Just Five Things

 1.  Elon Musk was a bit surprised to find out that Twitter reached some point several years ago, where they were sponsoring 'lunch' for employees.  At the peak here in the past year.....with people staying home....the company was paying some catering company around $400 per person....to serve lunch for those who did show up for work.

I pondered over this.  The only time I ever got free food from my boss....I tended to be in a war-zone, and the quality of food wasn't what you'd get at grandma's house or McDonalds.

2.  There's some new gender deal being created....called Trigender.  Apparently, this is a person who is male, and female, and neither. 

I paused reading the third qualifier.  

In a logics course, you can say one and one are two, or two minus one is one.  But you can't have one and one to equal zero.  

3.  This crypto fraud deal developing with FTX....apparently leads to the front door of Ukraine, and based on paths....it goes back to DC and various political PACs.  Begs a lot of questions.

Odds of a House investigation?  Zero.

4.  Odd trend.....people starting to ask now if you are flu-vaxed-up, and then some shun pattern developing if you don't do the flu shot.

We will eventually reach a point of asking about the last oil change for the pick-up, and shun folks who drive over the 5,000 mile point without a change.  

5.  Biden's student loan forgiveness plan?  

It lasted about as long as a Bumble-Bee's life span.  Just something to think about.  The good thing?  Not a dime was ever forgiven.  

Chatting Over Maricopa County Arizona

 I lived for several years in Pima County, Arizona....the Tucson region, and would occasionally go to the Phoenix region (Maricopa County).  So my five observations.....since they've been in the election news so much.

1.  Maricopa County is about the size of the northern third of the state of Alabama.  Yeah, it's huge.  Six of the ten major cities in the state....reside in Maricopa.  

2.  Population?  4.5-million.  That's about sixty-percent of the state of Arizona.

3.  Ethnic breakup of the county?  30-percent are Latino.  6-percent black.  The rest....mostly white.

4.  Jobs?  Mostly service sector or the US government.  There's just not that much in terms of industry.  

5.  There are 223 voting 'centers' in the county.  So when they got to Tuesday and voting started up.....at roughly a quarter of these (60), all kinds of problems occurred.  

If you had just five or six.....no one would say much and just fix the broken mess.  But to have almost a quarter screwed up?  It has to be either total incompetence or by design.  

Telling people to go to another site?  If you lived/worked in Mobile (SE corner of the county).....you'd have to drive to Gila Bend (a good 30 minute drive....one-way).  If you were voting in Wintersberg, it'd be a good 15-minute drive to the next station, and hoping it wasn't screwed-up.

My view?  There's going to be lawyers involved and lawsuits by the end of this mess....with massive cases going to the State Supreme court.  Damages?  If you were forced to drive eighty miles round-trip.....I think the time and gas involved....ought to be on the state's pay-up list.  

But all of this begs the question....are they really that stupid or incompetent at managing a one-day election every two years?  Do we need to activate the state National Guard to run things because county officials can't do the job?

Is It A Democratic Majority Senate?

 Well....no, it's a Senate completely owned by Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat).  

He can ask for virtually anything he desires, and he'll get it because there's no extras in the system for the Democratic Party.

It may take three months for them to realize this, but it's a problem to ponder upon for the next two years.  

This talk by President Biden to corner coal, and terminate mining?  He may mention this ten times a week, but getting past legislation to accomplish this?  Manchin will trim the Biden agenda.  

Observations Over Days of Counting Votes

 1.  It's not normal.  If you go back to the 1990s or prior....fifty states concluded vote counting around six to ten hours after the polls closed.  Absentee ballots were counted the next day (in most states), but were generally limited to Americans who were overseas.  

2.  Most states today still conclude vote-counting that night, with the exception of absentee ballots. 

3.  Once tabulators and computerized voting came into the landscape....problems started to be added.  

4.  The case of Maricopa County, AZ?  The system is managed for the most part by the county commission....which seems to get enjoyment out of five days of counting. 

I would speculate that they've either hired incompetent people to manage the system, or added so many regulations...that normal counting can't really take place. 

