Fri. Mar. 8, 2024 – another week passed without TEOTWAWKI. Hooray!

Warm and damp. Probably wet and overcast too. Might even rain. Yesterday was overcast most of the day, with some sun in the afternoon depending on where you were. Some people and places even got rain in the evening. Well, hard to call a few drops “rain”, but they did make the windshield wet.

Spent the day doing some domestic bliss- laundry, haircut, picking up stuff around the house… Spent the rest doing auction pickups. Same stuff as most days, except for the haircut. I did get a little bit of moisture from the sky on the truck as I was coming home.

Hit the HEB for some lunch stuff for the kids. Picked up some onsale prime sirloin, vegetables, and stuff to take to the BOL next week. There were a few things on sale but not many.

Today will be auction pickups, namely the ham radio I won last night, and some other things from the same estate sale. I’ll do some more poking at the hobby web site, as I’ll be demoing what I have for the group on Saturday. I didn’t get much done yesterday. So I’ve got some more to do tonight.

I watched the State of the Union address last night, and commented here as I did. Joe held it together longer than he has in the past, but the address itself was classic Joe, more government, more taxing, more fighting issues most people don’t care much about, and more blame for anyone but the career politicians sitting in the room. What I didn’t see was anything to unite the nation, to heal the rift between Right and Left, woke and conservative, sane and insane… I didn’t see any grand plan to make any significant changes, just more of the same, harder.

I don’t think that is going to work. I think we’re on the same path we’ve been on, and I think it leads to disaster for the nation, and a whole lot of dead people.

In short, keep prepping. Stack it high, in several places. Find the people you can trust. Be a trustworthy person. Get ready for change, lots of it, and most of it unpleasant. But know that just as there are still Romans in Rome, we’ll get through whatever is coming.

Preps will help.

nick

66 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Mar. 8, 2024 – another week passed without TEOTWAWKI. Hooray!"

  1. SteveF says:

    Biden remained coherent (which was unexpected), but also used the event entirely as a campaign speech. Which is it’s own kind of problem, because that’s not what it is for.

    They had the puppet do it because he’s not going to be campaigning. They’ll keep him in the White House, conveniently away from questions and cameras. There’s even Disease X waiting in the wings as an excuse. Why mess with what worked last time?

  2. Greg Norton says:

    “World’s First Cybertruck On TRACKS Is Crazier Than You Think!”

    Apparently the cybertruck is easy to wrap.

    The big anime event in San Antonio had a team doing demonstrations of wrapping various Tonymobiles in a few hours right on the show floor. I only understand the process at a high level, but once a detailed 3D model is available, a skin of an image projected onto the body is just math feeding a big printer.

    The Jesus Truck is a fetish item. Of course the 3D models were available on Day One.

    Supercar Ron admits on his channel page that he is “The Viral Idiot Driving the Cybertruck With Apple Vision Pro”.

    Something is off about that guy.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    Something is off about that guy.

    Yeah, just what I suspected.

    What is it about this generation of LDS and flaunting wealth on YouTube?

    I’m not buying this line, from an interview with Supercar Ron.

    “I had prioritized making our car payment over paying the electrical bill! This just shows I could live in a box and drive a nice car or a fun car and be happy with my life.”

    A year of food stashed in the house and he’s not paying the electric company. Sure.

  4. brad says:

    They had the puppet do it because he’s not going to be campaigning. They’ll keep him in the White House, conveniently away from questions and cameras. There’s even Disease X waiting in the wings as an excuse. Why mess with what worked last time?

    I’m not that cynical. I think they really believe that Biden will run, and win, and the sock puppet can serve another four years. Must’ve been some good meds, though, to keep him coherent for an hour-long speech.

    Serious question: was he allowed to use a teleprompter?

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    He was clearly reading from something because he was getting words crossed up. The mainstream coverage didn’t show his interaction with Marjorie whatever her name is I had to see that on the Tucker Carlson recap. So there were some Shenanigans going on.

    N

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Warm, and so damp that moisture is falling from the trees.  Street is dry but gutters are wet.

    Solid overcast too.

    n

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    IDK which case would be more disturbing, that saudis programmed a robot to touch women, or that they thought they could pass off an actor as a sophisticated robot, and he just couldn’t help copping a feel…

    Robo cop-a-feel: Cheeky AI robot touches shocked woman’s bottom at Saudi artificial intelligence event

    A cheeky male AI robot was caught touching a woman on the bottom in front of an audience while she reported from an event. In hilarious fotage, reporter Rawya Kassem can be seen standing on a panel in front of android Muhammad in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.The reporter, donning a blue suit and carrying a microphone, speaks directly to the camera as the realistic robot stood in his red keffiyeh and long gown. He can be seen slowly moving his head and body without Rawya noticing, in what appears to be a natural and innocent maneuver from the machine. But without warning, cheeky Muhammed raises his right hand and gently pats Rawya’s bottom as she addresses the room.

    n

  8. Brad says:

    Could also be a publicity stunt…

  9. drwilliams says:

    Woman should have come back with a crowbar and administered a few two-handed love taps.

  10. SteveF says:

    Woman should have come back with a crowbar and administered a few two-handed love taps.

    Not allowed, in at least some of the cultures around there. If a woman is transgressed against, she can’t defend herself. One of her male relatives has to physically intercede, file charges, or whatever else he deems appropriate.

