Civil War V2.0

Here are my thoughts on a topic you have likely all heard by now.

1. Insofar as civil war is possible, it won’t be anything like any previous war. No patterns seen in history are appropriate for this situation. Current divisions are ideological, not geographic, tribal or political. It is impossible to tell who is on each side
2. It ain’t happening.
3. Having said that, there is likely to be “unrest” and civil disruption. I don’t really care. This will be the same violent characters from the Democratic party brown shirts and Krystal Nachts departments that we have been seeing for over 10 years now. They limit their activities to where they live (the cities) and specifically places where their allies own the mayor’s office, police departments and city counsels so that they suffer zero risk of getting arrested and jailed or having their head broken. As such, there is no reason at all why any sane person from the suburbs or rural areas to go there and participate. Let them burn their own homes to the ground.
4. Anyone who has seen a real civil war should flee from it and from any situation where such a thing becomes possible. War is hell. Real, literal hell. Why would anyone want that? I have seen the war in Yugoslavia. I have seen green hills turned white with grave markers. I have seen winter Olympic ice rinks turned to morgues. I have seen whole town eradicated of human life and all over a handful of petty warlords wanting to carve out a bigger piece of a rotting corpse for themselves. Don’t play this game. Especially don’t play it because of something you heard on the news, the radio, or the internet. NONE of that is real. What is real is a gang of people walking up your street. Until you look out your window and see that, there is no reason for you to get involved in this.
5. Preparing: You don’t need a thousand rounds of ammo. Studies of war show that most people never even fire their weapons at the enemy. Those who do often miss. Those who use their weapons effectively still have a low survival rate. If, hypothetically, “war” breaks out, you will likely only use abut 50 rounds before you are caught, killed, or incapacitated. This is why M1 tanks only have an ammo rack of 40 rounds. They either win or lose the battle by the time they use those. In the low chance that you are special, you can scavenge ammo from those you kill, or change out weapons to a different ammo type.
6. The role of local police: They will NOT be on your side, whichever side you are on. They will be told you are a terrorist and they will cheerfully go to your house without a warrant, shoot your dog, and spray your sleeping family with automatic weapons fire fired through thin suburban walls. Hint: they already do this. “Oaths” (TM) and claims of being “sheepdogs” won’t even slow them down.
7. The role of the military: See point 6.

Arts and Crafts: deck part 2

Since the last time, I finished laying out the deck boards. Making sure the grain faced down.

There are heated discussions about spacing or no spacing of decks. I chose spacing. I use the edge of my steel square for a spacing gauge. After the wood finishes drying, the gap should expand to 1/4 ” for good drainge. Deck boards were fastened with galvanized and ribbed nails from my nail gun. I know there are also heated internet arguments about nails or screws but I’m sure these will work fine.

I offset each row of boards by 2 cells and cut them to begin and end on joists. Buying boards that legnth would have saved me some work but the 10ft boards were what the store had. After they are nailed down, I use my circular saw to trim all the edges to uniform length.

Then the 2×4 rails, top and bottom, screwed to the deck posts. I tried to use a jig to space the balusters but I ran into something Og said about “Tolerance stack error” where the end of the run was very out of plumb. So I took them all down and measured marks every 5 1/4 inches on the top rail, nailed to that, and used the steel square to check plumb before nailing the bottoms. I used 5 or 6 2″ galvanized finishing nails at each top and bottom.

Then I went back to Lowes to get some top quality deck boards to use as rail tops. These don’t cost much more but have fewer flaws in them so they look and feel nicer. Mitered the corners and cut the lengths so each piece was supported by at least 4 posts. Nailed with 2- 1/2″ galvanized nails.

VIOLA! Finished

The last board near the house is laid loose (not nailed). It will be finished after I install the new doors and re-do all the cedar on the back of the house.

I expended 2 circular saws on this project. The first I noticed the blade was worn. After replacing the blade, it caught fire in the switch and stopped working. It was a 30 year old saw from Sears (back when they existed) so i cant complain. So I got out my backup saw. Improper chord management resulted in slicing through the power chord. I can probably fix that, but I happen to have a third circular saw to finish the job.

