Wet and cool. Not freezing any more, and certainly not dry. Misty drizzle all day Saturday, and all night, and probably all day today too. Grey and ugly.
I did a couple of things Saturday, but mostly avoided work. I had a pickup to do, a Mr Heater unit and some solar panels, and it was a new auctioneer in an area I don’t usually get too. I decided to hit a couple of estate sales that were in the same area. The sales were a bust, but I found a pocket neighborhood I didn’t even know existed. BIG lots, crappy houses, minutes from a major commuting route, and unincorporated. You’d never know it was there.
I checked it out when I got home, and there wasn’t much for sale, but the prices suggested that other people found it too, recognized the potential, and are willing to pay to get in. It’s like being out in the country, right in town. Unfiltered country, leaf burning, trucks in the yard, “can’t tell me what to do” country, not manicured horse owner county. But two lots down from the guy with a junkyard on his acre plus lot is a $1.6M mansion… it will change and quickly. I’d love to buy a lot there as an investment, but it’s probably already too late. There are still areas like this in the Houston metro area, but they don’t get advertised.
Today I’ll do some more, and less than I hoped.
Wife is working on taxes. We recently found out our accountant died. We didn’t even know she was sick, and we thought she was prepping her assistant to take over when she retired, but it seems not, as her husband just mentions returning any personal paperwork she might have had. It’s a tragedy for her and her family, and just an inconvenience for us, but it was shocking. I’ve been with her for about 30 years… finding someone good who is taking new clients is hard, so my wife is giving it a go, based on the paperwork for the last 10 years. With the solid examples, she thinks she can just keep doing what our CPA was doing, at least for last year and this one. I’m still gonna look for a new accountant.
You never know what life will throw at you. I didn’t have a good backup for this, other than good record keeping and the ability to get online, and to download software. None of us are getting younger, and that includes our business partners, and service providers too. Take a good look at how changes could affect you, and make sure you are ok with what you find.
I’ll add the Mr Heater, and the solar panels to my stacks. I’ll add “find a new accountant” to my list. And I’ll light a candle.
nick
keep stacking.
If you were a long time reader of Dr. Pournelle, you know that he believed Quayle got an unfair rap and detailed his reasoning in depth.
Jerry felt that Quayle kept DC/X flying during his tenure, and that was obviously just long enough to inspire the right players.
JD Vance needs his Kenny Boys exposed lest Republicans end up with another Shrub.
https://www.inspiremore.com/george-w-bushs-hysterical-inauguration-expressions-went-viral-his-family-is-in-stitches/
Fortunately, the p*ssing contest between the RINOs in Texas has short circuited any realistic chance P. Diddly Bush has at the office for at least eight years.
Start with Mrs. Vance.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/25/usha-vance-cambridge-university-gates-scholarship-history/
Austin has a chunk of unincorporated Travis County not far from Pflugerville which is a favorite target for illegal dumping by the “No Habla” crowd. Occasionally, the local Faux News will send a camera crew out during sweeps to update viewers on the lingering issue, but no one really wants anything done about the problem besides some of the people who live there.
Having a close in semi-rural location to do dumping of God-knows-what is handy in a state where zoning is generally regarded as an interesting set of suggestions.
You’re describing MY neighborhood, or at least, a San Antonio analogue. Houses built 40 years ago on acre lots, with wells because city water never made it out this far, far outside the city limits with no HOAs, with big rigs parked in a couple of the lots.
But the McMansions have grown up and surrounded our little rural pocket, and pretty soon, all the benefits of urban cityhood will intrude on our peaceful tranquility.
58F and the real rain started around 10am. Thunder too.
Everyone was up late, so I’ve got the house to myself at the moment.
Coffee is almost ready and I think I’ll have a Little Debbie donut with it.
n
My OCD says never eat an odd number of Little Debbie donuts.
I live in outside the city limits neighborhood also. Any house that goes on the market usually sells within days.
Some of our forgotten or pocket neighborhoods were always, or have become pretty exclusive. There is a horseshoe road near here that you’d drive right by, but the houses are old crapshacks and new mansions. Mansions mostly meaning REALLY BIG and new construction.
