Friday 15 April 2022

Yeah, About Those Hispanics Being Bussed In From Texas to DC

 Here's the thing that gets me.....all of this is in the spring period and you can sleep around in city parks in DC (with the other 2,000-odd regular DC homeless) and it's not a big deal.

Come October?  Weather changes, and things will get rough.

Job support or DC homeless support?  If anything exists....it's geared for the black community....not some newly arrived Latino group.

So I'll say this.....if you start getting three or four states....sending three or four buses per week....this whole thing will turn into some massive issue with 5,000 to 8,000 folks walking around the federal park property, and tourists asking questions.

DC mayor or town council able to pick this up and handle it?  No.  They will turn to Pelosi and ask for some federal official to take charge.  What's that guy going to do?  Well....hire up buses, and try to bus these folks back to Texas, or wherever they came from.  

I'd call it the 'bus to nowhere, and back again'.  

Yeah, About Those Ads

 Over the past couple of days, I've been looking at this story which is being discussed in the open press.....media companies (Disney, Warner Media, Comcast, And Paramount)....set to run some type of ad promotional campaign....to promote transgendering or transgenderism.

It's an odd story.

Some people will look at the ad suggestions and just laugh.  Some people will ask questions....like is this really necessary?  Some people will focus on the problems existing in America and ask how this prioritizes.  Finally, you will reach around 50-percent of people who are just fed up with 'lectures'.

At some point (1992 for me)....the Air Force decided that lecturing folks was a priority, and they would drag folks into a base theater to get such-and-such lecture.  Over some three month period....I got dragged into three of these lectures.  I began to ask stupid questions, and the necessity of the lecture business began to diminish in my landscape.

Around the late 1990s....I just reached the point where I'd find different ways to avoid the forced lecture.  If I did show up....I'd have a crossword puzzle or a newspaper to read.  

Today?  I hit the mute-button for my TV....if I feel it's another lecture.

There are various magazines I avoid now (National Geographic, Time, Reader's Digest) because of the lecture content.

Radio shows on NPR?  I'm rather quick if I detect a lecture about to start up.....in finding another channel or turning the radio off.

The problem here with these big companies getting into this....these lectures will branch out into movie topics, characters, and story content.  It probably won't take more than a year for a Marvel agenda to arrive, for the trans-topic, and I feel the lecture intensity at the level to just walk out of a theater or delete my streaming video account.

If I were 12 years old today, and focused on this lecture-crap?  It'd be a problem.  I'm not sure I could sit in some 7th grade class and hear a lecture building up.  

Are the big media companies hurting their product?  I would suggest in the long-term....people will get turned off....seeing the lecture business over and over.  It's too much like a old Soviet propaganda situation.

Yeah, About the Saudi Royals Owning Twitter Stock

 Stories say that around 5.2-percent of Twitter is owned by the Saudi royals.

So you start to think about this.....it gets into the billions and there's one odd aspect....Twitter doesn't pay a dividend (never has).

For most regular investors.....there are two angles to investing.  Either you have a stock that has a gain of some type each (like the stock prices escalates from $24 to $28 over a one-year period), or you have a dividend-paying stock (even if it were half-a-percent or on up to three-percent of the stock value).

Neither fits the 'logic' of having 5.2-percent....unless you wanted a seat at the table and a insider ability to control the operation (controlling speech for example).

If you felt too much free speech by Saudi citizens....for example....was a bad thing, and that they might drift over to some 'let's have a revolution' thinking.

I have this feeling that the royals are having a discussion this weekend and realizing that one way or another.....they won't have an insider seat, or they simply get paid $54.02 for their stock situation (per share). They might be a bit fearful of what a Elon-Twitter landscape would mean for freedom of speech within the desert empire.  

Yeah, About That Crisis

 Someone did a poll this week and the topic of Covid being a serious crisis came up.  So....NINE percent of people still consider it a serious crisis.  91-percent of people don't rank it as a serious crisis at this point.  

To be honest, from about early 2021....I didn't really rank it as a crisis.  This came about a week after my own episode with Covid.  

As a kid, I had pneumonia and I have a high respect for that bout.  Covid didn't match up in terms of strength or character.

