If you gaze over at a map of Afghanistan.....on the far west of the country, there's this community called Ghourian. Over the past hundred years, there's not much of significance that ever happened in this valley region. Population? Around 54,000 residents....more or less.
In the last year or two, Ghourian has gotten itself on the map and kinda recognized. If you follow TRT (the Turkish national news network)....they've gone and reviewed the town of Ghourian and found that they have a curious side-job that has erupted and gotten themselves on the map.....production of meth.
Yes, TRT says (you have to wonder how they arrived at the numbers) that four out of five households in Ghourian....are in the meth-pipeline. They either make it or deliver it.
The customers? This is the curious part of the story. Ghourian is about an hour's drive from the Iranian border. The primary customers for the Ghourian meth? Iranians.
How big of an issue is this? If you did the math and suggested that 30,000 of the city residents are involved in this.....putting forty to fifty hours a week into meth production and delivery to 'sales representatives' in Iran.....then there's an abundant flow of meth going in, and it has to be influencing rational or irrational behavior within Iran.
But then you look back at Ghourian, and kinda wonder.....with all that meth 'cooking' going on, and lack of labs....the meth is likely cooked in some guy's house, or the back of his bakery, or gas station. In simple terms....he's in contact with the stuff and his judgement capability is pushing 'zero'.
All of this, if you add it up...would make for a great 'Breaking Bad' TV show....set in Afghanistan, with some CIA guy cleverly devising this as a method to bring down the Iranian government over the next ten years. Imagine one out of every five Iranians under the age of forty.....addicted to meth. Imagine a whole nation, where things are fairly screwed up because most people you are doing dealing with, from the local judge and cops....to the local doctor....are whacked out on meth. And here in the middle of this is some 'Walter White-Afghan guy'.
Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Saturday, 15 December 2018
This Russian Agent 'Thing'
Since late 2016, there's been this Russian agent or collusion thing going on. Virtually every single day....there's some journalist wanting to tell you about the Trump folks and some Russian agents/spies.
This week, I sat there and finally asked myself.....how would one know that they were talking or dealing or meeting with a true Russian agent/spy?
Is there a badge or special ID? Does the guy have a Russian flag lapel on his jacket? Does the guy give you the ultra super-secret handshake like the Mennonites do or the Knights Templar?
How would you know that the guy you met at the bowling alley to chat over insurance is, or is not a Russian secret agent, or you might be engaging in some collusion thing?
Is it possible that Russian collusion has been going on for eighty years? Is it possible that Russian collusion occurred to get JFK into office? Did some Russian agent work to get Harry Reid money....to win his initial campaign? Did the Russians help Carter win, and then lose? Did the Russians help to arrange Bill Clinton's marriage to Hillary?
The problem here is that you have no idea how far the whole Russian spy thing might go, and the other truth is that it might be just something that occurred in the past five years.
What someone ought to do is start a spy reality comedy show.....Ivan has gotten a secret ID and attempting to infiltrate various American political 'landscapes' and industrial companies.
This week, I sat there and finally asked myself.....how would one know that they were talking or dealing or meeting with a true Russian agent/spy?
Is there a badge or special ID? Does the guy have a Russian flag lapel on his jacket? Does the guy give you the ultra super-secret handshake like the Mennonites do or the Knights Templar?
How would you know that the guy you met at the bowling alley to chat over insurance is, or is not a Russian secret agent, or you might be engaging in some collusion thing?
Is it possible that Russian collusion has been going on for eighty years? Is it possible that Russian collusion occurred to get JFK into office? Did some Russian agent work to get Harry Reid money....to win his initial campaign? Did the Russians help Carter win, and then lose? Did the Russians help to arrange Bill Clinton's marriage to Hillary?
The problem here is that you have no idea how far the whole Russian spy thing might go, and the other truth is that it might be just something that occurred in the past five years.
What someone ought to do is start a spy reality comedy show.....Ivan has gotten a secret ID and attempting to infiltrate various American political 'landscapes' and industrial companies.
What Makes the Clinton Foundation Unique?
The Foundation was capable of saying that roughly 15-percent of the money being used....went to rent, operational costs, internal salary, travel costs, etc. Year after year....this could bounce from 10 to 15 percent. It was the general average of most of charitable foundations that were considered 'good'. The bad foundations? Well....they were the ones that spent the bulk....sometimes 80 to 90 percent on operational costs, and NOT the charity.
