Defcon One
09/10/22 07:09
We've got ourselves a new week, folks! Word has it this morning that Putin has unleashed one of his nuclear-powered subs into the Baltic Sea. This baby is apparently capable of sending out drones that can create tsunamis of radiation on unsuspecting populations. I guess what I'm saying is that if this madness persists, and I'm talking about all of the hysterics about nuclear war that we hear coming out of countries around the world, we might well not be around to see how the rest of this week plays out.
Just give Vlad the fucking area in Ukraine that he's already annexed and call it a day. With Zelensky getting $10 billion a week from the fool we have in the White House, does he really have any incentive to call it a day or anything of the sort? Does any of this have anything to do with Hunter Biden and his relationship with Burisma, the oil and gas conglomerate? Can we get a little more clarification on the "10% for the big guy" thing?
I saw a map in an online newspaper yesterday showing the vulnerable targets in the United States should one or more nuclear devices come ashore. Thank the baby Jesus that none of those areas include my hometown. I guess we're good to go. One thing the article didn't mention is that we have both a nuclear power plant as well as a naval shipyard within a stone's throw of my backyard. That puts me and the fam at ground zero. We would be target numero uno. So, we're not good to go?
With any luck, we'd have time to pack our bags and get out the front door if any of the other sites listed in the article were nuked first. We'll have to discuss exit plans at dinner sometime soon but, be rest assured, we won't be the only ones heading for the hills when the shit hits the fan. That reminds me. I should start stocking up on dried foods and such. I don't want to be the last customer walking through their door when the bombs drop out of the sky.
The destruction of the Nordstream pipeline certainly did little to de-escalate the pitched battle we find ourselves in. I think it was Chuck Schumer who said, "they have 6 ways to Sunday to get back at you." Schumer's reference had to do with Trump and Intelligence agencies but it could just as easily apply to Putin. Does anyone think that Putin is just going to look the other way when one or more countries in the West destroy his country's pipeline?
As I sit here this morning, countries across the world are sending out naval and aerial reinforcements to ensure that their vital assets are protected in the event Putin decides to respond in a commensurate fashion. I think there are communication lines sitting on the floor of the ocean that link the United States with Europe and beyond that would be likely targets. Knowing that we have a soft underbelly when and where it comes to our electronic infrastructure, you have to ask yourself the question, why would we take out the Nordstream, knowing full well that we and our European counterparts are equally vulnerable?
I also have zero interest in seeing my loved ones sent off to fight Joey Bumble's Biden's war in some far-off land should it come to that. I'll not have our nation's sons and daughters camping out on the front lines as cannon fodder in some Eastern European shithole while Joey and his crack-addicted son, along with his wife with the fishnet stockings, eat caviar and sip wine in the bunker beneath the White House. It's possible that once the nuclear bombs start to fly, we'll no longer be in a position to fight anything resembling a conventional war. For all intents and purposes, that fucking horse will have left the barn.
I'm beginning to understand how the Russian conscripts and their extended families feel about being drafted into what could end up being a nuclear holocaust inside a country like Ukraine that most people can't find on a map. Is any of this starting to make any sense? Oh, and if anyone is even thinking of resisting the draft by being a conscientious objector, think again. You saw what they did to trespassers on that fateful day, January 6th, 2020. They are all still sitting in solitary confinement without bail or the ability to see their loved ones some 2 years later. This is Joe Biden's America. Don't you fucking forget it.
What the hell is the little rocket man doing sending ballistic missiles over Japan? I'm talking about that Kim guy in North Korea. So, out of the blue last night, we get the news that North Korea sent a missile across Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. Sirens across Tokyo and other cities blared in Japan, warning people to seek shelter as the missile traversed the island of Japan. This isn't the first time that the North Koreans have put missiles in the air, but it's been a while since they sent one over the island of Japan. There was really no rhyme or reason to expect that North Korea was up to anything of the sort, so, as they say, this came out of the blue. It was followed by the usual condemnations, but I think it ends there. Maybe, with all of the talk about nuclear wars breaking out, little rocket man wanted to add his two cents. Who knows?
I need to make a checklist of political candidates that I'll want to follow on Election day in November. If this election goes the way I think it's going to go, I think we're going to see any number of surprises, and I want to see if I can't track them. Once we republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives, I'll want to see just how large that majority ends up being before I don my party hat. I probably won't need a list for the Senate since there are fewer races to track, and the minute one side or the other declares victory, it will be the proverbial shot heard around the world. I suppose if the democrats hold the majority in the House, that would be big news too. I'm just not expecting that to happen.
When it comes to individual races, I want both Dr. Oz and Mastriano to win their senate and gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania, respectively. I also want to see Hassan (Senate) and Pappas (Rep) lose their races here in New Hampshire. Oh, and if Zeldin can beat Hochul in the gubernatorial race in New York, that would be welcome news. New York has moved too far to the left in recent years, and we need that pendulum to swing back the other way. This one talk show guy that I listen to in Pennsylvania, who leans left in his politics, was fairly certain early on that both Oz and Mastriano would lose to their Democratic opponents. As of yesterday, he's now talking about Pennsylvania having a long history of ticket-splitting. You know, they elect a republican senator and a Democratic governor or vice versa. He sees the Oz race tightening considerably and is now seemingly willing to concede that Oz has a fighting chance, if not better. He is still of the opinion that Mastriano is too far right and off-the-charts nuts and will likely lose his race. I'm not so sure.
