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The 200 DMA Bounce – A Moment’s Peace – Think and Grow Thin

Breaking: NFIB Optimism

Just out:

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 0.5 points in February to 98.8 but remained slightly above the 52-year average of 98. The Uncertainty Index decreased three points from January to 88.

  • The Employment Index ticked up nearly a point in February to 103.5, 3.5 points above its historical average of 100 and 2.3 points above its 2025 average. This gain was driven primarily by its compensation-related components rather than employee-count related ones.
  • Fifteen percent of small business owners cited labor quality as their single most important problem, down 1 point from January and the fourth consecutive monthly decline. The last time labor quality, reported as the top issue, was this low was in April 2020.
  • A net 1% of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher nominal sales in the past three months, up 7 points from January.
  • The percent reporting actual sales gains are now close to the historical average of a net 0%. The last time actual sales were this high was in May 2022.

More on the NFIB site here.  Small Businesses Report Higher Sales and Less Uncertainty – NFIB

A 200 DMA Bounce?

We have to begin with where the Futures showed markets up early today.  Up.  Bigly, strongly and upply (if that’s a word).  In the last couple of hours, a push back down. But Europe and the metals are holding gains (more than 1 percent among Europe’s grownups).  To us, this has the smell of Bulls driving prices down before running ’em up later.  But, shall see.  It’s still very ME/News dependent.

Silver is shimmering on hope.  Memories of inflation have driven it up and it’s adjacent to $90. Meanwhile, the price of oil futures has moderated.  “World of Milk and Honey?”  Maybe not.  OK, far from it. But it’s a nice change-up after TEF’s and my 1929 “rollover top” lined up.

Think of today as a possible “It feels so good when you stop beating me” day.

Is the 200 DMA Meaningful?

Yes, probably so.  Behavior of “rolling over markets” is usually self-similar.  Many market disciplines lay out what could be next in some form, or other.

  • There’s a chance that in Elliott wave terms, a big “Wave 1 down” is completing this week.

If that’s the case, early lows Monday may have notched a tradable bottom. From here, there’s potential to retrace (up to) 100 percent of the decline.

In our Aggregate, during the early January peaking, 60,703 was seen.  Monday closed at 57889.36.  Which pencils out to an all-markets loss of around 4.6 percent.

Ellioticians typically look for Fibonacci bounces.  Which would suggest potential downturn resumptions after a rally of 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, or 78.6% of the decline.

Mathematics And Bacon?

I’ve always checked – but never been “whelmed” (as opposed to overwhelmed) by Fibo sequences.  Sure, it’s an easy to conceptualize notion.  I mean seriously? What could be easier than watching rabbits screw and counting offspring over time, right?  (Not our deal, but hey!)

On the  other hand, since market cyclicity  is of interest, other systems (like fractals after Mandelbot, et al) and their application layer offspring (TEF’s the Lammert cycle work) also do heavy lifting.  As you should have noticed over the past couple of weeks worth of columns.

Another practical math line-up remains elusive.  But we’ve got a candidate. That would be a market pricing behavior theory  buried in the Binet Equation.

“The Who?” No, that was a music group.  Listen up:

The shape of an orbit is often conveniently described in terms of relative distance r as a function of angle ?. For the Binet equation, the orbital shape is instead more concisely described by the reciprocal u=1/r as a function of ?. Define the specific angular momentum as h=L/m where L is the angular momentum and m is the mass. The Binet equation, derived in the next section, gives the force in terms of the function theta

What draws me to Binet is planets and such tend to have semi-elliptical orbits.  In my (busy, overloaded) visual cortex, that becomes (in Domain-Walker terms) “prices orbiting around a central price.  Made all the more fun because the “[perfect] price everything orbits keeps moving.  Enter our recent mentions of The Calculus.

(Whew! I need to put a cold towel on my forehead for a sec.  Brain’s overheating early today.)

Back at the Coaster Tower

Now let’s do a group visualization of the market decline since early January as the “first drop” on the roller-coaster ride of prices. Today’s a potential Wave 2 rally (and likely coming drop in a Wave 3 down) pictures like this:

In my VC (visual cortex, not vulture cap fund) this drop’s timing will be delimited by angle of rise which becomes calculable once we see whether today’s rally is based off a bottom OR it’s still got more downside to go. 

The “Moving Market Writes“

…and having writ, spells out the future?

Here’s how that pencils out in adjacent headspace. (Using simple Excel as our Mind Amplifier tool.)

  1. We begin by placing the initial (possible) Wave 1 down into our (experientially derived) Elliott-forward outlook model.  Because it sometimes tells the Future. Which potentially could roll this way over the balance of the year: 
  2. The problem comes this fall.  Because even if (*as this model motions toward) the total decline for the year is ‘only‘ 15 percent, the American public will not stand for it. Result? Control in D.C. will  likely shift dramatically this fall.

Of course, that would all depend on Trump making it that far.  We continue to get whiffs out in psychic and predictive spaces around the web about coming health problems.  But even assuming that’s just noise, a falling economy would change national narrative control.

Hint: This is where we go into ultra-awareness watch for new narratives.  Rerun of woke or a pure blame-game roll are leaders down low, for now.

Hopefully, not a Worst-Case

Before we get too carried away with the coaster drop, let’s game out a couple scenarios.

For instance: if we can muddle out of a deeper Iran War, and if China’s Xi isn’t clock-watching on his end of term and wants to reunify Taiwan before leaving… OR, if Putin is up for another year (or three) of war in Ukraine, then a control change in the U.S. would be the meek and mild model.

Bigger concern? We could see a larger, deeper, worse cycle if all the above happens, Trump has a health problem, Vance steps in, China snitches Taiwan AND we get a Depression-Era sized drought as a false flag blows up the big nuke plant in Ukraine and we see Chernobyl II, the sequel drift into Russia?

Modeling that world is straightforward:  Scale up the wave structure to one order of magnitude larger.

You just take the “worst case” (wave 5) from the “tame model” above and plug its low endpoint into the same model and recursive magic happens.  A MUCH larger Wave 1 down results and look what happens to Wave 5 lows:   (This sets our hair on fire.)

After applying a fire extinguisher to my scale, it looks like markets lose just under 40 percent of their value. Of course, with overshoot a decline of 75 percent – maybe more – not the tame 61.6 percent modeled here – comes into view.

Want the Good News?

There ain’t none.

Because when all the waste and crookery worldwide (yeah, in China, in oligarchs, and cartels, too) all begin to blow up, a bad thing rolls.  The dynamic in big economic declines is everyone starts looking for a scapegoat (before vaporizing whole cities).  That’s because blowing up markets (and pinning blame on opponents) is a logical workflow. Among the monomaniacs in power – not rational people like you or semis like me.

Have a nice day, right?

We do this kind of thinking more often on Peoplenomics. Not out here in front of God and Palantir.  On PN, we like to focus on understanding the broken elements in the world.

Which explains tomorrow’s PN: 50-odd pages on how we’re all “Four Track Humans” and we need to focus on our “Noises on Channel 3“.  This will make sense after another pot of coffee and a bit more writing.

