Archive for December, 2025

Five Thoughts and Observations Under the Fedora: $269.9 Gas in Fitchburg, A Temporary Sign?, Open Roads, , Reagan 1981-84 redux? and A function of math not a Miracle of God

Posted: December 14, 2025 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, economy, politics, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

This week I picked up my son from work and had him pump gas for me at the station near my church on Mechanic Street in Fitchburg because it’s the cheapest gas in town. The price was $273.9 and as I was almost empty it took a lot to fill it.

The very next day gas was at $269.9 which both annoyed me as I had filled up the day before but is a huge sign. If that price continues to drop it will mean an awful lot of extra cash in people’s pockets & a lowering of costs to every single business that gets a delivery by truck.

If this becomes a trend then it could be the sign of the turn in the economy that will change the dynamic in this country for 2026 or 2028.

Last year’s Christmas peak season, the final one of the Biden years was the shortest and weakest in my decade at the warehouse that I work at.

After dropping from 3 local warehouses to 1 during the 2nd year of Biden and losing our 2nd shift in the 3rd Biden year, last year’s peak lasted from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. By Tuesday every temp was gone and peak was finished with voluntary days off being offered.

Back during Trump’s first term we would be flat out for 3-4 weeks from Black Friday on, we’d have 10 hour days and at least one mandatory overtime day a week. We would bring in 100’s of temps to keep up with the work who would usually be kept till about the 14th or 20th of December with about a tenth of them, the best, kept on for the returns season who would eventually become full time employees.

In the first “peak” of the 2nd Trump term we’re not at that level but numbers were higher than expected and our temps were still here on last Friday (albeit they left two hours early that day). Word is we will be busy next week.

Even if the temps aren’t there tomorrow we would have kept them a full two weeks longer than last year. Does that mean the economy has turned around? I can’t say but it’s a data point.

There has been one more interesting sign of the times.

I generally try to leave for work by 6:20 AM to be at my place of work by 6:50-6:55 for my 7 AM shift.

Now when I worked every Sunday I knew I could leave as late as 6:30-6:35 and still (barring accidents on the highways) get to work in that time period but as a rule if it’s a school day and I leave for work anytime after 6:25 AM getting to work on time is iffy and leaving at 6:30 meant I’d have to punch in before I head to the cafeteria to put my lunch in the cooler to hit the grace period and have any shot of avoiding being late.

For reasons I won’t get into I’ve been running very late this week not leaving before 6:25 AM four of five days and leaving as late as 6:33 one day this week. Yet every single day the traffic has been so light that I’ve made it to work with plenty of time to spare. In fact the day I left on time I had so much spare time that I almost forgot to punch in as I sat waiting for the day to start.

Now Massachusetts being as blue as it gets has been fighting back on ICE’s attempts to apprehend illegal immigrants but that hasn’t stopped raids in Boston, Worcester and even in my city of Fitchburg from taking place.

I have no idea if this has effected the traffic coming north from Worcester or east from Gardner. People might be staying home because of the cold but I find the sudden end to the normal morning congestion on school days…interesting.

One of the advantages of age is being able to recognize patterns in history repeating not from books but from memory.

Back in the late 70’s the Carter economy was in the toilet which led to Ronald Reagan’s famous words:

As you know Reagan beat Carter and the economy took off, but it didn’t do so right away. The first year of Reagan was a tough one as he got his agenda passed and it wasn’t until 1982 that we saw signs of what would become one of the best economies of my lifetime. Alas for Reagan it didn’t happen fast enough for him to keep the Senate but it did happen fast enough for him to crush Mondale in 1984 so completely that even the blue states of Massachusetts, New York & California voted for him.

The Trump recovery which I’ve noted some signs of in this post is coming. I don’t know if it will come fast enough to save the House in 2026 but I know when it’s in full swing it’s going to make JD Vance a tough customer to beat in 2028, particularly if the best the left can come up with is Gavin Newsome or an AOC wannabe.

I feel very optimistic about the future & I suspect that as I near my retirement my country will be in good hands.

A few days ago I saw this tweet from Benny Johnson:

While I have seen more than my share of actual miracles from God (after a while they become almost mundane) this is not a miracle of God it’s a function of math as I noted in my reply:

For the last 60 years the left has promoted birth control, abortion, homosexuality & transgenderism even to the point of spaying their own kids. When you do that for two generations the population of people who believe what you do naturally decreases.

Meanwhile I’ve seen over the last few years a large rise in large families at church not quite at the 1940’s & 1950’s levels but getting there. Put simply Christians keep having kids and thus naturally are starting to catch up on unbelievers who don’t.

If the westerners had kids at the same rate they did in 1930 Islamic immigration even at the levels they have in Europe & Canada would have little effect.

