Cold and clear, warming a bit later. It was cold and clear yesterday, and did in fact warm later. All the way to comfortable in shirtsleeves. Odd use of words, that, but used in North America as a rough description of temperature for some time. Shirtsleeves. Odd.
Did my errands and scutwork in the morning. Drove to my pickups, got them done. Hit the Goodwill bins on the southwest side. Filled a cart. I know, I wasn’t going to, but the stuff was too good.
Stopped at EPO, an electronics store in the style of an old school Army Navy surplus store. Too much of the stuff is priced like a museum, but they’ve got what you need- and literal tons of sh!t no one needs (like stacks of broadcast quality VCRs- a whole room full). I noticed oil lamps hanging from the ceiling this time. Good oil lamps, like you would have found in a home when oil was the primary lighting tech. I haven’t seen anything besides the typical red or blue dietz style or a glass hurricane style in person, ever. Yet there they were. They are above the aisle with Metal Earth ™ laser cut metal model kits, tweezers, and RF connectors and patch cables…. down a bit from fuses… EPO is a Houston treasure.
Hit the costco on the way home, just for coffee and TP if it was on sale. It wasn’t. $29 for a bale of Charmin? No, I’ll pull down stock and wait for the sale. I ended up grabbing a couple of staples that don’t go on sale and got out for ~$200 which is the least I’ve spent at Costco in a single visit in years.
I hope the weather holds, because I still have stuff in the back of the truck that I need to get put away today.
I’ve also still got to pick up some Christmas gifts for my number one wife… which is critical and getting too close to the day. We’ll see what I get done on the list, but getting her something is VERY HIGH on the list all of a sudden.
Stack while you can. Fix what needs fixing. Get your ducks in a row. But also – breathe. Enjoy the moments you get. No one knows the number of our hours, and they are probably shorter than you think. May sure others know you care…
nick
*would an AI know the next number in the sequence to replace “?” It’s pretty straightforward for humans…
The morning out there is frightful.
Chilly, with the stray cat mewling constantly. I took the recycling out and didn’t freeze, but it must be in the 50s. It was 52F iirc when I went to bed.
——–
One kid is up, she needed to shower. She fell asleep after dinner and just slept thru. Last day of testing before the holiday.
———
Coffee is dripping slowly, oh so slowly, so very very slowly, into my mug.
n
TP is still tracking the paper price of an ounce of silver.
Delivered Priority is $41/ounce from my preferred source but only in 10 oz bar form.
So, 6 months from conspiracy theory to “oh, everyone knows that” ?
All the warning signs Biden was ‘senile from day one’ of presidency: Joe’s list of toe-curling gaffes and calamitous stumbles – as mental decline cover-up scandal deepens
MAUREEN CALLAHAN: The terrifying scandal is that Biden was NEVER president. The full truth about the cover-up, Bad Doctor Jill and all the enemies within must be exposed
The unelected Democrat puppet masters who were REALLY running America for senile Joe Biden: How ailing Joe relied on circle of close advisers while his mental decline was ‘covered up’ from day one of his presidency
Shock report blows White House health cover-up wide open: Biden was senile from DAY ONE of his presidency, top Democrats finally admit
That’s a lot of headline all of a sudden.
n
Silver rounds were selling in an estate auction last night at $40/oz plus tax and 18% buyer’s premium.
Sometimes $41
And these were some no name rounds.
n
Tanner in Dallas did not survive the Pandemic Kabuki.
It has been known for four years.
Yeah, dementia. Trump tho.
Beau … Beau … Beau.
And lot of voters obviously still have Bad Daddy issues to work out.
Had Beau lived, I suspect he would have eventually been exposed as more of a screw up/grifter than Hunter.
Beau spent his vaunted year in Iraq running the MD Attorney General’s office and exploring a run for Corn Pop’s Senate seat from a basement in the Green Zone. So why didn’t he run?
Huh, it’s 46F at the moment. Still wind makes a big difference in perception.
n
SOME of us knew it, or technically had strong suspicions based on our own lying eyes and experience. No one was running stories about it except the alt media.
n
The shutdown won’t mean much at first, but people with travel plans to DC next week will start kvetching on the national news feeds tonight if the bill doesn’t pass and the “closed” signs go up on The Mall.
Biden signed an Executive Order for everyone to have the 24th off anyway.
