Hey Earthlings! It's Earth Day!!!

"Earth Day, mirth day. A day full of hypocrisy. It has been phony baloney since day one, and it still is. As far as I am concerned, they can shove this virtue signaling day. Shove it where the sun don't shine. That is, unless the greenies think we are killing the sun also."    

I have some bad news for Joe Biden and his ilk, who think we are wrecking the Earth by not having almost total "green energy". We are not wrecking the Earth. In fact, here is the facts of life. Even if Russia and the United States emptied their nuclear arsenals on each other, the Earth would still be here. We would not, but the Earth would be. In fact, there is nothing we could do which would "destroy" this planet. Even an asteroid can't destroy it. All we could do is cause and ELE (extension level event). Then at some time, should it be the will of God, life would reappear. 

What then, should I celebrate today? The fact that Al Gore said by this time, all our mountains would be without snowcaps, and all our glaciers would be melted? Sorry - never happened. In fact, this "drought of the century" in California ended this winter, with a buttload of rain and snow. And the "not as serious drought" in Minnesota, ended with lots of rain and over 90 inches of snow this winter. Life goes on, even on Mother Earth.

Should we celebrate our coming brown-outs and black-outs? Brought to us by the freak show in Washington? Keep in mind, we have hundreds of years of fossil fuels remaining. We are going to get rid of our fossil fuel and ICE cars, and then we will all drive EVs starting in the next 10 to 15 years. But wait - where are we going to get the material to make the EV batteries? China, of course. They will get the Lithium from Afghanistan (the stuff we surrendered when we retreated). And, let's not forget about the poor underage children in the Congo. They are forced to mine Cobalt in the most dire of conditions. But who cares? Now instead of "blood diamonds" coming out of Africa, we have "blood batteries." Does Biden know about this? Sure does. But care, he does not.

And you do-gooders, who love to show off your environmentalism (virtue signaling), please remember where the batteries in your Tesla came from. And remember where the power to charge your EV batteries comes from (hint: it ain't windmills!). And you might feel pious that Biden put the Duluth Shield off limits for copper/nickel mining. The largest untapped deposit on Earth, will remain untapped. The number of union jobs (right, Joe?) that could have been created to safely mine up north, would have been legions. But who cares? We have plenty of impoverished kids in Africa to do our dirty work for us. How is that for your "equity", Brandon?

Earth Day, mirth day. A day full of hypocrisy. It has been phony baloney since day one, and it still is. As far as I am concerned, they can shove this virtue signaling day. Shove it where the sun don't shine. That is, unless the greenies think we are killing the sun also.    

 

The twists and turns of Title IX

"Twists and turns. That is what Biden is doing right now to appeal to any and every one-off constituency. Who is Biden against? China? Russia? Nope. MAGA Republicans. Go figure..." 

In June of 1972, a bill was signed into law. It was to correct some of the inequities of men's sports to woman's sports. Prior to that bill being signed into law, if a female wanted to try out for a sport in the high school I went to, it was cheerleading or dance line. Period. Now, woman's athletics are as vast in most schools, and one could imagine. No woman's football as yet, but who knows? That might be in the future.

When the bill passed, it had strong bipartisan support (remember that term - bipartisan?). 135 Democrats voted in favor of it in the House. With Republican support, it passed the House with a veto proof majority. It was signed into law, and woman's sport began the big journey into sports participation and recognition. The rest is history - that is, until Biden became President.

For some reason, Biden has a soft spot in his heart for transgenders. So much so, he is ready to upset the applecart of woman's sports. How is that? Biology. Biden believes that should a guy feel like he is a gal, it is alright to compete in woman's sports. Take Lia Thomas for example. An average swimmer when he/she was a guy, Thomas decided to become a gal. Then boom! He/she was the best swimmer on the woman's team! Still a guy, but thinks like a gal. And all of a sudden, Title IX started to bend under the strain of anti-biology.

Biden, has spread his passion for transgender sports to the entire Democrat party. Recently, a bill passed the Republican controlled House which would have protected woman's sports against transgender males. It passed, but did not have ONE Democrat vote in favor of it. The same party which helped shepherd Title IX over the finish line in 1972.

Even though the House passed it, the Democrat controlled Senate will not. And Biden would veto it should the bill reach his desk. Where does that leave woman's sports? Unknown. Where does that leave the Democrat Party? Lost and confused. Out of touch. 

