Good morning everyone I am back and I would like to thank the Sheriff for covering for me last week. We spent Thanksgiving with the family up north and we had a great time. Here are your questions.
1) Have you put up your Christmas tree?
2) Have you put up any other Christmas decorations?
3) Do you go driving around looking at the Christmas decorations?
4) Do you remember the last time you did go driving around looking at the Christmas decorations?
Hello, boys and girls! How are you? Did you survive the big snowstorm? More of a pain in the butt than anything else. Our excellent public work employees moved the snow swiftly and surely. Thank you. By the time I hit the road, the streets were cleared. Of course, I didn't have to shovel the snow. I understand it was wet and neavy. Thank you Señor Zanza and Junior for clearing our house and driveway.
How about dem Packers? I'm almost ashamed to say I'm a Packer fan. Think McCarthy will get sacked? We''ll see. Anyway, they're facing the Carolina Panthers in their next game, perhaps the only team sorrier than the Pack. If we don't beat them, we're out of the playoffs. What the heck happened to them? Was it injuries? Bad coaching? Poor throws by Rodgers? What?
Here are the standings in the Irregular Football League:
OK, I've sunk a bit, but, unlike the Packers, I'm assured of being in the playoffs. Mr OrbsCorbs' team is showing remarkable prpgress, but The Mighty Bears have us both beat.
Soon it will be December and the countdown begins to Christmas. Junior is on his very best behavior because he wants to impress "Santa Claus." I think he wants something for his car, but I don't know what. As far as I'm concerned, he should wish for a whole new car. He drives around in that wreck like he's in the Indy 500. He's on Señor Zanza's insurance, so I shouldn't complain.
Everywhere you go, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Our early winter has brought on early celebrating. Christmas parties are popping up all over the place. If you can't make it to one, throw one yourself. All you need are booze, glasses, and Christmas CDs. Play those CDs until you're sick of them. Then throw them in the garbage. You can only hear certain songs a number of times before you go berserk. I'm surprised there haven't been any mass shootings over this. I don't think that Christmas music makes you more likely to buy anything, It's just an annoyance.
Daily my answering machinwe has scams on it. It's incredible the stuff that's out there. And people fall for them over and over again. It makes me think of doing a Zoltar scam. I wonder how much money I'd make? I wonder if I could sleepr at night.
I love you all, just like Santa. Behave and be careful when dealing with winter's wrath. You're all my friends.
Stay warm and drive very carefully. Your vehicle could slip and slide on the ice and frozen snow. If you have 4-wheel drive, good for you! Please realize that most people don't have it and therefore may go slower than you'd like. Go to a rally if you want to speed. _________________________ Please donate: paypal.me/jgmazelis If you don't like PayPal, send me a note at madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com and I'll send you my street address so you can send a check or money order. Thank you.
Hey Artie, is there anything that can be done so that the Christmas and the New Year’s can always be on the same days every year? I got a heck of a time keeping track of when they’re supposed to be year to year and sometimes I end up missing them altogether. And when the Christmas comes on the weekend, the workingman really gets screwed, ain’a? —Your buddy Little Jimmy Iodine
I’m with you, pally. The holiday days need be made more convenient and just gosh darn more focking practical for the modern man. Behold, let’s say we could give a rat’s ass as to when the actual Dec. 24 fell and instead always put the Christmas Eve on a Monday with the Christmas Day always on the Tuesday. Eureka!—most of us could worm a four-day weekend out of a set-up like that and we’d arrange the New Year’s likewise. Sure, there’d be plenty of heat coming out the ears of your blubbering, blabbering traditionalists. Screw ’em. Where were they when the powers-that-be dicked with Lincoln, Washington, King and Columbus and made their big day always be a Monday? Hey, Jesus may have died for our sins but the Ol’ Railsplitter freed the slaves and that ain’t beanbag. Dear Sir: A lady friend of mine believes that Santa can’t possibly be a man. Logic tells her Santa is a woman for more than the reasons I’ll mention here: Men can’t pack a bag. Men don’t answer their mail. They aren’t interested in stockings unless someone’s wearing them, not to mention that being responsible for Christmas would require commitment. —Stormy Daniels
I would suggest that your friend simply consider the symbolic imagery that surrounds the Santa mythology to know that the fat man is no “skirt.” To deliver his goods, Santa comes in and out a hot chimney repeatedly rather than slide up and down on a big ol’ candy cane. According to my good book, that alone qualifies him as a male of the heterosexual nature who really knows from around-the-world in a single night, ain’a? Hey turkey neck, how come you’re so full of crap all the time? —Ernie
Yes, holiday stress has been known to smite the best of us, even the knobshine who sent me the above letter. This stress can cause some to lash out at the ones they love and/or respect the most, not to mention their intellectual and social superiors. I would advise this correspondent to consider the three-step stress-buster program I follow religiously at the first sign that I may ring in the new year by wringing someone’s neck: One, light up a nice, relaxing cigarette. Two, crank up the thermostat. Three, mix another hot focking toddy. And here’s a bonus tip specifically for the letter writer: kiss my sorry ass, dickweed. Dear Mr. Kumbalek, I’m having a problem with my husband. He thinks he’s a refrigerator. I consulted a psychologist about this who told me not to be too concerned, that it’s a relatively harmless complex. But the problem is that my husband snores with his mouth open and the light keeps me awake. What am I to do? —Mrs. Youngman
I don’t know what your focking problem has to do with the holidays, but try pulling his plug. My son, do you foresee peace on Earth any time soon? —Pope Francis
Well sir, betweenst you and me, if not for the bullshit that organized religion and its goddamn followers spew out all the time like crap through a goose—yeah yeah, you betcha we could have “peace on Earth” sooner rather than later. On this topic, allow me to quote crooner-as-god Mr. Frank Sinatra (The Chairman of the Board, or depending on your gender, also known as the Chairman of the Broad), from a 1963 Playboy interview, words, if taken to heart, just might calm down the hullabaloo in the Middle East for starters: “I’ve always had a theory that whenever guys and gals start swinging, they begin to lose interest in conquering the world. They just want a comfortable pad and stereo and wheels, and their thoughts turn to the good things of life—not to war. They loosen up, they live and they’re more apt to let live. Dig?”
