DeSaster
28/05/23 07:02
Oh my God! The debt ceiling! We're going to default! Bumbles Biden is throwing around the 14th amendment like there's no tomorrow. That's the amendment that he believes gives him the authority to raise the debt limit without Congress. It would create a constitutional crisis, some say. The courts would have to get involved, and who knows what bills would have to go unpaid while they sort that out. Biden's own Treasury Secretary says that using the 14th Amendment is just bunk in so many words. Here's the deal. Bernie Sanders' fingerprints are all over this plot to bring down whatever it is that he and his socialist counterparts in Congress want to bring down. What precisely is their end game here?
I like the prospects of the stock market losing 45% or more of its value if this all goes to shit. It would be the mother of all buying opportunities. Timing is everything. I'm also reminded that the days and weeks following the raising of the debt limit can also be quite tumultuous in the stock market because the signing off on a deal provides opportunities for those in power to take spending to new heights. It's a devil's brew, to be sure. I suppose I can just sit back and enjoy the ride and see where it all goes. For now, anyway, I'm wanting Speaker McCarthy to stick to his guns. Hold Bumble's feet to the fire and remember that you have all the cards. I'm not certain whose political goose gets cooked if it all goes sideways, but you need to put a stake in the ground somewhere, and I think McCarthy has done that with the legislation passed by the Republicans.
Did y'all see any of the videos posted to Twitter of Bumbles in Japan over the weekend at the G7 gathering? Can you be any more humiliated as an American citizen? There was this one 2-minute clip where he was going on and on about who the fuck knows what. I wish the video had shown the faces of the people in the audience. They must have been completely gobsmacked at the nonsensical nature of what they were witnessing. One headline I saw this morning said that European leaders are "quietly" preparing for Biden's loss in the 2024 election. This is what happens when you send a senile leader to meet with other world leaders who know senility or late-stage dementia when they see it. To see it in the leader of the free world who has his fingers on the nuclear codes to the second largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the planet had to be truly frightening.
Bumbles will probably blame the default, should it happen, on the group that he lovingly refers to as "extreme MAGA." Gotta blame someone, right? He'll probably say that the Republicans are not willing to go along because they want to hurt his chances for reelection. He'll have his excuses all worked out, and he'll use the bully pulpit to gaslight the bejesus out of the American people. With any luck, the Supreme Court will step in and spank the shit out of him for the sheer audacity of trying to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling on his own. It's about time we send the radical leftists a message that we have a Republic, and we'll not tolerate tyrants of any stripe, demented or not demented. That said, we all know that Bumbles is just the mouthpiece for the leftists that have taken over our government. This message is for them too.
Did you hear that fucking soy boy and Bumbles hack, Jake Sullivan, on the Sunday morning shows yesterday? Did he actually say that it was all right for the Ukrainians to use US military hardware to attack positions in Crimea? These fucking warmongers are going to get us nuked. Putin has been very clear about what Russia is willing to do if Ukraine attacks its homeland. Everyone knows what he's referring to. You would think that, at a minimum, Sullivan might soft pedal that kind of language, knowing full well how incendiary it sounds. On the other hand, Ukraine can't even defend cities like Bakhmut, so I'm not sure they have the wherewithal to launch an offensive to retake Crimea. I guess clowns will be clowns. The circus is always in town when Biden is around.
I'm waking up this morning to a picture splashed across the front pages of every newspaper in America of a large U-Haul van that had smashed through the gates of the White House overnight. Lying on the ground in front of the van was a perfectly poised Nazi flag. You couldn't take a picture of the van without showing the Nazi flag, so there it was for all the world to see. It was by design, of course. You can't go on the telly as president of the United States and warn the country about the resurgence of White Supremacy without having an example from time to time to prove your point. The sad part about this entire propaganda campaign being run out of the West Wing in the White House is that there are people who will believe this shit. That's why they do it. It was just last week that we saw a large contingent of well-muscled and clean-shaven Caucasian masked men marching lockstep through our country's capitol while carrying White Supremacy banners. Anyone with half a brain could see they were FBI agents. Even sadder when considering this charade is the fact that the Democrat party has completely coopted our Intelligence agencies, or is it the other way around?
I'm in the camp that always thought that Kari Lake, the woman who ran for governor of Arizona in 2022, never stood a chance of winning her court cases after "losing" her election to one of the most moronic governors this country has ever seen, Katie Hobbs. It just seemed too rigged from the get-go. Lake was too polished and too tied at the hip with Donald J Trump to ever win a statewide election. She was too much of a threat to the establishment with all of her talk about putting a stop to the flow of illegal aliens coming into Arizona, essentially by issuing a declaration of invasion, stopping the flow of fentanyl at Arizona's border, and ironically enough, she promised to restore election integrity to the voters of Arizona. She had to be stopped at any cost by the establishment. I would go so far as to say that she will never get a fair hearing in any Arizona courtroom, no matter how strong her case is, how many witnesses she puts on the stand, or how convincing her evidence is at the end of the day. She is simply damaged goods at this point. And Katie Hobbs is still the worst governor in the United States, bar none. That's saying a lot.
How are we supposed to look at this move by the NAACP to warn people of color from going to Florida? Is it designed to create space between Governor DeSantis and blacks that DeSantis might need should his candidacy for the presidency become a thing? Fewer blacks in Florida may well result in less crime in the Sunshine State if you believe the statistical models. Less crime these days is a good thing if you're running for president. The NAACP accuses DeSantis of wanting to erase black history by restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. I guess, by extension, this includes Latino Americans as well. Make no mistake about it; the Democrat party and the NAACP are of one mind when it comes to achieving and keeping political power. They'll kneecap whomever they need to kneecap in order to keep power. The NAACP is but one of many organizations that are likely to jump into the fray to do the Democrat's bidding between now and when voters cast their first votes in the 2024 election. Me thinks the NAACP is the least of DeSantis's worries. My advice to DeSantis, for what it's worth: Ignore them.
