Warmish, and certainly damp. Although the national forecast shows clear for a while, I expect some minor precip at some point today or tomorrow, if only because it feels like it. It was not bad at all yesterday, with highs in the sun in the low 80s. Felt like spring.
I did get out of the house and made my trash run. Went by my storage unit too. Didn’t get half what I wanted to get done, done. {wow, that’s an awkward construction}
It’s much easier to not do things than to do them. Especially when you are tired, or bored, or melancholic… or you have unbalanced humours and too much black bile in your spleen. Or it could be the siren song of teh intarwebs. Whatever. Slacked off again and got too little done. The bill for that WILL come due, and be higher because of it.
It’s hard to maintain momentum and forward progress. My whole working life was very project oriented, and the nature of the work was very ‘bursty’. Work hard for a while, then have time off. Even working full time for BigCorp I was traveling to customer sites where I’d work, or the office in Canadia, or fighting to get my expense and travel report in on time…. all of which took bursts of hard work, focus, and sometimes dogged determination to just get through it. But then there would be some time where nothing was required of me or the level was so low I could phone it in. Sprints rather than marathons (although the sprints could last as long as a marathon), quick anaerobic strength moves, not aerobic workouts.
Lately though, and coming after 3 years of not normal, it’s been a never ending slog. Anyone else noticed we don’t do the ‘what have you done to prep this week’ topic any more? Because we’ve been living the disaster for the last three years. But this one is really fading to black, despite the spasms and paroxysms of the powers that be. Problem is, no formal end. No closure. No doing the expense report, AAR, “lessons learned” meeting. No putting the files away and cleaning up the workspace… and moving on.
But there is another disaster coming. There is ALWAYS going to be another disaster coming. To riff off of JimB, the end will be ‘nearerer’ again sooner or later. Flooding and mudslides in Cali, and an earthquake, barely ping our awareness. Tornadoes and freak storms in the mid-South hardly register. Maybe we’re all fatigued, disaster fatigued. That would be bad by the way, because we wouldn’t be thinking straight, we’d be mentally pliable and subject to manipulation. We’d be looking for someone to make it end. And that ain’t good.
I’m not sure what the answer is. Kinda making this up as I go along today, but I think some of us (me) need to reset our baseline expectations. Accept that what we’ve got now IS normal, and move on to living in it, and getting ready for whatever comes next. Just about everything is harder now, takes longer, and costs more than 3 years ago. But humans are nothing if not adaptable, and adept at telling ourselves stories that justify or excuse or motivate. In a sense we will our personal reality into shape around us. We enter and leave relationships, surround ourselves with people and things, spend our lives doing stuff, and shape our experience of the world.
The world goes on doing its thing regardless of what we’re doing. The elephants will dance while we mice hope we can avoid being stepped on. And one day we realize that the dancing changed the shape of the world around us. There are still mice in the world though even after the elephants have trampled everything flat.
And mice gotta eat, so stack some food. Stack the means to get more. Stack dancing shoes, if you think that will help. Stack books on living with elephants while avoiding their big stompy feet. And get ready to get through the NEXT disaster.
nick
We’re in a Great Depression. Mostly we haven’t noticed because we started off so rich, because the government (and media and academia) have ways to lie which didn’t exist 90 years earlier, and because the government is able to produce fake money in a way that they could not 90 years earlier.
Just beware of the other events from the earlier depression: government power grabs and war on the horizon.
@stevef:
Paranoid, much?
But I’ll also mention the old saw: “Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.”
Probably more true in US than UK, but it’s probably coming here.
G.
Another old saw: I’m paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
And an observation from psychology (so take it for what it’s worth): Cynics (in casual parlance, not the philosophy) are found to have the most realistic view of the world. We don’t go through life happy; that’s the apparent trade-off for reality and adaptation to the world as it is rather than as we want it to be.
I am not at all surprised. People in this area that get drug charges brought against them will have their vehicles seized immediately. A fast, expensive car will be repurposed for use by the head LEO. Other vehicles will get sold. If the charges are dropped, or the person found not guilty, the police will just say “oops, too bad”. Then it is up to the individual to sue the police to get their property back, or monetary compensation. That of course involves lawyers and lots of money, at the individual’s expense.
