And it will be a damp, dreary day. Maybe. Depending on where you are. Yesterday the forecast called for rain, and we got it on the west side of town. On the east side it was sunny and warm. Until it rained out of the clear blue sky. That happened to me several times as I drove all over town. And most of the rain was fairly light squalls. Some places got plenty and pretty steady, but the high winds kept the weather moving around for most of Houston. I kinda expect today to be similar.
Started the day with my volunteering at the kid’s school. That ate a couple of hours but real progress has been made and I think they have a good starting point to work from. I’ll end up back there a couple more times I’m sure, but I’m not doing much until after they get through this performance.
Did a couple of pickups, but the rain kept me from doing my dropoff. Maybe today if it’s clear. Then it was kid taxi service and leftovers for dinner.
I’m getting tired of writing about not getting my stuff accomplished, I’m sure you guys are getting tired of hearing about it. I’m rationalizing it as a counter to the other prepper blogs where they are always trying a new recipe, doing a gear review, or reporting on homestead life… yeah, that’s it, I’m a counter balance…
I will be voting today. I encourage everyone to vote, no matter their politics. If you are undecided or don’t care, vote for Trump. He’s the only non-politician to run in decades, with a real chance, and that alone should get your vote. Will he be effective? Will he be able or allowed to do the things he’s promised? Dunno. Most of them don’t deliver on any promises (first 100 days to solve the “healthcare crisis” anyone??) but he delivered Supreme Court justices that have a Constitutional orientation and that has a chance to shape the USofA for decades. It’s a needed swing of the pendulum. The body politic has swung too far to the left, and has to swing back toward the middle, or things WILL come apart.
I think they’ll come apart anyway, but maybe this way it won’t be as ugly.
That said, my prediction is the deep state abandons kamel, because someone realizes the cheat will have to be too big, and they can just wait 4 years… and Trump wins. Then the economy gets crashed. Don’t think that’s possible? What if the Federal Reserve, which is NOT a government agency, raises interest rates 2, 3, or even just 4 points? They blame Trump for the resulting problems, blame the right for the Left’s violence, and run a Jesus candidate in ’28. I can make an arguement either way at all of the inflection points in any scenario I can come up with.
Maybe they don’t CARE if everyone knows the fix was in. They didn’t seem to last time. So the cheat is massive, undeniable, and their stance is “suck it, btiches”. — Civil war, cold or hot, results.
Maybe there are enough big money people to keep any financial shenanigans in line, and the economy gets a Trump boost. The left won’t allow that to go unpunished so expect violence. Civil war- or just constant terrorism and insurgency. Bombings, fires, riots. Infrastructure destruction… BLM and antifa were training actions. They are funded and organized, they have training cadre with experience.
I don’t see any scenario where things are better after the election, no matter who “wins”. Heck maybe Kamel is their fall guy, so they can go back to white men when they’re done blaming her for the economic collapse and sectarian violence that erupts. That would be an outcome I don’t think many people have considered…
There will be violence. There will be disruption. There will likely be death and privation. People on both sides have been gearing up and have been drawing lines in the sand. People on both sides are radicalized. All that energy is crying for a release.
And don’t forget that our enemies will work for their own benefit- while US attention turns inward, all hell could break loose internationally, which WILL affect us as supply chain issues… and foreign entanglements. Lots of money to be made in war, and war is a traditional way to reset your currency and repudiate your debts.
Could be I’m just a doomer and it will all be fine. Good luck with that. I’m working to make sure we get through this coming time and emerge safe and sound, and maybe even better. I’ve been encouraging all of you to take whatever steps you think are prudent, and I hope you have. There are still Romans in Rome. Mongols in China. And Brits in the UK. We’ll still be here when it is all in the past. Some of us anyway.
The ship of State doesn’t turn on a dime, and this great country has “a lot of ruin in it”. Timing the collapse is as hard as timing the markets.
Be ready for tomorrow, and one year from now, and 5 years from now, and the rest of your life…
And stack, because that is one thing you can control…
nick
Cut off Janine Turner’s residual streams wherever possible.
