Hot again. And humid. It was a bit less humid yesterday though, which was nice. There was plenty of heat. Mostly I hid indoors, when I wasn’t running the kid around town. Even short distance trips take more time than you would expect.
So I was mostly dad yesterday. Had sportsball tryouts, a Dr visit, more sportsball, and not a lot of work ended up being done. I did mostly auction stuff. And sitting at my computer. Did a quick update for my hobby site. It’s definitely easier with a wordpress based site.
Today I’ve got both kids running all over town. School is starting up soon and the back to school stuff is starting up too.
On my plate, I’ve got pickups, cleanup, fixes, auction stuff, and all the domestic bliss I’ve put off for two weeks.
So short shrift here, unfortunately.
Doesn’t mean you should slack off. One look at the headlines should convince you that there is room in the pantry for a few more cans, and room in the safe for a few more gats…
So stack it up.
nick
Absolutely not.
The Mouse trashed my childhood. Mickey deserves his fate.
I hold a beer money position in Comcast out of spite and a desire to see Super Mario and Donkey Kong stomp Disney’s attendance numbers next Spring.
Kabletown is just as bad in terms of Woke, however. They simply had fewer key IPs to destroy.
I’ve lost about half of that beer money BTW.
CMCSA is my middle finger to Mickey.
I don’t short stocks or play other similar paper games.
I tried PSQ for a while, but that was a fast way to lose a lot of the beer money I gambled.
More recently I made the mistake of putting beer money into SMH ETF sheeple shearing, but I managed to sell before I lost the ante.
My biggest stock position is BRK-B, and I roast The Gecko mercilessly, most recently about his generator slush fund in Texas, part of which will eventually go into my pocket.
Oh, and I forgot about my MSFT, purchased because, as much as I view The Legend of BillG as a crock, I looked at Ballmer the Monkey Boy’s Windows 8 and thought it was salvageable, which would probably stick in Gates’ craw.
I’ll be the first in line for a tour of the Giant House (TM) when that gets liquidated in the divorce.
I had several shares of Enron, almost $25K worth. You know how that worked out. I felt bad, but not horrible. I had paid about $500.00 for the initial investment. I did get a settlement check in the end. The amount was $0.02. I never cashed the check and still have the check in my files.
All of my investments are managed by an investment advisor with a large firm. I let him make my decisions. My funds are allocated in who knows what. I have about 25 mutual funds that themselves are spread far and wide.
I got burned bad in 2008 but on the advice of my advisor I stayed the course. It all recovered and then some. I got hit hard yesterday but will stay the course. The stock market has always recovered.
Listening to XM/Sirius. Mandy just started playing. Ah, the memories.
The BluRay of “Foul Play” is a beautiful piece of work. The opening credit sequence with the Manilow playing over the VW rolling around the San Francisco pre-PC/Internet is a more powerful nostalgia trip than just “Mandy” alone.
Kenny Boy!
Why Ask Why Ask Why Ask Why …
Frame that check.
I have a Pets.com sock puppet in a very safe place.
Here in the swamp, Debby was an interesting experience. We were on the “dirty south” side, so we got about nine inches of rain yesterday, but it came in doses. A band would hit, and there would be much rain and wind, and then things would go back to light rain until the next band.
Most places were able to drain off the rain before the next band hit, so it wasn’t a huge flooding event except around retention ponds (described as lakes by the developers of the various 55+ gated communities) and areas that flood with every storm.
I am giving it a little time so the ring necks and such can get back home in the trees before I pick up what will something like be 150 gallons of Spanish Moss and a few small broken limbs. Yeah, I keep my Live Oaks dead-wooded and trimmed for air flow.
“There is no Qom crater in this timeline. Carter should have given them the choice.”
Carter owns 75% of the mess in the Middle East. The stupid prig betrayed the Shah and learned nothing from it.
The Humper has picked Walz, governor of Minnesota. He is a real piece of work, a liberal jerk. Between those two clowns they have managed to combine to produce a really dangerous liberal ticket. If the Humper wins most of the current liberties will be attempted to be destroyed.
Seems like a nice day so far. Not broiling hot yet. I’m sure it will get there.
Both kids off on their first and second event of the day. I’m going to get started with some domestic bliss, I’m sure there is laundry I can start….
ah, the excitement mounts…
n
School teacher. National Guard. Midwest.
It will play well in Dubuque. He was born in NE.
@Nick: Good for you. We work to live, not the other way around..
