The Putsch Push

 

 

The previous government we have all known for the many decades is now gone.  The Putsch occurred on January 31st when the elected government run by the Rs with the help of their henchmen took over the constitutional government of the United States.  Here is the story:

The New York Times reported over the weekend that the Treasury Secretary "gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to five people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending."

Politico reports that Secretary Scott Bessent "privately reassured Republican lawmakers Monday that Elon Musk and his team do not have control over a sensitive government system that manages the flow of trillions of dollars in payments, according to five lawmakers in the room for a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill."

Based on that meeting, Musk and his coders were only given "read only" access.

Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall on Tuesday morning dropped this bombshell: He alleges a Musk associate has made changes to the Treasury's payment systems at the code level.

"Overnight, Wired reported that contrary to published reports that DOGE operatives at the Treasury Department are limited to ‘read only’ access to department payment systems, this is not true," Marshall wrote. "A 25 year old DOGE operative named Marko Elez in fact has admin privileges on these critical systems which directly control and pay out roughly 95% of payments made by the US government including Social Security checks, tax refunds and virtually all contract payments."

“Elon just grabbed the controls of our whole payment system, demanding the power to turn it on for his friends or turn it off for anyone he doesn’t like,” said U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Monday (video below). “One guy deciding who gets paid and who doesn’t.”

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, "rejected the idea that Musk allies’ access to the payments system was as limited as Republicans and the administration are claiming," as Politico reported.

“Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has ‘viewing access’ to Treasury’s highly sensitive payment system as if that’s acceptable either. But why on earth should we believe that—particularly when he is saying the exact opposite loudly and repeatedly for everyone to see?” Murray declared.

Controlling the payment process is Control. 

And there is so much more.

USAID, the Congressionally created foreign aid agency, was illegally shut down:

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The Trump administration said it would lock U.S. Agency for International Development workers out of their headquarters in downtown Washington DC for a second day on Tuesday as it moved to shutter the agency, prompting two Democratic senators to vow to block confirmations of State Department nominees in protest.

And the Education Department is next:

The Education Department is responsible for distributing federal financial aid for education, and for collecting and disseminating data and research related to schools. The department is also tasked with enforcing non-discrimination policies in schools.

Generally, it supports federal college loan programs and Pell Grants, and also vocational training.

And there are the Firings of the FBI agents who worked up the prosecution of this criminal president.  And the Firings of the Inspector Generals without cause or notice to Congress

Firing Civil Service workers without cause is illegal. 

The Spoils system which is now being reintroduced by this administration is no longer the law.  Under that "spoils system," the main job requirement for most federal employees was loyalty.  Sound familiar? And its change took a Presidential assassination and an energized vice president named Teddy Roosevelt to change the spoils policy of Andrew Jackson to the non-partisan civil service of today.

Two major unions representing U.S. government employees filed a lawsuit on Wednesday aimed at slowing the new administration's effort to reclassify up to 50,000 federal workers and make it easier to fire them.

 

The American Federation of Government Employees and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said Trump in a Jan. 20 executive order improperly attempted to block a Biden administration rule shielding federal workers from being stripped of job protections.

 

Last week, a Federal judge ruled that the actions at OMB are unconstitutional.  Yet, the payments have not returned. And who can enforce the orders of the court when the orders are ignored?

There are those who say that the D's bring a knife to a R gunfight.  Truth is, it's worse, they  bring a Thesaurus.  More words, different words, fancier words, harsh words if they are really mad. Soon, they will bring their Constitutions.

Perhaps the words of Andrew Coyne from our Ally to the North says it better than they do:

Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.

The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.

There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do – to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world – is incalculable. 

We are living in the time of Nero.

And the Putsch Push is On. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We Are Not Afraid

  

 

As we go into the New Year, there is a majority that did not vote for a soon to be convicted felon, and we certainly don't look forward to the parade of Halloween appointments that he is insisting be confirmed with  no debate or for that matter, no hearing. The new Senate will likely be more of a toilet bowl than a fine confirmation filter of assessing the character and competence to do the job well.  Most have a different mission in mind.

