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.