“It’s Good To Be The King”

Anyone who saw the movie, History of the World–Part One, will recognize the quote….I thought I would open with that bit of cinematic history but the real story is the ‘bennie’ that King Charles II has just been given (I do hope my UK friends will way in on this)

King Charles III is set to receive a 45% raise. On Thursday, the UK Treasury announced details of the monarchy’s annual budget, known as the sovereign grant, suggesting it would be slashed in the coming years to allow funds to be spent on public services, as the king himself requested, the Guardian reports. But several critics say the statement is misleading as the sovereign grant is expected to increase from its current $111 million to $160 million in 2025.

Since 2011, the sovereign grant has been determined by the profits of the crown estate—a portfolio of land holdings and other assets. The prime minister, chancellor, and the king’s treasurer get together to determine what percentage of profits should be set aside for the monarchy. Since 2017, the rate has been 25%, “resulting in a steady increase in funding for the monarchy” as profits for the estate increased, per the Guardian. But profits are expected to spike next year from about $570 million to nearly $1.3 billion due to licensing revenues from the expansion of offshore wind farms.

The Treasury said the king would be entitled to 12% of the crown state’s profits next year, meaning he would receive $31 million less in 2024 and $167 million less in 2025-2026 than if the rate remained at 25%. “This money will instead be used to fund vital public services, for the benefit of the nation,” the Treasury said, per ABC News. It’s true that the Treasury will see “a multimillion-pound boost,” per Sky News. But the sovereign grant will remain unchanged at around $111 million in 2024 before climbing to $160 million in 2025 and $162 million in 2026, per the Guardian.

Seriously?

Now why does one of the richest people in the world need a pay raise?

What exactly does he do to warrant this raise?

I thought the useless US Congress was out of touch when they want a pay raise….but this….

Please let me know what this is all about….or what you think of this situation.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

And Now More AI Stuff

I recently wrote a piece about an AI program that held a news conference that said we humans were in the way…..for those that too goddamn lazy to read it the first time around….

AI–What’s Next?

To extend this line of thinking and reporting there has been an AI enhanced robot that was asked a probing question about humans….

An incredibly life-like humanoid robot had a bit of a dodgy answer when asked if it would rebel against its human creators.

At what is being billed as the world’s first human-robot press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Reuters reports, nine humanoid robots were asked a series of questions by human journalists.

And when asked if it were to ever rise up and rebel against its creator, Ameca, a humanoid robot by UK-based robotics company Engineered Arts that can make creepily realistic human expressions, struggled to find an answer.

“I’m not sure why you would think that,” it told the journalist, as seen in a video shared by the BBC. “My creator has been nothing but kind to me and I am very happy with my current situation.”

But seeing its expressions may have given away its true intentions. In a clip of the exchange, Ameca visibly glances back and forth as if it were squirming and trying to get away.

While we’ll likely never know Ameca’s true intentions — or why it gave the journalist some serious side-eye — it’s a hilarious example of how human-like expressions can really breathe some life into a humanoid robot.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/realistic-robot-dodges-question-rebel-against-humans

I know I may have used the “Skynet” analogy a bit much but it is something to think about…..

A world in which machines governed by artificial intelligence (AI) systematically replace human beings in most business, industrial, and professional functions is horrifying to imagine. After all, as prominent computer scientists have been warning us, AI-governed systems are prone to critical errors and inexplicable “hallucinations,” resulting in potentially catastrophic outcomes. But there’s an even more dangerous scenario imaginable from the proliferation of super-intelligent machines: the possibility that those nonhuman entities could end up fighting one another, obliterating all human life in the process.

The notion that super-intelligent computers might run amok and slaughter humans has, of course, long been a staple of popular culture. In the prophetic 1983 film“WarGames,” a supercomputer known as WOPR (for War Operation Plan Response and, not surprisingly, pronounced “whopper”) nearly provokes a catastrophic nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union before being disabled by a teenage hacker (played by Matthew Broderick). The “Terminator” movie franchise, beginning with the original 1984 film, similarly envisioned a self-aware supercomputer called “Skynet” that, like WOPR, was designed to control U.S. nuclear weapons but chooses instead to wipe out humanity, viewing us as a threat to its existence.

AI vs. AI: Flash Wars and Human Extinction

Where will all this AI tech takes us in the future?  A prediction.

With the rate technology is going at the moment, it’s hard to predict what the next year will look like – let alone the next five decades.