Once again, air powered nail guns REALLY save a lot of work.

This deck isn’t all that useful in the winter, which I am told is coming. But it is useful as a scaffold to stand on when I install three sliding glass doors on that wall and remove the windows.

There is always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser above the Earth*: A commentary on Election Fraud

*Scene from Men in Black

There has always been election fraud and the evidence shows it is massive, organized, growing, and ALWAYS favors only one political party.

It is unaccountably unconscionable that the national news organizations would make the totally unsupportable and counter-factual claim that there is no evidence of fraud. Fraud in US elections is a known fact that has been a known fact for over 100 years. Any Journalist who claims that this year is an exception is engaging in outright attempting to re-write history to suit their own narrative. That narrative being, “Joe Biden won fair and square and without the taint of fraud”.

Point two: The national news media is also making the entirely counter-factual claim that any fraud that is found would not have changed the outcome of the election. Evidently, Logic 101 is not a class that you need to take to get a degree in Journalism. The whole point of election fraud is to change the outcome. If it didn’t change the outcome, no one would bother doing it.

So, just as the national news media ignored every story about Joe being Senile, corrupt, and hopelessly incompetent, they are pretending that election fraud doesn’t exist and when it does exist it only exists in ways that are contrary to the very purpose of election fraud.

Why does anyone still believe anything they see in the “news”?

Back in the old Soviet Union, their primary “newspaper” was Pravda. Everyone knew that everything in Pravda was lies, but they read it anyway for entertainment. It was a rich field for planting innuendo and conspiracy. People would read the official version, instinctively know that was a lie and start creating and spreading what they thought must be the “real story”.

I labored under the mistaken belief that in the USA, we had fair and free elections. Now I see it was all just a game where party insiders decided which candidates were good for me and which ones would take office. The Fix is in. It has always been in. Among Trump’s many accomplishments is this latest: ripping the curtain down and showing us what is behind it. Having seen what is behind it, you cannot un-see it. when it comes to elections, the USA is no better than Cuba, China, or Venezuela. Africa has less corrupt elections.

I now wonder when was the last time the Democrats have “won” ANY election? Do the Democrats really hold places like California and New York or is that all just part of the ongoing and growing elections fraud.

Arts and Crafts: New Deck, Part 1.

Got rid of the old deck. Putting up the new deck.

I had hired a guy to do this for me, but we had creative differences and we had to seek opportunities in different directions. I knew it was going to go badly when he failed to measure and lay out where the post holes would go before he started digging them.

Step 1. Remove old deck. See here.

Step 2. Order materials from LOWES. got it all delivered on site. It took several trips because with the COVID everyone is “working from home” and decided to add decks, so a nation-wide shortage of pressure treated lumber ensues.

Step 3. Dig the holes for the footings.

Step 4. Measure and lay out where the footings go.

Step 5. Fill the holes back up with concrete and rocks. And set anchor bolts into the wet concrete.

Step 6. Layout and install ledger board. I attached the steel hangers while this was on the ground. Much easier than working on a ladder. I attached some scrap 2×4’s to help hold up the heavy sections and properly align them. Several layers of various types of flashing. First peel and stick, then house wrap, then ledger board, then second layer of peel and stick over the top of the ledger board, and a metal drip-lip under the ledger to keep water from traveling back under the overhang.

Step 7. Put up the 6×6 posts and main support structure. I hired a young relative to help with this part. I could have done it myself, but a second set of hands was welcome and he needed Christmas money.

Step 8. Then add the 2×8 joists. The ledger board side is anchored in metal hangers. The cantilever side rests by gravity, and reinforced by hurricane ties. Then added wood sections between the joists to keep them from “rolling”.

Step 9. Add the outer rim joist or “band board”. Again, I used scrap 2x4s to hold and align the boards since I’m working alone again.

Step 10. Loosely pile a bunch of planks on the deck so I have a work surface. I’ll nail these down later.

Step 11. Install the 4×4 handrail posts. I do this before the deck planks because the planks need to fit around these posts. This step requires 8 individual trips to LOWES to get all the correct sized and quantities of screws, bolts, washers, and drill bits. Don’t skimp on this step by planning ahead and getting it all in one trip.

Bye, Mask

The election is over. There is no longer any need to wear masks. We aren’t China.

On a related note. I would appreciate it if whoever is hoarding respirator masks would knock that shit off. People who work in high dusty, paint, and fume environments still need those and I haven’t been able to change my filters in 8 months.

Moving Forward

What is so damned hard about voting by mail?

Every adult in the USA knows how their postal system works. Important stuff gets lost or stolen all the time. The Postmaster General for decades has been telling people to never send cash in the mail. Why? BECAUSE POSTAL EMPLOYEES ARE THIEVES. Yet we can all count on a trove of junk mail to be in our mailbox every day.

There is no reason at all why legislatures could not require that all votes be counted by midnight on 3 November and for voting offices to schedule printing and sending out ballots accordingly. It’s not like election day just snuck up on us or we needed extra time deciding who the candidates were.

I don’t trust mail-in balloting either, but if legislatures decide to have it, there is no reason at all why they can’t structure it to make sense.

I have seen how the Iraqis do it. They do it the way they do to avoid rampant voter fraud. Why do they resort to rampant fraud? Because winning really matters. The winner gets to distribute all the spoils. America has several orders of magnitude greater spoils to distribute. Of course it matters enough to cheat. In the past, cheating has been held to a tolerable level. But now it is intolerable. We can’t count on courts, governors or justice departments to keep the system honest. We need to do it the Iraqi way. Everyone votes in person, on election day and then you dip your finger in the ink well to show you voted and keep you from doing it again.

And while they are at it, they need to clean up the election laws about what happens if your candidate dies after his name is on the ballot, but before he takes office. I propose that a special election is needed.

Day AFTER Election day notes

1. I’m still hoping Trump will win. But the margin of victory may be smaller than the margin of massive fraud.
2. Did you ever notice that when a district or city gets an injunction to continue counting or continue voting, it isn’t a pro-Trump district. It seems pro-Trump voters understand how voting works and show up on time with proper ID.
3. Did anyone ever notice that when new boxes of uncounted votes magically show up, they only show up in close swing states that are controlled by Democrats? and the votes are ONLY for democrats? Funny how that happens.
4. No matter who wins, I must say I am very saddened to find out that half the voting population of the USA would actually rather vote for a senile old man instead of Trump and tell themselves that they are doing a good thing for America. Is it possible that with 24-7 media blackout on that issue for 4 years that Biden voters just never heard about it? Or do they not believe it and think it is just election year mud slinging? Or is their hatred of Trump so large that they just don’t care? I really am curious about this. I just can’t imagine that even Democrats really believe all the things their media machine has been saying.
5. If Trump wins, he really needs to exact some consequences against the media for running a 4 year long campaign against him. Something legal, of course, like prosecution for election laws violations, making in-kind contributions to a political party without declaring them.
6. If Trump doesn’t win, then never mind. The Republicans can go back to going along to get along and start their permanent minority status 4 years earlier.
7. It is a real shame that the Left want to tear down all our civil war memorials and monuments. It is an important lesson to be learned that the cost of civil war is exorbitant and something any sane person should avoid. Where will Americans learn that lesson? Public schools? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
8. It is obvious that the stakes are very high for presidential elections and not something anyone should give up lightly on. The Democrats for instance, stand to reap billions in additional corruption. But really it is only the people at the top who ever see any of that. What do the rank and file Democratic party voters get? Kind of reminds me of the plight of Russian and Polish peasants during WW2. No matter who won the war, life for you was still going to suck.