And when you consider that much of the government is going to be run by billionaires, it becomes clear that the day of the Plutocrats has come. This from ABC news:

"President-elect Donald Trump has assembled the wealthiest presidential administration in modern history, with at least 13 billionaires set to take on government posts.

They include a wrestling magnate, a private space pioneer, a New York real estate developer, the heir to a small appliance empire, and the wealthiest man on the planet -- with several being donors and close personal friends of the incoming president.

In total, the combined net worth of the wealthiest members of his administration could surpass $460 billion, including Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk -- whose net worth of more than $400 billion exceeds the GDP of mid-sized countries.

Even discounting Musk, Trump's cabinet is still expected to be the wealthiest in history, with reported billionaires Howard Lutnick nominated as commerce secretary, Linda McMahon nominated as education secretary, and Scott Bessent nominated as treasury secretary. Together, Trump's expected cabinet is worth at least $7 billion.

Trump's ambassador picks also include several billionaires, including financier Warren Stephens, who has been tapped to serve as the ambassador to the United Kingdom, Conair executive Leandro Rizzuto Jr., tapped to serve as the ambassador to the Organization of American States, Charles Kushner, named the ambassador to France, and Tom Barrack, named the ambassador to Turkey."

So let us consider the veneer of democracy in the United States to be sanded off to the core.

The good news is that the bad news is even worse.

Yes, as we move into this new year, the "Day after Tomorrow" might be in the next few years.  This from Live Science:

Forty-four of the world's leading climate scientists have called on Nordic policymakers to address the potentially imminent and "devastating" collapse of key Atlantic Ocean currents.

In an open letter published online Monday (Oct. 21), University of Pennsylvania climatologist Michael Mann and other eminent scientists say the risks of weakening ocean circulation in the Atlantic have been greatly underestimated and warrant urgent action.

The currents in question are those forming the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a giant ocean conveyor belt that includes the Gulf Stream and transports vital heat to the Northern Hemisphere. Research shows the AMOC is slowing down and could soon reach a tipping point due to global warming, throwing Earth's climate into chaos.

An AMOC collapse would lead to major cooling and extreme weather in Nordic countries, according to the letter. This would enlarge and deepen a strange "cold blob" that has already developed over the eastern North Atlantic due to the slowdown of heat-carrying currents. Collapsing ocean currents are also likely to precipitate climate impacts across the Northern Hemisphere, threatening agriculture in Northwestern Europe, according to the letter.

Halted ocean currents could also further heighten sea levels along the American Atlantic coast and send marine ecosystems and fisheries into a state of "upheaval."

Scientists have been genuinely concerned about the increase of the drunk high level jet stream winds that have brought inordinate cold and heat to much of the planet over the last several years. 

But even as we face the certainty of our climate changing radically as a result of our carbon burning ways led by a government that will once again deny it, we face another radical change that is more unknown, more human changing, and just as likely to have profound influence on our economy and the way we manage ourselves.  It is AI and ultimately, it is the Singularity.

 

The Singularity

The concept of a technological singularity as it is known today is largely credited to Dr. Vernor Vinge, a mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction author who is best known for his Hugo award-winning novel, A Fire Upon the Deep, and for his 1993 essay "The Technological Singularity", in which he argues that exponential growth in technology will reach a point beyond which we cannot even speculate about the consequences.

Vinge's essay contains the following frequently-quoted statement:

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly thereafter, the human era will be ended."

The Singularity is seen not only as the end of human civilization, but as the birth of a new one. In his essay, Vinge asks why the human era should end, and argues that humans will likely be transformed in the process of the Singularity to a higher form of intelligent existence. After the creation of a superhuman intelligence, according to Vinge, people will necessarily be a lower lifeform in comparison to it. 

If the Singularity is real then the following scenario is totally plausible:

In the near future, individuals and corporations will become super beings as the rest of us slowly but surely become "lessers". Thus, the need for cybercoops which can compete on this new playing field is not just a good idea, it will be a necessity.

