The Idiotarod

EARL DONE THIS (click to biggify & and zoom in on the map) 🤣

A Good Monday Morning

Sunday Soothingness

For your Sunday Soothingness, another choice morsel drawn from your Beloved Blog Editrix's personal digs.  Here is "It's You" by Bob James & David Sanborn from their 1986 collaboration "Double Vision" This is also one of those pieces of music that is done an injustice for even having to being heard in the MP4 format of YouTube.

Middle Finger Symphony Theater

 ~ No Tuxedos Required ~

Brought To You By BLUESJUNKY: Middle Finger Symphony Chair of Music

Bidenomics? Courtney's Open Tabs Call BullSh*t

Courtney Is Judging You Now. 

* Americans Seeking Cheaper Everyday Essentials Threaten Corporate Growth: (Bloomberg) - Americans are cutting back on personal hygiene products in a troubling sign for the US economy and consumer-focused companies.

* Businesses are cutting workers’ hours in a warning sign for the economy:WAPO - Businesses are starting to cut workers’ hours, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into part-time roles, in what could be an early warning sign for the economy. The number of people who worked part time, but want to work full time, rose by 452,000 in June, the biggest jump in more than three years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

* Major U.S. Banks To Report Biggest Jump In Loan Losses Since COVID Pandemic: After three years of relatively low defaults, partially owing to pandemic-era stimulus cash and other government assistance, lenders are now feeling the negative effects of higher interest rates and inflation on borrowers.

*  Debt increases over a trillion in five weeks, quickest pace ever: This is simply astounding. It took from our founding until 1980 to accrue the amount of debt that we have now added in just over five weeks. It is truly hard to overstate the magnitude and impact of this spending. 

 * Joe Lies - The federal deficit has nearly tripled: The federal government's deficit nearly tripled in the first nine months of the fiscal year, ballooning both because of a sharp increase in government spending and a significant drop in tax revenues. FJB 

 * The Dollar’s Epic Drop Sends Franc and Yen Surging: Under Biden, My portfolio increased by 17%, but the value of the dollar decreased by 23%. Tell us about that great economy Joe. All smoke and mirrors folks. Simple math. A Million dollars under Trump is worth about 750g's now. Still think you're moving forward?

 

*  The U.S. Treasury reported a $1.4 trillion deficit so far nine months into fiscal year 2023: “Three-quarters into the fiscal year and we’re borrowing an astounding $5.1 billion per day: “By the end of 2023, federal debt held by the public equals 98 percent of GDP.”

* Leading Economic Index Falls For 15th Straight Month, Indicating Looming Recession: The leading index uses 10 indicators designed to show whether the economy should be expected to improve or worsen. Seven of the 10 indicators fell in June.

* Existing Home Sales Plunge: The pace of home sales in June fell by 18.9 percent compared with a year ago: This was the slowest pace for home sales since January and the slowest June since 2009.

* Survey Shows Manufacturing Continues to Shrink for 11th Straight Month: Manufacturing activity in the Mid-Atlantic region fell again in July, according to a monthly survey released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

John Kerry Proves He's Still Inept at That Policy Stuff

Biden administration climate czar, the venerable Duke of Heinz - Earl of Ketchup - second rate former Secretary of State John Kerry, leaves Beijing with no deal, no potential deal, not a wisp of a deal, just his bag of dirty clothes. He announced Wednesday after three days of climate negotiations with Xi Jinping's government, he did succeed in having long and very detailed meetings with a lot very frank conversations, lots of fine dining and chardonnay, but it is clear that we are going to need a little more work to complete our task.  Translation: Kerry failure to return with any sort of climate agreement comes as another embarrassment to the Biden administration.

During Kerry's time in Beijing, Xi poured cold water on the Biden administration's attempts at climate diplomacy by not meeting with Kerry during the visit and on Tuesday, reiterating his nation's climate goals "will never be influenced by others." Xi basical told Kerry to have a fortune cookie and buzz off horseface. We got coal power plants to build. 

Leaving Beijing, Kerry looked "haggard and somewhat out of his mind", ranting about conservative bloggers in the U.S. making fun of him, and that he "needed an earth shaking international agreement to show those bastards!"

John F. Kerry, the multiple Purple Heart recipient no one pays any attention but his dogs, now desperately watches most of his political legacy, mainly the fraud of an Iran nuclear deal, the ridiculous climate change accord as well as the crown jewel of his foreign policy efforts, the Non-Aggression Pact with Canada, all being regulated to the dumpster of historical blunders.

Ya Know.....

“My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn’t want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn’t look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong KIND of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches.” - Ray Bradbury

My father-in-law is a builder. He is insanely gifted. We were in a cathedral together years ago and I asked him what it would cost to build it today. I will never forget his answer…

“We can’t, we don’t know how to do it.” pic.twitter.com/xPLvUTRqqF

— Jeremy Wayne Tate (@JeremyTate41) July 15, 2023

The restoration efforts at Notre-Dame continue using ancient tools and techniques ...

 "A cathedral is a structural ensemble that's very complex, and as soon as you change one little thing, one parameter, it impacts everywhere else in the cathedral," he says. "So reconstructing it exactly the same way is also a precaution. It worked very well for 800 years. So we know if we build it back the same way we won't risk damaging the cathedral by trying something new."

~ Thank You Larwyn's Linx@ Doug Ross Journal for the Linkage! ~