POS
03/07/22 13:29
What are the chances that we see a Trump-DeSantis ticket in 2024? Wouldn't that be something? They say that DeSantis is Trump without all the baggage. It would be an unbelievable ticket to be sure. And, who do the democrats have? Demented Joe? Cackling Kamala? Mr "I'm on maternity leave" Butt-Edge-Edge? It's a clown show from the left and our country has had enough of them after a little more than a year. We want our low gas prices back and we want our laws respected regardless of the political party you belong to. Is that too fucking much to ask? And how about putting a few turrets along our southern borders to protect our citizenry from the marauding and militant illegals carrying drugs and disease into our country day after day and night after night?
It was so funny. Jake Tapper (CNN) is overseas covering the G7 and he sat down for an interview with Boris Johnson. You know, the Prime Minister of Britain. That Boris. I'm still not sure how a child born in New York City grows up to be the Prime Minister of Britain but that's a story for another day. Anyway, Toadie Jake asks Boris a number of pointed questions about the January 6th hearings and all the hullabaloo around Trump and everything that happened on that fateful day. You could tell that Jake wanted very badly to have Boris rake Trump over the coals. That would make for some terrific headlines going into the Mid Terms. Boris was having none of it. Just an epic fail! What else have you got?
I saw a couple of photos coming out of the G7 which were interesting. One photo had the lot of them sitting around a roundtable looking mildly amused. Upon closer inspection, I couldn't help but notice that Joey Biden had his cue cards propped up on his lap and out of view of the other participants. You know he can't speak in complete sentences without his cue cards. Right? When is one or more of these "leaders' going to drop a dime on this fool and call him out for the demented fool that he is? What are they afraid of? Are they afraid that they'll pay a price somehow? Maybe they won't be invited to the White House? You know that to a person they know dementia when they see it. Right?
I don't know how I feel about the Republican gubernatorial primary in New York coming up the day after tomorrow. Zeldin seems like a likable enough chap but I have to wonder if likable gets you across the finish line? Giuliani, on the other hand, is about as tough as they come and maybe that's what New York needs after years of democratic "leadership." We're talking Andrew here and not Rudy just so you know. He's Rudy's boy, setting aside the four years that he worked in the Trump Administration, so he has the genes. I haven't watched all the debates so I'm not sure who is professing to be more MAGA but if I had to guess I'd say Andrew takes the lead there. One of the two will win. The real question is, who can win in the general? I just don't see people getting behind Hochul.
The caterwauling on the left continues after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade. If I hear one more loon cry out, "My body, my choice," I think I'm going to lose it. This was another topic that Jake Tapper of CNN tried to get Boris Johnson to weigh in on. Boris was just not willing to go so far as to say that he disagreed with the ruling coming out of our highest court in the land. He was about as diplomatic as one might expect from a sitting Prime Minister of a great country like Great Britain.
You couldn't listen to that interview without thinking to yourself that this is what a normal functioning leader sounds like. Compare that to the clown Biden who hasn't had a press conference in months and even when he does show up he's not without his cue cards. Just to be clear, the cue cards give him talking points but they are otherwise useless when it comes to commenting or responding to questions extemporaneously. More to the point, why wasn't Jake interviewing Biden? I think we know the answer to that question. The world knows the answer to that question. As an American through and through, I'm embarrassed for our country with this clown sitting in the White House.
I think we need to gird ourselves for the months ahead. If you think that the caterwauling is over the top now, it's likely to get a lot worse as we close in on the Mid Term elections in November. The media will be doing story after story about people of color and people in marginalized communities who are beset with this or that woe because of the decisions made by our Supreme Court as it relates to the abortion issue. We'll hear our share of stories about women who have lost their lives due to abortions done in back alleys, women who couldn't afford to travel to other states where abortions are legal and now have to bear the burden of having unwanted children, and children who will go unnourished because their mother couldn't afford to abort her latest in a burgeoning brood.
What I think we need, but it's something that we'll likely not see anytime soon, is a video of an actual abortion. The left doesn't want you to see just how hideous this practice is and they will go to extremes to make sure that you don't see it. None of it, of course, would pass muster on prime-time television and that probably is just as true when you consider cable television. I don't know how we get that story out in all of its hideousness but, were we to inject it into the mainstream of the American consciousness however that happens, you'd see a lot of suburban moms coast to coast changing their party affiliation from democrat to republican. We need to take the wind out of this "My body, my choice, movement at all costs. The Supreme Court decision is just the beginning. It's now all hands on deck.
I don't know how much more wining I can take. We had the Roe vs Wade decision and that was literally life-affirming. We had the gun ruling out of the Supreme Court and that put guns back in the hands, waistbands, and holsters of law-abiding citizens in the state of New York. That strengthens, not weakens, our collective second amendment rights. Then, just yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 for a coach who was fired from his position for kneeling in prayer on the field before his team's game. If that doesn't have you standing up and giving the baby Jesus a hallelujah, I don't know what does. Free speech is alive and well in our great republic but don't take my word for it. The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, says so. And, how about that ruling from the NY Supreme Court yesterday saying, in so many words, that illegal aliens aren't eligible to vote in local elections? We're on a roll!
