Chewbacca Defense

The issue here is that MAGAs have more than proven they are willing to overlook ANY mental ethical or moral deficiencies of their orange god, and I would venture to guess that many conservatives who do not fall under the extreme MAGA umbrella would have rose colored glasses when it comes to Trump and is gaffs (vs. Biden and his gaffs). And keeping it balanced, there are definitely liberals who have rose colored glasses on when it comes to Biden's gaffs. They are both too f*cking old and senile, and neither should be running. Biden is far from perfect, but I would take him any day of the week over Trump. If it were Biden vs. a more traditional/rational republican, who was anti- MAGA Christian Nationalist BS, I could easily see myself voting for them, but sadly such a unicorn does not exist.

Filtered sun and chilly up here, but should be a nice day

Got down to 31 this morning and our back deck was a sheet of ice. Doggie ABS works really good, she came running back up on the deck after her morning trip to water the lawn, and went to stop. I was impressed, she stayed on her feet and got herself stopped before she slid into something. Bummed I didn't get a video because it was pretty d*mn funny.

At least Donnie boy is finally admitting it was in fact an insurrection. Link goes straight to the part where he admits this so that you hopefully won't lose too many brain cells listening to him... If it doesn't you can skip to 7:55. And it's worth mentioning that after he says it, his attempt to deflect the blame is pointed to the right person this time.

Oh hell yeah, region wide blizzard inbound that will make 1949-1950 look like a light dusting....screw sun angles!

For what it's worth, it sounds like the Border Patrol union, while admitting it's not perfect, overall gave it their support and said it was long overdue. And most if not all of the progressive democrats absolutely HATE it, so it can't be all that bad, right? As for the size of the Ukraine package, we are sending things like M1 Abrams tanks (about $24M a piece), Bradley Fighting Vehicles (about $2.4M a piece), tens of thousands of man portable anti armor missle systems (couple hundred thousands a piece) plus millions...probably tens of millions of rounds of ammo for everything from pistols and rifles up to artillery, tanks and aircraft. None of that sh*t is cheap, and it adds up quick. And the fact that Trump has such a hard-on to shut it down is another very clear indicator that it is a *relatively* meaningful piece of legislation.

Wow that's pretty crazy, and good to hear...PROGRESS! To be honest, I have not been back down there since we left in 2002, so I have no idea what it's like now. One of my best friends down there was from Sweet Home, and he was an interesting person. On the one hand, he was pretty liberal and open minded on a lot of things, but every once in a while the Sweet Home would float to the surface. One of the coolest things about him, my wife is from a cattle ranching family in Montana, and one summer, the herd got cut off and scattered by a wild fire. I was talking to this buddy about it and he said "you say the word and I can have 4 guys with horses on the road by nightfall." I didn't have to take him up on the offer but I have no doubt he would have done it if I asked. Also did a ridealong with a friend at the Benton County Sheriff's office. We went up into the foothills just west of Corvallis, and he said, "for the most part, we can't come up here unless its with the SWAT team, but I've built up enough trust that they know that if I'm up here, its for a good reason, and otherwise I'm going to leave them alone. We definitely did not dawdle.

I'm sure they already have their appeal for an em banc review already written and ready to hit send, and have a draft for the Supreme Court review well under way. Hopefully this em banc review gets shut down as quickly as his last en banc review request.

Really funny thing is that if this had gone through....Biden could have had him whacked without any concern for repercussions. Not sure they were really thinking clearly on that.... Goes to show how smooth-brained his followers really are.

I work remotely from an office located in LA, and during our weekly business review meeting this morning, they all said that it was the lightest traffic they had seen in forever, sounds like most people worked remotely or took the day off. One guy said it usually talks 1.5-1.75 hours to get to work in the morning, and it only took about 45 minutes this morning.

I busted out the garden hoses this weekend, I'm calling it. Also, NBC Montana posted these graphics on their FB feed this morning...