Mrs. G was talking about one of her investments the other day, and she lamented the fact that it has not done well over time. She's now more interested in selling that particular investment and trading it in for something that provides a bit of a shelter in the storm, as it were. Welcome to the bear market of 2022, Mrs. G. I suggested that she consider holding off on that trade until we see if we can't recoup some of her losses if and when we see another countertrend rally emerge. We're overdue, I said. I can't guarantee it, but we've seen some fairly dramatic declines since the last countertrend rally, so it's more likely than not that we'll see another one of unknown price and time sometime soon. I don't give financial advice, as a rule, so she is welcome to do as she pleases. That said, characteristics of bear markets being what they are, countertrend rallies are a thing. The problem is, and it's true of both highs and lows in the market, when the time comes to buy or sell, you probably won't want to.
There is nothing more despicable than the politician who plays the Equity card when the very discussion of the Equity card makes zero sense. I'm talking about Kamala Harris's comments recently about making sure that the marginalized communities, and more specifically, the marginalized communities of color, are the first to receive federal relief funds in the wake of hurricane Ian slamming southern Florida. She's the Vice President for chrissakes. Does she realize that she represents all Americans be they rich or poor? Does she have the presence of mind to know that when she makes comments like that, that she is doing to marginalized white communities that which she is accusing white communities of doing to communities of color? Let's call her comments what they are: racist.
I know we have a bewildered and senile Commander-in-Chief sitting in the White House, but this stooge of a racist Vice President could be a real problem were she to assume the presidency. Biden can't even read the teleprompter anymore, so that moment may well be upon us in short order. If you love her shit-eating grins that stretch from ear to ear, or you love the way she cackles when she laughs, or maybe you like her pronouns, you're going to be balls-to-the-walls in love with her when she takes over as president. She is better suited to be president of the local chapter of the NAACP in Detroit than she is president of the United States, but that's just my opinion. Did I mention that she garnered just 3% when she competed in the presidential primaries? We all know that the only reason that Biden took her on as VP was because he needed an insurance policy. Who would throw him out of office knowing that she stood in the wings with all of her so-called baggage?
Why am I just hearing about this now? You're telling me that the Chinese have opened up any number of police stations in cities across our great country? What the fuck are we talking about here? Who the hell invited them into our country, much less into our towns and cities, to set up shop? I don't care who the hell they think they're entitled to police, be they Chinese citizens or whatever. They want some say in what their citizens do while within the borders of our great country, they can go through their consulates like everyone else. Just who the hell do they think they are? If I had to guess, I'd say that the Bidens greased the skids for their compatriots in the Chinese Communist Party to get this done. And where the hell are the republicans while all of this is going on? When is someone going to speak up? Don't tell me that they've been bought off too. Close these damn police stations down, and do it now!
The more I think about it, the more I think that the democrats have the republicans over a barrel when it comes to Putin and the Ruskies. You'd think that any reasonable person seeing what I'm seeing with our countries going down the road to a nuclear confrontation with the Russians over the proxy war that we're waging in Ukraine, would just stop for a moment and ask the obvious question: Why are we going to war and facing the threat of a nuclear disaster on our soil over some shithole of a country in Eastern Europe?
The short answer to that question is that you can't ask that question without being labeled a Putin sympathizer. Now that the Russians have invaded Ukraine doing anything but taking Putin to task over the invasion is tantamount to political suicide. I think there are a few brave republicans in Congress who would rather see federal dollars going to the homeless or some such cause rather than to Ukraine, but it's far short of the chorus that we should be hearing.
Funny thing is, I don't hear anyone asking the people running for office here in the US what their position is on what we're doing in our proxy war with Russia. You'd think that the democrats would want an issue that they call their own. They don't have much else to tout, so why not, right? It would be to their advantage to get their opponents on the record as opposing our involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. That would all be true were there some consensus about our involvement in the conflict, but I'm not sure that there is a consensus.
I saw a poll the other day that said maybe half of the American public approves of what we're doing in Ukraine, but I suspect that's probably a propaganda poll designed and pushed out by our illustrious Intelligence Agencies to hoodwink the American people at the behest of the Biden Administration. What's even more suspicious and maybe more alarming is the fact that nobody, and I mean nobody, is making the slightest effort to lower the temperature. Will anything change once we take back the House and the Senate? Who will stand up to the groupspeak and craziness coming out of our nation's capitol?
Now that the Biden Administration has squandered roughly half of the oil that we have in our Strategic Oil Reserve just to lower prices at the pump in the weeks leading up to the mid-term elections, they were relying on OPEC to continue pumping at current rates, which would keep prices on a downward trajectory for the foreseeable future. Biden's democrats are facing enough headwinds going into the mid-term elections, and bringing down prices at the pump was a critical component of mitigating what was likely to be a disaster come election day.
Were republicans to take both the House and the Senate, it would represent a potentially fatal blow to Biden's agenda. He can still issue executive actions until the cows come home, but they are easily overturned by the courts. There is only one problem. OPEC is now telling Biden to fuck off. They actually doubled the amount of oil they were planning to cut back on. It was tantamount to giving Joey Bumbles Biden the big middle finger. OPEC's announcement did not go down well with the Bidenistas. It was a good day for the rest of us. Well, until we have to start paying higher prices at the pump, that is.
