September 2022 Archives

Busy day today so time for sleep.

Worred about Russia annexing the four parts of Ukraine.  This opens up things to advance to WWIII status.  Crap. Putin's speech was great — it is our side that is not thinking.

Officially off the island.  Emptied out the barn there - I am done.

The new truck drives wonderfully - really happy with it.  Looking forward to many years of faithful service and fun trips.

Surf for a bit and then early bedtime - busy weekend...

Interesting development - an agency like the FBI is needed by our Nation.
It is now populated by political hacks and is being used as a tool by the Democrats.
A change in the wind?  From the New York Post:

30 ex-FBI agents stand up to support whistleblower who exposed agency’s political bias
Thirty former FBI agents, including a retired deputy assistant director, head of counterterrorism and five SWAT team members, have spoken out publicly in support of suspended FBI whistleblower Stephen Friend.

Their heartfelt messages, obtained exclusively by The Post, show a deep and widespread anguish about the politicization of the FBI.

“It’s time to stop the FBI from being the enforcer of a political party’s ideology,” says Ernie Tibaldi, a retired agent from San Francisco. “We need to re-establish the FBI as the apolitical and independent law enforcement entity that it always was.”

He expressed gratitude to Friend “for having the courage to stand up to the corruption that has taken over the leadership of the FBI.”

Wonderful - takes a lot of courage to stand up to this administration and to the deep-state.  These 30 are Patriots in the best sense of the word.

Russian maintenence - the same way that reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was maintained.
From Law Dog.  Too long to excerpt here - just go and read.  Well written, five minutes and it will open your eyes to a very good possibility.

Hanlon's razor writ large: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

Needed about one cubic yard more capacity and I would have emptied out the barn today.  Arrgghh...  So close...

I am down tomorrow to pick up a new-to-me car - 2016 Ford Expedition:

About five years ago, I was driving a Ford F-350 pickup and loved it. I traded it in on a Toyota Highlander and it's OK but several niggling design details and the overall utility doesn't really appeal to me.  Large SUVs are not as popular these days due to their gas mileage so I was able to trade right across for this puppy.  Great shape.  Picking it up tomorrow.  It's built on the chassis of an F-150 so has the handling and towing capacity but much more spacious for passengers and puppers. Pickups are great but not actually very efficient for moving volumes of stuff - a cargo van is a lot better.  This way, I have the best of both worlds with my 2012 E-250.

I'll pick it up at the dealership (great people - Mission Motors) and then clear the last 'o the crap out of the barn and then up to the farm for good...

Perfect example of being for "We The People" and representing their constituency.
From the London Daily Mail:

Miami mayor FLED Hurricane Ian to attend a pair of big money fundraisers in his honor 1,200 miles away at ritzy celebrity-favorite clubs while tweeting at Floridians to 'stay informed & stay safe'

• • As the state of Florida was bracing for Hurricane Ian Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was in NYC
  • The two big money fundraisers were held for Suarez's Agenda for America PAC
  • Suarez's first stop was at Casa Cipriani, a posh private members club located on Manhattan's South St, according to a source who attended the event, The New York Post reported
  • The Mayor's next stop was the ritzy Upper East Side French restaurant Le Bilboquet, the source said
  • As the storm pummeled the Sunshine State, Suarez sent out tweets to Floridians to 'stay informed and stay safe,' while he was in the Big Apple

I "get it" — this event was planned weeks ago and there were "people" there.

Sheesh.  Talk about being out of touch.  He could have flown back immediately and been on TV walking around some of the areas - that would be a lot better optics than dining in some swanky joint 1,200+ miles to the North, out of harms way.

Horrific photos and video coming in.  Breitbart is doing an excellent job of up-to-the-minute reporting.
I gave some money to these people: Team Rubicon  They are excellent and their administrative overhead is vanishingly low.  The story of their beginnings (with the 2010 Haiti earthquake) is a great story and emphasizes their core nature.  Just do it — deal with the bureaucracy later...

From the Los Angeles, CA FOX News affiliate:

National Coffee Day 2022: Where to get deals and freebies
Thursday, Sept. 29 is National Coffee Day with freebies and deals brewing at chains across the country.

Coffee consumption has soared in America, reaching a two-decade high this year as many take on post-COVID routines, according to polling this year by the National Coffee Association (NCA).

The group found that 66% of Americans drink coffee each day, more than any other beverage — including tap water. That figure was also up nearly 14% since January 2021, the NCA said.

Meanwhile, consumption of espresso-based beverages — typically prepared away from home — has increased by 30% since the start of the pandemic, according to the polling. And despite rising inflation this year, coffee giants like Starbucks have continued to see record demand.

As a note, LA's full name is: "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"
I much prefer that.

Watched a video or two.  Nothing out there catches my eye.

Tomorrow is another day and my last run bringing stuff up from the Island.

Catch some shut-eye and get an early start to tomorrow...

Except for the storm and the USA blowing up both of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Nothing much else happening.

Last load from the storage barn.  Yaaayyyyyy!!!

Still have some things that need to be taken care of - bank, mailbox.  Trading in my Highlander for something more suited to me (really good dealership).  No more living there.

Back later tonight...

.

UPDATE: Did not get everything loaded. Back down tomorrow... Grrrr....

Strengthened to a CAT4 last night.  From Breitbart:

Hurricane Ian Just Shy of Category 5 as It Nears Florida
Hurricane Ian rapidly intensified off Florida’s southwest coast Wednesday morning, gaining top winds of 155 mph (250 kph), just shy of the most dangerous Category 5 status. Damaging winds and rain lashed the state’s heavily populated Gulf Coast, with the Naples to Sarasota region at “highest risk” of a devastating storm surge.

U.S. Air Force hurricane hunters confirmed Ian gained strength over warm Gulf of Mexico water after battering Cuba, bringing down the country’s electricity grid and leaving the entire island without power. Ian was centered about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west-southwest of Naples at 7 a.m., swirling toward the coast at 10 mph (17 kph).

“This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said early Wednesday. “This is going to be a rough stretch.”

It has been a very quiet hurricane season so far — until today...  Florida is well prepared.

So nice of them, so thoughtful...

Tucker Carlson looks into the details and the timeline:

Hoovie's Garage is a YouTube channel with 1.42M Subscribers.
He tested the new Ford electric truck and it came up wanting:

The battery technology is simply not there. Great for running around town and buying groceries but useless for any real-world applications. How much does it cost?  How long does the battery pack last? How much does that cost to replace?  What is the estimated cost per mile to drive?  Funny that they do not release those numbers...

I'm sure all the druggies and low-lives will secure their firearms before going out to these places.  From Newsmax:

Philadelphia Mayor Issues Ban on Guns at City Parks, Pools
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order Tuesday banning guns and deadly weapons from the city's indoor and outdoor recreation spaces including parks, basketball courts and pools.

The order is the latest attempt by Philadelphia officials to regulate guns inside city limits, something made difficult by Pennsylvania's preemption law that bars municipalities from enacting or enforcing their own stricter gun regulations. Attorneys for the city said the executive order is the city managing its facilities as a property owner, making it different than previous legislation passed by city council and struck down in court.

The ceremonial signing also comes the day after Kenney spoke at the funeral for Tiffany Fletcher, a 41-year-old mother of three, who was struck and killed by crossfire earlier this month outside of the city recreation center where she worked. A 14-year-old, who was firing at another group of teens, has since been charged in Fletcher's shooting death.

Certainly a tragedy but had there been a few armed civilians at the site, the funeral might have been for someone else.  It would have saved Pennsylvania the cost of the trial and incarceration.  One less choirboy on the streets.

From Severe Weather Europe:

An early disruption event is starting for the Polar Vortex, with pressure anomalies setting the stage for something bigger later in Winter
The Polar Vortex has just begun to form for the 2022/2023 weather season, but it is already facing its first disruptive event. Strong pressure systems in the lower atmosphere will send energy upwards into the Stratosphere, affecting the Polar Vortex and disrupting its early development process.

These early disruption processes can have an important effect as we get closer to Winter. Weather is linked to the stratospheric Polar Vortex, especially during the Winter. So it matters in what shape or form the Polar Vortex is as we enter the season.

But besides directly affecting the Polar Vortex, the pressure anomalies in the next days/weeks will also put another process in motion that can be even more disruptive for the Winter polar circulation. You will see how having more snow in October can mean more snow and cold in the Winter.

Just in time for Europe to face fuel shortages.  All over politics. The military-industirial complex.

Who in the USA authorized blowing them up?

That will kill Europe this winter and make a war with Russia that much more probable.

Whistleblower?  Please!

Floridians have a certain sense of reality about this - two images:

The tail end of Ian is going to pass right over my new house in NC - emailed the insurance broker today to check that everything was OK.

