Cool and damp, warming later. Still a cooling trend overall, although it was well into the 90sF yesterday afternoon, and the sun was beating down like a laser.
Despite my plans, I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done. It took a while to get to the point I could do some of the finishing touches, and then I figured out that they just wouldn’t work the way I thought they would. Specifically, you can’t put drawers behind doors in the system I got. The doors don’t open far enough for the drawers to move past. I’ll be looking for alternatives today.
And W didn’t like the door style, or color. Oh well. Details to be refined.
Today I’ll try again. More sleep at night should equate to more awake time during the day, and more energy to do what needs to be done. I’ve got a pickup to do too, as I blew off yesterday’s pickup.
Two steps forward, and one back is still progress forward.
And stacks of stuff will be good, no matter what happens.
Get some!
nick
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
This is a holiday week for parents of school-age kids, so I am covering for absent colleagues. Many plates spinning on sticks. Let’s see how many will break…
Mwarriage.
No one really knows what’s going on in Memphis.
xAI has its share of problems too. Plus, Musk needs the revenue stream from the EV grift to keep all of his plates spinning.
I know. Who cares about cars when Elon is going to take us to Mars?
You’re going to find out real soon.
67F this fine day. Coffee is brewing. Snores are still coming from the other room though. I might have to bang some pans together.
———
n
https://www.militaryaerospace.com/sensors/article/55317327/laser-and-electromagnetic-weapons
new systems, and the practice war…
Israel has been busy too.
China has their own plans.
Some of this may not be working or practical right this minute, but it will be.
Even though I excerpted a lot, there is more at the link.
n
I’m pretty sure we have one shot at getting off this rock, before all the easy to access materials are used up. Leapfrog to space based resources, or end up shitting in our own nest.
n
Re: Elon Musk: For all his problems, SpaceX is currently our only hope for advancing our knowledge of spaceflight. Humans have to get off this rock eventually. Populating the solar system gives us more time, and options. Maybe we will even discover how to go to other systems. If we don’t try it will never happen…
Bookmarked for later check up
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15234247/Hurricane-tracker-Melissa-Jamaica-US-florida.html
My BS overhype correction factor says “CAT3” when it gets there. No science involved, just my observation of past predictions.
n
Not clear to me why we would need to leave the Earth. There are a large areas of the planet, from deserts, to frozen wastelands, to the sea, where using lesser technology/cost than space exploration would yield a better/safer human living environment?
If there’s a 5% chance that it hit Cat5 somewhere in the Atlantic…
So we can send Oprah, Hillary, Whoopi, Chucky to another planet.
@PaultheManc
One of the differences is man vs. Mankind, and another is thinking life is a zero-sum game vs. thinking wealth can be created, given access to sufficient resources by creative men.
I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand. So what advances the very nature of our humanness pleases me. What advances people in general, especially violent, illiterate, third world savages, looks like a complete waste to me. Your proposed solution, sentencing all future men to low-tech primitive “survival”, looks like an eternity in Hell to me. Until we all die due to overpopulation and pollution and vile Islam and socialism.
I think it would be tragic to watch the human race go extinct due to using up all the Earth’s resources, and knowing we had a shot at harvesting the other planets and asteroids but chose timidity over bravery.
A good answer from lpdbw above.
We need to leave Earth eventually. As the sun nears end of life, it will expand. If the Earth even survives, life won’t. Sure it’s billions of years from now, but how likely are we to have another major asteroid strike before then? Or a full nuclear war? Gamma ray burst that hits us?
Start working on the problem now, while it really isn’t a problem. Give humanity options. Until proven otherwise, life is extremely rare (I don’t believe we are alone, but the distances involved to reasonable investigate are currently insurmountable to us). We should do what we can to ensure on continued existence.
The material resources available in space are significant, and the energy available too. Well, as far as we know.
History has shown us that we will exhaust any available energy source and move to the next one. At some point we will run out if we are confined to the planet.
n
Even the nurses at the facility called Propofol “Milk of Amnesia”. Giggling while saying it.
