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Category: politics

Fri. Oct. 16, 2020 -busy day

Hot and humid?  Or the cold front gets here and it’s cool and humid.  Either way, humid.

 

edit–  cold.  61F and misty drizzle at 7am.

Thursday was mostly nice, with some nasty moments of humidity.   I got all of my antennas back up, which meant I was up on the roof.   Even in the shade, with dead calm the humidity had me dripping sweat off my nose.

I cleared some shelves and moved several bins of auction stuff out of the house and onto the shelves.  I can’t have it just sit there while waiting to go to auction.  I’ll take the cleaning supplies and paper goods back to my secondary location.    It helped.   There are 4 bins that aren’t sitting in the foyer…

I did some small things in the garage.  Had to make some adjustments to the roll up door.  Somehow the cables got off their guide grooves on one side and the door wasn’t closing parallel to the ground.  It only took a half hour, but it’s always nerve wracking working around that spring.  Slow and steady, carefully considered- that’s the way to do it.

One advantage of working on stuff is getting a much clearer idea how it really works.  The first time working on the door had a bunch of discovery.  This time, I saw what was wrong very quickly and just fixed it.

I had to do a bit of repair on my discone scanner antenna.  Somehow during handling it I broke off two of the ‘cone’ elements.  They are hollow tubes with a threaded stud inserted into one end.  The stud pulled out of the tube.  I couldn’t re-crimp the tube, so I silver soldered them back together.  Worked well, and that’s another thing I bought far in advance of need.  I have no idea where or when I got the silver solder and flux, but I knew it was exactly what would be needed to fix something.  The antenna probably would still be 90% without the two elements, but it didn’t take long to fix them, and I had the stuff ready.  I’ll screw them back into the antenna today or tomorrow.  I’m listening to the scanner now, so some degradation didn’t make too much difference.

I finally got the feed line attached for my UHF antenna that I intend to use to D/L weather maps from the satellites.  (That’s the plan anyway.)  All the talk of using the SDR dongle for other things motivated me (since I was up on the roof anyway) to complete that antenna install.  Now I just have to get a PC set up with the software and get the dongle running again.

I got my Instacart grocery deliveries today too.  I found some cuts of beef on sale, although not the killer deal of the last couple of times.  More food in the freezer makes me feel better.  I added frozen fruit and vegetable mix as well as more bread.   My wife is making smoothies for breakfast and likes the frozen fruit for that.  Now that I have the additional freezer space, I can accommodate her.  (frozen fruit is a definite  luxury in prepping terms, if push comes to shove, I’ll reclaim the freezer space for meat or other protein.)

Today I’ll be doing some auction pickups.  I got a bunch of household stuff, and what I believe to be an RV sized battery charger/inverter.  It was $3 so worth the gamble.  I also got a small Dometic camping toilet, suitable for in vehicle use and at least part of a Dakota Alert driveway monitor.  There was a lot of camping stuff in the auctions this week, but I’m full up.  I’m actually looking to sell several coleman lanterns and maybe a stove or two.  I’m a whole lot less interested in keeping them in my “here you go, here’s a disaster kitchen” boxes than I was.  My teats are running dry of the milk of human kindness at the moment.

I’ll leave you with that unfortunate image burning in your brain, and suggest that you take what time and resources you have, and keep improving your position.  The easiest way is to keep stacking!

 

nick

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Thur. Oct. 15, 2020 – Home with the kids today

Cooler and mostly overcast.  Or raining.

Yesterday was fairly cool, and mostly overcast, but not unpleasant.  Even in the attic doing the last walkthrough with the roofer it was cool.

Knocked off a couple of little things, and did some meatspace relationship maintenance.  Today I’m home so I’ll be working my list.  If it’s cooler, it will make everything go that much easier.

I’d also like to get some more Halloween decor out, and get some of the house cleaned up.  I’m hoping that there won’t be any rain though as I also need to get my antennas back up.

I checked my gardens, and it’s been long enough I should be seeing sprouts if I’m going to get any.  I’m not seeing any.  So I’ll be replanting with a different seed packet.  It won’t take long but it’s another little thing on the list.

Mainly though, I need to get stuff out of the house.  That’s hardest because I’m relying on other people.  I may have to take some interim steps and move stuff twice, just to get it moving.

Meanwhile, out in the bigger world, it sure looks like Biden has a problem to address.    In a normal political cycle, he’d be toast at this point.  Certainly a republican would be falling on his sword and looking to ‘take more time with family’.   In the current bizarro world, I can’t even begin to make predictions other than ‘standard program of denial’ and ‘accuse the opposition of doing what they say I did.’