From the new Italian Prime Minister:

Speaking truth to power and power doesn't like it. Tough for them.

A great big heaping of irony here - from FOX News:

Norway threatens to shut down wind farm after wind destroys turbines
The Norwegian government has threatened to shutter a large wind farm in the northern part of the country after reports of wind storms destroying turbines, sending parts flying.

Norwegian Water and Energy Directorate (NVE), the agency that oversees the nation's water and energy resources, penned a letter this week to the operator of Ånstadblåheia Vindpark in Sortland, Norway, expressing concern about falling debris at the site and the broader technical integrity of the plant. The agency said it would consider further action including a potential government-ordered shut down if the operator doesn't address the situation.

No mention as to who designed or manufactured the turbines.  A simple site survey should have shown this to be a potential issue. Who is responsible for the damage and the replacement.

I love how they never mention how much energy it takes to manufacture a wind turbine versus what its total output.  They are not environmentally friendly and there is still no way to recycle the blades when they are taken out of service in 10 years. Especially fun that the resin used in the blades is sourced from petroleum hydrocarbons.

Been a very quiet hurricane season so far but...
From the London Daily Mail:

'Leave now, do not wait': 300,000 Floridians are ordered to evacuate before monster Hurricane Ian slams into west coast at 140MPH - as Tampa readies for its 'storm of the century'

• • Tropical Storm Ian has been upgraded to a 'large and powerful' Category 1 hurricane by the National Hurricane Center
  • Authorities in Cuba have suspended classes and will begin evacuations on Monday as Ian is set to hit a Category 3 strength or above
  • Officials in Florida have also declared a state emergency over the strengthening storm, warning residents to stock up on radios and supplies
  • Stores have started to run out of water and other basic supplies as many stockpile ahead of the storm hitting - including planks of plywood to board their windows up

And Governor DeSantis is preparing very well - from Breitbart:

Ron DeSantis: 25,000 Linemen Ready for Power Outages in Florida
Thousands of linemen are ready to restore power in Florida as Hurricane Ian approaches the state’s west coast, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Monday.

Florida, which is under a state of emergency, now has 5,000 Florida National Guardsmen activated ahead of Hurricane Ian’s landfall.

“There may not be direct impacts in all 67 counties, but there may be indirect impacts not just from the storm, but also from people that may be evacuating to other parts of the state,” DeSantis explained.

“So we want to make sure that our communities have the maximum flexibility that they need to be able to respond to the storm in any way that they need to,” he added.

Additionally, DeSantis said they now “have more than 25,000 linemen that are stationed ready to go once the all clear is given and they are given the go ahead to go and get the power back on,” as power outages are expected.

More at the site - sounds like DeSantis has excellent advisers and they are as prepared as they can be.
And then, there is this odd bit of news from The Daily Caller:

Jean-Pierre Defends Biden’s Lack Of Communication With DeSantis Amid Potential Hurricane Disasters
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended President Joe Biden’s lack of communication with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Hurricane Ian.

NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell asked Jean-Pierre if the president believes it is important to communicate with DeSantis regarding a potential crisis from the hurricane traveling toward Central and Northwest Florida. The press secretary said the administration is able to provide for people in crisis without communicating with local politicians.

Good God - this is a national disaster.  Aren't the people in the White House going to rise above their petty squabbles and get aid to the citizens of Florida?  These people sound like school-yard bullies. Children.

From FOX News:

Vladimir Putin grants full Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden
Russian President Vladimir Putin granted full Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday.

Snowden, 39, fled the United States to Russia after revealing information about extensive surveillance operations being conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). He is now a Russian citizen by presidential decree, Reuters reported Monday.

The announcement comes roughly two years after Russia granted Snowden permanent residency in the country.

The country first granted Snowden asylum in 2014 and has since resisted calls to extradite him to the U.S. Snowden faces espionage charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years in the U.S.

Good - Snowden was one of the first people to really reveal the depths of the deep-state and it's abuse of our Federal Agencies. One thing I really like about him is that he took the time to redact the identifying information for innocent people.  This is unlike other traiters - including one darling of the left who did not and who were directly responsible for the horrible deaths of several thousand of our friends in Afghanistan. Bradley/Chelsea - whatever.  May your soul rot in hell.

Don Surber has a wonderful roundup of the reporting:

Italy elects first woman PM. Misogynist media hates her
The Pacific is a parody account on Twitter. It was spot on about Italians electing Giorgia Meloni as their prime minister on Sunday.

The American media treats as a goddess any other first woman PM in Europe. The press is OK with women politicians provided they know their place. The media only accepts socialists. It also helps if the woman turns a blind eye to her husband's adultery. Hillary was the Duchess of these Doormats.

But Meloni refuses to fit that mold. She wants to put Italy First. She wants a nation whose death rate exceeds its birth rate to procreate again.

Meloni heads the conservative Brothers of Italy party. I give them props for not changing that to Siblings of Italy.

CNN reported, "Giorgia Meloni set to be Italy's most far-right prime minister since Mussolini -- exit poll."'

That's right. CNN mentioned Mussolini in its headline. Not until Paragraph 4 in the story did it mention that, oh by the way, she is the nation's first woman PM.

And it gets better from there.  Shows once again that things have not gotten so horrible in such a short time, it is just now we see things as they really are.  The veils have dropped and we see these tyrants and their enablers in their true glory.

Penultimate load of stuff from the island.  Also looking at changing my Toyota Highlander over to something a bit more in line with what I like.  Looking at a Ford Expedition today - based on the F-150 chassis and using the 3.5L ecoBoost engine. Couple years old, low miles.

Coffee first - back here tonight.

From Breitbart:

Italy’s Move to the Right Shakes Europe’s Political Elites as Giorgia Meloni Readies to Govern
Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party that won the most votes in Italy’s national election, was preparing to be the country’s first woman premier on Monday. The center-right coalition leader is bound for office declaring “We defend God, country, and family” built on opposition to gender ideology and the LGBT lobby alongside support for strong borders and an end to limitless mass migration.

Meloni sounded a moderate, unifying tone in a victory speech that noted Italians had finally been able to clearly determine who they wanted to govern and the direction they wished to go in defiance of establishment elites.

“Italians have sent a clear message in favour of a right-wing government led by Brothers of Italy,” she told reporters in Rome, holding up a sign saying “Thank you Italy.”

All of which has sent much of Europe into a gasping, political tail spin.

Good - the Europeans are living in a bubble. Their "leaders" are elite fops who do not represent the citizens.  They are credentialed, not educated.  They are idiots when it comes to the actual mechanics of governance.  Good riddance.

Not official yet but from the exit polling, it looks like Italy has elected Giorgia Meloni

Solidly nationalist and conservative.  God, Family, etc...  The good stuff...

Hate to say but this will cut down on the number of drug addicts — permanantly...
From the London Daily Mail:

The terrifying flesh-eating drug meant for horses that is now hitting the streets of America: 'Tranq dope' Xylazine accounts for a third of OD deaths in Philadelphia - and causes festering wounds when injected

• • Doctors say xylazine - a muscle relaxant intended for large animals like horses - has been appearing in the illicit drug scene in cities across the US joining fentanyl as one of the primary narcotics used to cut opioids
  • The drug prolongs the highs felt from heroin, but results in users passing out for hours at a time, while injection points ulcerate and lead to grisly wounds that spread across the body
  • Some users even report severe soars erupting across their body where they never injected the drug, and many are left disfigured as fingers, arms, feet, legs and toes are forced to be amputated
  • In Philadelphia - considered to be ground zero for the xylazine crisis - about one-third of all fatal opioid overdoses in 2019 were related to the drug

It is not an opiate so the simple test kits can not see it.  Sepsis and ulceration are what kill the user.

Not so much Nancy - from FOX News:

Nancy Pelosi booed during surprise appearance at NYC music festival
Attendees of a music festival in New York City Saturday night appeared to boo House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she made a surprise appearance at the event.

Pelosi, wearing a white pantsuit with a matching scarf, took to the stage of NYC’s Global Citizen music festival where she was booed by those in the audience, videos on social media appear to show.

Video of the event at the site.  The booing was pretty obvious.
Go back to your gin-soaked bubble Nancy.  We The People have no use for you.

Used to be quite the other way around - even earlier this month:

Talk about slow news day.

Done at the farm, done with lunch, heading to the island.  Back here around 6PM or so...

Xi still in power.  Nevermind...

Quick surf - quiet news day.

Time to get some coffee and then start my work for the day.  Looking at about two more trips to empty out the storage barn.  Feels good.

Xi under house arrest?  Nothing definite yet but...

Do not usually wear hats but this is a good one:

Done here, lunch and now heading out to Camano for a few hours.

Back here around 6PM or so...

Minimal posting - not much happening out there.