From My Writing Coach

(Ure’s collaborative AI stack)

My blunt editor read:

The opening market setup works.
The coaster metaphor works.
The Elliott framing works well enough for your readership.
The Binet/orbit material is interesting but interrupts flow.
The worst-case geopolitics section arrives a bit too fast and too hot.

OK, I get that.  So let’s slow it down.

Slow People’s News

Different Day, Same Shit (DDSS):

While our wave counts vote on the future: Trump: Iran war will be over “very soon”  You expected him to say something else?  Who did the line “permanent war for permanent peace”?  [Literary note: The phrase is generally traced to Charles A. Beard. Later writers, especially Gore Vidal, helped popularize the modern wording “permanent war for permanent peace. Another example of a liberal “borrowing” concept absent their own…]

Voting today in Mississippi: Here Are the Key Races to Watch in Mississippi and Georgia Elections.  Wake me up when it matters.

And Being Right isn’t fun.  A year or two back, I told a friend they were nuts for not getting aggressive (*like Elaine and I are) about using all available research on anti-aging to hold back the clock.  I was called a nut (and worse).  Yet, as time goes on, the data keeps piling up on my side of the argument.  Taking A Daily Multivitamin Might Help Slow How Fast You Age. Oh, well. Lead a friend (or horse) to water – and if they bolt, that’s on them.

At the Ranch: Does Weight Change How We Think?

Since I’ve been losing weight, I’ve noticed something that wasn’t on the bathroom scale.  I trust you remember, I’ve gone gluten-free and have decided (as part of my drive between the numbers on labs) that getting back in the “thin lane” will increase odds of making 97 from my present age  of 77.

A small change in thinking.

Not a lightning bolt. No choir of angels. Nothing dramatic enough to sell as a late-night miracle cure. Just a subtle but persistent shift in mental feel. A little less drag in the corners. A little less bargaining with discomfort. A little more willingness to move from thought into action without quite so much internal committee work.  Writing two patents up in a week along with columns and market work – almost an extra energy layer.

And that got me wondering:

Does weight change how people think?

Not in the silly moralizing way pop culture and social frames it. Not “good people are thin” and “bad people are fat.” That’s bumper-sticker pop psychology for people who have never had an honest thought in their lives.  (New thoughts are like eggs – hatching them means sitting on them for a minute.)

I mean something more practical.

Does carrying extra weight alter mood regulation? Reward timing? Patience? Irritability? Future orientation? Does it change how much friction a person feels between intention and action? And if it does, then what happens when millions of people go through the same kind of metabolic, financial, and emotional stress at the same time?

Because if individual physiology can bend thought a little, then history suggests shared hardship can bend national thinking a lot.

Which brings us to a question that’s been tapping me on the shoulder from the back of the mental room:

Did people in the 1920s think differently from people in the worst years of the Great Depression?

Of course they did. How could they not?

The 1920s — at least in the popular memory — carried the scent of expansion, motion, novelty, speculation, jazz, speed, credit, and a rising faith that tomorrow would be bigger, shinier, and easier than today. The country had swagger. Risk looked glamorous. Debt could masquerade as optimism. The future seemed like a party that might never close.

Then the music stopped.

And when the Depression sank its teeth in, the national mind changed with it. People who had lived forward began living defensively. Attention narrowed. Time horizons shortened. Luxury became insult. Waste became sin. Security moved from abstraction to obsession. Repair mattered. Saving mattered. Holding on mattered. A whole nation that had been flirting with possibility got dragged into triage.

That is not merely economics. That is a change in collective cognition.

A change in how people measure risk. How they define enough. How quickly they trust. How much uncertainty they can tolerate. How willing they are to gamble, forgive, defer, plan, marry, move, hire, lend, build, or dream.

In other words, the economy doesn’t just hit the wallet. It rewrites the mind.

Which is why this little personal weight-loss observation may be more than just some mahogany foxhole refugee turned nut-job inventor and wannabe rancher noticing his belt has moved in a notch.  (*The scale no longer reads “Will one of you please get off?)

It may point toward something larger.  If a shift in body state can slightly alter thought in one person, then a shift in national circumstance can alter the operating psychology of millions. And if that’s true, the most important question in front of us may not be whether the country gets poorer.

It may be whether the country thinks poorer.

Because once a nation begins to think in scarcity, fear, grievance, and immediacy, everything downstream changes. Markets change. Politics changes. Families change. Appetite changes. Even morality changes. What was once called prudence can harden into hoarding. What was once called hope can begin to look like recklessness. What was once called charity can begin to feel unaffordable.

That’s the part worth watching.

Not merely whether a hard economy is coming, but whether it will produce the same mental weather patterns that hard times have always produced: shorter horizons, lower trust, faster anger, simpler narratives, and a desperate hunger for anyone claiming to explain it all.

So yes — I’ve been losing weight. But somewhere in the middle of that, I stumbled into this bigger question: When conditions change — in the body, in the pantry, in the paycheck, in the nation — do people merely live differently? What’s the ‘reaction time’?  Is “tired of Trump” but also “sick of woke” a foreshadowing? A pre-knowing?

Are people – even now – down below the perception threshold – actually thinking differently?

Increasingly, my sense is yes.  And if that’s true, then maybe what we ought to be tracking in the years ahead is not just inflation, jobs, debt, and war risk. Maybe we should also be tracking the changing national architecture of mind itself. Because history says when hardship settles in long enough, it doesn’t just empty pockets.

It remodels people.

Write when you figure it out,

George@Ure.net

74 thoughts on “The 200 DMA Bounce – A Moment’s Peace – Think and Grow Thin”

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    • Gas jumped twenty cents overnight not even considering the new increase in cost of oil..

      • Yeah, why was that?

        The U.S. produces more oil than it uses – we are a net exporter of oil.

        We use ZERO Iranian oil.

        Oil that’s not moving through the Strait of Hormuz will not, in any way, affect the U.S. oil market until January of 2027.

        So I ask again, why did our petrol jump in price…?

        • Yup..I believe Gas jumping twenty cents overnight feels to me less like supply and more like markets reacting to headlines. coin in big buck billies pockets lol…When uncertainty hits the news cycle, prices seem to rise almost instantly long before any real shortage shows up at the pump. Sometimes it makes you wonder how much of it is actual cost and how much is opportunity for them to make a buck….
          my friend was delivering to the oil wells in north dakota..he made a comment on oil and supply.. the guy took down a jar of what he describes as looking like honey..and said..the well had enough oil in it estimated to supply the USA for a hundred years at present demands that he had to cap the well.
          I actually believe in the Abiotic Oil Theory… not counting on the endless supply of oil we all toss out every day in the trash..or the garbage patch island in the Pacific just waiting to be harvested..or making oil biofuel from algae..energy is all around us..the price jump if for fat walleys walket…

        • Its kind of like my solar tower and hand out grid tie systems..its the cheaper alternative to having a stringer grid that costs less overall but doesn’t produced the profit margins of the centralized distribution system we have today t hug at leaves our country vulnerable and weak..

