Fri. May 7, 2021 – no star wars reference today. sad face.

By on May 7th, 2021 in decline and fall, prepping, WuFlu

I’m hoping for another beautiful day. Yesterday was gorgeous.

Prayers and best wishes for friends that are hurting.

—————————————————————————————–

Didn’t get a lot of stuff done yesterday. My back is right on the edge of being hurt again. Just picking up 5 pounds causes twinges. Today I’ll go see the chiropractor.

I have noticed that the garage is staying cooler, with the attic exhaust fan running in the afternoon. The garage isn’t much (if any) hotter than the outdoor shaded areas, and that is a huge improvement.

Spent almost an hour yesterday chatting with my gun store buddy. They are really struggling, with very little inventory, a few consignment guns, and only transfers to keep the lights on. This is despite being in the middle of one of the hottest gun markets of all time. If you can’t get inventory, you can’t sell it.

That problem is starting to show up elsewhere too. If a store or a more narrowly focused vendor can’t get product, they can’t earn a living. Big stores or stores with a lot of SKUs can pivot to fill holes, or just rearrange shelves to cover for the missing items, but smaller vendors and suppliers that provide a more niche product are having real trouble. All those car and truck dealers that count on new inventory to entice people to buy are going to have real issues when none is forthcoming because of the chip shortage. Something similar is bound to happen in other markets too.

I think we are at the beginning of a time when if you see something you need or might need, or know of someone who needs it, you better grab it while you can. Yes, this can reduce supply for others. Judge your need, then decide, realizing you might be deciding to do without later if you decide to leave it for the next guy.

You should consider increasing your stocking levels of stuff like that too. If you normally only have a month’s worth, maybe 3 would be better. Or if you have 6 months supply, consider a year’s worth. Don’t count on being able to get what you want in a year’s time. And for some things, that really isn’t much of a burden, like kitchen trash bags. A roll of 70 lasts us a year. Two boxes on the shelf doesn’t take much space or money, and I know we’ll have bags for the next couple of years. Another consideration is that you might be able to get the category of item but not the specific one you like, forex- toilet paper a year ago… so if brand, size, or scent is important, get it now.

Welcome to the new normal. Start adjusting your mindset from abundance to scarcity.

Stack it high.

nick

72 Comments and discussion on "Fri. May 7, 2021 – no star wars reference today. sad face."

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    60F and 92%RH at 630am. Sun is peeking out too, so looks like a nice start to the day.

    n

    time to make the donuts….

  2. Greg Norton says:

    I have noticed that the garage is staying cooler, with the attic exhaust fan running in the afternoon. The garage isn’t much (if any) hotter than the outdoor shaded areas, and that is a huge improvement.

    Is the garage detached from the house?

    If not, are you sure the fan can’t draw from inside the AC “envelope” of the main living area?

    Attic fans have come up here before, notably in discussing how accurate Allison Janey was with her potrayal of the pre-war generation mother in “I, Tonya”. My mother of that age group went through numerous AC contractors in the 70s and 80s because no one in the Tampa area, even the marginally ethical, would give her what she really wanted — “an attic fan just like Grandmother’s farm in Mississippi in the 50s.”

    My mother was right. The AC guys were wrong, but IIRC it was against code. I guess now she could say they were “Mansplaining” and get what she wanted by threatening to trash the guys on Yelp.

    To recap, f you haven’t seen “I, Tonya”, there is an unspoken reason Allison Janey won the Oscar. If you were born in a 3-4 year period right around 1968 and your parents weren’t “early boomer”, chances are that this was your mother, right down to the Sophia Loren brand glasses frames from Eckerd Optical (in Florida).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaOvqVFcIrM

    My friends and I know … as do the AC contractors my mother dismissed as “idiots”.

    When we finally had to get a replacement system for the upstairs as our house hit ~15 years old, the only way we got the work done was to hire the HVAC teacher at the high school to do the work with his students as labor. Fortunately, they did an A+ job.

    Still no attic fan.

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    Yep garage is detached. There is a covered breezeway that allows the utilities to pass from garage to house, but that has a very small opening, and the fan is going to draw from the easiest passage, the open door or the roll up.

    In hurricane or tornado country the worst possible home design is one with the garage under the master bedroom. That garage door fails and you lose the house.

    n

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Things are either going badly in the VA Governor’s race for the Dems or they are escalating the psy-op intended to open the checkbooks stashed in the center consoles of the German grocery getters in the driveways of McMansions in the suburbs of DC.

    This morning I have another email from James Carville screeching about whatever the Republicans have done this week.

    I would tend towards psy-op, but the swing voters’ besties, “Joe and Kamala”, aren’t budging about the restoration of the SALT deduction as part of any tax/spend deal. The $80 billion lost will have to come from somewhere.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    In hurricane or tornado country the worst possible home design is one with the garage under the master bedroom. That garage door fails and you lose the house.