What does this nine-percent number indicate?  

Three observations:

1.  These are probably the people who still wear masks, dab alcohol on their hands after each store visit, and never allow cousin-Frank, aunt-Jacky, or neighbor-Omar to enter the house.

2.  To be honest, if you asked the right question....these are permanently 'fried' people who will never get over the anxiety of Covid.

3.  For the remainder of our lives....this nine-percent group will have broken off and become a non-participating segment of society.  It's almost like a religious cult group.

I'm not saying this is a big negative....it's just the remains of the crisis....which can't evaporate or diminish any further.  Give them the safety and security they desire....wishing them 'luck'.  

The rest of us?  We'll move on.  

Yeah, About Twitter and Elon

 One way or another.....Twitter will controlled by Elon Musk when the smoke clears.  he'll either own ALL of the company, or 51-percent (my humble opinion).

What'll happen then?  My seven predictions:

1.  The top level of management will be paid off and will walk out the front door.

2.  Twitter will end having some type of free-deal, premium-lite deal (probably $5 a month) and some Premium-extra deal (probably in the range of $25 a month).  

3.  I don't see the name of Twitter lasting.  I think within days....Elon will re-name the organization.

4.  Staying in California?  No.  I think Elon will announce their movement to Texas or some 'friendly' state within 30 days of ownership.  It's possible that Nashville might even get the company.  

5.  Who really quits?  I would suggest that around sixty-percent of the employees are NOT juvenile-behavior adults, and would prefer to work for Elon.....more than the current management.  

That said....I think one-third of the employees will immediately find 'cause' to leave in an abrupt way.....only to discover that they aren't that highly valued in the market at present.    

Some mental health folks will be brought in to assess and help the freaked-out folks....creating a new 'safe-zone' (Musk-free).  This behavior will be considered a problem for future employment with any company. 

6.  California tax losses with Twitter possibly leaving the state?  It'll be openly discussed, and trigger several other companies in the state to review their necessity to stay.

7.  Twitter probably will not survive as a public company (with stock), so all profits will fall into Elon's hands.  Prior to this point....the company paid no dividends....so it was not really that profitable for the entire past decade.

Under Elon, avoid California taxes, and cutting salaries at the new location....I see Twitter making a fair amount of profit.  

So to my final assessment.....there are certain people who've play the game 'Monopoly' enough....that they have an internal strategy and can play at the maximum level possible....even as a 12-year-old kid. Elon has walked in and maxed-out on these skills.  He knows every single angle of commerce....banking, and public messaging.  As smart as the Twitter current management may think they are.....they probably can't match Elon's skill-level.

Musk will win in the end....no matter how this is played out.  

Yeah, About Those Presidential Debates

 Rather surprising....the Republican leadership finally said that the method by which Presidential debates have been run....is so corrupted....that there's no reason to continue the debates.  Yeah, they left.

Some people want to suggest that the Lincoln-Douglas debate was the original situation....but this was simply a one-time episode....where two very capable guys met and had a even-handed debate situation.  It ought to be noted....there was NO moderator.  The two agreed on the format.....had a talking time limit, and it was rather simple.

For about a hundred years....we progressed without debates.

This attempt in 1956 to get Eisenhower and Stevenson to debate?  Never went anywhere.

The four debates in 1960?  They basically worked against Nixon in a big way.  

After that debate.....sixteen years would pass before the next round of debates would occur.  Ford-Carter would be the next attempt.....with Carter getting a lot of position off the debates.

What will happen in 2024?  No debates....pure and simple.

Personally, I'd like to have debates but I think they can only be done under two conditions:

1.  Set up a moderator-on-candidate (one on one, both seated at some table) situation....where the candidate can pick his interview moderator himself.

2.  Allow a face-to-face debate....but set up a list of known questions ahead of time, which both must answer.

What'll happen in 2028?  I think the new networks will be desperate enough to agree to various conditions, and some marginal debate between candidates will occur.  

Lets be honest about this....some of our past candidates were a big 'zero' on debate skills (both parties have had characters like that).  I'm not sure debates really solve much on assessing people.