politics – Daynotes Journal

Fri. Mar. 26, 2021 – weird used to intrigue me, not so much anymore…

Pleasant and cool, with sun and a breeze. A lot like yesterday once the overcast blew out.

Spent the whole day indoors. Kept plugging away at stuff in my office, and getting stuff ready for the auction. Ended up rescheduling my dropoff for today when I realized I had a bunch of small items that all needed me to mess with them a bit before sending them, but that the money difference made it worthwhile. So I cranked through a bunch of minor repairs, in between moving stuff around and doing my normal interweb things. And poking at my NVR… and doing the paperwork for my passport renewal… and other paperwork too. Not what I was hoping to do but progress on a number of smaller goals.

Oh yeah, and spent an hour watching the President give a short speech and then get a tongue bath from the press. Oh there were a couple of questions that sent him drifting off the rails, but OMG, one of them managed to sanctify him and damn Trump in the same breath.

I’ll admit there were a few times when he was saying stuff that sounded good, like actually providing a partial demographic breakdown of the illegals. But that was mostly when he started to drift off message, and then he would just stop mid sentence and switch gears. And there were flat out lies, misdirections, and contradictory statements following each other.

He looked less feeble than some other times, but his eyes and eyebrows are very strange, he had trouble controlling his speaking volume (considering all the practice a half century of “public service” has given him), and he needed extensive notes. It was the longest I’ve seen him go without someone hovering near his elbow or just barely close enough to catch him if he falls. Normally he’s got at least one person watching him like he was a toddler walking the top rail of a fence.

He played a couple of weird moments for laughs, and I don’t know if they were intended to be funny or if he just saved a gaffe. Some of those things are being quoted without context. I’d like to THINK he’s an affable guy, playing the fool for laughs, but I suspect that’s not what was happening.

To top it all off, he shuffles his feet like he can’t lift them normally, and he’s got a couple of weird tics that I associate with age and confusion. I wasn’t looking to be impressed, and I wasn’t. The whole business about whether or not he’d run next time was especially weird. It’s like he doesn’t expect to be around for that, so why bother? I agree with him on that.

He’s a train wreck. Called Putin names. Called other countries’ leaders thieves. Promised more gun control, more government spending on stuff the private sector does better, bragged about the crusts he tossed to the peons, forgetting that it was THEIR money to start with. Bagged on the rich, trotted out the old lines about greedy bigcorps not paying taxes, plugged the unions, all the normal playbook. On the plus side, I didn’t have to hear Kamel laugh.

It’s getting weird out there folks. Something’s gonna give. And it’s a lot easier to break than build. Get the stuff you need now, while you can, if you can. And stack it high.

nick

Sat. Mar. 20, 2021 – no rest for the wicked

Sunny, clear, and cool again. Boy it was nice yesterday, if a bit on the cool side. 50s and 60s and even 70s are great with the clear sky and sun.

I did my pickups then hurried home to meet with the electrician. He took a look at what I had and he’ll be getting back to us with a price for the install. One unfortunate discovery, I misread the data plate all those years ago. The capacity of the gennie is 1/2 of what I thought, so while it is more than my portables, and runs on natgas, and is liquid cooled, it won’t run as much of the house as I’d like. It will do, and we’ll continue with the install, but it was disappointing. (in almost every case, when a plate says 240v and 100A, that is 100A for each leg of the 240v. Not in this case. They are calling out 100A ACROSS both legs, or 50A per leg. It’s a beast of a machine to only have that capacity. Very strange. )

Today I’ve got to do my pickups, then head over to my secondary and do some more cleaning and throwing out. It’s past time that I was able to move a bunch of stuff there, and I need to get back onto that task.

On the national scene, President Biden stumbled and fell three times while climbing the stairs to Airforce One. The video looks bad. I know Presidents have stumbled on the steps before. There is very little you can do to make it look good. But holy cow it looked bad. Add that to some sort of shenanigans involving digital additions to footage, and it hasn’t been a great week for Biden the weak. Also consider last week or the week before when his strongest allies, and the people who presumably know him best, moved to take away his ability to make war, and he seemed ok with that.

Watch the videos, what few there are, and note that he’s got a ‘minder’ just a few steps away in every shot. It’s his VP in far more shots than any other President I can recall. Usually, the VP was a compromise and the POTUS keeps them much further than arm’s length away. It’s all very strange.

