10:29 – It was 39.3F (4C) when I took Colin out this morning, but with not much wind. The snow is all gone, but we have colder temperatures and precipitation in the forecast for now through the weekend, so we may have more before the weekend. Barbara is off to the gym this morning and then volunteering at the Friends of the Library bookstore this afternoon.
If you’ve tried to order antibiotics from aquabiotics.com recently, you noticed that their site no longer lists any products. You can still order frm them, though, but you’ll have to pay with a check or money order. Their credit-card processors, originally PayPal and more lately WePay, find out that they’re shipping “prescription drugs” and refuse to continue to process payments, even though those drugs are for ornamental fish only and therefore completely legal to ship. I paid by check when I ordered last time, and they shipped what they were supposed to ship and in a timely manner. I got email Monday from Dave Folsom at aquabiotics.net.
Wepay has terminated merchant service, so we are now reduced to checks/money order payments. I have removed all items from the website, but left the site up as a point of contact. If you need anything, please use the table below, or the attached spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will allow you to enter your discount percentage(as a decimal) and calculate your total. Discounts are 5% for orders $35.00+, 10% for orders $150.00+, and 15% for all rescue/humanitarian groups on any size order. If you take the rescue discount, please give me the rescue name as our benefactor will pick up a portion of your discount.
I apologize for what has been 13 months of chaos, and in advance for what might be 100 months in the future.
The headlines yesterday said that Walmart was declaring war on Amazon, which is more than a slight exaggeration. All Walmart has done is announce that, as of yesterday morning, they are now selling many products with free 2-day shipping with a minimum order of $35. They’re very careful to point out that it’s literally 2-day shipping, as in two days’ transit time after they actually get around to shipping the order. It’s not going to arrive two days after you order it, because Walmart takes at least a day and often two or three to get the product to the shipper.
Even so, many people expect this to have a severe impact on Amazon Prime, which charges $99/year for unlimited two-day shipping. And Amazon’s actually is two-day from order to delivery at least 50% to 75% of the time.
I’ve been a member of Amazon since their very early days, and a member of Prime since soon after they started offering it. I’ve never particularly liked Amazon, starting when they patented their so-called one-click ordering. Bezos is also a big-time progressive, who now owns WaPo. He supported Obama and Clinton, and has apparently never seen a progressive cause he doesn’t support.
But the real reason I’m considering dropping my Prime membership is that their pricing is often no longer competitive. As in 50% to more than 100% more for exactly the same product I can get elsewhere. I also don’t like their pricing games. If I log on to Amazon and check a price, and then check that same product’s price in a separate browser without logging on, I often find that the logged-in price is noticeably higher than the anonymous price. Obviously, Amazon is punishing current customers because it assumes they’re willing to pay more.
I’ve already started to shift purchases away from Amazon. If they carry something at a better price than is available elsewhere, I can still get free shipping with a $50 minimum order, which is never a problem. That means the only Prime benefit is really their streaming video, but looking back over the last year we really didn’t watch much on Prime Streaming.
So I’ll talk about it with Barbara, but unless she makes a serious objection to dropping Prime, that’s what I’m going to do.
We had a decent January. Kit revenue was up 33% from January of 2016, although still 20% or so lower than an average January. Of course, we’re now into the deadest period of the year. In an average February, we might ship only three kits per week and have total revenues of only two or three grand.
Email overnight from Jen, who wants to get started home canning, and what she wants to can is bacon. She’s concerned because the instructions for doing so are all over the map. Some sites give detailed instructions, while many others say that canning bacon is dangerous. She doesn’t want to take a chance on botulism, obviously, and asked me what I thought.
The truth is that the USDA officially recommends NOT canning bacon, simply because they’ve never done the detailed testing required to determine how to do so safely. But millions of people have been home-canning bacon for a hundred years. Before pressure canning, our ancestors preserved bacon simply by layering the raw meat in barrels, pouring hot lard on top of each layer, and storing the barrel in the kitchen or on the porch. When they wanted some bacon, they’d scrape off the top, rancid layer of lard and eat the bacon beneath it, which was perfectly safe.
The worrisome aspect is our old friend Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic bacterium that produces deadly botulinum toxin. But it’s safe to eat foods that are contaminated with C. botulinum bacteria, a very common soil bacterium, as long as they’re cooked properly. Boiling destroys both the bacteria and the toxin, although not the spores. Eating the spores is safe for anyone except infants, which is why it’s unsafe to give honey to infants: honey is always contaminated with C. botulinum spores.
I intend to pressure can bacon in the future. I’ll do so by cooking it until it’s soft and slimy, transferring those strips to a canning jar, filling the jar with a brine solution, and pressure canning the hell out of it. For canning bear, beef, lamb, pork, veal, or venison in strips, cubes, or chunks in quart jars, the USDA recommends:
Hot pack – Precook meat until rare by roasting, stewing, or browning in a small amount of fat. Add 1 teaspoons of salt per quart to the jar, if desired. Fill jars with pieces and add boiling broth, meat drippings, water, or tomato juice, especially with wild game), leaving 1-inch headspace.
They recommend different pressures depending on the type of pressure gauge on your canner and your altitude, but the top numbers they recommend are 15 PSI for 90 minutes. I intend to use 15 PSI (or higher if my canner allows it) for 120 minutes, which should kill the shit out of anything in there.
* * * * *
Questions about home canning? Sounds like a job for Jackie Clay…
http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/JackieClay/category/food-preservation/
… and more on bugging-out in place:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/bugging-out-in-place/
Didn’t mention it yesterday, but it was a beautiful day. Mid to high 70’s, with below 50%RH and light breezes and sunny. Just like San Diego most of the year. Today is currently 69F, light breezes, 88% RH which actually feels moist, and sunny. Not as perfect as yesterday, but YES, there are times when it’s great weather in Houston.
So of course I was stuck at my desk most of yesterday doing tax stuff.
I did a little radio stuff too, getting the antenna back on my dual band at my desk, and actually having a conversation with some local guys a craigslist buyer recommended. There is a local group that is closer to my house than most, and they chat on their repeater most of the day as the members drive around town. (Someone just said that so and so was “busy as a centipede at a toe counting contest.” Country boys, jeez.)
I picked up a chinese import quad band mobile ham radio at a pawn shop a couple of days ago. I need to check it out on test gear, but it powered up. Reviews either have no problems or it’s the biggest POS ever. Sounds typical of chinese stuff. They are copying radios and jamming in features at very low cost. It’s a bit of a lottery, but clearly many are quite good value for the money. It’s probably a good choice to buy a $240 radio vs $800 if you think it might be stolen out of your vehicle, or for your second truck, or for the cabin in the woods, etc. It’s also a cheaper way to implement a digital mode, or APRS…
nick
No tax work for me yet. I got one of my W-2s in the middle of January, the other around Jan 29, two 1099s online a couple hours before midnight of Jan 31. And am still waiting for the final 1099. This one is from a NYS agency, and I guess they don’t feel any need to follow federal law on this, or any other, matter.
