08:38 – We’re having typical autumn weather here, rainy and breezy with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the 50’s. We’ve had a couple inches of rain in the last few days, with more to come. Between the wind and rain, most of the leaves are down. No really cold weather yet. We probably won’t see any significant snow or ice for a month or more, although we have had noticeable frost on roofs and lawns once or twice already.
Like everyone, we’ve gotten notice of the Obamacare open enrollment period for 2016. The monthly premiums, deductibles, and co-pays are all increasing. No surprise there. What I don’t understand is how the subsidies work for those with incomes low enough to receive them. I paid our first month’s premium in full by credit card when I signed us up. That covered October. We got a bill for the full amount for November, which Barbara just wrote a check for. If our income was $40,000/year, we’d have to pay only $200/month instead of $1,200. Most people with that income can’t afford to pay $1,200/month all year and wait to get the subsidy when they file their tax returns. Presumably there’s some mechanism that allows them to pay only the subsidized $200/month premium, but I don’t see any explanation on the Obamacare website or the BCBS website of how to do that. I often see figures about how many people have signed up for Obamacare but don’t pay their premiums. Perhaps this is why that happens.
10:18 – Back 40 years or so ago, I spent an afternoon shooting on a 500-yard range with a gun whose name I don’t even remember. There wasn’t any wind to speak of. He was shooting a tuned .30-06 Model 70, and getting consistent 4″ to 6″ 10-shot groups at 500 yards. That’s one minute of angle, MOA.
I remember thinking at the time that this guy could dominate and control a 500-yard radius from wherever he and his rifle happened to be. Back then, I did such simple calculations in my head without even having to think about it, and I realized that this guy controlled a surface area of more than 7,000,000 square feet, or more than 160 acres. One quarter of a square mile.
It was then that I started thinking about weapons (and shooters) in terms of the area they could control rather than their lineal ranges. With my .45 pistol or a riot shotgun, I can control an acre or so. With one of my .223/5.56 rifles, something like 40 acres, assuming a useful range of 250 yards or so.
Ten of me in one location could control that 40 acres with a weight of 10X or, more realistically, an area of 1.6 acres with a weight of 250X. If things ever do get really bad and we find ourselves having to defend ourselves and our home against bands of roving looters, that’s a lot of weigh on a relatively small surface area. Particularly when you consider that the average gang-banger and his weapon can’t control even one acre because he can’t hit anything other than by chance. Those ten of me, not even considering the defenders’ advantage, should be able to deal with 250 or more attackers.
Of course, that’s assuming we have ten of me, which we may well not have. But even a relative novice shooter firing a shotgun or rimfire rifle from cover can control an acre, which is one of the reasons I encourage my family and friends to learn to shoot. A bunch of people who can control an acre supplemented by a few who can control 40 acres or more would be able to put up a strong defense against violent would-be looters.
I don’t think it’ll come to that, or at least I really hope it won’t, but I believe there’s maybe a 10% chance that it will come to that sometime in the next few years. If it does, I want to be prepared.
From what I can determine, it’s a combination of by-design and execrable incompetence. It’s been a total mess here in Vermont since the beginning, and cost the taxpayers of the state several million so far for NOTHING. That money’s just gone. A couple of nooz paper editorials and a few mildly angry letters to the editors and that was it.
And we all continue our slow march to the precipice. While hoping something doesn’t come along to shove us harder toward it.
Overcast here, intermittent rain shows, probably two-thirds of the leaves down. We had snow flurries a few weeks ago but nothing since, though I see that, per usual, the mountaintops are white.
Mrs. OFD is in Sacramento for the week and then home; only one gig in December, a normally slow period through the wunnerful Holidays.
Yesterday, you mentioned the Castlewood Orb drive. I bought one of those to test at work, and it was just fine. I used it as a backup device, so it didn’t get a lot of hours. It was in a class of “super floppy” devices, and to me seemed to be the best combination of reliability and capacity, around 100 MB. Also, the drive could use regular 3.5″ floppies, which the Zip drives could not. I retired shortly after getting mine, and don’t know what ever happened to it.
While on the subject, I had previously used Bernoulli drives. In some areas, the storage had to be removable and locked up overnight. Those computers couldn’t have regular hard drives, so the Bernoulli was a compromise between convenience and capacity. There were a few hundred at our site. Their main trouble was reliability, so we wore out lots of their removable media. Some people experimented with removable cartridge hard drives, but these were very sensitive to dust, and never caught on.
Around that time, 1990 IIRC, I bought what was probably the first removable tray used at our location. Remember those? They took a regular 3.5″ half height hard drive and fit a 5.25″ bay. We got the reliability, capacity, and speed of a fixed disk, but they were removable. The only problem we had was that some of the trays were cheaply made, and not very robust. Careful shopping solved that. I know someone who still uses them, likely from an old stash, because they are probably no longer available. Pretty sure you covered them in your PCHIAN books. I have all (both?) of them, but am too lazy to reach for the shelf and check. Also have the Building the Perfect PC book(s). Plug!
Nowadays, I don’t need much in the way of removable storage, but do have one 3.5″ drive in an aftermarket USB case. It works fine, and is my only offsite storage. I need to consider additional backup storage devices, but not today…
I had a number of PCs with Lian Li removable trays, containing an ATA/IDE drive. Haven’t played with them for 10 years, so I have no idea if they still work.
“Back 40 years or so ago, I spent an afternoon shooting on a 500-yard range with a gun whose name I don’t even remember. There wasn’t any wind to speak of. He was shooting a tuned .30-06 Model 70, and getting consistent 4″ to 6″ 10-shot groups at 500 yards”
Did you mean “I spent an afternoon shooting on a 500-yard range with a guy whose name I don’t even remember.”
Yeah, that’s what I meant. I don’t go back to fix typos unless they significantly affect what I meant to say.
RBT, I like your area defense scheme, but will add another dimension (ahem!)
I can see 80 miles looking out my living room window, so it is safe to assume we are in open territory. The minimum lot sisze in my neighborhood is 2.5 acres, about 100 yards square, and only a few lots have houses. Therefore, we have the very real possibility of needing to defend against someone who can lob lead in from great distances. Tougher situation to defend. A few people have fortified walls, but it is hard to adequately armor a typical house. It would also be hard to neutralize such a threat with anything short of a SAW, artillery, or air power. That’s why we value friendship. Not the perfect solution, but makes living pleasant. I hope it never comes to the scenarios I read here.
As for prepping, beyond food, water, and ammo, we value a nice wine cellar. Life is too short to always be sober (TM).