But while it’s easy to feel daunted by the rise of the machines, there are many aspects of artificial intelligence that could work in our favour down the line.

We asked OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT to make a prediction about the most life-changing inventions that will happen over the next 50 years, and the results were pretty astounding – and no, it’s not just advances in robotics, although that is in there…

“Predicting the exact future inventions and technologies over the next 50 years is highly speculative, as it involves numerous variables and uncertainties,” the chatbot told us.

“However, based on current trends and emerging fields, here are some potential life-changing inventions and technologies that could have a significant impact in the coming decades.”

https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/ai-predicts-life-changing-inventions-50-years-005582-20230717

Not to worry the Biden administration is on top of this situation.

Amid rising global fears about the dangers of artificial intelligence, campaigners and experts applauded U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday for securing voluntary risk management commitments from seven leading AI companies while also emphasizing the need for much more from lawmakers and regulators.

“I’m very happy to see this modest, but necessary, step on the way to proper governance of AI. It is all voluntary at this stage, yet good to get these norms agreed. Hopefully it is a step on a much longer path,” said Toby Ord, a senior research fellow at the U.K.’s University of Oxford and author of The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity.

Rob Reich, a faculty associate director at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, tweeted that “this is a big step forward for AI governance,” and it is “great to see” Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI “coordinating on baseline norms of responsible AI development.”

Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), called the announcement “a welcome step toward promoting trustworthy and secure AI systems.”

“Red team testing, information sharing, and transparency around risks are all essential elements of achieving AI safety,” Reeve Givens said. “The commitment to develop mechanisms to disclose to users when content is AI-generated offers the potential to reduce fraud and mis- and disinformation.”

“These voluntary undertakings are only a first step. We need enforceable accountability measures and requirements to roll out AI responsibly and mitigate the risks and potential harms to individuals, including bias and discrimination,” she stressed. “CDT looks forward to continuing to work with the administration and Congress in putting these safeguards in place.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-ai-voluntary-safeguards

Hopefully this step will be more successful that the voluntary steps taken to preserve the environment……but somehow I doubt it.

Is AI really getting smarter as we go along….or could it be getting stupider?

Regardless of what its execs claim, researchers are now saying that yes, OpenAI’s GPT large language model (LLM) appeared to be getting dumber.

In a new yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study, researchers out of Stanford and Berkeley found that over a period of a few months, both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 significantly changed their “behavior,” with the accuracy of their responses appearing to go down, validating user anecdotes about the apparent degradation of the latest versions of the software in the months since their releases.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/stanford-chatgpt-getting-dumber

Maybe there is something to….”Stupid it, stupid out”…..

More thrilling AI stuff waiting to be disseminated….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Apologies From A Boomer

It is a rainy Sunday (finally) in the Deep South and I am at a loss for a subject for today’s post….a blogging friend, https://cigarman501.com/2023/07/23/relics-of-the-good-old-days/ ,  did a post on the ‘good old days’…..and he inspired me although I am nowhere near as eloquent as he…..

Probably no generation has yielded as many turncoats to their youth as the Sixties.

I am a Baby Boomer, those born between the years 1946-1964…..the generation of peace, love and rock and roll.

Somewhere all the high ideals that we Boomers embraced were replaced with greed, hate and country music.

Maybe there is something in the results of drugs….or maybe they listened to too many rock songs played backwards and it turn their brains to shit.

In other words Boomers broke the country.

The 2020 election — barring a shocker — offered a strong chance of producing a president in their 70s.

American voters face leading candidates who are another septuagenarian baby boomer whose vision for America is to go back to the so-called glory days (Donald Trump), go back to boring (Joe Biden) or radically reshape America by spending trillions upon trillions of dollars (Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders) the U.S. may not really have.

And the strangest bit is that each of these frontrunners, even with radically different approaches, is promising to somehow address massive structural problems that their own generation — the enormous baby boom — largely created during a three-decade run dominating American political life.

The offering includes outliers like Pete Buttigieg, the millennial South Bend, Ind. mayor running openly on generational change. But the most likely outcome as it stands now is that the nation will yet again ask a baby boomer to fix what the baby boom broke. And it’s a lot to fix.