    I don’t remember exactly which cultures that applied to but ISTR it was in southwest Asia, not northeast Africa. Memories fade and it was about 35 years ago. The summary of the “cultural awareness” briefing was, if you see something that looks sketchy, don’t do anything, don’t say anything, don’t see it. Based on statements by troops who were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, nothing’s changed.

    Riddle me this: Why is it that America and Americans need to respect everyone else’s culture, whether in their lands or here, but they don’t have to respect our culture, whether in their lands or here?

  11. drwilliams says:

    Gold Star Father Arrested Outside of SOTU Speech

    After the President made a patently false statement about America being “safer” under his presidency, Biden was briefly interrupted by someone in the gallery who started shouting at him. Such disruptions are sadly not all that uncommon these days, but this man’s commentary was oddly specific. He shouted out “Abbey Gate! Second Battalion, First Marines!” That is the location outside of the airport in Kabul where 13 Marines were killed in an ambush during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The person doing the shouting was Steve Nikoui, the father of one of the Marines who died that day. Mr. Nikoui was removed from the chamber, but that apparently wasn’t good enough for the White House. He was placed under arrest and taken into custody.

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/03/08/gold-star-father-arrested-outside-of-sotu-speech-n3784318

  12. drwilliams says:

    Not allowed, in at least some of the cultures around there. If a woman is transgressed against, she can’t defend herself. One of her male relatives has to physically intercede, file charges, or whatever else he deems appropriate.

    In the moral wasteland the U.S. has become the “male relatives” (ball-less wonders all) can’t be bothered to do anything but whine.

  13. drwilliams says:

    Will Democrats Dare to Block the Laken Riley Act?

    The Laken Riley Act would require the federal government to detain foreign nationals who commit “burglary, theft, larceny, or [a] shoplifting offense” as well as grant states to sue the federal government for non-enforcement of certain aspects of immigration law, and passed the House by a vote of 251 yeas to 170 nays.

    https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/03/08/will-democrats-dare-to-block-the-laken-riley-act-n3784296

    Any Democratic senator in a purple district will gulp hard before voting against it. We only need one.

    Get it passed and put it on DPOTUS desk to sign.

  14. dkreck says:

    https://pjmedia.com/christopherskeet/2024/03/07/what-is-a-man-alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-fiancee-and-the-question-of-traditional-masculinity-n4927094

    The one thing worse than a toxic male is an emasculated male. The emasculated male is either a videogame-addicted, edible-ingesting manchild who uses leftist politics as cover for his pathological immaturity or a man who is instinctively noble but has been demonized at every turn into thinking his very existence is evil, and that any masculine behavior, no matter what values it defends, is oppressive and patriarchal. 

  15. drwilliams says:

    Biden Lied 30 Times During The State Of The Union

    https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/08/biden-lied-30-times-during-the-state-of-the-union/

    Some more so than others.

    19. How Many Billionaires?

    The president claimed there are 1,000 billionaires in the U.S. According to Forbes, there are 735 billionaires in America as of 2023.

    meh

    OTOH

    25. Trump’s Comments On Iowa School Shooting

    Biden misrepresented remarks given by Trump in response to a January Iowa school shooting, which left one dead and several injured. As The Federalist reported, the shooter “flirted with Democrat gender ideology.”

    In his SOTU address, Biden claimed Trump told Iowans to “get over it.” Of course, Biden took the comments out of context, which shows Trump sympathizing with the victims and speaking about the importance of moving forward as a community.

    “To the entire community, we love you, we pray for you, and we ask God to heal and comfort, really, the whole state. … We’re really with you as much as anybody can be. It’s a very terrible thing that happened,” Trump said. “It’s just terrible. … That’s just horrible. It’s so surprising to see it here. … But we have to get over it. We have to move forward. … To all the relatives, and all the people who are devastated right now, to the point they can’t breathe, they can’t live, we are with you all the way.”

    That there is a flat-out lie of the most egregious kind.

    I’m sure POTATUS and his party would call it “lies” if I took the transcript of his SOTU speech and reduced it to only the word slurs, “unintelligible”, and “kamala kakkles”.

  16. drwilliams says:

    thirty seconds for the Biden voters:

    https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1765107368507888063

  17. SteveF says:

    The one thing worse than a toxic male is an emasculated male.

    Then there’s the Rorschach male, who refuses to help. Let the stupid and the lazy and the dishonest suffer the consequences.

    The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!” …and I’ll look down, and whisper “No.”

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  18. drwilliams says:

    MOVIE REVIEW: A contrarian’s take on Dune: Part Two (don’t bother)

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/movie_review_a_contrarians_take_on_dune_part_two_dont_bother.html

    Some critical comments, but he gives credit where credit is due:

    “The CGI sand renditions were impressive.”

  19. Chad says:

    …but also used the event entirely as a campaign speech. Which is it’s own kind of problem, because that’s not what it is for.

    True, but it’s too tempting for them to pass up. I would imagine every first term President’s 4th State of the Union address comes off a little more like a campaign speech than a State of the Union address.

    There’s no requirement to even conduct that media circus. The Constitution  (Article II, Section 3)  simply states the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union…” and that’s it. No requirement that it be yearly. No requirement that they stand before an assembly of all three branches of government. Heck, they could quite literally just write Congress a letter informing them of the “State of the Union” and call it good. They could write them only one of those letters their entire term and not be in violation of the Constitution.

