On The Brink
13/02/22 07:06
I'm trying to reconcile this Russia business. Russia has mobilized troops up and down their eastern border in what most fear is a pre-planned invasion of Ukraine. It seems to me that NATO is sending some very mixed messages when it comes to what they intend to do if Russia goes forward with an invasion of their neighbor. On one hand, the individual nations of NATO are threatening to impose sanctions designed to cripple the Russian economy. One the other hand, each of the NATO countries is sending troops and equipment to the area. So, which is it? Sanctions? Or, a ground war with Russia?
Is the beefing up of troops and equipment in the adjoining NATO countries supposed to be a deterrent of sorts? Putin knows that NATO is unlikely to engage his country in a ground war so he should feel somewhat emboldened to go ahead with his invasion. I think not a day goes by when Putin isn't doing something to continue with his buildup be it positioning of naval ships in the Black Sea or sending sorties over the area. Putin would tell you that the buildup is in response to the buildup of NATO forces. Is it any wonder that Putin sat down with Xi of China this past week? Alliances matter.
I don't know how it's all going to turn out but it seems odd that in this day and age we would see one nation invade another sovereign nation in a bid to add to its territory. I suppose it's just a matter of time now before China makes a move on Taiwan. With social media being what it is, I wonder what we'll be exposed to day in and day out with either of these skirmishes. War is ugly and the people waging the wars are likely to not want any of it hitting the nightly news. Would it surprise anyone to know that the high tech titans are already planning to black-out the nastiness of it all?
I'm finding a number of people posting on Twitter who are reporting from in and around the area. They are posting videos, maps, and pictures of military equipment and placement of same. It's hard to know how much of what I'm looking at is true or just plain poppycock. Some of these posts may be nothing more than an effort to deceive rather than educate. It does leave me feeling more connected so there's that. It's also giving me more than the pablum dished out on the nightly news media here in the United States although the drums of war beat loudly on behalf of the Industrial Military Complex on those very same networks. For now, I can only characterize the coverage as schizophrenic since Putin has yet to "decide" what he's going to do. To invade or not to invade. That is the question.
Does anyone really believe that Putin is just waiting for the Winter Olympics to end in Beijing before he starts his invasion? That's the rumor anyway. Chairman Xi wants all eyes on his country's hosting of these games and Putin's waging war would likely upset that apple cart. That would not make Xi and the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) happy. They have far too much invested in these games to allow something as egregiously distracting as a hot ground war to get in the way. I would imagine that Xi wants the same consideration from Putin when he decides to invade Taiwan. I can hear him now. "Wrap up that damn war and do it now." "We need to get this done before Trump gets back into office."
The Ev man left his car here last week and he's showing no particular inclination to come and pick it up. We have it stored in the garage so I think he feels good about that fact. He also mentioned to me that he has enough food in the house to get by for a while. In other words he doesn't need his car to frequent his usual fast food restaurants. Is there a more concerning issue with his not wanting to have his car at his home? The missus is just as curious as I about this latest development but it all goes away the minute he returns to pick up his car. And yes, I mentioned to him that his WeatherTec mats arrived in the mail. His response (text)? "Nice!"
It occurred to me that if he was looking out his fourth floor window at his parking lot below that was iced over that he might assume that the roads out and about would be similarly icy and difficult. He would be wrong, of course. Just as we would be wrong were we to look out our window onto our little side street and assume, wrongly again, that the main roads in town were just as nasty. I never had this conversation with him since he's probably not so insulated that he buys into what I'm thinking when I'm looking for reasons as to why he might not want his car sitting in his own parking lot. I don't think any of this has anything to do with his not wanting to drive anymore or maybe less. That would be a horse of an entirely different color.
I'm happy to have my talk radio guy back on the morning talk show circuit after his bad bout with Covid. I do wish that he would talk less about Covid, mask mandates, Canadian Truckers, etc. and maybe get into the Russian invasion thing a little more. I think he was born in Canada but he's of Croatian heritage so I'm surprised he's not carrying a torch for his fellow Europeans in this dangerous gambit by the Russians. He's no fan of Biden and God only knows that Biden is not the leader the world needs at a time like this. Leaving the diplomacy to "leaders" like Macron of France and other European miscreants is a recipe for disaster. Putin has respect for none of them (Biden included.)
