Friday - August 07, 2020

Makes Me Wonder

Gotta wonder where that Arctic warming is coming from, eh?

Russia has several thousand nuclear objects dumped on its Arctic sea floor. Now, the most dangerous will be removed
The country’s nuclear energy company will over the next 8 years lift two submarines and four reactor compartments from the sea bottom of the Barents and Kara Seas.

These objects are not environmentally safe, a representative of Rosatom made clear as he this week presented a clean-up plan for the north Russian waters.

In the period between the late 1960s to the late 1980s, about 18 thousand radioactive objects were dumped to sea in the remote northern waters. Most of them represent little environmental risk. But some are increasingly seen as a hazard to Arctic ecosystems.

“Rosatom over the next eight years intend to lift from the bottom of Russian Arctic waters the six objects that are most dangerous with regard to radioactive pollution,” the company spokesperson told news agency TASS.
Two entire subs

On the list of objects are the reactors from submarines “K-11”, “K-19” and “K-140”, as well as spent nuclear fuel from the reactor that served icebreaker “Lenin”.

In addition, two entire submarines will be lifted, the “K-27” from the Kara Sea and “K-159” from the Barents Sea. While the former was deliberately dumped by Soviet authorities in 1982, the latter sunk during a towing operation in 2003.

The “K-27” is located on 33 meter depths east of archipelago Novaya Zemlya. It has by experts been described as a possible radioactive “time-bomb”. The “K-159” is located on 200 meter depths off the coast of the Kola Peninsula.

now all they need is for somebody else to pay for the cleanup

The lifting operation of the hazardous nuclear wastes will not only be technically difficult, but also very expensive.

A recent report made for Rosatom and the European Commission evaluated the costs of lifting the six most dangerous objects to €278 million. That includes bringing them safely to a yard for decommissioning and long-term storage.

The operation with the “K-159” is alone estimated to cost €57,5 millions. The lifting the “K-27”, transporting to a shipyard for decommissioning and long-term storage in Saida Bay, will come at a price of €47,7 millions, the report reads.
International cooperation

Hardly, Russia’s increasingly cash-strapped treasury will not have €278 millions for the cleanup.

Previously, a number of countries have granted billions to Post-Soviet Russian efforts to cope with nuclear wastes.

The greatest amount Global Warming has been along the Russian Arctic coast. Golly, do you think there could be a connection?

Oh BTW, it’s been an imperative that the K-159 and K-27 be immediately raised from the seabed ... for more than 6 years now. That’s after years of empty promises. The ships have been there for decades.

[ May 2014, MURMANSK ]– It is of critical importance that two sunken derelict Russian nuclear submarines, one of which was scuttled as radioactive trash and the other of which sank in rough weather on its way to decommissioning, be raised from the floor of the Kara Sea, scholars from Moscow’s Kurchatov Institute said Friday.

The two subs in question – the K-159 and the K-27 – lay on the ocean floor, the first at the entrance to Kola Bay and the second in the shallows surrounding the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, a former nuclear bomb testing range during Soviet times, as well as something of a dumping ground for Cold War legacy nuclear waste.

Both have also been the subject of long-time promises by Russian officials that they will indeed be raised.

According to Alexei Kazennov, a researcher with Moscow’s respected Kurchatov institute, the K-159, which sank in August 2003 under tow to decommissioning at the Nerpa shipyard – in more than 200 meters of water, taking with it 800 kilograms of highly enriched uranium fuel and claiming the lives all nine sailors aboard – is currently emitting one and a half times as much radioactivity as dozens of other radiological hazards dumped at sea over time by the Soviet and Russian navies.

The K-27 submarine, was scuttled in 50 meters of water in Stepovogo Bay of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago in the Kara Sea in 1981 after a serious reactor accident that killed nine. Its reactors contain 90 kilograms of uranium-235.
...
It is worth bearing in mind that the K-159 sunk while under tow across a major ship-trafficking waterway as well as one populated by fisheries.
...
Large-scale dumping of radioactive waste and nuclear fuel was at its height between 1965 and 1972. Some 17,000 tons of solid radioactive waste are estimated to have been purposely sunk in its waters, in addition to the K-27, and the 907 nuclear submarine, which has two reactors on board. Other solid radioactive waste in the region includes biological shielding assemblies from the Lenin nuclear icebreaker, whose location has not yet been determined. Another piece of unaccounted-for nuclear trash under the sea is the port-side reactor of the 421 nuclear submarine.

According to the Kurchatov Institute, the biological shields are the most radioactive of waste items sunk in the Kara Sea, second only to spent nuclear fuel. The activity of a caisson with such a biological screen in 2012 measured 1196.7 terebequerel, or 32.4 kilocurie, which is some 30 percent of the entire activity of radioactive waste submerged in the Kara Sea.