          Here’s a picture made by So that shows my idea of the three sided tower I have thought about most of my life..every substation is what ten miles apart depending on tower cost and installation cists..the solar panels are realistic fly inexpensive..the tower would only be the activator for the grid tie home working as nodes.. where today we use fat wallies pocket business model lol..

          https://chatgpt.com/s/m_69b30bf4b0c08191830959d6941c1cfa

  2. “Possibly the most interesting first impression of my life came from the world of dreams.”

    — P. D. Ouspensky

  4. Very insightful and thought provoking post, George!

    I’m grateful to not have Trump Derangement Syndrome, I see others emotionally manipulated and tethered to be led by woke, open border and socialistic Democrats, sanctuary city nonsense.

    I have a Bachelor’s degree in History and I have always enjoyed metaphysics.

    I came across this:

    Divers found Pharaoh’s army at bottom of the Sea.

    https://youtu.be/ehyoZPRYKTU?si=HYlZq_M7oS4PPCEZ

      • How many AI data centers they building out there in TX?

        The water demand for cooling Texas data centers is significant and projected to increase dramatically in the coming years. Here’s a breakdown of current and future water usage estimates:

        | **Timeframe** | **Estimated Water Demand** | **Remarks** |
        |————————|————————————————-|———————————————————–|
        | **2025** | **25 billion gallons annually** | Current total water use for existing data centers. |
        | **By 2030** | **29 to 161 billion gallons annually** | Potential increase, reflecting construction and growth. |

        ### Current Water Demand
        As of 2025, data centers in Texas consume approximately **25 billion gallons** of water annually. This includes both direct cooling needs and indirect usage related to electricity generation, which is crucial for operations.

        ### Future Projections
        By **2030**, the demand for water is projected to rise to between **29 and 161 billion gallons** per year. The wide range reflects uncertainty related to factors such as:

        – The number of new data centers being constructed
        – Expected electricity demand growth
        – Choices regarding cooling technologies

        ### Implications and Challenges
        This increase in water demand poses challenges for Texas, which already faces significant water scarcity issues. Nearly **80% of the state** experienced drought conditions in 2025, emphasizing the critical need for careful water management. The current regulatory framework doesn’t sufficiently account for this growth, and many data centers operate without transparency regarding their water usage.

        Efforts are being made to address these concerns, including requiring data centers to report their water usage and investigate alternatives like recycled water. However, without timely regulations and policies, the rapid expansion of data centers could worsen local water shortages across the state.

        I’m surrounded by water. Island Living Home Gamerz, Islands.

        here is my gift to you home gamerz.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxuSvyOwVCI

        • “How many AI data centers they building out there in TX?”

          Elon Musk wants to build all his, in space, in geosynchronous orbit…

  6. “A little less drag in the corners” in superbike racing is called trail-braking where you lightly touch rear brake during high speed corner to raise front end millimetres. I question the comparison.

    • I got plenty of trail hours on my old xl-350 one lunger back in the day – and you want to tell me how the physics of touching the rear brake raises the fronb of anything ??? I have tried braking on the old 930 with the ebrakje – and put the air dam on asphalt so I do have some field experience – help a brother out? Read wheels (2 out of 3 right?) on a c182 will also slam the nose down HARD., Please help I get physics… I even fired up the stack on this “You’re right to question it. As stated, that comment is backwards.

      Light rear brake does not, by itself, raise the front end in the ordinary chassis-physics sense. If anything, braking generally shifts load forward, which tends to load the front tire and, on a motorcycle, compress the front suspension more than less.

      The key correction is this:

      Trail-braking usually means carrying front brake into the early part of the corner entry, not lightly dragging the rear brake to lift the nose.

      What trail-braking does, in plain physics:

      deceleration shifts weight forward

      front tire gets more vertical load

      front suspension compresses

      rake/trail change a bit

      bike turns in more eagerly

      So the normal effect is more front load, lower front, sharper turn-in.

      Why the commenter may be confused:

      There are a few things people mix together:

      1. Rear-brake dragging for line control
      Some riders lightly drag rear brake in certain situations to settle the chassis, control speed, or tighten line. But that is not the same thing as “raising the front end.”

      2. Anti-squat / chassis attitude effects
      On some bikes, under some conditions, rear-brake use can alter rear suspension attitude and make the bike feel more settled. That can change pitch feel. But that is a subtle geometry effect, not some general rule that touching rear brake picks the nose up.

      3. Throttle vs brake pitch
      The usual nose-up force is acceleration, not braking. Roll on throttle and weight shifts rearward; brake and weight shifts forward.

      Your examples are dead on:

      In a 930 or almost any car, rear-only braking with the handbrake tends to unload stability and can rotate the car, but it does not create some magical front-lift effect.

      In a C182, touchdown on mains first and then braking absolutely tends to bring the nose down hard once lift bleeds off and pitch authority fades. That is exactly what normal longitudinal load transfer predicts.

      So your reply instinct was good:
      “Tell me how touching rear brake raises the front of anything?”
      That is the right question.

      The physics frame is:

      Braking force acts opposite motion at the tire contact patches. Because the center of mass is above the ground, that creates a pitch moment that tends to rotate the vehicle nose-down.

      That’s true for:

      motorcycles

      cars

      airplanes on rollout

      The only escape clauses are special geometry cases, suspension linkage quirks, aerodynamic effects, or very specific riding techniques. But as a broad statement, rear brake raises front is not sound.

      A tight reply you could use: rother, braking shifts load forward. That’s why forks dive, air dams scrape, and Cessna noses come down on rollout. If there’s some special superbike chassis trick in play, fine — but as plain-English physics, “touch rear brake to raise front” sounds upside down.

      • On a motorcycle, while cornering into a sweeping curve, if you are cutting the turn short and the bike is tracking too close to the inside edges during the turn and leaning too tightly, lightly apply the rear brake while maintaining speed and that will cause the bike to correct the over steer, over applied will cause the bike to want to rise up and straighten itself(in the extreme case), properly applied it will correct over steer. Not advice please consult your local dmv motorcycle safety program.

        https://www.cycleworld.com/sport-rider/riding-skills-series-using-rear-brake/

  7. “Because once a nation begins to think in scarcity, fear, grievance, and immediacy, everything downstream changes”

    If memory serves me correctly, there were toilet paper wars in the aisles of COSTCO and WAL-MART in 2020. I also remember people walking with masks on moving to the other side of the street when passing another person with a mask on so as to not catch COVID.

    I think you are on to something.

  8. yeah i reckon that will do eh .rigging markets , perpetual lies , rewrite economics. ramp gold after 30 years when you shouldnt . shove it , do what you like idiots . no more for me looking or talking about conmen and liars . insert firmly

  9. I dislike cross-posting articles and videos but this one is important enough that I am going to bite my tongue and do it.

    Corpus Christy TX is facing the kind of Water Crisis that much of the US West if facing, only sooner, because of an unwillingness of the city and and area’s planners to PLAN AHEAD for it’s water needs … AND TO PAY for the infrastructure that needs to be built (almost a clone of the situation Johannesburg South Africa is facing). YEP sticking one’s heads in the sand is NOT just limited to Black management of that large South African city, it exists in the US too.