“I had a number of PCs with Lian Li removable trays, containing an ATA/IDE drive.”
I remember what a revolution the ATA/IDE interface was, mainly for the removability. Before that, we had external SCSI, but I never liked it. I did read that our host made use of SCSI successfully.
When I got my first PC in 1997 I considered SCSI, but the price per GB was just insane, plus I would have needed a SCSI card.
I don’t even remember the difference between ATA and IDE now.
“Getting old is hell.” ™
Removable trays are still available, and there are still security regs that require their use.
I think Jerry Pournelle said that spinning iron would always catch up on price/performance and there was not much point in worrying about other storage media. (to paraphrase)
I must say that he seems to have been right (although flash drives and SSDs are squeezing in, at least for staying power.)
nick
“I hope it never comes to the scenarios I read here.”
As do we all. But what we hope for and what we expect aren’t necessarily the same thing. Always evaluate an enemy on his capabilities rather than your perception of his intentions, and that holds true even if the enemy is potentially dangerous events rather than people.
“Always evaluate an enemy on his capabilities rather than your perception of his intentions, and that holds true even if the enemy is potentially dangerous events rather than people.”
+100. as OFD might say.
“I hope it never comes to the scenarios I read here.”
I think the only wise course of action is to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Capabilities of riff-raff attackers probably suck most of the time WRT to their marksmanship, but remember they’ll use surprise and shock tactics and play very dirty. Put yourself in their shoes; you want food, money, guns, ammo, etc., and you’re pretty sure that guy in that house has them. You’ve cased it pretty good and noted their comings and goings, and who lives there or is likely to be there at any given time. You hit it at night while they’re deeply asleep, and you’ve taken care of any outside dogs already. Assuming there are good deadbolt locks on the doors, you try them for luck anyway, come up short, and blast through ground-floor windows on at least two sides. Sweep through those first-floor rooms quickly and then rush upstairs, firing as you go.
That’s the average residence in an average ‘hood somewhere in North Murka, probably with neighbors who MIGHT call the cops, but otherwise keep their heads down while the shooting is going on.
Remember also these muffs will go for easy pickings; they’re not gonna attack a reasonably secured and fenced property with clear fields of fire, dogs barking, and guys bebopping around it who are clearly armed, not unless they have superior numbers and firepower and the pickings are gonna be worth the risk.
Our main problem is the front of the house so close to the early 19th-C street here. I need to beef up the door and windows quite a bit and in the event of probable attacks of some kind, rig some sort of defensive barrier.
And neighbors need to start banding together.
Apropos defense, the younger son is now off to his 10-month term in the Swiss militia. Interestingly, he comes home on the weekends. Well, sort of: he is released Saturday morning, and must be back Sunday night. Basically a chance to do laundry and catch up on sleep.
From his description of the first week, it sound a lot less physical that US basic training, but the same sorts of psychological games. Bed made just so. Uniform just so. If it moves, salute it. They’ve already learned to strip and assemble their rifles, but haven’t seen any ammunition yet. This week, he thinks they start on marching in formation.
He knows I spent 10 years in the military, so I think he takes it more seriously that otherwise. For most Swiss, it’s just something to get through. I see it as important, and hope he does too. What the US does, starting wars all over the place, is inexcusable But a militia to defend your borders? That’s a national insurance policy that you hope you’ll never need. Given the current waves of immigrants, heading towards Europe, it is more important than ever before.
I hope that the Swiss generals have a clue, but I don’t actually believe it. The officer corps here appears to be like the US office corps between the world wars: too many long-term professional bureaucrats, no fire in the belly. I haven’t found the article, but someone tells me that they have publicly admitted they have no idea what to do if a wave of immigrants does come our way.
Some interesting observations on North Murkan rail line issues:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/trolls-live-under-bridges/#comments
@OFD,
Figure out which trees to drop into the street to control access.
@brad, the swiss model works if you can physically control your borders- fortress up, defend. We’ve got thousands of miles of land border that is impossible to close. On the other hand, we are separated by those 2 big moats. That has helped us in the past.
Re: assuming the worst. I don’t think most people want to or are willing to. Some just don’t know how bad the worst can get.
This is how bad it is NOW:
http://americanfreepress.net/media-covers-up-black-hate-crimes-against-whites/
(I was looking for the particular atrocity of the white couple beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, and murdered in Fla. Found this list instead.)
remember this one? Dozens if not hundreds of people watched.
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_27920942/sex-assault-at-beach-third-student-charged-florida
One you probably missed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom
This is lights on, grid up, WITH ROL.
People don’t extrapolate far enough. I’ve been in a burning city (LA, Rodney King riots) when only a relative few are involved. Dresden will look like a backyard BBQ if the masses actually get involved.
nick
BTW, these are just the easiest ones to find. I could post links to the assault and gang rape of the female news reporter during the egyptian riots, or a myriad of other stories involving riots and civil unrest. Just look at the rapes and assaults that happened during the (relatively peaceful and civilized) Occupy Wallstreet nonsense.
Whatever is in your head, it’s not as bad as it could get.
“Capabilities of riff-raff attackers probably suck most of the time WRT to their marksmanship,”
While this may be true, lots of former US servicemen in that population too. They at least have the training, if not the talent. Several branches have had gang problems at various times, and those guys are out in the cities now.
Also, given the number of crimes committed by your average banger, they have little to no empathy, no impulse control, and a big chip on their shoulder. Remember the “wilding” phenomenon? Not really gone, just not reported. When they get hungry, they will come looking for something to eat.
nick
Even more terrifying is the MS-13 and other southern hispanic gangs. These guys have a culture one step out of the most violent slums in the world, and literally one step from the jungle. Add the quasi-religious aspects, with black magic and Santaria, and the other worship of violence, and [un]holy crap does it get ugly quick. These guys are trained, and completely remorseless.
nick
google around about the revenge and intimidation killings, the torture and rape, kidnappings, etc in their home countries, and sponsored by the drug cartels. It may not be making it into the news up north, but we see plenty here in the border states. Savage doesn’t even begin to describe it.
All good points today, though unpleasant to contemplate, from Mr. nick. We have our local yokel white underclass denizens around here but they’re rank noobs and babes in the woods (literally) compared to the goblins Mr. nick is talking about. My nearest equivalent to the things in my own head were the Khmer Rouge, similarly very young males barely one remove from the jungle and armed with AK’s and machetes. Zero empathy. They put up some big numbers, too; around two million.
