Observations

 1.  This whole McConnell 'brand' of Republican politics?  It's fading and probably won't exist in the period after the new House is elected and in place in 2023.

2.  This whole Gabby Petitito story?  As you gaze at this....you need to remember that probably fifty of these type of murders or assaults occur each single week across the nation.  You can sit down with various older police and they will vouch for a dozen odd cases they've responded to each year.  

3.  This disappearance of Brian Laundrie?  I don't buy the story that he's in the swamp.  It's a bit ridiculous.  He's not the survivalist type of character who'd do something like this.

4.  This rumor of Apple developing an App which would tell you that you are developing dementia, depression, or anxiety?  Somehow, they found some medical folks and App writers.....who are keen to this idea.  

A dangerous idea?  If your I-Phone comes up and gives you a 'hint'.....do you trust the hint enough to go over to a doctor?  Will your doctor even agree with the Apple App?  Well....that's another totally different problem.

I kinda think in ten years.....this Apple App and Google's Alexia will 'marry-up' and you end up talking to Alexia for two hours a day over your anxiety or depression problems.  

5.  The US Navy says they will be closing some base libraries to save money.  Wise thing I think.....Navy people are getting too smart reading books.  I also think the Navy should advise members not to wear underwear.....would save money if anyone skipped underwear of all types.  (sarcasm)

6.  Someone asked the Homeland Security 'boss' if any of the 15,000-odd Haitians down in Texas....crossing the border....if they'd been tested for Covid.  'No' was the answer.  Whole administration policy on migration/immigration....likely formed by a 12-year old kid at some summer camp.

7.  Al Sharpton showed up in Del Rio....supposedly to talk over the migration mess.  Hecklers became such a problem....he just packed up and left.  

What People Don't Watch

 As a kid growing up in rural NW Alabama....I had three networks which delivered a 30-minute nightly local newscast.  

My folks were mostly a CBS-type.....so you counted on seven things to appear on this local news piece (1970s): (1) bank robberies, (2) new malls, (3) traffic accidents involving five cars or more (one car accident were rarely worth getting excited), (4) federal stuff with the Arsenal, (5) weather predictions, (6) tornado chatter (this would go on for an entire week), and (7) farm/drought reports.  

The weather stuff?  It was presented by some stern WW II weather guy, who could have stepped out and delivered Shakespeare if you'd asked him for a line or two.  If he uttered the phrase 'potential tornado'....you sat glued to the TV and expecting some serious chatter.  

My brother (still there in the region) brings up this topic.....that things have kinda changed. 

Around three months ago, I attempted to watch two or three of these broadcasts (data-streaming).  Mostly what you got were fifteen minutes of Covid-chatter and Covid-vaccination business.....some brief sports, and five minutes over the weather.  I sat there shaking my head.....no one much is going to watch this.....over and over....nightly.

Like he says and I've watched once this week.....it has changed slightly.....now carrying the insurrection stuff out of DC....some crime stuff, local weather, and local sports.  Again, it's mostly stuff that locals wouldn't care for.

It's kinda funny.  All you had to do is carry local news that folks cared about, and they'd watch your piece.  

Observations

 1.  Apparently President Biden, President Jill, President X, Y  and Z....were all sitting around and watching the under-the-bridge episode at the Texas border play out....then noting (via the Fox News coverage, since CNN doesn't tell this story) that Customs Border Patrol came in on BIG horses.  Word quickly came to the Patrol guys that horses are forbidden.....too scary for the poor Haitian folks.

I sat and thought about this, and agreed.  To be honest.....bald and shaved Patrol dudes are too scary for me.....they should be forbidden from patrolling.  Also, exceptionally tall Amazon-type women are too scary for me, so they should also be forbidden from patrolling.  

I'm also scared of exceptionally intelligent Patrol folks, so they need to be forbidden from patrolling.  Also, I'm fearful of Patrol folks who wear sunglasses that reflect like a mirror.....so they gotta be forbidden from patrolling as well.  I think that only leaves Marvin (the only safe CBP guy in Texas).

2.  The CIA came up and admitted literally dozens of cases at the Vienna embassy.....with that Havana-syndrome business (radio frequency waves by some 'bad-boy' characters).  What they 'hint' is that folks would report health problems and the guy/gal marginally did the 'right-thing'.  

3.  President Biden had to go and make up some apology to France....to get the French ambassador to come back....because of that Australian sub business.  My take?  I don't think Joe ever knew anything about the sub deal, until someone on his staff told him it was done.  If you did bring up subs around Joe....he'd probably tell you about his years in the Navy and how he was a sub-driver back in 1962 for six months.  As for the apology?  It kinda makes you wonder who wrote the piece?  Maybe Hunter or his wife?

4.  There's actually a poll made up (functional) to ask people if they think President Biden is 'mentally sharp'.  Right now, it's floating between 40 and 50 percent.  Probably not a good sign for the 2022 election.  They need to get scenes of Joe in some lab with the science jacket on, or some pictures of Joe staring through a microscope.

