Altogether, I probably watched about two hours of clips over the Mueller meeting yesterday. No, I didn't watch his opening statement segment....but I caught enough of Republicans and Democrats asking questions to reach four observations:
1. Maybe a decade ago, Mueller was a witty and clever guy, but the guy I saw yesterday was drained of energy, lacking any ability to drill down into the topic, and was a guy at the end of his career.
In some ways, I felt sorry for him. But as you look around....there are a number of folks who have stayed beyond their value in Washington and can't deliver any longer (Pelosi, former Senator from Mississippi.....Thad Cochran, Senator Feinstein from California, Senator Grassley from Kansas, etc).
2. The value of this 'show' yesterday for the Democrats? Maybe they had some view that they had 'gold' still left to mine, but I'd say if anything....this impeachment chatter is basically finished and any hope of using Mueller's work is a joke.
3. If they did go to impeachment....the President's lawyers have the right to bring various witnesses in, and they might drag Mueller back for a second round, or perhaps drag in dementia experts to talk over Mueller's health aspects. If you thought this round yesterday went marginally well, that impeachment project would be a total failure.
4. This brings me back to the beginning....did Sessions know that Mueller was losing it? Did one guy marginally capable of delivering anything....just select another guy marginally capable of delivering anything?
I'm kinda hoping this is the end now for this whole impeachment talk. If it continues on....people would start to treat it as a comedy, and it's value goes away.
Thursday, 25 July 2019
Wednesday, 24 July 2019
Reading
All total in my life, I would estimate that I've picked up 2,200-plus books and read them. At some point as a kid, I was probably reading one book week. Split between fiction and non-fiction? It's probably 10-percent fiction, and the rest of historic value. Somewhere in the middle might be five or six science fiction pieces (Planet of the Apes for example), a book or two by Stephen King, and maybe twenty-odd books over climate change, science topics, and economics.
I made an attempt to read Mein Kampf by Hitler....failing on the first attempt, and then picking it up around twenty years later. It's not a book that I'd recommend, but mostly because it's basically a manifesto-type document.
Some recommended reading list? It's marginally possible because I've touched so many books and I might have a list just based on Steinbeck alone, or just one World War I alone. But I'll list out ten books that I'd tell folks that it's worth a read:
1. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Norton. A fact-filled book which covers the pre-events, the background, the chief characters, and the landscape on the crisis itself. For those who never understood this......in the midst of an Indian War....for some odd reason, religion got turned upside down, and over the course of a few months....an entire region was 'entertained' by accusations of witchcraft.
At the heart of this matter were a couple of teen girls, with great imagination. By the end, around fifty-odd folks had confessed to satanic stuff, and nineteen of them hanged. The authorities? They eventually reached some level where the excitement just couldn't be pumped up anymore, and the circle of accusations might have been close enough to include some of the authorities themselves.
2. My Man Jeeves, Wodehouse. Great fictional piece which came out at the conclusion of WW I. Great wit, and probably good enough for an entire comedy series today.
3. True Believer, Hoffer. First of about ten books by Hoffer, coming out in the mid-1950s, and discusses how large groups of people are herded by propaganda into mass movements. Hoffer was the last intellectual existing in America who never attended college.
It's a book that you can wrap up over a weekend, and it conveys a great deal of historical examples of how people fall for some fake political business.
4. Animal Farm, Orwell. You could probably assign this fictional book to some nine-year-old kids, but they would be asking some serious political questions by the end, and it'd be hard to lay out the reality of this world. It's another book that you can wrap up in a single weekend. After you read it, you will never be able to avoid skeptical nature with politics.
5. The Great Fire of London: 1666, Hanson. It is a fine history piece which lays out London, and how the fire developed.
6. The Forgotten Man, Schlaes. Roughly 500 pages of historical coverage over the end of WW I and the path up to the early 1930s. For those who felt that high school history never introduced them to the period, or explained the causes for Great Depression.....this book weaves a great story.
7. The Prairie Traveler: A Guidebook for Overland Expeditions, Marcy. It's a weekend book which lays out the hardships and general practices of a wagon-train. Written in 1859, and I'd highly recommend it.
8. Pastures of Heaven, Steinbeck. A book of fictional pieces (maybe ten stories) and entertaining. To be honest, there's over a dozen Steinbeck books that I'd recommend.
9. Democracy in America, Tocqueville. Roughly 400 pages and written after his tour of America in the 1830s. The big adventure of seeing early America by a French guy, who seemed to be thrilled over each week that passed.
10. The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins (2015), Angelos. Around eight years ago, Greece kinda collapsed (financially). This writer went over and did a tour of the country....to explain how you get to this level of screwed-up nature. It's mostly a book about how people reach a point of distrust for the government and all of it's 'promises'.
