Gary R

[Gary R]

I still think that no matter what Putin does, how fast his army moves, or how aggressive Russia gets, Russia is still the underdog here. There’s no shortage of atrocities on Russias part to Ukrainians and Russians both. The Russians do tend to eat their own.
I for one am glad that Ukraine no longer has constraints about firing missiles deep into Russia. Let’s hope it helps get Putin to the table for what I see as a more serious discussion about peace. Putin is not going to get everything he wants. Zelensky wont either. I think it was knobby who first said early on in the war what he thot would happen. Knobs, you might be right, but we’ll have to wait and see what the Ukrainians have to say about Putin wanting to lob off a chunk of Ukraine for his own.
No idea why Trump has his nose so
far up into this war. I suspect that if one were to follow the money the answer would become clear. Can anyone say, rare earth mineral rights? Addie

[Gary R]

I apologize if I inferred that any of you were outa line in speaking about Biden’s cancer. It wasn’t intentional, but in reading what I said back over, yea, sorry bout that. I guess I have an emotional investment in this specific cancer and how difficult it is for the patient.

I don’t know anything about this pen you speak of other than to say I know there’s some kind of electric pen lawmakers sometimes use. Excuse my ignorance.

Wolf, I am unsure if the right
people are in place and if so what that would even look like. In my frustration with the news I quit watching any regular nightly news, or MSNBC in months. Afterall, what for? I’m just so fed up & bummed out over all the infighting and theatrics going on, on both sides of the isle. No work is getting done. When did the voters become an unimportant part of the policies our lawmakers vote on?

And ohh I almost forgot! Knobby, I saw Josh hawley on you tube speaking in Congress. He was very impressive and I was very proud of his leadership abilities. He was standing up for his constituents regarding Medicaid & related stuff. Good work by Hawley. Knobs, I wanted to mention Josh to you because of the X deal I spoke to you about earlier. There’s hope for the kid yet. He is a good public speaker.

Anyways, sorry I’m not all up on what you guys are talking about, but I wanted to explain how gravely ill Biden really is. Now knobs tells us Biden’s cancer hasn’t metastasized. I heard it has. So see what I mean? Here I’m all feeling sorry for the guy and I’m not even correctly informed. The machine behind Biden must think people aren’t going to ever find out what’s
actually going on. Don’t know what to think now. I do know that politics is a very nasty game that’s not for everyone. Addie

[Gary R]

I put my name in the wrong place. Oowell. Sorry Ad

[Gary R]

I read an article about the white farmers being attacked several years ago. Can’t tell ya exactly, but it was quite a while ago. I was sorta surprised when news of the white farmers in Africa came up again. I belong to Amnesty International, which is a civil rights organization and still, no mention of these farmers under threat. Maybe there’s a new article I haven’t seen, but it is curious that so little is being reported about this.

Also, the aggressive prostate cancer Biden is reported to have is a terminal diagnosis. Biden won’t survive this aggressive cancer. Usually, this type of cancer progresses into a more
aggressive cancer. It starts out being removed with good result, then it comes back. Again surgery removes & fixes
it. It keeps coming back & getting removed. The cancer becomes more deadly the more this goes on. This makes it so important to stay on it & get in there for treatment immediately. Don’t wait. Hope you can read this. I didn’t check it before I sent it. Miss you guys and hope everyone is doing okay. Addie

With this in mind I would say Biden has been dealing with this prostate cancer for at least a few years. I’ve heard of prostate cancer starting out real aggressive, but it’s a lot less common. I don’t have stats showing exact percentages about that tho.

Biden now looks sick. He’s way underweight, his face is so thin his teeth stick out when he smiles even. My heart goes out to him and family. I never want this to happen to anyone. But fact is, it looks to me like he has kept his cancer under raps.

I’m no Dr, of course not. But my husband whose name is on our account here
has been fighting bladder cancer for 5 years. It keeps coming back and now it has spread to his prostate. So I know a little bit about this type of cancer. G is in good hands, but knowing that every time it comes back and needs to be surgically removed, it gets more aggressive. Meaning, the cancer grows faster, spreads faster, and gets into the muscle surrounding these two organs, bladder & prostate (they sit close together) the odds of it metastasizing throughout the body are very real and quite scary.

[Gary R]

Yea Darrel, me too. Logging is open for biz all across our nation. Well, every where that has timber. I don’t know what state you’re in, but I’ll try to find out more about the details. I’m curious about how much money we’re talking about. This funding went directly to Timber
Departments in the USFS in each of our national forests. Addie

[Gary R]

Hi guys, The logging contracts, have all
sorts of rules & guidelines on everything from being required to build roads needed to get into what is oftentimes a remote
location to how much damage is allowed to happen to the forest floor, including any tree seedlings. Loggers are required to clean up the slash & debris left on landings, loading areas, etc. We don’t clear cut anymore, I don’t think. They might still clear cut up in Idaho. All the guidelines are carefully set up to be environmentally sound.

