988 is live!!!

Posted on by July 16, 2022

Major change as of today!!! 988 is the new simpler dial plan for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline!

988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. While some areas may be currently able to connect to the Lifeline by dialing 988, this dialing code will be available to everyone across the United States starting on July 16, 2022. 

When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.

The current Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available to people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, even after 988 is launched nationally.

Full article, HERE!

This is important folks! We’re still losing about 20 veterans a day to suicide, and an untold number of others for a myriad of reasons. If you know somebody, or you are having trouble, PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE AND CALL!

We want you to get help because we value you and care about you. If you won’t talk to us, reach out to these folks, please!

 

Kudos…

Posted on by July 15, 2022

To Lowes Hardware!

I’m in the process of upgrading/retiling the master bath (well, the contractor is, I’m just paying for it).

Anyhoo, we broke out the new vanity yesterday afternoon, and it was obvious that ‘something’ had been dropped on it. You can see the external damage in the next two pics.

So we loaded it up and took it back to Lowes. I was a little concerned that ‘we’ would have an issue, but the lady at the returns desk took one look and immediately returned my money!

No questions, no snide comments, zip nada! She asked if I wanted a replacement, then just returned my cash and said it would be quicker!

Literally took less than five minutes from start to finish!!!

It actually took longer to get help to load the replacement than it did to do the whole return!

So, KUDOs to Lowes Hardware in Itchy Paw Falls, and the folks at the return desk! Thank you for actually treating us like human beings and being polite and understanding! It’s no wonder they get the business they do, AND they give military discount even on stuff that you order through the store (unlike their competitor)!

Oh ‘joy’…

Posted on by July 14, 2022

As if things weren’t bad enough already…

LOS ANGELES, July 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden faces a deadline next week to intervene in nationwide U.S. railroad labor talks covering 115,000 workers, or open the door to a potential strike or lockout that could threaten an already fragile economy and choke supplies of food and fuel.

Full article, HERE from Reuters.

Out here in Tiny Town, we have a major BNSF line that runs through here. We’ve been seeing mile long trains, 2-3 engines pulling and 2 pushing, routinely over the last couple of years, but in the last six months we’ve seen even larger trains. They stretch at least 2 miles maybe a bit longer, with 5 or 6 engines, plus 1 more in the middle. Apparently there MUST be an engine every 8500 feet in a train!

The other thing we are seeing is more and more trains parked on a local siding, sometimes for 2-3 days at a time, blocking rail crossings. We didn’t see these very often before the WuFlu.

The other oddity, seen twice in the last month, is coal trains running back west carrying gravel, sometimes with only 2 engines total, which means they are S L O W, barely getting over 20mph. Normally those trains have a minimum of FOUR engines…

With the trucking issues with diesel cost and the availability of DEF, plus the stupidity in Cali with limiting old trucks from the pier, the stack of ships piled up offshore may double or triple if the railroad strike.

And what would happen to all that Cali produce? Or parts from China? Or oil from Canada? Or produce coming up from Mexico?

This could get really ugly in the next couple of weeks… Cities are (depending on whom you listen to) three to six days from anarchy when the food supplies stop. Looks like that might actually get tested in the upcoming months.

I pray it doesn’t, but sadly, I’m not holding my breath.

 

C’est Fini…

Posted on by July 13, 2022

The last US Navy ASW P-3 is gone…

First introduced in 1962, they participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis…

And Vietnam, Desert Shield, Desert Storm, GWOT, and many other operations over the next 60 years…

The last active duty P-3 squadron transitioned in 2020, leaving two reserve squadrons as the only P-3 ASW component in the US Navy.

That ended last month, on June 10th, when the last reserve P-3 left Jacksonville for the boneyard…

Yes, there are still P-3s flying in other mission profiles, and with other countries, but 60 years of service isn’t bad!

Yep, we’re officially old… dinosaurs… I flew in them for 20 years, and yes, I’d do it all over again if that option was given to me.

Kudos to Lockheed for giving us a great airplane, and the thousands of folks that labored year after year to maintain them around the world. And to those who flew in them over all those years, they brought us home time and time again. Doesn’t get much better than that.

If you like MHI…

Posted on by July 12, 2022

Go support Larry’s Kickstarter! It funded in an hour, but the game will not be sold in stores…

Monster Hunters International the Miniatures Game, HERE.

Looks like a lot of fun! 🙂 And you can play the good guys, MCB, or the bad guys! So get your ‘game’ on!!!

Isn’t THAT speshul…

Posted on by July 11, 2022

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) is only as good as the people running it. Whenever there’s a mass shooting, the Democrats want to expand background checks. Background checks are required for all gun purchases made at gun stores with a Federal Firearms License (FFL). It’s a myth that 40 percent of all gun sales are done without a background check. That line was debunked years ago, though you sometimes see it sneak its way into anti-gun talking points. 

