Here's the thing.....on the payroll and as actual members....there are around 5-million Americans listed, and suspicions are that around another 15-million non-members exist.
When the NRA lobbyist goes and visits Senator so-and-so, or House Member so-and-so....ensuring they don't go and vote in some wild regulation or gun-control.....the NRA lobbyist can state in a blunt way....we have x-number of members listed for your state (in a state like Missouri....probably over 250,000) that we can send an email to, and have them deny you their vote in this next election.
Even in California, I would take a guess that well over 350,000 NRA members or non-member supporters exist. That swing-vote is a very intimidating factor. For most folks running for Senator....they can't afford to lose a quarter-million votes.
So, that's the real collective power of the NRA.....just one simple membership listing. Even in a state like Vermont, they can probably suggest 100,000 members/supporters exist.
Wednesday, 25 April 2018
The Scent of Taxation
I sat and looked over the Democratic commentary today of things they intend to offer in 2020, to get the massive vote.
The Bernie Sanders chat? He says there has to be a mandatory $15-an-hour job setting, with complete health-care benefits to every single to every single American who needs it. Then in a curious way, he hinted that no one has done a real cost estimate on this idea.
The Senator Gillibrand idea? She wants jobs guarantees for people. You'd get something, even if no real job existed. Again, I noted.....no real cost estimate on this.
The Senator Cory Booker idea? A Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act.....where fifteen areas (he didn't say it but I would assume they'd have to be large urbanized areas).....where you would be guaranteed a job.
The Andrew Yang (entrepreneur and a Democratic presidential hopeful) plan? He wants a $1,000 a month for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 as part of a universal basic income program. Naturally, he had no cost estimate over this.
The amusing thing is if you added all of these up and passed them.....it would likely get into the fifty to one-hundred billion level, and require most everyone to pay at least $5,000 more a year on taxes (at least those making $75k or more a year).
Selling all of this to blue-state middle-class Democrats? I would suggest that they will sit there amused, and laughing over the various offers of money.
My thoughts would be that you really need to have the Democratic Party sit down in some meeting and write up two or three great ideas with minimal cost, and hype those for the 2018 election and later for the 2020 Presidential election. The taxation required here? Just way out beyond reality.
The Bernie Sanders chat? He says there has to be a mandatory $15-an-hour job setting, with complete health-care benefits to every single to every single American who needs it. Then in a curious way, he hinted that no one has done a real cost estimate on this idea.
The Senator Gillibrand idea? She wants jobs guarantees for people. You'd get something, even if no real job existed. Again, I noted.....no real cost estimate on this.
The Senator Cory Booker idea? A Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act.....where fifteen areas (he didn't say it but I would assume they'd have to be large urbanized areas).....where you would be guaranteed a job.
The Andrew Yang (entrepreneur and a Democratic presidential hopeful) plan? He wants a $1,000 a month for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 as part of a universal basic income program. Naturally, he had no cost estimate over this.
The amusing thing is if you added all of these up and passed them.....it would likely get into the fifty to one-hundred billion level, and require most everyone to pay at least $5,000 more a year on taxes (at least those making $75k or more a year).
Selling all of this to blue-state middle-class Democrats? I would suggest that they will sit there amused, and laughing over the various offers of money.
My thoughts would be that you really need to have the Democratic Party sit down in some meeting and write up two or three great ideas with minimal cost, and hype those for the 2018 election and later for the 2020 Presidential election. The taxation required here? Just way out beyond reality.
CALEXIT
According to news reports, there's enough signatures to put this California-exit-from-the-US idea on the ballot.
I've sat and pondered over this. I admit....it was a brief eight minutes. Yep, that was enough.
Frankly, I think states (the other 49) should go ahead and write a 3-line text piece, and pass through their legislative chambers....a blessing to approve California to leave the Union. Let the nation of California exist, and just move on.