The missus and I drove into Boston yesterday for a follow-up visitation for the missus. We decided that we wouldn't spend the night before in a hotel so that had us up at the crack of dawn looking to beat the traffic into the city. I wouldn't say that it was a painless drive once we hit the road at 5:30 am but it was pretty close. Weather conditions were good, traffic was maybe a little lighter than expected, and all told, we probably caught a couple of breaks here and there which put us in the city somewhere around 7 am. With time to waste before the 8:30 appointment, the missus and I walked across town and down to Faneuil Hall and back. So many familiar sights and sounds. We walked through a city just waking up and there wasn't but a hint of the hustle and bustle that was to follow.
I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that the so-called walk across town was a bit of a trudge-fest. I was carrying a backpack and, at some point along the way, I noticed that the missus was struggling so I put her handbag inside my backpack. She may not have said it but I could tell that she was feeling relieved not to have to carry that bag even one more block. We were a little disappointed to find that so many of the shops and stores that we used to frequent down in the Faneuil Hall area had yet to open their doors. What we wouldn't have given to have maybe a little muffin and maybe a little liquid refreshment of some kind. We were also quite amazed to see some of the stores and restaurants that we used to frequent back in the day were still standing and still in business.
By the time the missus and I got back home in the late afternoon, we were reminded of the fact that there is a certain resiliency of mind that comes with doing that which is routine. You get on that treadmill of life and familiarity becomes the path of least resistance. Intentionally or not, you construct guardrails along the way which make for a more predictable and maybe less perilous path day in and day out. The minute you get off that treadmill and start doing things and going places the likes of which we did yesterday, you start to appreciate just how exhausting getting off the beaten path can prove to be. By the time we got home, our collective equilibrium was turned inside out and upside down. I wanted nothing more than to get back on that treadmill of mine and return to the fantasy land that is my life. I wasn't alone.
What is this I'm hearing about NATO increasing troop strength in Europe from 30k to 100k? And then you have Biden giving some speech in Europe about tossing another few billion to do this or that to assist Ukraine. Add to the mix comments from Russia about hitting London with a nuclear device if things were to go down a certain path and we've got ourselves a shit show on steroids. So, after all of this nonsense about letting Ukraine fight its own battles on its territory, it's now time to up the ante and do what? Is NATO planning to declare war on Russia? Are we looking at World War three here? What is this bewildering old fool, Biden, getting us into? Does he think that his chances of political survival, and those of his party, are more likely or even enhanced if he stands tall in the breach as a wartime president? I hate to tell him but that is the last thing we Americans want or need. Nothing could be scarier than a demented old fool like Biden with his shaky hands on the nuclear briefcase.
I wonder sometimes if I don't sound like a broken record week in and week out in this here blog. Not that I should care about such things but no one wants to come across as humdrum when all is said and done. I guess I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and maybe care a little less about where it takes me or where I end up. Continuity is the key. Any good blogger will tell you that writing every day is a discipline in itself. It's taken me a good while to get to the point where I have the discipline to sit down and do what I do here every morning, well almost every morning, of every week. And, truth be told, there is no shortage of grist for the mill as it were so thank the baby Jesus for that.
I think the January 6th committee in our nation's Capitol really stepped in it yesterday. You know, that "bipartisan" group of congressmen looking into what transpired on January 6th, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. I don't know that the committee's goal is to send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice so much as it is to dirty up Trump and render him ineligible to run for president in 2024. The committee called an emergency meeting yesterday to hear the testimony of a surprise witness. It was all hands on deck for the Main Street media. This was the moment when they would tighten the proverbial noose around Trump's neck and having a surprise witness would only heighten the drama and, with any luck, exponentially increase the number of eyeballs on the event. By the end of the day, all one could reasonably conclude was that the hearing was more akin than not to that offered up by the serial liar, Christine Blasey Ford, during the Senate hearings for Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh.
Some of the stories told by the surprise witness were ludicrous on their face. Many of her stories were second and third hand which, under any reasonable cross-examination, would never pass muster in a court of law. In fact, her accounts were immediately disputed by any number of people who spoke up and offered to come in and give their own testimony under oath to the contrary. It was so bad that every media outlet, seeing that things were going south in a hurry as they too watched the testimony of this witness, took members of the committee who were willing to be interviewed after the fact to task about the credibility of their witness. If the committee thought for even a minute that this witness was going to be the John Dean (Watergate fame) of the hearings, they were sadly mistaken. If anything, this sham of a hearing put the credibility of the entire committee on display and it exposed them for the kangaroo court that they are. Good luck finding another job in Washington, DC, missy.
Of course, you're going to have your clapping seals on the left talking about how devastating the testimony was for Trump and his minions who allegedly ran a failed coup on that fateful day. If I had to guess, I'd say that this particular witness made it less likely that the Department of Justice will indict Trump anytime soon. We all know the DOJ is watching the hearings very closely and, given half a chance, would do Biden's bidding and indict Trump at the drop of a hat if they had even a scintilla of evidence that Trump was behind any of it. It's one thing to indict some of Trump's people for their involvement in whatever schemes they can dream up and it's quite another to indict an ex-president of our country. That's banana republic-level stuff and not something that we ever want to see in our country. Then again, there's a lot about the Biden presidency that says "banana republic" so you know what they say about people who assume things.
