Warmish and moist. Real moist. The national map has us on the edge of an area of possible T storms. That’s gonna depend on who wins the Gulf vs continental weather pattern war. It is probably why it’s so hard to predict our weather. Move that edge 10-20 miles and you hit us or miss us. Mid 70sF at least, and probably hotter. And moist.
Did some auction stuff in the morning yesterday and some domestic bliss but not much of either. Then I went out and did my pickups.
Two of my auctioneers are going through some changes. One, with 12 years in the resale business, sent out email this week calling it quits. She’s not even doing one last auction. She’ll be “focusing on other things”. The other is based in The Woodlands, and had opened a second office closer to me. They are closing that office and no longer doing auctions there. They will wholesale pallets of product out of that warehouse, but they cut all but one employee. I can’t remember when they opened the office, sometime in the last year.
Small players come and go, but the bigger boys have been a more constant presence. Looks like going for some geographical diversity hasn’t worked out. This will make three in the last few months that closed their second office, and I think one of them is shaky even at their first location.
As an auction reseller, you make your money when you buy the items. If you don’t buy the right items, and at the right (cheapest) price, you will not survive no matter how many you sell. Getting the good stuff cheap is harder than it looks, and it’s very easy to lie to yourself and overspend.
I want choices and lots to bid on, so I can add to my stacks cheaply. It’s been a great way to buy tons of stuff from generators to fuel cans, solar panels to inverters, food, tools, woodburning stoves, cleaning supplies, medical supplies and equipment, pretty much anything a prepper might need.
I’ll keep stacking, but it might cost more….
Today I definitely need to do some office stuff. And the office clean up continues. Found a computer. Found some laptops. Found some test equipment. Found more sewing supplies than I thought I had. It’s way overdue and I hate doing it, but there are rewards.
Stack while you can. But also manage your stacks.
nick
Friday. Brunchtime.
There is a blizzard outside, and official warnings to avoid using the roads (pushed to my mobile phone), so I am working from home.
House is warm, fridge is full, light and heating are on. Internet works. No problems.
Have a good Friday!
Of course not. Every day is snuggle a chicken day for SteveF!
Chickens are fine creatures, especially whichever one laid the eggs I had for brunch – those were delicious.
“Very unlikely” to have fires.
Show Ya and Propellerheads never stop believing. No word on cost, however.
Thanks to our new “workspace” layout at the office, I’ve been listening to the Propellerhead responsible for our Go fiasco pushing his new ideas involving AI, including reformatting our entire source code base starting at the oldest branches and working forward through the commits.
God help us all.
Yup. Lots of wind. Not as much snow as predicted, but still enough.
We’re not far from Crans Montana, so that’s all over the local and national news. I suppose in a month or so we will have the real information. Currently stuff comes out in bits and pieces, often contradictory.
Some things you really didn’t want to know. Apparently, there are no real checks on the materials that get installed inside of a building. Sure, they are required to be fire resistant, but who checks? And who is at fault, when a non-compliant material is installed? Is it the contractor? The owners?
In the case of Crans Montana, the owners apparently managed the renovation themselves. Which makes it particularly reprehensible is that – just today, more than a week after the fire – the police are questioning the owners. They have had plenty of time to “adjust” any written records they have, and to agree on the “facts” with anyone else who might be involved.
While I am no fan of American mega-corps, I do have a hope here: Vale Resorts (or whatever they are called) just recently took over the Crans Montana ski slopes. They are going to be…displeased with the current publicity. I expect they will bring a good bit of pressure – hopefully to properly clear things up, and not just sweep it all under the rug…
71F and very damp this morning. Coffee is delicious though.
Kids are up and moving. Weirdly. Usually they wait for the last possible moment.
Wife rolled over and went back to sleep. That’s gonna catch up with her.
n
To be used in a vehicle, dumping that much power, that quickly, would require significantly high voltage or current. The size of the cable required would be too heavy for most people to handle. It would require some type of standardized, fixed connection on the back of the vehicle, where the vehicle backs into the connection. Like a giant USB-C, let’s call it USB-F (F for Flux), 1.21 Gigawatt connector.
First world problems. Just be glad you don’t have to burn cow dung to keep warm like in some other countries.
Looks like it started raining. Joy. Won’t be moving storage today.
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Cow patties burn well when dry. Don’t even really stink.
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Who gets the blame? Everyone who touched a project, if it’s the US. Don’t know what Swiss law is like for lawsuits, but I’m sure there are people figuring out who has deep pockets.
There was an article in DM about the nightclub owner being a career criminal, I’m sure that will get a few looks.
n
Hungry people.
n
Hmm, the auctioneer I thought might be a bit ‘shaky’ at their original office has stopped doing auctions on the platform and instead moved to Whatnot, a much faster paced online auction where almost all the business aspects are handled by the service.
Ch-ch-ch-changes…
n
Marque and Reprisal Next? US Seizes Fifth Tanker In Sanctions Campaign; UPDATE: Video Added
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/01/09/marque-and-reprisal-next-us-seizes-fifth-tanker-in-sanctions-campaign-n3810667
Yeah ask the guy who spent plenty of time in his younger years walking a fire line and breaking them up, sometimes a shovel sometimes your boot.