I might have to try and retcon my prediction that he wouldn’t make it TO March into ‘he wouldn’t make it THROUGH March’…

He’s famous for his gaffes (and what a qualification for POTUS!) but still… he’s referred to his VP as “President” Harris at least twice on camera. He even tossed off the comment that if they disagreed on policy, he’d ‘fake an illness and retire’. I watched that video with my own eyes.

Now he’s picking a fight with Putin? Putin, who issued some VERY specific and odd statements about Biden’s health, and who challenged Biden to a live debate, but it had to be ‘live with no delays and soon’.

Things are getting weird folks, seriously weird. When I don’t know what’s going on, I tend toward an over abundance of caution. And in this case that makes me want to double my food storage. And buy guns. Lots of guns and ammo. Repair kits. Spare parts. Accessories. Water treatment and filters. Meds. Wound care supplies. Canning jars and seeds. Boots. All sorts of things.

Stack all the things!

Stay frosty.

nick

Sun. Jan. 17, 2021 – working the plan

Cold and clear today, same as yesterday.

34F when I went to bed, supposed to be LOW of 36F according to the weather liars.

Did my stuff yesterday, got most of it done. The big disappointment was the sump pump battery backup. No battery. Still, I’ve got batteries and the rest is ok.

Today the family is driving 3 hours north to look at some property on a lake. I really like the looks of the property, wooded, two lots totaling 11 acres (one on the lake, one behind that lot) right up close to a national forest. The house is really odd, and the lake has some restrictions that my wife doesn’t love. The question is, bug out location or vacation lake house? Which is primary? We’ll see. Events elsewhere may push my wife more toward BOL.

I don’t know what’s happening in DC but it’s got the whole country nervous as hell. At least the half that pays attention. LOTS of people are paying a whole lot more attention now. Several people on my rounds today were watching carefully and there is a lot of head shaking once you engage with them.

And that’s just one reason why KNOWING where you can go if you have to go is essential. Currently, I don’t plan to leave, and that’s mostly because I don’t have anywhere to go. It’s also because no matter what happens, Texas is probably a good place to be. I’m thinking Chicago, Baltimore, Philly, DC, all the usual suspects are NOT going to be good places to be. If you live in a sh!thole city, you might want to consider a plan that is just “that Bayfront motel at the intersection of x and y” in a small town 3 hours away, with a storage unit and some minimal sustainment supplies. That would be a huge step in the right direction. It might not hurt to have that storage unit in a company name, prepaid for a while, either.

In fact, maybe working out a list of what I’d stash in the smallest available storage unit would be a good idea. You can fit a lot in 4 or 8 black tubs.

Get to thinkin’. Get to stackin’.

nick

Thur. Jan. 14, 2021 – time keeps on slippin’, into the future…

Cool to cold, clear, really really hope for no rain. We are supposed to continue clear for a couple of days.

Wednesday was light jacket and long pants, but nice and sunny and clear. I hit a couple of errands, mainly checking in with my gun store buddy (he’s frazzled) and doing some pulling and organizing in one storage unit. That was in preparation to taking another load to auction today, and maybe another to the other auction tomorrow.

I really want to sell as much as possible before the shooting starts.

And I don’t see any way around the shooting starting. I could outline why but I think you all know what I’d say by now. Anyone who sees a path that doesn’t rely on the right either being all mouth and no ass, or being VERY restrained (and what’s the chance of that with covid cabin fever raging) feel free to lay it out below. The left is demonstrating daily that they can’t wait to fire up the midnight raids and start running camps. Not right away of course, but it will get there. Look what they’re doing to Trump and people who have political power and money. When they’re talking casually about taking kids away from their parents so that they can be re-educated, and it’s not Ted Kazinski in a cabin in the woods but respected people in management of everyday institutions like PBS, I think that’s indicative of worldview and mindset. It’s pretty much opposite of mine, and I’m not going to meet them halfway on that. The masks are coming off and the ugliness is astonishing.

Once the shooting starts, I expect supply chains to literally blow up. The great TP shortage of 2020 is going to look like shopping at Walmart by comparison. I didn’t expect things to get started so quickly and I have revised my expectations accordingly. While there will be ebbs and flows in the pace of incidents, I expect some soon, and MUCH worse than I originally thought. I’m not thinking about the Monkey Wrench Gang so much as angry mobs tearing stuff up and burning stuff down. 100 John Lee Malvos, not one. 100 Timothy McVeighs not one. As icing on the cake, normal crime is spiking and will continue and increase while the authorities are otherwise occupied. You may never see an insurgent,but I bet you’ll see home invasions, robberies, rapes, assaults, car jackings, etc increase dramatically.

