We bring you the Trump pandemic, introduce the new Aeroplan program, a WFH guide, bring you credit card referrals, the best Covid-19 coverage, the best photography, register for new promos, visit some new places during Covid times, Ann Arbor is in mourning with the loss of University of Michigan football, my latest card activity, a hilarious dating guide in 2020, learn about a farmer living inside the grounds of Narita International airport and lots more always sticking to the blog mission for peanuts I must be insane for doing this for almost 8 years so I guess thank you for reading, get out there and be kind and change the world and vote to end the lunacy, thank you!
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COVID-19
Another post and here we go…America’s uniquely bad Covid-19 epidemic, explained in 18 maps and charts. I can’t believe it is mid August and this slowly unrolling catastrophe keeps going and &^$#@&! Read it and weep.
This post explains the mRNA (admit it, you never heard this word before the pandemic!) vaccine, we all hope it works! This coronavirus vaccine would be two breakthroughs in one. Very educational read. I am praying and I am not even religious lol.
This is a devastating piece! The Trump Pandemic. A blow-by-blow account of how the president killed thousands of Americans. I.Can’t.Even…
By this point, only Trump fan trolls are here. I mean, I can’t help it but here is another one even more devastating than the previous link: The Unraveling of America. You know in Greece cases are going up over the last month. From under 20 to 50, 100, 150 and a few days ago it hit 209 in a single day and everyone is freaking out. Oh, deaths are 212. TOTAL! Yeah, they sure are laughing at us now &^$$#%#! Update: Just yesterday, new cases hit 262 and new measures are coming…again! Dead at 218. The rise in new cases is happening everywhere it appears: Coronavirus in Europe: Infections surge in France, Germany and Spain.
Another great Bil Gates interview: Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’. Must read/listen.
Another great article about what we will be dealing with in the years ahead: How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond. This coronavirus is here for the long haul — here’s what scientists predict for the next months and years. And never forget this:
There is one thing that every country, city and community touched by the pandemic has in common. “There is so much we still don’t know about this virus,” says Pulliam. “Until we have better data, we’re just going to have a lot of uncertainty.”
Great visual piece: Could My Symptoms Be Covid? So many…From ‘brain fog’ to heart damage, COVID-19’s lingering problems alarm scientists.
Michael Lewis writes about a public health nurse in his own unique way: Confessions of a California Covid Nurse. What a hero! Hopefully, in the coming (eventually) AC (after Covid) era, we invest properly in public health and not ignore it anymore…
I hope we do not phuck this up! Cutting Corners in the Race for a Vaccine. Russia, China and India are racing to find a coronavirus vaccine. But international standards are not always being respected. Some researchers have even tested their remedies on themselves.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: There are now three different 65k Chase Southwest card offers and a 60k Chase United Explorer card offer. For a standard workhorse card I recommend the 60k Chase Sapphire Preferred card. For a standard premium card I recommend the 50k Chase Sapphire Reserve card. For a standard 2% cash back card I recommend the Citi Double Cash card. Available with my links.
If you do not see a credit card you want with my links, perhaps I could refer you to it? Email me please and see more info in the BLOG BUZZ section below.
I used the referral link of a fellow blogger I wanted to support to get me the premium Amex Hilton Aspire card. I applied and Amex had the card in my hands the next day! 150,000 Hilton Honors points after $4k spend. Diamond elite status. $450 annual fee but wait…One free night every year (with up to two years to expire now), $250 resort credit each card year which has been truly enhanced for purchases at restaurants until August 31, $250 Airline fee credit each calendar year (I need to think which airline as I am now a free agent, any suggestions which is “easier”?), Priority Pass Select lounge membership for self and two guests, possible $100 statement credit for Waldorf/Conrad stays, and more. I plan to keep this card going forward and cancel my now useless premium CNB card after burning all my 100k points for, please sit down, Amazon gift cards. No affiliate $ link with the Aspire card but I could earn 15,000 Hilton Honors points with this REFERRAL link, thank you for your support!