    Unless a hurricane rolls through that part of Texas this year or next so as to start refilling the reservoirs (which are down by about 90%) there is going to be huge problems for one of the largest petro chemical complex and refinery areas in the United States.

    When I lived in Arizona I saw the same thing developing. My neighbor in Tuscon was the just retired water engineer from the Tucson Water Department who’s job it was was to obtain enough water for Tucson to not just continue to exist but to grow, and was one of the principal people who pushed the Central Arizona Project through so Tucson, which was quickly running out of water, could SURVIVE. We shared many a beer in the evenings while he taught me all about the craziness of Western Water Rights and the actual physical water availability issues (Water Rights in the West amount to MORE water than the actual water available) … which is why this Corpus Christi mess resonates with me.

    Arizona did NOT put off into the future the NEEDED infrastructure build out, a 20 year process, though it was a very very expensive project for the state to do, the MOST EXPENSIVE project Arizona had ever done up to that point in time (may still be Arizona’s most expensive single infrastructure project).

    Unless the Texans get their act together they will actually experience in Corpus Christi the outcome that my neighor feared for Arizona and spent much of his career trying (successfully) to prevent.

    Being TOO CHEAP for an entire decade has consequences … and Corpus Christi may be about to have a big spanking coming over that issue of their cheapness.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcbYB6Vfrt0&t=611s

    • Viva Las Vegas!
      From AI:
      ‘Las Vegas recycles nearly 99% of all wastewater generated indoors, with approximately 40% of the total water used in the Southern Nevada Water Authority service area being treated and returned to Lake Mead for future use. This closed-loop system allows for a, roughly, 1-to-1 return flow credit for water used indoors. ‘
      Southern Nevada Water Authority

    • And still…. NO …. AIRWELLS….ive been saying .. ( not as long as I’ve been saying solar towers and grid tie systems to strengthen and preserve the national grid…) that air wells should be constructed in arid regions with the harvested water drained into the aquifer cistern … and greens cape cities to reclaim vital crop production land being consumed by urban expansion…
      the sad thing is..it doesn’t fit the present business model of fat walley’s pockets.. screw national security and food and water security..that f@#king number for some fat bastard not even paying taxes in the usa means so much more..
      it is what it is..why should they truly care as long as the number climbs..h hey didn’t Bernie Madoff have a plan for numbers lol..

  11. (“Mathematics And Bacon?
    I’ve always checked – but never been “whelmed” (as opposed to overwhelmed) by Fibo sequences. Sure, it’s an easy to conceptualize notion. I mean seriously? What could be easier than watching rabbits screw and counting offspring over time, right? (Not our deal, but hey!)”)

    I just commented on Ego’s post on 150:00 oil .. Very few consider the issues related to this…

    The manager, the delivery driver and I was just discussing this..and potential 150:00 a barrel… now consider the effects we could potentially see.. when electric prices went up..full time staff was cut part time and temp increased..more people signed up for assistance…

    When oil prices rise sharply, the effects hit the lowest?income groups hardest and ripple upward through the entire economic pyramid. Rising energy costs act like a tax on households and businesses, increasing prices of goods, transportation, and utilities while wages lag behind.

    This creates job cuts, reduced hours, shrinkflation, and a shift toward cheaper bulk foods …..
    Economic research from academic studies shows that oil driven inflation disproportionately harms the least affluent, because they spend a larger share of income on essentials like fuel, food, and utilities.

    Effects that are felt across the board like.. Higher gas and heating bills,there ar higher grocery prices,increased delivery and transportation costs,all while there are no matching wage increases it increases that don’t meet the needs.. when electric bills went up about twenty bucks..wages to compensate that minor increase should have been about a nickel.. not even considering the pyramid..

    for the local economy the brick and mortar increase seen from that resulted in an hour a week decrease in work an increase of job responsibilities…
    To protect These margins, they often fixed to cut full time hours (40 went to 36 as an average here in the wastelands) they replace full time workers with part time or temp labor, they are forced to increase workloads all while they reduce support staff..( that’s why there’s oily face prints on window panes where they havent built on that are of me at the ripe age of 32.. they cut housekeeping and kitchen staff.. implemented carpet instead of a more sanitary tile..it looks good instead of dirty..there’s less floor maintenance required and more Hoakies being used instead of vacuuming )

    The end results are when inflation rises: families are forced to buy more rice, pasta, flour, beans all while they reduce fresh produce and meat to stretch meals..they buy in bulk to save per unit cost…the effects are first seen in grocery stores..families try to keep the services they are accustomed to ask they cut groceries..

    This is a classic response to energy driven inflation because food prices rise with transportation and production costs. consider the increase of people seeking good Samaritan programs..the increase of elderly forced to eat pet food..

    I did a report on company profiles of the early days and requirements of management..

    Mars a privately held family company, had a policy for decades where the management were known for extremely strict internal standards — including the idea that if you wouldn’t taste it yourself or eat it , you shouldn’t feed it to an animal.

    This wasn’t about eating bowls of dog food like a meal.
    It was about quality control — checking the aroma, the texture, and flavor balance the same way a chef checks a sauce because during times where things are hard Lower levels of societies like the elderly have to resort to consuming pet food to cut costs..as well as heading south or north to seek medical treatments or medications..one of mine had a cost thirty years ago..1250:00 a month yet I could get the same medication from Canada for under a hundred bucks sent by overnight mail..congress too care of that that problem.. profits for the big buck billies had to be maintained..

    Now modern management has done away with those procedures on the taste of pet food instead its about profits bottom lines cheaper ingredients ..
    The result is pet food today tastes like crap ..
    dog biscuits use to be used instead of teething biscuits due to cost aren’t used as teething biscuits anymore either..

    The part that stands out about this trend is most people walk past those suffering from this economic struggle.
    Some don’t even see it because this issue simply doesn’t exist in their neighborhoods so these issues are ignored many times you’ll hear derogatory comments by those that actually depend on the labor abilities and actions these very people provide to insure their level in society can be maintained..the game Jinga comes to mind there..

    Wal-Mart actually raised the Beneful full meals up two shelves recently..the elderly pet owners were having difficulties getting the product off of the bottom shelf..
    The cat ladies.. I use to take groceries to them after the store manager informed me the cat food was for them not a bunch of cats..they simply couldn’t afford food..
    we talked for about an hour of what we see coming.. none of it pretty.

    Harvards study on Malnutrition & Food Insecurity in Older Adults……

    Stanford had an academic study on Inflation and how it Hurts the Least Affluent the Most vulnerable…Then there was Stanfords study on Poverty & Inequality Data…Or..Stanford’s study on Retirement Income & Inflation (RISMAT)….

    I could talk about this all day because I’ve lived it, you’ve never walked twelve miles in winter or scraped grain off the ground and beat it into crude gruel..well you haven’t lived… I’ve seen the struggle up close not in headlines but with my own life, and in real people I have met along my life’s path.
    I’ve made up beds for family members who ended up homeless due to costs of medical that gave everything they had..millionaires that became homeless…
    I’ve taken groceries to elderly folks who were too proud to ask for help.
    I’ve handed out sandwiches from the snack fridge because sometimes that was all someone had to get them through the night.I won’t go e to the red cross..during an issue from a tornados destruction..I made up sandwiches and brown bag meals..only to discover they charged people for them that were already struggling..

