Month: December 2024

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New Years Eve

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy new years celebration.

I’ve got big plans!

I’m going to bed.

2024 can go, just like 2023 & 2022 before it. This new year will be much like the old year. The only question will be what the entertainment will be. We’ve had drones over New Jersey. Now we’ve got “unnatural” fog sweeping some areas of the country.

X is alive with people trying to up their engagement counts with spooky accounts of fog in their area.

I don’t know what the end game is. These events seem to be geared to create low level anxiety. It’s working in some people, in others it’s another big nothing burger.

Although, I do recall tales of un-natural fog in Europe during the plague. There are woodcuts depicting black clad figures in the fog and records of entire villages dead in just a few days.

Ancient Alien Theorists suggest that plagues associated with these fog events were aliens making modifications to the human genome. The fatalities were nothing more than collateral damage as the aliens improved upon the genetics of humanity.

Yeah, uh huh.

At this point I almost hope aliens are exterminating the vermin!

On Jan 20th we’ll either have a new president sworn in or a civil war. I’d say it’s even money at this point. Folks like Jamie Raskin out of New York are claiming that the Democrats will be able to disqualify Trump’s election. He claims there’s some super secret special handshake or something.

I think, him saying shit like this is irresponsible because when it doesn’t pan out, in their desperation, the lunatic fringe democrats will be apoplectic. Trump gets sworn in, the fringe left loses their damn minds and shit starts burning down.

I’m somewhat curious to see a crowd of leftist loons stomp around the capital or perhaps march through the capital attempting to disrupt the certification process, burning, looting, and destroying as they go.

I want to see the major news media spin their actions as different from Jan 6th 2021. That would be interesting. Hell, I’d pour myself a drink, make some popcorn and actually pay for cable just to see Joy Reed tie herself in knots justifying the lunatic left and demonizing the Racist MAGA Right!

I do hope the new year will be better than the last few. I’m not counting on it, but do have my fingers crossed.

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I can’t say the news of Jimmy Carter’s death was surprising.

When they hauled him out to support Kamala Harris, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t doing well. May he rest in peace.

I felt really bad for him, he wasn’t the best president, but he was a decent man and he didn’t deserve to be paraded around like it appeared the party was doing. Especially not just to prop up a candidate. I thought it was very unseemly.

I wasn’t likely to vote for Kamala anyway, but I imagine that some folks were wondering if this was another example of the Democrat party simply being too damn old.

That’s not to say the Republican Party is any better. Mitch McConnell is obviously no spring chicken. I’ve written elsewhere in the blog that he should retire and go home to Kentucky.

As we wind down the year, I’m hoping for some peace and quiet. Maybe a week of just silence, reflection, and everyone taking a breath.

I know I’m pissing into the wind.

With the inauguration coming up, I’m positive there’s going to be massive insanity and after the inauguration there will be newer, stupider, levels of insanity. I hope that Trump can in fact do some good. Who knows? Maybe he will before the machine in Washington, (comprised of scum of the earth Democrats & Republicans,) manages to start thwarting anything and everything that he tries to accomplish. That’s predicated on Trump living up to his ad copy. I’m not sure, and have never been totally sure, about Trump or his reasoning in becoming president. The times I’ve voted for him were, in reality, votes against his opponents.

I’m hopeful of Trump and DOGE.

I have always thought that the United States government should be run like a business. The inefficiency and stupid regulations make everything in the government cost double or triple what it should.

Here’s a quick example of what I’m talking about. I once worked on a project where the government had specified the exact model of CPU and exact type of memory, down to the number of pins each chip was to have.

The problem is, technology advances, new chips are designed yearly, everything gets faster, smaller, and less power hungry. The project itself was supposed to run for 5 years, in reality it had been running for 10, and was likely to run for another 10 years when I joined it.

In the time that passed, the chips used in the project had gone from being leading edge to discontinued. The government, rather than update the specifications and adapt, chose to have the old chips custom manufactured, at 20 times the cost of current commercially available models which did the same thing faster and were 100% backward compatible.

This is one way that toilet seats cost $6000.00

I don’t know if there’s any truth to a story I heard about a government “Quality Inspector” who saved his job and lined his pockets, by “discovering” that the insulation on wire wasn’t the proper thickness.

Electrical insulation, like everything else is constantly improving. As materials science advances we discover new materials that work the same as, or better, than old materials. What supposedly happened is that the wire insulation in this guys project had converted from a rubberized vinyl to a teflon vinyl material. The latter being lighter, tougher, less prone to abrasive damage, and providing superior insulation qualities at higher voltages. It was also thinner.

At some point, 20 years before, when the project was being contemplated, some brilliant jackass had for reasons unknown, measured and then wrote into a specification, the thickness of the rubberized insulation on the wire the project was using at the time.

