Cool and wet, possible rain. Yesterday was so nice though. So very nice and clear, moderate temps, and sunny… I don’t know how many more we’ll get like that.
I packed my day full of errands, and I did them this time. Two pickups, very near to each other, then on the way back, stops at my secondary (to unload some stuff), my rent house (to install the fridge), another auctioneer (to drop off sale items and pick up a check), and finally back home to get kid2 from school on time.
After that, I hit the grocery store for $330 worth of food security.
I don’t have quite as much on the schedule for today, nor are the times as tight, but I do hope to get a few things done.
I am getting the feeling that I might need to take some more drastic steps to clear out ‘stuff’ around the house. The plan was to start doing my own auctions, but it’s taking a long time and time is feeling short. I need to think on this a bit.
Time feels short because I think the rules have changed for how the world works. The interwebs are full of people saying that the difference between how antifa/blm and MAGA day in DC are treated, the outcome of the Chauvin trial, and a wide variety of other events show that Rule of Law or ROL is dead in the US. The corpse is still twitching, but it’s dead. People are saying that, but I don’t think they are following through and thinking about the rest of what that means. What you do and how you react to a country WROL* is going to be THE critical thing going forward.
Someone in the comments over at Sarah Hoyt’s place had this to say (minor edits for clarity)…
The rules changed.
All over the ‘net people are saying and saying and re-saying that ROL is dead in the US. Surprise! It’s been dead for a while now, and every case like this just exposes that to more Normies. So stop and think about what that means. Rule of Law is DEAD. Internalize that. REALLY internalize that. You (general ‘you’) have to start dealing with that idea. They can and will do whatever they want to us at any point that we come to their attention. No one will come to save us. No one will blow the ceiling and fast rope down to rescue us at the last minute.
What does history teach us about times like this? You must be ready to denounce the people that come to ‘their’ attention. You must expect your friends and relations to denounce YOU when they come for you. Why would you want them dragged to the gulag (real or virtual) along with you? If you want to have a chance at changing anything you have to remain free and effective. Your friends LIKEWISE have to remain free to act.
There won’t be any gofundme to replace a conservative’s burned out house. No gofundme to heal his daughter after she’s raped at school because her father is a ‘bad’ man and she deserves it. No gofundme to replace the lost job that feeds that daughter (and buys the guns and ammo and armor and radios and medical and every other needful thing.) There is no underground to move your family to safety after the mob catches you alone. There is no established safe haven for you to flee to. There is no way to start over in a new place with a new name once panopticon focuses on YOU and your family (seriously, look at any kid moved to a new school because of bullying or any other issue, the kids have the new kid doxed eight ways to Sunday within hours.)
The other thing that history teaches us is that This Too Shall Pass. You (Sarah) have even written about it here. They can’t hold it together. The Third Reich fell. The Soviet Union fell. Communist Cuba is going to fall. People SURVIVED those times and those places. They may have even acted to hasten the fall if they were able. There were lots who didn’t survive, and some of them included the principled, the committed, and ultimately the futile sacrifice.
[I don’t intend to sacrifice myself for an ideal, especially given the current legal environment.]
My daughter wants her Daddy. I want to be here to guide and protect her thru what’s coming. I can’t do that if I’m dead or destitute. It’d be cold comfort for her to know that her father loved an ideal more than her. I’d love to think she’d rally around my banner, but the more likely outcome is hating me for leaving her alone in the Brave New World, or only marginally less worse, raised by her lefty Kennedy worshiping [east coast] grandparents to hate me for leaving her alone.
The rules have changed. If we don’t survive, there won’t be anyone left to rebuild what was lost.
I intend to survive this.
Something to think about. While you’re stacking needful things.
nick
*this in no way means “without consequences”. The consequences of your actions are potentially more severe than ever.
In ref to yesterday’s
An observation I sent to Rawles a while back, but it never made the blog (me bitter? Nooooo…not me)
Recently, my wife brought home a batch of Forever Stamps that she purchased from a vending machine at the Post Office. The stamps have a QR code along the left edge of the stamp. The previous Forever Stamps had been the small square US flag type with no apparent identifier. As I understood what could be accomplished with the QR code, I did a quick search on the issue. I am apparently late to the party as the QR coded stamps have been around since at least 2015. There is remarkably little concern over the privacy issues based on the scant search results. I offer a link to this article on the issue:
https://privacyliving.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/new-usps-forever-stamps-contain-a-qr-code/
I should add to the post that we’ll all continue to go about our business, and that things will look much the same as they did last week, but they are not.
n
Those stamps with QR codes are the ones printed by private companies or other non-official sources such as Stamps.com or by what used to be called “Postage Meters” , now “postage on demand”. The codes are used as a proof of purchase to prevent cheating. The codes also show up when we purchase postage online and print it ourselves for a parcel.
The stamps printed by the US government and purchased directly from a clerk at the actual Post Office bldg or via USPS.com, do not have the QR codes attached.
It’s likely that the vending machines, even at the official post office, may be “print on demand” type machines that use the QR codes. But the pre-printed ones the clerk sells in books of 20 or rolls of 100 won’t have them.