    I’d love to have a President that just dispensed with the media circus. No cameras in the Oval Office for the Oath of Office. No Inauguration Ball. No televised State of the Union address. No hand wave to the press every time they get on or off Air Force One or Marine One.

  20. Rick H says:

    @Nick: about turning off comments…

    On the Settings, Discussion page: third checkbox: “Allow people to submit comments on new posts” . Enable the checkbox. No discussions (comments) allowed on new posts.

    Note that you can override that setting on individual posts. Make sure that ‘screen options’ on a Post page has “Discussion” enabled. Then you can allow/disallow discussions on an individual Post page. There is the same setting on the Page editor screen (check ‘screen options’ to enable seeing that setting).

  21. lynn says:

    We have a new customer in Israel today.  Some of the callup troops are returning to their jobs.

  22. nick flandrey says:

    Thanks Rick, I couldn’t find that on my own.   Too many places to make choices. 

    I really don’t want to become a WP guru, I just want enough to manage a simple thing…  but like most things, it takes more than you expect.

    Today I’m working on the image gallery stuff.  If I can get one category of images working, that’ll be a victory.  Maybe Christmas parties…

    n

  23. Greg Norton says:

    MOVIE REVIEW: A contrarian’s take on Dune: Part Two (don’t bother)

    Some critical comments, but he gives credit where credit is due:

    “The CGI sand renditions were impressive.”

    Part Two isn’t as good as Part One IMHO, mostly because the first movie was very character driven, especially Aquaman as Duncan Idaho, but I thought it was a decent effort.

  24. nick flandrey says:

    After poking at my hobby site for a couple hours, I’ve had a sort of epiphany, or breakthru…

    WP editor is NOT WYSIWYG.   Looks like WYSIWYG, isn’t.  NO DRAG to rearrange, no resizing.   No select and drag for text editing.

    WP editor is unlike every other piece of design software in the last 20 years that supports grouping items, and doesn’t seem to allow you to group AFTER THE FACT.  No way to select items and then group them.

    WP editor doesn’t support right click for context menus.

    Some things are not available until after a page has been “published”.   Saving the draft isn’t enough.  ( specifically linking to pages )

     This means you can’t build ‘from the bottom up’ adding complexity as you refine your design.  There needs to be somewhere to put each thing before you can put it there.     IE it’s a series of nested objects, and you can’t decide after the fact to change the nesting, or add an encapsulating nest.   So you are always moving down from general to specific.   If you don’t already have a good idea of how those elements nest, you’ll be  redoing the work.

    It’s alien to how I think.   Brain is hurting.

    Yep, I get that it’s probably all for good reasons, having to do with how CSS work, or some other tech involved.   It’s COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from building pages like a graphic designer would or doing page layout for print.    

    It’s more like arranging a bunch of containers, then only filling them at the end.  As someone for whom content comes first and fancy layout comes later, this is backward.

    I guess I’ll figure it out eventually.

    One thing that would be a stopgap, is if I could have a page with a block that contained a whole static html page.   Then I could just ‘save as htm’ and get something useful to paste to the new site while I figure out how to do it better.

    n

  25. Rick H says:

    Regarding previous discussion of ransomware and the BlackCat $22 million ‘payday’, the Internet Storm Center had this info in today’s newsletter. Links and comments are theirs.

    BlackCat Operators Deploy Exit Scam

    (March 5 & 6, 2024)
     

    The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware operators appear to have made away with a $22 million ransom payment without sharing the proceeds from the affiliate that actually conducted the attack on Change Healthcare. Soon after, a banner appeared on the group’s website, that made it look as though the site had been taken down by the FBI, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), and other law enforcement organizations. While the agencies have been involved in various takedown efforts over the past few weeks, they say they have not conducted a takedown of this particular group.
     

    Editor’s Note

    [Honan]
    Shock and horror as people realise you can’t trust criminals. In all the “to pay or not to pay ransom” debates, the fact you can’t trust criminals often seems to be overlooked.

    [Neely]
    Feeling flush with a $22 million payment, Black Cat appears to be ready to offer their source code for another $5 million, then set up shop under a new name “off the radar.” This would also be a good time to develop new capabilities, for example version 3 of their ransomware has a requirement for victim specific access tokens before it will execute, making analysis or reversing much more difficult. For most of us, just double down on your existing ransomware protections and have your threat hunters keep you apprised of developments.

    Read more in:
    – http://www.scmagazine.com: New BlackCat ransomware analysis published as leak site goes dark
    – arstechnica.com: After collecting $22 million, AlphV ransomware group stages FBI takedown
    – krebsonsecurity.com: BlackCat Ransomware Group Implodes After Apparent $22M Payment by Change Healthcare
    – http://www.darkreading.com: BlackCat Goes Dark After Ripping Off Change Healthcare Ransom
    – cyberscoop.com: Ransomware group behind Change Healthcare attack goes dark
    – therecord.media: Europol, DOJ, NCA deny involvement in recent AlphV/BlackCat ‘shutdown’

  26. nick flandrey says:

    I’d love to have a President that just dispensed with the media circus. No cameras in the Oval Office for the Oath of Office. No Inauguration Ball. No televised State of the Union address. No hand wave to the press every time they get on or off Air Force One or Marine One.  

    – I’d rather have cameras on everything.  Given how they can lie and have lied by  manipulation of the images, (wheelchairs need not appear) , (never show the back of joes head), I’d prefer a view that wasn’t mediated.

