Joe Isn't a Gifted Salesman

 President Biden had a poll come out and it really lessened his situation among the general public.  The poll?  Roughly 82-percent of people said the nation is divided, and is not coming together.  This would mean only around 18-percent of people who either believe it's one unified nation, or didn't really agree with anything in the poll answer column.  

Adding to this mess....around one-third of the polled folks felt that the nation was headed in the 'right-direction'.....meaning the bulk of Americans didn't see much of a positive trend coming around.

So I come to this enormous weakness of President Biden....marginal salesmanship.  What Bill Clinton and Barak Obama had in excess....was salesmanship.  They could take a average bill, or dismal government program....whip up a frenzy with the public and get two-thirds of Americans to buy into something of minimal value.

Biden has never had this type of salesmanship skill.  You can walk through his forty-odd years in DC, and find almost no occasion where he could 'sell' people on something. 

As for the bulk of Americans not believing in a unified nation?  Well....this ought to worry most folks.

This would lessen confidence in Congress, the court system, the police, and so on.  

If this were to increase from 82-percent to 90-percent?  You'd be looking at a pretty big mess and no one in DC capable of putting public confidence back into the system.

My 'Dumber-Than-Dirt' Thoughts

 About five years ago....some smart folks did some tests and reached the conclusion that only one kid out of every three finishing high school (note how I detailed that sentence)....were prepared for college math and reading requirements.  The rest?  Unprepared for the challenge and probably should have been blocked at the entrance of any community college or university....until they'd taken three or four high-school level classes to be 'ready'.

This leads me to this thought which has been on my mind for a decade or more.....maybe we ought to 'test' kids out at the tenth grade, and send a fair number onto some occupational trade school, and avoid wasting educational time or resources on kids.

The idea that maybe half the kids reaching some college and 'faking' their way through four years?  Well....there's no doubt that a bunch of college kids are just attending classes and marginally getting educated to the level that ought to be required.

Somewhere along this landscape.....there's college professors standing there, and fully grasping that a third to half of the students in the room....are dumber than 'dirt'.  They can't write a simple one-page story.....they can't figure square feet or cubic feet....they've heard of the Civil War but aren't that sure about who won....they think capitalism is pretty evil while wearing a $150 pair of Nike shoes....and they believe they are ten times smarter than their dad.

We're deep into a mess, and it's hard to figure the exit, or even if helps to dump some kids out on the curb.  

Immunization Story

 The CDC came out last week and had this interesting statistic.

Roughly 7,150 people have had the full Covid-19 vaccination (both shots, if required), and developed Covid-19 after the immune period started.  Yes, they had Covid-19 anyway.

Roughly.....60 percent of the group....were women (if that statistic mattered).

Out of this 7,150 group.....around 500 of them required hospitalization.  We aren't saying that they had ventilator treatment, but they did go into the hospital because it was serious enough.

So then you come to the dismal issue to deal with....88 of these folks died (yes, even with the immunization deal).

Now, you can ask a bunch of questions here, and it's not clear from the CDC.  Some folks might have entered the hospital because of Covid and their age, then got some kind of staph infection and died more so from that crappy hygiene business than the Covid.

Or these folks in the hospital might have been fairly aggravated, and had some kind of heart attack, and thus died more so from that, than the Covid.

So, should immunization really make you feel happy?  These days, with all the ban-rules and hyped-up sensitivity of people......you kinda need something (even an imaginary immunization situation)....to pep you up.  

What'll happen as we emerge in 2022, and you kinda figure out that Covid hyped-up feelings just linger around and nothing much improved?  I think the news folks will stop talking about it, and start looking for something 'new' to hype people upon.  Maybe alien UFOs....maybe Caitlyn Jenner (the trans person) as the new GOP governor of California....or discussing the 12 steps that President fell down when exiting Air Force One. 

Three Things I'd Do Differently With the Police

 1.  Upon arriving at any situation which is suggested to be possibly violent....I'd mandate the police pull out the pistol and fire three rounds in the air to get everyone's attention.  From that point on.....if you aren't laying on the ground, you get whatever you deserve from the 'mess'.

2.  Any cop showing unreasonable 'roughness' in handling prisoners....gets onto a database which can be seen by any city or state hiring the guy in the future for police duties.  The idea that you could be a stupid cop with the tendency of roughing up people, and just keep moving around to new jobs every three years....needs to stop.

