Thur. April 10, 2025 – nothing to do Abe, nothing to do…

By on April 10th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Cold or cool, or just nice, these cool clear mornings rock. I’ll be happy to wear a jacket waiting for the bus if I can wear long pants in the afternoon without sweating. And that’s what we had yesterday. Great weather for driving around with the windows down.

So I did.

Got my dr visit done, had a bit of chicken for lunch, then got my free 128GB thumbdrive from MicroCenter. Picked up two more 64GB drives for $8 total, and the switch I need for my client’s house. I know they aren’t the fastest drives, but free, and $4 each is incredible. The smaller ones will be used at school for the light and sound board backups. The bigger I’ll load with music for the truck.

After that, I did pickups. Then I picked up the kid. EV not for me… I’d have range anxiety. I was anxious to find the right gas station to refill my truck, and there are gas stations at every intersection.

I was sleepy all day, which interfered with my driving. IDK if it was skipping the coffee in the morning or what, but I was wiped out. Never did catch up.

Today I have a local pickup, and household stuff to do. And all the Thursday kid stuff is disrupted by the theater performance tonight. It’ll still end up being a busy day, despite having nothing to do…

I’m engaging with my community. I’m spending time with my kids. I’m improving my position… and stacking some stuff.

I’m prepping, but mostly I’m living.

nick

65 Comments and discussion on "Thur. April 10, 2025 – nothing to do Abe, nothing to do…"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    At $3,276.40, a much better than “mint price”.

    With caveats.

    Such as ?

    $3276.40 is the price if the buyer pays with an eCheck or wire transfer.

    Shipment happens only after payment clears.

    Credit card or Paypal transfers involve a higher pricetag.

    An invoice from the Mint is impeccable provenance.

    The point remains, however. Fishing lures are more expensive. The Mint price was ~ $2800 at this time last year.

  2. Nick Flandrey says:

    59F this morning, so that warming trend is still happening.   Kid’s lunch is packed, coffee is in the mug.   I’m taking youngest to school so she doesn’t have to wrangle the extra stuff of a show day on the bus.   

    Then we’ll see how the day progresses.

    n

  3. Nightraker says:

    As long as deficit spending remains policy, precious metals are guaranteed to appreciate, since their price demonstrates the depreciation of fiat.  While I would prefer to buy a pack of gum with micro or milligrams of PMs, that is not yet the way of the world.

    The somewhat less than 10% premium/surcharge from an internet dealer over spot is the price of business and other payment details reflect charges the dealer pays for those means/ forms.  A 20% -ish discount from the manufacturer’s, mint price is certainly desirable.

    While I have dealt with JMBULLION more than a few times, both buying and selling quite satisfactorily, my first foray/purchase was with Northwestern Territorial Mint who subsequently went bankrupt in a horrible mess of fraud.

    In any case, The Mandibles or something like that is coming.

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    The Mandibles or something like that is coming.  

    – yes.    I’m astounded at some of the online outrage and wailing about “crashing the economy.”    It was always going to crash.   It has crashed, (if you consider the measure of the economy to BE the economy) in 2000 and 2008.  It will crash again.    

    The wider crash, involving not just the markets and real estate as an investment, is coming.   You can’t continue to spend what you don’t have.   Eventually  the debt comes due.    When that happens to countries, war is the result.   

    n

  5. tv says:
    It’s collusion at worst, market rigging at best, and all kinds of ways illegal in any other context.

    Yes, yes, and yes. Do you hear the LSM, PLTs, and Dumboshits talking about this. No, it’s “Rules For Radicals” all the way.  Orange Man Bad! Hitler! Nazis! Dictator! The Deep State is going all in on the sheeple are too stupid to understand any of this. It will backfire. Or CWII will advance to 1 minute before midnight.

    The last comment quoted by MR ATOZ was by Nick regarding how drug prices are set.  

    As he notes, context matters.

    If, for example, you have a life threatening disease, say type 1 diabetes, you will be dependent on a supply of insulin for life.  Imagine a market without rules in this context.  Drug companies colluding to raise the price for insulin (well off any patent protection – say thanks to Canada and Drs. Banting and Best) as high as possible, making anyone with diabetes a virtual slave to the drug companies for life.  So yes, drug prices are set by the governments in Canada along with general market rules against collusion.  I like free markets but not unregulated markets.  As Dr. Pournelle pointed out some time ago (I paraphrase), an unregulated market will set a price on your daughter’s virtue and your son’s flesh and sell both.  So, NO to your third YES.  