But that was forty-plus years ago and fah, fah away; multiply their numbers by many millions and the firepower they possess, crummy shooters though most of them may be. If I lived in or near a large North Murkan city now, I’d be thinking very seriously about improving my odds and GTFO of there ASAP. The cops and soldiers, will have their hands full, those who stick around, that is, and we can look at Katrina to get an idea of that; hell, they’ll turn into criminal gangs robbing and pillaging themselves at some point.
“Figure out which trees to drop into the street to control access.”
Oops, no trees here, and the “streets” are just desert somewhat smoothed and with the bushes removed. Pretty hard to stop even roller skates. OTOH, I have seen a moat, but there is so little water, it is always dry. There have been suggestions to stock the moat with reptiles and such, but most natives here would actually like them. We DO live in a sliiiiightly different place!!
And, seriously, there are good suggestions here. I especially like the attitude to hope for the best while being prepared for the worst. Now excuse me while I go buy a few more tons of food 🙂
Like everyone, we’ve gotten notice of the Obamacare open enrollment period for 2016. The monthly premiums, deductibles, and co-pays are all increasing. No surprise there. What I don’t understand is how the subsidies work for those with incomes low enough to receive them. I paid our first month’s premium in full by credit card when I signed us up. That covered October. We got a bill for the full amount for November, which Barbara just wrote a check for. If our income was $40,000/year, we’d have to pay only $200/month instead of $1,200.
Why don’t you get group health insurance? You should be able to with the two of you full time in the business.
BTW, BCBS has dropped PPO in their Obolacare insurance hear in Texas. HMO only so they dropped M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. BCBS claimed that they are spending 40% over the insurance rates for individual insurance since Obamacare started.
I’m always reminded of that thing about two guys being chased by a bear, and the one saying, “I don’t have to be faster than the bear; I just have to be faster than you.”
I don’t underestimate the viciousness of these UC scum, nor do I think that none of them are ex-military. What I do think is that they’ll find it a lot harder than most PA novelists believe to organize themselves into any sort of functioning unit. I suspect that a large majority of them will be killed by each other, by law enforcement, and by ordinary civilians before they make it far from the large cities. Any that do make it up the mountain would almost certainly be on foot, and they’d be walking into a meat-grinder. The population of Sparta may be only 2,000, but a high percentage of them, men and women, are shooters, and would be defending their families, homes, and neighbors. Don’t underestimate Good Old Boys, a disproportionate percentage of whom also have military experience.
Group ended up costing more than individual.
Interesting…
http://kfor.com/2015/10/29/mans-post-about-traffic-stop-goes-viral/
Group ended up costing more than individual.
Huh. That has not been the case for us. Of course, I have not checked on individual insurance in several years. We have gotten our 28 year old daughter categorized as disabled and on our group insurance (a Texas special law, thank goodness).
This entire health insurance thing is a big mess and getting worse by the year. My wife’s breast cancer treatments were $350K in 2005 at MD Anderson Cancer Center here in Houston, the world’s premiere cancer center. Five surgeries, six months of chemo and a 12 month weekly treatment clinical trial that extended into 2006.
Our current provider at the time fought tooth and nail to keep from paying anything on her bills and did not pay a penny for nine months after the first bill. If I remember correctly, we paid $15K out of pocket, Genentech paid $50K for the clinical trial drug (Herceptin) and additional testing, MDACC forgave $90K, and John Alden Insurance paid $195K. I still occasionally have nightmares about it. At the time, I was afraid that MDACC would stop my wife’s treatments when the outstanding bill hit $200K.
That’s also true at brothels. 🙂
That article is an obvious plant and the story fabricated. It was probably done by the neo-conservative capitalist oligarchy that runs this country.
I just got a bunch of medical bills in the mail where it shows my insurance (BCBS of Neb) paid nothing. So, I do a big WTF and research why. It turns out that EVERY year I have to re-certify that BCBS is my only medical insurance (aka “Coordination of Benefits”). If I don’t then they assume I have coverage through another provider and stop paying. It’s completely asinine.
I call and ask: “You get premiums paid every month by my wife’s employer, correct?”
They respond: “Yes.”
My incredulous response: “So, pay the fucking bills.”
I realize the girl I am talking to is just a call center pissant, but she has a much better chance of getting my grievance kicked upstairs than I do.
In the end, nothing will change and it will only get worse. They’ve been playing the “think of bullshit bureaucratic ways to deny coverage and see if the customer notices and is motivated enough to fight us or if they’ll just pay it themselves” game for decades.
That’s also true at brothels.
LOL!!! Maybe we should ask Lamar Odom.
_The Jakarta Pandemic_ by Steven Konkoly
http://www.amazon.com/Jakarta-Pandemic-Steven-Konkoly/dp/1495907376/
Book number one of a five book series. This book is listed as the prequel to the four book Perseid series by the author. The printing that I purchased is a trade paperback POD (printed on demand) by Amazon.
The book explores what could happen if we (the human race) were to have another main line flu variation. The author has named the flu variant as H16N1 and the origination of the flu is in Indonesia. The flu is very communicable with 100 million people infected in the USA at the high point and a 20% fatality rate. Most of the book is set in the Maine countryside with a real nasty Maine winter settling in. As employee absenteeism approaches 90%, the food and power distribution systems collapse. People start leaving the large cities into the countryside for safety, food and shelter.
The author has a website at:
http://stevenkonkoly.com/
The author has been interviewed about the book:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/inside-the-mind-of-steven-konkoly-an-interview-with-the-author-of-the-jakarta-pandemic/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars (810 reviews)
“UN planning an ‘international tribunal of climate justice’ which would allow nations to take developed countries to court”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3300366/UN-planning-international-tribunal-climate-justice-allow-nations-developed-countries-court.html
I wonder who they are planning on suing? Surely not the USA.
I wonder who they are planning on suing? Surely not the USA.
Nor China.
Lamar sends to have spent $75k according to one report. Less than alimony, but still, dam n.
I think you may be putting too much weight on organization. The unorganized mob can lil you just as dead.
Some of you may be interested about the following:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/02/mars_races_ares_to_do_battle_with_the_sun/
[snip] remember this one? Dozens if not hundreds of people watched. [snip]
Not a crime if it was consensual; just saying. and I happen to live where the action was.
IIRC, the girl was non compos due to alcohol/drugs and possibly unconscious.