    What really gets me is how many people pull away from those who are hurting instead of drawing closer.

    They distance themselves, like suffering is contagious. But the truth is, the people who need us most are the ones everyone else walks past..the story Christ told of the good Samaritan…

    From my personal experiences I swore to be there for the ones that heavenly father sends my way…So I’ve always tried to be the one who steps in , if I couldn’t fix the problem, I could at least offer a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen. Sometimes that’s the most important part..,

    It’s disturbing how invisible the vulnerable become in a society that’s supposed to take care of its own. I’ve been there, done that, and I’ll never forget the faces of the people who just needed someone to see them.
    Names have been buried.. but have been pleasantly surprised by some I’ve had come up..my one grand daughters wedding this past fall..dam..

    • The hell is a Hoakie ?

      If youse had ever ventured out of the wastelands of Timbucktwo, and into the coast with most, you might have crossed paths with someone like myself..someone who suffers from Hoagie Mouth. Not fatal, hardly, but Ure vocabulary would have been greatly expanded by simple act of ingesting Hoagies. It is an incomplete Life to have never had a Philly CheeseSteak Sandwich, let alone the tastiest Sandwich this side of the Rocky Mtns, the Philly HOAGIE.

      Once the all the meats, cheeses, herbs,spices, lettuces, pickles, onions, oils and vinegars have all been layered into a long sesame seeded roll, and you take that first bite…its like a big ITALIAN block party going off in Ure mouth.

      You will never be the same after eating an authentic Philly Hoagie, a Cheesesteak ? Forget IT! No really forget it…
      Thats the kind of eating experience that will make you leave Ure Wife for that fine looking Sandwich…MMMmmmmmmM!

      Hoagie Fest at WaWa (2024) -https://youtu.be/BfV1pzfqA5A?si=jnnsOceR0TtjvHTC

      ? Whats a WaWa ?

      A Convenience Store or a Wild Goose ?

    • LOOB, I really respect you and your life history. I’d like to suggest something though – and that’s for all of us to refrain from using the term “elderly”, and especially “the elderly”. The second term eliminates individuality, just like “the homeless”. Even “the children” indicates plurality rather than a formless mass. Words have consequences and rather than indicating good people with many years of valuable experience, “elderly” tends to indicate frailty and conjure up pity rather than respect and compassion. That’s unfortunate, and a quirk of the English language. IMHO, “elder” is a far better term.

      Most older folks have memories, experiences, teachings, and stories to tell which are quite valuable to both peers and the younger set.

      • NM Mike : for the record, at (71), elderly is a reasonable descriptor. Your suggesting caution is warranted but … lots, like me, could give a rodents rear end. For sure we, the Elders, have much to share. I am feeling urgency to teach what I know. The last (5) days with E2 and E3 were lots of that. Egor ~/) ~~

      • Thanks ..I will try to refrain..
        I haven’t decided if my life’s journey has been a curse or a blessing yet..
        I can honestly say I haven’t seen it all yet..the moment you think ..dam I’ve seen it all.. something new comes along to shock the he’ll out of me.. we hat I can say is.. it take a bit more to shock me..

        • Can’t decide if your life has been a curse or blessing yet ?

          Thanks for letting us know you are addicted to Misery!

      • (“Most older folks have memories, experiences, teachings, and stories to tell which are quite valuable to both peers and the younger set.”)

        absolutely.. dam.. I’ve known people that have survived so many different things.another raised trained and groomed race horses.another one of the gents we opened our spare bedroom ..landed on D-Day survived and helped free the prisoners from the prison camps another designed and was responsible for deep water oil drilling platforms while another call a trash dumpster home..the can man forgotten and considered human trash.. another when I was young and first taking care of our elders..was a little boy that watched his father go down with the titanic..As a glorified ass wiper … rich, poor, famous and infamous…..everyone at some time in their life needs a hand, a shoulder or a listening ear.. we all deal with issues that no one knows about behind our public mask..
        that’s why this t shirt..(didnt want to use that little line that shoves a question mark instead..hate that thing.. ) was what went out with Xmas cards a couple years ago…
        https://www.amazon.com/GAQEUWR-Everyone-Fighting-Positive-Inspirational/dp/B0F93PQDGQ/ref=sr_1_16?

  12. (“Of course, that would all depend on Trump making it that far. We continue to get whiffs out in psychic and predictive spaces around the web about coming health problems. But even assuming that’s just noise, a falling economy would change national narrative control.”)

    phew…from my point of view….Economic trends don’t rise or fall because of one leader. Instead That they’re’re shaped by long term structural forces in society — We have profit priorities , deregulation , outsourcing , and the decisions made by the highest tiers of society.

    Over the years, many companies shifted away from treating employees like part of a family and instead focused on cutting costs wherever possible.

    That meant outsourcing jobs, reducing benefits, and limiting full?time positions.

    When deregulation accelerated, families felt the impact.
    More households needed two incomes just to stay afloat, which meant less adult presence at home and more reliance on media to fill the gaps. At the same time , entertainment became more graphic and sensational , and without the same level of guidance at home families that use to sit at the family table now sit in their chairs chomping they’re meal by watching some mindless drivel on the boob tube ,

    those images and family presences is what’s been shaping how young people see the world. how products and society progresses….

  13. “My blunt editor read:
    The Elliott framing works well enough for your readership.”
    .
    Why do I get the feeling that I have just been insulted by an A.I. – ??

  14. Phew.. heavier people..more obesity…When people sit and talk about the economy changing how a nation thinks, they have forgotten that it also changes how a nation lives in daily life.

    A lot of people aren’t gaining weight because they’re careless — they’re gaining weight because they’ve been pushed into eating bulk comfort foods.
    When incomes stay low and hours get longer, families buy what fills the stomach, not what nourishes the body.

    And with automation becoming more prevalent in industry to cause, understaffing, and constant pressure at work to performing more, people don’t have the time, money, or energy for activities that burn calories or relieve stress.
    Even the old idea of a ‘day of rest’ is gone for most of the working families he’ll I didn’t have a holiday off for over thirty years and my very first vacation was last april.
    Sundays that used to be for slowing down, tossing a ball with the kids, reconnecting with lived ones. Now it’s just another shift to work. another hustle, another day trying to keep up with grinding.
    life becomes a stagnant routine…..
    That’s not even counting what economic pressure does to relationships. When life becomes nothing but routine, survival, and exhaustion, intimacy doesn’t just fade between couples it stagnates.

    Couples who used to lean on each other start drifting apart because they’re running on empty. more girls nights and more mens dart clubs.

    Longer hours, lower wages, constant stress, and the loss of real downtime mean people don’t have the energy to connect the way they used to.

