Today, 43 years ago, I would have been on day 12 of basic training. I don't count the 2nd of August because it was a travel day....to reach San Antonio.
In simple terms....it was extremely hot....and you appreciated any moment that you were in a shade.
This was the point where you started to actually count 'days-left' (roughly 43). We had ONE single calendar in the entire barracks (in Sarge's office). On night-duty, you'd walk through and gaze at the calendar.
By this point, you'd come to realize that chow didn't get any better or worse. You got use to either grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches or burgers for lunch, and pineapple-upside-down cake.
You got used to 'lights-out' and a set bedtime.
You agreed with just about everyone about the crappy tasting water from the base.
You had figured out that virtually everyone from NY City seemed to be quiet pleasant and could entertain you for hours on descriptive details of the city.
You figured out that running a mile in Chukka-boots was not that bad. I should note, that was the first pair and last pair I ever 'owned'.
By this weekend, I had agreed to accompany the Catholic crowd over to services....to just see if there was anything exciting to their service. I came to note that there wasn't much to get excited about.
At this point, I gazed at my billfold, which I had taken around a hundred dollars as I left home, and they'd 'given' me another fifty-odd dollars upon arrival. Frankly, other than shoe polish, soap or can of Coke....you just weren't spending money on much of anything.
Saturday, 15 August 2020
2016 Election Period versus 2020 Election Period
Basically, ten observations:
1. Less trust and belief in the news media today, than four years ago. The 'mute-button' is more heavily used.
2. Almost zero trust in polling data, at present.
3. Hillary Clinton was out and about....very active in July and August, and only limited around 9-11 for that week of serious pneumonia. Joe Biden? Probably on appearances and speeches....doing 10-percent of what Hillary handled.
4. Tim Kaine (Hillary's VP) is almost forgotten today, and wasn't a big deal in 2016. Harris? She's carrying the entire campaign from this point forward.
5. Russian collusion chatter? Now, almost non-existent.
6. If you tested a hundred Americans, at least 70-percent know Joe's wife....mostly because she's the primary one on the campaign trail.
7. Antifa is basically flipping a minimum of a thousand-odd votes per day....from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. The BLM message is probably one of worst screw-ups in Democratic Party history.
8. The destruction of Minneapolis? It probably guaranteed Trump the state.
9. Thanks to CNN in both 2016 and 2020, most Europeans today firmly believe Joe Biden will win (90-plus percent chance).
10. There are really three candidates in the 2020 election: Biden, Trump, and Covid-19.
1. Less trust and belief in the news media today, than four years ago. The 'mute-button' is more heavily used.
2. Almost zero trust in polling data, at present.
3. Hillary Clinton was out and about....very active in July and August, and only limited around 9-11 for that week of serious pneumonia. Joe Biden? Probably on appearances and speeches....doing 10-percent of what Hillary handled.
4. Tim Kaine (Hillary's VP) is almost forgotten today, and wasn't a big deal in 2016. Harris? She's carrying the entire campaign from this point forward.
5. Russian collusion chatter? Now, almost non-existent.
6. If you tested a hundred Americans, at least 70-percent know Joe's wife....mostly because she's the primary one on the campaign trail.
7. Antifa is basically flipping a minimum of a thousand-odd votes per day....from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. The BLM message is probably one of worst screw-ups in Democratic Party history.
8. The destruction of Minneapolis? It probably guaranteed Trump the state.
9. Thanks to CNN in both 2016 and 2020, most Europeans today firmly believe Joe Biden will win (90-plus percent chance).
10. There are really three candidates in the 2020 election: Biden, Trump, and Covid-19.
Friday, 14 August 2020
$3.5-Billion for Mail-in Balloting?
Yeah....this is the package that Congress has presented to the President....to hand the $3.5-billion to the 50 states to conduct the mail-in deal.
Why so much? Unknown. No one can stand there with a straight face and explain why it's such a nice 'round' number.
