets holding candles and smashing property are a problem and can cause some pretty big disruptions. The people meeting quietly and plotting bigger things are the ones I really fear. Don’t be fooled by the fools on TV. Every large group of “true believers” has some people who are very smart, very committed and very violent. What will they try? When will they try it? Will they be found out before they can move forward?
“BC – Check your weapon”
http://www.gocomics.com/bc/2013/12/13
I think it is too early to see tRump’s direction. He needs some insider experience to run a competent White House. I’ll look for Inauguration night to get a better perspective. If it is nonstop gala’s, dances, costume changes, we’ll know the fumes are having effect. if we see weekly martini night and Wagyu beef night, ala Ofukstik, then the fumes are sticking.
How about those immigrants we are now taking in that Australia has caught? Who the fuk came up with that idea?
Overheard at a GOPe meeting:
“Yeah, buddy, that’s his own hair.
That little faggot’s got his own jet airplane.
That little faggot, he’s a billionaire.”
My how the wheel turns.
20+ years ago and that is a number one hit, today, it would have protests, boycotts and calls for ritual sepuku from the band…
n
You’re showing your age. It was 32 years ago.
Holy cow. Sure doesn’t feel like it.
n
@OFD said: “Agreed with RBT and others; get marriage away from government mitts entirely, across the board.”
It’s called separation of church and state which has not been understood by the gooberment, unnormals, and the churches for many generations. Yes, I lump the churches in there because the church has abdicated its responsibility for providing for people to the gooberment. “Welfare” used to be the purview of the church.
Now before some of you jump down my throat regarding separation of church and state not being in the Constitution, you are right, and wrong. Thomas Jefferson is the one who is credited with first using the phrase “separation of church and state” in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, and published in a Massachusetts newspaper:
We have allowed the gooberment to take away way too much from the Individual and the State and getting it back is going to be real hard with a populace who have no real knowledge of our founding and founding documents.
I am not panicking about any of Trump’s choices yet, but I am being very watchful. He is a shrewd businessman so give him a chance but be prepared to keep him on track.
I think it is too early to see tRump’s direction. He needs some insider experience to run a competent White House. I’ll look for Inauguration night to get a better perspective. If it is nonstop gala’s, dances, costume changes, we’ll know the fumes are having effect. if we see weekly martini night and Wagyu beef night, ala Ofukstik, then the fumes are sticking.
I am not panicking about any of Trump’s choices yet, but I am being very watchful. He is a shrewd businessman so give him a chance but be prepared to keep him on track.
We’ve got to give Trump time and space to setup a government. And he is recruiting the best from the best places that he can. Remember, he has 6,500 positions to fill and not many people are willing to endure the anal exam to get them.
Yes, be prepared to fire Trump in four years. And he knows this.
He can do that by directing the IRS to eliminate any reference to marriage in tax regulations. Everyone should file their federal income taxes as either single or married filing separately. And the tax rates for the latter should be the same as for the former. A married couple with $40,000 of taxable income should pay the same amount each as a single person does on $20,000. Marriage status should become a personal and contract issue, not a tax issue.
Agreed. I am not sure that Trump can do this on his own. Congress will probably need to agree and legislate.
Actually, I am for the flat tax. Send 10% of your net income to the feddies. From dollar one. I may not even have a problem with gross income.
1. Expelling the illegals who have committed other crimes seems like a good first step to me. Why in the world the idiots in California want to harbor them is completely beyond me.
2. Agreed on same sex marriage. Why so called conservatives want to cheer Larry & Mary for going to a courthouse, filling out a form, and paying a tax is completely beyond me. And, of course, in this state at least, it’s against the law for anyone allowed to perform marriages to do so for Larry & Mary unless they have been to said courthouse, etc.
3. Alas, a leavening of folks who know how to turn the actual levers of government probably is needed. But they ought to be watched very carefully.
4. As a most radical step, throw out the current tax code and start over. Each individual’s income is taxed, no different rates for single, head of household, etc. I don’t even have a problem with a graduated income tax, but cap it at say 25% over $2,000,000. The current mess is tens of thousands of pages of schemes and schedules that mostly benefit lawyers and accountants, and those people tend to be smart enough to survive on their own.
A gross income tax of 10% would cut our 1040 taxes significantly.