It's not good for those of us who want to pay less at the pump, obviously, but it is good for those of us who want to see the Bidenistas brought to their knees. Who doesn't want to see these mother fuckers in Washington humbled and disgraced over what they've done to our great country after being in office for not even two years? Steve Bannon was right when he said that "Elections have consequences and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.' I'm sitting here feeling just a little thankful that I bought into a deal for our home heating oil this coming winter, knowing what I know about where oil prices are headed now. This is not going to help with our fight against inflation, so there's that too. It's just a shit show. Every day Joey Bumbles Biden is in office is worse than the day before. When America is on the ropes because of our failed leadership, the rest of the world suffers along with us.
Bumbles was speaking at some democrat fundraiser a couple of nights ago, and he let the cat out of the bag, He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, we're closer now to a nuclear conflict with Russia than we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. What are we talking about here, Bumbles? How did we ever get to this place? I'm also hearing that they are stepping up the production of certain medicines that one would only ever need in the case of a nuclear detonation. I'm sure they aren't getting those drugs ready for use by the general public. They are, of course, for the elite and their spawn. When the shit hits the fan, and I'm speaking speculatively here, the elite will be tucked away in their bunkers while the rest of us are, well, what's left of the rest of us anyway, will be who knows where.
Wouldn't I love a mean tweet about right now? The media excoriated Trump day in and day out about his relationship with the Russians when all Trump wanted to do was to improve relations with every world leader around the globe. Everything he did was done in the interest of improving relationships around the world, and the democrats and their propagandists were having none of it. It was a non-stop blood lust by the democrats and the media against everything Trump was trying to accomplish. By demonizing everything Trump trumpeted, they effectively vilified the likes of Putin in Russia, Little Rocket Man in North Korea, and the Saudis in the Middle East. Not that some of the aforementioned groups aren't bad to the bone, but there was something to be said back in the day for wanting to make things better. And, of course, none of what we're seeing in the world today with Bumbles in the White House was even close to happening with Trump as President.
Back in the day during the Cuban Missile Crisis (60's), when the President of the United States spoke to the public about the dangers of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, every child in every elementary school coast to coast was given instructions on how to duck and cover in order to survive a nuclear holocaust. It was preposterous, of course, and as I sit here thinking about it now, it was probably just a coping mechanism of sorts that children could use to ward off the anxiety that children were feeling at the time. Parents back in those days may not have been vocalizing their fears, but children are more often than not more often clued into non-verbal cues than they are verbal cues. Anyway, this dickwad of a president of ours makes these comments at a fundraiser within the last twenty-four hours, the press dutifully reports those comments, and I'm not sure anybody cares.
Is there one world leader stepping up and demanding that Bumbles retract his radical rhetoric about the likelihood of nuclear war? No. Are Biden's comments appearing on the front of every tabloid coast-to-coast this morning? No. I'm not even sure if I could google Biden's comments with any success. Does that mean that he never made those comments? No. Have Bumble's comments been ghosted because everyone knows that Bumbles can't tie his own shoes so any comments about nuclear attacks should be discussed in the same light? That is to say, not at all. They are fine repeating his lies about everything else so why not just put his comments out there and let the chips fall where they may? They won't do that because it would cast their fearless leader as an even more demented version of the president they already know to be over-the-top senile.
The problem is, and this is me speaking, this nutty fuck has his fingers on the nuclear codes, and there isn't a damn thing that any of us can do about it. While the media hasn't covered Bumble's comments in the printed press, you can bet your bottom dollar that Vladamir Putin has gotten wind of them. He has to be thinking to himself that something preemptive might be in order if he and his fellow Ruskies are to survive.
There may have been a time when Bumble's comments might have been construed as those coming from someone crazy as a fox, but those days are over. Everyone knows Bumbles is about as demented a loon as you can get, and there is no need to second guess a word coming out of his mouth. It is what it is. It's an overt threat to use nuclear weapons against your geopolitical foe or foes. Zelensky has to be creaming his shorts. He would give his left nut to see someone, anyone, launch a nuclear missile into Russian territory. He could give a flying fuck if the world melts down around him. It's true.
It's been another weird week in the financial markets. We saw a 2-day rally on Monday and Tuesday of this week, which saw returns in the major indices of around 5-6%. If you've been losing your ass in the markets going back to January, you were happy to see something resembling a relief rally, however short. It's a start, right? You have to start somewhere. The market didn't do much on Wednesday and Thursday, seemingly waiting for the employment number to come out on Friday before making another move one way or the other. With the NASDAQ down more than 30% YTD, how much worse could it get, right? Well, for those folks looking for the Fed to pivot and take a break from raising interest rates based on the employment data, they were sadly disappointed when the employment numbers came in stronger than expected. The NASDAQ dropped another four percent. The S&P dropped another three percent.
The missus and I drove up to the Kittery malls yesterday, where the missus was looking to take advantage of the sales on the long holiday weekend. We got there well ahead of the rush, and we went our separate ways once inside the store. I was looking for some biking gear but found nothing of interest. If I had to guess, I'd say that the area dedicated to cycling was now more dedicated to winter sports and less to biking. I didn't need a new pair of biking shorts, and the shirts that hung on the rack wouldn't have fit me even if I felt like buying an extra shirt. I will say that this was probably one of the better-stocked stores that I've been in as of late, not that I'm out and about shopping a lot, mind you. It also struck me that they had a pretty good selection of just about everything, including guns and novelty sweatshirts.