Do you know what I don't like about DeSantis's candidacy? I don't like the fact that a huge part of his ascension to the nomination assumes the takedown of Donald J. Trump. DeSantis is relying on the deep state to come and do what he is otherwise unable to do. That spiteful little fuck is hoping and praying that there will be enough indictments and other legal pitfalls between now and the first primaries such that he can peel off enough disenchanted Trump supporters to make a go of it. If he succeeds, who do you think he'll be indebted to? That's right, the deep state. The very deep state, in fact, that Trump is promising to dismantle if and when he is reelected for a second term. How do we know DeSantis has the backing of the deep state? Look at the usual cast of losers supporting his candidacy. You've got Karl Rove and Jeb Bush, just to name two of the more high-profile losers. As I said, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth about this guy. I'm not saying that that's not true about others entering the race, but everyone else is in single digits, with DeSantis being the exception.
DeSantis is going on Spaces with Elon Musk on Twitter tonight at six o'clock to announce his candidacy. That's a hard pass for me. I'm not interested in hearing what he has to say one way or the other. I am curious as to how Trump might counter DeSantis's appearance on Spaces if for no other reason than to let just a little air out of DeSantis's balloon. You know, a distraction play of sorts. Something right out of the Trump playbook. I'd be a little disappointed if Trump let this shindig on Twitter Spaces come and go without saying or doing something. I'd also say that Twitter Spaces is not the kind of place you'd expect to find a certain demographic. Maybe what I'm saying is that Twitter Spaces isn't for everybody. I'm just not sure who DeSantis thinks he's appealing to by announcing his run for the presidency on Twitter Spaces. Maybe this is a power play by Elon Musk to get people to sign on to his platform. Musk has invited others as well, so this thing he's doing with DeSantis should not be misconstrued as an endorsement. Will Trump jump on Spaces during DeSantis's announcement just for shits and giggles? #BadBoy
My bike riding is coming along. I took a few days off last week for no particular reason, but I'm back in the saddle now. One thing I've noticed now that I'm wearing fewer things on my ride, including taking off my heavier winter gloves and trading them in for the usual biking gloves you see people wearing during the summer, is that my hands grip the handlebars differently. I liked the padding that I had with my heavier winter gloves for whatever reason. I've decided, and I don't know why it took me so long to reach this conclusion, that I prefer a heavier-duty handle grip. It dawned on me while I was on my ride last night, and I told myself that I would look on Amazon when I got back to the house. I don't always remember to follow up on things that occur to me while I'm on my ride, so there's that. Anyway, I placed the order, and my new grips should be here in a day or two. The bad news is that they cost $26. The good news is that I have a bunch of points saved up and available to use for the purchase.
It looks like things are about to get interesting for Target. They are reportedly concerned that they are vulnerable to the same sort of savagery that was laid at the feet of Anheuser Busch (Bud Light) after going down a rabbit hole of a sales campaign with the likes of Dylan Mulvaney. I told the story not long ago about being in a local Target where they hung mural after mural on their walls throughout the store featuring black people. I think it was an attempt of sorts to sell the inclusion, diversity, and equity bullshit to their customers. That sort of thing falls flat when you can count the number of black people in your community on any given day on one hand. Who are they proselytizing to precisely? Anyway, what I didn't know is that Target stores sell all of these newfangled get-ups for trans types, including clothing that allows you to tuck things away and God only knows what else. All of this stuff was front and center in their stores until the CEO rang up the managers and told them in no uncertain terms that the inventory had to be moved to a less visible location in their stores out of fear of a public backlash, ala Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. Let the chips fall where they may, is what I say.
True to my word, I steered clear of the DeSantis rollout on Twitter Spaces. From what I hear, it was a DeSaster. That's the way Trump put it, anyway. I heard that the so-called launch of his campaign on Spaces got off to a bad start. People were talking over people; the system was apparently unable to deal with the number of people signing on to Spaces; and this went on for a bit before they got it all squared away. I agree with one person I listen to that DeSantis has a beautiful family, and why he let someone talk him into a venue that didn't use his family as a backdrop was nothing if not a fireable offense. He probably can't do that because it would be tantamount to admitting that he couldn't get the job done when it was the one and only job that he had to do, and he still couldn't get it right. DeSantis doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who admits his mistakes. Forgive me if I already said this, but he really is a whiny little fuck. He was all over the television shows last night, and I damned near turned the thing off because I've heard and seen enough. I think I'm not alone.
I feel a little bad for the Musk man. This was his one chance to strut his stuff. It was his one chance to show that his company, Twitter, was the up-and-coming global town square that he envisioned from the day he purchased the company. DeSantis was one of many candidates that he hoped would use his forum, Twitter Spaces, to roll out their campaigns or just to offer forums for listeners of all political or non-political stripes to participate in open-ended discussions about this, that, and the other thing. I've listened in on some of them myself, and I can tell you that they are interesting and compelling on a lot of different levels. A lot depends on the subject matter and the backgrounds of the moderators. Anyway, Elon can't be feeling good about how he let the DeSantis people down. Elon puts rockets on the moon, satellites in our skies, and driverless cars on our roadways. This was not a "Mission Accomplished" moment for either DeSantis or Elon. You can get away with that when you're Elon Musk. He'll live to fight another day. As for DeSantis, this was a missed opportunity. Not fatal by any stretch of the imagination, but a missed opportunity nonetheless.