Joss Whedon:
This is simple: Trump cannot CANNOT be allowed a term in office. It’s not about 2018. It’s about RIGHT NOW
I thought the guy had some decorum among Libturdians. I guess not. Does he advocate violence, impeachment, the stupid Electoral College dream? I like his movies and TV, but now, maybe I should just boycott.
I’m done with Whedon.
You don’t need to know anything more about Soros’ influence when people like Pelosi show up. This guy needs to be eliminated. The Dumbocrats bring up the Koch’s all the time. It’s time to go after Soros.
The conference, which kicked off Sunday night at Washington’s pricey Mandarin Oriental hotel, is sponsored by the influential Democracy Alliance donor club, and will include appearances by leaders of most leading unions and liberal groups, as well as darlings of the left such as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Keith Ellison, according to an agenda and other documents obtained by POLITICO.
In regard to Dire Straits, Money for Nothing.
And it did get protests and was actually banned for a while in some places. I think there was an broadcast version. It was a while ago.
“Yeah, buddy, that’s his own hair.
That little faggot’s got his own jet airplane.
That little faggot, he’s a billionaire.”
If Dire Straits released the track today, the animal rights groups would be out on the picket lines, demonstrating against the implications of the dog’s (Sting’s) howls. They would force a “No animals were harmed … ” disclaimer at the beginning and end of the song.
I don’t recall the rest of the album being nearly as good as the first (only?) single. IIRC, ironically, Sting’s own “Dream of the Blue Turtles” hit a couple of weeks later and dominated the rest of the Summer.
It would be in my list of the top 50 rock albums. Maybe even the top 20.
A gross income tax of 10% is not as simple as it sounds. A self-employed person such as myself would effectively by taxed at ~20% of my income as at least half of of the gross goes to pay for materials and related expenses.
A marriage in our country is a civil contract (religious ceremonies are optional), that becomes very important when things like divorce and other legal matters become involved.
However, a gross income tax with no deductions would sure make my life a LOT easier. I despise the idea of providing employment for accountants that should be barbers.
Flat amount. $100/year per person, man, woman, or child.
It would be in my list of the top 50 rock albums. Maybe even the top 20.
My bad. “Walk of Life” was on that album.
A gross income tax of 10% is not as simple as it sounds. A self-employed person such as myself would effectively by taxed at ~20% of my income as at least half of of the gross goes to pay for materials and related expenses.
Me too. I barely clear 20% profit (net income) on my commercial property. And that is 1/3rd of my gross income.
“The Deplorable Climate Science Blog”, “Record Global Cooling Over The Last Eight Months”
http://realclimatescience.com/2016/11/record-global-cooling-over-the-last-eight-months/
Um, folks ? I tend to trust the satellite data more than the surface collected data which is mostly in heat islands known as cities. Um, are we getting ready to get cold ? Real cold ? The freezing of the Gulf of Mexico cold (I saw Lavaca Bay freeze in Dec 1989 at 8 F, walked on the sea ice out to 8 ft deep before I lost my nerve) ?
This weeks retail prep was some 22LR.
Friends who do yard sales came through with an empty propane tank for $5 and 25lbs of TVP for free. I had to look up TVP: textured vegetable protein. Looks a lot like kibble. It is used as a food additive/extender apparently.
The kibble thing makes me wonder: is dog or cat food edible for humans? Urban legend says many of the homeless eat it, and save their $$ for alcohol and drugs….
As Neil Boortz pointed out about the Fair Tax – whatever the tax method is, the market will adjust. It has to.
I don’t like the idea of causing pain for anyone, but the idea of ending pain for anyone that has to DO his taxes has a lot of appeal.
Any change would cause my business some pain as I figure out what the market will bear for charges, but I’d love it come tax time. I curse them every time I pay Intuit right now, because it IS so complicated.
Mid-50s here today and all this week, apparently, and high 30s at night. I was out in a tee shirt grabbing firewood earlier and when I did our Monday dump/recycling run, where I congratulated my fellow ‘Nam vet in his mid-70s who was elected in the next town south of us as a state rep. He was U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Central Highlands before my time over there. He’s pro-life and pro-gun rights but otherwise a pretty moderate Repub, more focused on the local town issues, which is good.
