Wednesday 30 June 2021

Notifications for Feedburner Coming to an End.

 In a couple of days, Feedburner (your 'ability' to be notified that I made a new blog or essay) comes to an end with Blogger.

So if you enjoy reading the blog, make a note and put it to your hot-pages, and review once a twice a week on your own.

Six Observations

 1.  You kinda notice after a while....that actual degreed economists....never own business operations.  They want to tell you about trends, but they don't seem to really know much about the way that risks and rewards works.

2.  Have you noticed the number of folks in their 20s and 30s....who seem to feel guilty about capitalism?  It's like a recovering alcoholic and they want to chat about this 'doomed' feeling.  

3.  Justice Thomas saying that federal laws over marijuana may no longer be necessary?  Yeah, he did suggest that.  

4.  CNN doomed?  Well, to some degree, you can say that no one is really hyped-up to watch a massive amount of their 'news'.  People are drifting back to 15 minutes of national news, and frankly don't want an entire hour to waste on biased or propaganda-tuned news.

5.  Forty-percent of SF residents say in polling....they'd like to move.  They aren't saying like this year or next year....just in general...things have gone downhill, and it's probably time to evaluate their situation.  Trouble coming?  If you asked homeless folks.....I doubt if you'd find more than two-percent who'd voice the idea of moving.  

6.  Federal investigation into the Florida condo collapse?  Really?  

Where Can President Biden Lead the Country on Crime?

 Well....in a circle.

If you bring up the 769 homicides in Chicago in 2020 (vast majority black)....then you kinda analyze the situation, with most of the blacks killed by....other blacks, then you (as President) can't bring up the obvious point.

Your handlers sit for hours....knowing they can't say this or that.....so you make up some story that the journalists will take the 'bait' and publish....but no one really believes much of anything you say.  

So Biden isn't saying much....isn't doing much....and can't achieve much. In the full meaning of the word....it's a circle that leads onto a second circle, that leads onto a third circle.  

Tuesday 29 June 2021

Safetyism?

 As many observers have noted, staying safe has become a religion. "Safetyism," as it is sometimes called, like all religions, places what it values -- in this case, being safe -- above other values. Safetyism explains the willingness of Americans to give up their most cherished values -- including liberty -- in the name of safety for the last year and a half.

-- Dennis Prager

 It's an interesting analysis and worth pondering over.

I grew up on a farm, and tended to view a thousand different acts that could occur....that would have ended your life fairly easily. 

It'd be like an encounter in the cattle-chute during vaccinations....where you realized the 600-lb calf had turned, and you had 3 seconds to save yourself.  Or when you'd entered a 'jungle-like' field to bush-hog, and counted twenty-odd snakes on the ground over a sixty-second period.  

There was some type of common sense that you developed, and you could view a situation and just rank your 'doom-situation' as a zero, one, two or three.  Three usually meant that your risks were not worth the effort.  It'd be like standing on a hill with a lightning storm approaching, and you had two minutes to correct your location.

Prager wrote a fairly long piece, and I'd recommend a read of the essay.

I had a cousin in the early 1960s, at the age of six or seven, who was put on a Greyhound bus by himself in north Alabama.....to get to the family farm in central Alabama.  He was given some basic instructions....a bit of pocket money, and the rest was simply trusting Greyhound's folks to deliver him to the station eight hours later (meaning at least two transfers).   If you brought up this scenario today?  Your neighbors would call the police, and you'd have some kind of endangerment dumped upon you.

I worked with a guy in the 1980s....who'd been given instructions by 'dad' to drive grandma's old car around 1,500 miles...at age 16.  This was before GPS, and he admitted that at least three times in the trip....he went off-track by a fifty miles each time.

Fear of the unknown?  This is now a daily problem, and you just wonder how bad this will get.  

Monday 28 June 2021

Other 'Rages'

 Over the past couple of months, I've noted this 'white rage' business being talked about and finally considered that there are other rages:

1.  Farmer rage.  This is typically where Farmer Joe has discovered that Monty (his new bull) has torn down the fence on the far side of the farm, for the 3rd time.  This rage usually means Farmer Joe is going to load Monty on the trailer for a butcher shop visit.

2.  Engineer rage.  This is typically where Marvin has walked into the office on a Monday and discovered the project which he'd been working on, with four months remaining on development and testing....has been cut down to three weeks.  The rage just pours out of Marvin at the sales team and boss.  He leaves work at 4 PM and settles into a 8-hour visit to a topless dancer bar.  The rage drives Marvin for seven days....when he finally delivers the product.  

3.  Professor rage.  This is typically where the university lessen the entry levels, and Professor Fred now realizes that he has people in the class with a 5th-grade level of knowledge and asking stupid questions.  

4.  Farm-extension-agent rage.  This is typically where the farm agent for the county discovers the whole past agenda for the thirty years has been dumped, and some weird agricultural agenda comes down.....which makes no sense to him, or the local farmers.