    1
    1
  6. Greg Norton says:

    As long as deficit spending remains policy, precious metals are guaranteed to appreciate, since their price demonstrates the depreciation of fiat.  While I would prefer to buy a pack of gum with micro or milligrams of PMs, that is not yet the way of the world.
     

    Deficit spending combined with failed Treasury auctions triggering the printing press is the cause of inflation.

    If the printing presses didn‘t run, the housing market would crater as the interest rates rose to reflect the true cost of borrowing.

    The Deep State might allow the stock market to crash, but the housing market is different since more of the population buys into the delusion of the tenbagger being possible from holding their stucco cr*p shack for 15-20 years.

  7. Ray Thompson says:

    Currently raining at FCFSP and will rain for the next hour. Cool, but not as cold as the night before where the temperature dropped below freezing. One time when we were here the water line to the trailer froze and we did not have any outside water. Fortunately I had filled the 40 gallon on-board water tank the day before.

    There are many trees blown down throughout the park. I was talking with a maintenance worker and a couple of months ago a tree fell on a truck and trailer while people were inside the trailer. The people were not injured. The truck was removed fairly quickly. The trailer stayed for a month as the insurance company was claiming act of God and the damage was not covered as the trailer was a “home”, a “structure” subject to the same rules as a permanent house. Yeh, right, any excuse to not pay.

    It is supposed to be sunny this afternoon. In fact the sun is breaking through as I type.

    We are here for one more night. Another cool night. Sleeping under lots of blankets, cool, and really quiet. I think one could hear a mouse fart. Sleeping really well.

    I did some pictures yesterday and put them on a website. All of them were taken with my iPhone 15 Pro. Amazing the photographic power that a person can now carry in one’s pocket.

    https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/FCFSP/index.html 

    Something to waste time for y’all.

  8. tv says:

    Canada, Oh Canada…

    Canada spectacularly bends the knee to the U.S. as Trump scores major victory over the ’51st state’

    Orange Man…Good?

    The demented yam is rotten to the core.    

    Prime Minister (PM) Carney’s original statements to the Orange Man started with (paraphrasing): “ I am not speaking with him until he shows respect – no more 51st state and no more Governor comments”.  What happened, a few days later Trump calls (or I suppose a time for a call is agreed to).  Both replied after the call.  You will note the total lack of any 51st state or governor comments (then or since) in the now cowed Yam’s statements.  There is also an agreement to look into the trade relationship after the Canadian election.  All of that happened 2 weeks ago, so all you have here is PM Carney repeating that agreement.  You will note that there were also no stupidly calculated tariffs announced Wednesday on Canada.  A stupid but quiet yam.

    But congratulations: these are Daily Mail headlines after all and so clickbait.  I clicked.

    2
    4
  9. nick flandrey says:

    Destiny USA, New York’s largest mall and one of the biggest in the U.S., has defaulted on a $300 million mortgage, according to Syracuse.com.

    Its owner, Carousel Center Co., failed to secure an extension when the loan matured on June 6 of last year, according to recent financial filings.

    The Syracuse.com report says that after failing to extend its loan maturity, Destiny USA’s $300 million mortgage is now in default, with the full balance of $325.2 million—including $25.2 million in deferred interest—immediately due, according to an independent audit.

    n

  10. nick flandrey says:

    These steep tariffs are poised to crush Chinese sellers that have long dominated Amazon’s marketplace by flooding the U.S. with cheap junk. 

    Data from SmartScout shows that most of Amazon’s sellers are based in China. Over the years, Chinese sellers have figured out how to cut out intermediaries and use Amazon as a direct-to-consumer marketplace for low-cost goods such as electronics, toys, household items, and fashion accessories.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinese-sellers-amazon-panic-after-trumps-tariff-bazooka 

    The silver lining is that high tariffs on China will begin to stop cheap Chinese junk flooding this nation. Americans need to detox from their obsession with cheap Chinese products that routinely break or come broken.

    Done this before. 

    — the cheapest crep, shipped via exploitive “packet mail” and received broken, and returned, or sold via fraudulent listings and then returned, cleaning those sellers out is a service to the world.

    They lie, ship doll sized versions listed and sold like full sized versions, ship ¾ sized versions that look right in the pix but are unfit for purpose, ship “third shift” versions of products they are producing for legit sellers (stuff that is defective, doesn’t pass inspection by the design team, or stuff that is produced in the same factory, but on the 3rd shift, after running two shifts for the contracted designer (nike has this problem.)  The crep doesn’t meet safety standards, sometimes in deadly ways.  

