There is an old saying, "The first is bad luck, the second is coincidence, the third is enemy action."
There have been a lot of US food infrastructure going off-line over the past year. Some of us are starting to wonder why.
Rumble video here. I can't get it to embed.
Let's not forget that Joe Biden promised us food shortages.
It's miserable outside by central Louisiana standards. Several days of rain have left the ground soggy, mud prevails. Right now it is misting rain with temps in the high 30s. We're not under any threat of ice or snow, but it is miserable outside. I have run my errands and will stay hunkered down for the rest of the day, trying to keep dry and warm.
Looking north a hundred miles, those folks are under the threat of ice. Bless their hearts. I hope everyone stays safe out there.
It's days like this when I believe that God is saying "Take a break." I intend to do so.
I'm sure that you have all heard, by now, about the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. Five officers are indicted in his death. Details are still unclear, but it appears that Nichols was stopped for reckless driving. At some point a foot chase developed, and when Nichols was apprehended, he was beaten by the officers. Nichols later died.
Nichols was black, the Chief of the Memphis PD is black, and the five officers indicted are all black. This inconvenient fact has not stopped some from claiming that "white supremacy" played a role in this tragedy. That is patently ridiculous, as most of these claims are. "White Supremacy" has become the great bugaboo of this century, used to explain everything from failing schools to covid deaths.
I admit that racism has, in the past, played a part in the culture of the United States. That is history. But, lately, "white supremacy" has become a convenient argument to explain the inexplicable. Like the monster under the bed, when you shine a light on it, it seems to disappear. It's there in the dark recesses of your mind, but it cannot explain the present.
The truth is deeper than that. And more complex. Five black officers with bodycams beat a suspect. That suspect later died of his injuries. That is what happened. We can debate why it happened, but sometimes it is impossible to explain the inexplicable. We can talk about police culture, and we can talk about the recent history of the defund movement and what that means in the broader sociological sphere, but we may not be able to explain why it happened.
Grandson Lucas gets off the school bus at our house every day, due to the schedules and routes of the school bus. His dad meets him here, and we generally chat for a bit before he goes home. You never know what question he is going to ask. Lucas is 12 years old.
Lucas is a shooter in his school's rimfire team. His dad built him a Ruger 10/22 and from all reports, he is doing well with it. Today he wanted to know about bullet speed and RPM and barrel twist rates, so we went down that rabbit hole.
It still amazes me, and I know the match, about how fast a bullet spins when it comes out of the tube. The basic equation is here. He's a budding gear-head, so we had to relate that to engine rpm. He is amazed that a CCI mini-mag spins at lot faster than a small block Chevy.
Passing on the information. That's my job as a grandfather. I wonder what he is going to ask me about tomorrow?
They do get stuck, occasionally. We're in the wet season now, and we'll have to be carful where we take the tractor. It's out now, and grandson Lucas is learning basic vehicle recovery.
We haven't had a club match since October, and the first for the 2023 season is tomorrow. I am prepping the range for the match, checking targets and electronics and making sure that all is well for when the club gets here tomorrow and we draw the first round.
This year we have decided to do a buckle series. At each match, the shooters get points toward the series depending on their placement in the match. At the end of the year, we'll total up the points and the high points winner will get a trophy buckle.
It's going to be a lot of fun. Ten matches for 2023, and we start tomorrow.
So, Axios wrote an article on pickup trucks. Big, heavy, fuel burners. Like that is a bad thing.
I've been driving trucks since I started driving. Normally, the wife would drive the family sled, and I would drive the truck. For a time I was in the cattle business, and we abslutely needed a truck, for towing trailers, for hauling feed, for hauling fuel.
The Axios article complains that folks who drive trucks don't normally use then for truck things, like hauling or towing. They are normally used for commuting or running errands.
With jumbo trucks, you’d think people were hauling and towing more than ever — not so. Survey data from vehicle research firm Strategic Vision shows a third of today’s pickup owners rarely or never use their truck for hauling, while two thirds rarely or never use it for towing. So what are people using their trucks for? Shopping, errands, commuting and Sunday drives.
Uuuh, yeah. If I need the truck once a week for towing or hauling, then those other days I"m running errands, shopping, or commuting. Even in my cattle-business days, most of the hours I spent in that truck were not related to the business. Such is the nature of owning a pickup truck.
I still own a tuck, but I am fortunate that I also own other vehicles and the truck is only used when I need a truck. I keep the battery hot and the oil changed. I don't need it today, but I might need it tomorrow.
