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Originally posted by Brenda:
A good portion of the middle of my province has been on flood alert for the last week. Even down to where I am the mighty Fraser River has been on a rampage. Part of a boardwalk has been closed since last Friday because of water levels. People who live in Condos along this walkway were warned not to walk their pets there and if they did not to let them off their leashes.

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SIGNYM:
Well. Here it is July 7th and I still haven't gotten my rear in gear. All I've managed to do was little piddly stuff: We always do "safe and sane" fireworks for the 4th, which we did again this year. Went with hubby and dd while they went to see the doctor. As I mentioned, replaced a couple of thermostats and put up and indoor/outdoor bluetooth weather station. Repaired a couple of hose ends so I could insert trigger grip nozzles, helped sort wire and screws, walked the dog and yada yada. Small stuff.

But I have plans for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, so I think I just needed a break. I feel like my energy might be coming back, and after a nice rest most of my aches and pains have throttled back.

So here's hoping I get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to roll tomorrow.


SIX: It's hot by you, ain't it?
Don't hurt yourself.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
A good portion of the middle of my province has been on flood alert for the last week. Even down to where I am the mighty Fraser River has been on a rampage. Part of a boardwalk has been closed since last Friday because of water levels. People who live in Condos along this walkway were warned not to walk their pets there and if they did not to let them off their leashes.

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Hmmm... about that fire danger they were predicting.

Cancelled?

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, this has been a hard, hard year for gardening. Last rainy season started out early and promising; October 2013 we got a couple of good rainstorms and then .... nothing. Nothing. More nothing. Which dragged on to the historic drought.

Usually my water usage goes down during winter, but not last winter. I had to water the garden areas every week, and the lawns twice a week (one of the reasons I'm xeriscaping) just to keep them alive. I took special pains with the two avocados and the camellias because they're the grandparents of the backyard, planted by the previous owners sixty years ago. I soaked them deeply at least once a month. But despite my best efforts, the plants still suffered - not from lack of water, but possibly from high salt buildup or basic soil ... the older avocado and camellia leaves took on a pale bronzy color, and needles on my canary island pines were just beginning to turn yellow.

In addition, the tomatoes were crippled and the eggplant killed by a horrible infestation of spider mites. Last year, I gave away almost thirty pounds of homegrown tomatoes and had all of the eggplant I wanted. This year, I was lucky to have enough fresh tomatoes for a weekly salad, and just a few eggplant before they gave up the ghost. The spider mites went on to attack a few more plants (which fortunately I didn't care so much for). My Italian flat beans- which I've never grown before - and my sunflowers (which I HAVE grown before) were spindly and unproductive. Same seed source. I wonder if the seed was good. At least the corn came up OK.

Two of my recently-planted sundrops died, I only have one left. This is a good representation of what the survivor looks like in my garden


and one of my verbena lilacena died, I only have two left ... another good representation



For no reason that I can see except they really, really didn't appreciate such hard wellwater. And then, the summer was hot and humid - tropical, even - and some native plants which are adapted to cool wet winters and hot DRY summers responded with a fantastic case of mildew. I broke down and got some Neem oil so that next year I'll be prepared for the onslaught.

I have NEVER failed with so many plants all in one season! This was a gardening year I was happy to close the book on, and I now have a much MUCH greater appreciation for the commercial farmer, who lives or dies by whether plants produce or not.

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But in order to be a gardener or a farmer, one must be an optimist, I guess. I've been buying my xeriscape plants mostly in onesies and twosies because I really don't know how they'll grow, or what they'll look like ... or what I want ... and the reality is that I'll still have a surprising amount of bare space, even when the plants mature.

So I took out several of my CA native/ xeriscape gardening books, and just looked at the pictures and figured out what I respond to, and what I hate, and the principles behind both. And I just ordered a crap-ton of plants: Spanish lavender (because it looks most like the Great Basin sagebrush that I like, which won't grow here because the winters are too warm),


penstemon BOP which looks like a micro boxwood when not in bloom


white monkeyflower


blue-eyed grass

and Indian rice grass

to go with the germander sage, Dusty Miller, red autumn sage, and the creeping Oregon grape and various native currants and snowberries under the trees.

I hope, when all is done, that you would feel as if you were in some very nice landscape, something that nature had put together in a happy combination of loveliness.

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And then we got RAIN!!!! A storm last Sunday dropped an unexpected 1/2 inch of rain on our location, and the storm which followed added another inch. I once again found myself wishing I had a rain barrel or two or seven. The plants already look happier for the soft water.

So there it is for the garden so far this year. A horrible horrible season, but maybe things will turn around this rainy season year and we'll get at least the usual amount. I still plan to xeriscape more lawn, it just takes a surprising amount of plants to fill in the spaces, I'm finding out!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. One of these days -when the plants mature - I'll take real photos of my real garden and post them online.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
WHAT GENERAL MCKENZIE ACTUALLY SAID (TRANSCRIPT FROM CENTCOM) WITH HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE READING-CHALLENGED. BECAUSE CENTCOM APPARENTLY KEEPS TRACK OF SUCH THINGS.

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Capt. Urban General McKenzie, we've got 30 minutes on the record. He's going to start with some opening remarks covering a visit to Iraq today and then it’s over to you for questions.

General McKenzie Good. Good afternoon, everybody. It's been a long day for us. Planes, trains, automobiles, as you would expect. What I thought I'd do is just give you a couple of observations at the very beginning. Then we'll go right into your questions. I went into Iraq today. I had an opportunity to have a good meeting with the prime minister. And he was accompanied by the CHOD [Chief of Defense]. So we had a very good meeting with both of them. The principle thing we covered in our meeting was the importance of the next phase of the strategic dialog between our two countries which is going to occur in late July in DC, coronavirus pending. And I know there are a lot of issues associated with that, but we hope it's going to be a physical face-to-face thing. We'll see how that plays out.

