I’m sitting around thinking about the coming election.  It feels like this one is going to be an unusual election in many ways.  I for one would not want to be at the head of the country right now.

The debt bubble keeps growing larger and the division between the rich and the poor keeps increasing.  At some point it feels like the economy may go into a major recession and correction of the dollar value.  Whichever party wins the election may take a lot of the blame for this if it does happen.  Neither candidate talks much about the economy at all.

Someone close to me thinks the economy is picking up - she is pretty happy with the way the stock market is behaving.  I don’t own any stocks besides my 401k which I have had to dip into with major penalties to get a new (to me) vehicle when the older one we had was getting difficult to maintain.

Governmental policies look like they are feeding more money into the stock market through quantitative easing and there appears to be not much business activity fueling the growth of stock value.  Many of the larger retail business like Sears are not doing well.  Big anchor stores in shopping malls are closing up causing many of the smaller business to leave and shutting the malls down.  

Once the mall shuts down loans can’t be repaid and this has ripple effects all over the place.

I haven’t gone shopping at a mall in years, I much prefer purchasing things on-line or going to smaller stores for specific items.  I’ve always been a bit sensitive and empathetic and the crowds at these types of places quickly get hard for me to handle.  After shopping for a bit I would complain of getting, “creeping mall sickness” and suggest going somewhere else.

Maybe I’m part of the economic problem because I like to wear the same clothing for twenty years or more and hardly ever purchase anything.  My hobbies include walking around, riding my twenty year old bike, 3D graphics and taking pictures.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37106315/fall/tree.jpg
*I took this a few days ago with my Galaxy S7 and used GIMP to alter it a bit*

Just as I’m in the middle of writing this my family members come home with a new laptop for my son’s birthday.  I guess I do buy some stuff once in awhile.  I glance at the, “Made in China” sticker on the box, thinking at least I’m keeping someone employed.

Whatever happens from the coming election I think it is going to be an interesting time ahead.  In the crash of 1929 the stock market plunged.  I wonder what will happen with bitcoin, steem and other cryptocurrencies if this happens.  Some people have suggested that the value may go way up if the dollar devalues.  Anyone have a guess?

May whatever is best be.  Things have a way of working out and new economic activities and additional technological advancements can change things around quickly.  If personal finances free up and people are not squeezed so much they could be much happier and it would be more fun for some of us to go shopping (or at least get more easily dragged along).

## Facebook issues
It happened about six months ago that I got a friend request from someone I did not know.  It gets confusing to figure out what to do in this case.  I figured that I hardly ever post anything so why did it matter if someone wanted to be friends.  You know when your young and someone wants to be friends you just go with it unless your being mean.

So I’m just somewhat voyeuristically looking over stuff not really knowing what the heck this person had to do with me and just kind of forget about it.  Three months later I get another friend request.  This person I’m not even close to being on the same page with.  Where the heck are these people coming from?

**Today I get another friend request,** I’m feeling pretty popular!  I confirm the request and get into an on-line messaging conversation with the person.  We figure out that we don’t know each other.  At this point I’m feeling a bit bad for causing some bizarre ripple in the fabric of Facebook land.  Who knows what is being said about me.  I guess that’s why I’m posting on Steemit.  (laughing)

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Thanks for reading!