The Ev man will be stopping by for a visit this morning. If the Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, we'll take a ride across town and see if we can't pick up a nice butterfly bush for the missus. The Ev man said something yesterday about maybe stopping into Whole Foods to do a bit of food shopping while we're out and about. That's fine, I told him. I told the missus last night that we need to remind ourselves to mention to the Ev man that parking in and around Jersey Mike's in Portsmouth, should he decide to go there at some point, is tight as tight can be. The missus and I stopped by Jersey Mike's in Portsmouth last night, and it was a shit show in terms of the parking in and around the store. It seemed as though there were too many spaces in too tight a spot, not to mention the fact that there were too few parking spaces to support the number of stores. The design probably worked well on paper but not so well once one or more cars started to either enter or leave the assigned parking spaces. Adding either weed or alcohol to the mix, and you have something akin to a whirling dervish on steroids. A veritable hellscape, if you will.
It was kinda sad to hear that the musical icon, Tina Turner, died yesterday. She was a little before my time and, quite frankly, I confuse her from time to time with Aretha Franklin. I was surprised to hear that she was living in Switzerland at the time of her death. How the hell did she end up living in Switzerland, of all places? Can any American just pack up their things and move to Switzerland? It piqued my curiosity, so I asked ALEXA about Ms. Turner's net worth at the time of her death. Not because I thought you have to be wealthy to live in Switzerland, but if you are going to live there, it probably helps to have a lot of money. Her net worth was some $250 million! Good for her. And this morning, I'm reading a story about how Ms. Turner moved to Switzerland because they "treat you like you're Madonna." That's obviously a dated reference if you've seen any more recent pictures of Madonna. One too many facelifts is all I'll say. Think Wayne Newton. Tina Turner was eighty-three years old at the time of her death. Talk about a legend. She's leaving us far too soon. Godspeed, Tina!
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday against the Biden Administration and the EPA in its dispute over regulating wetlands. I remember hearing about this when Trump was president. The EPA issued regulations that essentially tied the hands of farmers when it came to managing their own farms if there was so much as a puddle on their property. I know that's a drastic oversimplification, but I'm no court reporter, so that's all I got. The good news is that the Biden Administration has been using the EPA to further its efforts on everything relating to Climate Change, so we now have a legal bulwark in place to slow down or even stop Biden's use of the agency to advance the Progressives' nutty interests. I think the decision was 9-0, so I'm not sure that packing the court, as the Progressives want to do, would have much of an effect were this issue to come before the court again. This is a win for the good guys. It's a bitch slap for Bumbles and his radical leftist regime. That won't stop Bumbles from continuing to issue rules from the Oval Office, but we take it one day at a time with these monsters.
What is this I'm hearing about Chinese hackers working behind the scenes to shut down communications in Guam? Does this have anything to do with making it more difficult for the United States to respond as quickly as necessary should the Chinese decide to move ahead with their "reunification" of Taiwan? Now, this morning, the Chinese are reporting that the United States has been hacking something or other in their country. I don't think this sort of thing helps diplomacy as diplomacy goes, so that's probably not a good thing. It seems to be more of a tit-for-tat kind of thing, truth be told. I don't hear the Chinese denying that they've hacked the Bejesus out of Guam, but then again, saying nothing is sometimes more effective than issuing a denial. I always think of a shell game when I hear about these kinds of things. You know, follow the shuffling of the three shells and see if you can figure out which shell is hiding the pearl when the shuffling stops. If China invades Taiwan this weekend, we'll know for sure what they were up to. Maybe a day late and a dollar short, but we'll know. Until then, it's sheer conjecture.
The missus and I stepped out last night for a meal at a local pizza joint. There were no waiting lines, and they seated us at a booth overlooking the parking lot and in full view of their wood-fired brick oven. We each ordered a salad, and we ordered a large cheese pizza to share. The food was pretty good, and it just felt good to be out and about having a meal for a change. We've been getting far too much take-out lately, and it was time to go out to a restaurant and order off a damn menu for a change. Service was pretty good, but the salads were slow in coming despite our request that our server bring the salads to the table ahead of the pizza. I think the missus was not happy that our server hadn't been by our table to see how things were going until we were a good three or four slices into our pizza, but that aside, I think we enjoyed ourselves. When I ordered a root beer to have with our meal, the missus reminded me that I probably didn't need the soft drink. That didn't stop her from having a swill here and there, and being the dutiful husband that I am, I refrained from telling her that she probably didn't need the soft drink. Neither of us drinks soda as a rule, but we both enjoy a little root beer on ice with a hot pizza from time to time. It was just nice to be out for a change, and on that, we were both in agreement.
I hate holiday weekends. It gets a little too busy hereabouts, and it interrupts my usual scheduling when it comes to bike rides and other things. For example, I'll need to get out on the road early this morning before traffic starts to pick up. There will be more cars parked along the road on which I travel, and that has me worrying about car doors opening, cars pulling in and out of tight spots, children with beach hats and pails in hand darting out into my path, drivers under the influence of just about everything, and then there's me doing my best to avoid it all. I suppose I could take the back roads, but that wouldn't be as much fun, and besides, I'm a creature of habit, so there's that. In the offseason, I ride when I feel like it, day or night. Well, just before dark, anyway. My biking aside, there's a general dearth of news on holiday weekends, and that never sits well with me, being the news junkie that I am. I guess I could start a new book. Maybe I'll tackle one of those songs by James Taylor that I've been wanting to learn to play on my guitar. Did I mention that there's no shortage of things that need doing around the house?
