09:01 – It was 53.5F (12C) when I took Colin out around 0645 this morning, overcast with about 9/10 cloud cover.
Herschel from Shaw Brothers showed up early yesterday morning and got all the plumbing stuff finished and checked out. While he was here, the drop-ceiling installers showed up. They finished the drop ceiling by mid-afternoon. Barbara is happy with it, so I’m happy with it.
At some point, the electrician is supposed to show up to install the overhead lighting, followed by the painters. The last step will be the floor installers. Unfortunately, they’re backed up, and it’ll be early next month before they can get here to install the floor. Still, we’re making progress.
We finished watching season four of the Australian series The Doctor Blake Mysteries last night, and continued with Outlander (UK title; my US title is Lots of Cuties with Really Good Dresses).
The auction sign went up yesterday in front of Bonnie’s house. The auction of the house, contents, and land takes place on Saturday, 15 July. Frances and Al plan to come up for the auction. They said they might buy the place, but I don’t think they were serious.
With the downstairs all torn up and stuff piled all over the place, it’s been hard to build science kits. We got things reorganized the other day to the point where we have an open flat work surface to bin subassemblies and can at least get to the shelving that holds the thousands of chemical bottles. We’re getting low-stock on all of the kits, and need to get more batches built.
There was an article in the paper this morning about a new concealed-carry initiative that would allow conceal carry with no permit anywhere that open carry is now allowed, which is to say most places. Unfortunately, our Republican governor lost last November to a prog Democrat, who will probably veto the bill. Given that some of our republican legislators opposed the bill, it’s likely they won’t be able to override a veto. We’ll see. Constitutional Carry is spreading across the US, and with every muslim outrage it gains more support, sometimes even among Democrats. I do wish that Trump would simply render state laws that restrict CC moot by announcing that the federal government will, upon request by any citizen at any US Post Office, issue a federal concealed + open carry permit that is valid for any location in the US, including local, state, and federal government buildings and property.
The dominoes are starting to topple. Puerto Rico is now effectively bankrupt, although they can’t use that word, and Illinois is about to follow. At this point, there’s simply no alternative. Holders of Illinois government bonds are likely to take a 100% haircut, and pension funds are almost certain to be controlled by receivers. If I were expecting an Illinois government pension, I’d expect to see a small fraction of what I’d been promised, if that. My guess is that Illinois pensioners will see a ceiling put on pension payments. Everyone will get at most $1,000/month or whatever, regardless of what they’d been promised. Illinois government and pensioners and unions will be screaming for a federal bailout, of course, but with Trump and a Republican congress, they’re unlikely to get much, if any, federal money. And Illinois is just the first of many mismanaged states that will end up standing in line at the federal trough. I have no sympathy for any of them.
If the Detroit bankruptcy pattern holds, the courts will make the pension obligations the priority in IL. Of course, this will do terrible things to the municipal bond markets long term, but SEIU concerns must come first to keep the campaign donations flowing.
Not all hope is lost. Texas ended what I call the “Waze Traps” on I-35 yesterday with a uniform state-wide law banning texting while driving while allowing for other uses of handheld devices such as navigation. In Austin, the tickets for touching a handheld electronic device while driving were $500 each, much more lucrative than speed enforcement, and other cities in the area were adopting similar laws.
Fortunately, the Governor of Texas is not a Prog, and he has a very good chance of being reelected next year. He spent a little political capital to end the Waze Traps.
I don’t know as I care much for the idea of a national Federal CCW or OCW permit, and the Clinton Archipelago areas will find ways to circumvent it anyway. The situation with Vermont is a puzzle; we don’t have ANY permits or licenses, so what happens to reciprocity when we travel to other states, even OCW and CCW ones? Or when they come here?
City and state dominoes falling are harbingers of the whirlwind to come.
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/do-you-understand/
High 70s, mostly sunny w/blue skies, and potential for a t-storm or two over the next several days. I’m on chores, errands, and taxes again. Exciting.
The bank in Canada, the bank in Spain…
Sunny and already 97 in the sun here. Feels nice though as humidity is a low 45% and there is a nice breeze.
Our school district just sent out a warning flyer for Zike virus. “What you can do.” Wear long pants and sleeves- like that’s happening.
Tried some ready to eat cake frosting in a pouch yesterday. Was a year past expiry and inedible. Super high fat content and ‘made with real butter’. Supposed to be shelf stable, but not forever…..
Currently eating a bottle of MiracleWhip that is over a year past due. It looks kinda grey in the bottle but is white on the sandwich, and tastes normal.
n
Emergency Managers Announce Improvements After Cascadia Rising Exercise
https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/06/07/emergency-managers-announce-improvements-after-cascadia-rising-exercise
“As a result of the exercise, our governor directed the formation of a Resilient Washington sub-cabinet, a multi-agency workgroup charged with improving our state’s resiliency. Cascadia Rising also guided our decision to change our recommendation on preparedness, so we’re now telling people to have enough emergency supplies to stay on their own for up to two weeks.”