Eh....I lived in Oregon for about 8-9 years, and I would have to say he's not too far off. And I'm saying that as someone who grew up in the deep DEEP south. I moved out to Albany Oregon from Athens Georgia with 3 friends, and the first thing we noticed was how WHITE it was. We went to the Chamber of Commerce to get information about the town we had just moved to, and amongst that was census data, and the realization that during the 1990 there was something like 10-15 black people. I think the population was about 30-40k at the time....36k comes to mind. Even the college town of Corvallis was extremely "white" though not as bad as Albany. It absolutely floored us. As we made friends with "locals" we shared our observation and learned that Oregon had quite the white supremacist history. A lot of skinheads, but they got run out in the '80's and settled in Idaho. Of all the stereotypes I had in mind, white supremacist was absolutely NOT one of them. I as settled in and got to know the people and the area, I figured out that as you moved out of the larger towns and cities, and up into the foothills and mountains, they could not be more different. I quickly learned that "rednecks" were not just a southern phenomena. Rednecks are different from "country folk." I can't say I've come across a redneck in Washington or Montana. Take that back, I've come across a few rednecks in Spokane, but otherwise its just been "country folk" Country folk are just good 'ole salt of the earth people who will give you the shirt off their back....they have a strong sense of their values (most always conservative) but tend to be of a "live and let live" mindset. Rednecks are in a lot of ways like Country Folk but there's an edge on them....a darkness.....a sense that you probably shouldn't completely let your guard down around them. Also not as tolerant of a viewpoint that is different from their own. I would also say that Rednecks are amongst the furthest of the right. That's my definition for it anyway...

Beautiful day today but deceptively cold due to a moderate breeze out of the north. I took the dog out this evening and came back in shivering. I would have sworn it was about 30-32 but it was actually still 42. 49/37 for the day.

Good luck, hopefully they don't get any roosters. We live in a pretty tightly packed neighborhood (the houses are on very small lots) and a family about 6-7 houses away got a rooster. My wife and I both work from home, and I get a text from her one afternoon "why am I hearing a rooster?" Oh....yeah....about that.... The really crappy thing is that a cop lives next door to the rooster, and his bedroom is closest said rooster. Being a cop, he of course works crazy shifts and sleeps at odd hours. I keep hoping the neighborhood bald eagle will swoop in and have rooster for dinner one evening. Its really going to suck this summer when it gets light at 4:30-5am.

Thanks for the heads up, I was concerned that the sun might not set tonight Seriously though beautiful pics.

My schedule is kinda wonky right now but if I didn't have anything going on I would be down for this.

Last strong thunderstorm I saw out here was September 2019 when I was down in Bellevue for my graduation, and ironically enough, I think the storms were actually.....for once....stronger up here in Bellingham than down south. Beyond that we get storms that pop off 2-3 flashes of lightning and that's it. Of course the best/easiest recipe for prolific thunderstorm activity is heat and humidity, so you kind of have to pick your poison.

Went to Nagoya one June for a business trip and holy hell was that miserable. I'm just glad I didn't have to go in August. They had the thermostat for the meeting room we were in set to about 27c. The customer that was hosting us noticed me constantly wiping sweat from my forehead and took pity on me, and turned the thermostat down to 25c My hotel room stayed at 18c the whole time I was in it, but whenever I would leave it would pop back up to 24.

My backyard got completely destroyed this winter. Not sure how I am going to bring it back. The pictures from the other day don't quite do it justice, but I was walking on it today and water is still squeezing out of the soil around my feet. It's just matted down clumps of grass like substance.

Sure hope he hasn't bought a house yet down there in Tuscaloosa.

Caught another rumor that he floated the idea of retirement towards the end of the season, but after the last game of the year he decided he wanted to go one more year. Management had already "moved on" based on his plans to retirement. On one hand I kinda call BS to that, they obviously didn't have another coach already lined up. But on the other hand, a mentor told me that if you ever decide to give notice and leave a place, don't let them talk you in to staying. There is a reason you chose to leave, and odds are, you are going to quickly be back looking for another job. Best to just rip the bandaid off. So maybe that's what happened.

Yeah the "best car in high school" honor went to the "new kid" in my high school. He moved to the school district from South Africa and the parents were mega loaded even by the standards of where I lived. Well, I lived in the "Golden Ghetto" which was a bunch of low rent apartments and condos on the edge of a very wealthy neighborhood. As for the rest of the school district....My very first day of high school, I come rolling up to the front of the school in the bus and look out the window to see some gal shrieking over the brand new Mercedes with a big red bow on it. And the parents just had to give it to her in front of the school. Also lots of BMW's in the parking lot. Any way, this South African kid typically rolled up in a classic, fully restored MG-B which was actually kinda funny because the kid played rugby and was built like a brick sh*t house. It was kinda humorous to watch him get into and out of that thing. Every once in a while he would drive up in daddy's museum quality restored classic Jaguar E-Type. So yeah, he got "best car." My white 1980 VW Scirocco S with 120k miles did not make the cut.

I'm just wondering how many alcoholics have been created by the Taylor Swift drinking game (because you KNOW it exists). Drink a shot every time they say her name, drink 2 shots every time they show her. Blackout drunk by the end of the first quarter.

Since this winter seems to be a write-off, here are a couple of interesting cold winter videos I came across. @MR.SNOWMIZER might appreciate this other one. I love how they have to wait for the oil to turn back into a liquid…