Last Day Election Notes

The election is tomorrow. Here are my thoughts:

1. If you haven’t put some effort into the ballot box, don’t you dare start talking about cartridge boxes. Maintaining your modern civilization is a lot of work but a LOT more satisfying than the alternatives.
2. Please vote for Trump and let Joe go home. The guy needs 24 hour care, not a 24 hour job. Let the poor man enjoy what is left of his brain cells in peace.
3. I will be so glad when this election is over and we can get started on the 2024 campaign. I predict another impeachment circus before inauguration day. Let’s face it, if they can impeach Trump for a phone call, they can impeach him for anything.
4. It is clear that Trump will get exactly the same level of cooperation from the Democrats in his next 4 years as he had in the last four years.
5. Trump has done some very unpredictable things in his first term. Traditionally, each party could count in their 42% of voters being on their side and then triangulation to get their share of the middle. Trump changed that. He didn’t just get a larger share of the pie. He made the pie bigger. He brought into the voting booth millions of people who either didn’t care about voting or who had already given up on it. Republicans had written off the Black and Hispanic votes as solid democratic party territory and were writing important scholarly essays about demographic shift and getting used to being a permanent minority party. Blacks were considered the most solid and loyal Democratic party pillars with Dems counting on 95% of them every vote. Trump went after them with results and the black vote noticed. It will be interesting to see just how much of the black and Hispanic votes have shifted to Republican. If Trump even gets 15 of the Black vote, he will have an unassailable lead. Make no mistake. The republicans didn’t do that. Trump did that. If the Republicans run another McCain/Romney/Bush, they will go back to “losing with dignity”. Trump stole the union vote from the Democrats. The teachers unions are the only ones still in solid Democratic party territory. Trump did that. Other Republicans wrote those votes off decades ago.
6. Trump’s list of accomplishments in his first term is staggering. Never-Trumpers and Rinos hate his guts for it because he showed the American people just how easy it is to get real accomplishments when there is someone in office who really expects results. It is like he pointed out the skidmarks in their underwear. They will never forgive him for demonstrating that they were all talk and never had any intention of actually governing as conservatives. Trump has done more for America than the whole truck load of previous Republicans despite having to fight tooth and nail for everything in his agenda. Trump had to fight against his own party in the Legislature, fight against democratic party judges at every level and fight against democratic party office holders at the state level who were “resisting” everything he did. With all that against him, he should have been totally halted and made zero progress. A lesser man would have been running for re-election with nothing to show for his first term but a bag of excuses… like Biden is.
7. The worst part of supporting Trump is knowing that there is only one Trump. In 2024, he won’t be running again and there is no one on the bench who can fill his shoes.

A few Words about the election

1. It’s getting closer. Reports say that tens of millions of people have already voted. That is a LOT.
2. Vox this morning posted the rumor that something big happened, to either the “big guy” or to Hunter Biden. Then nothing happened. But it brings to mind a question. What happens if Joe Biden can no longer carry on the election or take office if he wins the election?

— You know that Democratic party insiders have already thought through this. They would be foolish to not have a contingency plan already in place. I have always said Biden was just a paper cut-out stand in for a candidate to be named later. A candidate who never had a chance to be elected on his or her own merits. Hint: It is NOT Ms. Harris.

— You cannot substitute a new name on the ballots at this point. As I said, tens of millions of people already voted. What happens to all those suddenly non-viable votes? Do they get a “do-over”? The laws in the various states do not cover this possibility.

— It is obvious that the Democratic party will throw someone in at the last minute, and there is legal precedent for doing it in governor and Senate races. But there is no precedent or law to regulate what happens in the big game. Ms. Harris does not automatically take over as the headline. Votes cast for Biden do not automatically get credited as “Democratic party candidate to be named later”.

— If Joe cannot finish the campaign, or take office after winning, we are in a place we have not been before. There is no way the Democratic party or their in-pocket judges will let stand a Trump victory on the basis of Biden not participating. The law only allows Harris to take Biden’s place AFTER he is already president and she is already sworn in as VP. She can’t take his place after the election as if she won, and not Biden.

— My own idea is that Trump should call for a special election to be held within 30 days with whatever new candidate the Dems choose, so that Trump can either continue in office or leave office on time in January. But there is no law to support this. Trump does not have the legal authority to call a special election. If Republicans and Democrats were smart, they would be working on legislation for this eventuality BEFORE they have to use it. Like next week. Even simple minded people must have considered that with Biden, this is a real possibility.

