Son Volt

Heroes and Villains

Well, this should be interesting...

From CBS:

Medicaid cuts could devastate hundreds of rural hospitals in GOP states.

Cuts to federal spending on Medicaid could affect hundreds of rural hospitals in many states that have elected Republican senators and voted for President Trump, Senate Democrats warned Thursday, citing a list they commissioned tallying 338 rural hospitals at risk.

"If Republicans plan to pass drastic cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and effectively repeal the Affordable Care Act, communities should know exactly what they stand to lose," Sen. Ed Markey, the top Democrat in the Senate's health committee, said in a statement.

Budget analysts say a slew of changes that the House bill made to Medicaid provisions — which backers argue would target "excesses and abuses" in the program — could add up to reduced federal Medicaid spending by more than $800 billion over the next decade, resulting in 7.8 million more uninsured people.

The American Hospital Association has warned Medicaid cuts being considered by Congress "could have a devastating impact on rural hospitals," which often face larger shares of patients without health insurance.

"Rural hospitals serve as critical — and sometimes the sole — source of care for rural communities," the hospital lobbying group says.

Democrats cited a list of at-risk rural hospitals that the University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research compiled at their request.

"If your party moves ahead with these drastic health care cuts that will cut millions of people off their health insurance coverage, rural hospitals will not get paid for the services they are required by law to provide to patients. In turn, rural hospitals will face deeper financial strain," the Democrats' letter states.

The center analyzed data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to compile a list of rural hospitals at the highest risk of financial distress, broken down by state and congressional district.

"Republican health care cuts would be felt by rural hospitals across the country. In Louisiana, 32 rural hospitals — or a majority of rural hospitals in the state — are serving a high concentration of Medicaid patients. A total of 33 hospitals are at risk based on serving a high share of Medicaid patients, experiencing negative total margins, or both," Democrats wrote.

The letter also itemized rural hospitals at risk in Alaska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee.

"Substantial cuts to Medicaid or Medicare payments could increase the number of unprofitable rural hospitals and elevate their risk of financial distress. In response, hospitals may be forced to reduce service lines, convert to a different type of healthcare facility, or close altogether," wrote University of North Carolina researchers Mark Holmes, George Pink and Tyler Malone in their responses to the Democrats.

As draconian and painful as this sounds, I don't think it will make a difference to the wealthier people in these communities who are not at risk or can afford to travel. The "haves" like to punish the less fortunate because it allows them to draw a line and feel superior. Especially in the south when it is poor black people getting skewered. The ol' "blame the loser" game.

Should be interesting.

Southside Johnny - Better Days

Unknown Cubist Canvas

 

Pardon the shadows but a picker sold me this interesting cubist work yesterday and I am hoping someone out there recognizes the curious ideogramic signature. 

S👁 66

Or I am guessing that is a six, I suppose that it could be an eight? 

My friend Marty Wolpert from Papillon thought it looked like the late New York artist Elijah Silverman's (1910-1994) work. 

It does bear similarity but I find no matching signature in his portfolio of works. Of course, people were starting to ingest strange substances in 1966 and he may have been exercising a little galactic creative license. The canvas measures 48 x 30".

Here is a Silverman.

Anyway, I am pretty sure that some talented human did it, not sure which one. 

Initials probably are S.I.

Modern day Adam and Eve or Herbert and Eve maybe.

Anybody know about this one?

Sitting In Limbo

Good Eats

 I've been doing more cooking lately. And eating.

Last night I made fresh berry puff pastry with RoxAnn's berries and some other blackberries Leslie was given. I chopped up walnuts and a cosmic crisp apple. Added brown sugar to the mix.  Whisked an egg wash and applied to the pastry dough with a brush. I applied a cream cheese base and then whipped up some whipped cream with vanilla and sugar for a topping.

We had dessert first.

Quite good.

Leslie countered with a savory tart, mozzarella and ricotta with two kinds of Italian chicken sausage.

