Linux Mint To The Rescue.

[Kellemora]

I'm not computer savvy enough to know exactly how Linux does do what they do.
But I do know this much. If we buy a new hardware device and it is not recognized, we can download a driver for it, and install a driver, without rebuilding the Kernel on most things. But some things do require a Kernel rebuild. Or you can wait for the next Kernel version and it might be in it. You best bet is to buy hardware known to have Linux Drivers, and not mess with those manufacturers who only make hardware for Windows users.

I've reiterated my very expensive horror story about Windows XP PRO MCE and HP Scanners in the past. I bought a very expensive HP Scanner, their top of the line at the time I bought it. It came with Drivers for Windows XP. It would not work on my XP machine. After many calls to HP service, they checked it and found something wrong so they replaced it. The new one arrived and to did not work. HPs suggestion was that it works perfectly with their HP computer such n such model. So, on their advice, I went out and bought that exact model computer. It came with XP PRO MCE installed on the computer. The scanner would not work on this expensive new computer either. They kept saying I'm obviously not installed the driver properly. And after weeks on the phone with them, it turns out one of their local shop techs happened to live near me. So he came by my house one evening on the way home from work and took a look at it. New computer, new Scanner, both HP and designed to work together flawlessly. After about an hour of trying, the tech could not get it to work either, and left.

I had a camera and a printer that would not work on the new HP computer either. However, when I went to the individual companies, I saw they had a Different Driver for XP PRO MCE, than they did for XP Home and XP Pro. So I downloaded and installed the Camera Driver first, and now the camera worked perfectly. Downloaded and installed the Printer Driver and the printer worked flawlessly, better than before actually.
So I called HP service again and told them I need a Scanner Driver for XP PRO MCE, and they got nasty about it, said our driver is for Windows XP all versions, and they do not plan on writing a special driver for the MCE version of Windows.
So here I was, out the cost of their top o the line scanner, and a new HP computer designed for that scanner.

I finally got the HP Scanner to work on an older Windows XP Home edition computer. And that new HP computer, my newest of all my computers, was the first to die. And I swore then I would never buy another HP product. But after twelve years went by and I needed a new color laser printer, everyone I talked to recommended HP Professional series of printers.
So I bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, and bought an HP Color Laser Jet PRO with Duplexer. It did not print right from day one, I worked with it, made changes to the adjustments, and yet it still had horrible printouts, then it died after only printing about 500 pages, most of them test pages.
I talked to the service guy and he said they had problems with the motherboard on a few of them, but my warranty ran out while we were trying to get it working. So I bought a second HP Color Laser Jet PRO without the Duplexer, mainly because I needed to get my work done and product out the door. Now this printer did work perfectly, and I got my order out the door, so money would be coming in. However, it too died at around the 500 printed pages mark.
I took them both to the service center and was informed by them that they No Longer Work on ANY HP branded products.
So I brought them back home, fiddled with them enough to get a decent printed page, but nothing in color was acceptable.
To get a decent printed page, I had to set toner usage up to +5 the highest density setting possible on the internal controls.
But the one with the duplexer, I could not even get it to print anything clearly.
So here I was, once again, stuck with two more very expensive HP pieces of garbage, of which I've had to make do with because I can't afford to replace them anymore. But if I do, it will probably be a Brother Branded printer.
The very best printer I've ever owned was a Konica/Minolta Color Laser Printer, always picture perfect printouts. After years of use I had to replace the drop in engine module, and used it up until the engine wore out again. I knew all the other parts were getting worn out, so didn't want to try a new engine, but in retrospect, that is what I should have done.
So, you know when I'm in the hospital for something, and see they are using HP medical equipment, I get scared, hi hi.

The government had no right to ever touch the funds in Social Security, those were OUR FUNDS not theirs.
The government has ALWAYS wasted way too much money, most of it on Pork Barrel Projects that only benefit those in office, never the populace at large. There was enough money in SS that it would have been impossible for it to run out of funds to pay every single person who ever paid into it, their just retirement benefits. Even if they stopped SS for new arrivals, it still would not have run out. This I know for as a solid fact! All of the problems with SS started when they stole the money from it. Yes I said Stole because they did not pay back at the agreed interest rate, so the government defaulted on their promise, which has always been a familiar thing with government, they are constantly in default from overspending.
Our way of government is going to crash because of their constant borrowing and raising the debt of which they cannot possibly ever pay back, and the interest alone has long been past impossible to pay back.

