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Category: politics

Sun. Jan. 10, 2021 – it continues to get worse

Cold.  Supposed to be rainy.

Yesterday was cool to cold all day but was sunny and dry.

I did get my pickup done, and went by my secondary to do some  more clean up and to get ready to go back over there later today.

Then I got home and looked at the news, and HOLY FREAKING HELL.   The control freaks are moving FAST.  EVERYONE should be condemning this.  What goes around comes around, and someone once said, never ask for a power for yourself that you wouldn’t like  your worst enemy have.  I guess they think this is the end of history.   In their mad rush to power, and you can’t really describe it as anything else, they are doing even more damage to the social norms that made this country great and they are glorying in it.   Does no one see the parallels to the worst regimes in history?

We were sliding down the slope toward the cliff, but now they are running as fast as they can towards it.  NO WAY does this end well.  The boot is coming down.  If you think I’m crazy, or overly dramatic, please make your case in the comments.  NOT just assertions.   An actual reasoned case.   I’d LOVE some reassurance right now.  Every thing they’ve done in the last few days makes it even more certain that there is no way to avoid the violence and bloodshed.

Speaking of avoiding bloodshed, where is the Elder Statesman ™ hoof in mouth Joe urging calm, praising free speech, lauding tolerance, and taking control of the party?  Are you really gonna love his presidency?  All 3 months of it?  Was getting rid of Trump worth empowering Pelosi?  Waters?  Kammella?  Look up Pyrrhic Victory so you’ll understand what you’ve done, when there is nothing left worth fighting over.

Anyone actually had eyes on Trump in the last day or two?  Is the staff at his home gearing up?  Secret Service barracks getting a good brush up?  Something ain’t right.  He should be spitting nails.

And are we really going to let them gaslight the nation?  There was NO call for insurrection, let alone a call for ARMED insurrection.  There were 10s of thousands of people at that rally that did NOTHING MORE than stand around on the grass.  Where is the video of demagogue Trump calling for armed insurrection?  If they had anything at all we’d be seeing it non-stop to convict him in the press.

Anyone out there who was still on the fence about whether conservative voices were being suppressed in the public square should be pretty well convinced of the truth of it now.  Kinda too late though.  They will come for you though eventually, given enough time.  It’s what they do.  What they ALWAYS do.

Anyone who couldn’t see the hypocrisy of the left should see it clearly now.  A baker has to serve all customers, but twitter/facebook/amazon/go daddy don’t.   They can object to  words, and not even the customer’s words, but third party words their customer can’t/won’t/ and SHOULDN’T police* and deny them the same service they offer to others.   Many of those others engage in much more violent rhetoric, so we know that words about violence are not the issue.  No one is more filled with hate than the leadership of Iran, and yet they still have a voice.  Violent leftist thugs use social media to organize rioting and crime sprees, raise funds, and spread their message of hate for others without censure from the ‘platforms.’

Remember the bit about how things change very slowly until they change all at once?   People ended their work day Friday, and when they start back up tomorrow, look at the change.   Consider the last year.  And consider the last week.  Seriously take a step back and look at it, thing about what you were doing at various points, and what you were reading about.  Compare that to today, where ONE GUY has decided that he can and should control what the President of the United States gets to say and who he gets to say it to.  That’s some big balls, but he’s getting away with it for now.  And when the President DOES try to move in the ‘free market’ to another, friendlier platform that would welcome him?  Nope.  Sorry not sorry.  We don’t want your kind in our place, and we don’t want your kind in any other place either.

The media blitz has been so intense, that even through the tiny little hole that I use to view it, there were a couple of times when I thought “what if this, or what if that?” and then I thought about the people involved, and thought “almost got me, but then I remembered who you were”.  If it could happen to me, it’s happening to others too.  Help your friends, ask them questions to lead them to it, telling them won’t help at all. * *

When I looked up this quote (I do do SOME fact checking/research/confirmations while writing) I found that Trump re-tweeted it after he was exonerated in the impeachment sham.   “When you strike at the King, you must kill him.” -RWEmerson.  That was February.    How unfortunate and ironic then that Trump struck at King Deep State, but didn’t kill him.

