A Sinking Story

 So this is a little history story....which was pretty solid on facts, until recently, and now....maybe the facts aren't facts.

There was this ship built at a German shipyard in 1980....as a ferry.  The original name was Viking Salley.  For ten years, it remained with the original company, then went through several different operations/names.  Things like this occur all the time.  

In 1993, it was renamed 'Estonia', and was a regular ferry between Estonia and Stockholm, Sweden.

On 28 September 1994, it left port in Estonia around 6:30 PM.  Around six hours would pass, and then it'd starting sinking....real fast.  Out of 989 people onboard....852 did not survive.  A lot of the deaths were simply because of the temperature in the waters, and the rapid sinking.  

An investigation was held (by Swedish authorities).  The blame? It goes to two chief factors....the load onboard (trucks and cars) was not evenly balanced, and the entry door on the vessel was not completely closed....allowing water in. 

Then the Swedes did something interesting....they declared it a vessel to not be explored or reviewed.  Then they arranged a contract with a company to dump rocks over the vessel.  

Yeah, it is a bit odd.  This might be occasionally done in harbors or lakes, but not in the middle of the sea. 

The contracted company?  They went and did the rock dumping and then kinda said it was insufficient. Whoever did the estimate for the government....drastically under-estimated the amount of rocks required.   The company said this to Sweden, but no one wanted to fund a second or third dumping of rocks....so this whole thing just wrapped up.  It's not covered.  

Now, there is this one curious thing that was said by a diver who arrived on the scene around the day or two after the episode.  He said, without any doubt....there's this 4-meter hole on the side of the vessel.  He doesn't say if it's bent inward or outward....just that there is a hole where it should not be.

So in the past couple of months (2020, roughly 25 years after the event), an Estonia film crew went down.  They've got video.  There is this four-meter hole there. 

In the past week, the Estonian PM met with the Swedish and Finnish PM.  The Swedes say the ship discussion didn't come up.  The Estonian and Finns say absolutely nothing.

The question here is....is this hole inward, or outward? 

If it's outward, then an explosion took place on the Estonia of a major  type.  

If it's inward, then a torpedo of some type hit the Estonia.

Who would want to sink the vessel?  Unknown.  

The problem I have with the original story of the door on the vessel not closed....some crew-members would have noticed this an hour into the trip, with water flowing in.  No emergency is called for six hours.  So I'm kinda disbelieving the door being open story.

If the Swedes knew of the hole, and they basically wrote a whole fake report over the sinking....pretending the open door explanation is the end-all solution?  Well....I'd have to bring in the entire government (party in charge) at the time, and basically fire each single guy.

But it all begs questions.....why blowing up the ship or hitting it with a torpedo?  

Just something to make you wonder.

Added note:  I chatted with a Brit who is familiar with the region, and his suggest is that a fishing trawler hit the ferry in the darkness, and simply moved on in the night (remember, this was after midnight).  It's an interesting scenario, but trawler would have suffered damage and had to pull into some port later....to explain the damage done.  

Sarge as a Garbage Guy in NY City?

 Because of manpower cuts in NY City (remember, everything is marginally functioning, so tax revenue isn't there)....the city has cut back on garbage collection.

So yesterday, the Governor (Cuomo) said that he's open to the idea of bringing in NY state National Guardsmen....to collect garbage.

I sat and pondered over this.

Having spent 22 years in the Air Force, and known a number of Guardsmen over the years, I'd generally say that 10-percent might go along with this order, but the rest would be like....if you got money to pay us as Guardsmen to collect garbage....you ought to have money to pay real garbagemen to do the work.

But here's the honest truth....the normal average salary for a NY City garbage guy is $59k a year.  If you count in over-time?  Some might admit that they clear around $5k to $8k a year on extra over-time.  

Your average Army E4?  $30.6k a year.  Your average Army E2? $22.6k a year. 

So the reality is that by dumping the 22-year old 'kid' onto this job....you are saving $29k. 

Putting Sarge in as the driver and having 'Private Snuffy' and 'Private Marvin' as his crew?  You just saved in the range of $100k on salary requirements for one truck.

Managing Sarge, with his two privates?  If you figure ten trucks....there's probably one Guard Captain.  Course, in his case....he was probably a manager of some concrete plant....making $100k a year, and this is a huge disappointment being forced to work three or four months as some Guardsman, and taking a huge pay-cut.  Course, I'd say the same for Sarge and his two privates as well.

But here's the potential comedy brewing.  Out of a thousand real garbage guys laid off...you have to figure that at least ten of them probably were National Guardsmen and this order to potentially report for duty....to do your garbage job for 30-percent less pay....is going to frustrate you to a massive extent.

Could this whole thing turn into a major mess....with Guardsmen doing the job not just for three months, but maybe for an entire year?  That's the scenario that I'd worry about.  And frankly, Sarge....Snuffy and Marvin....ought to be standing there and asking for some bonus deal in the mix.  

What ought to happen here....some TV production company should pick out a Sarge/Snuffy/Marvin crew and just accompany them in a Seinfeld-type way, and run a regular series on Guardsmen as garbage guys.  It might be fairly entertaining. 

The 'Extended Eye' Thing

 Besides big-government bans for Covid-19, there are city bans as well, and today....it came out that a pub by itself....made up a ban rule.

This occurred in London, at a regular pub.  'Extended eye contact' is forbidden by the operators of this pub.

I sat and reviewed the term.    

Generally, at least on the handful of occasions that I've sipped ale in England at a authentic pub....along about 10 PM....folks had a fair amount of ale, and full eye contact was more or less the situation going on.  I wouldn't say we were all drunk at the stand or table....but we had enough to focus entirely upon the guy telling the story, or the episode of 'woe' that he was endearing.

So you sit and ponder upon this....how will you ensure you aren't conducting full-up 5000-percent eye contact?

What if this were a London damsel....with a weird dragon tattoo on her neck, and telling some great Shakespearian story over love-found and love-lost?  Could you cut the extended eye contact and just stare at the wall while listening to her?  Could you pretend she didn't exist?  

What if this damsel had a big long tattoo running up her leg and you were gazing for an extended time at the leg?  Would that be enough to get you in trouble with the barkeeper?  

Would there be some 'bouncer' at the bar....gazing around the room, looking for you rough guys who are conducting 'extended eye contact'?  Would he come over and give you a one-time warning?  Would he tap you on the back of the head and tell you to wise-up and cease the eye contact, or leave the pub?

All of this....because of Covid-19?  

How I Would Resolve The Tax Mess

Since the NY Times wants to talk about taxes.....why not talk tax reform?

1.  Dump the 80k page federal tax code.  Reform it to no more than forty pages.  A 7th-grader should be able to read it and comprehend it.

2.  Yearly tax code pieces added by Congressmen and Senators to be published every December, with the name of the Senator or House member.  

3.  All personal federal tax rates will be set to one of four formulas: (A) you make less than $25k a year and pay 2-percent federal tax. (B) you make between $25k and $50k, and pay a 5-percent.  (C) you make $50k to $100k, and pay 8-percent.  (D) everyone with over $100k, you pay 11-percent.

4.  You shrink the government to the size of the budget.

5. You limit each Congressman and Senator to only 8 staff members, and the travel budget should be reduced down to less than $10k per year.  

6.  All businesses pay a tax unless you can prove you ran at a loss.  Those making less than $250k a year, pay 5-percent.  Those making between $250k and $999k would pay 9-percent.  And those making over one-million would pay 11-percent.

7.  The only credits for people?  If you lived in a disaster area, or suffered from some drought-like situation, you'd get a credit.  Otherwise, we dump all these credits entirely.

8.  Every Congressman/Senator would have to publish their full tax return on a yearly basis.  Failure to publish it?  You get a one-month suspension from the job, and the Governor is allowed to send a temp up while you settle up your personal mess. If it hasn't cleared by the 2nd month, give the temp the job for the next six months.

9.  State taxes would be limited to a max of 3-percent of your total income.  If a state can't make it with that budget, the governor will be given 12 months to produce a new budget or be suspended from his job.

10.  The yearly tax form should be developed and simple enough....that a 7th-grade drop-out should be able to fill it out.  

Real Hype Versus Fake Hype

 With all this hype by the NY Times on Trump debt....I just sat there looking at the landscape.

According to factual data....$1.6-trillion is now owed on college debt in America.  The average is around $37k for each college-debt holder.  Some folks will grin and remarkably admit....they owe near $90k at age 22, and their degree in animal husbandry won't ever gain them more than $40k a year in earned income.

How about debt on credit cards?  I worked with a ex-Marine who had near $80k in credit card debt.  Her end-result?  She ended up doing two years of Iraqi-contractor duty to erase that down to zero.  