This one is from a NYS agency, and I guess they don’t feel any need to follow federal law on this, or any other, matter.
Maybe they work with Mrs. OFD’s employer.
Getting anything done WRT to Mrs. OFD’s employer is like unto pulling teeth; the level of incompetence and laziness is utterly profound; Glassdoor reviews report that their approval level is around 13% as a place to work, and that’s just for the staff down in Mordor. There are two or three prima donna types at the top who get paid outrageous amounts with outrageous salary increases, and they pretty much just spend all their time getting their faces in the MSM and schmoozing with Mordor elites. The independent contractor trainers like Mrs. OFD are treated as easily replaceable serfs; still no contract, and the results of the big meeting/conference they all had out in Lost Wages 18 months, ago, where the contractor/instructors suggested half a dozen perfectly logical and reasonable changes has been absolutely zero.
Wife is fed up and pissed off, and only continuing because that’s our prime income source for the foreseeable future. We were doing pretty well when both of us were working but we’ve taken a big hit since the IBM layoffs, just a few months after buying this house, naturally. So I gotta find a way to replace most or all of that income ASAP and get her down to just one assignment per month.
Really tough when you are quite rich…..just waiting for dozens of 1099Rs to come in.
From an Oregon Resident
While I was getting a coffee, I overheard 8 young people (22-26 years old, 4 males, 4 female) who have been protesting in downtown Portland the last two nights.
I told them I was doing research and asked nicely if they would answer some questions. They were cool with it, so I sat down and went for it.
Ø Three voted. Of the five who didn’t, none was registered to vote.
Ø None of them researched independently either candidate.
Ø All were for Hillary but preferred Bernie.
Ø Why the Democratic Candidate?
“More things are taken care of.”
“Time to have a woman President.”
“Democrats aren’t sexist or racist.”
Ø Six of them live at home.
Ø All are under their parents insurance.
Ø Two have “real” jobs.
Ø Four aren’t working, nor are they trying hard to find a job either.
Ø Parents pay for everything in their life or subsidize it.
Ø Six get money from mom or dad every month.
Ø Three have been on unemployment for 6+ months.
Ø One is at Portland State U, doesn’t work, and parents pay for everything.
Ø All 8 said Trump is a racist/sexist. I asked to cite proof … “That tape, man!”
Ø When I asked, as a man myself, “Have you ever said anything like that when you’ve been hanging out with your buddies? All four males said “Yes.”
Ø Would you say it if you knew you were on tape? All four answered “No.”
Ø What’s the difference? I asked. “You’ve all said bad stuff like that. Does that mean you hate women and are a sexual predator?” Nothing. No answer.
Ø None could tell me how our government works … they didn’t know how laws are passed, how the House of Representatives or the Senate work.
Ø None could explain how a bill is passed.
Ø Only one could tell me the difference between legal and illegal immigration. One of them said, “Legal immigration is when you immigrate legally.” Seriously.
Ø None could explain the purpose of the Electoral College or how it works. In 10 minutes they felt they had explained everything. Nice kids … but so ignorant.
I know some awesome, phenomenal young adults; but I’m afraid the majority are like this group. Too many participation trophies, too much coddling by parents and teachers.
In 1944, 18 year-olds stormed the beach at Normandy into almost certain death.
In 2016, 18-year-olds feel unsafe because words hurt their feelings.
This country is in deep something!
@Dave, you need to get busy selling off your cr@p on ebay. Get some practice in while cleaning up the house and storage. You guys sound like the kind of folks who have collections. Are there any that no longer give you joy? Sell ’em.
I doubled my sales with very little extra work, and starting this month I’m gonna try to double them again. It’s not a full time living, but it doesn’t take full time effort either.
Last year’s ebay sales alone would put me in the 30th percentile for houston, and there were several months at my old earnings/month rate. This year I’m shooting for 40th percentile. This doesn’t include my craigslist, or any of my “real job”. Obviously, my wife does a lot better than me, but that was the deal when I quit working on the road.
Part time work = part time income.
There are other benefits besides the money. I routinely get preps and household items at huge discounts off retail. This allowed me to really upgrade kitchenware, for example, to much better pots and pans. Some appliances too, forex my oven and microwave. They were many thousands new, I paid $5oo (less than 3 years old and in perfect condition), and I could still sell just the microwave for $1200 on ebay. I’ve got thousands in camping gear for a couple hundred or less. I’ve got thousands in radios for MUCH less.
Anyway, just going thru the house top to bottom should generate a couple of bins of stuff to sell and get you started on that.
Or, it might be better/worth more money for you to spend all your free time trying to get the IRS bill reduced and closed out. Or focus on standing up one of your other ideas.
There’s money out there.
n
_We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse) (Volume 1)_ by Dennis E. Taylor
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1680680323/
Book number one of a planned three book space opera series. The second book is in the editing stage and is planned for release in March. I eagerly await the second book in the series. BTW, this could be considered an apocalyptic series for the planet Earth.
http://dennisetaylor.org/2016/10/12/update-on-book-2/
I read the POD (print on demand) version so I guess that the book is self published on Big River. But the publisher on Big River says “Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency” so I am confused. Are literary agencies now using the Amazon POD system ?
Mr. Taylor has created a rich, rich, rich universe, the Bobiverse. Scary good stuff. I say scary because North America transforms into F.A.I.T.H., the Free American Independent Theocratic Hegemony, via a revolution in 2041. By 2130, there are six major blocks on the Earth: FAITH, the Brazilian Empire, USE = The United States of Eurasia, China, the Australian Federation, and the Republic of Africa. There are twenty other insignificant organizations. Several portions of the planet have been nuked into insignificance such as the middle East.
The book starts in roughly 2020 and covers the next 150 years of the Earth and nearby systems using several Von Neumann probes. The Earth basically gets into a probe race and several probes are launched. FAITH launched Project HEAVEN, the Habitable Earths Abiogenic Vessel Exploration Network. And that is where Bob is being used as he is now the property of FAITH.
Bob is a software developer who sells his software company in 2020 and gets major wealth as result of the transaction. He has no children nor is married. On a whim, Bob registers to freeze his brain in case of accident or disease by one of the cryogenic companies. And then is killed walking across the street at a CON. In 2133, Bob is “revived”.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (667 reviews)
Thanks for the review, Lynn. Unlike the prepper books, this one sounds interesting. (To me, that is. I wasn’t making some grand, universal statement. I’d need to be drinking heavily in order to do that.) (But I drink so little that one beer probably counts as drinking heavily. On the plus side, cheap date!)