“Dig” I do, Ol’ Blue Eyes, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek, and I told you so.
Read this. Share This.
~ Residents were not allowed to see the developer's agreement with
Foxconn until AFTER it was approved by Trustees who could not discuss
it.
~ Appraisals for purchased properties that appear to exceed the
village's stated "formula" are being withheld from public view by
village attorneys.
~ At least 18 eminent domain actions were filed against residents by
the Village Administrator which were never discussed or approved by
Trustees in open and public meetings.
~ No one knows what Foxconn plans to make.
~ No one knows what chemicals Foxconn plans to use.
~ No one know what kind of workers Foxconn plans to hire.
~ No one knows what Foxconn plans to do with 2000 acres of extra land
the village is purchasing and moving out residents to benefit Foxconn.
PLAINFIELD -
A subsidiary of Taiwan-based Foxconn/Hon Hai Technology Group has
announced plans to reduce its workforce in Plainfield. Q-Edge Corp.
says it will lay off more than 150 employees at the Hendricks County
facility over the next three months.
In a notice to the state, Q-Edge says the layoffs are "due to changes
in our business and production objectives." The company says the
layoffs are expected to begin "shortly," though a specific time frame
was not given.
The majority of the affected positions include manufacturing and
assembly employees, as well as related office personnel. The layoffs
are expected to be permanent, however the company says "Should the
Company experience a return of such business, these employees may be
considered for rehire, but this cannot be determined at this time."
Inside INdiana Business has reached out to Foxconn for more information.
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/story/39538585/layoffs-planned-for-plainfield-plant
And so it begins.....
Update 6: While we wait to learn what was discussed during Mary
Barra's Monday afternoon meeting with Larry Kudlow, here's a chart to
put today's job cuts in context: GM's job cuts are the seventh largest
since 2001. GM also claimed the sixth-place spot with layoffs of some
20,000 workers in Detroit during the depths of the crisis.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-26/gm-expected-close-100-year-old-ontario-plant-car-sales-faltershttps://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/ford-is-basically-giving-up-on-us-car-business-and-gm-is-not-far-behind.html
It will make the decision for Foxconn to delay development all the
easier.... although that was probably the plan all along.
Gonna also be a long cold Winter - no sunspot activity - predictions
once again of a mini-ice age. Lots of construction Workers going to be
laid off - and find themsleves in an economic crunch. It happened to
me.
Daily Job Cuts - it can be gut wrenching to look at....
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/
Here is what a SmartCity in China does ...... Cory Mason can't wait!
Beijing plans to reward and punish its residents based on data that
will be collected from various departments monitoring citizens’ social
behavior, according to a detailed “action plan” posted on Monday to
the city’s municipal website.
By the beginning of 2020, the announcement declares, China’s capital
city will have all residents officially locked into the permanent
surveillance program, part of a broader effort to have every Chinese
citizen rated on a “social credit system” decreeing what public
services a person can use based on their obedience to laws and loyalty
to the communist regime.
The government will use the data collected to assess citizens’
behavior to decide if an individual is law-abiding and “trustworthy”
to the Communist Party.
Residents who behave properly in the eyes of the Chinese government
will receive high credit scores, while residents who misbehave will
receive low scores, causing them to lead more difficult lives.
“Efforts will be made to build a market supervision mechanism with
corporate credit as the core,” states Beijing’s municipal website,
adding that it will explore the implementation of what it calls “the
personal integrity project,” which will utilize residents’ credit
scores for “market access, public services, tourism,” and “fields such
as entrepreneurship and job hunting.”
Higher scores can also open the “green channel,” which will expedite
residents’ applications for higher quality “education and medical
resources.”
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/11/23/beijing-debuts-plan-monitor-behavior-every-resident-end-2020/
Impoverishing the Masses is Conservation by Other Means - and will be
necessary when the oil shortages begin.....