If shirt(-r) was valuable, poor people would be born without a$$holes.
I remember reading how cowboys burned “buffalo chips” to cook and keep warm. That was in grade school in the 1960s.
More video
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-new-footage-shows-federal-agents-perspective-minneapolis-ice-involved-shooting
n
added – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15449045/new-video-ice-shooting-renee-nicole-good-minneapolis.html
What’s that movie where the kid takes the basketball away from the bully in the lunch room and walks around giving it the Harlem Globetrotter spin while he lists the psychological reasons for being a bully, ending with “small weiner”? Somebody shop Walz’ head on the bully and his sycophants on his toadies, and send me a link.
17 Again. Great movie.
The new ICE video crushes the PLT narrative that the poor, scared Mom was just trying to go home. Paid protester and “wife” taunting ICE, blocking operations, filming for clicks, and flooring the gas guzzler at the LEO. I hope Soros et al sue to goobermint and waste plenty of resources. They will not win.
Another bingo card item: tRump prepares for land strikes in Mexico. What will Sheinbumfuk do? Nothing is what she will do. I bet she is secretly high-fiving it. What will the UN do? Probably a harshly worded letter with a PS: can we get more billions from the FUSA?
LOL, tRump is going to end up with a fleet of tankers at the rate we are boarding them.
For Nick: 😉
https://i0.wp.com/www.barnhardtmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_0463.png?w=1170&ssl=1
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/01/09/marque-and-reprisal-next-us-seizes-fifth-tanker-in-sanctions-campaign-n3810667
The USA Coast Guard is getting on the job training. They have that five inch gun on the front deck for a good reason, during WWII the USA Coast Guard took out three Nazi submarines on the USA coasts. One of the subs was up the Mississippi river at Memphis getting ready to take out several refineries.
Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09
Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.
Practice wars. Real one’s coming.
n
@Lynn: I am still writing 2024.
As noted above, the video taken by Officer Ross has been released.
It blows up the PLT narrative completely. See the link above.
A couple questions that I posed have been answered:
The light-colored truck with the driver’s door open that is to the right of the Honda Pilot (from the rear perspective) is the vehicle that Officer Ross arrived in. He exits at 00:00, and circles the Honda counterclockwise.
At 00:13 he is far enough around the front that a sliver of the left-pointed front tire can be seen at the bottom of the frame, with the smiling driver’s face in the upper right. As he continues around the driver’s side the driver starts ragging on him at 00:15, then Spouse Ms. Cook jsteps up the ragging at 00:20 as he gets to the back an films the Missouri license plate.
Officer Ross continues to circle. The last comment from Spouse Ms. Cook is “Get yourself some lunch, big boy.” She then turns and puts her hand on the passenger door at 00:38 as if she’s going to enter. Officer Ross is not if front of the Honda at this point.
00:38-00:40 Officer Ross video show the front passenger Honda wheel cut sharply to the left, then it swings, bringing him directly in front, finishing on a line between the center and the steering wheel. At 00:40 Spouse Ms. Cook can be heard yelling “Drive, baby, drive”, making charges against her more likely. Note that during this maneuver the Honda is swinging toward Spouse Ms. Cook. This probably explains why video taken from the back of the Honda shows her moving quickly toward the back even before the shots were fired.
By 00:41 the Honda is moving forward, Officer Ross shouts, and is hit hard enough that the sound of the collision almost obscures the sound of the first shot. By 00:42 the camera is tilted followed by the sound of shots 2 and 3. Officer Ross hangs on to the camera, has the fleeing Honda briefly reframed before the camera tilts down to the pavement, and the sound of impact is heard at 00:47
Spouse Ms. Cook goes from taunting, gesturing smart-ass at 00:36 to dead spouse rolling at 00:41.
This video is conclusive in a number of respects:
There is more than enough evidence to get subpoenas for the Cook’s cell phones and their call records, if it was not done already. It should also be possible from the additional video to determine if there were any other cellphone cameras nearby that have not been accounted for.
Get the cellphone call records and start looking at who was making the calls/texts to coordinate the activity that culminated in the attempted murder of a federal agent and the justified shooting of his assailant.
“Gov. Greg Abbott threatens state takeover of Harris County elections”
https://www.chron.com/politics/article/abbott-threatens-harris-county-election-takeover-21286354.php
“Abbott accused Harris County of repeated election failures.”
Do it !
Practice wars. Real one’s coming.
n
Yup. Maybe both a Civil War in the USA and a Global War.
These fanatic socialists reminds me of the brownshirts fighting the communists in Berlin in the 1930s. That was serious street fighting that escalated to guns.