Raining lightly - heading out for coffee and then to unpack the van and trailer.

Back to Camano today - load back up again...  Looking to be done this weekend.  An interesting experiment, some big red flags that I should have heeded, a spectacularly bad marriage (eight months) and a long haul of moving.  Some very good things came out of being there too - met Lisa.  Life is good.

Enough reminiscing - back to work...

From The Gateway Pundit:

Key thing here is two whistleblowers who are willing to come forward and testify.
That is big.  Very very big.

More here: GOP Lawmaker Obtains New Documents that Show Joe and Hunter Biden Working to Sell US Natural Gas and Drilling Assets to China

From Jack Posobiec:

If they can reduce the definition of a Human Being to just a sack of minerals, proteins and electric impulses, they nullify the Church, the Creation, the mystery of life and conciousness.  They eliminate the need for morals and ethics.  They remove the need to study history and to plan for the future.  Diabolical. Evil.

This was posted as a comment and I agree completely:

Done here, heading out and back later today.

Quite news day so nothing to post about...

Got a good rest last night - rarin' to go.

Head to the farm to unload from yesterday.  Coffee place is not open yet so catch them on my way back to the island.

Final days so lots to do...

Works out well - I had already boxed things up at the storage barn on the island so I can work here, bring the van and trailer down around 3PM, reload and be back up here by 6PM.  I sleep a lot better up here than down there so win/win.

Quick surf - don't see much of anything so far.  Surf a bit more and then an early bedtime.

Results of an interesting survey  - as analyzed by Don Surber:

Harvard: 55% fear socialism, 45% fear MAGA
Biden's attempt to isolate and demonize Trump supporters failed miserably -- even among the Trump-obsessed communists in his party.

The Harvard-Harris poll asked, "Right now, which is your greatest concern?"

Only 11% said, "Donald Trump and MAGA movement."

That is pretty telling given roughly have the respondents were either Democrats or Democrat sympathizers.

The No. 1 concern was inflation at 38%.

It asked, "Which is your second greatest concern?"

Only 6% said Trump and MAGA.

To put that in perspective, 55% said inflation was either their top or second concern.

24% said crime.

21% said immigration.

19% said energy prices.

But only 17% said Trump and MAGA.

That is despite a 24/7 stream of lies, disinformation and misinformation about nuclear codes, Russiagate, racism and the like.

People know what they want.  The mokes in DC are simply not listening.
Their "focus groups" are out of touch with reality.
Time to clean out the whole cess-pit and start over...

Quick stop - down to Camano by 2PM, back up here by 7PM - piece of cake.

Get some lunch and a quick surf for now...

Heading out to the farm for a few hours.  Back to the island this afternoon, load up the small trailer and back up here for the night.

Almost up here.  Been away too long - good to be back.

From 90 Miles:

For more background, this video is excellent.

In this case, nothing.  She needs to go back to prosecuting the real criminals.  This witch-hunt is old news.
From FOX News:

New York AG sues Trump over fraud allegations
The New York Attorney General's office has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, several of his family members, as well associates and businesses, alleging "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" regarding financial statements.

Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference Wednesday morning after the complaint was filed in New York Supreme Court that Trump "inflated his net worth by billions of dollars," and that his children Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric helped him.

"Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization repeatedly and persistently manipulated the value of assets to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company," James said, "to pay lower taxes, to satisfy continuing loan agreements and to induce insurance companies to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums."

James said that over the course of her office's investigation, they interviewed 65 witnesses and reviewed millions of documents. She said the evidence showed that Trump submitted "more than 200 false and misleading asset valuations."

Yeah - about that.  She tried criminal charges and they went nowhere.  She had nothing to back up her claims.  Now she thinks that a lawsuit is going to be any different?  Discovery will be interesting - see what she really has (if anything).  Tossed out on its ear in 3... 2... 1...

Meanwhile, businesses and people are fleeing NY for better run states.

I wonder if it ever entered her mind that if she can not back this up with hard facts, her career is over.  She has been trying to find President Trump guilty of something/anything/Bueller? since his first term as President.  Every attempt has bottomed out - she has nothing.  Still, she escalates.  This time, she is going thermonuclear.  What happens when this fails too.

Chinese biotech lab in Florida?  Just doing some basic research.  Not a problem.
Oh. Wait. From The Gateway Pundit:

Chinese Biotech Firm with Deep Links to China’s Military and its COVID-19 Program Just Bought Land in Florida for a Massive Research Complex
In July 2022, a Chinese biological research company, JOINN Laboratories, bought 1,400 acres of rural farmland in Morriston, Florida, primarily for a non-human primate (monkey) breeding and quarantine facility.

Current law prohibits the construction of such a facility on that property, but JOINN Laboratories is filing a re-zoning request with the State of Florida.

What is not widely known is JOINN Laboratories’ close connections to China’s People’s Liberation Army and what is arguably its biowarfare program.

The Founder of JOINN and Chair of the Board of Directors is Yuxia Feng, a military physician and graduate of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing.

The Co-Founder of JOINN and the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Conglin Zuo, appears to have also worked at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in its Institute of Biotechnology.

Couple of others in the company have PLA and other military ties.  Not good.  Not good at all.
Still do not know if the Wuhan Flu was an accidental release.  Their lab practices are not as good as ours by a long shot:  Here, here, here, here and here just for starters (and I could keep going for quite some time).  Having this near a major population center and Disney World is insane.

Back up here.  Finished my work this morning and went back down to Camano, finished packing my large trailer and brought it up to the farm.

I will be using this to establish the beachhead in November - it will have the household stuff. Clothes, dishware, bedding, some tools and some computer stuff.  It will be the first trip out.  Spend a week or two setting up and then fly back for the smaller trailer and have the connex boxes trucked out.

It's coming together.  Last move I will be doing for sure.  Looking forward to spending the next 20-30+ years enjoying the sunsets from my own mountaintop. And finally have a decent location for a ham radio antenna...

True - from 90 Miles:

At the farm for the day - unload the van and trailer and work on clearing out the large equipment barn (40X100) Using that building for my big garage sale.  Set up some long tables.

Coffee first of course 😁

Taking a page from Castro's Mariel Boatlift - from Breitbart:

Venezuela Empties Prisons, Sends Violent Criminals to U.S. Border, Says DHS Report
A recent Department of Homeland Security intelligence report received by the Border Patrol instructs agents to look for Venezuelan inmates released from entering the U.S., according to a source within CBP. The report, reviewed by Breitbart Texas, indicates the Venezuelan government, under the leadership of Nicolás Maduro Moros, is purposely freeing inmates — including some convicted of murder, rape, and extortion.

The intelligence report warns agents the freed prisoners have been seen within migrant caravans traveling from Tapachula, Mexico toward the U.S.-Mexico border as recently as July. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas the move is reminiscent of a similar action taken by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during the Mariel boat lift in the 1980s.

The report does not state whether the released prison inmates were traveling as a cohesive group but does state it was commonly shared knowledge among migrants traveling to the United States within a caravan in July that many of the Venezuelan migrants in the group were convicts and included hardened criminals.

The report does not specify that the release of the convicts — understanding they would head to the United States — could be a purposeful geopolitical move specifically intended to impact U.S. national security. Another information gap cited in the report acknowledges the unknown role the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Venezuela’s equivalent to the CIA, may have played in the deliberate releases.

The source says the task of identifying Venezuelans who have criminal records in their home country is nearly impossible. Of the thousands of Venezuelan migrants surrendering along the U.S.-Mexico border daily, most, according to the source, are being released into the United States. Without effective diplomatic relations with Venezuela, the source says access to criminal databases in that country simply does not exist.

“Unless we apprehend someone who voluntarily tells us they have committed a violent crime in Venezuela, we can only guess and that doesn’t work well,” the source told Breitbart. “They will more than likely be released.”

And the only obvious reason for the open borders?  How much are the cartels paying Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell?  Not openly of course, carefully laundered (Ukraine?) but dollars none the less.

First?  International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Second?  The birthday of Trollface - from Wikipedia:

Trollface was drawn in Microsoft Paint on September 19, 2008, by Carlos Ramirez, an 18-year-old Oakland college student. The image was published on Ramirez's DeviantArt page, "Whynne", as part of a rage comic titled Trolls, about the pointless nature of trolling. Ramirez posted the image to the imageboard website 4chan and other users started to share it. In the following months, Ramirez's drawing quickly gained traction on 4chan as the universal emoticon of an internet troll and a versatile rage comic character. From 4chan, Trollface spread to Reddit and Urban Dictionary in 2009, eventually reaching other internet image-sharing sites like Imgur and Facebook.

