Hot and humid, although it would be nice if the temp stayed under 90F like yesterday. Took overcast and rain to do that, but it helps to not broil the brain in the skull…
I’m still running my two little portable A/C units to take the edge off. I’m spending $25 per day just for that. It’s worth it.
Didn’t get much done. I spent most of the afternoon working on my new Toughbook CF-54. I won it in an auction but haven’t had time to crack it and get it set up for me… so I started that. Because I had a bunch of software out of the hall closet sitting on the kitchen table, and thought “why not?”
I tried the normal route, booting from install media, changing utilman.exe to cmd.exe and then using net user to change passwords, but it didn’t work. Acted like it worked, but I never could get to the actual cmd window. So I tried a program I picked up somewhere, probably the goodwill bins. It’s a pc password changer program on a USB drive. Worked like a charm. Turned on the admin account, cleared passwords for everything I could, rebooted and was in. The guy who returned the notebook to amazon or wherever didn’t have any files on it. So I killed that account and started poking at win10 config stuff.
I’ll run some av, and malware detectors, and hope the cracker didn’t rootkit me. I will ease into using it as my primary lappy over the next few months. It’s bigger, faster, and yet thinner and lighter than my CF-30. I hate win10, but I like the hardware upgrade. I may still install the panasonic recovery media from bare metal. I would like a bigger SSD anyway. But for now, it’s good enough.
I need to get some stuff picked up and put away before the Mrs. gets home. And do some cleaning.
The Centerpoint outage tracker says we’ll be back up Wednesday. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Meanwhile, stack the critical things. The world has taken another step down the path … and it doesn’t end in skittles and beer for the likes of you and me.
Eyes and ears open, head on a swivel.
nick
Then the NIMBY will start with accusations of creating “eyesores” and plotting to run higher capacity lines when the community isn’t paying attention.
The debates have been running in Florida since Andrew, and now a lot of the crowd in those gentrifying sections of Houston will have “tenbagger” dreams running around in their heads.
Secret Service “Director Cheeto” memes are already going around the Interwebz.
I wonder how long before the PepsiCo stint gets removed from her background on the website.
Vanguard/Blackrock/State Street again.
https://www.secretservice.gov/about/leadership/director
The secret service made a major blunder. A major mistake. All buildings within 500 yards of the speaking platform should have had the rooftops cleared and monitored for just such a shooter. Some heads need to roll because of incompetence. There is no excuse for a building rooftop, with a clear line of sight, less than 150 yards from the speakers platform, to be left unguarded. At a minimum the rooftops should have been monitored, or observed. Either by drones, by visual observation, or by helicopter.
It’s almost as if the secret service or someone in the administration wanted something to happen by their poor implementation of the protection detail. (Let’s just call the stupidity a “Hillary”).
I wonder how many shots the secret service got in to the shooter when the shooter was fatally shot. That number, along with the number of shots fired by the secret service should be made public. People need to know how poorly the secret service performed.
It is a shame that an innocent participate lost their life. There are also two people in critical condition. Trump, at a minimum should pay for the funeral expenses and the cost of the hospital care of the others. Or the secret service should pay which really comes out of the taxpayers pockets.
That’s one aspect. Whoever the head of the security detail may have been, he needs to be a “has been”.
Also: Some bystanders saw the guy climbing up with a rifle, and notified police. The police did nothing. Find those officers, and they also need to be “has beens”. Granted, that was only a few minutes before he started shooting – maybe not enough time to do anything – but they should have taken the reports seriously.
Another question to ask:
Who owned the building?
10% of my tax bill on VTSMX originated from the dividends on commercial and residential REITs that Vanguard holds in the fund.
Vanguard is also the largest single stockholder in Pepsi.
It would have been enough time to get Trump off the stage and into a secure vehicle.
The police were probably former Uvalde officers.
