Anyone else “upset” with Amazon resellers of batteries?
It feels like they are most old and poor quality. Often repackaged. In different languages.
So, no more, will I buy batteries from Amazon. Home Depot, Lowes, Target, even the Publix grocery store.
They have to be better!
Argh!
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DISCOURAGING | Tagged: amazon, batteries | 
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Posted by reinkefj
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c0ry0yzxeyxt
Dolly Parton.
Requiescat In Pacem
My “Dolly memory” was playing “facts in five“ in a small camper with two old friends and my first sainted wife as teams.
It was a cutthroat competition. The object of the game was to predict your partner’s answer. So we’re down to the final question — neck and neck — and the question was “who is the smartest business person your partner admires?“.
Frau Reinke got a huge smile on her face and said loudly: “We got this one!“ and scribbled down her answer. (I had just finished my MBA and she had suffered with me along for the ride.) When the big reveal came my answer was Dolly Parton“ she was flabbergasted.
She had written down “Warren Buffett“. A good answer, but not the smartest.
She ranted and raved for at least two weeks about this bitterest loss to our best fries but arch game rivals.
How could I pick Dolly Parton and I kept giving her the same list of reasons:
#1 She never forgot a roots;
#2 she never got full of herself with all her success; and
#3 She was the most charitable celebrity I had ever heard of up to that time
and probably since that time.
God bless you, Ms Parton.
I hope all of your journeys are now trouble free and that, sometime, we’ll meet in the ever after. I’d like you to tell me all the things that I’ve done badly, wrongly, and stupidly.
Dona Nobis Pacem
Sadly.
p.s., FWIW Warren Buffet was my third choice. My second choice was (I forget the fellow’s name) who owned and ran a Kentucky minor league baseball team (I forget the team’s name) that had three times the profitability of any minor league team in any sport. I had done my MBA “graduation paper” on the fellow. But, I was always super impressed with Ms. Parton.
•• ••• 2026-Aug-25 1500
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: BBC, Dolly Parton, facts in five, smartest business person, Warren Buffet | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
<<FROM TWITTER / now X (but it’ll always be twitter to me)>>
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-08-18>>
*** begin quote ***
Josh Barzon
@JoshuaBarzon
Aug 17
You could move to New York City.
Rent an 852-square-foot apartment for $5,503 a month.
Blow $500 on three “first dates” a week and somehow remain single for six years.
Finally meet someone you like, then discover they’re “not really looking for anything serious right now.”
Get a master’s degree so you can qualify for an internship.
Apply to 147 jobs, get 93 automated rejections, and finally find an “entry-level” position requiring five years of experience.
Eventually land a six-figure job and still need a roommate to make rent.
Pay federal income tax, New York State income tax, AND New York City income tax because apparently living there is a three-level subscription.
Learn that a “quiet neighborhood” means the sirens only come by every 20 minutes.
Pay $27 every day for a sandwich (no sides) because the place has exposed brick and a handwritten menu.
Take the subway to work every morning and develop the useful skill of pretending not to notice absolutely anything happening around you.
Spend 45 minutes traveling three miles.
Carry your groceries home six blocks because parking near your apartment is more of a philosophical concept than an actual possibility.
Have “owning a washer and dryer” become one of your primary measures of generational wealth.
Walk past a mountain of trash bags on your way to a restaurant with a Michelin star.
Tell your friends back home you don’t need a car while spending $46 on an Uber because the subway is delayed again.
Go to Central Park when you want to remember what trees look like.
Spend your twenties telling everyone you could NEVER live anywhere else.
Then one day you visit your cousin in Iowa.
He has a house with four bedrooms, a garage, a yard, two cars, four kids, and somehow pays less than you do for the apartment where your refrigerator touches your couch.
But hey.
The NYC bagels are incredible.
*** end quote ***
Having grown up in Manhattan I can certainly agree with what he has written.
I’d say it’s “funny”. BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), it’s not “funny” like “HA! HA!”. More like “funny” peculiar. Like schadenfreude!
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: @JoshuaBarzon, FACEBOOK, federal income tax, Josh Barzon, New York City income tax, New York City., New York State income tax, NYC bagels, quiet neighborhood | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
I’m a retired IT guy. I personally have always been surprised that “newspapers” didn’t figure out and implement a micropayment system.
Imagine if you were asked for 0.0001 of something (i.e., a dollar; a bitcoin; a ruble; a yen) for an article. Not some number of dollars for a year, or month, or such.
When you get on internet scale, it’s not hard to imagine getting 50k readers each paying say a penny for an article. That translates to 500$ for that one article.
The current payment technology doesn’t pay to scale that price point.
But now, a paper could collect a fraction of a bitcoin from someone’s public key and encrypt the article so that only the person’s private key could decrypt it. At that level, it wouldn’t be worth pirating it or sharing you private key to deprive the sender of the revenue.
I think that would be the way to save the “local” paper with digital distribution of content.
FWIW YMMV
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: newspapers, micropayment system, digital distribution | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
A chat with amazon
*** begin quote ***
ME: USPS deliveries are inconvenient and always seem delayed. Can I specify I don’t want my orders sent by USPS?
REP: understand your concern.
I can take this as a feedback so that our team will check the details and will try our best to deliver the items directly
*** end quote ***
Have to tell Puritan’s Pride the same thing.
