It’s well known that volunteer fire departments have been dwindling for years due to a dramatic drop in people willing to volunteer their time.
This article lays out the 90 percent drop in volunteers in Pennsylvania since the 1970s. People just don’t have the sense of community that they once had.
It’s almost cliche at this point- any time a Republican is successful, a woman (or two) come forward with accusations of some sort of sexual peccadillo, making accusations about events that occurred years or even decades in the past, but are supported by no evidence other than the woman’s say-so. Trump, Hegseth, and Gaetz are just the latest in a long list of Republicans who are being accused of sexual impropriety.
I have gotten to the point where I just don’t believe any of them any more. If they are willing to rig an election, fake an insurrection, or assassinate people, what is lying about someone’s character?
We finally sold our old house and the closing is next week. I called the insurance company to cancel our homeowner’s policy, effective on the date of closing. They refused to do so, telling me that they can’t leave me without insurance unless I can prove that the house is insured elsewhere. Uh, it isn’t going to be my house any longer, so why would I continue to insure it? And, since the house is paid off and there is no mortgage holder, why is it any of their business if I choose to be uninsured and assume the risk myself? I am betting you that they won’t be so concerned about leaving me without insurance if I don’t pay the premium.
Doing the math, we have owned that house for a total of 15 years and we never filed a single claim against our insurance. It was paid off and mortgage free as of six years ago. My insurance is about $2000 per year. If I had chosen to assume the risk myself as soon as we paid it off, I would have (counting my normal investment returns of about 8 percent) an additional $15,000 in my bank account with which to take care of any problems.
Speaking of homeowner’s insurance scams- I wanted to insure my solar installation. I was kindly informed by my insurance company that it would cost $2500 per year just to insure my solar panels against hurricanes, but there would be a deductible of $10,000 for hurricane damage. They are otherwise covered under the rest of my homeowner’s policy with a deductible of $1,000. Uh, the solar panels themselves cost $20,000. So in the event of a hurricane (remember my panels are engineered for winds up to 140 mph) I would actually be losing money to insure them if they can make it at least 3 years without being damaged (The cost to insure them for 4 years is $10,000, plus the $10,000 deductible). Needless to say, I elected not to cover them. I think my risk of a 140 mph hurricane in the next 4 years is pretty low.
I also recently bought a new truck and traded in my old one. I tried to log into my insurance company to take care of things, and the system wants to send a 2FA text to my wife’s phone. She isn’t home. There is no option to select my phone number to log in. So now I have to call them and get stuck in phone tree hell.
Miguel posts over at his place that Tennessee is having trouble with Venezuelan gangs. It’s becoming more and more obvious that the left is allowing this because they are going to use the gangs as their foot soldiers. Remember that the left began turning illegal immigrants into police officers in 2023 or so.
This is right out of the CIA insurgency manual, which has been followed by the left since at least 2019. The plan is to make people distrust the government so that they can replace it with their own, alternative, government. You know, the alternative that they have created.
The police cannot, or perhaps will not, do anything to stop this. Things will eventually get sporty.
So we are left to begin planning our own counter. The only answer is obvious. Things are getting closer and closer to ‘going hot.’ Be prepared to setup sniper positions, where a pair of shooters can act as a sniper team to take out gang members from a couple of hundred yards away before departing the area. A shot from 300 yards away with a suppressed .308 should be enough to stymie them while giving you time to GTFO of Dodge. A .308 rifle zeroed for 200 yards will shoot 2.5 inches high at 100 yards, 9 inches low at 300 yards, and about 24 inches low at 400 yards. If you aim at the top of the forehead, you should reliably get ‘A zone’ hits out to 430 yards or so, when your drop is about 32 inches. With a suppressor, you lose a bit, call it 30 inches at 400 yards. Even the slowest .308 rounds are still moving at around 1300 fps at 300 yards, resulting in about 550 foot pounds of energy at that range. Of course, this is based on your particular ammo and your particular barrel, but the above is close enough for Kentucky windage.
Other tactics could include true camouflage. I am not talking about the idiotic dressing like a tree in the middle of an urban environment that SWAT teams do. That is some ridiculous shit. The entire idea of camo is to not be noticed. In an urban environment, blending into the background means looking like people who won’t be noticed, not like SEAL team 6. No, an ambush team that has a spotter dressed as a homeless bum would be better for blending in. Who even looks at, much less notices, a homeless druggie? Three people dressed as drug users with cheap Baofeng radios can act as lookouts on 3 of your 4 sides, leaving the ambush team to worry about the kill zone (your 4th side).
