10:01 – It’s Barbara’s birthday today. She’s pretty hard to buy gifts for. She doesn’t wear jewelry or perfume, and I can’t buy clothes for her. So usually I end up just getting stuff she wants for around the house. One year I got her a crowfoot flank-drive flare nut wrench set. This year, I got her a pressure canner (Ma Kettle) and some miscellaneous cast-iron cookware to use on her new gas cooktop.
We finished watching series one of The Pinkertons on Netflix streaming and Mercy Street on Prime streaming. The former was average and the latter above average, but both were packed full of cuties, notably Martha MacIsaac and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, respectively. At first, I thought it was just me, getting older and starting to have trouble telling brunette cuties apart, but Barbara agreed that they could easily be confused for each other and that she had trouble telling them apart.
I used to think that attractiveness between men and women was purely a matter of evolutionary biology. That’s why heterosexual men of any age are most attracted to young women, those of child-bearing age, and women are attracted to men of any age who would make good reproductive partners. What puzzled me for a long time was that, in my experience, gay men are also attracted to young, fertile women even though they have no desire to have sex with them. Last night, I finally realized why: men of any sexual orientation and age are attracted to young, fertile women because their mothers were young, fertile women. Essentially all men spent their boyhoods dependent upon, protected by, and being cared for and loved by young, fertile women. So it’s no wonder that most men are attracted to and protective towards young women. Well, duh. It’s embarrassing that it took me 63 years to notice the blindingly obvious.
We were out in the desert, at least a dozen miles from town, having a picnic last Saturday. Being out of cell range I used my DeLorme inReach Explorer satellite communicator to send an email to Bob. I’m posting as this device might be of interest to preppers.
http://www.inreachdelorme.com/product-info/inreach-explorer.php?gclid=CjwKEAiA1ITCBRDO-oLA-q_n8xYSJADjBQfGA2tn6672wQJRNtq2u7Qg0pBHxn7U8C8C4hgSta30EBoCoMzw_wcB
http://www.thegpsstore.com/Delorme-inReach-Explorer-2-Way-Satellite-Communicator-P4050.aspx?gclid=CjwKEAiA1ITCBRDO-oLA-q_n8xYSJADjBQfGb2FVRXogHqBZgCUIOtGXoVc3WuEhRPHSv6Z__BxvORoCUW_w_wcB
It may just be me, but it seems that both B2C and B2B retailers are getting increasingly desperate. Retailers with whom I’ve done business and from whom I used to get maybe one sales email every month or two are now sending me several such emails per week and in some cases several per day. I realize that Black Friday through year-end is most business’s prime selling season, but even so this seems extreme and desperate.
For example, Fisher Scientific used to send me one such email every two or three months, basically just as a reminder that they’re still there. Starting a couple of months ago, they started ramping that up. They’ve sent me a dozen emails so far this WEEK. Ordinarily, I’d think this was an anomaly. Perhaps they’d hired some new marketing/sales people, for example, and the new folks had decided to ramp up email marketing. But it’s not just Fisher. Not even close. I’m getting mail from dozens of our vendors, including one from whom I bought one inexpensive item more than three years ago. I never heard from them again until now. They’ve sent me five emails in the last month. Are retailers really getting that desperate?
Wouldn’t be surprising; despite the feel-good chatter from the usual suspects/MSM about our economy, we all know out here that it’s a mess and failing. Whether or not tRump can do anything about it is very questionable. And every year the merchandisers bitch and whine about what a terrible Holiday Season they just had anyway.
In other nooz, the next SecState looks to be at least as bad as the last few; can’t we get anybody decent for that job???
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2016/11/30/trump-ponders-petraeus-senior-job/
Long read but has the intel on this guy.
If you can’t actually Kill Your Television, it might be worthwhile to at least keep the MSM from polluting your viewing space:
http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-empire-strikes-back-the-msms-3-point-plan-to-recapture-the-narrative
Let’s face it; they’re willing dupes, stooges, minions, lackeys, and running dogs of the Party and its allies. By “Party,” I now mean the vast collection of people and organizations who “lost” this last “election.” They’re not gonna stop and they’re not gonna give up; their main attribute is Doubling Down On Failure. No matter how many people are hurt.
Is this an outlier to your theory?
Many men in some cultures are raised by elderly nannies or grandmothers. I was raised by a black nanny till age 8, hardly ever saw my birth mother as she was always working.
their main attribute is Doubling Down On Failure
Even better (all this takes a lot of money) is the draining of life out of these fukstiks. Sources of big money are going to dry up (gotta maintain their own cloud palaces), dirt people tools are going to get fed up with constant haranguing for money. The poor will have to be paid, fed, hauled around to events and will get tired of it. The Dumbocrats will turn into zombies as Bob Hope quipped in one of his movies. We should immediately vote for legal euthanasia so the special snowflakes can end their misery. Then we could drop all monetary support to the UN and just provide “Soylent Green” for distribution to turd world countries.
In other nooz, the next SecState looks to be at least as bad as the last few; can’t we get anybody decent for that job???
Petraeus’ downfall came because he got too involved with the strange social circle that surrounds the freak show commands at MacDill. That should disqualify him in my opinion, but I’m biased after spending most of my life living in the Tampa suburbs around those people.
Over the last few years, Russia has employed paid commenters and sock puppets to read various sites and fill the comment areas with whatever the Russian line of the day is. Strategy Page talked about it on their podcast and how they had seen spikes of traffic and comments from Russian domains whenever there was a story about Crimea, Ukraine, etc. It looks like over time they have built up their capabilities.