71 F and 99%RH condensing moisture on the ground.
Cinnamon rolls are in the oven, bacon is made. Kids are uncharacteristically stirring…
a new day dawns, and with it a new opportunity to screw things up…. I mean, start fresh..
at screwing things up….
n
No one really wants to go back to work at this point so let the layoffs commence.
Navigating the warehouse district of North Austin the other day, following a tow truck taking my Solara to the mechanics, I was struck by how many Soy Boy apartment buildings are under construction where viable commercial property used to sit waiting to be repurposed in the next downturn that never came.
Everywhere in Houston and the surrounding area, we have gigantic multi-family developments going up. Every lot big enough to subdivide is being turned into a half dozen ‘lot line’ houses. We are seeing hundreds of thousands migrate to Texas and they will mostly live in giant hives.
n
RE: Marko Kloos “Frontlines” series, these are PRCs “Public Residence Clusters.” You get your soy rations once a week in a large box. They are fenced in and there are no LEOs. The Terrestrial Army is called in to quell riots. Lock and load one 250 round flechette magazine.
Bob Hauk : I’m not a fool, Plissken!
Snake Plissken : Call me “Snake.”
Indians (as in Subcontinent) want new houses, and they are not particular about density as long as the commute isn’t terrible. They’ll work the bureaucracy to get around the problem of bad schools.
More so than other demographics, the wife drives the decisions because her dowry usually covers the house.
I’m starting to see stories pressuring Congress to give the H1Bs green cards as layoffs loom at the big tech companies like Microsoft who are heavily dependent on the labor source.
Now, now. Do you really think Bob would have deleted a simple link to a news article?
NICK HERE— nope, but I told you, you are no longer welcome here. Doesn’t matter what you have to say, you wore out your welcome and have been banned, for among other things, invoking Bob against anyone while still hiding behind your fake name. You didn’t know Bob, and certainly can’t speak for him.
n
Lacking motivation today – did some little stuff, but it was pretty much a wasted day. Usually, I’m good about working “ahead” – getting things done earlier rather than later. But when I have too many balls in the air at once, it’s easy to dither, and not make progress anywhere. Tomorrow is another day…
Yeah, I don’t get this. There was an interesting, feature-length interview with an ex-con, ex-homeless guy living in “Slab City” (sort of a no-man’s land out in the Colorado desert). He is apparently a mechanic. He got arrested for something, and the police seized his truck – which contained all his tools – and sold it. When they released him he had no tools anymore – how was he supposed to make a living?
How the fsck is that legal?
Cue lots of backroom deals, followed by the usual increase in the debt ceiling. It’s all about redistributing the pork, not about sound governance.
Here, we thankfully have a balanced budget amendment. Of course, “emergency powers” let it be ignored during Covid, but now the government is slowly being forced to start observing it again. Which is to say: they are still planning small deficits for the next few years. With what justification, isn’t clear, but it isn’t unlikely that some organization will eventually file suit, and force things back into balance.
There are a bunch of videos related to ‘van life’ talking about Slab City. If you value your life, that ain’t the place for you…
n
WRT to Slab City: I may have driven by it once, but no desire to check it out.
Most state governments in the US have balanced budget requirements, but the key difference between the states and the Federal Government is that the states cannot “print” money by adjusting a number on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet.
The US Government bonds are not paying a meaningful interest rate so they’re more liquidity instruments than true investments right now, with the buyers paying for the privilege of what the paper represents. Whatever the Feds cannot sell to cover the budget deficit simply gets added to the balance at the Fed, currently about $1 Trillion/year.
WRT to Slab City: My paternal aunt and husband (ex-AAF pilot) did the RV life in the 80s and 90s to avoid their adult druggie son’s theft and attacks.
They owned a space in Mammoth Lakes for the summer, and wintered in Slab City. Must not have been as bad back then.
You’re not giving your aunt and uncle enough credit, Ed. They were the baddest mofos in Slab City so everyone left them alone.
