Yesterday, I slept until later than I have been lately, but at least was awake when up, and no dizzy spells.
Not good – but better to know about it than not to.
More about AI, his time from Robert Reich, and extending as far as China.
Yes, this is 40 pages. And, at least as long as Medicare stands, it doesn’t affect me as a veteran (although it does, of course, as a taxpayer. Privatization of anything is a bad idea for taxpayers.) Naturally, the idea traces back to the Kochs – to when more of them were still alive – but there are plenty to carry on.
One thing Steve Schmidt is good at is history. Maybe not as good as a professional historian, but able to make it easy for a reader to get a feeling of the time in question, and in this case, a feeling for what we have lost and are losing more of.
Yesterday, It was surprisingly cold … or at least I was. Of course staying up late at night and then sleeping late into the day may have something to do with that. But that’s just how my Circadian rhythm works – and has, really, as long as I can remember. Retirement was my first chance to really start paying the sleep debt which had built up for so long.
David Sirota – who is no fool – wrote this for The Lever. It got me thinking that – throughout history, we have had multiple situations where innovations theoretically intended to make work easier have threatened to eliminate the human race by making workers redundant. Yet here we are. But the predictions have never been 100% wrong. There have always been people who literally died as a result of the consequences of the innovations. And at least since the 19th century, someone has said that those deaths were merely evolution doing its job – and that we were simply becoming more fit as a race. I would invite those people to look at MAGA. I don’t expect to be around to see the full consequences of any AI apocalypse – not because I expect AI to kill me, but because I am 81. Nor do I expect there to be anyone who will be able to accurately predict, nor to prevent the casualties of the next time around. I do wish the human race the best of luck.
Please be sitting down and be sure there is nothing in your mouth when you read this. I will not be responsible for personal or property damage when you realize Fox is included on the right side of this action – voluntarily.
Jesse Wegman (with the Brennan Center) is mostly concerned with law and the courts, and this is o exception – it’s a fairly deep dive into (one aspect of) legal ethics – as they should be. It’s not brand new news, but a response to recent news. I might call it food for thought.
Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage.If you’ve ever played any kind of card game with actual cards (including solitaire), you’ve probably noticed that there are days when the cards seem to have a mind of their own – and sometimes that mind is mischievous. This was one of those days. I kept coming up with double runs (and occasional triple runs, and sometimes two double runs in the same hand.) Virgil got quite envious (although he hd a few himself.) In the last hand we played before closing, I dealt, and didn’t have anything remotely like a double run in my hand – but darned if I didn’t have a double run in the crib. Go figure. Also, a thoughtful and educational Yom Kippur to all who celebrate. (I may illustrate wih pomegranates and a shofar, but I won’t say “Happy Yom Kippur” – that isn’t its purpose.)
While apologizing for a long post on a Saturday night, Joyce Vance neverthe less feels it’s too importa nt to wait. I have to concur. There are things going on we need to know about ASAP, even if we also need to wait and possibly prepare before taking action. It’s about 44 days to election day – and 26 days to the next No Kings event.
It would appear that ICE, CBP, and DHS have exactly zero interest in quitting the killing. Also that the DOJ has even less interest in indicting and prosecuting the murderers. In Minnesota, the state Attorney General stepped in. But this is Texas. Although he’s rinning for something wlse (Senate? or Govermor?), I think Ken Paxton is still the AG of Texas. No joy there.
Having taken part in a few product trials (years ago), I have at least an idea what informed consent is supposed to look like. Which is nothing like anything the Orange Ogre(apologies to actual ogres, who are much nicer) will come up with. I doubt whether anyone in RFK Jr’s circle believes in allergies, so I don’t expect them to ask any prospective participants about any. And that is only one way they will kill people -while learning nothing related to actual science. Of course none of them has a clue what an ethic might be, so they won’t be bothered.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Falstaff”, obviously based on Shakespeare, of whom Verdi was quite the fan. It was the last opera he wrote, and at the time he was maybe 2 years younger than I am now. Falstaff is an absolute jerk, in Shakespeare and also in Verdi, but he does get his comeuppance in the play (The Merry Wives of Windsor”) and the opera, which is a comedy as is the play. But I’d rather discuss Gustavo Dudamel (AKA The Dude) today. Born in Venezuela into a musical family, he started violin lessons with El Sistems at the age of five. (If you don’t know about El Sistema – it is a musical educational phenomenon in Venezuela, and the envy of the classical music world. He soon began to study composition, and at 14, he began to study conducting. At 18, he became the music director (which includes the positon of principal conductor) of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra – Venezuela’s national youth orchestra, also associated with La Sistema. At 36, he conducted the Vienna New Year’s Concert, becoming the youngest conductor ever to do so. Conductors tend to live (and work) to advanced ages – some believe this may be at least in part due to the upper body exercise they get on the job – well, it’s possible. In 2007 he was appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a contract which was extended three times. They are finally leting him go to become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – the most prestigious orchestra in the US. He is now 45 – which is still young for a conductor. Without contracts, he has worked with orchestras all over the world. He conducted the intro and outro for one of the Star Wars movies at the request of John Williams. He has also worked with Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars. I could list his accomplishments and accolades until the cows come home, and then some – but I’d bore y’all to tears. Let’s just say The Dude is a phenomenon. I believe history will remember him as being to the 21at century as a conductor what Mozart was to the 18th century as a composer (of course he’s already older than Mozart was when he died.)
