How Biden 'Court-Packing' Might Go

 At some point in early 2022....I kinda expect President Biden to announce two additional Supreme Court Justices to be added, with their names forwarded to the Senate to accomplish (naturally, both are Democrats)....so this would bring the court officially to 11 members.

By the end of 2022, I expect two folks to pass on within the court (one Republican and one Democrat), with both replaced by Democratic judges.

Then in 2025, I expect the incoming Republican President to announce more court-packing....adding four names to the list (all Republicans) and bring the total to 15 members.

Then in 2029, with a new Democratic President, I expect more court-packing, with four names added, and bringing the total up to 19 members.

Around 2037, folks will remark that 29 Justices are a bit too much and ask if we have that much work for them to do.  

Observations

 1.  After a brief internal conversation within the Pentagon, they decided that giving the Gitmo prisoners a priority on the Covid-19 vaccinations...ahead of vets....probably wasn't that wise of an idea.  So they were moved back down to the regular status (they won't say when but it probably won't happen before summer).

2.  United Airlines suggests that come spring....up to 14,000 folks will be furloughed (not much is said over how long).  This would be the big indicator to say that regular air travel in the next six months simply won't happen.  

3.  Iowa passed a law that schools MUST reopen by 15 Feb.  Odds of this happening?  Teacher union will probably seek some delay or perhaps go via a strike.  

4.  This whole GameStop stock manipulation discussion by the SEC?  Mostly (99-percent) bogus.  There's not a single insider or GameStop employee that can say they are involved.  Normally, in all past manipulations (going back a hundred years)....some insider played a key role.  

Oh, I agree....both the SEC and Congress will investigate this....like they did the 2008 mortgage crisis and bank failures, but if you remember....nothing much happened in 2009/2010, and that's the way this is lining up.  Add to it....if you quizzed all 435 House members and 100 Senators....only around ten of them could answer a simple basic quiz on 'shorts'.  I would even add that most ex-bankers or people claiming vast experience in financial affairs that are politicians....know really know next to nothing about the 'shorts' business.  

5.  A study was done on the top ten most dangerous neighborhoods in America (NO-GO zones).  

Seven of them are in California (four in L A, three in SF).  Portland got on the list.  Kansas City rated for two of them.  Oddly, neither Chicago or Detroit made the list. As bad as some folks in Memphis think they have it.....they also didn't make the list. 

6.  Russian population decline?  Well....in the past twelve months, Russia will readily admit that 500k people have packed up and left.  Some of this is based on economics.....some based on people with real wealth just figuring out that life is better beyond the border.  The odds that this will lessen in 2021?  I wouldn't be betting on it settling or halting.....it'll probably be near the same number who exit in 2021.

7.  Some ranking member of the Iranian political establishment (remember, it's 99-percent influenced by the religious business) admitted in a conversation that various members had consulted 'genies' (commonly referred to in Iran as 'Jinns').

I should state this as a fact.....Jinns are viewed in Iran as good or evil.  It's simply a spirit.  

Yes, they are admitting that the Jinns have guided them in some way....so if they failed or succeed....the credit or blame would go to the Jinn.  Maybe the House Democrats in the US should ask about this Jinn business....to get the blame dumped off their back.

8.  The WHO team visiting the Wuhan market for the first time since the virus outbreak thirteen months ago?  Well.....yeah.  It was a staged visit this past week.....probably a fairly cleaned up affair and only a minor demonstration of what was there before.  

One gets the impression that the WHO keeps a dog-and-pony show team around....just to make appearances like this.

Addicted to 'Shorts'

 At some point, around 2011, I was associated with a co-worker who was connected around six hours a day to the stock market.  He'd actually go leave the confines of the vaulted area....get his smart-phone, and review the stock market while sitting in a wi-fi area.  

He and I would have a short conversation at least twice a week....over stock trends.  He was a smart guy.....I would readily admit that. 

But he was obsessive and compulsive about this business.  There was a minimum of one stock trade made daily (usually for $2k to $5k), and it was clear that he was in the day-trader type behavior.  

I asked about profits in a year, and he figured (at least for the last year or two)....he was clearing around $100k a year on the plus side.  It was like a Vegas-game to him....he knew the odds and had his trade capability geared to sell within a minute or two after he sent the order in.  Somedays, he was clearing a thousand dollars profit....somedays maybe five-thousand in profit....and then some days there was the two-thousand loss situation.  

He was reaching a new level of obsession, where 'shorts' were now on his mind. 'Shorts' mean more home-work.....more guessing to future trends, and potentially putting in his mind....at least $10k into the bucket.  

By the time I'd left the Pentagon....he'd done a dozen of these, and 'winning' the majority of them.  

Just in his behavior, I think he was dumping the day-trader behavior in favor of the 'shorts' path to riches.

This week, with all the upswing with GameStop....if you looked at the month-long trend, from $19 a share to $350 a share....the 'short' guys would have come out in force and laid down billion to double-guess that it'd all collapse by yesterday (the last day of business for January).  

Total loss on shorts yesterday because GameStop didn't collapse?  Twenty-odd billion dollars (so they say) minimum.  Some are putting the numbers nearer to seventy-billion dollars.  

It's an incredible number of people pissed-off.  Some people probably were a quarter-million in the hole, and will have to appear in front of their spouse....explaining this sudden loss of capital.

My former associate?  I have no idea what he's been up to....but at a bare minimum, he probably had at least $20,000 bet on a short. He might have been fairly stupid and put $100k up.

The problem here...is a massive mental syndrome going on, with the idea that you know 'shorts' up and down, and can feel 90-percent confident in putting down $10k, $20k, or $100k.....that's it's a virtually guaranteed payoff or 'win'.  And in this case....a massive loss.

The need for Congress or the banking industry to hold meetings and investigate this?  What?  You will investigate stupid idiots who aren't thinking clearly, filled with high-risk behavior, and can't handle money?  Then you go and suggest that you need to make laws that only high-risk people can buy stock and will do to with mature behavior?  Oh, please.....what a joke.

A nation of addicted behavior folks, and we have to listen to Congressmen/Senators feel sorry for them?  No, we don't need this level of incompetent leadership.  

Footnote:  I don't think the bad-boys who handled GameStop are done, and you might see this repeat five or six times this year.  

'Green Zone' Mentality

 To ensure the protection of the Baghdad 'Green Zone'.....they would eventually put up concrete barriers and significant fencing....to say that everything within the zone was 'safe'.

So yesterday, if you follow DC news....the acting chief of the Capital Police said in a statement...a permanent security fence has to now exist in DC.

The need for back-up forces?  Yes, that got mentioned as well.

What I'll predict?  I'll make five predictions:

1.  The Capital Police get bumped up from 2,000 personnel to 3,000 by the end of 2021, 4,000 by 2022, and to 5,000 to 6,000 by 2023.

2.  There will be some secondary group attached them, probably to be referred to as Capital 'Minute-Men'....a military-like civilian group of fifteen-hundred-odd personnel, with armored vehicles, APCs, etc....based within the newly created DC 'Green Zone'.  

3.  Some kind of 'Green Zone' will exist to circle the White House, and angle eastward along Pennsylvania Avenue....protecting the DC 'State-House' created, the FBI building, the old Post Office building (currently the Trump Hotel), and ending around the Capital building/Supreme Court area.  Union Station and the various subway areas used for tourism will be left.  International guests will be shocked at the amount of security, and suggest that the nation is under permanent siege.

4.  The amount of security will reach a level that Senate/House staff members can't readily enter with ease, and some will suggest permanently moving their staffs beyond DC itself (into Virginia or Maryland).

5.  The 'Green Zone' mentality will not end at DC.  Various cities and states will funnel tens of billions into security fencing around city halls, and state houses.  At least a dozen states by 2024 will have siege-patrols ready to go with armored vehicles and a hundred military-garbed personnel prepared for massive action in each zone.

All of this reaching a comical belief by the public that an invasion is imminent, but it's not by the North Koreans, Nazis, Chinese, or Russians. 

The Bickering Era

 It's a great piece written by Laura Hollis on Townhall....entitled: 'America Grows Sick on a Diet of Propaganda and Political Theater'.  I'd strongly recommend a read.

She basically drives at the logic that what we see on TV and via the media....is mostly fake news and scripted propaganda.  Her end-point is that the nation has a lack of leadership, which I'd readily agree with.

For ten to fifteen years, I've essayed a number of pieces which lay out the trend of poor communication, hype, and indoctrination.  It's reached a level in the past year or two....where even local news has stepped in and tried to be 'tools' of indoctrination as well.

Trying to sell newspapers or magazines today?  People are going to the mindset of just saying 'no' and refusing to buy the propaganda pieces.  As a news magazine, there's virtually no real profit being generated, and most are falling apart.  

Looking for viewers for your news network on cable?  A lot of them have quit CNN and Fox.  

How we survive the next four years with the current landscape?  Unknown.  If you were looking for a lessening of propaganda machines, or political bickering....I don't think you will find it.  Neither Biden or Harris have proven much in the past at leadership skills.  My suspicion is that whatever level of frustration we have today...will only double over the next couple of years.  

How I See News Media Ratings Over the Next Two Years

 Since early January, I've been thinking over the news media in the US, and where things are going for two years, and I have five observations:

1.  Fox won't be coming back....at least in the sense that they think they might 'recover'.  I do agree....maybe by mid-summer this year, around a quarter of the people quit Fox entirely....will go and find one or two Fox-players to connect with.  The bulk of Fox?  Screwed throughout 2021 and 2022.  

The more expensive contract players?  Go expect most of them to be edged out by the end of 2021, and Fox admitting that profits are down.  Some no-name folks will get their chance, and life will go on.

