Trump and Ten Days Off

 With this Covid-positive test, I will suggest this scenario taking place:

1.  He's going to get all of the good drugs.

2.  Because of the hefty amount of vitamin D in his system (golfing a lot)....he'll come out in a lesser period of time as well.

3.  Since he doesn't consume booze of any type.....that will also be a plus.

4. I'll suggest that around 11/12 October that he emerges, gets re-tested, and pronounced well.

5.  He'll be all powered-up for the 15 October debate, with the news media in absolute disbelief.

6.  Then he'll make this one comment....'It was kinda like the flu', and not a big deal.  This will just irk the news folks to the 9th degree.

7.  Finally, over this ten-day period, he'll Twitter out at least a dozen comments a day, even while weakened.  

The only question....will Joe agree to show up on the 15th?  I'm betting not.    

Just Something To Think About

 When the absolute worst came on the 2020 stock market, and all the Covid crap drove the market to the low point, with 'experts' appearing on interviews and saying that it'd take three to five years for a recovery?

Well....if you check the market from the day of the lowest point, it recovered in roughly 100-odd days.  

I admit....jobs are still not to a normal stage, but the economy is sitting there....like 1957 Cadillac, ready to go.  All you need is the driver and a direction.  

Just to Get It Out of My System

 I want to denounce white supremacy.

I also want to denounce New Coke.

I'd also like to denounce fraudulent late-night commercials.

I'd like to denounce Nancy Pelosi.

I'd like to denounce fire-ants.

I'd like to denounce the movie 'Grease'.

I'd like to denounce all of the episodes of Matrix.

I'd like to denounce those goofy cat videos on YouTube.

I'd like to denounce military close-order drill, military parades, and marching in Florsheim shoes.

I'd like to denounce any magic act where a elephant moves 300 feet across the stage.

I'd like to denounce Thanos.

I'd like to denounce fake news, biased news, and hyped-up news.

I'd like to denounce Hillary Clinton.

I'd like to denounce NBA basketball....since the early 1990s (everything prior to that was ok).

I'd like to denounce American Airlines for almost no legroom on international flights.

I'd like to denounce fat women who wear ultra tight tube-tops, or skimpy shorts two sizes too small.

I'd like to denounce cheap beer.

I'd like to denounce....well....just anything of a bad nature.

There....I got that out of my system.  But will I have to repeat it again tomorrow, again?

A Sinking Story

 So this is a little history story....which was pretty solid on facts, until recently, and now....maybe the facts aren't facts.

There was this ship built at a German shipyard in 1980....as a ferry.  The original name was Viking Salley.  For ten years, it remained with the original company, then went through several different operations/names.  Things like this occur all the time.  

In 1993, it was renamed 'Estonia', and was a regular ferry between Estonia and Stockholm, Sweden.

On 28 September 1994, it left port in Estonia around 6:30 PM.  Around six hours would pass, and then it'd starting sinking....real fast.  Out of 989 people onboard....852 did not survive.  A lot of the deaths were simply because of the temperature in the waters, and the rapid sinking.  

An investigation was held (by Swedish authorities).  The blame? It goes to two chief factors....the load onboard (trucks and cars) was not evenly balanced, and the entry door on the vessel was not completely closed....allowing water in. 

Then the Swedes did something interesting....they declared it a vessel to not be explored or reviewed.  Then they arranged a contract with a company to dump rocks over the vessel.  

Yeah, it is a bit odd.  This might be occasionally done in harbors or lakes, but not in the middle of the sea. 

The contracted company?  They went and did the rock dumping and then kinda said it was insufficient. Whoever did the estimate for the government....drastically under-estimated the amount of rocks required.   The company said this to Sweden, but no one wanted to fund a second or third dumping of rocks....so this whole thing just wrapped up.  It's not covered.  

Now, there is this one curious thing that was said by a diver who arrived on the scene around the day or two after the episode.  He said, without any doubt....there's this 4-meter hole on the side of the vessel.  He doesn't say if it's bent inward or outward....just that there is a hole where it should not be.

So in the past couple of months (2020, roughly 25 years after the event), an Estonia film crew went down.  They've got video.  There is this four-meter hole there. 

In the past week, the Estonian PM met with the Swedish and Finnish PM.  The Swedes say the ship discussion didn't come up.  The Estonian and Finns say absolutely nothing.

The question here is....is this hole inward, or outward? 

If it's outward, then an explosion took place on the Estonia of a major  type.  

If it's inward, then a torpedo of some type hit the Estonia.

Who would want to sink the vessel?  Unknown.  

The problem I have with the original story of the door on the vessel not closed....some crew-members would have noticed this an hour into the trip, with water flowing in.  No emergency is called for six hours.  So I'm kinda disbelieving the door being open story.

If the Swedes knew of the hole, and they basically wrote a whole fake report over the sinking....pretending the open door explanation is the end-all solution?  Well....I'd have to bring in the entire government (party in charge) at the time, and basically fire each single guy.

But it all begs questions.....why blowing up the ship or hitting it with a torpedo?  

Just something to make you wonder.

Added note:  I chatted with a Brit who is familiar with the region, and his suggest is that a fishing trawler hit the ferry in the darkness, and simply moved on in the night (remember, this was after midnight).  It's an interesting scenario, but trawler would have suffered damage and had to pull into some port later....to explain the damage done.  

