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.

Something To Think About

I sat and read through this Times story in the AM.  

What the mayor says....is that some policy will be created (apparently using current laws) and if you were seriously mentally ill....they'd go back to the old system of hauling you off to a eval, and then setting you down in a permanent facility.

Will it happen? I would imagine that the police, prosecutors, and judges have been given a weekly number (say twenty), and that's the limit.  Yeah, it's mostly say there are crazies, and they will be put away, but you won't dare go and haul off 600 people the first week.  
 

I grew up in Alabama in the 1970s.  Within five miles....I'd say that we had around ten folks who probably were crazy enough....to be in a facility, but not dangerous-crazy where they were a threat.  If you drove around the state, we probably had more than 50,000 people with that crazy tendency.  

Having spent some days in NY City....I'm prone to say that there might be 20,000 just in the city at large, and 3,000 of them are a threat to public safety.  

But here's the thing.....do you really want to pay around $500 a day for some institution to care/guard each guy?  You'd be talking about $1.5 million a day....messing around with them.  You'd be  better off to just agree to giving them government-funded fentanyl each morning....after each breakfast, and letting them sleep off their life in some field (upstate region).  

Things in 2023 That You Might Want To Prepare Yourself For

 1.  China revolution, where production for just about everything you buy at Wal-Mart....halts.

Could be a month....could be six months.  

All this Covid chatter and strategy to test folks daily?  It's not workable. 

2.  One way or another....Joe Biden is probably leaving the White House.  Even if you think VP Harris is  dimwit.....you need to just accept the fact that she'll run things for a while.

3.  Gas prices by mid-summer of 2023....probably will be between 4.50 and 5.00 a gallon.  Saudis have the best cards on the table presently.

4.  Some kind of weird bondage 'lifestyle' will start to be seen in 8th grade to 12th grade kids.  

5.  SEC will try to control crypto currency.....most of the currency folks will refuse to participate.

6.  A couple hundred activist-teachers will be let go, and find it's nearly impossible to find real employment in their field.

7.  An agenda will start up where various states want to cities within their state to be 'disposed' or made into a state by themselves (NY, Oregon and Georgia will be in the group).

8.  Disney will announce that the 'books' will show about half of the 2022 'profits' are just imaginary.  SEC will demand a full audit and explanation.

Trying To Explain The FTX Scandal To A 10-Year Old Kid

 So you sit 'Timmy' in a chair, and you start with: 'This guy had this idea to sell invisible beans as money.'

Timmy is already shaking his head.

This guy....Sammy....got this idea after watching Ninja Turtles or some zombie movies.

Sammy went out and hyped up this idea that if you bought his invisible money....it'd be worth X, and possibly gain profits....day by day.

Along came these folks who had real money, but didn't want to admit they had real money.  So they bought some of Sammy's invisible money....to move from Hong Kong to the US, or from the US to Hong Kong.

All along, Sammy  was hyping how great it was to have invisible money.

Sammy started talking about all this profit he had, and he was given real money (not the invisible money) to various political people.  Why he couldn't give the invisible money to them....is basically a mystery.

Somewhere along the way, Sammy started having sex day by day, with fellow workers (actually VIP employees).  The people buying the invisible money....didn't really care.

When Sammy got interviewed for TV....he usually showed up in shorts and a t-shirt.

At some point, the value of the invisible money shifted, and in roughly a week....the vault of invisible money and real money....just literally disappeared.  Sammy was very shocked.

At this point....literally everyone was shocked that the invisible money was gone, and that you couldn't invent more invisible money to make up for the lost invisible money.

Timmy interrupts you to ask.....isn't this where the fed guys or the FBI would enter? 

Well....Timmy, normally....yeah.  But no one from the FBI or fed stuff really cares.  There's some kind of orange demon guy running around and real law thugs just don't have time to waste on invisible money.  

To be honest on this as well Timmy....Sammy shared a lot of his real money (not the invisible money), with political people, and they were supposed to provide invisible support/help.....to further the invisible agenda.  

Timmy starts getting impatient about this invisible money story, and finally asks....what's the damn morale to this fable?

Well...Timmy, it's OK to have invisible friends....but once you have real money in your hand.....don't go pretending it relates in some way to real money.  A nickel is a nickel, unless you swapped it for some invisible money.  

Ancient Apocalypse: My Humble Feeling Over The Netflix Show

 Graham Hancock produced the show....roughly six episodes.

He examines various cultures that lived, and then disappeared....leaving various mystery structures.

So to lay out his opinion.....he believes as the Younger Dryes period (12,900 years ago) started up....that whole bunch of cultures went 'belly-up' (likely a meteor hit).  These cultures....if you measured up their use of technology.....were probably at the 1890s level of existence.  

In his scenario....only a limited number of this group survived, and they went out into the hunter-gatherer world....providing x-amount of their knowledge. 

