Beyond Real Time

Channeling Rip ...

2026-05-09T11:38:00.007-04:00

Democrats are still widely favored to win control of the House in the November midterm elections,
but Republicans have gained a new structural edge through their redistricting efforts.
Credit Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Dealing with the political nightmare we find ourselves in is akin to salmon swimming upstream to spawn as it's not just the fierce currents they face, it's the predators. From sea gulls to eagles to bears and foxes, it is simply amazing these magnificent creatures make it prior to dying, thus fertilizing their environment as their last great gift to nature when going to the great beyond.

Just two weeks ago, Democrats felt increasingly emboldened about taking control of the House in November after seeming to fight the redistricting wars to a draw.

But two court rulings — one by the Supreme Court and another by Virginia’s top court — and an aggressive new push by red states to carve up congressional maps have delivered the Republican Party its biggest burst of momentum in many months.

Put bluntly, Republicans have roughly 10 more House seats that favor them than they did just 10 days ago, and Democrats are suddenly grappling with a new landscape.

“This is now clearly closer than it was just a week and a half ago,” Representative Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said of his party’s chances to retake the House.

As I have said to my friends ... I wish I was Rip Van Winkle able to go into a deep sleep.
Upon waking up after 20 years, this disastrous state of affairs would be but a memory.
One can only hope.

1875 illustration of Rip Van Winkle by Thomas Nast

Emotional surveillance

2026-05-09T11:14:00.002-04:00

Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic

We all know we are being surveilled 24/7. Entities like Palantir, Google, Meta, CIA, etc., etc., you name it, we are lab rats generating income and personal info for the powers at be but now, along the lines of Brave New World, the age of emotional surveillance is being foisted on us in the way of "improving advertising revenue" and making the workplace even more positive as we speak.

The Rise of Emotional Surveillance

Companies are monitoring workers not just for productivity but for agreeability.

The good news, for me at least, is that the computer thinks I have a nice personality. According to an app called MorphCast, I was, in a recent meeting with my boss, generally “amused,” “determined,” and “interested,” though—sue me—occasionally “impatient.” MorphCast, you see, purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI. It found that my affect was “positive” and “active,” as opposed to negative and/or passive. My attention was reasonably high. Also, the AI informed me that I wear glasses—revelatory!

The bad news is that software now purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI, and it is coming to watch you. If it isn’t already: Morphcast, for example, has licensed its technology to a mental-health app, a program that monitors schoolchildren’s attention, and McDonald’s, which launched a promotional campaign in Portugal that scanned app users’ faces and offered them personalized coupons based on their (supposed) mood. It is one of many, many such companies doing similar work—the industry term is emotion AI or sometimes affective computing.

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which
the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers
control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

“There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol."

...

"There was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality."

...

"But they used to take morphia and cocaine."

...

"Two thousand pharmacologists and biochemists were subsidized in A.F. 178."

...

"Six years later it was being produced commercially. The perfect drug."

...

"Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant."

...

"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."

...

"Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology."

...

"Stability was practically assured.”

And so it goes - K. Vonnegut

The 1st Amendment ...

2026-05-08T23:34:00.002-04:00

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Let's talk freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment, the most important civil rights document in the Constitution as this gives the right of free speech to every citizen in the US. Now, what about the military? Particularly guys like me, a former officer who did his bit. Am I entitled? Of course but Pentagon Pete says this is not the case because, according to him, this is not in concert with how retired vets "should" voice their views in public, something most disquieting to say the least.

This week, I heard something that shocked me. In a federal appeals court, lawyers for Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, argued that military retirees were subject to freedom of speech restrictions because of their connection to the military, and that if they didn’t like those restrictions, retirees could forfeit their pension and benefits. Let that sink in. The Trump administration expects the people who have put their lives on the line for America to cede one of their basic rights, or forfeit the retirement pay and benefits they have earned over decades of service.

I’m a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and I was in that courthouse with dozens of other retired veterans. We were there to support and defend every veteran whose right to speak freely was being challenged by the government we had served.

How did we get here? In November, Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, a retired Navy captain, released a video with several other legislators reminding service members that they have a duty to disobey unlawful orders. “We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” they said. “This administration is pitting our uniform military and intelligence community against American citizens.”

The duty to disobey unlawful orders is well established, but the president and secretary of defense immediately called the video outrageous. President Trump wrote that Mr. Kelly should face the death penalty and be hanged as a traitor. Subsequently, Mr. Hegseth censured Mr. Kelly and instructed the secretary of the Navy to investigate him and potentially reduce his retirement rank and pay. Mr. Kelly went to court and won, but the government appealed. Based on the reaction from the three-judge panel in the D.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday, it seems likely that Mr. Hegseth will lose in this court, too, but he has already indicated that he may appeal the case to the Supreme Court. This isn’t over, and it has implications far beyond Mr. Kelly.

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Image by Leslie Haines

The Gyro Gearloose method ...

2026-05-07T10:27:00.005-04:00

2 of 5 | President Donald Trump, accompanied by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The blur says it all as the TA is a blur of lies, incompetency and a Gyro Gearloose way of doing business as they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to governance.

Gyro is Duckburg's ingenious inventor, even though his inventions sometimes do not work the way he wants them to. His outrageous productivity is presented as a factor in the quality of his inventions. Because Gyro is always coming up with new ideas, the fact that his inventions often lack an important feature will often cause trouble for both Scrooge and Donald, who are known to have frequently bought his inventions. He is known for being good-natured towards others.

