Hello Tourists
You’re not always at the top of the food chain even if you’re armed.
The cat will eat your entrails while you’re still alive.
Bullet Points:
** Mining – On Thursday, the Biden regime announced it would prohibit mining on more than 200,000 acres of land from being mined for waterway protection, effectively canceling a major Minnesota mining project. But just one week prior, the administration agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two countries known for mining metals used in car batteries cobalt and copper, and using child labor to mine these metals.
** (NY Post) Democrats want 8.7% pay hike for federal workers who were ‘subjected to’ Trump.
** I’m negotiating with a company that wants to hire me. It’s a start-up and while this one apparently has exceptionally deep pockets, failure is a possibility. We’ve been discussing cars. I don’t want a car allowance, I want the company to lease the car. They want me to drive something along the lines of a Mercedes 500S, (payment is about $2,400/mo + insurance). There is a perfect storm of auto repos going on. I have no need for an MBZ outside of work. I’m not a flash sort of guy. They feel that the family Honda and the ten-year-old Ford pick-up reflect badly on their image.
** Foreign Affairs advocates for World War 3 – under the brilliant leadership of the Pedo Joe Brandon Regime. The article gives some insight into what the genius children wonks are thinking about at the State Department (Led by the luminary “Blinky” Blinken). I swear, my grandkids who are in grammar school would do a better job.
** Five ways the Inflation Reduction Act is stealing your money. (ZeroHedge) If we view taxes as punishment (rather than as a method to finance public services), then we can understand why any administration would want to raise taxes on the “greedy” and the “evil.” Honestly, if a company or industry is actually evil, you’d think law enforcement rather than the IRS would get involved? Regardless, it’s easy to feel good about out-of-favor businesses and industries being punished.
** “Diversity” is a tax to subsidize incompetence.
** Tanks for the help. British MOD – ‘Ukrainian tank crews have arrived in the UK to begin training for their continued fight against Russia.’ Proxy wars have a way of getting out of hand, but don’t tell NATO.
Advice (h/t Frank)
History
During a dive in 1967, the U.S. Navy’s Alvin (DSV-2) deep-ocean research submersible was attacked by a swordfish that got stuck in the vessel’s skin, forcing Alvin to make an emergency surface. The swordfish was removed and became dinner for the crew.
Factoid
Human or Animal?
Yes I remember some three letter agencies that used to think that riding around Baghdad in H2 Hummers was a good idea. Hence why they needed so much security all the time. Hence leaving us flipping a coin to who is going to ride the birds for overwatch. Stay in the shadows.
Orange County, CA isn’t beyond the picket wire… Overseas, I maintain a discrete profile. The advice is sound. I’ll know at noon my time where all this is going.
Those folks who jammed zir selves up in that cluster-foxtrot described in the Zero Hedge article clearly paid no attention to Proverbs 22:7 (borrower is slave to the lender).
I have very little debt. I don’t plan to do anything but decrease what debt there is. Whether it’s Hamlet/Shakespeare or Proverbs, the advice. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
All this pushing for WW3… I don’t get it…
No one in the capitals of Nato nations advocating for more war has been shot at by the combatants (yet). Lots of them have well paid sinecures dependent upon the continutation of the conflict. A few are getting immensely rich(er).
population reduction, western nation destruction. the u.n. came out of the last one. they hope to get their one world govt out of the chaos that ensues.
X2
x3
They never think they’ll be the occasional nobility that get dragged out of their palaces and torn to pieces by mobs, after starting a world conflagration.
We can always hope.
-Kle.
Yep.
Mercedes S500, eh? It depends on who they think they need to impress. (I have educated guesses based on the choice of Mercedes as the marque.)
A while back someone called the NPR Car Talk guys on “what car to impress outdoorsy/ski-bum chicks?” Tom and Ray hesitantly said, “maybe a Land Rover?” Eventually some actual hardcore free-heel skier (not the typical NPR demographic) called and laughed. “Try an old Subaru wagon held together by Bondo. We’re too busy skiing to make enough money to possibly afford a Land Rover.” On the same principle, some guy wearing $10k of Bogner (even if he skis well) will always be seen as a poser, because the hardcore guys wear 20-yo down jackets held together by duct tape.
