Cool, trending toward cold. Maybe even really cold in the next couple of days, but I’m not holding my breath. It was cool and overcast all day yesterday, but still better than winter. And it was 59F when I went to bed, which is warmer than the night before. It’s been all over the place for the past week, so who really knows what’s coming?
I spent the morning doing auction stuff, then the afternoon on a service call for my client. A reboot did the trick. The NVR seemed to be running fine when I got there, but I couldn’t connect remotely, nor could he, so something was wrong. Uptime was about a year, but it’s possible a brown out caused something to get out of whack. Sometimes pulling the tail is really the best solution.
Maybe that is a life lesson too.
Today I’ve got to work the list. If it’s not raining (about 80/20 for rain) I will get a load out of the house and possibly even a load from storage. Otherwise, I’ll be looking for inside stuff to do. There isn’t a shortage of inside stuff…
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. And stack. That will increase what you have. Learn, that will increase what you know how to do. Practice, that will tie the two together.
nick
Wednesday. Good morning!
It is cold here, noticeably so. I need to put some more feed out for the birds, even if the squirrels seem to munch most of it.
“Better” is relative.
At some point, the surplus will start to wane and people will discover that what they were sold as property tax “reform” in 2023 was actually a massive tax increase.
Austin is a club, and a cancer originates there which is spreading up and down the I-35 corridor in both directions.
Didn’t you have to set up a script which ran the main NVR process for ~ 12 hours and then restarted the program in order to avoid some kind of problem with filling the NTFS file system?
Also, the Muslims get the press, but the Colonists are busy with their own real estate developments near Austin and Dallas where they do things their way regardless of who holds office in local governments.
People give the Colonists a pass because they’re generally deferential dealing with Hillbilly one-on-one – say it like the old Khan on “King of the Hill” – but, as a group they lie as easily as they breathe and most of the families here are phenomenally wealthy, used to getting their way in ze old country.
Colonists don’t try to kill or convert Hillbilly, but they aren’t interested in assimilation and they look down on every other genetic group as having been born non-Colonist and, thus, inferior.
in order to avoid some kind of problem with filling the NTFS file system
— that was my software NVR here at home. He’s running hardware from Speco. It just works, for years, so it was weird to say the least and I was mostly looking for network issues not issues with the NVR itself.
———–
60F, cool, not cold. Kids are moving. Coffee is brewed.
———–
Sounds like Trump kicked the anthill in Davos. I guess they can only kill him once. Rich people like their money.
n
Why Did Tim Walz and Jacob Frey Release Nearly 500 Criminal Aliens?
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/01/20/why-did-tim-walz-and-jacob-frey-release-nearly-500-criminal-aliens-n2669795
Noem needs to push this hard.
How about a presser in Minneapolis? 30 minutes, open to any news organization, but prioritizing the ones that will commit to broadcasting the whole thing unedited and uninterrupted. Take the top 50 and give them 30 seconds each for a quick rundown of the crimes, the shenanigans pulled by Minnesota officials to keep them away from ICE and release them to continue their lives of crime and misery, the date ICE took them off the streets, and highlight any crimes they can prove between the release and ICE apprehension.
At the end Noem announces that the federal government has created a special program for sanctuary states wherein they have purchased residences for federal group homes near the residences of Walz, Ellison, Flannigan, Choi, Moriarty, etc., and are willing to release any of the 50 into the personal sponsorship of those pols.
Jury get the Coward of Uvalde case today.
Down amongst the Sodomites is way too good.
John Wilder on subcontinent…
The Invasion of the Industry Snatchers: Patel Motels and the Trucking Singhularity
n
Jury get the Coward of Uvalde case today.
– huh. You’d think the Houston Chronicle might have an article about that, but they don’t. Halal gyro restaurants, sports, and gossip – yes please. News? Not so much.
n
Faux News 7 in Austin has nightly reports about the trial.
IIRC, it was an ICE agent who ultimately got the shooter, not local law enforcement.
Why has spot silver gone up 5x in 5 years, but the junk silver coins I bought 5 years ago went up less than 50%? That seems wrong.