I think there is such a thing as having too much inventory. There were places in the store where the racks were so stacked with merchandise that it was hard to get in between the racks to see if there was something you might be interested in. I didn't mention this to the missus, but I was having a real problem with sensory overload. I think I actually got lost at one point. I knew if I kept pushing past this and that rack, I'd see something resembling an exit sooner or later. I was never close to calling 911, but I will admit to feeling more than my share of anxiety. After about ten minutes of walking in circles in one of the less congested sections of the store, I decided that I'd had enough. The store was getting busier by the minute, and that was my cue to find the missus and make plans to leave the premises either together or separately. The missus never did find what she was looking for, so there's that. Color me surprised.
There were quite a lot of stores in this stretch of malls that we visited that had either closed up shop or had possibly never opened once they were built. I know that sounds odd, knowing what I've said about how busy the store was that we visited, but it's true. Maybe they built too many stores, and the vendors they anticipated coming to town never came to town for whatever reason. If what we saw was some indication of where the economy is going, God help us all. This mall area I'm talking about stretches on for a good quarter to half a mile or more with maybe hundreds of stores, so it's perhaps something of a veritable canary in the coal mine when it comes to the economy. Maybe, just maybe, there's a correlation between the number of shuttered stores in Kittery, Maine, and the decline in the stock market that we've seen going back to January.
Is it me, or are the democrats really concerned about not losing a senate seat to Herschel Walker in Georgia? Herschel is the storied running back and Heisman trophy winner born and bred in Georgia. He's Georgia's son if Georgia ever had a son. Herschel is also running for the US Senate seat on the Republican ticket. That is a direct threat to the democrats, and were they to lose that seat to Walker, it could mean that the Republicans take the majority in the Senate starting in January 2023. The democrats are pulling every last sleazy trick they have up their sleeves in order to stop Walker's seemingly unstoppable succession to the senate seat. We'll see how far they go with these allegations of Herschel paying for an abortion when he professes to be pro-life, but I'm guessing it's all going to seem so desperate to those people who love Herschel to the bone. And, they do.
When Herschel says that he loves his family, the people in Georgia who know and love Herschel know exactly what he means. They are a forgiving lot, and they have loved Herschel from day one. Even today, some twenty years out from his glory days on the gridiron, you can see the sparkle in his eyes, and he is still running with that ball under his arm toward the end zone, whatever that end zone looks like. The good people of Georgia have his back. They've always had his back, and no amount of skullduggery and malfeasance by the democrats is going to change that. That isn't going to stop the democrats from trying to bring him down, but Herschel is used to people trying to bring him down, and he has built his reputation on stiff-arming every last fucking one of them on his way to the goal. The good people of Georgia know a winner when they see one, and they've seen plenty of Herschel over the years. They know he's not perfect, but who amongst us is? We'll cross the finish line with Herschel on Election Day, and the people of Georgia will stand and applaud him just like they always have.
What is all of this business about Kanye West? Or, should I say, Ye. He was on with Tucker last week, and he made a few interesting comments about this and that. I don't really know this guy, nor do I know what his claim to fame is. If he's a performer of sorts, I've not seen his performances. I think he's a rapper, if I'm not mistaken. He made several references to other rappers like Ice Tea, but I wouldn't know their music either. That's just not my thing. I didn't hear this part of the interview, but I understand he was especially critical of the Kushners. I'm familiar with Jerod Kushner, who married Trump's daughter, and I know he had something to do with negotiating the Abraham Accords, but I was a little surprised to hear that Ye thought Jerod did what he in negotiating the Accords not for Trump (And America) but rather to line his own pockets.
Ye was seemingly feeding into some of the more odious stereotypes of the Jewish people, which I found to be most unbecoming. I wondered if Tucker even saw this coming. If what Ye was saying is true about Kushner, Kushner probably wouldn't be the first person in any Administration going back to the days of George Washington who wasn't looking out for his own interests while doing his job. Ye seemed to be intimating that Kushner was a money grubber, so to speak, and I'm aware of at least one deal that came about after the Accords were signed off on, where Kushner received an investment of billion dollars or more from the Saudi's. That doesn't make him a money grubber, per se, but he did benefit from the deal, so you could rightly accuse him of being an opportunist. It's the kind of thing you hate to see in Washington. That said, I think that Washington is awash in dirty money from places like Communist China. It's the veritable mother's milk of politics, dirty as it is.
It made me wonder if what I was hearing from Ye wasn't a little like the pot calling the kettle black. The guy is a billionaire, so I'm guessing he didn't make his billions without looking the other way on one or more occasions when it benefitted him to do so. No, it seemed like Ye had an axe to grind when it came to Kushner. Maybe it was more about what Kushner was doing at Trump's expense, and America's expense quite frankly, that Ye found so distasteful. Maybe what he was saying was that Kushner had an opportunity to advance Trump's agenda and America's agenda, but that agenda fell short not because of what Trump wasn't able to accomplish, but rather because of Kushner's personal desire to enrich himself at Trump's expense. That would be truly unforgivable were it true. Trump was Kushner's son-in-law, for chrissakes. Who does that?
I'm sorry I couldn't stay awake to watch Trump's rally in Nevada last night. I've seen one clip this morning on Twitter where Trump was going after Biden for not doing more to negotiate some way out of this mess with Russia and Ukraine. There were several cautionary comments about the dereliction of not pursuing negotiations knowing full well what the end result of a nuclear conflict would look like. Trump is right, of course. No one in the Biden Administration is doing a damn thing to take down the temperature. If anything, they continue to make matters worse through their very actions.
I think we're well past the point where anyone thinks this is a proxy war between NATO and Russia. Trump is nothing if not prescient about such matters. We hope he's wrong this time, of course, but taking our chances with a demented and likely senile president who is about to lose both houses of Congress in less than four weeks is maybe asking too much. If Biden thinks that getting America into war with Russia would enhance his standing ahead of the elections, don't think for a minute that he wouldn't do it. Like he said the other day, nobody fucks with the Bidens. This is what we're dealing with. God help us all.