2.  CNN will admit by the end of 2021...that things are awful boring without Trump.  They will also admit that they don't see anything much with the Biden accomplishments to report.  

In simple terms....forty-percent of CNN's enthusiasm will dry up and you will be having five-person forums talking about college campus dorm life, lack of comfort in Ford pick-up seats, the sodium-level in canned chili, the realization that not many blacks live in Butte, Montana, and chatter over the 1912 Presidential election.  Even CNN management will agree, there's just anything much to report.

3.  Most all of the big names in journalism will be hard-pressed going into 2022 to explain why people aren't happy about the economy.  It'll be suggested as some big Scooby-Doo mystery and that consumers would not understand the whole landscape.  

4. Journalists will act shocked when discovering the 10-to-20 million newly visa'ed 'guests' of America....who had black-work going on prior to the Biden-visa business.....now have no real employment opportunity.

When the journalists go to the black-work employers....they will just state the obvious...they can't possibly pay $15 an hour for untrained labor.  Trying to tell this story?  It'll just go in circles and be written by 5th-grade mentality news people.

5.  Finally, the landscape of 'fake news'?  It'll continue throughout 2021 and 2022.  I would suggest that more than three-quarters of all Americans have a 'mute-mentality' now over the news and refuse to believe about half of what they are told.  

Trying to sell people newspapers or news magazines?  It'll be a very difficult process to turn a profit.  

This Biden Commission on Studying the Supreme Court

 First, no one is really sure what he intends to get out of the Commission.  Nor is anyone sure that he'd accept even one suggestion from such a commission.  Nor is anyone confident that 'fixing' the Supreme Court would really go far in fixing anything or just making it ten times worse.

If I were offering advice?  I'd have eight suggestions:

1.  Once 'elected' to the Supreme Court....you'd have a 3,650 day cycle (10 years), and then you'd be forced into retirement on the 3,651st day.  No extensions, no waivers.

2.  The dozen regional appeals courts?  I'd dump them and have 50 appeals courts (one for each state), with no more than 3 members per group.  I'd mandate that you have to have been a citizen of that state for more than 20 years before getting appointed to the regional state appeals court, and at least one member of this federal appeals court must be appointed by the governor of that state, while the other two are Presidentially appointed.  Again, a 3,650 day cycle.

3.  I'd move the US Supreme Court out of DC.  There's no reason for it to be there.  I'd put in some central location like Nashville, St Louis, or Dayton.  

4.  I'd mandate that the appointment to the Supreme Court must come by your 60th birthday.  Beyond that, you'd be disqualified for the position.

5.  I'd mandate that there would be a total of eleven on the Supreme Court, but only nine to hear individual cases and be responsible for the outcome.  If health issues or disqualifications were to occur, one of the two 'subs' would be standing there to hear the case, and be the 'back-up'.  I'd also mandate that around the 5th year of service....you'd be forced into a 90-day vacation (whether you liked it or not), with the 'sub' filling your slot.

6.  All confirmation hearings would be held in private.  That would mean the 'candidate', twelve chosen Senators, zero reporters, no Senator entourage folks, and no security people in the room.  Yes, totally sealed.  No drama televised nationally, or fake accusations.  If witnesses are scheduled....same deal....a sealed room.  If the six Republicans and six Democrats can't come to a conclusion, then you halt the process.  They would get another chance at another candidate in 100 days.  If they failed then, they'd get another candidate in 100 days.

7.  I'd drug-test the Judges on a random basis....once a year.  Failure to pass it?  I'd give you an exit-pass, and  you leave.

8.  I'd make a simple rule, if three of your fellow judges on the court said you were 'nuts', you'd be required to take a evaluation and take a 90-day pause in  your work.

Civility Discussion

 One of my top twenty characters of history is George Washington.  I admired the guy because he spent an awful lot of time....thinking and reflecting upon things.  Unlike Jefferson who spent a fair amount of time reading through books....Washington had a lot of conversations with people (chats).  His perceptions in life were built upon these chats.

At some point, he wrote this list of 'rules', and it had to do more with civility than anything else.  

For the past year, I've reflected a lot over the loss of civility in society, and how a fair number of Americans are not able to sit in the same room with various people because they are 'different'. 

So I pulled out the 110 rules that Washington wrote down.  Some of them are interesting to review, and some might be worth remembering.

Example: Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hastily. Before and after drinking, wipe your lips; breathe not then or ever with too great a noise, for its uncivil.

Example: Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.

Example: Be not apt to relate news if you know not the truth thereof. In discoursing of things you have heard name not your author always a secret discover not.

Example: Go not thither, where you know not, whether you shall be welcome or not. Give not advice without being asked & when desired do it briefly.

The chief problems in this modern era?  After a fair amount of pondering over the past year, I'd say we have four basic issues, which would need a lot of repair....because of our frustrations.  The four?

1.  Too much is going on without people having a face-to-face communication. You have some idiot on Twitter who goes off to insult 800k people, and if they'd had to face each of the 800k....they probably would have soften the insult by 90-percent.  

2.  People with the behavior-level of a 5th-grade kid....are trying to pretend they are mature enough or adult enough....to carry on a crusade or 'drama'.  Their audience attaches themselves to the crusade for a while....then realizes the fakeness or poor maturity, and then the whole thing collapses in a matter of days or weeks.

3.  Bullying is national trend.  You could be standing in the aisle of Piggly Wiggly grocery, and have some childish behavior occur, and suddenly there's a five-star act of bullying going on.  You could be sitting in a church group, and suddenly find your minister behaving more like a bully than an actual minister.

4.  With the amount of drama now put into serious chatter....if you asked enough questions, you'd find the guy in front of you with the serious mindset....really doesn't know that much about the topic.  He's standing there with a 3x5 inch index card of information.  So a lot of this missing civility....is due to people marginal information?  I would bet on half of society falling into this category.

We are messed up, but I don't see how the landscape changes for the future.  

Useless Classes, Training, Seminars, Etc

 I'm 62, and can look back over the entire era to note probably a hundred useless efforts to teach something of marginal or zero value.

There was the science classes between the sixth and ninth grades....where I could probably fill out a 3 x 5 inch index card with actual information retained.  I did note that the teacher tried every angle possible to skip the evolutionary chapter in the book....as each year passed, and I knew next to nothing about that point of science.  Luckily in the 1980s....I watched a few hours of PBS shows, where evolution finally was explained in detail.  

There was the continued Air Force training routines on chemical warfare....that occurred almost yearly (roughly 18 times over 22 years) and after about the fifth class....it was a waste of time.  

There was the sensitivity training that I got at the Pentagon, which didn't seem to really have any affect on me.

There was the three-hour seminar that the Air Force gave me once....on how to pack a pallet correctly, secure it, plastic-wrap-it, and ensure the warning labels were attached.  That was pretty much wasted because I was never supposed to be on any pallet crew.  

There was the Air Force seminars on 'I'm Ok and you are Ok'....which led to group sessions where everyone shared how they felt Ok.  I just kinda noted for the group that I was Ok before I came to the class, and was going to be Ok after I left the class.

There was the three-hour seminar where the Air Force taught me how to run the exercise bike and fitness-test people.  Over a three-month period, I tested forty people.  Every single smoker passed the test.  About a third of my test-crowd who were non-smokers....failed.  I could never get the base expert to explain why this occurred, and he would handle the failure folks on the second attempt.

There was a 8-minute explanation given on how to operate a forklift, and then 'Snuffy' signed off on my training package and I was Air Force-qualified to operate forklifts.  The rubber-wheel/steel-wheel roller?  That took twenty minutes to say I was qualified.  

I took an entire year of horticulture in high school.  To be honest, there's more or less nothing of value that I took out of the class.  Plants grow, and plants die.  The instructor ended giving me mostly B's but I have no idea how this miracle occurred.  

I took a class in logic (101) in college.  It was taught by some visiting Italian professor.  Around the third class, I got the impression that what I needed to know....mostly came from the Star Trek series, and watching what Spock said.  Beyond that....the class was totally worthless.  

I took a rock science course in college....taught by some nutcase dinosaur-digger professor who was in between digs in Montana.  It was mostly all worthless information but helped to fill my requirements for a degree.  I felt silly on the $120 I paid for the tuition (I think the Air Force felt even sillier because they paid $360 on their part).

Exiting Facebook

 Back around 2009, I started a Facebook account but really didn't have any real feeling for it.  There were certain old co-workers that I looked up and found.  There were a few current folks that I signed up as 'friends'.  

But somewhere in 2018, I just started to see Facebook as having marginal or zero value.  They were using me, or my 'friends' as part of some routine to sell something to someone (it was just never clear who that was).

I'd get recommended 'news', which I'd look over and consider to be 90-percent propaganda.  Throughout 2016's election, I saw this over and over. 

Toward spring of 2020.....I just kinda quit reviewing Facebook (maybe one visit every four weeks became the norm).

Around Christmas, I just said 'enough', and by the early part of 2021....I quit (deleting my data as I parted). 

I haven't had any massive urges or felt negative about the act of quitting.  It was not anything really of value.  

I look over the politicization of the past year or two with Facebook, and just kinda laughed.  It was behavior of a 12-year-old kid in running their program, and obviously slanted in some way.  If you wanted me to list a hundred things that we probably don't need anymore (like 8-track tapes, Atlas maps under the car-seat, or CB-radios)....yeah, Facebook would probably be on that list. 

Chatter on Inequalities

 Not that I pay much attention to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) and the DAVOS summit....but it came up today, with French President Macron speaking, and saying....well....that modern capitalism "can no longer work".

All of this chatter that he did....most centered on things just seeming to be more unequal and inequality existing more than it was before.

So he wanted to encourage folks....as we jump up into the woeful Covid-19 fixing....we ought to center our efforts on fighting 'evil' inequalities and capitalism.

