• When people ask me how much food I have prepped, I always say just about 18 months. It’s an odd number to many, and I often get asked why. The answer is, if the apocalypse begins right in the middle of summer and it’s too late to start planting, that’s the “worst case scenario.” From there to a finished crop is just about 18 months, give or take a few weeks. So 18 months is the longest I can expect to be with no food.

    That assumes, of course, that I know how to make a garden grow. Now, I do know, and I’ve practiced. At one point, we had a small farm with an acre of kitchen garden that friends and I tended. I raised chickens and we hunted, and we traded with locals for things we didn’t grow or hunt. It was a lovely way to live and I miss it terribly. Sadness aside, I spent four years or so learning how to grow a garden of sustainable size. I’ve done the practice, though I need to continue to practice.

    If you’ve never grown anything other than a few flowers, you need to begin learning how to grow crops now. This is not something you can “learn as you go” during an emergency. You need to know how to do all this stuff before an emergency. Do you know what to grow? Do you know how to grow it? Do you know how to harvest it? Do you know how to preserve its seeds, or otherwise get a crop the following year without getting seeds from a store? You must have the answers to all these questions and more before the SHTF.

    The first and most important question to ask yourself is what kind of food you can grow, and what kind you want to grow. You should focus on learning how to grow the things that are in the middle of that Venn diagram. I usually suggest people start with garlic, green beans, herbs, and some sort of squash. All four are easy to grow, and require only a bit of attention to keep the weeds and predators out. I can tell you that my family can eat 100 feet of green beans each year. That’s a LOT. Most people plant about half that, if they’re planning on growing all their beans rather than purchasing. What that does NOT include is seed for next year, and that’s an important thing to remember.

    I find that the best information for beginner gardeners comes from the Victory Garden networks out there (like these: Plant a Victory Garden and Vintage Victory Garden booklet). Victory Gardens were grown during WWII as a patriotic method of keeping commercially grown food for “the boys across the water.” Today, they’re an act of rebellion, because growing food makes you less dependent upon The Man. The idea of a Victory Garden is to provide enough supplemental food for your family that you don’t rely as heavily upon the government and commercial farmers to feed you. I suspect that this is a very good practice for all conservatives to begin as we move into a time of frugality and less government spending.

    (more…)

            

  • Banana Pi, Stay Away

    The board I purchased was a BPI-M2U or M2 Ultra. Nice little Pi-3 or pi-4 clone. It has BT, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 2 USB ports, onboard eMMC flash, microSD, SATA, audio, two power modes, serial header, HDMI (full size). Just a nice little board.

    After a week, I finally managed to get ONE of a dozen images to boot. Raspbian doesn’t work. The best general version is Armbian. Regardless, only one would boot.

    That one is running Ubuntu 16.04. I’m still trying to upgrade it to 18.04.

    The board is unstable. It will run fine for a while, then power itself off. Or it will randomly reboot.

    Unless you are willing to face significant headaches, buy the real thing.

    Serial GPS NTP

    I have one of my serial GPS’s hooked to the BPI-M2U. The PPS is getting to the GPIO. The serial data is arriving on UART 2. All wonderful.

    Nice and stable. The jitter is way down.

    But because it is a banana and not a raspberry, I can’t get the PPS driver installed. I’m still hoping.

    Plane Crash and Trump 1.0

    It appears that Trump stuck his foot in his mouth during a press conference about the crash over the Potomac.

    It appears that he claimed that some air traffic controllers are DEI hires that are mentally challenged.

    For a president who is attacked every day for being a liar and for being stupid, it is not a good look when he says things like this.

    I listened to the ATC audio. My opinion is that the ATC messed up. He did not abort the landing clearance for the passenger jet. This is a no big issue event, if he had told the plane to go around.

    SCOTUS

    I am frustrated with SCOTUS. I’m afraid that we are going to get a denial of cert. We just have to keep waiting.

    Question of the Week

    What has been your favorite confirmation hearing moment?

            

  • Wednesday night, a regional jet, meaning not a jumbo, collided with a Black Hawk Helicopter over the Potomac River.

    There does not appear to be any survivors.

    There are two major airfields in Washington, DC proper.  There is Andrews Air force Base (I think it was renamed) and the Ronald Reagan Internation airfield.  Along with those two airfields, there are several military installations that have helicopter operations.

    For perspective, the Aberdeen Proving Grounds had an airfield, 4 helicopter pads “outside the fence” and an unknown number inside the fence.

    In other words, there is a bunch of air traffic in the area.