Screed on PhDs:
Peter Weller started a YT channel, Weller World, a while back. I’m sure most of you know him as Buckaroo Banzai and Robocop. He has some interesting vids on movies and coffee.
On to the screed. Some years back, Weller took the time to get a PhD in Renaissance Art or some useless topic for a doctorate. Now his schtick is to open his comments with “I’m Dr. Peter Weller. And that’s a REAL PhD…” and tries to get the audience to repeat it. Sorry, Peter, if I ever meet you, I won’t address you as Dr. because you got a REAL PhD. in art. I bet my MS in Maths was 10 times as hard as your PhD.
Can we stop using Dr. for anybody but a medical doctor? I’ve met a lot of liberal arts PhD’s and I address none of them as “doctor”. MrsAtoz has an honorary doctorate from a prestigious Mexican university. I address her as “doctora” when I want to bug her.
https://www.jerrypournelle.com/sciencefiction/2020/04/19/a-step-farther-out/
A Step Farther Out is the book to read, but the Pournelle site is unfortunately down. I have my copy.
Basically, there is only one Earth, and if anything catastrophic happens to this planet, humanity dies with it.
Additionally, over 99% of the material and energy resources of this solar system are outside our planet. It is raining soup out there, and without proper access to space, we don’t have a bowl to catch it in.
The benefits of having a high frontier to explore are numerous – technological advances, giving adventurous, but otherwise troublesome, restless people a productive path to explore; reduce human overpopulation other than by war, genocide or pestilence.
Et cetera, et cetera…
If? We’re certain of three “mass extinction events” in history when 75% or more of all life on Earth was killed, and there are signs of three more. Many of them have been cosmic impacts, “astroblemes”. There WILL BE MORE. If we’re here when that happens, our species will become extinct. I’d rather that it not happen, which means getting off this rock.
Tunguska. Chelyabinsk. Tall el-Hammam.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/ancient-city-destroyed-atomic-blast-30914371
I have a friend whose family runs to graduate work. He’s the least educated of his siblings, only having a Master’s degree and some certificates beyond that.
He’s the first to point out to me that “doctor” is a courtesy title for physicians, who are basically well-trained mechanics for human machines. A “real” doctor is someone who has made new research and carefully documented advancement in human understanding.
I’ve worked at 3 different medical schools, and I regularly follow several physicians on the internet. The difference between patient-centered science-centered carers and the AMA/AACP/AHA/ADA/Public Health charlatans is night-and-day. Think Florence Nightingale vs. Anthony Fauci. Even Mengele was truer to the science than Fauci.
Graduates of medical school are, by-and-large, midwit followers, who’ve had all the quest for truth beaten out of them, and substituted rote memorization and Big Pharma guidance and “Standard of care” and corporate medicine substituted in its place. Obamacare is the archetype of this, but it was headed that way before Obama ruined our healthcare system.
In September 2021, a group of researchers sponsored by the Comet Research Group, including one member of the Trinity Southwest University excavation team, published a paper claiming that Tell el-Hammam was destroyed cataclysmically by an airburst.[20] Two-thirds of the authors are members of the Comet Research Group,[21] which also claims that the Younger Dryas were caused by a comet impact.[22] The theory was presented in conjunction with the claim that the site may be the source of the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom.
This paper was widely criticized as pseudoscience, including by Mark Boslough, a physicist cited in the paper.[23][24][25] Elisabeth Bik, an expert in investigating scientific misconduct, showed that the authors altered many of the images used as evidence.[26] A March 2022 review of the evidence for an impact event states that the proper criteria for showing an airburst have not been met.[27]
On February 15, 2023, the following editor’s note was posted on this paper: “Readers are alerted that concerns raised about the data presented and the conclusions of this article are being considered by the Editors. A further editorial response will follow the resolution of these issues.”[28] On April 24, 2025, Scientific Reports issued a formal retraction for the original study, citing errors in methodology, analysis, and data interpretation.[29]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_el-Hammam#Discredited_air_burst_claim
(Which is not to say that mankind shouldn’t be seeking a means to escape a cosmic cataclysm!)