Just give Vlad the fucking area in Ukraine that he's already annexed and call it a day. With Zelensky getting $10 billion a week from the fool we have in the White House, does he really have any incentive to call it a day or anything of the sort? Does any of this have anything to do with Hunter Biden and his relationship with Burisma, the oil and gas conglomerate? Can we get a little more clarification on the "10% for the big guy" thing?
I saw a map in an online newspaper yesterday showing the vulnerable targets in the United States should one or more nuclear devices come ashore. Thank the baby Jesus that none of those areas include my hometown. I guess we're good to go. One thing the article didn't mention is that we have both a nuclear power plant as well as a naval shipyard within a stone's throw of my backyard. That puts me and the fam at ground zero. We would be target numero uno. So, we're not good to go?
With any luck, we'd have time to pack our bags and get out the front door if any of the other sites listed in the article were nuked first. We'll have to discuss exit plans at dinner sometime soon but, be rest assured, we won't be the only ones heading for the hills when the shit hits the fan. That reminds me. I should start stocking up on dried foods and such. I don't want to be the last customer walking through their door when the bombs drop out of the sky.
The destruction of the Nordstream pipeline certainly did little to de-escalate the pitched battle we find ourselves in. I think it was Chuck Schumer who said, "they have 6 ways to Sunday to get back at you." Schumer's reference had to do with Trump and Intelligence agencies but it could just as easily apply to Putin. Does anyone think that Putin is just going to look the other way when one or more countries in the West destroy his country's pipeline?
As I sit here this morning, countries across the world are sending out naval and aerial reinforcements to ensure that their vital assets are protected in the event Putin decides to respond in a commensurate fashion. I think there are communication lines sitting on the floor of the ocean that link the United States with Europe and beyond that would be likely targets. Knowing that we have a soft underbelly when and where it comes to our electronic infrastructure, you have to ask yourself the question, why would we take out the Nordstream, knowing full well that we and our European counterparts are equally vulnerable?
I also have zero interest in seeing my loved ones sent off to fight Joey Bumble's Biden's war in some far-off land should it come to that. I'll not have our nation's sons and daughters camping out on the front lines as cannon fodder in some Eastern European shithole while Joey and his crack-addicted son, along with his wife with the fishnet stockings, eat caviar and sip wine in the bunker beneath the White House. It's possible that once the nuclear bombs start to fly, we'll no longer be in a position to fight anything resembling a conventional war. For all intents and purposes, that fucking horse will have left the barn.
I'm beginning to understand how the Russian conscripts and their extended families feel about being drafted into what could end up being a nuclear holocaust inside a country like Ukraine that most people can't find on a map. Is any of this starting to make any sense? Oh, and if anyone is even thinking of resisting the draft by being a conscientious objector, think again. You saw what they did to trespassers on that fateful day, January 6th, 2020. They are all still sitting in solitary confinement without bail or the ability to see their loved ones some 2 years later. This is Joe Biden's America. Don't you fucking forget it.
What the hell is the little rocket man doing sending ballistic missiles over Japan? I'm talking about that Kim guy in North Korea. So, out of the blue last night, we get the news that North Korea sent a missile across Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. Sirens across Tokyo and other cities blared in Japan, warning people to seek shelter as the missile traversed the island of Japan. This isn't the first time that the North Koreans have put missiles in the air, but it's been a while since they sent one over the island of Japan. There was really no rhyme or reason to expect that North Korea was up to anything of the sort, so, as they say, this came out of the blue. It was followed by the usual condemnations, but I think it ends there. Maybe, with all of the talk about nuclear wars breaking out, little rocket man wanted to add his two cents. Who knows?
I need to make a checklist of political candidates that I'll want to follow on Election day in November. If this election goes the way I think it's going to go, I think we're going to see any number of surprises, and I want to see if I can't track them. Once we republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives, I'll want to see just how large that majority ends up being before I don my party hat. I probably won't need a list for the Senate since there are fewer races to track, and the minute one side or the other declares victory, it will be the proverbial shot heard around the world. I suppose if the democrats hold the majority in the House, that would be big news too. I'm just not expecting that to happen.
When it comes to individual races, I want both Dr. Oz and Mastriano to win their senate and gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania, respectively. I also want to see Hassan (Senate) and Pappas (Rep) lose their races here in New Hampshire. Oh, and if Zeldin can beat Hochul in the gubernatorial race in New York, that would be welcome news. New York has moved too far to the left in recent years, and we need that pendulum to swing back the other way. This one talk show guy that I listen to in Pennsylvania, who leans left in his politics, was fairly certain early on that both Oz and Mastriano would lose to their Democratic opponents. As of yesterday, he's now talking about Pennsylvania having a long history of ticket-splitting. You know, they elect a republican senator and a Democratic governor or vice versa. He sees the Oz race tightening considerably and is now seemingly willing to concede that Oz has a fighting chance, if not better. He is still of the opinion that Mastriano is too far right and off-the-charts nuts and will likely lose his race. I'm not so sure.