Twists and turns. That is what Biden is doing right now to appeal to any and every one-off constituency. Who is Biden against? China? Russia? Nope. MAGA Republicans. Go figure... 

Stupid spending by sleepy bureaucrats

"Watching the 'negotiations' between the Speaker and Biden recently has been a knee slapper. Will the outcome slow or reduce our national debt? Probably not. Then why are we doing it? What is the plan, man?"

Ever wonder why our spending in this state is so out of control? Why our national debt is going up over a trillion dollars a year (sometimes multiple trillions)? Because (please forgive me for using a cruel word) - out federal, our state governments, do stupid spending. How do I know? When I was on Jeff Johnson's team when he was running for governor, my eyes were opened to how much waste and fraud there is in government. Jeff wanted to take every government program, and then dissect it. Find out 1) If it was still useful, and then 2) If it was efficient and effective. That was too much analysis for the average Minnesota voter. They wanted to be gaslighted by Tim Walz instead. So the stupidity continues.

This morning on the news, was another perfect example of stupid federal spending. Afghanistan. We are sending taxpayer money to Afghanistan, to help the poor, impoverished Afghan civilians. And guess who is getting the money in Afghanistan? The Taliban. We are sending it directly to them. How stupid is that? And guess who is getting the money meant for the impoverished Afghans? Terrorists. ISIS-K. Al-Qaeda.

And, I will not even go into the Wuhan Lab in China. The fact our government sent money to partially fund the Wuhan Lab, when that lab might be the source of the deadly Covid-19 virus, is stupid beyond stupid. 

By the way, did you hear that our Central Command is now projecting that Afghanistan is producing resurgent terror groups. And ISIS-K is less than 6 months from being equipped to attack America? Yet another dividend from our retreat from Afghanistan.

BTW - did you hear all the lithium that Afghanistan has? The stuff EV batteries are made from? China is working on a deal to buy that stuff from Afghanistan. Gosh, we sure could have used some of that lithium for Biden's EV plans. Oh well...

Stupid spending. Any more examples? Oh, heck yes! Way too many for this article. Smart spending by government on the other hand, would be a very short list, and could fit in this short article nicely. When government bureaucrats feel that OUR taxpayer money is nothing more than monopoly money, that is when the stupidity begins. And nobody, on this planet, spends our hard earned money with more stupid abandonment, than Brandon does. Even asleep, he can spend more of our money than most of us do, when wide awake.

Watching the "negotiations" between the Speaker and Biden recently has been a knee slapper. Will the outcome slow or reduce our national debt? Probably not. Then why are we doing it? What is the plan, man? How about we start with cancelling the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act? Never happen. Instead, we will continue to pour good money after bad, and then blame the other side for our debt.

I penned an article yesterday about the post-Boomer generation. How they need to get fired up about this mess. I know, I know - the Boomers made this mess. We are guilty as charged. But for the love of Mike, somebody needs to clean up the mess in our aisle. Why? Because this mess will soon become the cleanup in your aisle. And that is the truth,      

Hello? Gen X? Millennials? Gen Z? Join the fight!

"Soon, this will be your country, your world, kiddos. You can blame us for mucking some of it up. That will be fair. It is also true the Greatest Generation left us a much better world than yesterday's hippies (us), are leaving you."

Hello? Anybody home in the post Baby Boom generation? This world, with all the warts and bruises, will soon be yours to control. The Greatest Generation are now all but gone, and the Baby Boomers are on their way out. What does that mean? Gen X, you are in the on deck circle. Time to pay attention. Time to get involved. Stay off your dang phones, and start watching the real news! 

Recently, I quit going to political events. Why? Looking around, especially at state conventions, I saw a whole lot of old white guys. Also some not as old gals, and very few young folks. I quit going because I have had my ride at the park. It was time for the young folks to take over. Why? Most every issue will affect them, more so that us old codgers.

For example - this session, the trifecta of socialists running (ruining) Minnesota have fundamentally changed everything good, to everything bad. ALL OF WHICH will affect the youngins much more than the Baby Boomers. Besides all of which, if things get too bad, Baby Boomers can pull up stakes and move. Move to a better state.

And Social Security. Please pay attention to this one. The Baby Boomers are probably okay on this issue. But this "Ponzi Scheme" retirement fund is going belly up. Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, are paying into a fund of which they might not get much back from. Hundreds of thousands of YOUR dollars - might be gone before you can collect. And yet, when someone in Congress (usually a Conservative) suggests replacing Social Security with a better, more sustainable fund, fools like Biden come out and gaslight the issue. Meanwhile, every year the fund gets thinner, and thinner and thinner. 

