Friday, 11 August 2017

By on August 11th, 2017 in news, personal, prepping

08:43 – It was 64.3F (18C) when I took Colin out at 0625, partly cloudy and calm.

More work on kit stuff all day today. We had seven orders from different customers yesterday, so things are starting to ramp up. Our busiest time is generally mid-August through mid-September, when we’ll be fully occupied just building kits from stockpiled sub-assemblies and getting those kits shipped. So we’ll spend the day building chemical bags for various kits.


We really need to spend some time getting the food room organized. I had a horrible dream the other night. I was about to transfer a bunch of canned meat to the downstairs refrigerator. When I opened the door, it was already packed full to overflowing with these #10 cans.

More than 60 cans of bamboo shoots? I knew immediately who was responsible, so I ran upstairs to the bedroom, where I found Mandy, Barbara’s small stuffed panda, looking innocent. When pressed, she said that if TSHTF small stuffed pandas have to eat, too.


The little Malamute has now officially been adopted. Barbara’s friend Joanne and her family went over to visit her at the shelter yesterday and decided to adopt her. Barbara offered them our crate, which Joanne and her son stopped over yesterday to pick up. They were out buying supplies for her: a leash and harness, a name/address tag for her collar, presumably toys, food, treats, and so on.

Joanne said they’re thinking of naming her Jaimie. The vet asked Barbara when she dropped her off if we’d named her. Barbara said we’d leave that up to whoever adopted her. They’re picking her up at 1000 this morning to take her home.

They have to take her back to be spayed in a couple of weeks. Joanne’s husband and son, Jeff and Colin, wanted to keep her intact in case they decided to breed Malamute puppies, but that’s a non-starter. Like all animal rescue organizations, this one insists on pets being neutered before they’ll adopt them out.


I keep reading articles from the left and right saying that North Korea is going to nuke us. There’s just no way that’s going to happen. The Norks have nuclear fission DEVICES. There’s a big difference between a device and a bomb, and an even bigger difference between a bomb and a warhead. In my estimation, the Norks are at least years and probably decades away from having a deliverable warhead, let alone the thermonuclear warhead that various news organizations who should know better are claiming that North Korea has.

The danger, and it is real, is not the the Norks will nuke us. It’s that we’ll nuke them, and thereby open a can of worms. China has already announced that in the event of conflict between the US and NK they’ll remain neutral UNLESS the US attacks first. In that case, all bets are off.

It’s not that I think there would be a nuclear war between the US and China. Saner heads in both the US and China would prevail, as they always have. The real danger is a localized war on the Korean peninsula that gets us into a real hot war, even a conventional one. If that happens and China, say, sinks a US carrier, things could rapidly spiral into the toilet. And there’s no doubt in my mind that China could sink a US carrier if they wanted to. China could easily overwhelm the defenses of even a carrier battle group. They’re on their home ground. And that would turn into a real mess very quickly.

The danger is not so much mushroom clouds and radiation as it is shutting down commerce. The US economy depends heavily on a continuing flow of cheap consumer and industrial goods from China and South Korea. Anything that interrupts that flow could be catastrophic for our economy.

114 Comments and discussion on "Friday, 11 August 2017"

  1. nick flandrey says:

    The pale-swine-ians don’t have a viable nuke warhead either but keep dropping rockets on Israeli homes. How many NOK rockets do you think Cali is willing to accept falling at random into the state, regardless of what payload they have? And what if the payload IS nuke material of some kind? Cali has a cancer warning on Cat5 cable.Think they’ll react rationally to ANY nuke material scattered thru Valencia?

    I don’t think I’d react rationally, except that I define rational as turning NOK into a sheet of glass. The only problem that causes for me, is that it wouldn’t stay in NOK, but end up in cow milk in Norway, etc. Then we’re a pariah state.

    n

  2. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    They haven’t demonstrated the ability to deliver a *missile* to the US mainland, let alone a warhead of any type. It’s a real rough ride down from orbit. They’d be lucky if small pieces made it down intact. Any radionuclide load would also be vaporized and distributed around the planet by the jetstream.

  3. Harold says:

    The US economy depends heavily on a continuing flow of cheap consumer and industrial goods from China and South Korea. Anything that interrupts that flow could be catastrophic for our economy.

    And the reverse is even more true. China is on the cusp of a huge debt bubble bursting and loss of trade with the US (and it’s allies) would collapse the teetering Chinese economy and possibly lead to local rebellions. China has more to loose in a trade disruption than the US.

    Update: When we lived in Hong Kong we would often hear of small, village sized rebellions against the central authority. Usualy chasing the local party leader out of town or less often lynching him. Beijing was reluctant to use force lest the revolt spread. The usual answer was to send a more reasonable local party leader and appease the people.

  4. SteveF says:

    in case they decided to breed Malamute puppies

    Without papers, a purebred dog is just a dog and the puppies can’t be registered or sold as purebred.

    There’s just no way that’s going to happen.

    Ahem! You’re not going with the defined narrative. We are all supposed to be worried about the threat and distracted from Mueller and the FBI raiding Manafort’s home for no apparent reason, or the possibility of Hillary Bitch Clinton having been offered a plea bargain, or the lack of progress on repealing Oshitheadcare, or activist judges blocking more regulations and executive orders, or, for that matter, the way RussiaRussiaRussia has pretty well fizzled as a distraction.

    Not that I disagree with you on the risk of the norks nuking anyone, let alone mainland US, by missile. But then, I’m not going with the defined narrative, either.

    Then we’re a pariah state.

    Fuck ’em. I’m pretty sure the majority of the world’s nations, or at least their elite, despise the US and everything we (traditionally) stand for. They’d boycott us if they could, but they need us more than we need them.

  5. nick flandrey says:

    It seems that New Orleans is flooding again.

    Flooding – New Orleans
    Situation
    On Wednesday night, a fire damaged one of two operable turbines which
    power the New Orleans drainage pumping stations. Due to inadequate
    power supply only 38 of 58 pumps are working; the diminished pumping
    capacity is not sufficient to keep up with ongoing and forecast rain. New
    Orleans neighborhoods west of the Industrial Canal are at risk of flooding.
    Impacts
    • Portions of Uptown New Orleans are flooded
    • Interior flooding unrelated to levy systems and protective infrastructure
    • All NOLA schools closed today
    Provided by County EOC
    State / Local Response
    • The Governor and Mayor declared a State of Emergency
    • City of New Orleans contracted 14 – two megawatt generators with a prior Hazard Mitigation Grant (ETA: 48 hours)
    o LA requested USACE generator installation support; the 249th Engineer BN (Prime Power) on standby pending USACE adjudication
    • LA EOC at Monitoring
    FEMA Response
    • Region VI Watch remains at Steady State
    • In coordination with Region VI and USACE, the NWC will continue to monitor
    • No requests for FEMA assistance at this time

    They got a whole bunch of rain a couple days ago. and I guess they’re getting more.

    n
    n

  6. SteveF says:

    Right. What Harold said. The US would be inconvenienced and possibly hurt, but the PRC would crash. We might be able to crash the Indian economy, too, by expelling every Indian citizen, putting a hundred thousand unemployed people back in India, and cutting off the remittances.

  7. SteveF says:

    It seems that New Orleans is flooding again.

    It always happens when a Republican is President.

