The Ultimate Answer to Kings

Seriously. In a bloodless civil war that will probably be over by 2020.

Stop laughing! This guy’s a tech corp CEO and everything, so he must be smart!

The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War

In the early 2000s, California faced a similar situation to the one America faces today. Its state politics were severely polarized, and state government was largely paralyzed. The Republican Party was trapped in the brain-dead orthodoxies of an ideology stuck in the past. The party was controlled by zealous activists and corrupt special interests who refused to face up to the reality of the new century. It was a party that refused to work with the Democrats in good faith or compromise in any way.

The solution for the people of California was to reconfigure the political landscape and shift a supermajority of citizens — and by extension their elected officials — under the Democratic Party’s big tent. The natural continuum of more progressive to more moderate solutions then got worked out within the context of the only remaining functioning party. The California Democrats actually cared about average citizens, embraced the inevitable diversity of 21st-century society, weren’t afraid of real innovation, and were ready to start solving the many challenges of our time, including climate change.

California today provides a model for America as a whole.

I, for one, welcome our new delusional overlords.

Curiously, not everyone is convinced.

Or not.

Now, I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, “Why do a bunch of San Francisco dorks think that 150 million Americans with 300 million guns are just going to give up their rights and their say in their own governance and submit to the commands of people who eat kale by choice?” That’s a fair question, and they have an answer.

Because you just are.

I didn’t say it was a good answer.

h/t

I’m guessing it’s a price you pay for an email address the Internet interprets as commercial. When I used a freebie Yahoo address like 400 brazillion other faceless users, I never had this problem.

Sigh. Five new messages, and I’d rather cut off a finger than respond to a single one of them. I wonder what percentage of all bandwidth is such an utter waste? After I betray the revolution and set myself up as President-for-Life, I’m going to get to the bottom of this sadly neglected question.

Basics of Resistance, by Claire Wolfe and Kit Perez, is exactly what the title promises – a primer on organization and operation in a (we’d like to think theoretical and future) time when the world has goosestepped past Claire’s earlier take on the topic, the happy-go-lucky monkeywrenching manual Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook.

What if we were past the time for lighthearted efforts to maintain our own privacy and sense of individuality, and it were really time to dig in our heels and organize for resistance? We’re not quite spitting on our hands, hoisting the black flag and commencing to slit throats – yet – but we’re thinking maybe it’s time to haul down the Gadsden from the pole and go underground. What if the consequences of getting caught included getting killed or taking up a new life in pound-you-in-the-ass federal prison? What sort of information would we want then? Continue reading →

Okay: For the benefit of anybody wandering in for the first time, I drive a Jeep but never into town, and I live way the HELL back in the high desert. I have to haul gasoline to the Jeep from town on weekly trips in a neighbor’s truck. Having worn out my plastic gas cans some years ago, I acquired some cheap Chinese jerry cans in hope that they would be an improvement.

We’ve already established that my cheap Chinese jerry cans are complete shit in so many ways. The biggest problem is that they take forever to empty into the Jeep’s tank because they’re unvented. So I drilled scary holes in them and installed plastic vents.

These were better than nothing but only just. They absolutely wouldn’t seal the holes I’d drilled in the cans, which meant I slathered them with Seal-All which only works temporarily. Seal-All is impervious to gasoline but not, it turns out, to UV. Of which I have lots.

A commenter suggested replacing the plastic vents with tire valve stems. This was an interesting suggestion, which as the problem progressed I became determined to try.

Big Brother sent me a set of fancy metal truck tire valves…

…and the adventure began.

(Many pix below the fold) Continue reading →

It was good enough for my rhetoric master, and by Enki it’s good enough for me. This computer stuff was a big mistake.

Okay: I learn to my surprise this morning that I’m suddenly able to connect just fine. Maybe that will continue, maybe not. Yesterday was weather-filled and I’m used to my connection getting wonky during weather but not the way it did yesterday. When the hotspot can’t find a cell signal, that’s perfectly normal. When the laptop absolutely can’t see the hotspot, that looks like a hardware or software problem. Granted that my software is ancient and gets more wonky by the day, a reboot usually gets me past that and yesterday repeated reboots had no effect. So I don’t know if it was just a passing meteorological event or if I’m losing ability in an intermittent manner that will grow toward permanence, like my inability to connect with certain websites.