But then again, certain groups and parts of the world, what you wear and drive are more important than what you can do or who you (morally) are. One of my Pashtun girls was going home to Pakistan for a visit. “I have to spend some money, or else people will think I’m a failure. Which doesn’t really bother me that much, but it will reflect on my family.” As a trainee, she decided that Briggs & Riley luggage was adequate for her image (Tumi is apparently passé). Spent $500 for a roll aboard bag. She later informed me via text that it was well received as tasteful and appropriate to her station. I texted her a photo of MY B&R rollaboard bag which I got for $12.99 at the thrift store. (Great bag, by the way. Used it last week for San Diego.) I got a single text back. “I hate you.” Hahaha!
Yes, shallowness is the hallmark of many a mall crawler, parked at the temples of greed (upscale shopping malls), driven by crone wives with their faces stretched, hoping that mutton will appear to be lamb. And their crook husbands, looking like precisely what they are. You forget that I slapped handcuffs on their type for a living. My point was more that companies come and go but one does not want to incur personal liability. If they want to lease buy, I’m cool with the selection because it’s their money. If not, I’ll show up driving my pick-up.
I’m with you – I’m skeptical of a company that wants their employees to make an expensive and unneeded gesture up front.
There is a back story to all this that I won’t bore you with beyond this. The principal investor wears a $100K wristwatch studded with diamonds around (not homosexual). Many years ago, he was abducted & watch stolen – I think that it’s the same watch he wears now, but he may have two or three of them by this time. I saved him and recovered the watch intact. He was impressed. So what you drive and what you wear are important to this cat.
With a back story like that, he should welcome you arriving in a Yugo.
At least it won’t be a Prius or Leaf.
Oh I wasn’t calling YOU shallow. (Certainly not to your face 😉). It’s just the sensibility of “must have my people drive a luxury car” speaks to me of SE Asia or China primarily, followed by South Asia. Middle East too, but I’d wonder if Mercedes would be top of the list.
But what do I know? I drive a 2012 Subaru Outback in bilious green. No stickers, bumper or otherwise, except for the requisite inspection sticker on the windshield. The mystique is that it’s also the stereotypical lesbian vehicle! There was a funny article in I think Car and Driver years back where they tested a Subaru wagon against actual off-road vehicles. Due to the lousy clearance, they ripped the bumpers off of the Subaru on the first day. After that it turned out to be surprisingly capable in and on the rough. C&D are of course the people who once replied to a lawyer (going on about how the magazine “promotes unsafe driving” with “Clearly C&D is not for you. But you may be interested in our sister magazine ‘Ambulance and Chaser’.”
Oh, I have my vain moment, not so much in what others have, but what weapon I have. Cars are nice. Cars that work are better than cars that don’t. Cars that other people pay to have fixed are better than those that I have to pay to have fixed, etc. Since “I” am not at the top of the corporate list, I doubt that I’d see a Bentley or a Bugatti.
With your C&V that you have shared with this august group, you deserve a Bentley or an upscale Bugatti…
To quote Clint Eastwood in a final conversation with Gene Hackman in the feature film. The Unforgiven “Deserving has nothing to do with it.”
Geez, almost forgot about Tom and Ray, a must listen every Saturday morning. RIP Tom, MIT Sloan, BU Marketing Doctorate…The Car Guys were not mere wrench turners. Arriving in Colorado (’84), heard the Subaru was THE Colorado car. Didn’t take long to realized what that meant, half of Cali moved here and Boulder is loaded with Trust-funders telling everyone else how to live. And they all drive (at least around town and to the $600 ski season’s pass) their beat up Subaru with the requisite Free Tibet and COEXIST bumper stickers…oh, and the most expensive Yakima rack box on the top.
I don’t fully understand the Subaru mystique. They have the same clearance as other passenger cars with all-wheel drive, like my Honda Passport. To me, clearance is king and there is a difference between all wheel drive and 4WD with lockers, clearance, better approach and departure angles, etc. People in Flagstaff (AZ) drive those same cars with the same bumper stickers along with the Biden-Harris stickers. In Sedona, they drive Range Rovers with Trump-Pense stickers if they have stickers.
Subies are OK cars, but nothing special or exotic. They were one of the first with AWD opposed to 4WD, which makes it easier for people to drive them, and doesn’t feel “funny” when you make a sharp, low-speed turn, like 4WD does. I have friends who drove them back in the 70’s, and loved them. They were cheap, handled the Illinois Winter in great form, and were odd, off-beat, and (somewhat) rugged.
They appealed to same crowd that adored VW Beetles and Volvos, but with a much more outdoorsy image attached.
I listened to Click and Clack religiously.
I did not burn incense.
Til their Obama adoration drove me away.
Everyone is spiritual whether they realize it or not.
It’s your beliefs that matter – despite what many clueless claim, all roads lead to hell except for the ONE road that leads to Heaven. And boy is it a tough road!