    Get rid of it and nuke from orbit.

    n

  11. Lynn says:

    “The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys” by Lise Olsen

       https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593595688?tag=ttgnet-20/

    “Houston, Texas, in the early 1970s was an exciting place—the home of NASA, the city of the future. But a string of more than two dozen missing teenage boys hinted at a dark undercurrent that would go ignored for too long. While their siblings and friends wondered where they had gone, the Houston police department dismissed them as runaways, fleeing the Vietnam draft or conservative parents, likely looking to get high and join the counterculture.”

    “It was only after their killer, Dean Corll, was murdered by an accomplice that many of those boys’ bodies were discovered in mass graves. Corll, known as the “Candy Man,” was a local sweet-shop owner who had enlisted two teens to lure their friends to parties, where they would be tortured and killed.”

    “All of Corll’s victims’ bodies were badly decomposed; some were only skeletal. Known collectively as the Lost Boys, many were never identified and some remained undiscovered. Decades later, when forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick discovered a box of remains marked “1973 Murders” in the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office, she recalled the horrifying crime from her own childhood, and knew she had to act. It would take prison interviews with Corll’s accomplices, advanced scientific techniques, and years of tireless effort to identify these young men.”

    This happened where I grew up on the southwest side of Houston.  My mother was freaking out in the summer of 1973 when the Houston Post newspaper starting noting that there was a lot of missing young men around our house in Meyerland.  She would not let us leave our front yard.

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Corll

    Elmer Wayne Henley shot and killed Dean Corll in August of 1973.  Together, they murdered at least 29 young men in Houston over four years from 1970 to 1973.  They buried them all over the place. Elmer Wayne Henley is still in a Texas jail.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Wayne_Henley

  12. Lynn says:

    The Mandibles or something like that is coming.  

    – yes.    I’m astounded at some of the online outrage and wailing about “crashing the economy.”    It was always going to crash.   It has crashed, (if you consider the measure of the economy to BE the economy) in 2000 and 2008.  It will crash again.    

    The wider crash, involving not just the markets and real estate as an investment, is coming.   You can’t continue to spend what you don’t have.   Eventually  the debt comes due.    When that happens to countries, war is the result.   

    Yes, but it is now thought that the US Dollar will survive.  But the Dollar of tomorrow will be a faint shadow of the Dollar of today.  I still think that we will be looking at 30% inflation, year after year for at least a decade, in the very near future.  But what other currency will you invest in ?

        https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Wow, out of 4,589 reviews on Big River, I am still the top review with 18 recommendations.

  13. MrAtoz says:

    Elmer Wayne Henley shot and killed Dean Corll in August of 1973.  Together, they murdered 29 young men.  They buried them all over the place. Elmer Wayne Henley is still in a Texas jail.

    Texas says “hold my beer” to my home State of WI finest: Ed Gein (special mention for Dahmer).

  14. Lynn says:

    “House Narrowly Passes Trump-Backed Budget Plan Despite Two Republicans Voting With Democrats”

        https://thelibertydaily.com/house-narrowly-passes-trump-backed-budget-plan-despite/

    “(The Daily Signal)—House Republicans pushed through a Trump-backed budget framework on a 216-214 vote Thursday, providing a boost to the president’s legislative agenda.”

    “Democrats voted against it unanimously, while Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., were the only Republicans in opposition.”

    “The resolution’s passage came amid some protests from hard-line fiscal conservatives within the GOP, who argued that the plan does not provide sufficient cuts to the deficit.”

    “The budget resolution is a major first step that Congress must pass in order to get to budget reconciliation—the process of setting targets for spending in various areas.”

    We have not had a federal budget in the USA since 2008.  Congress is not doing its job.

  15. Lynn says:

    Destiny USA, New York’s largest mall and one of the biggest in the U.S., has defaulted on a $300 million mortgage, according to Syracuse.com.

    Its owner, Carousel Center Co., failed to secure an extension when the loan matured on June 6 of last year, according to recent financial filings.

    The Syracuse.com report says that after failing to extend its loan maturity, Destiny USA’s $300 million mortgage is now in default, with the full balance of $325.2 million—including $25.2 million in deferred interest—immediately due, according to an independent audit.

    New York is dying.  People are leaving there in droves.  The cities are dangerous and the citizens do not care.

    8
    1
  16. Greg Norton says:

    New York is dying.  People are leaving there in droves.  The cities are dangerous and the citizens do not care.
     

    LA was pretty grim last week.