    What I would normally see is helicopters flying relatively low over the river.  Runway 33 is pointed at the river.  Many years ago, a pilot dropped a plane into the Potomac because he didn’t de-ice his aircraft.

    Even with the lights of the fixed wing aircraft on, the helicopter(s) likely didn’t notice it as it was above, descending to land.

    Depending on exactly where the helicopters were, relative to the plane, the pilots of the plane were unlikely to see the helicopters.

    Moreover, I doubt that civilian aircraft radar has good detection capabilities for low-flying helicopters.

    If anything, it is likely the fault of the air traffic controller.

    The plane was a CRJ at 1200 feet just south of the Woodrow Bridge. It was getting ready to land on runway 33.

    PAT25 was the helo.  JIA5342 was the CRJ.  The DCQ tower asks, “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?”

    The military aircraft does not respond, just a few seconds later tower says, “PAT25, pass behind the CRJ”.

    The crash happens a few moments later.

    Tower should have ordered CRJ to turn left to heading 270 and to climb to 3000.

    Here is the track of the aircraft in the air when the crash took place along with the audio.

            

  • For the past week, my feed has been filled with democrat hacks spewing their hate and lies.  This isn’t a good representation.  Why not?  Because yesterday I read the same words on a dozen tweets from high-profile democrat hacks.

     

            

  •  

    I think this is my favorite JD moment so far. Margaret Brennan apparently wanted to play journalist and attempted to take down VP Vance in a sit-down conversation. She brought up immigration, which should be a hard-hitting topic right now. Unfortunately for her, she’s not nearly as good at this game as Vance is, and the bottom line is she’s arguing for keeping violent criminals in the country. Not a good look for her.

    From the interview:

    Vance: ‘We absolutely cannot unleash thousands of unvetted people into our country…’

    Brennen: ‘These people are vetted. These people are vetted. Uh…’

    Vance: ‘Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago? He was allegedly properly vetted, and many people in media and the Democratic Party said that he was properly vetted. Clearly he wasn’t. I don’t wan’t my children to share a neighborhood with people who are not properly vetted, and because I don’t want it for my kids, I’m not going to force any other American citizens’ kids to do that either.’

    Brennen: ‘No, and that was a very particular case, it wasn’t clear whether he was radicalized when he got here, um, or, when he was living h-“

    Vance: ‘I don’t really care, Margaret, I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me.’

    And that’s a wrap. Brennen tried and failed to make Vance look foolish. Her point was to make him stutter, to call on his faith as a Catholic and shame him, and he had absolutely NONE of it. Instead, he brazenly told her that he was ashamed by the American Council of Bishops, which was an impressive thing to say, in my opinion.

    Another question being asked on social media is, what do you tell your kids if one of their friends is swept up by ICE while they’re in school? I’ve heard several good answers, mostly snarky, but my favorite was honest and polite, and went something like this:

    “Honey, I’m sorry your friend was taken away. If they are here legally, it will take a day or two for the paperwork to sort out, and your friend will be right back to school. ICE agents can be scary, but they’re very gentle with children, and they won’t hurt your friend. But if your friend’s parents are here illegally, then I’m afraid you might not see that friend again. I know that’s hard, and it isn’t your friend’s fault, but there are consequences to actions. Just like you have consequences to your actions when you do something bad, your friend’s parents might have done something bad. They aren’t being punished like you, but they do have to go back to their home country. That’s the consequence of their actions.” (from Not the Bee)

    (more…)

            

  • This is a difficult post for me.

    I want the Supreme Court to hear a Second Amendment case this term. I don’t think it is going to happen.

    The normal procedure is for a case to get on the docket. The Court gives the party time to file briefs. Once all the briefs are filed, the case is ready for the next step.

    The next step is for the Justices to discuss the case in private. This is done in Conference.

    There are Wed. and Fri. Conferences. Cases that are petitioning for cert are discussed in the Friday Conferences.

    We are informed when a case will be discussed by an entry in the case docket of the form “DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/24/2025”

    During the Conference, the Justices will make decide to deny cert in a number of the cases. They will decide to grant cert in others. And some they will need more time to discuss.

    In general, we hear about the results of the Conference on the following Monday. This is when the “Order List” is released.

    The Order List will consist of GVRs. These are of the form “The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The Judgement is vacated, and the case is remanded to the COURT for consideration in light of CASE“.

    There will be Orders In Pending Cases. These are motions not related to granting cert. They are motions for stays, to file under seal, to proceed in forma pauperis (in the form of a pauper.)