The TA is anything but good-natured but I digress yet again ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s approach to the Iran war over the past 24 hours has pinballed from declarations that a tenuous ceasefire was holding and military operations were over to new threats of bombing the Islamic Republic.

Tuesday started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining how the U.S. military was protecting stranded ships so they could traverse the Strait of Hormuz. He insisted it was a defensive operation and the truce was still in place even though Iran had launched missiles and drones at U.S. forces, which sank Tehran’s small attack boats.

That afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that the military operation was “concluded” and that the U.S. achieved its objectives. But in almost the same breath, he said President Donald Trump was still seeking a “path of peace” that required Iran to agree to a deal to reopen the vital oil shipping corridor.

By Tuesday evening, Trump announced that the effort to protect ships was paused to see if an agreement could be reached. Then on Wednesday morning, he again warned that bombing would resume if Tehran didn’t agree to U.S. terms.

In six days, The Donald is to meet Xi in China, the most ruthless and competent head of state who happens to be in charge of a successful superpower as we speak. In context, this meeting centers on selling soybeans to China as the US desperately needs this deal to go down to prop up a sagging economy while at the same time, he and his minions continue to chase the invisible hole in the ground with the distinct possibility the deal goes south even before the plane leaves the ground.

As always, ready, fire, aim applies.

Iran won

2026-05-06T09:11:00.002-04:00

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Kyle Mazza/Anadolu and Majid Saeedi via Getty Images

Iran won

The White House believes it's getting close to an agreement with Iran on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations, according to two U.S. officials and two other sources briefed on the issue.

Many of the terms laid out in the memo would be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which the hot war has stopped but nothing is truly resolved.

The reality ...

The Iran Side: They receive billions in liquidity and the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz—the literal backbone of their economy.
The U.S. Side: They receive a "Note"—a promise of a moratorium that can be undone the moment the "Timed" political cycle shifts.

The losers

The US and Israel. Israel is the pariah of the world. A phase shift of historical proportions await as giving everything Israel wants is over and ... with luck, Bibi goes to jail. As for the US, depletion of expensive ordinance, loss of connects to allies and an ongoing question of ... what to do about the bases in the Gulf States looms as Iran got what it wanted. THE RIGHT TO BE LEFT ALONE.

Soybeans ...

2026-05-05T20:56:00.002-04:00

Trump with Steve Witkoff on Air Force One in March. Photo: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

Dazed and confused along with shell shock applies to Witkoff while Trump blathers on but I digress.
Seems Armageddon has been postponed for at least 3 weeks thanks to the May 14/15 seance
the orange menace is going to have with Xi in China.

President Trump said Tuesday he's suspending the new U.S. military operation

in the Strait of Hormuz due to progress in the negotiations with Iran
on an agreement to end the war.

Why it matters: The operation to "guide" ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which was launched on Monday, led to an exchange of fire between the U.S. and Iran and to Iranian missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates for the first time since the ceasefire was announced a month ago.

What he's saying: "Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries...and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Because we can't believe a word Trump says, the betting pool on the pause centers on Russia and Xi as they vetoed the Project Freedom backed initiative in the UN and ... selling soybeans to China is a better alternative to crashing the world's economy to meet the demands of Israel wanting to end Iran.

UN Photo/Manuel Elías A wide view of the UN Security Council chamber
as members meet on the situation in the Middle East.

The UN Security Council has failed to adopt a resolution aiming to boost security in the Strait of Hormuz as the critical shipping corridor remains largely closed to global trade and the transport of humanitarian aid, with war continuing to rage across the region.

Explaining Russia’s vote, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the resolution presented Iranian actions as the sole source of regional tensions while illegal attacks by the United States and Israel were “not mentioned at all”.  

Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong said the draft “failed to capture the root causes and the full picture of the conflict in a comprehensive and balanced manner.”

He expressed hope that peace and stability would be restored and affirmed China’s commitment to addressing the situation properly by tackling the root causes.

Iran’s Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the draft sought “to punish the victim for defending its sovereignty and vital national interests in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, while providing political and legal cover for further unlawful acts by the aggressors.”

Selling soybeans triumphs all.

Yet another meander ...

2026-05-05T09:30:00.003-04:00

"Live Again Right Here" - Iowa 1977

Yours truly took a long trip in '77 to the Aspen Design Conference starting from CT. After the conference ended, a long drive ensued covering the Four Corners, Wyoming/Yellowstone and a slow return east through South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa, along with Michigan, to eventually rendezvous with the wife before checking out Montreal at the height of the Quebec Sovereignty Movement, an experience most amazing to behold.

Four Corners

The weapon of choice, the '72 VW Camper bus, the best way to see America IMHO.

The trip lasted over two months.

The Badlands ...

49 years ago ... question, would yours truly do this again given the state of America today?

Not a chance.

Sadness says it all.

Stillness

2026-05-05T00:07:00.005-04:00

Stillness

This pix, to yours truly, is a brief respite from the insanity overtaking the world.

The Horror, the Horror

2026-05-04T19:07:00.009-04:00

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Another threat to annihilate Iran as Trump is warning that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth.” WTF applies here as all this demented individual has to do is end the blockade but, instead, thanks to the urging of Bibi along with rampant self aggrandizement, he's doubling down and declared yet again he has the sole right to destroy a sovereign nation. How can he possibly do it? You guessed it, nukes. Conventional ordinance can't do it. Iran is simply too big a country. Words cannot describe the horror of this possible initiative promoted by a know nothing who runs nothing as Miller and Hegseth do, along with Bibi whispering sweet nothings into Trump's ear that Iran must go.
Time to to end this insanity now before the unthinkable happens.