I'm waking up this morning to a Zeldin win in the New York gubernatorial primary. He won by a pretty good margin so that's interesting. I thought that the Giuliana name might have helped Andrew Giuliani coming down the stretch given how his dad, Rudy, is infamous in his own right being the ex-mayor of NYC and all. What are we to make of Zeldin's win? Is Rudy and the Giuliani name somehow tarnished or tainted as a result of all the shenanigans in the wake of the 2020 election? Did Zeldin win or did Giuliani lose? Is it possible that the voters in New York found Rudy's son too Trump-like? He certainly embraced Trump and the MAGA agenda so that has to count for something. No? Maybe New York voters know a good thing or two about what it takes for a republican to win the governor's seat in the otherwise very liberal state of New York.
Mrs G's new couch will be delivered next week so I hope she has everything in order. That is to say, she needs to arrange for the people running her facility to come and pick up her old couch so the guys delivering her new couch have a place to put it when they arrive. She was going on and on the other day about how the people at her facility have to wait for the weekend when they have access to a vehicle to use to move the couch. She was referring to the employees of the facility who have friends or family who can use an extra piece of furniture or two if and when they become available. Then, of course, you can always pay the facility to come and take the couch away like any other piece of trash. What I don't want to happen is to have the deliverymen arrive and have to deal one way or another with the old couch. Why should I even care? Right?
I think the missus thinks that she and I need to be there when they make the delivery. I'm not so sure. I think that Mrs G is perfectly capable of directing these fellas as necessary once they arrive on her doorstep. Getting them to her doorstep could be another story. They needn't carry the couch through any other door than the door that leads into her apartment from the outside of the building. Do not go into the front entrance of the building and do not bother signing in one way or another. All of that depends on how Mrs G directs them once she gets their call in the 30 minutes leading up to their arrival. Here's my advice to Mrs G: You can do this! Git er done!
This Monkeypox thing seems to getting a life of its own. Have you seen the pictures? That is one nasty affliction! They say it's spread by exchanging bodily fluids and is found primarily in the gay community. What, straight folks don't exchange bodily fluids? What are we talking about here? I gather that it's not all that deadly so it's not like it's a five-alarm fire or anything. It's also eerily reminiscent of what we saw during the AIDS epidemic in the '70s although people with AIDS back in the day were dropping like flies and there were no cures homestyle or otherwise. It's doubtful that you would see people suffering from this malady out in public but I, for one, will be keeping an eye out. They lied to us about Covid and how it was transmitted or not transmitted and a lot of people died so color me skeptical. I'm still not wearing a mask.
Do you remember me talking about the missus and how she works from time to time with someone who lives in another state? Sometimes she travels and sometimes she can do what she needs to do from home. Sometimes, she'll get a call from her employer out of the blue asking her this or that question having mostly to do with his computer. Either he can't find what he's looking for or he doesn't know how to do this that or the other thing that he is looking to accomplish. What I may have mentioned in passing is that I wanted very badly to find an application that would allow her to see and control his desktop. That would be just what the doctor ordered. In other words, the bee's knees. It would have to be a cross-platform application given that there are two operating systems in play. Well, we finally pulled all of that together and it works like a charm. There is a god.
I'm not sure that it means that she will be traveling less but what it does mean is that the time they spend together on the phone when she's working from home will be significantly less since she can now just hop on his desktop and cut to the chase. He can even watch her do what she does on his desktop in real-time so think of it as a learning tool. His limitations when it comes to the computer are mainly age-related but that can be a bear when you're not all that nimble or knowledgeable when it comes to computers to begin with. The missus knows just enough to be dangerous and that's a good thing. I'm there with an assist if necessary and I try as much as possible to stay undetected and in the background. Our only regret is that we didn't find out about this application a long time ago. God only knows that it would have saved everyone a lot of time and maybe even a trip or two to his home. Oh, well.
The Ev man is over for a visit today. I suspect that he'll stay the day, have dinner with us, and then return home. I'd like to take a look in his car while he's here and take everything out of his car that he doesn't need to be carrying around with him. I'm talking mostly clothes here which he's thrown in the back of his car for a variety of reasons and, for the most part, never got around to taking them up to his apartment. It's just a Hodge podge of stuff that he might as well leave here instead of carrying them around in his car. I'm a little worried that I'll find some half-eaten burgers or worse when I start to look around so that's another reason not to be loading up your car like a homeless person. I'm kidding a little bit about the burgers but I have thrown out my share of leftover bags from various fast food joints in going through his car here and there. What twenty-something isn't organizationally challenged. Right?
