FJB
23/01/22 07:18
Winds are whipping and the rain is coming down in sheets but there is no snow in sight. Of course, it's barely daylight hereabouts so I'm prepared to tell a different story should things take a change for the worse. For now, if we're able to keep our electricity on during what's expected to be a day long wind event, I'm good with that. We do have a generator so I can roll that out if the weather goes from bad to worse. If I had to do it all over again, I would have had the generator installed properly instead of having to wheel the damn thing out of my garage in the midst of a storm still swirling.
I'll have to remind myself to save this here document after each paragraph so I don't lose anything if we do lose electricity. Our refrigerator is full of food so no worries there. All of this business about empty store shelves in the midst of a pandemic is not something we've experienced here along the coast. The Ev man is here riding out the storm with us so we made sure that we had plenty of things for him eat and then some. Is a rain and wind storm something that you actually have to ride out? I think he's more comfortable being here than not so we'll leave it at that.
It's funny to think that just 24 hours ago it was zero degrees here along the coast. Now, temperatures are in the upper thirties and they are expected to stay there for the duration of the storm. Inland and points north, maybe 30 miles or so, I think the snow is probably piling up in earnest. You know you have an epic storm on your hands when they give it a name. I don't know if that has more to do with the width and breadth of the storm or maybe the intensity of said storm. Come to think of it, I can't ever remember a rain storm being named. Is that a thing?
Today is Martin Luther King Day. Had I my druthers, I would have never put him on the calendar as a holiday or anything of the sort. He was reportedly a womanizer extraordinaire and an FBI informant. I suppose he gave lip service to this, that, and the other civil rights cause so I suppose you could say he was a cause celeb of sorts. Maybe he came along at a time when the racial climate in America was overdue for a ministerial man of the so-called cloth to rise up and give a voice to the faithful in his community. I'm still not convinced he's deserving of a holiday named in his honor. With the bar being so low, I have to ask the question. Who's next? George Floyd? Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson?
If the leftists can come after Christopher Columbus and George Washington by renaming their holidays to Indigenous People's Day and President's Day respectively, certainly Martin Luther King can be taken down a peg or two. How about "People Of Color" Day? As much as I hate that expression, I think it's something that I can live with. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Right? When I see Martin Luther King's spawn out and about on the breakfast circuit telling Americans what Marty might or might not approve of given the social and racial injustices in America today, all I see are a handful of grifters still looking to cash in on their grandfather's legacy. Can you blame them?
Is this story coming out of New York City true? You know, the story about how healthcare facilities that are now doling out health care based on skin color. It's no longer first come, first serve. That's a special kind of reparations is what I would say. If you're white, get to the back of line. Maybe they'll hang a "honky" or "cracker" sign around your neck the way they put yellow stars on the overcoats of the Jewish people back in the day before sending them off to the concentration camps. Whatever happened to "We the People"? These are death panels plain and simple. What else do you call it when your skin color dictates whether you live or die? Me thinks that Martin Luther King would not approve.
The Supreme Court needs to step in here and spank these officials and spank them hard. This cannot stand. They need to be made an example of so that others wishing to implement these kinds of policies know and understand that this is not who we are as a nation. If one community can put people of color at the front of the line, another community can put white people at the front of the line. Can you imagine a weight-based lottery system? Hey, fatso! You're in the wrong line! How about priorities based on height? How about vaccinated versus non-vaccinated? Oh, wait.
I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing in Virginia. Glenn Youngkin, a republican, was sworn in yesterday as governor. I don't know if Virginia was heretofore a blue state or a purple state, political speaking, but I can tell you that in a Youngkin administration the state is going to be just a little bit more red than blue. Maybe a lot more red than blue, god willing. The new Attorney General has already fired the freaks from the prior administration and the house cleaning will continue. Say goodbye to teaching Critical Race Theory in elementary schools and say goodbye to a handful of onerous tax policies which were more than burdensome. "Virginia," as Governor Youngkin states with great aplomb, "is now open for business."
Oh, and he's doing away with vaccine and mask mandates as they are currently prescribed under Virgina law. He rightly places the responsibility of everything mask and vaccine related, when it comes to the children in the state, with the parents. Imagine that. Some schools and other institutions are already pushing back. My recommendation to the governor would be to get on the phone with governor DeSantis from Florida and ask him what he does to deal with the recalcitrant enterprises in his state. There has to be a price to pay for ignoring or bucking the will of the people making the laws. If he needs to make an example of them, then so be it. There's a new sheriff in town. Suck on it.
