It Was Not the Scripted End

 In the final hours of Impeachment version 2.0.....this odd event occurred.

The House impeachment team wanted to open the final day of the episode by trying to depose Rep Beutler (R) who had some memory they wanted to dispute....so they wanted the witness business to open up.

It was put to a vote among the Senators...that witnesses would be allowed (55 voted in favor that it'd be fine to have 'witness-time').

So as the House folks laid out their deal....Trump's team said fine, and put up a list of 300-plus witnesses they wanted to call.

On this list....Rep Pelosi (House Speaker) was even noted.  

At this moment, the whole thing was 'doomed' (my words for the event).

Where this was leading?  Three basic issues:

1.  With 300-plus witnesses, you can figure that it'd take a minimum of a week to line them up with paperwork to show up.  If they failed?  I would imagine Federal Marshalls would be involved, and this whole thing would get rather messy.

2.  Doing witness-time with 300-plus folks?  You could be talking about four additional weeks....maybe even six weeks....of additional time.  This would have shut down the Senate entirely for the rest of Feb, and probably all of March.

3.  Finally, you would have drawn Pelosi into a sworn testimony situation.....with tons of potential that she'd admit that she hadn't had much hands-on business with the Sergeant-at-Arms people or the Capital Police.  Admitting that would have destroyed the event script for the 6th of January 'event'.

So it ended shortly after that hour....when the House folks say 'no'.....they didn't need witnesses after all.

Are we totally done now?  

No....I would expect another attempt at impeachment by the end of 2021.  I also expect the 14th Amendment process to come up.  Between now and November 2022.....the House and Senate will waste a minimum of three additional months of anti-Trump action.

That much fear of him in November 2022?  Yeah.  The House will go to another level, and I suspect five to eight Senators are looking at the end of their careers.  

A New Mystery: Waun Mawn

 For a long time, folks have been studying the stones used at the Stonehenge complex, and there's this new idea that has come out.  The stones there....are used stones.  

Meaning?  Well....they were originally standing up at a location that is roughly 200 kilometers away (Waun Mawn).  The suggestion here is that around 3000 years BC....this group of folks just packed up, and left Waun Mawn, for the present location.

Why?  Unknown.  

Proven theory?  Well....no.  It bothers a lot of people to suggest this idea, and they are asking why the people with the 'cult' would take such a drastic move.

It's not like you calling your cousin 'Marvin' to say things have hit maximum density there in the valley, and you've decided to move 120 miles NW.  Then you mention to Marvin, you got 100 stones....some weighing 25 tons....that are part of the move.  Marvin's enthusiasm to be helpful probably won't go that far.

So this brings me to the oddball question....what would drive a bunch of cult-folks to this extreme level.....picking up all their rocks....then resetting the whole operation in another valley 200-odd kilometers away?

Years to accomplish this?  Here's the thing....you would need the stones placed in a precise pattern to 'aim' at the summer/winter Equinox business.  If you understood the pattern (having a 365 day calendar already)....maybe you could do this in one single year of calibration.  

But what would drive you to this extreme amount of work?  Even if you had two-thousand folks in the cult-community....the planning and execution of this move would take a huge amount of effort.

So, we are left with a new mystery....what went wrong at Waun Mawn?  

The Tax Story

 This is a rather simple story, and it has a thousand implications.

Once upon a time, NY state had a real income situation, with money flowing on a constant basis.  

Then at some point, going back to the 1980s probably....they extended themselves and got into debt.  Presently, if you counted everything up....it's nearly 350-billion total (NY City has the bulk of this).

The state needs more money, so the newest gimmick being discussed in the state capital is a tax on stock transfers.

Reaction by the New York Stock Exchange?  They sent a blunt letter to the state capital and said if you do this....we will leave the state.  What happens now?  

If you look around at commentary by the business community....they don't think that the state folks have the guts to go through with the tax.

But they generally point out three odd factors in this entire discussion:

1.  Maybe up until the 1980s, there was still 'industry' in the state and something to balance out things.  Well...there just isn't much made in NY state anymore.  

2.  It used to be a big deal for companies to have established headquarters in NY City, and openly brag that they were based there.  It's not that way anymore.

3.  Ever since spring of 2020....when Covid-19 arrived, folks in Manhattan (the movers and shakers of society/NY City)...have been leaving (not just the downtown region, but the state itself).  By the fall of 2020, it was generally figured that half-a-million people had left.  The expectation by the end of 2021?   If you count up that early group, the present group, and the rest or the year....it's probably going to be in the 1.2-million that left town.

The state, in simple terms....is screwed.

If they got real stupid and taxed the stock exchange folks?  It'd take less than one year for them to move.  They've likely already completed a survey of best places to move.  The sites are probably either in Florida or Texas.  

If they packed and left?  You could probably go and erase at least another 200k residents from the city, and figure a hundred-odd businesses (from bars to restaurants) would shut down within six months as well.

But here's the thing....if you don't tax these folks, who are you going to tax?  There just aren't any 'golden cows' left on the farm (they all wandered away).  

Observations

 1.  The more you look at this insurrection chatter....the more it resembles 5th grader kids throwing eggs onto 6th grader kids. 

