The Sheep Detectives (2026 Movie on Prime) and a PS re Prime Movie Ads

Yeah, I admit that The Sheep Detectives is sappy and predictable. But I dare you to watch it and not enjoy it. It's a murder mystery with some comedic, poignant, and heart-felt moments, and the plot-line is unique: the sheep solve the murder. Oops, I didn't mean to give it away. Actually I didn't. Because it's not that the sheep solved the mystery, but how they did, and so what if they did because it's not like they can explain what they know to humans. 

PS re Prime Movie Ads: This might be the first Prime movie where I didn't pay a rental fee and hence the first Prime movie with ads I have watched (I refuse to pay the extra monthly Prime fee to have ad-free Prime movies). I don't know if this is true for all Prime movies, but the only ad was about a 30-second spot before the movie started. There were no ad interruptions.

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Pre-Medical/Dental Procedure Tip

Many times, a doctor or dentist will not tell you ahead of time as to what you might need to do after any given medical or dental procedure. Thus, it is not until the procedure is over, and you are about to leave for home, that you are given a set of instructions as to do's and don'ts and stuff you need or need to buy for the do's. So, here's the best practice from a patient point of view: When the procedure is scheduled, ask the scheduler or medical assistant to give you the "instruction sheet" as to what you will need to have on hand and what you are to do post-procedure.

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Stop Windows From Wearing Out Your SSD

As explained in this XDA article, when you click Shut Down on your Windows 11 PC, your PC doesn't really shut down, at least, not in the way you'd expect it to. What the system does is basically log you out, take a snapshot of the kernel (which manages your hardware and anything running on top) along with your loaded drivers, compresses that snapshot, and writes it to a hidden file on your main boot drive (usually C: for most users) called hiberfil.sys. The next time you power on, Windows reads that file back into memory. This saves quite a bit of time, and that's why it's aptly named Fast Startup. It's a form of hibernation running behind the scenes on every shutdown, whether you asked for it or not. I came across this accidentally while going through a disk-space audit on my machine, wondering why my NVMe, which should have plenty of headroom, kept feeling tighter than it should, while installing some local AI models. With a quick scan via WizTree (a utility that maps what's exactly eating your storage), I found a 12.5GB hiberfil.sys file in sight, sitting as one of the largest single files on my entire drive. There is an option to keep hibernation intact and switch off Fast Startup. If you open the Control Panel, go into Power Options, and then select, "Choose what the power buttons do", you might notice the checkbox is greyed out. You'd have to click, "Change settings that are currently unavailable" above it, and then untick "Turn on fast startup", and simply save. Your shutdowns from this point on will actually shut down your PC, although the hiberfil.sys file will stay put. The other option will help you reclaim the disk space for you. You can right-click Start, open Terminal as an Administrator, and type powercfg /h off, and then hit Enter. This will delete the hiberfil.sys file and hands you back the space. In my case, it was about 12.5GB. It's worth noting that this is a fully supported Microsoft command and not a hack. It's also reversible with the same command, you'd just have to substitute "off" with "on." Laptop owners do have a little something to think about when following these steps, though. Hibernation saves your session if the battery gives out, and using powercfg /h off gets rid of that safety net if you were relying on it. If that describes you, the option of the two is the safer pick, since it saves your SSD from the wrath of Fast Startup's daily writes while leaving Hibernate available when you choose to trigger it manually.

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Amazon Prime Discount

An Amazon Visa card has no annual fee and gets you an immediate 5% credit back discount on all Prime and Whole Food purchases and cash back of 1%-2% on everything else. But wait, there's more. If you select your preferred delivery date instead of a faster delivery option, you will get 6% back on Prime purchases. I figured it out. With a pencil and a pen I figured it out: 6% is more credit back than 5%.

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How Trump Raises Money for His Stuff

As the WSJ reports, Trump's fundraising is relentless and simple. Each night he calls Meredith O'Rourke, his fundraiser and tells her much he wants and from whom, and she makes the calls saying: “This is very important to the president. He’s asked me to call you and ask you for this donation,” O’Rourke has relayed on phone calls with companies, persistently following up with them. In some calls, she has referred to Trump as the boss, saying “the boss wants this money.” 

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If Trump Cancels the 2026 Elections--It Just Might Get Us Out of This Mess

Fearing a flip of the House or Senate or both, Trump is not going to let the 2026 elections come to a conclusion. He is going to declare a national emergency, suspend habeas corpus, invoke the Insurrection Act, and order all the ballots in every state seized with the result that no elections can be certified. Given that these are official acts, the Supreme Court will hold Trump immune from prosecution and, knowing they cannot enforce any order, declare what Trump’s done a political act beyond judicial review. Here’s what then happens: Realizing that, on January 3, 2027, the day the new Congress is to be sworn in, there will be no Congress, the Republicans wake up, realize they will be out of a job, and, while they are still in office until January 3, 2027, impeach Trump, and the Senate convicts. The election results will then be tabulated and certified, and the country will have taken its first step to undo the nightmare Trump has wrought.

PS: All House seats are up for re-election, so, on January 7, 2027, if Trump stops the election, all members of the House will be out of a job. There are 36 Senate seats up for re-election, with 22 being held by Republicans and 13 being held by Democrats, so if Trump stops the election, the Senate will be solidly Democrat.

PPS: When it dawns on Trump that cancelling the election would be his demise, he might try to cancel just those elections in Blue districts and Blue states. That won’t fly even with this Supreme Court, the Republicans, or the people. Indeed, you'll be able to hear the people singing.

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Delivery of NYT and WSJ to Your Vacation Rental

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Warsh: Stuck Between Trump and the Bond Market

Warsh's refusal in his post-FMOC meeting presser to give any forward guidance on raising rates to combat inflation (except to joke that the 10Y was doing the work for the Fed) drew a strong reaction from the bond market, as more fully explained in this WSJ piece. Obviously, with Trump still pounding for rate cuts, Warsh is caught between Trump and the bond market. As far as that struggle goes, don't forget what James Carville said: "I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody." We'll see if Warsh blinks.

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Wordle Convention

Solving a Wordle grid with just green letters and blank spaces and no yellows is called a Sea of Green.

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Championships During Trump's Tenure per The New Yorker

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