Layng quietly in fields

Layng quietly in fields
Glstening lights

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Life’s too short to worry about nuances.




Today's Tids Issue 3,799
For Living Large:

Hillary is still under Trump’s skin. When standing upon a world stage with leaders of the foreign countries, he’s just gotta stop saying things like “Fake Media”, or enumerating his electoral votes.

One thing I always hear loud and clear up here in the cool North is the crack of the bats at spring training camps everywhere. It’s amazing how that sound resounds around the country, how the hearts of baseball fans swell to that sound of leather meeting ash. Life is really good when the fans start milling back into stands and ball yards to ogle at a favorite jogging by. To be awed at the athletic magic of fielding genius. To spy a rookie making an old veteran think twice. Yup the great American pastime (Despite what Goodell says) is back. And my heart is there with it.

The CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, said yesterday that current activity on his rapid communications service feels like “Arab Spring” in the US. Arab spring? How did that work out for the Arabs? He fails to recognize that the USA is an orderly Democracy, not a tyrant led dictatorship despite what losing Hillaryites might argue. If he is promoting, or suggesting, “Oust by Twitter”, then we have a bigger problem here than anybody thought. Everybody on both sides of the aisle should be worried about a country declining into government by mass tweeting.

The Question:
I have a new list of 10 Hotspots where global conflict* could erupt. Name the 10. *That’s like another, kinder name for WWIII.


The Headlines:
--Rising Interest Rates Pushing Increased Activity In Housing Markets; US Jobless Claims Rise Less Than Expected; All Markets Lower At Morning’s End.
--Saudi Arabia People See New Optimism For Relations With US.
--Large Insurers Saying ObamaCare is Dying.; Government Will Need To Begin Patching Soon To Save Poorly Executed National Health Bonanza.
--Far Right French Presidential Candidate Marine Le Pen Leads In First Round Of Presidential Election.
--New Round Of Suicide Bombings In Pakistan
--Facebook Looking To Take On LinkedIn As Top Jobs Site.
--NSA: Petraeus, Kellogg, Harward In Running; Labor Secretary: 4 Contenders Are Peter Kirsanow, Alexander Acosta, Catherine Templeton and Joseph Guzman.
--Carolina Boeing Plant Workers Overwhelmingly Vote Down Joining Union.
--Mattis Sees No Military Collaboration With Russia.
--Verizon Close To Renegotiating Deal With Yahoo At Lower Price.
-Presidential Candidate Supports Trump Israel-Palestine Strategy; Speaking On Russian Backed TV, RI’s Lincoln Chafee Who Ran On The Bring Metric System To America Platform Says Trump Is On The Right Path To Peace.

BTW, Spell-Check still hasn’t acknowledged that there is a Trump with a capital “T”.

As a President of the USA, there always comes that time when you really need all of the media on your side.

One of the precepts of the Tids Dogma is to never repeat myself. Sometimes this leads to not expanding on a news headline that demands more than the stated facts, like yesterday’s, “Buffett Sells $900Mil Of Wal-Mart; Says Retail Is Dead.” If you have been reading closely you know that the Tids panel of economists has been watching the retail sector closely. The change from Brick and Mortar to Internet is and has been inevitable sine the 1990’s, despite excuse making in various articles touting the resiliency of American retail. For instance, Wal-Mart itself has already announced a huge commitment to the internet, aiming for Amazon. Many weak sisters will not have the resources to change and reverse the diagnosis of a terminal illness. So, that sounds brighter for those companies who can make it. But for jobs, not so much. The idea is that lost retail jobs will be replaced by big cyber jobs. Does that mean that people who enjoy retail floor activities, design and display creativity and meeting customers, will be packing boxes in giant heartless warehouses? Probably not, but there will be change and it will be culturally painful. A lot of people, will have to accept a new world, begrudgingly -- Like steel workers now working in coffee shops.

Reading signs of marchers will never give you an honest opinion of the broader prevailing truths. Organized crowds and anecdotal oneness supporting them always gets more coverage than a camera focused on a family sitting quietly on a couch in their living room, a dog at their feet, wondering why they have never met anybody with the views of those relatively few marching in the streets.