I really need an upgrade – which is right here beside me in the form of a couple of thumbdrives provided by a Generous Reader over half a year ago, but I’m afraid to use them because I’m a timid old phart. Frankly I was more comfortable around computers 30 years ago when they involved bolting hardware together and then running something off a disk. I understood that – at least enough to deal with it.

Anyway – I may have some nice content today – if I stay connected – but putting it together will be time-consuming and I didn’t prepare any of it yesterday for obvious reasons. So bear with me.

For some reason my laptop has suddenly decided it doesn’t like to be connected to the hotspot, and I can’t figure out how to convince it to change its mind. I’m very slowly pecking this post out on the smartphone, which seems to work fine. I have some nice things for you, too. A review of “Basics of Resistance”, a post with lots of pictures about making a Jerry can vent out of a tire valve. We’ll test that tomorrow. But till I can get the laptop back on line I’m stuck. Sorry.

It wasn’t doing me any good where it was anyway. I need to put in a fencepost to mount it on before I can effectively use the game camera to monitor ‘yote activity in the approach to my yard from the wash.

In the meantime I have a new mystery…

New tire and sneaker tracks. Repeated tracks, off the road to my driveway. It’s not on any property I’m responsible for, though not far from it. Technically it’s none of my business. Technically I’m just being nosy. No harm was done. If it was just one set of turnaround tracks I’d shrug it off as a lost tourist. That happens.

But why drive so far into the bush in that particular spot, where there’s nothing to see? Why come back and do it at least twice?

The nice thing about living ‘way out in the boonies is that you can perform extensive activities totally unobserved. The bad thing about living ‘way out in the boonies is that other people can also do that.

Or can they?

I like this little thing. I’ve had all manner of fun with it, but right now I want it for more serious purposes.

Yeah. Right over there.

Now, here’s a problem I’ve had with the game camera, and it took me a while to figure out a practical solution. I can set it up, but how do I know it’s aiming precisely where I want it to? It doesn’t have sights, or a playback feature.

I actually sent away for a card reader gadget that plugs into a smartphone, only to learn that I also had to buy and install an app on the phone. I’m an old phart, and a privacy nut*. New computer stuff flummoxes me, plus I’ve grown very distrustful of Apple, iPhones, and apps in general.

Turns out there was a perfectly good solution, right there in a little case with a shoulder strap.

This is the current Official TUAK Camera, sent last year by a Generous Reader but presently only used when I need a zoom – or when I want to read the SD card from the game camera in the field. Because it works for that really well.

So I don’t know if I’ll get pictures of what I want to see. I actually kind of hope not, since I hope those people, whoever they are, never come back. But I do know that if they come back in the next week or two, I’ll at least learn something about them. Possibly they’re the owners of that parcel and have every right in the world to be there. Possibly they’re just nosy hunters. Don’t know. But if they’re going to be around, I want to know if they’re going to be a problem.

—
*Yes, I know there’s an amusing tension involved when a lifestyle blogger claims to be a privacy nut. Shut up.

“So what’s zuckschumer.com?” I wondered?

Heh.

#ZuckSchumer represents the combined power of big tech monopolies like Facebook and Google that spy on our every move online. They sell our most private data to political targeting and advertising companies and to creepy Washington political operatives who protect them.

#ZuckSchumer represents the power of peeping Tom billionaire CEO’s like Mark Zuckerberg and their political attack dogs and protectors like Senator Chuck Schumer.

And so on.

Don’t know how true any of it is, but since I’m already hardwired to hate them both I enjoyed reading it.

With all that’s been in the news lately, Bookface might be in trouble. Some people might want to back up those family photos before they disappear from the Innertubes.

Got a review copy of Claire Wolfe’s and Kit Perez’s Basics of Resistance, which I was eager to read and also now sort of obligated to read right now. Got through the first third of it yesterday evening, with notes, and thought today would be a leisurely matter of finishing that and then writing and posting a review.

Uh huh.

Phone rings. “Can you help us with hay?”

Sure, can do. Jumped in the Jeep. Little Bear liked this part. He got a Jeep ride, got to bark at D&L’s dogs, with whom he may not mingle because in this case mingle = rumble. He and possibly the closest small animal vet would enjoy that, nobody else would. But still. Jeep ride. LB stamp of approval.

