Word Dictators?

Over the past week, up at the University of Michigan....folks in the IT Department sat there and made up a list of words and phrases that can't readily be used in company of others (meaning you could utter the chat terms with ghosts, imaginary people or border collies).

In this 'hint-paper'....they listed some words and said you needed to other ways of conveying the meaning.  I sat there for a while and thought over this process.

Basically, they want you to invent new terms of words, and once they reach some level of wokeness....then you gotta stop that and invent other terms.

'Brown-bag' got on the list.  You could utter work-bag, or a 'paper  bag of color' instead.

'Picnic' got on the list.  I imagine you could say grassy-dinner, or Earth-dinner instead.  

Who made up this list?  Well...the university had a group which devoted time to this....the Words Matter Task Force.  They seem to be a under-study group from the university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. 

How much time did they spend on this?  Unknown.  Maybe forty hours of thinking time with each person....maybe six minutes.

After a while of pondering upon this....I reached a stage of asking myself...isn't there more productive things that we could ask of college-level folks (I am one of those myself....twice over)?  

Then it occurred to me....if you were of the college-crowd, but marginally educated...this might be all you can really do.  In that, I'm suggesting that they may hold a certificate as an electrical engineer, but the most they can do is read a wattage chart and tell you how much a 110-watt bulb burns in one hour.  Beyond that, their knowledge is non-existent.  

I worked with a guy, who bluffed his way through a interview for a contractor job.  He had a degree that related to computer science.  He was in his mid-30s, and was hired to provide IT support to our group.  After about three weeks of effort, I came to realize most of what he knew....amounted to a dozen 3x5 inch cards.  Sadly, I probably knew a hundred times more related info on IT stuff....than this guy.  (I'll readily admit....there might be two-dozen IT things which I can do without any help or reference material, but beyond that I'm useless). 

For almost a year, this guy bluffed his way through daily work, and when our contract ended....he walked away....to find another company.  He probably showed marginal competence with that company, and bluffed his knowledge level all over again.  

As for all this effort to dump words out of English....just to invent new words?  Yeah, more or less.  

Old words which went out before these idiots?  Well...dungarees is't used anymore. Groovy isn't used anymore.  Snowbrowth isn't used anymore.  Excogigate?  Well, it used to mean something to the effect that you were burning a vast amount of braincells on some thinking and acting a bit Einsteinish (that's not a word, but I've invented it). Excogigate also went away as time passed.  

This Use of Sustainability

 Sustainability tends to have two meanings.

If you are a woken-individual....you tend to think of sustainability meaning that you have requirements in life, but you always worry about future generations and how they won't be able to have what you have, because social and economic conditions can't deliver.  So they will have less....which means you feel guilt.

If you are a regular person....then you think in terms of building, selling, developing, or doing something....which will repeat, over and over.  It's like a hundred acres of corn, and you kinda expect x-number of bushels each year, IF the rain comes on time.  

So you can imagine this meeting occurring at some local pub or honky-tonk.  Regular guy comes to meet woken-guy (who has fear/guilt on their mind).  

Regular guy is optimistic.  Woken-guy (fear/guilt on his mind) is pessimistic. 

Regular guy tends to worry over rainfall, failing equipment, and things he can actually feel/touch.  Woken-guy (fear/guilt on his mind) worries about one-thousand things....most of which are beyond his power or control.

Regular guy generally regards each generation of his family (since 1738 when they arrived on the shores of Georgia) has having gone up a notch in life, and they all seem  to have this built-in optimistic view of the next decade.

Woken-guy (fear/guilt on his mind) probably knows up to the grandparents level of where the family success/failure has come from, and doesn't let that knowledge diminish his fear of sustainability.  

Regular guy will kinda grin on the issue of energy consumption....admitting that since he got rid of that 1964 freezer in the garage last year, and swapped out his 1988 refrigerator in the kitchen....he's now using 50-percent less electricity compared to 2018's electrical bill.  He'll also admit that with the new Ford Fusion, he's now getting 42 mpg (three-times the mileage as with the 1994 Ford that he had).  

Woken-guy (fear/guilt on his mind) never pauses to think over his energy consumption or his mpg situation.....no matter how it relates to 1991, he feels bad about it.  

So, just some advice....maybe there's something better out there to worry about instead of sustainability.  Well...maybe even the septic tank sustainability, because it sure won't last forever.  

'Marxist' Kids?

 What's it really mean when some juvenile-behaving guy/gal tells you that they are Marxist in nature?

Well....it generally means ten things are revolving around in their head:

1.  They see class-warfare or class-unfairness constantly....wherever they go in life.

2.  They generally see social conflict around the clock.  

3.  Capitalism is bad....even if they are wearing Nike shoes, or lugging around a $800 I-Phone.

4.  They seem to think they are experts at urban-planning....even if they can't even manage their own lifestyle.

5.  Science has a single path (don't bring up the fact that science has multiple theories that sometimes conflict).

6.  Life is a continual struggle, and it's on their minds as they get up, and they prepare to sleep at night.

7.   Nothing is sustainable....meaning that everything is always on the verge of 'ending'.  The fact that Mountain Dew might not exist tomorrow....would be a concept they openly discuss.

8.  Everyone is pushed into tribal groups, and the more groups that exist....the better off this new alternate world would be.

9.  They generally regard welfare folks as 'peasants'.  In simple chatter....somebody (somewhere) has to fulfill this role.  If everyone were non-peasants, then the Marxism stuff would disappear over night.

10.  Wealth is a bad thing.  They will generally tell you that people don't know how to handle wealth.

In the end, you could walk into a room with a hundred such Marxists, and they all seem to want to control things and manage the big picture.  It's at this point that you realize that they all need a regular job (9 to 5), and some responsibility to fulfill their own lives before messing with other people.  

The Analogy to Explain America to a Non-American

 Basically, it's become a tribal plains area, where one-thousand-plus tribes exist in marginal states of harmony or non-harmony.

Some tribes are leftists....some tribes are rightists.  

Some tribes are pro-capitalists....some tribes are anti-capitalists.  

Some tribes are willing to promote face-to-face confrontations.....some shy away from all confrontations. 

Some tribes promote dumping your relatives if they can't participate in the tribal philosophy.  

Some tribes pretend to be something....when it's more fake than real.

Some tribes got into screwing up professional sports....some tribes voiced discontent with professional sports, and just gave up viewing.

Some tribes advocated movies as their 'lecture-vehicles'.  Some tribes advocated censoring or avoiding the lecture movies.

Some tribes took in kids....pushing their tribalism down into a 12-to-14 year old level.  Some tribes educate their kids to avoid brain-washing.

So you try to fit into some tribe, and generally hope that confrontation is not necessary. Maybe you feel sorry for your co-worker, who is obviously in a 'bad-tribe', or maybe you just laugh over his tribal unit.

In some ways, it's a sad thing to view this much tribal tendencies, and no way to bring people back to a one-tribal unit situation.  

Dying Planet Chatter

 Popular Mechanics (honestly, I have to admit that I haven't subscribed to the magazine in 15 years and kinda surprised that they still exist)....came up in the news this week.

Someone did an article for them....suggesting that various cultures existed in the universe, but all of them have 'died-off' in some self-annihilation episode.

Proof?  Well....none.

This is more of a theory to explain why we don't pick up signals or indicators of intelligent life.

First, this is one of the five basic issues with Popular Mechanics and why I eventually just couldn't read it.....crazy suggestive articles that seemed to be selling science fiction more than factual mechanics itself.

Second, taking into the consideration the size of the universe....this discussion is mostly about how you tossed a marble into the Atlantic Ocean, then trying to talk about the extent of your search for the marble.  You'd probably be more productive in painting your barn roof, or redoing the backyard.

Third and final, to go along with this idea....you have to assume some 'save-our-butts' character would have emerged (like that Tesla guy) and he would have invented a way for dozens, thousands or billions of people to escape some decaying planet.  Or maybe they did die-off because they mostly gave folks in their society a $600 stimulus check as well.....instead of the pork-bill where Pakistani folks got $10-million to learn more about gender stuff.  

More Star Wars?

 Another dozen-odd Star Wars TV shows/movies?  Yes.

I saw this piece yesterday, where Disney openly discussed the future path.

Frankly, I've reached a point on the galaxy 'war' script and princess/knight telling of some story....that it doesn't work.  After episode 3 (1983), I kinda thought this was done and finished.  

Sixteen years pass, and then they whipped out three updates in six years.  The story didn't really pass as a four-star script, but it didn't matter.

So a decade passes, and another three movies get flipped out in a four-year period.  Same story....same path...etc.  The story itself?  It barely equated to a two-star story. 

Two more have come out in the past four years, and there's another planned in roughly two years.

It's more like a soap opera (science-fiction-wise) than anything else.  But since Disney bought the rights....they paid a fair sum of money and intend to get back every penny invested. 

At some point, reality will set in, and they will realize that people are fed up with the marginalized science fiction story.  

Free College?

 Did Joe Biden actually say this?  "Public Colleges and Universities Are Going to be Tuition-Free For Families Earning Less Than $125,000."

Yes.

How would this be paid for? Unknown.  

You could walk around some of these high schools, and the teachers shaking their heads....200 of their senior class graduating and 100-percent of them going off to college free of charge.  At the end of this funnel....the kid magically graduates out of college with a marginalized degree, and then you ask....where is the job to equate to the degree?

Well....you can't invent jobs like this out of thin air.

Currently?  It's a mess and probably over one-third of college graduates will never get any real pay scale because of the worthless degree and the career path ahead.

I read a piece recently....talking about colleges in America in 1940 (before the war), and that only 5-percent of Americans ever went to college.  