Maybe it won’t happen that way. I don’t want it to. Maybe it will be worse. Maybe it will take longer. I don’t see the emotions going away and it doesn’t take much to disrupt our world. And CV-19 is still killing people. How many of those 20K guardsmen will be infected, and bring it back to their communities when they de-mob? Wonder if they’ll call it a super spreader event and blame Trump? Nah, couldn’t happen.

Keep stacking. It isn’t gonna be ‘back to normal’ anytime soon, if ever.

nick

Wed. Jan. 13, 2021 – Friday the 13th comes on a Wednesday this month

Cold,but warming up, clear and dry.

Yesterday stayed cool after a very cold start. It was dry but so cool, stuff didn’t really dry out. Today it’s coming down no matter what. Time to get the yard decor in.

Spent most of yesterday afternoon driving around for pickups. Got a couple of gub accessories, a major piece of our ongoing bathroom project, and gallons of hand sanitizer. Some other cleaning and plumbing stuff too.

My dog is looking a bit better. We’ve been jamming food into him whenever he’ll eat. He was pretty perky when the chicken breast came out for his dinner tonight, but he is spending most of his time sleeping or just lying down. His two repaired knee joints can’t be feeling great with the cold and damp, mine certainly don’t. Pain killers seem to be in order, but my wife isn’t seeing outward signs of pain and she’s worried about drug interactions so today I hope she’ll get the reassurance she needs from the vet.

I wish there was someone I could call and get some assurance the country will even make it to the inauguration. They are moving VERY fast to tie up their ‘win’ and shut down opposition before it can really get going. They definitely don’t want Trump around as a rallying point or gadfly for the next four years. They want him tied up, locked up, or buried. The absolute perfect setup for a false flag attack is coming up and I’m very concerned. They are already laying the groundwork.

The tech companies are lining up to serve their new masters. Go Daddy should be treated like a landlord, along with all the other registrars and hosts. It should be illegal for them to discriminate, if it’s not already. AR15.com was just the first, they won’t be the last. Go Daddy is my personal registrar and host, and I need some advice on someone solid to use instead. I’ve got stuff renewing soon that I would like to move. It sucks because I’ve been a fan of theirs since they started outside of Tempe AZ all those years ago, and a customer for over a decade. I have several inactive domains, one work domain with email, one family domain with hosted WP site (that could go away if the domain stayed.) The business domain and email are the most important things to me. I would like to hang on to all the domains, but I’m getting tired of paying for privacy. Most are .com, with a couple variations to protect my name and business name. I just registered the flandrey domains as backup, and now I need to move them. FFS.

I see a real lack of contingency planning around a Trump loss on the right. Doesn’t inspire confidence. The Republican party reaction doesn’t surprise me at all though. Trump was never a party Republican. They never wanted him and can’t wait to get rid of him. He threatened a lot of rice bowls (hah, see what I did to amuse you, china! FTW!) Just how many of our congressmen and business leaders are married or shacked up with chinese women anyway?

If people do push back, and someone will, it’s going to get REALLY ugly real quick. Too many 3 letters are already corrupted and working against conservatives (remember the IRS and charitable status?). The rest will jump on the bandwagon if it gets going. That won’t be fun.

Priorities should be having the basics to cover an extended period of disruptions. In EVERY account I’ve read of war or prolonged conflict, the people end up eating grass because they’ve eaten everything else. After food, water, meds, and defense, comms are going to be an issue. Samizdat is going to be making a comeback, albeit in new forms. Beyond that, I can’t really say. Everything technological is subject to eavesdropping, well poisoning, and the equivalent of direction finding. There are a lot of clever people out there and something will rise to the surface. If you think I’m nuts, I’ve got literally a page of headlines from this week alone that suggest otherwise, so you’ll have to do more than make assertions. I was listening to NPR on the radio while driving around and even THEY can see that a civil war is imminent.

I’m continuing with my life as normal, kids’ school, house remodel, ebay sales, because going dark is just as telling as going active. I’ve always done my prepping alongside my normal life anyway. And there is no point in shutting down-the internet archives, and the three lette r s have been hoovering up data the whole time.

