Weekend Remember Goliad Open Comments

There y’all are, thanks Texpat. It’s April Fools Day so how is it different from any other day? Not sure.

In any case Mornin’ Gang

Super Dave

Watch A 4,000+ HP Drag Corvette Take Flight

I wonder if they offer frequent flyer miles?

Texpat

It is supposed to reach 70 here and I’m happy even if it is raining all day.

Adee mentioned last night her father was a state senator in Wisconsin for three terms. Interesting and unless my memory failed me, I don’t remember her commenting about it before.

Super Dave

Texpat I also found that interesting and I’m pretty sure she’s not mentioned it before. She goes back to WW II, I think, so she has lived a lot of the history I can only read or study about.

Texpat

Aviation Story of the Day ! (REMEMBER TO REFRESH THE PAGE FOR IMAGES TO APPEAR)

Billboard on I-35 south of Fort Worth for Southwoke Airlines depicting board members of Southwest in drag.

You can see more at the southwoke.com website. I highly recommend it.

A headline there: Southwoke Hires Fabulous Sam Brinton as Our New Baggage Czar

Shannon

TP

Funny. An entire Babylon Bee-style website about SWA.

Texpat

You want to know what it’s like in China ? Here’s a little primer on some of their domestic problems with huge international implications. These figures are from 2018 and many of these problems have only become worse. The new pact with the Saudis will help them some, but they don’t have the refining capacity to keep up with the massive demand.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a large think tank in DC filled with dozens of “experts”. I checked out the Board of Trustees & Counselors and it has squishy Republicans, a few wealthy conservatives like Ken Langone and Fred Smith, plus a lot of old hacks from government from William Cohen to Henry Kissinger to Erskine Bowles.

I don’t entirely trust the analysis from this group because I think they rely too heavily on data from the Chinese Communist Party and the UN and I don’t know exactly where their sympathies lie. However, there is some value in their work as long as it is viewed with a skeptical eye.

While economic development has allowed China to make enormous strides toward feeding its population, serious challenges remain. Chinese leaders faces the dual challenge of maintaining economic growth while feeding the country’s growing urban population with a countryside that features only 0.21 acres of arable land per capita.

A lack of arable land is further complicated by the reality that poor regulation has caused significant environmental damage, which greatly limits domestic production capacity. In 2018, 15.5 percent of China’s groundwater was labeled “Grade V,” meaning it was so polluted that it was unsuitable for any use. Widespread soil contamination, especially in southern areas like Henan province, prompted the government to prohibit the farming of 8 million acres of contaminated agricultural land until it can be rehabilitated.

and this,

Major food safety scandals have also rocked the country. In 2008, tainted baby formula killed six infants and sickened more than 300,000. Additional scandals have included the seizure of $483 million worth of illegally smuggled meat in 2015 – some of which was found to be more than 40 years old – and numerous instances of the use of illegal “gutter oil” in restaurants. These scandals have eroded consumer confidence in many Chinese-made food products, and have compelled Chinese consumers to seek products made outside of China. A 2016 survey found that roughly 40 percent of Chinese consumers considered food safety to be “a very big problem,” up from just 12 percent in 2008.

and,

China is also heavily reliant on food imports from other countries. China’s demand for soybeans has skyrocketed in recent years, in large part because the crop is an important source of animal feed for livestock. From 2000 to 2018, Chinese soybean imports grew from $2.3 billion to nearly $38.1 billion, leaving China as the world’s largest importer of the legume, by a wide margin.

As US-China trade tensions escalated in 2018, Chinese imports of US soybeans nearly halved from $13.9 billion in 2017 to just $7.1 billion in 2018. China turned to Brazil in response, expanding soybean imports from the South American agricultural giant by 37.9 percent to $28.8 billion in 2018. Nevertheless, China’s appetite for soybeans exceeds the production capacity of Brazil and most of the world combined, leaving the US to fill the gap.

and this,

China’s primary meat source, pork, has also faced threats in recent years. In August 2018, China experienced its first outbreak of African swine fever. China was forced to limit the transport and selling of hogs at live markets to curb the spread of the virus, and it also culled more than one million pigs. Domestic pork production plummeted 21.3 percent in 2019, and pork imports from the US swelled by 258 percent that year. The outbreak of the disease proved costly for Chinese consumers. Domestic pork prices more than doubled from about $2.6 per kg in January 2019 to nearly $7 per kg in February 2020.

Russia is self-sufficient in food, oil & gas and fuel. They are immune to trade sanctions in those areas hence the mitigated effects of US and European sanctions on Putin’s regime.

China not only hugely depends on imports to feed its livestock and people, there is only a 2 week supply of refined petroleum products like diesel and gasoline at any given time. There is zero slack in the storage and supply and if importation and distribution are disrupted, China grinds to a complete halt in a few days.

China also has a stark problem with food supply and any prohibitions on food, meats and livestock feed would have immediate and disastrous results. This is why China has been the most avid observer and student of the rest of the world’s contries’ reactions to the war in Ukraine.