The war on Iran is very much back on, and President Trump is making more genocidal threats.

Iran on Monday bombed a South Korean ship and civilian sites in the United Arab Emirates, in the wake of President Trump’s announcement that the United States would be using its Navy to force ships through Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as part of “Project Freedom.” The U.S. military also stated that it sank six Iranian small boats and that Iran has fired missiles and drones at other vessels in the strait.

This has sent the president into a rage.

If the Iranians try to target U.S. ships in this area, they will be “blown off the face of the earth,”
Trump told Fox News’s Trey Yingst on Monday afternoon.

“We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” he warned.

The lack of understanding the center of gravity is now complete and ... add Pentagon Pete to the mix and one sees dementia and malignant narcissism on the part of Trump and incompetence and fanaticism on the part of Hegseth, both with connects to incredibly powerful weapons able to unravel civilization in a nanosecond, something akin to the feeling one gets when reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness with Kurtz ending the story by saying
The Horror, The Horror.

To whit.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Trump Blurts Out Damning Admission of Iran Blunder as GOP Panic Grows

As the president reveals too much about his handling of Iran, a writer tracking Trump’s bungling
explains how his megalomania won’t allow for any good way out of this fiasco.

Donald Trump has declared the war “terminated,” but he’s still rejecting Iran’s peace proposals while again threatening it with massive war crimes. And in an interview, Trump declared that he would never have approved an offer that was made to Iran by his negotiator, Steve Witkoff. This is a damning admission: He seemed to blurt out that he has no idea what his own representatives are offering—showing deep disengagement from the details of the talks—while demonstrating that anything his negotiators do offer should not be believed.

Read both TNR pieces to see why referring to The Horror applies.

The Roi des Belges ('King of the Belgians'—French),
the Belgian riverboat Conrad commanded on the upper Congo, 1889

The Center of Gravity/Rev II

2026-05-03T10:18:00.001-04:00

Not AI, just a prof who understands asymmetrical warfare at deep level. Cites sources, shows why asymmetrical warfare and deep understanding of how to implement same shows why the US is not winning and cannot win under any circumstances. The Strait is closed and the US can do nothing to change that scenario unless it agrees to Iran's terms. The Center of Gravity applies.

As per COG, in Dune, it's the spice, in the Middle East, it's oil and fertilizer.

The deal ...

2026-05-03T08:32:00.006-04:00

Al Jazeera

The tally seems fairly accurate save for the number of Israeli and US casualties as Israel and the US,
showing the world Iran's capabilities to respond with precision and power, is not face saving but
this blurb is not about body counts but rather ... is a deal possible to avoid catastrophe?

According to Iranian media reports, Tehran’s new proposal came in response to a Washington-backed nine-point peace proposal, which primarily sought a two-month ceasefire.

However, in its latest peace proposal, Iran said it wants to focus on ending the war instead of extending the truce and wants all issues resolved within 30 days.

The new proposal calls for guarantees against future attacks, a withdrawal of US forces from around Iran, the release of frozen Iranian assets worth billions of dollars and the lifting of sanctions, war reparations, ending all hostilities, including in Lebanon, and “a new mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran, which was also attacked by the US and Israel last June, wants a guarantee against future aggression. Israel has previously targeted Iranian nuclear scientists and run campaigns to sabotage its nuclear sites.

Tehran also wants its right to uranium enrichment guaranteed as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), (which Israel is not) but Trump has made the nuclear issue a “red line”. Iran wants decades of sanctions, which have devastated its economy, to be lifted as part of any deal. The navigation through the strait and demands for war reparations are other sticking points in the talks.

According to a report by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, after delivering the proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said, “Now the ball is in the United States’ court to choose the path of diplomacy or the continuation of a confrontational approach.”

Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar,

said Iran has “slightly softened” its proposal.

“The news reports on it indicate that there is a slight softening in the proposal, or rather a run-up to discussing the proposal, namely that the Iranian side may have given up its precondition that the US
cease its distant blockade of Iranian traffic [in the Strait of Hormuz],” he told Al Jazeera.

“Beyond that, though, a lot of the things that are reportedly in the proposal include maintaining Iran’s sovereign ability to enrich uranium, its nuclear programme and, of course, what it delicately refers to as a ‘control mechanism’ over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Musgrave said on the two biggest issues – enrichment of uranium and transferring its highly enriched uranium – the US and Iran remain “far apart”.

“President Trump has been unyielding that Iran must surrender its nuclear capability,” he said.

Iran will not give up it's nuclear capability as this leaves the country vulnerable to US and Israeli attacks. This will not happen.

So the question to ask it, will Trump restart this fiasco yet again?

The world is waiting.

The Handmaid's Tale/Rev II

2026-05-02T18:11:00.002-04:00

The Supreme Court will now decide whether to overrule an appeals court
that found in Louisiana's favor. | AFP via Getty Images

Supreme Court asked to pause ruling blocking telehealth and mail access to abortion pills

The emergency appeal comes a day after a federal appeals court granted Louisiana's request to require that mifepristone be dispensed in person.

I know, lets resurrect the Salem witch trials to control women's right to choose yet again.