Remove the military bases, ports. Dissolve any federal support. Shut down the postal facilities. Remove the Social Security offices. Close the federal court system there. Bring the Coast Guard assets to Oregon and Washington. And reset the border to the appropriate points.
To be honest, once you lay out all the measures.....less than ten-percent of the public would go along with the vote. To be further honest....if you put the vote to the forty-nine other states....to please remove California....I suspect the vote would be about 35-percent of the general public to end the torment, and just send California off on it's own.
At some point in the 1970s....California just seemed to slip off and became something of a rogue-state. I've worked with various people who grew up there in the 1960s and 1970s, who almost got teary-eyed in describing the landscape and culture. I've also worked with people who grew up there in the 1990s, and they lacked any teary-eyed feeling, and their criticisms would go on, and on, and on. It's just not the same place.
As for the vote number here? I suspect that the measure will get somewhere around 35-percent. Some people will take it as a joke, and vote for it.
So don't get all peppy and enthusiastic that CALEXIT will occur.
I've sat and pondered over this. I admit....it was a brief eight minutes. Yep, that was enough.
Frankly, I think states (the other 49) should go ahead and write a 3-line text piece, and pass through their legislative chambers....a blessing to approve California to leave the Union. Let the nation of California exist, and just move on.
Remove the military bases, ports. Dissolve any federal support. Shut down the postal facilities. Remove the Social Security offices. Close the federal court system there. Bring the Coast Guard assets to Oregon and Washington. And reset the border to the appropriate points.
To be honest, once you lay out all the measures.....less than ten-percent of the public would go along with the vote. To be further honest....if you put the vote to the forty-nine other states....to please remove California....I suspect the vote would be about 35-percent of the general public to end the torment, and just send California off on it's own.
At some point in the 1970s....California just seemed to slip off and became something of a rogue-state. I've worked with various people who grew up there in the 1960s and 1970s, who almost got teary-eyed in describing the landscape and culture. I've also worked with people who grew up there in the 1990s, and they lacked any teary-eyed feeling, and their criticisms would go on, and on, and on. It's just not the same place.
As for the vote number here? I suspect that the measure will get somewhere around 35-percent. Some people will take it as a joke, and vote for it.
So don't get all peppy and enthusiastic that CALEXIT will occur.
Monday, 23 April 2018
Nuts
I sat reading family descriptions of this Nashville shooter. They all kinda indicate that he was a regular guy....up until the summer of 2014, and then became a delusional guy on a fairly regular basis. Drugs? Probably so. No one seems to really know his personal drug habit, which I find strange. The nude act in Nashville? It'd be bath salts typically. But if he'd been taking bath salts regularly since 2014.....he ought to be dead by now.
In recent months, I've sat and pondered upon the safety level that exists in the US today, with nutcases and extreme drug-users. Up until the 1960s....most states operated mental facilities, and a judge could detain an individual for temporary or permanent placement. Then we got all upset about the way that the facilities were run....shutting them down. What really replaced was a three-step effort.....either drugging folks enough....putting them into friendly-stype mental institutes.....or prisons. I watched a prison show back in 2013 where guards talked about the type of inmates, and as one guard commented....one out of every four folks in his prison were mentally-unfit (either by their actions, or by drug-induced behavior).
Whether we like to admit it or not.....prisons became the natural substitute after we shut down the mental facilities in each state. That's where this Nashville shooter will end up.....when found and put through the legal system.
If you sat and added up the extreme-bipolar folks, the plain nutcases, the extreme paranoid schizophrenics, the drugged-up nuts.....you'd likely come to a minimum of 1.5-million (my humble guess) of people who can't be allowed in public. The question is.....are you willing to put them away permanently, and if so....where?
In recent months, I've sat and pondered upon the safety level that exists in the US today, with nutcases and extreme drug-users. Up until the 1960s....most states operated mental facilities, and a judge could detain an individual for temporary or permanent placement. Then we got all upset about the way that the facilities were run....shutting them down. What really replaced was a three-step effort.....either drugging folks enough....putting them into friendly-stype mental institutes.....or prisons. I watched a prison show back in 2013 where guards talked about the type of inmates, and as one guard commented....one out of every four folks in his prison were mentally-unfit (either by their actions, or by drug-induced behavior).