Today?  You have graduates walking out of college....getting car rental management jobs at the airport....which were formerly for folks without college degrees.  No, the pay didn't spiral upwards....they still make $24k a year on salary.  It's basic work that a smart high school graduate could do, but you are wasting the job on some idiot who spent four years in college.

I look at Joe Biden's suggestion and just shake my head.

Maybe if we were just aiming at kids in science-related or engineer-related schools, and cutting tuition by 40-percent for them....it might make sense.  But even if you did that....who is really paying for this?  The non-college guy who is the air conditioning technician, or the roofer folks?  Why should they be forced into paying for this?

Looking at my crystal ball...I see this day about twelve years in the future.  You walk into a Piggly Wiggly, and from sixteen employees working that morning....fourteen of them hold bachelor degrees.  Matty (the mental nut-case in the fruit-department) and Claude (the retiree) are the only ones without a degree.  You pause and think about the waste of time, effort and resources....then you remember...in America, 'we can make something out of nothing'.  Then you realize the reverse is true.....we can also make nothing....out of something.  

Observations

 1.  I noticed today that NJ political 'kid'....Chris Christy....has said if Trump runs in 2024, Christy says he'll oppose him and run as well.

Here's the thing....once you get into the first two primary states in the spring of 2024....there's zero interest in Christy.  Even when you get to his own state of NJ, he might only rack up 40-percent of the GOP voting in the primary there. 

So, it's a lot of hot air.

2.  The $600 per person stimulus deal?  The bulk of people who need it....will pay the landlord or mortgage company, and basically tide themselves over to the end of January.  It didn't help.

Curiously, in the fine-print, college kids could actually get $1,800 per kid....if this goes through.  Go explain that to the regular middle-class guy.

Added note: $85-million is slated in this package to go over to Cambodia.  You'd have to ask the Democrats and McConnell to explain that one.

3.  Usually, when you see statues and monuments being yanked down....cities and business-fronts set on fire....people being assaulted on the streets...it's because you got invaded or taken over by Nazis.

Just something to think about.  

4.  We are living in an era of hypocrisy....where even 11-year-old kids recognize the behavior and laugh over it.  

Half of the nation is putting on a fake public stance regarding virtue or religion or politics.  

5.  What happens if California reaches the limit to recall Governor Newsom?  Well....another election occurs.  

The question of who might 'win'?  Well....no one really discusses this (it's an odd part of the story).  Some suggest that the SF mayor (London Breed) would appear to run (but some also suggest that she's on the road to get Harris's senate seat).  

6.  There's a story out there where the Chinese spent a ton of money on a quick-build Disneyland-like 'park/camp' for religious cult folks.

The theme is....you'd go as a family unit.  You'd enter the camp or park, and stay for a while....until the fun-factor had changed your prospective in life.  Maybe it's the food, 300 rides on the Dumbo-like ride, or just plain standing in line after line....that got you all de-culted.  

Guardians

 It's a page four story, but some might find it interesting.

If you were a member of the US Army....you were always referred to as 'soldiers'.

If you were a member of the US Air Force....you were always referred to as 'airmen'.

If you were a member of the US Navy....you were always referred to as 'sailors'.

Marines?  Well....Marines.

So the Space Force has come up and they finally addressed how you'd talk about them in official commentary.  The word to use?  'Guardians'.

Yes, Guardians.

I suspect some idiot took the term from Guardians of the Galaxy, but that's what the government went to this past week, and stamped final.

Guardians.  

I'm guessing the Army and Air Force guys will kid the Guardians a good bit.  The neat thing about this new role is that you probably won't be going off to war in Iraq or Kuwait....ever, as a Guardian.  Deploying out and sleeping in tents?  No, don't go figuring that Guardians will sleep anywhere except in Best Western or Ramada.

Eating ration-food?  No, Guardians are probably full-up lobster or seafood folks.  

Drinking habits?  Guardians are probably red-wine or gin-sour cocktail people.

Wild excitement?  While Marines would talk excessively about the sixteen tattoo joints they've been to, or the Army guys talk about the top ten stripper joints, and the Air Force guys would talk about the various golf courses they've been to....Guardians probably want to talk about their top ten space movies, or broach the topic of Captain Marvel quotes that appeal to them.

I hate to really dump on these guys....but the Guardian name just doesn't work. 

California and NY City: 2024

 As things look....two paths are being laid out (Joe Biden as President, and two parts of the US with exodus heavily on the mind of occupants).  

Both California and NY City are in desperate financial woes and are absolutely dependent on two Georgia Democrats arriving and ensuring a pot of money from Joe Biden comes to them by mid-summer 2021. If this fails?  Well, I will suggest these four things likely to unfold:

1.  Business shift.  There's no reason for big-name operations, high-end restaurants, or mega corporations to maintain a presence in either location.  

2.  Retiree-wise, If you regard safety and security as a top ten thing....then you don't have much reason to remain in LA, SF, or NY City.

3.  Personal wealth.  When you add up sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes....with this nearing $18k a year and you figure half of this goes away if you move to Nevada or Tennessee, why would you remain?  

4.  Fear of the homeless situation going to an entirely new and higher level.  California (at least in the summer of 2020) figures they have around 150,000 homeless people. By the mummer period of 2021?  I'd go and suggest it being noted near the same number but the state admitting that another 100,000 people ought to be listed as homeless but on some state program to hide the issue.

President Joe with any great ideas?  No, I wouldn't go expecting much except to throw money at the two states....as 'gifts'.  There's probably a 2021 'gift' of 100 billion between the two, and a planned repeat by summer of 2023.  Resolving anything?  No....just delaying the required shutdown of various services that should be on the table in a planning stage now.

I would go and project that from the top 500 companies that existed in California in 2019...at least half of them will be removed from the state by 2024.  I would even go and suggest that fifty percent of the retirees in the state (mostly those living around SF/LA) will have left the state as well.  

In the case of NY City, I would suggest another half-million residents of the city will quietly pack and go as you get into the summer of 2021.  This exodus might slow slightly in 2022/2023, but you are looking at 1.5 million fewer people in the city (compared against 2019 levels).  

Resolving this?  You'd have to admit that all the staging and planning of the past decade....really went so far negative, that you can't come back to a resolution stage.

The last sad part of this story....what made NY City and California hot tourist sites....dissolved along with this.  Who'd want to go to this type of marginal atmosphere?

The Mute-Generation

 In the very early generation delivery of remote controls and TVs....mute wasn't an option.  Around 1956, an Austrian-born guy (electrical engineer) came up with the idea with the Zenith company.  

I suspect throughout the 1960s and 1970s....it was probably the least-used button on the remote control.  Lets admit it as well....folks in this era didn't go and pay the extra for the remote capability.  So in the 1980s....this became more popular.  

Today?  I probably hit the mute-button at least ten times a day.  I might flip over to a CNN news period for half-an-hour, and hit mute at least three or four times.  If I were sitting around for twelve hours and monitoring the various cable networks?  I'd hit the mute button over sixty times.  

The thing is....it's not just for commercial breaks anymore. I hit mute when certain topics come up....like BREXIT.  Or I'll hit it when some PhD guy comes on and wants to talk about polar bears eating too many penguins.  Last week, I was watching some business interview, and journalist was trying hard to get some CEO to just admit failure on some product, and I reached a mute-point with this conversation.

There are certain politicians now that I can stand about sixty seconds of commentary before I hit mute (Pelosi, Romney, and Jeb Bush).  With Dan Rather (of CBS fame)....just seeing him on the screen and about to talk....is enough for me to hit mute.  

Last year, I was watching a basketball discussion (retired players turned journalists and current players), and suddenly it turned into some discussion over social justice.....BAM, I hit the mute-button.  

The thing is....I don't think I'm alone.  I suspect across the US...there are a million of us mute-people.  Some of us have patience and some open-mind.  Some of us have 30 seconds of open-mind before we hit the mute.  I suspect the number increases each single year.  

At some point over the next decade....some Austrian-born engineer will probably come to design a mute-meter and start to report results back to 'MUTE.COM' and tell the world that one out of three people now mute Dan Rather.  Or they will have a 'will-mute' rating on Nancy Pelosi of 60 seconds....before a majority of people hit mute.  Then some discussion group will start up.....hyping that this mute-generation is now controlling a thought-process (actually the opposite....we don't want to hear them chatter).

All of this will start to worry folks because so much money is spent on CNN or Fox, or NPR....and if one out of three people regularly mute their chatter....well, that money is just going into an empty pit.

Yeah, whether it's positive or negative....we mute-people are now a threat to society and the future of America.  Frankly, we've had enough, and mute is our only weapon left. 

Debunk or Fake News Therapy

 At some point in 2021, I expect some clinic to open up a therapy situation related to debunking or fake news.  It'll probably start in some place like San Francisco or New York City.

I expect the newspapers and networks to treat it as a joke, and then six months later....come to realize that some clinic does exist with the program, and they have fifty-odd people registered and progressing through 'quit-smoking' type program.

The chief therapy suggestion?  Quit news, and simply talk in small groups how they have real lives to live....without politics. 

CNN will have a laugh over it....then register one of their journalists to attend the two-week original in-house situation.  The guy walks out on the final day, and quits his job immediately. 

By 2022, a hundred clinics throughout the US now engage in the therapy, with anti-therapy groups appearing....wanting laws and regulations to forbid this type of therapy.  The accusation is that this therapy is brain-washing people.  

By 2024, over 200,000 people will have gone through the treatment.  

The Trouble With Promises

 I sat and looked upon this new story....the Biden pick for Secretary of the DOT (Department of Transportation).....former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

'Mayor Pete' came out quickly to 'promise' to fight racial, economic, and environmental injustice within DOT.

