Constitutional Chatter

 I sat and read through a piece by The Nation (the magazine) which centered on journalist Elie Mystal trashing down the U.S. Constitution.  The blunt side of the commentary?  

It's a lot of criticism over it being unfair in the world today.

I usually look at this commentary and direct a comment back....why don't you write a new draft Constitution and let us review it?

What you end up with....falls into one of three categories:

1.  It ends up being a four-hundred page document which is mostly about non-rights....than rights itself.

You know....the kind of document that you need a year-by-year review.....where you fight with various legal minds to update the document.

2.  It ends up defining things, with a undefinable description.....like saying a dog is only a four-legged creature but never going beyond that wording.  Remember the problem this week, where a potential new Supreme Court Judge could not define a woman?

3.  You end up with a legal document that cannot be explained in any high school because it's written in intellectual language that can only be clearly understood by a Master's degree lawyer.  

You know....like the original Bible held by the Catholic Church...only available in Latin.

One of the chief complaints about the current Constitution is that it lists rights in a 'holy-fashion', which is interpreted to mean that any situation can arrive with a 2022 event, and you are taking 1776 meaning to apply against the event.  People get bent out of shape with this application.  They'd rather something come out of thin air and fix the event with a Houdini-type magical-act.

For the benefit of folks....if you ever get a chance to read over the Alabama Constitution....you will find around 977 amendments attached to it.  A few are rights....a lot just say you can't take serious.  

There is an amendment which says dead animal removal in Limestone County is a county job.  You kinda wonder who was doing it before the state wrote this into the Constitution.  

There is also an amendment to cover waste removal in Jefferson County (note: the other 60 counties didn't need this for some reason).  

There is even an amendment to cover Alabama deceased state officials from collecting a salary (while dead).

My gut feeling is that if you turned these Constitutional enthusiasts loose.....you might end up with 15,000 amendments, sixty Supreme Court judges, and nine different ways to multi-vote in national elections.  

If A Guy/Gal Can't Define A Woman.....

 ....then he/she probably can't define a honky tonk.

....then he/she probably can't define liberty.

....then he/she probably can't define risky behavior.

....then he/she probably can't define 'hustle'.

....then he/she probably can't define weird.

....then he/she probably can't define a 'ball' and 'strike'.

.....then he/she probably can't define illegal alien.

.....then he/she probably can't define 'doom'.

.....then he/she probably can't define 'vagueness'.

....then he/she probably can't define the term 'capitalist'.

....then he/she probably can't define kinky.

....then he/she probably can't define the term 'courage'.  

This is a person you need to relieve of responsibility....just let them sweep the storeroom....bag groceries....run the waffle-machine....or haul gravel for a living.  

Why People Were Consumed For Trump?

 I could make this a 500-page book, but I'll leave this to four key issues:

1.  I think a quarter of the nation (left, right and independents) were fed up with fakeness.  Maybe they just woke up from the Clinton, Bush, and Obama years.....to realize what both parties offered....was a fake agenda, tied to a fake reality, that asked you to believe in some fake 'Jesus-President'.  

2.  That fire-that-guy ability.  It may have been a joke for Trump to do the reality shows and just stand there....saying 'you're fired', but I think a fair sum of Americans wanted people in the judicial system, the FBI, the Pentagon, Congress, the Senate....to be fired.  

3.  This 'Trump-door' that opened....was always reserved for Governors, House members or Senators.  A  lot of people just wanted to see the door broken down.  Maybe in some weird way.....they wouldn't mind having some retired NFL quarterback, or some PhD mad-scientist guy, or Dr Phil, or even some tobacco-chewing rodeo guy become President.

4.  Finally, some people got pure glee out of turning on CNN (for four years) and getting a minimum of twelve hours a day of anti-Trump chatter....literally destroying the brand and image of CNN in the process.  It was like running a 18-hour commercial daily, for 1460 days....about cysts.  People eventually turned the network off.  

How Time Changes Your Perception

 Back in the 1980s....I traveled around the US a good bit.  I came to some point where I considered five US cities as great places where I'd like to go and live.  Lately, I've been thinking about the five.

1.  Seattle, WA.  Downtown, based on how various locals now describe it....it's become a no-go area.  Between petty crime, homelessness, and drugs....it's bad.

Odds of me ever wanting to return/live in the Seattle area....zero.

2.  Portland, OR.  Basically, same story, with Antifa operations, nutcases, and lack of police.  

Odds of me even stopping off I-5 to fuel-up or spend a night in the city?  Zero.

3.  Monterey, CA. I had this image of Steinbeck-country when I visited.  Today?  Between taxes, ridiculous state leadership, cost-of-living....it's a zero.

