Cool and wet. Yesterday started out cooler, stayed cooler longer, but by late afternoon was PLENTY HOT. It did cool off pretty quickly once the sun started down.
I’ve got my monthly get together for my non-prepping hobby this morning, so I’ll be radio silence for a while. Then I will be trying to cram as many of my week’s goals into a couple of hours as possible 🙂
I don’t know where the week went. I had plans. I had good intentions. Shopping and auction pickups ate a bunch of daylight, that’s certain, but there still should have been more time to work the list…
Now that the gloves have come off, and Burrito Beto (white on the outside, full of brown stuff inside) declared his position on gun confiscation and the Bill of Rights, I wonder if sales will pick up? If they don’t, it’ll be a pretty good indicator of how the public sees his chances of winning… and that the other Dems didn’t come out with ‘clarification’ statements, means that they’re fully on board too, they just don’t want to say it out loud yet. Fully socialist, and gun grabby- does no one see the path they are following and where it leads? [Solzhenitsyn quote left as an exercise for the reader.]
Anyone here still think we’re not headed into a major schism in our country and in the world? If not, how would we avoid one? Because just continuing as we are will lead there and no one is suggesting alternate paths, or putting on the brakes.
Which is why I prep (and hurricanes. Can’t forget about the hurricanes. Especially with one headed toward us again.)
What have you done to improve your skills? Stockpile? sources? community? I hope it’s something, even if little tiny steps….
n
“Burrito Beto” Yoink! Consider that stolen.
Can we defend against this?
I saw the latest Gerard Butler flick “Angel Has Fallen” and it used a massive drone strike to try and kill the President. Theirs involved hundreds of small drones with explosives attached and a AI to control them.
Can we defend against this?
Drones are tough. The solution is a bloody, brutal retaliation to make sure they think twice next time.
What happened to the Saudi armed forces? They can’t fight a regional skirmish on their own?
Or hire Mossad who could probably terminate exactly the right people rather than risk collateral damage from a Saudi or US air strike.
We need to stay out of it or let someone else take on the responsibility.
“Burrito Beto” Yoink! Consider that stolen.
I use ‘Robert Francis’ out of respect for the “Mexican Bobby Kennedy’s” heritage of being pure 4th generation Irish-American. Also, the makeup people keep working the Kennedy genetic disorder angle on his face, and I want to honor his life choices with regard to his drag identity.
The San Antonio radio station drive time host was experimenting with “e-Stu-Beto” the other day, a variation on “estupido”, even thought that word originated from Spanish speakers in Miami, not Mexico, according to many linguists.
Stuff from yesterday:
You misspelled “choir boys, championship athletes, valedictorians, and aspiring rap artists, all laboring under centuries of racist oppression”.
Not in our house. After I threw several folders of papers, a vase of flowers, decorative bric-a-brac, and miscellaneous junk into the recycling box, my wife and mother-in-law eventually learned. (I had warned them several times about it, got the usual bland agreement in a manner which said they weren’t listening and didn’t care, and then ignored their shouts of outrage when I did what I said I’d do.)
I don’t think I’ve encountered that. At home I use Debian derivatives, usually Ubuntu on laptops which get suspended regularly. At work it can be any, though usually a RedHat or Debian derivative.
So Bradley/Chelsea Manning should be released? Note that he/she/zir was in jail for almost the entirety of the Obama/Biden misadministration and its sentence was commuted just a few days before Obuttsuck and half of the furniture left the White House.
Like every other lifer Democrat politician and almost all politicians of either half of the ruling party.
Hillary Bitch Clinton’s name has been floated, but no official announcement yet.
Ray, re backing in the trailer, I, too, know the joy of a family member or helpful neighbor* who doesn’t have the slightest clue about how to guide a vehicle into a stall. And gesticulates wildly or yells inarticulately or both. And doesn’t have the sense to get out of the way when 6000 pounds of trailer is 8 inches away and coming toward them.