Texpat

China now has a Navy of 340 ships. It can’t keep them running very long on their domestic fuel supply. China can’t mobilize their entire Navy because they don’t have the fuel.

Think about that. Rookies think about battlefield tactics while veterans think about logistic supply strategy. You win wars with fuel…ask General George Patton.

There are many reasons why China wants to play rope-a-dope, but wants to avoid a real, hot war at all costs.

Meanwhile, the Democrats in DC plot to destroy all American naval power.

Adee

Good sunny-for-now morning, Hamsters

I think I had a long, long time ago mentioned my father’s participation in Wisconsin politics. And that would have been before many of our cohorts here had found and joined what is now Hambone. I started out with reading Lone Star Times from near its beginning and after a while got up the courage to comment there.

My father volunteered for the US Navy when he was in his late 30s and “too old” to have been accepted for that service other than for noncombat positions. So he joined the Judge Advocate General’s cohort in the Navy as a Lieutenant and served first in the New York division and later in London for several years in the JAG division there. He had many interesting tales of that assignment, including various times he and his cohorts had to dash down to the building’s basement that was the air raid shelter when the Germans started lobbing V-1 missiles into England. He was asked to continue in the JAG as a Lt. Commander after the war, but declined that offer and came home to Wisconsin.

On one raid the Germans dropped a V-1 bomb on the neighborhood about a block away from his office, and he and his cohorts who were there that night agreed that was the most frightening thing they’d ever been through. Almost immediately after the bomb landed they could hear the result of that down in their basement shelter and got a concussion wave rolling through the ground from the target. It literally produced a great bulge in the ground that rolled along, under the building’s wall on the side nearest the target, across the basement floor, and out under the opposite wall. He said it was the darndest thing he ever seen. Everybody down there was absolutely transfixed in awe.

The V-1 flying bombs were the start of German missile development and not easy to accurately control. Then late in the war the development of the V-2 (a real rocket) was much more damaging and easier to aim. It was the progenitor of today’s for-real missiles/rockets. All who were stationed in England were grateful that the end of the war came soon after the V-2 started flying. If rocket development had reached greater success earlier in the war, just about everybody in Europe would be speaking German now….

Adee

Fellow Hamsters, I was born in August 8, 1941, 4 months before Pearl Harbor.

Texpat

Adee

You were just 11 years ahead of me when I debuted on July 26, 1952.

Texpat

An interesting history on the air war over Europe and Britain in WWII.

Between the combat appearance of the two fighters, the Luftwaffe also began launching its Fieseler Fi 103 “flying bomb”—what we would now call a cruise missile. Days after its debut against London on June 13, Goebbels finally hit upon a propaganda name he liked: V-1 for Vergeltungswaffe Eins (Vengeance Weapon One). It made the biggest impression of any “wonder weapon.” Launched off steam catapults in northeastern France, dozens of V-1s soon began penetrating British airspace day and night, causing a mass exodus of children and families from London. Churchill was so concerned he tried to talk Allied leaders into dropping poison gas on German cities. Yet that crisis soon passed too. By August, the reorganization of British anti-aircraft defenses greatly increased the number of missiles shot down, and at the end of the month, Allied forces overran the Channel coast after the breakout from Normandy. Thereafter, only small numbers of V-1s were launched against southeast England from Heinkel He 111 bombers based in the Netherlands. Hitler ordered a shift in focus to the newly liberated Belgian port of Antwerp, which was needed by the Allies to supply its armies.

plus this,

Did the “wonder weapons” come “too late”? Quite the opposite: they came too early. Jet engine technology was still too new and temperamental, as were many of the component technologies of the new weapons. The V-1 and V-2 attacks, almost entirely on London and Antwerp, had no strategic result because the missiles lacked accurate guidance systems and nuclear warheads. Anglo-American conventional, four-engine aircraft were far more effective at strategic bombing. In any case, Hitler had lost the war in 1941 when he attacked the Soviet Union and declared war on the United States, with the result that Germany was arrayed against not just one great power (the British Commonwealth), but three. It took until late 1942 for the manpower and production imbalance to manifest itself on the battlefield, but thereafter the Third Reich was bludgeoned into submission by Allied superiority.

Texpat

If you go to China, bring your own water.

The CSIS tries to make this an optimistic outlook on clean water available across China, but the reality is horrific if you read the data and charts.

Texpat

The Biden/Yellen/Powell Cabal was desperately looking for anything to get the China-to-Biden Family million dollar bribe and the tranny mass murderer stories off the front page and then stepped up the big, fat Alvin Bragg.

Don’t think the worldwide financial crisis has disappeared just because the MSM is in euphoric hysteria over an indictment.

“The biggest bank that’s going to go down is Bank of Japan,” Kiyosaki explained. “Because the Bank of Japan carried the interest rates at, what, zero or whatever they did, [and] financed the derivatives markets. And the derivatives market, as Warren Buffett said about derivatives, they’re weapons of mass financial destruction and the derivatives market in the world today, financed by the Bank of Japan, is a quadrillion [dollars].”

