What what what??? I look at my thermometer and it says 69F! Still 91%RH, but FINALLY below 70F. Fall MUST be here. That means I’m late with the garden.
Interesting comment tossed off yesterday, that the 90’s would be weirder than the 60’s and mentions the destructive power of media, MTV in particular.
LOTS of food for thought there, including the rise of Rap and Hip Hop culture, Beavis and Butthead, Mike Judge and the Sick and Twisted Film Festival, latch key kids, cocaine/crack and AIDS, and the movie Wall Street. As a child of the 80’s I can say that it was a very strange time.
As part of the cultural, political, and sociological shifts we are currently living through, the concepts of the swinging pendulum and the turning wheel are very useful. I see the pendulum of history/fate starting to swing back everywhere I look. (Crudely, but since the porn industry is often a leader of culture and tech, even the Daily Mail noted that female grooming habits are shifting toward a more natural look [for an adult].) As porn gets more violent, extreme, and de-humanizing, there is also a swing counter to it, with a new prudishness and delays in sexual activity starting.
Vehicle colors are shifting again. New colors are coming out that aren’t red, black, white, or silver.
We’ve had plenty of discussion here about the political changes going on.
The problem is, as one era ends, it often engenders/indulges in an orgy of excess. Manias sweep the culture. Bizarre becomes commonplace. Fringe acts as if it was center. And then suddenly, everything changes.
Where will you and yours end up after the change? Will you be winners or losers? Victims or survivors?
What did you do to prep this week? How in particular will your FINANCES get through the coming seismic shift?
nick
I wanted to add that there is also the idea of “repression” that got popularized in the 60’s.
You’re being repressed man. Someone is holding you down. Let your freak flag fly….
Repression is the very ESSENCE of civilization. Repressing your base impulses is what makes it possible to live in cities (become civilized- literally to live in cities), to work together toward common goals, and to build a social framework for people to succeed and create net increases.
The idea that the natural urges of the human animal are more noble than ‘repressing’ them for the good of civilization is a very modern concept in the West. Oh, you have the [word that means making it romantic] of poverty and the ‘noble savage’ but those are relatively modern ideas. Certainly the Greeks, romans, et al. had no illusions about poverty and savagery.
60’s counter culture was just the beginning, and the ‘greed is good’ narcissism and nihilism of the 80’s was just a pit stop on the way to here and now. The normal fin de siecle madness just got pushed off a bit, or possibly amplified and prolonged a bit.
Repression is good and necessary. The savage nature of the animal within MUST be tamed and put to productive work. The hunter gatherer can ONLY collect what is already there. The PRODUCER generated MORE than what is there, increasing wealth for everyone. When you have nothing but hunter gatherers, you have thieves by another name, and you get low trust societies, and stone age poverty. Hence no cities in (pre-colonial) Africa or the Middle East (one resource constrained, one resource rich, but neither generated cities without a strong culture of repression of “natural” desires.)
n
The nice thing about the ATM business is that the vast majority of the assets are in CASH. Fully liquid. If I needed to, I could lay my hands on several hundred thousand in cash in minutes. I have half a mill in my Storage business but no liquidity and the rental houses produce a steady cash flow but I couldn’t turn them into cash quickly if the need arose. ATMs provide a nice cash buffer for the big emergency.
@harold, as a hedge against inflation, just make sure your rentals aren’t locked up in long term, fixed price leases. It would suck to be a landlord in Venezuela with a contract for 1000 a month, when that won’t even buy bread…..
I think it might be hard to get the cash if there was a run on cash. I’m thinking about my experiences in NJ on 9/11… I hit the ATM in the lobby for $600- 800 iirc, and so did everyone else with me within 5 minutes of the second tower going down. No one was raiding that machine for cash after we got done with it….
n
I think it might be hard to get the cash if there was a run on cash.
Good point. We keep a full load on hand in cash for normal operation. So if banks stopped allowing withdrawal, we would still have a nice chunk of change. My son has standing instructions that if things go tits-up, pull all cash in machines ASAP. I’d rather piss off some customers than be short in an emergency.
All our rental houses are owned outright and run on year-to-year rental agreement.
Well more talk, talk, talk, and three hours until the SJC votes. In another news I see where the loser HRC was on a resurrected TV show attempting to get their jabs at Trump. Tired-ass Honkey Ho indeed. All of them.
Ho hum.
LOTS of food for thought there, including the rise of Rap and Hip Hop culture, Beavis and Butthead, Mike Judge and the Sick and Twisted Film Festival, latch key kids, cocaine/crack and AIDS, and the movie Wall Street. As a child of the 80’s I can say that it was a very strange time.
I’ll give Mike Judge a pass. His entire career has been spent making fun of the culture that arose in the 80s and 90s.
