Much like Weapon Of Choice, we're more enamored of the music video than the track itself, this haunting and ethereal example of the art form from Dirty Vegas, from their 2001 debut, because it's the perfect expression of the genre, where the video actually improves the song.
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." - Ferris Beuller, Shermer High, Class of '86
h/t WRSA
Just read this epically pantswetting whinge/rant, courtesy of CA:
There's Gonna Be Diaper Rash In MT.
It was hilarious.
Apparently, people are moving to Montana. From Somewhere Else!!! ZOMG!!! Eleventy!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Bummer, dude.
Kill yourself, or get over it.
You could have written the same piece about Califrutopia, speaking about folks west of I-5/east of I-5, circa 1980, or maybe even 1960, and it's the exact same story, and the same out-of-state gypsies in both cases. Hell, there were probably Mexicans here in 1848 that felt the same way, and wrote the same article, just in Spanish, but then gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, and it's taken them 150 years to claw their way back to vengeance. The Indians who "sold" Manhattan Island probably tried to explain repeatedly to those funny-looking visitors that they didn't own it, and finally just took the chests of trade goods offered and paddled away, dumbstruck at the newcomers' ignorance and gullibility.
And those California plates y'all bitch about? They may have been from CA last, but they aren't "from" CA any more than those yupp-tards up your way are "from" Bozeman either. They're nothing but gypsy locusts, having befouled this nest, and now coming to despoil yours, being nothing more than the toothless banjo-playing kinfolk of the hordes from all points east and south of you, in 98% of all cases.
You're Chief Brody, the off-islander who's been in town five minutes, telling me to go out on the dock and talk to "my people", and I'm the local guy telling you those people are from everywhere but here.
And the outnumbered natives there in MT, like here, will either die off, get out-bred, or tuck tail and move somewhere else too, only to find the hordes have already beaten them to Texas or Florida, both already purpling up nicely. Then they'll turn tail and run again, until having run out of places they're not willing to make a stand for, they find they have no country left to call their own, and no place they'll root hog or die for.
They'll cover it up by saying "but I had to turn tail and run, because my kids/mortgage/sanity", but the reality is, 90% of them are the exact kind of gypsy locusts they bemoan, just not as prosperous at doing it, and not willing to do anything to keep what they had, beyond pissing and moaning, and moving again. And again. And again.
Welcome to the party, pal.
It was funny to you when it was Califrutopia. Or all the border states overrun with illegals since the 1960s. Now, suddenly, there's a crisis, because it's Montana. Sh'yeah, and next monkeys will fly outta my butt.
Tampa felt the same way in 1975. L.A. in 1980. Albuquerque in 1985. Seattle in 1990. Miami in 1995. Portland in 2000. Reno in 2010. Next it'll be DFW. Atlanta and Memphis and St. Louis are already long past gone. You're running out of places to run and hide. (Chances you and your neighbors will finally figure out to stop doing that: 100:1, against. Stupidity always follows the pathway of least resistance, and you always go with the flow, then look surprised when the waters rise up to your chin.)
Give a holler when folks decide to make a stand and say "No, you won't", instead of loading a U-Haul and tucking tail. Ask Idaho how they feel about their turn coming. Or the Alaskan sourdoughs.
War? As. If.
Montana isn't going to go to war over this. They're going to go to the mall, and then they'll hit the road in their rented U-Hauls. Like always.
The Baby Duck author of the OP is just somebody too young to have seen this program in black-and-white, and writing about the 10th re-run like it was a broadcast premier.
Call me when Texas takes back Austin, or the rest of Georgia settles Atlanta's hash. Until that happens, nobody's going to fight over Bozeman either. So maybe switch to decaf.
Glanced up yesterday and saw the counter was about to roll over again.
I put this post up one short, so if you're the first one reading this, it was you.
We know we haven't posted anything in a couple of days, and this seems like the mid-summer doldrums, but when we've got something worth saying besides thanks for stopping by, we'll put it up.
h/t daily timewaster
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| This was a recruiting video all right. For butt pirates, not the Navy. |
Old salts: If this causes your last meal to make a sudden comeback, remember to puke to the leeward side. If you don't remember why, don't worry; it'll come back to you.
Just fiddling around.
I. There's a good bit of stuff for "just in case" in the vehicle. Like a bug-out get home pack that could turn into an INCH (I'm Never Coming Home) bag if needs be. Did some lightening on that score (mainly swapping in dehydrated meals for canned goods). Also seriously beefed up the car's FAK, after passing a couple of gnarly wrecks in my travels, and seeing a couple of seriously effed up visitors to the trauma bay over the last month or two. People are idiots in so many ways, so 50:50 one day I'll be the first one at a scene long before the FD shows up, and then it's "Tag! You're it!" Part of that is enlightened self-interest, in case they hit me. But I also put together a couple of rip-away trauma kits in case I have WIRIBS present (Well-Intentioned, Reasonably Intelligent By Standers) who want to help, but didn't bring anything to the party.