With that, I’ll move on to other good news and continue with my alphabetical listings.
Y’all probably know that Mitch – OUR Mitch, not the monster -is a huge lover of jazz. But you may not have known that he has a cousin who plays bass in a jazz band. He sent me a link to them performing “Undecided,” and they are really good. You don’t get to see Mitch’s cousin much – and it’s part of a playlist, so you .may need to stop it when it’s over (if you skim the playlist and see what other bands are included, you’ll see I’m not alone in rating them really good.)
I swear I posted and scheduled today’s post – and the blog ate it. I can tell you today is National Dance Day – and that I reminisced about every time I went to the Kennedy Center while I was stationed in DC at HQMC (Headquarters Marine Corps) and some of the legends I saw there, including Margaret Hamilton – but the actual post is gone, and I honestly don’t have the energy to try to reconstruct it. Sorry.
Yesterday, I learned that Amazon’s electric delivery trucks (which they are touting as green) are charged with Diesel generators, Also, after findng out Wednesday that my old Yahooemail had been hacked, I got up early (for me) so I could find a phone number (which is not available from the help postings) – because the hackers has deleted my new email address, and the phone number I had on record with them was my landline. Also I took in a (thankfully small) grocery order. By the time I got that put away, I was really feeling the lack of sleep – I was all the way to groggy. So I went to bed as soon as I had scheduled this post. Also, I missed Constitution Day yesterday, so the image is today instead.
Referred by VoteVets. I don’t know how this looks to someone who is not a veteran. To, me it looks a lot like murder. ICE did not kill their bodies – but it did kill something in them – some pary of their spirit which wanted to serve their country. Something like patriotism. And, of course, these two youths are not alone. I don’t know whether thw goal of the current regime is to murder patriotism in every American who has any – but, you know, it might as well be. One thing which cannot move through the internet (not even with a 3D printer – not yet) is tears – so at least mine won’t splash onto you. So at least I don’t have to apologize for that.
This is from Tuesday – but by now we should know whether it went anywhere. I doubt it does. Possibly after early January the new Congress might be able to accomplish something. There are more and more pundits (since we don’t have a perfect word for “people with education, brains, and solid experience in real administrations”) who are starting to fear, as I do, impeaching the Mango Monster – because J D Vance. But there is no one in the cabinet who does not merit impeachment. Kegsbreath is just the most obviously destructive. (Update – this scared Mike Johnson so that he called a recessfor Congress. They won’t be back in session until after the midterms. He might eventually regret that – unless he’s thinking that Hegseth will get impeached whenever the House votes on it – but afyer the midterms maybe he can blame it on Democrats.)
Look, this is how dangerous AI could be – Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon are teaming up to fight it. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what would.
Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson announced what she calls the end of the first phase of 250 to 250. I still have a few pre-selected ones, and I may go back and pick up more, but today I’m running the closing video. To me, the whole series demonstrates why we need comprtent and accurate historians to keep a free society.
Barf Bag Alert. Yes, this is from last month. But I only just found it – in a footnote. Specifically footnote #3 out of 13. I thought it was the must disgusting, but it was close, and you might not agree. But I can’t link to the list, because it was in an email with no link to the conttent – only a link to a petition. If anyone cares to see the complete list, send me an email at jvdix@tutamail.com and I’ll forward it. I’ve put it into a temporary folder so I don’t have to look at it all day long.
Archived from Huff Post. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Shared by VoteVets. I’m skeptical of anything said by any AI creator, including Anthropic. But it might be factual – it’s certainly consistent with Russian ethics (or the lack thereof.)
