Minneapolis in the news - again

What is going on with my home state of Minnesota?  Ten years ago nobody could locate us on a map and the majority of Americans thought we were part of Canada.  Suddenly, Minnesota is ground zero for social unrest.  

The latest is ICE killing a woman.  That's about as far as I will go as I do not trust any media accounts as to what happened.  Here is what I do know.  PMF, who is part of my coven, lives in South Minneapolis and was ground zero for the George Floyd protests and now the ICE shooting protests.  I tend to take her first-hand account of what is going on rather than AI doctored video footage with a political slant.  

I long for the days when the world thought Minnesota was just a bunch of Eskimos living in igloos.    

Blue January

 Batten down the hatches, y'all.  Things are about to get even weirder.  The Orange Cheeto thinks he can bully his way into anything and everything.  I don't agree with his going into Venezuela and kidnapping their president while simultaneously threatening to overtake Greenland?  Is diplomacy non-existent?  Why alienate ourselves from Europeans?  Are we nuts?  

On another note, the bite of high insurance premiums for health insurance, car insurance, and home insurance are straining budgets.  Of course, those costs are not factored into the core inflation rate.  I do not believe for one second the economy is as "affordable" as we are being told.  

Let's also factor in job losses in the tech and entertainment industries in California.  Those two industries are pillars of our economy.  Silicon Valley is undergoing tremendous layoffs as AI creeps into replacing employees, as is the Hollywood film industry.  Let's not forget California's wineries are struggling as well as fires, lack of insurance, and lack of workers (they are all getting rounded up and deported) in conjunction with diminishing interest in alcohol consumption are also playing a part in our slumping economy.

What has fueled California's economic engine for a long time is sputtering out.  High costs of living and high taxation is driving companies to other states.  High taxation is driving anybody with any means out of state to avoid forking even more money over to Sacramento.  

Yes, California has beautiful weather with stunning landscapes.  However, we can't eat the weather and we can't eat the scenery.   We need industry we can sink our teeth into.  Does anybody know what that is?  What do we have left to offer the world?  Marijuana?   

All I can see is California being a giant vacation rental for the rest of the world.   

Where am I going with all of this?  Newsome is going to make a presidential run.  High taxes, high homelessness, high crime, meddlesome bureaucracy makes getting anything done next to impossible.  DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM.  Plus, Newsome is part of the same old and tired democratic party machine that thinks they can put forth a candidate that has been blow-dried and hairsprayed as their front runner.  Newsome is about as authentic as a three-dollar bill.  He is nothing more than a priveleged brat born into California's political elite.  He is a status-quo democrat and a part of the establishment that is effing over the people.  Do not buy that he is "for the working people."  Bullshit.  The only buying going on here is billionaires of our government whether democrat or republican.  

 

 

Coven Divorce

Yes, my Minnesota coven has had a good run.  We were friends for 50+ years.  All good things must come to an end.  I now get why people divorce after 40+ years of marriage.  Sometimes it takes that long to figure out manipulation, gaslighting, and narcissism.  And sometimes it takes just as long to figure out that nobody's nasty core personality is going to change no matter how much flowery prose they post on social media claiming how much they love everybody and wish for world peace.    

I've always said my superpower is calling truth to BS in five-words-or-less.  I have owned my own BS with the coven when I am wrong.  However, there is one who is now off the charts in "unapologetic love with herself" to the degree where she is now tattooing it on her forearm (for real).  All of her "unapologetic self-love" is nothing more than a self-empowering, feminist sound-byte justification to treat other people like shit and to validate her narcissism.  

SYB can NOT see her own BS.  Yet SHE is the mental health professional who has to "dumb herself down" to be with us.  No shit.  Well, you know me.  I called her on it.  Of course, she did not like it despite pleading with the coven that "we must have honest and open communication to move forward and to move past the yuck."

Well, the honest and open communication comes with terms and conditions - we can't say ANYTHING about HER bullshit.  SYB can't own her own shit.  She can dish it out, but she can't take it.  I stood my ground as did SSP and PMF in attesting that SYB thinks she is holier-than-thou and that her shit does not stink.  Time will tell as what her adoring minions will do.  

Well, SYB......Go and love yourself.  There is another interchangeable four letter word I could have used instead of love, but I am being polite.   SYB does not want friends.  She wants perpetual adoration, which is a classic trait of a NARCISSIST.  They need their constant supply of ego pumps.  If the people in their social circle do not supply them with the ego pumps the narcissist needs, they are tossed out the car window faster than a bad burrito from 7-11.  