If they’re not idiots I’ll give them flashlights and have them indicate how much clearance I have. If they’re idiots I’ll tell them to get out of the way and I’ll just get out and walk back to check clearance as if I were alone. If they’re total idiots they won’t listen when I tell them to get out of the way and all I can do is ignore them and hope I don’t run over them. (While secretly hoping that I do run over them.)
* I can usually be counted on to help get a snowblower running, adjust a kid’s bicycle, carry furniture into or out of the house, and such because I have tools, am strong, and am American**. Some of the neighbors try to pay back by helping us with this or that but most of the time I’d really rather they didn’t.
** Most of the people in this housing development are Chinese or Indian, with some other nationalities and no more than an eighth being American born and raised. It’s a pricey neighborhood and, as Greg and I think one or two others have mentioned, the children of rich families come here with the family money to set up a beachhead. Anyway, most of them couldn’t possibly play into the stereotype any stronger, of the furriner who just doesn’t understand tools and can’t figure out how to assemble a flat-pack even with the no-words-needed instruction book and don’t have a clue what to do if the snowblower doesn’t start.
Most of the people in this housing development are Chinese or Indian, with some other nationalities and no more than an eighth being American born and raised. It’s a pricey neighborhood and, as Greg and I think one or two others have mentioned, the children of rich families come here with the family money to set up a beachhead.
The hottest subdivision near us for Indian Muslims (big mosque hidden near the mall in Cedar Park) is the neighborhood with a landing strip and taxiways to the houses. Even though the demographic doesn’t fly — no jokes, please — or, really, even like the planes being around, it is the last development left close in to Austin where a new 5000 sq ft custom house on a decent-sized piece of land is possible and won’t make anyone bat an eye.
The new neighborhood next to ours is filled with Hindi, H1Bs and families in big houses, but the lots are postage stamps, some with shared driveways. Plus there is the religion problem. Comings and goings of a Indian Muslim family would be noted and disseminated.
What have you done to improve your skills? Stockpile? sources? community? I hope it’s something, even if little tiny steps….
Today was the semi-annual shred day event in Round Rock, a benefit for the county animal shelter.
The paper shredding aspect is convenient, but the hard drive destruction, provided by Balcones, is not commonly available. Of course, I wipe the disks before handing them over, but they handle the disposal issue. Highly recommended if you are in the area.
As usual, in addition to all of our accumulated shredding and a hard drive, I took a big sack of cat food and a $50 donation check. I want to encourage the event to continue and happen every six months.
https://www.roundrocktexas.gov/departments/utilities-and-environmental-services/solid-waste-recycling/shredday/
I’ve had encounters with Aarabbs from flight school to retirement in the Army. Saudis tend to send their *princes* and general nincompoops to US training and then put them in leadership positions. The result is Saudi burning oil fields.
EQUALITY: Australian University Lowers Standards For Women Looking To Enter Engineering Degrees
Hopefully by the time these ladies and the rest of their cohort in what used to pass as the civilized world are unleashed upon the workforce I will have already joined the choir eternal.
I’m not sure I agree. Yes, they send their princes and other elites for professional military training and, yes, by our standards they are lazy, amateurish, nincompoops, but I suspect the Arab nations are sending their best.
No, I don’t have a high opinion of Arabs (or anyone from North Africa, the Middle East, or Iran), based on close contact in college, military training, and military operations. I hope that doesn’t make anyone think any worse of me…
My security contractor magazines are full of anti-drone measures. The nightmare scenario is a drone or lots of drones, with a couple ounces or pounds of fentanyl and an open roofed stadium. That makes an explosion look like child’s play.
Shooting them down is problematic, ‘cuz rounds keep moving, especially when you miss.
Finding them is hard, because they are small, have small radar signatures, and are twitchy.
Current actual tech in the field seems to be aimed at jamming the operator, or the wifi video, but that’s problematic as even the .gov agencies are not allowed to jam communications in the US. Also doesn’t work on GPS or dead reckoning based drones.
I’ve had some thoughts along these lines, and a fella could make a ton of money if he had a working solution. But I don’t know how to target, or deliver the package… I think I have a package design that would be worth testing.
n
Don’t Move to Austin. It’s Rotting from Within.
