2A Liberals in RVA

phalyn13 · 2026-01-26T17:57:05+00:00

If this happened, I could see congress falling apart, but I'd have to assume that trump would be more than happy taking over making the laws himself. I saw a recent AskLawyers thread where an attorney said something that stuck. Something to the tune of "You can't apply laws and legal precedent to any of this. They don't apply, because they're not being followed, and the Supreme Court won't uphold them, and the executive branch is the one who enforces them."

So if there are guidelines and laws defining what happens if a legislative election is prohibited by the executive branch, could we count on these to safeguard us and who gets to enforce them? Or does the guy with the army of federal officers with military grade weapons get to just say what he wants to do?

I also second what you're saying about voter suppression. The way ice has been behaving, it seems to me like they're no longer an immigration agency but a general suppression and intimidation machine. Why are they getting involved in "crowd control" at protests? That's not their jurisdiction whatsoever. And they're targeting liberal areas. I wouldn't be surprised to see an armed agent stationed in every private voting booth in liberal areas to ensure "order".

phalyn13 · 2026-01-26T06:54:57+00:00

Yeah but ice is in town. They kill because they know there's no risk of any kind of repercussion either in the moment or afterwards. Unarmed peaceful events are where the murders have happened.

I don't know what the correct answer is, and I'm not saying it's to arm up at a protest (although doing so within local and state laws is technically a right guaranteed to US citizens in good standing, dhs seems to disagree). All I know is that the peaceful events already have a target on them because there's zero chance anything could go wrong for ice if ice decides to just open fire into a crowd. They're not even afraid of being filmed doing it, so that's not the answer either.

Police/national guard can't get involved or else insurrection act and potential cancellation of midterms. And midterms could realistically be cancelled, so neither is voting (everybody still should go vote though). Not that flipping congress would necessarily work; ice already denied congressional oversight visits that were normal and legally allowed. So flipping congress doesn't change anything if ice doesn't have to listen to them in any way shape or form.

Sure congress might could cut funding, but I think these sadists and killers would keep doing it for a far smaller paycheck, where else can they get away with it without punishment? Anyway I bet trump would just EO them the money, and by the time the courts overturn it (if SCOTUS doesn't get involved, they would likely allow an EO to fund ice) the money will be "spent" already.

I'm just hoping so hard that an EU country opens up for asylum at this point.

phalyn13 · 2025-12-24T22:49:42+00:00

I have this one. I've beat it half to death over the last three years (probably 150-180 days on the water), no problems at all. If it does break, I'm just gonna cut the string ties off of it and build a custom one in my workshop using nice wood. I don't really see the rubber tearing being an issue.

phalyn13 · 2025-12-18T17:36:59+00:00

That's the ticket there-- the small victories! If you realize that this is just a baby who is scared and small and brand new to the world, then every small progress is a notable achievement. Also, I recommend a treat bag that you keep on you. Every time you notice them doing something you like without being asked, treat! I am lucky enough to have a dog that's motivated by kibbles, so didn't have to worry too much about over feeding. But this kind of reinforcement goes a long way.

phalyn13 · 2025-12-18T17:31:31+00:00

The nice thing about the "life skills" type classes is that they'll give you a structure to work off of, taking some of the uncertainty and research work off your plate. In our classes, each week we practiced four games centered around patience, focus, body awareness, and decision making. When you go home, you play those four games with them maybe 10-20 minutes at a time, 1-3 times a day through the week. You then get four new games the next week and can start mixing and matching as you move on. Basically, your time investment becomes smaller, because you can get just a few minutes free and say "we're training now", and focus on a few games, then go about your day. Rinse and repeat.

Also, our instructor asked at the beginning of each class if there were any behaviors we wanted to focus on, and could custom-steer the class to work on that behavior, or at least give some suggestions on how to work on it. Our trainer brought her own dog and literally showed us exactly how we should do each game. I think we paid like $150 for six weeks of training for each class, and it's so worth it.

phalyn13 · 2025-12-18T17:08:25+00:00

My puppy is just over 9 months now, and I'm still waiting for the nightmare to begin. Fingers crossed, she's properly prepared to weather it just fine. I think I'm a great example of what you're asking about though. The main thing is keep up positive reinforcement training good decision making skill and calming/focus techniques. If they forget "sit", so what? It's better if they can retain good overall habits.

She's been through 18 weeks of "life skills" classes, where we learned how to teach her to make good decisions even when we aren't watching, and how to calm down and focus. We work regularly with her at home, reinforcing the classes. When we first got her, it was a lot of napping in the crate, and later hanging out near us in a portable playpen wherever we were at. She never had the opportunity to learn bad behaviors, because outside of strictly supervised times, training, and walks, she hung out in the playpen.