  8. Harold says:

    I agree that the Norks likely are years away from building a reliable delivery vehicle capable of handling re-entry. But they don’t need to. A Nork ICBM that dropped a bomb on LA would kill a couple million. But simply popping one off a hundred miles above Santa Clara (EMP) could kill a hundred million. In this case they are more of a threat without a targeted re-entry system.

  9. nick flandrey says:

    “Fuck ’em. I’m pretty sure the majority of the world’s nations, or at least their elite, despise the US and everything we (traditionally) stand for. They’d boycott us if they could, but they need us more than we need them.”

    Well, yes, but it’s important to our national identity that we’re loved, or more correctly, that we feel like we’re loved or at least lovable. This would be a big change, and we get bad things when the masses feel a big change. Look at the response to 911.

    I’m not so sanguine that NOK can’t drop debris on the west coast. The mere attempt would result in such a massive shit storm that I don’t think anyone could predict the outcome domestically.

    And the secondary effects could be devastating. It could be the black swan that takes down the financial system. It could/would result in some chance of martial law, certainly increased militarism. Do we want T to be cast in the position of ‘strongman’?

    In any case, I’d put it higher on the list than a super volcano, more devastating than an earthquake (due to social/political factors), and other than general preps, there’s not much we can do about it.

    n

  10. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    EMP or ground/air burst, they have the same problem. They don’t have a *warhead* and aren’t like to for a long time, and probably never.

    If I were concerned about anything, it’d be about some bad actor firing a scud with a load of radiological nasties from a freighter onto a mainland US city. The direct consequences would be a big radioactive mess to clean up and costs of billions to do so. Zero or very few direct deaths. The panic and disruption would be the real killer.

  11. Greg Norton says:

    If I were concerned about anything, it’d be about some bad actor firing a scud with a load of radiological nasties from a freighter onto a mainland US city. The direct consequences would be a big radioactive mess to clean up and costs of billions to do so. Zero or very few direct deaths. The panic and disruption would be the real killer.

    Contaminating Seattle or San Francisco in the middle of the business day would be a huge symbolic win for the Norks, and the ensuing panic-fueled evacuations would do much more widespread damage to the cities than a kiloton-size nuclear device.

    When I commuted every week to Seattle to work, the drive home to Portland on I-5 on Friday afternoons was four hours, half of the time being spent getting from Downtown Seattle to Lacey, near JB Lewis-McCord, before traffic opened up. The freeway would be a parking lot all the way down to the OR/CA border after just a small nuclear event.

  12. Dave Hardy says:

    “Why not move U.S. forces off the peninsula, let South Korean troops replace them, sell Seoul all the modern weapons it needs, and let Seoul build its own nuclear arsenal to deter the North?”

    http://buchanan.org/blog/american-empire-worth-price-127455

    Yes, why not just GTFO of all these hot spots and finally quit the stupid business of empire in the 21st-Century? We’ve got two gigantic moats and the ability to blow up the solar system; why do we keep reacting to all this crap, unless, as Mr. SteveF points out, and Mr. DadCooks has pointed out, we’re distracted from seeing what the other hands are doing back home here?

  13. Ray Thompson says:

    just GTFO of all these hot spots

    Agreed. Protect our interests that are of importance. Return all other troops home. Put all countries on notice that if they do injury to the US or it’s interest retaliation will be swift and massive. Removing a city from the face of the earth would not be out of the question. Tell countries that are our allies that any protection we provide is billable, paid in advance. No payment, no support.

    And for countries that merely threaten the US cut them off from all aid and exports. Not even humanitarian aid.

    As for NOK, there is no reason for them to exist, period. The entire country should be eliminated and returned to the jungle.

  14. DadCooks says:

    We do not have a reliable anti-missile missile. NKO is trying to provoke us into trying to shoot down one of their “tests”. That would be catastrophic for us if we shot and failed, which is at least an 80% chance we would miss.

    Personally I see no other viable solution than a true “fire and fury” as really has never been seen before on Pyongyang and NKO’s missile and nuclear infrastructure. (The “shock and awe” of Bush was a wimpy fireworks show.) We must be ready with refugee camps in SKO for the NKOs’ fleeing south. The Chinese will have machine gun lines to handle the northern flee-ers.

    Personally I would flank NKO with submarines and send volley after volley of cruise missiles. Any “enemy” submarines and surface craft should be immediately sunk with no warning and their ports destroyed. The seas must become a no-go zone for the NKO and the PRC.

    FWIW the Hanford area is on the first strike list so I may get to use my Iodine tablets, full respirators, anti-Cs, and monitoring equipment. Okay by me, I’m tired of living in the Land of Snowflakes and queers.

    Add:
    2 thumbs up in agreement with @Ray T.

  15. Harold says:

    We seem to forget that we are still at war with the Norks.

  16. SteveF says:

    One reason to keep American forces hither and yon around the world is for the training. The US has large numbers of combat-hardened troops and weapons systems which have been tested in operational conditions. Our many and varied wars have been small, and no threat to the US itself, so the cruft has not been knocked off the brass. And graft and influence will never be removed from the procurement system, and Democratic politicians have gutted the ammunition and spares stocks. Despite all that, the US has a military which has been tested against enemies trying to kill it. Not many countries can say that. European militaries are parade-ground soldiers, rightfully disdained by their politicians. Most of the rest of the world uses their military like police or the dictator’s enforcers. They are not soldiers, no matter what uniforms they wear and what weapons they carry.

    Having a real military is worth some cost in blood and treasure. Whether we’ve paid too much is another question. The fact remains, the US has it and no one else does.

  17. Ray Thompson says:

    And on a side note I did purchase my Powerball tickets. Got five numbers for $10.00. Yes, the odds are 1 in 292,000,000 of getting the numbers. But the odds are even worse (approaching infinity) if you don’t buy a ticket. I figure at worst I blew $10.00.

    Got my replacement keyboard for my Keytronic lifetime keyboard. Other one the space key was failing. Not impressed. No longer have a lifetime warranty and appears to be a regular keyboard. May be time to take that day trip to Kentucky.

  18. Harold says:

    My brother, who spent a decade in S. Korea managing museums for the US Army, claimed that the US forces were there primarly as a tripwire. That is to ensure that an invasion of the south would involve the US, ensuring that everything north of the 39th would be toast.

  19. MrAtoz says:

    I’m hankerin’ to kill me some NORKs. Where do I reup? Old Navy? Is there and Old Army?

  20. nick flandrey says:

    The other reason we have bases everywhere is to provide logistical support, refueling, and quick response using pre-po gear for all the missions no one ever hears about.

    Do we need giant bases everywhere? Probably not. But we do need bases outside CONUS.

    n

  21. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    “But we do need bases outside CONUS.”

    No, we don’t.

  22. SteveF says:

    We do unless you can convincingly argue that the US has no interests outside the lower 48 or that all interests can be satisfied with ICBMs.

  23. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Which is exactly what I’ve been arguing for years, no decades. I’m a free marketer. Free markets don’t need military bases. North America, generally, doesn’t need the rest of the world for anything, including rare-earth metals.

  24. SteveF says:

    If everyone plays by pure free market rules, you’re right, no one needs bases.

    Meanwhile, back on planet Earth…

  25. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I’m a realist. We need CONUS bases. We don’t need bases overseas.