    We stayed mostly in tourist places, but a trip to the firehouse from “Emergency” required getting off the freeway in Carson and getting lunch at a nearby diner.

    Carson isn‘t Compton, but an impromptu lowrider show started setting up in the diner parking lot while we ate. The rental Camry kinda stood out.

    The immediate vicinity of Pink’s in Hollywood was also iffy.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    Data from SmartScout shows that most of Amazon’s sellers are based in China. Over the years, Chinese sellers have figured out how to cut out intermediaries and use Amazon as a direct-to-consumer marketplace for low-cost goods such as electronics, toys, household items, and fashion accessories.
     

    Newegg third party vendors are also bad since the site was sold to new Chinese owners.

  18. Lynn says:

    “Social Security Administration backs off plan to cut phone service”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-security-administration-backs-off-plan-to-cut-phone-service-181403247.html

    “The agency faced backlash about limiting customer service for millions of seniors.”

    Does Social Security even have a clue who their customer is ?

  19. Lynn says:

    I did some pictures yesterday and put them on a website. All of them were taken with my iPhone 15 Pro. Amazing the photographic power that a person can now carry in one’s pocket.

    https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/FCFSP/index.html 

    Looks like Texas except for the, you know, water.

  20. Ray Thompson says:

    Does Social Security even have a clue who their customer is ?

    Social Security workers think they are doing applicants a favor just by doing their job. Go to a local office and ask for anything beyond a simple question and the answer requires two levels of management approval. Most of the “workers” are there for the paycheck and nothing else. Actually doing work, pffftttt, you must be silly.

  21. Lynn says:

    Prime Minister (PM) Carney’s original statements to the Orange Man started with (paraphrasing): “ I am not speaking with him until he shows respect – no more 51st state and no more Governor comments”.  What happened, a few days later Trump calls (or I suppose a time for a call is agreed to).  Both replied after the call.  You will note the total lack of any 51st state or governor comments (then or since) in the now cowed Yam’s statements.  There is also an agreement to look into the trade relationship after the Canadian election.  All of that happened 2 weeks ago, so all you have here is PM Carney repeating that agreement.  You will note that there were also no stupidly calculated tariffs announced Wednesday on Canada.  A stupid but quiet yam.

    Trump is up to his earlobes, at the moment, with alligators.  Canada will have to wait their turn before the annexation starts.

    5
    1
  22. Ray Thompson says:

    Looks like Texas except for the, you know, water.

    And the tall trees, Bastrop excluded. I really like the hill country and Blue Bonnets, massive fields of flowers, the wildflowers that grow alongside the highways. Awesome, but short lived.

  23. Lynn says:

    xkcd: Push Notifications

       https://www.xkcd.com/3074/

    Just say no.  But the notifications are a funny game.

    Explained at:

       https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3074:_Push_Notifications

  24. Lynn says:

    Wizard Of Id: Frog Prince

       https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2025/04/10

    Ok, that is funny.  I wonder if it is habit forming ?

  25. Lynn says:

    “Trump targets state climate laws in latest executive order”

        https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/government/article/55281099/trump-targets-state-climate-laws-in-latest-executive-order

    “President Trump issued an executive order tasking Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to ensure states and cities follow federal climate and energy laws, not their own, more aggressive energy rules and climate standards.”

    This may not be Constitutional.  But different climate rules between states do definitely affect Interstate Commerce.  SCOTUS may be interested.

  26. nick flandrey says:

    Yeah, once you start abusing the General Welfare and Interstate Commerce then you might as well use it for good.   Better to enforce the 10A.

    n

  27. Lynn says:

    “Prepared Citizens”

       https://areaocho.com/prepared-citizens/

    “I saw this story in the New York Times and was amazed that there was a prepper movement that I hadn’t heard of, that it appears to be centered on Central Florida, and also that a branch of the MSM would do a positive story about prepping.”

    “I wonder how many Feds are associated with the two groups in the story. Remember, the Fed is the one urging you to do something illegal.”

    You can read the NYT story here:

        https://archive.is/RV3C4

    I wonder who the fed is here ?

  28. Lynn says:

    “A Malibu liberal loses his California cool”

       https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-malibu-liberal-loses-his-california.html

    Look at me. I’m a Malibu Liberal. 

    I believe in climate justice. Can you believe I actually said those words?! I’ve posted those words. I’ve whispered them into quartz. I ate kelp-based protein and offset my flights to Tulum through an app made by annoying Stanford kids. I composted at scale. I did all of the things. 

