Calm Before the Storm
07/04/24 07:01
We have a nor'easter coming down the pike—an April snowstorm if you can believe it. This storm will bring more snow than any other storm we've seen this winter. It's just on paper for now—that is, it's in the forecast. That said, my weather app says one thing, and the missus's weather app says something different. Her app always comes in less or lighter, if you will. I take no pleasure in getting the last laugh, especially when it comes to the missus, but I'm just sayin'. We're looking at between 15 and 18 inches coming in overnight on Wednesday and ending sometime Thursday. I hate these overnight storms. You can't get ahead of them unless you're willing to stay up all night and clear every five to six inches after it comes down. You wake up to an unplowable lot of snow at the end of your driveway, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. We're still three days or so out as I sit here this morning, so we'll need to see a few more cards come out of the deck before we get there.
I grilled up a few chicken breasts last night, and we sat down to a nice meal of organic chicken and seasonal asparagus. I had a good mind to throw together a skewer or two with red peppers, mushrooms, and chicken but decided against it at the last minute. I'm trying to stay away from starches, so I passed on the rice that I might have otherwise made. It was a bare-bones dinner but one that seemed to please. Interestingly enough, had the wicked winds that blew through the other night ripping the cover clean off the grill as it did, I might not have considered using the grill this early in the season. File that under "The Lord works in mysterious ways." I'm not sure why the baby Jesus would care one way or another when I decide to use my grill or not use my grill for the first time this season, but I'll leave that for my critics to weigh in on. Both the missus and I agreed that it was a well-deserved meal after a long and busy day. A suitable meal and a primer, if you will, for another busy day to come (today.)
I wonder if it's true what they say about China interfering with our elections. Even more so than Russia, if I'm reading it right. Would it surprise anyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would prefer to see the addled Joe Biden in office rather than Donald J. Trump? You know, the guy whose family has received tens of millions of dollars from various and sundry CCP-related organizations over the last few years. Let's just say that the CCP wants to protect its investment. If you think that the addled Joe Biden is going to look a gift horse in the mouth when every poll shows him losing bigly to Donald Trump, you would be wrong. How the CCP plans to lend a hand to demented Joe remains to be seen. Maybe they participate in the production of fake mail-in ballots. Maybe they release another something from the Wuhan lab just in time to suppress the vote come November. Maybe they hack just enough tabulation machines in swing states to give Lunchbucket Joe an insurmountable lead. Maybe they flood social media sites with bots to tamp down or ramp up fervor depending on the leaning of one or more critical constituencies. If we see Florida go blue, we'll know the fix is in. The only question remaining is whether the highest court in our land will care about any of it.
I caught Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on CNN last night when I was flipping through the channels. That was a bit of a surprise. Two weeks ago, nobody was giving the guy any oxygen, so it's interesting to see CNN stepping up to the plate. Honestly, I think they had him on just to try to embarrass him. Aaron Burnett, the host of the show, showed him two videos of his sister and his nephew, who referred to RFK as "an embarrassment." Ouch. He responded as well as you can respond to something like that by saying that families are loving and caring but also have differing opinions on things. I'm paraphrasing, of course. Burnett was also quite insistent on having RFK commit to the fact that Trump was guilty of being an insurrectionist or worse. RFK only half-heartedly replied in the affirmative, if only to prevent Burnett from going full mean girl on him. Now, instead of having the guy on these networks and going against the wishes of the Biden White House, the plan seems to be to have him on but vilify, embarrass, or belittle him as best they can. They need disaffected Democrats not to vote for him as an alternative to Biden in the Fall. If they can put him in bed, figuratively speaking, with Trump, all the better.
I think one thing we'll never see is RFK's vice presidential candidate on these liberal or looney left-wing shows. She's to the left of Biden's progressives, which would only endear her to Biden supporters. These are the same moonbats who vote for people like AOC and Bernie Sanders. RFK should have told CNN that he wouldn't come on their shows without his VP at his side. Chances are that had he said that, CNN wouldn't have had him on. All I know is that there is a whole lot of straddling by RFK and everyone else going on here. It's hard to know what his end game is because third-party candidates don't win elections, but they can sink the candidacy of one or the other major candidates in either the Democrat or Republican party. The Kennedy name alone is catnip for Democrats wanting to vote for someone other than Biden who think Biden has gone too far to the left. Throw in Democrats who are wanting and willing to vote for another Democrat but can't stomach the thought of putting Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, and you have something that is starting to look like a constituency forming in the middle for RFK. As difficult as it is for these left-wing networks to muddy up the Kennedy name, it's a small price to pay to put their boy, Biden, back in office for another four years. He has a job to finish, don't you know.
I don't think I realized that embassies were off-limits when it comes to going after your enemies. Now that Israel has bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria, resulting in the deaths of three or four of their commanders, it seems it could be open season on embassies across the world. You can't very well have places where people can hide out and not be touched by virtue of their location. That would effectively create a sanctuary city for the bad guys. It's one thing to say that ICE can't detain or arrest illegal aliens in downtown San Francisco. It's quite another to tell the Israelis that they can't take out their enemies if they know where they're holed up, be they in an embassy or hiding out in the thousands of miles of underground tunnels beneath Gaza. What Iran does now is anyone's guess. They are a vengeful people, or at least the Mullahs are, as far as I know, and that probably doesn't bode well for the Israelis. It's an eye for an eye if I'm allowed to go all biblical here. Are there a handful of Israeli embassies throughout the Middle East and elsewhere that are now on high alert? You know what they say about Pandora's box. Once it's open, hell hath no fury. Sorry if I'm mixing up my metaphors. Keep your eyes and ears open. That's all I'm saying.
