The dining room table.

Today's Tids Issue 3,706

For Harmony:

Even as this morass of a political camping dampens the spirits of a nation, there is perhaps a little hope for a better future. Maybe the message of making America great again is getting through to the cultural architects. Perhaps. I read where Abercrombie Is transforming its image from brooding, sculpted, photo-shopped models to bright sunlit scenes of energetic regular people enjoying the simple things of life. Sexiness is out they say. Created moods have a lot to do with how people adjust their own lives. Whether you like it or not, advertising has a lot to do with the way people act. And right now it is happy dancin’ stuff. We need it.

Back before technology became epidemic, we looked outward. We took pictures that cataloged memories of places we’d been and people we knew; people doing things that we enjoyed together. Now it is all inward. People take selfies in front of places and send them out to the world essentially saying, see where I am and you’re not.

Congrats to one of my all time my favorites Bob Dylan for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Wait, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for…Literature? What’s on tap for next year – “The Art of the Deal”?

Happy Birthday US Navy! Yes it has been 241 years since this grand military force was first established just before the revolutionary war. Some around here say the Birth of the Navy was in East Greenwich RI when in 1772 two ships – Katy and Washington – were commissioned by the state, and later in 1775 went under the command of Captain Abraham Whipple. Katy was renamed the USS Providence, a ship that eventually went under the command of John Paul Jones. So, while EG lays claim to the establishment of the Navy in June of 1775, the official day is Today 1775 when the continental Congress ordered the commissioning of two ships (Which BTW the USA couldn’t afford – Sound familiar. John Paul had the honor of hoisting the first US Ensign over the USS Alfred in Feb of 1776. So those are the official firsts, but don’t tell that to EG and, especially to Whipple who had won several battels with British ships before the war began.

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday Billy Bush! Yikes. And Tiffany Trump! Wow crazy coincidence.

If one thing comes out of this campaign, let’s hope is that people see how ugly dishonesty can be.

The Question:

The ever-popular “Who are these People” is back: Kate Walsh, Rhett Akins, Kelly Preston, Melinda Dillon and Pamela Tiffin.

The Headlines:

--Boston Police Officers Assaulted After Responding To Domestic Violence Call; Suspect Was Waiting For Police Dressed In protective Gear with Assault Weapons.

--The Destroyer USS Mason Struck Back At Three Sites In Yemen After being Targeted By Houthis Missiles.

--FBI Insider Says Investigating Agents And DOJ Trial Lawyers Remain Disturbed At Decision To Let Hillary Clinton Slide.

--Cat 4 Nicole Bears Down On Beautiful Bermuda.

--Jobless Claims Of Only 246,000 Hits Four Decade Low; Stumpf Out At Wells Fargo, Sloan In

--Red Cross/Swiss Brokered Deal Has Boko Haram Releasing 21 Chibok Schoolgirls.

--Negotiations With Turkey Holding Back Planned Attack On Mosul.

--Taliban Takes Another Major City In Helmand Province. Group Taking Control Of Largest Opium Production Area In World..

The unfulfilled jobs promise of the (Bill) Clinton Tech Boom is the real reason that the Bernie Sanders’ and Donald Trumps gained traction so fast with so many. Not only did the Tech boom fall flat in 2000 with a .Com implosion, but it now turns out that all of those glowing forecasts for a brilliant High tech future became an economy with fewer jobs. (See BC’s last State of the Union) By its very nature, Tech eliminates jobs through automation. The big high valuation social network businesses of the current times create jobs at far lower rate than even some of the older tech companies that produced hardware too; like Google and FaceBook are a third of Microsoft. The cost of entry into some of these App generated instant billionaire companies is low and the profit leverage is very high. You don’t need factories and machines that create other jobs, and you need far fewer people. Tech growth in these software dominated industries is self-generating. New industries like alternative energy and electric cars will probably grow, but factories that produce them with certainly be more of the “Lights Out”* variety. So where, exactly, will the new jobs that all of these Pols are promising come from? I have no idea.

*Lights out”, in case you don’t know, is a growing manufacturing concept that is derived from the after hours process where manufacturers start the machines, turn off the lights and close the door. One or two people sit around and monitor the machines doing the work all night long..

Oops, I made my NFL Picks yesterday instead of today. If you are in the habit of looking for them in the Thursday Tids, back up one Tid.

In the early 1990’s, Repubs trotted out Clinton woman after Clinton woman and he still got elected. So, using that as an historical political reference, Trump is a shoo-in.

It was good to hear again the sounds of skates carving through crystalline ice, bodies slamming bodies into the boards. To see pucks fly and skaters weaving; defenders poking. Yes, Hockey season is officially underway. It is a beautiful game.

BTW, did we just happen to see a new super start rising? Last night the 19 year old rookie Auston Mathews playing in his first game for Toronto netted four goals! It appears he may be related to that storm that just passed by. Oh, Toronto lost. Scoring isn’t everything.

Restaurants had better look out, because it is becoming much more inexpensive to eat at home. We have a surplus of food in the country and that has food markets reducing prices. In restaurants, food is a minor cost when compared to rents and employee costs. The WSJ says Restaurant prices are increasing about 2.3% a year while Supermarket prices are down about 0.9$. Add the fact that Markets are providing many take home prepared meals options, and you may see more families returning to the dinner table; hopefully without phones., smiling and holding conversations. And, this doesn’t even factor in the potential price reductions from the entry of Amazon as a bricks and mortar food market operator.

Reading the headlines about repeated assaults on Police, I thinking it’s like the play “Marty” only far worse. You may remember, a bunch of guys on a corner saying, “What do you want to do Marty?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do.” But now --  “What do you want to do tonight Clarence.” “Hey, let’s lure police to the front door and shoot them.” That’s what it is beginning to look like to me.

By the way, have you heard the President on this murderous trend?

Listening to several Trump supporters recently, the guiding principle is that a Trump Supreme court is the lessor of two evils.

The Answer:

Kate Walsh was Dr. Addison Montgomery on Grey’s Anatomy and Drew Carey’s love interest on The Drew Carey Show. –Rhett Aikins is a country singer who had the #1 1996 single “Don’t Get Me Started”. –Kelly Preston is the wife of John Travolta and appeared in films Jerry McGuire, Mischief and For The Love of Game. –Melinda Dillon received a Tony for Broadway debut in the original production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She was nominated for Oscars for her roles in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and “Absence of Malice”. She is often confused with Dee Wallace. Pamela Tiffin has ben seen in many films from teen pictures For Those Who Think Young and The Lively Set, to opposite Cagney in One, Tw, Tree and In movies like Come Fly With me, State Fair and Harper with Paul Newman. You have probably see her over the years.

Pass the gravy please. Oh yeah, and can you send the bread basket down here when you are finished. Thanks.