Nice Guy Eddie

I thought Harris came in slightly less than 2020 numbers. Rant: For the past few election cycles, I would often compare current turnout to previous turnouts for the counties. Run some analysis. The new Texas SOS website is about as horrible of a site that I've seen in a while. You can eventually get to the data but search functionality is poor. Whoever put that together is incompetent.

He didn't say that wasn't happening as well.

Trump ruined an Arnold Palmer (ice tea and lemonade) for everyone now. You can’t order it now.

This happened to me. I have a HDHP and HSA and needed physical therapy this year. It was somewhere close to $200 per visit. The therapist prescribed twice per week, and I countered with one with take home instructions.

Bluetooth can go over 30 feet depending on walls or the lack of them. Sounds like someone in the cloud is tracking your heart rate

Off topic but a political issue. 1974 - minimum wage was raised to $2 1991 - it hit $4.25. More than doubling it in 17 years. We’re now 33 years later and it’s $7.25. At this rate, it may double the 1991 rate by the 50 year mark. Maybe. i checked a cost of living calculator, and the 1991 $4.25 would be $9.50 now.

Yep. Their playbook will be to repeat unsourced stories again and again. Get the average, low info GOP voter to start repeating that they heard Dems are up to their old tricks again. Can’t trust the voting results unless Trump wins. Fox News will start reporting the reports and quietly end the story that they working to verify the story. When in fact they’re not.

Faulkner is far from an unbiased questioner. Fox has her on because she’s African American and hates the Dems. Or hates the Dem for the money. I’ve watched her shows and I’ve never seen a fair question or comment out of her mouth. There is zero chance that I could prove, via paperwork, my first couple of pre-college grad jobs. There are SS reports that show I have income but the source (employer) isn’t listed. For sentimental reasons, I wish I had kept the paystub just to remind myself how far I’ve come. I think the first job was $3.85/hr but could be slightly off.

well that sucks but I'm happy that to hear people are voting. The posted "people in line" stat was depressing.

there is a general agreement that Ted Cruz sucks. Not that that stance is going out on a limb.

In the past elections, the Texas SOS page had the daily numbers for the largest 15-20 counties. Some of the counties weren't as good as others in sending in daily updates especially over the weekends. They catch up on Monday or Tuesday. It's a weak reporting site since it ignores 230+ counties.

From the podcast link you shared, there was mention that the homeowners were only forced to sell if they were away from the property for 365 days in a row. It would be critical to have clarity on this timeframe since elderly sometimes go to rehab/skilled nursing centers for extended periods but not permanently.

Harris County wait times all look to be under 15 minutes this afternoon: https://www.harrisvotes.com/Vote-Centers They only show 50 locations at a time. Click next page to see many of the suburban early vote centers.

I could see that the Dems best hopes at partial control of the Senate rest with Lisa Murkowski not agreeing with MAGA bs. I always want to believe that she's a Dem at heart but not enough to flip to a Dem.

appreciate the link. I have to admit that I didn't realize reverse mortgages could be as complex as they describe and how it could function as a HELOC, without that name. I had no idea that you could pull out funds on demand, and optionally pay them back. I was also ignorant that the mortgage loan funds available can increase over time. Couple of takeaways for me: they seemed to disagree with the govt describing reverse mortgages as a last resort for retirement income but then they proceed to acknowledge that it is the last resort for many. They specifically said their advice wasn't for the person calling in after watching a Tom Selleck tv ad. I never thought much about a reverse mortgage as a backup plan for sequence of returns risk. While it seems doable, it feels to me like its too much of a complex financial product for the average consumer to use "correctly." And if someone had the knowledge and discipline to use it as a risk mitigation plan, I would believe it's a low probability that they would need to do so. That person would most likely be set with more than adequate retirement income. I didn't know that you have to pay an upfront 2% insurance premium on the value of your house. This insures the mortgage company in case you end up owing more than the value of your house. I believe there is an ongoing premium as well. I assume you can roll the upfront and ongoing premium into the borrowed amount decreasing your equity. For those using it as a last resort, I could see many spending all of the money ASAP, and ending up broke without any home equity. Yes they can remain in the house as long as they keep up with taxes and HOA fees but I would have to bet this is a more common situation than the savvy retirement investor who continually maximizes the mortgages costs vs stock returns.

UPDATE. Found a way to get away from work over lunch and vote. The Ted Cruz trans ads during the UT game got me motivated. As in motivated to vote against Cruz as quickly as possible. Feels great to have that behind me but I want to vote against Cruz and Trump again. My ballot was straight blue except I voted for the independent in the RR Commission race. Hawk Dunlap. https://www.tiktok.com/@hawkdunlap He's going to lose but I've loved his social media videos where he's out in west Texas pointing out what a piss poor job the industry and the RR commission is doing with plugged well issues.

Time to get that commie math out of our schools.

Early voting Day 1 in Texas. Would love to knock it out today but work is preventing it. I should be able to find time Tuesday or Wednesday. Can’t wait.

You don’t think QAnon isn’t a subset of sovereign citizen beliefs? And if you read my post, I’m not saying the reverse that everyone with sov cit beliefs or tendencies is actively trying to overthrow the govt. I don’t believe that.

I just can’t see how anyone would switch from Harris to Trump, and I don’t believe there are many undecideds who will likely vote.

I identify with these remarks. I’m unsure if my day to day will be impacted much by who wins but I can’t believe that so many people, who are hurting, want to vote for Trump. Some of them are willing to crawl thru broken glass to vote for Trump, even at the expense of making their life worse as long as they show them transgenders who’s boss.

I haven’t followed her career closely but has Sage Steele always been a Trump supporter?

Remember that if the homeowner(s) moves out, the loan becomes due most likely resulting in a sale. Make sure it’s very clear how that works if they need to move into assisted living. Older folks often need less of a house as they age, often eventually only needing the equivalent of a 1 bedroom apt. It might be much better for them financially to sell and rent a smaller place. You do need to make sure that no one (family member or stranger) doesn’t con them out of their money. Potentially even where the old folks have limited access to their main funds. for what it’s worth, I’ve never understood the need for a reverse mortgage. I would work out the math to identify the fees.

The Dike.

Used to work at a large multi national corp. Someone from internal security/investigations came in to talk to my group about detecting internal fraud with procurement. She mentioned that with everyone caught stealing, they all confessed justification as they felt wronged somewhere along the way. She spoke about 5-6 figure theft not stealing post-it notes.