My Humble Feeling on Gerrymandering

 To explain gerrymandering....it's the practice of setting up 'lines' and saying that you can manufacture a certain outcome (based on past polls) and build a district to get a result in every single election.  

Gerrymandering was haphazard until you get to after WW II.....where numbers start to be collected and project things.

First, it's not illegal.  While various political groups will say (from the left and right) that it's unethical and illegal....both are untrue.

Second, judges are in a hopeless situation.  If you say x-situation in Ohio is wrong, then y-situation developed for Florida is also wrong.  

Resolving or fixing this?  All you'd have to do, as Congress....is write a two-line solution that says you can only make district 'lines' along a county line.  Rivers and roads won't be accepted in this construction anymore.

Wanting to fix this?  I would suggest of the 1-million-odd problems that exist in America today....this is probably near the bottom 300, and really not regarded as a big deal.  

Three Pieces of the Story That You Wonder About

 So for the Oscars episode....the only real story you take home from the evening (I didn't watch any of it live, nor have I watched it since the early 1980s).....this Chris Rock comment made over Will Smith's wife (Jada), and the 'slap'.

First, there are certain comedians who just aren't comedians....they rely upon 'attack-humor' to get laughs.  It's a rare talent that individuals like this can demonstrate and avoid severe situations.  

Second, I'll wager that in the 2023 Oscars....they won't have a comedian as the moderator.

Finally, there's this racial situation that you wonder about.  All three characters are black. Black on black on black situation.  Had Rock been white...would the same reaction have occurred?  If Jada had been white....would the same situation have occurred?  If Will Smith had been white, would the same situation have occurred?  And if all three were white....would the situation have occurred?

For the record....if I'd been in Will Smith's shoes...I might have up to just pushed Chris Rock several times backward and given him an intimidation situation.  Then I might have remarked that 50-percent of the Chris Rock jokes were 'wasted humor' (non-funny).   

Homelessness Chatter

 About ten years ago, I sat at the Pentagon bus stop....waiting for my local bus to come and take me home.  

Sitting nearby were two ladies....one maybe in early 30s....other in mid-40s.  Both had been homeless in DC (across the river).

Both had discovered better accommodations in Arlington.  But they came at a price....both were going over their personal choices.

So gal number one spoke up....to get into the four-star Fairfax shelter....you had to agree to having no booze/no drugs in your 'room'.   This meant an occasional frisk at the door.  You had to agree to a drug-test occasionally.  There was job-training which mandated, and 'forced' upon you.

Gal number two spoke up.  She had a three-star Arlington shelter deal.  No drug-tests, but they were strict on no booze/drugs in the room as well.

Both grumbled about the unfairness.

The thing is....they'd both given up on DC, and it's crappy homeless management program.  In the Virginia program.....you would probably spend a year or two in some treatment 'path' and feel safe over your progress....perhaps escaping one day to reality again.  In the DC program....you were just locking yourself into a permanent situation.  

I sat there....you don't get different prospectives on life that much...if you don't hang out and just listen.  

The Thing About Mediation Story

 I was reading a piece on the Portland police department, and the woes of recruiting for them this week.

The city had decided they could offer up a freebie or two.....as positive reasons to work for the city police department. So, the city offers free yoga and free mediation workshops.  

Most cops I've known in my life were Security Police.....Air Force types.  If you had mentioned yoga or mediation....they would have laughed.  What they wanted was a mini-gym in the back of the SP-building with free-weights mostly.

I won't go totally negative here...yoga is good stretching exercises, and for older folks (over forty)....there might be some minor benefit for ten minutes of yoga per day.  

The mediation business?  I'm from the south, and generally.....if you did sixty seconds of 'Jesus-help-me' praying....it was enough for the 18-hour work-day.  

The general hope here by the Portland city folks....between the yoga and mediation....maybe as a cop, you wouldn't be so quick to pull the pistol out and shoot 'Marvin' who is on some wild drug binge and about to stab three old ladies at the Piggly Wiggly check-out station.  

They may think the yoga-mediation stuff makes you feel more positive about the job, but if you asked the 700-odd members of the city police department....most would just grin and suggest a free six-pack of beer each week or some free tickets to a roller derby or wrestling event would be of equal or better value.

Portland's chief problem is that a number of people have risen to the ranks of city leadership, and they are more or less....unprepared for the real work required.  Most haven't had to deal with drugged-up juvenile behavior guys, or people who petty-crime themselves to $1,000 a week to cover their needs.

Where things stand in a decade?  It would be interesting to ask this question.  