How do you say “We’ll get right on it, someday, maybe” in Russian?

Posted by Drew458     on 08/07/2020 at 08:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Environment • Russia •  
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   Thursday - August 06, 2020

Bowling Shut Down

Well, so much for bowling tonight. We ate dinner early for once, almost finishing off the fantastic brined chicken I’d grilled up yesterday, so we were able to leave at the right time for once.

Got up there with hardly any traffic, arrived 10 minutes before practice was scheduled to start. Got the balls out of the trunk and walked across the parking lot, took one step up the front steps, and the place went dark. Total power failure.

Large parts of NJ are still without power from the big terrible storm Tuesday. Out here in the stick we’ve mostly avoided it, but “mostly” is a relative term. Thousands are without power, but not us. Our power was out for 6 minutes during the peak of the storm. But the utility guys are out doing their repairs, testing and rerouting as necessary. So I guess some areas get shut off for a while. Because.

So we sat on the front steps as more people arrived, and we all hung out, chatting and seeing what would happen. Almost nobody was wearing a mask, so I guess we’ll all be dead tomorrow. The alley folks kept coming outside to give us updates, while some of us made calls and checked the news. Most of Warren County was out, from the Pennsylvania border all the way east to Morris County. Some spots were still on. Chuck called his wife, found out that his house had power, and asked her if she could bring over all his extension cords to power the place. He lives 5 miles away ... nobody has that many extension cords. Wise guy! Actually, it was pretty good socialization, everybody has something to say about the storm, and the masks and the rules and our wonderful much loved governor. Plus we all blamed Mary for the outage, as she made meatloaf tonight. The last time she made meatloaf hurricane Sandy hit and their house was without power for a week and a half.

After 45 minutes, 8 o’clock, the boss man came out and said he had no idea if or when the juice would flow again. So we’re all going to post bowl at some point the coming week. If we can. Assuming there’s power then. As we drove home, we saw that parts of Washington had power, about a mile south of the bowling alley. Meh, what can you do? Everybody else probably waited longer and the power came back on. Sorry, we can’t stay there to 11pm when some of us have to be at work before 8.

~~~~ !!! !!! ~~~~

So we came home, ate a little more of that awesome chicken, had a drink and watched a little TV. I’ve got a biga going in the kitchen, as we’re going to auntie’s final pool party Saturday (they’re moving) and she asked us (me) to make a few dozen rolls for the sausage and peppers she’ll be making. I’m the only non-Italian in the bunch, so I’m making some real old school Italian bread dough to make the rolls from. And that means a biga.

A biga is kind of like young sourdough, only made with commercial yeast. Flour, water, and a pinch or yeast, mix it up and let is sit around for 12-16 hours, or fridge it for a day or so. Even commercial yeast will excrete alcohol, acetic acid, and lactic acid, which are the flavors that put the sour in sourdough. It just goes a lot faster, and you get a great breediing up of the good strong commercial yeast. Add the whole thing to a bunch of other flour and water, and it makes flavorful bread pretty quick.

Actually, an Italian biga is almost exactly the same as a Polish poolish, exact the poolish uses a wetter, 100% hydration pre-dough. So a poolish is even faster, but you have to watch it closely and use when it’s just ripe. A biga is only 50-60% hydration, so the thick dough matures slowly. Yeast likes the wet. A biga probably gives you a bit more flavor too, but both are pretty easy ways to make tasty bread with commercial yeast.

Italian bread is the same as French bread, except you add a little olive oil and a touch of sugar. The sugar also kicks the yeast into high gear. Sourdough, poolish, and biga are called preferments, because they are dough that is pre fermented. Which means that the rise time for the whole dough, once you add in the biga, is a good bit faster than the typical 2 1/2 hours. Way faster than sourdough’s 6 - 12 hours.

I’m going to make up a tiny batch of plain dough tomorrow at the same hydration rate, to see how much I need to make a 6” long roll. That’s enough for 2 sausages and some onions and peppers. When I have that dough weight, I can figure out how much dough I’ll need to make 2-3 dozen rolls. I’m making enough biga for a double recipe, but I can spread it out to a triple recipe if necessary. I want a rather soft bread, not a crusty loaf. A smaller crumb would be Ok too. Taste and strength are what I’m looking for. ( Ever try using Wonder bread for a sausage & pepper sammich? It lasts about 3 seconds. )

She’s promised to help, so that should be fun. I think I can make about a dozen rolls per bake. And we’ll make the rolls the night before, so we won’t have to get up before dawn to bake for an afternoon pool party we have to drive 2 hours to get to. Saturday morning is for sleeping late.

