Why Do 'BIG' Stories Get Released On A Friday Afternoon?

 Well....because they get turbo-charged up as a topic for Sunday political talk shows, and by Monday....it's value is zero, so it disappears.

Maybe it wasn't this way in the 1970s or 1980s....but with cable and news networks now....it's the way things have developed.  

Is it even worth viewing?  I would suggest that half the material for the various Sunday talk shows....have reached such a marginal level....that you are mostly amused more than you are seriously curious.  

A  prediction: within three months, if someone in your 'circle' brings up Trump's tax returns....at least half the people in the 'circle' will say they are still waiting on Trump's returns to be released.....having not realized it was done already.  

Ten Things You Tend To Notice These Days

 1.  Just an awful lot of people who can't cope or handle any stress or problems in their lives.  It's like we opened up a gate and 10-percent of society is 'breed' to behave like 6-year old kids....even when they are thirty to forty years old. 

2.   As much as we used to be a hefty-drinking society (to the extreme)....we now seem to be a more sedated or medicated society....to the extreme.

3.  We are forever discussing 'who failed who', in that schools failed kids, parents failed on responsibilities, bosses failed on keeping a business afloat, kids failed to grasp realities, TV executives failed viewers, so-and-so actor failed such-and-such series, wife failed husband, husband failed wife, etc.

4. If you asked writers to create a freaky movie about an asylum closing down and the crazies allowed out to terrorize society (like some Batman movie)....the reality is that we'd describe present day America....except without Batman.

5.  Mob rule is more prevalent now....than at any point in the past fifty years.

6.  We've reached a point where you can confess and admit your veganism....over and over, while munching on a burger or eating a steak.  It's just plain OK to be in a bizarro world where nothing can make sense.   As long as you say it.....it's true (even if it's 100-percent false).

7.  A whole society of people in their 70s....probably can remember the test episodes in high school on nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc....where they asking why the hell any of this was important to remember.  Today, by the time you turn four.....you need to have some vast knowledge level of pronouns.  

8.  Capitalism brought you a million-odd advantages in life....from whiskey and diet-beer.....to Game of Thrones and gender surgical stuff.

9.  There's just not that much compassion for out-of-work politicians.  

10.  There's just not a day that passes that 'Elon' doesn't come up in news hype.  It's like he's become some Jesus-cult figure, Tom Brady, and Batman all rolled up into one.  

The Buffalo 'Storm' Action

 I've followed a good bit of the Buffalo winter storm story.  

It's a curious piece to me.  

People act like this was a mega event, and beyond one's imagination.  

Back in the 1990s, I worked with a guy who grew up just outside of Buffalo, and he could sit for ten minutes each week....describing winter storm action in the 1970s/1980s.  

His stories would be the stuff that Hemmingway or Steinbeck would write.  Intense....dramatic....'threat of death', and so on.  

So I'm kinda wondering....did Buffalo just simmer for the past two decades with marginal winters and people get dopey?  

Something is not right about the dramatic angle that the news folks portrayed the situation, and you are left to believe they went through a long era of 'light' winters.  

Ten Rules of Advice for 2023

 1.  Stop trying to reason with unreasonable people....unless they are buying the drinks.

2.  Anything that Aristotle ever suggested (from 2,000 years ago).....bank on it, and live your life by his 'code'.

3.  If someone seems mentally deranged....keep a good six foot distance.

4.  If people appear in a cult-like state of mind.....then they aren't sane enough to sit on your porch and sip your tea or whisky.  Send them home.

5.  If you reach a point where you think censorship is a good thing.....you might want to find some Jesus-like person to trust.  

6.  If someone comes up to you with a problem, but their statement adds a extra-layer....suggesting they don't want to really fix the problem (they just want to retain/hold it)....maybe you should change the topic of discussion to favorite Beatles tunes, the strategy of poker, or best episodes of Star Trek.

7.  Maintain a balance on 'free' stuff.....other than a handshake, a wink, or a bit of advice....nothing is really free.

8.  In a normal day, you will likely bump into 200 'experts'.  You might want to evaluate things and regard 90-percent as marginal experts, or fake experts.

9.  You need to get used to 'failing-up'.  It means people hired up a marginally educated or capable person.....knowing they were ill-qualified for the job, but the system requires management to hire such people.  Fail-uppers will eventually reach CEO status, and even become President of the United States (this may have already happened).

