I sat last night and watched the 2016 movie 'The Great Wall'.
I have to admit....it was a lousy movie....marginal script....and if I were in a theater, I would have walked out by the 30th minute.
Basically, they wanted to sell you on some invasion of China by monster-dog-creatures, and the Great Wall was what was protecting society. Along come these two European guys, and one of them (the Matt Damon character) saves the day.
There's a state draft 'bill' going around, where the Illinois would have the power to mandate...for cities having a population of 2-million or more....if you were a gas station, bank, pawn shop or grocery store....you'd hire up armed-guards.
Note, cities less than 2-million? No such requirement.
First, the odds of passage? I'm guessing while being pushed by a Democrat....it'd be awful hard to get general support among the rest of the state legislature.
Then you come to a cost factor? If you were a pawn shop or gas station.....that's a added $100k a year on cost....to have a full-time guy around....Monday through Saturday.
Then you'd come to actual use of weapons. Armed guards, with Army training? Any hint of trouble....they'd shoot. So you'd have at least forty new shootings each day, with problem-folks wounded or dead.
Even legal? It's aimed strictly at Chicago. I would imagine it'd go to the Supreme Court over fairness.
Then finally, I come to the manpower issue. If you counted up pawn shops, gas stations, grocery stores, and banks....within Chicago....it's probably in the range of 5,000 establishments. Go figure shifts, and you probably need to find a minimum of 15,000 guys/gals to be armed guards. If you say former felons or criminal record folks can't be armed guards.....you will require 15,000 Hispanic folks (probably illegals) to do the job required....for the low pay situation.
1. After watching the Memphis police department video of Tyre Nichols getting the crap beat out of him (dying later) by the five cops....I would suggest all five of the cops were high on something. They showed a lot of energy for the beating, which would normally not be there.
2. After watching the SF video of Paul Pelosi, I would suggest Paul seems pretty cool and collected. Hammer dude? For about 8 seconds....he's OK, then the cop shines the flashlight into his face, and he turns into some kind of demon. There's no buddy-buddy stuff here.....just a nutcase in the living room with a hammer.
3. Odds of additional classified documents to be found beyond just Trump and Biden? I'd now give it 99-percent chance that every President since FDR....has classified in their private papers, and a 50-50 shot that most VP's had classified.
For the remainder of 2023, it's a unique year.
President Biden is mostly in a defensive position on classified documents....fielding answers to questions which a quarter of the time....make no sense....and some belief that he might not be around at the end of 2023.
Trump? He's probably going to be seen a dozen times before the end of the year.....in Iowa, South Carolina and a few southern states. He'll turn on his Meta/Twitter accounts and probably have five or six comments daily....which a normal Democrat opposing guy/gal would make a blunt counter-attack. But Biden is that guy for the job.
If you ask most independents....they seem to have heartburn over Biden at this point.
Added problem? Well....between 2020 and 2022.....a lot of the rigged-up stuff (particularly in Arizona with printers) has been shown and it's unlikely to be a repeatable gimmick.
So, in these five states that Trump lost....I'd say it can't be repeated.
I'd also suggest that just bringing in Gov Newsom as the carrier of the party....isn't that brilliant because there's so many negatives within California today.
This being a circus show? Absolutely, but neither party seems to have any corrective actions to present anything 'better'. It'll be like a Friday night TV battle....'Dukes of Hazard' versus 'Maury Povich'.
1. The main driving part of this is a site which the regional folks signed up to be a commercial training site for police (going way beyond just Atlanta or the state of Georgia).
2. The site has never been in protected status. Originally, it was a plantation site, and after WW I, it was a state prison property. Total acreage? 85.
3. Atlanta City is charging this 'company' $10 a year for leasing of the property.
4. Built into the training site? A city park, a night-club, a shooting range, and a fake downtown area.
5. The claim that the site is on a protected watershed area? BS. It is just beyond that protected area.
1. Judge ordered the release of the Pelosi-hammer episode in SF....caught on the police cam when they arrived.
What I expect....mostly two guys in underwear...maybe showing some signs of booze or drugs....chatting in some incoherent fashion. Nothing exciting.
2. Putin says he wants to buy left-over US Army equipment that was dropped in Afghanistan.
Experts claim something like 7-billion dollars worth....left there.
Whoever is managing this deal.....middle-guy...probably is taking home $50-million for his work, and buying ten cargo planes of mostly 'junk'.
3. Some Biden-agenda item to have national 'rent-control'?
There's rumors to that effect. It'll be dragged to the Supreme Court, and eventually, the Justices will ask....where did you get this 'power' and there's not going to be a qualified answer to this.
I'll suggest damages coming out of this...into the tens of billions for trying to implement the goal.
4. Having a mental illness is almost like a personal goal of Americans now. Day by day....folks are training themselves to be irrational and qualified for funny-farm entry.
5. Adam Schiff running for Feinstein's Senate seat?
First, he's a district guy for what is the Burbank area (NE LA), and has been Democrat since 1964 (28-percent Hispanic). For the state? He has some name recognition.
However, if you mention London Breed (mayor of SF)....everyone knows her name as well. Same for Katie Porter....everyone knows her.
Here's my prediction....Schiff ends up spending more 100 days in California this year....making speeches and traveling around the state....spending as little time in DC as possible. By early 2024, I think he will realize that Porter and Breed are ten points ahead of him, and he drops this whole election gimmick.
1. It's just an awful lot of irrational, incoherent, and unsound people walking around....trying to inject themselves and their woes into your landscape.
2. You get the impression that four years of college presently....gets you to the level of the 8th grade of high school from the 1970s. People are actually paying tens of thousands to lessen their intelligence, and see no shame in this spiral.
3. Any day now....English is going to be proclaimed 'white-sin' and everyone is going to run off to re-learn their original homeland's (six generations ago) language.
4. After Google gave the 'termination' notice to several thousand folks....those folks stood up and said they need 'physiological safety' now. It's not clear what they mean, but it sounds like they want several weeks of mental rehab....to get over being laid off. I would imagine after they've been hired by lesser companies....more physiological safety will be needed because they aren't employed at the big 'G' anymore.
5. The only thing today that is pure entertainment? Pro-wrestling.