That’s not war, that’s competition. I am not particularly a fan of WalMart or Amazon. However, I like that they are competing with each other. It leads to a better goods market for consumers. Much like I am not particularly a fan of Lowes or Menards. But I love the fact they are competing with each other. Current advantage tilts in favor of Lowes for several reasons, but these factors are not immutable. Note that the closest Home Depot is a good distance away from where we live.
From an Oregon Resident
Sounds like Portland. Most of the rest of the state is fairly red, especially west of the Cascades.
When we escaped, the adult labor force non-participation rate in Clark County, WA (WA State side of the Portland metro area) was 30%+. More than a quarter of the population was on EBT (Food Stamps) and Medicaid, either directly or indirectly through WA State’s Obamacare plans.
Vantucky indeed!
Unfortunately, you have to live there to learn the truth about the area. Our education about SW WA State was $100,000 that we’ll probably never see again, and I won’t rehash my career problems that started with the move.
I’m feeling it today because my wife just got her salary cut in Austin, similar to what happened in Vantucky before we decided to pack it in. Whatever happens in the rest of Texas, Austin is turning into CA Lite.
From an Oregon Resident
This pretty much sums up what I see and hear, even from my own kids and relatives. The kids are totally brainwashed by Libturdian Utopia Hyperbole. A lot of these kids parents are boomers and the SHTF when they retire and kids are cut off.
“Bob is a software developer who sells his software company in 2020 and gets major wealth as result of the transaction.”
A staple of this sort of fiction; a protagonist somehow gets/has a yuuuuuuge sum of money and is therefore able to travel and buy all kinds of gear and so on. Tedious in the extreme.
One of these days someone will portray ordinary schmucks trying to get through major SHTF and not succeeding very well, as would be the case, but there are numerous accounts of real human beings doing just that, in the former Yugoslavia, Nazi Europe, the Siberian gulag, etc., etc.
“You guys sound like the kind of folks who have collections. Are there any that no longer give you joy? Sell ’em.”
I used to have stamp and coin collections but they’re long gone and weren’t actually worth much, anyway, except to me. Wife is much better with certain household items than I am WRT finding stuff like china, glassware, etc., for cheap that used to go for lots more, but certainly not enough stuff here or anything worth enough to bother trying to sell anywhere. I have a fair number of books, but at best I’d get a few hundred for the entire lot, nothing collectable. Other than that we’ve got zip. The house itself is our biggest asset and we don’t even own it; the banks do. Or some other financial organization, ditto the car. We’re basically renters who lease a car and live pay check to pay check, like tens of millions of other Murkans. When one spouse loses a job or gets sick or hurt, we’re screwed. Nothing saved, and nothing for retirement anymore; we’ve gone through four piddly retirement accounts to pay bills and taxes. We’ll work at whatever until we can’t anymore or are dead.
“…the 30th percentile for houston, and there were several months at my old earnings/month rate. This year I’m shooting for 40th percentile.”
What do those percentile figures mean? And Houston = 6.3 million peeps in the metro AO. That’s roughly ten times the pop of Vermont. We basically traded off more employment and money-making opportunities, such as they were, for the additional security and less expense of living up here. Also less traffic, noise, crowding, and crime.
“…it might be better/worth more money for you to spend all your free time trying to get the IRS bill reduced and closed out.”
Yup. At this point there is a dual focus: getting out from under the IRS, and getting more revenue in here. Working on it, but wife’s employers make it harder, and the stress is adding up; neither of us are spring chickens anymore.
Anyway, she’s off now to bring Princess back to Moh-ree-all; FedEx delivered one of her pay checks, the smaller amount one, natch; and I see we now have light snow flurries. Dunno if wife will be able to make it back down here later from up there, depending on weather and darkness falling; she’s having trouble driving at night now, just like her mom.
WRT the Oregon kidz; yeah, it’s what I hear from the fems down here and in MA. Major normality bias for starters, and then the recited pablum from the MSM and social media playbooks by rote. Like they’re reading from scripts. I hear that from Princess, of course, and she’ll argue until the sun dies, so I don’t go there anymore with those conversations. She’s only worked a few temporary part-time jobs since she left high skool and since then (she’s now 25), she’s been supported by us and her grandmother, with six years of college, summers in Europe, etc., etc. Y’all have heard all this chit before. She feels herself entitled and believes money grows on trees. My next-door neighbor tells me the same thing about his two stepdaughters, both with children out of wedlock (wow, does that sound quaint or what?) who occasionally work shitty part-time jobs and otherwise smoke ciggies, and devote themselves almost utterly to their tablets and smartypants phone pixels.
“What do those percentile figures mean? And Houston = 6.3 million peeps in the metro AO”
It’s me being cagey… It means that I make from ebay about what the lower 30% of households make, or between $24k and 30k. Cost of living is lower here, so that income goes further than it might elsewhere. Or, put another way, by selling crap online part time, I’m making more money than the bottom third of Houston residents. [and this is why I have no tolerance for the perpetually unemployed down here. There’s money everywhere.] [and I understand your particular situation, and like the I Ching says, “no blame attaches.”]
n
No tax work for me yet.
My taxes are mostly done. Waiting on some forms from the investment firm which will not be mailed until late February. Apparently investment statements for taxes do not have to be completed until the end of February because they are not “income” in the true sense. But you still have to pay tax on the gains. Would be impossible for me to do without Turbo Tax.
Based on projections using Turbotax and using numbers I think will be relevant for next year my taxable income will be $0.00. I will not be using invested money in 401K’s to live on for the next year. I will instead be converting the regular IRAs into Roth IRAs, just enough to stay below the taxable limit. Will be able to do that the next five years. Then I reach 70.5 and will have to take mandatory distributions which will cause me some tax consequences.
Of course this may all change if the Trumpster gets congress to reform the tax code.
getting out from under the IRS,
You fail to understand the IRS. They want you under their control, you to be indebted to them the rest of your life, maybe even beyond. The IRS has you by the balls and loves to squeeze. Some little zit faced agent enjoys causing you misery. The IRS owns you and will forever.
Right, right. Most of the 1099s are for small amounts, a few dollars of interest from this bank, a few hundred in royalties from that online book seller. My Amazon royalties are comfortably in the thousands and the missing state 1099 will be, too, if I ever get it. Not exactly a living, even added together. Riches isn’t exactly the right word.
WRT wal*mart vs amazon, until walmart fixes their search tool, I’m not wasting any more time with them. Their prices are NOT better, by and large.