Yes, I am aware you can rephrase that as “dollar gone down”, but that’s not my question.
Maybe no one can actually get pure silver, but they can still get junk coins?
n
Global Warming Is Real!
Americans in 30 states warned to brace for coldest winter storm EVER as ‘downright concerned’ forecasters predict -50F weather and 24in of snow
Also, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!
I’m sure the ProgLibTurds (PLT) will say the very cold Winter is due to anthropomorphic warming.
Germany is missing their nuke plants, yes?
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/21/bessent-goes-savage-on-newsom-in-fiery-davos-speech-hes-patrick-bateman-meets-sparkle-beach-ben-n2198355
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/01/nyt-v-trump-the-omar-angle.php
Indeed. I am in the path of the storm. The weather forecasters on the local stations, who generally predict doom and gloom to drive ratings, are saying there might be a foot or more of snow. I think there will be nothing close to that. There will be two feet or nothing. I have seen it multiple times. Predictions of six inches of snow where the final total is a dusting.
I also think the grocery stores bribe the local news stations to produce the gloom and doom to drive sales of milk, bread, and other items.
If there is a foot of snow I am taking the truck for a 4 wheel drive to the end of the street and back. Just to say I did it. I can drive in snow, did it for years. My goal now is to avoid the other idiots. Especially Tony “the tiny pee-pee” in his jacked up Dodge Ram who does not realize that stopping is the real problem, not going.
Greg sez:
I wouldn’t dream of disagreeing. HOWEVER, in any objective and absolute analysis, San Antonio, TX will be a more stable and secure location than Sacramento, Cacafornia. And my time horizon isn’t all that long; I certainly do not expect to live more than 15 years, when I would be 90.
I think we made a good choice in choosing this place for our remaining years.
They used to say things like
But that is apparently no longer true, the reality of the disastrous “blue model” economy is apparent to all, and it doesn’t matter.
I’ve been taking a large dose of D3 since it came out that low D was consistent with poor outcomes for the chinky flu. I’m just under the high end of the range when my blood is tested. I’ve had fewer illnesses than I used to and missed some the kids brought home in the last couple of years.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15483655/A-daily-dose-Vitamin-D-winter-stop-you-catching-flu-study-finds.html
n
https://youtu.be/8cYWuw4viPQ
Coin shop owner discusses state of the market. Apparently, the upstream market for 90% “junk” silver are smelting companies. Prices are rising so fast and smelting takes time and energy that the smelting pipeline is full. Those companies cannot handle fiat money transactions that are dangerously unprofitable should there be a correction. Hence, BUYING “junk” is at a discount to spot, and SELLING to a local dealer requires an even BIGGER discount.
The US Mint direct sale price for Silver Eagles is ~$169/oz. In other words, “Don’t buy here”, we don’t want your fiat money or the mint doesn’t actually have unallocated product. Other online dealers have much more normal or at least not wildly unreasonable premiums. SELLING to online dealers for other famous national mint 1oz coins is ~9 or 10 fiat dollar discount to spot, plus a disclaimer that there will be a delay in receipt of your fiat funds due to high volumes.
Wild times.
Germany is missing their nuke plants, yes?
– unless they suddenly like being cold and paying more for electricity, yes.
The former operators are busy taking the plants apart and insist they can’t be restarted. The ‘lobby’ says “the sooner we start the cheaper and easier” because they will have decommed less….
n
The purpose in holding “junk” silver is to be able to transact necessities in hyperinflationary times. When gas station signs are in $/liter to fit 3 digit signs or no advertised sign price at all – only at the pump. Any such transaction will be a face to face negotiation. Then personal security will become a major consideration. Gets bad enough, copper rounds might become a thing.
Got my social security letter today, detailing what I’ll get per month at various retirement ages.
I’m really surprised there isn’t an online tool to compare total money received at each year for each option. Or maybe my googlefu is weak today. I did some quick excel work and it would be age 85 before the total from starting at 62 and starting at 70 are equal. Every year after that, you get more than if you’d started early and the delta between the totals grows quickly.
