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Bidenomics Strikes and a Shake of DaTipJar

Posted: March 6, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, economy, personal
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In yesterday’s Under the Fedora I mentioned both that the reason I had not made it to CPAC lately was my full time job and also how DaTipJar has been falling short to the point where this will likely be the blog’s last year.

Well it only took 24 hours for things to get worse.

Things have been nasty at my work for a couple of years. The normal peak seasons at Christmastime that were crazy during the Trump years lasted less that a week. We closed two warehouses in the area and every single temp worker at our place was let go.

All of this despite the insistence of the media/left that our economy is absolutely fantastic and we need to thank the Biden Administration for it. Well I’ll give them this much, I do give Joe Biden/Obama credit for the economy we have. I got another dose of that economy last night.

Yesterday we were told that my shift, the 2nd shift is to be eliminated. I don’t know what my new shift is going to be but the end results at minimum are

  1. a 4% pay decrease
  2. Daily mass at best eliminated for 3 days a week and at worst eliminated completely
  3. A 67% chance that I’ll have to give up both running the parish Adoration and my two hours
  4. The joys of early mornings and rush hour traffic
  5. And not only a shift no longer corresponding with my wife but because she sleeps in a recliner due to hip issues an excellent chance of waking her each morning and disrupting her sleep every day.

At my age and with the economy we have there is not much I can do I’ve done two of the three things that can be done.

  1. I’ve arranged a Mass with all of us at the company as the Mass intention.
  2. I voted for Trump today when I had the chance.

The only other thing I can do is ask you to consider hitting DaTipJar and or Sharing this post for that purpose. I’ll cut back and we’ll get by the best we can.

But if you would like to give a hand it would be most appreciated.

Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora AOC out and about, Narrative Narrative Narrative, Unpeople, “Wolf” in the CPAC fold and the countdown to the end continues

Posted: March 5, 2024 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, politics, the courts, under the fedora
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Saw the article about AOC out with her guy and protesters bugging her about Gaza.

It’s rather ironic as she’s generally on their side but what really struck me is the photo of her out with her guy seemed so …. normal.

I’m partial to the sight of a young lady out with her man and frankly I’d like folks to leave her alone to enjoy those moment which are some of the most important in life.

I don’t watch a lot of the MSM but I made it a point of watching the reactions to the SCOTUS ruling on the attempts to kick Trump off the ballots in various blue states.

I found it hilarious that all of the stressed that the court didn’t acquit him of being an insurrectionist.

They didn’t have to, nobody has filed a charge of insurrection against him in federal court, in fact none of the J6 prisoners or defendants have in fact been charged with insurrection.

Their desperation to keep this narrative intact is very interesting and shows how far they’ve fallen, but it’s amazing how far a person will willingly let themselves fall if their paycheck is attached to it.

Have you noticed that in the minds of the media nothing delegitimizes an institution more than no longer following the narrative of the left.

Elon Musk, Ben Carson, The Supreme Court, Donald Trump, Naomi Wolf and yes J. K. Rowling were all feted and celebrated by the left for a very long time right up until the moment that they were perceived as a threat to the power of the left and the narrative they were selling.

Once they did as far as all those folks who loved and celebrated them were concerned they were now unpersons that needed to be destroyed.

Hey commies gotta commie.

There is an excellent substack by Naomi Wolf about visiting CPAC titled “Letter from CPAC” that you should read. There is one bit that jumped out at me:

We entered the Gaylord at the peak of CPAC, to an atrium thronged with happy visitors. My first, ignominious reaction to the scene, for which Brian rightly chided me, was: “This is not my culture.”

There was a buzz, from the moment we entered: a joyful vibe. After we checked in, changed, and ran down to join the festivities, we were struck by how pleasant and positive almost everyone was to us, and to each other. As someone reported to me the desk clerk had said, “I know they won’t approve of me saying this back in Southeast DC, where I come from, but you all are nice.”

Nice is a good and accurate word, a better description is “normal”

She goes though a list of folks she met and spoke to, many that she might disagree with on some issues and notes how different they are from how the media paints them.

It’s been six years years since I’ve been to CPAC the last time I went was with my sons and them seeing the MSM in action as they actually are taught them plenty.

