Busy, Busy

I've been making a concentrated effort to get a qualifying quarter in Social Security (I'm one of the people that gets nailed by WEP - Windfall Elimination Profit - which takes a good-sized bite out out my EARNED Social Security check each month. Every quarter I add in, at this point, ups my check (slightly). I can get the FULL check if I can just work part-time for the next 13 years(?).

If I do, I'll be 80. Or more.

But, every little bit helps. So, I've been subbing in a nearby school system. It's well-run, so the process is not that tedious. About 14 days a quarter will do it - or, about 5 days a month. I started late, so am playing catch-up. I'm about 1/2-way there for this quarter.

I've also been perusing the political/social news, as I have time. One article caught my eye - an interview with Tucker Carlson.

I read a reference to 4th generation warfare today. I wasn't familiar with the term, so I looked it up:

Fourth-generation warfare(4GW) is conflict characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians.

If you read this, it shows that much of the political violence we've been experiencing lately falls under this category. It also explains why war as we have previously known it, cannot be fought with our usual forces and means.

In terms of generational modern warfare, the fourth generation signifies the nation states' loss of their near-monopoly on combat forces, returning to modes of conflict common in pre-modern times.

The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent non-state actor. Classical examples of this type of conflict, such as the slave uprising under Spartacus, predate the modern concept of warfare. 

I'm not impressed by the 'protections' that the prosecution has set up surrounding the evidence from Trump's lawyer. Neither, apparently, are most of the non-Leftist citizens.

It's too easy to gin up an accusation against a politician/public figure. Here are just SOME of the cases that occurred in the last decade or so.

Seven indictments, all by Democrat prosecutors against high-ranking Republican office-holders, and all with a potential to influence political control of some important government body.  Of the seven prosecutions, one (Greitens) has not yet gone to trial (and may never), one (Perry) was dismissed on motion before ever going to trial; but the other five all resulted in convictions -- all of which were subsequently reversed.  Of the five convictions, three were then undone by the trial (Stevens) or appeal (DeLay, McDonnell) courts in ways that precluded retrial, and one (Bruno) resulted in an acquittal on retrial.  Skelos awaits retrial.  The number of convictions that have stuck: zero.  Meanwhile, the Congress flipped from Republican to Democrat control after indictment of the Republican Majority Leader, the Senate got its 60th Democrat Senator just in time for the Obamacare vote, the governorship of Virginia flipped from Republican to Democrat just prior to the indictment of the outgoing Republican governor, and the New York State Senate flipped from Republican to Democrat majority after conviction of the Majority Leader.

FINALLY - Republicans are beginning to 'punch back'.

Speaking of 'punching back' - Mad Genius club has some thoughts about the Internet of Things, and Online Mobbing.

Perhaps those people who are loudly participating in the Howls Against Those Who Have Been Accused of 'Horrible' Offenses need to get their head out of their a$$ and consider following some good advice: