Rick Kinnaird

Day 1368 – Technology and SAMO

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Okay, I’ve got a small basket of odd facts to pass along.

Fox, Bret 

 interview with Kamala Harris. It is reported that he showed the wrong clip when trying to trap Kamala. What he showed was not a clip that illustrated the point that Trump has been saying some vile stuff on the campaign trail. Kind of like when – who was it? – got hold of thousands of hours of security tapes from Jan 6th and found one where two guys were standing in a hallway and said, “See. Nothing bad here, just typical tourists.” Oh yeah, Tucker Carlson. 

Speaking of old Tucker, his bit about Russian grocery stores and subways. Don’t know much about the grocery stores but the subways? Yeah. They are clean and all that. Somehow he forgot to mention they were built with slave labor and thousands died in their construction. But then that would require a minimum of research and who’s ever accused Tucker or anyone at Fox of really doing research, other than to dig up gotcha quotes and clips?

I’ve been reading Chip Wars. It tells the history of the microchip. Something  I grew up with and did not realize all that was going on. During the Vietnam War there was a bridge between North and South Vietnam. Despite numerous attempts the U.S. forces could not knock it out. Their bombs were too inaccurate. Then I fellow at Texas Instruments (TI) came up with a laser guided system that could be attached to the existing bombs. The way it worked was there was a lens on the front of the bomb that could be set to look at a target. This was actually a laser through the lens. There were fins on the back of the bomb. If the bomb veered off course the laser would move out of the frame of the lens. A microprocessor would adjust the fins to bring the laser back into the laser frame. 

With this new system the next time they did a bombing run with sixteen planes, twelve hit the bridge.

The U.S. Defense Department strategy to keep up with the Russians was to build smarter weapons. Russia went with volume. When Desert Storm, the Iraqi War, happened the success of the U.S. strategy was well demonstrated with the high accuracy of their weapon systems.

Moving on, we watched The Daily Show  last night. A drag queen was on. She pointed out that there are a lot of laws that have been passed in most of the states to try and limit health care for trans kids, most notably in the south. These laws also go after trans athletes. Now I get that you don’t want men who now claim to be women competing in women’s sports. But, that’s a slippery slope and one that has many pitfalls. It seems people are referring to the most egregious cases and passing laws based on them, or on the thought that something nefarious or terrible is going on. 

As this person pointed out on The Daily Show when the lawmakers trying to pass these laws were asked for numbers, as in numbers of cases of the type of thing they were trying to prevent, they didn’t have any. In other words, they were making up laws for things that may not really exist, or minimally exist. I remember old Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, puppy murderer, and most recently cheerleader for 39 minutes of listening to music with What’s His Name having passed a trans law in her state. It banded trans athletes from competing in female sports. Great. When the head athletic person in the state was asked how many trans athletes the state had the answer was “One” and that was a few years passed.

The woman on The Daily Show, Laverne Cox pointed out that 47 states have passed anti-trans laws and that this has led to an increase in violence against these people. I mean, they are people. You can debate their sex, but not their humanness. She also pointed out that the Republican lawmakers who are passing these laws seem to be fascinated by trans people. This based on the areas of the country that watch the most pornography of trans people. Seems to be an overlay of trans fear laws with trans porn. Huh. Kind of like the Baptist pastors who rail against homosexuality that are caught with gay boys?

But, I digress. The question for me comes down to “What do we as a society do?” 

There are folks that say there are only two sexes: man and woman. To which I have to raise my hand and say, “Question. When a person is born and they have both male and female genitalia, or if they outwardly look like a woman but have male sex organs internally or vice versa, and this happens a lot, they aren’t male or female, but both or neither. Correct?”

It’s easy to dismiss this, to turn a blind eye, but it happens, and there are plenty of cases. When I was a freshman at Johns Hopkins University (1969) there was a doctor, Dr. Money (Yup, that was his name), over at the hospital. He was confronted with these cases of mixed genitalia. What to do? At that time it was the practice to make these babies one sex or the other, via drugs and surgery. In fact, Dr. Money gave a lecture every fall. It was famous. He held it in the largest auditorium the hospital had. He presented slide after slide illustrating the situations. A penis where you’d expect a clitoris was the one I heard about. (I never made it to the lecture.) 

As far as I know Dr. Money pioneered sex change operations. They weren’t really sex change as much as they were “pick one.” Unfortunately, a baby can’t tell you what they want. As some of these people grew up, apparently, they didn’t feel comfortable in their bodies. And, it seems some people, even though born of one sex feel the same. More “situations.”

There have been examples, especially in swimming where it seems a person has declared they are female when before they were male. What to do? It’s a tough call. Some athletic commissions have tried to make decisions based on testosterone levels. But what do you do when a person who is outwardly and inwardly female that naturally has high testosterone levels? This was true with a boxer in the last Olympics and a runner a few years before. In the case of the runner they said she had to take drugs to lower her testosterone. Those drugs made her feel awful, so she stopped taking them. I don’t remember what happened to her athletically.

I don’t have the answers to all of this but I can say that these lawmakers who once again are getting in the middle of this says more about them and their fantasies and prejudices than it does about the people being affected.