5.  Trailer-trash rage.  This is where Jeffrey (a trailer park resident) realizes that virtually all of the gals who were in the trailer park have left, and these seemingly intellectual gals (having wrapped up the 10th grade) have arrived, dress decently, and avoiding drinking until after 6 PM.  

6.  McDonalds rage.  This is generally where the manager realizes the nutritional value posters that he was forced to put up.....has triggered people to read the values, the menus, and grasp that 95-percent of the menu is unsafe to eat....so they don't shop at McDonalds anymore.

7.  Intellectual rage.  This is generally where two or more intellectuals meet, and realize they have opposing viewpoints, and argue for six hours over their views....with no conclusive end.

8.  Biden rage.  This is typically where the President walks into the bathroom at 6 AM, and argues in a hyped-up way with himself in the mirror for 20 minutes before realizing it's just a reflection of himself.

9.  CNN rage.  This is typically where sixteen production people have worked for six hours to build a one-hour program with an idiot that they can't stand, and they eventually realize fewer than 400k people from the nation watch their show, with half of them in a mental ward.  

10.  Hispanic rage.  This is typically where Juan is sitting with some work-associate and the guy asks when Juan came across the border.  Juan responds angrily that his folks were in Texas in the 1820s and were part of group at the Alamo (meaning the Texas folks).  

Sunday 27 June 2021

Bum Versus Hobo versus Tramp?

For the record:

1.  Tramp usually means a guy who ONLY worked when there was no other choice.

2.  Bum usually meant a guy who doesn't work period.  This is the handout guy, or the guy who hangs around the 'missions'.  

3.  Hobo meant a guy who was fully able and willing to move/travel....to find work.

As you can guess....bums usually fell near the bottom, with tramps one step above them.

Is There Such a Thing as Bidenomics?

 No.

I saw the word used this morning....by a business analyst who was trying to get across how inflation is arriving, and how the plan ahead by the administration exists.

Personally, I think if you cornered President Biden and asked direct questions on the economy....you'd get a two-minute lecture about 'how money doesn't grow on trees', and 'how you redistribute the money that doesn't grow on trees'.  

Maybe there is expert within his inner circle who does provide advice, and they carry around a 700-page binder with ideas.....but getting Joe and his inner circle to all agree on the agenda....is near impossible.

So there is something called 'Bidenomics', and maybe a six-line description exists....just enough to put on a 3x5 inch index card.  But in terms of getting somewhere with it?  You'd be better off getting a policy started up by President Biden on duck hunting.

Paranoia Woke

 Generally, paranoia is defined as a ridiculous yet irrational feeling....always remaining in your mind that people are after you or out to harm you.  Naturally, this makes you think they are intruding or disturbing your landscape.

The typical end-result?  You have doubts of virtually everyone.

If you gaze at the news spectrum, internet and social network chatter, and the hyped-up nature of society....there's a fair portion of people running rampant with this paranoia level.

As much as you can make the case that this is irrational...then what?  There's no rehab or massive Doctor Phil-like character to take 100-million Americans in and straighten them out.

If you sat and watched six hours a day of network news, you sit there at 11 PM....unable to sleep, and having anxiety/stress that such-and-such political group, social group, etc....are out to get you.  It affects your sleep, your view of neighbors and friends, and might even develop fears within your mind that the entire 'Old Testament' of the Bible might be linked up to Donald Trump.  

The consequences of all of this?  What happens six months or six years in the future...when you finally wake up?  If I'd wasted seven or eight years of my life in this type of woke situation....I'd feel awful foolish having wasted so much of my life in this 'pit of despair'. 

Saturday 26 June 2021

Ten Observations

 1.  I expect the LGBTQ folks to have at least a dozen additional letters by 2025....likely to include the bondage people, the Masochism people, and the Picquerism folks.  

2.  This visit by Harris to the Waco area....will be the only trip to the border in 2021 (my prediction).  In fact, I doubt that she will visit at any point in 2022.

3.  Yeah, President Biden did say in some 'funny' way that Latinos in general....are in some fashion....all illegals.  I don't think he grasped the way he said this, and he just misread the teleprompter. 

4.  I expect some group to rise up in 2022...to demand that the Statue of Liberty be torn down because it's racist.

5.  Poll done this past week does say that if the 2024 election was Harris versus Trump.....she'd easily lose.  This is why I think that Joe Biden will be kept around, and probably run again in 2024.

6.  The head guy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Army General) says that he wants to understand 'white rage'.  I imagine that the guy has lived in a bubble for 30-odd years, and has no idea over the crazy nature of America in 2021.  They ought to go and force each officer upon being promoted to one-star status....to spend six months touring America in a truck, and talking to regular people.

7.  If transgender surgery is a 'right'....then nose surgery or boob surgery ought to be a 'right' as well.  

8.  Yeah, in a speech....President Biden did put the Tuskegee Airmen (famous for WW  II participation) with syphilis test subjects (different era and story entirely).  Listen, people come up to Joe every day and tell him 700 facts, and it's hard to remember and differentiate between them.  That's 255,500 facts, and they get all jumbled up.  