    Our home was solar-powered, LEED-certified, AND tastefully non-invasive—except for the footprint, which was enormous. But it was *intentional*. And even though it cost a fortune, I STILL did all of the things. We marched. We meditated. I once cried over a Greta Thunberg speech in my Range Rover outside Nobu. But nature doesn’t care about ANY of that. It just burns—helped along, of course, by decades of political incompetence.

    And when it burned, the city sent not one, not two, but THREE lesbian fire chiefs with not a single hose between them. Look, DEI is important, I get that. But not when the hillside’s ON FIRE. The mayor showed up three days later from Africa, only to take a selfie and mispronounce “Malibu.” And I’m all for representation, but that [REDACTED]. 

    We lost EVERYTHING! And when we tried to rebuild, we met the final boss: Democrat bureaucracy. Six months for a soil report. A year for coastal variances. Our rebuild “disrespected the ridgeline.” Whatever that means. I met with the Architectural Review Board while on mushrooms and I still don’t know if that meeting was real.

    Our contractor was approved, then unapproved, then deported. We got a violation for sandbagging our own driveway. We’ve spent $120,000 just to *not* live in our house. I asked a councilwoman for help. She sent me back a workbook titled ‘Rethinking Home’ and a notice from the county asking us not to disturb owl mating zones while our lives are literally ash.

    So **** it.

    **** the permits.

    **** the endangered sand beetle.

    **** the Architectural Review Board.

    **** the Democrats.

    Where is my MAGA hat.

    Welcome to the real world. He will never be allowed to rebuild his home.

    6
    1
  29. nick flandrey says:

    He thought he was one of the cool kids.   Found out he was not.

    n

  30. Lynn says:

    “It’s not just a military conflict in the Middle East”

         https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/04/its-not-just-military-conflict-in.html

    “Matthew Bracken, former SEAL, author and astute observer of the world around us, reminds us that the staggering cost of a potential war with Iran over that country’s nuclear program is not just military.”

       https://steelcutter.substack.com/p/if-we-go-to-war-against-iran-the

    War is Hell.  Never forget that.

  31. nick flandrey says:

    WTAF??

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14595867/doctors-warning-women-die-vaginal-filler-procedure.html 

    The autopsy indicated that filler-related embolisms in her vaginal blood vessels were the primary cause of the fatal complications.

    It’s believed that the women were undergoing the procedure to fill out their vaginal walls, so that sexual penetration would feel more pleasurable for their male partners.

    Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Beverly Hills-based plastic surgeon Dr. Deepak Dugar warned about the dangers of the procedure. 

    ‘All fillers carry risk and must be assessed as to whether the area they’re being injected in is high risk or low risk,’ explained Dr. Dugar, who is renowned for his signature ‘scarless nose’ surgery.

    ‘Areas like the vagina or the penis are very vascular areas that are very high risk for vascular compromise, which can lead to emergency situations such as necrosis of tissues or possible embolism,’ he continued.

    – ok, I get that Korean men have (statistically) small penises.   And women today have high body counts.   But maybe a Kegel exercise or two would be a better choice than injecting fillers into your organs?

    n

  32. Greg Norton says:

    Trump is up to his earlobes, at the moment, with alligators.  Canada will have to wait their turn before the annexation starts.
     

    Wee Pierre/Castro Jr. is gone. That was the important short term goal.

    Keir Starmer is next.

    The media push for Starmer’s exit will start with the next season of “Clarkson’s Farm”.

    4
    1
  33. Alan says:

    BREAKING  – Bell Jet Ranger helicopter tumbles and crashes upside down into the Hudson River. Initial reports say six dead, including one child.

  34. Lynn says:

    “Over 30 pieces of evidence on how ‘the climate scam is collapsing’”

        https://www.climatedepot.com/2025/04/09/over-30-pieces-of-evidence-on-how-the-climate-scam-is-collapsing/

    “The climate scam is imploding right now. Of course there are still plenty of remaining pockets of climate cultism, but the whole movement is crumbling.”

    “It’s the most massive scientific fraud in human history, and it will take significant time to completely die, but make no mistake: It IS dying.”

    A list of 30 items …

    “After discovering so many massive, high-profile COVID lies in recent years, large numbers of people are asking themselves “What else are they lying about?”, and the answer is “just about everything”.”

    “Elites tried for the Great Reset but they got a Great Awakening.”

  35. MrAtoz says:

    The chopper crash investigation will be interesting. Pilot error? Poor maintenance? Structural failure from fatigue? Bird/??? strike?

