Happy Valentine’s Day to my three special Valentines
Posted By RichC on February 14, 2018
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Loose Lips Sink Ships. An article from 1918 deserves revisiting
Posted By RichC on February 13, 2018
Somewhat timely shared archived New York Times newspaper clipping (click image for larger) from 100 years ago. The February 6, 1918 article (tweet below) had me thinking about those in our country handling information that puts operations and the security of our many service personnel and undercover operatives at risk when politicians, intelligence bureaucrats in Washington DC and journalists (and wantabees) seeking to disclose information first. Those of use using social media aren’t helping as we often don’t think about the sensitive details we’re dumping out on the Internet that can put someone as risk.
The days of slower paced "just in the evening" television news or daily papers offering time to have extra sets of eyes (editors) are in the past, but we still need to evolve with some kind of AI review or individuals hired by our government should be held accountable for damage to our national security.
Music Monday: Wagon Wheel – I enjoy that country music sound
Posted By RichC on February 12, 2018
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Finished assembling seating for our home theater – almost done
Posted By RichC on February 11, 2018
iPhone panoramic of home theater from the rear
Finally the correct seat came in and I was able to assemble the last of our eight home theater seats for the home archive. The sizing and spacing is near perfect and even without the riser that I am planning to add to the rear row, the viewing angle is pretty good in every seat.
Perhaps the only two additions will be to replace our defunked sub-woofer and add a new screen to the projected wall image. All in all, I’m happy with how it has turned out.
Poorly married two photos from the front of the home theater
What is this GOP Memo thing all about in 4 minutes
Posted By RichC on February 10, 2018
Here is the short take from the guys who wrote #thememo. No matter which political party is using the FBI, Department of Justice … or for that matter IRS or other agency … in order to stack the deck to achieve their favored political outcome, it has to stop. Those abusing power need to be held accountable, if for nothing else, a deterrent.
Oil drops to $59/bbl. Will it change the inflation forecast?
Posted By RichC on February 9, 2018
With the rapid drop in oil prices, and equal "10% correction" in the overall stock market, will improving wages offset by falling
commodities (oil) cause the Federal Reserve rethink their concern that inflation is picking up?
Current thoughts were that we could see three quarter point rate hikes in 2018 if the economy continues to pick up. But until inflation starts to really be a concern, three hikes could be premature?
My thought is that cheaper energy reduces the inflation concern and may relax the Fed’s concerned that the economy is overheating. We’ll see.
TechFriday: Loving the SiriusXM streaming app
Posted By RichC on February 9, 2018
As a Fox Business addicted viewer, I keep a live-feed running much of the day just as others do for music, talk radio or sports. One of the challenges is that it isn’t convenient or available, especially in a low bandwidth, "just" audio feed … unless I’m in the car and listening on SiriusXM Radio. 
Old CPP building in 2009 (or more recently)
Since I no longer drive as many miles/hours as I did in previous decades (back and forth from NE Ohio), I planned on dropping the SiriusXM subscription this year figured I could just run the Internet streamed FoxBusiness video on my phone. This works well, unless the higher speed LTE service drops (often when traveling) or I need to use my iPhone for calls, navigation, apps, etc.
So, when calling to cancel my service this week, the customer service rep did his usual best in order to save a customer; he succeeded in talking me into a 6 month promo that included their streaming package to my phone through their iPhone app. WOW … it is impressive and streams beautifully behind the scenes and even offers a buffer to pause or replay something I may have missed. It is still early, but so far I’m sold and wondering why I waited so long to give the SiriusXM app a try.
Financial markets continue down – DJIA off another 1033 points
Posted By RichC on February 8, 2018
So much for the "good news" that tax cuts will eventually providing revenue by helping the economy grow. The "hope" is that over time the economy growing will put more people to work (it is) and that the snowball would eventually grow paychecks (it is) AND that we could begin to reduce our country’s yearly deficit (yet to be seen, but doubtful).
Dow Jones Industrial Average 3 month chart at market close 2/8/2018
But after today and Washington DC’s budget talks and interest in spending more money on the "needed" military, last years "natural disasters," the "entitlements" and the latest big wish … "infrastructure spending" it is starting to look like Washington DC wants to borrow more money. Nothing new, but investors and traders are seeing the big picture … neither Republicans or Democrats are serious about balancing a budget or controlling spending. What’s worse is that neither side sees eye to eye, nor do the parties themselves see eye to eye on controlling spending.
Add to that … the concern that the Fed is talking about more interest rate hikes and perhaps sensing some inflation on the horizon … and investors are losing their confidence that the growth will continue.
What to do, what to do in order to prepare for our future. Pensions are drying up and Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security remain underfunded.
Social Security is in even WORSE condition that the State of Rhode Island’s perilous pension system.
We talk about this a lot in our regular conversations.
According to the Board of Trustees for Social Security (which includes the US Treasury Secretary, the US Secretary for Health & Human Services, and the US Secretary of Labor), the Social Security trust funds “become depleted and unable to pay scheduled benefits in full on a timely basis in 2034.”
Once again– that’s the Treasury Secretary of the United States saying that Social Security will run out of money in 16 years.
You’d think this would be shouted from the rooftops, especially given how long it takes to save for retirement.
Yet instead the news is ignored or flat-out rejected by people who simply want to believe either that it’s not a problem, or that the government has some magical solution.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.