The 'Rust' Question

 I noticed yesterday that the Santa Fe DA announced that he's reviewing the 'Rust' movie set shooting....over Alec Baldwin's statement that he didn't pull the trigger, and if it's possible for a gun to fire with no pull on the trigger.

For the record, various episodes have occurred where the trigger was engaged, and without a finger upon the trigger....it just 'failed' and fired.  Hint: this is why you never aim at anything unless the intent is there to put-down or kill someone.

What'll likely occur?  Some specialized gunsmith will go over the weapon and be asked.....just what kind of shape is the gun in?  

Baldwin's whole explanation that he never pulled the trigger?  It all goes back to this one idea.

If you asked a hundred handgun owners.....I would imagine that 90-percent would say it's practically impossible for this scenario to occur.  

All This Ukraine-Russia Stuff

 Since probably Thursday, I've probably watched around twenty-five hours of Ukraine-Russia war stuff via German, French, Brit and CNN TV.  Ten observations:

1.  It's just an awful lot of Doctor Doom characters that they've found and put on for a ten-minute 'chat'.  Some seem to be knowledgeable, and some seem to know enough to fill out four 3x5 inch index cards.  

The Covid Doctor Dooms are disappointed how the virus virtually disappeared overnight.  

2.  Just a lot of weepy interviews with Ukrainian refugees and developed in the way to get you feeling awful sorry for them.  I'll admit.....the anti-Russia trend is hyped to the max.

3.  While some of these rockets and missiles have worked.....you seem to see via video a fair number of Russian rockets/missiles that failed to explode.  Maybe this was some Chinese-produced rocket or maybe the Russian-Marvin guy who was supposed to flip the right switch when loading on the helicopter.....failed to do so.

4.  On the failed-to-explode videos, you also see a fair number of Ukrainian dimwits trying to have their picture taken while touching the 'fin' of the rocket impacted in the ground.  

5.  If you listen to the Russian propaganda.....their forces have officially circled Kiev twelve times and killed 100,000 Ukrainian troops.  If you listen to Ukrainian propaganda, they've blasted 300 Russian tanks, and crippled the advance.  Both are loaded with BS, and the journalists just accept it as fact.

6.  The folks over 80 in Germany having serious anxiety problems?  Oh yeah.....they remember 1945/1946 and it was not a pleasant time.

7.  There's apparently a list of words that Russian journalists on the nightly news can't use....reminding one of the CNN trend where they directed folks in the same fashion to avoid using certain words/phrases.  

8.  Size-wise, the Ukraine is around the size of Texas....so when you say that 150,000 were the starting element of this war.....you have to figure it may take a while to get things done....a long while.  Add in breakdowns....rest-breaks.....and it might take a while to seize up the whole country.

9.  Just an odd thing to throw in, but back in September....around 30 of the Kremlin insiders to Putin all had Covid at the same time (this part of the story is a fact, even Putin admits that).  The rumor then goes....Putin himself never had Covid (never established as fact or BS).  Oddly, just after this episode is when the 'Ukraine-rage' starts up and orders go out to put troops at the border.  

So, some folks are suggesting Covid-fog or Long-Covid took place, and a bunch of people in charge....said/did things....which make no real sense.  

On my BS-meter, this is swaying between a 5 and 10.  It could happen but this would be like a Doctor Strangelove episode.

10.  The Daily Mail out of the UK spoke of potential mental issues with Putin....some coming from Parkinson's (zero facts on this)....and some from hubris syndrome (where in the case of brain damage or serious mental loss).  

Again, on the BS meter, it's between a 5 and 10.  

Adding to it....if you were in the inner circle and realized this....would you do anything to risk things for yourself?  

Here's the final observation....if we emerge out of this...with various European countries invaded, and WW III is finally 'put down' in 2024....then we discover that Putin and his entire top level were foggy-Covid brained....would everyone just about freak out and not trust the world institutions?  

(I think it's a great script for the next Tarantino movie...even way better than that crazy Dusk Til Dawn script that he wrote for the vampire-freaks)

My Problem With Math Word Problems

 I reached some stage....probably by the sixth-grade, where word problems made no sense.  

In each problem, you'd have five or six key 'pieces', and you really needed to separate the question from the facts....determining what was useless information and what had value.

Example: Micky had 12 girlfriends.  Two of them owned dogs.  Four of them had tattoos.  Nine of them were left-handed.  One was a Baptist-freak and drove a Honda Civic.  Eleven of the girlfriends left.  How many girlfriends did Micky have in the end?  I would have wasted five minutes looking at four bits of information with no value.  Eventually, I would have asked the question how Micky got 12 girlfriends to start  with, and spend a good three minutes wondering about his style and nature.

From the sixth through the ninth grade, this word problem thing bothered me.  Out of every test....at least one-third of the test was based on stupid questions.  It was always 50-50 if I'd mark off the bogus info, and just concentrate my limited time on what needed to be done.

Eventually, I came to the reality that I needed a formula to reach a conclusion, and I automatically concentrated on this formula.....then going back to the phrased question itself.

The necessity to write stupid math word problems?  It's more of a training tool to teach people to discount things.....rather than just figure they are part of the math problem itself. 

Fixing or resolving this?  I am of the belief that half of all teachers are pro-word problem and can't imagine math existing without this 'thrill'.  

More Radiation Coming out of Chernobyl, Ukraine Area?

 Well....things are monitored on a constant basis.

Russians have moved in and occupied the area....mostly to control two power production sites (still running).

What the PhD guys imagine is that a lot of contaminated dirt was 'dumped' in some public areas, and that the invading Russian guys drove through....ran tanks through....and have set dust clouds up.

If true?  Well...those Russian guys will be contaminated and likely living fairly limited lives.  Odds of the radioactive dust coming out over Russia/Europe, if true?  Just another thing to worry about.  

What Joe Said Two Years Ago

 

Wonder what he meant by 'toe-to-toe'?

News Media Propaganda

 When CBS produces propaganda....you know that it' a pretty weird world.

What Do Trigger Questions Really Mean?

 Well, if you ask a trigger question to a guy or gal under the age of twenty-five, it typically means aggravation, anxiety attacks, etc.  It means they have to think about the question, the possible answer, the path between the two, and a weight of stress (to be determined).  

In the old days, you'd drive up to some neighbor's house, sit on the deck or patio or front porch....then get to the sensitive question of whatever happened to 'Uncle Waylon', and there would be this sixteen minute story of how he got into law-trouble, did four weeks of county-jail, and left for Wichita.  

Then your associate would ask whatever happened to 'Aunt Olivia' and you'd respond that she ran off after getting all tangled up in some love affair between the a welder-guy and a county-commissioner who had a blue Ford pick-up.  

Trigger questions really didn't amount to much, at least thirty or more years ago.

Today?  Triger-questions might go more intensely.  You might be sitting at the porch of the neighbor and asking about his cousin Marvin....to discover that it's a forbidden topic, and triggers your neighbor to ask you to leave.  Only later do you find out that Marvin stole a gas grill, or got hired-up as a circus clown.  

If You Were Curious

 A Russian Ruble today cost 13 cents (US dollar).

November of last year, it was 14 US cents.

2018, it was 18 cents.

Around 2008, it was 43 cents.

Projection?  I read a piece this morning where they figure the rate will drop again by late March to a Ruble buying 10 cents (US dollar).  

Chinese coming in and buying natural gas contracts?  I'd be strongly encouraged to sign a couple of contracts, and pay at the declining value of the Ruble.  Russians buying literally anything outside of Russia?  Don't count on it  

Grading VP Harris's Visit to Munich

 Basically, the 'show' for the US at this security conference in Munich was Speaker Pelosi, Secretary of State Blinken, and VP Harris.  

Most of the journalists avoided Pelosi.  Blinken had the standard ten questions thrown at him, and did his usual routine. 