Here’s the YouTube replay from The Daily Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZLofYpKdqI

Friday, October 18, 2024

I saw an interesting fact the other day – Presidential Approval Ratings.

When Trump left office his approval ratings were the lowest of any modern President.

But now compared to Biden he’s got a higher approval rating.

Why is that?

The explanation is that people forget. They forget how bad it was.

This is backed up by recollections of people in terrible times. They forget how bad it was.

Perhaps, that’s part of the human condition. Forget or minimize the pain so one can move forward.

When Bret Baier of Fox interviewed Kamala Harris he asked her why a high percentage of people think the country is going in the wrong direction. I wish she had said that perhaps it is because people forget how bad it was and because various news outlets downplay how good the Biden administration has done. Maybe throw in a few economic facts like the speed of the recovery and the U.S. economy compared to any other. And finish with a question to Bret like, “Don’t you think it is the responsibility of journalists to point this out?”

A follow up analysis of how Baier treated Harris versus when he had Trump on was indicative of his bias. He let Trump ramble on. He interrupted Harris almost twice as much and much sooner (11 seconds the first time versus 45 for Trump.)

The immediate Fox analysts’ opinion of Harris was her answers were “thin.” They never got specific about that. Of course, they didn’t because her answers were really good, especially considering that Baier was trying to trap her – repeatedly. 

I wonder how old Donald feels about the audience size? 7.1 million versus his 3.2 million?

Ah yes, but the gaslighting started as soon as the interview was over. The analysts on Fox were desperately trying to tell their audience that what they saw wasn’t what they saw. That is a competent candidate answering silly gotcha questions in a serious and professional way. Hey Bret, Don’t you think your questions were a bit thin?

Moving on, I have heard an alternate explanation as to why the buses didn’t pick up the crowd from the Trump rally in the desert. It was asserted that team Trump didn’t pay the bus company. But I have now been informed that some of the bus drivers stopped picking up the folks because they were being attacked. One driver was punched in the face and another was spat upon. Hum? Well, which is true? Maybe, both.

Then, then – we get to The Disco Donnie rally. Trump stood on stage for 39 minutes listening to music. I gotta ask my Trump supporting folks which move by Donald did you like best?

– The semi Saturday Night Live fist bump? (by semi I mean he only got his fist half way up.)

–  The boiled potato move? (That’s where you stand there and let your bowels do the moving.)

– The point at a person in the crowd while twitching move?

In the 39 (THIRTY NINE!) minute performance there was a lot to pick from. Donald has ducked every question, refused most interviews, his rally count is one quarter of what it was before. It was so weird that I actually felt sorry for Kristi Noem who was standing on stage with him. Maybe, it’s time Kristi take Donald to the gravel pit?

But, why are we here? Why are we at this inflection point? Because Senators did not do their job – twice. Because people forget. Because people are willing to let themselves be deluded. Because our media has been bought up by a few who force commentators to not tell the truth, to not report the news, to lie and fib instead – to gaslight.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

I saw a post recently that said, “Anyone who thinks the economy is doing well hasn’t bought groceries recently.”

Hum. This from a Republican. Interesting. I mean that is the party that had a President that was amazed by a bar code scanner a decade after it was introduced. Currently, their VP pick claimed a dozen eggs at the store he was at cost four dollars. This while standing in front of an egg display with a sign two dozen was four dollars. Maybe, he didn’t know what two times two was? Or even two plus two? (Hint: it’s the same answer:) 

But this from the party who thinks the government controls the weather.

While the Republicans bitch the Democrats have actually done stuff to reduce costs at the counter.

It’s funny that on the day this complaint about the economy was posted the Dow Jones hit the highest it had ever been. 

Yeah. So tell me how will Trump bring down prices? I mean he has a record to run on. He had the worst econonmy of any President in modern times and that was after inheriting one of the best economies that came from a guy who cleaned up the last mess left by a Republican who also inherited a great economy only to run it into the ground.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Time Magazine came the other day. J. D. Vance was on the cover with the headline “The New Right.”

I had an immediate visceral reaction. “What’s New?” I thought of Newt Gingrich when he was the poster boy for this kind of “movement.” It’s the same old stuff. Maybe, there’s a new face, but it’s the same kind of denial, and lies. The same blame game. Oh, the object of the blame may be different, but it’s really blaming “the other.” There’s always this call to patriotism and the sweeping statements of there having solves to complicated issues without ever stating their fixes.Sometimes they do state a solution, and it doesn’t make sense. 

Remember, trickle down economics? It didn’t make sense when Reagan proposed it and it still doesn’t make sense. We have decades of data to back it up. 

How about tax and spend Democrats? The data is clear Republicans spend more than Democrats and do nothing to pay for their spending. As Bill Clinton said of the Republicans – their biggest complaint is we don’t clean up their messes quick enough. Republicans talk about being responsible yet they aren’t, and when Democrats try to pay for things via taxes they complain. So yeah, Democrats spend, and Democrats tax, but what about Republicans? Based on looney and false economic principles and theories they spend and spend, put us further in debt and then complain when someone comes along and is responsible.