The problem with this list, is that I'd probably like to make it around 400 books, and mandate kids between the ages of twelve and eighteen read all of these.
I made an attempt to read Mein Kampf by Hitler....failing on the first attempt, and then picking it up around twenty years later. It's not a book that I'd recommend, but mostly because it's basically a manifesto-type document.
Some recommended reading list? It's marginally possible because I've touched so many books and I might have a list just based on Steinbeck alone, or just one World War I alone. But I'll list out ten books that I'd tell folks that it's worth a read:
1. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Norton. A fact-filled book which covers the pre-events, the background, the chief characters, and the landscape on the crisis itself. For those who never understood this......in the midst of an Indian War....for some odd reason, religion got turned upside down, and over the course of a few months....an entire region was 'entertained' by accusations of witchcraft.
At the heart of this matter were a couple of teen girls, with great imagination. By the end, around fifty-odd folks had confessed to satanic stuff, and nineteen of them hanged. The authorities? They eventually reached some level where the excitement just couldn't be pumped up anymore, and the circle of accusations might have been close enough to include some of the authorities themselves.
2. My Man Jeeves, Wodehouse. Great fictional piece which came out at the conclusion of WW I. Great wit, and probably good enough for an entire comedy series today.
3. True Believer, Hoffer. First of about ten books by Hoffer, coming out in the mid-1950s, and discusses how large groups of people are herded by propaganda into mass movements. Hoffer was the last intellectual existing in America who never attended college.
It's a book that you can wrap up over a weekend, and it conveys a great deal of historical examples of how people fall for some fake political business.
4. Animal Farm, Orwell. You could probably assign this fictional book to some nine-year-old kids, but they would be asking some serious political questions by the end, and it'd be hard to lay out the reality of this world. It's another book that you can wrap up in a single weekend. After you read it, you will never be able to avoid skeptical nature with politics.
5. The Great Fire of London: 1666, Hanson. It is a fine history piece which lays out London, and how the fire developed.
6. The Forgotten Man, Schlaes. Roughly 500 pages of historical coverage over the end of WW I and the path up to the early 1930s. For those who felt that high school history never introduced them to the period, or explained the causes for Great Depression.....this book weaves a great story.
7. The Prairie Traveler: A Guidebook for Overland Expeditions, Marcy. It's a weekend book which lays out the hardships and general practices of a wagon-train. Written in 1859, and I'd highly recommend it.
8. Pastures of Heaven, Steinbeck. A book of fictional pieces (maybe ten stories) and entertaining. To be honest, there's over a dozen Steinbeck books that I'd recommend.
9. Democracy in America, Tocqueville. Roughly 400 pages and written after his tour of America in the 1830s. The big adventure of seeing early America by a French guy, who seemed to be thrilled over each week that passed.
10. The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins (2015), Angelos. Around eight years ago, Greece kinda collapsed (financially). This writer went over and did a tour of the country....to explain how you get to this level of screwed-up nature. It's mostly a book about how people reach a point of distrust for the government and all of it's 'promises'.
The problem with this list, is that I'd probably like to make it around 400 books, and mandate kids between the ages of twelve and eighteen read all of these.
Tuesday, 23 July 2019
How This Plague Scenario Would Play Out in California
Well, this is my scenario and just explains the landscape of how the plague would arrive, and how things would work.
At some point, a guy will show up with various symptoms, and the free-clinic doctor will spend three weeks working with the guy, and he is continuing to advance....no matter what the doctor prescribes. So he finally does the plague test, and is shocked....full-up plague, and advancing to the black skin stage.
So the doctor starts to look at the tent-camp that this is from. Over forty people are showing some symptoms....masked mostly by alcoholism and heavy drug use (meth, cocaine, and heroin).
The county health department is concerned and talking to the mayor, but no one wants to overreact.
The first guy is put into a light-quarantine facility, while the doctor is trying to convince the other forty to come in for tests. No of this is working well, with no saying anything to the news media.
Then you get some local kid (resident, not a tent dweller) who comes down with the plague. Parents ask questions and some nurse admits the plague discussion.
Within four nights, a group of concerned citizens burn down the tent community.
The doctor and the health department now have a problem because the forty infected folks have now run off. The mayor has a problem because the cops aren't reacting to the burn-down episode.
The Governor now steps into this and suggests a quarantine program but doesn't seem capable of mastering the requirement or having judges issue orders.
Trump steps in.....orders federal law enforcement and federal rules into the mess. A judge stands there with the cops and the health department....every single plague person is ordered to a 30-day quarantine program.