Add to that, nearly every project the government has started, supposedly for our benefit, has cost exponentially more than planned, and in all cases, has failed miserably, no matter how much money was thrown into their failed plans.
I don't think you realize, the government cannot pay out anything of themselves, without first taking it from us, and pocketing half of that for themselves.

It is more than clear that a Businessman ran this country better than a Career Politician who has always lived off the government and achieved NOTHING other than wealth for himself and his family and friends.
And he alone is responsible for all the damage happening in this country right now!
And by two more years of him, we may never be able to recover from the damage he has caused.

[yogi]

I don't think you need worry about all the HP equipment hospitals use. The folks who make that medical equipment are in a different state (or country) than the ones who make printers. You have indeed previously talked about your bad experiences with HP printers. We agreed that HP was and possibly still is the expert manufacturer of business plotters. When they diversified into personal computers and the printers that service them, they did not adhere to the same quality as they did in the graphics world. People who knew HP trusted them, and in fact they do make some terrific printers. My only negative experience with them is in their front end software for those printers. To be kind I will say, it sucks the big one. Print drivers, well I don't know. I tend to use the printers as HP intended them to be used and have had little problems in that regard. You were doing commercial printing on home printers and using obscure operating systems to do it. Do not misinterpret my words here. I admire your creativity and ability to get things to work in spite of their deficiencies. It's just that sometimes I see that you are trying too hard to think out of the box. Well, HP printers in particular were meant to be used inside the box. LOL

Clearly your understanding of economics and government does not coincide with mine. Truth be known I like that situation because there are times when you are willing to expound upon your reasoning. Then, there are the times you make claims without any rational support for them. That seems to be the big problem in today's political arena. A lot of information is out there, and a lot of it is DISinformation designed to create dissension and confusion. Sometimes it's difficult to discern the lies from the truth because if you lie often enough it becomes the truth.

[Kellemora]

I do know HP has an excellent reputation on their commercial side of the fence.
But on the home user side of the fence, I've never owned one worth a dime.
On the bright side, HP does work with developers to get really great drivers for Linux based computers that have almost all the features the printers offer, and other HP devices.

The government needs to balance their budget and get out of debt, not keep increasing it.
What happens when China forecloses on the debt we owe them?

[yogi]

What happens when China forecloses on the debt we owe them?

You may not be aware of it because your news sources likely don't talk about such things. As of today the US government is operating on nearly a month to month basis because the Republicans in congress refuse to bless any funding bills originating on the Democrat side of the aisle. Most Democrats ask the very same question you posed, and the response is that it's better we go bankrupt than it is to fund any Democrat sponsored budget.

And, FWIW, China, nor anybody else, can foreclose on Treasury Bonds. As long as they keep getting the interest on those bonds, they do not even think of cashing them in.

[Kellemora]

You may not realize that nearly every BILL the Demonrats put forth contains TONS of Pork Barrel Wasteful Spending.
So hell no those with common sense, aka Republicans, won't pass such things.
Tell your Demonrats to put forth a CLEAN BILL with NO Pork Barrel Tack-On's and I'm sure it would be passed unanimously.
You should READ the ENTIRE BILL the Demonrats put forth, not just the CANDY COATING they brag about!

I've dealt with HangSen Bank in China hundreds of times over the years. I should dig out an old report they sent me several years ago that shows how the U.S. is compounding its own debts with nothing to show for it.

[yogi]

When the federal government needs money it can't collect by taxation or printing more, it borrows money. They don't go to the local bank and borrow $750 billions (for example) to cover next years spending plans because no bank on this planet has that much to lend. The US Treasury generates most of it's spending cash by selling bonds and issuing notes. The bonds pay back their face value on a specified date, which is generally multiples of ten years, but some are shorter term. In the interim the bond holders are paid interest on an annual basis and at a fixed rate. The bondholders don't want to cash in their holdings because they would lose all that interest. They could sell the bond in the open market which would be for more or less than the face value depending on the current interest rates. So, the idea of all those bondholders cashing out is a bit absurd because that (bond) debt is a cash cow for them.

