Observations

 1.  The more you look at this insurrection chatter....the more it resembles 5th grader kids throwing eggs onto 6th grader kids. 

2.  This 22-million Jeep ad for the Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen?  Well....now we find out that he's got DWI charges coming up and he seems more like a washed-up 1980s singer with a serious drinking problem.  Where was the review of the guy for hiring him for the ad?  Unknown.

3.  I read a piece today that suggested if the $15 minimum wage business happens....child care costs across the US....will surge around 20-percent in a matter of days.

4.  Ever heard of Rivian?  They are the Tesla-like company that Amazon is kinda sponsoring, and they are headed toward a September IPO deal (their stock will be opened up).  What they tend to make (at least they suggest that)?  SUVs, delivery vehicles, hearty-looking trucks.  

5.  There's speculation going on....that the CCP folks (China) might be fully engaged in influence-peddling on US college campuses.  Some folks think this isn't a big deal.  Some folks think it's the end of US as we know it.  I'd just look at this and note that all the Russian KGB people who had easy pickings in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in the same college environment....simply got replaced.  

A One-Pony Show

 Around 1990, I sat and watched the Super Bowl (number 24).  

The game was basically over in the first quarter (SF would be leading Denver 13-to-3).  It was one of the most dismal games I'd ever seen played (at least by NFL standards).  Somewhere in the second quarter, I turned it off (around the 3rd touchdown of the game).  The half-time score would be 27-3....SF in the lead.  

The next day, around the work area, there was some chatter over the game (55 to 10 was the final score).  Some guy had actually selected SF to win by 40 points in the betting pool around the base that existed (illegally of course), and taken a sizeable chunk of money home.

The odd thing that I tended to get out of that day's chatter....about half of folks actually turned the game off somewhere around the half-time to 3rd quarter point.  There were various explanations but most would just say it was a pretty dismal event to watch unfold.  

As yesterday's impeachment episode ended....3rd day.....I can say that I've watched maybe three minutes of actual feed.....maybe another twenty minutes of dramatic explanations (mostly by Bill O'Reilly and the Crowder 'team').  Beyond that, it just seems to be a loser-situation looking like the SF-Denver Super Bowl game.  

There is virtually no reason to watch such poor legal work and virtually no real investigation.  The hype that there are seven dead now....not five?  Again, it's part of a big mystery which no one seems to know much about.  Facts?  Mostly non-existent.  Two cops dead by suicide but there's virtually nothing discussed about the two or their lifestyles.  The two guys dead from a heart-attack?  They seem to avoid pictures of the two, but I'd suspect if you showed either....they probably were in the 250-pound-plus range and pretty stressed out.  

News people in abundance?  Well....talking 99-percent speculation....1-percent facts.  

Even Putin's crowd has to be laughing over this.....a wild party (at least everyone is talking about), but there's virtually no booze, no chips, no dip, and no music.  Just a bunch of mostly guys talking about what they imagine in a one-pony-town, and the wildest thing anyone remembers the next day is that some dog barked, and some guy threw up in the parking lot.  

The Idealistic 'BS'

 This past week, I tried to make sense out of a developing story....involving the NBA Dallas Mavericks basketball team, the National Anthem, mass media, and the White House.

So the Mavericks went and made up a rule that you didn't have to play the National Anthem at the beginning of games.  The hint was.....we didn't need that American-kind-of-stuff....it's a bold new world that we live in.

Part of this episode....I think....revolves around the international sales of the NBA gimmick to places outside of the US (I won't state the obvious country, but you can guess).

So this National Anthem thing quickly grabbed attention.  In Texas....a lot of negative attention.  With the NBA headquarters, because the owner hadn't discussed this tactic....a lot of attention.

The NBA 'lords' quickly said 'no', telling the Mavericks not to start this trend.  It wasn't the direction that the league wanted to entertain.

So the media came to the White House press speaker....Jen Psaki....and she said that President supported the mavericks (really owner Mark Cuban).  Chief reason?  Well...."They felt the anthem didn't represent them" (referring to the players or fans of the clubs).  The the comment was said: “we as a country haven’t lived up to our highest ideals. (Presidents observation)

I sat there for a fair amount of time....pondering over this.

Generally, around the globe, if you opened up the back-door and said immigration is totally open....you'd have around 500-million people want 'in' and frankly....they don't give a damn about this 'living up to highest ideals' BS (sorry if I offend you).

Just from China alone, if you had the 'free-ticket' for entry into the US, there's probably 50-million Chinese who would sign up and just skip the ideals chatter. 

On highest ideals?  Well, when you had Nazis walking Jews into concentration camps....and you needed some impossible Army to come out of nowhere and just halt the atrocities going on.....you weren't looking for idealistic people, you just wanted some rough characters who'd be willing to land on Normandy in impossible conditions.....hike across Europe, and bring down the Nazi apparatus. 

Presidents, Senators, and cabinet officers may attempt to portray themselves as idealistic, but idealism doesn't really deliver much.  It's the non-idealistic folks that matter in the end.  It's determined and sometimes rough characters who fill sandbags....help folks when tornados have decimated a neighborhood....brought supplies into hurricane affected areas....or sheltered folks in the middle of blizzards.  