The Handmaid's Tale looms.

How much longer must we tolerate this incredible intrusion into women's lives based on religion and the right to life as George Carlin's right. "They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn, but once you're born, you're on your own."

Betting pool with this supreme court, 90% backing the appeals court in Louisiana.

"The witch no. 1" lithograph

Light is analog ...

2026-05-02T09:17:00.005-04:00

A Simple Matter of 3

About two years ago, yours truly guessed about light being analog in free space based on astounding insights by Fourier, Einstein, Planck, de Broglie and Maxwell, along with Alvy Ray Smith and my experience with graphics and video as light, in free space, is a wave as proven by endless experiments beginning in 1801 by Thomas Young's incredible Double Slit experiment.

An illustration of the 'Double-slit experiment' in physics.

As per Matter Wave ...

Light is extremely weird. Either analog or digital, depending on its state, photons, the force carrier of the electromagnetic, is an analog wave when traveling in free space but when absorbed by an electron, it becomes digital or a packet of energy i.e. quantum as it must transform in such a way for it to be properly absorbed by, in this case, an electron. When a electron's energy level drops, the photon emitted reverts back to being an analog wave, which means ... reality is analog with digital override, endlessly switching from one to the other as needs warrant. According to Louis de Broglie, this notion of matter/wave/digital/analog duality applies to all particles, which means reality is in constant flux, forever switching from one state to the other, forever driven by the two laws of thermodynamics whereby energy can neither be created or destroyed, only transformed and ... in a natural thermodynamic process, the sum of the entropies of the interacting thermodynamic systems never decreases. A common corollary of the statement is that heat does not spontaneously pass from a colder body to a warmer body. What's even stranger is whenever a particle is "measured", it becomes, in effect, digital just as a photon becomes digital whenever its absorbed by any given particle. This analog/digital duality also applies to the other force particles as well.

The Photoelectric Effect

The emission of electrons from a metal plate caused by light quanta – photons

Note: Photons are bosons, the force carrier, in this instance, of electromagnetism,

Why the repeat? Well, it seems Clark Maxwell's discovery of light being electro/magnetic enables light to dance, to twist and move through space on it's own, thus proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that light, aka photons, is analog in free space.

In 1900, Maxwell's theoretical model of light as oscillating electric and magnetic fields seemed complete. However, several observations could not be explained by any wave model of electromagnetic radiation, leading to the idea that light-energy was packaged into quanta described by E = hν. Later experiments showed that these light-quanta also carry momentum and, thus, can be considered particles: The photon concept was born, leading to a deeper understanding of the electric and magnetic fields themselves.

The experiment proving this to be true.

Maxwell's vision circa 2026

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have identified a previously unknown property of light that allows it to twist, spin, and behave in unusual ways – without the need for mirrors, materials, or specialized lenses.

This result challenges long-standing assumptions, showing that light can develop chiral behavior – meaning it can act like a left or right hand – while moving freely through space.

He continues, “One extreme example is light that twists as it travels, forming a corkscrew shape known as an optical vortex. Each twist can carry information, making this kind of light valuable for high-speed internet, secure communications, and advanced sensors.”

Maxwell's take in 1900 shows why light is a dancer after all. Click here for the paper.

Representation of the electric field vector of a wave
of circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation

Proof positive why light moves and dances on it's own. :)

Dark Eagle???

2026-05-01T08:53:46.766-04:00

Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

In looking at this picture, lost in space applies. Pentagon Pete, Israel and Nosferatu, aka Stephen Miller, run the show, complete with the specter of reigniting the fubar known as Trump's war with Iran.

If the unthinkable happens, while Trump tries to get around the 60 day edict by Congress (The War Powers Resolution) by arguing the April 7th ceasefire gives an out to the edict, the possible endgame looms as hypersonic missiles may be part of the CENCOM strike package, promising intense damage to a country that's not a threat to the US. The minute the first strike happens, Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthi's will unload, with the end result, desalination plants and oil refineries go and the Levant becomes a wasteland.

To whit.

President Trump told Axios he's going to keep Iran under a naval blockade
until the regime agrees to a deal that addresses U.S. concerns about its nuclear program.

Why it matters: Trump is rejecting an Iranian proposal to first open the Strait of Hormuz and lift the blockade, while postponing nuclear talks to a later stage.

Behind the scenes: U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has prepared a plan for a "short and powerful" wave of strikes on Iran in hopes of breaking the negotiating deadlock, three sources with knowledge said.

After the strikes, which would likely include infrastructure targets, the U.S. would press the regime to come back to the negotiating table and show more flexibility.

Trump told Axios he saw the blockade as "somewhat more effective than the bombing," and the sources said he had yet to order any kinetic action as of Tuesday night. He did post an AI-generated meme of himself holding a gun with a warning to Iran and the tagline, "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY."

The possible CENCOM strike package may include this ...

LRHW Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, AKA Dark Eagle on
transporter erector launcher, 3 August 2024,
Exercise Bamboo Eagle 24-3, Nellis AFB[18]

Specs

If this catastrophe kicks off, Bibi gets his 40 year wish of annihilating Iran in hopes of creating
Greater Israel with the unintended result of destroying his country in real time.

Grant" to Abraham consisting of all the land east of the Brook of Egypt and west of the Euphrates, north of Kadesh and south of Hamath, from a 1919 book by Clarence Larkin.

If the unthinkable happens, the midterms goes away as a national emergency and martial law must be imposed as chaos and an economic hell storm of biblical proportions will surely follow.