One reason foreign countries like to buy US Treasury bonds is due to it's rating by Standard and Poors. Our treasure bonds have the highest possible rating and therefor is highly coveted by investors. That was the case up to a few years ago when the Republican's objections to funding the budget threatened a default on interest payments. The bond rating went down a notch at that time even though we did not default. The threat of it was enough to spook the market. The Republican response was ... so what? Defaulting is no big deal. Let's do it to stick it to the Democrats (with all those pork barrel projects that don't exist by the way). It remains to be seen what the effect of our defaulting on interest payments would be. It never happened before. But you can be assured that fewer people would be willing to buy those bonds going forward. Thus it would be more difficult, if not impossible, to sell enough bonds to cover current accounts payable. Even if we found buyers at that point, the interest payments would have to be astronomical.

Then there are the guys who think cutting taxes, income, by 3 trillion dollars to help out their business buddies is a good idea. One way to cut the current budget deficit expenses would be to reinstate the old tax rate. That's not pork, my friend. It's rational reasoning. Guess which political party is against THAT idea.

[Kellemora]

Way back, when I was working for Sverdrup & Parcel, we could opt to have 5% of our paycheck held back for the purpose of buying U.S. Treasury Bonds. At that time, I think a 100 dollar 20 year treasury bond cost like 85 bucks, and it paid like 4% interest semi-annually. I thought whoppy due, I got a check on the first one for like $3.50, hi hi. Then four months later a check for $3.85 on the second one. and so on and so forth, every six months on each for 20 years. When the first one matured, I sold both, got 100 bucks on the first, and like 89 or 90 dollars for the second since I sold it only a few months early.

I did much better on the local Municipal Bonds Des Peres issued, lower interest rate per se, but they did not pay interest. You bought the 5 year 100 dollar bonds for around 90 dollars. At the end of 5 years you got 100 bucks for them. They did pay interest quarterly on the 1000 dollar bonds which I didn't have, but the interest on them was only like 2% annum. So I guess they paid 0.5% every quarter? I bought the Municipal Bonds at the rate of one 100 dollar bond every 3 months. Which was a lot out of my paycheck at the time, because we only made around 150 dollar per week, up to around 200 bucks per week later on. They matured about the right time for me while money was tight, new baby and all. So that extra 100 bucks a month turned out to be a blessing as the bonds matured. The best part was, Colonial Bank is who cashed them in for us, and that was where I was doing my banking at that time they matured.

The U.S. survived for over a hundred years with no bloated taxes and no real debt to speak of.
I've never known anyone at all who could get out of debt by borrowing to pay those debts. It's mathematically impossible.
And the more the government borrows, the more they have to pay out in interest, and they borrow money to pay that interest, so the debt keeps climbing. It all has to crash somewhere along the line, because you cannot borrow your way out of debt, which they should not have gotten into in the first place.

99% of the current days problems are the direct result of Biden and the Demonrats.
Runaway Inflation, Soaring Prices, Escalating Crimes, especially in Demonrat run cities.
Every great country FELL when its tax base crossed 25%, and where are WE, way up there over 50%, and being held together artificially. It's gonna give and break down. I'm surprised it hasn't already.

I said this before, but you should read some of the Bills the Demonrats put forth to congress. They are always laden with tons of Pork Barrel FAT, and that is why they don't get passed.
Something needs to change so each and every Bill must stand on its own merit to get voted on, without any riders for other things. If they did it that way, every worthwhile bill would get passed quickly, and those which are Pork won't see the light of day.

[yogi]

Treasury bonds had a minimum value of $10,000 the last time I checked into it. And, only certain banks/brokers could sell them. Your $100 bonds most likely were series-E savings bonds, which worked more or less the same way as the Treasury Notes. I'm a little surprised that municipal bonds would be in $100 denominations, but there is no law saying it can't be. It all depends on who is the intended buyer, and generally individuals do not buy Treasury or Municipal bonds directly. The attraction to buying them when they are available is the guaranteed interest and face value. It's nearly impossible to lose your investment when you buy bonds because even when an entity goes bankrupt the bondholders get paid first.