I’ll have a bunch to say about prepping issues coming up.  There is nothing this mouse can do now that the elephants are dancing, except to stock my bolthole and pull my  head in (figuratively, and a bit literally).

Don’t forget that we are in the midst of a massive increase in sick people too.  The wuflu hasn’t gone away, and while the percentage is small, when enough people  get it, even that tiny percentage with bad issues will get to be a really big number.

And I discovered that the NSAID I take daily for back pain is a fever suppressor as well, so I probably shouldn’t be quite so sanguine about my lack of fever when I’m coughing and headache-y.

In the mean time, avoid crowds, figure out what you have and what you need, and get to work stacking up needful things.

 

nick

*Note that this website and most other websites are not services.  You are not customers here.  (especially here, where you are friends and colleagues) No one here is under any obligation to provide anything other than courtesy, and that obligation is self imposed.  Trolls be warned.

 

** “Why on earth would the capitol cops move the barricades and let the people in if there was a riot?  Why wasn’t one of the most important and secure areas of our government guarded on this day of all days?  Why would someone as experience and seasoned as Pelosi leave her computer on and logged in if she was afraid the building would be overrun?  How many fires were there?  How many businesses were burned to the ground and looted during this ‘riot’?  Why are the headlines suggesting the rioters killed 4 people when two were medical emergencies -a stroke and a heart attack- one was an unarmed woman killed by cops, and the fourth was accidentally trampled or crushed in a crowd?”  Any one of these should plant a seed.

 

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Fri. Jan. 8, 2021 – the disaster is headed our way now for certain, just a question of how long and how bad

Cold.  Hopefully clear though.

Yesterday stayed cool all day.  It was clear and dry but never really warmed up.  It was 40F when I went to bed.

Didn’t really get much done yesterday.  Watched my local auctions throughout the day, and watched the news stories roll in.

Didn’t do super well in the auctions.  One was a disaster.  I had lots of items sell for a couple of bucks that should have sold well.  I even bought one of my own items the price was so low and I’d actually spent money on buying it originally.   I won’t be using that auctioneer again.   The lego sold well.  The k’nex sold badly, some bulk even going unsold.   40 year old concert T shirts brought $30-$50 EACH.  Crazy.  Hot Wheels and train stuff brought what I was hoping for.  Kitchen stuff- corel and pyrex sold ok, not super, but not bad.  Purses sold poorly.  The photos were really bad.  When a genuine Coach handbag, in simple black leather goes for $3 something is terribly wrong.

The stuff I dropped off Wednesday should list for next week in the better auction.   I’m supposed to take a load to my ‘industrial’ auctioneer today.  That’s why I’m hoping for clear weather.   It will get more stuff out of my storage and that’s a good thing.

I want to accelerate getting stuff sold.  I think the economy will not survive Biden and his plans.  Not at the ‘man on the street’ level, not in the financial markets.

It’s possible we might be going to look at a couple lake properties on Saturday.  I really want to accelerate that plan now too.

Lots to do, little time.  Hurricane in the Gulf time… gotta get ready.   Well, more ready.

Stack all the things.

nick

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Thur. Jan. 7, 2021 – turns out it will probably live in infamy too

Cool but not so rainy.  Maybe.

Yesterday the rain held off until mid-afternoon.  Then came down with a vengeance.  Thankfully it didn’t last long.  I got a bunch of stuff dropped off at my auctioneer, picked up the kids from school, and went by the gun store to drop off a Christmas present and touch base.  Turns out a bunch of stuff did happen in DC.