And
“The collaboration among all levels of government, and with our private sector partners leading up to and during the exercise, was outstanding. I believe these relationships were strengthened through this experience and will continue to grow as we work toward enhancing our preparedness posture.”
In other words: The governments and agencies can functioned well in an emergency, you should have two weeks supplies on hand (instead of the commonly recommended three days).
Or, if crap goes down, you are basically on your own.
@terry,
yup, teh AARs from the hams that participated were much more forthright than the official AARs, but even the official AARs were damning if you could do any reading between the lines. Forex, noting as a success being able to contact the Governors Office ONCE during the exercise despite constant trying….
Many places the AARs note that there weren’t enough staff… well, that was with everyone on board and ready. Imagine with half trapped at home, some who say “F’ it, family first”, and if it happens at 3 am.
Add some significant second order effects, like food riots, the results of no fresh water, and bad sanitation, the gimme gimme s looking for ‘fairness.’
Staying home for a couple of weeks seems like the prudent thing to do…
n
Added, this MASSEX was not the only one to up the recommendation from 72 hours to two weeks. Reality is starting to take hold, even at official levels.
n
Let’s hope the CSZ stays quiet. The new recommendations are a very, very small step in the right direction. But two weeks’ worth? Geez. How about six months’ worth, for a start? A year would be better.
Assuming they can afford it, I’ve never understood why most people don’t keep a year’s worth of food on hand. It doesn’t take much space. If you’re going to eat it anyway, what difference does it make, except that you’re far better off having your own local buffer instead of counting on your supermarket to be the buffer.
Barbara just asked me to please not order any more food, but at least she qualified that by saying, “until the downstairs is put back together.” Fair enough. But once that happens, I’ll keep adding more bulk LTS food incrementally. We still have 50-pound bags each of flour, rice, and sugar sitting in the original packaging. There’s no point to repackaging it right now because we have nowhere upstairs to store it. Once I can get to the downstairs closets, I’ll be installing more shelving and adding more LTS bulk food, probably in three person-month increments. I like expanding our LTS deep pantry at three months per month.
“Or, if crap goes down, you are basically on your own.”
There it is.
Or, “I’m alright, Jack, and fuck you.”
I’d consider three days the normal prep if you’re out in your vehicle miles from home. Two weeks is a winter storm up here with a power outage. So a MINIMUM of two weeks prep/storage.
We’ve got about eight weeks so far, and working on the rest. Probably ordering a manual well pump this coming week, too, until we can afford a generator, which would run on gas or propane anyway, and how long would that last under SHTF conditions? About 1/10th the cost of a generator. We can manage OK without juice for all the other stuff, though it would be a tad harsh. Wouldn’t miss the dishwasher much, and we don’t watch tee-vee. Computers and innernet? Meh.
Books and radios, with batteries. Until we run outta batteries. Then books by candlelight and lanterns, until we run outta those. Then books by whatever daylight not already devoted to backbreaking and tedious chores until we croak.
video of the takedown of the london terrorists
https://youtu.be/IGvwo-pbg-Q
@OFD
I thought you didn’t know how deep the water level is in your well. Are you sure a manual pump will be able to lift it?
“how long would that last under SHTF conditions? ”
based on my experience during hurricanes, long enough.
We ran the gasoline genny 14 days after Ike. After the first week, it was running all thru daylight hours to run the window air unit.
I’ve got about $600 in that genny and had it mostly unused since Y2K.
I’d stocked up to 35 gallons of gas before the hurricane, and just took an empty can with me if I went out. If the lines were long, I kept driving. If I came across a station with gas and short lines, I filled up.
Never even got more than a couple of cans down.
n
“I thought you didn’t know how deep the water level is in your well.”
I’m in the process of determining that this week; for some reason the number 140 feet sticks in my memory banks, but I couldn’t find the paperwork where I thought I’d seen that; so I’m contacting the drilling company again and also opening up the cap and sinking a weight down there to find out firsthand.
“video of the takedown of the london terrorists”
Avoid cities and crowds, if possible. In any case, have your wits about you at all times and watch your six at all times. We’re seeing very low-tech assaults on crowds now, via knife slashing and stabbing attacks and use of vehicles. I’d expect escalation in some places to firearms and more explosives. But hell, they can spread fear and panic with just the knives and trucks. The 9/11 pieces of subhuman shit used boxcutters; how low-tech is that? And theoretically could have been jumped by passengers piling on and willing to take some cuts and punctures.
“based on my experience during hurricanes, long enough.”
