'Collusion' Story

Somewhere between 2000 and 2005, while I worked as a contractor for the Air Force in Germany, we came to have this new four-star Air Force general arrive.  In a matter of days (not even weeks), this guy had created a turbulent atmosphere with massive chaos and people began to question his sanity.  Somewhere in his 'we need to do this' orders....was the creation of various fake-programs, which all revolved around the use of the word 'combat'. 

There were programs for health care, the chapel folks, keeping the base clean, etc.  Each program was addressed as 'Combat X' or 'Combat Y'. 

At some point, he insisted that commercials needed to be developed to inform the public on bases about these programs.  The reaction was....a lot of Army folks watched the AFN (Armed Forces Network) as well. 

As they began to watch the 'Combat X' commercials (usually 30 to 60 seconds), they eventually started laughing.  In Army-bluntness.....the Air Force folks didn't know what combat was, and invoking combat on base cleanliness was a joke.

So I had to go one day over to Mannheim to visit a small AF office there and ended up in a conversation with two Army guys, and a AF NCO.  This 'combat' commercial thing came up.

The Army guys explained that a new drinking game had been created in the Army dorms.  In a TV room.....the young Army guys would come in and sit down on a Saturday evening with a bottle and a shot-glass.  A challenge would be mounted in the TV room to the group (usually five to ten), and each time that a Air Force 'Combat X' commercial came on....with the word 'combat' uttered....they had to do a shot. 

On normal work-day evenings, it wasn't that bad....maybe the word 'combat' got uttered just ten times.  But on a Thanksgiving weekend, with football games on and the necessity for AFN to fill commercial time, you might have the word 'combat' uttered 40 times in one evening (over 4 hours).  You'd walk into a TV at 11 PM and find six guys passed out, on the 'combat' challenge.

I've been watching this news media business over the past couple of months, with CNN's constant round-the-clock Trump coverage, where his name is uttered forty times in an hour, and collusion is uttered at least twenty times per hour. 

I'm beginning to wonder when college kids will go to a drinking game with CNN, where 'collusion' is the key word for a shot, or the word 'Trump', and you find some kid passed out about thirty minutes into the prime-time newscast. 

The question is.....if the kid passed out at the half-way point of the show, does he count as a full-up viewer, for national statistics.

And for the record, within 24 hours after the 'Combat X' general left his job....the commercials stopped.  I imagine it was hard for the Army guys to recover in this period, and while at some rehab episode....they had to explain how they stupidly got into this shot-game.     

Talking Over News

My brother brought this topic up....Tom Brokaw and the biased nature of news, and it deserves a bit of pondering and consideration.

As a kid growing up in rural Alabama in 1975, my sources for news was limited to roughly fourteen things: (1) CBS, (2) NBC, (3) ABC, (4) the AP folks via local radio, (5) two regional newspapers (Florence, Birmingham), (6) the Nashville paper, (7) Grit, (8) some farm newspaper that my dad subscribed to, (9) Paul Harvey news and commentary (more commentary than news itself), (10) Time magazine, (11) copies of National Geographic that a relative would drop off, (12) Argosy magazine (ending in 1978), (13) PBS with a weekly political chat show (I might have watched that once a year), and finally (14) US News and World Report (what my grandfather often quoted out of for political dialog and everything you needed to know and could read in sixty minutes). 

At some later point (after I'd left home), my dad added some Mennonite paper (mostly lacking news but giving you good advice on weather predictions for the fall, baking recipes, wagon accidents, and travels of various Mennonites). 

Today?  There's probably over 300 sources of daily news that I read through on a daily basis.  Some based out of the UK, and Germany.  I'll even occasionally watch RT (the Putin network), and catch an hour per week of France-24 (in English). 

The blunt truth is that there are now at least ten different variations on just about every single story.  Some folks will tell you a 40-line story, which has only three simple facts built into it.  CNN can spend an entire hour with four experts telling you about Russian collusion, as if it was a wild bear in your basement and about to get through the basement door (any minute now).

Some folks (well, maybe not my brother) can name all members of the Kardashian family, and give you a four-line description on their status for this week. 

