Or, it was. Nowadays, dissenters should STFU and sit down because “I Won.”
Castro won too. Though, not lately. But the “I” believes that those dissenting people should STFU because he isn’t smart enough to understand how his statements support dictatorial edicts.
Cuba Arrests Dissidents Before Pope’s Havana Mass
But hey, so long as the US is seen as the bad guy in the long run, what’s a few lives tossed on top. And isn’t “freedom” a relative concept?
How did this get past the Obama Pentagon?
Suppose you have a brand-new aircraft carrier, but the jets that will operate from that ship won’t be available in sufficient quantities for another five years. How do you utilize that platform to its full capabilities in the interim, without its primary strike asset?
For Britain’s Royal Navy, that is the near-term challenge: their new fleet carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, is in the final stages of construction and will begin sea trials next summer, with initial flight training in 2017-2018. But with the RN’s first F-35 squadrons not scheduled to achieve their initial operating capability until 2020 (at the earliest), the Brits are looking for aircraft that can embark earlier and provide a combat punch before their own Lightning IIs are ready for action.
The solution is a lesson in creativity and coalition warfare. According to the U.S. Naval Institute, the RN has reached agreement with the U.S. Marine Corps to deploy F-35 squadrons on the Queen Elizabeth until British units achieve their IOC in the jet.
Hopefully, a little bit of the USMC swagger will rub off on the Brits for them to take back home.
Somebody in California wants to get a free trip to D.C..
State panel outlaws ‘dark money’ in California political campaigns
The state’s campaign finance watchdog agency on Thursday adopted new requirements that nonprofit groups that contribute through a federal political action committee to support or oppose ballot measures or candidates in California must disclose their donors.
“The amendment to this regulation clarifies that so-called ‘dark money,’ originating from nonprofit or other organizations whose donors are not disclosed, is not permitted in California elections,†said Hyla P. Wagner, general counsel for the state Fair Political Practices Commission in a report to the panel.
While I generally support open disclosure laws, the ability to be anonymous is currently the law of the land. Good luck with that.
Wilensky said that work done in the rugged Mokelumne River South Fork canyon terrain late Monday may have saved the towns of Wilseyville and West Point.
“Air attack was spectacular between 5:30 and six last night,†Wilensky said during a telephone interview early Tuesday afternoon.Wilensky, a former firefighter, has for years been involved in the effort to secure grant funding to thin overgrown Bureau of Land Management lands near Glencoe. He said the fear is that if the fire once jumps to the north bank of the South Fork Mokleumne River, then it could travel up the Middle Fork Mokelumne River to the towns and it would be impossible to stop.
He described the work of the approximately 300 people cutting lines in the canyon as heroic.
“As volunteer firefighter, we were told to never get yourself in a box canyon in front of a fire. That is exactly where these guys are.â€
Emphasis mine. Yeah, they are heroes to me. Our place is in that Middle Fork Canyon. Article here.
I’m thinking about making something like this over the Winter, but maybe with belted magnum cases instead.
Would anyone buy something like this?
This weekend saw me working in the driveway while I had the dry skies to take advantage of. Sunday morning was damp, but quit by 10AM. Hopefully, it went south to help David out.
The bollards are done.
I took this
To this
And they’re now mounted where they’ll do the most good.
The wife found some planters that were as near perfect for the beams as I think we could expect to find. I welded some all-thread to the top of the beams, drilled the planters and secured them with a washer and nut. They’re currently filled with some mulch so that the flowers she plants next Spring will have some food awaiting them.
The neighbors had a football party, and as you can see, I got the bollards set in just in time.
I also completed my mother’s birthday gift.
A bench for her yard.
I found a stack of Trex boards at the local big orange box hardware/lumber store that was a “special order that was returned”. So instead of paying $2+ per foot, I paid $0.48. I only needed one board for this project, but I bought all eight that they had. I’m formulating another project for the wife that’ll look similar to this
Except made out of steel and Trex.
Here’s some actual footage of Da Plane. You will want to crank the bass. Worth 27 seconds of your time.
ALSO: Whatever crews put out the flames in the middle canyon and Sandy Gulch grasslands, thank you!
https://mobile.twitter.com/mattlucas6/status/643593905984835584/video/1j
This guy just dropped a load on a river canyon a couple miles from our place. Fire advanced within the last hour to a mile from a different direction. Crews are on it…
…but I don’t want to!
The Butte Fire has been devastating my adopted second home of Calaveras County. As it exploded, I made the two-hour drive from Livermore to the West Point area Thursday night for a very sad mission to photograph our second home/survival retreat for insurance purposes in the dark (power out). At the time I figured I only had a few hours; the roads were filling up with horse trailers running up from the valley below on volunteer rescue missions for all the horses in the area — my neighbors may have four or ten horses, but typically only a two-horse trailer. Rescued a pickup-bed-full of books, artwork, photos, electronics, some clothes. Left behind: thousands of books, half our ammo (in fireproof concrete safes, natch), all my non-business clothes, dishware, furniture, etc., and a very nice telescope.
If the place survives the #ButteFire it will be a miracle, we’ll see. When I left at midnight Thursday the fire was 3-5 miles away as the crow flies (probably 5-7 on the ground with topography). All day 9/11 and yesterday I listened to the scanner feeds with dread. Yet for our area, the danger seems to be about the same or a bit less right now; the fire’s been spreading south and east and the dozer line above our house hasn’t been approached — yet. I’ll take that as a good sign but anything can happen. (Photo at upper left: our house. Photo below it: thought it was our house on social media but it’s not, thank goodness. Sorry for whoever’s house it was.)
This was my Rawles-ian retreat, the culmination of a decade’s worth of thought and planning since I discovered www.survivalblog.com back in 2005.
—Earthquake-proof? Check. (No earthquakes in Skulls County.)
—Multiple year-round water sources including a year-round river? Check.
—Excellent strategic and tactical defensive possibilities? Check. (Located on a large bluff surrounded by deep river canyons; the house is deep within an interior subcanyon. Quarter-mile driveways in, easily covered from multiple locations and easily alarmed with those MURS-band perimeter alarms.)
—Fantastic like-minded neighbors? Check.
—Multiple avenues of egress off the bluff in different compass directions? Check. (Didn’t think about a fire so big it could block all three of them).
–Luxurious Bay-Area-style interior with custom flooring and light fixtures, Sub-Zero appliances, etc., to keep the wife happy? Check.
—California license-to-carry-friendly sheriff? Check.
Second-biggest Sierra fire in history? Yeah, didn’t quite get around to prepping for that yet.
  
  