We’re barely two weeks into 2021 and it’s already insane. Avoid crowds. Don’t get on the bus. Stack it high and deep, and in more than one place.

nick

~800 words, right on schedule.

Sun. Jan. 10, 2021 – it continues to get worse

Cold. Supposed to be rainy.

Yesterday was cool to cold all day but was sunny and dry.

I did get my pickup done, and went by my secondary to do some more clean up and to get ready to go back over there later today.

Then I got home and looked at the news, and HOLY FREAKING HELL. The control freaks are moving FAST. EVERYONE should be condemning this. What goes around comes around, and someone once said, never ask for a power for yourself that you wouldn’t like your worst enemy have. I guess they think this is the end of history. In their mad rush to power, and you can’t really describe it as anything else, they are doing even more damage to the social norms that made this country great and they are glorying in it. Does no one see the parallels to the worst regimes in history?

We were sliding down the slope toward the cliff, but now they are running as fast as they can towards it. NO WAY does this end well. The boot is coming down. If you think I’m crazy, or overly dramatic, please make your case in the comments. NOT just assertions. An actual reasoned case. I’d LOVE some reassurance right now. Every thing they’ve done in the last few days makes it even more certain that there is no way to avoid the violence and bloodshed.

Speaking of avoiding bloodshed, where is the Elder Statesman ™ hoof in mouth Joe urging calm, praising free speech, lauding tolerance, and taking control of the party? Are you really gonna love his presidency? All 3 months of it? Was getting rid of Trump worth empowering Pelosi? Waters? Kammella? Look up Pyrrhic Victory so you’ll understand what you’ve done, when there is nothing left worth fighting over.

Anyone actually had eyes on Trump in the last day or two? Is the staff at his home gearing up? Secret Service barracks getting a good brush up? Something ain’t right. He should be spitting nails.

And are we really going to let them gaslight the nation? There was NO call for insurrection, let alone a call for ARMED insurrection. There were 10s of thousands of people at that rally that did NOTHING MORE than stand around on the grass. Where is the video of demagogue Trump calling for armed insurrection? If they had anything at all we’d be seeing it non-stop to convict him in the press.

Anyone out there who was still on the fence about whether conservative voices were being suppressed in the public square should be pretty well convinced of the truth of it now. Kinda too late though. They will come for you though eventually, given enough time. It’s what they do. What they ALWAYS do.

Anyone who couldn’t see the hypocrisy of the left should see it clearly now. A baker has to serve all customers, but twitter/facebook/amazon/go daddy don’t. They can object to words, and not even the customer’s words, but third party words their customer can’t/won’t/ and SHOULDN’T police* and deny them the same service they offer to others. Many of those others engage in much more violent rhetoric, so we know that words about violence are not the issue. No one is more filled with hate than the leadership of Iran, and yet they still have a voice. Violent leftist thugs use social media to organize rioting and crime sprees, raise funds, and spread their message of hate for others without censure from the ‘platforms.’

Remember the bit about how things change very slowly until they change all at once? People ended their work day Friday, and when they start back up tomorrow, look at the change. Consider the last year. And consider the last week. Seriously take a step back and look at it, thing about what you were doing at various points, and what you were reading about. Compare that to today, where ONE GUY has decided that he can and should control what the President of the United States gets to say and who he gets to say it to. That’s some big balls, but he’s getting away with it for now. And when the President DOES try to move in the ‘free market’ to another, friendlier platform that would welcome him? Nope. Sorry not sorry. We don’t want your kind in our place, and we don’t want your kind in any other place either.

The media blitz has been so intense, that even through the tiny little hole that I use to view it, there were a couple of times when I thought “what if this, or what if that?” and then I thought about the people involved, and thought “almost got me, but then I remembered who you were”. If it could happen to me, it’s happening to others too. Help your friends, ask them questions to lead them to it, telling them won’t help at all. * *

When I looked up this quote (I do do SOME fact checking/research/confirmations while writing) I found that Trump re-tweeted it after he was exonerated in the impeachment sham. “When you strike at the King, you must kill him.” -RWEmerson. That was February. How unfortunate and ironic then that Trump struck at King Deep State, but didn’t kill him.

I’ll have a bunch to say about prepping issues coming up. There is nothing this mouse can do now that the elephants are dancing, except to stock my bolthole and pull my head in (figuratively, and a bit literally).