  26. nick flandrey says:

    We need bases, we need monitoring stations, we need pre-po gear.

    We need the ability to use force against others, and we need to watch out for them using it against us. We need a range of responses to a range of threats. We cannot simply say – “we’ll nuke you” as a response to everything. For one thing, it’s damn hard to be sure you aren’t being used as a cats paw against a third party if that’s your only response option. The only way to even HOPE you understand what’s really going on is to have people and resources in those areas, and that means logistical support.

    We DON’T need regime change, wars to impose democracy, or constant meddling in the affairs of tiny nations where we don’t have vital interests.

    Free market works locally, where all the participants are willing to play by the same rules and assumptions. They also benefit from a ‘high trust’ culture. Very few places outside the US are ‘high trust’ and those are currently under siege by ‘low’ trust cultures. Even in the US, we’re losing our ‘high’ trust areas to invaders and low IQ and EQ marauders.

    In any case, it’ll never happen. Ringo’s “Last Centurion” was a fun read, but pretty unlikely as an outcome of a world wide plague.

    n

  27. nick flandrey says:

    Sarah Hoyt is often worth reading for fun or for political thought. I think she’s often a bit too much of a ‘don’t despair’ cheerleader, but she suffers from depression and maybe she needs to be for her own mental health.

    Anyway, she nails it today with this:

    Asking simple questions like “If men and women are exactly alike, what does a company gain from increasing diversity?” pokes a huge hole in political correctness, and makes it impossible for them to hold these contradictory ideas in their heads in peace. If they tell you it’s because little Suzie who wants to be a programmer is being discriminated against, ask why we should instead discriminate against little Bobby, who wants to be a programmer, if they’re both exactly alike in any thing but sexual organs. We’re not hiring them have sex, are we?””

    Had some political discussions about healthcare over my vacation, and those on the left will get ANGRY when questioned. Take care.

    n

  28. Dave Hardy says:

    I suppose we can argue this until the cows come home; I am also a free marketer and nativist isolationist, pretty much. I like our moats and feel that we can make out pretty well w/o being embroiled constantly in foreign entanglements, most of them ginned up by our corporate oligarchs. As for intel, we have a pretty sorry record of that and it’s long since been subordinated to Deep State interests.

    So our discussion here is probably mostly moot; the current system will continue until it can’t anymore, which could be later this afternoon or twenty years from now or anytime in between, but I’m guessing sooner rather than later, simply for financial reasons. What form that will take is anybody’s guess.

  29. Dave Hardy says:

    “…and those on the left will get ANGRY when questioned. Take care.”

    Yes, it seems we’ve all experienced this and some of us very recently. That’s their standard knee-jerk response to any hint of disagreement or dissent from their perceived realities: instant anger and belligerence and hostility. They will literally shout you down and do that thing little kids do, you know, “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-I can’t HEAR YOU!!!”

    And you will be written off forever from contact with them in this regard, depending on whether you have to live with or work with them.

  30. JimL says:

    Mr. Nick nailed it on both counts.

    We NEED to be ready to impose violence on others if/when they try to impose it on use. I am not a fan of foreign adventures, but I am a fan of being ready to kick North Korea back into the stone age if they try to do it to us.

    OTOH, we don’t need to do anything while they’re doing it to themselves.

    And the left gets angry ANY time they are challenged. I have a friend (a progressive) who won’t talk to me anymore because I’m not willing to throw out the Constitution because it would be so nice to do these other things that are forbidden. Because of that, no discussion on any topic is possible.

  31. SteveF says:

    The best way to play the “let’s get rid of the Constitution” game is to tell them to choose what provision they want to get rid of (or add) and you get to be the one to play “the government” under the new rules. “People shouldn’t be allowed to say things that others find offensive!” “Great! I get to define ‘offensive’.” Drives them up a wall.

    A better way to drive them up a wall is to smirk and to obviously humor them in their tirades, as if they were ill-tempered children. (Which they are, but that’s besides the point.)

    “I understand. You shouldn’t have to hear anyone supporting immigration controls because you find it offensive and you know that your opinion can’t stand up to facts and logic. And you’re too delicate to hear anything you don’t like. I understand. Really, I do. I understand that you’re soft and weak and pathetic and useless, and you have to surround yourself with other losers so your loserliness isn’t so obvious.”

    I’ve never put it to the test, but I’m pretty sure I could get an Amish grandmother to take a swing at me if I set my mind to it.

  32. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    “Mr. Nick nailed it on both counts.”

    No, he missed it on both. His argument is basically that we need foreign bases because we HAVE foreign bases. With those foreign bases, we kill and otherwise annoy lots of foreigners. So we need those bases to keep them in line when they try to take revenge against us.

    It’s a circular imperialist argument. We have no interests, compelling or otherwise, in what the rest of the world does. If we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone. If they decide to come here and bother us, that’s the time a strong defense will be necessary. As some Japanese guy said, “a rifleman behind every blade of grass”. That’s what kept Switzerland free until recently.

  33. Miles_Teg says:

    “And on a side note I did purchase my Powerball tickets.”

    Great news Ray! You won $44M in Powerball. Now, if you’ll just send me your bank account details I’ll deposit the dough… 🙂

  34. SteveF says:

    If we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone.

    I agree with much of what you wrote, but this part seems optimistic.

  35. SteveF says:

    No no, Miles_Teg, you have to follow the protocol:

    HELLO!

    I AM MILES TEG ALUMBO, THE MINISTER OF FINANCE FOR POWERBAL. I NEED YOUR HELP DILIVERING YOUR WINNINGS OF $44 MILLIONS DOLLAR. PLEASE TO SENDING ME YOUR BANK ACCOUNT INFRMATION AND $600 DOLLARS EXPEDITIONING FEE.

    SINCERELY,
    MILES ALUMBO TEG

  36. nick flandrey says:

    if you want to get all circular, we HAVE foreign bases because we NEED foreign bases is just as true.

    ” With those foreign bases, we kill and otherwise annoy lots of foreigners. ”

    We kill foreigners with our local bases, and annoy them with our very existence. What would it take for the jihadis to be satisfied and STOP at this point? Even if we were a glassy wasteland, and every last American had been sold into slavery, they still wouldn’t be satisfied and stop trying to kill us. So the idea that we somehow provoke them, and if we just stopped doing that they would stop their aggression against us is fantasy. It’s a common trope of the bleeding heart lefty too.

    ” If they decide to come here and bother us, that’s the time ” NO! the time to deal with them is BEFORE they get here. Once they are here it’s too late. They can and do use our system against us. I’d rather fight every angry jihadi in some dusty shithole than in Detroit. Bomb Baghdad, not Broadway. Literally 10s of thousands have FLOCKED to the conflict zones overseas to take their shot at us. In the process a large part of the middle east is a bombed out shithole. Much better to do it ‘over there.’

    n

  37. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    @nick

    You’re just an imperialist warmonger. Nyah, nyah.

  38. nick flandrey says:

    @steveF,

    you forgot–

    AND SEND THE EXPIDITING FEE OF $600USD QUICKLY TO SECURE YOUR RIGHTFUL WINNNINGS.

    N

  39. nick flandrey says:

    That’s me, hatey McHate…

    Ready to oppress the poor downtrodden peoples of Mother Gaia….

    n

  40. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    “That’s me, hatey McHate…

    Ready to oppress the poor downtrodden peoples of Mother Gaia….”