47F and 76%RH at 6:25, another chilly start to the day.
n
@sfw, scannable stamps? I’ll have to read the article, thanks. The “covers” scans could easily be linked if the address and return address were genuine but you still had the option of lying about the return. A stamp linked to you would certainly make that harder.
n
Huh, no one has any idea why a man would douse a pretty islamic girl with acid. Really?
So glad we’ve got all that vibrant diversity here.
n
The stamps printed by the US government and purchased directly from a clerk at the actual Post Office bldg or via USPS.com, do not have the QR codes attached.
It’s likely that the vending machines, even at the official post office, may be “print on demand” type machines that use the QR codes. But the pre-printed ones the clerk sells in books of 20 or rolls of 100 won’t have them.
If you want to be really paranoid, however, the transaction where you buy a roll/book of stamps from a clerk gets documented with cameras even if you pay cash. As time goes on, purchasing stamps with cash will make you an outlier in the data set.
The automated kiosk in the lobby of our nearest Post Office has been unavailable for anything except estimating postage since before Christmas. Buying stamps or postage for packages requires a visit to the clerks during business hours.
The interwebs are full of people saying that the difference between how antifa/blm and MAGA day in DC are treated, the outcome of the Chauvin trial, and a wide variety of other events show that Rule of Law or ROL is dead in the US.
I don’t view the Chauvin trial verdict as an indicator of whether ROL is dead. The union threw him under the bus to set an example and protect the retirement racket.
The second degree conviction will most likely get overturned on appeal, but it is hard to argue that something isn’t right with Chauvin that merits some jail time.
—NOW they’re gonna look into it?
n
“it is hard to argue that something isn’t right with Chauvin that merits some jail time. ”
That’s the conclusion that all the prosecutor’s are going for when they charge numerous accounts.
“I don’t view the Chauvin trial verdict as an indicator of whether ROL is dead”
–so how does he get convicted of both intentionally and accidentally killing St Floid? One of those was supposed to be thrown out or bargained away. How does a congresswoman get away with jury intimidation? Or the Star Tribune? How tainted was the jury pool that they STILL had to empanel people who had a negative view of Chauvin?
BTW both charge stacking and plea bargaining are disgusting perversions of “justice”, no matter who they are used against. Charge the crime that was committed. Prosecute that. If you don’t have it, don’t try for it or use it as leverage. This is the same technique that the slavecatchers used on Kunta Kinte- your d!ck or your foot, one is getting chopped off.
n
Local teen was shot at a school that is majority rgb(0,0,0) students. Part of town with a lot of criminal and gang activity.
Police go to the school to arrest the rgb(0,0,0) teen on a domestic assault charge. Find him in the bathroom. He doesn’t come out when asked so the police go in to get the teen. Find the teen in a stall and still refuses to come out with his hands up. The officers see a weapon in a jacket pocket, respond, the weapon discharges. One of the officers fires striking one of the other officers and the teen. The teen dies from the injuries, the officer survives.
The teen had assaulted his girlfriend, had a loaded weapon on school property, somehow discharged that weapon, the police respond. Big investigation because another rgb(0,0,0) person had been shot by police. DA refuses to charge the officers. Ben Crump was retained (snicker, Ben showed up on his own in my opinion) to represent the family. Marches and protests in the city because the officers will not be charged.
Teens mother on TV: “He twas a good boy, neer did nuting wrong, would help anyone that axed. Why dey shoot my baby?”. Same narrative as other incidents. The dead person was a pillar of the community, would raise everyone out of poverty, heal the sick, make the blind see, etc. When in fact the individual was a useless thug that made, and continued to make, poor decisions that resulted in the loss of his life.
The media makes it worse by failing to report the full story. Cherry picking to continue the tabloid reporting. The mayor going on TV and getting emotional over another senseless killing. The killing is indeed senseless but the individual involved made the choice. It was the individual’s poor choices that made it senseless. Put the blame where it belongs, the individual, the absentee welfare parents, not “the system”.
The school is now in the process of installing metal detectors, the only school in the area. That says a lot about the region and the attendees of the school. Of course the media is painting the school as model school as it is a magnet school to attract the best and brightest. A wasted political gesture based on the clientele that use the school as a glorified daycare facility.
Time to raid your kid’s stamp album when you need to mail something confidential.
But it’s the ubiquitousness of “security” cameras that make being anonymous in public a thing of the past. Hmm, okay, one good reason to continue to wear the ‘face diaper’.
@Nick
“—NOW they’re gonna look into it?”
The vaccine trials were based on a few thousand people. Adverse effects have to be statistically significant, and often don’t show up in trials for vaccines, drugs, or other treatments. It’s not until the treated population is much larger that small effects can be discerned from the statistical noise.
First question would be what is the incidence in the unvaccinated population? Second would be birth control status of those reported problems.
There has never been a mass inoculation of the planetary population. Researchers will be sifting data and generating papers for years. If I needed another career I’d look for some young hotshot researchers to form a team.