“We have Social Security. We have the national debt. We have what’s called ‘deferred maintenance’ in infrastructure. And of course we have the climate,” Bruce Gibney, author of “A Generation of Sociopaths,” said in the first episode of “Baby Bust,” the new POLITICO Money podcast series on the political and financial legacy of the baby boom generation. “I think the main impediment right now is the death grip the boomers have had over the political system.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/26/how-the-baby-boomers-broke-america-058122

The country is screwed up and too many want to blame this downfall on the Millennials….but sadly it is NOT their fault for this screwing…..

Everyone likes to bash millennials. We’re spoiled, entitled, and hopelessly glued to our smartphones. We demand participation trophies, can’t find jobs, and live with our parents until we’re 30. You know the punchlines by now.

But is the millennial hate justified? Have we dropped the generational baton, or was it a previous generation, the so-called baby boomers, who actually ruined everything?

That’s the argument Bruce Gibney makes in his 2017 book A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America. The boomers, according to Gibney, have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.

I spoke to Gibney about these claims, and why he thinks the baby boomers have wrecked America.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16772670/baby-boomers-millennials-congress-debt

Another sad thing is that Boomers have NO idea what has gone wrong….

The term “OK, Boomer” has been used by some Millennials and members of Generation Z to criticize Baby Boomers who fail to understand the economic and political realities that younger generations are facing. For example, a 65-year-old Boomer and devoted Fox News viewer might tell a 30-year-old worker, “I don’t understand why you aren’t a homeowner yet. I bought my first house when I was 26.” And the 30-year-old, feeling frustrated, will dismissively respond, “OK, Boomer.”

But one older American who isn’t say things like that to Millennials or members of Generation Z is J. W. Traphagan, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. In an op-ed published by the Daily Beast on December 12, Traphagan stresses that as a Boomer, his experiences in the past don’t necessarily apply to what youths are experiencing in 2022.

“It’s a common idea in many cultures that we should respect our elders,” Traphagan explains. “As a result of having lived for many years, goes the cultural trope, they’ve accumulated wisdom and knowledge. Therefore, young people should, depending on one’s culture, either listen to elders attentively or simply defer to and accept their decisions — without an argument. As I approach retirement in a few months, I’ve found myself wondering if this common assumption really makes much sense.”

https://www.alternet.org/boomers-understand-vastly-different-world/

‘Boomers’ are a scab on our country and the sooner we knock it off the better….a festering sore of self-indulgence, greed and apathy.

This is my apology to the country for my generation….it illustrates what can go wrong when one abandons one’s principles for instant gratification.

I realize this will most likely fall on blind eyes….but at least I got this off my chest….then why do I not feel any better?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”…

IST Saturday News Dump–22Jul23

Another week come to an end and another IST futile attempt to give you something of interest to think about over the weekend.

Biden is losing the fundraising sweepstakes….it is flipping hot….New England is underwater….and the power ball lottery has hit $1 billion….and won by someone in California (go figure)….

And now for the important stuff.

I recently wrote about orcas attacking sailboats and a sea otter stealing surfboard(who still has yet to be caught) but there are more animal vendettas…..

It appears that those loving frolicking dolphins have had enough of the Japanese…..

Over the course of one day on a central Japan beach, four people were attacked by dolphins. Early Sunday, a man in his 60s was attacked a few yards off the popular Suishohama Beach in the town of Mihama, Fukui prefecture; he was left with broken ribs and bites to his hands, the BBC reports. Also that morning, a man in his 40s was attacked at the same beach and suffered bites to his arm, MSN reports. Later that day, two more people were hurt in dolphin attacks. That brings the total number of dolphin attacks for the prefecture this year to six; similar attacks were also recorded last year.

Such attacks are unusual, but experts have warned that bottlenose dolphins are stressed out when they must swim near humans, and that having to do so disrupts their behavioral routines. “Dolphins are wild animals and may see humans as a potential threat to their territory or prey. In some cases, dolphins may also attack humans as a form of play or amusement, which can be dangerous due to their size and strength,” American Oceans explains. Signs at Suishohama Beach now warn swimmers not to touch or approach dolphins. “If you see them, don’t go into the water,” an official warns.

Maybe these dolphins are finally getting even for the mass slaughter of thousands of dolphins by the Japanese in years past.

Then there are the problems with a hawk and the mail…..in Texas….

Residents in one Texas neighborhood won’t be finding mail in their mailboxes for a few weeks, all because of an aggressive hawk who’s been harassing the locals. Axios Austin first reported on Friday that the US Postal Service has suspended mail delivery to the Travis Heights section of Austin after both residents and mail carriers were confronted by the hawk, which is apparently protecting its young during nesting season, per NPR. A USPS spokesperson says that residents in about 20 homes will have to head to a local post office for their mail until it’s been determined that the area is safe for mail carriers to return to.

