I'm cranky Friday...

-- Some interesting points in this writing.

-- The definition of 'Gall'.  This borders closely on the kid in 5th grade who grabbed your hand and hit you with it, while saying "Quit hitting yourself!".  

-- Scott Jennings being considered for press secretary?  Man, what a good move that would be. Good for the administration as Jennings is highly experienced with communicating reality, and a great move for Jennings to get away from that dying Zombieland of pond scum.

-- I understand this is a standard move by the treasury, but it's still concerning.  To me it signals a bad economic situation when the government has to play finance games not for financial reasons, but as a salve to the economy as a whole.

-- "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may be uninformed, poorly educated, and without scruples. But she's the frontrunner in some polls for the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nomination and is well-positioned to ride the growing wave of radical-left energy now taking over the Democratic Party all the way to the top."

Uninformed? Poorly educated? Without scruples?  Perhaps that makes her the perfect representative for the people who would vote for her.   Now that I think about it, I have never met a Socialist or Communist who held a productive and useful job, or even one who was self supporting for that matter.

-- Peter gives us these thoughts on drone warfare.  I have no doubt at all that drones are the future of war and conflicts. They cost too little, can do too much, and are too hard to defend against.... for now. 

Look at it this way.  Our home, Lancaster Pennsylvania, is one of the richest food producing areas in the nation. One small farm down the road from us see's *dozens* of tractor trailers hauling out produce, grain, and fodder each season.   One thing no farm can function without are their barns. 3000 barns in this county alone. 3000 undefended and relatively flammable critical structures. 

China uses 30,000 drones just to do night time displays as entertainment.

The world is changing, and the pace of change is accelerating.

-- 

Survey says....

--- True.

--- The motto of the newest Socialist tribe:  "Hey!  It's not like WE have to work for the money!"

---  Email from Chase bank:  

"We've decreased your card limit because it's Thursday".

Next email, also from Chase bank:  

"Here's five reasons you should spend more with your Chase card!".

Midweek Mega Meme Dump

 

Self, listen up.

You are a POOR.

Now behave like it.

Rocket Mortgage?

 

Rocket Mortgage, a question:

Are they dysfunctional as a company simply by chance, or is it carefully designed that way?

Kali's billionaire tax, massive and aimed at just 250 people.

It may come to pass that California's proposed billionaire tax comes to ... well.... pass.

It taxes billionaires on their wealth to the tune of 5%, just once, but that's a lot like "I won't do that in your mouth".  The proposition also backdates the tax to Jan 2026, trying to make it impossible for the targets to just move away.

Knowing that few wealthy people keep their money laying around in sacks, enforcing the tax would start a massive sell off of companies, stocks, and bonds.  Roughly $100 billion in capitol ripped away from the economy and handed to politicians with the most deplorable economic track record in the nation.   Hell, $100 billion dollars is *almost* as much as the California government blows on Medicare fraud each year!

On the face of it, this strikes me as deeply wrong in many ways.

Then I turn it around and look at the backside of the issue.  The victims in this are supposed to be smart people. They have to know they've been shoring up a kleptocracy, and their wealth is too temping a target for people without ethics, morals, integrity, or common sense.

Yes, on second thought, fuckem. They helped create this crime machine, and thought it would never be aimed at them.   Give them what they wanted, gooder and harder.  If California's economy crashes from the huge theft, who will care beyond the looters who will need new victims?

Think humans have advanced?

There are people who think the human species has grown and evolved to be less warlike and kinder.

My father fought in a war in Europe in the 1940's against a massive alliance of nations who wanted to subjugate the entire world by any means, no matter how heinous. 

My older brother fought the same damn war in Vietnam in the 1970's against a different alliance of brutal nations bent on world domination no matter the human cost.

There are students who graduated my high school class ten years ago who are now in the military and fighting THE SAME DAMN WAR against a barbaric worldwide religion that demands the world bow to them, enslave all women, and any who oppose them in the slightest deserves death.

Between The Nazi's, the Communists, and the murderous religionist sickos, they have killed 121,000,000 people in this period.

No, the human species is the same creature it's been for 2000 years, and next week is not looking good either.

What is a 'Minority' race? Does it matter? Is the word 'Wh*te allowed anymore?

When majority becomes minority, but it's not mentioned anywhere.  Does this matter?  Only in that we've been preached to about minorities for generations, and now those preachers are getting quieter every day.  Perhaps this is why.