Individuals cannot successfully borrow to get out of debt because they can't play by the same rules as does the government. There are pros and cons regarding deficit spending. We as a country are not required to operate on a balanced budget, which is why there is a national debt to be paid. We did in fact start out with no debts and minimal taxes, but this is not 1776 anymore. For example, next year's 2023 budget for the Defense Department is $773 billions. Last year that same Department of Defense was allocated $1.94 trillion. They blew the budget big time and there is no reason to expect they won't do the same come next year. The Republican party did not object to any one of those military cost overruns. The Democrats are being criticized this time around for only allowing $773 billion as a line item in the budget for the DoD. Think about that for a while because it is those cost overruns that force the Treasury Department to sell bonds to cover the debt. Plus, what I just cited is only for the Department of Defense which did not exist during the last two hundred years in which we did not have taxes or real debts to speak of.

Pet projects and what you call pork barrel expenses are not exclusive to any one political party. The reason why the Republicans in congress like to talk about it is to make the current administration look bad. They never bring up the "pork barrel" projects they put into bills. That's politics and a way of life in DC. What I find objectionable is to use such tactics to attack personalities. The merits of the legislation and benefit to the constituents is for the most part disregarded, and certainly not debated as is their job to do. The Republicans have not offered any viable alternatives to the budget because they don't have any. All I've seen them propose to cut costs is the elimination of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security from the federal budget and make people buy private insurance instead. Great idea, eh?

[Kellemora]

Des Peres did have several 10 dollar bonds. I remember when they wanted to buy a new fire truck. The deal was a small increase in taxes to pay for the fire truck. But so they could buy it NOW, they sold 10 dollar bonds to mature in only 3 years I think it was. Apparently, 3 years of the tax increase would cover paying the bonds off. The bonds only cost 8 bucks and at the end of three years you would get 10 dollars each for the matured bonds. For some reason, they limited the amount of these bonds any one person could buy to like 50 bonds. I think because they were considered hi-yield bonds or something like that.
Then of course when the 3 year tax was due to run out, out came all the ads for something else the city wanted claiming no increase in your current taxes, which was a lie of course. Their gimmick like so many other cities is, they didn't want to stop collecting the taxes on the fire truck, so rolled it over to something else. The bonds were the only thing they said were for the fire truck, the tax increase to cover the fire truck was touted as a municipal services tax increase. But we all knew what it was for, hi hi.

As far as what today's poly-TICK-ians do, 99% of it is well above my head.

Remember the Hillary SCAM, "You have to Pass It to see what is in it!" That bill had so much PORK in Oinked!

[yogi]

The state of Illinois sold bonds in a fashion similar to what you describe for Des Peres. The denomination of the bonds were not trivial amounts and they sold bonds to pay for building a tollway. Taxes were increased "temporarily" and when the bonds matured the tolls collected were supposed to be enough to maintain the highway indefinitely. That sounds like the tollway would be able to pay for itself once it was built, but that's not what happened in reality. The tolls kept increasing over the years and when it came time to upgrade the pavement and the tollbooths, there wasn't any money to do it. The tolls only covered current expenses and did not accumulate any reserve for future work. So, as you might have guessed, more bonds and more taxes were put into effect. Initially I could drive a forty mile stretch of the tollway for 40 cents. A couple weeks ago that forty miles set me back $2.45. I will say that the toll booths are now all electronic and no stopping to hand over coins is necessary. I have a transponder on my bumper that automatically debits my credit card. The cost of all that is high, but I confess to it being an improvement. Thank you all you taxpayers in Illinois.

The political world is not easy to understand even when you are part of it. I realize you don't have all the details, but then, neither do I. I am more interested in knowing how you understand things than in how the system actually works. It's very intriguing to read reactions to political events because there are no two that are the same in spite of the event not varying.