Whether we like to admit it or not.....prisons became the natural substitute after we shut down the mental facilities in each state. That's where this Nashville shooter will end up.....when found and put through the legal system.
If you sat and added up the extreme-bipolar folks, the plain nutcases, the extreme paranoid schizophrenics, the drugged-up nuts.....you'd likely come to a minimum of 1.5-million (my humble guess) of people who can't be allowed in public. The question is.....are you willing to put them away permanently, and if so....where?
The '83' People
Years ago, the Pentagon made this decision after many studies, that they would not accept anyone into the military with an IQ less than 83. It's not a page one type story, and it's been generally known in the public for at least two decades.
The rationale behind the 83-number? What is generally said is that if you have an IQ less than 83....it means you are untrainable. You won't retain educational material....be able to grasp basic concepts.....or perform a repeatable and successful procedure.
Numbers are thrown around, but in general....the studies conducted will suggest that approximately 15-percent of the general population fall into this category.
I've sat and pondered over this 83-number, and the numbers of the population suggested to be in the low IQ range. There's a problem that I see with these studies.....they don't really go and conduct these studies in groups of heavy drug-use or alcohol-use individuals. When you have some guy whacking up his brain cells, and you present a simple 60-second mathematical problem that people would all accomplish when they were sixteen years old....you find the 40-year-old junkie dude....no longer has the capacity to comprehend the basic problem in sixty seconds. Maybe with full concentration and fifteen minutes of time.....he'll come to some conclusion.
So with the US population (300 million)....taking the low IQ average group....you have 45-million untrainable people. Throw in the alcohol affected folks and the druggies.....you might have near 120-million Americans who are of very little value to the business world, or to society itself. They might have a high school education but in today's environment....that means very little. In simple terms....roughly one out of every three Americans are virtually worthless.
In an average day....you probably will bump into at least a dozen of these folks, and remind yourself that they are 'burger-flipper' mentality....can't be trusted with decision-making....can barely comprehend 6th-grade topics....and they have to make some kind of income to pay for their lifestyle, rent, and retirement one day.
As you wander out each day....learn to appreciate the fact that the nation was able to find some jobs for these poor people, and keep them happily occupied.
The rationale behind the 83-number? What is generally said is that if you have an IQ less than 83....it means you are untrainable. You won't retain educational material....be able to grasp basic concepts.....or perform a repeatable and successful procedure.
Numbers are thrown around, but in general....the studies conducted will suggest that approximately 15-percent of the general population fall into this category.
I've sat and pondered over this 83-number, and the numbers of the population suggested to be in the low IQ range. There's a problem that I see with these studies.....they don't really go and conduct these studies in groups of heavy drug-use or alcohol-use individuals. When you have some guy whacking up his brain cells, and you present a simple 60-second mathematical problem that people would all accomplish when they were sixteen years old....you find the 40-year-old junkie dude....no longer has the capacity to comprehend the basic problem in sixty seconds. Maybe with full concentration and fifteen minutes of time.....he'll come to some conclusion.
So with the US population (300 million)....taking the low IQ average group....you have 45-million untrainable people. Throw in the alcohol affected folks and the druggies.....you might have near 120-million Americans who are of very little value to the business world, or to society itself. They might have a high school education but in today's environment....that means very little. In simple terms....roughly one out of every three Americans are virtually worthless.
In an average day....you probably will bump into at least a dozen of these folks, and remind yourself that they are 'burger-flipper' mentality....can't be trusted with decision-making....can barely comprehend 6th-grade topics....and they have to make some kind of income to pay for their lifestyle, rent, and retirement one day.
As you wander out each day....learn to appreciate the fact that the nation was able to find some jobs for these poor people, and keep them happily occupied.