~~~~ !!! !!! ~~~~

chicken brine: your typical brine of kosher salt and water, half a cup of salt to 3 quarts water. Slice up a few lemons, smash 5 gloves of garlic, rough chop half an onion, and then add a bunch of dried herbs, a tbl each rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme, allspice, and a big handful of peppercorns. Bring to a boil it in a big pot, let it cool, stick a chicken in it, cover, then 18 hours in the fridge. Rinse, pat dry, and then put the uncovered chicken back in the fridge for 2 hours. Get it out, cook it on the grill using offset heat, 400F for a bit over an hour, flipping it a couple times. Super brown, crispy skin, juicy as all get out, and doesn’t need any seasoning at all. Mmm, mmm, good. Next time I’ll use a bit less salt and toss in a bullion cube instead. Moar chiken flava!!

~~~~ !!! !!! ~~~~

Have a drink! While I am partial to Manhattans, made the old way with rye whiskey and cold red vermouth (not in an ice shaker, maybe add 1 or 2 ice cubes to the glass), sometimes something lighter and sweeter hits the spot. I don’t have a name for it, but a measure of golden rum and a measure of Kahlua over rocks tastes pretty good and it still packs a punch. A touch sweeter than a Black Russian, but made with booze that actually has flavor. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/06/2020 at 08:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging • Bread • Climate-Weather • Family • Food •  
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Just Buggin

I saw a couple of these around the patio yesterday and today. Don’t know if they got blown in by the big storm, knocked out of the trees by all the rain, or if their eggs were in that cheap mulch we laid down in June. Same mulch is now sprouting mushrooms too.

Anyway, the Brown Prionid is pretty much harmless to people. And quite common. They live in rotting wood.

But it is a heck of a big bug, as long and thick as your pinky finger. With big scaly twitchy bug legs, and it runs real fast. eeewwwrrrghh.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/06/2020 at 11:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Animals •  
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“A Throwback To The Dark Old Days”

Mail Voting = Corruption And Fraud

Most developed countries, especially in Europe, ban mail-in voting to fight vast fraud and vote buying that had threatened the integrity of their elections, according to an exhaustive review of voting rules and histories in over 30 major nations.

In the European Union, 63% have put a ban on mailing in ballots except for citizens living overseas. Another 22% have imposed a ban even for those overseas. And most of those that allow mail-in ballots require some form of photo ID to get one, according to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center shared with Secrets.

“These countries have learned the hard way about what happens when mail-in ballots aren’t secured. They have also discovered how hard it is to detect vote buying when both those buying and selling the votes have an incentive to hide the exchange,” said author John R. Lott, the center’s president.

While politicians in the United States have been debating the pros and cons of mail-in voting due to concerns of spreading COVID-19 at the polls and new reports of postal service and vote counting issues, Lott, whose center is known for its gun research, built a voting database of the European Union and the larger Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

Those countries, said Lott, are typically held up by Democrats as a model to follow.

“Liberals and progressives often try to model the U.S. on Western European countries in many ways, but you never hear them arguing that we should adopt their voting rules. There is a reason for that. Banning mail-in voting or requiring people to use photo IDs to obtain a mail-in ballot is quite common in developed countries, especially in Europe,” he said in the report.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/06/2020 at 11:11 AM   
Filed Under: • No Shit, Sherlock •  
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Back From The Grave

JJJ: Not Dead After All

My old blog buddy John J Jay is still alive. After he suddenly stopped posting last fall, didn’t reply to any emails, and weeks went by, I gave him up for dead. I figured the old coot had gone on one last elk hunt up in the mountains and never came back.

But no, turns out he’s still with us. So I got to read 5 months worth of his short posts. We still agree on just about everything. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/06/2020 at 10:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Talented Ppl. •  
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Yeah, this will work

#BREAKING: I filed a lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct.

The @NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse.

No organization is above the law.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James made a “major national announcement” on Thursday after Deutsche Bank turned over Trump’s financial documents.

Letitia James said her office is seeking an order to dissolve the NRA in its entirety during a press conference.

The investigation into the NRA began in 2019.

Letitia James said the NRA was serving as a personal piggy bank for Wayne LaPierre, the Chief Executive of the NRA.

Wayne LaPierre allegedly “spent more than $3.6 million on luxury black car services and travel consultants in the last two years,” according to Letitia James.

Yeah. Yawn.

I don’t know if there is a connection between the dishonorable act by the Kraut bank and this announcement.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/06/2020 at 10:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Guns and Gun Control •  