–I don’t know what the ‘truth” might be, but as I’ve mentioned before, there sure seems to be an increase in disclosures.
n
@nick; in case you missed this yesterday…
@nick; not sure if you’re still considering a non EL/MAX, if so I saw this:
https://www.vroom.com/inventory/ford-expedition-2017-1FMJU1HTXHEA25429
Appears to be in Houston. 47K miles.
@ the jim with experience in India, what do you make of india’s current increase in cases?
is it that they undercounted during the first waves? Were less likely to get it due to HCL use? Are finally counting properly?
I was quite surprised that their numbers were so low the first time around. They have similar density and poverty levels to China, and similar sanitation, so I was expecting to see similar infection and death rates.
n
@alan, thanks. I am holding out hope for an EL because that extra foot makes a big difference if you use the 3rd row seat and they add some cargo and tow capacity above the normal version (at least according to the online charts.) My old one was standard length, and you don’t get much cargo space with the third row seat in use.
With the kids a bit older now, I’m much more likely to want the 3rd row seat, without unloading all my preps and install tools.
That seller is interesting. They look like a marketing/intarweb hipster arm of AutoNation or AutoDirect. There was a listing that said “pickup at xxxx a vroom partner.”
n
Think the one in the pink bothered to thank the officer for keeping her from being stabbed? Probably not.
Little factoid thrown out at the end of the article…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9496345/Ecuadorean-migrant-sisters-dumped-U-S-Mexico-border-wall-reunited-parents-New-York.html
n
Speaking of the US Postal Service
Reports today of the USPS program ICOP which is covertly monitoring your social media posts for “inflammatory” posts.
As I understand, the USPS is not a government agency and only has security and enforcement authority over the post not ALL communications. Something is very wrong here. Good thing I dropped all social media activities.
https://news.yahoo.com/the-postal-service-is-running-a-running-a-covert-operations-program-that-monitors-americans-social-media-posts-160022919.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJ_h9r4f83FXwNVOHxFLMmrjf0VSifvNLZ-v_jUDST3HZLVMpLe636GpYFcL52B_zRjBfzW6lYO9xpa0dl4g37Ai6oRwNJp9-TcOrUi7m1PIS2EN37aaMC-VGim_bAHYn-V1FxSE14EWDm4FmrYIZuynyw_gGFrZnBZ5X_jiYvVO
That gets you about what these days? 3 pounds of hamburger? 😛
It always amuses me how Hollywood seems to think everything is bulletproof. Someone shooting at you? Hide behind a wall because two sheets of 3/8″ drywall will stop the bullet! Need to duck and cover? Get behind a car door because rifle rounds can’t penetrate sheet metal. lol
The Religion of Pieces. Where is the ProgLibTurd women’s outrage?
This was a common practice by the JAG when I was in the Army. Especially “conduct unbecoming” like GAAAYYYYY! Before GAAAYYYY was acceptable.
–so how does he get convicted of both intentionally and accidentally killing St Floid? One of those was supposed to be thrown out or bargained away. How does a congresswoman get away with jury intimidation? Or the Star Tribune? How tainted was the jury pool that they STILL had to empanel people who had a negative view of Chauvin?
I think it very possible he came off as Officer D*ck in court. Class envy was certainly a factor if the jury members weren’t living in caves for the last year — I couldn’t make a Windemere golf retirement work … if I played golf. I would guess 95%+ of the population couldn’t either.
The union definitely let him twist in the wind to protect their interests. The retirement condo was mortgaged to secure part of the bail bond according to public record, but that still fell short.
If the appeal doesn’t get everything but the 3rd degree murder charge dismissed, then Chauvin is still on the out with his union and has bad legal and jury handling advice.
Scanned mail? Yes, the Post Office scans the front side of all mail. You can sign up for the “USPS Informed Delivery” service and they’ll email you the images of all the envelope-sized mail.
https://reg.usps.com/login
Some observations:
(Almost) All phone calls are streamed to a 3-letter agency and stored, at least temporarily, in a database. The call records are kept forever and AT&T is known to have kept all call records since 1987. Why would it surprise anyone that your instagram posts (even in private accounts) are shared with the FBI?
The stabbing video from yesterday has been deliberately blurred. It’s obvious from the video and also from the stills, which are sharper. Why was it blurred? Perhaps because the subjects are children?
After the shooting, someone yells “she didn’t do nothing”. What kind of mindset leads someone to say that immediately after a stabbing?
Liberal lawyer Alan Dershowitz: Supreme Court Might Reverse Chauvin Convictions because of Maxine Waters.
Ha ha! SCOTUS? Really? You think they’ll put their necks on the line?
Ha ha! SCOTUS? Really? You think they’ll put their necks on the line?
Roberts will punt because Maxine Waters is the poster child for a “foolish” political choice.
What kind of a mindset thinks kicking someone in the head while they’re on the ground is a good idea, while the cops watch?
That’s the mindset that will be swarming out of the blue hives when the crash comes btw.
–now it’s GENDER CONFIRMING. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9497989/Oklahoma-lawmakers-confronted-two-dozen-protesters.html
WRT Chauvin, yes people find him unsympathetic. Why do people have any opinion at all? Because they’ve been manipulated by media. He may even be everything he’s been made out to be, but it still shouldn’t matter vs the facts of the case.