I'm listening to the melifluous voice of Jonathan Antoine this morning. I saw this fella for the first time on Youtube when he was a contestant on Britain's Got Talent in 2012. He was seventeen at the time and he came on stage with "Charlotte" as the "Charlotte and Jonathan" duo. I can't even describe the impact that he had on the judges and the audience after completing their song. I was an instant fan. Simon Cowell's response was a "wow! wow! wow!." You could tell that not even he was expecting to hear what he heard. "You are a future star", Cowell continued. I'm not a touchy feely kinda guy, but his music touches me. "Charlotte was good", according to Simon, but "Jonathan was "unbelievable." Indeed.
Acoustics aside, Jonathan Antoine showed up on the stage of Britain's Got Talent sporting a Jimi Hendrix tee shirt and looking every bit of the maybe three hundred pound basement dweller that he was. The only reason he showed up on stage, according to Jonathan, was because his friends Charlotte talked him into going with her. Simon Cowell even made a disparaging remark to one of his fellow judges in a bit of a sidebar after seeing Jonathan walk on stage ostensibly due to his size and his somewhat unkempt appearance. Expectations couldn't have been lower. And then the music started. The rest is history.
What the heck is going on north of the border up there in Canada with the truckers? I'm only catching bits and pieces of the news but it seems to have something to do with the Covid restrictions and the public's yearning or maybe demanding that they be curtailed or done away with all together. I should be interested in it for no other reason than it is the perfect David and Goliath tale. I don't have any sense as to what any of it looks like or what the net impact of a miles-long truck convoy stalled inconveniently in and around the city streets of Canada's might produce. Is it safe to say that it has the attention of the constabulary and the government officials thereabouts? You betcha.
I see very little of it on my Twitter feed and that should tell me something. It tells me that someone doesn't want me to see what's going on and, perhaps more to the point, they don't want people like me piling on and maybe giving these truckers support or words or encouragement. All of which, I would hasten to add, I would be more than willing to do. Like anyone else I like a good David vs Goliath story. The fact that Goliath in this instance is a far left government who maybe could use a bitch slap now and then, I say the more the merrier. If they can effectively neutralize or oust the Trudeau fella they would be doing the citizenry in that country a favor. It would be yuge!
Is it any coincidence that I'm now starting to hear and see stories about the relaxation of Covid related restrictions in blue states here in the United States? Are they trying to avert the same shit show with the truckers that has brought Canada to its knees? This is a mid term election year here in the United States and I'm quite sure that this is the last thing Bumbles Biden and his party of leftists need. With the pandemic seemingly now in the rear view mirror, the usual purveyors of panic porn (CNN, MSNBC) have sensed a change in the public's perception of the virus and are stepping back from their role as cheerleaders for the CDC. Nobody's buying their bullshit any more.
I do think that Biden and his minions would like nothing more than to have a war to take the public's eyes off the usual array of problems that they have in fact themselves created. You know, a conflict of sorts that allows the Commander-in-Chief to beat his chest and something that all American's will get behind if history is any example. Well, Vietnam might have been an exception. Generally speaking, the public is supposed to have their President's back when it comes to fighting a good fight and defending our values in faraway lands. Just reading the tea leaves here, but Biden might just get that war he wants. The bloom likely comes off the rose the minute the caskets start flying into Dover, Delaware.
I signed up for a month of free music from Apple. After a months time Apple charges $9.99 a month for the service. I have plenty of music to listen to without paying Apple a ten-spot for gaining access to their music libraries. I've never liked these "pay a nominal fee every month" kind of deals. The next thing you know you're racking up some serious charges every month without realizing it. It's the old nickel and diming you scheme. It's just pennies a day, they say. Well, that adds up, doesn't it. How about those Tunnels to Towers ads on the telly where they bring out the war heroes with missing limbs? It's just $19.99 a month, Mark Wahlberg tells you. It's pathetic.