Every chop at the rule of law, every political prosecution, every new act of violence and I want MOAR!!!!!!11!!! .  More food, more guns, more ammo, more friends, more skills, and most of all, more time.

Work on what you can.  Keep stacking.

nick

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Mon. Oct. 12, 2020 – Columbus Day.

Hot and humid.  Because why not?

Happy Columbus Day.  Without whom we might still be serfs in Europe.  And because FYTW.

The air was saturated all day Sunday, to the point that water in the driveway didn’t dry.

I worked on little things all day.  Got ready for the roofers.  Did some stuff in the house to make my wife happier.   Did a little bit of stuff in the garage.  Set another rat trap for whatever is roaming my food shelves.  There was gnawing on a bucket overnight so the visitor is still coming.  Nothing in the glue traps, so I moved them around a bit.  I’ll add more if the problem doesn’t resolve itself in a day or two.  I may add more anyway.

Spent an hour in the pool with the family.  It was a good day.

I’m starting to see stuff online that is adding to my concerns about the insurgency.  People are noticing and identifying the Command and Control structure for the socialists driving the protests and riots.  Well, not the structure, but that there is one.  Things are starting to show up in the live streams, and during the incidents that are clear indicators to people who know what to look for.   There is an organization at work.   They are training.  They are supplying.  They are escalating.  They are exploring tactics.   The latest incident is the “security guard” shooting a ‘patriot’ protester in the face and killing him.

There is evidence that the security guard/ bodyguard is more than he seems, or at least a fellow traveler.   There is some video that looks suspiciously like the event was instigated and controlled and provoked.  What happens with the guy next should be revelatory.  Spicy times are here for some people and in some places.  Don’t be there applies.

What would your life look like if your movements were constrained by real, well considered fear/concern over being physically attacked in public if you just happened to be in the wrong place?  The baying mob can make your supermarket a no-go zone.  Or your bank.  Or the mall where your kid works.  Or your block.  What if they decide your day care or private school has too much ‘privilege’ and mobs it?  Can’t happen?  There are places where the private school kids don’t wear uniforms anymore because it marks them for kidnapping.  There are places where having a sticker for your kids’ school on your vehicle can set you up for all sorts of bad things.

Do you have a company parking sticker or hang tag on your vehicle?  Does your neighborhood have parking stickers?  Do you have a school or team sticker on your car?  What about your license plate trim ring?  A school sign in your yard?  Any political slogans?  Vanity plates that are easy to remember?  How easy would it be to dox you from a picture of you or your car?  There are people on the right making note of campaign signs in people’s yards, I’m certain the left is doing so too.

I don’t want to believe that is the direction we’re headed, but I see escalation wherever I look.  We all know the end state of marxist/socialist government- people kneeling next to an open grave.  As I pointed out at dinner to my kids, it has happened within living memory and on this planet.  100 Million dead.  There are wealthy and powerful forces at work here trying it again.

Yes, resist.  No, don’t stick out.  The best partisan is the guy no one would ever suspect.  It may come to that.  I hope not, but because hope isn’t a strategy, I’ll keep working to improve my situation, and to keep stacking.

nick

 

added- note too that whenever there is an incident like this now, someone finds the pics that link X person to other protests, other gatherings.  Often it’s their own social media that provides the link.  The cops and three letter agencies are using social media as the world’s most pervasive intelligence gathering tool, even our locals mention it on the scanner.   Don’t feed the beast.  And don’t be complacent.  If your smartphone, vizio tv, or alexa can hear you talk about vacations and you start to see targeted ads, it can certainly hear political speech too.  Is anyone doing that today?  Will they be in 6 months?  6 years?  The recordings never go away.

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Thur. Oct. 8, 2020 – out and about

Nice day, warm, but with a breeze.  Or so I hope…

That pretty much describes yesterday.  Another beautiful fall day.  Got some of my auction stuff sorted out.   Helped the daughter with classwork and discovered just how bad it is.  Made lunch.

Then I started getting some of my Halloween decorations out.  I don’t want to get everything set, because we have a hurricane that could hit us, and then I’ve got roofers coming.  I have to move everything to a safe distance from the house and get out of their way, so I’m only setting up stuff that’s either easy to move, or out of the way.  I like to do a big scene for Halloween.