So I sat there for a while pondering this.

This department has six key areas which you as the 'boss' are supposed to protect people upon:

1.  You need to ensure roads and bridges around the nation are safe.  Not half-safe....where six bridges a year collapse yearly and kill 200-odd people.

2.  You need to ensure the railway system is functionally safe and derailments are awful rare.

3.  You need to ensure airports are secure....meaning 'bad-boys' don't get through the system and board planes.

4.  You need to set standards where planes take off and safely land with passengers and cargo.

5.  You need to ensure seaports are safely operated and no hazardous events occur.

6.  You need to ensure ferries and river-going vessels are operated in a safe fashion, and no stupid accidents occur. 

Racial wrongs?  Economic injustice?  Environmental issues?

Are you going to monster-up various new regulations that drive ticket prices on airlines, buses, or ferries up by 25-percent?  

Correcting what racial wrongs?  Are you going to give away 100,000 free airline tickets monthly....to minority groups?  

You just start looking at his promise business, and wonder where exactly this is going.  People generally have this expectation of things working.....very few accidents, and feeling safe as you walk onto a plane or ferry.  

Maybe it's just all BS on the promise business, but I have this crazy feeling that airline tickets and ferry rides over the next four years will go up by 25-percent. 

As a co-worker used to comment to me twenty years ago...."just do your job".  

Something to Ponder Upon

 Just something to think about.

In the 1968 election, it was Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and Hubert H. Humphrey.

A total of 73,199,998 votes were cast for ALL three of the candidates.

Donald Trump beat that number, by himself.

The Ten New Realities of Life

 This is one of those essays that I paint off the landscape and make suggestions over reality of our times:

1.  Drugs and broken-homes....tend to lead to an outcome with no positives.  It's like an infestation of termites, and no willing nature to call the bug-guy.  Then one day you wake up and want to take care of the termites but now realize the home is a loss, with value gone.

2.  A kid with no finance sense might be stupid enough to borrow $120,000....get a degree, and discover that the degree will never get him more than $40k a year.  Then the idiot does the math to figure it's a twenty to twenty-five year period to pay back the $120,000 and that $40,000 at some local community college would have gotten you the same $40k a year salary. Around age forty, the 'kid' now comes to you...literally begging for $40,000 to pay off the remainder of the stupid loan.

3.  We are beleaguered on a daily basis by people stating a problem, then giving you two 'false' choices....meaning neither meets an acceptable reality.  You look at the guy explaining this (some intellectual type) and offer up a 3rd choice.  Then you get this ten-minute lecture....that there are only two false choices....don't go messing up their argument.  You wake up at this point, realizing dozens of problems exist, and you are routinely led to the false choice scenario.

4.  You stand in a church atmosphere....realizing one day that of the past twenty-five sermons....at least fifty percent didn't have much to do with the Bible, but more so with political topics or global warming. You confront this reality and start looking at the Deacons and the Minister...wondering about this was a long-term strategy.

5.  Senators and House members are now waking up to the idea that Chinese secret agents are trying to get 'friendly' with them....offering money or sex as part of the deal.  It's going to be hard holding back 'feelings'.

6.  Basically, if you just read a science journal/magazine once a month now....you can be a 'science-guy'.  Its silly and stupid, but there's over 3,000 science-guys appearing on TV in an average year, and a quarter of them are 'just' engineers....not even real scientists.  In the case of Bill Gates....he's just an expert on Excel or Powerpoint. 

7.  Once the minimum wage goes to $15....the clock at McDonalds starts ticking.  If you automate 75-percent of the place.....you can dispose of three-quarters of the man-power over the next decade.  What exactly will marginally-capable do then?  You don't need burger-flippers, ditch-diggers, or shelf-stockers at the grocery as automation arrives.  

8.  The value of a EdD degree (doctor of education)?  You basically can run a school....that's it.  On ranking worthless degrees....this is probably number one.

9.  The value of a trailer-park lifestyle in 2020?  Some folks need the benefit of local characters, drunks, and schizophrenics to liven up their life.

10.  Politics is now 99-percent theatrics.  People are wasting hours of everyday....trying figure out how 'Bay City' will go, if Pamela will leave David, if Doctor Winston is really gay, if the neighbors who just moved in are actually from Paraguay, or if Frederic has a tumor on his butt.  

When Will Joe Go?

 There are two groups of thought over this, and I've heard the differing arguments.

First, there's the idea that he'll be gone by first couple of months of 2022.  The logic to this is that his administration won't really gather steam or show accomplishment during 2021.  

With mid-terms coming at them by summer of 2022 and the election in November....the Democratic Party needs President Harris in position and a driving force for the 2022 midterm election.  

In this scenario, you'd have to start with a list of problems....handing them to CBS or CNN or the NY Times.  Six to eight weeks of dementia chatter would start up, and then the committee would go into action.  Four rough weeks of examination, and then the meeting within the House and Senate.  Out would go Joe Biden, and the news media would quickly circle the  wagons and not utter his name ever again.

The case against this scenario?  If they wanted Harris to run in 2024, and 2028....she'd have to step into the role of President AFTER January 2022 (after the midterm election).  

The issue here?  It's very likely that the Republicans will win ten to twenty seats, and put Harris at a serious disadvantage for 2023/2024.  

The second idea is that they stall this as long as possible....maybe to the summer of 2023, then Harris steps in.

The chief problem with this idea is that Joe Biden will probably average an event every three days where people will question his mental decline.  You can't go through all of 2021 and 2022....with a large percentage of the public asking stupid questions.

The idea that people will ask if he was in decline in 2019 and 2020?  Well....yeah, it's probably going to be brought up.  The news media can't answer that question.

The idea that people will ask about several Senators and House members in mental decline as well?  That probably will occur, and I would suggest three or four folks get a gentle push out the door around the same time period. 

Swalwell, Secret Sex and Reality

 At some point over the past couple of days....some journalist asked Rep Swalwell (the guy who had a Chinese agent as a sex liaison lady for a period of time (more than a year) about his situation and the lady.  He responded...it's classified and no need to discuss it.

The reality over this?  At some point, 2015-era...the FBI quietly came up to Swalwell, and laid out this presentation.  Basically, they knew he was having an affair with some Chinese gal named Christine Fang (her got-you name was Fang-Fang).  Normally, they would not care who you were banging....even if this was a 16-year gal or some Hollywood lady.

But in this case.....Fang Fang was an actual Chinese agent.  

At some point in early 2014, Fang Fang came out and wanted to help Swalwell on campaign donations (best we not discuss this part of the story).  Swalwell and Fang Fang did got into a hot-and-heavy situation.

Did he pass classified data to Fang Fang?  Well....zero proof of that.

Did he pass confidential info to Fang Fang?  Well.....zero proof of that.

Was the sex that Swalwell and Fang Fang had....classified?  To be honest, zero proof of that.

Having spent two decades in the intel world, I can vouch that it's a slippery situation to get Human-Intelligence data and decide upon classifications.  An example: Swalwell meets up with Fang Fang, sipping through a bottle of wine....the two do some pretty crazy stuff and lick whipped topping off each other, then discuss parking arrangements for the House members in DC.  Is any of that classified?  Probably not.

If they met at some swanky Vegas hotel for a whole weekend and wore Batman and Robin outfits while having sex?  No, that's probably not classified either.

If they met in some Baltimore hotel on a work-day for Swalwell, put bacon all over each other and talked about upcoming bills in the House?  Well....that's probably not classified.

So I'm wonder what exactly....out of a couple dozen meetings in hotels....was classified.  In some way, he made this pretty complicated, and there needs to be a House investigation over the guy.  His clearance?  Maybe it should be jerked.  

Observations

 1.  Word over-use for 2020: 'optics'.  I'll bet that I heard this word used at least 7,000 times over 2020.  

2.   On used-car salesmanship, Joe Biden is a rock-solid TEN.  If you had issues with used-car sales people in the past, the coming months probably won't be that enjoyable.  In fact, the less he appears on TV (live)....the better off we might be.

3.  For all the chatter of the 'Russia-hoax' business...NOT one single person has been arrested or detained.

4.  At some point in 2021, I expect a rehab unit in Oregon to start a program to 'detox' people off Antifa operations.  A month-long program will start up where the 'player' will be taken off high-energy drinks, various drugs, and junk food.  At the end, to graduate....they probably will have to hug a guy wearing a MAGA-hat.

5.  'Trust' in the election system?  Probably at a all-time low.  Don't expect anything to resolve this over the next four years.

6.  'Black National Anthem' sung yesterday at the Michigan state-house.  Odds of a Latino 'National Anthem' and Chinese 'National Anthem' being developed by summer of 2021?  I'd give it a 50-50 chance.

7.  A signature audit to be done in Georgia?  Well....it came to be announced there on Monday.  If this goes badly?  No one really says much.

8.   If you use governmental numbers (for the past decade) on ALL deaths, we typically average 2.5 million a year (sometimes going as high as 2.9 million....like in 2019).  As of mid-November, we were still at 2.5 million deaths for 2020 (the Covid year).  The final six weeks? It might go to 2.7 million (we did this number in 2015 and 2016).  

Why the fewer deaths in a Covid-year?  Well....people didn't drive as much.  People didn't frequent bars and get into death-fights.  People didn't get optional surgical procedures and develop infections. 

9.  A key question to ask....would you as a big-name natural gas company go and hire some binge-cocaine 'freak' as a board member?  Companies might not ask a lot of questions over drug habits, but they'd typically look for people that seemed rational and without issues for board jobs.  It just doesn't make a lot of sense to hire up Hunter Biden as a board guy.