Our “Quality Inspector” protected his job and the jobs of others on the project by making a stink about the wire being out of specification. He neglected to mention the new wire was superior in every way. His findings were that the wire was out of spec and the project would have to secure wire that met the spec then rework all the machinery that incorporated the “out of spec” wire. This also meant that he & his brother in law could purchase a small abandoned wire manufacturing plant that just so happened to make wire with the right thickness insulation. They charged 3 times market price and their only customer was the United States Government.

This is how government waste is perpetuated, and why it costs $25 thousand dollars for a military radio with shittier specifications and capabilities than a consumer product for $500 dollars.

Trump & his DOGE department have a lot more to do than just slash their way through the bureaucracy in Washington D.C. I think their time limit is unrealistic too.

So much of the waste is literally written into what amounts to law within the congressional budget it will take years of effort to cut. I could see warehouses being filled with custom made, government issue, obsolete rotary dial telephones because of a line item in a budget from 1968 is still in force.

The kicker is, over the years, property might have been purchased, then new warehouses built to house the overflow of rotary dial phones that were no longer in use.

That’s the less obvious kind of waste that needs to be burned out of our government. I don’t think DOGE is up to it. I don’t think they have a clue what they’re up against, just how far the waste goes, or the consequences of severing the snakes head. For all anyone knows, government waste might be a hydra where cutting off one head gets you 2 more.

I may apply to work for them. Just for the hell of it, it might be fun. A man should enjoy his work shouldn’t he?

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Uhhhgggg. I’ve caught a cold

The day after Christmas I was feeling out of sorts. Thursday night, the wind was howling through the area. It calmed down a bit during the day Friday. With the house shaking Thursday night, I slept only fitfully.

It’s possible that this isn’t a cold and that it’s just sinus irritation. Either way, I’m uncomfortable and run down.

The wind is still blowing this morning but it’s not like it’s been. One or two reports I’ve seen claimed there were 32 -35 MPH gusts.

I’m very tired. There are things that I should do but I suspect they’re going to remain undone. Maybe I’ll just watch a movie or two, after walking the dog. Sure I could just put him in the back yard, but he really looks forward to our walks and honestly so do I.

That’s why there’s the good things tag on this post. Yeah I may be feeling like crap but even feeling like I do, I still enjoy the morning walk.

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Christmas Dinner was a bust, and not a bust…

Let me explain.

At Thanksgiving, the kind neighbors who invited me to their Thanksgiving & I got to talking. They’d had some family members show up and while their table accommodated us all, things were a bit cramped.

I suggested that we should have taken the food to my place and used my table since it is bigger and opens out to an even bigger configuration.

That led to the neighbor saying that Christmas will be at my place…

I accepted the challenge.

I spent the next month cleaning and making my home more like it had been when Jerry & I first moved in. The original idea was that the house would be uncluttered. Courtesy of the fire in ’08 we literally had nothing to clutter the place with. In our furniture selection, we tried to pick things that worked while preserving an “open” comfortable feeling to the house.

It worked very nicely, while Jerry’s instruments and music were at the church. When the church job ended the battle with clutter that had been more or less manageable suddenly became a major problem. I’ve been systematically going through and disposing of many of Jerry’s things over the past 2 years. Most of the items I’ve disposed of within the last 8 months. 

Clearing some things out of the dining area and then the kitchen area really opened the space up. It was a lot of work moving the stuff down to the garage. I re-tasked some of the cubbies that Jerry had relied upon for storage of his music, and bits of technology. This helped a little when It came to getting my tools organized in the garage.

At some point during this process,  I realized that I was smiling in the morning while getting my coffee.

The house, even with the Christmas tree was open, more free, more comfortable. I understood that part of this was me reclaiming my space. The pain of Jerry’s loss wasn’t so sharp. I was relaxing more into my own skin.

That spurred me on to more cleaning & sorting. There’s a lot to do in the office, basement, and garage but I’m pleased with the outcome this far. For however long this lasts I’m comfortable. That’s not to say that I was uncomfortable with all of Jerry’s stuff, but there were times when I felt like I was being squeezed out of this house because he kept adding more and more stuff.

Anyway by the time Christmas Eve rolled around, I’d cleaned vacuumed, scrubbed floors, straightened, & hand washed all the dishes and glasses that were to be used for the Christmas Dinner.

I went to bed Christmas Eve feeling pretty good. Jesse on the other hand, was sick to his stomach a couple of times during the night and I ended up cleaning the carpet (spot cleaning) at least once.

Christmas Day, Jesse & I went on our usual walk, came home, and then I started cooking Christmas Dinner. About 1:00PM, I texted my neighbors telling them dinner would be ready about 3. I didn’t hear back from them.

Dinner was ready by 3 and I kept everything warm until 4. When I still hadn’t heard anything, I went ahead and ate. I’d put a lot of effort into everything. I decided that even if they weren’t going to come over, I was going to enjoy the meal I’d prepared.