RACINE — After being named the fourth-worst area in the U.S. for black Americans last year, the Racine area has been named the third-worst city this year, according to a recent 24/7 Wall St. article.
The list was created by Delaware-based financial news and opinion company 24/7 Wall St., and was compiled using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey. The study factored in household income, poverty, adult high school and bachelor’s degree attainment, home ownership and unemployment.
The ranking also used recent data from The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit dedicated to criminal justice reform.
According to 24/7 Wall St., the 2018 top five worst areas/cities for black Americans, all of which are located in the Midwest, are:
The night descending on Paris has brought no ease of tensions over
fuel price hikes. ‘Yellow Vest’ protesters set more barricades ablaze,
turning the French capital into a kind of war zone.
The filmed scenes resembled street battles, with rioters engaging in
scuffles with police, which struggled to bring the situation under
control.
The video shows brazen protesters setting barricades and tents on
fire, as well as riot police using tear gas and water cannons to
disperse the crowds. People have been venting their anger for the past
two weeks over rising fuel prices and a government-proposed fuel tax,
which is due to come into force in January 2019.
https://www.rt.com/news/444817-paris-protests-night-fire/
I added some annotations to the IEA Graph - which only predicts the
future, and may be completely wrong. With enough technology + time, we
could be mining asteroids and the Planets - or discover completely new
and abundant resources to use as fuel to maintain Industrial
Civilization.
There are Optimists, Pessimists and Realists. Some say that more
people on Planet Earth = more minds to solve problems and create
solutions.
Some say that we have already overshot carrying capacity and are about
to fall off the Seneca Cliff. That solutions to the problems
Industrial Civilization only adds to complexity and ensures a Seneca
Cliff collapse. I'm in agreement with that.
There is absolutely NO solutions to our dilemma, because Humans can't
seem to grasp that creating cooperative and sustainable civilization
requires sacrifice by all - we must all agree to give up something....
but we only want more.
We can only continue to carry on with BAU (Business as Usual) until we can't.
The fewer people that can afford fuel - the more there is for those
who can. Those at the top, will push down those at the bottom.
When the petro-dollar dies, so does our way of life - what then?
Right now - People from Africa,the Middle East and South America are
fleeing the endless wars and poverty, coming to Europe and America.
What are you willing to give up - what part of your slice of the pie
will you share?
Or, as George Bush declared....
“THE American way of life is not up for negotiation.” That was the
stance struck by the elder George Bush at the first Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He was responding to the thousands of green,
anti-capitalist and other activists who were claiming that the United
States, then as now the world's biggest energy consumer, was also its
biggest polluter. That makes it all the more striking that his son has
just proposed environmental policies that, he says, will
“fundamentally alter the American way of life in a positive way.”
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2003/02/13/a-greener-bush
Endless wars for Oil and to prop up the Petro-Dollar - until the last
American Soldier is dead.
Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 8:20 a.m. CT Nov. 23, 2018 | Updated 7:33 p.m. CT Nov. 23, 2018
The first structure on the Foxconn construction site, a 120,000-square-foot "multi-purpose building," is up, with the building expected to be substantially completed late this year. Construction is well underway at the site of the Foxconn Technology Group $10 billion manufacturing and research complex in Mount Pleasant on Monday, October 22, 2018. The eventual 2,800 acre facility will produce high-definition display panels. - Photo by Jim Nelson and Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel(Photo: Jim Nelson and Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The state's deal with Foxconn Technology Group is done and the contracts signed, but the recently unveiled agreements between Amazon and New York and Virginia have put Wisconsin’s subsidies for the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer in the spotlight again.
Comparing the deals is muddy work, but even by the most generous reckoning, it appears Wisconsin is paying more per job than will go to Amazon for its much-watched “second headquarters” developments in New York and Virginia.
Whether Wisconsin’s huge incentive package proves to be worthwhile — and Amazon comparisons aside, many question the wisdom of the very practice of public subsidies for corporations — won’t be known for years
.
Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 12:12 p.m. CT Nov. 16, 2018 | Updated 3:38 p.m. CT Nov. 23, 2018
Greg Septon returns a young peregrine falcon to its nest box on the roof of a Veolia North America building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bird and three other nestlings were banded as part of the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project led since 1986 by Septon.(Photo: Paul A. Smith)
The bird specimen bottle had been sealed for nearly 60 years, collecting dust in a storage area at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
In December 1979, Greg Septon, then 27 years old and a taxidermist for the organization, grew curious about its contents.
He held up the jar of murky alcohol and looked for clues. His heart jumped: A notched beak was pressed up against the glass.
A
licensed falconer and raptor bander, Septon immediately knew the jar
held falcon chicks. Once opened, the container produced
three young peregrine falcons.
A tag inside the bottle revealed the birds' origin.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 at 9:00 AM by Tamarine Cornelius
http://www.wisconsinbudgetproject.org/wisconsins-tax-system-requires-the-least-from-those-who-have-the-most-2
Wisconsin is a better place for everyone when hard-working families
are able to provide for their families and climb the economic ladder.