It sure was nice of our neighbor to drop off some Swiss chard from her garden. I had high hopes that I could make a nice salad for the missus and myself. Our neighbor gave us some last year and it sat so long in our refrigerator that I finally had to toss it out. I didn't want to make the same mistake this year so I assembled all the ingredients I thought I needed just ahead of the lunch hour in order to come up with the salads. I laid out the fresh lemons and olive oil for the dressing and I cut up some cherry tomatoes and Kalamari olives in preparation for the dressing and the mix-ins. I started to devein the leaves when, much to my horror, I started to see a bunch of little red ants running around on my cutting board. Damn. The more leaves I unpacked the more red ants appeared. I'll likely not give my benefactor this particular feedback but neither could I with good conscious move forward when moving forward meant not knowing how many red ants I'd missed or not seen in my desperate attempt to salvage the salads I had planned. It was over. Scuttled. Damn.
The Supreme Court issued their final findings of the season today before going out on vacation or whatever. One of the rulings had to do with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has been doing the bidding of Biden and his clownish administration by issuing this ruling and that ruling is all designed to further their goals as it relates to Climate Change. It's the religion of the looney left don't you know. Their goal is to completely de-carbonize our economy at a time when any and all alternative technologies are in their infancy. By design or default, this nonsense puts our country at a distinct disadvantage to other countries like China and Russia who would given half a chance, eat our lunch either economically or militarily. Neither is acceptable.
The end result of this ruling is that Congress will now make the rules that the EPA was previously responsible for making and the EPA will be left with the responsibility of enforcing the legislation coming out of Congress. The good news is that getting Congress to agree on anything given the polarization of politics these days means that the "polluters" and the industries that have had their hands tied due to the EPA will now have free rein to do as they please without the oversight and heavy hand of the regulators of the EPA. Less regulation has always gone hand in hand with increased productivity and enhanced profits for corporations. The Climate Change nutters will have to find another way to vent their collective anger and rage if they are ever to survive in this new environment of ours. We Climate Change deniers are just getting the party started thanks to our wonderfully wise and wildly conservative members of the Supreme Court. Let the pissing and pearl-clutching begin!
This recession stuff is tricky. Technically, according to some people who pay attention to such things, a recession just means that we have two negative GDP readings in a row. With inflation raging in excess of 8% depending on which sectors you're watching, it is just unimaginably expensive for people to get by week after week. Gas prices aren't helping at $5 to $10 a gallon depending on where you live in the United States, and with winter coming, prices for home heating oil are going to leave a lot of families huddling together just to keep warm. Commodities are at an all-time high which means everything and anything you want to do costs more. When is the last time you got an estimate for a roof replacement? It was likely twice as expensive compared to just 12 months ago. Add to that the supply chain issues, and shortages will effectively drive prices even higher if that's possible. And then you have interest rates that are going up but don't even come close to keeping up with inflation. It's a witch's brew through and through.
The combination of interest rates and inflation is doing a good job of suppressing demand. With slowing growth rates due to lessening demand, prices are going to come down on everything from commodities to the price of labor. When you have less demand, companies need fewer people so layoff's become commonplace. With more people out of work, and fewer jobs available for those looking for work, defaults on everything from bank loans to mortgage payments increase exponentially. The Federal Reserve isn't helping by increasing interest rates into a recession which makes borrowing that much more expensive and it also makes existing and outstanding variable loans just crazy inexpensive. I'm keeping an eye on this website layoffs.fyi which tracks layoffs worldwide. Layoffs are the proverbial canary in the coal mine so something to keep tabs on.
I had a good mind to share the Layoffs.fyi site with my brother from another mother since I think he might find it interesting but I'm now wanting to rethink that idea. He is gainfully employed but he is in a position that could be considered more tenuous than not were we to continue down this nasty path we seem to be on. What I don't want him to see, were it to materialize more meaningfully, is the increasing number of layoffs in his particular industry or those industries upon which his company relies for their livelihood. I would hasten to add that he doesn't need me to tell him that things are getting uglier by the day out there since he likely sees it firsthand. Nonetheless, I want no part in adding to his fretful nature by sending him a link to this website that tracks layoffs. That is not what loving brothers from other mothers do. It just isn't.
You may recall that I too was fretting not that long ago about the price of oil and how it might affect our budget here on the homestead come winter. I was worried about the price of oil doubling which would mean paying somewhere around $10 a gallon for home heating oil. That reality conjures up all kinds of weirdness so there's that. The good news is that now that we seem to have a recession on our hands, commodities like oil, and home heating oil more specifically, are coming down in price. I'm also hearing about Biden wanting to shut down one or more oil fields in Texas so we shouldn't get too far out over our skis when it comes to experiencing any residual exuberance we might feel about seeing lower prices at the pump. Nobody said living in Biden's America was going to be easy. No sirree, fucking Bob.
As a hedge against higher prices for home heating oil this winter I think I might sign up for one of those deals that the oil companies offer. I'll have to read the fine print but it seems like it's the way to go if one has any concerns about prices getting out of hand. You'll never pay more than a certain amount and, if the price is lower at the time of delivery, you'll pay less. They don't return any money to you but rather they give you a credit towards future purchases. There is also a lump sum payment option so I'll have to think about that one. I had hoped that I might try to kick start our wood stove for the first time in a few years as that hedge but it's all so messy, isn't it? You have to stack the wood, carry the wood in and out of the house, stay on top of the wood stove to make sure that you ward off any creosote-related issues, and then there are the neighbors with allergies who would probably prefer that we not burn wood. I'm not sure who they are but we'd likely know soon enough once we started burning wood in earnest.