Meeting SYB you would think she is the champion of the "underprivileged retards who never learned to reed so good."   It's all a fake cover for being a narcissistic control freak concerned ONLY about HERSELF and how many LIKES she can get on Facebook.  God help you if you have a different opinion from hers on anything.  She is right.  You are wrong.  End of discussion.  

Oh, by the way....did you know SYB was molested by her dad 50 years ago?  Well, that that should be her next tattoo on her forehead as she tells every gas station attendant and cashier her story.   While I am sad that happened to her, she never asks about the rest of the coven of the abuse WE experienced growing up.  It's all about her......all the time......done.  

Ghosts of Christmas Past

 Merry Christmas, everybody :)

Yeah......have you had a chance to breathe?  Isn't it GREAT?  All of the expectations of Christmas and forced family time together along with forced overtime with company holiday parties are done for another season.   blissssssssssssss

This is why I LOVE the week between Christmas and New Year's.  All of that forced socializing whether it is for your job or for family obligations is now in the rear-view mirror.  

Don't you all miss COVID just a tad?  We all had an excuse to just stay home and/or socialize with people we really wanted to socialize with - scrap the rest.  There are plenty to scrap.  

In all honesty, we did have a really nice Christmas Eve, Christmas morning breakfast, and Christmas dinner.  We even hosted a crab feed at our house last night.    

Merry Christmas.  I promise I will not sing annoying Christmas songs that will make you want to strangle me.   

Odd Ball Christmas Songs and Elder Hospital Care

 Are you ready to take a shotgun to any speaker that keeps playing the annoying Christmas songs that have been blaring at full volume since Halloween?  Yup, I'm there with you.  Only a few more days to go until we can shove Mariah Carrey's "All I Want for Christmas is Yooouuuu" back into the big, plastic Christmas storage bin and stuff it up in the attic where it is 104* in August.  Hopefully, she suffocates.  

The other one I loathe is 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' by the annoying singers that sound like they were hired away from the creepy fun house.  "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again....a ha ha ha ha ha ha HA ha ha ha ha."  fingernails on a chalkboard

I do not hate all Christmas songs equally.  There are two songs I really like, but they are not overly mainstream.  One is "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses.  The song has the best bass line ever.  Another fun fact, the bassist is a woman.  The other fun Christmas song is Little St. Nick by the Beach Boys.  

Now, onto elder hospital care.  SuperBETCH is has been in the hospital for well over a month.  She was admitted into Santa Rosa Memorial and was in intensive care for a few weeks.   She needs dialysis for 4 hours daily.  She also has bone cancer.  There are so many things wrong.  Here is the sad part for Nice Guy (son of SuperBETCH).  SuperBETCH is too "well" for the hospital (or so they say), but too sick to go home.  Just where does she go?  Well, right now she is at a facility in Sebastopol for the time being.  They have dialysis on site.   

Here's the kicker.  Medicare only pays for a limited time for care at the facility in Sebastopol.  I forget what the exact time is, but it is limited.  SuperBETCH has long-term care insurance, but it is only good for certain facilities and there are other fine print requirements that are next to impossible to meet.  

So now what?  Well, nobody can care for SuperBETCH at home.  She needs to stay where she is at.  However, her care will cost $3,000 per DAY.  Do the math.  That's $90,000 per MONTH.  If she is there for a year, that will add up to about $1,000,000.00.  NiceGuy's sister (SuperBETCH, Jr., who is 58 years old, divorced, and just got fired from her job) thinks she is going to inherit a pile of money.  News flash:  most the estate, if not all of it, will get eaten up in long-term care for SuperBETCH.  

Hey, I'm not without my own dealings with my sister-in-law who is elderly and broke.  If she died today, there is not enough money to bury her or have a funeral.  We would have to pay for it.  She is $7,000 in credit card debt, has zero savings, and has $3,000 in her checking account which is dwindling with increased prices.  In California, the pecking order for funeral expenses is first the spouse, then kids, then siblings.  Yup, you could be stuck paying for a burial for your dead-beat sibling you cut ties with decades ago.  

Sister-in-law sits in her chair all day long and watches tv.  She expects everybody else to figure out her life -- and to pay for it.   She will not take care of herself, but expects everybody else to take care of her.  Here is what frosted my beeeehiney today.  She texts me a picture of some make up she wants.  This is a WANT and not a NEED.  What does she need make up for?  She is 80 years old and never leaves the house.  She needs make up to watch tv?  Keep in mind we are paying a significant portion of her living expenses.....and she texts me with a make up request?  Thank God they discontinued the make up she wants.  The make up she wants is expensive!

Well, enough for now.   

Good luck, America, with the aging Boomers.  There is a reason they are referenced as the most selfish generation.  We are just now seeing the early Boomers fall into poverty.  The tsunami is coming.  They will not take responsibility for their life choices, but will demand Gen X bail them out.  That is another whole 6 hour conversation with a bottle of wine.  I've got lots to say about that.   