    Well, at least we can agree on that…

  41. lynn says:

    “Amazon looks to new food technology for home delivery”
    http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKBN1AR11X-OCABS

    “SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is exploring a technology first developed for the U.S. military to produce tasty prepared meals that do not need refrigeration, as it looks for new ways to muscle into the $700 billion U.S. grocery business.”

    “The world’s biggest online retailer has discussed selling ready-to-eat dishes such as beef stew and a vegetable frittata as soon as next year, officials at the startup firm marketing the technology told Reuters.”

    “The dishes would be easy to stockpile and ship because they do not require refrigeration and could be offered quite cheaply compared with take-out from a restaurant. ”

    Amazon is going to kill us with good room temperature food !

    I wonder if this stuff can sit in my 120 F garage ?

  42. SteveF says:

    you forgot

    Dammit! You’re right. Luckily, you caught that within the one-hour edit window.

  43. Dave Hardy says:

    We’re reaping the whirlwind from sowing the wind a hundred years ago in the Middle East, with our great pals the Brits and the French. And we trotted right on into it after them, stupidly, ignorantly. Most of our serious headaches from that part of the world date from the oil and finance interests of our oligarchs, and if we’re just gonna keep playing their games, and paying exorbitant taxes and sending our kids to fight the hadjis in their desert shit-holes, then I guess my prediction will come true eventually whether we like it or not: it’s simply not sustainable anymore. The business of Empire is KAPUT. I seriously doubt whether we’d have our current threat level from the musloids if we’d stayed the hell out of those places from the first. As Pat Buchanan has said many times, ‘they’re over HERE because we’re over THERE.’ GTFO NOW.

    And we should have gotten the fuck out of Korea, Guam, Okinawa, Japan, Germany, etc., etc. right after the Good War. Now we’re still getting migraines from those places.

    The common denominator? Our stupid and ignorant attempts to run a world empire in our image using fiat currency and death-from-above. Neither of which are sustainable much longer. Better to GTFO now and secure our continent properly here. Let the rest of the world take care of itself; any direct threats to our continent can certainly be dealt with in a variety of ways and levels. They need us a hell of a lot more than we need them, and I suspect that fuels a lot of the resentment and hatred. Fuck ’em. They have our example to live by; take the good parts with our blessings and screw the rest.

  44. SteveF says:

    As Pat Buchanan has said many times, ‘they’re over HERE because we’re over THERE.’

    Is that entirely accurate? As I recall, anarchists were coming to the US from Europe decades before the US was anything resembling a world power. As I recall, Mohammadans threatened reprisal against the US for our anti-pirate work in the early 1800s, and didn’t carry out reprisals due solely to inability. As I recall, Pancho Villa and other raiders were coming into the US when US policy was “leave them alone and we’ll mind our own business”.

  45. lynn says:

    The danger, and it is real, is not the the Norks will nuke us. It’s that we’ll nuke them, and thereby open a can of worms.

    Trump is going to use conventional weapons delivered by B1Bs based in Guam. He already has the B1Bs flying over the DMZ daily.

    EDIT: “if you can’t make good decisions then you will have to serve as a warning”

  46. Dave Hardy says:

    WRT anarchists (like Sacco & Vanzetti), Mohammedans, and ol’ Pancho, they were in the small-band category, what, a few hundred here and there, and swiftly dealt with. If we’d had proper immigration policies in effect THEN and KEPT them, maybe we wouldn’t have as many headaches now. Ditto with that pesky southern border.

    We’re now facing multitudes of swarms, and this was enabled by our own rulers and gatekeepers in Europe and over here. After we made good and sure to thoroughly poke multiple hornets’ nests in the Middle East and decided to keep a sacrificial military trip wire on the Korean DMZ for nearly 70 years and counting.

    So now we reap the whirlwind, at home and abroad, constantly; in the nooz every hour of the day now. While our suited tribal chiefs at home keep screwing us behind the scenes and out of the media limelight.

    I suspect Mr. Lynn could be right; tRump may have shouted out a bunch of bellicose jingo rhetoric while he’s working the CW angle on one hand and mostly likely spec ops FACs and spooks on the ground. Maybe several SORK spec ops teams moving in, too. Of course we have an extensive history in recent years of foul-ups so this could become a real mess.

  47. lynn says:

    It seems that New Orleans is flooding again.

    It always happens when a Republican is President.

    True dat.

  48. nick flandrey says:

    And now, for something completely different…

    I’m a consumer of doom porn just like many in the discussion here, but articles like this just kill me. It’s all flashing lights and noise with no substance.

    So much BS in this article:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-11/great-deal-american-suburbia-will-have-be-abandoned

    I don’t even know where to start. Florid language meant to engage and enrage distracts from the poor ideas behind the article. Someone needed 1000 words, STAT! and this vomitous mess was the result.

    I’ll admit that some of his observations strike home, but his conclusions and the lens he views the world thru are BS. Oddly for ZH, all the dog whistles and tired cliches are there on the prog side. I guess it’s reflexive appreciation for the doom and gloom, but for Peter’s Sake, demonize suburbs? SUVs? WalMart? Celebrate the “Walkable communities?”

    Ideas like this- “Of course, the Big Box model, like Walmart, has also recruited every householder in his or her SUV into the company’s distribution network…” What? I have to go to the store to finish the distribution of some good to my house? How is that different than the ‘pre-suburban’ days? Freaking farmers had to travel all day into town and pick up their stuff from the General Store to actually get the stuff home. And how is that the fault of walmart and amazon? Amazon is the opposite- delivering right to your door WITHOUT involving your SUV.

    Main street will become the new mall? Please, been there, done that. And the idea that those were “walkable communities?” HELL NO. See above about farmers traveling into town.

    “… means of distribution that don’t require trucking.

    If you think we’re just going to switch the trucking industry over to electric vehicles or engines that run on bio-fuels…” Let’s just throw out another random idea/stalking horse! And why not? And WHY? We’re not gonna run out of diesel any time soon, and bio-diesel works.

    How does any of this comment relate to prepping? Well, I’m in full ‘work avoidance mode’ so it helps ME! Also, preppers tend to surround themselves with doom and gloom, and given a quick scan, this article might appeal… but it’s so full of crap, an outhouse smells better.

    For me it’s practice taking down the nonsense people write, think, and say. keep your mind sharpened.

    nick

    (see I managed to avoid work for 20 minutes more. soon it will be too late for me to do anything productive, and I can knock off early…)

  49. lynn says:

    I suspect Mr. Lynn could be right; tRump may have shouted out a bunch of bellicose jingo rhetoric while he’s working the CW angle on one hand and mostly likely spec ops FACs and spooks on the ground.

    I stole that from Rush Limbaugh this morning. Rush is claiming that our B1Bs have flown over North Korea 11 times in the last month.

  50. lynn says:

    No, he missed it on both. His argument is basically that we need foreign bases because we HAVE foreign bases. With those foreign bases, we kill and otherwise annoy lots of foreigners. So we need those bases to keep them in line when they try to take revenge against us.

    We paid for our foreign bases with blood and treasure. I would not give them up lightly. I am willing to give some of them up in exchange for HUGE payments, trillions of Dollars.