Then you come to VP Harris, who had roughly 45 minutes of question-time. 

On the theme of answers....I'd give her a '5' (scale of one to ten).  It wasn't a disaster....but it just seemed like every answer was coming out of a mouth of a 13-year old school-girl.

On believably/trust?  I'd give her a '6'.  Maybe people were expecting a more experienced person on the international scale, but that's simply not her background.

Finally, giving people some element of courage?  That was probably between a '3' and '4'.  

If you were looking for some team effort to reassure the public....these three came in, lacking the skills to accomplish that. 

Joe's Latest Guest

 I sat and watched a Joe Rogan interview with Professor Andrew Dessler (Texas A and M, Climate Scientist).  Joe did this in the interest of trying to get both sides of the story.

So after watching the two hour piece.....here, if you want to view/listen.  Spotify, free.....just not the premium 'extras'.

My ten observations with the guy:

1.  He talked a bit on nuclear energy, but he really didn't present himself as an  expert and for each question Joe had in that area....he was obviously the wrong guy to ask.

2.  He made it blunt....he won't debate climate-deniers, period.  There is only science, and once you deny it.....your chance of a discussion with him is finished.  

3.  He talked a bit over the Texas Freeze of 2021....but in details that you probably wanted a better expert.

4.  The road buckling business that he chatted about for a minute....is not a modern day episode, you can go back to the 1940s/1950s, in virtually any country that used asphalt, and find this occurring in the midst of heat episodes.  

5.  When he talked over the market/cost for E-cars, he is absolutely correct that there is no E-car for the regular 'guy/gal' who only makes $35k a year on salary.   

6.  On coal-plants, filtering, etc....this was just not the right guy to ask questions.  

7.  The 'we don't have time' comment was uttered more than once, and was his 'nail-in-the-coffin' expression.  To me.....it just didn't help his cause.

8.  His ethanol chatter lacked substance (how we got to ethanol deserved more facts).  

9.  His history view on ice ages....probably should have been done by someone else....to mention that they come, and go.....come, and go.....come, and go.  But that expert would have talked for three hours over ice ages, and the cycles of the Earth.  

10.  I think Joe did the best he could with this guest.  His questions led onto more questions.  From past interviews.....I'd rate this on a one-to-ten situation....as being a '6'.  It's just that Joe covered a lot of different areas, and this guy wasn't the all-in-one knowledge guy.  

For future guests?  I'd like to see Joe bring on a asphalt expert, and talk over buckling, potholes, and the science of laying asphalt.  Also, people ought to have ethanol explained in complete detail....from the science/business application, to how it influences prices for farmers.  

Advice to Mika

“I had some friends that went to Paris over the holiday, and they said they were just viscerally embarrassed to be Americans. They said it was the first time that it was sort of chilling. That they didn’t even want to share where they were from.”

-- Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe, Aug 2018

This has 'stuck' to my mind an awful lot over the past four years.  It was one of that 3,000 Mika slams against Trump in that four-year period.  

I tend to look at this in a different way.

Back in the 1917 era, I had a great uncle who was drafted and sent early-on to the war.  It wasn't really an invited situation for him, and I would imagine if he were around today....he probably acknowledge some idea of where the country was on the map, and just knew that French folks were in dire need of help.  

He came back from the war in one piece....farmed for the remainder of his life, and never talked much of the experience.

I knew some other Americans that also went over for a 'holiday', in France in the summer of 1944.  

It was one of those affairs where they mostly threw together the bare essentials (some smokes, a deck of cards, a couple of pairs of underwear and socks, a canteen, a web belt with a holster for a M-1911 handgun, a M-1911 itself, and two changes of clothing).  Sarge would have tightly controlled the M-1 Garland situation until they officially arrived at the destination.

They seemed to leave off any men's cologne (feeling it wouldn't help matters).  Ties weren't necessary.  A dress suit for a night out might have been nice but they didn't anticipate any evenings or fancy dress balls.  Their list of things to see in France was awful short.  Most just wanted to leave the shores of France as soon as the 'tour' was finished. 

To be honest, they also weren't really invited.  This was one of those invitation slips that meant you needed to show up several months prior and get into some decent shape because you'd have to a fair amount of walking across the French landscape.

The arrival on French soil?  Well....if you were on the original first-arrival list, you probably didn't see much of the countryside, or French hospitality.  And the odds are that your weary bones lay on some French soil, where you had sixty seconds to note the beach and the charm of the French people.

Some folks got past the beach party situation, making miles inlands.  Oddly, they were getting a mixed welcome.  Some non-French folks felt the sudden arrival of the poor uninvited American was not necessary.  But just about every single French citizen came out, openly wept and slobbered over the poor American guy who didn't really grasp a single word of French, and guzzled down whatever French wine was offered....whether it was dry, sweet, or a lousy year.

We mostly just noted that we were passing through, and weeks later...had made it to the border of Belgium, where we found those folks acting the same way.

Course, when the folks arrived at the German border, there wasn't much of a welcome reception. 

I sit and ponder over Mika, her friends who spend the holidays in France, and the rough treatment of the French....oddly enough, they probably got the same wine, and listened to a good bit of French criticism while toasting some snails and eating some half-cooked calve's liver with a lovely mustard sauce.  

Yes, it seems that if we'd just voted enough for Hillary to win....the French would have proclaimed their love for us.  

Oddly in the summer of 1944, no one asked the poor American about the right guy or the wrong guy situation.  If Trump had been President in 1944....would the French have come to the beach and asked the Americans to leave because it was the wrong President?  Would those Americans at the beach been viscerally embarrassed as well, and choose to remain at the beach or return to the safe shores of Britain?

My suggestion to Mika and her friends....life goes on.  If you were prone to visceral embarrassment....it's best to remain at home, sip some California wine, toast some imported snails over the grill, and weep over some Edith Piaf songs.

My Ten Bits of Wisdom

1.   Nothing is rocket science.....even rocket science.

2.  A dimwit in a fancy suit.....is still a dimwit, just finer-dressed.

3.  If your life, your dreams, your accomplishments....are all run by polls or approval ratings....you might want to think about moving into the real world.

4.  Out of your local high school....there might be twelve students smarter than the most advanced teacher working at the school.

5.  If fatty food just tasted bad, we'd all pretty much give up the stuff, and just eat marginally-tasting nutritional food.

6.  No farmer ever got into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, earned a Nobel Prize for anything, or noted for the Presidential Medal for Freedom.  It's mostly because they've got real work to do.

7.  A hundred years ago.....the first guy to utter "bigot" usually was right about the other guy.  Today, the first person to utter "bigot" is usually the "bigot" him or herself.

8.  Any idiot could wander onto the NBC Today Show, run it for two hours, and get the same numbers of the current crew.

9.  It might be easier to contact foreign alien societies, find a Big Foot, or train a Loch Nessie to do fancy tricks.....than make the Affordable Healthcare Act stuff work as advertised.

10.  The term "investigative journalist" doesn't exist any longer.  It went with Beta tapes, 8-track, and CB-radios.

My 'If Canada Failed' Scenario

 So, lets say that via Trudeau's program....the government collapsed by mid-spring.  What would likely follow?

1.  I think that Quebec would likely follow it's original intention of being an independent nation, and probably Newfoundland attaching itself to Quebec.  

2.  On a wild belief, I think both British Columbia and Alberta would seek some type of state application status to the US.  In DC, this would be a fairly wild mess, and be originally pushed back by the Democrats.  

A path would be established with BC renamed 'New Columbia' and Alberta keeping it's name....both becoming states by mid-2023.  

3.  What really remains of Canada....the central region and Nova Scotia.....would try to survive for a period of time under a mini-Canada scheme. 

4.  The northern territories?  Anyone's guess but I think they'd eventually be some type of state situation within the US....maybe forming three or four states.  The more popular one?  The Yukon, bumping up against Alaska.  

