My Gut Feeling on Credentialism

 It's not a term that you usually hear and I'll give you the simple definition.

This is typically where a guy has gone out and been to x-number of courses, and achieved a minimum of a Master's Degree....maybe even a PhD....for the purpose of having a status 'marker' implying they have a major say on something....even if they are a general idiot or marginal competent. 

Some people would stand and say that this precludes people from actually reviewing a situation, and thinking.

I bring up this topic because there's hardly a week that goes by now....that some credentialism guy shows up on CNN, MSNBC, Fox or BBC, and you get seven minutes of dimwitted discussion.  Some deal with science....some with Covid....some with politics.

The problem these days.....people have kinda figured out this game and recognize a credential guy pretty easily.  

It's a funny topic if you think about it.  

The Thing About Alabama

 There was a piece written by Ryan Hankins on Al.com which went to the topic of 'Alabamians, why do you need all this distrust and suspicion about things'?  I'd generally recommend a read.

So the pitch to his essay piece....Alabamians are these people who just seem to have an inherent view that things just don't work as advertised.  You people (Alabamians) always believe some hidden agenda is at work.

Well.....yeah, that's the plain basic truth.

Hankins does imply at some point that the government of the state is mostly Republican.  Most folks around the state will say that it's marginally true that they claim Republican status, but the same people will laugh and say that half of these Republicans are just fake-Republicans and working with some lobbyist group to achieve goals.

It's like bringing up the state-park fiasco of a couple years ago, and how some list got shuffled around that the state was going to part ways or sell a number of state parks. Then strangely enough....casino chatter started back up and various people had this funny feeling that the state parks list had some relationship to the casino people.   

It's also like bringing up the state constitution.....which has been around since 1901, and generally regarded as a 'mess'.  There's been some many lines added to it....that it's now considered the largest constitution in the US, and one of the largest in the world itself.  For every 'freedom' mentioned....there's probably forty limits listed.  About every four years, this topic of re-writing the Constitution comes up and members from both parties agree on this....but neither trusts the other party or the fake Republicans enough to get the job done.

The idea suggested by Hankins that we have greater responsibilities....like human trafficking, etc?  No.....we basically want the Alabama leadership business to handle and work on local issues (fixing potholes, reducing crime, spend tax revenue in a responsible fashion, provide good decent education, etc).  

The hints of Covid throughout the piece?  There are a couple of mentions which lead back that way.  Presently, using just every country around the globe, there is no indication that heavy regulation really fixes or resolves Covid....other than it has the same effect if you'd spend eight hours a day praying for some Jesus-miracle to occur.  

I would go and suggest that five things are at work here, and the working-class guy in Alabama is geared to stand back to assess things:

1.  Most folks in the state see the Baptist 'empire' thing to be corrupted.  All those years with the 'dry-county' business probably didn't help matters.

2.  Most folks see the NCAA 'grip' on football to be corrupted.  It shouldn't matter but some people actually lose sleep over the matter.

3.  With all the vast amounts of money poured into state education over the past forty years....we ought to have 1,200 Einsteins out there.  You don't see that, and you just sit and wonder....how did they spend all that educational funding.

4.  Every time you had some mayor or some state legislature guy claiming they want to fix things.....at least fifty percent of the time....they make matters worse.  

5.  Out of the last ten governors....you can generally say that three were 'legit' and competent, and the rest were either criminal in behavior, lusty old guys, or pretty racist in actions.  This Ivey gal (present governor) is about the only one that most would say is of pure ethical behavior. 

Look, I'm not defending the state or the landscape, but if you go into most other states (California in particular).....the distrust in government is just as bad.  

A Curious Scenario

 If you go and read through all the various reports of the Afghans 'rescued' and brought out....most of the crowd are presently at Ramstein Air Base Germany....there's this odd problem.

The Homeland Security folks have viewed the names list and a couple of them appear to be ISIS 'thugs'....on some watch-list.

The Border Patrol folks?  I'm guessing they've laid down the card and said they won't be allowed to step on US soil.  But at the same time....the Germans are probably making it plainly clear....they can't remain on German soil either.

This is going to turn into a curious episode.  I don't think any North African country will accept the guys either.  Sending them back to Afghanistan?  That probably won't happen.  

The possibility that President Biden will over-rule the Border Patrol and allow these guys into the US?  I'd say it's a 50-50 chance of that happening.  Course, it'd just be another point for impeachment (if you ask me).

Shouldn't all of this been reviewed before allowing the guys on the exit plane?  Well.....that's part of the discussion as well.

The odds that if you approached the Taliban on bringing them back....they'd refuse on account of how 'dangerous' these guys were (grinning as they said that)?

It's Just An Odd Thing

 It's now a bit more than 48 hours after the Biden Administration announced that via a drone attack....retribution had been accomplished in Afghanistan for the attack at the airport.  

The claim?  They'd killed two of the ISIS-K planner 'guys'.  

So here's the odd thing (as of this moment).....they (the WH or the Pentagon) have NOT announced the names of the two ISIS-K planner 'guys' who are now supposedly dead.

Odd?

Well...you can go back to a hundred-odd occasions and usually within 24 hours....you were hyped with information about drone attacks, the names of the folks dead, and how this helped the 'war'.

Are there actually two 'guys' dead?  Are they ranking ISIS-K dudes?  Well....it's just odd that the rest of the story is stalled at this point.

I do believe that a drone launched a missile down on 'something'.  Beyond that....it's pure speculation.  

Could it be that they just know this building is the planning operation, and there were two unknown guys who just walked into the structure?  I could also believe that.  I would speculate that the drone guys don't want to admit that they hit 'unknown guy #1' and 'unknown guy #2'....finding out later that they were the copier-repair guys or being there for a telephone out-of-order situation.  