It was all good.

*

Tonight I embarked on something a bit more ambitious. 

Alex Guarneschelli's whole duck with green peppercorn glaze.

This was a fairly complicated task. 

I had bought several 5 lb.+ ducks last month at a secret spot for a very reasonable sum but they were doing me no good in the freezer.

I pulled one out before work and put it in the sink to thaw.

I went to the store and bought champagne vinegar and more marsala as my old bottle was getting a little tired.

I had bought green peppercorns last week, in brine, that I would definitely need.

I don't cook a lot of duck but when I do it is usually with a sweet glaze, like orange or apricot, this would be more savory.

If you watch her cook this she says that she puts the duck in a thirty second simmering soy honey bath but I figured it was a typo and gave it a swim in my new Le Creuset stockpot for a half hour.

I also scored the duck in opposite ways with my new honesuke knife so the fat would more easily render.

In the video she plops it right into a very hot oven but in her transcript she says to let it dry and hang out in the fridge for a night but I had no space or time for that so into the oven it went.

I turned it in twenty minutes, expecting another forty five minutes cooking and basting but it reached temp in twenty. Perhaps it was the extended braise?

I got my ass in gear cooking the soy, honey, Champaign vinegar and green peppercorn glaze, cooking it down and reducing until it essentially became a thick sludge. 

I pulled the duck from the hot oven and poured the glaze on top.

Leslie made some wonderful noodles and we were ready to roll.

I really liked the glaze, she was less keen but really liked the duck anyway.

This was a very good meal but a messy cleanup and thankfully my wife did way more than her share.

I think the next duck goes on the barbecue rotisserie.

*

A partner and I had a good sale today, I'm a happy guy. 

Not a ton of money but rewarding.

Think I am going to grill some of those gigantic dinosaur sized short ribs on the Weber next.

*

Last week Grocery Outlet had something in that I almost never see, ground goat, raised in New Zealand, very clean production.

I love goat and never find it. I bought fresh corn tortillas and turned it in to very spicy tacos, added Mexican cheese and cabbage.

I loved it, Leslie not so much.

*

Last couple years it has been the reverse sear, the newest craze is the cold sear and consecutive two minute flip.

This method cooks a steak in the pan with consistent color and no internal grey ring.

We pulled out our last two New Yorks from the last subprimal and tried it.

It works.

But I still like the old way better.

Red Tailed Hawks

 

This is my first photo of red tailed hawks taken with my good camera and zoom this year. I took it in very low early morning light.

This is one of the two youngsters, they left the nest about three weeks ago, now only coming back for an occasional visit to eat their food.

One day soon they will vanish and find a new place to live.

Here is a picture of the sibling, which has a much lighter morph as you can see. 

This picture was taken from much farther away, not nearly as sharp.

Sugaree

Texas Hypocrisy

John Moore - Getty Images

All of the posturing on illegal immigration is beyond belief. 

Unfortunately those that oppose the draconian response by the Trump administration and act violently are only playing in to the administration's hands.

Reminds me of the recent scene in Andor where the Empire shoots their own man on Ghorman so that they can get the violence and takedown started. 

They want a war with California. And they have no real interest in solving the immigration problem, that is for show.

While I believe in strong borders, the images of crying five year olds being grabbed at school and families being torn apart makes me want to weep. 

I live in a rural community with a large migrant population and shudder to think what would happen to local business if it was denuded. The great majority of these people are honest and good.

Let's call a spade a spade. Do they really want to stop illegal immigration? Of course not, well at least not at their own home anyway.

Read this article at ProPublica, Texas Talks Tough on Immigration. But Lawmakers Won’t Force Most Private Companies to Check Employment Authorization.

Texas’ conservative Legislature has again and again refused to mandate that most private businesses use E-Verify. Experts say that Republican resistance is rooted in how the system could impact the state’s labor supply and economy.

