Archive for the ‘under the fedora’ Category

Yesterday was Black Friday and day one of our “peak” season at work and the beginning of eight straight days of work for me.

As you might guess we were pretty busy, but based on the numbers I’ve seen overall volume was a whole lot less than normal. That won’t affect today, tomorrow or even Monday but the real question for me is: “Will we be behind to the point where next Saturday is voluntary?” In a normal year that’s how it works and by the time you get to Christmas you have managers who have worked 25-30 straight days since “optional” isn’t “optional” for them and some employees averaging 15 hours of overtime a week.

My gut and the numbers tell me that won’t be the case. I suspect we will only have one optional Saturday, next Saturday but that the volume will be at a point where we aren’t days behind rushing to keep up. Part of that may be to good planning on our part but the best planning can’t overcome incredible volume and based on day one, we just don’t have that.


Speaking of Black Friday shopping, most of mine took place on Thanksgiving evening and yesterday morning before going into the breach. A look at Amazon convinces tell me that while there are more and more pages of black friday “deals” (822 to be exact) there are less and less things on them that I need.

I also notice there are a lot of brands of “tablets” and “robot vacuums” that I’ve never heard of before as if there is an attempt to dump a lo of cheap electronics this year.

Of course with that many pages you’re bound to find something useful that your spouse might like or need (I just spotted something on page 29 that I never thought of which might work for her in the garden, but it’s all a question of how much time you want to spend (Indicently the cyber monday deals look surprisingly like the black friday deals

Good Luck.


By an odd coincidence as Elon Musk as cracked down on child porn on twitter apparently a lot of Antifa accounts have ended up dead while doing so.

They have not taken this well and there have been attacks on Tesla dealerships in the Northwest.

This is rather foolish for three reasons

  1. These will simply lead to insurance claims which puts money in the pocket
  2. Musk being one of the richest men in the world is in a position to put the type of security in place that won’t be as accommodating to the leftist thugs that don’t come enmasse.
  3. Finally he has access to the type of lawyers in a position to crush these folks on a national and international level

But if they want to poke the bear be my guest.


The loss of a cherished narrative is a terrible thing and CNN is doing it’s best to reverse it, But the Irony overload here is incredible:

And just like that you can look at someone, say they’re a dude and not be considered a bigot for it, at least if it serves the narrative.

That society has given in to this collection of mentally ill idiots is not an indictment of them, it’s an indictment of us for being suckers.


Finally there was some shock over a Christian commentator noting that those who were killed in Colorado didn’t accept Christ that they were likely in hell.

We are called upon not to judge the state of any particular soul but this type of thing is Christianity 101 or at worst 104. St. Faustina in her diary notes that Christ extends a hand at the time of death even to the most obstinate of sinners it’s just a question of grasping it.

People forget that the Good News of the Gospel is that there is a way into heaven and eternal life and avoiding eternal death and sufferings. For some people this is a hard message to take because it involves acknowledging sin, for others it’s a hard message to deliver because they want to go along and get along.

Christ was not one afraid to rock the boat nor afraid to risk offending people even inside their own homes. How many times was he invited to dinner which a Pharisee and then criticize them while there.

There is an excellent clip from The Chosen from the final episode of season 2 where Matthew is critiquing the Sermon on the Mount that illustrates this

The key line from Jesus:

“Did you think I was going to come here and say: ‘hey everyone keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years since it’s been going so great?'”

If you actually love your neighbor you will tell them a truth they don’t want to hear to save their lives rather than shut up.

The good news is that you have your whole life to figure this out and come to Christ, but not a moment more.

One factor in the use of the government as a weapon against the Political foes of the left that isn’t discussed is that this is the fruit of the Obama years.

Obama was always a cheap Chicago pol and he used his high position to transform the federal government and the system into the Chicago way where government is used to enrich friends and punish enemies.

Till those Obama types are purged we’re not going to see things change.


In his famous appearance on Phil Donahue’s show Milton Freeman when questioned by Donahue on the excesses of capitalism replied: “just tell me where in the world you find these angels who are going to organize society for us?” This is a basic principle of life that people tend of act in their own self interest. And since most people aren’t angels particularly in government the best way to create ethical behavior is to make such behavior profitable.

That’s really the secret, if you make the rewards of honorable behavior strong enough then the risks of unethical behavior are not worthwhile.


CBS has suddenly decided that the Hunter Biden laptop stuff is real.

This in my opinion is a definite signal that they have decided than in a possible match with Trump in 2024 Joe Biden in expendable.

The real question is will Biden fight (Jill that is) I don’t think Joe has much fight in him, but he does know where the bodies are.


The moment I heard that Nancy Pelosi was dropping herself from the leadership but staying in congress all I could think of was the movie Casino with Hakeem Jeffries playing the role of Phillip Green. I suspect that the new leadership will not make any move that is not approved by Nancy as she, like Biden knows where the bodies are buried.

Personally I think the only reason for this is to remove Pelosi and a fundraising meme for the GOP.


Finally it’s starting to get cold and the heat has been on in the house. That means that the first oil delivery of the new Biden season is coming for me and a lot of other folks.

I get about 200 gallons per delivery which is going to likely run over $1000 as opposed to the $500-$600 that it would have in the Trump years.

If this doesn’t change the voting patterns of folks in New England nothing will.

One of the things that has really been revealed by the war in Ukraine is just how weak and unready the Russian Army is. Moreover a lot of Russians were in favor of the war in Ukraine when it looked like it would be a cakewalk to retake the territory that until the breakup of the Soviet Union was part of Russia proper since the days of Napoleon, but once it became clear that it would involve actually fighting, actual causalities and a mobilization the whole pride thing went out the window.