10.  Did anyone care to watch the Joe Biden interview after the Electoral College announcement?  This was a C-S*AN covered episode.  What they say....at the peak of the interview and with Joe talking....they had roughly 4,000 people watching.  That's it. 

11. Cleveland Indians dumping 'Indians' name.  Replacement?  Unknown.  Likely use of the 'Indians' name by locals for the next twenty years?  Probably fifty-percent of people will still continue to use the name.  Wouldn't shock me if the team tries to prevent people from entering the stadium wearing their old Indians T-shirts. 

Lincoln and the Newspapers

Between 1860 and 1865....Abraham Lincoln shutdown around 300 newspapers (more or less).

Fact or fiction?

Pretty much completely true.

In this endeavor, Lincoln used the military to sweep through a town or city, and if the newspapers were printing material that was counter to the government plan of war against the south....the US Army would show up and shut them down.

This would continue until the end of the war, and the arrival of the Johnson administration.

Necessity?  Well...here's the thing, it was not in public agreement to conduct the war.  With dismal defeats over the first eighteen months, most journalists saw the 'campaign' as unwinnable and attempted to politicize their discussion in local towns. 

So the news system....for better or worse....failed to work.  Failure of the court system to rectify this?  That's another part of the discussion.

If Lincoln had not accomplished this?

Insurrection would have followed the administration and likely toppled the Lincoln administration.  

This fact being well known?  No.  I suspect if you asked a hundred 'experts' on the Civil War....fewer than ten would bring up this topic.  For some, it ruins the image of Lincoln....with some disturbed that newspapers had to be shutdown....to save the government.  

This coming up now?  Maybe if you asked people....more than a third of society would suggest a shut-down of social media (Facebook, Twitter) being necessary now.  For some....that's a very unpleasant suggestion.  

Ten Things About Me That Changed in 2020

 I sat over the past month and contemplated the landscape of 2020, and how I've changed.  So here are the ten things that I considered 'locked-down' and part of my life now:

1.  I'm absolutely skeptical of politicians (Republican or Democrat). I'd probably trust a drug dealer more....than a DC politician.  Trying to refer to the President as 'Jesus' or 'Satan'....doesn't work any more.  

2.  I really don't need the Sunday political chat shows any longer.  I can' t think of any reason that I'd watch them.  I'd rather watch Japanese monster movies, or 1930 cowboy westerns. 

3.  I'm basically finished with both CNN and Fox News.  If I'm in an airport....I'll find a seat which does not face a TV screen with CNN.  

4.  I can't think of any reason why I'm concerned or interested in BREXIT.  Whether the isle flounders or survives now....makes no difference to me.

5.  I consider the FBI politically compromised, and will not consent to any conversation with them.  The whole top-level (top fifty managers) probably have to be forced-out.  

6.  I seriously can't think of any reason why I'd want to live in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, NY City, SF, or LA.  You couldn't even offer me a $150k job in these cities...to get me there. I see these six cities losing 10-percent of their population over the next six to eight years.  In the case of NY City for 2021....it might be half-a-million who walk out.  

7.  I've pretty much accepted that for the remainder of my life....at least while living in Germany.....I'll be wearing a mask for public shopping.  I seriously don't see Covid-19 going away....not in three years....ten years....or even fifty years.  The odds of me getting on a plane for nine hours of flight-time, with a mask?  It probably won't ever happen again. 

8.  I seriously believe that 30-percent of the population need a 50-hour a week physical job (maybe even filling sandbags) to keep them occupied and focused.  Way too many people living in dad's garage or basement, with no real job except delivering pizzas at age 32.  

9.  I really don't need some fake intellectual telling me how foreign affairs works, or how it's a 'art'.  When they appear on TV now....I hit the mute-button fairly quickly.

10.  The last people on Earth, who need to lecture me about ethics or 'truth'....are a bunch of computer geeks with no sense of reality or the world itself.  To this end, I've logged-off Facebook and refuse to participate.  

How 'Fractured' Were We in the 1750/1760 Era?

 This is a topic that is rarely if ever covered in college classes, or via journalists/historians today.  So I'll offer a short introduction to a topic which we ought to be thinking over.

When you look at 13 colony 'states' in this 1750/1760 era....you have to remember that they were 13 different societies that were grouped only by the idea that they'd left Europe, and brought a particular way of thinking along with them.  They were NOT united in any sense.

It would be accurate to say that the thirteen each had a 'company' behind them in the original period, and the company specialized in particular clients.

For example, Maryland was found in 1634 by Lord Baltimore (Cecil Calvert), and his agenda was to find able-bodied and adventurous Catholics....then getting to the region of Maryland.  It would be accurate to say that Catholics had a particular view of the world, of ethics, of society existing in harmony, and some appreciation of arts/education.

Delaware?  It was founded by Peter Minuit (well to do Belgium guy).  He founded the colony with his company (New Sweden) in 1638.  Minuit is noted for arranging a deal to buy the region of Manhattan from the Indians in the region.  For this region of Delaware....the start-up were mostly Swedes.  They weren't aristocratic or intellectual types....they were simply farmers.

Georgia?  It was founded by James Edward Oglethorpe (a Brit), in 1732 (yeah, it comes along a hundred years after Maryland).  The crowd that is brought in?  Mostly from Brit debt-prison situations and notably....the poor of society.  They weren't intellectuals, gifted in science or religion, etc.  They were geared for the rough life, from day one.

It should be noted in the Georgia charter granted by the King....slavery was forbidden.  This stayed this way from 1732 to 1751 (19 years).  The original intent (whether understood by everyone or not), was that this was a small-farm operations state, and would stay that way.  It was also geared to be a front-line zone (against Spanish-held Florida) and if wars were fought....the farmers would be drafted into service.

You can toss in the German regions of Pennsylvania and the Dutch regions of NY state.  

This was not a happy group of like-minded people.  

When you get to the early 1800s....there is essentially one major division.  The Democratic Party has mastered itself in the south (Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland).  The rest are leaning more toward a conservative lifestyle (blame it on the religious groups, the Dutch, or the Germans).  

The Constitution that is written?  It is a patchwork of art, that marginally is agreeable among the 13 groups of people. 

As folks maneuver and head west....the two groups are finding it more difficult to live together in harmony.  Individuals from the NE arrive into areas like Indiana and Ohio...wanting taxes collected, and some basic services provided.  Individuals coming from Georgia and the Carolinas tend to want little if any taxation, and the less regulation/law....the better off you were.

From 1800 to 1860....this idea of a unified nation is marginally working.  Fights break out daily in DC between Republicans and Democrats.  Newspapers are hyping people up....talking about about the non-intellectual issues of the southerners, or the conservative lifestyles/rule-making of the northerners.   One wants structure....the other wants marginal control.

We will leave the 1865 period, as a truly fractured nation....that is forced to exist in one single sphere.

As much as people want to dwell or suggest the Civil War was about slavery....it had thousands of other issues, and the idea in the end was to just keep forcing the public to live within one unified nation.

Here in the past hundred years?  The 'fracture' simply continues.  Amusingly enough....around half of the nation has developed into a New England-style Republican structure....wanting less government, less taxation, and less regulation.  This 'creature' is not adored by urbanized areas, and it's more openly preferred in rural regions or lesser populated places.

The other half of the nation is bent on a Democratic model (totally unlike the 1820s situation) which believes in structure, regulation, respect of lifestyles, significant taxation (to pay for significant 'gifts'), and geared more toward urbanization.  

Flip-flop?  Absolutely, over a hundred years....it's exactly opposite of what you'd expect.

Stuck in the middle of this mess?  Blacks, Latinos, businessmen, people heavily in debt, a segment of society that is strongly supporting open-drug use, a segment of society that is strongly opposing open-drug use, and bankers/speculators.

The fact that the NASDAQ company, Tesla, Oracle, and Tesla moving to Texas?  If you'd suggested this twenty years ago....people would have laughed.

People leaving NY City over the past eight months?  There's a belief that it's almost a million, and there might be another million to exit in 2021.

Some are looking at the 'fracture' in a way....that they don't need to accept things as they are, and the safety 'light' has flipped in red (not a positive thing).  In the case of San Francisco?  Between the homeless situation, local taxes, and lack of safety....the fractured crowd don't see any options other than leaving.

So the question is....are we truly fractured enough now....to say that the nation cannot exist as one?  

Behind that question....the other question comes back....was the Civil War only about slavery, and did we fight a war over a serious division which remained after 1865, and continues on to this moment now?

It's something to ponder about.

We were created as a divided nation, and remain a divided nation even to this day.  It was a lot more simple in maintaining this divided 'theatrical production'.....with one-hundred million people.  But to suggest that we can still operate a unified 'theatrical production' with three-hundred million?  Toss in the fact that we now have more than a thousand pages of script which openly divide us daily, and we can't seem to be agreeable?  

Go back and read over the history of Yugoslavia, and how it could not be saved as one single nation.  

This fracture....isn't about to be resolved....not today, nor tomorrow.  

Two Science Stories

 Over the past week, I've been entertained by a fair amount of reading regarding science.

First topic, Covid-19 and it's aerosol connection.

When I joined the Air Force in 1977....there was this training segment that continued for roughly fifteen years over chemical warfare.  

We were continually trained on the idea that when 'war' finally came, there would be chemical warfare as part of the situation.  So we trained with the masks, the standard operating procedures, and the suits.

We were always told....don't worry, we've got tons of the suits, the autoinjector kits, and the special filters.  

All of this chatter and training continued until we got to Desert Storm.  Then oddly, it disappeared.  We were issued a suit but told in the strongest sense....NOT to unpack the suit from the sealed bag.  The filter?  That was given.  