It was so funny. Jake Tapper (CNN) is overseas covering the G7 and he sat down for an interview with Boris Johnson. You know, the Prime Minister of Britain. That Boris. I'm still not sure how a child born in New York City grows up to be the Prime Minister of Britain but that's a story for another day. Anyway, Toadie Jake asks Boris a number of pointed questions about the January 6th hearings and all the hullabaloo around Trump and everything that happened on that fateful day. You could tell that Jake wanted very badly to have Boris rake Trump over the coals. That would make for some terrific headlines going into the Mid Terms. Boris was having none of it. Just an epic fail! What else have you got?
I saw a couple of photos coming out of the G7 which were interesting. One photo had the lot of them sitting around a roundtable looking mildly amused. Upon closer inspection, I couldn't help but notice that Joey Biden had his cue cards propped up on his lap and out of view of the other participants. You know he can't speak in complete sentences without his cue cards. Right? When is one or more of these "leaders' going to drop a dime on this fool and call him out for the demented fool that he is? What are they afraid of? Are they afraid that they'll pay a price somehow? Maybe they won't be invited to the White House? You know that to a person they know dementia when they see it. Right?
I don't know how I feel about the Republican gubernatorial primary in New York coming up the day after tomorrow. Zeldin seems like a likable enough chap but I have to wonder if likable gets you across the finish line? Giuliani, on the other hand, is about as tough as they come and maybe that's what New York needs after years of democratic "leadership." We're talking Andrew here and not Rudy just so you know. He's Rudy's boy, setting aside the four years that he worked in the Trump Administration, so he has the genes. I haven't watched all the debates so I'm not sure who is professing to be more MAGA but if I had to guess I'd say Andrew takes the lead there. One of the two will win. The real question is, who can win in the general? I just don't see people getting behind Hochul.
The caterwauling on the left continues after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade. If I hear one more loon cry out, "My body, my choice," I think I'm going to lose it. This was another topic that Jake Tapper of CNN tried to get Boris Johnson to weigh in on. Boris was just not willing to go so far as to say that he disagreed with the ruling coming out of our highest court in the land. He was about as diplomatic as one might expect from a sitting Prime Minister of a great country like Great Britain.
You couldn't listen to that interview without thinking to yourself that this is what a normal functioning leader sounds like. Compare that to the clown Biden who hasn't had a press conference in months and even when he does show up he's not without his cue cards. Just to be clear, the cue cards give him talking points but they are otherwise useless when it comes to commenting or responding to questions extemporaneously. More to the point, why wasn't Jake interviewing Biden? I think we know the answer to that question. The world knows the answer to that question. As an American through and through, I'm embarrassed for our country with this clown sitting in the White House.
I think we need to gird ourselves for the months ahead. If you think that the caterwauling is over the top now, it's likely to get a lot worse as we close in on the Mid Term elections in November. The media will be doing story after story about people of color and people in marginalized communities who are beset with this or that woe because of the decisions made by our Supreme Court as it relates to the abortion issue. We'll hear our share of stories about women who have lost their lives due to abortions done in back alleys, women who couldn't afford to travel to other states where abortions are legal and now have to bear the burden of having unwanted children, and children who will go unnourished because their mother couldn't afford to abort her latest in a burgeoning brood.
What I think we need, but it's something that we'll likely not see anytime soon, is a video of an actual abortion. The left doesn't want you to see just how hideous this practice is and they will go to extremes to make sure that you don't see it. None of it, of course, would pass muster on prime-time television and that probably is just as true when you consider cable television. I don't know how we get that story out in all of its hideousness but, were we to inject it into the mainstream of the American consciousness however that happens, you'd see a lot of suburban moms coast to coast changing their party affiliation from democrat to republican. We need to take the wind out of this "My body, my choice, movement at all costs. The Supreme Court decision is just the beginning. It's now all hands on deck.
I don't know how much more wining I can take. We had the Roe vs Wade decision and that was literally life-affirming. We had the gun ruling out of the Supreme Court and that put guns back in the hands, waistbands, and holsters of law-abiding citizens in the state of New York. That strengthens, not weakens, our collective second amendment rights. Then, just yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 for a coach who was fired from his position for kneeling in prayer on the field before his team's game. If that doesn't have you standing up and giving the baby Jesus a hallelujah, I don't know what does. Free speech is alive and well in our great republic but don't take my word for it. The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, says so. And, how about that ruling from the NY Supreme Court yesterday saying, in so many words, that illegal aliens aren't eligible to vote in local elections? We're on a roll!
