July 31, 2021

Just a look at the American Class system and a few surprises.

Over the years I've had the distinct pleasure of meeting a lot of people, people of differing economic backgrounds.

I grew up in a wealthy family. My father was a hard man, a product of the Depression who famously told me "College is Bullshit" and that I'd be better off getting a job at 18 and putting in my 50 years for the gold watch.

He wasn't thrilled when I started College, never attended a graduation.

Anyway, another time for that. He was a Land Developer. Wide swaths of Southern California were developed by him in the 80's-90's.

I spent time around rich people. Spent one summer in a Malibu Beach House when my parents spent the Summer on vacation. Met lots of wealthy families and kids.

As an adult I've spent time with others in my profession, ranging from technicians in the 80k/year range to Doctors, Professors and Researchers making a million a year... and the BioPharma execs making 10x that.

One thing I've learned.

The assholes are NOT who you think they are.

Let me explain.

One friend of mine from work was on vacation and I got "volunteered" to walk his dog daily. He lives in a SoCal neighborhood, houses around $1.2M-2M. Gated neighborhood, blah blah but in this pricey LA suburb not top end. So one day I'm walking the dog and it's a hot day. The dog stopped walking, took 2-3 steps from the sidewalk onto someone's yard under a tree and stood there, panting.

So I hear a knocking on a window. Look over and this man is quite animated waving his hands. Moments later, he comes out the front door and points at us and says "Your dog was GOING to pee on my grass..."

I looked at him, shook my head in disbelief... walked away. On a different day a neighbor stopped me while watering his lawn and said "I never see you carrying bags of poo or poop bags tied to your leash"... he was shocked as I pulled a poo bag out of the cargo short pocket and held it up to display for him.

I've been to friends homes in the $10M range...

I've been to Technicians who live in $600k homes...

Let's start with the Rich MF'ers. In my experience, totally chill. Never see them get worked up about much of anything. Take away the monetary stress from people and life just feels a lot easier.

And the middle working class neighborhoods? Nicest people ever. Will push your car if broken down and save bunnies from the road.

It's those "Middle-High" income people that are jerks.

They have a sense of "I live in a gated community and drive a leased Mercedes, RESPECT ME!!!!"

They're just fucking intolerable. It's the economic stress. They're mortgaged up to their eyeballs. Their spouse is dumping money on peels and botox and their High School kids are on drugs. They take it out on those they see as "economic lessers".

Just my experiences, yours may vary.

July 29, 2021

Some politicians are criticizing Robinhood (the stock trading app)

That's in the news today because of their IPO.

Just wanted to clarify a few things as a user.

I've had a Schwab account for decades. That's where my retirement funds grow and hopefully prosper in the future.

Schwab is a desktop interface, not made for active trading. It's slow and cumbersome and transferring money from a funding account takes a long time.

Robinhood came along and gave the "average Joe" the ability to trade stocks and options the way the "big boys" do and guess what... the big boys are complaining to their politicians.

They claim it "gamifies" trading. It does not. The screen is solid black or white with letters and numbers on it. No explosions or video game stunts.

There are MILLIONS of "retail users" getting into the market for the very first time. Robinhood and WeBull and a few others put the power and responsibility in the hands of the people.

Wanna know WHY the politicians are speaking up against Robinhood?

https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/2/22261097/gamestop-wallstreetbets-short-seller-hedge-funds-losses-robinhood

Redditors wanted to take down short sellers. They’ve certainly hurt them.

"So far this year, investors who’ve taken a short position on meme stocks, whose unlikely rally has retail investors flooding Wall Street and terrorizing hedge funds, have lost billions. Short sellers lost nearly $13 billion on GameStop alone so far this year, according to financial analytics company S3 Partners, which shared data through market close Monday. While that’s certainly a lot, it’s down from the $26 billion they were down last Wednesday, when the stock price closed at a record high of $347."

https://franknez.com/citadel-loses-billions-hedge-funds-are-getting-dragged-down/

Citadel is one of the largest hedge fund managers in the world. And they’ve subsequently managed Melvin Capital to the ground. Melvin Capital suffered a loss of over 50% its first quarter in 2021 due to shorting AMC Entertainment and GameStop.



When you hear someone criticizing Robinhood and Retail Traders... they're defending Hedge Funds.

July 28, 2021

The 1/6 investigation is moot without a bridge...

Is it a fact that Trump was lying about election outcome? Yes.