So put up a big front against illegal immigration but don't act because you know that it will kill business and farming in your own state. How Texan.

Texas’ top Republican leaders have built a political brand on the state’s hard-line stance against illegal immigration, pouring billions of dollars into Gov. Greg Abbott’s state border security initiative, including funding construction of a border wall and deploying state police to arrest migrants on a newly created offense for trespassing. This session, lawmakers voted to require most sheriff’s offices to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Yet again and again the state’s conservative Legislature has refused to take what some Republicans call the single most crucial step to preventing immigrants from coming and staying here illegally: mandating E-Verify to make it more difficult for them to work.

Since 2013, GOP lawmakers in Texas have introduced more than 40 E-Verify bills. Most tried to require the program for government entities and their contractors, but about a dozen attempted to expand the system to private employers in some capacity. With few exceptions, like mandating E-Verify for certain state contractors, Republican legislators declined to pass the overwhelming majority of those proposals. 

 But fuck those guys in California. 

*

I don't always or often agree with California Governor Gavin Newsom but applaud him for his recent statement that if the Federal government decides to ratchets up its culture war on California and cut programs and benefits, we stop paying federal taxes.

I am sick of subsidizing welfare grubbing red states that take so much more than they give. California residents and businesses currently give $83 billion more dollars than we receive back from the federal government. We rank in the top ten donor states per capita.

Time to secede.

*********************************************************************************

NPR - Former DOGE engineer says federal waste and fraud were 'relatively nonexistent'.

Arthur Lee and Love

Law of Seven

The Seed of Life - Sacred Geometry

A friend of mine asked me if I had taken any cool bird pictures this year. "Well no," I told him. "There are two hawk babies that I have watched hatch and fledge this year and I have hardly had a glance at them."

It is not that I don't love the birds, I do. It is just that this year is somehow different. I am hardly writing, not taking pictures, sharing at a fraction of my former production.

I am not drinking, nor am I smoking herb. Not sure why, but my head and body needed a break and I am enjoying both my new found clarity and also find that my work productivity has increased for one reason or another.

I'm working more and not sharing so much.

Part of the reason I pulled the plug was that I am horrified by our current government, the failure of some legislators to have any moral red line whatsoever. I was afraid that I would write something that would put me on some one way flight to a Kafkaesque cell in Djibouti, never to be seen again.

I have friends that have kept up the volume this year but their voices seem shrill and almost pointless. They are making themselves sick. I think that the other side will ultimately do itself in and that a conservation of strength is in order now. Hide your light and withdraw as the I Ching suggests we do when fools and tyrants rule the roost.

*

I am not a religious man but that does not mean that I do not find value in the teachings of the sages and holy ones.

My brain keeps going back to various texts in the bible that refer to a sabbath year. A year when everything basically stops.

I guess the main passage is Leviticus 25:

On the Jubilee year we return to our holding and let it all rest. Forgive debts, help the poor, stay close to home. The ancient Hebrews were on to something. After a period of time, you have to give it all a rest.

Coincidentally, if you watched my recent video with Mark Sublette, I mention that this is my fiftieth year of business, my jubilee year. Perhaps I am obeying some innate dictates of the ancients and reversing direction in some way?

Who knows how things will play out? Will follow the wind and see what gives.

*

The number seven is of great importance in the bible. 

“Then Moses commanded them, saying, 'At the end of every seven years, at the time of the remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing.'” - Deuteronomy 31:10-13

The sabbath year was called Shmita שמיטה in the bible. It literally means release.

“...but on the seventh year you shall let it [the land] rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat.” - Exodus 23:11

Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: "At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee"; but your fathers hearkened not unto Me, neither inclined their ear." (Jeremiah 34:13–14)[12]

"and if the peoples of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt." (Nehemiah 10:31)[13]

There is a whole body of rabbinical work in the Mishnah concerning proper behavior during the time of Sheviite or seven.

*

The number seven represents completion and has special significance in many cultures.