The missus and I drove into Boston yesterday for a follow-up visitation for the missus. We decided that we wouldn't spend the night before in a hotel so that had us up at the crack of dawn looking to beat the traffic into the city. I wouldn't say that it was a painless drive once we hit the road at 5:30 am but it was pretty close. Weather conditions were good, traffic was maybe a little lighter than expected, and all told, we probably caught a couple of breaks here and there which put us in the city somewhere around 7 am. With time to waste before the 8:30 appointment, the missus and I walked across town and down to Faneuil Hall and back. So many familiar sights and sounds. We walked through a city just waking up and there wasn't but a hint of the hustle and bustle that was to follow.
I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that the so-called walk across town was a bit of a trudge-fest. I was carrying a backpack and, at some point along the way, I noticed that the missus was struggling so I put her handbag inside my backpack. She may not have said it but I could tell that she was feeling relieved not to have to carry that bag even one more block. We were a little disappointed to find that so many of the shops and stores that we used to frequent down in the Faneuil Hall area had yet to open their doors. What we wouldn't have given to have maybe a little muffin and maybe a little liquid refreshment of some kind. We were also quite amazed to see some of the stores and restaurants that we used to frequent back in the day were still standing and still in business.
By the time the missus and I got back home in the late afternoon, we were reminded of the fact that there is a certain resiliency of mind that comes with doing that which is routine. You get on that treadmill of life and familiarity becomes the path of least resistance. Intentionally or not, you construct guardrails along the way which make for a more predictable and maybe less perilous path day in and day out. The minute you get off that treadmill and start doing things and going places the likes of which we did yesterday, you start to appreciate just how exhausting getting off the beaten path can prove to be. By the time we got home, our collective equilibrium was turned inside out and upside down. I wanted nothing more than to get back on that treadmill of mine and return to the fantasy land that is my life. I wasn't alone.
What is this I'm hearing about NATO increasing troop strength in Europe from 30k to 100k? And then you have Biden giving some speech in Europe about tossing another few billion to do this or that to assist Ukraine. Add to the mix comments from Russia about hitting London with a nuclear device if things were to go down a certain path and we've got ourselves a shit show on steroids. So, after all of this nonsense about letting Ukraine fight its own battles on its territory, it's now time to up the ante and do what? Is NATO planning to declare war on Russia? Are we looking at World War three here? What is this bewildering old fool, Biden, getting us into? Does he think that his chances of political survival, and those of his party, are more likely or even enhanced if he stands tall in the breach as a wartime president? I hate to tell him but that is the last thing we Americans want or need. Nothing could be scarier than a demented old fool like Biden with his shaky hands on the nuclear briefcase.
I wonder sometimes if I don't sound like a broken record week in and week out in this here blog. Not that I should care about such things but no one wants to come across as humdrum when all is said and done. I guess I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and maybe care a little less about where it takes me or where I end up. Continuity is the key. Any good blogger will tell you that writing every day is a discipline in itself. It's taken me a good while to get to the point where I have the discipline to sit down and do what I do here every morning, well almost every morning, of every week. And, truth be told, there is no shortage of grist for the mill as it were so thank the baby Jesus for that.
I think the January 6th committee in our nation's Capitol really stepped in it yesterday. You know, that "bipartisan" group of congressmen looking into what transpired on January 6th, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. I don't know that the committee's goal is to send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice so much as it is to dirty up Trump and render him ineligible to run for president in 2024. The committee called an emergency meeting yesterday to hear the testimony of a surprise witness. It was all hands on deck for the Main Street media. This was the moment when they would tighten the proverbial noose around Trump's neck and having a surprise witness would only heighten the drama and, with any luck, exponentially increase the number of eyeballs on the event. By the end of the day, all one could reasonably conclude was that the hearing was more akin than not to that offered up by the serial liar, Christine Blasey Ford, during the Senate hearings for Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh.
Some of the stories told by the surprise witness were ludicrous on their face. Many of her stories were second and third hand which, under any reasonable cross-examination, would never pass muster in a court of law. In fact, her accounts were immediately disputed by any number of people who spoke up and offered to come in and give their own testimony under oath to the contrary. It was so bad that every media outlet, seeing that things were going south in a hurry as they too watched the testimony of this witness, took members of the committee who were willing to be interviewed after the fact to task about the credibility of their witness. If the committee thought for even a minute that this witness was going to be the John Dean (Watergate fame) of the hearings, they were sadly mistaken. If anything, this sham of a hearing put the credibility of the entire committee on display and it exposed them for the kangaroo court that they are. Good luck finding another job in Washington, DC, missy.
Of course, you're going to have your clapping seals on the left talking about how devastating the testimony was for Trump and his minions who allegedly ran a failed coup on that fateful day. If I had to guess, I'd say that this particular witness made it less likely that the Department of Justice will indict Trump anytime soon. We all know the DOJ is watching the hearings very closely and, given half a chance, would do Biden's bidding and indict Trump at the drop of a hat if they had even a scintilla of evidence that Trump was behind any of it. It's one thing to indict some of Trump's people for their involvement in whatever schemes they can dream up and it's quite another to indict an ex-president of our country. That's banana republic-level stuff and not something that we ever want to see in our country. Then again, there's a lot about the Biden presidency that says "banana republic" so you know what they say about people who assume things.
