His Own Words

11 Tuesday Jun 2024

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        Former President Donald Trump has actually made a correct statement about him being tried and found guilty of committing thirty-four counts of lying on his state income tax returns. He said “If they can do it to me, they can do it to you!” If he had merely paid Stormy Daniels and left the matter alone, he would not have committed a crime. The axiom which came from Watergate is “It’s the cover-up that gets you” definitely applies to Trump’s crime.

            The question is what sentence should Trump get for his crime. The judge can give him up to four years and not in the Oval Office. He could take into account his age and obvious mental deficiencies. Continuing to berate a judge that is about to sentence you shows a lack of common sense and mental capacity. He could get a thousand or more hours of picking up trash in parks or along highways. He would be the one working in an orange jumpsuit. The people around him wearing coats and ties would be his Secret Service guards.

            Many New Yorkers have been found guilty of committing the same crimes and were locked up for years. I would think most people would consult their CPA or attorney before trying to write off bogus expenses. Trump has said nobody gets tried for this business expense. It is fairly common in New York and the payoff was personal, not his business.

            Should Trump be locked up is an easy answer since he said many times that Hillary Clinton should be locked up because, “Nobody is above the law.” Should those words be used by the judge when giving the sentence?

Labor’s Heyday

11 Tuesday Jun 2024

Posted by in AI, Heyday, Robotics

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        This may be the heyday for human workers. Unions are once again increasing pay and growing memberships in the southern states. Companies are expanding requiring more workers. Many of those workers need no skills to be hired while others will require intensive training. Currently the United States has hundreds of thousands of job openings for unskilled and skilled blue collar workers. Hundreds of thousands more are needed in education, medicine, engineering, and other professions.

            Heydays are always followed by down days and this time it might be a permanent situation. Artificial intelligence or AI will jump start the massive use of robots to mostly eliminate the line workers in packing plants, manufacturing, transportation, and most other businesses. They will do the work faster, better, hour after hour without lunch, bathroom, sick days or vacations!

            Hundreds of thousands of people have already been eliminated in the auto manufacturing and other businesses over the past few decades. As many people will be put out of work by terminator-looking robots in a very few decades. Instead of a connection to a computer bank AI will allow for autonomy equal to or better than a human mind. Robots have always had a problem with change or inconsistencies but AI will enable them to solve the problems immediately.

            This is also the heyday for white collar workers most of who should already know they will be replaced. With AI’s ability to imitate the human voice and face, creativity by humans will be replaced by AI.

            The question is whether the movies were a vision of the future or can humanity overcome its own inventions.

Is History Missing?

09 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by in Resetting History

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                I just read an article in the Chicago Tribune about the right wing authoritarian groups in Europe which are much like the Fascists of the 1930’s and 1940s. Some are outright Neo-Nazis. Many of the moderates and left leaning leaders and groups wonder if those people have forgotten or somehow missed their school history classes because Europe pushes that period hard so it will never happen again – they hope.

                Europe’s grade and high school history courses go into greater depth but the perspectives were often influenced by whether the school was in Eastern or Western Europe. The schools
controlled by the Soviet Union put a heroic Right Wing stance on history. Italy is still under the influences of Benito Mussolini and his followers which emphasis how great his policies were. Sound familiar?

             When I was taking high school history in the early 1960s it was mainly Early American up to the signing the Constitution without any of the political disputes involved in the result. Everything was great people, great actions, and great results. Everything was through rose-colored glasses. My nine college history courses after high school still didn’t get down into the causes of wars, policies, and leaderships.

               Today we have millions of people who can’t see history is repeating itself. Many countries are democracies in name only. These “democracies” are led by authoritarians or what are really dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jashodaben Modi of India. We must be aware of our leader’s personality to put our country and its people first and not themselves. We have two people vying to be President in November. One cares about the people and the other cares only about the perception of how great he is. The choice should be easy in America.

Birds of a Feather

03 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by in Personalities

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        I have a bird bath, a suet block feeder, a hummingbird feeder, and I throw seeds out on the driveway for birds, squirrels, and rabbits. I put peanuts on the window ledge for the squirrels so my dog Tina can bark at them. I put orange marmalade on a little dish attached to the hummingbird feeder. A few minutes of work each day provides hours of fun.

            One thing I have noticed is that some species dominate different spots. Robins scare away all other birds so they can drink and bathe by themselves. One Robin runs the other Robins away. Doves are larger but, true to their name, the robins dominate them.