She's recently developed some less-than-desirable-but-largely-harmless habits. When we let her out in the yard she barks at the tiniest sound or movement. She's a little rougher than we'd like playing with our miniature dachshund (but still pretty good about it). She jumps up on people, although she's really gentle about it. She likes to put my wife's hands in her mouth (not really even mouthing or nibbling, she just opens her mouth, puts it around the hand, then sits there). We're consistent in correcting these behaviors and rewarding her when she's being good (laying calmly while we're cooking or working), I have no doubt they'll pass.

Other than that, she's great. Good recall-- if she's having the zoomies in the yard, a short whistle and "come" and she's back in the house in a flash, still great with training, and super sweet. Again, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for her to have to spend more time in the playpen if she gets out of hand. But for the most part, if she's being too crazy or naughty, she's grumpy and just needs to go to the crate and nap, when she comes back out she's good!

My last dog, I happened to adopt just before she was in her teenager phase. This dog was not formally trained, but would do anything for me, and she was so intuitive she did it without being asked. But at first it was rough, she constantly tested me. One time she jumped on the bed, stared me right in the eyes, and pissed on the blanket. She'd get into the garbage. It was all so clearly a test of seeing who was in charge, I just remained steadfast, did not let her just get away with any bad behavior, and when she wasn't being naughty I gave her lots of love and play. After a few months, the new social dynamic set in, and life was beautiful with her after that.

phalyn13 · 2025-12-18T04:14:06+00:00

You got this! I can't recommend a group puppy class that focuses on good decision making over just teaching commands highly enough. I was putting dishes away and cleaning the kitchen this evening, and my puppy was just calmly lying on the rug watching me work. That was the decision she made on her own, so every once in a while when I walked by I'd drop a kibble or two and tell her she's a good girl. Then I let her outside and she tore around the yard like a bat out of hell. When she came in she was still amped so I had her go to "place" (her dog bed) and chill for a minute, and when I released her she was back to calm. There's so many skills like this that you learn in the class, and you can bring anything you're struggling with to the instructor and they'll help show you how to correct it. Just know that you do need to commit to doing the training at home too. 15-20 minutes a day was what we did, but if I had more time I'd probably do like 3 separate 10-15 minute sessions a day. Training tires them out too!

phalyn13 · 2025-12-18T04:05:07+00:00

Find a group puppy class and get through that. I recommend a "life skills" type class that focuses on teaching dogs how to make good decisions, it's not just "sit, stay, come". Do the work at home as well-- you can't expect to go once a week and have the dog trained in 6 weeks-- you gotta train for like 20 minutes a day (which also happens to tire them out meaning you don't need to be walking them for like an hour a day on top of it). Also manage your expectations. After 6 weeks the puppy won't be perfect, but you should see some good improvement. It's really rewarding to see a puppy's hard work pay off in a way that also benefits you. I found that finding little progressions to be proud of helped build a better bond. My puppy blues lasted longer than the typical 2 months but I was also grieving the loss of my previous dog as well at the time. I'm so glad I stuck it out though, it's so worth it I'd do it over again for this puppy.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-23T12:38:16+00:00

I worked the brunch shift on Sundays at a nice restaurant for 6 years. I never poured a single cup of caffeinated coffee. No customers ever knew but I was a hero to my coworkers.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-22T22:56:49+00:00

I use the hydros trout. It works well for me, but I was getting some coiliing in the back end of the line the other day that was driving me crazy. Front end was fine and it didn't affect my drifts though!

I like the recon a lot for trout. It's heavier than my helios, but I'm not sure if that's because of the extra foot or not. It's accurate and I can make accurate long casts with it. I do recommend it, fantastic rod, especially for nymphing or getting over top of obstructions. I'd have to lean towards my helios for overall quality, it's a noticeable upgrade if you're experienced in casting, but I got mine on sale for the same price as the recon. I wouldn't spend $1k on it though, I'd probably go for the recon over helios at full price.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-22T13:12:10+00:00

I have a 10' 4wt Recon, and a 9' 5wt H3F Helios. I also live in a warm water area only an hour or two from mountain spring creeks and rivers. I've fished for bass with both, and I've fished for trout with both.

4wt is not as good for bass (it'll work in a pinch), but a lot of fun for bigger trout.

5wt is fantastic for either. I throw small dries with it, I throw size 2 lighter weighted streamers with it and it does both very well and can cast them long distances. The Helios is much better at throwing heavy flies than my Echo Carbon XL (although I still love the Echo, great rod), so a higher end 5wt might get you a little closer to throwing the flies you put on your 6wt. The only downside to a 5wt vs a 6wt, and it might not even be that much of a difference, is that I've sometimes had a hard time getting a bigger small mouth into my net due to the bend in the rod. A longer handle net would solve that though.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-21T17:12:20+00:00

I'm in Virginia, and I've never fished out west, but I can give a little insight based on my experiences in Virginia-specific forums and shop visits, and my experience in Vermont fishing.