The big news in this space was the new Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know about their innovative new program. A lot to unpack. This pretty much seals the reality of revenue based earning ways. It is good to see they did not kill the award charts but they sure made it a hell of a lot more complex in the process. You must realize that it can only get worse from here…the program has some flexibility as travel has gone to hell these days so all these changes don’t really mean much. When capacity loads start resembling the old days at some point…watch out for the coming “enhancements”. Well, at least it will keep some bloggers busy writing about something instead of online shopping “deals” and mile/points promotions! 🙂
As expected, the banks are slowly increasing the signup bonuses on travel rewards credit cards after buying tons of them to keep the airlines in business. There are now three different Southwest cards offering 65k points with my links. In addition, there is now a 60k Chase United Explorer card offer available too. 60k is a really good offer but why would you even want a United card? This is why: The Best Feature of the United Credit Cards for Awards. It gets you access to a lot more award seats. Not like that is a big problem in these Covid days…
Not a really big deal but just in case you have some money in your Southwest Travel Bank account: How To Use The New Southwest Travel Bank Conversion To Get Better Than 1:1 Transfer Rates.
It has been months since I rented a car! But just in case you are interested: How to Get Up to Hertz President’s Circle Status By Status Match.
One of the features of the new Air Canada Aeroplan program is the introduction of Family Pooling. It allows up to 8 members. And you could get 2,500 miles with a new account and just one activity (shopping or transfer of bank points). You can get started doing this HERE.
I still find the hotel promos to be sad considering they are hurting for business so badly. The latest by Marriott Bonvoy makes me go zzzzzz. Register after you log in your account HERE.
Members earn 2,500 bonus points for each stay consumed during the promotional period plus a one-time bonus of 5,000 points after their third stay for stays during August 13 – October 18.
TRAVEL
Did you know there is a farmer living in the Narita International Airport? Well, now you do! Thanks to all the bloggers who will link to this story without an HT again smh…
Very good practical info on Visiting Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon During Covid-19.
I was thinking to move somewhere south near a beach for a month or two this winter…And then boom! Adjusting to Customer Demand, United Adds New Nonstop Service to Florida. But not from Detroit, boo! Interesting play by United, I hope it works out for them…
I love these photos! Snow ghosts: Haunting Images of Derelict Soviet Architecture.
Michigan is looking good! States rated the by share of parks in their territory.![r/dataisbeautiful - [OC] States rated the by share of parks in their territory](https://i.redd.it/x0ezfslw24f51.png)
Where Natural Disasters Strike Most in the United States. Just in case you plan to travel haha. Click to Enlarge.
Why am I sticking this one in here? Simply because it means there will be a lot less traveling for University of Michigan football games, SAD! Big Ten may cancel Michigan football. In Ann Arbor, businesses brace for worst. So many places will get hurt in my town, unthinkable but also…expected.
The numbers in Greece are devastating. Airline traffic down 75%, tourist office revenue down 90%. Yikes…
PERSONAL FINANCE
I see unqualified people all over online writing about personal finance. I guess it must be the area that pays these days as credit card shilling has obviously been nuked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Maybe I do this too one day here, I don’t know. But my comments will be overtaken by geniuses telling us all that they alone can fix it or something smh. Anyway, this is a good article about what it means to be The Good Advisor. Some morons out there think all we do is pick winning investments when truly educated people (like most of you reading my blog!) should know that there is no proven way to do this and most investors are better served by a low cost diversified portfolio of boring broad based indexing positions. And be careful out there in these crazy times!
Another good relevant article now that so many are working from home: Taxes, VPNs and Office Hours WFH The Ultimate Forbes Guide to Working from Home. I dread handling my son’s 2020 tax returns who had moved to New York City but came back to Michigan in March temporarily only to stick around until, well, it could be June 2021, wow! But he thinks he may move somewhere warm in the Fall…yikes, doing multi state tax returns just blows. Fellow CPAs know what I mean! 😉
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
This is great writing: A roar, an explosion, then a blank: An L.A. Times reporter’s ordeal in the Beirut blast.
My mail delivery has always been reliable. But this year it started sucking. And the last two months it sucks big time! I mean, I hope the mailman doesn’t miss me, an event that was extremely rare before 2020! What’s wrong with the mail.
Fantastic video that explains the lunacy: QAnon, Conspiracy Theories, and the Rise of Magical Thinking. You can not reason with these lunes!
Lol: The New Dating Timeline: Comparing Before-Times to 2020.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Amazing family, wow. The Simpsons. The Forest Hill couple who adopted 30 kids.
This video is an amazing piece of work, wow! Bronson – Keep Moving.