10.  You don't always need a plan, but in 99-percent of cases....it helps to have 'something'.  

Eight Things I'm Confused About

 1.  If it seems logical that 8-year old kids can be taken into a drag-show.....shouldn't the same logic dictate that a 12-year boy could be sitting in a topless dancer show, and sipping a beer?

2.  Once you explain the XX and XY chromosome 'thing', and that you can't flip/change your 'X's'.....how can any further discussion occur with genders?

3.  Isn't all this gender-talk really a long talk about fetishes?

4.  At the rate that SBF spent crypto 'profits' from his fake-pretender crypto currency....how did he really expect it to survive on?

5.  All this Trump tax stuff....revolves around the idea that he paid a low sum of taxation in some years, and the IRS folks don't seem hyped-up to get into this situation.   Something doesn't make sense....unless his accountant went by the rules and the tax code is fu*ked-up.  Would you really want to admit 80,000 of crappy tax code?

6.  Everyday, Russia loses another dozen-odd tanks and probably around 200 men dead (maybe 20-odd guys who just surrendered and gave-up).  Where's the logic of continuing?

7.  When someone says they 'identify'.....I get confused and start thinking they are in some imaginary state of mind (LSD or something), and that I probably need to find the exit of the room.

8.  I always thought the border....meant THE BORDER.  

Ten Things I Expect in 2023

1.  In the remarkable way that TRANS took off....I expect someone to market trans-stupidity with a pill.  Basically, people will be convinced that smartness and intellectualism ought to be avoided....so a drug is staged to lessen your intelligence level by 25-percent.  

This gimmick will be 'sold' to the public with the belief that regular people are stupid, and you should improve yourself in 'status' by getting more stupid.

News journalists will cover the phenonium and go undercover....getting stupid and demonstrating the transformation.   

2.  Over 3,000 brawls will be reported at Waffle House operations in 2023.  Cops will suggest that between drugs and alcohol, the bulk were triggered. 

3.  Some state authorities will determine that gov't officials signed off unaccompanied trips of kids (under age 18) from state to state.  Charges will be drawn, and actual federal officials will face state jail-time.  

4.  Fake 'drag' shows will start to occur, where women are dressed as men and do stupid things that real guys do....when drunk or on drugs.  

5.  More than 100,000 whites will self-identify as black in 2023.  It'll reach the level that some adapt and change their first name to Duante or Latoya.  

6.  At least one state will criminalize 'political misinformation' in 2023.  You will be unable to reach any level of understanding in this state....until the Supreme Court throws out the act.

7.  A new fake wokeness will arrive....with people proclaiming they want to find a 'balance' between light and dark.  People will spend hours huddled together in groups...discussing 'balance' to some endless extreme.  It'll be referred to as the cult of 'balancists'. 

No one will be able to explain the rational difference between light and darkness....other than people sitting in a room, where the light is continually clicked on and off.  Seminars will be held (at $250 lecture hall situations) where some geeky gal talks about avoiding the darkness, and consuming the light.  

Anti-balancists will soon arrive....claiming that darkness is better than light.

8.  People will begin to realize that they accidentally pronounce 'election' as 'erection' nine times out of ten, and kids start to think politics is mostly about sex.

9.  A shortage of beef will come to exist in the US in 2023....triggering grocery shelves to be empty.  No rational reason can be provided other than trucking/logistical issues.

10.  A test will be accomplished with college students...determining that current graduates are at the 50-percent level of knowledge/competence....as a 1995 graduate.  Colleges will be unable to explain how this developed, or how to repair the problem.  

Finished Series

 In the past week, I've finished up season 1 of 'Wednesday Addams' (off Netflix).  Four comments:

1.  On written material, it's probably one of the best shows of the past five years....although it's a limited number of episodes in the 'season'.

2.  Jenny Ortega playing Wednesday?  Fantastic.

3.  So the whole thing is about taking one single character out of the Addams Family series (1960s) and suggesting that a show can evolve out of this idea.  It's probably going to open up a dozen TV shows where taking secondary people and evolve them (Festus out of Gunsmoke for example).

4.  Finally, it's written mostly for teens to be entertained....but I would suggest most everyone would get a laugh out of the show.