3. I have a theory that the Democratic party has no intention of Biden actually winning. His participation is purely for fund-raising so that the campaigning apparatus and professional campaign staff can get paychecks. While they are at it, the Democrats are running a sideshow to gather data on just how many votes and funds they can count on, even if they run a nearly dead candidate with zero “curb appeal”. They are looking to see where the absolute minimum floor is in every precinct so that they can make good investments next time. Biden is the Democrat’s version of Bush-McCain-Romney. There is a metaphor about being a “Yellow Dog Democrat”, as one who would rather vote for a Yellow dog than vote for a Republican. Biden is a Yellow Dog and the party is counting how many yellow dog voters exist and where they are.

[EDIT] The Trump campaign should definitely Tweet the suggestion that they are looking into contingency plans if frail old Biden does not survive long enough to take office. Even if they aren’t, it will remind voters that Biden is frail and unlikely to serve as President, even if they vote for him. And if he does serve, he will be nothing more than a captive puppet for “unseen hands”.

[EDIT2] The Biden campaign has called a halt to campaigning. Seriously? They were only phoning it as as it was. Now they are cutting the pretense. Hillary was thrashed for failing to campaign in Wisconsin, and Biden is throwing in the towel without campaigning anywhere. Are the Democrats going all in on data collection, uninfluenced by even their own campaigning? Are they trying to prove that with the internet and TV they can craft a better Biden candidate than the real life person is? Is in-person campaigning a thing of the past that isn’t coming back? Trump didn’t get that memo.

A Few Final Words About George Floyd

I was lurking around the internets this morning while “working from home” and stumbled upon Peter Grant’s web site. He had a very old post about Floyd and it triggered me strongly enough to write something that may get me banned for hate-speech, and shit.

1. Floyd died of a drug overdose. The police were merely present for his suicide. They did not cause it. The police may have triggered it just by being present since Floyd may have seen them coming and decided to swallow his stash. It’s not the police’s fault that Floyd was irrational and made a bad choice.
2. The prosecutors should have known it almost immediately, if they have any experience at all with policing in that jurisdiction. The fact that they charged the police anyway with crimes tells me that the prosecutors were using their offices for political activism and sacrificing the lives of good men to boost their own careers.
3. On Glenn Beck just yesterday, and also on previous occasions I have heard people say words to the effect that after watching the Floyd video, they were horrified and that everyone with a conscience would be. And further that “EVERYONE” was on Floyd’s side and agreed the police were reckless. Um… last I checked, I had a conscience and it is good working order. I watched that video and saw nothing at all horrifying. What makes the video “horrifying” is the narrative subtitles that the media provided about watching the police kill a man. The video itself only shows a group of police doing a very average job of just another encounter with a drugged up junkie, the sort of thing they handle exactly the same way 5 times a week. I saw and heard a guy who was uncooperative, being treated humanely and politely. I saw additional police arriving to assist in controlling the scene. I saw EMT being summoned and Floyd being placed into EMT custody. There never was anything “horrifying” in the video and absolutely zero reason for anyone to be “horrified” by watching it. I put this on the same level as people who eat meat from the grocery store every day and never consider that there is a slaughter house involved in there somewhere. You all live nice pleasant lives because the police are out there “interacting” with people like Floyd every day so you don’t have to.
4. Criminals lie. They lie about everything. They lie to everyone. They especially lie to police. Police deal with criminals every day and get tired of being lied to. They are lied to so often that they KNOW with certainty that they are being lied to so they stop listening to the words coming out of the criminal’s mouth. So when one say’s “I can’t breathe”, it’s just another lie to manipulate the officer. This is what life looks like in a low trust society. The police have to go about doing whatever they need to do no matter what the criminal says. When they eventually restrain the criminal, they don’t stop restraining him just because he goes limp. “Going Limp” is just another lie criminals use to evade restraint and possibly cause injury to the police or his co-workers. ANY experienced policeman would continue the lowest energy restraint until the criminal is passed to another type of restraint. You can bet your farm that criminals now know that “I can’t breathe” is the new get out of jail free card.