One year ago today: July 4, 2021, Trump dominates I-Day.
Five years ago today: July 4, 2017, ATM surveillance tapes for sale.
Nine years ago today: July 4, 2013, fireworks @ the Baltimore.
Random years ago today: July 4, 2009, computer wiring these days.
It would appear there are still people out there who think deleing a file makes it go away. The latest police dumps of cell tower data don’t seem to connect with such morons. I’m on the computer thanks to a relapse. Thinking my back would be fine by today when I got reminded I’m not 40 any more. So I took to the yard as best I could. That includes a counterattack on the kudzu. Shown here are two views of the chicken coop. Before and after I got the major vines cut, a job best done by hand.
Semi-gloss black. It’s an enamel finish which I would normally use on expensive parts and to spruce up lawn mowers and such. I’ve got a whole gallon of it so I suspect, expensive or not, it will also be used on the Roman A/C piping. Four hours, I know because of the church bells. I still can’t find that tune that starts like “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad”, then changes.
I hauled the post-hole digger to the front and sunk a new hole rather than try to clean the old one. Twenty minutes to go down two feet. I didn’t hit any roots. It’s no record, but I worked circles around several other neighbors. The hole is ready but not the post, I just checked. It’s almost a nice glass and getting better as it dries. This is used paint so I have a whole gallon to use up.
Next up, more spraying. I’ve got the number of the fogger machine. It runs a half-hour per charge, then needs one and a half hours to recharge. That is not quite enough to do either the front or back yards in one shot. I also got the mixing more accurate, I may apply the initial coat double on the yard. Why? Because this morning what a treat it was to walk out there and bugs. True, some are beneficial, but let them do that somewhere else. I was back and forth to the shed all morning without a single bite. Ah, but that’s morning. Mosquitoes are evening.
While out there, I baked up a big grits & cheese loaf, a standard recipe. Something went wrong. The milk separated from the dough in the over. It’s still a great meal and there’s lots left, but time to read the labels again. I didn’t change anything, also right at the center, it did not quite bake all through. I hope the Monsanto morons haven’t done anything to grits, that would be unpatriotic. One should not have to think twice about grits, is all I’m sayin’.
Old & new, Yakutsk.
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Noon and the paint is barely tacky. The relevant batteries are on the chargers. I’ve earned a break. I’m still reading that account of the Pacific war from the perspective of the men doing the actual fighting, but you still get flooded with information about their leaders instead of the soldiers. And it’s evident America did not have such great leaders. Time after time, even the heroes barely squeak by or are saved by the Japanese suddenly breaking off for no known reason. They call it a campaign of attrition. More like a case of the Japanese being overwhelmed. The way their government hid losses and declared victories has a strangely familiar tone.
Neither side seems to have picked up that pilots over-report torpedo and bomb hits. In the end, the most damage to the Jap merchant fleet was done by submarines, who were directed to their positions by code-breaking.
I had JZ on the line and it looks like in the end I will have to pick up the gas, food, and extras to get him up here. But I need his signature on the relevant documents and he’s the only one reliable enough. Six years in this area and I’ve met one reliable person already busy with other things. I watched a documentary on Detroit concerning how it went from a prosperous city to a welfare dump in 15 years. More amusing than interesting as a variety of speakers talked about the automotive industry, the mortgage crisis, and the vacancy rates.
Only the blind would not see the obvious. Quiet, soft-spoken people on one side seeking solutions and blithering nut-cases on the other blaming everything on others. The blight can be summed up as socialism. When people started moving to Detroit to get welfare instead of jobs, the troubles set in. It’s not the money alone, most people on welfare have higher income than many workers. The city went downhill when the wrong people showed up and brought their mental decay with them.
More familiar to me is the similar example of Atlanta, where a small downtown core of taxpayers shoulder the entire tax bill for a huge surrounding area of non-taxpayers. Needless to say, such cities can be targets for evil politics bent on robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s sad because fifty years of giving them what they want for free has resulted in zero progress and instead has run the city into the ground. And this identical sort of rot is going on in every locality where you get the same mix of residents. As Ann Coulter says, a few exceptions do not change a statistic.
Watching the videos leaves one lingering impression. It’s that the have-nots believe they have a right to access anything they want. A scene of Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo, shows a slum next to millionaire’s row. One side are fishermen, the other side famous rap singers. The emphasis is how the poor are not allowed to even walk around on the rich side. This is repeatedly stated to be because of prejudice and snobbery. Nobody addresses the question of what the poor would be doing. Wandering in the streets? There are no jobs for them, it is all condos and private residences.
Now, I’ve been poor and see the argument. There are deep reasons why this divide exists, but that is not the question. The question is, what would the poor be doing there? I first experienced this directly in New Orleans in the early 80s. If you saw poor people in the wrong setting, you knew they were up to no good. And that’s allowing a problem to get out of hand. The ironic part is these opposites exist in the midst of plenty. The Congo should be one of the richest spots in Africa.
The part I could identify with is how successful people council others to work hard when that is not the answer. I’ve some experience working terrifically long hard hours at labor that at the time you know won’t do you any good. The better advice is to find something you can do and this concept is batted around everywhere—without regard to how that something may require money and education to even get going.
Operating at a surplus is the key and none of the poor people ever seem to cross that divide, a situation where I blame the system as much as the workers. In the end, I watched four lengthy documentaries, none of which even hinted at this root issue.
ADDENDUM
How is this inflation hitting us? Let’s compare to 2020, when current habit s were established. Direct comparison (monthly averages) is possible where categories match, so we’ll go for the top four.
Food 2020: $241.48 up 36.3% to Food 2022: $329.30.
Gasoline 2020: $85.16 up 113.2% to Gasoline 2022: $181.64.
Office 2020: $68 up 82.3% to Office 2022: $124.00.
Entertainment 2020 $188.00 down 1.1 % to Entertainment 2022: $186.00
These are measured at June 30 so do not account for whether I was in Florida or Tennessee. Being averages they show the details well enough. Food and gas are the big ones, showing what the country is up against. I can’t figure the plan except that it is the old political trick of creating a problem, then insisting they have the only solution.
After a number of years, it seems the electric company is now insisting on positive ID to get service. This places me in a bind, as the property is not in my name. But, it appears they need a lease form, but the utility can no longer be kept in another name. Yes, the system has been pursuing this path for years, that everybody must be on file somewhere. Others who have seen the form say it asks for name of all occupants and several declarations. Something is afoot.
Trivia. The largest surveillance camera company in China produces 260,000 cameras per day. That’s two cameras for every three people born. Source: mercola.com
