A Defund the Police Story

 So this is one of those stories that draw you into pondering.

Out in Portland, Oregon....there was this city commissioner....Jo Ann Hardesty.

This is an individual who was pushing hard to defund the local police.  She actually asked for a $18 million cut this past summer....which failed (3-2 vote).  She got pretty hyped-up after this....saying the mayor had a lack of courage.

So it comes out that this same person (Hardesty)....had to call 9-1-1 over a Lyft-driver incident.....around this same time period.

Reason?  He'd picked her up....had one window slightly down (maybe half-an-inch) to allow air flow.  She didn't want that....he refused to raise the window....so she calls the cops.

I sat and pondered over this.  It's hard to imagine this type of necessity being such....that you'd call the police (air flow through a window).  Usually, if cops are involved....it's 'serious' (at least you think that).

How long were the cops there to talk to the driver and Ms Hardesty?  Unknown.  

Is this a case where a social worker should have come out and spent an hour doing confrontation de-escalation?  Maybe.

But it's bothersome that she wanted to cut funding on the police....which she apparently had an urgent need their services.  

Fixing Ailments the German Way

 When a German mentions up 'Kur'....it leads down this path where they've had mental or physical issues, and they need 'recovery'.   Logically, you ask questions, and once it's identified as something other than physical....it's best to stop the chat there and not ask any more questions.

What the 'Kur' ends up being?  I'd call it a 3-to-4 week period at some motivational hotel operation.  Some are rigged up to be physical operations....where you spend eight hours a day walking, swimming, or doing some kind of Yoga-stuff.  They'd like for you to eat right....consume spring-water....and lay in some warm waters.

Others are rigged up to handle mental issues or alcohol problems.  In this case, a lot of time is spent on stress issues....getting you motivated....and working you to the point of either accepting life's issues, or moving on.    

They kinda lay out 100 rules as you check in.  In the old days (up until the 1980s), you could show up and just 'party' for four weeks.  Now?  They expect you to achieve something. So there's not supposed to be any booze around.  They generally want you on a schedule.  You can't disappear for four hours.  

What you can count on....fairly cheap coffee, basic grub for breakfast, some basic grub for lunch (2-star probably), and soup/salad for dinner.  Most Germans will tell you....unless you sneak out for a schnitzel plate at the local restaurant....you will be losing weight over the four-week period.

So does all of this effort lead to anything?  It's mostly a debate where medical folks say yes, and the actual consumers are just agreeing to this....to get four weeks of paid-leave and some marginal resort situation. 

I asked once....to older German worker on Ramstein about this whole deal.  The guy was nearing 65 and retirement.  He admitted in his entire life....never done a single 'Kur'.  From his wife's folks....just about every single one of them had done a minimum of one trip in their life....some were working on the second trip.  His impression that maybe for physical ailments...it made sense.  For the rest....if they hand these people sandbags to fill for a week, they'd get this torment stuff out of their mind.

So if you ever hang out with a German and they bring up the 'Kur' topic....you might want to avoid asking many questions.  The less you know....the better off are you.  

What the Numbers Say

 It's just an odd statistic.

13-percent of Democrats DON'T think that Joe Biden won the election.  

Then you have 23-percent of Republicans who think that Joe Biden DID win the election.

Independents?  Roughly 75-percent think that Joe Biden won.

Does it mean anything? Well, you'd have to ask each participant....what news do you watch, and to what degree.  Maybe the numbers reflect absolutely nothing.

The more appropriate question....are there issues about the conduct of states and the election process that bother you?  In that case....I would imagine more than seventy-percent saying yes, but then if you asked how to change this perception or fix this for 2022 or 2024?  People will mostly start laughing and just say it's physically impossible.  

What do dead voters think?  It's best not to bring this up.  It's troublesome to admit they have a preference in voting or are set on such-and-such agenda.  It's probably around 99-percent believing, in their non-beating hearts, that Joe Biden won.  Don't get them all riled up on this topic.  

Fear of Consequences Used to Exist

 Somewhere around age eight to twelve....the threat of consequence came into my view as a kid.  You'd watch x-number of people screw up....along would come this set group of consequences, and people would lose a point or two on their reputation.  Around age fifteen to eighteen, you'd then see the next group....who were people who were looking at legal troubles, sheriff deputies being involved, and possibly some judge.

Then I went off to the Air Force and for twenty-two years....saw a whole new group of threats on consequences start to emerge.  One example: a 22 year-old guy thinking he was dating a 18 year-old gal....only to be visited by the police and discover she was 14 years old.  Another example: a airman who co-signed on a car loan for a cousin he hadn't seen in two years....then getting a call six months later that the cousin had been arrested for selling cocaine, and the car was to be confiscated by the police....leaving him on the hook for the remaining loan.