And for Godssake, if you vote for Trump in a district with a close Senate or House race down ballot, you are accomplishing nothing by “voting your conscience” and opting for a Libertarian to “send a message”.
30,000 Geogria Libertarians did that four years ago, and 11,000 were enough to tip the Senate races into runoffs which delivered the Senate to the Dems.
20 million viewers is a football game, not “Saturday Night Live”, even with a hot guest like The Real Life Tony Stark (TM).
A lot of ISDs (Texas school board) have big bond issues on the ballot today, ahead of the property taxes reverting to normal rates in 2026 after the surplus giveaway runs out.
Sending the kids home is a reminder to the parents about what life would be like if the “planning” days and early release events increased due to budget issues.
Get those stadiums funded now. There is no guarantee that Texas will vote for the income tax ballot initiative coming in three years, but chances are that it will. “For the children.”
In TN the schools have been closed on election day for as far back as I can remember. Several schools are used as polling places and generally only affected one or two schools in the county. That required closing all schools in the county.
And in other news. I have been fighting the VA for 7 years to get my rating for my back injury increased. It had been at 10% initially, then 20% where it sat for years. I appealed that rating back in late 2017. I have been fighting ever since with multiple appeals going up the food chain to a veteran’s law judge. Which got remanded because the VA made several errors.
The VA was going to put me back at the bottom of the long queue. I wrote to my congressman to get that resolved. It turns out I did not need to do that as cases remanded by the judge go back at the top of the queue, something the VA never mentioned in their multiple letters to me.
I finally got what I wanted. The back has been increased to 40%. That along with the hearing loss, tinnitus, and the knee, I got my rating to 70%. Beyond the extra money, the reason I wanted that goal of 70% is that if I need to go into a nursing home the VA will pay 100% of that cost. Based on the senility that runs in my family, that is a very real and significant concern.
I voted early as nothing was going to change my mind. Both candidates are lunatics. Tonight the voting results are on 19 channels on my cable system. Good thing there are other things to watch that will have more intellectual value than idiot reports and the same stuff repeated over and over. Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Hogan’s Heros all have more intellectual worth than CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC reporting.
Hang in there Mr. Ray. You will not drool. You will not drool. You will not drool. I said it three times.
A Kamel Humper win will take care of that. She will “pen & phone” away those benefits from filthy, deplorable, Veteran’s. Crimmigrants need that money to ensure their Dumbocrat vote.
LOL Dick Van Dyke posts a video tagging the K-H. No surprise there, but how desperate are the Dumbos to get 98-year-old DVD to endorse the K-H? Most of the voters probably never heard of DVD.
From which end?
If I self-identify as an illegal immigrant disabled veteran, I should be safe, maybe. I will leave off the white heterosexual male part as that would be a show stopper.
And more news on the VA front. I now can qualify for TDIU, which is paid at the 100% disability rate without going through a special review. To qualify for TDIU I need 70% or greater rating, and at least one item at 40% or greater. The back is now 40%, knee 30%, tinnitus 10%, hearing loss 10%. If you add those up you get 90% but due to VA funny math, I am only at 66%, which is rounded up to 70%.
I have already applied for TDIU and did it about a year ago. The decision was denied but was in violation of the judge’s order as TDIU and the back rating increase must be decided together according to the judge. The VA violated the judge’s order, and I informed them of this via a letter. That decision is still in limbo.
The real goal was the 70% rating due to the nursing home possibility. TDIU because the VA lied to me in 1969 and shafted me of 20 years of disability benefits. Getting TDIU will just be a bonus.
I really wish the TV stations would be prohibited from showing results of voting on the East Coast before polls on the West Coast (maybe even Hawaii) close. Seeing that one candidate is winning by a large margin may influence late voters to not vote, or change their vote. Either out of spite or because they see no purpose in voting.
Projecting, and reporting, winners with less than 90% of the vote counted should be fully against the law.