We’ll know today or tomorrow just how badly it’s going to turn out.  Until then, I think a bunch of people got played.  They still thought they could exercise their rights, petition for redress, make themselves heard.  And they got punked.   Those are going to be some angry people when they realize how badly they were done by…

 

Which brings me to the rest of this post.  I wrote it last night in response to a comment from a long time, educated, engaged, and knowledgeable commentor here.   It’s TO him, but not ABOUT him, and it’s also to everyone else who might be feeling the same way.  Because I think feeling like that is REALLY shortsighted.  I’m also breaking one of the informal rules here.  Bob discouraged swear words not from any prudishness, but because he didn’t want to trip any nanny filters and deny people access to the good information and discussion here.   We’ve been pretty good about keeping up the tradition and it does make a difference in tone.  This is not a change in policy or intent.   All that said,  I’m gonna swear a lot below.  Because it’s an evocative word and really the best way to convey my meaning and feelings.  It’s a bit less than ‘polished’.

“This was a riot by Trumpkins.”

— even if it was a riot, and was ‘trump supporters’, you don’t get to pick your supporters, anymore than the lefty bands get to control who plays their music.

A few dozen attention seekers get suckered into entering what is normally a very secure building without any real resistance (except for the AF vet that they essentially murdered- unarmed and not a threat) and they take selfies. Did they destroy the artwork? Paint ACAB on every surface? D/L anything from the completely unsecured computers? Start any fires?

And SO WHAT? What about the [really huge number because I don’t want to debate what it was or wasn’t] of ordinary people that were there? They don’t count for anything because there are a couple of grandstanding jackasses? That’s internet argument technique #12, find one reason to dismiss everything else…

I find it hard to be gleeful about the destruction of the country I love, because it will also take down Trump. Destroying faith in the electoral process has destroyed something that can’t be put back together. This stopped being about Trump a long time ago and started being about the kind of place the US would be for the rest of my life, and probably for a good chunk of my kids’ lives.

70 MILLION people feel some degree of the same thing. NO ONE ANYWHERE that I’m aware of has suggested that Trump’s votes weren’t legit. So. 70 million. How many have to say “fuck it” and do something before it ALL goes to shit? Wrong tank cars get added to a train, no corn syrup for you- or the few hundred thousand boxes of cereal your plant makes. Fuck it. Tape measure gets dropped into the grinder at the packing house. All of the last 48 hours of production needs to be destroyed because there is metal in the hamburger? Fuck it. Time to run the TPS report so the line workers can get checks? Drop_table what? Fuck it. Mercury thermometer gets dropped into the bioreactor at Merck? Fuck it. That was baking soda not chlorine? Fuck it. Hello UPS? Someone called a tip line and says they shipped 6 bombs to random people. No, we don’t know who or where from. Fuck it. EVERY Fusion Center in the US got a package full of white powder? NO SHIT? Fuck it. Someone is taking pot shots at the big spherical tanks along I 10 in Baytown? Fuck it. Every three days someone throws 5 pounds of roofing nails off an overpass onto the freeway at rush hour? Well, fuck it. Every tip line and fusion center in the US gets calls about bomb threats. And six bombs actually go off. Rinse and repeat. Fuck it.

I could do this all night, but fuck it, I’m not that motivated right now.

70 million people. Mostly in jobs that actually do something besides moving electrons or money around. LOOK at the pictures of the “protests” all over the US. Those are some serious looking folks who are just about fed up. Not the tacticool tommies with their guts hanging out* a baofang radio and morale patches on their airsoft web gear. Look at the guys in gimme hats from trucking firms or ag supplements, guys in carhart jackets or company windbreakers. Women standing next to them looking just as grim. Those women don’t care about some guy on a tape talking trash about tramps sliding up to money, they are worried about where their kids will work when NAFTA II ships the rest of the factory jobs to third world slavers. They’re worried about raising their grandkids while their sons or daughters are passed out on chinese fentanyl or doing time for possession while inner city “youths” get a free pass.

So if you’re inclined to dance a jig, because the wicked witch of the west is dead, you might want to think about what comes next. And pray that the guy at the water treatment plant, or the pharmacy, or the rail yard, or any number of invisible but important places, doesn’t just say Fuck it.

