Milkshakes, Straws, Environmentalists, and McDonalds

This is one of those essays that leads you along a pretty rough path.

So, if you haven't noticed both in the US and in Europe....plastic straws are fairly negative now (like plastic bags).  McDonalds wanted to get ahead of this situation and have some positive stories to tell. They were going to dump plastic straws entirely. 

Leading out of McDonalds-UK, straws were all going to paper.  They'd gone and done some bare essentials research, and then bought a number of pallets of paper straws to start this new program.

Then, this odd development occurred....they discovered that paperstraws simply don't work well with milkshakes.  Maybe it's the thickness of the paper, or the absorption level of the straw....but it simply doesn't work. 

Added to this misery, the people who do recycling for McDonalds-UK.....looked at the waste product left, and made the decision that these recyclable straws are NOT recyclable.  So they go into the regular waste....not the recyclable waste.

What happens now?  No one says much.  Maybe they could go to bamboo straws, or maybe just dump straws entirely.....handling you a plastic spoon for the milkshake. 

The amusing side of this is that the environmentalists getting into the middle of this whole business....just made it a bigger mess than it was already. 

My Observations over Dayton and El Paso

Ten thoughts:

1.  The word 'Incel' comes up a good bit....meaning 'involuntary celibates', a sub-culture of male 'boys' who are mostly gamers, and unable to date or assemble a life of normalcy.  This has been going on for more than twenty years, and helps to explain why the majority of the shooters are white, losers, and lacking any care of society or people.

2.  Weapons of war.  It's a nifty term, but trying to use it for the AR-15 won't work.  There's not a single military structure in the world that uses the AR-15.  The M-16?  Yes, but the AR-15 is simply a different gun, and not a weapon of war.

3.  People who write manifestos.  In general....anyone who writes a manifesto, is aiming to bring society to a civil war or revolution....through a violent means, and death is involved.  Charles Manson was that type of nut....Adolph Hitler was that type of nut.  The Christchurch shooter, was that type of nut.

4.  Attempting to take all guns?  I just don't see cops being enthusiastic about storming homes and trying to take weapons that people refuse to turn in.

5.  Raising the age to purchase a weapon to 21?  Well, if that kid is that immature....why are you letting him vote, get a credit card, borrow tens of thousands to get into college loan debt, etc?  It seems like if the age is the big deal....lets go and really screw with the immature kids and take their vote away as you take the gun right away.

6.  Treating juveniles in high school who make threats or suggest some 'hit-list' to be treated like adults?  Parents might want to prevent this, but once you took some kid who made a death-threat into a jail situation for a year or two....it would eventually get the attention of kids, and clean up a growing threat.

7.  Ever noticed that the number of black mass shooters are mostly guys who got fired, and returned to work to extract some revenge?  Ever noticed that women shooters are non-existent?

8.  After each of these events, there's a up-turn on folks wanting a conceal-and-carry permit, and folks carrying more weapons?  I would take a guess right now in the state of Alabama....five out of ten vehicles leaving for work this morning....have some guy or gal armed.

9.  Video-gaming dehumanizing kids?  Yes....but what are you willing to do about it?  Would you forbid sales, or criminalize any store that offers the games....even to adults?  I doubt it.

10.  Will-power to change the Constitution?  As much as Democrats blabber about 'change'.....I seriously doubt that you can find more than four of ten Democrats who want the Constitution changed on guns.  I would also suggest that in cities like Detroit and Atlanta....seventy-five percent of Democrat-voting homes will have a minimum of a pistol in the residence.

The Hand-Bag 'Guys'

Over the past five years, I've come to be fascinated by stone carvings which display a guy, with a 'hand-bag'. 

People could point this out from carvings in Egypt and Iraq.  But as time went by, the carving showed up in the Americas, Asia, and even cliff drawings in Australia.  The bag scene even shows up in Turkey at the new site of Gobekli Tepe (oddly enough, just the bags....not the guy holding the bag).

So I've come to ask myself some questions.

First, why so many points around the Earth?  Maybe you could make up some excuse if this were just a 1,000-mile circle from Iraq....but to find this virtually every corner of the Earth? 

Could it be some guy who was just a traveler and made up some fake legend story, and convinced folks of important people existing with handbags?  I've contemplated this....mostly because it's so easy to convince folks of a hoax (like Bigfoot).  Oddly enough, no matter where you find the image in stone....it's always the size of a lunch-box. 

Stone characters being women with the hand-bag?  No.  So far, I've yet to find an image where it's a woman.  It's either men, or animal-creature men. 

What's in the bag?  The images never convey that part of the story.  It must be important to identify the guy carrying the bag, but the contents are not that important.

All made around the same time?  This is harder to say or prove.  In the case of Gobekli Tepe, it has to be less than 12,000 years ago. 

Did the stone-carver actually see these folks, or simply get a description handed down....maybe five to ten generations later?  So when folks talk about the bag....maybe it was originally a backpack, and the story got shifted around to identify it as a purse instead?  Well, that's possible. 

Are the bags ever seen just by themselves, and not carried by some VIP-dude?  Well, the only images I've seen so far is the Gobekli Tepe site where multiple bags are put onto a statue indicating great chaos, or on some Australian rock (drawn by an Aborigine). 

Are the bags even significant?  This is debatable.  Obviously, the stone-cutters thought they were.  But you never see an image where 'Joe' is removing something from the bag. 

If the size is realistic....what would the VIP-due carry in a lunch-box size bag?  A Snickers-bar, bag of peanuts, a Mountain Dew, and a deck of cards?  Maybe it was just some aspirin, band-aides, and bug-repellent?  Maybe his communications device, a laser-gun, and a bottle of gin?