25 bales of hay later,…

Back into the Jeep. I meant to go right home and get back to work, I swear. But there’s cold beer in Ian’s fridge. A short detour wouldn’t hurt, right?

Got to Ian’s and was reminded of correspondence I’d completely forgotten…

Was that pile of cement board supposed to go on the pile of stuff outside Landlady’s barn waiting for a trip to the county dump? And on that subject – is Landlady coming up this weekend? Because that would mean the dump run(s) is/are happening tomorrow, which means there are certain trailer-related things I should be doing right now.

Flurry of text messaging ensues. Yes, I am supposed to have the trailer on-site and ready to go. Yes, I should be doing that right now. And also in the process I need to move that pile of cement board. Right now.

I’m a hermit. Scheduling conflicts aren’t in my normal routine like they used to be, and I didn’t always handle them well when they were routine.

🙂 Ah, well. I will get that book read today. And by “today,” I mean this calendar date. I will post a review ASAP, and that’s as much as I promise.

This looks like it might be fun to watch and maybe ought to be spread around if it isn’t already.

WATCH: Black Gun Owner’s Epic Rant Against The Government Goes Viral”When are you all gonna start standing up for the majority? … I’m the majority!”

“When are you all gonna start standing up for the majority? … I’m the majority! I’m a law-abiding citizen who’s never shot anybody,” Mark Robinson said. “It seems every time we have one of these shootings, nobody wants to put the blame where it goes, which is at the shooter’s feet. You want to put it at my feet! It doesn’t make any sense.”

“You want to restrict my right to buy a firearm and protect myself from some of the very people you are talking about in here tonight,” Robinson continued. “The law-abiding citizens of this community, of other communities we are the first ones taxed and the last ones considered.”

I haven’t seen the whole thing, but so far it’s my sentiments exactly.

Sometimes I get tracks and scat at the fringes of the yard near the wash that suggest coyotes are not being as respectful of my territory as I’d prefer. Set up the game camera a few days ago hoping to see what if anything is making free with my tolerance. So far nothing, but yesterday’s wind did demonstrate why I should have provided something more solid than a bush for camera mounting.

Yeah – it did that for hours yesterday. Several hundred frames, all useless.

Brought the fencepost driver home from Landlady’s barn, but got busy with something else this afternoon. (Hint: I got a review copy of Basics of Resistance!) I’ll fix the camera tomorrow.

The reading chair a neighbor gave me for the new bedroom is quite low. I needed a book table, but a conventional side table wouldn’t do. Ian and I found this plant stand in a local thrift store… Continue reading →

Grass is …um… never mind.

Wow. Dry winter. Dry spring, so far.

I’d worry for the cattle, if I could bring myself to wish them well. Really the only group I’d rather wish extinction upon is their owners. If they start dying like flies for lack of forage, maybe the owners will round them up and take them someplace else. Someplace not here. Hm. When I think of it that way, c’mon drought!

Good news on the chicken front, though…

Landlady is on record that this time she really means it – she wants out of the chicken business. “Most expensive free eggs in history” was the last word on that topic. And it’s true – even I could buy eggs much less expensively at the store in town than what I spend in feed and infrastructure. There’s the opportunity cost issue, though – I can only go to town at particular times and only buy eggs when I have cash in hand, but the chickens are already here and I really don’t have a lot better to do than to tend them, so what the hell? – plus there’s the issue that the little town nearest where I live has actually run out of eggs before.

And also it just makes sense to raise at least a little of my own food. I’ve pretty much given up on gardening, except for little individual things like rosemary. Maybe a real gardener could make something happen with this soil and climate and rodent situation, but I’m sick of trying. But chickens are easy. I don’t want to stop raising chickens, even though I admit it makes no economic sense.

So I needed another source of chickens. I’ve considered getting a brooder and trying to hatch mail-order eggs, and that’s still something I’d like to try. But that’s a whole new endeavor and I don’t want to bet my egg and meat supply on it. What I really wanted was a bi-annual source of new chicks.

And out of the blue, Neighbor L stepped up and said she wanted in. She’s been doing my laundry for going on two years now, and every week when I have a dozen fresh eggs that aren’t earmarked for me or Landlady, I bring them to her. She likes those eggs. If Landlady doesn’t want to do it – and I truly don’t blame her – L does.