Archelogy today?  They can't really stamp his version correct, and they have a fair number of empty holes....where their 'story' can't fit correctly.

My advice, if you can find the show....watch it.  I'm not saying he has a perfect fix for the story he tells, but there's a lot of stuff which really can't be explained.  

Observations

 1.  CNN came out and said that these rumors of them moving to the 'center' on political chatter were all BS.

I'm certainly glad of that....it'll help to financially get them deeper into a pit where some Mexican cartel organization can buy them for nickels and dimes.

2.  So far, with these pipe-bombs on the 6th of January of 2021.....the FBI has done mostly nothing.  This past week, they admitted zero interest.  Why?  No one says much.

3.  NYC appears close to approving a law that says you (as a landlord) can do a background check on a potential renter....to find if they had a criminal record.

What it'll trigger?  One of two things: (1) Large segment of population with such records are going to be flushed into leaving NYC, or (2) Large segment of population with criminal records getting alternate IDs (claiming migrant status out of Honduras or such).

4.  The odds of a civil confrontation in China?  

Based on the Covid 'rules', one can see a lot of criticism going on, and lower production of exportable items.

It begs the question if a conflict occurs.....just how long can the civilized world operate....without Chinese products? 

Racist Stuff?

 

I sat and read through this story here in the AM. 

Some science to this, but in reality....messing around with DST.....dumps crap on virtually everyone....NOT just blacks.

If you asked a hundred people about this.....probably toward 90-percent would say to dump it and just go back to the way it was originally.

The fact that CNN tried to say DST is racist?  Well....it's one of the dozen problems they have in general....trying to politize things on a continual basis. 

Comparison

 I hate using this graphic, because it's missing a lot of details.

But I am reminded of my one experience trying Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs....hoping it would turn out OK. 

It was crap and after two minutes....I gave up and dumped it down the toilet. 

Maybe by next year....I'll feel that way also about the Biden years....that it was a total waste and not something to really remember.  

Three Essential Talents For Managers

 After a military career, a decade in contractor work, and 3.5 years in Pentagon work....I came to a number of lessons learned on supervising an office.  There are three essential talents you need....if you want a happy team.

1.  Ability to delegate.

If you don't feel enough trust within your group to delegate a fair amount of the work, then you will be working fifty-plus man-hours each week, and burn yourself out in six months.  

2.  Having a decent amount of intuition. 

If you are passed some task, and it looks like 80-percent crap....then it probably is crap, and you need to dump it.

If your organization is headed to some leadership debacle, and you can see various signs of this....either rectify the situation, or leave as quickly as possible.

3.  Finally, having a sense of humor and seeing positives always in some manner....brings confidence to the team when chaos confronts them.

This is often not something that you can train for or develop.....either you have it or you don't. 

Things That Don't Make Sense To Me Today

 1.  Family-friendly drag shows.  It's like talking about family-friendly stripper shows, or family-friendly bull-fights, or family-friendly swinger parties.

2.  Probably one-third of American society is today intolerant, and it's cranked up to the turbo level.....almost daily.

3.  Dog yogurt is a product marketed and sold for around $3.  How did dogs survive for centuries....without it?

4.  People seem to be graduating from high school.....who appear to be just as bright as  they were in the 8th grade.  

5.  How horrific will it be....if Maricopa County, Arizona....has to redo their entire election?  Will people be throwing themselves off their step-ladders, or hurling themselves against the pavement of their driveway?

6.  Oddly enough, the minute that someone utters that 'so-and-so' is a 'math-wiz'.....my BS-meter is probably pegging '7' automatically unless the kid/adult can give me a simple 10-word explanation for square root.

7.  When I see 'Jesus-status' handed to some political figure....I'm likely in a state of disbelief.  In 1980, this problem never came up.

8.  Being TRIGGERED in 1980 usually meant you dealt with something after downing a pitcher of beer.  Today?  TRIGGERED people need hours in some closet, a coach to unhinge you, and a vow to isolate the guilty party from your life.  

9.  Trying to spends tens of thousands a year on a single homeless guy, who won't clean up his drug problem, or put any enthusiasm into a 40-hour week.

10.  More polar bears exist today.....than 1960s....and a dozen times a year.....I get some woeful news that they are dying left and right.  

11. Society depends on rational human beings.  The minute that you start to have 50-percent in some irrational way....society won't last long.

12.  If you asked a hundred people to explain probability.....only those who took engineering courses, or statistical classes.....would be able to define the word.

13.  Lot of chatter in the UK.....up to four inches of snow predicted in the next week.  The suggestion is....four inches....will be enough to shut down the entire country.  Yeah, it's pretty comical.

What The House Will Discover About Donald Trump's Tax Records?

 Three things:

1.  A professional top-class accountant did them....something that 99-percent of us can't afford.

2.  Every credit....goes back to tax code written by idiot politicians over the past hundred years.

3.  Nothing illegal will be dished out....although we will probably get four hours of tax accountant chatter via CNN....which bores the hell out of us, and we end up at the point of watching a 1956 cowboy-love drama movie instead.  