Interesting to note that the incident only came to light when investigators viewed the video, while investigating another crime…
nick
I don’t know the specifics of the case, I hope it will come out at trial. But women consenting and then pretending to be passed out to enhance the thrill is a known activity. It also helps provide cover when daddy finds out about what she did while on Spring Break. In much the same way as some of the SHTF scenarios, the ‘normal’ rules of ‘civilized’ behavior get thrown out the window; the difference being that everything gets reset on the way back home.
Let’s not forget this blast from the recent past. Definitely the kind of girl mother warned you about!
I think I mentioned that the elderly guy next door (he considers himself elderly) declared bankruptcy, and turned the house in to the bank. He left the house several weeks ago, and some hired help removed all the contents of the house.
When I got home for lunch today, 2 cop cars were out front, and a pair were scouting around the house. Seems the house was broken into last night by breaking the front door glass, reaching in, and unlocking the deadbolt. They could not go into the house without a search warrant or the presence of a representative of the property, so at this point, no one knows what happened inside.
Which sent me thinking all the rest of the afternoon, and concluding that the ne’er-do-well had to be someone in the neighborhood who knew the house had been vacated—completely. Mr. Bankrupt purposely left some items on the porch, so the house would look occupied. Only someone in the neighborhood could have known the house was ‘safe’ to break into.
I live in such a nice surroundings. Three empty houses surrounding me now. Guess I had better get some ammunition for the firearm, as things are closing in.
And tonight, I found out that the Democrat mafia here has zero opposition, so my cunning anarchist plan of voting out the incumbents is fouled, as there is no alternative to the incumbents, and they win by default. One Libertarian on the ballot, and even though I agree with Noam Chomsky that American Libertarians are not actually Libertarians, I will vote for her anyway. Furthermore, she is the only woman on the entire ballot.
Meanwhile, I do not know much about other businesses, but the big radio conglomerates are finally approaching the day of reckoning. Cumulus, which has $15 billion in debt and fast declining revenues had their CEO fired a couple weeks ago. The woman who led Reader’s Digest through bankruptcy was appointed CEO, but she declared she would not file for bankruptcy. Then, over the last few weeks, Cumulus stock has plunged from over $3 to just 46 cents on Friday. Their market cap is now so low that their stock should be de-listed by Wall Street—if the rules are followed. How she will avoid bankruptcy will be a magic trick at this point.
Now iHeart is in much, much hotter water with over 75 billion in debt and so little revenue that since 2008, they have NEVER been able to pay even the interest on that debt, let alone retire any. How Cumulus plunges but iHeart stays afloat makes no sense at all.
Interesting times ahead. And people in other fields tell me radio is not the only business over-leveraged to such a degree that only miracles will avoid catastrophes.
“Definitely the kind of girl mother warned you about!”
And once again, more stereotypes that we’re all familiar with come true in RL. Our bad, amirite?
What a country!
“Guess I had better get some ammunition for the firearm, as things are closing in.”
+1,000
Mr. Chuck; if the perp lives in your ‘hood or is from outside but is debriefed on these matters by someone in the ‘hood, it is only a matter of time before they start hitting occupied houses or thinking they’re unoccupied like the others and breaking in. Chances are also good that they’re druggies; i.e., probably not in their right mind to start with and desperate. A word to the wise. My recomendation: an EDC handgun on your person at all times and in all places (obviously you gotta work at sites where that’s probably not feasible, but everywhere else). And at home, a loaded, ready-to-go shotgun. If you don’t have a dog, I’d get one of those, too; doesn’t have to be big and ferocious, just make a lotta noise if someone’s around the property who doesn’t belong there.
“…my cunning anarchist plan of voting out the incumbents is fouled, as there is no alternative to the incumbents, and they win by default.”
And at the national level, they’re all essentially incumbents anyway, one total bag job after another, and yet peeps keep playing the game and believing their vote makes a difference and it’s their “civic duty.” We had our chance a long time ago, and now the demographics rule, a fact made certain with deliberate malice aforethought half a century ago.
“…people in other fields tell me radio is not the only business over-leveraged to such a degree that only miracles will avoid catastrophes.”
Indeed. Lotta chickens coming home to roost in the next few months and years.
Chuck wrote:
“…I agree with Noam Chomsky…”
You mean you can actually make sense of that guy?
holy cr@p, iHeart has 75 BILLION in debt? That’s more than some COUNTRIES.
Radio needs all the illegals too. Almost the whole dial here is spanish language and ethnic music. Couple of christian stations, couple of college stations, one AC, one classic rock, one classic hip hop (CLASSIC!), one current hip hop…. 4th largest city in America.
I have no idea what the AM dial sounds like, but I think it’s mostly spanish too.
Been a while since I went to NAMM, or NARB, but I didn’t realize it was so bad. I know I rarely listen to local radio, I pay for XM to avoid all the incessant commercials and ignorant personalities. I did vaguely notice the consolidation, and the robo-programmed shows, but paid little attention.
It would be nice to get some of that tasty spectrum back….
nick
BTW, the Jakarta Pandemic book has many pandemic refugees moving from Boston to the Maine countryside when hospitals start overflowing. Among those is a family with three men and six women / kids who move into an empty house. In the story, the men manage to wreck havoc in the lightly settled subdivision with just a sawn off shotgun and a pistol.
http://www.amazon.com/Jakarta-Pandemic-Steven-Konkoly/dp/1495907376/
“In the story, the men manage to wreck havoc in the lightly settled subdivision with just a sawn off shotgun and a pistol.”
If it’s a “lightly settled subdivision,” it ain’t the “Maine countryside,” which can be pretty bleak and forbidding for large areas. It’s also the poorest New England state and has the highest percentage among the six of Native American peoples, including a reservation near Orono, north of Bangor. Three city dudes with just a shotgun and pistol wreaking havoc in some rural Maine area is not very plausible. They’d get blown to smithereens PDQ over there, or over here, for that matter.
Guy down at the dump/”recycling center” told me about a recent incident in his town, which is east of us in the sparsely populated hills; a resident got awakened in the middle of the night by somebody trying to bash in his door, so he flashed on downstairs and simply fired his shotgun through the door. It was a neighbor, drunk on his ass, trying to get into the wrong house. Said neighbor only ended up with a wounded hand but did not see fit to make a big fuss over it following the event.
So I can just picture three urban goblins trotting through there with their one shorty 12-gauge and a pistol and lasting about ten minutes. If that. High-power hunting rifles with scopes, and crusty old buggers who are pretty darn good shots.
The story is set in southern Maine in a lightly settled subdivision where each home is on an acre or a half acre of land. The empty house that the “Manson family” takes is several homes away from our hero’s home.