I read a piece in Zerohedge this morning online about our country sending some 700 US troops down to Peru. WUT? These are the things that you never hear about in the mainstream media. I guess I'm not even sure I know who they're referring to anymore when they refer to the mainstream media. The article was quick to mention that we already have some troops on the ground in Peru, perhaps as part of a larger peacekeeping force. What I didn't know until I read this article is that there is an unpopular unelected left-leaning group in charge of the country of Peru that has the sympathies and support of the Biden Administration and who is preventing the citizenry from holding elections. It gets worse. This Junta in charge, if that is what and who they are, has been using brutal crackdowns against the citizenry to control "regions recently engulfed in violence." So, the United States is now participating in violent crackdowns in order to prevent rightful elections? Whatever happened to Biden's wanting to uphold the sanctity of democratic norms wherever they exist? If I had to guess, I'd say Biden couldn't even find Peru on a map, given his cognitive challenges. Hell, he's probably still looking for the men's room in the Oval Office. Sadly, Peru is probably one of many countries where our influence, for better or worse, is just business as usual for the US. That doesn't make it any less disturbing.
It does make one wonder what sorts of tactics the Biden Junta is going to employ in 2024 to hold on to power here in the United States come Election Day. The Democrats changed a lot of laws in a lot of states in 2020, which helped them get Bumbles over the finish line. By hook or crook, you might say. They appear to be using lawfare here in the run-up to the 2024 elections in order to take the leading candidate, Donald J Trump, out of the race. This is what happens when you are successful as a political party in politicizing institutions like the Department of Justice and their affiliated investigative agencies like the FBI, etc. The orders go out from the White House, and the next thing you know, you're hearing about arrests and detentions of your political foes. How do you stop any of it? This has to be what our Founding Fathers warned us about some 250 years ago when they authored the Consitution. Was it Benjamin Franklin who said in response to a woman who asked if we had a republic or a monarchy replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."
I almost forgot. We had the dreaded Covid virus around in 2020, which gave rise to the entire absentee ballot bullshit. Trump declared victory on Election Night in 2020, only to lose those states that put him over the top once they allowed an avalanche of questionable mail-in ballots to be counted. I heard the other day that China is experiencing a resurgence of a much deadlier variant of the Covid virus now in circulation. Will we find ourselves back in absentee ballot hell come Election Day 2024? What are the chances that China is involved or otherwise complicit in keeping their boy, Beijing Biden, in office? He's a fully owned asset of the Chinese Communist Party if you believe the rumors out in the ether. He and his family have been bought and sold by many of our adversaries, including China. We have the receipts. Well, James Comer and the Republicans in Congress have the receipts. What does all of this mean? How does our selling out our sovereignty to the World Health Organization (WHO) fit into anything? Is the WHO in the business of printing ballots during pandemics?
It sounds like Speaker McCarthy and Bumbles Biden have agreed to a framework as it relates to raising the debt ceiling. So much of their bullshit is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, so we'll see how it fares when it goes back to their members for consideration. If I hear even a hint of applause from the Leftists, I'll know that McCarthy folded like a cheap suit. How do you even justify raising the debt ceiling and adding trillions more in debt to the thirty-two trillion we already have on the books? How is the stock market going to react? Will it be one of those infamous buy the rumor and sell the news stories? Yellen says we run out of money on June 5th, so we'll see how this thing unfolds this coming week. The inflation numbers that came out last week probably mean that we'll see yet another 25-basis point hike in interest rates when the Fed meets again in early June. The stock market has barely flinched with recent interest rate hikes, so I'm guessing that they'll still be looking to squeeze what little froth still exists out of the markets with this next interest rate hike.
It sounds like Mrs. G might be giving up driving. She sounds like she's okay with it, so that's good. Thankfully, it's not one of those "we need to wrench the keys out of her hands" to stop her from driving routines. She said something about our taking her shopping at her favorite stores once a month. I told the missus that this would be a good opportunity for her and her mum to have some solid mother/daughter time. In other words, she's on her own. The missus that is. Mrs. G was going on and on about hearing aids, but seriously, I haven't a clue what she was talking about. There is nothing wrong with her hearing if you want my opinion. I told the missus that it might have something to do with when she's having dinner with her buds in the dining room. You know how there is just a cacophony of sounds in any busy dining room that would make it difficult for anyone with the best of hearing to decipher small talk coming from someone across the table from you. It probably doesn't get any easier the older you get.
And then there is the issue of what to do with her car. I looked at a couple of sites on the web (Kelly's Blue Book / Edmunds) that gave us a pretty good idea of what her car might be worth in a private sale. Mrs. G was surprised at how much her car was worth. If you've gone out to buy a new or used car lately, you know what I'm talking about here. Prices, for some reason, are through the roof. That's good for Mrs. G and anyone else looking to sell their vehicles. For the prospective buyer, not so much. The private sale price was so generous that I told Mrs. G that she could afford a little wiggle room in her negotiations without feeling like she was giving away the store. We're talking about a fifteen-year-old car here. The car has low mileage, which certainly helps resale value. Mrs. G has what she needs to make an informed decision. She can donate the car if that is her want. Someone in her building has actually expressed interest in Mrs. G's car on behalf of her grandson. She may be less interested when she hears what Mrs. G is asking, but that's a story for another day.
The Ev man attended a picnic at his place yesterday. He texted us a picture of his paper plate to make his point. He'll be joining us tomorrow when we throw a few shrimp and maybe a dog or two on the barbie. I don't know how much fuel I have left in the tank on my grill, but I suppose I'll find out. I use the grill so seldom that I should have an ample amount of fuel, but I just don't know for sure. We picked up some chicken in a lemon pepper marinade which I'll use to throw together a few skewers together with onions, mushrooms, red peppers, and whatever else I can find. I still need to get the deck furniture out of storage and put it together for another season of grilling and chillin' here on the seacoast. I'll give the lawn a good cut today so everything will look trimmed and tucked by the time the Ev man arrives tomorrow. We want to be on our best behavior, so there's that too. Only kidding about the behavior thing. Family is family. You let your hair down, and it is what it is. I don't have a dessert on hand, or in mind for that matter, but I might have a cookie or two around if someone feels the need. The Ev man will be happy to hear that I found the Doritos he's been looking for. Hot mustard flavor?
