Voyage to Nowhere

This is the simple side of this cruise story of mine.

Ever since the 5th grade, I've had this interest in seeing Norwegian Fjords.  This goes back to loaned movies to the school of National Geographic pieces, and it was one of the top ten things I wanted to see in my life.  My wife had this interest in testing a cruise....so we put these two together....found this tour company, and arranged a 7-day cruise from Amsterdam (flying there from Frankfurt), up to the Fjords for three days, and one day in Tilbury, UK.....then back to Amsterdam.  Nice cabin, full drink tab, etc.

Another element of this is the German TV series 'Love Boat' (they film three of these per year and give you the impression of a great life on cruises). 

So we arrived, boarded, and set sail at 5 PM on Thursday of last week.  We waved to folks on the dock (mostly a guy walking a dog.....two druggie-looking guys....and a woman riding a bike). Then we stood there for about 40 minutes as we backed out of the 'stall' and sailed toward the canal and onto the ocean.

Around 6 PM, we had this training exercise....how to evacuate the ship and were introduced to two life-jackets in our cabin....that appeared to be of Wal-Mart quality (the $9.99 type).  There was something about 3-bells and 7 bells....that part I remember but not to the degree required. (ask Navy guys about this bell business)

Around 7 PM, I noted us pass (still on the canal) some industrial area.  It was the kind of landscape that made a great picture.  Then we entered into the ship, spent 70 minutes eating, and exited on the opposite side.  Then we kinda noticed this industrial area landscape on that side (the same area), and I commented to the wife, we'd turned around.  About ten minutes later, we 'parked' on some ramp area, and the Captain said.....well.....we struck 'something', and he was asking frogmen to come out and analyze the 'damage'.  What?  Well....he couldn't say.  I would suggest a tree trunk, a 55-gallon drum, or some Russian sub.  The wife didn't take well to the sub idea.

We stayed parked there till about 1 AM, and then sailed on.  At 8 AM (Friday), the Captain comes on the intercom and says.....things are fine, and he's going back to max speed (16 knots) to make up for 7 hours lost on 'damage' review.

Friday is fine.....but along about 12:30 that night (after midnight).....this intercom in the room goes active with 3 bells.  I was sound asleep, but I went into Desert Storm mode, and thinking 'fox-hole' or bunker.....then realized the ship situation, and went to grab the Wal-Mart life-jackets.  He says.....well.....shocker, at top speed, there's a vibration.  The gears are messed up and the propeller is not working well.  So he was cancelling the cruise.

Naturally, with the German wife....the next hour was spent listening to her grumbling.

Saturday?  It was turn-around day and we sailed on back toward Amsterdam.  New problem now.....what port do we land in?  Amsterdam and Rotterdam are arguing.....no issue in a two-day parking, but this was a repair deal and might be there five to seven days.  So we end up aiming toward a no-name port about 15 miles west of Amsterdam (in that industrial area). 

We land at 7 AM Sunday.  Here's the thing.....no one knows nothing.  Not the Captain, the tour agents, or even the bartenders. 

Around noon, they announce that everyone stays onboard til Monday except the Dutch folks (they can leave the ship). The Brits have to wait until Tuesday when they can special buses to take them by ferry back to the UK. The Germans (including me) can exit Monday morning.  Then here's the plus-up.....all your money back on the trip, a free-trip voucher (must be used in 2 years), and 25 Brit pounds in free drinking credit.  So the other story came up.....folks were planning for our return trip and things would all be fixed on Monday.

Well....we get on this bus.  An hour later, we are in the port area of Amsterdam, and then get received by this Dutch lady.  She knows nothing, and says you need to get home on your own. Yep, we were 'dumped' by the ship.  My return airline tickets? Set for Thursday afternoon.....but no hotel deals from the ship folks.  So I buy $300 worth of train tickets to return.  The return of the money for the trip?  I'm about 99-percent it will happen.  But part of me is suspicious.....my wife is 99-percent suspicious and doubts the money will ever come back.  I think they will pay me for the train tickets (at least they hinted that part). 