    That design is very standard in the new 4000 sq ft houses squeezed onto postage stamp size lots in South Tampa and other densely-populated sections of Florida over the last decade. There is a reason all of the homeowners carriers’ operating in Florida are technically insolvent, even the subsidiaries of the “Piece of the Rock” and “Like a Good Neighbor” companies.

    Flo and The Gecko? Not on your life. At least that was their attitude when I left. They love the FL auto insurance market and $15/hour call center labor, however.

    Loopholes exist in codes because it used to be the case that pricey, quality houses in upper middle class sections of town got built with a rental unit above the garage to defray costs and provide a place for teachers and (polite) college students to live. The builders would never accept the holes being closed now.

    Not that the design is great for anyplace with a warm climate. We have lots of houses like that around me. Fortunately, ours is not one of those, but finding this place required effort.

    Our rental around the corner had the Master above the garage. That was a long summer.

  6. Mark W says:

    Harold, my condolences.

  7. Mark W says:

    Thanks Nick et al for the car equipment suggestions. I had a few of those already but not enough.

    I just sent my buddy that owns an ac company a text asking if he likes attic fans. I’ll post his reply.

  8. nick flandrey says:

    attic fans, whole house fans, and exhaust fans are different things, and have different applications…

    And it turns out that attic fans have a surprising amount of religious* dogma attached, and their adherents and detractors are battling in the forums and comment sections of the web.

    I like the attic fan – thru roof exhaust – in the garage so far.  As it is unconditioned space most of the religious arguments about attic fans don’t apply…   I can’t see any downside to having the interior of the garage at the same temp as the outside air temperature especially since I store a lot of stuff in there.  So far, that’s what I’m getting.

    n

    *religious in the sense that no one seems to be swayed by evidence, and little actual testing has been done, while people are VERY FIRMLY committed to their beliefs.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    This is how the bins of preps fit in the back of my new Expy.

    https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/20210506_125434-scaled.jpg

    Lots of room left for cargo.
    n

  10. Greg Norton says:

    *religious in the sense that no one seems to be swayed by evidence, and little actual testing has been done, while people are VERY FIRMLY committed to their beliefs. 

    Oh, yeah. As I’ve said, I’ve lived the issue.

    If a debated home feature reaches the point where building codes get changed, a *LOT* of scientific evidence will have to exist supporting the negative impact possibility. No theory will suffice, no matter how sound, under the premise of “What do scientists know?” Unfortunately, in Florida, that means a hurricane event and the insurance carriers going bankrupt over particular holes in the code.

    People *still* debate the “mushroom” fans in Florida, nearly 30 years after Andrew, when that was a proven single point of failure in a lot of destroyed houses in Dade and subsequently banned by code.

    Though, I view Sears as particularly culpable with that situation. The stores used to have big endcaps in Florida selling the category of vent fans and installation, “for low monthly payments”. 50 years ago, Sears was where Amazon is now on top of the retail pyramid.

  11. ech says:

    Yes, Trump should have fired EVERYONE upon taking the job.

    There are only a relative handful of people in each federal agency that can be fired without congressional approval. All the political appointees, sure. They get replaced anyway. But the rank and file are untouchable by design unless you can prove some kind of job malfeasance or poor performance. And it takes a year or so to follow the due process protections in place. In fact, some (maybe all) of the agencies have minimum and maximum staffing given in the appropriations bills passed each year, so flexibility is limited.

    2
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  12. lynn says:

    “Is it the New York City culture?”
    https://gunfreezone.net/is-it-the-new-york-city-culture/

    “Random ‘sucker-punch’ assaults leave frightened NYC residents on edge”

    “I am not talking about the alleged NYC attitude of being tough, but the advice you are given when you go to the Big Apple: Never look anybody in the eyes, specially in the subway. This has always struck me as looking meek as the only safe way to stare is down, at your feet.”

    “And if you look like food…”

    I never try to look meek. But I do carry just about whenever I can.

    And I am not going to New York City, Portland, or Washington state. There are crazy things going on there.

  13. lynn says:

    Yes, Trump should have fired EVERYONE upon taking the job.

    There are only a relative handful of people in each federal agency that can be fired without congressional approval. All the political appointees, sure. They get replaced anyway. But the rank and file are untouchable by design unless you can prove some kind of job malfeasance or poor performance. And it takes a year or so to follow the due process protections in place. In fact, some (maybe all) of the agencies have minimum and maximum staffing given in the appropriations bills passed each year, so flexibility is limited.

    Trump could have fired about 7,000 people upon assuming the Presidency. People like James Comey, etc. He did not. That was a fatal mistake on his part. He thought that he could assess their loyalty on the job and fire them if necessary.

  14. Brad says:

    the rank and file are untouchable by design unless you can prove some kind of job malfeasance or poor performance

    Really? I would have thought it possible to appoint, say, a new head of a department, with explicit instructions to reduce headcount by 90%. “So sorry, great performance, but your job is no longer needed.”