This is typical.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7975983,-95.5320486,3a,75y,70.31h,81.53t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sn-rmOebgFOnAKc55YaKJOw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D8.47229485452398%26panoid%3Dn-rmOebgFOnAKc55YaKJOw%26yaw%3D70.30727260763365!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
added– the crapshacks are typically still owned by their original owner who doesn’t want to change, or an inheritor, who doesn’t have the financing to tear it down and build back big. And ‘crapshack’ is only in comparison.
This is a street the developers found before the mansion guys. Here the one and two acre lots were turned into high density housing.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8057166,-95.5125131,3a,75y,274.18h,83.82t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6NuFjyJO48a48qZOyevVBA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D6.180178492146524%26panoid%3D6NuFjyJO48a48qZOyevVBA%26yaw%3D274.17822691804884!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
n
If you continue north on Laverne street, you will see what it all looked like two years ago.
change happens fast
n
Sometimes there is a whole community hidden behind an overgrown bush and fence.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7495184,-95.5424908,3a,75y,357.94h,70.58t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAGSed1cSzMyDmcSCdWVx1Q!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D19.42080163049991%26panoid%3DAGSed1cSzMyDmcSCdWVx1Q%26yaw%3D357.93958632889485!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
n
Subcontinent usually buys the house with the wife’s family money, and they prefer new and BIG.
Sometimes, they will accept a 2500-3000 sq ft place as an interim solution, but that quickly gets replaced and retained as rental property even if they don’t need the income.
I very rarely work with anyone from that demographic who didn’t come to the US already wealthy even by American standards.
Huh. Windows defender treats Nirsoft’s Produkey key recovery tool as malware and removes it.
Fancy that.
n
If I’m quick enough, I can run it and get a results page. Problem is I want to run it against another drive, so I need to start it and then change the target.
I guess I’ll pause defender.
n
@TexasRepublic71 on Twitter posts: “Hey ICE you want to have a record day, go to Colony Ridge in Texas! ”
Somebody has been listening here.
They are saying snow tonight in the hugh desert here, 1-2″ maybe. We could use something, so far all we’ve seen her a few sprinkles out of the latest storm.
LMFAO:
YEEESSSS! Trump Brings the House Down in Vegas With Proposal to Send IRS Agents to the Border
These PLT hires will quit before having to actually work. AND, not from home.
They’re everywhere!
https://www.americanthinker.com/cartoons/
Given the way the civil service works, there is no way they actually hired 80K new agents. They use Bectel and Halliburton to hire people when they need a massive staff up, because they can’t do it in time.
Has anyone seen a number anywhere of how many of the 80K have started work?
n
Anything that access the registry in a non-standard manner is considered nefarious by many, if not all, virus scanners.
Wife is working on taxes. We recently found out our accountant died. We didn’t even know she was sick, and we thought she was prepping her assistant to take over when she retired, but it seems not, as her husband just mentions returning any personal paperwork she might have had. It’s a tragedy for her and her family, and just an inconvenience for us, but it was shocking. I’ve been with her for about 30 years… finding someone good who is taking new clients is hard, so my wife is giving it a go, based on the paperwork for the last 10 years. With the solid examples, she thinks she can just keep doing what our CPA was doing, at least for last year and this one. I’m still gonna look for a new accountant.
My new CPA as of January 2024:
Curtis Cloud & Co. P. C.
7830 W Grand Pkwy S Ste 240
Richmond, TX 77406
+1 (281) 240-4158
Well, it’s too freaking slow, as the tool pulls all the keys, and THEN defender catches up and deletes it. It would have delivered it’s payload if it was malware.
n
“Colombian President Caves to President Trump in Under Two Hours, Will Send HIS Plane to Pick Up Illegals”
https://americafirstreport.com/colombian-president-caves-to-president-trump-in-under-two-hours-will-send-his-plane-to-pick-up-illegals/
“That didn’t take long.”
“Following the issuance of crippling measures by President Donald Trump against Colombia and its leaders, President Gustavo Petro reversed his stance on accepting illegal aliens being deported back to the nation. He even offered to allow his own plane to be used to pick them up.”
I think flights are largely symbolic. Given the vast numbers involved, using all the excess capacity in the nation wouldn’t make a dent, and you have to corral them and line them up first…
n
added — of course, look at what just a few busloads accomplished.