I don't mind making the missus her latte every day but I'm getting to the point where I need her to make her own latte. What am I anyway? Her personal barista? She tells me that she wants to have it at 2 o'clock. She tells me that she wants it not a minute sooner and not a minute later. Well, maybe I'd rather be doing something else at 2 o'clock. Maybe I'd rather not feel as though my afternoon is not my own when I have to be brewing her beverage of choice at the time of her choosing. I'm not so resentful that I've stopped offering my services but I have started to give her a lesson or two on what to do if and when she wants a nice latte and I'm not around to make it for her. One lesson does not a barista make. C'mon now, it's easy peasy.
This mid-term election thing is coming down the pike and it's coming down the pike fast. It's almost March now and time it running out for the democrats. Biden's poll numbers in the average of all polls has now dipped into the 30's. That spells disaster for the democrats in the mid-term elections coming in November. I think the number of democrats who are retiring after this term is now maybe 30 or more compared to a much lesser number of candidates on the republican side of the aisle. I don't know that this January 6th insurrection bullshit is going to turn republicans away from the voting booth and I don't know that calling republicans racists really works any more. Is referring to republicans who dare to speak their mind as "domestic terrorists" really the hill they want to die on?
Their latest line of attack, and it's a coordinated effort by the democrats, is to spin the narrative that the Republican Party is "imploding." If the republicans are eating their own then the democrats simply need to step aside and let that happen. Fact of the matter is, the Republican Party is on the same page when it comes to ousting the weakest president in the history of our great republic. Ousting this mother is more of necessity than anything else considering the damage he's doing with every passing day in office. There is only one republican candidate who can take on that task and turn it all around. That would be, wait for it, one Donald J Trump. In November of this year, we (republicans) take back the House. Come November 2024, we take back the presidency.
I'm really astounded at how often the liberal media open their nightly newscasts and shows with something on Donald J Trump. Do they know how ridiculous and repetitive they sound? When I see that, I'm clicking around until I get to a channel that isn't talking about Donald J Trump. I think I'm not alone. I wonder if they think that spinning their Trump theories and conspiracies day in and day out will somehow convince those hard core Trumpists to leave the cult (their word, not mine) of Trump. It's more likely that the leftists who hang on every word coming out of the mouths of these talking heads will, god willing, be more energized than ever come Election Day to come out and vote. With their president's poll number in the thirties, you need to pull out every stop if you're a leftist.
Come to think of it, I'm thinking that this whole January 6th Committee thing going on in our nation's capitol is designed to provide a drip-drip-drip of everything Trump to the news media night in and night out between now and the mid term elections. Yes, it's designed to paint Trump as a cult leader and not worthy of ever being the president of the United States again but the hope on the part of the leftists is that some of the Trump stench will rub off on the people he is supporting in the upcoming midterm elections. It's the old kill-two-birds-with-one-stone trick. These mother fuckers are devious.
I have to laugh. Netflix has this show on the telly about serial murderers. It's not bad but the focus of the 30 minute shows is more about how they catch the killers than it is how or why the killers do what they do. I guess there's only so much you can cover in 30 minutes. Anyway, the missus isn't all that much into cold case shows the way I am so she didn't want to watch that particular show last night. "Oh, okay", I said. "Let's watch the Nordic thriller that involves time travel, Jack the Ripper, and a terrific cast of detectives who are trying to make sense of it all." Its makes perfect sense. The show is called "beforeigners" and we're on season two. Yes, it's about serial killers. Well, one in particular anyway. As Larry David says, "it's pretty, pretty, pretty good." I think the missus agrees.
