Cool, humid, and possibly rainy. Yesterday was overcast with scattered drizzle around town. Nothing at the house though.
I spent the morning looking at trucks online. One of the reasons I was so ready to jump on that first truck was to avoid the huge time sink of looking and looking and looking. I did a bit of reading about extended warranties (they aren’t, they are service plans usually) and what they cost. That first dealership wasn’t out of line with cost or coverage, although the company wasn’t in the top 5 of some random website review… I’m going to back down the search a notch and do some of the things that are backing up.
Although, if history serves as a guide, I’ll spend today pretty much like I spent yesterday.
Today is pretty much the one year anniversary of the start of the wuflu, china virus, chinky flu, asian asthma, etc. in America. Funny thing is, the CDC staffers predicted very early on that we’d still be dealing with it at this point, and “possibly for years”. They actually made a couple of pretty good predictions based on historical data and little else. Then the politics started and we learned just how vile our ‘public servants’ really are, and how little they think of us as individuals. Of course, there are plenty of examples of WHY they should think little of individuals. And there were and are a whole lot of people that have the right to remain silent, but not the ability.
At some point in the next couple of days I’ll take a look at what went well with my planning and prepping, what got missed, and what didn’t work as planned. It is a dang strange zombie apocalypse when I can go to a thrift store, or order food delivered to my door, but hey, you play the cards you’re dealt. And, I’ve yet to shoot anyone, but I get daily use of the TP stash…
That could always change. Make sure you’re planning for the next one, as well as dealing with this one. Stack stuff. More stuff.
nick
@MrAtoz
I’m a new reader of this group. Your profile pic – Billy Jack?
You remember Billy Jack? How about the martial art scene where he’s fighting with a cane? Haven’t seen either movie in a long time but I remember them being awesome. Wonder if they’d hold up?
n
happkido?
I must have been about 12 or 13. My brother and I were staying with our grandparents for a couple of weeks over the summer. Gramma dropped us and a friend off at the theatre to see it. Had she known the details of the film, she would have never taken us.
Then the politics started and we learned just how vile our ‘public servants’ really are, and how little they think of us as individuals. Of course, there are plenty of examples of WHY they should think little of individuals.
What’s this about Austin and Mayor Adler?
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-ag-sues-austin-travis-county-over-mask-mandate
Of course Ken Paxton is trying to distract from his legal problems. And Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (I’m not kidding about the name) will be rockin’ and rollin’ this weekend, resuming its role as poster child for downtown superspreader venues full of FOMO, the driving thought process of this pandemic.
What happens happens at this point. Fortunately, Easter will be the last FOMO holiday for a while, but it will be a whopper for the stats around Austin since the weekend is a big shopping holiday in the region for the Mexican middle class.
Yes, it does exist.
A perfect example of Obola’s military. Why would the Master Chief of the Space Force state women add more lethality to the battlefield other than political reasons? And then pull the “your never served “A DAY IN YOUR LIFE I SERVED 28 YEARS!!!” And say Cable News is purely political. I guess he is close to retirement and jockeying for a job. No mention that plugs, tRump, Obola never served a day, either. How about shut your yap and serve your last two years with integrity and leave your politics out of it.
Yes, it is. I loved Billy Jack as a yute. I watched all the movies last year for nostalgia. Including “Born Losers”. Billy’s first appearance. “Billy Jack goes to Washington” was a schlock version of Jimmy Stewarts movie. Hilarious.
“My daddy always told me, if you’re gonna get a whipping, get the first whack in.” Billy’s heel kick to Sheriff Ugly Face in “Billy Jack” is a classic scene you never forget.
plugsy McSpongeBrain’s latest EO brings back free gender reassignment surgery to the military. Every tranny and his “sister” will flock to the military. As soon as the surgery is done, he/she/it will be “Chaptered” out as unfit for duty. All paid for by: US!
And Chucky Schumer is pushing the Houses’ gun grab bill. We can count on Chief Commie Justice Roberts to look the other way. If only tRump would have gotten one more Justice pick, SCOTUS might have enough backbone to rule the 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct.
