Wed. July 24, 2024 – 07242024 – pickups today

Hot and humid, but less so to start the day. It was only 77F last night at midnight, with the light and intermittent rain cooling things down a bit. But it won’t last, because Houston… I only saw light rain in the morning, and at night, but some places got enough for localized street flooding, and the bayous were filling up.

I did my jury duty for City of Houston, and should be good for another 6 months. I’ll probably be called by the county soon as it seems to run in waves.

Did a bit of work on my hobby website when I got home, and that carried me to dinnertime. I think I got the kinks worked out for modern browsers at least. IE 11 pukes all over the site, but it’s unsupported anyway.

Today I’ve got to pick up the garage fridge I won, and maybe some other things if I can make the route make sense. Otherwise it’s domestic bliss and cleaning and organizing. I am not making the headway I’d hoped to make. I’ll do what I can with the lists… but I am not gonna beat myself up too badly.

I am going to stack. Because I always do, but I’m also working one using some of the stacks. If I can get them into what I bought them for, I’ll have room for more!

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Stack some ammo this week, and maybe some black pew pews. Or go to the range and use some to touch up your skills. That would be good too.

nick

43 Comments and discussion on "Wed. July 24, 2024 – 07242024 – pickups today"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    run ‘ifconifg

    Shouldn‘t that be ipconfig?

    Doh! Windows. Yes.

    Plug in the dongle and run ‘ipconfig’ to see if a new interface appears.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    It may be Mark Kelly: “Democrats Selected DIFFERENT Nominee Than Kamala Harris, Forced Biden Out With Threats of 25th Amendment”

    Even though he is a white male, Kelly is still coasting on sympathy for his wife. It could work.

    Gun control would be a major issue, however. The money people may not want to overplay the hand.

  3. EdH says:

    “Hydrothermal Explosion at Yellowstone causes Tourists to panic…”

    The correct response to hydrothermal explosions is to run away in an orderly manner, which is what they did.  That isn’t panic.

    I am actually a little surprised that some moron with a cell phone didn’t get themselves  burned alive filming it.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    The correct response to hydrothermal explosions is to run away in an orderly manner, which is what they did.  That isn’t panic.
     

    The Yellowstone Caldera blowing tops the list of hardcore prepper fantasy scenarios. The Mail wants to sell papers and indulge in schaedenfreude. 

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    81F and overcast with very light drizzle or occasional spatter…

    ————————–

    more retail apocalypse

    National furniture and homeware chain abruptly shuts more than 70 stores amid bankruptcy rumors

     

    Home and furniture retailer Conn’s is closing 71 of its stores across 13 states, an action set in motion following a Bloomberg report claiming the company is weeks away from filing for bankruptcy.

    n

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Fox guest makes shocking sex slur about Kamala Harris live on air

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13667817/kamala-harris-Fox-guest-sex-slur-live.html 

    By Germania Rodriguez Poleo, Chief U.S. Reporter For Dailymail.Com

    Published: 09:25 EDT, 24 July 2024 | Updated: 10:59 EDT, 24 July 2024 

    A Fox Business guest shocked the network’s audience when he referred to vice-president Kamala Harris as the ‘original Hawk Tuah’ girl. 

    The only thing shocking is that someone wouldn’t know Camel’s past.   The article does a good job, if you scroll down, of describing that patronage job, with a contemporary article quoted.

    It also has a nice quote about Willie that speaks to personality and character…

    ‘His career is over. I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing.’

    n

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    Just was looking at the calendar and were only about 3 weeks from being back in school.   Time flies.

    n

  8. MrAtoz says:

    Man, the LSM is out in force carrying The Kamel’s water. The best prosecutor evah! The best Senator evah! The best VP evah! The LSM is also trying to distance her from the “border czar” position by saying it was never true. Even after quote after quote, plugs included, putting her in charge of the border.

    I don’t believe her polling one bit. Also, why do I get a Kamel ad every time I play a YT video? I need to get one of those skip-the-ads plugins.

