My Brittany 10 Years Ago

He was on his first pheasant season and still learning. He is now starting his 11th season.

Let's Go Brandon

"Robert De Niro gets standing ovation for saying ‘F—k Trump’ during Tony Awards Liberal actor Robert De Niro launched a profanity-laced tirade at Trump during the politically charged Tony Awards in 2018, earning a standing ovation from the ritzy crowd. "I'm gonna say one thing: F--- Trump!" De Niro stated, as he clenched his two fists in the air, leaving panic-stricken broadcast censors trying bleep out the remarks. "It's no longer down with Trump, it's f--- Trump!" The liberal crowd erupted and gave the foul-mouthed actor a lengthy standing ovation. De Niro also criticized Trump during the opening night of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. "America's being run by a madman who wouldn't recognize the truth if it came inside a bucket of his beloved Colonel Sanders Fried Chicken," the actor said."

The rumor is that De Niro's ex, Grace Hightower, will be using her $1,000,000 per year alimony check to build a KFC franchise empire the likes of which has never been seen before.

Why I Favor Expulsion over Seceding from the Union

A quote from USA Today: “My head knows that Republicans are a threat to our democracy, but my heart understands that Democrats are making our problems worse.” – David Mastio

What an assclown. This jack-off and those like him are the problem. I propose sectioning off the west coast of North America and re-settling these idiots there to run their own country under their own terms. I further propose that we agree to defending their borders (concrete barriers erected all the way around the present border of CA, OR and WA so as to keep invaders out of their newly minted country) and keeping them between their fortified border and the Pacific Ocean. These are proud and unapologetic two time Obama voters and HRC supporters. There were four full years of “Fuck Trump” with no persons in the media expressing any concern over the outright hatred leveled at a duly elected, sitting president (and those who voted for him). Now, “Let’s Go Brandon!” is routinely used in some circles and “OMG, OMG!!!! The Expression was recently etched into a gun receiver – we need law enforcement to be trotted out to investigate the thinly veiled threat to our beloved Joe Biden!!” Our news media is a fucking joke but then again, our currency is fast becoming a fucking joke so at least everything is moving in the same direction. The loss by McAuliffe yesterday in Virginia is a harbinger of what is to come. Keep your hankies ready Democrats because it is fast becoming common knowledge that though your party can talk a smooth game, you can’t really manage your way out of a wet paper sack. Your party’s blind hatred of Donald Trump and your “whatever it takes” attitude about removing him from politics and your transparent double standards are closing in on you. I view Democrats as weak and incapable of standing on their own two feet. They seem to be constantly seeking some goddamned government program or the community around them to bail them out of the consequences of their own moronic actions. The key difference between independents and Democrats is not that independents don’t make mistakes in life and Democrats do – the key difference is that independents don’t blame others for their fuck ups. They acknowledge their mistakes as their own, try to learn from them and try to not repeat them. They do not look to their surrogate Mommy to bail their sorry asses out of their self-induced drama. Independents do for themselves as was intended when the country was founded (largely by white men of European descent – truth hurts cupcake, I know, suck it up). They did fuck up in one realm, bigly – they should have picked their own fucking cotton.

Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

The Federal protections and moratoriums are ending. A few Governors in Blue States are extending protections and kicking the can down the road as far as they can for the benefit of their constituents but the dike will burst. As usual, the primary beneficiaries of this clusterfuck will be the lawyers and the court staff that will work some overtime to clear out their dockets. Covid didn't cause this – mismanagement and inept, pandering politicians (primarily Democrats) caused this. After watching Democrat politicians in action for the past 30 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are a smooth talking bunch of assclowns who could not manage their way out of a wet paper sack if their mothers’ lives depended upon their doing so. All that they touch eventually turns to shit. The only thing worse is the number of morons who fall for their “oh so transparent schtick” over and over and over again thinking “This time will be different”. The people who repeatedly vote for these charlatans have to be among the most stupid people on the planet. If you’re going to be stupid, you’d better be tough. I thank the Good Lord above everyday that I don’t have a dog in this fight anymore. I’m neither a banker nor a borrower. Through some hard work and a little grace from above, I’ve managed a nice little free and clear roof over my head with no neighbors breathing down my neck and I’m only an observer of this totally predictable and manmade fuck-up.

