[Hot Air] Before you drain the swamp, you might need to get rid of some of the rats in the nation’s capitol. Wednesday the Washington Post reported that the number of complaints about rats is up sharply in Washington, DC and rat control experts for the city are recommending a new way of dealing with them:
With complaints to the city’s 311 phone line concerning rats at a four-year high, city officials are turning to dry ice ‐ the frozen form of carbon dioxide ‐ to suffocate rodents. But dry ice will not replace the poison that the District’s rodent control division currently uses, said its program manager Gerard Brown.
"It’s just going to be another tool in our toolbox," said Brown, who has been killing rats in Washington for 30 years.
His explanation for how dry ice works is concise, and a little dramatic: "The CO2 that emanates from the dry ice suffocates the rats, and their homes become their graves," he said...
The District’s rat problem is not new, but it has worsened in recent years. The surging rat population is driven by a combination of factors, including Washington’s booming human population, which means more trash, and recent mild winters, which means fewer rats die from frigid temperatures ‐ although city officials are hoping the current cold snap will help reduce the population.
There have been 3,286 rat complaints to the city this fiscal year, up 64 percent from fiscal year 2015, according to data from the health department.
Rats congregate in our largest cities where they can scour the alleys and subway platforms for a free lunch (and dinner). Orkin pest control puts out a list of the U.S. cities with the worst rat problems every year and in the most recent list, Washington actually came in 5th place behind Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. One New Yorker seemed skeptical that any city could have more rats than New York. From the NY Daily News:
Russian made ammunition is generally considered to be of lesser, though not necessarily poorer quality than US made ammunition. For my AK-74 I rely on Barnaul, which is a different firm that makes all the "Bear" ammunition: Silver Bear 5.45x39mm, 60 grain bullet.
Speaking of which, Friday was a day the Lord made. Temperature 25 degrees, calm wind, first light, 300 rounds down range, no jams and no misfires. Plus, I think I found the sweet spot for hitting a 10x10 inch target from 200 yards away.
Pistol ammunition prices were mostly steady. Rifle ammunition prices were steady.
Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mixed.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Red River Reloading, Silver Bear, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: -.03 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: AmmoMart, Own Brand, FN, Brass Casing, Reloads .18 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TPMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .17 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: AmmoMart, Own Brand, FP, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Fedarm, Own Brand, RN, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))
.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Highland Lakes Ammo, Own Brand, FN, Brass Casing, Reloads .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: Ammo Valley, Own brand, FN, Brass Casing, Reloads, .24 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Able's, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .53 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .81 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .85 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks)
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: -.10 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, HPBT, 2.40 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Cabelas, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, HPBT, 2.80 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017))
BLUF:
[Hot Air] Wolff wrote that Blair suggested there was a possibility "that the British had had the Trump campaign staff under surveillance, monitoring its telephone calls and other communications and possibly even Trump himself".
Wolff’s book also repeated speculation that Blair had been angling to be Trump’s Middle East envoy. ...
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said: "This story is a complete fabrication, literally from beginning to end. I’ve never had such conversation in the White House, outside of the White House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else."
#1
Wolff wrote that Blair suggested there was a possibility "that the British had had the Trump campaign staff under surveillance, monitoring its telephone calls and other communications and possibly even Trump himself".
I believe the 'Doughnut' theory has been presented previously. Perhaps the Klingons knew Admiral Rogers would never participate, so they took their 'regime change' business elsewhere. Sometimes it's more advantageous to lease rather than own.
Most fabrications of this sort contain snippets of truth. Quite interesting that Tony jumped on the story with both feet.
h/t Instapundit
Most new administrations do not really completely overturn their predecessors’ policies to enact often-promised ideologically driven change.
The 18-year span of Harry Truman to Dwight Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy was mostly a continuum from center-left to center-right, back to center-left. Kennedy was probably as hawkish and as much of a tax cutter as was Eisenhower.
The seven years of Jerry Ford to Jimmy Carter were a similar transition ‐ or even the twelve years of George H. W. Bush to Bill Clinton. The deck chairs changed, but the ship sailed in mostly the same manner to mostly the same direction.
Even the supposed great divide of 1981 did not mean that Jimmy Carter had been as left-wing as Ronald Reagan was right-wing. Carter’s fight against inflation and renewed defense build-up was continued in part by Reagan. George W. Bush was not as markedly right-wing as Barack Obama was clearly left-wing. In sum, there have rarely been back-to-back complete reversals in presidential agendas.