Yes Amazon messes with pricing. Turns out lots of people do, and it is annoying from a “they’re fucking ME personally!!!1111!!” standpoint.
I think their biggest problem is third party sellers. You never know where the stuff you are ordering is coming from. Is it a dumpster diver with a youtube channel? A yard sale/thrift store/storage locker reseller? Grey market? Remans? Outright counterfeit? There are some things it just isn’t worth buying online.
WRT taxes, I had to pay my ‘business personal property’ tax by Jan 31. We’ve got until april 15th like everyone else for our Fed income tax, as TX doesn’t have state income tax. That bill will be HUGE. It will be more than a lot of hard working people will MAKE in a year. Fucking thieves.
n
“…It’s me being cagey… It means that I make from ebay about what the lower 30% of households make..
Ah, OK; thanks for the clarification; I should have figured it out. Theoretically we’re better off than most households in Vermont or northern New England or north-country NY, but we also have the tax thing and the kid still in college. We can’t do it this pay check but the next one, but from the next one I want us to get a tax lawyer, and I’ve been collecting the past seven years of documents accordingly. Maybe by then I will have heard from the VA and the Fed job people, so I’ll know what path to take from then on.
“The IRS owns you and will forever.”
Thanks, Sunshine.
We’ll see about that. I’m documenting every step of the way so someone else maybe won’t have to go through this shit. My goal is to pay off all our back taxes, manage the current taxes each month, and pay off the house mortgage and the car, in the next six or seven years.
The snow flurries have stopped. I guess that’s the weather for the week; 20s during the day, teens and single digits at night, and flurries.
“Fucking thieves.”
There it is. Someone once said “The State is a band of thieves writ large.”
Someone else said “War is the health of the State.”
And I see today that the Current Administration is still messing around with Syria, Ukraine and Iran. WTF??? Haven’t we got enough shit here at home to deal with? Fuck those places.
Murray Rothbard
Correct, sir!
And for bonus points, the second quote??
I totally blew the “War is the health of the state” quote. I was thinking Otto von Bismarck , but that wasn’t it.
The Bourne Identity
Sorry, Mr. SteveF, but thanks for playing!
Mr. RBT is close, but not quite on the money.
Anyway, it was this guy, a turn of the last century prog:
http://fair-use.org/randolph-bourne/the-state/
About Bob being rich – it has almost nothing to do with the story. It’s just a setup for the situation that makes him a brain in a box.
(Bonus points for anyone that gets that reference. I suspect at least 1 will.)
Really looking forward to book 2.
“Bob is a software developer who sells his software company in 2020 and gets major wealth as result of the transaction.”
A staple of this sort of fiction; a protagonist somehow gets/has a yuuuuuuge sum of money and is therefore able to travel and buy all kinds of gear and so on. Tedious in the extreme.
First, my sentence structure there is just bad. Ok, most of my sentences are just bad.
Second, Bob’s only use for his money is to get his head frozen when he dies one week after selling his company. I’m not sure what the cost is but, I would not recommend it. After the North American civil war of 2036, Bob becomes property of the FAITH government. They take his frozen head, slice it and dice it, and convert him into an AI using a quantum computer. Shiver, shudder !
What do those percentile figures mean? And Houston = 6.3 million peeps in the metro AO. That’s roughly ten times the pop of Vermont. We basically traded off more employment and money-making opportunities, such as they were, for the additional security and less expense of living up here. Also less traffic, noise, crowding, and crime.
Not sure what your reference is but the Houston metropolitan area is somewhere between 7 and 8 million people and GROWING. My county, Fort Bend County, is growing at 50,000 people per year right now. We are having traffic problems like you would not believe, probably 20% of what LA experiences (we were 10% and these numbers are SWAGs).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Houston
If I lived in an area that heavily populated, I’d lose sleep nights figuring out how to get the hell out ASAP. What’s keeping you, Nick, and others there? Surely you could relocate your business elsewhere by implementing a telecommuting program for employees who don’t want to relocate somewhere with 1% (or, better, 0.1%) that population.
You must have missed the memo, RBT. Haven’t you heard that diversity is our strength? And vibrancy is our strength, too. And crime and pockets of poverty, those are strengths if you tilt your head and squint. And… Well, you get the picture, and living amongst diversity makes you stronger.
“What’s keeping you, Nick, and others there?”
While not speaking for them, I believe in Mr. Lynn’s case, it is the proximity of adequate health care for his daughter, plus the business and real estate. With Mr. Nick, IIRC, it’s Mrs. Nick’s career location.
Still, I’d be seriously looking at relocation ASAP for both situations. That area is not gonna be sustainable if we have a major SHTF situation.
And Mrs. OFD is now also looking at exit strategies for her career; but we do not intend at this time to relocate anywhere. It seems roughly comparable to RBT’s location, with a couple of large drawbacks, i.e, the proximity of the interstate and rail line, and the short growing season.
“Haven’t you heard that diversity is our strength? And vibrancy is our strength, too.”
In the Clinton Archipelago and the colleges and universities.
Not so much out here. For diversity we have Franco-Murkans, who speak Quebecois French at home. And for vibrancy, I can just crank up the tunes on this here Mint machine with stereo and subwoofer loud enough for derps a couple of blocks away to hear it. I’ve found that bagpipes and drums are great for dispersing loitering dirtbags and other riff-raff, not that we see that much of them around here.
And the shortage of jobs within a reasonable commuting distance.
Which isn’t necessarily a drawback, between the internet and the USPS. I know it’s a pain and it looks like endless labor with a tenuous hope of payout, Dave, but I think you really need to get going on the work-from-home gigs. Yes, health and family issues and endless chore lists are major obstacles, but if every day you knock off one thing that stands between you and working at home, in short order you’ll have your gunsmithing or term paper writing or other gig going. (Yes, this probably involves yet another friggin list, but this one is separate and shouldn’t be too long. Realistically, the list of obstacles between you and hanging out your shingle as a freelance writer or tutor is very short.)
What’s keeping you, Nick, and others there? Surely you could relocate your business elsewhere by implementing a telecommuting program for employees who don’t want to relocate somewhere with 1% (or, better, 0.1%) that population.
Me, lethargy. I am thinking about moving five miles further out, past the outer ring (the Grand Parkway) but according to others, it is not worth it for security issues. I never want to move my business ever again. The last move five years ago just about did me in. And we threw away half our “stuff” in the last move.
One of my employees is considering moving 30 miles out to Wharton where four of my great-grandparents lived. Her oldest son lives out there already and loves it.
Also, the only Lyme doctor in the Houston area in in the medical center, 25 miles away from here. The wife would kill me if we moved to Wharton (30 miles further out) or El Campo (40 miles further out).