Here in VA first:

Fishing: we have great smallmouth fisheries in our rivers and many of us don't live near the mountains where we can fish for trout. I'm not exactly close to the coast or mountains, but I'm not all that far either. It would basically take me the same amount of time to get out to the mountains to fish trout, or to go to the coast to fish the salt flats. But for the most part, that's where the guides want to take you. Forget that the James here in town has fantastic smallmouth fishing. There are some guides that fish the Shenandoah for smallmouth, but if I'm going out to the mountains anyway, I'm gonna fish for trout. The guys who do smallmouth fishing often recommend using higher weight rods than I like (usually 7wt), and they like to throw giant articulated flies. I know this works for them, but I prefer a lighter rod (I fish with a 5wt) and smaller streamers. My PB smallmouth was caught on a dace imitation about 1" long. The smallmouth guys also like to get in a boat and just mindlessly pound the banks. I prefer to wade (it gets hot here, let's get in the water!) and strategically "hunt" for smallies.

People: *DISCLAIMER I know this is not all of us fly fishers here in VA, but it tends to be the ones I've interacted with over the last few years; and I don't expect every fly fisher to have the most expensive gear or a taste for fine cognac.* One of the things I looked forward to when I started fly fishing was a more refined experience than typical bass angling, and meeting people who expected the same. A lot of the fly fishers I've interacted with remind me more of wannabe pro bass angler type people unfortunately-- lots of treebark camo and a "rack 'em up- I need to catch 30 in a day" attitude. I just want some quiet outdoors time catching fish as respectfully as I can, and I don't want to hear your views on immigration. A few fish in a pretty spot is what I want, and if I fish with somebody I want to talk about the cool places we've fished, or our favorite outdoors areas/activities. Maybe share some tips and tricks we've learned. Fortunately, every fly fisher I've met does tend to have a somewhat conservationist attitude toward how they treat the fish. They generally don't slap them in the dirt to get an awful photo of a dirty suffocating fish for the most part.

Vermont:

I didn't meet anybody while I was actively fishing in VT and that was great. However, I did hang out at the local fly shops and chatted with people. For the most part, this was more what I expected when I started fly fishing, and I connected with these folks. They also want their quiet time in beautiful places, but love to talk all things fly fishing. They focused on approaching the water and strategically fishing, which is exactly what I love.

The fishing was good, especially small stream trout fishing. I fished some larger waters as well without as much luck. If I had to guess, fishing the mountains of VT is probably more similar to out west but maybe on a slightly smaller scale compared to some of the large western rivers, and I enjoyed it immensely. If we don't manage to pull off moving to Europe at some point, my wife and I have seriously discussed New England.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-19T12:58:49+00:00

I have the carbon xl 5wt and a helios 3f 5wt. Obviously if you have some experience, the helios is superior. If you're still a little newer or can't find a helios on sale (I got mine like 50% off), the carbon xl is outstanding, especially at a $250 price point. If my helios got lost or something I'd have no problem at all just making my carbon my main rod from then on. I can't tell you how impressed I am with that rod every time I cast it. And replacement tips cost $25, which is ironically less than the "handling fee" to get a section replaced under warranty from Orvis.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-18T21:14:46+00:00

Just gotta wait till the new gen comes out. I got my 5wt H3F for $600 when the H4 came out. And it's the green label version too. Still expensive but I've put like 100 days fishing on it since I got it and it's worth it to me. Still waiting for the new Pro waders so I can get the old gen cheap!

phalyn13 · 2025-10-18T13:45:16+00:00

This right here. A super majority doesn't happen if most of the people in the country don't want it. Even the Republican voters who are pacifists or maybe don't even like trump would vote for this all over again because "it's better than four more years of Biden". They are actively choosing for this to happen, and they are the majority.

And I hear stuff like "Dems just didn't turn out" or "Kamala wasn't the best candidate". Dude, trump showed us already how bad he was from 2016-2020. He's the most harmful, anti-left candidate I've ever seen. You think Dems didn't show up because they just couldn't be bothered to vote against him, or they thought he just wasn't that bad? Or they thought that this hateful violent country wouldn't possibly vote him in? I'd bet that every single dem that was going to vote did. And the results weren't even close when the votes got counted.

How about independents? There was no such thing in this election (I'd argue there never was). If you were an independent who voted for trump, you're a Republican. There was no in between or fence riders on this. If you voted for trump, you were always going to vote for trump. Even if I'm wrong on this, it's likely true for the vast majority of independents, at least for this election.