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  9. JimB says:

    MrAtoz, Brave Browser.

    I was reluctant, but first tried it a few years ago on my phone. Lots of benefits other than no ads. Now default on all my devices. Rarely need to fall back to other browsers. It does have some unique features, such as points rewards for something, but I ignore them.

    And, yes, it is possible to tailor other browsers to do the same, but I had to occasionally reconfigure them as the world changed. Brave usually has changes within a day, once about two weeks. Most fuss-free browser I have used.

    Chrome based, but for me that is a plus.

  10. Alan says:

    >>I need to get one of those skip-the-ads plugins.

    Me need too. Please share suggestions. 

  11. ITGuy1998 says:

    For several years, I’ve been using Firefox with the AdBlocker Ultimate extension. I only use Firefox for youtube and I get no ads. It’s jarring how many ads there are when I accidently hit youtube on another browser by accident.

  12. Gavin says:

    @Ray Thompson

    ifconfig is interface configuration

    ifconfig does not even exist.

    Senior moment… it’s a linux configuration command (also used in Cisco IOS).

  13. Greg Norton says:

    A Fox Business guest shocked the network’s audience when he referred to vice-president Kamala Harris as the ‘original Hawk Tuah’ girl. 
     

    Nobody wants to talk about “Hawk Tuah” girls, especially Fox Business hosts who count on being able to get the C suite interviews to keep their jobs.

  14. Ray Thompson says:

    Senior moment…

    Ah, OK. Learned something new. I thought the only Linux command was RTFM. At least that is all I have been told during my less than successful trials.

    And for the record, don’t talk about senior moments to a person 70+. Brain fart I can accept, but senior moment is really hitting below the belt home. 🙂 🙂

  15. Lynn says:

    “Innocents (Futanari Saga)” by Francis W. Porretto
        https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/197314042X?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Book number one of a four book science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback that the author self published on Amazon in 2017. I have purchased the second book in the series and will read it soon.

    This may be the weirdest science fiction book that I have ever read. And I have read thousands of science fiction and fantasy books over my many years. It is a very interesting take on what the future genetic engineers may bring us.

    In the non so distant future, security specialist Larry Sokoloff is vacationing in his RV in a Virginia RV park. He rises in the morning one day and finds a pretty young woman being accosted by three young men under the awning of his RV. He saves her from them and thus begins the craziness.

    In the Futanari Saga Universe, 100 to 200 Futanaris are born every year. The author’s definition of a Futanari is female appearance, female size, and XX chromosomes with male genitals instead of female genitals. Yeah, you read that correctly as this does not match the Wikipedia definition that I looked up. But, somebody is now cloning Futanaris and raising them as incredibly expensive sex slaves.

    The author has an active website at:
        http://www.libertystorch.info/

    My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (51 ratings)

    Lynn

  16. Lynn says:

    “Tesla stock slides after mixed Q2 results, says ‘affordable’ EVs on track for 2025 debut”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-stock-slides-after-mixed-q2-results-says-affordable-evs-on-track-for-2025-debut-150848480.html

    “CEO Elon Musk revealed on the analyst call that the new robotaxi reveal date would be on 10/10.”

    Johnny Cab is coming. I do not want to be the first to ride in one.

  17. Lynn says:

    “Election Interference: Secret Service Pushes Trump Rallies Indoors”

        https://thelibertydaily.com/election-interference-secret-service-pushes-trump-rallies-indoors/

    “The United States Secret Service wants President Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign to move their historic rallies indoors instead of doing the one job they have assigned to them.”

    “Between the failed assassination attempt against Trump and the subsequent resignation of the Secret Service’s diversity hire director, Kimberly Cheatle, the stage was set for what should only be viewed as election interference.”

  18. Greg Norton says:

    “Tesla stock slides after mixed Q2 results, says ‘affordable’ EVs on track for 2025 debut”

    Now it is back to “affordable” EVs.

    $890 million of the $1.48 billion net income was “regulatory credits”.

    Grift.

