July 26, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 26, 2020, cannot be made worse.
Five years ago today: July 26, 2016, it was always the money . . .
Nine years ago today: July 26, 2012, a 36% pay cut.
Random years ago today: July 26, 2011, 30% faster.

           Way to go, Joe. Now they are predicting food shortages in America. This administration is pathetic, now they are moving to lockdown again. Anything to distract from the upcoming audit revelations, let’s just hope they don’t start a war. Their insurrection hoax has backfired as the detainees are more like martyrs. I have not received word, but I’m ready to head for Tennessee with a few hours notice. That’s become such a given that I have a list of 26 things to remember to pack. Everything from prescriptions to tools, but the real change is what I now consider important with Reb in the picture.

           Things have been slow for months around here. Yeah, whenever you think your life might hit a boring stretch, just check in here. You’ll cheer up. This is a box of emergency food, shown here around $35 worth. Two people, one week, two meals a day, when the box is full. I stockpile this from places that do not have my name and address on file. No sense having food stowed away with nothing but somebody else’s privacy policy protecting it. As shown here, this box is just for transportation. That is, normally things stored in glass or metal don’t need to be inside an armored case like this. The case is for perishables that come in flimsy containers. Experience has taught me not to store grains because insect eggs are inside (and freezing doesn’t kill the eggs). Nor will you see protein bars.

           One new item I’ll try is butter powder. This is not a common product in the US. Closest I’ve used is the “butter” salt you sprinkle on popcorn, which disappeared from the shelves a year ago. It has since come back at Wal*Mart, at around 2.5x the price. That’s Molly McButter. I’ve read reviews on powdered butter. I don’t know about storage and I’d need to price compare first. I’m also leery of storing water, which in turn means I’m not keen on a lot of powdered foods as sold by prepper companies. The saving grace in Florida is you know it is going to rain.
           The food shown here is not a complete diet. It is meant to supplement food shortages, which normally don’t wipe out everything. The plan is to supplement with what becomes available. Plus, stored food is a hassle to rotate, so I go for items with long shelf lives. And for the most part, when it comes to rice, ten small bags is better than one big one. PS, those plastic buckets from Lowe’s are NOT good storage, plus, believe it or not, rats can tip them over and gnaw off the lids. Another tip is don’t use garbage bags as liners, they are treated with poisonous chemicals (to repel pests).

           I replenished some of the emergency food, so expect to read about it. Because I got to Wal*Mart on another ‘tard day. I try to stay away from late week evening “payday” shoppers but sometimes you get the mob. There were maybe 8 of them in the entire food section, but they took turns needing whatever was shelved right behind my shopping cart at the moment. Nothing gets rid of these losers, although I did try skipping lanes, backtracking, and pretending to buy stuff they never heard of. Like for instance, mushroom powder. You heard me, and it is $14 a jar. The instructions say sprinkle it. At those prices, that’s wise.

           Finally, I got around to normalizing the budget to allow for the increased cost of operating the van. And while I don’t like it, there’s little that can be done. Reduced gas mileage and increased gas costs don’t account for a quarter of the $143 per month difference. It’s a cost I’d best get used to and it has to come from somewhere. Then again, some costs this year were unusual and could flatten out after a few more months. Best I’d keep an eye on what’s over the horizon on this. On a fixed income, an extra couple hundred bucks a month can really make a world of difference.

           In that vein, my research into REITs produces too much information to easily digest. I first looked at these decades ago when there were 40 companies. Now there are hundreds. Of course I wish I’d had the sense to invest in American Tower before my phone company ID expired, but that’s hindsight. Nobody knew which cell towers would come out on top. It’s again impossible to tell which REIT philosophy is right. Diversify or specialize?
           I like consistent returns and my thinking is to leap into any one of the funds that has a low buy-in limit to see how things work. It’s a travesty that every website that analyzes these firms has some form of bias, usually in that they don’t give the whole story. After nearly 30 hours of study, I know to avoid specialty firms like health care offices and weed grow operations. There is no real common set of factors to make comparisons. Again, I may just guess, but a guess based on discretion. Um, if there is one trend I notice, it is among Morningstar picks, the funds that have a minimum $2,500 investment outperform big shots like Vanguard with $5 million minimums.

Picture of the day.
Levitation demo.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           Music. I found the tabs for the original bass line of “Suspicious Minds”. The best recordings still have indistinct passages, you kind of pick a version you like. I did my kind of annual inspection of the premises and here is the reason I don’t spend a lot of time sanding drywall smooth. The building no longer settles but it does shift slightly. I know what to look for since all but the newest houses here have this condition. In this picture, I’m pointing to a hairline crack that appeared along the sound wall, the most solid part of this structure. I’m looking into alternative wall coverings, more in August when I will be forced to work indoors by the temperatures.

           The old deck where I plan to put the new hot water heater has finally rotted through. It wasn’t much to start with. This makes me get that underway, as that’s also the spot for my washer and dryer. Now I’m glad I roughed in all the wiring and plumbing long ago, it’s a matter of fixing the deck, positioning the appliances, and plugging in. But I should report that I’m still only in reasonable shape and still not back to even a month or two ago.

