Saturday, December 17, 2022

Houses, Civil Services, The Transfer Portal, Trump in Court, Brain Implants, HoF, China, COVID and TikTok

Brittney Griner is back! Hallelujah! 

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The Schloss-Blog sees Tik Tok in your future, unless you live in South Dakota, Nebraska and now Maryland, and coming soon, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Plus homelessness, taxes, transfer portals and steroids are all in the news.

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Nobody wants people to be homeless but nobody wants to pay more in taxes to provide shelter for them and especially to have them located nearby.

But it may come to that in LA, New York, San Francisco and even Phoenix, where it's on the rise.

Get those homeless off the street. Provide shelter for them, even tiny houses (which are all the rage of the housing industry) and give them a place to call home.

Just don't put them near my home, right? Nobody wants homelessness but nobody seems to want homeless people living nearby.

This ain't gonna' get solved for a while.

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Speaking of civil services, nobody wants to defund the police but nobody wants to pay a raise in taxes for them either, do they?

We all expect the best in civil services but nobody wants a tax increase - that is the bane of politicians, who know that raising taxes means waving good-bye to your career in politics.

But if you want service - pay for it or stop complaining about it, right?

We definitely need more security at power company facilities, as we just found out in North Carolina, where the power company was geared up for cyber attacks but not for bullet holes that shut down a pair of generators and left people cold and hungry.

Somebody is going to have to pay for the increased security that it going to call for.

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The transfer portal is open and college football players have rushed in, some seeking a fourth team (J.T. Daniels) in six years.

The transfer portal has now become the holy grail of recruiting and coaches flock to it to the point that key players will pass on participating in bowl games to protect their status at their next stop.

Yes, I have always believed the players should have transfer accessibility, just like coaches break contracts and go to new schools. But the transfer portal has become the be-all, end-all for college players and needs to have the same restrictions I had when I transferred to SUNY-Albany after my freshman year at Baruch College of CUNY. I had to apply and await word.

If football players are STUDENT-athletes, they should too.

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In China, they are relaxing COVID restrictions at last as riots and protests have reached critical levels in response, as have the outlandish responses of the Chinese police and government authorities tracking the protesters.

Oddly enough, these rule relaxations come as Tik Tok is being banned in Maryland on state communication devices, by governor's order. It's already that way in Nebraska and South Dakota and is leaning that way in South Carolina and Wisconsin.

The reason? Those state governments believe that Tik Tok is nothing more than a database-gathering machine for the Chinese government.

What about you? How do you feel about being a prospective information beacon for the Chinese?

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Fred McGriff (493 career home runs) was elected into the Hall of Fame by baseball's Contemporary Era Committee. 

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were not and won't have another chance for three years with that committee.

So, the career home run leader and one of baseball's winning-est strikeout kings are not even close to sniffing the Hall. The all-time hits leader (Pete Rose) isn't either and isn't even on the ballot, by decree.

Should these guys be in the Hall? Wasn't everyone using steroids in the "contemporary era?" Didn't steroids just work better for some guys than they did for others?

I'd ask Sammy Sosa, but he's not responding in English.

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Putin thought he had us over a barrel, but gas prices are actually lower now than a year ago. Over a barrel, hah! Over a barrel. Sometimes I outdo myself.

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Finally, Elon Musk truly does want to put brain implants into people that would link them to computers.

He's already tested it on animals, through his Neuralink company.

And you thought Tik Tok and supposed COVID-injection implants were invasions of privacy.

Hah!

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. 


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