Q-and-A

 1.  If you walked around America and asked a hundred American what an emoji is....how many would know it?

I would suggest that 50-percent will give the correct answer....a symbiology on Twitter. 10-percent will respond about something on the internet, but knowing nothing else. 10-percent will  respond it's a new coffee from Columbia.  And the remainder will respond that it's nickname that Joe Biden gave VP Harris.

2.  Does it bother anyone that Joe Biden has a list of pre-approved questions/reporters?

Probably not....but it means that the approved group has some inside connection to the administration and it lessen the trust in their reporting.

3.  Any truth to Facebook laying off people?

Well....just chatter.  However, if they lay off folks....Twitter would not be far behind them.

Trying To Define a No-Go Zone

 I grew up in the rural south in the 1960s/1970.  If you had approached me to define a no-go area....I mostly would have responded....'such-and-such area near the creek, where copperheads roam'.

The first time I ever heard the no-go chatter?  Around 1980....when 'Sarge' wanted us to know a certain bar or two in the Tacoma area were on the forbidden-list of the base.  

In the 1990s, I was sent to a training school in Kansas City, and the hotel folks gave me a nice map of the region.  I would be there for two weeks, and wanted some restaurant ideas.  The kind lady at the desk circled five or six places for great food....then took the red marker to indicate three regions to avoid.  Yes, she used the term 'no-go'.  

I asked what the issue was, and the response....'drugs, crime, assault, etc'.

By the mid-1990s, I came to realize in the Frankfurt area of Germany....an area or two had become a no-go zone.....mostly over hard drugs.

Over the next two decades, I came to realize the same label being applied to Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Prague, etc. 

When you travel these days....people use the term a good bit.

When I go back to Alabama?  Well....yeah, the term has started to pop-up occasionally.  Just about the entire region around Birmingham (except the airport) is a no-go area now.

All of this happening in one single generation.....that's the hard part to accept.

What happens over the next twenty years?  That's the thing I tend to ponder upon.  To suggest I need to carry a pistol when I go to get an ice cream, or pick up a case of beer?  How far will this go?

Interesting Quote

 "As of this morning every single “pregnant person” in 5500 years of recorded human history was a biological woman."

-- Marco Rubio

Begs to this whole discussion going on....where political folks can't define a woman, and it starts to sound like they are mentally challenged (we have other terms in the south but this probably is more appropriate).

Q-and-A

 1.  What's the mid-terms really about?

Four things: gasoline cost, recession, Democrats unable to define over 20 things in a public forum, and abortion.  Here's the chief problem....except for abortion...it's the worst position for the Democratic Party in thirty-odd years.

2.  How are Joe and Jill Biden getting all of these screwed-up speech scripts?

Maybe just plain bad luck....but you have to wonder about the people who support the couple in the White House and their resumes.  Maybe these folks aren't that qualified for the work required.

3.  Explaining this 10-year old rape/abortion thing in Ohio?

Well....a illegal alien raped a 10-year old Ohio girl.  Local authorities did everything possible not to report this up to the state AG or state authorities.  Someone on President Biden's team heard about half the story, and it was appropriate for the abortion chatter....not grasping it was an illegal alien story.

4.  How long will this Twitter legal case drag on?

Well....if you count appeals, and eventually getting to the Supreme Court....probably four years. Most of the Twitter board will have left and gone into some hiding situation in Costa Rica by that point.  

St#rbucks Chatter

 I noticed this St*rbucks story today....company is closing down 16 operations in the US....due to drug-trafficking.  

Last on the list?  The Union Station in DC.  Twice in my life (2010 and 2013) I was in the station.

Generally, the whole station is a drug sales 'candyland'.

You sit and sip through a coffee and would notice at least five to ten drug dudes operating, within fifty feet of the shop.  

No fear of the police.

The necessity of operating within the station?  I pondered upon that.  I don't think they wanted to be outside of the station, or in the subway.  It just seemed to me that various 'friends' were alerting them when cops were positioned.  

Observations

 1.  I noticed today that BMW is now producing cars with heated seats as a normal part of the car (not an option).  But as part of this.....you need to either make a one-time payment, a yearly payment, or a month-by-month payment (subscription).

Month-by-month?  $18.

So, you could subscribe for October to March....then cancel the subscription for six months....then turn it back on.  All hooked up to some monthly service update done by the internet to your car and the company.

2.  I sat and watched the exchange between Republican Senator Hawley and this Berkley law professor.  

More or less....the law professor wanted you to believe that trans women (former men) can come up and get pregnant.  Hawley didn't really buy off on the idea.

My humble view....if you were a kid paying $120,000 for a law degree in California....you might want to re-evaluate the value of your degree, and gauge just how much BS you have to believe....to earn a 'A' or get a diploma.  

3.  For some reason, after Jill Biden's talk on tacos.....I seem to wake up each morning, with a desire for a breakfast taco.  To be honest though....I've had just one in my life and I wasn't that impressed by breakfast tacos.  

4.  Twitter lawyered-up and started their case in Delaware.  

I doubt if the court will start anytime in the next 90 days, and meanwhile....the stock will drop (today at $34.06) to probably around $28 by day one of the court episode.  I expect a stock-holder lawsuit also to start up, and aim at the board/CEO.

5.  I will predict that the 6-Jan hearing business will continue on until probably two weeks prior to the mid-term election.  The biggest and juiciest part of the hearing?  Probably to come on the final day.  

6.  The Ukraine folks have a daily 'count' on Russian losses.  Presently, Ukraine claims they've destroyed or disabled 1,649 tanks (as of Monday).  If true....they've probably gone through the whole production of tanks in the past 20 years....then gone to the production level of the 1990s....then gone to the production level of the 1980s....then gone to the production level of the 1970s.  So most of what's left are either 'show-pieces' of the new stuff, or 1950s technology manufactured in the 1960s.  

7.  When you stand and marvel at one of these giant wind-turbines generating electricity....you need to visualize that they have a 25-year lifecycle, and are then taken down for safety reasons.

So....here's the harsh reality....there's 900 tons of steel in the view, with around 2k to 2.5k tons concrete to hold it steady.  

There's also around 45 tons of plastic which is non-recyclable.  

Then the whole thing requires 700 gallons of oil for the gearing system....each single year. 

At the end....it's 'dropped' and carried off to some pit, to be buried.  Eventually, I expect these to be loaded on barges and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.

8.  Some people are starting to openly discuss how Congressmen and Senators seem like used-car dealers.....selling you something with vague promises.  Those folks just aren't interested in a Dodge Polara.

Observations

 1.  Did Jill Biden actually say: Hispanics are “as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio?"  Yes.  Whoever writes Joe's speeches.....probably wrote this piece.

2.  On the high-side....it's projected to be around 255 seats that the Republicans win in November.  Personally, I think that's extremely high.

3.  News says that Hunter Biden spent $30,000 over five months....just on hookers.  

4.  Some news folks are suggesting that Joe Biden is delaying this trip to the Middle East....to get additional 'rest'.  So this 'jet-lag' business is a drain on his stamina?  It's not clear.

5. Noticed the Air Force saying it's going to drastically slow down promotion cycles, because a high degree of personnel are not capable of grasping their professions.  I could have suggested that problem existing back in the 1990s.  You had a high degree of people at the eight-year point....supervising five or six people, and their knowledge/skill level was that of a three-year individual.  One of my five big slams of the Air Force.