'Marxist' Kids?

 What's it really mean when some juvenile-behaving guy/gal tells you that they are Marxist in nature?

Well....it generally means ten things are revolving around in their head:

1.  They see class-warfare or class-unfairness constantly....wherever they go in life.

2.  They generally see social conflict around the clock.  

3.  Capitalism is bad....even if they are wearing Nike shoes, or lugging around a $800 I-Phone.

4.  They seem to think they are experts at urban-planning....even if they can't even manage their own lifestyle.

5.  Science has a single path (don't bring up the fact that science has multiple theories that sometimes conflict).

6.  Life is a continual struggle, and it's on their minds as they get up, and they prepare to sleep at night.

7.   Nothing is sustainable....meaning that everything is always on the verge of 'ending'.  The fact that Mountain Dew might not exist tomorrow....would be a concept they openly discuss.

8.  Everyone is pushed into tribal groups, and the more groups that exist....the better off this new alternate world would be.

9.  They generally regard welfare folks as 'peasants'.  In simple chatter....somebody (somewhere) has to fulfill this role.  If everyone were non-peasants, then the Marxism stuff would disappear over night.

10.  Wealth is a bad thing.  They will generally tell you that people don't know how to handle wealth.

In the end, you could walk into a room with a hundred such Marxists, and they all seem to want to control things and manage the big picture.  It's at this point that you realize that they all need a regular job (9 to 5), and some responsibility to fulfill their own lives before messing with other people.  

The Analogy to Explain America to a Non-American

 Basically, it's become a tribal plains area, where one-thousand-plus tribes exist in marginal states of harmony or non-harmony.

Some tribes are leftists....some tribes are rightists.  

Some tribes are pro-capitalists....some tribes are anti-capitalists.  

Some tribes are willing to promote face-to-face confrontations.....some shy away from all confrontations. 

Some tribes promote dumping your relatives if they can't participate in the tribal philosophy.  

Some tribes pretend to be something....when it's more fake than real.

Some tribes got into screwing up professional sports....some tribes voiced discontent with professional sports, and just gave up viewing.

Some tribes advocated movies as their 'lecture-vehicles'.  Some tribes advocated censoring or avoiding the lecture movies.

Some tribes took in kids....pushing their tribalism down into a 12-to-14 year old level.  Some tribes educate their kids to avoid brain-washing.

So you try to fit into some tribe, and generally hope that confrontation is not necessary. Maybe you feel sorry for your co-worker, who is obviously in a 'bad-tribe', or maybe you just laugh over his tribal unit.

In some ways, it's a sad thing to view this much tribal tendencies, and no way to bring people back to a one-tribal unit situation.  

Dying Planet Chatter

 Popular Mechanics (honestly, I have to admit that I haven't subscribed to the magazine in 15 years and kinda surprised that they still exist)....came up in the news this week.

Someone did an article for them....suggesting that various cultures existed in the universe, but all of them have 'died-off' in some self-annihilation episode.

Proof?  Well....none.

This is more of a theory to explain why we don't pick up signals or indicators of intelligent life.

First, this is one of the five basic issues with Popular Mechanics and why I eventually just couldn't read it.....crazy suggestive articles that seemed to be selling science fiction more than factual mechanics itself.

Second, taking into the consideration the size of the universe....this discussion is mostly about how you tossed a marble into the Atlantic Ocean, then trying to talk about the extent of your search for the marble.  You'd probably be more productive in painting your barn roof, or redoing the backyard.

Third and final, to go along with this idea....you have to assume some 'save-our-butts' character would have emerged (like that Tesla guy) and he would have invented a way for dozens, thousands or billions of people to escape some decaying planet.  Or maybe they did die-off because they mostly gave folks in their society a $600 stimulus check as well.....instead of the pork-bill where Pakistani folks got $10-million to learn more about gender stuff.  

Free College?

 Did Joe Biden actually say this?  "Public Colleges and Universities Are Going to be Tuition-Free For Families Earning Less Than $125,000."

Yes.

How would this be paid for? Unknown.  

You could walk around some of these high schools, and the teachers shaking their heads....200 of their senior class graduating and 100-percent of them going off to college free of charge.  At the end of this funnel....the kid magically graduates out of college with a marginalized degree, and then you ask....where is the job to equate to the degree?

Well....you can't invent jobs like this out of thin air.

Currently?  It's a mess and probably over one-third of college graduates will never get any real pay scale because of the worthless degree and the career path ahead.

I read a piece recently....talking about colleges in America in 1940 (before the war), and that only 5-percent of Americans ever went to college.  

Today?  You have graduates walking out of college....getting car rental management jobs at the airport....which were formerly for folks without college degrees.  No, the pay didn't spiral upwards....they still make $24k a year on salary.  It's basic work that a smart high school graduate could do, but you are wasting the job on some idiot who spent four years in college.

I look at Joe Biden's suggestion and just shake my head.

Maybe if we were just aiming at kids in science-related or engineer-related schools, and cutting tuition by 40-percent for them....it might make sense.  But even if you did that....who is really paying for this?  The non-college guy who is the air conditioning technician, or the roofer folks?  Why should they be forced into paying for this?

Looking at my crystal ball...I see this day about twelve years in the future.  You walk into a Piggly Wiggly, and from sixteen employees working that morning....fourteen of them hold bachelor degrees.  Matty (the mental nut-case in the fruit-department) and Claude (the retiree) are the only ones without a degree.  You pause and think about the waste of time, effort and resources....then you remember...in America, 'we can make something out of nothing'.  Then you realize the reverse is true.....we can also make nothing....out of something.  