At a minimum that building should have been cleared and guarded. Common sense indicates a SS sniper team should have been on that very building. Any location with an elevated view, within 200 yards of the podium, should have had a sniper team or marksman on the building roof.
The secret service blew it. By not requiring the local police to secure the building, or the local police not following orders to secure the building.
Future Trump, and Biden, rallies will now have the candidates behind bullet resistant plexiglas panels. There will be drones and helicopters in the air. All building will be cleared and secured. Especially event facing windows and all roofs. This should be a wakeup call for the secret service and local police. Incompetence is not acceptable.
Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.
Also, hiring on the basis of DEI is not acceptable in a position like director of the Secret Service.
“Director Cheeto” may get thrown under the bus, but she will be taken care of down the road.
80F and overcast. Woke up with a slight headache, which is unusual. CO monitors don’t show anything….
———-
Dir. Cheeto’s resume’ reads like management track from the beginning. She left to put a little shine on the apple, then came back. Or you could say she spent 30yrs rising thru the ranks, left to make some real money, then came back.
Surprised she didn’t wait for 30, doesn’t the retirement payout get a bump then?
What do the previous directors look like is the real question. What was their time in the agency like, and how long did it take them?
In any case, it’s the agents in the field who F’d up.
Watch the sniper behind T reposition and take the shot once the lead started flying. Pretty quick, but why didn’t his spotter see the threat?
———–
No one believes the threat is real til it bites them on the @ss.
———–
T maintained his own security staff when he was POTUS, I imagine he still has some, because he has to know there agencies are compromised.
n
I remember how the mob would “take care” of people.
“defiantly shouted ‘fight’”
– yeah I watched that video and I see him shouting “fuck” but I haven’t slowed it down or frame by frame’d it.
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/morally-bankrupt-msm-couldnt-even-admit-it-was-assassination-attempt
n
The Secret Service has not liked the positioning of Mar-a-Lago going back to when Post willed the property to the US Government for use as a Presidential retreat when she died.
The Feds passed on turning it into Camp David South and sold off the property. That’s how Trump eventually ended up with the estate.
CNN – Warner/Discovery – Vanguard/Blackrock/State Street
MSNBC – Comcast – Vanguard/Blackrock/State Street
CBS – Paramount – Vanguard/Blackrock/State Street.
Head of CBS News departed a few days ago, BTW, ostensibly as part of a house cleaning ahead of( Trump supporting) Ellison family taking control via Skydance.
New York Times – Vanguard/Blackrock. State Street has some, but not in the top three.
If the assassination attempt took place in Florida, I could have given you the trace on ownership of the building already.
Thunderstorms rolling through the California high desert here, for the last day or so.
Cooling things down in some places, setting fires in others.
My brother is under a cell a few miles away, experiencing thunder and lightning.
Here it is the nicest morning this month, with just a few spatters of raindrops.
Per USA Today (Yeah, I know, but they had maps), the building where the shooter set up on the roof was owned by AGR International, part of Indicor, held by private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
CD&R Founder Joseph Rice – CFR and Brookings. Of course.
https://www.cdr-inc.com/professionals/joseph-l.-rice-iii
The consipiracy theories practically write themselves.
The media no longer do the job in the US.
In my experience, people in the US have a really weird relationship with the word “f*ck” over the last decade, and the individuals I’ve encountered who pay lip service to finding it the most offensive – PLTs and military retirees – are among the demographics who I’ve always believed were the most comfortable with using the word.
BTW, my last project at the tolling company, involving toll systems on the surface streets of Manhattan, “congestion pricing”, was just shelved by the city. The project really was f*cked after all.
As data points.
I’ve been consistently getting about 10 hours from a refilled BBQ bottle on the honda eu3000i, running without the variable throttle controls. I haven’t measured the load, but it should be pretty close to max when the A/C compressors are both running.
I’ve been getting about the same for a full gas tank on the generac 4000xl (extended life) gennie. It’s running without eco throttle, and the load is variable but fairly heavy.