 

 

Boomer Folklore: There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe

 Here's what is coming:  the old woman will live in a shoe box.  You all think I am kidding.  I'm taking the Mother Goose rhyme into 2026 and beyond.  

The fastest growing homeless population is the elderly (dare I say Boomers).  Why?  I could talk for hours on it as the reasons are complex, but some of it boils down to this.  We are now reaping the seeds sown in the 1980's Reaganomics era where unions were demolished.   Prior to the 1980's employers offered defined benefit pensions which guaranteed income for life unlike defined contribution plans that are finite.  When the Reganomics hit it was sold to the people that unions were not needed.  Put the pension money on the check NOW and people can invest for their own pension.  Who needs unions?  Americans are independent!  We can plan for our own futures!  GIMME MONEY NOW!

Boomers bought it hook, line, and sinker.  Boomers loved the huge paychecks and spent themselves into a tizzy with large houses, cars, boats, trips, etc.  Did they save for their retirement?  Nope.  Now their toys have long depreciated to being valued worthless and left Boomers with zero savings and mounting credit card and medical debt.  They have reverse mortgages on their homes because they can't come to terms that their lifestyle is not sustainable and refuse to face reality.  

The Boomers' reverse mortgages are coming due.  Boomer has walked through all of his money.  Now Boomer needs to move somewhere....but WHERE?  Boomer is now in declining health, does not have any money, and the bank is about to retake the house leaving Boomer with negative equity.  Yup.  The longer Boomer stays in the house, the more he will owe.  

Boomer has zero money and zero savings.   Boomer can't keep up with rising prices.  Boomer needs to sell his home, but finding another place to live is proving challenging and expensive.  Next thing you know Boomer is facing eviction and is now without a home.  Where will all of these elderly and broke people live?  Who will take care of them?  

Which brings me back to the beginning:  There was an old woman who lived in a shoe....box.   

 

 

....and how was YOUR Thanksgiving?

Whew.  Another Thanksgiving under my belt.  At this point I am a black belt in Thanksgiving Dinner preparation and hosting.  I think I have dealt with every uncomfortable guest/relative situation at this point as well along with being a professional diplomat with family politics and government politics.

I wish they handed out a Nobel prize for keeping world peace at the extended family holiday dinners.  We all know that everything starts at home, right?  I have family members that range from wearing MAGA hats to feverish supporters of Zohran's socialist democracy.  The point is that we all converge during the holidays and nobody gets worked up of politics.  We can have a civil and insightful discussion if it comes up despite the variances.  

Yup.  My family covers the entire range of the political spectrum.  I think I have members of my family who are on a political spectrum that has yet to be identified.   

Truth be told, I have had several bumps in the road over the decades in reaching the utopia of family holiday dinners.  There have been arguments, mishaps, miscommunications, and misunderstandings along the way that have resulted family discord.  I have been in the wrong many times.  Then there are those in the family who think they are entitled to be waited on hand and foot and treat the host like it is an on-demand restaurant and give no courtesy to the host nor to others.  

I am so glad and relieved that the ingrate cancer has been cut from my home.  The ingrates no longer even entertain that thought that are welcome at my home.  They have to make their own plans and cook for themselves.   For fear of sounding like a cheesy pop-psychologist, I've set my "healthy boundaries."  

Now the ingrates are arguing amongst themselves as to whom is the ingrate, and how dare Ingrate Relative X try to dictate the guest list for Host Ingrate.  I just sit back and smile.  

Here are the comments I hear through the family grapevine:

1.  OMG!  It's so much WORK and EXPENSE to host!  It takes days to organize, clean, prep, cook.  Then there is the CLEAN UP.  Nobody HELPS me!

2.  Quiet Rage made it look so easy!  Do you have her recipe for (fill in the blank).  

3. Ingrate X simply can't be expected to host - it's just too much (insert personal drama here).  Ingrate X has two kids, does not work, and has small living quarters. (note:  Quiet Rage hosted holidays with two small kids while working full-time AND going to school AND living in a small condo).   

4.  Host Ingrate is astounded that the other family ingrates want dibs on the leftovers to take home.  Host Ingrate wails, "I bought and prepared all this food!  The leftovers were to feed us for the rest of the week!  Now Ingrate X feels entitled to some?"

Ahhhhhhhh.....so much relief to not have to deal with any of that.  So much has been taken off our plates with the elimination of the ingrates (pun intended).  It allowed us to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal for 7 for a family we love that is dealing with a terminal disease and bring it over to them in addition to cooking for my usual crowd I host.