Caught my eye - from 90 Miles (more at the site):

One screen is bad enough - from Bored Panda:

Move from reliable energy to politically correct but intermittent energy and things can happen.
From energy website OilPrice:

German Nuclear Power Plant To Shut Down After Reported Leak
As Germany desperately attempts to stave off a winter energy crisis, most recently seizing Rosneft refinery assets, a leak at a nuclear plant reported by the country’s Environment Ministry adds to the pressure, with operations now set to be shut in for a week as repairs get underway.

Germany’s Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Bavaria on Monday reported a leak that will require it to go offline in October for repairs.

The nuclear plant is already slated for a permanent shutdown at the beginning of next year as part of Germany’s plan to phase out nuclear power. However, given the looming energy crisis in Germany as winter approaches, there has been some discussion of delaying a phase-out of nuclear power.

Now they lost a reliable cheap baseload energy source.

Don't they know that winter is coming?

Dummies...

From FOX News:

Biden nears 100 executive orders estimated to cost taxpayers almost $1.5 trillion
President Biden has issued nearly 100 executive orders, which will cost taxpayers up to $1.5 trillion, as the national debt nears $31 trillion, according to an expert.

Biden currently sits at 99 executive orders since taking office. His torrent pace came primarily within his first year, when he issued more than any president since the 1970s. Memos show at least one outside left-wing group financed by millions from liberal billionaire George Soros has influenced some of Biden's orders and regulatory items.

No thought given to the cost or where the money comes from.
Handing out free stuff to the stupid people.  Buy their votes.

Netflix unfortunately.  Maybe find it somewhere else online but looks like fun:

Fixing a bite to eat first...  Surf too...

Spending the night on the island.  Back up tomorrow afternoon.  Final stretch.

From The Conservative Brief - three headlines. Click for the full stories:

• Bill Clinton Warns Democrats Republicans Will Close Strong For Midterms
• Trump Warns Democrats That They Awakened A ‘Sleeping Giant’
• Ron DeSantis Crushes Record, More Dollars Raised Than Any Governor In History

Doing my happy dance.  No, you do not want to see it...

Talk about a bad idea - antithetical to freedom (which is exactly what they want)
From Associated Press:

Treasury recommends exploring creation of a digital dollar
The Biden administration is moving one step closer to developing a central bank digital currency, known as the digital dollar, saying it would help reinforce the U.S. role as a leader in the world financial system.

The White House said on Friday that after President Joe Biden issued an executive order in March calling on a variety of agencies to look at ways to regulate digital assets, the agencies came up with nine reports, covering cryptocurrency impacts on financial markets, the environment, innovation and other elements of the economic system.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said one Treasury recommendation is that the U.S. “advance policy and technical work on a potential central bank digital currency, or CBDC, so that the United States is prepared if CBDC is determined to be in the national interest.”

Incrementally moving towards a totalitarian society.  Government control over everything.
Say something that the government doesn't like?  You can only spend $100 of your money this week.
We are holding on to the rest of it:  "For your own good"
Already happening in China.

From SANS Institute:

Previously.  Previously.

Part of an excellent analysis - this paragraph stood out:

Napoleon didn’t lose to the Coalition Powers because he lacked manpower, technology, or military prowess, but because England controlled the seas. The outcome was always inevitable unless France could somehow break that control. NATO cannot defeat Russia because Russia is energy self-sufficient and Europe is not. So, the question is: how long are Europeans willing to freeze and starve at the behest of US-based neocons in the name of Ukraine?

Much more at the site - Vox Popoli

As always, follow the money.  In this case, the corrupt money. Ukraine.

From America's Newspaper of Record:

Martha's Vineyard Takes Revenge On DeSantis By Shipping Him 50 Karens
Outraged at having been sent 50 illegal immigrants from Florida by Ron DeSantis, Martha's Vineyard has taken ultimate revenge on the governor by shipping 50 Karens to Florida.

"Perhaps now DeSantis will think twice before he sullies our pristine white island with brown migrant people," said Martha's Vineyard HOA President Karen VonSchnitzel. "Once the charter flight filled with our neighborhood's most insufferable Karens touches down in Tallahassee, he will rue the day he made us look like heartless racists in front of the entire country. HAHAHAHAHA!"

The group of 50 Karens was selected from over 478 Karens who volunteered for the flight, as most women who live on the island are named Karen. "Hopefully this political stunt will help DeSATAN see the error of his ways," said HOA Vice President Karen Bohannan. "If not, we'll send even more. There are plenty more Karens where that came from!"

Once the Karens land in Florida, they have been instructed to wreak havoc on the locals by walking into establishments and demanding to see the manager, calling the police on black joggers, and driving slowly in the left lane. Locals have mobilized to prepare for the onslaught by building walls of sandbags and boarding up windows.

At publishing time, DeSantis confirmed the Karens had been apprehended by the Florida National Guard and were on their way to Gitmo.

From The National File:

Pro-Jab Drag Queen Drops Dead Mid-Performance, Docs Cite ‘Cardiovascular’ Issues
A 25-year-old Philadelphia drag queen who was outspoken about forcing the COVID vaccine into the bodies of Americans has died after collapsing mid-performance. Doctors say the death was brought on by “cardiovascular disease,” a frequent calling card of COVID jab-induced deaths.

Pro-jab drag queen Valencia Prime collapsed on stage and died earlier this week, with police reportedly receiving an emergency call from a bar in Philadelphia’s “gayborhood” around 11:15 on Monday night. According to local news, Prime was a fixture in Philadelphia’s gay community, and well-known for hosting his “Prime Time” drag performances.

Information coming from the office of Philadelphia’s medical examiner blames Prime’s sudden and public death on “cardiovascular disease,” which has become a calling card of widespread COVID jab-induced deaths.

99,999 more to go.  Not that many overall, just very vocal.

From the New York Times quoting a Martha's Vineyard resident:

The quote is from a "founding member" of an organization which exists to help "refugees"
Since deleted of course but the internet is forever. Trash?

Giving myself one more week to be off.  Doable. I want to have the barn empty by the end of this month - two weeks.

Back up tomorrow with another load...

A party to remember:

Heh — sugar coma in 3...  2...  1...

I love bears - I would keep one as a pet if I was able to get it young enough to imprint properly (before the eyes are open) and if I had the space and facilities to give it a good life. Sweet creatures.

Great interview examining how Europe's "elites" screwed thmselves.
Emphasis on "elites" and being out of touch and clueless...
From New York Magazine:

How Europe Stumbled Into an Energy Catastrophe
Since debuting on Substack in the spring of 2021, Doomberg — an anonymous group of writers whose avatar is a distinctive green chicken — has become one of the most popular financial publications on the site. The team has also become a prominent and distinctive voice on finance Twitter (a.k.a. FinTwit). Doomberg’s writers, who come from the world of commodities and heavy industry, deliver deeply informed, often withering analysis that focuses largely on energy policy, their area of expertise. Befitting the site’s name, they often take a darker (or perhaps just more realistic) view than many mainstream sources. Doomberg has been particularly bearish — and prescient — about the unfolding energy crisis in Europe, warning for months that the decision by European leaders to cut off Vladimir Putin from their markets after his invasion of Ukraine risked causing an economic crisis. I spoke via Zoom with one of the Doomberg writers (as represented by that green chicken) about how Russia’s oil industry has thrived despite sanctions, where Europe’s energy squeeze is headed, and why his site is, despite appearances, fundamentally optimistic

Needless to say, Doomberg has been added to my list 'o links - more:

You thought the U.S. and European attempts to use economic sanctions to cut off Russian oil from the global market was a catastrophic error. Why?
We wrote a piece called “Crazy Pills” where we outlined our views in this regard. This is the type of insight that can only come from direct experience in the commodity sector. It intuitively feels right that if we just choke off Putin’s energy-export volume, we will choke off his revenue. But that’s just not how commodities work, especially when you’re the swing producer like Russia is. If you’re a small country and you produce a de minimis amount of energy and it’s choked off by a naval blockade, the rest of the world can make that up and it’s not a big deal. But when you are the single largest exporter of energy that the world desperately and critically needs, you hold all the cards.

Much much more at the site.  Wonderful writing and some great observations.
Hopefully, Europe will wake up and toss these idiots out on their keisters.
And, to note, we are having these same problems here in the USofA

This is 100% true:

Up for a short trip - unloading the van and the trailer tomorrow and drive back down.

Having lunch and surfing.  The simple things in life 😁

Heading down for another load - going to try to be out ASAP - a week?  We will see.

Back up tomorrow or Friday...

It's about his looking into Dominion Voting machines - from The Post Millennial:

Search warrant shows Mike Lindell phone seized in identify theft, damage of protected computer investigation
On Tuesday, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell revealed that his phone had been seized by the FBI. The search warrant for the phone's seizure reveals that it was taken over an identified theft and damage of a protected computer investigation.