  51. Dave Hardy says:

    (see I managed to avoid work for 20 minutes more. soon it will be too late for me to do anything productive, and I can knock off early…)”

    The mantra of government workers and union stooges everywhere!

    I just did the same here, after a couple of nasty but mundane scut chores; I’m ENTITLED! Mrs. OFD has taken the dawg to the vet; he possibly has serious chit going on. So I’m skating right now.

    It’s very warm and humid with only a slight breeze; possible t-storms on tap later. I’ll try to mow as much of the back yard as I can; did the front and sides yesterday and it kicked my ass.

  52. Dave Hardy says:

    “…in exchange for HUGE payments, trillions of Dollars.”

    Which we’ll need to fund SS and Medicare pretty soon. Or, hell, we’ll just print up some more.

    WRT foreign bases and installations; most of them have outlived their past, if any, usefulness by now. We need to secure that southern border properly, the other border, the coasts, air space and sea lanes, and our cyber and other infrastructure. Ratchet down immigration drastically and RUTHLESSLY and kick out as many illegals as we can still find. Especially young musloid males.

    Bring the troops home from Helvetia, Caledonia, Gaul, and Judea, and secure our own country.

  53. DadCooks says:

    We should close all of our bases on foreign soil and enlarge our carrier task forces 10 fold. I would go back to the model that was developed around the Nimitz Class Carriers and Los Angeles Class Submarines, that was never full implemented because of politics. Of course these groups would have destroyers and specialized amphibious assault ships. The Air Force needs to go back to the days of loaded B-52s always in the air heading to and around their designated targets. We can be minutes away from inflicting end of the world destruction without land bases and the potential loss of our military personal.

    In the meantime, the next time one of our satellites detects any missile launch that area should be made toast in minutes.

  54. SteveF says:

    Which we’ll need to fund SS and Medicare pretty soon.

    Nah, just air-drop old people on our enemies. Kill two birds with one stone. The oldsters can be chosen by lottery, with Clintons, other draft-dodgers, and women being selected first. Vietnam-era draftees (all men, you will note, which is an offense against the right of women to be equal to men in every way) don’t get put into the draft pool.

  55. dkreck says:

    @Nick If you think we’re just going to switch the trucking industry over to electric vehicles or engines that run on bio-fuels…” Let’s just throw out another random idea/stalking horse! And why not? And WHY? We’re not gonna run out of diesel any time soon, and bio-diesel works.

    For gods sake Nick we have to eliminate all carbon fuels to save the planet. Carbon life forms are next – you’re polluting the climate.

  56. Ray Thompson says:

    Great news Ray! You won $44M in Powerball

    If that happens I will give every regular poster on this board $1 million each. Except for OFD as I would have to give his share to the IRS first so they could extract their pound of flesh.

  57. MrAtoz says:

    Had some political discussions about healthcare over my vacation, and those on the left will get ANGRY when questioned. Take care.

    This is why I keep my piehole shut when traveling with MrsAtoz. 99% of our clients are Libturdians. They have plenty of dollars, though, so we’ll just keep on taking the tRumpbucks. My last health care discussion was with a Libturdian at our conference in June. He was all upset tRump took away his OfukstikCare. I pointed out nothing had changed and it went downhill from there. Libturdians are stupid.

  58. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Thanks! I could use it. When can I expect it?

  59. nick flandrey says:

    I’m FERTILIZING the planet, and contributing to green plant growth with my breath!

    The Modern Marvels about “Carbon” is an eye opener and every prog greenie should be forced to watch it with an eye opener (ala clockwork orange.)

    I better get out from in front of the computer and get to the grocery store. OH, one of those EVIL trucks is delivering one of my planet killing suburb enabling amazon orders right now. Hooray for me!

    nick

  60. Greg Norton says:

    I don’t even know where to start. Florid language meant to engage and enrage distracts from the poor ideas behind the article. Someone needed 1000 words, STAT! and this vomitous mess was the result.

    Kunstler. Take it with a grain of salt. He has SHTF fiction to sell.

    He occasionally makes good points so I read his web site regularly.

  61. SteveF says:

    99% of our clients are Libturdians. They have plenty of dollars, though

    Add a 27%* surcharge to the bill because your wife is a woman** and women are paid 27% less and your clients don’t want to be like Donald Trump***, do they?

    * Actually, it should be about a 40% surcharge, the inverse of 0.73, but don’t sweat that. 27% will be an easier sell to the innumerate and politically correct, and if you can get it, take it and run.

    ** Or so I suppose. I’d hate to be guilty of assuming zir’s gender, though, not when there are so many ways to be wrong.****

    *** Oddly, the Trump campaign paid its female staffers equivalently to the male. It was the Clinton campaign that grossly underpaid the women. It would not be in your best interest to raise this point when presenting the bill.

    **** Chief among them being male*****, having white skin, and not buying into the leftard outrage of the day.

    ***** Uh-oh, did I just assume my own gender? When will I ever learn?

  62. SteveF says:

    When can I expect it?

    AFTER YOU PLEASE SEND YOR BANK ACCOUNT DETIALS AND 660$ DOLLARS EXPIDITINGLY SERVILE CHARGE.

  63. lynn says:

    Which we’ll need to fund SS and Medicare pretty soon.

    Nah, just air-drop old people on our enemies. Kill two birds with one stone. The oldsters can be chosen by lottery, with Clintons, other draft-dodgers, and women being selected first. Vietnam-era draftees (all men, you will note, which is an offense against the right of women to be equal to men in every way) don’t get put into the draft pool.

    You ain’t gonna air drop my momma !

    Take my father-in-law instead.

  64. Greg Norton says:

    Take my father-in-law instead.

    My mother-in-law has been looking for someone to live with so she can save her Disney pension checks for the casino. Sign her up.

    After dealing with my in-laws for the last 25 years, I have no idea as to why China wants Taiwan back. It seems like a lot of grief to me for just a tiny scrap of land.

  65. SteveF says:

    WRT anarchists (like Sacco & Vanzetti), Mohammedans, and ol’ Pancho, they were in the small-band category, what, a few hundred here and there, and swiftly dealt with.

    What’s your point? Sixteen years ago, nineteen foreign students — they didn’t enter the US illegally and they weren’t immigrants, just students come for a few years — managed to cause billions in direct damage and untold damage to civil liberties of Americans. That was a tiny force compared to Villa’s invaders, and were roughly equivalent in number to the dedicated anarchists who were intercepted on entry around 1900.

  66. Ray Thompson says:

    Thanks! I could use it. When can I expect it?

    Drawing is Saturday night.

  67. SteveF says:

    Of possible use to OFD and others:

    Kicking Google out of my life: Day 1

  68. lynn says:

    After dealing with my in-laws for the last 25 years, I have no idea as to why China wants Taiwan back. It seems like a lot of grief to me for just a tiny scrap of land.

    China has little dog syndrome.

  69. SteveF says:

    Or a cognate of “dog”…

  70. Dave Hardy says:

    “… just students come for a few years — managed to cause billions in direct damage and untold damage to civil liberties of Americans.”

    1.) No musloids allowed, period.

    2.) Guys taking flying lessons but not the section where the landings are taught should be looked at very carefully.

    “…My mother-in-law has been looking for someone to live with so she can save her Disney pension checks for the casino.”

    So far looks like Princess is embarking on that same Entitled Life early. As are various in-laws of my two married brothers. Grifters, all.