The program we saw mostly focused on this one guy, so it gave no overall impression of Slab City. Well, aside from the impression that it is as close to Mad Max as you’re likely to find in real life.
I prefer my trolls Hammered.
it is as close to Mad Max as you’re likely to find in real life.
– that’s the impression from the vanlife crown, even with the significant social pressure on them never to say anything bad about it.
n
“U.S. Sen. John Cornyn eyes the seemingly impossible: a bipartisan deal on immigration”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/john-cornyn-immigration-deal-congress-border-17725511.php?IPID=Chron-HP-Latest-News
“Cornyn is hopeful that his ability to strike deals across the aisle will help Congress achieve an elusive legislative goal: an immigration deal.”
Yeah, a deal for asylum for 30 million crimigrants.
Navigating the warehouse district of North Austin the other day, following a tow truck taking my Solara to the mechanics, I was struck by how many Soy Boy apartment buildings are under construction where viable commercial property used to sit waiting to be repurposed in the next downturn that never came.
So I take it that you are going to drop the $2,000 into it. I think that is smart.
NICK HERE— nope, but I told you, you are no longer welcome here. Doesn’t matter what you have to say, you wore out your welcome and have been banned, for among other things, invoking Bob against anyone while still hiding behind your fake name. You didn’t know Bob, and certainly can’t speak for him.
I knew RBT way better than this troll. RBT and I had many conversations online and offline. He was a very serious conservative to the point of letting people starve in their cardboard boxes. Compared to him, I am bloody hearted liberal.
Everywhere in Houston and the surrounding area, we have gigantic multi-family developments going up. Every lot big enough to subdivide is being turned into a half dozen ‘lot line’ houses. We are seeing hundreds of thousands migrate to Texas and they will mostly live in giant hives.
We now have three huge new subdivisions going in south of me down in the swamp. They are sized at 5,000 homes, 20,000 homes, and 5,000 homes. The third one is going to be a muslim enclave with gates and walls. All are going to either be raised ten to fifteen feet or have huge levees and pumps. The traffic is going to be horrible.
No matter how bad your day is, most of them aren’t “froze your nuts to the train tracks” bad…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11648477/Raccoon-stuck-railway-testicle-rescued-railway-workers-using-warm-water-shovel.html
Nick wrote:
Back when I lived in Cacafornia, two of the seasons were “Forest Fires” and “Mudslides”. They happened EVERY year.
Geoff Powell says:
The question THESE days is “Are you paranoid ENOUGH?” Because “THEY” are ALWAYS out to get us.
“IT WAS ALL A LIE: CNN Political Hack Finally Admits the US Has Been Vastly Overcounting COVID Deaths and Hospitalizations”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/lie-cnn-political-hack-finally-admits-us-vastly-overcounting-covid-deaths-hospitalizations/
“Dr. Leana Wen penned an op-ed in The Washington Post today where she argues the US has been vastly overcounting COVID deaths and hospitalizations.”
“SHOCK REPORT: This Week CDC Quietly Updated COVID-19 Numbers – Only 9,210 Americans Died From COVID-19 Alone – Rest Had Different Other Serious Illnesses
“So let’s get this straight – based on the recommendation of doctors Fauci and Birx the US shut down the entire economy based on 9,000 American deaths due entirely to the China coronavirus? We were first to report that the Director General of the WHO on March 3, 2020 created panic with his highly flawed …”
“Unix is dead. Long live Unix!”
https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/17/unix_is_dead/?td=rt-3a
“Don’t expect to see any more big AIX news. This means the last Unix left is… Linux”
“So, as of 2023, open source really has won. There are more Unix-like OSes than ever, and some very un-Unix-like OSes which are highly compatible with it, but the official line is, to all intents and purposes, dead and gone. All the proprietary, commercial Unixes are now on life support: they will get essential bug fixes and security updates, but we won’t be seeing any major new releases.”
Free always wins down the road.
Linux was free, both as in speech and beer, but more importantly, it was a clean sheet implementation of the Posix standard where the other Unix implementations shoehorned compatibility into their kernels afterwards.
Also, Linux was the beneficiary of the GNU project coming up with a compiler at just the right time along with all of their other tools.