9.  Over in the Saarbrucken area of Germany (far west state)....a older gal (blonde, 50s) moved up in the Green Party and became the number two person in the state political scene for the Greens.  This week however, a Q and A came up, and she knew absolutely nothing over environmentalism, the party agenda, or current event topics.  The people who voted her up to this current status?  I don't think they really cared if she was a 'dumb-blonde'.  They just liked her image and looks.  Says something about the political world we live in.

10.  Identifism.  It's a new term that I've created.....where people go around and identify as 'something else'.  They might suggest they are Latino, when they are plain Wisconsin-white.  They might say they identify as a thin person, when they weigh 350 pounds.  They might say they are sane, when they are 100-percent insane.  It's reached a point where we probably need to send these folks off to some farm situation, and let them haul hay for two weeks straight (in July) to get the craziness out of them.  

Friday 25 June 2021

Joe's Credit Card Used for $25k for Hotel and Hooker Cost?

 Well....yeah.  I'll link this to this news group.

At some point in 2018, Hunter Biden got Joe's credit card and over a one-week period....charged up for a LA hotel and round-the-clock hooker service. End result was $25k of 'services'.  

The binge?  It would have continued on but the Secret Service got wind of the expenditure of money and tried to get Hunter under control.  All drugged-up?  Maybe.  

Chinese aware of Hunter's situation?  No one says much but you have to imagine that they (and the KGB) had a full view of the situation.  

This being a big deal now?  No.  That's the comical side of this.  Had this been Bill Clinton, or Bush I/II, or Obama....it would have torn apart the Biden administration.  Folks just look the other way.  

Thursday 24 June 2021

Educational Chaos

 I sat and read through this story.  Basically, the state legislature of Oregon has come to realize that in this Covid-19 era....educational achievement is royally screwed.  

So they wrote a draft bill in Oregon that is going to the desk of the governor....which would waiver the requirement of a read/write or perform math requirements at the 10th grade level....to graduate and get your diploma.

Permanently?  NO.  This waiver would last until 2027.

In theory, you could be standing there at age 18....in the final months of the 12th grade, with the ability to read/write at the 5th grade level, and marginally perform 6th grade math.....but it's all well and good enough to graduate.

You'd sit there and ask....why would you fund or go tax locals to support school costs....for twelve years per kid?  

If I were the kid in this scenario....in the 9th grade presently, then I'd be laughing.  All I have to do is show up and attend class.  The system is geared for me to learn nothing but graduate at the conclusion of the 12th grade.

So you ask yourself....if you were an employer in the state....how reliable is the educational system?  Every kid graduating between now and 2027....questioned over their knowledge level?  Yeah, basically....that's the story.

Consequences?  I can see over a hundred issues being created, and none of them helpful for society.  

The 44-Percent Story

 I sat and paused over a short story from today's news.....a study completed and says that 44-percent of Americans have hit their lowest emotional point of their lives...with the Covid-19 era.  

The chief problem of the study?  It didn't really identify rural versus urban folks, or state-by-state folks. 

Generally, if I were looking at this idea....I'd say that probably only 5-percent of rural folks said they'd hit their lowest emotional point of their life (they've seen tornados, droughts, and failed crops....so it's hard to rattle them on some virus).  The urban folks?  It might be 70-percent of them 'suffering' (in some way) enough....say they were at a key emotional point.

If you were going state-by-state?  I'd take a wild guess that folks in NY City and California....probably around 80-percent of them were in this dismal state of life situation.

Folks in Tennessee or Alabama?  It might be only 3-percent of them in some dismal state of life environment, and half of them were consumed with watching CNN or Doctor Doom-videos twelve hours a day.

Frankly, it's hard for me to buy into this discussion.  If you are that bad off on the emotional scale, you probably had some issues brewing before Covid-19 ever came along.

So I end this essay with this observation....it ain't over.  Come October, I expect the virus to rise up again in numbers.....with various state governments wanting to go back to full-scale chaos, and your dismal scale of life rises back to maximum numbers once again.  CNN and Doctor Doom?  They will do their job, and you will get a full dose every evening.  

Joe's Nuke Talk

 Did President Biden say: "If you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons."

Yes.  It is in relation to his belief that a limit exists within the idea of the Second Amendment.

To be honest, if you listed the 388,812 quotes of Joe Biden over the past thirty years....most fall into the category of being a bit unhinged, and this would be one of them.

So I sat and pondered upon the quote.

To be honest, if you wanted to take on the US government....a simple virus made in some bio-weapons lab would probably be enough.  

Why would anyone go big-tech with F-15s?  The Mujahideen in the 1980s did quiet well with the Soviet military apparatus, and removed the threat of technology with just hand-held surface-to-air missiles.  