But a key thing that we talked about was, what's the future posture for the U.S.? And we established a good back and forth that whatever the future posture is for us in Iraq and for our NATO and coalition partners as well, it's going to be in collaboration with the government of Iraq.

We all agree that's the case, and we all agree we're going to be focused on finishing the final victory again. So the final final conclusion of the campaign against Daesh, they're no longer holding ground.

We just need to finish the insurgency. I can talk about that a little bit, if you'd like to do that. But the key point was whatever we do going forward is going to be fully coordinated with the government of Iraq.

It is my belief that the government of Iraq recognizes the value that we bring for them in their fight against Daesh. They’re going to want us to stay. My final point is, I congratulate the prime minister on action taken to help protect our forces; we very much appreciate that. It was a good, good meeting. Good dialog, and was my first opportunity to meet him. I found him to be very impressive. And I think he's going to be a good leader for Iraq. So I will pause there and be ready to take your questions.

Lolita Baldor OK, just one quick follow up on what you were just talking about. And then a separate question. There, obviously, was talk a month ago about Iraqis wanting all U.S. troops out of the country. Do you think your assumption is that you moved on beyond that, and that there is room for keeping enough U.S. troops there, as many of you deem necessary? And then, so you can take both at once, I just wanted to ask an Afghanistan question, obviously, on the bounty issue. Can you talk at all about what impact you've seen in Afghanistan of loss in influence and/or payments to the Taliban and whether or not you believe there was any measurable impact in either deaths or injuries to U.S. forces?

General McKenzie Sure. I'll start with the Iraq question. So I believe the government of Iraq recognizes the extreme value that the coalition brings to the fight against Daesh in Iraq. And I believe that going forward, they're going to want us to be with them. Now, look, our posture could get smaller as the Iraqis get better at what they do. But I think that's a matter that's going to be negotiated further in the future of Iraq.

What you want to do in a counterinsurgency environment is you want the nation that you're working with to get better and take on a larger and larger share of the task. That's actually what's happening with the Iraqis. This is the desirable end outcome that we want. So we're actually very pleased with that. Going forward, I don't know what the long term future is going to be, but I don't sense there's a there's a mood right now for us to depart precipitously. And I'm pretty confident of that. We'll continue to work with the Iraqi leadership as we go forward. So let me shift gears a little bit and talk about Afghanistan.

I just didn't find that there was a causative link there. It worried me, and we take extreme force protection measures all the time in Afghanistan. Because whether the Russians are paying the Taliban or not, over the past several years, the Taliban have done their level best to carry out operations against us. So nothing has practically changed on the ground in terms of force protection, because we have a very high force protection standard now. And that force protection standard is going to continue in the future.

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THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I SURMISED. THE "REPORT" LED TO NO PRACTICAL CHANGE IN OPERATIONS

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General Miller and I talk frequently about emerging threats. We discuss it and we are all the time evaluating intelligence, re-positioning forces to achieve the best possible posture, nothing has changed in that regard. We are still prepared for the absolute worst anyone could do to us in Afghanistan.

Lolita Baldor Great thanks.

Missy Ryan Hi, General. Nice to talk to you. I wanted to clarify and follow up on your answer about Afghanistan. You're saying that you found it troubling, but you didn't find a causative link. Can you just specify what exactly are you talking about? A causative link in terms of the bounties resulting in American deaths, or causative link in the money that was detected being bounties or resulting in attacks? Can you just clarify that? And then I have a question about Iraq.

General McKenzie Sure the intelligence case wasn't proved to me. It was proved enough to worry me. It wasn't proved enough that I'd take it to a court of law. That's often true in battlefield intelligence. You see a lot of indicators. Many of them are troubling, many of them you act on. But in this case, there just wasn't enough there. I sent the intelligence guys back to continue to dig on it. And I believe they're continuing to dig right now. But I just didn't see enough there to tell me that the circuit was closed in that regard.

Missy Ryan So you weren't convinced that the money that was detected resulted in American deaths?

General McKenzie No, I'm not convinced of that. I'm just not. And basically, nobody is more directly concerned about it than myself and Scott Miller. We look at that all the time. But I'm telling you we just we just didn't see it.

Missy Ryan OK. Got it. Thank you. And then my question regarding Iraq is, I wanted to ask you about the raid that occurred recently. There was obviously some blowback against Al-Khadimi. And then the release says all or most of the people have been detained. And I'm just wondering how do you see that and how much can you expect the prime minister to be able to do against some of these Iranian linked militias, given not just their military power, but their political clout in Iraq? And what do you do, specifically? I know that the larger ask is, make sure that there aren't rocket attacks. But what specifically are you asking him to do to make that happen? And what has he agreed to? Thanks

General McKenzie Sure. So, this is actually the responsibility the government of Iraq to assist in our protection. The prime minister realizes that, and the actions that he's taken have been totally aligned with that principle. So we're very glad to see him take those actions. And, yes, they and I do believe they've been successful stopping attacks against us. And this is probably an example of that. Now as to the specifics of how the prosecution is going to go inside the Iraqi judicial system. I'd tell you to talk to the Iraqis about that, because they're going to be the people with the best information on that. Look, we also know that there is pressure just brought on the Iraqis from the Iranians and from the Shia Militia Groups, and that's just a fact of life.

I believe the prime minister is fighting through that. We're going to help him in every way that we can. But it is a difficult process. It's going to require patience as he does it. The bottom line, though, is I'm very glad to see him take the actions that he's taken.

Missy Ryan And the recent raid, did the U.S. have any role in teeing up that raid or assisting with it in any way?

General McKenzie So that was an Iraqi operation, pretty much from soup to nuts. And of course, I can't get in to the exquisite details of intelligence operations. But that was their operation.

Luis Martinez Thanks, Sir, for doing this briefing. Just touching points on what both Lita and Missy have asked with regards to Afghanistan. Was this something new? Or was this something that had been out there for quite some time even before you arrived? This notion of Russian involvement. I mean, we've seen these reports that maybe even as far back as 2018 or early 2019 that this information was known. Can you just give us some clarity on that?