I’m a Grandpa x 5! Daughter #3 gave birth to a 8lb 7oz baby boy yesterday.
Congrats Mr Atoz!
Best wishes for mom and baby!
n
I was concerned about the AZ vaccine a while back when two people in the trial developed neurological side effects and since then was not gonna be comfortable getting it. Glad I went with the Pfizer jab.
Ditto!
(two behind you)
plugsy McSpongeBrain’s latest EO brings back free gender reassignment surgery to the military. Every tranny and his “sister” will flock to the military. As soon as the surgery is done, he/she/it will be “Chaptered” out as unfit for duty. All paid for by: US!
My wife hasn’t heard anything about a change in policy at the VA about paying for surgery, but the hormone coverage depends on the patient having all kinds of psych documentation to an extreme that many individuals don’t meet the requirements.
As I’ve noted before, my spouse has several transgender patients at the VA, but the one with the most impressive end result is ex-Special Forces of some kind.
Meh. I did that last July in the middle of COVID-19 fear. Not a single f*ck was given. Not a single f*ck will be given this July when I do it again. We also had Easter dinner together last April, got together for Mother’s Day and Memorial Day Weekend last May, got together for Father’s Day last June… See a trend here? Outside of complying with local laws (which around here was just a face mask mandate for a few months), we have tried real hard to not let COVID-19 change our lives at all. Sucks to live on the coast though. Now, if Ebola was going around I’d be locked in and waving a gun at anyone that even looked like they wanted to approach the house.
Zipper-Suited Sun Gods. 🙂 I was enlisted aircrew in the USAF and so wore a flight suit. I don’t think I wore my blues or cammos at all my entire enlistment (except during training my first several months). I loved wearing a flight suit around base. It’s like being USAF royalty. 🙂
@nick; sounds like you’ve done a lot of the hard work already (initial research; defined must haves, nice to haves, don’t cares) and narrowed down the reliable sources with saved search parameters for each and now just a matter of a quick search once a day for anything new and then take further action when the ‘right’ truck shows up.
LOL! I wore a onsie flight suit as an Army chopper pilot. I was regularly called “Air Force” and faggot by non-aviators. It got so bad, command required we wear the onsie only when on the flight schedule. The Army was slow to develop it’s own flight suit, using Air Force issue. During my second tour in Korea, two piece camo nomex was finally issued.
Out of left field here…
Anyone got a recommendation for a good digital kitchen scale? Preferably one that’s water resistant (I’d hate to be measuring something liquid, have a big spill, and ruin the scale).
I was cut in front of the commissary line more than once by someone in a flight suit, generally some fighter jock. I would say something and the response was along the lines of “I am a pilot” or “I am an officer”. Really ticked me off as it did the people behind me. One day two of them did it together.
During the hours between 1100 and 1300 military in uniform had priority and could move to the front of the line. I did that one day cutting in front of a couple of ladies. The lady that was behind me after I cut in threw a fit. She said she was an officer’s wife and he was a pilot how dare I cut in front. Started yelling at me. The commissary manager was close and overheard the ruckus. He told her that people in uniform had priority. She said I was only enlisted and she was married to an officer and deserved to be in front. The commissary manager then told her to leave or he would call the APs. She was livid. I was joyous.
By the late 90s they had qualified it so that instead of “aircrew in uniform may move to the front of the line” it became “outbound aircrew in uniform may move to the front of the line.” I never did it nor did I ever witness anyone do it. I understood why SAC bases had signs up about “alert aircrews may move to the front of the line” as that crap was no joke, but for everyone else it’s mostly unneeded.
@Chad; yes and no – have had this one for 6+years and still accurate, and waterproof. Unfortunately currently Not Available at Amazon but maybe you can find some something similar.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8PFACE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_GZAJM4WCQC1MV5P92MCY?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&tag=ttgnet-20
I broke my kitchen scale a couple of weeks ago.
n
My issues were at Randolph AFB, the ego palace. Lot of flight training and the trainers were really over themselves.
A big part of Randolph is a big circle, officer housing in the circle. I road a bicycle a lot on the base. Rather than go around the circle I would cut across. I was stopped by some officer one time and was told that enlisted people were no allowed to use those streets. I said I saw no such signs and he proceeded to jack me up one side and down the other. Said if he ever saw me in the area again he would have charges pressed.