So I can just picture three urban goblins trotting through there with their one shorty 12-gauge and a pistol and lasting about ten minutes. If that. High-power hunting rifles with scopes, and crusty old buggers who are pretty darn good shots.
Not everyone has guns in their home. Not everyone is prepared to repel invaders at 3am in the morning. Especially when said invaders scoped out the homes the afternoon before, begging for food.
In fact, quite a bit of the book was spent on the social dynamics of the 30? homes in the subdivision. Only a few of the families were practicing quarantine when the pandemic was the lead item on the news. One of the men in the subdivision was actively telling the invaders who and who did not have food. OpSec is very important when the goblins are hunting. And, our hero is very concerned about getting arrested after the pandemic for shooting the goblins.
“… southern Maine in a lightly settled subdivision where each home is on an acre or a half acre of land.”
Yeah, I get that; I’m just saying that it isn’t “Maine countryside” as we understand it up here; it’s a suburb, and in southern Maine, that means near the coast and the largest city, Portland, and just a hop, skip and jump from Portsmouth, NH and greater Boston. I’m familiar with that sort of “lightly settled subdivision” from my time in MA and NJ and we’ve even got a few of them near here in Retroville. I don’t give much for their chances in the event of SHTF stuff. You’re right; not every one of them will have firearms at home or know how to use them. They’re likely to be typical North Murkan citified derps without a clue and who are in Condition White even after TSHTF.
Now, if our shotgun-toting gremlins decided to travel further north and/or west in the great Pine Tree State, they’d find a different kettle of fish.
Obviously, you are not an anarchist. Chomsky even defines the field further calling himself an anarcho-syndicalist. Like the views of Emma Goldman, that means workers should have significant input into companies and economies using revolutionary tactics if necessary.
I have been interested in Chomsky since I first heard him on David Brudnoy’s radio program in Boston back in the mid-80’s. Of all the people whose views I have followed and investigated, he and the late Jude Wanniski are the only 2 people whose predictions have been 100% correct in every case. (Okay, Wanniski was wrong on one, as he predicted The Shrub’s born-again convictions would not allow him to invade Iraq. Wanniski believed that Christianity stuff and that any Christian was serious about matching their conduct to demands of that faith.) Chomsky seldom makes predictions, but when he has, he has been correct. I would assess Chomsky to be more informed about international political issues than even the highest levels of our government agencies who are supposed to analyze that stuff actually are.
Wickedpeedja says Chomsky is a Libertarian, but his speeches during the past half decade indicate he has abandoned them, as they have turned into willing puppets for the moneyed elite and big business—demonstrated by the Tea Party Libertarians’ hypocritical campaigns and as their voting subsequent to their election has proved.
Back to radio—it has deteriorated at the hands of Wall Street until radio listening in the US is now considered good at the average of 4 hours a week for US listeners. By contrast, in Canada, the average is 4 hours A DAY. Australia and the UK are close to that Canada figure. The US used to have that kind of audience in radio’s heydays, which ended in the ’90’s, with the Telecom act that deregulated radio and no longer required proof that stations were actually serving the communities they are licensed to. Outside of the top 30 markets, there are no local announcers anymore, no news (at all), very generic programming coming from satellite or automation that is on ‘shuffle’. No surprise that research proves local listeners want what they once had from radio—all those things radio no longer does—or they will not listen. However, Wall Street’s conglomerates only know one thing: squeezing the blood, sweat, and jobs of every employee in their operations, getting rid of as many jobs as possible and then some, and paying top executives over 200x the wages of the average non-executive company employee.
Radio and TV are now facing the reverse of what it was when I first started. Back then, television was still new enough that advertisers were quite reluctant to move from newspapers to TV, even though TV could show how many people were watching the advertising, and newspapers could not tell any advertiser how many people saw their ad in print. Now, the opposite is happening. Digital platforms like Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, and others are—big-time—attracting money from TV, and especially radio, even though those digital outlets cannot yet show how many people heard the ads, and radio and TV still can. Plus, overall subscribers to the digital platforms are much, much lower in number than radio’s reach, but the advertisers would still rather spend on digital.
I am sure that as a teenager, I had the radio on for 4 hours a day, and all day on weekends. At 4 hours a day, advertisers are not getting anywhere near the bang for their buck as they did in the ’60’s and ’70’s, when a couple radio stations in each market commanded almost all the listeners in the most desirable age and financial demographics.
But what is worse to me, is that we still hang on to FAR outdated technologies, including the super-crappy AM band. (Remember that Europe adopted digital TV just months after we moved there in 2001, and it took the US another 10 years to do the same here.) The US should have been a leader in creating new spectrum for digital technologies. But no—here we are sitting on our asses, while Europe is creating new spectrum space for radio ‘bands’ that will have superior digital sound and reach. The FCC has admitted that the AM band is now subject to “small device interference” (computers, phones, micro-electronic devices, radio interference from new wireless technologies, and new power line transmission devices and more overhead wires sending out their jamming signals) so as to be practically useless unless you are within a couple miles of the transmitter. Forget that the US AM band has reduced audio bandwidth from the AM transmission systems of every other country on the planet (except Canada). It is now a fact that in most metropolitan areas, unless you have a digital FM receiver, the band is so crowded and so interference-prone, that it is impossible to find and/or tune in a particular station with the variable dial tuning. If your FM radio cannot be tuned to a frequency digitally, you likely will not find your station.
Just more signs that this country is standing still with decaying infrastructure everywhere in all fields of endeavor, while the rest of the world zooms ahead.
Did I mention that the radio in my brand-new 2016 Subaru Outback no longer works with the stereo speakers in the doors, but sound only comes out of the center dash speaker, just like my—by comparison—cheap-assed 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass? And the Subaru was made in a factory just up the road in Lafayette, Indiana. What in this country is improving? Job avails? Pay? Working conditions? Education? Road infrastructure? More affordable prices of anything? Quality of TV programs? Quality of radio? Quality of today’s music? Quality of newspapers? Cost of health care? Name me something.
Oh boy! Mr. Chuck is BACK, ladies and germs! Harken! Shazzzaaaaam!
I’ve read Chomsky’s stuff; even a stopped clock is right twice a day. His stuff gets tedious when one recalls how nicely he and his wifey live in tony suburb Lexington, MA in a very nice house and they lack for nothing, but on the other hand, he IS a tenured professor of decades, so there is that. Plus all the books. What the hell, a knowledgeable critic of the existing regime is a breath of fresh air in today’s media, as was the late Gore Vidal.