Shapiro should have all the mirrors covered up—seeing himself in one cannot be good for his mental health.
OTOH, the reality is that if he had an “R” after his name half the Democrat Party or more would spit on him. How much self-respect can he have?
And will his online presence get “re-jewified”, or will it remain as a two-bit monument to ambition?
Front-runner:
There are reports today that the Boeing Starliner cannot return to Earth without a crew – the s/w to do so was removed before flight.
A new s/w package could take a month to install.
And would not remove the chance of uncommanded thruster firings causing the
CalypsoSS Minnow to hit the staion on departure.This keeps getting worse and worse.
Starliner must siccessfully land with the crew to be declared operational.
Sure.
But I think this mission is toast for that, no one would seriously believe it was a success, even if the crew returns safely.
There might be a back room deal, NASA calls it a success but Boeing agrees to do it over at their expense. Again.
Boeing is bleeding money from their eyes and ears right now, they want to go, but it is an election year, NASA and the Biden administration probably are pushing the safer option – loss of crew would be devastating.
I see that Cackling Kamala just picked the most socialist governor in the country to be her VP, Walz of Minnesota. He is so socialist that he says:
“”Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values,” the Minnesota Democrat said on a “White Dudes for Harris” call last week. “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.””
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/harris-running-mate-faces-renewed-scrutiny-weird-socialism-comparison-resurfaces
Yeah, just about all of the socialists in the last hundred and fifty years around the planet have killed and starved hundreds of millions of people.
“The rest of this year is going to be “interesting”…”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-rest-of-this-year-is-going-to-be.html
“International tensions (Israel-Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah-Yemen, China-Taiwan, Russia-Ukraine, Iran-Azerbaijan-Armenia, and a host of others) are one thing. Domestic issues (race, legal and illegal migration, culture wars, support for one or other external faction, etc.) are another. The November 2024 election is also a factor; I fully expect at least one more assassination attempt against President Trump, and this time those behind it are likely to make sure it’s much better planned, organized and executed than their first risible effort. If they succeed, we may just have a civil war on our hands. If they cheat at the polls (which I absolutely expect them to do), ditto.”
Don’t forget the canned sunshine forecast ! The chances are fairly good in the near term. I just bought an el cheapo radiation detector.
His military compatriots are already “Swiftboating” him. A PLT civilian piece of trash is also a military PLT piece of trash. I can’t wait to hear how he talks his way out of that. Denigrating the military would be his shit-for-brains LibTurd way to go. Better keep Kelly on speed dial.
Don’t exaggerate. Only about 150 million.
In the words of one such socialist, “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”
Do you have a short position on Disney ?
I shorted a competitor about 20 years ago when a lawyer from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) called me and said that they were considering filing an antitrust lawsuit against them. The FTC did, I closed my short, and made a bunch of money. My partners said never do that again. The FTC lawyer did not NDA me nor was a employee of the competitor. And the antitrust action that they did was announced to the market in general.
I then went long on the competitor and made even more money.
I have Apple shares which are a long position on a competitor.
When the AI monkey trick runs out if gas, I have no delusions about being retained. I will be shown the door.
Don’t exaggerate. Only about 150 million.
In the words of one such socialist, “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”
A million here and and a million there, pretty soon we are talking about real numbers.
Cutie Pie had quite a package on Walz assembled this afternoon. I heard bits and pieces driving home.
Not that it really matters.
Cutie Pie had quite a package on Walz assembled this afternoon. I heard bits and pieces driving home.
Who is Cutie Pie ?
>> Both kids off on their first and second event of the day. I’m going to get started with some domestic bliss, I’m sure there is laundry I can start….
ah, the excitement mounts…
Have enough quarters stacked? :0
You know, the last time that the dumbrocrats had a pair this liberal running, Reagan beat Mondale 49 states to 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election
I do not want to count our chickens early, but Trump posted “Thank you” this morning on Truth Social in response to the VP choice. One wonders if everyone else told Crazy Kamala no, very quietly.
