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.