Trump Idolatry

Well, we have 53 (F) outside with rain on the way.  Possibly lots of rain.  And high winds, along with hail.  Today's high will only climb a few degrees.  Things are predicted to start warming up tomorrow.  I find that amusing when I think back to the daily highs of 15 (F) we were having back in February.    What a difference a few months make.

Yesterday was a good day.  Laundry was done.  Shopping was done.  I got a nice bicycle ride in on Majorca.  It's called the monastery ride because you cycle past a number of monasteries, however you're on a bike and you cycle past them so fast you're driving by monasteries.  I also bought 2 purpley flowers to plant next to my raised bed garden.  Flower draw buzzy bees that are necessary in pollination, which is essential for the growth of fruit and vegetables.

I thought Six's comment  yesterday on seeing a coconut that was older than many of the people he knows was amusing. I'd never actually thought of that.  In fact, I rarely think about being older or younger than people around me.  For some, this seems to be an issue with the aging process, the fact that they want to try and fit into a younger world.  Me?  I really don't care.  I talk to everyone. 

And yesterday this happened in Mar a Lago.  A group of MAGA Evangelical leaders gathered there to bless and pray for a golden statue of the Orange Anus.  There's something wrong with incorporating Old Testament idolatry into the Federal Government.  

One thing I've been seeing more frequently on the internet and social media is the idea that America might now be in the last stage of American Capitalism.  The association of capitalism to cancer is... intriguing.  This isn't to say that capitalism in in itself is bad, but that American capitalism is; we seem to be a country focused on selfishness and greed.  The last stage is in reference to stage 4 cancer, in which death is ready to start knocking on the door.  When members of Orangie's administration publicly state that it's a good thing for Americans to use credit to pay for their essentials, their food and their meds, that's last stage American capitalism.  We are in a state of financial feudalism.  At some point a break is going to happen.  Then billionaires will move into their compounds as the world's economy crashes around them.

Regulating Corporate Greed

 It looks as though we have a sunny Saturday ahead of us, and, as is always the case, I'm going to be working.  While it is sunny, temps aren't going to be that warm, only reaching the low 50s (F) today.  We do start a warming trend tomorrow, and Wednesday's high is supposed to be in the mid 70s (F).  I'm looking forward to that.

Yesterday was a good day for getting things done.  I have a set of Jabra ear buds that I used quite a bit when I was riding everyday.  They were, however, paired to my old phone, so yesterday I paired them to my current phone and went for a fast walk.  They work so much better than cranking up the speaker volume.  Rather than music, I started listening to a lecture series on Greece.  One of the things I learned was that the naked statues were meant to be erotic, and those that were dressed, weren't.  I found that interesting.

I also ordered a small digital camera.  Nothing expensive.  I'm too cheap, besides I don't know how often I'm going to use it.

My first schedule was posted with my new hours.  Wow.  I'll now be working between 30 and 32 hours a week, a 10 hour increase.  At first I was a bit taken aback, that was until I pulled out my calculator and did a little math.  If I work these hours until August, I'd be able to pay for 4 trips to Greece, and buy a refrigerator as well.

Ribs and rice were on the menu for dinner last evening.  They were delicious.  

Every morning I look at Facebook, mostly to see if any of my old Navy shipmates has died, it's an age thing; you'll do it too when you're my age.  Anyway, one of the old duffers posted a graph supposedly indicating how bad the Biden economy was. My first complaint was that the source of this graph was Grok.  For those who don't know, Grok is Elon's Musk venture into the world of AI, so right off the bat you know is screwy.  Another thing this duffer didn't consider is there is no such thing as a set price, one consumer cost that runs across the board.  He also didn't take into consideration that for capitalism to work, there needs to be competition, and by competition I don't just mean one or two competitors.  Take home improvement.  There are 3 home improvement retailers in America:  Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards.  If one of them raises prices, the others will, too, though not as much, and so the competition is to see how much they can charge the consumer before they end up taking a hit.  Corporate greed is an amazing thing, and in the end it's up to the consumer to regulate it and no one else.

It's in the Stars

Is everybody excited for the new work week?  I am.  Not because I have to work, which I do, but this morning the January 6 committee has another hearing... and I don't need to be at work until 12, that means I'll get to watch part of it.

Yesterday, as I expected, was another slow day at work.  I had around $2000 in sales, so I hit my goal for the week.  That's nice, it kind of keeps management quiet.  Otherwise, we sat around.  Here's a sample of how poorly things are going: for the same week last year the flooring department had 26 measures, this year we had 5.  Ouch!  To compensate prices are going up because American Capitalism has decreed that in order to satisfy Wall Street, you will need to punish the general population.  This makes things worse, but tell me, do you think corporate America really cares about anything other than their own financial gains?

Right now, I'm using my old laptop stand as a printer table.  I hate it, so I'm replacing it with a small, 2 drawer filing cabinet my mom gave me decades ago.  At present, the cabinet is beige, later this morning it will be painted red to fit in with the rest of the decor.  Pictures to follow.

Since business was so slow yesterday, I got to watch the Xbox / Bethesda showcase on the flooring desk computer.  Not the who 2.5-hour showcase, mind you.  I had the sound playing lowly and now and then would open the window to see which games were being talked about.  There was only one game I was truly interested in, and that was Starfield, Bethesda's first new IP in 29 years.  If you don't own stock in Xbox, now's the time to buy.  I know there are people who think gaming is only shooting things up, but there is so much more, like exploration.  There are over 1000 planets in Starfield to explore.  There is settlement building, where you have to gather the raw materials to build a settlement and then hire people to work there, all done without firing a weapon.  There are millions of gamers who find that fascinating.  Here's the release video with game play.  Oh, and in case you're wondering there is some shooting.