Crazy scenario?  I follow Canadian news for a minimum of an hour each day now, and there's some unanticipated things (like the banking business) which is shocking me.  With no concern over where this going to lead the nation....I think the leadership has mostly failed the public, and will be shocked to find a divided country now existing.  

Things That I Don't Believe Anymore (#2)

Originally, I wrote this 50 item list in 2014.  So I've gone back and added another fifty items that have occurred since then.....making it a hundred now.

It's my general list of things that I just don't believe anymore....since growing a bit wiser and more cynical: 

1.  Ghosts.  I'm sixty-three and have yet to ever turn a corner and find some ghost standing there.
2.  Bigfoot.  Bogus....as much as you get.
3.  Loch Ness Sea Monster.  Nice tourist attraction to a remote lake in Scotland with no gimmicks.
4.  That Jonah got swallowed by a whale.  It's a nice and tidy story, but there's no whale with the capability of swallowing a guy.  So, I think it's just a fish story that got told over and over, bolder and bolder, until someone wrote it down.
5.  That religions can be non-violent.  Either Islam is a bogus deal or it's not a religion.
6.  Feeling safe in an American urban area setting.  I can't think of any major town or city in the US where I feel one-hundred percent safe.  After you watch enough crime reports, and notice the rate of assaults or robberies.....it's just not that safe.
7.  Nutritional and safe food.  After you start reading the sodium, sugar and additives listing on anything sold today.....there's just nothing that you feel is really nutritional or safe.
8. The flight getting to where you desired, on time.  I tend to arrive at airports, march through security with ill-feelings, and have this fifty-fifty feeling that we will get to the final destination on time and without issues.  Planning a back-up situation, is now mandatory in my mind.
9.  A four-star advertised hotel actually being a four-star hotel.  I'd say that about forty percent of all hotels saying they are four-star....aren't.
10. Universities producing real degrees and real graduates.  I tend to see four-year university programs as a Walgreens-like operation....money in....degree out....and a very marginal individual pretending to be smart and capable.  I'm also of the mind that a graduate in 1897 of a four-year university.....was probably twice as capable as kids graduating today.  This also relates to bogus professors pretending to be worth a $120k salary and a $75k a year pension deal.
11. Honest politicians.  It's zero chance that all one-hundred Senators could pass an an ethics audit or a Constitutional quiz.  Most simply are lobbyist-Senators or agenda-Senators.....none represent their state or their peers of the state.
12.  Safe food at restaurants.  Between questionable vegetables and fruit.....sanitary habits of the employees....and marginal health inspections.....nothing is absolutely safe anymore.
13.  TV ministers being dedicated to their religion.  After you've seen enough fall from grace....you come to realize that the character and honesty of ministers go into a spiral after they hit the big-time and start staying at five-star resort hotels.
14.  Stop and frisk being a racist thing.  If you walk around a big-name city on a routine basis, and you have some worries about crime because of assaults.....you start to ask who was the general culprit of the assaults.  And after a while.....stop and frisk is the only method to keep people honest and force people to act 'human' while in public.
15.  The NCAA bowl process being fair.  No, it's not fair....nor will it ever be fair.  It's about a group trying to protect the interest of the twenty biggest university football programs in America, and ensure profitability....end of story.
16.  Oswald was part of a big conspiracy.  Lee Harvey Oswald was a nutcase....even his brother has admitted that.  Now, if you ask about Jack Ruby.....I'm of a slightly different mind....wondering what the heck Jack was thinking, and if Jack was part of the conspiracy business.
17.  CNN is neutral.  Up until around 2002.....I probably still believed in the great story of CNN being objective.  Since 2005.....I'd say they are a lousy group of journalists, with no investigative ability, and it's remarkable that they still run the network.
18.  MSNBC is neutral.  Well.....even if a earthquake was to occur on Monday afternoon in California and trigger 1,200 deaths.....by Tuesday night....they'd be right back onto some political agenda story out of DC being the number one story.
19.  Fox News is unbiased.  They pick up a hundred stories, and maybe seventy are told in an unbiased way....which leads you to question the remaining thirty which are fairly biased.  You'd like to believe them entirely, but it's just about impossible.
20.  The Bible being a pure document with historical impact.  Basically, all of the New Testament chapters are written around 150 AD, and it's not consolidated for another 200 years (getting translated into Greek around this point)....with dozens (maybe hundreds) of individual copied documents with slightly different versions of various stories.  Then the Catholic Church picks up the Greek document....translates it again....into Latin....with more slightly different versions of various stories.  Then around eight hundred years later....it finally starts getting translated again into English, French and German.....with even more slightly different versions of various stories.  So, it's simply not anything related to copy version ONE.
21.  Republicans and Democrats working together.  Maybe at one time (up until the 1980s).....they could find fifty percent of all topics which they generally agreed upon.  Today.....it's impossible.
22.  National Parks run for their preservation.  Most all National Parks are run by agenda groups, with differing views of what is OK, and what is fouling environmental concerns.  It's almost mafia operations, with different groups fighting over funding, territory, and status.
23.  Teddy Roosevelt was a pure Republican.  You could have taken the top ten political ideologies of the time (1900) and found that Teddy had bits and pieces of all of them.
24.  Watergate was about corruption.  Watergate is an episode where some White House staffer's wife had illicit affair photos being held in the Watergate Hotel complex where a room area was rented by the Democratic Party, and the break-in was related to getting those photos.  The rest of the Watergate affair.....about trying to deceive the public on what happened in the weeks after the event.
25.  People and companies pay their fair share of taxes.  Basically, your Senate and House folks, over the past hundred years....have written eighty-thousand pages of exceptions and credits.....and a vast number of people and companies....along with religions and charities.....are bogus tax-payers.
26.  The 2008 economic collapse was due to President Bush and his policies.  If you spend ten hours reading and examining the entire collapse.....there's roughly fifteen different causes.  Trying to simplify it all back to one person and one cause....is a pretty comical method of acceptance, and what you'd typically get from a three-minute segment of the Today Show with Matt Lauer.
27.  Sixty Minutes does great investigative journalism.  This was likely true up until the 1990s.  At that point, they became a lame group of journalists....over-paid....and lacking any pure skills for the trade they pretended to occupy.
28.  The pilgrims were prepared for their "mission".  If you had to sort through history and find the most ill-prepared and most lacking group for the job.....this was it.  One-hundred-and-two got off, and it's safe to say that they were screwed within minutes upon landing on the beach.  Landing in November....was the worst time of year, and their food supply was marginal at best.
29.  Global warming, global cooling, climate change is real.  Up through the 1990s.....I believed in the global cooling saga being told.  Once they stood up and said "stop"....we screwed up....it's a one-hundred-eighty-degree twist, and it's really global warming.....I had to ask why would you and your genius, along with the models....find such a vast difference in opinion in such a short time.  There should have thousands of the global cooling experts to stand and say the same thing.  Instead, they all just grin, and say we are version two of the whole story.  After that.....I lost total faith.  Now that we've moved onto climate change, and dumped both global warming and cooling....with no one challenging that trend....I'm pretty-well convinced.  None of this works.
30.  We must sponsor NPR across America.  Well...no, there was a time when we didn't have jazz, opera, classical music, and news networks.  I've kinda noticed over the last decade.....NPR's stations have cut back on classical, opera and jazz.....pushing news constantly.  Sadly, there are dozens of news outlets in every region now....so I question the necessity of NPR being pushed as a federal tax revenue project.  If they want it run.....dump the federal government contributions.
31.  Barry Bonds.  Barry was a decent thirty-homers-a-year player.  I think from the early 90's on....his production level was bogus, and he should have retired with five-hundred homers max.  Steroid use?  That's the problem....you just don't know.  Hall-of-Fame guy?  No.  He'll never make it and that really drives home the question of who Barry Bonds was in reality.  Sammy Sosa?  Same story.
32.  EPA is saving the environment.  In the first ten years, this might have been true.  I think their regulatory power has gone beyond anything one could imagine from the 1980s.  I think special interest groups and agenda foundations mostly do the homework and just press for regulations and rules to punish companies and private owners.....with no real representation by the little guy any more.
33.  You have no choice.  I've come to view life as a vast menu of choices, and those who feel they are bound to only one choice....are refusing to think for themselves.  There is always a choice.
34.  You need money to be happy.  Well....you need some money....just not a lot of money.
35.  We are alone in this universe.  Sadly, I'm of the mind that we will eventually come to find the other worlds with other races....and find that some are vast worst than our own, and some better.  And a few of us on Earth will feel as though we've lost much of what there was to live for.
36.  Life is fair.  Basically, life is about a continual walk, where there are some obstacles, some hazards, and some terrible things along the walk.  Some of us will make it, and some won't.  It's not about fairness....it's just a statistical thing.
37.  Jersey Governor Chris Christie ought to be president.  After this whole toll-gate episode occurred, I've come to regard Christie at the level of Tony Soprano.  He gives a good talk....but he's got a questionable character.
38.  The original Ferguson story.  After about a week, there are bits and pieces that came out....suggesting that this eighteen-year-old kid might not be so pure and clean.  Maybe the kid brought most of the mess upon himself, and maybe the cop did one stupid thing during the whole act.  The problem is.....convicting the cop is almost impossible if the autopsy shows the showing distance to be very close and the the kid over the top of the cop.
39.  Bernie Madoff was a genius.  There were obvious signs from the early stages of Bernie's fund, and dimwitted investors never questioned anything....neither did their tax accountants.....and neither did the SEC.  Bernie was an idiot, but they were as stupid or more so.....in terms of lacking investment understanding.
40.  Historians always tell the true version of history.  Generally, after a while and a vast amount of reading....you come to realize the idiots who write high school and college history books.....tend to lean toward their version of history, which fits into their dialog and big-picture.
41.  Don King is crazy.  I'm of the mind that Don King knew exactly how to get millions to pay into a pot and make one section of entertainment (boxing).....pay at a maximum rate.  Don wasn't crazy.....Don was a genius.  And today?  We've taken all the lessons Don taught us, and done the same thing with wrestling, football, and various sports.
42.  Wrestling is real.  It's the most bogus sport in existence.
43.  A top one-hundred show on rock-and-roll's greatest hits is always truthful.  No, it's not.  It's usually rigged with various gimmicks to push some folks higher than others.  Trying to compare Elvis with Madonna....doesn't work.  Trying to compare the Bee Gees with the Scorpions.....doesn't work.
44.  Small towns make their chunk of revenue off property taxes.  Well.....NO.  Most all small towns of 1,000 residents.....make their general big chunk of money....off fines that the local cops enforce.  That's why you have nine cops who mostly hand out traffic-tickets.
45.  People know better.  Around a hundred years ago....we outlawed booze consumption and sales.  It took roughly ten years for us to stand and admit.....we were pretty wrong about this.  We've proven over and over.....we aren't exactly knowing better.
46.  Cruiselines are safe.  No....they meet one group of health inspectors, and pass one marginal inspection.  After that.....you are on your own.
47.  Columbus was the first guy to land in America.  There's substantial evidence to show various Viking and Irish characters probably landed in America before Columbus.  And some evidence strongly supports the idea of Chinese discoverers being around as well.
48.  Michael Jordan was the greatest NBA player of all time.  Basically, I rank both Larry Bird and Magic Johnson above Jordan.  Watching Bird for two hours....was like watching a dozen fat lady opera singers belting out a torrid and epic song....weeping over frustrations and lack of play from the opposite team....and truly amazed that Larry wanted to win so badly compared to everyone else on the court.
49.  Judge Judy is fair.  No....Judge Judy listens to the story, finds either some truth or some lie, and renders a verdict.  She's not fair.....she simply applies the law, as written.  And I will admit.....she is entertaining as she reaches a verdict.
50.  Life is short.  You know....if you want it to be short....then you will feel that way.  If you want it to feel extra long and tedious.....you will feel that way.  If you want it to feel corrupted and terrible.....you will feel that way.  If you want to make it just a simple adventure, with no compass or map.....you will feel that way.  It is....what it is.