I also got stopped for speeding on base while on my bicycle. Not by the security police but by a colonel. Flagged me down so I stopped and was informed I was speeding. I said I had no speed indicating device nor did he. He the pan explained how he was an expert on speed and I was speeding. Demanded my name and squadron. Never heard anything else.
I was also stopped by the security police on the main road from the gate to the “Taj Mahal” as it was called. Speed limit was 20, SP said I was doing 25. I said I had no speedometer and there was no traffic to gauge, and I had a tail wind. He said OK and let me go.
This is nuts.
My $140
investmentfooling around with crypto currency is now worth $384.Or in other words, the make believe money backed by ‘the full faith and credit’ of the USA has lost half its value against some made up numbers on computers. It would take almost three times as much fiatbux to buy the same amount of imaginary crypto money as a couple months ago.
And yet physical gold has NOT doubled or tripled during that time.
I’m gonna guess that the difficulty of buying physical gold vs clicking on the computer means the computer mediated stuff is more subject to mania… which is driving big moves not actual deflation of the dollar or inflation of consumer prices (although both of those things are clearly also happening, just that all that imaginary click stuff is amplified and multiplied.)
Whatever the mechanism or reasons, it’s nuts.
n
Me thinks Mr. Ray is a *nut job* magnet. I never treated Enlisted like that. Bunch of pricks.
Whatever the mechanism or reasons, it’s nuts.
Not to the Keynesians. 😉
Me thinks Mr. Ray is a *nut job* magnet. I never treated Enlisted like that.
I was never in the military, but have been around a lot of enlisted and officers. We have always been polite and respectful to each other. We are, after all, just people. Well, most. I have observed some ugly situations. Those were jackasses.
And yet physical gold has NOT doubled or tripled during that time.
I’m gonna guess that the difficulty of buying physical gold vs clicking on the computer means the computer mediated stuff is more subject to mania… which is driving big moves not actual deflation of the dollar or inflation of consumer prices (although both of those things are clearly also happening, just that all that imaginary click stuff is amplified and multiplied.)
Whatever the mechanism or reasons, it’s nuts.
Mania. Plus people want to believe in a whiz bang future.
If you want to see something really nuts, try to buy a high end Nvidia graphics card. Regardless of digital currency, the cards are key to “mining” operations.
Did I read there was a big *mining* operation in China that the goobermint shut down for using so much power?
Most were very good, even exceptional. It was the few that were the problem. I spent a lot of time at HQ bases which tend to attract a different mindset. Langley, HQ TAC, was probably the worst, Langley HQ AFMPC, was a close second. Lot of ego jostling at HQ bases I think because those are probably the most visible locations for promotion.
A section head, group head, or whatever they want to be called, that was in charge of the group I was working with was heading off to a new assignment. His going away party was at the O-Club in the center of the officer circle. I did ride my bicycle with no issues. But walking through the O-Club, to the party room, in my SSGT stripes, got me a lot of stares and hushed silence. One major got up and asked me what I was doing, I told him, and said OK.
Then there was that two star general that left an impression. I was heading back from DC to Langley waiting for the shuttle. General went to the passenger counter and asked if anyone needed a ride to Langley in his plane. I was pointed out and the general came to me and asked if I wanted to ride in his plane. I said certainly, who wouldn’t? A small passenger jet versus a twin engine propeller plane, no brainer.
On the trip I guess the pilot radioed base ops about the flight, it was a general’s plane, with two passengers. I can only guess because two staff cars were waiting on the tarmac. As the general was getting in his staff car, and I was walking to base ops, the other staff car started to leave. The general stopped the staff car and told the driver to take me anywhere I needed on base on his orders. Little wonder he was a general.
So I got in the staff car, the driver failed to remove the general flag from the vehicle. On the way to the dormitory it was interesting getting saluted by others as the car drove by these people. They got strange looks on their faces when they saw me in the back seat.
Almost all the officers I met treated me well. There were always a few anal orifices. That extended into the enlisted ranks with the E-8’s and 9’s as well.
