Austin Story

To be honest about this story....it's not on my top 500 list, but I sat and pondered upon it.

So we have the Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin) who quietly (for a minimum of 3 days) got sent to a hospital on 1 Jan...."due to complications following a recent elective medical procedure.” 

Telling the President?  Well....you'd think this would be one of those key things that someone would convey to your boss.  But as the story goes....President Biden wasn't told until around the 4th day.

What was the elective medical procedure?  That part is left to you guess upon.  Wart removal?  Well....I doubt it.  

Removing tonsils?  Hernia repair?  Cosmetic surgery?  

There's probably a list of three-hundred things that would be a day of 'repair' and then check-out by 5 PM.  So you are left to guess this.  I'm guessing....hernia issues, and the surgery didn't go as planned.

A big deal?  No....if you asked a hundred guys who've had modern-era hernia situation...99 will say it went as the doctor described, and one guy will say that he spent a night or two in the hospital.

How many folks go and have this done on 1 January?  Well....I just can't think of many doctors who do elective surgery on a holiday.  If you really wanted to hide the issue....I agree....maybe on the 26th of December, I would have had this done and been back at work by the 2nd of January.

People wanting privacy on their medical situation?  That's really the big issue.  There are certain people who would blab to ten-thousand folks about having such-and-such medical business....wanting sympathy or gossip.  I doubt that Austin wanted any chatter about his situation and figured not mentioning this to Biden was legit.  

Just Observations

 1.  My take on this Harvard plagiarism deal with Claudine Gay?

First, it's a private school that 99.9-percent of Americans would never attend (mostly because of cost).....so none of this discussion should matter.

But, they went to hire someone with a PhD (apparently you can't be the Chancellor there without such a degree), and never went to double-check the thesis written 20 years ago for problems.  Once someone did and found a number of citation errors, the board never stepped up to do a survey.  

If you were talking about one single paragraph....lifted off someone's book/study...it's probably not a big deal.  Five or six screw-ups?  Yeah, you'd have to assume they knew what they were doing.  

Some board ought to exist....that reads over problems like this and yanks your degree if you screwed-up that bad.

2.  Maybe it's just me, but I get this impression that Nicki Haley (candidate) never got past the 9th grade.  

3.  I'd say there are six weeks of DeSantis activity left, before he runs out of funds.

4.  I expect it to be common by the end of 2024....that over half the movies produced (ever)....will require some kind of warning at the beginning that you might be 'triggered'.

5.  It is conceivable that we may reach election day in November....having Trump on the 50 state ballots, and at least ten states refusing to 'read' or count the votes.  If you thought things were crazy now....it just gets worse. 

The Game I Won't Play

 It was around 130 years ago....that some mental-health doctors finally sat down and did some analysis over the problem of people having imaginary/invisible friends.  From what is written of the era, there was a trend underway (various social circles)....where a phenomenon of social business was conducted.  Meaning?  Like-minded people gathered...sipped tea, coffee or wine, and talked about their 'friend' (the one that didn't really exist).

Some people would just go simple on this route....saying the non-existent friend was a ghost or some angel.  As the decades passed....this went to a more science-fiction like creation....being aliens, robots or vampire-like creation.

I worked with a Air Force NCO who was a instructor at some AF school.  He'd been forced into the instructor status (unhappily).

Before his Air Force years....he'd spent most of two years in New York City as a ambulance 'helper'.  On slow days, he'd talk about the patients picked up (most all had psychological issues).

One day in the Air Force class...he had deal with a 19-year old female airman.  Having failed a test, he was supposed to counsel her (basically to tell her to clean up her act) and review her notes.  The notes were not that readable and had a lot of symbiology drawn out.  Her response was that she could read them, and her friend 'Jessica'.  Ok...he thought, and the counseling ended.

Later in the room....he noted that she sat in the far corner of the class....with a empty table next to her.  He gazed at the class listing of students.....no 'Jessica'.  Just on a hunch....he walked over and asked where 'Jessica' was  and she pointed at the empty table.  That was enough to set my associate off....running to the commander.

The base clinic took her in....spent two or three weeks making sure she wasn't dangerous, and then gave her papers for exiting the Air Force.  They weren't going to keep her.  

If she hadn't failed the test?  Oh, I would imagine she would have gone onto 20 years of service....spending the whole 20 with 'Jessica' and be nearing 60 years old presently with her imaginary friend.

I'm not anti-imaginary friend....but I'm probably not pro-invisible friend.  It's like some gal walking around and imagining that she has a horse tail, or has a body covered in non-existent tattoos, or that she has a imaginary 'male-'tool'.  