Documents posted by Lindell reveal the purported reasoning, with a page titled "Items to be seized" reading: that "the physical cellular telephone assigned call number [redacted] "LINDELL CELLPHONE" and "All records and information on the LINDELL CELLPHONE that constitute fruits, evidence, or instrumentalities of ... identity theft..." as well as "intentional damage to a protected computer" and/or "conspiracy to commit identity theft and/or to cause intentional damage to a protected computer."

And a bit more:

Lindell said that they began asking him questions about Colorado and Dominion voting machines, and eventually told him that they had "some bad news," telling him that they had a warrant for his cell phone, and would be confiscating it, to which Lindell replied that he needed it to "run five companies" as he doesn't have a computer. Lindell also told the agents that his phone controls his hearing aids.

Other items that were to be seized were "All records and information relating to damage to any Dominion computerized voting system, including any impairment to, or attempt to impair, the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, or information... All records and information relating to BIOS on any Dominion computerized voting system, including any modification to, or attempt to modify, a BIOS setting... All records and information relating to the attachment of any peripheral to any Dominion computerized voting system, including any USB flash storage drive or other external storage media... All records and information relating to the operation of any Optical Disc Drive on any Dominion computerized voting system, including the use or attempted use of CDs or DVDs to run software," along with eight other sections of items that were to be seized.

Screen-caps of the warrant at the site. Dominion is how *Resident Biden got 80,000,000 votes.
They have nothing to offer so they have to cheat to stay in power.

To quote Joseph Stalin: “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”

From Chicago, IL's The Center Square:

Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64
The head of Indianapolis-based insurance company OneAmerica said the death rate is up a stunning 40% from pre-pandemic levels among working-age people.

“We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” the company’s CEO Scott Davison said during an online news conference this week. “The data is consistent across every player in that business.”

OneAmerica is a $100 billion insurance company that has had its headquarters in Indianapolis since 1877. The company has approximately 2,400 employees and sells life insurance, including group life insurance to employers nationwide.

Davison said the increase in deaths represents “huge, huge numbers,” and that’s it’s not elderly people who are dying, but “primarily working-age people 18 to 64” who are the employees of companies that have group life insurance plans through OneAmerica.

“And what we saw just in third quarter, we’re seeing it continue into fourth quarter, is that death rates are up 40% over what they were pre-pandemic,” he said.

“Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three-sigma or a one-in-200-year catastrophe would be 10% increase over pre-pandemic,” he said. “So 40% is just unheard of.”

This article was posted on January 1st, 2022 - I just ran into it today via an email.  What is interesting is that I can not find any follow-up data.  Almost like the numbers are not good so they are keeping mum...

I really miss her being on TV regularly:

The acronym that comes to mind here:  PPPPPP
Otherwise known as: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
From San Francisco's Mission Local:

The Central Subway will cripple Muni for years to come
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was in town last week to tubthump the slow-rolling disaster that is the Central Subway project and to claim that, on the undetermined date it does commence service, it’ll be worth the wait.

That’s a hell of a thing to say, considering this project has been in conception since he was in high school and was put before voters when he was just out of college.

In that time, the price tag for this project has more than tripled; the final cost is now tabbed at upwards of $1.9 billion, and will all but certainly be significantly higher than that. Close to half a billion of those dollars figure to come from local sources. That’s something to think about the next time your bus doesn’t show up; Muni is a system with infinite needs and finite resources. And this is how it’s spending them.

The article goes on to point out a few of the problems - including no air ducts in the initial design, a really Byzantine connection with the existing transit system and the fact that the stations - as designed - only support trains with two cars.  This line will be unable to handle peak loads. Much more at the site.

Classic Democrat leadership - first order thinking.  No sense of "What are the consequences" when someone makes a decision.  The people making the decisions are un-elected and bear zero responsibility for their actions.  If people try to hold them to account, they always blame someone else.  Not their fault.

I had posted about the potential for a railroad strike on January 13th,  January 23rd and July 15th
Been brewing for over a year - the management is seriously overworking the employees.

Now the mainstream media is waking up - from NBC News:

Supply chain concerns grow as deadline for freight rail strike looms
Business groups and political officials are growing increasingly concerned about the potential for a freight rail strike that could further snarl the country’s supply chains this holiday season if a union contract dispute can’t be resolved.

A 30-day moratorium that has so far forestalled a strike is set to end Friday for members of the two largest U.S. freight rail unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, or BLET, and SMART Transportation Division. Both have yet to reach deals with rail carriers, which have struck or are close to reaching tentative agreements with the other 10 of the country’s 12 rail unions.

A strike by BLET and SMART-TD, which represent 57,000 conductors and engineers who staff most trains in two-person teams, could cause problems that reverberate across the economy even after it ends. President Joe Biden and senior administration officials made a fresh effort on Monday to step in and mediate the dispute, hoping to head off a strike, a White House official told NBC News. Meanwhile, Amtrak preemptively canceled three long-distance train routes that run on lines operated by freight railroads.

Most of what we use comes via railroad at one point in its life. Trucks do the "last mile" — it's the railroads that do the heavy hauling.  What is Mayor Pete doing about this?  This is his job.

I had parked my passenger car on Camano for a week - driving my truck to and from the farm.  Was walking past and noticed the ash fall from the wildfires:

The ash is really gritty so I am going to take it to a do-it-yourself carwash place with a soapy pressure-washer spray. Don't want to abrade the paint down to bare metal.

Some things never change:

From 90 Miles:

This bullshit has been going on in plain sight for a long long time.
Time for them to be shut down.  Just say no to global tyranny.
Mike also had this one:

Interesting town with a very bohemian flair to it. There is an area with a lot of fun shops, great restaurants.  I had my best ever latte there.  It was incredible.  Perfect.  Moog Music's factory is about a block away.  The Moog Museum is in the heart (run by Bob's daughter and her foundation).  Unfortunately, this has attracted a bad element - looks like Portland, OR was getting to rough for these basement-dwellers. 
From FOX News:

Democrat-run tourist town in North Carolina sees violent crime spike as police dwindle: 'Perfect storm'
Multiple local law enforcement sources who spoke to Fox News Digital laid partial blame for the deteriorating condition of a North Carolina tourist town on the city's liberal political leadership and on left-wing activists who undermine police.

"I think what you're seeing in Asheville right now is a culmination of the last several years of pulling police back and not letting them do their jobs like they're able to do," former Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.

Asheville, a city of approximately 90,000 people nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Buncombe County, North Carolina, has seen a 31% surge in violent crime per 100,000 people from 2016 to 2020, according to statistics released in the spring. Asheville's growth in violent crime is nearly double that of the national average and ranks among the highest in North Carolina, where violent crime has increased 13% statewide.

Looks like I'll be doing my shopping in Atlanta, GA - I am about two hours from there too.  There are two cities in Tennesee that are relatively close but there is no income tax in TN so I will need to see about out-of-state purchases as the sales tax is a bit high.  A fun place to visit but...  Pity...  Why do the spoiled little children always ruin things for other people?

The 434th day of my big move.  From my Camano Island house to the storage barn to the farm and after some consolidation and a whopping mondo garage sale, my new home in North Carolina.

Arrived - heading to the farm in a few minutes.  Surf and posting later this evening.

The storage barn down there is getting cleared out bit by bit.  Looking at another two weeks.

Down there this afternoon, back up here tomorrow (Tuesday). Maybe Wednesday...

Pure Schadenfreude - from Breitbart:

Trump Vindicated: Germany Plays Blame Games as Merkel Party Attacked for ‘16 Years of Energy Policy Failure’
Germany’s economy and climate minister has angrily lashed out at Angela Merkel’s party, accusing it of being responsible for “16 years of energy policy failure”.

While the ongoing gas crisis across Europe gets steadily worse, political tensions in Germany appear to be growing, with the country’s economic and climate minister, Robert Habeck, angrily lashing out at his political rivals in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of former chancellor Angela Merkel.

Despite having been warned by then-President Donald Trump that relying on Russia for energy was endangering the security of both Germany and her allies, Merkel’s government presided over a green agenda-fueled shift away from domestic fossil fuel production that made the country ever more reliant on gas exports supplied by Moscow.

Now, in the wake of the Ukraine war, Germany has all but completely lost access to its supply of gas from Vladimir Putin, prompting fears that many will be unable to properly heat their homes this winter.

First-order thinking. This happens and therefore, let's do that.  No thought given to what the consequences of doing that might be. Repercussions.  Bunch of idiots who are credentialed so they think that they are smart.

From FOX News:

US prosecutors may negotiate plea deal with 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, other conspirators
U.S. military prosecutors are reportedly negotiating potential plea deals with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other conspirators imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

The plea deals may allow the five dependents to escape a potential death penalty, according to CBS. Mohammed is widely credited with being the architect of the 9/11 terror attacks. The other four defendants are Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ammar al-Baluchi.