And today is the January 6 committee's 2nd public hearing.  A lot of people are trying to predict just what they're going to do, but let's be honest, without a program, we'll just have to wait and see.  Some of their guest witnesses are intriguing:  the guy who ran Trump's campaign and got fired because losing is not in Trump's vocabulary.

And then there's Georgia.  Even Newsweek is implying the case there will bring us the arrest so many want.  There's so much evidence.  Like stars in the heaven, if you look up, you can't miss them.

 

Heading in to 2022

Welcome to the New Year.  I hit the sack around 10:15 because last night was just another night in 3 billion year long string of just another nights.  The real power of the New Year should be in looking forward, rather than back.  The past is something you learn from, not live in.

The death of Betty White yesterday put a sorrowful spin on the end of what was already a somber year.

A lot of people make resolutions at the beginning of the new year.  I stopped doing that a long time ago.  Resolutions fail because people want to make the resolution, they don't really want to deal with the changes resolutions bring.

Cori handed over the cover art for The Body in Repose.  I think it's rather spectacular.

Oh, and I do get to work today.  They'll be bringing in food.  Probably barbecue.  It's free, so I'm not going to complain.  Business should be very slow.  We may get some customers looking for sales; American Capitalism says 'no sales today.'

Governor Abbott of Texas has requested aid from the Federal Government.  Health workers, help setting up testing sites, and monoclonal antibodies for treatment.  He's lucky there's a Democrat in the White House.  Were the situations reversed, had it been a Democratic state asking Trump for aid, the response would have been "you're not kissing my ass enough, so fuck you."

And, of course, that other Conservative douchebag governor Ron DeSantis is still on vacation somewhere.  I understand Florida is about to go into unofficial lockdown.  This is how the Republican party in Florida dies.

I saw this on another blog, though I forgot to note down which one.  Whomever posted it first, thank you!  Though I will have to admit searching through Door Dash to see if anyone was selling Gahg.

Hope you all had a Happy New Year.  I know we're all looking forward to the hell we're going to raise in 2022.

 

Cobbler

 And is this a happy Thursday morning, or isn't it?  The temps are comfortably cool outside, (68 F) and the sky is clear.  However, to day is the last of the 'moderate high' days, starting tomorrow the thermometer is going to begin to climb.  Heat is moving in from the west.  I'm so glad for my Central Air.

I did bake a fresh peach cobbler yesterday, and believe me, it is delicious.

There are still quite a few left over, so I'm going to freeze them for later.  If I were my grandma, I'd can them, but I'm not.  She also wore an apron when she cooked.  Do people still wear aprons?

Some friends stopped by last evening, they have a new puppy, a chocolate Labrador who was supposed to be a service dog.  The individual who was supposed to get her, was too elderly, so they ended up with her.  Named her Seneca.  I told them that's her official name, they will end up calling her something else, like Siegfried became Biggie.

Americans didn't make a lot of babies last year.  In fact, the count is the lowest in over a century.  Some of the blame is on Covid, some of it has to do with women just not wanting to have babies till they're older, but mostly, at least this is what I think, is the cost of raising a child is exorbitant.  American Capitalism, you know.  It's all about the bucks. Prices keep going up because everybody 'needs' to increase revenue by 5% yearly.  That 5% is not balanced by wage increases.  Nope.  And everything goes up, even your utility expenses, you see, they need to grow by that 5%, too.  As a result, people aren't making babies.  I can remember when a single income was enough, now it doesn't come close.  Maybe corporations shouldn't be so greedy.

Uncelebrating the 4th

I read a number of blogs and this morning one blogger asked what people's plans were for the 4th of July.  I commented with the same comment I post every time a blogger asks this question on a holiday.  My response?  Working.  I'm in retail.  Years ago that meant having most holidays off, not any more.  American Capitalism has changed the way retail looks at holidays.  They are now a time to run SALES, the reasoning being that every American wants to run out and buy a new refrigerator on the 4th of July.  Wait, no, that's not true.  Being open on a holiday does not send a store's receipts through the roof.  On the contrary, while there may be shoppers during the morning hours tomorrow, they will begin to thin out as the afternoon approaches.  Unless your appliance breaks, you're probably not going to in the market to purchase one.  In fact, the customers you tend to see, at least in this area of the country, are foreigners who aren't used to celebrating Independence Day.

I have to admit that I always wonder about those who do venture in on a holiday.  Is this what they do for entertainment?  For fun?  Even if I didn't have plans, I can honestly admit I would never set foot in a Home Improvement Store on a holiday.  There are still better things to do.  I can think of a number of ways in which I can waste time and not one of them involves walking the aisles, pushing a shopping cart, and looking at drill bits and saws.  Unless you have a thing for fittings there is absolutely nothing of interest in our plumbing aisle.  And those fancy out door cushions for your patio furniture?  Surprise, the sale price isn't going to disappear over night.  I can't even begin to imagine what kind of boring life someone might have in shopping on a holiday is a highlight.  If you're bored and that's the best thing you can think of doing, you're not very creative.

This is where I'd like to be.  Of course I know this has to be either New Years or Bastille Day since France doesn't celebrate our Independence Day.  But then being in Paris is fun anytime.  Still, I know that tomorrow morning someone, will wake up with an urge to go out and buy a drill.  Am I the only one who thinks that shopping turns a holiday into an uncelebration?  And, if that's what you do to celebrate, maybe you should re-evaluate your priorities in life because there are so many other times when you can go shopping.  Don't make me work because you have nothing better to do.