08:53 – It was 64.5F (18C) when I took Colin out around 0640 this morning, sunny and clear. It’s already up to 78.5F (26C) with another warm day forecast. Barbara is off to the gym and has a couple of meetings later today.
I read an interesting article yesterday that talked about the effect of politics on retail. It claimed that 25% of Americans make buying choices that are at least somewhat influenced by the politics of retailers and brands. That doesn’t surprise me because I do the same. I’m not radical about it, yet, but I do tend to place orders with Deplorable Walmart rather than Prog Amazon. I don’t see any point to financially supporting organizations whose stated goals translate to attempts to destroy the fabric of the US as we know it.
I don’t understand why any large organization would intentionally drive off customers by instituting policies or taking political stances that are diametrically opposed to the beliefs of many of their potential customers. Customers nowadays want one thing from retailers: low prices. Taking a political position that conflicts with politics of potential customers is foolish. Customers who agree with a retailer’s politics aren’t going to be willing to pay more because of that. Customers who disagree will either not buy from that retailer or will buy only if that retailer’s prices are lower than another retailer who hasn’t taken that political position. And that’s true on both sides of the divide.
I need to spend some time over the next week or so getting ready for the Technician-class and General-class amateur radio exams. I’m taking both the same day. I bought the official ARRL manuals for both classes. Now I just need to go through both and memorize them.
“Customers who agree with a retailer’s politics aren’t going to be willing to pay more because of that.”
They will and do, if the difference isn’t much. Then they can pat themselves on the back and feel like they are contributing to the fight.
I haven’t set foot into our local IKEA store since they properly posted for no guns. I don’t know how it meets their fiduciary duty to the stockholders to tell over 800,000 potential customers that they are not welcome in the store, but they have. They are nuts enough to extend that to cops, who aren’t even licensed under the statue that is quoted. You’d think that would be ripe for a shareholder lawsuit… Since the place is full of burkas and eurotrash, I don’t miss it that much, but the $1.50 hot dog was a nice afternoon snack.
I don’t usually or ordinarily shop walmart because of the smell in the stores, and the crime in the parking lot. Their online search will have to get a LOT better before I routinely use them for shopping online. Amazon is convenient, quick, and almost all of the sourcing is third parties nowadays (at least on the stuff I’m buying). They get their skim, but lots of other folks are getting paid.
I hold my nose and ignore the posted signs and shop at Habitat for Humanity anyway. I’ve made literal $thousands from items bought there, and saved literal $thousands as well (before they posted.) That might make me a whore, but I’m a whore who makes $thousands off them… The same applies to two of my favorite thrift stores. They’re all on my “take ’em for whatever I can” list. At least the one store provides armed security in their gun free zone although I’m sure they aren’t doing it to protect ME.
With the size of these orgs, it’s impossible that they won’t offend someone. It’s also difficult to avoid doing business with them. I mostly save my outrage for the smaller and more local businesses who make bad choices. I’ll have more impact with them anyway.
n
Remember that you only have to get seventy percent of the questions right. I’d read through both, paying particular attention to the stuff you don’t know. For me that was antennas, legal rules and which license class can use which frequency for what. You already know most of this, so just review the stuff you know and learn what you can of the stuff you don’t. I don’t think you need to memorize.
You’d think that would be ripe for a shareholder lawsuit…
IKEA is owned by a non-profit foundation and controlled by the family of the founder. Most of the profits are invested and income from the investments are used for charitable work.
@ech, except for the Houston store, which is somehow not an actual IKEA store. I think it’s some sort of franchise or similar, but def not controlled thru IKEA like their stores everywhere else.
n
I just broke the shrink-wrap on the Tech manual and ran through the first eight pages of questions. I got all of them right, so I’m not too worried. Going in, my goal isn’t to pass the tests; as always, it’s to score 100%.
Who knew? Larry Klinton was/is a bronyboy! Somehow I’m not surprised:
“In 2011, former President Bill Clinton was a guest on the NPR show Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!; the hosts tried to stump him with trivia questions about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but the former Commander-in-Chief proved to be quite an aficionado of the show and answered the questions with ease.”
According to Wikipedia, IKEA’s corporate structure is designed to be as tax-avoiding as possible and as difficult to understand as possible. Certainly, the stores in the US have to be owned by a for-profit company that is taxed, as it is difficult for a non-profit to own most kinds of businesses in the US without paying taxes. For example, the Jones foundation in Houston had to sell the Houston Chronicle, as Congress stopped allowing members to pass bills to allow non-profits to own specific businesses. Lloyd Bentsen would get that bill passed each year. From what I can see, the stores are “franchises” of the IKEA holding company and effectively are still under central control.