The cross compiler capaibility of GNU gcc was magic. At GTE, until Sun’s salespeople worked my management with hookers and steaks to get us to buy their garbage C++ compiler, all of our software targeting AIX, Irix, and Solaris got compiled on a big Sun system with gcc and cross compiler binaries/libraries I built myself over a long weekend.
And, oh yeah, AIX gave us many aches. That was a terrible Unix.
While I can agree, mostly, a word of caution may be in order. There’s an old saying about money, from the days when coinage was based on valuable metals: Bad money drives good out of circulation.
Which can be easily demonstrated by those of us who have a few dollars of old US silver coins laying about. We don’t, and won’t, spend them, when we can still get goods and services using fiatbux.
So Free Linux wins, because it’s free. And in all likelihood, it’s just as good. But I’m sure a lot of businesses were willing to use a Unix that had a major vendor pledging support, and may be hesitant to rely on what is still viewed by many as a hobbyist platform.
I’m aware there is professional support available for Linux, but the fact that it’s not tied to a vendor would be worrisome to some customers.
Of course, I came from a VAX/VMS background, and I was one of those guys providing warranty support for our proprietary operating system, so my viewpoint may be different.
The last Ted Kennedy Memorial Every 20 Year Amnesty Bill is now 17 years overdue.
The Republicans and Shrub put a lot of political capital into the push for the bill to get it done by the deadline, but they failed. The fallout from that failure is still resonating through the party.
Cornyn. Maybe we would have been better off with “Doors” because at least she didn’t pretend to be a Republican and would have been a wake up call to the Texas Republicans, who remind me of Florida Dems 30 years ago when the cracks began to form in their statewide dominance starting with the election of Connie Mack to the Senate in 1988 by an even smaller margin than Bush V. Gore.
TBH, I only voted for Cornyn to get and keep a Republican Senate majority, not because he stands for anything I respect.
We all see how well that worked out.
I’m not voting for him again.
For a notch on the “not a crook” list, he doesn’t seem have become rich while in office. He seems worthless and harmless but if he’s going to “reach across the aisle” for some kind of deal to make illegal invaders, aka Wetbacks, legal, F that guy.
Actually $900. We’ll see if the gamble paid off this afternoon.
Used car prices are on a downward trajectory, but basic transportation vehicles still fetch a premium.
I have one more kid who needs a vehicle to abuse while gaining experience behind the wheel.
Actually $900. We’ll see if the gamble paid off this afternoon.
Used car prices are on a downward trajectory, but basic transportation vehicles still fetch a premium.
A basic running car with less than 250,000 miles on it is $5,000. To get less than 200,000 miles is $10,000.
I sold our 2003 Honda Civic EX Coupe SE with 130,000 miles for $4,000. Way too little.
While I can agree, mostly, a word of caution may be in order. There’s an old saying about money, from the days when coinage was based on valuable metals: Bad money drives good out of circulation.
Which can be easily demonstrated by those of us who have a few dollars of old US silver coins laying about. We don’t, and won’t, spend them, when we can still get goods and services using fiatbux.
I have eleven competitors. Two of them are freeware. Another is a French company being subsidized by a French University. They are driving me out of business with their claims of being serious software.
Ok, I got partially jipped by Ford. My transmission skid plate is not metal, it is fiber board. It is now hanging down so I crawled underneath to look at it. Fiber board skid plate, are you kidding me ?
I may have to buy something like this to replace it:
https://www.talonsgarage.com/product-page/f-150-upgraded-transmission-skid
From:
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/skid-plate-and-fiber-board.11852/
“New Satellite Pics Show Thousands of Ford Trucks Missing Chips Are Finally Getting Finished”
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/new-satellite-pics-show-thousands-of-ford-trucks-missing-chips-are-finally-getting-finished.14779/
The actual article is at:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/ford-is-finally-finishing-thousands-of-chipless-trucks-in-its-huge-storage-lots
So when do the used truck prices start coming down? I’m in the market.
So when do the used truck prices start coming down? I’m in the market.
When the new truck prices start getting discounted. Don’t hold your breath.
