Guardians

 It's a page four story, but some might find it interesting.

If you were a member of the US Army....you were always referred to as 'soldiers'.

If you were a member of the US Air Force....you were always referred to as 'airmen'.

If you were a member of the US Navy....you were always referred to as 'sailors'.

Marines?  Well....Marines.

So the Space Force has come up and they finally addressed how you'd talk about them in official commentary.  The word to use?  'Guardians'.

Yes, Guardians.

I suspect some idiot took the term from Guardians of the Galaxy, but that's what the government went to this past week, and stamped final.

Guardians.  

I'm guessing the Army and Air Force guys will kid the Guardians a good bit.  The neat thing about this new role is that you probably won't be going off to war in Iraq or Kuwait....ever, as a Guardian.  Deploying out and sleeping in tents?  No, don't go figuring that Guardians will sleep anywhere except in Best Western or Ramada.

Eating ration-food?  No, Guardians are probably full-up lobster or seafood folks.  

Drinking habits?  Guardians are probably red-wine or gin-sour cocktail people.

Wild excitement?  While Marines would talk excessively about the sixteen tattoo joints they've been to, or the Army guys talk about the top ten stripper joints, and the Air Force guys would talk about the various golf courses they've been to....Guardians probably want to talk about their top ten space movies, or broach the topic of Captain Marvel quotes that appeal to them.

I hate to really dump on these guys....but the Guardian name just doesn't work. 

California and NY City: 2024

 As things look....two paths are being laid out (Joe Biden as President, and two parts of the US with exodus heavily on the mind of occupants).  

Both California and NY City are in desperate financial woes and are absolutely dependent on two Georgia Democrats arriving and ensuring a pot of money from Joe Biden comes to them by mid-summer 2021. If this fails?  Well, I will suggest these four things likely to unfold:

1.  Business shift.  There's no reason for big-name operations, high-end restaurants, or mega corporations to maintain a presence in either location.  

2.  Retiree-wise, If you regard safety and security as a top ten thing....then you don't have much reason to remain in LA, SF, or NY City.

3.  Personal wealth.  When you add up sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes....with this nearing $18k a year and you figure half of this goes away if you move to Nevada or Tennessee, why would you remain?  

4.  Fear of the homeless situation going to an entirely new and higher level.  California (at least in the summer of 2020) figures they have around 150,000 homeless people. By the mummer period of 2021?  I'd go and suggest it being noted near the same number but the state admitting that another 100,000 people ought to be listed as homeless but on some state program to hide the issue.

President Joe with any great ideas?  No, I wouldn't go expecting much except to throw money at the two states....as 'gifts'.  There's probably a 2021 'gift' of 100 billion between the two, and a planned repeat by summer of 2023.  Resolving anything?  No....just delaying the required shutdown of various services that should be on the table in a planning stage now.

I would go and project that from the top 500 companies that existed in California in 2019...at least half of them will be removed from the state by 2024.  I would even go and suggest that fifty percent of the retirees in the state (mostly those living around SF/LA) will have left the state as well.  

In the case of NY City, I would suggest another half-million residents of the city will quietly pack and go as you get into the summer of 2021.  This exodus might slow slightly in 2022/2023, but you are looking at 1.5 million fewer people in the city (compared against 2019 levels).  

Resolving this?  You'd have to admit that all the staging and planning of the past decade....really went so far negative, that you can't come back to a resolution stage.

The last sad part of this story....what made NY City and California hot tourist sites....dissolved along with this.  Who'd want to go to this type of marginal atmosphere?

Debunk or Fake News Therapy

 At some point in 2021, I expect some clinic to open up a therapy situation related to debunking or fake news.  It'll probably start in some place like San Francisco or New York City.

I expect the newspapers and networks to treat it as a joke, and then six months later....come to realize that some clinic does exist with the program, and they have fifty-odd people registered and progressing through 'quit-smoking' type program.

The chief therapy suggestion?  Quit news, and simply talk in small groups how they have real lives to live....without politics. 

CNN will have a laugh over it....then register one of their journalists to attend the two-week original in-house situation.  The guy walks out on the final day, and quits his job immediately. 

By 2022, a hundred clinics throughout the US now engage in the therapy, with anti-therapy groups appearing....wanting laws and regulations to forbid this type of therapy.  The accusation is that this therapy is brain-washing people.  

By 2024, over 200,000 people will have gone through the treatment.  

The Trouble With Promises

 I sat and looked upon this new story....the Biden pick for Secretary of the DOT (Department of Transportation).....former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

'Mayor Pete' came out quickly to 'promise' to fight racial, economic, and environmental injustice within DOT.

So I sat there for a while pondering this.

This department has six key areas which you as the 'boss' are supposed to protect people upon:

1.  You need to ensure roads and bridges around the nation are safe.  Not half-safe....where six bridges a year collapse yearly and kill 200-odd people.