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   Wednesday - August 05, 2020

Beruit Update

Chemical blamed for Beirut explosion under scrutiny

As Lebanese authorities blame a stock of 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate for the blast that devastated swaths of Beirut, experts have questioned why such an explosive material was stored for so long, so close to the heart of the city of more than 2m people.

The chemical compound is a cheap and effective fertiliser favoured by farmers for their winter crops, but also an explosive product and sought after ingredient for terrorist bombmakers.

Lebanese officials said the ammonium nitrate had been stored in a warehouse at Beirut port, which sits on the northern tip of the capital, in what Prime Minister Hassan Diab described as a “dangerous” warehouse for six years.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of the UK’s chemical and biological weapons regiment, said a populated area was a “strange place” to store such a potent material.

Oh please. It was terrorists. Either deliberately or through stupidity, but it was still terrorists.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/05/2020 at 09:26 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • Terrorists •  
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   Tuesday - August 04, 2020

And Beruit Blows Up Again. Twice.

Some are saying there was a fireworks warehouse right next to a bunch of grain silos.

But this is Beruit. I’m betting against this being an accident.

Damn thing looks like a little nuke. It was a multi-phase explosion, with at least two events.

Buildings destroyed, cars shattered for miles along the roads. Fires, deaths, injuries. Very bad, whatever the cause was.

A massive explosion shook Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Tuesday wounding a number of people and causing widespread damage.

The cause of the explosion remains unclear. The government has not issued an official count of injuries or casualties. The Lebanese Red Cross tweeted that more than 30 teams were responding to the scene of the blast via ambulances.

The afternoon blast shook several parts of the capital and thick smoke billowed from the city center. Residents reported windows being blown out and ceilings dropping in.

The explosion appeared to be centered around Beirut’s port and caused wide-scale destruction and shattered windows miles away.

Damage at the airport almost 7 miles away. Probably not many unbroken windows in the whole city.

Live feed here:

It’s rather impressive that the explosion was caught on so many phone cameras from so many different angles. I’m out of touch I guess; when something awful happens my first reaction is NOT to grab my phone and start recording. Checking to see if I’m dead, or if all my parts are still attached, and then the people around me, and then looking for an escape route if necessary, is my first reaction. After that, probably going to see if I can help.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/08/04/breaking-mysterious-massive-explosions-rock-beirut-n749962

Posted by Drew458     on 08/04/2020 at 11:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East •  
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TNB At Mansion Parties Across America

This kind of crap is why our NJ governor King Murphy is stepping back on his re-opening plan. The ferals mess up everything for everyone every time.

[ woo hoo, Firefox saved me! The power went off for a while right in the middle of this. But the post was still there when power was restored, so happy me. Life during a hurricane, no? ]

Wild pool party shut down by police at New Jersey mansion

A massive rager at a mansion in New Jersey’s richest zip code was shut down by cops over the weekend — and neighbors say wild Vegas-like blowouts have been regularly held there despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of carefree revelers — most without masks — were spotted outside the home on Hemlock Drive in Alpine for what promoters called “The Lavish Experience Pool Party” Saturday night, NBC New York reported.

Cops eventually were called to break up the bash, which spilled out onto the street with zero regard for social distancing rules.

One person was seen taken away in an ambulance, while others were passed out drunk on the front lawn, the outlet reported.

A neighbor told The Post that the wild affairs have been a regular occurrence since May, at the height of the coronavirus crisis. She said she’s seen party buses dropping off people for the bashes — which are brazenly advertised on social media.

“A few months ago, new neighbors moved in, renters,” the neighbor said. “They started having parties one weekend after another. They were bringing in full party buses, at least 100 people or more.”

Another neighbor who didn’t want to be named told NBC New York the house is practically doubling as a “nightclub.”

Several lifetimes ago I worked in Closter NJ, the next town over. Plenty of money in Closter, but Alpine is the home of serious green. Quite a number of famous movie stars, sports figures, and music legends live there, along with the cream of the fiscal crop.

They must be beyond furious that this kind of thing is going on in their extremely exclusive area.

House parties have definitely been an issue in NJ lately, and have been used as a COVID excuse by the government more than once.

But it gets worse ... much worse ...



!!! ~~~~ !!! ~~~~ !!!



Gangsters storm NFL star’s house Beverly Hills party and start robbing everybody, 1 dead, 2 wounded

A SHOOTING at a flashy Los Angeles mansion party held for an NFL star has left one person dead and two fighting for their lives, reports say.