And since we/I spend a lot of time talking about preparedness issues, it’s time to get serious about stacking what you can’t do without, if you aren’t already well along the way.  I was stream of consciousness when I listed the ‘inconveniences’ above.   It took almost no actual thought at all, and I really can do it all day.  I’m surely not the only one.  70 million.  A good portion of them aren’t going to be looking for inconveniences, but for deadly consequences.  The only real thought I put in was to avoid that for now.

This has the potential to get really ugly, really fast.  If it starts, it WILL escalate.  It always does.  The irish didn’t start out throwing hand grenades into lines of school kids waiting to go into class, but they got there.

Oh, and the rest of the world isn’t likely to just stand idly by either.

So keep stacking.

 

nick

 

*a PSA rifle that’s never been sighted in and will only fire once before jamming will still kill you dead when fired into a crowd.  So will a .38 revolver from the sock drawer, or a $150 HiPoint from the pawn shop.  You don’t have to be able to ruck for days with 2x your body weight to snipe from your car, or throw rocks off an overpass either.  Something to keep in mind.

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Mon. Dec. 21, 2020 – 12212020, kinda cool.

Cool and clear, maybe a chance to dry out.

Yesterday was beautiful.  Clear, sunny, blue sky.

I did get over to my secondary location and threw out a bunch of stuff.  I filled one big dumpster, and part of another.  Took three loads in the Ranger to shuttle it to the trash.  I had to cut it into 2-3 foot pieces to get it out, since I didn’t want to spend more time on the forklift.   I’m making progress.  Slow but still progress.  Of course today I’ll be paying the piper with sore muscles and scrapes that burn.  Both forearms and my shins are scraped up.  I’ll live.

Number one daughter gets her first orthodontia installed today.  Oh my.  Half way through 6th grade.   Seems early to me but I’ll let the pros make that call.  It’s come a long way since I had mine done.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to pick up today and some to drop off.  About four more bins worth and still barely a difference… but it’s progress.  Pickups are mostly household and Christmas stuff, but there are some gub parts and accessories.   Several boxes of 3m respirator filters.  GOJO dispenser refills.  Some other stuff.

Still need to get some Christmas lights and decor up outside.   I got the ‘base layer’ up, but there is more cool stuff to do, if the weather will just hold for long enough.

There’s something wrong with the wuflu numbers coming out of Cali.  If they were at capacity last time around, and now we’re double that, but still not maxed out, someone is lying, or the reporting sucks.  Or, embrace the power of ‘and’.  Not sure, don’t care enough to dig, but I’m calling shenanigans.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe Aesop as ‘boots on the ground’ about the reality and severity of the problem, but something doesn’t add up.   As I’ve said before, I’m treating this as the disaster is HERE, so do what needs doing to deal with that reality.  No point in looking at storm tracks and models anymore, LOTS of reason to clean up the yard and fuel up the gennie, so to speak.  The pebble is in motion, the avalanche is coming, everything moving will continue to do so until they all come to rest.  I don’t see that happening for a long time.

The election and transfer of government happens next, or doesn’t.  Again, nothing I can do to affect that, so work the things I can.  The vaccine rollout and the surge are going to come crashing together for the next month or three at least.   The possible mutation in Europe and round two of the CV lockdowns will be sloshing around for at least a couple of months, possibly followed by vaccine v.2…  but in any case people are not going to stay home without a LOT of fear, more than anything to date.     That fear is going to have to be based in at least the appearance of truth, and it’s going to have to be convincing.  All this points to more extremism on every front.

If Biden is sworn in all bets are off.  SJW will be emboldened and the cries for blood will be loud.  The right will be very upset.  Whether that will translate into action is a good question.  It depends on the left and what they do.  If Biden doesn’t survive in office past March, expect it to be turned up to 11.

If Trump is sworn in some bets will pay some very long odds.   And the left will explode in rage.  That much I feel confident saying.  The right will say “come get some” and then we risk losing it all.

No matter which happens, it won’t be fun for most of us.

I’m thinking that we need to be ready to pull back, reduce our exposure, keep our heads down, but be ready for when that fails to protect us.