  15. Mark W says:

    That was a fatal mistake on his part.

    It’s a deep swamp and getting deeper. Trump may have slowed it a little. How long until all those unnecessary regulations he got removed are back on the books? Bureaucrats love regulations. They are the reason for their existence.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    And I am not going to New York City, Portland, or Washington state. There are crazy things going on there.

    If you have to go for business, the antics in Portland are confined to a specific section of the city from what I’ve seen. The Mayor has demonstrated repeatedly that skulls will get cracked if the activities take place in areas where important swing voting demographics live, particularly older professional women.

    The Pearl got an immediate beatdown reaction from Portland PD the first time Antifa attempted antics there. Burnside and the Hollywood District burned once.

    Of course The Pearl is where Mayor Wheeler lives. My wife’s former associate and other doctors she worked with lived in Hollywood/Burnside.

    The Feds are banished out to a complex near the airport, on the side of the runway with the Air National Guard, but the airport along with the Western Hills sections like where Linus Torvalds lives (Dunthorpe) are not going to see thug activities for now. Things would have to be much worse for those places to see anything but the occasional house blown out due to cooking weed into hashish.

  17. Alan says:

    This is how the bins of preps fit in the back of my new Expy.

    https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/20210506_125434-scaled.jpg

    Lots of room left for cargo.
    n

    Gotta love those heavy duty cardboard trays from Costco. “Free” with any purchase.

  18. ~jim says:

    You’ve got to love bureaucracy!

    Five months and $100,000 later, Seattle City Council asks: Where are the street sinks?

    Speaking of hygiene, my aging prostate would sure love to see some pissoirs in downtown Seattle or San Francisco. Never going to happen, of course.

  19. Alan says:

    Flo and The Gecko? Not on your life. At least that was their attitude when I left. They love the FL auto insurance market and $15/hour call center labor, however.

    The Gecko doesn’t write their own HO policies, they just rep for other insurers, and with their application process, any change to your quote could wind up changing the underlying company from one you’ve heard of to “Uncle Joe’s Live Bait and Insurance Co.” Although I’ve had my auto insurance with them for close to 40 years (and been satisfied), they have never gotten my HO business.

    Besides Flo being one of the most annoying spokespeople I have seen, if anyone asks me I tell them not to bother, from what I’ve seen they quote you a reasonable rate up front which comes with several gothchas, like the quote presumes payment in full up front and if you want to pay monthly there’s like a $50/month service charge (versus $5/month with GEICO).

    But then any insurance is good as long as you don’t file a claim.

  20. Alan says:

    Trump could have fired about 7,000 people upon assuming the Presidency. People like James Comey, etc. He did not. That was a fatal mistake on his part. He thought that he could assess their loyalty on the job and fire them if necessary.

    Kiefer Sutherland, either of two of his TV roles…

  21. Alan says:

    Really? I would have thought it possible to appoint, say, a new head of a department, with explicit instructions to reduce headcount by 90%. “So sorry, great performance, but your job is no longer needed.”

    Believe me, we wish…

    https://www.govexec.com/feature/firing-line/

  22. Greg Norton says:

    The Gecko doesn’t write their own HO policies, they just rep for other insurers, and with their application process, any change to your quote could wind up changing the underlying company from one you’ve heard of to “Uncle Joe’s Live Bait and Insurance Co.” Although I’ve had my auto insurance with them for close to 40 years (and been satisfied), they have never gotten my HO business.

    The carriers quoted are probably clients of General Re, The Gecko’s carrier to backstop insurance companies.

    The Gecko fights like a mother lion defending cubs whenever a member of the FL Legislature even breathes the possibility of the company being required to offer homeowners’ insurance in the state in order to continue to be able to access the auto insurance market, as is practice in other states, including Texas. Beyond the underwriting risk, under former (future?) Governor Charlie Crist, the state spent taxpayer money for special massive policies from General Re to backstop the insolvent insurance carriers in the event of a catastrophic hurricane event or other natural disaster.

    I have insurance through The Gecko, but I need to review the market when I have the time. The premiums are up to nosebleed levels after a couple of minor claims for vandalism and squirrel damage to a vehicle, and we don’t even have my son on the policy yet.

  23. Nick Flandrey says:

    “Gotta love those heavy duty cardboard trays from Costco. “Free” with any purchase. ”

    –I have built several organizing systems around free costco packaging… I like the heavy stackable boxes with the open fronts. I’ll stack them 5 high, tape them together, and use them like giant acro bins. I used to keep a month’s worth of canned food in each cardboard flat on the shelves, but the exposure to rat excreta made me change to similarly sized plastic tubs with lids.

    I still use the flats for all kinds of things that I want to separate and stack, or that I want to not slide or roll around.

    n

  24. Greg Norton says:

    Trump could have fired about 7,000 people upon assuming the Presidency. People like James Comey, etc. He did not. That was a fatal mistake on his part. He thought that he could assess their loyalty on the job and fire them if necessary.