“…Wall Street’s conglomerates only know one thing: squeezing the blood, sweat, and jobs of every employee in their operations, getting rid of as many jobs as possible and then some, and paying top executives over 200x the wages of the average non-executive company employee.”
There it is, plus shoveling as many jobs as possible offshore to slave-labor wages PLUS bringing in H1B’s and paying them LESS than peeps here, that’s a nice slap in the face; the buggers want it both ways! And we get to train them before we’re shit-canned OR we lose all accrued vay-cay and sick pay and are prevented from collecting UI bennies, too. Fucking medieval serfs. The IT job scene now is gypsy contract and temp drones like me, bouncing from gig to gig, very few or no bennies at all and usually doing the work of two or even three people. Don’t like it? Tough shit. Work at Walmart or the local convenience store/gas station; those are the choices now, nothing in between. For jobs, anyway. Or find another way to generate revenue to pay the bills and have the three hots and a cot.
“I am sure that as a teenager, I had the radio on for 4 hours a day, and all day on weekends.”
Ditto, and well into adulthood. As it nowadays, we have at least one radio going pretty much all day and well into the night seven days a week. I only watch the tee-vee for NFL games or if we (rarely) play a DVD or stream something to it. Classical (Baroque) or oldies for me.
“Name me something.”
I thought I could think of something pretty quick but am coming up short. I’ll go with this: more peeps seem to be waking up to how bad everything is getting and how much worse they are now over the past couple of decades. Some of them are getting angry and bitter about it, and some are actually doing something, like those of us preparing for worse times to come. Several people on this board have demonstrated that they’re not only doing that but helping others to do it, too, just about daily, if not hourly.
We sure can get oil and natural gas out of the ground like never before. Cheap too. We are approaching 90% production out of oil reservoirs nowadays. It was 30% when I was a kid in the 1960s.
I like the current state of the science fiction book industry. Just about anything you want is being published now.
I have not missed any meals lately. Lots and lots of food out there. So much so that almost everyone is fat.
Too bad about your new Subaru. That is very disappointing as those are nice cars. Buy a Honda? Oh wait, we just had to perform our first major maintenance on the wife’s 2005 Honda Civic. We had to replace the clutch and the bearings in her transmission. Cost, $2400. Not bad for an 11 year old car with 100K miles on it that has been paid off for 8 years.
“So much so that almost everyone is fat.”
So we’ve noticed, at least up here and down in MA, NJ and PA. That is not a good or enviable thing. Nice after the collapse, though, for inner-city revenants, that is. Protein on the hoof.
Well, being the anarchist I am, I believe whatever is in the ground, belongs to every citizen, and whatever it brings, should be divided among all of us, just like the Saudi’s do it. Unless something has changed, we are the only country on the planet where the natural resources belong to private individuals, instead of the country as a whole. Even Canadians do not own the resources below the ground under their feet.
We do produce a lot of food. If the SHTF for real, and our farming is damaged, a lot of the rest of the world is going to starve. Part of that is our fault, because we would rather have people dependent on us and providing a revenue stream in exchange for our food, rather than teach them how to grow for themselves. Another concept out-of-whack with my understanding of Christianity’s demands—which American Christians are quite happy to ignore for the Yankee dollar.
I should get back to fiction, if it is that good. Have not read much since I first married and had kids. I suspect my kids have read more than me by now. The problem—as with movies and me—is that the older I get, the more I regret spending time on mediocre or bad films and books. I am seldom disappointed by biographies or historical books, but frankly, I enjoyed Faulkner more than anything Frank Herbert ever wrote. To me, Herbert and Tolkien are the male equivalents of J.K. Rowling—WAAAAAY too much detail. Loved “Ender’s Game” and the movie. Really sorry that the movie was such a flop that it will never have a sequel; it was very well done, and the changes from the book made sense had it been successful enough to go to a series.
Actually, the choice was between Subaru and Honda. No question Honda has better electronics, and possibly a better transmission, but the build quality of the vehicle itself was cheaper in the Honda. Things like the push buttons on the steering wheel and the plastics where used. Same was true for Toyota. In fact, I have owned Toyota before, and my disappointment in how cheap the interior looked and felt, turned me away from it. Subaru was the last car I drove, and the instant I felt the room inside and the fact I didn’t have to bend myself to get into the cabin, I knew this was the car. It is like my grandfathers and Chrysler: you could wear your hat in those old Chryslers, without it being knocked off as you got in.
Hopefully, I do not have to fight them on the stereo system, because I will. That is an integral part of the work I do and not just for pleasure, so it damned well better work. I don’t care if they have to swap it out a dozen times. Made by Harman-Kardon, and I am totally unimpressed. Of course Harman-Kardon is no longer 2 guys building a family business, but a conglomerate, so I expect that explains a lot.
Boy, drove through Hamilton, Ohio on Sunday, which was sunny and short-sleeve warm. A heavily German town with signs in German on the local department stores when I was in university. My first wife’s family was from Hamilton, where her grandfather ran a bra and girdle factory.
One thing for sure—no fatties that I could see. Everyone out and about in that city was “slim, trim, and so good-looking” (as my daughter said on her last trip to visit me in Berlin). Gotta make more trips to that IKEA.
“… just like the Saudi’s do it.”
Sure, for the royals and their endless horde of relatives and tribe members; while the country runs on imported techs, engineers and de facto slave labor and treats women worse than animals. Piggish hypocrites writ large, who flog and execute people for crimes they indulge in themselves to an obscene level everywhere in the world they drag their gross carcasses. We hit the wrong targets after 9/11.
“…—which American Christians are quite happy to ignore for the Yankee dollar.”
Too broad a brush. Not all of us are greedy corporate scumbags or dumbass couch-cretins sitting in front of the tee-vee every night and gobbling junk.
“… The problem—as with movies and me—is that the older I get, the more I regret spending time on mediocre or bad films and books. I am seldom disappointed by biographies or historical books…”
Ditto. I mostly read nonfiction, but lately I’m back into Henry Fielding and William Thackeray. Those were some evilly funny guys. Just not as bitter and insane as Dean Swift. I also still read a lot of poetry, Modernists and prior, thanks to being taught how to read it in an English poetry class back in college, having not a clue before that. I will read Lovecraft around Halloween but most sci-fi leaves me cold, as does most doomsday fiction.