 

Whatever happens, having food in the fridge won’t hurt.  Ditto for lawyers, guns, and money.  And friends.  And skills.  And health.  And stacks.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

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Sat. Dec. 19, 2020 – 2021 ain’t gonna save ya

Cold and wet.  But not freezing.

Yesterday was cool all day but sunny in patches.

I got some stuff done.  Got out to my remaining client’s house and got him all back working.  Combination of failing gear, gear that got reset to initial state, and changing settings.

While there I learned that my client and his wife both got covid.  Mild and short cases, but classic symptoms.  He brought it home, likely from the hospital.  Protocols failed somewhere.  While working through the issues there with my sometimes business partner on the phone I learned that his actual business partner got it and died.  200 pounds overweight was probably the co-morbidity.    He was no longer inclined to joke about covid.  His partner was 42.   That increases the number of people in my circle, one or two degrees of separation, that had it, and it increases the number that died from it.  I’ve never had anyone I know die from flu.

Daughter’s school had a kid and staff member test positive this week.  That’s a small sample but it’s double the week before and 4x the two weeks before that.  IOW, it appears to be increasing in frequency.

The Solarwind penetrations look worse and worse.  NO way to every trust those systems again, the attackers had too much time in them.  And they were in everything important according to first reports.  Given that first reports are almost always wrong, it’s hella early to be calling for war with Russia.  Someone needs to be ‘reprisal-ed’ but we better be sure about the target.

Still two weeks to go in 2020, I’d like to get through them WITHOUT adding “hot war with Russia” to the list of unbelievable bad shirt happening.

It’s a list that includes actual honeypot physical spy stuff and assassination.

All the stuff set in motion this year will still be moving next year.

Anyone still doubt this is one of those times when everything changes?

From the masthead at WRSA–  “How will you improve the survivability of your people this weekend?”

Think about that for a while, then start working on it.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

 

(anyone else think the timing of the Solarwind revelations is just a TAD suspicious?)

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Sat. Dec. 12, 2020 – getting close to Christmas….

Cool, wet, maybe rain.

Yesterday got pretty wet late in the afternoon.  The forecast called for about .2 inches, and I’m not sure what we ended up getting, but it was cats and dogs for a while.

A couple of things conspired against me and my list.  My wife had errands to run, which I didn’t expect.  That kept me home until 2pm.  I got one pickup and one drop off done.  Didn’t get my settlement from last week’s auction, the auctioneer was having a company meeting.  I should get a check in the mail from the industrial auction some time next week.  That’s good news.

The other thing was the rain.  Pouring rain meant no Christmas decor went up.  Stuff is slipping like Fox’s ratings.

While I was waiting for my wife to get back I wasn’t UN-productive.  I cut my hair.  Went through some more stuff and put it in the auction box.   I pulled two parts and shipped them for an ebay sale.  Tested some stuff with an eye toward listing it or sending it to auction.  Tried to test an XBox360 and discovered I was missing the IEC cordset.  M$ doesn’t use a normal cord, theirs has a ‘key’ at the bottom.  I went through a box of cords and didn’t find one.  But I just need to test it so I got out a gouge and made my own key slot.  FTW!  Didn’t get a chance to use it yet.  I’m sure it will need some additional “adjusting”.

Today is the monthly meeting of my non-prepping hobby.  I think I would like to go.   I’m feeling ok, it’s probably raining so I can’t work outside, and I miss the club.  Seems dumb to have waited until the numbers are all record high to finally break down and meet but that is the state of the state.  Nothing makes sense or feels right.

Later today I need to break down and vac seal and freeze all the meat I bought this week.  Costco was out of turkeys by the time my shopper got there.  They were showing stock when I ordered.  The price was good so I guess they ‘flew’ out of the store.  Instead, I got a lamb roast for Christmas dinner.  I think I’ll cook the whole 6 pounds instead of breaking it down to halves.  Then we’ll have yummy leftovers.  Normally I’d be thinking about a ham, or maybe a ribeye roast, but my wife suggested the lamb.  Since we all love it, it was a no-brainer.  I think there are some traditions that involve lamb at Christmas, just not in our families.   Lamb is a good choice for economy- you can get very good lamb for the same price as mediocre beef, or at least we can get it here.  If we were post-apocalyptic, lamb and sheep would be front and center on the farm, just as they were throughout history.  Very useful animal, your sheep.