Of course, at the VA, since they are exempt from a shutdown, the 24th will only count as a holiday if the local directors approve. So far, the Austin VA director has not made a decision.
What is all the numbers?
Decoded I get:
“HELP WIFE MAKI NGME WEAR HIS& HERX MASS WEAT ERS!”
BTW, Best Buy at I-35 and SH45 was completely dead when I stopped yesterday at ~ 5:00.
The store couldn’t find enough places to stash Playstation 5 consoles. Amateur arbitrage on the video game systems has been dead since the Supreme Court decision about student loan repayment scheme last July.
It will be up to Trump to start enforcing collection of overdue loans, however. We’ll see what the Orange Man does with that political hot potato.
The Kamel Humper and plugs are OTW to the White House for some reason. My guess is either plugs is circling the drain, or some false flag to send the rest of our treasure to Fuhrer Zelenskyy. Or some other loast cause to stick it to tRump.
I still think, from my tinfoil hat perspective, that Biden will resign before January 20, 2025, so the Humper can be president. The first black/Asian/Cherokee/Mexican/Eskimo, or whatever ethnicity she claims, and the first female president. She can then issue a blanket pardon to Spongey and Jekyll Jill for all crimes past, present, and future. Such pardon necessary when the truth about Spongey’s and Jekyll’s incompetence is exposed.
I read a few posts by “essential” federal employees who worked through past shutdowns. They all agreed on one thing: their departments worked far more efficiently during shutdown than at any other time. When all the deadwood returned, it was back to molasses as usual.
Maybe the real question is: If a federal job is not “essential”, why does it exist at all? A shutdown ought to provide really great input to DOGE.
On which topic, I wonder randomly just what is really going on there. Musk hasn’t got the time to do stuff himself. It isn’t an official position or department. Is Musk putting together a private staff, paid out of his own pocket?
https://x.com/SharylAttkisson/status/1869913284318519730
If the fedgov shuts so does the Federal Register and so does FJB’s puppetmaster’s ability to put more mischief into effect.
In addition, many of the offices shut down were those that inconvenienced the most people. It wasn’t about non-essential offices.
The WWII Memorial and the “honor flight” vets being denied entrace are always instant national wire video.
Go back a decade, when Obama would pull the shutdown stunt with a nod/wink from Speaker Ryan, and it was big news because there were more WWII vets. Now, any vet left is pushing 100, late 90s minimum, and it isn’t as big a story.
Anyone who saw the cordons had the seeds of hate toward the administration planted or nourished. Everyone saw that it was nothing but malice toward “the people”. They need a jolt of fertilizer this year.
n
right on time.
n
Uh, no. The student debt was transferred to the taxpayers, not canceled. Those that never co-signed for any such loan.
Enforcement for delinquent loans, including wage garnishment and withholding of tax refunds, was supposed to start up again in November but is on indefinite hold.
Biden is going to run out the clock and let Bad Daddy be the one who garnishes paychecks.
Hit the costco on the way home, just for coffee and TP if it was on sale. It wasn’t. $29 for a bale of Charmin? No, I’ll pull down stock and wait for the sale. I ended up grabbing a couple of staples that don’t go on sale and got out for ~$200 which is the least I’ve spent at Costco in a single visit in years.
Charmin is $31.48 at Sams Club, 32 rolls for 134 equivalent. You should have bought.
https://www.samsclub.com/p/charmin-ultra-soft-toilet-paper-extra-mega-rolls-231-sheets-roll-32-rolls/P03030750?xid=plp_product_3
It ain’t gonna get cheaper with all of the new environmental rules affecting paper mills in the USA. Those filters on the liquor byproduct stream are very expensive.
Plus, trees for TP are carefully managed crops with a multi year time horizon based on projected demand, and that cycle was damaged by the “shortage” hysteria.
The TP “shortage” was about as real as the gasoline “shortage” in Central Texas in 2017, when the Labor Day Weekend sales volume that year was 50x a normal Labor Day Weekend according to the Texas Railroad Commissioner’s office.
About once a year I peek into the subreddit r/Texas. This time, some woman was complaining about how Texas used to be all liberal/progressive, but is now going conservative. That struck me as the total opposite of reality: Texas as I remember it was conservative, except for a few enclaves in the big cities. In recent years, especially in places like Austin, it has been invaded by the libs/progs. At the same time, the conservatives have become increasingly dominated by the religious right – that didn’t used to be synonymous, but now it pretty much is.
