Rebellion, Past and Future?

Enough about that. If you want to know more, listen to the podcast on my Substack page using the link at the bottom of this blog page.

The other thing I'm watching closely, is the rebellion taking place in Chicago against the federal troops that have invaded. First it's been the Homeland Security troops that have been terrorising Cicero and other Chicago suburbs in the last month, and their very aggressive and abusive tactics. It's like watching an invasion force from another country rolling through the streets, with guns out in plain site, troops walking down the main streets and using overly aggressive force to take people, and I mean innocent people, into custody to be disappeared, sometimes forever.

There are large protests taking place now, people using mobile phones to video document these troops, and it's starting to show. I wrote, referencing one news story from last week, about how one car load of people were following ICE agents around videoing them, when an agent deliberately crashed a government vehicle into their, then yelling, "Come and get me Bitch" or words to that affect, before shooting into a car door, hitting a woman five times. The door likely saved her life but you see where this is going, right?

Then, on Tuesday, elements of the Texas Army National Guard arrived to do what, no one is real clear about. Then images appeared on social media showing these overweight guard troops stepping out of their vehicles and they are now a laughing stock. From an old soldier's point of view, I asked myself, how are these part time soldiers even allowed to still wear the uniform? A couple of them in the pictures haven't met PT standards in years! And these are the soldiers who are going to be helping the ICE troopers? I seriously doubt that.

They're going to end up doing what some of the guard troops were doing in D.C. Running around performing trash policing around the ICE detention centres, when they're not standing guard duty at the facilities themselves. And the taxpayers are paying millions of dollars for this. Let me know if you think this is what we used to call, fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer money. When I was in the military, we had a 1-800 number we could call anonymously to report such things, but I guess they took that down a while ago. Probably during Trump's first term.

In economic news, the economic journalists are all saying the same thing. The U.S. stock market it headed for a major correction. The bubble it's in will be collapsing within months. I'm glad I moved my meagre investments out of the country a while ago. The good news, is that despite my small investitures, I'm making a tidy profit from my investments in foreign gold mining companies, a Canadian solar energy company, a pharmaceutical company in Ireland, and a bank in Brazil.

I'm watching as Europe is collapsing in on itself, and scrambling to find money to continue or even escalate the war against Russia. The latest trick is coming up with a different reason to justify the theft of Russian assets in a Bank in Belgium. It's bad enough they stole the interest money from this pile of Russian money, but now they're trying to steal the rest. Russia will retaliate and the EU will suffer for it, something they can ill afford to do anymore. Stupid humans.

Here in the U.S., the economy is starting to unravel. All of the legacy news media is toeing the party line and posting stories about how high the stock market is riding and the GDP is still up where it has been, the unemployment rates that are just starting to rise, and so forth. I think these days they call this gaslighting.

We are so screwed. I'm getting a little concerned as I don't think we have enough food stocked up to last a while, should everything fall apart next year. I say should but what I should have said is when. I am long past doubting that the U.S. is going to suffer from a recession soon. Some states are already suffering in a recession, but the news media won't say anything until all fifty states declare a recession. Trump will do everything he can to deny this of course.

I mentioned to my dear wife a couple of nights ago that we should probably look into stocking up on rice and dried beans. She says she has been already. The rice, not so much the beans. I do know that we're stocking up the freezers here. I'm good as long as the electricity stays on. I really regret not having any storage batteries for my rooftop solar panels but the cost is huge to install, and the batteries don't last as long as I need them to, so adding in a storage system is not worth the cost, yet. I'm hoping that the cost will come down significantly as technology improves.

But then, my house is in a country where the president is at war with the world's most prolific provider of cheap solar panels and backup storage systems. I doubt I will be seeing any relief from the sticker shock for a while, at least until after Trump is long gone from the white house and the U.S. elects a normal president. That's if the U.S. has free and fair elections ever again. Which is a little in doubt right now.

In other news, I'm still doing more home remodelling to finish out the year. My wife wanted new carpets for the master bedroom and the last guest room before winter sets in. Last winter, we redid the front spare bedroom after the water pipe break that leaked into the carpet there. So, she decided that we needed to finish out the rest of the bedrooms this fall before the cold weather sets in.

What can I say, happy wife, happy life. We'll have more updates to the house next year I'm sure, but maybe not if the economy crashes. That's the other reason I didn't say no. I figured that if I have to make an major expenditures, it's best to get them out of the way this year. I may not be able to next year.

I'm still struggling with this photography teacher. I found out in today's class that I'm not the only one who thinks she's a flake. There's another senior in this class with me, who is a year older than I am, and when I made a comment about the teacher today, he turned around and agreed with me. We both think she's flighty and not a good teacher. I think he's auditing this class like I am. I'm so glad I didn't pay the full tuition price for this class. I would be livid by now and wanting a refund. But since I'm there for free, I'll put up with her for a few more weeks to keep learning as best as I can. I am learning things and that's a good thing, but I'll never, ever sit in one of her classes again, now that I know who she is. I'm even a little concerned about attending the Landscape Photography course they offer next fall. I'm wondering if that instructor is going to be another flake. I was going to actually pay for that one but now, I'm having doubts. We'll see.

I'm getting ready to start marketing my book again soon. I tried some online marketing last spring that netted little results but another entrepreneur contacted my on LinkedIn again and has offered me, what sounds like, an inexpensive online marketing campaign that I'm thinking about. I haven't made a decision yet as I want to check these people out a little more before I say yes.