We will need the very best communicators and the best, most democratic unifying agency we can find just to keep from becoming slaves. The geographic state will not be able to help us. We will need a cyber state. 

You are capable of competing with the big guys.

Because you have joined with others to form a new human organism.

You have joined with People of Conscience and People of Vision.

We are not afraid. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We are Alpha

 

 

It was twenty years ago that I started publishing Earthfamilyalpha.

It was November of 2004 and a corrupt, war mongering R had been reelected POTUS. We were all crestfallen.  Four more years of Bush was simply unimaginable. And yet it came with "You are doing a heck of a job Brownie" as the residents of New Orleans fled their homes as waters submerged them entirely.  Bush did a flyover.

So I decided I would start a blog and write almost every day until the situation changed. And in 2008, a half black man, raised by white grand-parents became the first man of color ever elected as president.  And he beat his formidable challenger and partner of former President Clinton in the primary as a first term senator.  McCain was washed out to sea by the collapse of Wall Street and the housing and mortgage crisis that came with it.

Bush was elected in 2004 over John Kerry by a margin of 35 electoral votes (286-251) with a 3 million popular vote lead. ( 62 to 59 million) He beat Gore by 5 electoral votes in 2000 yet lost the popular vote by 1/2 million.

And now, 20 years later, we have another corrupt, hate mongering R reelected into the Presidency.  His campaign of misogyny and racism, combined with his xenophobic war mongering prevailed over an electorate that barely knows the name of both their senators. And for the first time in American history, a convicted Felon will also become the oldest president in our history. And even though the Rs consider this a mandate to paint everything red, he didn't even get a majority of our votes. (49.8%)

This from the New Republic:

"CNN’s Harry Enten reports that Trump is now under 50 percent for the popular vote, and his margin is the forty-fourth worst out of 51 presidential elections since 1824. Four Democrats won Senate seats in states that Trump won (Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada), compared to zero in the 2016 and 2020 elections. And while Republicans held on to their House majority, if results hold, their 221–214 margin will be the smallest majority in the 50-state era. "

So, as this R takes his oath this January, he is lame. And his so called mandate is a myth.

But as  Albert Einstein once quipped, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."And the reality of a mandate may also be a very persistent one. And as the first convicted criminal to be returned to office, his criminal nature will also return.  And this makes him different from the Bushes and Reagan.

It may be more like Nixon. Even though he eked out a victory in 1968 by 20 electoral votes, he crushed McGovern in 1972 by 503 votes.

Less than 2 years later he resigned.

But Nixon didn't have Fox news.  And today's R's do not have the character of Barry Goldwater. And our legacy media does not have the moral clarity or the ownership that allows it. Our R friends love to love their Bibles.  And the Bible says that the Love of money is the root of all evil.

Evil's roots are in the garden.

Humankind is on the precipice. 

Climate Change must be addressed now if not by the Nations then through the Cities by organizations such as C 40, and in time, by Cyberstates. Because our governments and our corporations have delayed for so long, strategies will have to include Mitigation and Adaptation.

Solar, Wind, and new innovative energy production must be accelerated to replace fossil fuels.

Stationary and Mobile Energy Storage must become ubiquitous and transportation of all modes must become electric.

Human habitation must evolve to reduce consumption and increase comfort.

Plutocratic Corporations must be replaced by Democratic Cooperations so that consumers become buyers and producers become providers.

Artificial Intelligence must be removed from profit taking and controlled by limiting the enormous amounts of energy that they require so that this tool is used for the good of all of Earth's inhabitants.

Nuclear weapons must be banned and destroyed.

Human population must be managed to sustainable levels.

We must Respect Self, Others, and Place.

In essentials,  we must have Unity.

In non-essentials, we can enjoy our Liberty.

And in all things, we practice Charity

And so, rather than writing every day, or starting a pod cast, or beginning a hunger strike,  or continue to grieve the naivety of our geographic democracy, I'm going to actually start what I started here 20 years ago.

Since its inception, the primary thesis of Earthfamilyalpha has appeared on the home page.

