Blue clues…

Posted on by February 7, 2024

Their ‘utopia’ isn’t real…

In the latest episode on Democrat Urban Utopia, squatters are reportedly taking over hundreds of Atlanta homes, terrorizing neighbors, and even opening an illegal strip club.

Police response to evict the squatters is so delayed that some desperate homeowners have actually bribed the intruders to leave, according to the New York Post. Whole neighborhoods have been ruined by the horde of squatters. Local home-cleaning company manager Matt Urbanski emphasized the severity of the crisis, saying, “I’d be terrified in Atlanta to lease out one of my properties.”

Full article, HERE.

This seems to be almost ‘epidemic’ in a lot of blue cities, including Austin, TX which is definitely a blue enclave in red Texas.

I would also say this is at least partially the fault of these corporate real estate companies that buy up homes then raise the prices to the point that they are vacant for longer periods of time, leaving them ‘ripe’ for squatters.

But they aren’t the only ones. Sadly, some of these squatters also check the papers and obituaries, looking for homes of those who’ve passed away with no family local.

Since this a more or less ‘family friendly’ blog, I won’t say what I think of the squatters, nor what I’d do to get rid of them. We had a few rental houses when I was growing up, and I remember what happened with the occasional bad tenants we had, and why those houses were sold as quickly as they were…

Today, I wouldn’t own a rental house on a bet…

Ouch…

Posted on by February 6, 2024

This is NOT good…

The Navy removed the commanding officer of the Japan-based destroyer Howard on Tuesday – less than six months after relieving the previous skipper of the ship.

In a brief statement, the Navy said it ousted Cmdr. Cameron Dennis, who became the commanding officer of the warship in September, due to a “loss of confidence in his ability to perform his duties.”

Full article, HERE from Navy Times.

There has been a rash of CO firings in the last few months, and it’s enough to make one wonder what is going on…

Is this due to new guidance from the SecDef, SecNav, CJCS, or the new CNO?

Or are the current crop of COs that bad?

I don’t have a good answer, but our sailors deserve better than getting yanked hither and yon with all these changes. It takes time to get up to speed when a new CO takes over, regardless of the platform, and that impacts readiness, and operational capability.

Which is the LAST thing the Navy needs right now, especially in anything that is forward deployed!

Reflections…

Posted on by February 5, 2024
If plastic water bottles are okay, but plastic bags are banned, – you might live in a country run by idiots.
If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for entering and remaining in the country illegally, – you might live in a country run by idiots.If you must get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion, or change your gender, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If you must show your identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote for who runs the government, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If the government wants to prevent stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds, but gives twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not one 24-ounce soda, because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman who is confined to a wheelchair or a three-year-old girl can be strip-searched by the TSA at the airport, but a woman in a burka or a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If your government believes the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government regulation and intrusion while not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WIC checks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big-screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, time shares, a wall-sized do-it-all plasma screen TV and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage, – you might live in a country run by idiots.

And lastly, keep this is mind…If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 years hard labor.
If you cross the Iranian border illegally, you are detained indefinitely.
If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.
If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally, you will be jailed.
If you cross the Chinese border illegally, you may never be heard from again.
If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally, you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.
If you cross the Cuban border illegally, you will be thrown into political prison to rot.
If you cross the United States border illegally, you get a job, a driver’s license, a social security card, welfare, food stamps, credit cards, subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house, free education, free health care, a lobbyist in Washington, billions of dollars’ worth of public documents printed in your language, the right to carry your country’s flag while you protest that you don’t get enough respect and, in many instances, you can vote.

h/t Keith
A bit different when you actually write them down and look at them, isn’t it?

Huh…

Posted on by February 4, 2024

I didn’t see this one coming…

Marco Island City Council wants to follow Collier County as a “Bill of Rights sanctuary.” Council members say they want to protect citizens from federal government mandates having to do with such issues as guns and personal information – mandates the city council might deem unconstitutional.

Collier County Board of Commissioners approved the designation for the county in August.

Full article, HERE from the Naples Daily News

I know there are cities down there that are 2A sanctuary cities, but this is the first I’ve heard of Bill of Rights sanctuaries!

I will say I think this is a novel concept that the lefties will NOT like at all.

I gotta think about this one… your thoughts?

Book promo…

Posted on by February 3, 2024

I finally got my latest novella up- Ice

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

Vengeance is best served cold…

Twelve years old is NOT the time to learn about murder and survival on a mining planet, but Colin Graham didn’t have a choice after his father was murdered.

Colin and Lisabet Sarnov did survive, thanks to Colin’s training. And the people that took an orphaned Colin under their wing re-enforced that training.

Eighteen years later, Colin and Lisabet were reunited in a curious set of circumstances, allowing that final bit of vengeance to take place. What happened next was not what Colin expected…

John Van Stry also has a new one out, the 2nd of the Wolfhounds series-

The blurb-

With the Battle of Portlandia behind him, Chase is a hero now and the rank and file truly believes that he’s the prince the Command Team claims he is. For his part, Chase has made his choice and now he’s committed. As the face of the revolution he’s ‘in it to win it’ because anything else will lead to his death. The twenty-five million-credit bounty on his head will see to that.

The problem he faces now is convincing Fleet Captain Witner, and his Command Team to trust him, when Chase still doesn’t trust them enough to tell them who he truly is. Chase had been betrayed too many times in his past to come clean easily, and for all that he’s doing everything they ask of him, until the Captain and his team gives him a seat at the table, he’s not about to start trusting any of them.

So he’s content to let them continue believing he’s a fraud of their own creation to justify the search for a ‘real’ heir.