Dick Van Dyke is Disney’s chore boy so they make a big deal about his birthday at Disneyland every year. Or did.
Also, Van Dyke’s old show went back on MeTV after “Wandavision” revived interest.
The agreement used to be 10 PM Eastern.
That’s when DS9 starts on H&I so we never watch until 10 PM CST at the earliest,
Since when do TV stations follow agreements?
Prime time shows are now 40% commercials. Morning news shows, from the networks, are 50% commercials. The local TV break-in spots at 25 and 55 past the hour are now 70% commercials.
The drive to be #1, regardless of stupidity of the reporters is the primary driving factor. Accuracy is 3rd or 4th place. 2nd place is getting a female bimbo to do the live reporting. Black news stories are always reported by black reporters as if a white person, or Asian person, could not do as good a job.
Local stations are even worse with visions of CNN exposure dancing in their feeble brains.
The bias, slime ball, inaccurate, manipulated, sleazy reporting is at an all time high by the national news. The local news is just local stuff of the category “where do they find these people” as in a “the divorced wife of a person that lived in Oak Ridge 20 years ago is gathering nuts for the squirrels”.
Nonsense. In the third world, they can count all the ballots in a day.
We’re fourth world.
@ray, DON’T WATCH. That is the very simple answer. I haven’t watched TV in general for about 15 years. Don’t miss it. If I want to watch a show, I find it on youtube, my server, or stream it. I don’t miss local inanity, or the national propagandists.
It’s like sugar or an abusive relationship. You don’t know how bad it is until you quit it.
Starve the beast.
——————————-
@ray, glad your future is a bit more secure.
——————————-
65F and drippy wet. It was raining hard this am, although not at the moment.
I think the coffee is ready. I’m ready for it…
n
Will Voting Machines Get Hacked? Almost Certainly.
I like your priorities.
I DVR almost all shows I like. I then fast forward past the commercials.
Chaos as voting machines go into meltdown across multiple locations – with an entire COUNTY prevented from casting their ballots in a critical battleground state
nothing to see here….
n
That’s my plan. Anyway, by the time I’m in bed, very little will be known. I’ll see what the status is tomorrow morning.
Wishing y’all luck – as in, little or no violence or other idiocy…
Hmmm.
It seems I have a package held up in customs, I need to copy this link that somebody texted me and then click on things…
oddly enough I don’t recall ordering anything from overseas…
NO NO NO !
You are being scammed !
From EdH on Sunday night.
I really wish the TV stations would be prohibited from showing results of voting on the East Coast before polls on the West Coast (maybe even Hawaii) close. Seeing that one candidate is winning by a large margin may influence late voters to not vote, or change their vote. Either out of spite or because they see no purpose in voting.
Projecting, and reporting, winners with less than 90% of the vote counted should be fully against the law.
That would be a First Amendment violation.
I just cleaned and serviced the septic tank at the house. I figured that this was an appropriate day for the job.
My new chlorine tablets are at least two inches thick. The old ones were an inch thick. What gives ?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Norweco-32-Pack-160-oz-Drain-Cleaner-Drop-In-Tablets/50151480
Bigger turds?
“Amazon CEO denies full in-office mandate is ‘backdoor layoff’”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-ceo-denies-full-office-202200567.html
“(Reuters) – Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy said at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the plan to require employees to be in-office five days per week is not meant to force attrition or satisfy city leaders, as many employees have suggested.”
“The controversial plan mandating workers come to Amazon offices every day starting next year, up from three days now, has caused consternation among employees who say it is stricter than other tech companies and will hinder efficiency because of commuting times.”
“Workers who are consistently not in compliance have been told they will be “voluntarily resigning” and locked out of company computers.”
“Another US oil refinery to vanish with Lyondell Houston plant closing”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/another-us-oil-refinery-vanish-215314161.html
“HOUSTON (Reuters) – Chemical maker LyondellBasell Industries on Friday detailed its long-announced plan to permanently shutter its 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston oil refinery in the first quarter of 2025.”
And we are down to 92 ??? refineries in the USA ?