If I might, I'll quote Luke 12:47: "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows." Some conservatives viewed Youngkin with suspicion and, given that Youngkin appreciated Trump's kind words about his candidacy for governor but fell short of embracing Trumpism outright, thought that he might be just another fair weather conservative who talks a good talk but never gets around to walking the walk. I think the lot of them are more encouraged today after hearing him address the Virginia House in his first address to the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was pretty darn MAGA. Let's be hopeful, shall we?
Youngkin is a young man, relatively speaking, and it is a little refreshing to see someone so young and so full of vigor and vitality instead of the usual battle scarred warhorses that we see on the national stage these days. That carries a premium of its own and it's not something that you can fake, buy, or delegate if you're an old dog trying to market yourself to new and maybe younger prospective voters. Youngkin had instant cred with the young parents who, like himself, had children in school and had to worry about what they were being taught behind closed doors. He was simpatico in spades.
Maybe we American's are getting a little tired of the same old same old when it comes to voting for presidential candidates. I'm not sure how many democrats turned out for Youngkin but I'm guessing you don't win elections in blue (maybe purple) states without getting a significant number of crossover votes. That's a winning recipe if you're looking to break on through. I can see that working on the national stage as well. It helps to be seen as a viable candidate and not some Johnny-come-lately like Butt-Edge-Edge who, by all accounts, lacks the political heft that is typically required of candidates when running for the highest office in the land. I think "gravitas" is the word I'm looking for.
I'm not wanting to beat this Youngkin thing to death but I will say that he is probably a breath of fresh air when it comes to improving our prospects for securing the votes of the suburban moms. I'm talking about the same moms who love Trump's policies but who hates his tweets and his constant belittling of his political opponents. Trump could often be his own worst enemy and, to many, he is an acquired taste. Just how much of all of that a prospective voter is willing to swallow before pulling the lever in the voting booth is an open question. I do worry that we'll find out the hard way in 2024 that the political landscape has changed and not in a way that favors candidates like Trump. Maybe it depends on who the Dems put up.
I think I've said before that I do not like the vaccine passports for the simple reason that they discriminate against the unvaccinated. Oh, and the fact that government is open to such a thing tells me that someone needs to go back and read our Constitution. You know, the one that our founders wrote 250 years ago. Or, as Sleepy Joe puts it, "you know, the thing." There's a lot in the Constitution about tyranny and what we as a country need to avoid to make sure that we don't let that fucking camel's nose under the tent door. Well, this vaccine passport thing is taking hold in various larger cities across the United States and the latest city to implement the passport mandate is Boston. Paul Revere must be rolling over in his grave.
Fast forward 250 years, you might see Paul Revere driving through the North End of Boston in his Tesla with the windows down while yelling, "The Communist Chinese are coming! The Communist Chinese are coming!" We can laugh but it ain't just happening here. It's a global phenomenon. Anyway, I'll be picking and choosing my spots but I have no plans to frequent any establishment that demands that their customers show a vaccine passport in order to dine there. I'll happily support any and all efforts to close down said establishments if necessary. If enough restaurants go out of business, maybe the government officials will get the message. We're fucking Americans. Let's start acting like Americans.
There's talk here and there in the media about going to war with Russia. Yes, I know the Ruskies have amassed a large number of troops on the border of Ukraine but what the hell does that have to do with us? Do we have a vested interest in protecting the sovereignty of Ukraine? No, we do not. Most Americans couldn't find Ukraine on a map so there's that. Let's not forget, the Commander-in-Chief we have leading our troops into this so-called war is none other than feckless Joey Biden. Yes, the same Joey Biden who embarrassed our nation and our allies when he pulled our troops out of Afghanistan without having an exit strategy in place. You might remember the 13 marines who lost their lives as a result of demented Joe's ineptness.
Everything you heard and see coming out of the Biden Administration seems to suggest that this confrontation is imminent. To those of us who are clear eyed about Biden's intentions, this is a massive wag-the-dog campaign. It's all about distracting the American people from the day-to-day disasters created by Biden and his minions. And we all know, the one thing that Americans do well is that they get behind their Commander-in-Chief when our nation's blood and treasure are on the line. Just between you and me, no American that I know of thinks that we have any business getting into a war with Russia over Ukraine. Unfortunately, no one in the Biden Administration cares what the American people think. They know that Russia has nuclear weapons. Right?