Huge protests again in Romania tonight. I’ve participated here in Sibiu, where 15,000 people have walked 10 km march on the city streets. That’s 10% of Sibiu’s population, and three times more than Sunday’s march.
In Bucharest there have been about 125,000 participants. About 100 provocators try to pick a fight with the order forces, throwing frozen snow at them and petards. The crowd moved away from them, and let the order forces to deal with them. Most likely the provocators are paid by the crooks.
The decree from last night that partially decriminalize the abuse of office, which many crooks from the ruling party (and other parties) will benefit from it, including their leader Dragnea, will take effect only after 10 days. So we still can demand its revocation.
We are helped also by pressure from international partners who jointly express concerns and critics towards our government acting. Here it’s a statement hosted on SUA embassy in Ro website:
https://ro.usembassy.gov/ten-partner-countries-call-government-romania-not-reverse-fight-corruption/
Definitely Romania has waked up, and demand no more corruption. These are the biggest protests in 25 years.
Still, I’d be seriously looking at relocation ASAP for both situations.
You should move here, Mr. OFD. You could be Lucifer’s Left Hand Man with your extensive Bible knowledge. We’re always looking for a few good sinners. I’m sure He’d “waive” your IRS debts.
In good new, Coffin Cankles is heading back out on the speaking tour. We may get to see her croak, yet.
Thanks for the updates, Eugen. It’s important for us over here to keep track of what is going in Romania and other European countries; mass protests go a long way, as we have seen before. Other options may be necessary down the road.
We’ve probably got a several-year window of opportunity in this country to get prepared for what is coming for us, most likely a huge financial crisis, and it will occur as part of new historical territory for an empire of this size and with a populace armed to the teeth. God forbid anything bad happening to tRump in the meantime, but I’m not all that happy with several of his Cabinet picks or the renewed interest in prolonging hostilities in Syria, Ukraine and Iran, let alone the tension over in the South China Sea.
“You should move here, Mr. OFD.”
I meant if I were Mr. Lynn and Mr. Nick; we have zero plans at the moment to relocate anywhere, and least of all Lost Wages.
“We may get to see her croak, yet.”
Her and Larry both. Plus Comrade Bernie. They can’t go fast enough to suit me.
Meanwhile Mrs. OFD has posted in FaceCrack concerning her decreasing trust in the MSM, having seen what they did during the campaign, she says, how can we trust what they’re saying now about tRump’s administration? I about had a stroke on the spot. I will work on this accordingly.
Here is a good article on the DailyMail explaining the situation in Ro:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4180366/Romania-s-government-legalises-corruption.html
” it’s Mrs. Nick’s career location.
Still, I’d be seriously looking at relocation ASAP for both situations. That area is not gonna be sustainable if we have a major SHTF situation. ”
That’s it. She’s pulling in the big bux at something she likes. She has 2 partners, and the most senior lives only a few blocks from the office. It’s a truism that companies NEVER relocate FARTHER from the C-suite guys’ homes. We talk about getting outside the next ring road, but that would double her commute, or even longer. Access to good schools is her second priority.
So, what to do? Well, stocked and defended in a decent neighborhood. [which may be changing for the worse, if it does, wife will move.] That keeps us from having to move in most normal situations. We have a full time police patrol, 3 officers, for our neighborhood. That will cover us in normal circumstances.
I’m always looking for a fall back position in the direction of hurricane evac, or possibly one in a NE direction. There are lots of nice little towns, former or current county seats, out to the west of us. Having a “cabin” or country house would help, although it wouldn’t be isolated or remote.
Our current neighborhood is just inside the second ring, on the west side of town. That puts us as close to the edge as we can be and still be in town. That means we have a head start if everyone needs to go west. It means that a whole lot of people might also move right past us, a couple of miles south.
It’s less than perfect, but life is compromise, and one firm requirement of my prepping is that it can’t negatively impact our lives if there AREN’T any disasters.
nick
(but yeah, I’d like to be at least 25 miles farther out into farm country for daily life.)
With a metro population of 8,000,000, and on pretty flat terrain, twenty or thirty or fifty miles means nothing. Texas generally is a bad place to be if TSHTF. Too many people, too many major roads, too little water, too close to a failed 3rd-world country, etc. etc.
If I were in your situation, I’d either buy a second home at least 200 – 250 miles from that continuous metro area you guys call Dallas-Ft. Worth-Austin-Houston-etc.-etc. or I’d find a good friend who’d agree to be my bugout location. Then store the bulk of your preps there.
You mean New Orleans?
A Cat 5 hurricane in the Houston area would be a horrendous disaster. This is the disaster that I am prepping for. This would be 150+ mph winds in Galveston, 120 mph winds in Sugar Land. We had 90+ mph winds for five+ hours with Ike here in the Land of Sugar. I figure no food and no electricity for three months. And no water when the diesel generators on the water pumps run out of fuel after a week.
But wind does not usually kill, water kills. Ike had a storm surge of 24 ft. I figure that a Cat 5 would have a storm surge of 30+ ft (SWAG !). My thought is that anyone south of I-10 on the east side of Houston and anyone south of Highway 35 on the west side of Houston would get storm water into their area. I am very worried that a million people might die in a Cat 5 hurricane in the Houston area due to storm surge and inability to get out. And the ones who are left will be faced with a destroyed infrastructure, impassable roads, a million flooded homes, no food, no water, no fuel, no electricity. There were people after Ike who did not get their electricity restored for six weeks. Our house was 2 days, luckily, the old office was a week and a half.
Actually, there are so many SHTF scenarios to prep for: hurricane, EMP, local nuclear bomb, nuclear war, financial failure, energy failure (gasoline, electricity), terrorist, pandemic, meteor, etc, etc, etc. Anything longer than three months will be a complete disaster for the USA.
If I were in your situation, I’d either buy a second home at least 200 – 250 miles from that continuous metro area you guys call Dallas-Ft. Worth-Austin-Houston-etc.-etc. or I’d find a good friend who’d agree to be my bugout location. Then store the bulk of your preps there.
“Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat: One Man’s Solution”
https://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Cheap-Survival-Retreat-Mans-Solution/dp/1581607474/
Hint, if your county won’t let you put a new single wide on a piece of land then your land is too close to the ocean. My parents live in Calhoun County which has Lavaca Bay and part of Matagorda Bay in it. The county has a firm rule that no new single wides are allowed due to hurricane wind loadings. Good idea except for the 5,000 single wides already there. But those are burning down, one by one, due to aluminum wiring, etc.
except for the 5,000 single wides already there
I have this theory that tornadoes are attracted to large quantities of aluminum siding.