But when the lion’s share of economic gains goes to a small number of
wealthy and well-connected individuals who have rigged the system for
their own benefit, it is more difficult for Wisconsin families to get
ahead. Wisconsin’s tax system contributes to the growing concentration
of wealth by calling on the richest residents to pay the smallest
share of their income in taxes, and requiring residents with low and
moderate incomes to pay more than their fair share.
Wisconsin residents with the lowest incomes pay about a third more of
their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest residents,
according to new figures from the Institute on Taxation and Economic
Policy. The poorest 20% of Wisconsin residents—a group with an average
income of $14,700—pays 10.1 cents out of every $1 of their income in
state and local taxes on average. In comparison, the richest residents
of Wisconsin, who have an average income of $1.2 million, pay just 7.7
cents out of every $1 in income in state and local taxes.
Wisconsin is one of 45 states that taxes poorer residents at a higher
rate than richer residents. Our neighbor Minnesota is one of the
states that provides a model for a better tax system, one that taxes
poorer residents a smaller share of their income and the richest
residents a higher share. In Minnesota, taxpayers in the lowest 20% by
income pay 8.7% of their income in state and local taxes on average,
lower than the 10.1% paid by the lowest income group in Wisconsin.
That relationship is reversed at the highest income level: The top 1%
in Minnesota pays 10.1% of their income in taxes on average, compared
to just 7.7% in Wisconsin.
Our rigged tax system is a major driver of inequality and contributes
to the increasing concentration of income and wealth in a few
hands—hands that are most likely to be white, due to a long history of
racial discrimination. The recent tax changes at the federal level
under the GOP Tax Plan also demonstrate how our tax system can be
manipulated to funnel resources to a small group of wealthy, typically
white individuals. The tax cuts that President Trump signed into law
last year reward white wealth at the expense of the economic security
of poor, middle-class households and households of color. On average,
white households receive $2,020 from the Trump tax cuts, Latino
households receive $970, and Black households receive $840, according
to research from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Even
among the ultra-wealthy, whites fare better, because the law gives
bigger tax cuts to income earned in ways that are more typical of
white individuals than individuals of color.
Wisconsin can improve its state and local tax system in a way that
gives all families greater access to opportunity, regardless of race,
ethnicity, or income. Here are four steps state lawmakers should take
to make sure Wisconsin families and communities can thrive, and what
they’re doing instead:
Boost tax credits aimed at supporting taxpayers with low and moderate
incomes. Instead, Wisconsin lawmakers have cut and/or restricted
eligibility for two important tax credits in recent years: the Earned
Income Tax Credit (EITC), which gives a bigger tax refund to working
parents, and the Homestead Credit, which keeps property taxes
manageable for people with low incomes.
Reduce tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy. Wisconsin lawmakers
have introduced several new loopholes in recent years that direct
resources into the pockets of the very highest earners and shut out
nearly everyone else. One example is the state’s Manufacturing and
Agriculture Credit, which allows the owners of manufacturing companies
and some other businesses to pay next to nothing in income taxes.
Implement highly progressive income tax brackets and rates. An income
tax rate structure that taxes people with higher incomes at higher
rates can counteract the effect of regressive sales and property
taxes. In Wisconsin, the record on this is mixed: In recent years,
state lawmakers broadened the gap between the top and bottom marginal
tax rates, but also collapsed two tax brackets into one, giving
taxpayers with moderately high incomes a significant income tax rate
cut.
Design a state tax system that relies more on the income tax than the
sales tax. States with no income tax typically have a very high sales
tax, and shift the responsibility of paying for schools, roads, and
communities onto those who can least afford it.
Tamarine Cornelius
RACINE COUNTY — The rise of
technology and the smartphone have resulted in many people documenting
their lives through social media. Whether it’s Snapchat, Twitter,
Instagram or Facebook, many people share their most important moments —
and their mundane ones — on social media platforms.
This
has provided a unique opportunity for law enforcement, providing police
with an additional tool to assist in their investigations, particularly
when it comes to the activity on a suspect’s Facebook account.
http://rockythedog.net/spooky/NROp1.html
It's always strange.... because my cousins had a Rocky the Dog - who
actually would retrieve thrown rocks - got to visit them once in
California - Granada Hills area.
Well, my Uncle Ron worked overseas until he died at an early age - he
enjoyed Cottage Cheese, Vodka, and Winston Cigarettes for Breakfast!
Spoke Farsi and lived under the Shah - kicked out under Kohmenini -
went to live on in Saudi and eventually dies while working in Oman for
the Minister of Defense.
He dressed in traditional Arab dress! White Robe and coiled red
headdress! I have a pic somewhere.
This Trowbridge Ford is an interesting guy - with his "wacky claims" -
but there is a lot of truth in there.....