Could it also be that by withholding information, they are just sitting there with another loaded drone....waiting for the new planner guys to arrive and retrieve something critical at the site?  I could also believe that story.  

It's just a bit odd.  

Sirhan

 After 53 years in prison....Sirhan Sirhan was given parole yesterday.  At the heart of the RFK assassination, virtually every year that passed....the case against Sirhan weakened.  Even the state prosecutor agrees....justice probably got screwed up in some fashion.  

The general view?  I've probably put over a hundred hours in the past thirty years looking at various accounts....the problems with the extra bullet, and at Sirhan himself.  I have no doubt....the bullet that killed RFK....came from the rear of RFK (with Sirhan in front of him).

The weird way that Sirhan seemed to be unable to explain his shooting of the President?  There's no doubt that he had a pistol, and he fired 6 rounds from his .22 Iver Johnson weapon.  Beyond that....the evidence is blunt....there has to be a second pistol in play and from the opposite direction.

What'll happen to Sirhan, upon release?  I would imagine he gets interviewed a good bit, and the general public tends to view the shooting in a different way.

Key Provisions of the 25th Amendment

 This is discussed a good bit so maybe there's a moment to review the 'rules'.

First, there are only three ways for the 25th to be drawn into play.  The President can just say he's go health issues and it's a simple process.  

Second, the VP stands up and has the support of the majority of the cabinet.  If you don't have the full support of the cabinet?  Then you are left to the third method....the House (acting as the 'body').  

The House in this case....would have to present 'evidence' and then gather for a vote.  Presently, with the Democrats managing the situation....it's Pelosi's situation.  It's anyone's guess if she has the votes to manage this.

How many days, if the House is managing this?  I'd go and speculate that you could wrap this up in three days.  But I'd also suggest that one-third of the Democrats would refuse to vote, or vote against this. 

Does Harris have support of the majority of cabinet officers?  That's another problem.  Fifteen cabinet position, and some might be die-hard pro-Biden fans.  You might also have two or three who see Harris as lacking the skills to be President.  

If Harris had the eight letters attesting to 'issues' with President Biden....then this would go rather quickly (I would speculate) and it might be over in one to two days, with the House just agreeing.....without a lot of discussion.

If the 25th started to fall into play....would President Biden just resign?  He probably would go to several of the cabinet officers and ask them in a blunt way how they were going to 'vote'.  Could he fire them if they voiced a problem?  Yes, without any doubt.  But I would suggest that Biden hasn't shown much history in firing people.  

Is this goof-up in Afghanistan the only visible mistake of the Biden administration?  Well....that's the key question....you don't know.  The news media should have made comments over problems, but generally, they've failed at their responsibility.  So you have no idea how bad the situation might be, or how successful Biden has handled problems.

Should they just wait to get out of this mess, and hope to continue on?  At this point, the lack of common sense is openly discussed and you have to wonder if more mistakes will be committed over the next year.  When you arrive in the fall of 2022...with the mid-term election....could these mistakes be made into a dozen Republican campaign ad's and massively destroy the Democratic chances?  

Then finally.....does Harris really want the job?  I would argue that she's gotten a glimpse of incompetence within the White House staff, and probably 50-percent of what went wrong here.....were simply incompetent people around Biden.  If you don't fire them, you end up committing the same mistakes as Biden made. 

One footnote, after Harris moves up to the Presidency, she would select her new VP.  Both the House and Senate has to agree to the person.  The Senate, with Harris as VP?  Well...the Senate is currently 50-50.  You would need at least one Republican to flip and vote along these lines.  So I don't think Harris would be able to select a Senator, or some far-left idiot.  The new VP will end up as a very likeable individual (my take on this).  

Observations Over Afghanistan and President Biden

 My ten thoughts:

1.  When the President said there would be retribution upon ISIS.....he's basically saying that we will do some retribution, then they do some retribution, and we get back into the regular terror business. 

2.  This Q-and-A episode with the President last evening....didn't really give you any confidence.  He looks like he's been up for twenty-four hours straight, and there's just not much confidence that comes via these sessions.

3.  Will President Biden show up at Dover AFB as the cargo plane brings the Marines 'home'?  I doubt it.....it'll likely be the Secretary of Defense at best.  I don't even think the VP will show.  

4.  Where do you go after Friday?  If you were with the Pentagon or CIA....anything requiring a Presidential 'OK' will trigger a meeting and it's a 50-50 chance if the President can select the better of choices.  If he says he needs 24 hours to make a decision....is he really making it himself, or does have some oddball character giving him advice (like Hunter, or his wife)?

5.  If I were the DNC and looking ahead.....2022 mid-terms really look like crap. You can't use the President for campaign episodes to help anyone much.

6.  Will the Taliban end up having to treat the ISIS folks like Hitler treated the Brownshirts?  There's a point where contracted-soldiers aren't that much value to your organization.

7.  If you were Macron of France and just sat there for an hour or two....thinking about what just happened in the past ten days.....could you rely upon anything that President Biden said?  You'd probably write a memo to the various ministers of France and just say 'do as little as business with the US as possible'..  

8.  The pressure to use the 25th Amendment to remove President Biden?  I would imagine Pelosi has twenty phone-chats per day with people, who want the situation drawn out and used (rather quickly).  But within this chatter.....the idea of who becomes VP....probably gets brought up as people realize Harris has to select someone, and the Senate has to approve that person (hint, it won't be a Senator selected). 

9.  The same people who goofed up on Afghanistan.....also manage a thousand other issues, and it ought to make you sit and ponder.....what else are they getting wrong?

10.  All this worthless assessments from May, June and July?  Well....you could have gotten better information from a bunch of 5th-grade kids in Kabul.