With the advent of advanced global communication, new forms of social contract can be created which transcend the geographic state. These new cybercoops or cyberstates will bring humankind to higher levels of cooperation and understanding.

We as people of conscience can come together using the communications network and devices that didn't even exist when this blog was born. We are no longer bound by geography. We are cyberbeings.  And for now, we are free to choose our future.  We participate in our geographic state, but do not identify with it.

The new Earthfamilyalpha website will be up in a few days.  Our plan is to have a global convention next November.  At this convention, we will write our Declaration of Dependence and our Constitution.

We are Alpha.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Man Wave

 

It was All Saints Day and it was like a light switch.  I have had enough of DJ Drumph.  I don't want to hear his voice or watch his accordion hands, or gaze upon his dragging right leg, or the orange powdered face of a broadway player in a truly disgusting role.  I don't want to hear one more lie, one more mean spirited characterization of  his former Chief of Staff, the Joint Chief of our armies, or his Secretary of Defense.

And I don't want to see him give his microphone a blow job  after stroking it. He is gross and he has brought American political discourse to a realm somewhere below Hades.

Talking Points Memo said it well:

As Clear A Referendum As Ever Could Be

"Donald Trump slogged through the final weekend of his third presidential campaign as the Republican Party nominee demonstrating in blatant ways nearly every facet of the misbegotten character that makes him unfit for public office at any level.

He mimed stroking and fellating a microphone on a rally stage in Milwaukee. He talked favorably of the press corps in attendance taking bullets intended for him at a rally in Pennsylvania. He said he should have never left the White House after his 2020 election defeat, contemplating a coup by intransigence. He bizarrely claimed that the counting of votes should be over by 9 p.m. on election night, thus stoking anew bogus election fraud conspiracies centered on the time it takes to count votes.

It wasn’t that long ago that the most persistent challenge Republicans in public life presented to reporters, watchdogs, and the sanctity of the English language was disguising their unpopular, often cruel, and elaborately expensive policy preferences under layers of double talk, misdirection, and word play. With Trump it is all undisguised. 

Perhaps we can count that as a small blessing.

On the margins of this campaign, Trump and his surrogates have muddied the waters around health care policy, Medicare, tariffs, and taxation. Political reporters still fall for this gamesmanship. But where it counted most – trying to soften the edges of Republicans’ brutal abortion policies – the political press was largely on point and unfooled.

For the most part though, what you see with Trump is what you get. 

It is why his defeat will be so cathartic and represent a genuine repudiation of the man and his movement. 

It is also why a Trump victory would be so devastating. As unfathomable as a Trump win would be after the last decade of Trumpism and especially the past three weeks of his careening, unhinged campaign, it remains a real possibility. History will show that we knew everything we needed to know. Ignorance will be no excuse.

But, I believe that it will be the former.

And so does Michael Moore:

As you know, I have been loathe to predict how I really feel the election is going to turn out on Tuesday. But I’m guessing by now you’ve picked up a basic sense from me that, contrary to the breathless punditry of how “dangerously close” this election is — It’s a tie! It’s a 50-50 country! It’s neck-and-neck! It’s kneecap-to-kneecap! Trump’s gonna win!

I have felt for a long time that not only is Trump going to lose (because, yes, I have a lot of faith in the goodness of my fellow Americans), but Kamala Harris is going to win, and win big. With crowd-size numbers that even Trump will be blown away by, meaning this is the last that we will see him (unless Dr. Phil does a live special from Epstein Island a few years from now). "

Moore goes on to quoting from his favorite pollster, Rachel Bitecofer:

"And what we see in these data is overwhelmingly positive for Harris.

As I have documented in previous posts, the Trump Team’s theory of the 2024 case was that since Dobbs was political kryptonite for Trump, they would build their strategy around men.

It probably took being a woman political scientist to fully recognize the folly that is designing your entire electoral strategy around getting men who don’t normally vote, to vote.

During football season, no less.

Here’s how it’s going: (more)

"Now, to be clear, the gender gap we see in early voting and registration data is not dissimilar from what we saw in both 2020 and 2022. But Democrats didn’t need an even bigger gap, it was already huge and Joe Biden won with that gender gap.