A terrified partygoer filming as multiple shots rang out at the plush Beverly Crest pad said “a bunch of gangsters came in and robbed everybody and started shooting”.

The shooting occurred hours after cops were called to a gated community in Mulholland Drive after complaints from neighbours.

Scores of people were attending the party - prompting the police callout at about 6.30pm because of the ban on large gatherings in Los Angeles County during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But officers attending did not have a warrant to enter the property so were unable to break it up. Hours later, gunshots rang out at around 12.47am, sparking panic as revellers ran for the exits.

Three people were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds, according to CBS. One person died from their injuries and two others are said to be in acritical but stable condition.

A man in his 30s and a woman in her 40s were among the victims.A fourth person suffered a non-firearm-related injury while fleeing, it’s reported.

Yet again, as always, this was a short term rental property in a really high end area, and the attendees were ... 100% non diverse. And ignoring every kind of anti-COVID rule in existence. And in two weeks they’ll all be sick. I’m really tired of this BS.

Plenty of pictures and much more to the story at the link.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/04/2020 at 10:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Racism and race relations •  
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Just Mailing It In This Rainy Morning

I’m such a fan of the PO. Vilmar will understand.

Mail in ballots are flat out wrong, an opportunity rife for corruption. Ballot harvesting - an operative comes around your neighborhood to collect them all - is even worse. Guaranteed corruption.



Simple Solution?


Too afraid to vote in person? Hmmm ... I wonder if ... set up the polling place with one of those counters surrounded by plastic walls. Worker behind the desk all gowned gloved masked. Positive ventilation system blows air outwards. You walk in ... one at a time ... with your ballot envelope ... clerk checks the voter rolls, checks your ID / voter registration, you sign the digital screen with the just wiped wand/pen AFTER you’ve been verified and watched your ballot go into the locked and sealed collection bin. CCTV from 3 angles covers the entire event, cameras run all day, data saved to disk or chip.

Such an arrangement could be built in a couple hours for small expense. When the numbered collection box gets full, several people come in to seal up and evidence sign the old one, count the envelopes several times and sign to that, and put in a new box, identifying themselves on CCTV. GoPro vidcam wearing workers follow the box through the building to the evidence locker, past several locked doors and sign it in with a guard as witness.

The whole Deliver Your Vote process takes under a minute, and the collection box exchange and securing takes only a couple minutes.

No mailing, no lost envelopes, no boxes of votes that magically appear at the last second. This isn’t rocket science.

Of course this will be more difficult in the big cities. But any town or small city under ~~ 50K population should be able to do it. The whole idea is Chain of Evidence, just like the cops do. And CCTV and data chips are so cheap it’s just silly.

Yeah, some people really are not able to get out, and get over to the polling places. Prove it, and you can vote by mail. You “can’t” show up because it’s a minor inconvenience? TFB, then you’re not going to vote.

Naturally the voter rolls would be up to date, matched against the tax records, the credit card company and cell phone address lists, coroner data and the III criminal database etc. As I’ve said a hundred times before, registration closes at least 30 days prior, no exceptions.



!!! ~~~~ !!! ~~~~ !!!



Crivens, it is REALLY pouring out there today. Since long before dawn. Thankfully it’s cooler, and so far not a breath of wind.  But if the big wind shows up later, after 8 -10 hours of ground saturating rainfall, we’re going to lose a lot of trees. Not cool.

The tropical storm winds were reaching the state by 8 a.m. Tuesday and were expected to increase quickly as Isaias was moving through at 33 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Heavy rain and the potential for flash floods continues to be a significant threat, but that threat has shifted west as the aniticipated track of Isaias shifted west overnight.

The Jersey Shore is expected to be spared the heaviest rainfall though 1 to 2 inches are still possible. The north and western parts of the state, including Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex counties, are still forecast to receive more than 4 inches of rain.
...
The state got a taste of the storm Monday evening as a patch of thunderstorms moved through. A wind gust of 70 mph was recorded at the Robert J. Miller Airpark in Ocean County, and one of 59 mph was recorded at Neshanic Station, according to the weather service’s Mount Holly office.

Neshanic Station is just across the county line here in Somerset County. It’s a sleepy little crossroads semi-rural kind of place, off the beaten track but only a mile or so from a major highway. Situated on the banks of the South Branch of the Raritan River, just a mile or two of where both north and south branches join and flow down to Rutgers, it was a mill town and a produce shipping point back in the long ago day.

There is a rather rare double span lenticular bridge there in perfect condition, with a very old derelict 2 span Pratt through truss RR bridge on one side, and a high plate girder RR bridge, still used daily, a bit downstream on the other side.