In any case, it’s not JUST the outcome of this case that demonstrates the end of ROL. Hunter Biden anyone? Hillarity Clintone? Cuomo? all the illegal mandates and rules wrt the pandemic? Antifa and blm killing people without punishment (remember the kids in the jeep at the antifa CHAD ‘checkpoint’?) Remember the guy working “security” for the TV station shooting a protester? Or the flip side, remember when the cops in Dallas executed the sniper with a bomb carried by a robot?
We have been headed down the path for a while and we have arrived.
n
Re: End of ROL
My son, former Marine and small town cop, is convinced that the plan is to destroy the publics confidence in local police by encouraging violence and preventing or punishing local police who respond, allowing the Feds to create a National Police to be welcomed by the public as enforcing order when SHTF. Local sheriffs and police would be subordinates to the National Police putting everyone under the thumb of the tyrants in DC.
And I thought I was paranoid.
Yeah, using a work email address for private purposes is a no-no at a government agency. He may have also done the donation from work, which compounds it. The civil service staff at NASA used to get reminders around election time about not viewing partisan and election-related sites at work. A few of the CS and contractor staff got 2 week unpaid vacations for running a football “squares” pool via email at work.
I was always very careful where on the net I went at work. (Plus they had pr0n and other sites blocked after a while – I kept up with the block list company they used.)
During plugs’ climate summit, he pledged to cut the FUSA’s emissions by half in nine years. I think the only way he can do that is eliminate cars all together. That will solve overloading the grid with electric cars. None of that will happen. Unless he gasses the Redumblicans and replaces them with RINOs and Dumbocrats.
I agree. And, in today’s political climate, you get fired. Not fined, suspended, demoted, re-trained, but removed. Think about the pension expenses they save!
I agree. And, in today’s political climate, you get fired. Not fined, suspended, demoted, re-trained, but removed. Think about the pension expenses they save!
In Texas, being fired for a violation of company policy, no matter how trivial, means you can’t collect unemployment without an appeal, and I’m going on six months of zero response from TWC regarding my filing for a hearing.
TWC doesn’t even answer the phone at times, blaming “overwhelming call volume due to the pandemic”. When you do get through, the WFH Jammie Bridgade has limited access to the public records. Then, when you do get through, the Jammie Brigade “working” from home doesn’t have access to all of the details on cases without being on the office network.
I can’t find the article discussing Bidden’s path to federalizing all law enforcement that I skimmed yesterday or the day before, and my history is no help, nor is my googlefu.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/obama-encore-biden-justice-department-announces-investigation-of-minneapolis-police-department/
is the closest I can get.
n
Re: ROL
What good is a law if it’s not enforced?
Manhattan DA Will Toss Out Prostitution Cases
So the sex trade is effectively legal now in NYC. Legal but without any regulation so the sex trade and sex trafficking will be hot stuff in the Big Apple. I wonder if this is what the people wanted?
https://www.newsmax.com/us/manhattan-newyork-prostitution/2021/04/21/id/1018521/
Even in Cali, fired with cause or separated voluntarily means no Unemployment money… or it did when I worked in Cali anyway.
n
“That gets you about what these days? 3 pounds of hamburger? ”
–outside of normal pantry restocking, 20 pounds of tortilla mix, 2 flats of cans- soup and veg, 10 box meals, some minute rice, and a couple of other minor things. What it doesn’t get is any meat. None was on sale.
(normal pantry includes 3 gal milk, 6 doz eggs, 2 cases soda, 4 loaves bread, 5 days breakfast sausage and 6 days bacon, lunch snacks, several kinds of cookies, and a couple of boxes of brownie mix, veg and fruit for the week or two, ice cream!, and various and sundry other small food items- some of which are really medium term stacked food.)
I shop for groceries about every 3 weeks for the last year… before that I was in the store every week so I could find all the deals.
n
Even in Cali, fired with cause or separated voluntarily means no Unemployment money… or it did when I worked in Cali anyway.
Sure, but in Texas the appeals process seems to be on hold for most of the last year, and the “with cause” rules get applied very broadly in denying claims because TWC’s stand is that they offer an appeals process.
Very simple lesson here, and applicable to many other similar situations. Listen to and obey lawful orders given to you by the police, especially before the situation escalates. And then you’re alive and free to say “I want a lawyer.” Maybe it’s too many ‘bad guy prevails’ movies or video games that make those involved believe that they can get away from a confrontation with the police.
Unlike Our president and other elected pin heads, we had “The Talk” with both our boys when they became teens.
1 Always treat an officer with respect even if you know he’s an idiot
2 Always follow an officers orders and make no quick or unexpected moves
3 Never try to fight or run from a cop, it won’t end well.
4 If you think you were mistreated or illegally detained, the time to fight that is in court not in the street.
5 When pulled over, and you will be pulled over, keep your hands in sight at all times and if you must reach into a pocket or the glove box to get documents, tell the officer what you need to do and ask permission first.
Anyone who doesn’t explain these simple rules to their kids because they think their “White Privilege” will magically protect them are idiots and putting their kids in danger.