  71. Ray Thompson says:

    Uh-oh, did I just assume my own gender? When will I ever learn?

    Not to worry. In today’s climate you can change at will. You can even relate to being a turtle if you so desire. Tomorrow something different.

  72. Nightraker says:

    I’m the winner in the contest of Walmart vs. Amazon. Walmart makes money on the tiniest of margins, although I personally rarely visit. While Amazon keeps trying to hand me my most obscure desires right thru the screen. (There is a distribution center almost within sight of my house, so all the newer than new delivery options are available.) Although ordering my normal size against the site tool’s recommendation got me the well fitting boots I desired.

    OTOH, Amazon has yet to make a penny of real profit and Walmart is working mightily at ecommerce. Doesn’t matter, I win either way.

    As for repurposing empty malls and big box barns, it is only those without architectural imagination or a XXnastyXX zoning board that can’t think of a new arrangement. If a walkable community is profitably de$ired, put some apartment towers at the corners of the mall and Bob’s your uncle.

    With 700 (or is it 900?) overseas bases, the feddies have gone overboard. Close ’em all, bring the boys home and go nyah, nyah, nyah to the world. Pocket the considerable savings. As long as we’re printing trillions, keep the Navy in snazzy subs and arm the freighters and tankers. Lease destroyers to Exxon for a profit center. Ha!

    While not at all in the same league as their neighbor, the SORK oligarchs got their dix slammed in a door, just recently. Illinois governors would be so proud. Corruption is the handmaiden of public money, everywhere! Similar events before the North’s invasion back in the day don’t get the close observation they deserve.

    With expansionist worldwide communism a dead letter, it is past time to stop being latter day Red Coats and tend our own knitting. Plenty of missed stitches to worry about as discussion here shows aplenty.

  73. lynn says:

    “Backlash Brews Against Google”
    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/08/11/backlash-brews-against-google-ceo/

    Everything has a cost.

  74. MrAtoz says:

    Add a 27%* surcharge to the bill because your wife is a woman** and women are paid 27% less and your clients don’t want to be like Donald Trump***, do they?

    Here’s school Libturdian logic. We made this deal two weeks ago.

    School (in CA lol!): Hey MrsAtoz, we want you to come and talk with our teachers and staff about touchy feely shit.

    MrsAtoz: I’d be glad to. My fee is $5,000.

    School: Oh, we are only allowed to pay consultants $750/day. Unless you are a big shot Dumbocrat donor.

    MrsAtoz: Sorry, I can’t come for $750, it would barely cover expenses.

    School: OK, how about we buy some of your books?

    MrsAtoz: Sure, maybe we can work something out. How many books?

    School: Well, we want to give one to everyone in the district. Can we buy 4,500 copies?

    MrAtoz: HFS shit, honey! I can call the printer and get started tomorrow.

    MrsAtoz (to school): Um, well, OK, we can do that, where do we ship the books? (They get their Monday btw)

    We will *make* $30K on the deal for a two hour keynote. They’ll only pay a “lowly” consultant $750, but will drop a shit load of cash on *anything* else. Don’t ask me where they get the money, just keep it coming. Schools like books. Write one and start canvassing the school districts.

  75. paul says:

    Of possible use to OFD and others:
    Kicking Google out of my life: Day 1

    That was hard to read. Like, no link to the next part hard. Plus he reads “shrill” and “breathless”. Perhaps a macro aggression on my part.

    Bottom line, he went back to Android. He found replacements for Google Drive and G-Mail. Along with Sheets, Docs, Slides, Chrome, and whatever. My phone has all of that stuff and all I can do is disable it ’cause I’m not (so far) clever enough to be able to root the phone and get rid of stuff I don’t need.

    I have an i5 w/ 6BB ram and a 24″ monitor. Why would I do anything “Officey” on my phone?

    I don’t know if he found a replacement for Maps. I may have missed that part. Maps is cool. I don’t use it but that’s me. How hard is it to look at a paper map and get on that highway?

    I don’t see the big deal. I’ve had my domain at DreamHost since 2002. That takes care of mail. If I bothered I could FTP a lot of stuff to my space on the server. Ah, above the website…. tho a password protected folder might do.

  76. SteveF says:

    Like, no link to the next part hard.

    See the “Related Links” toward the top of the right rail.

  77. Bill F. says:

    “If that happens I will give every regular poster on this board $1 million each. Except for OFD as I would have to give his share to the IRS first so they could extract their pound of flesh.”

    I’ve lurked since pretty much the start of this forum and posted a few times. Does that qualify?

    If so, I will put in an order for that new Bugatti Chiron – that looks like a fun car! Of course, I will need to have 3 or 4 other forum members go in on it with me since it is around 3.5 MM$

  78. paul says:

    A Bugatti would be a blast. I’m gonna go cheap and “settle” for a Rolls. Or a Bentley. It really depends on the salesman’s attitude. Maybe an Alfa.

    Tho, actually, I’m going to keep driving an ’04 Freestar van. It has all of almost 40,000 miles. It has quirks. Sometimes the locks work, sometimes not. I would not care much either way if the frickin’ tailgate had a lock cylinder. It’s a bad relay, I just have to find the darn thing. The passenger window is stuck closed. I can hear stuff trying to work but the glass is jammed. Mom and Dad had the van into the dealer under warranty for the problem… er, “no problem” says the receipt.

    It’s good to have a project. 🙂

  79. paul says:

    See the “Related Links” toward the top of the right rail.

    Did that. Maybe my as blocker is screwing stuff up. Not a problem.

  80. SteveF says:

    Also, your ass blocker is screwing stuff up?
    Can I get a “TMI! TMI!” from the audience?

  81. nick flandrey says:

    Aha, Mr & Mrs Atoz have discovered what ex-politicians and current politicians all over the world have known for years, sell them copies of your BOOK *wink wink* Even better is not waste your own life writing the doorstop, then you get paid for NO work!

    n

  82. Bill F. says:

    “Tho, actually, I’m going to keep driving an ’04 Freestar van. It has all of almost 40,000 miles. It has quirks.”

    One of the cars I still love to drive is a 94 Honda Civic VX we purchased new. It was made for fuel economy – I was back in grad school at the time and talked my wife into it.

    It has manual steering, windows, gear box. It does have factory AC. I ordered a factory service manual when I got the car and no one but me has ever turned a wrench on it. It has gone through a few timing belts, water pumps, ignition components, exhaust, brake parts, etc. It still has the original clutch, starter and alternator, which is amazing to me. Unfortunately, it has spent most of its life in the rust belt and is succumbing to corrosion. I think it soon needs to go to the great junk yard in the sky…

    But, it is still fun to drive. Very low on power (but smooth and revs nice), very light – so it handles quite well. You really need to drive it like a race car. Full throttle a lot of the time – and it has a really nice smooth 5 speed. In a way, it is as fun to drive as my 2008 Corvette (not really). But, I am bonded more to this car. It really is one of the best cars that I have owned. Simple can be good.

    The sad part is that I think I could have driven this car until I am too old to need a car if we did not live in the rust belt. It is really that good – Honda hit the ball out of the park back then.

  83. lynn says:

    One of the cars I still love to drive is a 94 Honda Civic VX we purchased new. It was made for fuel economy – I was back in grad school at the time and talked my wife into it.