So, the next new fifty:

51.  Joe Biden is competent.  Well, you have to begin with the problem that since the 1980s, Joe probably hasn't worked more than 25 honest hours each week, and just suggesting he might need to pull forty hours....each single week, you are tiring Joe out mentally.

52.  Putin doesn't know what he's doing.  Oh, he knows precisely what he's doing and the world is like a chessboard to him.  

53.  Gitmo will last forever.  No, I think it'll be completely shutdown by the end of Biden's term.  

54.  This inflation mess will only last through 2022, then end.  No, I suspect you are looking at inflation being around into 2023, and probably 2024.  A lot of people are capable of handling multiple years of this.

55.  NY City will survive with it's population of 8.4-million (2019 numbers).  No, by the end of 2023....there's probably a million-person loss in the mix.  Blame it on Covid, crime, taxation, and just dissolving infrastructure....but folks are finding the reasons to leave.  

56.  Covid came from a wet-market.  No.  If this were true, and Chinese really believed it.....virtually every single wet-market in China would have dissolved away/closed in 2020.  It's a lab accident.

57.  False flag operations are rare.  No, across the US....probably on a hour-by-hour basis.....some government idiot/policeman/FBI agent/banker/private detective.....are creating false flag situations.  We just aren't smart enough to realize how screwed-up things really are.

58.  Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide.  No, I seriously doubt it, but the world is probably a better place with him dead.

59.  Crisis actors are bogus.  Well....NO, there are probably over 20,000 Americans who dabble in the art of crisis acting.  There are high periods, and low periods, but they all enjoy the acting.

60.  Canada will survive the trucker strike.  No, by mid-summer, I think this Trudeau will have to flee the country (probably to Costa Rica), and the nation may end up in some revolutionary situation.....where it's broken into different countries.

61.  All of MKUltra as a conspiracy is false.  No, there are probably several elements to it which actually occurred, and it's just best that we not know the entire story or how much government money was spent on the program.

62.  Trump was the 'answer'.  No, I think he simply brought up twenty-odd proposals that no Republican/Democrat would discuss in public, and then tried to advance them.  Some actually made sense.....some were never going to provide pay-back.  This weird business of attaching a 'Jesus-factor' or a 'Satan-factor' to candidates/politicians.....has royally screwed-up the whole landscape we live in.

63.  You can fix California homelessness by building more homes.  No, at least two-thirds of the people in this category are long-term dopers or mentally incompetent (should be in a facility).  Trying to figure more homes does the job.....is just wasting government funding.

64.  The TV show....'The View'....provides intellectual chatter.  No....you could get the same level of mindless chatter by handing out cannabis to a couple of New Jersey housewives, and just letting them chat for an hour on live TV.

65.  Misinformation is a marginal threat.  From 6 AM on, across the entire day....you are probably getting a minimum of twenty bits of misinformation on average....from local news, state news, and national news.  

66.  The Conners TV show is superb viewing.  No, once they fired Roseanne....this garbage show Conners....is like some 2-star soap opera without much humor.

67.  The Afghanistan 'comedy' of 2021 was the fault of the Pentagon.  No, since the smoke cleared.....it is obvious that the State Department, and Biden WH team are hopelessly lost, and Joe Biden is unable to run more than a 1-ring circus (instead of the 3-ring type).  

68.  Major networks like ABC  and CBS can still produce quality TV programming.  No, that era has ended.  The Netflix, Amazon, and Showtime crowd have the quality programming now.  