I read an interesting report out there on the “fake news” phenomena. Apparently some sites seem to be run by teams affiliated with Russian sources. They share SEO info, Amazon affiliate IDs, etc. They share stories in order to make them look more reliable – not even bothering to alter the text much – without source attribution. At least one prepper site seems to be part of the network. One major site is run by the son of a Bulgarian intel officer from the communist government. So, watch out where you get your news from.
The major criticism of the report I have is that there are similar echo chamber effects in the leftist community, but they probably aren’t being run by the Russians.
BTW, I thought of a great appointment Trump could make. Bobby Jindal to head the VA. He made his name by revamping and improving the LA Medicaid system and the state-run clinics and hospitals. Took them from bankrupt to solvent in a few years.
There are lots of content repackagers (to coin a phrase) out there. Some might call them thieves. There are several prepper sites that just scrape the web and republish without attribution.
We know from other sources that there are many paid commentors and bloggers on various .gov or .agency payrolls. Some flog products, some flog ideas, some just piss in the pool. Without the metadata (where they appear to be coming from) it’s hard to see the commonality unless they are using specific memes. See the link from scott adams I posted at the end of yesterdays comments- this goes back to the ‘talking points’ memo and journolist…. “overtly white supremacist” “binders full of women” etc.
nick
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (along with a bunch of other actors/actresses) is very good in Disney’s underrated “Sky High”.
The Mouse almost seems embarrassed by the flick for some reason. The same studio who gave us “The Lone Ranger” and “John Carter”?!? I picked my copy up out of the bargain bin for $5.
I’d also recommend Winstead’s female lead performance in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”, but that movie is an acquired taste. If you’re a “Spaced”/”Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy fan, you’ll get it. Otherwise, I can’t predict your reaction.
“Is this an outlier to your theory?”
The overwhelming majority of boys, particularly of our generation, were raised by their mother, with occasional assistance from other women. My mother was unusual for her generation in that she not only worked outside the home, but went back to work not long after my brother was born, when I was two and we’d just moved out of her mother’s house into a house of our own. My brother and I never felt that she was an absent parent. My grandmothers, particularly her mother, babysat frequently, and until we started kindergarten we had a nanny named Florida, who was also black.
I loved Sky High and Scott Pilgrim.
Petraeus demonstrated, at his age, his cock is more important than his integrity. He wouldn’t get my vote. He’s probably a good guy, but I don’t know him, only what he did.
“provide “Soylent Green” for distribution to turd world countries.”
You’re a lot more generous than I am. I don’t even want to feed underclass leeches in this country, let alone all over the world. Work or starve.
I was surprised to find Braindead on streaming, but it had MEW in it, so I convinced Barbara to give it a try. She was fine with the political comedy-drama thing, but then she found out that alien bugs were infecting people’s brains and causing them to explode. That was it for her. She said I could watch it myself if I wanted to, but she wasn’t interested.
SPOILER: Incidentally, I thought it was interesting that (at least in the part of episode 1 I watched) the alien bugs were infecting the brains of Republican congressmen and senators, but not Democrats.
Petraeus demonstrated, at his age, his cock is more important than his integrity. He wouldn’t get my vote. He’s probably a good guy, but I don’t know him, only what he did.
South Tampa near MacDill is a giant frat party. I think the best thing that could happen in that town is for the base to close and be repurposed as port facilities. Maybe keep the “hurricane hunter” planes.
Unfortnuately, closing MacDill would nuke most of what’s left of Tampa’s major tech employment.
“Bobby Jindal to head the VA.”
At this point, I would even be willing to give him a try. No one else thus far seems to be able to tame this gigantic bureaucracy and make it accountable from the top down.
As for the Russian involvement in our MSM and net sites; they have evidently not gotten out of the agitprop biz at all, since their early days from the 1917 Revolution on. And the NKVD and KGB were eminently successful at running the Long March through all our cultural institutions; now that war has more or less been won without firing a shot, they can turn their efforts toward amenable Western political appointments favoring Russian interests. Two or three can play that game, however, and I doubt we have been shirkers at it.
“… the strange social circle that surrounds the freak show commands at MacDill.”
Tell us more.
I see that the whole enchilada down there is run by a couple of chicks:
“The 6th Air Mobility Wing is commanded by Colonel April Vogel, and the wing’s Command Chief Master Sergeant is CMSgt Melanie Noel.[3]”
Interesting. And of course the AF’s Spec Ops Command runs outta there. I’m a Life Member of the Air Commando Association (I was a lowly machine gunner for the 56th Special Operations Wing, the reputed military arm of Air America, a CIA operation at the time) so I get the monthly magazine and fund-raising appeals and try to keep tabs on the goings-on around the world these days. Including the regular advertising for nifty whiz-bang weapons systems devised and sold by the major corporate defense contractors.
On edit: we x-posted; “frat party” was mentioned concerning the social circles in Tampa around MacDill; I wonder if the same sort of atmosphere is in play around the ACA HQ and annual conventions at Fort Walton Beach…)
“We were out in the desert, at least a dozen miles from town, having a picnic last Saturday. Being out of cell range I used my DeLorme inReach Explorer satellite communicator to send an email to Bob. I’m posting as this device might be of interest to preppers.”
I first thought the email was spam, but then I noticed it was from you. I think that’s the first direct-to-satellite email I’ve ever gotten.
“I first thought the email was spam, but then I noticed it was from you. I think that’s the first direct-to-satellite email I’ve ever gotten.”
Sweet!
Those look pretty slick; my first concern, as almost always, is security, but hell, we can encrypt mss. anyway; I like the idea of them working with existing devices like Droids, etc.
Leave it to CowboySlim’s “creeping digititus” to tempt us with the bleeding technical edge.