  19. Greg Norton says:

    More entertaining than the slide at TSLA is DIS going below $90 despite the valiant efforts of the specialist all afternoon. Near the end of trading, I logged in to my Fidelity account at the office to watch the carnage in real time.

    Are the reviews  of “Deadpool and Wolverine” not good?

    I don’t think it matters this weekend.

    My daughter thought I was kidding about Ryan Reynolds’ big career break, “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place”.

  20. Lynn says:

    Are the reviews  of “Deadpool and Wolverine” not good?

    Rated R movies are rarely well attended.  The first Deadpool movie was awesome.  The second one not so much.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    More entertaining than the slide at TSLA is DIS going below $90 despite the valiant efforts of the specialist all afternoon. Near the end of trading, I logged in to my Fidelity account at the office to watch the carnage in real time.

    Not that it really matters to me, but, yes, our stock was down $10 today as well.

    The analysts say that we don’t make a lot of money from the AI servers.

  22. Lynn says:

    “Reuters ‘Shock Poll’ Finds Kamala Leading Trump, There’s Just One Catch…”

        https://www.zerohedge.com/political/reuters-shock-poll-finds-jump-support-kamala-theres-just-one-catch

    “A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found that Harris leads Trump 44% to 42% in the national poll (with a 3% margin of error).”

    “Yet, there’s a catch. As we noted in the 2016 and 2020 elections, pollsters had their thumb on the scale by oversampling Democrats.”

    “Well, they’ve done it again – sampling 426 Democrat voters vs. 376 Republicans and 341 Independents.”

    The one “true” poll is coming on the first Tuesday in November.  However, I fully expect the dumbrocrats to put their thumb on that poll too with the various means that they have used before.

  23. Lynn says:

    “Cop Dragged, Assaulted, And American Flag Burned As Pro-Palestine Protesters Rage In DC”

        https://www.zerohedge.com/political/netanyahu-faces-day-rage-pro-palestinian-protests-dc-many-willing-get-arrested-time

    Summary: Seeking to shore up support for the war against Hamas in Gaza, and with Vice President Harris not in attendance and with dozens of Democrats also choosing to skip in protest, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed “this great citadel of democracy for the fourth time.” He also took time in the lengthy address to acknowledge rescued hostages and their families, including families of American hostages, present in the chamber for the speech.”

    “”I will not rest until all of their loved ones are home! All of them” – he said of the hostages. We are “actively engaged” in intensive efforts to secure their release, the prime minister said. “Some of them are taking place right now.” He also recognized “President Biden’s “tireless efforts” and “heartfelt support” for Israel. Biden “dispatched two aircraft carriers to the Middle East to prevent a wider war,” Netanyahu said. Also acknowledging this politically chaotic and sensitive moment where Biden has bowed out of the presidential race, he called the US president “A proud Irish-American Zionist.” But he also by the end of the speech thanked Donald Trump for forging the historic Abraham Accords, and gave thanks for his surviving the assassination attempt against him.”

    Just wait until the DNC convention in Chicago in August.  I expect the city to burn.

  24. Lynn says:

    “Intel says it has found the issue causing 13th and 14th Gen CPUs to crash”

        https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/22/24203959/intel-core-13th-14th-gen-cpu-crash-update-patch

    “Now, Intel plans to address the processors’ troublesome ‘elevated operating voltage’ with a microcode patch.”

    Everything is patched nowadays.

  25. Greg Norton says:

    The chess match isn’t quite over yet… 

    https://nypost.com/2024/07/24/us-news/obama-doesnt-believe-kamala-harris-can-beat-trump-sources/

    The convention is in Chicago for a reason.

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  26. Ken Mitchell says:

    Just wait until the DNC convention in Chicago in August.  I expect the city to burn.

    If Chicago burns like it did with Mrs. O’Leary’s cow,  it can only improve the place. 

  27. Greg Norton says:

    “Now, Intel plans to address the processors’ troublesome ‘elevated operating voltage’ with a microcode patch.”

    Everything is patched nowadays.

    Consumers are the tech industry’s beta testers anymore.