4.  Aberdeen, WA.  If you review the crime statistics....even for a small town....Aberdeen is one of the highest crime locations now in the US.  People will tell you that locals know someone that has been robbed in the past two years.  

5.  Coeur d'Alene, ID.  Probably the only one that has survived on without a lot of negativity, but it's in the middle nowhere.  

Defining Women?

 I've sat over the past day or two....watching about two hours of 'interviewing' for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, for the empty seat on the Supreme Court.

When the question came up....for her to define a woman.....she just sat there.

It was like a 4th grade kid being asked to explain nuclear science or asking about the uniformity of nature (you'd have to be a first year college student to render a decent wording on that).

Eventually, she gave no real explanation.

To be honest.....there's probably six additional things that she was asked about in that period I watched.....where you were left with a mysterious 'look' on her face (like aliens had landed in Miami).

I eventually turned the TV off.  

I'm left with three explanations:

1.  She is dumber than a Spongebob Squarepants.

2.  She was told to just act dumb to all Republican questions.

3.  She is so vastly superior on intelligence, that she can't really define a woman without going into a 1,500 word answer which discusses ninety different traits of women, and fourteen different hormone 'things'.

My gut feeling?  It would be amazing to wake up in 2028, and have two of the Justices admit in some confidential situation that 'KBJ' is marginally thinking at the 3rd grade level.  

I don't think it really matters though....to have a dimwit or two on the Supreme Court.  It wouldn't even bother me if you pushed up a American Hispanic midget with an IQ of 88....to be a Justice.  It's not like they are on some NCAA football team, running the Pentagon, designing Tesla cars, or running a state prison in Oklahoma. 

Plus you have to admit this....if you stopped 100 people to ask them to define a woman....right off the bat....all the guys would respond with their hands....two boobs.  Maybe it's just NOT important to define women.  

Observations: 23 March 2022

 1.  This necessity to admit the Hunter Biden laptop....ease into a court situation by the fall, and deliver Joe Biden to a January 2023 impeachment scenario?  

I would suggest that various people from the Obama administration are now worried that certain matters from the 2008 to 2016 period will get dragged out into court.  A lot of Americans will end up asking why CNN, NPR, or the NY Times just failed to investigate or discuss this five to ten years ago.

2.  Some analysts are discussing a 25-percent drop in new home 'sales' by late summer.  A lot of this is simply spiraling economic matters and worry by the general public.

3.  NY Post says Hillary Clinton tested positive for Covid.  Her only comment.....'mild symptoms'.  Bill?  Tested and negative.

4.  This past week....a discussion started up over frustrations with the 2020/2021 census.  Some folks have suggested that what we've been using for decades is what I'd call census-lite, and they are asking for something that I'd refer to as census-XXL.

In simple terms....they want the census guy to come up to the front porch, and ask a number of questions which got into personal things.  Then this would somehow be converted into a government database.

To be blunt, the census was never designed in a way to be perfect or effective.  If you asked the PhD guys.....they'd grin and mostly say it's about 80-to-90 percent accurate.

The problem is.....do you want some guy asking what you paid for your house, your monthly grocery bill, your booze consumption on a weekly basis, the horsepower of your vehicles, or sexual preferences?

But I'll add this view....what if fifty percent of us just decided to make up fake data?  You know....admit we consume sixteen bottles of Jack Daniels per month...admit that we've been married nine times.....admit that we pay $9 a month for the rent....and admit that we prefer sex mostly with alien gals from the planet Fleetwood.

Would the census then just go away?

5.  Not that we care, but the Shanghai Disneyland shut down.....over Covid.  If you asked me the odds of re-opening at any point in 2022?  I'd say it's mostly 50-50.  A lot of Chinese now carry around a bag of two-days of food....because of the fear of being caught in some panic situation.....where 20,000 people in some fest or show....have to be tested before being allowed to exit.

6.  Finally, not that I care.....but it's another week that Colin Kaepernick was not hired to quarterback anywhere.  Frankly, I don't understand why people want to discuss the matter anymore.  

Are Both Cuomo Brothers Victims?

 If you'd stood up in 2017 (five years ago) and said both (a governor and a CNN bigwig) would be victims....folks would have laughed at you.  Today?  Yes, they've made themselves (without much effort) into victims.

I don't think this was intentional.

They both had a strategy of controlling their 'descent' down a negative path, and neither had the ability to stop the descent or change the final outcome.

Do we the public owe them anything?  No.

What'll happen over the next twelve months?  The CNN-Cuomo will likely get some final pay-out.....probably less than 30-million.  The Governor-Cuomo will just simply walk away and hopefully never be interviewed by the NY Times ever again.

I'll predict this though....by 2030....someone will attempt to make a ten-hour mini-series over this, and tell the two stories.  I don't think anyone will really care about the story though.