The Coronavirus

[pbrower2a]

(04-30-2020, 11:13 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(04-30-2020, 07:42 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Did President Trump really need to make that "perfect phone call"?  John Bolton (someone that I dislike) called it "a drug deal" -- which is about a contemptuous as one can get toward a gross blunder and literal crime. 

I've never been a fan of Bolton myself. Did you read his book and learn if the so called "drug deal" was really as bad as it sounded? I dunno, typical business as usual stuff doesn't bother me much these days. I'm pretty sure the stuff related to Biden and his kid that we watched during the impeachment isn't going to bother you enough to stop you from voting for him. I'm sure the idea of him making millions while in office isn't enough either. I doubt the sexual assault stuff related to him won't  be enough either. The liberal gals who want to be his running mate have already decided she's lying and he's innocent without a public trial. Good old  irony. It's to bad that you're unable to see it.

A drug deal is something simple, but  terribly wrong, illegal, and disgusting. Think of this: crime typically attracts people whose material desires far exceed their talents. Maybe criminals are likely to see crime as a thrill as readily as I consider it a scary deed. Most crooks, including drug traffickers are dolts.  Usually there is plenty of low-paying work tailor-made for people of limited or misplaced talent. 

I have been a substitute school teacher, and I once gave some career advice to an under-achiever who was leafing through a sportswear and sporting goods catalog instead of doing his assignment.  In essence, there are people who make a good living in the sportswear and sporting-goods business, but they need develop their language skills so that they can communicate with people and good math skills so that they can keep up with what they are doing. So what did that malingerer tell me?

OK, first one gets a job at a fast-food place that pays much less than a living wage, but consider what one can learn in such a job. One can get good work habits such as being at the worksite before the job is scheduled in case traffic intervenes,  taking care of grooming and cleanliness, kissing up to managers and customers, showing gratitude for the tiniest of things done for one, giving up pleasure for work, and learning the survival skill of humility that is never a natural phenomenon, following all orders cheerfully, and smiling despite all the nastiness in one's life -- as in do not take your problems to work. In return you learn to budget time and money and you get a variety of tasks. Over a short time one learns what one likes more and dislikes more and what one has a particular knack. Some people better like preparing food; some more like cleaning; some better like dealing with customers; some better like handling materials; some prefer paperwork. Specialists fare better than generalists in our economy. In the mean time many people must learn to appreciate poverty as a blessing better than even greater poverty and suffer with a smile. Such is our plutocracy at work. 

After a year or so in such a place one has shown that one might do better else where one finally gets a chance. If I am an employer I consider the ability to hold on for dear life to a crappy job with low pay evidence of some fitness for the demands that come with the job -- any job. 

I can make more money selling drugs!

So what about the fellow who deals drugs? It gets one easy money early, but it doesn't teach any good habits. Drug dealers get robbed and killed by other criminals, and of course they get caught. After a prison term they are practically obliged to take the worst jobs available -- low-paying, dangerous dead-end jobs. At least "Chez Mac" is a reasonably-safe place in which to work. No skills are learned dealing drugs.  

Bolton's book is yet to be released anyway. I guess book publishing is a non-essential activity. Calling the deed of people in the Presidency "a drug deal" is unflattering in the extreme. After all books are the sort of items that people are likely to spread the infamous virus by breathing upon them. For good reason libraries are closed.  

What about Hunter Biden? What Trump asked for a public statement that the son of the former VP was under investigation, which would have been intended to derail the Biden campaign. Well, that  is what Nixon's dirty tricks were intended to do to Edmund Muskie in 1972 when Nixon thought that he could lose. Whether Nixon was going to win without cheating or not is immaterial. In any event a successful prosecution is best done as secretively as possible so that it lets the suspect think that he is charmed if he isn't or perhaps do behaviors that suggest guilt -- like attempted flight or an attempt to conceal evidence.