Democratic brand

Howard of Starbucks made ripples by suggesting he may run for POTUS as an INDEPENDENT. He says he no longer identifies as a Democrat, but feels Trump is dumb and needs ousted at the ballot box.
Now taking a gander at those declared for Democratic side, one can plainly see why Mr. Starbucks would go the independent route... they are all running for the batshit crazy extremists' vote or to get name recognition to sell a book.
I am biased, but I don't feel I'm being rash in my assessment, but here's what I think from what I see:

• Pete Buttigieg- Mid-Western nobody with a fake gay porn name.
• Julian Castro- South-Western nobody with a fake dictator porn name.
• Kamala Harris- some random nobody with a fake Afrocentric porn name.
• Tulsi Gabbard- upstart who pissed off the old guard by backing Bernie over Hillary and tried to get back in their good graces.
• Kirsten Gillibrand- the manhater who got Al Franken ousted from the Senate.
• Elizabeth Warren- someone who claims to hate the rich and be for the little guy yet got wealthier by buying foreclosures.

"Fake porn name" is what I call empty vessels lacking charisma with humorous names that could be used in a porn or to be a political whore and latch onto a particular demographic like LGBTETC, Latino, and AA. Seriously, the one dude has "Butt"  as the start of his surname and his first name means "rock." When I hear Castro, I think of Cuba. Cuba has excellent free healthcare, I think I heard Mr. Flint say in Sicko. I didn't know how to pronounce "Kamala" at first, but figured it sounded like "cum alla," which is funny when Harris can sound like "her ass" depending upon who is saying it.

Why I said no to an interview

Last year, I got a call about a job opportunity in my field of study. I have my resume still on sites, but I haven't applied anywhere since starting at FedEx in November '16.
The job was at WPAFB, so I knew it paid well, but I also knew it had potential to be a casualty of any federal budget showdown.
I passed on the opportunity. The recruiter seemed incredulous.
Meh. I feel validated.

Recession talk, 2020 contention, jobless claims, DJI

The year continues to slog with no real news... the partial government shutdown has not been affecting enough to matter... China trade impasse has not destroyed the economy... the Fed has paused rate hikes... Speaker Pelosi is anti-SOTU perhaps due to the potential optics of her hoard of unruly freshmen that don't reflect well to the majority of American voters... Kasich is free of the governor's mansion... documented spouse beater Senator Sherrod Brown is doing a listening tour of early voting states... live feeding from your home while drinking a beer has become a trend... snow blankets parts of America... missing abducted teenager is found alive...
The whisper campaign of a pending recession is going no where fast. The stock market has slowly bounced back after steep year-end declines. Jobless claims are down in spite of the partial shutdown where TSA and such are working without pay, thus unemployment benefit eligible?
I expect all of the early candidates to announce their bid to be president will fade. None have a pitch to be president that strikes me as being reality based, aside from not being Trump.
The thing about "chaos" surrounding Trump is that he's not really bothered by it. Sure he tweets responses to his critics but has he buckled on any controversies over his agendas? The separating of children from parents is perhaps an example... but the practice may have been a holdover from an earlier administration.
Pelosi is the perfect foil for Trump to be re-elected if he chooses to stick with it. I believe he will and step down soon after winning, just so he can play more golf. He's already beyond typical retirement age, but he's not really much of a quitter, is he?
Now, who ever comes after Trump leaves office, will the "chaos" be resolved. Trump has "chaotic" irons in the fire that he's just let sit as an impasse.
Oh, what is the timetable on Russian Collusion?
Slow news.

wall thoughts

I read someone say today that funding a border wall would be a waste of money because we have homeless veterans and an underfunded education system. Curious, I looked up how many homeless vets there were and was shocked that more unaccompanied minors are apprehended at the border than there are actual homeless vets.

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/illegal-immigration-statistics/

https://thedefensepost.com/2019/01/11/us-military-veteran-homeless-california/

PayPal

Took a few tries, but we transferred our Ibotta funds to our checking account. Would have done a flat $500, but we had $506.66 in Ibotta to redeem.
I don't know how anyone can say Ibotta isn't worth the time.
Sure you have to setup PayPal to get hard cashback, but PayPal is a standard these days, right?

What's with the market?

The thud of Pelosi's return has been kicked aside, it seems.
We truly live in a strange time. It's almost like somsome is steering the economic stories just enough to jolt the markets either direction.

Return of Speaker Pelosi

I bought into gold related mutual when it was dipping to pre-Brexit levels. It seems like I hedged against  another Pelosi recession.

Seriously, floating around impeachment will do wonders for the economy.