The structure seems to be that one company owns the rights to the IKEA designs and brand. A set of operating companies build and run the stores. Another company seems to make the products. If you set this up right, and they seem to have done so, most of the profits end up at the non-profit company. Along the way, the founder and his family skim off licensing fees and salaries.
It’s bragging rights for the progs not to shop at Walmart.
Of course it’s really a ‘union’ thing to push that agenda.
I’m guessing there are many hidden ‘junkie’ Wally World shoppers sneaking in and never admitting it.
I prefer to go to WM early mornings and to the neighborhood market rather than the super center if I can. I look for ones in the better parts of town as well but I’m comfortable with my local one have lived here 60 years with a large hispanic population.
Well, since the Radio Shack and Staples outlets closed up here in the greater Saint Albans area, we sometimes have the choice of either grabbing something real quick (easier said than done because the store is yuuuuuuuugggge) at the “superstore” up on the Swanton line, or driving thirty miles to the Staples in Burlap. Since one or the other of us seems to have something to do down in the Burlap area every week, it’s easy enough to run in down there.
No yard work for me here today until dusk; I’m on the tax mess straight out until then and have an appointment tomorrow with the IRS in Burlap and maybe a lawyer after that. Not much time for anything else lately, and the Planning Commission tomorrow night. Veterans event Wednesday AM down in Burlap and then the gun club monthly meeting that night. Vets group Thursday. Lotta hustling around the greater AO this week.
Good news from the VA this morning; my voc rehab funding eligibility was approved! Yay for me! Another meeting with them down in White River Junction a week from today on it.
I foresee a great need to clean, repair, maintain and customize various firearms, esp. ARs, AKs and Glocks in the coming years, plus provide instruction, and buy and sell all kinds of stuff like that and related stuff. Hands-on, mostly, in meatspace. In worst-case, w/o regard to innernet or Grid.
More intel and rumors that the financial mess could take a big turn for the worse this year, with a possibly “long hot summer” of mass unrest in the cities. I hope this is wrong but am getting our ducks lined up accordingly as best I can meanwhile.
“I foresee a great need to clean, repair, maintain and customize various firearms, esp. ARs, AKs and Glocks “
Why living in the past? Go for lasers, EMPs, drones and stuff like that! 😉 Congrats @OFD for getting the fundings.
Thanks, Mr. Eugen. Can’t go for the new tech stuff as I am a defrocked IT drone myself and forgot more than the young whippersnappers will ever know in several lifetimes. I even took the laser/light gizmos off two of the semi-auto pistols here. Going with tritium night sights.
Congrats @Eugen for his country’s top dawg at the White House today with our alleged top dawg. We gonna fight musloid terrorism together, ain’t that nice?
Have I mentioned lately how much I love doing someone else’s taxes and dealing with the IRS?
Tritium?. Well, that sounds pretty mean and high tech to me.
Why living in the past? Go for lasers, EMPs, drones and stuff like that!
Did someone say “DRONES”?
While everyone is droning on, I’ve been out in the yard running the pressure washer.
Great day for it too, as it is very hot and sunny here, with 93%RH at the moment.
Processing some of my recent auction and estate buys in between washing stuff. Got some tools, the camp stuff I already mentioned, and some other stuff. LOTS of cheap flashlights, and about a dozen of the power failure ones that plug into a receptacle. They all work so far.
Replaced the 20# of flour that had bugs. Sterilized the bucket with bleach and sunlight.
Tried out the 6$ LED mini-lanterns from Costco. They are pretty bright. They feel cheap, and the plastic has that hard brittle feel, but they put out good light level and supposedly last 10 hrs. Worth picking up a card with 3 next time you’re in costco. Streamlight Siege they aren’t but better than nothing for sure.
Congrats to OFD. get some good training…
n
Got a phone survey on local political issues. Mainly about a bunch of proposed bonds to do stuff they should be able to do with the normal budget. Fix roads, fix pension plans, hire cops and firemen, same old shit. What are they spending the budget on? Oh, right, inclusiveness and diversity. Right. Always gonna have to fire cops, firemen and EMTs if we don’t give them more money. How come it’s never the Mayor’s Council on Reparations, or The Hispanic Business League, or the cosmetology inspectors? Cops. Fire. EMT. Lying fucks. (In TX teachers are funding thru the ISDs and specific property taxes with some money coming back from the state, so they don’t usually threaten teacher layoffs in the general budget.)