The “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author’s comments come amid what some have optimistically labeled a market rally after stocks recorded another strong day and markets looked positive in March.

Kiyosaki, however, challenged the idea of a comeback, noting issues with the derivative markets. He also warned the Bank of Japan’s heavy connection to derivative markets put it in a more vulnerable position and threaten greater effects on the global economy.

Surgery prep started yesterday with a change in medications from oral to subC injections for 3 days leading up to the big event, all to prevent a blood clot from breaking loose and creating havoc. I’ve been scurrying around trying to get my house and my refrig in order for being slowed down for a couple of days – big pot of cabbage soup prepared, hamburger patties pressed out, breakfast sausage cooked and stored, etc. I should be able to manage with minimal effort for a few days until my strength returns.

I think I mentioned that BFF fell in her shower last weekend and fractured her pelvis in 3 places – but her hips are not broken. She’s been in a lot of pain and taking strong meds, so I’ve been not pestering her and waiting to get more information. Well yesterday she finally reported in that it has been a tough week – she’s in ICU, still in pain, unable to walk, and now she has low blood pressure and has gone into afib. Not good, and it’s very frustrating to not be able to do anything about any of it. No report on her future prospects but they plan no surgery and hope to get her started on rehab ASAP. She’s a world traveler and always on the go, so I do hope that she is not incapacitated.

Back to the BRIIC situation briefly, if they are joined by Mexico, South Africa (in addition to all the rest of Africa), Saudi Arabia, where does that leave the US and it’s small band of allies? They own both ends of the Panama Canal already (thanks Jimmah Carter). They have no need to engage us in a hot war – we’re isolated and all alone. With no industrial base remaining and being a consumer nation, they don’t have to do anything except just stand by and watch us wither away even further than we already have. Brazil and Russia have already dumped the dollar for international trade and now demand Chinese currency. Our military is hollowed out by political correctness. Things look pretty grim to me, and I see no chance of improvement. And you can bet your last dollar that the Republicans are just as overjoyed about this Trump mess as the Dems are.

OK, I’m off to find the WIP. Here it is: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/the-week-in-pictures-book-em-edition.php

Adee

Texpat 🙂

Texpat

Here’s your wholesome, enlightening South Texas border news…

The drugs were found in an 18-wheeler crossing the bridge from the northern Mexican border city of Reynosa, CBP officers said Tuesday.

A canine unit alerted officers, who then screened the truck in secondary inspection using non-intrusive inspection equipment. This can include large-scale X-ray and Gamma-ray imaging systems, as well as a variety of portable and handheld technologies, according to CBP.

A total of 362 packages weighing 833 pounds of meth were found in the truck that was hauling charcoal, CBP said.

and,

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A surge in Chinese nationals crossing the border illegally from Mexico into South Texas is putting a strain on Border Patrol resources, the Rio Grande Valley Sector chief says.

Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez tweeted that the RGV Sector is leading the nation in Chinese migrant encounters. So far in Fiscal Year 2023, agents have encountered Chinese nationals over 1,667 times.

This includes 90 Chinese nationals who were apprehended Thursday, which Chavez tweeted Friday in an update is the “most encountered since 2010 in a single day.”

Adee

#7 El Gordo

Prayers for BFF and for you.

mharper42

Morning, gang! Wow, my brain is straining against my skull, really stuffed with interesting new topics. I had no idea that China didn’t have enough water. Or maybe it just has too many people.

Texpat

10 mharper

China has enough water. The problem is they have poisoned most of their water. They claim the water in the major cities is just fine, but I wouldn’t drink it.

Look at the charts for rural water supply according to China’s own data. It’s a wonder the rural Chinese aren’t dying by the millions from their water alone. Maybe they are and we don’t know it.

mharper42

It seems that I’m now hosting the stray cat I named Billy. He likes the chow, but really has no use for me. I’d like to get him tamed enough that he could be taken to the vet.

I’ve never heard him make a sound. Sometimes when I was looking for him and calling his name, with no response, I’d get distracted looking at something in the yard, only to be startled when I realized he had showed up silently. Then I’d be amazed to realize he was 6 feet away from me and waiting to see what I was going to bring him.

Texpat

I had to look up this headline from the Powerline WIP to make sure it wasn’t satire. It’s for real.

European Munitions Maker Says Plant Expansion Hit by Energy-Guzzling TikTok Site

One of Europe’s largest manufacturers of ammunition is facing a roadblock to the planned expansion of its largest factory because a new data centre for TikTok is using up all the spare electricity in the area. Nammo, which is co-owned by the Norwegian government and a Finnish state-controlled defence company, has been told there is no surplus energy for its Raufoss plant in central Norway as a data centre that counts the social media platform as its main customer is using up the electricity in the region. “We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos,” Morten Brandtzæg, Nammo chief executive, told the Financial Times. Demand for ammunition has surged thanks to the war in Ukraine, which is using about 6,000 rounds per day — equivalent to the annual orders from a small European country — and would like to fire 65,000 if it could, according to Nammo.