Will the military stand down regarding this CF for the ages?

Lastly, Russia & China are players also. How will they react? A possible WW III scenario?

Channeling the Cuban Missile Crisis applies but this is worse, far worse in this writer's opinion
due to the occupant in the White House.

Whiteman

2026-04-30T11:18:45.437-04:00

Chief Justice John Roberts attends the State of the Union address on February 7, 2023.
Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/Getty Images/File

Roberts is the worst Chief Justice in history in charge of the worst supreme court in history.
From Citizens United to Hobby Lobby and Greece NY and finally to Louisiana vs Callais, the case gutting the Voting Rights Act, he's Whiteman, bought and paid for by the powers at be.

R. Crumb's Whiteman

The Supreme Court’s decision Wednesday rolling back protections for Black and Latino voters marks another dramatic turn in the long-fought effort by conservative justices to reverse measures vital to overcoming America’s legacy of race discrimination.

The decision also marks a defining moment for the court under Chief Justice John Roberts, who declared soon after joining the bench in 2005, “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Three years ago, the justices by the same 6-3 vote as Wednesday ended racial affirmative action in higher education admissions. The newest decision, which follows a series of rulings led by Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito restricting the reach of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, will reverberate deeper.

Taken as a whole, the pattern would mean fewer chances for minority voters to elect candidates of their choosing. That, in turn, would mean fewer opportunities for the voice of Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and other minorities in government.

Any questions?

Speaking the truth ... for a change

2026-04-29T15:17:33.794-04:00

British Ambassador Christian Turner speaking at the Ambassador's Residence in Washington DC, as part of the St Patrick's Day Celebrations in the US capital. Niall Carson/PA Images/Getty Images

It's about time someone from the west speaks the truth about the entangled alliance of
Israel and the US, a relationship, proving yet again, that the national interest of one rarely coincides
with the national interest of the other.

Britain’s ambassador to Washington has said that the only country that has a “special relationship” with the United States is “probably Israel,” not Britain, in leaked comments which could overshadow King Charles III’s state visit underway in the US this week.

Christian Turner, who took office in February to replace Peter Mandelson – who was sacked over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – made the remarks privately to a group of British students visiting the US in the same month he was appointed.

“‘Special relationship’ is a phrase I try not to utter because it’s quite nostalgic, it’s quite backwards-looking, and it has a lot of sort of baggage about it,” Turner said in a leaked audio recording. “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States – and that is probably Israel.”

For the recently-appointed ambassador to have cast doubt on the “special relationship” – which the British government and monarchy has been at pains to revive – is a cause for embarrassment for Downing Street and could make Charles’ state visit uncomfortable. The remarks were first reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday, shortly before Charles and Queen Camilla were greeted by US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the White House.

In unusually outspoken comments, Turner also told the students he thought it was “extraordinary” that the Epstein scandal “hasn’t touched anybody” in the US. By contrast, he said, senior British figures – including Mandelson, his predecessor, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – had been “brought down” by the affair.

Question, how long will Turner last in his post as diplomacy is the art of lying most eloquently.

John Tenniel's illustration of the King and Queen of Hearts
at the trial of the Knave of Hearts

"Off with his head!" may apply

The cliff beckons ...

2026-04-28T15:35:47.649-04:00

A cartoon depicting lemmings jumping off a cliff en masse (The German text translates to
"Turn back!? Now that we've come this far!?!")[12]

I don't speak German but the gist of this cartoon hits home regarding AI as literally trillions are being spent on tech we will never fully understand. What's worse, as stated before in BRT, so many companies ignore the wisdom of Fred Brooks and his wonderful The Mythical Man Month in doing the due diligence necessary to properly incorporate this tech into complex business operations. This is why the text below describes chaos corporate style regarding AI and how not to best use it.

Adding more people to a late project makes it later.

Recent tech layoffs would initially appear to indicate the great labor shift
from human workers to AI may already be happening.

Meta announced last week in a memo that it plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 employees, as well as scrap plans to hire for 6,000 open positions. It’s part of an effort to “run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” according to the memo. Microsoft has offered thousands of its own employees a voluntary buyout, the largest the company has ever offered.

“For my team, the cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees,” Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning at Nvidia, recently told Axios.

An MIT study from 2024 backs up Catanzaro’s experience. Analyzing the technical requirements of AI models needed to perform jobs at a human level, researchers found that AI automation would be economically viable in only 23% of roles where vision is a primary part of the work. In the remaining 77% of the time, it was cheaper for humans to continue their work.

In other instances, AI has proved to be fallible, with one engineer saying an AI agent destroyed his database and network as a result of what he called “overuse.”

Despite no clear evidence of AI improving productivity and, according to the Yale Budget Lab, no widespread data to support the idea of AI displacing jobs, Big Tech firms have continued to pour money into AI, announcing $740 billion in capital expenditures this year so far, according to Morgan Stanley, a 69% increase from 2025. The magnitude of spending has caused some companies to rethink their budget altogether.

This increase in spending has coincided with more layoffs in the tech sector. According to data from Layoffs.fyi, there have been more than 92,000 layoffs in tech in 2026 so far across nearly 100 companies.
The rate of these workforce reductions is already far outpacing that of last year, which saw about 120,000 layoffs in total.

The continued AI spending and layoffs, even as human labor remains cheaper, expose a meaningful discrepancy in the economics of AI, said Keith Lee, an AI and finance professor at the Swiss Institute of Artificial Intelligence’s Gordon School of Business.