White House Feast of the Immaculate Conception Statement

Posted: December 9, 2025 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: , ,
1

OK I didn’t see this coming:

Presidential Message on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Yes you’re reading that right. Here is some of the content

For nearly 250 years, Mary has played a distinct role in our great American story.  In 1792, less than a decade after the end of the Revolutionary War, Bishop John Carroll—the first Catholic bishop in the United States and cousin of signer of the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll—consecrated our young Nation to the mother of Christ.  Less than a quarter-century later, Catholics attributed General Andrew Jackson’s stunning victory over the British in the climactic Battle of New Orleans to Mary.  Every year, Catholics celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in New Orleans on January 8 in memory of Mary’s assistance in saving the city.

Over the ages, American legends like Elizabeth Ann Seton, Frances Xavier Cabrini, and Fulton Sheen, who spent their lives glorifying God in service to others, have held a deep devotion to Mary.  The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, located in the heart of our Nation’s Capital, honors Mary as the largest church in North America.  The timeless hymn “Ave Maria” remains beloved by countless citizens.  She has inspired the establishment of countless churches, hospitals, and schools.  Nearly 50 American colleges and universities bear Mary’s name.  And, just days from now, on December 12, Catholics in the United States and Mexico will celebrate the steadfast devotion to Mary that originated in the heart of Mexico—a place now home to the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe—in 1531.  As we approach 250 years of glorious American Independence, we acknowledge and give thanks, with total gratitude, for Mary’s role in advancing peace, hope, and love in America and beyond our shores.

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t remember a previous White House putting out such a statement before for this major Catholic feast.

I guess there is nothing like facing the assassins’ bullet to get a guy thinking about God.

Tom Zimmer absolutely nailed this.

I so voted for this.

Tim Waltz and DaTechGuy’s 6th Law of Media Outrage

Posted: December 4, 2025 by datechguy in politics
Tags: , , ,

It’s been a while since I’ve written about DaTechGuy’s Laws of Media Outrage so let me give you a refresher before we start:

DaTechGuy’s 1st law of media outrage:

The level of Outrage or interest of the media and their allies on the left concerning any insult or prevarication concerning a person or thing will routinely be equal to the inverse of the degree of the political distance between said media / leftists and the target of said insult or prevarication at the time it is made

A great example of this came in the Virginia elections when wanting your opponents and their kids dead was a thing.

DaTechGuy’s 2nd Law of Media Outrage:

The level of acceptance of the positions and/or actions of any group or organization by the left and media is directly proportional to their current or potential value in electing liberal Democrats.

Think the entire “”Illegal Orders” nonsense which they are using as an attack on the Sec of Defense.

DaTechGuy’s 3rd Law of media outrage:

The MSM’s elevation and continued classification of any story as Nationally Newsworthy rather than only of local interest is in direct correlation to said story’s current ability to affirm any current Democrat/Liberal/Media meme/talking point, particularly on the subject of race or sexuality.

Crime in any blue city is the poster child for this. None of it is considered nationally newsworthy unless the proper race combination is involved.

DaTechGuy’s 4th Law of Media Outrage:

The degree of media exposure of the corruption or illegality committed by any individual or organization under investigation is directly proportional to its distance from the media’s ideology.

This one COULD be applied to the story of Somali fraud but I think the better example of this law is This little ditty about how Doge is still slashing fraud and waste:

DaTechGuy’s 5th Law of Media Outrage:

Any positive actions, even one that supposedly advances a goal, or done by a group allied or identified with the radical left, will not be considered newsworthy nationally, if said action has the potential to highlight a failure and/or inaction by a Democrat administration that is in power at the time of said positive action

The poster child for this law was the move by radical feminists to evacuate girls from Afghanistan who were in danger from the Taliban. I wrote about this at the time and commended their action to save the lives of women who were the potential victims of actual repression and murder, however the media did not find the story particularly newsworthy as you could not celebrate these actions without highlighting the Biden Administrations Afghan debacle and of course they play even less well with the murders of by Afghani Jihadis in the US

and finally the law that is in play right now:

DaTechGuy’s 6th Law of Media Outrage:

The degree of protection by or attack of the media on any person is governed by the degree of danger and/or usefulness to the Democrat party’s electoral goals said protection or attack represents

My poster child for this in the past was the Hunter Biden story but it is now the Tim Waltz Story.

consider this tweet:

What people are missing is not that the NYT was “scooped” on the Tim Waltz story. It’s that as long as Tim Waltz was considered an asset to the Democrat party winning elections and getting Democrats elected nationally his failures in office and any corruption he was involved in was either:

  • Not Newsworthy

or

  • A Local story

But now that Waltz’s usefulness to the party’s electoral plans is gone the story can be told because his involvement in this scandal and the public acknowledgement of this via the next and the President not to mention the sheer volume of the fraud makes it impossible to hide.

Plus even if Waltz is replaced or even forced to resign there are plenty of just as left Democrats ready to replace him in that state who don’t have the baggage but have the same views (Think the current gov of NY after Cuomo went away).

Thus suddenly the Minnesota Corruption story is newsworthy for the times and it can help remove an impediment to Democrats power and their narrative.

A perfect application of DaTechGuy’s Laws of media outrage.