Still, he now has Claire on his side, and he can’t think of anyone else he’d rather have there. She’s as driven as he is, and at least as crazy. He’s never met a better fighter and probably never will. As a duchess she’s been teaching him valuable lessons about how to act and what to say. As a friend and lover, she’s giving him something that he never thought he’d have – a reason to win.

And last but certainly not least, Alma Boykin has the fifth in her Familiars Generations out- Harrier and Murder

The blurb-

A murder lurks in Devon County—a murder of crows.

As winter slowly fades into spring, Jude Tainuit struggles to save money and to meet his new obligations to the Sheriff’s Department. An accident in the night brings an unwelcome reminder—Aunt Martha O’Neil is not young. Even less welcome, perhaps, is a falconer who takes offense at Jude’s Familiar, and who may not be quite what he seems.

When Aunt Martha returns, so does trouble. A second worker of twisted magic lurks in deeper shadow, perhaps. Combine growing danger with his hesitant courtship of Lucy Hoffman, and Jude may run out of strength, options, and time before March goes out with a murder—a murder of magic and malice.

OPSEC…

Posted on by February 2, 2024

IS a thing…

Too bad the current administration doesn’t understand that!

Biden has been talking tough with Iran for many, many weeks, and Iran has repeatedly proven that it is not deterred by his words. But the moment troops were killed, Biden was suddenly under pressure to respond with more than just idle threats. And he did promise a response.

And then promptly broadcast those plans to Iran.

Sources within the administration leaked the details of potential moves by the administration to Politico.

Full article, HERE.

This afternoon, ‘reprisals’ started to honor the deaths of the three Army Reserve personnel killed at  Log base Tower 22 in Jordan-  Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, of Carrollton, Ga.; Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders,  of Waycross, Ga.; and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett,  of Savannah, Ga. Thirty others were injured by the drone strike.

So, the IRGC ‘agents in place’ had almost a week to run away and get back to Iran, along with any ‘critical’ items that might have been at those locations being moved out.

There was much cussing about this at supper last night, as once again, the soft on Iran policy has ‘worked’ to perfection for both the administration AND Iran. The Iranians got the notice it needed, Biden to appeared to ‘take action’ and there were no meaningful consequences as far as Iran was concerned.

NONE of the plans should have ever been outside the Pentagon, much less ‘leaked’ to any media!

Grrrr…

 

Déjà Vu???

Posted on by January 31, 2024

Didn’t this come up in 2018, or am I suffering from CRS?

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is under fire after reportedly breaking the law to inflate status and salaries of administrative staffers. 

According to Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, ATF improperly and deliberately misclassified thousands of administrative positions as “law enforcement” for decades, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. 

“According to legally protected disclosures made to our offices, ATF management was notified as early as 2018 that the agency’s decades-long practice of misclassifying non-law enforcement positions as law enforcement, including leadership positions, was in violation of the law, but ATF failed to take corrective action,” Grassley and Ernst wrote in a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach. Attorney General Merrick Garland was also sent a copy of the letter. 

Full article, HERE.

Apparently, they ‘fixed’ the issues, then went right back to doing the same thing, although it looks like that actually didn’t do anything!

Of course the ATF has been a loose cannon for years, going back to Obummer, or even further with the way they play fast and loose with the regs, changing them whenever they want.

Grrr…

 

Here we go…

Posted on by January 30, 2024

Again???

A Department of Defense (DOD) office invited two experts to discuss their new book on far-right terrorism in the U.S. as part of a new series featuring guest speakers, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

The invitation appeared to go out via email to “all” staff of SO/LIC, the acronym for the Pentagon’s office overseeing special operations and irregular warfare, according to screenshots obtained exclusively by the DCNF. Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and Jacob Ware, a research fellow at CFR, were scheduled Tuesday to present their book, which traces right-wing domestic terrorism through U.S history, including the Ku Klux Klan and groups involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots seeking to reverse the 2020 election. 

Full article, HERE.

I haven’t bothered to read it, so I’m not sure if us veterans are once again being made the boogeyman like the last go round…

It IS interesting that these authors are being brought in to brief Special Ops/IW folks, since this definite smacks of Posse Comitatus…

But given the fact that the FBI, DOJ, and IRS have all apparently been ‘weaponized’ by this administration, what’s one more???

Glad I’m an old man.

Hmmm…

Posted on by January 29, 2024

One to think about, especially if you’re putting stuff up via any means!

Something fundamental has changed in space. After decades of slow growth, the number of spacecraft launched annually has doubled every two years since 2015. And the trend shows no sign of slowing, with tens of thousands of planned spacecraft to be launched over the next few years. This exponential growth is reminiscent of Moore’s Law, the decades-long observation that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles every two years. The consequences of the continuation of Moore’s law and the ever-increasing computing power for lower costs over the past six decades has changed the course of our society, our economy, and our way of life. Could we be witnessing a similar revolution in space?

Gordon Moore wrote his seminal paper, from which Moore’s Law derives its name, when the exponential growth he observed was based on less than six years of data. Similarly, the trend line for this proposed Moore’s Law for Space has only been exponentially growing for just over eight years. In that same spirit, it is useful to consider what might happen if this trend continues.

Full article, HERE from Spacenews.com

And the graphic from LEOLABS-

in-line-1.jpg (1921×958)

It’s a ‘tad’ busy up there, and yes, the Astronauts are trained for the ISS taking a hit and how to survive it.

What is getting worse is the launch phase, as you have to get ‘through’ all that mess to get up to altitude. I can’t help but wonder what is going to happen when we lose a crew, or some other country does, when they take a major hit…