BUT. I’ll be surprised if I make it more than a couple of years past 85 anyway, barring some big changes in medicine, and big changes in medicine tend to have big changes in public policy too.
If I wait until 65, it takes until 87 to “break even” .
One consideration is inflation. Maximizing the amount in later years when inflation has taken the biggest bite might be worth thinking about. Getting $1800 per month when bread is $1200 per loaf isn’t going to be awesome. But is getting $3100 instead really gonna keep me from starving?
I think I might look at a 21 year period, then I can swag the inflation at 7% and iirc there is a rule of thumb that at 7% you double every 7 years. 21 years, half, then half again, then half again… then scattered to the wind.
I haven’t even considered them taking the medicare out.
n
Blizzard French toast!
Water is already gone at the HEB near my house.
The weather geek on local Faux News last night was predicting temps not going above freezing all weekend. Hilarity ensued.
The purpose in holding “junk” silver is to be able to transact necessities in hyperinflationary times.
– I agree. PMs and hard assets are to get you THRU the bad time and into whatever comes next. W looked at the price and said “maybe we should sell some”. NO. We don’t need the cash now, and it will likely go much higher as uncertainty and the world situation changes, devaluing US fiat bux.
We quit buying silver at $16 or $18 and I don’t have any other assets that are now valued at 10x my purchase price…
n
“Better” is relative.
– relative but still true. And relative to a hypothetical or relative to everyone else?
I expect to have a Republic of Texas passport. My previously stated timeline was a bit short, but I think probably sooner, rather than later.
n
– there have been crowd control ‘sonic weapons’ for years. Looks like someone supersized it.
Or weaponized the ‘brown note’.
n
>>“The reason why RAM has become four times more expensive is that a huge amount of RAM that has not yet been produced was purchased with non-existent money to be installed in GPUs that also have not yet been produced, in order to place them in data centers that have not yet been built, powered by infrastructure that may never appear, to satisfy demand that does not actually exist and to obtain profit that is mathematically impossible.”
As long as the monkeys are happy…
It’s been raining all morning, light misty drizzle, so I haven’t been motivated to get out of the house.
It might be drying out now though.
—
I forgot I was going to put the brisket in the crockpot. Jumped up and got that going. Still should be ready by 6pm for dinner.
n
I’m not familiar with that, but I’ve heard of the ‘rule of 72’ which says 72 divided by the annual rate gives you the years to double your investment. That would give about 10 years to double at 7%.
“Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Sweep-Innkeeper-Chronicles-Andrews/dp/1494388588?tag=ttgnet-20/
The Sweep for me/innkeeper books are entertaining. The only quibble I have is that she (the hero) just keeps pulling more and more tricks out of the bag. It’s not about creative use of what the reader knows she has, it’s always a big powerful thing she just suddenly reveals.
Still fun books though.
Her “bag” is a million planets that aliens live on. She has a variable Einstein-Rosen Bridge in her Inn that can connect to any other planet with a simple walk-thru. It is the ultimate SF trope with billions of stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole
They just dropped the Sunday morning forecast to 23 F for this weekend. This is getting serious. Remember, Texas has trouble below 25 F and above 105 F. But, the temperature is forecast to go above 32 F on Sunday, 34 F. That will keep the deep freeze from crashing the natural gas grid in Texas, maybe.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/richmond?cm_ven=localwx_10day
The EPA totally screwed Texas and many other states in the 1990s and 2000s. The EPA allowed new gas turbines to be installed using natural gas only. Diesel fuel takes longer to burn due to the atomization step and causes more nitrous oxides to be formed. So many of the gas turbine power plants do not have a diesel backup of a weeks fuel at the plant site. They do not even have the diesel piping and control circuitry installed. So when the natural gas grid is curtailed, these power plants go down in a hurry, that is about 10% (SWAG) of the electric power generation in Texas.