Now they started to talk about aerosol, chem warfare, and the lesser threat.  In this scenario, even if a missile with chemical agent hit within a mile....the warm atmosphere of Saudi Arabia would dissipate the agent in a matter of an hour. Fact or fiction?  Well, you had to take as gospel truth.

Eventually, one day (toward the end of the war) I had this chat with a guy in the camp.  Our sense was that warm/hot climates would be the perfect place to have a chem agent because it could not reach full value.  A cold or cool place was not a friendly place (like upstate Michigan or the UK).  

As the weeks roll by with Covid-19, it's obvious now that the same scenario runs along this path.  The warmer weather in Australia and NZ right now?  It's helping to reduce the infection rate.  Eventually toward April/May....unless the vaccination deal delivers full effect....a higher rate of infection/death....will occur in that region. Here in Germany, with the cooler air....the virus will stay in the air longer.  As May arrives....it'll lessen.

There's not a lot of science to this....it's just the way that a virus liking pro-aerosol situations works.  

The second topic?  A science story came out over mass extinctions on Earth....every 27-million years.  What is said here....a meteor-friendly period arrives, and repeats itself....over and over.  

Between impacts and volcanic eruptions (triggered by the impacts)....animals die off.

The most recent wipe-out?  Roughly seven million years ago....meaning we have around 20 million years to figure the 'game' out, and remove people from Earth.

But this whole discussion begs the question....are most all species of animals we see around us today....developed since seven million years ago?  

Staying around Earth for the next 20-million years?  Why would you?  It would seem that the driving priority is to leave the planet, explore the universe, and unpopulate the planet as the process of destruction repeats once again.

Forgiving Student Debt/Stupidity

 I could make this a 200-page book, but I'll try to limit this discussion to 50 lines.

Up until the 1980s....if you went to college....it was typically 'cheap-enough' (a catch phrase)...that you could pay via the parent's marginal contribution, do some work on the side, and not borrow from anyone.  

Something clicked in the 1980s, and escalation of college tuition/room and board....went up.  Dad's contribution and work on the side didn't cut it at half of the colleges in the US.  Add onto it....kids got stupid and didn't realize that being 'out-of-state'....meant that you paid 20-percent on top of what the in-state kid was paying.

So kids started to borrow via commercial and government groups.  In the beginning....over a four-year period, you could be talking about $20k.  Most could pay this back over a five to eight year period.

Year by year....colleges escalated the cost.  You can ask financial experts, state political folks, and journalists to explain this part of the story.  Usually, they can't really lay this down in any simple fashion.

As the 1990s came....degrees and study areas went into some type of tailspin.  People were designing a four-year program where the degree you exited with....wasn't going to ever pay you more than $25k a year (1990s scale).  

In the past ten years, it's now possible for you to attend the William and Mary University in Virginia....and pay near $23k on tuition alone.  Add in books, expenses and room/board....it's up over $140k for four years.

If you graduate with a marginalized degree, and your starting pay level is $35k?  You won't finish paying off the loan until age 60.

So enter the Biden crew.  They want to create some path where part of the debt is forgiven.  No one say how much, if it might be yearly, or the total cost package for the tax-payer.

Massive anger brewing in the non-college idiot group....that they'd pay for this debt deal?  Yes, and it'll be openly discussed next spring as people fuss how you could be this stupid to borrow $100k and your salary will never be enough to resolve your mess.

What I suspect will happen?  I think the Senators will rig up a deal that for each thousand you put down....another thousand will be forgiven (maybe up to $4k a year).  Someone might add wording to say it's a ten-year deal....meaning $40k might be free.

A lawsuit to brew out of this?  No doubt....it'll be taken to the court as a unfair situation for non-college folks.

Just free money?  It'll take an hour for people to figure out....why not go over to the government idiots, and borrow $60k to pretend you are going to college.  Then just invest it, and do the payment deal....paying back the money over ten years....getting $40k free of charge from the government.  

Illegal?  It'll take five years for them to figure out this game.  

So my advice...once the smoke clears and they establish the 'free money' routine...analyze your path and see if it'd make sense to go ask for $40k in student loans (for investment purposes, purchase of a RV/boat, etc).  If they are going to rig this for $4k a year in free credit (maybe even via your taxes)....the 'fake' loan would easily pay you back over a ten-year period.

We could all take some 'free money' and give thanks to the stupid college kids for creating this new avenue of 'free cash'.  

President Biden: Saviour or Demon for Cal/NY?

 First, the facts.  NY City needs roughly $93 billion (just for everything leading up to the end of 2020).  You can figure that another $15 million will lay on top of that by the end of February.  The state of California has $280 to $300 billion in debt.  L A (by itself....needs $7-to-8 billion)?

The generally discussed topic is that President Biden will walk in and structure some type of credit payment for 2021/2022.  No one says the amount.  It might be structured as a zero-interest loan and maybe a couple billion in 'gift-money'.  

In the case of NY City....that won't cut it.  They probably need the US federal government to walk in and lay down $20-odd billion as 'gift-money'.  

So the working piece of this deal....is the Senate.  If the Republicans retain control (winning both Georgia seats)....then this 'gift-idea' won't go far.  To be honest, just getting $20-billion in interest-free loans....won't cut it either.

The way for the Senate to 'gift' the money without it being noticed?  Well....you'd go and say 'bad-boy', then laundry $10-billion over to three California cities (each) for road/bridge projects, on top of what they'd flip thirty-billion over to the banks to pay debt....to use the fed-money for the projects. 

In the past, you could have done this, without anyone grasping how you funneled the money over.  Today?  People tend to ask questions. 

So if Biden doesn't deliver?  By the end of 2021....something probably needs to happen, or you start to notice banks getting worried because neither NY City or California can sustain the new debt payments.  Both likely to add another 50-percent of debt on top of the present situation?  That's what I would fear the most.  But to be honest....where would you start to cut, and can you sustain mega-cities/states in this condition?  

Biden and Harris being 'deal-makers' while they were in the Senate?  No, not exactly.  That's another part of the story.  If you were looking around for expertise within the Democratic Party and the Senate today....looking for people who were experts at rigging unpleasant deals to have a decent outcome....no one really stands out.  

The Better-Off-Worse-Off Chat

 This week, the idiots over at Fox News put up some poll to say that Trump's job accomplishment is not worth bragging about.  55-percent of the crowd said the US is worse off now than four years ago.  Roughly one out of three said it was better than four years....with the remainder saying things were about the same.

I paused over this.  Frankly, most anything that comes out of Fox is to be speculated upon and probably questionable in terms of factual data.  Polls? Utterly worthless.

But then I started to think....there are literally thousands of people in West Virginia who would readily tell you that life was better in 1966....than it is today.   Between corruption, drug use, and personal debt....they'd tell you the life of the 1960s and things were just simply better.

Then I come to this human condition that we rarely discuss....a lot of us aren't sitting around and trying to measure some kind of crap like this.  We get up at 5:30 AM.....working our way through breakfast, the plan for the day, and prioritizing things. 

We might have a donut and coffee around 10, and a salad at noon.  We bust our butt and listen to crap from marginally educated people who seem to supervise us, but only in the fake sense.  

We go home.....cut the grass, repair the garage door, buy groceries, listen to the spouse whine about their job, repair the kid's bike for the 40th time, and catch the 6 PM local news where they talk about wild dogs attacking people or some funky smell from the river.

We aren't exactly measuring things to say this year was better or worse than last year.  

When the dimwit calls us up at 7 PM....claiming to be such-and-such journalist or poll-guru...we aren't that impressed.  When the better or worse scenario is put in front of us....we aren't exactly using maximum brain cells, and that whisky-sour cocktail is kicking in.  To be honest, I might even admit I doubled-up on the whiskey today.  

Maybe if the guy had asked more questions....he would have found out that our dog died this year....that the transmission of the 2-year old car failed this year....that I've made 30-percent less pay this year due to Covid-work restrictions....or that since moving to Georgia four years ago....I've killed six snakes within the house.  There might be some actual reason why things are bad, but you just don't care about people, issues, or the past four years.

So frankly, the poll is meaningless to me. In fact, I kinda wonder why Fox hasn't asked me how I feel about them.  It wouldn't be a pleasant review that I'd give them. 

Will Hunter Biden Get Prosecuted?

 First, you'd have to define what crime was violated.  The only potential issues I see are money-laundering or tax troubles.  The cocaine use?  Not an issue.  You can't suggest any crime syndicate issues, or theft of any type.  Siphoning off cash from some bank or industry?  Nope.  

If he was connected to the money-laundering.....did he do it himself, or did he have low-level people do it?  If the money-laundering had nothing to do with cash flowing into the US, or out of the US.....there's not much to charge.

If he did stupid tax filings?   Normally....IRS would bring you in....give you a chance to correct the matter....file the right forms...pay some hefty fine, and 99-percent of the time avoid jail.  

In fact, the worst of this is that he has five million in secret money....that he didn't admit to the recent baby-situation that he had, and agreed to pay monthly payments for the kid.  That would drag him back into court, and ease the payments up a notch.

So the wildest fantasy here is that he did major money-laundering....way over $500 million, and a trail leads back to 'dad'.  In this case, he'd do a couple years of prison, and 'dad' would have to resign (if connected).  

Can anyone be this stupid, and lay a path easily detected?  Normally....not.  But if you were on cocaine binges....you could do a lot of stupid crap.  Maybe this is mostly what the story is about....a guy doped-up on cocaine so much....that he hasn't really grasped what he's doing or where this is going.  It's possible that if you asked him about events in 2013.....he doesn't remember a single thing.  

24 December: National Holiday?

 Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order that the 24th is a day off for fed workers.  