Is it a fact that a rally brought 10's of thousands of supporters to DC? yes.

Is it a fact that Trump told them to go to the Capitol and "make their voices heard"? Yes.


But those things don't equal "planning the Capitol attack" unless...

It can be shown that there was a conspiracy supporting a few hundred people to storm through police lines and then enter the Capitol building after assaulting officers.

We need Trump's phone logs, those of his Staff.

We need email and phone content from several in Congress to see if there was indeed actual communications and cooperation with the insurrectionists.

We need a bridge.

One one side of the river we have things that TrumpCo did and while deplorable, aren't illegal. And the other side of the river are chargeable offenses re: the Capitol Assault.

1/6 Hearings thus far as the Gold Standard for DC hearings and I hope they get to the bottom of it all and deliver that bridge.

We need a bridge, if it exists.

To continue:

Focus on the first groups of people who crossed barriers and started the physical confrontations with officers. Herd mentality, many of those who follow are just wiling dopes.

I want to look inside and out at the PB, OK and others at the first line of the attack.

July 25, 2021

Federal Vaccine Mandate may be unconstitutional... However

The SCOTUS has LONG acknowledged the rights of States to mandate vaccinations.

https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/jacobson-v-massachusetts-reiss

State and local governments in the United States have mandated immunizations as a prerequisite for attending public schools for quite some time. The Supreme Court has heard several challenges to these mandates and has consistently ruled the mandates to be constitutional.

And here:

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-the-supreme-court-rules-on-vaccines-and-public-health

The application of Jacobson to the modern age of vaccinations is a source of scholarly debate, with some arguing that the case no longer applies in an era in which vaccines like HPV are not medically necessary to prevent the spread of disease. But others maintain Jacobson’s importance today in providing ample power to protect the public health, especially with the threat of pandemics.

July 22, 2021

How "Bad" would it have to get to go into another "March 2020" lockdown?

I look at the local and State gov't... the Federal gov't...

I can't see them shutting down again.

I'm not sure if 1000's of dead per day would do it...

I see ZERO masks out and about in NoVa and my family says no masks in SoCal either.

July 21, 2021

China's got some explaining to do.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.14.21260491v1

In summary,

Cancer Hospital in Milan restests blood samples from October 2019 and finds possible COVID-19 antibodies.

The first "Official" COVID-19 case in EU was 2/20.

FWIW, Milan is a direct hub from the Wuhan Province because a great number of the employees at the textile plants and fashion houses are Chinese nationals.

Questions keep stacking up.

Apparently China tried to keep this secret for 2 months. The origin is unclear.

A 2-Month head start would have saved millions. Don't forget, the virus was sequenced quickly... months later.

This ain't over. The books and movies are going to be epic.

Note: personal thoughts... I think the US Gov't and Trump must have known about this prior to January 2020. The IC literally knows everything everywhere at any time.

I think Trump so treasured trade relations with China that he ignored intel reports and "believed/trusted" Xi.

July 21, 2021

I can put myself in the shoes of the defending General at Velikiye Luki

Or the head of the Army attacking Culp's Hill...

But I CAN NOT understand the logic behind Trump and Co NOT advocating for the vaccine. Let me explain.

There was TREMENDOUS political UPSIDE to playing COVID and the Vaccines "properly"

If he would have come out on TV frequently and said "The vaccines are coming, just hold on a little longer... keep your masks on, we're almost there. These "Made in the USA" Patriot Vaccines are going to bring FREEDOM back into our lives and in the Great American way, we're going to lead the WORLD and help the WORLD get immunized."

It would have been BRILLIANT if he contacted the Former POTUS's and said "Hey I know we don't agree on much of anything but we're facing the greatest crisis to hit the nation in a century. I need you guys to start filming PSA's with ME to encourage the American people to use reasonable caution until the "Patriot Vaccines" are ready in a few months.

He didn't even use the opportunity for promotion when he HIMSELF got vaccinated.

Use social media, "MAGA Vaccines... Trump Vaccines... etc"

But even putting myself into Trump's shoes as POTUS, I can't understand the upside for playing it the way he did. I know the election pissed him off but he didn't play the pandemic right for political gain pre-election either.

Recently the former POTUS's DID get together for PSA's... Trump refused.

Stupid MF'er... we're lucky he was such a dunce. A smart Trump would truly be dangerous.

July 18, 2021

Climate change. Mitigation or Adaptation?