            The suet block is controlled by the Downy woodpeckers. They are new this year to the suet block basket. They have been physical in their conquest. Several other species eat the suet when the Downy woodpeckers are not there but leave as soon as they return.

            The seeds on the driveway are fairly neutral ground because the birds and squirrels like different seeds so competition isn’t required. Oh, the rabbits are out of bed before the rest arrive and leave when the others come.

            I often thought about naming some of them after political figures. The Robins would be the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump, the dominant one constantly squawks at the others. The squirrels eat together but on the ledge, most run off when Tina barks at them. One has figured out Tina cannot do any harm through the window. That squirrel would be President Joe Biden because it ignores Tina’s whining and barking. The rest of the species of birds and creatures, rabbits, and 13 strip ground squirrels, are voters and Independent Party members. It is fun to compare personalities isn’t it?

I Am Scared for America

02 Sunday Jun 2024

Posted by in United Right

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        I often have a very difficult choice in who to vote for as President. I analyze their records and what they say during the campaign. Often they change from their past to get elected and don’t go back to their previous beliefs and goals. An example is John Mc Cain. I didn’t always like his stance on bills but I understood his views. I signed his nominating petition for his first run for President but not his second or voted for him because he changed his entire agenda. He switched from a moderate to far right to get elected.

            Today, the Republican Party has become enthralled by a narcissistic, ego maniac who cares for nobody but himself. His worshipers are regularly tossed under the bus if they are not completely in his fold. Any real or imagined disloyalty and he not only drops them but tries to destroy them. Remember former President Donald Trump sitting in front of the lectern with his arms crossed while one member of his cabinet after another told how great he is. Oh, yes that was what he said they were supposed to say before he sat down. “They will now tell you how great I am.”

            He just said the Constitution (XXII Amendment) allows him to do two more terms and maybe three like Roosevelt. His music is often the Oath Keepers theme song. He often says America’s problems are caused by the rest of the world. He has told some groups that Americans feel and act like 1937 Germany and only he can bring us all together. He keeps referring to the Oath Keepers and other far-right wing groups as his army.

            Trump’s first term was him, him, him, and destroying the American Left by putting three lying far right Justices in the Supreme Court and naming more than a hundred lower judges to keep him out of jail. If the people are so stupid as to vote for him, they can tell their children how they destroyed Democracy.

Biden’s Dilemma

27 Monday May 2024

Posted by in Gasoline, President Biden

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        The price of gasoline is critical to inflation, interest rates, economic and the upcoming election in November. The price of gasoline determines world politics and wars. What would you do if you were President?

            The price of gasoline is dependent on the price of oil which is dependent on the amount of oil for sale. The amount of oil produced by OPEC is supposedly tightly controlled by voluntary agreements among its members. Another “restriction” is the sanctions imposed by the United Nations and members of NATO.

            Oil is currently selling for less than $80 per barrel. Iran is allowed to sell one million barrels a day to comply with the UN sanctions but it sells over three million to China and India. By law, we can sanction the small refineries in China but they wouldn’t care since they have little or no trades with outsiders. The only way cut them back to one million would be to board the mega-tankers and confiscate the oil by taking them to another port. After two or three tankers are held the others would be unlikely to carry above sanctioned amount. The loss of two million barrels would raise prices twenty to thirty dollars or more. It could also cause a higher level of violence by Iran and push their nuclear path to a bomb.

            Russia’s sanction is to not sell oil above sixty dollars but they go around this by moving oil on a Russian-flagged tanker and in the middle of the Black Sea transferring oil to other countries’ flagged tankers. The oil is then sold at market price. Stopping this would mean encountering Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and a shooting war with NATO. Price of oil would skyrocket.

            So what would you do and when?

Stupid Tourists

24 Friday May 2024

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        My Webster’s Dictionary defines STUPID as “Lacking normal intelligence, foolish and silly.” I can’t think of a better word for taking a vacation or business trip in a dangerous area. Americans are in jail in Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, and a dozen other countries for being an American. Some are in jail for stupidly violating drug (and other) laws.

            Currently five people are on bail for having a few bullets in their suitcases. Why would someone be so stupid as to have bullets in their suitcase after the repeated reports of the Turks and the Caicos arresting people for the crime?

            People are in prison in Iraq for hiking near the border and perhaps crossing the border by accident. Hikers from other countries would probably not be in jail.

            Several Americans are kidnapped or killed every year for going to an area known to be dangerous. Parts of South America, Mexico, Europe, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific Ocean Islands are places where many people are killed or kidnapped.