But those are just my impressions from afar. How do y’all see it?
Based on the November election, Texas is getting redder. Ted Cruz and Trump easily sailed to wins over the democrats with large margins.
“Taking advantage of two clear nights in Houston”
https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1hi4abg/taking_advantage_of_two_clear_nights_in_houston/
That is an awesome picture of the Moon.
Man, the universe keeps on throwing rocks at the Moon.
Chilly, with the stray cat mewling constantly. I took the recycling out and didn’t freeze, but it must be in the 50s. It was 52F iirc when I went to bed.
It was 48 F when I left the office at 1 am. Warmed up to 50 F by the time I got home, four miles away from the river.
“JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, BofA facing federal lawsuit over Zelle payment network fraud”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-wells-fargo-bofa-facing-195844993.html
“A federal regulator sued JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America on Friday, claiming the banks failed to protect hundreds of thousands of consumers from rampant fraud on the popular payments network Zelle, in violation of consumer financial laws.”
“In the federal civil complaint, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asserts that the banks rushed to get the peer-to-peer payments platform to market without effective safeguards against fraud and then, after consumers complained about being defrauded on the service, largely denied them relief.”
I do not use Zelle, it is my understanding that if you screw up the address then the money is gone forever.
RINOs run the Legislature and Abbott doesn’t do anything without sticking his finger in the wind first.
A lot of things going on besides politics, thank God.
I am assembling a Costco shelf in my garage this afternoon. Couple of things to note.
Firstly: There is no diagonal bracing whatsoever, quite the risky play when you live 20 miles from the San Andreas Fault.
The second thing is that the instruction picture showing you to attach the little rubber feet is the *last* thing in the instruction sheet pictograms, *after* you have assembled the 93 pound beast.
Limiting or eliminating chargebacks has been an important selling point to businesses considering using Zelle and PayPal owned Venmo.
“Party City goes out of business after 40 years, all stores to close ‘immediately’ — five days before Christmas”
https://nypost.com/2024/12/20/business/party-city-going-out-of-business-after-40-years/
“The New Jersey-based retailer, which had more than 850 locations globally as of August this year, will shutter all its stores after running out of money to stay in operation, according to CNN.”
“Barry Litwin, the company’s chief executive officer, told corporate employees on Friday that Party City is “winding down” operations immediately and that today will be their last day of employment.”
Is any retail besides Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and HEB going to survive ?
“The Return: The Darwin’s World Series, Book 4” by Jack L Knapp
https://www.amazon.com/Return-Darwins-World-Book/dp/1719918783?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number four of a five book science fiction time travel parallel universe travel series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published in 2018 by the author that I bought new on Amazon. I have bought book five in the series for reading soon.
In the 25th century, humanity has solved all problems and even created machines for time travel and parallel universe travel. But, they caused a new problem, humanity is dying out as people have lost the will to live.
So the future scientists are bringing forward dying people from the 20th century, restoring their bodies to their 20 year old age, and transferring them to Earth 4428, a human less parallel world going through the end of the Pleistocene ice age. With nothing but a few tools and the clothes on their backs. Survive or die in the primitive conditions of what will be the southern USA but there are lions, big cats, mammoths, bison, dire wolves, deer, elk, short face bears, grizzlies, etc. And chest deep snow in the winters.
Matt and several others were deposited by the futurists into what will be the eastern portion of Texas. They moved to the western side of Texas and closer to the Gulf of Mexico to reduce the number of slaver attackers and the terrible winters. They settled in what is the Rio Grande area, close to the Gulf of Mexico. After finding a new slaver community at their new digs, they defeated the slavers by starting a slave uprising and then freed all of the slaves.
Now the futurists are coming back Earth 4428 and wanting some of the transplanted survivors to start moving back to Earth Prime. And another parallel Earth has discovered jumping to parallel universes and is mining unoccupied parallel Earths for needed goods for their 40 billion inhabitants.
If you liked Robert Heinlein’s “Tunnel In The Sky” book, you will probably like this series.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (147 reviews)
Lynn
I have my doubts about Kroger and any other publicly traded grocer.
Amazon will sell Whole Foods to Publix.
Sam’s Club finally gave Xers their coveted $20 Reeboks. What other retail do you need?