This past week, I've been standing around and reviewing all the voting problems and suggested fraud situations.  Forty years ago....a very marginal group of people would have been involved in this and felt the worry of the threat of consequences to be worth the effort.  

Now?  It would appear that thousands of people have no worry over the threat of consequences.  They feel sure that bail will be arranged, that lawyers will be hired to defend them, and the right judges will ensure no jail-time comes out of this.

No fear of consequences?  You'd basically be saying that from this day forward....it doesn't matter how you run elections....these people intend to participate with their gimmicks, and stage fake elections.  

Maybe if we were just talking about Georgia by itself, and that 3,000 folks around the state were into the act of rigging the election to come to one particular outcome....no one would care.  But if you had fifty states participating in this game, and maybe fifty-thousand individuals who are reshaping the outcome....how would the public view the mess?

The more bothersome of this issue?  They have no fear of consequences.  Just saying that you might do a year in state prison? It apparently doesn't worry them.  You could go into a room of a hundred people, and typically 99-percent would tell you that fear of criminal charges or prison-time....would bother them greatly.  These people?  They have no fear of this.

So I end this bit of pondering with this.  Things have dramatically changed....life isn't what existed forty years ago...and if you can't trust the voting system to function, why bother voting or allowing some idiots to exist in some fantasy political scheme?  

Talking Cable

 Up until 2013....while still working in the US, I was hooked up to cable TV.  I had what you'd consider the basic package, with one extra (HBO).  This deal....basically 99 channels plus one....ran over $110 a month.  I considered it ridiculous.  Toward the end, I added what I typically watched in a single month, and it amounted to the local five TV stations, C*PAN, Fox, TBS, HBO, the History Channel, and two channels which featured older movies.  That was it.  The other 85 channels?  Worthless.

If you look around over the past month....there's a lot of chatter over TV news via the cable folks, and if this trend develops (as I expect)....the cable empires will have to rig up some deal where you get the basic cable package without CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc.  Once they reach this level, which I expect by the end of 2021....the news networks will go into some collapse mode.  Downsizing will occur, and big-names will quietly be dismissed.

CNN being rejuvenated by Bezos?  What you'd end up with is some weird combo of WaPo and CNN....probably renamed in some way, and forum-type shows being hitting the air for six-plus hours a day.  I'm not sure if people really desire that type of 'news', but that'll be the solution to spoon-feed the general public.  

As for the other two....Fox and MSNBC?  I see both downsizing the big names by the end of 2021, and some attempt to reconnect to the public.  

Finally, the question ought to come up....can cable TV survive as it is today?  If people just want a basic 15 to 20 channel offering....for less than $30 a month?  There's no real profit at that point, and a bunch of channels would drop out entirely.  I think data-streaming, with fresh new shows via Netflix and Amazon....will be the path to the future.  For networks like CBS, NBC or ABC....it's a dismal future for their brand.  

Joe's Words

 A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed. The United States of America.

-- Joe Biden

To be honest, I don't think Joe writes any of his Twitter comments....there's a team for that type of 'work'.

So I gazed over the comment made.  70-plus million people didn't vote for Joe, or his agenda.  To suggest that there is some united business that occurs out of this....no, there probably isn't.

We simply move to the next level of conflict, and frustration.  

Maybe if Joe was some type of Truman-character and more of a caretaker-President....people might be somewhat united and there would be less theatrical business going on in DC.  But with the current game being played out....you can't have a caretaker-President.

The 1.8 Million Extra People

 This came up today, and it's a moment to ponder upon.

The organization....Judicial Watch....had gone out with a September 2020 study.  There's this odd factor....EIGHT states (353 counties) have 1.8 million more registered voters than actual eligible voting-age citizens.

The states?  Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Vermont, and Rhode Island.

So you could have walked into a particular Colorado county that has 16,000 eligible voting-age people, and find 16,700 people registered-up.  

A mess?  Well, it begs questions.

Maybe you've got Joe who is working in county-X, and one day....moves over to county-Y without saying much.  Then six months later, after hooking up with some gal...he moves to county-Z.  Is he still registered in the two previous counties?  Probably so.

What would really mess up this situation....you discover that 1.8 EXTRA people did vote in the EIGHT states, and in most cases....double-voted....meaning there's around 1.8 votes just hanging out there.  

Worth a Senate investigation?  Well....what would these idiots discover?  You'd just open up a bigger mess.

Maybe these are all dead people still on the roosters?  I sat and thought over this.  Maybe Judicial Watch just didn't ask the right questions, and these are all dead folks.  But it's an odd question to toss out there....just after an election.