A big debate in the Climate Change community.

https://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/adaptation-mitigation/

https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/climate-adaptation-vs-mitigation-why-does-it-matter

Here's the summary:

Mitigation is buying a Tesla Model 3 with the hope of reducing CO2 emissions.

Adaptation is building more Electric power generating plants and building new sea walls.

There are arguments for each. Mitigation tends to be the flavor of the day with Polyanna groups chest beating about small changes in emissions or lifestyle habits while other nations expand their CO2 emissions greatly.

In my opinion, we need to be 80% Adaptation and 20% Mitigation because... and I hate to say it, but it's too late.

We need to look ahead to a Climate Changing world and HOW the USA can prosper and thrive.

Knowing that the Earth IS warming, accepting that fact will allow one to think from an Engineers point of view and work on solutions.

Is it wise to allow States like California, Arizona and Texas to build and expand? Florida, too?

Should more infrastructure be built in the Northern USA? Could the Dakotas and Wyoming be the next bread basket?

As we lose agricultural land, where can we start farming? How do you take advantage of geographical regions that will BENEFIT from global temperatures rising? Like the Asian taiga? Canada?

The future world will see wars for land and water, just like 1000's of years ago. It's going to get messy.

July 11, 2021

Because of SHIT reporting... how many believe the MLB All Star Game was a terror target?

I'm soooo sick and tired of clickbait news websites reporting BULLSHIT to get a rise out of people.

Remember the story yesterday about the imminent terrorist attack in Denver from the hotel room.... a la "Las Vegas"?? Thwarted by the maid?

Yeah, turns out it was bullshit again. How many people will head to the water cooler and regale their friends with stories about terror threats in the Heartland?

https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/arrests-downtown-denver-hotel/73-cca8dcfd-1283-4b34-85b6-9d8498b4104a

"We have no reason to believe this incident was connected to terrorism or a threat directed at the All-Star Game," the FBI said in a statement. "We are not aware of any threat to the All-Star Game events, venues, players, or the community at this time. As is the case with many major special events, the FBI works closely with our law enforcement partners in preparation for and in support of public safety during these events."

July 10, 2021

How should Historical Military Figures be Judged?

I'm not going to express an opinion, just put the question out there.

Military leaders kill people. That's what they do. They conquer land kill armies.

But historians look at military leaders for how "consequential" they were/are.

in 732 AD, in modern-day Southern France... a Frankish King named Charles (later Charles Martel) would assemble an army of farmers and peasants, led by nobles to face off against one of the world's foremost military of the time, the Umayyad Caliphate led by Abdul Rahman Al-Rafiqi.

Near Poitiers, the forces met and the Umayyad army was crushed and the threat of Muslim invasion of Europe never arose again.

That's consequential. Were Charles or Al-Rafiqi moral men? Were either driven by a noble cause?



Re: the US Civil War

General WT Sherman used might to peel back public support of the Confederacy. He was quite effective. only fringe elements question whether Sherman was a war criminal. Was he a moral man?

General Nathan Bedford Forrest rose from Private to General. His tactics were so fierce and unconventional and successful that for a Century they were taught at the US Army War College and Heinz Guderian partially credits Forrest for the "Blitzkrieg" in WW2. General Patton descended from Confederate officers and recognized Forrest.

Was Forrest a moral man, a decent man? Driven by a noble cause?

The answers are all fairly obvious. But how does that affect his "historical record"?




Ok, now personal commentary.

I'm glad the public displays are coming down. It's clear that "MOST" of them were put up as a symbol of oppression rather than a memorial to a person. (Some exceptions being the CSA monuments built at Gettysburg, etc)

I'm split on whether a community should have the final decision to keep or remove monuments. I think it's morally right to take them all down. But I don't live in the community so maybe I shouldn't opine.

The one thing I do wish for... is that people could say General XYZ was a masterful commander and tactician and changed history whether we're talking about Hannibal, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charles Martel, George S Patton, Edwin Rommel or Georgy Zhukov WITHOUT talking about their character or morality.

Removing public monuments just might be the BEST thing to properly categorize the memory of the CSA leaders. When they're seen in museums and National Parks it's easier to get the real story about them...

One last thing, and I apologize for being verbose...

Please visit one of our National Parks dedicated to US Civil War battlefields. Pre-1980's, these were popular summer vacations and school field trips. Today they're being forgotten. It's the best place to learn about Lee, Sherman, Grant, Forrest and Hooker without social taint or influence.