There are only about 100 lenticular bridges in the whole country, many are derelict now, and most of them are single span. Binghamton NY has a 3 span one, and Middlesex County CT has a 5 span one. All of these were built 135 years ago by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/04/2020 at 08:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Bridges • Government • Miscellaneous •  
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   Monday - August 03, 2020

Bang, Poof, Dropped

The damaged sections of the bridge that burned in the derailment last week in Tempe AZ have been brought down with explosive cutting charges. The rest of the bridge seems OK at this point, so a similar kind of steel truss sections will be built to replace the damaged ones.

story and video, plus link to a ton of picks from last week’s accident

This isn’t Hollywood, so don’t expect to see much. Controlled cutting demolition is like, poof, clunk, done.

At about 8:15 a.m., a brief spark and a puff of black smoke was visible as the designated portion of the bridge collapsed to the ground underneath. A loud booming sound could be heard as the ground briefly shook.

...

Crews will likely cut the downed bridge into smaller pieces to truck it out of the site on Sunday, said Clint Schelbitzki, general director of public affairs for Union Pacific Railroad.

“Our goal is to get that area cleared so that we can prep for bridge construction,” he said, adding that there is currently no timeline for when that section of the bridge would be reconstructed.

Schelbitzki said the rest of the bridge was structurally safe. However, he noted officials were still assessing it, including whether any components needed to be replaced. He said the standing portion of the bridge would remain the same while the reconstructed portion of the bridge might appear “a little different” when complete.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2020 at 09:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Bridges •  
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A few small changes in punctuation that would yield massive changes

Total Gun Sales Control By “Minor” Textual Changes.

Here is the operative part of Senate Bill S. 4068 in it’s entirety:

Section 922(t)(1)(B) of title 18, United States Code, is amended—

(1) by striking “(i)”;

(2) by striking “; or” and inserting “; and”; and

(3) by striking clause (ii).

Doesn’t look like much, does it? Even clause (ii) itself is only one sentence long, so what’s the problem?

This is the part of the federal law that it would apply to:

(t)
(1)
Beginning on the date that is 30 days after the Attorney General notifies licensees under section 103(d) of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that the national instant criminal background check system is established, a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer shall not transfer a firearm to any other person who is not licensed under this chapter, unless—
(A)
before the completion of the transfer, the licensee contacts the national instant criminal background check system established under section 103 of that Act;
(B)
(i)
the system provides the licensee with a unique identification number; or
(ii)
3 business days (meaning a day on which State offices are open) have elapsed since the licensee contacted the system, and the system has not notified the licensee that the receipt of a firearm by such other person would violate subsection (g) or (n) of this section; and
(C)
the transferor has verified the identity of the transferee by examining a valid identification document (as defined in section 1028(d) of this title) of the transferee containing a photograph of the transferee.

So all it does is say you always get a unique ID number, and your transfer goes through when your identity has been verified. IOW, you’re a good guy. Sounds like common sense, right?


Guess again.


The problem is, that this measure, brought out by anti-gun zealot Senator Richard Blumenthal, (D-CT) and proven stolen valor liar, would eliminate the all-American concept of assumption of innocence from the NICS background check that is universal when purchasing a firearm from a registered dealer ( or in states that have removed your right to freely trade with other citizens, and now “close the gun show loophole” by forcing such transactions to go through the NICS system ).

What it really means is that the 3 day processing window would cease to exist. The one that says “our wonderful super computer zillion dollar system can instantly tell if you’re a criminal or not, but let’s be super safe and give it 3 days to work just in case”. They would now have FOREVER to return a response. And seeing how obviously weaponized against free citizens huge parts of the federal government have become, you can pretty much assume that this is exactly what will happen.

Hell, in NJ it’s been the law for decades that the state has 30 days to process your firearms permit, yet they routinely take 6 - 8 months. And there’s not a damn thing you can about it.

And now, with the ‘rona and the riots, when gun sales are through the roof, and the NICS system is up 75%, more than 2.5 million new gun owners, shelves empty in every gun shop in the country, police departments defunded or stood down, people living in fear for their lives and livelihoods, NOW this asshat liar pulls this kind of stunt, introducing such a bill June 25?

Under current law, if NICS cannot be completed in three business days, a federally licensed dealer can still transfer a firearm. While the setup of NICS is not ideal, the current setup has several points that make it much fairer than various licensing and waiting period schemes:

It presumes that someone seeking to buy a firearm is law-abiding.
It places the burden to deny a firearms transaction on the government.