So, we went nowhere for four days.....saw the Fjords of the Netherlands (mostly the industrial area)....I sipped through 30 Gin Sours over four days (all watered down).....then the great adventure ended. 

What I took away with the trip?  Well....of 1,400 passengers.....probably 1,250 were Brits over the age of 60, and half of them were over 70 years old.  Food was bland, and the drinks all watered down.  No one working for the cruise line.....on the ship.....seems to know anything. If they do bring on a comedian for entertainment.....the guys jokes are mostly from the 1970s.  Fashion from the Brits ranged from modern stuff.....to clothing styles of the 1970s.  As for that German 'Love Boat' show?  Man, nothing came to work or feel like the show pretends. 

That was the voyage to nowhere. 

CO2 and Hardwoods

I sat this past week and was reading over climate change, CO2, and then came to this odd discussion which you never hear much about.

Plants (trees, grass, shrubs, bushes, etc) take up carbon dioxide (CO2), run through photosynthesis, and in the end....make glucose. 

For statistical averages.....for every six molecules of CO2....the plants take and create ONE molecule of glucose.  More CO2, more glucose.  If you doubled up on CO2, the plants would double up on glucose production. 

For a fast growing plant (or tree), the more CO2 it uses up.  So you could look at this idea and suggest....well, why not plant bamboo in massive quantities (one of the faster growing products in existence)?

But fast growing plants have the lesser life span.  As they die....between bugs, microbes and just plain release....all that bundled up CO2 goes back into the system.  So logic dictates....hardwood trees, which would live longer and bundle the CO2 for dispersal decades longer. 

Making the planting of hardwood trees a high priority?  No, it's almost non-existent in terms of talking over the CO2 issue in climate control. 

The 'Corrections' Story

I sat today and read a business/economics story over at Yahoo.....which was prescribing this terrible awful event where 10-percent fall-out was due any day now, and people should worry.....this leading back to the 'evil' Trump.

At the end of this....I thought....10-percent drop?  That's a correction.  You have three to five of these per year.  Maybe back in the 1990s....it was one every eighteen months. 

Then I started to think....don't these Yahoo business writers go to college and pick up on 'corrections'?  Then it occurred to me.....they probably attend the same colleges as AOC.  They have no understanding of 'corrections'.

This is what angers me about journalism today.....we have so many individuals that went off.....got marginally educated.....then moved up because no one wants to pay that much for older and more experienced journalists.....so you get garbage talk because of their lack of knowledge. 

The Lost Story

For about a week, I closely followed this Hawaii story of the Yoga teacher who'd gone and disappeared into a hike.  The gal.....35 years old....on the 17th day, was found by a group flying over a canyon-like area. 

A lot about this story doesn't make sense.  On the positive side....she's alive and appears to have lost maybe ten to fifteen pounds over this 2.5 week period in the 'jungle'.

The real trigger?  Dehydration, I think.  I think she got weaker and more dehydrated.....reaching a level of doing stupid things.  Maybe she did eventually reach this stream, and got herself back into a hydration level.  But logic here, would dictate....if you had a stream in front of you.....you just follow it downward, and it eventually reaches a river or the ocean.  You simply walk out.  In her case....she stayed right there.

More to the whole story?  I suspect so, but you'd best not ask. 

If the House Goes to Impeachment?

In this scenario being played out....the House would have to draw up an investigation, and the first step would be a list of charges.  Right now.....no such list exists.  Amount of time to play out the charges game?  I would take a wag here and suggest that they'd have to appoint some prosecutor team, and that charges wouldn't occur until after they get their hands onto the tax records.  The fact that the President isn't cooperating?  This will go before the Supreme Court, and probably end up occurring around October/November timeframe. 

