Free Republic

Well, blew that formatting...

Wrong. Defense done right (which includes power and competence in spades) deters aggressors. This does not include stupid shit like destabilizing Syria a la Hillarity (which had virtually nothing to do with defense spending -- that and others were geo-political mistakes.)

TODAY, we are at near historical lows since WW2 in defense spending as a % of GDP, but unlike the Bill Clinton years, we have much more formidable foes to face. Those enemies see our weakness and are acting as would be expected.

National defense against armed aggression is the FIRST PRIORITY of a national government.

There is well over $5 trillion in domestic spending from which funds can be cut to fund defense spending. Pick the cuts as you may - a lot of that $5 trillion causes more harm than good anyway.

And / or: Greatly expand petroleum products production, which generates revenues all over the place, but most crucially in exports.

Yup. Small, narrow wedge shape pebble stuck between impeller and housing. Apparently the water flow is “violent” enough to somehow carry such in there. Will HAVE to mitigate.

I think I’m gonna get a section of 2” flexible drain pipe. It occurs to me that when the ditch is full (or even the side yard) I could use this thing as a “blaster” to clear culverts and such. Use a section of 2” PVC or PE pipe as a “wand”, 1-1/2” if I want higher psi (but less flow).

Yeah, we were supposed to get about an inch of rain and we got about 3” in maybe 12 hours. So, it’s not Noah’s flood, but it’s enough to flood parts of our yard.

That pump when working properly is great. It is rated over 8000 GPH @ 5’ head, and actual head isn’t even 2 ft. The 2” exit elbows and then feeds a 3” pipe. The flow has blasted out all the sediment in the 3’ pipe, so I for now went back to passive flow down the 3” pipe. The drop is only about 1 foot over 20’ of 3” pipe, so it’s slow, but ultimately it’ll get the worst of the flooding out. (There’s not more drop because typical water levels in the ditch after even modest rains don’t justify more drop! I was out there a few minutes ago, again: Not even 1/3 of the exit end of the 3” pipe is visible over the water in the ditch, and the water in the ditch has gone down a lot.

I’m gonna change clothes and pull the pump out: Maybe something is stuck in the impeller. Despite being rated to handle 2” “solids”, the impeller blade clears the housing by maybe 1/8”, and I’ve seen a small chip of wood jam it. I may need to put the whole thing in a screen “sock”.

Ah, the fun(s) of living on a flat, old flood plain, with clay soils.

No work outside today except to check to see how bad the yard is flooding...

...and the new heavy duty pump that's supposed to shunt the worst of that to the ditch has carped out. Was running earlier and still has power. DRAT!!

“In” early. We are getting soaked. No work outside today except to check to see how bad the yard is flooding...

Thanks. My tomatoes do very well, but they get lots of sun. The peppers not too badly too, and the Okra last year did very well — but all those get lots of sun too. The problem comes if I try to expand out of that small area that gets a lot of sun.

Curiously, all my onion seed packets and starter bulb instructions call for a sunny location, but, I haven’t had much luck with onions in full sun. The article you linked to indicates some shade may be ok, so, I’ll probably try transplanting most of them. Lettuce I can’t even get to germinate, no matter what I do, so I kinda think I’m throwing on the towel on it... Potatoes I might give another try. Our clay soils are not conducive unless “improved”, which is pretty pricey in volume...

I have lots of hickory leaf and nut hull compost but it has juglone in it and despite some sources saying it breaks down in a month or so, I’ve had many sensitive plants get whacked by my “free” hickory compost from previous falls... :-(

I thought that was the "cage free" category. But with marketing people, I can see it getting pushed. "Ranging" inside the building? Huh. But the AI preview from the Brave Browser says:

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines "free range" as animals having continuous access to the outdoors for more than 51% of their lives, and not being confined or feedlot-raised for any portion of their lives. However, the term doesn't specify how much space per animal is required, how often they should have access to the outdoors, or the quality of the land. For example, a free-range chicken might live in a large shed with a small outdoor space that it shares with thousands of other birds.

It may also be that a lot of chicks were fried... :-(

Granted, that evokes memories of certain young (or even not quite so young) ladies back in my 20's and 30's. It was a good idea to maintain a certain distance from them. :-)

Which in turn recalls my observation at one time that "As the Beatles turned to psychedelic drugs, a lot of chicks got fried".