And the crying and gnashing of teeth and rending of Murkan flags continues…
http://preparedgunowners.com/?p=2183
As one of the commentators sez, “I don’t remember conservatives acting like this…” i.e., back when Obola came to National Administrator power. That’s right, we don’t riot in the city streets, burn police cars and issue death threats over social media. But you lefty cretins DO, don’t ya. We’re coming for you, sooner or later.
the idea of ending pain for anyone that has to DO his taxes has a lot of appeal
I have just started my taxes with TurboTax. Ugh, what a mess. With the healthcare stuff, retiring in the middle of the year, investments gains and losses doing taxes is a freaking nightmare. I did double up my property taxes by paying 2015 in early 2016 and 2016 late in 2016. Lot of deductions this year with the spousal unit surgery so that will maximize my deductions.
I have also done a fake return for 2017 using TT to try and figure out what my advantage is going to be by taking, or not taking, SS. That is proving to be an interesting experience. Seems that with my limited income from subbing and taking SS my taxes will be ZERO. Need to plan my IRA withdrawals to stay just below the taxable level.
I would have no problem with a 15% tax on everything I make. A simple form. Declare your income, 15% is what you owe. Would save hours of work on the forms. But most importantly would eliminate almost all of the IRS, Tax Lawyers and Tax Accountants. The first item being the scum of the earth with the other two categories close behind.
lol! Man, the Libturdians, especially Celebuturds, are slinging every insult know to Man at tRump. I though Hitler was bad: sexual predator, fukstik, raycis, xenophobe, homophobe, omniphobe, sexist, toxic and on and on. That pretty much sums up BJ Clinton, Cankles and Obola. Any one of those words about Ofukstik and ObolaLynch would be suing your pants off.
“The first item being the scum of the earth with the other two categories close behind.”
You are a too kind and gentle soul, Mr. Ray. I have plans and a list of names for review once the Counter-Revolution succeeds. I won’t divulge them here because that would be a serious breach of OPSEC.
For now, let it be known that I am also struggling with previous years’ taxes listed as liens that have since been released and I must provide the paperwork in detail for the last bit of my Fed background investigation for a simple-ass IT drone job working for them as a sub-sub-contractor.
I’m the point man here on all our taxes, state and Fed, thanks mainly to Mrs. OFD not filing at all for YEARS. She still won’t open mail from the IRS or banks or anyplace else, other than ones that obviously contain checks.
I also like how if you’re a registered LLC with the state here and you’re engaged or about to be engaged in a retail business, you have to file online EACH MONTH all year long for the sales and use tax stuff. If you don’t, or forget a few months, they automatically charge you $5,000 per month not filed. And will send it to a third-party collections law firm toot-sweet.
Yes, I have lists of names, dates and places.
“That pretty much sums up BJ Clinton, Cankles and Obola.”
Yeah, this is a very old and continued Left tactic, known as “projection.” They project their own foibles and felonies and evil characteristics onto their opponents. So, for example, if Cankles is on record as screaming anti-Semitic insults while in the White House (more than once) she would simply accuse Trump of being anti-Semitic. And if she’s the main chickenhawk warmonger and already has blood on her claws, she and her media lap-poodles accuse Trump of being likely to start World War III (even though it would be IV). And people like Mrs. OFD and others who only follow the MSM and FaceCrack swallow it whole. (she even asked me the other day if I thought Trump would start a war, and I told her fuck no, he and his pals here and overseas are in business and they’re interested in making MONEY not engaging in a nukular exchange.) If anything, I told her, Field Marshal Rodham would have had us at DEFCON 1 about a week.
Incidentally, in regard to defense prepping, J&G Sales is current selling Beretta 92S pistols for $300, not bad, and if you or someone you know could use a nice EDC CCW, go git one.
Also, you can git yerself a Curio & Relic License, if you don’t wanna go through the whole FFL paperwork thing, and get plenty of good stuff that might need a little work, including semi-auto battle rifles, bolt-action mil-spec rifles, and former Eastern Bloc semi-auto pistols for decent prices. If I was really strapped for money on a continuous basis and had nothing at all, I’d pick up one of those semi-auto pistols and an SKS, or Mossy-Nugget or MouserK98 and be in pretty good shape for defense purposes.
Individual Tax Reform: Step 1 is to make the American public at large understand that revenue income. My proposed new code would do away with the multitude of deductions (mortgage interest, charity, etc) that many people take advantage of. It would also do away with the thousands of pages of arcane deductions that provides so much work for tax lawyers, tax accountants, and the IRS. A guy with whom I play golf regularly talks about being a CPA in Oklahoma, and how each oil well’s production can be split out into 1/64th shares.