Sarge as a Garbage Guy in NY City?

 Because of manpower cuts in NY City (remember, everything is marginally functioning, so tax revenue isn't there)....the city has cut back on garbage collection.

So yesterday, the Governor (Cuomo) said that he's open to the idea of bringing in NY state National Guardsmen....to collect garbage.

I sat and pondered over this.

Having spent 22 years in the Air Force, and known a number of Guardsmen over the years, I'd generally say that 10-percent might go along with this order, but the rest would be like....if you got money to pay us as Guardsmen to collect garbage....you ought to have money to pay real garbagemen to do the work.

But here's the honest truth....the normal average salary for a NY City garbage guy is $59k a year.  If you count in over-time?  Some might admit that they clear around $5k to $8k a year on extra over-time.  

Your average Army E4?  $30.6k a year.  Your average Army E2? $22.6k a year. 

So the reality is that by dumping the 22-year old 'kid' onto this job....you are saving $29k. 

Putting Sarge in as the driver and having 'Private Snuffy' and 'Private Marvin' as his crew?  You just saved in the range of $100k on salary requirements for one truck.

Managing Sarge, with his two privates?  If you figure ten trucks....there's probably one Guard Captain.  Course, in his case....he was probably a manager of some concrete plant....making $100k a year, and this is a huge disappointment being forced to work three or four months as some Guardsman, and taking a huge pay-cut.  Course, I'd say the same for Sarge and his two privates as well.

But here's the potential comedy brewing.  Out of a thousand real garbage guys laid off...you have to figure that at least ten of them probably were National Guardsmen and this order to potentially report for duty....to do your garbage job for 30-percent less pay....is going to frustrate you to a massive extent.

Could this whole thing turn into a major mess....with Guardsmen doing the job not just for three months, but maybe for an entire year?  That's the scenario that I'd worry about.  And frankly, Sarge....Snuffy and Marvin....ought to be standing there and asking for some bonus deal in the mix.  

What ought to happen here....some TV production company should pick out a Sarge/Snuffy/Marvin crew and just accompany them in a Seinfeld-type way, and run a regular series on Guardsmen as garbage guys.  It might be fairly entertaining. 

The 'Extended Eye' Thing

 Besides big-government bans for Covid-19, there are city bans as well, and today....it came out that a pub by itself....made up a ban rule.

This occurred in London, at a regular pub.  'Extended eye contact' is forbidden by the operators of this pub.

I sat and reviewed the term.    

Generally, at least on the handful of occasions that I've sipped ale in England at a authentic pub....along about 10 PM....folks had a fair amount of ale, and full eye contact was more or less the situation going on.  I wouldn't say we were all drunk at the stand or table....but we had enough to focus entirely upon the guy telling the story, or the episode of 'woe' that he was endearing.

So you sit and ponder upon this....how will you ensure you aren't conducting full-up 5000-percent eye contact?

What if this were a London damsel....with a weird dragon tattoo on her neck, and telling some great Shakespearian story over love-found and love-lost?  Could you cut the extended eye contact and just stare at the wall while listening to her?  Could you pretend she didn't exist?  

What if this damsel had a big long tattoo running up her leg and you were gazing for an extended time at the leg?  Would that be enough to get you in trouble with the barkeeper?  

Would there be some 'bouncer' at the bar....gazing around the room, looking for you rough guys who are conducting 'extended eye contact'?  Would he come over and give you a one-time warning?  Would he tap you on the back of the head and tell you to wise-up and cease the eye contact, or leave the pub?

All of this....because of Covid-19?  

How I Would Resolve The Tax Mess

Since the NY Times wants to talk about taxes.....why not talk tax reform?

1.  Dump the 80k page federal tax code.  Reform it to no more than forty pages.  A 7th-grader should be able to read it and comprehend it.

2.  Yearly tax code pieces added by Congressmen and Senators to be published every December, with the name of the Senator or House member.  

3.  All personal federal tax rates will be set to one of four formulas: (A) you make less than $25k a year and pay 2-percent federal tax. (B) you make between $25k and $50k, and pay a 5-percent.  (C) you make $50k to $100k, and pay 8-percent.  (D) everyone with over $100k, you pay 11-percent.

4.  You shrink the government to the size of the budget.

5. You limit each Congressman and Senator to only 8 staff members, and the travel budget should be reduced down to less than $10k per year.  

6.  All businesses pay a tax unless you can prove you ran at a loss.  Those making less than $250k a year, pay 5-percent.  Those making between $250k and $999k would pay 9-percent.  And those making over one-million would pay 11-percent.

7.  The only credits for people?  If you lived in a disaster area, or suffered from some drought-like situation, you'd get a credit.  Otherwise, we dump all these credits entirely.

8.  Every Congressman/Senator would have to publish their full tax return on a yearly basis.  Failure to publish it?  You get a one-month suspension from the job, and the Governor is allowed to send a temp up while you settle up your personal mess. If it hasn't cleared by the 2nd month, give the temp the job for the next six months.

9.  State taxes would be limited to a max of 3-percent of your total income.  If a state can't make it with that budget, the governor will be given 12 months to produce a new budget or be suspended from his job.

10.  The yearly tax form should be developed and simple enough....that a 7th-grade drop-out should be able to fill it out.