But there's this one odd feature about the Clinton Foundation. They hired people to perform the charitable actions....make speeches....attend conferences....write white-papers, etc. And those charity-action people were not part of the operational costs. They were the charity expenses. You could have twenty people soaking four-million dollars a year on travel, meetings, and salary.....with it all counted as actually charity expenses....not operational costs.
How much was spent this way? Unknown. What work or accomplishments were done this way? Unknown. You could attempt some audit over the past ten years, but once you come to individual X....noting his $120,000 a year salary and $40,000 spent on travel and hotels....there's not likely to be some detailed report to say he did anything constructive for the entire year, or that he spent 160 man-hours a month actually working. It'll just be a pit of budget reports and little else.
But there's this one odd feature about the Clinton Foundation. They hired people to perform the charitable actions....make speeches....attend conferences....write white-papers, etc. And those charity-action people were not part of the operational costs. They were the charity expenses. You could have twenty people soaking four-million dollars a year on travel, meetings, and salary.....with it all counted as actually charity expenses....not operational costs.
How much was spent this way? Unknown. What work or accomplishments were done this way? Unknown. You could attempt some audit over the past ten years, but once you come to individual X....noting his $120,000 a year salary and $40,000 spent on travel and hotels....there's not likely to be some detailed report to say he did anything constructive for the entire year, or that he spent 160 man-hours a month actually working. It'll just be a pit of budget reports and little else.
Friday, 14 December 2018
Timmy and Lassie
Could Timmy and Lassie be produced today?
I sat and pondered upon this. In today's world....Timmy would have drug issues by age 14.....be connected to some nutcase girlfriend with green hair....detained by the cops at least once for setting bales of hay on fire, and Lassie would have a reputation for attacking poodles down the street.
The sad thing is that we can't make TV shows like that anymore. Timmy has to be a problem-kid....mom has to be a semi-alcoholic.....dad has to be down-and-out, and Lassie cannot be a friendly dog.
Lots of past shows fall into that category. Go and imagine how Bonanza would work today. Or how about Three's Company? Or even even My Three Sons?
It says a lot about society, and how far we've fallen.
I sat and pondered upon this. In today's world....Timmy would have drug issues by age 14.....be connected to some nutcase girlfriend with green hair....detained by the cops at least once for setting bales of hay on fire, and Lassie would have a reputation for attacking poodles down the street.
The sad thing is that we can't make TV shows like that anymore. Timmy has to be a problem-kid....mom has to be a semi-alcoholic.....dad has to be down-and-out, and Lassie cannot be a friendly dog.
Lots of past shows fall into that category. Go and imagine how Bonanza would work today. Or how about Three's Company? Or even even My Three Sons?
It says a lot about society, and how far we've fallen.
Thursday, 13 December 2018
My Description of the View
Back around 2010, I had a 'snow-day'....meaning it was bad enough on weather, that everyone stayed home. So for the first time (and last time), I sat and watched the View in its entirety. It's an ABC-produced show.....mostly designed for women. The theme, as I figured out in ten minutes....is to have four female moderators and a 'chat'.
A slanted chat? Well....yeah, it's geared seem like an open chat, but the political method here is to have one single voice from a conservative view, opposed by three on the other side.
A necessity to drive toward mostly a political show...in the midst of the morning, and repeat this each and every day? Yeah.
Around a year after that, the topic came up in conversation in the vault that I worked, and a guy who'd watched a couple of the shows noted the nearest comparable show....WWE-wrestling. I laughed in the very beginning.
He pointed out...it's all chatter like some WWE-wrestler would make, to get the audience hyped up. Occasionally, some of the wrestlers are 'let-go' or sent off, and new fresh faces are brought in.....to keep the crowd all hyped up. The chatter is all scripted, and leads onto fresh new chatter the next day (which is the same dynamic of WWE-wrestling).
He was basically right.
I know that women who watch the View will get all frustrated and angry over the description....but if you task them watch WWE for about a month.....they will eventually come to agree....they run a theatrical operation closely pattern after the wrestling world. And you have to wonder....if they realize it.
A slanted chat? Well....yeah, it's geared seem like an open chat, but the political method here is to have one single voice from a conservative view, opposed by three on the other side.
A necessity to drive toward mostly a political show...in the midst of the morning, and repeat this each and every day? Yeah.