And then also in your talks with the Iraqis, do you get the sense that they want this to be an enduring U.S. presence in Iraq. And do you favor that?

General McKenzie Sure. So let me talk about Afghanistan first. Look, as you know, because you're very familiar with Afghanistan, there is a universe of intelligence reporting out there about all kinds of bad actors. And you just sort through it. Some of it is compelling, some of it isn’t. Some of it is troubling, but not proven. Some of it is stray voltage and you sort through all those things. Reports of this nature have been out there for a while, but with very, very low levels of authenticity about them.

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ALSO WHAT I SURMISED: THE REPORT WAS IN THE FUZZY MIDDLE, NOT VALIDATED ENOUGH TO CHANGE ANY ACTIONS. AS I READ IT, HE IS SAYING THIS PARTICULAR REPORT ("OF THIS NATURE") HAS "VERY, VERY LOW LEVELS OF AUTHENTICITY".

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And so you just continue to plod through them and sort them as you go forward.

So let me just talk about your question about Iraq. It is my judgment, just based on what I've seen today talking to the prime minister, that they value very much the United States, NATO and the coalition presence in in Iraq. They very much value that. And they think it's important for them to be able to finish the fight against Daesh and be able to fully assert their sovereignty. I believe they think it's a good thing, but they're going to have to. And so working with them, we're going to have to decide what the appropriate force level is in the future to be able to do that. The force level needs to be smaller and we'll have to make it be smaller in the future, consistent with the requirements of the government of Iraq and what we and our coalition and NATO partners are going to be willing and able to do. And so that's sort of the way I think we'll go forward.

What do I think about it? Certainly we need some form of presence in Iraq. I don't know if it needs to be as big as it is now, because ultimately that's going to be a political, not a military decision. But I think the Iraqis know, welcome, and value what we do for them now.

Luis Martinez Thank you and can I just follow up on the Afghanistan information.

General McKenzie Sure.

Luis Martinez [It sounds like you had low confidence in previous intelligence. Do you have higher confidence level in the new information, or did that still not convince you?

General McKenzie Yeah. I actually I appreciate you asking the question, but I won't be able to get into any more detail on it than that. I look at a lot of battlefield intelligence. I sort through massive amounts of it with varying degrees of credibility and ultimately, informed by the intelligence community. We make judgments on that. So that's about as much as I can tell you on that.

Luis Martinez Thank You.

Lolita Baldor General, this is Lita. Can I follow up a little bit on that with you? Can you talk some more broadly about what Russian influence you actually do see in Afghanistan? I think we talked to you before about providing weapons and things like that.

Has their level of participation in Afghanistan increased, decreased, or is it about the same? And then secondarily, you reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to about 8,600. So there's a lot of talk about further reductions. What's your comfort level with further reductions of U.S. forces there? And do you see it maybe going in half or more or less than that by the end of this year? Or is it still something you're not decided yet about?

General McKenzie Sure. So, when you think about the Russians in Afghanistan, you need to remember, first and foremost, that they suffered a humiliating defeat there a few decades ago. And I think that weighs on the Russian psyche as they as they think about Afghanistan. Secondly, I think the Russians have genuine concern about the spread of Islamic extremism from Afghanistan up north. So they're very worried about that.

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HUH, THAT'S WHAT i POSTED. I GUESS MCKENZIE IS A RUSSIAN TROLL!

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And that's probably a legitimate concern of theirs. Added to that, I think the Russians generally want to have the opportunity to throw sand in our gears when they can and make life uncomfortable for us. So there are a variety of competing sort of impulses that are active there when the Russians think about Afghanistan. Sometimes one of those is more nuanced than another. But we should always remember, the Russians are not our friends. They are not our friends. And they are not our friends in Afghanistan. And they do not wish us well. And we just need to remember that at all times when we evaluate that intelligence. So you asked about going below mid-8,000. So any recommendations I'd make on that would be based on conditions in the country.

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SO YES, HE DID SAY "RUSSIANS ARE NOT OUT FRIENDS". WHAT CAN I SAY? WORD SEARCH FAILED ME. BUT WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF THIS REPETITION?

THE CONTEXT IS THAT HE KEEPS THIS IN MIND ALL OF THE TIME WHEN EVALUATING INTELLIGENCE REPORTS. EVEN KEEPING THAT IN MIND, THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH "THERE" THERE FOR HIM TO CHANGE ANYTHING, AND HE HAS BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT FOR AT LEAST A YEAR BY NOW. WHETHER HE CHANGES HIS MIND GOING FORWARD, HE REFUSES TO SAY, BUT UP UNTIL NOW HE HAS NOT CHANGED ANYTHING IN HIS OPERATIONS BASED ON THAT REPORT.

TO CLAIM THAT HE IS SAYING "TRUMP IS A LIAR" WHEN HE HIMSELF HAS DOUBTED THE VALIDITY OF THE REPORT SEVERAL TIMES ALREADY IN THIS INTERVIEW TWISTS HIS WORDS AND HIS INTENT BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION. HE DOUBTS THE AUTHENTICITY OF THAT REPORT, EVEN IN THE CONTEXT OF KNOWING THAT "RUSSIA IS NOT OUR FRIEND".

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And those are not going to be ultimately military decisions. Those decisions about end strength are going to be political decisions. But I've had the opportunity to give advice and it has been listened to up to this point. I think that will be continued in the future, along with General Miller and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We'll have an opportunity to weigh in on this. My approach, though, is look at the conditions and look at the agreement that we've got. Do the conditions indicate that we can that we can get smaller? Because inter-Afghan dialogs are going on, there's a reduction in violence. The Taliban are living up to their side of the equation. All of those things, are they happening?

You've heard me say this before in a number of media forms, we don't have to like the Taliban. We don't have to believe the Taliban. We need to observe what the Taliban are actually doing.