Friday, 20 April 2018
The Book Story
It was a small piece in the news late last night.....a book company has hooked with David Hogg of the Florida school shooting fame (and his sister) to write a book. Name for the book? Never Again. Publishing date? Well....this is interesting, first week of June. Yeah....basically six weeks away.
I sat and thought about several factors over this.
First, generally....books take several months, with a draft period, and sometimes lawyers need to pour over what's written. To suggest it'll be done in four weeks, and be reviewed....then mass produced by early June? It can only be done if the book is already half-written.
My bet is that some foundation is hooked up with the book company, and that Hogg (with his sister) are basically writing the introduction chapter, but the rest of the book is already done (written by someone hired by the foundation). This is probably a draft copy that's been sitting around for six to twelve months....waiting for the right folks to 'front' the book.
Second, why such a hasty publishing deadline? Well...if you are seeking to influence the November elections....you need this book out there as part of the trend. July and August would see Hogg and his sister in various interviews, and hyping the book....which all plays into the November election.
Third, the next phase of Hogg? Well, I will predict that CNN hires him in July timeframe to front some teen-show concept....an hour-long show on Sunday evenings....mostly political in nature and anti-gun. He will skip starting to college this fall, and run this CNN teen anti-gun show instead. All of this would start weeks prior to the November election. After the election....toward the spring semester, he'll show up at some private New England university for a year of studies.....then likely return to CNN to continue the show for the 2020 election period.
Finally, I come to this odd part of the book deal. You have to ask yourself.....what do 15-to-18 year old kids read? Assemble a hundred kids, and shock yourself. They generally don't read Hemingway or Steinbeck. They hate biographical pieces. They generally don't read lecture books. Their general hype is science fiction or fantasy-type books.
So would they even read this book written by Hogg? Maybe one or two kids out of a hundred. Will the book then be picked up by teachers and forced onto students to read? Will anti-gun parents rush out and buy the book to force upon their kids to read?
I sat and thought about several factors over this.
First, generally....books take several months, with a draft period, and sometimes lawyers need to pour over what's written. To suggest it'll be done in four weeks, and be reviewed....then mass produced by early June? It can only be done if the book is already half-written.
My bet is that some foundation is hooked up with the book company, and that Hogg (with his sister) are basically writing the introduction chapter, but the rest of the book is already done (written by someone hired by the foundation). This is probably a draft copy that's been sitting around for six to twelve months....waiting for the right folks to 'front' the book.
Second, why such a hasty publishing deadline? Well...if you are seeking to influence the November elections....you need this book out there as part of the trend. July and August would see Hogg and his sister in various interviews, and hyping the book....which all plays into the November election.
Third, the next phase of Hogg? Well, I will predict that CNN hires him in July timeframe to front some teen-show concept....an hour-long show on Sunday evenings....mostly political in nature and anti-gun. He will skip starting to college this fall, and run this CNN teen anti-gun show instead. All of this would start weeks prior to the November election. After the election....toward the spring semester, he'll show up at some private New England university for a year of studies.....then likely return to CNN to continue the show for the 2020 election period.
Finally, I come to this odd part of the book deal. You have to ask yourself.....what do 15-to-18 year old kids read? Assemble a hundred kids, and shock yourself. They generally don't read Hemingway or Steinbeck. They hate biographical pieces. They generally don't read lecture books. Their general hype is science fiction or fantasy-type books.
So would they even read this book written by Hogg? Maybe one or two kids out of a hundred. Will the book then be picked up by teachers and forced onto students to read? Will anti-gun parents rush out and buy the book to force upon their kids to read?
Thursday, 19 April 2018
Evangelical Story
About six to eight months ago, I kinda noticed the creation of a religious 'fraud'....evangelical in nature....attaching itself to a foundation, and being hyped up as a political device. Oddly enough....it anti-GOP. That's something that you would not have noticed a decade ago.