Would the author be so moved if he were aware of the Homelessness mnemonic?
re: drones.
Have you seen the ‘ Intel ‘ drone air force’ perform at football events or other places?
How about this nightmare scenario: a similar ‘drone air force’ that has been weaponized. How do you defend against that?
(And that might be an interesting premise for an action/fiction type book….) (Note to NSA: just thinking of fiction/stories.)
Too late, they are already on their way. We will miss you.
P. S. No one here knew RickH.
Don’t Move to Austin. It’s Rotting from Within.
Again, the Governor and Legislature preferred to spend political capital passing another abortion restriction rather than dealing with the increasingly Socialist city governments along I-35 from Austin down to San Antonio, specifically squelching the mandatory sick leave ordinances which effectively bypass the Texas restriction on a city enacting a minimum wage.
Mayors Nirenberg (San Antonio) and Adler (Austin) are out of control as a result. Adler passed the camping ordinance, and Nirenberg, fresh off re-election, has begun planning San Antonio’s green energy future.
The Legislature did squelch the Chick-Fil-A “controversy” in San Antonio. Google for the info.
As I noted a few days ago, Austin’s best hope is the existence of one of those camps across from the Planned Parenthood fortress -er- complex on SR 71 south of downtown. If nothing else liberals are generall hypocrites outside of their pet issue, and I have no doubt the local PP leadership has Adler’s phone number on speed dial.
Shooting them down is problematic, ‘cuz rounds keep moving, especially when you miss.
Friends and I have theorized a “gun” to jam a drone’s GPS and other external communications along a very tight beam from a directional antenna. IIRC, Kalashnikov now has a similar device on the market.
No, I don’t have a high opinion of Arabs (or anyone from North Africa, the Middle East, or Iran), based on close contact in college, military training, and military operations. I hope that doesn’t make anyone think any worse of me…
As Dr. Pournelle noted whenever the subject of a war with Iran came up, Iranians are not Arabs. They are Persians, closer to Russians the the residents of the rest of the Middle East. Dr. Pournelle emphasized that a war with *Persians* would be different than fighting Arabs, and probably costlier for the US.
A war with Iran would end with a carrier being towed out of the gulf to Diego Garcia and the US winding down its presence in the region. The American public would finally decide that 20 years of “war” is enough.
Now that the gloves have come off, and Burrito Beto (white on the outside, full of brown stuff inside) declared his position on gun confiscation and the Bill of Rights, I wonder if sales will pick up? If they don’t, it’ll be a pretty good indicator of how the public sees his chances of winning… and that the other Dems didn’t come out with ‘clarification’ statements, means that they’re fully on board too, they just don’t want to say it out loud yet. Fully socialist, and gun grabby- does no one see the path they are following and where it leads? [Solzhenitsyn quote left as an exercise for the reader.]
Is it time to start burying gubs and ammo ?
ADD: if they don’t win the 2020 election then I highly suspect that they will win the 2024 election.
@greg, there are several commercial systems, some deployed at the superbowl. It’s going to be a multi-spectrum effort, both to find them, and to interdict them.
Every national level event has some sort of drone monitoring and interdiction on the perimeter now, just no indication of how that’s working out. It’s wild west days and no one knows how it will end up.
n
Mayors Nirenberg (San Antonio) and Adler (Austin) are out of control as a result. Adler passed the camping ordinance, and Nirenberg, fresh off re-election, has begun planning San Antonio’s green energy future.
The cities of Austin and San Antonio are their own electric utilities. They are connected to the Texas Grid but they generally generate their own power. People there do not have the option of buying power off the Grid like the rest of us in Texas do. I foresee massive power price increases in those cities as they go through one failed “renewable” venture to the next. Austin already got burned big time and has paid big time and will continue paying big time.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-buys-469m-power-plant-sidesteps-20-year-contract/
As Dr. Pournelle noted whenever the subject of a war with Iran came up, Iranians are not Arabs. They are Persians, closer to Russians the the residents of the rest of the Middle East. Dr. Pournelle emphasized that a war with *Persians* would be different than fighting Arabs, and probably costlier for the US.