Field tested and science based data
is used when writing these logging contracts. Americans are pretty particular about forest management, even to the point of micromanaging when it comes to being good stewards of the forest.

The USFS Timber Department is who writes these logging contracts, puts them out for bid, is on site daily, inspects the work done, & signs off on it so the logging company can get paid.

So….. just recently, I was told that lots and lots of money has poured in to open logging back up. There’s all kinds of activity going up and down the hill. Equipment of all kinds has begun pouring into the county. Along with lots of logging trucks. Both independent & company owned. They like to park their trucks down at the mill so when you drive by you can see them all lined up looking so
impressive.

All the loggers here, both young & old are super excited to be working near home, and well, to just be working & bringing in a regular, weekly, paycheck. This is a huge big deal to our whole community.

The story I get is that the plan
is to cut sixty million board feet of timber out of The Stanislaus National Forest, this season alone. That would require approx 75 logging trucks up and down the hill per day with all getting in
two loads before dark. With some able to get in the occasional three loads
per day. The guys driving the logging trucks get paid by the load so that’s why two loads a day.

So now…. let’s think about how big of an operation this would have to be to cut down sixty million board feet of timber. And not only that, but 75 logging trucks per day?
Honestly, it’s been a little hard to wrap my mind around. In and out of one switchback after another, windy, sketchy, prone to avalanches, roads. The weight of these loaded up trucks alone is enuf to require road work all up and down the highway. Guess I better get used to lots of logging trucks screaming up & down the hill.

Make no mistake about it, this is
big bucks, and it’s all happening as we
speak. I admit, it is kind of exciting. Addie

[Gary R]

I know the timber sales
administrator for my forest. The forest is called, The Stanislaus National Forest. Our national forests are where we log along with other kinds of forest management.

Anyway, he told me that his dept, the timber dept, has been flooded with money to for logging contracts. Other departments are barely getting by, but not timber sales. He expects to be up and running in a week. I noted today that there’s a good amount of logging equipment going up the hill. The loggers that still live around here & are still working in the woods are all excited.

My point in mentioning this is to let folks know that it’s taken no time
to for the USFS to get up & running since a couple months ago when our forests were once again opened up to logging by executive order. I sure hope this brings down the price of lumber. And I hope that as lumber goes down, the cost of everything else needed to build a house levels out so that our housing market becomes more affordable. Ad

[Gary R]

Who’s George Soros? Ad.

Yea, ya caught me. I’m just kidding.

[Gary R]

I’ve never heard of creating positions below yourself in order to move people down on the food chain. I only know of those having been promoted. This being done to get rid of problematic people. They get promoted, better pay, more responsibility (if you can believe that) and transferred to somewhere else. Normally a different forest. I did see that happen a number of times. Someone would get hired, put out in the field, maybe out where we were bcuz of the experience we had. We were expected to train them. Oftentimes they were fresh out of college, no field experience, never been on a crew, knew nothing about working in silviculture, and were basically a lot like toddlers running around unable to keep up while talking nonstop about how smart they were. This is the perfect example of an office bloated with unnecessary employees.

I understand this aspect. It’s the mass firings, done in a disrespectful way with curt letters, demands made, employees not knowing they were fired until the day of. No discussion, you’ve been a good employee, nice knowing ya, nothing. Just your fired, get out. Why is this okay?
I’ve not heard musk go into any details about what he, or the young men he employs are actually doing. They are disrespectful to everyone, secretive, and no, this isn’t Trump I’m talking about here. Altho it’s no secret that I don’t care for trumps leadership style. I don’t trust him. I’m absolutely horrified by his betrayal of Ukraine. I’m even more horrified by his decision to betray Americas word to stand with Ukraine, then betray them in such a public way? Nope. Can’t respect that. Trump didn’t just betray Ukraine, he betrayed the
trust America placed in him in regards to Ukraine. When I give someone my word, I stand on it. Lives are being lost here. Extorting Zelensky in order to pick Ukraine clean was as shameful and unprincipled as it gets.
I’m sorry to say this, but I’m done with the guy. Ukraine, nor Americans deserve such disrespect.
And just tonight I read about the price of steel going up. I immediately thot of Shannon. Hang in there Shannon.
Knobby, I don’t think it’s necessary to slash & burn everything down to make positive changes. I hear you tho and I do listen to what you say and take it to heart. Musk is a maybe in my mind. He was a firm no before this discussion. Guess there’s still hope for me.lol Ad

[Gary R]

Hi m , Whose big brother? Am I missing something? It’s the story of my life lately. lol

[Gary R]

It’s not so much doge itself I have a problem with, but this musk guy. There’s no
oversight, accountability, or even any transparency. Anyone know what this guy is actually up to? I don’t trust it. No one knows what he’s doing. I can only hope he knows what he’s doing. The way this whole doge deal is being run is suspicious.