#1) - Their usefulness is over.  They have no more information to give us.
#2) - They are not going to convert to Christianity any time soon
#3) - Hang them by the neck until dead.

Simple as that.  Problem solved.

By way of Legal Insurrection:

Finnish economist: “I am telling you people that the situation in Europe is much worse than many understand”
So I saw this tweet from Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept:

If you turned the electricity off for a few months in any developed Western society 500 years of supposed philosophical progress about human rights and individualism would quickly evaporate like they never happened.

It reminded me of my post on January 25, 2022, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy, in which I tracked down the source of the phrase:

A bit of background and then this:

It might be worse. I saw this tweet thread by Finnish economist and professor Tuomas Malinen:

I am telling you people that the situation in #Europe is much worse than many understand. We are essentially on the brink of another banking crisis, a collapse of our industrial base and households, and thus on the brink of the collapse of our economies. Short thread. 1/4

We are also totally at the mercy of the authorities, and we have very little knowledge what they have planned. Will they be able to stop the onset of the banking crisis, yet again? I don’t know, but I am doubtful. 2/4

In any case the speed of deterioration is massive now, and it’s only a matter of time, when markets catch up. I am betting that we still have few weeks (months at max.) before “mayhem” truly begins. Take precautionary measures. Stock: 3/4

1. Cash.

2. Food.

3. Water.

4. Wood (if you have a stove).

5. Other necessities.

No harm will come from preparation, if somehow miraculously we can avoid the onset of an outright economic collapse. You just have more cash (no meaningful interest in banks), food, water and wood. 4/4

Wise words - Europe has been through hard times before.  This time, it is of its own making.  Post modernism and socialism is a failed philosophy.  Time for them to learn their lesson good and hard.  And I wonder if we in the USA will be able to ride to their rescue.

I was sitting at the bus stop going in to work when someone said what had happened.

Now? Afghanistan is in the hands of the Taliban and they have all of our nice infrastructure and hardware to play with.

Thanks Brandon...

Dr. Naomi Wolf is an excellent writer.
This is worth the ten minutes of your time to read the whole thing.
Here is just a taste - go and read the whole thing:

Opening Boxes from 2019
When, in Fall of 2019, I moved out of what had been my home in the West Village, I thought I was simply moving from one place to another. I was excited to build a home again, this time in the South Bronx.

Brian and I ultimately lived in the South Bronx for only four months — until March 11 2020, when we looked at one another and realized we had to get into his SUV and keep driving North. As I described in my book The Bodies of Others, when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that Broadway was closing — just like that, a CCP-style state fiat, not an American-style individuals-dealing-with-an-emergency announcement — we both realized that bad things were coming, though whether natural or political we could not yet tell.

Bit more:

I was opening boxes now that were not just from another place — as is usual when you move; not just from another time; but I was opening boxes that were from literally another world. I don’t know that such a thing has happened in quite this way in history before.

And this:

The old world, the pre-2019 world, is a scene of wreckage and carnage to me.

The old world I left behind, and that left me behind, is not a post-COVID world.

It is a post-truth world, a post-institutional world.

The institutions that supported the world that existed when these 2019 boxes were packed, have all collapsed; in a welter of corruption, in an abandonment of public mission and public trust.I look at them now the way Persephone looking backward without regret at Hades.

Much much more - this is an epic piece and deserves to be widely read.
Really captures the shift in America.  The gulf between the elite and the rest of us.

Their power is melting away like the Wicked Witch of the West
From the New York Post:

Rogan, Rowling and Chappelle prove the online mob has no power
Why is anyone still listening to the Wokesters? They’re not a majority — or even close to being one. They have no Army, Navy or Air Force. They don’t even matter in the marketplace. The only power they enjoy is the power the rest of us have chosen to give them.

We should stop.

As the events of the last six months have neatly demonstrated, almost everything that the woke demand can be dismissed with a single word: “No.” To be effective, wokeness requires its targets to fold at the first hurdle. If we refuse to acquiesce, there’s no Plan B.

For years now, non-woke Americans have chosen to cower beneath their desks when presented with an ever-more-absurd set of demands, unaware that we could have lopped off the belligerents’ knees with a single, well-timed demurral. At long last, that seems to be changing.

100% truth - wonderful essay. These narcissists think that they know what is right and that we should all conform to their standards.  Hell no.  My own reply would not be quite as polite.

They think that they are on the right side of culture.  There is a great Russian insult - you call someone "nekulturny" - a person without culture.  These poor children are the ultimate of nekulturny.

Title? From the same movie as the Wicked Witch:

On a roll - about 40% more to go.  Up here for two days.  Unload some food and stuff and then time to surf...

Heading back to the island.  Groundhog Day?  Over and over and over again.

Back up Sunday

From Pacific Power:

Public Safety Power Shutoff
Due to high, gusty winds a Public Safety Power Shutoff is in place in some areas in Oregon. Wind prone, rural areas that are deeper in the mountains are experiencing shutoffs first. As the windstorm progresses Friday, additional shutoffs will happen. Following are our best estimates of when power will be shut off to specific communities, however it might be sooner if conditions warrant:

Money earmarked for maintaining the infrastructure is being spent on windmills and such.
Alas, the people who set these policies are not being held accountable.

The liberals are using the passing of Queen Elizabeth as an excuse to throw another tantrum.
Hopefully, this will educate more people - show them just how mentally ill these people are.
From the London Daily Mail:

Have they no shame? Woke liberals writing for the New York Times, New York Magazine and The Atlantic waste no time attacking the 'colonizer' Queen mere hours after her death aged 96 - and hours after Twitter took down vile post mocking monarch

• • Opinion writers from The New York Times, Atlantic and New York Magazine openly celebrated the death of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday
  • Tirhakah Love, senior newsletter writer for New York Magazine since December, devoted his evening update, Dinner Party, to the death of the queen
  • Love celebrated her death, describing someone who has been 'sucking up the Earth's resources' for 96 years
  • 'I'm supposed to be quiet or, better yet, actually mourn what was a barely breathing Glad ForceFlex trash bag? Please, no,' he wrote
  • University of Michigan professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas said thoughts of Diana and Meghan kept her from feeling any sadness about the monarch's death
  • Lyndsey Boylan, unsuccessful candidate for Manhattan Borough President, chimed in and intimated that her Irish grandparents would be pleased
  • Many tweets zeroed in on the effects of colonialism under the queen's reign and painted her as a violent tyrant

Some really sick people out there.  It's all about them.  Pathological narcissism on display.

In fact, there used to be a website about this very phenonomon: "arkancide" (Clinton's being from Arkansas and all)  Looks like the domain expired but here is a copy at the Internet Archive.

From Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings:

I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the first meeting between Charles and the new PM when she tells him she’s going to allow fracking.

That would be wonderful  Chuckles is someone who has bought into every social fad that came his way - Socialism, Climate, WEF, Great Reset, etc...  I had written before about how The Queen was hanging on for as long as possible because she did not want Charles to be King:  Here, here and here for starters

Talk about class act:

“Melania and I are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Together with our family and fellow Americans, we send our sincere condolences to the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom during this time of great sorrow and grief. Queen Elizabeth’s historic and remarkable reign left a tremendous legacy of peace and prosperity for Great Britain.

Her leadership and enduring diplomacy secured and advanced alliances with the United States and countries around the world. However, she will always be remembered for her faithfulness to her country and her unwavering devotion to her fellow countrymen and women. Melania and I will always cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty’s generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor. What a grand and beautiful lady she was—there was nobody like her!

Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the great people of the United Kingdom as you honor her most meaningful life and exceptional service to the people. May God bless the Queen, may she reign forever in our hearts, and may God hold her and Prince Philip in abiding care.

King Charles III, who I have gotten to know well, will be a Great and Wonderful King. He dearly loves the United Kingdom and all that it represents to the World. He will prove to be an inspiration to everyone. Queen Elizabeth has been, and will be from above, very proud of King Charles III.”

From the Beeb:

Queen Elizabeth II has died
Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, has died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

She died peacefully on Thursday afternoon at her Scottish estate, where she had spent much of the summer.

The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed enormous social change.

Her son King Charles III said the death of his beloved mother was a "moment of great sadness" for him and his family and that her loss would be "deeply felt" around the world.

He said: "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother.

"I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world."

During the coming period of mourning, he said he and his family would be "comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held".

The King and his wife, Camilla, now Queen Consort, will return to London on Friday, Buckingham Palace said.

A true class act.  I knew it was near but it still hits like a physical blow.

Now, we have to deal with Chuckles the idiot.

Heading up to the farm to do a couple hours work and then to the island to load up again.

Back up here tomorrow afternoon.  Making progress...