I like the prospects of the stock market losing 45% or more of its value if this all goes to shit. It would be the mother of all buying opportunities. Timing is everything. I'm also reminded that the days and weeks following the raising of the debt limit can also be quite tumultuous in the stock market because the signing off on a deal provides opportunities for those in power to take spending to new heights. It's a devil's brew, to be sure. I suppose I can just sit back and enjoy the ride and see where it all goes. For now, anyway, I'm wanting Speaker McCarthy to stick to his guns. Hold Bumble's feet to the fire and remember that you have all the cards. I'm not certain whose political goose gets cooked if it all goes sideways, but you need to put a stake in the ground somewhere, and I think McCarthy has done that with the legislation passed by the Republicans.
Did y'all see any of the videos posted to Twitter of Bumbles in Japan over the weekend at the G7 gathering? Can you be any more humiliated as an American citizen? There was this one 2-minute clip where he was going on and on about who the fuck knows what. I wish the video had shown the faces of the people in the audience. They must have been completely gobsmacked at the nonsensical nature of what they were witnessing. One headline I saw this morning said that European leaders are "quietly" preparing for Biden's loss in the 2024 election. This is what happens when you send a senile leader to meet with other world leaders who know senility or late-stage dementia when they see it. To see it in the leader of the free world who has his fingers on the nuclear codes to the second largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the planet had to be truly frightening.
Bumbles will probably blame the default, should it happen, on the group that he lovingly refers to as "extreme MAGA." Gotta blame someone, right? He'll probably say that the Republicans are not willing to go along because they want to hurt his chances for reelection. He'll have his excuses all worked out, and he'll use the bully pulpit to gaslight the bejesus out of the American people. With any luck, the Supreme Court will step in and spank the shit out of him for the sheer audacity of trying to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling on his own. It's about time we send the radical leftists a message that we have a Republic, and we'll not tolerate tyrants of any stripe, demented or not demented. That said, we all know that Bumbles is just the mouthpiece for the leftists that have taken over our government. This message is for them too.
Did you hear that fucking soy boy and Bumbles hack, Jake Sullivan, on the Sunday morning shows yesterday? Did he actually say that it was all right for the Ukrainians to use US military hardware to attack positions in Crimea? These fucking warmongers are going to get us nuked. Putin has been very clear about what Russia is willing to do if Ukraine attacks its homeland. Everyone knows what he's referring to. You would think that, at a minimum, Sullivan might soft pedal that kind of language, knowing full well how incendiary it sounds. On the other hand, Ukraine can't even defend cities like Bakhmut, so I'm not sure they have the wherewithal to launch an offensive to retake Crimea. I guess clowns will be clowns. The circus is always in town when Biden is around.
I'm waking up this morning to a picture splashed across the front pages of every newspaper in America of a large U-Haul van that had smashed through the gates of the White House overnight. Lying on the ground in front of the van was a perfectly poised Nazi flag. You couldn't take a picture of the van without showing the Nazi flag, so there it was for all the world to see. It was by design, of course. You can't go on the telly as president of the United States and warn the country about the resurgence of White Supremacy without having an example from time to time to prove your point. The sad part about this entire propaganda campaign being run out of the West Wing in the White House is that there are people who will believe this shit. That's why they do it. It was just last week that we saw a large contingent of well-muscled and clean-shaven Caucasian masked men marching lockstep through our country's capitol while carrying White Supremacy banners. Anyone with half a brain could see they were FBI agents. Even sadder when considering this charade is the fact that the Democrat party has completely coopted our Intelligence agencies, or is it the other way around?
I'm in the camp that always thought that Kari Lake, the woman who ran for governor of Arizona in 2022, never stood a chance of winning her court cases after "losing" her election to one of the most moronic governors this country has ever seen, Katie Hobbs. It just seemed too rigged from the get-go. Lake was too polished and too tied at the hip with Donald J Trump to ever win a statewide election. She was too much of a threat to the establishment with all of her talk about putting a stop to the flow of illegal aliens coming into Arizona, essentially by issuing a declaration of invasion, stopping the flow of fentanyl at Arizona's border, and ironically enough, she promised to restore election integrity to the voters of Arizona. She had to be stopped at any cost by the establishment. I would go so far as to say that she will never get a fair hearing in any Arizona courtroom, no matter how strong her case is, how many witnesses she puts on the stand, or how convincing her evidence is at the end of the day. She is simply damaged goods at this point. And Katie Hobbs is still the worst governor in the United States, bar none. That's saying a lot.
How are we supposed to look at this move by the NAACP to warn people of color from going to Florida? Is it designed to create space between Governor DeSantis and blacks that DeSantis might need should his candidacy for the presidency become a thing? Fewer blacks in Florida may well result in less crime in the Sunshine State if you believe the statistical models. Less crime these days is a good thing if you're running for president. The NAACP accuses DeSantis of wanting to erase black history by restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. I guess, by extension, this includes Latino Americans as well. Make no mistake about it; the Democrat party and the NAACP are of one mind when it comes to achieving and keeping political power. They'll kneecap whomever they need to kneecap in order to keep power. The NAACP is but one of many organizations that are likely to jump into the fray to do the Democrat's bidding between now and when voters cast their first votes in the 2024 election. Me thinks the NAACP is the least of DeSantis's worries. My advice to DeSantis, for what it's worth: Ignore them.
