Guard This

 According to the weather app we are experiencing light rain.  Nope.  Not happening around my house.  The skies are for the most part clear and we have bountiful sun.  Yesterday, our temps did get up into the low 90s (F), though I'm sure the "real feel" was in the low 100s (F) because you wrap the humidity around you like a soggy duvet.  The threat of thunderstorms is high for both today and tomorrow.  We could use the rain; my lawn has gone brown.

Yesterday was a fairly decent day.  Several loads of laundry were done.  In the afternoon I completed an 11 mile ride in Bavaria.  Words were written and re-written.  I'd started a chapter called The Sounds of Silence (an old Simon and Garfunkel song but with a different relevancy here), however, looking at it again realized it was crap and rewrote it.

I also went to BJs and picked up my membership card.  Of course, they wanted me to not only upgrade but get a second card for a member of my family.  I amusingly told the kid that Howie was not going to be shopping at BJs.  He didn't find it amusing.  I also told him I didn't need to open a BJs credit card, remember, retail wants you to drown in credit.  Then, with my new card in my wallet, I wandered through the store.  Generally, prices were about the same as I paid at my local Giant supermarket.  Fresh produce was more expensive.  I bought 96 ounces of Pompeiian olive oil because it had a nice discount.  And then... I strolled through their wine and beer section.  Holy Crap!  One bottle of the Josh Cellars wine I prefer was a full $6.00 cheaper than what I normally pay.  Three bottles will pay cover the $15 I paid for the membership, and a measly 10 bottles will pay for the yearly subscription, and I do believe I drink more than 10 bottles of wine in a year.

And the National Guard arrived in Washington, DC.  Some of them stood around with tourists to get their pictures took.

While I'm sure Fox Entertainment will dredge up old videos of the Watts Riots to show Orangie's cultists how badly these troops are needed, everyone else in the world is seeing images like this.  Now I'm not saying there isn't crime in DC, it just isn't on the Mall, or around the national monuments.  All these imbecilic photo op moments do is prove how totally unnecessary this deployment is.  

And this E.J. Antoni who Orangie put in charge of Labor and Statistics is going to shut that bureau down, or at least stop releasing reports that show how badly the economy is failing.  He's a conservative, a Heritage Foundation guy, and we all know how much they lie through their teeth.  Having the largest economy in the world, everyone relies on the trustworthiness of our numbers.  When that fails, they will look elsewhere.  I find it interesting that in their own need for greed billionaires may actually be turning themselves into sacrificial lambs.  More power to them.