    Pancaking in like that made me shutter.  A bird stike on a rotor can cause an imbalance and the whole system rips itself apart. I hope the pilot wasn’t doing something stupid, but they always do.

  36. Lynn says:

    “It’s not just a military conflict in the Middle East”

         https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/04/its-not-just-military-conflict-in.html

    “Matthew Bracken, former SEAL, author and astute observer of the world around us, reminds us that the staggering cost of a potential war with Iran over that country’s nuclear program is not just military.”

       https://steelcutter.substack.com/p/if-we-go-to-war-against-iran-the

    War is Hell.  Never forget that.

    Before the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, the USA was importing about 70% of its crude oil from various sources: Middle East, Mexico, Canada, and Venezuela. Due to the combined magics of directed oil well drilling and fracking, we now import only 15% of our crude oil. And we turn around and sell about 25% of the gasoline and diesel produced with all that domestic and imported crude oil to Mexico, Europe, Japan, China, Caribbean, etc.

    So, if we get embargoed again, the USA will not be affected much. But the rest of the world will be sucking wind since they will not be able to import very much crude oil.

  37. Lynn says:

    “A Needed Dose of Political Reality from Paul Weston”

        https://steelcutter.substack.com/p/a-needed-dose-of-political-reality

    “Time is running out for the UK to avoid total conquest and surrender to Islam.”

    “There is now zero chance for any political solution to the ongoing Islamic conquest.”

    I wonder what England’s new islamic name will be, Englandistan ?

    Tom Kratman’s foretelling Caliphate novel is coming closer and closer to reality.

        https://www.amazon.com/Caliphate-Tom-Kratman/dp/1439133425?tag=ttgnet-20

  38. Greg Norton says:

    I wonder what England’s new islamic name will be, Englandistan ?

    The clock is ticking on the Labour government.

    https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/clarksons-farm-season-4-release-date-confirmed-newsupdate/

  39. paul says:

    No chicken tonight.  Someone, ain’t naming names, forgot to take it out of the fridge to thaw.  There’s always tomorrow.

  40. Lynn says:

    – ok, I get that Korean men have (statistically) small penises.   And women today have high body counts.   But maybe a Kegel exercise or two would be a better choice than injecting fillers into your organs?

    Look at how many people are taking Ozempic and its siblings.  People are always looking for the easy way out.  

    I can tell you from experience, changing your body is never the same as what God gave you.  My wife had reconstruction after the breast cancer mastectomy 20 years ago when she was 47.  She had it so that she would not have to wear a prosthetic bra like her three aunts that had mastectomies in their 40s and 60s.  But the reconstruction does not feel like the real thing.  And there is no nipple, just a ridge of skin folded over with a tattoo that has faded away.  The original nipple was connected to one of the tumors and it all had to go away.

    I can also say this, if my diet does not continue to work, I will go the Ozempic route also.  One of my friends is 5’6″, 79 years old, and has been on Ozempic for three years.  He has dropped from 285 to 215 over those three years and expects to be on it for the rest of his life.  His blood pressure is way down and his type 2 diabetes has gone away.

  41. EdH says:

    The LA Sheriff’s sent me a flyer, they are looking for helicopter mechanics.

    Salary is $113,576.40, with an authorized 5.5% bonus ($6,246) for personnel authorized to do  “in-flight” checks. 

    Crazy.

    Though the only AP guy I ever knew that did “in-flight” checks hated doing them.  In fact he didn’t like flying.

  42. drwilliams says:

    Climate Change Study Funding Goes Poof

    The Trump administration is canceling funding for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the entity that produces the federal government’s signature climate change study, according to three federal officials familiar with the move.

    The move, which had been widely expected, is a potentially fatal blow to the National Climate Assessment, the study that Congress mandated under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 be issued every four years to ensure the government understands the threats that rising temperatures pose and what is driving climate changes.

    @RogerPielkeJr

    I took a close look at the authors of the US National Climate Assessment

     Center for American Progress 

    The Nature Conservancy 

    Environmental Defense Fund 

    The Club of Rome 

    Project Drawdown 

    Ocean Conservancy 

    Union of Concerned Scientists 

    and more and more …

    https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/04/10/weee-so-much-winning-climate-change-study-funding-goes-poof-n3801630

  43. tv says:

    Trump is up to his earlobes, at the moment, with alligators.  Canada will have to wait their turn before the annexation starts.

