I’m “on the road” and will be loading up a moving van tomorrow. Today I’m checked into a hotel after a marathon 3 day drive “coast to coast” (that included one night in a hotel where we picked up the van… which gives you an idea of the drive time…)
This is a new record for me, but it was made with 2 drivers, so there’s that…
In this hotel, the TV choices are a bit limited, but one of them is Fox News. It’s been a while since I’ve watched Fox. So thought maybe I’d find out if the world was ending before I was back on the road again…
Imagine my surprise when the Talking Head was interviewing some US Official or ex-Official and he was busy stressing how “Russia had failed to take the rest of the Donbas, twice” how their army was trash, how Ukraine was ready to kick them out and that was going to go down with our help… Then the Fox person said that buzz phrase: Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Now either Fox is as incredibly uninterested in looking at history, even just the last 14 9 years of it, and has no clue about the NATO Color Revolution in Ukraine 14 years ago in 2014 and all the shelling of Ethnic Russians in the Donbass since; or they are "on side" with The Narrative.
They are still (very tepidly) pushing a sort of "Republican Establishment Good, Democrats Not As Good" bias; but it does smell like "Don't rock the boat in The Swamp" and "We endorse the Good Swamp Dwellers"…
The overall impression I've got, from my hour or so of watching, is just reeking of "Controlled Opposition" or RNC Shill, but not RINO-Hostile nor Swamp Aware.
I guess it is time to check out NewsMax and One America News and others.
FWIW, I had to turn off SecureDNS in the Chrome browser to get the hotel WiFi login to work; but then was able to turn it back on after the authentication stage.
So I guess Fox News is now “dead to me” as it just isn’t informing about any useful context nor deviating from The Narrative. Just an R-Swamp_Dwellers are better than D-Swamp_Dwellers spin…
Oh Well…
In other news:
California gas is still $1+ / gallon more (up to $2+ in some places) than the rest of the country. Arizona near Phoenix is also high now. Best prices are from Texas through Mississippi and Louisiana. A bit of a shock to go from $2.98 / gallon to $4.49 to even $6.59 / gallon in one day.
Looks like California politics and crazy times are no different. Got a weather report about flooding and torrential rains AND had a flyer in my mail box about how “floods often follow drought” in “our long term drought”. Yup, lots of Flooding Drought in California this year… but you are still forbidden to water your lawn more than twice a week or within something like 48 hours of any rain event. Oh, and corporations / businesses are just flat out forbidden to water decorative grass / lawns at all. Don’t know if I’ll get a chance to tour Silicon Valley Business Areas, but IF I get too, I’ll report on what it looks like.
FWIW, my present best guess is that I’ll be “loading up” the van and my last California Car tomorrow (with the potential to slop over into Saturday), then heading back.
As we will be driving 2 vehicles, and everything packed full of cargo, and limited to 55 MPH with the trailer / car carrier: I know it will not be a 3 day run. Shooting for 4, but expecting 5. (Then comes unloading, returning equipment, etc…)
So once again, postings will be sparse “for a while”.
OTOH, I am getting some of my perspective back from the repeat experience. I’d almost forgotten how Crazy Town California can be ;-)
FWIW, had breakfast yesterday in Kingman Arizona. Place called “Grampa’s Kitchen”. On Northern Ave (I think… Andy Devine north to Airway Left Turn to Bank Street right turn, to Northern (something). On the left side about a long block down. Google Maps says “3065 E. Northern Avenue”
Just fabulous food. They have 2 sizes of Ham & Eggs. The Giant one is a whole Ham Steak of the size sold in grocery stores. The one I had is 1/2 that. An order of Biscuits & Gravy came with chunks of sausage in the gravy. (And it would be a meal on its own). Price was good (about what I paid in Denny’s this morning for less…). If you ever go to Kingman, go there.. B’fast & Lunch only (closing about 2 PM) and everyone was paying cash… they had credit card stickers on the door, but it may be cash only.