Anyway, the reason I mention it is the girl reading the script had no comprehension of what she was reading. Not just common mistakes like “Libary” but she didn’t know “revenue” “remediation” “recreation” (in the sense of a parks department), and a long list of other fairly normal words. Given that she’s doing political polling, reading the proposed measures out loud, you’d THINK someone would have at least told her how to pronounce the words, if not their meaning. She consistently swapped letters in words. At the end I asked how she got hired and she said “a typing test”. She sounded young, high school or community college age, white or hispanic. Reading out loud is harder than it looks if you aren’t practiced at it, but Damn, she must have stumbled thru this script hundreds of times already, without learning it, or the words.
I weep for the youth……
n
and for those of us that will be dependent on them
Injection cures PTSD ?
For those interested, check this out.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-a-single-injection-conquer-ptsd-the-army-wants-to-find-out-1497279572
A while back the local school district wanted a 25 million bond passed. For stuff like repairing roofs, repaving parking lots, and replacing worn out stuff like carpet/flooring and A/C units. Wear and tear maintenance.
My property taxes less about $150 go to the school district. Maybe $25 to the County for roads. The roads around here are decent.
So what are they doing with that money? Not saving for a rainy day, that’s for sure.
I’m on a well. Works great other than ants in the pressure switch a couple of years ago. Of course I was in the shower and covered with soap. But it was Summer…
I have a few grand socked away for a new well pump. It’s going to fail someday. I’m ready. Why can’t the school district do the same?
I voted No. It passed. For the children… in their air conditioned school buses.
And if the school bond hadn’t passed, they’d have put it back up until it passed. That’s the one that counts.
Who knew? Larry Klinton was/is a bronyboy! Somehow I’m not surprised
I’m a little surprised. “Bronies” are creepy in a way that Larry definitely is not.
Bubba likes *women*, not little girls. I’m guessing NPR supplied the answers in advance since it made for good radio.
A while back the local school district wanted a 25 million bond passed. For stuff like repairing roofs, repaving parking lots, and replacing worn out stuff like carpet/flooring and A/C units.
The ISD here in Round Rock (Dell HQ, Austin suburbs) tried to sneak a three bond, $572 million package through the process via a special election on a Saturday last month. With the property tax on a typical house running $7000-8000, half of that going to schools, the measure failed despite the antics.
The district does need a new high school, middle school, and several elementary schools, but the board threw in a lot of nonsense, including a new aquatic center, performing arts hall, and HOK-designed (who the pros call when they need a new facility) football stadium for the ISD’s flagship high school.
” HOK-designed (who the pros call when they need a new facility) football stadium”
Nothing but the best for the diversite’
/end cartman voice
Nothing but the best for the diversite’
Texas. Florida is almost as bad.
In the 80s, my high school had better training facilities than the local pro team. OTOH, if you know anything about Tampa Bay football history, that, arguably, isn’t saying much.
“Injection cures PTSD ?”
We in the vets group with our psych moderator are aware of this and looking into it further.
“And if the school bond hadn’t passed, they’d have put it back up until it passed.”
That’s right, and that’s how it works at much higher political levels, too, as we have seen with the EU and around the country. “We’ll keep making you fuckers vote until you get it right!”
“Bubba likes *women*, not little girls.”
Word is that he likes both, but has gravitated in recent years to the latter. During his term as governor of Arkansas he liked black, white and/or Hispanic crack whores, often two or three at a time. His frequent private plane flights and hobnobbing with known super pedophiles is one clue. Alan Dershowitz is another frequent flyer. And if you ask me, Larry is plenty on the creepy side.
“… tried to sneak a three bond, $572 million package through the process via a special election on a Saturday last month.”
Some years ago the capital city of Vermont had its city council try to sneak a total anti-gun ordinance through while the city manager was out of town. Word got around and that night the city hall, front steps, and Main Street outside, was filled with hundreds of pro-gun folks, many openly armed. The cops just stood by and sorta maintained order. End of that caper right there. Cocksuckers. (probably not an insult to them, come to think of it)
And speaking of suchlike, we’ve now had LGBTXYZ protesters demonstrating in support of musloids and “against hate” in……..wait for it………..Manchester, UK. This, with countless videos and pics on the net of musloids hanging homosexuals and throwing them off buildings. WTF is wrong with these assholes???
As for the usual shady political shenanigans around the country, from town and city level to the WH…
We are ruled by devious criminal shitbags, from the town and city and county levels, all the way up. Only difference between them and Afrikan tribal chieftans is that they wear suits and ties; otherwise it’s pretty much the same, robbing their own people, starting wars against other tribes, and generally running a very bad show.