This Voting Rights legislation that the democrats are trying to push through is a joke. We all know it's a joke. Not in the ha-ha sense of the word but laughable nonetheless in that we all know what the democrats are up to with this legislation. They are trying to federalize our elections and that means that the democrats can steal elections in perpetuity in order to stay in power. The good news is that they don't have the votes. They are two votes shy thanks to Senator's Manchin and Sinema. It's amazing to me that we have two democrats who are willing to break ranks with their party on legislation that is, by their own admission, legislation that will save our very democracy.
The vote will go down later this evening and I'm expecting Manchin and Sinema to stick to their guns. I can just imagine the pressure they are under by their leftist constituencies that see the wild-eyed notions of government in perpetuity slipping from their grasp. So close, yet so far. The progressive radio stations that I tune into on occasion are rallying their listeners to do everything they can to exert pressure on the two senators to get back in line or face the threat of being removed from office. It's not enough to have the communist contingent of the democrat party chase the likes of Krysten Sinema into a bathroom stall and harangue her from the other side of the door. It's all hands on deck.
The vote on the Voting Rights legislation has now come and gone. Thank you to the senators who stood tall in the breach and held tight to their promise to veto this terrible piece of legislation. This is what having a backbone looks like. The republicans should pay attention. They might learn something. I'm looking forward to listening to a day's worth of dems gnashing their teeth and clutching their pearls on any and all progressive radio stations that I can find. My cup floweth over with leftist's tears and I'll be sipping generously and deliciously throughout the day. We've won this battle but the war goes on.
I don't know what to say about Biden's press conference last night. Anything I say will be viewed as partisan since I wear my party affiliation on my sleeve so there's that. I tuned in to the CNN's and MSNBC's after the press conference and the looks on their faces told you everything you needed to know about how they thought the presser went. To a person, they were mortified. They saw what the rest of the nation saw. A decrepit and demented old man who was seemingly fading in and out of consciousness as questions were fired at him from a less than friendly press corp. He spoke at times in incomplete and disjointed sentences, bristled at accusations that he considered unwarranted, and gave Russia his personal assurances that the United States would do nothing if they were to wage "only a minor incursion" when it comes to invading Ukraine.
He looked older than his 78 years and his multiple plastic surgeries over the years have not weathered well. As a nation on the precipice of going to war with another nuclear power, one would hope for a less feeble Commander-in-Chief but this is where we are. His remarks about allowing a "minor incursion" came as a shock to both our European allies and our friends and allies in Ukraine. I can just imagine what the headlines look and sound like across the span of the European continent this morning. The White House issued a clarification but it was a day late and a dollar short. The damage was done. We're well past talking about a President who has lost a step or two. We're well past talking about a President who has lost his so-called fast ball. It's time to call 911.
So I get a call from the Falls last night telling me that Weesey was listening to her police scanner when she heard a call come over the radio that there was an ambulance heading over to Uncle Wally's residence. "That's not good," I thought to myself. It wasn't clear as to who was in need of an ambulance but it sounded like it had something to do with Uncle Wally himself. The caller was short on facts and we agreed to catch up in the next couple of hours when, hopefully, we might have more information. As it turned out, the ambulance was indeed for Uncle Wally. We now know that he's doing just fine. It was just one of those things. Scary, but not terminal. Very good to know. Indeed.
It made me realize that my lines of communication with the extended family could probably use a little shoring up. I talked to one of my siblings and I was grateful that someone, anyone, had the wherewithal to get on the horn to me. I left a message on Uncle Wally's phone expressing my concern. I was grateful when he returned my call within the hour sounding no worse for wear. It's not an overstatement to say that I was worried about him. I always call Uncle Wally on his cell so I had no other means for reaching out to his extended family for news. Maybe this is something to add to my list of things to work on in 2022. It's a worthy cause. No?
