June 15, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 15, 2021, so much human nature.
Five years ago today: June 15, 2017, JDB pleads the fifth.
Nine years ago today: June 15, 2013, my second rendition.
Random years ago today: June 15, 2004, carbon dioxide trick.

           Silver prices. Today is $21.98. That’s ridiculously artificially low. The estimates there are 200 to 300 times more silver on paper than physically exists are probably correct. I’ve warned plenty that if you are buying, get the metal. I caution the paper will become worthless in a fiasco, but sometimes I’m not so sure. Think of it this way. Suppose there are 200x as many certificates as silver. But that gives them a quality the America dollar does not have. They are 5% backed up with something of value. And a grim warning to would-be investors. Silver is not that easy to sell.

           If you’re the type who does not care about inflation, here is the gold-plated Sony Walkman for $3,200. It doesn’t play tapes, only music apps. Users say the sound is almost as good as the iPhone. Take it with you on Disney’s latest Adult World Tour. Includes all twelve Disney sites and most meals. A bargain at $109,950 per person. And last day when I mentioned Tesla crashes, I meant only the ones that burned. The total crashes are around 273 that we know of. This is nothing compared to that woman who thought once you stopped at a stop sign, you could then just go.
           Oh, before I forget, Happy Jason Derek Brown Day.

           It’s 96F° out there with over 50% humidity, the only thing I did rapidly was top off the A/C in the van. Yeah, that’s the problem, but topping if off might be all the attention it gets at these gas prices. I was in to Winter Haven for groceries and right back to discover my A/C struggling without that big unit that was struck by lightning. Here we are, inside with a book, maybe a movie. I’m afraid if I go out there I’ll catch fire. I returned on the bypass, did you know there are 649 white stripes on the pavement between Spirit Lake Road and Hwy 60? No, unless you have that counter on the dah, ha-ha.
           The whole morning was not a shady retreat, I found five pallets in good shape, maybe enough to finish the west wall. They are lifted into the van until the sun gets lower. I saw that video of 3,000 head of cattle that died at once in Kansas. If that isn’t suspicious I don’t know what is. The Chinese, using a 1950s style dish in the mountains, have declared possible alien contact. The question remains, if China did receive alien signals, that is, signals that are backwards to human logic, barely understandable, and different than anything else known to mankind, how would they know?
           Internet Explorer official dies today. Good, I have never used it much from the first time I saw it in 1995. I found it suspicious from the word go and only used it on government sites tha required it. This was not the first, but the biggest lawsuit MicroSoft paid because of the way it marketed the browser. When you bought Windows, it was bundled in, but other browsers like Netscape, you had to buy and install. It was this form of dirty pool that slowed MicroSoft but never stopped this sort of illegal sales.

Picture of the day.
German pawn shop find.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Big Loretta was well remembered (and thanked) by my shoulder today. Recall how I mentioned she had brought my shoulder blade into play? Well, now it is both shoulder blades. For clarity, rather that sharp “bass shoulder” pangs, it is now “mild” discomfort over the zone. I’ve kept up with the exercises and have reach a plateau that’s lasted a year, that is no gain since. I’ve begun reading a book, “Mindbend”, that’s an eye-opener from 1985 what will happen when the lucrative field of pharmacy research and sales falls to the corporate ethic. So far, it’s got Pfizer defined to a tee.

           I’m not calling the book visionary, just early to apply known American views of the corporation as a separate legal entity from its ownership—and apply that disjunction to management as well. The day here was slow, not wasted. Here’s a view of cheese grits, a two-day supply. And chicken, which has doubled in price, is almost ready, so we will be fine. Not so from the reports of families having to choose between gas or food. They will have the Green New Deal whether they want it or not.

           The arrest of the Patriot Front members in Idaho because they might do something is a new low for DC, but a stern warning to anyone anywhere who tries to organize. They won’t permit it even on the most basic levels. However, my take on it is different because history has taught me such tactics merely force the movements underground, where they become more organized and more deadly.

           It’s official, cancel my planned trip across the northern prairies in late summer. Gas prices are not slowing. But the Smithsonian is reputedly open again—as ever except the parts you want to see, and the COVID bunch are not likely to tell you that in advance, you know, the hang the sign on the doorknob crowd.
           Urban election rigging. That’s where the Democrats focus on 18 states that have one county large enough that its control overwhelms any other combination of counties can overcome them. Lately, that has been expanded to states with two larger centers and a truly convoluted round of redistricting. But the system is expensive to maintain and that is why it is such big news when a single nothing county in the backwaters gets flipped.

ADDENDUM
           It’s a first for me, but I have a sad plan for ten days beginning later this week. For ten days, I will choose five books from my shelves and donate them or give them away. I’ll start with books I don’t even remember reading. Today’s victims are:

           Detachment Delta, Operation Deep Steel: Charles W. Sasser, Avon 2004
           Skinny Bastard: Freedman & Barnouin, Running Press 2009.
           Band of Brothers: S. E. Ambrose, Touchstone 1992.
           Fiasco: T. E. Ricks, Penguin 2006.
           The Name of the Rose: Eco, Harcourt 1980.

           That last book, "The Rose", was one of the toughest reads of my life. I’ll never read it again, the message was just not that meaningful to me. It seems to me a religion should be able to survive minor issues like if there is a unicorn in the woods, is it safe to go near there without a virgin? At least it should be resilient enough to not burn people at the stake for a wrong answer over topics they’ve never heard of. Am I wrong?

Last Laugh