The cost of the two stamps (mailing you the ballot and you returning the ballot)? $1.10.
The odds here that almost $300-million will be wasted on double or triple voters? Don't even bother bringing up that problem.
Let's be honest here....probably half of all voters don't trust the mail-in deal and refuse to participate....so they are wasting $1.10 up front for about 70-odd million voters.
If this is not agreed upon? Well....no $3.5-billion and if you (as a state) get deep into this....you'd have to go borrow at least $150-million minimum....maybe even up to $300-million. Which idiot bank will loan you that money? The one wanting a significant interest deal?
The deeper you go into the mail-in-vote deal....the more corrupted it looks.
Why so much? Unknown. No one can stand there with a straight face and explain why it's such a nice 'round' number.
The cost of the two stamps (mailing you the ballot and you returning the ballot)? $1.10.
The odds here that almost $300-million will be wasted on double or triple voters? Don't even bother bringing up that problem.
Let's be honest here....probably half of all voters don't trust the mail-in deal and refuse to participate....so they are wasting $1.10 up front for about 70-odd million voters.
If this is not agreed upon? Well....no $3.5-billion and if you (as a state) get deep into this....you'd have to go borrow at least $150-million minimum....maybe even up to $300-million. Which idiot bank will loan you that money? The one wanting a significant interest deal?
The deeper you go into the mail-in-vote deal....the more corrupted it looks.
The Odds that Senator Harris Is Already Reviewing a VP List?
I'd give it 50-50 odds.
As Joe steps aside, either in the weeks to come, or after the election 'win'....Harris probably has a list made up already of individuals for her VP choice, and for the cabinet itself.
I wouldn't even see a problem in admitting such a list exists.
Would the new VP have to be a white male? Yes, some idiot probably has already made up the rules list, and it has to be a white male over the age of sixty (figure NY Governor Andrew Cuomo).
As Joe steps aside, either in the weeks to come, or after the election 'win'....Harris probably has a list made up already of individuals for her VP choice, and for the cabinet itself.
I wouldn't even see a problem in admitting such a list exists.
Would the new VP have to be a white male? Yes, some idiot probably has already made up the rules list, and it has to be a white male over the age of sixty (figure NY Governor Andrew Cuomo).
Death Chatter
So this topic came up today and it's worth five minutes pondering.Primarydoctor.org did the graphic (Colleen Huber, NMD).
Basically, it covers ALL US deaths each year since 2000, set to a limit of the first 32 weeks of each year. That means violent deaths, cancer deaths, and even suicidal deaths.
Most years, it averages out around 2.5-million to 2.8-million deaths a year. For Huber to reach a correct dataset.....she cut off each year's data at 32 weeks....in order to compare against 2020. So you aren't looking at full year data....simply 32-week data for each year.
2020 numbers? We are at 1.6-million....NOT 2.5-million as you'd have in a normal number situation.
Yes, roughly a million deaths haven't occurred on schedule.
(a long, long pause at this point)
We are missing around 1-million deaths, if you look at the plain numbers.
Will it catch up? Maybe more deaths occur around Thanksgiving and Christmas? Well....there's no factual data to support that.
So I'm going to suggest four radical thoughts here:
1. Because of the lock-down business....folks simply didn't travel as much and have car accidents.
2. Because bars and pubs were shutdown a good bit.....DWI deaths didn't occur as you'd expect.
3. Because most elective surgery procedures were cancelled into April and still today....folks are hesitant to enter a hospital. So infections didn't occur, or screw-ups at the hospitals.
4. Because school events were cancelled out, fewer teen deaths were recorded via car accidents.
Even with Covid-19 deaths.....it doesn't seem to really help inflate our numbers. At the end of 2020? It might be the lowest 'death' number year of the past forty-odd years.
Yeah....it's one of those moments when you open up a bottle of fine whiskey, and sit on the patio....sipping, contemplating the numbers, and viewing the strange arrangement we have set up for 2020.