Do you know what I don't like about DeSantis's candidacy? I don't like the fact that a huge part of his ascension to the nomination assumes the takedown of Donald J. Trump. DeSantis is relying on the deep state to come and do what he is otherwise unable to do. That spiteful little fuck is hoping and praying that there will be enough indictments and other legal pitfalls between now and the first primaries such that he can peel off enough disenchanted Trump supporters to make a go of it. If he succeeds, who do you think he'll be indebted to? That's right, the deep state. The very deep state, in fact, that Trump is promising to dismantle if and when he is reelected for a second term. How do we know DeSantis has the backing of the deep state? Look at the usual cast of losers supporting his candidacy. You've got Karl Rove and Jeb Bush, just to name two of the more high-profile losers. As I said, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth about this guy. I'm not saying that that's not true about others entering the race, but everyone else is in single digits, with DeSantis being the exception.
DeSantis is going on Spaces with Elon Musk on Twitter tonight at six o'clock to announce his candidacy. That's a hard pass for me. I'm not interested in hearing what he has to say one way or the other. I am curious as to how Trump might counter DeSantis's appearance on Spaces if for no other reason than to let just a little air out of DeSantis's balloon. You know, a distraction play of sorts. Something right out of the Trump playbook. I'd be a little disappointed if Trump let this shindig on Twitter Spaces come and go without saying or doing something. I'd also say that Twitter Spaces is not the kind of place you'd expect to find a certain demographic. Maybe what I'm saying is that Twitter Spaces isn't for everybody. I'm just not sure who DeSantis thinks he's appealing to by announcing his run for the presidency on Twitter Spaces. Maybe this is a power play by Elon Musk to get people to sign on to his platform. Musk has invited others as well, so this thing he's doing with DeSantis should not be misconstrued as an endorsement. Will Trump jump on Spaces during DeSantis's announcement just for shits and giggles? #BadBoy
My bike riding is coming along. I took a few days off last week for no particular reason, but I'm back in the saddle now. One thing I've noticed now that I'm wearing fewer things on my ride, including taking off my heavier winter gloves and trading them in for the usual biking gloves you see people wearing during the summer, is that my hands grip the handlebars differently. I liked the padding that I had with my heavier winter gloves for whatever reason. I've decided, and I don't know why it took me so long to reach this conclusion, that I prefer a heavier-duty handle grip. It dawned on me while I was on my ride last night, and I told myself that I would look on Amazon when I got back to the house. I don't always remember to follow up on things that occur to me while I'm on my ride, so there's that. Anyway, I placed the order, and my new grips should be here in a day or two. The bad news is that they cost $26. The good news is that I have a bunch of points saved up and available to use for the purchase.
It looks like things are about to get interesting for Target. They are reportedly concerned that they are vulnerable to the same sort of savagery that was laid at the feet of Anheuser Busch (Bud Light) after going down a rabbit hole of a sales campaign with the likes of Dylan Mulvaney. I told the story not long ago about being in a local Target where they hung mural after mural on their walls throughout the store featuring black people. I think it was an attempt of sorts to sell the inclusion, diversity, and equity bullshit to their customers. That sort of thing falls flat when you can count the number of black people in your community on any given day on one hand. Who are they proselytizing to precisely? Anyway, what I didn't know is that Target stores sell all of these newfangled get-ups for trans types, including clothing that allows you to tuck things away and God only knows what else. All of this stuff was front and center in their stores until the CEO rang up the managers and told them in no uncertain terms that the inventory had to be moved to a less visible location in their stores out of fear of a public backlash, ala Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. Let the chips fall where they may, is what I say.
True to my word, I steered clear of the DeSantis rollout on Twitter Spaces. From what I hear, it was a DeSaster. That's the way Trump put it, anyway. I heard that the so-called launch of his campaign on Spaces got off to a bad start. People were talking over people; the system was apparently unable to deal with the number of people signing on to Spaces; and this went on for a bit before they got it all squared away. I agree with one person I listen to that DeSantis has a beautiful family, and why he let someone talk him into a venue that didn't use his family as a backdrop was nothing if not a fireable offense. He probably can't do that because it would be tantamount to admitting that he couldn't get the job done when it was the one and only job that he had to do, and he still couldn't get it right. DeSantis doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who admits his mistakes. Forgive me if I already said this, but he really is a whiny little fuck. He was all over the television shows last night, and I damned near turned the thing off because I've heard and seen enough. I think I'm not alone.
I feel a little bad for the Musk man. This was his one chance to strut his stuff. It was his one chance to show that his company, Twitter, was the up-and-coming global town square that he envisioned from the day he purchased the company. DeSantis was one of many candidates that he hoped would use his forum, Twitter Spaces, to roll out their campaigns or just to offer forums for listeners of all political or non-political stripes to participate in open-ended discussions about this, that, and the other thing. I've listened in on some of them myself, and I can tell you that they are interesting and compelling on a lot of different levels. A lot depends on the subject matter and the backgrounds of the moderators. Anyway, Elon can't be feeling good about how he let the DeSantis people down. Elon puts rockets on the moon, satellites in our skies, and driverless cars on our roadways. This was not a "Mission Accomplished" moment for either DeSantis or Elon. You can get away with that when you're Elon Musk. He'll live to fight another day. As for DeSantis, this was a missed opportunity. Not fatal by any stretch of the imagination, but a missed opportunity nonetheless.
