Truth Matters

Thank you, it is my honor to have Served.

I do not agree. To explain why, I have to ask you this question first—a question I know you cannot answer, but I have to ask anyway. I am going to assume the answer because you cannot answer.

Do you know the difference between a 'credo' and an 'oath'?

I am going to assume your answer to be 'yes' and we can move forward.

I do not agree that a Soldier's 'credo' is to be loyal to the Constitution and not a President. A 'credo' is nothing more than a personal belief—an idea that what they believe is right and true. The literal translation from credere is 'I believe' or 'I trust.' Although I do believe and trust in my choices as a Soldier, my reason why is a little bit more formal.

On 27 November 1989, I took my first real Oath of Enlistment at Fort McClellan, Alabama. That Oath is a formal promise not to the President, not to the Constitution of the United States, but to 'We The People' that I will always defend the Constitution first and foremost. I will defend every single word as written, not as implied or reimagined to mean. I will defend the parts I do not like just as much as the parts I do. I do not get a say in what is best or worst about the Constitution. I only have to understand my Oath requires me to defend it even if no one pays attention to it.

Example:

I will defend a flag burner because they have that Right; I do not have to like it, but the Right is there to use. Equally, I will defend a human's Right not to be owned by another human.

The Rights laid out in the Constitution are not a list of things that the government is giving us through their benevolence. It is a list of Rights that exist before the laws of man. They preempt the laws of man and tell the world, 'These Rights already exist. This list is what the government is tasked with safeguarding for "We The People".'

My Oath is a formal, lifelong contract between the people of the United States and me—that I will always hold the Constitution over a political party, over the ebbs and flows of political and military powers. I will ALWAYS keep the Constitution as my one guiding star. My Oath is to the Constitution, not to a person or idea. That is much more powerful than a credo.

As for the 'President of the United States' and 'officers appointed over me' and 'regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice,' we have baked-in checks and balances in our General Orders, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 92, Law of Armed Conflict, Law of Land Warfare, and many other documents. Humans are capable of failure, of nefarious want and need, of vanity and the need for retaliation. The Constitution has no such failings.

If the President and all the officers over me issue an illegal order, I am obligated to NOT follow those orders. If I do that based on a 'credo,' there is a good chance I will be doomed. But if I follow the Constitution, I might still be persecuted and prosecuted, but my Oath will still be intact.

the true face of the Mortal Sin of Lust

Starmer said, ‘Every decision I have taken has been about putting the party I love first. That’s why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party.’

And then…..

My dash went dark, I made it about another 30 miles before she died. Dammit. I was almost to camp!

Let’s just say it was really hard not to laugh at this poor mute guy shouting at the other car as we almost took em out. 🤣

It was the alternator. I had to look it up, not sure if any of you remember when I drive my buddy’s shit from portland to Las Cruces 4 years ago but same thing happened then. And apparently 4 years before that….and 4……

Local shop took really good care of me and a close friend baled me out by letting me put the $900 on his cc until next week. Back on the road and got to work this morning way early. Sadly there’s ZERO cell service for anything besides Verizon at old faithful. I could find the jobsite, I also couldn’t call anyone, or text anyone, or look at a map, or…… I didn’t want to drive and hour back the other way just to drive the hour back plus traffic.

Finally figured it all out and everything went well for my first day. The scenery was incredible. The traffic leaving was absolutely horrendous, every bit as horrible as portland traffic except…… the scenery was magnificent and I get paid for travel each way. Reminding myself of that kept me pretty happy really.

So here’s today’s images for you all.

@salt-n-tigers I've logged over 700k on the 7.3L (F-250 and Excursion) and I learned a LOT about failing alternators from the old guy (LOL) that owned the alternator shop I used. He'd been at it for 40+ years and passed aling his wisdom instead of just selling me replacements he knew would fail.

I was going through batteries and alternators about every two years and it got very expensive. Of course I was buying rebuilt ("remanufactured") alternators and trying to get the last mile of life out of the batteries, and they simply didn't last. Once I learned why and followed the advice below, my alternator/battery life doubled.

1. Never install a rebuilt alternator on a diesel. When alternators are manufactured new, the internal wiring is crimped onto the rectifier. When the cores are rebuilt (remanufactured) the wires are soldered, not crimped. The consistent high temps of the diesel engine compartment degrade the solder connections over time and they fail. The upshot is, don't install "rebuilt" or remanufactured alternators on a diesel truck.

2. When an alternator is failing it very likely is causing damage to the batteries. When an aternator goes bad you should replace the batteries (both) because although they may test as "good", they are likely failing.