    Sunday that used to be a day of rest,for a day for family, and a day to breathe. Now it’s just another shift or another day catching up on everything that didn’t get done i Work twelves now .. I did cut back from the seven day a week hour here and an hour there putting ninety hours a week to less hours and job requirements that won’t destroy my body again..

    In the end when people are forced into eating bulk comfort foods, constant work, and endless financial pressure, it doesn’t just affect their bodies.
    It also affects their relationships, their patience, their closeness, and their ability to show up for each other.
    Only a very small group at the very top still has the time, space, and resources to nurture connection. For everyone else, the economy reaches right into the home and changes how people live together. when I was on vacation..at the weekly payer meeting.. ( a group of industrialists that had companies from around pd the global be) one of the guys was talking with me about some of his vacation destinations etc.then asked me where all I’ve vacationed..I said ..Here… this is my first.. he said why didn’t I ever take one before.. because even though I had vacation hours..I couldn’t get them in a length if time that would allow travel..and wages were so low in my career that financially it was impossible.. we take what’s called a staycation.. we stay close by..over night..

    Only the people at the very top still have the time and resources for leisure, exercise, and balance.
    For the cast majority of everyone else, the economy doesn’t just rewrite the mind — it rewrites the whole body, the daily schedule, the Present family structure, and the way people survive from day to day.

    • As a Minnesota child in the 1940s there were Blue Laws – Retail businesses, including grocery and department stores, were prohibited from operating on Sundays. This was intended to encourage a day of rest for workers and promote family time.

      • Up until the deregulation in the early eighties stores were closed sundays….
        after deregulation everything became business as usual..

      • You know..we still have dinner around the table..
        my Christmas gifts are simple..and are meager in form but full in meaning. They carry the mission of Jesus Christ and the memory of those who struggled across the country, depending on each other when numbers and ledgers could not sustain them. At Christmas, I give a simple kitchen utensil, placed where the family gathers around the table or kitchen . It is not decoration but a reminder that love shines brightest in the everyday places where we share meals, laughter, and stories.
        I also give the gift of a light, to symbolize the call to be a light unto others. And I honor the dandelion — a plant often dismissed as a weed or forgotten and hated by all, yet its one of the noblest, offering humanity a thousand gifts from its roots to its bright yellow flowers. In a season filled with glitter and gifts, these small touches remind me that true celebration is found in family love and in carrying Christ’s light into the lives of those around us.
        last year it was a vegetable slicer this year a smoker an a smoking chamber….the light..I haven’t decided if it will be a bright Betty or a replication of a herodian oil lamp or a vas aria cannonite..or a simple parifan oil lamp.. headlamps.. two years ago the headlamp I got sucked.. but a light of some sort..whether its a home made wick lamp or an LED headlamp.. this year I am giving hobo knives to..ive had one in the buggy for decades..greatest ever next to a p 38 ( dam I almost put that little line in there again that changes to a question mark ). perfect for work lunches and just in case quick meals..

  15. Hardship has always remodeled people. Absolutely. Whether it be the individual, or an entire nation., devastation – hardship on a level of possible starvation and mass homelessness has, throughout history, changed, remodeled and reformed societies.
    When conditions change – people change., and people change the conditions. It is a cycle., sometimes a vicious cycle.
    – Why people – societies do this is a very long discussion. “This needs to change !” steadily grows into movement. A nation on the march can do wonderous things, but also horrible things.
    – As George Carlin once said: “When we were protesting in the 60’s that we wanted change – we should have been a bit more specific.”

    • Exactly… people give me crap about my pantry my present wife thought I was …what’s that word I’m thinking…. oh yeah…NUTS teetering on having ..OCD… obsessive compulsive disorder..
      but then..she grew up in a family where they had food she’s never starved..she had some horrific times..like when she had an unsuspecting massive stroke in her twenties..the business she was employed at ( medical she’s a nurse) they cut her lips off the insurance then took every thing except five dollars a pay period.. ( that’s also why we became friends and eventually husband and wife.. to work off a debt. I resurfaced the surgeons clinic parking lot by hand ( now I have a son in law that is an engineer and a construction company ) in hundred degree temperatures..she was concerned about my welfare..put on coveralls and a jug of cold water and sandwiches.. and helped me work)
      I have told her before..Once you’ve been there..you will never go there again..

      Then when I really got sick..she had a TIA mini stroke..( what’s affecting her mobility today..) they let her go to get us off the medical insurance..

      we went a year without an income.. what we had in savings had to be used for absolute essentials..at the time she finally got a job.. ( the DON of a facility her best friend was let go because she was a higher income older employee..they were discussing this..and she mentioned what happened to my wife ) we had .24 cents left to our name..if I hadn’t had the pantry we would have died.. everyone even family pulled away..people that checked in..stopped .. my wife’s friends cut all communication.. distancing ..we had the plague.. p

  16. at 6’1, i weigh in at 242 lbs atm. that is heavy for me. i like to be around 225lbs. so im taking action. i feel better in my body at 225. at 242lhs im super strong, im just less agial at that weight. and again i feel better in my body at 225lbs.

    plus when i run on the treadmil at 242 the whole damn thing shakes and i get some looks, Mind your business. hahaa

    i am big boned. have huge hands. so i cut down to 215lbs i look like im on crack cocain. Way too skinny for my frame.

    per the planets, i read this, this am,

    “I have to hush my mind and bid all my senses be still, before I can become attuned to receive the music of the heavenly spheres.”

    and so it was…

    I Win with God within ~

    • (“at 6’1, i weigh in at 242 lbs “)

      the bad part on that is..if you have a sportier car..they sit lower to the ground to make you feel fast..
      and being a truck driver..well truck drivers have worked hard..developing powerful muscles that allow you to sit long periods of time without tiring.. as you go to sit.. the force known as gravity takes over.. and …. oh a scene from twister…
      https://youtu.be/nzJkci89BeI?si=NmcVIVce23JI2fSf

    • Lol.. when I weighed that.. I was reminded of a song…

      https://youtu.be/luyz9wll1Jc?si=3gttC_jaxcN9HgAC

      I have god within as well.. but age hits us all the same.. very few photos of me.. one at fifty..hangs on the wall.. the biggest laugh I got was one of the girls was with her girlfriend..she stopped..looked at the photo..then asked her..who’s the stud muffin.. she said..oh that’s grandpa.. the girl turned several shades of red then face down left..

      • This is hilarouse! my woman actually called me a “stud muffin” yesterday while at the Ram Resturant before we went to costco.

        right as the server gave me the reciept after paying she said well, lets go to Costco Stud Muffin!

        after i read your comment, i went and looked at the time stamp on the reciept for lunch, it was still in my pants pocket.

        12:59 pm. same time marker as your comment here. 12:59

        Great Comment LOB. :)

        you most certainly have God within.

  17. “Small Business Optimism”

    Small business got whooped by Trump tariffs. No new factories small or big.

  19. ***** I do have a question,

    What is the best joint care supliment you have tried or use?