Did I mention that the missus and I went into our local Trader Joe's store yesterday to pick up a few things? I was looking for walnuts, in particular. I haven't been able to find them anywhere. What the bejesus is that all about? I know we have supply chain issues but do walnuts come from China? Maybe not all supply chain issues are related to China. Anyway, we noticed that there were a whole lot of shelves that were scarcely stocked or not stocked at all. It seemed product specific. Packaged nuts were in short supply but fresh produce and dairy products were plentiful. Their frozen foods were in pretty good shape while their canned goods, not so much. All I could think of is that this isn't going to end well. If the run on toilet paper during the Covid crisis is any indication, we'll need to saddle up. This is going to get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.
Maybe the defining issue for the democrats in the upcoming mid term elections won't be what Trump did or didn't do while he sat in the White House during the January 6th riots in our nation's capitol. It won't be the raging crime that we see on the streets in our major cities and towns across the fruited plains. It won't be the fact that Biden and his minions opened up our borders to 3 plus million of the world's migrants to infest our cities and lay waste to our nation's resources. It won't have anything to do with the fact that Biden turned our energy dependent nation into a nation dependent on the goodwill of tyrannical energy power houses in faraway lands. It will be all about, wait for it, inflation.
The price of everything is going up. People are feeling the pinch wherever they go. When you have to pay $10 for a pound of hamburger that cost $5-$6 a pound just a month ago, that's a problem. Maybe it forces people to go shopping sooner than they otherwise would just to avoid the escalating prices at the register. How do families with children cope? Do they have less to eat? The prices of used cars are up some 40% so that has to hurt. Never mind what the Fed will now have to do when it comes to dealing with the 7.5% inflation. Quite simply, they will have to stop printing money and start raising interest rates. That will bring a whole new level of pain to people who are already in pain. Oh, and if you just got a 5% raise, you're still behind the eight ball by 2 percentage points.
Maybe now we're starting to understand why Biden and his Administration need this war with Russia. It's truly a wag-the-dog situation. Look over there, not over here. His sycophants in the media will gladly replace bad headlines about Biden's sheer incompetence when it comes to dealing with inflation, drugs, crime, illegal aliens, etc with news from the front lines wherever the war is being waged. The sooner, the better as far as the Bidenista's are concerned. Russia's conflict with Ukraine couldn't have come along at a more providential time. Bailing Biden out of his political woes may not have been in the cards when Vlad cooked this all up, but Biden owes Vlad a solid for providing just the right distraction at just the right time. And you thought Bumbling Joe would be too demented to take advantage of this opportunity. Think again.
Is the beefing up of troops and equipment in the adjoining NATO countries supposed to be a deterrent of sorts? Putin knows that NATO is unlikely to engage his country in a ground war so he should feel somewhat emboldened to go ahead with his invasion. I think not a day goes by when Putin isn't doing something to continue with his buildup be it positioning of naval ships in the Black Sea or sending sorties over the area. Putin would tell you that the buildup is in response to the buildup of NATO forces. Is it any wonder that Putin sat down with Xi of China this past week? Alliances matter.
I don't know how it's all going to turn out but it seems odd that in this day and age we would see one nation invade another sovereign nation in a bid to add to its territory. I suppose it's just a matter of time now before China makes a move on Taiwan. With social media being what it is, I wonder what we'll be exposed to day in and day out with either of these skirmishes. War is ugly and the people waging the wars are likely to not want any of it hitting the nightly news. Would it surprise anyone to know that the high tech titans are already planning to black-out the nastiness of it all?
I'm finding a number of people posting on Twitter who are reporting from in and around the area. They are posting videos, maps, and pictures of military equipment and placement of same. It's hard to know how much of what I'm looking at is true or just plain poppycock. Some of these posts may be nothing more than an effort to deceive rather than educate. It does leave me feeling more connected so there's that. It's also giving me more than the pablum dished out on the nightly news media here in the United States although the drums of war beat loudly on behalf of the Industrial Military Complex on those very same networks. For now, I can only characterize the coverage as schizophrenic since Putin has yet to "decide" what he's going to do. To invade or not to invade. That is the question.