Did the President even name the violations of people who failed on 'highest ideals'?  No, he just left it out there. He didn't want to suggest that probably both Republicans and Democrats have failed.  He didn't want to chat over justices or judges who failed.  He didn't want to mention a hundred-odd military officers who failed.  Maybe this chat would be worth a whole afternoon on the front porch....but in the news media frame of the landscape....it's a 1-star topic.

The idea of rough characters?  They are folks who'd you call around 10 PM....explain your favorite cow was having birthing troubles with the Vet just unwilling to come out, and this neighbor would come over and spend three hours working the issue and save the cow and calf at 1 AM.  It wasn't ideals that resolved this....it was determination and the character of the neighbor you called.

It's the same way when some guy is thrashed around by some accident and seriously injured to the extent that he can't handle his crops or tend to his farm.  Then some tough folks step....fairly determined and full of character to see that things get done, and the injured guy doesn't have to worry about his situation.

So if you are looking for some idealistic nation....maybe just skip that BS, and settle for people who have determination in their blood and fully capable of handling some rough situations in life, without the social media 'fakeness'. 

Casino Chatter in Alabama

 For 202 years, Alabama has been fairly 'pure'.....without any real attachment to casino operations or organized gambling.  

Well....to be honest, we always had illegal gambling operations around....over the entire 202 years.  It's just that we didn't let Grandma or the local Baptist minister know of our immoral activities. 

Drinking, carousing, bad-boy activities, 'raising cain' and going on a spree has always been in our blood.

In recent weeks....down at the capital....chatter started up by a state senator, Del Marsh.   He's got a bill up to have five official casinos running, and even suggesting to add two more.

The income?  Well...he says $500-million from casino operations, fees, etc.  

Where the money would go?  Generally, the bulk would go to junior college scholarships, more broadband internet access, plus-up on rural health care, some added mental health care, and then folks say 'other programs' (never really explained.  

Who would run this?  The suggest is that a seven-member Alabama Gaming Commission would be in charge.  No one says who'd be on the Commission or what you'd pay them (my assumption is that it's a $100k a year salary, with probably $25k in travel allowance.

An Indian reservation in this deal?  That's the funny part of the story.  We have a couple of Indian groups in Alabama, with most all leading back to the Creek Indians.  This one group....the Poarch Band (group) of the Creeks....apparently own some property in NE Alabama, and they figure to be one of the five getting a license to run a casino.

So the key question one might ask (if you were from Alabama)....are people fired-up to go and spend a lot of time at casinos.  I would suggest that this is a mixed bag.

It's a lot of Baptist influence in the state and I'd suggest that 25-percent of population aren't going to be receptive to casino 'fun'.  There's another 25-percent of the state that I think are firmly attached to a low-income level and could never afford more than one visit a year to a Casino.  

So from the folks left....is there enough business to run potentially seven casino operations?  I have my doubt.

In the state of Georgia, there is just one single casino.  Mississippi?  36 (yeah, a lot).  Tennessee?  None.  It would appear that some hope exists that folks from Tennessee and Georgia....would come over and gamble to some extent.

As for the money dished out to the state?  There's already an argument brewing that it's not fair that only rural areas get the healthcare money.....that urbanized Alabama areas ought to get the 'loot' as well.

I sat and pondered over this.  You see....in the majority of Alabama counties, you'd label them as mostly rural, and maybe one single general hospital in the entire county.  I would suggest in roughly forty of the sixty-seven counties....it's slim picking for healthcare (especially if you started talking mental issue or the 'crazy-factor').  If you lived around Mobile, Huntsville, or Birmingham?  You've got a fairly good number of clinics and hospitals.  

But the other side of this story is that the bulk of poor sections of the state....are also around most of the urbanized areas.  Yeah, it begs a lot of questions, but it's the reality of the situation.

Where this whole casino thing goes in the end?  I suspect the $500-million income that the folks are talking about.....might be way over the reality of the situation, and that it might only be in the $250-to-$300-million range. All these programs that they chat over, for education, fast internet and more healthcare?  They will be programmed up the first year, and come to a serious shortfall by year two/three.  More taxes coming?  To make up for the shortfall?  Yeah, I'd suggest by 2024, there's some 5-percent bump up on income taxes coming because the programs never got enough Casino 'loot'.

Who gets appointed to this Commission?  Don't even go and bring that topic up. I'd suggest within a decade....at least five individuals will be investigated by the state or Feds....to have some charges drawn up.  Knowing our luck, at least two of the first seven members of the Commission will be former Baptist ministers or retired NCAA football coaches.  

But here's the thing.....instead of these stupid excuses we've made about secret trips to Vegas.....we can just stay in-state and spend our wealth at local casino operations....sipping cheap drinks and hooking up with lusty women from Brazil or the Ukraine.  

Our gambling habits requiring rehab treatment?  Well...maybe in this healthcare business....free counseling and rehab will be available for our gambling addiction.  

Finally, for those guys who dreamed of the $17...steak buffet deal where you got a dozen 3-star steaks thrown on the platter....casino dinner options will be a curious thing to experience.