    The problem is not the alligators.  The problem is the confused yam has no clue what a swamp is, or how to drain it, and he keeps pouring sewage into the water he is wading in.  He insists he won’t stop the sewage no matter what.  Then he suddenly stops it.  Totally clueless yam.

    As for annexation, elbows-up.  

  44. drwilliams says:

    If we close the border the Canadian sports teams will have to start their own leagues. Be fun to see if they can survive on $1.50 (Canadian) checks from cable.

    4
    1
  45. Greg Norton says:

    If we close the border the Canadian sports teams will have to start their own leagues. Be fun to see if they can survive on $1.50 (Canadian) checks from cable.

    MLB loves having that big empty domed stadium in Montreal to use as a bargaining chip for new stadiums in all of the league’s US markets.

  46. drwilliams says:

    Top US Commander in Greenland Disavows Trump’s Position to US and Danish Troops

    Space Force Colonel Susan Meyers, who assumed command of the 821st Space Base Group at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland in July 2024, wrote that she “spent the weekend thinking about Friday’s visit — the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you. I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,”

    https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/04/10/top-us-commander-in-greenland-disavows-trumps-position-to-us-and-danish-troops-n2187734

    “Vlad, how would you like to have a new liaison at the Vostochny Cosmodrome? Yeah, she’s used to the cold but maybe not that much cold.” 

  47. drwilliams says:

    MLB loves having that big empty domed stadium in Montreal to use as a bargaining chip for new stadiums in all of the league’s US markets.

    They could fill a few more seats if they distributed the “Why Baseball Bats Aren’t Flat and Curved, Eh?” coloring books with the Tim Horton’s coupon.

  48. nick flandrey says:

    Sounds like the Colonel forgot that there is a chain of command, and that she’s not at the top…

    or she thinks orangemanbad won’t be around to do anything about it.

    n

  49. nick flandrey says:

    I’ve never had cause to wonder before,but does the VPOTUS have status in the chain of command while the President and CinC is still available or does his authority over the military only kick in when he becomes CinC?

    n

  50. drwilliams says:

    Article 2 does not mention VPOTUS.

  51. nick flandrey says:

    Interesting.

    a little ice age caused by volcanic eruption

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14589309/scientists-reveal-cause-collapse-ancient-rome-ice-age.html 

    Some geological evidence too.

    n

  52. Ken Mitchell says:

    what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,

    She’s been relieved of command for “loss of confidence in her ability to lead”. She should file her retirement paperwork before she gets BCD’ed and kicked out as an E1. 

  53. Ken Mitchell says:

    VPOTUS have status in the chain of command 

    The VP’s ONLY role in the Constitution is to be the President of the Senate, and break ties. Anything else is delegated from the President. I believe that Trump and Vance are pretty close, so any insult to Vance will be relayed up pretty promptly – and then the SecDef will take pretty quick action of his own.

  54. Ken Mitchell says:

    Article 2 does not mention VPOTUS.

    But Article I does. 

    https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-1/#article-1-section-3-clause-4

  55. Ken Mitchell says:

    a little ice age caused by volcanic eruption

    And the millennium-long cycle of “climate change”. Rome fell after the warming peak two cycles ago, while the collapse after the peak of the last cycle accompanied the collapse of the Vikings, and the “Little Ice Age” of the 1300s.

    We’re pretty near the peak of THIS cycle, so I expect the next change will be cold, and things have gotten pretty cold after the peaks.

  56. Rolf Grunsky (A Crimson Tory) says:

    If we close the border the Canadian sports teams will have to start their own leagues. Be fun to see if they can survive on $1.50 (Canadian) checks from cable.

    Gee… I wonder where the NHL started?

  57. Alan says:

    >>I can also say this, if my diet does not continue to work, I will go the Ozempic route also.  One of my friends is 5’6″, 79 years old, and has been on Ozempic for three years.  He has dropped from 285 to 215 over those three years and expects to be on it for the rest of his life.  

    The majority of users that go off Ozempic regain a good percentage of the weight that they had lost, hence the ‘rest of his life’ need. 

    Also check if your insurance company covers this for weight loss, otherwise your doctor will need to prescribe it for your “diabetes.” 

  58. Lynn says:

    VPOTUS have status in the chain of command 

    The VP’s ONLY role in the Constitution is to be the President of the Senate, and break ties. Anything else is delegated from the President. I believe that Trump and Vance are pretty close, so any insult to Vance will be relayed up pretty promptly – and then the SecDef will take pretty quick action of his own.

    And to replace the President if needed as has happened too many times in the past.

