SO - today is my birthday, or as some say my "naming day". The day the entire world tells you over and over that you are NOT getting any younger. Birthdays were never a big deal when I grew up. Nothing to really get excited about so let's move on.
In other news. Saturday the average high temperature moves from 25 to 26 the first solid move towards summer. The lowest average high is 24 which happens on my brother birthday, January 14th. It only lasts 1 day. Starting Jan 3rd the average drops from 26 to 25. On January 14th the average drops to 24 for one day and then back to 25 the next day until this Saturday. It will stay 25 until Feb 1st BUT THEN we gain a degree AT LEAST once every 4 days and the rise accelerates as we get more and more sun.
SO - Saturday celebrate as we have officially gotten through the arm pit of winter. All we have is the snowiest month to go. So far so good. With that said. With the temps about to be near 50 Friday don't complain when our high is 0. 25 degrees warmer then average means we can always be 25 degrees colder.
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The GOP is raising your taxes. Well, they are raising tariffs which in turn will raise prices. LG has already announced they are raising prices and the solar industry announced they will likely lose 28,000 workers as the GOP put a 30% tariff on solar panels, thus killing the solar industry. TVs are going to go up in price so if you are looking to buy buy now.
Tariffs only raise prices for things Americans buy. Remember America first.
But the industry that REALLY likes the GOP are the PayDay Loan sharks. The GOP put congressman Mick Mulvaney in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has been an anti- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advocate for years and yesterday he stopped lawsuits and loosened regulations on the industry which forbid company's like PayDay loans from providing 900% interest loans to the poor. Now they can.
Another great thing the GOP has done is America lost 40,000 tourism jobs in the last year as America is no longer the tourist destination it use to be. The National Travel and Tourism Office said there was a 3.3% drop in travel spending and a 4% drop tourists coming to America since the President took office. Making America Great Again?
Did you know America is the only wealthy country in the world without universal healthcare?
Did you know the not-for-profit Social Progress Imperative ranked social progress in 128 countries in 2017 based on three things, basic human needs like food, water, and shelter, access to information and environmental quality and opportunity, including personal rights and freedoms. America is ranked 18th
Did you know that Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, and Slovenia all offer free or virtually free college education.
Did you know America is one of the only developed countries in the world that does not offer paid leave to new parents? Estonia gives 87 weeks off of paid leave. Bulgaria, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Austria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Norway and Slovakia all give 1 year paid leave.
America ranks 43rd out of 183 countries when if comes to freedom of the press. And we rank 18th in rule of law rankings which rank corruption in our government.
BUT "we" rank 31st in gun violence per 100,000 residents. 3.85 per 100,000 citizens. El Salvador is 1st with 40.95 per 100,000.
OH - if you are looking at wealthy countries we are REALLY REALLY low on the list. Germany is 0.12 per 100,000. America is just behind Iraq in gun violence.
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When you vote for School Board make sure you understand what the candidates really stand for. One of this years candidates is anti-new school (it was good enough for him 50 years ago) anti-vax, a climate change denier and anti-fluoride.
WITH THAT SAID - Please vote for Jason Theilen for Alderman District 2.
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According to UBS Wealth Management, Millennials will be the richest generation ever. 60% are investing in retirement savings and all of them will sooner or later inherit the property and wealth from their parents. They have been locked out of the housing market (there is a lack of real estate at the moment) but once parents die all of that property goes to them and since the millennial population is smaller then the baby boomer that wealth will be more concentrated.
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On this day The Battle of the Bulge ended as the Allies pushed the German lines back to where they started. All told the Americans had 80,000, killed, wounded, and captured and the Germans 100,000.
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Newest binge is Victoria but here is the problem. We are still 3 or 4 episodes away from the final CROWN and watching both of these shows is REALLY confusing. Same names but 130 years.
apart. Both are outstanding but after 4 episodes of the wonderful Victoria it has to wait.
As for Godless. Well, Very good show but the finale' was not very well choreographed at all. I think I could have done better. It looked more like a fight between two prize fighters who had zero defense.
OH - the good guys won but there were so many other things they COULD have done. It was like they had this huge build up and then got bored for the finale'. NOT saying it was not worth watching and the ending was excellent but it could have been so much better.
STILL - best series finale's I have seen are from Justified and Battle Star Galactica. I remember both vividly.
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Not going to Washington DC this year for Water and Light. The place pisses me off. This is one of my favorite images from my last trip - that is The Mayor waiting for the subway
See ya later. Going to the Tornado Room in Madison for dinner tonight.
OH - something I learned yesterday about Dolby Atmos. There is a limit on how many on-screen objects the mixer can use for audio. 120. Since speaker "channels" are a thing of the past and and it's all about objects on the screen now. Technology is so awesome. I actually have a Beatles MONO album.
Cheers