I just changed the butane on the tabletop cooker. IDK what the kids did, I know they made pasta, but I have only been using it for an egg in the morning. Not a lot of butane in that spraypaint can I guess. It’s still very convenient and easy to use. Much less intimidating than a bigger camp stove.
n
“congestion pricing”, was just shelved by the city.
– but it put a lot of food on the tables while they were working on it…
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13633021/shannen-doherty-dead-beverly-hills-90210-breast-cancer.html
“Friends” “90210” “Baywatch” etc were never my thing, and for some reason She never appealed to me, but she was ever-present in my youth.
n
@Nick: What was the tank quantity, and was that gasoline or ??
Pocket a little RSU PepsiCo dividend cash even if the stock never vested.
I imagine her Fidelity account is an interesting read. Of course, the same could be said about a lot of public officials who went through that revolving door.
We sat through a “Charmed” panel at a con in Dallas last month waiting to hear Jonathan Frakes speak, and even though Doherty’s name was on the panel participant list, she didn’t show on the stage.
I wondered if it was illness or disgust with fellow “Charmed” star Rose McGowan. Maybe both.
A lot of the consultants’ pockets. Filled soupbowls.
For some reason, the firms all seem to be based around Kansas City.
Who knows what the real reason is for the plan being shelved. The tech is there, but the management at the systems integrators as currently built, my former employer included, aren’t going to be able to provision anything that large.
@EdH, manual says it’s 4.5 gallons, and I’m using regular 87 octane E10 or E15.
n
The BBC captured a better interview on site in Pennsylvania than most US national media, but my guess is that they started out thinking that they would get a laugh from a “ginger”.
The sane response to the questions visibly surprised the interviewer.
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1812273630702952543
@Nick, thx.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13632983/donald-trump-shooting-assassination-mississippi-congress-staffer-jacqueline-marsaw-post.html
“get you some shooting lessons”
DM overuses the word ‘vile’.
n
I don’t condone buying things on credit but please get you something better than a $25 dress from Walmart’s Eloquii division so you don’t look like cr*p at an important staff event next time.
Oops. That wasn’t me talking.
>> “defiantly shouted ‘fight’”
AND
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/let-me-get-my-shoes-microphone-captures-trumps-comments-just-after-shooting/
@edh, I ran a half bottle of Seafoam treatment thru it yesterday too. It runs noticeably smoother today.
There are a couple of issues with it due to age. There is supposed to be a plastic grommet in the throttle plate that takes up the space around the throttle control rod. That is missing, which lets the throttle flop around too much. The result is unsteady RPM and hysteresis as the speed regulator tries to adjust. I put a rolled up piece of paper towel in place to damp out the vibration and random movement in the throttle for now. It helped.
There is also a very light tension spring that attaches to the throttle and it needs adjusting – it’s too loose.
In order to make real fixes I’d have to remove the pull rope assembly and the carb, and I don’t want to do that atm. It’s running ok for now. And it’s 25 years old.
With generators, I think you get what you pay for. Honda and generac are two of the best.
n
Lifetime service items for the generac- first ~10 years – no use at all. Stored empty, never run.
Every year after that, clean the carb before use. FIll and test run. Skipped some years.
@ ~20 years, the petcock that goes into the plastic fuel tank melted to goo. Cheap fix. Clean tank with brush, rinse and repeat. New fuel cap.
@ ~25 years, replace carb as old one was finally too crusty to run. Broke pull rope, so replaced starter.
-change oil
At some point I changed the air filter. They don’t like to be wet.
It’s been a rock solid machine, usually starting on the first or second pull.
I don’t know what their current machines are like but they still have a good rep.
n
Regarding anonymous websites – several issues have to be considered; true anonymity might not be possible.
Considerations are
Lots of things to consider; probably more than this list. Any setup/research needs to be done anonymously – one slip-up and the site is no longer anonymous. It will take a lot of careful and secure practices to keep things anonymous.