2.  You need to ensure the railway system is functionally safe and derailments are awful rare.

3.  You need to ensure airports are secure....meaning 'bad-boys' don't get through the system and board planes.

4.  You need to set standards where planes take off and safely land with passengers and cargo.

5.  You need to ensure seaports are safely operated and no hazardous events occur.

6.  You need to ensure ferries and river-going vessels are operated in a safe fashion, and no stupid accidents occur. 

Racial wrongs?  Economic injustice?  Environmental issues?

Are you going to monster-up various new regulations that drive ticket prices on airlines, buses, or ferries up by 25-percent?  

Correcting what racial wrongs?  Are you going to give away 100,000 free airline tickets monthly....to minority groups?  

You just start looking at his promise business, and wonder where exactly this is going.  People generally have this expectation of things working.....very few accidents, and feeling safe as you walk onto a plane or ferry.  

Maybe it's just all BS on the promise business, but I have this crazy feeling that airline tickets and ferry rides over the next four years will go up by 25-percent. 

As a co-worker used to comment to me twenty years ago...."just do your job".  

Something to Ponder Upon

 Just something to think about.

In the 1968 election, it was Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and Hubert H. Humphrey.

A total of 73,199,998 votes were cast for ALL three of the candidates.

Donald Trump beat that number, by himself.

When Will Joe Go?

 There are two groups of thought over this, and I've heard the differing arguments.

First, there's the idea that he'll be gone by first couple of months of 2022.  The logic to this is that his administration won't really gather steam or show accomplishment during 2021.  

With mid-terms coming at them by summer of 2022 and the election in November....the Democratic Party needs President Harris in position and a driving force for the 2022 midterm election.  

In this scenario, you'd have to start with a list of problems....handing them to CBS or CNN or the NY Times.  Six to eight weeks of dementia chatter would start up, and then the committee would go into action.  Four rough weeks of examination, and then the meeting within the House and Senate.  Out would go Joe Biden, and the news media would quickly circle the  wagons and not utter his name ever again.

The case against this scenario?  If they wanted Harris to run in 2024, and 2028....she'd have to step into the role of President AFTER January 2022 (after the midterm election).  

The issue here?  It's very likely that the Republicans will win ten to twenty seats, and put Harris at a serious disadvantage for 2023/2024.  

The second idea is that they stall this as long as possible....maybe to the summer of 2023, then Harris steps in.

The chief problem with this idea is that Joe Biden will probably average an event every three days where people will question his mental decline.  You can't go through all of 2021 and 2022....with a large percentage of the public asking stupid questions.

The idea that people will ask if he was in decline in 2019 and 2020?  Well....yeah, it's probably going to be brought up.  The news media can't answer that question.

The idea that people will ask about several Senators and House members in mental decline as well?  That probably will occur, and I would suggest three or four folks get a gentle push out the door around the same time period. 

Swalwell, Secret Sex and Reality

 At some point over the past couple of days....some journalist asked Rep Swalwell (the guy who had a Chinese agent as a sex liaison lady for a period of time (more than a year) about his situation and the lady.  He responded...it's classified and no need to discuss it.

The reality over this?  At some point, 2015-era...the FBI quietly came up to Swalwell, and laid out this presentation.  Basically, they knew he was having an affair with some Chinese gal named Christine Fang (her got-you name was Fang-Fang).  Normally, they would not care who you were banging....even if this was a 16-year gal or some Hollywood lady.

But in this case.....Fang Fang was an actual Chinese agent.  

At some point in early 2014, Fang Fang came out and wanted to help Swalwell on campaign donations (best we not discuss this part of the story).  Swalwell and Fang Fang did got into a hot-and-heavy situation.

Did he pass classified data to Fang Fang?  Well....zero proof of that.

Did he pass confidential info to Fang Fang?  Well.....zero proof of that.

Was the sex that Swalwell and Fang Fang had....classified?  To be honest, zero proof of that.

Having spent two decades in the intel world, I can vouch that it's a slippery situation to get Human-Intelligence data and decide upon classifications.  An example: Swalwell meets up with Fang Fang, sipping through a bottle of wine....the two do some pretty crazy stuff and lick whipped topping off each other, then discuss parking arrangements for the House members in DC.  Is any of that classified?  Probably not.

If they met at some swanky Vegas hotel for a whole weekend and wore Batman and Robin outfits while having sex?  No, that's probably not classified either.

If they met in some Baltimore hotel on a work-day for Swalwell, put bacon all over each other and talked about upcoming bills in the House?  Well....that's probably not classified.

So I'm wonder what exactly....out of a couple dozen meetings in hotels....was classified.  In some way, he made this pretty complicated, and there needs to be a House investigation over the guy.  His clearance?  Maybe it should be jerked.