We learned yesterday that our former vice president, Mike Pence, had classified documents in his home in Indiana. Pence is a guy who is so squeaky-clean that he wouldn't have lunch with a woman who was not his wife. It's called the Pence Rule
Evidently there is so much classified information floating around the halls of power that it is impossible to avoid it. And that does not bode well for an open society.
I always wondered when I would attend a classified briefing, exactly which part of the information was classified. Too much of our government wants to keep secrets. Like, for instance, why some documents from the Kennedy assassination are still classified.
Maybe it is time to start looking at how we classify documents. There are some secrets that we need to safeguard, but I suspect that most of classification protocols are simply over-reach.
It's raining out there today, and the weather-weenies tell me that it will keep raining for most of the rest of today. We can't do anything outside, so the dog and I are in the shop.
I cut up a little chuck roast and we're making a beef stew. Good beef, a roux-gravy, with onion, carrots and potatoes. I'll wander past the stove and stir it occasionally, and when we get closer to lunch, make a pot of rice.
I had a chance to visit with grandson Quinton yesterday. He's preparing for deployment with the Louisiana National Guard. They are leaving here in early February and heading to Fort Hood for a couple of weeks, then going to Kuwait. The eventual destination is some place called Camp Buehring. From what I can see online, it is an American Army base in Kuwait. He's a young, single E-4 and this should be a grand adventure. His grandmother is heartily relieved that we're not in a shooting war right now. He tells me that they had to do some cultural sensitivity training and he's talked to folks who have been there. The one thing he thinks he is going to miss is bacon. Evidently they don't import much pork into Kuwait.
I better go stir the stew.
On the way to the Mardi Gras ball last night, we learned that the Feds have found some more documents at Joe's place.
Bob Bauer, Biden’s newly acquired personal lawyer, said the Justice Department took six documents marked classified and some of Biden’s notes during a Friday search that lasted 13 hours.
Newley acquired personal lawyer? That is an interesting choice of words, which leads one to ask a number of questions which will probably never be answered.
But it is easy to see that Joe takes classified documents really seriously. Like he takes border security very seriously. Which is to say, not at al. And, I'm wondering what happened to Joes's other lawyers that he had to "newly acquire" another one? All sorts of scenarios come to mind.
He's asleep in the shop at the scoring table. This is where the scorer sits during a match. I've tried to teach him to score, but he can't read or cipher, and he doesn't have any thumbs.
What sounds good on a rainy, cold Saturday? I found a couple of pounds of ground meat, chopped an onion, and made some sauce. Sloppy Joes. You can pour the sauce out of a can, or make it yourself. Either way works, and your taste might vary from mine, so suit yourself.
I didn't have any burger bus, but I did have hoagie buns, so there you have it.
Belle dolled hers up with a little jalapeno relish. I should have put a couple of tablespoons in the sauce, but I forgot.
Tomorrow night, Belle and I are invited to a Mardi Gras ball. She has her decided which of her gowns she will wear and is trying to decide on shoes. Choices and decisions.
For myself, it's a simple matter of putting on a tux. Standard black tuxedo, it's clean and hanging int he closet. After the ball, I'll take it to the cleaners, and it will be ready for the next time. The shoes are shined, and the shirt is white. The only real decision is whish vest I will wear. There are several available, and I must be sure not to "clash" with her gown.
Belle and I do not belong to a krewe but are a perpetual guest. So once a year, we dress up and go out to let the ladies sparkle. It's a good time.
As the world elites descend on Davos this weekend, the rest of us wonder what the big deal is? Evidently, it's all about global warming climate change. Net carbon, yada, yada.
It's hard to get a firm number. Somewhere between 1700 and 200 private jets. Those guys spew carbon worse than 99.9% of the world's population. Yet, they talk like spewing carbon is a bad thing. Hypocrisy at its finest. I don't begrudge them their private jets. If I could afford one, I'd fly it right into bankruptcy.
It's not the jets so much as them telling me that my diesel engines are going to kill the planet. That my gasoline lawnmower is bad for the planet.
I am somewhat amused to learn that hookers are also in attendance. Evidently, the world elites cannot get laid the old-fashioned way. Then again, I don't think like an elite. I had a rich uncle once tell me that "If it floats, flies, or f*cks, you are better off renting it."
It's not so much that the global elites get together at Davos that bothers me. Good for them. It's the arrogance and hypocrisy. When they start acting like it's a problem, I might start believing it's a problem.