LMFAO!:
Bill Gates now says climate change won’t be as serious as he fears – and calls for more spending on vaccines instead
Calling Dr. Mengele! Calling Dr. Mengele!
Climate Change, Climate Change. Where fore art thou Climate Change?
And W didn’t like the door style, or color. Oh well. Details to be refined.
But did she like the doors ?
I almost sold my 14 acre office property today. The guy I was showing it to offered me 75% of what I was asking but I said no. I told him that I will just keep on sitting on it for the next five years.
He does not think that it will appraise at what I am asking. Tough tookie. He also asked me for some owner financing. My wife is adamantly no on that, she has serious trust issues.
But the property meets his needs perfectly. And there is nothing else like it on the market today. We will see.
If I sell it then I have to find a 2,000 ft2 office space for WinSim. And move us. It will be painful.
I could move WinSim to this house. No deed restrictions, no HOA, no city.
5 / 6.5 / 3 on 1.0 acre for $890K.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/1303-raven-ln-richmond-tx-77469/10754881
The swimming pool sucks (maintenance cost).
And the office sale is still on. He sent me a text this morning that he is still very interested.
I have not moved WinSim in over 13 years. Oh the crap XXXX precious stuff we will have to throw away.
Can we stop using Dr. for anybody but a medical doctor? I’ve met a lot of liberal arts PhD’s and I address none of them as “doctor”. MrsAtoz has an honorary doctorate from a prestigious Mexican university. I address her as “doctora” when I want to bug her.
My father and my other two partners all had PhDs in Chemical Engineering. When they started ChemShare Corporation, one of them taught at Rice University and the other two taught at Oklahoma University. My father gained the reputation as the hardest ChemE prof ever at OU as he did not believe in partial solutions on exams. He graduated from TAMU and Princeton with near 4.0 GPAs, he figured everyone could do it (he was wrong !).
Towards the end of his life, Dad did not go by the Dr. as many people misinterpreted it as a medical doctor. So my other two partners would tease him about it.
We really need to distinguish between the STEM degrees and the other degrees. And if I wanted my wife to know that (she has a BA and a MA in Social Work), I would tell her.
Law Enforcement Isn’t Always Pretty, and the American People Need to Square Themselves With That
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2025/10/28/law-enforcement-isnt-always-pretty-and-the-american-people-need-to-square-themselves-with-that-n2195566
Tell you what. Let’s cue up the video of the innocent Ukrainian girl getting murdered in Charlotte, and a dozen or so other videos where citizens are getting assaulted, injured, and maimed by thugs, Antifa (but I repeat myself), and other miscreants.
IMO the overwhelming majority of the videos where the bad people find out are very pretty indeed.
No one really knows what’s going on in Memphis.
xAI has its share of problems too. Plus, Musk needs the revenue stream from the EV grift to keep all of his plates spinning.
I know. Who cares about cars when Elon is going to take us to Mars?
You’re going to find out real soon.
I figure that the AIs are nothing but a series of very fancy ladder logic. But they do not have a soul and that makes them ineffective.
67F this fine day. Coffee is brewing. Snores are still coming from the other room though. I might have to bang some pans together.
Pouring the coffee cup full of water on the snorer’s head seemed to work best for my wife.
https://www.militaryaerospace.com/sensors/article/55317327/laser-and-electromagnetic-weapons
I liked the cartridge operated flying laser weapon in Real Genius the most.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnDAxtCRsIU
I’m pretty sure we have one shot at getting off this rock, before all the easy to access materials are used up. Leapfrog to space based resources, or end up s******* in our own nest.
Only about a thousand or so will make it off this iron-nickle rock. The cost of people leaving is probably somewhere between a billion and a trillion dollars each. The rest of us will have to make do.
So we can send Oprah, Hillary, Whoopi, Chucky to another planet.
There is a movie about that on Netflix. “Don’t Look up”.
https://www.netflix.com/title/81252357
@lpdbw
I’m not going to argue with most of it, but I will point out that the prerequisites for medical school and the coursework required to get a medical degree are far advanced over anything that happens in the social sciences, excepting perhaps that tiny number that are involved in arcane statistics.