UPDATE below:

From Mostly Cajun:

UPDATE: This just in - from the Los Angeles NBC affiliate:

California Declares an Energy Emergency Alert 3 With Possible Rotating Power Outages
Cal-ISO has declared an Energy Emergency Alert 3 Tuesday afternoon with rotating power outages very possible. This alert comes as an unrelenting nearly week-long heat wave pushes the state's demand for electricity to unprecedented levels.

The demand for power Tuesday is expected to reach an all-time high, power officials said.

They could have avoid all of this by maintaining their infrastructure and building new power plants to meet the demands of their growing population but no...  they bought-in to the whole green alt.energy idiocy and are now paying for it good and hard.  There are now 84,588 customers without power.

#1) - Australia has been draconian in their reaction to Covid
#2) - there is an established body of evidence that people with sufficient levels of Vitamin D do not have as bad an outcome from a Covid infection (sources: Mayo Clinic, UC Davis, WebMD and National Institutes of Health for starters)
#3) - this little gem from Australia's National Tribune:

Cutting down vitamin D tests could help lower carbon cost of healthcare
Unnecessary vitamin D testing in Australia is costing our healthcare system up to $87 million and is contributing to the sector’s significant but avoidable carbon footprint, say researchers.

A study examining the climate impact of low-value healthcare activity in Australia has found that unnecessary vitamin D tests generated carbon emissions equivalent to a car driving from Sydney to Perth 59 times.

The researchers say in 2020 unnecessary vitamin D tests in Australia cost the healthcare system over $87 million (AUD) and had a carbon footprint of 28,000 to 42,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (kg CO2e).

The carbon footprint from vitamin D tests was calculated from the embedded emissions in the blood collection equipment such as needles, syringes and glass tubes. They have to be manufactured, distributed and disposed of, all of which generates carbon emissions.

Reducing unnecessary vitamin D tests could help lower the carbon footprint of healthcare in the country.

They have zero reason to deny people a simple test for the level of Vitamin D in their bodies so they make up an excuse.

It's about Global Warming.  You have a question?  Shut up and sit down and take your jab.
It's for your own good you you you... peasant.

Looks like Governor Newsom has things under control. America's Newspaper of Record:

Newsom Promises There Will Be Enough Electricity For All Californians After Everyone Moves To Florida
Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a power grid emergency due to energy usage being at a 5-year high. Still, Newsom has assured everyone that they will have plenty of electricity to spare as soon as everyone leaves the state to live in Florida instead.

"Everyone, I understand your frustration, but by the end of the year with everyone leaving California, we're gonna cut our energy usage in half!" explained Governor Newsom. "In fact, so many are headed for Florida that the few of us who remain will be able to do cool stuff like use air conditioning and charge iPhones!"

Newsom explained that he's optimistic that as more and more abandon the unlivable, unaffordable mess he's making out of California, this will create a surplus in all resources for all who remain.

And things seem to be going as to plan.

Speaking truth to power...

Looks like some of them are seeing the writing on the wall.  From FOX News:

Pelosi seeks ambassadorship to Italy if GOP wins House majority in midterms
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning her next move after an expected Republican victory in November.

Sources tell FOX Business that Pelosi wants President Biden to nominate her to become the next U.S. ambassador to Italy if the GOP takes the House majority in the midterm elections.

Biden is holding the spot for the speaker, sources say, which is one reason he has yet to fill the position since taking office. Speculation earlier this year that a Pelosi ally and former Wall Street executive wanted the job has shifted with the increasing likelihood that the GOP takes the majority.

Cushy job - she and Paul can drink themselves blotto and the rest of the world will go on without them.  I know that she will not be prosecuted but I wish she would spend five years on House Arrest or some such...  To encourage the others.

99% of what is bandied about these days is incredibly simplistic thinking.  First order.  This? Therefore that! Zero thought given to the consequences of implementing That — what happens when That does not work as planned. Most "modern" planners simply double-down on That — after all, they are the smartest people in the room and if That does not work, they just must have not been doing That hard or often enough.

Meet Vaclav Smil - from the Los Angeles Times:

The energy historian who says rapid decarbonization is a fantasy
Vaclav Smil rarely agrees to interviews. Too many in the media have portrayed him as a tool of Big Oil, he says — because he insists on pointing out how deeply dependent humanity is on fossil fuels and how difficult it will be to give them up.

The economist and professor emeritus at Canada’s University of Manitoba heats his house with solar energy. He’s no global warming denier. He recognizes the need to move away from plastics, but asks readers to note how often they touch plastic every day and ask themselves how rapid they think the switch can be.

His mission: lay out facts. “I’m not an optimist or a pessimist,” he likes to say. “I’m a scientist.”

A really good interview - lots of thoughtful examination.  One example:

[LA Times] Much of the climate debate, you write, is dominated by catastrophists who are certain humanity finds itself on the eve of destruction, and utopians who fervently believe that technology will save the human race. How should the rest of us think about real solutions to serious energy and environmental problems?

[Smil] Nothing can be more counterproductive than any certainty regarding complex affairs.
Uncertainty and unpredictability will always remain the most fundamental attributes of human existence.

And this observation (he lives in Manitoba):

[LA Times] You drive a Honda Civic with a small, efficient engine. While not opposed to electric vehicles, you take issue with those who buy them thinking they’re doing their part to solve global warming, mission accomplished.

[Smil] There are no EVs. They are battery vehicles reflecting the electricity’s origins. If I were to buy an EV in Manitoba, it would be a 100% hydroelectricity, truly zero carbon energy, car. In North China it is a 90% coal car, in France it is a 70% nuclear car, in Russia mostly a natural gas car and in Denmark a 50% wind car et cetera.

Good stuff - definitely going to look up his books.

This happens often enough that there have been a slew of memes about it.  The 10mm is a very common size for fastener or bolt and it always seems that the corresponding 10mm socket gets misplaced somewhere.

Harbor Freight to the rescue with their new product: 10mm Metric Essential Socket Set, 10 Piece

I will have to look for this when I am in there.  It's not anywhere near April 1st.

From Ann Barnhardt:

Looks like the FBI got a bit of a setback. From Breitbart:

Judge Suspends DOJ Investigation of Trump, Grants Special Master Request
A federal judge on Monday granted former President Donald Trump’s request that a special master review items the FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and also halted the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) use of the items for “investigative purposes.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, ruled that a special master will be appointed to review the seized items to determine if any are personal items or items subject to claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.

Cannon also ruled that the DOJ must suspend its use of Trump’s items for “investigative purposes” while the special master conducts its review, but also noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence could continue its “classification review and/or intelligence assessment.”

Cannon wrote that the court was “mindful of the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented” in granting Trump’s request.

She added that there was a risk of the DOJ leaking materials that would cause harm to the former president.

“In addition to being deprived of potentially significant personal documents, which alone creates a real harm, Plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” Cannon wrote.

The decision comes after the DOJ objected to Trump’s request for the special master.

Heh - the DOJ was fishing and now they are dead in the water.
Newspaper clippings?  Memorabilia? Medical and personal tax documents?
Come on now...

The Judge's order is here: DONALD J. TRUMP, Plaintiff  — v. — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant
Very clear writing...

No desire to watch the Amazon show.  So many bad reviews that they shut off the review mechanism.
From The Verge:

Amazon’s putting a three-day pause on reviews for The Rings of Power
Amazon is reportedly putting a three-day delay on user reviews for all of its content on Prime Video, including the newly-released The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. According to reports from Variety and Deadline, the delay is supposed to help stave off review bombing, or the act of flooding a particular show, movie, game, or book with negative remarks.

An Amazon representative told Variety that it put the policy in place to give the service time to evaluate whether a user review comes from an actual viewer — not a bot or troll looking to hijack the reviews section. Amazon introduced the policy earlier this summer, starting with its reboot of A League of Their Own, which contended with review bombers who opposed the show’s political stance.

The Rings of Power is, unfortunately, dealing with a similar influx of negative reviews, with some users targeting its inclusion of actors from underrepresented backgrounds. The series offers a different take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings universe, and is set during Middle-earth’s Second Age. Amazon says the series raked in 25 million global viewers the day it premiered, making it the biggest debut for Amazon Prime Video to date.

From all I have read, they spent a huge pile of money on this and it is woke as can be. Viewers are unable to get through the show.

Get WOKE, go BROKE

UPDATE:  A great review with spoilers from Ark Haven Comics:

First Impressions – Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
You would have to have had the hubris of Morgoth himself to take on this project.

As a writer, I would have been terrified of it. If the producers had come to me to finish the Unfinished Tales by Tolkien plus some original pastiche based on the Appendixes, I would have told them. “Look, I’ll require two years prep time before I write word one. I’ll need to completely immerse myself in Tolkien’s work to the exclusion of all else. Then I have to spend a lot of time with Tom Shippey and other scholars, plus a Catholic priest with three doctorates who is really into JRR’s work. And at the end of the day, it still won’t be Tolkien, just so you know.”