Did I mention that we took the Ev man's car in for servicing? I brought it into the local dealership so they could address the issue where he is getting water in the cabin of his car every time it rains. It turns out that it had nothing to do with the drains at the front of the sunroof. Rather, the windshield was the source of the leak and that came as a bit of a surprise to me. How the heck did that come to be? They resealed the windshield and dried out the floor of the car by removing the seats and taking the floor coverings completely out of the car. It wasn't inexpensive but it was a job that was better addressed by the dealership so I felt good about having made that decision.
I'm still of the mind that the car has a few problems that we've only begun to find out about. I would contend that that's one of the many potential downsides of buying a used car. Is it an out and out lemon? I wouldn't go that far. Did the dealership from whom I purchased the car know about its maybe one or more problems or potential problems? I think so. I can tell you that the Ev man is about as delighted as delighted can be to get his car back. I think he was not at all happy about the water leak business and having to live and deal with that was not something he was at all comfortable with. Maybe he thought it was unfixable? We got it figured out so, from here on in, fingers crossed.
Man, what is going on with the stock market these days? The indices were up anywhere from 25 to 30% in 2021 and, as of today anyway, they seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. You knew the stair stepping of the market to higher and higher levels in 2021 was not sustainable. It was just a matter of time before it came back down to earth. Like everything else in life, the stock market always reverts to the mean. Were I to give any advice today, I would stress the need for capital preservation given that the indices are trading on or below the 200 day moving average. Nothing good happens when price action is below the 200 day moving average.
Beneath the surface, a lot of stocks have been in a bear market for months. It's just been the high flyers with the high betas that have kept the indices at all time highs. In a bear market, it's just a matter of time before they come for the Apple's and the Amazon's. When that happens, it's Katy bar the door. In the last few days, we've seen a lot of selling into the close. That's another indicator of a bear market. It's not something you see in bull market. Can there be a countertrend rally here and there? For sure. I suspect we'll see good news sold off and bad news sold off even harder as we go forward. With any luck, and this is going to take a while to play out, we may get a mother-of-all buying opportunity.
Just to put a finer point on the carnage occurring in the market, the S&P was down 5.7% on the week. The Nasdaq was down maybe 8-9%. If this continues, real estate will be the next asset on the chopping block. This is what my financial guy says anyway. I think he's right. When people line up at their local banks wanting to borrow money on the inflated values of their homes in order to buy into the stock market, that's a problem. When it all comes crumbling down, they are left holding the bag. You know, up the creek without a paddle. Not sure if that's where all this is going, but it sure has an apocalyptic feeling to it. Is there anything that doesn't feel apocalyptic in Joe Biden's America?
I'll have to remind myself to save this here document after each paragraph so I don't lose anything if we do lose electricity. Our refrigerator is full of food so no worries there. All of this business about empty store shelves in the midst of a pandemic is not something we've experienced here along the coast. The Ev man is here riding out the storm with us so we made sure that we had plenty of things for him eat and then some. Is a rain and wind storm something that you actually have to ride out? I think he's more comfortable being here than not so we'll leave it at that.
It's funny to think that just 24 hours ago it was zero degrees here along the coast. Now, temperatures are in the upper thirties and they are expected to stay there for the duration of the storm. Inland and points north, maybe 30 miles or so, I think the snow is probably piling up in earnest. You know you have an epic storm on your hands when they give it a name. I don't know if that has more to do with the width and breadth of the storm or maybe the intensity of said storm. Come to think of it, I can't ever remember a rain storm being named. Is that a thing?
Today is Martin Luther King Day. Had I my druthers, I would have never put him on the calendar as a holiday or anything of the sort. He was reportedly a womanizer extraordinaire and an FBI informant. I suppose he gave lip service to this, that, and the other civil rights cause so I suppose you could say he was a cause celeb of sorts. Maybe he came along at a time when the racial climate in America was overdue for a ministerial man of the so-called cloth to rise up and give a voice to the faithful in his community. I'm still not convinced he's deserving of a holiday named in his honor. With the bar being so low, I have to ask the question. Who's next? George Floyd? Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson?
If the leftists can come after Christopher Columbus and George Washington by renaming their holidays to Indigenous People's Day and President's Day respectively, certainly Martin Luther King can be taken down a peg or two. How about "People Of Color" Day? As much as I hate that expression, I think it's something that I can live with. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Right? When I see Martin Luther King's spawn out and about on the breakfast circuit telling Americans what Marty might or might not approve of given the social and racial injustices in America today, all I see are a handful of grifters still looking to cash in on their grandfather's legacy. Can you blame them?