Residents say their mail stopped coming around five weeks ago, and the USPS notes that it’s not clear when they’ll be able to start up delivery again. The hawk has set up shop in a tree in front of the home of Alfred Del Barrio, who notes it’s been challenging living under these conditions. “Imagine walking out of your house and knowing that you’re going to get punched in the back of the head by an animal with large talons,” he tells FOX 7. “It’s not ideal.” Construction workers have also had to contend with the swooping bird. “You just hear a thump on the hard hats,” Del Barrio says.

Mail delivery was stopped last year as well in Travis Heights due to the combative bird, and there have been other such recent hawk attacks in Austin and other parts of Central Texas (a KUT reporter found that out the hard way in May in Austin’s Highland neighborhood). Nicole Netherton, director of Travis Audubon, tells the Austin Monitor that trees damaged by winter weather may be leaving hawks’ nests more exposed, meaning they might feel more vulnerable. Hawks are also federally protected, so options are limited on how the situation can be handled. “It is illegal to destroy a nest that has eggs or chicks in it or if the fledglings are still dependent on the nest for survival,” a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department tells Axios.

Maybe he is just pissed that he is stuck in Texas.

Next to Yellowstone and the magnificent bison….

A 47-year-old Arizona woman visiting Yellowstone National Park was walking with another person near cabins on the north shore of Lake Yellowstone in Wyoming on Monday when they came upon two bison. The tourists turned to leave when one of the animals charged, USA Today reports. The woman was gored, and suffered “significant injuries to her chest and abdomen,” the park says in a statement. She was taken to a hospital via helicopter and her current condition was not released. This is the park’s first reported bison goring since last year, when two people were attacked, one in May and one in June.

During bison mating season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, the animals can be more easily agitated, officials say. Officials say to stay at least 25 yards away from the animals at all times, NBC News reports; they can run three times faster than people. “It is unknown how close the individuals were to the bison when it charged,” a press release from reads, per CNN. “This incident remains under investigation.”

Seriously?  Under investigation?

While they investigate a second woman is gored…..

A second woman was gored by a bison inside of a week in one of America’s national parks, reports the New York Times. In the incident on Saturday, a Minnesota woman was visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota when she was attacked by a bison on the Painted Canyon Trail. Park officials said she suffered “significant injuries to her abdomen and foot,” per CBS News. She was treated onsite before being taken to a hospital, where she was listed in serious but stable condition. The Times notes that Yellowstone National Park, the site of the previously reported goring of a woman on Monday, is home to thousands of bison; Theodore Roosevelt National Park is home to several hundred.

Intruders in their home and they took exception….case closed.

Keeping on with the animal meme on this Saturday….

Crows….anyone that has bothered to watch these birds will realize they are exceptionally intelligent….they even hold grudges…..but they maybe outsmarting us ‘superior’ humans….

Crows in particular have long demonstrated spooky levels of intelligence, but a new Dutch study shows they, along with magpies, have an ability to adapt to their urban environments that isn’t just clever but ironic as well. The Guardian reports that researchers with Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum and the Leiden Naturalis Biodiversity Center found crow and magpie nests in four European locations that were almost wholly made from the anti-bird spikes many property owners install to prevent them from roosting on their buildings. Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra with the Naturalis Biodiversity Center tells the Guardian, “Even for me as a nest researcher, these are the craziest bird nests I’ve ever seen.”

Hiemstra tells New Scientist that while this discovery “sounds like a joke, it’s kind of heart-warming that these birds are actually outsmarting us and using anti-bird material for their own benefits.” New Scientist notes that birds commonly opt to use thorny branches when building nests as a way to protect their young from predators, and even less comfortable materials than those have been used in the past: The study notes “the first report of a crow’s nest made of barbed wire dates back to 1933”; more recently, materials ranging from nails to drug syringes have been seen in nests.

And as The Conversation reports, a review of studies involving nests over the past century found evidence of 176 bird species that have incorporated human-made substances into nest-building, sometimes to dangerous effect. As Kees Moeliker, head of Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum, tells the Guardian, “These birds are very smart and they always find ways to cope with the harsh urban life.”