2.  This 22-million Jeep ad for the Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen?  Well....now we find out that he's got DWI charges coming up and he seems more like a washed-up 1980s singer with a serious drinking problem.  Where was the review of the guy for hiring him for the ad?  Unknown.

3.  I read a piece today that suggested if the $15 minimum wage business happens....child care costs across the US....will surge around 20-percent in a matter of days.

4.  Ever heard of Rivian?  They are the Tesla-like company that Amazon is kinda sponsoring, and they are headed toward a September IPO deal (their stock will be opened up).  What they tend to make (at least they suggest that)?  SUVs, delivery vehicles, hearty-looking trucks.  

5.  There's speculation going on....that the CCP folks (China) might be fully engaged in influence-peddling on US college campuses.  Some folks think this isn't a big deal.  Some folks think it's the end of US as we know it.  I'd just look at this and note that all the Russian KGB people who had easy pickings in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in the same college environment....simply got replaced.  

A One-Pony Show

 Around 1990, I sat and watched the Super Bowl (number 24).  

The game was basically over in the first quarter (SF would be leading Denver 13-to-3).  It was one of the most dismal games I'd ever seen played (at least by NFL standards).  Somewhere in the second quarter, I turned it off (around the 3rd touchdown of the game).  The half-time score would be 27-3....SF in the lead.  

The next day, around the work area, there was some chatter over the game (55 to 10 was the final score).  Some guy had actually selected SF to win by 40 points in the betting pool around the base that existed (illegally of course), and taken a sizeable chunk of money home.

The odd thing that I tended to get out of that day's chatter....about half of folks actually turned the game off somewhere around the half-time to 3rd quarter point.  There were various explanations but most would just say it was a pretty dismal event to watch unfold.  

As yesterday's impeachment episode ended....3rd day.....I can say that I've watched maybe three minutes of actual feed.....maybe another twenty minutes of dramatic explanations (mostly by Bill O'Reilly and the Crowder 'team').  Beyond that, it just seems to be a loser-situation looking like the SF-Denver Super Bowl game.  

There is virtually no reason to watch such poor legal work and virtually no real investigation.  The hype that there are seven dead now....not five?  Again, it's part of a big mystery which no one seems to know much about.  Facts?  Mostly non-existent.  Two cops dead by suicide but there's virtually nothing discussed about the two or their lifestyles.  The two guys dead from a heart-attack?  They seem to avoid pictures of the two, but I'd suspect if you showed either....they probably were in the 250-pound-plus range and pretty stressed out.  

News people in abundance?  Well....talking 99-percent speculation....1-percent facts.  

Even Putin's crowd has to be laughing over this.....a wild party (at least everyone is talking about), but there's virtually no booze, no chips, no dip, and no music.  Just a bunch of mostly guys talking about what they imagine in a one-pony-town, and the wildest thing anyone remembers the next day is that some dog barked, and some guy threw up in the parking lot.  

The Idealistic 'BS'

 This past week, I tried to make sense out of a developing story....involving the NBA Dallas Mavericks basketball team, the National Anthem, mass media, and the White House.

So the Mavericks went and made up a rule that you didn't have to play the National Anthem at the beginning of games.  The hint was.....we didn't need that American-kind-of-stuff....it's a bold new world that we live in.

Part of this episode....I think....revolves around the international sales of the NBA gimmick to places outside of the US (I won't state the obvious country, but you can guess).

So this National Anthem thing quickly grabbed attention.  In Texas....a lot of negative attention.  With the NBA headquarters, because the owner hadn't discussed this tactic....a lot of attention.

The NBA 'lords' quickly said 'no', telling the Mavericks not to start this trend.  It wasn't the direction that the league wanted to entertain.

So the media came to the White House press speaker....Jen Psaki....and she said that President supported the mavericks (really owner Mark Cuban).  Chief reason?  Well...."They felt the anthem didn't represent them" (referring to the players or fans of the clubs).  The the comment was said: “we as a country haven’t lived up to our highest ideals. (Presidents observation)

I sat there for a fair amount of time....pondering over this.

Generally, around the globe, if you opened up the back-door and said immigration is totally open....you'd have around 500-million people want 'in' and frankly....they don't give a damn about this 'living up to highest ideals' BS (sorry if I offend you).

Just from China alone, if you had the 'free-ticket' for entry into the US, there's probably 50-million Chinese who would sign up and just skip the ideals chatter. 

On highest ideals?  Well, when you had Nazis walking Jews into concentration camps....and you needed some impossible Army to come out of nowhere and just halt the atrocities going on.....you weren't looking for idealistic people, you just wanted some rough characters who'd be willing to land on Normandy in impossible conditions.....hike across Europe, and bring down the Nazi apparatus. 

Presidents, Senators, and cabinet officers may attempt to portray themselves as idealistic, but idealism doesn't really deliver much.  It's the non-idealistic folks that matter in the end.  It's determined and sometimes rough characters who fill sandbags....help folks when tornados have decimated a neighborhood....brought supplies into hurricane affected areas....or sheltered folks in the middle of blizzards.  

