The 'Show'

 Is the Presidency of the United States....more of a TV show, than some 'act' of political reality?

Back in the middle of the Clinton era....I started to think over things like this.  The whole sex story over Clinton came down to some comical discussion, and how no matter how many women Bill might have banged on the side....Hillary was just never going to leave.

From that point...even with the Bush era, the Obama period, and the four years of Trump....I felt that way.

With Joe Biden and VP Harris?  I've probably tripled  up my belief that it's more a TV show than anything else.

Faked-up drama?  Oh, there's not a day that passes now when you think this more of a 'Young-Frankenstein' comedy directed by Mel Brooks.

You can flip channels from MSNBC, to the View, and over to CNN....where you get comedy 'skit' number one....an hour later....comedy 'skit' number two, and so so.

The trouble here....after a while, you get the mindset that it's all a comedy.  Even the journalists are part of the act....the economists are actors told to read a script, and guests of the White House (like Macron of France or some Icelandic PM)....are also part of the act.

The odd factor?  Everything feels like a scam.    You listen to five minutes of CNN....skeptical of everything spoken.  You read a piece of the NY Times, and scam comes up once or twice by the end.  You have some talk-radio piece....where you start laughing over the pretended serious nature of the topic.

As for any indicator that the Joe/Kam 'show' might end, and the 'Donald-show' might start up....leading to another comedy?  Yeah, I even have that feeling.  To be honest, I think even the CNN people would be happy and rejoiceful because it'd improve their comedy 'score'.

Man, it makes me wish for that Gerald Ford era once again....where they barely mentioned his name once a week.

A Little Funny Story

 

I sat and read over this story.

Basically, after reviewing data/facts....court concludes that the Covid tests done....only came up with a accurate reading about 3-percent of the time. 

If you had a dead guy (dragged in from some car accident, hay-bailer incident, or thrown from a horse)....for some reason, you'd be Covid-tested, and your death certificate might say Covid-victim.....when it was purely a car accident or farm-death.

So all these official deaths talked about in 2020, 2021, and 2022....it's crapped-up results?  Yeah.

Here in Germany....they were perked-up to mandate PCR tests, and openly offered FREE tests in each village.  At some point in 2021....to get non-vax people into the work-place......you had to openly take the PCR test almost daily....meaning a trip to your village station and the gov't was paying around 20 Euro ($24) for each test.

A ton of money wasted....with millions of man-hours wasted?  Yeah.

I was probably PCR tested at least 60 times over a 2-year period myself.

Just something funny how society developed around the fake tests, and how skeptical folks are today.

Recessions and Their Necessity

All total, from 1776 to present.....we've accomplished (on the books) a total of forty-nine recessions.  Yes, it may be hard for some folks to accept but the odds are....if you are fifty years old today and will likely make to 75 old years old.....you will have lived through ten recessions. 

While folks do agree on the lengthly recessionary period of 1929 to the summer of 1938....being awful bad, it officially....on the books....represents two recessions.  Yep, that's a shock for most folks.  We actually started to come out of the 1929 recession in the spring of 1933.  There is some brief moments (months) where people perceive things improving.  But by spring of 1937....recession was back in full bloom, with two major factors: companies were stalled (seeing no real profits), and there was a massive attempt by the federal government to balance the budget (which overwhelmed Senators).

The recession of 1873?  No one ever goes back and discusses the five-year period where unit strikes and bank failures were regularly discussed in various newspapers. 

Should we fear recessions? No.  They are often tied to poor money management, bad decisions led by speculation, and insiders trying to gain against a market.  They are in a way.....a corrective period which needs to be like a 'magic pill' to flush your system, and get the 'bad' out.  You feel better after the flush, and that feeling will typically last five to fifteen years....before the next recession. 

The odd thing right now?  We are told that the last recession ended in the summer of 2009.  If you figure a 15-year cycle, then we are five to eight years away from this next 'flush' cycle.  The necessity to blame Trump on the next recession?  Right now....it's a 99-percent likely event.  But it's quiet possible that the Trump period will end, and we get a year or two into some Democratic period.....waking up to realizing speculation reached a major point and a flush was necessary.

Virtual Discussion

 The DNC has said now that they will hold some type of meeting and approve a 'virtual-vote' by Convention members....ahead  of the actual convention itself (to be 19 to 22 August, in Chicago).  The 'virtual-vote'?  To nominate Joe Biden/Kam Harris.

This apparently resolves the Ohio-problem....where a deadline is in place (by state law), and the state refuses to modify the law.....so the 19 August business would fail to get Joe on the Ohio ballot.

I sat and pondered over this.

This virtual-vote would likely occur by early July, with state delegations having provided an ID of members, and some form of email going out....with a password and instruction of how it would work.  

My humble guess....it'd be open and vote-enabled for three days (probably over a weekend), and you'd have a virtual chance to vote for Joe/Kam, or a blank area for a write-in.

So the question in my mind...what if 51-percent of the delegates say NO to Joe/Kam?  In this scenario, I think the DNC would huddle for an hour after the vote and then say that the vote was 'hacked'.  

Would 51-percent readily say no?  I think out of 2,000 delegates....it might be easy to find 200 agreeing, and maybe another 200 who feel uneasy.  Joe and Kam ought to pass.

But lets say the virtual vote is only 44-percent for Joe/Kam....meaning the bulk are against them.  What follows for the next six weeks?

CNN, WaPo and NPR would be working daily to stir up passion and list the three or four 'fillers' constantly.

I'll end this discussion with this....if the virtual vote work....why bother with a convention?  Why not just have virtual conventions as the norm in the future....with no one traveling 1,000 miles for a week of political partying?

Fast Food Luxury?

 I noticed a poll done....where 80-percent of Americans now consider a stop at a fast-food place (like BK, McDonalds, Wendys).....as being a 'LUXURY'.

I sat and pondered over this. 

As a kid....around age 7....McDonalds finally came to my local town (20,000 residents), and it was a big deal if the family were stopping there.

About four years into the era....the 'big-deal' dropped like a rock, and we in some way....were stopping there at least once a month.

In the first five years of my Air Force period.....I probably used a fast-food opportunity (to include the base bowling alley)....around six times a week.

I peaked at some point....where I preferred a real sit-down restaurant experience by the late 1990s.

Ever since Covid?  Well...I might stop once a week at a fast-food shop.

Here's the thing....there were tons of these operations built and they were geared where society was using them more than once or twice a week.  If you say they are luxury....then you might as well start tearing half of them down.

Something weird is starting up, and it just begs questions....how will the landscape look in twelve months?  What else will be a luxury (ice cream, a Pepsi, sitting in a movie theater)?  Are we sitting in a 1929-like era?