Monday 4 October 2021

Just Observations

 1.  House member Jayapal basically the failure of President Biden's 3-trillion....lays a path for the new idea idea of a $1.5-trillion package, but then she says....it's TOO small 'to get priorities in'. 

Then she just kinda left it there....never explaining her 'priorities'.  

2.  The chatter of missing Christmas gifts in November/December?  It grows louder.  I'd go and suggest for kids....you'd best buy the stuff this week and not wait any longer.  If you fail?  Figure up some story over the reindeer dying off because of Covid.....that they didn't have a Covid vaccine for reindeer.

3.  There's some comments about that meeting of President Biden and House Democrats last week....to whip up enthusiasm for the 3-trillion deal.....that this went negative, and Biden actually hurt the situation more than helped it.

The one obvious thing you see since January.....the more that President Biden talks about something....the less confident you feel about whatever it is that is being discussed.  Can't remember anything like this in the past fifty years.  

4. The UK and this gas station crisis?  Well....here's the simple explanation. When they voted for BREXIT, the one big detail was that foreigners would be forced out of the UK, with the idea that too many foreigners were taking jobs.  On paper, it all made sense.

So in the past couple of months, as the final details of expulsing the foreigners finally out of the UK....no one really asked what the number were in certain trades. Well....fuel delivery in the UK....was mostly a UK person, but a fair number (probably as much as one-third)....were non-British citizens.  

They left, and suddenly....in a matter of just a week or two....a national crisis occurred.  I'd also go and suggest that if you dig into it....more than forty different professions are facing a crisis but on a smaller scale.  

What will happen now?  Starting today.....the Brit military gets into the work.  How long? I would be guessing they will be doing the job for a minimum of three months.  

Recruitment in Europe for truckers?  It's started up but lets be serious....countries like Germany and France already had a minor shortage on trucker, and I doubt that the Brits get 10,000 truckers like they talk about.  Kinda funny....more than enough losers....or flower-ladies....or police, but not enough to drive trucks.

5.  Starting 1 October, the postal folks have said they are going to a slower schedule.  The emphasis?  If you mail a letter first class, from your local station....to a office in your county area...instead of three days of getting there, it's now likely to be five days.  Yes, it would have been better to take the letter yourself and just bring it to the county office.  

Pretty slow?  They say it's reversed to the level of 1970.

Next step?  It wouldn't surprise me if we reach 2025, and they slow it 'again'....adding several days and make it two weeks to get an envelop sixteen miles across the county to the destination. 

Getting to 'pony-express' stage?  I might live long enough to see that rate of speed return (expect by 2040).  

The Developing Change of View From France Over the US

 So from a historical standpoint....back in 1963/1964....the French (along with the Germans/British) didn't buy into the one-guy conspiracy deal with JFK.  The Warren Commission Report?  Total failure of convincing them?  Yeah, and this set the stage for the next two decades of distrust over the leadership of the United States.  

You can laugh about this, but the general gut feeling out of France by the mid-1960s....a coup of some type had taken place, with various parties (from extremists to rogue agents of the CIA) had participated in the execution of JFK.

So as things developed in June/July, and it was obvious that no one had a plan for Afghanistan....a lot of that past feeling of distrust arose.  The sub deal with Australia, and how the French contract suddenly dissolved?  It merely added to the whole mess.

This week....Secretary of State Blinken and President Macron will meet.  I'm guessing that Blinken will hint that he really didn't know much about this sub deal suddenly happening, and he was in the 'dark'.  To which.....Macron will ask if President Biden was in the 'dark' as well. It'd be best if Blinken didn't respond to that question.

What'll happen after the meeting?  Macron will sit down....evaluate the landscape, and probably come to grasp that the US has slipped off into some 'Twilight-Zone' situation, with President Biden lacking skills and mind for the job (probably looking at VP Harris in the same manner).  

What happens over the next year?  It might be curious to watch how this plays out and if Macron assumes the role of 'leader-of-the-free-world'.