    Firing the FBI director is not standard practice, and Comey had a lot of Republican votes in his confirmation IIRC.

  25. Nick Flandrey says:

    I am very happy with the way StateFarm is handling my auto accident. Their handling of my hail damaged roof was simple and painless too. I haven’t seen abnormal cost increases yet.

    n

  26. lynn says:

    “The April jobs report shocks as 266,000 payroll additions badly miss the forecast of 1 million”
    https://www.businessinsider.com/april-jobs-report-266000-payrolls-unemployment-rate-labor-market-recovery-2021-5

    “1. The US economy added 266,000 jobs in April, a huge miss of the median estimate of 1 million.
    2. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1% from 6%, while economists had expected it to drop to 5.8%.
    3. The payrolls increase marks a fourth straight monthly gain but the smallest since January.”

    Oops. Beijing Joe’s closing down the oil and gas industry is coming to fruition.

    More at:
    https://gunfreezone.net/ill-gladly-give-you-a-paycheck-tuesday-for-nice-tweets-today/

  27. lynn says:

    And I am not going to New York City, Portland, or Washington state. There are crazy things going on there.

    I forgot to add “and any other deep blue city like Washington, DC”.

  28. ITGuy1998 says:

    we don’t even have my son on the policy yet.

    Get ready, it’s not cheap. My 16 yo son and his 2014 Tacoma cost me around 1200 per year. That is with all discounts, including driver’s ed and good grades discount. I’m told by others that’s about the best rate they have heard of. Still not chump change.

  29. lynn says:

    Trump could have fired about 7,000 people upon assuming the Presidency. People like James Comey, etc. He did not. That was a fatal mistake on his part. He thought that he could assess their loyalty on the job and fire them if necessary.

    Firing the FBI director is not standard practice, and Comey had a lot of Republican votes in his confirmation IIRC.

    When DeSantis is assumes the Presidency in Jan 2025, he will fire everyone in sight that he can.

  30. ech says:

    I would have thought it possible to appoint, say, a new head of a department, with explicit instructions to reduce headcount by 90%. “So sorry, great performance, but your job is no longer needed.”

    As I mentioned, some agencies (if not all) have a cap on hiring, as well as a floor. You also could run into problems with the anti-deficiency act – a law that prevents the executive from not spending money. IOW, the President can’t say “I don’t want to build that dam, so we won’t.” or “I don’t want to buy new rifles for the Army, so we won’t.” Appropriated funds have to be spent (within a small delta).

     

  31. lynn says:

    “Ransomware Hits Research Facility After Student Installs Pirated Software”
    https://www.pcmag.com/news/ransomware-hits-research-facility-after-student-installs-pirated-software

    “A student with access to a European research institute’s network exposed his login credentials after installing pirated software that turned out to be password-stealing malware, according to security firm Sophos.”

    “The security alert from Windows Defender should’ve been a red flag enough. But for whatever reason, the student decided to disable the Windows antivirus program and the laptop’s firewall. ”

    Why am I not shocked ?

    I actually had a prospect do this here in Texas and then blame us for corrupting his hard drive after he installed a cracked version of our software on his PC. He then called up and threatened to sue us. I told him to bring it as I was going to sue him for copyright violations. He went away.

  32. Greg Norton says:

    When DeSantis is assumes the Presidency in Jan 2025, he will fire everyone in sight that he can. 

    To reiterate, DeSantis’ reelection as Governor of Florida is not a lock. As “60 Minutes” demonstrated, the long knives are out.

    Little Marco took out Charlie Crist as a viable political entity, but if the Legislature eliminates Val Demings’ safe Congressional seat centered on the Orlando theme park areas, the Dems could decide to run her for Governor despite the negative perceptions even in her own party.

  33. lynn says:

    I would have thought it possible to appoint, say, a new head of a department, with explicit instructions to reduce headcount by 90%. “So sorry, great performance, but your job is no longer needed.”

    As I mentioned, some agencies (if not all) have a cap on hiring, as well as a floor. You also could run into problems with the anti-deficiency act – a law that prevents the executive from not spending money. IOW, the President can’t say “I don’t want to build that dam, so we won’t.” or “I don’t want to buy new rifles for the Army, so we won’t.” Appropriated funds have to be spent (within a small delta).

    The coming federal financial apocalypse will fix all this.

  34. nick flandrey says:

    The piggies never leave the trough, until the man with the hammer and long knives comes.

    n

  35. lynn says:

    “6 Reasons Asia Oil Refiners Are Not Going Away Soon”
    https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/6_reasons_asia_oil_refiners_are_not_going_away_soon-06-may-2021-165351-article/

    “(Bloomberg) — Predictions of peak oil and the impending demise of fossil fuels will hit Asian oil refiners especially hard. The region is home to three of the top four oil-guzzling nations, and more than a third of global crude processing capacity. Yet, Asian refiners are expanding at a breakneck pace, even building massive new plants designed to run for at least half a century.”