Q-and-A

 1.  Did 250 million Chinese folks catch Covid in December?

There's this news story going around and hyped-up.  So, the problem here.....I suspect, is that 250 million folks did get sick with a cold, flu, or possibly Covid, and then got tested with these Chinese-made Covid tests, and 250 million of the tests said they were positive, when the majority of the tests were correct.

I noticed about a year ago....some German university went and tested a fair number of the Covid tests on the market (most all made in China).  There were one or two, which were pretty reliable (up in the 90-percent range), and there were were one or two in the extremely low range (reliable at the most in the 40-percent range).  

So my BS-meter is up around a '8' here on this 250 million talk.

2.  Did 343,000 folks leave California in 2022?

Census folks say yes.  

Big deal?  Current, they number around 39-million, with probably 3,000 migrants arriving every month.  So, it's probably not a big deal. 

But when you see companies pack up and leave....that's different.  That takes a chunk of jobs/income out of the state and would hurt in the long run.

3.  Lumber prices on a total reverse?

Yeah....remember back 12 months ago, when plywood was at some outrageous price...like $95 a sheet?  Well....construction has dropped like a rock in late 2022, and lumber yards have dropped pricing in a big way.  

4.  All this money being handed to the Ukraine for the war....leads back to a US agenda of sorts?

Yes, and the more you discuss this....the more worried you should be about the agenda and the amount of discussion which led to this White House decision.

5.  What's the term 'died suddenly' mean?

Well....in recent months, it means you died from either Covid complications or vaccine complications.  It's an odd phrase and probably not uttered much by pro-Covid people.

Ten Observations

 1.  Just about everything you see on TV today or via the internet....is a narrative.  It may be a stupid narrative.  It may be a intellectual narrative.  But it's built up to be a story with a understanding at the end.

2.  This SBF character sitting in the Bahamas on charges (crypto fraud)....I'd question his mental state, and if he were under the influence of drugs for the past five years....remembering little to nothing of what he did.

3.  If you wanted mostly privacy in your life, you'd have to disconnect all internet connectivity to achieve that.

4.  It's a curious tactic by big-name newspapers now.....they go and hype a story on Twitter with two lines.  You click to see the rest, and hit a pay-wall.  Then you kinda realize....the two lines were written into a form to beg questions....but the rest of the article really missed on your need for answers.

5.  If Elon really wanted to make his money back...quick....he ought to charge 25 cents for each comment that people make, and 3 cents for each 'like'.

6.  Biden made a big comment yesterday about all the FREE masks, FREE tests, and FREE vaccines being provided by the government.  Well....to be honest, none of this was FREE.  It was paid by taxation.  He could just as well provide FREE beer and FREE donuts, except it'd be paid by taxation as well.

7.  I generally believe by 2030, the US will have to resort to a draft again, because the volunteer idea has hit a brick wall.  If you think things are bad now.....just wait till the draft arrives.

8.  Oddly enough, over the past two years, I've learned that Joe Biden worked in the timber industry in his youth, hit a 368 ft homer in his youth, and once drove a long-haul truck.  Also...oddly enough, no one can vouch for any of the stories.

9.  Something sweeping around Europe...being referred to as a 'super-cold'.  Affects are several times worse than an average cold....so the folks claim.

10.  The odds of anyone reading the 816 page 'final report' by the Jan-6 'truth commission'?  I would imagine that fewer than 500 people in 2023 read the full and entire report.  I should note, almost 150 pages of this is reference material....so it's not as harsh as you might think.  If you want a copy?  Cost is around $12 to $16.  

Covid Chatter

 I don't normally read the WaPo much, but this AM....they had this odd story....a health study done....over Covid.  So it comes out.....people who have a routine regular exercise schedule (even just walking or hiking)....stood a fairly high chance of never getting hospitalized over Covid, or dying from Covid.  We aren't saying 100-percent, but apparently it's enough to suggest that your fitness level might figure into your health situation.

I saw a news piece late in 2021....where a German marathon runner had Covid, and even three months after the virus.....he was nowhere near his past stamina.  The illness had taken a lot of energy out of the guy.  I should note....he didn't have to go off to the hospital.  Based on his description....it was like a serious bout with pneumonia.  

I also noted from another 2021 news show....the interview with a 90-year old German gal....in a retirement home, who did a two-week bout with Covid, and emerged with no health problems.  Course, she hyped-up....after breakfast each day.....she took her 90-pound frame (my judgement) and walked an hour.  She also noted that she munched on a apple everyday, avoided bad habits (I assume smoking and boozing), and ate what you'd consider one real meal (dinner) per day.  