Capital gains will be taxed at different rates, depending on how long the asset is held – if you want to encourage long term investing, don’t tax assets that are held for long terms. Interest and dividend income are a second bite at the apple, as are probate taxes.
Finally, I’d enact a tax schedule something like this. All rates are marginal, of course, so you don’t crush someone for making $1 more. (Again, this might seem silly to readers here, but a huge part of the American public don’t grasp this.) It would be understandable, it would be palatable to people who want to ‘tax the rich’, and it instantly be appealing to anyone of means. Thus, it would be saleable to a huge part of the population.
Income Bracket
——————————–
0 – 6,000 0%
6,001 – 30,000 5%
30,001 – 96,000 10%
96,001 – 256,000 15%
256,001 – 2,000,000 20%
2,000,001 + 25%
Corporate Tax Reform would follow a similar scheme. Fewer brackets + lower rates + greatly reduced accounting costs = much greater productivity.
My first thought was, Dafuq? Don't we have enough Hillary Clintons? But then I realized you didn't write "criminal old bags".
When I lived in upper Minnesota, the crime rate skyrocketed whenever a new crew of (almost entirely) Hispanic construction laborers (of dubious legality) were brought in. Enough that a few people muttered about torching the seedy hotels where the laborers were normally lodged.
Just so. Especially if it’s only the first of many steps.
Virtue signalling, my good fellow. It’s more important than anything else except perhaps finding a good, new ethnic restaurant that no one knows about. Wait, is “ethnic” a microaggression? Dammit!
I normally don’t worry about the political opinions of actors and musicians and such because they are almost universally stupid, where the antecedent of “they” is deliberately left vague. If the message gets inserted into the work, then I drop them, and sometimes if the actor/musician/whatever gets loud enough and annoying enough outside the art to catch my attention.
I don’t watch Whedon’s work because I don’t care for it. I saw the first few episodes of “Firefly” and couldn’t buy into it. Saw a few random episodes of “Buffy” and actively disliked it. Plenty of gratuitous nudity might possibly have kept me watching, but probably even that wouldn’t get me to tolerate the BS. And The Avengers was pretty bad, though I’m not sure a movie with such a large ensemble of big name stars could have been done better.
previous years’ taxes listed as liens that have since been released
Oh, the IRS is very good about coming after you when you make a mistake. Penalties and interest to boot after they wait three years to discover the error. But when the IRS makes a mistake they rarely correct their records and will never admit nor apologize.
Underpay your taxes and you will get slammed, hard. Overpay your taxes and you never hear a word from the IRS. Seems that the same logic used to find the underpayment would also be able to find the overpayment. But the IRS in it’s infinited wisdom just doesn’t see it that way and considers overpayments a gift.
Case in point is my mother in-law. She has been doing her own taxes and has been claiming ALL of her SS payments as taxable income. In reality only 85% is taxable (unless you are still working, she is not). Thus the IRS owes her a lot of money for income she declared that should not have been so. Of course the IRS has never caught the mistake and never will. When I go back out in March I am going to redo all her tax returns for as many years as I can. Of course the IRS will take a dozen or so months to get her money back, no interest of course. But they sure as hell will charge you interest if you underpay, rates that are about 4 times the interest banks charge.
Wait, is “ethnic” a microaggression?
Indeed it is. The term you should have is culturally diverse dining experience.
To anyone with Academy Sports and Outdoors nearby, they are continuing their fall clearance and the one by me still has a bunch of REALLY GOOD markdowns. Some things are 30-75% off. Stop in, take a quick pass thru gun accessories, camping supplies, hunting, knives, BBQ, and anything else that strikes your fancy.
I ended up getting the fire extinguisher sized pepper spray for each vehicle. Tricky to deploy in a riot, but better than harsh words. I got a diamond sharpening system (3 plates and guides) for $15. Same for one of the high performance “cool” shirts, marked down from $45. Lots of limited interest accessories, scope mounts, etc marked down $20 or more dollars. Good stuff in the knife section too. Game processing set half off or more, couple of choices. other butchery tools…
Lots of clothes too, but nothing I needed.
nick
@Mr. Ray; Oh yeah, we are very well acquainted with how the IRS conducts its business, based on our experiences up here over the past six years. Everything you said is absolutely true and accurate; a band of thieves writ large. I’ve spent whole days at a time working on the mess here and although we’ve made a dent in it, there is still a long way to go, and we are also dealing with the state tax people, who are just as bad. If we fuck up or forget something, they’re on it like white on rice; when they screw up it takes months and months to resolve it and zero apology for their mistake (such as freezing all our bank accounts and causing financial mayhem for us for more months).