It’s obvious China’s TikTok has multiple offensive features in the war against the West. Assist the Russians by gobbling up all the electricity in Scandinavia so they can’t manufacture ammo for Ukraine. A brilliant strategy utilizing the stupidity of the general public to overwhelm the electrical grid.

GJT

Loading up to head for Texana Raceway out of Edna. See y’all on the other side.

GJT

I don’t think the Chinese or Russians have found Edna yet so should be safe.

Texpat

GJT

If that sprawling, once bustling motel was still there in Ganado, you could get one of those famous bumper stickers that said:

Last Night, I Slept Between Edna and Louise

Texpat

Mike LaChance at Legal Insurrection quoting Chronicles of Higher Education:

Crowdsourcing the war against DEI on campuses.

As the assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at hundreds of colleges across the country continues, conservative forces trying to stamp out the programs in at least four states have proposed turning to higher-education employees and the general public to act as regulators of race- and sex-conscious efforts to root out discrimination on campus.

Of the 17 states that have so far introduced bills to ban or limit diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI programs, according to a Chronicle analysis, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, and Texas have gone as far as allowing people to sue schools that they think deploy a variety of efforts to tamp down on perceived racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia on campus.

and this,

A similar bill moved out of the State Senate education committee in Texas on Wednesday. The Lone Star state’s bill allows anyone to seek an injunction against a public university that supports or sponsors diversity, equity, and inclusion activities beyond what is required by the 14th Amendment or statements by the university endorsing lifestyle, racial, or religious identification.

Texpat

Here is a Threadreader app from economist, Michael Pettis, of the Carnegie Endowment who thinks the dominance of the USD in world trade isn’t necessarily a good thing.

He also believes removing it from dominance isn’t really possible, particularly by China.

1/12
I fully agree with Jim O’Neill that “the dollar plays far too dominant a role in global finance”, and that it would be better (for the US above all) if the BRICS were able to manage to cut back its role dramatically.

and

2/12
That’s because a less dollarized world would mean that the US would not have to run such large deficits in order to balance the world’s demand for dollar assets, which itself is a consequence of very weak domestic demand in the surplus countries.

and

5/12
By definition China would have to give up control of its capital account, which ultimately means reversing its excess of savings over investment, something it hasn’t been able to do for decades. It also means, of course, giving up control of its trade account.

I don’t pretend to understand all of this, but I do grasp some.

Texpat

This little town I live in gets a huge write-up in UK’s Daily Mail as the cocaine capitol of the USA. Stepan Chemical’s plant is about 7 blocks from my house.

A small chemical processing plant hidden in a quiet neighborhood of New Jersey has an exclusive license to import coca leaves into the US on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company and manufactures as much as $2 billion of pure cocaine every year.

The leaves are used to produce a ‘decocainized’ ingredient for the iconic soda and the cocaine byproduct is sold to the nation’s largest opioid manufacturer, which markets the powder as a numbing agent and topical anesthetic for dentists.

The unassuming facility in Maywood has been processing coca leaves for Coca-Cola for over 100 years and is now run by a chemical manufacturer called Stepan Company.

It operates under special licenses issued to it by the DEA and is the only company in the US permitted to import coca leaves and manufacture cocaine.

And just this year, on January 30, Stepan successfully renewed its petition for permission to continue importing the controlled substance into the US.

The DEA did not respond to a request from DailyMail.com for details as to how much coca the company imports, but in the 1980s it was was reported that more than 500 metric tons of leaves could enter the plant in a single year.

Five hundred tons of leaves might produce something in the region of two million grams of cocaine – which, according to pharmaceutical company listings online, could be worth around $2 billion.

GJT

Edna and Louis sound a little old for a young guy like me.

More on the BRIICs new world currency plans. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4142537/posts

Shannon

Adee

Fay was about 11 months ahead of you, 9/17/1940.

Super Dave

I was working behind the house this morning running the whacked off azalea limbs through the wood chipper and got rained out about 11:30 so I just quit for the day. After the rain stopped I decided to check out the Crawfish Festival here in Podunk and see if I could stand the long lines. Luckily the lines weren’t too bad and I got a good sized box of mud bugs with corn and taters. Pretty dang good eating and that’s saying a lot since living in Texas for 38 years, I know what they’re supposed to be. I texted daughter in Midland and she was on her way to a crawfish boil! Her Boss is having it and he’s from Covington LA. So what is more unusual than having a crawfish boil in south Alabama,…having one in Midland Texas.

Adee

#16 Shannon,

A lovely lady of WW2 vintage. May she rest in peace.

