Five Star no longer exists; we are now part of Sinceri

https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/sinceri-discovery-tutera-among-operators-assuming-management-of-116-five-star-communities/

"AlerisLife/Five Star was one of the largest senior living community operators in the United States.

In the 2025 ASHA 50 list of largest operators, AlerisLife was listed in eighth place, with 132 properties and a total of 19,056 units as of June 1.

AlerisLife/Five Star also appeared in sixth place on Argentum’s 2025 list of largest senior providers. That list, released in July with data current as of June 30, 2023, reported that AlerisLife/Five Star had 9,836 employees and 19,492 total units across 138 communities, including 10,123 for independent living, 7,539 for assisted living and 1,830 for memory care.

AlerisLife filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice with the state of Massachusetts on Sept. 3 [2025] indicating that 179 employees would be laid off between Nov. 3 and Dec. 31. In an updated notice filed Sept. 30, the company indicated that the layoffs would take place through March 31, 2026."

Senior Living REITs are hot.

Looking back a 2022 and Five Star/Aleris

"A news-filled 2022

News of the acquisition at the beginning of 2023 comes after a news-filled 2022 for AlerisLife:In January 2022, Five Star Senior Living announced a new name, AlerisLife, for a parent company under which the Five Star name would continue to be used for a senior living management services division and the Ageility name would continue to be used for its rehabilitation / fitness services division. AlerisLife also announced plans to expand into active adult management services and home care and concierge services.

In February 2022, AlerisLife announced that it had closed on a $95 million senior secured term loan to obtain “increased liquidity to use at our discretion and additional flexibility for the coming years as we execute on our strategic business plan,” then-President and CEO Katie Potter said at the time.
In May, AlerisLife announced that Potter had resigned and that Chief Financial Officer Jeff Leer had been appointed to succeed her on an interim basis as the company hired a consulting group to review operations.

Leer’s appointment was made permanent in June as the company announced plans to cut costs and make operational changes to try to increase occupancy. In August, Leer said that AlerisLife would reduce costs by approximately $14 million and invest approximately $4 million under recommendations made by the consulting firm it had hired, to “drive efficiencies and standardize processes that will enable us to better serve our residents and customers and stabilize our financial performance.”
In November, Leer said that continuing progress on the company’s restructuring plan had resulted in occupancy gains in the third quarter that were the largest in recent years.

Also in November, AlerisLife reported that it faced possible delisting by Nasdaq because the bid price for shares of the company’s common stock had closed at less than $1 for the past 30 consecutive business days. The company was given until May 8, 2023, to come into compliance with the minimum bid price continued listing standard.

AlerisLife was No. 6 on the 2022 American Seniors Housing Association’s ASHA 50 list of largest senior living operators, falling from No. 5 in 2021 and No. 4 in 2020. But the company moved from No. 5 in 2021 to No. 4 in 2022 on Argentum’s list of largest operators."

Trump's role in the Fauci downfall

Although I think Fauci is guilty of all they accuse him of, I also believe President Trump put him in power hoping to be the hero of a virus no one understood. Trump was right in the beginning calling it the Wuhan virus, but he appointed the man he thought would be best qualified to control it. He was wrong; his usual good instincts about people failed him and us. Fauci got rid the other advisors who would contradict him.

 
Trump was also the godfather of PPP which was to replace incomes during the shutdowns, which was ripe for fraud and even compromised churches and non-profits. Fauci was then a gift to the Democrats from Trump. Children have lost years of schooling, the elderly died alone, people lost jobs and careers for refusing unsafe "vaccines," and millions of people learned the government should take care of them.

Democrats may be dysfunctional, insane and suckers for falling for Communism, but the Republicans during a crisis were just sloppy and disorganized, terrorized by social media and the traditional media and fractured by their own internal problems.

I also think Fauci should continue to rely on the 5th Amendment. Let that remind us that the "Democratic Socialists" aka Communists, want to dump the Constitution.

Growth in senior living communities real estate--demographics and demad

"By 2035, the U.S. population aged 80+ is projected to grow by 56%, adding nearly 8 million seniors, reshaping long-term housing needs. In the first quarter of 2026, construction on new senior living units fell to its lowest level since 2012, and year-over-year inventory growth hit a record low of 0.4% in the first quarter, down from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025. 2026 first-quarter senior living occupancy increased to 89.5% — up from 89.1% in the fourth quarter — with independent living occupancy higher than 91% and assisted living reaching 87.9%. A rapidly expanding cohort of higher-income seniors is driving demand for premium living environments featuring autonomy, wellness and lifestyle amenities, especially within continuum-of-care campuses." . . 

"Our communities are located in high-growth markets where 75+ populations are expanding rapidly and household incomes exceed national medians, supporting both demand affordability. Our team specializes in the operational and financial intricacies of senior living, partnering directly with operators to enhance care delivery, optimize NOI and elevated resident experience. We collaborate with established regional providers who bring deep clinical expertise, strong reputations and a proven ability to tailor services to local market needs. We actively benchmark performance, oversee capital planning, evaluate repositioning or disposition opportunities and maintain a rigorous focus on financial outcomes."

RMR Senior Living | Communities for Long-Term Demand

Alternative asset management companies are investment firms that focus on non-traditional assets outside of conventional stocks, bonds, and cash. Their goal is to generate returns that are often less correlated with traditional markets, providing investors with diversification benefits and access to unique investment opportunities.  These firms typically work with institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals, and family offices, designing customized portfolios that align with clients’ risk tolerance and financial objectives CGAA.

What is an alternative asset manager and how do they work?