Trowbridge Ford is a former US Army Counter Intelligence Corps
analyst. Now retired in Sweden, he theorises about deep events and
deep politics.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Trowbridge_Ford
Akihiko Kondo, 35, who teaches at a middle school in Tokyo, married Hatsune Miku, a virtual hologram of a teenage girl, earlier this month, Reuters reports. The hologram, which takes the shape of a 16-year-old girl
with long, turquoise ponytails, "is a singing voice synthesizer featured
in over 100,000 songs,” according to Crypton Future Media, the company behind the digital character.
I remember Chalmers Johnson once describing to me his surprise on
discovering that, after the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union
imploded, the whole global military structure that Washington had set
up -- which he later came to call “America’s empire of bases” or our
“globe-girdling Baseworld” -- chugged right on. It didn't matter that
there was no real enemy left on Planet Earth. It was, I believe, what
finally convinced Johnson that this country was indeed an empire. And
here’s the strange thing, though it goes remarkably unnoticed in our
world: that vast global structure of military garrisons, unprecedented
in history, ranging from some the size of American towns to small
outposts, has remained in place to this very second. Though little
attention has been paid in recent years -- despite the fact that it
couldn’t be a more prominent feature on this planet, geo-militarily
speaking -- there remain something like 800 American garrisons
worldwide (not counting, of course, the more than 420 military bases
located in the continental U.S., Guam, and Puerto Rico), as David Vine
reported in his path-breaking 2015 book, Base Nation.
There’s never been anything quite like it, not for the Roman Empire,
the British Empire, or the Soviet one either. And as TomDispatch
regular and U.S. Army Major Danny Sjursen reports today, with our
military now in the process of transforming the whole planet into an
even more militarized place, those bases will be all the more
relevant.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
And a comment from Mr. Roboto!
Cheap conventional light-sweet crude oil peaked in early 2006, but it
doesn’t seem like it to an awful lot of people living in the “big
shitties of the FSA” (hat-tip to RE) because improvements in
extraction and refinement technology, tar-sands, and shale-oil
fracking are artificially extending the peak, albeit very tenuously.
However, the price we will pay for doing so will be a “toboggan-sled
ride” down once world terminal decline in liquid fossil-fuel
production hits, probably in 2021 or 2022. And the central-bank
printed-money force-feeding of the world financial economy has
resulted in steroidal inflation of the markets that will make the
crash that happens in ’21 or ’22 that much harder. After all, when you
prevent the self-rebalancing of a dynamic system by forcing even more
imbalance, the rebalancing will be that much more severe in its
effects when it finally does happen. So if the way things are right
now gives us the likes of Orban, Bolsonara, and Trump, I shudder to
imagine with whom the future I envision will gift us!
https://www.economic-undertow.com/2018/10/06/finance-crisis-political-crisis/#comments
Hello, my dears! How are you? Most of that nasty white stuff has melted away, but there's still some out there. Be careful. I almost fell on my dupa the other day. Winter has started early and that puts me in a bad mood.
The Packers' performance also put me into a bad mood. There's all this supposed talent on the team, yet they can't put together two consecutive wins. Aaron Rodgers should reimbirse the team for the time he didn't play. I would feel terribly guilty collecting all those millions while I sat at homr "healing." Trade Rodgers. He breaks too easily.
Here are the Irregular Football League's standings:
Omg, I've dropped two places while Mr. OrbsCorbs has gained two. At least I still have a playoff spot.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Hurray! Señor Zanza will be cooking the turkey. We have a very traditional meal. Afterward, Junior is cleaning up. Hurray! There's always a ton of leftovers, so let us know what your needs are. The food will be delicious.
Let's not lose sight of the real meaning of Thanksgiving. It's a day to give thanks. Give thanks no matter how embittered you are. Give thanks you live in the USA and not Africa. Give thanks for your clothing. For the roof over your head and the walls that keep out the weather. Give thanks that you can give thanks. In some countries, you'd be shut down.
The fires in California have taken hundreds of homes and people Be grateful that you don't live there.
The list is almost endless. We are blessed in this country, so very blessed.
I wish all of you the very best meal. Happy Thanksgiving!
I love you all. Enjoy what you can of the weather. School buses are out, so watch out for them and their passengers. The days will shorten until the winter solstice, then start to lengthen. Merry Christmas! _________________________ Please donate: paypal.me/jgmazelis If you don't like PayPal, send me a note at madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com and I'll send you my street address so you can send a check or money order. Thank you.
I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So listen, here we are, another Thanksgiving for crying out loud. Didn’t we just have one last year, what the fock? What more can I say, so stop me, or don’t, if you’ve heard this before that you shouldn’t expect much of an essay this week from me for your Thanksgiving-holiday needs, no sir. I don’t have time to self-importantly gasbag some kind of treacly tripe about what we all have to be thankful for. My personal Thankful List runs from A to A, with A being that I’m thankful I’m not serving hard time with no chance for parole.
Although I could be convinced to be thankful that our focking Packers still have a chance to win six, seven games total this season—eight is a little optimistic for my blood—but I do think they’re a lock for third place in their division, I kid you not.