Today my wife is home working, so she’ll have oversight of the kids while I run errands.   I’ve got pickups (stuff for HER) and hopefully some cleanup at my secondary location.  I’m also hoping to take 3 or 4 big bins to my local auction.  That will help at home.

I watched about half of the VP debate.  While it was less rancorous, the two realities that the candidates (and by extension their supporters) live in are very far apart.  That is the most I’ve seen of Pence, well, ever.  Seems nice enough.   The other one, not so much.

I’m also seeing so many articles about how Trump is cooked, done, over, crashing and burning, definitely gonna lose big, etc.  Where do those people live?  What are they watching? *  A commentor here brought up some good points, but I don’t see it.  Trump’s supporters from last time are out in force this time.  Tentative supporters from last time are feeling freer to support him this time.  I don’t see supporters leaving him in droves.  And he seems to be attracting new supporters as well.    Further, nobody “loves” Joe Biden.   No one that I can see is psyched that he’s running, or excited by the idea.  His slogan is that he’s a “uniter”.   No one would ever believe that.  I just don’t see it.    I really hope I’m not wrong, but the ‘two different worlds’ problem is getting bigger and I’m just as likely (ok, not quite as likely) to be stuck in mine as they are stuck in theirs.

Either way, things are not going to ‘get better’ any time soon.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

 

*or it’s pure spin and gaslighting.

 

 

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Wed. Sept. 30, 2020 – well, that went by fast

Cool and breezy.  I hope.

Yesterday stayed cooler all day, starting out and ending up positively chilly for this time of year.  Of course, this is Houston, so we could still get some 90F days before Fall really gets here.  In any case, September is on it’s way out the door, and we’re on the downhill slide through the Holidays and into the New Year.

I did spend yesterday running a bunch of errands.  Picked up my auction items.  Dropped off some clothes for goodwill, and some cleaner for my buddy who got water in his house during the flooding.   Best to nip any issues in the bud, before mold has a chance to get established.  Sold one of the things he listed for me— I mean ALL of the things that weren’t lost in a boating accident.

Took 166 pounds of dead lead acid batteries to the scrapyard.  With a couple of pounds of aluminum and some motors, I got $40.   Prices have not recovered from the china trade war, or covid.  Not gonna get rich scrappin’ but it gets the stuff out of here and it’s money.

Fixed an issue with the A/C blower in my Expedition.  Only took a few minutes to find that the plug on the resistor pack had come undone.  Much easier and cheaper than replacing the pack, but unfortunately, I already bought the pack.  I guess I have a spare for a common issue now.  Nice to have a choice of fan speeds again.

Gave the down coat I washed to youngest, who loves it.  Gave the down vest to my wife.  Fits great and is true outdoor gear from Eastern Mountain Sports.  I’d like to find a down coat for daughter one, then we’ll all have a couple of choices for cold weather gear.  Don’t usually need it, but my girls are southern belles.  Daughter one was wearing a coat in the house today, ‘cuz it was 74F inside and she was chilly sitting on the couch.  They’ll freeze solid if it ever gets really cold 😉

The shouting match sold as a debate did not reassure me of anything.  They got sleepy Joe to stand up for over an hour, and he only slurred and lost focus once that I saw.   Other than that he was rude, dismissive, called Trump names, and seems to think he only has one son, the dead one.  I noticed that whenever he says “my son” he means the dead one.

Trump avoided making definitive statements on the Proud Boys and AGW.  Got lots of shots in about Hunter, socialists, law and order, and ballot irregularities.  He was a bit squirrely on his taxes.

None of it showed me a likelihood of a peaceful transition.  Both vehemently denied the others’ statements calling them lies, and I’m sure the partisan supporters feel the same way.    Certainly no one’s mind was likely to have been changed about who to vote for.

Which means, you guessed it, stack it high.  Find a place to hide out for the duration, even if it’s your living room.  The streets will not be safe.

nick

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Sat. Sept. 14, 2019 – where did the week go?

Cool and wet.  Yesterday started out cooler, stayed cooler longer, but by late afternoon was PLENTY HOT.   It did cool off pretty quickly once the sun started down.

