Debate Chatter

 After viewing around 50 minutes of clips from the debate (Pence-Harris), some observations:

1.  The moderator was prepared and capable.  I'd rate her as a 'B' (Wallace?  A solid D-minus).  

2.  I'll be honest and say that Pence skipped over answering about 30-percent of all questions thrown at him.  Harris?  It's probably closer to 50-percent for skipping answers.

3.  Maybe just me, but Harris looked a bit overwhelmed and out-of-place.  But in the Democratic debates.....that was the same person who showed up there.  I think she just hates public debates. Call it 'bad nerves'.

4.  Looking at the Biden decision on selection of the VP.....I just think he could have done better.  Harris might have made a better choice for AG.  

5.  Finally, this debate didn't help the Biden campaign.  I won't say Harris lost....but Pence came out three steps ahead of her.  

So now the question  is....will Trump test 'negative' for Covid in the day prior to the next debate, and will Joe Biden show up?

What This Election Is About

 This not a normal election, and the things driving us....are not 'normal'.  So my list of the 'drivers':

1.  Mob action.  While Antifa/BLM may be in disbelief, the bulk of people in non-urban areas don't react in any positive manner to mobs.  Every video that shows mob action....drives people to vote for Trump.  Probably over 100k votes in Washington state will flip to Trump because of this stupidity.  

2.  Looting/burning of business operations.  Every video drives people to vote for Trump, as sending a message to the loot crowd.

3.  Covid-19 'dictators'.  Remarkable childish leadership seen in states like Michigan, NY, and California....have led people in these states to be skeptical of the intent and goals.  If you feel skeptical to that degree.....you'd likely vote for Trump, to send a message.

4.  For two years of effort with the Democratic House....there's virtually nothing that can be said on the accomplishments list except for a failed impeachment process.  That doesn't win votes.

5.  Pelosi.  As much as Joe Biden would like to claim he is a national authority or national party 'chief'.....Nancy Pelosi serves as that person, and is marginally liked by the moderates of the Democratic Party.  Around independent voters, it gets pretty questionable.

6.  CNN.  Without thinking much over the implications....the network has become the anti-Trump network, and become comical relief at various times over the past year.  Yes, without thinking much about it....they enabled more people to find Trump.

7.   Twitter and Facebook.  Well, maybe it wasn't on the goals list, but they provided the platform for pro-Trump people to gather.  Both are kicking themselves currently and in a state of denial that they did this much damage to the Biden campaign.

8.  Homelessness.  While the governor of California will say otherwise, he's basically weaponized the homelessness problem of California and charmed the public into a 'send-a-message' routine, with Trump likely to get votes simply because they need a platform to counter the governor's 'record'.  

9.  Blacks.  If you'd suggested that Trump could stir up passion and possibly get one-third of black votes in 2020....people would have laughed.  It's now possible, with black discontent.....that one-third of the national vote within the black community might shift to Trump.  The Latinos?  Don't be shocked if the same factor occurs with them.

10.  Finally, Hillary Clinton.  As the curtain closed in 2016, folks had the idea that she'd ride off into the sunset, and not be connected to this 2020 election.  Well....because of the fake Russian involvement angle....she's basically tied to this election now, and a anchor for Joe Biden....meaning he can't move ahead if documents get put into public domain, and she looks attached to some massive fraud.  

Suggesting this weird election could occur, or that the Electoral College might be screwed up enough in this election to fail, or that mail-in-voting was legal/ethical?  Well....five years ago....folks would have laughed.  

KGB Story

This morning, I read through a piece which was uttered by a Harvard professor.  It doesn't mean much to me....it could have been a Tulsa cable-TV repair guy.

The guy got onto some rant or claim that Russian KGB guys (secret agents) were capable of wandering into Walter Reed hospital where Trump was this weekend.

That was the bulk of his rant.....he didn't say that the agent put Ex-Lax into Trump's soda, or they had a bug inserted in Trump's room, or that the agent pretended to be a secret agent of Nancy Pelosi.  