           It could be age, since I don’t seem to age slowly. For me it is cruise along then one day, bam, can’t work the trapeze anymore. Eat at McDonald’s five times a week and that will happen at age 24. The good news is I’m still a morning person. The bad news is that my level of activity early in the day has slowed. Where I used to get my work done for the day by mid-morning, I’m more likely to do the books, write the blog, and grab an extra coffee. And when I’m in Tennessee, after the dogs are walked, I can be out of commission for hours.
           Here’s another strange food product. Claims to help everything from tumors to diabetes to hay fever. The blurbs say it has a long history of use but that there is no good scientific evidence it does anything. The claim is it nourishes, strengthens, and protects the “whole body system”. Can you imagine if some guy with white privilege made such claims? He’d be indicted faster than you could say, “Trump won”.

           And it’s easier than ever to see who lost in the media. Top of that list is Pelosi, who I never heard of until she started attacking Trump. Her downfall began with the fake insurrection claims. The far left cannot afford to let that wild accusation go. Here’s how it works. They blew that demonstration out of proportion by claiming it was an uprising to prevent the transition of power. If the audits show voting deceit on a commercial scale, no way can Pelosi claim she wasn’t in on it. What follows is treason. I spotted the ruse immediately, they needed a crisis to distract people from the ballot fraud. Americans don’t have the stomach for the firing squads, but they have no problem with utterly inhumane prisons and multiple life sentences.

           Way back in 1984, I wrote a series of short articles on the problem with IBM “open architecture” as it was called. This allowed anybody to write any software, however there should have been (I said) some universal standards. Such as no mixing of capital and case lettering, a set of new file and configuration markers not based on the alphabet, and segregated data storage. These may be called differently today, but I hinted that the ultimate problems with security would be the fault of this serious lapse. I hear today that customers are suing for loss of value over big tech companies hit with ransom attacks. Good, but my point of view is they should also be suing IBM and MicroSoft for allowing and in many cases causing such omissions.
           And do forgive that I did not know until now that one of the biggest “cloud” companies was called Rackspace. About the dumbest fucking thing you could ever do is store data on somebody else’s computer, so no, I never heard of them or their parent company Apollo. For the same reasons I don’t know who runs Alcoholics Anonymous, who’s signature appears on welfare checks, and haven’t a clue where any strip joints are around here. I heard about Rackspace because there are millions being made on its stocks. However, my rule says don’t invest in what you don’t understand, meaning tens of millions are being lost on its stocks. What none of them understand is there is no such thing as the cloud except in Fantasyland.

           Not one to miss an opportunity to berate NASA, I again accuse them of bureaucratic wastefulness. in another revelation of the massive goldbricking in that organization, read about the Falcon Heavy. What would cost the NASA porkbarrel $3 billion is accomplished by SpaceX for less than a tenth that much. To summarize, there is water on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and it is heated by tidal forces in a part of space that should be permanently frozen. Some reports say waves have been spotted from Earth but I’ll wait to see more direct proof of that.
           Set for 2024, the Falcon Heavy would lift a probe to Europa that could drill or melt the 20 mile deep ice cover to the saltwater ocean beneath. Since I’ve been praying I’ll live long enough for life to be discovered on Mars, I’d accept Europa now that I’ve read enough to understand what’s going on. I agree that if a second source of life is found so close, it is an absolute there are others, they are aliens, they’ve been here, and they know about us. Insert Fauci joke here.
           And to those who still insist playing sports requires intelligence, watch this Japanese robot sink perfect baskets. What? You say the robot exhibits intelligence? Maybe you are right, a machine is smarted than most basketball players. BWAAAAA-ha-ha-ha. What I was really looking for was whether the newest sport has caught on. You know, tripping Olympic people up just before they get to the finish line. That’s an event I would pay to see—as long as there was no posted free version, I mean. And how about that Korean cell phone you shake three times and it alerts you if there are any sex offenders within 80 feet. That should sell like hotcakes in Frisco.

ADDENDUM
           Having the time, I thought to filter a CNN “news” report for loaded language. I found it hilarious for the sheer number of clichés and negativity squeezed into one tiny article. They didn’t miss a single derogatory adjective phrase I could think of. Some libtard, possibly that horrid Maddow herself, poured her heart into this one. You know, I never knew who she was until recently, but I know I pegged her personality right the first time I saw her picture. She never was the pretty one. Instead of opting for some other attribute, she chooses to take that out on others. Here’s the list, this is from ONE article.

• Ex-President • Big lie • Dangerously seize power • False fruits • Sham audit • Discredit claims • Exploit grievances • Nonsensical but powerful • Self-sustaining myth • Non-scientific audit • False impression of independence • Orwellian overtones • Twice-impeached • Ex commander in chief • Prolonged and false stories • The usual bluster • Malevolent method. • Wholesale lying • Campaign of falsehoods • Refusal to accept • Sore loser • Incite his followers • Another insurrection • Nationwide lie • Whitewash • Pollute future elections • Grand illusion

           I said to myself, what is her problem? Oh yeah, the pretty part. Her problem is not so much she isn’t pretty as she decided on the wrong way to deal with it. Sad as it is, she’s the skull behind most CNN rhetoric. How flakey is she? She goes on about how the audits are pro-Trump, yet opposes audits in states where Trump won. She seems too stupid to see the absurdity in that stance. It’s fun to watch when such hypocrites crash & burn.
           How about the growing numbers of people who are volunteering for other state audits? No Democrat in the land imagined that would happen. Now they have to orchestrate yet another opposition theory and they’ve worn thin their usuals. Racism, facism, sexism, how are they gonna work this one in? I personally think these audits in other states are going to proceed and in the process, hundreds of thousands of Americans who knew little about ballot counting will soon be experts. That puts tremendous pressure on the Bidenistas to consolidate their position before that can happen. Watch for fireworks.

Last Laugh