I’m hoping for some used car price relief by summer of 2024. That’s when I have to make good on my promise of a Mustang (used) for the boy if he keeps his grades up.
ITGuy, get a horse-type mustang and then convince the son to transition to a girl, because all girls want a pony. #FollowMeForMoreLifeHacks
Seems to me that a truck sitting for months waiting for a chip is no longer “new” under any traditional definition.
Be interesting to file a FOIA request for any records of discussion at the FTC regarding the definition of a new vehicle.
Dropping a few letters to consumer protection and state level organizations, copy to media, might be worthwhile.
New vehicles often base oil life on date and mileage. If that counter is reset on a “new” recently chipped Ford pickup without an oil change…
Seems to me that a truck sitting for months waiting for a chip is no longer “new” under any traditional definition.
My 2019 F-150 4×4 was sitting on the dealer lot from July 2019 until I bought it in October.
The definition of new is, never having been titled. First owner. Even if the vehicle has been on the lot for 5 years because it is a butt ugly color. Your “traditional” definition ain’t worth pond scum.
Correction: he was a libertarian anarchist. And independence is one thing, but foolishness with one’s health is another. Never going to a doctor or hospital is not something to brag about. Making a New Year’s resolution to eat more fatty foods is downright moronic.
I’m not voting for him again.
For a notch on the “not a crook” list, he doesn’t seem have become rich while in office. He seems worthless and harmless but if he’s going to “reach across the aisle” for some kind of deal to make illegal invaders, aka Wetbacks, legal, F that guy.
I’m not planning on voting for Cornyn either and wrote him an email stating so. Got back a nice email saying thank you for pounding the keyboard. But I will if Bozo O’Rourke runs against him.
And Cornyn reached across the aisle last year and gave us a whole bunch of national red flag gun laws that I don’t like.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/27/john-cornyn-texas-gun-bill/
“The end result was a modest proposal: increased funding for mental health, incentives for states to implement red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of individuals who pose threats to themselves or others, increased school security funding and the closing of what is known as “the boyfriend loophole.” Current federal statutes prohibit firearm purchases for those convicted of committing domestic violence against spouses or partners who live together or share a child. To close the loophole, the new law will leave to the courts how to define and include dating partners who commit such abuse.”
None of these new laws would have kept the guns out of the hands of the Uvalde shooter.
That Mustang will be expensive.
I had a 1985 Chevy Cavalier. My only new car. It was a stripper. No radio. Five speed stick. I had a lot of fun with it. I installed a radio and speakers. Learned a lesson there. How about a trunk release button? Sure, all of the wiring was there. The interior was “plastic and proud of it”. Good car.
Stripped off the badges. A friend put a nice line of red pinstripe on the sides. I peeled the gold bowtie in the grill apart and painted it red with the brightest red fingernail polish the grocery store sold. Some folks thought it was the new Monte Carlo.
And going 5 mph over the limit during morning rush hour? I got a ticket almost every time I was stopped. While folks are passing me.
Had a stupid wreck. The insurance paid almost nothing for a car with full coverage and paid off for a couple of months. About ¼ of a replacement car.
So…. I had a friend that was working in San Antonio. Hey, I need a car and I’m only paying $1000. Total.
He found a ’76 Plymouth Volare station wagon at a former gas station car lot. 56¢ over $1000. Grey. With a fading Earl Schribe paint job. Slant Six engine with a two barrel carb.
Best car ever. Ten over the limit? Even in a school zone? Cops didn’t see the wagon. At all. Need to tote stuff, move furniture? In the rain? Got you covered, easy.
Sure. The chips were missing. We believe you, Ford.
Bozo can’t be more useless. I figure Bozo keeps running to collect campaign contributions. What you don’t spen goes into your pocket.
Go take a look under your son’s Camry. Plastic, but very thin.
BTW, how chewed up is the underside of his bumper? I don’t think my Probe bumpers sat that low.
I don’t have skid plates on the Solara in the same areas, and my guess is that they are present on the newer Camry platform to discourage DIY changes of oil and coolant.
At least you know that the skid plates aren’t protecting anything vital.