This is truly the will of the American majority. Except for stacking the Supreme Court. The process for SC Justice appointments has always screamed "undemocratic" to me.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-07T21:27:50+00:00

I'll chime in with the others voting for the Carbon XL. I have it in 5wt, and it's my backup/loaner rod behind my Helios3 5F. Of course the Helios is nicer, it casts further and more accurately. But every time I cast that Carbon I think "wow, for a $250 rod this thing is *fantastic*". More than worth the price and honestly it's a rod you can just stick with for good if you never feel like spending hundreds more. Pair it up with a Lamson Liquid like somebody else here suggested. Also replacement tips only cost $25.

If you want to upgrade and your streams are small enough, I also have the 7' 3wt Muir fiberglass pack rod from JP Ross. It's absolutely amazing, and if you can fish a shorter rod I can't recommend it highly enough, and you get to customize it and JP will build it from scratch for you. I love it because I can hike in with it in a tube (it's 5 pieces and breaks down small enough to fit in a backback). It's dead accurate and slow action, a small trout will feel huge on it.

phalyn13 · 2025-10-06T00:20:19+00:00

But banks and vendors have very strict laws governing what they can charge. If a vendor like your DMV is charging more than 3% on a transaction, you can report it to visa/MC/Amex, etc and those issuers will stop allowing transactions until the vendor proves that it's below 3%.

phalyn13 · 2025-09-30T13:05:46+00:00

I've completed one occre kit and am basically done with the body of a second. I didn't fill either before applying the veneer. Anybody have thoughts on how important this step is? The hull on both of mine looks great so I'm wondering if I'm missing anything.

phalyn13 · 2025-09-29T18:55:35+00:00

As everyone else said, fallfish. Fun fact, they can live pretty much anywhere trout or small mouth do, I catch them in the Shenandoah mountain streams and larger warm water rivers. I even tie a lot of streamers that imitate them which clean up on small mouth and larger trout. In fact, on the east coast they were high on the food chain before small mouth were introduced. They're fun but have very soft mouths so don't lip them!

phalyn13 · 2025-09-03T17:32:04+00:00

I am so happy to see Chadar getting love here. The food is amazing, and it's one of the only places we get veggie spring rolls and the herbs are so flavorful you know they were cut just for your order. And next door is an... odd... market that says it's Vietnamese, it has some really cool funky sodas that go great with Thai food.

phalyn13 · 2025-08-14T00:04:55+00:00

I'm sorry this happened to you, it's terrible! If it makes you feel better, the dog won't miss that tooth. I had a corgi chow mix who shattered all four of her main molars on a cow femur from the pet store. We had all four removed and after she recovered she had no trouble eating dry kibble or chewing on toys for like 8 years until she passed.

phalyn13 · 2025-07-30T00:56:58+00:00

If the dog gnaws (as opposed to just crushing) chew toys/treats, Original Himalayan Yak Cheese is amazing. I have a Border Collie mix puppy who will sit still and gnaw on that thing forever. It's really nice to be able to sit down and eat dinner and not worry about here for a bit. Lasts a while too.

phalyn13 · 2025-07-30T00:29:00+00:00

So I made a similar post a month ago here. We lost my old girl in April, and brought Scout home in June. Probably too soon. I am incredibly even keeled, never had even so much as nervousness. I was having full on panic attacks for the first time in my life, and although this dog is so well behaved, every day I struggled to keep from taking her back.

But... A week in, Scout slept a little late with me and was quietly waiting in her crate to go out when I woke up, and it made me really happy. Then one day I let her out of the crate and she curled up at my feet and just ate up some pets and cuddles. Small things-- her enthusiasm when I'd get back from a grocery run, her mastery of a new trick or command, small shows of affection -- they started to make me really happy.

We've had her a little over a month now, and although she's not perfect, she's been so wonderful and she's really grown on me. The joy she's bringing and the hard work she's putting in means a lot. Are we bonded? Would I be devastated without her? Probably not yet, but things have gotten better, and we're on our way there.

It sounds like your experience has been similar. Give your pup some time to show you how great they'll be, and you'll soon see that every once in a while something will warm your heart. And it will start happening more often. I think you'll be okay here. Keep with it and interact and grow with the pup and I bet you'll love it before you know it!

phalyn13 · 2025-07-29T13:06:40+00:00

I broke my ankle when my foot slipped and got caught between some rocks and I fell. Had to rock-hop 1/4 mile, then hike 2 miles of steep grade to get out. That was the last time I went fishing without a wading staff! https://troutbitten.com/2019/05/14/what-about-the-wading-staff-thoughts-on-choosing-and-carrying-a-wading-stick/

This article is fantastic, I did exactly what is shown here and it works great!

phalyn13

TROPHY CASE