The neat thing about this virtual DAVOS  deal....most everyone sat back in their country, and they didn't have to waste various evenings drinking expensive Champaign, or eating off a $150 plate of food, or listening to scandal-plagued dull people for hours.  

This unequal business?  Folks spend a fair amount of time wanting to educate you about this, and generally.....even in France....most regular working-class people will remark (up until the Covid-era) that they were doing fairly well and probably better off than a decade ago.  Course, they'd also admit that tax-wise, it's an enormous pain to pay French taxes (the VAT is 20-percent). They'd also admit the car registration tax is hefty.  They'd also admit that the tax for regular people (27.5k Euro to 74k Euro) of 30-percent is pretty crappy (meridique)

I would imagine that the French folks would like to educate the political folks how to cut spending and reduce the taxation business.....to lessen inequalities upon them.  But the politicians really don't have the time or patience to learn about this cutting business.

Just my humble thoughts.  

That Proud Boys Story

 For most of 2017 to the sixth of January....I loosely followed the branded-group "the Proud Boys".  There were branded in some way as a far-right extremist 'group'.

Their boss or leader?  Around late-November 2018.....Henry "Enrique" Tarrio became the defacto leader of the group.

So in the past week....some court documents came up (Tarrio is up on charges for things that occurred in DC).

The document say he was a paid 'informant' for US law enforcement...for YEARS.

His entire history?  This gets to being very curious.

He grew up in Florida, and around age 20.....got noted by the police for theft.  Luckily, he got off (now making you wonder what was in the deal)...he ended up with a community service situation, probation, and a fine.

Eleven years pass....he gets into more trouble (2013).  Stolen medical equipment.  he does 16 months in prison this time.

2012 to 2014?  He is listed as a paid informant....mostly involving weed, gambling and human smuggling.  Amount paid? Unknown.  

Was he on this Proud Boy routine as a honest deal?  Maybe.  But it just makes you wonder....from 2014 to today, no other connection back to federal law enforcement?  Maybe his obligation was fulfilled and he just walked away.  

This guy as the boss of the Proud Boys?  It just has a funny smell to it now.  Makes you wonder if someone was always in the background.

Observations

 1.  I'll lay out a prediction for late April, as temperatures warm up...the infection rate/death rate from Covid-19 starts to trend downward.  By late May, about 80-percent of the big threat dissipates.  The public feels encouraged....President Biden talks of the 'hump' being crossed, and oddly....the big lines for the vaccination process start to get very short (people are asking why bother with this vaccination business).

For roughly 120 days.....things will be fine.  Then around September, the numbers will jump 10-percent in a week, and we get back to full blown Covid-19 by mid-October.  

2.  This new suggestion of wearing two masks by 'Doctor Death'?  I'd counter it and ask why not wear three masks?  

You can ask this guy 100 questions, to get 100 answers....wait a couple of months....ask the same questions, and get 100 completely different answers.  Honestly, the guy could not even run a shoe-factory.

3.  My prediction is that two 'new' states are approved for 2021, with both requiring residents to vote on this matter in 2022.  Puerto Rico and DC. 

A massive counter-view starts to occur where highly urbanized areas (SF, Chicago, Atlanta, NYC, etc) believe they should have the same status of DC, and they should be viewed as states (with Senators).  This discussion will resonate throughout 2021/2022/2023 and be a top-ten discussion item for the 2024 election.  

4.  A five-day impeachment?  The more that is discussed....the odds favor an extremely short period.  I would suggest part of the problem revolves around the health of Leahy and he can't handle high-stress in this type of matter (as the judge-character).  

5.  At some point around a month ago, before the vaccination business took off....the leadership of Philly made this decision, they'd put the city management of the vaccination effort into the hands of a 22-year-old grad student.  Based on the description by the local news media....no, he was not a doctor....just a pretty smart guy.

About a month into this decision....they've kinda realized that this authority and level of competence required....are screwed up.  

The $15 An Hour Wage Discussion

 There is this great article I picked up today....entitled: "Why a One Size-Fits-All Federal Wage Makes No Sense."  I'll lay out the site over here.  It's written by Martha Njolomole.  Great piece and I recommend a read.

It lays out two basic issues.  

First, State by state, and city by city.....it's crap.  A guy making $15 as minimum wage in NY City....is marginally living, while the guy in some place like Dothan, Alabama is living in fairly decent status.  I didn't use the word luxurious....but you could go a long way in Dothan with $2,400 a month.  The situation in NY City, Boston, or Burbank....wouldn't match up with Dothan lifestyle.

This is something that I've remarked about a great deal as I've traveled across Europe, the US and the globe itself over the past twenty-odd years.

A guy working at McDonalds in west Texas....given the minimum wage of $15, with no state tax....could live in a very happy status.  

But then we come to second issue that is written about in the article....all work isn't even.  An entry-level kid....sixteen years old....isn't at the same status of of a twenty-two year old guy with four years of Piggly Wiggly clerk status.  You start talking about background, maturity, willing nature, inability to learn beyond a certain level.....it's hard to say that America really deserves this one-size-fits-all pay status.

I've had a total of two part-time professions in my life, after I left the farm.  Neither were jobs that held for a life-time of work.

I worked for roughly four months in 1978 as a Tiger Air loader....at the Frankfurt Airport.  I'd show up around 6 PM with a couple of Air Force guys who wanted part-time work.  

Huns would show us the two-dozen steel pallets laid out and we'd move cargo onto them....then strap them down.  Sometimes it was Italian-made shoes....sometimes it was French-made bras.  Occasionally, there would the twenty-odd animal crates that you'd stack up for pets being shipped.  On rare occasions, there would be an expensive car.  

Around 11 PM, the plane would land.  We had three hours to get everything off, and reload it.  By 2 AM, it was supposed to be reviving up and getting out to the runway.  Our job officially ended at that point....eight hours.  We were led to the central office....paid in cash (no paperwork, no taxes)....around the sum of what would be today 80 Euro (figure $100 roughly).  I did this once a week....for about two months, then skipped a few weeks, returned to another two months.  

It was no-brainer work....it was extremely critical on timing.  Everything had to be done and ready by the 11 PM arrival.  They needed dependable folks to show up....avoid sloughing off, or delaying that 2 AM take-off.  

The second part-time occurred in Tacoma, Washington....for about three weeks.  It was strictly a Saturday night event...at some warehouse....to stack gear for Monday morning pick-ups.  Ten bays were laid out.....I worked with a second guy and did a full ten hour bit for $6 an hour (that was 1980).  

There is no way of balancing things and saying x-number of people are deserving of $15 an hour, and that x-number are too immature, too unreliable, or too stupid.  

I sat and watched an interview around five years ago....a guy had a decent business of making ceramic beer mugs.  His little factory probably generated around a-million dollars in sales each year.  He needed around fifteen people to show up on time.  He had ten older employees who could handle the demands and the low stress environment.  The other five positions were constantly being filled with new folks who were never dependable or capable of passing the drug-test (yes, he'd gone to mandating that as part of the job-requirement).  Around every month or two, he'd miss a contract demand....because these two guys never showed up for work, or this guy slept through the afternoon. 

It's a total waste of time to size up this $15-an-hour gimmick and think that it'll resolve issues.  It'll just take a number of messy problems now, and flip them into even weirder problems in five years.  

If you lived in some town like Houston and started to notice more than 30,000 folks who were continually hired-up and fired in sixty-to-ninety day cycles, and the state unemployment office was now forced into paying fairly incompetent and crapped-out people....somewhere in the range of $15 an hour to be unemployed....how do you think that will work?  

All fifty states are going to have some problem to occur in five to seven years, with unemployment 'pits' and a fairly high cost of paying off people who just can't work at the level required.  For the guys and gals who will support this mechanism?  More state taxes coming down the road.  

The National Guardsmen Landscape in DC

 I would suggest that five landscapes now exist for what you see in DC, with the Guardsmen:

1.  It just looks an awful lot like the Baghdad 'Green-Zone'....oddly enough was a 4 square mile area, which is what the current secure area of DC amounts to.

Guardsmen over the age of thirty-five probably remember the Green Zone and did some time there in their youth.

They too....left duty and slept in warehouses/older hotels at the end of their duty-day.

2.  The landscape gives this image of President Biden/Congress/Senate existing.....only, if the Guardsmen are there and protecting them.

3.  A lot of this script resembles the safety concerns of locals in Kent, Ohio in April/May of 1970.  Local cops were not of a sufficient number to protect the business zone of Kent, and disturbances reached a point where the governor of the state was called upon to deploy Guardsmen to protect the city and the campus.

4.  Another segment of this script resembles May, June and July of 1932, where the Bonus-Army riot occurred.  Note, it was the US military that was called in to settle that mess, and caused Hoover to be voted out of office in November.

5.  If you looked at things on 4th/5th of January....what idiot in charge of security of the Capital building would not have increased security, putting up barriers, and ensuring all days were locked and secured?  This looks more like a mall-guard assembly of people instead of actual law enforcement.  Then you bring the Guardsmen in to be what the Capital Police could never be? 

I will suggest this...if we come to May and 7,000 Guardsmen are still in DC, with the suggestion that a 3,500 number of Guardsmen will not go away in 2022 until 3,000 new/extra Capital Police are hired and in place....there's something seriously wrong with trust in Congress or the leadership authority of the nation.

If the new Capital Police of 2023....resemble a group of jackboot Green-Zone thugs, with 50-cal weapons and armored vehicles parked around a dozen areas of the DC Green-Zone?  Something will be seriously wrong with the new democracy that we have.  

What is this Putin Mansion?

 Around two weeks ago, pictures finally emerged of this fantastic mansion that had been built over on the Black Sea area, and is rumored to be Putin's personal mansion.