FTR, you should know that 90:1 in any serious accident, the first 50 people to show up will either stand there gawking with their thumbs up their fundament, or else whip out cellphones so they can Dan Rather/TMZ the proceedings. If you're one of the victims, even uninjured but trying to help those worse off, plan accordingly for "you're on your own". If you get any actual help, thank a merciful deity, but in case a miracle happens, be ready to take advantage of it.
II. We note with amusement the perpetual effort to run enough voltage through the neckbolts of the January 6th hearings Politburo Show Trials to animate that dead horse. Part of me is livid at the continued cultural tone-deafness from both the Politburo, and the state press organs, but mainly, I just see 5 Iraqi militia trying to pry an IED out of the road, as I watch from an AC-130 circling high overhead, and await the inevitable FOOM! Note: There will always come a FOOM. Never was there a clearer proof that politics is show business for stupid ugly people. (Lynn Cheney, call your office.)
III. Leftardia in general seems to be in stunned shock, after the multiple freedom-gasms of SCOTUS, in restoring nearly all of the 2nd Amendment, half of the 1st Amendment, and doing donuts in the parking lot around the 10th amendment, while shooting guns off in the air, and shouting "Yippee Kay Yay, M*****f****rs!"
Multiple mass shootings keep not going the way they planned, while the media shows zero curiosity about how kids barely out of puberty are getting their hands on better guns than Delta Force pulls out of the armory, and whoever is playing Igor in this scheme keeps recruiting screwloose diversity beans and emo white kids on SSRIs, all with Democrazy voting records and social history, which just sweeps the whole thing off the front page almost before the perps' bodies get cold. NTTAWWT.
37 states are doing exactly what they like with abortion while those unaffected elevate it to a sacrament, and it's 1972 on the topic again, the way the Founders intended. Congress keeps trying to federalize it, and SCOTUS is sharpening their knives for striking that law down virtually the minute it passes.
Apparently, everyone but Leftard politicians have realized there are 37 other forms of effective birth control that don't involve shoving scissors into a 279-day baby's brain and scrambling his eggs, including the ever-effective option of telling their daughters to cross their legs, if only for the novelty of the idea.
IV. This was supposed to be a Long Hot Summer Of Discontent from the Usual Suspects. I may be jumping the gun (you should pardon the expression), but I'm not seeing it. Evidently despite the heat, and defunding the cops, no one is really all that much in a hurry to go out there, Burn, Loot, and Murder, and get Rittenhoused for their troubles. They all want to talk tough on social media, which is as surprising as the tide coming in, but no one's up for testing how bulletproof their black hoodies are. Funny how that works.
V. SiG noted the other day that Space-X has essentially commercialized space, cranking a launch out at better than 1@week, and about 10 times more frequently than their next nearest competitor. Left out of the discussion is why, in any sense, NASA hasn't been entirely scrapped, and sold off for parts. Call it the Commercialization Dividend. Give whatever functions the dotGov needs to maintain back to the Air Farce, and close the chapter on a failed and ultimately unnecessary agency which peaked 43 years ago last Wednesday.
Pretty much exactly as foretold by Robert Heinlein 70 years ago, in fiction.
VI. It's hot. Not globull warmist fever dreams hot, but it's July, FFS, in what is now an urban desert hereabouts. CW at dailytimewaster noted 107 in Redding (which is, IIRC, hellandgone closer to Portland than to Death Valley) just this week. It hasn't been quite that bad hereabouts, but we're far closer to the equator here than he is, and when the humidity blows up here from the Mexican Coast off Baja, it's as bad as Satan's underpants, or Fort Benning in summer, one of which we have actual experience with.
So we've mostly stayed on our night shift schedule, and in the day time, moved from car a/c to establishment a/c, with occasional stops for ice cream. As anyone should when they need a bath towel on the car seat to soak up the perspiration.
VII. We see where the current Oval Orifice occupant, pretender to the throne Emperor Stumblefuck Poopypants the Ist, who assured us all only a year ago on national television that getting the Vaxx would prevent catching COVID, has now caught COVID, despite vaxxed and boosted. Hmm. Almost like the vaxx is a fraud, and doesn't do anything but kill people and ruin their immune systems. Boo frickin' hoo for him. FJB.
Nothing will come of it, sadly, but we remind all concerned to be of good cheer. The DNC apparatchiks and minions have only two nuclear-level heartburn inducing fears, of the type that have them waking up screaming every morning at 3 A.M.
1) Biden survives to run again in 2024.
2) He doesn't.
My money and current Clue hypothesis is still on Kneepads, in the Lincoln Bedroom, with Scalia's Pillow.
Time will tell.
Related New drinking game on college campuses: take a shot every time Poopypants does a faceplant, or makes a gaffe in front of reporters. The name? Brandon Falls. Which was also a new GoogleEarth location in DE, for about 15 seconds. Which is also about how long it takes Brandon to fall, left to his own devices.
Sounds to us like a recipe to end up like Charlie Sheen on a permanent bender. We're pretty sure that's how Poopypants got the way he is now. Which also explains Hunter not falling far from the tree either.