    “After a century of powering the world’s vehicles, oil refiners are having to plan for an oil-free future in mobility as cars begin switching to batteries, ships burn natural gas, and innovation brings on other energy sources such as hydrogen. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts oil demand for transportation will peak as early as 2026.”

    “Yet, even as a slew of headlines announce oil major BP Plc selling its prized Alaskan fields or Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulling the plug on refineries from Louisiana to the Philippines, Asia’s big refineries are planning for a much longer transition. Chinese refining capacity has nearly tripled since the turn of the millennium, and the nation will end more than a century of U.S. dominance this year. And China’s capacity will continue climbing – to about 20 million barrels a day by 2025, from 17.4 million barrels at the end of 2020. India’s processing is also rising rapidly and could jump by more than half to 8 million barrels a day in the same time.”

    Fossil fuel usage is expanding wildly in the Asian nations as it contracts in the western nations. I think that we are down to 98 refineries in the USA now (I am not counting the tea kettle refineries). Maybe 95, I am not sure as the Texas deep freeze may have permanently hosed a refinery or two in Texas. Both Chevron and Shell are planning on shutting half of their refineries permanently in the next couple of years.

  36. TV says:

    Trump could have fired about 7,000 people upon assuming the Presidency. People like James Comey, etc. He did not. That was a fatal mistake on his part. He thought that he could assess their loyalty on the job and fire them if necessary.

    Interesting. My understanding was that the US is much more into a “spoils” system for jobs at the top of the federal bureaucracy and that indeed around 5,000-7,000 jobs change as the losers political appointees are replaced by the winners political appointees. I have a bit of a hard time believing Trump did not do this. I can’t believe he would have left any Obama-Democrat political appointees in place due to his animus with Obama. I also can’t believe the Republican party would not have insisted – receiving or having the power to hand out these patronage jobs is the reason you get involved with the parties.

    For comparison purposes, there are relatively few positions within the federal bureaucracy in Canada to which patronage applies. We use the British system: An elected politician is department head (Minister of Dustbins or whatever). The deputy minister who reports to the minister is a senior bureaucrat whose reward for being one of the 25 or so people atop the federal civil service is to be subject to dismissal by the government of the day. All positions below that are protected from political interference. I suspect there is more chaos in the USA when a government changes hands because there is so much change at the top all at once. There are non-federal bureaucracy patronage appointments to boards for crown corporations, etc…, but there are not much more than a few hundred at any time, and those change when the term of that appointment ends, not at election time, so the change is spread across the term of that government. (Of course much of that is because we do not have fixed election dates in Canada.)

  37. TV says:

    I would have thought it possible to appoint, say, a new head of a department, with explicit instructions to reduce headcount by 90%. “So sorry, great performance, but your job is no longer needed.”

    As I mentioned, some agencies (if not all) have a cap on hiring, as well as a floor. You also could run into problems with the anti-deficiency act – a law that prevents the executive from not spending money. IOW, the President can’t say “I don’t want to build that dam, so we won’t.” or “I don’t want to buy new rifles for the Army, so we won’t.” Appropriated funds have to be spent (within a small delta).

    This makes sense. In the never-ending tussle for power between Congress and President, you could have the chief administrator (the president) avoiding his responsibility for implementing the laws passed by elected representatives by simply refusing to hire anyone to do the work.

  38. nick flandrey says:

    “because there is so much change at the top all at once.”

    — some of it happens quickly, mainly with immediate resignations by people who are either tainted or who have their next step already plotted.

    The rest happens slowly over time.  Think of the logistics of reviewing even 700 of the 7000 positions possible candidates.   Then consider security clearances, background checks, etc.   Even if the normal political party machine comes into office with a prepared list of vetted and willing candidates, it will still take time.  Trump didn’t bring that kind of organization to the office.  Consider too that the deep state is more important to itself than party at some point, and will fight to keep control of those jobs if they are threatened by outsiders.

    And there could have been some hubris in him thinking that they would learn to love him, or some naivete that they weren’t so partisan, or loyal to their deep state cronies.

    n

    n

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  39. Mark W says:

    To reiterate, DeSantis’ reelection as Governor of Florida is not a lock. As “60 Minutes” demonstrated, the long knives are out.

    That was an edit created with the deliberate intention of changing the meaning of the governors words.

    Just like the “inject bleach” edit, and the “many fine people” edit. Without youtube etc, we wouldn’t know about the lies. Tens of millions of “high information” voters have not researched the truth, however.

     

  40. TV says:

    And there could have been some hubris in him thinking that they would learn to love him, or some naivete that they weren’t so partisan, or loyal to their deep state cronies.

    I didn’t know, so didn’t speculate that Trump was not organized enough to manage that transition. However, I can’t believe the Republican party was not organized for this.

