Don’t sweat that either. While it likely plays into their game, as long as you can use the stuff anyway, just cease buying it for extended periods. “It is better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.” --Abraham Lincoln, probably

It is a tough balancing act trying to stay ahead of nonsense, especially with covid shortages still in recent memory.

I hear that, and in parallel, mostly essentials only, minimum amount of purchasing for months now. Not paying a dime into their precious “economy” if I don’t have to. Remember too, something attributed to Eisenhower that he said to have heard from a soldier, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” So don’t kick yourself if you think you maybe didn’t plan for a certain thing. Just be ready to adapt.

I’ve looked at food storage as less, “preparing for a shortage” and more, “a few things I like and regularly use to cover the spread as I pivot to whatever is available.” Temporary comfort during (insert random crisis here) to give some time to adapt. Keeps it from being a full on prepper living in a bunker, while keeping enough essentials on hand to cover supply chain hiccups.

Make sure you have at least one alternate communications option available, ham radio, GMRS, Meshtastic, FM radio, whatnot. The voice radios are great for talking between cars on camping trips, or for other similar reasons. The text meshes in some markets are really starting to take off, weather channels, groups for this and that, and coverage is really improving. Pretty much don’t need a cell phone at this point.

It was an example. Many states have myriad requirements for perceived safety. There is also obviously the argument that, hey, the Federal government is ignoring laws and the Constitution so F it and change the parts to enable full auto and acquire big mags. Missile drone probably still wins, but maybe other countries start helping at that point.

I’m the first to call out the larpers, but another angle. There are people that own, train, and do not support tyranny. Think about it, though. Would these people just suddenly randomly choose to use lethal force at the expense of their own life, to defend millions of others that are sitting on their asses in and outside America, doing nothing? Would they just walk up to a group of ICE weenies and blow them away? That would not only end their life, but put their entire family, friends, loved ones, community at extreme risk, let alone being the powder keg the Stephen Millers of the world angrily masturbate to.

Not to mention they’d be using a 10 round larper AR-15 that can only do semi-auto fire, versus possibly the strongest military force on the planet that has fighter jets, grenades, and missile-laden drones, and has already been illegally deployed in US cities on US soil.

Everyone on this planet is responsible for stopping this. Not just the few with semi-elevated defensive measures.

All Federales. They’re all corrupt Constitution violating Treasonists at this point.

There are no adults left at the Federal level.

American governmental culture fetishizes over the military as a concept in general, while calling out other nations that fetishize over their militaries as bad. Singing the national anthem about bombs bursting at sporting events like that’s something to be happy or proud about. The tour of “hey it’s military week, everyone dress in fatigue-adjacent colors and some random service members get paraded about” that happens every year. Rich politicians saying poignant words on solemn days thanking service members for their service, to then be whisked away by their security patrol and fleet of bulletproof vehicles to go back to their caviar swimming pools, never having had to even consider, really consider, killing a person, or losing a limb, friend’s blood spattered across your face.

America is built on advertising. Unique thoughts need not apply. You’re told what to buy, where to buy it, who to hate, who to love, where to live. You’re never given any programs to back any of that up. Abortion is bad because it kills children, yet after those children are born, they can just die homeless with no medical care. We are to love our troops while treating them like detritus. We support them with a parade after a mission, then they’re on their own. If they die on an “important” mission, well, they’re heroes. That term alone, hero. America uses the word hero when we don’t want to feel bad that someone volunteered their life for something we were too cowardly to do ourselves.

9/11 first responders, as another example, that Jon Stewart spent a good chunk of his life trying to make the government honor their own deal, and even now, the government is still trying to undo it. People who, of the ones that lived, are already going to have shorter more complicated lives. We don’t even have the decency to let this handful of humans live as comfortable (not lavish, without pain) as they can, given what they tried to do to save so many people while buildings and airplanes are crashing down around them. We currently hate the immigrants that pick our food, clean our businesses, lose limbs in meat packing plants, so we can enjoy a $5 hunk of beef at the supermarket, while their children build our cars, so much so that we are willing to violate the Constitution to “get rid” of them in the most cruel way we can think of.

If we even actually followed through on caring about soldiers. If the VA was a temple of success, and veterans actually received proper treatment, care, housing, instead of being abandoned to die in the streets. If the government did one actual thing to back up their claims, instead of market spin. That’d still be a disappointment because we’d be a military-state, but at least it would be truthful, and people would join just the military for the promise of a good life. Instead, it is just a flimsy sham from every direction, trading souls for caviar swimming pools for the few.

About the only thing we are truly consistently good at in the USA is hate, and it has been that way for a long time.

Tried to dig around a bit, it seems a number the military doesn’t keep very good or active track of. Seems to trend in the single percentages though.

Are there recommended news subs that aren’t hosted on .world?

Almost! Who knew??

Non-sarcasm: Sad thing is, with almost everything this administration says, apply a 1984-esque filter to it. So crap like the “rapists, murderers, and thugs” rhetoric spewed would translate into something like, “workers, families, and refugees”. Likewise, the rhetoric is often projection as well.

A full unraveling thusly would be: The administration is actually the rapists, murderers, and thugs, and they are targeting workers, families, and refugees with the Constitutional, Federal, State, and Local crimes they are committing.

Need to build an AI news filter tasked to parse all news articles on these topics so the real words are always used when they say anything. Shoot, probably a find/replace browser plugin could do it, although using an LLM would make it more dynamic.

bu-bu-but, think about how much more WHITE it will be!?!?!?! We’ll finally be great! Again! (heavy /s)

At this point, do we do anything right?