Trump's days at war against Obama's years

I keep hearing people (Democrats) complain about the number of days of Trump's war, but nothing about Obama's years--eight--a record for any President, seven wars or maybe more. Large-scale, sustained ground wars, or broader military operations including air campaigns, drone strikes, and special operations.

Afghanistan War (including later counterterrorism campaigns)

Iraq War (including 2014–2017 campaign against ISIS)
Libya intervention (2011 NATO-led bombing campaign)
Syrian Civil War (U.S. support for rebels, later direct strikes)
Counterterrorism operations in multiple countries (Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, etc.)
Some tallies also include Yemen and Somalia as separate military engagements

https://www.warcosts.org/presidents/obama
Obama has a lot to say about everything but his foreign policy | Responsible Statecraft

Craft day at The Estates

I'm not very crafty, but today we made greeting cards with buttons and scraps of yarn and cloth. Mine is the yellow with heels and the green one with a basketball, So, if you have a birthday or a good day you might hear from me.

Trafficking and slavery and Kafala

Before Trump makes deals with Saudi Arabia, he needs some deals to free foreign domestics in that country who are enslaved by their kafala system. Particularly Kenyan and Filipino women. There are many more slaves today than in the 18th century Atlantic slave trade and yet some Americans seem more concerned about racial sneers and DEI than true slavery. It was Arab Muslims enslaving Africans and Asians in the 17th and 18th century and it still is.

  Saudi Arabia: Migrant domestic workers face severe exploitation, racism and exclusion from labour protections - Amnesty International

https://www.respicio.ph/commentaries/ofw-abuse-in-saudi-arabia?

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/what-kafala-system?

Global: Filipino domestic workers exploited and subjected to sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia - Amnesty International

Obama's key campaign promise to end the war

When I hear members of Congress grilling members of Trump's war advisory group it makes me wonder if they remember that Obama continued a war he promised to end for eight years. Getting out of the war in Iraq was his key campaign promise, and yet he gave them the ability to create the monster that Trump is trying to slay.

From L.A. Times: "U.S. military forces have been at war for all eight years of Obama’s tenure, the first two-term president with that distinction. He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

Yet the U.S. faces more threats in more places than at any time since the Cold War, according to U.S. intelligence. For the first time in decades, there is at least the potential of an armed clash with America’s largest adversaries, Russia and China.

"Obama slashed the number of U.S. troops in war zones from 150,000 to 14,000, and stopped the flow of American soldiers coming home in body bags. He also used diplomacy, not war, to defuse a tense nuclear standoff with Iran.

But he vastly expanded the role of elite commando units and the use of new technology, including armed drones and cyber weapons."

https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/?

Obama’s Tarnished Legacy in the Middle East – The Cairo Review of Global Affairs

President Obama and the Middle East: a Mixed Legacy : IEMed

Needs or wants in the affordability argument

"When young people struggle to buy a home and start a family, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a loosening attachment to heteronormativity." The American Conservative, June 2023 article about wokeness. 

Just because both the right and the left constantly preach this same affordability myth doesn't make it fact.

I did what the mythmakers should have done. I looked up housing prices and inflation. We bought our first home in 1962 for $14,000 at 6% interest. To call it a fixer upper would be a joke. A gravel driveway, no garage, and a dirt floor basement on a street zoned for business in a racially mixed neighborhood. Based on inflation figures, that would buy a house for $155,500 today. And I found several by checking the real estate ads. In that county one can find a slightly run down 3 bedroom, 1 bath ranch in need of a strong 24 year old with a wife and baby, very little money and some home repair skills learned in high school. I'll leave out the part where he hired a young ex-con as part time help who left after one day.

Along with inflation since 1962 there have been a number of generous government programs to add to a low wage job which makes that home very affordable (and btw virtually no adult works at federal or state minimum--realistically entry at McDonald's is about $16/hour with benefits). What today's young homebuyer would have to give up today would be the same things we didn't have--college loan payments, eating out, travel, nice clothes, multiple tech toys, phones, TVs, and leisure activities.

It's not that a house today isn't affordable. It's the lifestyle, and that's something we choose. Get out of New York City or DC or Seattle or LA and there are plenty of places to live and jobs with opportunity. 325,000,000 of us manage to live outside those money pits (Co-pilot figured it out for me).

Soccer. World Cup.

Trump made it happen; the nay sayers have to eat their words. And even I watched yesterday--although I didn't have a favorite and I really didn't understand much. At lunch today our table of 5 ignored politics (some were Democrats) and had a lively conversation on how much FIFA and the World Cup has contributed to not just the sports world but to the U.S. (to say nothing of the economy of the localities).

We also talked about how expensive it is to raise up a little one to play soccer. One couple has a granddaughter entering the teen years and decisions have to be made NOW and it will be very expensive. Another at the table has a granddaughter who is a soccer coach on the side at $50/hour so her players can qualify just for the middle school level.

I wonder why politicians aren't factoring in costs of private lessons and travel to games into the "affordability" school/family costs conversation. All I hear about are houses.

FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force – The White House

The Lakota language

 Today on Facebook I saw something about a Lakota prayer. I'd seen that before, so I asked an AI assistant whether it was the British or French  who developed a writing system (alphabet, grammar, etc.) for that native American language group.  This brilliant assistant said--neither, "it was developed by missionaries,"  Duh! And what was their language? Oh well. I reworded my question several times and finally left out language and used evangelized and got Jesuits, Franciscans, Baptists, Methodists and later the Lutherans. Since Lakota was upper midwest and Canada and several language groups, I'll just have to let you do the research.