So to the facts:

1.  At some point between 1999 and 2009, work started on this piece of property.  Some comments did get out in 2010, but they were mostly dismissed.

2.  The rumored owner of the building?  Alexander Anatolyevich Ponomarenko.  You probably never heard of the guy, but he's fairly well off and done business in the building/operation of sea ports, runs some banks, and built a couple of profitable airports.  

3.  Money spent on the house?  Some people openly suggest a minimum of one billion dollars.  Some even suggest up to around $1.3-billion.

4.  How long have people actually known about the mansion?  Well....at least a decade, but it just never got into the mainstream news.  

So the question is....is it really Putin-property, or someone else's property?  Zero proof other than various folks bickering about this whole discussion. 

If you asked me if this fits Putin's style?  I'd say no....he likes the big open landscape and probably would prefer a luxurious cabin situation in the middle of some national park area.

So this might all be some fake scandal accusation?  Maybe.  But this is how wild and crazy speculation goes in Russia today.  

Atlanta 'Hammers'?

 Some weird activist group started up a trending topic yesterday....with the death of former Braves great, Hank Aaron.  His nickname during his career....'Hammer' of course.  

Since Braves is considered bad form, the subject group suggested that the Atlanta team rename itself....the Atlanta Hammers.

Odds of this happening?  Ten years ago, I would have said 1-percent chance.  Today, I'd say it's near 40-percent.

The thing about this as the name and symbol of the team?  Well....if you go and type 'hammer' into google....you tend to get a symbol of a hammer and sickle (the Communist brand).

The symbiology through history of the hammer?  It's supposed to mean sacrificial efforts were made....affecting society and culture.  You gave up something of value and signficance....to get something that you thought was of more value (usually it wasn't).

The Braves name?  This goes back to the 1870s, when some Cincinnati baseball folks packed up and left for the east coast.  Arriving in Boston, they found interest in a team, but this ran through several decades of varying economic success and different names being used.  

At some point in 1898....the team caught on fire and had a 102-47 record....which if you did the statistical average, it's one of the impossible records possible.

The team fell apart in 1901, when the league agreed to a second Boston team in the local area.  Fan support dropped by a substantial amount.

From a period of 1900 to 1913....the changing names soon-to-be-the-Braves team was crap.  At some point in 1912....the name 'Braves' started up and by 1914....the luck of the team had changed, in an odd way.

The 1914 season has the Braves in last place at the end of the first 22 games.  Somewhere around the halfway point of 1914....they were around 26 wins and 40 losses.  Then some crazy action occurred, and the team wrapped up the season at the top of the National League.  It's one of those stories talked about on a rare basis, and no one jumps into the season....where the Braves go onto the World Series and defeat the A's.

From that point on....they were the Boston Braves.  

Babe Ruth, a member of the Braves?  No one mentions this much, but in 1935....the Yankees traded Ruth away.  Ruth came to the Braves and played a brief 28 games, then retired from baseball (not even making it to the mid-way point).  That season for the Braves?  One of the worst of all time, with only 38 total wins at the end of the season.  

If this goes to a name-change...to the Hammers?  I suspect it'll be around for three or four seasons, and the players will mostly all agree that Hammers doesn't work and everyone is using the stupid hammer-and-sickle symbiology for fake team t-shirts.  

Roberts Out, Leahy In?

 As the impeachment business maneuvers forward....Chief Justice Roberts said 'no'.....he would not participate.  Reason given?  None so far.

If I were to speculate....he sees a number of issues over the case.  The biggest is that you are dealing with a sitting President, which the Constitution seems to suggest it's not possible to do this.  I would imagine he thought about the end-result, and this being challenged to the Supreme Court, and that Thomas-guy would rip his creditability to the ninth-degree.

So why Leahy?  I sat and looked over the 50-odd Democrats in the Senate.  Around one-third of them hold a law degree....but if you asked how law have they actually practiced....most would admit less than ten years.  In Leahy's case?  He hasn't actually practiced law since 1974-timeframe.  Nearing fifty-plus years without a single court case?  Then you get some judge role?

I might suspect that when they openly discussed this 'who would run this show'....it was probably fewer than three volunteers, and one of them probably was either a farmer in life, or some music-teacher.    

There will be an initial round of questions thrown at Leahy.....asking if he's ever been a judge, and the answer is 'no'.  

Obviously, he's there to limit entry of challenges by the Trump lawyer, and to make this more of a guaranteed win for the Democratic cause.

The discussion that the vote will be held in secret?  That came up yesterday, and it's being discussed now.  Secret ballots?  This kinda sounds like Bolivia or Ecuador.  On that count, it'll be challenged as well.

The fact that Leahy is 80 years old?  Well....I would suspect around the 7th consecutive day of the 'show'....he'll be stressed out and completely run-down.  

One can laugh about this 'show', but it'll be discussed for the next hundred years.

The Mogadishu District?

 This came up today, and it's one of those stories to make you wonder about things.

The acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (Ken Cuccinelli) made this comment over last week (after events of the 6th).

In some interview on Fox News....the journalist was interviewing Ken and wanted to hype that the 25k National Guardsmen were way more than currently servicing in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

Ken kinda agreed with her, then said it was basically the equal of a Army division.  Most former Army guys would let you know that when you start talking about a division....that's usually an invasion force and it's meant for real serious business. It's not a force for door-guard duty.  

Then he came to this odd piece of information about the request for Guardsmen.....House Speaker Pelosi wanted him to make sure they were armed with "crew-manned machine guns".  

I paused over that.

Typically, that kinda means that folks are in APC's or HUMVEEs.....with 50-cal guns, M249 guns, M-60s, or MG-338s.  For plain raw killing power, with three or four HUMVEEs set up like this....you could take down a thousand unarmed protesters real quick.

Did Pelosi even know what "crew-manned machine guns" were?  I have my doubts, and it was probably on some 3x5 inch index card that she was reading off, or she saw it on some war documentary.

Sounding like a Mogadishu-scenario?  Well....yeah.  Or maybe some Iraqi 'Green-Zone'.  

What's likely to come in the months ahead?  I think Pelosi will somehow get the President to authorize the Capital Police to have APCs, small armored vehicles, and a reactionary Capital Guard force of a thousand men available. 

In simple terms....this will look like some banana republic in South America and tourists will be scared of the landscape in DC.

How did Ken react to the request?  Nothing else was asked, and he kinda skipped the rest of this discussion.  Based on what I've seen in video action from the 20th....the Guardsmen had M-16s only.  

You just get the impression that things in DC are not that sane or safe, and the last place you ought to allow your kid or school group to 'tour'.....is the DC area.  

Who was QAnon Really?

 What QAnon reminds me of?

Back in the 1930s....the Ovaltine company invented this 'secret-ring society', where cryptic messages were passed around about Ovaltine (via radio) and you needed the decoding booklet to know that the message really was all about, and the secret ring.

You felt kinda important...even at nine years old....having the ring...listening to the secret message, and then decoding it.  

Here in this case (2016 to 2020) it simply went up 100 notches to the modern technology level, and the QAnon head group was probably three or four retired CIA officers working for some Biden-team lobby group...pretending to hand out secret messages in supporting the Trump agenda.

All fake?  No....just not the type of 'brand' or 'message' that most people would hook onto and feel as truthful.

Discussing VMT

 This came up in the week and it's worth a moment to pause over.

The new guy as Transportation Secretary....Pete Buttigieg....was being asked questions before his confirmation, and he came to the topic of a Biden idea....a 1-trillion infrastructure project (basically roads and bridges across the nation).

On one side....most everyone is agreeable to replacing or renovating a ton of bridges in the nation (more than 200k).  On the other side, no one can explain where this trillion will come from.

So Buttigieg stood there and said that he wants to create a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) program.  As you renewed your registration and got inspected....they would average out the miles and say you owe X-amount (probably figured to your registration fee for the tags, and be federally 'grabbed').

How much would this add up to?  Well....if you traveled 100 miles a day to your place of work....the general estimate would be around 1.7 cents per mile.  So you'd owe $1.70 (per day).  A week?  Adding up to $6.35.  A month?  Around $26.  But that's strictly for work-and-driving.  Then you add in the grocery shopping, your doctor visits, the veterinarian visits, the flea-market visits on Saturday, the pick-up of your pizza, visits to your cousin Earl, night-time rendezvous visits to the Piggly Wiggly cashier-lady who plays the banjo while indecently dressed, and visits to the farm-store for dog-food.  So your monthly tax is going to around $50-to-$70.  

Go figure per year, it'll amount to around $600 minimum and approaching $1000 for fifty-percent of folks.  

So there are three basic problems here.

1.  Would the 1.7-cent scheme stay there, or increase?  I'm of the mind that it'd go within four years to 2-cents and be hooked up to some type environmental policy that never makes sense except to 5th-grade kids.  At the 8-year point, it'd probably go to 2.4-cents per mile.

2.  How many folks would cheat and have the speedometer rigged up?  Ten-percent?  Twenty-percent?  Forty-percent?  I know some mechanically-minded folks in the Netherlands who can rig a speedometer system to any number you desire.  If you wanted to show only 100 miles per year driven....they'd rig it up to say that.  

3.  Why the big push?  Well....in ten to fifteen years....a fair number of cars in America will be electric, and the gas-tax business which pays for the roads and bridges....will be screwed-up entirely.  So arguing against the VMT is nearly impossible at this point.  

Just something to ponder upon.

The Landscape Shift

 There on Wednesday....poll-guru Frank Luntz attempted to run a focus group chat after President Joe Biden gave his unity-speech.  

His effort was geniune....at least he attempted to make this group of roughly a dozen folks an even split.

