Observations: 6 Oct 2021

 1.  So there's some gang members in Chicago, who were identified in various shootings.  Court action started up, but then....the prosecutor dropped the charges.  Reason?  She says there was 'mutual combat' going on....meaning members of group A fighting members of group B.

So if you were Farmer A, and had a feud building up with Farmer B, and just shot the guy in the leg twice one afternoon.....if this was mutual feuding, then your county prosecutor wouldn't file any charges?  Well....this apparently only works in Chicago.  

Based on chatter going on.....nobody really believes much of this story.  

2.  Did John Kerry explain the whole French sub-Australia-France-Biden episode?  Well....it goes this way.  Kerry had to meet with President Biden after this sub contract business came out in the open.  Biden says to Kerry.....he didn't know anything about the contract on the subs.  Yep....no one in the Pentagon or State Department ever briefed him....on what was one of the biggest defense contracts in the past ten years.  

So this week when Secretary of State Blinken visits President Macron of France....he's basically going to tell Macron this story that Biden didn't know nothing.

Macron reacting?  He's going ask.....so you guys in the State Department never briefed him until the deal was done?  Yep will be the response.  Macron will then ask....what else have you not briefed him on?  

At that point, Macron will regard Biden as simply a 'talking-dog' and there's no one really in charge of the US government.  The free world?  It's really dependent upon Macron at this point.

3.  The Taliban came up two days ago and announced that they had raided and killed off an entire 'secret' cell of ISIS folks in Kabul.  True or fake?

Well...there were eight folks killed in this raid.  Whether they were ISIS-K members or not....is not really clear.  

Taliban hating ISIS-K folks?  I would compare this to a situation where you Hitler-version 1 who has a problem with Hitler version 2.  I doubt if the raid matters that much....there's still ISIS-K folks around and recruiting.  Who is supporting ISIS-K financially?  That would be an interesting question to ask.  

4.  If the primary period in 2023 opens up and Trump announces he's in the running....will this trigger Joe Biden to run a second time?  Well....there's this scenario out there and you have to wonder how many people who voted for Biden in 2020....would repeat.  

Observations

 1. What happens after Nancy Pelosi leaves the House Speaker job?  

I'm one of those people who believe that Pelosi will not run in the mid-term of 2022, and probably will leave the House Speaker job in the spring of 2022 (at a time of her choosing).  I also think a far left radical group of people will apply for the House Speaker job, and at least thirty of the Democrats in the House will agree on the replacement submitted by the Party itself.  

I suspect at least three factional groups will try to forward their 'person', and whoever replaces Pelosi....is only going to hold the job until January 2023.

2.  This attempt to get the Justice Department to send the FBI after parents hassling school boards?

This can only end with one remarkable 'change'.....that more kids are removed from public schools and private schools/home-schooling jumps by more than 100k kids in a very short period of time (probably sixty days).

The real loser?  In some districts, I might go and suggest enough kids are removed from the schools.....to trim back hired teachers.  The situation will flip-out a number of teachers (going out) because they owe $80k in student debt.  Getting hired for the private school system?  Some might retain a job.

Forcing the end of school boards?  I would suggest that board members will be identified as 'problems' and a fair number will see themselves voted out in the next election.  But this will inflame the whole mess, and some states will discuss the idea of terminating boards entirely....making a committee from the state level responsible, and providing them round-the-clock security.

Just Observations

 1.  House member Jayapal basically the failure of President Biden's 3-trillion....lays a path for the new idea idea of a $1.5-trillion package, but then she says....it's TOO small 'to get priorities in'. 

Then she just kinda left it there....never explaining her 'priorities'.  

2.  The chatter of missing Christmas gifts in November/December?  It grows louder.  I'd go and suggest for kids....you'd best buy the stuff this week and not wait any longer.  If you fail?  Figure up some story over the reindeer dying off because of Covid.....that they didn't have a Covid vaccine for reindeer.

3.  There's some comments about that meeting of President Biden and House Democrats last week....to whip up enthusiasm for the 3-trillion deal.....that this went negative, and Biden actually hurt the situation more than helped it.

The one obvious thing you see since January.....the more that President Biden talks about something....the less confident you feel about whatever it is that is being discussed.  Can't remember anything like this in the past fifty years.  

4. The UK and this gas station crisis?  Well....here's the simple explanation. When they voted for BREXIT, the one big detail was that foreigners would be forced out of the UK, with the idea that too many foreigners were taking jobs.  On paper, it all made sense.

So in the past couple of months, as the final details of expulsing the foreigners finally out of the UK....no one really asked what the number were in certain trades. Well....fuel delivery in the UK....was mostly a UK person, but a fair number (probably as much as one-third)....were non-British citizens.  

They left, and suddenly....in a matter of just a week or two....a national crisis occurred.  I'd also go and suggest that if you dig into it....more than forty different professions are facing a crisis but on a smaller scale.  

What will happen now?  Starting today.....the Brit military gets into the work.  How long? I would be guessing they will be doing the job for a minimum of three months.  

Recruitment in Europe for truckers?  It's started up but lets be serious....countries like Germany and France already had a minor shortage on trucker, and I doubt that the Brits get 10,000 truckers like they talk about.  Kinda funny....more than enough losers....or flower-ladies....or police, but not enough to drive trucks.

5.  Starting 1 October, the postal folks have said they are going to a slower schedule.  The emphasis?  If you mail a letter first class, from your local station....to a office in your county area...instead of three days of getting there, it's now likely to be five days.  Yes, it would have been better to take the letter yourself and just bring it to the county office.  

Pretty slow?  They say it's reversed to the level of 1970.