Stalling airplane wings and the housing market

Wing stall Stall is an undesirable phenomenon in which aircraft wings experience increased air resistance and decreased lift. It can cause an airplane to crash. Stall occurs when a plane is under too great an angle of attack (the angle of attack is the angle between the plane and the direction of flight). The wing will always stall from the wingtip and back to the root of the wing. This has the effect of bringing the apparent wind direction underneath the wing more than before; increasing the angle of attack and causing the tip of the wing to stall. The tip stalls first in this instance because as the plane rolls, the tip is moving faster than the root of the wing.

“The markets where we’re seeing the most price cuts were flying a little too close to the sun earlier this year,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for the brokerage Redfin. “Sellers got eager in their asking prices. It was not sustainable and benefited from pandemic trends that still persist, but not as extremely.” Across the U.S., home-price appreciation slowed for a second straight month in September as part of a modest cooldown, Zillow Group Inc. reported this week. The number of homes with price cuts is growing, with counties near Denver, Salt Lake City and Indianapolis seeing more than half of listings get reductions, according to Redfin. Even some of the hottest areas where workers from large urban cities sprawled out to, such as the counties including Portland, Maine, and Tacoma, Washington, have had cuts on more than 40% of listings, Redfin data show. In Idaho’s Canyon County, about eight out of 10 listings have had price cuts, the biggest share in the U.S. It’s a popular area for people who can’t afford nearby Boise, a city of about 230,000 that has boomed as Californians and other escapees of high-cost regions spread out. Its biggest employers include Albertsons Cos. and Micron Technology Inc., which are both based there. Homes started when the market looked unstoppable are getting discounted as they’re completed. A Toll Brothers Inc. house in Nampa with a gourmet kitchen and dual-sink vanity in the master bathroom is on sale for $575,000, down $44,000 since it was listed at the end of June. CBH Homes, the most prolific builder in Idaho, has 99 Canyon County homes with active listings on Realtor.com — and 52 have price reductions. My comment: it's happening cupcake. Pay no attention to what the cheerleading Realtor is telling you. This metaphorical airplane wing will stall just like it did in 2009. As a matter of fact, I used the very same analogy to explain how the stall will spread during the last real estate market bust. I just wonder if this one is going to be equally or even more spectacular than the last one.