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YANNO, KIND OF LIKE YOU SHOULD DO WITH TRUMP. STOP BELIEVING THE MEDIA, THEY LIE. MAKE AN EFFORT TO FIND OUT WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON INSTEAD OF FLINGING EVERY PIECE OF SHIT YOU CAN FIND

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And that will tell us where we want to go. So recommendations I would make about further withdrawals would just be based on what it what's going to be required to protect our core interests there. And our core interest in Afghanistan is preventing the development of attacks against the United States coming from ungoverned areas, from ISIS, or from al-Qaeda.

Missy Ryan I think we are sort of building on each others' questions. But I think I heard you say, and I don't know if it was the MEI thing or the Aspen Institute thing, but that you believe that conditions have not been met yet to be able to go below 8,600. Is that correct?

General McKenzie What I think I said was conditions haven't been met yet to go to zero. Yet. What are those conditions? To me, it would be a significant reduction in violence, an Afghan government that is committed to preventing the harboring of either al-Qaeda or ISIS. Those are the conditions that come out to me where I'd be comfortable talking about then a very, very significantly lower force level in the country. And if the government's committed to those things and if they can demonstrate that, then certainly it would be very easy to foresee a future with a very low presence there. And we'll just have to see how that develops. There is still time for those things to happen, although time is not limitless.

Missy Ryan OK. And then I just have two follow ups regarding Iraq. So can you just give us any clarity on your comment that the overall decision on the future American presence will be a political decision by the U.S., then by the Iraqis. But, given the expectation that there'll be some sort of decrease, but hopefully some continued presence, can you give us an idea of what you think from a military perspective would be required in a continued presence? I mean, are we talking about like an advising and institutional support mission and some sort of special operator presence? Or are we just talking about something that could go down like what we saw between 2011, 2014 during the OSDI period? Can you give us an idea of that and then the follow-on dichotomy? I know that you said that you were encouraged by what he's done. Are you worried, though, that he could step too far and sort of jeopardize his ability to govern by taking too dramatic action against the forces that are powerful in his country?

General McKenzie Let me take the second question first. Yes. I mean, look, he is in a very difficult position. And he's a very brave man. I think he's a very astute Iraqi leader who actually, I think, values the sovereignty of this nation, a very high level. And I appreciate that because I have the same view as an American. I think he's negotiating a land mine now. I think we need to help him. And he's just got to kind of find his way, which means we're going to have less than perfect solutions, which is nothing new in Iraq. But generally, I'm a glass half full guy, when I look at the prime minister and what he's doing. So I don't want to discuss specific numbers going forward in in Iraq, Missy. But what I would tell you is that we will look at the mission that we've got. And right now, we're no longer accompanying conventional units. Now, we were off that mission. We think there's a role for us to assist in training. There's a role for us to assist in institutional capacity building. Our NATO partners in the NATO mission to Iraq will take on a significant amount of ministerial work in that regard. We will probably do more with them as operations simply because of the exquisite nature of those of those operations. But at the same time, eventually we'll look at we'll look to right size that. So actually, I feel pretty confidently that we're going to have a good substantive dialogue with the government of Iraq about what their requirements are. And I think we're going to be able to arrive at something that meets both our needs.

Missy Ryan OK, thanks.

Luis Martinez Sir, can I ask you, what are your thoughts about the prime minister's relationship with Iran? Obviously the militia is still key players. But you spoke just now about his key his goal of maintaining sovereignty and that's important to him, but he must have to keep his eye on Iran, doesn't he? And how far do you?

General McKenzie Well sure it's a neighboring country. There's significant economic, cultural, and other interactions between the two of them. And so I think we would be naive if we didn't think he's going to have to take Iran into account and he's going to have to have dealings with Iran. I would expect that. And I think that it would be unreasonable to not expect that.

Luis Martinez But at the same time, I mean, doesn't that mean that he just can't, he won't, be able to control those PMFs that have sworn allegiance to Iran? I mean, how did he bring them in?

General McKenzie I think over time his intent is to move in that direction. I think he's going to require patience on our part. It's going to require understanding at the same time. On the other side of the coin is we're not going to be able to tolerate attacks against us or our coalition partners from those groups. The prime minister knows that as well. Look, I don't want to minimize the difficulty of the role that he's got. It is a uniquely difficult and demanding role to be the prime minister of Iraq right now. And I just think he's off to a pretty good start under very tough and trying conditions.

Luis Martinez And last one here on recent rocket attacks, or attempted rocket attacks are you engaged with countermeasures that were sent into Iraq?

General McKenzie Yes, we have. And yes, we have recently against the last rockets that were fired at the embassy compound here in Baghdad, we did engage. I am not certain if a rocket hit the embassy, I could not tell you exactly what the effect of it was. But we did engage.

Luis Martinez And that's the land version of the CIWS right?

General McKenzie I'm sorry say again.

Luis Martinez Sir, I think it is called the C-Ram is that correct?

General McKenzie Yes it is called the C-RAM. No, sorry. I just couldn’t hear it. It’s a serious gun system, fires automatically. We use it in a couple of places across the theater. It is generally very effective.

Luis Martinez [And that's what we engaged with them.

General McKenzie That is correct.

Luis Martinez Thank you.

Lolita Baldor And General can I just follow up quickly on that? We talked a lot about preventive measures when we were with you earlier this year. And do you believe you've gotten everything into Iraq that you believe necessary to protect the forces there? And then what's your view on the Turkish incursions into northern Iraq? Did you talk about that?

General McKenzie Sure. So let me just talk about force protection measures. Look we constantly seek to improve. We run up some great capabilities. There's no commander alive that wouldn't always want more. But given what we have available and the nature of the threats, I think we're in a pretty good place now. But we constantly evaluate the threats and are ready to reposition as required to adjust. It is a constant battle, a plus and minus out there. They come up with something. We have a countermeasure and vice versa. So we're always we're always in that dynamic equation with them. But I think that we're in a good place now. We'll continue to evaluate going forward.

