The Trump Border Idea

Over the past fifteen years, there's been two deployments of US troops along the US and Mexico border.  For the most part....neither achieved anything but headlines.

The Bush deployment involved 6,000 national guard troops. 

The Obama deployment in 2010?  It involved around 1,500 troops....mostly to collect data and use new recon assets.

Why the failure? 

I tend to view the lack of number to the overall success expected.  In my view, the 1,954 miles would probably require a minimum of 35,000 to 45,000 troops to maintain an around-the-clock presence.  This would mean at least six different installations along the border, and a hefty amount of recon usage.  And no...I'm not talking about temporary headline gimmicks like 10,000 National Guard troops for four months.

My suggestion would be that you go and offer up a new service to the US military....'Guard Patrol'.  Offer a chance to the Army and Air Force members to cross over, and assign a full-time job to around 35,000 active duty personnel....with only one single function....guarding the border. 

Treating this as a temp deal and repeating the Bush/Obama failures?  Well....yeah, there's pretty good odds that this is a another screw-up in the making. 

Trump and this Military Option at the Border

First, as much as one might sit and think the Border Patrol has the strength to monitor the border.....they don't.  They'd probably have to add at least 50,000 additional personnel to their manpower to reach some reasonable stage of border control.

Second, there's some people talking of the idea that a 'peace-dividend' might come out of this South Korea-North Korea talks, and that the 37,000 troops in South Korea might not be necessary.  I think that's a minimum of three years away, but if some treaty occurred....then you'd have 37,000 troops coming back to the US.  What exactly do you want to do with them?

Third, if you were of the mind to cross the border, and got to the Trump-fence or Trump-wall.....maybe you might still have enthusiasm to cross.  If you figure in the odds of three-hundred Army guys along a sixty-mile area that you were attempting to cross....the odds are against you. 

Fourth, there's all these recon assets that the Army would bring with them.  It would reshuffle the whole border crossing strategy. 

There are negatives to this idea....for example, we aren't talking about 3,000 Army personnel.  We also aren't talking about the Border Patrol going away.  I also don't think the Border Patrol would like competition. 

My Only Sales Experience in Life

There are dozens of skills I acquired over my life.  Salesmanship....with one exception....was a big zero.

At some point, around my 17th year in the Air Force....my boss needed someone to serve as 'snacko' for the shop.  This was typically a person who had a refrigerator in the breakroom....bought snacks....controlled the money.....and occasionally did some positive things like run a burger-day for the office.  I ended up with the job for about 4.5 years.

The first problem I came to face was an Air Force regulation that says if you hold more than X-amount of money....you have to have a 'club'....records....and a bunch of extra problems.  In those days, it was roughly an income of $100 a month or more....that would get you into some hassle.  Just in man-hours, you could figure three man-hours a month on paperwork, meetings, bank-episodes (they wanted you to run an account with the credit union).  One of my golden rules in life was to avoid paperwork at all costs

At the end of six weeks of operation, I found that I had around $200 in profit.  I did something the previous guy didn't think much over.....I bought only when items were on discount at the commissary, and bought in bulk.  I bought larger selections.....ten to twelve different sodas, and various health-drinks. 

So to avoid profit, I spent as quickly as possible.....this meant a full-up hamburger bar-b-q  with everything free of charge.

By the end of the second month, I decided to dive into frozen food offerings and odd snacks. Within ninety days....I had almost $400 as profit, and then started bar-b-q's every two to four weeks to dump the profit.

I had the BX drink truck start pulling up to front door and buying bulk. I got to know the commissary guys and the various sales that they ran....and would buy cases of Pop-Tars and various snack foods.

I walked in on one afternoon to find Pop-Tarts at half-price, and bought roughly 120 boxes of Pop-Tarts. 

When summer came.....I bought cheap ice cream via the commissary at discounted prices, and was turning $30 a week just on ice cream profits.

When the Micheal Jackson Mystery Drink came out (ever so brief), I bought a case of it and even tried to sell it (the only thing that I ever lost money on).

Over a period or roughly 55 months.....I ran this fund and probably arranged for forty bar-b-q's. I had the most profitable unprofitable snacko fund that you could imagine. Almost every single soda that I bought over the period....was on discount price...so I barely paid 25 cents for it at the BX or commissary, and resold it at 50 cents.

So when I came to retire from the Air Force....I handed the snacko fund over to another NCO....and in less than three months....it dissolved. They couldn't sustain the profit....they started accepting IOU's (a habit I refused), and they were buying mostly diet drinks (don't ever let the healthy folks operate a snacko fund).

It was my brief play into business operations and the one thing that I could brag about. Every profit I made.....dissolved into burgers and grilled chicken. In the end....I was still worth zero, but I had enhanced the morale of the office by leaps and bounds. I never lost a penny....which is kinda remarkable (well....except for the Micheal Jackson Mystery Drink).

Lack of Numbers

I read a piece today that suggested that 59.3 million households in America.....hold a minimum of one weapon in the house or apartment.   So I went and researched....how many households exist in America, and the number presently is set near 126-million households.

I sat and looked over both numbers and tend to question them.

For example....when you reach the 126-million households....are you counting dorm rooms, and barracks rooms....as a household? 

Are you counting RV units parked on long-term beach fronts in Myrtle Beach, SC.....as a household?