VIII. Other than that, not much going on that sets one eye to twitching uncontrollably, and after the next payday, we may take a short trip or three, while we can still afford the gasoline to do it. We wish all and sundry enjoyable depths-of-summer weekends, even as we keep one eye on the horizon, in every sense.
from Odd Job's happy place
That one's had me laughing all day.
If someone were the sticker-making type, I could see these going viral IRL, and appearing on gas pumps beside "I Did That!' stickers.
If it happens, I'm sure I don't know anything about that.
h/t WRSA
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| Oh Noes!!! |
How's that Russian energy dominance doing?
Via Yon: Russia Defaults On Supply Of At Least 5 LNG Cargoes To India
Butbutbut!!! Russia and India are supposed to be bestest butt buddies now?!?
Guess allying with Russia isn't turning out like India thought.
Almost like the Himalayas are a natural geographic barrier or something.
India's choices:
1) Sue Russia. (Pass the popcorn. Wish in one hand, crap in the other; see which one fills up first.)
2) Beg and plead. (Pass the popcorn. Wish in one hand, crap in the other; see which one fills up first.)
Excuses in comments. Gainsaying to ether.
For Slow Learners: Remedial grammar word of the year - pyrrhic.
h/t Irish
Elisjsha Dicken, 22, Indianapolis area hero who blew the fuck out of Some Asshole whom he encountered calmly murdering food court diners in an Indiana mall, whereupon without hesitation, Dicken pushed his girlfriend* to safety, drew his Glock, charged the villain, and dumped multiple rounds into subject Asshole from as far as 40 yards away, hitting paydirt with 8 out of 10, instantly ending the killing spree, saving further court and prison costs, and making his target into a Permanently Good Asshole at a total cost of under $10 in ammo.
Hereby awarded the
OUTSTANDING MARKSMANSHIP AWARD, CIVILIAN DIVISION.
Should also receive a ticker tape parade, the keys to the city, and a check to reimburse him for ammunition expended from the local police department. In a just world, he should also get a full scholarship to the college of his choice from the state of Indiana, and a fast-track for any application to either any law enforcement academy, or the military service academy of his choice.
Nice shooting, kid. And congrats to your parents for raising you to be a fine American.
Title track off the eponymous double-platinum studio album in mid-1978, and the last featuring drummer Keith Moon before his death by drug overdose, and ironically pictured on the cover sitting in a studio chair stenciled "Not To Be Taken Away". The track is listed as "explicit lyrics" even now on YouTube, but rather tame by modern standards, in regular unbleeped play for the brief period of time when the FCC let rock stations play the tracks as recorded, and used and excerpted in tamer form in about twenty other media offerings, including as the title music to CBS' CSI.
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| There are many like it, but this one is mine. |
The truth is a mystery for the ages.
Two years and more later, long-suffering FFL decides to put it in the counter as unclaimed property. (Storage fees alone made that a done deal months and months prior, but the guy has a heart, and it's been a rough couple of years for everyone.)
At any rate, we couldn't leave it at the pound all by itself, so it followed us home. Adding us to the tally of over 100M background checks processed since 1/1/2020.
Just because. Wasn't on our list. Not Wish, not Want, not Would Be Nice. Just "Was there - grab it!" But random factors (co-efficient of feels good, points right, great price, here now, wad of cash available for said purchase, etc.) aligned to alter its destiny, and conjoin it with our own.
BONUS: Local establishments - plural - once again have case-lot quantities of ammunition in popular calibers available for immediate purchase.
Faster than you could say "C-notes", some of that precious metal landed in the trunk next to the new pistola.
Now we get to try it out, and sooner, rather than later.
Come to think of it, there are a fair number of bits of ordnance on the "waiting for field testing" list of Things To Shoot laying around FOB Califrutopia, and now that a range trip means buying more ammunition rather than expending any of our painstakingly gathered precious hoard, we may be making the range a regular visit for a while. Which is great, because we haven't shot anything out in the great outdoors but an azimuth for some good stretch of time.
Probably after an earnest SAR mission to find all the other prodigal toys.
We sense a list in the offing.
BTW, SIG: $60 for spare mags? Srsly? Without a cuddle and kiss? Ouch. So maybe three mags, rather than the usual ten-plus. For now.
I think I see a Sure-Fire WML and a quality red dot on the slide, in its near future, followed by taking the long-serving .357 wheelgun to the safe, for a long and quiet retirement from Bump In The Night status. Nothing at all wrong with it, but "rear sight and target blurry" is something I can now do without even trying, whenever I wake up and open my eyes. I haven't measured, but my working theory is that my arms have gotten shorter since my 20s.
Regardless: Did someone say Range Day?
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| Just kidding. There are way more than that. We need more trucks. |
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| We salute you, Mr. COVID random MIA. We're doing this because you cannot. |
Video presented because it's even-handedly "Just the facts, ma'am."
Takeaways
1) Russia has a lot of artillery shells.
2) They're dumb shells, overwhelmingly from pre-1990 days.
3) Nobody has any wild idea how many.
4) Nobody has any wild idea how many.