If Trump does not put these fanatic socialists down then we will be fighting them in the blue city streets. Trump needs to go after their funding. This is sedition. And Tim Walz needs to be charged and put on trial too.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/08/us-news/heres-whos-really-behind-the-minneapolis-ice-resistance-movement/
F yeah. No way did Hidalgo win the County Judge reelection. The most hated woman in Harris county, the only one who’s signs were vandalized everywhere, and she somehow wins reelection. First use of the new voting machines too. No way to know what ballots were actually cast because you don’t get a human readable ballot.
n
“I know this is from last week and the left has since moved on, but below is a great video on the EF-18 Growler.”
https://areaocho.com/this-is-so-last-week/
“When I was in the Navy, we still had the EA-6B Prowler, affectionally called the “Queer.” The Growler has the same job, it’s just been modernized. There were 2 squadrons of these in the Venezuela theater: one was carrier based, the other was located in Puerto Rico.”
“There was a legend going around when I was in the service about a Prowler that had turned its jamming equipment on over Washington state and shut down everything: radars, radio, television, all of it for almost 15 minutes. Don’t know if it is true, but it certainly is within this plane’s capabilities. The jamming pod these aircraft carries is the AN/ALQ-99, which can jam all RF signals between 64 MHz and 20GHz.”
Cool.
Williamson County switched to printed ballots and ditched the touchscreens. The problem with the ballots is that they are generated on site using the same kind of mid range Brother laser I have at home.
Maybe the paper is watermarked, but I have my doubts.
I get the feeling that someone will reinvent the Voteomatic wheel eventually.
“Shades of 2020… are we seeing George Floyd redux on the left?”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/01/shades-of-2020-are-we-seeing-george.html
“Service and lubricate your firearms, and load your spare magazines! ”
Crap, are things that bad already ?
Today is my wife’s and mine 44th wedding anniversary. The years have gone by quickly but we still love and like each other.
“”You Don’t Want This Smoke”: Philly Sheriff, DA Threaten To Arrest ‘Fake Law Enforcement’ ICE Officers”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/you-dont-want-smoke-philly-sheriff-da-threaten-arrest-fake-law-enforcement-ice-officers
“In a Thursday press conference, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner slammed President Donald Trump as the ‘criminal-in-chief,’ and vowed to prosecute any federal officers who commit crimes in the city.”
“Krasner said that widely circulated footage of the Minneapolis shooting of Renee Nicole Good showed that the ICE officer’s actions were unlawful and violated law enforcement protocols.”
“”Silence will not protect us from people who trade in violence to achieve their fascist goals. Our voices will,” Krasner said. “The law must apply to everyone, and therefore we have to use our voices to call out people who commit terrible crimes or justify them. We have to use our voices to remind people that it’s not just a question of what you can get away with. It’s a question of right and wrong.””
“Krasner dismissed the idea that the ICE officer fired his weapon in self-defense, saying “Blocking streets is something protesters, suffragettes have done forever. It’s an incredibly minor offense.”
So it is ok for protestors to interfere with active crime scenes ? I think not.
Geesh, really. At what point does acting like a stereotype go too far?
We are gonna get all you Devils, starting with your Orange King.
We are, alas, living in ‘interesting’ times.
House Axes Omar’s $1M Earmark for Restaurant-Based ‘Substance Abuse Clinic’
Money Raised For Victims of Deadly Mass Shooting Went Instead to Somali Nonprofits
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/09/new-scandal-erupts-in-maine-as-money-donated-to-mass-shooting-victims-goes-instead-to-somali-non-profits-n2197956
Three announcements today:
A national search was launched to identify any Somalis not engaged in some kind of scam. We don’t have much hope, but we’ll keep you updated.
Designation of Somali Scams with Roman Numerals is henceforth suspended in favor of much more compact hexadecimal.
The SSA has already received 15,492 claims for death benefits on Renee Good. 14,399 were from one address in Little Mogadishu, Minneapolis.
Heh, remember Florida now allows you to run over suffragettes when they surround your car. I expect a daily headline.
If ICE goes active in Philly, I hope a Marine company is deployed to protect them.
Same in Burnet County. The paper has one corner rounded off. Maybe to help sort for a re-count? Looked and felt like plain 20# paper. The scanner you fed your completed ballot doesn’t care which end goes in first according to the lady watching the machine.
I’ll try to remember to look for a watermark next election.
“If ICE goes active in Philly, I hope a Marine company is deployed to protect them.”
Why not just take a page from the Romans and take some few hostages? In Philly they could take some Eagles fans, too, just to be on the safe side.
ICE could also deploy 4-man teams with a van: Drop two guys behind the Philly steak shop, walk two guys in the front, and make 15-20 arrests in one shot. After they arrest a few hundred Italians and Sicilians the dons will start trading the foreigners to get ICE to lay off.
Company? How about a battalion?
If ICE goes active in Philly, I hope a Marine company is deployed to protect them.
If ICE goes active in Philly, I hope a Marine Battalion is deployed to protect them. Three regular companies and a Heavy Weapons company. 1,500 Marines.
Fixed that for ya.
“Fani Willis’ failed lawfare against Trump might cost her a fortune”
https://www.theblaze.com/news/fani-willis-failed-lawfare-against-trump-might-cost-her-a-fortune
“Trump seeks reimbursement for over $6.2 million in legal fees after Willis’ failed effort to throw him in jail.”
Some good news today.
Trump does not miss much, does he.