I saw a report yesterday that the Biden Administration approved the sale of more bombs and lots of fighter jets to Israel. I wish they would be a little more circumspect when releasing this kind of information. We already look like we're all in when it comes to the sheer and utter devastation laid upon the Palestinian people in Gaza. We also know that Iran probably considers us to be involved one way or another in Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria, which killed several of their commanders. That has us looking more than a little complicit. Not that we wouldn't want to stand by our ally Israel in their time of need, but upping our commitments across the board and announcing it to the world can be a double-edged sword if we're not careful. Maybe it's just our Military Industrial Complex flexing their muscles in a dangerous world. The good news, if there is any, is that this does little to assuage the concerns of the Palestinians and Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan. They've seen enough when it comes to Joe Biden and his pathological obsession to assist the Israelis and their lust for killing every last Palestinian in Gaza. Enough, you might say, to have them stay home on Election Day this Fall.
I'm going to have to write fast and save fast this morning because the winds outside are howling. It's only a matter of time before we lose our electricity. I have our generator ready to roll, and I placed it behind my car in the garage so I can move it out quickly when the time comes. Maybe the time won't come. That would be sweet. I filled a 5-gallon gas tank with the idea that I'd transfer the gas to the generator if it looked like we were more likely than not to lose our power. These Nor'easters are very unpredictable, and we don't lose power very often, but this looked like the real McCoy, so I emptied the gas into the generator. I'm also happy to report that if the power goes down, it will be during the daylight hours. I was not looking forward to doing any of this in the dark, so thankfully, that is no longer a concern. It looks like we have about an inch or two of snow and sleet-like stuff on the ground, so maybe we'll not see the eight or so inches that they were calling for. It's April, for chrissakes. Winter-be-gone!
I was telling the missus that it might be nice to have a pot of lentil soup to sustain us for the next couple of days. She was busy doing what she does during the day yesterday, so I went shopping for the ingredients. I really need to make a list when I go shopping. For some unknown reason, that is especially true when I go out for ingredients to make this lentil soup recipe. I always forget something. Yesterday, it was the spinach. Can you imagine? It's one of the main ingredients. To make matters worse, there are only a handful of ingredients so it's not like the list I might make would be too long or maybe unmanageable. The other thing that had my knickers in a bunch was the decision I had to make about which kind of lentils to buy. If the missus has told me once, she's told me a thousand times. We use red lentils when we make this soup. That didn't stop me from putting a bag of green lentils in my bag when I was doing my shopping. I felt pretty good about doing that because there was actually a lentil soup recipe on the back of the bag of lentils. Well, that didn't go over too well. The missus and I went out for red lentils just before dark, and we got the job done thanks to the good folks at our local Market Basket. One of these days, I'll get it right.
I had to run out yesterday morning for an appointment, so I didn't get my writing time in. I hate it when that happens. It's almost impossible to make up for the time I missed since the missus is on our computer for the better part of the day for at least three days a week. I'll see if I have enough gas in the tank this morning to make up for the time I missed. Maybe that means an extra paragraph or two if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise. It's certainly not like there isn't enough going on in the world where I might want to weigh in on an item or two. I have no idea how long this storm is supposed to stick around so I should check the forecast. I think there's enough snow such that I'll need to get out my snowblower at some point. That aside, it's a hunker-down sort of day here in the hood. We have no particular place to go so, as Da used to say, nobody is chasing us. The only thing that might make this day more tolerable is having a nice wood stove to fire up and get cozy with. I'll have to see if the missus has other ideas, but I'm guessing she's good with staying close to home. The roads hereabouts are likely untreated and treacherous, so not for the faint of heart, as they say in the movies.
Will someone please explain to me why we have so many illegal Chinese aliens coming into our country? What the hell are they doing here? What the hell do they want? Who the hell is sending them here? I don't know anything about China and how difficult it is to get in and out of that country, but I think the answer to that question is "not too easy." That tells me that they are being sent here for a reason. They are also coming into our country at a time when every other Jose', Maria, and Mohammed from across the globe are crossing our border illegally, so the Chinamen don't exactly stick out like a sore thumb. Can you imagine if we weren't having these immigration issues and how we might take notice of Chinamen of fighting age coming into our country in the tens of thousands? There would be a hue and cry, I can tell you. Trump would have Xi on the phone in a New York minute. What the fuk, Xi! And what is Bumbles Biden doing? What does any guy who can't tell you what day of the week it is do on any given day? Fill in the blanks. I can also tell you with some confidence that the Chinese coming in are probably not picking lettuce or working in some slaughterhouse somewhere in the Midwest. What then?