5.  Currently, Auckland (NZ) is locked-down (hard double-lock-down).  Cops got called with a tip....on a couple of guys with KFC chicken (apparently had left their homes.  Will be serious trouble for them.

6.  Finally,  some poll done for the 2024 Presidential election.  Trump ahead of Biden by ten points.  

This Pentagon Non-Vax Discharge Discussion

 Based on chatter from the White House, they want all non-vax folks in the US military to be dishonorably discharged....if the guy/gal won't take the Covid vaccination.  

Several Republicans in the Senate have written language into the budget bill that would forbid that....just giving folks a regular honorable discharge instead. 

Odds here?  Unknown.  Most expect the written language to stay there and be passed.  

But if you were to think about this....dragging a guy into a commander's office and the Lt Col discussing how he's going to dishonorably discharge you over the vaccination....why wouldn't this escalate into a violent confrontation?  

There's no difference between dishonorable X and dishonorable Y, other than you probably will get a month or two in some stockade for punching the poor guy.

All of this will naturally stress officers out.  

I don't see a problem in just pulling out the guy's contract, and just terminating it....with a regular honorable discharge.  The general fear of the Pentagon planners?  Well....you could be opening up a door where 70,000 people (remember this goes across the board, active duty to Guard/Reserve) walk out in a matter of sixty days and no plan 'B' situation on manpower.  In some units, you could be talking about 10 to 20 percent of the unit gone.

The recruitment end of this discussion?  It's best not to bring up that issue.

Observations

 1.  Someone did a poll which says only a quarter of the American public thinks 'Hollywood' is a positive situation on the nation.  I think if you walked around rural areas of the nation....it'd be less than one in a dozen who believes 'Hollywood' has some positive trend for the country.

2.  Parents of this Laundrie 'kid' likely getting charges?  If the cops find any evidence that they knew what he'd done and delayed calling the cops.....then something of a charge would be cranked up.  I feel sorry for them....but that kid is fairly messed up and he'd probably been that way since his teens.

3.  This Biden UN speech?  After watching the whole thing....I'd suggest that some 12-year old kid wrote the piece for Biden, and I'd rank it as one of the one-hundred worst Presidential speeches of the past twenty years (even worse than most of George Bush's speeches).

4.  This HR 5305 bill?  Well....it passed the House (marginally) and would fund the government up to 3 December.  Next problem?  Senate needs to find 10 Republicans and lose no Democrats on this funding.  Odds here?  McConnell says 'no way'.  Might be two Republicans to cross over.  I doubt that 5305 will pass, and come 1 October....the government will shutdown.  A shutdown lasting four to six weeks?  Yeah, I'd go and predict that the next month will be pretty miserable for the Democrats and Joe Biden will not be an asset in this deal-making period.

5.  Someone tried asking Bill Gates questions on Epstein.  Gates appears (at least in the video) to just freak out.  Just makes you wonder what developed between Epstein and Gates.  

6.  Some new poll existing now...saying Donald Trump was more approved/appreciated President than Joe Biden is....today....among registered voters.  No one says if the voters in question are living voters or dead voters though.  

It Ought To Be A Rookie Presidency, Based on Results

 I was reading a piece yesterday, and then it kinda hit me.

If you added up all the 4-star mistakes of the Presidency in 2021, the chaos in the government and the weirdness....you'd think for a minute that the Presidency was occupied by a 44-year old first time out-of-the-woods lawyer, with no knowledge of the world, and has hired people like himself for the cabinet posts.  

But the fact is.....you have a pretty senior guy (8-years VP, 36 years in the Senate).  

Yet you look over the year.....the immigration problems, lack of legislative progress, the Afghanistan blunder, the treatment of France in the sub contract, poorly designed speeches, etc.....then you wonder about things.

How to explain the rookie actions?  It has to be a committee/group of five to eight people actually running the Presidency.  That's the only way to make sense out of this.  

Observations

 1.  This whole Brian Laundrie episode in Florida is just plain crazy.  Do I believe he's out in the swamp area?  No.  He just doesn't seem to be that type of outdoors guy to survive like that.  Why he got into some murder episode?  Based on the video of him and the girlfriend by the cops....I'd say both were a bit crazy and on medication of some legal type.  

2.  Senator Manchin has said that he wants Joe Biden's Trillion-dollar package held and worked in 2022.  Yeah, I'm serious on the story.   I would suggest this....if he gets it anchored down.....there's zero potential that some 'gift' like this occurs in 2022, and it just dies off right there.

3.  Rumor has it that one of the murder convictions on the Floyd case....is to be thrown out in the next week or two.  All of them?  No.....so far, this one conviction is the one discussed.

4  If Trump decides to run.....how set is Joe Biden in 2024 to run again?  20-percent?  80-percent?  How thrilled would the public be if Joe Biden ran another term?