Protein in the freezer.  Veg in cans.  Pasta, and the stuff to make bread in buckets.  Ammo in cans.  Gubs in the safe.  That all feels pretty good, but I’m still anxious.  I checked the ammo sales, and nobody had any.  PSA had almost nothing at all in stock.  What they had was really unusual calibers, big game rifle ammo, and blanks.  Some was $5/rnd, most was over $1/rnd.  They might have had one or two boxes of bastard stepchild pistol ammo- cowboy revolvers, and .32 cal.   It’s getting short out there.

And time is getting short too.  The holidays are keeping some stuff under control.  The election stuff hasn’t played out yet, but it’s looking more like Sleepy Joe and the town bike every day.  Legitimate election or not, his policies will not be good for you and I.  That should be terrifying everyone much more than ‘Orangeman bad’.  I can only hope that he’s stymied at every turn, but based on their RINO history and never Trump activism, I bet that ‘in the interest of healing our nation’ there is a flurry of cross aisle cooperation.  If you think “it won’t be that bad, we’ll survive it like everything else”, I’d like to point out that we didn’t ‘survive’ it.  Compare today to 20 years ago, 40, 60.  Culturally and politically we are not living in the same country we were born to. *

Maybe it’s because I’ve got young kids, but I’m appalled at what we’re building for them.   That deserves a whole long post of it’s own, and I’ve got other stuff higher on my list.

Check your list.  Check your assumptions.  Check your stack.  Check your gear.  Check your friends and acquaintances.  And keep stacking.

nick

 

*for a perfect example, consider the band 2livecrew and the massive outcry and censorship of their album and song, ‘Me so horny’.  Now consider the song WAP, for which Cardi B is widely lauded.  The official video on youtube has 300 million views, the audio released first has 181 million.  Dozens of other versions have 10s of millions of views.  The song is flat out obscenity.  There is a radio edit.  It gets airplay.  I’m not linking to the vids, it’s bad enough reading the lyrics.  People think it’s FUNNY.  If you feel compelled to listen to it, watch the vid of the girl signing it.  ‘wap cardi b sign language’ None of it is SFW.  Every aspect of our culture has been degraded.  Every one of our freedoms has been limited.  And it all happened a little bit at a time.

 

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Wed. Dec. 9, 2020 – up late, tired, stuff to do

Cool and windy, still damp.

I did get a few things done yesterday.  I didn’t do plumbing at the rent house (tenant nixed the plan, had critical zoom meetings), I didn’t take another load to the auctioneer, and I only got some of the Christmas lights up.

I did get some stuff put away in the garage.  So that helps somewhat.  And did laundry, cooked dinner, fed the child lunch, answered math questions, and other general domestic bliss.  Still didn’t get groceries ordered.

All but the plumbing slips to today.  Joy.

Time to do a big push.

All of you were busy as beavers getting ready for the coming troubles, so I know I don’t even have to say it… but I will.  Keep stacking.  Work harder.  Lord knows I need to.

 

n

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Tues. Dec. 1, 2020 – it’s the final countdown… for the year anyway

Cold and windy.  Hopefully not below freezing.  [28F at 6am]

I spent yesterday getting ebay and auction stuff sorted into bins.  I also did a little bit of maintenance and finished the install of the range hood.

And cooked dinner- pork chops on the grill, thin sliced red potatoes saute’d in bacon fat with onion, and a steamed acorn squash for  a bit of sweet.  Family ate over 2 pounds of pork.  I’m glad I have girls, I couldn’t afford boys at this rate.  Range hood worked great with the potatoes.

Today I’ll be headed over to the rent house to meet the plumber.  If everything goes well, then over to the auction house to drop off 4 bins of stuff.  If it goes badly, I hope we’ll get everything fixed before my tenants get home from work.