Thursday, 13 August 2020
Two Mask Stories
1. This week, I was watching German news, and this German political guy had run off to Beirut after the explosion. I won't discuss the political gain or imagery of this visit....but the guy did a one-minute chatty session....which you couldn't understand much of anything he said.
About halfway through this, I looked at his mask, and then realized...he had two masks on. The 'under-one' was the expensive N-95 'super-duper' mask (with a filter). The 'over-one' was a cheapo surgical mask.
I'm guessing he was awful fearful about getting Covid-19 there, but all this chatty hype was basically worthless because you couldn't understand nothing much he said.
2. This week, I was reading over a blog from a guy who is hired-up and working for a company.....doing office-time at home....during this Covid-period.
He admits, since early May, other than one day at work.....everything has worked fine at home, and he's getting more done.
So he gets onto this discussion....the team lead changed out. His crew (around ten) got a new 'boss', and the boss about ten days ago sent out the memo on the weekly conference video session (an hour where all projects are lightly discussed). The boss wanted two or three significant things done in a different way.....then said that everyone who appears on camera within the group....NEEDS to wear a mask (yes, while sitting at home).
In the day prior to this next session, this guy had a chat with two guys in the group, and they all voiced the opinion that was dumber than s**t.
So the day of the conference session comes up, and guy number one is on the group video 'show', but if you blew his picture up....you'd notice that it's a single picture of him with a mask on, the mouth never 'moves' and simply audio going on in the background.
The second guy? He's taken up the live voice/video thing, but his voice is heavily muffled....like South Park's Kenny McCormick. Nothing he says is understandable but he's waving arms and sounding agreeable to what everyone says.
I will offer this opinion....the longer this mask crap goes on....the more crazy things will get, and HR folks will get involved....dictating the style/type of mask, and the sixty-four rules of company mask policy.
About halfway through this, I looked at his mask, and then realized...he had two masks on. The 'under-one' was the expensive N-95 'super-duper' mask (with a filter). The 'over-one' was a cheapo surgical mask.
I'm guessing he was awful fearful about getting Covid-19 there, but all this chatty hype was basically worthless because you couldn't understand nothing much he said.
2. This week, I was reading over a blog from a guy who is hired-up and working for a company.....doing office-time at home....during this Covid-period.
He admits, since early May, other than one day at work.....everything has worked fine at home, and he's getting more done.
So he gets onto this discussion....the team lead changed out. His crew (around ten) got a new 'boss', and the boss about ten days ago sent out the memo on the weekly conference video session (an hour where all projects are lightly discussed). The boss wanted two or three significant things done in a different way.....then said that everyone who appears on camera within the group....NEEDS to wear a mask (yes, while sitting at home).
In the day prior to this next session, this guy had a chat with two guys in the group, and they all voiced the opinion that was dumber than s**t.
So the day of the conference session comes up, and guy number one is on the group video 'show', but if you blew his picture up....you'd notice that it's a single picture of him with a mask on, the mouth never 'moves' and simply audio going on in the background.
The second guy? He's taken up the live voice/video thing, but his voice is heavily muffled....like South Park's Kenny McCormick. Nothing he says is understandable but he's waving arms and sounding agreeable to what everyone says.
I will offer this opinion....the longer this mask crap goes on....the more crazy things will get, and HR folks will get involved....dictating the style/type of mask, and the sixty-four rules of company mask policy.
If You Were a Second-Year NCAA Football Player.....
Lets say you were a second-year NCAA football player with real skills....then the 'league' said because of Covid-19, there are no games for 2020. What should you do? Burn up a year of eligibility in non-play? Or go home?
If this were me, I'd pack my bag, and tell the university that I can't attend because of Covid-19, and head home. I'd return in August of 2021, if the NCAA started up games again, and not waste a near of eligibility.
If this were me, I'd pack my bag, and tell the university that I can't attend because of Covid-19, and head home. I'd return in August of 2021, if the NCAA started up games again, and not waste a near of eligibility.
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