Newer gas turbines are built using the 10% only usage emergency rule so they do not have to follow the extreme low nox rules from the EPA. They all have about a weeks worth of diesel on site, that saved the Texas grid, ERCOT, in Feb 2021 from going down totally and kept three of the nuclear power plants online out of the four in Texas.
They just reforecast Sunday am to 26 F, Monday am to 19 F, and Tuesday am to 24 F. Crap, we are going to do an electric grid test of ERCOT again as we are going to stay under freezing, 32 F, for over 24 hours. That means that north Texas is headed for low teens, maybe the single digits with at least 48 hours under 32 F.
Hopefully the natural gas grid in Texas will stay up. All my generator needs is 3 ounces gauge of pressure to run since the natural gas carburetor is before the turbocharger.
Hold on, it is going to get rough out there with freezing precipitation.
“Trump signs EO to stop Wall Street investors from purchasing single-family homes”
https://www.oann.com/newsroom/trump-signs-eo-to-stop-wall-street-investors-from-purchasing-single-family-homes/
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prevent Wall Street firms from competing with individual buyers for single-family homes.”
“Trump pointed to the previous administration for driving up inflation and interest rates to make the American dream “increasingly out of reach for too many of our citizens, especially first-time homebuyers.””
Yes !
There is no easy answer, or simple answer, or correct answer, or wrong answer. You are betting your life termination date against social security betting your life termination date. The only answer is to make a decision, and don’t look back or second guess. Everyone’s situation is different, needs are different, family life history different, financial situation different. You can get advice but that basically just someone else guessing.
My original plan was to work until I was 70 to draw the maximum amount. Yeh, that did not work out. I started at 66, 6 months after I retired. The end-of-life event for my best friend changed a lot of my thinking.
Medicare premiums are currently $202.90 and generally go up about the same rate as the yearly COLA increase for SS. For me this year, the increase in premiums and the COLA, I got about $80.00 more a month. For my wife the increase in premiums and COLA gave her an additional $21.00 a month.
We are fortunate in that we can live on just SS alone. In fact, we could live on about 2/3 of what SS provides a month if we were really desperate. The kicker will be if a nursing home is required. That would quickly change the situation and Medicaid would become necessary. I would get a VA nursing home at no cost and still keep the SS but lose my VA income. The spousal unit would be the real problem and would quickly drain us to poverty level.
“Trump tariffs live updates: Trump calls off tariffs on Europe over Greenland after reaching deal ‘framework’”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/trump-tariffs-live-updates-trump-calls-off-tariffs-on-europe-over-greenland-after-reaching-deal-framework-152657787.html
“In an abrupt about-face on Wednesday, President Trump said he was calling off planned tariffs on European nations over his pursuit of Greenland. Trump cited the “framework of a future deal” reached with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.”
“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.”
I had not realized that Trump is planning on installing hundreds or thousands of missile interceptors in Greenland for the “Golden Dome”.
This is Trump, there is a well thought out plan behind the craziness. We do desperately need control of Greenland and not just for 99 years.
So I’ve got youtube shorts running on the other monitor while I do other things. The AI generated subtitles are often unintentionally funny when they don’t catch an accent or slang.
And they usually censor the subtitles and often the audio as well. I was keeping a running list of ‘bad words’ but it got so long I lost interest.
Today, one was running and they changed “butthole” to “tooty tubes”.
FFS. The end is nigh.
n
We, the USA, also need control over Canada to install thousands of missile interceptors coming over the north pole as a part of the “Golden Dome”. Hey Canada, you are going to get a free missile defense system !
I am guessing that we will install missile interceptors in Hawaii and Christmas Island too. We probably need 4 or 6 missile interceptors (shotgun shells) for each potential ICBM. Maybe in orbit too. I know a guy who can launch missile platforms into NEO or GEO.
““I’m Defending Donald Trump”: World Leader Steps Up to Tell Everyone They Should Be Thankful for U.S. President”
https://thelibertydaily.com/im-defending-donald-trump-world-leader-steps-up/
“(DCNF)—As much of Europe pushes back against President Donald Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is taking a markedly different stance, telling Europe that it should “be happy” Trump is in charge.”
“Speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Rutte credited Trump with forcing major European powers — including France, Italy, and Spain — to finally step up their defense commitments. Without Trump’s pressure, Rutte said, these countries would never have agreed to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.”
““I’m not popular with you now because I’m defending Donald Trump, but I really believe you can be happy that he is there because he has forced us in Europe to step up, to face the consequences that we have to take care of more of our own defense,” Rutte said at a panel discussion titled “Can Europe defend itself?” at the World Economic Forum, according to Politico.”
They’re fun, and the concept is pretty original. There is some weirdness toward the end of the series, iirc, but I did read them all, and would read more.
I’ve noticed in indy publishing that the base premise of a book or series is sometimes just a bit too far out of what’s normal for commercial fiction. It can be interesting to read, but you know why someone rejected the idea in a pitch meeting. Like the uplifted cats living in a biker girl’s junkyard, in an alien ship; or powerful generations of innkeepers keeping the world safely in ignorance of aliens…
Fun, but just a little far…
n
Ilona and Gordon Andrews have been bidding their books out since the over whelming success of the first series. They got a $1.5 million advance for the Maggie trilogy two years ago. If they do not get their target then they go self publishing. They have a complete inhouse staff for publishing their books.
David Weber has sold well over 8 million books. John Ringo has sold well over 6 million books. Good authors still sell like crazy. The average New York Times Bestseller is just 11,000 books.
I can’t wait to see the deal.
The Art of The Deal!
Don’t bet against ORANGE MAN BAD!
The PLT heads are going to explode.
This isn’t peaceful protesting:
Brave ICE Commander Pelted with Food by Radical Protesters—Refuses to Back Down in Minnesota Chaos
Don’t throw vegetables at a man with a gun/pepperball gun/beanbag gun.
You know the corollary.
Nobody wants the troops to go in, but what are you going to do?
I would get a VA nursing home at no cost and still keep the SS but lose my VA income.
Every VA qualified nursing home that I have been in smells like urine when you walk in. Bad juju there as that means the staff are behind on changing diapers. Who knows what other things are they delaying ?
72F and not getting much moisture from the sky.
n
“Are they trying to deter buyers of silver???”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/01/are-they-trying-to-deter-buyers-of.html
“As we all know, precious metal prices have been going through the roof for something like a year now, and show no signs of slowing down. This has led to well-informed speculation that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and similar bodies in other countries may not hold enough physical silver to meet the futures contracts they have permitted to be traded against their holdings.”
Uh oh, we have seen this before at Bear-Stearns in 2008.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns
“Ah, the AWFULs. If you haven’t heard the term yet, it stands for Affluent White Female Urban Liberal. It’s the kind of acronym that makes mainstream media clutch their pearls. (Note that even the most-used cliché term for this behavior assumes Affluent White Female behavior.) GloboLeftists are wringing their hands in performative outrage and sending out a virtue signal so bright it can be seen from six light years (500 grams) away.”
https://wilderwealthywise.com/the-awful-truth-about-minnesota/
I foresee removing the right to vote from women in the USA. If we survive this.
“Trump Expands Immigration Operations Targeting Somali Scammers to New State, 50 Fraudters Arrested Already”
https://thelibertydaily.com/trump-expands-immigration-operations-targeting-somali-scammers-new/
“(DCNF)—The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that it has launched a new immigration enforcement operation in Maine amid reports of large-scale fraud tied to members of the Somali community in the state.”
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says it has already arrested 50 people as part of the targeted operation, dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day,” according to Fox News. The operation has identified about 1,400 targets, including individuals accused of child rape, drug trafficking and sexual assaults, ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde told the outlet.”
“The Maine operation follows allegations that a Somali-owned company in the state may have engaged in fraud similar to schemes uncovered in Minnesota, where investigations revealed a scheme that ripped off as much as $9 billion in taxpayer-funded assistance programs.”
That is just a drop in the bucket.
At that point in my life I probably don’t give a shirt(-r), and if I did, it would be in my diapers.