I'm waking up this morning to a Zeldin win in the New York gubernatorial primary. He won by a pretty good margin so that's interesting. I thought that the Giuliana name might have helped Andrew Giuliani coming down the stretch given how his dad, Rudy, is infamous in his own right being the ex-mayor of NYC and all. What are we to make of Zeldin's win? Is Rudy and the Giuliani name somehow tarnished or tainted as a result of all the shenanigans in the wake of the 2020 election? Did Zeldin win or did Giuliani lose? Is it possible that the voters in New York found Rudy's son too Trump-like? He certainly embraced Trump and the MAGA agenda so that has to count for something. No? Maybe New York voters know a good thing or two about what it takes for a republican to win the governor's seat in the otherwise very liberal state of New York.
Mrs G's new couch will be delivered next week so I hope she has everything in order. That is to say, she needs to arrange for the people running her facility to come and pick up her old couch so the guys delivering her new couch have a place to put it when they arrive. She was going on and on the other day about how the people at her facility have to wait for the weekend when they have access to a vehicle to use to move the couch. She was referring to the employees of the facility who have friends or family who can use an extra piece of furniture or two if and when they become available. Then, of course, you can always pay the facility to come and take the couch away like any other piece of trash. What I don't want to happen is to have the deliverymen arrive and have to deal one way or another with the old couch. Why should I even care? Right?
I think the missus thinks that she and I need to be there when they make the delivery. I'm not so sure. I think that Mrs G is perfectly capable of directing these fellas as necessary once they arrive on her doorstep. Getting them to her doorstep could be another story. They needn't carry the couch through any other door than the door that leads into her apartment from the outside of the building. Do not go into the front entrance of the building and do not bother signing in one way or another. All of that depends on how Mrs G directs them once she gets their call in the 30 minutes leading up to their arrival. Here's my advice to Mrs G: You can do this! Git er done!
This Monkeypox thing seems to getting a life of its own. Have you seen the pictures? That is one nasty affliction! They say it's spread by exchanging bodily fluids and is found primarily in the gay community. What, straight folks don't exchange bodily fluids? What are we talking about here? I gather that it's not all that deadly so it's not like it's a five-alarm fire or anything. It's also eerily reminiscent of what we saw during the AIDS epidemic in the '70s although people with AIDS back in the day were dropping like flies and there were no cures homestyle or otherwise. It's doubtful that you would see people suffering from this malady out in public but I, for one, will be keeping an eye out. They lied to us about Covid and how it was transmitted or not transmitted and a lot of people died so color me skeptical. I'm still not wearing a mask.
Do you remember me talking about the missus and how she works from time to time with someone who lives in another state? Sometimes she travels and sometimes she can do what she needs to do from home. Sometimes, she'll get a call from her employer out of the blue asking her this or that question having mostly to do with his computer. Either he can't find what he's looking for or he doesn't know how to do this that or the other thing that he is looking to accomplish. What I may have mentioned in passing is that I wanted very badly to find an application that would allow her to see and control his desktop. That would be just what the doctor ordered. In other words, the bee's knees. It would have to be a cross-platform application given that there are two operating systems in play. Well, we finally pulled all of that together and it works like a charm. There is a god.
I'm not sure that it means that she will be traveling less but what it does mean is that the time they spend together on the phone when she's working from home will be significantly less since she can now just hop on his desktop and cut to the chase. He can even watch her do what she does on his desktop in real-time so think of it as a learning tool. His limitations when it comes to the computer are mainly age-related but that can be a bear when you're not all that nimble or knowledgeable when it comes to computers to begin with. The missus knows just enough to be dangerous and that's a good thing. I'm there with an assist if necessary and I try as much as possible to stay undetected and in the background. Our only regret is that we didn't find out about this application a long time ago. God only knows that it would have saved everyone a lot of time and maybe even a trip or two to his home. Oh, well.
The Ev man is over for a visit today. I suspect that he'll stay the day, have dinner with us, and then return home. I'd like to take a look in his car while he's here and take everything out of his car that he doesn't need to be carrying around with him. I'm talking mostly clothes here which he's thrown in the back of his car for a variety of reasons and, for the most part, never got around to taking them up to his apartment. It's just a Hodge podge of stuff that he might as well leave here instead of carrying them around in his car. I'm a little worried that I'll find some half-eaten burgers or worse when I start to look around so that's another reason not to be loading up your car like a homeless person. I'm kidding a little bit about the burgers but I have thrown out my share of leftover bags from various fast food joints in going through his car here and there. What twenty-something isn't organizationally challenged. Right?
It sure was nice of our neighbor to drop off some Swiss chard from her garden. I had high hopes that I could make a nice salad for the missus and myself. Our neighbor gave us some last year and it sat so long in our refrigerator that I finally had to toss it out. I didn't want to make the same mistake this year so I assembled all the ingredients I thought I needed just ahead of the lunch hour in order to come up with the salads. I laid out the fresh lemons and olive oil for the dressing and I cut up some cherry tomatoes and Kalamari olives in preparation for the dressing and the mix-ins. I started to devein the leaves when, much to my horror, I started to see a bunch of little red ants running around on my cutting board. Damn. The more leaves I unpacked the more red ants appeared. I'll likely not give my benefactor this particular feedback but neither could I with good conscious move forward when moving forward meant not knowing how many red ants I'd missed or not seen in my desperate attempt to salvage the salads I had planned. It was over. Scuttled. Damn.