“The term you should have is culturally diverse dining experience.”
Up here that would mean going to either the one Italian restaurant (standard-issue basic Italo-American fare) or one of the Chinese joints or the Thai restaurant. I have zero interest in any of them places. We eat fah betta here at home for cheap.
I’m not posting the links, instead just mentioning, riots continue. Flash mobs continue. Philly had 50 “teens” attacking people at random. No further description was given. People are being targeted for Trump support, or as an excuse.
NZed has bare shelves. Comments suggest this isn’t panic buying but just prudent topping up. YMMV. Please consider that MOST of the US lives in seismic areas, it’s just that many of them haven’t moved lately.
Undercapitalized folks that were hoping to make a quick buck on a Hillarity election might be looking to unload all sorts of interesting items. This is a good time to look at craigslist, offerup, and any local selling social media groups, as well as cruising by your local gun stores… I know that the best time to buy a gennie is a week or two after the predicted storm fails to arrive…….
nick
Isn’t “better” a value judgment and therefore forbidden? After all, if something is (allegedly) better, then something else must be (allegedly) worse, and we can’t have that.
“Isn’t “better” a value judgment and therefore forbidden?”
Oh fiddlesticks, I’ve done it again, and committed yet another micro-aggression, but unknowingly. You’d think I’d be up on all this stuff by now but nope, lost it there. I still have a long ways to go before getting up to the micro-aggression levels of Mr. DadCooks, though.
And of course my making light of this whole thing drives them batshit crazy; ridicule really gets to them. Since I happen to believe that many of them are largely put in motion and worked by satanic forces, laughter is indeed the best antidote. The Devil cannot abide laughing at him. And that, thank goodness, is what many are doing, here and out on various sites and programs. “I want to wash my car with their tears.” Hahahaha! Excellent!
“…riots continue. Flash mobs continue. Philly had 50 “teens” attacking people at random.”
Indeed. Almost a week now of rioting in the big cities. Funded by Soros. This is a guy who is deliberately fomenting violence and inciting riots and seeking to undermine and overthrow the government of the United States of America. Why isn’t he being seized by Delta guys and extradited here for trial?
I’m also getting a kick out of how tRump don’t wanna live in the WH (esp. after the outgoing scum trash it) and won’t take the $400k salary; he’ll do the gig for a dollar a year. I’m good with both of those ideas; work the job from somewhere else; why should that be a problem in this day and age of high-tech wonders? And I’ll personally pay the dollar per year as long as he’s making a good attempt at reform and doing the right thing.
So far, no war with Russia, no nuklular exchanges contemplated, and no APC on the corner with a corporal bellowing gun confiscation orders from a bullhorn.
Is he going to cut all other federal salaries to 1/400,000th of what they are now?
“Is he going to cut all other federal salaries to 1/400,000th of what they are now?”
Shirley you jest.
Leviathan lives on, no matter which National Administrator is in office. Leviathan only grows, it never gets smaller.
Except that all the comms, all the security, the retreat room, staff offices and lodgings are at the WH. While there is benefit to not being in the lion’s den, there is also the symbolism of occupying that space, and the logistics of actually working there. After all, the crisis never happens at 3pm….
(and yep, the previous holders of that office manage to work from their ranch or tax plantation on a coast, but not full time…)
n
And I believe that any work for the .fed should be like jury duty. People should be trying to get out of it. (and it should be a step down economically while you are there.)
n
WRT earthquakes and prepping:
This weekend I was watching a series “Alaska – The Last Frontier” and one of the episodes dealt with what happens when your shelving is not designed for an earthquake. In this case the shelves stayed upright (fastened to the wall) but a lot of the “canned” goods (jars) slid off the shelves and crashed to the floor. So the show showed the fix for the next earthquake, some sliding plywood doors to keep the “canned” goods on the shelves. There are probably several other ways to keep things in there place.
Just something to consider.
OK, just saw some of Whedon’s anti-Trump rants from the past week. What a dumbass. He probably falls short of outright calling for insurrection, but jeeze, what a dumbass.