5) Shooting a lot of shells is nice. So...how'd that strategy work out for Germany or the Allies on the Western Front from 1914-1917?
Hint:
6) Shooting a lot of artillery shells is a huuuuuge logistical strain on anyone. Even more so on an army so skilled at wartime logistics that they lost entire mechanized regiments early on because their vehicles simply ran out of gas, and were subsequently abandoned intact.
7) Even Russian ammunition reserves are not infinite, and the glacial pace of their advance despite prodigious ammunition consumption puts a time limit on even their current slow gains. At some point, they have no choice but to cut back, from a host of inescapable factors. Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.
7a) Whether their logistical ability to maintain their current artillery expenditures outlasts the Ukrainian forces' ability to resist is precisely the point at issue. We won't bother to point out the multiple fanboy analyses that declared the war was over a month and more ago. Those quotes and posts aren't aging well, and even worse with every passing day. Things can go any which way yet, but it isn't over until it's over, and the Fat Lady hasn't even gotten to the opera house yet.
8) Wear and tear, fuel, and simple time and distance makes trains, trucks, tires, spare parts, and simply feeding drivers as important, if not more than, how much ammunition they can fire, and for how long. If you ain't got it, you can't shoot it.
9) As we tried to tell the fanboys in an earlier post, wear and tear on artillery tubes leads to unavoidable accuracy problems as well, and physics always wins. The Russians can ignore accuracy, and probably will, but they can't ignore the consequences of ignoring accuracy. And they then expend even more shells to even less effect, the longer they continue to do so. C'est la guerre.
10) Russia has always loved artillery, because the math is basic, and once you pull the string, your military worries are over. Unlike with aircraft, tanks, APCs, missiles, trucks, or even conscripts, who still have to be fed, watered, and supplied. Plain Jane artillery works in all weather, 24/7/365, as long as you don't give a damn about accuracy.
"Minute of city? Da, is good enough, comrade."
Russia has demonstrated their total inability to dominate the air, conduct effective combined arms operations, or master maneuver warfare, but they have conclusively shown the unsurprising aptitude for rubble-izing any troops or real estate not able to get out of the way of a rain of HE shells. Gravity is a great help to them in ensuring that their expended artillery rounds do eventually fall to earth...somewhere. But that weight of ordnance has not translated into any amazing breakthroughs, rather instead to ensuring nothing but an endless meatgrinder, and destroying the very territory and population they claimed to covet with such lovingkindness.
Thus my conclusion at this point is part of a familiar quote to many readers:
"...what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count."
Russian artillery is hitting minute-of-city-block.
Ukrainian artillery is hitting minute of tank or APC.
Time will tell which is the better tactic.
That isn't telling you (as I never have) that Zelenskyy will be dictating terms from within sight of the walls of the Kremlin, nor even that Ukraine will "win".
What it does tell you is that Russia is not marching from victory to victory, but rather feeding its own face into a woodchipper just as hard as they're pushing on the Ukrainians. Afghanistan showed they aren't fast learners in that respect, but at some point, a lot of problems go away the minute some bright young actual field marshal decides to liberate Putin's brains kinetically onto the wall behind where he sits, and sooner or later, it's likely that the lightbulb will switch on, and someone thereabouts may decide the lemon is worth the squeeze.
And Putin's megalomaniacal quest to re-form the Soviet Empire isn't going over well anywhere from Oslo to Ankara, and Europe is digging in, not softening its stance.
Every minute this continues, the whole world suffers for it. The minute is stops, worldwide problems and tensions ratchet down about five levels. Which has nothing whatsoever to do with how corrupt Ukrainian leadership is, nor the fecklessness and cynicism of the dog-wagging jackasses who actively pushed and pulled this conflict into happening on both sides of the Atlantic.
The minute Russia, with or without Putin at the helm, realizes it has more to gain from ending the conflict than continuing it, the faster the ten crises the war accelerated go from glowing cherry-red and about to blow, back to a nice tepid not-nearly-so-serious problem.
But if you really frothingly want WW III to kick off tomorrow, by all means keep rootin' for Putin.
I'd rather turn that burner way down, and concentrate on the epic housecleaning hereabouts that's coming like a freight train, without having to deal with it in MOPP Level IV gear, knowwhatImean? That shit is uncomfortable as f**k.
If they do go on strike, that should do wonders for supply and demand, nationwide, and really help out with things like gas, oil, and food supplies on store shelves.
Whereas meeting their demands will likely just jack inflation up some more.
Nothing to worry about either way, amirite?
Consider me this:
An economy tottering on the edge of the abyss, run by blind drunken fools, yanking levers and pushing buttons, with no idea what anything does. Inflation that has eclipsed Jimmy Carter. Already. Money worth next to nothing. Economidiots who can't grasp the relation of one thing to the other. Your earnings and savings spiraling into the ground.
A pure banana republic, with all the trimmings, trying desperately to prop itself up 24/7/365, with the most incompetent bumbling assclown in world history nominally running the con.
The government openly defying the Supreme Court, while egging the mob to actively undertake its violent destruction.