(IIRC CowboySlim coined the very apropos phrase “creeping digititus” back in the original HardwareGuys days)
I carried a Skytel pager for years. Uplink was terrestrial towers but down was satellite. It was the only system working in NYC on 9-11-2001 after about 10am.
I continued to carry it, mainly because of that, until my wife finally convinced me that I had enough other methods to communicate.
n
An article that may help you understand that Mad Dog Mattis is probably a very good pick:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/02/top-15-quotes-secretary-defense-nominee-james-mattis/
Sure I would like to get out of our foreign entanglements, but we cannot just pack up and leave. You see how well that has been working with our slow staged withdrawals and leaving all of our weapons behind.
I can see Mad Dog going in to win and win big (really win as in we totally dictate the terms of full unconditional surrender) and then packing up all of our stuff and issuing a final warning, “don’t youdare make me come back!”.
I may be sorely tempted to get one of those doodads at some point, or some kind of satellite phone, I dunno. Will ruminate on it for a while; too many other priorities at present.
And from the Sour Grapes Department:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shouting-match-erupts-between-clinton-and-trump-aides/2016/12/01/7ac4398e-b7ea-11e6-b8df-600bd9d38a02_story.html?utm_term=.e834bce70786
Do the Dems have a regular nationwide search for the fugliest females they can possibly find, whether for running their campaigns, running their half of the Party, or running for National Administrator and Cabinet positions??? Yikes.
O Kanada!!!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2310438/female-presenters-strip-off-to-present-news-completely-naked/
Why can’t we have that sorta thang down here???
Unfortunately, all the hotties would be at Faux Nooz Network, another mouthpiece for the regime, pretending to be “conservative.”
Gee whiz, I remember when CNN had Pat Buchanan on regularly, the late Bob Novak, Arnaud de Borchgrave, et. al., and now they’re no better than the Top Three or worse. I even remember the late Jack Germond fondly; he was an old-school Dem, more conservative than any of that half of the Party nowadays.
“You’re a lot more generous than I am. I don’t even want to feed underclass leeches in this country, let alone all over the world. Work or starve.”
At least you try to educate them. Recently, I read Astronomy Hacks on safaribooksonline.com. Thanks for writing it!
It’s been a week or so since I’m reading your blog/comments and I find them informative, worth reading. Quite a few new points of view here, like prepper stuff (not a subject in my country), USA politics and life issues.
Particularly, I appreciate the discussions here about the election, Trump, Clinton. In my country and most Europe, Trump has been pictured almostly in a bad way – a person which you can not discuss, imprevisible, populist, weird, somewhat extremist and much more. All these increases the fears of disruptions of UE – USA relations. We really need USA. That’s why many, including me, preffered Clinton, as a continuator of Obama. Seems safer like this. I even don’t know much about who Trump is, or Clinton.
Hi there! I’m Eugen. 37yo.
Do the Dems have a regular nationwide search for the fugliest females they can possibly find, whether for running their campaigns, running their half of the Party, or running for National Administrator and Cabinet positions??? Yikes.
By definition, it’s self-fulfilling.
Yes, well, now that makes sense. Why couldn’t I see it before?
I was reading something else today concerning the preponderance of so many fugly and very bitter females involved with SJW and prog movements (as in bowel) and the theory proposed was that they’d passed up marriage and children for their “careers” or whatever and were now in their 40s and 50s and extremely dismayed, angry and bitter, lost chances and all that, and a visceral hatred for men and families. I saw several examples of this when women started getting “ordained” in the Episcopal Church; usually right from that group, or divorced and very bitter.
In other nooz, the next SecState looks to be at least as bad as the last few; can’t we get anybody decent for that job???
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2016/11/30/trump-ponders-petraeus-senior-job/
How about John Bolton ?
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/11/should-the-world-get-ready-for-secretary-of-state-bolton/
“He deeply dislikes international organizations, whether the U.N., the International Criminal Court, or the architecture underpinning nuclear test bans. In a Boston Globe essay last year, he wrote, “Washington should announce that, henceforth, all US financial support would be treated as voluntary rather than assessed … When international organizations — like businesses or private charities — have to demonstrate competence, efficiency, and effectiveness, they either perform or disappear. This would be an extraordinarily valuable lesson for the entire UN to learn. The United States should also never forget that withdrawal from certain UN agencies is an available option, as Ronald Reagan proved by leaving UNESCO.””
When I was in jr high I had a friend whose dad had a contracting business on a major street. He had a ‘Get US Out of the UN’ sigh on the edge of his property. Turns out he was a John Birch member. I grew to think the were some kind of nuts but later sympathised with a lot of their views.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/USOutOfUN.jpg/250px-USOutOfUN.jpg
I agree with Bolton’s views and suggestions as represented here, but fear that he is just another neocon warmonger who’d love to get into it with the Russians, Chicoms and Norks. I don’t think that’s a good idea at all; better to jaw-jaw than war-war. Let National Administrator tRump use his ‘art of the deal’ on those guys and keep our rockets and troops home.
“Turns out he was a John Birch member. I grew to think the were some kind of nuts but later sympathised with a lot of their views.”
They were excommunicated by the late High Priest of Conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr. He also excommunicated the late Sam Francis, the late Joe Sobran, and also Pat Buchanan, who was accused of anti-Semitism, which merited a cover story then on their flagship rag. Which I used to get, but all the writers I liked are now deceased and neocons and RINOs have taken over completely.
I remember a couple of kids back in high skool being involved with their Minutemen organization. I was involved at the time with SDS, the Black Panthers and the Progressive Labor Party.
Hi there! I’m Eugen. 37yo.
Welcome !
We really need USA. That’s why many, including me, preffered Clinton, as a continuator of Obama. Seems safer like this. I even don’t know much about who Trump is, or Clinton.