In other post-election news, CNN’s racist piece of shit Symone Sanders was distinguishing between hate crimes (ie, by Trump supporters) and peaceful protests (ie, by rioting scum paid by Soros). When it was pointed out that a black mob beat a white man with the justification of “he looks like a Trump voter”, the piece of shit said “Oh my goodness, poor white people.”
Anyone want to take any bets on whether Piece of Shit Symone will be fired with prejudice from her job at CNN?
More and more Celebuturds crying “do away with the EC”. Dumbasses one and all.
tRump should also tell “sanctuary cities” like Chicago “turn in illegals or no federal funding for anything.” Follow the law or else. I guess Rahm is trying to replace all the criminal Black scum in Chicago with peaceful Mexicans and Syrians. Good luck with that dipshit.
What has tRump got to lose?
How about, no federal offices in any sanctuary city. Or any sanctuary state.
Think of the hit to Chicago’s bottom line just from removing the immigration office. All those hopeful non-Americans will be flying in to … er, San Francisco’s a sanctuary city, and NYC might as well be. Boston, too.
How about, any non-American wanting to enter the US has to come in through Omaha.
No, midwesterners are too conscientious and would actually help them get in. Send ’em somewhere cynical.
n
How about any ultra-progressive city where the residents really really want to help all the immigrants get in with minimal obstruction, but they’re so bumblingly incompetent that they just can’t make it work. Judging by what I see, any large city that’s had a large Democrat majority for a few decades qualifies on both the open door and the bumblingly incompetent fronts.
We paid flat 10% tax when we lived in Hong Kong (2000 – 2002). They don’t have deductions or PAYE (pay as you earn) withholding either. You get your full pay every check then must pay up at the end of the year. So banks have end of year “Tax Loans” since most never set any aside for taxes. Loved Hong Kong.
Oops. It seems that my attempt to use the [greater than] and [less than] symbols were interpreted as a failed attempt at HTML and deleted. I’m sure everyone got the gist, but I’ll say it again. Revenue does not equal income, and for that matter income does not equal wealth. Far too many people don’t understand the distinctions.
I like Megan McArdle’s tax plan. Corporate tax is 0%. All personal income is taxed at the same rate. 2-3 brackets at most. SS and Medicare tax stays as is. Eliminate all deductions except charity and home mortgage interest. (The last two are to prevent massive dislocations and could be phased out.)
Oh, and the vast majority of the tax regulations today are corporate, not individual.
Is anyone still using incandecsent or CF lightbulbs? I’ve been replacing incands with CFs, and now LEDs are available. A bit expensive in comparison. Are LEDs best?
I dropped incandecsent in favor of CFL some time ago, and have been disappointed in the life span of the CFL. Right now I’ve got nine of the LED in the house; five in a chandelier and four in the living room ceiling fan. They were about US $3 each. If their life span is better and they use less electricity per photon it will be worth it. But I still have a few of the CFL spares, so it will be some time before I purchase any more of the LED, by which time the LEDs should be less expensive.
I have switched to almost all CF – noticed an overall cost reduction with a lower electric usage. (Note – not a lower bill. Rates are going up.)
I have not yet switched to LEDs. I want to, but the high initial cost makes it painful, and my back-of-the-envelope calcs don’t have them paying for themselves yet.
LED bulbs are getting to the price point where I’m getting ready to order some. Be very careful about their watt-equivalent ratings, though. I’ve seen LED bulbs with only 1,450 lumens advertised as 100W equivalent, whereas an actual 100W incandescent is typically in the 1,800+ lumen range. That makes the 1,450-lumen bulb more like an 80W equivalent.
@miles,
I have replaced my ‘can lights’ (down cans, pot lights, don’t know what they call them by you, but recessed into the ceiling) with LEDs. They also made and air seal to the ceiling, which was a bonus, and I couldn’t get the incandescent bulbs for them anymore. (22 lights, and one has failed in about a year, or possibly longer.)
I like the light, and they dim well, but they are NOISY on RF. I have to turn off the kitchen lights to use my shortwave in the house, or my ham on the lower bands.
My LED strip lights under the cabinets are even worse. Great light, simple install, noisy as hell on RF.
I have a BIG 90w replacement LED bulb in the yard light, and it stays on 24/7 so that was an electrical savings that was worth the price of the bulb.
I replaced the down cans in my bath as well.
I used fairly good quality, high color rendering index, cree LEDs where available, 2700 *K color temperature.