  28. Greg Norton says:

    This must be why Tony felt compelled to talk up “affordable” EVs on the call yesterday.

    Not that Tommy Boy has a better track record with delivering on promises. Remember the F150 EV which would power your house?

    https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-06-28/ford-expects-profitable-30-000-ev-in-two-and-a-half-years-cnbc-reports

  29. Greg Norton says:

    Not that Tommy Boy has a better track record with delivering on promises. Remember the F150 EV which would power your house?

    @paul – “Tommy Boy” is worth the time and has some remarkably prescient lines, particularly in one monologue delivered by Dan Aykroyd portraying the kinda-sorta antagonist of the film.

    Aykroyd always brings it, even in cr*p, but “Tommy Boy” is a good flick.

  30. Lynn says:

    “Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, 1)” by Ilona Andrews
       https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Hidden-Legacy-Ilona-Andrews/dp/0062289233?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Book number one of a six book paranormal romance fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Avon in 2014 that I just bought new from Amazon. I have ordered the other five books in the series.

    Totally cool start to a new series for me. This makes the fourth series that I have read from Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife writing team.

    The Hidden Legacy Universe is a complex place. The Osiris serum that induced magical powers in humans was released to the general public in 1863 and the world was never the same. The serum was banned after a while but the world was irreparably changed. Families starting breeding children for strength in magical powers with breathtaking results. Magic users are segregated into five ranks: Minor, Average, Notable, Significant, and Prime.

    The most feared mage is the pyrotechnic (fire). Adam Pierce is a Prime and a fire mage. And he is certifiably crazy but his mother loves him anyway. Even when he kills a security guard while robbing a bank.

    Nevada Baylor runs a very small detective agency in Houston, Texas ( ! ) that works on scammers and divorce cases. She is a 25 year old hidden truthseeker, she can unerringly tell lies from truths and can sometimes force people to emit truths. Her mother and father started the detective agency but there is a huge mortgage to a Prime Family that funded the effort to try to save her father from cancer. Now the Prime Family wants them to find Adam Pierce and deliver him to his family, undamaged.

    Mad Rogan is a Prime telekinetic and a noted combat veteran, famous for destroying a village in the Mexican war. And Mad Rogan wants Adam Pierce too, undamaged is not a priority.

    The authors have a very active website at: 
       https://ilona-andrews.com/

    My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (15,154 reviews)

    Lynn

  31. Nick Flandrey says:

    Here is something a bit interesting.   When my wife called me on my claim that Camel isn’t even black, I ended up down the rabbit hole.

    First I tried to find pictures of her father, the Jamaican.   Pretty dang hard.   I finally found one at https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/politics/a33598837/kamala-harris-father-donald-j-harris-facts/ 

    but as soon as the page loads, they over-load a video of harris…  hit reload to see it.

    Then there is this, from her actual dad…

    https://www.jamaicaglobalonline.com/kamala-harris-jamaican-heritage/ 

    It’s from 2019 and the comments are … interesting, and there is an actual picture of him down the page.  And one of her with a much more stereotypically “african descendant” hairstyle as a child.

    Thru dad, she does have some african blood, and under the old laws, I think she’d be somewhere in the “octo” or further down the spectrum, but it isn’t clear, because dad’s dad gets barely a mention.  He seems to be the irish descended slave owner… so half “black”?  No way.  “african american”? only on a technicality.   They aren’t her people and she’s not theirs, ESPECIALLY if you count on culture more than skin color.

    Culturally, she seems to just be a leftist and probably more canadian than american as that’s where she really  grew up.   Calling her “african american” is misleading with a technically true statement as it triggers ideas in the hearer’s head that aren’t actually there.

    Kinda like the opposite of when the MSM called trump a “game show host” or “television personality”.

    n

  32. Nick Flandrey says:

    For years now, Conn’s struggled with growing brick-and-mortar footprint.

    That led to it buying W.S. Badcock – another home goods chain that operates under then Badcock Home Furniture & More banner – in December 2023. That boosted the store numbers dramatically. 

