Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Learned something new about Colorado.

I wound up staying in a town Vail adjacent. We came in with a crazy storm. I was diverted due to a mudslide and everything. I guess Colorado is having fires. So when the rain comes. Eeeeek! Things were so crazy, we followed a jeep with his hazzard flashers on for like 30/40 miles. I didn't know people did that unless their cars were having a problem. But that guy totally saved our asses. You couldn't see the lines at all.

Anyway. It was SUPER cold in this town. But I thought it was just because of storm. I mean, it's JUNE. The next morning we wake up and it's still cold. Like 42 degrees. So I started talking to people and I guess June is the only month it doesn't snow there. ONE MONTH! It snowed last month, and I guess it starts back up next month.

I was not aware that anywhere outside of Alaska is still cold this time of year.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Area 15 - B-roll.


The funny thing about this place is they search your bags on the way in, which is pretty standard. When they looked inside my bag they asked - is that a camera? - to which I replied, Which one? This somehow caught their attention and all of a sudden they wanted to see what I had.

I'm still carrying my Light Camera which clearly looks different than anything else because it has twelve lenses. All of a sudden they were like - is that a professional camera? Which I hadn't been asked since I stopped carrying a DLSR. ~Also the reason I stopped carrying a DLSR.~ Many years ago, you would have been surprised at how pissy some places got over professional gear. But since really good cell phones are everywhere - I didn't know that was still a thing.

This stopped the whole line because they had to get a manager. You'd think they would want people with professional gear because - THAT SELLS TICKETS. Which are nearly 50 bucks a piece. I handed the guy a hundy and he gave me back like two or three dollars. I said - I gave you a hundy. And he was like yeah...it's 49 bucks  a ticket.


In the supermarket area, you can actually buy the stuff on the shelves. I got a can of schadenfreude to store my weed in. Yes... Seriously.

I thought this place was pretty over  priced at first, but then I found the passage way through the freezer section above. This leads to all the interactive art displays.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

John McAfee Found Dead In Prison Cell After US Extradition Approved.

Least surprising news ever. Do you think they strangled the bitcoin passwords out of him?

Some time last year Mr S. and I were talking about bitcoin. Before the large spike. I told him I thought it was just a collection of people who had forgotten their passwords. There is a surprising amount of coins that are just lost to the ether. So.....I think "technically" bitcoin can never go to zero.


Pretty saucy for California.

Monday, June 21, 2021

It's gonna be the summer of dead trees.

I don't know what anyone in California has been doing the last month, but I have been doing ~nothing~ but reducing fire fuel on my property. I spent 400 bucks to have a big tree reduced, and I've been trimming everything myself by about 50%. Raking under ~everything~ to make sure there isn't a reservoir of leaves. I just cleared the gutters, and I don't normally do that until fall. This is a very dangerous fire season.

A week or two a fire popped up live on the old people news.  Which is like watching football to me. It was on a hilltop with spot fires starting everywhere. I'm like - that house isn't going to make it. There is too much brush and fuel. And we just watched it about 10 minutes. The house did manage to make it, but it was super borderline. A firefighter managed to catch it. The house that did burn was fully overgrown.

Tree death is pretty stunning right now. People are going to get some VERY expensive tree removal bills. I'm fully focused on the tree tops. I just don't understand people honestly. They don't even have to do that much to give their house a fighting chance. Just trim things that make ground to tree contact. Look at every bush on your property and know that fire can be twice as tall as the bush. Make a distinct separation. Fire loves to climb. Don't let it.

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Me today - ooOOooooh. Look at how rich these people are!

Mr S. looks at me.

Me - They are getting a new fence! That's the sign of wealth these days. right?

Friday, June 18, 2021

How do you count ~these~ people?

I have a special sort of anger for people who politicize the pandemic. I do. I would never be as casual with other peoples health as many people have been. It's really fucked up. Every crisis exposes just how horrible people are with each other.

I told everyone last year that dieing was the easy part. No one wanted to listen. They just wanted to demagog. I feel like they were willfully ignoring what is really happening with people. And frankly - Long Covid is going to be our next health crisis. People are already incurring a tremendous amounts of medical debt.