From Hard Progressive to Hard Conservative Ideology
Whatever Donald J. Trump’s political past and vociferous present, his first year of governance is most certainly as hard conservative as Barack Obama’s eight years were hard progressive. We are watching a rare experiment in political governance play out, as we go, in back-to-back fashion, from one pole to its opposite. Personally, I hope that Obama era marked peak stupidity in American, and hence World,affairs - because we couldn't survive another such.
#1
This is where y3start to question whether the "really smart guys" are really all that smart. I think bath house barry obutthole was an aberration. Trump has not had to go all that far to the right to unwind the worst of obuttholism. I don't really see anything unprecedented, other than common sense ain't at all common.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/06/2018 8:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Obama continued, IMO, patterns existing before him, and - because he's really dumb - overdone it.
[Last Refuge] This outline is the stunning backstory to how the FBI Counterintelligence Division and DOJ National Security Division were weaponized. This outline is the full story of what House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes is currently working to expose. This outline exposes the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. This outline is also the story of how one man’s action likely saved our constitutional republic.
His name is Admiral Mike Rogers.
I’m calling the back-story to the 2016 FISA 702(16)(17) political corruption by the Obama administration “Operation Condor”. Those of you familiar with the film “Three Days of The Condor” will note how the real life storyline almost mirrors the Hollywood film. For the real life version, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers plays the role of “Condor”.
“SCIF” – a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. To understand the larger FISA 702(16)(17) issues in 2016 it is important to focus on the word “compartmented”.
Intelligence information is housed by compartments. Each intelligence unit holds intelligence unique to that compartment. The FBI Counter-Intelligence Unit would hold the intelligence information specific to their task or assignment; the DOJ National Security Division would hold their own compartmented intelligence; again, specific to their task and objectives. So too would the DOJ, DoD (Pentagon), State Dept., or CIA.
This compartmented structure is what led to the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI. The 911 commission recommended the office to serve as a hub able to ensure intelligence sharing; that is – to ensure intelligence was not intentionally withheld from other compartments when needed.
In 2016 the ODNI for President Obama was James Clapper.
#2
As many of you are aware, immediately following the 2016 presidential election NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers traveled to Trump Tower to meet with president-elect Donald Trump. The day AFTER the Rogers visit, President-elect Trump moved his transition team out of Trump Tower to Bedminister New Jersey.
We always suspected NSA Director Rogers gave President-elect Trump a head’s up of sorts.
'Too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence', to borrow a quote from Yogi berra. Perhaps there is one honest man left in Sodom.
#3
The way the author ties the timelines together with the known public events, and the analysis of likely connections makes the full read totally compelling. This connects the way the intelligence system was perverted at the highest levels into a political spying tool, and how people who took the oath to the Constitution sold out to raw democrat political power and the expectations of reward. Tragic...
[Jpost] It was probably a coincidence that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley hailed the Iranian anti-regime protesters and threatened to end US financial support for UNRWA ‐ the UN Palestinian refugee agency ‐ and the Palestinian Authority more generally in the same briefing. But they are integrally linked.
It is no coincidence that Hamas is escalating its rocket attacks on Israel as the Iranian regime confronts the most significant domestic challenge it has ever faced.
As IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said this week, Iranian assistance to Hamas is steadily rising. Last August, Hamas acknowledged that Iran is its greatest military and financial backer. In 2017, Iran transferred $70 million to the terrorist group.
Eisenkot said that in 2018, Iran intends to transfer $100m. to Hamas.
If Iran is Hamas’s greatest state sponsor, UNRWA is its partner. UNRWA is headquartered in Gaza. It is the UN’s single largest agency. It has more than 11,500 employees in Gaza alone. UNRWA’s annual budget is in excess of $1.2 billion. Several hundred million each year is spent in Gaza.
The US is UNRWA’s largest funder. In 2016, it transferred more than $368m. to UNRWA.
For the past decade, the Center for Near East Policy Research has copiously documented how UNRWA in Gaza is not an independent actor. Rather it is an integral part of Hamas’s regime in Gaza. So Iran gives Hamas $70 million and USA gives it $368m?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
