Observations

 1.  What is a lid (under Biden-chatter)?

Well....this is what a self-made man gives to himself as down-time.  It means he takes off at 9 AM or Noon....to golf, guzzle booze, fish, paint fence posts, and just sit in a darken basement area to reflect upon life.

Note: Farmers are still puzzled by Lid-chatter.  Those nearing sixty will admit that for one brief day in the fall of 1993....they took a Lid at noon....mostly because of rain, and sat in the tool shop listening to Kitty Wells tunes from 1966.  

2.  Are some people visibly upset over the recovery of President Trump?

In simple terms, yes.  But here's this odd factor at work.....this is a guy who never consumed an ounce of cocaine or booze in his life.  That means something in the health aspects of an older guy.

3.  NBA ratings crash for game 2 of the finals?

It's crap.  I expect more or less the same for game 3.  If this goes to game 7?  Well....I pity the network folks for the money involved and lack of viewers.  

4.  It's a sad fact, that even when Trump is sick and laid-up with Covid-19, he's actually active than Joe Biden.  Instead of using Joe's word (LID) for down-time....Trump has invented a new concept (DIL), which basically means he's pulling a 15-hour work-day, even on down days, and he readily admits that he hasn't been to the White House basement....ever.  

5.  Odds of Trump showing up at the 2nd debate?  Probably a 95-percent chance right now.  The chief question to be asked....was in the first day or two of infection when he did the first debate, and his game was 'off' due to the early infection?  Boy, you really don't want to answer that question.

6.  Theaters on a doomsday schedule?

For 2021, I see dozens of drive-in theaters being quickly erected in March/April timeframe....mostly in medium and smaller towns.  It's the only way that movie audiences will be ensured, and the market can survive.  By mid-summer, another 300 drive-in's put up and doing amazing business.  

7.  Oil prices stabilized?

Basically, the Saudis came up over the last day or two and project that oil per barrel....will linger at $50....for a minimum of three years.  So don't get to thinking that gas prices will go up by any significant amount.

8.  Right around 1-million Chinese immigrate into the US yearly now.  

9.  Pretty much official.....twenty-percent of LGTBQ folks will vote Trump in 2020.  Maybe going as high as twenty-five percent.  The LGTBQ folks may have to clean out the organization, splitting it off into two groups and admitting that one group is Trump-conservative-queer and hopeless.   

10.  Beneath all the news that people missed....it seems that the federal cops got into cloning cellphones of Portland Antifa guys, and have a complete run-down of text-buddies, and whose-who.  Somewhere there, there's an enormous 300-foot long white-board, which details out 4,000 individuals connected in some way to the whole looting and intimidation business.  They know your favorite pizza, your drug-dealer locally, your favorite episode of Gumby, and read your dad's 'don't come home' message.  

The Last Person on Earth You Want Financial Advice From: The Pope

 Over the weekend, the Pope (Francis) came up and made the statement over the Covid-19 era, then said....it's basically proven that 'magical theories' of market capitalism are in a failure-mode.  Then he said with Pope-authority....the world needs a new type of politics that promotes open-exchange, solidarity, and has no war involved.

Out of 100,000 folks in the news 'world' (to include North Korea's Kim, Putin, etc)....I'd rank the economic and financial views of the Pope off this scale, and limit the guy mostly talking over Jesus, general religion, and handling demon-possession.  That's it.

I do agree...capitalism is built to run 24-hours a day....seven days a week, and disasters are likely to sideline it.  The suggestion of shutting down an entire economy....not just for a week or month, but for several months (like in NY City)?  You basically destroy economy to the extent that it can't continue.  

But you come to his end-point....he wanted to let you know that a new type of politics is out there and ready to replace the current capitalism model that the majority of nations embraces.  He sounds like one of those college 'kid' types that believes in some massive socialism model....where things are magically produced at X-price and sold at a cheaper rate than possible, with no one asking the question how you can achieve success. 

Just my humble two cents of observation.  

Trump and Ten Days Off

 With this Covid-positive test, I will suggest this scenario taking place:

1.  He's going to get all of the good drugs.

2.  Because of the hefty amount of vitamin D in his system (golfing a lot)....he'll come out in a lesser period of time as well.

3.  Since he doesn't consume booze of any type.....that will also be a plus.

4. I'll suggest that around 11/12 October that he emerges, gets re-tested, and pronounced well.

5.  He'll be all powered-up for the 15 October debate, with the news media in absolute disbelief.

6.  Then he'll make this one comment....'It was kinda like the flu', and not a big deal.  This will just irk the news folks to the 9th degree.

7.  Finally, over this ten-day period, he'll Twitter out at least a dozen comments a day, even while weakened.  

The only question....will Joe agree to show up on the 15th?  I'm betting not.    

Just Something To Think About

 When the absolute worst came on the 2020 stock market, and all the Covid crap drove the market to the low point, with 'experts' appearing on interviews and saying that it'd take three to five years for a recovery?

Well....if you check the market from the day of the lowest point, it recovered in roughly 100-odd days.  

I admit....jobs are still not to a normal stage, but the economy is sitting there....like 1957 Cadillac, ready to go.  All you need is the driver and a direction.  

Just to Get It Out of My System

 I want to denounce white supremacy.

I also want to denounce New Coke.

I'd also like to denounce fraudulent late-night commercials.

I'd like to denounce Nancy Pelosi.

I'd like to denounce fire-ants.

I'd like to denounce the movie 'Grease'.

I'd like to denounce all of the episodes of Matrix.

I'd like to denounce those goofy cat videos on YouTube.

I'd like to denounce military close-order drill, military parades, and marching in Florsheim shoes.

I'd like to denounce any magic act where a elephant moves 300 feet across the stage.