Does anyone really believe that Putin is just waiting for the Winter Olympics to end in Beijing before he starts his invasion? That's the rumor anyway. Chairman Xi wants all eyes on his country's hosting of these games and Putin's waging war would likely upset that apple cart. That would not make Xi and the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) happy. They have far too much invested in these games to allow something as egregiously distracting as a hot ground war to get in the way. I would imagine that Xi wants the same consideration from Putin when he decides to invade Taiwan. I can hear him now. "Wrap up that damn war and do it now." "We need to get this done before Trump gets back into office."
The Ev man left his car here last week and he's showing no particular inclination to come and pick it up. We have it stored in the garage so I think he feels good about that fact. He also mentioned to me that he has enough food in the house to get by for a while. In other words he doesn't need his car to frequent his usual fast food restaurants. Is there a more concerning issue with his not wanting to have his car at his home? The missus is just as curious as I about this latest development but it all goes away the minute he returns to pick up his car. And yes, I mentioned to him that his WeatherTec mats arrived in the mail. His response (text)? "Nice!"
It occurred to me that if he was looking out his fourth floor window at his parking lot below that was iced over that he might assume that the roads out and about would be similarly icy and difficult. He would be wrong, of course. Just as we would be wrong were we to look out our window onto our little side street and assume, wrongly again, that the main roads in town were just as nasty. I never had this conversation with him since he's probably not so insulated that he buys into what I'm thinking when I'm looking for reasons as to why he might not want his car sitting in his own parking lot. I don't think any of this has anything to do with his not wanting to drive anymore or maybe less. That would be a horse of an entirely different color.
I'm happy to have my talk radio guy back on the morning talk show circuit after his bad bout with Covid. I do wish that he would talk less about Covid, mask mandates, Canadian Truckers, etc. and maybe get into the Russian invasion thing a little more. I think he was born in Canada but he's of Croatian heritage so I'm surprised he's not carrying a torch for his fellow Europeans in this dangerous gambit by the Russians. He's no fan of Biden and God only knows that Biden is not the leader the world needs at a time like this. Leaving the diplomacy to "leaders" like Macron of France and other European miscreants is a recipe for disaster. Putin has respect for none of them (Biden included.)
I'm listening to the melifluous voice of Jonathan Antoine this morning. I saw this fella for the first time on Youtube when he was a contestant on Britain's Got Talent in 2012. He was seventeen at the time and he came on stage with "Charlotte" as the "Charlotte and Jonathan" duo. I can't even describe the impact that he had on the judges and the audience after completing their song. I was an instant fan. Simon Cowell's response was a "wow! wow! wow!." You could tell that not even he was expecting to hear what he heard. "You are a future star", Cowell continued. I'm not a touchy feely kinda guy, but his music touches me. "Charlotte was good", according to Simon, but "Jonathan was "unbelievable." Indeed.
Acoustics aside, Jonathan Antoine showed up on the stage of Britain's Got Talent sporting a Jimi Hendrix tee shirt and looking every bit of the maybe three hundred pound basement dweller that he was. The only reason he showed up on stage, according to Jonathan, was because his friends Charlotte talked him into going with her. Simon Cowell even made a disparaging remark to one of his fellow judges in a bit of a sidebar after seeing Jonathan walk on stage ostensibly due to his size and his somewhat unkempt appearance. Expectations couldn't have been lower. And then the music started. The rest is history.
What the heck is going on north of the border up there in Canada with the truckers? I'm only catching bits and pieces of the news but it seems to have something to do with the Covid restrictions and the public's yearning or maybe demanding that they be curtailed or done away with all together. I should be interested in it for no other reason than it is the perfect David and Goliath tale. I don't have any sense as to what any of it looks like or what the net impact of a miles-long truck convoy stalled inconveniently in and around the city streets of Canada's might produce. Is it safe to say that it has the attention of the constabulary and the government officials thereabouts? You betcha.
I see very little of it on my Twitter feed and that should tell me something. It tells me that someone doesn't want me to see what's going on and, perhaps more to the point, they don't want people like me piling on and maybe giving these truckers support or words or encouragement. All of which, I would hasten to add, I would be more than willing to do. Like anyone else I like a good David vs Goliath story. The fact that Goliath in this instance is a far left government who maybe could use a bitch slap now and then, I say the more the merrier. If they can effectively neutralize or oust the Trudeau fella they would be doing the citizenry in that country a favor. It would be yuge!