I went to TAMU with a nephew of the Shah of Iran. We were in a study group together during our sophomore year in Mechanical Engineering. He was very smart and very studious. He was a few years older than the rest of us, having been a pilot and an F-14 driver for the Iranian Air Force when he turned 18. They were having a problem with their pilots flying their planes to Iraq and defecting for money.
“Tropical system may bring heavy rain to Texas next week”
https://spacecityweather.com/tropical-system-may-bring-heavy-rain-to-texas-next-week/
I am tired of getting 10 to 20 inches of rain all in one day every six months.
Four storms pointed at us, including one in the Yucatan that is headed right for Houston. We’ll see if they develop, but it IS peak hurricane season.
n
I foresee massive power price increases in those cities as they go through one failed “renewable” venture to the next. Austin already got burned big time and has paid big time and will continue paying big time.
As part of their “green” energy plans, in addition to renewables, San Antonio is weighing either banning IC cars or doing congestion pricing of tolls like New York City has in the works for surface streets.
We are 800 yards outside the city limits of Austin so we currently have TXU as the power company without any special rate plan. I’m not familiar with the antics of Austin Energy.
San Antonio is weighing either banning IC cars or doing congestion pricing of tolls like New York City has in the works for surface streets.
Have you been to San Antonio ? They have two cars for every person there. Just about every other house has a car parked in the front yard in front of the picture window. Good luck with trying to force that on the populace. And yes, SA is incredibly congested like Austin, Dallas, and … Houston.
Can we defend against this?
Drones are tough. The solution is a bloody, brutal retaliation to make sure they think twice next time.
What happened to the Saudi armed forces? They can’t fight a regional skirmish on their own?
Or hire Mossad who could probably terminate exactly the right people rather than risk collateral damage from a Saudi or US air strike.
We need to stay out of it or let someone else take on the responsibility.
We still have a base in Saudi Arabi with over 50,000 troops, planes, tanks, etc, etc, etc in it.
BTW, I was wrong last night. I figured it was just two of the 83 GOSP plants. The Yemeni rebels blew up one of their two crude oil pretreatment refineries. Make that a ten billion dollar investment. Not good and the prognosticators are predicting crude oil to go to $100/barrel on Monday as about five million barrels per day just got taken off the world market. That kind of facility takes a year for the forward design (FEED), two years to gather the materials (ever bought a few thousand tons of stainless steel pipe ?), and three years to build.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/massive-fire-after-drone-strike-hits-worlds-largest-oil-processing-facility-saudi
BTW, one of my apocalyptic books presented the scenario where this happened across the USA. The predicted results are not pretty. Recommend by me and RBT.
https://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-World-Novel-Post-Apocalyptic-Collapse/dp/1511974419/?tag=ttgnet-20
BTW2, the Saudis have got a tough decision to make. They produce ten million barrels of crude oil per day. But they use three million barrels per day for themselves. Last time I heard, gasoline is $0.25 per gallon in Saudi Arabia. So are they going to drop their crude oil exports from seven million barrels of oil per day to two million barrels of crude oil per day ?
You’re still my Lord and Savior, my Master.
Why not call Elon to line their deserts with Solar City solar panels – Hi CowboySlim 🙂
I was in flight training with a bunch of Iranians just before the hostage crisis (they got 24 hours to leave Fort Rucker, AL, the home of Army Aviation). I’d say they were as dumb as a box of rocks, but that would slight rocks. At least send people with education to highly technical schools. We were graduating classes while the Iranians were going for their third try.
Have you been to San Antonio ? They have two cars for every person there. Just about every other house has a car parked in the front yard in front of the picture window. Good luck with trying to force that on the populace. And yes, SA is incredibly congested like Austin, Dallas, and … Houston.
Oh sure. We are down there a couple of times a year and just went Labor Day.
The populace just re-elected Nirenberg, establishing the Mayor as a Prog leader in the region, supplanting the Castros. He’s buying their votes with the sick leave ordinance.