So far, my tenants have been working and able to pay the rent.  When I was considering the advantages of an income stream from rentals, I didn’t consider the US going full commie and seizing landlords’ properties without compensation.  I’m glad I’m not in a state thinking about or engaged in rent forgiveness.  Like most commie schemes, the end result is the opposite of intended- you end up with no rentals available, or only run down shiteholes that no one wants to live in.  Formerly productive (and taxable) properties go fallow or become a burden on society instead of a benefit.

The slide has started.

Consider too, if you are rooting for a Biden win, what it means for our free and open society when people on the left feel emboldened.  Right now, when they think they are the underdogs, they are calling for an actress to be blackballed because her boyfriend might not be a Trump hater.  She was formerly a darling of the left,  supporting all the right causes.  They chase people off campus for what they MIGHT say.  They dox and hound and threaten anyone they don’t like.   How much worse will that be when they KNOW they are the protected golden children?  And the problem with radical orthodoxy?  No one is ever pure enough, or dedicated enough to satisfy the true believers.  So even if you are sympathetic, or supportive, you can still find yourself denounced and driven out.

And then where will you be?

Stack it high.  Prepare to pull back and close in.  If you’ve been free with your opinions, someone has already made a note of it, guaranteed.  If you aren’t prepared to recant, you better get ready to fight.

n

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Fri. Nov. 27, 2020 – just another day to work

Cool, overcast, possible rain later.

Well, Thanksgiving Day has come and gone.  We here at Casa de Nick have enjoyed another feast, with most of the traditional foods we are used to having.  We missed having friends and family over, but it did make for a more calm and relaxing day.

I actually managed to get some other stuff done too.  I went through a bunch of stuff and filled a couple of bins for my local auction.  I have more to go through, and the ebay bin will need to be listed, but it looks like progress…  And I repaired an item that should sell for hundreds of bucks on ebay.

My wife continued painting in the kitchen in addition to preparing some really good food.  If I wasn’t going to my rent house to do plumbing repairs today, I’d be in the attic getting the range hood installed.   I guess that will wait until Saturday.

I’ve never been interested in “Friday of Color” sales.  I can often find better pricing, or similar pricing but on better versions of the items and avoid the stampedes.  I did look at a few of the cyber- offers.  An ammunition reseller had Pelican cases marked down.  That was it.  They didn’t even have any ammo for sale.  Some other places online had weirdo import guns, and small manufactures I’ve never seen before, but no big names.  A few, very few, had name brand models, at high prices.  Selection and quantity were very limited.

Fry’s offers were about where MicroCenter is normally.  MicroCenter was competitive with Costco.  Costco expanded the tech they have for sale dramatically.   As an aside, a decade after leaving the field of large format, high resolution CURVED displays, the new hotness is curved monitors on desks.  I guess once you’ve sold everyone two monitors, and with 3D still a bust, curved looks like a growth space.   After a decade of putting in curved displays, we determined that they are essentially single user devices.  They work poorly for large groups unless the display is HUGE and the intent is awe, rather than work.  Large curved TVs had the same issues we saw with our much larger systems and didn’t fly off the shelves.   Desktop users might be the actual sweet spot for wide curved displays.  As long as you don’t need two…or three.*

It will be interesting to see if the shoppers ignore social distancing and masks in the rush to get cheap crap, like the holiday travelers did.

I’m not one to panic, but I do take the wuflu seriously.  It didn’t kill us like it killed chinese, but I’ll put some of that down to unknown factors, and some down to masks and distancing.  It’s hard to catch something if you aren’t around anyone who has it.  The number of people traveling this week pretty much ensures that we will see a large spike in cases, on top of the current increases, just in time for Christmas travel, which will either not happen if things are REALLY bad, or will put the nail in the coffin of containment and mitigation.  You can argue severity, transmissibility, lethality, and the legality and effectiveness of the actions taken by political figures, but you can’t argue the ACTUALITY that the disease exists, is spread person to person, and makes some percentage very sick, and kills a smaller percentage of those.  With very large numbers exposed, we WILL see large numbers of sick, and larger numbers of both very sick, and lethally sick people than we have been seeing.

