One year ago today: August 20, 2019, send them the bill.
Five years ago today: August 20, 2015, circuit talk.
Nine years ago today: August 20, 2011, that band was efficent.
Random years ago today: August 20, 2009, a million toothpicks.
I miss all the good ones. I drove through the no-radio corridor to Nashville today. That’s 13 hours this time, mostly listeneng to audio books. On occasion, usually when switching disks, the radio will pick up local stations. I’m used to them all being ultra-liberal or on about religion. Surprised I was when most broadcasts were critical of the Democrat convention. I could not find a setting that gave the whole story. Here’s what I gather happened. Rather than campaigning, the Democrats gathered the party faithful to begin a deliberate attach on Trump. They pulled out the stops, forget any issues, just get Trump. There’s some pattern here and it smacks of desperation. They even hauled that shameful excuse for a president Obama and his wife on stage to blast away.
The thing is, I want to hear this story. I don’t follow conventions, but it’s with glee I accept any news about a liberal stewing in his own juice. Can it be true they even hauled old Hillary up the microphones? She still can’t beleive she lost a rigged election or that not of of the standard hoaxes worked on Trump. The left has turned this election into a battle for the soul ot the country and the people. And lose they will, if what I hear is half true, they’ve dug their own graves. What’s more odd, the stations I heard this on are all pro-liberal, with a smattering of small religous stations that were pro-Trump.
The picture is the Plantation, a roadside store. It’s past the Magnolia northbound, so I’ve never stopped there until today. I made it a point to pull in there. Disappointment. It is pretty much an over-priced candy store. I picked up some as gifts. They also have some handicrafts for sale, mostly carved wood and stained glass, nothing original. The staff is as dull as the displays. Thee empoyee pool in central Georgia must be miniscule.
The drive was tedious from taking the same route so often. I wanted to make good time without speeding, so it was I-75 to Atlanta, then north oon 111 from Chattanooga. I stopped there for gas, I’m developing a dislike for the place despite never having spend any real time there. It could be that somehow I only meet the rudest and most inconsiderate drivers on their streeets, I’ll allow for that. But why do they go out of their way to be jerks? The answer is always the same, boredom. I have no sympathy for boring people.
Pouce Coupe railway bridge.
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Nearing Atlanta, another overturned semi blocks the traffic. That’s twice in a year, what are the odds? Other than that, the biggest event was the weather. Intermittent cloudbursts all the way from Macon to the Dayton turnoff. I got to Cagle too late to collect the paperwork noting it is 120 miles from the house. I’ll make that a day trip if there’s time.
See this picture? That’s a abandoned gas station that was booming this time last year. The American economy has needed a shaking out for some time. By around turn of the century, the Internect economy began to conflict with the established American way—but that was merely the part that showed. Inferior “world wide” ideas had been eroding the American way for a long time. If I could pinpoint the time, it was the oil crisis of 1973. Instead of America telling those people up yours, the weakest of our society embarked on the economic version of appeasement.
The rot was evident by 1990 with nonsense like customer service and service contracts being shoved on the public rather than the American practice of simpy building a better mousetrap and continually improving on it. By 2000, the overseas world could no believe how imbecilic Amercans had become, shipping out high paying value-added jobs overseas and morphing into a gig economy
Out of this mess we got the gig economy. Before, investment capital went toward those business features that kept the customer happy. Now, every “new” venture is based on the cheapest, tackiest, low-effort screw job that passes the costs on to the end-user. Cell phone contracts are the supreme example. Hidden clauses and no single service plan that doesn’t include things you don’t want. But worst, cell-plans create no incentive to improve the underlying system. And that is the death of the American way.
There is no going back. But whatever replaces the system now will be sub-optimal. We’ve lost the head start we had in 1980. We gave away the shop. We’ve got too much of old America trying to fit into an Internet model that was flawed to begin with. (The Internet was never designed to sell things, or honor contracts, or provide good quality.) There was also too much government interference in the classic economy—and a lack of controls in the corporate economy, allowing corporations to run roughshod over the old order. While small shops are wiped out, corporations post record gains. What's wrong with this picture?
There are many out there who, dumb as it sounds, would have the whole system return to what it was, namely corrupt. But they are about to lose the biggest election in their history. Did you catch that clip of the Obama lady mean-mouthing Trump. She only got 11,000 hits. Trump’s rebuttal got 43,000. Somehow, we just know she doesn’t see any mesage in those stats. Or haw about California Lyft drivers being declared employees. They won a court battle and lost their jobs, duh. The elastics in their top-knots were probably a little too tight.
So the CNN network goes bobo over Trump saying he would not be in the White House but for the job her husband did. That one probably sailed over her as well. Where I got the biggest laught was the CNN reporter stating that Trump’s retort shows he didn’t know the Obama lady was one of the most popular figures in America. Ha. Not no more.
Aside to CNN. He [Trump] well knew all about the claims on her so-called "popularity". He just didn’t care. She’s way out of her league, IQ-wise, but one is not supposed to point that out, so I won’t.
ADDENDUM
Here is a view of the boys, six months ago you could not get them to stand still like this. A couple things in the news are screaming for my comments. First is the Lougheed Martin allegation that they have a working defense laser system. After watching their carefully crafted video presentation, I say they are not ready. Laser systems have been around since before I was a kid and the problem remains the same—reload speed. You can build a laser of any power your want, but to recharge it you kind of need to have a handy nuclear power plant.
Since no new electrical components have appeared, the way to do it is store a charge in some super-capacitor, hoping you have enough to counter a muli-layered attack before you have to crank things back up. That could also explain why the lasers are vehicle-mounted.
The problem is similar with lasers. Trick the enemy into firing and you have a known time period to rush forward and make him a casualty. Lougheed Martin claims multi-shot capability. How are they doing it? I say with capacitors. Charge up some enormous capacitors and you have a type of six-shooter. The second news item is that China is suffering food shortages. Ha! I told you something had to give. China has thrown its food production structure off by producing junk the world will buy and using the money to import food. This is what Trump means when he says they are ripping us off. They were enabled to cut corners on domestic goods to overproduce exports--like the Soviets did in the 1932-1933 in the Ukraine. They starved millions to death by confiscating the food to sell it for money to buy arms.
