Covid-Chatter

 I noticed this discussion going on in Oregon this morning.  They have this idea of making social distancing and mask requirements....a permanent thing (at least as long as it'd take to wipe out Covid-19).

The potential that this type of law would still be existing in five years?  Well.....you just don't know.

Total destruction of dating and potential relationships?  I started to ponder over this idea and how impossible it'd be to have a plain regular date with some gal. 

You'd be at the library and the weird gal at the desk....with seven obvious tattoos and some freaky voodoo-like mask is attracting you.  But the plastic sheeting at the desk is preventing you from being 'close'.  Social chatter....like you would have done a year ago?  Zero.

But even if you asked her out on a date.....how would you carry out a decent date with the six-foot social distancing rule in place?

Labeling things as long-term?  Well....how long?  For a lot of folks.....it's been a full year of crazy stuff that you never expected.  To suggest a second year on top of that.....maybe even a third year?  

What was the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937?

 To say in a 'nice way'.....the first four years of the FDR period (1933 to 1936) went badly in terms of key parts of the FDR 'way ahead' being deemed illegal (by the Supreme Court).

So in in the period after the 1936 re-election, FDR decided that it was time to 'pack' the Supreme Court.  This bill was constructed to further that agenda.  The central theme here?  The President would be given the 'power' to appoint an additional justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six additional 'chairs'.....for each member of the court over 70 years and 6 months.

You can laugh over the wording.....but that was the threat. 

The bill came out in the early part of 1937, and consumed an awful lot of discussion.

What happened to it?  The Democrats had more than enough support in the House and Senate, but it just lingered there in the House.....in committee....for more than 160 days.

The chief Senate advocate for the bill?  Joseph T. Robinson.....passed away in mid-summer of 1937.

If you stand over the wording....the same logic for adding more House/Senate members over the age of 70 years/6 months....ought to fall into place as well.

For this reason, I suspect that Biden's own chatter for court-packing will be reaching some peak in the next month, and then spiral downwards for the rest of 2021.  

Observations

1.  The odds of Biden's face-to-face with Putin?  I'd now put this at a 10-percent chance.  It sounded good for a one-hour media blitz, but I don't think team-Biden wants this event to really occur.

2.  This California effort to say high-school math is racist and involves 'white supremacists'?

A state program is being developed to change math.  This will revolve around the idea of avoiding the focus of math problems where you need to get the right answer.  It'd push for collaboration/teamwork to be pushed in classes....over independent efforts.  They revolutionize 'real-world-math' (begs the question of how much more real you can make apples and oranges formulas).

It sounds like they want math completely thrown out of school.  If that were the case, and you could also dump science and geography.....then you ought to limit school to two hours a day, or graduamatate out of school by age eleven.  

3.  You remember that story that the Russians were paying the Taliban folks a 'bounty' for each US soldier captured?  You remember how Trump said it sounded bogus.  You remember how the NY Times gave Trump a threshing over the intelligence?

Well....this week, US intelligence admitted that the story is unproven.  The intelligence involved is marginal.  Kinda funny now how Trump was right.

4.  There's a silly rumor that Mitch McConnell wants a 'truce' with Donald Trump.  Kinda funny that this comes up now....four years later.  Wonder who controls the 2022 mid-terms?

5.  Around 15-percent of Americans now say they are worse off at this point.....in relating to the Covid era.  The other 85-percent....mixed.

6.  A year ago....if you'd bought a warehouse of plywood for half-a-million....just sitting on it....today, it'd be worth one-million dollars.  The odds of it doubling again in 2021?  

Observations

 1.  Rumor of VP 'Heels' to the border?

Well....the rumor is that she has a trip planned to Mexico City and Guatemala.  To the border areas?  That's not exactly what was said.  

I think her staff has gotten the US embassy people involved, and they have some all-day meeting with VIP folks in each country.  

2.  For tax reasons....a lot of US companies are headquartered in Delaware.  Someone stood up yesterday and pointed out....virtually all  of the law changes that Georgia wrote up for it's election law situation.....are identical in Delaware.  It may not matter but it's just an odd thing.