My wife has discovered the Tubi streaming channel. She cannot believe that they let us watch 50,000 movies with no monthly fee, just occasional commercials. I told her that Discovery WB is going bankrupt but she does not care. She watched “Bringing Up Baby” yesterday along with a couple of Cary Grant movies.
https://tubitv.com/movies/100019800/bringing-up-baby
Tim Walz Quit the National Guard and Abandoned His Unit When They Got the Call-Up to Deploy to Iraq in 2005
—Disinformation Expert Ace
https://ace.mu.nu/
A liar, a coward, and little tin-pot kungflu dictator that set up a snitch line for the Karens to report on their neighbors. Perfect Democrat.
another link:
https://redstate.com/mdempsey/2024/08/06/minnesota-gov-tim-walz-accused-of-cowardice-and-embellishment-of-army-service-record-by-former-peers-n2177798
“Patrick Feeney: What Rural Americans Really Think about Kamala”
https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-feeney
Patrick Feeney tells Tucker:
“You’ve got a woman running for president right now who’s not qualified to teach finger painting to kindergarten kids.”
Too bad rural America is only 15% of the citizens.
Tubi has “Capricorn One”.
PG edit, but, unlike “Smokey and the Bandit”, the omissions actually improve the movie.
I saw the ‘R’ version at age 12 with the brief shot of b**bs, cocaine use, and one instance of the word “a**hole”, and it didn’t scar me.
Quality Peter Hyams direction and very timely again with a sketchy Boeing capsule docked at the space station and NASA under pressure to bring the astronauts home using the vehicle.
And, yes, OJ’s first movie.
With this VP pick, I think TPTB are moving into the scenario where T wins, they crash the world, and blame him.
n
Today’s Tyler Durden cowardice protects honesty about Supermicro.
The analysts say that the server vendors aren’t making anything on the AI systems.
Who knows. Nobody knows. Is Batman a transvestite?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/supermicro-craters-shocking-margin-collapse-despite-euphoric-revenue-guidance-10-1-stock
I finally went to the propane place and had BBQ tanks filled. They have been in the truck since February. But things happened. Three needed to be re-certified. One failed. The internal valve didn’t pass the soap bubble test. Not that I ever let a not in use tank sit with the valve open.
Another had a dented collar. It was ok last time but not today.
$20 to fill a tank. $5 for re-certification that is good for five years. $70 total. Nice folks there. I *gasp* wrote a check. Someone saved the merchant fees.
One tank has a little rust on the bottom, inside the ring. Cosmetic. He said to get a can of Rustoleum spray paint and give it a spray.
Then to HEB to trade two “defective” tanks. Pretty painless. $19.92 per exchanged tank. They are , by my advanced weighing skills, not as full.
I have a tank on the grill. I have another tank sitting in the shade on cinder blocks. That’s where I store tanks. Today’s five filled tanks are in the boat shed for now. Freaking hot today.
Plus, the tank that is full and doesn’t work? The propane guy said bring it by and let him take a look. Sometimes the valve in the tank sticks. I’ll do that next trip to town.
Why do I have eight BBQ tanks? Things happen. Buy a grill that comes with a tank. Grill rusts out, buy another grill that comes with a tank. The current grill came with yet another tank. Someone left a couple of tanks in the parking lot at HEB. I brought them home. Five tanks so far.
Then there were a few times where someone at the Kingsland HEB said the Burnet HEB will take your empty tanks. Actually, no. There is no way on the register to buy an empty tank. “But I’m moving and the moving company says no propane tanks!”
Ok. I can make this work for you. An exchange is $18. No exchange? $38. I’ll give you $20 out of my pocket for your tank. When you get to your new house, you basically pay for an exchange money wise.
Let’s go outside and do this in the parking lot. This deal is between us.
Do that a few times…. 🙂 And have very happy customers to boot.
Hannity.
Neal Boortz gave him that name in the 90s when they competed in the Atlanta local market.
Good to have propane tanks. The contents don’t go bad. Now you need a gennie that runs on propane, that will help you rotate thru the tanks 🙂
n
When I contacted Blue Rhino about a broken tank and what to do with it a few years ago, they told me to write “defective” on the tank and leave it by the cages outside HEB so their rep could pick it up.
The recycling center for City of Round Rock also accepts the tanks. I’ve never had to show ID for that section of the lot.
“Sapphire Flames: A Hidden Legacy Novel (5) by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Flames-Hidden-Legacy-Novel/dp/0062878344?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number five of a six book and one novella (seven books total) paranormal romance fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound novella MMPB published by Avon in 2019 that I just bought new from Amazon. I have the other two books in the series and will read those soon.
Totally cool series for me. This makes the fourth series that I have read from Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife writing team based here in Texas. The Innkeeper, Kate Daniels, and The Edge are the other series of books.
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 Osiris serum has three results: death, paranormal powers, or paranormal powers with a warped human body. The serum was banned after a while but the world was irreparably changed since the paranormal powers are inheritable. 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 Prime families operate mostly outside the Federal and State laws since they are so powerful and incredibly dangerous.