Good to know; at worst, in our experience, valley and hillside burgs to our east out in East Bumfodder went without juice for a couple of weeks, ditto the Champlain Islands during the big-ass ice storm of 1998. And cut off out there, too, thanks to the bridges iced over.
Let’s hope any SHTF stuff only lasts a couple of weeks, eh?
Yep, or that gives us a transition period to begin making adjustments…
n
MOST shtf scenarios that are most likely are limited duration.
theoretically could have been jumped by passengers piling on and willing to take some cuts and punctures
And that is indeed the mindset of passengers today as evidenced by the shoe bomber. I would take it to the next level and prop all the limbs on a seat in such a manner where jumping on the joints would force them in a non-natural state and thus snap the joint, hopefully in multiple pieces. All limbs would no longer function. When placed on the stretcher would like like a pile of jumbled luggage. Pain is a powerful motivator.
I loathe the media for reporting the terrorist cretin names and faces. Instead the media should just state “unnamed scum” and show a picture of neanderthal with knuckles dragging. No media event for those losers.
The 9/11 pieces of subhuman shit used boxcutters; how low-tech is that? And theoretically could have been jumped by passengers piling on and willing to take some cuts and punctures.
My theory is that the 9/11 hijackers also repeated the flights sufficiently before hand that they knew the cabin crew members’ patterns, schedules, and who was sleeping with whom on the flight deck.
Just keeping the frigging flight deck doors closed and locked as was policy even before 9/11 would have prevented a tragedy.
Agreed a thousand percent with Mssrs. Nick, Ray, and Greg Norton.
Great minds think alike.
And as Mrs. OFD always reminds me, fools seldom differ, hahaha.
Heading to 80, looks like, and I’m off on my circuit of greater Saint Albans Town and the “city” for a bunch of errands, and then back to our little plot here for some fun chores. Defrosting the freezer and fridge is proving to be a PITA and taking longer than I would have thought, but whatever; no shortage of other tasks in the meantime.
Meanwhile, we asked Mrs. OFD’s office staff back in Mordor to FedEx us her 2015 1099 yesterday, and today FedEx arrived with the 2016 1099, which we already had. If Mrs. OFD’s employer/s and office staff EVER do anything right, it is totally by accident.
As the late Ezra Pound used to say, ‘it would take a bile specialist…’
Just a normal day at Hanford – SNAFU –:
These canyons were to have been entombed about 20-years ago (basically pumped full of concrete then covered in concrete). But no, must tear apart and spread contamination and create even more highly radioactive waste that has nowhere to go. If I could tell you the levels of contamination that is in these canyons you would ask to be on the next rocket ship to Mars. You don’t mess with Plutonium and its associated “byproducts/waste”.
The waste that is going on here is criminal and the politicians (both in WA State and DC) causing it even more criminal.
Just keeping the frigging flight deck doors closed and locked as was policy even before 9/11 would have prevented a tragedy.
Well, sure, but prior to 9/11 (or 11/9 as the rest of the world knows it) hijackings (in the US) were usualy resolved without loss of life by giving into the demands. So the rules were to go allong with the hijacker. And even if the rules had said to keep the cockpit door locked, would the pilots have done so as the crew & passengers were killed until the pilots complied? I don’t think so. After 9/11 the whole paradigm changed.
I recall reading reports in the 80’s of hijack attempts in China where the passengers arose en-mass and killed the hijackers. I always wondered what drove them to that given the prospect of a free trip to Tiwan or Hong Kong ?
I do wish that Trump would simply render state laws that restrict CC moot by announcing that the federal government will, upon request by any citizen at any US Post Office, issue a federal concealed + open carry permit that is valid for any location in the US, including local, state, and federal government buildings and property.
Carrying a gun at a Post Office, inside or out in the parking lot, will get one charged with a federal felony.
The dominoes are starting to topple. Puerto Rico is now effectively bankrupt, although they can’t use that word, and Illinois is about to follow.
Puerto Rico will be voting on becoming a state again this Sunday.
http://thehill.com/latino/336667-puerto-rico-goes-to-the-polls-for-statehood
“Puerto Rico’s government is banking on a push for statehood to solve the structural issues that led to its financial crisis.
“Puerto Ricans will vote Sunday to decide the territory’s status.”
“If statehood wins, as expected, the island will enact what’s known as the Tennessee Plan, an avenue to accession by which U.S. territories send a congressional delegation to demand to be seated in Washington.”
“Puerto Rico will send two senators and five representatives, chosen by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló (D), later this year, once the plan is put into action.”
Maybe we will go ahead and add the seven Canadian states also.
“Maybe we will go ahead and add the seven Canadian
statesprovinces also.”And from the Ham Radio PDF MamaLoad Department:
http://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/
Hat tip to Brushbeater and WRS.
“And from the Ham Radio PDF MamaLoad Department:
http://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/”
Rude me. I decided to use HTTrack to suck down the entire web site.