    I still want to see that someone is actually doing the things.   To be a witness, as it were, even if the stuff I’m witnessing is controlled.   Because even with the control you can still see things and learn things they didn’t intend for you to see or learn.

    n

  27. Rick H says:

    @Nick – regarding WP page layouts, etc. All depends on whether you are using the “Classic Editor” (which you can do via a plugin), or the now-default “Block Editor” (“Gutenberg”). 

    And depends on your chosen theme’s support of the Block Editor. Some themes have full support, and allow for ‘block moving’, as I understand things. Some themes even allow you to customize a page’s ‘look’; essentially designing your own theme for every page. The theory of that feature is to allow the page author to make their own design for a page, rather than the design that is built into the theme.

    So – dependent on the capabilities of the theme that you have chosen. The theme used on this place, for example, is more ‘classic’ and doesn’t support all of those advanced features. You get the page/site design that I built into the theme. 

    I have not used those features, or those themes. There are articles on how to do that. 

  28. nick flandrey says:

    Recent and specific – stumbling on stairs.  Shuffling walk.   Confused look when doing ordinary things.   Previous- interaction with military, aides, and others.

    Think about Bush palling around with   Prince Cut Up, arms around each other, or happily hugging the Harpie…  those were images we didn’t see until later.

    Or Obamma bowing to the Saudis.

    Actions speak louder than words, and I’ve seen how a transcript can be accurate, but completely fail to convey  how the speech actually came across.

  29. Rick H says:

    And related to the ransomware issues with Change Healthcare, Internet Storm Center has this: (I added emphasis to one of the editor notes):

    US Dept. of Health and Human Services Steps In to Help Address Problems Caused by Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack

    (March 5 & 6, 2024)
     

    Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack on February 21. The company provides IT services to healthcare entities, including pharmacies, that allows those organizations to process claims and prescriptions electronically. In the wake of the attack, healthcare organizations are reporting cash flow issues because they cannot submit claims and receive payments. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is stepping in to help hospitals and other healthcare providers weather the fallout from the attack. Specifically, HHS says that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will expedite the process for changing clearinghouses, and make other changes, such as relaxing or removing prior authorization requirements.
     

    Editor’s Note

    [Neely]
    This is big, particularly for the smaller pharmacies, which are suffering with payment processing challenges as Change Healthcare is offline. Consider your supply chain dependencies, up and downstream, and look at ways you can make them more resilient.

    [Dukes]
    There will be plenty of lessons learned from this cyber incident at both the company and federal level. At the top of the list will be how the federal government addresses market consolidation of suppliers. More to follow in the coming months.

    [Spitzner]
    Time and time again I’m seeing that the most catastrophic impacts in incidents is not from PII being stolen, it’s from the systems not being accessible. Many incident responders will tell you that the biggest cost of ransomware is not the extortion payment, but the loss of system availability and recovery.

    [Frost]
    This one is one to watch. It was *very* difficult to get any funding for cyberattacks in a healthcare environment. The actual financing went to many other critical parts of the business. Does this attack open the wallet for more healthcare institutions to redirect funding to the cybersecurity teams? I hope that financially impacting things to this level opens the eyes of the business.

    Read more in:
    – http://www.hhs.gov: HHS Statement Regarding the Cyberattack on Change Healthcare
    – healthitsecurity.com: HHS Releases Statement on Change Healthcare Cyberattack
    – http://www.theregister.com: Uncle Sam intervenes as Change Healthcare ransomware fiasco creates mayhem

  30. nick flandrey says:

    Thanks Rick, part of the problem is my source material is not consistent. 

    Part is that I’m re-organizing how it’s presented as I go.  

    Part is habits and expectations for how things work, that don’t translate.   It’s a bit like going to a church service that you thought was “Christian” meaning “like the church I’m familiar with that also calls themselves ”Christian” but they have different books in their Bible, different habits and customs in their service, and don’t do things that you took for granted as being part of what makes something “Christian”.     

     I have been using design and layout software a LONG time.   Clearly the designers of WP came from a different lineage and workflow than I did.  It’s a bit jarring.

    n

  31. nick flandrey says:

    An example of my source material.

    We do an annual “show” that is part swapmeet, part convention, part association meeting.

    The old site has a “gallery” where they have been dumping groups of pictures, collections of annotated pictures, written reports with pictures in them….

    so the “show gallery” for 2023 is really a designed and laid out page with about 8 photos embedded in the text.   It would look fine as a one page pdf.

    For 2022, there is a page with a couple of captioned pictures embedded in text, and about 100 pix in a “gallery” which is thumbnails and a slideshow.

    MOST of the years have some text report, with pictures, and a collection of other pix.  Some years those are more organized, into “show floor”, “educational presentations”, and “the other activity we do”.

    I’d like to figure out a layout that makes sense for all of them, but clearly just putting text on a page with a “see the photos here” link won’t work for all, nor will just a list of years with a “gallery” or “slideshow” button.

    I’m currently organizing it by “show” with a list of years, each of which opens another page with any text and reports, and then a link to a “gallery” or slideshow if those pix exist.

    I really didn’t want to create a couple hundred pages in a tree structure, but I think that’s what is going to happen, eventually.  Unless I get inspired with how to do it some other way.

    Preserving the history and the pictures of the people is one of the main reasons to have the web presence at all, so it’s more important than I first thought.

    n

    and with that, I’m off to do some pickups and shopping.

    added– there are also “classes” “parties” “quarterly local shows” and “other stuff we do” and “a catchall category” that are very similar to what I’ve described about our “shows”… mishmash of styles and material, scattered across the current site, and going back by year for a decade or more.