How about this headline? "Biden prepared to express his frustration to Netanyahu in phone call Thursday." Can you imagine what Biden's cue cards would have to look like to pull this off? This fool can no sooner have a conversation, much less a heated conversation, with a world leader like Netanyahu than I can pull off a piano concert in New York's famed Madison Square Garden. You see what Biden's handlers are doing here. Right? They are flooding the "airwaves" with lies to give the American people the impression that Biden is getting the job done as president. I think they call that "gaslighting." What do you think our chances are of getting a transcript of that call? There is no transcript because there is no call. Or, rather, there won't be a call. We're seeing these kinds of reports every day now. They are all lies. They are lies because Biden is incapable of making the calls. The Democrats are lying because they can feel the power of the office of the presidency slipping away from them. They want it so bad that they are willing to cheat, lie, or steal to keep it. This is who they are. This is what they do. There is no price they won't pay.
Well, I might have been wrong about the phone call. There was a phone call, as it turns out, but I might have been right about Biden's participation in same. Reports say that Biden threatened Netanyahu to stop going after Hamas. He allegedly told him that Israel would be cut off from US support if he didn't cease their hostilities against Hamas. What does that tell you about the lengths that Biden is willing to stoop to win back the support of the Muslim population in cities like Dearborn, Michigan? He's throwing in with Hamas in order to pick up an electoral edge in states like Michigan. Is that not tantamount to throwing in with the Nazis in WWII to win an election? He is literally ensuring that Israel doesn't win the war against Hamas and that Hamas will live to fight another day and continue to kill Israelis as they did on October 7th. Whatever happened to our support for the only remaining democracy in the Middle East? Is it me, or does this horror show we're witnessing coming out of our White House have Obama's fingerprints all over it? And why is the goat herder from Kenya, Obama, running around the globe on clandestine missions advocating for God only knows what on Biden's behalf? Or, is this just what presidents do in their third term?
Reports also had Biden on a phone call with Xi Jinping yesterday. You have to admit, the guy is pretty busy for a fella with stage-5 dementia. Here's the kicker: No sooner did that phone call wrap up when John Kirby took to the podium in the West Wing briefing room to announce that the United States does not support independence for Taiwan. I saw a tweet suggesting that Kirby was giving Xi a virtual blowjob on national television, and that seemed to capture the sentiment of the moment. I'm pretty sure that our policy towards Taiwan has been to support them if and when China moved militarily against the island and its inhabitants. Is this yet one more example of Biden being in Bejing's pocket thanks to the various and sundry "investments" by the Chinese Communist Party to Biden and his extended family over the years? If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. "Elections have consequences, and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences." All the credit for that statement belongs to Steve Bannon. What Kirby's comment presages is anyone's guess. It could mean that China is planning to move on Taiwan and wants to be sure that Biden is clear about who put him in office. Think Wuhan. Think mail-in ballots.
Is it possible that China released the COVID-19 virus that killed millions of people around the world just to get Trump out of office? If your answer to that question is "no fucking way," then you don't understand anything about China and the goals and aspirations of the Chinese Communist Party. As a side note, the United States has been sending congressional delegations to Taiwan for years to show our support for their independence. How do think the Taiwanese are sleeping tonight after hearing Kirby walk back our support? If the US isn't going to intercede on behalf of Taiwan, ain't nobody going to step into the fray when the shit hits the fan. What message does this send to our allies across the globe who see the United States not willing to stand up against aggressors of fellow democracies when push comes to shove? And the Democrats say that Trump is a threat to democracy. Is this not a perfect example of Democrats accusing Republicans of things they are guilty of? What do they call this again? Projection? Never mind, of course, that going to war with China over Taiwan would be silly. We're not going to threaten to nuke them or anything of the kind. That's not the point. China waltzed into Hong Kong, and we didn't say boo.
Is the bird flu (H-Something) the COVID-19 of the 2024 presidential election cycle? First, we hear about huge chicken farms having to kill off their bird populations due to the infection. Then, we hear about entire herds of cows having to be euthanized because the bird flu has spread to them. I'm waiting now to hear about the first cow or bird-to-human transmission. After that, we'll hear the World Health Organization step in and announce that we have a full-fledged God-awful pandemic on our hands, and we have to pull out all the stops to prevent its spread. Does any of this sound familiar? How about this, "Two weeks to stop the spread"? Wasn't that how it all started in 2020? Hospital rooms were filling up with cases of elderly patients in respiratory distress, and dead people were being stacked up like cordwood in refrigeration trucks because they couldn't process them fast enough. Don't worry; I'm getting around to the masks. When they roll out the masks, you know that mail-in ballots aren't far behind. States can't very well have people standing in line at the polls on Election Day in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that is killing people willy-nilly.