I could make a 100-page summary, but it's obvious that Joe was talking to 'consumers' who buy into his chatter, and he didn't mean this to be anything more than laughable-Joe-talk.  

Tuesday 22 June 2021

NCAA Players to Get Paid?

 There is a legal case proceeding where some folks think that NCAA players (mostly starting out in football) will force the issue of salaries.  What kind of salaries?  Unknown, and not likely to be discussed.

So, lets be honest here and admit up front....across the nation....there's probably only 35 college (more or less) that make the income from attendance, merchandise and tv contracts....that they could pay some type of salary.

Ole Miss, as an example...pulls in around $17-million a year, from it's entire sports department.

The University of Texas makes around 40-odd million off football ticket revenue.

University of Alabama?  It makes around 33-odd million off their football program.

So if this case goes to the bottom line....just what kind of salary would be paid out for your average player? 

My humble guess is that teams would sit down and have a 'pyramid-type' system where three to five players would be able to pull in $60,000 per season and the bottom ten players (mostly reserve players) would never make more than $5,000 a season (figure $15 an hour for practice and playing time).

Freshmen getting next to nothing?  It might go that way.

Would you have some teams offering Corvettes to players who decline the pay-scale?  You might have cases like that.

But there's this one problem.  After you wrap up the 35-odd teams at the top level....most all other teams would not be able to pay more than $3,000 per player, and there would be this huge 'fairness' issue brewing for the NCAA.  

I suspect in a matter of four years...you'd have a large segment of players trying to unionize, and suddenly Saturday football games would be hit with strikes.  The whole system would collapse in a matter of just one season.  

So I think the end of the tunnel is emerging and you will see a spiral starting up shortly.  

The Problem with News

 Joe Rogan gave an interview in the past couple of days, and talked about spiraling trend of CNN, and in particular....Brian Stelter.

Over the past three years, I've probably watched twenty-odd clips of Stelter in action....some of three minutes....some going up to half-an-hour.  The general problem that Stelter has (same way for most all of CNN's team)....they take a story which has six facts which could be discussed for about six minutes.....but instead turn the entire show (45 minutes if you cut commercial time out), and you stand there at the conclusion....feeling a bit dazed that six facts took 45 minutes to lay out.  

Adding onto this....you end up with four people at the table, coming on the show at various times....acting as experts, and you feel like one single person could have told this story in simplicity.

You see this at a lesser degree with MSNBC and Fox....maybe half as much. They usually lay out the six facts....have one single expert appear, and maybe dwell on this for around fifteen minutes. 

Stelter excels at this 'game' more than anyone else.  

Rogan's criticism?  He's correct....people are flipping from commercial news....to YouTube 'channels' like Rogan.  Rogan has become a modern-day Larry King....asking both smart and stupid questions.  Rogan lets you know ahead of time....he's always a bit skeptical and doesn't necessarily buy into half of the news that we hear on a daily basis.

The fact that Rogan's show outdraws Stelter's show now?  If you had said something like this a decade ago....folks would have laughed. 

Should CNN let Shelter go?  Well...if you did....what would replace him?  The same crap?  

Sunday 20 June 2021

VA Story

 I sat this morning and read through a 30-line story....."Biden Administration Will Offer Gender Transition Surgery Through VA Healthcare".  

Basically, the White House folks told the VA to handle this surgery, and if you detail  out cost factors.....no one really said there's more funding in the bucket to handle this.

Cost factor?  Well....at the bottom end of the scale....just to take a whack on your 'Johnson' or create a 'Johnson'....it's $15k.  Then you go up a notch...adding boobs, and this usually involves another $5k (depending on who does it), and if you wanted all the bells and whistles....it could climb up to the $40k range.

The mental side of this, and the drugs (steroids)?  You might as well add another $10k for the first year.  

But here's the thing.....having chatted with vets over the past twenty years....generally, they all have this marginal respect for the VA.  Out of forty-odd services or practices they run....there's probably five to ten that they do a decent job with, and the rest of the services or business operations are 'graded' marginal to crap.

So I could see a hundred guys walking into the VA....all hyped up and going to finally get free transgender surgery, and three months later....the majority waking up to find that they are in terrible shape because of screw-ups or infections from the hospital.

But there's one other odd characteristic about the VA, which most folks don't grasp.  If you were a guy who had some pain and discomfort....wanting extensive tests done....you'd show up and get the first line of doctors to agree on testing. Then they'd let you know that testing would not be possible for 90 to 120 days.  Even if it  proved something and surgical procedure was next....you might be waiting another month or two.  So these Trans-wannabe folks might be shocked....there's probably going to be a waiting list of 3,000 people and a wait of 300 days likely to occur.

Whats likely to happen?  I'll predict five years in the future...some Senate investigation occurs, and three-hundred vets appear with pretty sad stories how they were supposed to be 'transformed' (promised will be the word used), and now they feel like crap twenty-four hours a day because of screw-ups.  