Is it any coincidence that I'm now starting to hear and see stories about the relaxation of Covid related restrictions in blue states here in the United States? Are they trying to avert the same shit show with the truckers that has brought Canada to its knees? This is a mid term election year here in the United States and I'm quite sure that this is the last thing Bumbles Biden and his party of leftists need. With the pandemic seemingly now in the rear view mirror, the usual purveyors of panic porn (CNN, MSNBC) have sensed a change in the public's perception of the virus and are stepping back from their role as cheerleaders for the CDC. Nobody's buying their bullshit any more.
I do think that Biden and his minions would like nothing more than to have a war to take the public's eyes off the usual array of problems that they have in fact themselves created. You know, a conflict of sorts that allows the Commander-in-Chief to beat his chest and something that all American's will get behind if history is any example. Well, Vietnam might have been an exception. Generally speaking, the public is supposed to have their President's back when it comes to fighting a good fight and defending our values in faraway lands. Just reading the tea leaves here, but Biden might just get that war he wants. The bloom likely comes off the rose the minute the caskets start flying into Dover, Delaware.
I signed up for a month of free music from Apple. After a months time Apple charges $9.99 a month for the service. I have plenty of music to listen to without paying Apple a ten-spot for gaining access to their music libraries. I've never liked these "pay a nominal fee every month" kind of deals. The next thing you know you're racking up some serious charges every month without realizing it. It's the old nickel and diming you scheme. It's just pennies a day, they say. Well, that adds up, doesn't it. How about those Tunnels to Towers ads on the telly where they bring out the war heroes with missing limbs? It's just $19.99 a month, Mark Wahlberg tells you. It's pathetic.
I don't mind making the missus her latte every day but I'm getting to the point where I need her to make her own latte. What am I anyway? Her personal barista? She tells me that she wants to have it at 2 o'clock. She tells me that she wants it not a minute sooner and not a minute later. Well, maybe I'd rather be doing something else at 2 o'clock. Maybe I'd rather not feel as though my afternoon is not my own when I have to be brewing her beverage of choice at the time of her choosing. I'm not so resentful that I've stopped offering my services but I have started to give her a lesson or two on what to do if and when she wants a nice latte and I'm not around to make it for her. One lesson does not a barista make. C'mon now, it's easy peasy.
This mid-term election thing is coming down the pike and it's coming down the pike fast. It's almost March now and time it running out for the democrats. Biden's poll numbers in the average of all polls has now dipped into the 30's. That spells disaster for the democrats in the mid-term elections coming in November. I think the number of democrats who are retiring after this term is now maybe 30 or more compared to a much lesser number of candidates on the republican side of the aisle. I don't know that this January 6th insurrection bullshit is going to turn republicans away from the voting booth and I don't know that calling republicans racists really works any more. Is referring to republicans who dare to speak their mind as "domestic terrorists" really the hill they want to die on?
Their latest line of attack, and it's a coordinated effort by the democrats, is to spin the narrative that the Republican Party is "imploding." If the republicans are eating their own then the democrats simply need to step aside and let that happen. Fact of the matter is, the Republican Party is on the same page when it comes to ousting the weakest president in the history of our great republic. Ousting this mother is more of necessity than anything else considering the damage he's doing with every passing day in office. There is only one republican candidate who can take on that task and turn it all around. That would be, wait for it, one Donald J Trump. In November of this year, we (republicans) take back the House. Come November 2024, we take back the presidency.
I'm really astounded at how often the liberal media open their nightly newscasts and shows with something on Donald J Trump. Do they know how ridiculous and repetitive they sound? When I see that, I'm clicking around until I get to a channel that isn't talking about Donald J Trump. I think I'm not alone. I wonder if they think that spinning their Trump theories and conspiracies day in and day out will somehow convince those hard core Trumpists to leave the cult (their word, not mine) of Trump. It's more likely that the leftists who hang on every word coming out of the mouths of these talking heads will, god willing, be more energized than ever come Election Day to come out and vote. With their president's poll number in the thirties, you need to pull out every stop if you're a leftist.