Control?  I would suggest (having watched clips of this)....five minutes into it....he was losing control, and by the 15th minute....things were going in a crappy way.

To make this work....Zoom was employed, which meant people sat comfortably in their homes or apartments and gave their commentary from long distances.

Shouting?  Yes....without any doubt.

Facts and counter-facts going around and disrupting the conversation?  Yes.

Just my impression....maybe at the 15th minute, it was all just a bungled-up mess.  

Explaining what has happened?  It's rather simple.

In the 1980s....a Republican and Democrat could sit at a table....pick up six topics and generally discuss the matter, with the difference of opinion amounting twelve inches for the landscape.  We really weren't that far apart on the six topics.

In the 2000-era....the same two could meet....pick up six topics and find that on half of them, we were pretty far apart.  The landscape?  Instead of a 12-inch situation....the landscape was now three-feet.  

In the 2016-period....the same two could meet....with none of the six topics being marginally agreeable.  The landscape?  It's close to twenty-feet.

Today, the two could meet....working with twenty topics, and find nothing agreeable.  That landscape problem?  It's now closer to sixty-feet.

What I expect in 2024....same two meeting?  A hundred topics with not a single one being agreeable.  The landscape approaching.....nearly 1,000 feet apart.

The Biden unity speech?  Maybe it would have worked in the 1990s timeframe....but we've advanced way past that point.  

If You Open Impeachment Wide Enough

 Yesterday, a Republican Senator (Cornyn, Texas) spoke and suggested that since a sitting-President was being pursued for impeachment.....there was no reason in two years (suggesting the Republicans would recover in the House, and the Senate)....to pursue past Democratic Presidents for issues.

Even dead Presidents?  Well...he didn't suggest that, but I noticed in social media that even that question came up and no one saw a legal stumbling block to say they were living or dead.

Now, an average guy sitting there would pause over this suggestion.

Yes, we could actually draw up paperwork and go after President Jackson, President Roosevelt (both Teddy and Franklyn), and even President Obama.  In fact, you could repeat this act every year.....going after virtually every single President.

The odds of this happening in 2022?  I'd say less than 10-percent...mostly because I see a 5-Senator advance with the Democrats.  

The problem for the Democrats.....we all got kinda used to this continued use of impeachment now.  It really wouldn't take much to start this retaliation business.  In fact, you could ease Senators, House members, and federal judges into this mess very easily....removing three or four each year, just for entertainment.   

It's a messy affair but we don't seem to have any limits anymore.  

State Chatter

 I had a chat with a retired guy in the states today....over the idea that DC will submit the paperwork to be a state.

He brought several subjects which I hadn't really considered.

First, states are run by governors.  In this case, a normal territory (past history) would convene and have an election.  The governor of the territory would be elected by the citizens.  The idea that the mayor of DC would just get the job?  No...that probably won't sell.

Second, after you have this election, you end up with a Governor, Lt-Governor, AG, and a list of a dozen state officials.  Each requires a staff (bulkier than what the mayor's office and officials had before).  Figure at least 500 new and extra employees than existed before.

Third, there's not a single place in the western world that is run by someone who is Governor-Mayor.  So in the end....a new mayor will be selected, or some 'manager' will be appointed.

Fourth, how do you handle the state legislature?  The city council?  Currently 12, with the mayor as number 13.  Would that mean that the city council disappears and become a legislature? Would both exist?

Fifth, a new state-house to be built?  Figure 300-million minimum.

Sixth, state police to exist along side city police?  Unknown.

In the end, I could see another 1,000 civil employees existing in this mini-state.

But now we come to the big question.....DC now gets 30-percent of its budget from the federal government.  With the enlarged 'machine'....their budget would likely grow by 50-percent minimum.  Who pays this?

Taxes going up on city residents?  Property taxing doubling or tripling?  Toll tax likely coming to the city to pay for its 'machine'?  

When you go to Georgetown residents and explain this....they will ask how they really benefit from this situation?  The poverty folks on the SE?  Will they be able to afford living there after the 'machine' arrives?  

The possibility that the House/Senate carve off federal property from the state's control?  It wouldn't shock me.....lessening the state by one-third.  

Maybe this is all acceptable but you look upon a tiny state that would be like half-the-size of Atlanta, and a lot of people would ask stupid questions.  Maybe all mega-cities should be classified as states?

How This Impeachment Will Go

 1.  Papers funneled into the Senate and accepted.

2.  Two to four days wasted on Senate Democrats presenting case.

3.  Trump and his entire legal staff refuse to show....saying a non-President cannot be impeached.  

4.  Around six Republicans will trash Trump left and right.

5.  Around the 7th day, they vote, and 59 is the final vote....NOT enough to win.

6.  Around this 7th day....someone happens to ask about security problems and note that approximately 100k people have gathered on the outskirts of the city....outside of the National Guard presence, and apparently intend to hinder the exit of the lawmakers in their vehicles home.  

Over the next five days, the mostly peaceful demonstration continues, and some law-makers quietly exit the DC region.....saying they won't be back for at least three weeks.  

7.  The six Republicans?  They will be primaried in the next election and lose in a massive way.  

(I should hint....I suspect one Republican will attempt to enter into the records the entire contents of the accusations against President Biden, and the Ukraine business.)

Paying Attention to the Guardsmen Chatter

 Some facts which aren't clearly grasped by the news media.

What was approved to be in DC was 21,000 National Guardsmen.

On the 14th, 7,000 from 14 states (this is straight from the Nat'l Guard HQ's itself in DC).

The rest?  I would suggest that on Inauguration Day....they probably had in the 14k range and the rest will be there by this weekend.

Some being recalled back to their states?  That has started but once federalized, they are not under the authority of the states.

The living quarters situation for the 21k?  Some chatter indicates hotel rooms are being procured.    The cost on this?  Most of the decent hotels in DC are $200-plus for a two-bed situation.  With 21k, it'd be a fair cost situation.  

The more you look at this....three central questions arise:

1.  Is there some central plan? 

2.  If a plan does exist....how many days are built into this?

3.  Does this whole plan center on impeachment occurring and the Guardsmen are there only to protect the Senators/House Members?  

The possibility that they'd react in a situation and do something really stupid?  Like firing on unarmed protesters?  That's generally what I'd worry about.  The longer this goes on....the more unpredictable the landscape becomes.

Looking more like Beirut or Baghdad than some American city?  This is part of the story that you can't really imagine.  

So to the final concern....getting to the day after impeachment and conviction of Trump.  Will the need for the Guardsmen go away?  I'm more likely to believe now that a minimum of 20k Guardsmen will be there through the middle of April, and that 5k to 8k will be on duty throughout the rest of the summer.  

If some incident occurs where 40-odd Americans are shot by Guardsmen....expect the 20k to be there for the rest of 2021.  It'll be a harsh year to accept.  

'Yesterday's Man'

 It's a phrase that got picked up as a title for a book on Joe Biden....written by Branko Marcetic.  What it infers.....a washed-up Hollywood type or political-type who has wrapped up his career but stayed one movie or one term too long, and can't get the 'magic' going for this last part of his career.

FDR became a yesterday's man....staying past a third term, and even a fourth term.  

Nixon....running in 1968, after the VP years under Eisenhower....was a yesterday's man.

Teddy Roosevelt eventually became a yesterday's man....after leaving office in 1912.  

It's an interesting phrase and likely to be repeated.  

Conspiracy Theories: 'Stab-in-the-Back' Story

 Part of my series on conspiracies.

The 'Stab-in-the-Back' conspiracy starts out in 1919 in Germany/Austria, and centers on blame for losing the war.

The chief blame?  Jews.

Part of this blame goes to the Kaiser being 'kicked-out' of Germany.

When 1933 comes around....the Nazi Party has turned this Stab-in-the-Back' routine into a major message to the public.  Humiliation....lack of respect for veterans...degenerative society....with blame being dished out to the Marxist crowd, and Jews.

Any truth to the conspiracy?  Lets be honest....most everyone from the Kaiser on down to local people....all believed in the summer of 1914 that the war would last around twelve months, then end.  

When you got to summer of 1916 (two full years)....you could not escape the tendency to talk about this, whine, complain, and hype some kind of blame on someone (anyone but the Kaiser).

Public discontent by the summer of 1917?  It was obviously at epic 'highs'.  Blame was a daily process of discussion from those not in the war effort.  

So when 1933 rolled around....discounting the 'Stab-in-the-Back' conspiracy was not possible.  They believed it....even if it wasn't true. 

"Trying to Build a Better World" Syndrome

 Over the past couple of decades, it's more than obvious that a segment of America has 'fallen' and can't 'get up'.  It's like the commercial for that device you wear around your neck....hitting the 'help' button....then expecting with thirty minutes some police/ambulance savior to arrive and give you that 'thank you Jesus' feeling.

In our case, we've hit the stupid button multiple times, and found that whatever/whoever comes....is probably not going to help us, and in some cases....will make the matter worse.

A lot of people have relatives, former associates, or neighbors who've fallen as far as possible on the drug/alcohol binge, and there's no necessity to really help them.  You'd be feel better if some truck came by with two guys in white suits....to tote the 'loser' to some enclosed facility and keep them there permanently.  

Our patience in some political solution?  Pretty much gone....doesn't matter if you introduce Republican or Democratic agendas....they all end up as a half-ass solution, that costs tons of money, and rarely show anything real resolution.

Lately, I've looked around and seem to notice people who are hyped up on building a better world.  It's mostly fake energy or fraudulent passion.  Their devotion seems to lack any genuine feeling.

I'd almost like to suggest some mental treatment for these folks.....they are carrying around some kind of syndrome which hinders their view of reality.