  59. Lynn says:

    “In New England, Canadian hydropower has slowed to an ominous trickle”

        https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/hydropower/canadian-hydroelectric-new-england-cutoff

    “Whether due to drought, prices, or politics, the weekslong disappearance of Canadian hydropower from New England’s grid exposes risks for the region.”

  60. Lynn says:

    >>I can also say this, if my diet does not continue to work, I will go the Ozempic route also.  One of my friends is 5’6″, 79 years old, and has been on Ozempic for three years.  He has dropped from 285 to 215 over those three years and expects to be on it for the rest of his life.  

    The majority of users that go off Ozempic regain a good percentage of the weight that they had lost, hence the ‘rest of his life’ need. 

    Also check if your insurance company covers this for weight loss, otherwise your doctor will need to prescribe it for your “diabetes.” 

    I have always regained most of the weight that I lost eventually.  I got up to 272 lbs in 2004 from 205 lbs in 1981 and dropped to 232 lbs in 2004 using the South Beach Diet.  I got back up to 263 lbs last year and want to drop to 220 lbs now.

    I figure that I will burn that bridge when I come to it.  It may come down to how is it worth to me to weigh 220 lbs.  I do not want to be diabetic like several of my older relatives are.

    There are many GLP-1 drugs coming out and the shortages are gone.  The street price may drop extensively.

        https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/expert-answers/byetta/faq-20057955

  61. Lynn says:

    a little ice age caused by volcanic eruption

    And the millennium-long cycle of “climate change”. Rome fell after the warming peak two cycles ago, while the collapse after the peak of the last cycle accompanied the collapse of the Vikings, and the “Little Ice Age” of the 1300s.

    We’re pretty near the peak of THIS cycle, so I expect the next change will be cold, and things have gotten pretty cold after the peaks.

    Christmas Eve of 1989 was 6 F (-14 C) here in Sugar Land and -4 F (-20 F) in Dallas for three days.  Austin was about -2 F IIRC.  Almost a serious disaster for the Texas grid, there were rotating blackouts all across the grid.  I called my old boss (I left TXU in October 1989) and he said that they were barely hanging in there as they were burning 330,000 barrels (14 million gallons) of fuel oil and diesel per day with zero natural gas.  All of the coal units were running day and night at 110% to 120% power levels with the mines going full speed.

    We had about 3.5 million barrels of fuel oil in storage at the power plants when I left.  I suspect that they burned at least 2.0 million barrels of that.  Probably a third of the houses in Texas had broken water pipes since we did not insulate pipes in the attics or walls back then.

    If it gets that cold in Texas again, all bets are off.  The junior dispatchers in Austin will flub this one too as they seem to not do well in conditions that they have not seen before. We got down to 12 F in Fort Bend County in Feb 2021 which they went right past rotating blackouts to over half of the grid blacked out for four days.

  62. Alan says:

    >>The chopper crash investigation will be interesting. Pilot error? Poor maintenance? Structural failure from fatigue? Bird/??? strike?

    Pancaking in like that made me shutter.  A bird stike on a rotor can cause an imbalance and the whole system rips itself apart. I hope the pilot wasn’t doing something stupid, but they always do.

    Some explanation of how the accident developed…

    https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2025-04-10/bell-longranger-crashes-hudson-river-killing-6

  63. nick flandrey says:

    I got some test results back today and they were all good as far as I can tell.  It’s a load off my mind, once the doc confirms I’m reading the reports correctly.

    ——–

    D2’s show went well.   Sound for a large cast comedy is very different from a musical, and the kid running it learned that lesson tonight.  I’m hoping he can clean up a few things for tomorrow’s performance.  That’s all there are, two, so you either get it right or you don’t.   Kid doesn’t have enough rehearsal time in the schedule to get good sound.

    I spoke with the teacher running the program tonight, and she understands, but right now the schedule really doesn’t allow any more time.

    If they want to use reinforcement, they need to take it seriously enough that they rehearse with it.  He mostly needs one more rehearsal to do a sound check as they are running, where he can listen and make corrections without worrying about muting and unmuting mics and hitting sound playback cues.  It’s hard to listen and make changes one or two lines at a time, if you are worried about missing the next cue.

    He did ok despite the problems.

    Teacher gave me and the wife a shout out in  the program and in her thank you speech after the show.  That was nice.

    n

  64. Alan says:

    >>I got some test results back today and they were all good as far as I can tell.  It’s a load off my mind, once the doc confirms I’m reading the reports correctly.

    Nice to hear the good news 🙂

Comments are closed.