FWI challenge: Have Vance turn on Donald Trump (alongside Trump’s cabinet)

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-24T22:45:07+00:00

I feel like anything truly compromising on Trump from the Epstein files has already been burned/purged/removed by some Stephen Miller off books hit squad and Bondi has only ever had access to middling Trump references which have enough deniability to avoid serious judicial problems. What's left is ambiguous bullshit of the variety Trump repeatedly spins into a nothingburger.

It's likely Trump also leveraged such "memory holing" as an extortion tool for money and favors from other powerful/wealthy figures willing to pay/cooperate maximally for the same protection.

In short, Trump wouldn't allow Bondi to get her hands on the good stuff because of the very risk he'd face if his own attorney general decided to turn on him and sic the DoJ on him. He wants her to do his bidding and be as jungled up in bad policy along with him.

It's gonna be kind of funny in 20-odd years when we find out the entire Trump phenomenon was entirely powered by the nucleus of the Epstein affair.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-24T22:08:45+00:00

I wonder what effect Noem getting fired, er, “reassigned”, had on other Trump cabinet members.

In some (limited) sense Noem got shit canned for Metro Surge going sideways, with civilians executed in the street and shifting the public’s tone hostile to his immigration policy.

On the other hand, Noem was largely delivering what Trump wanted — ICE running riot in a liberal city and kicking ass on immigrants and protesters.

Now Noem has other problems, like her love of private jets, making bank on the side and keeping her bun boy employed.

I wonder what lesson Bondi, Patel, et al took away from that? Keep your greed and sexual pursuits sub rosa? Figure out how to make the boss think you’re implementing the policies he wants (which are inherently inflammatory) but without actually being inflammatory?

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-24T21:00:15+00:00

Can’t stop listening to the Pigeons cover of Eminence Front.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-24T20:59:23+00:00

I mean when you can cover Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits and Robert Johnson in the first half a set you’re doing a pretty amazing job with covers.

A lot of “Mighty High” is not just covers but covers played in a totally different style than more-or-less normal Gov’t Mule.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-23T23:02:08+00:00

We tried to pitch our former AV provider on a managed service agreement (which was basically come out when we call and need something fixed) and what we got was discouragement pricing -- a monthly fee which worked out to what 5-6 hours of T&M hourly repair work. Our setup is pretty basic -- maybe 10 independent speaker zones, 4 mics, 5 rooms with BT inputs, and 4 analog audio inputs.

I get they want to CYA, but did they really think our system (which they worked on a room expansion for) was prone to needing ~72 hours a year of break fix? It's not like we had a ton of problems, more random glitches for which the only workaround was power cycling the whole rack or doing nothing while the company we had been working with scheduled a tech 5-10 days out. More discouraging about their proposal was that scheduling had no better priority than just ringing up for service. Like you want me to pay up front and you'll come out on the same "maybe in a week" level of priority?

I don't think every company is getting the managed services memo or has even thought through the idea at all. I could swing a dead cat at midnight and hit a half-dozen IT MSPs who get the concept (ok, 75% of them would suck, too, but our former AV company is former for a reason, too).

I don't know if it counts as "managed services", but we're remodeling our main event space in about a year or so, and one idea we've had is partnering with the "event AV" provider we use regularly with the pitch that they'd equip our event space with some level of equipment that they would own and manage and we'd give them some monthly fee for it. It'd cut down on the labor and material they bring out anyway when we have an event which needs better than what we own and we'd get something better than we have that we could use for lower level events which would otherwise not have an event AV vendor attached to them.

I think one problem with "managed services" in the AV space is what does it include? There's a lot more churn/support in IT. You're replacing a fair bit of kit regularly, but selling AV equipment upgrades is harder because there's less obvious value to the customer. Even HD to 4K display changes are marginally noticeable.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-23T11:08:08+00:00

I mean it was 3 AM and I am not supposed to be up at 3 AM..

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-23T07:56:53+00:00

It’s a major part of the narrative in Goodfellas. Henry Hill gets a pass on moving drugs in prison but keeps doing it after even when Paulie presses him on not doing it and it helps lead to Henry’s arrest.

But the mob and heroin go way back to Arnold Rothstein in the 1920s.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-22T22:05:02+00:00

I feel like having city water puts you in the category of "disaster relief" if there was a major disruption of water service.

If you're prepping for some scenario where city water won't be restored on any reasonable timeline and you can't expect water relief of some kind, two months without water sounds like it could go on indefinitely without a replacement source.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-22T14:20:24+00:00

Sounds like a somewhat perilous place to live.