Some of the networks will bring on various Senators for a Sunday chat, and do their best to let the marginally intelligent guy get by with answers that don't seem to say much. 

All of this just makes me wonder....have we turned the news into entertainment? 

Explaining 'Smolletocracy'

Smolletocracy: this is where you (a dysfunctional society) exist with a corrupted authority, fake politics, and fraudulent legal system. 

It's where you wake up each day....whining over your place in life and live in a fraudulent manner, or having hour-by-hour hoaxes dreamed up.....to continue your fake lifestyle.

My Idea for a Fake Reality Show

I am an admirer of Amish Mafia.  Yes, I admit it. 

I can sit for an entire hour, and listen to Caleb and Levi talk over fake mafia business within the Amish community.  Slutty behavior by Ester?  Yep, it's all great entertainment. 

So here's my new idea for a fake reality show.  It's called Russian Collusion.

What you do is have six to eight comedians dressed up as Russians....either as KGB guys, billionaires, Russian mafia, or Russian generals. 

Then you have twenty-five different Americans who portray Republicans, Democrats, news journalists, social media types, etc. 

For each hour of the show, you feature these meetings where collusion is supposed to take place, but often hampered by incompetent FBI agents, DEA fake agents, limo drivers, gospel singers, Stormy-type women, Hollywood producers, circus clowns, Texas ministers, etc. 

As each episode concludes, you have a guy in the background stand and ask.....now, was this collusion, and if so....who should be tried on charges?  Along about episode three, you introduce Chinese, Canadian, Cuban, and French Collusionists. 

Eventually, you even start to bring in Amish Colusionists, and ask if what they are doing....is really collusion. 

Pulitzer Story

The comical side of this whole Mueller report?

Well....it's not really remembered by many, but back in April of 2018....the New York Times and Washington Post both won Pulitzer Prizes.  The reason?  Well....Russian collusion. 

The Pulitzer folks?  As best as one can figure, they wiped tears from their eyes over all the fine material that the Times and WaPo folks wrote, and just wanted everyone to know of such fine journalism.

So roughly a year passed, and what we can say today....there was no Russian collusion.  All that hype by the WaPo and Times?  Just a lot of speculation over nothing. 

Embarrassing?  Yes....it ought to be fairly embarrassing to the Pulitzer folks.  Will they admit it?  No. 

So this brings me around to the whole journalism business, and if it's all faked-up, biased, or fraudulent.  For two years, CNN has probably run at least 300 hours of prime-time chatter on Russian collusion.  All of that effort...sometimes involving thousands of man-hours to set up the video, and the experts to chat on Russian collusion....led to what?  A fake story-line? 

Something is wrong here, but I doubt if we really want to discuss this in public. 

Van Gogh Story

So this year, in the midst of a harsh winter period, I got bored and ordered up what you'd call an adult-paint-by-the-numbers 'kit'....Van Gogh's Starry Night.

My original thought was I'd work on this an hour each day and it'd be finished up in two to three weeks. 

The original piece by Van Gogh?  Most folks 'think' (there is no factual evidence)....that he did this in two days flat (figure six to eight hours per day).

So this project went on for probably four months.  Yes, it was a bit more than what I anticipated. 

How Van Gogh did this in two days flat?  I've come to question this.  Personally, with the wavy structure, thirty-six different colors, and pencil-lead markings....the guy had to be a nutcase or doped up on some good drugs.

At the conclusion of this, I kinda admired it but admit that for any future winter period.....bird-houses or dog-houses would be a much better project.  If you do have some retired husband, that you need to keep busy....the adult Van Gogh paintings (with the 36 colors) are the best way to go. 

Joe, the Candidate?

The Emerson polling folks went up to Iowa and talked around with locals.  The Iowa view of Democrats for President?

Joe Biden comes out on top with 25 percent.  He's followed closed by Sanders with 24 percent.

Harris?  Way back at 10 percent, and Warren at the end with 9 percent.

It's really shaping up to a two-man race (if Biden enters, which is still a big question).