It's a rough world out there, but I suspect things just got a notch worse for some folks. 

Saturday 19 June 2021

The Philosophy of Communitates Datum

 In Latin, communiatates datum translates over to meaning gated communities.

Whether you agree with the idea or not....I would suggest over the next forty years....this philosophy of gated communities will expand out, and roughly 10-percent of America by 2060....will live in a gated city, a gated down, or a gated suburb.

Chief reason?  The general denial of most people to settle on expectations and lack of political stability.  You could have a fine mayor or a fine governor....but if the attorney general of the state, or the chief prosecutor of the city won't really do their job, or the judges just grin and look the other way....you end up with approved chaos.

Back around eight years ago, there was a statistical review, and it was believed that around six to nine million Americans lived 'gated'.  If I were guessing today, it's probably closer to fifteen million living 'gated'.

For roughly twenty years of my life, I worked in the Air Force, and you got a fairly good taste of gated-living.  You passed an ID at the front gate, and within that 'land', you generally felt safe and the odds of robbery or assault was almost one-percent.

In areas like Atlanta today, your safety/stability view is probably only around seventy-percent....meaning that you continually look over your shoulder and keep a firearm in anticipation of trouble.  If you live around Baltimore, your safety/stability view is probably closer to forty-percent.  Don't even bother bringing up Detroit or Chicago. 

You may argue about the philosophy, but people are making judgement calls, and looking at the best way to survive.  

Friday 18 June 2021

Equality on Holidays

 Since Juneteenth has been passed and now seen as a federal holiday for blacks....the question arises....what about the other folks?

Hispanics?   Cinco de Maya.

Indians?  Gandhi Jayanti (2 Oct).

Indians (Natives)?  4th Friday of every October, American Indian Day.

Irish? 17 March. St Patricks Day.

British? 26 December, Boxing Day.

The odds that at least three additional holidays will be 'forced' over the next five years?  I'd give it better than 30-percent odds.  

Thursday 17 June 2021

The Problem of Unequal 'Rewards'

 The first award I think I ever got in life....was a complete school year accomplished with no missed days (somewhere around the 6th grade).  You got called up to the front of the auditorium by the principal....getting a certificate of some type.  There might have been one or two kids out of each class that got this.  To be honest, it wasn't that big of a deal to me....I wasn't exactly aiming for this.  I think I accomplished another one of these before I graduated from high school.

When rewards did come in the next thirty years after graduating high school....they were for odd things.  Some rewards were on paper....some involved cash-pay-outs....some were days-off from work....and some simply were a paid beer.

Rewards were never equal....at least in my mind.  

I've noticed this trend over the past five years....a lot of hype over the unequal nature of rewards.   People seem convinced now that everyone should get rewards, and they ought to all have some equal level involved.  

In some schools....I think if a kid just showed up five straight days in school.....he'd probably get a certificate for that act.  

The value of this reward revolution going on?  I think it hurts society a great deal and cheapens the effect of rewards.  You might as well give a reward, for getting a reward.

What Are Weapons You Typically Bring to an Insurrection?

 Well.....pistols, knives, bayonets', machetes, shotguns, axes, rifles, tanks, canons.

If you were bringing bottles of water....flags....apples (for nourishment), or maps?  It's not really an insurrection.  

So the more this insurrection chatter goes on....the more childish the whole discussion becomes.

Discussing Disparity

 This week, I watched a YouTube video where a couple of folks talked to some degree about economic disparity.  You had a pro-economic disparity and anti-economic disparity representative....with a neutral person or two.

So the basis of this argument revolves around this....X-number of people live healthy, well-to-do lives, and Y-number of people live diseased (sickly), meager, destitute lives.  As you can imagine....it's not fair.

I paused over this argument (occurring about ten minutes into the discussion), and the rest of the chatter didn't really matter to me (I muted it).  

The basic problem with this discussion is that you would want to invent a want to take (tax or steal) the wealthy folks accumulation of cash, and just redistribute....in anticipation that ten to twenty years later.....everyone would be even.  Being over sixty and having met a ten-thousand-odd people on both sides of this problem....I can tell you that for each 'loser'....there's probably seven winners or marginal-winners.  And for each 'loser'....the majority of them (if just given the cash)....would be unable to develop the skill-set to be on the other side of life.

I worked with a guy who'd been given around $100k from Grandma's will, and spent around eighteen months developing the skill to handle money on his own.  Four years later....through a good sense of investing....the $100k was worth almost $750k.  

I worked with another guy who'd been given $25k by a will situation, and the whole amount disappeared in a matter of four months.

I worked with various individuals with drinking issues, and it didn't matter what the Air Force to stabilize their lives and halt the drinking.....the problem continued.  In one case, I figured the Air Force spent nearly $50k on treatment situations over a four-year period.....finally grasping that the guy could not ever get ahead.