My son owed me some money for an AMD CPU I bought at MicroCenter in Atlanta on Black Friday. MicroCenter was $100 cheaper than Amazon. I bought the CPU, sent it to him via UPS. After he got it he used his bill pay service of USAA to send me a check. He did the check on December 10, I was supposed to get the check on December 16. I finally got the check on December 20. He wanted to use Venmo, I don’t want to use Venmo.
I have had problems with my bill pay service, free at the credit union, where it takes several days longer for the check to arrive. My water payment is sent as soon as I get the bill, usually by the 2nd of the month. The bill is late by the 16th with a penalty. This months check did not clear my bank until today, the 20th. I called the water board and they received the check on the 11th. Seven to 10 days to get the check. The water board stalls processing the check through their bank. It annoys me as I am concerned about late charges.
Most bills I pay with a credit card, if there is not processing fee. Other bills are done with the bill pay service. I don’t give anyone direct access to my accounts as all payments are done through a third party.
I sent in my property tax checks, city and county today. I will wait a week then download the county receipt and call the city to get a receipt. I will also print copies of the cancelled checks. I have been burned before, ain’t happening again.
Want to place odds that the CEO will not suffer when the stores close?
“BREAKING: House Passes Funding Bill to Avert Government Shutdown.”
https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/12/20/breaking-house-passes-funding-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown/
“The House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution funding the federal government through March next year, bringing Congress one step closer to averting a government shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to rely heavily on Democrat votes to clear the two-thirds threshold to pass the measure under the suspension of the rules. The bill is a further stripped-down version of the continuing resolution that failed on the floor on Thursday, with around $100 billion in disaster relief attached to the government funding extensions.”
Still has to be passed by the Senate without changes and signed by Biden.
Chuck has no choice.
Joe will sign anything Jill says to sign.
Two years ago in Nashville, I watched the Party City crew setting up for an all nighter to stage the store for Halloween on the night of July 31. Meanwhile, the Target next door looked like a tornado had blown through the building, and the staff mostly hid and worked their phones as we got what we needed before using self check out.
Target looked more like the chain headed to Bankruptcy that night.
The store was the closest to the Grand Ole Opry. I’m not sure what kind of neighborhood that was, but it seemed okay.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/business/starbucks-strike/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc
An increase of 64-77% on $18 an hour would put them in the $29.88-31.86 range.
How hard is coffee language compared to computer language?
hmmm…
“skinny frappe” is not a chick?
Party City should dump the costumes and decorations, rebrand as “Dollar Party City” and specialize in selling liquor in half–ounce bottles.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/business/starbucks-strike/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc
An increase of 64-77% on $18 an hour would put them in the $29.88-31.86 range.
How hard is coffee language compared to computer language?
Ever since I was assaulted by three of our union members, IBEW, at Stryker Creek Steam Electric Station in 1985, I have been anti-union. The assault started with the 300 lb 6’7″ guy grabbing me, 230 lb 6’1″, from behind and carrying me behind the instrument shack where they interrogated me. Big guy held me off the ground for at least ten minutes. Very strange feeling.
I never reported the assault. I figured that I would get laughed at.
“Hawaii: “2nd Amendment Doesn’t Apply To Us” – Why This is Good News!”
https://www.deltadefense.com/offers/67619e958ade1/join-the-uscca-today
Just ignore all of the advertising.
The first time my life was threatened by a union, I was 4 years old. It happened because my father stood up to the teamsters, and told them he’d started carrying a gun. So they just switched their target. They came to an agreement.
It was not the last time, although the painter’s union only treatened broken bones..
For all my hatred of unions, I’d like to see Houston Methodist get unionized. I think it would be hilarious.
The TP “shortage”
– I wouldn’t know. DIdn’t notice. I was PREPPED.
———
I was in party city about a week ago getting plastic table cloths for my potluck. Lots of inventory, several employees. Beautifully merchandised store.
n
Skimming the headlines there are a lot of “Biden this” and “Biden that”.
Most of it is horsehockey. Biden is losing the last semblance of cognition and no one is taking dates in the betting pool past first quarter 2025.
This is all the prog popfarts that got populated into every job by the Biden handlers, busy taking their revenge on the voters.
The DOGE boys need to hire and unleash an army of auditors on every post-election action that cost the taxpayers more than a dime. You can bet there is a certain amount of fraud, self-dealing, theft and likely outright pocketing of funds, along with the legions of unauthorized and illegal actions. There probably won’t be enough empty J6 cells after the pardons and the incarceration of the former jailers (although the typo in the procedures that allows the prisoners to keep belts and shoelaces should help), but surely we can rent some space in a Haitian jail as part of the new reform plan?