At the rate they are going, it will happen. I’m honestly surprised it has taken this long, a testament to the collective hope that it won’t be necessary. The first will probably be a right-wing nutjob or agent provocateur they try to illegally kidnap, that they’ll then claim is a Democrat. Already saw some footage of people in Tucson, AZ with shields and pepper balls shooting back at the ICE Treasonists.

Hit the range and train up folks. The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. They’re not taking this fucking country. (Still hoping it doesn’t come to that. The violence line is a hard one to come back from. Also, this message is not to be construed as a threat of violence. Only a statement of fact. Violence should always be avoided whenever possible, until it is necessary. The world came together to stop Nazis the first time, we may very well have to do it again.)

Thus far, wrinkled-nutsack-face-worm-brain halted the education and training of future FDA employees, but the existing ones that still have a job and still care are likely trying to keep us all from dying. I don’t blame them for giving up though. Already have been schooling myself on home chemistry to test food products for what I can.

13 V.S.A. § 2405

(b) A person commits the crime of aggravated operation without consent of the owner if the person, without the consent of the owner, knowingly takes, obtains, operates, uses or continues to operate the motor vehicle of another, and:

…

(1) The motor vehicle is not recovered within 24 hours of the time it is determined the theft occurred regardless of whether the operator is then in actual or constructive possession of the vehicle; or

(2) The motor vehicle sustains $500.00 or more in damage during the commission of the offense; or

…

(C ) Uses the motor vehicle in the commission of a felony.

(D) Causes bodily injury to another while operating or exercising control of the motor vehicle.

…

23 V.S.A. § 1094

(a) A person commits the crime of kidnapping if the person:

(1) knowingly restrains another person with the intent to:

(A) hold the restrained person for ransom or reward; or

(B) use the restrained person as a shield or hostage; or

…

(E) facilitate the commission of another crime or flight thereafter; or

…

18 U.S. Code § 2119 - Motor vehicles

Whoever, with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm [1] takes a motor vehicle that has been transported, shipped, or received in interstate or foreign commerce from the person or presence of another by force and violence or by intimidation, or attempts to do so, shall—

(1) be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both,

(2) if serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of this title, including any conduct that, if the conduct occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, would violate section 2241 or 2242 of this title) results, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 25 years, or both, and

18 U.S. Code § 1201 - Kidnapping

(a) Whoever unlawfully seizes, confines, inveigles, decoys, kidnaps, abducts, or carries away and holds for ransom or reward or otherwise any person, except in the case of a minor by the parent thereof, when—

(1) the person is willfully transported in interstate or foreign commerce, regardless of whether the person was alive when transported across a State boundary, or the offender travels in interstate or foreign commerce or uses the mail or any means, facility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce in committing or in furtherance of the commission of the offense;

(2) any such act against the person is done within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States;

(3) any such act against the person is done within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States as defined in section 46501 of title 49;

…

shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life and, if the death of any person results, shall be punished by death or life imprisonment.

…

(c ) If two or more persons conspire to violate this section and one or more of such persons do any overt act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.

(d) Whoever attempts to violate subsection (a) shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than twenty years.

…

These are crimes, people.

That was always the plan here. Stock up, cut unnecessary spending, stop spending. Who in America wouldn’t be doing this right now? They’re trying to rob everyone blind. Best way to fight it as a mere citizen of a stupid nation is to not participate in their games, and protest, of course.

We can cut consumerism from our lives in the US with minimal effort. All those in the Federal government and billionaire class want from us is our money, they don’t care about our lives, they just want to kill, deport, or destroy us. So, why give them any more money? (Still shop and support local business, don’t cripple your life, don’t live on only ramen noodles, don’t skip medical care, just, shrink that footprint.)

Live minimal. Live free.

First, they are probably actually participating in this annual training exercise: https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/Defender/

They have to run transponders over the US so that commercial aircraft know their position and don’t collide. Once they leave our airspace, (or in special circumstances where the airspace is cleared) they will run without. These are just basically civilian transponders they run to “be polite” - they are also filtered by most flight tracking sites. Some (such as the one pictured) allow one to look at the raw data (and likewise you can run an SDR transponder receiver yourself at home to see what aircraft are over you.)

Sometimes they will bluff the transponder value and say things like, “hey I’m a Cessna going 400 knots” but most of the time they just say who they are.

Fun fact! The transponders don’t work over the oceans anyway, since there’s nobody on the surface to pick them up, you’re basically a ghost once you leave land, (surrounding aircraft can see each other, however) think about that during your next trans-ocean flight. They increasingly have satellite Internet these days to have some form of comms, though.

Not to post a ref from that other site, but all the mobile nerds have yet to migrate. It’s a Schok Volt SV69 5G likely, rebranded. Retail $149. US company, Chinese fab. They’ll probably call it “made in the USA” for putting a plastic gold shell on it stateside.

The backing carrier is T-Mobile, although it seems the backing MVNO provider is Liberty Wireless, which is a T-Mobile MVNO. (Virtual cell carrier powered by the backing network.) T-Mobile allowed Liberty, and via that, this one.

For US-ians, it would be worth considering a carrier that isn’t based on T-Mobile the next time people are looking for cell plans. (In addition, T-Mobile is in bed with Muskrat Starlink for their mediocre sat-to-cell service, and also T-Mobile leveraged Mango’s first term to buy their way ahead of the competition in 5G spectrum.)

Bold of you to assume the Federal government still follows the law.

“Large Language Model incorrectly travels down the wrong statistical path when choosing words from its N-dimensional matrices and ends up guessing the wrong aircraft manufacturer. Possibly because of training bias against foreign manufacturers in a xenophobic American future.”

Just doesn’t have that ring to it, versus “AI SLAMS AIRBUS IN HOT TAKE!”

Why would they waste their effort? They can just sit in orbit watching our news feeds as we destroy ourselves and grab a free empty planet in a few months.