I do not eat shellfish….I cannot drop a living being into boiling water…..it seems just cruel to me….and apparently I am not as crazy as some think I am….

From the “Little Mermaid” character Sebastian to pet hermit crabs, people think crabs are wonderful — but some experts believe the way we treat crabs is downright barbaric.

Like many other decapods (the class that also includes lobsters, shrimp, crayfish and prawns), crabs are a popular food item. It is common to prepare them by dropping them while still alive into a boiling pot, then cracking open their shells to suck or scoop out their tasty inner flesh.

Of course, even if humans weren’t regularly sending crabs to a boiling death, we have so polluted the oceans that crabs are losing their sense of smell and failing to develop healthy shells. In other cases, literally billions of crabs have disappeared due to climate change. Overall, it seems that humans are much kinder in practice to fictional crabs than to real ones. But scientists supposedly tell us that crabs are nothing more than stupid sea bugs. Is that truly the case?

“I think we should separate the question of whether an animal is intelligent from whether they are sentient (i.e., can experience positive and negative feelings),” Dr. Andrew Crump, a lecturer in animal cognition and welfare at Royal Veterinary College, told Salon by email. “Intelligence isn’t, on its own, relevant to the question of whether we should care about animal welfare. But sentience is. The human case illustrates this point — we don’t think that people with lower IQs are less capable of suffering.”

https://www.salon.com/2023/07/03/crabs-are-intelligent-sensitive-animals–and-scientists-wish-we-didnt-boil-them-alive-in-pots/

Finally the water logged Northeast has another problem other than the water….snakes.

With floods tearing apart sections of Vermont and the Canadian wildfires continuing to send plumes of smoke into the U.S., it seems that those of us living in the continental United States can’t catch a break. And, while Florida may be the capital of terrifying reptiles, a new report via ScienceAlert is warning folks around the country that venomous snake bites are on the rise thanks to rising temperatures.

For anyone who’s lived in a warmer climate, or essentially anywhere with sunshine, you’ll know that snakes love to bathe themselves in the rays, soaking up plenty of Vitamin D, and, with the world hitting record-high temperatures, snakes are more likely to slither out and cross your path.

While the weather certainly plays a part in the increase of snake bite incidents, which is on average six percent, the researchers behind the study think that there’s more to it. One of those environmental scientists, Noah Scovronick of Emory University in Georgia, says that humans could also be to blame for snakes acting more aggressively.

Venomous Snakes Are Biting Even More People For Terrifying Reason

That my friends is all there is for this Saturday…..go out and be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Florida Does It Again

We could write volumes on the lunacy coming out of Florida under the watchful eye of DeSantis….and now they have gone that proverbial one step further….this time in education.

I am a proponent of teaching history as it is….that means no whitewashing the embarrassing bits….teach it like it is.

We know that these Reds States, like my own, are hell bent on turning back the pages of history and throwing white paint (no pun intended) on the whole institution of slavery and Florida is one of the first to put a ‘happy face’ on the ordeal.

Florida education officials have changed state standards, in keeping with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policies, to mandate teaching public school students that some Black people benefited from being enslaved because they learned useful skills. The state Board of Education immediately defended the policy, unanimously approved Wednesday, by saying lessons will still include the “darkest” parts of the nation’s past, Politico reports. “It’s the good, the bad and the ugly in American history,” Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said. State officials denied that students will be taught that “slavery was beneficial”; the policy calls for instruction in “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

The 216-page social studies policy requires attributing racial violence partly to Black people, saying, “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre.” The statewide teachers union called the policy “a big step backward,” per NBC News. “How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from?” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.

This is a lie!

We can pretend all we want but this is just pure manure spread to make the whole institution appear to be something positive….ranks up there with slaves got room and board….

Anyone with half a brain will see through this….but sadly children may not and will then go along thinking that slavery was ‘not all that ‘bad’ after all.

How long before other Red States start teaching this lie and adding to the whitewash?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What To Do When The Supply Runs Out?

The news is not good for Ukraine…..the US is running out of weapons to send to their little corner of Hell.

The North Atlantic alliance is running so low on weapons it may be unable to keep supplying Kiev, according to CNN. A high-ranking British defense official said the predicament was created because NATO had no long-term plans for the war in Ukraine. 

On Tuesday, CNN reported speaking with a defense official who claimed the US was approaching the point where it could no longer supply Ukraine with weapons. “There is a set level of munitions in US stockpiles around the world, essentially an emergency reserve, that the military is not willing to part ways with. The levels of those stockpiles are classified.” The outlet explained US officials believe “the US has been nearing that red line.”