Heavy steady downpour here for a while now. It’s pretty wet.
n
It depends on where the plane lands.
One Air DeSantis flight landing at the Martha’s Vineyard airport was a wakeup call for all the elites.
We got a good look at the logistics – or lack thereof – around the airport driving out to see the various “Jaws” locations on the west end of the island.
Another number which hasn”t been considered is the number of agents lost due to RTO mandates at the IRS. My wife has several as patients who were looking for any possible route to avoid returning to the office in Austin.
I saw people complaining about using Air Force assets to deliver illegals back across the border, and I realized this is something I actually know about. I spent 20 years working for parts of USTRANSCOM.
You know how you run the largest cargo airline in the world, that’s tasked to deliver tons of food, vehicles, armaments, men, field hospitals, kitchens from CONUS to anywhere in the world? Whose mission includes MEDEVAC and transporting prisoners-of-war? Whose mission is not just peacetime logistics requirements, but ramping up to full wartime requirements on multiple fronts?
You start by being large enough to have special airframes built like the C-130 and C-17. Also custom modifications of existing commercial airframes like the C-9 and KC-135. You also make deals with all the large commercial airlines, in which you pay them to have suitably equipped aircraft in their fleet that you can, when necessary, activate, taking them out of commercial use and into Air Force use. Just like reservist personnel, it’s reservist assets. Coincidentally, many of the pilots of those aircraft are also reservists or Guard pilots.
Now that you have the aircraft and crews, you must train and exercise them. You must develop doctrine, and exercise the doctrine in order to fine-tune it. Pilots need to fly a certain number of hours per year. Aircraft need to be used enough to require maintenance, and ground crews must be trained enough to know how to fix what needs fixed, and how to do it wherever it’s needed.
Pilots need to not just take off and land, but to navigate. To cross national borders and fly in diplomatic corridors. To fly with full cargos, with empty planes, full of people, full of patients, full of paratroopers, long hops,short hops, short days, long days. Practice, practice, practice.
You know how they do that? In peacetime, the operating tempo is too slow to keep that edge. So they get their training by scheduling missions to simulate wartime. Instead of deploying active duty troops to war zones, you move reserve units from their home base to their 2-week training locale. You drop paratroopers on training drops. you test your ability to load and unload cargo, sometimes in mid-air.
Flying empty, or with make-work, is not free. We had an entire office whose job was to match DOD travel requirements with aircraft and aircrews that needed flights for currency or training. Rather than fly empty, the pilots/navigators/loadmasters would actually be working, and the training expense would offset expenditures for commercial airline tickets.
If there is no travel requirement, planes still fly. Empty, if need be. Because the training is necessary and vital.
In a slightly related issue, I laugh when I hear about the UN deploying troops to the US.
You know who moves UN troops, or even NATO troops?
USTRANSCOCM. NATO has no organic airlift, beyond what we provide them.
Given the way the civil service works, there is no way they actually hired 80K new agents. They use Bectel and Halliburton to hire people when they need a massive staff up, because they can’t do it in time.
Has anyone seen a number anywhere of how many of the 80K have started work?
The rumors floating around say that Biden did several things in the last 90 days:
NATO has no organic airlift, beyond what we provide them.
– that is interesting and heartening.
n
Biden has not been competent to make decisions since long before Nov. Hit pause on all such actions pending a finding of who actually issued the orders.
Can you RICO U.s. government employees? We should find out. Might be al alternate charge for treason.
OTOH, nitrogen is cheap. If the desired output stream of those portable O2 concentration units is enriched oxygen, then the waste stream is enriched nitrogen. How much oxygen is left when they flush the molecular sieve? If it’s still too high could they just put another unit in series?