I had not heard a word about hackers getting away with so much money before you mentioned it.
While I can’t argue with waste, its fraud I’m not as sure about. It’s not the employees who stole all that money. That hackers got away with so much money is disturbing. How confidant are you these hackers got away with that much money? Mind numbing amount of money. Looks like the perfect crime. Based on this hacker info alone I know our govt employees didn’t do it. Lol

All kidding aside, I still don’t want this guy, Musk, getting into our SSA and making executive decisions about who gets what. No one knows him. Get him outa there.

Maybe you’re right about our fed departments needing reorganization.
Altho, firing people in mass is not reorganization. I’m tempted to call
all the indiscriminate firing incompetence, instead.

I worked for the feds in the USFS. I do know firsthand that what you say about those who aren’t liked, or who do a terrible job get promoted when they really should be let go. And there is a standing joke about fed employees being at the trough. In other words, not doing their job. Instead of working they are standing around or screwing around. This is well known amongst forest service employees at least. So I agree completely with a lot of what you’ve said here Shannon.

I still fail to make a connection between hackers and masses of govt employees being fired.
How is firing thousands of people in gonna stop hackers? What justifies mass layoffs? These employees don’t have hands on any of the money. They don’t have anything to do with how the money is spent.

There’s an ocean of policies & procedures they are required to adhere to. Making subjective decisions about how
money gets spent isn’t in their job description. I hope they didn’t lose their job because of some nit wit who has made subjective decisions.

It’s also harder to be at the trough in an office environment. It’s harder to screw around when your boss is down the hall. That kinda behavior could be easily handled with minimal effort. So I don’t trust anything that’s being said where these layoffs are concerned. Plus, the feds are great at training their employees.
Their training isn’t free even if they are
the fed govt. So why are we firing all these trained people?

I don’t know much about the dept of education. Sorta embarrassing, but there it is. I just hope the right decisions are being made. That these decisions are based on a need (or not) of American citizens and not based on some largely imagined need for revenge. Hard to believe that might happen, but ya never know. Ad

[Gary R]

That’s okay Shannon. I don’t expect
anyone to cry over butter, or food costs even if the cost of butter made me want to cry. I do worry about those who can’t afford to buy food as the prices go up.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain what you were up against during the Biden years. I also never knew Obama made such a rude comment. Thanks for sharing your situation with us here. It makes more clear where you’re coming from and why.
The things you mention in regards to steel
fabrication are things I have no way of knowing. I’m glad prices for steel have gotten better. I’m aware of the lumber costs. Completely outa hand. I was considering building a home, but I’ve decided to forget that idea. It’s just too expensive to build right now. I’m hopeful that prices for the materials you
need to remain in business stay stable.
While I’m still upset over the rising cost
of food, I do care about business owners such as yourself. There must be a way to keep all of our needs affordable without anyone getting screwed over.
I’m no finance wiz, don’t claim to be, but I have owned several businesses in my lifetime so I understand the stresses that go along with being responsible for keeping the bills and keeping the employees
paid.
I am also concerned about what’s happening with our SSA. Sorry Shannon, but I just
can’t help but be concerned. I care about your situation a lot too. Without our small businesses the economy will grind to a halt. I do appreciate you taking the time to explain what you’ve been going thru.
It matters. Addie
Addie

[Gary R]

I forgot to add that I paid $8 for a pound of cheap butter just today. I was at a local owned grocery store in town. That’s just too much. Even if folks ss checks do arrive, they can’t afford these prices. No one can.

From what I can tell food prices will continue an uphill climb for the foreseeable future. Probably thru 2025. I hope no one on our forum is going hungry. We really need to take care of one another during these hard times.

[Gary R]

Sorry. Addie

[Gary R]

Not wanting to argue with anyone, but the judge you spoke of Wolf, she was released. From what I read she was released because she has immunity & arresting her was
illegal. Even the head of the supremes wrote a letter to Trump telling him to ease up on attacking the judiciary. I paraphrase Here, but you can easily find said letter online. The judiciary here in America isn’t so easy to arrest & cart off to jail.

I seriously doubt that you could find even a single American that thinks
nothing is going on since Trump got into office. Pretty obvious.

I hope that our SSA doesn’t go down.
I read just today that it still might.

If the SSA office goes down that means a whole lot of folks who worked & paid into
their SS, plus it’s their only
income, are who the real victims are here.

Even the potential of this happening is beyond catastrophic. People will starve. It’s very upsetting. I feel like we are teetering on a Grapes of Wrath type situation. People starved to death, homeless, with no work, no hope. I don’t want that. I can’t believe anyone else does either.

[Author]

Posts