Month: July 2023

“Why I Oppose The Pentagon Budget”

My regular visitors know that I oppose that massive War Department budget that is being considered….I feel it is just a step for a total war….I believe tax payer cash should be spent on the tax payers not some mud hole half way around the world….and I have been very vocal for decades on the amount of cash authorized for our ‘defense’…..we are not defending the US just instigating and funding multiple wars around the globe.

Sen. Sanders has written an op-ed on why he opposes this waste of tax payer money…..

The US Senate is now debating an $886bn defense authorization bill. Unless there are major changes to the bill, I intend to vote against it. Here’s why.

As everyone knows, our country faces enormous crises.

As a result of climate change our planet is experiencing unprecedented and rising temperatures. Along with the rest of the world, we need to make major investments to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into more efficient and sustainable energy sources, or the life we leave our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and precarious.

Our healthcare system is broken. While the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry make hundreds of billions in profit, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, our life expectancy is declining, and we have a massive shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health practitioners and dentists.

Our educational system is teetering. While we have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of almost any major country, millions of parents cannot find affordable and quality childcare. The number of our young people who graduate from college is falling behind many other countries and 45 million Americans are struggling under the weight of student debt.

Our housing stock is totally inadequate. While gentrification is causing rents to soar in many parts of our country some 600,000 Americans are homeless, and 18 million are spending more than half of their limited incomes on housing.

These are some of the crises our country faces. And we’re not dealing with them.

Why I Oppose the Pentagon Budget

Bernie is so much more eloquent than me…..I agree with every word of his op-ed….I do not stand against the Pentagon but it should live up to it’s name, the Defense Department, money saved should be used where it is most needed….in this country.

Making this country strong internally would be the best defense against any troublemakers.

I am sure someone has an opposing opinion….even if it is wrong.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Reforms For SCOTUS

With all the bad press around the court these days….like corruption and disregard for rights many, including myself, have called for some sort of reform for the Court.

The call for these reforms have gotten louder in recent months….

The Dems have offered up a bill for a code of ethics for the Court….in my opinion a lame wristed attempt but at least they are trying…..but as usual anything attempt at reform will be met with a stone wall of Repubs…

A Democratic proposal to require the Supreme Court to adopt an ethics code for itself passed a Senate committee on Thursday but appears to have little future in the rest of Congress. The bill can’t clear the full Senate or House without Republican support, and GOP lawmakers have said they won’t back it, CBS News reports. The committee vote was along party lines, 11-10. The Democrats’ effort picked up steam after news coverage about Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepting but not reporting gifts from Republican donors. The idea of an ethics code has been around but has never gone anywhere with the court.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said he suggested it to Chief Justice John Roberts 11 years ago. “Unfortunately, he did not accept my suggestion,” Durbin said Thursday, per the Hill. “Since then as more and more stories have emerged of justices’ ethical lapses, the American people’s confidence in the Supreme Court has dropped to an all-time low.” Republicans said the proposal is retaliation for a series of rulings that Democrats have opposed. “This is a bill to destroy a conservative court,” GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said.

The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act also would create a transparent process for members of the public to submit ethics complaints against justices. A panel of chief judges from lower courts would make recommendations after complaints are received. Gifts, travel, and income received by the justices and their law clerks would be subject to disclosure rules comparable to those in the Senate and House. Lower court judges have had to follow a code of conduct since 1973, but it doesn’t apply to Supreme Court justices. “The highest court in the land has the lowest standards of ethics anywhere in the federal government,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the bill’s main sponsor, per the Washington Post.

Why would the GOP go along?

They have the nation by the short hairs….just where they always wanted to be.

This does not go far enough at all….we need term limits, mandatory retirement, as well as this code the Dems are calling for….but as usual we will be stuck with these crooked political hacks deciding what is law and what is not.

More years of this assault on the laws of this nation and there will be few to no rights left.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

I Know You May Be Tired Of My Ukraine Diatribes

Hang on to your jock straps….there will be MORE!

Tired of my constant bitching about this Ukraine thing?….well get over it for I am far from over….

First there is this counteroffensive that is plugging along…..but how is it going that it finally was put into operation?

Hopes were high throughout the spring, as a Ukrainian military equipped with Western weapons prepared to launch a counteroffensive that would reclaim land seized by Russia, which had invaded its much smaller neighbor for the second time in early 2022.

“We are getting ready for the counteroffensive, so that we can finally end this war,” one Ukrainian soldier said in late May. The counteroffensive began about three weeks later, with Ukraine making initial gains in Donetsk and Luhansk, two regions in eastern Ukraine that were illegally annexed by Russia last year.