Where all of this is going?  An increasing number of people who've given up on the system, and willing to say 'enough'.  Pouring time, money and effort into a pit with no bottom...makes little sense.  

The Odds of This $10k College Loan Credit?

 First, it's chatter only at this point. 

Second, it'd require Senate/House discussions and the earliest that this might occur....spring of 2022.

Third, my gut tells me that it won't be $10k forgiven....it'll be worked up into a $10k tax credit that you can take off in multiple years (say $3k this year, $2k next year, and $5k the third year).  So you'd probably have to pay taxes of some type, and simply take this credit.

Fourth, my gut also tells me that it'll have some limit tied into it....example: if you owe less than $20k....you probably won't see any credit at all.  

Fifth, and most importantly....for all of these idiots with $70k, $100k, or $150k in college loan debt....$10k is crap and marginally resolves your mess.  So trying to excite yourself is purely a waste of time.  Biden's effort will take 15 minutes of pain off your life, and you can go right back to work tomorrow....working on the remaining $60k.

Final word?  For all of those people who wrapped up college with zero debt, you will remember this college loan credit day with extreme negativity.  For those who got ahead in life without a college degree?  It'll be viewed for years as some act of stupidity.  

SAT Test Story?

 Read a piece today out of the NY Times....the SAT people stood up this week and said there's some serious troubles here for standardized testing.

What they say is that education is so screwed up because of 2020 and 2021....they are going to dismiss subject tests and the essay piece.

What you end up with?  I'm not really sure.  It sounds like a marginalized test that you'd give a 12th-grade kid who had a ninth-grade education.  

This kinda leads me to this....if this is the new standard, and 'Karl' arrives at the University of Ohio....more or less at a ninth-to-tenth grade level....what will Karl do for the next four years?  Will they develop a special degree requiring five years (instead of four), and costing you another $20k?  

Or would they go to a lower expectation....where you graduate after four years of college and be something a 'high-school plus two years' type of graduate?  

The home-school kid being more advanced than you?  Well...that's another issue as well.

If you go and admit all of this....why even bother sticking around after the 11th grade....you probably peaked at that point and should just GED yourself a high-school diploma.  

It's Just Odd

 25,000 National Guardsmen called into DC....while for the entire past two years....in Chicago every single weekend....twenty-plus people get murdered.  

One matters....the other does not.  

Go figure that one out.  

Some Facts Are Not Acceptable

 When the whole $600 Covid-stimulus package was finally put together.....the anger was mostly directed out toward the GOP Senators (they deserved it).

So the understanding....in late December....this would be corrected....with the new chatter being a $2000 check would be issued.  

The folks who published this type of news didn't really go into details or explain this....but the intent of the chatter was that you'd get another check for $1,400....to bring the $600 and $1,400 up to $2k.

This week in Georgia....the facts fell out into the middle of the discussion and a fair number of voters (most probably are Democrat)....had figured their check to be really $2000....NOT $1,400.

To be honest....NOTHING has been issued yet, and with the impeachment chatter....nothing will be done until April at the earliest (depending on DC riots).  So you won't see this money until early June (my humble opinion).

The likely chatter for another check by September?  Yeah, that might start up as well.

To have this many people who did not grasp the meaning of the $600, $2000 and $1400 numbers?  It appears that almost half the voters in the state are conflicted by this difference.  

This Medicare-for-All Script

 So to lay out the basic form of Medicare-for-all deal....Congress would pass a law that private healthcare (as we know it) will end, and Medicare will be established.  To make it work....every procedure/process will have a price-tag set by some governmental agency (which probably doesn't exist in this form or at the level required presently).  Oh, I agree....Medicare for seniors exist, but this would have to be built in a much different and larger fashion.

Lets use a gall bladder situation as the demonstration vehicle.  In some states, you might still be able to get this done for around $6,500 (out-patient, no issues, Doctor Wuhan guy, in a rural area).  One step up from this is the $10,900 'ride' where you get an impressive waiting area, Nurse Nancy who has three buttons always undone, Doctor Joe (he's done 3,000 of these), a scented operating room that smells like fresh-cut hay, a situation where you and five guys are lined up at 7 AM, no issues, etc.  Then you get to the Memorial-Center, a flashy surgical center, a video of the whole procedure for you later, all the nurses are 50 years old and can play the banjo if you request a tune, no issues, with two overnights....totaling out at around $16,000.

What the Medicare-for-all deal would amount to....there would be absolute limit of $8,900.  You'd be paying x-amount into Medicare from your salary (probably 5-or-6 percent), and there's probably going to be a $500 deductible from the $8,900 that you pay.....the rest is Medicare covered.

So right off the bat.....the hospital and doctors realize that it doesn't matter what they offer you or present....whether Doctor Joe or Doctor Wuhan....the price is the same.  One-star, two-star, three-star, or four-star.....it won't matter.

The first two levels all go to shrink their cost/quality.  

The expensive folks?  They will tell you....their situation continues on.  Their offering is cash only and you pay them ahead of the time....IF you want high quality care.  

The healthcare insurance folks?  Destroyed in their opportunity (if you own healthcare stock of any type.....you need to think over dumping it).

How this all starts up?  As the 15-odd million migrants/illegals in the US are granted their status in mid-summer 2021.....they will get free healthcare.  The bill? It'll pass directly to you the consumer (noticed in November rate changes....likely going up by 30-to-40 percent minimum).  

You naturally react in a negative way.

By spring of 2022....President Biden has the Medicare deal resolved and will crank up by January 2023.  

You start to think....finally, I get cheap healthcare.  Then you have a gall bladder problem, and visit the clinic....where Doctor Wuhan greets you.  You kinda had higher expectations.  You ask about the better clinic, and get the talk about this being a cash-only deal at twice what Medicare pays.  

You wake up by the end of 2023....to grasp that you got royally screwed over.  

The Odds of the 25k National Guardsmen Staying Until April

 Well, here's the thing....if the idea is to launch the impeachment 'show' in the Senate for early Feb....you can figure the whole month will be eaten up with various delays, demonstrations, riots, etc.  

So the Nat'l Guard isn't going away.

The potential for the Guardsmen to get scared and fire on unarmed Americans?  It's probably a 50-50 chance....which will just infuriate the general public more.

As crappy as the conditions are for them....marginal sleep schedule....poor management....officers running around to keep people lined up and not talking about this being 'wrong'....this amounts to a four-star clown show.

The talk by the DC mayor that the Guard needs to go (leave DC)?  Just talk....nothing else.

The talk or rumors that Antifa/BLM might be in the mix for a day or two?  It just begs for a longer deployment.  

So all of this 'show' lengthening your $1,600 check business?  Well....yeah, that's really the problem with the show at this point.  The Senate can't possibly get to important business like that until probably April.

If the impeachment show concludes with a conviction?  It'll just drive demonstrations up another notch and require the Guard to be there through the entire summer.  You can expect this group of 25,000 to probably swap out by the end of March, and some fresh group (maybe from red states) will show up and present another problem on trust.

Long-term....none of this makes much sense.  You'd almost think you were in Paraguay or Ecuador.  If they (Paraguay or Ecuador) were to position Nat'l Guardsmen for three-plus months, you'd suggest some kind of coup has taken place.

The Guardsmen starting to joke about coup-participation?  You'd laugh but they have to be standing there on guard and wondering where this guard-duty is leading onto, and if it will ever end.  

When an Executive Order Isn't an Order

 One of the first executive orders handed out by President Biden basically says....he's asking you to wear a mask in public.

It's not really an order.  It's just asking you to do something.

It'd be like me asking you to use only six sheets of toilet paper when you come to visit my house and intend to use my toilet.  

It'd be like me asking you to roll the window down if you were smoking in my car.

It'd be like me asking the next-door neighbor gal who is mowing the grass in a string ultra-bikini....to put on a t-shirt and shorts.

Generally, orders are a bit direct.  If you've been in the Army or Navy....when 'Sarge' or the 'Chief' says X....he's blunt about X happening.  Sarge doesn't ask you to comply...ever.  

This mask order?  It's not blunt or direct.

The outcome of this?  It'll be hyped to the ninth-degree by the news media, but frankly.....I doubt if it adds more than one-percent more on the wear-crowd.  The non-wearer crowd?  Some idiot journalist will start to refer to them as domestic terrorists....just to make a marginal one-star point.  

Maybe in two months....he'll come out with another non-order executive order, and by the end of 2021....folks will grumble that these non-orders aren't really much more than BS.  

Conspiracy Theories: The Illuminati

 Part of my series on conspiracy theories.

One of the more interesting theories is that this group exists....the Illuminati.

This story revolves around this suggestion that a top-secret Bavarian community has existed since 1776 (yeah, just an odd year to start the group).

What they are involved in?  Well....first off....they oppose all superstition.  Because of this central core....they can always suggest that they are enlightened.  Right off the bat, this gives you a leg up on being intellectual and super-smart (at least pretending this).

The Illuminati also practice obscurantism.  I know...it's not a normal term that you probably have hear of....but it typically means that it's best to hide facts in a deliberate way.  If you knew the facts, you'd probably stand against anything they support.  You probably are sitting there and thinking Republicans/Democrats of the US are both practicing obscurantism as well, but it doesn't make either Illuminati-types.  

So the Illuminati were supposedly dedicated to getting rid of religious influence on the lives of people.  Since this was in Bavaria....it kinda meant they were working against the Catholic Church.  

Finally, the Illuminati were always against governments harming the public....which made them look 'good'....at least as long as you believed the government was anti-public. 

The significance of the conspiracy theory here?  There's this suggestion that the Illuminati were responsible for the French Revolution (1789-1799).  There's also the suggestion they were heavily involved in American affairs over the past two-hundred-odd years.  

Truth to the matter?  None....but the conspiracy chatter always makes them an interesting group.  