I was in the computer squadron at Randolph. 1st SGT basically left us alone as we were not a problem. Dorks usually are not (except for the one streaking incident). We got a new 1st SGT whose background was from the maintenance squadrons. He wanted to treat us as such. Surprise inspections in the middle of the night, searching our rooms when we weren’t there, etc. A real jerk.
When I left Hawaii a friend who worked on private aircraft gave me a “Remove Before Flight” banner, a commercial one, not government variety. Marlow (an E9), the new 1st SGT found the banner in my room and took it when I was not there. I called him and asked for it back. He went ballistic and demanded I come to his office.
He was so angry I asked my boss Charlie (an E8) to come with me and he did. When we got into Marlow’s office Marlow chewed me up one side and down the other threatening to have me brought up on charges for stealing government property. Charlie attempted to intervene and Marlow then raked Charlie over the coals while I was still in the room. A big No-no.
We left after being dismissed and Charlie was livid. Charlie went to his boss, Lou Konze (an E9 with about 28 years service). Konze outranked Marlow by several years and Konze, a long time resident of Randolph, knew a lot of people in significant positions.
I don’t know what was said but Lou Konze came back about 30 minutes later and said the problem was solved. Marlow had been relieved of his duties and reassigned somewhere else and would no longer be the 1st SGT. We got a new 1st SGT that basically was back to just leaving the squadron alone.
So the jerks run in both enlisted and officer ranks. I tended to push back more when I felt I was wronged, not one to take flak for something that was undeserved and questionable.
Most, the overwhelming majority, are exceptional people wanting to a job and do it well and treat each other with respect. Except drill sergeants during basic, that is their job.
“If you want to see something really nuts, try to buy a high end Nvidia graphics card. Regardless of digital currency, the cards are key to “mining” operations.”
Did I read there was a big *mining* operation in China that the goobermint shut down for using so much power?
It wouldn’t surprise me if that happened.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if some people in Texas were still trying to mine digital currency on a significant scale with the rolling blackouts three weeks ago.
Griddy customers most likely.
Most were very good, even exceptional. It was the few that were the problem. I spent a lot of time at HQ bases which tend to attract a different mindset. Langley, HQ TAC, was probably the worst, Langley HQ AFMPC, was a close second. Lot of ego jostling at HQ bases I think because those are probably the most visible locations for promotion.
MacDill.
Pin-Head-A-Gon for me. Once you smell the fumes of Mordor (as Mr. OFD would say), anything below O6/E8 is considered trash.
The MSM is fawning over plugs’ speech. We went from a dynamo to The Walking Dead. The Hill states plugs’ brought the Nation together. Right. We really needed to hear about trannys in the military, pregnancy flight suits, makeup, hair and earrings. Mostly doom and gloom. “Maybe you can have a small bbq on INDEPENDENCE DAY. If you mask and SD, that is. Looks like he fumbling read the whole thing from the teleprompter.
Christian Brothers Automotive on 1463 in Fushear. They have other locations.
Mania – Much like the markets these days, the money laid down is more akin to speculation (gambling) than investing. Just try to validate the underlying value of Tesla stocks or Bitcoin. The price for stocks like Tesla is completely separate from the value of the company and its product. I would not buy the stock as I don’t understand the valuation. I considered buying the car but a used Audi A4 + gas + maintenance was still $15K cheaper than a (new you really can’t find used) Telsa3 over 6 years by my calculation (and that is with Canadian gas prices for premium – call it $5/gallon now and more soon). The Tesla3 would have been a much better deal than a new Audi A4 over 6 years.
No, in some people they prevent the infection from getting hold. In some they just reduce the symptoms. The lack of asymptomatic spread is logical – if they keep the viral load down, it won’t be prevalent in the lungs/nose/throat and won’t be exhaled.
As for the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, it’s not in use in the US. Apparently, there are over 40 million doses sitting in a warehouse in Baltimore waiting on them to file for approval.
Wife found another property listing on the lake she prefers…
So I’m down a rabbit hole looking at topo and overhead imagery.
can’t find a good map for the depth of the lake and the structure though.