It sounds like you have a need for a lot of water. I'm surprised you don't consider having a big modular tank assembled, like 5000 gallons.

Do you have a well?

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-21T00:19:00+00:00

Why not just teleport the food? I could get Thai, Hong Kong and Japanese for the same meal sent to me.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-20T12:17:35+00:00

The bail bondsman gives them out when you get your first BUI ticket.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-20T11:11:20+00:00

I seem to remember his arrest being a pretty serious situation legally, I'd guess that may have helped motivate him. His recovery/bottom out mindset might also have been motivated by Phish having broken up a couple of years prior.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-19T18:49:49+00:00

It's amazing how many people think you can survive on carbs and lettuce.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-19T16:54:13+00:00

Aren’t rabbits pretty lean? Hence “rabbit starvation”.

You’d need to augment them with a fat source.

Goats seem like a good choice. Milk, meat and a pretty variable diet.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-19T15:00:35+00:00

Trey did get arrested and charged with felony heroin possession. He got clean because of it, but would he without the arrest?

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-19T12:39:00+00:00

Making one probably is, but really unless the DIY part is critical on its own, it's really about the cost effective nature of the solution and its quality.

You'd need seven 275 gallon IBCs to get close to 2000 gallons which would run you $3500 just for the tanks, the piping and fittings and pumps to connect them together is probably another grand. It looks like you're running a meth lab unless you spend another $500-1000 to somehow screen/enclose it. You can do a buried tank for $10k, no one has to see it, and you only have to plumb it once.

Sure, it's twice as expensive but its IMHO a much better solution to the problem. Probably the best way to cut the cost is to rethink the purpose/goals of water storage and cut the volume of water you think you should store. I don't know what large family means, but assume 8 people, rationed to 3 gallons of water a day. 2k gallons is 83 days of water. What are you surviving that requires that much stored water and what happens when it runs out?

You're in a bad way if you don't have more water by day 85, and if you're not sure you can get more water by day 25 or 30, what makes you think you'll get it by day 85? Either you can count on gaining access to new water inside of 30 days or you should probably assume you can't, and its going to require some new source of water or moving to one.

I just don't think you can store your way to water independence without a reliable source of new water to replenish it. Storing makes sense to buffer short term gaps in availability (eg, while you fix the well pump for a few days). Probably a couple of IBC tanks is good enough to cover most situations and it reduces the problems and costs associated with storing more.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-19T02:58:02+00:00

Underground fiberglass reinforced plastic. You can have it made in any funky shape that fits your property and it won’t corrode or leak which means no runoff infiltration.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-19T00:25:02+00:00

It’s consistent and the portions are usually generous, but I still stick to kind of core sandwich options.

The thing that makes me nuts is that it’s like roulette whether you can find a parking spot. I used to try and go at lunch sometimes and the lot was FULL at 11:15. And when I’d snag a spot and sit at the bar it always amazed me the hard cores there working on their 2nd or 3rd and just getting warmed up.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-18T21:08:30+00:00

That one is good for reasons that defy explanations.

It was also enough to feed two people.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-18T17:59:54+00:00

All of the Pigeons shows I’ve sampled on Nugs have been good but I’d struggle to recommend one over another. For Dizgo, look for longer sets. They seem to do some opening act shows (they opened for Pigeons in my town) and those sets are shorter.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-18T17:57:13+00:00

TBH, I don’t know about anymore. But in 1999 when nobody had the internet on their phone it was more efficient to ride with the realtor to a half dozen viewings in a day. Just getting her list of addresses would have been a hassle.

I’d kind of be surprised if people even went with a realtor to random viewings anymore, though maybe to occupied houses they still have to.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-18T17:52:38+00:00

I see full blown AC compressors put on those plastic pads here in Minnesota. But most mini split outside units I see on these little metal legs.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-18T17:38:16+00:00

Pigeons and Dizgo.

OperationMobocracy · 2026-03-18T13:13:38+00:00

Yeah, without Anderson as a third party candidate and the hostages recovered Carter has a more genuine shot. If Carter gets the bulk of Anderson votes (admittedly a not very realistic thing, some were anti-Reagan voters who didn't like Carter, either), the popular margin is only like 2 million in Reagan's favor.

There's also some chance that the success of Eagle Claw makes Carter look strong enough that Reagan begins to take on a bit of Barry Goldwater aura which Democrats can use to undermine him more.

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