Super Dave

I forgot to mention that my wife is heading to Texas. I talked to her a few minutes ago and she’s between Beaumont and Winnie so she’ll make San Leon before 6 PM. She’s going to do some visiting while she’s there but the trip is to take care of some legal matters for our friend that passed away last year. She is the executor of his estate and was his power of attorney including his DNR custodian. That was tricky when he passed away, dealing with his Russian wife. Wife had to be very diplomatic and help his wife come to the realization that he was indeed brain dead after spending several days in ICU. Not fun for sure.

Dr phil Good-E=1984

yo unck

unck yo

Dr phil Good-E=1984

yo Bruddah Squawk

bruddah squawk yo

Dr phil Good-E=1984

yo texpat

texpat yo

mb’s feeling a little…

Adee

Just recalled something perhaps of interest about my father in the Navy JAG office in England. He was at times a defense lawyer for Navy members accused of violating all kinds of regulations. He did mention in passing how many defendants he had represented in court and spoke of some cases that were difficult to defend against. He won all of the cases for the defendants. Guess his background in the Wisconsin Senate was helpful in presenting his cases to the JAG court. 🙂

Dr phil Good-E=1984

yo all the rest of you hosers

all the rest of you fellow hosers yo

don’t try this at home it could ruin your career.

TexMo

Biden 2024!!!!!

TexMo

I had a hard time getting chemo side effects under control this last week. I’ve been utterly miserable for several days. The oncologist had to order me bags of saline to keep the electrolytes in balance and to keep from getting dehydrated.

TexMo

Adee those are great stories about your dad.

GJT

TexMo!!!

Katfish

#25 – LMAO

Welcome back Brother!

mharper42

Glad to see you online, TexMo!

Super Dave

Hang in there TexMo good to hear from you.

Super Dave

I just watched the Waco series on Netflex and I followed the story pretty good back when it took place and was really pissed so now I’m reminded again about how the Feds murdered those folks in the compound. Yes David Koresh was a nut-job but hey didn’t have to storm the compound and prove him right about Armageddon.

Adee

TexMo,

Prayers for you and the doctors being able to relieve the nasty side effects of chemo. You have been through Hell and back already.

Adee

#11 mharper42,

Perhaps Billy is deaf or nearly deaf, and thus the perplexing behavior. Glad to hear he is a happy guest for meals at your home. Hope the feline residents in your home don’t dislike him.

mharper42

#34

Adee, Billy is not around my cats; he isn’t invited to come inside. He has several spots in the back yard, shaded grassy spots where he is comfortable napping after a meal. I don’t think my cats can see him in any of those “nests”. They’ve seen him a few times when he’s been on the patio or the old deck, which are right outside the big windows at the back of the house. He seems to be terrified of me, suggesting he has been mistreated wherever he used to live. But he is also in fine condition, so his situation is quite puzzling.

I don’t think he has any hearing problem, because he does respond to being called. Several times I’m seen him come to my back yard from either fence to the east or the west. No longer a Rottweiler living in that east-side adjacent yard.

Shannon

One of the better versions.

Shannon

Best gunslinger.

GJT

Back from a fun night at the track. He was pretty decent, making little progresses but in the feature two cars got tangled and spun in front of him and our left front suspension got torn apart. Left front wheel got bent to heck but it appears the new tire we put on just this week, survived. So we got three weeks off with the Corpus race coming up we weren’t going to to get parts and put it back together.

Super Dave

Dang! Where is everyone? I looked in about 4 AM but figured it was waay too early to get started but now it’s after 8? Oh well, I didn’t kill it.
GJT Racing is expensive isn’t it? It sucks that you’d have damage that was no fault of your own but that’s just part of the deal. I do think it’s neat that there is a type of race that mere mortals can compete in and enjoy. 😉

Mornin’ Gang

Good morning gang. Looking like it’s going to be another beautiful day today. May be some high overcast, but that’s fine with me too since my eyes are still sensitive to the really bright sunshine even after the cataract replacements. I’m continuing my surgical prep through managing my meds a little differently each day rather than the automatic routine that I’ve followed for years, but so far I seem to be on track. The one interesting change is to replace the expensive blood thinner pill with an equally or greater expensive SubC injection in the fat roll of my stomach. So far no pain and no issues giving myself that shot. Last one of those is this evening. I’ll strip the bed and get a big load of laundry so that I can start off with relatively clean sheets upon my return. Don’t go in until Tuesday, but so far the schedule has me leaving early for a 7AM show up time about 95 miles away.

The worm farming operation is moving right along although there are still not many worms to work with. I do not have the reproductive cycle down yet, but so far my bins are just not quite working the way that I would like for them too. I started my bins with plastic buckets, and I’m checking on them all too frequently I’m sure. The bin buckets have holes in the bottom to allow for air circulation and liquid to drain out, but the filler material seems to be packing too tightly at the bottom and cutting off the air supply. I’m probably feeding a little too much as well, and the liquids in the fruits and veges also contribute to wet conditions. So yesterday, I acquired a couple of flat storage bins like those you would put stuff in to store under your bed, and I split both buckets up, so now I have 4 containers with worms – 2 buckets and 2 flat bins. I removed about half the material in the buckets, so we’ll see if that doesn’t work a little better. How fast all the food and bedding materials get processes is dependent upon several factors, but the most important factors seems to be the sheer number of worms working the pile. Right now I’m spread pretty thin in numbers, so after my surgery I may have to order a few more worms to beef up the herd. They are predicted to double in numbers every 90 days or so, so it’s way too soon for me to be expecting to seem more worms in there from natural sources. I’ve no idea how long they live and what their death rate is, but I am told that once they reach optimum numbers for the bin in which they are living they will self-regulate their numbers. Still an interesting exercise to work with though.