  32. nick flandrey says:

    This guy sounds like a colossal ass.

    Editor’s Note

    [Honan]
    Shock and horror as people realise you can’t trust criminals. In all the “to pay or not to pay ransom” debates, the fact you can’t trust criminals often seems to be overlooked.

    I’d call that “projection” except it’s probably just snobbish condescension.  EVERY ransomware discussion I’ve seen or read about considered that the criminals might not be trustworthy.   EVERY ONE.   But for this guy, everyone except himself is a dumbass.  Automatic discount for everything he says…

    n

  33. nick flandrey says:

    NOW I’m off…

    n

  34. drwilliams says:

    Part Two isn’t as good as Part One IMHO, mostly because the first movie was very character driven, especially Aquaman as Duncan Idaho, but I thought it was a decent effort.

    Prior to release of the David Lynch version in 1984, Business Week had a long article anticipating that it would be the foundational event for a billion-dollar media empire.

  35. drwilliams says:

    Regarding previous discussion of ransomware and the BlackCat $22 million ‘payday’, the Internet Storm Center had this info in today’s newsletter. Links and comments are theirs.

    My response would be an offer of $20 million for verifiable news of the Black Cat Headquarters building burning down with all hands, with a bonus for video of human torches attempting to exit the building.

  36. Greg Norton says:

    What? The Baby Yoda Show cancelled?

    The apocalypse is nigh!

  37. drwilliams says:

    It took just three days.

    After drag performer RuPaul announced the creation of a “no censorship” Allstora bookstore, censorship was back with a vengeance after many on the left learned that free speech meant that opposing views might be sold at the site.  While the sentiment was appealing, it became intolerable when activists noted that a “no censorship” store would mean that they could not censor others. …

    –Jonathan Turley

    The US hasn’t banned a book in decades; people can buy whatever books they want, and sellers can sell them. The apotheosis of this inanity was watching booksellers craft stands of “banned” books for sale, which immediately discredited their entire argument. Let’s hope the 3-day arc at Allstora does the same thing. 

    –Ed Morrissey

    https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/03/08/irony-is-often-very-ironic-book-ban-edition-n3784325

  38. lynn says:

    Sean Hannity says that was Jacked Up Joe last night, screaming and yelling all the way through the SOTA.  He thinks the handlers gave Joe a four pack of Redbull before his speech.

    4
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  39. drwilliams says:

    Taking a poll:

    How many believe that as the U.S. military spend 30-60 days just below the tide line (i.e. “no boots on the ground”) of a beach in Gaza to build a pier for humanitarian aid Hamas supplies, the “Palestinian” freak show will practice monumental restraint and not launch a sooprise attack and kill American servicemen?

    If I were consulted by a member of our military about potential deployment on such a blatantly dangerous Democrat political operation with no U.S. strategic interest at stake, I would be hard pressed not to be honest and state that it would be a good time to have a power tool accident in the wood shop.

    If Biden thinks this is a great idea he could prove it by sending the “smartest guy he knows*” to be in charge of the diplomatic party at the beach, and propose George Poopapantsalots aand Jake Tapper as the MSM embeds.

    *certified genius selfie-star son Hunter

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  40. EdH says:

    – I’d rather have cameras on everything.  Given how they can lie and have lied by  manipulation of the images, (wheelchairs need not appear) , (never show the back of joes head), I’d prefer a view that wasn’t mediated.

    CSpan camera’s supposedly don’t pan or cut.

    There doesn’t seem to be a Roku app for CSpan, tho maybe I have missed it.

    YouTube does have a CSpan channel, I watched two or three minutes of the SOTU address there last night,  after a commercial, before deciding that organizing my socks had priority over watching Brandon.

  41. Greg Norton says:

    Sean Hannity says that was Jacked Up Joe last night, screaming and yelling all the way through the SOTA.  He thinks the handlers gave Joe a four pack of Redbull before his speech.

    Adderall. A massive dose.

    After the tolling company, I recognize the signs, particularly the more-active-than-passive passive aggression.

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  42. drwilliams says:

    There’s no shortage of sites out there vying for the gun enthusiast/prepper/survivalist eyeballs.

    I visited one last night that caused me to formulate a new rule for the sifter:

    “ If the majority of links to featured items are dead or discontinued within a year, spend your time elsewhere.”

    Flashlights, knives, gubs, holsters–this guy was adept at picking losers.

  43. drwilliams says:

    Doritos FIRES trans ‘ambassador’ after pedo posts resurface

    https://humanevents.com/2024/03/05/doritos-fires-trans-ambassador-after-pedo-posts-resurface

    Doritos needs to send a Spanish-speaking tiger team to Spain, do a deep dive on the firing process, and fire a lot more.

    But at least this gives weak cover to resume consumption of my third-favorite over-salted over-priced product of decades of shrinkflation and masters of artful package design with a low-contrast weight on the package front just 2mm below the breaks-out-of-sight point of the bag on the shelf.

  44. paul says:

    Big River said:  “3:51 PM  Carrier is unable to gain access to front door to deliver the package.”

    The brotha is lying.  If a tree had fallen across the driveway in the previous 45 minutes, yeah, can’t get to the front door.  But didn’t leave the package at the gate, so… liar.   Nice weather, hey, take off early. 