The problem with the economic disparity crowd.....they really want to 'save' everyone and make the world an enormously happy place.  These are people who've never been to the Oakhaven area of Memphis on a dark night.  These are naïve people who don't realize the level of problems and how money doesn't cure your ills.  And these are people who feel that the crowd who got ahead in life....ought to be responsible for the 'losers' (when they really don't feel that sense of owing someone).  

Wednesday 16 June 2021

Observations

 1.  What happened to Jussie Smollett?  It's like he totally disappeared.

2.  What happened to Hunter Biden?

3.  Juneteenth ending up as a holiday?  Well, there's hype it may happen.  The Latino crowd?  They are openly discussing 5 May (Cinco de Mayo).  Would we give up two of the present holidays? 

Personally, I think we ought to have 365 holidays on the calendar.....to honor a lot of things (even Halloween and Ironman's birthday ought to be a national holiday).

Border Story/Fantasy

 In roughly two weeks, Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the US border (Texas).

Pressure now building for VP Harris?  I would say that her planning team is now sitting there at least four hours a day, and discussing how they could get ahead of Trump, or how to downplay Trump's visit.

The fantasy scene I could see playing out?  There out of the brush...walks six Hispanic kids....having crossed the border, and here is the Texas Governor and Trump.

Trump reaches into his bag and pulls out six ice cold waters and offers them up to the kids.  Headline for the next day?  Trump saves kids! Yes, it would be that crazy.  

The Thing About Nature

 “If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.” 

– Kurt Vonnegut

I sat and admired the quote this morning.  There are various things that occur in nature, and they end up as front-page news now.  From disease, to hurricanes, to drought.  

Sunday 13 June 2021

A New Phobia

 Terminus-Phobia?  

Well....yeah.  It basically translate over to being an irrational fear of borders.  

Our Vice-President (Harris) has Terminus-Phobia.  I don't think before 2021 that she had this phobia of borders....this started up in the past hundred days with this new job that President Biden gave her....in facilitating a solution for the border.

Somewhere in this business....she got this irrational fear of the border.  

Normally, mental health specialists would have sat down and figured out a treatment program for a person in this case....but I doubt if they've had enough time to resolve this.

What I would suggest....just take a person with Terminus-Phobia, and toss them into a bread-truck....taking them to the border.  Hand them a six-pack of beer as they exit the truck and see the sign proclaiming the border.  Then give them an hour or two to accept the border situation....getting rid of this irrational fear.  

Saturday 12 June 2021

The One-Quarter Chatter

 One of the odd 'add-on's' that you get with Netflix and the various streaming video platforms now....is 'speed-handling'.  This means if you want to run the video at a slightly faster speed, or much slower speed....you can.

So in the past year, folks have began to notice various 'experts' appearing who view a 3-minute clip at one-quarter speed, and then providing 12-minute presentation where they talk about all the secret things in this 3-minute clip.

As you begin to review these....you come to realize that production teams are putting in tremendous amounts of time to hide things in the clip.....making you the viewer get more intense over the story, or the video.  

Adding to the production time and story?  

Well, you could now have a two-hour Marvel movie where sixty hidden things are in the background....that you'd normally never notice.

It means you have to sit there after watching the two hours.....putting in another four extra hours....grasping these hidden story pieces.  On top of that, you need a $1,200 special giant-screen TV to see the clips at one-quarter speed. 

I recently watched Netflix's Army of the Dead, and there is some moment about halfway through the movie (on zombies') where I suddenly realize that there is a time-loop suggested in the story, and a couple of moments where you realize it's intentional for you to believe that.  The potential that three different additional movies might be made over the one single Army of the Dead?  I'd go and suggest that.

What's the Chief Problem of Society Today?

 Self-righteousness and lack of tolerance.  

It's a skill-set that people had upon coming out of school prior to the 1990s.  

You learned to be marginally tolerant of people and just nod your head.  As stupid or crazy as the person might have been.....you had to work with them or socialize with them in various ways.  

You learned to avoid the holier-than-thou behavior, and quietly hide your moral superiority.  

You learned to be hypocritical of people....but just not say that to their face.

You learned that no one was perfect.  

Where did these skill-sets go?  Unknown.  They literally disappeared overnight, and I would suggest the bulk of the nation are wandering around in a daze....unable to confront reality.  

Friday 11 June 2021

Just Something to Think About

 If you wanted to run a world-class lab, but weren't ever going to be given world-class money by Congress....you'd naturally go to plan 'B'.

Plan 'B'?  You'd take what marginal funds that Congress would give you and turn to some Chinese guy named 'Wang', and let him do it the Chinese way.....running a marginal pretend-to-be world-class lab, on a quarter of the real budget that you'd need. 

If 'Wang' screwed up one day.....at least he did it, and not your own guys.  

Just something to think about. 

A Story You Have to Wonder About

 There's a story out of the Washington Examiner which basically says from the Covid-19 stimulus money and business-help funds.....around 400-billion was siphoned off, and taken illegally by criminal enterprise.....going out of the US.  