TOUGH CALL, BUT THE NOD GOES TO THE CATTLE DOGS SORTING THE DUCKS:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/01/26/sunday-smiles-n3799186
Trump does in the first week what Biden and the PLT’s claimed could not be done:
Polis and Biden’s Inaction Exposed as Feds Rescue Aurora from Violent Gang Takeover
WH Hails Capturing [9] Top Illegal Immigrant Criminals and It’s Monumental
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/01/26/wh-rolls-out-list-of-worst-illegal-aliens-captured-since-trump-took-office-n2651169
It’s a New Day: 50 Tren de Aragua Gang Members Rounded Up in Colorado
More Winning: Rubio Just Made a Big Announcement About American Being Held in Belarus
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/01/26/more-winning-rubio-just-made-a-big-announcement-about-release-of-american-n2184842
Report: Trump Administration Located Over 75,000 Missing Migrant Children
Biddne admin didn’t WANT to find missing kids.
n
I think flights are largely symbolic. Given the vast numbers involved, using all the excess capacity in the nation wouldn’t make a dent, and you have to corral them and line them up first…
n
added — of course, look at what just a few busloads accomplished.
The hope is that many of the illegals will self deport.
BTW, during the financial disaster of 2008, many were fired from their jobs. One of my friends had 35 or so rent houses in the Southwest Houston barrio off Post Oak Blvd. Most of his tenants lost their jobs and went home to Mexico or their foreign nation of choice. He was carrying a large six figure note on these houses that he had paid around $30,000 each for. With very little rent coming in, he could not meet his note payment and the bank foreclosed on him after a few months. He could not believe how many people went back to Mexico.
Kurt Schlicter’s advice to Pete Hegseth:
https://x.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1883192387713020087
Not far enough or hard enough.
No meeting(s) required.
No retractions. No one gets a pass.
Monday 9AM they are all–meaning each group–relieved of duty and replaced. Then each one is held incommunicado and transported to a facility where they can be interrogated.
The generals and their aides are not just done–they are DFD. Up on charges of disobeying a lawful order and court-martialed. Disgraced. Can we perp walk military in chains and orange suits?
The ones that claim they knew better may be just out–no reason to waste resources or valuable prison space. Grade starting at the top with dishonorable discharge on down. Err on the side of being heavy-handed, to make it crystal-clear that any such activity in the future had better be reported before the electrons drop to a lower state.
@Nick
“Biddne admin didn’t WANT to find missing kids.”
Mayorkas claims just got blown to bits. He didn’t get a pardon. How many of those kids were mistreated, abused, and/or killed? Charge him with all of it.
Unleashing the Deep State Rat Catchers
https://johnkassnews.com/rat-catcher/
Right over the target.
[note: PNG=persona non grata]
Whew, coming down in buckets…
– what the heck is up with those ducks?
n
Pearls Before Swine: Teaching Babies To Burn Trash
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/01/26
I haven’t seen a concert flyer in a long time.
Someone still pastes posters announcing various rap acts on a building near my barber’s shop. I think the “viral” and “underground” crowd does a lot of hands on marketing. Probably still use flyers, but I bet they are ⅓ sheet sized, glossy, and thick.
n
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
The list of examples that come to mind is long.
Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Ford, …
Now Bambu.
And outside the corporate world, lot’s more examples:
Sierra Club, most of the “professional” societies…
And doesn’t it perfectly describe government at almost every level?
>>And BTW, has JD been made “czar” of anything yet?
I know it’s hard to realize, but inauguration was only 5 days ago.
Yeah, I know, these things happen though after four years of FJB driving his Corvette at 40 mph in the left lane of the freeway.
“de minimis”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_w6eqzen68
A good educational video on a subject 99% of Americans are ignorant about.
It’s very interesting that Sen. John Thune was one of the primary drivers for the last increase. Might be interesting to see if his donor history includes corporations on the list “pro” shown in the video.
You’re going to hear a lot more about it, because Trump is going to be talking about tariffs, and the ridiculously high threshold for direct shipments from China means that tariff changes will have no effect on most of the direct shipments.
And, yes, this second vocabulary term of the day is directly related, because “de minimis” is a strategy of many of the corporations that are on the enshittification spiral.
And btw, as I have mentioned previously, China benefits further by paying jackshiite for shipping:
https://www.ecomcrew.com/why-china-post-and-usps-are-killing-your-private-labeling-business/
which will probably change under Trump, too.
enshittification
Walmart is another example. After Bud Walton died, the bean counters took over and started forcing their suppliers to reduce the price of what Walmart bought regardless of what it did to quality…
The pendulum swings. New replaces the old. Gotta get thru this.
n
Enshittification sounds similar to Dr. Pournell’s Iron Law.
Texas appears to have Toronto’s winter. You can keep it.