I'm even reading something today about the threat of people eating eggs over easy. You can't even have eggs the way you want them in Biden's America in the year of the Lord 2024. WTF. The next thing you know, they will be telling us that we have to cook our meat well done. Just cook the shite out of it until it becomes like shoe leather. It isn't enough that these assholes want to put everyone behind the wheel of an electric car. It isn't enough that they want to take away our gas stoves and our refrigerators. These are the same ass-clowns that are putting illegal aliens up in five-star hotels with a monthly stipend in the thousands of dollars while we have homeless veterans sleeping in the streets. Now, the Democrats want to give these illegal aliens access to our voting rolls so they can cement their constituencies like never before. We are a good and loving people, but we have a government that has lost its way, and we Americans need to help get that train back on the right track. That is never going to happen with the current Administration in place. They are too corrupt, too compromised, and too far gone to fix any of that which they've created or caused by their actions or inactions. The world will be a better place without them. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I don't get it. Israeli's IDF took out a car carrying 7 people affiliated with Gaza's version of Meals on Wheels, and you'd think it was the end of the world as we know it. Israel made a mistake, and they've fessed up. I think that they probably thought they had a legitimate target when they took out the vehicle. Why is it that when we (the US) do this sort of thing, we simply move on? There is no apology. There is no hand-wringing. There are no apologies to the victim's families. Yet, Israel now has to bow to international pressure to take their foot off the pedal somehow and get to the negotiating table to sort out their differences with Hamas. None of this, of course, involves getting back any of the hostages as a prerequisite for finalizing a deal. It has everything to do with allowing Hamas to live to fight another day and to give Joe Biden the cover he needs with the Muslim community in order to get them to the polls in November. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but it bears repeating. Israel should go ahead with their plans to roust the remaining Hamas fighters from Rafah and tell Bumbles Biden to fuck off. Red lines be damned. Israel has a country to protect. If I were Netanyahu, and I knew I could get rid of the fool (Biden) in the upcoming US election by ignoring his demands to protect Hamas, I would do precisely what Netanyahu is doing now. Keep on keeping on, Bibbi! The American people are with you.
I think Mrs. G is finally giving up on Kentucky Fried Chicken. However, she still loves their mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw, so we'll continue to go there. I'm guessing the chicken may not be as good as it used to be. Maybe it's less crispy, or there's less meat on the bone. That's kinda of the way of the world these days. You get less for your dollar. The damn dollar stores are actually going out of business because they can't afford to sell anything for a dollar anymore. The missus and I stopped at both Dave's Hot Chicken, where a couple of their take-out meals cost $28, and at Bob's Chicken in Portsmouth, where we picked up mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw before heading over to see Mrs. G yesterday. We'll see if Mrs. G takes a shine to Dave's chicken as her new go-to chicken joint. You can choose your heat at Daves, and we got Mrs. G a mild sauce. It's a little out of the way to grab Dave's, so I wouldn't be terribly upset if she said it wasn't her cup of tea when everything was said and done. On the other hand, it's a small price to pay to see that Mrs. G has a nice meal waiting on those evenings when she hasn't ordered anything from her usual menu items found at her facility.
The stock market (S&P) dropped a scary 1.1% the other day, dipping below the ever-important 21-day moving average for the first time in a long time. It had all the makings of a veritable rug-pull. The indices were humming along nicely until around 3 pm, and then it took a nose dive. The DJIA went from up 300 to down 500. That is an eight-hundred-point swing. I think it was the 21-day moving average. Could it have been the fifty-day average? Possibly. One guy on Twitter that I follow said something like, "I've been waiting for this." He's been calling for a 5-10% pullback since December. The question on everyone's mind was, is this the beginning of a bigger pullback or just an overreaction to some news report involving interest rates, oil prices, or maybe an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East? A pullback of sorts would actually be healthy. The markets are definitely overextended here since they've been on a tear since last November with no discernible pullbacks. Maybe we go sideways from here and then break out to the upside after a period of consolidation. We didn't have to wait long to see where it was all going. The very next day, yesterday in fact, the market recovered the entire 1.1% on a day when the ten-year yield was ramping up and oil prices were hovering in and around $90. So much for that dreaded 10% pullback. To the moon, Alice!
We're watching "Ripley" on Netflix. It's a pretty good show. We're more than halfway through the eight-episode series, and I'm still waiting for the cops to catch up with this guy (Tom Ripley.) The main character is a slick small-time scumbag who makes his living as a con man in New York City back in the fifties. The entire show was shot in black and white, which just adds to the overall gloom-and-doom vibe of the flick. As much as you come to despise this prick for all the things he's able to pull off, you can't help but admire how he stays one step ahead of the gumshoes, who, thankfully, now that we're up to episode 6, seem to have his number. I was hoping that Marge (Dakota Fanning), who plays the girlfriend of the fella (Dickie) that Tom ultimately kills and then assumes his identity, would have acted sooner on her suspicions about Ripley, but she does not. The second half of the show follows Ripley to Italy, where he lives the life of a wealthy American, not as Tom Ripley, but as Dickie, whose life Ripley takes in a bizarre scene when the two rent a small boat when Dickie plans to tell Ripley that it's time for him to move on from the life the two have been sharing in a villa overlooking the ocean. I'm loving this Inspector Clouseau type who picks up the investigation after Ripley kills yet another character who threatens to out him to the police. Can't wait to see how this turns out!
Between the wintry weather we've had this past week and the time I had my bike in the shop for repairs, I'm a good week or more out from my last bike ride. I hate it when that happens. My legs go all wobbly, and I become a lot less sure-footed. It's not a big deal as long as I can get back in the saddle without further delay, but it's a reminder to me how doing this bike riding thing is the bee's knees for my health and well-being. In NASA parlance, it looks like it is a go for today, assuming nothing else comes up in the interim. The missus and I plan to watch Iowa play undefeated South Carolina in the women's NCAA playoffs around 3 this afternoon. We've been hearing so much about the wunderkind, Caitlin Clark, and her exploits on the court that we need to see how this all plays out in what is otherwise her last game as a senior. Quite frankly, I could give two shits about basketball, be it women's or men's, and sitting down to watch two hours of it may, at the end of the day, may be a bridge too far, but I'm wanting and willing to make an exception when it comes to today's game. I have a nice spinach, mushroom, and feta cheese quiche in the oven, and that should help us get a good start to the day. We'll get the Ev man's car back to him at some point today, or at least that's the plan, and I'll probably throw some nice chicken skewers on the barbie tonight to end the day. Everything is subject to change at a moment's notice.