Vehicle colors are shifting again. New colors are coming out that aren’t red, black, white, or silver.
Not in North Austin. Every H1B heading home to the subdivision next to ours is driving a silver or white Accord or Camry.
I got a deal on my darkish grey Camry partially because it is not a popular color in the area.
The fact that other colors are available is a change… and I’ve noticed an increase in the traditional look of enamel colors and finishes too (as opposed to metal flake.)
n
It turns out, he was her boyfriend.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6217423/Man-accused-burning-cheerleader-death-admits-deleted-texts.html
I’m betting drugs are involved too.
n
Good for the summary and the commentary —
https://gunfreezone.net/index.php/2018/09/28/end-stage-america/
n
The fact that other colors are available is a change… and I’ve noticed an increase in the traditional look of enamel colors and finishes too (as opposed to metal flake.)
The new flat paints are pricey to fix. My wife has a red enamel Exploder, and a quote to fix a ding in a door was $3000, mostly about paint. The body shop was honest enough to refer me to paintless repair who did a great job, but I’m concerned about the long term.
I don’t think the auto makers see the general public owning cars in 20 years. Silvercar, a ride sharing startup located in our building, was recently bought out by … I want to say BMW(?).
Thanks a lot, Flake. RINO to the end.
Thanks a lot, Flake. RINO to the end.
Could have been worse — McCain’s wife could be sitting in his chair.
Now Grasshole has to kiss his butt and Murkowski/Collins/RINO. WTF is a FBI investigation going to prove? Dumbos are quoted as saying “it won’t take long with the entire FBI investigating.” Idiots. This all to appease a few RINOs so they can vote yes and still get fem votes in there next election cycle.
Okay – so it takes another week. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, no more harm is done. If it gets them re-elected, that’s a good thing too. Costs money? Sure. They’re nutty enough to spend it.
As I see it, there’s a net gain for the GOP in the upcoming Senate elections. The more the Dems screw around, the more the silent Trump supporters get annoyed. The more they’re annoyed, the more likely they are to vote. The more that vote, the better it is in the Senate. And the House. Some of the in-jeopardy GOP seats may be pleasantly surprised.
So give them more rope.
There are a few D senators in secure seats I’d like to see unseated. So I’ll accept this stuff.
I think you might be giving jane public too much credit. I just got a petition request from change.org to delay the confirmation until the FBI investigates, and it already had 114k sigs.
If it gets the lazy and lame off their butts, it could do so for both parties.
n
Want to hold the Senate? Want to have a chance to hold the White House and retake the House in 2020? You need middle-class, suburban female votes. Trump had done quite a bit to alienate them. At least he’s stayed mostly silent about Kavanaugh.
“it won’t take long with the entire FBI investigating.”
‘cuz that’s how it works, just assign them all to it for 3 minutes each, and get 3000 hours of investigation…..
And this is the FBI that has been running a partisan coup against the sitting President? Who would believe them anyway?
n
I think JimL has it sorted out. I hope so.
As much as I think the R’s are liars, and I’ve pretty much always voted against any R, the D’s, well, all of them can now fuck off forever because of this latest show of…. what’s the word?
Why are we paying these people?
As I understand it, the FBI investigation (kind of a redundancy) only lasts a week, not forever as the dumbocrats wish. The the full senate will vote next Friday, regardless. I’m OK with that if it makes it harder for the RINOs to left-out.
The Feebies have had six–count ’em, six–previous opportunities to discover dirt on Kavanaugh. What’re the odds they’ll find evidence of the supposed crime this time?
But! The Kabuki must go on!
“But! The Kabuki must go on! ”
That is entirely the problem. Stalinist show trial. TSA security theater… Educational system. Diversity beans.
We’re at a point where it’s nothing BUT kabuki.
n
The accusations subsequent to Ms. Ford would have been found by the FBI (the Yale drinking party and the gang rape parties in high school). Ms. Ford’s would not have been found out unless (if you take her account at face value) they got one of the people she named to bring it up. I expect they will interview Ms. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, and the people that Ms. Ford named as being at the party. It shouldn’t take long.
And it shuts the Democrats up and gives cover to the Republicans with female voters.
Aaand the pushback begins!
I was reading the comments section of an article in the Washington Post. Filled with #metoo stories of every woman who was once groped by a boy in school. Granted, a few of the stories were of events that should have led to consequences. But most? Life happens, you pick yourself up and go on.
Groped, bullied, beaten up, or just stupid accidents – we all have our history. Hey, when I was a young teen, I pinched a girl on the butt. She turned around and informed me that it was an excellent way to get slapped. Is she now adding that incident to the #metoo histrionics?
OMG, Brad! You are literally a pinch rapist! You’re worse than Hitler!
There goes your chance at any political office. You even admitted the event. The FBI will be showing up at your door any day now.