The Seven Things That Trump Didn't Grasp

 1.  The pee-dossier, the Russia-Russia-Russia allegations, the Mueller investigation, and behavior of the Justice Department wasted the entire first two years of the administration.  All of these can now be regarded as juvenile in nature, and won't be discussed by the news media in any fashion.

2.  Sessions was a 1-star ineffective executive as Attorney General with a political stance mostly against Trump.  As much negativity that you can lay out on 'Rex' (the dismal choice for Secretary of State) and Mathis (who could not grasp a Pentagon existing in a non-war period), Sessions still beat out both gentlemen.  

3.  For every single Republican that was pro-Trump, there was another Republican who was anti-Trump.  In the Senate, this was more than obvious.  At least fifteen Republican Senators were not capable of supporting the party or the administration. 

4.  Without the TTIP deal with the EU, there is NO trade agreement existing.  So four years was wasted in putting up tariffs to influence a trade deal, with the retaliation of the EU always the next step.  Virtually every single country in the EU will tell you that some type of TTIP deal must occur, but they have no idea how to make it happen.  Trump's push to have no barriers on trade?  It went nowhere but straight to retaliation.  

5.  The CIA and FBI were weaponized at least six months before Trump even arrived in DC.  Trump would have had to dismiss a hundred top managers on day one to make some impact.

6.  For each four-star individual brought into the Trump camp over four years.....there was a one-star pick.  Some were recommended by insiders who wanted the Trump group to fail.  Trump probably figured this out around the end of the third year.  

7. The Chinese pulled every single card out to play in this election.  Even when the CIA noticed this....they mostly just kept quiet....like they were expecting it to happen.  

There Was This Gun Rally

 So to lay out this unusual rally that took place in Richmond, Virginia yesterday....I must start with the obvious goal....it was a pro-gun rally.  

Among the principal players?

1.  Fred Hampton Gun Club, which is basically a gun-rights club, named after Fred Hampton, of Chicago....who died in 1969.  Connected to the Black Panthers....he was a highly recognized member of the group.  If you were trying to figure the political slant....it's Chicago-style 'left'.  

2.  The Boogaloos.  You'd mostly classify them as younger guys (mostly white) who are into revolution.  So to suggest they are right-wing?  Well...before you reach that agenda topic....it's correct to say they want the downfall of the US government (doesn't matter if it's liberal or conservative).

3.  The Black Panthers.  Mostly a black revolutionary group, with patterns of Marxism in the middle of their program.

4.  The Proud Boys.  This is a mixed group, who'd generally say they are mostly against Antifa type agendas.

So right off the bat....you will probably ask....are these all legit 'club' members from the four?  Well....you can't make that case that the couple hundred that showed up....were all of who they claim to be.

Yes, the Proud Boys might be actors only.  Yes, the Boogaloos might be actors only.  Yes, the Black Panthers might be actors only.  Yes, the Fred Hampton Gun Club might be actors only.

So this protest at the Richmond capital?  Legit, but pieces and parts of it might be fake?  As silly as it sounds, you can't be sure of anything.  Half of them might have been legit, and the other half just hired actors brought in.

If they were all legit?  Well...it'd scare the crap out of the FBI and Virginia Police if all four groups were legit, and actually working in coordination with each other.

That all four groups might be pursuing some agenda over the next four years?  Maybe....but they might be totally fake and simply staging this for some fake organization at the top, who is getting paid by some outside influence.  

In simple terms, you can't be sure of anything. 

My Migrant Caravan Theory

 Over the past week, this caravan group has started up from Honduras.  Numbers?  News groups suggest 9k to 10k presently.  Destination?  Generally....they are headed to the Guatemalan border, and then onto the Mexico-Texas border.  They have the understanding that President Biden will open up the border and just take them in....period.  

My general belief?  This is probably wave #1, and once they reach the border....wave #2 will start by early March, with wave #3 and wave #4 probably occurring by May and June.  

Efforts by the Mexicans to stop it....like they did three years ago?  That was entirely based on a unspecified 'deal' that Trump had with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.  

Presently, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador....and Trump gone....there's no deal.

So in about two weeks, with this caravan progressing on through Mexico to the closest border point (southern tip of Texas), there's a 2,400 km walk involved.  The news folks will be asking how President Biden intends to handle this.

This is what I suggest will unfold.  

By early next week, a State Department chief (probably the #3 guy/gal) will attempt to talk to the Mexican State Department and get some understanding that they need to slow down or halt the caravan.  The Mexican guy will ask....why are you talking to me?  This ought to be a President-to-President conversation.

A couple of days will pass and the new Secretary of State will make the phone call, to the Mexican Secretary of State.....same response....why isn't President Biden talking? 

VP Harris will attempt to conduct this conversation....again, failure.

By this point, the Texas Governor has gotten into the mess, and ordered National Guardsmen from the state to form a border protection plan.  He'll be told by the Pentagon and State Department that he can't do this.  He'll respond that Texas protects Texans.

So finally, around the first week of February, with the caravan only 300 miles from the border....the White House prepares President Biden for this 30-minute chat with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.  They have a board in front of President Biden, with the four talking points, and the first line of the conversation totally laid out.  All of this will be done by phone.

The conversation starts off with 'howdy', and some well wishes for Mexico.  

The Mexican guy responds and asks why they can't VTC this...instead of a phone-call.  He notes to Biden that his staff spent $300k on a fantastic VTC system, and it's state of the art....direct from Hong Kong.

President Biden starts to get side-tracked, and starts to address Obrador by 'Andy' (Americanized form for Andres).  Obrador is a bit frustrated by this.....he remembers this from the high school days and hates the Americanized name 'Andy'.

Biden hints that this caravan needs to be halted....real quick.

Obrador asks.....what's the deal?

'Deal' responds Biden....we don't freaking deal.  We aren't like those Trump idiots.

'Consequences' will be the response from Obrador.

So Obrador lays out the deal....he wants the old NAFTA agreement put back into effect.  He wants $100-million a month for the drug war in Mexico, for a minimum of one year.  He wants 700,000 tons of coal....free of charge.  He wants a MLB baseball team to be moved into Mexico City by 2023.  

Biden, runs onto a short fuse and starts uttering five or six things which can't be repeated.  His frustration level has hit maximum, and the seven guys standing around him are holding their hands up.....'stop' is whispered over and over.

Biden eventually slams the phone down, and the team stands there in shock.  Nothing can be worked out now.

A couple of days later, the caravan reaches the border and Texas National Guardsmen start to round them up.  Federal customs people try to intercede.  Another national crisis starts up.  The rounded-up caravan members.....near 10k....are grabbed by federal officials.  

A plan will be cranked-up.....forty refugee camps will be built by FEMA around mostly red states.  Several states pass legislation that no such camps can exist in their state.  The Supreme Court?  It refuses to hear any of the challenges.  National Guardsmen from these states are now ordered to dismantle the FEMA camps.  

Mexican President Obrador?  He grins for the cameras and tells his entire story.  He more or less pushed back on the great American 'beast' and won.  He is regarded as a 'hero' to the Mexican people.  

As for the staff around Biden?  By the end of March, they now realize that he can't be controlled or depended upon.  Talk starts up by April that the 25th Amendment business to remove a President might actually start by mid-summer, as the 4th wave of caravan migrants hits the border.  

Conspiracy Theories: Jews Poisoning Wells

Part of my series on conspiracy theories.  

If you go back to the middle ages period.....there's this episode that occurs around the Black Plague era, where Jews are suddenly accused of poisoning wells in central Europe.

Proof?  Zero.  Oh, you had wells where the water was contaminated, and no one argues that point.  But to suggest it was one particular group or Jewish related?  None.

This conspiracy accusation triggered various Jews to be 'grabbed', and in some cases....executed....based strictly upon rumors going out of control.

A similar type accusation started up in USSR in the 1950s....where Jewish doctors were dumped upon with wild accusations.  A couple hundred of them were actually detained, and some history suggestions go to the idea that several were executed based (again) on wild rumors with no proof.  

Conspiracy Theories: 2010 Deep Water Horizon

 Part of my group of ten conspiracy theories.

When you line up the incident in 2010....I would suggest that a minimum of 25 conspiracy theories exist.  One suggests that maybe the North Koreans helped to sabotage the rig (no proof).  Another suggest that Russians were sabotaging the rig (no proof).

Conspiracy theories with the settlement action and the judge's award?  That goes off into several directions and conspiracy theories exist on that level.

Most who've watched the episode from day one....generally believe it was an accident caused by poor regard for safety.  Beyond that....the skeptical level is pumping big-time.  

Hidden in the shadows....the North Koreans have to be wondering since they weren't involved in this event.....well, could they go and sabotage a dozen rigs and actually trigger some similar event?  

Where Fear Leads You

 The Biden team stood up at the end of last week, and said they are now fearful of 'insider' action by the 25,000 National Guardsmen in DC.  

The FBI said 'fine', and agreed to vet all 25,000 in a week (finished by the early hours of Wednesday).  

The meaning of vetting?  It's a background check.  Typically (I'm suggesting what it means to get a secret security clearance)....you put the guy's name into a database and review their financial status (if they've declared bankruptcy), had dealings with the law (a criminal record), or made threats that got into public records.

So when the Biden team said 'fearful' and the FBI said 'vetting'.....they don't really equal.

If we went to the Biden interpretation, to get 25,000 Guardsmen done.....you'd require a minimum 2,000 FBI agents, with personal interviews of each Guardsmen, and their willing nature to participate and volunteer information.  Having met these guys in the past, I'd suggest that once they grasp what you are doing....at least one out of three aren't going to be helpful.  