Are Americans Poorer?

 A poll came out this past week.....around one-third of Americans see themselves poorer over the past year.

Are they really poorer?  Well....a lot of this goes to inflation, and unexpected rises in regular cost (like gas for example).

Maybe you shopped in 2020 and a grocery-cart for you was around $139.  The same grocery-cart of items today?  It probably runs around $159 to $169.  

You counter that by buying lesser quality items....shopping more by coupons/sales, and maybe you feel only slightly poorer.  Instead of buying your monthly bottle of Jack Daniels....you buy an off-brand whiskey that is 25-percent cheaper, and shake head over the lost taste.  You buy a cheaper toilet paper....that isn't the same quality but you just accept this as a result of reality.

The problem I see with this....how do things go in 2023?  That $139 shopping cart that flipped to $169....will it escalate to $189?  Will this all lead to an even worse situation?

Constitutional Chatter

 I sat and read through a piece by The Nation (the magazine) which centered on journalist Elie Mystal trashing down the U.S. Constitution.  The blunt side of the commentary?  

It's a lot of criticism over it being unfair in the world today.

I usually look at this commentary and direct a comment back....why don't you write a new draft Constitution and let us review it?

What you end up with....falls into one of three categories:

1.  It ends up being a four-hundred page document which is mostly about non-rights....than rights itself.

You know....the kind of document that you need a year-by-year review.....where you fight with various legal minds to update the document.

2.  It ends up defining things, with a undefinable description.....like saying a dog is only a four-legged creature but never going beyond that wording.  Remember the problem this week, where a potential new Supreme Court Judge could not define a woman?

3.  You end up with a legal document that cannot be explained in any high school because it's written in intellectual language that can only be clearly understood by a Master's degree lawyer.  

You know....like the original Bible held by the Catholic Church...only available in Latin.

One of the chief complaints about the current Constitution is that it lists rights in a 'holy-fashion', which is interpreted to mean that any situation can arrive with a 2022 event, and you are taking 1776 meaning to apply against the event.  People get bent out of shape with this application.  They'd rather something come out of thin air and fix the event with a Houdini-type magical-act.

For the benefit of folks....if you ever get a chance to read over the Alabama Constitution....you will find around 977 amendments attached to it.  A few are rights....a lot just say you can't take serious.  

There is an amendment which says dead animal removal in Limestone County is a county job.  You kinda wonder who was doing it before the state wrote this into the Constitution.  

There is also an amendment to cover waste removal in Jefferson County (note: the other 60 counties didn't need this for some reason).  

There is even an amendment to cover Alabama deceased state officials from collecting a salary (while dead).

My gut feeling is that if you turned these Constitutional enthusiasts loose.....you might end up with 15,000 amendments, sixty Supreme Court judges, and nine different ways to multi-vote in national elections.  

If A Guy/Gal Can't Define A Woman.....

 ....then he/she probably can't define a honky tonk.

....then he/she probably can't define liberty.

....then he/she probably can't define risky behavior.

....then he/she probably can't define 'hustle'.

....then he/she probably can't define weird.

....then he/she probably can't define a 'ball' and 'strike'.

.....then he/she probably can't define illegal alien.

.....then he/she probably can't define 'doom'.

.....then he/she probably can't define 'vagueness'.

....then he/she probably can't define the term 'capitalist'.

....then he/she probably can't define kinky.

....then he/she probably can't define the term 'courage'.  

This is a person you need to relieve of responsibility....just let them sweep the storeroom....bag groceries....run the waffle-machine....or haul gravel for a living.  

Why People Were Consumed For Trump?

 I could make this a 500-page book, but I'll leave this to four key issues:

1.  I think a quarter of the nation (left, right and independents) were fed up with fakeness.  Maybe they just woke up from the Clinton, Bush, and Obama years.....to realize what both parties offered....was a fake agenda, tied to a fake reality, that asked you to believe in some fake 'Jesus-President'.  

2.  That fire-that-guy ability.  It may have been a joke for Trump to do the reality shows and just stand there....saying 'you're fired', but I think a fair sum of Americans wanted people in the judicial system, the FBI, the Pentagon, Congress, the Senate....to be fired.  

3.  This 'Trump-door' that opened....was always reserved for Governors, House members or Senators.  A  lot of people just wanted to see the door broken down.  Maybe in some weird way.....they wouldn't mind having some retired NFL quarterback, or some PhD mad-scientist guy, or Dr Phil, or even some tobacco-chewing rodeo guy become President.