That will cause a number of responses, both social and political.  I can’t predict which way it will go.  I expect political ‘leaders’ to try more, harder.  If you are in an area with already repressive government – I think you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.  Those of us in less restrictive areas are going to see increasing restrictions.  Or despite everything we’ll lose control and it will sweep through like a wildfire, in which case you’ll stay isolated voluntarily.

Either case or anything in between can be made better on an individual level by avoiding people.  Get ready to increase your personal protective behaviors.  This isn’t going to be a time to be out shopping or ‘living your best life’.    Get that stuff out of the way NOW, right now, before the wave hits.  And stack it high, because a surging hospitalization rate is actually likely to be only ONE of our worries as the next month or two plays out.

I know it’s doom and gloom.  But we ARE living with social unrest (rioting/insurrection), a global pandemic, and an uncertain election and transfer of power, which could turn into full on fighting in the streets.  France fell in 2 weeks to the Germans.  Just last month, suddenly Armenia and Azerbaijan were lobbing mortars and bombs into each other’s cities.  Venezuela fell to failed state in less than two years.  It can happen very quickly.  Be ready to live with it and through it.

Keep stacking.  Be thankful for every day without those issues.

nick

 

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Fri. Nov. 20, 2020 – or 11202020 – or TGIF

Another great fall day, I hope.  We are supposed to get rain, but only in a little ring around Houston, for the next couple of days.  Any change in weather patterns and that little spot will miss us.  I hope anyway.

It got up to 81F yesterday, but was back to 68F at night.  Other than being a bit too humid, basically great weather.  Clear sky, light breeze, warm sun.

Being that I didn’t feel fantastic, I was moving a bit slowly yesterday.  I did manage to get a few things done, and I did get a wuflu test.  Talked to my mom in Florida and she sound ok with us missing Thanksgiving with her.  Even thinking about the trip seems nuts to me, but I’m not always driving the bus.

The election stuff continues to evolve.  We’re learning some stuff about the process and the machines and the companies involved that is frankly incredible.  Lou Dobbs says we don’t even know the true ownership of the companies doing the counting…  FFS, I thought it was bad in the old days when one company provided the de facto results based on exit polls and really, whatever they wanted to say… and the count was kind of an afterthought.  No matter what comes out of this, it’s not going to be good.  Even if it’s all laid out and irrefutable, the damage done will be massive.  A total reset of voting processes will be needed to restore public confidence.  The chances of either of those things being true seem to be slim at this point.  We are truly at a crossroad.

I’ve said for some time that I think we are in one of those periods where everything changes, the shape of the whole world gets rearranged.   Last time we benefited enormously.  Who will benefit this time, as it seems unlikely to be us?

Periods of rapid change and realignment are rarely much fun for the ordinary people living through them.  Oh some people will rise like the robber barons, but most of us will be lucky to keep what we have-think europeans after WWII for example.  I don’t think I want to live as a DP wandering around Eastern Europe.

I want to live comfortably in the country I grew up in.  I’m gonna do what I can to make that happen.  And I’m going to keep stacking so I have some resources available.  Cuz seriously, what do YOU think will happen when Trump’s team lays out the evidence for the steal, but loses anyway?  Or if he somehow pulls it off, what do you think the radical left will do when his “coup” is successful?

Keep stacking.

nick

 

added- I scanned through 11 pages of those results and found only a couple that predated the election, and those were from unabashed socialist sources.

Preparations to respond are already under way. A manual titled Hold the Line lays out how to form local “election protection” committees and start organizing for coup resistance.[6] Numerous organizations and coalitions are actively preparing for responding if Trump and his supporters disrupt the election and attempt to nullify its results. They include Choose Democracy,  National Council On Election Integrity, Keep Our Republic , Stand Up America , and People’s Strike!. Others are keeping a low public profile unless and until open resistance is necessary. Protect the Results, a joint project of Indivisible and Stand Up America, has already organized actions in 233 locations for 5:00 p.m. local time on November 4.

 

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