OK, that’s about all the news on this front for the day. You all have a good one now.

OH, to mh et al. I still feed a few feral cats outside. A couple of years ago a big tom cat with unusual marking showed up, and he’s not as afraid as the others, so we sort of made friends. His name was Crispy Too, just like my other cat named Crispy. During the big winter storm he took off in search of better accommodations and was gone for about a year, but he’s been back for several months now. A solid black adolescent had been coming around, but I guess Crispy chased him off as I only see him occasionally now. About 3 other feral cats visit the food bowl as well as the neighbor’s calico. These cats are all hunters, and I don’t have a regular feeding time, so they just drift by and have a few bites and move on to their daily routines out in the wild. All except for Crispy and the neighbor’s cat skeedattle when they see me moving around inside. When I go to set out food, I rattle it in the plastic cup. If Crispy is in earshot, he comes running out of the woods, but none of the others have put that all together yet. Just after dark each day, Mr. Fox and Ms. Possum show up to make certain that the bowl is cleaned out and that any crumbs left on the patio don’t go to waste – usually the first one to arrive get the entire prize. Mr. Fox treats the food bowl like it’s a mouse or something where he will dart in, grab a little in his mouth, and take off a few feet away to devour his catch like he’s earned it from hunting. Among the variety of cats, possums, foxes, and whatever else lives out there they all seem to be able to peacefully coexist out there, and when one is eating, the others just stand back a few feet and let them have it – no aggressive behavior. The skunks are a different story, but I try to dispatch the skunks as soon as possible when one of them shows up.

Shannon

Rookie pilot on her third solo loses landing gear.

Shannon

Radio traffic from emergency landing in #42.

Adee

Good Morning Hamsters,

At 7 this morning we had glorious sunshine and a promising sunny day. That all quickly turned to complete overcast by about 8:30 and looks to be settled in for the duration today. There had been some whispers of rain around us on the TV weather broadcasts yesterday. As usual, about the only moisture comes from the morning mist that sometimes hangs on until late morning. No breeze at all right now.

It is nice having all the Final Four from smaller schools in the basketball finals. That could make for a larger TV audience more interested in the actual game than all the hoopla surrounding it. With all the TV coverage from every conceivable angle imaginable, many of the fans are worn out by the time the championship game actually starts. And perhaps some of the players are also.

Bonecrusher

IF you ever see this coming GET OUT OF THE WAY!!

GJT

#42, 43 Shannon

Not much mystery on how that pilot was there at that time, IMO.

GJT

I think secretly even ELG would agree the female in the tower also handled it well.

Texpat

You want to know why 138,225 people fled NYC ? The reason is DA Alvin Bragg:

The 10 counties in the U.S. that gained the most people were located in three states: Texas, Arizona and Florida. Maricopa County in Arizona topped the growth list, adding 56,831 people in 2022. It was followed by Harris County, Texas (added 45,626); Collin County, Texas (44,246); Denton County, Texas (33,424); and Polk County, Florida (32,225).

The biggest losers were Los Angeles County, California (-90,704); Cook County, Illinois (-68,314); Queens County, New York (-50,112); Kings County, New York (-46,970); and Bronx County, New York (-41,143).

Queens County, Kings County and Bronx County are three of the five boroughs of New York City.

A Manhattan parking garage attendant who was shot twice while confronting an alleged thief — then wrestled the gun away and opened fire on the suspect — has been charged with attempted murder, police said.

The overnight worker, identified by cops as Moussa Diarra, 57, was also hit with assault and criminal possession of a weapon charge in the Saturday incident, which unfolded around 5:30 a.m. as the attendant saw a man peering into cars on the second floor of the West 31st Street garage, the sources said.

Believing the man was stealing, the attendant brought him outside and asked what was inside his bag.

Instead of cooperating, the man pulled out a gun, the sources said.

Diarra tried to grab for the weapon, and it went off — leaving him shot in the stomach and grazed in the ear by a bullet before he turned the firearm on the would-be thief and shot him in the chest, sources said.

The Economic Ninja is weighing in on the BRIICS effort to create a new world currency just a couple of days after I alerted you all here to it. So here’s his take on it, and despite appearances at times, I think he knows what he is talking about. In fact, he may even have better sources than I do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEfUkDDVRl4

GJT

Can’t handle these late nights like I used to, probably gonna be as useless as the “G” in baloney today. I did take out some ribeyes for tonight though.