If the Court says no.....they are privacy issues here, then the whole impeachment thing likely falls apart.  If the Court says yes, then they'd be handed over.  Amount of time to read five years of 200-to-300 pages of tax returns for each year?  Another weg, but you'd need at least a dozen specialized accountants and likely three months. 

So these charges would occur in April/May of 2020.  The House (by the letter of the Constitution) would act as grand jury, and process the charges to the Senate.

Here's the interesting thing.  If the Senate denies the impeachment managers and the case, then the whole thing is 'dead-in-the-water'.  The charges will never be read in the Senate.

My guess is that they expect to happen, and it'll be some colossal item to be used to terminate various GOP senators in November. 

However, there are two additional scenarios here.

The Senate might shock everyone and say 'sure'.....come on in and lay out your evidence.  If the evidence collected by the House is weak or marginal?  The impeachment piece would end in matter of five work-days.  No impeachment occurs, and the whole thing backfires upon the Democrats in a massive way. 

The second scenario is that we get?  This fake Russian collusion stuff, and the dossier.  There are all of these Obama figures who might be drawn by mid-summer 2019....into grand jury proceedings and they might eventually force one of them to admit that they might have briefed President Obama on their plan.  AG Barr might stand there in a private moment with House Speaker Pelosi and tell her....they aren't just fishing for three or four characters.....they are fishing and calling for President Obama to give a statement in front of a grand jury.  Then he might suggest that he know someone briefed Pelosi in the summer of 2016 of this whole plan.  It'd be a total lie, but she might get freaked because she's forgotten  lot of stuff lately, and maybe one of Obama's people might point her as part of this whole game.

If you ask me.....this whole impeachment talk has weak links attached, and if this backfires.....it's the worst possible time and it might lead to a massive Democratic loss (maybe 45 states going to Trump). 

So the key part?  This tax return game, and how Justice Roberts might react.  Add to the mess.....any day now....RBG might be in a bad health situation and have to retire.  Without her.....the whole house of cards collapses, and there is no start-up of this mess. 

I come to this last element which no one talks about.....that the Democrats have accomplished virtually nothing so far in 2019, and this would consume the rest of this year, and half of next year.  How would you go and face the voters, with nothing accomplished over two years? 

Socialism Accepted?

Gallup went and did a poll....to find that 4 out of ten Americans....approve or support the ideals of socialism.

The problem with this poll....it really doesn't lay out the landscape.  If you went state by state....you'd probably find fewer than ten-percent of the folks in Mississippi or Georgia who approve of socialism.  If you went to New York City, it's probably closer to sixty-percent of adults.  In the entire state of Alaska, I doubt if you'd find more than 300 residents who support the idea of socialism.    So the poll is questionable.

Growing in rural Alabama, I would take a guess that in today's environment, in a county of 25,000 people....fewer than three-hundred might support plain basic socialism. 

The problem is that a journalist will hype this up....getting folks all pepped-up or pepped-down on socialism, and drive some new agenda. 

All of this is driving some Democrats to question themselves, and this socialism angle to politics.  You could end up pushing a quarter of the Democratic Party voters out.....looking for some third-party situation and just plain suggesting that they can't favor a socialism agenda. 

Bernie's Call for $60k Minimum Salary for Teachers

It's a curious statement that Bernie made over the weekend.....that we need to establish $60k as the minimum starting point for teachers.

The current rate in Montana?  Around $31k a year.  Alabama?  Just a notch above the $31k a year. 

Average pay (meaning ten plus years) as a teacher in Kentucky?  $52,000.  For Arizona, it's around $47,000. 

The problem I see is that you'd have to go to almost all of the fifty states, and raise levels up.  Into the billions?  Yes.

So naturally, you'd ask the question....are some of these teachers (fresh out of college) even worth $60,000 a year?  Are some of these teachers, even at age 38....worth $60,000 a year. 

If you got around to them....why not the road department employees for the state of Texas?  Shouldn't they be all making $45,000 a year minimum salary? 

Where would all this fresh new money for teachers come from?  Well.....more taxation.