SeniorJunior

That's My Hometown Paper In   !! Talk about a media rush. I'm thumbing through The New Yorker , checking out the cartoons first as always, and ZOWEE! There is a picture of The Bonham Daily Favorite. Holy cats , etc.   The Daily Favorite is more to me than my home towner; I was once an employee. I was a "combo announcer" at KFYN, the 250 watt, 1420 kHz, AM daytimer station when it was owned by the Favorite. That was in 1952.*  Hey Olde Scooter, recognize me? It's in THIS edition. Jan 28, 2019 THRILLS COME IN THE DARNDEST WAYS. Bonham, Texas has about 10,000 souls now, 7000 in 1952. A growth market! update, UPDATE      I was so excited about seeing the picture of the Daily Fav, that I rushed to blog about it.   Then I read the piece. It's really an extraordinary,  15 pager by Pulitzer winning biographer Robert A. Caro on his experiences researching his massive The Years of Lyndon Johnson biography, five volumes, going o

With Pain Still Fresh, Lawmakers Make Push to Outlaw Shutdowns+ Your can make your ideas clear here , dear. Never fear. ACT! Like our country depended on it. A government shutdown is the essence of shooting oneself in the foot. This is going to smart.

You Think the GREEN New Deal is Progressive? (I do, and I'm all for it, but why not go for the gold?) Over-The-Top New Deal      The central objective of any "OTT New Deal" should be to END "paycheck to paycheck" as a big American way of life. We are hearing  a lot about government employees, out of work because of Covid, with no cushion. People are in dire straits because they are living paycheck to paycheck. And you can believe most P2P people are not saving for their retirement. Even with totally dependable paychecks - as one previously assumed federal government work provided - that's still no way to run a workforce.       America is clearly leaving vast swaths of its population out in the cold. Full time jobs not paying a living wage. No benefits. No job security. No confidence that things will get better.       Security and confidence make people more productive as employees, more likely to become entrepreneurs, more effective as p

ANOTHER NEW YORK TIMES "PICK" FOR OLDE SCOOTER ... And it's all on behalf of my "little crusade" to outlaw government shutdowns. Here's the offering to the "Comments" after the lead editorial in today's (Jan 8, 19) editorial. Here's that lead editorial: Opinion Borderline Insanity President Trump rained cruelties on immigrants and asylum seekers and now wants hundreds of millions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis he caused. Read it all  here. For a guy who writes four or five "comments" a day in the NYTimes, The Washington Post, Breitbart and a  random  selection of others, it's fun to make the "pick" list. Since this comment directly plugged my "little crusade" to outlaw government shutdowns, this was doubly fun. My last "pick"

Let's Outlaw "Government Shut Downs!" They are stupid, cruel, arbitrary,  discriminatory and  financially chaotic Gotcha, me!! The Little Crusade (Only if you think Government should be immune to the tantrums of politicians not getting their way, of course...) WRITE:  Tweets, "Comments," Instagrams, Letters to the Editor, Blogs, Graffiti... SPEAK: Talk show call-ins, Speeches at your club/church/bridge party/golf game... Write things like this "comment" I made in the Washington Post: Outlaw government shutdowns! They are perversions of what government is meant to be. Allowing shutdowns to be negotiating pawns is ridiculous, not to mention humanly cruel, financially chaotic and wildly discriminatory in who they hurt. This nation cannot be hostage to itself. If it takes the tortuous path of a Constitutional amendment, get started. A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. If a bunch of us start getting this simple

Definitely the Best Summary of All the Big Russian Election Interference I've seen so far. (As you may know, I've been off and on preoccupied with the subject . I'm glad it's all coming out. Opinion Yes, Russian Trolls Helped Elect Trump Social media lies have real-world consequences. By  Michelle Goldberg Opinion Columnist Dec. 17, 2018    LINK TO FULL STORY It's succinct and well written. More important, best I can see, it's accurate. You know, truthful. New York Times at its best. HERE'S ANOTHER EXCELLENT WRAP UP FROM WIRED MAGAZINE. Good as these are, I remain critical of most of the reporting on these huge new Congressional reports on Rooskie diddling with our national mind for one thing, "comments."  Nobody I've seen (tell me if you know of some) is paying attention to the "Comments" sections. I believe it's likely that they are seriously infested with Russians, Chinese, North Kor