We have the stereo system that came with our 2011 RAV4 and it is adequate but I’m probably gonna put Sirius XM in there and a subwoofer at some point. I’ll also be configuring the dash area for mobile use of one of the Bow-Fungs and a vehicle mount for one of the handguns.
No, but the ones making the big decisions and creating and enforcing policy that the rest of us—and the world—must follow are.
“No, but the ones making the big decisions and creating and enforcing policy that the rest of us—and the world—must follow are.”
I would not classify most of them as genuine Christians. They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. I’m guilty of that, too, but I don’t run a corporation or a country and I try to do better. And the atheists and Jews and moslems among them are no better.
Crutchfield upgraded the dash electronics in a good friend’s 2011 Tundra when the CD player crapped out. He installed it himself, but they can find somebody near you to do it. He’s happy and can play MP3 CD discs now, which I guess no American car could until the last couple years. MP3 was much more accepted in Europe and people traded CD’s crammed with tons of MP3’s and could play them in their cars from the day we arrived in 2001. Fortunately, my defective system plays MP3’s, and I have already listened to a couple audio books on MP3.
I’m sold on S/XM and will pay when the trial runs out. It’s definitely worth it to me, if only for Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Now, if I could just figure out how to get the game scores to display, like my cousin has in his Buick Escalade, I will be all set.
I can do the S/XM install myself and will be burning my own CD/MP3s accordingly, plus getting a decent channel lineup w/o commercials finally. That plus the Bow-Fung on the dash and I’m good to go for any trips outside my Retroville radius here.
“The IT job scene now is gypsy contract and temp drones like me, bouncing from gig to gig, very few or no bennies at all and usually doing the work of two or even three people.”
This is how I spent 20 years of my life working. It is the norm in arts and entertainment, special events, film and tv production, and increasingly other fields as well. It can be great if you have rock star talent, or know rock star guys who like you. If you’re mediocre, you better show up on time, and be a hard worker who is easy to get along with. If you AREN’T hooked up though, it can be miserable. And the constant travel destroys your soul and any relationships you hope to have with normal people. 10-15 years ago people started to wake up to the reality that this style of work was the future. We laughed as we’d been doing it for decades.
No interest in doing it now, of course. Now I’m taking a more piecemeal approach. Little bit of this, little bit of that. The trade off is spending time with my family.
My skills are rapidly aging too. And my desire for the work fades………
As long as the world holds together, a return to cottage industry and piece work is where I see ordinary life moving. All these kids who graduated into this job market, and now will never get back on the horse (some good articles about why, but basically if the recovery does come, they will be too old, and out of school too long, and the newly graduated will fill all the spots) will need a way to feed themselves. Etsy, ebay, direct to customer self promoted on your blog or FB page, kickstarter, micro loans, etc. That’s the new nature of work. Find a tiny niche and fill it with customers from the whole world.
anyway, bedtime…
ncik
He’s happy and can play MP3 CD discs now, which I guess no American car could until the last couple years.
Both my 2005 Ford Expedition and the wife’s 2005 Honda Civic can play MP3 CDs. The wife’s original stereo from Honda could also, she now has a Pioneer CD/AM/FM/DVD/BD that I installed when the Honda unit crapped out. We both listen to books on tape extensively, when we travel that means she does not have to listen to me or Rush. I love MP3s, I am flipping audio CDs in every couple of days or so.
“Find a tiny niche and fill it with customers from the whole world.”
Or just the immediate ‘hood or town if the Grid has gone down.
@ofd, yes, local is a very small market, but it may be the only one available to you. In that case, your niche better be life or death or very useful to sell well.
There was an example of hand made quilts. The established family home based business bought a google adsense ad, and got enough response to backlog them for a year. Locally they were selling only a few. Worldwide, there were enough sales to secure their future.
Some little doohicky is a great way to make money grid up. Lots of hams make extra cash selling home made antennas. Anyone with a little skill, or determination could make the antenna themselves, and even commercial antennas are not super expensive, but some folks trade money for time, and buy on ebay. There are other hams making money assembling kits, and selling them. Adafruit started as a tiny little home based kit business.
Anyway, having a good LOCALLY relevant skill, AND some niche but widely distributed product would be a good combination.
nick
“Anyway, having a good LOCALLY relevant skill, AND some niche but widely distributed product would be a good combination.”
+1
That’s what I shoot for. Wizardry for the local skill, and science kits sold internationally.
I’m not an anarchist, but I wasn’t talking about that.
I was talking about his writing style, which goes something like this:
“blah blah” and then “more blah blah” unless “even more blah blah”, right through the book. (I bought one of his books, just to try and understand him.) He may be smart but some of his writing is atrocious. Connected chains of out of contex quotes without saying who or what he is quoting is just dumb.
Oh, and I think the Tea Party are conservatives, not libertarians.
“… I think the Tea Party are conservatives, not libertarians.”
Is that designation still viable? “Tea Party.” Where are they? What are they doing? Last I knew, they talked a lot about their personal finances and taxes and didn’t give a shit about anything or anybody else and wore funny tricorn hats and pretended to be somehow affiliated with our early revolutionary patriots. Then they went to Mordor on all those promises and were assimilated by the Borg almost immediately. Never to be seen or heard from again.
Or the labels “right” and “left” and “conservative” and “liberal.” Marxist terms that we’ve all become used to using, as the Left has taken control of the language over the past hundred years.
The Tea Party clowns were/are plain and simple political opportunist hacks and bullshit artists, like all the rest, and like the Stupid Half of the Party, they’ve done NOTHING for us out here. A virulent pox on them and the rest.
Chuck is a libertarian only by the European definition, which is basically what we’d call an anarchist socialist. I, and nearly all other US libertarians, don’t consider that libertarian at all.
OFD wrote:
“What the hell, a knowledgeable critic of the existing regime is a breath of fresh air in today’s media, as was the late Gore Vidal. ”
Vidal is dead? I didn’t even notice. Thanks for the tip.
OFD wrote:
“The Tea Party clowns were/are plain and simple political opportunist hacks and bullshit artists, like all the rest, and like the Stupid Half of the Party, they’ve done NOTHING for us out here. A virulent pox on them and the rest.”
I knew that if only I lived long enough you’d say something I completely agree with… 🙂
So, is Rand a libertarian? Was his dad?
“Vidal is dead? I didn’t even notice. Thanks for the tip.”
Three years ago at 86. A very interesting life.
“So, is Rand a libertarian? Was his dad?”
No. And yes. Young Rand is but a pale shadow of his illustrious libertarian dad, a shame, really. Just another political hack opportunist.