Scam Chatter

 Defining a scam: basically, a dishonest fraud, that you fell into....either with your heart, your money, or your vote.

Was FTX crypto currency a scam?  Yeah.....without any doubt, and you could have identified as such....maybe even two years ago.

Is the democracy we live in (the US) a scam?  You have a bunch of dishonest frauds elected and serving there.....taking your money.  So yeah, it's scam.

Is the university system now a scam?  Twenty years ago, I would have said no.  Today, I'd say about a quarter of the people graduating (non-engineers, non-science types, etc)....are about as stupid or marginalized....as they were in the 10th grade of high school.  So yeah, it's a scam.

Is Covid a scam?  As a virus?  No.  But if you go and talk about treatment, the vaccine business, or any of the hundred connected topics.....it's a scam as well.

Is the food pyramid a scam (the one you had in 8th grade health classes)?  People are all different, and your diet plan ought to be individualized....what works for Joe, might not be the best diet for Marty.  It's a joke and you can flip it either way....as to being a scam.

We live in an odd world....where we have a new scam introduced probably every single week.

This 2024 Trump Run?

 Ten points:

1.  I don't think Fox will carry much of Trump-related air-time or commentary....it's likely to be one-tenth of what you saw in 2016.  But does it really matter?  No.....between Twitter or Truth Social....that's probably all he really needs.  Hannity?  I'm guessing that Hannity will be gone by late 2023...one way or another.  

2.  The Bush-Romney-McCain-Cheney wing of the Republican Party?  They are in a rut and trying to sell their 'brand' is going to be an issue in 2024.

3.  This being a Obama/Biden/Harris 'brand' for 2023....versus Trump?  Yeah, and it's probably not something that you'd want to go walking into the primary season of 2024.  The Democrats really need to introduce Governor Newsom as their national candidate, and lessen the current brand. By early spring of 2024....Biden needs to limit all public appearances.  

4.  The House really needs to avoid asking stupid questions over the FTX cryptocurrency business, and the money-laundering....going back to the various  candidates in the US.  This SBF-character (their CEO)?  He really needs to disappear badly.  Questions will come up.....who got PAC-money that came of FTX.....leading back to various prominent politicians.

5.  The recession needing to end?  Trump will drag up the lasting affect and how various things need to be done. Biden?  His handlers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.  

6.  Covid to return as a 'hot' thing?  No, it's finished at this point.

7.  Trump likely to bring in idiot on his team like in 2016?  Well....they will realize quickly that the FBI and NSA are listening in, and likely creating diversions.....which will be comic relief in 2024's election.  

8.  CNN's fade to anti-Trumpism?  I just don't see them willing to sink further in ratings.

9.  The odds that this Arizona Kari Lake gal is likely to be hired by Trump as a campaign director?  I'd give it better than 50-percent chance, and she's likely to be the VP for him in the end.

10.  This being a Trump-Newsom election?  Yeah, and it's troublesome for both individuals.  Newsom is not that big of a success in California ('male model' will be uttered by Trump a good bit).  Trump has simply become a magnet for people who want some weird victim status. 

Five Questions

 1.  Noticed how Hunter Biden's art sales aren't discussed in the news anymore.  Why?

2.  This big shooting in Bolder, Colorado over the weekend?  Lot of hype for 24 hours....then the whole bottom dropped out over the gay-lesbian bar shooting.  Why?

3.  AG never mentioned this appointment of the Special Prosecutor over Trump....to President Biden....beforehand?  Why?  

4.  Major banks in the US sent 150 or more reports of suspicious banking activities to the federal authorities....concerning the Biden family.  Why?

5. FTX CEO still walking around free?  How is this possible?

History Story

 This is a historical essay.

My people (from the family of descendants) left out of London around 1640....never looking back.

This is a listing for the city of London....identifying everyone who died that year, and how they died.

Interesting enough, only 7 folks were noted as murdered.

One guy died from a bite from a mad dog.

The term 'king's evil'?  It's basically TB.

Canker?  A fungal disease.

Yeah, 479 folks died of a tooth/gum disease issue.

Looking back.....probably was the wisest decision in my family....set sail and arrive in the new world.  

Thoughts About Twitter

 1.  Basically, if you feel some anger or ill-feelings about something that someone said.....'mute' the individual.  If you go and spend hours getting all hyped-up....what purpose does it really serve?  

2.  Out of every dozen things that you typically read on Twitter....one comment will be witty and clever....five or six will be somewhat thoughtful, and the rest will be garbage-talk that some immature adult threw together in 60 seconds.

3.  Prior to Elon, there were probably two-hundred topics that moderators would cross out or terminate your account upon.  Presently....zero.  It's not something that I'd regard today....as the end of the world, or leading to massive chaos.