One thing to keep in mind, while the LED might have a super long life, the driver circuit may not. I’ve had one down can fail, and several “A” type bulbs. Of course, the same thing happens with CFL.
With quality LED assemblies, good specs, I like the color and nature of the light much more than the horrid light from CFLs. My kitchen down cans almost sparkle like the halogens did. With 22 of them I see significant reduction in heat and electricity used, with the added benefit of air sealing the old cans.
Downside is noisy in radio freqs, driver electronics fail before the LEDs themselves, cost is still high for quality.
nick
added- so if you are replacing anyway, and they solve more than one problem for you, and you can work around the radio issues, go for it. I wouldn’t replace lamps JUST to replace them or JUST for electrical savings.
I have switched completely to LED. I had converted from hotwire to CFL years ago. Was never really happy. When LED’s got reasonable I switched everything to LED including the tubes in the garage and mower shed. Everything is now LED with the exception of a couple of lamps that use specialty CFL tubes. Saw a good drop in electric when I went with CFL, a smaller drop when I went with LED.
Biggest advantage with LED in the garage, security lights and mower shed is there is no longer a warm up time. With the CFL the security lights would take 5 minutes to come to full brightness when it was below freezing. LED are instant full brightness.
I was also not happy with the lifespan of CFL nor was I real keen on the problems with the blackened bases. Had a couple of bulbs that let out the magic smoke. In fairness I also had a couple of LED lights that quite working long before their stated lifespan.
WRT LEDs:
A lot of good information above, I would especially like to echo @RBTs comment to shop “lumens” and do not believe the “watt” conversions that may be on the package, most are wrong.
Another advantage of LEDs is that most do not dim over their life. However, LEDs that use banks of circuits that power their own bank of LEDs will dim as the circuits burn out. Those circuits are the limiting factor.
For some time now at our Costco the LEDs have been cheaper than the equivalent CFLs. YMMV
It seems to me that CFLs last forever. One of the reasons I abandoned incand is that they were constantly failing, far to quickly. I have a large stockpile of CFs so I won’t be switching to LED quickly, especially as LED bulbs are fairly expensive still here.
Thanks for the info.
Currently have a large mix of bulbs in various applications. My incandescents last because I’ve bought 130v by the case for many years. CFLs die far more often. I’ve bought those in large packs from Amazon but notice I’m actually getting pretty low. I may still buy more but not in high amounts. Couple of years ago started putting LEDs in several places where lights burn long hours. None have died yet.
Biggest problem is this house has a hell of a lot of lights for a 50 year old place. Eight ceiling fans with 3-4 bulbs, some on dimmers. Eight bulb dining room light. Four track lights, one over sink and four undercounter tubes in kitchen. Twelve 48″ tubes in service, garage, shop and laundry area. Eighteen bathroom. Four hall. One porch. Twelve outdoor floods (and a bunch of low volt). Finally about a dozen more lamps in regular use.
Wow, I never counted them all before.
I dropped incandecsent in favor of CFL some time ago, and have been disappointed in the life span of the CFL. Right now I’ve got nine of the LED in the house; five in a chandelier and four in the living room ceiling fan
Me too. I’ve got about 40 can lights in my office building plus about a dozen four foot fluorescent lights. The CFLs last about 18 months running from 7am to 9pm. I have several LEDs in these now. Plus I have about a dozen outside floodlights that I have put LEDs into all of them. I have yet to have a single LED fail.
I have some of the new LED four foot lights to put in the fluorescent fixtures but I have yet to do the replacement as you have to pull the ballasts. I also have four metal halide 400 W bulbs on the outside of the warehouse that I want to replace with the 150 W LEDs but working 23 ft off the ground is tricky so I need to get a lift to do that. Inside the warehouse, I have 16 of the 800 W metal halides that I just look at and shake my head (they take 10 minutes to start). But we rarely use those.
When I bought the office building, it was all 65 W to 100 W incandescents. Replacing all the lights bulbs with CFLs or LEDs has saved me about $100 per month in electricity.
I am moving to LEDs at the house also. Same kind of savings with the LEDs and same kind of short life with the CFLs.
I just pay my tax lady about $500 each year and don’t worry about it.
“I just pay my tax lady about $500 each year and don’t worry about it.”
That will be our next step up here as soon as we have got a tax lawyer working on our past tax mess. Future tax mess? I’ll pay a grand per year and consider myself well out of it.
I pay my biz CPA about the same to do ours and the resident fems.