4.  Finally, some people got pure glee out of turning on CNN (for four years) and getting a minimum of twelve hours a day of anti-Trump chatter....literally destroying the brand and image of CNN in the process.  It was like running a 18-hour commercial daily, for 1460 days....about cysts.  People eventually turned the network off.  

How Time Changes Your Perception

 Back in the 1980s....I traveled around the US a good bit.  I came to some point where I considered five US cities as great places where I'd like to go and live.  Lately, I've been thinking about the five.

1.  Seattle, WA.  Downtown, based on how various locals now describe it....it's become a no-go area.  Between petty crime, homelessness, and drugs....it's bad.

Odds of me ever wanting to return/live in the Seattle area....zero.

2.  Portland, OR.  Basically, same story, with Antifa operations, nutcases, and lack of police.  

Odds of me even stopping off I-5 to fuel-up or spend a night in the city?  Zero.

3.  Monterey, CA. I had this image of Steinbeck-country when I visited.  Today?  Between taxes, ridiculous state leadership, cost-of-living....it's a zero.

4.  Aberdeen, WA.  If you review the crime statistics....even for a small town....Aberdeen is one of the highest crime locations now in the US.  People will tell you that locals know someone that has been robbed in the past two years.  

5.  Coeur d'Alene, ID.  Probably the only one that has survived on without a lot of negativity, but it's in the middle nowhere.  

Defining Women?

 I've sat over the past day or two....watching about two hours of 'interviewing' for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, for the empty seat on the Supreme Court.

When the question came up....for her to define a woman.....she just sat there.

It was like a 4th grade kid being asked to explain nuclear science or asking about the uniformity of nature (you'd have to be a first year college student to render a decent wording on that).

Eventually, she gave no real explanation.

To be honest.....there's probably six additional things that she was asked about in that period I watched.....where you were left with a mysterious 'look' on her face (like aliens had landed in Miami).

I eventually turned the TV off.  

I'm left with three explanations:

1.  She is dumber than a Spongebob Squarepants.

2.  She was told to just act dumb to all Republican questions.

3.  She is so vastly superior on intelligence, that she can't really define a woman without going into a 1,500 word answer which discusses ninety different traits of women, and fourteen different hormone 'things'.

My gut feeling?  It would be amazing to wake up in 2028, and have two of the Justices admit in some confidential situation that 'KBJ' is marginally thinking at the 3rd grade level.  

I don't think it really matters though....to have a dimwit or two on the Supreme Court.  It wouldn't even bother me if you pushed up a American Hispanic midget with an IQ of 88....to be a Justice.  It's not like they are on some NCAA football team, running the Pentagon, designing Tesla cars, or running a state prison in Oklahoma. 

Plus you have to admit this....if you stopped 100 people to ask them to define a woman....right off the bat....all the guys would respond with their hands....two boobs.  Maybe it's just NOT important to define women.  

Observations: 23 March 2022

 1.  This necessity to admit the Hunter Biden laptop....ease into a court situation by the fall, and deliver Joe Biden to a January 2023 impeachment scenario?  

I would suggest that various people from the Obama administration are now worried that certain matters from the 2008 to 2016 period will get dragged out into court.  A lot of Americans will end up asking why CNN, NPR, or the NY Times just failed to investigate or discuss this five to ten years ago.

2.  Some analysts are discussing a 25-percent drop in new home 'sales' by late summer.  A lot of this is simply spiraling economic matters and worry by the general public.

3.  NY Post says Hillary Clinton tested positive for Covid.  Her only comment.....'mild symptoms'.  Bill?  Tested and negative.

4.  This past week....a discussion started up over frustrations with the 2020/2021 census.  Some folks have suggested that what we've been using for decades is what I'd call census-lite, and they are asking for something that I'd refer to as census-XXL.

In simple terms....they want the census guy to come up to the front porch, and ask a number of questions which got into personal things.  Then this would somehow be converted into a government database.

To be blunt, the census was never designed in a way to be perfect or effective.  If you asked the PhD guys.....they'd grin and mostly say it's about 80-to-90 percent accurate.

The problem is.....do you want some guy asking what you paid for your house, your monthly grocery bill, your booze consumption on a weekly basis, the horsepower of your vehicles, or sexual preferences?

But I'll add this view....what if fifty percent of us just decided to make up fake data?  You know....admit we consume sixteen bottles of Jack Daniels per month...admit that we've been married nine times.....admit that we pay $9 a month for the rent....and admit that we prefer sex mostly with alien gals from the planet Fleetwood.