“Ghost Jobs” – found on Vox Day’s site but a quote from elsewhere.
If you’ve recently been laid off and have started the arduous process of looking for a new job, you’ve probably seen them on networking platforms like LinkedIn: postings for roles that are 30 days old, maybe more, with suspiciously wide salary ranges. They usually have hundreds, or even thousands, of hopeful applicants vying for the same position, but if you do a quick cross-check and notice that the role isn’t posted on the company’s actual website — or any of their social media pages — you should probably stop drafting that cover letter, because it’s possible they’re not hiring at all.
“Ghost jobs,” or ads for positions that aren’t actually open, are a common phenomenon in the tech industry, which has been plagued by layoffs and budget cuts over recent years. As unemployed workers struggle to regain their footing, recruiters and career coaches who spoke with SFGATE warned that these fake jobs posted by real companies serve multiple, sometimes insidious purposes.
According to a 2024 survey from MyPerfectResume, 81% of recruiters admitted to posting ads for positions that were fake or already filled. While some respondents said employers did it to maintain a presence on job boards and build a talent pool, it’s also used to commit psychological warfare: 25% said ghost jobs helped companies gauge how replaceable their employees were, while 23% said it helped make the company appear more stable during a hiring freeze. Another damning 2024 report from Resume Builder said that 62% companies posted them specifically to make their employees feel replaceable. They also made ads to “trick overworked employees” into believing that more people would be brought on to alleviate their overwhelming workload.
Vox editorialized:
It also allows politicians to falsely claim that Americans are lazy, that more H1-Bs and immigrants are needed, and that immigration is good for the economy. If you’re a corporate executive, the best thing you can do is eliminate your Human Resources department, and discovering that they are posting ghost jobs would be an excellent justification for doing so.
Because the most important reason for creating ghost jobs is that they permit HR to engage in makework to cover the fact that they don’t even have anything to do when the business isn’t hiring.
I voted in person today. No issues here in northern Los Angeles county.
There was no waiting in the middle of lunchtime, half or 2/3 of the polling booths were empty.
“A heartwarming animal saga”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/11/a-heartwarming-animal-saga.html
“On a day when everybody’s going to be blathering on about elections and voting and partisanship, I figured we could all do with something completely different. Well, here it is! From the Telegraph in London, UK:”
Neat !
I loved the first comment, “THANK GOD HE’S NOT IN NEW YORK!!!!! “.
Of course it is a back door layoff, but only for certain demographics whom the threat truly targets.
MrsAtoz voted today. I’m sure it was for the Kamel Humper like the rest of our female friends.
I’m proud to announce the three Millennials under our roof didn’t vote. Which is a vote for tRump.
Hmmm
US to test hypersonic nuclear missile TONIGHT just hours after election polls close – amid growing WWIII fears
Could they direct it to DC? That would save a lot time and trouble.
“7 critical issues that guided my vote – YOURS, too?” By Chuck Norris
https://www.wnd.com/2024/11/7-critical-issues-that-guided-my-vote-yours-too/
“1. Avoiding escalation of WWIII. The world is a powder-keg right now. Under the Biden-Harris administration, Russia has launched a war with Ukraine, and Iran (and its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis) launched a war with Israel. And the U.S. is now funding and involved with every side of those wars!”
“2. Securing the U.S. borders from further invasion. Under the Biden-Harris administration and their open-door policies to the border, a record number of well over 10 million illegal aliens have come across the U.S. southern border alone from California to Texas. New crime waves have increased in every state with illegals stealing, injuring, raping and murdering Americans, and even committing terrorism.”
…
“5. Genital mutilation, chemical castration, and sterilization of children. Between 2019 to 2023, at least 5,747 minors received sex-change surgery, and 13,994 received some sort of gender reassignment treatment. Most have occurred in five liberal states.”
Very, very eloquent article. Did Chuck Norris really write this ?
I tried something new to me. Baking bacon.