How about the idiots who buy a $300k house, with only a $25k down-payment?

What about the couple who goes out to buy a $17k speed-boat, and $180 monthly for the next five years....to pay off the boat?

What about the idiot guy who buys a $140k RV and two-thirds of this is financed as a long-term loan?

While stationed at Bitburg Air Base, I worked around a young airman who financed a brand new Ford Mustang, and for a two-year period, 60-percent of his take-home pay was going to the car loan.

While stationed in Tucson, AZ....I worked in a unit that a young lady went to the bank and financed a $30k wedding 'experience', and was saddled with this debt on day one of couple-status....not telling the guy until three months later.

The problem here with the NY Times trying to get people hyped-up on Trump's debt....they have missed the bigger picture of the entire nation.  

Trump and Taxes

 If you owned a motel (say 60 rooms) and successfully ran it....you might have an profit situation of $100k a year (meaning you and wife managed it, and hired cheap help for maintenance and room-care).  Then you go and hire up a fancy-pants accountant.

He would go to the depreciation tables, renovation projects (that you had bills for), and go to every 'credit' possible.  Normally, you would figure the guy would pay around 30-percent of his income for federal taxes, and probably 6 to 8 percent on state taxes (depending on the state).

Well....with everything figured up.....you might be able to pay less than $10k a year on federal taxes, and probably near half that amount on state taxes (depending on the state).  

(Don't get excited....the property tax bill will come, and that's probably in the $5k range for your local town)

Who writes the 80k pages of tax code and depreciation tables?  Well.....your Senators and House members.  Who writes the likely 4k pages of state tax code and depreciation tables?  Well....state Senators and state House members.

Farmers do it.  Shrimp fishermen do it.  Ranchers do it.  Grocery operations do it.  Nightclubs do it.  Casinos do it.  

Trump doing something wrong?  No.  His accountant read the tax code, and put Trump in the best position possible.  

If Nancy and Chuck are angry?  Well....why not talk about tax-reform?  

I'm pretty sure they will avoid that topic, and once you start making a big mess out of this....over 100k big-name folks (some Hollywood types) will present their tax paperwork, and be in the same situation.  

My take on the Trump accountant?  He's probably paid at least a million a year....to make sure no audit can occur on Trump's paperwork.  

Meanwhile....all that Ukraine and Russian-whore money that Hunter made.....did he declare it on his taxes?  Just curious.  

The Dead Guy in the Trunk Story

 One curious aspect of the Breonna Taylor episode in Kentucky stands out.

In 2016, Taylor went out and rented a car.  No one ever asks why, and maybe that part of the story doesn't really matter.  As a EMT at the time, she had income and a credit card.  

Somewhere in the days of this rental....the car trunk ends up with a dead body in the back. 

The body?  It's a 'friend' or 'associate' (depending on who tells the story) of her then old-boyfriend, who was a dope-dealer. 

Curiously, the guy is shot eight times.

Typically....if it was an accidental discharge....there's usually just one round in a guy.  Eight rounds?  There was some anger or upset feelings involved.

So the police of the town come around and ask questions of Taylor (she is on the rental contract).  She more or less....knows nothing.  She had to know the dead guy, because of the relationship to the then-boyfriend.  She had to even be on a first-name basis with the dead guy.  

At this point, in a normal family situation.....relatives should have come into the picture and said in a clear voice....dead bodies in a rental car under your name...are a sign of seriously bad path for life. The same relatives would have told you to pack up a bag, and get you moved to some other state....away from these circumstances.

The police are left with no real evidence....no one admitting anything, and just write the dead guy with eight bullet entries as unsolvable. 

By the grace of God, you were given a blank check, and logic would dictate walking away completely.  She did nothing.

She stayed on the same path. 

Hunter's $3.5-Million 'Friend'

The news folks have kinda avoided talking about the $3.5-million transfer from Elena Baturina to Hunter Biden.  Yesterday, I sat for an hour browsing over Baturina.

If you had to pick someone in Moscow, who is most like Donald Trump....it's this gal....Elena Baturina.

She grew up in a regular family (working-class people).  She went off to college in Russia and studied business.  A year after she finished college....she met up to Yury Luzhkov. Yury was around twenty-five years older than Elena, and he was groomed to eventually become mayor of Moscow.  Around four years after meeting....the two married.

Yury was the insider guy who knew what properties were coming up, and how deals could be made.  Elena was the business mind who knew the deals and how to turn a profit. 

Eventually, Yury would be accused of corruption and take a step or two down.  

Elena?  She continued on....building hotels that made profits.  She was very much in the 'build' of Donald Trump.

Golfing?  Yes, she even took up this hobby.

Fortune today?  She's worth (at least in 2019) around 1-billion dollars.....mostly in ownership of real estate.  Four years ago, she arrived in NY City with capital and started to buy real estate there. Internationally, she owns developmental property in various countries outside of Russia.

Today, she's 57 years old and regarded as the most wealthy woman in Russia.....and a widow (the husband died a year ago).

The $3.5-million to Hunter?  Pennies to her.  It's simply a 'marker'.....if she had a serious problem....with President Biden around, Hunter would go and ask for the favor.  

Playing 3-D chess like Trump?  Absolutely.  If you were looking for a replacement for Putin....outside of his group, with public attention and Trump-like chatter?  She's the one.  

How she came across Hunter?  Unknown.  Did she donate money to the Clinton Foundation?  It would be a curious question to ask.  

It just makes for an interesting story, and wondering her eventual angle on the chess board.

Debate: 4 Days Away?

 How will this Biden-Trump debate go?

I'll make four predictions.

First, I'll predict at least fifteen Biden quotations which open toward the answer....flip to some cowboy western/WW II movie that he saw last week, and drift back to the core ending of what he wanted to say.  The CNN crowd will be standing there at the end....unable to really convince you of anything.  'Dementia' will be uttered by more than 70-percent of the viewers.  

Second, Trump tells Chris Wallace on at least five occasions that he's got his facts wrong, and Trump is correct on three of those occasions.  

Third, more than 97-percent of viewers are settled upon their voting decision at this conclusion of the first debate.

Fourth, the question will linger....how did Joe get this far, with his wit half-gone?  Shouldn't the primary have shown this and his family removed him from the process months ago?

Riot/Loot Burnout?

 Around a hundred days ago, I would have told you that you can only attract a certain amount of positive public attention with rioting, looting and mob-behavior, and then it starts to fall back into negative territory.  At best, you had four to six weeks that the trend might have been in your favor.

Somewhere in July, the trend headed south.

Presently, the Antifa/BLM business isn't attracting voters....it's repelling them.  It's true in western states.  It's true in urbanized areas like Detroit, Minneapolis, and Portland.  

The Democratic Party and it's attachment to the stance?  I don't think they thought much about running this type of operation for a hundred-plus days.  They simply figured that Trump would react....use massive federal resources (maybe even the US military) and this 'Kent-State' type of event would occur.  Then Trump's hype with the general public would go away.  

Well....it didn't happen.

Lot of people just standing there now and having no attachment to the riots....just watching the violent angle of it, and appreciating that they still have police in their neighborhoods.  

Wasted time and resources?  More or less.  You can ask them if they will ever repeat this gimmick, and they probably will just stay silent on that subject. 

An Alabama Advertisement

 I sat and pondered over the announcement from California...starting in 2035....you would not be able to buy new gas/diesel cars in the state.  It was a long pause, and then I came to this idea for a advertisement....probably to be done by Mayor Battle of Huntsville, or perhaps soon-to-be Senator 'Tubby'. 

It would open with a guy on a mule, and talking up the virtues of mule-riding and a Alabama-bred mule.  You'd talk about the 'power', the bridle....the saddle....and the walking pace of a mule. 

Then you hype up that this is a Alabama Mule, and starting in 2035, Alabama will be proud and ready to sell the Alabama-brand Mule (version 1.0, probably three years old) to California folks.  

Naturally, we'd indicate that he/she was not involved in any pollution stuff, or carbon business.  

Then we'd bring up that he/she was fully trained, and usually capable of 4.8 mph, or the lesser/more gentle pace of 3.2 mph.

Then we'd have clean and non-modern names for our mules....'Honest-Hank', 'Slow-Sam', or 'Buttermilk'.  

These Mules would be delivered to the state border of California, and you could pick them up at the station and ride the final 500 miles home to your house in Malibu.

For those wanting a two-mule deal....we'd offer a 10-percent off discount for the second mule. 

Then finally, we'd hand you a certificate that this was an American-bred Mule....having nothing to do with China.

With that, Governor Ivey would come on the last ten seconds, shedding a tear or two....that we do all we could help those poor California folks out, in this hour of need....hauling mule after mule across the US....to those poor people there in San Francisco or LA....giving them some element of transportation.  Yes, even from Alabama, we have compassion for idiots.  