I can imagine the interview, and the FBI guy drilling down into a guy who has had about fourteen hours of real sleep over the six days.  Questions about their Facebook or Twitter accounts....gets a response of 'I got such-and-such medal of bravery for my year in Afghanistan'.  

A 'joke'?   Well...I would imagine that every single member of the military force, to include active duty as well....will be forced through a new vetting in 2021, and there might be well over 50,000 called into a room and told that their services might not be needed anymore.  All of this will spiral, and tens of thousands of teens who'd normally be recruited for service....will laugh over the option, and walk away from the recruiter.

But the willing participant in this whole wild game?  The FBI?  It simply demonstrates that they just 'door-guards' in fine clothing/suits.  That's one step above the Capital Police, who lack the fine clothing/suits.  

What might come out of the vetting, which just leads to more questions?  Out of the 25,000....you might find that 16,000 of them were on Tinder, and having active affairs, which their husband/wife wasn't aware of.  

The 'Skipped--Step' Theory

 Several months ago, I wrote of the evolving view that civil conflict/civil war was no longer impossible.  After much thought, I will lay out what I call the 'skipped-step' theory and how it relates to the mess today.

As a kid, I was amused by the introduction one day of this mythical 'clock', which related in some way to suggest that nuclear war was minutes away.  The news guy would explain this update, and how the nuclear clock had moved forward and was now only 30 seconds away from midnight.  Every year.....some group would step up and give the new adjustment.

Somewhere in the mid-80s, I can remember this topic coming up and finally some journalist had laid out that this was mostly a fictional clock, and it depended on the guys in the room and they perceived things.  In simple terms....it was a fake clock.  I just hadn't grasp that until that particular moment.

Looking at the way things work today....there is a new clock and it relates to civil conflict.  Twenty years ago, I would have set the clock at 00:01....meaning we were 23 hours and 59 minutes away from civil conflict.  

Viewing today's events and particular things from the past five years....I'd probably set the clock now at 22:45....meaning we are just 1 hour and 15 minutes away from civil conflict. 

But we now have something that I'd call a 'skipped-step' and the clock can never advance any further. 

Yes, we are in differing view.  Yes, we have civil behavior that is unacceptable.  Yes, political situations are now toxic.  Yes, most all squares are filled to indicate two groups can't live together.  But the 'skipped-step' comes into play.

Sedition, succession, second amendment chatter, etc.....are now all part of the 'skipped-step'.

In the coming weeks....the term 'domestic terrorism' will be uttered a lot by Republicans and Democrats....executive orders will be issued by President Biden, and the civil conflict will be avoided.

You will wake up to find that buying a new pistol is nearly impossible because someone put your name on a potential list for domestic terrorism.  

You'd like to have your name removed.  You find that lawyers are now very difficult to hire on this process because the threat of them being disbarred is now a weekly issue that pops up.

You go on a trip and stop at a airport bar to chat with some stranger for the four hour wait.  Some federal cop stops you later in the airport....to do a one-hour screening of a potential threat discussion.  He lets you go.  But you find now that the airline that you had the reservation with....because of info he put in the system.....won't allow the reservation to occur.  In simple terms, you don't fly with them.  Maybe it's enough on the blacklist that you can't fly with any airline, and end up riding a bus back home.

You go on a trip via car and stay at a hotel in a hotel in Dayton.  You sip a beer at a bar and discuss your frustration with someone who is equally frustrated politically....talking about succession.  An hour after the talk (near midnight), a federal cop arrives at your hotel door, and is acting on some 'tip'.  A 30-minute interview occurs.  He's OK with your explanation, and leaves.  Twenty minutes later....the hotel manager arrives and says you have to go.  Yes, at 1:30 AM....you've just been tossed out and black-listed. 

You now find that your views on Facebook and Twitter are being used for a federal database.  Maybe you aren't a true domestic terrorist, but it's bad enough to suggest that you might be a third-level (marginal threat) character.  This affects your gun-ownership, your acceptance into some federal/state job, or your application for a passport.

At some point....national parks will have a banned-list.  

All of this....done in a matter of a year or two, and no real political solution because no one will talk about this.

Your reaction?  You question everyone around you because they might turn you in.  You avoid social media entirely.  You lost respect for professional sports because they've been converted into this whole mess.  You lost your respect for law enforcement.  You don't respect your local prosecutor or the judges in your state.

Your soon-to-be ex-husband or soon-to-be ex-wife uses such fake info....to convey a threat that they might call the federal task force.  So you have to cooperate with them in a way that you would not have done a year prior.

The list goes on and on....we missed the step that would have taken us to civil war or civil conflict....only by suggesting you might be a domestic terrorist and this label gets you on hundreds of banned lists.  

Going off to a third-party to dump the Republicans?  Fine....but without one-hundred percent of Republicans dumping the party.....this new creation party will never threaten the system.  Most all Senators and House members will figure out this game.  No one can do much of anything....because of the threat of labeling themselves as domestic terrorists.  

The civil conflict clock I described?  Yep, it's stuck at 22:45 and will not advance another step.  

A  year from now, you will meet me in a bar, and quietly note that you have six neighbors or friends who are on banned lists of some type.  You might even admit your son/daughter got on a university potential list of being banned if they conduct themselves in any suggestive way.  Your wife had some chat in a beauty saloon that earned a 10 PM visit by a federal agent one night....so she can't legally own a gun because of comments she said (while you still have the right).

You'll ask me how we got this way, and it basically leads through a world that is a fraudulent construction, and a Constitution that seems to have been beaten badly.  Maybe you feel like it's Nazi Germany in 1933....but you won't suggest that in our little talk at the bar.  It's a careful discussion, because other folks at the bar might turn us in.  So we converse in light-hearted chatter about Chicago Bears, snow coming early this year, and frustration over illusions that seem to now to exist.

Society?  It's now locked into this Twilight-Zone-like situation.  We can't agree on mass immigration, taxes, resolving police issues, or dumping incompetent politicians.  But we can't talk about this without getting deeper into a mess.

Yeah, it's a moment that you need five shots of some strong whiskey because we are pretty screwed now.  In some way, maybe it's just fantastic that we avoided civil conflict or civil war.  That's where you pour the second round of five shots.  It'll dull your pain.  

Conspiracy Theories: JFK

 Another one of my discussions on conspiracy theories.

Facts:

1.  JFK was shot on 22 November 1963.

2.  Oswald, the accused shooter was killed on 24 November 1963, by Jack Ruby (local mafia character in Dallas).  

3.  Warren Commission finishes project on 24 September 1964....one shooter-one magic bullet theory is the end-result.

I have no doubt that JFK was shot by Oswald on the 24th.  But once you enter the magic-bullet idea into the mix, and ask this type of situation to be conducted a hundred times....the odds are that it'll only happen one single time of the hundred.  At that point, the theory is questionable. So enters the more likely scenario of a second-shooter.  

Add to this....the long sorted story of Oswald, which just seems fairly unbelievable.  Then you add in some patriotic character like Jack Ruby who is absolutely a guy that the mafia can count upon.

Was the mafia connected into this?  I think they were called on the 23rd and asked to clean up a particular messy situation because Oswald didn't exit the building in the correct direction and didn't get shot by the pre-planned police.  Beyond that....I doubt if the mafia really knew anything going on. 

For years after this Ruby mission, I think a dozen-odd members of the mafia knew bits of the story, and just sat there shaking their head over how they got taken into this whole mess.  

I would add this comment....if you'd said for this to be arranged via the mafia....there's a hundred other ways they would have accomplished this without shooting drama business being involved.

As for who might have been the planning group?  It's just odd....the one guy that Kennedy absolutely fired from the CIA (28 November 1961)...Dulles....is one of the seven people put on the Warren Commission.  

The other 500-odd conspiracy 'links'?  Well....they make for an interesting conversation but most all just lead in circles with no additional facts in the mix.  

The Basic Problem of Student College-Loan Forgiveness

 Basically, you are asking me to financially forgive some supposedly highly gifted intellectual dumbass, who borrowed way more money than his degree ever was worth, and he can't possibly find a job that pays at the level to cover the $80k to $120k 'pit' that he or she seems to have fallen down into.

If this were your son 'Marvin' who wrecked his 7-year old Toyota and needed $8k....maybe that would make sense until Marvin admitted he was pretty wasted at the time, and the brake-light had been on for two weeks.

If this were your daughter 'Tiffney'.....who accidentally set her trailer on fire last weekend, and needed you to compensate her with $22k for a new trailer....it'd make sense to help her out.  Course, when you found out that she was hyped-up on meth, and intentionally set the mattress on fire....would you pull the money from savings to help her?

If this were your nephew 'Woody' who wanted $15k for a 'worm-farm' enterprise....you'd ask some questions and discover that Woody doesn't have a business plan or any idea how the farm would work.  Your odds of loaning him the money?

So I'm looking at this Biden project and asking three key questions:

1.  If these idiots were stupid enough to borrow $80k for a worthless degree....what's that say about their level of common sense, and the odds they'd go and borrow $150k somewhere else in the future.....to potentially fail on that loan?  This sounds like the idiot bankers and insurance idiots of 2008, who were too supid to run their business operation.  

2.  If I made it to a bachelor's degree, without borrowing a nickel....what's it say about these idiots who borrowed $90k?  What did I do wrong?

3.  Finally, if we have that many worthless degrees out there....shouldn't there be a plan to dismantle the whole public college platform and dissolve about forty-percent of the programs that exist?  Just tell the kid that two years of HVAC studies at a junior college gets the same level of pay as a worthless degree at a four-year college.  

My chief problem here now?  I have to sit there and listen to 100 different idiot senators who appear to be even more stupid than the kid who got into $100k of debt with a degree in gender-studies and no real job prospect except running some department in Pennys or Wal-Mart.