Would the census then just go away?

5.  Not that we care, but the Shanghai Disneyland shut down.....over Covid.  If you asked me the odds of re-opening at any point in 2022?  I'd say it's mostly 50-50.  A lot of Chinese now carry around a bag of two-days of food....because of the fear of being caught in some panic situation.....where 20,000 people in some fest or show....have to be tested before being allowed to exit.

6.  Finally, not that I care.....but it's another week that Colin Kaepernick was not hired to quarterback anywhere.  Frankly, I don't understand why people want to discuss the matter anymore.  

Are Both Cuomo Brothers Victims?

 If you'd stood up in 2017 (five years ago) and said both (a governor and a CNN bigwig) would be victims....folks would have laughed at you.  Today?  Yes, they've made themselves (without much effort) into victims.

I don't think this was intentional.

They both had a strategy of controlling their 'descent' down a negative path, and neither had the ability to stop the descent or change the final outcome.

Do we the public owe them anything?  No.

What'll happen over the next twelve months?  The CNN-Cuomo will likely get some final pay-out.....probably less than 30-million.  The Governor-Cuomo will just simply walk away and hopefully never be interviewed by the NY Times ever again.

I'll predict this though....by 2030....someone will attempt to make a ten-hour mini-series over this, and tell the two stories.  I don't think anyone will really care about the story though. 

Why Hunter Biden Is Coming Up So Often Now In The News?

 It's just odd....just about every single news media apparatus is now discussing the laptop issue, unreported income problems, and lobbyist work he did.

So I'll go out on this and just say that various signals have been given....a grand jury (maybe even two) are about to come down with serious charges....that cannot be resolved/fixed by paying a quarter-million fine.

What I expect by late summer.....some police team will come  to do the warrant, and arrest Hunter in his home.  

The court episodes?  Probably not until spring of 2023.  

The problem?  Well....each one of these charges will lead back to some activity or 'favor'.....tied to Joe Biden.  You can sugarcoat these to some degree....but each week that passes where no impeachment occurs.....gives the Republicans more negativity to openly discuss.  

It's hurting the Democratic Party for the 2024 election, and as much trouble as you are inviting to have President Harris around for two years.....it's about the only way to clean up the mess.

Numbers Discussion

 Dominic Pino wrote an interesting piece this week,  and the question is....why do Americans overlook the racial/ethnic numbers in America?

It's under the National Review, and worth a read. 

So to sum up the whole piece....Pino took the numbers of individual states and cities, and discovered something in plain sight.  

In various states, the black population of these states.....are centered around urban areas....not the rural areas.  So an example....Nebraska does have a black population existing....roughly 5-percent of the total population.  But if you go and ask about numbers in Omaha....it's roughly two-thirds of the total state black population residing in the city itself.  

I used to work with a guy who lived in Maryland, and he'd talk about odd statistics of the state.  One of the discussions centered on the 30-percent of the state being black, but the vast number of blacks (his claim was 90-percent) were residents of Baltimore.  His suggestion was that once you passed Hagerstown (mid-north of the state)....blacks only made up around 2-percent of the population for the whole western part of the state. 

This discussion working in all fifty states?  No.  I would disagree with maybe two or three states.  But it does bring up the view of a fair segment of society....they don't see the racial divide because they don't see vast numbers of blacks....unless you go into an urban zone.  

Just Observations

 1.  On this Jussie Smollett situation (him getting free while his case is appealed), my prediction is that the court review will occur in roughly four months, and he'll be standing there expecting them to throw out the case entirely.  Instead, I think the appeal change only the days to state prison from 150-odd days to 180-odd days.  

Smollett will then go into another tirade....freaking out everyone in the court.  He'll be in some jail-hospital for seven days....then another appeal occurs.  He'll be free for that one as well....giving him three or four months, until that court brings him in and says 'no'.  Then he'll launch into another tirade, before getting dragged off to jail.

All total?  I think it'll take a minimum of four years before he serves up the 150 days of jail.  Some black comedian will make a four-star movie over the whole matter and make $40-million off the two-hour movie.

2.  Somewhere in all this Chris Cuomo-CNN chatter....Cuomo has said that that bad-boy Don Lemmon guy, and Jeffrey Toobin.....did some highly unethical stuff.  He hints in some weird way....they ought to be fired as well.  Maybe he's right?

3.  The odds of Hunter Biden getting dragged into a court in 2022?  Nearly zero.  After 1 January 2023?  I'd say it's near 100-percent.  It might be time to quietly disappear with the loot.