Mrs. G was talking about one of her investments the other day, and she lamented the fact that it has not done well over time. She's now more interested in selling that particular investment and trading it in for something that provides a bit of a shelter in the storm, as it were. Welcome to the bear market of 2022, Mrs. G. I suggested that she consider holding off on that trade until we see if we can't recoup some of her losses if and when we see another countertrend rally emerge. We're overdue, I said. I can't guarantee it, but we've seen some fairly dramatic declines since the last countertrend rally, so it's more likely than not that we'll see another one of unknown price and time sometime soon. I don't give financial advice, as a rule, so she is welcome to do as she pleases. That said, characteristics of bear markets being what they are, countertrend rallies are a thing. The problem is, and it's true of both highs and lows in the market, when the time comes to buy or sell, you probably won't want to.
There is nothing more despicable than the politician who plays the Equity card when the very discussion of the Equity card makes zero sense. I'm talking about Kamala Harris's comments recently about making sure that the marginalized communities, and more specifically, the marginalized communities of color, are the first to receive federal relief funds in the wake of hurricane Ian slamming southern Florida. She's the Vice President for chrissakes. Does she realize that she represents all Americans be they rich or poor? Does she have the presence of mind to know that when she makes comments like that, that she is doing to marginalized white communities that which she is accusing white communities of doing to communities of color? Let's call her comments what they are: racist.
I know we have a bewildered and senile Commander-in-Chief sitting in the White House, but this stooge of a racist Vice President could be a real problem were she to assume the presidency. Biden can't even read the teleprompter anymore, so that moment may well be upon us in short order. If you love her shit-eating grins that stretch from ear to ear, or you love the way she cackles when she laughs, or maybe you like her pronouns, you're going to be balls-to-the-walls in love with her when she takes over as president. She is better suited to be president of the local chapter of the NAACP in Detroit than she is president of the United States, but that's just my opinion. Did I mention that she garnered just 3% when she competed in the presidential primaries? We all know that the only reason that Biden took her on as VP was because he needed an insurance policy. Who would throw him out of office knowing that she stood in the wings with all of her so-called baggage?
Why am I just hearing about this now? You're telling me that the Chinese have opened up any number of police stations in cities across our great country? What the fuck are we talking about here? Who the hell invited them into our country, much less into our towns and cities, to set up shop? I don't care who the hell they think they're entitled to police, be they Chinese citizens or whatever. They want some say in what their citizens do while within the borders of our great country, they can go through their consulates like everyone else. Just who the hell do they think they are? If I had to guess, I'd say that the Bidens greased the skids for their compatriots in the Chinese Communist Party to get this done. And where the hell are the republicans while all of this is going on? When is someone going to speak up? Don't tell me that they've been bought off too. Close these damn police stations down, and do it now!
The more I think about it, the more I think that the democrats have the republicans over a barrel when it comes to Putin and the Ruskies. You'd think that any reasonable person seeing what I'm seeing with our countries going down the road to a nuclear confrontation with the Russians over the proxy war that we're waging in Ukraine, would just stop for a moment and ask the obvious question: Why are we going to war and facing the threat of a nuclear disaster on our soil over some shithole of a country in Eastern Europe?
The short answer to that question is that you can't ask that question without being labeled a Putin sympathizer. Now that the Russians have invaded Ukraine doing anything but taking Putin to task over the invasion is tantamount to political suicide. I think there are a few brave republicans in Congress who would rather see federal dollars going to the homeless or some such cause rather than to Ukraine, but it's far short of the chorus that we should be hearing.
Funny thing is, I don't hear anyone asking the people running for office here in the US what their position is on what we're doing in our proxy war with Russia. You'd think that the democrats would want an issue that they call their own. They don't have much else to tout, so why not, right? It would be to their advantage to get their opponents on the record as opposing our involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. That would all be true were there some consensus about our involvement in the conflict, but I'm not sure that there is a consensus.
I saw a poll the other day that said maybe half of the American public approves of what we're doing in Ukraine, but I suspect that's probably a propaganda poll designed and pushed out by our illustrious Intelligence Agencies to hoodwink the American people at the behest of the Biden Administration. What's even more suspicious and maybe more alarming is the fact that nobody, and I mean nobody, is making the slightest effort to lower the temperature. Will anything change once we take back the House and the Senate? Who will stand up to the groupspeak and craziness coming out of our nation's capitol?
Now that the Biden Administration has squandered roughly half of the oil that we have in our Strategic Oil Reserve just to lower prices at the pump in the weeks leading up to the mid-term elections, they were relying on OPEC to continue pumping at current rates, which would keep prices on a downward trajectory for the foreseeable future. Biden's democrats are facing enough headwinds going into the mid-term elections, and bringing down prices at the pump was a critical component of mitigating what was likely to be a disaster come election day.
Were republicans to take both the House and the Senate, it would represent a potentially fatal blow to Biden's agenda. He can still issue executive actions until the cows come home, but they are easily overturned by the courts. There is only one problem. OPEC is now telling Biden to fuck off. They actually doubled the amount of oil they were planning to cut back on. It was tantamount to giving Joey Bumbles Biden the big middle finger. OPEC's announcement did not go down well with the Bidenistas. It was a good day for the rest of us. Well, until we have to start paying higher prices at the pump, that is.
It's not good for those of us who want to pay less at the pump, obviously, but it is good for those of us who want to see the Bidenistas brought to their knees. Who doesn't want to see these mother fuckers in Washington humbled and disgraced over what they've done to our great country after being in office for not even two years? Steve Bannon was right when he said that "Elections have consequences and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.' I'm sitting here feeling just a little thankful that I bought into a deal for our home heating oil this coming winter, knowing what I know about where oil prices are headed now. This is not going to help with our fight against inflation, so there's that too. It's just a shit show. Every day Joey Bumbles Biden is in office is worse than the day before. When America is on the ropes because of our failed leadership, the rest of the world suffers along with us.