Texpat

Here is one of the internet memes posted by leftist LA goon, Kristina Wong, who is now an elected official in that city. She has never been charged with anything and is celebrated by the commie thugs in America.

Douglas Mackey posted a similar satirical meme about Hillary Clinton and has now been convicted of campaign fraud and faces 10 years in federal prison.

Dr phil Good-E=1984

Douglas Mackey posted a similar satirical meme about Hillary Clinton and has now been convicted of campaign fraud and faces 10 years in federal prison.

maybe the joined@thehip-do-nothing-party can get Mr Haney to grill the persecuting attorney.

nothing will happen to him but at least Mr Haney can get more time on camera to bloviate and maybe sell mr Douglas a gen-u-ine Chicago Black Sox 1919 World Series champeens t-shirt.

mharper42

Morning, fellow Hambonistas.

That landing-the-plane story is fantastic!

Billy was napping in my back yard grass when I opened the blinds. Soon got him fed, along with my 6 indoor sweeties.

I worked the Sunday morning sudoku, then went out to the nearby kolache shop and got my breakfast favorites: bacon and egg sammich on a croissant bun. It’s so huge, it always makes 2 meals for me. Also got an apple fritter, also a meal in itself, so I have half of one as a dessert.

Texpat

The Jeffrey Epstein case may get blown up in spite of all the forces arrayed to keep it quiet.

Earlier this month, a judge ruled that two different lawsuits against JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s ties to deceased “financier” and pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, would be allowed to advance in U.S. Courts. One of these cases, brought against the bank by the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), has been a particular focus of independent media since the new year began, in part because the Attorney General of the USVI, Denise George, was fired from her post just days after she filed that case.

and,

While the bank has disputed that Dimon knew anything about Epstein’s accounts at the bank or what he was really up to at the time, this Unlimited Hangout investigation – a multi-part series – will reveal that Dimon’s rise to the top post at JPMorgan was intimately linked to the very same group of people who enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking activities as well as his extensive financial crimes.

In this article, we will examine how Dimon’s rise to become one of the most powerful men on Wall Street was largely reliant on top executives and directors of Bank One, which boasts incredibly close ties to The Limited’s Leslie Wexner and his right-hand man for many decades, Columbus-area real estate developer John W. Kessler. Kessler and other individuals tied to Wexner were the dominant forces that saw Dimon installed as Bank One’s CEO in 2000. Bank One was acquired by JPMorgan in 2003 and, shortly thereafter, Dimon became CEO of the combined entity. That acquisition, as well as the role of the Crown family in Chicago in Dimon’s selection as Bank One’s CEO, will be discussed in the second part of this series.

RELATED: Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Hyatt Hotels executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and real estate mogul Mortimer Zuckerman were the billionaires subpoenaed, while former Disney president Michael Ovitz has also been asked to provide information.

Texpat

Library wars in Llano County, Texas

In early July 2021, prior to their appointment to the New Library Board, Defendants Rochelle Wells, Rhonda Schneider, Gay Baskin, and Bonnie Wallace were part of a community group pushing for the removal of children’s books that they deemed “inappropriate.” For example, these Defendants objected to two series of children’s picture books, the “Butt and Fart Books,” which depict bodily functions in a humorous manner in cartoon format, because they believed these books were obscene and promoted “grooming” behavior. Defendant Milum, the library system’s director, shared the complaints with the Commissioners Court {the municipal entity that controls the Llano County Library System}. Although several commissioners and librarians stated that they saw no problem with the books, Defendants Moss and Cunningham contacted Milum to instruct her to remove the books from the shelves.

There are ways to handle these situations, but the heavy-handed actions of the Library Board members pretty much screwed all that up.

Texpat

You honestly cannot make this stuff up

Homeland Security’s legal immigration agency will now allow applicants to select a gender of their choice without having to provide supporting documentation that matches.

Those who already have records in the system can also change that previous selection without the need for proof, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said.

The only exception is for someone who’s already a citizen, in which case proof will be required.

Texpat

This Houston Chronicle crime story describes Mid Lane as the River Oaks area.

I’m a native Houstonian born in 1952 at the old Memorial Hospital downtown. I used to know the city pretty well and I never in my life heard Mid Lane described as the “River Oaks Area”. For most of my life and certainly from the 1950s through the 1990s, Mid Lane was a place all its own known notoriously as “Sin Alley”.

Texpat

It’s clear blue skies and sunny here in the 50s. Tomorrow morning, we dip to 34, but that looks like the last time we are below 40 at night. Spring has finally whipped the winter.

Texpat

News like this has me leaning hard towards Squawk’s embrace of imminent End Times prophesies.

God brought the Great Flood upon the earth when He became so disgusted, in large part, with man’s common practice of child sacrifice to false gods.

The liberal Canadian government is advancing plans to update the country’s “assisted suicide” laws to allow authorities to euthanize children without the need for parental consent.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia have become rapidly accepted in Canada.

The government has continued to lift restrictions on its Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) program.