4.  It just looks like that 50-percent of the manpower....wasn't really needed, and begs the question....how did they keep expanding.....with no real defined work-load?  

5.  For all those folks that walked out....fired, then bad-mouthing Elon Musk.....they are basically saying they wanted less management and less supervision.  They also showed that they can only work for certain people.  

6.  Twitter being a magnet for fake-news?  It's always been a magnet, and even with Elon's work....it'll still be a magnet.  But generally, people have some BS-meter in their mind, and as time advances.....get wiser about propaganda.

7.  Finally, this level of portraying Twitter as a demon (under Elon).....lays out this crazy discussion....can people handle rational discussion or disagreeable topics?  

A lot of baseball freaks want to openly discuss the DH-rule....in place since 1973.  Some still want it gone.  Some folks want to openly discuss fatty food being sold at McDonalds or Burger King....with the idea that it can be ceased.  Some folks want to discuss climate change, global cooling and global warming.  

I don't have a problem with a open handed discussion....at least being agreeable that talk doesn't destroy society or culture.  If you reach the point where censorship is the only way ahead.....we have a serious problem.

Ten Bits of Advice

 1.  If you won't engage upon conversation or debate, or offer honest counter-chat....making the only fix to problems or society, then you are left with only two tools....either silence your 'friend' or censor him.

It's childish behavior, but thats the modern world we live in.

2. FTX (the crypto currency) relied upon believers....to see value in 'nothing' (literally nothing).  For some reason, they had no problem in selling this belief.

3.  We've reached some stage that if you uttered the word 'whore'....someone would ask for it to be defined, and the party uttering the word would have a hard time defining it in a way to make the question-guy understand the word.  The same problem probably exists for 'slut', 'hussy', and 'harlot'.  

4.  If you ever wake up in the middle of the night, with a uninvited guest in the house....wearing just underwear....then you call the cops.....meeting them at the door (that you opened)....don't walk back toward the guest if they are holding a hammer.

5.  If you paid half-a-million to some university, for them to accept your dim-witted son or daughter....getting them a degree at the end....don't go expecting a lot out of your kid later in life.

6.  The realistic expectation for a 70-to-80 year old guy....on heavy concentrated work....is probably no more than three hours a day.  Once you push them past that point....they get loose with facts and figures.....remembering less and less.

7.  Without risk, there are no rewards worth discussing.

8.  People that use round numbers in their 'chatter'.....probably are wrong more times than they are right.

9.  If you are continually dragged into arguments with people....is there any useful results?  If not....just don't engage.

10.  There are probably ten times the number of people walking around today, compared to 1976.....saying they are bullied or serving as victims.  These people need to reflect upon who they are and how they got into such a lousy state of mind.

Nighttime Deliveries?

 CBS News: "With the holiday season just around the corner, the U.S. Postal Service is looking to hire about 28,000 seasonal workers and is installing 137 new package sorting machines in an effort to avoid shipping delays. But postal worker representatives say Americans could see after-dark or even nighttime deliveries."

I paused over that.....after-dark/nighttime delivery.

I can think of three-hundred urbanized areas in the US....where a doorbell ringing at 8 PM.....might alert some guy to open the door, with a shotgun in his hand.

A 10 PM doorball ring, in downtown Chicago?  

I see this as a big mistake.  A bunch of hoodlums dressed up in postal gear.....faking an appearance at the door....robbing the guy.

Even in rural areas (like Alabama)......you probably might fear the guy at the door is some meth-head or nutcase.  

How Should You Take The Hiring Of A Special Counsel To Investigate Trump?

 Well....first, they avoided using the term Special Independent Counsel.....since the guy picked....already worked for AG (Garland).

Second, the problem demonstrated here is that the White House players (Biden and probably twenty other folks)....kept asking penetrating questions to Garland over various investigation ideas, and he (Garland) just finally folded and said this other guy....is the guy you can talk to and share your vest criticism stuff.  This frees him from 20 man-hours of BS work each week.  

Third, they wouldn't have done this if they felt that they could deliver a 7-million plus difference over Trump in 2024.  I suspect that Trump and his players will go and find another 8-million 'extra and new' voters...to lay over his 2020 results (74-million).  

Finally, if they can't find an angle to attach Trump to the 6 January chaos....this is pretty much a hopeless case for the Special Counsel.  Maybe Trump will admit he ordered the Capital Police to open the door for the protest crowd to enter....to which the question will arise....if Trump didn't order them to do so, who did?  

All of this simply makes DC look more like some comedy show.  

Ten Things I Think About The FTX Crypto Scandal

 1.  When the smoke clears on 'who' lost money.....a fair sum will people who don't want to admit they had money made beyond the US shores, and were hiding a fair sum from tax revenue.  

2.  This guy (Sam Bankman-Fried) who was the CEO....appears to me to be fairly non-clever, and lacking the skills to be a CEO of a company.  So it begs the question.....how did he rise in such a short period of time?