Yeah, I used to have the radio (AM) on for hours at a time, especially on Saturday nights in the early Seventies. This song reminds me of Chuck…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=952h-AJ3Bcg
Chuck wrote:
“I enjoyed Faulkner more than anything Frank Herbert ever wrote.”
Faulkner?
Frank Herbert was magnificent. He died far too young, in 1986. Took quite a few pink slips before Dune got published, but it was an award winner. Do you dislike Herbert because of the execrable Dune film?
Have you tried Iain M. Banks? His Culture SF novels are wonderful. He was a lunatic fringe anarchist non-libertarian Scottish nationalist leftie. Sadly, he’s pushing up daisies now… 🙁
@Miles,
that’s the Iain that is the radical unionist? I got him confused with the other Ian, and sometimes bought his books by mistake.
Unreadable political nonsense, discredited by the fall of the USSR and the failure of socialism is how I remember his books. Trade unions in space…. self-shackled in the biggest frontier in the universe.
nick
OFD wrote:
“We hit the wrong targets after 9/11.”
Yeah, and used the wrong warheads.
Iain M. Banks when writing SF, Iain Banks when writing fiction. Most of his novels were set in The Culture, a libertarian anarchist utopia about 10,000 years ahead of us technologically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks
My favourite SF novel of his:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Player_of_Games
Banks and Herbert vs. Faulkner; apples and oranges, but basically “Beavis and Butthead” vs. “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Doctor Zhivago.”
Now iHeart is in much, much hotter water with over 75 billion in debt and so little revenue that since 2008, they have NEVER been able to pay even the interest on that debt, let alone retire any. How Cumulus plunges but iHeart stays afloat makes no sense at all.
Not sure how you got to $75 billion in debt for iHeart Media. Their balance sheet says $20 billion.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=IHRT+Balance+Sheet&annual
There is also Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings which has $5 billion in debt.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=CCO+Balance+Sheet&annual
Not sure how the two of them are affiliated. If they are at all. They are both holding way too much debt though.
Even $20billion is a LOT.
n
Looks like iHeartMedia is paying $1.7 billion interest on that $20 billion in debt. That is 8.5% interest rate, junk bond level in these days. For a company with $6 billion in income, not good. I might advise not holding much of it in your portfolio.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=IHRT+Income+Statement&annual
@OFD, I forgot to mention that the guy who wrote “The Jakarta Pandemic” graduated with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy, receiving a Bachelor of Science in English Literature. He served the next eight years on active duty in various Navy and Marine Corps units. He is now a pharmaceutical salesperson who writes prepping fiction and thriller fiction books on the side:
http://stevenkonkoly.com/about-2/
http://www.amazon.com/Jakarta-Pandemic-Steven-Konkoly/dp/1495907376/
Fairly prolific guy, he has written ten books “on the side” in the last five years:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4442737.Steven_Konkoly
Last election I saw upon the stair
A partier who wasn’t there.
He’ll be back again election day.
I wish TEA Partiers would go away.
Whoa whoa whoa! “Lawrence of Arabia” was OK, but I liked “Beavis and Butthead Do America”. The regular show was so-so at best, but the movie was surprisingly good.
A lot of the Tea Party folks who swept Republicans to control in 2012 (it was 2012, no?—at my age, who can remember?) were self-described Libertarians funded by the Kochs, although many ran as Republicans. And no—the Tea Party has not disappeared from political news. It is those folks who are at the core of the ‘shutdown’ mentality that has gripped the House. Somewhere on the NYTimes site, they track the votes of all who ran as Tea Party candidates. And although every single one of those hypocritical bastards promised they would vote against Obamacare, it is those in the Tea Party who deserted that promise and were the instrument of permitting Obamacare to pass.
Meanshile, I will fire myself as a fact-checker: Cumulus debt is $2.5 billion; iHeart is $20 billion—although iHeart has spun off several heavily indebted businesses this year and is not counting that debt in with the radio properties, even though it is supposed to for this fiscal year, according to standardized accounting rules. Nevermind how they print it, the same 2 principals hold all that debt: Bain Capital and Thomas Lee Partners. Although it has not hit the mainstream trades, I have read that both Bain and Lee want out of iHeart. Good luck on that.
It’s great how capitalism and private enterprise create so many jobs, hate layoffs and RIF’s, while building a product that reaches more and more people all the time. Ooops! Bad fact checking again.
Yeah, I’m an anarcho-socialist in the European sense. I have been telling people flat out that I am a socialist for a good 6 months now. Always gets a rise out of everybody, because socialism is a truly nasty, dirty-to-the-core, devilish word in the US. My uncle hates socialism. He worked in steel production until retiring. He has watched as his counterparts around him in the auto industry have—piece by piece—had all of their health insurance retirement benefits stripped from them. His benefits come from a company owned by the Swedes. “Don’t worry,” I told him years ago when I returned from living in Europe, “as long as the Swedes own that company, they will never take away those benefits. They’re good socialists.” And they have not stripped him of any benefits. Unfortunately, he has needed the health insurance badly during the last couple years.
True, I am a Libertarian in the European definition, not the American, and a socialist in so far as I believe government should be in control of infrastructure and providing all utility services at non-profit wholesale—including Internet. No citizen should have to pay the outrageous add-ins that privatizing electric and natural gas purveyors have added in, when they are totally unnecessary. And the markup in the Telecom industry (including Internet and cable on top of phone) is thousands of percent. Thousands, not mere 2 to 3 times as some industries get away with.
The idea that a free-for-all market solves every problem and is the most efficient at delivering all goods and services is utter bunk. It has not stopped GMO from being totally pervasive in the US when the rest of the world has been more cautious; has not stopped the decline of just about every industry in the US; has not stopped jobs from being shipped overseas; has not reduced your cable bill—even though the technology is now quantum times more efficient than when cable first came to town; has not stopped RIF’s but actually has increased them; has not reduced the price of drugs but is increasing them; I could go on, but I have to work tomorrow.
If you want to know how things will turn out, read some Karl Marx. He was wrong about the speed of events, and some of his suggested fixes and preventions were ludicrously wrong (advocating collectivism—which does not create wealth for any sector of society, including government—is just one), but we are a laboratory in the US that is piece by piece confirming his predictions year upon year.
“And although every single one of those hypocritical bastards promised they would vote against Obamacare, it is those in the Tea Party who deserted that promise and were the instrument of permitting Obamacare to pass.”
There it is. Just another bunch of showboating, lying, hypocrite scum, like their masters in the Stupid Half of the Party.