More Snow and Current Events

Greetings Comrades.  How are you this fine day?  I am increasingly incredulous about the state of our nation as well as the general stupidity displayed on twitter.   We have both set up accounts on Post.News for when twitter stops working.  You can search for me as phyleaux, and Jim is phyleaux2.  Those are our handles, so to speak.  It's a calmer environment, I don't like it as much as pre-Musk twitter but one must remember it's still in beta, so it's too soon to pass judgement.  It's good to have a place to bail out to.

It snowed again last night, about two inches.  It's more of a nuisance than anything.  Jim used the snow blower on the drive way and I shook the trees.  Some of the snow has iced up to the point where I can't get it off the trees without hurting them.  It will be interesting to see how things are doing in the spring after this much cold and snow.

Then we went up the hill on snowshoes.  It was 32F with heavy cloud cover.  My mistake was wearing gloves with hand warmers in the palm, should have used the wretched mittens.  There are pictures.

Here is Jim, waiting for me to hurry up with the camera, already.

One of the things we struggle with is what to have for dinner.  Neither one of us likes to cook, we're not particularly interested in eating, so what's for dinner is an issue.  Breakfast and lunch are easy, they're always the same.  Dinner is a different matter.  So - who can guess what this is?

It's this.

That's chicken that was cooked sous vide.  It comes out of the pouch looking like that, then you cut it into strips and heat/brown in a hot pan.  Then the contents of the second pouch are poured in and heated through.  It was actually good.  Prep time is about 6 minutes.  We had it with broccoli and a small baked potato and it was enough dinner.  Safeway carries them, if you're on the hunt for something you haven't had before.

Twitter is mutating into something malignant.  Many people in Ukraine use two factor authentication, which requires the sending of a text to your phone.  Twitter has taken the Ukrainian country code out of their authentication table, so people using TFA can not get on.  Ukranians hve relied on twitter to get the word out on Russian atrocities, looting of homes and museums and other despicable forms of terrible behavior done by the invaders.  It's not good that they're been blocked.

This came out yesterday.  Elon is desperate for money.  Thus far he has stopped paying rent on his buildings, he's auctioning off kitchen equipment, staff took all of the furniture out of one building and then closed the bridge between them, he's not going to pay the severance money that employment laws specify must be paid, and in general he's being a jerk.  He suspended the account of Jack Sweeney who has been tracking the location of Elon's jet.  He doesn't want his location known but he's happy to force users to share location data.  It also looks like he's suing Sweeney "for supporting harm to his family." if this goes through, I guess I'll be deleting my account.

If you're interested, and I understand that many of you are not, there is an good article which you can read by CLICKING HERE.

The orange dumpster fire is teasing us with a BIG MESSAGE release tomorrow.  This is what he put up to get our attention.

If you're stuck for ideas for Christmas gifts, there is always this.

Pretty amazing, eh?

A while back I did two posts on Direct Contracting Entities, which are the first step towards privatizing Medicare.  I was horrified then as well as now.  They are HERE and HERE.  This issue has resurfaced in the Senate, Senator Warren is not happy about the prospect and wants it stopped.  There is a new article up and you can find it HERE.  It you're on Medicare, like me, this is important stuff and it's time to start writing your congressional reps about this.

A few days ago, Germany arrested 25 people for plotting to overthrow the government.  Lawfare blog did an excellent article about the people involved in the plot.  What's so disheartening is the fact that some of them are influenced by QAnon.  America's crazies are going international.  Here is an excerpt of the crazy, "... the alleged coup plotters were united by the belief in a global conspiracy that sees dark forces behind all global and domestic events and so strongly desired to overthrow the existing system of governance that they were able to paper over ideological differences in pursuit of a common goal. Explicit anti-Semitism plays a role in this belief system: In a speech in 2019, Prince Heinrich XIII blamed the Rothschild family for financing all wars and the revolutions that toppled monarchies. Coronavirus conspiracies fit easily into this toxic mixture, too: The alleged plotters were allegedly also looking for seers who would be able to determine whether people had received “chip implants” and are thus “controlled” by Bill Gates and the pharmaceutical industry." Batshit crazy everywhere you look. The article can be found HERE.

So, class, that's your list of required reading for today.

I forgot a picture of the poor maple who refuses to shed his leaves. He looks so miserable.

That's it maties! It's time to get on the rowing machine.