Back in the early '70s, Brother-in-law Bill was dating a gal from Quebec. Yeah, that Quebec. She and Bill were visiting in Jena, LA and stopped to get gas.
A fellow noticed the license plate on the car and asked Bill, "Kew-beck? Where is Kew-beck?"
Bill deadpanned. "Up north of Monroe."
The fellow nodded his head and went about his business. Bill was right, of course. Quebec is north of Monroe.
Last week I was listening to a podcast about egg prices. Evidently, they are up.
Past weekend, the ladies in the family were talking about egg prices. They are definitely up.
Belle sent me to the store this morning. I paid $5.33 for a dozen white, large eggs. Not the brown, free-range eggs. The standard white eggs. Five dollars and thirty-three cents. Before tax.
Evidently there has been an outbreak of avian flu in the egg laying population. Fewer chickens, fewer eggs.
Couple of weeks ago, I bought a tractor. It's a low-hour Kubota L3400 with a front loader. It's at my son's house right now, because he is an equipment guy, an ace mechanic, and he needs to do some dirt work around his place. He will use it until the spring moving season, then we'll trailer it out to the family property.
I was remembering some tractors from my youth, and those that had loaders were often accessorized to make it more convenient. Chain hooks and clevises were the two most often seen, but I've been watching YouTube videos and it seems that a receiver hitch might also be a useful accessory. Now I have to figure out what I want and how I want to mount it.
Welding directly to the bucket is always an option, but I've seen other guys wend the hooks to plate steel, then either bolt or burn the plate to the bucket. Choices and decisions.
While watching YouTube videos, I saw something that intrigued me. That big ol' steel tube that reinforces the loader is wasted space. That might be a capital place to store chain. There are a couple of hacks to make this space useful and keep wasps out of it when the tractor is not in use.
If I could find an end-cap to fit that hole, that might be just the ticket. Other guys have made a sliding drawer from PVC pipe to use that space. Options and decisions.
Oh, and that tiny tool box that Kubota put behind the seat. Yeah, we need to do something about that too. I'll need a place for a handful of hitch pins, a couple of crescent wrenches, and a screwdriver.
So, we all know that Huter Biden knocked up a stripper in Arkansas. This is not news. He's paying child support. He wants it reduced because he is a sleaze bag.
The mother of the child wants the child to take and use the Biden name, as is customary in cases where the Daddy knocks up the mother.
Hunter is resisting, because he is a sleaze bag. As far as I know, paternity is not at issue. By every social convention that is right and proper, the child is entitled to use the Biden name. Even if Daddy is the ultimate sleaze bag.
It appears that Biden's lawyers are still finding classified documents in the house.
That question aside, do Biden's lawyers have the appropriate security clearance to be looking for these documents?
Joe Biden admitted yesterday that he kept classified documents in his garage, his locked garage, where he keeps his 'Vette. He admitted that live to Peter Doocy. That is not a place to store classified documents.
When I was a soldier, we had a special, heavy filing cabinet that met the requirements for storing FOUO and SECRET documents. It stayed in the S-2 (Intelligence) shop. It was purged regularly and there was a huge paperwork train that went with even opening the cabinet. We were not allowed to keep TOP SECRET documents in that cabinet.
Careers have been wrecked over the mis-handling of classified documents. Trump was wrong, Joe is wrong, and that simply is the way it is. Trump does have the defense that, as a sitting president, he has the authority to declassify documents. Joe does not have that defense. Joe did not also have a SCIF, which can store those documents.
But, we must remember that we cannot indict a sitting president. We couldn't indict Nixon, we couldn't indict Clinton. Nor Bush, nor Obama, nor Trump. We cannot indict Biden as long as he sits in the chair. This is purely a political issue at this point, and Joe has to reap the whirlwind.
We're learning that ol' Joe has been leaving classified documents lying around the house. Stored in the garage with his Corvette.
Joe is an old white man who has been making noises about running again for President. Old white men don't do well in the Democrat party. Ask Andrew Cuomo. The younger generation wants to have a shot, and as long as the old white men hang around, well.... you know.
Merrick Garland (bless his heart), rather than sweeping this under the rug, is appointing a special counsel. Sitting presidents don't normally fare well when a special counsel is sniffing around.
Is this a slow-roll coup?
Evidently, the rocket scientists in the Biden administration are considering a ban on gas stoves. Yeah, really.
A federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves amid rising concern about the health risks associated with indoor air pollution from the appliances, particularly among children.
Hih! The use of gas vs electic stoves has been a long source of contention between me and Belle. She liked electric stoves. I prefer gas. She wins She wins when the appliance is technically a stove. I win when the appliance can be defined as "outdoor". Our two stoves are electic. The griddle, the fish cookers, the big burner I use to boil crawfish are all gas.
The fed agency in question is the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This bunch of regulatory fascists are the same ones who make it impossible to pour gas out of a can. This is pure regulatory overreach, and a pox on them all.
Coming on the heels oof Southwest Airlines disaster last week, it seems that another computer glitch grounded aircraft all across the US this morning.
A critical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system suffered an overnight glitch, grounding flights across the US.
I'm glad I wasn't flying this morning.
It seems that there is a bill pending that would abolish the IRS, repeal the national income tax, and replace it with something called a consumption tax. Fox Digital reports:
Republicans in the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that would abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), eliminate the national income tax, and replace it with a national consumption tax.
This is a debate we need to have. I'm not sure what a national consumption tax will look like, but we knew that the IRS targets conservatives. Ever since Lois Lerner was allowed to take the 5th before Congress and slip into retirement, we have been aware that the IRS is a corrupt organization. I have no reason to believe that they have amended their practices.
However, I am a bit leery of what a national consumption tax might look like.
This bill is probably doomed in the Senate, and I doubt that Biden would sign it into law, but it is a discussion that we need to have.
You don't have to convince me about the power of prayer. I've seen it, I've lived it, I believe it.
I don't follow football. I couldn't name many teams in the NFL, much less any players, but last week I was shocked to hear that a player, Damar Hamblin, had suffered a heart attack on the field. Like many of you, I lifted up a prayer of hope and healing for the young man.
I do remember when Tim Tebow was mocked and ridiculed for offering prayer on the field, but I am heartened to lern that Hamblin is doing well, and that players everywhere are offering prayers for his spedy and complete recovery. More importantly, offering these prayers publicly, on the field.
The unconvinced tend to mock us for prayer, but many of us have seen it work in our daily lives. I believe that God works in mysterious ways and perhaps the travails of Damar Hamblin are part of God's plan. I do not presume to know the mind of God, but I am heartened that prayer is once again part of the NFL.
Is there anything the C-130 can't do?
“The Chinese military is reportedly alarmed by a new tactic being employed by the US Air Force. During a live-fire exercise over Norway, the service showcased the ability to deploy Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) from cargo aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules, via the Rapid Dragon Palletized Weapon System. . . . Along with allowing the US Air Force to initiate attacks from outside of dangerous areas, it means cargo aircraft can be temporarily repurposed as standoff bombers, a cost-effective measure.”
If the C-130 alarms the Chinese, we need a lot more C-130s.
He needs a grooming bad. The grooer we have used for a while recently learned that she is allergic to dog dander, which required that she close her shop. Bad for her, and bad for us.
The cat doesn't seem to mind, though.
Reported everywhere, Kevin McCarthy was sworn in this morning as Speaker of the House. Lots of political drama, lots of wrangling, but he finally got it done. I suppose it is fitting that he was sworn in on January 7th. January 6th is, as you know, a day that will live in infamy. A day when a great boisterous crowd visited the Capitol. It is also the day celebrated in Christianity as the day that Jesus was manifested to the Gentiles. I find a great deal of irony in the conjunction of these two anniversaries.
Cajuns celebrate epiphany by the baking of King cakes. A sweet pasty, often braided before baking, into which a small figurine of the Christ is hidden. We will eat King cakes until Lent. Many diets will be wrecked, and pounds gained because of these things. The season ends at the stroke of midnight on Fat Tuesday, beginning the season of repentance and fasting of Lent.
Taking charge of the family property, I knew we would need a tractor to pull a mover (bush hog, shredder, whatever you call them). So, I started looking around and found a fairly low hour Kubota on a tractor lot. With a loader. It's a 2010 Kubota L3400 with less than 400 hours on the clock. I talked to some tractor folks I knew who said the price was decent, so I pulled the pin on it.
That is second son, tying it down. Grandson on the operator's chair. Second son is an ace mechanic by trade. He owns a mini-hoe and has some dirt work to do around his place, so he will use it until he is done, and is able to make sure that everything is tight and right. Then we'll move it to the family property when the spring mowing season arrives.