When you suggest I need to cooperate with your friend's situation and just accept the invisible robot-friend or imaginary cowboy 'Lex'....I'd rather not play the game.  

My Humble View of the UAP/UFO Discussion

 Back in mid-December 2023....the UAP Disclosure Act came to a point where all the big things to happen....were watered down.  It's not a failure as it passed, but it obviously worried some key House committee (GOP) members.  

So to lay out the discussion and where things are obviously 'stuck'.....imagine that you had some crashed UFO in the 1940s, and decided as a gov't official.....the key thing to do is reverse-engineer the craft.  You don't have the best or brightest....so you go and hire some aerospace company (or two) to do the work.

These companies mostly go and hire engineers....not physicists.  And they keep the number of people on the inside of this....as small as possible. 

Decade goes by....you get paid for reverse-engineering, but to be honest, there's just not much that you achieved.

1960s go by....same story.

Early 70s....you go and convince the powers to be that maybe you should control the crashed UFOs yourself....not the Pentagon.  Then you suggest that all technology to be gained....ought to belong to you....because of your effort.  All of this....while still getting a couple billion dollars a year to pay for....get this....almost no success on reverse engineering.

So the 1980s pass....1990s pass, and here we are in 2024....with a couple of crashed UFOs and nothing much achieved in reverse-engineering.

What you wouldn't want to admit in public....being a Fortune-500 company....is that you consumed 100-odd-billion dollars over fifty years and have nothing much to show for all that money.

So keeping this a secret.....that you took a ton of money and did nothing to show for it....is really the sad part of the story, which you need to keep secret.

Another 50 years of zero reverse-engineering....with half-a-trillion dollars spent?  Yeah, that's the angle of this whole 'game' now. 

2100: Artificial Intelligence (AI), My Friend Or My Enemy?

 This is one of my random essays where I preview the future.

First....I won't be around....so don't blame me for the crap caused.

Newspapers?  There will likely be only three major newspapers left at that point in time...publishing only in digital form, and have fewer than a dozen actual journalists each.  The bulk of writing will be by some AI form.  Even at your state/local situation...it'll be probably three or four actual human journalists....the bulk done by some AI system sitting in Utah.  

When you subscribe to a newspaper....it'll ask you forty-odd questions and virtually all the news you receive will be in the format that you prefer.  So if you like stories about dogs saving people, or silly jokes, or how badly Trump's grandson 'Waldo' is doing as President in 2100....that's what you will read.  Some people will get seven pages of sports news....crafted by AI to fit your preference.

On TV?  AI will ask about your preferences and create updated versions of Gunsmoke, Mannix, Kojack, or Rockford Files.  A couple of networks will retain actual actors, but more than half of what you see is artificial creation.  One network will promise a once a week sexual romp between a AI-Elvis creation and a AI-Dolly Parton creation.  

Your business trends?  AI-advisors will exist and tell CEOs how to manage their company.  More than half of the CEOs in America will be idiots who faked their school business with help from AI, and can't do more than 5th grade math or analysis.

At some point around 2095, someone will discover that a board went out and hired a AI-CEO (without telling anyone) and have virtual meetings with the virtual CEO each morning....done in a crisp 8-minute chat.

AI sports will start to occur, where the 1927 Yankees have been recreated and formed into a league which includes the 1964 Cardinals.  Games will be generated and people will $100 to attend a big-screen 2-hour game.  

Guys will sign up and pay thousands of dollars for AI-dating advice or AI analysis of the gal they will be dating.  AI will respond at times....telling the gal secretly of the intent or contract....asking the gal is she wants to pay for fraudulent analysis....to get the inside situation with this guy.

AI will shock people by creating an AI-God and AI-religion.  Thousands will be involved in AI-created cults.

AI will monitor all your traffic along the way to the 3-hours of work you do each day....telling you of poor driving habits of this gal, or drinking habits of that guy.  At various points, AI-driver will step  in and recommend that you allow 'him' to drive.  Most people in their 20s will have no driving skills whatsoever....letting AI do all of their driving.  Accidents will drop like a rock.

AI  will reach a point of criticizing stupid people...sending them text messages that they should stop spending money, drop this love-interest, or counter the stress in their lives.

A study in 2098 will reveal that virtually no one who holds a PhD....can actually do PhD-level work, and it's been on that trend for more than a decade. 

An entire bridge in 2058 will have been designed, built and certified in Spain....by AI.  The fact that it collapsed four years later....will have nothing to do with AI....so we will be told.

Virtually all world x-rated video created in 2048 will be AI-generated out of a Chinese company.  

AI will lead human explorers to some area of western Africa where an enormous diamond field will be found in 2048.  