So I did. The ham was good, the wine was a nice pairing and the other portions of the meal were tasty.

I may have enjoyed it alone, but I demonstrated to myself that I know how to lay out a decent table if I’m entertaining. Moreover, I’m not dependent on anyone else but me to be happy.

I am very tired today and I’m not going to do anything. Hell, I may even take an old man nap. Sometime within the next few days, I’ll start taking the Christmas stuff down. The plan is to consolidate and repack the Christmas stuff, so that it’s easier to identify and perhaps move.

Tomorrow I’m planning to resume the job search and if I’m lucky perhaps I’ll land something that I can do remotely.

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Again Adam Schiff demonstrates that he really doesn’t get it.

Adam schiff democrat california house of representatives.I know this Washington snake is soon to be installed in the Senate. I know that properly I should be referring to him as Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA).

I can’t. All I see is a lying, duplicitous, self aggrandizing, immoral, snake that shouldn’t be within 1000 miles of the levers of power.

I see him as a representation of everything that is wrong not only with Washington D.C. but also with the California electorate who votes (D) no matter what.

Schiff was bad enough when he represented the 30th District, but was typical of that district. The district encompasses parts of LA, Burbank, Pasadena and some of the filthy rich democrat enclaves in La Cresenta, Montrose, La Canada Flintridge, Glendale, Altadena, and parts of Tujunga.

Many of these areas enjoy gated walled communities and are largely disconnected from, or untouched by, the things they vote in favor of.

Prior to 2016 the only time I’d heard his name was when some political scandal broke. I don’t recall if he was condemning the scandal or was part of it. Honestly I didn’t care. Whatever was going on, it was the business of the electorate in the 30th district.

After 2016, he gained prominence by consistently lying and being caught lying in testimony to congress usually about Trump, often while trying to impeach the President. I’m for impeachment of a bad president for cause. I however have a serious problem impeaching the President based on false testimony, statements, fabricated evidence, and the word of a liar who happens to be in the House of Representatives.

Judy Chu 2048x1366.He was like Judy Chu (D-CA) who represents an adjacent district to the East. I ignored her too, until she had Obama annex a part of the forest in the mountains nearer Pasadena. She touted this as important legislation that would ensure the forest was maintained and reduce fire hazards. It didn’t. The feds haven’t done squat, and the recent “Bridge Fire” is ample proof of that.

After the last redistricting, Judy Chu, is unfortunately now representing me and my town so I do pay attention to her. Looking at the redistricting map it’s clear the powers that be wanted to destroy a large Republican voting block that had formed in the high desert. Over the years conservatives who happened to be mostly republican moved to the desert where houses were more affordable and crime was lower. Interesting side note, that migration heralded the loss of Californians to other states for exactly the same reasons.

Judy Chu sends happy horse shit announcements about how interested she is in hearing from us. She invites us to hear her speak prior to elections on weekdays from 8-5 in Pasadena. After the election, we don’t hear anything at all from her or her office. Requests for assistance or even requests for clarity about specific addresses being in her district, or not, go unanswered.

Her notices tell us how important it is for us to be “part of the process,” and how interested she is in hearing from those of us in the mountain portion of her district. I’d bet she couldn’t find this town with a map, GPS, and police escort. She’s another California politician that sits in congress collecting her paycheck, finding ways to get rich like Nancy Pelosi, and doing nothing for the California people. But I digress.

Over the weekend, Schiff appeared on ABC’s “The Week” and said that Americans didn’t vote for Trump to see him pardon “criminals involved” in Jan 6. A brief writeup appeared in Breitbart

Uhhh Adam, yes they did. In great part because you and the Jan 6th committee engaged in what was clearly theater.

Generally speaking, everything the committee did looked a lot more like an old style Soviet show trial than actual justice. It was obvious from the start the committee was going to find anyone guilty that supported Trump and opposed the Democrat Party, or Joe Biden.

That farcical committee pardoned then arranged for a promotion of the single individual who discharged his firearm that day resulting in the murder of Ashley Babbitt.

The committee via the DOJ imprisoned 1000s of American citizens for the duration of Joe Biden’s presidency, many of them in horrific conditions and still awaiting trial or in some cases even pretrial hearings.

Then the committee destroyed evidence. 

We The People, want a lot more than pardons for the January 6 prisoners. We want justice. I can’t speak for all Americans but I want all the members of that committee investigated, tried, sentenced, and imprisoned in exactly the same conditions as the January 6th Prisoners.

Joe Biden might preemptively pardon some of the committee. Which in my mind, simply underscores their guilt, but he’s not going to pardon everyone who contributed to this reign of lawlessness and law fare.

Believe me, when all those underlings and “disposable” people are looking at prison terms, they will turn on members of the committee and even though those members will be sitting fat dumb and happy with pardons. Their guilt will be exposed. I won’t be surprised in the least if the families of those who end up taking the rap for “The Committee” come looking for a little bit of revenge.