Father of one our exchange students is the exclusive distributor for Pilot pens in Norway. Last trip he gave me a folder with about 50 Pilot pens and pencils of various varieties. Four or five of those pens are worth over $100. Wife and I had a Pilot Ageless pen from him and loved. Wife lost hers so today he gave us a couple more.
https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Ageless-Future-Collection-61005/dp/B001C4CILM
This is probably the best ballpoint pen that I have ever owned bar none. Feels good in the hand, retraction mechanism is excellent, and the ink cartridge has really smooth ink. The pen is highly recommended. I now have three of them along with half a dozen refills.
I do have a pilot pencil that I bought in 1973. Used it for years filling out coding sheets and whatever in my career. Used dozens of lead refill cartridges over the years. Best pencil I ever owned. I paid $20.00 in 1973 and it is now selling for $200.00 on EBay.
I probably have about $1500.00 in Pilot pens and pencils. I suspect I will have more when this trip is over and the father will give me more.
Not all hope is lost. Texas ended what I call the “Waze Traps” on I-35 yesterday with a uniform state-wide law banning texting while driving while allowing for other uses of handheld devices such as navigation. In Austin, the tickets for touching a handheld electronic device while driving were $500 each, much more lucrative than speed enforcement, and other cities in the area were adopting similar laws.
Sugar Land is also $500 for touching your phone while driving. No exceptions.
Are you sure that the state no texting law cancels the city laws ? My understanding is that the state no texting law does not cancel the no touchie city laws.
Are you sure that the state no texting law cancels the city laws ? My understanding is that the state no texting law does not cancel the no touchie city laws.
The Statesman is upset so I assume I have the right interpretation.
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/opinion/herman-the-new-texting-ban-the-best-texas-can/bAGBQonWLWOtZKQuifpzxK/
I’ve always believed that the “no touchie” laws were more a reaction to Waze’s police location reporting button than any real concern about public safety. Interest from law enforcement seemed to get more intense after the kid from Atlanta pushed the Cannonball Run record below 30 hours back in 2013 with the help of one of the lesser-known online map companies.
“Wife lost hers…”
Hey, I know that song! Been singing it here for twenty years and counting. Phones, chargers, contact lenses, wallets, keys, you-name-it. Still have an iPhone 6 MIA here somewhere, the big one. MIA for months. I got it originally and she’s lost it twice now. I run an iPhone 5 and it’s OK for my purposes so fah. I may have another more secure phone around somewhere…
We have a no-touch-electronics-while-driving law up here with a fine, but you’d never know it. I see it a dozen times a day just in this rural AO and more so on my jaunts down to the big city of Burlap. Our police chief is aware of it and his guys have been nabbing people in the city on this. Also speeders on the newly paved main roads through the town.
Spent another lovely afternoon burning brush, running errands, and messing with the big PITA pulley-to-pulley clothesline gizmos. Not 100% yet but I think I can finish it later; I bailed because the next-door wallyhog was loudly nagging her toddler daughter and it just went on and on. Poor little kid. Mom has blue hair, with some red bun on the front and a dark ponytail out the back. Her sister has some shade of metallic red, like you’d see on a fancy car from the 1960s. Both are morbidly obese and married to their iPads and phones and ciggies. There really ain’t nuttin’ too look at for grrls here in the ‘hood except occasionally on the footpath alongside the shore.
Wife is doing OK with a mostly black class down in Philly this week; she evidently got it across to them that her people have gone through at least as much shit over the centuries as they have, and now they are all getting along fine. She is also a ball of fun and jokes and stories and that has helped, here, and with other classes. At home she just barks at me. Just kidding. Sort of.
@Lynn
“Maybe we will go ahead and add the seven Canadian states also.”
And which three are you excluding? At things stand, there is absolutely no upside for Canada to join the US. A far better plan would be a complete reorganization along the the Nine(?) Nations scheme with a VERY loose overall administration.
But this was the original plan for the thirteen colonies. That didn’t stay loose for very long?
For the moment, I think it best if we just muddle along as we have been. It could be far worse.
Nice picture of Houston on June 8th, 2001 when the southwest side of Houston got 30 to 40 inches of rain with Tropical Storm Allison:
http://spacecityweather.com/dry-houston-pleasant-june/
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Allison
Yeah baby, those are freeways under 20 ft of water.
Hurricane season started June 1. Are you ready for six weeks off the grid, impassable roads, and empty grocery stores ?
“And which three are you excluding?”
I can’t speak for Lynn, bit I wouldn’t want Quebec.
“For the moment, I think it best if we just muddle along as we have been.”
Yup.
“Hurricane season started June 1. Are you ready for six weeks off the grid, impassable roads, and empty grocery stores ?”