Is this story coming out of New York City true? You know, the story about how healthcare facilities that are now doling out health care based on skin color. It's no longer first come, first serve. That's a special kind of reparations is what I would say. If you're white, get to the back of line. Maybe they'll hang a "honky" or "cracker" sign around your neck the way they put yellow stars on the overcoats of the Jewish people back in the day before sending them off to the concentration camps. Whatever happened to "We the People"? These are death panels plain and simple. What else do you call it when your skin color dictates whether you live or die? Me thinks that Martin Luther King would not approve.
The Supreme Court needs to step in here and spank these officials and spank them hard. This cannot stand. They need to be made an example of so that others wishing to implement these kinds of policies know and understand that this is not who we are as a nation. If one community can put people of color at the front of the line, another community can put white people at the front of the line. Can you imagine a weight-based lottery system? Hey, fatso! You're in the wrong line! How about priorities based on height? How about vaccinated versus non-vaccinated? Oh, wait.
I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing in Virginia. Glenn Youngkin, a republican, was sworn in yesterday as governor. I don't know if Virginia was heretofore a blue state or a purple state, political speaking, but I can tell you that in a Youngkin administration the state is going to be just a little bit more red than blue. Maybe a lot more red than blue, god willing. The new Attorney General has already fired the freaks from the prior administration and the house cleaning will continue. Say goodbye to teaching Critical Race Theory in elementary schools and say goodbye to a handful of onerous tax policies which were more than burdensome. "Virginia," as Governor Youngkin states with great aplomb, "is now open for business."
Oh, and he's doing away with vaccine and mask mandates as they are currently prescribed under Virgina law. He rightly places the responsibility of everything mask and vaccine related, when it comes to the children in the state, with the parents. Imagine that. Some schools and other institutions are already pushing back. My recommendation to the governor would be to get on the phone with governor DeSantis from Florida and ask him what he does to deal with the recalcitrant enterprises in his state. There has to be a price to pay for ignoring or bucking the will of the people making the laws. If he needs to make an example of them, then so be it. There's a new sheriff in town. Suck on it.
If I might, I'll quote Luke 12:47: "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows." Some conservatives viewed Youngkin with suspicion and, given that Youngkin appreciated Trump's kind words about his candidacy for governor but fell short of embracing Trumpism outright, thought that he might be just another fair weather conservative who talks a good talk but never gets around to walking the walk. I think the lot of them are more encouraged today after hearing him address the Virginia House in his first address to the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was pretty darn MAGA. Let's be hopeful, shall we?
Youngkin is a young man, relatively speaking, and it is a little refreshing to see someone so young and so full of vigor and vitality instead of the usual battle scarred warhorses that we see on the national stage these days. That carries a premium of its own and it's not something that you can fake, buy, or delegate if you're an old dog trying to market yourself to new and maybe younger prospective voters. Youngkin had instant cred with the young parents who, like himself, had children in school and had to worry about what they were being taught behind closed doors. He was simpatico in spades.
Maybe we American's are getting a little tired of the same old same old when it comes to voting for presidential candidates. I'm not sure how many democrats turned out for Youngkin but I'm guessing you don't win elections in blue (maybe purple) states without getting a significant number of crossover votes. That's a winning recipe if you're looking to break on through. I can see that working on the national stage as well. It helps to be seen as a viable candidate and not some Johnny-come-lately like Butt-Edge-Edge who, by all accounts, lacks the political heft that is typically required of candidates when running for the highest office in the land. I think "gravitas" is the word I'm looking for.
I'm not wanting to beat this Youngkin thing to death but I will say that he is probably a breath of fresh air when it comes to improving our prospects for securing the votes of the suburban moms. I'm talking about the same moms who love Trump's policies but who hates his tweets and his constant belittling of his political opponents. Trump could often be his own worst enemy and, to many, he is an acquired taste. Just how much of all of that a prospective voter is willing to swallow before pulling the lever in the voting booth is an open question. I do worry that we'll find out the hard way in 2024 that the political landscape has changed and not in a way that favors candidates like Trump. Maybe it depends on who the Dems put up.