Hmm, just when the world economy was slowing, and demand for oil and gasoline would drop, someone reduced the supply….. a conspiracy minded person might have some theories about that.
Spent the last hour working on a 52″ sharp tv I picked up off the curb. It looked like a power issue, so I ordered the most common “kit” of 1 IC, one diode, and two resistors. Swapped the components this evening. Went from a sometime works psu to a doesn’t work at all psu. Oh well, the stand sells for $50, the TCON board, for $20, and the main board for $129. I’m pretty sure the TCON and main board work, as I saw picture and menues for half a minute several times before the error code would shut down the TV. So, I was disappointed I didn’t fix it, but I was only going to ask for $100 bucks if it worked. I’ll get more for the parts!
n
Roger that! And when are the proglibturds going to call on wiping out the Houthis in Yemen to prevent more CO2 release in Saudi Arabia oil facilities. Oh yeah, and palestinians burning tires weekly at the Gaza – Israel border?
Looks like the private sector is building Big Brother on their own.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/youre-being-tracked-massive-30-state-real-time-license-plate-database-revealed
That article I linked to about the coach that was carjacked? Got the girlfriend driving his car on an ANPR in Sugar Land…
The mega-apartment complexes are using them and linking their networks too.
Blutooth readers to track cars on the road (and who is in them) coupled with the ANPRs, and the cell site and google maps tracking…gonna be pretty hard for partisans to move around in the coming unpleasantness.
n
Blutooth readers to track cars on the road (and who is in them) coupled with the ANPRs, and the cell site and google maps tracking…gonna be pretty hard for partisans to move around in the coming unpleasantness.
I’ve seen scarier things in development. The only question is how soon they will work. Could be next year. Could be next decade.
Bluetooth is not useful for tracking vehicles beyond academic traffic studies because the range is so limited and speed of the moving transmitter can be an issue. 50-50 at best for a vehicle going past a receiver at highway speeds.
If it worked, we would use it in our systems, and our ORT is the only system that truly works in the industry. I’m on the non-stop death marches because the tolling agencies can’t fire the competition fast enough.
If you’re really concerned about maintaining mobility in the unpleasantness, keep a vehicle built before ~ 2004-05 in decent working order. After that point, chances are that the throttle is electronic, and the car doesn’t move unless the computer sends the OK in response to the pedal press. New cars would definitely be out because, increasingly, the fleet is being readied for automation (note, that is different than being autonomous), and steering, braking, and throttle are all electronic, amenable to control of a central authority wired into the vehicle in the future.
In retrospect I think we let my wife’s 2002 4Runner go too cheap in trade, and I wished we had fixed the rack and pinion for me to drive for a while. OTOH, we kept my 2001 Solara with 90s Camry tech, and the car probably sits at the high water mark of reliability without gadgetry. Tires and other maintenance are less expensive.
Pikers!
Shoot, I have cars that have carburetors. Google it!
Reminds me. Back in the day, some people, mechanics included, would “rebuild” a carburetor to fix some problems. This seldom fixed anything. I used to tell my nontechnical friends that carburetor was a French word that, translated into English, meant roughly “leave it alone.”
After that point, chances are that the throttle is electronic, and the car doesn’t move unless the computer sends the OK in response to the pedal press.
My 2005 Expedition has an electronic throttle pedal. I had to have it replaced at 100K miles since 2 of the 3 sensors were broken. It was telling the computer that the throttle pedal was all the way down on one of the 2 down sensors and the up position sensor was intermittently full down also.
Bloody hot is Sugar Land and Rosenberg today. I saw 99 F on the Highlander at about 4pm while driving over to the new used house.
I really need a truck ! Taking all my tools over and a set of garage shelves and a midsize refrigerator was just too much for the Highlander.
And the grass at the new used house desperately needs water so I went to Home Depot to buy the new deadbolts and a bunch of hoses. I put out the old soaker hose that was sitting in the garage for the last decade and it promptly ripped apart. I also found a fire ant bed at the corner of the foundation. Or, they found me.