    It has manual steering, windows, gear box. It does have factory AC. I ordered a factory service manual when I got the car and no one but me has ever turned a wrench on it. It has gone through a few timing belts, water pumps, ignition components, exhaust, brake parts, etc. It still has the original clutch, starter and alternator, which is amazing to me. Unfortunately, it has spent most of its life in the rust belt and is succumbing to corrosion. I think it soon needs to go to the great junk yard in the sky…

    The wife drives a 2005 Honda Civic EX 5 speed coupe that we bought new. Bright red of course with spoilers and mag wheels. Fun to drive until the buzzy engine gets to you. Gets 27 – 30 mpg in city and 35 to 37 mpg on highway. The absolute best 5 speed that I have ever driven, the gearbox synchronizers suck the gearshift into the gear so minimal effort is needed. I had to have the head gasket replaced two years ago since it was leaking. 110K miles now. 0 to 60 mph in 7 seconds (the house of VTEC with the 7,000 rpm redline and the second set of valves that open up at 4,500 rpm).

    My 2005 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer that I bought new has 184K miles. It just starts and runs. Gets 14 mpg in town and 18 mpg on highway. I still love my leather seats even though my big ass has worn a hole in side of the drivers seat.

  84. Bill F. says:

    My 94 has a version of the VTEC also. A nice boost in power as it revs. Your 05 gear box sounds like the one my 94 has. They made some truly great transmissions.

    No one (that has not owned a VX) believes it, but when it was fairly new, it could easily get better than 60 MPG on a highway trip. Mine still is regularly in the 50+ MPG range. Without any batteries, regenerative braking, or other help…

  85. lynn says:

    I sold our old 1997 Honda Civic EX 5 speed earlier this year for $1,300 on craigslist. Or last year ? No corrosion whatsoever down here in the sunbelt. But the interior was ratted out and the headliner was ripped in about a hundred places.

  86. medium wave says:

    It seems that New Orleans is flooding again.

    More than you will ever want to know about the flooding in New Orleans: http://www.wwl.com/categories/local-news

    And of course the perps responsible are being allowed to retire/resign as opposed to facing the wrath of an outraged populace. Every day brings a new revelation of incompetence and/or corruption.

    Fortunately for me, I live in Jefferson Parish just to the west of the city, but nevertheless just on the westernmost edge of one of the zones affected by the pump outages. Again fortunately, there hasn’t (yet) been any flooding in my area.

    ADDED: Forgot to mention that while this disaster was brewing, NO’s mayor, Mitch Landrieu (Mary’s brother) was obsessing about taking down Confederate statues.

  87. lynn says:

    EARTH EX
    August 23, 2017
    Emergency All-sector Response Transnational Hazard Exercise(TM)

    Mission: EARTH EX is designed to improve community resilience
    to large scale, long duration power outages through multi-sector
    exercises …

    http://www.eiscouncil.com/EarthEx

    ————————————————————————

    Home > Black Sky Hazards > EMP – High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse

    EMP – High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse

    A nuclear detonation in the upper atmosphere creates an
    electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a powerful, damaging electromagnetic
    field covering a subcontinent-scale region.
    It is important to note that, due to the statistical nature
    of field characteristics, most conventional computers and low
    voltage electronics will likely be unaffected and available to
    be reenergized if power grid operation can be restored – a key
    factor in enabling cost effective power grid protection
    strategies – and in preserving the viability of most of the
    customer “load” that will also be essential to such strategies.
    The size of the affected region depends on burst height,
    and certain features of the warhead.
    Based on the full range of U.S. and international government
    studies and laboratory hardware vulnerability tests, and on U.S.
    and Russian nuclear testing, an EMP strike on an unprotected
    power grid, especially given its large, multi-region footprint,
    would cause an extended duration, subcontinent-scale duration
    power outage, and would precipitate cascading, direct and
    indirect failures of all other critical societal infrastructures.

    http://www.eiscouncil.com/BlackSky/Details/19

  88. H. Combs says:

    A couple of years ago, I bought my wife a 1995 Honda Civic Del Sol. Best present ever !!! She loves that car and cruises around with the top off whenever it’s not raining. She always gets comments about it too. Last week a man offered to buy it for $10k cash. She just laughed. She will never sell it. Probably want to be buried in it. BTW I only spent $3500 for it.

  89. H. Combs says:

    And my brother has always had a Rolls.
    Last year he bought a 1987 Silver Spur for $3800. It had body damage from a tree falling on the rear but the engine, Interior, and most of the body were in excellent condition. So he flew to NJ, bought it for cash, and drove it back to Little Rock where he has a body guy standing by. He dropped another $5k to repair the damage and now has a pristine Rolls for under $10 grand.

  90. nick flandrey says:

    saw a video where a guy had a bentley, super sweet, and only a few thousands… looked a bit faded and dated, but man, a bentley….

    n

  91. Greg Norton says:

    China has little dog syndrome.

    Taiwan would be a constant source of problems. It isn’t Tibet — travel to the island is relatively easy, wealthy expats are all over the world, and, after being a colony of Japan for 150 years prior to WWII, I imagine that the Yakuza are well established in the underground.

  92. Dave Hardy says:

    “They’ll only pay a “lowly” consultant $750, but will drop a shit load of cash on *anything* else.”

    Mrs. OFD thought that was hilarious and has no trouble whatsoever believing it. We need to write some books.

    “And of course the perps responsible are being allowed to retire/resign as opposed to facing the wrath of an outraged populace. Every day brings a new revelation of incompetence and/or corruption.”

    Not remarkably different from the tribal chiefdoms being run to Perdition in various parts of Afrika and Central and South Murka. The populace ought to rise up and run some peeps outta town tarred and feathered on rails and hang some others from convenient lampposts.

    WRT the NORK missile and EMP threats, how come no one mentions the viability (or not) of our anti-missile defense system? Your humble northern correspondent served for a few months on both the East and Left Coasts in the Aerospace Defense Command, part of NORAD; isn’t it at least possible that our defenses have perhaps improved by orders of magnitude over the past 45 years??? Or would it be in the interest of Deep State nabobs to let one hit us? Like 9/11, which got us a massively ramped up national security empire. And beaucoups piastres for defense contractors and law enforcement.

    Cars and trucks if I get a million bucks: I’d get an old 1980s-1990s truck with 4WD, V8-V12, no rust, all parts A-OK, mint, in other words. And we’d get us a sailboat with engine and take the sailing classes with the USCG down at the Burlap hahbuh. I’d also go for a series of private pilot licenses and get us a twin-engine Cessna.

  93. SteveF says:

    Mrs. OFD thought that was hilarious and has no trouble whatsoever believing it. We need to write some books.

    Yah, I was thinking the same thing.

  94. Ray Thompson says:

    I’ve lurked since pretty much the start of this forum and posted a few times. Does that qualify?

    Yeh, it qualifies IF you can tell me my favorite topic regarding illumination.

    Personally I would not be putting that order for the Rolls Royce just yet. In all the tickets I have purchased (probably about 10) I have one exactly once. And that was a match on the powerball for which I received a whopping $4.00.

    Yeh, the lottery is pretty much throwing away your money. In TN at least part of it goes to scholarships and allows free tuition at community colleges. Odds of winning are terrible, but even worse if you have no ticket.

  95. Dave Hardy says:

    SOMEBODY’S gotta win, amirite?