Most PhD thesis are dead boring carp and do little to advance understanding of anything except how to make a career of writing dead boring and intellectually questionable papers to satisfy the “publish or perish” paradigm. The taxpayers would be much better served if the federal government reduced university grant funding by 90% (99% of non-science and 85% of STEM) and let the states pick up the slack for anything that they could justify to their own citizens.
Alley Oop: Tags in the back of your shirt
https://www.gocomics.com/alley-oop/2025/10/27
I hate them too.
30-odd years ago I suggested this somewhere or other, maybe Transactions of the IEEE or whatever their baseline monthly magazine was called. (A quick web search didn’t tell me anything. Presumably I botched the search terms and am not hallucinating having received their magazine for all those issues.) My main suggestion was to award an EngD instead of a PhD because the flood of soft-subject PhDs had diluted the value of the degree. Note that this was when I was aimed at getting a doctorate in engineering, before I came to my senses and realized that I had no need of a doctorate.
The space race only got about 1000 people into space so far, and those only short term and relatively short distance.
I will claim that the fallout from the space race has given all the rest of us great benefit here on Earth. I may not be an astronaut, but I have profited from advances in materials science, aerospace, telescopes, communications, computing, meteorology, and power generation, just to mention a few.
The biggest benefit may be aspirational. Humans, at least White male humans, need frontiers and challenges to overcome. And heroes and explorers to revere.
I grew up in the shadow of Lewis & Clark. If forced to choose between huddling in a cave and exploring the stars, I know my choice. Even if it ends up being an incredible challenge, well in excess of our current abilities.
That reminds me of a story.
I had a young instructor in junior college who wouldn’t let us call him professor. He said a professor was someone with a PhD and10 years tenure in Europe (he was Danish) and that while he had the Ph.D he wasn’t tenured or senior enough.
This being America some wag immediately asked if we could just call him Ralph as he was named Ralf Eggstrom (or something like that).
We settled on Mr. Eggstrom.
Nice guy, very smart, good instructor.
I hope that someday he made it and enjoyed being called Professor.
(Hadn’t thought of that in 50 years).
I’m completely convinced women over the age of fifty can no longer operate a television.
“Using a Security Key on X? Re-Enroll Now or Your Account Will Be Locked”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/using-a-security-key-on-x-re-enroll-now-or-your-account-will-be-locked
“The move will allow X to retire the Twitter.com domain.”
Why do they care ?
“Paramount plans to merge Paramount+ and HBO Max, but few other changes planned for Warner Bros. Discovery”
https://thestreamable.com/paramount-will-merge-paramount-plus-hbo-max-wbd
And then there were five. Or is that six ?
I’m completely convinced women over the age of fifty can no longer operate a television.
There is a story here. My wife is 67 and can operate our TVs just fine after I set them up. Of course, I use Roku boxen all over the place which simplifies things.
“The stock market is breaking records. Time for a gut check”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-breaking-records-time-183943881.html?guccounter=1
“NEW YORK (AP) — Almost everything in your 401(k) should be coming up a winner now. That makes it time for a gut check.”
“Not only is the U.S. stock market setting records, so are foreign stocks. Bond funds, which are supposed to be the boring and safe part of any portfolio, are also doing well this year, along with gold and cryptocurrencies.”
I am very tempted to run to cash.
“Government Remains Closed After 13th Vote to Reopen Fails”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/government-remains-closed-after-13th-vote-to-reopen-fails-5935397?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=TheLibertyDaily
“Democrats refuse to reopen until Republicans come to terms on health care proposals, but GOP leaders say negotiations must be conducted under regular order.”
“The Oct. 28 vote of 54–45 fell short of the 60 votes needed to end debate and bring the measure to an up-or-down vote under Senate rules.”
I am trying to decide if I care.
“Microsoft Might Drop Multiplayer Paywall on Next-Gen Xbox”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-might-drop-multiplayer-paywall-on-next-gen-xbox
“That makes sense because the next Xbox is basically going to be a PC.”