Start learning the basics of ambushes. Thing about how you will need to take the fight to the enemy. It’s coming. Plan for it now.
When Trump was elected in 2016, it came as a huge surprise to the left. They were sure that Cankles would win. After that, they began a push to eliminate Trump.
So now that Trump has won reelection, do we really expect it to end here? Only if you are an idiot.
They are so over the top that they are shaving their heads and swearing all sorts of violence and childish antics in “protest” because people are destroying Democracy by voting for a person with whom they disagree.
The latest attack is that, nearly two weeks after it ended, the election is about to be flipped in favor of Harris. The day after the election, Trump was in the lead by over 5.5 million votes. As of this morning, November 16, Trump’s lead has been cut in half, to only 2.6 million votes. Bucks county PA is still “finding” votes to the point where that county is now within 300 votes of flipping to Harris.
California is talking about secession, other states are banding together to form a shadow government that will run in parallel with the actual one.
The left hasn’t learned anything from their loss. Instead of thinking “maybe our policies are just a step too far,” they want to believe that they lost because you are a racist. Or because Trump cheated. They believe themselves to be so smart, so right, so justified in their actions, there is nothing they can do that is too extreme to win and force their will upon the nation.
They hate Trump, and by extension, they hate you too. The left is like a Terminator: “Listen, and understand! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you are dead!”
The war draws even closer.
Democrats are openly rejecting the democratic results of the election and are forming a shadow government to work against the will of the American voters.
They warned us that a Trump victory would signify the end of democracy as we know it. What they failed to mention—what they artfully evaded, in fact—is that it would be they themselves ushering in this demise.
I don’t have any problems with this. If you want to live in an area that is prone to hurricanes and flooding, either bring your house up to current standards or don’t expect government handouts.
Your house is a 75 year old trailer. Don’t expect taxpayers to give you thousands of dollars to fix it.
On the other hand, the county is taxing an ancient mobile home on an assessed value of $237,000 not counting the land. That is ridiculous
My wife and I are spending our anniversary in the Bahamas. Her parents asked if they could come as well, so they are here with us.
My mother in law is the cheapest person I have ever met. Whenever we go places where anything is included, she gorges herself on it. I have seen her eat the salsa that comes with chips at a Mexican restaurant with a spoon and keep asking for more because “it’s free.”
I have one odd thing that I am picky about food. I won’t eat anything that anyone else has touched. Once you touch it, it’s yours. Like many people in the medical field, I am a bit of a germophobe.
With the stage set, we move on to today’s topic. We were at a restaurant for lunch that charges a flat fee for the meal. Whenever the appetizer came, it was vegetables, shrimp, and pita bread with various dipping sauces: hummus, baba ganoush, and tzatziki. I watched as the double and then triple dipped her food. I asked her not to do that, so I also watched as she took some tzatziki, licked her spoon clean, then used it to take some baba ganoush. At that point, I wasn’t going to eat any more of the appetizer.
When it came time to order entrees, you had a choice of things like filet mignon, broiled lobster, poache grouper, and other proteins. They came paired with sides. She ordered lobster and some grouper, but told the server not to bother bringing sides. Trying to “get her money’s worth,” you see.
When the meal arrived, she used her fingers to push food onto her fork, then licked her fingers clean.
It was really embarrassing. I get along with the MIL most of the time, but eating out with her is not on my list of favorite things to do.
Karma made an appearance. A woman who, a few years ago, made my life difficult at work wound up as my patient. When I worked with her, she made no disguise of the fact that she didn’t like me and did all she could to be a pain in the hindquarters. Why did she do that? Because I was hired to be her boss, and she felt that the position was rightfully hers because she had been there for a long time.
She has Stage 4 cancer and was in a great deal of pain. The cancer was attacking her nervous system, and although it was making her right side go numb, the only sensation it left her with on her right side was pain. You know what I did?
I treated her pain and gave her the absolute best care that I could, because I am a professional. I showed her and her family every bit of the kindness and compassion that she never showed me.
I went to the doctor and asked for an order to give her a full milligram of Dilaudid every hour as needed to control her pain. Cancer is a very painful and horrible way to die, and its victims deserve all of the care and compassion we can provide.
With that, I am leaving on vacation for a few days. Posting will be spotty.
LOL.
Orange ones boost natural night vision and prevent scurvy.
The red ones make you faster.
Purple ones make you invisible
I don’t make the rules