There is so much right now that young people need to be aware of (and fight for), I won't even go into much more. Baby Boomers know of which I am talking about. The challenge for our future, is to get the post Baby Boomer generation to start taking the red pill instead of the blue pill. I mean, closing you eyes and ignoring the problems will not make them go away. 

Soon, this will be your country, your world, kiddos. You can blame us for mucking some of it up. That will be fair. It is also true the Greatest Generation left us a much better world than yesterday's hippies (us), are leaving you. For this, I apologize. Your deserve better. All I can tell you is to grab the wheel and stay out of the ditch. Or, keep driving into the ditch, and watch America become just like Europe or Canada.   

 

Urban Deserts

"Here is the irony. The Yellow Dog Democrats, who suffer the most under this mismanagement in the cities, end up voting for the same chumps over and over and over again. Is that not insanity?"

Back during the Floyd riots, when criminals burned down part of Minneapolis, they torched over 1,000 businesses. One of the stores they destroyed, was the Target Store in Uptown. That really hurt, as many of the local residents used that store. Who did this destructive protest really hurt? The people. It created another urban desert. And that practice continues today. Welcome to mayhem.

On the news as of late, are stories of more and more stores calling it quits in urban areas. Why? Here is an example. When I worked in manufacturing, we had a metric called "scrap and attrition". That number was baked into the price of a good. Over time, should you operate better than that scrap and attrition number, good on you. However, if you did not, your realized profit was smaller. Sometimes, you operated at a loss. The same is true for a retail store.

If a retail store has a loss percentage of 5% (loss being theft or pilferage), and over time that loss percentage goes up to 10%, the store has a difficult decision to make. Raise prices, eat the loss, or leave. Recently, in some cities (like Chicago and Portland), stores have lost so much money, they are throwing in the towel and leaving. Not just mom and pop stores - big stores like WalMart. And grocery stores. And drug stores.

Last weekend in Chicago, there was another example of feral youth, out at night way too late, destroying property, and harassing innocent people. A couple of folks were shot, and some were beaten. It was like a scene out of a dystopian movie. Since many Soros funded DAs have decided to look the other way to crime (except Donald Trump), the mayhem continues with little if any, arrest and prosecution.

What is happening to many big blue cities is this. Stores are leaving, and cops are resigning. Many cities are way below their authorized policing numbers, because fewer and fewer people want to take this once noble profession on as a career. Too much down side, and too little up side. Even if you risk your life to arrest a punk doing wrong, the DA will let that punk slide. And it becomes deja vu over and over and over again.

Here is the irony. The Yellow Dog Democrats, who suffer the most under this mismanagement in the cities, end up voting for the same chumps over and over and over again. Is that not insanity? Just asking. Meanwhile, the cities have become "no go" zones for those who do not want to get robbed, beaten or carjacked. 

Meanwhile, urban deserts will continue to grow. Why? We get the government we deserve. Just look at Minneapolis as Exhibit "A" for that axiom.     

Elon, Google and AI

"Stay tuned on this one folks. This will be a hot topic for years to come. In the meantime, be nice to your Alexa or Siri. Why? Some day we might be answering to them, instead of them answering to us!"   

I know I have recently addressed this AI issue. But holy smokes, is this ever front and center in the news as of late! Tucker Carlson has a special with Elon Musk to discuss status and future of AI, and then Sundar Pichai (the head of Google), was on 60 Minutes to discuss the same subject. It is like, all of a sudden, AI is the topic de jour to discuss with the AI Captains of Industry.

Not only that, but all of a sudden, my You Tube feed, and tech sites I follow, are full of recent articles concerning AI. All kind of new lingo is being thrown about. ChatGPT, GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and the soon to be announced, GPT-5. And examples of each are free to watch on different sites. It is unique and sometimes downright scary. Especially GPT-4, where all you need to do is say something (such as pink taxies on a downtown street), and poof!. All of a sudden the computer generates an image of pink taxies on a busy downtown street.

But GPT-5 will take this even further. It not only constructs an image based on some words you put in text, it will make those words into a video! I saw an example of this also, and it was simply amazing! All I could think about was if things are this advanced with GPT-5, what will GPT-6 hold? It boggles my mind just to think about it.