That device looks heavy.
Oversight Committee Urges DOJ To Probe And ‘Void’ Pardons Signed By Biden’s Autopen
https://thefederalist.com/2025/10/28/oversight-committee-urges-doj-to-probe-and-void-pardons-signed-by-bidens-autopen/
Exercise of plenary power cannot be delegated. The process described does not meet any kind of standard.
“Is the US intelligence apparatus deliberately playing us false?”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/10/is-us-intelligence-apparatus.html
“Today’s CIA quite frankly has little or no insight into the inner workings of groups like Hamas. That would require risk. That would require moxie. That would require leaving Northern Virginia and talking to foreigners. If you don’t want to risk it, you can take whatever intel the Israelis pass you on the subject and base your analysis on that. If the Israelis are telling the truth and have solid sources, you may be OK temporarily. If the Israelis, the guys who did not see a Hamas offensive building on the other side of a wall a couple of years ago, have bad intel, then we do too. Most alarming of all, of course, if the Israelis decide to lie to us for political reasons, we will not know it. We will be led around by the nose and steered in the wrong direction.”
Has the CIA ever told us the truth ? Have they ever done their job well ?
Is ICE the only government agency doing their job (besides the DOD) ?
The Army offered to pay for a PhD for me. I declined because that one-tracks you into ORSA assignments. No more flying, no more command positions, but still a chance to make O6. I would probably have lost my flight pay, also. Plus, I would never use a PhD after the Army other than to call myself DrAtoz.
Elon goes after Wikipedia
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/28/elon_musks_grokipedia_launches/
SS and milspec pensions are coming up. If they aren’t paid, in full, there is going to be a Dumbocrat slaughter during the mid-terms. Maybe rioting in the Capitol.
Throw in WIC/SNAP, too. It is hard to believe 40 million Americans receive this aid and the Dumbos still want defacto healthcare for crimmigrants.
>>I think it would be tragic to watch the human race go extinct due to using up all the Earth’s resources, and knowing we had a shot at harvesting the other planets and asteroids but chose timidity over bravery.
Some would say we’ve already come to the ‘Extinction’ fork in the road and we look it.
Trump should declare a national emergency and instruct the treasury to pay all military, ss, medical care, and essential law enforcement. Give snap 50% as food aid. No pay for legislative branch until budget solved.
Keep the masses happy and they won’t blame him.
SS and milspec pensions are coming up. If they aren’t paid, in full, there is going to be a Dumbocrat slaughter during the mid-terms. Maybe rioting in the Capitol.
Throw in WIC/SNAP, too. It is hard to believe 40 million Americans receive this aid and the Dumbos still want defacto healthcare for crimmigrants.
Are the USA citizens smart enough to realize that the dumbrocrats are the problem ?
The ones who are democrats aren’t.
The temp made it to 80 f today. Nice and sunny, too. Then the front started coming at noon.
It’s 70 now. Forecast says the low tonight will be 49 and tomorrow’s high is all of 64. Yeah, I will turn on the heat.
SS and milspec pensions are coming up. If they aren’t paid, in full, there is going to be a Dumbocrat slaughter during the mid-terms. Maybe rioting in the Capitol.
Throw in WIC/SNAP, too. It is hard to believe 40 million Americans receive this aid and the Dumbos still want defacto healthcare for crimmigrants.
Are the USA citizens smart enough to realize that the dumbrocrats are the problem ?
I forgot, stay away from dumbrocrats, they are dangerous. Here is an example:
““Get Out There and Ravish!”: Woman “Out of Food Stamps” Shows Off Stolen Goods, Urges Others to Steal at Will and “Infiltrate” Churches for Cash”
https://thelibertydaily.com/get-there-ravish-woman-food-stamps-shows-stolen/
They are recommending to people to steal their baskets of paid for items when they leave the grocery stores.
Throw in WIC/SNAP, too. It is hard to believe 40 million Americans receive this aid and the Dumbos still want defacto healthcare for crimmigrants.