Don’t forget that we are in the midst of a massive increase in sick people too. The wuflu hasn’t gone away, and while the percentage is small, when enough people get it, even that tiny percentage with bad issues will get to be a really big number.

And I discovered that the NSAID I take daily for back pain is a fever suppressor as well, so I probably shouldn’t be quite so sanguine about my lack of fever when I’m coughing and headache-y.

In the mean time, avoid crowds, figure out what you have and what you need, and get to work stacking up needful things.

nick

*Note that this website and most other websites are not services. You are not customers here. (especially here, where you are friends and colleagues) No one here is under any obligation to provide anything other than courtesy, and that obligation is self imposed. Trolls be warned.

** “Why on earth would the capitol cops move the barricades and let the people in if there was a riot? Why wasn’t one of the most important and secure areas of our government guarded on this day of all days? Why would someone as experience and seasoned as Pelosi leave her computer on and logged in if she was afraid the building would be overrun? How many fires were there? How many businesses were burned to the ground and looted during this ‘riot’? Why are the headlines suggesting the rioters killed 4 people when two were medical emergencies -a stroke and a heart attack- one was an unarmed woman killed by cops, and the fourth was accidentally trampled or crushed in a crowd?” Any one of these should plant a seed.

Fri. Jan. 8, 2021 – the disaster is headed our way now for certain, just a question of how long and how bad

Cold. Hopefully clear though.

Yesterday stayed cool all day. It was clear and dry but never really warmed up. It was 40F when I went to bed.

Didn’t really get much done yesterday. Watched my local auctions throughout the day, and watched the news stories roll in.

Didn’t do super well in the auctions. One was a disaster. I had lots of items sell for a couple of bucks that should have sold well. I even bought one of my own items the price was so low and I’d actually spent money on buying it originally. I won’t be using that auctioneer again. The lego sold well. The k’nex sold badly, some bulk even going unsold. 40 year old concert T shirts brought $30-$50 EACH. Crazy. Hot Wheels and train stuff brought what I was hoping for. Kitchen stuff- corel and pyrex sold ok, not super, but not bad. Purses sold poorly. The photos were really bad. When a genuine Coach handbag, in simple black leather goes for $3 something is terribly wrong.

The stuff I dropped off Wednesday should list for next week in the better auction. I’m supposed to take a load to my ‘industrial’ auctioneer today. That’s why I’m hoping for clear weather. It will get more stuff out of my storage and that’s a good thing.

I want to accelerate getting stuff sold. I think the economy will not survive Biden and his plans. Not at the ‘man on the street’ level, not in the financial markets.

It’s possible we might be going to look at a couple lake properties on Saturday. I really want to accelerate that plan now too.

Lots to do, little time. Hurricane in the Gulf time… gotta get ready. Well, more ready.

Stack all the things.

nick

Thur. Jan. 7, 2021 – turns out it will probably live in infamy too

Cool but not so rainy. Maybe.

Yesterday the rain held off until mid-afternoon. Then came down with a vengeance. Thankfully it didn’t last long. I got a bunch of stuff dropped off at my auctioneer, picked up the kids from school, and went by the gun store to drop off a Christmas present and touch base. Turns out a bunch of stuff did happen in DC.

We’ll know today or tomorrow just how badly it’s going to turn out. Until then, I think a bunch of people got played. They still thought they could exercise their rights, petition for redress, make themselves heard. And they got punked. Those are going to be some angry people when they realize how badly they were done by…

Which brings me to the rest of this post. I wrote it last night in response to a comment from a long time, educated, engaged, and knowledgeable commentor here. It’s TO him, but not ABOUT him, and it’s also to everyone else who might be feeling the same way. Because I think feeling like that is REALLY shortsighted. I’m also breaking one of the informal rules here. Bob discouraged swear words not from any prudishness, but because he didn’t want to trip any nanny filters and deny people access to the good information and discussion here. We’ve been pretty good about keeping up the tradition and it does make a difference in tone. This is not a change in policy or intent. All that said, I’m gonna swear a lot below. Because it’s an evocative word and really the best way to convey my meaning and feelings. It’s a bit less than ‘polished’.

“This was a riot by Trumpkins.”

— even if it was a riot, and was ‘trump supporters’, you don’t get to pick your supporters, anymore than the lefty bands get to control who plays their music.

A few dozen attention seekers get suckered into entering what is normally a very secure building without any real resistance (except for the AF vet that they essentially murdered- unarmed and not a threat) and they take selfies. Did they destroy the artwork? Paint ACAB on every surface? D/L anything from the completely unsecured computers? Start any fires?

