A reader of last week’s column offered to home some pigs or sheep for me so that I can attend a future state fair. He even offered to put electric fence around the sheep herd. Something about keeping Foley away from them. I’m from the mean streets of Plattsburg and I don’t understand farm talk.
If you live in unincorporated Platte County within the Highlands of Weatherby subdivision since at least 2019, take a bow. That place has gone bonkers. They got new streets laid and a pandemic hit and the next thing you know, houses that were in the $400-500k range are now $700-950K. Airplanes flying directly over be damned. It’s one of the metro’s hottest subdivisions based on things realtors are telling me and doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
I kind of miss late night tweets aimed at world leaders that I thought might provoke terrorists and terrorist states. Those were easier to stomach than watching a pseudo surrender, to be honest.
I’m not going to argue with anyone over the war in Afghanistan, whether it was justified, needed or provoked can be argued for a long time. What cannot be argued, in my opinion, is that this exit plan was terribly executed and then responded to by an entire government with a tone-deaf reality. It has been disheartening and embarrassing to our country. We could have gotten together at the bar and come up with a better plan.
If you were willing to say Donald Trump was crazy, or a liar or whatever you thought of him, you must be willing to admit that Joe Biden is not with us completely. He is mentally not on his game. Maybe it’s just age, maybe worse, but either way, it is a problem no less concerning than Trump’s real or perceived compromised positions. It’s obvious to anyone with even a bit of objectively left.
One of my favorite web sites is pppdetective.com. This is a site with all the PPP loans made as part of the pandemic response. It’s a fascinating read. You’ll get lost if you’re not careful, it is a huge rabbit hole. If you want to know why there is so much economic activity happening, just look at what your friends and neighbors received in the way of forgivable loans. It’s an amazing amount of money that was pumped into the economy through these “loans.”
Consider yourself warned. If you’re like most Missouri residents, you have to travel Interstate 70 from time to time. It’s like a war zone mixed with a speedway featuring X rated shops along the way, but sometimes it has to be driven. That’s going to get harder in the very near future. The Rocheport bridge is scheduled for replacement. Yeah, that’s the big one before you get to Columbia. It is going to be two bridges and the first one won’t be done till 2023. This little stretch of road carries 12 million cars a year. That’s a bunch. Thankfully, it is only supposed to cost $200 million dollars and that is chump change if you’re the post pandemic State of Missouri.
(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or reminiscing about late night tweets that threatened world peace)