Ok, that was fun read! Yes, of course we have one. The Battle to Invent the Automatic Rice Cooker.
There is a LOT of junk out there that will eventually be coming down, brace yourselves! Why We Need to Clean Up Outer Space.
I thought I would bring you something more uplifting but I changed my mind: The nuclear mistakes that nearly caused World War Three. And then when you think Trump has the codes…
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
It is mid-August and the only credit card conversion belongs to my 18 year old daughter getting her first credit card, a Discover for Students card to start building her credit. Just like her brother, we will use this card and pay off of course the full balance every month for six months before she…diversifies! 🙂 If your plan is to maximize your miles/points I recommend having kids! On a second thought…Nooooooo lol.
Enjoy each post that comes out in this site, it is a labor of love! I will never be the blogger who posts clickbait shit or who keeps doing this repeatedly, I am already feeling so dirty after so much shilling on my part today for the paltry conversion of my daughter’s one card lol!
Other referral links I can do are ChaseFreedomUnlimited, the one and only ChaseSapphirePreferred, Amex BlueBusinessPlus, Amex HiltonBusiness and others.
After dropping my CNB card…which card carries primary car rental insurance again?
And I leave you with this…
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Good morning!
Thanks for mRNA vaccine link. I’d not realized that the first ones approved might be much more expensive that the later ones. That raises all sorts of interesting questions about allocation.
Thanks!
Did you catch how in New Zealand we have more cases after more than three months without one? Looks like imported meat packages was the culprit. Now try to get our heads around that and…the damn vaccines can’t get here fast enough.
The Israel UAE deal is a very big deal. Kudos to the administration for getting one thing right at least. Let’s see what happens…
If this site does not get 10 cc conversions this month with the Southwest and United cards…it never will. Stop me from folding and let TPG win everyone 🙂
All part of Kushner’s peace plan!
That guy is a genius!
He has 5 months to complete it.
smh
Silver! For the Pacific North West! Man, those snow ghost photos are neat! Some are downright spooky!
Sorry to hear the numbers in Greece are going up.. Seems it is happening everywhere. Scary times. Not to mention the craziness here what with the USPS being choked out, etc. Glad I am a dual citizen. Been trying to get my kids to apply for their Italian citizenship but no luck yet.
Have you been able to get dual status for your kids? Might be handy someday, I am sorry to say.
Glad to see your posting! Hope all the trip was wonderful!
Trip was great…been more than a week, no symptoms. Hope I am not asymptomatic!
Yeah, dual passports are good to have these days… No dual status for my kids, don’t want to take the chance to have son go serve in the glorious Greek army one day 🙂 #mandatorymilitaryservice
Carl I can use your fencing skills. I live in Bellingham Wa. and need to replace the cyclone fence around my home. If you service this area and would like to bid on the job, please give me a call. 778.339.0555
Um, what? I don’t do any fencing of any sort. I do, however live in B’ham, as you have surmised by some manner, which does seem slightly creepy. Your phone # has a diff. area code than around here. Where do you hail from? What made you think I did fencing anyhow?
https://medium.com/@SenKamalaHarris/people-are-hurting-suspend-credit-card-interest-fees-and-penalties-aefa1947eef0
“Today, I’m calling for the suspension of credit card interest, fees, and penalties until at least four months after this crisis is over. In the midst of this crisis, no one should be profiting from these hardships. There must be moral and corporate responsibility to support consumers and prevent an economic catastrophe in the lives of American families.”
got no problem with that…but right now they all went home because…
Post Office
Someone is thinking outside the box:
“ Around 500 mail sorting machines across the US will be taken out of service, according to documents obtained by Motherboard.
This accounts for about 15 percent of all USPS letter sorting machines.”
……. and he will get away with it. Democracy is fragile if all you do is complain on Twitter.
I love the author of this blog comments on finance travel etc
I hate the political and covid commentary. Should be in a seperate blog.
Mixing a lifestyle blog with politics doesn’t work. Just make one of each!
It’s a one person blog about what that person wants to say. Don’t like it? Don’t read it.
>>>>>>>>Should be in a seperate blog.
Seriously? This goes to show that you are not really aware how much effort goes into a blog like this. And you want me to have another one, COME ON! All for a few dollars per day (on a good day) from Amazon, the lone cc sale my “daughter” takes out and a few Paypal donations per month…which translates to…embarrassing$/hours.