The Supreme Court issued their final findings of the season today before going out on vacation or whatever. One of the rulings had to do with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has been doing the bidding of Biden and his clownish administration by issuing this ruling and that ruling is all designed to further their goals as it relates to Climate Change. It's the religion of the looney left don't you know. Their goal is to completely de-carbonize our economy at a time when any and all alternative technologies are in their infancy. By design or default, this nonsense puts our country at a distinct disadvantage to other countries like China and Russia who would given half a chance, eat our lunch either economically or militarily. Neither is acceptable.
The end result of this ruling is that Congress will now make the rules that the EPA was previously responsible for making and the EPA will be left with the responsibility of enforcing the legislation coming out of Congress. The good news is that getting Congress to agree on anything given the polarization of politics these days means that the "polluters" and the industries that have had their hands tied due to the EPA will now have free rein to do as they please without the oversight and heavy hand of the regulators of the EPA. Less regulation has always gone hand in hand with increased productivity and enhanced profits for corporations. The Climate Change nutters will have to find another way to vent their collective anger and rage if they are ever to survive in this new environment of ours. We Climate Change deniers are just getting the party started thanks to our wonderfully wise and wildly conservative members of the Supreme Court. Let the pissing and pearl-clutching begin!
This recession stuff is tricky. Technically, according to some people who pay attention to such things, a recession just means that we have two negative GDP readings in a row. With inflation raging in excess of 8% depending on which sectors you're watching, it is just unimaginably expensive for people to get by week after week. Gas prices aren't helping at $5 to $10 a gallon depending on where you live in the United States, and with winter coming, prices for home heating oil are going to leave a lot of families huddling together just to keep warm. Commodities are at an all-time high which means everything and anything you want to do costs more. When is the last time you got an estimate for a roof replacement? It was likely twice as expensive compared to just 12 months ago. Add to that the supply chain issues, and shortages will effectively drive prices even higher if that's possible. And then you have interest rates that are going up but don't even come close to keeping up with inflation. It's a witch's brew through and through.
The combination of interest rates and inflation is doing a good job of suppressing demand. With slowing growth rates due to lessening demand, prices are going to come down on everything from commodities to the price of labor. When you have less demand, companies need fewer people so layoff's become commonplace. With more people out of work, and fewer jobs available for those looking for work, defaults on everything from bank loans to mortgage payments increase exponentially. The Federal Reserve isn't helping by increasing interest rates into a recession which makes borrowing that much more expensive and it also makes existing and outstanding variable loans just crazy inexpensive. I'm keeping an eye on this website layoffs.fyi which tracks layoffs worldwide. Layoffs are the proverbial canary in the coal mine so something to keep tabs on.
I had a good mind to share the Layoffs.fyi site with my brother from another mother since I think he might find it interesting but I'm now wanting to rethink that idea. He is gainfully employed but he is in a position that could be considered more tenuous than not were we to continue down this nasty path we seem to be on. What I don't want him to see, were it to materialize more meaningfully, is the increasing number of layoffs in his particular industry or those industries upon which his company relies for their livelihood. I would hasten to add that he doesn't need me to tell him that things are getting uglier by the day out there since he likely sees it firsthand. Nonetheless, I want no part in adding to his fretful nature by sending him a link to this website that tracks layoffs. That is not what loving brothers from other mothers do. It just isn't.
You may recall that I too was fretting not that long ago about the price of oil and how it might affect our budget here on the homestead come winter. I was worried about the price of oil doubling which would mean paying somewhere around $10 a gallon for home heating oil. That reality conjures up all kinds of weirdness so there's that. The good news is that now that we seem to have a recession on our hands, commodities like oil, and home heating oil more specifically, are coming down in price. I'm also hearing about Biden wanting to shut down one or more oil fields in Texas so we shouldn't get too far out over our skis when it comes to experiencing any residual exuberance we might feel about seeing lower prices at the pump. Nobody said living in Biden's America was going to be easy. No sirree, fucking Bob.
As a hedge against higher prices for home heating oil this winter I think I might sign up for one of those deals that the oil companies offer. I'll have to read the fine print but it seems like it's the way to go if one has any concerns about prices getting out of hand. You'll never pay more than a certain amount and, if the price is lower at the time of delivery, you'll pay less. They don't return any money to you but rather they give you a credit towards future purchases. There is also a lump sum payment option so I'll have to think about that one. I had hoped that I might try to kick start our wood stove for the first time in a few years as that hedge but it's all so messy, isn't it? You have to stack the wood, carry the wood in and out of the house, stay on top of the wood stove to make sure that you ward off any creosote-related issues, and then there are the neighbors with allergies who would probably prefer that we not burn wood. I'm not sure who they are but we'd likely know soon enough once we started burning wood in earnest.