Come to think of it, I'm thinking that this whole January 6th Committee thing going on in our nation's capitol is designed to provide a drip-drip-drip of everything Trump to the news media night in and night out between now and the mid term elections. Yes, it's designed to paint Trump as a cult leader and not worthy of ever being the president of the United States again but the hope on the part of the leftists is that some of the Trump stench will rub off on the people he is supporting in the upcoming midterm elections. It's the old kill-two-birds-with-one-stone trick. These mother fuckers are devious.
I have to laugh. Netflix has this show on the telly about serial murderers. It's not bad but the focus of the 30 minute shows is more about how they catch the killers than it is how or why the killers do what they do. I guess there's only so much you can cover in 30 minutes. Anyway, the missus isn't all that much into cold case shows the way I am so she didn't want to watch that particular show last night. "Oh, okay", I said. "Let's watch the Nordic thriller that involves time travel, Jack the Ripper, and a terrific cast of detectives who are trying to make sense of it all." Its makes perfect sense. The show is called "beforeigners" and we're on season two. Yes, it's about serial killers. Well, one in particular anyway. As Larry David says, "it's pretty, pretty, pretty good." I think the missus agrees.
Did I mention that the missus and I went into our local Trader Joe's store yesterday to pick up a few things? I was looking for walnuts, in particular. I haven't been able to find them anywhere. What the bejesus is that all about? I know we have supply chain issues but do walnuts come from China? Maybe not all supply chain issues are related to China. Anyway, we noticed that there were a whole lot of shelves that were scarcely stocked or not stocked at all. It seemed product specific. Packaged nuts were in short supply but fresh produce and dairy products were plentiful. Their frozen foods were in pretty good shape while their canned goods, not so much. All I could think of is that this isn't going to end well. If the run on toilet paper during the Covid crisis is any indication, we'll need to saddle up. This is going to get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.
Maybe the defining issue for the democrats in the upcoming mid term elections won't be what Trump did or didn't do while he sat in the White House during the January 6th riots in our nation's capitol. It won't be the raging crime that we see on the streets in our major cities and towns across the fruited plains. It won't be the fact that Biden and his minions opened up our borders to 3 plus million of the world's migrants to infest our cities and lay waste to our nation's resources. It won't have anything to do with the fact that Biden turned our energy dependent nation into a nation dependent on the goodwill of tyrannical energy power houses in faraway lands. It will be all about, wait for it, inflation.
The price of everything is going up. People are feeling the pinch wherever they go. When you have to pay $10 for a pound of hamburger that cost $5-$6 a pound just a month ago, that's a problem. Maybe it forces people to go shopping sooner than they otherwise would just to avoid the escalating prices at the register. How do families with children cope? Do they have less to eat? The prices of used cars are up some 40% so that has to hurt. Never mind what the Fed will now have to do when it comes to dealing with the 7.5% inflation. Quite simply, they will have to stop printing money and start raising interest rates. That will bring a whole new level of pain to people who are already in pain. Oh, and if you just got a 5% raise, you're still behind the eight ball by 2 percentage points.
Maybe now we're starting to understand why Biden and his Administration need this war with Russia. It's truly a wag-the-dog situation. Look over there, not over here. His sycophants in the media will gladly replace bad headlines about Biden's sheer incompetence when it comes to dealing with inflation, drugs, crime, illegal aliens, etc with news from the front lines wherever the war is being waged. The sooner, the better as far as the Bidenista's are concerned. Russia's conflict with Ukraine couldn't have come along at a more providential time. Bailing Biden out of his political woes may not have been in the cards when Vlad cooked this all up, but Biden owes Vlad a solid for providing just the right distraction at just the right time. And you thought Bumbling Joe would be too demented to take advantage of this opportunity. Think again.