The Pythagoreans believed 7 represented the union of the physical and spiritual, making it a number of spirituality. 

In Vedic scripture Agni the fire god has seven wives and the Sun god had seven horses.

According to something I read, Seven is consistently voted people's favorite number.

Anyway, I promise I am not getting religion, just keeping my eyes open and trying to pay attention. Enjoy your week!

Salsa Verde chicken thighs with roasted artichokes

I love to make chicken thighs but was searching for something different today and found this recipe online at America's Test Kitchen.

I purchased eight organic thighs at Grocery Outlet and bought some organic parsley. 

I roasted the garlic per the video and then broke out the food processor. 

Pretty much did as she suggests, added a little extra garlic, maybe a little extra anchovy.

Salsa Verde is Italian, a bit like pesto or chimichurri. 

Some use it on beef, fish or even diluted as a salad dressing!

Now of course, there is also a hispanic style salsa verde but this an entirely different culinary beast with a very unique flavor profile.

It includes lots of garlic, capers and anchovies, Leslie suggested I use anchovy paste, I went for the whole filets.

I rinsed the capers but they were still pretty salty, might reduce them next time. 

Some people add basil to the parsley, I might try that too or cilantro for a switch.

Pretty addictive stuff, totally new and fresh flavor set for me.

The chicken sizzled as it hit the 450 degree heated sheet pan. I still might do my traditional dredge and sear in the Le Creuset next time, get a better brown.

I cooked it to about 170 degrees, which took about 25 minutes in the hot oven, then broiled it for the last five. Ended up at 180°.

Came out perfect!

RoxAnn gifted us some artichokes from her garden the other day.

I roasted them in tin foil with lemon, olive oil and salt  for an hour and a half and they accompanied the dish.

Very tasty meal, I look forward to playing around with the concept. 

Next time I will omit the salt as there is enough in the caper's brine and the anchovy. 

I also may have been a bit heavy on the cracked red pepper, had a lot of zing!

We have quite a bit of sauce left over to try on different things.

Watch the video for the specific recipe.

*******************

Postscript: I repurposed the remaining sauce with fresh basil and cilantro and added it to broiled shrimp skewers last night.

I think I like the wider flavor profile of this even better than the original.

We killed the whole jar of sauce, I am going to have to make another batch right away! 

Leslie toasted up sour dough to mop up the extra sauce.

Next time we serve it with mozzarella or burrata.

Only downside is we are both seriously overdosed on garlic. 

But that is not our problem, just don't get too close.

Sempra Blues

I filed a CPUC complaint against SDGE today and sent this letter to their CEO, Caroline Winn. I have been getting these crazy estimated reads, I believe a conscious form of harassment from them in order to force us to install a Smart Meter. Several months ago I received a two thousand dollar bill from them, all based on ridiculous estimates.

Here is the letter:

June 4, 2025

Caroline Winn

CEO 
SDGE

Sempra Utilities

Dear Ms. Winn,

Re: #001________

My name is Robert Sommers. I have lived with my wife Leslie at the property located at 2------- ln in Fallbrook since 1989. My bills have been relatively stable for the last thirty six years, rarely exceeding $350 in the hottest summer months but usually far less than that. Several years ago we had a secondary smart meter on a wind machine in our grove and watched it arc and catch on fire. It was very scary and we had it disconnected. My wife suffers from a neurologic condition ---------------- that results in extreme pain and our home subpanel is located on the outside of our bedroom wall, three feet from her head. Because of this we pay an extra ten dollars a month for a conventional meter as she does not want to get triggered. 

Unfortunately, this means that we get estimated bills. This only started about two years ago. That would be okay but they have been exorbitant, nothing close to our actual usage the last 36 years. Eight hundred dollar estimates, five hundred dollar estimates. I have called and complained and got nowhere. Last month after a high bill I called and the lady said not to worry, it would drop this month. It did not, another $511 bill. I called to get an explanation and complain and to voice my dissatisfaction yesterday and got nowhere. I asked to speak to a supervisor and the woman told me that none were available and that someone would call me back. They have not.