[Kellemora]

I had to use the North/South Tollway in Colorado a couple of times. The first time I used it, because I was in a Semi, it was 60 dollars. The second time, a couple of years later, I was in a car, and it was 5 bucks for each checkpoint, which came to around 25 bucks if you drove the entire length of it. The reason they added the checkpoints was new roads we tied to the Tollway, to help raise more revenues.
I've used many Private Toll Roads over the years, one of the ones I used often saved me from driving an extra 35 miles, and it only cost a quarter. Ironically, another one I used at least once a week when delivering flowers, was just a gravel road is all, and only about 1/4 mile long, but saved three miles of heavy traffic, and well worth the one thin dime they charged, hi hi.
Too long ago to remember, but I think was a link between Highway 109, and Wild Horse Creek Road, or possibly Smizer Mill Road. There were a lot of nearly parallel roads in Missouri with the only cross streets when you came to a new small town.
So making use of these privately owned toll roads was idea when time was important.

My dad bought some private stock in Steinies Inn, which in later years became the Shot-Locker. The stock was to remodel Steinies Inn after WWII and make it larger at the same time. At the time he bought the stock, he actually considered it more like a donation to a couple of his old friends, one of which served in the Navy with him. He knew they would do good, but not be all that profitable. Way out of the way place on the river. But with a new highway near it, it turned out to be a gold mine all throughout the late forties and most of the 50's. Dad got back more than he paid for the stock every 3 months. And when they sold out to the Shot-Locker around 1964 or around then, his stock was bought out for over 100 times what he paid for it, and that was after getting high dividends every quarter. Unfortunately, that was the only stock he ever had that did good. Same with his dad, my grandpa, he seemed to pick the ones that never did good, hi hi.

I don't see too many folks wearing "Build Back Better" hats, hi hi. But hundreds that say "Let's Go Brandon."

[yogi]

I've not had occasion to travel private toll roads, but I can imagine they exist for good reasons. The best reason probably is that it brings income to the owner of the road. It would seem that if the road is used often enough then it would become a public property. I don't know the rules there, but keeping it private requires an effort on the part of the owner.

It reads as if your dad bought stock in a privately owned company. He was fortunate that his friends had some good business sense, or were outright lucky. LOL Truth is that is the only way to make it big with stock investments. You need to buy in at the ground level and hope you did the right thing. A lot of ventures don't make it past that initial stage, but once the boom is past the value tends to flatten out. Prices tend to stabilize once a business is established.

"Let's Go Brandon" (fuck Joe Biden) is an excellent example of what is wrong with the Republican party these days. It's a vulgar insult to Joe Biden, the president of the United States of America. There was a time when personal insults were not part of politics because all parties had great arguments to support their agendas. Well, apparently the Republicans ran out of good ideas and need to resort to insults. Seems par for their course.

[Kellemora]

Imagine if you will, a 600 acre farm, basically a whole township in size.
You are driving east to west on a major highway that nearly runs coast to coast.
Think more like the old 2-lane Highway 40 that passed through the heart of small towns, which made it dangerous too.
You are out in the middle of Kansas with nothing but farms around, and very few north/south roads that lead anywhere.
But you have to take one of these little 2-lane roads and go north to get to the next major road you need to be on.
As you are driving, or if you look at the map, you will see the road you are on is like driving on a horseshoe to get around that 600 acre farm. You see a sign that says "AVOID THE LOOP - Private Toll Road - Only 25 cents"
You know it takes about 1/2 hour to make that loop, besides all the fuel you burn in the process.
So you turn onto the Toll Road and are greeted by a little kid in bib overalls, sitting on a stool under an umbrella. He hops up, collects the 25 cents and swings the gate open for you to pass through.
At the other end is another kid, a bit younger, and he hears you coming so swings the gate open so you can exit.
It was roads like this that were well worth taking, although they were usually just a little gravel over dirt is all.
Of course, as areas grew more and more roads were added by the state so the old private toll roads faded away.

In a way, I stuck my neck out many times, by selling my businesses to my best employee, letting them take total control of the business, after it was profitable of course. They got all the equipment and took over the lease on the building, and all the bills associated with same, and made payments to me for 5 years, then it was theirs free and clear. Now I did have a couple who got tired of the business and sold it to someone else, but in the process I got paid off early, but not as much due to no interest being accrued after the sale. I was just lucky that they all continued to do good, in some cases better because the employee was a real go getter. But, by the same token, I could have lost my shirt too!