69.  Fake Twitter accounts are a minor issue.  No, some folks figure now that 20-million fake accounts exist.  

70.  People who now identify as transgender....are pretty locked in.  No, there's no evidence to say this number stays at a constant, with some people likely even flipping back after a year or two.  It's a trendy thing, and then goes through a process of trending in another direction.

71.  A $100 HDMI cable is better than a $15 HDMI cable.  No.  I might agree that the cabling itself is higher quality, but if you figure the two items you are hooking up....will only last about ten years, then the $15 cable is good enough.

72.  There was only one single Oswald.  Well....no.  There are bits and pieces of the Warren Commission report which has Oswald at two locations, at the same time, and it repeats.  This occurs in the high school years, the Marine years, and the period before November 1963.  There's either a second Oswald, or a stolen identity problem. 

73.  Reality TV is real.  No, it's mostly all scripted.  

74.  You need to use 'cleanses' or anti-toxin crap for your body to heal.  NO, the whole purpose of the liver is to do the cleaning necessary.  If you just ate a reasonably balanced diet, and avoided heavy consumption of booze....the liver does the job.

75.  Tech support is important.  No, you can probably ask some 14-year old kid to hook up your printer, or add an App to your phone, and he'll do the job for a pack of smokes or a six-pack of beer.

76.  Ivermectin was designed originally for horses having worm problems.  NO.  It was made for human consumption, and the use for animals came later.  This BS story by news networks needs to be corrected.

77.  MLB, the NFL, and the NBA can survive in the Covid era.  No, the business plan for profit and salaries....cannot survive with the current Covid mess.  

78.  A fair sum of people are really interested in the Prince Harry/Meghan news of the day.  No.  The people who are watching this intently.....would be the same crowd who show up at a NASCAR race....waiting for the big accident to occur.  

79.  No one is going to prison for the 'spy-on-Trump' situation.  No.  The geek responsible has very little options other than admitting guilt and who hired him.  He's going to do some serious jail-time.  The next guy or two after that.....who did the hiring/paying...will probably go to jail as well.  Beyond that....no one else will be sent off to prison.

80.  It's legit for houses to gain 50-percent in value over ten years.  No, under normal condition....home prices don't escalate like that, unless it's a umbrella-mess in the making.  

81.  It's perfectly ok to eat bacon daily.  Well....no.  This is one of those things that you might want to just keep to a once-a-week situation.  

82.  Baldwin having zero responsibility in the gun-firing incident.  No, maybe there's five or six things at work here, but when the prosecutor decides upon a court case....I think Baldwin might need a legal team and figure a guilty situation might mean a year or two in prison, for mostly stupidity.

83.  Elon Musk is occasionally wrong.  No, I've yet to see a single Musk achievement that I'd classify as stupid or wrong.

84.  A new I-Phone is worth $900.  No.  An older model Samsung Galaxy going for $150 does the same basic job.  

85.  A talk-show host can't beat legit TV networks.  No, there's no doubt that Joe Rogan and his 11-million (always expanding) have the edge over legit TV now.  Over the next two years, I think Rogan will expand out to 20-million, and even have two or three million listeners in Europe/Japan.

86.  Drama-less Biden replaced max-drama Trump.  No, if you measured out week by week, it's hard to find the Biden-index of drama being less.  If you counted minute-by-minute of being in front of the camera each day.....Trump probably had three solid hours each day of TV viewing (live).  Biden?  There are entire days each week where there is no viewing of him.

87.  VP Harris being incompetent.  No, I would disagree.  She's like the kid in the class who never studied for a test, and walked in....took the test, and usually got between 65 and 75.  She's always been this way, and not likely to improve.

88.  No other American city will become like Detroit.  No, I'd say presently that Seattle and Portland are working hard to be a Detroit-copy.  

89.  Neil Young is still recognized today.  No.  Probably over 90-percent of America has never heard any of his tunes, and would not recognize him if he walked into their living room.

90.  Covid 'fog' (in the brain) is real.  Well....no, so far, no one has established a test or a proof that x-person has it, and y-person does not have it.  Nor has anyone found/developed a rehab program for it.  

91.  E-cars don't explode.  No, after you view enough of the reports, there's some ways for a short to occur, and the car burns up.  Maybe it's just one car out of a million on a monthly basis.....but there's obviously some potential threat and parking within a garage might not be that smart.

92.  When the 'Office' ended production, the chatter ended.  No.  It's shocking on how much people talk about episodes of the show today, and individuals have gone back to watch a second, third, and fourth time.  

93.  The Hispanic 'walkers' (the guys/gals who just crossed the border) are a threat to jobs in America.  No, they've simply taken up the simple jobs which require little to no skill.  You know....the ones that stupid Americans have lost interest in performing.  

94.  If you pursue happiness, you will find it.  No, I think this suggestion is a failure for 50-percent of people on this path....looking for happiness but failing.  

95.  Opiate addiction will one day be curable.  No, I just don't believe that.

96.  Victim-people live happy lives.  No, I think the victim crowd is pretty turned on and thrilled about being victims.  There's no happiness to it....just a sense of purpose.

97.  Vitamin D is fully understood.  No, I just don't believe that discussion anymore.  It's treated like a mystery item.

98.  No one watches TV shows from the 1970s/1980s anymore.  No, it's evident that probably ten-percent of American society regularly watches old shows still today.

99.  You are not capable of doing much of anything yourself, without help.  No, that philosophy has come and gone.  

100.  Marvel movies never fail.  No.....after watching Eternals, I can say that some good storylines simply don't translate well into movie productions.  

Gut Feeling Over Canada

I would suggest six things likely to fall into play with Canada and the trucker activity.

1.  Delivery of food/fuel will continue but at a fairly reduced rate (truckers likely not exceeding 10 mph).  Wouldn't shock me if this slowdown started up in the next week.  

2.  I generally expect Quebec (the province) to have a meeting and determine that staying within the Canada framework is no longer possible.  Some 1-year process will likely be framed, and the exit to occur by early 2023.

3.  The longer that Trudeau stays on and continues this behavior....the higher the odds that he'll have to flee at some point (maybe to Jamaica or the US). 

4.  If  you end up arresting/detaining half the truckers in Canada....who do you expect to deliver goods?  Expecting the Army to pick up the role.....you might want to ask who will participate and who will decline the order.

5.  The potential for this to dissolve into a civil war?  I'd start to consider the potential.

6.  Finally, if you start to look around....it's  not only the Liberal Party in decline....the other three parties also appear to be less supported by the general public.   

Who Did Lee Harvey Oswald Call From the Jail-House?

For a number of years, I often wondered about the hours after the arrest, and if Oswald tried to call anyone.

Recently, I stumbled across a reporter who went and backtracked over that question.  You can view his presentation here.

Yes, Oswald did attempt to call someone.

Figure?  John Hunt, Raleigh, NC.

There was an issue in this attempt (actually two issues).

First, the FBI didn't want the call to go through, and told the operator that.

Second, there were two John Hunts at that time in Raleigh.  

Who were the two?  One was a younger guy who worked in a tire shop.  He's generally always discounted.

The second Hunt?  Well.....this leads onto a curious episode.  This was a guy who'd gone off to WW II and been a behind-the-lines person....'spy' in simple terms, and likely came out of the war with mental/physical scars.  From 1945 on, he was a 'trainer' of sorts, and in the late 1950s....was apparently working for a government facility at Nag's Head, NC.

Why call Hunt?  Well....that's the unknown part of the story.  

There are two individuals who have spoken up....to suggest that Oswald came to this 'spy' school at Nags Head in the late 1950s for a couple of months.  One suggesting that he was in a Russian language class.

Any mention of the attempted call in the Warren Commission Report?  No.  Any mention of Hunt?  No.  Why the two FBI guys didn't want the call to go through? Unknown.  