But the mic drop moment came from Sundar Pichai of Google, when asked an exact question on how this entire AI thing works. With a moment of true honesty, he relied, "We don't really understand how it works." All I could think about when I heard that, is Frankenstein's Monster. Once the monster was created, and was unleashed on the world, Dr. Frankenstein had no idea on how to control it. Why not? He did not really understand what he had just created. The rest of that story is history.

I have said this in my last article I wrote on this subject, and heard it again last night from an AI analyst - the horse is out of the barn on AI. Too much development is going on, my too many companies, in too many countries. The development of AI is not going to stop - it will continue. Too many future inventions and devices will be dependent on it. One expert said we need to put government "curbs" on the development, as to slow it down a bit. Good luck with that one! How can you "curb" something you don't really understand? 

Are we creating a Skynet, or a HAL from 2001, A Space Odyssey? Or will this be a tool for mankind which will allow us to create and invent the stuff that fantastic and fantasy are made of? Items with will allow us to take that next big, big leap in technology. Heck, maybe it will only just make gaming more fun. We simply don't know at this point in time. But the caution flags are out there. Put down by more than one technology expert.

Stay tuned on this one folks. This will be a hot topic for years to come. In the meantime, be nice to your Alexa or Siri. Why? Some day we might be answering to them, instead of them answering to us!   

    

"I've got a secret!"

"I am anxious to learn what happened in our security controls which would allow a 21 year old gamer to gain access to material so sensitive, in my time as a LCDR with a high level clearance, I would have never been 'read in' to have access to it."

Not to show my age, but when I was a lad, there was a family show my folks and I would watch every week. It was called "I've got a secret". It was on from the early 50's to 1967. That was quite a run for back then. So why bring this up? When watching this show as a boy, never did I think that I would be the one keeping secrets shortly after getting out of high school. But I was. And I did.

When I was 20, I was granted a high level clearance. One of the highest the government had. Even at that tender age, the significance of that did no escape me. I was entrusted with some of the highest secrets the Navy, and the country, had. I was proud of the fact my life's path had led me to this honor. Truthfully, I think my folks were as much shocked as they were proud!

Why bring up this ancient history? Because I still know a thing or two about guarding classified material. Earlier this year, I was shocked at the revelation that not only President Trump had classified information at his Mar-a-lago residence, but also Joe Biden had it stashed all over the place. Going back to when he was a senator (which would be a huge no-no). And then finding out the squeaky clean Mike Pence had some classified info at his residence. Regardless of who had highly classified information outside of a certified SCIF, it blew my mind. It violated everything I was trained to do in safeguarding classified information.

This young 21 year Airman, who is accused of taking and then revealing numerous documents of the highest classification, really was a jaw dropper for me. First off, when I was 21 and had a high level clearance, I had access to very little, if any, documents which I had the clearance to view. Why? Need to know. And if I had the need to know, protocols were in place to protect those documents. Even if someone with a clearance wanted to take a classified document, it would have been next to impossible. 

My last active duty, as a LCDR with a high level clearance, involved being at NSA doing a "lessons learned" from intel gathered during Desert Storm. My desk was out in the open, visible to many. Every time I needed to check out a classified document to use as reference, there were iron clad controls. How could I get access to the documents I needed? First off, I had the need to know. Next, NSA had iron clad security procedures. Finally, I had my own integrity. I finished the job, turned it in, and then checked out and left for home. Shortly thereafter, I was debriefed at the reserve center, surrendered by clearance, and then retired. My 21 year Navy career was then complete.

I am anxious to learn what happened in our security controls which would allow a 21 year old gamer to gain access to material so sensitive, in my time as a LCDR with a high level clearance, I would have never been "read in" to have access to it. But this E-3 did. And he might have upset the apple cart with our friends and foes alike. 

For him to disclose that NATO special forces (including ours), were on the ground in Ukraine, possibly engaging Russian troops, was a show stopper. That one piece of information, is so sensitive, it could have (or still might) trigger a much broader war. Plus - the fact that we disclosed what allies were doing, might have done immeasurable damage to their trust in us. All because of some gaming site? This young man has no clue how many years he will be imprisoned for this thoughtless act. He will be a pariah in this country for the rest of his natural life.

"I've got a secret". Really? If so, then keep it. Secrets are shared due to trust and integrity. Obviously, this young man had neither.