Observations

 1.  A couple of days until the first Presidential debate.  I'm shocked we've reached this stage and Joe Biden hasn't declared a health situation and handed the position to Harris to run.  I just don't the Joe of 2020....is capable of a debate.

2.  Maybe it's crazy, but I think you lined up 20,000 of the Antifa members and actually checked voter listings....probably over 30-percent are not registered to vote.

3.  Vote for replacement justice?  Just the way it looks....McConnell has locked down 50-plus votes.  This whole election, is now about the Justice seat, and literally nothing else.   

If it is the Cuban gal, and the Democrats go off to insult her?  They destroyed the Florida vote for the party....maybe for an entire generation.  

4.  My own feeling over Mueller?  Various people have talked about the Mueller they knew from a decade ago, and shocked over his loss of aggressiveness in the past two years.  Age-wise, I think he hit some peak back around 2012 and has been in decline for the past eight years.  Calling him up for some Senate hearing at this point....will only prove that point and that he's way beyond his capabilities of the past.

5. Someone asked the question....what if Joe Biden wins the election but refuses to enter the Presidency in January?  I know....a sarcastic comment about his wit.  But its a legit question at this point.

6.  This talk in California of forbidding the sale of gas/diesel new cars in 2035?  Well...I'm kinda curious if you'd include school buses in this group, and if they will all be electrical buses.  

Can you imagine getting picked up around 6:55 AM with the electric school bus, and around 7:45....still 3 miles from the school....the bus simply runs out of power, and you have to walk the last three miles to school?

7.  On Antifa, isn't it odd....they actually have logos, uniforms (all black), symbols, and flags?

8.  Someone brought this up about the Baltimore Freddie Gray riots in 2015.....did you know that three of the six cops involved in his death....were black?  Also, the mayor and most members of the city council....were black?  Also, the judge involved in the police case was black?  The police chief?  Yep, he was black.  The DA?  Yes, black.  The President and AG at the time?  Black.

9.  This one odd fact in the Breonna Taylor episode in Kentucky?  While folks still keep chatting she was shot in bed....the fact is obvious that she was shot in the hallway of the apartment.  The bed commentary?  Completely faked.

10.  Bloomberg in trouble in Florida for offering to pay felon's fines....to enable them to vote this November?  

Well....yeah, the AG of the state is surveying this matter, and there's a state law that prevents this type of payment situation....involving vote situations.  I'm pretty sure Bloomberg won't go to jail, but he might end up with a couple hundred thousand in fines, and be dragged into court to admit some stupidity.  

If Black Voters Show Up For Trump

 The ten states with the highest black population and the likely plus-up (figure 30-to-35 percent) for Trump?

1.  DC (50-percent)

2. Mississippi (37-percent)

3. Louisiana (32-percent)

4. Georgia (31-percent)

5. Maryland (30-percent)

6. South Carolina (28-percent)

7. Alabama (26-percent)

8. North Carolina (21-percent)

9. Delaware (21-percent)

10. Virginia (20-percent)

In these ten cases, if the black voting holds up....I'd forecast all ten going to Trump. For Maryland and Delaware, it'll be a shocker.

The Poop Rule

 I noticed this today....the MTA (the subway authority of NY City) finally came out and said that if you poop or crap or pee within the system (on the trains, subways or the stairways).....it's officially a bad thing, and you could be charged.

Mind you....up until this point, they'd never had a rule like this.

Think about that for a minute.  The subway has been around for over 100 years, and never had to make a rule like that before.  

Bring Back Roller Derby

 I have this idea for a sports function to put on opposite of NFL football....since we've all gotten to a point of hating it.

Bring back roller derby.

My suggestion would be....take the old dimensions......25 ft across and 60 ft long, in a oval shape.....double that somewhat....60 ft across and 150 ft long.

I'd add one-rope (ten-foot long) as a part of the derby.  I'd add a mini-bike with 10-Hp to sling-shot folks on the first two rounds around the derby. I'd add rubber matting for the derby gals/guys.  And I'd mandatory nicknames for all players (Wicked-Wanda, Fancy-Dancy, Hocus-Pocus, Cowboy Bob) 

In a matter of weeks, I think my style of roller derby would take off and consume a third of the NFL audience members.    

270 Isn't An Absolute Thing

 Is the 270 Electoral Vote number really the magic number, and is the 538 total Electoral College number a magic number?

Well....no.

Lets say you run an election, and two states (just random select Michigan (16 EC votes) and NY state (29 EC votes) screw up and can't confirm or certify their votes by 14 December.

Together, that amounts to 45 votes which officially don't exist.  If they don't exist, the total magic number is no longer 538....it's 493, and the winning number is now....246.5 (really 247).....instead of 270.

At this point, you might ask the silly question....just how many states might screw this entirely up?  Well....there's no way to forecast this.  It might be zero....one, or perhaps even a dozen states.  

Having three Trump-win states from 2016 fail?  Under this scenario, it brings it awful close to a Biden-win scenario.  

Having the Supreme Court get into the middle of this and order states or their Governors to comply or sign-off?  In the case of Michigan, I think their Governor would just say 'no' and refuse to comply.  Could the Supreme Court get into the middle of this to correct it?  More than likely....but you start to drag up questions over how this ever got so screwed up, and who ordered what to occur.

In some ways, you'd be inviting all of 2021 to be a huge discussion over election failure, and assign blame to individuals.

A method that the court might just say....Electoral College results be totally thrown out because of the reckless behavior, and just run the back-up method.  Well....that would go and trigger a massive anger by pro-Biden folks as being unfair.  

Could the court go and suggest the 14 December Electoral College end-point be thrown out and conducted on 3 January instead (just a random day)?  They probably could say they have this power.....although most would question it.

Wondering how this would play out after the election?  Speaker Pelosi, by 14 December, would be calling for a massive hearing, and attempting this before early January.  After early January, if the Republicans win in bulk, their new House Speaker would restart the entire process, and go into an entirely different direction. 

The FBI in the middle of this?  With no doubt.  

All of this leading to a massive f**ked-up situation where millions of Americans feel the system is built in a manner worse than what they have in Bolivia?  Probably so.  Some would even admit that things ran better in 1912's election than it did in 2020.  

The Second Race

 So you pick up the likely schedule of the Justice selection process, and look over the landscape.

The name announcement ought to occur by next Friday, and my humble guess is that McConnell will write down 12 October (Monday, three weeks prior to the election) to start this hearing business.  

This means that the debates (Joe and Donald)....will be looking less and less important. 15 and 22 October are the 2nd and 3rd debates.  I should note as well....the 15th will be held in Miami (if the Cuban gal is selected....this debate in Florida will center entirely on her abilities and Joe will be walking into a serious mess if he insults her in Florida).

Added to this....various Senators ought to be back in their home-states....fighting to be re-elected, and now?  They will have to split their time, and openly discuss their feelings in DC.  

The end-vote in the Senate?  I would humbly suggest that it'd happen around the last Thursday/Friday of October, before the election.

Odds of the person passing?  Fifty-fifty.  Three Republican Senators (Mitt is in this group) have said they won't support this selection until January.  The pressure on the Alabama Senator (Senator Jones, Democrat)?  It's enormous and would probably cancel-out all of his efforts against 'Tubby'.  There's probably four additional Senate races which will go fairly negative for Democratic Senators.

If they fail?  All of the drama in November and December, with a 8-member court....will be laid back on the three Republicans and their approach to chaos.

So here's the landscape....it ought to be an election about Biden versus Trump, and Trump has inserted an entirely different discussion....which will eat up tons of TV journalist time.  Thanks to RBG's frustration over controlling her replacement....she actually invented another angle to lessening Joe Biden's odds in the election.  

Timing and RBG

 In the Ruth Bader Ginsburg business....timing is everything, or nothing.

You go back to 2013/2014....approaching 80, and she already had health-related issues.  

President Obama had a majority Senate in his favor.  She could have easily drawn the curtain, said enough, and retired.  She didn't.

In November of 2014....everything in the Senate flipped.  Republicans controlled a clear majority. 

So come January of 2015, President Obama didn't have the slant in his favor on picks.  If she wanted a person of her legal views....it probably wasn't going to pass via the Senate....so she waited....figuring Hillary Clinton would win, and have some 'extra' control over the selection process. 

Well....November 2016 rolls around, and Hillary's 'boat' sailed in the opposite direction.  

For four years, and through marginalized health, RBG waited.  Her hopes?  To make it to January of 2021, and President Biden fixing this mess.