If they can’t deliver with UPS or FEDEX 0r something similar, then I have to take my business elsewhere.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: amazon, USPS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Opinion columnist
*** begin quote ***
A note to readers from a longtime columnist
As some of you know, I am on medical leave from my job at The Boston Globe and have not been able to write my regular op-ed columns or my Arguable newsletter.
*** and ***
During the congressional debates on the amendment in 1866, I noted, Senator Edgar Cowan of Pennsylvania warned that birthright citizenship would undermine the ability of any state to defend itself “if it were overrun” — that word again — by immigrants of “a different race.”
*** end quote ***
Well, unfortunately, we can’t have “open borders” and a “welfare state”. If those, that come here, contribute to society, then by all means “open the golden door”, BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), if they are here for the dole, then we can’t admit them.
We have seen the abuses of our lax immigration policies and generous handouts. Birth tourism — pregnant women coming to the U.S. on tourism visas in order to obtain birthright U.S. citizenship for their newborn child becoming “anchor babies” is a very distinct problem.
End welfare; no problem. End warfare; no problem.
Get well soon, my favorite liberal author.
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Posted by reinkefj
When AI-Driven Deflation Collides With America’s Debt-Saturated Economy
by Nick Giambruno
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-06-08>>
*** begin quote ***
In other words, the US would need a leader who—at a minimum—returns the federal government to a limited Constitutional Republic, closes the 800 military bases abroad, ends entitlements, kills the welfare state, and repays a large portion of the national debt.
*** end quote ***
The current 1.2T$ budget deficit, added 121T+ national debt, and the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities that our posterity will have to deal with is staggering. And, all the politicians and bureaucrats just keep spending along.
“Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.” –Herbert Hoover
“When in a hole, stop digging!” — old Wall Street maxim
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: internationalman.com, Nick Giambruno | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://www.cnet.com/news-live/t1-trump-mobile-phone-review/?zdee=%5BContact.email_zdee%5D
We’re Finally Testing the Trump Mobile Phone.
Corinne Reichert
May 24, 2026 1:51 p.m. PT
*** begin quote ***
As previously reported, we can confirm that the Trump phone features the wrong number of stripes on the American flag.
There are supposed to be 13 stripes representing the 13 original colonies of the United States, but the flag printed on the back of this golden phone has only 11.
The US flag does have the requisite 50 stars, however.
*** end quote ***
Mediocre at best. And certainly not the “greatest”. Like most politicians’ promises … sadly disappointing and discouraging.
I expected better.
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: cnet.com, Corinne Reichert, Trump Mobile Phone | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://nwtrcc.org/2026/05/21/a-tribute-to-antiwar-vets/
A Tribute to Antiwar Vets
May 21st, 2026
Ironically, it is often people who have served in the military and have experienced firsthand the banality and brutality of mindless obedience who come to question and then reject external authority over their own internal ethical decisions. (“Brian Willson and the Problem of Obedience” by Dana Visalli)
*** begin quote ***
So, a big thanks to all the veterans who are speaking and acting publicly against war and militarism, and a big big thanks to all the active military people who find that they can no longer participate in that system and find their way out (Center on Conscience and War can help).
*** end quote ***
Interesting that this hit my inbox when I was having an “agree to disagree agreeably” moment with my old friend Luddite about DJT4547. I felt my biggest disappointment with DJT is that “he has gone ‘nuts’ opposing Massie. And fighting a war for Israel when he pledged “no new wars”.
His use of “Executive Orders” has not made a permanent change in the USA’s slide down and to the left. The next “American King” can eliminate them all with the stroke of a pen. We still have the “department of education” and all of the Deep State Swamp. They killed JFK when he tried to dismantle the CIA. And we still have it.
So I am very discouraged that we have made no improveents that will last. The Dead Old White Guys couldn’t force how far we have drifted from their vision of a Federal Republic. Maybe like the falling down drunk, we can only find “salvation” when we can’t fall down any further.
Argh!
Let’s go back to call this “Decoration Day” and honor all who paid the price in full or in part by declaring “PEACE”.
Dona Nobis Pacem
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: History, Militarism, nwtrcc.org, Organizing, Personal motivations, Real Life Stories | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
*** begin quote ***
Abdul knew he was in danger.
My childhood friend had been threatened for months while working late-night shifts at his family’s deli. He applied for a panic button last year, hoping for a way to protect himself. He even spoke to ABC News about the fear he lived with every day.
Abdul was a pillar in his community. He learned Spanish and sign language so he could connect with each and every customer who walked through the door. Our families were close, and my mother even worked at his deli.
Despite his calls for help, nothing changed. On April 25, Abdul was killed at work.
Workers like Abdul are left exposed, often alone overnight with no protections in place. When something goes wrong, help doesn’t come fast enough. They are left vulnerable in moments when every second matters.
Sign my petition for Abdul’s Law, which would require safety measures to protect overnight workers
*** end quote ***
This raises an important question in my mind?
“He applied for a panic button last year”
Applied to who?
I doubt that ADT would take very long to get it installed.
I suspect that it’s either some Gooferment program or agency that “approves” stuff like that.
If so, that is the root of all evil.
I hope we can find out and put some fire under some politicians and bureaucrats who are at fault.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: Change.org, New York City, small grocery workers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
Reinke Faces Life 
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