The big problem is that the USA is broke. Not bankrupt, yet, but we are broke. We cannot afford to continue with troops in 60+ countries, 10 carrier groups, and 17 amphibious assault groups roaming the world at other people’s beck and call. Many of those countries do not respect our troops anyway (Germany, I am looking at you !) and do not allow us to use our bases freely. People assume that if Russia were to invade Estonia that our troops in Germany could be a quick reaction force. I am growing increasingly aware that Germany may block our troops from moving east in order to patronize Russia. Anyway, not our land, not our war.
Plus 20% of the USA population (65+ million of 330+ million) were born in other countries and are of questionable loyalty to the USA. We need time to assimilate the people here and time to return those who refuse to assimilate to their native hellholes XXXXXXXXX countries. Living in the USA is a privilege, not a right.
EDIT: Please note that others on this board probably do not agree with me and have opinions of their own. RBT kindly provides a place for us to gather and gripe about national and international issues as we watch the near-utopia of our childhoods fall into dystopia.
“I first thought the email was spam, but then I noticed it was from you. I think that’s the first direct-to-satellite email I’ve ever gotten.”
I can also use it to send text messages, SMS, to smartphones (Android and iType) when out of cell range. Cannot be SPAM’d as one cannot get to a user initially; however, someone receiving a message from an inReach user can reply back. (Click on the link in the original message, look to the upper right of the map, click on the button saying Reply and follow through.)
I also use it on our annual summer campout up in the High Sierras
“EDIT: Please note that others on this board probably do not agree with me and have opinions of their own.”
Yo, hermano; I agree 100% with what you just posted, hooray for us!!!
However, I just read that the services are now ramping up all their chit in gleeful anticipation of a DOD-friend tRump administration. More troops, more toyz, and more chances to get into it somewhere where we most emphatically do not belong.
Hell, I believe in military strength and a strong DEFENSE for us, but NOT meddling all over the planet at our expense in blood and treasure while the DOD contractors and politicians all get rich. We have OIL, and natural gas and nuclear power potential HERE; why not use it, instead of fretting about musloid-controlled oil Over There?
tRump should also spearhead the building of 30 nuke power plants a year for the next 30 years. And drill baby drill.
hello Eugen, welcome aboard!
I would think that in the “Old World” like Romania, prepping would just be common sense. Europe has certainly known disaster, war, and deprivation before, and certainly knows it could again.
While we don’t have a ‘state run’ media establishment here, it turns out that they may be ‘state walked’ (a joke in english, sorry if it doesn’t translate) in that they think like the ruling elites and desperately want to be liked and respected by them, so they support the party agenda. Thus for the people who only get news from our mass media, they don’t know much about Clinton or Trump either. They only know what they have been told, which is that Hillary is AWESOME!!!!!! because she’s a woman, and Trump is the next Hitler, because he’s not part of the political establishment. Also probably because they thought he was one of them, and they feel betrayed.
Outsider opinions are always welcome, as long as they come from genuine thought and consideration of the ideas. Often an outsider can see more clearly than those inside.
And speaking of outsiders, it looks to me like Putin will seize some territory or country some time soon, probably between Christmas and our official transfer of our government on January 20. How does it look to you?
How do Trump’s observations that NATO countries could pay for more of their own defense (and DO more of their own defense) seem to the ‘man on the street’ in Romania?
nick
Hi Eugen. Many of us voted for tRump because he is an unknown. He won our Republican Party nomination, but we don’t believe he is a Republican at heart. I like the way he speaks his mind, good or bad, and doesn’t follow the “party line” in politics. Only time will tell how effective he will be as our President.
“I also use it on our annual summer campout up in the High Sierras.”
So you’re happy with it, Mr. Cowboy Slim, and whatever monthly plan you have with them?
I can certainly see a huge use for these in a SHTF scenario. As long as we can keep them charged, that is. Just like our Bow-Fungs and Yaesus.
Well JBS had a substantial share of not just nuts but racists and jew haters and a commie behind every door paranoids. They looked a little too KKK for many.
Hello, Eugen, and welcome to our little slugfest here. I can’t add much more to what Mr. Nick has said, and am interested, like him, in how things are in Romania these days.
I know a very little about your country and its history back to actual Roman Empire times, and a little more about one of your recent governments which ran into serious problems and its two top people got taken out and shot. And good riddance, in my humble opinion. Some of us here can think of our own top people who deserve that sort of treatment.
As MrAtoz and Mr. Nick both say, most of the stuff that passes for news that comes out of this country from the mainstream media is pretty much just advertising for the current government and Party. So what you may see and hear in Romania about us and our election could turn out to be rather untruthful, to say the least. Our media portrayed Trump as Evil Incarnate and Hillary Clinton was the Good Person who would lead us into a brave new world of equality and some other stuff that I forgot, but which was all lies that she read off a teleprompter, like our current President does.
I would think that better relations with Russia for all of us would be a good thing to strive for. Again, welcome!
“Well JBS had a substantial share of not just nuts but racists and jew haters and a commie behind every door paranoids. They looked a little too KKK for many.”
Agreed. Unfortunately, genuine conservatives in that organization and since got tarred with that same brush over the decades.
Who is JBS ?
John Birch Society
OTH if your name is Joe Bob can you not be funny
http://takimag.com/article/i_got_your_gluten_right_here_pal_joe_bob_briggs#axzz4RiOXD8Pz
John Birch Society.
Romania is worried about the Putin’s Russia, about its agressivity, so a USA pulling back would not be a good sign for us.
Russia won’t occupy us, far from it. But it will try to corrupt us, divide us, enslave us. It does propaganda here too, but fortunately, not too successful.