Course, if you said any of this on 'old' Twitter.....you would have been censored or forbidden to chat over such things.  

Three Observataions

 1.  Some intellectual 'idiot' appeared at the World Economic Forum.  Their quote?  "We can solve all the Earth's problems, if we reduced the world population to where it was 500 years ago." (Basically 1522 for reference).

I sat there for a while.  This was around 100 years prior to the Mayflower landing, and around 140 years prior to my family arriving in the 'new world'.

If you gaze around at Japan and European numbers.....we've crossed the point where 2 births per woman occur (going downward, not upward), and population shifts are easily noted today.  You can actually draw a Excel spreadsheet on German populations in approximately a hundred years and show a 25-percent decrease in numbers unless immigration takes off big-time.

The problem I would assess as a bigger deal....we have too many intellectuals in our midst, and need to lessen their number by 50-percent....to save humanity.  

2.  After all that chatter with the Nord Stream I/II pipelines blown up in the Baltic region....still today....no one is sure who blow the pipes up.

Based on chatter this week....some evidence is concluding it wasn't the Russian government.  If it wasn't the Russian gov't (still holding out on some Oligarch or Wagner contract group)....it opens up a big discussion.

3.  Some people are concluding in 2024.....that a 8-year Republican Presidential trend will occur, and the suggestion is that Sotomayor/Kegan (Justices) might want to retire in the next 18 months....to prevent a 'big' mess for the Democrats.  While they hold a lead in the Senate....the conventional wisdom is to use it for some benefit.  

It's amazing all the factors that agenda groups are dumping into these days.  

Two Thoughts Today

 Someone brought up the topic....if people had ever met a white supremacist  in their life?

I paused over the question.

To me, it means asking if you mean a KKK-guy, and the answer would be no.  You might have accidentally bumped into such a guy and not realized it because the topic didn't come up.  

In my Air Force years?  I came across one single guy who was 50-percent a nutcase (a alcoholic as well) on top of being a racist.  Beyond that....you just don't normally bump into white supremacists.  

A number of folks saw the comment on Twitter, and they all basically said the same thing.....they just haven't met these supremacists that get mentioned all the time.  

To be honest, if you asked me about meeting nutcases....well....OH YEAH, there's probably two-hundred folks that I considered seriously bothered, and potentially dangerous.  Just in walking around DC on a Saturday....you'd meet a minimum of one.  Sitting at an airport around twenty years ago....some older gal was all tranquilized-up and talking over church members in her church....who were going to hell.  

The topic that came up today....my brother brought up the topic of great Alabama restaurants.....primarily getting scored this way (over the top) because they had 'nice' waitresses'.

What does 'nice' mean?  This is the gal who greets you at the door....bringing to the best table, and then immediately getting you glasses of iced-up water with a menu.  

Then they start talking....with the usual slow dictation, with a Selma-like drawl.  You get the elongated vowels....that aren't supposed to exist, but they insert them anyway. 

They always let you know that the salad is fresh....like you were expect 7-day old salad. 

The ice-tea?  They always let you know it was just brewed in the last hour, and the lemons were cut 'fresh'....leaving you to wonder what'd happen if they weren't fresh.

At this point in the conversation, you note that her distinctive pronunciation of terms has slowed down 25-percent....like you were paying extreme attention to her vast knowledge of the menu.

Now, you've memorized her name-tag (always a 'Cindy', 'Mandy', or 'Darlene').  

By the end....with just plain good cooking, the waitress has brought things up to a five-star level.  

The thing is....you remember that sparkle and extra effort....bringing you back for a second trip.  

You need moments like this.   

Ten Observations

 1.  This truth-commission stuff (6 Jan committee) and the entire discussion of 6 Jan 2020....resembles a 'mass hysteria' campaign to some degree.  The House committee drums up TV theatrics and get you hyped up.  Unfortunately for them....unlike like the Watergate era where the three networks carried the hearings and limited any options of watching something else.....between satellite, internet and cable....you had other choices.  I'd say well over 70-percent of the country gave this little attention.

2.  99-percent of people had no idea in the 1980s of what narcissism meant.  Today?  Probably ten-percent of society knows the term, and the mental 'disorder' involved.