Case in point is when the tornado went by my work place. Followed the high voltage lines that fed the Y-12 nuclear plant that ran behind my office. Tornado followed the lines for a distance, saw the trailers on the other side of the road, made the detour, took out the trailers, came back to the power lines bypassing my office building.
What does a tornado and an Alabama graduate have in common? Both will wind up in a trailer park.
Ah, tornadoes and trailer parks. My brother worked on a film that had a scene in a trailer park after a tornado. So, he went to a scrap yard and it went about like this:
Brother – “I want to rent some dumpsters of large twisted metal debris. I need you to deliver and dump, then come back for pickup a few days later.”
Owner – “Rent? What do you need it for?”
B – “A movie scene after a tornado.”
O – “Where do you need us to dump it.”
B – “At a trailer park.”
O – “Huh. You sure you aren’t mad at an ex?”
B – “Here is my card. Call the movie company.”
Owner calls.
O – “O.K. Let’s talk money.”
With a metro population of 8,000,000, and on pretty flat terrain, twenty or thirty or fifty miles means nothing. Texas generally is a bad place to be if TSHTF. Too many people, too many major roads, too little water, too close to a failed 3rd-world country, etc. etc.
If I were in your situation, I’d either buy a second home at least 200 – 250 miles from that continuous metro area you guys call Dallas-Ft. Worth-Austin-Houston-etc.-etc. or I’d find a good friend who’d agree to be my bugout location. Then store the bulk of your preps there.
By population density, Texas is half that of North Carolina. 105 people/square-mile versus 207 people/square-mile. Of course, this is skewed by Deaf Smith county which is 1,498 square miles and 20,000 people for 13 people/square-mile. And then there is Harris County (Houston), 4.4 million people on 1,777 square-miles for 2,500 people/square-mile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density
Who puts all of this crap in Wikipedia ? Simply amazing.
Yeah, but NC has very little wasteland. Even with irrigation, a lot of Texas land is pretty useless.
Yah. You can (and I do) take issue with the political and social slant of the wikimafia, but overall Wikipedia is an amazing concept and achievement.
@OFD, If you decide to relocate to Southern Nevada, we’ll meet here and the Pabst Blue Ribbons will be on me:
https://snssaloon.com/
Well, Jan 2017 sucked for us. Sales were way off of Jan 2016. Way off.
Domestic or international sales down?
If international, furrin companies may be cautious because they expect the Trump administration to pave the way for lotsa US fossil fuel production, with a price depression on the world market. Good for energy consumers, bad for producers and middlemen.
If domestic, maybe it’s similar to the above, focused on fear of coal production ramping way up?
Domestic sales were way down. We had sales in the UK, Panama, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, and Sweden. Mostly long term contracts. And most of our domestic sales were to our largest customer buying perpetual licenses for resale worldwide.
No question about it, domestic oil and natural gas infrastructure building are way down. Partly due to Obola, mostly due to overproduction of oil and natural gas in the USA.
February looks much better, maybe 2X that of January. And then March and April look slow, very slow.
Despite the cheapness of the coal fuel in the USA, the power plant owners are continuing to shut down non-minemouth coal plants. Their 30% to 35% efficiencies using coal via train just cannot compete with natural gas combined cycle power plants at 60% to 70% efficiency.
https://morningconsult.com/2016/05/03/coal-plants-shutting-without-clean-power-plan/
For now, solar is king of the new power plants (9.5 GW in 2016). Natural gas is close (8.0 GW in 2016), wind is third (6.8 GW in 2016), nuclear is fourth at 1.1 GW.
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=25172
On PBS’s Nova: Search for the Super Battery
“@OFD, If you decide to relocate to Southern Nevada…”
Yo, dudes, many thanks, but what in tarnation makes you and MrAtoz think we’d ever relocate to Nevada??? If we actually ever leave this house, it would be far to the northeast, if anywhere. Probably Noveau Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland.
As to advice offered by Mssrs. Nick and SteveF, yeah, I’ll be taking y’all up on most of it. Looking into several online venture possibilities and also ramping up configuration of the attic work space. Something done on both paths each and every day from now on. I can’t sit here and wait for the Feds or VA to let me know anything, and there is always gonna be a dam 5-page to-do list for this place. Something on that every day, too, make the wife happy. But snagging more revenue would make her ecstatic.
Have you considered kidnapping as an income enhancer? If you ransom by the pound, Wallyhogs would be the way to go.
You know how many people sing the praises of the awesome advice I give? There’s a reason for that.
Ransoming wallyhogs would involve putting my hands on them, and just the thought of that squicks me out. I’d rather kidnap drug dealers and torture them for their account passwords, firearms stash locations, etc. Even better, lawyers who defend drug dealers.
And then move on to politicians, banksters and financial speculators. I’d have no intention of releasing any of them, of course.
Gotta dig a fairly large pit out in the sticks here, have pallets of quicklime bags piled nearby.
Yo, dudes, many thanks, but what in tarnation makes you and MrAtoz think we’d ever relocate to Nevada
Once a sinner, always a sinner?
Nope. Sinners always have a chance to repent, right up to the very end.
Wow, a rare pleasure now commonplace again, watching the CINC return salutes:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_NAVY_SEAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-01-15-54-04
[snip] Even better, lawyers who defend drug dealers. [snip]
Even drug dealers are allowed a defense against overreaching / corrupt governments. And no criminal defense attorney wants to know where the various potential evidence is stashed, it could put them in a bind, ethically.
Lynn wrote:
“Ø Four aren’t working, nor are they trying hard to find a job either.
Ø Parents pay for everything in their life or subsidize it.”
Are you sure that that conversation wasn’t held in Monh-Rheal-all? 🙂
“Even drug dealers are allowed a defense against overreaching / corrupt governments.”
That’s just it; but are they immunized against vigilantes? Or bounty hunters?
“…where the various potential evidence is stashed…
To be destroyed.
““Are you sure that that conversation wasn’t held in Monh-Rheal-all?”
Funny you should ask. When Mrs. OFD got back here earlier from taking Princess up there, I asked her, ‘so, how’s the job situation working out up there now?’ She replied that she told Princess she better find something real soon because we’re not paying her rent next month. I about fell off my chair, but then remembered that, if so, Princess will cadge/grift it off her grandma, and we’ll end up having to pay Grandma back again, rinse and repeat, for the last eight years.
So, in short, Princess is expected to work at a job from now through the summer and pay her own rent, etc. And the fall semester should theoretically be her last. But we shall see.
“Bob is a software developer who sells his software company in 2020 and gets major wealth as result of the transaction.”