What'll happen now?  Among the possible names on the list....there's this conservative Cuban-American female judge from Florida.  It wouldn't surprise me if she was the name, and it'd turn into serious poison if the Democratic Senators slammed her in any fashion.  

As for RBG's wish to get the 'right' person?  She had that chance in 2013.  She could have retired and written books.....while President Obama would have selected his choice.  

Could You End Up With VP Harris Under President Trump?

 Well.....there is this one odd scenario.

On December 14th, the Electoral College will meet up and cast votes.  Lets say for the sake of the scenario....that around four states are not able to certify their votes and send the Electors to do their jobs.  In this scenario....Trump fails to get 270 EC votes.

So the EC is finished, and we then proceed onto the first week of January, with the new House and Senate members arriving.

Lets also say for the sake of the discussion that the four state did complete their certification on 15 December....enraging a lot of Trump-voters because all four were Trump-wins.

In the secondary instructions....the House selects the President, and the Senate selects the VP.

The House must vote....state-by-state.

The Senators votes....individually.

So if you had 49 Republican Senators, and 51 Democratic Senators....this would lead to a Harris-win situation.

If there were 50/50?  As long as we haven't crossed the middle of the month, Pence is still the VP, and would be able to vote for himself.  

The odds of a 51-edge for Harris?  I'd give it a less-than-10-percent chance at this point.

However, it would be amusing for four years, to have VP Harris around, as Trump's forced-upon VP, and daily battles where Trump refuses access to Harris. 

Joe's 100-Billion Promise

 I sat and watched the Joe Biden 'townhall' from yesterday.  In the midst of this....he got onto some tirade about Covid-19 and schools, saying he wanted to spend 100-billion dollars on adequate ventilation for schools.

I sat and paused over the comment.

Being from Alabama (1970s era), ventilation (or the lack of ventilation) is a familiar topic.

Ventilating usually meant that you had a rotating fan that seemed to have the pitch or hum of a diesel dump truck.  

Ventilating usually meant that around nine AM, with the healthy diet of bacon/sausage or eggs....a gaseous 'fume' would be pushed around the entire room, and the teacher sat in agony. 

Ventilating usually meant that you pushed 95-degree air around the room....to every corner.

How would this Covid-ventilator work?  A 100-billion involved?  Some engineer is probably at work....building a fairly fake ventilator and filter system, and swearing that it'll remove 98-percent of the Covid virus from the air, but failing to mention that the filter has to be changed daily, and it cost $29 for each single filter (made in China of course). 

For some reason, I just don't see this promise going anywhere.

Seven Hours to Nowhere

 I tried to make sense out of this story.

Qantas, the Australian airline, will fly a passenger plane (Boeing 787) for a seven-hour flight....taking off and landing at the same airport.

Yes, a flight to nowhere.

What they are saying about this flight....it'll fly over the Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales.  You are basically leaving Sydney, flying northward over the eastern section of the country.....coming to the north central region, and then doubling back.

That's it.

What do they mean by low-level?  That's not entirely explained.  Normally, the plane would be at 38k feet.  I might go and interpret this to mean a 5k foot flight.

Number allowed onboard?  ONLY 150 seats.  Cost?  $850 (US) for the economy seats and $1930 for the better seats....while maxing out at $4088 for the business class.

How long did it take to sell the tickets?  Ten minutes.  They were gone.

My humble guess is that they could have offer a dozen flights, one after another....150 on each plane, and still sold all the seats in less three hours.  

Why?  You are getting a totally different prospective from 5k feet.  If you were interested in the landscape....it's brings a totally different picture up.  

Now, I will admit....there's no way that I'd pay $850 for such a seat.  But with this....you probably get an outstanding meal, with drinks included free of charge.

The odds that this might catch on in other places?  Australia is different, and you can say with some confidence, there just aren't that many planes flying around in this north-center region region.  If you could forecast limited traffic in Canada or southern Africa....this might sell well there. 

The most nifty thing about this flight?  No bag drag, and no chance of your bags getting lost.  

Ten Things I'm Pretty Certain About

1.  If some idiot did eventually get access to Donald Trump's tax records for the previous three decades....they'd eventually to say that the guy now only averages $40-million a year on profits (over the whole past decade).  His BIG years?  All from the 1990s era.

The ultra-rich angle?  It won't be there.  This story of the 2.5-billion 'value'?  It's basically assessing hotels and casinos at a certain rate, which might not be totally true.  

Does this bother anyone that Trump might only 'marginally' be a billionaire by a dollar or two?  No.  

2.  The NBA will only survive as an organization if the TV contract business continues on 'as is'.  Once the current contract ends, and the talk starts on the new deal....it won't match the current numbers, and the players will stand there in shock with profits set at 50-percent of the current numbers.

A doomed path?  The super-players with ultra-contracts are finished and need to start talking retirement..

3.  Fox News will lose about 25-percent of their viewing audience over the next year to lesser-known right-of-center news organizations.

4.  At least one state will not be able to complete the vote count and sign their process as 'wrapped-up' by the time that the Electoral College occurs.

5.  NY City officials by the end of January 2021, will agree that around one million NY residents are 'gone' and likely NOT to come back.  

6.  Nashville will begin by summer of 2021, discussing a crisis with around 150k new residents within 25 miles of the city.  Traffic, congestion, drug sales, and stress will be hyped up.

7.  Covid-19 will be detailed out as a 'virus' that escaped a Chinese lab, because of a cleaning worker's mistake.  

8.  A poll will be taken in early 2021, to reveal that 19-percent of Americans have no idea who Hillary Clinton's husband is. 

9.  The November election will not be decided until the House meets in January, and votes state by state to finalize the pick.  

10.  Around 30-percent of California residents will admit by next summer that they'd really like to leave the state, but don't have the money to reach that goal.

The Trouble With Long-Winded Questions

 At some point in the 1990s, I watched some forum show, with the moderator and a couple of 'experts' on the stage.

Question-time opened up and one audience member wanted to ask a question.  This turned into a very long 'I-believe-this' chat....going for almost 90 seconds.  Then he turned to flip a question into this.....demanding that what he said was 'factual' and your answer had to fit into the question.  The question though?  Well....it went on for probably 60 seconds.  

The 'expert' looked at the guy and in 10 seconds....said the summary was invalid (like a professor would do) and the answer can't be derived from the data presented.  'Next question' was the end of the 'expert's' moment.

You could tell the audience member was all peeved and upset, but he'd consumed all that time....for virtually nothing.

In an average month now (2020)....I probably watch five hours of public forums like that, with five to ten of these 'whale-farts' (my term for the chatting and unanswerable questions) from the five hours.

If you had a 'point'.....you need to get to it in sixty seconds.  If you have a question....it needs to be structured as a question and not demanding it meet your preconceived notion of the answer.  

I sat and watched this morning some fake town-hall piece where President Trump tried to answer questions from the public....with these all structured as a two-minute comment, and answers from Trump had to fit the notion of the citizen.  It became a joke very quickly.  

The true problem of this.....after you've seen enough of these as the audience member....you lose patience and understanding in the crowd trying to reshape your opinion.  They aren't helping the situation....they are hurting it. 

Joe's Trip

 Joe Biden left the basement yesterday in Delaware....flew for a couple of hours to reach Florida to deliver a speech to Latinos-for-Joe.

So, here's the thing....if you go and ask reporters about the number of Latinos there....there were roughly twenty of them.  

Yes, just around twenty. 

But here's the other thing about this trip.....the speech was 18 minutes long.  

You go back to Jimmy Carter campaigning, or Al Gore campaigning, or Barak Obama campaigning....this would have been 50 to 60 minutes long....as a minimum.

Here in this final 45-day pace.....you can't make trips like this for twenty people, and when that plane lands....you need a minimum of forty-five minutes of chatter.  This one trip...was a total waste.

It begs the question....is there any real enthusiasm going on, or are we looking at forty states carrying Trump in November?

Ten Things Likely to Occur in This Election

 1.  Joe Biden at some point in the days leading up to the election, will admit that he voted for Donald Trump in 2016. 

2.  Baron Trump (son of Donald) will write down a private note on election day....that he intends to run in 2048 as President.  

3.  At least eight states are unable to conclude 'finalizing' their election situation and casting their Electoral College vote.  News journalists will be unable to explain the situation and how the system worked for 200-plus years (in the horseback and pencil era), and fell apart with mail-in-voting.

4.  More than sixty percent of the public on the day after the election....are polled to say that they think there is something 'wrong' with Joe Biden.

5.  Someone high up in the DNC will admit that getting Antifa and BLM into this election....destroyed all chances of winning for Joe Biden's campaign.

6. Donald Trump suggests (after winning) that Joe should rebuild his camp, and run again in 2024.  Joe says he agrees, and starts to assemble the Joe Biden-2024 campaign team.  