I have to wonder if the high estimated bills are a form of harassment meant to force me into the smart meter program? Why are they always high and never low, based on my long history of usage? Why do they not more accurately reflect my electrical usage history? Why am I told that I will get a read every other month when it is clearly not happening and resulting in these ridiculous amounts? What can be done to generate power estimates that are more in line with reality?

I want to pay what I owe but these huge estimated reads are hamstringing me financially. Please advise me and help me resolve this matter.

Sincerely,

Robert Sommers

Blue Heron Gallery

113 N. Main Ave.

Fallbrook, CA 92028

It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get, if any.

*

Postscript: I heard from the CEO's office within an hour. I talked to two different people in the executive office who told me that they would look into the matter immediately. I let them know that I had received a two thousand dollar bill a few months ago and that I could not get any help resolving the matter.

Friday I received a call from a man who told me that they had researched my situation and that my historical power usage was as stated. He apologized, said that after two successive estimated reads, my bill should have kicked out to a real live human but that it did not. I think their AI went crazy and just started making up high numbers. I was told that they have a manpower issue making manual reads.

He said that they were working to resolve the issue.

Saturday I received two more power bills, for $1029 and $1181.91 respectively. It also showed that the actual usage last month was $159. 

I was told to disregard these bills which sort of scares me because they have told me so many things in the past and I have developed certain trust issues with the utility. But the CPUC also contacted me to let me know that they have requested all of my past paperwork and are seriously looking into the issues. So perhaps they will be on good behavior.

Maybe I will get this all cleared up?

I can't be the only person in this county this is happening to, can I?

Christo Redemptor

Time waits for no one...

The blog has been fitfully sleeping the last few months. But even in its somnambulant state it still moves by slow inertia under the weight of the over thirteen thousand posts I have written to date.

And in the next week or two I will have hit eight million views. Whooppee! Seems like we just cranked over the seven million viewer mark. 

I have been watching my stats during my absence and a cool thing is happening. People are actually reading my short stories, a point of pride for me. I love to write short fiction although I daresay some of you think that everything I write is fiction. I get you. Anyway my short stories have been trending each week and that makes me happy.

I rarely can write short stories and need to be in a certain space that just doesn't happen very often. Hope you enjoy them. Something to remember me when I am gone.

Because none of us live forever.

I have lost several friends these last few months, some I am sure that I am forgetting. We lost our musician friend Barry Goldberg, shown here with his lovely wife Gail.

The founder of the Electric Flag, Barry loved Tiffany glass and kachinas and was cooler than cool. This picture was taken in my booth at the Bustamante show in Pasadena, I love my inventory back then! That bird has flown.

We also lost Vince Ross, the most passionate proponent of my little town Fallbrook you could ever find, shown here on the right with our mutual friend Denis Kelly.

The pain of losing Linda Wilson in December still sears my heart, her courageous spirit and beauty will never be forgotten.

Remember, give your loved ones a hug at every possible opportunity, don't wait too long!

This movie doesn't last forever!

Rock the Casbah

Worth a chuckle

Whatever side of the political fence you might inhabit it never hurts to laugh, even at yourself. I don't need to name names but a couple sisters I know had a funny thing happen a while back that I thought I would share with you.

There was a big demonstration at the Tesla dealership in Encinitas a few months ago that they attended and participated in. 

By the way, I built and my father used to own the apartments that you see in the background.

Anyway, my friends parked offsite and got a ride in and gave their all in a vociferous protest against the evil Elon Musk with a whole bunch of like minded folks. Eventually they decided to split and called an uber to get them back to their car.

They walk a couple blocks away to wait for their ride, who shows up in, you guessed it, a Tesla. The driver, a young woman, asks them if they were at the protest and they answered affirmatively and she asks them why they were protesting?