Although most of romanians hate Russia and have absolutely no trust in it, we are still a fragile nation and too young as a democracy to be able to resist long bad games from Russia. We had 50 years of comunist regims (with huge effects!) followed now by only 27 years of democracy.
We still have too many corrupt people among politicians and weak institutions. Still a lot to be done. Lot of political education is needed. That’s why we need help. We don’t want to be again under an authoritarian regime. For these reasons, you can see why the Romania is the biggest supporter of European Union (among its members. Romania is member since 2007). We are a big supporter of NATO also (member since 2004), and of USA – having a strategic agreement with it (well, I don’t exactly what it suppose to mean).
Regarding Trump and NATO. Romania is determine to reach the 2% allocation for Defence in 2017. Recently, Romania bought twelve F-16 fighters from Portugal, in a program costing almost 630 millions euros, including training of pilots and auxiliars. The fighters are second hand, and are the first F-16 to be own by Romania, which is trying to replace the old russian MIG-21 fighters.
The defence people here and officials want to approach Trump team ASAP, to show them that Romania is serious about defence programs.
Romania is hosting a part of the anti-missile shield:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deveselu
“The air base near Deveselu was selected for the NATO missile defence system employing Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and the inauguration ceremony was held in December 2015. The system will use the SM-3 Block IB interceptor.”
EDIT: I agree with Trump observations that the other countries should pay more for their defence, and to implicate more in conflicts on US Army side. Romanian army have been helping in Iraq, Afganistan, Kosovo. My own brother participated. But we still have a modest army that needs a lot more modernization…
Tell us more.
Google for “Jill Kelly”, the Tampa socialite who is one of the two females at the center of the Patreus scandal *who are not his wife*. Choose what you want to believe from the info about her, but I think it speaks volumes that the surgeon husband’s job is in Lakeland, almost a two hour drive from South Tampa these days.
I have a lot of respect for the real military people who do honest work, but I think Tampa would be better off if the general staffs of SpecOps and CentCom (what I mean by “freak show”) went elsewhere … as would the military. Away from the spotlight of DC and not accountable for any objectively measurable deliverables, the mind tends to wander from the task at hand.
“And speaking of outsiders, it looks to me like Putin will seize some territory or country some time soon, probably between Christmas and our official transfer of our government on January 20. How does it look to you? ”
No, I don’t think so. There are not concerns of that here. If something will happen will be gradually and in time – I think.
But some bad things did happen recently. People tagged by media as pro-russians have been elected this month in Moldova (Republic of) and Bulgaria. These are neighbors with us.
Moldova is a small country that after WW2 was ripped of Romania by Russia. It became/remained corrupted, devized, enslaved, uneducated. Even Moldova is “independent” now, Russia controls the separatist part of it named Transnistria, also by keeping there, illegally, some military units. It’s one of those frozen conflicts that Russia maintains for her interests.
Romania will have parlamentary elections in Dec 11th. No surprises there I guess. The biggest party, PSD – socialist, will still be the biggest, maybe 40%. The problem is that it is the most corrupt one, and many past leaders got caught and did/do jail time. We need many more elections to educate people and get ride of them… Hope time will allow that…
Wife just got home. Spent the day at a seminar on bullying. Asked if she improved her skills and if I’d better behave. (I’ll heal)
Before she left this am I showed her this…
https://pjmedia.com/parenting/2016/11/28/dept-of-education-pushing-muslim-indoctrination-under-cover-of-anti-bullying-programs/
She didn’t read it but I think she got my hint.
As it is she works at a catholic school not public. Those jocks at catholic school are the real pros.
“So you’re happy with it, Mr. Cowboy Slim, and whatever monthly plan you have with them?”
I have the minimal as I am only out of cell range three times a year for a total of seven days. Thanksgiving W/E and school district spring vacation we are in Borrego Springs in the desert for two days each and in August we are camping in the Sierra Nevada Mtns for three days.
Before leaving, I send text messages to me next door neighbors’ cell phones to which they can reply if emergency back here. Then when grandchildren stay here with friends, we always check up with them via their cellphones.
@Dave, send me an email, cowboyslim@att.net, with your email address or cellphone # and I will respond with an inReach message.
I add one more post now, about (no) prepping in Romania. I hope I don’t poluate the comments too much, but I want to answer this also.
Basically, Romania is a haven – nature-wise speaking. Mountains, forests, rivers, fields, wild animals, domestic animals, grains, food, natural gas, petrol (still) -we have it all. Earthquakes are the only important natural hazards, but the important ones occur only a couple per century and affects only a part of the country. And since romanians do have the short-memory syndrome, they don’t take much measures. And when a earthquake do occur it doesn’t produce a food shortage or so.
Basically, in the recent history, since WW2, even under comunism, there was always sufficient food for the population. Romania is an agriculture country, still with extended rural areas where also many microfarming still exists (food for your own family).
Urban area have plenty of supermarkets, having round the year food like vegetables, fruits, meat, etc.. There are products from Greece, Holland, Turkey, Poland and others… and domestic ones too, of course.
But we do conserve food for the winter, especially vegetables, in jars, bottles, of freezing. But I won’t call it prepping; more like making economies. They are plenty and cheaper in automn.
Thank you for your updated information on Romania and what has been going on there; as you probably know, most Americans have zero interest in any other countries but that is NOT the case here on this board. Especially me; I am nut for geography and history and have always been interested in Romania and the Balkans countries.
“@Dave, send me an email, cowboyslim@att.net, with your email address or cellphone # and I will respond with an inReach message.”
There’s a bunch of Daves here, but I’ll assume it’s me and send you a mss. via email with both mine and cell #. Stand by.