I also used to invest in Penny Stocks, most didn't do well, not enough to say I broke even, but then a few did really good which made up for those that didn't. One of my penny stocks was for a motorcycle rental place in Rock Hill. Not big motorcycles, the little Honda 50s in three styles, and after a short while they did have a couple of 305 Super Hawks. The business was fairly seasonal of course, and the stock was for the inventory of motorcycles, not individual motorcycles like they did later on. I guess it was good that they could buy back the stock at any time, not just after a certain date.
I realized at the time of purchase, and because the seller declared the same. 90% of Penny Stocks fail, and the average for those that do not fail completely is a negative 25% of getting all your investment back.
In my case, I personally knew the guy who wanted to start the motorcycle rental place, and had worked with him at a gas station a couple of times. His dad bought 4 little Vespa style scooters for his employees to run quick errands on for him. And come the weekend, a few of those employees asked if they could rent the scooter over the weekend. So this is where Larry Mullens got the idea that a lot of people would like to rent those little Honda 50s with the leg shield in front. And that is what he wanted to start with. Back then, they didn't cost very much to buy either, under 300 bucks each if I recall, IF he bought ten of them that is. I invested 500 bucks, and my friend Jim invested 400 bucks and we talked around to a few other guys and managed to get another 5 investors for only 100 bucks each. He went through some attorney to get it set up properly and the initial offering was only 5 thousand dollars worth of stock, issued at shares of 1 dollar each. This did not mean there was 5000 stock certificates, the shares were 1 dollar each, but each certificate was for either 10 or 20 shares if I recall. Well, except for mine and Jim's which were for 50 dollars for each certificate. I don't know if he actually had any 1 dollar certificates or not, but he managed to raise the 5 grand he needed to get started, plus he also put a lot of his own money into it. At the end of the first summer, he bought back all the 10 dollar certificates for 25 dollars each. At the close of the second summer, he bought all the 20 dollar certificates back for 60 dollars each. For that second year he added the Honda 50s without the front fairings so they looked like motorcycles, and added two 105 Super Hawks. At the close the third year, he offered Jim and I 200 dollars for each of our 50 dollar certificates. I sold mine back to buy a new car, but Jim decided to hold his another year since he didn't need the money. He shouldn't have done that. The idea of having a motorcycle qualification on your drivers license was looming in the very near future. Even so, Larry's third year went well, especially after he bought the 305 Super Hawks and a few more of the 105 Super Hawks.
And when the necessity to have a motorcycle license arose, the rental business boomed as folks needed to take their test on a motorcycle. He bought several more of the 105s and a couple of dirt bikes, which is what became his downfall. Those bikes got torn up right and left, every rental of them came back with heavy damage to the bikes. And of course the City of Rock Hill was still on his case. He offered Jim only 150 bucks for each of his 50 dollar certificates, and this time Jim took it.
As it turned out Larry was still in business for like 3 more years, before he decided to sell all the bikes and shut down. But he shut down after earning a really huge profit for himself, and bought a Sunoco 360 gas station. One of the nicest looking building in the area too. He was there for over 5 years before the City of Kirkwood decided to put a road right through where his fancy looking gas station was built. I assume they paid him a pretty penny for that lot also. Never saw him after that.

I've always respected the Office of President. But not necessarily the Clowns that have been in in recent years.
The Soro's funded Clinton, Obama and Biden team with their Destroy America Agenda, get no respect from me!
The LOT of the THEM belong in Prison! All Americans are being hurt badly by them, especially Biden!

[yogi]

I have not traveled the American highways as extensively as you have. You being an OTR trucker put on more miles than the average bear, and you probably experienced things us common folks never see. Those private toll roads is one of those secrets that I personally never ran across. The only tollways I know of are operated by the state. I've driven those in Illinois extensively, but also been on the ones in Oklahoma and Arizona. I made a trip with a trucker neighbor down good ol' route 66 when I was 16. That was the first time I went through St Louis too. None of those toll roads were very impressive other than having to pay to drive on them. That's pretty much how it is in Illinois too. It's just convenient to use them in my case.