The overwhelming majority of large US cities are now wh*te-minority cities.  The overwhelming majority of the cities listed below have non-wh*te mayors.  The majority of the cities listed here have non-wh*te police leadership.

| City | State | Wh*te (Non-Hispanic) % |

|------|-------|------------------------|

| New York | NY | ~30.9% |

| Los Angeles | CA | ~28.9% |

| Chicago | IL | ~31.5% |

| Houston | TX | ~44.7%* |

| Phoenix | AZ | <50% |

| Philadelphia | PA | <50% |

| San Antonio | TX | <50% |

| San Diego | CA | <50% |

| Dallas | TX | <50% |

| San Jose | CA | <50% |

| Austin | TX | <50% |

| Jacksonville | FL | <50% |

| Fort Worth | TX | <50% |

| Charlotte | NC | ~39.7% |

| San Francisco | CA | ~39.1% |

| Boston | MA | <50% 

Some cities have particularly low non-Hispanic Wh*te populations:

- El Paso, TX: ~12.3% Wh*te

- Laredo, TX: <5% Wh*te (over 95% Hispanic)

- Compton, CA: ~0.89% Wh*te

- South Fulton, GA: <3.5% Wh*te

- East Orange, NJ: <3.5% Wh*te

* Yes, I tossed a stupid '*' into the word 'Wh*te' in the hopes of side tracking any algo's that focus on race.  How does that make you feel?

Couple random thoughts today

The thing about alibies is you never know when you will need one, unless you are the reason you need one. 

Socialism has two facets.

1. Socialism is everyone getting free stuff from the government, taken from the greedy rich people.
2. Socialism is also a government that classifies everybody as greedy rich, takes all their stuff, cuts out what they want for themselves, and hands out the leftovers based on political favors.

Every peasant cheering for Socialism thinks they are getting #1, but really they all get #2 by the bucket full....and they don't even get to keep the bucket.

There's two types of people in the world.  Those who realized that in the Python movie 'Holy Grail', the French soldier said 'Knigitt' which is the literal pronunciation of the word 'Knight'... and those who haven't.

Being a gentleman, and a gentle man, is a choice. That means one must have the capacity and means to choose force, and then choose not to when it's not required.

Here a meme and there a meme.....

If you are not following Dan Butler on FB, you are missing out.

This actually tracks pretty close for me.

 

Fresh as fresh gets.

 

This starts in a hot oven at 7am so we can have a good sauce at 5pm.

I also pulled a few pounds of 80% and a pound of sweet Italian to thaw.  Three pounds of meatballs means they will be gone by tomorrow morning.

All that roasts into this:

Then. a few ounces of bacon are rendered in a pot, and the mirepoix is sautéed in the bacon fat till it's starting to brown. The roasted veg is dumped in, along with dehydrated tomatoes, whole garlic, red pepper flakes, sugar, seasoning, and a bunch of fresh herbs.  That simmers for an hour or so, and then the stick blender comes out.  Water is added as it's blended till it's as smooth as it gets.

I give you, Golden Marinara sauce!    Thick, rich, and packed with flavor.

Some folks are hard to understand

 

So there I wuz...

Parked at a doctors office while a chillun did their appointment.  Happily reading a historical novel (Roman). To my left comes a significant CRUNCH.  I look over, and someone had nosed their little Kia hard up on the sidewalk. The driver backed off, with a less significant crunch.  More of a 'scrunch' really.  

Looking at the damage that I could see, my experience in auto service put the ticket at $1200 to $1500.  Ouch.

Two ladies exited the vehicle, proceeded to walk to the cupcake store, and neither looked at the vehicle even once.  Not even a glance.

Huh.

Life rules/some/Mk1

 

* Never allow someone to tell you what to think.

* Question everything you are told, what you hear, and even what you see.

* Thinking is hard immediately.  Not thinking causes far more damage, but the price is delayed.

* Never work for someone else for free. 'Work' is anything that benefits them more than you. Unless you want to.

*Little in the world is more valuable than 'A moment of your time'. Gift it rarely and wisely.  Sell it as dearly as possible, and only when you have to. Your allotted lifetime is a once and done deal.

* Don't waste calories.  Sometimes food is just fuel. The rest of the time one should partake of only the best they can afford.

* You can do anything you feel up to doing, but do it sooner rather than later. Later is not guaranteed.

* Your rights end at their nose, and their rights end at the tip of your nose.  Nobody has a 'Right' to someone else's time, labor, money, or property. Someone who claims 'It's just a little' or 'It's for your own good' is still a slaver. It's all or nothing.  There is no 'little bit slaver'.

* There is no such thing as 'people'.  There are only individual 'persons'.  Each and every one is different. Some choose to join the same tribe as others, but they are still individuals.

* Labels are poison when applied to humans.  Labels deny individuality and allow those of weak mind to avoid thinking for themselves. Thus they are subject to thinking what they are told to think. 

* Being civil and courteous carries no real cost, and has significant profit.

* Think ahead.  Think ahead as far as your intellect will allow.  Have a plan, and then have backup plans. Have a plan for going to the bathroom, driving to work, or what your bank account will look like next year. Have a plan for every reasonable situation you think of. It's way easier to think of plans before you need the plan.