Who would take this on? Bad Reboot that’s who.

The inarticulate slaughterer of every franchise where they press diseased foot is their bread and butter. Their mode of operation is now predictably obvious. Being completely incapable of creativity themselves, they select anything at all that might have an audience, invade and metastasize, then give it a Bad Reboot treatment. This consists of a Feminist Heroine’s Journey combined with a bunch of mystery boxes to lure foolish audiences along. Be sure to break the bank on flashy effects scenes.

I spent some time in sales, so I can see what Jar Jar Abrams’s school of non-writing is. It is sales technique disguised as writing. That’s it. That is all that the Abrams Mystery Box school really is. It’s just a hook with nothing attached to the hook but the next hook. It’s just one long sales pitch trying to keep you watching despite the fact that there is in fact nothing to watch.

Let me assure you now, there is nothing to watch here.

The reviewer ('nym: The Dark Herald) writes really well. Perfect for tearing the Amazon creation into little pieces and shows them to be the vacuuous tripe they are. I love this line:  "At that point Tolkien left the building and was glad to be gone"

I have Prime and can watch this for free.  No desire and I was a big Tolkein fan.  Still am.  The Jackson movies are great.  This?

Heading South for two days - load up and back to the farm.

Back Tuesday...

From the London Daily Mail:

REVEALED: Bed Bath & Beyond CFO who leapt to his death from New York's famed 'Jenga' building is accused of role in 'pump and dump' scheme that artificially inflated value of flailing company and cost shareholders $1.2 BILLION

• • Gustavo Arnal, 52, is being sued for allegedly inflating the Bed Bath & Beyond's stock price in a 'pump and dump' scheme
  • The lawsuit, filed August 23, claims a majority shareholder approached Arnal about a plan to control shares of the company so they could both profit
  • As part of the plan, it says, Arnal 'agreed to regulate all insider sales'
  • It alleges he put out 'materially misleading statements' showing the company's finances were improving to artificially raise the share prices
  • By the time he sold over 42,000 shares in the company two weeks ago it was valued at $1 million
  • Arnal then took his own life by jumping from the 18th floor of the famous 'Jenga' tower in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood on Friday

The Bed Bath & Beyond CFO who plunged to his death on Friday was being sued for artificially inflating the company's stock price in a 'pump and dump' scheme to sell off his shares at a higher price, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Gustavo Arnal, 52, is listed as one of the defendants in a class action lawsuit brought by a group of shareholders who claim they lost around $1.2billion when Arnal and majority shareholder Ryan Cohen engaged in a 'pump and dump' scheme.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on August 23, claims Cohen had approached Arnal about a plan to control shares of Bed Bath and Beyond so they could both profit.

As part of the plan, the lawsuit claims, Arnal 'agreed to regulate all insider sales by BBBY's officers and directors to ensure that the market would not be inundated with a large number of BBBY shares at a given time.'

I am always amazed that these people do not think beyond the immediate gain.  They are blind to the consequences.  Once again, a scam like this has no exit strategy.  Being found out and prosecuted is not a matter of "IF", it is a matter of "WHEN".  They are so full of themselves that they think that the basic rules of life do not apply to them...

I am sorry for his family but I can only say good riddance...

Kari looks really good - smart and on top of the issues.

Betting that a lot of people will be watching voting integrity this time around.
The Dems got away with a massive cheat in 2020, now people know what to look for.

The film's website here: My Son Hunter

NASA has gone downhill fast. The Webb is amazing but that was the last big project from the old NASA that actually hired engineers based on their engineering ability.

NASA's latest?  From SPACE.COM:

Fuel leak delays NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission launch
NASA called off the second attempt to launch an ambitious test flight of its new moon rocket on Saturday (Sept. 3), this time because of a stubborn leak that delayed fueling.

The space agency hoped to launch its Artemis 1 moon mission atop a towering Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT) on Saturday, but a hydrogen fuel leak detected about seven hours before liftoff thwarted the attempt.

SpaceX? From The Silicon Graybeard:

SpaceX to Target 100 Launches in '23
A rumor surfaced over the last couple of days, later confirmed by Elon Musk, that SpaceX will aim for 100 launches next year, another doubling of their launch rate from 2021.

Much more at the second site - this is how space will be done.  NASA needs to be put out of its misery.  Cut their budget for rockets.  Let them do the exotic science experiments and then use SpaceX to launch them.

Not surprised that a grifter would be attracted to and begin to work for an organization based on grifting.
Pure schadenfreude from The Daily Wire:

Black Lives Matter Leader Stole $10 Million From Organization, Lawsuit Says
A top leader in the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation was accused in a lawsuit filed this week of stealing millions of dollars from the organization through a “scheme of fraud and misrepresentation.”

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday by Black Lives Matter Grassroots, accused Shalomyah Bowers, one of three members of the group’s board of directors, of stealing more than $10 million from the far-left activist group for his own personal use.

And of course he was hired by Patrisse Cullors

Bowers was hired by Marxist Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors in 2020, the year of the George Floyd riots, to help raise money for the group.

Cullors announced last May that she was resigning from the group amid controversy and widespread criticism over the violent riots that broke out across the U.S. in 2020, the group’s extreme ideas, and controversy over Cullors’ lavish lifestyle, which included buying “four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the U.S. alone.”

Heh - the left are eating their own... Self destructing

See how this goes - was using DuckDuckGo for a long time but they were assimilated recently.

Check out: freespoke

In one meme:

Not too far from this classic from 1940 - give them time:

Wonder if she is over in Russia - from CNN/Business:

At least eight Russian businessmen have died in apparent suicide or accidents in just six months
At least eight prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide or in as yet unexplained accidents since late January, with six of them associated with Russia's two largest energy companies.

Four of those six were linked to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries, while the other two were associated with Lukoil, Russia's largest privately owned oil and gas company.

Earlier this year, the company took the unusual public stance of speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine, calling for sympathy for the victims, and for the end of the conflict.

Lukoil's chairman Ravil Maganov died this week after falling out of the window of a hospital in Moscow, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Ukraine is corrupt - Hunter Biden got  $600,000/year for his "Board Position" on the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.  Speaking against the war means that they are speaking for grift and corruption.  They wanted a larger share of the pie.

Title?  Chappaqua and Arkancide: here and here

From the National Broadcasting Corporation:

Bank of America announces zero down payment, zero closing cost mortgages for first-time homebuyers in Black and Hispanic communities nationwide
Bank of America said it is now offering first-time homebuyers in a select group of cities zero down payment, zero closing cost mortgages to help grow homeownership among Black and Hispanic/Latino communities.

The option will first become available in certain neighborhoods in Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami. The new mortgage, called the Community Affordable Loan Solution, aims to help eligible individuals and families obtain an affordable loan to purchase a home, the bank said.

Applicants do not have to be Black or Hispanic to qualify for the product, a bank representative said.

“Homeownership strengthens our communities and can help individuals and families to build wealth over time,” AJ Barkley, head of neighborhood and community lending for Bank of America, said in a release. “Our Community Affordable Loan Solution will help make the dream of sustained homeownership attainable for more Black and Hispanic families, and it is part of our broader commitment to the communities that we serve.”

And of course, those cities are all democrat-controlled shitholes.  Surprised Seattle and Portland are not in that list.

Someone is getting paid off and here we go with another mortgage crash.

Used to bank with BofA - quit them back in 2007.  Pulled all of my accounts out - investments, etc...  Chase is much better managed.  Use local credit unions for day-to-day and deal direct for investments (moved out of stocks and into bonds these days)

From the NIH's own website - notice the bottom right corner:

Been taking it regularly for the last two-plus years.  I had one mild cold last fall but that has been it.  I am out in public a lot so I am getting exposed to whatever is out there.  Anecdotal evidence for sure but it sure works for me.

For them to admit that it is being "evaluated" shows that they knew all along.

Sounds like a great idea - except...  From the Denver, CO ABC affiliate:

Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during 'energy emergency'
During the dog days of summer, it's important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes.

Temperatures climbed into the 90s Tuesday, which is why Tony Talarico tried to crank up the air conditioning in his partner's Arvada home.

"I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period," Talarico said. "It was hot."

That's when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an "energy emergency."

"Normally, when we see a message like that, we're able to override it," Talarico said. "In this case, we weren't. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79."

And I love the bias here - the headline says "Thousands" when in reality, it was 22,000
That is a lot of thousands, not just one or two...

Up here for a few hours working.  Back to Camano for another load tonight.

Lather, rinse, repeat...  Now?  It's Coffee time