I grilled up a few chicken breasts last night, and we sat down to a nice meal of organic chicken and seasonal asparagus. I had a good mind to throw together a skewer or two with red peppers, mushrooms, and chicken but decided against it at the last minute. I'm trying to stay away from starches, so I passed on the rice that I might have otherwise made. It was a bare-bones dinner but one that seemed to please. Interestingly enough, had the wicked winds that blew through the other night ripping the cover clean off the grill as it did, I might not have considered using the grill this early in the season. File that under "The Lord works in mysterious ways." I'm not sure why the baby Jesus would care one way or another when I decide to use my grill or not use my grill for the first time this season, but I'll leave that for my critics to weigh in on. Both the missus and I agreed that it was a well-deserved meal after a long and busy day. A suitable meal and a primer, if you will, for another busy day to come (today.)
I wonder if it's true what they say about China interfering with our elections. Even more so than Russia, if I'm reading it right. Would it surprise anyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would prefer to see the addled Joe Biden in office rather than Donald J. Trump? You know, the guy whose family has received tens of millions of dollars from various and sundry CCP-related organizations over the last few years. Let's just say that the CCP wants to protect its investment. If you think that the addled Joe Biden is going to look a gift horse in the mouth when every poll shows him losing bigly to Donald Trump, you would be wrong. How the CCP plans to lend a hand to demented Joe remains to be seen. Maybe they participate in the production of fake mail-in ballots. Maybe they release another something from the Wuhan lab just in time to suppress the vote come November. Maybe they hack just enough tabulation machines in swing states to give Lunchbucket Joe an insurmountable lead. Maybe they flood social media sites with bots to tamp down or ramp up fervor depending on the leaning of one or more critical constituencies. If we see Florida go blue, we'll know the fix is in. The only question remaining is whether the highest court in our land will care about any of it.
I caught Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on CNN last night when I was flipping through the channels. That was a bit of a surprise. Two weeks ago, nobody was giving the guy any oxygen, so it's interesting to see CNN stepping up to the plate. Honestly, I think they had him on just to try to embarrass him. Aaron Burnett, the host of the show, showed him two videos of his sister and his nephew, who referred to RFK as "an embarrassment." Ouch. He responded as well as you can respond to something like that by saying that families are loving and caring but also have differing opinions on things. I'm paraphrasing, of course. Burnett was also quite insistent on having RFK commit to the fact that Trump was guilty of being an insurrectionist or worse. RFK only half-heartedly replied in the affirmative, if only to prevent Burnett from going full mean girl on him. Now, instead of having the guy on these networks and going against the wishes of the Biden White House, the plan seems to be to have him on but vilify, embarrass, or belittle him as best they can. They need disaffected Democrats not to vote for him as an alternative to Biden in the Fall. If they can put him in bed, figuratively speaking, with Trump, all the better.
I think one thing we'll never see is RFK's vice presidential candidate on these liberal or looney left-wing shows. She's to the left of Biden's progressives, which would only endear her to Biden supporters. These are the same moonbats who vote for people like AOC and Bernie Sanders. RFK should have told CNN that he wouldn't come on their shows without his VP at his side. Chances are that had he said that, CNN wouldn't have had him on. All I know is that there is a whole lot of straddling by RFK and everyone else going on here. It's hard to know what his end game is because third-party candidates don't win elections, but they can sink the candidacy of one or the other major candidates in either the Democrat or Republican party. The Kennedy name alone is catnip for Democrats wanting to vote for someone other than Biden who think Biden has gone too far to the left. Throw in Democrats who are wanting and willing to vote for another Democrat but can't stomach the thought of putting Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, and you have something that is starting to look like a constituency forming in the middle for RFK. As difficult as it is for these left-wing networks to muddy up the Kennedy name, it's a small price to pay to put their boy, Biden, back in office for another four years. He has a job to finish, don't you know.
I don't think I realized that embassies were off-limits when it comes to going after your enemies. Now that Israel has bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria, resulting in the deaths of three or four of their commanders, it seems it could be open season on embassies across the world. You can't very well have places where people can hide out and not be touched by virtue of their location. That would effectively create a sanctuary city for the bad guys. It's one thing to say that ICE can't detain or arrest illegal aliens in downtown San Francisco. It's quite another to tell the Israelis that they can't take out their enemies if they know where they're holed up, be they in an embassy or hiding out in the thousands of miles of underground tunnels beneath Gaza. What Iran does now is anyone's guess. They are a vengeful people, or at least the Mullahs are, as far as I know, and that probably doesn't bode well for the Israelis. It's an eye for an eye if I'm allowed to go all biblical here. Are there a handful of Israeli embassies throughout the Middle East and elsewhere that are now on high alert? You know what they say about Pandora's box. Once it's open, hell hath no fury. Sorry if I'm mixing up my metaphors. Keep your eyes and ears open. That's all I'm saying.