Of course, the weather liars are saying that we are going to get two to ten inches of rain next week. I’ll believe it when I see it.
I hate fire ants. They hurt like hell, and they just keep hurting unless you get the poison/acid out. Tearing open your new sting is super painful.
It’s great that your new project is moving along. Lots of work for the next few months though! Take it easy. No one will benefit if you have an issue from over exertion.
n
It’s great that your new project is moving along. Lots of work for the next few months though! Take it easy. No one will benefit if you have an issue from over exertion.
Heh ! I’ve had two heart attacks. Never gonna happen again, right ?
Eddie Money dying of esophageal cancer this week was a sad trip. One of my first cousins died of that at age 41 a few years ago. And my wife’s BFF husband just turned up with it this week, stage 4 of course, age 64. They are going to drive down from Fort Worth and go to MD Anderson Cancer Center this week for an alternate treatment proposal, they may spend a couple of nights with us. The first cancer doc told him to put his affairs in order.
One of my coworkers coughed one day in his driveway, tore his esophagus and almost died on the spot from blood loss. A lifetime of drinking and smoking takes a toll.
Unfortunately, a couple of days after I spoke with him on the phone in the hospital, they gave him the wrong meds, and instead of coming home, he left feet first. And no one goes to jail. But he’s still dead, and the hospital is free to keep killing people thru negligence. (the meds were well known to be contraindicated for someone with his history.) I hope his family sued, but after the initial story, wake, and burial, we lost contact. Just sending someone to his house to collect all the company owned test equipment and repair parts was incredibly hard. Rest in peace Jarvis.
n
Eddie Money dying of esophageal cancer this week was a sad trip. One of my first cousins died of that at age 41 a few years ago. And my wife’s BFF husband just turned up with it this week, stage 4 of course, age 64. They are going to drive down from Fort Worth and go to MD Anderson Cancer Center this week for an alternate treatment proposal, they may spend a couple of nights with us. The first cancer doc told him to put his affairs in order.
I remember Eddie Money first breaking out in the 70s and appearing on the “Mike Douglas Show”. ‘Money’ was apparently not his real last name, and the host, along with Lynn Redgrave (another blast from the past), gave him grief about shortening a fine Irish surname. Mahoney?
Money, immediately shot back about Douglas modifying his own fine given surname. Rock stars used to be smart.
(Carson gets all the press, but a “Mike Douglas Show” appearance helped a lot of careers, including no less than Tiger Woods, and Douglas got a fair number of guests who wouldn’t go on Carson, including Moe Howard’s last TV appearance.)
My sister died about seven years ago from a mouth cancer that a dentist noted but didn’t ask her to follow up. It definitely wasn’t our long-time family dentist, who would have sent her directly to a specialist that afternoon, but my sister had stopped going to see him simply because the hygienist was nosy about my parents’ divorce.
Unfortunately, a couple of days after I spoke with him on the phone in the hospital, they gave him the wrong meds, and instead of coming home, he left feet first. And no one goes to jail. But he’s still dead, and the hospital is free to keep killing people thru negligence.
Kaiser in California? All due respect to Dr. Pournelle, I have no doubt that some people, particularly celebrities (yes, I think he qualifies), receive excellent care from the system, but, in WA State, we watched them kill one friend from cancer and nearly kill another with appendicitis. Appendicitis!
Closer to home, I’ve noted before that UT Southwestern’s transplant program is to be avoided unless they’ve cleaned house on the racket the nurses have going. I’ll have to write that book one day.
The racket the nuns ran at the guest house of the hospital will probably be a chapter and might be short enough to post here. Might be. 🙂
I remember Eddie Money first breaking out in the 70s and appearing on the “Mike Douglas Show”. ‘Money’ was apparently not his real last name, and the host, along with Lynn Redgrave (another blast from the past), gave him grief about shortening a fine Irish surname. Mahoney?
Yup, Edward Mahoney.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Money
Sorry to hear about your sister passing away. That sucks.
I had to have a portion of my tongue cut off several years ago due to fast growing growth. Hurt like &^%(* and bled like crazy. But it was benign.