Are you counting a retirement village apartment....as a household?

I worked with a guy years ago who owned a RV trailer which was permanently parked on the outskirts of Las Vegas....while he lived in Tucson.  He'd fly up to Vegas on Friday night, and stay till early AM hours of Monday....to fly back to work on Monday morning.  In my mind, he had two households.

As for the households holding weapons?  I don't really buy that 59-million number.

In the county where I grew up in Alabama....I'd take a guess that 95-percent of households there....have a minimum of one weapon.  In fact, I'd take a guess that 70-percent hold a minimum of two rifles, and a pistol.

In the state of Montana?  I'd take a guess that it's near 90-percent of the households which hold a single weapon or more.

So if these numbers thrown around by the news media are bogus....what does that say?  Some would suggest that we need licenses and true government auditing....in order to control things.

But if you went that far....how much would it cost?  Billions?  And would people admit anything now?  I have my doubts.  Just getting people to admit how many bank accounts they have....would trigger people into deceiving the government. 

The Value of a Degree

I was reading a piece yesterday that went into detail what some companies are facing as they go out and hired new graduated college students.  They found that the 'kids' were lacking in various skills that they should have acquired in college.  Mind you....we are talking about four-year university graduates.  The piece discussed the problems of analytical concepts, project design, time-line construction, teamwork, etc. All of these....used to be taught at least in some marginal way, and you'd finish college with a basic understanding how your skills would fit into a commercial company.

The humor part of this....which is left out of the news piece....is that this 21 or 22 year old 'kid' is standing there and all happy that HR hired him for some $40,000 a year job, and then he likely discovers the the next week as he shows up.....he's automatically signed up for five seminar episodes taught by some fifty-year old individual from some private firm, and discussing this mystery thing called 'project management'. 

A whole week will pass with 'Professor Bob' talking about this big science agenda called project management.  The kid will be amazed at all the facets and benefits of project management.  Then at the final hour of the class....the 'kid' will ask why they don't teach something like this in college?  'Professor Bob' will just grin and tell the kid that in the 1970s and 1980s....it was a regular part of any business degree, and that they've weakened the whole program to such an extent....that your degree is mostly worthless.

A week or two will pass, and another three-to-five day seminar will occur.  Over that year, the company will waste at least thirty days of work production in getting the 'kid' to a level that they are beneficial to the company. 

So the question is....is a bachelor's degree really worth the $50,000 to $90,000 that it cost today?  If you get hired and they automatically revalue the degree to a three-quarter situation....did you get cheated out of the full value of the education?  Does the college even care?

The 12-Cent Interview

I sat and watched through part of the Sixty Minutes with Stormy and Anderson Cooper, and then I stopped to look at a frame picture of Anderson Cooper with perfect sized eyes...flip forward 3 seconds, and here is Stormy....with seriously dilated eyes.

What gets you to that stage?  Typically cocaine or opiates.

Then this odd thing comes up in this taped conversation.....some ten-month 'affair'....yet she suggests only one bedroom romp.  Ten months.....one romp?

In Alabama, you'd tell this story over at the general store, and someone would typically stop you and ask if you pulling their leg.  Yet Anderson kept looking real intent and glazed over.....ready to believe just about anything.

The other odd thing....you come to some point of pinpointing all this stuff that Anderson is getting out of her, and then you come to realize....well, we aren't talking about 2016, or 2015, or 2014, or 2013, or 2012, or 2011, or 2010, or 2009, or 2008.  If the romp did occur.....it somehow goes back to 2006/2007 era.....eleven or more years ago.

So all this hype....from a washed-up adult-film actress with a drug habit...from a supposed fling nearly eleven years ago, and dragged out into the public scene by a nearly washed-up Sixty Minutes guy?

If this is really nifty stuff....with public appeal....could we have the dozen-odd ladies that Bill Clinton did it with as well?  Most of them weren't even paid for their services....like Stormy got the front-money from the Trump lawyer, and later from the Sixty Minutes crew.

CNN at the Airport?

It's come up in the last couple of days as a major topic.....as various folks are peeved and fed-up with CNN being the only option at airports across the nation.

Having traveled a good bit over the past decade, I'm one of those who had to sit there and endear CNN.

In the 2008 to 2012 era....I didn't mind CNN that much although if this was a four-hour wait (like at some Raleigh Airport), then I came to some point where my patience was running out. Summer of last year, I had two hours of waiting at Nashville, and another three hours of waiting at Atlanta....where CNN was the only thing possible.  You could sense various people sitting there and in a fairly angry mode over what was coming across. 

These days, I tend to look for a seat that has no view of the TV....and find a newspaper to read over.  If they've got the sound pumped up.....I go and look for some airport person to whine about the sound. 

How many folks would prefer to see CNN gone from the airport?  No one does statistics on stuff like that.  My guess is that fifty to sixty percent would like to see it gone.  Some would like to see all TVs completely gone.  Some probably would like to see just Animal Planet type shows on the air, or some travel documentary pieces. 

In a way, it's driving some folks nuts.  It'll trigger a political conversation, and get people hyped up right before a flight....aggravated and frustrated at the absolute wrong time.  I'm surprised that some mental health freaks haven't invented a new syndrome word for CNN at the airport.