Hrmmmm???

Anybody else notice this???

How did a package get ‘mailed’ without the stamps being cancelled???

I’m now wondering if this was the ‘October Surprise’ the dems were talking about. I note that the media is hard over on blaming the President for these ‘bombs’, yet there isn’t really any information yet…

Which makes me wonder even more if ye olde false flag is yet again in play???

What better way to pump up their numbers than to cry poor me, I’m being threatened, but I’m standing ‘strong’ for you!

And yes, WHOMEVER did this should be put under the prison for a long, long time! Unconscionable does not begin to describe this, since the only ones that potentially would have gotten hurt are the ‘little people’ that work in the mail rooms/sorting facilities…

h/t Stretch

Random thoughts…

On the ‘caravan’…

Who is paying for their food, water, medications, and busses? Lawdog and I were chewing this over at lunch yesterday, and ‘somebody’ is behind this…

Logistics is a nightmare for professionals, moving a battalion or, for me, getting ready for a sea test was a long involved process, and that was dealing with professionals who do that for a living.

But these people are getting food and water regularly, almost like runners in a race. They walk by tables and are handed a sandwich and a bottle of liquid in the videos I’ve seen. And I’ve seen some pretty sophisticated tents that ‘seem’ to be travelling with them. They are covering 25 miles a day? Really? That’s a pretty good pace for a ‘fit, healthy’ individual. The average person ‘might’ make 20 miles a day, but I don’t see them doing that day after day.

I don’t see the poor villages/cities along their route doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, or even being able to afford it! Going cheap, let’s say a dollar for a sandwich and water, that’s still $7-10000/meal a day, or $21-30000/day total, and they are going to keep that up from 2-3 months?

Why is none of the MSM asking these basic questions???

On Khashoggi’s death….

Who cares? This is business as usual for the Middle East, he’s not an American, he was here on a green card, and his backstory is rather sketchy… Good luck trying to find out who his father was… And he’s supposedly the ‘nephew’ or Adnan  Khashoggi, who made his fortune as a gun runner.

Remember, life is cheap over there, you can get somebody killed for $100 or less, depending on where you are. And Erdoğan’s hands are not clean, nor are most of the Middle Eastern leaders. All of them routinely throw political opponents/journalists in jail and/or prison, or kill them, when they piss off the powers that be.

I ‘think’ the ONLY reason this is getting the push that it is, is because he was supposedly a ‘journalist’, (apparently he was a ‘stringer’ for the WAPO, which means he wasn’t actually on staff, just sold them the occasional article), which has the MSM upset that ‘one of their own’ got offed, which kinda puts them on notice, if you will…

I know this may piss some folks off, but I’ve spent time in that part of the world, and it’s, IMHO, a realistic appraisal of what probably happened. YMMV

Book Promo…

Alma Boykin has an new Familiars tale out! Oddly Familiar

As always, click on the cover to get it!

The blurb-

Ah, October, when the ghosts, and spirits walk, and the Off Ramp of Doom falls quiet. Too quiet…

Lelia Chan and her Familiar, Tay, continue learning about magic and what mages do. When a customer drops a strange silver disk in Belle, Book, and Blacklight, it starts a chain of events that pull Lelia deeper into shadow magic. André Lestrange and Rodney return to help sort out the off-ramp. Someone else returns, someone who wants to open doors best left closed. Lelia and Company have their hands and paws full dealing with the forces of darkness and bad jokes.

Evil walks on All Hallows Eve. It’s up to Lelia and Tay to send it back where it belongs. Or else.

And Cedar Sanderson has a free short story up- Sugar Skull!

The blurb-

Short Story: 

Sally, whose full name was Alessandra Padilla Rivera, and who had been raised by a grandmama on stories of El Cucuy, the chupacabra, and the jaguar god who hunts in the night, knows how hard good jobs are to find, and keep. She has a mother to support, and a new job to prove herself at. A couple of problems, though… She is working in a morgue where strange things are happening. The only person she can talk to is her boss, her mother just turns the television volume up, and her friends are grossed out by her job. But Sally is convinced her boss isn’t fully human…

Grrr…

Another one goes to prison 21 down, 12 (at least) to go!

In an email arranging to hand off proprietary Navy information to the flamboyant contractor Leonard Francis, Navy Cmdr. Troy Amundson described himself as “a small dog just trying to get a bone.”

Full article, HERE.

His supposed statement that the movement schedules weren’t classifed is pure BS! MOVEORDs are ALWAYS classified until the ship is underway. Ask any E-2 on the waterfront and they can tell you!

So far 21 people have been convicted, and it’s a question as to how high this whole thing will go. Fat Leonard made a mockery of the US Navy in 7th Fleet for way too many years, in addition to ripping off the Navy and others for millions of dollars for provisioning and husbanding.

The greed and egos involved is just stunning… And a huge black eye to the Navy and everyone involved in WESTPAC. The ships went where they were directed, and really didn’t have a ‘choice’ of what port to go into, so this isn’t on the individual CO’s, contrary to what some reports say. This was all directed at a much higher level, based on ‘country requirements’ for port calls to meet various metrics sent from PACOM/CNO depending on various ‘things’ going on at the State/Foreign Policy level.

I hope the others get convicted and sent to jail, and the Navy can finally move forward. The morale on the waterfront in WESTPAC sucks right now, and our sailors deserve better from their leadership than this shit!