Bumbles was speaking at some democrat fundraiser a couple of nights ago, and he let the cat out of the bag, He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, we're closer now to a nuclear conflict with Russia than we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. What are we talking about here, Bumbles? How did we ever get to this place? I'm also hearing that they are stepping up the production of certain medicines that one would only ever need in the case of a nuclear detonation. I'm sure they aren't getting those drugs ready for use by the general public. They are, of course, for the elite and their spawn. When the shit hits the fan, and I'm speaking speculatively here, the elite will be tucked away in their bunkers while the rest of us are, well, what's left of the rest of us anyway, will be who knows where.
Wouldn't I love a mean tweet about right now? The media excoriated Trump day in and day out about his relationship with the Russians when all Trump wanted to do was to improve relations with every world leader around the globe. Everything he did was done in the interest of improving relationships around the world, and the democrats and their propagandists were having none of it. It was a non-stop blood lust by the democrats and the media against everything Trump was trying to accomplish. By demonizing everything Trump trumpeted, they effectively vilified the likes of Putin in Russia, Little Rocket Man in North Korea, and the Saudis in the Middle East. Not that some of the aforementioned groups aren't bad to the bone, but there was something to be said back in the day for wanting to make things better. And, of course, none of what we're seeing in the world today with Bumbles in the White House was even close to happening with Trump as President.
Back in the day during the Cuban Missile Crisis (60's), when the President of the United States spoke to the public about the dangers of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, every child in every elementary school coast to coast was given instructions on how to duck and cover in order to survive a nuclear holocaust. It was preposterous, of course, and as I sit here thinking about it now, it was probably just a coping mechanism of sorts that children could use to ward off the anxiety that children were feeling at the time. Parents back in those days may not have been vocalizing their fears, but children are more often than not more often clued into non-verbal cues than they are verbal cues. Anyway, this dickwad of a president of ours makes these comments at a fundraiser within the last twenty-four hours, the press dutifully reports those comments, and I'm not sure anybody cares.
Is there one world leader stepping up and demanding that Bumbles retract his radical rhetoric about the likelihood of nuclear war? No. Are Biden's comments appearing on the front of every tabloid coast-to-coast this morning? No. I'm not even sure if I could google Biden's comments with any success. Does that mean that he never made those comments? No. Have Bumble's comments been ghosted because everyone knows that Bumbles can't tie his own shoes so any comments about nuclear attacks should be discussed in the same light? That is to say, not at all. They are fine repeating his lies about everything else so why not just put his comments out there and let the chips fall where they may? They won't do that because it would cast their fearless leader as an even more demented version of the president they already know to be over-the-top senile.
The problem is, and this is me speaking, this nutty fuck has his fingers on the nuclear codes, and there isn't a damn thing that any of us can do about it. While the media hasn't covered Bumble's comments in the printed press, you can bet your bottom dollar that Vladamir Putin has gotten wind of them. He has to be thinking to himself that something preemptive might be in order if he and his fellow Ruskies are to survive.
There may have been a time when Bumble's comments might have been construed as those coming from someone crazy as a fox, but those days are over. Everyone knows Bumbles is about as demented a loon as you can get, and there is no need to second guess a word coming out of his mouth. It is what it is. It's an overt threat to use nuclear weapons against your geopolitical foe or foes. Zelensky has to be creaming his shorts. He would give his left nut to see someone, anyone, launch a nuclear missile into Russian territory. He could give a flying fuck if the world melts down around him. It's true.
It's been another weird week in the financial markets. We saw a 2-day rally on Monday and Tuesday of this week, which saw returns in the major indices of around 5-6%. If you've been losing your ass in the markets going back to January, you were happy to see something resembling a relief rally, however short. It's a start, right? You have to start somewhere. The market didn't do much on Wednesday and Thursday, seemingly waiting for the employment number to come out on Friday before making another move one way or the other. With the NASDAQ down more than 30% YTD, how much worse could it get, right? Well, for those folks looking for the Fed to pivot and take a break from raising interest rates based on the employment data, they were sadly disappointed when the employment numbers came in stronger than expected. The NASDAQ dropped another four percent. The S&P dropped another three percent.
The missus and I drove up to the Kittery malls yesterday, where the missus was looking to take advantage of the sales on the long holiday weekend. We got there well ahead of the rush, and we went our separate ways once inside the store. I was looking for some biking gear but found nothing of interest. If I had to guess, I'd say that the area dedicated to cycling was now more dedicated to winter sports and less to biking. I didn't need a new pair of biking shorts, and the shirts that hung on the rack wouldn't have fit me even if I felt like buying an extra shirt. I will say that this was probably one of the better-stocked stores that I've been in as of late, not that I'm out and about shopping a lot, mind you. It also struck me that they had a pretty good selection of just about everything, including guns and novelty sweatshirts.
I think there is such a thing as having too much inventory. There were places in the store where the racks were so stacked with merchandise that it was hard to get in between the racks to see if there was something you might be interested in. I didn't mention this to the missus, but I was having a real problem with sensory overload. I think I actually got lost at one point. I knew if I kept pushing past this and that rack, I'd see something resembling an exit sooner or later. I was never close to calling 911, but I will admit to feeling more than my share of anxiety. After about ten minutes of walking in circles in one of the less congested sections of the store, I decided that I'd had enough. The store was getting busier by the minute, and that was my cue to find the missus and make plans to leave the premises either together or separately. The missus never did find what she was looking for, so there's that. Color me surprised.