Ukraine has been getting targeting data for targets in Russia from the US and other Western countries for quite some time now. At pretty much any range the Ukies could get a weapon (mostly drones) to. The only difference is that the Ukies were using Ukie weapons, and in this case the weapons the US is allowing use of are short range and medium-short range systems like HIMARS.

Russian tools keep saying HIMARS and Excalibur are no longer effective anyway, so the threat to Russia should be minimal, right?

Also, it should be noted that this is a small counter-escalation in response to Russia’s escalation by seriously upping attacks and the threat to Kharkhiv, which is not even near being an ethic majority Russian city (or oblast).

So, are you suggesting Biden should tell the Ukies they can do whatever they want?

Counterfire vs. Russian attacks emanating toward Kharkhiv from Russia is certainly NOT “pushing Pooty”.

Now, you can get back to me if Ukraine starts raining down ATACMS on Moscow (1st they’d have to get longer range versions) but there is no reason for Ukraine to do so. More drones hitting Russian refineries would be much more effective (and much more of a threat to Pooty.)

So, when it is Trump and Biden on the ballot in a few months, which will Ann vote for?

Why do conservatives insist on making claims so easily shot down? (This is not just you - you have a lot of company.)

The Biden Admin. had as of last Dec. sent $412 million to Hawaii in response to the fires, including $300 million from FEMA and the SBA.

https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-hawaii-to-receive-nearly-4-million-in-additional-federal-disaster-aid-to-support-mauis-recovery-from-fires

This does not include the wages of hundreds of Federal employees involved.

That is, BTW, about 3x the amount the Feds sent to KY after the Dec. 2021 long track F4 tornado tore up Mayfield and several smaller towns, etc. Property losses were less, due to much lower values in KY, coming to an estimated $3.5 billion. MANY structures were badly damaged or destroyed, however. From NWS:

---

Damage Estimates by County:

Fulton County, KY:​
Deaths: 1
Injuries: 5
Structures damaged: 40
Structures destroyed: 21

Hickman County, KY:
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 5
Structures damaged: 40
Structures destroyed: 12

Graves County, KY:
Deaths: 24
Injuries: 200 to 225
Single family residences:
1159 damaged and 730 destroyed
Commercial properties:
165 damaged and 18 destroyed
Other structures:
66 damaged and 37 destroyed

Marshall County, KY:
Deaths: 1
Injuries: 54
Structures damaged: 341
Structures destroyed or uninhabitable: 356

Lyon County, KY:
Deaths: 1
Injuries: 5
Structures damaged: 141
Structures destroyed: 45

Caldwell County, KY:
Deaths: 4
Injuries 11 (including 3 critically)
Structures damaged: Unknown
Structures destroyed: 300 (estimate)

Hopkins County, KY
Deaths: 15
Injuries: At least 200
Structures damaged: 1000 (estimate)
Structures destroyed: 500 (estimate)

Muhlenberg County, KY
Deaths: 11
Injuries: 25
Structures damaged: 81
Structures destroyed or uninhabitable: 84

Ohio, Breckenridge, and Grayson County, KY:
No deaths or injuries.

---

(Structures damaged were not tallied for the last 3 counties at the time of the report.)

There are plenty of solid issues on which to go after Biden. I’d say, keep the focus on those.

Are the WalMart items the ones that were, say, $2.22, WalMart raises the price to $2.58 for a week, then lowers it to $2.43, and announces a rollback?

A distantly related question here:

Most sources state the interest on the US Federal debt in 2023 was ~$659 billion. But others say the “annualized” interest was over $1 trillion. If the $659 billion was for the entire year of 2023, would that not be the annualized figure, or is this something different? How much tax money actually went out the door to pay the interest on the US debt on 2023?

Looking at the satellite view, maybe they should have spaced the buildings further apart...

This is weird too, unless it was non-free range chickens who got their gooses (heh-heh) cooked.

At 6:30 pm, this time of year, in IL, the free range birds would still be out free-ranging. (Ours go in ~8:00 pm now, maybe a bit earlier on days with heavy cloud cover.)

Don’t ask me how you’d get millions of free-range birds to roost earlier than they want.

Perhaps I should say “very warm, humid conditions”. 90 deg. F days with high humidity are very common here in summer, but 100 deg. is unusual.

Are there ANY veggies that grow well in hot conditions and only 3-5 hours of full sun?

(I’m in zone 7a, almost in 7b.)

Reason for asking is my area of full sun for over 6 hours a day is small.