“Rob Finnerty Reveals Most ‘Americans’ on Food Stamps Are Foreigners”
https://rumble.com/v70wfgw-rob-finnerty-reveals-most-americans-on-food-stamps-are-foreigners.html?e9s=src_v1_upp_a
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
I went through the numbers on gold two weeks ago when Eagles brushed against $5000, and the price increase over the last decade tracks roughly with VTSMX, the big kahuna Vanguard fund that owns 3% of everything.
The key difference is that VTSMX pays dividends, about 20% over that same time period.
Stay diverse and hope for the best.
The Geico Gecko owns a big chunk of Kroger. 7% IIRC.
The Lizard is going to get real mean if the already thin margins start getting thinner.
Cutie Pie’s show had a lot of ads for gold dealers when I caught the program while spending an hour in the car driving up from the south end of town this afternoon.
Buy the dip!
“Mean Girl AOC Tells New Mother Riley Gaines to “Get a Real Job””
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/10/mean-girl-aoc-tells-new-mother-riley-gaines/
So AOC is against motherhood too. And she tells Riley Gaines that if Gaines had trained harder that she could have beaten the men that she was competing against.
Wow. AOC is slinking to new lows.
>>I am very tempted to run to cash.
I just saw Road Runner zoom past my window headed for his broker’s office. Now… do we follow him yet?
Somebody never heard of the Streisand Effect:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/suing-a-popular-youtuber-who-shimmed-a-130-lock-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/
Ordered a Bissell lightweight corded vacuum for a couple of thick throw rugs in the house this morning, from Amazon.
Guess what showed up as an ad when I logged into YouTube just now.
No research other than Amazon reviews using the iPad Safari browser.
Apparently Macy’s does tell Gimbel’s.
You can still do that.
@EdH
Hilarious.
The Dike Holding Back Democrat Discontent on Schumer Shutdown Is Cracking
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/10/28/the-dike-holding-back-democrat-discontent-on-schumer-shutdown-is-cracking-n3808304
First, I had to check the spelling on the header…
Schumer didn’t lead them off the cliff. He ran to the front and pretended to lead.
Trump needs to have his people talk about how long it will take to turn the money spigot back on. Even water takes time to flow through an empty hose.
Like Sandy the Shot Girl?
At first I thought the reference was to AOC.
But did she like the doors ?
– I ordered $500 of new doors today. They are delivered tomorrow.
——–
IF I had any thing left I could turn back to cash, I would be doing it. Everyone seems to be waiting for a clear sign, but it will be too late at that point.
But I’m not giving financial advice. I’ve always had enough, but not more. My mojo doesn’t work for money. If you are up, how much more up do you have to be before you “take some profit” or “lock in gains”.
The markets aren’t staying ahead of inflation, a couple of meme stocks are. Lots of risk at this point.
n
AOC and Bernie are salivating over getting a commie in as Mayor of NYFC. If so, it will be an utter disaster. Manfukstiky may even be assassinated.
Big Win: Over Two Million Illegal Aliens Have Gone Home
The 1.6 million got $1,000 and a free airline flight.
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/10/28/big-win-over-half-a-million-illegal-aliens-have-gone-home-n2195588
If we use $22 million as the number of illegals in the U.S., that’s just about 10% in less than a year. It’s reasonable to expect that the pace will accelerate as 1) those remaining lose hope, and 2) the “activist” get hamstrung by SCOTUS, who at some point will either have to start sanctioning those who are taking cases that should be in immigration court and ignoring the law, or risk having POTUS get fed up and arrest one in the courtroom and perp walk him out.
“No one is above the law.”
There are several youtube channels with wide followings showing the really poor performance of various locks and “safes”.
Most locks are easy to bypass. Even the best are only intended to slow an attacker down.
Commercial safes are even rated by the time they will withstand attacks.
n
I released Mediumwave’s comment about extinction events, way upthread…
4 links should be ok. 5 might be… if you do get stuck in comment jail, ping me in the comments as I read them fairly often throughout the day, and I might not check my inbox for several days.
n
Thought for the Day:
Once humans establish the Galactic Empire under the God Emperor Musk I the Metric System might actually be called Imperial System again.