“What we’re seeing is a short-term mismatch,” Lee told Fortune.

The siren call also applies.

Funerary statue of a siren in Pentelic marble, found in the Necropolis of Ceramics at Athens. The siren laments the dead, wings folded, playing on a tortoiseshell lyre. The right hand, which would have held the plectrum, is missing. The strings, probably made of bronze, would have been attached to the holes which can be seen in the body of the instrument. The plumage and other parts would have been picked out in colour. The statue flanked the stele of the Athenian warrior Dexileo who fell in combat in 394/393 BC (Work of 370BC, National Archeological Museum, Athens).

But a mirage ...

2026-04-27T12:32:43.224-04:00

Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images

Finally, the truth. Safe, self driving Teslas are but a mirage. Why? Because Tesla only uses cameras to detect the real world while Waymo uses radar, lidar AND cameras to do the same thing and even that is iffy given the inherent complexities of the real world bombarding Waymo at rates boggling the mind.

After over a decade of promising that fully autonomous driving is right around the corner,
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has yet to bring his ambitious vision to fruition.

In early 2019, Tesla started installing a system called Hardware 3 (HW3) in its cars, which according to Musk would enable what the company continues to misleadingly refer to as “Full Self-Driving” (FSD). (As it currently exists, the feature still requires owners to be ready to take over the wheel at any point.)

Over the next four years, Tesla sold millions of vehicles with the hardware, only for Musk to finally admit in January 2025 that HW3 actually wasn’t good enough after all, and that a retrofit would be required to enable fully autonomous driving.

The news came to the dismay of countless owners who shelled out thousands of additional dollars to access FSD, and who claim Musk had lied to them all these years, triggering numerous class action lawsuits.

During Wednesday’s earnings call, the mercurial CEO put it as bluntly as ever.

“Unfortunately, Hardware 3 — I wish it were otherwise — but Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,” he said, saying that its “memory bandwidth” is the “chokepoint.” Tesla introduced a confusingly-named version of the software, called “FSD (Supervised)” in April 2024, while an “unsupervised” version would seemingly refer to actual, autonomous driving.

Despite Musk first making the concession well over a year ago, Tesla has yet to make good on its promise of providing millions of owners with the necessary hardware upgrade — a process that will be long and painful.

As an aside, Think Anonymous gives an in-depth analysis as to why the Waymo take rings true.

Just a tiny tidbit here, go to TA to get the complete skinny.

Waymo's sensor stack Waymo: 29 Cameras, 6 RADARs, 5 LiDARs

Just in terms of calibration, it must be an absolute nightmare for engineers. Calibrating a camera with a LiDAR is already a long task, but 29 cameras with 5 LiDARs? Then there is the fusion of all of these sensors together, and this is ONLY the "robotaxi" version, because if you look at their Zeekr shuttles, they also have their own types of sensors, with different generation codes. Their stack is therefore always evolving, and depends on the vehicle they drive on.

Tesla's sensor stack used 8 cameras (red) and 12 ultrasonics (orange)

On this illustration, you can see a very simple design that almost never changed. In red, you can count 8 outside cameras, and in orange, you can see 12 ultrasonic sensors used to detect static objects when parking. Among the 8 cameras, there 2 on the windshield, used for stereo vision, one on the front bumper, one on the rear bumper, 2 on the doors, and 2 on the wheels. See the difference? I can't even begin to count Waymo's cameras, but I can easily show you Tesla's sensor stack.

The cost of doing it right is $, compute and research, the cost of cutting corners, let's not go there.

Said approach to solving a difficult problem reminds your truly of this ...

Department of Government Efficiency

And we all know well how that initiative went, right?

In the short term ...

2026-04-27T11:43:55.706-04:00

A record number of super-sized tankers are now headed to the US. Photograph: ClassicStock/Alamy

In the short term, oil and renewables won. On the US & the Americas side, oil, on the Chinese side, solar but both winners will soon be eclipsed by the gorilla in the room, climate change as said entity ignores all borders as the world moves further into the 21st century.

In the open seas, an armada of empty tankers has quietly turned west. A record number of super-sized vessels are now heading to the US, where oil drillers and refineries are preparing to profit from Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East.

Almost 30 of these vessels, each able to hold 2m barrels of oil, are contracted to load US crude, destined for a global market facing the biggest supply crisis in history.

It is just over five years since the shale revolution made the US a net energy exporter and the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas. Now the White House is poised to strengthen its claim to an even greater share of the global oil market as the Middle East’s decades-long dominance is dismantled by war.

Guardian graphic. Source: The Oil & Gas Journal. Note: China and Taiwan and Sudan
and South Sudan are combined in the data. *Estimates for the Saudi Arabian-Kuwaiti Neutral Zone
are divided equally between the two countries

As doubts over the future market dominance of the Gulf’s petrostates deepen, the surge in market prices has begun fuelling the rise of the Americas. The growth in US and Canadian crude production – which has accelerated in recent years – is expected to continue through the 2020s. However, almost half of the world’s oil supply growth over the rest of the decade is expected to come from Latin America’s oil boom.

On the solar side, China dominates ...

China’s exports of solar capacity doubled to a record high of 68GW in the
first month of the Iran crisis alone. Photograph: AFP/Getty

China has long dominated the supply chains for the key building blocks of clean energy technologies, from wind turbines to solar panels and batteries. Beijing’s industrial prowess has helped the world’s biggest energy importer to capture between 60% and 85% of the world’s renewables market at a time when countries are preparing to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.