If the call had gone through?  Hunt answering the phone, and Oswald asking for help?  It begs a lot of questions.  

If Oswald did attend the school, where does this lead the whole story with the Kennedy business?  

Ten Observations Over This Hillary Clinton-Fake Russia Hoax Business

 1.  Whoever this 'geek' is, who tapped into the server to create this 'breadpath'.....probably has to be fully charged-up and go spend twenty years for cyber crimes.  It might be interesting to ask the guy....did he ever consider how illegal this action was, but I doubt that he has the full maturity to explain his actions.

2.  Whoever in the  Clinton campaign that signed off, and paid the tech-geek....has to also go off for participation in the cyber crime.....probably for twenty years as well.

3.  The list of people who need to be questioned.....has to include former President Obama, VP Biden, and at least ten people around them.  It has to be a full House investigation crew.  

4.  It all begs the question....what else did the Clinton campaign crew do?

5.  Once you admit that someone was a 'spy',  to a standing President....there's special charges for that, and you probably should not leave prison for the remainder of your life.

6.  Measuring this against Watergate?  This exceeds Watergate in my humble opinion.

7.  It would be best that Hillary Clinton just quietly goes off and never appears in public ever again.

8.  If it's proven that the spy business continued all the way up to the 2020 election?  Then the person connected to the spy business (even President Biden) has to step down.  

9.  How many thousands of CNN-MSNBC hours were wasted on this fake Russia hoax business?

10.  For the news media who joked over this wild story?  Wondering why no one really trusts you anymore?

Who Is Joe Rogan Really?

 1.  Joe asks questions.  He does not lecture you like the CNN team, or spend four years hyped-up on constant hour-by-hour anti-Trump chatter.  

2.  Joe likes cannabis.  He probably likes it more than the average guy.

3.  Joe likes having discussions with scientists, virus experts, diet experts, cage fighters, comedians, historians, special forces people, volcano experts, etc.  Probably one-third of the interviews are with people that don't interest people.

4.  Joe doesn't care if you watch his podcasts or not.  

5.  Joe's occupations in life?  Taekwondo instructor, kickboxing, comedian, and actor.  

6.  Joe, for the most part is libertarian-lite.  Joe is a Bernie-fan....mostly because Bernie has not changed a single position in his entire career.

7.  Joe does interviews that go on, and on, and on.  A three-hour interview, with no commercial break is possible with Joe and his single guest.  

8.  Joe likes to occasionally smoke cigers in the interview.

9.  Joe can't lecture you.  

10.  Joe is not a PhD dimwit, or a expert on anything.   

Struggle Sessions

At some point in the 1920s....in the old Soviet Union, they went to a unqiue concept which translate over to mean 'struggle sessions' or 'denunciation meetings'.

In simple terms....folks in your neighborhood, village or town would gather in a group, and you WOULD BE asked (forced is a better word) admit your faults, problems, weaknesses, etc.  

This would turn into a humiliation session very quickly.  

Physical violence and beatings?  They were generally allowed.  You couldn't kill the idiot, but you could rough them up enough that they felt the pain.

Accusations would be thrown at the guy or gal.....with no one caring if they were true or not.  In some ways....it was just pure entertainment for the crowds gathered.

At some point in the 1930s....as communism spread in China....they adapted to the gimmick as well.

As time went by....these were fairly scripted out, with intended goals at each session.

At some point in both the history of the USSR and Mao-China....the struggle sessions were deemed 'finished'.  There was simply not anyone much left to humiliate or anything to admit.

In the book '1984', this whole philosophy was laid out and referred to as the 'two-minutes of hate'.  It was meant as a tool for people to get aggressions out, and everyone was a target at some point in time.

If you look around today....these struggle sessions are fully implemented and used in various settings (high school, college, churches, places of work, the news, entertainment, etc).  

People rarely identify this as a 1920s Soviet or 1930s Chinese-Communist gimmick, but that's where they all originated.  

Just curious how we forget what history has come and gone. 

Joe's Advice to CNN: "No One Listens To You."

 I could have said this back three years ago, when all this daytime schedule was 80-percent 'experts-hacking-Trump' on CNN.

Amanpour?  In the past twelve months?  Zero minutes.

Don Lemon?  Past twelve months?  Zero minutes.

Acosta?  Past twelve months?  Zero minutes.

Anderson Cooper?  Past twelve months?  Probably twenty total minutes.

Blitzer?  Past twelve months?  Probably thirty total minutes.

Doctor Gupta?  Past twelve months?  Via CNN, maybe sixty minutes.  But I watched his entire interview on Joe Rogan's show.

Quest?  Past twelve months?  Zero minutes.

Stelter?  Zero for past twelve months.

Tapper?  Thirty minutes for the past year.  

Rogan is correct.....there's just nothing there but constant lecture type chatter.  

CNN and Rogan

 I sat and watched a 'painful' piece of CNN journalism in the last hour.  Topic?  Well...they (CNN) more or less admitted that they can't understand Joe Rogan, so they assembled some outside-of-the-box CNN discussion group to lay out the Rogan landscape.

I made it through about a dozen minutes and turned it off.  Several things bothered me.

First, why this insistence to monitor and control Rogan?  He doesn't present news.  He just simply interviews people.  

Second, is there even some Rogan-expert out there?  I pondered that a good bit.

Third, even if you felt that you understood Rogan.....then what?  Could you copy his successful format and 'out-Rogan' Rogan? I just doubt that.

So let me explain what makes Rogan different:

1.  There are no commercial breaks, and these interviews go on....sometimes to three full hours.  CNN can't produce that format.

2. From regular guests, to far extreme guests....there's this massive spectrum existing.  He could bring on some gal to talk about x-diet for two entire hours.  He could bring on a UFO expert to talk for three hours.  CNN can't produce that type of format.

3.  As much as Rogan is a comedian....he's also a common sense guy.  College?  He spent roughly one year in college, and then noted that the experience was "worthless", then left.  

4.  Does Rogan inject extreme left or right values into the questions?  I would argue that he takes up the prospective of the average guy on the street, or someone you'd bump into at a farmer's market, or a retired guy from south Florida.  

5.  Are there Rogan interviews that are of zero value?  I would say from the past 18 months that I've listened to them....around one-third of them have no interest to me (I really don't care about professional boxing, dark matter, or enchanted witchcraft chatter).

Is CNN worried?  Well....here's the thing.  On an average evening.....at least in the past three months....CNN's audience is crap (full up microscopic size CRAP).  Rogan?  On a five-star guest (Joey Diaz, Ric Flair---the wrestler, Jordan Petersen, etc)....it might go up around 10-million (that's around 20 times the audience for a prime-hour of CNN).  

I suspect those numbers freak out the CNN folks.  

Would CNN interview Joey Diaz?  NEVER, in a thousand years.  

Would CNN interview Jordan Petersen and just let him talk.....not trying to blast or antagonize Petersen?   NEVER, in a thousand years.  

I sat there around two weeks ago, and went back to a Dick Cavett interview from the 1970s.  Cavett just plain interviewed people, and he is probably the closest thing to Rogan that has existed in fifty years.  

My question to CNN.....are you going to end up having a anti-Rogan hour each week.....like you had the five hours per day in 2017/2018/2019/2020 for the anti-Trump hour?  Let me remind you....all that wasted chatter helped to shape the audience that you have presently (if you were wondering about where the people left).  

Ten Odd Things I've Come To Notice (Think About) In The Last Month

 1.  I've taken to watching YouTube clips of Dick Cavett/Johnny Carson and come to realize that they are far more capable and talented....than 99-percent of the late night show hosts of the modern era.

2.  I've come to realize I intensely watch President Biden 'talks' now....kinda like a demolition-derby situation.....waiting for an 'accident' to occur.

3.  I've just about turned CNN entirely off.  It'd require a airline disaster, tsunami in Hawaii, or some wild moment where Nancy Pelosi spouting off Latin phrases....for me to flip the CNN show back on.