Catalina Baylor is Nevada Baylor’s younger sister and a Prime Siren. Nevada is wed and gone so now Catalina is running the show. And now Linus, the long term friend of the House Baylor and former speaker of the Assemblies of Magic, has revealed himself to be the Warden for the State of Texas and is making Catalina his only Deputy Warden. Because, somebody is making Osiris serum available again and the results are mostly warped humans with paranormal powers.
Arabella Baylor is Catalina Baylor’s younger sister and a Prime Beast that is unknown to the general populace. She can transform to a 65 foot tall beast but, she has trouble controlling when to transform. The only other recorded person who had this power could never control their transformations or reason while in beast form so the populace is incredibly scared of her.
Alessandro Sagredo is a Prime Weapons Teleporter, an Italian count, and drawn to Catalina. And a assassin for hire to the highest bidder. He says that he is going to protect Catalina against the bad mages but he has a hidden agenda.
The authors have a very active website at:
https://ilona-andrews.com/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars (I am starting to think 6 stars)
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (10,331 reviews)
Lynn
I need a gennie that works. The one I have won’t run smoothly. Clogged jet I suppose. I need better, the UPSs won’t turn on with this gennie.
No UPSs working means no PCs or TV. Plus if the power is that dirty, what’s it doing to my fridge and freezer and water pump and the LED lights?
@paul, you need an inverter based gennie.
n
Have enough quarters stacked? :0
—it’s been years and I STILL save quarters…
n
THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM!
I truly appreciate all the thought and effort that goes into this website.
And I post so, so many pearls of wisdom here. Drowned in the volume of snark, though.
So I’m trying to use the search tool to find a post I’m sure I made at some point in the past. Where I, with great wit, posted something to the effect “Great Britain is already lost”.
Of course, it could have been “UK”. Or “England”. Heck, mayby “Old Blighty”, although I doubt that. And maybe “has fallen to invaders” or “has failed”.
I was curious at what point I made that observation. So I used the search tool, and while it is thorough, I don’t know how to use it to also discriminate posts that I made, with words in near juxtaposition. There may be a way I don’t know, or it may be beyond the tool’s capability.
Brave search and Google were little help either.
It’s not exactly of Earth-shattering consequence, but I’m curious if there’s more to the tool than I see.
One thing to keep in mind is that it only lists the post titles, and you have to manually look at the comments under that post to see why it thought that post was a hit.
n
Power is out again. 2nd time today, and 2nd time this week long enough that using the gennie made sense. Glad I have it, but I’m concerned that I’ve been living here 12 years, and haven’t needed a generator until this summer. A couple of UPSs handled the issues up to now. Methinks the infrastructure is wearing a bit thin.
Methinks the infrastructure is wearing a bit thin.
^ – this
n
Fil Foils French Fakeroo:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/08/more_fakery_from_paris.html
“More Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejections Incoming”
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2024/07/more-cannibal-coronal-mass-ejections.html
“We’ve talked about cannibal CMEs here on the blog a few times, a term for when a faster moving coronal mass ejection overtakes a slower CME that started before the faster one. The resultant isn’t just more material, the overtaking one compresses the original into a denser one capable of more impact on the Earth or wherever it hits. There’s an even bigger than typical Cannibal CME coming in according to SpaceWeather.com.”
What the frack ? I have heard it all now.
Power is out again. 2nd time today, and 2nd time this week long enough that using the gennie made sense. Glad I have it, but I’m concerned that I’ve been living here 12 years, and haven’t needed a generator until this summer. A couple of UPSs handled the issues up to now. Methinks the infrastructure is wearing a bit thin.
Where are you located ? If USA, region or state is good enough.
The Texas infrastructure has been creaking since in the 1980s, we shifted power from east Texas to west Texas (for the oil wells). Now with all of the wind turbines, we shift power from west Texas to east Texas. The changeover has been incredibly expensive (over $10 billion in 345,000 volt transmission lines). And the population growth in Texas for the last 40 years at 5 to 8% per YEAR is just incredible. The amount of power distribution, transmission, and generation has doubled since 2000 and the experts say it will double again by 2050. There is not enough copper on the planet for all of the transformer windings.