Cold oven. 16×12 Wearever “brownie pan”. Line the bottom of the pan with bacon. Thick sliced, today. 400F oven for about 20 minutes. No need to turn.
Today my oven ran cold. Sometimes it runs hot. It’s a rheostat, a hair in either direction matters. Lots of variables happening. Oven being wacky, the weight and thickness of your pan, and like the King of Siam says “Etc. Etc Etc.”
You start with a cold oven so the bacon has time to render the fat.
I think the bacon needed a bit more time. Maybe not 400F so rendering time lasts longer. But it is well cooked. Next batch will have the bacon on a cake rack so the grease drains.
And… since I had a hot pan of hot grease, I propped one end up, scraped the drippings to the low end and cracked in a couple of eggs. Blindfolded eggs are tasty.
I crumbled a slice of bacon into the dog’s food pots. They approved.
No waiting at my neighborhood polling place. Walked right in, and after verifying my identity and registration to vote, I got my number and ballot.
The machine now prints all my choices on the paper, not just a code, although I still don’t know how the scanner/counter device works, if it scans only the qr, or if it OCRs the printed list. Still room for shenanigans.
Traffic was light all over town today. Weirdly light.
n
This may amuse: https://x.com/i/status/1853645610810786049
Justice for Peanut!
Another week. Another Disney employee busted in a Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd sting operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nqF_ni5zwc
Norris has several religious-themed books which he sold during an autograph session up at Bell County Comic Con last year.
The line to talk to him was hours long.
Norris isn’t dumb. He self produced his first big movie in the 70s when no one else would release it.
That depends. Maybe in Texas but not in Nevada, where the polls are tight.
Texas uses Dominion machines for tabulation. Florida too.
The most tamper-resistant system was, ironically, the much-maligned Vote-o-matic. The major issue with the punch cards is the limitation of three digits of precision in the percentages due to the physical limitations of the media — the hanging chads.
Baking bacon? My wife does that, and the results are uniformly excellent.
Texas uses Dominion machines for tabulation. Florida too.
Texas Attorney General has opened a criminal investigation of Dominion.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/10/31/report-texas-ag-opens-criminal-investigation-into-dominion-voting-systems/
That depends. Maybe in Texas but not in Nevada, where the polls are tight.
I think that he means that three of his daughters would vote for Kamala like their mama did.
Florida has already been called for Trump, and Rick Scott RINO-FL finally won a race by a comfortable margin, including Dade County 55-44.
The Dems are done in Florida for a very long time. Rick Scott RINO-FL was supposed to be vulnerable, but despite my personal dislike of the man, I never believed that for a second.
Trump won Dade by the same margin.
Well Fox News just called a win for Cruz
I note that because my vote here in Californicate is as usual useless
Tonight’s movie was Hidalgo. It must be from the $5 bin at HEB..
Good movie. Tho there was very little there that said “do not turn Mecca into glass”. Quite the contrary.
I did not like the ending. It’s on the Keeper stack.
I think a cute puppy pic is in order.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2kjncsyQ1ODSNCItQmOYDdrjDSydfMW-_StcLpOAeZED19s3Kh_XFUo6GHjXvbRFXY4oBYoFPvI_GLb2pkJ0MVip0Qzltz0SQVbRL3msD4Rb9DMBNLuCfGdk0giREllSH4UPrLmSxipcSd9Lq_fzvUltiSA1CR564_TEpnvTLjtG9STPb14VsmNoPUAA
Not my pup, not my pic, but a keeper.
n
Ron DeSantis Becomes a Legend As Amendments 3 and 4 Go Down in Flames
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/11/05/new-ron-desantis-becomes-a-legend-as-amendments-3-and-4-go-down-in-flames-n2181615
Real Clear Politics has a good summery of the election. Talking heads are optional.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Trump is smashing Kamala (211 to 112 at the moment) but California will go her way.
Cruz is nailing Allred by 9 points at the moment with 71% of the vote in.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/live_results/2024/state/tx/senate/
So much for the smarmy jerk from South Dallas with the terrible commercials.