Been busy today, just getting to the computer and the RBT Journal. A lot going on, but really of no earth shattering importance.
Welcome Eugen. It is always a pleasure to have a new opinion and perspective.
My only recent exposure to Romanian issues is Cristina Rad, AKA ZOMGitsCriss, on Youtube. I adore her.
Dad’s brain cell just woke up, with a proding by our local bird cage liner. Mad Dog Mattis is a homeboy:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article118571223.html
I love the Mad Dog comment “some assholes just need to be shot”. Could you start in Congress, please?
“There’s a bunch of Daves here, but I’ll assume it’s me and send you a mss. via email with both mine and cell #. Stand by.”
Roger that, got your reply, 10-4, over and out!
Oh yeah, now he knows where I live!
” Especially me; I am nut for geography and history and have always been interested in Romania and the Balkans countries.”
Well, come and visit. I’ll show you around. Romania is a pretty safe country, IMO. My town is Sibiu:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibiu
“Well, come and visit. I’ll show you around. Romania is a pretty safe country…”
You never know, I may just show up; looks to be a lovely historical town, and from whence our now-American writer Andrei Codrescu came, and I believe he lives in New Orleans and has for a long time. I’ve read several of his books and other writings.
“…the old city of Sibiu was ranked as “Europe’s 8th-most idyllic place to live” by Forbes in 2008…”
“Oh yeah, now he knows where I live!”
And vice-versa. About 150 yards from where the last good photo of Champ was taken, about forty years ago. Bugger came right into the bay just offshore of the town park behind us.
“Mad Dog Mattis is a homeboy”
I worry about him and Bolton. We don’t need itchy trigger fingers in this world right now. There’s a time to kick ass and take names and a time to lay back and talk sense with people. Our main and nearly exclusive priority should be protecting this country, its landmass and its people. I don’t believe we can do that by poking our noses into hornets’ nests in Syria, Ukraine and the South China Sea.
Every time I’ve been forced to attend a sexual harassment seminar*, maybe three times total, I’ve asked if it was an intensive, hands-on learning experience. Imagine my dismay that not a single one has been.
* Not for anything I’ve done, simply a requirement for all employees.
“Well, come and visit. I’ll show you around.”
And the same to you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_(town),_Vermont
The history section sucks. There was a lot going on around here long before the Confederate raid downtown. The village where we live was a colonial and 19th-C seaport, with commercial maritime traffic between Montreal and New York City. A trolley line came from the city to the shore and there were three piers/wharves and it was known as Port Washington. And before that there was the War of 1812, War of Independence and French and Indian War activities all through this area. The Battle of Plattsburgh took place just to our southwest on the lake and British casualties are buried on Crab Island just offshore of the city. (War of 1812).
And the American poet Paul Blackburn was from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Blackburn_%28U.S._poet%29
“…I’ve asked if it was an intensive, hands-on learning experience. Imagine my dismay that not a single one has been.”
Ah feel yore pain.
Seems like the peeps who might benefit from chit like that never get the memo and the classes end up basically preaching to the choirboys and choirgirls who would never do it to anyone.
I’ve never had the “pleasure” of being forced to attend any of that bullshit, thanks be to God. I was raised to have fucking manners and be polite to women. So weren’t most of us in my generation, which means most everybody here. OTOH, I’ve been the recipient of nasty behavior from women managers in the past but it wasn’t in any way sexual, again, thanks be to God. They were beasts.
Welcome, Eugen.
A suggestion: you might want to stake out your intellectual turf within this group. Various regulars have their own “specialties”:
Miles_Teg: lusting after sheep
MrAtoz: sniffing farts and reporting on them
Dave Hardy (or OFD): complaining that no one in the world is conservative enough for him
Lynn: reviewing prepper books of dubious quality
Me: confounding the line between serious comments and utter nonsense, to the extent that everyone with any sense ignores everything I write
Start them young…
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/02/watch-little-girl-has-priceless-reaction-when-she-shoots-her-first-deer/
“Mad Dog Mattis is a homeboy”
I worry about him and Bolton. We don’t need itchy trigger fingers in this world right now.
Do you prefer ketchup boy and Ashton Carter ? What a pair of losers ! Seems to me that they and Hillary managed to set the middle east on fire. And they’ve got Putin checking his six every 30 seconds.
I thought that Obamanoid was going to “reset” relations with Russia.
“Do you prefer ketchup boy and Ashton Carter ?”
Now dahn it all to heck, heck no! (you’ll just redact my nasty curse words anyway).
I want civvies in both jobs. Isolationist-tending, preferably.
“I thought that Obamanoid was going to “reset” relations with Russia.”
One can hope and pray. I’d rather be friends with them and the Persians than enemies. Don’t see why we can’t work that out peaceably. They were our allies in the Good War, after all, and took the brunt of the casualties, by far. Without them tying up the Germans on der Ostfront, our guys would have had a much harder and later D-Day. Not that it didn’t suck much, it did.
“Dave Hardy (or OFD): complaining that no one in the world is conservative enough for him.”
That’s right, not even Patrick Buchanan. I am just a little bit to HIS right. You can find my rightist comrades at the Rockford Institute, Chronicles Magazine, and among various sites online, Western Rifle Shooters comes to mind right off the bat, and their various blogroll links. For the Roman Catholic rightists like me, I give you Ann Barnhardt, at barnhardt.biz. Accept no substitutes. She’s got a good one up this week on the number of demons out there. Spoiler: LOTS.
Wife back tonight and out in her newly windowed studio and plotting more changes to it, mostly interior decoration stuff.