The total destruction of the average person's ability to travel as they please, and the total destruction of the energy independence we enjoyed just three short years ago, in service of a fairytale about anthropogenic globull warming that's been debunked more times than Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, and imaginary fake moon landings.
A burgeoning surveillance state that extends to every detail of your life, every waking minute, to every corner of the globe.
A bureaucracy that extends its nose into every nook and cranny of your life, 24/7/365/forever, and grows like a cancer on PCP.
A lamestream corporate media machine that cheers all of this on, and berates and beats the citizenry about the head and shoulders with manufactured faux news and fake crises around the clock, around the dial, and around the world, in an unrelenting stream of panic-induced frenzy, not just knowingly, but slobbering and drooling for that effect.
Look at what half the country did for two years, when a conservative president, with nominal single-party control of both houses of congress, held the reins of power. (Ignore what an unbelievably huge missed opportunity for freedom that was, but for the Uniparty RINO Establishment.)
Look what they've done so far, deliberately, after a fraudulent election visible from space, and not yet 18 months into holding the reins of power. To the Constitution. Civil rights. The rule of law. Public order. The military. The medical establishment. The territorial integrity of the country. The legitimacy of elections and peaceful transfers of power. The militarization of the police, while simultaneously undercutting any legitimate law enforcement anywhere, anytime, against any member of any pseudo-victim class. The violent overthrow and subsequent ass-raping of actual science and biological fact, in favor of naked advocacy and junk science. The endless gaslighting and demonization of the other half of the country. And the rank hypocrisy at their own tactics and attacks, going back decades.
A foreign power seeking to destroy the republic utterly could not have succeeded this well in their wildest dreams, and their attempts would have looked no less like what we've actually gotten than what we've actually gotten - from our own so-called "leaders".
Then consider every brick in the foundations of civilization they have ripped out and smashed into dust, and the levers of division they've jammed so deeply into the edifice of the republic that it cannot possibly long endure.
Now, in light of this long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evincing an obvious desire to reduce The People under absolute despotism, unto a state of abject slavery,
How does this ever end in anything other than gunfire, bloodshed, and violence on a biblical scale, with rivers of blood, and mountains of bleached skulls afterwards?
Know well that once that kicks off, the only imperative is to WIN.
No rules, no game wardens, and screw the bag limit. Heads on pikes, and cheerfully dashing babies' heads against rocks kind of behavior.
Consider, therefore, the best use of your time, between this moment, and that day.
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| Run the dumbasses ragged. |
Divemedic reports that some Leftard whackdoodle website is aiming to dox conservative SCOTUS justices in real time, trolling for a lucky sniper.
Challenge accepted:
Dunning-Kruger that nonsense.
Send them 5000 sightings a day, and let them spend $10K/day to hire new people to sift the wheat from the chaff.
And don't be shy about sending locations that include the homes, offices, and dining locations of Leftard congressweasels, lobbyists, media, and assorted pet causes. Including local Planned Parenthood clinics. Have like-minded friends "confirm" with follow-up sightings at the same location(s).
The mob they're angling for will scare people wherever it shows up, so spread the love.
Like a firehose, any tactic they think is worth doing should be turned back in their faces tenfold.
I would also not overlook the opportunity to send stupid white college-kid agitators into some of the more "diverse" DC neighborhoods. Also, district police and federal LEO buildings and events should prove highly entertaining as well.
E.g: "Justice Clarence Thomas is making an unscheduled appearance at the DC police academy graduation right now."
Bonus points if you kick over an unpublished fusion center, CIA front, Fibbie operation, etc., unbeknownst. Random karma.
FBI, Secret Service, and po-po always have favorite watering holes. These should feature prominently as well.
Send 'em to Georgetown lectures, and foreign embassies, just for the comedy.
Doubtless there are several prominent Leftardian religious organizations, churches, etc., in the spendier 'burbs. I'm sure the news that Amy Barrett was spotted in the congregation Sunday morning, followed by the dutiful Dems greeted by an irate Antifa flashmob in the parking lot would irritate their pew-fillers greatly.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Need more help picking locations? Get ahold of the local voting rosters and contributor lists (it's a public record). It would be amusing to have it known that a SCOTUS justice was enjoying a backyard party or poker night at one of their homes. Especially when it becomes a weekly occurrence somewhere in Libtardia.
And don't forget military bases throughout the greater DC area. What could possibly go wrong with a mob showing up to protest at the HQ of the 69th Intersectional Dildo Diversity Brigade LGBTEIEIO Annual Pride Prom? What's that you say? It's the hangar for Air Farce One, or Looking Glass, or "special weapons"-armed craft, or the alert fighters for DC airspace? Somewhere where "Use Of Deadly Force Is Authorized"...? Bummer, dude.
You want to live beyond the law, Leftards? Your wish is granted. Beyond your wildest dreams.
Hilarity ensues.
Age 99 years. Of natural causes, at home in his apartment in NYFC.