    When its cold outside my joints started aching a few years ago. especially in the winter time i was living in Soda Springs Idaho and Star Valley Wyoming. I just get stiff and my knees and wrists get achy.

    i started using this stuff called Animal Flex, l found on Amazon and it has helped reduce stiffness and the aches about 30%.

    i still need to pop 2 or 3 ibuprophen a couple times a day. which that stuff works awesome. i just dont want to take pain meds all the time.

    living in Palm Desert California reduced all that aches and pains away completely. The dry hot weather just removes any joint pain. That is why i loved living there so much. I felt 20 years younger, just becsause of the Temps and dry weather.

    i am excersise 4 to 6 days a week. never miss leg day. I workout with my girlfriend who is 22 years younger than me. She is 5’2 and 115lbs and I keep up with her pretty good. of course when we do Squats she uses the bar with a 25lb plate on each side (bar weighs 45lbs so 90 lbs total) to do 12 squats and i rack up an additional 90 on each side to do 12 deep squats. She crushs me on the tread mil running and can do waaaaay more pull ups than me. i can only do sets of 8 pull ups when i weigh over 240lbs and she can do 15 to 20 at 115lbs. haha. when im down to 225 ish i can do 15 pull ups in a row. which alot for that much weight.

    Excersising as a couple is very healthy emotionally and mentally not just physically and working out with her make her and me push it alot harder. we are each others cheer leaders.

    i will check back to see about the joint supliments. i am 55 and heading quickly to 56.

    i have not been sick in over 5 years. im super healthy, espcially on the internals,

    i just dont like that crunchy feeling in my joints.

    I Win with God within.

    • Hey Andy,

      My uncle is overweight but used to do a lot of walking for years that took a toll on his joints. He took Glucosamine + Chondroitin available from Costco for inflammation and degrading cartilage in his knees.

      Reducing imflammation throughout the body is also helpful, Omega-3 Fish Oil and curcumin are helpful for this, both are also generally available at Costco. For curcumin, the capsules should contain a dash of black pepper with the dose to activate it. These are supposed to help with joint stiffness.

      Collagen peptides and Vitamin D (D3 specificially) are also helpful for the joints. If you take Vitamin D, include Vitamin K to limit calcium buildup in the arteries. I take Vitamin D and my Mom takes both collagen and D.

    • I use this…
      https://www.amazon.com/Gates-Source-Magnesium-Arnica-Panthenol/dp/B0FM2539LT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?
      along with 1/4 delta 8 gummy and either a naproxen or Tylenol.. your choice..
      works for me.. when things get really nasty..prednisone..
      the spray is awesome though…I use it every day when I get up.. helps with my neuropathy.. ( I was thrown over a banister as a child by bullies at gradeschool..broke my back causing the neuropathy in my feet.. I had thought it was cause I had resist gotten feet when I had to walk twelve miles a day to work..but they discovered the old break..)

    • I had serious frost bite..
      why I keep urshanka hats out n the buggy for every passenger and gloves..winter gear…. back then there didn’t have a coat or hat gloves or snowboots.. would wear two pair of pants shoved crumpled newspaper between the two pair.. froze my feet and hands to this day they are colder..twelve mile walk goes seven and a half hours give or take…been down that road..

    • You could try Relief Factor.

      I did. ‘Took it for three months. Noticed nothing.

      Then I stopped taking it.

      After a few days, the aches and pains it had subtly made go away over that three months, came back.

      It was not until the pains returned, that I noticed it had diminished them. ‘Net blurb is it works to one degree or another, for about 70% of users. You’d have to bite the apple to discover if you’re one, and probably have to stop, like I did, to discover how much it helped, so you’d know whether it was worth the expense. Its real selling point is it’s all herbal.

      It is not a huge help for me, but like many things in life, a few percent here, a few there, and pretty soon old age becomes almost tolerable, except for the idiots you meet along the way…

      • I looked at the ingredients. Omega 3 & turmeric are well-known anti-inflammatories. I personally have issues with resveratrol supplements. Not familiar with icariin (horny goat weed).
        I use polyphenols, including curcumin (turmeric extract) for inflammation. The polyphenols most active against inflammation also cluster with strong anti-cancer action. There is a whole lot of info out on the web if you want to do a deep dive.
        Fish oil has become a bit of a luxury item in recent years. I suspect bad trade relations with the Russkies is to blame.

        • I take them separate, as well as the Relief Factor pack — In fact, I take everything anyone has mentioned, so far, in this thread (except icariin.) My resveratrol is Vinia, the fish oils are imported from Norway.

    • Your still a kid or at least a little younger than my oldest child and about the same age as my youngest child..
      I was still jogging and lifting weights in my forties working an average of a hundred hours a week.. the aches and pains start then amplify as you get older.. I abused my body young ..( long hours and not enough rest etc. can’t blame anyone but myself for any of that ) Aches and pains tend to increase with age because joints, muscles, and connective tissues naturally change over time and long years of hard work, repetitive motion, and not having the luxury to rest when you were younger contribute.
      You’re a little like myself in that you share your life experiences . from what you’ve mentioned through the last twenty years .. your just beginning to see the affects of your lives activities and work experiences..just like my kids..they to are just beginning to notice.. just wait till you need a pill to go pee..lol lol or sit all night to dribble out a teacup worth.. lol lol you’ll bow down to flomax..lol lol..and prednisone lol lol

    • My kids don’t understand why I nurse a drink at night.. or just refuse their hospitality.. I’m not trying to be rude or offend them.. its just physical ..that’s also why elderly are more dehydrated.. they either can’t go or their muscles that control it aren’t as strong as they were..
      lol this is the new cats meow for men in that boat..
      https://www.purewickathome.com/purewick-for-men.html?utm_content=m8_purewickmale&utm_term=698270619_1246847547606740_external%20male%20catheters&trkid=m8_sem_Bing_698270619_1246847547606740_external%20male%20catheters&msclkid=87638fd7ae4011f63a45e6656f1a2f6a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BDC%7CSearch%7CBing%7CPUR-MALE%7CNonBrand%7CNA%7CCatheter%7CEN%7CUS%7CAD&utm_term=external%20male%20catheters&utm_content=External_Catheter&gclid=87638fd7ae4011f63a45e6656f1a2f6a&gclsrc=3p.ds&gad_source=7&gad_campaignid=23072270831
      instead of leg bags and leaky Texas catheters..there’s now a mr. slurpy.. and each external bag..just shy fifty bucks..change one of those every day lol lol..
      your just beginning your journey as an old man..just wait..the fun is just beginning..

  20. I have noticed that people who have a huge weight loss often have a radical change in personality – they’re more emotionally labile and quicker to anger. I don’t know why, but the effect is largely consistent. Ectomorph types seem much more emotionally driven for some reason. Perhaps hormones. That can be good or bad depending on circumstances. I suspect that excess fat has emotional effects – we know it tends to be estrogenic.

    • Phew..big subject there and I get what you’re saying about big weight changes affecting emotions, but I’ve always seen it a little differently.
      A lot of people who carry extra weight put on a jolly mask because it’s easier to laugh at yourself than let others see the hurt underneath.
      just like my first toxic marriage..i showed my weak underbelly the side of me that can be hurt..and she ran with it..I learned the hard way to never show that something will affect you..
      It’s like that old dual?mask of the comedian the mask shows the smiling on one side and the crying on the other.