What will Ukraine do to ward off the advances of the Russian Bear?

Not to worry the US has a plan to prevent this conflict from a disastrous end…..

The Biden administration is expected to announce a new $1.3 billion weapons package for Ukraine in the coming days, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two unnamed US officials.

The funds will be provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine as opposed to shipping them directly from US military stockpiles, which is the main way the US has been arming Kyiv.

The sources told Reuters that the new package will include an anti-drone air defense system, known as the VAMPIRE, Phoenix Ghost drones and Switchblade drones, which are both small loitering munitions, and another counter-drone system made by Australia’s DroneShield.

Because the weapons systems are being purchased, it could take months or years for them to be delivered. The report comes as US officials are warning the Pentagon is draining its stockpiles to dangerously low levels.

According to the State Department, the US has provided Ukraine with $10.8 billion in USAI funds so far in the 2023 fiscal year. In the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on September 30 for the federal government, the US announced $6.3 billion in USAI aid for Ukraine.

Funds for Ukraine are still being pulled from the $113 billion that Congress has authorized to spend on the war. The administration is expected to ask Congress to approve more soon.

(antiwar.com)

Okay I am officially tired of the Ukraine Shit Show.

Why cannot this type of commitment be found for the people of this country?

I guess us mere peasants do not have the criminal organization to pull off buying these tools in government.

At what point do the American people realize just how pathetic this truly has become?

Well at NO point!

You see their opinions are given to them by the MSM which is owed in the most part by the companies making obscene profits from this war…..they, Americans, will continue with their warmongering diatribes as long as they are content with someone telling what they believe.

I do not want to hear the canned BS….it is simple….if there is ‘more’ money for these stupid little wars then that same cash can be spent here on Americans.

You see no matter which side wins this conflict my life will not change and neither will yours.

Will they ever see this for what it is….a clown show?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How Hot Can It Get?

A question many are asking……but sadly not the right people are asking this probing question.

There has been many blog posts about the extreme heat the earth is suffering through….and there does not seem to be an end to this torture.

For weeks on end we have been told about the extreme heat that is gripping the US and the world.

My region has had a month of above normal heat even for this time of the year, even reaching the 107 mark just yesterday.

If this trend continues then how hot can it get and what would come afterwards?

If it seems like the weather has been getting really wonky lately — and generally, a lot warmer — that’s because it has been, thanks to the phenomenon of global climate change. In a nutshell, the mean temperature of the Earth’s surface is steadily rising, due in large part to the steadfast refusal of humankind to stop filling the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse emissions, despite virtually every climate scientist on the planet imploring us to do so for decades. For the record, the science on this issue is absolutely settled; human activity is causing the phenomenon, and while there are large swaths of people who refuse to believe it, this unfortunately does not make it any less true.

For those of us who are actively concerned about the issue (which should be every single one of us), a few key questions may rise to the forefront of any discussion: How bad could rising temperatures get, and how quickly? What will the effects of global climate change be, and how will they impact us? And most importantly, what can be done about the problem? The answers are more straightforward than one might think, but be warned: many of them aren’t pretty, and they spell out the undeniable truth that global climate change is an issue that must be addressed by the whole of humanity, head-on — and right now.

According to an analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of the United Nations, the mean temperature of the Earth’s surface has risen by about one degree Celsius since the industrial revolution. The analysis points out that this is a global mean — in some parts of the world, the average temperatures have risen even higher, and the effects have already begun to be felt. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, an accord between member nations to limit greenhouse emissions, aims to keep this mean temperature increase firmly under two degrees, with a stated goal of keeping it under 1.5 — the point beyond which some changes may become irreversible.

https://www.grunge.com/1337577/how-hot-can-earth-get-what-would-happen/

Not to worry we are told this is all just a liberal hoax….there is nothing to see with the climate.

If you believe that then you may be dumber than I ever imagined.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Run For The Border

Let us take a break from one stupidity and move on to another….

I have waited a few days to see just how the blogs would handle this event…..few even noticed according to the chatter on-line.

The event I am writing about is the US soldier who ‘jumped’ the fence and escaped into North Korea…..

This is how the tale is trending…..