Narrow is the way and few there be that find it.
Amen.
My folks survived the Great Depression and taught me to eschew debt. Probably one of their more important lessons.
I have a 2000 Subi that won’t die, has about 250K miles on it and if there is black ice around and I need to get to town is my go to ride. The roof rack for my kayak is pretty beat to snot also, but it works. Overall pretty beat up so would not impress anyone.
If they mandate the Benz demand a 4Motion model so you can drive it to the mine. I think you would be more of a Unimog kind of guy though.
Shopping carts. Never thought about it but that is true wisdom.
I’d park the MBZ in the garage at the corporate paid-for-beach condo at Newport Beach, CA, and commute home in the Honda if it went that way. Again, I’ll know within a couple of hours how this is going to go.
You touched on a point. If somebody wanted to get my attention, think of the new 2023 U-5023 (Unimog) – A quarter of a million dollars+ each. https://www.mercedes-benz-trucks.com/en_GB/models/unimog-off-road.html
That Cat. Your place? If I saw that when tromping around for sure I’d soil my clean underwear. Humble doesn’t quite describe that feeling knowing you could be lunch any second, assuming you saw it coming (like the Sniper shot only with teeth and more prolonged pain. Not a good way to go).
Biden is clearly destroying energy production for his Chinesium Owners. It’s treasonous at any level. The Minnesota Mining boys should tell him to FOAD (altho, this is the same state who still think Floyd died of a knee because he had been resisting arrest for an hour after ingesting a baggie of Fentanyl, then adding insult erected a monument to the criminal and drug addict). Heck, even egg farms are being affected by “we’re from the gov’t and where here to help”, with their solution that we all eat bugs and lab rat meat. Tucker did the chicken/egg expose’ last night (buy local feed so your hens can actually produce eggs, seems Purina et al are being paid to stop egg production). The Subversives are firehose hitting every infrastructure industry to destroy modern life…well…only for us. But! Shocker…airline males (??) can wear dresses and makeup and not actually know how to fly a plane.
With that opening photo you could identify as FSB, isn’t that what they drive around with impunity? Nah, not practical for getting to and fro, and on those backroads it’ll get dusty and muddy and they’ll want you to detail it once a week. Get a Subaru Outback with Yakima ski box on top, you’ll “blend” (I can hear Ms Vito now).
We have Jaguars in Arizona, PaulM. Essentially, they’re oversized pumas. Thankfully, they are shy. I haven’t seen one here, but locals have captured their images at night on trail cameras. Most of them live closer to the Mexican border but there are 2 or 3 breeding pairs on the Mogollon Rim according to one Forest Ranger I spoke with. They range between the Coconino National Forest and the Apache Sitgraves National Forest, which is the area where I live. They make the lions look like housecats.
Their tracks are bigger than my large hand. There are big mountain lions with paws nearly that big, though, and it’s almost impossible to tell from the tracks alone. The mountain lion on my roof about six weeks ago had paws smaller than my hand – but still large.
Walk out of the garage and get that back of the neck sense, turn and see even a small cat looking at you…better than a pot of Death Wish coffee. Seems like every year we’ll head out after a snow and come across a bloody drag trail across the road. Leave it be and turn around, with serious high yellow alert, looking up to make sure it’s not sitting in a tree on kill overwatch while we wander into the death zone unaware.
I was curious how the new potential business might require certain optics for your participation, not that I have any experience in those arenas. Yet I do know those types have an image to uphold, which includes their staff and partners. It’s not so bad as long as there is an exit strategy (not that you need any advice from me.)
In this case, they came to me, not the other way around. Additionally, I’m fine doing what I’m doing with my existing work, which if I disclosed all of it, would be of interest to this blog’s readers. Things went from a relatively low ebb to 100 in January. I’m up all night on the phone to Europe and Asia with a nap time in the afternoon that’s almost always interrupted by calls from the USA. It’s one of those knuckleball moments where you’re not quite sure where it will land. The tempo will only increase irrespective of which way I jump. I don’t know what to attribute it to. As some blog articles in the works will indicate, some of it has to do with a changing Red China – most interesting – and with changes in American activities that have spun off from the Ukrainian adventure.
The high fliers know serious talent when they see it, your “helping” the one principle locked you into their next gameplan. It’s actually pretty cool (serious business, but cool).
By the way, FSB or not, I do like the car, gives a certain “leave me the hay alone” attitude.
seems Purina et al are being paid to stop egg production
As with the (poisonous) melamine added to food from China to falsify the protein test, both Purina executives and food regulators could simply be sociopathic crooks.