5.  All this excess day-counting....to lead to a federal crisis?  I would suggest part of this drama is orchestrated to have the federal authorities managing national voting.  But if you ask....how they can fix it anymore than state or local authorities....I'm at a loss.  

6.  People in Iraq, Turkey, or Honduras...looking at this 'drama' and asking....how can they be this stupid?

7.  If you quietly ask people about their trusting nature of the counting....I doubt if you get past 60-percent of Americans having real trust in the system to work as advertised.  

8.  Most Americans (at least employed ones) stop off to vote....on their way to work, or on their way home.  If the polling station isn't geared to handle surge moments like this....then we are admitting that something has occurred in the past thirty years to lessen effective voting operations.  Investigative journalists?  Maybe it's time to reflect on what happened and why the system has crapped out. 

Whats This FTX Crypto Crap About?

 One single guy.....Sam Brinkman-Fried....created a crypto currency out of thin air.

At peak, it was loaded with 32-billion dollars.  As of today.....it's zero.

What the whole looks like?  Giant billion dollar ponzi scheme....used primarily as a money laundering 'tool'....which oddly enough....had around forty million spent on the mid-term election.  No one says the candidates or parties involved.  

Odds of some folks in the US Treasury at least knowing this was money-laundering?  I'd put it at a 99-percent chance.....but they can't admit that in public. 

Who had the money in this gimmick?  Based on what I've read.....lot of YouTube and Instagram people.....who were making money from around the world, and tried to avoid detection by their governments, or paying taxes.  

Guy's location?  Some plane indications just hint of a path leading to Brazil.  No extradition treaty.....for US/Brazil.  But in this case....people might just look to hire some gangs from Brazil to hunt him down.  I don't see him surviving more than a month at the most.  

My Cure For Slow-Counting In Elections

 Once you fill out a voting ballot, with a unique barcode....there is a time-stamp to be on it.  As long as it's counted prior to midnight, no problems.

Once it's counted after midnight, for each twelve hours of delay.....you (the ballot owner) get $100 from the state budget.  If it takes 36 hours to count your vote....after midnight.....that's $300 to be paid out.

After one election with delay....the state will learn a important lesson on competence. 

Observations

 1.  Should we be asking how disgruntled you are, your party affiliation, and then ask your state-status?

I'm of the mind if you asked the question.....are you happy about the direction of Florida....more than 70-percent of people would indicate they are happy with Florida.  The same might be said for folks in South Carolina and Tennessee.  

If you were a resident of Portland or SF?  It's probably a 75-percent disgruntled feeling that you are walking around with.

2.  Student debt forgiveness 'pit'?

Based on the federal judge's order....that $10,000 of forgiveness is mostly now gone.  I'm guessing President Biden will talk constantly over this, but it's a pretty dead topic at this point.  

3.  Where all this slow vote-counting is heading?

I'm going out to predict in the November 2024 election.....it will reach a stage where courts are involved, and slow-counting will occur.....leading to at least one state missing the mid-December deadline.  I might even suggest three states missing the date.

All hell will break loose in the states affected, with a number of lawsuits about being disenfranchised.  I'll forecast that the Supreme Court eventually dumps it back onto the states and gives the public some option to sue for 'damages'.  If you thought things were screwed up presently.....it would get a lot worse.

4.  I read a piece this week where the fake-meat industry (coming on strong in the past three years)....has hit some peak.  The chief issue?  Lack of taste/flavor....in the products.

Yeah, shocking.....people want fake-meat to taste like real meat.

5.  What happens if this NATO expansion with Finland and Sweden fails?  Both Hungary and Turkey are becoming problems in accepting the two.

I would suggest that if we reach such a point where NATO can't get the two votes....the US will step up and sign a protective treaty.....saying they would do what NATO can't do.  

6.  Can Twitter survive with 75-percent of the customer base that they had before Elon came along?

If this $8 a month fee comes into play....I would suggest they can easily survive and thrive.  The hint from Elon is that podcast capability would expand over the next year, and I think that's the key selling point for Twitter in the future.