What I can find is the topo from before the flooded, and it’s aligned with the modern topo. The ‘resolution’ isn’t great, and they disclaim accuracy for topo lines, but it’s at least an idea of whats under the surface.
Astonishing how much data .gov collects and how much is easily available online.
n
I hope they used the big crayons.
How long is it viable? Euro countries are dropping it. Could be expired in the aqua.
@Chad; yes and no – have had this one for 6+years and still accurate, and waterproof. Unfortunately currently Not Available at Amazon but maybe you can find some something similar.
Taylor makes a similar one that I have been happy with for more than a year now.
Hopefully @nick functions well without a lot of sleep 🙂
“Before COVID, Gates planned social media censorship of vaccine safety advocates with Pharma, CDC, Media, China and CIA”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/before-covid-gates-planned-social-media-censorship-of-vaccine-safety-advocates-with-pharma-cdc-media-china-and-cia
“In October 2019, shortly before the COVID outbreak, Gates and other powerful individuals began planning how to censor vaccine safety advocates from social media during a table-top simulation of a worldwide pandemic, known as Event 201.”
Ok, Bill Gates is officially a freak. Something has gone wonky in him. Or is he just a dictator wannabe ?
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Kwik Kar in Greatwood is about $90 for full synthetic.
Christian Brothers Automotive on 1463 in Fushear. They have other locations.
Nope, never going back to those guys. I took my son’s old 1987 truck to their location in New Territory to change out the hoses in 2000 or so. They left the thermostat totally plugged with goop so it started overheating. I took it back and told them to fix it. The head guy told me to get my old piece of trash truck out of his shop at full volume. I took the high road and left as he was looking for fight with somebody.
I have trashed them all over facebook and other social media and will continue to do so. I went and got a real thermostat gasket and fixed the problem myself in 30 minutes with no gasket goop.
“Or is he just a dictator wannabe ?”
–worse, he’s a smart social progressive who wants to save you from yourself.
n
“Is This the End of Netflix Password Sharing?”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/netflix-tests-crackdown-on-sharing-access-to-users-outside-household
“The test is raising worries Netflix is going to put an end to password sharing among family members. But the company says the effort is merely targeted at stopping strangers from using someone’s Netflix account.”
Read through and listened to some of this. I am not seeing the problem. You have JFK Jr, a man very fond of conspiracy theories, making more accusations. Yes, a simulation was run. One of the concerns addressed is that social media is a two-edged sword: a great way to get information out fast and a poor way to determine if the information is true, false, or malicious. You are seeing some of what they describe in the simulation now with disinformation coming from Russian and Chinese actors regarding vaccines. If you want to view with alarm attempts to silence disinformation, then OK. I have had this conversation with someone else: If you want to kill democracy, kill truth. Every petty dictator does their best to spread lies and prevent independent verification of facts. Reporting and verification was the role of the media, as flawed as they sometimes are, but the media are much reduced. Facebook and Twitter and the like are almost the perfect tools for disseminating lies and conflicting theories without verification. We are conducting one heck of a risky experiment with this right now. At some point, you won’t know what or who to believe anymore and that is just about a death knell for democracy. So some controls on what disinformation can be spread (and yes those controls have risks too)? All for it.
“Minneapolis to pay $27M to settle Floyd family lawsuit”
https://www.chron.com/houston/article/6-chosen-for-Chauvin-trial-jury-so-far-murder-16021704.php
Wow, my understanding is that the guy was high as a kite on fentanyl and passed a fake $20 bill to a business. The cops had an obligation to arrest him. He resisted arrest. Then he died because of the drugs in his body. There is no fault here for the city of Minneapolis.
Over The Hedge: Buy More Bitcoin
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2021/03/12
I am not sure that woodland creatures giving financial advice is credible. But, these are crazy times.
Astonishing how much data .gov collects and how much is easily available online.
In grad school, for a graphics class, I pulled a data file from a set of elevation points at 10 m resolution for the entire country, hosted by the US Government. I wish I could remember the site where that came from
<I.Ok, Bill Gates is officially a freak. Something has gone wonky in him. Or is he just a dictator wannabe ?