For the Turks up north, recognizing Turkey's legitimate security concerns. It's never a good idea to go into a neighboring country, even if it's for a very good reason. As you know, as they would tell you, they've done here. The prime minister and I did not have the opportunity to have that discussion today.

Missy Ryan And I have two Iran related questions. The first one is there is a news report the other day that Qasem Soleimani's successor, Ghaani, was in Syria. Have you noticed any changes in Iran's dealings with the Quds Force or Iran's dealings with external militias in the last few months since he has sort of come on board and taken a consolidated position as the new commander? And then the bigger picture question is, we talked a lot during the trip in January and February about reestablishing deterrence following the events of December and early January, maybe contested deterrence, and I just wondered how you would characterize the stage that the U.S. and the US military is in now vis a vis Iran strategically across the region? You know, we have continued economic and political pressure on Iran, but at the same time, you got some of the military assets that were ported to the region after those events are not there anymore. And I just wondered if you could characterize how you see that overall situation.

General McKenzie Sure. I think they miss Qasem Soleimani. I think over a period of decades, he reached a unique position in Iranian planning, in Iranian execution, and in Iranian leadership. And the fact that he is gone, they have not been able to fill his role. I'm not certain they're ever going to fill the role that he played. I think it still has an effect on them and they're not as coordinated as they once were, and there's a number of things they don't do as well as they once used to do. And I don't know that anyone's going to come along to replace him - just my judgment. The second thing is, yes, I still assess that we are in a period of contested deterrence. And as you've heard me say before, the mission of United States Central Command is while the maximum pressure campaign continues, the mission of U.S. Central Command is to deter the Iranians from believing they can strike back either overtly or covertly against us or our partners and coalition friends in the region in order to destabilize and reset the rules of that of that maximum pressure campaign. We want to make sure it's clear to them, evident to them, that in the mind of the opponent, deterrence is a cognitive process, recognizing the object you want is not worth the potential risk to what you hold dear to go after it. And I think we're still we're still doing that right now. But as you know, I called a contested deterrence because it's not pure. There are still activities going on around the edges. Here in Iraq you occasionally see the rocket attacks on our forces. I think Iran is still desires to pursue a vision of the United States leaving the region. And I believe for a while early this year, they felt they had a political track to do that in Iraq. I don't think they see that track is available to them anymore. And as a result, they're sort of assessing where they're going to go. But I think they are still in the process of thinking about how they proceed from the events of January. And I don't think that has been fully digested in their national security decision making process. And they've come out with a way forward, to be honest with you.

Missy Ryan OK. And just the fact that some of the assets that you were able to procure in the aftermath of that have been deployed elsewhere, did that that weaken the deterrence at all?

General McKenzie Well, we've still got a lot of stuff here. And I would tell you, the combatant commander cannot have the perspective that you're the only show in town. You know, there are other places where we need to put some of this material. And so I recognize that. You cannot afford to be completely focused on what you do. You have to recognize the United States has global requirements and those global requirements have to be sourced. So you might not get as much as you want. And I participate very vigorously in those debates when we talk about allocating forces. But when it's all said and done, recognize that the United States is a global power and we have requirements all around that we've got to fill. So I accept that and we'll go forward with what we've got, knowing that we can bring stuff back in pretty quickly should it be necessary. OK.

Missy Ryan Thanks.

Luis Martinez As you're aware, there have been these mysterious explosions inside Iran. Have the explosions--in your mind are they coincidental? Do you think that something's up? And what are the some of the capabilities that have been damaged as a result of these explosions?

General McKenzie Yeah, that's one. Luis, I'm going to leave that one alone. The Iranians--they're talking a lot about it. I just listen to what the Iranians say on that. Really, Luis, I got nothing more on that one.

Luis Martinez Thank you, sir. About the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia. What do you think is going to happen there with regard to the numbers and the capabilities? Do you see continuing maintaining that for the foreseeable future, will that become an enduring mission as well, or is that just going to be conditions based?

General McKenzie I think I would argue that we need to keep a presence there. Again, we'll have to go back and take a look at it. It'll be a discussion I have with the Secretary of Defense. And will be a discussion we also have with our Saudi partners, as we take a look at what we're going to keep there and under what conditions we're going to keep it. So, we look at what represents a significant amount of resources for the United States. I think it does good things. But those are essentially decisions that are yet ahead of us. And I have a position on it, but I wouldn't care to develop it further. Right now, I'd like to continue these discussions and sort of see where it goes.

Luis Martinez Thank you.

General McKenzie OK, listen. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. Like I said, it's been a long day. I just got off an airplane and, it's a long haul around the theater. So thanks for taking the call. Glad to talk to you and Bill will follow up with anything. You'll have a great day. OK.

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https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/STATEMENTS/Statements-View/Article/22668
79/gen-mckenzie-interview-transcript-with-lolita-baldor-luis-martinez-and-missy-ry/

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT: GENERAL MCKENZIE, RUSSIAN TROLL, SAYS THAT THERE WASN'T ENOUGH IN THE INTELLIGENCE TO CAUSE HIM TO CHANGE ANYTHING.

YANNO, IT IS POSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT "RUSSIA IS NOT OUR FRIEND" AND ALSO TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE NOT GUILTY OF EVERTHING THEY'RE ACCUSED OF. BECAUSE ... EVIDENCE.


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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Wow, interesting...

T

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I take it you find the complete reality to be too much for you, and consider a complete set of actual facts to be trolling.

Do you prefer 5-word snippets that tell you want you want to hear instead?

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Trolling was the intent. It's why comrade sig posted such a whopper. I'm glad you agree she was trolling the thread she posted it in. Good for you comrade kiki. Good for you.


T

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Originally posted by THG:

Quote:

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I take it you find the complete reality to be too much for you, and consider a complete set of actual facts to be trolling.

