Just Observations

 1.  On this Jussie Smollett situation (him getting free while his case is appealed), my prediction is that the court review will occur in roughly four months, and he'll be standing there expecting them to throw out the case entirely.  Instead, I think the appeal change only the days to state prison from 150-odd days to 180-odd days.  

Smollett will then go into another tirade....freaking out everyone in the court.  He'll be in some jail-hospital for seven days....then another appeal occurs.  He'll be free for that one as well....giving him three or four months, until that court brings him in and says 'no'.  Then he'll launch into another tirade, before getting dragged off to jail.

All total?  I think it'll take a minimum of four years before he serves up the 150 days of jail.  Some black comedian will make a four-star movie over the whole matter and make $40-million off the two-hour movie.

2.  Somewhere in all this Chris Cuomo-CNN chatter....Cuomo has said that that bad-boy Don Lemmon guy, and Jeffrey Toobin.....did some highly unethical stuff.  He hints in some weird way....they ought to be fired as well.  Maybe he's right?

3.  The odds of Hunter Biden getting dragged into a court in 2022?  Nearly zero.  After 1 January 2023?  I'd say it's near 100-percent.  It might be time to quietly disappear with the loot.

4.  Was this 60 Minutes interview by Anderson Cooper with 'Mayor Pete' simply a commercial for Presidential ambitions?  I sat and watched the 13-minute piece.  Rough or demanding questions?  No.  Anything that would convince me to vote for 'Mayor Pete'?  No.  If anything, it was another example how crappy the 60 Minutes show has become in the past forty years.

Yellowstone Series?

 This week, I watched the initial first two episodes of Yellowstone (the series, with Kevin Costner).

So, to make it clear....while I am into westerns....by the time I ended episode 2, I kind of noted this series as a non-western western series.  By that, I mean....the chief sales gimmick is the western landscape.  

Description....if you took Dallas, Dynasty, Billy Jack (to a lite-version), and twisted in a lot of unrealistic family drama, you'd get Yellowstone.  

It's not bad....but by the end of the second episode....I just stopped.  There are around 39 episodes of the series, and I just can't figure out how you'd do twenty-plus hours of drama, built on the top of more drama, and layered thick with a final coat of drama.

What sells the series?  I think people are at a level where big wide-open spaces really appeal to a person who has a 72-inch big-screen TV.  You throw in some two-star writers, to who create some crime element....people then accept the marginal series as a big deal.

Observations

 1.  This outburst in court by Jussie Smollett?  I've watched the video clip three or four times now.  The guy acts like a 10-year old kid, and says a bunch of BS.  I'll predict he has a pretty rough time in county jail, and likely goes through some kind of mental break-down in the middle of this....ending up in jail-hospital situation. 

2.  People that held onto Russia ETFs?  Royally screwed.  These will never recover.

3.  Six West Point (Army) cadets overdose on some Fentanyl-laced cocaine.  All still alive, but I doubt that the Army will keep them within the university program.

4.  Russia's space station 'business'?  The only partner they will have in the future is China.  

5.  Journalist Luke Rosiak went and did a fair amount of research for his new book "Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education."

The original angle?  He wanted to show how Covid screwed up education in America.  The problem?  The more he talked with teachers....it became obvious that the decline going on....wasn't a Covid thing....it'd been going on for several decades.

Real literacy?  It's anyone's guess just how bad the situation is. 

When Chow Becomes Too Good Of A Good Thing

 When stationed at Rhein Main Air  (late 1970s)....the chow hall went and did an usual thing....they operated for a number of months a midnight chow operation (opening from midnight to 1  AM).

Offerings?   Well...just fried chicken.  You'd walk in and they had box lunch.....with a roll, fried chicken, and a bag of chips.   For a drink?  You'd get a can of Coke.

About six weeks into this....a number of folks who weren't working at night (this was totally designed for night-shift people)....were testing the box and found it to be a great evening dinner.

So this odd development started....where people in the barracks stayed up to midnight (mostly watching AFN-TV) and then walking to the chow hall at midnight.  

I'd guess in the beginning, it was around thirty-odd people, and maybe by the 4th month....there might have been near eighty people doing this.

Calorie consumption going way up?  Oh yeah.....these were folks already visiting the chow hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There were folks, at least twice a week, who were consuming 4,500 calories a day.  

This was so successful.....that it was draining cash flow from the chow hall.  So they had to make up another rule.....you had to be in uniform to get the box.  This created the next trend....where folks dressed up in fatigues at midnight to get the box lunch.  Eventually, they even went to a card-system.....to identify night-shift people and prevent over-use.

If they'd gone to something like roast beef, or just ham/cheese sandwiches?  I think most wouldn't have made the effort, but for some reason.....they had some  guy who knew how to make 4-star fried chicken.  

What'll Happen to Jussie?

 Sentencing for Jussie Smollert will occur today (Thursday).

Anyone's guess here.

I think if he'd come out and done the 'I-admit-guilt-while-doped-up' routine.....most of what would be handed out is rehab time and a hefty fine.

But I'm likely to believe he's going off for 12 months of jail-time, with good behavior getting him out in six months.  

Mentally Fit Story

 I noticed this AM....Politico had done a poll, asking the question if President Biden is mentally fit.  Around 25-percent said 'yes'.  The rest....less so.

Does a poll mean anything?  No.

If you'd gone to the people of New York in the 1980s....asking if George Steinbrenner was sane.....probably half would have said 'no'.

If you'd gone to Americans in the late 1930s and asked if FDR was sane...probably one-third of them would responded 'no'.

The trouble is....polls like this get out, and various people from Europe start asking stupid questions....like if he is not mentally fit, why are you allowing him to stand as President, and the obvious answer is that you really don't President Harris to be the solution to this problem.

My Opinion of Russians

 Lately, I've been watching Russian YouTube sites (1420 is an interesting guy who does on the street Russian interviews).  So, you get a great prospective of regular Russians. 

My general views of Russians (not Putin or the Kremlin elite)?

1.  If you locked ten Russian scientists in a room.....within eight hours, they'd invent something something out of thin air, without any encouragement. 

2.  I kinda believe that 50-percent of Russians consume vodka to serious levels, and the other fifty percent of Russians never consume vodka or alcohol of any type.

3.  I believe that Russians probably read 50-percent more than the typical average American.

4.  Based on YouTube, I would remark that a quarter of Russian society dress like it's 1977.  Course, maybe it's a fashion trend, or maybe just that they all like the style/look.

5.  Per one-hundred.....there are probably more intellectuals in Russia, than in the United States.  I'm not saying it's a positive thing....just a noted thing.

6.  If I had to go to the 'Lost' TV series island and could select ten people to accompany there, I'd make sure that nine of the ten were Russians (with one Brit in the mix).  We'd face off the smoke-creature, the bad-evil folks, and probably build a boat within two weeks to leave the island.

7.  You just don't see that many 'chunky' Russians.  Maybe it's the diet....maybe the lack of fast-food....or maybe just good cleaning living.

8.  Urban Russians don't seem as ready for difficulties....as rural Russians are.  

9.  It just seems like every Russian guy has a simple 10-tool bag he carries around in his car, which seem to resolve every single repair on a car required.

10.  Maybe it's just me, but almost every Russian gal on YouTube seems like she walked off a James Bond movie set.