Having been in the military and GS world in my life....generally, the 24th is this oddball day.  More or less....nothing is happening.  

In 1978, at my first base....we kinda sat around the shop...drank coffee....eating cookies, and then around 11 AM, the boss said to go to chow, and don't return.

This process mostly repeated at every single base.  

At some point in the late 1980s, a new 'deal' came....half the shop would have the week prior to Christmas 'off' (meaning you couldn't travel beyond the local area but you could shop or just sit around the house).  The other half of the shop got the week after Christmas.  

As a governmental employee at the Pentagon?  Most folks took the day off (official leave).

I brought this topic up with a retired guy a few years ago....who worked for years around the hardware business.  He noted that the 24th was the most useless day of work in his profession....with absolutely no one showing up to buy anything on the 24th.  

Trump's deal?  It's just for 2020.  

Odds of repeating?  Maybe.  But it begs questions....shouldn't the 31st of December be treated the same way?  

Apartheid Grocery Stores?

 This week, some news group started up a chat over over a 'food apartheid system' existing in the United States.

The basic description?  You live in x-neighborhood where there's only gas stations, liquor shops, quickie-marts.  A real grocery?  Miles away.  

If you don't have a car, or the grocery doesn't offer much on 'discounts'....you are controlled in some fashion (like South African apartheid).

Somehow, they entwined this discussion over the fact that there aren't enough grocery stores in America....more or less.

I sat and pondered over this.  

There are four central faults with this suggestion:

1.  Who exactly is going to make the law to FORCE grocery stores to exist every two miles?

2.  Isn't this a urbanization problem?

3.  If you created this mass network of grocery stores....is there anything to indicate that it'd survive (profit-wise)? 

4.  Most folks around California will tell you that such grocery stores today are highly targeted by the homeless population.....who step in and shoplift $40 of food, with zero chance of doing jail-time.  The loss to the store?  It gets figured into the escalation for prices (this is why a can of Coke can be $2.20 when it ought to be no more than 80-cents).

A lot of this discussion seemed to give you the idea of Venezuela where they have grocery shelves that are mostly empty because the pricing system mandated by the state....makes it a highly unprofitable situation.   

I am reminded of a trip to NY City in the past five years....where I stepped into some local grocery shop near the hotel, to buy a six-pack of water.  For the no-name pack, with tax included....it was near $15.  If I wanted the name-brand, it was closer to $18.  I felt silly because in Germany, it wouldn't have been more than 6 Euro ($7) for the no-name six-pack.  

States That are Deeply Anchored with Welfare

 In this case, I'm talking per-capita...with gobankingrates as the source:

1.  NY state: $3,305

2. Alaska: $3,020

3. Massachusetts: $2,911

4. Vermont: $2,842

5. Minnesota: $2,805 

Note: Four of the five are fairly 'blueish' states.  Alaska has this unique issue of low population, limited number of jobs, and fairly expensive cost of living.

When More Irrational People Exist Than Rational People

 I had a college professor once (mid-1980s) who spent forty-five minutes one night dwelling on rational thoughts and the need for rational decisions.  It was basically a process where you had a 'defensive' mechanism to make sense of the world and it's complicated features.

In his structured discussion....the world had to have a much higher number of rational people, than irrational people.  The rational people would ensure things ran the way they were advertised (like democracy, capitalism, food supply, McDonalds, the NFL, and beer).

Somewhere toward the end of this chatter....some idiot in the room asked what happens when the irrational folks were more in number.  The response was....things would fall apart and nothing would make sense (like that group of topics....democracy, McDonalds, the NFL and beer).

2020 has been one of those years where I suspect the irrational crowd has grown, and flipped the system into a non-predictable situation.  Rational people are now a minority.

When you walk into a room of forty people....you used to eyeball things and say 31 men and 9 women were in the room.  Today, you have to figure trans and other oddball sexual groups into the 'eyeball-situation'.  There might only be 22 men and 6 women in the room, with 12 other odd people.

You might walk into a gas station where some lady is talking about the demon in her car ('Marvin' is his name), and trying to engage in conversation with the gas station clerk.

You might be at some church where deacons are asking you for your electrical consumption over the past year, and the minister is talking more about your power-use habits, than saving your soul.

You might be attempting to 'spark' (southern slang for dating) with some gal who wants to know your credit score, debt situation, and property situation.....more than your personal habits, your dancing agility, or your favorite character on Bonanza.

You might be talking to your 21-year-old son, who recently graduated from college, and discover after a one-hour chat....the kid is as dumb as 'rocks' and you kinda wonder where the $88,000 in tuition you gave him went.

It's a mess to clean up, if this world turns more irrational, than rational.  

Who Really Shot Seth Rich?

 I have a differing opinion than most people on the DC murder from four years ago.

So in my belief....if this was a Democratic operative, three minutes after shooting Rich, I would have his house-keys, entered his apartment ASAP, and stole his laptop.

Why the laptop?  It had the emails and info that would detail out the path between Rich and Wiki-Leaks. 

But that retrieval of the keys and laptop didn't happen.

The fact that Rich took a huge amount of time on this walk from the bar to his apartment?  I think he was talking to someone he knew, and there was some 'other' angle to their friendship or relationship....that has never fallen into public view.  

The FBI now admitting to the laptop?  Well....it would beg questions, but it's just odd that they state this possession now....instead of three years ago.  It begs questions.

Some foreign connection?  Nothing is suggested there, but you would have to wonder who was on the top-hundred 'friend' list that Rich had.  

What This Texas Lawsuit Over the Election is Really About

 Basically, respect.

Texas has a Constitution, and it regulates how elections (local, state and federal) will be held.  Each Texan can expect that the weight of their election affair....matches up with 49 other states.

Texas believes four states hold a unfair or corrupted 'deck of cards' in their hand, with four state Constitutions dictating how to run an election, and how the four states avoided that written process.  

The Supreme Court?  They have a very unique situation brewing and they don't have six months to go and do research over this.  

Solution 1?  You throw the case out and just say 'screw it' to Texas.  Texas starts a mess on 4 January that can only lead ultimately to succession or a massive change in US government.

Solution 2?  You admit the four states violated their state Constitutions, and corrupted the legal framework of elections....so that the other 46 states hold a 'bad hand' of cards.  Then you throw out the results of the states....suggesting that whatever number the state says they have....isn't a factual number.  This brings everything to 4 January, when the new House arrives in DC, and they vote state-by-state.

Appealing to the Supreme Court?  No.  Either way....you lose.  Riots start up and the talk of succession goes to the next level.  Most important case of the court since the 1850s?  Probably so.

Joseph Rainey, Slave, Barber, Capitalist, Congressman?

 This is one of those stories that ought to be made into a movie.  I'll limit it to 40 lines, but it ought to be a full hour of discussion.

Joseph Rainey was born as a slave in Georgetown, South Carolina in 1832.  His dad had this unique path laid out.  The father had also been a slave, but had worked up some deal where he apparently had talent as a barber. The deal was....'dad' could work independently, and a portion of his outside income went to the owner.  Most historians leave out the wealth side of this story, but it's assumed that 'dad' wasn't making this as a loss.  He had real money flow going on.

At some point (1840s), 'dad' had made the kind of income to go in and purchase freedom for himself, the wife, and two sons.  

The father and the sons?  They banded together and continued the barbering trade.  True capitalists would be a good description of the three.

Around age 27, Joseph set off and went to Philly.  He met up with a gal who was of West Indies heritage....marrying her.  They'd return to South Carolina a year later.

On the bad luck side, this would come right as the Civil War started up, and Joseph ended up being conscripted as support for the state during the war. 

About a year into this period, Joseph found the right ship....offered over the cash to get the family onboard, and left for Bermuda.  What got him to the escape point? Capitalism.

There, he went back to the barber business.  Five years pass.  The barbering business has done well...his wife has a business-front as well.  Joseph is recognized in the community (respected).  He may not be 'educated' but he understands business fronts, capitalism, etc.  At the end of this five year period...the war is over, and he decides to return to South Carolina.  Most folks would have just been happy where they were....he wasn't.

He goes back into the barber business in Charleston.  Two years pass, and he's now (1868) inside of the group who is writing the new South Carolina Constitution.  Former slave, barber, entrepreneur, capitalist.....just never accepting things as they are.

1870 comes around and he's elected as a state-senator, and heads up the state finance committee.  

A special election comes up in 1870 (just months after getting up for the state-senator job) and he ends being a Representative for the state....going to DC, as the first black House member.

One-term guy for the state?  No.  He does four terms in DC....leaving in 1879 (age 47).  He'd work for two years as a federal agent for the Treasury Department, and later work within the investment/banking business.  

He passed on in 1887 (age 55).  

The curious thing about his life on the return to Charleston and the years in DC....he was a Republican.  

It's a great story about a guy who just never accepted things as they are, and continued to pursue a better life (even as a barber). 

The Trouble With Numbers and Math

 Just a comical but factual thing to lay out.

Cambridge University decided that every single kid in the place (9,000-plus students) needed to be Covid-tested. 

Results?  ALL 9,000-plus students were identified with a positive (probably scared the crap out of their parents as the word came out).

We aren't talking 25-percent, or 50-percent.  This was 100-percent (in the end) with a 'positive' given on the test result.  

A second test was administered at this point.....it's best not to ask why they didn't accept the first test results.  In the second test?  NOT one single person was found to be positive.

The odds that both the 1st test and 2nd test are inaccurate?  Well....that's the thing you'd ponder about.

Logically, even on the second test, you should have had 1-percent show up with a true-positive.  