<snip>

In all, 1,002,274 background checks — or 4.2 percent — took longer than three business days in 2020 and 2021, 11,564 people were able to buy guns in 2020 and 2021 before the check showed that they should not have been allowed to do so, according to the FBI report.

But wait, there’s MORE!!!

The FBI never completed 734,604 checks from January 2020 through November 2021, the most recent data available, because they took longer than 88 days — after which the bureau must stop its research and purge the unfinished checks from its system.

Full article, HERE, from Town Hall.

Sooooo, roughly 25,000,000 checks were done in 2020-2021. And 4.2% of the checks missed the deadline, and of that number, roughly 74% of the missed checks were never completed… So they really don’t have a clue how many purchases were ‘illegal’…

Yet the left wants to expand NICS even more, and add ammo to it…

In other words, they are also saying they want to ‘hold’ purchases until the checks are completed, regardless of length of time. Which would have meant 745,604 people would have never been able to purchase a weapon in 2020-2021…

And this makes sense how???

I had hoped…

Posted on by July 10, 2022

This was the Babylon Bee…

“We were assured Biden was releasing this oil to America so it could be refined for gasoline to drive down prices at the pump. So right off the bat, they’re just lying to the American people,” Turner said, adding “What they’re saying they did and what they did are not remotely related.”

Full article, HERE. From Town Hall.

But it’s not…

The Xiden administration sold 950,000 barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Unipec, a Chinese-owned gas company!

WTF???

I wonder if he’s getting his 10% for this too!

And apparently the ‘new’ leasing strategy is ONLY for the Gulf, and one very small plot in Alaska, noting off the east or west coasts, or not, depending on the mood in Washington. Article, HERE from CNBC.

There are some interesting statements in the article concerning the usual globull warming crap and the NRDC is, as usual, getting their oar in the water to push for terminating all leasing to ‘save the planet’…

Third world country, here we come! No fuel, no fertilizer, no food, and riots when the stores in cities run out of product.

Are we having fun yet???

25th is becoming more and more…

Posted on by July 9, 2022

Applicable…

It’s difficult to think of anything funny to write about Joe Biden’s latest gaffe. The astonishing mental decline of this man is frightening, and if Democrats had an ounce of care for the United States, they’d either have an intervention to get Biden to leave or put pressure on the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and have him removed constitutionally.

Full article, HERE.

This is especially scary since we don’t know WHO is actually pulling the strings behind the scene, much less who is actually in charge at the WH. It’s becoming obvious that it is NOT Joe…

This is NOT something we need to be dealing with right now, especially with the turmoil going on in the world and the left’s continuing wussification of the military with pronouns, etc.

At last count, something like 11 countries are in uproar/coups in progress/other actions against the powers that be. The formerly Great Britain earlier in the week, and now Sri Lanka just being one of those, albeit a bit more…out there than some.

Sri Lanka crisis live: Sri Lanka’s beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in the capital on Saturday after protesters demanding the leader’s resignation stormed the president’s official residence. Soon after that, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe resigned, making way for an all-party government.

And they burned the Prime Minister’s house last night…

Full article, HERE from the Times of India.

Twitter deal is off!!!

Posted on by July 8, 2022

Elon Musk has said the Twitter deal is off, due to material breach of contract…

I think it’s coming down to the issues of bots and real users, but that’s just my guess.

The amount of popcorn needed for this one is gonna be EPIC!!!

Billionaire Elon Musk called off his deal to buy social media company Twitter, according to a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Skadden Arps attorney Mike Ringler said in a letter to Twitter’s chief legal officer that “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.”  For nearly two months, the company has failed to provide Musk with information about fake or spam accounts, the letter said. 

Full article, HERE from USA Today. Full letter details is HERE, to the SEC from the lawyers…

And apparently the Twits are now going to sue Musk to go through with the deal. Huh…

This is going to be interesting…

Posted on by July 7, 2022

Boris Johnson is out as the UK prime minister…

Apparently among other things, the Queen has lost confidence in his ability to lead.

The U.K.’s next prime minister is likely polishing their campaign pitch after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced — belatedly, when all other options had evaporated — that he would be stepping down.

  • Half of Johnson’s government, some 59 ministers, had resigned by the time he approached a podium outside Downing Street to announce his exit (something he insisted through Wednesday evening he would not be doing).

Full article, HERE from Axios.

There are a number of dominos in play with this statement. Among other things, the future of BREXIT, NATO status, relations with the USA, and support (both monetarily and weapons) for Ukraine.

The next couple of months could be really interesting on the world stage. And one wonders what ‘our’ administration (whomever is running it) will do in response. I don’t know and honestly, I’m afraid to guess.

What say you?