Legalization with retail sale of weed products would have been bad for Florida.
Much worse than Jimmy Buffett.
FM 107.5 just played Alice Cooper’s “I Wanna Be Elected”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQAkjdrgo7M
Legalization with retail sale of weed products would have been bad for Florida.
Much worse than Jimmy Buffett.
Yeah, but the prohibition on drugs has turned our sheepdogs into wolves. We have got to fix this somehow and soon.
Two democrat Senate seats have been taken so far, Ohio and West Virginia. Looks like at least two more democrat Senate seats may be taken, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Montana. Can’t tell if any republican Senate seats are in danger.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Don’t blame me, I voted for the Outlaw and the Redneck….
At least the state Proposition 36, which takes away a lot of the get-out-of-jail-free stuff, is passing resoundingly.
NYT says it will be a Trump victory. Huh. I’m not watching any of it. I’m sure the liberal tears will feature in plenty of memes, and I’ll watch the highlight reel.
Either way, I think bad things are coming, just the timing and nature of the bad might have changed.
But that’s just me.
n
And I remind you that we went to bed thinking Trump had won the last time.
n
Kamala ran out the back door leaving her campaign manager to send people home. She’s probably on her third bottle of wine and expecting another delivery of edibles. Meanwhile, Dougie and the Nanny are nowhere to be found.
In other news…
If you’re looking for more good news, the GOP picked up two seats and control of the Senate without a Hogan win in Maryland.
Trump is on course for 312 and a win in the popular vote. The latter will suck all of the air out of MSM newsrooms tomorrow.
In other news, Jim Jones Koolaid Kompany stock surged in after-hours trading.
We’ll see. If it’s clear that trump wins, the first indication of what’s to come will be when the Fed makes their announcement. Will it be the somewhat expected but unusual 50 basis point cut? or will it be something else? 25bp? or nothing, or even a raise? It’s too early for a politically motivated raise, probably, but cutting back the lowering would be well within the range of what’s “normal.”
OTOH, dump some pain on the lame duck, since the pain is unavoidable at some point. Dump some more when orangemanbad is in office.
n
News Nation prediction of the Trump victory came at 1:23 am EST.
None of the LSM have yet followed suit…
Let the games begin…keep your powder dry.
Oh, and Repubs retake Senate (53 or 54 seats iirc) and around 50/50 odds to retain the House.
>>News Nation prediction of the Trump victory came at 1:23 am EST.
For clarity, projection was made by these folks: https://decisiondeskhq.com/
Real Clear Politics has Trump at 270, Harris at 216.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
270 is one over the halfway point of 269. If that 270 holds, Harris is done.
Looks like Trump is going to pickup Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Alaska also. Maybe Arizona too.
Ted Cruz is now 10 points ahead of Allred. Trump is 15 points over Harris in Texas. The democrats are in shambles in Texas.
So Trump has beaten both women run by the democrats. That says something. That something might be that people are not interested in ultra liberal women leading the country.
“Exit Polls Suggest Poor Black Turnout for Kamala Harris”
https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/11/05/exit-polls-suggest-poor-black-turnout-for-kamala-harris/
“Exit polls suggest that support for Kamala Harris has sagged among black men, many of whom have been hit hard by her pro-migration policies.”
“In Pennsylvania, Reuters reported: “3% of voters in Pennsylvania were Black men, compared with 5% in 2020. 6% were Black women, compared with 6% in 2020.””
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Looking like this “thank you” speech might go on for quite some time…bed is calling…good night all. MAGA!
Looks like it’s all over but the cryin’
Most of Europe, and most of my friends and colleagues are massively anti-Trump. I’m not a fan of the guy either, but at least he is somewhat outside of the D.C. political machine. Anyway, Europe is just going to have to suck it up.
For most of my life, I have known New Yorkers, and Trump is the quintessential New Yorker. He might be abrasive around the edges, but inside he is a good guy. Like everyone on this earth, he is not perfect, but he has principles. I would be happy to call him a friend; I am proud that he is president again.