Pavlich asked Trump whether Americans should be ‘afraid’ of these sonic devices.
‘Well
yeahno,’ Trump responded, “Not unless you’re rioting in Minnesota.”FIFY
Anyone care to place a small wager that the 11th Airborne is not trained on this weapon?
“Rob Schneider Is Starting to Think Somalia Is Not Sending Their Best”
https://rumble.com/v74n0vu-rob-schneider-is-starting-to-think-somalia-is-not-sending-their-best.html?mref=1htl22&mrefc=2
Yup.
Now do Rowling.
“First Editions” of her first four books were 500, 10,000, 10,000, “50,000”.*
In the U.S. that 4th book was probably closer to 500,000, and books after topped a million, with dozens of presses in Mexico running 24/7 for months to stock the warehouses before the release date, and every one a “First Printing” due to the wonders of digital technology.
In the days of hand-laid lead type, each impression created wear, so after a few thousand “first printings” later printings using the same type were noticeably less crisp. Not a problem now.
*The convention in the publishing world is that when a book is published simultaneously in several countries, the “True First” edition is the one published in the author’s country of origin.
The 500 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the U.S. “True First” Edition may have been exceeded by the number of suicides in the seven publisher’s that turned down that first book.
The correct terminology is specifies edition and printing, often abbreviated “1st/1st” for the first printing of the first edition. It was not uncommon to find minor errors in the first printing which were corrected in subsequent printings and became the “points” that dealers refer to when evaluating rare books.
In science fiction the most famous error was in Larry Niven’s Ringworld, where Louis Wu’s race through the transporter to extend his 200th birthday goes the wrong way in the first printing, but is corrected in the second.
Larry’s other error in Ringworld was made famous at the 1971 Worldcon, where the MIT delegates paraded chanting “The Ringworld is unstable”. Larry fixed that in a later book.
Use the new sonic weapon and then reveal that each time you get hit it shrinks your sexual organs?
But, nonlethal, right?
“Trump Expands Immigration Operations Targeting Somali Scammers to New State, 50 Fraudters Arrested Already”
The press has not figured out that the Trump DOJ is using Minnesot to train cadre to fight Somali fraud in other states.
Use the new sonic weapon and then reveal that each time you get hit it shrinks your sexual organs?
But, nonlethal, right?
I have heard that continued hits causes brain bleeds.
And Abilene, TX is headed down to 8 F Sunday morning with three days of continuous below freezing temperatures.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/abilene
I know that ERCOT has enacted a Force Online for every power plant in Texas, about 1,200 generating units. The coal power plant by my office is the second largest power plant in the USA with over 4,000 MW of generation. I don’t think that all of the four supercritical coal units are going to make it online as they take a week to startup if they are cold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WA_Parish_Generating_Station
Ha, ha:
Protesters, Clergy Call for ‘State Shutdown’ of Minnesota on Friday to Get ICE Out
Typical PLT mindset. “Give us what we want or we’ll destroy our own community”.
Let it burn. Then MOAB it, just to be sure.
The “Mythbusters” covered the “Brown Note” at some point during the show’s run. The end result was “busted”.
Some test subjects reported mild respiratory issues, but no spontaneous bowel movements.
The temperature projections for Austin have drifted up on the local Faux News web site since the 10 PM forecast last night.
The media want a rerun of 2021 just ahead of the primaries. This weekend is too early.
Fired up my natgas gennie and got a connection to the house in place. Took longer than I thought and some of the stuff I needed moved to the BOL for my EV charger project.
Ran it for about 30-45 minutes.
I’ll do it again in the light tomorrow. Also topped up a couple of 1# propane bottles. I picked up two that are designed to be refilled but only found one before it got dark, and it was already full. I’ll pull out some more tomorrow.
Brisket needs a bit more time. It’s tasty but still a little chewy. That will give me time to make some potatoes.
n
New info source, this guy has some neat toys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTRpheC6RRg
n
You’ll know when things get sporty in Minneapolis–rumor is that Trump is looking at reactivating Jack Reacher.