Today I would, add never talk with the officer. Always say you are happy to assist the police but will not say anything without an attorney. I was almost brought up on kidnapping a minor charge for taking a runaway girl to the police so they could help her. I got the full interrogation treatment for hours. Cops can be incredibly intimidating.
Oh, I don’t know. I used to have all sorts of stupid shit sent to my .mil address at my request. So long as it’s not inappropriate (essentially, porn or hate speech) they never seemed to care. Of course, simply having a .gov or .mil address gets you out of most of the crap email as many spammers remove those addresses.
Happy Earth Day
I recall the first Earth Day vividly. I was a senior in high-school. The school had arranged a day of ecology presentations followed by a protest. Most of us just treated it as a day off school but did attend the protest because that’s where you found the hot hippie girls.
“Global oil demand to peak in 2026”
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2021/04/global-oil-demand-to-peak-in-2026
“The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EV) around the world will probably cause global oil demand to peak two years earlier than previously expected, Norway’s biggest independent energy consultancy Rystad said.”
“World demand is now seen peaking at 101.6 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2026, down from a forecast made in November of a peak in 2028 at 102.2 million bpd, Rystad Energy said.”
Niels Bohr, the Nobel laureate in Physics and father of the atomic model, is quoted as saying, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future!”
Scientists launch study to find out if COVID-19 vaccines are causing period changes after hundreds of women notice irregularities
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9495727/Researchers-studying-women-report-changes-periods-taking-COVID-vaccine.html
Dr Kathryn Clancy and Dr Katherine Lee said they both experienced abnormal periods after getting the COVID-19 vaccine
When they described their experiences on Twitter, hundreds of women replied that their menstrual cycles were also abnormal following the shot
Clancy and Lee have now launched a study, including a survey in which women can document their menstrual experiences after vaccination
As of Monday, more than 25,000 women have completed the questionnaire
Experts say there is currently no documented link between the COVID-19 vaccine and periods, and no danger in getting the jab
—NOW they’re gonna look into it?
n
Shades of “Childhood’s End” by the great Arthur C. Clarke about aliens visiting the Earth and giving us the cure to cancer. And then we find out the cancer vaccine also sterilized all the women. A Stargate episode went down this avenue story line also.
https://www.amazon.com/Childhoods-End-Novel-Del-Impact/dp/0345444051/?tag=ttgnet-20
Huh, I wonder what percentage of an EV is made from plastic vs an normal gasoline econobox? I further have to wonder if the science-y guy considered demand for plastics, or for fertilizers, or only looked at passenger cars. I wonder how science-y guy thinks that rapid (5 year!) conversion to EVs will happen and what will happen to the existing hundreds of millions of gas vehicles? Too unconcerned to look myself.
On an unrelated note, the natives over at Sarah’s are all dogpiling on a commentor, and generally behaving like the lefties they so often complain about. Unwarranted assumptions, ad hominem attacks, projection, skim until offended, even a partial doxxing. Kinda unbecoming…
n
@Nick
“—NOW they’re gonna look into it?”
The vaccine trials were based on a few thousand people. Adverse effects have to be statistically significant, and often don’t show up in trials for vaccines, drugs, or other treatments. It’s not until the treated population is much larger that small effects can be discerned from the statistical noise.
First question would be what is the incidence in the unvaccinated population? Second would be birth control status of those reported problems.
There has never been a mass inoculation of the planetary population. Researchers will be sifting data and generating papers for years. If I needed another career I’d look for some young hotshot researchers to form a team.
The entire country of Israel is an alpha test site for the Pfizer covid vaccine. Pfizer sent the vaccine to them first and Israel has reported every little bug and uh-oh.
There were 40,000 test subjects in the USA before Pfizer’s covid vaccine was released to the public. Most were above the age of 50 or 60 if I remember correctly. Many were recruited and vaccinated through the Methodist hospital system, mostly in Houston.
I have no idea about the Moderna and P&J vaccine trials.
What we do not have is long term test data. We do not know if you will grow a third kidney or have your spleen die at year five.
Most drug trials don’t include enough women of childbearing age because no one wants the potential liability. Doubly so for pregnant women.
But we’re running the trial now.
I really hope we don’t end up regretting that.
n
The interwebs are full of people saying that the difference between how antifa/blm and MAGA day in DC are treated, the outcome of the Chauvin trial, and a wide variety of other events show that Rule of Law or ROL is dead in the US.
I don’t view the Chauvin trial verdict as an indicator of whether ROL is dead. The union threw him under the bus to set an example and protect the retirement racket.
The second degree conviction will most likely get overturned on appeal, but it is hard to argue that something isn’t right with Chauvin that merits some jail time.
He should have testified for himself and cried on the stand.
No matter what, the jurors did not want to get their homes torched. And it was obvious that they were being threatened.
Friend of a friend is one of these guys…
I’ve got potential exposures to problems from statins and from Viox (which was pulled for a while.)