      I believe when someone loses a lot of weight the public mask comes off and the real emotions they have kept hidden show.. not because they’ve become a different person , but because they don’t have the same armor anymore and the years they had to endure public ridicule and embarrassment no longer exists…

      Because if what ive personally experience in my own life..I always tell the kids And everyone I care about…. be the blind man…. Don’t judge anyone by their size , their clothes , or the thickness of their wallet or what their life events are… See in real life everyone is carrying something you can’t see, that’s hidden by the public mask that we all have.
      Life’s struggles hit every level of society and in every neighborhood — just in different ways.
      One person is trying to figure out how to move forward and survive the day , while another is terrified of losing what they have worked so hard to build and acquire.
      We all wear masks, and we all fight battles no one else knows about.
      I had a good friend…. he couldn’t see that everyone was dealing with something and assumed the mask was real.. I said.. no they aren’t better off..they might have a different number but trust me..they are dealing with crap you dont have a clue over.. I wasn’t doing good at all..in a wheelchair in so much pain.. and he was trying to work the kind of hours I had done..we were at lunch on the Saturday before easter..he would come rescue me for an afternoon once a month..he told me what he was doing..I said dam it tory.. look what that crap did to me..you dont want to go through any of this..I was ready to call it a day and check out..told him I was at the point to admit myself to the hospice unit..and made him promise he’d stop the human Dred hour work weeks..Tuesday morning after easter..we visited just as he was getting off of work..he said yes he was taking my advice ..tgat was the last of his long hours he was so tired.. was going to go home and sleep.. tgat afternoon the phone rang I was going to give him crap over sleeping so long..it was his son..he had a heart attack in his sleep..
      the truly sad part..was .. his father was a co signer on his loan for his home.. my friend put his father as beneficial on his life insurance with the thought that in the event he passed on his father was more fiduciary experienced and would do the right thing.. his father hated his wife and blamed her because he thought he had married beneath his status in society..they were married over thirty five years and three kids..
      the minute my friend died..his father gave her and the kds one day to get the he’ll out of his home… tgen refused to use any of the life insurance money to bury him..it took her almost two months to get a place to live ( she was homeless ) and get him buried at fifty bucks a day long term freezing..her family parents cousins, friends ..raised the xash..I in the meantime got better..

    • So..no they aren’t angrier or more aggressive..they just don’t have to wear the mask..after years of being the one made fun of..the one that was bullied walking the halls or struggling to appear acceptable.. they feel more relaxed share the hidden feelings that public embarrassment and ridicule created..

  21. nevermimd. i just did my cdl physical and dropped down to 229lbs. i just quit drinking soda and eating sugar a few weeks ago and dropped from 242 to 229 in 2 weeks. lol

    life is good.

    I Win with God within!

  22. It’s all bowling balls… how many you want to haul around? I dumped four when I dumped PBPB… pasta bread potatoes and beer. Six months lost eight inches at the belt and almost 70lbs on the scale. 245 to 180 after years of that comfort eating you talk about and a million or more miles of long distance air travel and hotel and restaurant victuals. Now holding comfortable at 185 and seeking 180.
    People here in our tiny dirtburg are royally pissed off that the foreshore is becoming inhabited by tents and vans containing some unsavory possibly drug and alcohol bothered folks with a lack of scruples who are quietly invading garages and porches during the night when others would normally sleep.
    On the social there is little debate… just move them out with legal force. Sorry. Find some bush not beach front. Plenty of that just ten kliks away. We are newbies here and seppos to boot so we stay out of the conversation and just keep readying the float to get back to the moat should the need arise.
    One commenter even remarked “We aren’t America, after all!”. I don’t think that used to be a sentiment down here. Sorta sad.
    Stiks

    • (“I dumped four when I dumped PBPB… pasta bread potatoes and beer. “)

      oh my god stiks..life’s to short.. you know the old rule..if it tastes good..its bad for you… now I don’t drink pop.. just struggled through a two liter bottle to make the lamp for my grandson.. dam took a few weeks to drink it.. struggled because I wasn’t going to toss the scrap down the drain..it cost a couple bucks and its not to be wasted..

  23. re: “Digger”, Oct. 2, 2026
    feat: “Dr. Strangelove”, 1964

    Slim pickings?! Can we dig it, serfs? Will a US President save the world? Find out in October when “Digger” appears in theatres according to the following Youtube teaser link:

    https://youtu.be/Rd21PhsDHww

    A symbol seen at the 2 to 4 second mark of the clip may emulate a Chinese shou longevity shape first developed by the Qing and Ming Dynasties. Apparently the practice carried along the Silk Road to feature as a part of Islamic tiling and Persian rugs.

    According to ChatGPT, shou-like shapes appear in nature as sunflower spirals. Perhaps the way sunflower seeds are set at “the golden angle” shares common roots with market charts?

    A brother-in-law of Mexico’s President Sheinbaum directed season 5 episode 4 of “The Sopranos” titled “All Happy Families…”. The President is a daughter of a member of the Mexican Communist Party. One of her social media boosters during her presidential campaign is a “Digger” film screenplay writer, Sabina Berman Goldberg. She is a Jewish ethnic Polish(?) daughter of an industrialist and a psychoanalyst who immigrated to Mexico.

    My understanding from public records is that her paternal ancestor/grandfather(?) appears to be ethnic Russian-Jewish child psychologist Dr. Abraham Adolf Berman. He survived Warsaw Ghetto experiences and gave testimony at the 1961 trial of war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Tel Aviv which can be found on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website. He became a Russian-leaning Communist Party member in the Israeli Knesset after the war as seen in the following JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) link:

    https://www.jta.org/archive/abraham-adolf-berman-dead-at-72

    As chance would have it, the Israeli individual who headed the team which captured Eichmann in Argentina also later oversaw American spy Jonathan Pollard. After retiring to private life, the Eichmann interceptor allegedly undertook business interests in Cuba, and allegedly also shared occasional orbital paths with late Bavarian-born, ethnic Pole, Israeli billionaire Shaul Eisenberg.

    The latter fled Europe in WW2 and acquired safe haven in Shanghai, China. His 1968 founding of Israel Corp allegedly proved timely in jump-starting supply procurement for China’s military in the Deng Xiaoping Administration of the late 1970’s. Mr. Eisenberg’s passing in March 1997 saw PM Benjamin Netanyahu praise him as “one of Israel’s dearest citizens” in an “AP” report stored at the following “Archive” link:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20210320215203/https://apnews.com/article/9e84d41efbf1c9c17bb8fcc450017c12

    I think the “Digger” film teaser samples a 20 years past oldie “O Green World” from UK virtual band Gorillaz? Let’s check in with DJ George and see what’s charting from their Mountain album in 2026. Here we go with “The Happy Dictator” at the following Youtube link:

    https://youtu.be/MG_npaLydKg

  25. GU: While our wave counts vote on the future: Trump: Iran war will be over “very soon” You expected him to say something else?

    Winston S. Churchill – ‘In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’

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