—-
n
Trump Wants Gaza Board Constitution and Remittance Agreement Signed in Davos
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/01/21/trump-wants-gaza-board-constitution-and-remittance-agreement-signed-in-davos-n3811028
The French are pissed as they realize all they have is the whine of irrelevancy, and a bad vintage at that.
Armed Citizen Takes on Would-Be Kidnapper, Makes World Safer for Everyone
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2026/01/21/armed-citizen-takes-on-would-be-kidnapper-makes-world-safer-for-everyone-n1231292
Knighton gets one right.
As a life member of the NRA, I got an American Rifleman magazine in the mail today, with instructions how to choose which monthly magazine I will receive in the future. Also, a board of directors ballot.
I thought they eliminated the magazines altogether. The did apparently cut back from the 4 they had to just 2: American Rifleman and American Hunter.
I haven’t read the magazines for years.
I’ve never voted in the board of directors except the one time when Neal Knox was running. I don’t know how to tell the grifters and RINOs and LaPierre sycophants from the actual Americans. TBH, I don’t really think my vote matters, but it would be worth a stamp if I knew what I was doing. And if I could poke a stick in the eye of the grifters and appeasers.
If I want to vote, and don’t know anything else, I vote against the incumbent.
n
Judging from the evidence, the result of uninformed voting for board members of conservative organizations is that professional PLT’s take over and gut the organization. Be interesting to trace the history of a couple, but it seems like enemy action.
The NRA was an exception, of sorts, but not a desirable one.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/01/21/pure-gold-this-post-may-be-the-greatest-anti-anti-ice-post-yet-n2198386
Yeah, where do I sign up?
But, please. No Buns ‘n’ Hoeses
It’s 65F and dripping wet. I’m going to bed to read for a bit. Just not feeling it tonight.
n
The fog is really bad here. I went back to the office at 11pm after going to HEB to drop off my salad materials. I missed the road to the office. Twice.
On 1/21/2026 11:18 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Adventures in the Public Domain: On Updating Out-of-Copyright Works
>
> Should we attempt to bring older works into the modern age?
>
> https://reactormag.com/adventures-in-the-public-domain-on-updating-out-of-copyright-works/
Nope.
Lynn
Elysium eludes me. I’m ok with that.
A few years back, when my brother was in a nursing home, I bought 2 iPads 8th generation. The purpose was to run Facetime, since he couldn’t figure out the Android equivalent. Apple had a reputation for stupid-simple and It Just Works. It seemed simple enough to me.
I couldn’t get him trained on it. He just couldn’t handle even that level of tech. After he died, they went into a drawer.
I’ve been looking for a highly portable solution to the problem of logging my ham radio contacts, and an app called HAMRS came up. So I installed it on the iPad and it worked. Cost me $5 bucks, and I had to change my stupid apple password, and nothing seemed to satisfy them until I chose “Ihateapple1”. The app is ok. I prefer it on my Windows PC, and I expect I’ll actually end up paying another $5 to get it on my Android phone. Small, awkward, but I’m comfortable with it.
But I’ll give it a try on the iPad. In fact, I wanted to install a couple of other Ham utilities. Except Apple store won’t run, because there’s a new version. The new version won’t install, because iPadOS is out of date. I’m at 17.7, and the current version is 26.2.
Do you see where this is going yet?
It wouldn’t let me upgrade iPadOS because I didn’t have enough free space. It needs 15 GB and I didn’t have that much free on my 32 GB tablet. So I went through a long process of deleting unused apps. Still failed. Deleted other apps. Ended up deleting all my kindle books and the kindle app. Finally didn’t get the “aborted” error, and it downloaded. Yay!
I set the machine aside and let the upgrade process continue.
I just came back to it, and it failed . The error message is the ever-so-helpful “An error occurred installing iPadOS 26.2”. Nothing else.
Tomorrow, after I calm down, I’ll do some searching online and I’m sure some apple fanboi will point out the obvious error I made.
You can take your Elysium and put it… somewhere.