Will they do the test a third time?  The hint is no.  But I'm estimating the math professors are sitting there and grinning.....you can't have two tests, where one is absolutely 100-percent positive, and another being absolutely 100-percent negative.

Just something to think about. 

Example of a Good Stock

 Back on 8 Jan 1999, you could have bought 1-share of CNI (Canadian National Railway) for $4.55.  

On 15 Jan, 2010 (11 years later), the stock could have been sold for $26.83 per share.  

This week, that same single share would have been worth $110.65.  

You can do the math for 1999....buying up 500 shares, for less than $2,500.  Today, you'd have $55,325 (a 21-year investment situation that started with roughly $2,500 and nothing else put against it the whole time).  

I should add.....none of that gain has anything to do with the 1.5-odd percent dividend that you would have gotten yearly from the stock (that's the cherry on the cake).  

Still a good stock for today?  Well, it's more expensive.  But if you did the math....just 100 shares at 110.65, you'd spent around $11k.  

The odds in 2030?  $260 to $280 per share (unless it splits), so your value around the 10-year point ought to be near $28,000 (I'm picking the more optimistic view).  On top of that, you'd still collect the 1.5-percent dividend yearly (change in your pocket).  Even if it splits....you'd be holding 200 shares (not 100) and the value would be fairly near the same level.

The other plus-side?  Railway traffic for commercial goods in Canada isn't rocket-science, and there's presently no real competition or weird technology development to shake the market.  This is in a league by itself.  

Day-trader material?  No....it's the kind of stock (pricing currently) that you'd buy for a long-term hold.  

Downward trends?  You can pull up the chart, and readily predict about once a year, there's a correction period where it drops 10 to 15 percent (that usually scares the crap out of people).  In virtually every single drop, there's a 90-day recovery period, going back to the original level.....and then it adds on another 5-to-10 percent over the next 90 days.  The point is not to be that worried over a regular downward correction period.  

(Yeah, I do own 180-odd shares of it and consider it a long-holder.)

Looking For Flu Deaths? You Won't Find Them

 Just something to think about.

San Diego County (California), reports on 5 November, for the entire year on flu deaths....NO deaths.

In a normal year, up until the first week of November?  It would be three deaths (more or less, using 2019 data).  For all of 2019?  108 flu deaths in the county (the last two months of the year were a 'rush'). 

This is from KPBS.

You can probably go down every single county in the US, and find the same trend....virtually no flu-related deaths in 2020.  

Hunter Under Tax Probe?

 What's being said is that a fed investigation started up (US Attorney in Delaware).  Hunter Biden's state of residence (at least in the past) has been Delaware and that's where he would have filed state tax returns.  I won't vouch where his state of residence is today.  

Issues?  Presently (2020), if you work overseas for anyone....you are allowed 107,600 of tax-free status.  Once you go over the 107k.....the US tax code starts taxing you.  Each year, it goes up around $2k.  So in 2018, it was $103,900.  In these years of 2013/2014, I would take a fair guess it was around $96k a year.

The problem here for Hunter.....there's likely all this compensation stuff (free residence, etc), and there are certain ways that it can be handled, and reported.  If he had a 4-star tax accountant....they'd write the script and he'd just walk through this stupid fed investigation with no issues.

I would suggest....so far, Hunter hasn't been that bright, and those stupid laptops that he left (which are in the hands of the FBI).....gave a lot of tidbits over his travel business, his real pay, and compensation matters.  He might have written a decent tax return to avoid trouble, but if the FBI has dozens of other trails laid out and an extra two or three million dollars a year which he didn't declare....he's got trouble.

Compensation going to a foreign country business front?  Some guys would go and make such a front and fake their returns enough to show marginal income, while their business front was the real vehicle of making income.  Did Hunter get into this game?  Unknown.  Again, it's the matter of what the laptops did show as a trail.

Finally, you come to this one odd thing with that lawsuit over the kid that he had with that DC gal.  Hunter had to show what his value was in court and swear by that.  If stuff comes up to show that was a lie?  Well...the DC gal will take him back into court and he's a bigger mess to clean (not just the FBI).  

How I Identified With Trump

 To be blunt, there are a hundred things with President Trump that I see as a negative.  But curiously, if you lined up Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, and Joe Biden....I see various negative issues...just in other ways and designs.  

There are five key things about Trump that I tended to identify myself in the same fashion:

1.  I hate incompetence.  If you were just juvenile-like and capable of improving with me giving you advice and bettering yourself?  Fine....I'd give you time to improve yourself and move beyond incompetence.  If you didn't have the drive or enthusiasm....I'd be suggesting that job at Burger King to flip burgers.

Yeah, I would be firing folks every week, without any hestitation.

2.  I frankly don't give a damn about your sex, race, religious business, tattoos, piercings, etc.  I would kinda hint to you that you need to wear business attire (no tennis shoes), and show up on time.  If this meant that I had a work-force of 60-percent women....fine.  If it meant that I had 33-percent Taiwanese-Americans in the organization....so be it.  

I might not hire you if you had some dragon tattoo on your head, or stained teeth, or wore the color purple in your interview attire.  If you had sixteen tattoos over the unseen part of your body....fine with me.  

3.  Wars frankly don't settle things if they just continue on, and on, and on.  It's a waste of manpower and resources.  If you've been in some fake stage of war and just 'treading' through daily affairs of your nation....something is wrong.  

4.  On empathy, there's real empathy and fake empathy.  After a while, people see through your act if you are big into fake empathy.  About half of the Senators there in DC....have fake empathy.  My respect for them?  Almost zero.  

5.  Journalism over the past thirty years has fallen apart, and what people perceive today as 'news'....simply isn't 'news'.  To be honest, you can put the bulk of what is delivered today...into a encapsulated 20-minute delivery.  The rest?  Just fake news.  I don't want to shame any networks, but it might be helpful if they just turned the power off to the networks from 10 PM until 7 AM.  

Dead Voter Topic

 I tried to make sense out of this.  A bill was drafted up and entered (meaning it'll be talked about but never voted upon) by a Texas Republican Congressman (Brian Babin).

The bill basically says that only living Americans can vote, period.  It would exclude dead people.

Intellectual folks and journalists would say that this is a joke and shouldn't even be publicly discussed.  The problem is...if you walked around the nation, probably over 40-percent of people believe that dead people regularly vote in elections.  

Proof?  About every year....a dozen-odd stories come out, and some crazy story of a dead guy (for at least five years) has voted at least twice (always by absentee).  

Right now....just in Michigan....there's talk of a 2,000-plus folks who voted but were certified as dead.

The odds of this bill passing?  Zero.  Maybe in two years when the House flips to Republican-majority?  Maybe. 

But who exactly is going to enforce this?  The FBI?  That's a joke. 

Will they arrest anyone for dead-voting?  It's very unlikely.

Will judges send dead folks off to prison?  No.

Will some idiot journalists take up the rights of the dead voters, and suggest to you via some forum....that you are exhibiting some type of necrophobia-hated, and it's racist in some way?  

Eventually, some idiot will research the topic....to find that nine out of ten dead voters are white, and that it's virtually impossible to find Republican Latino dead voters.  

This will all end with some TV personality starting up a séance show where dead folks communicate back with the living folks....voicing their political feelings and that they desire to be heard one more time on voting.  It's at this point that we learn that Uncle Ernest who was an iron-clad Republican for 88 years....recently after his death....he converted over to far-left liberal, and smokes weed in heaven.  

Banana-republic stuff?  Yeah....same level as you'd expect in Paraguay.  

Vaccination Story

 A House of Representatives member (Democrat John Delaney of Maryland) wants to offer up a $1,500 'bonus', if you'd just go and take the Covid-19 vaccination.  

You and your wife?  $3,000.

He says we need a incentive to 'force' people along the way.

I sat and paused over this idea.

The fact that we don't require an ID for voting....probably suggests that the same requirement would exist for the Covid vaccination.  So 'Marty' would show up....maybe up his address and fake name...getting the vaccination and a week later....getting the $1,500 in the mail

After day or two.....'Marty' would think....why not go and give an alias name, same address, and get a second vaccination, with a second $1,500.

The next day, 'Marty would think, why not go and get a 3rd vaccination and $1,500 check.

At the end of 30 days, 'Marty' has accomplished 30 vaccinations and collected $45,000 from the government.

For the second month....'Marty' decides two vaccinations' are now possible...collecting $90,000 for the month.

For the third month, 'Marty' has divided the day into four visits, and is getting 120 vaccinations for the month, and gets $180,00 for month.

'Marty' starts to have a reaction by the middle of the 4th month, and ends up at some highly classified military hospital in Nevada.  He won't provide any data or facts....over 220-plus vaccinations that he's had in the past four months.  Scientists connected to the hospital fear that the two known shots that he's had....are leading to some serious medical condition called 'Covid-maximus'.  

This idea of paying people?  Why not go to the next level and just pay folks $1,500 for doing nothing illegal for twelve months?

Iran Story

 This is one of those rare stories where you see an element of technology used....that has never been seen before.

So a few weeks ago....the number nuclear scientist of Iran got 'whacked'.  On the potential 'bad-boy' list of people who might have been a threat to help develop nuke weapons in Iran....he was considered number one.

Iran officials went to the site of the attack.  The guy's car (limo) was going from point A to point B, in some desert situation.  It's a rural area, and nothing much there.  

Guy's wife was in the car and sitting in the backseat....I assume in the passenger's side (not the drivers side). 

What the Iranian police say is that it's an odd situation.  No one was physically there....to fire the bullets from the 'machine gun'.

There was simply a pick-up parked on the side of the road....with the rear end facing approaching traffic.  There was apparently some type of satellite dish there, and a computer-hook-up to the machine gun.