So I come to the end of this essay.  It is rather odd that 500-odd stone-carving experts, across the globe, without the ability to send images....came to chip out these carvings....all with the hand-bag guys.  Accidental?  No.  That's the one element to this story that you can cross off....you couldn't have 500-odd guys performing the same accidental visual representation. 

It'll just remain a mystery until someone digs up the statue or image of the hand-bag guy pulling something out of the bag. 

Explaining This Missile Treaty Chatter

Back in November of 1987, the US and Russia signed a missile treaty.  Basically....short-range missiles were OK, and long-range missiles were bad. 

New missile programs came and went.  So in the past couple of years, the Russians came onto this new program (SSC-8)....a cruise missile, which they said only went about 480 kilometers (300 miles).  The US monitored testing....no one says how but they did.  In their mind, the cruise missile is capable of carrying nukes and going up to 2000 kilometers (1,200 miles). 

After a number of months of talking about this....President Trump finally said that the 1987 treaty is dissolved (will take six months for this to occur).

Naturally, this has hyped up the Europeans a lot (especially the Germans).  Russia?  They've warned the US about bringing in medium-range cruise missiles to off-set this.  So they are chatting about bringing in missiles to Cuba or Venezuela to play this game out.

Trump's game-plan?  Unknown.  But this might be an occasion where he tells the NATO folks (in particular the Germans) that he has zero intention of bringing in more missiles to Europe, and that if they have a serious worry.....maybe they should take care of it themselves.

You see, the chief method of Russia making Oligarchs wealthy and rich.....is by oil and natural gas sales to Europe.  I don't think any Russian Oligarch or billionaire has any desire to mess up this situation. 

So this is all fake 'worry'?  More or less.  They will spend hours and hours trying to do public TV displays about Trump screwing up.  Well....he's actually telling Germany and the others....it's your business to protect yourself, and we won't necessarily be paying for it or helping you. 

As for the SSC-8?  Somewhere in the next year or two, I expect the Russians to conduct some test and demonstrate to the Europeans that it can go 2000 to 3000 kilometers.  NATO will try to entice Trump to come into the picture, and he'll tell them that it's their situation to resolve. 

5th District Chatter

“Democrats aren't the only members of congress who represent districts of distress. Mo Brooks who represents Alabama five, right, they have a median household income which is less than Maryland seven where Elijah Cummings represents, they have a median home value that is less, fewer people with bachelor degrees and the poverty level is a little bit less than Maryland 7 but about in the ballpark. my question to you is this, so Mo Brooks spends a lot of his time defending the president, why should he do that by your logic and not go home and deal with the issues in your district?"

-- CNN's John Berman

My brother pointed out this comment by CNN's journalist.....trying to slam a district in Alabama.  So the district (5th district), is basically where I grew up as a kid.

I just started laughing.

First, he picked on bachelor degrees, which if he'd come to northern Alabama....he would have found out that a fair number of kids are in community college or trade schools, and don't see any value in getting into serious debt with a worthless bachelor degree.

Crime?  Crime in northern Alabama just doesn't compare to Baltimore.  Murder and assault just doesn't occur at the same rate like in Baltimore.

If I actually went to locals in Baltimore and offered up a way for them to move.....given the chances, I think more than half would agree that northern Alabama is a heck of a lot safer than Baltimore.

But lets go to the odd figures.  If you went into the 5th district and started to look at individual households.....a lot of those households have either an RV, or bass-boat.....more so than Baltimore's surroundings.  Cars able to pass a state inspection on a moment's notice?  I would take a guess that more than 95-percent of the 5th district cars could easily pass the inspection.....with Baltimore's collection of cars questionable.

Lets go to this one odd final factor.  If you gathered up 1,000 residents of the 5th district in Alabama and said....you can move, and leave.  There might be a hundred willing to talk about this idea (most wanting to move to Alaska or Wyoming).  But in the end, less than 25 would take the step of leaving the 5th district.  In Baltimore, with a 1,000 residents offered the chance to move?  I suspect that a minimum of 800 would discuss the matter, and maybe 600 of them agreeing to move (virtually anywhere but Baltimore).

'Dark Psychic Forces'

It was a great phrase expressed by Marianne Williamson at the debate last night.

It's an image in my mind from the X-Files series....'dark psychic forces'.  Something with demons, monsters, vampires, etc. 

She's trying to label Trump as a 'demon'.  I'm guessing Trump is sitting there and contemplating this.....because it's a curve that he can't come easily back on Twitter.  He might even admit that he is absolutely a demon. 

Putin standing there and grinning?  Oh yes.  He'll even go and tell Williamson in a personal way....that he's darkest psychic force on planet Earth. 

Do we need a President like this?  Well, it's just something to think about. 

Foreign Change in the US

So here's something to think about.

Back in 2017, Guatemala was thought to have around 16.9 million residents total. 

Back in 2010, the US Census detected around 1.04-million Guatemalans living either legally or illegally in the US. 

The odds that we've reached two-million Guatemalans in the US, and that Guatemala's own population has bumped downward (say losing a million over the past three years)?   Well, it's very possible.

But here's the other thing which you ought to think about.  If nothing changes in Guatemala over the next five years....we will probably have 3.5-million Guatemalans in the US. 

Where do they live?  Mostly in urbanized zones (NY City, Philly, San Francisco, central Texas, northern Virginia).  The odds that they could get onto voting lists, and be part of some 'change'?  Well, here'e the thing....it wouldn't take much for some GOP guy to find some hyped-up talker....a Guatemalan person....to lead focus groups in all of these areas, and shift votes from the Democrats to the Republicans. 

Just to suggest that you could find 150,000 votes in Houston alone....that you could convert over....would send a clear message on political change occurring.