3.  After a while, you come to realize that Twitter is an addiction of sorts....to get you hyped-up.

4. As much hype as generated about people crossing the US border heading north.....it just seems like no one is crossing the border heading south.  Literally no one.

5.  I'm of the mind that prior to entry into a four-year university deal....the college ought to be forced into conducting an IQ test.  At the end of four years of college, if your IQ numbers are the same....the entire cost of the college should be refunded.

6.  Congress, today in 2022, is more of a theatrical show, than actual democracy at work.

7.  I'm of the belief that all this crazy stuff that Hunter Biden did from 2006 to 2020....was cocaine-influenced, and half of the events....he has little to no memory of.

8.  Some poll indicates 60-percent of people in the US....are living paycheck-to-paycheck.  I lived in the Arlington, VA area around a decade ago.  The local paper had a story they ran of a couple....both gov't workers of some type....both together pulling in over $260,000 a year. They were living paycheck-to-paycheck, and had been doing so since moving to the DC region (five years prior).  Reality here?  Things are relative.

9.  I think we are at 75-percent-plus on the side of believing JFK was killed by elements of the CIA/Mafia combined.

10. If you were in the middle of an insurrection, with no shots being fired....would you even recognize it as a insurrection? 

Observations

 1.  This Twitter chatter by Elon Musk that if you 'vote' him out.....he leaves, and a new 'boss' arrives?

I think he had several folks in mind to take over around day 60 after he bought the 'mess', and they probably are just as like-minded as he is.  

So don't go expecting Twitter to return to 'normal'.

2.  Polling says two-thirds of the nation believe things are going in the wrong direction.  Luckily, the President doesn't care.

3. There's this Turkish saying I heard the other day: "When a clown moves into a palace.....the clown doesn't get a title or step-up....the palace itself becomes part of a circus."

Five Humble Opinions

 1.  There seems to be a lot of heartbreak, weeping and childlike behavior occurring from the general public over the Twitter 'banning' of WaPo tech reporter Taylor Lorenz.  

To be honest, from the various videos I've seen on YouTube of her (from the past year or two).....she impresses me with almost no real reporter skills, and often deliveries some 'report' like a 12-year old kid (mostly 'acting' her way through some assessment).

On my BS-meter of any of this 'banning' being a terrible event....I'd rate it no higher than a '2'.

2.  You get the impression after a while....that Twitter is mostly like a WWF-wrestling 'channel' and that you need good guys constantly fighting off bad guys.  That's the gimmick or draw to Twitter.  

3.  It is 2022, yet about one-quarter of the public is hyped up and concern over free-speech....something that should have been settled 'science' in 1776.

4.  You ever sat down and read the 18th Amendment to the Constitution?  The one shutting down booze production, sales, and consumption in America?

The text?

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the 

exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Yes, that's it.....nothing more.  It's something that you could type up in five minutes....run a draft/spell-check ten times, and be ready for a vote in two hours.  

5.  Switzerland has one of the highest man-hour wage situations in the free-world.  So I was looking at the cost of a Club-sandwich at a normal non-upscale place.  This is just the plate (with fries). 

Cost?  $37 for the plate, and figure around $4 for a beer.  

Minimum wage level (per-hour) there?  23 CHF ($24.68).  

Crazy stuff. 

My Gut Feeling Over These Digital Trump Trading Cards

 What idiot would pay $99 for these?

Then BAMM.....45,000 sold in a matter of a couple of hours.

Yes, in the middle of a recession....they were gone.

Biden's crew?  They have to be sitting there....probably for months thinking about this crazy idea, and Trump's crew beat them to it.  Now?  They have to criticize Trump....giving up entirely on their $99 moment and the potential $4.5 million for their campaign fund.

Next?  Trump probably will sell blinking red hats with MAGA written on them....or a $40 'free-pass' at the border card.

Yeah, About That Test

 This past week.....the Homeland Security folks announced a 'test' episode for the current US citizenship test.  

Currently....there are four parts to the test (civics, English language, reading and writing).  

To pass the current test.....you have to answer six of the ten questions right.  To be honest....they kinda tell you the questions ahead of time....from a 'listing' of 100 questions.  So you'd have to be an idiot....to fail this test.

What they want to change?  Well....to make it multiple choice, and then they hinted....there would be new material, but they really weren't clear what this meant.  They did say there would be a different type of English test...leaving you to wonder what they meant by this.