You might do some research via anonymous AI services. But ensure that that research is anonymous. Consider the techniques that Brian Krebs uses to ferret out ownership of malware authors/services. He’s usually pretty successful in tracking those guys.
I’m pretty sure I don’t have the discipline to maintain true anonymity. And I’m sure that Google and the 3-letter agencies would quickly pierce any veils I try to use.
Just as I’m sure any Google employee could figure out who I am in minutes in spite of my alias I use posting here. And that this alias is already part of my FBI file based on usage here and on other sites.
It’s a good thing what I’m proposing is perfectly legal. It’s just that if it’s effective, one of those players could sic some unstable, violent PLT on me, and provide address information.
I’ll do my development work on a non-public website, and spend some time seeking sponsorship by one of the major political players.
It’s not a huge technical problem, it’s a data collection problem, and I think I’ve identified a chink in the armor of election fraudsters.
n
Yep, knew there’d be victim blaming.
Love the bit below about her congressweasel…
n
In other news. I’ve been watching some youtube shorts on my new bone stock lappy. Youtube knows nothing about me on that device….
And it’s all pretty young girls teasing or shot in a way to sexualize them, pranks, staged pranks, more teasing.
They are showing me spanish speaking creators, arabic and indian creators, cute japanese girls, an english speakers. Few American blacks. Few of the machine generated youtubes with scraped content.
Interesting. I never see that stuff on my logged in account. It’s a huge time waster.
n
LSM reports gub was an “AR-style” rible.
I’ve seen the weirdness a few times. I’m not going to be that way.
My sisters were that way.
“Miliband Orders Immediate Ban on New North Sea Oil”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/07/12/miliband-orders-immediate-ban-on-new-north-sea-oil/
“Ed Miliband has ordered an immediate ban on new drilling in the North Sea – overruling his own officials and risking triggering a wave of legal action. The Telegraph has more.”
Sure, these types of wells take several years to put into place. Just go ahead and arbitrarily delay them.
^^ Makes about as much sense as saying Russia blew up the pipeline.
Because shutting the gas off in Russia is too easy. Or Russia simply raising the price of gas if they want more money.
There are a lot of retarded acting politicians. Who’s blackmailing them?
My wife is the sole heir of her mother’s estate. My wife was told her brother gets half. No legal requirement but a moral requirement. We (wife and I) complied with the wife’s mother request. Her brother has never asked for an accounting or financial documents for the estate. When he was offered the spreadsheet, he refused.
He did get a large certificate on which he was the beneficiary. My son got some money, about $50K. Wife’s nephews got $15K each. The wife’s brother knows this and just says that’s the way the CDs and interest bounced. He said his kids should be happy they got anything.
I just grilled some BBQ seasoned “pork loin chops”. I caught a 25% off package last week. They smell good. They are resting. When they cool I”m going to slice them into strips and fill a couple of zip-lock boxes. Drive-by snacking!
But. What happened to pork chops? With the bones? The “pork loin chops” taste different. It’s like Brisket or Pot Roast or Skirt Steak.
T-bone steaks? Where are those cuts going? Because I haven’t seen either in the local HEBs for at least 15 years.
I’m just wondering.
Warren Buffett is still getting his “Billionare Blue Plate” T-bones at Gorat’s in Omaha.
https://goratsomaha.com/menu/
Kinda pricey at $54, but available.
I got some prime T-bones at HEB a few weeks ago.
But I don’t see them often.
I got back from my fuel run, and checking on my secondary location. Roof was damaged by an actual tornado during the storm, but my place was dry.
Power was back on so I shut down the gennies and started cleaning up the house.
Family arrived home.
Nice to have the pack back together.
Now for some steaks on the grill.