And maybe rent some space in NYC? The J Epstein Suite is probably available. Be perfect for ex-J6 Committee members.
Hey, I won a wind/solar hybrid charge controller. Maybe I’ll add my windmill to the project list.
n
My boss in the middle 1980s was maintenance superintendent at Big Brown (lignite coal burner) just outside Fairfield, Texas in the early 1970s. The maintenance union went out on strike in 1975. The next day he had to drive through a 1,000 men demonstrating at the front gate in his company car. One of them smashed his windshield with a baseball bat. Nobody left the plant until the strike was over. They had a couple of thousand Hungry Man meals in a freezer for when they held the guys over to work overtime so they lived on those for a week.
After the strike, he and the guy who smashed his windshield had a talk. Of course he recognized him. That was strike one.
In actuality, we generally liked our four unions and the five thousand guys working for them. After all, if they got a new company holiday, we got a new company holiday. But when they went out on strike, oh boy !
We almost had a union strike in 1988. I already had my job assignment at Martin Lake SES (lignite coal burner in Tyler) since I had worked there for three months in 1986. They were going to helicopter us in this time. But our senior VP and the union agreed to a deal at the last minute.
The TP “shortage”
– I wouldn’t know. DIdn’t notice. I was PREPPED.
There ain’t no TP shortage this year. Charmin increased the density of their TP Blue package from 32 rolls = 120 rolls to 32 rolls = 134 rolls and jumped the price $10 more at Sam’s Club on Jan 1, 2024. I suspect that Costco is getting the same deal.
Now, Sam’s Club is have trouble getting Bounty Paper Towels into the store right now.
The summer I labored for a brick layer the union rep came around looking for my boss. I played dumb. Later the boss told me that “if that corksucker ever comes back, drop a brick on his head”. He was serious. And he didn’t use the Johnny Dangerously euphemism.
n
“Nobody in the Biden-Harris Regime Wants to Explain How 1,100 More American Troops Appeared in Syria . . . or if the President Even Knew”
https://thelibertydaily.com/nobody-biden-harris-regime-wants-explain-how-1100/
“Neither the White House nor the Pentagon seem to know how the official count for the number of U.S. troops in Syria has more than doubled.”
Um, we have 2,000 troops in Syria ??? Who knew ? And they are killing ISIS leaders ?
Is there any country on this planet that we do not have troops in ? Don’t forget the Marines in the USA Embassies. My friend’s USMC son is a embassy gate guard in Kenya. He wears full battle rattle (60 lbs of body armor) for 12 hours a day.
“BREAKING REPORT: Germany REFUSED to extradite terrorist who mowed people down at Christmas market”
https://therightscoop.com/breaking-report-germany-refused-to-extradite-terrorist-who-mowed-people-down-at-christmas-market/
“We are quickly learning a lot about the terrorist who mowed down people at a Christmas market in Germany tonight, killing multiple people and injuring many.”
“His name is reported to be Talib Al-Abdulmohsen and he’s from Saudi Arabia. He is said to be a Saudi fugitive and was granted asylum in Germany as a political refugee.”
Note to self: Stay out of Germany.
Early to bed, and sleeping in a bit, will do wonders for my attitude.
n
“Government shutdown live updates: Senate approves short-term government funding bill”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/government-shutdown-live-updates-gop-leaders-scramble-plan/?id=116956960
“Under the proposal, the 118-page bill contains most of the provisions that were put in place in the bipartisan bill that was agreed to on Wednesday. The bill includes $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were under heavy debate prior to this week’s votes.”
Well, the Senate resisted the urge to fritz with the CR. Shoot, they probably want to go home for Christmas also.
Wow, 118 pages. So much for a one pager like Musk wanted.
>> Is any retail besides Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and HEB going to survive ?
The free, no minimum, curbside pickup should keep Target in the mix as long as they maintain that perk. Very popular here, sometimes all the designated spots are full.
I’d also include Publix and Trader Joe’s as survivors.
P. S. Emergency run to Costco today for W2 who didn’t realize we were almost out of the Kirkland cauliflower crust (gluten free) pizzas. Store was less crowded than a normal Friday afternoon. The parking lot was a different story. The snowbirds are here in full force. Thankfully the god-daughter drove and waited in the car near the entrance.