Okay. Cool. Let’s do that!

And now back to a little light carpentry. Beautiful day!

I could look at the rest of the channel to find out for sure, but frankly it’s a beautiful morning and I can think of less depressing things to do with it.

But if you’re up for something amazingly dismissive and condescending, click on this:

I have literally never wanted to go out and buy another gun just to be a prick more than I do at this moment.

And by the way – yes, they do want to take your guns.

This is funny, but not remotely safe for work.

“F*ck it. That’s enough Internet for today.”

Funny and almost true enough not even to be all that much of a parody – except it’s sad/hilarious how many conservatives don’t even notice they have their own instant-trigger issues calling for government violence. (ahem)

There is still the issue of the Border Wall and whether or not it will be funded via the military budget or as a stand-alone item. It must be done and the border must be sealed along with the concomitant punishing of citizens knowingly employing illegal aliens and the ending of welfare in all of its forms given to these invaders. Yes, they are invaders who are pawns (unwittingly or otherwise) to ensure the swamping and eventual drowning out of our distinctly American identity. Aiding and abetting this premeditated invasion are the traitors and flunkies in our own government, the latest being the governor of Oregon who has announced her refusal to cooperate if the President activates the National Guard. Arrest her along with Libby Schaaf, Gerry Brown and anyone else who engages in sabotaging our national security.

Yes, they will E-Verify you, and your little dog, too! While all the time shouting for small(er), less intrusive government. And never see a contradiction.

No matter what “it” is, apparently.

This is what that “civil discourse about gun violence” always boils down to…

I’m not even an NRA member and this offends me. A deranged PETA vlogger who probably hated the NRA as much as anyone alive gets medieval on YouTube’s ass, and all 5 million NRA members who didn’t do it are to blame because guns. That’s some penetrating logic right there, Clyde.

The NRA: Is there nothing it can’t do?

I dipped into my window trim lumber to trim around the back door, but even if I hadn’t there wouldn’t have been quite enough to trim the front bedroom window.

So I got the back door, side bedroom window and front cabin window trimmed, and then effectively ran out of lumber. Crap. I thought I’d measured more effectively than that. Also ended up using the 1X4 I bought for mounting the bedroom sliding door, but I can make up for that when we buy interior trim. I really hoped to get the window trim up and caulked, and now I can’t.

Disappointed in myself. But hey, I got something done.

ETA: ilo, have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate that little generator?

I go through this every Spring.

Aside from inescapable quotidian chores that keep the lights on and the water running and the chickens (and dogs, and hermit) alive, Winter is mostly a time of sloth. My accepted leisure activities are reading books, screwing around on the Internet, and bitching about winter. Maximum Permissible Sloth is pretty much the rule through the whole cold season. And to be honest, I like it that way.

Then Spring comes. The sun is warm, the breeze is soft, I don’t have to bundle up like a frickin’ Eskimo and I’m really kind of tired of the reading chair. But it takes a few weeks to get the wheels rolling again.

The tasks for this warm season aren’t as scary as last year. There’s really nothing essential on the docket at all. Paint. Trim. The bedroom door. Some electrical improvements. Some concrete. More frickin’ paint. I don’t have last year’s budget, either, so a lot of it will need to happen as money permits. Some of the painting will go a gallon at a time. And that’s okay, because the injury I took in October 2016 has healed better than I feared it would and continues to improve, and I’d like to take more time this summer to shoot the roses. Maybe reclaim the reloading shack from the packrats. Hike the canyons a bit.

But first I have to get the work started, and for the past couple of days I’ve just sort of been spinning my wheels…

This morning I was determined to make a better start. I went out early and got the generator and chop saw out of the powershed…

…realized I’d left my good short extension cord at Ian’s place. That’s okay, LB and I will just take the morning walkie in that direction. Went inside to cook breakfast (Spammo Classico) and while LB and I were enjoying that I happened upon this video, which seemed very appropriate to the morning’s musings…

…and I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe you will.

Anyway – breakfast is done and it’s walky time. Later.

Through some strangeness at Amazon, the Kindle edition of Basics of Resistance: Book 1 of the Practical Freedomista is still scheduled for an April 19 release but the paperback is available right now.

Probably be a while before I have one in my sweaty palms, but expect a review shortly thereafter.