Do you prefer 5-word snippets that tell you want you want to hear instead?

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Trolling was the intent. It's why comrade sig posted such a whopper. I'm glad you agree she was trolling the thread she posted it in. Good for you comrade kiki. Good for you.


T

Stupid people don't know they're stupid, and they certainly don't realize how obvious it is to others.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Well dang but the Argentinian ants came back a couple of months ago. At first they were at very low levels and tolerable, but since then their numbers have increased and they've created significant ant trails to the kitchen sink and trash (they haven't found the cat food yet).

For years - YEARS - I would try different things to block or clean away their chemical trails. I've tried cinnamon and cloves, dish detergent and carpet cleaner, aspirin and diatomaceous earth - I've probably tried 50 things by now if not more, and every single one has failed.

But I recently tried something that works! HAND SANITIZER! They sort of flinch away from following their trail when the hand sanitizer is wet, and after it dries, they just won't cross that line.



AHA!!! Take THAT! Argentinian ants.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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SIGNYM:
Well. Here it is July 7th and I still haven't gotten my rear in gear. All I've managed to do was little piddly stuff: We always do "safe and sane" fireworks for the 4th, which we did again this year. Went with hubby and dd while they went to see the doctor. As I mentioned, replaced a couple of thermostats and put up and indoor/outdoor bluetooth weather station. Repaired a couple of hose ends so I could insert trigger grip nozzles, helped sort wire and screws, walked the dog and yada yada. Small stuff.

But I have plans for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, so I think I just needed a break. I feel like my energy might be coming back, and after a nice rest most of my aches and pains have throttled back.

So here's hoping I get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to roll tomorrow.


SIX: It's hot by you, ain't it?
Don't hurt yourself.

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Thanks SIX.

Managed to get out early enough to walk the dog, do yardwork yesterday and have a righteous bin of yardwaste to show for it. Also helped hubby sort out more stuff in the garage.


DIDN'T manage to get out early this AM, so contented myself with walking the dog, watering the flower garden and watering and harvesting the veggie garden (cucumbers, zucchini, and avocados galore), and tracking down the fuckups that hubby's retirement plan managed to create, as well as grocery shopping (yet to do).

But tonight I'm going to irrigate the whole property in prep for weeding over the next few days.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Originally posted
Yeah, but it's just a temporary wipe away of their pheromone trail though. If they found something they like, they'll keep coming back and making new ones as long as they're alive.

Not sure about Argentinian ants, but they sold this 5 pack of indoor ant-bait at Menard's that couldn't have cost more than $4 by me and that killed all trace of whatever ants were in my house around 3 years back. They had gotten so bad by that point that if I fell asleep after eating a bowl of cereal I would wake up with about 300 in the bowl and a solid line to and from wherever they were coming from. One bait trap and less than a day later they were gone. Except for the ones that decided it was a good idea to swim in it, they had the decency to bring it back to their hive and kill everybody there and not leave trails of dead carcasses all over my floor too.


Good luck. I'm not afraid of much, but after my previous problems I'm a 40 year old man that has an irrational fear of ants.


Do Right, Be Right. :)

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SIGNYM:
Well. Here it is July 7th and I still haven't gotten my rear in gear. All I've managed to do was little piddly stuff: We always do "safe and sane" fireworks for the 4th, which we did again this year. Went with hubby and dd while they went to see the doctor. As I mentioned, replaced a couple of thermostats and put up and indoor/outdoor bluetooth weather station. Repaired a couple of hose ends so I could insert trigger grip nozzles, helped sort wire and screws, walked the dog and yada yada. Small stuff.

But I have plans for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, so I think I just needed a break. I feel like my energy might be coming back, and after a nice rest most of my aches and pains have throttled back.

So here's hoping I get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to roll tomorrow.


SIX: It's hot by you, ain't it?
Don't hurt yourself.

SIGNYM: Thanks SIX.
Managed to get out early enough to walk the dog, do yardwork yesterday and have a righteous bin of yardwaste to show for it. Also helped hubby sort out more stuff in the garage.

DIDN'T manage to get out early this AM, so contented myself with walking the dog, watering the flower garden and watering and harvesting the veggie garden (cucumbers, zucchini, and avocados galore), and tracking down the fuckups that hubby's retirement plan managed to create, as well as grocery shopping (yet to do).
But tonight I'm going to irrigate the whole property in prep for weeding over the next few days.

SIX: Just make sure you take some breaks if it's too hot by you still.

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It's actually going to cool off to the mid 80's for a few days here, so I plan to take full advantage of that. I'm going to attempt to jack up that front porch overhang tomorrow. I've gone rediculously overboard on supplies and materials. I've got 4 pole jacks that can lift 20,000lbs each when fully extended (38,000lbs if not extended), a couple of insanely long 4"x4"'s, cinderblocks, piles of wood and screws and brackets for any repairs I'll need to make, and 100sq ft of chicken wire to keep the raccoons out if I have to expose a lot of stuff underneath before jacking.

Would be nice to have some assistance, but it looks like I'm on my own again for this one. Slow and steady wins the race.

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SIX: In any case, just got back from my brothers and a long day of mostly driving. It was a little hairy there at first because of the damage done by the previous botched attempt at a repair by my old man, but I was finally able to figure everything out and my brother's scooter is in working order again. I also had to teach him a lesson about inflating tires, since the front tire only had 11.5 lbs of pressure in it, and the back tire that is directly below where he sits had a scary 3.5 lbs of pressure in it.

I also had to stress on multiple occasions that he's going to need to retrain himself on riding that bike now as if it were a new one, since his top speed is likely to be much greater than it was before and leaning to make turns is going to be a lot easier (and easier to just tip over) if he tries to do it like he had to when they were that low.