I think I've said before that I do not like the vaccine passports for the simple reason that they discriminate against the unvaccinated. Oh, and the fact that government is open to such a thing tells me that someone needs to go back and read our Constitution. You know, the one that our founders wrote 250 years ago. Or, as Sleepy Joe puts it, "you know, the thing." There's a lot in the Constitution about tyranny and what we as a country need to avoid to make sure that we don't let that fucking camel's nose under the tent door. Well, this vaccine passport thing is taking hold in various larger cities across the United States and the latest city to implement the passport mandate is Boston. Paul Revere must be rolling over in his grave.
Fast forward 250 years, you might see Paul Revere driving through the North End of Boston in his Tesla with the windows down while yelling, "The Communist Chinese are coming! The Communist Chinese are coming!" We can laugh but it ain't just happening here. It's a global phenomenon. Anyway, I'll be picking and choosing my spots but I have no plans to frequent any establishment that demands that their customers show a vaccine passport in order to dine there. I'll happily support any and all efforts to close down said establishments if necessary. If enough restaurants go out of business, maybe the government officials will get the message. We're fucking Americans. Let's start acting like Americans.
There's talk here and there in the media about going to war with Russia. Yes, I know the Ruskies have amassed a large number of troops on the border of Ukraine but what the hell does that have to do with us? Do we have a vested interest in protecting the sovereignty of Ukraine? No, we do not. Most Americans couldn't find Ukraine on a map so there's that. Let's not forget, the Commander-in-Chief we have leading our troops into this so-called war is none other than feckless Joey Biden. Yes, the same Joey Biden who embarrassed our nation and our allies when he pulled our troops out of Afghanistan without having an exit strategy in place. You might remember the 13 marines who lost their lives as a result of demented Joe's ineptness.
Everything you heard and see coming out of the Biden Administration seems to suggest that this confrontation is imminent. To those of us who are clear eyed about Biden's intentions, this is a massive wag-the-dog campaign. It's all about distracting the American people from the day-to-day disasters created by Biden and his minions. And we all know, the one thing that Americans do well is that they get behind their Commander-in-Chief when our nation's blood and treasure are on the line. Just between you and me, no American that I know of thinks that we have any business getting into a war with Russia over Ukraine. Unfortunately, no one in the Biden Administration cares what the American people think. They know that Russia has nuclear weapons. Right?
This Voting Rights legislation that the democrats are trying to push through is a joke. We all know it's a joke. Not in the ha-ha sense of the word but laughable nonetheless in that we all know what the democrats are up to with this legislation. They are trying to federalize our elections and that means that the democrats can steal elections in perpetuity in order to stay in power. The good news is that they don't have the votes. They are two votes shy thanks to Senator's Manchin and Sinema. It's amazing to me that we have two democrats who are willing to break ranks with their party on legislation that is, by their own admission, legislation that will save our very democracy.
The vote will go down later this evening and I'm expecting Manchin and Sinema to stick to their guns. I can just imagine the pressure they are under by their leftist constituencies that see the wild-eyed notions of government in perpetuity slipping from their grasp. So close, yet so far. The progressive radio stations that I tune into on occasion are rallying their listeners to do everything they can to exert pressure on the two senators to get back in line or face the threat of being removed from office. It's not enough to have the communist contingent of the democrat party chase the likes of Krysten Sinema into a bathroom stall and harangue her from the other side of the door. It's all hands on deck.
The vote on the Voting Rights legislation has now come and gone. Thank you to the senators who stood tall in the breach and held tight to their promise to veto this terrible piece of legislation. This is what having a backbone looks like. The republicans should pay attention. They might learn something. I'm looking forward to listening to a day's worth of dems gnashing their teeth and clutching their pearls on any and all progressive radio stations that I can find. My cup floweth over with leftist's tears and I'll be sipping generously and deliciously throughout the day. We've won this battle but the war goes on.
I don't know what to say about Biden's press conference last night. Anything I say will be viewed as partisan since I wear my party affiliation on my sleeve so there's that. I tuned in to the CNN's and MSNBC's after the press conference and the looks on their faces told you everything you needed to know about how they thought the presser went. To a person, they were mortified. They saw what the rest of the nation saw. A decrepit and demented old man who was seemingly fading in and out of consciousness as questions were fired at him from a less than friendly press corp. He spoke at times in incomplete and disjointed sentences, bristled at accusations that he considered unwarranted, and gave Russia his personal assurances that the United States would do nothing if they were to wage "only a minor incursion" when it comes to invading Ukraine.