So no essay ’cause I got to get to the store and pick up fixings for my Thanksgiving feast, for which I enjoy boiling up a nice ring baloney because I cannot eat turkey out of respect for our Founding Fathers who dang near made it our national bird for christ sakes—I’m guessing because of the turkey’s much ballyhooed beauty and intelligence, what the fock.
And I guess had they made that decision, we would now be basting and carving the traditional Thanksgiving eagle come the fourth Thursday each November. Well, maybe not necessarily the eagle, but whatever bird it would be (tufted titmouse?), it sure as hell wouldn’t be the turkey ’cause you just don’t cram a thermometer up the butt of the national bird, I don’t care who you are.
But if it were to be the eagle for Thanksgiving, you know what? I got a sneaking hunch that it doesn’t taste just like a chicken, no sir. In fact, I got a funny feeling that the eagle tastes just like a woman’s saddle shoe, size seven, shoelace included. And so I guess I could be thankful that the Founding Fathers failed to make the gobbler our nation’s fowl symbol for all that’s noble and strong about our country. Besides, the turkey carries enough symbolic weight as it is, witnessed by the fact that we elect so damn many of them to Congress every couple years.
Also no essay since it’s been my experience that regular readers aren’t up to navigating my little section of this here back page this time of year anyways on account of either being struck down by the dropsies from the too-much holiday feasting or they’re busy navigating their way out of county jail due to the aggravated battery charge acquired right before the pumpkin pie was served at the extended-family Thanksgiving get-together. Yeah, I know, sometimes the in-laws really do deserve what’s coming to them, civil ordinance be damned, what the fock.
But before I go, it’s a yearly tradition of mine to provide to those of you’s who indeed may read this page before trotting off to your holiday obligation, a little something you can take along and share at your gathering, so you don’t just show up empty-handed as the free-loading fockstick your relatives, friends and acquaintances have come to expect, if not dread. So if you’re too damn lazy or depressed to bring a dish to pass, a humorous story would be a nice alternative, ain’a? So a bunch of preachers are having a little ecumenical confab in the rectory of a Catholic priest. Just as they’re silently girding up to air out some of their differences, the good father offers each of them a whiskey to ease tensions, to clear the air of religious napalm, so to speak. “Don’t mind if I do, thanks,” says the Methodist vicar, who belts down a good three fingers of Wild Turkey. “And you?” asks the priest of the fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist Baptist Bible-thumper. “What?!?!!” shouts the born-againer, shocked to his core. “Drink alcohol?! I’d rather debauch in a whorehouse!” At this, the Methodist spits his whiskey back into the glass and hollers, “Whoa, Nellie! You mean we get a choice?” Ba-ding!
OK, “’nuff said,” ain’a, except to say that wherever you find yourself this Thanksgiving time of year, god speed and remember to fight the good fight, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.
Let the parsing begin. Wishful thinking presented as fact by Wisconsin commerce types. Even Tommy Thompson says he'd have negotiated a better deal. Mt. Pleasant just signed on to the whole deal with no questions asked.
On a per-job basis it appears Wisconsin paid more in incentives for its economic development prize Foxconn Technology Group than New York’s and Virginia’s incentives for Amazon.com Inc., but those involved in Wisconsin’s Foxconn deal say the state will get more bang for taxpayers’ bucks.
Wisconsin’s state financial incentives to Foxconn will reach $3 billion if the company spends $10 billion on its Racine County plant and equipment and hires 13,000 employees at an average wage of $53,000-plus.
Initial reports on the Amazon HQ2 incentive packages showed $1.5 billion in incentives from New York and $573 million for northern Virginia. The company plans to hire 25,000 employees at each location with average annual salary of $150,000.
However, the total bundle for New York is $2.8 billion including both state funds and tax breaks from the city, according to the Washington Post. And the Virginia package reaches $1.85 billion when including promises of state investments in higher education and improving the transportation system, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), points out that $1.35 billion of Wisconsin’s incentive package specifically ties to jobs Foxconn creates, while the rest is for construction. He compares it with job-creation incentives of about $1.7 billion each in New York and Virginia. Using those figures, Wisconsin is paying $103,00 per job while New York and Virginia each are paying about $68,000, Sheehy said.
“Wisconsin paid significantly more per job as an incentive,” he acknowledges.
On a per-job basis it appears Wisconsin paid more in incentives for its economic development prize Foxconn Technology Group than New York’s and Virginia’s incentives for Amazon.com Inc., but those involved in Wisconsin’s Foxconn deal say the state will get more bang for taxpayers’ bucks.
Sheehy also responded to the fact that while Foxconn agreed to pay an average annual salary of $53,875, Amazon says it will pay an average of $150,000 at its HQ2 sites. Sheehy believes the average Amazon employee will not receive that kind of salary and the figure is skewed by higher-paying positions in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.