7.  After appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast show.....around 600,000 college students admit they might be wrong about Donald Trump, and aim their votes for him in the election.  It's four hours to get 2-percent of Joe Biden's votes.  

8. Most everyone will agree that mail-in-voting is the most f**ked up process imagined and it'll never be trusted ever again.

9.  Curfews will become 'normal'.  Various cities will use hefty fees to exit the jail-house....to pay for their empty tax revenue bucket.  

10.  The minute this election ends....the election for 2024 'fever' immediately begins.

Observations

 1.  Wokeball (what used to be pro NFL football) got dismal ratings over the past week, and any hope that the season could be attracting the normal fans?  That's ended.

Note, Wokeball can be applied to baseball and NBA action as well.  Same rules.  

2.  All this rioting and looting business....it's basically become a modern times 'Jackass-Show', where people watch it for thrills or entertainment. 

3.  They had a 'Latinos for Biden' car demonstration rigged up for Vegas earlier in the week.  Someone showed up right around the time that the 'parade' was supposed to start.  Total number of cars?  Eleven.  It might have helped if the Biden people had shown up with forty rental cars, and forty fake-actors driving the cars to participate.

4.  It kinda got noticed yesterday.....as Ohio mails out the mail-in-vote ballots.....that there is no return postage envelope included.  Basically, you (the voter) will pay for the return of the ballot.  Similar to a poll-tax (basically illegal for over sixty years)?  Yes.  An effect upon the welfare class?  No doubt.

5.  Another post office worker shot (2nd in a week)?  Yes, in Virginia.  All this will do is trigger postal workers to start carrying a firearm.

Ending the Looting and Craziness

 This is my list of five things that ought to go into effect after the election:

1.  A 30-day curfew period in cities with trouble.  After 9 PM, no activity on the streets unless you are driving to work, going to a hospital or returning home.  Violation?  You get arrested/detained and held until you pay a $999 'fee'.  For each 24 hours you lay in the jail....another $40.  No excuses.

2.  Any laser device on you, or in the car, in curfew city?  $1k fine on the first occasion, double that to $2k on the second or more occasions.

3.  Any protester arrested for physical violence outside of his state?  A five-year ban on any airline travel.

4. Any physical violence conducted while in a riot, against a policeman or fireman?  One year of jail-activity mandatory, and no ability by the judge or prosecutor to downsize the punishment.

5. Start hate-crime activity against anyone with obvious issues.

NY Decline

Forbes put out an interesting article in the fall of 2019, and chatted over the decline of New York state over the past nine years....saying 1-million left.  This was before the Covid-19 and crisis period started. 

Since early 2020?  Between March and late May, the best numbers say in the Manhattan area alone....500k residents up and left.  If you could count the entire state, and the period since late May?  I would take a guess that another 500k residents have left the city/state. 

Before Covid-19 arrived, there was already a consensus among people that the tax situation was becoming a handicap.  Since Covid-19?  Well....social options have dwindled (plays, musicals), and restaurants/bars have basically shutdown.  Crime went in....particularly violent crime.  All of this made people ask the question....is there anything to stay for?  General answer?  No.

Here's the real crisis landscape to look upon....the city only existed because of wealthy people being based there and spending capital like crazy.  They had people who were willing to pay $500 a month on crazy tickets to Broadway shows.  They had people who had lifestyles that revolved around $10k being spent monthly on fashion, trends, and fake fine wine.  They had people who would easily spend $100k on a A-list party....with shrimp flown in and guests wearing $3k Italian shoes. 

It was a Disneyland for adults.....of an extremely different variety.  Now?  I would call it a 2-star Disneyland, with crime evolving on a daily basis.  

Did the Civil War Basically End in 1865?

For about 300-odd reasons, yes.....the war ended on 9 April 1865.  For most folks, depending how rural you were living....you probably didn't know about it for another week or so. 

For about the next five years, the former Confederate states go through a 'rehab' period, and things are kinda laid out as 'recovered'.

In the spring of 1898, I would consider all issues resolved because of the unified US engaging on the US-Spanish War....briefly lasting four months.  At that point, southerners returned with parades, and medals....as part of the national campaign.

The first 'true' southern President?  Wilson.

Participation in WW I?  Another element of the unification.

So why all the flag-waving of the Confederate flag....long gone for almost 155 years?  I would suggest that around one-third of the general population sees the conclusion of the war in a different aspect. 

Some can point toward members of their family having been in the war.  Some can point toward destruction of their local town.  Some simply want a piece of something that lasted less than five years. 

Covid Making Us Crazy?

So in front-page news today.....some doctors are reporting that 'some' of their patients....are suggesting things that relate to neurological symptoms.  The list?

Basically headaches, confusion and delirium.  

Being cut off from regular oxygen flow?  Well....it's being suggested to some degree.

So this leads me to an odd question....did Joe Biden get Covid-19 back in the early part of this year, and it's currently leading him to this state of confusion?  

If any of this was true....could you even allow the bulk of citizens in America to vote....if they were suffering from confusion (delivered via Covid-19)?

This confusion triggering BLM protests and rioting?  The Antifa folks being influenced by confusion and delirium.....triggered by Covid-19?

Are the nightly news journalists affected by the confusion?  Is your wife competent enough to make evening dinner?  Is the teacher for your kid affected by the Covid-19 confusion business, and actually giving them all of the test questions ahead of time?  Did that lustful wink by the clerk at Piggy Wiggly clerk come because of state of confusion on her part?  Did the minister launch into a Sunday church tirade on Gatorade being the beverage brewed by the devil himself....mostly because of Covid-19 delirium?

Is Nancy Pelosi affected enough by her delirium....that she'd walk into a hair saloon in SF....having her hair done in a illegal fashion?

All of this leading to a Stephen King-type thriller....half the nation affected by Covid-19 and being crazy?

Observations

1.  It came up Friday in Florida.....Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, came to Opalocka USPS facility....saying she wanted to investigate reports from postal employees on serious amounts of undelivered mail at the facility.

Well....the fact about it.....there is 100-percent undelivered mail there, because it's in transit.  Virtually everything is undelivered, on a 365 day schedule. 

So this didn't make sense.

2. Are there any true polling data to come out of election day?

No.  Based on the mail-vote.....normal data-collection people will find virtually nothing of value to collect.  You won't know how many Blacks voted for Trump, how many lesbians voted for Joe, or how many newly registered people came into the situation.  

Planning something for 2024 out of this mess?  Zero....nothing.

3.  Luluemon (the women's work-out clothing company) is building anti-capitalism courses (called 'resist capitalism').

Perhaps you haven't heard of them....but they tend to sell $20 fitness outfits for $50 (my description of the sales organization).  So it's a bit odd.....they are rather dependent on you being pro-capitalistic and spending a fair amount of cash on their products.

This would be like the 'Burger-shack' having vegetarian seminars, to get you over to non-meat products.  

4.  After Trump announced his list of people for Supreme Court seats (he is really assuming 'hard' that three or four empty seats will occur over the next four years)....you'd think that Joe Biden would announce his list.

5.  Portland police yesterday arrested and charged-up Bryan Michael Kelley.  His problem?  Accusation of using a laser to injure the eyes of the police a month ago.  Felony assault (Class B), plus felony unlawful use of a weapon.  If convicted?  Could be up over ten years.  My guess is that these guys kept thinking lasers weren't a real weapon and they'd fake-out the police.

6.  What is 'mental-snowblindness'?

Basically, you've hit a thousand times with fake journalism, and you've reached a point where you are practically blind, and anything (even a sudden book appearing on a anti-Trump agenda)....will just get pushed to the side.  These events only add to your determination to avoid the news and limit your trust in journalism.

7.  Eighteen companies recently signed a pledge to bring on one black American to their board of directors over the next year.

Naturally, you'd ask....why can't they also bring on one Latino member as well?

8.  L A Times says.....housing costs for the homeless went up to $531,000 PER UNIT.  

You'd sit there and think over this for a minute....with almost zero possibility of the massive homeless population ever being able to recover and produce tax revenue for the 'base'.....how would this work in the end?

You'd be better off to go out into the desert of southern California, and erect tens of thousands of quonset huts, for 5k per person.  

Joe in the Garden

I looked at this photo taken yesterday of Joe....meeting up with four supporters in Pennsylvania, and had three observations:

1.  If all three are wearing masks, there's no reason to be six-feet apart. 

2.  If this was mid-day, it'd be awful hot to be wearing the mask.

3.  Finally, whoever has this yard.....has a good bit of dead grass and needs to resod this badly.

I should note, for the record, that the glass table in the middle of this didn't make any sense, unless guests were going to set their tea or whisky sour cocktail on it.