Of course I think the occupational exposures are far more likely to be an issue for me later on, but there is always that niggling concern about damaged heart tissue…
n
During plugs’ climate summit, he pledged to cut the FUSA’s emissions by half in nine years. I think the only way he can do that is eliminate cars all together. That will solve overloading the grid with electric cars. None of that will happen. Unless he gasses the Redumblicans and replaces them with RINOs and Dumbocrats.
Over half of the CO2 from the USA come from base coal and natural gas power plants. Half of the coal plants have been shut down in the last ten years, the other half will be gone by 2030. The power is being replaced by wind turbines and solar with a small amount of natural gas gas turbines that have to be started at 4 pm as the solar is winding down but the wind is coming up by 6 pm.
Cars actually do not produce much CO2. It is the 18 wheelers and locomotives that produce the the second greatest amount of CO2. Most cars do not run more than an hour a day. Locomotives and 18 wheelers run 24×7.
https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/ghg_report/ghg_overview.php
@lynn:
“Childhood’s End”
That’s not in the version I read, more years ago than I care to remember. Is it an import from the execrable TV adaptation? Which I have seen, and am trying to forget.
G.
I agree. And, in today’s political climate, you get fired. Not fined, suspended, demoted, re-trained, but removed. Think about the pension expenses they save!
In Texas, being fired for a violation of company policy, no matter how trivial, means you can’t collect unemployment without an appeal, and I’m going on six months of zero response from TWC regarding my filing for a hearing.
TWC doesn’t even answer the phone at times, blaming “overwhelming call volume due to the pandemic”. When you do get through, the WFH Jammie Bridgade has limited access to the public records. Then, when you do get through, the Jammie Brigade “working” from home doesn’t have access to all of the details on cases without being on the office network.
You never got an unemployment check from TWC ? That is wrong.
@lynn:
“Childhood’s End”
And then we find out the cancer vaccine also sterilized all the women
That’s not in the version I read, more years ago than I care to remember. Is it an import from the execrable TV adaptation? Which I have seen, and am trying to forget.
G.
My memory is horrible and I have not read that book in 40 years. What was the aliens gift to us then ?
“Thank God the science is settled and we can proceed with extinction on Earth”
https://gunfreezone.net/thank-god-the-science-is-settled-and-we-can-proceed-with-extinction-on-earth/
“JOHN KERRY: “We need to get carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.””
“It seems John Kerry alongside many Gaia-loving idiots do not understand the need for CO2 to maintain life in our planet. But then again the closest they get to analyze plants is the taste of their kale salads.”
We must have around 200 ??? ppm of CO2 in the air or our lungs do not work properly. I forget what the process is called.
And that 200 to 400 ppm of CO2 keeps the entire Earth from turning into an iceball from the poles to the equator.
Huh, I wonder what percentage of an EV is made from plastic vs an normal gasoline econobox? I further have to wonder if the science-y guy considered demand for plastics, or for fertilizers, or only looked at passenger cars. I wonder how science-y guy thinks that rapid (5 year!) conversion to EVs will happen and what will happen to the existing hundreds of millions of gas vehicles? Too unconcerned to look myself.
EVs have about the same amount of glass, plastic, steel, rubber, and other body/interior metals as IC cars. The difference is that EVs have a lot more “rare earth” materials going into their battery systems, and most of those come from China/Mongolia since the US shuttered its mines.
You never got an unemployment check from TWC ? That is wrong.
I dropped two f-bombs in a meeting, a violation of company policy, so that was the stated reason for my firing. I wasn’t expecting a check, but the “for cause” termination meant I was ineligible for unemployment at the new job for nearly a month, regardless of reason for the dismissal so I filed an appeal, expecting the process to be fairly fast. Bzzzt.
The appeal doesn’t really matter anymore since respect is a two way street at the new job, I’ve lasted long past the unemployment requalification time, and I was able to eat without the … $1200? … However, at this point, I have nothing to lose continuing the appeal, and I may have something to gain considering the HR at the last job was bargain basement diversity hiring from WalMart and Chipotle — they probably made big mistakes with TWC if my severance offer letter is any indication.
A lot of people in my position would be hosed if they needed that $1200 right now with TWC not answering the phones.
That’s not how I recall the book at all.
They made us knock off the stupid shit people do and taught us how to be better.
It’s been a few years since I read the book.
My copy says Copyright 1953. Seventeenth Printing: January 1971. Cover price is 75¢.
Friend of a friend is one of these guys…
It doesn’t really matter what kind of warnings are on the Viagra. My wife will deny the med for various reasons and always get an argument, especially at the VA. The reaction to the denial for legitimate concerns — like potential for death — is usually some variation of, “At least I’ll die happy”.
The problem comes when multiple generations are living off the oldster’s VA and SS checks, and after the guy “dies with a smile” the families always want someone’s head on a pike. God forbid anyone have to get a job.
Whenever you see Internet Viagra vendors’ ads, they’re catering to the “At least I’ll die happy” crowd who have been denied the prescription from their regular doctor. I’m not sure how the legal indemnity works that allows those places to keep operating.
The forecast says rain tomorrow. I’ll believe when it happens.