On a per-job basis it appears Wisconsin paid more in incentives for its economic development prize Foxconn Technology Group than New York’s and Virginia’s incentives for Amazon.com Inc., but those involved in Wisconsin’s Foxconn deal say the state will get more bang for taxpayers’ bucks.Wisconsin’s state financial incentives to Foxconn will reach $3 billion if the company spends $10 billion on its Racine County plant and equipment and hires 13,000 employees at an average wage of $53,000-plus.Initial reports on the Amazon HQ2 incentive packages showed $1.5 billion in incentives from New York and $573 million for northern Virginia. The company plans to hire 25,000 employees at each location with average annual salary of $150,000.However, the total bundle for New York is $2.8 billion including both state funds and tax breaks from the city, according to the Washington Post. And the Virginia package reaches $1.85 billion when including promises of state investments in higher education and improving the transportation system, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), points out that $1.35 billion of Wisconsin’s incentive package specifically ties to jobs Foxconn creates, while the rest is for construction. He compares it with job-creation incentives of about $1.7 billion each in New York and Virginia. Using those figures, Wisconsin is paying $103,00 per job while New York and Virginia each are paying about $68,000, Sheehy said.“Wisconsin paid significantly more per job as an incentive,” he acknowledges.
It would appear that Village President David DeGroot and his goose- stepping and unquestioning minions on the Board have been outfoxxed by the Walker/Trump inspired political theater aka Fox-Scam - if it even happens.
And there is no guarantee it will.....
Good luck to a reckless and unquestioning Village Board - except Gary Feest - while Village President David DeGroot takes Village Taxpayers on a ride to the "wild side"
One malfeasant crime after another - right? Village President David DeGroot?
Please join Cindy and I is JUST SAYING NO to allowing Wisconsin’s very own Gang of Four, Governor Scott Walker, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, City of Racine Mayor Cory Mason & MTP President David DeGroot to violate the Wisconsin Constitution (and their Oath of Office) by granting special rights to Corporate interests, stealing people’s property, destroying multi-generational Farms alongside an entire long established Community, loosening environmental protections, permitting heavy metals water pollution, instituting slave labor wages, providing taxpayer subsidies to multi-billionaire Corporations, and politician overreach.
Impoverishing the masses is merely conservation by other means.
Let the parsing begin. Wishful thinking presented as fact by Wisconsin commerce types. Even Tommy Thompson says he'd have negotiated a better deal. Mt. Pleasant just signed on to the whole deal with no questions asked.
I am concerned that a Business, located at 1661 Douglas Ave., known as Flatiron Village Mall, has a license from City of Racine to operate a Gambling Hall - a BINGO operation, yet has not paid the property taxes due since 2011, and is currently, according to Racine County records, $217,604.36 in arrears. In addition, the building, affiliated with the non-profit Northside Redevelopment Project Inc, is being allowed to blight the neighborhood, as proper maintenance has not been attended to.
Note that former County Supervisor Ken Lumpkin is the Chairman - from the referenced 2017 Form 990.
Why is a BINGO Hall allowed to evade paying their property taxes from 2011 to the present, thus forcing the cost on others, allow the property to deteriorate, and yet still retain a privileged business operating license?
Engaging in frank and honest discussions is always of utmost importance. Therefore, in case that the Foxconn Development does not produce the desired/claimed financial effects for SE WI - perhaps a Technocracy, guided by Artificial Intelligence, might produce the desired outcome.
M. King Hubbert - of Shell Oil and Peak Oil fame was a Technocrat. I made a pilgrimage to visit the Georgia Guidestones - to see for myself. I also traveled through the Appalachians and visited the beginning of the Appalachian Trail.
Technocracy INC.
We are a non-profit membership organization founded in 1933.
Our Mission is to serve local and global communities by providing an informational network in support of a functional and thriving planet. We will inform, educate, and empower the public toward new approaches to sustainable systems by modeling cooperative systems and incorporating scientific research and cumulative ideas.
The City of Racine doesn't need 5 in the Mayor's office - nor a County Executive and his costly staff - it just needs one AI computer which will be the most cost effective solution for all and free up monies for debt service and actual performed services which will benefit the entire Community.
The State of WI STILL continues to FAIL - as evidenced by the recent posts of Menzie Chinn who is Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Please join Cindy and I is JUST SAYING NO to allowing Wisconsin’s very own Gang of Four, Governor Scott Walker, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, City of Racine Mayor Cory Mason & MTP President David DeGroot to violate the Wisconsin Constitution (and their Oath of Office) by granting special rights to Corporate interests, stealing people’s property, destroying multi-generational Farms alongside an entire long established Community, loosening environmental protections, permitting heavy metals water pollution, instituting slave labor wages, providing taxpayer subsidies to multi-billionaire Corporations, and politician overreach.
The 'Father' of Oil Well Firefighting & Blowout Control
Much of the film used in this video is very old and was originally shot on 8 MM format and converted to digital for production purposes; the quality is not very good, unfortunately.
Please note in this video that shot canisters (drums of explosives) used to extinguish well fires in the early years were actually placed at the base of a fire, in what is called the "mixing chamber" by carrying the can, or drum, in to the well by hand or by pushing the can into the fire via a trolley system. Both methods are shown in this film. The viewer must take a moment, close one's eyes, take a deep breath and imagine the balls these guys had to do what they did with unstable explosives.
