That Image

 

I hate to admit this....but every time that CNN, or WaPo, or Fox brings up the 6 Jan 'Insurrection'.....this image comes to my mind. 

I don't know the guy....if you asked me to assign some status to him....he's some guy who probably frequents flea-markets....buys crazy gear for costume parties, and just happened to think....what the hell, I'll go to DC for 6 January.

Image for an insurrection?  Well.....if you were on this hearing committee and thinking I take much of this serious....then the image pops up....then 'NO'....I can't take the insurrection chatter serious.

If anything....I'd ask if he remembers anything from the day.  

Orioles Baseball Team To Leave Baltimore For Nashville?

 Well....in social media circles....this chatter has started up....mostly off a comment made in a courtroom....last week.

The jest to all of this?

2005 was the last time that the team had over 30k tickets sold for local games.  In fact, since 2017....the team hasn't gone over the 20,000 level per game.  Right now for 2022....they are averaging around 16,000 fans per game.

If you were trying to measure 'thrills' for this team?  Well...it's a mix of cheaper players and rookies.  They haven't been able to have the revenue....to participate in real four-star players.

The idea of having two-million fan-tickets sold each year?  Most locals would agree that those days are gone.

The ballpark?  Camden Yards?  It was finished in 1992 and is 30 years old.  It is a unique design and probably could serve out for another decade.  

Why Nashville?  Metro-Nashville is 1.3-million....if you go Greater-Nashville, it's at 2-million, and from central Tennessee in general....it's probably near 3-million.

The script for this 'move'?  I think at the end of 2022....the team will note that they rank around 13/14 out of the fifteen clubs in the league.  Mid-way through 2023's season....I think the team will just say that's it....the financial incentives of Baltimore make no sense.  

Add into this....downtown Baltimore is only 'safe' because of a massive amount of police action.  People come to the game....then quickly leave the area....the city crime problem is making the baseball gimmick marginal in terms of attracting folks.

So talk will start up at this point in 2023....building a new baseball park in Nashville....probably to be finished by 2025, and the team arrives.  

Baltimore to beg the league for a new team?  Maybe, but there's no sense to this.  

Another Gin For Everyone

 I watched about 15 minutes of episode II of the House hearing on the 6-Jan business.  I stopped and did a long pause.

There was a moment in this 'theatrical-show' today where I started to imagine an actual set of circumstances existing between 6-Jan chatter and the old Trump/Russia gimmick (actually hoax is more appropriate).  

Both lean on some perceived accusations and both eventually come to some perceived conclusions of guilt.

Oddly....both events (6-Jan/Trump-Russia)....require a normal viewer to dedicate probably 500 man-hours to associate data, and feel some conviction one way or another.  Frankly, most of us have real jobs....church meetings....bowling leagues...fences to paint....kid-lectures to emphasize...whiskey-moments, and demons to fight.  

Lot of hyperbole?  Well...yeah, that becomes painfully obvious.

Could we have a hearing dedicated to the fake Trump-Russia gimmick and really explain how the hoax came to be?  No.  That would draw up more perceived accusations, and more perceived conclusions of guilt.  

(Just shaking my head....another gin for everyone at the bar)

The Thing About Maturity

 I was reading through social media commentary today, and someone jumped up....hyping that young teachers are 'so immature' today.  The impression given....that these teachers see young grammar kids as their 'peers/equals'.  In some odd way....they want to share their lives, their lifestyles, and be some weird way 'validated' (mostly by 7 to to 11 year old kids).

I sat and paused over this.  I came out of high school in 1977.....it was an odd bunch of teachers (probably 32 of them by the time I finished up).

First, with one single exception, I can't remember any teachers openly discussing their husband or wife.  Some were married (as you figured that out)....some were single, and beyond the car they drove....there just wasn't much of a personal angle.  

Second, there were three or four WW II vets, and they did occasionally go into 'we-were-there-in-Brindisi (or in the 3rd wave of Normandy)....or there was the one person who spent their summer vacation each year hitting national parks in Wyoming and Colorado.  We didn't ask where they lived....what brand of cornflakes they ate....or preferred cocktail.  

Third, it just didn't seem like we had time to BS or get real interested in sexing up with so-and-so.  

Finally, I just don't remember any teacher needing validation about where they were in life.  If you did need validation....getting that from a 13-year old kid wasn't going to amount to much.   

'Bad' Words

 I read today....some scientists came up at some meeting in recent days, and got into a discussion over Monkeypox.

So here's the thing....they want to rename Monkeypox because it sound discriminatory or stigmatizing.

I sat there and paused over this.

You could call it the 123-Fever, or ABOX-TITI-ME pox.  

If you asked some 12-year old kid....he'd have five or six juvenile-sounding names for you.

But why stop there?  Why not rename Covid as well?

AIDs?  Rename it.

Yellow Fever?  Rename it.

Plague?  Rename it.

Ebola?  Rename it.

There's probably sixty things that stigmatize me personally.....the Ford Pinto is on that list....as is the term 'freaky'.  

You Noticed.....

 When you sit and read the newspaper, or watch CNN.....you ever noticed from the top ten headlines of the day....

1.  Inflation and debt are reported higher.

2.  Gas prices went up again.

3. Record hot weather somewhere in the world.

4.  Joe Biden's approval numbers sunk another point.

5.  Another Covid study.

It's just odd....for the whole past year....something on the front page of the paper will revolve around these five episodes. 

Five Things I Noticed

 1.  There's chatter from the Census folks....that they want funding to explore the numbers of gender people and sexual lifestyles.  

Where this goes?  Well...you can imagine 'Census-Joe' showing up and asking pretty sexualized questions to Karl and Wanda, with both trying to fake-convince the Census guy that each are transgender, each into black leather and fly-fishing.  

Does the government need this kind of information?  It just begs questions where this would lead onto.

2.  Elon finally came and asked the question....is all this gender discussions leading somewhere?

The quote: “We are simultaneously being told that gender differences do not exist and that genders are so profoundly different that irreversible surgery is the only option. Perhaps someone wiser than me can explain this dichotomy.”

Either gender matters, or it doesn't matter....but you can't have these two discussions openly debated day and night.

3.  The AP news folks tried to tell some story recently where so-and-so's name was brought up and someone noted....the gal in question....has been dead for two years.  

4.  I wrapped up the 6th (last) season of Peaky Blinders yesterday.  If you haven't watched the series....I'd describe it as a 5-star series on a early 1920s mafia group in the UK.  On Netflix.....worth watching.

5.  Top Gun II on pace to make half-a-billion just off US sales.  Woke score?  Probably near zero.