            When these stupid people are jailed or kidnapped they want our government to free them. When they are killed their families complain to our government. Forrest Gump’s mother said “Stupid is as stupid does” and hundreds of Americans prove her statement to be true. These people should combine a couple of axioms’ and “think twice before acting once”. Why criticize a president for someone who acted stupid and went where they shouldn’t have or did something stupid and got caught?!

Cynical About Politics

15 Wednesday May 2024

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        At the end of a segment about Bill Maher, CBS’s 60 Minutes played the end of one of Mr. Maher’s shows. I don’t get his show because it is on HBO. The replay was “You say you are cynical about politics, don’t flatter yourself. Cynical comes from when you know too much. You, on the other hand, haven’t bothered to learn anything.” How true. That is the basis for “siloing.”

            People today tend to allow themselves to have only one viewpoint because they get all their knowledge from one source or one group of sources centered on that point. That behavior allows people to be gullible to the one-sided speeches and broadcasts designed to enforce an opinion however ill-conceived and false. Carried to extreme is how the Oath Keepers and other militias are founded and grow. They believe in their ideals and reject any ideas or knowledge disagreeing with their philosophy.

            Social media and many of the TV channels are just hucksters pushing ideas they may or may not agree with but it is what their scripts and contracts require. That is what being in a silo means – one train of thought with no possibility of a siding to get somewhere else.

            As Bill Maher said, most people only see one side of an issue and jump to a misguided conclusion. The Hamas/Israel war is one. People are rightly concerned about the people of Gaza being starved and their homes and businesses being destroyed by bombs we gave Israel. What they don’t say and the media don’t often tell is about all the protesting against its administration and Benjamin Netanyahu. He only stays in office because of the war and the far right ultra-conservatives who put him in office instead of jail. As long as the war goes on he is safe.

Another Earth Day

07 Tuesday May 2024

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        I was in college working on my Master’s Degree in Geography during the first Earth Day. My courses encompassed much of the idea for the awareness of what was happening to destroy life on Earth. My studies were really in infancy

            I do remember one scientist saying we need not worry about running out of fish to eat because the oceans were full of fish. Of course the world population was only three billion and it is now over eight billion. Many of those species are now endangered. One huge change is our appliances, toys, and other items have become disposable so we have mountains of trash. In order to manufacture those disposable products we have dug holes that can be seen from the space station and burned fossil fuels.

            A river in Detroit was so polluted it often caught fire. It and many other rivers in America are now recreational because we no longer dump raw sewage and industrial waste into them. Now we dump invisible plastic particles and drugs into them. One reason crop yields have increased is the greater amounts of fertilizers which wash off into ditches, creeks, rivers, and finally into the oceans causing millions of acres of dead zones. Let us not forget the millions of acres of plastic islands in the world’s oceans.

            We have made many advances. The air was so bad south of Lake Michigan we rolled up the windows in our 1972 Cutlass and held our breath when driving across the area. Today the air is finally clear and clean. Lake Erie has little algae sludge anymore Acid rain is almost gone allowing Northeastern forests to revive.

            With all the advances, millions of Americans can’t see the future of life as we know it is at risk. Unless we make major changes in reducing carbon dioxide and methane gas, our days are numbered!

25 Thursday Apr 2024

Posted by in America's Downfall, Drugs, Illegal Drugs

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America Is Going To Pot

        When you saw this subject heading did you think it was really going to be about something other than marijuana? I don’t remember the first time I heard about Mary Jane but it was probably on television in the mid 1960s when I was in high school. I doubt if any of the approximately 500 students had either. Well maybe three or four. We were a rural culture and not an urban or what would be considered a good area for any type of drug abuse – alcohol abuse, yes.

            I don’t remember anyone talking about drug use in the community college on a high school campus in the next county. That was fall 1965 through spring 1967. The major topic of conversation was the Batman series and romance. The Viet Nam War was still a minor topic among most guys until late 1966.

            My first experience with “druggies” was at Murray State University with Viet Nam returnees and those protesting the war. My third roommate was a vet who may have done drugs at home on weekends but probably not on campus. They did congregate in an old class building’s basement where drugs were allegedly used. Not being involved or using the drug, I didn’t know who did or didn’t use it and how often. A good friend did but I couldn’t tell. I didn’t have time or money for drugs.

            The marijuana strength then was a small percentage of what is being sold legally today. We now know the Federal studies of its damage to our bodies must be the same strength as when I was in college by law. Independent studies show brain, nerve, and lung damage with heavy use. More and more traffic and work accidents are being attributed to its use. Perhaps the title is correct.