3.  End all police patrols at sundown.  Let everyone know the limitations, and allow them to be fully armed from sundown to sun-up.  In the first year....a ton of 'bad-boys' will be buried, and you will notice a lessening of assaults and robbery after a year or two.  

Aiming Story

 I sat this morning and watched a press conference from Columbus, Ohio....with the shooting business.....where the reporter asked the police chief: Why can't you train your cops to just shoot people in the leg?

I sat there.....mostly amused and paused at that point....replaying the question five or six times.

A couple of years ago....there was this action-TV series....'Person of Interest', where the chief 'good-guy' always shot the bad guys in the leg, hip or thigh.  Out of a hundred episodes....I think he must have shot 250 folks....all in the leg or hip.  Far as I know....he never killed anyone.

Generally, in  the Air Force training....both with the M-9 pistol and the M-16 rifle....you get a person 'target' and they kinda train you to aim for the chest.  The idea of a leg shot?  Well....you might have to fire ten rounds....to get the wound that put the guy down.  Firing that many rounds....the odds are in favor of you hitting a second, third or fourth person in the landscape.....so it's not a wise strategy.

It would be curious if the reporter would go and sign up for shooting lessons at the local gun shop, and practice on shooting folks in leg.  At some point, he'll accidentally fire a round or two at the 'dummy-target'....hitting the 'balls' and then he'll start asking himself if it's worse shooting the guy's crown jewels....or trying aim for the shoulder.  

A Time To Think

 We are generally 'bombarded' twenty-four hours a day....seven days a week, and the rapid pace of news, public opinion, and hyped-up reaction....is dragging us along some path where things often don't make sense, or you end up with a story which is filled with 'holes'.

I can't think of a single story over the past couple of years where you felt entirely satisfied with the facts.  Sadly, we have mostly two-star journalists around now....who don't seem worried about missing features of a story, or that the story seems to be just enough for a 12-year old juvenile, but not for what you'd consider an adult.

I sat and watched a Dick Cavett show this morning....June 1970.  It was an odd group....Chet Huntley (the news guy who grew up in Montana), Raquel Welch, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and Janis Joplin.  

It was probably the oddest group ever assembled for a evening talk-show.  Anyone remembering them today?  No.  You could test a hundred people, and the only ones knowing the four (or Cavett) would be those over the age of sixty.

They come to this odd point at the end of the hour, and Huntley is declaring retirement being not that far off, and that the pace of the news is one of those things drawing him to say 'enough'.

Oddly, as he lays out this 'pace of the news'....the group all kinda suggest the same thing.  X-amount of information is laid out, and the sense of where this is going to lead onto....is missing.  

You have to remember....this was 1970....before the internet came along, or cable news.  

In today's environment?  There just isn't enough time to sit and pause over what you were told....asking yourself what really happened here,  and then using a 'red-pen' to note missing key items to the story.  It's all told in a way to get a reaction....when the story is mostly a one-star story without much content.  

When Authority Means Nothing

 I've sat and watched this police-video (at least 15 times) of the Columbus, Ohio situation where this 16-year old teen (Ma'Khia Bryant) is shot by the police. 

It's up on YouTube and you can find it....to watch for yourself.

The 911 call?  Well....it's basically this 'warning' by the caller that all 'hell' is breaking loose and arguments with the potential for violence are underway....so the  cops arrive, and it's roughly ten to fifteen seconds after the arrival that you see two individuals (one guy and one teenage gal) who seem to be unaffected by the police car or police authority.

It's a odd thing to watch.....seconds where these two idiots are intently set on some type of violence, with no affect by the police presence. 

Maybe I'm from a different generation (1960s/1970s/1980s).  But generally, the minute a fire-truck or a police presence is established....my entire focus is upon the 'authority'.

These two?  I get the impression that you could have dumped out a 2,500-lb bull upon the crowd, and they would have continued their intended degree of violence.

So you see the teenager suddenly with a knife and progressing  toward a stabbing.  The intent to kill? Absolute.  

If the policeman hadn't fired?  Well...the teenager in the pink pants-suit would have been stabbed two or three times, and probably enough to die there on the front-yard.  

The 16-year old?  She would have gone off to prison for 15 to 20 years.

So I sit and ponder.....all people had to do upon the arrival of the police car....take note, and just chill out.  In this case, the police car and authority arriving....meant nothing to these two.  That should generally scare you.....we have dropped so low as a society, that authority means nothing.