    I don’t buy into the “deep state” conspiracy theory. This is because we have heard a variation of this in Canada for decades because of how few positions in the federal (or provincial) bureaucracy change. If there was ever a “deep state” you would imagine that was it. The nominal federal “party of power” in Canada are the Liberals. Whenever the Conservatives win, there are grumbles that they won’t/can’t get anything done because they are dealing with a Liberal-biased bureaucracy. The grumbles end when they find what they actually have is a mostly (nothing is perfect) non-partisan professional civil service. There are quotes from various politicians who came into this situation with that belief and changed their opinion.

    For the record, I vote Conservative most of the time and I have no “deep state” concerns. Where the conflict with the bureaucracy does happen is when the professional civil servants run into a politician, usually a populist, that insists on a policy against all sensible advise since the experts must be “elitist”. Sadly, this describes Mr. Ford, the Conservative mutton-head I have as a provincial premier, to a tee. Unfortunately for him, an election is just around the corner.

  41. Greg Norton says:

    That was an edit created with the deliberate intention of changing the meaning of the governors words.

    Just like the “inject bleach” edit, and the “many fine people” edit. Without youtube etc, we wouldn’t know about the lies. Tens of millions of “high information” voters have not researched the truth, however.

    In the case of the “60 Minutes” hit piece on DeSantis, the *only* reason a full clip existed was because the State of Florida tapes all of the Governor’s appearances, including a camera angle that never leaves the Governor’s face, even if it proves embarrassing.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    Just like the “inject bleach” edit, and the “many fine people” edit. Without youtube etc, we wouldn’t know about the lies. Tens of millions of “high information” voters have not researched the truth, however.

    YouTube is Google in the end, part of the problem.

  43. lynn says:

    Trump could have fired about 7,000 people upon assuming the Presidency. People like James Comey, etc. He did not. That was a fatal mistake on his part. He thought that he could assess their loyalty on the job and fire them if necessary.

    Interesting. My understanding was that the US is much more into a “spoils” system for jobs at the top of the federal bureaucracy and that indeed around 5,000-7,000 jobs change as the losers political appointees are replaced by the winners political appointees. I have a bit of a hard time believing Trump did not do this. I can’t believe he would have left any Obama-Democrat political appointees in place due to his animus with Obama. I also can’t believe the Republican party would not have insisted – receiving or having the power to hand out these patronage jobs is the reason you get involved with the parties.

    Trump not only had animus with Obama, he had major animus with the Repuglican party also. Both parties are the two sides of the War Party after all. The Never Trumpers are incredibly strong in the Repuglican party and contributed to the reelection failure.

  44. MrAtoz says:

    I like to use adjustable length shipping tubes to store extra sharps or tools. McMaster has a good selection you can buy one+ of and not lots of 100’s on other sites.

    Example of what I use for jig saw blades that fit my Leatherman Surge: Adjustable-Length Shipping Tube

  45. Ed says:

    Speaking of flat tires in the back country; another death:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/04/10/tucson-man-alexander-lofgren-dies-woman-hospitalized-after-rescued-death-valley-national-park/7171643002/

    I believe in the rule to “Stay with the vehicle“.  They will find the vehicle first. There are only rare exceptions.

  46. Chad says:

    Speaking of flat tires in the back country; another death:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/04/10/tucson-man-alexander-lofgren-dies-woman-hospitalized-after-rescued-death-valley-national-park/7171643002/

    I believe in the rule to “Stay with the vehicle“. They will find the vehicle first. There are only rare exceptions.

    Ever watch Gerry? Decent movie about how something so simple as going for a short hike can turn into disaster.

  47. Mark W says:

    YouTube is Google in the end, part of the problem.

    True, but for now at least it has the original videos. They are slowly purging non-conformist videos.

    I think Pravda has been reborn in ABC/CBS/NBC/FB/Google/Twitter/MSNBC/CNN etc.

    One point of view.

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  48. nick flandrey says:

    Yup.  Stay with the vehicle.  Use your road flare and spare tire as a signal fire.    Live.

    n

  49. nick flandrey says:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/aprill-payrolls-huge-miss-just-266k-jobs-added-expectations-1-million

    _–the “consensus” was 1M or even 2M jobs added. Oh my. And although financial predictions aren’t science, that is exactly why science ISN”T about consensus. And why I don’t care what the hurricane models are coalescing toward.

    –wrt the “deep state” being a conspiracy theory, what part? That it exists at all? That’s pretty clear, it’s only what people have been describing for years, at least since the 17th Amendment. There are those in office, and those that aren’t. And like will side with like first. The phrase ‘deep state’ caught on so quickly precisely because it perfectly described what people already knew, but couldn’t put a name to.

    n

  50. nick flandrey says:

    This article has some really good examples of the interconnectedness of our world and supply chain.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/wal-mart-sysco-fines-suppliers-labor-shortages-cause-surge-late-orders

    Well worth the read to extrapolate what is coming down the pike.

    n

  51. MrAtoz says:

    –wrt the “deep state” being a conspiracy theory, what part?