The Ev man will be stopping by for a visit this morning. If the Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, we'll take a ride across town and see if we can't pick up a nice butterfly bush for the missus. The Ev man said something yesterday about maybe stopping into Whole Foods to do a bit of food shopping while we're out and about. That's fine, I told him. I told the missus last night that we need to remind ourselves to mention to the Ev man that parking in and around Jersey Mike's in Portsmouth, should he decide to go there at some point, is tight as tight can be. The missus and I stopped by Jersey Mike's in Portsmouth last night, and it was a shit show in terms of the parking in and around the store. It seemed as though there were too many spaces in too tight a spot, not to mention the fact that there were too few parking spaces to support the number of stores. The design probably worked well on paper but not so well once one or more cars started to either enter or leave the assigned parking spaces. Adding either weed or alcohol to the mix, and you have something akin to a whirling dervish on steroids. A veritable hellscape, if you will.
It was kinda sad to hear that the musical icon, Tina Turner, died yesterday. She was a little before my time and, quite frankly, I confuse her from time to time with Aretha Franklin. I was surprised to hear that she was living in Switzerland at the time of her death. How the hell did she end up living in Switzerland, of all places? Can any American just pack up their things and move to Switzerland? It piqued my curiosity, so I asked ALEXA about Ms. Turner's net worth at the time of her death. Not because I thought you have to be wealthy to live in Switzerland, but if you are going to live there, it probably helps to have a lot of money. Her net worth was some $250 million! Good for her. And this morning, I'm reading a story about how Ms. Turner moved to Switzerland because they "treat you like you're Madonna." That's obviously a dated reference if you've seen any more recent pictures of Madonna. One too many facelifts is all I'll say. Think Wayne Newton. Tina Turner was eighty-three years old at the time of her death. Talk about a legend. She's leaving us far too soon. Godspeed, Tina!
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday against the Biden Administration and the EPA in its dispute over regulating wetlands. I remember hearing about this when Trump was president. The EPA issued regulations that essentially tied the hands of farmers when it came to managing their own farms if there was so much as a puddle on their property. I know that's a drastic oversimplification, but I'm no court reporter, so that's all I got. The good news is that the Biden Administration has been using the EPA to further its efforts on everything relating to Climate Change, so we now have a legal bulwark in place to slow down or even stop Biden's use of the agency to advance the Progressives' nutty interests. I think the decision was 9-0, so I'm not sure that packing the court, as the Progressives want to do, would have much of an effect were this issue to come before the court again. This is a win for the good guys. It's a bitch slap for Bumbles and his radical leftist regime. That won't stop Bumbles from continuing to issue rules from the Oval Office, but we take it one day at a time with these monsters.
What is this I'm hearing about Chinese hackers working behind the scenes to shut down communications in Guam? Does this have anything to do with making it more difficult for the United States to respond as quickly as necessary should the Chinese decide to move ahead with their "reunification" of Taiwan? Now, this morning, the Chinese are reporting that the United States has been hacking something or other in their country. I don't think this sort of thing helps diplomacy as diplomacy goes, so that's probably not a good thing. It seems to be more of a tit-for-tat kind of thing, truth be told. I don't hear the Chinese denying that they've hacked the Bejesus out of Guam, but then again, saying nothing is sometimes more effective than issuing a denial. I always think of a shell game when I hear about these kinds of things. You know, follow the shuffling of the three shells and see if you can figure out which shell is hiding the pearl when the shuffling stops. If China invades Taiwan this weekend, we'll know for sure what they were up to. Maybe a day late and a dollar short, but we'll know. Until then, it's sheer conjecture.
The missus and I stepped out last night for a meal at a local pizza joint. There were no waiting lines, and they seated us at a booth overlooking the parking lot and in full view of their wood-fired brick oven. We each ordered a salad, and we ordered a large cheese pizza to share. The food was pretty good, and it just felt good to be out and about having a meal for a change. We've been getting far too much take-out lately, and it was time to go out to a restaurant and order off a damn menu for a change. Service was pretty good, but the salads were slow in coming despite our request that our server bring the salads to the table ahead of the pizza. I think the missus was not happy that our server hadn't been by our table to see how things were going until we were a good three or four slices into our pizza, but that aside, I think we enjoyed ourselves. When I ordered a root beer to have with our meal, the missus reminded me that I probably didn't need the soft drink. That didn't stop her from having a swill here and there, and being the dutiful husband that I am, I refrained from telling her that she probably didn't need the soft drink. Neither of us drinks soda as a rule, but we both enjoy a little root beer on ice with a hot pizza from time to time. It was just nice to be out for a change, and on that, we were both in agreement.
I hate holiday weekends. It gets a little too busy hereabouts, and it interrupts my usual scheduling when it comes to bike rides and other things. For example, I'll need to get out on the road early this morning before traffic starts to pick up. There will be more cars parked along the road on which I travel, and that has me worrying about car doors opening, cars pulling in and out of tight spots, children with beach hats and pails in hand darting out into my path, drivers under the influence of just about everything, and then there's me doing my best to avoid it all. I suppose I could take the back roads, but that wouldn't be as much fun, and besides, I'm a creature of habit, so there's that. In the offseason, I ride when I feel like it, day or night. Well, just before dark, anyway. My biking aside, there's a general dearth of news on holiday weekends, and that never sits well with me, being the news junkie that I am. I guess I could start a new book. Maybe I'll tackle one of those songs by James Taylor that I've been wanting to learn to play on my guitar. Did I mention that there's no shortage of things that need doing around the house?
I read a piece in Zerohedge this morning online about our country sending some 700 US troops down to Peru. WUT? These are the things that you never hear about in the mainstream media. I guess I'm not even sure I know who they're referring to anymore when they refer to the mainstream media. The article was quick to mention that we already have some troops on the ground in Peru, perhaps as part of a larger peacekeeping force. What I didn't know until I read this article is that there is an unpopular unelected left-leaning group in charge of the country of Peru that has the sympathies and support of the Biden Administration and who is preventing the citizenry from holding elections. It gets worse. This Junta in charge, if that is what and who they are, has been using brutal crackdowns against the citizenry to control "regions recently engulfed in violence." So, the United States is now participating in violent crackdowns in order to prevent rightful elections? Whatever happened to Biden's wanting to uphold the sanctity of democratic norms wherever they exist? If I had to guess, I'd say Biden couldn't even find Peru on a map, given his cognitive challenges. Hell, he's probably still looking for the men's room in the Oval Office. Sadly, Peru is probably one of many countries where our influence, for better or worse, is just business as usual for the US. That doesn't make it any less disturbing.