There might be other issues with it, but there wasn't enough time to look into it now. Strange knocking noise it makes on occasion and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was making it. All the bolts are tight everywhere though and I'm about 99% sure that nothing should fall apart. I let him know that I didn't think anything going on would put him in any danger other than leaving him a few miles away and needing to walk it back home if something went wrong, but to be careful until I can come back for a few days and spend more time on it.


We also managed to fix his dual recliner couch that he was convinced we were going to be throwing to the curb when we got there too.

None of my stuff got done today, but knowing he can get around on his own and he can sleep in the room with the A/C unit again is just a few less things burdening my mind right now.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Well dang but the Argentinian ants came back a couple of months ago. At first they were at very low levels and tolerable, but since then their numbers have increased and they've created significant ant trails to the kitchen sink and trash (they haven't found the cat food yet).

For years - YEARS - I would try different things to block or clean away their chemical trails. I've tried cinnamon and cloves, dish detergent and carpet cleaner, aspirin and diatomaceous earth - I've probably tried 50 things by now if not more, and every single one has failed.

But I recently tried something that works! HAND SANITIZER! They sort of flinch away from following their trail when the hand sanitizer is wet, and after it dries, they just won't cross that line.



AHA!!! Take THAT! Argentinian ants.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, I went and bought a small laundry hamper and turned it upside down to use as a writing table of sorts. Still not really high enough, so might have to get something else to add to it.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sounds like you're making excellent progress, SIX!

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Finally getting around to important things instead of doing arts and crafts projects.

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Just OOC, what do you intend to do with the sunken part of your foundation, if that's what's going on? I'm sure you don't want to take that portion all apart, re-pour the footer and rebuilt the block wall. Or maybe you do? Or is there a simpler fix to raise the foundation so your sill plate is even?

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SIGNYM:
Sounds like you're making excellent progress, SIX!

SIX: Finally getting around to important things instead of doing arts and crafts projects.

SIGNY: Just OOC, what do you intend to do with the sunken part of your foundation, if that's what's going on? I'm sure you don't want to take that portion all apart, re-pour the footer and rebuilt the block wall. Or maybe you do? Or is there a simpler fix to raise the foundation so your sill plate is even?

SIX: It's not the foundation that sunk.

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It's a concrete slab porch in the front of the house that goes out about 5 feet from the front door, and 21 feet wide. The overhang extends 4 feet from the siding (3 feet more than the roof overhang on the rest of the front of the house) and is around 20 feet wide... about 19.5 feet wide from column center to column center.

I'm thinking this has probably gone on for many years and had never been addressed, possibly before I even moved in.

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I know the gutters didn't help, and other things like the ants and moles probably contributed to it. I think putting that blower in the window of the overhang on a heavy wooden table and having that rattle around 12 hours a day all summer last year didn't help... in fact, I didn't get any drywall cracking in the attic until after I was doing that.

Just as I suspected after opening things up, the columns were never supporting any weight to begin with. They were simply decoration. Decoration that was bolted to the slab, and then further bolted into the frame of the overhang. As the slab sunk, it was pulling the overhang down with it, and that was messing up my entire roof.

How did I verify that? Well it did exactly what I thought it would do and my pole jacks that were up tight became loose as I unscrewed the 3 heavy duty hex screws out of the header that went through the columns. I had to continually stop unscrewing that so I could lift my jacks up tight again.

All in all, the overhang went up about a full inch without any help from the jacks.


I'm going to wait a few more days before I jack them up any further. This process will be slow since you don't want to rush it and break stuff.

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It's hot and humid out, so this is the best time of year to be doing this, but slow and steady wins the race. I can't say for sure how much it needs to be jacked up, but it's got to be at least level. Otherwise the gutters won't work in the front after they're installed on the sides that go out perpendicular to the front door. I might even choose just to put them just a tad higher than level just to slightly future proof any further sinking of the porch slab.

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In the mean time, I've got to consider how I'm going to put it back together. I'd like to get more substantial columns for one, since they actually will be supporting weight this time. I want to do a better job of waterproofing them too, since even with the gutters installed they will get wet toward the ground, and ants are not afraid of tearing into green wood that will eventually rot if exposed to water all of the time. I'd also like to put everything back together so it's an easy task to get back in there instead of a 2 day project that requires extra care not to damage things you want to reuse.

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My foundational issues are in the back of the house. There is a broken patch under the bathroom window that's just letting water in when we have these heavy rains. That's going right down to the floor and seeping out under the cinderblocks. It's why I had to mop up nearly 200 gallons of water to save the basement that day my brother was here and the city sewers weren't working.

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90% of that should be remedied when the gutters are installed, but if I don't patch that all up properly I'll still get water in the basement even with the gutters if we keep having progressively worse springs like we've hat the last 5 or 6 years.

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SIX: We've had a few storms over an inch since then, but plenty of time for everything to dry out in between, and I haven't gotten any water down there in quite a while. It's when we have 3 days of 3 inches of rain in a single week when I start having problems with it.
It's raining tonight, but once again we're missing the bulk of it. We're getting a decent amount of rain, but it will probably only be a half inch when I was expecting a full 2" in 6 hours.

So far it's bone dry again with zero evidence that it would leak if it were raining any harder. But I really won't let that one go until we do get another monsoon around here.

I might not be able to truly verify if my roof patch worked until next spring the way this summer is going. (I can't believe that I'm actually mad that we're missing all the heavy rain right now). *grumble grumble grumble*

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
That's a sweet-looking desk, KIKI. If I didn't have a houseful of furniture... some of which I'd like to get rid of... I'd get one!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Whew!

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Yeah. At least it seems the foundation of the house itself was built well. I have some fixing that needs to be done, but unlike the porch addition they knew what they were doing on the house.

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That may have something to do with that intermittent underground stream that KIKI suggested was running under your home. It CAN move ... and remove ... a fair bit of dirt

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It's possible, but now that I know more about the area it's probably that it's just constantly wet soil around here unless we've got a drought. The ditch across the street that is supposed to take care of a lot of this was up to the top all spring long, and when I say "up to the top", that looks to be about 5 feet higher than my first floor. We've gone almost a month now with hardly any rain and my grass is still growing like weeds and hasn't turned brown, even though its' been in the high 80's and 90's nearly everyday and sunny.