I saw a report yesterday that the Biden Administration approved the sale of more bombs and lots of fighter jets to Israel. I wish they would be a little more circumspect when releasing this kind of information. We already look like we're all in when it comes to the sheer and utter devastation laid upon the Palestinian people in Gaza. We also know that Iran probably considers us to be involved one way or another in Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria, which killed several of their commanders. That has us looking more than a little complicit. Not that we wouldn't want to stand by our ally Israel in their time of need, but upping our commitments across the board and announcing it to the world can be a double-edged sword if we're not careful. Maybe it's just our Military Industrial Complex flexing their muscles in a dangerous world. The good news, if there is any, is that this does little to assuage the concerns of the Palestinians and Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan. They've seen enough when it comes to Joe Biden and his pathological obsession to assist the Israelis and their lust for killing every last Palestinian in Gaza. Enough, you might say, to have them stay home on Election Day this Fall.
I'm going to have to write fast and save fast this morning because the winds outside are howling. It's only a matter of time before we lose our electricity. I have our generator ready to roll, and I placed it behind my car in the garage so I can move it out quickly when the time comes. Maybe the time won't come. That would be sweet. I filled a 5-gallon gas tank with the idea that I'd transfer the gas to the generator if it looked like we were more likely than not to lose our power. These Nor'easters are very unpredictable, and we don't lose power very often, but this looked like the real McCoy, so I emptied the gas into the generator. I'm also happy to report that if the power goes down, it will be during the daylight hours. I was not looking forward to doing any of this in the dark, so thankfully, that is no longer a concern. It looks like we have about an inch or two of snow and sleet-like stuff on the ground, so maybe we'll not see the eight or so inches that they were calling for. It's April, for chrissakes. Winter-be-gone!
I was telling the missus that it might be nice to have a pot of lentil soup to sustain us for the next couple of days. She was busy doing what she does during the day yesterday, so I went shopping for the ingredients. I really need to make a list when I go shopping. For some unknown reason, that is especially true when I go out for ingredients to make this lentil soup recipe. I always forget something. Yesterday, it was the spinach. Can you imagine? It's one of the main ingredients. To make matters worse, there are only a handful of ingredients so it's not like the list I might make would be too long or maybe unmanageable. The other thing that had my knickers in a bunch was the decision I had to make about which kind of lentils to buy. If the missus has told me once, she's told me a thousand times. We use red lentils when we make this soup. That didn't stop me from putting a bag of green lentils in my bag when I was doing my shopping. I felt pretty good about doing that because there was actually a lentil soup recipe on the back of the bag of lentils. Well, that didn't go over too well. The missus and I went out for red lentils just before dark, and we got the job done thanks to the good folks at our local Market Basket. One of these days, I'll get it right.
I had to run out yesterday morning for an appointment, so I didn't get my writing time in. I hate it when that happens. It's almost impossible to make up for the time I missed since the missus is on our computer for the better part of the day for at least three days a week. I'll see if I have enough gas in the tank this morning to make up for the time I missed. Maybe that means an extra paragraph or two if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise. It's certainly not like there isn't enough going on in the world where I might want to weigh in on an item or two. I have no idea how long this storm is supposed to stick around so I should check the forecast. I think there's enough snow such that I'll need to get out my snowblower at some point. That aside, it's a hunker-down sort of day here in the hood. We have no particular place to go so, as Da used to say, nobody is chasing us. The only thing that might make this day more tolerable is having a nice wood stove to fire up and get cozy with. I'll have to see if the missus has other ideas, but I'm guessing she's good with staying close to home. The roads hereabouts are likely untreated and treacherous, so not for the faint of heart, as they say in the movies.
Will someone please explain to me why we have so many illegal Chinese aliens coming into our country? What the hell are they doing here? What the hell do they want? Who the hell is sending them here? I don't know anything about China and how difficult it is to get in and out of that country, but I think the answer to that question is "not too easy." That tells me that they are being sent here for a reason. They are also coming into our country at a time when every other Jose', Maria, and Mohammed from across the globe are crossing our border illegally, so the Chinamen don't exactly stick out like a sore thumb. Can you imagine if we weren't having these immigration issues and how we might take notice of Chinamen of fighting age coming into our country in the tens of thousands? There would be a hue and cry, I can tell you. Trump would have Xi on the phone in a New York minute. What the fuk, Xi! And what is Bumbles Biden doing? What does any guy who can't tell you what day of the week it is do on any given day? Fill in the blanks. I can also tell you with some confidence that the Chinese coming in are probably not picking lettuce or working in some slaughterhouse somewhere in the Midwest. What then?
How about this headline? "Biden prepared to express his frustration to Netanyahu in phone call Thursday." Can you imagine what Biden's cue cards would have to look like to pull this off? This fool can no sooner have a conversation, much less a heated conversation, with a world leader like Netanyahu than I can pull off a piano concert in New York's famed Madison Square Garden. You see what Biden's handlers are doing here. Right? They are flooding the "airwaves" with lies to give the American people the impression that Biden is getting the job done as president. I think they call that "gaslighting." What do you think our chances are of getting a transcript of that call? There is no transcript because there is no call. Or, rather, there won't be a call. We're seeing these kinds of reports every day now. They are all lies. They are lies because Biden is incapable of making the calls. The Democrats are lying because they can feel the power of the office of the presidency slipping away from them. They want it so bad that they are willing to cheat, lie, or steal to keep it. This is who they are. This is what they do. There is no price they won't pay.