Welcome, Eugen. What I know of Romania is only what any reasonably educated American born in the latter half of the 20th century would know. My first advice to any peoples who are trying to create a stable, free government would be that language matters. Not language in the sense of one’s mother tongue, but language in the sense of particular word choices. I’ll give an example:
When Mrs. Clinton gave her concession speech after our recent election, she used the phrase “our constitutional democracy”. Alas, none of the assembled press took the opportunity to call her on this, as we are not a constitutional DEMOCRACY, we are a constitutional REPUBLIC. (In the US, CAPITAL letters are typically used for emphasis, or to simulate shouting.) It’s easy to believe that the assembled media were all such loyal sycophants that they were in no way going to challenge Mrs. Clinton. After all, they want to remain in her good graces and those of the powers that be, especially the Democratic Party. (Again, in the US, the overwhelming majority of the members of the nationally known press are members of the Democratic Party.) It’s also easy to believe that the assembled media are so foolish as to not understand the difference, or are too lazy to care. But the difference is important, allowing the powers that be to get away with the tiny things encourages them to get away with larger things.
The other piece of advice I would have is to read, and promulgate, the essential classics of the American Founding Fathers, and the works that informed them. I don’t know if the Voice of America ever dealt with printed words, but that might be a good place to start. In the US, the Heritage Foundation publishes pocket sized copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they might have the Federalist Papers, John Locke, and all the rest. And, of course, the American behemoth Amazon might help build your library.
And if you care, I live on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. We have a far flung group of contributers here, from all over the US and much of the world.
Mr. pcb_duffer is 100% correct on all points.
I would only add that after a look at the Declaration of Independence (closely, because people have used its language for their own nefarious purposes) and the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, one might very profitably also take a look through the anti-Federalist papers. All of this is in inexpensive paperbacks.
pcb_duffer is also dead on-target with his comments about language and its misuse. We have experts here in its misuse, primarily among the propaganda specialists in our de facto One Party, and in all the mainstream media.
A good corrective to this is the late George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language.” He nails it.
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve read some of Andrei Codrescu’s work but as he was writing as an American, although a bit of it covered Romanian history during World War II. I’d be interested in any current Romanian writers, especially historians and poets.
The MSM is freaking out because the President of Taiwan called tRump to congratulate him. According to the fukstiks, especially at MSLSD, we are now going to war with China over a phone call. How many billions in milspec equipment did Odooshnozzle sell to Taiwan and the MSM…zzz zzz zzz.
If you have a bomb shelter, you might want to sleep in it tonight just in case China launches. Vegas is still under the protection of Lucifer.
The very first call from a foreign potentate to congratulate tRump was from the President of Egypt. Does that mean Israel is gonna launch at us now? In any case, the top dawgs in Taiwan are playing a cute game with us anyway, just like the mainland Chicoms have been doing. We need to give them both a wide berth and mind our own biz; we are not going to war against the Chicoms even if they invade and take over Taiwan, which would be utterly stupid. On both sides. Or all three sides. Or whatever. We hopefully will not be going to war with Russia over Ukraine or the Baltic States, either.
But both of those areas are flashpoints as is the current situation in Syria, where the nincompoops in our House recently approved a frigging “no-fly zone.” Which is a de facto act of war. So, like, if a Russian jet or bomber cuts a corner through that, our Air Force is gonna shoot it down now??? Seriously???
But that’s exactly the kind of chit that makes OFD nervous when it comes to guys like Mattis and Bolton. And you can bet your bippy that the Russians and Chicoms have their trigger-happy counterparts.
“If you have a bomb shelter, you might want to sleep in it tonight just in case China launches. Vegas is still under the protection of Lucifer.”
Our cellar. I have some food and wotta down there, too.
Vegas doesn’t rate the protection of Lucifer himself; it’s one of the minor demons. And they are Legion.
Fake nooz?
http://buchanan.org/blog/fake-news-war-party-lies-126096
We’ve been hoodwinked many times before and it cost us way too much in blood and treasure.
Lynn: reviewing prepper books of dubious quality
I’ve been binge watching the first two seasons of “Z Nation” over T-weekend and today. We are three years into the zombie apocalypse which started with a disease, the HZN virus, that killed most of the world population in a month. There are about 10,000 survivor left in the USA. The episodes loosely follow a team of unlikely adventurers as they try to transport the one living survivor of a zombie bite from New York to Los Angeles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Nation
One of the characters is a 50+ year old man. He goes by the name of “Doc” and was a … private apothecary before the apocalypse. He is now treated as a medical doctor since all the real doctors died in the first month treating people.
I have noticed that there is no one above the age of 50 in the cast. Maybe that is because old farts like us cannot outrun the young zombies.
Vegas doesn’t rate the protection of Lucifer himself; it’s one of the minor demons. And they are Legion.
It used to be that way. Then tRump built his hotel here for Lucifer to live in. Or that’s at least what the MSM is now claiming. Remember, tRump is the Anti-Christ! Especially after *that* phone call.
I wanted to get this post in before the Chicomms obliterate you all.
“”One of the characters is a 50+ year old man. He goes by the name of “Doc” and was a … private apothecary before the apocalypse. He is now treated as a medical doctor since all the real doctors died in the first month treating people.
I have noticed that there is no one above the age of 50 in the cast. Maybe that is because old farts like us cannot outrun the young zombies.””
Don’t have to outrun the Z; just have to outrun you!
“And the same to you.”
Looks like a really nice area, there in Vermont, with likes and forrests. It’s kind of out of reach for me to visit US. It costs much, and I may not even get a visa. I might be considered a risk for remain there, as I don’t have a wife and kids and so, i.e. enough reasons not to stay (I don’t want to change my country, at least not in medium term).