“Kamalaflation: Disney Hiking Streaming Prices as Much as 25 Percent”
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/08/06/kamalaflation-disney-hiking-streaming-prices-as-much-as-25-percent/
“The Walt Disney Company announced Tuesday that it is yet again hiking monthly subscription prices across its streaming entertainment services, including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Effective October 17, the cost of a Disney+ subscription with commercial interruptions will rise $2 to $9.99, which represents an increase of 25 percent.”
“The same goes for a Hulu plan with commercials.”
“An ad-free Disney+ subscription will cost you 14 percent more than it used to, with the price going up $2 to $15.99 a month. Hulu without ads will go up $1 to $18.99 a month.”
I am not surprised. I wonder how many subscribers will cancel ?
New SpaceX space suit:
https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/
“No earlier than late summer 2024, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Polaris Dawn mission from Florida. Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew will spend up to five days in orbit, during which they will work towards the following objectives:”
They are gonna test the new space suit at 700 km above sea level. Good place to test things.
Hat tip to:
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2024/08/old-news-but-with-interesting-twist.html
There is no airlock in the Dragon space ship. One person gets in their suit, everyone gets in their suit.
@Lynn I’m halfway up Alberta, about 3 hours from a major city. And like Texas, Alberta and its cities has been putting off infrastructure growth for a long time. It appears maintenance has also been put off.
@Lynn I’m halfway up Alberta, about 3 hours from a major city. And like Texas, Alberta and its cities has been putting off infrastructure growth for a long time. It appears maintenance has also been put off.
Oh no, please do not misunderstand me. Texas has been upgrading its infrastructure through a very curious union of governmental and private work. The Texas population in 2000 was 20 million, it is now over 30 million, a growth of over 50% in 23 years. We are busting at the seams in both the cities and the rural area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Texas
Both of the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas are each approaching 8 million people. The power generation across Texas has changed quite a bit since 2000 with 39,536 MW of new wind turbines and 25,493 MW of new solar farms. Both of those are peak values with the actual capacity factors running under 20%.
We have shut down over 10,000 MW of coal power plants and replaced them with 200+ peaking 50 MW gas turbines (also 10,000 MW). The peak summer load is 84,000 MW, the peak winter load is 80,000 MW. These values are up significantly since 2000. Our infrastructure additions and improvements are barely keeping up with the population growth. This not only goes for electricity but water, roads, housing, natural gas, etc, etc, etc. Looks like we are going to set a new peak of 85,000 MW on Wednesday.
We have a governmental entity called ERCOT that oversees 98% of the power generation in Texas that goes over the state electrical grid. Of course, 20% of the power generated in Texas is used locally and never goes over the state grid for refineries, chemical plants, etc.
We have the Texas Public Utility Commission that regulates the power distribution and transmission entities of which we have almost a 100 in Texas. The two biggest are Centerpoint in Houston with three million electric meters and Oncor in Dallas-Fort Worth with three million electric meters. There are several million more electric meters in Texas owned by smaller entities such as the City Of Austin, City Of San Antonio, City of Bryan, Central and Southwest, etc. Maybe 12 million (SWAG) electric meters across the state.
All of this is growing like wildfire with new facilities being added daily. Over 68,000 new homes and apartments were built in Houston in 2023. Total chaos.
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/houston-leads-building-permits-2023
They upgraded the high tension lines near my house this spring, and pulled in a whole new set of towers going out to the northwest… where there was one set of lines, now there are two. Of course they have to replace and repair the 45 they lost to the little CAT 1 we just had…
What is serving our neighborhoods can be significantly older, and patched together after previous outages, but I do see new poles and new transformers scattered around. They swapped out the whole three phase grid at the local level along Gessner Ave when they widened the street a year or two ago.
all that said, when we moved here we went 10 years w/out a serious interruption. Now they happen monthly.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13716169/Physicians-assistant-moving-California-Texas-new-job.html
Texas Children’s .. the one Greg thinks was gearing up to do more trans stuff…
They are making big cuts, but some things don’t add up…
– lower patient volumes? While Houston adds a couple hundred thousand people?
That’s like our school district telling us they have declining enrollment.
n
I noticed the new set of transmission towers being installed near me, they are going in parallel to two sets that already run across the valley and a north south direction.
Given the 25 or 30 GW of solar fields in the valley, with new builds under way, this doesn’t surprise me.
Looking through my VA records I came across the bill for the hospital in New Braunfels. It was an ER visit because of the accident involving my back. This was in May 1974. The ER room was $10.00, the X-Ray was $13.00, Supplies was $18.00. A total of $41.00. Today that same visit would be over $3,000.00.