    The FBI is a perfect example of the “deep state”. They are almost rogue these days with warrants, FISA, and tRRRUUUUUMMMMPPPP! The FBI promoted the tRump pee tape dossier with no evidence and apparently got a FISA warrant by lying. What’s worse, nothing from the rank and file in the FBI. Line ’em all up and let God sort ’em out.

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  52. lynn says:

    Things are being sold and installed. I ordered a JennAir Black 36 inch natural gas downdraft cooktop about two weeks ago and got it installed yesterday. The old cooktop was a 34 inch JennAir four burner that had two dead burners (flame detectors). The installer bagged the area around the kitchen island with plastic sheets and cut my island tile back an inch on both sides and the back. Looks great and works awesome. $2,800 though with installation and tax, not cheap.
    https://www.saraappliance.com/products/JennAir/jen/jgd3536gb.html

  53. Mark W says:

    The FBI promoted the tRump pee tape dossier with no evidence

    Knew it was false and took it to a FISA court multiple times until they got it through. Someone should be in jail for that alone.

    And again, tens of millions of “high information” voters still think its true.

    Haha someone gave me a down thumb on my Pravda post. Everyone knows it’s true. I’d even go so far as to say that Fox News is a provisional member of that club now.

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  54. Greg Norton says:

    _–the “consensus” was 1M or even 2M jobs added. Oh my. And although financial predictions aren’t science, that is exactly why science ISN”T about consensus. And why I don’t care what the hurricane models are coalescing toward.

    Not many people really want to go back to even $20/hr when unemployment provided the equivalent of $25.

    Also, thanks to an initiative on the ballot in November which passed, Florida minimum wage is up $1.40/hr, at $8.65/hr, over Federal minimum and set to begin a series of increases of $1/hr per year starting from $10/hr in September to $15 in 2026. Staffing of everything was thin there when we went in March. My guess is that FL was not alone, but that is a big hit to numbers this summer since it is the only vacation state which is expected to be fully “open” for business.

  55. lynn says:

    My guess is that FL was not alone, but that is a big hit this summer since it is the only vacation state which will be fully “open” for business.

    Texas is not a summer vacation state ?

  56. Greg Norton says:

    “My guess is that FL was not alone, but that is a big hit this summer since it is the only vacation state which will be fully “open” for business.”

    Texas is not a summer vacation state ?

    Austin and San Antonio are going to make life difficult until people in those cities decide they’ve had enough.

    The mailings I get from the big anime show in San Antonio indicate that the annual event is still *tentative* for Labor Day weekend. The convention is a big draw for the Riverwalk and surrounding areas every year.

  57. lynn says:

    “My guess is that FL was not alone, but that is a big hit this summer since it is the only vacation state which will be fully “open” for business.”

    Texas is not a summer vacation state ?

    Austin and San Antonio are going to make life difficult until people in those cities decide they’ve had enough.

    The mailings I get from the big anime show in San Antonio indicate that the annual event is still *tentative* for Labor Day weekend. The convention is a big draw for the Riverwalk and surrounding areas.

    I have a convention in San Antonio on Sept 26 – 29 at the Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio. I am probably going to go as I have been double vaccinated now. It will be toasty. I usually stay across the street at the La Quinta. This convention used to have 2,500 to 4,000 people go to it.
    https://gpamidstreamconvention.org/

  58. nick flandrey says:

    I hit the Goodwill Outlet store and picked up a couple of things.

    Like the audiobook version of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.  Complete and unabridged it’s 26 CDs.  Jimminy Christmas I think that one is going straight to ebay.

    I also picked up a couple of cases (about 200) of 4 oz spray bottles of ‘sanitizer’ from an auction.   It’s 80% alcohol with a tiny bit of glycerin and some hydrogen peroxide.  Mostly though, it’s alcohol.  Smells like tequila in fact.   It makes a great hand cleaner without any residue and it works as a surface cleaner everywhere I’d use alcohol, like to remove Sharpie marks or label residue.  I use a fair amount of isopropal alcohol so it’s super handy.

    It was cheap, like 4c/bottle.

    n

  59. Ray Thompson says:

    Yup. Stay with the vehicle. Use your road flare and spare tire as a signal fire.

    Burn the entire vehicle if necessary.

  60. drwilliams says:

    “But the rank and file are untouchable by design unless you can prove some kind of job malfeasance or poor performance. And it takes a year or so to follow the due process protections in place. ”

    Not a problem. Jan 2024. Put new IG’s into the core agency’s –real pipe-hitters, and give them a staff 100 times larger than any IG has ever had. Every department on the same day has an 8AM meeting of the top 1000 in an auditorium and get processed into a second auditorium, handing over their cell phones along the way. Anyone without their cell phone gets a federal exscort to go find their cell phone, and anyone that can’t get fired on the spot. Everyone gives up their cell phone passwords or gets fired on the spot and taken into custody.