By coincidence, one is a T bone from HEB. First I’d seen in years, so I nabbed some, because they were decently priced. Don’t see much ribeye, and never any tenderloin beef or filet mignon…
Biggest consumer of T bone in the US used to be Waffle House, believe it or not… dunno if that’s still true.
n
At some point in the last decade, I remember Waffle House announced that they were going to wind down the special on the T-bone steaks.
We haven’t stopped in Waffle House in several years.
From the: Things That Really Make You Say “Hmmm….” Files
https://www.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-says-gunman-trump-rally-230119019.html
After this weekend, I think it is time to consider getting out of Vanguard wherever the tax hit isn’t significant, starting with my IRA, accumulated from various employers’ 401(k) plan rollovers since 2017.
– Looks like a kid who would be bullied.
n
More spin. Victim blaming.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/watch-george-stephanopoulos-blames-trump-trump-supporters-violent/
– “if you’d only learn to listen, I wouldn’t have to hit you so much. It’s your own fault.” – says every abuser ever.
n
The tin hat portion of my brain sometimes wonder if the shooting was organized to deflect from Spongey’s mental problems. The sane portion of my brain says no.
And stuffed in a locker more than once, pantsed multiple times, gym clothes tossed in the shower, “kick me” sign on his back.
At some point in the last decade, I remember Waffle House announced that they were going to wind down the special on the T-bone steaks.
We haven’t stopped in Waffle House in several years.
I bought breakfast at Waffle House for me, my Dad, and my son last year. $50 with tip. Best breakfast that I had in a long time. Blew Denny’s out of the water.
The tin hat portion of my brain sometimes wonder if the shooting was organized to deflect from Spongey’s mental problems. The sane portion of my brain says no.
“Trump Top VP Contender JD Vance Blames Biden’s ‘Rhetoric’ For Trump Assassination Attempt”
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-top-vp-contender-jd-vance-blames-bidens-rhetoric-for-trump-assassination-attempt/
“Vance reacted to the news by blaming Biden for the attempted assassination, citing the “rhetoric” the president has used on the campaign trail against Trump.”
““Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance wrote to his followers. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.”
“He added, “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
I like JD Vance more and more each day.
“Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Focused on Hiring Women, Boosting Diversity”
https://www.infowars.com/posts/secret-service-director-kimberly-cheatle-focused-on-hiring-women-boosting-diversity/
“Biden-appointed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s focus on DEI could have caused our former President Donald Trump to DIE in an assassination on Saturday.”
“Elon Musk on Saturday demanded Cheatle and the leader of Trump’s security detail resign.”
@lpdbw: I’m late to commenting on your request, but everything Rick said yesterday is exactly right. True anonymity is really, really hard. If your website becomes popular enough to cause people discomfort, there are lots of people with too much time on their hands – given a challenge, they will break your anonymity. It takes just one tiny mistake on your part, and your anonymity is blown.
Cover the most obvious cases, and you are 99% there. The effort to get that last 1% just isn’t worth it, or maybe even possible.
The Internet bubble effect is pretty crazy. I mentioned I created an X account a few weeks ago. I have deliberately tried to avoid encapsulation by following people I normally wouldn’t (like Obama, for example). The effect is still 99% effective. I expect they measure not only what I like, but also which threads I open and how much time I spend reading them. Behavior that you cannot realistically change, if you are who you are…
I have to agree. Conspiracy theories abound, but: no, this wasn’t planned by anyone. It was just an opportunistic attack by a fruitcake. I am annoyed that fedgov got his social media accounts taken down so fast – why shouldn’t we see what this guy thought?
The event did, however, show up a huge failure of the Secret Service. That rooftop should have been secured. The videos of the female SS agents running around like headless chickens are absolutely damning. According to one account, one of the women is crying out “What are we doing? What are we doing?”.
You do need female agents, no question. However, can they not hire competent women? Start out with the black belts from any serious martial arts club, preferably something hands-on like Ju Jitsu, and train them up from there.
Also, there is a statement on 4chan attributed to the SS sniper. Given the website, it may well be some kid playing stupid games. However, if true…