I’ve got my monthly get together for my non-prepping hobby this morning, so I’ll be radio silence for a while.  Then I will be trying to cram as many of my week’s goals into a couple of hours as possible 🙂

I don’t know where the week went.  I had plans.  I had good intentions.  Shopping and auction pickups ate a bunch of daylight, that’s certain, but there still should have been more time to work the list…

Now that the gloves have come off, and Burrito Beto (white on the outside, full of brown stuff inside) declared his position on gun confiscation and the Bill of Rights, I wonder if sales will pick up?  If they don’t, it’ll be a pretty good indicator of how the public sees his chances of winning…  and that the other Dems didn’t come out with ‘clarification’ statements, means that they’re fully on board too, they just don’t want to say it out loud yet. Fully socialist, and gun grabby- does no one see the path they are following and where it leads? [Solzhenitsyn quote left as an exercise for the reader.]

Anyone here still think we’re not headed into a major schism in our country and in the world?  If not, how would we avoid one?  Because just continuing as we are will lead there and no one is suggesting alternate paths, or putting on the brakes.

Which is why I prep (and hurricanes.  Can’t forget about the hurricanes.  Especially with one headed toward us again.)

What have you done to improve your skills? Stockpile? sources? community?   I hope it’s something, even if little tiny steps….

 

 

n

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Fri. July 20, 2018 – busy week

Another hot one, 80F at 6am. Forecast for record heat.

Whether we’re swirling around the edge of the toilet bowl, or at the dawn of a new age, it’s pretty clear that big changes are happening in the world. The march to war might be delayed a bit, or we might be getting played while our enemies align themselves and get ready. We might be headed toward civil war, as people on both sides seem almost to yearn for it. Who knows?

Or we might be headed into a general collapse. I think it’s well underway and we just don’t see the signs. Today is pretty much like yesterday, and so it’s been throughout history. Certainly our star is not ascending.

We have MASSIVE homelessness. We have a stunning number of people on welfare and other forms of .gov aid. We have lost control of our borders to the point that somewhere around 10% of the population is currently foreign invaders. They have spread throughout the nation, and are suddenly visible, like when a geometric progression doubles to the point you see it, then doubles again… just consider the number of machete attacks.

If people defecating in the streets, gangs pulling people out of buildings and hacking them to death, and record low workforce participation rates aren’t enough, consider the rise of socialism in our political realm. This is an idea that is opposite to our national character, but the long march has been so effective that openly socialist candidates can win party primaries. Our elites get wealthier, while our ‘normals’ get poorer, and civic institutions degrade. [consider than when I was young, it was entirely normal that a man in a skilled trade, as the sole breadwinner, would be able to afford a cabin on a lake, a pontoon boat, snowmobiles, a camper, etc. Contrast that to today.]

The very things we establish government to provide are no longer working. Clean water. Education. Safety and rule of law. Public works infrastructure.

Consider just thirty years ago. What was the relationship of the public to cops? Bottled water? Aid organizations? Refugees? What did inner cities look like? Gangs? Public infrastructure? What was public morality like? What was cultural sexuality like? Cultural violence?

Consider 40 years. 50.

I think we don’t see it because we are too close to the problem. Convince me otherwise. Or what have you done to prep this week??

nick

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Wednesday, 16 August 2017

08:37 – It was 65.3F (18.5C) when I took Colin out at 0650, clear and sunny.

Barbara is heading for the gym this morning and then making a quick run down to Winston to have lunch with her friend Bonnie and then making a stop at Home Depot to pick up another platform ladder for downstairs and a gallon of VM&P naphtha for me. She’ll be back late this afternoon. Tomorrow and through the weekend, we’ll be doing kit stuff.

The recent events in Charlottesville remind me of a similar incident that occurred back in November, 1979. My parents had moved to Winston-Salem a couple of years previously, and I was visiting them when the incident occurred. It was the shootout in Greensboro between the KKK/Nazis and the Communists. I remember thinking at the time that it couldn’t have happened to more deserving people, and that it was a shame they hadn’t all shot each other.

Although one wouldn’t know it from reading the news reports, it seems that in Charlottesville the KKK/Nazis did everything by the book. They applied for a permit, which was duly granted, and then began a peaceful protest. Then the radical racist black vice-mayor withdrew the permit and ordered the white protesters out of town. They dispersed as ordered, individually and in small groups, and were set upon by roving bands of BLM/Antifa protesters, who had not even applied for a permit. Apparently, the young man who drove the car into a crowd of commie protesters had already been assaulted and battered more than once by groups of BLM/Antifa terrorists.

So it appears to me that the only way the KKK/Neo-Nazi group contributed to the violence was by being there. The actual violence was instigated and committed by the BLM/Antifa side, with the active support of the city government and the passive support of law enforcement, who stood by and did nothing to stop it. In other words, that woman’s death was entirely attributable to actions taken by the left, supported by city government and law enforcement.