Well, I might have been wrong about the phone call. There was a phone call, as it turns out, but I might have been right about Biden's participation in same. Reports say that Biden threatened Netanyahu to stop going after Hamas. He allegedly told him that Israel would be cut off from US support if he didn't cease their hostilities against Hamas. What does that tell you about the lengths that Biden is willing to stoop to win back the support of the Muslim population in cities like Dearborn, Michigan? He's throwing in with Hamas in order to pick up an electoral edge in states like Michigan. Is that not tantamount to throwing in with the Nazis in WWII to win an election? He is literally ensuring that Israel doesn't win the war against Hamas and that Hamas will live to fight another day and continue to kill Israelis as they did on October 7th. Whatever happened to our support for the only remaining democracy in the Middle East? Is it me, or does this horror show we're witnessing coming out of our White House have Obama's fingerprints all over it? And why is the goat herder from Kenya, Obama, running around the globe on clandestine missions advocating for God only knows what on Biden's behalf? Or, is this just what presidents do in their third term?
Reports also had Biden on a phone call with Xi Jinping yesterday. You have to admit, the guy is pretty busy for a fella with stage-5 dementia. Here's the kicker: No sooner did that phone call wrap up when John Kirby took to the podium in the West Wing briefing room to announce that the United States does not support independence for Taiwan. I saw a tweet suggesting that Kirby was giving Xi a virtual blowjob on national television, and that seemed to capture the sentiment of the moment. I'm pretty sure that our policy towards Taiwan has been to support them if and when China moved militarily against the island and its inhabitants. Is this yet one more example of Biden being in Bejing's pocket thanks to the various and sundry "investments" by the Chinese Communist Party to Biden and his extended family over the years? If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. "Elections have consequences, and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences." All the credit for that statement belongs to Steve Bannon. What Kirby's comment presages is anyone's guess. It could mean that China is planning to move on Taiwan and wants to be sure that Biden is clear about who put him in office. Think Wuhan. Think mail-in ballots.
Is it possible that China released the COVID-19 virus that killed millions of people around the world just to get Trump out of office? If your answer to that question is "no fucking way," then you don't understand anything about China and the goals and aspirations of the Chinese Communist Party. As a side note, the United States has been sending congressional delegations to Taiwan for years to show our support for their independence. How do think the Taiwanese are sleeping tonight after hearing Kirby walk back our support? If the US isn't going to intercede on behalf of Taiwan, ain't nobody going to step into the fray when the shit hits the fan. What message does this send to our allies across the globe who see the United States not willing to stand up against aggressors of fellow democracies when push comes to shove? And the Democrats say that Trump is a threat to democracy. Is this not a perfect example of Democrats accusing Republicans of things they are guilty of? What do they call this again? Projection? Never mind, of course, that going to war with China over Taiwan would be silly. We're not going to threaten to nuke them or anything of the kind. That's not the point. China waltzed into Hong Kong, and we didn't say boo.
Is the bird flu (H-Something) the COVID-19 of the 2024 presidential election cycle? First, we hear about huge chicken farms having to kill off their bird populations due to the infection. Then, we hear about entire herds of cows having to be euthanized because the bird flu has spread to them. I'm waiting now to hear about the first cow or bird-to-human transmission. After that, we'll hear the World Health Organization step in and announce that we have a full-fledged God-awful pandemic on our hands, and we have to pull out all the stops to prevent its spread. Does any of this sound familiar? How about this, "Two weeks to stop the spread"? Wasn't that how it all started in 2020? Hospital rooms were filling up with cases of elderly patients in respiratory distress, and dead people were being stacked up like cordwood in refrigeration trucks because they couldn't process them fast enough. Don't worry; I'm getting around to the masks. When they roll out the masks, you know that mail-in ballots aren't far behind. States can't very well have people standing in line at the polls on Election Day in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that is killing people willy-nilly.
I'm even reading something today about the threat of people eating eggs over easy. You can't even have eggs the way you want them in Biden's America in the year of the Lord 2024. WTF. The next thing you know, they will be telling us that we have to cook our meat well done. Just cook the shite out of it until it becomes like shoe leather. It isn't enough that these assholes want to put everyone behind the wheel of an electric car. It isn't enough that they want to take away our gas stoves and our refrigerators. These are the same ass-clowns that are putting illegal aliens up in five-star hotels with a monthly stipend in the thousands of dollars while we have homeless veterans sleeping in the streets. Now, the Democrats want to give these illegal aliens access to our voting rolls so they can cement their constituencies like never before. We are a good and loving people, but we have a government that has lost its way, and we Americans need to help get that train back on the right track. That is never going to happen with the current Administration in place. They are too corrupt, too compromised, and too far gone to fix any of that which they've created or caused by their actions or inactions. The world will be a better place without them. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I don't get it. Israeli's IDF took out a car carrying 7 people affiliated with Gaza's version of Meals on Wheels, and you'd think it was the end of the world as we know it. Israel made a mistake, and they've fessed up. I think that they probably thought they had a legitimate target when they took out the vehicle. Why is it that when we (the US) do this sort of thing, we simply move on? There is no apology. There is no hand-wringing. There are no apologies to the victim's families. Yet, Israel now has to bow to international pressure to take their foot off the pedal somehow and get to the negotiating table to sort out their differences with Hamas. None of this, of course, involves getting back any of the hostages as a prerequisite for finalizing a deal. It has everything to do with allowing Hamas to live to fight another day and to give Joe Biden the cover he needs with the Muslim community in order to get them to the polls in November. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but it bears repeating. Israel should go ahead with their plans to roust the remaining Hamas fighters from Rafah and tell Bumbles Biden to fuck off. Red lines be damned. Israel has a country to protect. If I were Netanyahu, and I knew I could get rid of the fool (Biden) in the upcoming US election by ignoring his demands to protect Hamas, I would do precisely what Netanyahu is doing now. Keep on keeping on, Bibbi! The American people are with you.