AI-logic will be used on drug-addicts in California in 2037....to determine if there is any use in lengthening their lives, and in 70-percent cases....will recommend giving them as much drugs as possible to end their torment.

AI will begin to list corrupt politicians to the public by 2033 by tracking their bank accounts and spending habits.  

As Social Security reaches a failure stage finally in 2037....AI will be introduced and find a way of saving it.  By 2039.....virtually all of the manpower functions will be replaced by AI.  The system....known as 'Max', will offer to take on all financial requirements of the US government.  

AI systems will note in 2044 that they can do a better job of teaching kids than humans.  By 2054, half the teaching positions in America will be eliminated, and kids as early as age 13....will be deemed fully prepared for the world...graduating five years early. 

In 2079, some US President will suggest a AI-statue be designed in DC to honor all the great work that has occurred.  Only the President, four AI-pods to report on the unveiling, the President's hooker-gal, and two Senators will be at the event.   AI will later comment that sooner or later....someone will change the constitution to allow AI to be President.  

House Tour

 My German wife has hyped up the idea of buying into a condo (apartment) property in the city (Wiesbaden).  The chatter goes along the lines that city life would be so wonderful.  The fact that we live barely 2 miles outside of the city limits....never seems to figure into this concept.

Last month, she found another place to go check out.  

I should state....there are about 12 conditions to this ideal property in her mind (balcony, 2nd bathroom, 1st floor preferred, parking spot, etc).

So we get  to the property and the guy is showing us around.  It is 4-star and pretty much what you'd expect for inner-city life.  

In fact, it met all conditions....but it had two issues.

First, this  place was built around 1905 and a lot of the ceiling decoration business.  But in the living room....there's this one demonic devil's head figure above the doorway.  Being southern bred.....there's a part of me that simply gazed at the demon's head and gave me a odd feeling.

I checked....yeah, it could be yanked down, without serious damage.

Oddly, I never said anything much to the wife, and throughout this hour-visit....she never noticed this 'head'.  It was fixed about 18 inches above the exit doorway.  It bothered me in some way that she didn't notice this.

But then we come to the second issue.  I stood on the front balcony....full view of a major street, and across the way was a sign for a German 'Jesus-Center'....basically a hangout for homeless folks to come....sip coffee, and I would imagine....talk Jesus-stuff.  It's about 200 ft across the street....direct-wise.

It is an odd part of the city....where a fair number of people do hang out all day.  

I'm not anti-Jesus, but having this as my view.....well....in my mind, you'd have to knock off 20,000 Euro off the price for the location issue....with some homeless characters walking around.  

Luckily, the wife found other negatives, and I didn't have say too much negative.   

Ten Observations

 1.  New law in California (SB-1383) says that you need to properly dispose of food waste, and if you fail....a city can had down a fine.  So you have to examine each thing you put into a garbage can, and if the food item violates the local understanding.

Just guessing....bunch of California folks will collect up their food waste, and just toss it on the street or highway in the future....to avoid garbage can violations/fines.

2.  Candidate Nikki Haley says it's highly inappropriate to call the illegal immigrants 'criminals'.  

I paused over this....if you illegally entered the US and don't have some visa or paperwork stamped from Border Patrol....you are illegal and thereby a criminal (violation of law).

On electability?  On my index of 1-to-10....Haley is probably a '4' at best now, at least among Republicans and independents. 

3.  Why did Epstein invite Hillary Clinton to the island?

Mystery stuff, and it's best not to ask how that two or three days went.  The odds that Hillary met up and socialized with Prince Andrew?  

4.  All this stuff on Trump, with Epstein's 'list'?

Well....if you read between the lines....he uses the flights to get from point A to point B....never once getting to the isle or any of Epstein's homes.   Curious thing....showing extreme frugal nature of Trump...always out to get a free ride/free deal.

5.  Just my humble belief, within two years....the Star Wars 'story' will end and be shut-down for ten years as the owners hope all the crapped-up storyline is forgotten.  Disney will end up selling the 'franchise' to some non-American company for ten cents on the dollar.

6.   Just seems to be a lot of effort by social media, news media and entertainment media....to enrage people.  

7.  It does appear that DoJ is charging Ray Epps up for disorderly conduct....which seems to be a deal for jail-time (6 months max....figure 4 months and out on good behavior).  Epps just accepting this?  That's the odd part....no one says much.

8.   Another UAP/UFO presentation to the House next week?  Yeah.  

9.  Some poll done saying VP Harris is rating lower than Dick Cheney.  

10.  Some medical study done....saying older folks with eye problems....are more likely to trip/fall, than older folks with corrected vision.  If you'd asked folks about this 30 years ago....they would have already told you this blunt truth.