Decorations…

Edit- Sorry the scheduler didn’t schedule this morning… sigh…

Is it just me, or are decorations for various ‘holidays’ getting out of hand???

It’s not even Halloween yet, and I’m already seeing Christmas stuff out, and Thanksgiving… We used to never seen Thanksgiving stuff until after Halloween, and no Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving.

And the advent of blow up dolls has ‘blown’ the whole thing out of proportions! You can get animatronics, dolls, complete scenes for just about everything…

And good luck finding a regular old orange pumpkin!

And I have no idea what the hell you’re supposed to do with these???

Looking around, there are apparently now ‘professional’ pumpkin carvers who charge a BUNCH of money for carved pumpkins to put on your doorstep… Really? What happened to Mom/Dad helping Junior or Sissy ‘carve’ the pumpkin? And make a mess all over the kitchen table in the process?

I do have to admit I did see a funny one come across my feed earlier in the week, which of course I can’t find again, but it was lawn Flamingos picking over a skeleton, with one holding a femur in its beak.

That probably goes back to this one from four or five years ago… Which was a pretty good one at the time!

And then there are vehicle decorations… Of course ‘this one’ is from Texas…

Although I’ll admit I’d love to seen that one in Portland or Bezerkley… 🙂

Okay… Okay, already…

The drought is broken! We don’t live in Seattle…

We haven’t seen the sun for over a week! 7 count ’em, SEVEN inches of rain in the last week and a half.

But, I thought we were going to catch a break…

There was blue sky, and SUNLIGHT… Sigh…

But it didn’t last, it’s now raining again.

And apparently I am ‘deficient’ in my home decorating.

‘I’ don’t have a chandelier in my garage…

At one of my high school classmate’s house night before last for a little (30 people) get together, so there were tables everywhere, and food, oh… The food! Overserved myself twice!

Wow…

This is just… Wow!

Claire McCaskill obviously DOES NOT believe in the Missouri motto of the ‘Show Me State’…

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released a new undercover video Monday night showing Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and her staffers expressing support for radical gun control measures that they admit she can’t state publicly.

Full article, HERE with video!

It’s fairly obvious she is willing to go to ANY length to get re-elected.

A pox on ALL the politician’s houses! Vote them ALL out and bring in term limits! Enough is enough… Grrrr

TBT…

From back in the day…

Hard to believe this was 30+ years ago! Usually we chased submarines, but sometimes we ‘stumbled’ across other things of interest…

Looking at the sea state, it was probably a ‘tad’ bumpy that day, and 200 feet wasn’t a lot of fun. One of our ‘spare’ folks took these with his personal camera without a zoom lens! Bonus points if your recce is good enough to ‘remember’ what these were…

h/t JimD

If you’re curious, the answers are below the fold. Continue reading

Posted in TBT

Book Promo…

First up is Stephanie Osborne’s latest book (8) in the Division One Series- Phantoms

As always, click the cover to go to the Amazon link.

The blurb-

Has Alpha One been played?

At long last, Echo and Omega are going on their first real date, and Echo pulls out all the stops.

But when he introduces Omega to a Broadway star, they find art imitating life, as a dangerous nonhuman entity plagues the theater.

Alpha One goes undercover to bring to light what’s really happening. But is the entity after the show’s leads…or have Echo and Omega been played?

Next is Tom Rogneby’s short- Working Vacation

He’s doing something a little different…

Like a lot of you, I’ve been shocked by the devastation Hurricane Michael left in its wake.  That area of the Gulf Coast is one of our family’s favorite vacation spots, and we’d like to help out a group that is already on the ground and helping those hardest hit.

Team Rubicon’s primary mission is providing disaster relief to those affected by natural disasters, be they domestic or international. By pairing the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders, medical professionals, and technology solutions, Team Rubicon aims to provide the greatest service and impact possible.

My short work “Working Vacation” is set in the area hardest hit by Hurricane Michael, and I borrowed a lot from the folks who live and work in the area.  So, I’d like to use it to help out.

From now until November 30, I will donate $1 to Team Rubicon for every purchase of “Working Vacation“, with a minimum donation of $100.

And last, but not least, Laura Montgomery’s final book in the Waking Late trilogy- Like a Continental Soldier

The blurb-

The starship Valerie Hall failed to reach the terraformed world of its original destination. Instead, it found a habitable substitute where the settlers split into two factions. First Landing devolved into a rude replica of medieval despotism. Seccon might promise more.

Or so hope Gilead Tan and his companions.

Gilead spent three centuries in cold sleep, held there by a First Landing custom that decreed only one sleeper could be awakened every fifty years. Once awake, Gilead freed two dozen of his fellows—all soldiers like himself—and led them into the wilderness.

Close to two hundred civilians still lie trapped in the decaying cryo-cells of First Landing. Their captive slumber haunts him.

But despite its vaunted freedom, Seccon has one rule. No one goes back to First Landing.

With fall finally getting here, you’ll have a lot more time to stay inside and warm/cozy. Now you need something to read! 🙂

Sigh…

This was supposed to be a book promo post, however…

AT&T decided to have a fire in Dallas, which took down the Internet for us, and it’s been down all day, with no potential time to repair. So you get a picture of a kabuki costume from Tokyo.

Why did I post this, you may ask? Because this seems to be typical of AT&T on a regular basis. For supposedly having one of the most robust and widespread networks in the United States, they routinely go tits up on a regular basis… Dammit