I haven't owned a tractor for over 20 years, and the ones they are making today sure have a lot of bells and whistles. My old tractor was a Yanmar with a geared transmission and served me well. This Kubota has a hydrostatic transmission. That will take a little getting used to, but I feel like I am up to the challenge.
I bet that both the Democratic Whip and the Republican Whip are busy critters this morning.
Insty reports that the Democrat members have to ask permission to leave the floor during a vote.
Louisiana's very own Steve Scalise is the Republican Whip. I can't imagine the conversations that he has been having lately with Kevin McCarthy. Twenty holdouts who refuse to move in lockstep with the rest of the caucus. Some are pissed off personally at McCarthy, some are asking for change that they don't feel McCarthy can offer. It's hard to run roughshod over a fellow one day and expect for him to support you later. That takes a delicate political touch, and I don't think at this point that McCarthy has that ability.
I get it. There are people I will never vote for. McCarthy is going through a rough time right now, and I suspect it is of his own making. These decisions are not made in a vacuum, and the longer it goes on, the greater the change that McCarthy will have to make. Both compromise and conciliation requires time, and trust. The conciliation should have been done a long time ago.
The bank that has held my mortgage for the past 20 years has lost their damned minds. The over-corotational mindset of the organizational hive is killing us all. It used to be I could walk into a bank, talk with an officer, and get a problem solved. Not any more. Call 1-800-EAT-SH*T.
I'm buying a little piece of land. It's heir property and I an an heir. I am conflicted about it, but the majority of the family wants to close this deal so that it won't become an issue later.
Because I'm buying the land, I'm buying a tractor, too. About to close a deal on a clean, used Kubota with less than 400 hours on the engine. That will let me mow the place, which is mixed meadow and timber.
The US House still has no Speaker. I am conflicted about this. As long as the Congress is crippled, they can't hurt us. But, that lets the executive branch run wild, and there are no adults in charge.
This morning I started planning the state championship that I host every year. It's in July, so we're not in a crunch for time, but the closer it gets, the crunchier I will get.
The US House is still squabbling about who is going to be Speaker. This isn't a good look for the Republicans, but it is a process, and it is sometimes messy. At some point, they will figure it out and we can move forward.
The Russian military is blaming its troops for unauthorized cell phone use that prompted the Ukrainians to drop a HIMARS strike on them.
Moscow's defense ministry said late Tuesday that the unauthorized use of mobile devices allowed Kyiv's forces to identify the soldiers' location via phone signals. It also raised the confirmed death toll to 89 from the weekend strike on the base at a school in Makiivka, a town in a Russian-occupied area of the eastern Donetsk region.
That is a fairly sophisticated use of cell data. They were watching cell data, saw a concentration, and loosed a rocket at it. There should be a lesson there for all of us.
Well, Kevin didn't make it on the first ballot.
Until we have a Speaker, gridlock ensues, and chaos becomes inevitable.
It is interesting to watch. What I think is interesting is that the Speaker administers the oath to the other member of the House, and until there is a Speaker, no one is sworn in. They are all Representative-elect until the Speaker gets the gavel.
At this point, Kevin doesn't have the votes. I think that he knew that going in, so what is the endgame? If he can't get the votes, why is he in the race?
The question becomes: Who is going to be the Speaker of the House?
It seems that Kevin McCarthy has enough opposition in the Republicans party to keep him away from the gavel. So, the next question is: If not McCarthy, who?
Tomorrow may get interesting in the US House.
The use of DNA evidence in criminal investigation is fairly well accepted. Each person has a unique DNA signature that tends to eliminate the rest of the human species. It's really specific. As evidence goes, it's just about the gold standard. Of course, there may be many reasons for one person's DNA to be in the vicinity of another person, not all those reasons are nefarious.
So, the investigators still have work to do, but it appears that the suspect in the Moscow, ID murder case (and I will never use his name) might have been identified through the use of familial DNA. The closer a suspect might be to a family member, the more closely they will share a DNA signature. While the suspect may have been unknown to police and the police were unable to precisely match his DNA in a database, there might have been a family member who had given a sample that closely matched his.
This case is becoming truly interesting from a number of perspectives. The suspect himself was a doctoral student of criminology. On the face of the case, this seems to be his first run-in with police. That flies in the face of other mass murderers, who often work up to this sort of crime. One wonders what set of circumstances led us this point. Are there other murders out there?
We'll be studying this one for a while.