3.  Money-laundering currency via Ukraine?  I believe at some point....some of the funds we shipped to the Ukraine....ended up coming back to the US....re-converted from FTX to dollars.  How and why?  Might be interesting to know.

4.  This guy (SBF) was a simple honest swinger, and the crew around him (the core of the enterprise) were also that type.  

5.  Bankman-Fried doesn't have the ability to take on stress....so I would imagine he's drugging-up presently, and probably will end up in a suicide situation before the end of November.

6.  Any pension fund that invested money into FTX.....was royally screwing their people.

7.  There's a massive amount of 'propping-up' that occurred, from NFL football types, to Hollywood types.  They all seemed to flock to some 'Jesus-like' personality.

8.  I think when the White House handlers finally approached Joe Biden on the situation....he asked what the hell is crypto-currency, and they spent two hours laying out the gimmick.  Then Joe probably said....that's malarkey....what idiot would invest into 'nothing'?

9.  When you look at interviews of the past year or two of Bankman-Fried....he gives dismal performances, and just makes you wonder how anyone would be convinced to buy into his 'product'.  If I pulled into a Jiffy-Lube for a $29 oil change, and this was the kid at the counter....I might buy the service.  But if this was a $10,000 situation?  No.

10.  So I gaze around at the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox Business....just wondering....how did you guys miss the fake nature of this?  

This Whole Homelessness Discussion

 Until you have a sit-down with the political players and agenda people.....to agree to categorizing people....none of this will be resolved and you will just throw money into a pit.

How you categorize people?  Well....into four groups:

1.  Drug addicts.  

2.  Mentally unstable.

3.  People with no drug issue and no mental issue.....having a valued job skill.

4.  People with no job skill, no drug issue and no mental problems.  

Group #3 are the ones that you'd want to help relocate into a low-cost housing situation, some job coaching, and some life skills jobs.  They will require a year of serious attention but can come back.

Group #2 needs a one-way ticket to a facility that has a fence, and don't really need a real urban environment.  

Group #1 can be offered a one-time rehab deal.  If they fail....don't waste time or money....just shuffle them into a fenced area and hold them in a prison type environment.  

Finally, Group #4....this is the group has the highest cost....you need to provide twelve months of real job training, and a boot-camp atmosphere.  They also don't require a highly urbanized atmosphere.  

Yes, what I'm hinting is that you need to remove around fifty-percent of most of these people from SF, Portland, or NYC.  They can be put into a pretty remote place and forgotten about.  

If you don't have any willing nature to do this.....just write a simple rule that no more than $1,500 a month can be spent on any homeless guy/gal, and limit the public 'pain' involved.  

Food For Thought: Having A Second Election And How It Works

 This week in Germany, the Constitutional Court (their Supreme Court) reviewed a problem and agreed....for the city of Berlin, the 2021 'state' election (remember, of the sixteen German states.....3 are actual cities....not full-up states)....was crapped-up and most be held again.

So to lay this out, both a national election and a Berlin 'state' election were held in September 2021.  From the 300-odd polling stations...the vast majority had problems. 

They ranged from a shortage of ballots at stations....to logistics efforts throughout the day (held on a Sunday, with a city-wide marathon in the mix for that day).  A number of sites just shut down because they weren't able to function by the plan.  

What triggered a lot of this chaos?  Well....back in early 2021, the Covid vaccine came out, and priorities were established for a guy/gal to get vaxed-up.  Most people in Germany, under the age of fifty, weren't going to get the shot until mid-to-late summer.  However, they made a waiver up....if you volunteered to a poll-helper....you got top priority.

You can imagine this situation....bunch of folks figure out how to progress to the front of the line.  So when August came for training (for poll helpers)....a fair number of these folks sent their regrets and declined to carry out their function.

What happened in 2022?  A complete review suggested that a percentage....maybe 10-percent....maybe 20-percent of voters....were not given a chance to vote. I'm more inclined to think it was around 10-percent.

Eventually, it was taken to court, and they agreed.

So the entire September 2021 election...will be held a second time...in mid-February 2023, for Berlin. 

The odds that it could turn out radically different?  I'd give it better than a 50-percent chance.  I'll even go and suggest that only 70-percent of the people who did show up in September 2021....will come to vote this time.  This hurting the SPD and Green parties?  Yes, without any doubt.

The same issues brewing now that were brewing in September 2021?  Well....no.  There's a major refugee problem in the city presently....which wasn't there in 2021.  You can also add a major recession issue brewing.  

How Voting Stacks Up

 2020 total Presidential votes: 158.5-million

2016 total Presidential votes: 136.6-million

2012 total Presidential votes: 129.1-million

2008 total Presidential votes: 131.3-million

2004 total Presidential votes: 120.0-million

2000 total Presidential votes:105.4-million

1996 total Presidential votes: 96.3-million

1992 total Presidential votes: 104.0-million

1988 total Presidential votes: 91.6-million

1984 total Presidential votes: 92.6-million

1980 total Presidential votes: 86.5-million

So three obvious points that you notice....