Having taken the German orientation class, and passed it.....it kinda runs the same way.  

Lessening the test business?  You would do that if the incoming folks really weren't that bright or educated....like they were at the 5th-grade level at age 25.  That would make sense but beg questions if you admitted that you had a bunch of 'new' Americans who really weren't that bright.

But lets get honest here.....probably one-third of Americans probably are at the 5th/6th grade level of knowledge and ability anyway.  If you applied the current test to some 40-year old Americans....they'd likely fail.  

My humble view is that a fair number of the 'test-change' folks came in...reviewed the material....feeling it was way over their heads, and reported back to their bosses in DC....the whole test is too complicated (even for them).  

It's Just a Job Strategy

 Over the past couple of weeks....between Meta/FB, CNN, Twitter, the Washington Post....the signs are there that a bunch of journalists, fact-checkers and social media creators....are about to lose their jobs.

The curious thing here....there's no real back-up plan or landscape....where a guy or gal can land, without losing half their level of income.

Adding to this situation....once the cuts occur....is that really the 'end'?  Could we reach the end of 2023, and find another 10,000 folks dumped?

I'm reminded of a story of a guy via social media that popped up around five years ago.  He'd come out of college with a journalism degree, and for several months....found no one really hyped to pay the level of pay that he expected.  He ended up at a small regional TV station...barely at $30k a year.  For a year or two, he lingered....then someone came along to suggest he wrote travel pieces for a magazine...mostly under an assumed name, and brought in a couple thousand a year.  A dozen years after college, he found his 'position' in the jobs market....mostly as a travel journalist.  It wasn't what he dreamed of....but it paid his lifestyle.

Most of these people....from the journalists, to the fact-checkers....will linger around, and eventually realize that their time with Twitter, or CNN, or WaPo.....was just a lucky streak.  Accept it, and just move on.  

Washington Post Story

 I sat and watched a piece yesterday.....WaPo management held a meeting with employees.

Basically, 500,000 subscribers left the paper in 2022.  

Management laid out the path....there would have to be some layoffs.  They didn't say the numbers, but the plan would start up in the first quarter of 2023.  

Actual number of journalists working there presently?  1,050 approximately.  I would suggest that a 10-percent cut is the probable outcome of this.  But you'd have to ask the question....will more subscribers leave in 2023?  

What really happened?  It's basically the CNN/NY Times trend.....you get to a biased state of existence, and people reach a stage where they say 'enough'.  

The days where they did investigative reporting?  Long gone.

The sad part of this story.....those hundred-odd journalists that they release...won't find any jobs in the region, for the pay-scale required.  A lot of these people will be disgruntled, and shake their heads because they saw this coming five years ago.  

Stupidity

I tried to make sense out of this Fortune article that relates to Covid.

 First, you'd have to collect data that involves traffic accidents.  Would insurance companies or the police ask for this?  I'm shaking my head....it just wouldn't be on  the top twenty questions that LE people would ask at a scene, or that some insurance guy would ask as you file for damages to your car.

Then you'd have to ask....did you booster up.  

Would people even respond?

Then it's hinting that if you just skipped the booster by a month, a week or a day....you'd have increased odds of an accident. 

Logically, I'd be asking....as the insurance folks....do you drink Pepsi or Coke, and rattle off a statistic that more Coke people have accidents prior to noon, or more Pepsi people have accidents on weekends.

Perhaps I'd ask....do you regularly have bowel movements and gather data to prove the morning-bowel movement people are 31-percent more likely to have an accident than the mid-day bowel movement people.

I could ask....are college degree people more likely or less likely to have accidents than barbers with no degree?

Are you more likely or less likely to have a car accident....if you are Marvel-passionate, or DC-passionate?

Do guys who roll their own smokes....have a higher rate of accidents than people who buy regular smokes?

Logically thinking here....maybe it'd be best if I just hung out in the woods....avoided cars in general....and lived a low-stress lifestyle.  

Was There a Two-For-Two Deal With Russia?

This thing with lesbian black basketball player being released, in exchange for the US releasing this Russian arms merchant (held in prison on a conviction)?  Was it a one-for-one deal?

NO.

The original intent was that two would be traded....Russia letting the Marine (Whelan) and the black lesbian basketball player go, and the US getting the arms merchant on the plane, and picking up a German-held prisoner (assassin arrested two years ago for a murder in a Berlin city park).