On-line review of my last banking job

I worked for Purina Credit Union for several years before the then CEO orchestrated the acquisition of PCU by what was then American Eagle Credit Union. As PCU employees, we were grandfathered into the new organization. Fortunately, we retained our salary levels and benefits. Prior to our arrivals, PCU employees were interviewed so that we would be assigned roles within AECU. I was assigned to the Indirect Lending department where sales finance contracts were purchased from auto dealerships in MO, GA, FL and TX. I found it curious that AECU had a practice of purchasing loan contracts between dealerships and borrowers where the borrowers were not eligible for actual credit union membership. I questioned this practice and was told by the then VP of the Indirect Lending that this was not common knowledge and that no regulator had questioned the practice to that date. In effect, the credit union was making loans to individuals who it knew in advance were not members and who could not qualify for membership. The spread (loan contract rate over prevailing deposit rates paid to members of the credit union for their savings) was incredible. The terms under which dealers could sell their paper to the credit union were overly generous. The borrowers buying the automobiles were often charged more than the actual MSRP and were often allowed to finance up to the $6,000 worth of “add-on’s” such as warranties, GAP insurance, credit life insurances, nitrogen in the tires, etc., etc. Many of the applications submitted to the credit union for “underwriting” were not well scrutinized and often, information obtained solely from credit reports was the basis for approval or denial. Strangely, many of the applicant/borrowers were “managers, VP’s, big wigs” for their employers and always making nearly 100 g’s per year and always had over 5 years of employment history according to the car dealers’ applications. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to investigate the claims made if the applicants’ credit scores were beyond certain thresholds. The “supervisor” / “Sr. Underwriter” of the department and the department’s “Manager” literally took me into a conference room and gave me a good scolding for having the audacity to research a potential borrower’s employment history as part of my underwriting function. I was told by the “Sr. Underwriter” that the automobile dealers were in effect “our members” and that our job was to “buy contracts” (her words, not my own). That same “supervisor” has since been promoted. By her own admission in subsequent conversations, she did not know what a “breach of contract lawsuit” was even after 15 plus years of employment as a loan underwriter (my own unspoken thought at the time was that I was pretty sure she knew what a paternity lawsuit was given her personal experiences but that’s a different subject altogether). I warned the VP of the department that they were treading on thin ice and that many of the dealers, especially the ones located in TX, were selling them “bad paper” and that the whole experiment was likely to blow up in their faces – never mind that they were purchasing loans for people that they knew could not join the credit union as members. In my view, it was a ticking time bomb. Not surprisingly, losses became high in certain segments and at one point the entire TX market was abandoned. I was reassigned to the centralized lending group where a high level VP had set up a single group to decision the consumer and Visa loan applications of all of the branches. Branches are staffed with application takers/salespeople who are incentivized to “sell products” on their approved loans. Underwriters are expected to stare at a computer screen 8 hours per day and have their decisions questioned by gel haired, bedazzled jean wearing, Axe body spray sporting, weekend alcoholic Cardinals fans that are looking to score their bonuses so that they can afford some chrome wheels on their Honda or a Louis Vuitton handbag. The credit union higher ups like this arrangement because they don’t have to do the actual work of making sure their branches are staffed by intelligent, forward thinking individuals who can make reasonable judgments where loan applications are concerned. They can focus on staffing branches with personable salespeople. The fireworks ensue. I performed that job for a little more than 2 years as I closed in on the minimum retirement age. Hands down, it was the worst job that I ever had in nearly 30 years of banking/lending. I knew from the first year of my arrival at AECU that I was in the wrong place. I remember seeing a canary yellow convertible Prowler in the employee parking lot at the spots reserved for the credit unions’ higher ups and it was sporting the vanity plate “ROCSTAR” and thinking, “What a player – I need to get out of this place”. When PCU was absorbed by AECU, I remember thinking, “I hope that we are not treated like red-headed stepchildren” but that is what happened in my case. My own “manager” at the time resented my grandfathered pay level and vacation time accrual rate – in a conversation that I had with her, she condescendingly implied that I was not worth what I was being paid. My thought at the time was, “After watching this crew in action, I would not do this job for anything less than I am currently making”. I spoke with Human Resources about the possibility of moving to another department but I was told that in doing so, I would forfeit my salary level and would be paid at the level that the job dictated within their scale. It was a “Catch 22”. The Covid-19 Fun Bucks are running out and the whacky eviction moratoriums and foreclosure forbearance programs are all but over. Soon, consumers will have to start repaying their student loans and actually coughing up real money to keep a roof over their heads. Together Credit Union (I don’t think the new name plays well with many of their members judging from some of their reviews) will see how well a lot of their carefully underwritten loan decisions fare in the upcoming months and years. On a side note, if your politics are on the conservative or independent side of the fence, even moderately, keep your opinions to yourself if you work within TCU. You will not find many like minded people in some departments. I began my lending career as a collector at Manufacturers Hanover Consumer Services many years ago. We were sold by the bank to Credit Thrift and absorbed by that organization. As a grandfathered employee, I was better treated. I moved to credit union work after 5 years of working for consumer finance companies. PCU was different. During my employment there, TCU seemed more like a finance company than a credit union. The old finance companies (Norwest, Credit Thrift, American General) had a position called “CSR” – in most cases, these were the ladies in the office who would greet the customers, take applications, apply for perfected titles and administer the forced placed insurance premiums on borrowers who neglected to pay for their regular car insurance bills. Many of the people in positions of power at TCU seemed to me to be like the old CSR’s who went to university (on-line or brick and mortar) to get their degrees in one type or another of social or gender studies.

Thank God for Re-Runs

Very often, I find myself watching programs from pre 2000 and very much missing them. What passes as news and entertainment today is total crap by comparison.