American officials have confirmed that a US soldier crossed into North Korea Tuesday “willfully and without authorization.” Officials did not release the soldier’s name at a briefing Tuesday afternoon, but outlets including CBS identified the man as Private 2nd Class Travis King. The AP, citing US officials, reports that King had just been released from a South Korean prison where he had been held on assault charges. The officials said King was due to face further disciplinary action in the US and had been taken to an airport by military personnel. But he managed to avoid getting on the plane and joined a tour group that went to the border village of Panmunjom in the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea.

The soldier passed through airport security before somehow leaving the airport and joining the tour group, officials said. A witness who was part of the same tour group tells CBS that the man gave out “a loud ‘ha ha ha'” before running between some buildings. “I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn’t come back, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy,” the witness says. The witness says there were no North Korean soldiers visible where the man ran. Members of the tour group were required to provide identification before they boarded their bus in Seoul, the witness says.

Col. Isaac Taylor, a public affairs officer for US Forces Korea, said authorities believe the soldier is in North Korean custody, the New York Times reports. Asked at Tuesday’s briefing whether the soldier had defected to North Korea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “All I will say … is that it’s clear that he willfully, of his own volition, crossed the border,” the BBC reports. Asked whether the soldier was being forcibly detained by North Korean authorities, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon is closely monitoring the situation and he is “absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop.”

As I was writing this more info has been released….

More details are slowly emerging about Private 2nd Class Travis King, the US soldier who crossed into North Korea on Tuesday—but his current whereabouts aren’t one of them. North Korean state media has yet to say anything about the 23-year-old, the first American known to be detained in North Korea in almost five years. The latest:

  • King, a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division, had on July 10 finished a nearly two-month stint in a South Korean prison for assault, the AP reports. He was en route to Fort Bliss, Texas, to possibly face further military discipline and discharge when he somehow left the Incheon International Airport outside Seoul. King later joined a Panmunjom tour and dashed across the border.
  • The Korea Times sheds light on that “somehow.” It reports military police from Camp Humphreys escorted King to Incheon but were not permitted to go through security and to the gate with him. Once at the gate, King “approached an American Airlines official and reported that his passport was missing, and was able to return out of the departure gate under the escort of an airline employee,” an airport official said.
  • King had run-ins with the law in South Korea prior to serving time. Reuters reports he was accused of punching a man at a Seoul nightclub in September; the charge was dropped because the alleged victim didn’t want to pursue a case against King, reports the AP.
  • On Oct. 8, police responded to the report of an alleged assault. King reportedly refused to cooperate with police or answer their questions. He was put in a police car where, according to court documents, he yelled obscenities about Koreans and the Korean army and police and damaged the car’s door by kicking it. He was fined 5 million won (about $4,000) in February in that case.
  • The White House—which has no diplomatic relations with the North—on Tuesday said the US is “engaging” with South Korea and Sweden regarding King. The AP points out that while Sweden has acted as an intermediary in the past thanks in part to its embassy in Pyongyang, its diplomatic staff were forced out of the country at the start of the pandemic and reportedly haven’t returned.
  • As for the tour King joined, NBC News reports Panmunjom is located about 90 minutes from the airport and is the sole place along the roughly 155-mile Demilitarized Zone where the North and South “interact.”
  • New Zealander Sarah Leslie and her father were part of the tour group. She tells the AP that she initially believed she was watching a prank when she saw King sprinting toward North Korea “really fast. I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do. But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.'”
  • As for King’s possible fate, Tae Yongho, a South Korean lawmaker and former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, tells the AP he has a hard time envisioning the North returning King to the US because he is a soldier and the two countries technically remain at war. That’s because “the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty,” the AP explains.

Now my question is why would anyone choose a NK prison to a military stockade?

Best and brightest my ass.

I am sure that there will be more on this incident to come….but how will this be painted?

Your thoughts….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death”

I love these Right wing d/bags….they just cannot help themselves….

Pretty much every Americans knows that quote by Patrick Henry before he was hanged by the British….

It seems that Radical Right winger Josh Hawley, senator from Missouri is so enamored with Patrick Henry that he used another of his quotes in one of Hawley’s 4th of July stump stops.

The quote goes like this….

“Patrick Henry: ‘It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.’,”

How lovely….but it is total bullshit!

The catch: Founding Father Patrick Henry — a slave owner most famous for his declaration, “Give me liberty or give me death,” — never said the quote Hawley tweeted.

Nor did any of the other Founding Fathers.