Basically, there was nothing that the US could offer for the German-held prisoner....so that part of the deal fell apart.  

Ethical crap?  Once you start trading around for people....the whole value-system that you maintain....falls apart.  

Just Three Things You Notice

 1.  Washington Post more or less admits...has lost half-a-million subscribers since 1 Jan 2021.

There's zero profit, and if you checked out the current pricing.....it's almost triple what it was in 2020.  

Does any of this matter?  No....Jeff Bezos owns them and will spend what he has to....to keep them afloat.

But it underlines the fact that fewer people read their stuff and influences opinions around the nation.

2.  If you were waiting on 'Wonder Woman III' to be made.....well....it won't be.  The current plan got cancelled.

A lot of this leading back to II and its dismal presentation?  Yeah.

3.  If you follow the CDC and their Covid booster advice....this past week, they said that you might need to booster-up....every two months.  I'll just offer this advice....about five weeks after my end-of-June-2022 booster....I got Covid.  So the two months advice might not be that valuable.    

Seven Things I Believe Today

 1.  SBH of the crypto empire FTX....will never be arrested unless he steps into the US.....which I don't believe he will do.  No one wants to admit that the US gov't allowed a money laundering operation to operate, without any authority over it.

2.  If the Democratic Party is successful in removing Iowa from the first primary episode.....Joe Biden will not run.  These two things are linked up.

3.  A major drop in product production in China is about to occur....where you can't get 300-odd drug store items, for at least six to twelve months.  Yes, even some cancer drugs will be on that list.

4.  A whole bunch of folks who sold things off E-Bay....are going to line up for IRS viewing.  Could well be over half-a-million who never reported income.

5.  CNN will be bought in 2023....by a non-US entitity.

6.  Hunter Biden will come out on a advertisement.....for data protection in 2023.

7.  Elon Musk starts talking about the next acquisition, and it will be just as shocking as Twitter.

Just Odd Things You Notice

 1.  This FTX CEO guy....SBF....went out and hired one of the most expensive lawyers in America....while saying that his total bank assets total around $100,000.  The lawyer bill just for a single week....has to run around $100k, so it begs the question....who exactly is funding this lawyer beyond SBF?

2.  This Prince Harry/Meghan Netflix special.....all BS?  More or less.  The network paid somewhere in the range of $100-million, and it just doesn't appear to have any traction going on.  As for Harry or Meghan?  There needs to be some kind of royal rehab unit out there....to handle people like this, who just need to get over their limits in life.

3.  Just one odd thing you notice.....if a county (out of the 2022 election) is primarily 'blue' (Democrat)....they seem to have longer-to-count problems.  Statistically....you can't make a case on explaining why this man-hour thing exists.

4.  The Paul Pelosi-hammer episode?  Gone.  You can ask 20,000 people to name the hammer-dude today, and none will remember his name. 

5.  Some kind of weird BS stuff started up with the new episodes of 'Shark Week'.  Someone finally noticed that most of the shark experts are all white men.  The reality?  Yeah.....mostly white males study sharks....and so?  

Just A Moment of Pondering

 Elon Musk quote:

"My biological neural net concluded it's important to buy Twitter. If Twitter was not bought and steered in a good direction, it would be a danger for the future of civilization. So that's why I bought it."

If you ponder upon this....Elon isn't talking about a year or two into the future....he's literally talking about a century or two into the future.

This is like of those Star Trek episodes where Spock has come to realize something pretty bad, gone off and disappeared for a week, figured out a way to travel via time, and reset history to undo what evil has occurred.

Before You Get All Hyped-Up to Hitler-Speak on Twitter

 You need to answer five questions....to get into a state of Hitler-speak:

1.  What country does Hitler have birth-right and citizenship from?

Hint: It's not Germany.

2.  Who hired Hitler after WW I for a job?

Hint: Has something to do with the Secret State Police of Bavaria.

3.  What was the intent of his job in Bavaria, after WW I?

Hint: Undercover work on a new political party (yeah, the Nazis).

4.  When Hitler entered Germany in 1913....what did the Bavarian police do?

Hint: They evaluated the situation....sending him back to Austria to participate in the mandatory conscription episode.  Upon arrival, a medical physical took place, and he failed (no reason ever given), and in Feb 1914 (before WW I)....he was sent back to Munich....clear of the draft.