It also does not subject someone trying to exercise their rights into an indefinite wait.

Blumenthal’s bill changes that. It removes the three business day limit on a delay. In other words, if there is a delay for whatever reason (NICS is down, confusion), a law-abiding citizen is denied the right to purchase a firearm until the delay gets resolved, and without the time limit, that can be potential for some serious, life-threatening abuse.

Imagine what IRS workers under Lois Lerner did to the Tea Party’s applications for tax-exempt status being applied to firearm purchases run through NICS.
...
But in Blumenthal’s mind, that’s all okay. Because to him, gun ownership isn’t a right – it’s a privilege that should be determined by the government.

Contact your reps ASAP. This one has to go down in flames.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2020 at 12:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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Kung Flu Messing With The Arctic Countries

Hey, I’m trying. But other than the ‘rona, their isn’t much on the news except rioters, kneelers, and BLM extortionists.

So I’ll touch on this lightly, but you can follow the links or search up as much as you want to read. Maybe I can work a Lead Zep pun in here ...

Once around the top of the world, ‘rona ‘rona everywhere ...

•  Murmansk region counts more Covid-19 cases than neighboring Norway or Finland 1 in 75 people there are infected. Hospital conditions are ... totally soviet.


    • Speaking of Soviet conditions ... The new nickle refinery in Monchegorsk dumped such a toxic cloud the other day that the trees are dying. Agent Orange is part of the refining practice? Smog was thick with sulfur dioxide and heavy metals.


•   Iceland going back into lockdown “Iceland on Thursday reinstated restrictions on public gatherings after finding at least two new infection clusters”


•  Greenland doing pretty well so far. Yeah, well, sure. The giant island is mostly covered with glacier, hardly anybody lives there, and they’re just now getting around to re-opening. And there are no cruise ships coming, or much tourism. Interestingly, Greenland is so remote and so sparsely populated that COVID tests have to be flown out to Denmark for processing.


•  Is It The Eskimo’s Turn Now? New mine worker at Baffin Island west of Greenland, shows up with COVID. Here we go! This is the first case in that whole gigantic nearly empty frozen province of northern Canada. The indigenous residents have their own version of lockdown: none of them are working at the mine or coming anywhere near it. The whole place is staffed by “foreigners” right now.


•  Pretty quiet in Nome. Except ... No tourism, not much fishing going on up over in Nome Alaska. However, the COVID is there (465 cases in Alaska) and it’s lurking ... literally by the shipload:

American Seafoods Company is reporting that additional crew members of the American Triumph tested positive for COVID-19 in Unalaska. American Seafoods tested and screened the 119-person crew after six reported COVID-19 symptoms and tested positive. In total, there are 79 newly positive crew members.

We are relocating the crew to Anchorage to isolate and quarantine. American Seafoods will support the crew members however we can, providing quarantine facilities, daily meals, and accessible onsite medical care. We will sanitize the vessel during this time.

Three of American Seafood’s ships have been infected so far, regardless of quarantining, hygiene, or cleaning. Maybe they should put masks on the fish or something.


•  Speaking of shiploads ... Meanwhile back in Norway, the really big news from Way Up North Today: Hurtigruten cruise ship parked after onboard outbreak

Hurtigruten’s Amundsen: no more Svalbard, goes to Tromsø [ I’m visualizing the Muppet’s Swedish Chef doing the news ]

The M/S Roald Amundsen arrived in Tromsø on Friday with two ill and isolated crew members onboard. The two were hospitalized and tested for coronavirus. The rest of the 158-person crew were tested and on Saturday the cruise liner confirmed at least 35 of the crew are infected by the virus.

Crew members who tested positive and are still on the ship, are not sick or have any other symptoms. The passengers disembarked Friday morning before the outbreak was announced.

Local newspaper Nordlys reported Friday evening four crew members have tested positive. All four are hospitalized in Tromsø. Passengers that disembarked in Tromsø told Norwegian media that they first were informed about the outbreak when reading online newspapers. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health all passengers quarantined and tested for COVID-19 and is urging 69 municipalities to follow up on a total of 400 people in some way associated with infected crew members.

The MS Roald Amundsen arrived at Tromsø after a voyage to Svalbard that started July 24 with 177 passengers. The ship is one of very few that have sailed the waters around the Norwegian archipelago this summer. The ship did not dock in any settlements in the Arctic archipelago.

“A preliminary evaluation shows a breakdown in several of our internal procedures,” Chief Executive Daniel Skjeldam said in a statement.

“Our own failure, as well as the recent rise in infections internationally, has led us to halt all expedition cruises in Norwegian and international waters,” he said.

Four crew members on the MS Roald Amundsen were hospitalised on Friday when the ship arrived at the port of Tromsoe, and later diagnosed with the respiratory illness. Tests showed another 32 of the 158 staff were also infected.

Among the infected crew, 32 were from the Philippines while the rest were of Norwegian, French and German nationality.