Well, I hope not, anyway.
Big River’s shipment system seems out of wack to me. Yeah, nice diesel vans and driving all over the place to deliver my $12 worth of crap. That’s today. Got $36 worth coming tomorrow. When hey, there is already a system for that. It’s called “The Post Office”. Put the pink “you have a package” slip in the mailbox and it’s all good.
Anyway. Today was yet another driver. I learned they don’t have set routes. That sucks. He agreed. I learned he makes $18.75 an hour. Nice guy. He’s not a fan of the whole randomly driving all over Texas thing. Can’t say I blame him.
Robert Francis is married to an heir to William Sanders, co-founder of Lasalle Partners, a real estate development firm which, IIRC, was one of the bidders for Kohl’s last year.
Sanders is either a billionare or close. Beyond that, O’Rourke’s family is old El Paso money, just not on the ‘tres commas’ level. His step-grandfather was Secretary of the Navy under Kennedy, and his mother’s family owned a high end furniture store. The father was a Texas “Judge”.
(RIP, Pecancorner. Sorry, but I don’t respect the concept.)
Except for the cliche X-er “au pair” experience in the 90s in New York City, Robert Francis has never had a real job.
Tire manufacturer for one will have a different opinion.
Except for girls named Donna. They drive Camaros.
Well, got one sink faucet and drain changed out. Took a while to get the old one off, due to crazy corruption under the handle. I’ll do the next one tomorrow. Gettin’ on to dinner time.
n
“Corruption” is everywhere.
(Think you meant “corrosion”.)
Maybe it’s not a skid plate. Maybe it’s more like the fan shroud on your radiator. Aerodynamics.
My Nissan Frontier Pro 4x has skid plates. It’s a couple of bolts to remove it at oil change time. Says the Owner’s Manual. I did look and it’s there. Looks like a sheet of steel.
I need to Google. Are Nissan vehicles badged in English or in Japanese in Japan. I think it would be fun to swap the grill and tailgate badges from English to Japanese. Just for fun.
Same same. Grin.
Robert Francis is married to an heir to William Sanders, co-founder of Lasalle Partners, a real estate development firm which, IIRC, was one of the bidders for Kohl’s last year.
Sanders is either a billionare or close. Beyond that, O’Rourke’s family is old El Paso money, just not on the ‘tres commas’ level. His step-grandfather was Secretary of the Navy under Kennedy, and his mother’s family owned a high end furniture store. The father was a Texas “Judge”.
If he buys Kohls, he won’t be a billionaire for long. That place is going under too.
Maybe the whole area was filled with dirty deals mucking up the works. That would explain the problem with the washing machine, too: trying to launder so much broke down the system.
ITGuy’s new daughter can have fun fun fun until her daddy takes her T-Bird away.
Maybe it’s not a skid plate. Maybe it’s more like the fan shroud on your radiator. Aerodynamics.
My Nissan Frontier Pro 4x has skid plates. It’s a couple of bolts to remove it at oil change time. Says the Owner’s Manual. I did look and it’s there. Looks like a sheet of steel.
Those skid plates on the F-150 4×4 to keep tree branches, tree stumps, and rocks from popping into your oil pan, your transfer case pan, or your transmission pan. Very important to keep those three items sealed from ground debris. Lifted vehicles really need them.
The Solara came back from the mechanics this afternoon. I just took it up to HEB and back. Everything feels/sounds right, no engine damage from the timing belt breaking as far as I can tell.
We got lucky with this one.
The Solara came back from the mechanics this afternoon. I just took it up to HEB and back. Everything feels/sounds right, no engine damage from the timing belt breaking as far as I can tell.
We got lucky with this one.
Congrats ! Maybe you will get 250,000 miles out of it after all.
Possibly. I have my doubts about the Camry lasting as long, and, as for the Exploder, fuggedaboudit.
I strongly suspect the Exploder has a transmission issue. I think we will be lucky to see 100,000 miles.
“Donald Trump prepares for Twitter return, Elon Musk reacts”
https://www.teslarati.com/donald-trump-twitter-return-elon-musk-reaction/
Well, that should increase Twitter bandwidth by 30%.