    I was outside at the so called delivery time.  I’d have heard the truck.

    So much for tomorrow’s little project.   I guess it will be Sunday’s little project. 

  45. Alan says:

    >> What in the world ?  Somebody needs to put Kerry into an Alzheimer facility.

    The Botox is rotting his brain.

    Well, ALS is one of the possible side-effects from Botox…which makes me wonder how vain you have to be to get injected with that stuff. And you have to get multiple injections since the cosmetic changes are only temporary.

  46. Alan says:

    >> He was clearly reading from something because he was getting words crossed up. The mainstream coverage didn’t show his interaction with Marjorie whatever her name is I had to see that on the Tucker Carlson recap. So there were some Shenanigans going on.

    Of course, since it wasn’t on the prompter, when MTG shouted out “Say her name,” he called her Lincoln Riley instead of Laken Riley.

    And for most of the speech he was literally shouting rather than orating.

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  47. drwilliams says:

    ‘Alien’ signal was likely a very big truck

    Researchers took a deeper look at seismic data taken during the 2014 fireball landing near Papua New Guinea.

    But as to the ground vibrations recorded at a seismic station on Manus Island during the same atmospheric event? The explanation is likely much more mundane.

    “[T]hey have all the characteristics we’d expect from a truck and none of the characteristics we’d expect from a meteor,” Johns Hopkins planetary seismologist Benjamin Fernando said on Thursday.

    Fernando and his colleagues will present their findings on March 12 during the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.

    https://www.popsci.com/science/uap-seismic-data-truck/?utm_term=pscene030824&utm_campaign=PopSci_Actives_Newsletter&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email

    I’m disappointed to report that I couldn’t find a client who was willing to pick up the tab for this conference. 

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  48. Greg Norton says:

    Well, ALS is one of the possible side-effects from Botox…which makes me wonder how vain you have to be to get injected with that stuff. And you have to get multiple injections since the cosmetic changes are only temporary.

    The star of “Going Upriver”?

    Pretty friggin’ vain.

    Go read up on George Butler, who directed that propoganda piece.

  49. drwilliams says:

    Scientists For Science – the “boys will be boys” of science

    Alex Washbourne Feb 10, 2024

    Opposition to gain of function research of concern recruited many diverse scientists from many diverse fields of study, all of whom could do the obvious arithmetic to see risks » benefits.

    The lack of benefits needs to be emphasized. There are no countermeasures or vaccines developed by enhancing potentially pandemic pathogens.

    The risks, meanwhile, are nearly infinite.

    Benefits: nothing yet. Risks: from 20 million dead (a relatively benign scenario) to the largest mass casualty event in human history and possibly the end of human civilization. Hence, many reasonable scientists said “No, thank you” to the enhancement of potentially pandemic pathogens.

    If these arguments in opposition of gain of function research of concern sound eminently reasonable, it’s because they are. As a quantitative biologist, my job is to estimate the likelihoods of events and the severity of events given they occur. There is no data suggesting this work can reduce the severity of a pandemic. Meanwhile, there are clear data and reasons why this work increases the likelihood of a pandemic and increases the severity of a pandemic caused by a research-related accident if researchers are making pathogens more transmissible and more virulent than those found in nature.

    Who opposed such simple arguments against the enhancement of potentially pandemic pathogens? Why? Who funded their work? What systems in science were able to overcome such simple arithmetic to support the risk-taking side with so few rewards?

    https://biosafetynow.org/the-pathogenic-academic-lobby/

  50. EdH says:

    “Delivered today

    Your package was left near the front door or porch.”

    Nothing.   Probably at a neighbor.  No picture for some reason….

    Pretty much the story of the entire day, minor aggravations piled one atop the other.

  51. paul says:
    Pretty much the story of the entire day, minor aggravations piled one atop the other.

    That was a lot of my day.  Get out of the way you stupid cats!  I just fed you, you still have food!

    Some days are like that.   Tomorrow will be fine.

  52. SteveF says:

    Get out of the way you stupid cats!  I just fed you, you still have food!

    Breaking News: Local cat has never been fed in entire life, claims local cat

  53. drwilliams says:

    Investigation Ordered by City of Uvalde Exonerates Police

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/03/08/investigation-ordered-by-city-of-uvalde-clears-police-and-parents-are-outraged-n3784375

    I can think of a number of responses to this white wash, conducted by Former Austin [NO! REALLY?] Police Department detective Jesse Prado.

    One of them would be to solicit contributions to a fund. Then hire someone to track all the officers on site that day that failed in their duties. Each week each officer would be given an audible reminder of their failure, in the form of recorded gunshots. Sometimes for them, sometimes for their fmilies. Wives, girlfriends and parents fair game, children not included.

    And, yeah, Prado an honorable member of the list, along with the entire city council.

  54. drwilliams says:

    There’s a long list of media people that I miss dearly.

    Combinations of keen insight, unflagging determination, and unwavering moral compass. Work ethics admired by dairy farmers who start at 3AM 365 days a year. Some with towering intellects, some just way smart. All honed razor sharp on a lifetime of continuing education.

    Paul Harvey is on that list.

    He did his most important, prescient essay in 1965.

    It’s called “If I Were the Devil”. 

    I had not heard it in years, and the intervening time has just made it more accurate.

    You can look it up.