While foreign crew members were tested for the coronavirus before leaving their home countries, they were not tested in Norway and did not quarantine before starting work on the ship, the company said.

So far, four of the combined 387 passengers travelling on the ship on two separate cruises since July 17 have been found to carry the virus

All 160 crew members on the Roald Amundsen have been quarantined on the ship, while the 177 passengers — all of whom have already disembarked — are being contacted by telephone and are being told to self-isolate, operator Hurtigruten said.

“By the time we were notified, the passengers had left the ship,” Tromsø municipality chief doctor Kathrine Kristoffersen told a news conference. “All passengers will, for the time being, be asked to quarantine.”
...
The ship’s operator and owner, Hurtigruten, which in March suspended most operations due to the pandemic, announced on July 7 it would gradually return all but two of its 16 vessels to service by the end of September, albeit with reduced capacity.

I know the cruise ship industry is trying to survive, but it seems every time a bunch of folks go out in a boat for a few days ... wham. Whether it’s lack of social distancing, the recycled air in the small space that is any size ship, crappy and slow testing, or just a ton of turd worlders working the cruise ships and fishing boats, I don’t have the answer. But you won’t see me on any boat, or any airplane either, for a long long time.

There’s no escape. Even way up north in the big frozen empty, any time a few dozen folks get together - civilization, right? - some of them get the ‘rona. Everyone in the world will get this, has it already, or has had it at least once so far. There’s no vaccine, no quick cure, no officially approved mitigating treatment. Some are immune, some have no symptoms, some few get very sick for a long time, and some of them die. No rhyme or reason, and nowhere to hide. May as well take your chances, roll the dice with God, and get it over with. Meanwhile, go live life to the fullest, if your local authorities allow you to.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2020 at 10:39 AM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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Weather Or Not, Here We Go Again

It is an absolutely perfect summer day here.

There’s hardly a cloud in the sky, the sun is shining gently, it’s 81°ree; with a gentle breeze blowing. And for once it’s not a sauna here; the humidity is a comfortable 60%. A lovely day.

Tropical Storm Isaias, currently coming up the east coast and right now off the coast of southern Georgia, is expected to soon intensify to hurricane level, make landfall somewhere near Myrtle Beach SC, and then track inland in a beeline right for us, bringing light rain this evening and continuing and increasing for at least a day as the winds rise, possibly dumping 6” or more of rain on us with winds in the 60 - 70mph range. Gee, thanks.

The weather wienies are saying that those of us out here in the Delaware River basin in the western part of NJ are going to get hammered worse than the shore areas, which won’t fare too well either.

Sometimes you just can’t catch a break.

Isaias is forecast to briefly regain hurricane status before making landfall Monday night or early Tuesday on the upper South Carolina coast or in southeast North Carolina.

It’s important to note that impacts will be similar no matter whether Isaias is a strong tropical storm or a Category 1 hurricane at landfall.

From there, the storm will sweep quickly northeastward near parts of the Northeast Seaboard to as far north as New England Tuesday into early Wednesday.

!! ~~~~~ !! ~~~~~ !!

Hey, maybe some severe weather will knock back these darn leafhopper bugs, those spotted lantern flies from China. They’ve been all over us this summer, and they show the most amazing ability to just up and die. The little black ones are everywhere, dead. The ones that grew a bit more and became red ( the “fourth instar nymphs” ) are also dying by the numbers, and at this point the adult version of the insect, which looks like a creepy kind of moth, is just starting to emerge. Let’s hope they die off in their millions as well. But not on my patio. We’re getting tired of having to sweep off piles of dead bugs twice a day. Eeeww.

Native to China, India, Japan and Vietnam, the spotted lanternfly does not attack fruit or foliage. Rather, it uses its piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on the woody parts of plants — such as tree trunks or branches and grape vines — where it excretes a substance known as honeydew and inflicts wounds that weep with sap. The honeydew and sap can attract other insects and provide a medium for growth of fungi, such as sooty mold, which covers leaf surfaces and can stunt growth. Plants with heavy infestations may not survive.

Said Tom Baker, distinguished professor of entomology and chemical ecology, who has 40 years of experience in entomology research, “The spotted lanternfly is the weirdest, most pernicious insect I’ve ever seen.”

Pernicious. Good word. Harmful but subtle. Except not so subtle at all. Our whole outside area, every plant and hard surface, is spotted with the honeydew and the sap weeps. Rain does wash it away, but in a couple days it’s all back again. So far the bugs haven’t tried to get in the house. So far. But they’re excellent jumpers, easily leaping 8 feet at a hop. And they don’t seem to get caught in any of the spider webs out there. At least they don’t sting or bite, or reek like those damn Chinese stinkbugs we had a couple years ago. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2020 at 09:58 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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