Oh, and it looks like the Banking Crisis continues. Regional banks being bought up, or closed up (without loss to customers). The Fed gave us another 1/4 point interest rate rise. Stock market ticking down (of course). The Fed is trying to push money into money market Repo’s instead of checking & savings accounts ( about 4% or 5% earnings at the money market, about a trivial fraction% at a Bank in “savings”) and is succeeding. But at the cost of the lower tier banks… and housing / car loans, so sales. And, BTW, still not “getting inflation under control”; since it is being caused by DEBT and Money Printing, not low interest rates. So “watch this space”. The Fed is in “Beatings will continue until morale improves” mode…
I’ll try to keep an eye on this as I drive home. I’m thinking one more hotel stop, probably about Sunday…
Musings from the Chiefio 
The much hyped “offensive” of NAZO’s ukraine sock-puppet shows every sign of being a busted flush, dead on arrival. Hitler’s Ardennes offensive in 1944, from the same stable, had more promise of success.
Well, I did my snowbird road trip back to the Frozen North at the beginning of the week.
In Georgia, I filled up with diesel for $3.65/gallon. Got home to see the gas stations posting diesel at $4.29/gallon. T’ain’t nothin’ like California.
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@E.M. – Yup. FOX is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, and supports “The Narrative”® of the Uniparty. It is controlled opposition with the expectation that they can subtly steer Republican opinion to the Uniparty ends.
Tucker started getting red-pilled when he left the DC swamp and was no longer caught up in the day-to-day complete false front that is DC. Nothing is what it seems or what is being presented to those outside of DC.
He was allowed to follow his nose… until he wasn’t.
Safe travels, E.M. Better to take an extra day and arrive late, rather than be the late E.M. Smith. 😉
Uniparty uber alles.
Driving is the last bastion of freedom.
Enjoy and thanks for sharing the road.
@E.M.: “Now either Fox is as incredibly uninterested in looking at history, even just the last 14 years of it, and has no clue about the NATO Color Revolution in Ukraine 14 years ago and all the shelling of Ethnic Russians in the Donbass since; or they are “on side” with The Narrative.”
Just a truly understanding remark that you likely do not mean “14 years ago” but rather “in 2014”. I grant you complete absolution based on understandable brain fart from extreme driving hours. Rest well, my friend.
@TTN;
Yup, my bad. Turned 2014 into 14 years ago… Fixed & thanks. As you surmised, not a lot of sleeping when you do 3000 miles in 3 days. Last night was about 2 hours on the front seat of the UHaul Truck in a truck stop on I-5. So a bit “ditzy” on hotel check-in event.
Now I’m a bit “sleep hungover” from sleeping all afternoon ;-) It is just a little before midnight and unclear if I’ll get back to sleep for the night shift… but about 6 hours “in the bag”.
One of the strange bits is how, when “pushing it hard” and sleep deprived: the efficiency of sleep time goes way up. Once you sleep, it is like the body shifts to get all the maintenance done it can when it finally gets the chance.
Anyway, I woke up for a “needed visit to the little room” and now it’s an open question of “sleep again?” or “now you’ve done it, up for another 20 hour shift…”
I suspect I’ll be up for a couple of hours and then back to sleep for another 6.
@H.R.:
“My Pattern” when doing marathon drives is pretty simple. Drive as long as I can, then don’t.
I pull over and do anything from a “cat nap” to a full “check in to hotel for 2 days” depending on context and need. Even just 20 minutes in a rest stop, deep breathing and eyes closed, can get me going for another hour or 2. Once it is starting to be “hard to keep the eyes open”, then it is “stop time”. The only question is how long and how lousy the place. Good places get a long stay. Horrible ones get the 20 minute nap or “REM Meditation” (and optional caffeine pill); just enough to get to one of the “good places”.
Usually “sleeping in the seat” is limited to about 2 hours. This because it tends to either get too hot or too cold and that wakes me up again ;-) IF I can make a bed on a reclined seat or a “cot in the back” of a wagon or truck, it can go longer as the sleeping bag keeps me warm. (Doesn’t work so well in Phoenix in August at Noon ;-)
My biggest issue isn’t “sleeping when I need it”, but rather having slept “some”, then trying to sleep 8 hours in a hotel. The “highly efficient nap behaviour” tends to not stop; so I sleep several hours and then am awake at some odd time and “ready to go”… but not ready to sleep the rest of the night. Like now. About 6 or 7 hours done, and it is not yet midnight… and I’m awake.
Some times I’ll just drift off again after a while as the metabolism “idles down” and any daily intake of caffeine wears off. Sometimes it is just “you are awake, go do something”…. no real control of it.
