4753 trump Again?

 One down, eleven to go and we’ll be exchanging happy new year greetings again.  Seems that while the days drag, the years just fly by. Since the end of the trump era and before the start of trump’s will-he-won’t he era, time runs at warp speed. 

Frankly, I can wait.  But it is worth looking at the picture now and maybe comparing it six or nine or 12 months down the road.

 

The former president sits around in Florida and probably, he’s fuming and plotting and planning.  “This'' has to happen, “that” can’t. Can trump actually do anything about the conditions on which he’ll insist take place before he decided whether to run again?  

 

If they DO happen, is he likely to jump into what probably will be a massive hodgepodge of candidates?  If they DON’T happen, what then?  We have to remember he’s going to be 76 years old in June.  Can a 76 year old come out of an enforced retirement, run for president, win the presidency and then not completely screw up?

 

The probable answer is yes.  Should he?  I think you can safely assume this corner is not the same as his corner, but in the world of politics, that doesn’t much matter. 

 

But you also can assume that he’d like to be president again and will come thisclose to running if he decides not to and won’t tell anyone about that until the last possible month.  Or week. Or minute.

 

He'll probably waffle for a while, then, if he scares off most if not all of the other candidates, will run again. Now is the time for you to be sure you know what you're going to do when he does that.

 

SHRAPNEL:

--Governor Newsom of California wants to turn San Quentin prison into a healing venue and will be moving death row inmates to other prisons.  Sure. Why not? Spread the happiness around.

 

--Biden welcomed Qatar as a major non-NATO ally for helping us get people out of Afghanistan.  Does that actually mean anything?   Or was it just a gesture to the visiting head of the Qatar government and designed to be forgotten tomorrow?

 

--Connecticut offered help to restaurants and other food vendors hit by the Corona virus.  They haven’t come up with the money.  And dozens of restaurants are saying if they don’t soon, they’ll close.

 I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4752 Here come the Russians

 So Russia looks ready to attack Ukraine.  For what? Oil? Nah. To increase population? Nah. Just because they can.  

And we, warlike since at least the 1950s, are ready to… are ready to… What? Why are we interested?

Putin has nothing much on his mind these days so he wants to start a little war, one that he probably can win, eventually and then what?

Then Ukraine becomes part of what is apparently a re-growing Russian empire?  And THEN what? 

Then nothing. Life goes on. Commissars from Russia come into Kiev, take over the running of government and the Ukranians just take it?  Sure. They probably have to. There’s no way Ukraine can win this war.  

And Putin goes fishing. Or rides a horse and gets photographed doing so.

But it’s more than just adding a bunch of square miles to his fiefdom. The reexpansion of the former Soviet Union takes another step backward.  And it’s a big step.  And it won’t be won easily, but it will be won.

Unless, of course, we step in.  Then it becomes another Vietnam or worse. We just can’t seem to avoid little wars, though this one could be big. And it would take years to settle.

If it DOES start, it will probably start big.  The Russians probably can defeat Ukraine easily except for the dozens, maybe hundreds of underground resistors that will develop suddenly. Or that we’ll suddenly notice.

This war in the making has been coming for years.  When it happens, we’ll all get excited.  This will make up for the lack of caring among the Ukranians who have seen it coming for years longer than Putin has planned it.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4751 Foundations

 If you listen to public radio, you hear an awful lot of commercials for foundations. And many of these foundations are not supporting much. The foundation is left. The building is gone.

First, let's clear up something in the first sentence with which you may disagree. You might say "There are no commercials on public radio, just announcements of who contributed the money for the particular program." And you'd be wrong. The networks and the individual stations often have full scale sales departments, with people who go out to businesses and foundations and sell time. Except they don't call it the sales department. They call it development. Development is academy speak for begging and selling.

Now, as for those foundations. Notice that many of them were started by or named for people whose companies were sunk. Take the "William T. Grant Foundation," a frequent contributor to NPR. W.T. Grant was kind of an upscale Woolworth's with delusions of Wal-Mart. It went belly up in 1976, and was at the time, one of the biggest bankruptcies in US history. The foundation, started the same year as the first Grant store, 1906, goes on. It has money. The former stockholders have, well, souvenir stock certificates. The foundation’s investors did better than investors in the business. There's nothing wrong with the remaining foundation, and nothing unusual about a foundation outliving its founders. But it just seems kind of funny to see in the imagination a Grant store with a huge "CLOSED" sign in the window, while the surviving entity has a spiffy website and offers some decent opportunities.

Then, there's the John S. and James L. Knight foundation. The Knights had lost control of their newspaper empire long before the company was sold to McClatchy in 2006. Which is what often happens when institutional investors are "guiding" (some might say manipulating) a business about which they know nothing. To the foundation's credit, there is one Knight left on its board of trustees. And she probably knows her stuff, as most in that family did -- or at least seemed to.

Knight also is a big sponsor on NPR.

This posting was made possible by a grant from the Wessays Foundation, bringing nonsense into homes since um.. well, for a few years now, anyway. On the web at wessays.blogspot.com.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any questions? Wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4750 Stop Nagging

 So comes a letter from a new credit card company which has taken over a long running account.  It says “Why Wait? You Owe Us Money. Send Now and get it over with.”  Oh?

Well, OK, I’ll send you a few bucks now and then a few more later when the Social Security check lands in my bank account -- assuming it will.  

C’mon guys, I know you’re there. You’ve never stopped reminding me since taking over the account maybe nine or ten months ago.

I’ll pay you when I always pay you.

And I won’t leave you hanging with a partial payment, either.  You get the whole thing at once. Of course, that’ll deprive you of some interest.  But that’s the price of doing business with me.

Let’s get one thing straight between us: You always get … something. Don’t rush me. I’ve been dealing with your predecessor for years. I’ll deal with you the same way. Once a month.  Second Wednesday. Same as always. If you want to change that, we can talk about it. But be warned: I don’t need you.  

Of course, you don’t need me, either. But you agreed to take over the business, so for now, you’re stuck with me.

I’m not as hard to deal with as some of your new customers.  I really DO pay you regularly and usually eight or ten days before the deadline.  But I don’t have to be that way.  I can stall. I can pay at the last possible second. You know-- all the stuff that people do to credit card companies.  I can overpay you which makes everything bolix up at your end. I can underpay you by a penny or two and that confuses your systems.  

So let’s get this business straight right at the start of our “new” relationship.

I look forward to many years of having to deal with you. But at this point, who knows?  We’re here one day, gone the next. And be aware that I can mess around with your system any time I want.  

Consider this your once-only warning.  I’ll be watching you just as you’ll be watching me. And I’m a tough guy to deal with when you get my back up.  Oh, and please remove me from your “pay up now” list. I don’t need reminders.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

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