Five Questions Which Might Be Interesting To Ask Joe Biden

 1.  When was the last time that he drove a car and refilled the tank with fuel?

-- I'm just guessing but it's probably been over twenty-five years.  So, he has very little knowledge over fuel costs.

2.  When was the last time that he entered and shopped at a Piggly Wiggly or any type of grocery?

-- In the past decade?  It wouldn't shock me if it's three times or less.

3.  Does he know his monthly average on electricity costs for the house he owns in Delaware?  

-- Just a humble guess here, but he probably hasn't reviewed the bill in thirty-odd years.  His wife might have a basic idea but I'll bet she hasn't seen the bill either, for at least a decade.

4.  Can he name all of his cabinet officials?  

-- It's a silly question, but it would just be curious to ask this and see if he fails.  If he utters 'that blonde gal', or that 'funny guy'.....there's something wrong.  

5.  What officials or meetings did you entertain in the past week?  In terms of man-hours....what exactly have you been doing?

-- As crazy as it sounds....I don't think he can answer the question.  

Two Entertainment Notes

 First, I noticed today that a TV production group is now putting together a TV-Rambo series.

I sat there for a while....trying to contemplate how this would work, how the original script would have to change, and how Rambo would be on the run....24 hours a day...seven days a week....for a whole production year.

Course, you'd have to accomplish all of this with minimum violence, weapons fired, without actually killing too many people (probably a limit of two folks for each one-hour episode).

The more I thought about it....the more I laughed.  

They'd probably try to do this with a female 'bad-guy-sheriff' and probably located in some mountainous area of the Carolinas.  If you asked....how stupid this rates....I'd give it a '9' out of '10'.

Second, there's the basic idea of the next James Bond / 007 movie put out there.

So female 007 (you were introduced to her in this last movie) will have been kidnapped, and 'Q' has decided to call the other 'OO's' (001, 002, etc).  

You (the viewer) will be introduced to at least three OO's (my estimate).  Who will play 001, 002, and 003?  Unknown.  

If this were me writing the script....I'd drag 006 into this and reveal him to be Prince Charles.....just for laughs.

What'll happen?  I'm betting that 001, 002, and 003 all meet an ending (dead) by the conclusion of this movie.....along with the female Bond/007 character.  Q reaches some desperation point in the final minute and reveals that he's called '000' (junior trainee), and you get quietly introduced to some wild character that is unlike any Bond ever.

Just my two cents on the idea.

My Logistics Story

 At various times in my Air Force career....I was often stuck with ordering or receiving items that the office/vault required.  

One day in the late 1990s....I got called to the front door of the vault.  The supply delivery guy was there.  He had a box for our organization.  So I signed for it and opened it at the desk.

Here was a fair sized box, with around forty-odd reels (all newly packed).  It didn't really make any sense....we had nothing in the vault that ran on reels, and hadn't had such a device in eight to ten years.  

So I went to the supply office and asked stupid questions.

They dug through the records, and that around 1990 (approximately eight years prior)....someone in the office ordered around forty of these reels.  Money was allocated, and the purchase was made, but put on back-order.  

So I looked at the paperwork and asked....how much did they pay?  It was near $100 each (premium reels).....$4k was involved.  

I told the 'kid'....we didn't really need these...was there anyone to give it to?  Nope was the response.

I went back to the office and spent ten minutes talking to my Captain.  His advice....dump them.  So I prepared paperwork....to turn them into supply.  Well....they turned down the reels.....telling me to turn them into DRMO (Defense reutilization).  But I had to get a stock number, and there was none.

So I went back to supply 'help' office and spent thirty minutes with the 'kid' again.....inventing a stock number, and getting a slip to turn these in.

Man-hour wise?  From beginning to end?  There's probably five hours of time wasted on this.  

Observations: 8 Nov 2021

 1.  This Ashley Biden 'stolen-diary' story.

Well....first, people are shocked that Biden has a daughter (via his second wife, Jill).  Normally, Hunter and the dead son are the only kids ever mentioned.  Second, people keeping diaries?  Well....it was a popular thing for maybe a hundred years.....but in the last thirty-odd years?  It's simply not that popular.

As for the 'steal'?  This is suggested to have occurred about ten days prior to the November election.....but there's simply not many facts on this property being stolen.  Some people relate that the diary was left behind by the daughter (the abandoned is often used).  

This entire story has the 'look' and 'feel' of being fake.  There might have been a diary-like book there and filled with 'juicy' gossip....but there is little to suggest that it was real or actually written by Ashley.  The FBI drawn in?  Why?  If it was personal property....it's a local cop situation.  

2.  Latest shortage?  Those coffee cups you get at stop-and-go coffee houses?

No one is saying a nation-wide shortage....just that problems are being noticed now in the past week.  The odds that you might be asked to bring your own cup with you in the future?  It wouldn't shock me if by Christmas.....you buy your coffee and put it into your own container.

3.  Is Bosnia about to erupt into another civil war?

Well....in the past six months....politics in the region has changed, and there's some 'dynamics' at work.  The tax-revenue people and the judges.....appear compromised.  So 2022 might be an interesting year, with a collapse of civilization in the region.

Observations: 5 November 2021

 1.  I sat and read a piece this morning where Congresswoman 'AOC' has suggested that the Tuesday loss in Virginia....was mostly due to Democrats going moderate and not hyping far-left extreme values.