Finally there are two reasons why you don’t see me at CPAC anymore. The first is as a full time employees where I work I only get so much vacation time and it won’t be till 2028 that I have the additional week that attending CPAC would require.

But the other is frankly that DaTipJar has dwindled to almost nothing, my last fundraiser only managed 25% of my goal and last month between subscriptions and tip jar hits I had exactly $2 left over after paying my writers.

I suspect the blog as a business will not survive long after the election and with money tight it will be an effort to survive to the election. It’s nothing about $5000 wouldn’t solve but that money simply isn’t there and in the end I don’t have a divine right to a single person’s dollar, I can only earn it by producing content that people think is worth it.

It’s disappointing to fail in business I’ve done so many times I’m just sorry I couldn’t provide better for my wife who deserves better. If I had followed my brothers into the civil service I might even now be retired or close to it with a pension, but I’m not ashamed of trying to make it as a writer/pundit and this blog has done good work, sometimes even important work. I’ve showed things and told things as they are which is why both Youtube now and pre-Musk twitter censored me. Best of all I’m proud to say I never sold out to push any narrative I didn’t believe in.

Hey in the end 16 years isn’t a bad run

The Fear is Palatable at Work

Posted: March 4, 2024 by datechguy in economy, election 2024, elections, politics
Tags: ,

When I saw this video:

All I could do is nod my head.

The vast majority of the people I work with have Spanish as their first language. They came here a decade or more ago. I don’t know if they came legally or not at the time but many if not most are now American citizens and they are scared for their jobs, their managers are scared for their jobs and as a guy about to hit 61 who had planned to work till 70 I’m scared for my job.

Even with COVID four years ago we were not.

And let me note, we are scared for our jobs after our company closed two warehouses in our area and laid off every temp we had.

Without a turnaround of the economy I don’t see how we avoid either further layoffs or a reduction of our workweek to below 40 hours.

That the democrats are polling over 40% is beyond me and I would bet real money that a lot of the folks were I am are going to vote for Trump because they know who was in charge when they were able to make a living and who was not.

They don’t care about mean tweets they care about feeding their kids and virtue signaling stuff like this

doesn’t enter their radar.

The only reason why I have no idea who will win in November is:

  1. I don’t know that Biden will be the Dem standard bearer no matter what happens in the primary
  2. I don’t know if Trump can win beyond the margin of fraud or if the GOP is taking steps to prevent it

“All My Contacts Are Dead”

Posted: March 3, 2024 by datechguy in election 2024, politics
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14 years ago this January Robert Stacy McCain was in Fitchburg Massachusetts with me covering the Scott Brown Race. Way back then he was a contributor to the HotAir GreenRoom and filed this report available now only through the wayback machine:

Annie DeMartino served 20 years as a city council member here before retiring from office last year. An Irish immigrant, she turned out in the snow to vote this morning in Ward 6 at St. Bernard’s Catholic School. A self-described “diehard Democrat,” DeMartino voted for Martha Coakley, but listen to what she says about the Senate election:

Alas the adobe video is not available but Annie’s key quote was: ‘Mr. Brown Has the Edge Today’

Well it’s almost fifteen years later and today at the supermarket I was in line waiting to order a sub for DaWife and who comes over to see me pushing her carriage but Annie DeMartino. She’s 87 years old but still helping those in need picking up a meal for a shut-in and volunteering at the senior center, which I am now old enough to go to if I wished.

The subject of the coming election came up with Super Tuesday two days away and she asked my opinion. I told her:

  1. I have no idea who is going to win
  2. It’s my opinion that the Democrats will replace Joe Biden on the ticket because now the media is ridiculing’s him in public

At that point I asked her what her contacts were saying as she was deep into democrat politics since the 1970’s and she answered: “All my contacts are dead.” This is what happens when you live long enough and she talked about how hard it can be when you outlive everybody you know.

I have no doubt that she will still pull the lever for Biden on Tuesday. There are a lot of people who have left the Democrat party as I did but no matter how much they talk “white privilege ” this Irishwoman who knows what poor really means and still carries her brogue isn’t about to be pushed out of HER party no matter who comes in saying what.

If the Democrat Party was still populated by folks like Annie rather than the loonies who run it now I suspect a lot of people who left might still be there.

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