Around a year after that, the topic came up in conversation in the vault that I worked, and a guy who'd watched a couple of the shows noted the nearest comparable show....WWE-wrestling. I laughed in the very beginning.
He pointed out...it's all chatter like some WWE-wrestler would make, to get the audience hyped up. Occasionally, some of the wrestlers are 'let-go' or sent off, and new fresh faces are brought in.....to keep the crowd all hyped up. The chatter is all scripted, and leads onto fresh new chatter the next day (which is the same dynamic of WWE-wrestling).
He was basically right.
I know that women who watch the View will get all frustrated and angry over the description....but if you task them watch WWE for about a month.....they will eventually come to agree....they run a theatrical operation closely pattern after the wrestling world. And you have to wonder....if they realize it.
Tuesday, 11 December 2018
Oscar's 'Crap'
Frankly, I'll admit that I haven't watched an entire episode of the Oscar's Award Show....since probably 1990. There are few of these movies that I actually go out to the theater to watch, and to attempt to run some three-hour Frankenstein-like awards show.....well....it's a joke.
So when the Kevin Hart business came up this week, I pondered over the mess. The solution to future shows?
Have some kid push a table out to the middle and let him ask the Amazon Alexa box each time....who won this or that.....just let Alexa do all the talking.
No jokes. No stage dramas. No three-hour shows. We can get this show over in 90 minutes. Just let Alexa run the show.
So when the Kevin Hart business came up this week, I pondered over the mess. The solution to future shows?
Have some kid push a table out to the middle and let him ask the Amazon Alexa box each time....who won this or that.....just let Alexa do all the talking.
No jokes. No stage dramas. No three-hour shows. We can get this show over in 90 minutes. Just let Alexa run the show.
Migration Story
This week, some PhD group laid out their research and said that there are approximately 750 million people on the Earth....who'd like to migrate and seek asylum....somewhere else.
Naturally, there are various groups (pro-asylum in doctrine) who'd like to create these doorways to make this possible.
What the PhD guys didn't lay out....is that if you asked the 750 million folks about 'where' they want to go, it usually ends up being the US, Canada, the UK, France, Australia/New Zealand, and Germany. No one cares about going to Mexico, Greece, or Peru....or for that matter....roughly a list of 120-odd countries.
Even if you had some path just ten million folks a year on this migration effort....to these seven countries....most would suggest a limit. That limit in the case of the UK? Probably 100,000 max. For Australia or New Zealand.....they want questions answered over your English ability and past criminal behavior, and they might go and accept a limited number (I doubt if New Zealand would take more than 10,000).
All of this migration chatter is leading to a smuggling gimmick where people are just paying money and figuring if they arrive....with no passport, the pain of forcing people to return will be too much and you will have to accept them. Jobs? Well....this is the fantasy of the whole story. Most of these people have no skill other than flipping burgers or physical labor like mowing grass. The same folks will be angry after five years of one-star employment, and shake their heads over the whole migration business.
What really triggered all of this? The internet. People sat there and looked at these wonderful lives being lived out in Germany, Australia, and the US......then figured they could easily fit into that image.
A bigger mess coming in the next decade? You just don't see this being easily resolved.
Naturally, there are various groups (pro-asylum in doctrine) who'd like to create these doorways to make this possible.
What the PhD guys didn't lay out....is that if you asked the 750 million folks about 'where' they want to go, it usually ends up being the US, Canada, the UK, France, Australia/New Zealand, and Germany. No one cares about going to Mexico, Greece, or Peru....or for that matter....roughly a list of 120-odd countries.
Even if you had some path just ten million folks a year on this migration effort....to these seven countries....most would suggest a limit. That limit in the case of the UK? Probably 100,000 max. For Australia or New Zealand.....they want questions answered over your English ability and past criminal behavior, and they might go and accept a limited number (I doubt if New Zealand would take more than 10,000).
All of this migration chatter is leading to a smuggling gimmick where people are just paying money and figuring if they arrive....with no passport, the pain of forcing people to return will be too much and you will have to accept them. Jobs? Well....this is the fantasy of the whole story. Most of these people have no skill other than flipping burgers or physical labor like mowing grass. The same folks will be angry after five years of one-star employment, and shake their heads over the whole migration business.
What really triggered all of this? The internet. People sat there and looked at these wonderful lives being lived out in Germany, Australia, and the US......then figured they could easily fit into that image.
A bigger mess coming in the next decade? You just don't see this being easily resolved.
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