It’s amazing how much harder war is when people are willing to shoot back rather than roll over. I would not be surprised if this lesions the fear of China’s untested military as well.


It’s a tough call for Ukraine when it comes to how the war ends.

They have a good point that they don’t want to reward Russia with any gains but the longer the war goes on the more likely Putin decides to play the tactical nuke game. Ukraine can likely get the best deal it could get right now but in the words of Lincoln if they consider this war for a purpose they see no reason to end it before that purpose is achieved.

Since it’s their blood that being spilled it’s their call, as long as I don’t have to keep paying for it.


This story via Gateway Pundit made me smile:

I predict that in the woke sweepstakes Muslims trump gays, drag queens and transsexuals’ for two reasons:

  1. The Muslim population of the US continues to grow
  2. There have been unfortunate and unhealthy consequences for those who defy those communities

One of the reasons why Sicilian American’s like myself don’t mind people associating us with the mob is it make people less likely to try to mess with us (also we don’t give a damn what others think). With the reputation of Islam backed up by 30 years of shall we call them “incidents” I suspect school committees are going to think twice before they mess with them.


Sometime in the next month we are likely going to see a pivot in tech companies.

Once they decide they can not stop the GOP from winning the House and perhaps the Senate they are going to be a lot more hesitant to oppress members of the GOP when there is a prospect of lawmakers striking back.

Now of course as long as they control the White House and the Justice Department they have a modicum of protection and I’m sure they’ll go all in no matter who the GOP nominee is but most companies don’t want grief and don’t want scrutiny and when it becomes clear who is going to win I suspect these firms will decide to be on the winning side.


Finally a lot of people I know have dropped Paypal like a hot potato. Being a person who is a tad more deliberate I’ve decided to wait till after the first of the year.

This will give me time to decide what I’m replacing it with, to contact donors to see if they wish to switch to whatever service I go over to and to evaluate my opitions.

Also in terms of taxes and their preparation it will be easier to have the account active through at least January.

This does involve some risk but if I’m right about the tech pivot that should give me enough leeway to move deliberately without a lot of worry. If I’m wrong, then it’s on me.

A bit back I suggested the reason why the Biden Admin is so willing to shatter norms is they are terrified of a Trump AG going all in for an investigation of what they’ve been up to.

The move on Trump Associates and Tucker is the first clincher on that kind of thing to me.

If I’m right, and my gut says I am, that means DeSantis will be unacceptable to them too because he will be doing the same thing.

That’s why you’re seeing the “Voting GOP means civil war” stuff. They know they’ve crossed a line and now they’ve scared.

They should be


I thought this story should have gotten a lot more attention.

However, following President Joe Biden’s emergency declaration, the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived on the scene, and within 24 hours, the city’s water crisis was fixed.

The EPA and Army Corps showed up and fixed the “issue” quickly and easily. Social media users have begun to speculate why Mary D. Carter, the Deputy Director of Water Operations for the past 8 years, could not fix the “problem” herself.

Of course getting the water flowing is one thing, making it drinkable is another. This is what happens when you use a public office as a source of graft rather than a public trust and that’s what the Democrat mayors of Jackson have apparently done for decades


Speaking of topics the media left wish would just go away:

More than 55 percent of children ranging in age between 6 months and 2 years had a “systemic reaction” after their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sept. 1.

In addition, almost 60 percent had a reaction to the second dose of the Moderna vaccine, in the CDC survey of more than 13,000 children.

For some reason nobody seems to be reporting on this story, or this one:

According to a report in theblaze.com, the National Institute of Health (NIH) deleted certain sequences of coronavirus data from the agency’s Sequence Read Archive. This was allegedly done early in the pandemic, at the request of Chinese researchers. Doctor Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published a study in June of 2021 that identified the missing sequences and recovered the files from the Google Cloud, from which he performed an analysis to learn more about the origins of the virus.

As the side effects become more apparent over the years you’ll continue to see the media pivot concerning the vaccine and I guarantee you by June 2024 it will be known as the “Trump vaccine” in every media outlet.

Of course if the election hadn’t been stolen all this would be front page today.


It’s been a while since I opened my Rumble account and told all of you that once all my youtube files were migrated I might start podcasting again.

Rumble warms you that it can take weeks, apparently that’s a pretty broad term because nothing moved over for weeks although all my stuff over two years old is listed as pending.

I’d be more upset except I suspect so many people are making such a move worldwide that such a time frame is inevitable.

I suspect Google/Youtube isn’t all that worried right now. As I recall neither was AOL or IE.


Finally a some quick thoughts on Baseball rule changes:

  1. If the new stay off the grass rule was in effect during Ernie Lombardi’s Time he would have hit .400 because he was so slow infielder would play there to field balls from him. He still was a regular .300 hitter.
  2. If modern players learned how to bunt there would be no need for this rule as guys would be dropping bunt singles left and right off these shifts.
  3. Since the distance from the home to 1st and 3rd has not changed I suspect that the larger bases while encouraging stealing will be more of an advantage to the defense at 1st since the first baseman can now be closer to the throw and a thrown ball is faster than a running man.
  4. I don’t know if the modified pickoff throw rule includes 3rd if it does as a manager I’d encourage runners to try to draw throws to 3rd then send my guy on 3rd as far down the line as I can to distract a pitcher.
  5. Frankly if they really want to speed up games put the mound back where it was in 1968 and let the pitchers get people out quicker. Problem solved.