They put together a fairly coherent answer and start the way back to their car but were then forced to drive by the very same congregation they had been demonstrating with minutes earlier.

My friend laughingly said that they put their heads down and shielded their faces as they drove by, not wanting to be recognized and receive the catcalls of their peers.

Ironic and hilarious.

Universe has a funny sense of humor.

Austin Powers

This clip ran across my YouTube algorithm the other day and I checked it out. I had forgotten how funny Tom Arnold was. Priceless! Blow out your o ring indeed.

Looped

 

I have this terrible perennial problem with my Levi's jeans, which are pretty much all that I have worn during my adult life, which come to think of it is most of my life at this point, that is, if we are not counting what passes for normal adult maturity.

The problem is that, like many things, they are not making them like they used to and the belt loops are always breaking off at the bottom.

So I am faced with two possible choices when this occurs, either have a floppy belt loop, something somewhat frowned upon in the habitués of polite society that I frequent or take them to the cleaners to mend, which costs a cool five dollars a loop, a usurious outlay that I am loathe to pay.

I was returning a navajo squash blossom necklace to a friend the other day, my back right belt loop flopping in the wind like an injured seagull for all to see.

The couple ushered me in to their living room to chat for a moment when I spied a rack of thread spools on the wall behind Margaret.

A thought hit me.

"Hey you wouldn't happen to have a sharp needle and some black thread I could borrow, would you?"

Margaret said that she in fact did and her husband Jon was kind enough to fetch it for me. I told them that I would return it at my soonest opportunity. Then she said something that took me aback:

"You might as well drop trou and fix them here. I am blind you know?"

Good point.

I did know that and she was right. Margaret lost her sight a few years ago, poor thing. I took off my shoes, pulled off my pants and went to mending right then and there. John found a needle with an eye big enough to thread and we were in business.

He took a picture to commemorate the event.

Good to have friends you can get down to basics with. Jean problem solved!

Palos Verdes Antique Show

 

Come see the show before Palos Verdes falls into the ocean!

Howard Lutnick is a yutz.

I know I'm on sabbatical but I have to get this off my chest. 

Our current Commerce Secretary is an absolute imbecile. Or maybe just a completely dishonest prevaricator.

Now there is no way that he can be stupid enough to believe what is coming out of his own piehole but he evidently thinks that we, the American public, are dumb enough to believe it.

This nogoodnick, Howard Lutnick, is a billionaire from Long Island who made his money playing the securities and equity game at Cantor Fitzgerald.

He has also had his nose firmly planted in forty seven's posterior for quite a long time.

He has said a lot of stupid stuff in the last several months and I would like to touch on a few things. 

Lutnick is the guy who said that his 94 year old mom wouldn't mind missing a few social security payments and that those that did complain about missed payments were probably defrauding the system.

“Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing,” he said. “Because my mother-in-law’s not calling, come on, your mother, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, they trust the government.”

“So, the people who are getting that free money, stealing the money, inappropriately, getting the money, have an inside person who’s routing the money,” he said. “They are going to yell and scream.”

He also said that tariffs were a good idea, even if they lead to a recession.

Howard Yudnick is the guy who suggested that the tariffs will usher in a new golden age where people will be working at the new jobs of the future, fixing the robots. See Howard Lutnick says Trump’s tariffs will create ‘great jobs of the future’—fixing factory robots. Labor experts disagree.

The future of labor is providing maintenance for automated factory technology, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC. He posited that the growth of manufacturing in the U.S. as a result of President Donald Trump’s tariffs would spur more jobs in the form of factory work. Labor experts are dubious about the growth and sustainability of these jobs.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sees one positive byproduct of President Donald Trump’s tariff plan: a “manufacturing renaissance” in the U.S. that would lead to the next three generations of Americans holding factory jobs.

