One year ago today: October 30, 2024, there was nothing wrong.
Five years ago today: October 30, 2020, a lifelong friend.
Nine years ago today: October 30, 2016, finally, a workshop.
Random years ago today: October 30, 2014, the pad rent has tripled ($1,221/mn)
I didn’t mention it last week because it was isolated, but once again a freak windstorm went through here. Wham, about a minute of blast, yet this morning other than some tipped over lawn furniture, nobody noticed anything. My place is different, I repaired all the 1940 style windows, so the sound of rattling frame and glass easily wakes me up. Nothing on the weather report. Must be climate change getting impatient. I checked the Caltier investment account, no changes.
My calendar says mention food, and it is breakfast time. There’s the sun and I’ve a hankering for French toast again. Did you know I can whip up that meal, two slices, with coffee in 5-1/2 minutes? The only downside I to this chow is it does not keep you filled up. It was LizJohn who conditioned me to like French toast, I miss the days of our Sunday breakfast club. She knew all the fanciest places within driving distance and we had a pact to try them all. We did. This wonderful plan took seven years.
It’s a tiny change but I see more of the sites I use to monitor real estate have stopped quoting prices. My key website also removed the price drop category. I reset it to list price drops of only $5,000 and nothing since the 9nth of the month. It’s 48 hours to the first morning of no EBT this century and the public mood is all for it, if only to see the shakeout. I, for example, hope anybody who bought property specifically to rent to Section 8 goes bankrupt. Same for any stores that opened for the welfare market. I did not say they were wrong, I said I didn’t like them.
Every common news source states that there will be no interruption of Social Security benefits. Which is precisely the reason not to trust them. My immediate reserves are back up to four months, but that’s still short of the six I consider my minimum safety net. The past year has been a series of body-blows to my finances that would have been crippling to others. But the infrastructure capable of absorbing that cost me plenty. I live in a cabin and drive a 15 year old van. I’m only free because the system has not yet confiscated anything at my level.
The system is a curious beast. Checking the Most Wanted list (actually there a close to 12 lists of that name), my first attention goes to any offering a reward. Now do recall I am not a fan of these lists—but only under very specific criteria where the authorities overstep personal rights. I have no quarrel with tracking down escapees, drug dealers, and kidnappers. That is, those who would have been on the list as it was originally intended, go get 'em. If there is a warrant or force of law, the list is okay by me. So what is my feud?
My objection is the placing of persons on the list who have no warrants or charges against them. This is libel. That is, those who are merely wanted for questioning should not be defamed in this way. Whatever morality could be dragged into this argument, I believe the over-riding principle must remain the presumption of innocence. Nobody is under any obligation to turn themselves in, submit to questioning, even if they are guilty—and therefore placing a potentially innocent person on that list makes them a fugitive and the authorities know that. This is a violation of their basic rights.
So keep clear that we are talking about two separate categories of people. Those formally charged (an accusation is not good enough), and those who are only wanted for questioning. Decades of examples reveal the police habitually seek to interrogate unwilling persons because there is not enough evidence to charge them. That oversteps two fundamental freedoms. Foremost is the presumption of innocence, followed by a legal right against self-incrimination. I regularly glance through the criteria for reasons given for the lists specifically because over the years there is plainly a deliberate policy of [the police] avoiding the topic. There are purposeful procedures in place to deceive people about their rights over being questioned.
Don’t confuse this with questioning a witness, where the pawn is not normally the suspect. The point of contention is that without a warrant, nobody is under any duty to turn themselves in or submit to questioning. That applies even to the guilty. For an innocent person to be subjected to this ordeal is, to me, the definition of police corruption. And no, I don’t care if it works. Hardly a month goes by without hearing of some prisoner released because he was wrongly convicted. And exactly how were these poor souls wrongly convicted? They were asked trick questions and incriminated themselves.
I relish talking about this subject. The system would have you believe there are two categories, the guilty and the innocent. Sorry, it is not that cut and dried. The guilty person who knows there is an arrest warrant is, indeed, fleeing. The police would have you believe if you are innocent nothing will happen to you—but that gets back to the horrid numbers of people wrongfully locked up. This creates at least a third category. The person (guilty or innocent, don’t matter) who KNOWS the police don’t have enough evidence for a charge is not required to answer questions--and I say should be shielded from such questioning. The police are required by law to get their own evidence using only legal means. Trick questioning does not qualify. I say the police are to presume him innocent and have no right to tag him a fugitive. Of course, there is no answer to this dilemma, I’m just stating which side I’m on.
Yacht inflatables.
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Cancel today. By noon it did not warm up. I do not deal with less than 70°F very well, never have. I got the overhead keeping the bed room toasty, that’s it. But all is not lost, I checked back on the travel budget and we have $73. Don’t fret about the confusing mass of budget numbers that don’t all up. That’s normal the way things are set up, trust me, the situation is under control. Do I got for a drive or buy something? Time will tell.
Good thing it was on sale. The primary use is the ruler is long enough to span most boxes I build, making hinge alignment easier as the flat piece can always fit on the outside. Today I saw a novel way of attaching hinges. Instead of cutting notches in both the top and bottom so the recess the hinge for a flat-fitting lid, I saw a single notch in the lid set twice as deep. If I can duplicate the technique, I’ll show you.
Still unable to motivate, I drove to Hobby Lobby, where they never have what I want, but I always buy something. This time I bought a sealing glass jar to see if it will keep my garlic powder dry. The regular spice jars let it go clumpy in a couple weeks. I have an excellent audiobook, “Buried Secrets”, very contemporary. Trump is pushing to have medical debt put back on credit reports, something I’ve never seen in my lifetime. Medical is supposed to the most private of information and that includes debt. What’s to stop banks from refusing a mortgage to somebody because he once had cancer. And yes, once you know to who he owes money, the rest is easy.
Jamaica got flattened again, but the popular mood is no US aid this time. As in, since they belong mostly to a race that claims they built America and Europe, they can have a go at rebuilding Jamaica. We'd like to see this. If they need help, call the Clinton Foundation.
ADDENDUM
A quick few notes of what I think will become influential in the upcoming few years. China announces it will fine people without university degrees who discuss “serious topics”. California prisons and homeless have something in common. Both are 96% males. England is graduating 100x more college students than there are available jobs. (The answer is to raise standards so high only the truly intelligent can make it.) Big A.I. centers are so “power-hungry” they are repurposing old Boeing 747 engines as generators.
I can’t verify if it might be a joke, but there is apparently a market for old-tech video cameras, the ones that take jerky, blurry pics. The customers are paranormal investigators. In what I would call uber-irony, the jobs that A.I. is replacing are NOT the trades, but its own coders. Serves them right, as I said, it is fake A.I. anyway. The Japanese Venus climate-change orbiter, a waste of $300 million, has finally died after five years, but did take neat pictures.
