CMRivdogs

I remember the weekend prior to the shutdown. We had planned a quick trip to Williamsburg to do the pre-drywall walk thru on our house. My wife called and said with everything happening she couldn't make the trip (drive), then booked me on a flight for the afternoon before and returning the next day. I did the walk thru, faced timed with my wife and caught the flight home. DTW was a ghost town. In a few ways we are better off than 3/15 or so. We figured my wife would need to retire since they didn't want folks to work remotely. It opened up several business related possibilities. She's consulting at her pre retirement job as well as picking up opportunities elsewhere. We're much happier here and closer to family. I don't credit any of that to Trump

My Trumpy brother in law...(I assume he voted for Trump twice, unless there was a VaTech football or basketball game on tv) It's a choice between crazy or senile

Now you guyz have done it, I'll never get this out of my head today

With an addendum today.. Most voters don't start paying attention until around Labor Day...but Democrats need to start hammering him starting today, while inviting those not sold on Trump into the fold. Start a major fact check campaign. Hit him hard on his indictments. Go hard on women's rights on rights of immigrants.

From today's JVL This was written before South Carolina...

Mitch has turtled, again

Haley would be wise to just sit this one out and not attempt to pull a Chris Christie if she has any political ambitions in 2026.

Utah's Governor is an interesting dude. As one associate put it there is no one in the state that defines Utah more than Spencer Cox. The guy is the head of the National Governor's Conference. He's theme this year is Disagree Better. He's been going around the country appearing with Democratic governors on the issues. In a different political climate I could see him as a party mover and shaker. This was from about a week ago with Maryland Gov Moore https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5107207/gov-cox-gov-moore-discuss-bipartisanship

For some reason I've been bombarded with texts from candidates from NC, especially the Trump wannabe running for governor (?). I have no clue how they've gotten my information and decided I was a Republican. Probably the same fools that think I have property to sell in Tennessee

When was the last time he even talked to a woman, other than at the Piggly Wiggly

It's a tough decision to make. A couple of our moves were job offers. The chance to move to a better situation. They didn't exactly jibe with the economy and we took a haircut. Our timing has been that we never made much money on buying and selling real estate.

We keep getting flyers and calls asking us to refinance. I keep asking the sales reps for good reasons I should do so. I'm 71, there are no plans to move. We don't need any extra cash my heir would have to repay, especially if/when the housing market downturns. The area we currently live is dependent on three things. 1) Tourism, which doesn't drive interest rates, but does affect some prices. 2) Military, which I believe drives some housing rates as well as the cost of living. 3) It's also a fairly large retirement area which once again affects housing prices. I'll throw in a fourth factor here. Prices for housing in DC, even though it's about three hours away you can see the market moving out of the DC suburbs toward Richmond which is about a 2 hour train commute and still less expensive. The Richmond suburbs are expanding in all directions. As are the Norfolk, Virginia , Newport News burbs. We're caught in the middle.

Considering when we bought our first house in 1988 average rates were about 10.3%. In 1997 rates were 7.6. Our current residence is about 3.1% from 2020. https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/historical-mortgage-rates/

The thing that gets me about the "cost of goods" argument is that most of those complaining also champion free enterprise. That said competition among grocery chains is rapidly getting smaller. We're getting close to a monopoly stage with companies like Kroger in many areas of the country.

I agree with the ruling that states can't just unilaterly remove a candidate from a national ballot. It doesn't look like they made a ruling here on the insurrection issue. The big question is how far will they kick the can down the road

Another chink in the wall...

The Rolling Stone article links to the DOD report. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Jan/09/2003373440/-1/-1/1/DODIG-2024-044_REDACTED SECURE.PDF They were handing out uppers and downers and other stuff like it was Halloween Trick or Treat.

Anybody looking for a part-time temp job? https://www.indeed.com/jobs?from=googlesl&q=bullpen+catcher&vjk=0fac070428d45328

There was the Summer my wife said,"oh by the way I bought a tent". It was almost as large as my first apartment and would have been nice if the weather cooperated. First night we set up camp in Vermont, I had visions of being washed away in the deluge. Rain kept following us as we headed into Maine. The only decent day was one outside Boston. (BTW instead of kids we brought the dog) We managed two days there. We ended cutting our stay in Arcadia National Park by a day because we were tired of taking down a wet tent. A couple of years later we rented an RV to tour the UP. After a close encounter with a gas pump we had a decent trip (again with pup). We're talking about doing the Maritime providences this fall (I did NS and PEI about 50 years ago with my younger brother in a Pinto). I really need to start exploring VBRO's

Just an observation after driving back roads from Williamsburg thru Fredericksburg and into Manassas Va. No Trump signs, 1 Haley sign (in Mechanicsville) and nada from Biden supporters. Lots of re-roofers, however

The sad part is a lot of the MAGA’s I know rely on things like Medicare and Social Security. They complain about the high price of healthcare, but wait until they lose the bennies. Most of the ones who complain about the lack of so called Christian values rarely go to church. Those who do complain about leadership but do nothing to get involved in leadership. They won’t know what they’ve lost until it’s gone