I pounded the “diamond wedges” from Harbor Freight into a couple of oak stumps. They creaked and cracked. After the rain or maybe a soaking with a water hose, I’ll try a bit with a six foot long pry bar.
I’m not in a rush. If I were I’d trash a chainsaw chain and be done in half an hour from start to clean-up.
I ran out of edit time.
The short version of how I remember the book is that the Overlords came to Earth. Took over in a benevolent way, not HG Wells Martian way. They helped us get our act together. After a few hundred years, we had grown enough to go to the next level.
Next level being, er, joining the Galactic Mind. Ok, going to Heaven. Maybe. Sort of. Graduating from a physical body. …
Anyway, it’s what the Overlords did. They couldn’t quite get there themselves but they could help others get there.
Remember the StarTrek movie where what’s his name was working on a warp drive? And the Vulcans showed up? Borrowed story, much?
Remember the StarTrek movie where what’s his name was working on a warp drive? And the Vulcans showed up? Borrowed story, much?
“First Contact”, one of Trek flicks which has aged remarkably well.
Even if you are not a fan, the film does a really good job retelling a borrowed story, with Alfre Woodard doing the heavy lifting in making the film approachable by non geeks, delivering better “Whoopi” Trek material than Whoopi ever did.
Then, a few years later, “Enterprise” did a really cool “Mirror, Mirror” riff on the key scene, even bringing back James Cromwell to make the point that history may have diverged in that moment.
I’ve been watching StarTrek from the beginning…. sneak out of bed and peep around the corner to see the TV. Sometimes I made it through a whole episode and back to bed on my own. Sometimes I woke up cold. Sometimes I had a towel over me as a blanket. That’s my Mom. She knew I was there.
Dad was in ‘Nam.
The various episodes have titles? Never paid attention.
Though, Horta. That episode stuck and it was _years_ before I saw it again.
@lynn: @paul:
Yep. As I remember, the Overlords stopped all psychic research, because there was too much danger of Earth becoming a psychic sewer. The Overlords were sent to prevent this, and hopefully assist us to develop ourselves well enough to become part of the Overmind. We did, and in the transition the Earth was destroyed to provide the energy necessary.
In the Trekniverse, that should have been Zefram Cochrane.
Childhood’s End precedes this by at least 10 years.
G.
Funny how it all ties together. “That” version of the world. Then you have Pern and dragons and ah, nice story man. And Hobbits.
Remember that the dragons and the Dragon riders were the culmination of a series of genetic modification experiments in a space colony that ran into a unexpected disaster . see it actually is sci-fi
N
Not that our good friends in China would ever stop selling us any of those rare earth materials, right?
Nothing that Sleepy Joe might do to p!ss them…never mind…
Doctor-shopping to get an ED med is pretty common. You can probably find an practitioner online to give you a 5 minute webcam exam and issue you a prescription same day.
ED drugs have become alarmingly common. There’s articles on young healthy people needing them because porn addiction has numbed that part of their brain. Then there’s people taking them for psychological reasons as it’s easier to say you have a physiological problem than tell your spouse they don’t do it for you anymore. There’s the ego users that take them as performance enhancers instead of something needed. All of those groups are on top of the ones the drugs were actually meant for.
As for dying happy… well… can you blame them? Come up with a iron clad form they have to sign saying, in glorious legalese, “I know this drug can kill me, but I’d rather get laid. The prescribing doctor has explained this to me repeatedly in horrid detail and I absolve them of all liability.”
Doesn’t Propecia (finasteride) come with a warning in the EU about causing impotence, but not in the US. That’s a hell of a price to pay for some hair.
The short version of how I remember the book is that the Overlords came to Earth. Took over in a benevolent way, not HG Wells Martian way. They helped us get our act together. After a few hundred years, we had grown enough to go to the next level.
Next level being, er, joining the Galactic Mind. Ok, going to Heaven. Maybe. Sort of. Graduating from a physical body. …
Anyway, it’s what the Overlords did. They couldn’t quite get there themselves but they could help others get there.
I guess that my memory of the Stargate “2010” episode clouded the Childhood End’s book in my memory.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0709030/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
“SpaceX: There Was No Near-Collision Between Starlink and OneWeb Satellites”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-there-was-no-near-collision-between-starlink-and-oneweb-satellites
“In an FCC filing, SpaceX calls out OneWeb, a rival satellite internet provider, for allegedly providing false statements to the media about Starlink nearly causing a satellite collision.”
“On April 9, The Verge reported that recently launched satellites from OneWeb had nearly collided with the Starlink constellation from SpaceX. Satellites from the two companies allegedly at one point came as close as 190 feet. ”
We are living in the future now. Why isn’t everyone happy and spending 20 hours a day watching baby Yoda ?
@chad:
Here in UK, Viagra is now an OTC medication, at about £4 per pill, if I remember the advert in the window of my tame pharmacy correctly – that’s the one I get my recurring prescription filled by.
G.
“The Initial Preview of GUI app support is now available for the Windows Subsystem for Linux”
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/the-initial-preview-of-gui-app-support-is-now-available-for-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux-2/
“What can I use GUI application support for?”