4.  I've just about reached the point where I consider NPR to be mostly a 'gang' of activists who hang out and get paid by the government to be activists.

5.  I've reached some belief that I think aliens mostly hang around the Earth for entertainment purposes, and send video back home to Yang-8 for some reality TV show.

6.  I've reached some point where I really don't care what Brittney Spears does.  If she wants to tour America in some 1957 Chevy with nothing on....just let her do it.

7.  I've come to ask the question routinely now.....why are liberals so dejected and wretched all the time?  They all seem to be like 8-year old kids who've marched into a chocolate shop to find the shelves empty.

8.  I've to wonder....if a 5th-grade kid can now reasonably argue/debate against a college graduate....are we (society) in serious trouble?

9.  I've come to realize....my interest in this winter Olympics is just about zero.  In fact, given a choice of watching the entire season of Cheyenne (ABC's cowboy western series from the late 1950s)....or the Olympics....I'd probably watch the western.

10.  I've come to fantasize this dream interview of Joe Rogan, and North Korea's Mr. Kim.  Both would smoke weed, and it'd turn into a 5-hour interview.   

Are We At A Point Where Narrators Are More Important Than Journalists?

 I have this category of people that I refer to as public narrators (Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman, Mathew Sibson, Tim Pool, Brent Pella, JP Sears, etc).  So they don't gather news, invent news, or find news.  They, more or less, talk about the topics of things which 90-percent of the time.....the CNN idiots, the Fox trolls, or the political hacks just simply refuse to discuss.

Last year, I sat for two hours and heard a great discussion over the Aztec Indian empire.  I also have heard at least thirty JP Sears sarcastic commentaries over Covid and the US government.  I probably spent a full hour hearing a discussion from a young woman who lived for two or three years with a boyfriend who was max on the paranoid schizophrenic problems.

What makes these people special?  People like Fridman and Rogan ask a lot of stupid questions, and guests explain things in more detail than what you'd ever get via the BBC or CNN.  

Are Fridman or Sears controlled by sponsors?  NO.  

Does Joe Rogan care if it's 50,000 people listening or 5-million people?  NO.

Are they becoming more significant than news organizations?  I would offer these four observations:

1.  Newspaper and magazines were always developed to give you a limited bit of knowledge and information on a topic.  If you asked Pella about his content....he'd just respond that he picked the topic out of thin air, and thought of twenty funny things to discuss.....with no limit.

2.  Who listens to podcasts?  Well....it used to be mostly 18-to-25 year old folks, and in the past decade....there are 12-year-old kids sitting there and listening to Doctor Todd Grande discuss weird people.  There are 75-year olds listening to Scott Adams.  It's across the spectrum.

3.  Do they need Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube?  No.  Most have found other vehicles, and it puts the Silicon Valley crowd in a 'pickle' on controlling people. 

4.  Some 'facts' being displaced and replaced?  Well....yeah, this issue has popped up and the narrators are putting some journalists in a tough position.  Everyday, Tim Pool talks about stuff....that makes someone at the WaPo/NY Times look stupid.  

So we should ask this question....will we reach a point where our nightly hours that was reserved for Gunsmoke, MSNBC political chatter, Clint Eastwood movies, or fake Amish mafia.....are dumped for three hours of just narrators?  I added up the past week, and shocked myself by admitting I put almost twenty hours into narrator chatter.  

When The Day Comes That AOC Runs For President

 It's NOT a 'if' question....it's a when question.

I generally believe that in 2027.....AOC will edge out and show up in Iowa two or three times....to stake a position in the 2028 Presidential election.

Winning any of the first four primary states?  Well....Iowa is a 50-50 shot (depending on competition.  NH and SC might be slightly higher chances.  Nevada might be the only 100-percent shot that she has.

The problem that 20-percent of all statements that she's made up to this point....sound like 'trash' that a 12-year old kid would utter?  That is the most significant problem about her, and these statements will be dragged out in the Presidential campaign.

No real resume?  That will be mentioned over and over, but I think Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have both proven that the resume doesn't matter much.

Could she win?  If debates get thrown into the mess....she probably would be a one-star player at best.  But the news media is looking for some Jesus-like character to emerge from the woods, and she's probably the best candidate to fit that requirement.  So I would start preparing myself in five years....for something that involves AOC as a Presidential candidate.  

What Was The Haymarket Affair?

 In the 1880s, there was a evolution taking place in America....over rights of workers.  Unions were leading this on, and in major urbanized areas....there was a lot of conflict going on.

So in Chicago, around Haymarket Square....around early May of 1886....a demonstration was scheduled.  Most people were led to the idea that it was all peaceful and just supposed to send a 'message'.

The day prior to this (3 May), police had gotten into some type of scuffle and killed a protest guy....and injuring a couple of other folks.

In the middle of this event on the 4th of May....with police trying to bust-up the protest demonstration....dynamite was thrown around.  You can ask various questions, but no one knows much of anything....other than 7 police were dead and around four protest folks were no longer among the living.  A fair number of folks were wounded from the blast.

What came up in the weeks after this....around eight individuals were arrested and held to be anarchists'.  Some evidence was presented to say that one of the eight probably made the dynamite device.   Evidence that this guy threw the device at the police?  None.  Local Chicago court felt enough evidence was there.....so seven of the eight were convicted and sentenced to be hanged....with the 8th getting a 15-year period in state prison.

Roughly 18 months after the blast.....four of the seven were actually hanged (Nov 1887).  Around six years would pass and the remaining folks were pardoned by the state governor, who deemed the whole process and accomplishments to be 'pretty crapped up' (my expression, not his). 

If you dig through all the history to this.....the dynamite device itself only killed one single policeman, and wounded six others.  

It's what comes immediately after this where a bunch of people (police included)....pulled pistols and just started firing rounds.  A whole bunch of shooting erupts.....with seventy-odd people wounded, and four dead folks on the ground (from the gunshots, not the bomb).

The numbers business being faulty?  There's been various discussions over the years and some people think the wounded number might be two or three times what is generally regarded as 'fact'.  A lot of wounded people just walked away....preferring not to admit being anywhere near the event.

What the Chicago news media did after this?  Well...they blamed the union folks, and the term 'anarchist' started to get uttered at the same level that 'militia-members' gets uttered today.  

The accusation of infiltrators or 'insiders' being uttered?  This is a curious thing.  Pinkerton agents were quickly pointed as possible in the planning process, and maybe the use of the dynamite itself.  

Some or all of the legal proceedings simply 'cooked-up'?  Well....this gets brought up and there's little you can do but read the accepted history and go over the suggested false-history (fake news, more or less).

The court hearing (running from 21 June to 11 August)?  More or less....a circus atmosphere.

The bomb 'thrower' ever brought to justice?  No.  No one could ever get a serious bit of evidence to say who this was.  

The fact that there are a serious number of Germans in the middle of this anarchist accusation?  Well....that is an odd part of the story.  Maybe there were just a lot of radical Germans who immigrated into the US, or maybe they were wild characters to start with.

Enough material for a twenty-hour mini-series?  Oh, without any doubt.  But you'd be dragging up a lot of 1880s history which people of today simple aren't aware of. 

All of this.....of an incident where more people were dead from gunfire, than the actual bomb itself?  Yeah, that is an interesting part of the story.  

Trying to Define Fascism In Today's Age

 If you went up to most people (in the US) and asked them to define fascism....they'd stand there for about 30 seconds and half of them would suggest the Italian or German governments of the 1930s.  Beyond that.....they might utter that it's strict and very much like a right-wing dictatorship.  But there's little else they could say.

The fact that it can be a right or left government?  Oh, well....it's possible.  

The fact that people might vote such a government into place?  Oh, that's possible as well.