Odds of this being true?  Unknown.

Government looking into this?  Unknown.

Total embarrassment if this were true?  I'm not sure if any member of the House or Senate would be embarrassed.  

Maybe it's only one-quarter true.  

Wednesday 9 June 2021

The 'Gap'

 About 200 miles south of the Panamanian border....on the Pacific side...you come to the last bit of civilization in Columbia.  Anything west of Medellin (figure about 25 miles) is a territory that you'd be advised to just skip or avoid.  

This jungle heads northward (for about 200 miles) then reaches the Panama border, and there you find the Darien Gap....which is another entire jungle.  In this case (on the Panama side) you can figure another 30-odd miles of absolute pure jungle exists.

The Trans-American Highway?  It ends at Yaviza....a small town about forty miles from the Columbian border.  The idea of building the 'link' of the highway through the jungle.  It was discussed years ago, and eventually dropped.  

On the Atlantic side....there's a civilized area near the coast, and if you had a boat....you could probably make it across the 'bay' to civilized Panama (maybe a 80-mile sailing adventure). 

What keeps a vast number of migrants in South America from venturing the US border?  Well....basically the Darien Gap.  Some people say they venture through trails in the jungle.  The story goes (depending on who tells it), that maybe a couple thousand attempt this year, and maybe 80-percent make it....with the rest dying or disappearing somewhere in the jungle.  

On the top ten most dangerous travels you could make in the world....I'd easily rate this in the top ten.  Beyond the snakes and critters.....you have to worry about various fevers which are existent there.  On top of that, you have to cross swamps, creeks, streams, and deal with waterfalls. 

Tuesday 8 June 2021

The Lack of a Peritum Standard

 For those not into Latin....peritum means 'expert'.  

Around ten years ago....I sat one night watching CNN, and they wanted to drill down into some topic and had some 'expert' show up for a 'Q and A' session.  About half-way through the ten minutes, I came to realize that the expert was NOT an expert, and that I probably knew twice as much on the topic as the CNN expert.  

Ever since that point, I'm skeptical of 'experts'.

Between the various news networks, and print-media/social media experts.....I probably see or read a presentation by at least 20,000 experts per year.  To be kinda honest....about 80-percent of them are what I'd call marginal or non-existent experts.

In the days of old Greece or old Rome....maybe in your entire lifetime, you probably only came face-to-face with twenty-odd experts (one of them probably was the village blacksmith).  So you weren't so confronted with so many non-existent experts pretending to know nothing about something. Life was simple.

Today?  You have even social media giants like Facebook and Twitter which have granted themselves 'expert-status', and have the power to collapse or cancel anyone who doesn't rank with their level of expert-status.  In some sense, the world is revolving around a civil war of the 'experts'.....group X against group Y.

In some cases, you even have experts who deem their status because they are experts about the experts in the world.  And in some cases, you have experts who are experts over experts over experts.  

Where this is leading onto?  It's anyone's guess.....but it would seem like....eventually, that some folks would just wake up and just start laughing about this level of experts existing.  


Atlanta

 So when this BLM riot episode started up in the fall of 2020 in Atlanta.....at some point, a 8-year old kid was killed.

The family of the kid this week....started up a court episode.  They want sixteen million dollars, or they go to court.  

Responsible parties?  The mayor and chief of police.  

What'll happen?  I'm guessing Atlanta has an insurance policy over events like this and it's probably in the range of five to eight million for a pay-out.  Course, once this occurs....the insurance company will come back within twelve months and probably double the insurance rate.

The city will spend at least a million (probably more) on legal costs, and eventually get this down to what the insurance would pay.  

But here is the icing on this cake.  The folks in Buckhead (that upper-scale suburb to the far north of Atlanta) have been reviewing this idea of breaking away from Atlanta and becoming a city on their own.

I'm guessing this will help funnel the move in a certain direction, and within two years.....Buckhead, the city...will occur.

How the city covers increased insurance costs.....with fewer 80,000 fewer residents, and less property tax revenue?  That's a curious question.  

Bold New World

 I sat and read through this story.....the University of Washington Law School has drafted up this idea which basically says....as a 'guest' of their school....there would be regulations to limit what you say on social media.  

I pondered over this for a while.

Who exactly would determine the list of forbidden topics?  That's not clear.  It sounds like the University law school folks would have the final say.  Who made them special?  Well....that's not clear either. 

For example....you might wake up one day, and find that discussing whores or hookers was a bad thing (thus forbidden to talk about) but slutty women was approved (thus a good thing).

Another example, you could wake up and chatting about blacks and high cholesterol was a forbidden topic, but it was ok to chat about whites and high cholesterol.  

Personally, I'd look at the situation (if I were a student) and build a secret identity with a fake moustache, $19 used wig, and a VPN that led back to Gila Bend, Arizona.   