I should add....around seven months later....he ended up volunteering for the Bavarian Army, and easily passed the physical.  (Yeah, it begs questions).

5.  Odds of surviving from summer 1914 to November 1918, as a member of the German Army?

Hint: You can do the math, but one out of every four who participated....died before the end. So it is remarkable that he survived the war.  

Ten Realities in 2022

 1.  There are probably more mentally-ill people existing in America today, than a decade ago, and at the pace of things....you can figure adding 5-percent.  

Official numbers: general mental ill issues....around 20-percent of the nation.  Severely ill....around 5-percent.

2.  Senator Warren made the comment that Elon Musk doesn't have the 'right' to run Twitter.

3.  You noticed that almost no one who held FTX crypto currency and felt 'screwed'....aren't on CNN or Fox News?  I've seen ten people at best....so far. 

4.  Have you noticed there's more 'family-friendly' drag shows....than topless dancer shows in most American cities now?

5.  Have you noticed more Hitler/Nazi chatter than what existed in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s?  

6.  There must be 3,000 sources of news....saying Twitter is either dead or dying.  Yet, it survives on.  Kinda like that Frankenstein-creature?

7.  As CNN declines in value....I suspect a day will come in 2024....where Elon suggests he might buy the network.

8.  More people existing today....who believe in the doom-and-gloom, than in some positive world.

9.  The one odd thing about Asperger's syndrome people.....which Elon Musk is....they are honest to a fault, and tend to have some kind of weird aversion to people being inauthentic (bogus lives).  

10.  My idea of being 'wild-and-reckless' from the 1970s mentality.....doesn't fit into modern day society today.  

Observations

 1.  This Presidential 'visit' to Nantucket.....with the strange vehicle fire that started up with the Secret Service rental vehicles?  Started with one, and it appears around six cars burned up in the parking lot.

I'll just say that it's odd.  

Some state guy will investigate this and probably spend more than a hundred man-hours trying to get to the bottom of this.  Loss?  Way above $200k.  

2.  Rep Adam Schiff has come up now to say that complying with House subpoenas is optional.  Rather odd to say it this way, and it was exact opposite a year ago.

3.  Maricopa County Arizona....being capable in November 2024 of running a single day of election activity?  

I would suggest that one month prior to the election....a practice day with 1,000 voters be held (at each site).  If anything fails.....remove computerized voting entirely and never bring it up again.

4.  Kanye West and this Nazi chatter?  

Look....he's mentally challenged and how he ever got to be some celebrity-type individual is beyond me.  Probably 98-percent of what he says....is coming out of some prescription pill gimmick, and not worth discussing.

5.  Some advice....if ever meeting a complete stranger (that you might not ever meet again)....stick with three questions: (1) Hows the weather, (2) Seen any good movies lately, and (3) Favorite character of Game of Thrones?

Beyond that....just don't ask any stupid questions or fake-pretend you really want to know the stranger.

6.  Notice all this recent hype-chatter over the flu?  It's like people waking up a century after Covid and realizing that flu still exists.

Primary Chatter

 For over 50 years.....the primary season started in Iowa and New Hampshire.  If you asked for the logical reason to this....it was supposed to be a build-up....so when you got to state 20 to 40 (four week period)...everyone who had a chance...had their act together.

I noticed this AM....the DNC is talking over an idea of reshuffling the primary season.

Logic?  They simply say to have a more 'diverse' state at the beginning.

California or NY?  Well....they didn't say that.

They want a meeting and to discuss options.

Part of this problem relates to Iowa and the method they use there....where groups meet and openly discuss 'brand-names' and 'promises'.  Hillary....did rather badly in the two times running....starting off in Iowa.  If they'd started in Michigan or Washington state?  She would have done better.

The problem I see here....if you went to 1st primary (say in California), then went to Nevada and South Carolina....you'd wipe out a bunch of folks in the first seven days.  There would just be one or two candidates by state five.  

All of this being built for Newsom?  Well...you can't help but notice that he's not charging up the Democratic base, and in half the states.....he wouldn't rate as a winner.

Personally?  I'd like to line up 25 states to all have their primary run around the first week of March, and the remaining 25 around the first week of April.  Yes, as bunched up as possible.

I'd also make a rule for the entire year prior to the primary year....zero paid advertising on TV, radio, newspapers, or the internet.

So prepare for some wild stuff in 2024.