One of my co-workers at CGI could pick Kensington laptop locks with cardboard rolled into a tube.
NVDA is the market right now.
AI capex is all the economic growth.
The Geico Gecko owns a big chunk of Kroger. 7% IIRC.
The Lizard is going to get real mean if the already thin margins start getting thinner.
They are saying to steal paid for baskets of food from people exiting the grocery stores. Hurt the people, not the grocery stores.
Oops! I didn’t give the links in the Wikipedia excerpt a second thought–my bad!
(I could see my comment, but I was wondering why it seemed to get no reaction.)
The markets aren’t staying ahead of inflation, a couple of meme stocks are. Lots of risk at this point.
I’ve got my mother in 70% cash and 30% TSLA and AMZN. Each of those could easily drop 50% in the short term.
I am in Netflix, Vistra Energy (I had a 10 bagger on that last year using Greg’s terminology but I only bought 10 shares like an idjit), AMZN, Philips, Exxon, Ford, BRKB, TSLA, MCD, FXAIX, etc. All stocks with lots of exposure to taking a dive if the stock market takes a 50% dive on Friday.
Incredible amounts of risk.
Oilfield Rando’s Genius: Kill SNAP for a Month, Watch Illegals’ Foreign Remittances Starve
https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2025/10/28/oilfield-rando-snap-to-shut-down-for-one-month-n2420966
Good experiment. Shut it for a month. It proof of citizenship not required, or are the blue shiitehole cities just winking?
Note that it’s immaterial whether the immigrant is legal or illegal–no SNAP: Go Home.
My son still thinks that the residential and commercial real estate markets are going to take a 50% hit across the USA in the near term. I just don’t see this but if the gooberment forces the hedge funds and banks to sell their real estate (a constant rumor), then dumping that many properties on the market will force a huge correction. He thinks that 15% of the real estate is sitting empty right which is unbelievable if true.
Bic Crystal pens destroyed the Krytonite bike lock market. Anything with a tubular key was vulnerable. Burglar tools? Bic pen and a lighter.
So the grocery store parking lot is Condition Orange and I start carrying the cane again. Not a bad idea–I need some video of me with the cane in a known place where my attorney can get it if the need arises.
Also need to visit the doctor and put “hip” on list to discuss.
Sword cane?
410 Caliber cane?
Solid steel and a recent shillagh class?
So the grocery store parking lot is Condition Orange and I start carrying the cane again. Not a bad idea–I need some video of me with the cane in a known place where my attorney can get it if the need arises.
Hopefully the cane has a shotgun shell in it. I would hate to take on a 25 year old man at my age and condition.
Nobody likes you, everybody hates you, might as well just eat worms.
Nobody Likes Me, Everybody Hates Me | Guess I’ll Go Eat Worms | Funny Song for Kids
I figure it is 50/50 as to whether Schumer chickens out, or waits for a couple days of food riots and then caves “for all the hungry kids out there”.
If he chickens out then he loses some ground to the radical left/Islamic crowd now.
If he waits then he loses some ground with the normy’s then.
A no-win scenario for him.
Trump & Johnson might rescue him with some sort of public statesman-like ‘deal’, for a price, that price being mostly a sub-rosa promise to sit down and shut up until the mid-terms.
I know of two nice residential properties, worth at least $1.5M, bought by foreign money, sitting empty right now.
Bad and shaky as things are here right now, a lot of the world is worse.
My fears about real estate prices took me out of the market early this year. I would like a BOL, but I’m convinced there will be a big drop in prices.
Just last weekend I went back to har.com and did a search. There are still lots of properties in my price range, but I noticed they’re somehow bigger and better. And there are properties that haven’t sold for 6 months at the “old” prices.
It’s a gut hunch, but I think the prices are falling.
The McNally video–straight out of the Amazon locker:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MbQp5JcQwLA?feature=share
website:
https://www.youtube.com/@McNallyOfficial/featured
He thinks that 15% of the real estate is sitting empty
– there was an article about Chicongo being called “the glass city” because all the high rise buildings were owned but empty, you could see right thru them.
