What The Democrats Should Have Done In Early 2022

 There should have been a meeting of the top ten Democratic figures, and agreement that winning the 2022 election was critical.  

At that point, they should have picked five key topics: the economy/recession, limits to migrants entering the US, stability of gas prices, no critical shortages (like baby formula), and limiting the chatter of President Biden to a minimum.  

Had they done this, at least four Senate races to be won by the Republicans....would have gone in the opposite direction.  The House probably would have been near a 50-50 split.

At this point?  Well....they need to have a serious meeting to talk over 2024 now.....the impact of having Hunter Biden dragged into an investigation....finding a fresh face to be President in 2024....and resolving the recession.  

As for President Biden surviving to the end of his term?  I think the Republicans will do everything possible to avoid impeachment....just to continually (week by week) drag out critical screw-ups of his administration.  

Pelosi and McConnell?  I think both are driven out of leadership positions in early 2023.  

Something We Ought to Worry About

 Yevgeny Prigozhin.....Russian businessman and founder of the Wagner mercenary group , made a comment about Russian interference in US elections.  

YES....without any hesitation....they interfere, and will continue to interfere.

Shocking?  I doubt it.  If you went to certain offices of the CIA....they'd lay down more than fifty different ways of Russian involvement....benefiting certain Senate, House, Presidential and even down into state operations themselves.  It wouldn't even shock me if a dozen city councils in the US were getting attention by the Russian government.  

It wouldn't even surprise me if a quarter of all Russian effort was centered on California itself.  

I'd even go and suggest that both parties are legit targets.

Trying to resolve this or fix it?  Forget about it....both parties will point how each other gets Russian corruption.  

Five Things

 1.  It wasn't this way twenty years ago, but currently....at least twice a week now....I notice some journalist or trend-setter....trying to use the word 'context' in order to convey his/her thoughts to you.

In the context of X....you need to believe 'Y'.  

Pretty goofy if you ask me.

2.  In the past week, with Elon taking over Twitter....I notice a lot of people using the term 'dangerous' in describing the future maneuvers/path of Twitter.

Frankly, you don't really know what 'dangerous' is, unless you've been driving at night through parts of Portland or Memphis.  

3.  Stillbirth deaths at all-time record in the US for 2022....compared to the past fifty years?  Yeah....in 2021, it was twenty times the normal average.  In 2022, it's near ten times the average.  Begs a lot of questions.

4.  The Paul Pelosi hype?  Gone....yep, in 7 days.

5.  Making a comparison of the Twitter blue-mark cost and fuel.....$8 for Twitter mark.....$8 for two gallons of gas.  

What Happens After the Mid-Term Election?

 I'm going to suggest five things:

1.   A lot of blame will be dumped around the Democratic Party, and there will be two factions existing....one wanting to dump the pronoun business....admit the recession and get some resolutions going....and seeking ways to bring back lost voters to the party.

The second faction will double-down....increasing the pronoun business....admit no recession....and extend out the J6 hearing business.  

This division will create chaos and trigger a number of journalists who were helping to sell the Democratic 'brand' to just plain go neutral.

2.  Hunter Biden is going to be completely investigated up one side and down another.  Somewhere by mid-summer 2023.....charges will occur.  President Biden will use various 'powers' to defend his son, and this will only weaken the Presidency.  

3.  VP Harris will lighten her work-load and avoid public events to some extent.  She has zero intent on running in 2024, and it'll be apparent by the mid-summer point of 2023.

4.  A least five different White House insiders will be gone by mid-2023....voicing discontent and a negative atmosphere existing.

5.  White House Press Spokesperson....gone by January.  

The 423,000 Story

 So this came up yesterday....Elon Musk now says that some (avoids saying the number of people involved).....Twitter employees were selling the verification badges 'under the table'.

Amount?  Well.....some say $15,000 was at the peak....I'm guessing that most were paying just in the couple thousand range.

Normal cost of the blue verification badge?  It was designed to not be that costly in the first place....but then regulations came along.  Things got 'sneaky'.  

Why this sneaky method?  Well....Twitter, when it started the blue badge business....said you had to have 10,000 followers.  If you didn't have 10,000 followers....you didn't deserve a badge.

I should add....you had to fall into one of a couple of categories: gov't official, news journalist, sports figure, Hollywood star, company boss, activist,   You can imagine some marginal activist standing there and wanting public viewing.....going to his or her foundation....convincing them to cover the blue mark status, and giving him $10,000 to $15,000 to get the status 'mark'.

A regular guy getting a blue badge with just 500 followers?  No.  

I sat viewing this....wondering out of members....how many had blue verification marks?  Well....423,000.

Some went the legit way....some went to illegit way.

I might go and assume that at least 100,000 are probably illegit.  If you do the math and figure $8,000 as a minimum.....then 800-million dollars (minimum) was dispersed in some fraudulent way to Twitter employees and probably was NOT reported for taxation purposes.

These Twitter people?  I'm guessing here.....but it's probably a crew of forty-odd people, and each one probably took in at least $100,000 in extra income a year.

All of this leading to more Bots being created....to help the poor fool reach 10,000 followers?  Yeah, that was probably another part of the scheme by the insiders to Twitter.

If I used the $15,000 number?  Well....it's up around 1.5-billion dollars that came in.....which was probably cash, and never reported to IRS or California tax folks.

Now....if I were one of these people.....with $5-million made in this gimmick?  Well....at this point, with Elon talking about it.....IRS and the California tax office might be interested.  I think I'd be reviewing my location status and finding a new home in Costa Rica or the Philippines.  

But this brings me to the value of the blue verification mark.  Out of 423,000 mark-people.....how are we supposed to value the blue mark at this point?  If you ask me....it's crapped-out and of zero value.  

The key group I'd look at?  Activists and politicians.  

A November State of Mind

 Leaves would be on the ground, and usually pushed into piles....where you'd light a fire and have a leaf burning (at least before environmentalism took place or drought made the fall activity a fire hazard).

This would be the period after Halloween where temperatures finally reached a point that you pulled out sweaters, winter jackets and warm caps.

This would be the lead-up to the 'thrilling' Charlie Brown Thanksgiving cartoon...where you felt some holiday feeling.

Pecans would start to be cracked and made into pie.

This month would end with the Macey's day parade on TV, and some wish to one day travel to New York City....to see the parade in person.  

This is the month where it was overcast and mostly cloudy.

Finally, the least of all things on your mind....was politics.  Things have changed a good bit here in 2022.  

How Does Germany Hand-Count Votes In A Matter Of Three Hours Or Less?

 In a normal election, the German poll stations close at 6 PM on a Sunday (it will always be done on Sundays).

You show up as a voter with your national ID card (mandated), and have a letter sent to you from the city hall...identifying the location of the station and the time, with your name and address on it.  You present that at the door.

They read your name off the listing and give you a ballot.

The ballot is for a party situation.....not a candidate himself or herself.  It's one single sheet.  

You finish the sheet and push it into a box.

At the end of the day.....around a dozen to two-dozen people are there to count ballots (into pile A or pile B).  It's counted by hand, and usually takes about an hour....then repeated.  As long as the numbers come up right after the second count....that's it.

End of the discussion.  

You know the official winner by 7 PM in most cases....sometimes upgraded to 8 PM where issues occur.

Germans can't understand why you can't have a national ID card in the US....nor why people are totally lost on where to vote, or how you could possibly vote in multiple elections, or why it takes two or three days to count votes.  

The only response?  It's complicated, and you emphasize 'rocket science' several times in the discussion.