Last year, the school board got a 0.5% increase in the sales taxes to repair the ‘falling down, ruined’ schools. When I asked for the name of the mo’fo whose job it is to make sure the schools are maintenanced properly, and why does he/she still have a job (and all the extra costs that entails) all I got were crickets. It passed. 🙁 The school board also found $9,500,000 to rebuild the football stadium at my old high school. Both the stadium and the turf were in bad shape, and they play a lot of different sport on that field. But the initial estimate was $2MM, the school board didn’t balk at the error in estimating, and no one ever asked “What if we only want to spend $3 million; how much can we get for that?” You know, the same sort of question asked by people who want a BMW but can only afford a Dodge.
“The truth is that societies respond emergently to major crises like the imminent unraveling of our financialized economy, often in disorderly and surprising ways. I suppose we’ll just have to watch the nauseating spectacle play out, and in the meantime enjoy the Russian collusion melodrama for whatever it’s worth — probably more than a ticket to Wonder Woman or the new Tom Cruise Mummy movie.”
The Russian thing is just about done now. So they’ll have to find some more purple squirrels in order that we don’t notice the other chicanery and war crimes they’re plotting and implementing.
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/7771/
And from the Department of Forgotten Obscene Scandals:
https://directorblue.blogspot.com/2017/06/helpful-reminder-what-real-presidential.html?m=0#more
From Ruby Ridge to Waco and then Fast & Furious. The top dawgs always skate. And the little people get fucked, per usual.
“may karma never bite you in the ass”
http://dogshaming.tumblr.com/post/39422172908/karma-may-karma-never-bite-you-in-the-ass-view
Tried out the 6$ LED mini-lanterns from Costco. They are pretty bright. They feel cheap, and the plastic has that hard brittle feel, but they put out good light level and supposedly last 10 hrs. Worth picking up a card with 3 next time you’re in costco. Streamlight Siege they aren’t but better than nothing for sure.
It is hurricane season. I advise getting a half dozen of these bad boys, “Coleman CPX 6 Rugged LED Lantern, X-Large”
https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-CPX-Rugged-Lantern-X-Large/dp/B00VTJJ5DE/
And about a hundred D cells. Sams Club sells a Duracell D cell 12 pack for about $15 each IIRC.
I have a couple of bigger lanterns like that, one with a remote control. Very handy to put on the dresser, then turn off from bed.
The little ones are good for camping, a single bedroom, etc.
n
Slow start this AM….
86F and 80%RH here in Houston. Overcast and oppressive. A good day to be working indoors in airconditioned comfort. Too bad that won’t be happening.
n
Injection cures PTSD ?
Not a cure. per se, but a temporary remission in symptoms to allow other therapy to take hold. My wife has done that block a number of times, as it is used in anesthesia for some arm surgery.
WRT Bubba’s likes:
I have heard from a source who will remain unnamed who has had continual contact with hIllary since, well let’s just say a long time, she used to dress up as a little school girl (pig tales, black hornrimmed glasses, pleated skirt and blouse, bobby socks, and saddle shoes) for Bubba. Outfit #2 was a cheerleader. “Tease” is hIllary’s middle name. Today though, Bubba gets more action out of a blowup doll with dual action (for that matter he probably got more action with that back in the day).
Thank you so much, DadCooks, for that information I didn’t want to know which until two minutes ago I didn’t know I didn’t want to know.
Pass the Brain Bleach please.
Bear in mind that the scenarios described by Mr. DadCooks’s acquaintance probably took place decades ago, when they might plausibly still be carried off, though also probably still not a wood-enhancing one for most of us Normals.
Word is, and has been for years now, that Larry is heavy into very young females, i.e., well below the “age of consent.” And that Cankles has long been into other females, a bit older, but used to swing both ways. But yeah, just the idea of these two engaging in that sort of activity calls for brain bleach and a barf bag.
I have a couple of bigger lanterns like that, one with a remote control. Very handy to put on the dresser, then turn off from bed.
I keep one of those rugged Coleman lantern on the nightstand next to my bed. That way if the lights go out in the middle of the night, I am ready. The wife says that I am crazy but she lets me stash them around the house, already deployed and ready to turn on.
https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-CPX-Rugged-Lantern-X-Large/dp/B00VTJJ5DE/
DadCooks is justrecalling his fond mammories of his time with Hillary Rodham in his Sixties private den in Chicago… 🙂
50+ years of bleach and the horrible vision is still there 😉
It’s an effective diet plan, although it is a bit hard on teeth, throat, and psyche….
n