>> Another old saw: I’m paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
And an observation from psychology (so take it for what it’s worth): Cynics (in casual parlance, not the philosophy) are found to have the most realistic view of the world. We don’t go through life happy; that’s the apparent trade-off for reality and adaptation to the world as it is rather than as we want it to be.
And yet another old saw for the cynics: “Life sucks, then you die.”
And yet another old saw for the cynics: “Life sucks, then you die.”
– but not soon enough.
n
>> Yeah, I don’t get this. There was an interesting, feature-length interview with an ex-con, ex-homeless guy living in “Slab City” (sort of a no-man’s land out in the Colorado desert). He is apparently a mechanic. He got arrested for something, and the police seized his truck – which contained all his tools – and sold it. When they released him he had no tools anymore – how was he supposed to make a living?
How the fsck is that legal?
Because…politicians…who rake in plenty of campaign donations from the police unions and related support organizations (FOP, etc.) that represent the po-lice that like the exotic ‘whips’ they get to seize and keep.
I had a coworker once who was born-again and a part-time pastor, and full-time accountant.
I introduced him to that expression, and it was the first time he heard it.
He came back the next day and told me he figured it out: for a Christian, it’s “Life sucks, but then you die.”
Sometimes it’s a matter of perspective, I guess.
“Republicans worry a national sales tax bill would be a ‘political gift’ for Democrats”
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/18/2023/republicans-worry-a-national-sales-tax-bill-would-be-a-political-gift-for-democrats
“Its current champion in Congress is Georgia Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, whose Fair Tax Act would swap out the income, payroll, estate, and corporate levies for a 30% national sales tax. It would also send out “prebate” checks to soften the blow on lower income families, all while abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.”
30%, are you freaking kidding me ? This is how screwed up the federal government is.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Goodbye Amazon Smile – this is disappointing as in 2022 Smile donated ~$20,000 to the non-profit that volunteers at our over-burdened county animal shelter.
Life’s a bitch, then you die.
If the plan is THE Fair Tax, everyone would receive an annual rebate check equal to estimated taxes paid on basic living expenses with the goal of reducing the effective rate to ~ 23% for everything beyond the essentials. The theory is that without corporate taxes, what we pay for goods and services would be lower by an amount that would make the tax paid at the register a wash
Find the Neal Boortz/John Linder book if you want to understand how the plan works. I used to have a copy, but I got rid of it after Boortz retired, ahead of our move to Texas.
It looks like Carter replaced John Linder as the Congressman introducing the Fair Tax bill every term. Carter has a very safe seat which is good because the Fair Tax has a lot of enemies.
If the plan is THE Fair Tax, everyone would receive an annual rebate check equal to estimated taxes paid on basic living expenses with the goal of reducing the effective rate to ~ 23% for everything beyond the essentials. The theory is that without corporate taxes, what we pay for goods and services would be lower by an amount that would make the tax paid at the register a wash
In The Mandibles book, Lionel Shriver proposed that The Fair Tax should be 10%. But in practice, it became 50% or 60%. And, every transaction paid tax through the chip in your neck. And there were no exceptions to the tax for food, water, or medical.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X?tag=ttgnet-20/
My first job, in the early 90s, was working on a product that we had ported to multiple Unixes. The primary dev platform was an AIX box, which we generally considered to be the best of the bunch. HPUX was pretty close. Linux was better than all of them, eventually.
@Lynn
You’re paying 15.3% off the top for Social Security and Medicare.
@Greg
I haven’t read the book,. Is the theory based on any calculation of the price reduction based on current levels of corporate taxes paid?
You’re paying 15.3% off the top for Social Security and Medicare.
No, I do not. I do not pay Social Security and Medicare on my real estate income which is half of my income.
I haven’t paid much attention to FairTax, and still won’t since it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance.