Next step?  It wouldn't surprise me if we reach 2025, and they slow it 'again'....adding several days and make it two weeks to get an envelop sixteen miles across the county to the destination. 

Getting to 'pony-express' stage?  I might live long enough to see that rate of speed return (expect by 2040).  

The Developing Change of View From France Over the US

 So from a historical standpoint....back in 1963/1964....the French (along with the Germans/British) didn't buy into the one-guy conspiracy deal with JFK.  The Warren Commission Report?  Total failure of convincing them?  Yeah, and this set the stage for the next two decades of distrust over the leadership of the United States.  

You can laugh about this, but the general gut feeling out of France by the mid-1960s....a coup of some type had taken place, with various parties (from extremists to rogue agents of the CIA) had participated in the execution of JFK.

So as things developed in June/July, and it was obvious that no one had a plan for Afghanistan....a lot of that past feeling of distrust arose.  The sub deal with Australia, and how the French contract suddenly dissolved?  It merely added to the whole mess.

This week....Secretary of State Blinken and President Macron will meet.  I'm guessing that Blinken will hint that he really didn't know much about this sub deal suddenly happening, and he was in the 'dark'.  To which.....Macron will ask if President Biden was in the 'dark' as well. It'd be best if Blinken didn't respond to that question.

What'll happen after the meeting?  Macron will sit down....evaluate the landscape, and probably come to grasp that the US has slipped off into some 'Twilight-Zone' situation, with President Biden lacking skills and mind for the job (probably looking at VP Harris in the same manner).  

What happens over the next year?  It might be curious to watch how this plays out and if Macron assumes the role of 'leader-of-the-free-world'.  

Hamburgers

 The most expensive hamburger I've ever eaten....was a $29 burger from a 2012 visit to NY City.  It was a late lunch on some oddball street in Manhattan.  Was it even worth $29 (didn't include the drink or chips)?  I doubt it.  But once you figure the rent for the establishment, the ingredients, the bun, and the local wage situation....with taxes figured up....that made a decent burger overly expensive.

In Copenhagen, on a one-day 'waltz' though the city, I had a decent 12-Euro ($15) burger that had neutral-tasting mustard, stale pickles, and non-tasting graded onions.  

Four years ago in the Wiesbaden region, I had a terrific hand-packed burger (about as thick as you can make a burger), for around 17-Euro (included the drink and fries).

Back in 1980, I had this bar-b-q 'shack' in Tacoma, Washington that served a burger with some mystery sauce applied....that would make your heart melt on the unique taste.  They soaked the burgers in this sauce....to give you that smoky 'feeling'.

In Panama, at the NCO Club 'shack', they served a burger that was dripping in grease (probably a whole shot-glass came off the burger while on your table).

Last year, I ate a German-made burger which had tiny bits of spice-up cheese fused into the meat as it grilled.  Frankly, it's the wrong way of making a burger, if you ask me.

The Krystal burgers of 1975?  25 cents with a paper-thin piece of meat and what seemed like a half-onion chopped up, with spoon of mustard?  I would eat around six of these....to make myself feel full.  

The worst burger experience ever?  I stopped at some place in Munich, Germany around 1984, and had a burger which was 50-percent beef and the rest 'filler' (don't ask).  About halfway through the burger....I pushed it to the side.

Yesterday, 6?

 President Biden yesterday utters a response to a reporter about his failing draft bill:

"....whether it's passed in 6 minutes, 6 days, or 6 weeks, we'll get it passed."

It's just odd.....6-6-6.  Why even use the number six?  

Already, some Satanic folks are suggesting Joe is under some curse.

France Leading the World?

 Back in the early 1960s, in France....a magazine was started up and called 'Le Spectacle du Monde'....which translates to mean 'The Spectacle of the World'.  

As for a description of it....it looked at the world in terms of news, culture and trends.  

At some point around 2014....it 'petered-out' and went under.  Two years ago....it was revamped and started back up.

Most people would say that the early years were all pretty neutral.  Since re-starting, it probably does lean more to the right, than being center-based.

The most recent edition came out, and they ran the cover story of 'The Suicide of America'.  What they hype upon is that the Afghanistan debacle....for the most part, is a clear path leading back to 'woke-issues'.  American collapsing?  Well, they dig into this topic and suggest that the US cannot remain a leader in the world....it's too divided.

President Macron's take?  Even before this article came out....if you go back to July, Macron was already talking about this American-woke-politics was settling into French society, and it was NOT a good thing.

Curiously, next week....the US Secretary of State (Blinken) is supposed to visit with Macron.  I'm guessing a good ninety-minute conversation will occur, and Blinken will get a blunt message from Macron....that from a world leadership role, the US is finished and France intends to step up to the plate.

How Blinken will take this and report back to Biden?  Unknown.  My humble guess is that he won't mention much of the woke-business because Biden would just get more confused and unsettled.  

But this brings a curious change about to unfold in the world.  From 1945, to the 1990s....it was the US and Soviet Union as world leaders.  From the 1990s on....most would argue that Germany, the US, China, Japan, and England were regarded in this first-world status.  But today?  No one really sees a first tier group existing anymore.  Economically-speaking.....it's hard to even talk about the US as a leader country....with the various issues that currently exist.  

Macron is about to enter a campaign period (election in spring of 2022).  I'm of the mind that he's about to launch the concept that France is the cornerstone of the free world, and he's the only guy capable or qualified to lead.  The selling point of the campaign?  Anti-woke? It'd be a shocker for Macron to run the campaign upon that and expect to win.  

All of this leading to a blunt message to President Biden?  I'd go and suggest that.