Prolific character actor, WWII Navy veteran, and friend of navy radio operator Bernie Schwartz, who went on to become Tony Curtis.
re: The Staff - Combat, Disaster, Emergency, Whatever
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| If only there was a way for a few prepared individuals to advise, assist, and plan for almost any conceivable contingency. If only... |
Welcome to the party, pal.
There's even a great free reference pdf when the Army was such a functioning thing, before it went all Social Experimental Diversity Rainbow 69th Intersectional Dildo Brigade. Download it, learn it, live it, love it, and hand it out to people who can profit by doing that as well.
If you're going to need Personnel, you're going to need an S-1.
If you're going to need Intelligence, you're going to need an S-2.
If you're going to need Training for potential Operations, you're going to need an S-3.
If you're going to need Logistical Support, you're going to need an S-4.
If you're going to need to Liaison with TPTB, other groups, and NGOs, you're going to need an S-5.
If you're going to want to Communicate, up, down, and across, and Medical functions, Finance functions, Chaplain functions, Engineering functions, Press/Publicity, etc. you're going to need S-6 and additional support roles.
It scales down, it scales up, and it works flawlessly when used as designed.
[Pro Tip: It's a BUFFET: Take what you want, leave the rest alone. Duh. But certain functions are irreplaceable, and fundamental, since Sun Tzu, or even Og and Thag in a cave planning a raid on a herd of woolly mammoths for the upcoming tribal BBQ. Figure it out.]
We explained this six years ago, because it works, and you're going to need it. It was invented and fleshed out over a century ago, and it's worked up to armies in the tens of millions since the 1940s, at minimum. It works down to the squad level, FFS. How much more utility can you ask for? (Rank amateurs who started studying this stuff professionally 6 years ago are called captains and even early-zone majors now. Get cracking.)
Find the people, plug them in, delegate, supervise, direct, focus, and turn them loose on the problems every single group is ever going to face, for any given problem, forever.
The sooner you learn it, the sooner you can use it.
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| And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. |
h/t WRSA
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| Hat Trick: Two-fer. In Texas. Plan B: Trespass in Dude's house. Abortion authorized up to 400th trimester. |
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| If only Japan had strict gun control laws... |
Epic, and prescient. Of course, we know that evil mega-corporations will never treat the world's population as pawns and resources, right?
About three scenes total in the whole movie, and steals the show in about a minute flat.
And when you see his son Scott in Ocean's Eleven, you can still hear his old man's laugh.
Mississippi.
Jonathan E.
Santino.
Eddie Dolan.
What a ride. R.I.P.
Shortly after Wilder posted his latest Civil War update, the White House released the 2Q figures, so we took the liberty to carefully plot and recalculate the Biden Misery Index, with what appears to be the most up-to-date graphic of how things are looking:
Five minute trip for two items.
"Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour,
A three hour tour..."
Sandpaper? No problem. In my hands in 30 seconds. So where are the hand sanding blocks?
Nose ring with hair a lovely shade of cerulean blue:
"Can I help you?"
Me: Do you have sanding blocks?
NRWHALSOCB: *Blinks*
Almost like I was speaking Latin or something, or asked her for a walrus-tooth ivory file handle with brass trim.
Me: Y'know, blocks to hold the sandpaper...? They've been a thing for like...ever.
NRWHALSOCB: Points to overpriced shitty self-destructing blocks of not-sandpaper.
Me: No, not those. The solid blocks that hold these sheets of sandpaper in my hand.
NRWHALSOCB: "Oh! Those are on Aisle 10-Aisles-Across-The-Store!"
Me: (Internally: Because WHY would you want to keep the sanding blocks right next to the actual sandpaper? But Fucktard Depot, so whatever...)
Externally: "Thanks very much!"
Ten more minutes of fruitlessly searching That Aisle, The Aisles On Both Sides Of It, And Two Other Places where Random Stock F*cktards MAY have pegged it: Nada. Zip. Bupkus.
So, over to Customer Service.
Five more minutes, while three other employees see me standing there, and offer no help whatsoever.
Finally get the attention of CS Clerk. "How can I help you?"
Me: Two questions: 1) Do you know what a sanding block is?
"No. But I can look it up."
Half credit. Maybe. No point asking where it is as the second question, when you don't know what it is. WhereTF do they hire these people? County Jail Work-Release?? Short Bus Dropout Want Ads???
CSC finds not-the-item, just like NRWHALSOCB Paint Chick, who clearly got that job because she could push the buttons on the paint mixer.
Me: "No, I need the blocks that hold the sandpaper."
CSC: Scrolls down, finds the exact item.
Me: "That's it!"
CSC: "We don't stock that in the store."
Because why-the-f*ck would I or anyone else want to be able to use the $50 worth of assorted sandpapers I purchased the very same day I bought them?!? That's crazy talk right there, amirite? Fucking brilliant, Random Purchasing @$$holes of Retail Hellishness and zero f*cking clue about actual hardware or shop projects.
Half hour wasted, and still only halfway to having what I want in hand.
Drive across town to Lowe's.