    Simultaneously, at 8AM all the tech dweebies in charge of email are swept up. Keys to the email system and all backups go into new hands.

    No subpoenas necessary, all inspections of government property.

    Also at 8AM teams visit At&T and the other cell phone carriers. They will cooperate going forward or, “All cell phone contracts are under review and subject to immediate cancellation” followed by “Nice bandwidth you have there, if you can keep it.”

    Divert the last shipload of cash Biden was sending to the mullahs and have it land in Israel. Make a deal. Follow up with a visit to Tim Cook at Apple: Every government cell phone gets cracked, or they all get cracked when we start posting the instructions on the internet.

    No more asymmetric warfare. Screw the rules. Go after them hammer and tongs. The first federal judge that tries to issue a restraining order gets a visit: Your cell phone records make interesting reading. You’re relieved of duty. Find an attorney and see us at 8am Monday. PS, your emails look worse.

    Anyone who thinks of of the above is unreasonable should explain why, in light of the abuses of the IRS, FBI, DoJ, CDC and FDA that we should have any residual respect for those institutions.

    It’s way past time to fumigate and get rid of the termites.

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  61. drwilliams says:

    oh, yeah, forgot to mention: The above happens right after the “Now we reach across the aisle to begin healing” speech.

  62. Greg Norton says:

    I have a convention in San Antonio on Sept 26 – 29 at the Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio. I am probably going to go as I have been double vaccinated now. It will be toasty. I usually stay across the street at the La Quinta. This convention used to have 2,500 to 4,000 people go to it.

    We went down to San Antonio on MLK day and the place was a ghost town where it was busy the year before. Several of the restaurants were not only closed but had auction notices in the window. The big McDonalds on Commerce was shuttered — the first time I’ve ever seen the place closed.

    Schilo’s was open, however, and that’s all that mattered.

  63. Greg Norton says:

    No more asymmetric warfare. Screw the rules. Go after them hammer and tongs. The first federal judge that tries to issue a restraining order gets a visit: Your cell phone records make interesting reading. You’re relieved of duty. Find an attorney and see us at 8am Monday. PS, your emails look worse.

    The Senate has to impeach Judges. IIRC, Alcee Hastings still collected a paycheck Federal Judge until 1989, despite being arrested and put on trial for bribery in 1981.

    Hastings recent death lowered the House Dem margin to two seats, but DeSantis scheduled the special election for January 2022, just in time for the midterm season to begin.

  64. Jenny says:

    @hcombs

    I’m very sorry to hear your news, sir. The magnitude of loss when your friend, partner, beloved, companion of fifty years dies is unimaginable to all but those few who have also endured that loss.  No platitudes or advice from this corner. Only deep condolences and sympathy.

  65. drwilliams says:

    “The Senate has to impeach Judges. ”

    LOL. Who said anything about impeach? Relieved of duty as in “Here’s the confirmation from your senior judge.” Sorry we have your cell phone with your only record of his number, but just in case, we have his phone, too.”

    Yeah, too bad about Brother Alcee. Hope he likes darning socks.

  66. RickH says:

    Carry your umbrella this weekend. The Chinese rocket body is estimated to drop this weekend. Predicted Reentry Time 09 May 2021 04:19 UTC ± 8 hours .

    Great site with predicted re-entry point: https://aerospace.org/reentries/cz-5b-rocket-body-id-48275

    At the moment, look out ‘down under’. But anywhere between the 41N and 41S latitudes is at risk.

  67. SteveF says:

    Umbrellas? I thought the propeller beanie was traditional. As in, “If the odds of the falling garbage hitting a person are 1:1,000,000 then the odds of it hitting a person wearing a propeller beanie are 1:100,000,000.”

  68. nick flandrey says:

    Good thing we don’t live on the Discworld then…

    “Million-to-once chances crop up nine times out of ten.”
    —Granny Weatherwax

    “Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd [happening] are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.”
    —Mort

    n

  69. Nick Flandrey says:

    Sky News Australia
    1.53M subscribers

    The ‘leader of the free world’ is ‘cognitively delinquent’

    Sky News host Alan Jones says putting Joe Biden in the position of “leading the world’s democracies” is “elder abuse” and there must be a “presidential resignation” soon.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fd9zQjYaUs

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  70. ~jim says:

    Delinquent, etymology:

    late 15th century: from Latin delinquent- ‘offending’, from the verb delinquere, from de- ‘away’ + linquere ‘to leave’.

    Took leave of his sense? I’ll buy that!

  71. lynn says:

    “Teachers Unions Have Become Communist Fronts”, part 1
    https://www.usagovpolicy.com/teachers-unions-have-become-communist-fronts/

    “Teachers Unions Have Become Communist Fronts, Part 2”
    https://www.usagovpolicy.com/teachers-unions-have-become-communist-fronts-part-2/

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

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