    Then there is the “Certiorari Denied”. This is a list of case numbers and case names. That is it. No other information is supplied.

    There are other sections for Mandamus Denied, Rehearings Denied, and Attorney Discipline.

    Finally, there are statements of the Justices.

    These are of the form, “NAME, dissenting”, Title of case, case number, and date.

    Following this is the actual dissent. This can be short or long, depending on the Justice writing it and how much they have to say about the denial of certiorari.

    I’ve seen them as short as a page and some extending a half dozen or more pages.

    What about the cases that aren’t listed?

    This is where people get to panic.

    If a case is not listed in the Order List, it can be for many reasons. The Justices might be planning a “Miscellaneous Order” for later in the week. We’ve seen that from time to time.

    Unfortunately, the most likely reason is that the Justices decided to deny cert.

    Given Thomas’ support of the Second Amendment, if they are denying cert, he will be writing a statement dissenting with the judgement.

    Conclusion

    I’m torn, I don’t want these cases to be denied cert. On the other hand, I can’t think of a reason that there is nothing posted about them, except that there is a dissenting Justice writing a statement.

    Last week was a week of winning with Trump 2.0.

    Maybe we’ll hear really good news later this week. I’ll keep an eye out for any news and keep you updated.

            

  • I keep feeling better and better. We are in day 7 of Trump 2.0 and it keeps getting better.

    Watching the left melt down just feels good.

            

  • We are still in a holding pattern. At this instant, the January 27th order list has been released. Neither case is on it.

    This means that neither case has been summarily denied certiorari.

    They were not granted certiorari, either.

    Later today, the dockets should be updated.

    If they are relisted, we still have a chance of a decision in the 2024 term.

    If they are not relisted, it suggests that there was a denial of cert and one or more of the justices are writing a “statement” dissenting with the denial.

    Perspective. A case was conferenced on the 10th, 17th, and 24th. Today they issued the denial of cert. Thomas wrote a dissent, joined by Alito.

    This is the same pattern as Snope and Ocean State Tactical.

    I do not believe that certiorari has been denied.

    If it is granted next week, the Petitioner’s briefs will be filed by March 12, 2025. This still gets us to oral arguments for the 2024 term.

    According to my brief research, We are pushing oral arguments into May at this point. The Court doesn’t often hear cases in May.

    Having said this, the Court sets their own rules. If they don’t set oral arguments soon, they will likely hear the cases in early October with an opinion out December 2025 or January 2026.

            

  • This stuff is crack. It’s worse than potato chips. You can’t just eat one. They’re so yummy that you won’t be able to help yourself. It can be made with margarine instead of butter and it turns out okay, but if you can digest dairy, use butter.

    Ingredients for the dough:

    • 1/4 cup warm water
    • 1 tbsp active dry yeast
    • 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
    • 1 cup milk, warm
    • 2 large eggs, beaten
    • 1-3/4 tsp salt
    • 1 cup butter, melted
    • 5 cups bread flour
    • no-stick spray

    Ingredients for the garlic butter:

    • 1/2 cup butter
    • 8 garlic cloves, grated or minced very fine
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
    • 1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
    • 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

    First, gently whisk together the water, yeast, and 1/2 tablespoon of the sugar in a bowl. Let this proof until it’s bubbly and smells yeasty, at least five minutes.

    To the yeast mixture, add in the milk, eggs, salt, butter, and the rest of the sugar. Beat these together with a wooden spoon or with a dough hook in your stand mixer. Slowly begin to add the flour, half a cup at a time.

    Once all the flour is incorporated, knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. This will take 5 to 10 minutes in a stand mixer, or up to 20 minutes by hand. Always finish up your dough by hand, so you can tell when it’s ready. Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn it to cover all the dough with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a grocery bag with no holes, and let it rise until it’s doubled in size. This will take one to two hours.

    While the dough is rising, make your garlic butter. Combine the butter, garlic, and salt in a small saucepan. Heat over a medium low heat and stir occasionally, until the butter is completely melted. Remove it from the heat, and stir in the parsley and rosemary. Reserve a tablespoon of the garlic butter for brushing on the finished bread.

    Lightly grease two loaf pans (your favorite no-stick spray works great for this). Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into about 40 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Roll half the dough balls in the garlic butter, and arrange them in the bottom of the prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle with half of the Parmesan. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls. If you have any of the garlic butter left (except the reserved tablespoon), drizzle it evenly over the loaves.

    Cover your pans loosely with plastic wrap or grocery bags, and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size. This will not take as long as the first rise, so plan on it being 45 minutes to an hour. Preheat your oven to 350°F during the last 20 minutes of the rise.