Who, without any help from the studio audience, have the exact rubber block that's been around almost since Joseph of Nazareth was making cabinetry. Which I find in 25 seconds. It's also the only one they have. Because why would you ever want to stock more than one item with a price of $5?
I grab it, rush to the register, and I'm out the door 25 minutes faster than at F*cktard Depot, with exactly what I wanted in the first place.
Tomorrow, I'm heading over to the local hardware store that's been in business continually since power tools were called hammers, screwdrivers, and hand saws. And I'ma buy two more of the things, because the next time I want a new one, I'll by-God have it sitting handy next to the sandpaper. They'll probably have three different brands of them, including two or three with the price stickers on them from when they bought a case of them in 1964.
Side note: The Army, despite lowering recruitment standards to anyone with a pulse, even without a high school diploma or GED, is going to have a tough time getting recruits, because as far as I can see, F*cktard Depot has already hoovered up all the sub-80 IQ dimwit high school dropouts for miles around.
Retail isn't that hard. Retail with Retards is.
I haven't had this much fun shopping at Fucktard Depot since I tried to find a sharpening puck for hand tools, another formerly common item that's been around for damned near forever.
UPDATE: Mom & Pop Hardware had three full pegs of the blocks. Two of them went home with me today, so we won't be re-living that problem anytime soon.
Oh, and for the inevitable Moron Contingent, I'm sanding irregularly-shaped items, not flat surfaces, and wood blocks don't work well for that. Stupid people need this explained to them apparently, so award yourself a dunce cap if you didn't grok that the rubber blocks have more "give" than does the block of wood you're using for a head. But thanks for playing. Apparently the post wasn't explicit enough in expressing how I feel about getting "help" from ignorant idiots who don't know what they're talking about.
Today's blogsave is now 2½ times the size of the hard drive on the second PC I ever owned. 12,500 times the size of the drive on the first PC I ever owned. 5 times the size of the total capacity on the company mainframe where I worked when I owned PC #2. But it fits on about 0.006% of the smallest thumb drive I can find at retail.
That's literally 4¢ worth of storage.
I'm betting my entire meme files (including raw stock) might come to a whole quarter's worth.
People worried about their creative content going away: don't be a cheesedick. Save your work.
Swallow anything in your mouth, set all beverages down. Seat belts optional, but strongly suggested. Anyone with incontinence issues maybe ought to double up on the Depends.
Tam: I Can't Stop Watching This
My sides still hurt, and I'm only up to the third run-through.
I would pay good cash money for the recording of the phone call to State Farm regarding the destroyed car.
3:1 odds the neighbors hold an intervention, and tell that family: "You're too stupid to live among us, and you've got 90 days to move out for good. But keep in touch. We'll be laughing at your exploits until you kill yourselves."
h/t Odd Job
Much like inflation, this pic embiggens.
Nota bene the time span from Bad to Disaster:
Year One: High inflation (60% bracket).
Year Two: Hyper-inflation (5300% bracket).
Year Three: Societal collapse inflation (16M % bracket).
Proving once again that when you scratch a large "L" Libertarian, you always find a closet pot-head, comes this slobbering paen of lies to the idiots in NYFS decriminalizing marijuana use, despite the obvious counter-examples from the Left Coast and Colorado about what a disaster it is, on every concievable level. Like we've warned you, and warned you, and warned you.
NYFS To Spend $200M To Fund Pot Dispensaries
"after spending decades generating revenues and expanding the government’s power by waging war on marijuana users, politicians have now found a way to generate revenues and expand the government’s power by making amends to marijuana users.
Through the fund, New York intends to provide financing for 150 marijuana dispensaries throughout the state."
Which plan will fail, epically.
Marijuana dispensaries will generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state in licensing fees and taxes.
Oh, REALLY?!? Natzsofast, Guido.
CA Legal Pot Industry On Verge Of Financial Collapse
A grower north of Sacramento who has one the nearly impossible-to-get licenses to sell cannabis says that between the wholesale price of cannabis buds dropping as much as 70 percent since last year and taxes up to 50 percent in some places, his customers will turn to underground buying whether he meets them there or not. So he does what he must.
“We basically subsidize our white market with our black market,” the cultivator tells the AP.
“It’s not too hard,” the grower says, to evade the state’s vast, computerized “seed to sale” tracking system. There are few on-site inspections to verify records, and plants vary widely in how much they produce, allowing farmers to get creative in what they report. In fact, the grower says some legal operations unload as much as 90 percent of their crop on the illicit market.
Brilliant. The people who used to grow pot illegally and now have a license to do it legally are now selling 90% of their crop illegally, and paying 0% tax on that. Almost like criminals don't obey laws. Who knew? And the state has given them a license to do it. F**king brilliant.
But wait: there's more!
Legalizing Weed Has Led To Ecological Disaster
The unchecked cannabis ecosystem has caused major economic and environmental damage in California. Many of the state’s estimated 50,000 illegal cultivation sites have been found to use banned pesticides that can poison wildlife and water supplies and are believed to account for hundreds of millions of gallons in water stolen from farms and neighboring communities each year.