What Democrats needed was to maintain that advantage in the face of 2 years and millions in investment from Trump and Republican superPACs to drive more men to the polls to maximize their own gender gap to offset ours.

And there is not one iota of evidence that suggests they have been successful in this effort.

And don’t forget: the Man Wave strategy was not without costs for the Trump campaign, Trump further isolated a key part of the voting universe: college educated whites.

Sneer at the White voters all you want but you should know there is one group of White Americans who actually like multicultural, pluralistic democracy, and every cycle Democrats have made additional inroads with them: college educated White voters. (clip)

But there are strong signs that Democrats will continue to make inroads among college educated White voters, as they have every cycle since Trump descended down his golden escalator to debut his special brand of hate politics.

But in this cycle, the Harris campaign specifically targeted these voters with messaging designed to break their brand loyalty to the Republican Party.

As far as the Selzer poll this weekend in Iowa shows, it’s working."

Obviously, I'm thoroughly disgusted with my fellow XYs and Drumph will still win men.  And although this will be the first successful XX presidential election in this country,

There will be more.

As we YO YO our way 

through human history

into a climate change cloud of uncertainty.

 

 

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Den 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just got back from New Orleans.  It's been a while since we've been there.  And it seems that much of the  City is finally coming back from Hurricane Katrina and the one that followed a few weeks after that.  Back in the 90s, I was in NOLA pretty often.  Along with a group of environmental activists, we created a southern states climate change organization and New Orleans, Nashville, and Austin were the cities we met in.  So I got pretty comfortable there, spending much of my time off of St. Charles where the trolleys run. In my many visits, if I did go to the Quarter it would be to go to the Napoleon Bar, where I would work in that little cubby hole in the back of the restaurant.

I was pleased to find that not only do the trolleys still run, they have been restored.

And downtown in the Casino district, the World Trade Building is no longer a boarded up eyesore.  After languishing for almost a dozen years after Katrina, it has been transformed into the new Four Seasons Hotel.  The lobby bar is flashy and the view from the 5th floor restaurant is worth the effort.

So my partner and I flew to NOLA on Saturday and had dinner at Irene's that night in the quarter.  The next day we would join my pals who, believe it or not, have been friends since we were in Den 2 together back in the Texas panhandle almost 70 years ago. Six of us, plus 2 others from our boy scout troop have met at least every decade over the last 35 years. Only Larry has crossed over.

And all of us follow the Cub Scout motto  to "Do Your Best", and to have fun doing it.

Beginning on Sunday, we ate dinner together for 3 nights in a row. All but 2 of us had our partners with us.  All of us are successful hard living party types and this three days was no different.  But we did let off a little bit this time.  The first night, we ate at  the Court of Two Sisters in the Quarter on Royal.  We closed it up.

The next night we ate at Luke just off Poydras. It was only 4 blocks away from our Hotel, but somehow Hal got lost and followed his phone all the way to Lee Circle, almost exactly the wrong direction.  He told me that he didn't get back to the Meridien for two hours.

It was there at Luke that our truly exuberant server came over to me and lathered me with a ridiculous story about needing boots to go back into the freezer for just a moment.  She could have sold me my own car if she set her mind to it.  So I pull off my Blundstones and she leaves her shoes as collateral.` Then she goes over to the other side of our 12 top, shows Rick, Hal's twin brother that she had indeed succeeded in getting my boots off.  Rick, being duly impressed, went to his wallet and dished out 5 20s for her efforts, as his wife Annie looks on with little surprise.  

That's the kind of people we are.

The last night, we ate at a James Beard Award winning restaurant off Magazine Street called Pesce.

During the days, we visited the greatly improved World War II museum, rode the trolleys through the Garden district to Carrolton, and took in the Aquarium with its butterfly room.

Now, let me explain something.  The Texas Panhandle is one of the most Republican districts in the good old US of A.  And except for John, my college roommate who moved to LA after graduation, all of these guys are Trump voting Rs. While John lived in LA he made his living counting cards in Las Vegas for 10 years until they finally threw him out with the help of cheap video cameras and inexpensive storage.  John later bought a bank supply company in Amarillo.