This is a personal blog. Always was and likely always be…actually, no idea how it evolves. I added the Covid stuff because I was very interested from the outset when most bloggers were sleeping…hopefully it helps some readers. When Biden gets elected and normalcy returns the political stuff here will stop 🙂
Mixing lifestyle with politics sure does not work for conversions. Actually, nothing really did so far but I am still here.
Look, you are not paying anything to read this. You do not have to. You commit to 10 cards per month and I am turning to pro Trump commentary #kidding.
It is what it is man…
I don’t like this comment Should be in a different blog.
George,
Cards providing Primary rental cover;
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Ink Business Cash.
Ink Business Preferred.
Ink Business Unlimited
United Explorer Card.
Please use my links, I’m going to use the $$ to bribe my way on to the TPG staff, so I can run them out of business too…
Offering Brian Kelly unlimited supply of cocain may be a more successful approach to get on that team.
Donald Trump is a moron
Obama was the worst ever, did nothing but talk and put me to sleep. Oh yes he did give us the Obama phone. His greatest accomplishment, he was born half black.
Comments you speak to yourself will be deleted, fyi.
Someone tell Greg from F.M. to stop mugging for the camera and posting it everyday. Who does he think he is Emily?I don’t think so,Greg. She was way hot!
The Donald, of course.
Hey Rams…
Take it easy, you are turning off others from commenting…
By the way, Dan originally thought Trump should be rated 3/10…now he is probably at 0/10…maybe he got 1/10 due to the UAE Israel deal.
You still remain the dude who will be kissing the dotard’s ass even if he shoots one of your close relatives in Fifth Avenue…youaretoofargoneman, SAD!
your pal
NoFakeNewsHereGeorge:}
Emily was HOT? Son, your standards are set way too low for this site; maybe move on to Mommy Points and get excited by the sunglasses wearing Summer and her forced smile.
Not sure which is more off base…
Trump best president ever
Emily is hot
I would like to dedicate the 12 cents my blog earned yesterday to my most loyal fans: Ingy and Ramsey!
I would like to dedicated the 57 cents my blog earned yesterday to Robert Trump who probably died of Covid but they won’t admit it. RIP.
As a reminder of the great job the Trump administration is doing you guys:
First case on the same date January 21 in both S. Korea and USA. Since then as of Aug 16th:
S. Korea 15,318 cases and 279 dead
USA: 5,531,065 cases and 172,619 dead
Trump idiots will say….USA is so much bigger than that Korea (by the way, it borders Chyna…just imagine how many dead it will have if it did not ban travel from Chyna…oh wait):
Populations:
USA: 331M
S. Korea: 51M
Vote Biden/Harris to stop the killing!
I would like to dedicate nada the blog earned yesterday to Former Mexico President Vincente Fox who dedicates this ad to Ramsey and all Trump brain washed fans:
https://twitter.com/CitizensFedUp/status/1205561028018397185
16 days into August and the only cc conversion is my daughter’s Discover it for Students card. I was going to post this morning but…changed my mind. Something has to give…it is time, hang in there Mile Nerd, I will be joining you soon, SAD!
Maybe I start pumping cc reviews like OMAAT next to get me to…five? Lol
By far the WORST aspect of having an independent blog…
Shut up Ingy, you still left millions on the table because you sold soooo early dude!
Sam: Everything ok?
I think the Thought Leader in Travel just ascended to clickbait Nirvana with this headline: “Video Proves Those QAnon Anti-maskers On This Site May Be Onto Something.”
Seriously?
#howlowcanhego?
Will Messi stay in Barcelona after losing 2-8?
Asking for a friend.
Just saw the highlights yesterday. The looks of the Barca players’ faces reminded me of the Brazilian players in that 7-1 infamous game in the World Cup in Brazil…wow.
Good to see some new names in Champion League…just hope Neymar does not win it to keep the streak alive 🙂
I think Messi will stay with Koeman coaching him.
I think it is time for Messi and Ronald to pass the batoon though, it was a great show while it lasted…
They are still younger than Zlatan. Messi would be a better fit at Man City with Pep. But nobody can afford Messi until next year so he’ll stay one more year. I understand that people want to be entertained, but a solid defense is essential for success (Greece 2004).
Bayern München will win CL.