Lutnick suggested an increase in factory work—bolstered by automated robotic labor—would provide an opportunity for American workers to find stable and well-paying jobs, beginning at $70,000 to $80,000 per year. 

“It’s time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future,” Lutnick told CNBC’s “The Exchange” earlier this week. “This is the new model, where you work in these kind of plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here.”

“You should see an auto plant,” he said. “It’s highly automated, but the people—the [4,000] or 5,000 people that work there—they are trained to take care of those robotic arms. They’re trained to keep the air conditioning [going].”

Well, so much for the American dream, now your kids and their kids can look forward in the future to greasing up the old robot arms and fixing the air conditioning. 

Because they never got that great job pillaging at some vulture equity fund like Nudnick did. 

They instead will be assembling parts for the new death star on Narkina 5.

But forgetting the Social Security faceplant and his forecast for the end of upward mobility, his biggest gaffe came recently when he said that taxpayers don't pay for tariffs, countries and businesses do.

Really? In what world is that?

The Commerce Secretary went on CNN recently and insisted countries and businesses, and not consumers, would pay the tariff cost.

"We do expect a 10% baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future — but don't buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays," Lutnick said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

This is of course, absolute bullshit and make believe.

I have had two vendors I work with tell me that their business stopped completely after the China tariffs, with their costs for raw materials doubling and tripling in some cases. Lutnick and Trump show a total ignorance regarding the plight of small business in America.

Small companies like my cohorts will simply close up shop, they do not have the financial wherewithal to eat the tariffs and neither do their customers.

And now Walmart has announced that they will have to pass down the price increases, to the consternation of the President and his minions.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart, which became the nation’s largest retailer by making low prices a priority, has found itself in a place it’s rarely been: Warning customers that prices will rise for goods ranging from bananas to car seats.

Executives at the $750 billion company told industry analysts Thursday that they’re doing everything in their power to absorb the higher costs from tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump.

Given the magnitude of the duties, however, the highest since the 1930s, higher prices are unavoidable, and they will hurt Walmart customers already buffeted by inflation over the past three years.

Trump’s threatened 145% import taxes on Chinese goods were reduced to 30% in a deal announced Monday, with some of the higher tariffs on pause for 90 days.

Those higher prices began to appear on Walmart shelves in late April and accelerated this month, Walmart executives said Thursday. However, a larger sting will start to be felt in June and July when the back-to-school shopping season goes into high gear.

Trump has of course, flipped out over this. He wants them to eat the tariffs, no matter the effect on profits.

President Donald Trump blasted Walmart on Saturday after the country’s largest retailer warned this week that it will have to raise prices because of tariffs.

“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. “I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”

Sorry Donny, that's not how it works in the real world. Walmart may be able to lose money longer than the rest of us but they are capitalists and capitalists that don't pay attention to the bottom line don't stay in business for very long. Even big companies like Walmart.

The reality is that all these MAGA types who dream of dismantling the global economy need to understand that it takes decades to ramp up domestic manufacturing capabilities, not months or years. A lot of our businesses are used to low cost foreign labor and not easily weaned.

All Trump is going to succeed in doing is driving the greatest economic power in the world into recession and he looks like has is doing a great job at that. 

Thankfully, being a man who never takes any personal responsibility for his own failures, if he is smart he will march Peter Navarro and Lutnick right out to the guillotines and pretend this tariff crap never happened before he does too much more damage.

*

Oh and one more thing regarding Lutnick. He said that dockworkers and truck drivers worried about their jobs should have faith. Why? Because Trump said so and has truthed it out.

“You should be very optimistic and positive, and I am too,” Lutnick said. “Because the President truthed it out.”

Truthed it out? Since when did truth become a verb? Seriously? Are we in the United States of America or North Korea, the infallible great leader has truthed it out... Oh joy.

Robert Sommers: Fine Arts & Antique Dealer - Epi. 342, Host Dr. Mark Sub...