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Gutters need to be angled slightly downward toward the downspouts, correct?

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Yeah, but you can do that by angling the gutters themselves and probably shouldn't rely on a bad pitch of your roof and structure to do that work for you.

Plus, if you look at my pictures, I don't know how many downspouts should be installed and exactly where. I'll let the gutter guy decide that one for me. But if I put two of them on the right side of the overhang that's probably overkill and will look dumb, since it's only about 4.5 feet either way. But if I put it on the back corner and not at the front of the overhang on the right side and the angle is downward away from the house, it would simply pool up in there and start dumping over the side of the gutter when it rained heavy.

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So basically the answer to the sunken (sinking?) slab is to put in taller columns, right?

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Maybe? I'm hoping the sinking issue is going to be mostly remedied after the gutters are installed. I'm going to be jacking the overhang up quite a bit to get it level, so there is now going to be a lot of downward pressure on the front of the slab that hasn't been there for a long time. I'm going to see if I can do any meaningful research before I do anything. I think I'm going to get wider columns that look fancier and have more surface area on contact with the slab too.

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That must be some crack! And some underground stream!

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It's cinder block walls, so not a crack per sa... A mortar joint deteriorated at some point below the window, and idiots who lived here before did a horrible patch job on the surface that cracked at some point because that's what happens when you take shortcuts and do things the wrong way. I'm just hoping that it doesn't go down much more than a single layer of blocks or I'm going to be in for a lot of digging.

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Er... that's what climate scientists say. Warmer air lofts more water, leading to more precipitation. Except for the extreme southwest, where much of that lofted, wrung out air sinks and dries things out.

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I'm not going to argue that. Lake Michigan is where our water is supposed to eventually go but it's not going anywhere because Lake Michigan is past max capacity.

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It's hard to believe that you'd get 200 gallon from off your roof. Not sure of the configuration of that area of your house. I thought that the full-height part of the basement was in the back, so are you talking about a crack that could potentially extend deep into the soil, or is just at the soil surface?

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I'm hoping it's just at the soil surface. The last few years around here, the backyard is a freaking marsh after these 3" rains because there's so much water everywhere that never evaporates. At least we're having our first hot and relatively dry summer in 5 years, so at least there's that.

But given the amount of water everywhere that really has nowhere to go when it's raining like that, a big crack on the side of the house that extends at least 3" to 4" below soil on a wall that has hollow cinderblocks that just let it all flow in like a waterfall, that's a recipe for disaster if the water has nowhere else to go.

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If it's just at the surface, then anything keeping the water from puddling around the crack would help... gutters, as you say. Long diverters at the downspouts to lead the water farther away from the house/foundation. A dry well. Regrading the soil. Not sure of the exact condition of that area but all of that could help.

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Yup. I won't know until I do it all. My plan is to have all of my aluminum and gutters done as well as patching the foundation, power washing it all and putting the black tar coat on at least the top layer of bricks by mid August.

Then it's just waiting for next spring and keeping my fingers crossed.

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Oh, I'm sure you'll be due fora couple of whoppers later in the year, when cold air swooping down from Canada meets warm aie swooping up from the Gulf of Mexico, and meeting right above your house!

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Yup. If you don't like the weather in Chicago, just wait fifteen minutes.

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Best of luck, SIX! Keep us updated on your progress!

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Managed to get out my three bins of yardwaste, and dug into the tax statements and banking records to figure out ONE of hubby's retirement fuckups. That one is a simple fix even tho it involved two institutions making several mistakes in a row, it only left a problem on the 1099. Not sure about the other one, but I did manage to explain in detail to the research team what happened with the first problem.

Have been helping hubby sort things and put the garage in order. It's been my mission to sort and label all of his wood screws. machine bolts, eyebolts etc and he has a crap=ton! An 8'X16" shelf-full!

Heard from an ex-colleague of mine that one of the former souce testers has fourth stage pancreatic cancer. That's terrible news. I didn't really like a lot of people that I worked with, I thought most of them were just amoral, but this tester was a real standup kind of guy, and didn't mind crossing TPTB to get things done. I'm trying to write an email to him, but I don't know what to say.

Other than that, I'm just keeping on keeping on. Nothing special or big going on. Need to get my rear in gear on the legal aspects of our daughter's future, and do some concerted work in that direction.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I've been struggling to stay awake, and dozing off sitting up all day, despite lots of coffee in the AM.

That is NOT the way to get things done!

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, I went and bought a small laundry hamper and turned it upside down to use as a writing table of sorts. Still not really high enough, so might have to get something else to add to it.

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Hi Brenda!

IDK how expensive or cheap this kind of thing might be, but have you considered ordering something like this?



If you want to do some internet checking, after looking around a bit, the name for this category of furniture is called

drop front desk

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Happy sunshine day, BRENDA!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Those aren't cheap, even on the low end (around $200 at Walmart and Target). And that one looks to be at least middlingly fancy with quality wood.

If a laundry hamper is what you're trying to use right now Brenda, you could probably find a bar stool at the local goodwill for under 5 bucks.

I'm assuming it's not just the cost that is prohibiting you from getting a proper piece of furniture, but also the ease of being able to bring something home with you as well. A bar stool is lightweight and easy to move around.

You could even get a small piece of plywood cheap and bring that home with you and either drill or glue that to the top of the bar stool. If it has padding, just remove that to affix it to the bare wood.

And if it turns out to be too high for you, all you need to do is saw off the four legs to the length you want it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by Brenda:
You are right. It's not just the cost but my ability to get it home. I was looking for that at Walmart but they don't have any in stock right now. I'm thinking about checking out my local Salvation Army Thrift store in the next couple of days for something better.

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