Remember when W came into office? Clinton left him a $254Billion surplus, which could have gone toward funding Social Security and setting it up to not run out of money. Instead, Bush gave the money away under the false idea that it would stimulate the economy or some such thing. Maybe it did, a little, but not much.

So we’re back int he perennial borrowing to meet Social Security obligations. What’s the Republican solution? Cut Social Security. Maybe get rid of it all together. This is stupid. But like most of the Republican economic plans and certainly The Right’s plans be they New, Old, or Same-O they don’t make sense. They are false narratives. In other words lies. Yet they are believed by huge swaths of the population because they are repeated endlessly on various media outlets. The leader in this disinformation campaign is Fox.

Fox and other Republicans when faced with the stunning economic numbers, numbers they wished they could have had any of the Republican Presidents of the last 50 years, is to say, “What about the price of eggs? And gas?” Yet, the price of eggs is constant and the price of gas is down. I now regularly see gas at or below $3.00. 

And then there are the crisis and the diplomatic victories:

– Remember the Trump Admin roll out plan for Covid vaccine?

The incoming Biden team kept asking and they never got an answer. The reason? There was no plan.

And besides Trump said it would go away on its own. It wouldn’t and it didn’t. It took concerted scientific effort and political administrative will to do the job.

– Remember the port crisis after Covid?

It was going to take months to get all the containers shipped out. What happened? Biden sent a team out to work on it and the stuff started getting out. Crisis over.

– How about the big strike by the port workers earlier this past week? Biden’s team and Biden resolved it. Done. No crisis.

– How about Brittney Griner? She was jailed in Putin’s Russia. It was unjust and Biden’s team got her out. Various people complained that we gave away too much and what about the others being held like Paul Whelan? Why wasn’t he released instead of Griner? Answer from Biden, “That wasn’t the offer on the table.”

– Remember Paul Whelan? Yeah, Biden got him out too. And in that same deal he got out the young woman who put little protest price tags on aisle shelves in Russia. 

– What about the turn around in our economy from Covid? We keep getting reports that show how well the economy is doing. This to the consternation of people like Laura Ingraham and whomever the replacement was for Tucker Carlson. At least the Fox Business folks are truthful enough to say, “If I had these numbers I’d run on them too.” 

– Then there is the mess left by Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. Pull out for no reason and get nothing. Great work (you idiot.)

– Let’s not forget giving Northern Syria to Putin. This allowed both Turkey and Assad to go in and kill our allies. The ones who actually did the fighting to defeat the Caliphate. We had like fifty people providing air support and guaranteeing the freedom to those people and Trump handed it to Putin. Even Putin  was smiling when it happened.

– There was the deal to hand over Afghanistan to the Taliban. Something orchestrated by Trump. He got the head of the Taliban out of jail. Wanted to bring him to Camp David. Told him when we were pulling out. Drew down the troop levels to almost nothing just before leaving office and then complained when the withdrawal didn’t go smoothly under Biden, who was left with little or no choice. Trump bragged about doing that.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Last night Kathy Hutchinson was on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show. She’s the lady who at twenty six testified at the first impeahment inquiiry what she had witnessed as the aid to Mark Meadows then Chief of Staff to Donald Trump. She spoke about her conservative principles. I’ve always wondered what that meant. I looked it up by googling it. Lo and behold one of the first hits was Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, espousing his conservative principles. They are:

1. Individual Freedom,

2. Limited Government,

3. The Rule of Law,

4. Peace Through Strength,

5. Fiscal Responsibility,

6. Free Markets,

7. Human Dignity.

That’s it. As I read this all I could think about was, “Then why?”

If you’re for Individual Freedom then why do you want to restrict women’s freedom?

If you’re for Limited Government then why do you want to regulate what people do?

If you’re for The Rule of Law then why do you back a criminal?

If you’re for Peace Through Strength why do you hold up funds for Ukraine?

If you’re for Fiscal Responcibility why do Republicans always outspend Democrats and don’t pay for it.

If you’re for Free Markets why did you allow your Republican president to muck up the American farmers’ grain deals with China? Why are you letting your nominee espoiuse 100% tariffs on all imported goods?

If your for Human Dignity why are you letting women bleed out in prking lots and refusing them medical care?

I don’t understand the Core Values that are espoused. Is this what Ms Hutchinson is for? I don’t know. I mean it sounds good. In theory. But their actions are quite different.

It seems to me that their values are more: My Way or The Highway:

A. Women need to shut up and have babies.

B. We want to limit government helping people and let business scres over the people.

C. Rule of Law for you, We do what we want.

D. Let’s start wars on “the others.”

E. Fiscal Responsibility means you don’t spend money. We do.

F. Free markets means we want unregulated buisness to once again screw over people and give us kick backs.

G. Human Dignity – that’s White Christian Nationalism. Otherwise forget it.

Oh yeah. In other news there’s a 165 page complaint released by the judge that the Special Counsel had submitted outlining Trump’s criminal attempts to stay in office. There is now direct evidence that Trump directed and participated in these efforts. 

Hey Mike! Talk to me about The Rule of Law.