There were quite a lot of stores in this stretch of malls that we visited that had either closed up shop or had possibly never opened once they were built. I know that sounds odd, knowing what I've said about how busy the store was that we visited, but it's true. Maybe they built too many stores, and the vendors they anticipated coming to town never came to town for whatever reason. If what we saw was some indication of where the economy is going, God help us all. This mall area I'm talking about stretches on for a good quarter to half a mile or more with maybe hundreds of stores, so it's perhaps something of a veritable canary in the coal mine when it comes to the economy. Maybe, just maybe, there's a correlation between the number of shuttered stores in Kittery, Maine, and the decline in the stock market that we've seen going back to January.
Is it me, or are the democrats really concerned about not losing a senate seat to Herschel Walker in Georgia? Herschel is the storied running back and Heisman trophy winner born and bred in Georgia. He's Georgia's son if Georgia ever had a son. Herschel is also running for the US Senate seat on the Republican ticket. That is a direct threat to the democrats, and were they to lose that seat to Walker, it could mean that the Republicans take the majority in the Senate starting in January 2023. The democrats are pulling every last sleazy trick they have up their sleeves in order to stop Walker's seemingly unstoppable succession to the senate seat. We'll see how far they go with these allegations of Herschel paying for an abortion when he professes to be pro-life, but I'm guessing it's all going to seem so desperate to those people who love Herschel to the bone. And, they do.
When Herschel says that he loves his family, the people in Georgia who know and love Herschel know exactly what he means. They are a forgiving lot, and they have loved Herschel from day one. Even today, some twenty years out from his glory days on the gridiron, you can see the sparkle in his eyes, and he is still running with that ball under his arm toward the end zone, whatever that end zone looks like. The good people of Georgia have his back. They've always had his back, and no amount of skullduggery and malfeasance by the democrats is going to change that. That isn't going to stop the democrats from trying to bring him down, but Herschel is used to people trying to bring him down, and he has built his reputation on stiff-arming every last fucking one of them on his way to the goal. The good people of Georgia know a winner when they see one, and they've seen plenty of Herschel over the years. They know he's not perfect, but who amongst us is? We'll cross the finish line with Herschel on Election Day, and the people of Georgia will stand and applaud him just like they always have.
What is all of this business about Kanye West? Or, should I say, Ye. He was on with Tucker last week, and he made a few interesting comments about this and that. I don't really know this guy, nor do I know what his claim to fame is. If he's a performer of sorts, I've not seen his performances. I think he's a rapper, if I'm not mistaken. He made several references to other rappers like Ice Tea, but I wouldn't know their music either. That's just not my thing. I didn't hear this part of the interview, but I understand he was especially critical of the Kushners. I'm familiar with Jerod Kushner, who married Trump's daughter, and I know he had something to do with negotiating the Abraham Accords, but I was a little surprised to hear that Ye thought Jerod did what he in negotiating the Accords not for Trump (And America) but rather to line his own pockets.
Ye was seemingly feeding into some of the more odious stereotypes of the Jewish people, which I found to be most unbecoming. I wondered if Tucker even saw this coming. If what Ye was saying is true about Kushner, Kushner probably wouldn't be the first person in any Administration going back to the days of George Washington who wasn't looking out for his own interests while doing his job. Ye seemed to be intimating that Kushner was a money grubber, so to speak, and I'm aware of at least one deal that came about after the Accords were signed off on, where Kushner received an investment of billion dollars or more from the Saudi's. That doesn't make him a money grubber, per se, but he did benefit from the deal, so you could rightly accuse him of being an opportunist. It's the kind of thing you hate to see in Washington. That said, I think that Washington is awash in dirty money from places like Communist China. It's the veritable mother's milk of politics, dirty as it is.
It made me wonder if what I was hearing from Ye wasn't a little like the pot calling the kettle black. The guy is a billionaire, so I'm guessing he didn't make his billions without looking the other way on one or more occasions when it benefitted him to do so. No, it seemed like Ye had an axe to grind when it came to Kushner. Maybe it was more about what Kushner was doing at Trump's expense, and America's expense quite frankly, that Ye found so distasteful. Maybe what he was saying was that Kushner had an opportunity to advance Trump's agenda and America's agenda, but that agenda fell short not because of what Trump wasn't able to accomplish, but rather because of Kushner's personal desire to enrich himself at Trump's expense. That would be truly unforgivable were it true. Trump was Kushner's son-in-law, for chrissakes. Who does that?
I'm sorry I couldn't stay awake to watch Trump's rally in Nevada last night. I've seen one clip this morning on Twitter where Trump was going after Biden for not doing more to negotiate some way out of this mess with Russia and Ukraine. There were several cautionary comments about the dereliction of not pursuing negotiations knowing full well what the end result of a nuclear conflict would look like. Trump is right, of course. No one in the Biden Administration is doing a damn thing to take down the temperature. If anything, they continue to make matters worse through their very actions.
I think we're well past the point where anyone thinks this is a proxy war between NATO and Russia. Trump is nothing if not prescient about such matters. We hope he's wrong this time, of course, but taking our chances with a demented and likely senile president who is about to lose both houses of Congress in less than four weeks is maybe asking too much. If Biden thinks that getting America into war with Russia would enhance his standing ahead of the elections, don't think for a minute that he wouldn't do it. Like he said the other day, nobody fucks with the Bidens. This is what we're dealing with. God help us all.