I did skim a bit, and saw a lot of things, of which two jumped out:
1) it would be a paperwork nightmare, creating a de facto time tax by requiring meticulous documentation of every transaction and just incidentally providing the goobermint with complete data on every expenditure combined with a way to get you for the inevitable violations
2) new goods would be taxed, but not used goods, if you have paperwork or your ancestor’s receipt for the desk he bought in 1932, and yeah, btw, internet purchases. You think eBay and Amazon aren’t going to lobby hard so everything used sold over the internet is taxed as new, and said soulless corporations get their cut as now plus more bux for collecting the tax?
Hard pass.
It has the same inherent defect as any system: no restrictions on spending.. As Lynn already pointed out, you have a rate that looks fair, and end up with one much higher.
So yeah, hard pass again.
Right now, the best thing wee could do to head off higher taxes would be a GoFundMe to napalm Davos.
“Allahpundit used to post these at the end of a long day and inevitably referred to them as “freaky-deaky.””
That’s one pathetic sock darner that I don’t miss.
Even so, nice robot video:
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/01/18/the-latest-boston-dynamics-robot-video-is-amazing-and-a-bit-scary-n524763
I like the dismount–looks like the result of getting kicked by Chuck Norris.
Proposal for the next low-bar task: Teach him to dribble better than LeBron
Could you explain “sock darner”? I am not familiar with that expression in that context.
But I expect I feel the same about Allahpundit as you do, whatever it means.
It has been a while, but the numbers were a very high level view, with a lot of the benefit coming from corporations being able to repatriate earnings from overseas without paying a tax penalty.
GTE had one of the largest investments in HPUX of any company in the world … until it didn’t. The company’s reversal on client-server arguably took out Informix too.
“Darning socks” is a task from scarcity; when a person’s labor was worth so little, and finished goods such as socks were so expensive, that it was “practical” to “darn”, or re-weave the fabric of the sock, by hand, at home, rather than to purchase new socks.
— glitch in the matrix — nick
That’s funny considering the phone call I was on this morning for an hour and the dollar values being discussed as my responsibility.
Of course, I will never make tenure at my job.
And neither will the troll.
Ever.
“Darning socks” is a task from scarcity; when a person’s labor was worth so little, and finished goods such as socks were so expensive, that it was “practical” to “darn”, or re-weave the fabric of the sock, by hand, at home, rather than to purchase new socks.
– there was even supporting ‘infrastructure’ in the form of special tools, darning ‘eggs’ come to mind. They were available in several sizes and styles.
I used to wear ragg wool socks all the time, and they would wear out in the heel, while 95% of the sock was still thick and usable. Darning would have made sense from a ‘green’ standpoint, from a ‘thrifty’ standpoint, and from a place of self sufficiency- but it didn’t make sense economically.
Or would it have? If they were expensive hiking socks, ~$30-40 per pair, it might have been worth doing. Especially if the darning took place sort of semi-automatically (as it used to) while doing something else, like watching TV.
I got them cheap, and replaced them cheaply, so I never learned to darn them. I hope this happy state of affairs continues.
n
>> 30%, are you freaking kidding me ? This is how screwed up the
federal government ispoliticians are.F T F Y
Good night all…
I can’t help but feel that a major cause of ‘disaster fatigue’ is the 24hr news channels, they have to fill the airtime somehow, so, mudslide in Peru kills 50 people, sad, but, I don’t need to be beaten over the head with it for the next 18hrs whenever the headlines are read. Frankly, if it’s not in my country and possibly affecting people I know I really have little interest in it, likewise politics in most other countries. It all contributes to a feeling of worldwide disaster which isn’t really happening, for example, a slightly out of season tornado in the USA can be shown around the world as evidence of man made climate change.
The subject of Gulf hurricanes is where the weather liars really parse words and twist statistics to make the events fit the theory. Always listen for the words “in historical record” or “recorded history” and ask yourself: When the history started being recorded?
Go back 40 years in Florida, and any 6th-7th grader could tell you.
wrt “darning socks”
In this case it is a euphemism for another phrase. Not sure where it came from originally, but it was certainly used when SNL did a spoof of Rosemary’s Baby with Richard Prior.
“your mother is darning socks in hell”.
Not quite Old Cockney Rhyming Slang
Not quite Old Cockney Rhyming Slang
– ahhh!
n
Sorry, was The Exorcist.
Should not post before cofefee.