That might be us during a really severe series of blizzards and ice storms up here, which might come every ten or twenty years or so. We’d manage but it would suck.
“I can’t speak for Lynn, bit I wouldn’t want Quebec.”
They wouldn’t go along with it, anyway. We muddle with them OK so far; I’d leave it alone. As down here, it’s the cities that are problematic.
“Maybe we will go ahead and add the seven Canadian states provinces also.”
@Lynn
“Maybe we will go ahead and add the seven Canadian states also.”
And which three are you excluding?
I beg incompetence. It will happen again.
However, we do not want Quebec, I can tell you that.
At things stand, there is absolutely no upside for Canada to join the US. A far better plan would be a complete reorganization along the the Nine(?) Nations scheme with a VERY loose overall administration.
There will be a lot of crazy machinations between now and the time of the “nine nations”.
Are you sure that the state no texting law cancels the city laws ? My understanding is that the state no texting law does not cancel the no touchie city laws.
The Statesman is upset so I assume I have the right interpretation.
Not according to Governor Abbott:
http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_35bda7ec-4b2b-11e7-9ea6-6f8d0c98d422.html
“The governor announced he had signed the bill at a news conference Tuesday, when he announced a series of priorities for a special legislative session to start July 18. Among those priorities is further work on the ban, which Abbott said “did not fully achieve my goals.””
“I was not satisfied with the law as it was written,” Abbott said Tuesday. “Now that Texas does have a statewide ban on texting and driving, I am calling for legislation that fully pre-empts cities and counties from any regulation of mobile devices in vehicles. We don’t need a patchwork quilt of regulations that dictate driving practices in Texas.””
If the Detroit bankruptcy pattern holds, the courts will make the pension obligations the priority in IL.
IIRC, Michigan and IL have constitutional provisions that give pensions absolute protection. The state can’t cut the payments.
“…constitutional provisions that give pensions absolute protection. The state can’t cut the payments.”
And what if there is no money left to pay them? My understanding is that the money in these accounts is either long since totally gone or well on the way. But I could be wrong and/or have a faulty memory; never happened before, though….
It’s not just airline passengers fighting back.
Note that Bolt appears to be around the age of most of the commenters here. Good on him!
Added: He’s 57.
Not according to Governor Abbott:
Cr*p. Thanks for the correction. I only buy the Statesman to light the charcoal.
I guess it is a good thing that I didn’t take the job which involved driving through Austin to San Marcos every day. I was going to get a $500 ticket sooner or later reporting the Waze/speed traps.
I can’t imagine anyone unseating Abbott next year, but the campaign will be ugly. Driving somewhere recently, I was stuck behind a Prog in a Versa sporting a “Stand For Texas – Vote Democrat” bumper sticker. Nice people.
I figured it was a reference to Obola the Douchenozzle’s “57 states” comment.
For Canadians or for Americans? From where I sit, I don’t think the US needs anyone from any of the large Canadian cities. Probably some of the country folk would be ok, but filtering out those in love with big government would be more trouble than it’s worth.
Maybe we will go ahead and add the seven Canadian states provinces also.
That would kill the dreams of a lot of people I met in WA and OR who would prefer to be annexed by Canada. And that was *before* Trump.
“… Bolt appears to be around the age of most of the commenters here.”
A youngster! Yeah, good for him fighting back. His methods could use some improvement, though. Don’t mess around trying to throw punches at somebody’s head; pick up whatever’s handy and bash the fuckers until they’re not moving anymore. Suddenly, with extreme violence, visit upon them ten times more than what they’d planned for you. Make an example. Don’t use your knuckles to punch somebody; use a chopping motion, use your elbows, gouge their eyes, kick ’em in their junk.
“Probably some of the country folk would be ok, but filtering out those in love with big government would be more trouble than it’s worth.”
Correct. No city or college town peeps. Western provinces a good source, and rural Maritimes. But, as Mrs. OFD says, having lived in Moh-ree-all as a McGill student for five years back in the 1970s, you will never hear a Canadian say “They can’t do that to me.” Big gummint is pervasive up there, from womb to tomb.
IIRC, Michigan and IL have constitutional provisions that give pensions absolute protection. The state can’t cut the payments.
The federal bankruptcy courts can do anything.
However, I suspect that the PBGC, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporaton, will get involved. Their goal is to get the pension payments to at least 40% of the promised amount.
I only buy the Statesman to light the charcoal.
I call it the “Austin American-Liberal”. BTW, the Houston Comical XXXXXX Chronicle is almost as bad.
I guess it is a good thing that I didn’t take the job which involved driving through Austin to San Marcos every day.
I guess it is a good thing that I didn’t take the job which involved CREEPING through Austin to San Marcos every day.
Fixed that for ya.
I guess it is a good thing that I didn’t take the job which involved CREEPING through Austin to San Marcos every day.
