Well…I know inflation is on the mind of most people here in the US that aren’t independently wealthy, and I also know that fox news and everyone on the right is lying about the causes….like housing prices that have been affected by the industrialization of home purchasing by REITs and other big purchasers who have been snapping up starter homes to turn into rental units and who can afford to pay more than individuals since they can just raise the rents to ensure their profit margins….and this scramble by these corporations have shut most low income buyers out of the market and caused the crazy price increases that have even affected the house that I bought a year ago…I mean a house that I bought for 90K a year ago is now worth 140K? That is just nuts. When we look at food prices, lets use the example of Kroger whose revenues and profits are up over 40% in the past year and how do they use those increased profits? By increasing CEO pay, stock buybacks, and increased dividends, not by holding the line on prices…again taking advantage of the pandemic by transferring wealth to the rich while most of their employees can’t afford their rent anymore. Kroger is not alone…throughout the economy, corporations are blaming higher prices on supply chain issues or a whole host of other problems but the real reason is pure greed…all of them are taking advantage of small hiccups in the economy to steal as much as they can while the media falls behind in their reporting or just believes the lies and reports them…it’s easier than doing their jobs and reporting the truth….and if there is not profit taking going on, why are oil companies more profitable than they have been in years? They love the fact that OPEC is shouting about raising oil prices by restricting supply when that has no effect on American oil production or refining for retail customers of gasoline….but gas is at it’s highest price in 8 years as are the profits of the oil companies…just plain old price gouging that they are allowed to get away with…so when the right whines about inflation, you can be sure it is only a lie to attack Biden and his administration since their big donors are doing just fine and love them some of that sweet, sweet inflation that allows them to steal more than normal…geez…
Lots of food….
Well…have been looking for a topic in politics since I got back from the errands this morning with no luck so I think I’ll talk about my success at the grocery stores today….I did get some more salt to melt the sidewalks after this warm day ends and the rain freezes overnight…and it was a good idea to get it today since depot was almost out of it when they had pallets of it two weeks ago when I got the last bag…and I got the last container of filler…I hope…to start on the rest of the windows when I get to it…but I need to work on the kitchen first to get it ready for paint next week so I think I’ll work on that today but I am not going to just slather the filler on as I have been doing since I don’t want to have a lot of sanding to do before I paint…the dust is still causing some rashes a week after I stopped sanding and that is so damn irritating….oh, food…almost forgot about that…I did get another 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters at Aldi’s for 4.90 but I also got 7 pounds of pork chops for 7 bucks at Meijers so I have lots of protein here that is going to end up in the freezer in the next couple of days since I want to make another pizza tomorrow to use up the green pepper, mushrooms, and pepperoni…oh, and I got two more pounds of asparagus at 1.49 a pound and a 4 pound bag of oranges for 3 bucks…so I have lots of food here and really don’t have to go anywhere until I get the paper Sunday…even with all that food, I still only spent 30 bucks on groceries today and I think I can get two weeks out of it…oh, and I did finally get a new mop and bought a dustpan that I needed since I was tired of using cardboard and newspapers to pick up when I sweep….both the mop and the dustpan were Libman’s and I really like their stuff…plus it’s all made in the US and they still compete on price so it can be done….more later…
February 16th
Well…that was not as good as it has been lately…tossed and turned a bunch and all my bedding ended up across the room and that sucks a little…but I ‘m not sure why I would expect to sleep well every night with my history of not sleeping much at all…not sure what happened but I have had a headache for weeks now and I just may have to take something for it this morning….the wind is howling out there already and it is 43 degrees at 6:30 and I really do hope that the storm they are forecasting for tonight and tomorrow stays to the south of us here…pretty tired of the snow but it is only the middle of Feb and I know that we can expect more snow and cold…but that doesn’t make it any easier to wait for spring to come…I have a 4 store grocery/errand run this morning and it may turn into 5 if DD has anything I want…Aldi’s has chicken for 49 cents a pound again and I wonder how much I should get? Still have 4 of the leg quarters in the freezer from the last time so I guess only one bag will have to do since I do want to make a lasagna later in the week and still need to make another pizza tomorrow…I think I may have figured out how to look at the bike ride every morning to make it a little easier…I just need to think of it as listening to 9 songs of music I like while moving my legs while I do it….I may just have to take a week day off of riding since this is my most consistent winter on the bike ever and I haven’t gained a pound this winter versus gaining the 12 that is normal when I don’t ride at all in the winter….not much to do today…just the grocery and depot run and then back here for more coffee…I just looked at my bank account and I did spend 2200 bucks last month and that has to stop if I’m going to afford another Miata in the spring…more later….