Mommy and Daddy issues. Still seeking that singular intellectual achievement.
Even Philippe Khan, who Gates considers to be a poseur has the camera phone.
Should we take wagers on how long the money lasts? Let’s see. 40% to the lawyers. That brings it down to $16.2M. That’s “top tax bracket” kind of money, so 9.85% for Minnesota and 37% for Uncle Sam. They’re down to $8.6M take home. So, 8.6M split across the “family.” I give it maybe 3 years before they’re back to square one financially. They’re probably lifelong Democrats, but once that 8.6M hits their bank accounts they’re suddenly going to have Republican/Libertarian ideas about the fairness of taxation. LOL
With silicon production scarcity and trying to serve two different target groups of users, Nvidia is trying to change that. They are now starting with a new family of products targeted specifically for mining so the gamers’ hardware goes to the gamers. Apparently the first attempt is not quite there yet.
Yep. Gold teeth, hair extensions, acrylic nails, four or five Cadillacs SUVs (with spinners), several Rolexes, lot of gold chains, throwing parties for all their friends. I give the money two years before it is wasted and the family is back on the public dole.
And complaining about how society is not far. Or one of them will go on the speaking circuit, The View (liberal pigs), Oprah (racist pig), maybe even a book deal which someone else will have to write because they are functionally illiterate.
These people just sacrificed a useless family member to punch their lottery ticket. It is becoming a disturbing trend.
Should we take wagers on how long the money lasts? Let’s see. 40% to the lawyers. That brings it down to $16.2M. That’s “top tax bracket” kind of money, so 9.85% for Minnesota and 37% for Uncle Sam. They’re down to $8.6M take home. So, 8.6M split across the “family.” I give it maybe 3 years before they’re back to square one financially. They’re probably lifelong Democrats, but once that 8.6M hits their bank accounts they’re suddenly going to have Republican/Libertarian ideas about the fairness of taxation. LOL
This is a personal injury lawsuit which I believe is nontaxable ???
And Floyd’s family already got $20 million from a gofundme ?
https://www.businessinsider.com/george-floyd-memorial-gofundme-has-raised-millions-2020-6
I am certain all that money will be put to good use.
Where’s a snarky tag when you need one?
And in other news the stimulus money has already hit my bank account. Effective the 17th of the month which is when it will be posted. My credit union will actually post the item on the night of the 15th after all the processing for the day has completed. Thus the money will be available on Tuesday.
GoFundMe has become after-the-fact Medical & Life Insurance for the FSA. Every damn sob story has a gofundme.com link in it now. I involuntarily roll my eyes every time I see the words “go fund me.”
Though, GoFundMe contributions are a good measure of how much disposable income the “white guilt” crowd has.
@Greg; obviously not enough of a hoarder or you’d still have your notes from grad school 🙂
Crap, tomorrow night is spring forward day ! Why can’t they leave us alone !
“Flinx in Flux (Adventures of Pip & Flinx Book 6)” by Alan Dean Foster
https://www.amazon.com/Flinx-Flux-Alan-Dean-Foster/dp/0345343638/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number five (in reading order) of a fifteen book space opera with psi series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Del Rey in 1988 that I bought used since I cannot find my copy in my packed books and there is not a new copy available now. I will continue to read through the series.
Flinx now has own FTL spaceship, the Teacher, built and given to him by the Ulru-Ujurrians. He and Pip have gone back to Alaspin to release her six minidrag children into the dangerous wilds of the planet. Doing so, one refuses to leave and stays with them. Returning to the village where they were staying, they come across a woman lying on the bank of a river who has been beaten to near death and then almost eaten alive by the ferocious insects of Alaspin. Rescuing her, they travel in the Teacher to the world of Longtunnel where her research is being conducted.
The reading order of Pip and Flinx:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/alan-dean-foster/pip-and-flinx/
ADF has a website at:
https://www.alandeanfoster.com/
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (119 reviews)
@Greg; obviously not enough of a hoarder or you’d still have your notes from grad school
The notebooks went bye-bye only recently. The relevant notebook, a graphics class, would be from 2013.
