Decline

 Just over three-quarters of U.S. voters now believe their society is in some type of decline (poll by the Trafalgar Group).

Viewing the landscape.....I would have made this statement myself around the 2000 to 2010 era.....there were various bits of evidence to suggest that....depending on where you lived....things were getting tougher or more prevalent to crime/drugs.

If you divided this among high urban areas, and rural areas.....it'd be a significant difference.  If you resided in the heart of Memphis or New Orleans....probably 90-percent of people would say decline is going on.  If you lived in rural Tennessee or rural South Carolina....probably one-third of folks would suggest the decline situation.

What brought it on?  It's a combination of twenty-odd things.  Drugs played a part....fake politics played a role....corruption at the local, state and federal level played into this....lack of respect within schools....poorly educated people left to French Fry handlers....social media fell into the pit....etc.

I would even argue that we've come to the point that Presidents are considered 'Satan' or 'Jesus', when they are marginally getting anything done.

Improving?  How? 

Inslee on Lying

 I picked up this story about six hours ago.

Washington state Democratic Governor Jay Inslee has now said that he'd like to make a new law for the state.....that it would turn into a crime if any elected official/candidate lies on election results.

After a fair amount of thinking.....I actually think it's a great idea, but I'd suggest it only goes 1-percent of the way.  

I think for any lie....for any purpose....ought to invoke this lie crime situation, and either get you jail-time or some hefty fine.

We'd have a full-time truth commission, where forty-odd people are sworn to some level of truth, and will guard the public from lies.  Upon having a mayor, or commissioner, or policeman caught in a lie.....they'd just fill out the charges and send the guy to court.  

Odds that 1,500 state folks would be sent off to jail or terminated from employment?  Well....yeah, that probably would occur.  

How Easy Is It To Fall For a Agent Provocateur?

 This is a true story.

I lived in the Arlington area for 3.5 years (2010 to 2013).....in a apartment complex.  Across the street from my place were three additional apartment buildings. 

One day.....all hell broke loose, but lets re-arrange this story at the very beginning. 

In one of these apartment buildings....about six months prior....some new gal moved in.  Mid-20s.....attractive....and very chatty.  She was always wanting to start up a conversation with just about anyone at the entry of the building.  

Folks might argue, but probably a quarter of all the residents knew this gal within six weeks of arrival.

She claimed....proudly....as to working for the CIA.

Most people, who do work for the CIA....rarely bring this up, and it's mostly with friends only.

At some point, she had a young guy (early 20s) hooked up with her.  It's safe to say that 'relations' were happening.

Then, she let the young guy know that she was shipping off to the Middle East for a sensitive mission, and that she could hire an assistant.  To make all this possible, she needed some of his private information for the HR paperwork.

This guy totally believed her chatter.

He would give notice at his regular government job, and packed up for a trip with her.  They would fly into his parent's location as they left, and....well....Mom and Dad didn't buy any of her story, the CIA stuff, or the potential job.

They made a call or two (Mom and Dad), and the story fell apart.  There was no secret agent job.....no assignment in the Middle East, and this dimwit was not connected to the CIA.

The authorities back in Virginia did some investigation but there's no clear law broken.  

The guy wanting to believe the fake CIA gal?  I always thought....after hearing the various stories, that everyone at the apartment complex wanted to  believe her story. 

This is basically how a agent provocateur operates.....they have a decent story, and work at various ways to convince you of the story.  The more simple the story....the easier the 'sell' becomes.  

How this girl ever rented the apartment?  I was told that her parents gave her a monthly check and she was just out living on her own.  What happened after this?  Unknown.  My humble guess is that she's in some other American town.....telling people of her CIA missions, and working to convince new people of secret assignments coming up shortly.  

The 5th of January 2021 Pipebomber

 It's just an odd thing.

Around 7:40 PM that evening (5 Jan 2021)....a guy wearing a gray hoodie sweatshirt and a mask....was seen via video....carrying a bag along South Capitol Street in DC.  It's a north-south street which leads out of the Anacostia area of DC....going north.

About 12 minutes later....the guy is recorded....sitting on a bench at the Democratic National Committee building in DC.....leaving a bag (pipebomb #1).

Around 15 minutes later....he's seen via another camera....by the Republican National Committee building, placing another pipebomb (#2).

Both were found and disabled before they blew.  

So....to this date (a year later) nothing is known on the guy.  Yes, there is a $50k reward on information....if you were curious about it.

I sat and reviewed the information.

Around DC, I would estimate a minimum 3,000 security cameras.  Some focus on streets....some on buildings, but it's almost impossible to venture around the city without the cameras seeing you.  

Quality of the video of this guy?  In some cases....excellent.

Did he arrive by bus/subway?  No.  Based on the 'entry' and 'exit'.....there's no video of him going to some bus or entering/exiting the subway system.

Did he just walk into DC?  Well....there would have been additional video to show him doing so.

Did he drive into DC....park in some random parking lot, and walk 30 to 60 minutes to reach the 7:40 PM point?  You would assume that they looked at parking garage video and found no one in that attire around that time.