I might have been right…
Well…with all of the noise that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is going to start tomorrow, Joe Biden gave a short and to the point speech that in no uncertain terms, the US will respond to any invasion of Ukraine or any NATO member with overwhelming economic sanctions and Putin must understand this…and guess what happened? Putin suggested that there may be a “diplomatic solution” to the crisis that he created…as I talked about this morning, I felt that Putin miscalculated the response from the west and thought that he could take over Ukraine with no opposition and just threats and it now looks like he may be coming to his senses…and Biden made a good point during his short speech today that we don’t want to hurt the Russian people but won’t be bullied by their government which they understand to mean Putin since they know Putin runs the show no matter who they vote for. So I guess we’ll see what happens over the next few days…I will gloat if I was right…it doesn’t happen too often….
Mazars is all in….
Well…with the news that came out yesterday that the accounting firm Mazars fired all of the trumps from being a client as of the 9th of Feb, more and more is being revealed about how they are cooperating with the AG’s in New York…first, with the filing with the court of it’s intent to no longer represent the idiots trump, it was noted that they have already turned over 500,000 pages of financial information to them…and that is a hell of a lot of pages and should be the detail that is needed to understand how the trump’s cheated on their taxes for over 10 years…but the less reported key to this whole thing is that Mazars is cooperating with the AGs…and can you think of a more damaging development than your former accounting firm that you lied to constantly for over 10 years is now cooperating with NY? Another thing that is a little under the radar is that Mazars will be trying to cleanse it’s reputation of it’s association with the trumps and will be really pissed that they were used by these criminals who don’t care about the truth or who they have to hurt to continue to commit crimes. I know that everyone has been saying that the trumps are in deep shit for years now but none of them have done the perp walk…yet….and I am not going to jump on that band wagon…I still think it’s going to be interesting to watch as the trumps get more and more desperate and we see more meltdowns as little eric did yesterday on fox….not sure if it’s time for popcorn yet….geez..
Let’s quit the “Putin blinked” crap…
Well…there is a bunch of confusing information coming out about Russian troop movements this morning with some reports saying they are moving away from the Ukraine border and others saying they are moving closer to the border…but there was an official Russian statement that gloated that the west was completely wrong about the invasion and it was just alarmism and trying to hurt Russia with lies….now, again, this could be one of two things…it could be Russia trying another smokescreen to lull the world into thinking they aren’t attacking or it’s Putin trying to figure out a way to get out of his self created crisis without damaging his standing in Russia or the world…now, if it’s the latter, we need to stop saying that Putin “blinked” and help him get out of this mess by essentially being quiet and letting him do it…the world all knows who is responsible for this and we can gently remind everyone that it was Putin and Russia that started the whole thing…but, we can also allow him to save face to defuse the situation with no war…smart diplomacy backed up by the concerted action of NATO showed it’s worth during this entire crisis…so, and I never thought I’d be saying this…give Putin a little time to declare victory and go home…and don’t gloat about the win…sometimes the best diplomacy is to just stay quiet….hmmm…
February 15th
Well…damn, that was a night of hard sleep….went all the way through until 6:06 today and had weird dreams about real estate and condos being built in Chief Hazycloud Park in Ada…and the only people who will understand that are those who grew up there as I did…I am having a little bit of a hard time getting going this morning and it may be from just eating a little too far under what I need for the day…but, that may be a plus with the article I read yesterday that said that if you eat around14% less calories than you need, it helps you avoid some of the problems that come with aging along with helping maintain weight….and I’ve been doing that my entire life so maybe my obsession is going to pay benefits and I’ll be able to keep going longer…who knows? I am starting to get bored with getting on the bike every day and it is getting harder and harder to keep it up…I did get over 300 miles since the start of the year yesterday and that keeps me on pace