Observations

 1.  I noticed today that NJ political 'kid'....Chris Christy....has said if Trump runs in 2024, Christy says he'll oppose him and run as well.

Here's the thing....once you get into the first two primary states in the spring of 2024....there's zero interest in Christy.  Even when you get to his own state of NJ, he might only rack up 40-percent of the GOP voting in the primary there. 

So, it's a lot of hot air.

2.  The $600 per person stimulus deal?  The bulk of people who need it....will pay the landlord or mortgage company, and basically tide themselves over to the end of January.  It didn't help.

Curiously, in the fine-print, college kids could actually get $1,800 per kid....if this goes through.  Go explain that to the regular middle-class guy.

Added note: $85-million is slated in this package to go over to Cambodia.  You'd have to ask the Democrats and McConnell to explain that one.

3.  Usually, when you see statues and monuments being yanked down....cities and business-fronts set on fire....people being assaulted on the streets...it's because you got invaded or taken over by Nazis.

Just something to think about.  

4.  We are living in an era of hypocrisy....where even 11-year-old kids recognize the behavior and laugh over it.  

Half of the nation is putting on a fake public stance regarding virtue or religion or politics.  

5.  What happens if California reaches the limit to recall Governor Newsom?  Well....another election occurs.  

The question of who might 'win'?  Well....no one really discusses this (it's an odd part of the story).  Some suggest that the SF mayor (London Breed) would appear to run (but some also suggest that she's on the road to get Harris's senate seat).  

6.  There's a story out there where the Chinese spent a ton of money on a quick-build Disneyland-like 'park/camp' for religious cult folks.

The theme is....you'd go as a family unit.  You'd enter the camp or park, and stay for a while....until the fun-factor had changed your prospective in life.  Maybe it's the food, 300 rides on the Dumbo-like ride, or just plain standing in line after line....that got you all de-culted.  

Guardians

 It's a page four story, but some might find it interesting.

If you were a member of the US Army....you were always referred to as 'soldiers'.

If you were a member of the US Air Force....you were always referred to as 'airmen'.

If you were a member of the US Navy....you were always referred to as 'sailors'.

Marines?  Well....Marines.

So the Space Force has come up and they finally addressed how you'd talk about them in official commentary.  The word to use?  'Guardians'.

Yes, Guardians.

I suspect some idiot took the term from Guardians of the Galaxy, but that's what the government went to this past week, and stamped final.

Guardians.  

I'm guessing the Army and Air Force guys will kid the Guardians a good bit.  The neat thing about this new role is that you probably won't be going off to war in Iraq or Kuwait....ever, as a Guardian.  Deploying out and sleeping in tents?  No, don't go figuring that Guardians will sleep anywhere except in Best Western or Ramada.

Eating ration-food?  No, Guardians are probably full-up lobster or seafood folks.  

Drinking habits?  Guardians are probably red-wine or gin-sour cocktail people.

Wild excitement?  While Marines would talk excessively about the sixteen tattoo joints they've been to, or the Army guys talk about the top ten stripper joints, and the Air Force guys would talk about the various golf courses they've been to....Guardians probably want to talk about their top ten space movies, or broach the topic of Captain Marvel quotes that appeal to them.

I hate to really dump on these guys....but the Guardian name just doesn't work. 

California and NY City: 2024

 As things look....two paths are being laid out (Joe Biden as President, and two parts of the US with exodus heavily on the mind of occupants).  

Both California and NY City are in desperate financial woes and are absolutely dependent on two Georgia Democrats arriving and ensuring a pot of money from Joe Biden comes to them by mid-summer 2021. If this fails?  Well, I will suggest these four things likely to unfold:

1.  Business shift.  There's no reason for big-name operations, high-end restaurants, or mega corporations to maintain a presence in either location.  

2.  Retiree-wise, If you regard safety and security as a top ten thing....then you don't have much reason to remain in LA, SF, or NY City.

3.  Personal wealth.  When you add up sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes....with this nearing $18k a year and you figure half of this goes away if you move to Nevada or Tennessee, why would you remain?  

4.  Fear of the homeless situation going to an entirely new and higher level.  California (at least in the summer of 2020) figures they have around 150,000 homeless people. By the mummer period of 2021?  I'd go and suggest it being noted near the same number but the state admitting that another 100,000 people ought to be listed as homeless but on some state program to hide the issue.

President Joe with any great ideas?  No, I wouldn't go expecting much except to throw money at the two states....as 'gifts'.  There's probably a 2021 'gift' of 100 billion between the two, and a planned repeat by summer of 2023.  Resolving anything?  No....just delaying the required shutdown of various services that should be on the table in a planning stage now.

I would go and project that from the top 500 companies that existed in California in 2019...at least half of them will be removed from the state by 2024.  I would even go and suggest that fifty percent of the retirees in the state (mostly those living around SF/LA) will have left the state as well.  

In the case of NY City, I would suggest another half-million residents of the city will quietly pack and go as you get into the summer of 2021.  This exodus might slow slightly in 2022/2023, but you are looking at 1.5 million fewer people in the city (compared against 2019 levels).  

Resolving this?  You'd have to admit that all the staging and planning of the past decade....really went so far negative, that you can't come back to a resolution stage.

The last sad part of this story....what made NY City and California hot tourist sites....dissolved along with this.  Who'd want to go to this type of marginal atmosphere?