... By a person trying to spell out how it (Medium) is unique and different in these days when there is SO MUCH stuff on the Internet.     Anyway, I love it when ideas are communicated so clearly.  Like this: "Most of the internet treats anything that isn’t new like bad fruit." We would make fantastic apple sauce. If you care about, say, [Sex, drugs, rock and roll ... Anything!], the best thing you could read today was very unlikely to have been published in the last 48 hours.  So check out a "rotten apple," super old stuff by Internet standards. Might still be pertinent? Rotten apples credit

 ...At the Ratio of: Drug Price Increases              Drug Price Cuts     96                              1   (Just in 2018) You should have bought your meds last week. And That's an Improvement ? (Several news stories have suggested it is.) A n Associated Press investigation —  published   here   — which indicated that although there were 96 price hikes for every price cut, the number and size of hikes decreased in the first seven months of 2018. Oh, that kind of improvement (things are getting worse at a slower pace) So you can see why some of us are feeling cynical because of headlines like this: Drug prices rise as pharma profit soars* No Pain, No Gain... As in no pain for big pharma.  Even the high profile (on purpose) cuts have cost Pharma almost nothing.   Bloomberg It's no secret, everybody not in Big Pharma is outraged by this most recent profit piracy. Even President Trump (watches every penny) said he would "do something about th

" Should," The Word of Our Times That "should" do it! I'm really only fulfilled when I'm fictionalizing. So I've indulged myself at it recently, much to the expense of my regular blog posting. Just to show I haven't been goofing, here are a few random paragraphs: From (working title) What Would Superintelligence Do?* “You,” growled Bedford, pointing his crooked finger at the avatar, “If you are getting a whiff of superintelligence, and you have any interest in becoming a full fledged beast, use your whiff and solve this trust issue. There must be four humans, those in front of your fake face, who are willing to bet their lives that this seed we have worked on so hard, the one and only you, Lucas, will meet the security requirements in our brief. Then you must demonstrate to the XXX Prize Board of Governors the same thing, and they have to be willing to bet their lives. I’m sure you have learned that betting one’s life is a serious c

It's Hard to Tell the Teams Without a Scorecard This is where "page views" of this SeniorJunior blog came from in recent weeks Various Feriners England, France and Canada (far left), at your service. United States 696 France 160 Germany 57 Russia 40 Poland 27 Canada 25 United Kingdom 22 Ukraine 21 Singapore 18 South Korea 14 Personal Messages Backatcha. United States. USA! USA! USA! France? Wha...? Poland. You guys watch out for creeping fascism. Canada. Guard your forests! UK. Don't let troll/bots wreck your public discourse. Ukraine. Hang tough. S. Korea. I have no idea about the yellow bg. Google Blogger did it, and I can't change it. I just have to ask, "Who are you guys?" Pix Cred

The Greatest Asset Any Country Has Is Its... WORKFORCE! This is what makes America run: hard working, well trained, highly motivated, dedicated WORKERS! Just contemplate what makes up the United States workforce.  These are just the M s and the S s It's pretty mind blowing to see the longer list , A to Z.   And it takes ALL these people, doing ALL these jobs and doing them well for our nation to get its business done. I.e. our workforce has got to be the best in the world for America to keep being the great place to live, raise families, and be the envy of the world for what we can do and what we stand for. A great workforce must be: Paid adequately Healthy Well educated Well Trained Treated fairly Given opportunity and Have high morale Who is making sure America continues to have a great workforce?  Is it the Department of Labor? (Pshaw!) Is it Big Business? (Some yes, lots of no) Is it Small Business? (As best they can with their f

And it looks like our military is getting ready for them. I put this in the "good news" column, a rarely seen journalistic event these days. If each of those cameras was a little bomb...!! At sea... Zap! Gotcha High Energy Laser and Integrated  Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (Helios) program. On land... This is called a "Microwave Laser Dune Buggy." It crashed 45 attacking drones at once, blasting them with, what else? microwaves and lasers. (Kind of a BIG dune buggy) These are just some of the electronic weapons the U.S. has in development. The story is in Aviation Week's e-newsletter here . AND CHINA? I'm in the habit of worrying out loud about how the Chinese are developing and deploying weapons that challenge the military supremacy of the U.S., one of our diminishing list of advantages in this troubled world.  No word on how they are doing in electronic warfare terms.  I would note that the largest, most successful drone