2024 Senate Elections in Play?

 1.  Arizona, with Sinema to be challenged in the Democratic primary, and seriously challenged by a GOP contender.

2.  Michigan.  Incumbent retiring.  

3.  Montana.  Currently near 50-50 split. Tester (D) might face a serious challenge this time.  

4.  Nevada.  Rosen (D) to be openly challenged. Near 50-50 split.

5.  Ohio.  Brown (D) to be fairly challenged.  Near a 50-50 split.

The rest would all likely be won by incumbents. Roughest race is Arizona, with Sinema (D) likely defeated by the Democratic challenger in the primary.  Maricopa County would be unable to repeat the gimmicks of 2022, with printers 'acting up'.   

I would guess two Republican wins in the five states...giving a slight edge to the Republicans.  

Ten Observations

 1.  Just seems to be a lot of police walking around/patrolling....dressed in 'Green-Zone' (Iraq War) 'soldiers-attire', and not as regular police.  What would happen if regular people went to Green-Zone attire?  

2.  You might as well accept it....Artificial Intelligence (AI) will reach a point in ten years where you step into a cubical....get diagnosed with whatever health issue....and get a prescription given to you by AI (not the actual doctor).  Then you walk to the pharmacy....where the next AI will issue you your drug.  Then on the way home, your personal AI sends out a automatic update via Meta/Twitter to your friends of your condition, without consulting you on the hemorrhoid's issue.  

3.  Being censored by someone with the mentality of a 12-year old kid....usually doesn't make sense.

4.  Some people reach maturity by age fourteen......some at age sixty...have yet to reach maturity.  Don't go rushing folks. 

5.  Overthinking....usually doesn't get you into trouble.  Underthinking might.

6.  There are people around who generally hate you....if they cannot control you.

7.  There's an agenda going on to trim the spaces after a '.' to just one, instead of the universal two spaces after '.'.   Don't fall into the one-space cult.

8.  Generally, if you bring up the term 'gain of function'....probably 98-percent of Americans think it has something to do with NFL football, instead of Covid.

9.  Being rational....shouldn't require any rocket science.

10.  It used to be...if you were out-of-touch....you were employed by Burger King or Wendys.  Today, it's possible you might even get hired-up to be President of the United States.  

Movie Review: The Great Wall

 I sat last night and watched the 2016 movie 'The Great Wall'.

I have to admit....it was a lousy movie....marginal script....and if I were in a theater, I would have walked out by the 30th minute.  

Basically, they wanted to sell you on some invasion of China by monster-dog-creatures, and the Great Wall was what was protecting society.  Along come these two European guys, and one of them (the Matt Damon character) saves the day.  

Chicago Chatter

 There's a state draft 'bill' going around, where the Illinois would have the power to mandate...for cities having a population of 2-million or more....if you were a gas station, bank, pawn shop or grocery store....you'd hire up armed-guards.  

Note, cities less than 2-million?  No such requirement.

First, the odds of passage?  I'm guessing while being pushed by a Democrat....it'd be awful hard to get general support among the rest of the state legislature.

Then you come to a cost factor?  If you were a pawn shop or gas station.....that's a added $100k a year on cost....to have a full-time guy around....Monday through Saturday.  

Then you'd come to actual use of weapons.  Armed guards, with Army training?  Any hint of trouble....they'd shoot.  So you'd have at least forty new shootings each day, with problem-folks wounded or dead.

Even legal?  It's aimed strictly at Chicago.  I would imagine it'd go to the Supreme Court over fairness. 

Then finally, I come to the manpower issue.  If you counted up pawn shops, gas stations, grocery stores, and banks....within Chicago....it's probably in the range of 5,000 establishments.  Go figure shifts, and you probably need to find a minimum of 15,000 guys/gals to be armed guards.  If you say former felons or criminal record folks can't be armed guards.....you will require 15,000 Hispanic folks (probably illegals) to do the job required....for the low pay situation.