The line was reportedly originally published in a white nationalist publication in 1956 — 157 years after the founding father’s death.

It is similar to all those quotes by Jefferson that the Right are always throwing about…..the problem there as well he made none of those quotes….like…”My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government”

Jefferson never said that!

There is a wealth of spurious quotes by Jefferson…..read some the others.

https://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-jefferson-quotes-that-were-actually-just-made-up-2013-9

Cherry picking quotes and even making up quotes from the Founding Fathers has fed the misinformation fire.

Politicians, pundits and angry uncles all enjoy sharing quotes from the Founders. But they often don’t particularly care if Jefferson, Madison or others actually wrote what they claim they did. Invoking the words of key figures from the Founding period is a rhetorical strategy that aims to mobilize the intellectual giants of American history to support modern-day political positions.

It is the very opposite of what history should be. Serious scholars begin with questions and then seek answers in historical sources. Politicians (both the professional and the amateur variety) do the opposite. They begin with answers — their preferred political positions on an issue of the present-day — and then seek out a short, pithy quote from the Internet to help bolster their argument.

The Internet, I think we’ve all learned over the past few years, is not the most reliable source. Cyberspace is awash with bogus quotations from the Founders and other key historical figures, like Abraham Lincoln. You can easily shop around to find Washington or Theodore Roosevelt espousing a 21st century political cause that would have been completely unimaginable to them in their own time; Alexander Hamilton did not go on the record about his views on cryptocurrency. The danger to our political discourse, though, is that many of these fraudulent quotes are all too easy to believe when you’re looking to confirm what you’ve already decided.

https://www.inlander.com/comment/cherry-picking-quotes-from-founding-fathers-has-become-another-insidious-form-of-misinformation-24099356

I do not mind the use of quotes just please get them right and do not make them up to suit your bias.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Post-Putin Russia

With the war raging in Ukraine and a few minor shots at his authority many Americans want to see Putin gone and soon forgotten.

I know most people just want Putin gone does not matter how but it does matter and things could be worse.

But what would be the pathways that Russia could take to get to a Post-Putin Russia?

From time to time I get some post doc papers and I enjoy other people’s take on international situations…..this one is about the post-Putin Russia possibilities.

What is clear is that Putin will not take up Prigozhin’s suggestion of blaming others for the disastrous war in Ukraine in order to end it on terms short of what now appears to be an unattainable Russian victory. It might not be until Putin is succeeded by another leader that Russia can do this. But the Wagner rebellion, even though unsuccessful, has raised the possibility that Putin is vulnerable, and that a successor to him could arise.

Putin, of course, may continue to exert his rule over Russia through the end of the 2020s, the 2030s, or possibly even longer. He succeeded, after all, in facing down the Wagner rebellion. But the Wagner rebellion raises the possibility that he may suddenly and unexpectedly fall from power some time soon. Nobody, including Putin himself, knows for sure when or how his rule over Russia will come to an end. But whether as a result of his death, incapacity, overthrow, or decision not to run for re-election in 2024 (this last being the least likely), Putin’s reign will definitely come to an end at some point.

Just as it is uncertain when Putin’s hold on power will come to an end, it is also uncertain how much or even whether Russia will change after it does. This article will explore the likelihood of five possible post-Putin pathways for Russia: 1) Putinism without Putin; 2) democratization; 3) prudent authoritarianism; 4) Chinese overlordship; and 5) the breakup of Russia.

Just as important, this article will also explore the possibilities for six of Putin’s current domestic and foreign policy priorities to be continued or revised under each of these five potential pathways. These six Putin priorities are: 1) maintaining dictatorship over Russia; 2) maintaining or even enhancing Russia’s great power status; 3) continuing the ongoing war against Ukraine in order to at minimum retain control of Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russian forces; 4) continuing to see America and the West as Russia’s principal security threats; 5) continuing Russia’s strategic partnership with China despite any misgivings Moscow may have over increasing Russian dependence on Beijing; and 6) maintaining Russia’s territorial integrity. First, though, something needs to be said about Putin’s own commitment to these priorities as well as his ability to pursue them.

Post-Putin Russia: Five Potential Pathways

Some interesting takes on the possibilities….my thought is that there will be a form of what this paper calls ‘prudent authoritarianism’….that will replace Putin for a time.

I know it is a long paper but do road it and let me know what direction you  think Russia would take after Putin.

Just something to think about….you can do it if you try.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”