    But that saddled the company with debt and high overhead costs, Bloomberg reported.

    In an April disclosure, Conn’s announced it finished out 2023 with a year-over-year net loss of almost $77 million.   

    Conn’s shares have been in free fall for over three years, down an astonishing 98 percent since June 2021.

    – wonder who made the decision to buy the other chain?   

    amid a widespread ‘retail apocalypse’ that is seeing bricks-and-mortar stores struggle to combat rampant theft and increasingly tight margins. 

    By the end of April, US retailers had announced the closure of almost 2,600 stores in 2024.  

    Walmart, the largest retailer in the US, has shut 11 so far this year.

    Earlier in April, dollar store 99 Cents Only said it will shutter ALL its 371 shops, while Best Buy closed ten in March. 

    Dollar Tree is closing 1,000, Macy’s 150 – a third of its total – and drug store Rite Aid 77.   

    In recent months, there has been a spate of bankruptcies adding to store closures.

    Express – a mall staple – filed for bankruptcy in April and said it would shut 95 Express outlets alongside all of its UpWest stores.    

    At the start of May, Rue21 – the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America –  also said it will shut all  its 543 US stores.

    – the free money ran out, and suddenly buying all those locations had real costs…    reality bites again.

    n

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-13669125/home-goods-chain-bankruptcy-500-stores-risk.html 

  33. drwilliams says:

    Scores higher on cognition test than POTUS:

    https://x.com/Gabriele_Corno/status/1811645002222612931

  34. Nick Flandrey says:

    Holy crep, that bear is more motivated than most road crews.   

    Seriously though, he recognized it was knocked over and righted it.   WTF??

    n

  35. Greg Norton says:

    – the free money ran out, and suddenly buying all those locations had real costs…    reality bites again.

    No more stimulus checks and the deal with Congress over the debt ceiling required the student loan payments to resume in November.

  36. Greg Norton says:

    Rated R movies are rarely well attended.  The first Deadpool movie was awesome.  The second one not so much.

    Ironically, The Mouse, traditionally home of family-friendly entertainment, has a lot riding on the rated ‘R’ flick starring two middle-aged white men.

  37. Alan says:

    >>The convention is in Chicago for a reason.

    Who needs a physical venue when Zoom will do… 

    https://apnews.com/article/harris-democratic-convention-nominee-virtual-voting-78991bcc443e06c000d1d800e0d94cc5

  38. Greg Norton says:

    Dollar Tree is closing 1,000, Macy’s 150 – a third of its total – and drug store Rite Aid 77.   

    Rite Aid has been screwed up for decades.

  39. Nick Flandrey says:

    Rite Aid has been screwed up for decades. 

    – yeah, some of it is going to be the ‘creative destruction’ and deadwood removal that is a normal part of capitalism.     The majority is too much capacity for the existing demand.

    n

  40. Greg Norton says:

    Rite Aid has been screwed up for decades. 

    – yeah, some of it is going to be the ‘creative destruction’ and deadwood removal that is a normal part of capitalism.     The majority is too much capacity for the existing demand.

    $20/person burger restaurants are in serious trouble. Fancy Lad McDonalds.

    The big Burger Fi on South Padre Island was shuttered when we went down there a few weeks ago.

    We never went in Burger Fi, but they always seemed busy when we drove by the place.

  41. Nick Flandrey says:

    When money gets tight, people pull back on spending.   Maybe not at first, when they hope things will quickly improve, but at some point…

    They go out to eat less frequently, and move down scale when they do.

    They watch tv instead of movies.

    They skip haircuts.

    They defer maintenance on home and cars.

    They get fewer fingernail sessions or do it themselves.

    They skip the yoga classes or gym membership.

    Etc

    There is an awful lot of purely discretionary spending in the US economy, and a lot of service industry workers.  Times get tight, people stop spending money to have others do for them what they can do themselves.  That can start a feedback loop…

    n

  42. Nick Flandrey says:

    I need my beauty sleep

    n

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