3.  The odds that MLB baseball will lose it's antitrust immunity, in 2021?  Zero.  Lot of talk, but the votes aren't there.  After November 2022?  Well....if their policy stays in place....the make-up of the Senate will change and I'd say that the antitrust immunity business will be one of the top ten things in 2023 to be mounted.  

At that point, I suspect the owners will fire the commissioner, and launch an anti-woke agenda.  It may be too late though.  

The Biden-Putin Summit?

 This Biden 'suggestion' for a summit with Russia's Putin?  Built to deescalate the Ukraine mess?

First, would Putin even agree to this?  Yes, without any doubt.

But what really happens?  As the first few minutes of this meeting occur and Biden or his 'team' utters how they hold the morale high-ground, and want Putin to step down a few steps.....Putin will step into the situation.

The various illegal affairs of Hunter and the Ukraine natural gas business?  All of that will be laid out in full detail (the KGB will have complete videos of the situations).  The tax avoidance by Hunter and how he 'paid' dad back?  That will be laid out in full detail.   

By the end of this 30-minute summary....Biden will get up and take the limo back to Air Force One.....leaving quietly with no statement.

The news media?  They are now stuck with the worst possible crisis of the past hundred years....all of their creation.  They can't tell the story....which is the sad part of this whole 'saga'.

So, whoever is pushing Biden's button to have this summit.....is merely creating a scenario with serious consequences.  

How You Progress From a 1-Percent Threat to a 99-Percent Threat

Once upon a time, if you were a kid, you were given a set of circumstances, and basically told....your life is 99-percent safe.  It was a script-deal and you had to go way out beyond life's general situation's.....to put yourself into mortal threat.

Then one day....there's some odd incident where a kid does something illegal and the police/prosecution folks basically overlook the episode.  At this moment, you progressed from a 1-percent threat level.....to a 2-percent threat level.

A month or two later....some guy is busted for selling drugs on school property, but charges are whittled down to a misdemeanor situation.  You move up to a 3-percent level.

As weeks, months and years pass.....different things occur.  Hijacking a car is ultra risky but you've figured out that even if the cops get you....the prosecution will only lodge marginal charges.  The fact that the lady in the car might have a pistol and shoot you?  In your risk assessment....you haven't really calculated this.

So here in the 2021 era.....a 17-year-old kid is now on a risk situation of 80-to-90 percent.  

Even if pulled over by the Police and there's some warrant for an illegal gun.....the kid has the risk assessment that he might as well run....they won't fire upon him or make the effort to hold him down.  If you'd spoken of this type of risk assessment in 1975....most everyone would have corrected you and set you on a 1-percent behavioral level.

How you correct things at this point?  Unknown.  

I might even go and project out that within five years....at least ten-thousand juveniles each year will meet an untimely end because of their threat assessment skills being so dismal.  More and more of them will start to carry weapons, and assess a confrontation with the police as a chance to gain 'respect'.   

Poll Story

 It's an interesting poll.....almost six out of ten blacks readily say that voter ID requirements aren't a big deal and they support them.

Personally, I would suggest that if you gathered up the six out of ten....almost all of them had time in the US military, and lived with both the military ID (required at least three to ten times a day to function), or the chow-hall card (you didn't get the free chow without it).

This was engrained into you by week three of boot-camp.  By this point, you'd memorized the stupid Social Security number (something you thought you'd never need).

Around by the last year of service (1999), I was probably pulling the military ID out a minimum of four times a day.  There were a minimum of forty situations where you weren't going to get service or attention.....without the ID being displayed.

If you weren't in the military?  I would imagine that you walk around or drive to work two-hundred days a year, and you might only get carded if you were cashing a check at the bank, or buying booze while looking sixteen.  Maybe if you were at the courthouse and getting car registration done.....you might show the ID.  Maybe if you were at the pharmacy and buying serious narcotic drugs.....they might card you there.  Course, if you were flying out of the local airport....they'd card you there. 

But added to this.....probably ten-percent of people have had a fake ID at some point (usually at age 16, or in college).....to buy booze.  So some of us....see the whole ID thing as a joke because of the fake usage.