Rules for Porch Conduct

In Alabama....we generally have an abundance of porch visitors.  Some might be relatives (kin-folk)....some might be neighbors....and some might be work associates. 

For those who've never lived in the state or rather new.....a list of general rules to follow:

1.  A porch is designed for entertaining, discussing, and "joshing" with folks.....not for heated arguments (which might be seen by a dozen neighbors and label your porch as unfriendly).

2. Generally....clothing and attire shall be in good taste and not within the vision of slutty, improper, or flirty. If some gal shows up in a tube-top that's two sizes too small....you ought to go ahead and let her know of issues before she gets settled into her chair.

3.  Topics of discussion should generally be unlimited although you should not discuss Republican downfalls with a Republican, Baptists failures with a hardcore Baptist, or Islamic criticism with a Mullah.

4.  Discussions on dead folks should be limited to folks who you don't personally know (like Marilyn Monroe or Hitler) or your dead neighbor who you will discuss in a somewhat positive light.

5.  Discussions on neighbors.....shouldn't include anything about their personal lusty affairs. I know that you have seen some gal driving around the back of his house and sneaking in the back door of the house.....but it just ain't right to share that information.

6.  Conversations on cars will be limited to performance or reliability. It is not smart to bring up repair procedures unless you have the actual car up on the porch to show your associate the proper method of repair.

7.  You should always offers a clean and sanitary toilet within 30 feet of the front door, with extra toilet paper, some proper smelling sprays, and fresh towels for washing up. Soap ought to be either a bar or liquid form....but nothing outlandish or funny smelling.

8.  Never invite a ex-wife or ex-wife's family onto the front porch.....nothing good of that can come.

9.  It's best to never invite or allow more than three hardcore political folks tn the porch....unless your intention is to get them drunk to admit various affairs or such.

10.  Porch furniture needs to be quality made and of strong material. It is advised to never buy any porch furniture from Wal-Mart. Cushions are advised. Chairs with arms are typically preferred over those wicker chairs. Its acceptable to have a living room couch on the front porch but your neighbors may frown on this.....and your dog might be upset with folks sitting on his favorite spot.

11. Drinking is generally accepted on the front porch. However, it needs to be monitored, and you should worry about some Baptist minister stopping by and asking what's in the cup. Also, never serve alcohol to Baptists, unless its on the back porch away from view. In temperatures above 90....always offer ice tea with ice cubes. Coffee is an acceptable beverage on the porch but not that instant stuff. And if you can brew espresso...be sure to have the proper cups.

12.  Don't talk or discuss cult stuff with Baptists. It'll bother them for weeks to come.

13.  Rocking chairs are a fine item to have on a porch, but ensure they are well maintained and don't fall apart when your heavy-weight aunt shows up and starts rocking.

14.  Generally, it's best to never dig or place a septic tank within 60 feet of the front porch.

15.  Discussions on the front porch after dark usually require some lighting device. A 60-watt bulb or candles would be suggested. Don't use a coal-oil lamp or a 200-watt bulb.

16.  Heated discussions should be avoided but if you get drawn into one....always angle the talk away to some episode of Gunsmoke you recently saw, some perfume you tested at Walgreens, or your neighbor's fancy new hubcaps. 

17.  On days when the temperature is above 90 degrees...always offer up crushed ice or ice cream to the visiting folks. Avoid coffee or hot tea. A overhead fan would be a fine thing to keep a wind posed upon your visitors.

18.  It's advisable to have some peanuts, mints, or M&M's on the porch as a relief item for some folks.

19.  Never allow guests during a NCAA football game.

20.  You ought not wear strong perfume or manly smells around old folks who visit. They generally don't like those overwhelming smells like Brut.

21.  If for some odd reason, you did have a Mullah come visiting....don't bring up Jesus, Baptists, religion, freedom of speech, women's right, freedom of minds, anti-Iran matters, 9-11, problems with Saudi religious police, or Ossama's passing. It would be strongly suggested to chat as much as possible on the chances of the Braves winning this year or if Ford is really as crappy as folks think.

22.  Don't get into heated discussions with folks who recently underway a religious conversion. They aren't likely of a clear and focused mind.

23.  Its best not to discuss chain-saw accidents, propane gas tank explosions, or dog attacks in mixed company (meaning with ladies present). 

24.  Sadly....some folks come to your front porch for some awful important advice, and expect absolutely nothing less than a miracle. You might want to realize this, and consider your words wisely. You need to admit early on....you aren't Socrates, Gandhi, Ann Landers, or Doctor Phil. Sometimes, you just need to end the conversation with: "Get a life".

25.  A man never dumps his girlfriend at the front porch. It leaves a bad karma for years to come. Neighbors will come over for weeks....wanting to discuss what went wrong. The likely truth is that you met some gal from Facebook who lives in Memphis, and you just don't want everyone knowing of your new love interest. The truth is....we have some high expectations and ethics over front porches.

From Seven Years ago

Around March of 2013, I wrote this essay over a news item involving the Huffington Post and a project they were working on.  Off and on.....I've had curiosity where this led because they never seemed to go out and write over the objectives of the topic.....people who'd apparently had lusty sex with aliens....not the Mexican kind....I mean regular UFO aliens.

They were asking for folks who had experiences in detail and could be very specific about the episodes. 

I would imagine after the first hundred letters....the Huff folks began to realize that this was all creative writing folks, or paranoid schizophrenic types.  There's probably a pallet box in the basement of the Huff-complex, with 7,000 letters in it, and a note for anyone finding the box.....'have at it'.

On any given day in Alabama, there's probably twelve folks walking around and talking up some experience from last week or last month.....where they were abducted by aliens and had some form of lusty stuff.

Generally....drugs of some type figure into this. 

Most folks will hype up a bit, and ask stupid questions....what'd she look like or did she have a funny tangerine smell?  Was she wearing a space-suit?  Did she have devilish eyes, or have that bad smell that you sense from the Veterinarian office? 

The truth is....most of us live pretty normal and dull lives, and just having a crazy story told like that....we'd like for it to be true.  Maybe the Huff folks felt that way too. 

The 'Kids' Story

I sat and read this story here in the AM....more 'young' adults live at home with Mom and Dad....since the Depression era of the 1930s. 

According to the Pew folks....52 of folks (ages 18 to 29)...are living with some parent (it's up in the 26-million range).  Covid part of the blame?  Pew says in the past eight months.....it's up by 2.6-million.

So you sit and think about this.

Last month, I read a rant by a older woman (probably in her late 50s).  Both son and daughter had resettled in this Covid era back into the old family house with her.  One had a worthless degree and seemed to be mostly unemployed.  The other had a job which shut down because of Covid-19 and the only option to survive was Mom's 'grace' 

Mom had problems with both 'kids' (they seemed to be between 25 and 35 years old).  She was beginning to question how long she could cope with the two, and if this was going to be a year or more of transition time.  I didn't want to say anything to the lady but in my humble opinion....I didn't see Covid going away in 2020 or 2021.  So the 'kids' were likely going to still be there in 2022.  I didn't think Mom would survive to that point.

The key problem here...is that this is not the 1930s in terms of mentality, and people generate a powerful amount of stress that has to be resolved on a daily basis, or you end up with conditions that result in verbal or physical fights.

If Covid were to linger around for five years?  If the 'kids' are still there in 2024?  Well....this would probably trigger more problems in life, and result in 'adult-children' being dumped on the street.  If they couldn't handle it in Dad or Mom's house....how would they handle it on some street corner....living out of a tent? 

Stars and Stripes Turned Back On?

Based on comments by President Trump yesterday....yes.  'For the good men and women of the military'.....was the quote.

The comical side of this....the newspaper simply isn't something that most military people based outside the US procure anymore.  To make it functional....they need roughly $150-million to cover expenses. 

The idiot Senators who got all bent out of shape and put pressure on to maintain the newspaper?  They haven't any prospective of military people from the past twenty-five years.  They are still living and thinking in terms of the 1990s.

Observations

1. This supposed comment that the magazine 'Atlantic' published on Trump?

Well....try to imagine this.  Two years ago....on a visit to France, Trump said some really stupid 'crap' that four guys individually heard, and were taken back in a negative way, but NONE of the four told John Bolton (the chief guy who really hated Trump)? 

And for two years, they kept their mouth shut.....only spilling the story in the past three weeks to some journalists with the magazine? 

Then the magazine publishes this story with no one stating the story....only saying that anonymous sources said it? 

If you went to a real college program and wrote a thesis for some professor, and the bulk of your citations were anonymous?  The professor would fail you.  So I'm not buying into this story.  Even Bolton doesn't buy into it.