Tommy, who almost fell to his death in Stonewall, Colorado, except for me catching him as his rope broke, instead grew into a successful lawyer in Waxahachee .  His partner, Nancy, is an Episcopalian Priest. Jimmie and Beth live in Colorado where he started his Beef Jerky company.  McCloskey used his Indian blood to become a dentist in California.  The Cree twins ran their grandparents oil business while owning banks,  and many other ventures. We even worked together on his Wind investments.

If anyone mentioned the election, I didn't hear it.  But whoever wins, we will still be friends. And this country will need for friends to find their commonalities in order to heal from one of the ugliest political movements we've seen in a 100 years.

It's hard to erase  the racism and misogyny in our superego.

Eating together instead of each other will help.

Thanks Den 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Voyagers on Earth

 

Remember that time on Star Trek when they were facing a new unknown enemy? The ship was a machine ship with no carbon based life forms aboard.  It was called VGER.

As it turned out, VGER was short for Voyager, an evolved artificial intelligence that returned to Earth in Star Trek (the Motion Picture) and ascended to explore higher levels of existence. It is probably the most powerful artificial entity encountered by Starfleet.

Now I'm not a big Trecky fan, but there were a lot of things that I appreciate that came from the mind of Texan Gene Roddenberry. One, the cast is multi cultural and multi species.  The purpose of the missions was to explore the universe. There is no such thing as money.  There is no pursuit of capital just pursuit of knowledge. 

In the real world, our Voyagers are now almost 20 billion miles away and they have entered space where the solar winds no longer exist. It takes about a day to send or receive a message from them.  And we lost contact with VGER 1 just last year.

This from BBC's Sky and Night:

"On 14 November 2023, the spacecraft suddenly began transmitting unintelligible data instead of its usual engineering and science report.

The spacecraft still appeared to be receiving commands and operating normally, allowing the team to diagnose the problem lay in Voyager 1’s software and develop a fix.

On 20 April, the team received the first understandable message back from the spacecraft in five months.

In 2012, Voyager 1 passed through the heliopause, the boundary at the edge of the solar wind’s influence and the start of interstellar space. The twin Voyagers are the only spacecraft to have ventured into this region, making their invaluable data worth fighting for.

After 47 years in space, both Voyager 1 and 2 are beginning to reach the end of their usable lifespan. Both are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, using radioactive material to generate electricity. As this radioactive material decays over time, its power output slowly decreases. 

Even once all its scientific systems are shut down, Voyager will continue transmitting a locator signal back to Earth, which will remain in range of the Deep Space Network until 2036.  At that point, the Voyagers will sail beyond our sight, but will continue to travel ever outward into the depths of the Universe."

But if they do wind up in some other galaxy, they know where to find us, thanks to the copper plates we put on them at the suggestion of Carl Sagan.  We also included a golden record. 

This from Wikipedia:

The Voyager Golden Records are two identical phonograph records which were included aboard the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977.^[1] The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them.

Carl Sagan noted that "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space, but the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

Whether or not VGER returns as advanced AI, who can say.  But we can say that our own AI on this planet is clearly headed into distant regions of Cyber Space.  I saw at least three different softwares advertised during the Olympics, one suggesting that students should use it for thank you notes.  The message of Verner Vinge and the Singularity seem particularly relevant as we earthlings find ourselves hurling threw Space/Time.

We are all Voyagers on Earth.  And we need to look forward to find our place in this universe and in this time. The Merchants of Fear will always be with us. But as it is said, We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.

And as we dance to the hopeful beat of the Harris Walz, I choose to be optimistic about our future despite the urgent need for climate stabilization and the nuclear wars and starvation that will follow our non-action.

And like Earnest Tubb and Willie Nelson,

 I'll Walz across Texas with you by my side.

for  When we Dance together

 my world's in disguise

 it's a fairyland tale that's come true.

 

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HOT HOT HOT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last days of July will go down in the record books.