As the world’s first “electrostate”, China stands in contrast with the White House pursuit of fossil fuel dominance. The country also stands to play a significant role in creating the new energy order.

“China derives strategic leverage from its leadership across renewables and electrification, manufacturing and innovation, domestic deployment and global exports,” said Ember, a climate and energy thinktank. “China is not merely manufacturing electrotech hardware, it is manufacturing an energy future in which it holds a commanding position.”

The crisis has meant the world’s greatest supplier of clean technologies is selling these components at record rates as countries prepare to cut their use of fossil fuels for good.

The intent for countries to leave oil for good is all well and good but long term implications regarding the intent to ameliorate global warming using said tech centers on undeniable facts regarding renewables and related factors impacting the spread and maintenance of same:

habitat destruction
environmental degradation
resource depletion
The limits to Growth

We are running out of planet.

Getty/Futurism

It's the water ... seems the inability to plan is not part of the plan when it comes to Corpus Christi, Texas.

A massive drought coupled with political mismanagement might fully deplete water in a major city: neither in West Asia nor the Horn of Africa, but in the United States of America. According to

Inside Climate News, the city of Corpus Christi, Texas could soon completely out of water in the next year. It’s the eighth largest city in Texas, and a major industrial node in the Gulf Coast. Its water infrastructure provides access to over 500,000 Texans, as well as the major chemical plants, oil facilities, and plastics factories which call the Gulf region home.

As Climate News notes, Corpus Christi is on track to be the first American city to completely run out of water, as its reservoirs near empty following a five-year drought. Though nobody can snap their fingers and end a drought, the extremely dry conditions follow decades of warnings that South Texas is posed for a water crisis.

60-70%

2026-04-25T18:35:19.385-04:00

60-70% of all data traffic from Europe to the East runs through the strait and the Red Sea, next to Yemen, which means Iran controls both check points. Methinks the Orange Menace and his minions better think things through before doing something even more catastrophically stupid then the unnecessary action foisted upon the world by Israel telling the US to jump and kick off an event that could expand into WW III if we let it.

A conversation with Gemini. Just the facts Ma'am - Joe Friday/Dragnet

The "Backyard" of Global Data

While many focus on oil, the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea
are also the physical foundations of the internet.

Massive Reliance: Approximately 95% of all global internet traffic, including bank transfers and communications, travels through thin glass cables at the bottom of the ocean [00:06].

Critical Choke Points: Over 15 major submarine cables run beneath the Strait of Hormuz [00:30]. Iran and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen effectively control two key corridors that carry 60% to 70% of all internet traffic between Asia and Europe [01:07].

The Economic and Social ImpactA disruption in these waters would have
immediate international consequences:

Global Isolation: Cutting these cables would isolate the Middle East and disrupt
operations for global IT and call centers, with India alone having 20% to 40% exposure [00:48].

Market Paralysis: Major cloud infrastructure from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft
runs through this region. A disruption could freeze trillions of dollars in daily trade,
forex markets, and banking systems [01:43].

The Difficulty of Repair: The video emphasizes that "cutting a cable is not as simple
as repairing it" [01:22]:

Limited Resources: There are only about 50 to 60 specialized ships in the world capable of fixing these cables [01:29].Wartime Delays: These ships move slowly, are rarely covered by insurance in conflict zones, and repairs can take a minimum of 8 weeks [01:37].

The core message of the clip is that Iran doesn't need a bomb to disrupt the world;
it simply needs "scissors" [02:00].

This reality is presented as a primary reason for the delicate diplomatic
handling of the region by global powers.

Watch the full clip here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/177PpNKzmqQ

The Kraken ... for real

2026-04-25T11:07:21.349-04:00

An artist's reconstruction of a finned octopus of the species Nanaimoteuthis haggarti

that reached a length estimated at up to 18.6 meters (61.02 feet) and lived about 86 to 72 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, released on April 23, 2026.

Yohei Utsuki/Hokkaido University/Handout via REUTERS

The Kraken lived. Think about the smarts of this monster! The question to ask is, why is ocean life so small today. Boffins think it's the temperature along with the introduction of man and his baggage
as root causes of this happenstance.

Works for me.

The Kraken, the giant cephalopod of legend, was feared by sailors for centuries. Later interpretations suggested that it may have been based on sightings of the giant squid, which can be 10 meters long. Although they lived far too early to have been the source of the legend, Ikegami et al. describe fossil octopods from the late Cretaceous that truly would have fit the description of the monster, reaching up to 19 meters in length. Wear patterns on their jaws suggest that these octopods preyed upon the large reptiles present at the time, including plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. The authors interpret asymmetry in these wear patterns as an indication of corresponding asymmetry in behavior, suggesting complex brain development and, potentially, high intelligence. —Sacha Vignieri

Fig. 4. Body size estimation of Late Cretaceous octopuses.

The graph shows an allometric relationship between the length of the jaw and mantle in long-bodied species of extant finned octopus (tables S3 and S4) (31). The name of the corresponding species is shown along each growth curve. The sizes of N. jeletzkyi and N. haggarti based on their largest specimen are indicated by black vertical lines. Reconstruction of these two species, the extant giant squid (36), and gigantic vertebrate predators (37–40) in the Late Cretaceous are shown with their maximum total length.