I still have the source and the files, a set of elevation points for Mt. St. Helens and another for Clark County, WA. The comments of the files might have the web site info.
“Is Goldman Sachs Preparing To Bailout Texas Grid Operator, ERCOT?”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/goldman-sachs-preparing-bailout-texas-grid-operator-ercot
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that manages Texas’s electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90% of the state’s electric load, held talks with Goldman Sach and other financial institutions about financing options bailouts to address the $3.1 billion shortfalls in electricity payments as some energy retailers haven’t paid, defaulted, or have filed for bankruptcy, according to WSJ sources.”
“Sources said ERCOT is in talks with investment bankers from Goldman Sachs about opening a potential credit facility that would cover the $3.1 billion in shortfalls energy retailers still owe when they bought power last month at exorbitantly high prices due to an Arctic blast and severe winter storms that nearly collapsed the state’s power grid.”
Those oh so wonderful young MBAs with their marvelous spreadsheets at ERCOT never anticipated this scenario when they said, “Lets run up the max price to $9,000 / MWH. After all, we will only hit it for an hour or two a year.”. 96 hours of frozen hell later, we all now know how good their marvelous spreadsheets really are. They suck.
And the Texas Legislature is not going to allow Goldman Sachs to run the Texas power grid.
And the bankruptcy court beckoneth as at least two of the participants have entered bankruptcy now. More participants will be drawn in voluntarily or involuntarily as they cannot pay their hundreds of millions of dollars in bills. And then ERCOT will be forced into bankruptcy.
—it IS a mental illness. Body dismorphia no?
And the purge is just getting started. Books, ideas, people. We’ve seen this story before.
n
—let me rephrase that for them. .. people who have been stealing netflix or at minimum ‘free riding’ are upset that they can’t continue to do so. Not in the same household, get your own damn account.
n
and I love the comments from thieves about rage quitting a service they don’t pay for. OOOOHhhh, it’s gonna really hurt Netflix to not pay for the views and the stream to someone stealing the service. Not. Freaking entitled cry babys
n
@Nick
James Caan learned to fight with a cane for his role in The Killer Elite, where his character was betrayed by a partner and had a broken shoulder.
Good background on canes in one of the Net Force Tom Clancy spinoffs. Forget the title.
@MrAtoz
IIRC, average price of bitcoin is about a wash for the power consumed in “mining”.
@Lynn
If the DOJ had done their job 25 years ago, he would be out of prison on parole.
“Building A New Home? Soaring Lumber Prices Adds $24,000 To New Construction Build”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/building-new-home-soaring-lumber-prices-adds-24000-new-construction-build
Good night ! What is inflation running at now ? At least 20% this year so far. The cash price for gasoline at my Shell station is $2.45/gallon. It was $1.69/gallon last year for quite a while.
Gov. Ducey welcomes all DST haters to the great state of Arizona!
Ok, the credit union just deposited my SS and stimulus money 4 days early. I guess the CU made a decision to release any federal funds earlier than the effective date of the 17th. I have another ACH transaction pending with an earlier date that is still pending.
The city will probably use any COVID bailout money for this. Or maybe just a “one time tax” to make up the difference. You know the kind of tax that never goes away.
Tut, tut, tut, now. We have a progressive income tax. I give them an extra year to spend it all.
And the Texas Legislature is not going to allow Goldman Sachs to run the Texas power grid.
And the bankruptcy court beckoneth as at least two of the participants have entered bankruptcy now. More participants will be drawn in voluntarily or involuntarily as they cannot pay their hundreds of millions of dollars in bills. And then ERCOT will be forced into bankruptcy.
Ted Cruz’ wife is a managing director at Goldman Sachs. We’ll see.
@Chad
I’ve had a Cuisinart KML-9 for years. It lives in my undercabinet drop-down cookbook holder. Sure enough, it’s discontinued.
But when I check Amazon (I know–I swore them off) I noticed this one
Nicewell Food Scale, 22lbs Digital Kitchen Grey Stainless Steel Scale Weight Grams and oz for Cooking Baking, 1g/0.1oz Precise Graduation,Tempered Glass
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LVH11XB?tag=ttgnet-20
Which has a 4.8 rating after 4763 responses.