4.  Was this 60 Minutes interview by Anderson Cooper with 'Mayor Pete' simply a commercial for Presidential ambitions?  I sat and watched the 13-minute piece.  Rough or demanding questions?  No.  Anything that would convince me to vote for 'Mayor Pete'?  No.  If anything, it was another example how crappy the 60 Minutes show has become in the past forty years.

Yellowstone Series?

 This week, I watched the initial first two episodes of Yellowstone (the series, with Kevin Costner).

So, to make it clear....while I am into westerns....by the time I ended episode 2, I kind of noted this series as a non-western western series.  By that, I mean....the chief sales gimmick is the western landscape.  

Description....if you took Dallas, Dynasty, Billy Jack (to a lite-version), and twisted in a lot of unrealistic family drama, you'd get Yellowstone.  

It's not bad....but by the end of the second episode....I just stopped.  There are around 39 episodes of the series, and I just can't figure out how you'd do twenty-plus hours of drama, built on the top of more drama, and layered thick with a final coat of drama.

What sells the series?  I think people are at a level where big wide-open spaces really appeal to a person who has a 72-inch big-screen TV.  You throw in some two-star writers, to who create some crime element....people then accept the marginal series as a big deal.

Observations

 1.  This outburst in court by Jussie Smollett?  I've watched the video clip three or four times now.  The guy acts like a 10-year old kid, and says a bunch of BS.  I'll predict he has a pretty rough time in county jail, and likely goes through some kind of mental break-down in the middle of this....ending up in jail-hospital situation. 

2.  People that held onto Russia ETFs?  Royally screwed.  These will never recover.

3.  Six West Point (Army) cadets overdose on some Fentanyl-laced cocaine.  All still alive, but I doubt that the Army will keep them within the university program.

4.  Russia's space station 'business'?  The only partner they will have in the future is China.  

5.  Journalist Luke Rosiak went and did a fair amount of research for his new book "Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education."

The original angle?  He wanted to show how Covid screwed up education in America.  The problem?  The more he talked with teachers....it became obvious that the decline going on....wasn't a Covid thing....it'd been going on for several decades.

Real literacy?  It's anyone's guess just how bad the situation is. 

When Chow Becomes Too Good Of A Good Thing

 When stationed at Rhein Main Air  (late 1970s)....the chow hall went and did an usual thing....they operated for a number of months a midnight chow operation (opening from midnight to 1  AM).

Offerings?   Well...just fried chicken.  You'd walk in and they had box lunch.....with a roll, fried chicken, and a bag of chips.   For a drink?  You'd get a can of Coke.

About six weeks into this....a number of folks who weren't working at night (this was totally designed for night-shift people)....were testing the box and found it to be a great evening dinner.

So this odd development started....where people in the barracks stayed up to midnight (mostly watching AFN-TV) and then walking to the chow hall at midnight.  

I'd guess in the beginning, it was around thirty-odd people, and maybe by the 4th month....there might have been near eighty people doing this.

Calorie consumption going way up?  Oh yeah.....these were folks already visiting the chow hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There were folks, at least twice a week, who were consuming 4,500 calories a day.  

This was so successful.....that it was draining cash flow from the chow hall.  So they had to make up another rule.....you had to be in uniform to get the box.  This created the next trend....where folks dressed up in fatigues at midnight to get the box lunch.  Eventually, they even went to a card-system.....to identify night-shift people and prevent over-use.

If they'd gone to something like roast beef, or just ham/cheese sandwiches?  I think most wouldn't have made the effort, but for some reason.....they had some  guy who knew how to make 4-star fried chicken.  

What'll Happen to Jussie?

 Sentencing for Jussie Smollert will occur today (Thursday).

Anyone's guess here.

I think if he'd come out and done the 'I-admit-guilt-while-doped-up' routine.....most of what would be handed out is rehab time and a hefty fine.

But I'm likely to believe he's going off for 12 months of jail-time, with good behavior getting him out in six months.  

Mentally Fit Story

 I noticed this AM....Politico had done a poll, asking the question if President Biden is mentally fit.  Around 25-percent said 'yes'.  The rest....less so.

Does a poll mean anything?  No.

If you'd gone to the people of New York in the 1980s....asking if George Steinbrenner was sane.....probably half would have said 'no'.

If you'd gone to Americans in the late 1930s and asked if FDR was sane...probably one-third of them would responded 'no'.