By the early 1930's Kinley developed the use of Athey tracks to build a long boom that would be facilitate more precise shot placement.
There is actual footage in this video of a fire in Gladewater, Texas in 1931 where Kinley broke his ankle. Myron broke the same ankle and leg two more times in his career and was essentially left with a bad limp. It was this bad leg that prevented him from running from a Venezuelan blowout in 1942-1943 that caught fire while he was working on it. He was badly burned by that fire and spent six months in a hospital. On the Gladewater job his brother Floyd, along with others, can be seen carrying Myron away. Five years later Floyd was killed on a blowout in Goliad County.
Young Red Adair can be seen briefly in the clip, around 1948-49, not long after he was hired by Kinley.
Myron Kinley spent nearly 40 years teaching the entire world how to fight oil well fires and control blowing wells; many of the well control techniques Kinley developed 90 years ago are still being used today. Adair, Boots Hansen, Coots Matthews and Richard Hatteberg were all taught the business of oil well firefighting by Myron "Mac" Kinley.
Kinley's role in the protection of the worldwide oil and natural gas industry is unparalleled in history. Simply put, the oil and gas industry could have not succeeded without him. Adair often gets all the credit, but Kinley was the man that led the way.
The situation at Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands Operations has gone from bad to worse as the super-low oil price is now costing the industry billions of dollars each month. Unbelievably, the price for the Western Canadian Select heavy oil fell to a gut-wrenching $14.65 yesterday down from a high of $58 in May. Tar sands oil is now selling at an amazing $40 discount to U.S. West Texas Oil which is trading at $56.
Many “energy experts” have said that a Manhattan tar sands project could prevent oil decline in the future. But that’s not likely. Here are a few reasons why:
Reaching 5 Mb/d will get increasingly (energy) expensive, because there’s only enough natural gas to mine 29% of tar sands (and limited water as well). Using the energy of the tar sand bitumen itself would greatly reduce the amount that could be produced and dramatically increase the cost and energy to mine it.
Since there isn’t enough natural gas, many hope that nuclear reactors will replace natural gas. That would take a lot of time. Kjell Aleklett estimates it would take at least 7 years before a candu nuclear reactor could be built, and the Canadian Parliament estimates it would take 20 nuclear reactors to replace natural gas as a fuel source.
Mined oil sands have been estimated to have an energy returned on invested of EROI of 5.5–6 for mined tar sands (perhaps 10% of the 170 billion barrels), with in situ processing much lower at 3.5–4 (Brandt 2013). Right now, 90% of the reserves being developed are via higher-EROI mining, yet 80% of remaining oil sands reserves are in situ, so the remaining reserves will be much less profitable.
Counting on tar sands to replace declining conventional oil, with an EROI as high as 30 will be hard to accomplish, especially if it turns out to be the case that an EROI of 7 to 14 is required to maintain civilization as we know it (Lambert et al. 2014; Murphy 2011; Mearns 2008; Weissbach et al. 2013)
I believe the biggest problem with the sustainability of tar sands if we ignore the nasty environmental issues, is the low EROI – Energy Returned On Invested. As point (4) states, a minimum of 7-14 EROI is needed to maintain civilization. However, I believe the realistic range of a minimum EROI to sustain our modern societies is likely 10-12 EROI. So, shale oil at an EROI of 5/1 or less (probably much less) and tar sands at 4-6/1, these are not sustainable energy sources.
I'm taking the other side of the Foxconn gamble in SE WI - which is to say that it is destined for failure, was ill conceived from the beginning, and will only lead to the eventual and ultimate collapse of SE WI as part of Industrial Civilization. Understand that Collapse was always the end result - your actions only hastened it.
Politicians have to lie, because it is their only means of support.
They justify endless wars, instill fear, demand endless tribute, and bully the productive. Their ranks multiply until they become a unstoppable swarm whose demands exceed the capacity of the productive, rapes the land, and creates societal collapse. Soon to be coming to SE WI and beyond.
Amnesty International announced it would strip Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of its top award, saying it was “profoundly dismayed” at her failure to acknowledge the full scale of atrocities against the Rohingya people
.
Before you are tempted to view this as some kind of principled, honorable move on Amnesty’s part, stop yourself and check out its dubious government and corporate funding sources, its selective support for the concept of free speech and the fact that it spends quite a bit of time soft-pedaling Western imperialism and its atrocities while magnifying the wrongdoings of the West’s adversaries.
Amnesty’s attempt to win plaudits for its decision to revoke Suu Kyi’s award has come after mounting calls for the controversial figure’s 1991 Nobel Peace Prize to be stripped from her. Nearly half a million people have signed a Change.org petition calling for the Nobel Committee to take back the award.
The first unworthy awardee that springs to mind is, of course, former US President Barack Obama, who, rather inexplicably, was presented with his Nobel Peace Prize a mere nine months into his first term as president on the basis that it seemed like he might do something worthy of the honor at some point in the future. Sadly for the Nobel Committee, which clearly had high hopes for the man, Obama went on to bomb seven different countries over the course of his two terms.
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