He looked older than his 78 years and his multiple plastic surgeries over the years have not weathered well. As a nation on the precipice of going to war with another nuclear power, one would hope for a less feeble Commander-in-Chief but this is where we are. His remarks about allowing a "minor incursion" came as a shock to both our European allies and our friends and allies in Ukraine. I can just imagine what the headlines look and sound like across the span of the European continent this morning. The White House issued a clarification but it was a day late and a dollar short. The damage was done. We're well past talking about a President who has lost a step or two. We're well past talking about a President who has lost his so-called fast ball. It's time to call 911.
So I get a call from the Falls last night telling me that Weesey was listening to her police scanner when she heard a call come over the radio that there was an ambulance heading over to Uncle Wally's residence. "That's not good," I thought to myself. It wasn't clear as to who was in need of an ambulance but it sounded like it had something to do with Uncle Wally himself. The caller was short on facts and we agreed to catch up in the next couple of hours when, hopefully, we might have more information. As it turned out, the ambulance was indeed for Uncle Wally. We now know that he's doing just fine. It was just one of those things. Scary, but not terminal. Very good to know. Indeed.
It made me realize that my lines of communication with the extended family could probably use a little shoring up. I talked to one of my siblings and I was grateful that someone, anyone, had the wherewithal to get on the horn to me. I left a message on Uncle Wally's phone expressing my concern. I was grateful when he returned my call within the hour sounding no worse for wear. It's not an overstatement to say that I was worried about him. I always call Uncle Wally on his cell so I had no other means for reaching out to his extended family for news. Maybe this is something to add to my list of things to work on in 2022. It's a worthy cause. No?
Did I mention that we took the Ev man's car in for servicing? I brought it into the local dealership so they could address the issue where he is getting water in the cabin of his car every time it rains. It turns out that it had nothing to do with the drains at the front of the sunroof. Rather, the windshield was the source of the leak and that came as a bit of a surprise to me. How the heck did that come to be? They resealed the windshield and dried out the floor of the car by removing the seats and taking the floor coverings completely out of the car. It wasn't inexpensive but it was a job that was better addressed by the dealership so I felt good about having made that decision.
I'm still of the mind that the car has a few problems that we've only begun to find out about. I would contend that that's one of the many potential downsides of buying a used car. Is it an out and out lemon? I wouldn't go that far. Did the dealership from whom I purchased the car know about its maybe one or more problems or potential problems? I think so. I can tell you that the Ev man is about as delighted as delighted can be to get his car back. I think he was not at all happy about the water leak business and having to live and deal with that was not something he was at all comfortable with. Maybe he thought it was unfixable? We got it figured out so, from here on in, fingers crossed.
Man, what is going on with the stock market these days? The indices were up anywhere from 25 to 30% in 2021 and, as of today anyway, they seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. You knew the stair stepping of the market to higher and higher levels in 2021 was not sustainable. It was just a matter of time before it came back down to earth. Like everything else in life, the stock market always reverts to the mean. Were I to give any advice today, I would stress the need for capital preservation given that the indices are trading on or below the 200 day moving average. Nothing good happens when price action is below the 200 day moving average.
Beneath the surface, a lot of stocks have been in a bear market for months. It's just been the high flyers with the high betas that have kept the indices at all time highs. In a bear market, it's just a matter of time before they come for the Apple's and the Amazon's. When that happens, it's Katy bar the door. In the last few days, we've seen a lot of selling into the close. That's another indicator of a bear market. It's not something you see in bull market. Can there be a countertrend rally here and there? For sure. I suspect we'll see good news sold off and bad news sold off even harder as we go forward. With any luck, and this is going to take a while to play out, we may get a mother-of-all buying opportunity.
Just to put a finer point on the carnage occurring in the market, the S&P was down 5.7% on the week. The Nasdaq was down maybe 8-9%. If this continues, real estate will be the next asset on the chopping block. This is what my financial guy says anyway. I think he's right. When people line up at their local banks wanting to borrow money on the inflated values of their homes in order to buy into the stock market, that's a problem. When it all comes crumbling down, they are left holding the bag. You know, up the creek without a paddle. Not sure if that's where all this is going, but it sure has an apocalyptic feeling to it. Is there anything that doesn't feel apocalyptic in Joe Biden's America?