1.  About every ten years, there's a ten-million voter jump.

2.  2020 is an odd jump, because it bumped up 22-million in four years.

3.  Most of all voting patterns now....are urbanized.  Rural sectors haven't grown....but city patterns have more than doubled over the past forty-odd years.  

Ten Thoughts

 1.  There are probably sixteen additional rights I have today in 2022....that I didn't have in 1992.  Making me a more 'free' person?  I just kinda doubt it.

2.  I saw a statistic yesterday....around 76-million Americans are believed to be on psychiatric drugs (Xanax, Lexapro, etc).  On any given day....you probably bump into at least twelve people who are on some pill-theme.  Maybe they are feeling angry....maybe they feel happy....just your luck.

3.  A lot of the talk you see over Trump in the last twenty-four hours....reminds me of these fantasy movies involving dragons, and how folks were severely upset and worried about the evil dragon business.

4.  At present pace, via CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.....by mid-summer 2023, I expect at least twenty-five newly created conspiracy theories per day.  

5.  The FBI admits eight 'insiders' were at the 6 Jan 2021 protest in DC.  Beyond that....they aren't saying much.  Could they have prevented the chaos, and saved America?  Well....the FBI can't really talk about that angle.

6.  Do Democrats have anything to worry about in 2024?  No.

Lets be honest, if you can find 81-million votes (for Biden in 2020).....then Trump loses, end of the story.  

Now, if you bring up that the combined vote in 2020....had around 35-percent votes any election of the past forty years?  Well....yeah, that's a fact.  

What you need to worry about is if those stupid Republicans figure out all the drop-box gimmicks and suddenly find another fifteen-odd million votes out there that didn't exist before.

7.  People (particularly women) who have melt-downs on TV and to a vast audience....aren't really demonstrating maturity or any kind of courage.

8.  Gun-free zones are only effective, if people respect law.  Beyond that....it's just fake reality.

9.  I actually admired the Chinese guy who ran a marathon....while chain-smoking the whole way through it.  Fifty years old, and in great shape.

10.  If you haven't seen 'Ancient Apocalypse' on Netflix...I strongly recommend a review.  Begs a lot of questions.  

This FTX Guy

 Sam Bankman-Fried, creator of this FTX cryptocurrency (that has failed) is a unique character. 

This week, I went looking for podcasts and video of the guy talking, then something popped out after seven viewings.....his attire.  

So I went looking for images of the guy.  You can google up his name, and look for images alone.  

Roughly 95-percent of the pictures taken of him....reflect some college attire situation.  No dress shirt, no tie, no jacket.

If you were walking into a bank for a quarter-million loan situation to buy a bar, cafe, or business operation....you'd at least wear a button-down white shirt with a tie.

If you were walking into a bank to ask for 12-million dollars for a hotel purchase, or some big NY City nightclub situation....you'd dress up for the occasion to give an impression.

This Sam Bankman-Fried guy?  I get the impression that he might only have one single suit, and he's mostly an anti-white-shirt, and anti-tie guy.

As he's dragged back to the US to face court hearings?  It'll be interesting how he dresses....to face a judge.  

Pictures Story

 Someone put these two pictures up.....in a meeting of crisis players...Trump-era, Biden-era.

In the Trump case, they were all focused on him and knew that he had decisions in his mind.  He wasn't really there to hear their logic or to listen to their woes.

Trump had this down to a business routine.  There's gains, and there's losses.  He wasn't really a political figure.

In the second picture, you get the impression that there is no central figure.  Biden is in the room, but he's just one of them.  Adding to the discussion.....Biden isn't that focused, or alert.  He might drift into the problem, and then drift out of the problem.

Why take these pictures?  That's my take on this....maybe they think that pictures convey some public support of their greatness or purpose in life.

To be honest, I hate these G20 or G7 meetings....because it's a scripted event.  

Senator Elections in 2024 That Might Flip?

 1.  Arizona, with Sinema (D).  Democrats might run a serious primary against her. She marginally won in 2018.  

2.  California, with Feinstein (D).  I seriously expect her to retire prior to that election, and the Governor likely to name either himself, or London Breed (SF's mayor) to fill, and then run in 2024.

3.  Florida, with Rick Scott (R).  He needs some help, but big question....who can the Democrats drag up to run against him.

4.  Indiana.  Republican marginally won the last election.  

5.  Michigan's Stabenow (D).  Will be a tough race, and various people being discussed. She won with 52-percent in last election.  

6.  Missouri's Hawley (R).....marginally won with 51-percent in last election.  

7.  Montana's Jon Tester (D).....marginally won the last election.  He hasn't said intent yet.  Likely to be a new D coming out to the primary.

8.  Texas. Ted Cruz (R) marginally won his last election (51-percent).  I am expecting Beto coming to run for the seat again.