Houston is a different market, but I have noticed several commercial properties near me empty and for lease. I’ve also noticed a crapton of new construction in every category, which might undercut the market for existing properties.
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I still think commercial rental property is a good bet. You can raise rent with inflation, and it’s not hard to kick out non-payers.
After that, residential rental, mainly because it’s a bit harder to evict, even in Texas.
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I think I’m headed to bed.
n
I sold $10k of AAPL in 2010 to pay bills for Vantucky. Do the math on that one.
Does FXAIX limit the percentage of the fund invested in one stock? How exposed are they to NVDA and the other players involved with the Monkey Trick.
I look at my house as being worth what we paid for it 11 years ago.
“Ghost Houses” are not uncommon on the West Coast. The Chinese relations have a couple of empty houses in Seattle and one on the WA State side of the river outside Portland aka Vantucky.
The house in Vantucky is one of the most desireable school districts in WA.
Vintage solid wood hooked design. No hidden weapons.
Some groceries make excellent weapons, but I’m not going to buy a bottle of champaigne more than a couple times of year.
The trick with a cane is to carry it like you know how to use it for more than leaning, and to actually know. Cut to the hard, thrust to the soft. And remember the most basic rule of all: penny, nickel, dime, half, dollar.
I picked up several books on cane and stick fighting recently at an estate sale. I’m getting to be ‘of an age’ that carrying a stick is in character.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15018289/Prunella-Scales-dies-Fawlty-Towers-Timothy-West.html
RIP, comic genius…
n
We wouldn’t qualify for the mortgage to buy our house at today’s prices, and that’s saying something.
Thirty years ago, this neighborhood was built by employees where I currently work buying houses and supporting skilled professionals like my wife.
My GP lives down the street in a house he bought new.
Something is going to give. Haircuts are coming.
And it really is time to hit the hay. As the wind makes the windows and doors pop and bang in their frames…
n
My wife’s nephew plans to leave the Army and return to Florida next year.
I assume that he’s going to rent the house here in Texas like he does with the house he purchased with off-base housing allowance money in Tennessee, using zero down loans I could never qualify for on my income alone and which would be a stretch on my wife’s salary.
Yes, I understand the potential sacrifice involved in return for the perquisites, but it still smells like grift. The nephew’s most difficult posting in six years was being stuck in Munich during Covid.
One service-related grift we saw in Nashville was the endless stream of Toyota Sienna hybrid minivans with Kentucky plates working Uber/Lift on Broadway and on the surrounding streets of the bacchanalia district. Nashville does not enforce any laws about ride sharing loading/unloading in specific zones so getting behind one of the vans was something to be avoided when driving in the area because you never knew where/when the vehicles would stop to load/unload inebriated passengers.
The perquisite there is living in subsidized housing within an hour of Nashville and the influence commands will use to make sure active duty personnel get the best pricing possible on vehicle purchases at local dealerships.
Then there is the USAA insurance for the ride share gig.
I believe Cleese is now the last one left from that cast.
“Good Video explaining different lens options pros/cons”
https://www.reddit.com/r/CataractSurgery/comments/nzv5lh/good_video_explaining_different_lens_options/
Awesome video about the choices for your eye lens replacement.
Also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OADYT24aU8c
I am glad that I went with the monofocal lens set for distance in my right eye a week ago, I was 20/20 the next day. I am wondering if my dominant eye will convert from my left eye to my right eye, especially for shooting. I have been left eye dominant all of my life, made shooting a rifle difficult.
I am planning on going with the monofocal lens set for distance for my left eye also. I will have to wear readers for the computer and reading, I am wearing readers at +1.25 right now but the left is just a blur. I will miss reading in bed without my glasses.
I am looking forward to good night vision from both eyes. I have not had good night vision in decades. I have to close my left eye with any oncoming vehicles right now at night time or else my night vision is wrecked. I have great night vision from my right eye now.
One hundred and first!
Wow.
Now to go back and read the other 100…
Happy Wednesday, all!