    Some Trump supporters used it as a template for a video, and there’s embedded links to the video and the Paul Harvey audio on YouTube here:

    https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2024/03/08/new-trump-ad-if-i-was-the-deep-state-chillingly-plays-off-legendary-paul-harveys-if-i-were-the-devil-n2171117

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  55. Greg Norton says:

    I can think of a number of responses to this white wash, conducted by Former Austin [NO! REALLY?] Police Department detective Jesse Prado.

    APD. Up until two years ago, APD was still conducting armband -er- mask enforcement drills at the Sam’s near our house.

    By that point, I was just walking in without my symbol of party allegiance, but I would get the stink eye from the “heroes” in their vehicle, parked at the entrance.

  56. nick flandrey says:

    Home from my errands and I note that this time it cost me $55 for the wind generator… while all the other items I thought I’d won went for the same as last time.  Only one guy bidding against me.   Hmm.  They better have an explanation that makes sense when I go for my pickup tomorrow.

    Picked up my ham radio, Yaesu FT 817, some mobile antennas and a hard drive.   Met some other hams there, and ran into the guy who was next to me in the parking lot at the hamfest.   He was buying too.  The even better news is that she’s putting even more ham stuff in the next two sales and I saw some of it.   More good accessories coming.

    I stopped at Habitat reStore on my way home from the pickup, and found a good door for my BOL.  Also picked up 20 gallons of 80% alcohol for $8.   They had pallets of it.  Unlike the last time, it didn’t have enough glycerine to make it slimy or sticky.   Should burn well, and make a good cleaner for most surfaces.  Dunno if it will clean 3D resin prints or if I really do need isopropal alcohol.

    Chiropractor did her magic too.

    Stopped at costco for a few items.   Freaking charmin is up to $39 a bale.  IIRC that is almost double the pre-wuflu price.    They had Choice beef for reasonable prices on some cuts.   I got a couple of sirloin cap roasts (the picanha roast) for $6/lb, and 20 pounds of prime brisket for $3.50/lb.   That’s less than HEB and it’s prime instead of select.  Given the slow cooking, that doesn’t make as much difference as if it was steak, but it should still taste better.  Australian lamb was possibly even cheaper than last time, if not, it was the same.   Canadian maple syrup was too.   MUST be exchange rates at work.  Chicken is still up but not by 30-50%.

    I have a bunch of meat to break down and freeze tonight.   Running out of freezer space.  And that’s a good thing.

    At some point I need to get back to poking at wordpress.   Not a joy to behold.

    n

  57. Greg Norton says:

    Stopped at costco for a few items.   Freaking charmin is up to $39 a bale.  IIRC that is almost double the pre-wuflu price.  

    The pandemic kabuki did horrible damage to the paper products supply chain, and now those companies are facing labor shortages.

    I noticed that decent TP price per bale was tracking one ounce of silver delivered, but $39 is higher than that number currently — ~ $26/ounce for generic rounds, more for Eagles.

  58. nick flandrey says:

    TP price per bale was tracking one ounce of silver delivered 

    that is an interesting observation.   When it goes on sale, it’ll be closer…

    n

  59. nick flandrey says:

    Why I read the daily mail (along with millions of others, including women in the US)

    What WAS in Sleepy Joe’s peppy punch? KENNEDY’s hysterical review of President Brittle Bone’s suspiciously vigorous SOTU… the shocking gaffe that made Kamala’s blood vessels pop… and a hot mic debacle that proves Biden REALLY isn’t all there

     

    KENNEDY: I don’t know what the White House medicine man had put in the IV, or if old Joe dabbled in Hunter’s disco dust, but if PepsiCo can bottle whatever juiced up President Brittle Bones for 67 minutes last night – they’ve got a billion-dollar product. Full of ‘Get Off My Lawn’ energy – like Popeye if he swapped out spinach for uppers – Joe was greeted with a hero’s welcome by fangirling Democrats. ‘Four more years,’ they chanted as Tripsy Magoo teetered toward the lectern – infuriatingly stopping every three feet for sloppy glad-handing and a fumbling selfie with a nameless backbencher. Our suspiciously vigorous president began on an odd note as most of the country watched to see if he’d wander offstage mid-speech or face-plant into the laps of the Supreme Court Justices. This wasn’t a State of the Union speech. It was the re-launch of the re-launch of Biden’s flat-lining campaign.

    n

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  60. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    I stopped at Habitat reStore on my way home from the pickup, and found a good door for my BOL.  Also picked up 20 gallons of 80% alcohol for $8.   They had pallets of it.  Unlike the last time, it didn’t have enough glycerine to make it slimy or sticky.   Should burn well, and make a good cleaner for most surfaces.  Dunno if it will clean 3D resin prints or if I really do need isopropal alcohol.

    I am jelly-ass.

    Kitchen Chemistry Alert:

    Distilling IPA will get you to 87% with the balance water. But you can do better. There’s a method called “salting out”:

    https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Salt-Out/

    This allows you to remove the water as an immiscible salt solution. It leaves a small amount of salt in the IPA, which is fine for fuel use, but you might want to do a secondary distillation for 3D-printer solvent.

    Start by checking the SDS (safety data sheet, formerly MSDS) for the product. If it has glycerine your ability to recycle the salt repeatedly will be compromised somewhat, unless you start the process by freezing out the glycerine. 