to get to 600 before the trails melt and I can get back outside…and I think this is going to be the first year that I don’t gain weight over the winter and may even lose some and that will set me up to be at summer weight before I get outside…that would be cool….not much to do today…will probably continue to clean and organize the downstairs and start getting my tools ready to make the push to finish the kitchen….need to clean my sander and get the dust out of it so I can get on the baseboards and I have a little filling to do on some cracks in the corners but I am not going to overfill them so I can keep the dust down…still have rashes from the dust and may have to get more cortisone cream on the grocery run tomorrow….more later…
This is big…
Well…yeah, it’s unusual that I do six of these a day but damn, big news about the idiot trump and his accounting firm just broke and I wanted to talk about it before I forget…just today the accounting firm that has done trump’s financials for years and years just resigned from working for trump, his organization, and his family stating that financial statements from 2011 to 2022 can no longer be relied on given the new information that has come out through investigations from various sources….meaning that they are bailing since they know trump and his family have been lying to them for the past 10 years and they don’t want to get dragged into the wrongdoing…and with something this serious, idiot boy and his family are going to have a hell of a time finding a new firm to do their taxes and other financial reports…and the funny thing is they told trump’s lawyer that there are returns due tomorrow and they need to figure out what to do since they are done with the whole crime family and will perform no more work for them….gee, I wonder if part of this is that idiot boy sued Mazars to keep them from obeying a subpoena for the records that they are now saying are bullshit….now we know why little donnie jr. went off yesterday on a coke fueled rant about Hillary…to try to deflect from the noose that is tightening around all of them…tick tock donnie, start getting fitted for that orange jumpsuit…
Just couldn’t do it…
Well…gee, who would have thought I couldn’t just take it easy around here…after sitting here this morning and watching some Olympics, I just couldn’t sit anymore so I went downstairs and started to finish up cleaning the dust that got everywhere when I was sanding the kitchen cabinet parts…got the walls washed along with one fan, the ac unit, and some electronics that needed dusting badly to keep them so they will work if I need them to…and then washed all of the hot and cold air ducts in that area and cleaned the dust off my two outdoor bikes that had gotten a thin coat on them…and I found a set of Samsung earbuds that must have come with this phone when I bought it but that I forgot about…and now I have a backup set just in case my Betrons quit…but, I’ve had them over two years now and I’ve never had a set last that long…the cords are pretty heavy duty on them…not like the rest of the earbuds I’ve bought and have taken a lot of abuse and just kept on working…so, I guess the precedent is set for tomorrow to keep working downstairs until I get that done and organized…I’m even thinking about buying a cheap door to hang in the doorway of the bike room where there was one before when it was a bedroom….not sure why I want one but it would make it a little more finished…one crappy thing is that my hands hurt and are stiff again just from cleaning for an hour and a half today…crap, crap, crap…
I think Putin has miscalculated….
Well…with all of the worry around the world about the idiot Putin invading Ukraine, I think Putin has miscalculated with telegraphing his intentions there…I’m sure he didn’t think that every country in the world other than ones run by his toadies or China would band together to oppose him…and the possibility of him losing billions by his choice to invade should be giving him pause…and when the foreign minister of Russia comes out the other day and says that diplomacy should continue to resolve the situation, there are two things that it could mean…that Putin is just laying down another smoke screen to lull everyone into thinking that he is not going to invade, or that he really is looking for a way out in the face of the solid opposition that Biden has built to his adventurism…I think he may have misunderstood that the deference the idiot trump showed him was national and European policy and he could continue to do whatever he wants with no consequences…but, that is not the case and he will pay dearly for any more aggression towards Ukraine or any other country…now, I may be completely wrong as I have been before, but I still think that the costs will be too high for Putin to absorb if he continues this bullshit…at least I hope it is….geez…