Yeah, I think that's right.....they should all attempt to go further to left...to prove AOC's point.

2.  Apparently, the folks on the TV show 'View' say that the Tuesday loss was because of too many white-racist women.

Yeah, I think that's right too, and marginalized TV commentators should jump all over white women.  'Cancel' these white gals.....make them edge over toward the Republicans.

3.  This new rule in the city of SF....that kids under the age of 11 need to carry proof of Covid vaccinations....to buy candy in a candy shop?

Yeah, I think that's right too.  It's just a bit funny though if you think about it.....everyone of these far left cities are progressing this way.  So you don't need a ID to vote, but you do need a Covid vaccination 'ID' to buy candy?  

Getting Things Done 'List'

 This week, I came across a page that had been created in the past couple of months,  which I'd describe as a page dedicated to the first hundred days of the Biden administration, and how wonderful it was.

Hundred days....hundred wonderful accomplishments.

So I spent an hour reviewing the page.

To be honest, I consider the first ten months of the administration to be dismal, and mostly things that you'd rather forget (like the Afghanistan exit plan).

But I've selected ten of these wonderful accomplishments to discuss:

1.  The Covid shots business.  I know that Biden has taken the credit, but the vast majority of the legwork to get this program up and going....was already set in 'concrete' and didn't really have much to do with the President.

2.  The 50-cut in 'carbon pollution' by 2030.  Well....carbon is not pollution (PhD folks will laugh when you use the phrase).  Promising to cut carbon?  It's like saying you promise to cut 50-percent of warts among Americans, or promise to diminish 50-percent of bear attacks in America, or promise to halt 50-percent of illegal border crossing activity.  It's a 'fake' promise that gives people a thrill....nothing more than that.

3.  The administration handed out 81-billion dollars....to reopen schools.  When you sit and think about it....school budgets are written in stone and the money never dries up because the state and county system has tax-revenue sitting there.  So the 81-billion?  It was just free money....whatever the school systems did....it certainly had nothing to do with Covid or reopening.

4.  The administration brought in the most diverse cabinet in American history.  At some point in the next decade, we will have a serious paranoid schizophrenic Secretary of State, a Secretary of Transportation gal who actively believes in bigfoot and the Loch Ness Sea Monster, and a Attorney General who has 40-percent of their body covered in tattoos.  The selling point to this is to make Americans happy over diverse stuff....even if it goes beyond your imagination.

5.  'Supported restaurant workers'.  The hint is that it helped the 'mom-and-pop' restaurants survive.  Most folks (by mid-summer 2021)  who fell into the 'mom-and-pop' theme....will tell you the money and effort was marginal, and too late. 

6.  'Fixed the White House web site to ask you for your pronoun.'   I sat and pondered over this.  For regular working-class people.....it has zero value.

7.  Brought back the Spanish language White House web site.  It's an amazing thing....if you use the right browser now.....you can convert the White House 'theme' to any language (even Russian or Finnish).  So you contracted this out....paying some guy to translate it....when Google does it for you free of charge.  

8.  'Booted deregulation'.  Basically....as Trump got rid of regulations....the Biden administration brought the regulations back into full form.  So the term ought to be de-regulated deregulation.  Yeah, its as silly as it sounds.

9.  'Restored weekly White House press conferences'.  Not to really go negative on this....but these conferences are marginally working at this point, and most journalists are critical of the messages being handed out.

10.  Announced a program to hype up a wind-energy off-shore program that would bring 135,000 jobs with it.  It's like the green energy hype of the Obama administration.....where you say something that just never comes true.  First, you'd have to get permission of states and communities to even build the off-shore generators....which may never occur. 

I look at the Biden accomplishments and basically.....there's no four or five star accomplishments that can be easily recognized by the public in the first 300-odd days.  What you have are things announced with questionable value....probably adding up to each being either a one-star or two star accomplishment.  In simple terms....people are still waiting.  

The Greeks

 My introduction to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle....occurred around the 6th grade, and there was a two paragraph mention of the three old Greek guys, and something about philosophy (remember, this was Alabama in the late 1960s).  There was a test in that six-week period, and I would imagine some question did come up to name the three, but if you asked what they really changed or meant.....nothing in that class established that.

I think there was one additional mention around the 9th grade, and then that was it.  Philosophy, logic and questioning never really came up.  

A couple of years into my Air Force years....I took a course in logic (it was the only course ever....out of fifty-odd courses....that didn't mandate a real test at the conclusion of the class).  On one particular evening, we got into the Socrates and Aristotle chatter, and it was curious to me how you needed logic in your life.

Somewhere around age thirty, I picked up a couple of books one year....on ancient Greek philosophy, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.  I'd refer to that year as a 'year of learning'.  This was all material that I probably should have consumed by age fifteen.  

In today's atmosphere?  If you came to most 18-year old 'kids' in college and mandated a full class of Greek philosophy....they'd launch into a tirade and suggest they don't need wisdom from old Greek dead guys.  

Are we in some darkened area of civilization where even PhD professors are lacking Greek philosophy, and becoming marginalized intellectuals?  I might suggest that.

If you were lacking and wanting a suggest or two on books to start a path toward the Greeks?  I might go and suggest Aristotle's Children (by Richard Rubenstein), and Greek Philosophy: Thales to Socrates.  Both are good starting points.