A staple of this sort of fiction; a protagonist somehow gets/has a yuuuuuuge sum of money and is therefore able to travel and buy all kinds of gear and so on. Tedious in the extreme.
Yes, but in this case the guy is promptly run over by a car, and wakes up a hundred years later as an indentured slave. It’s an enjoyable book, a light read with a few thought-provoking bits.
– – – – –
Taxes, great stuff. Both the kids have to file this year, since they both still hold US passports. They don’t owe anything, of course, but since they made more than $10k last year, they get to pay around $500 to have a professional fill in all the right paperwork.
I used to do US taxes myself, but it’s ridiculously complicated for people living abroad. The rules change every year, every year there’s a new form, and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of central reference at the IRS, saying what you actually have to do. Plus, you are required to report your bank balances to a different agency. It’s totally nuts.
Older son is now planning to cancel his passport – but the $2000 fee is just as crazy as everything else. Plus then you get a whole load of extra paperwork, which also has to be done by a professional, to prove to the IRS that you aren’t cancelling your citizenship “for tax reasons”. Anyhow, no, it’s not “tax reasons”, its “insane tax bureaucracy reasons”, which is apparently still acceptable.
@Nick
I have a recently-widowed acquaintance stateside who is looking to get into mobile HF radio without completely breaking the bank. Would you have anything in stock that might serve?
http://theguncounter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27566
Could you tell Granny she won’t be reimbursed? Just don’t do it.
Glad to see Mrs OFD is finally waking from her slumbers… 🙂
So I clicked on a link this morning, to read the story about free speech no longer being welcome at UC Berkeley. I’ll quote
[snip] One of the black-dressed anarchists said he had been hit by nonlethal ammunition.
“The cops shot me with pepper balls,” said the 26-year-old man, who called himself Zombie. “It hurt.”
Carrying a thick black shield and wearing a milk-soaked kerchief over his face to protect against potential tear gas, Zombie said, “We’re anarchists.” Fellow protesters unfurled a banner reading, “This is war.” [snip]
Mr. Zombie, it’s going to hurt a lot worse when the Normals, as we call them here, agree with the banner mentioned on that last line, and start shooting you with real bullets.
And I’m not sure what word would express the Science analog of illiteracy, but the folks at my local newspaper are afflicted. There’s a headline on the front page of today’s paper, about some people treated for carbon monoxide exposure. It reads [snip] BCSO: Mudding led to CO2 poisoning [snip] Sigh.
[snip] That’s just it; but are they immunized against vigilantes? [snip]
I tend to think of drug dealers as radical capitalists. See a need, fill it, and profit wildly from doing so. The assorted social ills are all a result of the society’s sales restrictions.
@Denis,
Assuming your friend is Precision, or is very much like Precision in that thread, he’s got a lot of work ahead of him.
I currently have 2 older (80’s) radios, and might sell one, but they are more of a “transportable” type even if people used to install them for mobile. Both are Yaesu FT-847’s. They are a good example of an all band transceiver from the era. They are available used for 800USD to 1200USD. The FT-857 is the preferred model for all band field use, esp among the prepper, emergency comms folks, but they are not cheap.
Smaller radios with HF, like the Yaesu FT-8900 destined for my truck but currently on my desk, include 6m and 10m. Those are HF, but not the really low bands. Propagation on those bands has been poor. I’ve also got the TYT TH-9800 clone, which retails for $250USD. I might sell it if it checks out as good, but it won’t be super cheap.
The other 4 or 5 mobiles I currently have are just dual bands, VHF and UHF.
Mobile HF is even more dependent on antennas and tuners than fixed ops. There are more compromises involved in antenna design when operating mobile (mainly size and height). So there is a big learning curve for HF mobile.
Since Precision is just starting out, this page might be helpful as it’s focused on the beginner and the sort of ops it sounds like he wants:
https://brushbeater.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/the-foundation-squaring-away-communications-needs-in-2017/
I wish him well, and it’s an interesting journey with lots of nooks and crannies to explore.
I’ll mention it here if I pick up a good HF rig, or sell some of my other gear.
nick
(I’d recommend a new ham buy new and cheap for some stuff. That way it doesn’t cost a ton for something they later decide isn’t really for them. It saves the problem of buying gear that doesn’t quite work. If used gear is all his budget will bear, then getting hands on with the gear thru a local clubmember selling locally, is way better than buying off ebay. A local ham will be less likely to shade the truth about the radio’s condition, and will know more about it than most ebay sellers.)
UCBerkley hasn’t welcomed free speech for some time.
n
gateway Pundit has links to video for Berkley.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
Beatings, fires, pepperspray, people dragged from car and beaten. This is war in the streets.
n
(reminded that the goal of insurgency is to force the regime to respond with oppression until the populace has had enough and sides with insurgents. not sure if that ever worked anywhere, but that’s the goal. need to tread lightly here as more is going on than meets the eye.)
WRT the recent events in Berserkly (UC Berkeley for those of you in Rio Linda):
Stop tolerating the intolerant.
Stop allowing riots and insurrection.
We are beyond the point of token arrests. These (Liberal/Fascist/Democran) people(?) need to be prosecuted and found guilty of riot and sedition and promptly hung on a short rope, no appeal allowed.
No way is what they (Liberal/Fascist/Democran) are doing “free speech”. There is no way to convince them of that though as they are ignorant idiots that are beyond education or redemption.
Edit: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-threatens-cut-uc-berkeley-funds-milo-cancellation-article-1.2962183
BTW, I am not a fan of Milo. He is a grifter and opportunist.
@nick
Many thanks. I’ll pass that along.
Milo may be a grifter and an opportunist, but he does an excellent job of bringing progressive thugs out of the woodwork. It’s an opportunity to clean house, one that Berkeley should have taken. They *knew* there would be protests, there is zero reason they should not have been prepared to bring all force necessary to round up the rioters (as opposed to the peaceful protesters).
Meanwhile, do the progs have any idea of the real, actual harm this does to their cause and reputation?
“Meanwhile, do the progs have any idea of the real, actual harm this does to their cause and reputation?”
Nope. Manipulated. Led. Used to further someone elses aims.
Clear, logical, reality based thinking is not one of their strong points.
n
ADDED- look at it as part of a guerrilla war on the ‘traditional’ US. Or more politely ‘insurgents’. For some of them, the destruction IS the goal.
Maybe Milo is a Judas goat.