First of all, it was HOT. (except in Texas) The hottest day ever NASA says:

July 22, 2024, was the hottest day on record, according to a NASA analysis of global daily temperature data. July 21 and 23 of this year also exceeded the previous daily record, set in July 2023. These record-breaking temperatures are part of a long-term warming trend driven by human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases.  

“In a year that has been the hottest on record to date, these past two weeks have been particularly brutal,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Through our over two dozen Earth-observing satellites and over 60 years of data, NASA is providing critical analyses of how our planet is changing and how local communities can prepare, adapt, and stay safe. We are proud to be part of the Biden-Harris Administration efforts to protect communities from extreme heat.”

In the meantime, the R's act like climate change is religion, not physics.  And that gives others the hall pass to say and think stupidly with impunity.

And it was HOT in the body politic as the upcoming election between a convicted felon and a 81 year old political veteran who was the youngest senator ever as well as the oldest president turned on a dime as Biden announced he would withdraw from the race.  In the blink of an eye, the felon became the old doddering dangerous fool as his opponent transmogrified into a competent prosecutor and campaigner. 

In another blink of an eye just days before, the FPOTUS  missed being assassinated by about an inch in Western Pennsylvania by a 20 year old with an AR 15. At the R national convention, he milked it by wearing an odd square mini-pad on his ear.  Of course, others followed.

But with Harris becoming the new standard bearer,  the  "D" electorate awoke from its slumber to the tune of 200 million dollars in one week, 310 million by the end of the month.

And why not?

As Michael Moore opined today:

So my friends, 100 days from today is November 5th. Election day. 100 days from today. I mean, I have to ask, he’s probably not listening, but does Trump even know what happened this week? It took just five days. This week. It took just five days. 

Nothing like it had ever happened before in American history. And yet by this past Thursday, a mere five days after President Biden’s 1:46 p.m. Sunday afternoon announcement of him ending his reelection campaign and handing the candidacy over to his Vice President, Kamala Harris. Just five days. And that’s all it took for the Wall Street Journal on Thursday — you know the Wall Street Journal, right? No friend to women, People of Color, young voters, the poor, the working class, the Wall Street Journal, this grand oracle of capitalism, conservative ideology, and the force that is Rupert Murdoch. 

That newspaper ran this stunning historic headline. And, I mean, I looked at it and I said, “Wow, this is one for the ages.” Ready for it. This is all it said: “Harris Erases Trump’s Lead, WSJ Poll Finds”. “Harris Erases Trump’s Lead” — Wow. That’s how long it took. Five days.  

Apparently, somewhere along the way, Trump Van Winkle must have fallen into a deep sleep and missed the memo that many white men like him also seem to miss. It read something like this: “America is no longer your America — you, the members of the exclusive club for the gender that’s missing the second X chromosome. 

So what’s the takeaway here? It’s quite simple. Are you ready? I’ll say it slow if you want to write this down: There are more of us than there are of them. We are now the Majority. We, America, are a liberal nation. Doesn’t matter, from abortion to climate, to the economy, to the Millennials who would vote for a Socialist, that’s who we are now. And we’re going to elect the first woman, a black woman, no less, to be the President of the United States.  (this is the point that we knock on wood)

But truly, the polls are just as HOT.  This from Simon at Hopium:

It’s A New, Bluer Election - 8 polls have been released this week showing Vice President Harris leading (all polls via 538): 

• 49%-45% (+4) Civiqs 

• 49%-46% (+3) Leger (was +7 Trump) 

• 48%-46% (+2) FAU (was +5 Trump) 

• 46%-44% (+2) Economist/YouGov (was +3 Trump last week!!!!!!) 

• 45%-43% (+2) Redfield and Wilton

• 50%-48% (+2) American Pulse Research and Polling

• 44%-42% (+2) Angus Reid Global 

• 47%-46% (+1) Morning Consult

And the all-important swing states are just as HOT.

A new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll had Harris leading the battlegrounds 48-47, and ahead in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, tied in Georgia, and down just 2 North Carolina.