    Uncover your loaves and put the pans in your preheated oven. Bake the bread until the tops are golden brown. If you have a thermometer, the interior should be about 200°F, which should take about 35 to 40 minutes to bake. Remove the loaves from the oven and brush the tops lightly with the reserved tablespoon of garlic butter. If necessary, reheat the butter to melt it.

    Cool the loaves in the pans for five minutes, then remove the bread from the pans. Serve while still warm, with a side of pizza sauce!

            

  • Happy Birthday(ish) Ally!

    It was her birthday, very recently, send her a Happy Birthday!

    I am SOOOO upset

    Here is the item description:

    • [Support Mini ITX Motherboard] ITX Motherboard dimension 6.7*6.7in (17*17cm).
    • [Support Flex Power Supply Unit] Flex PSU dimension 3.21*1.59*5.91in (81.5*40.5*150mm).
    • [Support 1 Single Slot Full Height PCI-e Expansion Card] To add video card or network card or more.
    • [Come With 1 Front USB 3.0 or 2.0 Port] 2 in 1 cable only plug one connector to motherboard.

      • Two MAJOR issues for me. First, it doesn’t support a 170x170mm motherboard. No, it supports a 170x167mm motherboard. If you put a 170×170 in the case, there is not enough room to put the cover on.

      That lead to time in the shop grinding off the offending metal.

      The clearance for the board is very tight under the four disk bays. I had to get a different CPU cooler that was low profile. That’s ok. Everything went together once I got the fan in place.

      Then I went to install the PCIe 10G SFP+ card. There is no space in the back for that card! They put the damn full height opening in the worng place.

      FAFO

      I’m stealing this from X. I was going to write about this, I had multiple sources. I was going to quote published documents. Instead, I’ll let this stand for itself.

      To fully understand just how remarkable today’s exchange with Colombia was, you need to understand how Washington DC has traditionally worked through these sorts of issues, and the different way it works now under Trump.

      I’ll illustrate.

      Traditional Approach:

      1. Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.
      2. On Monday, the State Department convenes an interagency task force with DoD, NSC, DEA, INS, ICE, Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security.
      3. The task force meets for four days and develops a position paper.
      4. The position paper is rejected by the Secretary of State, who is unhappy that insufficient equity considerations are built into the process.
      5. The task force reconvenes a week later to redevelop three new, equity-centric courses of action and create a new position paper.
      6. The process is delayed a week because Washington DC gets three inches of snow.
      7. SecState approves the new position paper for interagency circulation, and considerable input is received from the heads of other departments so the task force must reconvene.
      8. The original three proposed responsive courses of action are scrapped in favor of a new, fourth course of action that achieves the worst aspects of the three prior courses of action but satisfies the interagency.
      9. Someone in State who disagrees leaks to the Washington Post, who writes a story about how ineffective the Presidential administration is.
      10. The White House Chief of Staff sets up a session three days later to brief the President, who approves the new fourth course of action.
      11. Over a month after the issue is first raised, the State Department Public Affairs Officer holds a press conference announcing that Colombia has agreed to try to send fewer criminals into the US and everyone declares victory.

      Trump Approach:

      1. Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.
      2. After a par-5 third hole where he goes one under par, Trump uses his iPhone to post on social media as to how the USA will destroy Colombia’s economy if they do not do what the USA demands.
      3. By the time Trump gets to the par-4 sixth hole, Colombia’s President has agreed to repatriate all the illegal Colombians in his own plane, which he will pay for.
      4. Trump finishes three under par and goes to the clubhouse for a Diet Coke where he posts a gangsta AI image of himself and the new FAFO Doctrine.
      5. Winning.

      See the difference? It’s called LEADERSHIP.

      For a little bit of clarity on how heavy handed Trump 2.0 was, Colombia exports around a billion dollars worth of roses every year to America. In order for those roses to be sold, they have to get expedited inspections. They also have to be reasonably prices.

      With the 25% tariffs, Trump was going to put the hurting on 31% of their economy. But it is better. If Colombia had not caved, the tariffs were going to go up to 50%.

      In addition, Trump ordered full inspections of everything being imported from Colombia. That means that many of those roses would have wilted in transit.

      Oh, did you remember that Valentine’s Day is coming up? And that is the biggest sales day in the country for roses.

      Whining on X

      I could write a dozen articles about whining liberals over on X. The most common whine is, “a bad thing is going to happen. This is what you morons voted for. Don’t you feel stupid now?”