Did the President even name the violations of people who failed on 'highest ideals'?  No, he just left it out there. He didn't want to suggest that probably both Republicans and Democrats have failed.  He didn't want to chat over justices or judges who failed.  He didn't want to mention a hundred-odd military officers who failed.  Maybe this chat would be worth a whole afternoon on the front porch....but in the news media frame of the landscape....it's a 1-star topic.

The idea of rough characters?  They are folks who'd you call around 10 PM....explain your favorite cow was having birthing troubles with the Vet just unwilling to come out, and this neighbor would come over and spend three hours working the issue and save the cow and calf at 1 AM.  It wasn't ideals that resolved this....it was determination and the character of the neighbor you called.

It's the same way when some guy is thrashed around by some accident and seriously injured to the extent that he can't handle his crops or tend to his farm.  Then some tough folks step....fairly determined and full of character to see that things get done, and the injured guy doesn't have to worry about his situation.

So if you are looking for some idealistic nation....maybe just skip that BS, and settle for people who have determination in their blood and fully capable of handling some rough situations in life, without the social media 'fakeness'. 

Casino Chatter in Alabama

 For 202 years, Alabama has been fairly 'pure'.....without any real attachment to casino operations or organized gambling.  

Well....to be honest, we always had illegal gambling operations around....over the entire 202 years.  It's just that we didn't let Grandma or the local Baptist minister know of our immoral activities. 

Drinking, carousing, bad-boy activities, 'raising cain' and going on a spree has always been in our blood.

In recent weeks....down at the capital....chatter started up by a state senator, Del Marsh.   He's got a bill up to have five official casinos running, and even suggesting to add two more.

The income?  Well...he says $500-million from casino operations, fees, etc.  

Where the money would go?  Generally, the bulk would go to junior college scholarships, more broadband internet access, plus-up on rural health care, some added mental health care, and then folks say 'other programs' (never really explained.  

Who would run this?  The suggest is that a seven-member Alabama Gaming Commission would be in charge.  No one says who'd be on the Commission or what you'd pay them (my assumption is that it's a $100k a year salary, with probably $25k in travel allowance.

An Indian reservation in this deal?  That's the funny part of the story.  We have a couple of Indian groups in Alabama, with most all leading back to the Creek Indians.  This one group....the Poarch Band (group) of the Creeks....apparently own some property in NE Alabama, and they figure to be one of the five getting a license to run a casino.

So the key question one might ask (if you were from Alabama)....are people fired-up to go and spend a lot of time at casinos.  I would suggest that this is a mixed bag.

It's a lot of Baptist influence in the state and I'd suggest that 25-percent of population aren't going to be receptive to casino 'fun'.  There's another 25-percent of the state that I think are firmly attached to a low-income level and could never afford more than one visit a year to a Casino.  

So from the folks left....is there enough business to run potentially seven casino operations?  I have my doubt.

In the state of Georgia, there is just one single casino.  Mississippi?  36 (yeah, a lot).  Tennessee?  None.  It would appear that some hope exists that folks from Tennessee and Georgia....would come over and gamble to some extent.

As for the money dished out to the state?  There's already an argument brewing that it's not fair that only rural areas get the healthcare money.....that urbanized Alabama areas ought to get the 'loot' as well.

I sat and pondered over this.  You see....in the majority of Alabama counties, you'd label them as mostly rural, and maybe one single general hospital in the entire county.  I would suggest in roughly forty of the sixty-seven counties....it's slim picking for healthcare (especially if you started talking mental issue or the 'crazy-factor').  If you lived around Mobile, Huntsville, or Birmingham?  You've got a fairly good number of clinics and hospitals.  

But the other side of this story is that the bulk of poor sections of the state....are also around most of the urbanized areas.  Yeah, it begs a lot of questions, but it's the reality of the situation.

Where this whole casino thing goes in the end?  I suspect the $500-million income that the folks are talking about.....might be way over the reality of the situation, and that it might only be in the $250-to-$300-million range. All these programs that they chat over, for education, fast internet and more healthcare?  They will be programmed up the first year, and come to a serious shortfall by year two/three.  More taxes coming?  To make up for the shortfall?  Yeah, I'd suggest by 2024, there's some 5-percent bump up on income taxes coming because the programs never got enough Casino 'loot'.

Who gets appointed to this Commission?  Don't even go and bring that topic up. I'd suggest within a decade....at least five individuals will be investigated by the state or Feds....to have some charges drawn up.  Knowing our luck, at least two of the first seven members of the Commission will be former Baptist ministers or retired NCAA football coaches.  

But here's the thing.....instead of these stupid excuses we've made about secret trips to Vegas.....we can just stay in-state and spend our wealth at local casino operations....sipping cheap drinks and hooking up with lusty women from Brazil or the Ukraine.  

Our gambling habits requiring rehab treatment?  Well...maybe in this healthcare business....free counseling and rehab will be available for our gambling addiction.  

Finally, for those guys who dreamed of the $17...steak buffet deal where you got a dozen 3-star steaks thrown on the platter....casino dinner options will be a curious thing to experience.