It’s after 4:00 p.m. I finally finished another of my client’s 15-chapter chunks of his novel — he sent 60 chapters in chunks along about the end of March. In another couple of hours, I’ve got to go to choir. Now’s my chance to take a few minutes to unwind. Unwinding here usually means perusing the daily news headlines on Google News and (many) waypoints.
Paul Ryan, the in full ersatz William Tecumseh Sherman mode, tells us he’s not foolish enough…uhm…he’s not overproud enough to wish to be President. Okay. Another crazed right-winger who (we hope) will not go into the White House. Why would we want a President who’s so irresponsible he wants to stymie the budget at the cost of shutting down the government?
Sure beats me.
But…where IS the leader we need? Is he really the antique Bernie Sanders? Say it ain’t so! Hillary doesn’t strike me as a lot better than any of the other pols, although surely an experienced politician is what’s needed in the White House. Experience she’s got, in spades. I guess Bernie has plenty of experience…but a guy who comes right out and says he’s a socialist in this country could very well get his tuchus kicked from sea to shining sea.
Horrible.
Moving on, a recently unearthed, neglected study shows that you’re probably no less likely to die of heart failure if you stick to unsaturated fats than if you eat the stuff you enjoy: red meat with butter on it. In fact, in a newer study, the mortality rate for the men who were put on the low-saturated-fat, corn oil-enriched diet was higher than that of the cholesterol hogs. Some theorize this is because the omega-6 in polyunsaturated fats can, in high quantities, promote inflammation.
Hence, the hamburger defrosting in the microwave, soon to go on the grill.
Comes the monthly report from Fidelity: the thing turned 33 grand this month!
Holy mackerel. It was one damn good day at Black Rock, folks! That is significantly more than I was forced to draw down as this year’s RMD, which is what I’m living on in two thousand and aught-sixteen. If it doesn’t magically go away between now and the end of this year, I will feel not nearly as bad about that RMD as I did last year!
DuckDuck and Drake‘s poolside (and in-the-pool) romance continues, though she spends much more time on the nest and leaves him to float around looking baffled. This morning while walking the hounds, I came across another pair of ducks, only she was mostly white! Must be the offspring of some escaped domestic duck. The mallard accompanying her was smaller than Drake: whether he was kind of puny and so couldn’t get anything better than a dirty-white mate or whether he was just very young, I dunno. They were swimming in a yard’s irrigation.
The thought of buying my friend Nancy’s house with irrigation does appeal. How nice it would be to have a LAWN! I wonder how much Gerardo would charge to mow it? Ruby so loves to wallow in grass that this afternoon she was out in back rubbing her head and neck on the weeds growing among the pebbles between the flagstones. She’d be in dog heaven in a house with a real lawn.
On the other hand…I do like my house. And I know what problems it has and does not have. Do I really want to purchase a whole new set of problems?
And why didn’t the Navy crew that was beset by Russian jets buzzing their battleship blow the bastards out of the air? Here’s the Navy’s excuse: provocative but not threatening. Uh huh. “‘You don’t get to kill people just because they’re being annoying,’ said (Capt. Rick) Hoffman, who commanded frigate DeWert and cruiser Hue City.” Well, folks…if that had been a Chinese or a Russian warship and our guys had gotten up to those antics, you could be sure several American pilots would have been resting at the bottom of the sea.
Possibly I’m irresponsible enough to be President of the United States myself? If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve. Maybe.
That’s a nice gain but just curious if you’ve considered going into less volatile investments at this stage. Sure it’s been nice to ride up and see the gains, but the current market makes me very nervous. It seems all that’s holding it together is Janet Yellen saying that everything is peachy. Yes, I know you don’t fight the Fed, but at a certain point, she can’t keep pushing the market higher 1% per day forever can she? It reminds me very much of how things were during the dot-com bubble, when the Nasdaq was up 5% a week and there was no way it could go down, right?
It’s pretty diversified. My guys have managed to minimize losses in down times, even though — like everyone else — we lost a large chunk of our shirts in the crash of the Bush economy. The reason it’s a nice gain is because there’s a lot of money in there. And I have money in other kinds of investments, such as real estate. That gain is really only 3.4% of net worth. 😉
I think if you have money in the stock market, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you’re GOING to lose money now and again. The best way to minimize that fact of life is to invest in a low-overhead index fund, such as one with Vanguard or Fidelity.
$33K is nothing to sneeze at….Like you I was pleasantly surprised when my statements came in this quarter. BUT being a “worrier” it would seem this is as good as it gets and I worry that this gain will evaporate. The fact that Peabody went BK and hardly a ripple shows up on the stock market worries me a bit. Not so long ago “coal was king” and now it is to blame for all or most of our ills….Kind of like tobacco not so long ago. Add to this the upcoming election and I get ill. The choices are awful IMHO and as crazy as it sounds I find Bernie the most palatable. Trump is nuts…Cruz reminds me of a used car salesman….and I don’t trust Hilary as far as I can throw her. I’ve done quite a bit of reading on “Whitewater” and I tell ya I still don’t understand why Bill AND Hilary aren’t doing time. Instead he is a past Prez and she is trying to be the next one. My question…this is the best and brightest? Not feeling it….I’m thinking Paul Ryan will feel compelled to run next election….just like he felt compelled to be Speaker. As I see it he was pursued to be Speaker…. he did not seek it. Thinking the same thing will happen for 2020 Election…to save the Republican Party. Gonna be interesting to see what happens when Trump is denied despite having the most committed delegates at the Convention….Your thoughts?
We are so far between the devil and the deep blue sea, it’s not even measurable.
Did you hear that turkey from North Dakota on NPR this morning, the one who said “primaries are meaningless” and “a vote in a primary doesn’t count”?
Yes, I also think Bernie is the least offensive. I also think we need to get away from the “dynastic” approach to the US Presidency. That is something that needs to stop.
I am pretty conservative financially and I was a child in the ’50s and never gave a thought to being blown up in a nuclear war. However, the very idea of Donald Trump sitting in the White House with his hand on THE button gives me a lot of nightmares.
The man is a five year old in an old guy’s body.
Yes. He’s pretty scary. And I was scared to death throughout the 1950s.