“WSL lets you run a Linux environment, and up until this point has focused on enabling command line tools utilities and applications. GUI app support now lets you use your favorite Linux GUI applications as well. WSL is used in a wide variety of applications, workloads, and use cases, so ultimately, it’s up to you on what you’d like to use GUI app support for. Below, we’ve highlighted some key scenarios to help you fall in love with running applications in a Linux environment.”
Wild. I would have never thought to have seen X Windows on Windows.
If you’re a fan of parallel/alternate worlds you may like these two series:
Counterpart (on Prime) and Man in the High Castle (originally on Startz, now on Prime)
FIFY (according to a friend)
Not yet OTC here in the US but now available as a generic which has dropped the pricing quite a bit, nless you’re getting ripped off by one of these online “deals.”
No Kill I.
Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a bricklayer!
One of my fav episodes.
You’ll probably see “Windows is the next Linux.” fulfilled before “This is the year of Linux on the desktop.”. 🙂
“JOHN KERRY: “We need to get carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.””
That should work really well.
No CO2, no photosynthesis…
no photosynthesis, no oxygen production…
All problems solved…
Isn’t it comforting to know that the best minds are working on the problem.
If you’re a fan of parallel/alternate worlds you may like these two series:
Counterpart (on Prime) and Man in the High Castle (originally on Startz, now on Prime)
I thought that “Man in the High Castle” was an Amazon Prime original.
I’ve seen a few episodes via … well, I’m not a Prime member. The pilot filmed out in Roslyn, WA back in the Spring of 2013, when I worked in Downtown Seattle.
“The Man in the High Castle” works as a parallel universe on several levels. Roslyn is where CBS filmed “Northern Exposure”, and if you pay attention, you will see familiar buildings just shot from different camera angles.
Wild. I would have never thought to have seen X Windows on Windows.
Microsoft is running a Wayland Compositor over RDP to display output from the XWayland server on the Windows desktop. XWayland is still iffy as an X Server at times in my experience.
https://www.neowin.net/news/how-to-block-kb5001330-patch-tuesday-update-affecting-game-performance/
I am not worried about this particular issue but I am always concerned about Patch roll-outs and never allow installs to go ahead up to at least 7 days after release.
The article shows a nifty 3rd party tool that can help if something goes amiss.
You can uninstall with Windows 10 itself but I suspect that if you do so, and unless you have delays in place, it would re-install…
I also imagine that this is just a registry entry setting so there would be changes you can apply manually if you do not want to use a 3rd party tool.
Given that I am not concerned about this one I will not investigate. Have fun.
I forgot to add that I’ve used Cygwin’s X Server in a pinch to run Gitk on my server with the display remoted to a Windows laptop. That works as an integrated solution tunneling X over an SSH login, but it isn’t perfect. YMMV.
Would you ride a lightly used space craft on a booster that’s already been around the block a few times?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/spacex-set-to-launch-astronauts-on-a-previously-flown-rocket/?amp=1
I hope NASA got a good discount on this used once capsule/booster combo.
@Greg; you are correct, typo on my part, should have been:
Counterpart (originally on Startz, now on Prime) and Man in the High Castle (on Prime)
Would you ride a lightly used space craft on a booster that’s already been around the block a few times?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/spacex-set-to-launch-astronauts-on-a-previously-flown-rocket/?amp=1
I hope NASA got a good discount on this used once capsule/booster combo.
One of SpaceX’s Falcons has been up six times now. Getting ready for a 7th flight, probably to launch more Starlinks.
I am looking at a used 2005 Ford Expedition with 154,000 miles on it for my business so we can get commercial auto insurance to extend to all of the personal vehicles. VIN is 1FMPU16515LB06891.
Listed at:
https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/d/sugar-land-2005-ford-expedition-xlt-4×4/7308857543.html
Which translates to:
https://www.prestigeofsugarland.com/details/used-2005-ford-expedition/75237877
I would only use it for taking checks to the bank and such. No trips out of town.
Flight proven you mean. 🙂
and they do get discounts.
BTW, only proven once has been given the go ahead by NASA. Proven more times, not yet. I doubt that even Elon would risk sending people with hardware that has many more flights…
@lynn, that’s a pretty clean looking expy for how old it is.
n
@lynn, that’s a pretty clean looking expy for how old it is.
n
I pulled the Carfax on it. The Expy started off life in California and moved to Texas in 2006 with the second owner. There have been three owners. The first owner owned it for 9 months (sold at 23,933 miles), the second for 13 yrs, 9 months (sold at 141,941 miles), and the third for 1 year, 2 months(sold at 154,300 miles). No salvage, no flood, small accident on front right corner. Just passed inspection and emissions on Mar 13, 2021. No flags.
I figure 10% of the life is left. At that point it will probably need a tranny or an engine.
I just need a vehicle to run around town every other week or so. No out of town trips, I will use a personal car for that.
@lynn:
SpaceX lost a booster on its 9th (I think) landing – it missed the drone ship. There are several more first stages closing in on the 10-launch-without-major-refurbishment design life of the block 5 first stage.
They’ll get to 10 launches on several boosters quite soon with the current cadence of Starlink launches.
G.