Since then, however, the pace of progress has slowed considerably, leading to some frustration from Ukraine’s backers in the West, who hoped that the heavy weaponry and training they had provided would drive the Russian occupiers out of the country’s southeastern provinces.

So far, however, Russia’s defensive positions appear to be holding — while questions about the future of the conflict are growing.

(yahoo.com)

A report has come out that the West know Ukraine was not ready for a major counteroffensive regardless the chest thumping by Zelenskyy (why two ‘Y”s)

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Western officials knew Ukrainian forces didn’t have enough training or equipment for their counteroffensive but hoped they would be able to break through anyway.

The report reads: “When Ukraine launched its big counteroffensive this spring, Western military officials knew Kyiv didn’t have all the training or weapons—from shells to warplanes—that it needed to dislodge Russian forces. But they hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day. They Haven’t.”

Leading up to the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which was launched in June, the Discord leaks and media reports revealed that the US did not believe Ukraine could regain much territory from Russia. But the Biden administration pushed for the assault anyway, as it rejected the idea of a pause in fighting.

Ukrainian forces have struggled to push through Russia’s defenses, which include vast minefields, resulting in heavy Ukrainian armor losses in the first few weeks of the counteroffensive. US officials speaking to The New York Times and The Washington Post have blamed the lack of success on Ukraine, saying Ukrainian forces are not using the “combined arms” tactics they learned from NATO countries.

(antiwar.com)

Since the ‘counteroffensive’ is looking like a stalemate at best….why would the West keep prodding Ukraine to launch one?

What about those weapons that the West sends….shipment after shipment….and yet….

Ukrainian President Voldymr Zelensky said in an interview aired on Sunday that the Ukrainian counteroffensive started later than he wanted due to a lack of weapons and training.

“We did have plans to start it in spring. But we didn’t, because, frankly, we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough brigades properly trained in these weapons, still, more, that the training missions were held outside Ukraine,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

During the lead-up to the counteroffensive, which was launched in early June, Ukrainian troops were being trained inside NATO countries. Zelensky said that the delay allowed Russia to lay more minefields, which Ukrainian forces have struggled to get through.

“And because we started it a bit later on it can be said and it will be shared truth understood by all of the experts that it provided Russia with time to mine all of our land and build several lines of defense,” he said.

Despite the massive amount of weapons and ammunition the US and its allies have poured into Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Western officials did not believe Ukraine had enough to dislodge Russian forces. Ukraine’s Western backers hoped the Ukrainians would have been able to break through, but the offensive is faltering.

US officials speaking to the media have blamed Ukraine’s lack of success on its tactics, complaining Ukrainian soldiers are being too cautious and aren’t using the “combined arms” training they learned from NATO that integrates infantry, artillery, and armor. But the US and its NATO allies would never launch such an offensive without air superiority. When Ukraine did launch a major attack with armored vehicles in the first weeks of the counteroffensive, it resulted in heavy losses.

(antiwar.com)

Not enough weaponry?

Finally you know all those weapons that we send daily to Ukraine how are they being used?

The Pentagon inspector general found the arms Washington sent to Kiev did not undergo the required inspections. A report from the inspector general found weapons the US sent to Ukraine in the hands of criminals and on the black market. 

The Arms Control Act requires the White House to establish an inspection system for weapons the US sells or gifts to third countries. The law mandates the monitoring continues to the end-use of the weapon. In Ukraine, the embassy in Kiev has been assigned responsibility for monitoring the weapons transfers. 

The Department of Defense inspector general report on American weapons transfers to Ukraine from February to September of last year found that legally required monitoring was not taking place. “The DoD is unable to conduct [End Use Monitoring] in Ukraine because completing [End Use Monitoring] in accordance with DoD policy requires in-person access to the defense equipment provided,” it said. “Intelligence methods provide some accountability for observable platforms, such as missiles and helicopters, but smaller items, such as night vision devices, have limited accountability.”

“The DoD OIG found deficiencies in the DoD’s transfer of military equipment to the Government of Ukraine requiring [End Use Monitoring], including Javelin missiles, Javelin Command Launch Units, and night vision devices; and in Ukraine’s security and accountability of US.-provided military equipment requiring [End Use Monitoring],” the report added. 

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/dod-ig-american-weapons-in-ukraine-funneled-to-arms-traffickers-criminals/

Is the West treating Ukraine like cannon fodder?

Read this person’s opinion on that question.

Using Ukraine as Cannon Fodder

And the struggle continues….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“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”