Problems now? Well.....these tent folks are all alcoholics and drug consumers. They can't cooperate with any of these rules or orders.
A 300-man National Guard team arrives and sets up a camp.
But now folks are worried about the plague over the whole state. More camps are burned. Suddenly, you have 10,000 folks heading north, toward San Francisco. Fear pops up, and more tent communities are burned to the ground.
Leadership shown by the state? Marginal and lousy. A year into this, more than 2,000 individuals have been identified as having the plague.
At some point, a guy will show up with various symptoms, and the free-clinic doctor will spend three weeks working with the guy, and he is continuing to advance....no matter what the doctor prescribes. So he finally does the plague test, and is shocked....full-up plague, and advancing to the black skin stage.
So the doctor starts to look at the tent-camp that this is from. Over forty people are showing some symptoms....masked mostly by alcoholism and heavy drug use (meth, cocaine, and heroin).
The county health department is concerned and talking to the mayor, but no one wants to overreact.
The first guy is put into a light-quarantine facility, while the doctor is trying to convince the other forty to come in for tests. No of this is working well, with no saying anything to the news media.
Then you get some local kid (resident, not a tent dweller) who comes down with the plague. Parents ask questions and some nurse admits the plague discussion.
Within four nights, a group of concerned citizens burn down the tent community.
The doctor and the health department now have a problem because the forty infected folks have now run off. The mayor has a problem because the cops aren't reacting to the burn-down episode.
The Governor now steps into this and suggests a quarantine program but doesn't seem capable of mastering the requirement or having judges issue orders.
Trump steps in.....orders federal law enforcement and federal rules into the mess. A judge stands there with the cops and the health department....every single plague person is ordered to a 30-day quarantine program.
Problems now? Well.....these tent folks are all alcoholics and drug consumers. They can't cooperate with any of these rules or orders.
A 300-man National Guard team arrives and sets up a camp.
But now folks are worried about the plague over the whole state. More camps are burned. Suddenly, you have 10,000 folks heading north, toward San Francisco. Fear pops up, and more tent communities are burned to the ground.
Leadership shown by the state? Marginal and lousy. A year into this, more than 2,000 individuals have been identified as having the plague.
The Debate Over the Minimum Wage
The idea of one single national minimum wage, and failing to account for fifty different state variations, and probably over 300 urbanized area variations? That's what makes the minimum wage discussion a wasted effort.
There's no doubt that a Burger King in Queens, NY and a Burger King in Demopolis, Alabama....simply aren't of the same variety. One probably should have a set minimum wage of $8 to $8.50 an hour (starting pay). The other probably should have a set minimum wage of $15 to $18 an hour (starting pay).
So this whole discussion is a wasted effort? More or less.
It's like talking over minimum wage for Miami, and then talking about a small rural community sixty miles north of Miami....the wages simply can't be the same. Yet no one will stand there and admit this in public.
There's no doubt that a Burger King in Queens, NY and a Burger King in Demopolis, Alabama....simply aren't of the same variety. One probably should have a set minimum wage of $8 to $8.50 an hour (starting pay). The other probably should have a set minimum wage of $15 to $18 an hour (starting pay).
So this whole discussion is a wasted effort? More or less.
It's like talking over minimum wage for Miami, and then talking about a small rural community sixty miles north of Miami....the wages simply can't be the same. Yet no one will stand there and admit this in public.
Friday, 19 July 2019
Video Story
Over the past ten-odd days, NBC News went to a great length to find a video, which had footage of Trump with this Epstein guy (noted in the news, and currently sitting in jail because the judge won't issue a release).
What's odd about this...is that the video comes from almost thirty years ago.
It's amazing....to consider all the vast investigative journalism that exists with NBC News, and you haven't really seen much of any of this.....for almost twenty years. Suddenly now? It shows up?
People sit there in disbelief, and laugh over NBC's great effort, and why they couldn't see anything like this over the Obama period. So many resources, and they simply sit there....with no instruction or desire to demonstrate their capability, unless it fits the agenda.
What's odd about this...is that the video comes from almost thirty years ago.
It's amazing....to consider all the vast investigative journalism that exists with NBC News, and you haven't really seen much of any of this.....for almost twenty years. Suddenly now? It shows up?
People sit there in disbelief, and laugh over NBC's great effort, and why they couldn't see anything like this over the Obama period. So many resources, and they simply sit there....with no instruction or desire to demonstrate their capability, unless it fits the agenda.
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
If Everyone Just Went Back 'Home'
It brought up my interest when the chatter came up, and President Trump finally said something to the effect....if you aren't happy here, maybe you ought to go back home.
Some folks are hinged on the term racism, but I'm trying to figure out where this angle fits.