Oh sure. When I initially applied, the adminstration proposed that I could work at least one day a week out of my grad student office in Round Rock. Then, as the semester drew to a close and they assumed I had no other job prospects after graduation, the Round Rock idea was walked back.
Academics — they think the whole world is the campus.
Instead, I drive to Belton every day from Round Rock. It isn’t a bad drive … for now. My only complaint is that Buc-ee’s is on the wrong side of Temple.
I call it the “Austin American-Liberal”. BTW, the Houston Comical XXXXXX Chronicle is almost as bad.
Growing up outside Tampa, there were three major dailies — the hyper-liberal St. Petersburg Times, the somewhat conservative Tampa Trib, and the middle-of-the-road Clearwater Sun.
The Scientologists more or less put the Sun out of business about 30 years ago, and then the Times bought the dying Trib last year just to get rid of the competition.
My only complaint is that Buc-ee’s is on the wrong side of Temple.
The way that Buc-ees is growing, they might fix that soon. Have you seen the new Buc-ees thatr they are building in Katy (outside Houston on I-10) with 100 gasoline pumps ?
http://www.click2houston.com/news/buc-ees-aims-to-build-worlds-largest-longest-car-wash-in-katy
The way that Buc-ees is growing, they might fix that soon. Have you seen the new Buc-ees thatr they are building in Katy (outside Houston on I-10) with 100 gasoline pumps ?
New Braunfels Buc-ees has 120 pumps if my math is right. 60 wasn’t enough.
The Temple store was a special deal involving a lot of tax breaks. I doubt there will be another one between Dallas and Austin in the near future.
Looks like the cat lady of Great Britain got hammered. Maybe they will get a Churchill wannabe instead.
Nah.
The last Statesman I looked at made USA Today look like a real newspaper. Except it was $1.50 for the daily….
“Don’t mess around trying to throw punches at somebody’s head; pick up whatever’s handy and bash the fuckers until they’re not moving “,
Yeah, that’s pretty much what my dad always told me. And I suppose he knew what he was talking about…. Iwo Jima, Korea for a couple of Purple Hearts, Kennedy’s Honor Guard, some recruiting…. and then what fucking ever that came home from ‘Nam. Bronze Star in there somewhere.
Me? I was a little kid. No one could out run me. Tho I did use a few rocks….
The Barren Cat Lady was/is bad enough; they’ll replace her with someone even worse, and then the UK will go full-tilt into caving under the musloid invasion, more atrocities, and eventual sharia, where the leaders assume they’ll be OK and left alone, haha. Dhimmi-hood or beheading, assholes. And I will have less than zero sympathy.
The proles and Morlocks better get on the stick Real Soon Now.
As they should here.
“…and then what fucking ever that came home from ‘Nam.”
Bad enough getting through the Pacific War and Iwo Jima and then Korea, but as the Willard character says in Apocalypse Now, “…the heat and light of Vietnam put the zap on your head…” That war was really fucked up, as all wars are, of course, but that one was special. I’m about 3/4 of the way through “Street Without Joy,” by the late Bernard Fall, concerning the French involvement in SEA during the 1950s. So it’s not like we didn’t know the score before committing military forces there.
I’m sorry about your dad; I may have some small idea of what he might have been like. I see guys every week who are still beaucoups dinky-dao 45 years later.
Who am I kidding? I see a guy like that in the mirror every fucking day.
@RBT: Hey Bob, how long did your website suck take earlier with HTTrack? I’m sucking down the whole site, too, but it’s coming up on five hours now.
@ofd, I grabbed it with webcopy, took 10 minutes for everything but the PPT files. Those seemed to hang it, so I canceled out after a couple of hours. Felt bad that I might have been hammering away at those PPTs. I’d have stopped it but I was away from the pc.
Had to pick up some auction items. I know, it’s a sickness, but would YOU pass up a new in box colman stove, lantern, and generic lantern (all in propane) for $10 total? Some other stuff in the box lots, new 4TB seagate hd, sealed, 20 various flashlights, including 2 new name brand headlamps, and a bunch of the eveready power failure flashlights, a couple of USB power banks, a couple new GFCI outlets, a bunch of other bits and bobs, for just around $20. The GFCI outlets were worth that, the other stuff was basically free. Sweet.
Got one good looking sale this weekend, with some old radio stuff, some good tools, some interesting garage stuff. I’ve got plenty to do without hitting a bunch of sales though.
n
Very nice haul, Mr. Nick.
I’m a noob at sucking down web sites, so I’ll give webcopy a trial, assuming it runs on Linux. Meanwhile I’ll just let HTTrack run all night, I guess.
Aha, I see it’s Winblows only. Alright, this is really good and important stuff so I’ll download it on our remaining Winblows machine, which we have to have for TurboTax and iTunes, I guess.