I think Mrs. G is finally giving up on Kentucky Fried Chicken. However, she still loves their mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw, so we'll continue to go there. I'm guessing the chicken may not be as good as it used to be. Maybe it's less crispy, or there's less meat on the bone. That's kinda of the way of the world these days. You get less for your dollar. The damn dollar stores are actually going out of business because they can't afford to sell anything for a dollar anymore. The missus and I stopped at both Dave's Hot Chicken, where a couple of their take-out meals cost $28, and at Bob's Chicken in Portsmouth, where we picked up mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw before heading over to see Mrs. G yesterday. We'll see if Mrs. G takes a shine to Dave's chicken as her new go-to chicken joint. You can choose your heat at Daves, and we got Mrs. G a mild sauce. It's a little out of the way to grab Dave's, so I wouldn't be terribly upset if she said it wasn't her cup of tea when everything was said and done. On the other hand, it's a small price to pay to see that Mrs. G has a nice meal waiting on those evenings when she hasn't ordered anything from her usual menu items found at her facility.
The stock market (S&P) dropped a scary 1.1% the other day, dipping below the ever-important 21-day moving average for the first time in a long time. It had all the makings of a veritable rug-pull. The indices were humming along nicely until around 3 pm, and then it took a nose dive. The DJIA went from up 300 to down 500. That is an eight-hundred-point swing. I think it was the 21-day moving average. Could it have been the fifty-day average? Possibly. One guy on Twitter that I follow said something like, "I've been waiting for this." He's been calling for a 5-10% pullback since December. The question on everyone's mind was, is this the beginning of a bigger pullback or just an overreaction to some news report involving interest rates, oil prices, or maybe an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East? A pullback of sorts would actually be healthy. The markets are definitely overextended here since they've been on a tear since last November with no discernible pullbacks. Maybe we go sideways from here and then break out to the upside after a period of consolidation. We didn't have to wait long to see where it was all going. The very next day, yesterday in fact, the market recovered the entire 1.1% on a day when the ten-year yield was ramping up and oil prices were hovering in and around $90. So much for that dreaded 10% pullback. To the moon, Alice!
We're watching "Ripley" on Netflix. It's a pretty good show. We're more than halfway through the eight-episode series, and I'm still waiting for the cops to catch up with this guy (Tom Ripley.) The main character is a slick small-time scumbag who makes his living as a con man in New York City back in the fifties. The entire show was shot in black and white, which just adds to the overall gloom-and-doom vibe of the flick. As much as you come to despise this prick for all the things he's able to pull off, you can't help but admire how he stays one step ahead of the gumshoes, who, thankfully, now that we're up to episode 6, seem to have his number. I was hoping that Marge (Dakota Fanning), who plays the girlfriend of the fella (Dickie) that Tom ultimately kills and then assumes his identity, would have acted sooner on her suspicions about Ripley, but she does not. The second half of the show follows Ripley to Italy, where he lives the life of a wealthy American, not as Tom Ripley, but as Dickie, whose life Ripley takes in a bizarre scene when the two rent a small boat when Dickie plans to tell Ripley that it's time for him to move on from the life the two have been sharing in a villa overlooking the ocean. I'm loving this Inspector Clouseau type who picks up the investigation after Ripley kills yet another character who threatens to out him to the police. Can't wait to see how this turns out!
Between the wintry weather we've had this past week and the time I had my bike in the shop for repairs, I'm a good week or more out from my last bike ride. I hate it when that happens. My legs go all wobbly, and I become a lot less sure-footed. It's not a big deal as long as I can get back in the saddle without further delay, but it's a reminder to me how doing this bike riding thing is the bee's knees for my health and well-being. In NASA parlance, it looks like it is a go for today, assuming nothing else comes up in the interim. The missus and I plan to watch Iowa play undefeated South Carolina in the women's NCAA playoffs around 3 this afternoon. We've been hearing so much about the wunderkind, Caitlin Clark, and her exploits on the court that we need to see how this all plays out in what is otherwise her last game as a senior. Quite frankly, I could give two shits about basketball, be it women's or men's, and sitting down to watch two hours of it may, at the end of the day, may be a bridge too far, but I'm wanting and willing to make an exception when it comes to today's game. I have a nice spinach, mushroom, and feta cheese quiche in the oven, and that should help us get a good start to the day. We'll get the Ev man's car back to him at some point today, or at least that's the plan, and I'll probably throw some nice chicken skewers on the barbie tonight to end the day. Everything is subject to change at a moment's notice.