The photo implies it is water resistant, but the text does not mention it.
The wife got called by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and was asked if she wants the Pfizer, Moderna, or the Johnson and Johnson jab. She is leaning towards the J&J since it is just one jab. As many times as she has been stuck with needles, she still hates needles with a passion. BTW, the wife is now a 16 year advanced breast cancer survivor (stage 2b). Unfortunately, now is the time that the risk starts trending back up on her.
I am scheduling myself for the Pfizer jab at Methodist since I am a patient there.
@Chad
I’ve had a Cuisinart KML-9 for years. It lives in my undercabinet drop-down cookbook holder. Sure enough, it’s discontinued.
But when I check Amazon (I know–I swore them off) I noticed this one
Nicewell Food Scale, 22lbs Digital Kitchen Grey Stainless Steel Scale Weight Grams and oz for Cooking Baking, 1g/0.1oz Precise Graduation,Tempered Glass
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LVH11XB?tag=ttgnet-20
Which has a 4.8 rating after 4763 responses.
The photo implies it is water resistant, but the text does not mention it.
Probably water resistant to two meters (6 ft) but I doubt that it is leaking battery resistant.
@Lynn
I usually toss the included battery and put in a Duracell or other better-quality battery not made by the Wuhan liars.
ADDED: I always date the batteries with a Sharpie.
The one I just broke a couple of weeks ago used coin cells and they didn’t last super long.
“nicewell” sounds like one of the thousands of almost brand names on the generic chinesium that is pouring in thru amazon.
Probably works ok but longevity will be an issue.
n
Just watched “Cheaper by the Dozen” with the kids. The fairly new one, with Steve Martin as the dad, and Hillary Duff as the second oldest daughter. Good fun.
Tomorrow is my non-prepping hobby monthly meeting. I’m sleeping in. I’ve been coughing all day and while it’s probably the same as the last two times, I don’t want to be ‘that guy’.
n
Haven’t seen that one. Would like to get both and compare.
I read the book so many times I can still quote from it: “On the soles of the by jingoed feet like the heathen Chinese?”
Studied Frederick Taylor and Gilbreth in college, and did some time and motion study later. Conserve your therbligs.
ADDED by “by jingoed”
The story has been updated for modern audiences. He’s a foot ball coach, she’s writing the book.
There are some very funny scenes with the kids.
I acted in the stage version in the seventh or eighth grade. Still have the program somewhere, I’d bet. “Belle’s on their Toes”, the sequel, too.
n
Crap, tomorrow night is spring forward day ! Why can’t they leave us alone !
Maybe they will. Every few years, proposals for DST all year are tried, but so far not enough support. There is growing advocacy for permanent DST, which would require federal authorization (revision of the Uniform Time Act.) Read about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_time_observation_in_the_United_States#Permanent_daylight_saving_time
Probably not what you wish for, but I would like it.
I grew up in Michigan, a pretty far north state. I also was at a longitude that put me farther West in that time zone than I have ever lived in any other time zone. I liked it. In summer, without DST (Michigan resisted for many years,) the latest sunset was 8:15 PM. In the winter, the earliest sunset was 4:59 PM. Earliest and latest sunrises were 5:54 AM and 8:03 AM, respectively. The worst is where I now live. The earliest sunset is 4:37, and that bothers me. I don’t care much when the sun rises, but do not like those early sunsets. This was partly a result of many years of commuting to work. I also resist going to bed early. Just a big kid I guess.
When I lived in Iowa, in summer on DST some people would routinely say, “Two o’clock, but it is REALLY one o’clock.” They hated DST. Also, TV programs were an hour earlier in CT and MT than ET and PT, which had nothing to do with DST. One winter, I kept my watch on ET as an experiment, and liked it.
Time is arbitrary. I don’t care if noon is effectively shifted, but agree that I don’t like changing clocks. I would rather businesses changed their hours twice a year if needed. That said, I have never had any trouble with the change. I just change the clocks and the next day it all seems fine. I also didn’t get jet lag when only traveling two or three time zones. I DO get hungry at odd times. 🙂