From the Foreign Policy Lessons Department: Middle East Division:
https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/06/08/the-iranian-question-and-the-same-old-saudi-answers-by-jp-sottile/
http://original.antiwar.com/jp-sottile/2017/06/07/iranian-question-old-saudi-answers/
Second link has the conclusion of the article. I just wanted to give a hat tip to Bob Gore’s Straight Line Logic site.
Been saying this for years; why is it we suck up to the Saudis, bow to their piggish princes, grovel before them with gigantic arms deals so they pound the shit out of Christians in Yemen, and yet we’re hourly trying to provoke the Iranians. WTF?
They all suck, so why are we still over there when we have our own energy sources right here???
@Mr. Nick; webcopy is indeed much faster; already at 75% in five minutes on the Winblows 8 machine. Slicker than goose snot on a doorknob, thanks for the tip.
Used it to grab Sparks31 before he went dark too… other than that I don’t really know anything about it. Works. Good enough for me.
n
Sparks31 is back online.
https://sparks-31.blogspot.com/
“The impeach-Trump conspiracy”
http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/the-impeach-trump-conspiracy/
“Pat Buchanan asks, ‘Where are the criminals? Where is the crime?'”
“Pressed by Megyn Kelly on his ties to President Trump, an exasperated Vladimir Putin blurted out, “We had no relationship at all. … I never met him. … Have you all lost your senses over there?””
“Yes, Vlad, we have.”
Pat Buchanan. The voice of reason in a crazy world.
Patrick has been a voice of reason for decades, and is a true American patriot and warrior for the truth. A person could do far worse than read every one of his books and columns for the past half-century.
Another voice of reason is our greatest living historian, Dr. Clyde Wilson. His book of Jeffersonian-themed essays is an education in itself concerning past history and current events into the 1990s. A fixture at Chronicles Magazine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_N._Wilson
https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/blogs/clyde-wilson/
Oh gee whiz; it’s after 02:00 here in northwestern Vermont. OFD’s gotta hit the sack and get up for a busy day tomorrow and another one on Saturday. I will fall asleep thinking of possible screenplay ideas…
Pax vobiscum, fratres, et semper paratus. Tempus fugit irreparabile.
@Mr. Nick; webcopy is indeed much faster; already at 75% in five minutes on the Winblows 8 machine. Slicker than goose snot on a doorknob, thanks for the tip.
If webcopy doesn’t cover downloading linked YouTube videos, I’ve discovered that youtube-dl is available via the standard Python install on Windows:
c:\> python -m pip install youtube-dl
Run using:
c:\> python -m youtube_dl [YouTube URL]
Note the underscore in the module name to execute vs. the dash in the module name to download.
“@RBT: Hey Bob, how long did your website suck take earlier with HTTrack? I’m sucking down the whole site, too, but it’s coming up on five hours now.”
I just checked. HTTrack finished at 0458 this morning, so it took more than 12 hours to suck down 400+ files that totaled a gigabyte. I’m pretty sure its default settings are “nice”, to avoid swamping the bandwidth of a site you’re downloading.
I got 488 files (not incl the PPT files) in 10 minutes. Most of them are pretty small (450 <500,000 KB) (340 <1000KB)(120 < 100KB)
Even being polite it seems like a long time for HTTrack….)
n
65 with scattered t-storms, drizzle, showers, etc. for my four hours of driving between here and White River Junction for the VA interview (voc rehab).
HTTrack finally finished sucking down the ham radio pdfs. Webcopy surprisingly still running, after all, on the Windows 8 machine.
I’m running the youtube-dl via Python on this Mint box, one Tube vid at a time from another site, so we have a community backup of Ann Barnhardt’s Tube vids before she gets dumped from there, or jailed, or murdered.
“The impeach-Trump conspiracy”
http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/the-impeach-trump-conspiracy/
…
Patrick has been a voice of reason for decades, and is a true American patriot and warrior for the truth. A person could do far worse than read every one of his books and columns for the past half-century.
Note that Pat was very careful not to mention the phrase “civil war”. But, he dances all around it.
I am becoming more and more disgusted with the Progs in the USA. They are bunched up in large cities and used to handouts to shut them up. Trump don’t do that.
@Mr. Nick; webcopy is indeed much faster; already at 75% in five minutes on the Winblows 8 machine
I’m trying “Sitesucker” for Mac. What total files should I look for? SS says it’s downloading a little over 800 files.
Sitesucker got 489 .pdf files in 7 minutes. What am I missing?
Nothing, but you just launched a DOS attack on that site.
Yes, Sir! Just following your orders, Sir! I know you demand loyalty from your minions, Sir!
Now that’s what we like to see: instant obedience and loyalty from our quiche-eating aviators!
Outstanding!
Nothing, but you just launched a DOS attack on that site.
