BagOfNothing.com

I remember Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes interviewing this woman when I was very young. It may have been the first time someone inspired me. One thing that appalled me was grocery store customers complaining about her “handling” fruit and vegetables when all she was doing was living life as best as she could. That part occurs at the 4:32 mark. This image alone of her giving her son a haircut is remarkable.

• Here’s an investment pick for you: buy stock in private prison companies – In Trump’s mass deportation plan, the private prison industry sees a lucrative opportunity
  • Geo Group founder George Zoley, whose company is the country’s largest private prison operator, told investors last week that Trump’s deportation plans represent a “potential sea change” for the industry. “The Geo Group was built for this unique moment in our history and the opportunities that it will bring,” Zoley said. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has for years relied on private companies to house detained migrants, making it a multimillion-dollar business.I wonder what the stock price will be in the next four years.

    

  • I asked the AI search engine Perplexity to help me find some mutual funds heavily invested in private prisons and received this interesting answer about how it would be unethical.
    
    Other AI tools I checked out would only inform me on how to find those funds. I also tested the waters by asking Perplexity the same question but about the porn, gambling, alcohol, and tobacco industries. It also thought porn on unethical, but not the others.
• Dallas steakhouse owner Al Biernat, whose charismatic presence at his namesake restaurant attracted both the famous and the famously loyal, has died at 69. Biernat had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
• Ban on women marrying after 25: The bizarre proposal to boost birth rate in Japan
  • Japan’s noted writer and Conservative Party leader Naoki Hyakuta has apologised after his comments on women and the falling birthrate in the country sparked criticism. He said that to boost the nation’s birth rate, women should be banned from marriage after the age of 25 and from removing their uterus post the age of 30
• I also heard “Did Biden drop out of the race?” was trending on election day. I refuse to believe so many people are this dumb or uneducated – Searches for ‘How to change my vote’ spike morning of Election Day
• 14-Year-old Teen defends 41 year old sex offender she ran away with
• Marble bust bought for $6 and used as doorstop could sell for more than $3 million
• Get ready to see Walmart employees wearing body cameras.
  

• I’ve been busy and haven’t been in a blogging mood as of late, so I’m sorry for the lack of posts. Hopefully, that will change. Maybe it’s the post-election blues.
• BoyGeeding had a chess tournament last weekend. While he didn’t place individually, his team, which consisted of him and one other, earned the first-place trophy.
  
• I don’t always read through everything I post. When looking for material, sometimes I run across something I think may interest you and will post it without really vetting it. I did that last week when I ran across a People article about a teen mother who died and the Texas abortion laws. I also commented, “I hope our lawmakers can iron out some wrinkles in the law that obviously need addressing.” A friend I admire reached out and shared insights on the reporting of abortion-related deaths in states with restrictive laws. He noted that some sources may lack balance, failing to compare cases in less restrictive states, and emphasized Texas law allows for medical discretion and suggested that the reported deaths were likely due to pregnancy complications and potential malpractice rather than solely the impact of abortion laws, and provided this link, which he admitted is clearly pro-life, as a resource.

• A new study from the London School of Economics says 50 years of tax cuts in the U.S. — which promised to “trickle down” and eventually boost jobs and income for everyone — have only helped one group: the rich.
  https://t.co/UIyBqUcDJb

  — Gene Bryant (@GeneBryant2) November 10, 2024

• GOLD MEDAL GAME WINNER pic.twitter.com/IaV4nvdGVd

  — Camryn Bynum (@Cambeezy_) November 11, 2024

• Tennessee State Rep. Gino Bulso (R) fights for an amendment to allow first cousins to marry:

  “Unless anyone in this body can articulate a compelling interest to deny a male first cousin from marrying a male first cousin, this [current] bill demonstrably violates Obergefell.” pic.twitter.com/kb8cNuA17Y

  — Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) April 11, 2024

• I’m speed.. pic.twitter.com/NDtW9rGiOi

  — o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) November 10, 2024

• Well, at least I still have a shot at becoming the first half-Asian President of the United States.
• My ears were so looking forward to not having to listen to RFK Jr. speak so often.
• My kids have never experienced a “normal” presidential election.
• I continue to beg God to take Jimmy Carter before inauguration day because I fear how the new administration will honor his life of service.
• When Obama was the president-elect, I recall much discussion about wanting him to say something during the transition period because of the economic chaos. His answer was to say that the United States only has one president at a time. Researching that yesterday, I learned Nixon and Clinton both used that line, and I was reminded how, as President-Elect in late 2015, Trump was having trouble waiting on the sidelines. You may remember Trump taking credit for how well the stock market was performing as president-elect, claiming businesses and investors’ optimism of his upcoming presidency. He also dangerously crossed that line on foreign policy. Trump isn’t the type to sit back and wait, and I guarantee there will be a repeat in history with President-Elect Trump stepping on the heels of his successor before he is inaugurated.
• If you are interested in the presidential transition process, I encourage you to check out the organization in charge of it all, the Center for Presidential Transition – The premier nonpartisan source of information and expertise for presidential candidates and their teams. They even have some short videos that are pretty informative. I got a kick out of the image they used for a recent blog entry.
  
• Of course, I have the post-election blues, but I’m not at the point where I can say “this” and “that” is what went wrong for the Harris campaign. I’m in the “I wonder what if” and “I wonder what’s to come” stage.
  • I hate this and everything to come, like pardons for Jan 6. Would it have been better for him to have won in 2020, and we would have been rid of him? Or would he have worked things out to stay in power for a third term?
  • I started this thread saying I’m not at the “this” and “that” is what went wrong stage of the post-election blues. Ultimately, rightly or wrongly, it will fall on Biden for choosing to run for reelection.
• I still have a sense of humor. No matter how much my political views differ from this, I can see things from the other’s perspective and appreciate humor.
  
• This speaks volumes and is a bitter pill for my fellow liberals to swallow.
  
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• For the longest time, I wondered about the emotional pain my mother experienced watching her home country slowly die and accepting how things will never be the same. Arrogantly, I thought I was lucky because I would never be in the same situation. I hope those in charge prove me wrong.
• I’m guessing Biden pardons Hunter. What is there to lose?
• Relevant.
  

  Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock’s SNL bit when Donald Trump won in 2016 holds up still.

  I’m shocked this many people are shocked. pic.twitter.com/1PEcPQzdJi

  — Joe Randazzo (@LibrarianJoe_) November 6, 2024