3. When one battery is failing it will kill the other battery (on a two battery setup, like on the 7.3L Fords). If you only replace the "bad" battery, the older battery you think is good will dramatically shorten the life of the new battery. Always replace them in pairs.

4. When the batteries are marginal they draw far more charging current which creates more heat in the alternator. Heat kills alternators. See point 1 above.

5. Finally, never install a remanufactuted starter on a diesel truck either. Although they don't relate to battery life like alternators do, they suffer from the same soldered connections (instead of the OEM crimped connections).

Yes, it costs more to fix it right but the repair will last far longer, and IMHO be cheaper in the long run.

Daughter said she saw something move on the railing but so many feral cats paid no mind. I saw him walk along the top and then go up the pool pole. Meet Jerry.

This MP5 variant can easily be identified by the addition of the Bolt Hold Open device which locks the bolt open on an empty magazine, another FBI-required feature. The straight gray polymer magazine also gives it away as a 40 S&W.

Factory original, intact examples are very rare as they were never released in semi-auto as a model 94 variant (semi-auto civilian) although they are still seen in parts kit form. As a de-milled parts kit they are now selling for about $3500-4000, or a little less with non-German parts.

The fire control group that's pictured is a "Navy" four position variant with a three-round burst feature. That wasn't included on the FBI model so I assume this is either a clone built on a parts kit (most likely) or someone upgraded a factory model with the Navy lower. The original would have been a Safe-Fire-Full three position FCG.

I finally was upgraded to high speed Internet, so I'm looking at streaming and possibly subscribing to a couple channels. Frindly seems good as does howdy and paramount+ shows strong possibilities and finally sling.

So what do y'all subscribe to? Any suggestions or pointers would be appreciated.

Please reblog for a wider response

We have YouTubeTV but at $90+/month (total) I think it's way overpriced but my wife likes it so I grudgingly keep paying for it. The only advantage to it is you can record shows to play later--until they "expire" when they simply vanish--annoying.

We also have Amazon's Prime+ TV (paying extra to avoid the ads--most of them anyway) which is great for newer movies. But if you're looking for broadcast-type shows the two free services @salt-n-tigers and I mentioned are really great.

I forgot to mention two other Geek-ier options, Plex and VLC Media Player. If you have a computer connected to your TV or watch TV on a computer or tablet, etc. these are two great options that allow you to choose from a much bigger pool of channels.

PLEX MEDIA SERVER

Plex is primarily a media organizing app that people (like me) use to catalog and stream their media collections. But Plex also offers a streaming service on the Smart TV, desktop, and phone apps that has a great deal to offer. It's ad-supported but there's a lot there...movies, TV, music, etc.

I only use Plex on my home media server to stream movies and music to my TV's and devices and haven't taken the plunge into their streaming service, but it gets good reviews elsewhere.

VLC MEDIA PLAYER

If you watch TV via a computer or conputer-connected TV, VLC Media Player is the Swiss army knife of media apps. It's extremely popular for playing videos but most people don't know it can stream IPTV channels as well. VLC allows access to a vast (and I mean HUGE) catalog of internet streaming channels. If a channel is being broadcast on the internet, it's probably available using VLC.

The disadvantage is there's no content guide per se--you have to dig and explore based on the streaming title or find a link from someone else.

Here's how to access the streaming channels on Windows (Mac or Linux may differ) using VLC:

1. Open (or install) VLC Player.

2. Click the Media menu at the top left.

3. Choose "Open Network Stream" and enter the following URL:

http://iptv-org.github.io/index.m3u

4. Click "Play" and wait for it to load. It'll take a minute.

5. When the URL loads, click "View" at the top and choose "Playlist".

By default the first channel will start playing (probably not in English--it's world-wide index of known streaming channels and alphabetical).

6. Choose View->Playlist to display the index of available channels.

7. Pick your channel from the list or use the Search box at the top right of the window, for example "livenow from fox", "shooting sports life", "inwonder", or "the boat show", etc. and select the channel you want to watch in the playlist.

It can be a little intimidating since the playlist isn't curated, it's a world wide index, and you kinda have to guess what a channel contains based on its title (or Google) but it's worth the effort I think. If you see a channel on your favorite streaming service app (Tubi, Plex, etc.) then it's probably in the index.

8. Once you decide on a channel by clicking on it the stream will load in a small preview window at the bottom left.

9. Click the preview once and the channel will stream full screen.

You can create your own playlist of favorites or save inividual channels as URL's.