The last time that I had a DOS on my website, it was 16 clients downloading the same image file about 1,000 times per second. Web servers nowadays can serve an enormous amount of bandwidth.
Nothing, but you just launched a DOS attack on that site.
I am downloading most of my main website right now using ftp, about 1.3 GB. I cannot get the web server instantaneous cpu status above 0.08.
qs1257.pair.com
Fri Jun 9 17:49:45 EDT 2017
5:49PM up 371 days, 18:54, 0 users, load averages: 0.08, 0.03, 0.00
Many people have bandwidth limits and/or throttling.
Many people have bandwidth limits and/or throttling.
Oh man, that is so true. I have had a dedicated server for 15 ? years, I forgot about that.
And what if there is no money left to pay them?
They have money to pay the pensions since they have tax revenue. They might have to cut most of the budget to 0, except the parts that show positive cash flow.
The federal bankruptcy courts can do anything.
States can’t go bankrupt under current law. They are sovereign. In the case of IL, they would have first claim on any taxes coming in under state law and constitution.
“They might have to cut most of the budget to 0.”
Sure. And they’ll whack “essential” emergency services first, while demanding an increase in taxes and savagely going after tax scofflaws and people who made a punctuation error on a return.
Looks like we’ll be finding out pretty soon in the cases of Puerto Rico, Illinois and Kalifornia.
Constitutions can be amended. Politicians can be tarred and feathered.
And what if there is no money left to pay them?
They have money to pay the pensions since they have tax revenue. They might have to cut most of the budget to 0, except the parts that show positive cash flow.
I fully expect most of the states to start doubling their gasoline and diesel taxes on a frequent basis just like California just did. If we’re lucky, some of those fees might actually be spent on some blacktop somewhere.
BTW, the cost of the interstate projects is zooming. The 30 mile widening of I-69 from 4 lanes to 14 lanes here in Fort Bend County is up to $1.6 billion and rising rapidly. I think it was originally $600 million or less when Tom Delay proposed it a over a decade ago.
The new interstate 14 from Baton Rouge to Fort Stockton (I-10 bypass through central Texas) has zoomed from $6 billion to $8 billion and they have yet to do a lick of work on it. I fully expect that interstate to double in price over the next couple of years as the cost of the farm land has increased so much.
https://www.interstate-guide.com/i-014.html
For some odd reason a picture just came into my head of vast areas of blacktop roadways in Texas and Kalifornia and other places, not too far into the future, utterly deserted, 14-lane freeways, except for rusting hulks of all kinds of vehicles, pools of unidentified but probably toxic liquids, some of them still flaming, and roving bands of demented revenants, looking for loot and victims to torture and eat.
And roasting dogs over gasoline fires….
n
Don’t forget the cats!
The cats will have eaten all the pigeons and gotten the eff out. The dawgs will be long gone. Animal life will be rats, cockroaches, coyotes and corvids.
For some odd reason a picture just came into my head of vast areas of blacktop roadways in Texas and Kalifornia and other places, not too far into the future, utterly deserted, 14-lane freeways, except for rusting hulks of all kinds of vehicles, pools of unidentified but probably toxic liquids, some of them still flaming, and roving bands of demented revenants, looking for loot and victims to torture and eat.
Dude, you’ve been watching too much of “The Walking Dead”.
Netflix left off before the current season and I haven’t seen any of that yet. Also watched the only two seasons they’ve got of “Better Call Saul,” and the VA counselor I met with today and I agreed that I’m the gun guy who’s showing Mike the guns and how to shoot long distance with them. Except I don’t look as old or as tired and I’m somewhat larger.
Wifey enroute back here tomorrow on-schedule.
Pax vobiscum
And like Mr. DadCooks says, don’t pay as much attention to all the squirrels the media and innernet keep screeching at us to look at, but at what the rulers are busy doing elsewhere. Kathy Griffin, the Comey Capers, the latest NY AG’s attempt to attack anyone they can in the tRump clan, etc., are all just this week’s tabloid rubbish.
What do the country’s finances look like this weekend? And what did that bumper sticker I saw today on some commie’s car mean by “NO WAR IN SYRIA.” Last I knew, there actually IS a war there. Or maybe they meant there shouldn’t be one. And maybe Mr. Commie Asshole should slide on over there and mediate between all the parties and bring peace to the country. I think we oughta keep our noses out of it, but of course now we’re gonna also build a training command in…….wait for it….Ukraine….with Murkan advisors. Ain’t dat how ‘Nam started?
What would our reaction be if the Russians did likewise in Quebec or Mexico?
But now I’m rambling…gotta hit the sack…long day tomorrow…and a busy one.
Yes @OFD, there seems to be an inordinate amount of squirrels recently and they are breeding like cockroaches (sorry to demean the cockroach).
Focus, but maintain a 360-degree short and long view.