2.  If Joe Biden wins.....does Antifa just go away on day one, and you don't see or hear them again?  Really?

3.  Is the Kosovo and Serbia economic treaty a big deal?

If you ever go and cross the border into Kosovo (I did last year), you get the feeling that you crossed over from Texas into Mexico, and just about everywhere you look....things marginally work. 

The EU resolving this or the problems in Serbia?  So far, nothing much.

So this Trump deal is a fairly big deal in this region.  The amusing thing....if Obama had done something like this....it would have been front-page news and openly discussed for three or four days in a row.  These news dimwits?  Nothing.  You could even hand them a European map and ask where Kosovo is located....no idea.

4.  The NBA in 2021? 

I think the owners are going to huddle after this current mess is finalized in the Championship Series, and decide to cancel out next season entirely, using Covid-19 as the excuse.  They need players to be extremely desperate on finances, and willing to shut up about social garbage.  The NFL will follow their lead. 

Mascot of 2020

It's a conspiracy of some type, but you just can't be sure where it leads onto.

Chatting Covid-19 and Deaths in the US

Just something to pause over.  At age 55....you kinda need to think about things, your health, etc.  At age 75, you need to worry. 

Grenell Speaks

“People aren’t listening to you anymore. It’s really a crisis in journalism.”

-- Richard Grenell, to journalists yesterday

After a series of childish questions by younger journalists in the room, Grenell finally said his piece.  Most Americans over the age of fifty have reached his level of thinking and agree.....there's too much juvenile lecturing going on, and no one trusts the news media any longer.

We are becoming the 'mute-generation' where we don't have to listen to stupidity any longer. 

Stars and Stripes

At the end of September....the US military paper....Stars and Stripes will come to an end.  The Pentagon finally ranked and prioritized things....realizing that the hundred-million cost wasn't worth it.

Some observations:

I was first introduced to Stars and Stripes in early 1978 upon arriving at Rhein Main Air Base, Germany.  At that point, it was 15 cents. 

If you wanted the US and world news, it was encapsulated into a 30-page newspaper, and the only one that you could pick up daily on base. 

The top five positives?

1.  Tons of travel advice.

2.  Letters to the editor.  Complaints about the BX dimwits, or poor planning at Army housing offices, or sloppy attire by Army housewives would always bring reality to your life.

3.  The Fred and Frank cartoon.  It was the adventures of two imaginary Army guys as they discovered all kinds of German realities.

4.  Murders and crime stories. 

5.  A brief 15-minute read gave you all the things that you really needed in life.

The negatives?

It became painfully obvious in the mid-1980s that the newspaper tightly controlled what you were told and in some cases....you were better off reading German Bild for the news that they refused to discuss. 

Somewhere between 2000 and 2005, it was obvious that people were using the internet, and avoiding buying daily copies of Stars and Stripes.  If you asked around....probably only one in twenty people read a daily copy of the newspaper.

Since returning in 2013 to Europe....I've probably picked up a total of six copies of the newspaper.  In general, they lean more to the left in terms of what news items they cover (or leave out).  The letters to the editor?  Those have been marginally left there, but you kinda notice....almost no one writes in anymore.

This effort by Senators and House members to retain the newspaper?  It basically shows how out of touch they are.  They are still living mentally in the 1990s era and think that nothing much has changed.

Once we entered the internet era....paper newspapers were not going to survive.

Note: My favorite Stars and Stripes story, which they told in great fashion.  An Army guy had a serious drinking episode to occur on his way home, and he needed some 'excuse' to tell the German wife.  He said he'd been briefly kidnapped by Red Army Faction terrorists.  She believed him, and called the German cops.  Over the course of 2 days, he holds to this story, and begins to figure out that they are getting more and more skeptical of the story (as are the Army MPs).  He finally admits it was all made-up.  But for a brief 48-hour period, Stars and Stripes carried it as a front-page item.....warning folks that Red Army folks are everywhere.  Then we were left to wonder if the German wife divorced the guy. 

Fact-Checker Chatter

I read through a piece this morning that explained how the fact-checking to the Biden-Trump debates would go (in theory).

As Joe talks, there would be a text line down at the bottom of the screen.  Same for Donald.

Now, some folks (older folks)....have the general text turned on anyway....meaning as Joe talks....his commentary is appearing at the bottom of the screen.

So you sit and imagine this.....bunch of text rapidly running across, and underneath that....another whole roll of text also rapidly running across.  Can anyone even read that fast?  I just don't think a mortal human can do it. 

Then you toss in Joe's commentary.....taking eight topics in a 3-minute period...WW II, Cowboy movies, what he did as VP in 2012, a great ice cream he had last Thursday, the economy, ticks on dogs, a quote from Elvis, and how to solve world-hunger.  Can a fact-checker even comprehend all of this and encapsulate this to run under Joe's commentary?

Most folks will be looking at the Joe fact-checker text and be so confused.....that they won't be able to focus on Donald or his fact-checker.  They will still be asking ten minutes later....what WW II or ticks on dogs had to do with the economy.

All of this....will confuse people enough....that they will turn off the 2nd and 3rd debate entirely.   Some idiot will even ask the CNN guy what tick-powder that Joe advocates for dogs. 

Lusty Story

Canada's top doctor got onto the topic of virus-protection and having sex.  Basically, she said that when you meet up with 'Wanda', and get real frisky....you should be wearing a mask as you meet, and when the encounter starts and progresses....you should still be wearing a mask.

I sat there for a while...contemplating this scene in Alabama.

You'd have Karl meeting up with some trailer-trash gal that he's been dating....nothing serious, just a beer, chat over poison ivy, garage sale purchases, and Hee Haw jokes.  Both wearing a mask, and as things progress to the hot and lusty stage....they continue to wear masks.  Then all heck breaks loose, while still wearing masks, and 22 seconds later, it's over.  Both having lost passion of the moment, and they depart.....without much occurring.

I just can't see mask-sex going to too far.  Course, if your gal had bad teeth...maybe it's an improvement.  Those meth-gals are that way....you know.

The question probably should be asked of this Canadian doctor.....have done masked-up sex before?  My guess is no.

I don't see this going too far. 

Observations

1.  Was Nancy Pelosi 'set-up' on the hair saloon situation?

Well...if so, then she is probably one of the biggest dimwits walking on the face of the Earth.  Course, she could have had this hair job done in the DC area, and no one would have said a word.  The sad thing is that she'll return to DC, and everyone is going to complement her on her hair (even Trump).

2.  Why does Joe Biden keep uttering KKK/Klansman/White Supremacists chatter?

A minimum of once a week, Joe utters Supremacists or KKK stuff.  The problem here....for about 90-percent of the public, they haven't personally met a Supremacist or KKK guy in their life.  In some areas....like Miami, it's a higher chance of meeting a Cuban-spy than a white Supremacist.

3. Rush Limbaugh asked this week: "How did the Russians convince Biden to act like he's losing mental acuity?"

Yes, it is a Russian strategy to flip the Presidency over to Biden, by getting Joe to pretend that he's got dementia or just plain crazy.  The belief is....Americans love crazy folks, and Joe's got the attention of people now.

Some folks will sit and admit they spend hours trying to figure out what Joe said in a five-minute speech, where 32 different topics were laid out, but none connecting.  Yes, all Russian-planned.

4.  Upon visiting Kenosha, did Joe say that if he went into details about his plans and policy....someone would shoot him?

Well....yeah, he did say that.  It probably didn't go well as a joke, but that's Joe's humor at work.  Yeah....seriously.

5.  Are all of these riots simply dosing people up to vote for Trump?

Look, 99-percent of the country lives in safe rural regions, small towns or quiet urbanized regions.  We are simply viewing the riots as entertainment.  We'll go over to the neighbors....sip up a beer, and the commentary will be 'man, I'm thankful I don't live in NY City or Kenosha'.

Along the way, we then comment that it's obvious that Democrats run these towns, and something must be seriously wrong....for all this destruction.  Then we turn the TV off, go to sleep, and get up in the morning to put in eight full hours of work (something that the riot-kids are not capable of doing).

6.  In 1964, a poll was taken and 78-percent of Americans trusted the government.  Two decades passed, and the poll occurred again....45-percent said that they had trust.  2016?  The poll was taken and the trust level is at 10-percent. What happened?

Each decade that passes, you get more and more news outlets.  Each wants to expose the government and 'save' you in some way.  But as each story passes, you have less belief or trust.

Even if the government came up and admitted today that they had a alien spaceship and three alien-dudes they'd captured.....would you really trust the government in this case, or the story?

7.  Lets get this straight....the guy in Portland who shot the Trump-guy dead a couple of days ago....is finally located and cops come to detain/arrest him.  The guy, gets into a conflict with the police, and the police shoot the guy?

