Boomers As Leeches

I am seeing an increasing flood of complaints that Boomers take "an infinity of resources" from later generations. They are looking at Social Security and Medicare. 

Many of us resented those mandatory taxes for SS and Medicare.  We could have invested that money in mutual funds and come out way ahead. Even then, for every high wage earner like me with $3000/month SS checks, there are far more with $1200/month SS checks struggling to pay rent or mortgage payments and Medicare premiums and deductible.

And younger people upset about health insurance premiums. They were not absurd when Boomers were young because we were not battling the damage Obamacare did by requiring no age discrimination on insurance costs. To cover the costs of coverage for older insurers, young people were saddled with higher premiums. To make sure they did not make a perhaps rational decision to skip insurance, Obamacare punished them for failure to buy. The deductibles are huge. 

My wife had students who insisted that Obamacare would mean they would get an insurance card in the mail, free of charge. My, were they disappointed. Elect politicians who make absurd promises, get screwed. 

We also worked our butts off instead of whining. The SS returns compared to equity funds is awful.

Cargo Carriers That Can Use Padlocks?

 I am looking for a cargo carrier that has edge holes for padlocks. I am told the Thules all use the same key, so they are not secure. Why you would do that eludes me. There is nowhere to look at them, and the Amazon pages are useless for this. JEGS says none of theirs will accept padlocks.

Astronomy

I have been struggling for several years now, intermittently, to get my Losmandy G811G goto mount to work. I am quite sure it us pilot error. Supergrok has been walking me through the process. Every night I get a bit closer. Tonight's discovery was that the watch battery that keeps static knowledge of date and time needs replacing.

Semester is Over

Grades submitted. For the first time in many semesters, no one failed. A number of students withdrew who were clearly either not ready or too busy for this class.

I was pleased that A students were largely the ones who most clearly relied on HI not AI. This may be my last semester teaching. College of Western Idaho only employs Idaho residents.  This makes sense: Idaho taxpayers are paying the salaries; we are no longer short of well-educated people here. I am not sure what my chances are of getting an adjunct position in eastern Tennessee.

Such a Beautiful House and View

If only we could pick it up and move it to East Tennessee. 

Busy Day

We had a moving garage sale with our daughter and son-in-law.  Leas stuff to pack, load, and ship and a small amount of cash in return. 

More Fraud Convictions

5/14/26 CBS News:

A woman who earned a West Michigan Woman of the Year award will serve over five years in federal prison for a $1.4 million fraud scheme that misdirected money meant for preschool services, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan said.

Nkechy Ezeh, 61, of Kent County, was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 70 months on fraud and a concurrent 60 months for evading income taxes, the district attorney's office said. She was ordered to start serving the prison time immediately.

Ezeh was also ordered to pay a total of $1.4 million in restitution to the victims of the scheme, along with $390,174 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Her nonprofit organization, Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative, shuttered in 2023, with 35 people laid off as a result, the district attorney's office said.

A million here, a billion there, to paraphrase Sen. Bayh, after a while, it adds up to real money. If all this welfare state funding was making poor people better off, you might excuse the good intentions.