Just the news you want to read in a region wracked by a severe drought, which produces 70% and more of the nation's - and the world's - market fruit and vegetables.
Oh, and social costs?
Legalizing Drug Use = 700% Rise In Overdoses, 120% Rise In Deaths
Consider what’s happened in Oregon, where in 2020 voters approved a ballot measure to decriminalize hard drugs — and at the same time establish addiction treatment centers. Unconsidered was the possibility that making heroin and fentanyl legal — subject to a $100 fine that could be waived if one just calls a help hotline — might actually encourage more use.
Instead of harm reduction, OD deaths are climbing. At a hearing on the law, a state legislator from rural Eagle’s Pass reported a 700% hike in drug use and a 120% rise in overdose deaths. Oregon’s secretary of state told the hearing that “in many communities in Oregon we’ve seen the problem with drug addiction get worse.”
The harm-reduction movement needs to accept common sense: Acquiescence signals approval.
Anecdotally, when we started in the ER business nearly a quarter century ago, we'd get a drunk a week, and one OD a month, on average. And we never saw anyone for a problem with pot. The very idea of that would have been laughable.
Now it's 4-5 of each, per night, every night, 24/7/365, including multiple people daily puking their brains out from using genetically engineered high-potency shit that's 100 times stronger than the ditch weed from the '70s. And virtually every single 5150 I've seen for the last few years comes back positive for meth, and THC. Those with neither onboard when society finally throws a net over them are so rare as to be remarkable, the 1 time in 50 it happens.
Neither NYFS's Assclown in Chief, nor hordes of stoners hiding behind Libertarianism rather than just admit they have an addiction problem, will tell you about the economic disaster, the wildly blossoming criminal market, the cartel inroads, the thousands of illegal pot grows, the skyrocketing ancillary crime, or the impending moon launch of overdoses and deaths for cities and towns all over the state, just like in every state that's tried this asinine idea, which has failed exactly as we predicted not once, but twenty times over.
Because all they really care about is getting their weed.
So since they won't say anything about any of that until the horse is out of the barn, and ten miles down the road, we just told you again.
Come back in five and ten years, and tell us we were wrong about NYFS. Like we weren't in Califrutopia, or Colorado, or Oregon, etc., etc. I triple dog dare you.
Fucking stoners just want their high, and will cheerfully assfuck society to get it. Like always.
Meanwhile, countries with the death penalty for drug use or sales have a 0% recidivism rate.
Too harsh for ya?
Ban Narcan, forbid any medical treatment by EMS or medical personnel for drug overdose except the accidental kind for first responders, and let Darwin winnow the field on his own.
Somebody's dying from weed or meth laced with carfentanil? "Bummer, dude. You wanted to get that high? You got it. Good luck with that. See ya later. Rescue 1 clear."
Then the idiot politicians (but I repeat myself) that opened Pandora's Box on legalization and decriminalization can own the results, as the bodies stack up on the sidewalks of Main Street.
One of the best things to happen to music was when Burt Bacharach and Hal David began writing songs together. The single best thing to happen to that legendary songwriting team was Dionne Warwick recording their work. Proving once again that "Nobody in this town knows nothing", and that most talent should shut up and sing, Warwick didn't like this song, still doesn't, and thought it was dumb. It was a gold record, a Top Ten Billboard hit, and won Warwick her first Grammy award (of six, lifetime). Which is why she performs it in concert to this day, and why it sounds just as good now as it did in 1968.
h/t CTH
Apparently someone had a quiet word with Lithuainia, and explained to them that, Thanks, No, Europe didn't want to be dragged into global thermonuclear war with Russia by the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
Which ratchets tensions, and general stupidity, back down several notches from 11.
To their credit, saner heads on both sides resisted the urge to get stupider than the original move, and now everyone gets to save face and avoid widening the conflict.
As expected, the bumbling buffoons surrounding Emperor Stumblefuck Poopypants the Ist had absolutely nothing to do with this, at any level, which explains much of the sensibility of the solution.
I just wanted to give equal time, by summarizing every argument made here on Putin's behalf in the last 4+ months, in one meme.
The Usual Anonymous Suspects can froth in comments to the shredder. I'm off to buy some guns - plural - to celebrate Independence Day.
Xi is unashamedly standing behind Putin. Because they've both proven to be such lifelong friends of freedom and democracy, obviously, amirite?
Live by the guilt-by-association fallacy, die by the guilt-by-association fallacy. Maybe those of you on Team Knucklehead can cobble up some better talking points. Stranger and more amazing things have happened. The old ones are sheer lunacy, and you look exactly like the idiots you are. Wiping Putin's DNA off your chin wouldn't go amiss either.
Just saying.
That still doesn't make Emperor Stumblefuck Poopypants the Ist a good guy, nor ever did. Just a blind hog finding an acorn, after that wagging the dog experiment got out of the lab, like they will.
But it still makes him accidentally smarter - for a few brief seconds - than an awful lot of people (or a lot of awful people, take your pick).
And how embarrassing is that for those now taking the Second Place IQ Ribbon?!?
Pro Tip: Don't be That Guy.