    The latest rules revision for SDS allows the manufacturer more leeway in hiding the actual percentages, and if it’s Chinese it’s fiction anyway, so you should do some preliminary work. Start by finding a large shallow bowl (a Corelle cereal bowl is ideal if you don’t have a chemistry lab), weighing it exactly to 0.01 grams (recorded and written on the side with a Sharpie). Select a fresh bottle of your IPA find, shake vigorously, open, and decant 100g ±5 g, recording the weight exactly to 0.01 g. Let it evaporate completely and check for residue, which will be the glycerin and other oily additives (and perhaps hazmat waste, if Chinese*).

    (I would follow-up the evaporation test by taking 100 g (as above), freezing, weighing any solids, and allowing that fraction to thaw and sit for a while to check evaporation. I like to check my sums, and I have scales much better than 0.01, which most people do not)

    If you’re going to recycle the salt in processing the next batch, pre-process by freezing to remove the glycerine. You can always make bubble solution with it.

    If you want to process the purchased IPA as above, just do a bit at a time. Concentrations above 91% (the azeotrope beyond which you cannot concentrate further by distillation) are hygroscopic and will suck water out of the air. Makes it more difficult to store.

    The Instructable’s turkey baster method of removing the top separated layer is workable but is not very precise. In the lab we have a separatory funnel which narrows to a 3-5mm glass tube with a stopcock and allows removal of the bottom layer with much more accuracy. If you’re doing repeated batches simply stop before you get too close to the interfacial layer and you can probably pour off most of the material above and below and simply recycle in the next batch.

    If the above is not clear, ask.

    And as always, the absolute minimum is playing like this is a good pair of non-fogging splash goggles AND good ventilation. Gloves optional but recommended as good practice. Don’t use the good dining room table as a lab bench. Lock cats, dogs, and small persons in another room. Ring the bell to…never mind. 

    *famous Italian case in the 1970’s the Mafia got rid of some nasties in olive oil

  61. nick flandrey says:

    @drwilliams, 

    Thank you for the info.   I’m pretty sure it was made in USA  during the wuflu loosening of the rules about who could make and sell alcohol based disinfectants… there is a small chance it’s ethanol based.

    Although the last batch I found that was ethanol based smelled like tequila and this doesn’t have that odor.

    Could I up the concentration just by freezing to remove the water and the glycerin?   Isn’t that a way to turn wine into brandy? or is the concentration already too high?

    There is a lot of cleaning and PPE equipment hitting the surplus markets now.   People have already forgotten their need and what happened last time.   There will be a next time, and there’s a good chance it will be a real crisis.  They’ll wish they hadn’t disposed of the stuff then… but I’ll be smiling.

    n

  62. nick flandrey says:

    Ugg, and I got the math wrong, I got 4 gallons for $8.  Dunno what brain fart changed that in my mind.   They do have literal pallets of it though.   And since it looks pretty easy to clean it up, I might pick up a bunch more next week.

    n

  63. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ah shoot.   Never got a chance to unbox the starlink this week.   I guess we’ll be winging it at the BOL.   I better pack some network stuff too.

    Tomorrow.   Now it is bed time.

    n

  64. drwilliams says:

    Could I up the concentration just by freezing to remove the water and the glycerin?   Isn’t that a way to turn wine into brandy? or is the concentration already too high?

    Already too high. But as above, freezing should get rid of most of the glycerin.

    Ugg, and I got the math wrong, I got 4 gallons for $8

    IIRC, Sam’s price last week was about 2 quarts for $8. So you did excellent.

    During the pandemic there was all sorts of desperate sourcing going on. I had an inquiry from a local company (regional sales) that had an unspecified “large” amount of IPA-based disinfectant that was under-strength and wanted to know if it could be reprocessed. Before I could get a sample or express interest in buying it the C-suite decision was made to not mess with it, and it was gone.  

    there is a small chance it’s ethanol based.

    Freeze some to remove the glycerin and test for residual solids using the evaporation test described above.

    Weigh 1000 grams into a sauce pan (not your best pan, but you’re not going to ruin it). Bring it to a boil and check the temperature.

    Below boiling you will drive off water as vapor. At boiling the vapor will have the same composition as the liquid (azeotrope) :

    91% IPA at 177°F

    96% EtOH at 173°F

    Take the temp immediately at boiling, allow to cool, then weigh the contents of the pan. In Houston you are close to sea level, so no altitude correction is necessary. The temps are close but discernible with a Thermopen or similar chef’s thermometer, but the IPA azeotrope would have more than twice the weight loss.

    At that that starting price I’d ask how much discount if I took it all.

  65. Nick Flandrey says:

    At that that starting price I’d ask how much discount if I took it all.  
     

    – I keep buying it from different places when I see it in high concentration, without a bunch of other stuff in it.   If I had a place to just park a pallet out of the sun, I think it would be a great long term “just in case” prep.   I’ve tucked a gallon or two in a whole bunch of different places.

    One of my auctioneers (the one with the safe room and storage on site, and a family compound to BO to) showed me a warehouse full of it that he had just sitting there.   Family warehouse, so no rent.   Told me he could run his milsurp big truck on it if need be.   Had 100K gallon bottles, iirc.    He’s sold some off though, since I saw that he’s using part of that warehouse for other things now, and I saw some in his auction.  I’d think that at some point the plastic jugs would start to break down.

    nothing lasts forever, and I’m not using anything but paper products fast enough that I don’t have a problem with stuff aging out.

    n

    added – I’d bet he’s not the only one with a warehouse full of “stuff” of one sort or another. It’s a ‘good ol boy’ thing to do.

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