    Might as well be YOU, Mr. Ray!

    Or ME! We could use $44 mill. Lose at least half immediately in taxes. And we’d give 10% of the gross to the Church. Leaving us about $15 mill. Probably keep three or four million and the rest to various family members, including our kidz, obviously. Live off the offshore bank interest. Upon our deaths, principal to the kidz, too.

    I’ll pop around the corner and get us tix tomorrow if I remember.

  96. Bill F. says:

    “Last year he bought a 1987 Silver Spur for $3800. It had body damage from a tree falling on the rear but the engine, Interior, and most of the body were in excellent condition. So he flew to NJ, bought it for cash, and drove it back to Little Rock where he has a body guy standing by. He dropped another $5k to repair the damage and now has a pristine Rolls for under $10 grand.”

    Your brother is a smart man! Picking up a Rolls when it was still a real Rolls (made by the Rolls Royce company and before too many computers were installed) for a reasonable price is a huge win.

    My dad had a friend (when he was a kid in Princeton NJ.) whose family had money. They used to race vintage 20’s and 30’s Rolls Royce’s around in the dirt fields for fun. These were just old junk cars back then – can you imagine? By “they” I mean my dad and his friend back in the late 1930s – just kids ripping around in hand crafted vintage RR’s. I wish I had a time machine.

  97. Bill F. says:

    “Yeh, it qualifies IF you can tell me my favorite topic regarding illumination.”

    AWESOME! I am liking the GSX flash**** lately. I was trying to find the exact model but one of my new kitties is grabbing the cord… At any rate, I have flashlights within reach in most of my favorite resting spots…

    Once in a blue moon I will buy lottery tickets (when my wife is saying – “lets buy one and see”…). I only buy one and they always ask if I want more. I usually say something smarta$$d’s like ” one is as good as 100″. But I try not to pay the math tax….

  98. Dave Hardy says:

    Some perspective on just how much military chit we have going on around the world at any given moment:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/08/09/us-military-presence-overseas-mushrooming-here-there-and-everywhere.html

    It’s just a tad ridiculous. With our borders back here a joke and hadjis and gangbangers and narcotrafficantes all over the place. But our Deep State’s big worry is “right-wing militia movements.”

    Meanwhile, across the Pacific???

    http://www.atimes.com/article/north-korea-fire-fury-fear/

  99. Ray Thompson says:

    We could use $44 mill

    The jackpot is currently $356 mil, cash payout (which I would take) would be for only $224 mil. Taxes would eat 38% of that leaving about $138 mil. Then I give a million to you slobs, say about 20 of you, leaving $118 mil. Of that I would give about 20% to the church and 20% to the local school (with the stipulation they put decent lights, LED, on the football field, lit to NCAA standards). This would leave about $85 mil. Of that amount I would put most in saving and live off the dividends. But I would have to move to Texas where the dividends would not be taxed as they are in TN. Figure that move would cost me about $5 mil leaving $80 mil for which I would receive dividends of about $2.5 mil a year in income of which Uncle Sam would consume 38% leaving me $1.5 mil to spend.

  100. nick flandrey says:

    For fun, see what your spending looks like at the rate of $1000/day. Take 3 years to spend the first million at that rate…..

    n

  101. Dave Hardy says:

    I sure like Mr. Ray’s arithmetic and will buy half a dozen of them tix tomorrow…if I remember to do so….

    “guess i’m too late….”

    Ima gon just keep on prepping for:

    1.) Winter weather power outages and being stuck here for days or a couple of weeks, maybe a month.

    2.) Local gremlins and goblins busting into our cars, the house, the studio, chit like that.

    3.) Longer power outages over the course of a bitterly cold and snowy winter, like three to six months, and even the gremlins are stuck back under their rocks.

    4.) A year or two of SHTF, could be anything, but we are most likely not moving. And may have to recompile life in the ville here and the larger town circa 1900.

    5.) If it’s World War Four with nukes flying back and forth and the Rapture is leaving without us, then it’s time to kiss our asses buh-bye.

    I note the various comments WRT the drop in quality at ZH lately.

  102. SteveF says:

    I sure like Mr. Ray’s arithmetic

    He left one factor out of the arithmetic, the chance of winning. Figure it at 0.0000000000000001, give or take a few zeroes.

    and will buy half a dozen of them tix tomorrow

    I’ve never bought myself a lottery ticket. I bought a handful of scratch-off cards as door prizes for open houses and such and I’ve rolled my eyes and given my wife a dollar a bunch of times to buy a lottery ticket “for the baby”.

  103. Ray Thompson says:

    He left one factor out of the arithmetic, the chance of winning. Figure it at 0.0000000000000001, give or take a few zeroes

    I stated that earlier.

    Odds of winning are terrible, but even worse if you have no ticket

    I sure like Mr. Ray’s arithmetic and will buy half a dozen of them tix tomorrow

    I just give the clerk a $10.00 bill and ask for 5 random number sets.

    I have no visions of winning, am not spending any of the money. All I have done is figure out what I would do if I were to win. That would avoid the panic and impulse stuff that gets people in trouble. Many have won the lottery and 10 years later are flat broke and have nothing to show for winning. Not going to happen to me. Two reasons; I won’t win, I have a plan if I do.

  104. Dave Hardy says:

    I’m of the same mind as Mr. Ray on not winning but having a plan; great minds think alike!!! (yeah, yeah, as wife says, ‘and fools seldom differ.’}

    “Here is some morning humor”

    Excellent! If only…

  105. nick flandrey says:

    AR15.com had a very good thread on how to survive winning the lotto. It was full of really practical advice, including things you wouldn’t think of, and seemed to be written by a lawyer or wealth planner who had lots of experience with ‘high net worth’ individuals.

    If anyone does win, it would be worth reading 🙂

    n

  106. Dave Hardy says:

    My very first order of biz upon winning would be to shut down all loose talk about it outside this household of wife and me, and then hire a tax lawyer and a CPA. We’d buy nothing in the luxury line or ostentatious and go on about our usual activities and travels for quite a while as we got our financial ducks lined up properly.

    After Church and taxes, we’d pay off the house and car and all other debts right away. Money to the kids and then pay off siblings’ houses and get them some money to make life a bit more bearable ASAP on the promise they keep their pie-holes shut (spouses, mainly, who chatter like monkeys and magpies constantly).

    Then we’d do all the repairs and renovations on the house and vehicles and I’d get my old truck in mint condition. The boat and plane would show up after a year or two, and again, nothing fancy.

    We’d also get some medical chit done on us that is otherwise kinda fallen by the wayside here thanks to various “health insurance” fiascos well-known to most Murkans by now.

    I’d get the vast bulk of the $ out of U.S. banks ASAP and into offshore accounts and also get us second passports somewhere else. Just in case.

  107. Miles_Teg says:

    “I’d get the vast bulk of the $ out of U.S. banks ASAP and into offshore accounts…”

    I can help. Send me your details… 🙂

  108. Miles_Teg says:

    H.Combs wrote:

    “She loves that car and cruises around with the top off…”

    Does she ever get arrested? 🙂

  109. SteveF says:

    Score one for Miles_Teg!

    I’m just annoyed that I totally missed the opportunity to make that joke.

  110. Dave Hardy says:

    Yes, M_T finally nailed one!

Comments are closed.