Mr. Nick is correct; these are the first stages of organized insurgency, and as such, we play into their hands by cracking down with more cops and soldiers. That is just their cup of tea. What to do, what to do, then, eh? The ruling regime, unless it is also their cup of tea for some reason, need to win the hearts and minds of the People. That means reasonably clever State propaganda coupled with responding to the People’s wants and needs to some degree and looking as much as possible like the Good Guys. I know, I know, the temptation is really strong to roll in with horseback cops wielding polo mallets and APCs spraying tear gas and machine gun bullets. But that’s just what they want. It’s the same old commie shit, and this time they also have modern technology like web sites and social media. And the State needs to counter that and do a much better job of it than they have done thus far with the anti-musloid agitprop.
Milo is a funny guy, and if nothing else, he certainly has the right enemies and makes the right people very angry. A lot of folks can’t stand Ann Coulter (wife being one) but by Jeezum she also makes all the right people furious. tTrump should put her on SCOTUS or at least make her AG or a Fed judge.
Lynn wrote:
“And we threw away half our “stuff” in the last move.”
I thought the fembats rescued it all when you took it down to the dumpster.
Even with irrigation, a lot of Texas land is pretty useless.
Not really. Even far West Texas around El Paso has cattle run on it and huge wind farms. Most of the rest of the state is in agricultural use – cattle, crops, and tree farms. Sure, the few mountain areas out West are not that useful, but that’s not much of the state. I’ve driven most of Texas and the land is in use. Unlike most of the states to the West of us, we don’t have that much federal land.
I’m w/ ech on this. We are an energy and food exporter. Not much lying fallow that can be used, and I’ve driven the Farm to Market roads all over this part of the state, west of houston, south of austin, all the way down to the border. Every bit in use and covered with infrastructure.
n
@ech
I was going by what a guy told me in an exchange of email a couple years ago. He works for USGS and is a prepper, originally from Texas. He said he thought Texas generally was a bad place to be if the SHTF. Other than the issues we discussed earlier (huge metro areas, proximity to Mexico, etc.), he mentioned land use. IIRC, he said that much of the land in Texas was useful only for grazing and most of what was currently in crop production required irrigation, which was unsustainable because it was draining fossil aquifers at a tremendous rate. Is any of that wrong?
I haven’t even visited Texas since 1980, so I just go by reference sources and what people tell me.
@DadCooks: I disagree – nothing really wrong with employees grousing about the employer. When has that ever not happened? Private communications, including grousing, go by private channels, and that’s fine.
What I have more problem with are the employees signing semi-official petitions that they don’t like the directives from above. They need a counseling session with their bosses: get with the program, or leave. The petitions kindly let the bosses know exactly who they need to keep an eye on, for foot-dragging or deliberate obstruction. Of course, it’s bosses all the way up – and they all need to understand that life is changing 🙂
BTW: Signal is a good app – you can use it to replace your existing SMS app, and if you are communicating with someone who also has signal, then your messages go encrypted. Recommended!
IIRC, he said that much of the land in Texas was useful only for grazing and most of what was currently in crop production required irrigation, which was unsustainable because it was draining fossil aquifers at a tremendous rate. Is any of that wrong?
Yep, there are large areas that are strictly for grazing. In part due to being arid, like the area near El Paso, or too up and down for mechanized agriculture, like parts of central Texas near Austin. The upper panhandle, think Amarillo area, is draining the aquifer there and many cash crops would need irrigation. But that area was grassland before set up for agriculture. But there are huge areas of the state that have abundant water and good soil. Part of SE Texas, which has lots of rain, need irrigation systems since they grow rice there, but that land could easily grow other crops.
@rbt, I’ve posted in comments before regarding water use. About 80% is from surface lakes and rivers for Houston area. Don’t recall seeing a separate number for ag use.
n
Surely if we are short water, we don’t have to grow rice….
@brad said:
They have misused gooberment time and systems. It is in essence insubordination and grounds for immediate dismissal.
Lynn wrote:
“And we threw away half our “stuff” in the last move.”
I thought the fembats rescued it all when you took it down to the dumpster.
That was when we moved our household four years ago. I was referring to when I bought the office property five years ago and moved the office. I am a god here, what I say goes. Unless, someone says that they need something real bad. For instance, we threw out the last of our card decks.
@rbt, I’ve posted in comments before regarding water use. About 80% is from surface lakes and rivers for Houston area. Don’t recall seeing a separate number for ag use.
n
Surely if we are short water, we don’t have to grow rice….
When I was a kid, Texas was the number one producer of rice in the USA. Just about every field down here in south Texas was either rice or sugar cane (yes, that is why Sugar Land is named such). But the climate changed and we do not get as much rain anymore so the rice farming has moved to Mississippi. And those ten million geese don’t come here anymore either, they followed the rice fields.
BTW, almost all of the lakes in Texas are man-made. Used to be all the water in Houston was ground water (wells). When Houston subsided ten+ feet in the 1960s through the 1980s, we stopped using ground water and moved to surface water. Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston were built. Now we are getting ready to build a 100+ square mile lake on the west side of Fulshear in that old swamp for drinking water for Fort Bend County. Yuck.
Yesterday, the Social Democrat Party Comitee had a meeting. (This party won the election in last December and formed the government with an allied small party). After the meeting, they said they have a legitime government, that the pardoning decrees are necessary and urgent (fixes some unconstitutional aspects of the Penal Code) and that they won’t change anything, and that they blah blah, blah blah… Of course, they don’t mentioned the whole naked truth and effects.
So, we had another evening of protests. There are about 8 days left until one decree comes in effect. These are some actions going on now against them:
– street protests – a few hundred thousand people, nation wide, the biggest in 25 years.
– The President notify the Constitutional Court for it to judge if there is a conflict between executive power and the judicial power (with the former acting against the advices/approval and in same cases without consultation of the later).
– The General Prosecutor is challenging the decree in the Supreme Court.
– The prosecutors from the Anticorruption Department, following complains, are investigating about who really wrote the decree (it seems it was written in the deputy office of the crook and party leader Dragnea, and later sent to Minister of Justice).
– a prosecutor raised an “unconstitutional exception” against the decree, during a court trail where the accused people would be set free.
– the Ombudsman (run by a crooks puppet) is challenging today the decree to the Constitutional Court.
– the opposition started a censure motion (?): the government will be fired if the opposition raises enough votes in the Parliament.
– some people from the ruling party expressed their protest against the decree.
– European Commission warned the government not to procede with the decrees in this way.
– Embassadors showed concerns and asks for a strong lawful state.
– same concerns from a lot of domestic and foreign associations of investors and companies.
So, many people fights against the decree. The government acted profoundly immoral but still lawful (can give such decrees).
The crooks only need for the decree to come in effect just for a minute! The effects are irreversible (you can’t accuse the criminals again after you decriminalize their wrong doing). So it doesn’t matter much if, afterwards, the decree is changed or overrules by the Parliament or if it is found unconstitutional.
Thanks for the report@Eugen.
Stay safe.