9. Vermont.  Bernie Sanders.  I think he will retire at the end of 2024.  New face appearing.

10.  West Virginia's Manchin (D).  I think he will stand down, and very likely for a Republican to win this race.

Observations?

 1.  Trump running?  Well....he stood and talked about three things (mandating a ID for all election matters, same-day voting, and paper ballots).  

Here's the thing....if you went to a group of independent and Republican voters....all three would be regarded as a 'must-happen' thing.  I suspect even around working-class Democrats....they'd agree on the voter ID mandate.  

Again (just like in 2016), he picks topics that attract the bulk of voters.  

2.  General belief on this missile that landed in Poland (killing two farm workers)?  I think the Ukrainians fired it....to halt incoming cruise missiles.  

3.  It just seems how hard it is to get Covid-treatment drug Ivermectin.....but then you can ask for chemical castration drugs for your gender flip.....with hundreds of doctors ready and willing to give you the castration drugs....even if you were twelve years old.

4.  If you were working for big-tech at the beginning of 2022.....you probably are evaluating your resume at present, and finding future moves to be fairly limited.

5.  As FTX (the crypto guys) prepare bankruptcy paperwork.....it has to list every single account and how much each had.  A lot of people probably don't want that information to be shared out.

6.  The CNN stress?  With Trump announced.....the question is....do you go back to the normal formula of 2016 to 2020, and be the anti-Trump network?  With the lowest viewer numbers of the past decade....it's hard to imagine them flipping back to the old ways.

7.  Hollywood on fire about Trump?  Well.....yeah.  But it just begs questions....if you get yourself all 'flamed-up' over this and infuriate roughly half of potential audiences....what's your job potential from that point on?

Just Five Things

 1.  Elon Musk was a bit surprised to find out that Twitter reached some point several years ago, where they were sponsoring 'lunch' for employees.  At the peak here in the past year.....with people staying home....the company was paying some catering company around $400 per person....to serve lunch for those who did show up for work.

I pondered over this.  The only time I ever got free food from my boss....I tended to be in a war-zone, and the quality of food wasn't what you'd get at grandma's house or McDonalds.

2.  There's some new gender deal being created....called Trigender.  Apparently, this is a person who is male, and female, and neither. 

I paused reading the third qualifier.  

In a logics course, you can say one and one are two, or two minus one is one.  But you can't have one and one to equal zero.  

3.  This crypto fraud deal developing with FTX....apparently leads to the front door of Ukraine, and based on paths....it goes back to DC and various political PACs.  Begs a lot of questions.

Odds of a House investigation?  Zero.

4.  Odd trend.....people starting to ask now if you are flu-vaxed-up, and then some shun pattern developing if you don't do the flu shot.

We will eventually reach a point of asking about the last oil change for the pick-up, and shun folks who drive over the 5,000 mile point without a change.  

5.  Biden's student loan forgiveness plan?  

It lasted about as long as a Bumble-Bee's life span.  Just something to think about.  The good thing?  Not a dime was ever forgiven.  

Chatting Over Maricopa County Arizona

 I lived for several years in Pima County, Arizona....the Tucson region, and would occasionally go to the Phoenix region (Maricopa County).  So my five observations.....since they've been in the election news so much.

1.  Maricopa County is about the size of the northern third of the state of Alabama.  Yeah, it's huge.  Six of the ten major cities in the state....reside in Maricopa.  

2.  Population?  4.5-million.  That's about sixty-percent of the state of Arizona.

3.  Ethnic breakup of the county?  30-percent are Latino.  6-percent black.  The rest....mostly white.

4.  Jobs?  Mostly service sector or the US government.  There's just not that much in terms of industry.  

5.  There are 223 voting 'centers' in the county.  So when they got to Tuesday and voting started up.....at roughly a quarter of these (60), all kinds of problems occurred.  

If you had just five or six.....no one would say much and just fix the broken mess.  But to have almost a quarter screwed up?  It has to be either total incompetence or by design.  

Telling people to go to another site?  If you lived/worked in Mobile (SE corner of the county).....you'd have to drive to Gila Bend (a good 30 minute drive....one-way).  If you were voting in Wintersberg, it'd be a good 15-minute drive to the next station, and hoping it wasn't screwed-up.

My view?  There's going to be lawyers involved and lawsuits by the end of this mess....with massive cases going to the State Supreme court.  Damages?  If you were forced to drive eighty miles round-trip.....I think the time and gas involved....ought to be on the state's pay-up list.  

But all of this begs the question....are they really that stupid or incompetent at managing a one-day election every two years?  Do we need to activate the state National Guard to run things because county officials can't do the job?

Is It A Democratic Majority Senate?

 Well....no, it's a Senate completely owned by Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat).  

He can ask for virtually anything he desires, and he'll get it because there's no extras in the system for the Democratic Party.