So today I wanted to ask - what category do you put these people in?

Heidi Ferrer, who wrote Dawson’s Creek and Wasteland, has died by suicide aged 50.

"The writer of hit teen drama Dawson’s Creek took her life aged 50 after a 13-month long, painful battle with coronavirus, her family has revealed." 

Texas Roadhouse Founder Kent Taylor Dies After Struggle With 'Post-COVID' Symptoms.

"Texas Roadhouse restaurant founder and CEO Kent Taylor died by suicide last week at age 65 after what his family described as a "battle with post-Covid related symptoms, including severe tinnitus."

And literally no one would give a shit if these people weren't somewhat famous. How many ~not famous~ people have also made this choice? Meaning their stories never made headlines.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

But the inflation!

 
I genuinely dare the Fed to raise rates. You will see this economy roll over so fast. I personally think this money printing orgy has already run it's course. Retail is down. Commodities are coming down. Housing prices are coming down. Hell... maybe even food inflation might moderate...some. The TP isle has been looking fabulous for months. I can also buy rubbing alcohol any time I want now. The drought is a super big wild card. I expect things to be a lot like 2014.

California has "technically" been open for two months. I don't expect a huge bump from our official opening. Restaurants have been doing 50% inside, and 50 percent outside. They are pretty flush. The government pushed so much money into them I was completely shocked when I saw a real dead restaurant. Black Angus didn't make it. But it's one of the very few at this point.


Tuesday, June 15, 2021

If no one reports it - did it happen?

A couple of weeks ago when Katerra announced they were going bankrupt it piqued my interest. I've been kinda background watching them every since. Construction costs are very high in California. They claimed they could build components off site for cheaper.

A couple of years ago I watched a project go up this way. It seemed to take forever. It was a mini project of four houses, so you never know if the guy is running out of money, or if it's due to construction delay.

Anyway, when this company fell out I wasn't sure if it was the tip of the iceberg,  or they were just tards. And I think it was a bit of both. If I hit their Wiki page, my immediate reaction is - oh, that company was destined to fail. It's a Softbank backed company started by techies? I also have a general rule that if I hit a site, I should immediately know what your company does. It shouldn't take me three tabs to figure it out. And if all it talks about it optimizing synergies, my bullshit meter goes sky high.

Then I recently became aware of a project in my city that was halted because of this company. It's sitting idle right now.  It's a mid size project. It was then I started digging more. Because..... how many people did that company employ, and why is there no news about layoffs? It also makes me wonder, how many other project have been shut down with no news? 

Kattera allegedly employed 7500 people at one point. It seems like that would rate a news article.

Whenever I read a story on ZH and see him screaming about how inflation is here to stay, I like to go to the MLS and see what Mr. Real Estate has to say.

Yesterday when I looked, significant price cuts of 100k were coming in 4 days. When I looked this morning, price cuts were coming in two days. Nothing is sitting past 30 days so far.

There will be a point where price is no option doesn't work anymore and people will just sit things out. But that doesn't play into the hyper inflation narrative.

Lumber is down. Home prices are coming down. Food will stay high because everything they say about the drought is true. EVERYTHING. We've finally gotten to a point where restaurants know what they need to operate and their inflation will moderate.

Conversations with Mr S.

Me - How did this chick Marjorie Taylor Greene get elected? She says the craziest shit. If she is like our AOC, how is this chick getting elected?

Mr S. - I assume her constituents elected her. Then he pauses. Why are you so focused on the Republicans as a block? You never seem to complain about Paul Ryan or some of the others.

Me - Because I want to win! I want those other guys gone too. And I thought we would replace them with someone less horrible.

Mr S. - The Republican Party got tired of being held to a higher standard.

Me - Agree. So they decided to go the other way and dumb it down three notches? 

Mr S. - Apparently that is what gets elected.

Me - Yeah. I think this is a losing proposition. She doesn't advance out party in any way.

I mean, seriously people. What are you getting out of her? If this chick is the best our party can come up with - we are fucked. People are in such a mood to fight with each other, they don't even care the it hurts us as a block. You don't win elections this way.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Mainstream is finally picking this up.