Yep.  The odds of massive riots coming over the next week in Portland?  Here's the chief problem....once the police arrive and announce themselves....this guy immediately went to a weapon.  That type of mentality doesn't ever end well.

8.  Did Joe Biden truly say that he became a professor after he left the White House in 2017?

Yes.  Although you can't find any university vouching that they had him on the payroll.  It does seem like he came to give a 'talk' or two, but beyond that....no, he wasn't a professor.

9.  If you write a 500-word news article for the NY Times, and the whole thing is based entirely off anonymous sources....just how far do you the reader go and trust or verify the story?

Well....a decade ago, you would have looked the other way and said maybe they had something.  Today?  You basically start laughing once you notice that no true source was documented and it's entirely anonymous.

10.  Finally, the American Psychological Association said that they intend to pledge to start abolishing the "disease" of capitalism.

Basically, if you were into capitalism....by their definition....you need rehab.  I'd suggest a month living under a bridge, eating canned soup, and drinking only ultra-cheap beer (PBR).  At this point, I would suggest the APA folks probably have some kind of capitalistic phobia, and they might need rehab as  well. 

The Medicated Society

Last night I spent a fair amount of time reading over statistics.

Roughly twenty-six million Americans (around 9-percent of the population) use illegal drugs (meth, crack, weed, etc).

Roughly one out of every six Americans use some legal mood-changing drugs or antidepressants.  The doctors say it's fine....it passed all the tests, and you can have them. 

If you figure up the two groups, you can assume that in a normal day of bumping into one-hundred people....at least thirty of them have medication in their system, or they've doped up in the past couple of days. 

It's a high number, if you think about it.

The real problem though...is that you tend to only think of this group as adults.  So if you were to look around the local school with 500 kids between the ages of ten and eighteen....would it bother you if sixty of them are on some type of antidepressant or mood-changing drug?  If you were a teacher and came to realize in this group of twenty-two students in your room....there two kids contemplating suicide because of the antidepressants, and at least one kid who wanted to terminate some 'mortal-enemy' in the class for stealing their pencil.....would it bother you?

If you were the school bus driver, and had forty-two kids to pick up or deliver home, and eight of those kids were potentially on the borderline of harming themselves or other kids....would it bother you?

It is a heavily medicated society...something that you didn't really have to face in the 1930s or the 1960s. 

So this brings me to this observation.....where exactly will this lead onto? 

The Problem With a Fact-Checker in a Debate

So you build up this drama of a 90-minute debate.  Figure in the 16 minutes that the moderators will take up, and divide the remaining 74 minutes among two folks....equaling roughly 37 minutes each.

First, there would have to be two fact-checkers...something that Joe Biden and the press will not agree upon.  I'm pretty sure that Joe and the press will say one single fact-checker will be enough.

Second, as the individual goes into the commentary....it'll be at least two minutes before he says something that might be semi-true or mostly false.  How do you work this as a fact-check, with the guy ending his commentary in less than sixty additional seconds?

Third, will the fact-checker be correct?  Will we need a fact-checker to the fact-checker?

Fourth and final.....what if the commentary of the fact-checker is totally wrong? 

For some reason, I don't see this lasting long.  The networks running this on their own?  Maybe, but it'll create more skeptical views of the whole mess.

Antifa-PTSD

During Desert Storm, I was lucky enough to be on a maneuvering shift situation....you'd pull three 12-hour night shifts, then get a few extra hours of sleep and then pull three 12-hour day shifts. 

After just four weeks of this, most folks would agree that night-shifts were a killer, and messed up your sleep-schedule enough that you were marginally getting five hours of decent sleep per day.  Fortunately for the situation...the war lasted 42 days. 

Down the road from our building....another unit stood, with just two guys doing, the same thing that we were doing.  There was no rotating shift, and both of them had been doing the shift thing at least a full month before the war even started. 

I went over to visit this building the day after the war ended, and here was 'Airman Jim', and you'd best describe his condition as half-zombie, and half-dazed.  They'd sent him back to the tent and he slept a full twenty-four hours, but it hadn't helped him at all.

I asked 'Airman Jim'....what happens once he returned to Myrtle Beach, and he responded....he had five months left in the Air Force and was getting out.  He was burned out to the maximum, and probably showing three or four signs of PTSD. 

So I turn now and gaze at the Antifa crowd in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, etc.  Some have been on 'duty' since April.  They 'work' from early evening....to probably 4 AM.....getting picked-up and taken to some hotel.  With the weed and pills, they probably don't fall asleep until 9 AM and barely get five to six hours of sleep daily.....then repeat this day in and day out.

The coffee....the high-energy drinks?  All help to keep them focused at the early part of the shift.  A few stimulant pills fall into play, which keeps them focused.

Day in, day out....the routine continues.  You start to argue more.  You put up with more risks.  You wake up around 6 PM today, and count up a total of 20 hours of sleep over the past seven days. 

All of this is leading to PTSD symptoms....for people who are between 18 and 30 years old.

Can they continue on through November....even into the spring of 2021?  I have my doubts.  Breakdowns will start to occur.  Drug usage will slip to more extreme drugs, and at the one-year point....even your Antifa 'Captains' will question your reliability. 

Go figure around the holiday season that the news people start chatting about this, and the type of therapy required for recovery.

Fixing a Problem

It's a three-page story, with basically seven lines of facts that matter.  The District of Columbia mayor went out weeks ago and appointed a committee to survey the statues and memorials in DC.  They came back this week and recommended that the Washington and Jefferson memorials be “removed, relocated, or contextualized”.

On top of that....a list of another dozen-odd characters were put on the 'bad-boy' list (to include that nasty Alexander Graham Bell). 

I looked over the commentary, and then asked myself....what exactly is contextualized?  It sounds like some type of minor operation where you'd have something on your body removed.

Well....it basically means you add a great deal of text or counter-statements....to explain the entire situation.  You aren't exactly fixing anything.....you simply are presenting another argument. 

Fact-checking?  Well....yeah, it's basically official fact-checking by someone.

The chief problem?  Once you go and contextualize something....the next day, another guy arrives, and he wants to contextualize your contextualization.  That means he wants to explain how your comments were wrong or stupid.

A day passes, and a third guy arrives, who wants to contextualize the counter-contextualize statement going after the original contextualization.  Does it ever end?  No.  That's the amusing part of this discussion.

How to resolve this?  It's pretty simple. 

Various studies have been done with the geographic and cultural situation of Washington DC, and it's time to draw the map of official buildings in the District 'quarter', and return approximately 80-percent of DC....back to Maryland. 

Yes, it would relieve the burden upon the mayor, and the district population....they'd finally find relief.

The official district area left?  You'd go and appoint a federal governor (two-year term), allowing the President to select the individual (yes, it could be a Naval admiral or Army General). 

Creating a problem for Maryland?  Presently, Baltimore is the 'heart' of the state and is where all problems exist.  If you floated the DC suburbs back into Maryland, that would now out-rank Baltimore, and create an immediate discussion over public safety.  They'd have plenty to keep themselves busy upon.

Trump could easily flip this into a quick deal....suggesting that he'd sign the paperwork to start the land transfer, and various states could pass legislation to allow the movement to occur.  Let's be honest, we already did this with Alexandria and Arlington (being transferred back to Virginia). 

How You Facebook-Post, Could Get You Killed

Things like this typically don't happen in Alabama, but social media has arrived and gotten folks hyped up.

So in a public housing development down in Birmingham....these two ladies got into a discussion over a Facebook comment that one wrote.

No one says what the comment was, the derogatory nature, or if it was fake news related.  Maybe one gal said something over the lusty nature of the other gal or accused her of being a Trump-supporter.

The confrontation then occurred.

A call comes to the local police.  Local gal shot in the parking lot of her complex.  31 years old.

The call includes a brief bit on this argument going on.

The aggressor gal has a guy in the middle of this....whose name is....Corterius Kizzard.

It's a unique name, and I would suspect that he had some trouble in high school with nicknames.

What the police say....Corterius shot the first woman in the arms (two rounds).

His charges?  Minimum of two.  First-degree assault in the mix....minimum of two years in prison....on up to 20 years.

The sad thing here....Corterius gets sentenced and sent off to some state prison, and on day one.....the fellows there ask what was his crime.  He'll respond that some gal insulted his woman via a Facebook comment....maybe over her weight, or her attire, and he shot the gal for disrespect.

The fellows there will stand there for a while, and finally burst out laughing.  You'd be doing five years in some prison for Facebook chatter and shooting over that?  What kind of idiot are you?

At that point, Corterius will realize his stupidity, and swear off social media for the rest of his life.  The sad thing here.....his gal probably won't come and visit him in prison.