Does fascism descent from a progressive government?  In most cases, yes.

The fact that you have to regulate life (in extreme ways)....in order to bring fascism into everyone's life?  Yeah, that's generally the path.

The trend that you need culture 'wars' going on....to pave the way for fascism in your government?  That's another path.

 As much as we all think that things are evolving and changing.....we might want to go back and revisit the definition of fascism.  

Just Something You Notice About YouTube After a While

 You can chat about ghosts, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You can talk over steroids in the 1990s of baseball, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could convene a table-talk of six people over Big Foot, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could have a six-hour chat about stupid diet ideas, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could enchant people with personal opinions about transmission repair (not being a certified mechanic), but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could have a long talk over Australian vacation ideas, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You can speak over Trump and the hoax Russia-gate, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could have a two-hour critical (very negative) talk about Neil Young's music from the 1970s, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could have a full hour of interviews from blacks who support voter mandates and voter ID, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could sit and have a 30-minute conversation with a Mennonite untrained nurse on how to handle colds and flus without over-the-counter drugs, but the minute you talk about Covid.....you could be accused of misinformation.

You could talk about the difference between French demons and Mexican demons, but the minute you talk about Covid, well.....you know.  

Something wrong here?  Eventually, a majority of people will figure this out, and YouTube will be identified as something similar to 'MySpace'.  

My Ten Movies That I Could Not Get into

 1.  Matrix.  After having seen all four (1/2 I've probably seen twice)....I just don't get it.  

2.  The Last Airbender.  About 30 minutes into it....I felt like the story dwindled out....there was nothing. 

3.  Cats.  My wife dragged me to a theater to view the movie.  Out of the 300 potential seats on a Friday evening, there were twelve seats filled.  I consumed all of my 40-ounce Coke to maintain staying awake.  

4.  Batman and Robin (1997).  Maybe it read well on paper, but this movie just fell apart by the mid-way point.

5.  McCabe and Mrs Miller.  This 1971 western sometimes appears on people's top ten lists of westerns.  Frankly, it's probably got the worst script of any western I've seen, and the ending simply doesn't 'fit'.

6.  Bolero (1984).  If you have to watch it....mute the sound, play some 'Dirty Dancing' type of music in the background and just observe Bo Derek.

7.  Battlefield Earth.  It's been 20 years since it came out, and I'd say that it's one of the worst scripted and acted movies in the science fiction arena.  

8.  Cabin Fever (2016).  I stopped at minute 25 in this 98 minute movie.  It's basically a scare-you type script, where some virus is killing folks left and right.....all based out in the rural world.  

9.  Wagons East (1994).  John Candy's only acting in a cowboy western.  There's maybe six jokes in the whole movie.

10.  Blue Steel (1934).  When you can find it....this 54-minute cowboy western features a young John Wayne, and has a single paragraph describing the whole story.  It's one of those movies where virtually every 'extra' had a line to say, and nothing makes sense. 

Observations

 1.  Who is Neil Young?

Well....not anyone who has been on the top 100 music charts for at least thirty years.  

Should we mention that by leaving Spotify....that contract deal was paying him around $750k a year, it'll take a while to find a new service, and they probably will offer only half that amount?

2.  If your politician (mayor, governor, House Member, Senator) says they won't meet you face-to-face, if you are non-vax.....does your opinion radically change?

3.  Trump's chatter that he will re-instate the military folks who've been kicked out for refusing the vax?

It puts the Pentagon in a lousy position....if this occurs....what about back-pay?  The discharge just up and disappearing entirely?  

4.  This attempt to re-make the Robin Hood story into a different gender/ethnic character?

Canadian TV company at work.  Maybe it'll make it through a dozen episodes of production, but I doubt if it survives the first year.

5.  If you got Shingles....should you read up on vitamin D, and be tested?

Yes....there's a fair amount of studies out there and you might want to understand the relationship to vitamin D shortfalls.

6.  If the Russians invade the Ukraine, and US troops are captured......just how will President Biden handle the POW crisis?  

When in the Presence of a 5th-Grade 'Kid'

 

It's kinda like when you are engaged in a conversation with a 5th-grade know-it-all kid who wants to explain evolution, IP addresses, the way that water-towers function, orbits of satellites, mercury thermometers, string theory, Wi-Fi, Pi, or cryptocurrency.  After a while, you tell the fifth-grade kid to scram.

Maybe fifty years ago...some idiot politician could say something and six months later....we'd just forget about what the guy said.  

Today, all this gibberish that was said in 2019/2020....is just laying there.  You pick up a piece and then you remember.....oh yeah, he did say that crap two years ago.

The truth is....if the 5th-grade kid would just limit himself and talk over Gilligan's Island and what the castaways should have done, it'd be OK.  If the kid would just discuss fumes put off by scented candles for three lousy minutes.....it'd be OK.  If the kid would just limit himself to discussing the starting pitchers of the Braves....I'd be willing to sit and talk about their upcoming season pitching staff.

But if you got a 80-year old talkative guy who is acting like a 5th-grader and just jabbering away with nonsense....well....you'd like to ask him to get off the porch, and just go home.  

This Trump-DeSantis-Dem 2024 Scenario?

 This past weekend, I read this lengthily piece on the idea that Trump might skip the GOP primary entirely....run as an independent, and he'd be pitted against DeSantis (the likely Republican primary winner) and some Democratic player (likely to be Joe Biden or Mayor-Pete, or Governor Newsom of California).

After a fair amount of pondering, I just grinned....it's a remarkable fantasy.

There are four issues to this:

1.  For the news media.....it's utter disaster for them to paint both Trump and DeSantis as 'evil' or destructive.  Basically, it'd be proving the point that the news groups are corrupted and can't be trusted.

2.  The odds that none of the three would cross the 270-line for the Electoral College?  I'd say it's a 99-percent case.  So the House would receive the situation in 2024, and have three candidates to pick from....from fifty different state groups.  You could screw up the state by state votes in a hundred ways, and it wouldn't matter....it'd be a House delegation that mattered in the end. 

Countering any illegal vote activity?  It'd break that whole fantasy apart.  

The fact that more than half of the House Republicans will owe their position/winning....to Trump in 2022, and stand by him?  I think in some weird way....this would be an interesting thing to watch unfold.

3.  Trump wasting time or capital on the primary system which is screwed up (most of us would admit that)?  It'd give him six months to avoid stress and waste of funds.

4.  Making January of 2025 a heightened state of conflict....with far-left groups arriving in DC and threatening civil conflict?  More than likely.  In the midst of this early January 2025 violence?  Well...President Joe Biden.  

I really doubt this scenario but it is an intriguing discussion.  

The Thing About Hiking

 There are about a thousand problems with the information, stories and relative facts given by the Bible that I have.  

So this is one of the problems.....when the day comes that Moses takes his crew across the Red Sea.  From that day (or evening), there's this space of forty years discussed before they reach the 'promised' land.

This geographic area just east of the Red Sea?  Well....in today's world, before you reach the border of Israel....it's an area of 450 km long and 200 km wide.  If you were walking....at least in a straight line, you'd reach the 'promised' land in six days (depending on your pace and breaks).

For some general comparison, it'd be like putting on the tennis shoes and hiking from North Alabama to Nashville.  

Using the basic idea of 40 km a day (25 miles) as your objective, then this Moses hike consumed 146,000 km.  

Just walking from north Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina?  Well.....that's about 8,500 miles (give or take).

So these folks would have hiked on with Moses at least four times the round-trip from Alaska to Argentina.

People just accepting that?  No....even in these days....after about a hundred days....someone in the group would have asked where the map was and if there was some clear understanding about the end-point.

So the story has to be a bit manufactured...suggesting that maybe Moses lacked a map, and that forty years might have been just stated for dramatic effect.  Maybe the five to ten days of hiking felt like forty years....at least in the minds of some folks.