I played with penny stocks for a while and broke even. I lost on several investments but won big on the last one. That's why I quit in fact. I wasn't going to tempt Fate after I regained my losses. LOL That winner was a company in Indiana which was working on a nuclear powered automobile engine. They were applying for some kind of licensing from the government when I bought in. If they got the go ahead the stock would have soared to great heights. Prior to the application being finalized is when I bought the stock. A lot of people invested at that point which drove the stock up a few dollars. I had a standing order with the broker to sell at a specific price level, and when that stock hit that level the news came that the license was denied. The stock dropped to well below where I purchased it, but fortunately my sell order was executed at the exact peak price. I can't help thinking that my transaction is what started the crash, but I'll never know for sure.

George Soros was no different than any other man in that he had certain beliefs and supported other like minded people. He was special in the sense that he gave away BILLIONS of dollars to support his favorite causes. To his credit none of Soros's beneficiaries tried to overthrow an election and take over a country by force. The Koch family is likewise a wealthy group of influential folks and they too support like minded people who happen to be Republicans. Oh, and also the John Birch Society.

[Kellemora]

I was borne and raised on Route-66 when it went down the original Market Street and Manchester Road.
Manchester Road was also part of the Lewis & Clark Trail.

The Road from HIllsboro to House Springs, when I was delivering flowers, was a two-lane gravel road.
You had to be careful driving it also, because the olde tymers all knew to drive on the humps so the road lasted longer.
That is one reason I was upset when my mom took the old aerial photographs of our property and had them framed for me.
The idiot who did the framing cut off the right quarter strip of each photo, which showed our long gravel road.
To me, that was the best part of the picture, because, it showed how straight and perfect the road remained in the old days, and how crooked, lumpy and pot holed it was in the later years after power steering and younger generations used it.
So, those framed pictures have only sat in my closet ever since.

I did buy a few OTC stocks over a short time span. Not a one of them did very good, but I can't say I lost my shirt. Some went down, some went up, one split and made up for all the rest I lost on.

Soros is known for wanting to destroy America! So those are the only folks he supports.
He's said it very clearly many times!

[yogi]

I've taken a few, very few, perfect pictures in my many years of practicing photography. The most remarkable one was at the Montage Hotel in South Carolina when we were there to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. The river flowed in front of our residence and formed a large pond that was quite and still most of the time. On the opposite side of the pond was a wooden walking bridge that provided a path for casual hikers. In the background was mostly southern pine trees, which are nothing like norther Wisconsin pine trees. LOL I walked over to that bridge with my camera as the sun was setting one evening. It lit up the hotel residence in a golden glow with reflections on the pond. I included the railings of the bridge at the bottom of the picture and amazed even myself at how well it all turned out. I had it enlarge to something like 24x36 inches with the intent of framing it. My wife was all for that idea and she took it to the framing store which kept it for a couple weeks before it was ready. When we got it back I was shocked. Most of the pond and all of the fencing was missing. They cut it off at wife's request because the original photo was not a standard frame size. Well, that destroyed any aesthetic beauty that might have been in that picture. I still have the original digital version but it just doesn't look the same on my computer monitor as it would in an elegant frame.

You must have heard a lot of stories about old man Soros, but it's obvious you have not heard anything about what the Koch family is up to. There is big money on both sides of the political aisle, and I can assure you of one thing. The future of democracy in America will be decided come November and sealed in granite in 2024.

[Kellemora]

The thing that irked me is the framing place cut off the originals to fit the frame he used.
He should never have done that, and instead made a print from the originals. Never destroy and original!

America would still be producing 2 to 3 million gallons of oil per day, had Biden not undid Trumps directives.

I guess the type of news you read never mentions all the good things that Trump has done, and Biden has undone.

[yogi]

I guess the type of news you read never mentions all the good things that Trump has done, and Biden has undone.

You might find this hard to believe, but that is exactly why 81 million Americans voted for him.

[Kellemora]

81 Million voted for who? If you mean Biden, you forgot to subtract those who were Dead when they voted, those who voted twice, and the illegal votes.
Audits from a few states show that Trump rightfully won, but not much they can do about it after the fact.
But I'm sure Trump will win again in 2024! People are fed up with the damage Biden has done to this country.

[yogi]

Interesting claims you make there.

Bill Barr, Trump's hand picked Attorney General, stated the DoJ found no evidence of voter fraud.

61 judges (many of them appointed by Trump) tossed out all his court claims.

And, the Supreme Court didn't see any merit in the claims that made it to that venue.

I'm still waiting to see proof of any fraud.