If he did mean it in a racist-way, where exactly would I go?
You see, I have roots that kinda lead back to Kirby Bedon, UK (maybe from 400 years ago). Prior to that 'adventure'....then my folks were living for around 400 years in the Chester area of England (way over on the western side of the country).
Prior to Chester, we were Norman-folks and got all involved in some invasion angle by our Norman king, and we were connected to the northern coast of France.
But to be honest, we'd only been in Normandy for about two generations, and before that we were Danish folks. And if you go six to eight generations prior to that, we seem to have some time in the Latvia and Lithuania area.
So if I did get hyped up like the CNN guy suggests I should be.....where exactly was Trump referring me back to? Kirby Bedon? Chester? Normandy? Denmark? Latvia?
And with that .7-percent Congo DNA....could I establish some connection to head on back to the homeland of Congo?
But onto the bigger question....if I was referred to this suggestion of Trump....why am I unhappy? Shouldn't that be the bigger question with the CNN folks? If Trump isn't racist, and these people are actually unhappy....where does that lead them, or me?
Maybe the bigger question of this whole discussion....why are folks so unhappy?
Some folks are hinged on the term racism, but I'm trying to figure out where this angle fits.
If he did mean it in a racist-way, where exactly would I go?
You see, I have roots that kinda lead back to Kirby Bedon, UK (maybe from 400 years ago). Prior to that 'adventure'....then my folks were living for around 400 years in the Chester area of England (way over on the western side of the country).
Prior to Chester, we were Norman-folks and got all involved in some invasion angle by our Norman king, and we were connected to the northern coast of France.
But to be honest, we'd only been in Normandy for about two generations, and before that we were Danish folks. And if you go six to eight generations prior to that, we seem to have some time in the Latvia and Lithuania area.
So if I did get hyped up like the CNN guy suggests I should be.....where exactly was Trump referring me back to? Kirby Bedon? Chester? Normandy? Denmark? Latvia?
And with that .7-percent Congo DNA....could I establish some connection to head on back to the homeland of Congo?
But onto the bigger question....if I was referred to this suggestion of Trump....why am I unhappy? Shouldn't that be the bigger question with the CNN folks? If Trump isn't racist, and these people are actually unhappy....where does that lead them, or me?
Maybe the bigger question of this whole discussion....why are folks so unhappy?
Trump and Washington State
How hard would it be for Trump to win the state in 2020?
From 2016 results, Hillary was able to take 1.75-million votes....Trump was limited to 1.22-million votes. The Libertarian guy? He took 160,000 (roughly 5-percent of the votes). Normally, you'd go and say it's be awful hard.
So you shift and look at 2020.
Trump would have to and convince half of the Libertarian voters of 2016, to shift over to him (giving him 80,000 of those votes). It's quiet possible.
Then you gaze at the map. Hillary won only urbanized counties....the rest of the state (roughly two-thirds of the counties) went to Trump. In the case of five of the Hillary counties.....it was not a blow-out....it was marginally for her.
Toss in some key advertising....the slant on capitalism versus socialism.....Democrats who left their party in the past two years, I think you could suggest 250,000 votes flipping from 2016 to 2020....over to Trump. That would bump Trump slightly over the threshold, and show the state as a red-win state.
The last time that happened? 1984, with Reagan.
But there is one key element since 2004....massive registration and voter turn-out. There's like an entire era that closed out in 2000, and voter-surge occurred in 2004, and has repeated in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
So either you go and convince these older Democratic voters to flip their votes, or to stay home (to send a message).
From 2016 results, Hillary was able to take 1.75-million votes....Trump was limited to 1.22-million votes. The Libertarian guy? He took 160,000 (roughly 5-percent of the votes). Normally, you'd go and say it's be awful hard.
So you shift and look at 2020.
Trump would have to and convince half of the Libertarian voters of 2016, to shift over to him (giving him 80,000 of those votes). It's quiet possible.
Then you gaze at the map. Hillary won only urbanized counties....the rest of the state (roughly two-thirds of the counties) went to Trump. In the case of five of the Hillary counties.....it was not a blow-out....it was marginally for her.
Toss in some key advertising....the slant on capitalism versus socialism.....Democrats who left their party in the past two years, I think you could suggest 250,000 votes flipping from 2016 to 2020....over to Trump. That would bump Trump slightly over the threshold, and show the state as a red-win state.
The last time that happened? 1984, with Reagan.
But there is one key element since 2004....massive registration and voter turn-out. There's like an entire era that closed out in 2000, and voter-surge occurred in 2004, and has repeated in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
So either you go and convince these older Democratic voters to flip their votes, or to stay home (to send a message).
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