Could be?
Is that you being kind to the corporate vipers, EL?
Never know these days, but Occam’s Razor points the way. White collar criminals are created from things we used to be able to trust…for cash…at our “The Peons” expense.
I didn’t see that Purina thing on Tucker, but I know some guys at one of the largest egg production outfits in the country. They operate in a bunch of different states and (a) they make 100% of their own feed (b) are shipping all the eggs their hens can poop out and (c) are working furiously to increase production. But maybe it’s just them.
The question on Tucker dealt with deliberately tainted feed. Apparently, there is a significant body of evidence pointing in that direction. The most outrageous conspiracy theories these days turn out to be true, which makes it difficult to sift fact from fiction.
Like the STRONG body of evidence that Pedo Joe, the US President, is on the take from China and then the framing of Pres. Trump.
Say it isn’t so, Joe. Unfortunately, he’s not alone in the scam.
I guess I need to go lookit the Tucker thing. But, if true, that’s another reason the serious people in that industry control their own production.
Tainted stuff is no joke. There was something got mixed up in the supply chain a number of years ago that killed a bunch of horses back east. I forget what it was, but several feed mills that got some of the bad ingredient had to be torn down because there was no way to clean the bins, handling equipment, etc. well enough to get rid of enough of it to safely continue production. A big deal at the time.
On PBS TV, the remake of All Creatures Great and Small shows dairy farmers in England pre-WWI willing to ship milk infected with tuberculosis. I don’t think knowingly shipping poisonous food is a new thing, or always requires bad government demanding it.
Just wait until pet owners figure out many of their pet’s new allergies requiring all the expensive treatment is being done by the same feed companies.
For food animals, our neighbors buy local and as normal raise and feed their own hay. For the horses we feed local products (Ranchway usually, but they too have been “acquired”). For pets DrMrsPaulM only feeds Royal Canin (in a prior work related chapter knows everything about their food), and we have zero problems for both the dogs and barn cats (who also hunt for their balanced diet – her comment is MRE – Mouse Ready to Eat, the Perfect cat food). There are other good brands out there, but what can the consumer do when manufacturers on the Gov’t Backroom Deal are paid to screw with the poultry industry, or swine, or those gawd awful farting cattle? We will never know, altho she did say it would be easy to analyze any suspect feed. The mRNA delivery system for the “Not-A-Vax” was purposeful for a prescribed result…this may be the same because when was the last time healthy people dropped like flies or chickens didn’t lay eggs on a grand scale? Smoke-Fire.
Exactly – Smoke/Fire
Public Land Order 7917
Cannot locate the enabling legislation that authorizes this not that the swamp cares about enabling legislation.
The swamp ignores the law.
A startup leasing Mercedes does not bode well. Sounds to me like your friend needs LL more than the friend knows.
Mountain lion on your roof? They attack from above and behind. LL, that tabby is stalking you.
Tabby needs lunch. I need a rug in front of the fireplace…
Or as my rancher neighbor said about the his mounted cat when I inquired, “got hit on the highway”.
One of the Clan’s friends has a nice cat rug in front of his fireplace. More of a fawn color, and about 6~7′ from nose-to-tail. I told him I didn’t know how big they got, and said his was a “small” one. Bagged it locally, but don’t know where.
Have to wonder who will run out of bodies to shove into the meat grinder first – Russia or Ukraine.
Russia started with a numerical advantage, but their tactics so far….?
The larger Russian army has taken a whipping in casualties, morale, loss of equipment, etc. And the Ukrainians are fighting for hearth and home.
the ukes have resorted to press gangs to refill the lines, even grabbing old men off the street. ra still having issues but looks like wagner is getting their stuff together. i feel sorry for the ukes, but i’m not willing to glow over it….the main reason i got chickens was as a backup meat source so i feed them organic, non gmo, non soy from a local farm. i hadn’t eaten eggs in years, but ours are delicious- no ketchup required. empty cartons are upwards of a dollar each. it costs me money to give my extra eggs away. i’ll have to eat about 500 dozen to break even.
I have to respectfully disagree and say cats will suffocate (crush the throat)and wait on death before eating while it’s the wolf (canines)that will eat your entrails while your still alive. I saw it in real time once and fortunately was able to put a very young doe out of her misery from a small pack of coyotes.
Just today I watched the shopping cart theory at work before reading this and thought wtf. It was a 20something with his obese gf and the corral was 30 ft. away. Say no more.