All of this....without any factual data.

It was the kind of statement that you'd hear at the general store in the 1960s, where some farmer discussed aliens having landed and taken over the country, or that secret agents from Cuba were running the Ford Motor Company.   Yeah.....nutcase chatter.

Why did they have to be Russian KGB guys?  Why couldn't they be PRC (Chinese) agents, or Ukrainian agents, or German BND agents, or perhaps even Iceland secret-police agents?

Maybe it's just me....but it seems like some of these PhD guys need a break from work....maybe a full-year sabbatical situation and get pushed into a cabin in the Idaho wilderness with pallet of Pabst Blue-Ribbon beer, a freezer of steaks, and maybe no connectivity to the rest of the world....to clear their head.

If you are going to make up a Russian KGB story....at least get some names in the mix, suggest they are connected in some way to CNN, and crank up some story about the Russian mafia buying up cattle-futures on the Chicago market system.

Observations

1. Trump roaring back after a brief stay in the hospital?

Yes, and it makes you wonder how other folks could be handled, and if doctors really have any idea on treatment.  Patients are going to arrive shortly and demand the 'Trump-treatment', and what will the doctor say?

2.  Did Joe Biden really say: "If a police officer “goes on a 911 call, it’s better if he or she has with them a psychologist or psychiatrist?”

Yes, Joe said it.  Maybe it's time that we make up some national number....like '666' and when you have troubles of a nutcase type....you just get some 'Doctor Marvin-type' guy who will spend thirty minutes of clinical time talking to you and convincing you of the wonderful world around you.  

Naturally, it'd be a AI-type system, and going to a database in China. 

3.  If you had three doors....one leading to a room with Covid-19, one leading to a room of six cobra snakes, and one leading to a pretty weak African guy with Ebola....which door would you open?  

4.  Did Joe Biden really say: “The reason I was able to stay home during the pandemic is because black women were able to keep the grocery shelves stocked?"

Yes, Joe said that.

Some black women would be laughing their ass off at the comment, but Joe was serious.  But to be honest here....I doubt if Joe has stepped into a Piggly Wiggly in forty-odd years.

5.  If there is no Russian conspiracy this time around....what will consume the Democratic Party passion for 2021 or 2022?

6.  In a real insurrection....generally, a fair number of people either die on the streets or just disappear, so I'm kinda wondering if the Antifa guys grasp this part of the deal?  Maybe Professor 'Doug' didn't mention that part of the story?

7.  If you measured empathy on a Antifa guy....one to ten....where do you think these guys would range?  Then you start to wonder....where exactly did they grow up as a kid, and are the parent figures basic failures in life?

8.  Barrett confirmation process?  

If any negative 'swing' is filtered into the system by the Democrats...it'll turn into immediate advertising by Trump.  At this stage of the campaign, for Biden's sake....they probably need to shut up and say nothing...voting by the last work-day of October.  

Only a Observation About Oxygen

 Years ago, in the 1990s....I worked around a contractor in Germany who had this odd health ritual....breathing oxygen (yes, out of the tank).  He'd found some doctor (German guy) who advised that a minute or two of pure oxygen...in the morning as you awaken....would be good 'therapy' for something.  I never understood the 'something' or the necessity of this.  

He'd go through a tank about every six weeks, and would say that he felt better-than-usual after doing a few minutes of this. 

This episode came up in my mind as news journalists hyped up the fact that Trump was doing pure oxygen in the hours before his trip to the hospital.  The way that the CNN guy explained it....I almost got a feeling that humans don't normally breath oxygen, and that this was laced-up with oxygen-type drugs.  None of that is true, but the childish performance of the CNN guy kinda stood out.

The sad thing about this CNN chatter....you will end up with two or three million Americans who think that breathing oxygen is hazardous to your health, and suggest that it'd be better if you'd just breath air....instead of oxygen.  

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.