* Have priorities in life. Loved ones, health, shelter, food, water, power, integrity, honesty, wealth.  What ever is important to you, put in your priority list.

* Principles are not negotiable. Principles that can be traded away were never principles at all.

* Perspective is powerful. Perspective of position, of time, of history, of track record, and of motive.

 

The days tomato haul.  At this rate, it will be sauce making again by the weekend.

Oh, and yes, I am harvesting a tad early and letting most of them counter-ripen. I noticed most of the maters I let vine ripen are being nibbled by something.

 

The garden this morning is like "Oh, you made all your tomatoes into sauce?  Oh, that's cute!  Here's another 15 pounds to keep you company".

"While you are at it, it's time for another harvest of the herb bed.  Get cracking Sonny!".

Tomato water?

This year I am making tomato sauce from our garden via the 'freezer method'.  It's very simple indeed.  As you pick tomatoes and they ripen, core them and cut into chunks. Put the chunks in a freezer bag and pop it into the freezer.  As more tomatoes ripen, drag the bag out and add the new tomatoes before freezing again. If the bag is full, start a new one. When there are enough frozen tomatoes, make sauce!

We leave skins on since we are blending our sauce before canning.  Lot's of flavor is lost when skins are removed.  The same with seeds, which don't bother us at all.  If one does not like skins nor seeds, a peeling step can be added in.

The freezing process ruptures the tomatoes cell walls, releasing the water that must otherwise by cooked off.

This is a great method for the home gardener who has a steady supply of ripe tomatoes but not enough on any given pick to make sauce that day.  Before this year I always bought in our Roma sauce tomatoes by the half-bushel, but this year I decided it's all coming from our own garden.

Last night I pulled four gallon freezer bags of mixed tomatoes and put them in the sink to thaw. That was enough for one good pot of sauce.

This morning I strained the tomatoes, separating the accumulated water from the tomato meat.   AKA.... 'Tomato Water'.  Before I tossed this sorta golden looking stuff, I looked it up to see if it had a use.  Well!  Who would have guessed?  'Prized by chefs as Liquid Umami, and used in dressings, sauces, soups, bread, and even as a cocktail mixer'.  So I tasted the stuff.  Oh My Indeed.  Rich, salty without salt, and deeply flavored. Like sipping summer from a spoon.  The salty or savory taste in tomato water comes from free glutamate, an amino acid that triggers umami receptors, which the brain often interprets as saltiness.  To think I had been ready to throw this out!

So, as I hot water bath canned five quarts of our own plain tomato sauce, I added three pints of tomato water to the bounty*.  Just like the sauce, the tomato water got a pinch of citric acid before canning.  That brings the acidity into safe levels for water bath type canning methods.

I suspect this will take some of our meals and kick them up a notch or two.

*  The USDA states it is not safe to can Tomato Water.  The only reason they give is that they have not supplied us peons with a recipe for that, so OBVIOUSLY it is FORBIDDEN.  Do as your will, and your mileage may vary.

 

 

Dew Point thresholds. Posting this to save it.

 

Comfort Thresholds by Dew Point

Meteorologists and health experts use specific dew point ranges to categorize comfort levels. These thresholds remain consistent regardless of the outside temperature. 

Dew Point Range	Comfort Level	Physical Sensation
Below 50°F (10°C)	Dry / Comfortable	Air feels crisp; sweat evaporates instantly.  Very low dew points (<40°F) may feel harsh or dry out skin.
50°F – 55°F (10–13°C)	Pleasant	Ideal for most people; moisture is barely noticeable.
55°F – 60°F (13–16°C)	Noticeable	Air begins to feel slightly humid; "sticky" evenings may occur.
60°F – 65°F (16–18°C)	Muggy / Uncomfortable	Distinctly humid; sweat evaporation slows; physical activity feels more strenuous.
65°F – 70°F (18–21°C)	Oppressive	Very muggy; air feels heavy; significant difficulty cooling down.
Above 70°F (21°C)	Tropical / Dangerous	Extremely oppressive; sweat barely evaporates; high risk of heat stress during exertion.

Words have meaning.

'Authoritarian regime that prioritizes the State above the individual. It features a centralized autocratic government under a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, forcible suppression of opposition, and contempt for democracy, and individual rights'.

Who or what does this remind you of?

'Political philosophy centered on the protection and enhancement of individual freedom, rights, and autonomy. It prioritizes the individual over the collective or state, emphasizing liberty, consent of the governed, equality before the law, and limited (or appropriately constrained) government power'.

Again, who or what does this remind you of?

Word for word, one is the accepted definition of Fascism, and the other Liberalism.  Now, match the meaning of the words to people's actual actions and not their rhetoric. 

And..... after a bit of thought, this may be the last 'Think' post I do.  My thinks are just that, mine, and I'm not to be bothering other people with them.

8-8-26 Sunday meme dump

 W: 316.6           BS:  107

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