FWIW, I did a series of “Sleep Experiments” on myself at about age 14. Wanted to know my limits. The bottom line of it was that I needed to average about 5 to 6 hours per day, minimum. But over several days. I think of it as a “sleep hump”. It wants to have about 6 / day added, but holds about 9. I can easily go 24 w/o sleep, that takes out 6 and leaves 3. That’s good for about 12 more hours, so about 36 total, at which time the sleep hump is empty (or nearly so) and I really need to sleep. I have gone 42 hours, but it was a bit brutal. That is a -6 deficit… Now the kicker:
EVENTUALLY, I need to pay back any deficit and re-fill the 9 hours of net into the Sleep Hump. But it can be paid in at whatever rate is available. Sleep for 20 hours in a big lump. Or just one added hour a day for enough days.
The quantity doesn’t seem to change with anything I do or how much sleep happens when. The “power nap” process can buy me a couple of good wake hours very efficiently, but at the end of the event, I just have more less efficient “long sleep times” and the number of total hours tends to be the same when the math is done.
Very strange.
But it is what it is. So when I’m getting drowsy, I find a rest stop, wide spot in the road shoulder, Hotel Sleeze, camp grounds, whatever and bag enough hours for whatever is next. I’ve gotten pretty good at “Stop at a truck stop for bio-break, gas up, snack & a nap”
Oh, one other thing: I’ve done so many coast to coast runs that I’ve had time to try different patterns and pick the best. What I found was that “Hours Of The Trip” was more limiting than “hours awake”. After about 4 days “on the road”, I’m starting to be Very Beat. Doesn’t matter if it is 32 drive hours, or 44, or 20. So it is far more efficient for me to “do all I can in 3 days” and then just park it and not be in the car for a day. A 5 day crossing is more wear for me than a 3 1/2 day “marathon” and I’m less beat on arrival if I pushed it 3 and then was done than if I was “pacing myself” and took 5+. It seems that the work of dealing with life on the road and the discomfort of days in the car matter more than a little quick drain & fill of the Sleep Hump.
Not what I expected, but what I learned.
E.M.
I am not generally a user of chewing gum but I found that copious use of “Juicy Fruit” chewing gum fended off sleep for longer.
I guess the sugar.
A downside is that it makes your mouth taste (as the expression has it) “like a vulture’s crutch”
@Another Ian:
Nice to know. But I usually just pull over for a nap.
There was a show featuring a Canadian with a family and full time job. He worked almost around the clock, taking only cat naps. He did that by taking modafinil. He would work at a regular day job all day. Spend time with the fam until they went to bed. Then freelance all night to make more money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil
Did we mention this?
Together, BlackRock and Vanguard own 18% of Fox (now almost 21%), 16% of CBS, 13% of Comcast — which owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and the Sky media group, 12% of CNN, and 12% of Disney
https://investguiding-com.ngontinh24.com/articles/what-companies-do-blackrock-and-vanguard-own
This increase in stock ownership now means that Blackrock owns 15.1% of the Fox Corporation. They are the second largest owner, just after the Murdock family. Now, the Family Trust Murdoch still owns 19% of the company, with other, smaller institutional investors owning the rest. The CEO of the Fox Corporation was Rupert Murdoch, but it is currently Lachlan Murdoch. BUT with this increase in 2.7% of Fox Corp, it is clear that Blackrock is fast becoming a controlling entity in Fox Corporation.
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/blackrock-owns-151-of-the-fox-corporation
Go BlackRock, Go Broke (to coin a phrase).
@Keith Macdonald:
It is not just that Blackrock owns a big chunk of Fox. Here is a video by Black Pigeon Speaks (I recommend his videos). Jump to about 9:00 if you wish to save time, but the big conclusion is that Blackrock WANTS your company woke, so if you want access to funding, you please Blackrock.
This on Larry Fink, (well named ) from The Washington Post.
Could he be back pedalling his climate policy due to public backlash?
Go Woke Go Broke?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/06/blackrock-esg-climate-woke/
I don’t know if this has changed, but the Murdoch family had a different class of shares to ensure their control:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/18/murdoch-family-news-corp-shareholder-revolt
@Robert: “the Murdoch family had a different class of shares to ensure their control:”
Good, point, and very possibly still true. But even if the Murdochs still control the company, as long as BlackRock controls access to funding, then BlackRock controls the Murdochs.