Category Archives: Culture

Culture

Breakfast of Champions, NOT!

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Every Saturday my running group does a morning long run and then we all go out and have breakfast together. One morning I saw on the menu of a restaurant that we went to, an item listed as a popular dish, Avocado Toast. It was fairly expensive and the dish was to my surprise, just mashed and sliced avocado on a piece of toast. No seasonings, just avocado and toast. Well my running “friends” gave me smack for several breakfasts after that by asking if I wanted to order Avocado Toast again. As they say, “with friends like that…”

This cuisine happens to be very popular with the Millennial generation.  I’ve come to find out that this Avocado Toast thing is popular around the world with Millennials. It’s so popular in Australia that a millionaire wrote and op-ed piece that Millennials won’t be able to afford to buy a house if they waste their money on expensive coffee and, you guessed it, Avocado Toast. The author of the article was pointing out that the prices of avocados has spiked because it has become a “fashionable” food to eat, increasing the demand for the fruit.

Millennials can spend their money however they want, as far as I’m concerned. BUT…

The Millennial generation is a group that entrenched in the pseudo-science of global warming and they seem to protest anything that smells of environmental attack, such as mining coal, or creating a more business friendly environment, or pretty much any idea put forth by President Trump.

Now here’s where the IRONY is in all of this.

Avocados are primarily grown in Mexico. Now that the Millennial foodies have chosen avocados as their fashion food statement, Mexican growers have been DEFORESTING the land to plant, guess what, Avocado trees. One tree for another tree, how bad can that be?

Well it turns out that the best forest land to grow avocados in Mexico is the breeding ground of the Monarch Butterfly. The Monarch Butterfly will travel in some cases over 2000 miles to get to the breeding grounds!  So much of the forest where the Monarch Butterfly migrates to each year to reproduce, has been turned into avocado groves that scientists believe that the species may become extinct.

Good job Millennials! Your foodie fashion may WIPE OUT a SPECIES!  Show of hands Millennials, HOW MANY OF YOU CARE?

For my part, I now ask where the avocados that I buy were grown.  I buy California grown Avocados.  One good thing out of the PRK!

Culture, Government

The PRK Wants To Become Numero Uno

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The People’s Republik of Kalifornia leader, Senate President Pro-Tem Kevin de Leon, introduced legislation, SB-100, that would phase out fossil fuel generation of electricity in the state.  Almost half of all electricity in the state  is generated using natural gas.

Kev, buddy, the PRK has the sixth highest electricity rates in the nation. I see you want us to be number one! Let me translate in the Lingua Franca of the PRK since you have bragged that relatives of yours are illegal immigrants. Somos los NUMERO UNO!

The state would need to generate power with new solar and wind systems.  Um, maybe i’m a bit of a dunce, but the wind doesn’t always blow and there is this pesky event called night where solar doesn’t work all that well.  Kev says that we can use hydroelectric power to make up the gaps.  Well according to the Kalifornia Energy Commission website, hydro power only accounts for 6 percent of energy generation in the state.  SIX is a not equal to ONE HUNDRED last time I took math.  Hmmm, maybe we need to create more of those environmentally friendly dams.  Oh wait, we have droughts in the state and the tree huggers want to get rid of the existing dams.

Wind power, there’s a great idea.  Let’s see wind power kills untold thousands of birds every year.  President Obama gave wind producers a 30 year exemption to kill 4200 of our endangered national bird, the Bald Eagle EACH YEAR, as well as other protected and endangered species because there is no way to prevent bird strike kills by windmills.  Hey, Progre-sissies, a show of hands, how many of you know of this exemption?  It’s a felony to kill bald eagles and it has been since 1940.  The exemption was part of Prez O’s great green energy initiative.  Anyone want to guess what the progre-sissy reaction would be if President Trump suggested killing an endangered species to create green energy to “make America great again”?

What will ultimately happen is that the PRK will end up with the highest electricity rates in the nation as our buddy Kev wants  and we will buy electricity from other states connected to the grid to fill in the gaps.  If the bill becomes law, The PRK won’t be burning fossil fuels within the state borders, but we’ll end up buying electricity generated by fossil fuels from other states.  The out of state burning will include natural gas as well as coal.

Even though Kev’s plan accomplished near zero, we can feel green and righteous while paying higher electricity bills.

Oh and as a reminder to our most intellectual and oh so caring politicians, electricity is REQUIRED by both rich and poor, therefore this proposed policy is REGRESSIVE as higher electrical rates will punish the lower income earners the MOST.

Business, Culture, Finance

What A Great Country

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I started to write about the Yale University hunger strike that is going on. Doctoral students are “symbolically” holding a hunger strike demanding the university pay more than the $30,000 a year stipend, full medical coverage, and $40,000 in tuition. $80,000 per year just doesn’t go as far as it used to for one individual.

Oh, and the “symbolic” part, is that the snowflakes leave their sit-in to get pizza and burgers if they get hungry during the hunger strike. One student commented that it’s “still inspirational” even if they eat during the hunger strike.

The $80,000 per year number sent me down the trail to see just what the poverty level is in the United States and at what level does a citizen receive Obamacare subsidies.

From the ACA (Obamacare) website, a family of EIGHT is considered at the poverty level if their income is $40,890. HALF of what a Yale doc is GIVEN. For an individual, the poverty line is $11,880 or 7 times less than what the POOR Yale graduate student is compensated.

Life is hard…

The reason I mentioned at the beginning of this musing that I “started” to write about the poor snowflakes, is that while researching about the poverty level I tumbled across a financial “advice” website that had recommendations to reduce a person’s Adjusted Gross Income to maximize their Obamacare subsidies.

The website had these “tips” for HIGH INCOME EARNERS to reduce their AGI and maximize how much money the government (fellow tax payers who actually pay taxes) gives to them.

Contribute $18,000 to your 401K and $5,500 to your IRA to remove $23,500 from your income level.  This is good advice for anyone.

Have and S-Corporation or LLC to write off all your business expenses. The financial advice about S-Corps is to structure them to provide NO  OR LITTLE PERSONAL TAXABLE INCOME.

Own rental property and deduct all the expenses of managing the properties, as well as the depreciation to reduce or eliminate any income tax.

But here’s the best advice.,,

The website points out that if you have your rental property in say BORA BORA, you are allowed to deduct TRAVEL EXPENSES to check on your property there.  A business class round trip ticket from Los Angeles to Bora Bora is only $6,168. Do that once a quarter and you get an additional $24,672 in deductions.  Of course you’ll need to stay at an over the water bungalow at $2000 per night while your checking on your multi-million dollar rental investment.

And the Progre-sissies who whine about income inequality want to KEEP Obamacare as the law of the land.

As I said in the title “What a great country!“.