I haven't watched this yet but I was there and it was a very enjoyable interview so here goes. Hope you like it.

Leadbelly

Bird share

kestrel

yellow rumped warbler

I made it out to San Jacinto yesterday, took my first pictures in months and had a nice walk. 

It was dark and cold but I still had a wonderful day traipsing around. 

Although I am technically still on my blog vacation I thought that I would share a few pictures with you.

Always great to encounter an owl.

Great horned owl

Red shouldered hawk

 Look forward to being back in communication by the end of March.

See you around

Now heading into my eighteenth year of the blast, I think it is time to finally ride into the sunset for a little while and take a break. 

Too much tsoris for this old cowboy, don't feel much like sharing right now. It's all been said. Too much trouble in River City, a lot to git done 'fore the roof caves in. 

Vaya con dios, or with the appropriate deity of your choice.

Peregrine, up close

 

Postcards

Happy New Year everybody

Well, I wrote a depressing blog yesterday, and then took it down, not wanting to be a total bummer. 

Roger wrote me and asked where it went and I put it back up this morning. 

When I'm happy I'm happy and when I'm not I'm not and I have never been one to bullshit my readership. 

Not like I am some paid organ grinder with a monkey set on this good green earth to entertain you.

I haven't been real happy lately. I have been scared and depressed.

But it is probably not as bad as the inner morning demons trick me into believing. 

And I notice that with most people still high from all that nog and Christmas cheer, less and less people are making any attempts to enter my orbit.

I don't blame them. Radioactive.

I am working on a side gig right now that might pull my ass out of the fire. If I can make it to February everything will probably be alright.

So I will put on my happy face on New Year's eve, historically my worst day of the year. Why? Too many stories to tell you but it all started in Times Square in 1972 when my girlfriend was blacked out drunk and a guy blew a New Year's whistle in my face and I ended up in a fist fight on one side while trying to keep her from falling into the gutter.

Very memorable. I've never been the most comfortable person around drunken people. Anyway I have had some good one's since then and hopefully we are turning the corner and 2025 will see us fervently making America great again. We can broadcast or sell tickets to the initial round-ups and the deportations should make for great television.

*

Speaking of television, I binge watched Shogun this week on Hulu, now part of Disney +.

I am a huge Clavell fan, Shogun, Taiko, King Rat. I loved the first Shogun with Richard Chamberlain. 

I didn't want to like this one but honestly, the acting is superb and it was even better than the first one. Less romanticized, more believable.

Except for the tenth and last episode which I found to be quite anticlimactic. 

I will have to watch the first one again if I can find it but I sure don't remember it leaving you hanging like this. 

Not like they could make a whole new season out of the assumption of power.

But then again, they are creating all sorts of crap in Middle Earth that Tolkien never had anything to do with so I guess anything goes today.

I think the whole Shogun series was shot in cold Canada, interesting scenery but it works. Beautiful cinematography.

*

I have been on a strange YouTube kick, watching the SoulTrain network, I was a SoulTrain dancer. You don't realize how important this show was to the black culture until you watch some of these videos.

*

I have had three or four people tell me how much they loved the Bob Dylan biopic. Linda my cousin sent this today.

I am not a biopic person. If I was around for the original, I don't need to see the remake. I've seen Dylan a couple dozen times, know his music quite well. Even read Chronicles.

Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison killed me for the genre. I really don't see the point. 

I even hated the people of Laurel Canyon movie, told through the lens of the Wallflowers.

Having said that, some people I respect, like Joseph and Linda, loved the Dylan thing so maybe I will force myself to see it and try to change my mind.

And I have yet to hear from a person who didn't love it.

I guess that is about it. I hope that you all have a wonderful and safe New Year's eve.

Please don't drink and drive. Call a cab or an uber. 

Best wishes in the new year. Let us look to Shogun for hope in the future. When all looked its most bleak, a victory was still secured, although it took a lot of pain and sacrifice and an occasional suicide.