I see you’re very close to Canada. They intend to lift visas for romanians and bulgarians in 2017. It’s more like an effect of CETA agreement between Canada and EU: you can’t do more business and in the same time keep the people away.
“Welcome, Eugen.
A suggestion: you might want to stake out your intellectual turf within this group. ”
I’m really surprised by the welcoming I receive here, and the interest, questions and all.
I’m really strong for the importance of education. It’s the only hope I see for humans. As in “don’t give them fish but learn them how to fish”, even stronger: *make* them learn how to fish. This will make them independent and free – humans with dignity. Don’t expect it will happen naturally. It won’t. I can see it in my country. I also see how important it is for us to be part of EU – it just makes us better, more educated. You can see why I disapprove the Brexit and a possible isolationist trend in USA with Trump.
This is where I think America is doing it’s worst. She can do much better educating the world. She has the power to insist (unmilitarily), to stand up for what is right doing, and strongly deny the wrong doing ( I think that everybody can agree on what humans with dignity mean). Unfortunately, America many times (through its companies, ori people) tolerates, even encourages wrong doings (like corruption), mostly because of economic interests. They did in Romania too (Bachtel, Microsoft, to name a few).
I’m a software developer, programming in Java almost exclusively since 2001. I quit my job a couple of years ago, to have a break, build an own software project just for fun and I how I see it fit.
But soon, I found out, that having much more free time and brain energy, makes me wish to accomplished many other things that I always thought will be nice to do/learn if I have the time and possibility. So I basically stopped developing software and just do them.
For example, I wanted to know better french, and I always liked radios. So I enjoyed listening in some evenings to France Info radio station on medium waves (tx from France), and then I wanted to build my own radio and antenna for better reception. And for that I wanted to know more about elecromagnetism, and for that I needed to recap the maths. So currently I’m about to finish reading (still two months?) the big book “Calculus with Analytic Geometry” – George F. Simmons. Meanwhile, both France and Germany have stopped all radio transmission on medium waves AM, for reason of costs and that most radio listeners uses now the FM band. But I’m still interested in radios and electromagnetism.
I also build a telescope (6″ Dob) last month, and I’m planning for a three week trip in Holland next year, where I want to use a dutch bike to visit the country. Yeah, I’m also learning dutch…
… and many more things.
” I’d be interested in any current Romanian writers, especially historians and poets. ”
Historians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neagu_Djuvara
He is still alive being 100 yo! One of his interesting book and original idea is “Războiul de şaptezeci şi şapte de ani (1914–1991) şi premisele hegemoniei americane, (Humanitas, 2009)”. I don’t know if it is translated. In this book, he argues that WW1, WW2, Cold War and others were just some battles in the big 77 year war for the world hegemony between US and Soviet Union . And US won in 1991 when Soviet Union collapsed. He shows that history provides a lot of examples where the most periferic/remote opponent (US in this case) wins the hegemony battle.
Another one is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Boia
Lately, Lucian Boia received a lot of attention in Romania with his books about our history, like “Why is Romania different?” (not translated?). He is viewed as a historian who truly dig for the truth no matter how inconvenient can be. This also attracts criticisms from the people who accuse him of lack of patriotism and ofenses to romanian people. But fortunately those critic persons are few and mostly being nostalgic after comunism times, and the history fabricated by the regime. Most romanians really appreciate the truth in this matter, as a way to better understand themselves.
Poets:
After the the fall of comunism, the poetry have lost a lot of momentum in Romania. Maybe because of the fact that it was use excessively as odes to Ceausescu regime, and everybody had enough ( just a thought from me).
Like Mircea Cartarescu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_C%C4%83rt%C4%83rescu). He felt that poetry was not fitting anymore with the new times. He saw the fall of it. So he choose to express himself mostly in prose, and he’s curently the best romanian author. I read some of his books.
But soon I realized that I read in my life books mostly written by male authors. I was thinking like “I already know how a male think. I’m familiar with it. I’m one of them. Let’s check the girls: my age, my times.” You see? So for months, I borrowed from the library, books written only by romanian female authors. There are much fewer, and from them I did found some worth reading.
One of them is also a poet: Petronela Rotar. She has a blog http://acestblogdenervi.ro/ (i.e. this blog of nerves). Some of the articles appeared in her books. She really writes openly about herself: her feelings, issues past and present. And yes, she has an impressive and natural poetic language, like in the book “O sa ma stii de-undeva” (meaning: “You will know me from somewhere”).
@pcb_duffer
Yes, words matter. To keep their meaning, and only use them appropiately is very important. Unfortunately, in my country, things gone really mad, with words flying around and same word applied both for its meaning and the opposing meaning. It’s a mess, specially and because of the politic scene.
WRT promulgation of essential classics, Founding Fathers, books. The things are much better now here regarding freedom of speech, access to education materials, Internet, etc… The problem is to make the people to want to learn. Of course, there are a lot who do that, but IMO there also a lot who don’t. And we do have a socialist party (PSD) that wins almost all elections by promising salary increases, and do increase them iresposabily, with bad effects in the economy and investements and education. There are a lot of people that find that sufficient for them, and don’t know anything better.
@eugen; Yes, we live about 10-15 minutes from the Quebec/Canada border; and a lot of the people in the countryside along the Vermont/Quebec border are bilingual, and speak French at home. But it’s Quebecois French, a bit different than Parisian French.
Thanks for the info and links to those Romanian writers; I’ll check them out.
I have noticed that there is no one above the age of 50 in the cast. Maybe that is because old farts like us cannot outrun the young zombies.””
Don’t have to outrun the Z; just have to outrun you!
You do know that zombies travel in herds ? You’ve got to outrun them all !