Next week the PGA moves down to Florida which means that the march to Augusta has begun!

In addition to the above TrumpTrip-Ups, he should have learned by now that taking on the Intelligent Community was a really bad idea. The latest is that agencies are withholding info from him simply because they’re worried about what may come out of his mouth.

A guy named Charlie Munger who is Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, says he has mellowed on Trump, the president he once said was not “Morally qualified”. Now he is among those who don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and who are now acknowledging that the he will do some good for a lot of people. Number One, says Munger, is his firm stance about resisting any changes to Social Security and Medicare. Munger doesn’t like the idea of business boycotts, and the marchers are beginning to annoy him.  He goes on to say, “He’s not wrong on everything, and just because he’s not like us, roll with it. If there’s a little danger, what the hell, you’re not going to live forever anyway.”

“You want Two-state, I’m for two state. You want one state, I’m with you there too.” Trumps words on the never ending Israel/Palestine problem confounded many a world observer. But, this mess has been going on for decades with no real movement towards a settlement. So, maybe the only way to get there is to be a little weird.

The Parking Lot: Chapter 77 continues…
    Nancy was smiling as she walked back to her car. She hadn’t had a lot of relaxing moments lately. She needed hem more than ever to cut down on the tension that seemed to be present all of the time.
   She heard the ring of her phone as she stepped into her car, and that interrupted a much to short pleasant tome in her mind. This phone was the main weapon in the war on her nerves. Lately it only meant unwanted messages, unwanted voices and the possibility of tracking. There was no help about who it was on the screen. She clicked it and waited for a voice.
   “You playing games again?” She immediate felt her body drain and muscles relax, and a little shiver run up her back.
   “Jared, it feels we’ve been gone for like months.”
   “Well I got cold in bed after you left and had to get up and turn on the heat. Why do you always turn down the heat when you leave? To remind me who’s in control?” He laughed.
   “Nancy barely heard him as she was thinking only of the night before with him.” She looked up at the window of Beth’s house. Was she hoping that Alex wasn’t watching her talking to Jared.
   “You know I own you!, She laughed and it felt good. Any problems? I’m coming home. Any weirdo standing around outside watching? We have a lot of work to do, and it will be fun. Maybe, this will be all over soon. But, that’s what she thought when she and McGuire agreed. She clicked off the phone and looked back up at Beth’s house.

The Question:
#10 is Syria -- Where Russia and Iran are allies and IS is all over the place. The possible problem is Trump designated safe zones and “No Fly Zones”. One shoot down of a Russian plane could begin the fire. Next is Israel which has always been on the verge of over retaliating, and now against possible Nukes from a nefarious Iran. 8 would be the result of provocative maneuvers by mainly Iran in the Persian Gulf and te increased possibility of a bold response from the USA.  The Kashmir regions in northern Iindia is another pile of kindling wood. This is a mostly Muslim region that feels it should be a part of India’s biggest foe -- Nuclear Pakistan, where terroist and separatist groups are on the rise. The Korean Peninsula is only 6, but scarier than hell because of the unpredictability of you know how. The US has vowed to be there in the event of an attack on Korea and/or Japan. #5 is the South China Sea where a provoking China just continues to forge on grabbing territory that’s not theirs. Taiwan is another big issue between China and Free world allies. It could explode. Latvia doesn’t seem like the ignition point for a world war. Russia still emboldened by the Crimea move will instigate civil unrest inside Latvia, and then come into save the day. The Nato agreement demands action, which would bring along the US to fight Russia. The Suwalki Gap is a pathway from Russia to Europe that runs between Poland and Lithuania. Russian forces already surround the gap, and the Pentagon is calling for a US buildup on all sides of this narrow gap. And, # 1 is that other avenue of warfare…”Cyberspace!” Hacking can bring any country to its knees and the big countries like US, China and Russia are deeply involved in staying ahead of each other’s capabilities.

Don’t you wish it was still Valentines day and we could all just talk of love.


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