It may take three months for them to realize this, but it's a problem to ponder upon for the next two years.  

This talk by President Biden to corner coal, and terminate mining?  He may mention this ten times a week, but getting past legislation to accomplish this?  Manchin will trim the Biden agenda.  

Observations Over Days of Counting Votes

 1.  It's not normal.  If you go back to the 1990s or prior....fifty states concluded vote counting around six to ten hours after the polls closed.  Absentee ballots were counted the next day (in most states), but were generally limited to Americans who were overseas.  

2.  Most states today still conclude vote-counting that night, with the exception of absentee ballots. 

3.  Once tabulators and computerized voting came into the landscape....problems started to be added.  

4.  The case of Maricopa County, AZ?  The system is managed for the most part by the county commission....which seems to get enjoyment out of five days of counting. 

I would speculate that they've either hired incompetent people to manage the system, or added so many regulations...that normal counting can't really take place. 

5.  All this excess day-counting....to lead to a federal crisis?  I would suggest part of this drama is orchestrated to have the federal authorities managing national voting.  But if you ask....how they can fix it anymore than state or local authorities....I'm at a loss.  

6.  People in Iraq, Turkey, or Honduras...looking at this 'drama' and asking....how can they be this stupid?

7.  If you quietly ask people about their trusting nature of the counting....I doubt if you get past 60-percent of Americans having real trust in the system to work as advertised.  

8.  Most Americans (at least employed ones) stop off to vote....on their way to work, or on their way home.  If the polling station isn't geared to handle surge moments like this....then we are admitting that something has occurred in the past thirty years to lessen effective voting operations.  Investigative journalists?  Maybe it's time to reflect on what happened and why the system has crapped out. 

Whats This FTX Crypto Crap About?

 One single guy.....Sam Brinkman-Fried....created a crypto currency out of thin air.

At peak, it was loaded with 32-billion dollars.  As of today.....it's zero.

What the whole looks like?  Giant billion dollar ponzi scheme....used primarily as a money laundering 'tool'....which oddly enough....had around forty million spent on the mid-term election.  No one says the candidates or parties involved.  

Odds of some folks in the US Treasury at least knowing this was money-laundering?  I'd put it at a 99-percent chance.....but they can't admit that in public. 

Who had the money in this gimmick?  Based on what I've read.....lot of YouTube and Instagram people.....who were making money from around the world, and tried to avoid detection by their governments, or paying taxes.  

Guy's location?  Some plane indications just hint of a path leading to Brazil.  No extradition treaty.....for US/Brazil.  But in this case....people might just look to hire some gangs from Brazil to hunt him down.  I don't see him surviving more than a month at the most.  

My Cure For Slow-Counting In Elections

 Once you fill out a voting ballot, with a unique barcode....there is a time-stamp to be on it.  As long as it's counted prior to midnight, no problems.

Once it's counted after midnight, for each twelve hours of delay.....you (the ballot owner) get $100 from the state budget.  If it takes 36 hours to count your vote....after midnight.....that's $300 to be paid out.

After one election with delay....the state will learn a important lesson on competence. 

Observations

 1.  Should we be asking how disgruntled you are, your party affiliation, and then ask your state-status?

I'm of the mind if you asked the question.....are you happy about the direction of Florida....more than 70-percent of people would indicate they are happy with Florida.  The same might be said for folks in South Carolina and Tennessee.  

If you were a resident of Portland or SF?  It's probably a 75-percent disgruntled feeling that you are walking around with.

2.  Student debt forgiveness 'pit'?

Based on the federal judge's order....that $10,000 of forgiveness is mostly now gone.  I'm guessing President Biden will talk constantly over this, but it's a pretty dead topic at this point.  

3.  Where all this slow vote-counting is heading?

I'm going out to predict in the November 2024 election.....it will reach a stage where courts are involved, and slow-counting will occur.....leading to at least one state missing the mid-December deadline.  I might even suggest three states missing the date.

All hell will break loose in the states affected, with a number of lawsuits about being disenfranchised.  I'll forecast that the Supreme Court eventually dumps it back onto the states and gives the public some option to sue for 'damages'.  If you thought things were screwed up presently.....it would get a lot worse.

4.  I read a piece this week where the fake-meat industry (coming on strong in the past three years)....has hit some peak.  The chief issue?  Lack of taste/flavor....in the products.

Yeah, shocking.....people want fake-meat to taste like real meat.

5.  What happens if this NATO expansion with Finland and Sweden fails?  Both Hungary and Turkey are becoming problems in accepting the two.

I would suggest that if we reach such a point where NATO can't get the two votes....the US will step up and sign a protective treaty.....saying they would do what NATO can't do.  

6.  Can Twitter survive with 75-percent of the customer base that they had before Elon came along?

If this $8 a month fee comes into play....I would suggest they can easily survive and thrive.  The hint from Elon is that podcast capability would expand over the next year, and I think that's the key selling point for Twitter in the future.