Surgery Chatter

 I sat and read over this piece....trying to grasp the whole intent.

Best I can say....it is an Ontario person....an Ontario court, and I have some doubts that the success this person anticipates....won't occur.

As for how they identify themselves after surgery?  Well....it's anyone's guess.

Cost factor?  No one really says much over that.  I'm guessing it's in the $25,000 range or more.  The thing I'd mostly worry about....getting various infections out of the hospital unit after they wrap it all up.

This infection worry is the chief thing that keeps me always a bit worried in general.  Me ever checking in for anything?  It'd have to be an awful pain to get me to accept infection risks.  Yeah, it's to the level of being a phobia.

I live over by a major German hospital....that had a serious reputation for infections with incoming 'customers'.

For some reasons, I suspect this person....within a year or two....will be asking  to 'fix'  whatever was done and  won't be able to find a doctor willing to take on the case.

Eight Things I Expect In 2025 (By End Of The Year)

 1.  The House and Senate will attempt to halt all college loans, or limit what you can take each year ($10k or less).  Colleges will go into a massive fit over this legislation talk.

2.  Both the Army and Air Force will be forced to trim units existing because of a lack of manpower.  Both will discuss a $100,000 benefit (cash, zero-taxation) if you agree to sign up and stay for eight years.  

3.  The state of California, in need of cash to pay for operations....will turn to bank loans....discovering that no one will deal with them unless they agree to a 8-percent pay-back situation....meaning even more debt.

4.  Over 300 8-story or more commercial buildings throughout the US will be empty and unable to rent space.  A discussion to convert these to condo-housing will occur. Research will prove this unfeasible because no one has capital/mortgage potential...to buy such units....because they lack jobs.

5.  A week-long state-wide strike will occur in California in early 2025....over all other industries in the state should be paying $20 an hour.  Within six weeks....two additional states will face state-wide strikes with the same discussion.

6.  Evidence will be presented that the FBI/NSA....has secret blackmail files on forty-odd Senators/House members.  

7.  CNN, to meet revenue issues....offers Joe Rogan $300-million a year for a one-hour show nightly.  

8.  The AG and US Marshalls end up forming a 1,000 man force to go after New York City crime.  At least 200 other US metro cities ask for the same 'favor'.

My Gut Feeling On the OJ Case

 Odd how this comes up now....thirty years later.

First, I had the gut feeling that the cops gathering up evidence....did a 2-star job, and screwed up.

Second, that glove-business twisted the entire case around.

Third, had this been in any other state....I don't think the innocent situation would have been arrived at.

Fourth and final.....just an awful intense murder scene.  Robber would have stabbed/cut the guy, and ran quickly away.  Whoever murdered the two...had a strong desire to make it personal. 

Three Humble Thoughts

 1.  Dexter Reed shooting in Chicago.  I've watched the two-minute video over....maybe thirty times.  

The sole reason that the cops say they pulled him over?  Absence of Reed wearing a seatbelt.  

The action of Reed....rolling the window up as the cop approached?  It makes no sense....unless he'd been smoking a joint.

96 rounds fired?  That was the crazy part of the story.  Cops even suggest that Reed fired a couple....but one of the cops apparently shot around 50 rounds...meaning he reloaded at least three times.

Crazy confrontation.....just over a seatbelt issue.

2.  Trump now says NPR funding ends....as he becomes President.

NPR says 'fine'.....that they make enough off sponsor foundations to carry their message.

It's a bogus statement....in that the prime-receivers of the fed money for NPR....are the stations themselves.  If the fed money goes away....the stations won't exist to carry the NPR product....thus it dissolves.

3.  Lot of chatter in the past month that the way that the economy grows jobs....is by Americans taking second jobs because the primary job is not solving the finance issues.  

Biden's crew realizing this?  Apparently, no. 

The California folks working at McDonalds with the $20-an-hour situation?  I would imagine that 10-percent of them work a 2nd job somewhere...because they still aren't making it.

Does It Really Matter Who Wins November's Election?

I paused over this thought the other day, and it's been on my mind a good bit.

The US economy is in serious trouble, and it probably doesn't matter who wins in November....either Trump or Biden....because the 'game' is so rigged up.