That leaves Pennsylvania, so all eyes are going to be there.  There's more electoral votes there than Arizona and Nevada combined.

Meanwhile, the greatest Olympic production in 100 years in Paris is still on a roll.

And that flying floating caldron of Promethean Fire seems very fitting.

It's good to see the nations playing by the rules.

And then there's Persia and Israel.

Very old enemies with very old ideas.

And they need to cool it,

So they don't ignite.

 

 

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The Safer Path

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all waited anxiously for the big day.  A friend joined us to watch because she was extra nervous.

It would be the day that the D's would prove that their 81 year old guy was clearly a better candidate than the R's 78 year old guy who, as they say, lies like a rug.  As the POTUS walked onto the CNN stage from the right, he looked pale and his walk was even more halting.  When he opened his mouth, mine fell open. And even though he got better, it was like watching a basketball game where your team falls twenty points behind in the first quarter.  Sure we were maybe down 15 at half and just by 10 in the third quarter, but it was never a competition.  Yes, there were some memorable shots and brief moments of hope, and yes, there might be another one in September.

But as the author of Strongmen said the next day on MSNBC, there is no debating when you are faced with a criminal who has no relationship with the truth, who simply says what's in his mind whether its real or not.  And generally it is NOT. And if he is not held to some modicum of reality, the debate just turns into a soapbox for his propaganda. Corporate media and  politicians must learn the truth of this.

So, to debate him again would seem like folly no matter how informed or skilled you may be.

Since then, the NYTs editorial board has called for Biden to withdraw.  So have a few others. They should be ashamed of their decision to ask a president with a cold to withdraw while simultaneously allowing a former president with a plethora of civil and criminal convictions to remain.

From the Times: "If the race comes down to a choice between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, the sitting president would be this board’s unequivocal pick. That is how much of a danger Mr. Trump poses. But given that very danger, the stakes for the country and the uneven abilities of Mr. Biden, the United States needs a stronger opponent to the presumptive Republican nominee. To make a call for a new Democratic nominee this late in a campaign is a decision not taken lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Mr. Trump’s challenge to the values and institutions of this country and the inadequacy of Mr. Biden to confront him."

Thankfully, the Philadelphia Inquirer did call for Dtrump's withdrawal.

"President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.

But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.

In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

In response, Biden made a powerful speech on Friday and apparently has raised over 33 million since that black Thursday. The cooler heads in the party talk of calming down. Remember Dtrump actually survived the pussy tape, mostly  because the R's had their gun loaded with stolen democratic party goodies thanks to the other R's as they shunted the news cycle in record time through their Wikileaks channel.

And we should have our hands around our own strategy to counter this event and reduce the odds of it happening again. And we must reduce our risk exposure by taking matters into our control.

Nothing can stop Biden from resigning the presidency and handing it over to Vice President Harris. She then can appoint a new Vice President who should probably be Governor Whitmer of Michigan. Whitmer only needs a majority of both houses to be confirmed.  And if the R's don't confirm her, that's another big story.

The New York Times and their followers will be a bit mortified yet emboldened by their ability to remove a president from office.  President Harris will want to give them the story they deserve.

In the blink of an eye, we will have the first female president of the United States.  The new 47th president will also be a person of color. The airwaves will be full of the historic moment.  Biden will be seen as a hero of the nation.  His positives will go way up. We will likely have the first all-female ticket in World History. More importantly, Ms Harris has the least negatives of any other democratic figure at -5%.

We can win back the House and keep the Senate.  We could make strides in restoring the Supreme Court to some semblance of balance and justice. We will continue Biden's work on Climate Change. Electric cars will continue to proliferate. With Congressional action, Women's health care will return to sanity.

If the women of America, along with all the other traditional democratic constituencies, blacks, hispanics, gays, and college educated whites can't beat the ugliest political force this country has seen in 100 years, then we do have a problem.

A Fascist White Christian Nation will no longer be just a Handmaids Tale.

It will be our own Highway to Hell.

Biden should relinquish his presidency 

for the good of the Republic. 

There is no safer path.

 

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