Another shipping crisis looms on Covid fears in southern China. 

"The disruptions in Shenzhen and Guangzhou are absolutely massive. Alone, they would have an unprecedented supply chain impact,” said Brian Glick, founder and CEO at supply chain integration platform Chain.io." 

The article goes on to say: 

"Guangdong, a major shipping hub, accounts for about 24% of China’s total exports. It is also home to the Shenzhen port and the Guangzhou port — which are the third largest and the fifth largest in the world by container volume, according to the World Shipping Council.

The first local case of the Delta variant, first detected in India, was found in Guangzhou in May and has since spiked to over 100 cases. Authorities have imposed lockdowns and other measures that constrain the processing capacity at ports.

Saturday, June 12, 2021

His angles ~are~ on fleek.



My bank is a few blocks from "the plant, so I decided to swing by and see if what "they" were saying is true. When this lot came through my feed a couple of days ago I immediately reconised the location. It's right next to the dead Fry's Electronics in Fremont. For all I know he could be parking them inside. But, the lot in the picture above is honestly the fullest I've ever seen it.  I was at the freeway light and you could tell they had been there a while. They were all dirty. I didn't even go further to investigate because.... who cares. It is very odd that they are all the same color.

I did want to swing by the main plant and see if I was right that he was parking cars on the test track, or just making shit up. And he is. Or on a pullout right next to the test track. But he's being very crafty about hiding them. You litterally have two seconds of visiblitly. He has all these screen blocks up everywhere. I looped the plant like five times and gave up because I hardly care. Even the guy on twitter who flys a drone over the plant sometimes hasn't popped up recently. He's probably lost interest too because this whole thing is just a mockery.





Friday, June 11, 2021

They just delayed the inevitable.

 
I'd say this is a pretty shit performance given all the demand they pulled forward. And they have made the  prices so high, there is no demand left to pull forward.

I mean really - I'm surprised I haven't seen construction companies start going belly up due to the high price of lumber and everything else. Allegedly lumber can triple and people can still afford new houses said no one ever.


America is funny. Stock market at all all time high. Americans clueless that the worst is not behind us. I mean, China just shut down two cities. One of them is Guangzhou which is a port city and apparently the 3rd largest city in China. A couple of days ago they were saying this is as disruptive as the Suez canal incident. I think it handles like 24% of exports. And who knows how long they will keep it shut.

Clicks are the only thing that matters.

"The Hangover Arrives: Explosive Inflation Leads To Record Collapse In Home, Car Purchase Plans"

I just love that today Zero Hedge is screaming that inflation is NOT transitory, while giving us this headline which shows that is obviously is.

"policymakers will face the most challenging years since the Volcker/Reagan period in the 1980s."

I'm also getting pretty sick of these types of the phoney ass comments - when we weren't't fucking printing 6 trillion dollars in a year then! It took Obama his whole Presidency to print that much money! 

This is NOT like the 70's because that was native growth. Not money printing. They could stop all this shit in a minute and I'm getting super sick of people pretending that this economy is anything more than phoney.

Monday, June 07, 2021

I saw this lot come through my feed last night. I know exactly where the location is, as it's one of Elon's usual locations. And I didn't even care enoug to drive by it. I was by the plant last week and I thought I saw him parking cars on the test track. I didn't even care enough to take pictures.

I don't know why anyone cares at this point how many cars are building up. Elon doesn't make money on cars. He makes money on carbon credits. When other car companies want to edge him out they will. BY NOT SELLING HIM CARBON CREDITS. Until then - who gives a fuck?

Wednesday, June 02, 2021

Prices have officially peaked.


It's pretty rare that you get a house that has the entire history of the housing bubble number 1, and also reflects the new bubble. This 1200 square foot house went 100k over asking. Yes... you read that right. A 1200 square foot house going for a Miiiiiillion dollars. That's not even rare honestly.

I think this insanity is all over now because price reduction are coming in seven days. And they aren't walking things down a smidge. These are 50 grand clips.