So today, it came up about this BIG private meeting going on....a select group of fifty evangelical ministers (the top elite from across the nation), who'd been invited up to Wheaton College (Chicago). This was supposed to be a two-day session and lay out some ideas and discussion, which everyone invited figured that it wouldn't be about the Presidency.
At some point yesterday...all heck broke loose and a number of folks just got up in the middle of discussions and left. The chatter that made them leave? Hyped up anti-Trump talk.
To the degree covered....no one wants to talk about the private group who arranged this meeting, or their agenda business. I noticed this with CNN, Washington Post, and NY Times.
My humble guess? These various politicized agenda groups have attached themselves to foundations, which talk of religious objectives, but tend to be very political in nature. If you look at the November schedule for elections....it's come to a time to gather the evangelical 'herd' and lead them out of the 'Trump-Valley'. Big shocker?
Basically, you'd have to build some religious argument that Democrats are on some moral high ground, and vote down against abortion and twenty other topics that evangelical topics. Well....it's awful hard for the Democrats to stand up in some church environment and hype their moral standing on these topics. So the foundation groups use what I'd call a proxy....this is a highly enthusiastic and charming minister who knows the inside to their agenda and is there to use the Jesus-talk and lead the 'herd' to the right position.
All of this is being done....with this mass meeting of the top fifty.....to lead onto a June meeting with a thousand-odd evangelical leaders from across the nation. They would get the right anti-Trump message and then lead their members to vote wildly in Novembers election.
If this group fails? That's a curious thing.
If people figure out the agenda...the 'fakes' involved....and the foundations hyping this anti-Trump theme, then the whole effort of the past decade will be laid out as a fraud. It has basically nothing to do with evangelical positions. It's just plain hype.
My guess? If more than half of these folks in the fifty-group have left.....it leaves twenty-five sitting there and positioning themselves to be part of the fraud later in June.
In some ways, it's comical. 'Jesus' for Democrats, and anti-Trump....imagine sitting in some church group and hyping the message.
So today, it came up about this BIG private meeting going on....a select group of fifty evangelical ministers (the top elite from across the nation), who'd been invited up to Wheaton College (Chicago). This was supposed to be a two-day session and lay out some ideas and discussion, which everyone invited figured that it wouldn't be about the Presidency.
At some point yesterday...all heck broke loose and a number of folks just got up in the middle of discussions and left. The chatter that made them leave? Hyped up anti-Trump talk.
To the degree covered....no one wants to talk about the private group who arranged this meeting, or their agenda business. I noticed this with CNN, Washington Post, and NY Times.
My humble guess? These various politicized agenda groups have attached themselves to foundations, which talk of religious objectives, but tend to be very political in nature. If you look at the November schedule for elections....it's come to a time to gather the evangelical 'herd' and lead them out of the 'Trump-Valley'. Big shocker?
Basically, you'd have to build some religious argument that Democrats are on some moral high ground, and vote down against abortion and twenty other topics that evangelical topics. Well....it's awful hard for the Democrats to stand up in some church environment and hype their moral standing on these topics. So the foundation groups use what I'd call a proxy....this is a highly enthusiastic and charming minister who knows the inside to their agenda and is there to use the Jesus-talk and lead the 'herd' to the right position.
All of this is being done....with this mass meeting of the top fifty.....to lead onto a June meeting with a thousand-odd evangelical leaders from across the nation. They would get the right anti-Trump message and then lead their members to vote wildly in Novembers election.
If this group fails? That's a curious thing.
If people figure out the agenda...the 'fakes' involved....and the foundations hyping this anti-Trump theme, then the whole effort of the past decade will be laid out as a fraud. It has basically nothing to do with evangelical positions. It's just plain hype.
My guess? If more than half of these folks in the fifty-group have left.....it leaves twenty-five sitting there and positioning themselves to be part of the fraud later in June.
In some ways, it's comical. 'Jesus' for Democrats, and anti-Trump....imagine sitting in some church group and hyping the message.
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