Parked out on the street?  Probably.

The fact that he laid a pipebomb at both the RNC and DNC?  He wanted both to noticed?  Probably.

Did the FBI do a lot of research over video?  Well...I'm not convinced of this.  Someone does appear out of thin air at 7:40 PM and disappear entirely at 8:14 PM.  I've spent hours walking around DC (2010 to 2013) and noted various cameras.  This guy had to know of some corner where there are no cameras, and had some associate drop him off.....then pick him up.  

Of all the things from the 6th of January episode....this is the weirdest one....without any real effort by the FBI.  

Homelessness 'Path'

 It's not rocket science, but it's hard for the average American to understand what happened on the west coast to advance homelessness.  So I'll tell this shorten version of the 'saga'.

Somewhere along the 1970s/1980s....suburbs reached a point where they felt enough construction had been done, and put political pressure on various city councils....to lessen construction.  In effect, the 'boom' came to a much lesser state of being at that point around places like LA, SF, and Seattle.

Even if you were a property speculator.....you found that deals were now much less in terms of size and development.  Apartments for lower income folks?  That really started to cease.

Rents then started to escalate, and the average waitress or short-order cook....was pushed to the limits.  

In this same era....housing or forced hospitalization of paranoid schizophrenia folks ran into issues.  

Also in the same era....came drug usage.  

These three took a non-existent problem and made it into a rocket-science situation. 

The final problem was that people felt the west coast had opportunity....so if you were a loser in Chicago, Dayton, or Tulsa.....you might get this crazy idea to haul your stuff out to the west coast, and hook onto some success there.  Over the past twenty years....this giant magnet existed and just complicated the overall problem even more.

So there is a new agenda of problem approaching.  Various 'help-groups' want to come in and fix all of this?  Their stumbling block?  Well....they want to force cheap housing to be built.  Added to this....the jobs just aren't there.  And finally.....with various rehab efforts underway, if you deliver the cleaned-up guy to a zero-job situation....then he falls back into the pit.  

There's tons of money to be wasted, and no one really understands this angle of the whole deal.  

Viewing the 6th of January a Year Later

 There are three issues that I see:

1.  The person responsible for security in the capital building....is Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  On carrying out her function....it's a zero.  I don't think she even grasped that she's the person accountable for the make-up of the security for the building.  

I generally believe the time has come to make the Speaker position into a full-time non-voted individual, and hold them accountable for the functionality of the capital building.

2.  It's just odd....out of three-hundred-odd people who stormed the building....there's just one single person who seems dead because of actions on that day, and it's a Air Force vet gal.  That's it.  The one cop who died?  That's hours later, via a heart attack.

3.  Finally, from the three-hundred characters that the FBI put on wanted posters....three individuals who were leaders of this posse-group or Oath-Keeper crowd....who churned up the crowd to enter.....aren't arrested or charged-up.  The appearance that they might be agent-provocateurs?  Well....the longer this goes on and the fed prosecutors refuse to charge them....it just looks like a made-up operation to get folks hyped up....to commit a crime.  

How things will end?  In spring of 2023, I expect some House committee (Republican led) to go and investigate the whole thing, and bring the three 'leaders' in for questions.  Connections back to the FBI?  Probably, and at that point....all of the charged-up folks will be given some type of release, and civil suits will follow.  It wouldn't even shock me if the FBI ends being disbanded to some degree because of the lack of trust going on.  At that point....'agent-provocateurs' will be on our mind a good bit.  

Observations

 1.  This I-95 'stranded business' in Virginia.  If you went and reviewed regional weather forecasts....around six hours prior to the 'delivery' of the snow business to I-95....the weather guys were already chatting over the extent of the problem.  Responsible people (including truckers) should have taken the warning, and simply picked a quiet safe spot to hunker down for 36 hours and then proceed on.  That didn't happen.  

Around 25 years ago, I was on a base where they made a ice-call at 11 AM....saying everyone that lived more than 30 minutes away from base needed to leave by 1:30 PM.  I had a project and didn't leave until 2:30 PM.....clearly running into the mess as they had predicted.  I didn't get home until 7:00 PM that evening.  So my advice....listen to the weather guys and act accordingly.

2.  The odds of Ghislaine Maxwell's case now being dumped?  Since two jurors stood up in the talk-phase and mentioned their situation with abuse in their life....I'd give Maxwell a 90-percent chance now of having the case thrown out.  The prosecution folks?  They have to be furious about what happened and the idea of a whole repeat.  

3. 'Don't get tested'.  The Florida surgeon general had to go out and urge people.....if you don't have Covid symptoms....don't go and get line to be tested for Covid.  

No one says the numbers but I remember the initial period in 2020 in Germany where doctors absolutely refused to administer the test unless you confessed to one of four key symptoms.  They kept that stance up for at least three months.  People are just inclined to think they have something....when they don't have anything.

4.  NY Times and Omicron.  Well....in simple terms, they more or less compare it to regular flu.  I never thought this day would come.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.