Facts:

1.  Back in January, Yahoo Finance wrote up a piece....roughly 8.7 million Americans working two jobs to make ends meet. Roughly five-percent of the nation.

2.  Brookings Institute reported late summer of 2023....around 7 million American men between 25 and 54....aren't working.  Zero interest, or they got a great sugar-mama to pay their bills.

3.  Automotive News: Summer of 2023....they reported rejections for car loans were at the 21.8-percent (highest rate reported).

4.  CNBC in the fall of 2023....reported that home loans were being denied....rate of 9.1-percent.

5.  I gazed at mortgage rates yesterday.  30-year fixed?  7.34-percent.  15-year fixed?  6.78-percent.  30-year VA?  6.70.

Everyone is freaked out over the rate, and it won't return to 4-percent.

6.  $18 for a Big Mac menu in California now? 

If you follow the $20-an-hour wage situation for restaurants...there's a few non-restaurant workers now saying it's NOT fair, and they want the same wage.

You are about to see this massive increase in cost across the state, and people suddenly saying...no thanks, we can't afford a $15 movie ticket, or a $24 car-wash.

Whoever wins in November is stuck with a massive and decade-long mess that cannot be resolved or fixed nationally.  Trying to compare it to 1929?  No....even 1929 would have some fixes that were possible (with the right people, not FDR). 

ID Story

 I sat last week and observed this story and it's been on my mind for several days.

For four years....almost every single day...there's been some dumbass event to unfold with either the Biden-team, Biden himself, or the campaign-staff folks.  

It was mildly this way in the Bush II years and maybe half-as-much with Obama.

Then I wondered about the ID thing...that if you were some black guy from NY City....if you go by what NPR says or any of the national news people....there's odds that you don't have an ID.  So you could not have attended the Bidden-Obama-Clinton fundraiser.

Getting this message via the news media?  That was a mistake.  

Business Model Chatter

 I took a business class while attending Louisiana Tech at night (while in the Air Force).  It was an interesting class because the professor (masters degree and all) had gone out five years prior with an idea....then failed miserably in 18 months.  He went through a learning process...writing up his own paper (30 pages) of where he went wrong in the process of building a business model.

He was brutally honest in the class....what he had been taught in the late 1960s for his degree...was great on paper, but in apply all that crap to reality, it was mostly worthless information.  It was stuff that college couldn't teach.

We spent 2.5 hours that night covering the singular topic, and I will admit....I had a lot of wise professors with Louisiana Tech...but this guy impressed me.

I left that night fairly well consumed on the topic of business models.  You have to have a written model in planning a business, and have an understanding of local/state taxes.  It impressed upon me....you have to account for sales taxes, property taxes, and the social security taxes of your employees.  You also have to plan out the cost of monthly operations with salary, and to be successful....you need plus-numbers.  

Meaning of plus-numbers?  You have to start out expecting dismal numbers for the first six months, and eventually see a trend developing where there is profit.  If at the first year concluding....this has yet to happen, you need to prepare for an end-process.

I sat this week looking at the California pursuit of $20-an-hour for restaurant workers.  Whatever business model they had for 2023....it's dissolved entirely now.

A burger operation now concerned?  If you had a burger-men dinner for $12 to $14 in 2023....under the new model.....you probably are selling the same menu for $16 to $18 now.  Figure the upswing on costs with taxation?  There's probably another 50-cents made for the state and local community.  

But here's the full impact....other folks (non-restaurant workers) now want the $20-an-hour deal.  Politicians?  Now in trouble.

People outside of California?  Well....they will want the $20-an-hour deal as well.  So at some point, you will see some Louisiana gas station, or some Alabama pancake 'house' doubling up their prices because their employees won't work for $15-an-hour anymore.....they want that California deal ($20).

Imagine driving up to bar where you used stop on Thursday nights after work....spending a couple of bucks on beer, and buying a $12 plate of food....but now....by the time you wrap up the beer, food and chatter with the buddies....you've spent $30. 

What I see coming?  I think a whole bunch of people are going to cut back on their budget, and just say 'no'.....they can't spend freely anymore.

That's the new reality.  And your business models?  Well....they will dissolve away.