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You Dirt People Don’t Know What is Good for You

Since you can’t be trusted to vote for the proper candidates, we need to insure your vote doesn’t matter. Really, it is for your own good! We know better.

Grass Greener Elsewhere?

The Mary Jane sellers in Colorado are hurting. Lots of reasons as detailed in this article. Burdensome regulation and high taxes hurts all business endeavors.

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No Fool Like an Old Fool

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Probable Search and Rescue Call Out

Office of Emergency Management, San Juan County Colorado

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Issued:
Jun 5, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Special Avalanche Advisory
A Special Avalanche Advisory is in effect for Colorado’s high country through Sunday, June 9. Several large and destructive wet avalanches occurred on Wednesday. With near-record temperatures on Thursday, June 6, and Friday, June 7, more large wet avalanches are expected. Change your travel plans to avoid steep slopes if surface crusts become unsupportable and you sink into wet, unconsolidated snow or you hear collapsing sounds. These are not normal conditions for early June. Adjust your objectives accordingly. Via Colorado Avalanche Information Center - CAIC 

Adventures in Taste

One personal change with age is less enjoyment of taste. When reading of LL’s descriptions of burritos and tacos, or K de T’s discussing drinks, the interest is there but relating isn’t. Never a gourmet, today food is more like fuel. Add missing teeth to add to the problem.

 Circa 1965, we G.I.s drank 4 DM a liter cognac. Someone once gave me a taste of 5 star cognac. Shrug. Peasant.

Each night I wash down 1500mg Acetaminophen with a gin and tonic plus a splash of generic lime juice. My gin comes off the bottom shelf, usually around $14-16 a large bottle. On the top shelf the same size runs $45-60 a bottle.

Do I suffer any angst being cheap? Hell no!

Water Walking

One City facility offers a “lazy river” feature.  Hourglass shaped and 3’ deep, the current is fairly strong. Since the first of the month I’ve been using it most days and the results are encouraging. I’m walking better and my knee pain has lessened.

Poor Banner hates being alone in the apartment and it is now too hot for him to stay in the car (where he is quite content). Two neighbor ladies take turns hosting him for an hour or so. He cowboys up and manfully tolerate staying with them.  The ladies assure me they don’t spoil him.

War on Coal – Wyoming Focus

I like this lady and appreciate her suggestion Boulder, CO show the way to a carbon free world.

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 Abused Dog

My oldest son needed a good ass chewing. I used the cell phone. Banner was lying on his day bed nearby. When I went to feed him breakfast he was afraid to come to his bowl. It took several minutes of petting, a short walk, and treats before he realized he wasn’t the one in trouble and became his normal happy state.

Back story. My oldest, 51, has always been autistic. He is fairly high functioning. For several years he has had a cell phone I pay for with unlimited minutes (which he uses, and uses, and uses). May 12^th, due to a change of credit cards used to pay the account, his phone was off for six whole hours. Since then he has sent me one to three emails a day about the %#%$%^&* phone.  During this time I have explained, over and over, the problem is solved and is not likely to reoccur. So he starts off my Sunday morning with a email saving he is worried about June 12^th and his phone not working.

I called him and ripped him a new asshole. Autistic or not, when his behavior becomes disrespectful, he relishes pissing and moaning, and using Dad as a punching bag, he needs reminding just who he is communicating with. Poor Banner got caught in the blast.

Hail Hell

This is becoming one of the worst Springs in recent years for destructive storms along the Front Range and the High Plains. Last week DIA got hit. Sunday the hail repair specialists had their tents set up in the rental car lots. Sisty tells me Manheim Auto Auction, about eight miles SSE of FIA, has some 4,200 vehicles with hail damage.

Car dealers have two basic choices. Pay through the nose for hail insurance, or gamble. Vehicles with hail damage claims get “salvage” titles. The others? Think many nefarious ways to fix them and sell them without disclosing the damage.

One dealer I know bought them cheap and sold them cheap. All sales, cash. The buyers went to their own financial institutions, got loans, and came back with the cash. AS IS……

Pro Tip: When shopping wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Invest in a cheap mirror with a handle. Bring a flashlight. Always, always wiggle under the dash and use the flashlight and mirror to look for mud and/or water marks. I’ve seen “flood cars” so detailed all traces were gone. The inside of the dash can only be cleaned by removing it. Then, since you are already dirty, look under the vehicle for intact exhaust systems and rust.

Truck frames should be looked at closely. Some have C frame and some have boxed frames. Toyotas with box frames are especially prone to rusting from the inside out. Frames nicely coated are, to me, a red flag. Any sign of rust or fresh undercoating is a signal to have an independent mechanic put the truck on a lift and closely examine it, at your expense. If the seller refuses, walk away.

Veterans Administration

Sorry about these. Maybe someday I'll learn how to remove pictures posted in the wrong place.

6/10 had my annual VA physician visit. I think it is mainly to prove I’m still alive. It must have gone well as I now have an appointment next year.

BP 120/80 Oxygen 92%. Is that too shabby for someone who will turn 80 next month? What is satisfying is I’ve outlived most of my enemies.

Some prescription medicines are all I rely on from the VA. That saves me about $800 a year.

As always, YMMV

Civil Disobedience - Tax Divison

Obamacare and Student Loans; will the two cause massive civil disobedience as far as taxes are concerned?

The IRS has historically relied on voluntary compliance. For many years that has been around 82%. One reason has been the reputation of the auditors and well publicised consequences for not complying.  

In recent years the IRS has cut back on the number of auditors. My snarky take is they were cutting into the bonuses of the senior administrators plus the pain in the ass of actually supervising them.

People who are in default of their student loans lose both their tax refunds and any social security benefits until their loans are current. Many of these debtors have no hope of repaying and cannot clear them through bankruptcy. Add possible penalties for not having health insurance, and the only incentive for filing is fear of the consequences of not filing. Wonder how many are just saying, "Fuck it"?

Small business owners are getting squeezed by the health insurance mandates. The first response is making everyone part time. The risk assessment is staffing and productivity headaches versus going out of business. Say they go rogue, let all their employees claim ten dependents, and not pay into the system the money they withhold for social security and medicaid. They are betting the employee won't file a tax return. What is their risk assessment? Go under right now or face a potential dire outcome somewhere down the road? Another strategy is to bend some rules and make everyone a 1099 independent contractor. Again, the risk assessment. Stay in business now and hope to slip and evade in the future or go out of business now.

My guess is that already suspect 82% will go way down, tax revenues will go way down, and our economic death spiral will get worse. A good picture of our economy.

As always, YMMV.