Initially, it was introduced to give people who were terminally ill an option to prevent then from dying a slow painful death.

Over time, however, the laws have become more relaxed.

No civilization can and should survive the endorsement of this monumental evil.

Adee

We splurged and went to brunch at a favorite place in Richmond’s ETJ on FM 359 around 11 this morning to avoid the after-church rush that usually starts arriving around noon. The large plate the food arrives on can hold quite a lot of food, and it is quite a challenge for me to finish it all in one sitting. Usually some of it comes home for consumption the next day. Spouse of course has no problem finishing brunch at the restaurant. Today I managed eating it all with some effort and no carry home necessary. I am still stuffed and likely will be for some time, perhaps bedtime.

Today one can hardly view TV or read any newspaper without being confronted with a barrage of stuff pertaining to Mr. Trump’s likely legally very threadbare indictment. The Dems are pretty proud of themselves for having blindly exposed themselves to be the political gypsies, tramps, and thieves that they are.

I think the Secret Service folks who have looked after Mr. Trump during his presidency and will be looking after him until he passes away might take great pleasure in their jobs right now. They will be right with him and will have opportunities with one look to freeze the blood of anyone who tries to interfere with their duty. What a hoot to have Secret Service folks at Mr. Trump’s side in jail for all the world to see. 🙂 Bet that is something the jackass NY Att. never thought of.

bsue54

TexPat @2:48 – Sqauwk’s reaction was “all good things gotta come to an end some time…”

On brighter notes – we just had “brunch” at “The Honor Cafe” in Conroe, and have only good things to report (well… our wait-person could have been a little less ‘blond’ – she asked if there was anything else she could get us when she brought out our food, and I asked for more coffee… and she had to come back to be reminded what it was I’d asked for… but everything else was spot-on!!!!) Great coffee, really nice (without being “cloying” military themed memorabilia) decor… and food worth waiting for.

GJT

#52 Ms Adee

I heard that pondered the other day, what about a former president with the guaranteed right to protection with Secret Service, in jail? What a mess we weave.

GJT

Shannon/Texpat

Would it be possible to get Mrs Johnson’s asparagus recipe again? Pretty please?

Got my laundry done and my bed mostly made back up. Tempted to try it out for a nap, but I’d rather stay up and sleep through the night tonight. I might go ahead and mow the yard again tomorrow. We are under a tornado watch until 11PM but I don’t detect any threats on the radar at this time. I thought about getting some more worms which would arrive Friday or Saturday to more fully stock my bins, but I don’t know how I’ll be feeling by then. I should be good to go by Friday, but I won’t be able to life much or do anything. Oh well, what the heck. From what I’m hearing by Friday our currency will have devalued by another half again and the Fed initiates its digital currency plan tomorrow. Before this is over I’m going to have to go out there in Galveston Bay and see if I can recover my silver investment that was lost years ago in that boating accident.

No other news to report for now.

Texpat

FEBRUARY 28, 2017 AT 7:38 AM EDIT

55 GJT

Here it is…

Patsy’s Marinated Asparagus

Shannon says:

Mom wasn’t much of a cook, but we didn’t suffer.
Here’s her

Marinated Asparagus

1/2c green & red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3c minced onion
1/3c corn oil
1/2c vinegar
1/2c sugar
2-3 cans asparagus (fresh, cooked is better)

Dissolve sugar in vinegar. Add oil. Heat til hot, not boiling.
Add pepper and onion. Drain asparagus. Layer with marinade in
shallow glass dish. Refrigerate overnight. Serve chilled.

Texpat

As I recall, Mom had a dedicated, rectangular glass dish that had a glass cover for that recipe. Any glass dish with a cover will do though.

GJT

Thanks!!

bsue54

Texpat/Shannon- I musta missed this recipe the first go-round… Thanx for sharing again… I think I have one of those rectangular glass dishes with a glass cover that will be perfect!!!!

Bonecrusher

I built a base to hold a 3 x 4 foot granite slab, a cut off from our bathroom remodel. reclaimed 2 x 4s and long screws, drills, table saw, hand planer, clamps, and a pocket hole jig are the ingredients so far. It took 3.5 hours including going to the store.

I am reminded how long it has been since I have done that sort of thing by the way my body feels. I should note that I ran a new batch of Honeyshine today as well.

Super Dave

Texpat N Shannon, I’ll be trying Patsy’s asparagus, sounds good.

mharper42

I had a nap instead of lunch, and it was hard to get up since I was surrounded by big cats that wanted to lean on me. Now they are looking for some supper…

GJT

Re: Patsy’s Asparagus

Hammie liked it, so it’s got to be good! Never got around to trying it and I lost the recipe.

More on the pending demise of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4142749/posts

Oops, time for my last shot in the belly before Tuesday surgery. Anybody want to watch? I didn’t think so.

GJT

Belly shot kilt the blog.

News flash – Mexico wants to join up with the BRIICS – where did you first hear about this? https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4142782/posts