A true apex without question.

A "colossal octopus" attacking ship, pen and wash[1] by Pierre Denys-Montfort,
engraved by Étienne Claude Voysard, 1801[2]

If the monster was alive today, this engraving would be for real. :)

Death by firing squad ...

2026-04-25T09:22:39.458-04:00

The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, on May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Yours truly used to be ok with the death penalty until data came out regarding people executed who happened to be innocent, something not acceptable in this writer's opinion. With this administration, reinstituting firing squads is more political than functional as this is a methodology used by dictatorships to quell dissent. Think Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia as examples.

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-212-0221-07, Russland-Nord, Erschießung von Partisanen

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases, officials said Friday.

The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration — more than under any president in modern history. The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.

The moves were announced as part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.

US executions since 1977

Since capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s,
more than 1,600 prisoners have been executed in the United States,
the vast majority by state authorities.

Factoid.

Research estimates that at least 4.1% of defendants sentenced to death in the U.S. are innocent, meaning over 1 in 25 death row inmates is likely wrongly convicted. While over 200 people have been exonerated from death row since 1973, experts believe many innocent people are executed without their innocence being officially recognized. National Institutes of Health (.gov)

Any questions and ... think midterms. I know I have.

Goof Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die

2026-04-25T08:49:53.552-04:00

Never made money, violent and funny as hell, spot on in terms of AI, They Live, Pulp Fiction
and Smart Phones, the flick's a hoot, showing there's a cost to everything and not realizing
that fact is terminally stupid and unwise. :)

See the film. Unhinged to the max,

something society needs in these uncertain times. :)

It's not just the Strait ...

2026-04-24T11:02:10.864-04:00

People fill up their cars at a gas station in Seoul, South Korea. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

It's not just the Strait being closed, it's the beginning of rationing for the world as global warming continues to accelerate while civilization runs out of world. Overshoot applies as we need more planet in order to make more stuff and there is not enough planet to continue to make more stuff. Something to consider, right?

2013 ...

Sound familiar? Overshoot Day has been advancing approximately three days a year yet is it? When BRT posted Overshoot on Sunday, September 25, 2011, the day was September 27. It's now August 20 so the 3 days per year estimate has been past by and then some. From this perspective, it seems mankind is committing slow motion suicide by plundering the planet for profit and keeping the status quo in power at all costs, something disastrous from the get go but we already know that, right?

2024 ...

This year’s Earth Overshoot Day falls on August 1st: Humanity will have used nature’s resource budget for the entire year, according to our calculations, building on the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, now maintained by York University under the governance of FoDaFo.

By comparing the Ecological Footprint with the planet’s biocapacity, it tells us when each year’s Earth Overshoot Day occurs. Falling on August 1st means that humanity is currently using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet’s ecosystems can regenerate. It is like using 1.7 Earths. Overshoot is possible because we can overuse and deplete our natural capital. This compromises humanity’s resource security. The costs of this global ecological overspending are becoming increasingly evident in the form of deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The latter leads to climate change, more frequent extreme weather events and lower food production.

2026 ...

By this reckoning. the minimal 3 days per year take ... July 25 seems to be about right.
What happens when we hit June 30, 10 years from now?

The present ...

Gas stations are rationing fuel. Hospitals are running out of medical supplies.

People are hoarding plastic bags, and factories face packaging shortages.

That’s all happening in Asia now.

That could become a problem for the United States:

About half the stuff Americans buy comes from Asia.

If Asian factories are dealing with a lack of supplies, should Americans expect shortages, too?

Possibly – but not just yet. At least not in any widespread or severe manner. But the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the harder it will become for the United States to avoid the problems piling up elsewhere.

US is ‘more exposed than we realize’

Certainly, the red flags are waving.

But ...

Think overshoot, environmental degradation, global warming and societal disruption
rather than just the strait as it's just the beginning ...

The mirage ... A new reality is coming

Micromanagement 101

2026-04-24T08:39:26.135-04:00

Getty / Futurism

The nag, the micromanager, the person always intruding into your space, something not devoutly to be wish, is the cosmic vision of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a recent talk at Stamford portraying said entity as the way to generate ever more growth thanks to the wonders of AI.

Let's think about this. Having been self employed for over 50 years gives yours truly an interesting perspective on micromanagement and the vibe this gives off to the minions working under such a person. Anger, frustration and above all else, inefficiency and hatred ensues. How do I know this? Because, as a consultant, you NEVER GOSSIP so the folks you work with trust you as a valued consigliere as trust is the only way one makes money when dealing with clients.

To this rube, Huang's take is akin to 1984 24/7.

Tom Hagen/Consigliere to Vito and Michael/The Godfather

Instead of getting ready to clear their desks, the centibillionaire argued that instead, human workers’ productivity will instead go through the roof — with the minor tradeoff that you’ll be overseen by a nagging AI boss that won’t ever leave you alone.

“Your [AI] agents are harassing you, micromanaging you, and you’re busier than ever,” Huang said. “And yet our company is able to do more.”

As a result, “we’re gonna create more jobs in the end,” he argued. “There’ll be more people working at the end of this industrial revolution than at the beginning of it.”

Huang has previously argued that company leaders are thinking too small if they’re looking to trim headcounts thanks to AI.

As long as Huang's running the show, it's ok but ask anyone who works for a living about the micromanager in their life. Zuck comes to mind when thinking about the nag nightmare that might be in your life does it not?