Six months into this deal....if they finalize it....you'd probably see a thousand fake ID folks....chatting over forbidden university topics, and the university elites just grumbling that people weren't supposed to do fake identities.  

Monday 7 June 2021

What If It Came From the Lab?

 Supposed solid evidence came up and the Covid-19 virus was a 'critter' that was brought into a weapons lab, and over a two-year period....was a bio-project that kinda reached a good stage, and then 'Hu-Chung' (the bumbling clean-up guy) accidentally took some element out in the regular garbage and the virus 'escaped'.

If true....what now?

China being responsible?  Why?

The fact that Fauci and the US might have paid for part of the research?  

This is the chief problem you have at this point.....there's no punishment great enough for the 'escape' of the virus.  I'm guessing the 25 Chinese lab technicians who were around the project....have all been executed in the middle of the night.  The head of the department?  He's dead.  Probably the next three bosses above that single idiot....dead as well.

We'll spend the next decade figuring out the virus, and eventually reach a stage where you have to lick the spit off some walrus to get some kinda natural immunity, and repeat this yearly.  

Thursday 3 June 2021

The Thing About 'Binges'

 Breitbart put up a story yesterday....here's this private security company that hired up a Secret Service guy as their CEO about a week after he personally handled a discreet but messy event....with Hunter Biden.

What is said is that Hunter showed up in Los Angeles....stayed at a hotel at some point in 2018, and got on a alleged drug and prostitute binge.

I sat and read over the story for a while....several times.

I kinda know what a drug binge is, and how you could be there in a fancy hotel room with a fair amount of cocaine, and really binge big time.

But then I came to a prostitute binge situation. Being from Alabama, we'd naturally say that two hours with one single hooker.....was a binge point.  

Some folks from Birmingham would say three black hookers for a 24-hour period, would be a binge point.

Some folks from Florida would say eight hours with four hookers would be a binge point.  

Some guys from NY City would say that two hookers for twelve hours....would be a binge point.  

I've known Vietnam vets who'd say that in Thailand in 1968....seven days with two hookers was a binge thing.

So, I'm kinda left wondering.....what exactly was the hooker binge level in 2018 for Hunter?

Mask Story

 I sat and read over this Epoch Times piece several times this morning.

Back around 5 Feb 2020.....our doctor doom (Dr Anthony Fauci) answered an email.

The question posed was....would the regular masks you could buy at drug and grocery stores....be adequate.

His answer?  “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.” 

Then he added: "Those masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infections.” 

He wasn't finished.....saying “I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location. Your instincts are correct, money is best spent on medical countermeasures such as diagnostics and vaccines.”

So either he is 100-percent right, or 100-percent wrong.  The countless millions spent on masks across the globe in 2020 and 2021?  

All of this begs questions, but no one will go to that level of leadership.  

Wednesday 2 June 2021

What is a 'Outrage Peddler'?

 Well....it's a new term that has been thrown around for the last year or two, but rarely described.  So this is my definition.

It's a guy/gal....who talks a lot, and hypes you up....to feel 'outrage' to such an extent....that you'd go and attend a protest, demonstration or vote in some wild way. 

Rush Limbaugh?  Yeah.

FDR?  Yeah.

Trump?  Yeah.

Most journalists at CNN?  Yeah.

TV ministers?  Yeah.

Cuomo, Pelosi, and Doctor Doom of Covid fame?  Yeah.

The plain blunt truth is that most of us....if outrage peddlers were not around....wouldn't be that hyped up over politics, national leadership or anything in Washington DC.

Outrage peddlers going away?  No.  If anything, the profession seems to be growing.  There are kids now (Greta) who serve as outrage peddlers.  You've got various members of the NBA or NFL....who portray themselves as outrage peddlers.  You have comedians who've dump comedy, and actively portray themselves as outrage peddlers. 

Tuesday 1 June 2021

Latin/Greek Discussion

 To be honest, I shouldn't care.....but it came up yesterday that the University of Princeton has dropped Latin and Greek as a language requirements classics major.  Reason?  Well....it's 'systemic racism.’

If you look around....most all universities in the US have dropped Latin/Greek in general, over the past hundred years.  It used to be a big deal....you went to a college and they mandated debate....they mandated geometry even if you were going for a degree in history....they mandated Latin, and so on.

The necessarily for Latin?  It basically goes back to knowing and understanding Roman history/culture, and how it interacts with our lives even today.  Some people will even say that it leads to linguistic problem-solving and opens your mind to true meanings of words.

Latin already gone in high schools?  If you look around.....it's down to a few private academies.  Back in the 1960s, there were around 700,000 kids in America studying Greek or Latin.....I doubt if you even get to 5,000 today.  

As for it causing systemic racism?  You might as well make the case that college basketball/football also triggers systemic racism, and end that.  Maybe even these basket-weaving classes might cause systemic racism, and you ought to end them as well.  Frankly, in general....all college is system racism, and you should just limit your educational path to air conditioning repair, plumbing, and carpentry.