And SO WHAT? What about the [really huge number because I don’t want to debate what it was or wasn’t] of ordinary people that were there? They don’t count for anything because there are a couple of grandstanding jackasses? That’s internet argument technique #12, find one reason to dismiss everything else…

I find it hard to be gleeful about the destruction of the country I love, because it will also take down Trump. Destroying faith in the electoral process has destroyed something that can’t be put back together. This stopped being about Trump a long time ago and started being about the kind of place the US would be for the rest of my life, and probably for a good chunk of my kids’ lives.

70 MILLION people feel some degree of the same thing. NO ONE ANYWHERE that I’m aware of has suggested that Trump’s votes weren’t legit. So. 70 million. How many have to say “fuck it” and do something before it ALL goes to shit? Wrong tank cars get added to a train, no corn syrup for you- or the few hundred thousand boxes of cereal your plant makes. Fuck it. Tape measure gets dropped into the grinder at the packing house. All of the last 48 hours of production needs to be destroyed because there is metal in the hamburger? Fuck it. Time to run the TPS report so the line workers can get checks? Drop_table what? Fuck it. Mercury thermometer gets dropped into the bioreactor at Merck? Fuck it. That was baking soda not chlorine? Fuck it. Hello UPS? Someone called a tip line and says they shipped 6 bombs to random people. No, we don’t know who or where from. Fuck it. EVERY Fusion Center in the US got a package full of white powder? NO SHIT? Fuck it. Someone is taking pot shots at the big spherical tanks along I 10 in Baytown? Fuck it. Every three days someone throws 5 pounds of roofing nails off an overpass onto the freeway at rush hour? Well, fuck it. Every tip line and fusion center in the US gets calls about bomb threats. And six bombs actually go off. Rinse and repeat. Fuck it.

I could do this all night, but fuck it, I’m not that motivated right now.

70 million people. Mostly in jobs that actually do something besides moving electrons or money around. LOOK at the pictures of the “protests” all over the US. Those are some serious looking folks who are just about fed up. Not the tacticool tommies with their guts hanging out* a baofang radio and morale patches on their airsoft web gear. Look at the guys in gimme hats from trucking firms or ag supplements, guys in carhart jackets or company windbreakers. Women standing next to them looking just as grim. Those women don’t care about some guy on a tape talking trash about tramps sliding up to money, they are worried about where their kids will work when NAFTA II ships the rest of the factory jobs to third world slavers. They’re worried about raising their grandkids while their sons or daughters are passed out on chinese fentanyl or doing time for possession while inner city “youths” get a free pass.

So if you’re inclined to dance a jig, because the wicked witch of the west is dead, you might want to think about what comes next. And pray that the guy at the water treatment plant, or the pharmacy, or the rail yard, or any number of invisible but important places, doesn’t just say Fuck it.

And since we/I spend a lot of time talking about preparedness issues, it’s time to get serious about stacking what you can’t do without, if you aren’t already well along the way. I was stream of consciousness when I listed the ‘inconveniences’ above. It took almost no actual thought at all, and I really can do it all day. I’m surely not the only one. 70 million. A good portion of them aren’t going to be looking for inconveniences, but for deadly consequences. The only real thought I put in was to avoid that for now.

This has the potential to get really ugly, really fast. If it starts, it WILL escalate. It always does. The irish didn’t start out throwing hand grenades into lines of school kids waiting to go into class, but they got there.

Oh, and the rest of the world isn’t likely to just stand idly by either.

So keep stacking.

nick

*a PSA rifle that’s never been sighted in and will only fire once before jamming will still kill you dead when fired into a crowd. So will a .38 revolver from the sock drawer, or a $150 HiPoint from the pawn shop. You don’t have to be able to ruck for days with 2x your body weight to snipe from your car, or throw rocks off an overpass either. Something to keep in mind.

Mon. Dec. 21, 2020 – 12212020, kinda cool.

Cool and clear, maybe a chance to dry out.

Yesterday was beautiful. Clear, sunny, blue sky.

I did get over to my secondary location and threw out a bunch of stuff. I filled one big dumpster, and part of another. Took three loads in the Ranger to shuttle it to the trash. I had to cut it into 2-3 foot pieces to get it out, since I didn’t want to spend more time on the forklift. I’m making progress. Slow but still progress. Of course today I’ll be paying the piper with sore muscles and scrapes that burn. Both forearms and my shins are scraped up. I’ll live.