It does make one wonder what sorts of tactics the Biden Junta is going to employ in 2024 to hold on to power here in the United States come Election Day. The Democrats changed a lot of laws in a lot of states in 2020, which helped them get Bumbles over the finish line. By hook or crook, you might say. They appear to be using lawfare here in the run-up to the 2024 elections in order to take the leading candidate, Donald J Trump, out of the race. This is what happens when you are successful as a political party in politicizing institutions like the Department of Justice and their affiliated investigative agencies like the FBI, etc. The orders go out from the White House, and the next thing you know, you're hearing about arrests and detentions of your political foes. How do you stop any of it? This has to be what our Founding Fathers warned us about some 250 years ago when they authored the Consitution. Was it Benjamin Franklin who said in response to a woman who asked if we had a republic or a monarchy replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."
I almost forgot. We had the dreaded Covid virus around in 2020, which gave rise to the entire absentee ballot bullshit. Trump declared victory on Election Night in 2020, only to lose those states that put him over the top once they allowed an avalanche of questionable mail-in ballots to be counted. I heard the other day that China is experiencing a resurgence of a much deadlier variant of the Covid virus now in circulation. Will we find ourselves back in absentee ballot hell come Election Day 2024? What are the chances that China is involved or otherwise complicit in keeping their boy, Beijing Biden, in office? He's a fully owned asset of the Chinese Communist Party if you believe the rumors out in the ether. He and his family have been bought and sold by many of our adversaries, including China. We have the receipts. Well, James Comer and the Republicans in Congress have the receipts. What does all of this mean? How does our selling out our sovereignty to the World Health Organization (WHO) fit into anything? Is the WHO in the business of printing ballots during pandemics?
It sounds like Speaker McCarthy and Bumbles Biden have agreed to a framework as it relates to raising the debt ceiling. So much of their bullshit is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, so we'll see how it fares when it goes back to their members for consideration. If I hear even a hint of applause from the Leftists, I'll know that McCarthy folded like a cheap suit. How do you even justify raising the debt ceiling and adding trillions more in debt to the thirty-two trillion we already have on the books? How is the stock market going to react? Will it be one of those infamous buy the rumor and sell the news stories? Yellen says we run out of money on June 5th, so we'll see how this thing unfolds this coming week. The inflation numbers that came out last week probably mean that we'll see yet another 25-basis point hike in interest rates when the Fed meets again in early June. The stock market has barely flinched with recent interest rate hikes, so I'm guessing that they'll still be looking to squeeze what little froth still exists out of the markets with this next interest rate hike.
It sounds like Mrs. G might be giving up driving. She sounds like she's okay with it, so that's good. Thankfully, it's not one of those "we need to wrench the keys out of her hands" to stop her from driving routines. She said something about our taking her shopping at her favorite stores once a month. I told the missus that this would be a good opportunity for her and her mum to have some solid mother/daughter time. In other words, she's on her own. The missus that is. Mrs. G was going on and on about hearing aids, but seriously, I haven't a clue what she was talking about. There is nothing wrong with her hearing if you want my opinion. I told the missus that it might have something to do with when she's having dinner with her buds in the dining room. You know how there is just a cacophony of sounds in any busy dining room that would make it difficult for anyone with the best of hearing to decipher small talk coming from someone across the table from you. It probably doesn't get any easier the older you get.
And then there is the issue of what to do with her car. I looked at a couple of sites on the web (Kelly's Blue Book / Edmunds) that gave us a pretty good idea of what her car might be worth in a private sale. Mrs. G was surprised at how much her car was worth. If you've gone out to buy a new or used car lately, you know what I'm talking about here. Prices, for some reason, are through the roof. That's good for Mrs. G and anyone else looking to sell their vehicles. For the prospective buyer, not so much. The private sale price was so generous that I told Mrs. G that she could afford a little wiggle room in her negotiations without feeling like she was giving away the store. We're talking about a fifteen-year-old car here. The car has low mileage, which certainly helps resale value. Mrs. G has what she needs to make an informed decision. She can donate the car if that is her want. Someone in her building has actually expressed interest in Mrs. G's car on behalf of her grandson. She may be less interested when she hears what Mrs. G is asking, but that's a story for another day.
The Ev man attended a picnic at his place yesterday. He texted us a picture of his paper plate to make his point. He'll be joining us tomorrow when we throw a few shrimp and maybe a dog or two on the barbie. I don't know how much fuel I have left in the tank on my grill, but I suppose I'll find out. I use the grill so seldom that I should have an ample amount of fuel, but I just don't know for sure. We picked up some chicken in a lemon pepper marinade which I'll use to throw together a few skewers together with onions, mushrooms, red peppers, and whatever else I can find. I still need to get the deck furniture out of storage and put it together for another season of grilling and chillin' here on the seacoast. I'll give the lawn a good cut today so everything will look trimmed and tucked by the time the Ev man arrives tomorrow. We want to be on our best behavior, so there's that too. Only kidding about the behavior thing. Family is family. You let your hair down, and it is what it is. I don't have a dessert on hand, or in mind for that matter, but I might have a cookie or two around if someone feels the need. The Ev man will be happy to hear that I found the Doritos he's been looking for. Hot mustard flavor?