Remote control assassination?  Yes.  Some kind of fancy camera device and relay system sending the video back to the satellite, and onto some lab in another location?  Yes

Bunch of rounds fired?  Well....no.  The Iranians suggest 13 shots total....were fired.  

The wife in this case?  None of the rounds came within a 1.5 foot of the lady.

The problem here?  You start to draw up these scenarios....a construction crew arrives at some building and puts a small dish up on the roof, and puts a fake-looking 'box' on the side of the building with a camera or two....with a gun.  Then weeks and months pass by, and one day.....political figure X drives by and the gun takes the guy out.  Police come.....look at the set-up and then realize it's been there and active for a year or two....just waiting for the right day.

It's a bold new era, where some guy could assassinate some figure from 1,000 miles away.  

This 26-Percent 'Program'?

 What came out over the weekend, after testing a particular Georgia voting machine (the tabulator)....is that if you put 50 Biden votes and 50 Trump votes into the system....the tabulator always came to say that Biden had 63 votes (Trump then had 37 votes).

They did this on multiple tests of the tabulator in question, and it always delivered 26-percent more for Joe Biden.

So the question is.....nationally, do we have a tabulator malfunction or code situation where Joe always gets an extra 26-percent?

If so, and with the Joe Biden vote-count of 81-million....might it be 26-percent off, and Joe actually ONLY has 59-million votes (a fair number less than Hillary or Barak ever had)?  

Well....this crazy suggestion is sitting there and you have to wonder if they find other machines outside of Georgia (in Wisconsin, Michigan or Arizona), and they have the same tabulator problem of 26-percent. 

Self Driving Topic

 The Volkswagen CEO came out this past week and said between 2025 and 2030....he expects self-driving cars to be a happening thing.

He doesn't say that folks will ask for the option, or that it would be affordable.  In fact, he doesn't suggest the price-tag for this option.

Will it even be authorized in US or European markets?  There's been an order given by the German government for regulations to be created in the next couple of years and prepare for this.  

So this scenario would start to unfold.  You'd walk into a Volkswagen display area, and here is X-model which features self-driving.  You'd ask questions...to find that the government has authorized it and it's an option.  Then some guy would quote you the price (probably more than $5k), and you'd just grin and walk away.

Two years would pass, and you'd now find the option is more like $2.5k, and you might be willing to pay this.

What you'd discover is that you still sit in the driver's seat, but mostly sit there with a cup of coffee....watching some episode of 'Three's Company' or reading all of your office e-mails over the forty-minute drive.  The car pulls safely into the parking lot, and detects the closest parking spot to the front door (your preferred program instruction).  

After four months of this, you are pretty much sold on the whole concept, and will never drive any car other than this. 

Eventually, you start putting the seat down and sleeping the whole way to work each day.  

After five years of this....you basically come to admit one day....you've lost all of your driving skills and can't operate a car.  

At that point, the car companies have you in a bind....you can't go back to the old way, and they can raise the self-driving option another $5k to $8k, with no real argument from you.

Just Ten Observations

 1.  About one-third of comedians that exist today....aren't that funny (at least in my humble view).  A lot of this has to do with networks and programing which is reaching a desperate stage and willing to put on a two-star comedian with a shelf-life of six months.  

2.  Just because you make a law....doesn't mean a sheriff or police chief will allocate man-power to enforce it.  We are probably reaching a stage where one out of every four laws created....will just sit there on a shelf, with no one enforcing it.  In this case, is it even worth the political cost to accomplish such a law? 

3.  Does Disney own Fox News/Fox Business?  Yes.  This deal was done in the spring of 2019.  Most people missed the announcement, and are fairly shocked to find out that Disney runs the network.

4.  This 'civil war' we are in....it's more about persuasion, 'dirty' political tricks, and misinformation....than actual warfare.

5.  How long did Blockbuster survive?  Well....from the first initial shop (1985)....it was mostly spiraling after 2000, and 'dead' by 2010. Cable TV and streaming video doomed it for the final ten years.

You have twenty-old 'kids' today asking what the hell was Blockbuster, and you sit there....it was your 'must-have' situation in 1995 and you rented six to eight movies every single month.  

6.  If we'd ever put as much emphasis on rubber condoms as we did on forcing everyone to wear masks....we could wipe out sexual disease in 100 days.  Our slogan ought to be 'wear a mask and a rubber'.  Course, if masks don't work, then the odds are that condoms probably won't work that well either.  

7.  Are folks sitting around the house in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis....quietly triggering more than average day-trading?  Some numbers are suggesting this (it's not something that normally is tracked that much).  A Covid-19 'bubble' in the financial world being created?  Well....it's just an odd thing to consider.  Guys sitting at home....who ought to be doing Home-Office, and wasting two hours a day (supposedly in work)....doing a fake wave situation.

8.  The Moderna Covid-19 vaccination offering only three to four months of decent immunity?  Well....that's the story out in the news today.  It begs the question...would we have to go and do three to four shots per year?

9.  NBC News says that US intelligence is blabbering over a report that says China has a new agenda.....'people testing' going on with the Chinese army....trying to make soldiers with "biologically enhanced capabilities." 

Fact or fiction?  Unknown.  It sounds like something that the KGB would make up and pass around as fake news for the CIA to accidentally 'discover'.  If true?  Steroids would likely be somewhere in the middle of this, and developing a bunch of medical issues for Chinese ex-soldiers as they get into the mid-30s....with rage issues.  

10.  The US Space Force was all set to announce it's ranking system and preferred titles for each rank.....then Congress got involved....dictating that rank addresses have to be naval-related.  

Yeah, it was pretty much set to be Air Force-related.  Now?  It's all in a discussion stage, with the former Air Force quietly grumbling that they have to adapt to naval terms. 

Can Santa Make It?

 In the midst of the Covid-19 era, the topic of Santa ought to come up.

First, can Santa survive Covid-19 or because of his unhealthy lifestyle (over-eating, lot of soda-drinking, etc)....is he a 'goner'?

Second, can Santa cross over the New York state line without a Covid-19 test?  Will he have to wait two weeks in some Brooklyn quarantine situation?  Will the governor just give him a waiver?

Third, will Covid-19 affect the elves?

Fourth, can the reindeer be affected by Covid-19?  If so, can we get Ford to engineer some type of clean-fuel delivery vehicle for Santa before the evening of the 24th?

Fifth and final....if Santa has Covid-19 symptoms and touches 15 million toys....will the virus 'critters' survive the delivery phase and infect 300-million kids world-wide?  Would it be wise to wipe clean (with Ajax or Windex) all toys that Santa delivers?

Forever Wars and Consequences

 When I joined the Air Force in 1977....Vietnam had been over for roughly 3 years.  Over the next ten years of my life, I'd continually run into some guys who'd been in SW Asia, and the topic of the war would come up.  By the late 1980s...most of these people were gone (either via retirement, alcohol issues, or stress issues).  

I worked with major who'd been through five DWIs and had been directed to Panama for the final four years of his career (the AF was doing him a favor....at least in their mind).  All he had to is show up 2 times a week to fly for 45 minutes, and pretend his way around as 'safety-officer'.  His wife was supposed to drive him around....they trusted him enough to fly a plane, but not to drive a car (go figure).  

On a late afternoon, after a beer or two....he'd launch into any of 300-odd stories of his two tours of duty (Vietnam and Thailand).  The tours and the events stuck with him....ten to fifteen years later.  I often wondered what happened to him after the retirement.  Maybe he settled down in Florida and would spend afternoons at the VFW....consuming cocktails and sharing war stories with other vets.  

Once Desert Storm started up....the forever wars started.  There were countless little deployment activities that consumed tens of thousands of GI's.  Some were fairly serious, with stringent rules of no booze, and marginal safety.  Some were in zones where beer readily flowed and it was almost a party zone. 

A year in these war zones....would consume some people.  They would return back to their normal job and be someone you never knew.  They would complain about sleep (sometimes never getting more than three consecutive hours of sleep).  Some would have hearing problems from the AC unit next to their tent which ran 24 hours a day, for the whole 365 day tour.  Some would be addicted to Monster high-caffeine drinks....guzzling down six a day.  

Officers would be told over and over....to advance your career....you needed a tour to a forever war....to be at this level, or guide x-number of folks.  Two months into the tour, they'd be writing a causality report....explaining how these five guys in the unit were wounded in action....and that each deserved such-and-such medal.  Around six months into the tour, you'd lose your prospective and start counting days till your tour ended.  

The problem was....forever wars simply led onto a second forever war, and then onto a third forever war.

I worked around a Marine who'd done five tours since 1997.  He had four years to go for retirement and figured he'd have to do a minimum of one tour....maybe two....before the end.  He had a list of ailments...all documented...all related to back issues.  He figured a year after retirement....he'd turn the info over and collect a disability payment on top of his retirement.  Resolving the issues?  Other than pain-relievers, there wasn't much the Marines could do.

The four years?  Trump kinda led the Pentagon down this unique path.  He wanted the forever wars to actually end.  The generals?  Well....they've been conditioned to favor the forever wars because there's money to be made for hardware or contracting.  So Trump has basically led the other path....the forever war will end, and you will just pack up to return to the US.  

With Biden?  I suspect his people in the background favor the forever war business....having little understanding of the impact, consequences, or cost-factor.  

As for the folks in Afghanistan?  The sad thing here is that you only a thousand dimwits with juvenile 'war-zest' in their gut, and they can make everything miserable for the nation.  You'd basically need to lead the thousand out to some life end-point and put them out of their misery....to settle the safety and security for the 99.99 percent of Afghans. 

On this one topic, Trump is correct.  This routine of the forever war 'dance' has close down.  Enough is enough.