Number one daughter gets her first orthodontia installed today. Oh my. Half way through 6th grade. Seems early to me but I’ll let the pros make that call. It’s come a long way since I had mine done.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to pick up today and some to drop off. About four more bins worth and still barely a difference… but it’s progress. Pickups are mostly household and Christmas stuff, but there are some gub parts and accessories. Several boxes of 3m respirator filters. GOJO dispenser refills. Some other stuff.

Still need to get some Christmas lights and decor up outside. I got the ‘base layer’ up, but there is more cool stuff to do, if the weather will just hold for long enough.

There’s something wrong with the wuflu numbers coming out of Cali. If they were at capacity last time around, and now we’re double that, but still not maxed out, someone is lying, or the reporting sucks. Or, embrace the power of ‘and’. Not sure, don’t care enough to dig, but I’m calling shenanigans. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Aesop as ‘boots on the ground’ about the reality and severity of the problem, but something doesn’t add up. As I’ve said before, I’m treating this as the disaster is HERE, so do what needs doing to deal with that reality. No point in looking at storm tracks and models anymore, LOTS of reason to clean up the yard and fuel up the gennie, so to speak. The pebble is in motion, the avalanche is coming, everything moving will continue to do so until they all come to rest. I don’t see that happening for a long time.

The election and transfer of government happens next, or doesn’t. Again, nothing I can do to affect that, so work the things I can. The vaccine rollout and the surge are going to come crashing together for the next month or three at least. The possible mutation in Europe and round two of the CV lockdowns will be sloshing around for at least a couple of months, possibly followed by vaccine v.2… but in any case people are not going to stay home without a LOT of fear, more than anything to date. That fear is going to have to be based in at least the appearance of truth, and it’s going to have to be convincing. All this points to more extremism on every front.

If Biden is sworn in all bets are off. SJW will be emboldened and the cries for blood will be loud. The right will be very upset. Whether that will translate into action is a good question. It depends on the left and what they do. If Biden doesn’t survive in office past March, expect it to be turned up to 11.

If Trump is sworn in some bets will pay some very long odds. And the left will explode in rage. That much I feel confident saying. The right will say “come get some” and then we risk losing it all.

No matter which happens, it won’t be fun for most of us.

I’m thinking that we need to be ready to pull back, reduce our exposure, keep our heads down, but be ready for when that fails to protect us.

Whatever happens, having food in the fridge won’t hurt. Ditto for lawyers, guns, and money. And friends. And skills. And health. And stacks. Keep stacking.

nick

Sat. Dec. 19, 2020 – 2021 ain’t gonna save ya

Cold and wet. But not freezing.

Yesterday was cool all day but sunny in patches.

I got some stuff done. Got out to my remaining client’s house and got him all back working. Combination of failing gear, gear that got reset to initial state, and changing settings.

While there I learned that my client and his wife both got covid. Mild and short cases, but classic symptoms. He brought it home, likely from the hospital. Protocols failed somewhere. While working through the issues there with my sometimes business partner on the phone I learned that his actual business partner got it and died. 200 pounds overweight was probably the co-morbidity. He was no longer inclined to joke about covid. His partner was 42. That increases the number of people in my circle, one or two degrees of separation, that had it, and it increases the number that died from it. I’ve never had anyone I know die from flu.

Daughter’s school had a kid and staff member test positive this week. That’s a small sample but it’s double the week before and 4x the two weeks before that. IOW, it appears to be increasing in frequency.

The Solarwind penetrations look worse and worse. NO way to every trust those systems again, the attackers had too much time in them. And they were in everything important according to first reports. Given that first reports are almost always wrong, it’s hella early to be calling for war with Russia. Someone needs to be ‘reprisal-ed’ but we better be sure about the target.

Still two weeks to go in 2020, I’d like to get through them WITHOUT adding “hot war with Russia” to the list of unbelievable bad shirt happening.

It’s a list that includes actual honeypot physical spy stuff and assassination.

All the stuff set in motion this year will still be moving next year.

Anyone still doubt this is one of those times when everything changes?

From the masthead at WRSA– “How will you improve the survivability of your people this weekend?”

Think about that for a while, then start working on it. Keep stacking.

nick

(anyone else think the timing of the Solarwind revelations is just a TAD suspicious?)