The trouble is....polls like this get out, and various people from Europe start asking stupid questions....like if he is not mentally fit, why are you allowing him to stand as President, and the obvious answer is that you really don't President Harris to be the solution to this problem.

My Opinion of Russians

 Lately, I've been watching Russian YouTube sites (1420 is an interesting guy who does on the street Russian interviews).  So, you get a great prospective of regular Russians. 

My general views of Russians (not Putin or the Kremlin elite)?

1.  If you locked ten Russian scientists in a room.....within eight hours, they'd invent something something out of thin air, without any encouragement. 

2.  I kinda believe that 50-percent of Russians consume vodka to serious levels, and the other fifty percent of Russians never consume vodka or alcohol of any type.

3.  I believe that Russians probably read 50-percent more than the typical average American.

4.  Based on YouTube, I would remark that a quarter of Russian society dress like it's 1977.  Course, maybe it's a fashion trend, or maybe just that they all like the style/look.

5.  Per one-hundred.....there are probably more intellectuals in Russia, than in the United States.  I'm not saying it's a positive thing....just a noted thing.

6.  If I had to go to the 'Lost' TV series island and could select ten people to accompany there, I'd make sure that nine of the ten were Russians (with one Brit in the mix).  We'd face off the smoke-creature, the bad-evil folks, and probably build a boat within two weeks to leave the island.

7.  You just don't see that many 'chunky' Russians.  Maybe it's the diet....maybe the lack of fast-food....or maybe just good cleaning living.

8.  Urban Russians don't seem as ready for difficulties....as rural Russians are.  

9.  It just seems like every Russian guy has a simple 10-tool bag he carries around in his car, which seem to resolve every single repair on a car required.

10.  Maybe it's just me, but almost every Russian gal on YouTube seems like she walked off a James Bond movie set.  

The Thing About Soviet News

 Russia for the most part....has shut down all news media operations except state-run units.  So what you get is fully-filtered news.

Oddly enough, this is mostly how the Soviet Union survived all those years.

You'd have one newspaper in a major city of 500,000, with one editor responsible for ensuring only the 'right' news got printed.  

It was OK to talk about sport scores, or discussing over 60 lines about some weight-lifting competition. 

If a water-main burst and destroyed the contents of some shopping district area....you'd just write a two-line piece describing renovation being done in such-and-such district.

If some drunk Russian hit a few cars with his dump truck, then ran over a old lady and her dog (killing them both)....the editor would have sat long and hard over the story.  The end version would have been a 1-line piece saying 'some lady on J-street met an untimely end, with her poodle 'Barney'......leaving you the reader to wonder what the untimely end was about.

A cat up in a tree, and rescued by the local fire department?  This would have been a full page with four pictures.....with a broad description of the six-man crew, and six lines to describe the cat in detail.  In fact, another six lines would have been added over an imaginary grandmother who came to offer cookies and tea to the firemen after the episode.  There would have been enough details to write a one-hour TV show over....but half of it would have been bogus (filler-material).

Stories over farmers having giant pumpkins?  Great....maybe even a sixty-line story to detail that.  Stories over a farmer failing?  Nothing.  

Soviet people got used to this, and as the 1990s arrived, with commercial news available.....I think most were in a state of shock.   You got to learn about dope dealers, murders, planes falling out of the sky, corruption, and failed lives.

Going back to the old style Soviet news pattern?  They have to be sitting there and asking what really happened to trigger filtered news?

Just Something Odd

 I hate to bring up the Ghislaine Maxwell case (most folks thought it was done)....but there's some hearing going on about one of the juriors.

So the story goes....when picking the jury, there was a questionnaire, and it kinda asked....have you any sexual abuse in your history......the person said no.  Well....weeks passed, and this juror starts to talk about their personal sexual abuse as a kid to the other jurors....likely influencing them.

The fed prosecution folks came back and want them to answer more questions in a court hearing.  Nope....the juror just can't do that....using their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

What'll happen? At the least, they will drag the person into some fed court.....giving a false testimony situation, and with evidence by other jurors likely....the person ends up with potentially five years in prison.  My guess, the judge might feel sorry for the person, and just limit it to one year....getting out in eight months on good behavior.

The problem left?  Do you have to redo the Maxwell case all over?  My gut feeling?  Yeah.  This giving her lawyers all the inside parts of the case?  Yeah, and it's more likely this time that she beats the prosecution on most of the charges.  

All of this manufactured?  Well....you just sit and wonder....what kind of idiot would do this stuff, and could a good bribe cause you to make up the abuse stuff with the jurors, even if you had to do 12 months in prison?