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Thursday, 8 June 2017

09:01 – It was 53.5F (12C) when I took Colin out around 0645 this morning, overcast with about 9/10 cloud cover.

Herschel from Shaw Brothers showed up early yesterday morning and got all the plumbing stuff finished and checked out. While he was here, the drop-ceiling installers showed up. They finished the drop ceiling by mid-afternoon. Barbara is happy with it, so I’m happy with it.

At some point, the electrician is supposed to show up to install the overhead lighting, followed by the painters. The last step will be the floor installers. Unfortunately, they’re backed up, and it’ll be early next month before they can get here to install the floor. Still, we’re making progress.

We finished watching season four of the Australian series The Doctor Blake Mysteries last night, and continued with Outlander (UK title; my US title is Lots of Cuties with Really Good Dresses).

The auction sign went up yesterday in front of Bonnie’s house. The auction of the house, contents, and land takes place on Saturday, 15 July. Frances and Al plan to come up for the auction. They said they might buy the place, but I don’t think they were serious.

With the downstairs all torn up and stuff piled all over the place, it’s been hard to build science kits. We got things reorganized the other day to the point where we have an open flat work surface to bin subassemblies and can at least get to the shelving that holds the thousands of chemical bottles. We’re getting low-stock on all of the kits, and need to get more batches built.

There was an article in the paper this morning about a new concealed-carry initiative that would allow conceal carry with no permit anywhere that open carry is now allowed, which is to say most places. Unfortunately, our Republican governor lost last November to a prog Democrat, who will probably veto the bill. Given that some of our republican legislators opposed the bill, it’s likely they won’t be able to override a veto. We’ll see. Constitutional Carry is spreading across the US, and with every muslim outrage it gains more support, sometimes even among Democrats. I do wish that Trump would simply render state laws that restrict CC moot by announcing that the federal government will, upon request by any citizen at any US Post Office, issue a federal concealed + open carry permit that is valid for any location in the US, including local, state, and federal government buildings and property.

The dominoes are starting to topple. Puerto Rico is now effectively bankrupt, although they can’t use that word, and Illinois is about to follow. At this point, there’s simply no alternative. Holders of Illinois government bonds are likely to take a 100% haircut, and pension funds are almost certain to be controlled by receivers. If I were expecting an Illinois government pension, I’d expect to see a small fraction of what I’d been promised, if that. My guess is that Illinois pensioners will see a ceiling put on pension payments. Everyone will get at most $1,000/month or whatever, regardless of what they’d been promised. Illinois government and pensioners and unions will be screaming for a federal bailout, of course, but with Trump and a Republican congress, they’re unlikely to get much, if any, federal money. And Illinois is just the first of many mismanaged states that will end up standing in line at the federal trough. I have no sympathy for any of them.

 

 

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Sunday, 7 May 2017

09:48 – It was 39.3F (4C) when I took Colin out at 0645 this morning, sunny and with a stiff breeze. We have the air conditioning on, so the house temperature overnight had fallen to 67F (19.5C), which is a bit cool for me. We won’t bother to turn the heat on, since the house will warm up during the day. With spring temperatures as they are, we won’t bother running heat or air until things warm up enough to make it worth running AC.

We got a bunch of chemical bottles filled yesterday, with a bunch more to do today and the rest of this coming week. For now, we’re building stock of shelf-stable chemicals in preparation for the busy time in late summer and early fall. For example, Barbara just finished filling 240 bottles of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) tablets, which are shelf-stable for years. We keep much smaller quantities of the less stable chemicals on hand, making them up only as need to build kits on the fly.

We also have a fair amount of bulk food that needs to be repackaged. Last week, Barbara brought home 50-pound (22.7 kilo) bags of white rice, white sugar, and white bread flour from Costco. Until now, we’ve been repackaging that kind of stuff in PET bottles with oxygen absorbers, but I think we’ll do this batch in one-gallon 7-mil LDS foil-laminate Mylar bags, again with oxygen absorbers. Packed that way, the rice and sugar will remain good indefinitely, and the white bread flour for at least 10 years and probably 20.

I’m kind of following the French election. AP would be amusing if they weren’t so evil. They consistently describe Macron, who’s ultra-left, as a mainstream “centrist” candidate, and Le Pen, who’s moderate left, as “hard right”. They wouldn’t know a right-winger if he bit them in the ass, which may very well happen, and a lot sooner than they’d believe possible.

 

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