I'd like to denounce Thanos.

I'd like to denounce fake news, biased news, and hyped-up news.

I'd like to denounce Hillary Clinton.

I'd like to denounce NBA basketball....since the early 1990s (everything prior to that was ok).

I'd like to denounce American Airlines for almost no legroom on international flights.

I'd like to denounce fat women who wear ultra tight tube-tops, or skimpy shorts two sizes too small.

I'd like to denounce cheap beer.

I'd like to denounce....well....just anything of a bad nature.

There....I got that out of my system.  But will I have to repeat it again tomorrow, again?

A Sinking Story

 So this is a little history story....which was pretty solid on facts, until recently, and now....maybe the facts aren't facts.

There was this ship built at a German shipyard in 1980....as a ferry.  The original name was Viking Salley.  For ten years, it remained with the original company, then went through several different operations/names.  Things like this occur all the time.  

In 1993, it was renamed 'Estonia', and was a regular ferry between Estonia and Stockholm, Sweden.

On 28 September 1994, it left port in Estonia around 6:30 PM.  Around six hours would pass, and then it'd starting sinking....real fast.  Out of 989 people onboard....852 did not survive.  A lot of the deaths were simply because of the temperature in the waters, and the rapid sinking.  

An investigation was held (by Swedish authorities).  The blame? It goes to two chief factors....the load onboard (trucks and cars) was not evenly balanced, and the entry door on the vessel was not completely closed....allowing water in. 

Then the Swedes did something interesting....they declared it a vessel to not be explored or reviewed.  Then they arranged a contract with a company to dump rocks over the vessel.  

Yeah, it is a bit odd.  This might be occasionally done in harbors or lakes, but not in the middle of the sea. 

The contracted company?  They went and did the rock dumping and then kinda said it was insufficient. Whoever did the estimate for the government....drastically under-estimated the amount of rocks required.   The company said this to Sweden, but no one wanted to fund a second or third dumping of rocks....so this whole thing just wrapped up.  It's not covered.  

Now, there is this one curious thing that was said by a diver who arrived on the scene around the day or two after the episode.  He said, without any doubt....there's this 4-meter hole on the side of the vessel.  He doesn't say if it's bent inward or outward....just that there is a hole where it should not be.

So in the past couple of months (2020, roughly 25 years after the event), an Estonia film crew went down.  They've got video.  There is this four-meter hole there. 

In the past week, the Estonian PM met with the Swedish and Finnish PM.  The Swedes say the ship discussion didn't come up.  The Estonian and Finns say absolutely nothing.

The question here is....is this hole inward, or outward? 

If it's outward, then an explosion took place on the Estonia of a major  type.  

If it's inward, then a torpedo of some type hit the Estonia.

Who would want to sink the vessel?  Unknown.  

The problem I have with the original story of the door on the vessel not closed....some crew-members would have noticed this an hour into the trip, with water flowing in.  No emergency is called for six hours.  So I'm kinda disbelieving the door being open story.

If the Swedes knew of the hole, and they basically wrote a whole fake report over the sinking....pretending the open door explanation is the end-all solution?  Well....I'd have to bring in the entire government (party in charge) at the time, and basically fire each single guy.

But it all begs questions.....why blowing up the ship or hitting it with a torpedo?  

Just something to make you wonder.

Added note:  I chatted with a Brit who is familiar with the region, and his suggest is that a fishing trawler hit the ferry in the darkness, and simply moved on in the night (remember, this was after midnight).  It's an interesting scenario, but trawler would have suffered damage and had to pull into some port later....to explain the damage done.  

Sarge as a Garbage Guy in NY City?

 Because of manpower cuts in NY City (remember, everything is marginally functioning, so tax revenue isn't there)....the city has cut back on garbage collection.

So yesterday, the Governor (Cuomo) said that he's open to the idea of bringing in NY state National Guardsmen....to collect garbage.

I sat and pondered over this.

Having spent 22 years in the Air Force, and known a number of Guardsmen over the years, I'd generally say that 10-percent might go along with this order, but the rest would be like....if you got money to pay us as Guardsmen to collect garbage....you ought to have money to pay real garbagemen to do the work.

But here's the honest truth....the normal average salary for a NY City garbage guy is $59k a year.  If you count in over-time?  Some might admit that they clear around $5k to $8k a year on extra over-time.  

Your average Army E4?  $30.6k a year.  Your average Army E2? $22.6k a year. 

So the reality is that by dumping the 22-year old 'kid' onto this job....you are saving $29k. 

Putting Sarge in as the driver and having 'Private Snuffy' and 'Private Marvin' as his crew?  You just saved in the range of $100k on salary requirements for one truck.

Managing Sarge, with his two privates?  If you figure ten trucks....there's probably one Guard Captain.  Course, in his case....he was probably a manager of some concrete plant....making $100k a year, and this is a huge disappointment being forced to work three or four months as some Guardsman, and taking a huge pay-cut.  Course, I'd say the same for Sarge and his two privates as well.

But here's the potential comedy brewing.  Out of a thousand real garbage guys laid off...you have to figure that at least ten of them probably were National Guardsmen and this order to potentially report for duty....to do your garbage job for 30-percent less pay....is going to frustrate you to a massive extent.

Could this whole thing turn into a major mess....with Guardsmen doing the job not just for three months, but maybe for an entire year?  That's the scenario that I'd worry about.  And frankly, Sarge....Snuffy and Marvin....ought to be standing there and asking for some bonus deal in the mix.  

What ought to happen here....some TV production company should pick out a Sarge/Snuffy/Marvin crew and just accompany them in a Seinfeld-type way, and run a regular series on Guardsmen as garbage guys.  It might be fairly entertaining.