Gort! Is it you? [ALIENS]

        “The day the earth stood still” is one of my all-time favorite science fiction movies. If you have haven’t seen the original 1951 version you should give it a watch. Gort is the name of the robot in the film.

        A relatively recent incident involving a fighter pilot and subsequent release of DoD video showed an unknown object being tracked by an A/F F18. Audio of comments being made accompanies the video. The fighter pilot was unable to achieve a radar lock. After retiring he came forward with information about the incident. (For those that might not know talking about an encounter with a UFO can be a real career ender for a pilot in the service or private sector.) According to the information being reported, sightings had been ongoing for a couple of weeks before the encounter. The former pilot mentioned that there was no visible means of propulsion and that the object looked like a 40’ long white Tic Tac. He said the UFO executed maneuvers that a human body could not withstand. This is one of the common threads mentioned in various UFO sightings.

         This news was reported in a few mainstream news outlets before the news cycle moved on to other things. These sightings have gone on for a long time. Most of them are debunked. Emphasis on most. It is worth noting that these sightings were made by radar and what appears to be thermal imaging. All sorts of questions arise. Are they real? Are they alien? Is it our technology or the technology of another country being displayed? If they’re alien what are their intentions? Good? Bad? Evil? Neutral? The ramifications are somewhat scary yet fun to contemplate.

        In regards to what the intentions of alien beings might be Stephen Hawking is reported to have said that we should keep in mind how things worked out for Native Americans. I do find it interesting that we think of them as a species of life. It seems to me that when it comes to interstellar travel Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be a better choice especially if faster than light travel isn’t possible.  

        AI rather than physical beings (carbon based life forms) would be better able to handle the extreme speeds and maneuvers exhibited by the craft that have been observed. Humans would be a crushed up blob if they underwent some of the G forces observed unless inside the craft are immune to what is happening outside the craft. Regardless AI just seems to me to be a more logical choice. We wouldn’t be using humans for flights if AI were able to make the necessary decisions and take remedial actions for unplanned events that might arise.

        AI would also mean that the same craft could have been here for millennia observing and learning. For all we know they could have been reporting back to wherever for all this time. Taking years to wait for responses would not be a bother for them. AI might not even have a need or requisite for answering back. Gather information. Gather knowledge. It certainly wouldn’t take AI long to figure out that we are the biggest threat to ourselves.

        I think that there may be more to AI, or big headed aliens if you prefer, than just watching though. If they’re indeed capable of interstellar travel they are far advanced of us and anything that we can do. If this is the case and I believe it would be then they are letting us see them because they can. The F18’s were unable to get a radar lock yet the ships could be seen by different radars. Then they “disappear”. What’s that about?

        If they wanted to do something to us or with us they certainly could have done so before now. Seriously, why wait? The best that we could hope to do is blow the crap out of our planet and we’ve been able to do that for decades. There would have to be some altruistic purpose for them to “save” us from ourselves and our penchant to self-destruct when we acquire too many nice things. If they had altruism they would have acted waaaaay before now.

        But I keep coming back to why would they choose to let us “see” them sometimes but not at others? That seems inquisitive.

        “Look to the skies! Look to the skies!”

Toll Road Ahead [POLITICs]

        There’s a toll road ahead. Decisions will have to be made and are already being made. The cost for getting on is real expensive. The poor, infirm, middle class, women, children, immigrants, labor force, seniors and just basically the have-nots so far are the ones that are going to be paying the toll.  The ultra-rich are getting a pass along with the really rich, regular rich and just rich. The wheels are already in motion. Life will get harder for the rest of us. A lot of people won’t make it. In other words, people will die. Poverty kills. Not having enough money to pay for insurance kills. Politicians are getting ready to kill a lot of people. People will be sent back to countries where they will be killed. Evil kills. The environment will suffer. There will be lots of collateral damage. A very small select group will add to their fortunes. They’ll receive accolades from their peers and supporters. Tyrants large and small will always have their supporters. Kings always had willing serfs.

        There has been this vulnerable portion of our population that for the last 20 years or so has been conditioned to accept and believe the worst about certain segments of our society. There has been a veritable carpet bombardment through electronic media from email in the beginning stages to and through social media platforms that wasn’t possible in the days of printed media and traditional television alone. It has been a misinformation operations dreamland. Pure fabrication has taken place on a grand scale.

        It hasn’t been real. It’s been conspiracy this, conspiracy that. Things that meant nothing were made to look like something. Bogus cause and effect: this has happened, so that means this must have happened. So and so knows so and so and they know. I know someone that knows. An official source says. Everybody knows.

        Compounding the problem is there were real ugly truths scattered among the rubbish throughout the last few decades. What would have been laughable became possible to believe. The National Enquirer went mainstream. The population was primed and ready. Coupled within all this is the very human trait of tending to believe the worst of human nature. The constant struggle between good and evil has tipped. The pile of deceptions became too great. One falsehood could be exposed but in the meantime there were a thousand more new ones fabricated. The power of the keyboard and software.

        But these things that happened were their own truths, nothing more. Real deceptions when they were called out were acknowledged. These real truths were ugly enough on their own. The country didn’t need all the make believe ugliness that was added on. The shape of our culture was made much worse than it needed to be. It served a variety of agendas to make that happen.

        Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.* There’s guilty and then there’s guilty. People wanting someone to be guilty does not make them guilty. Here’s a simple hard uncomplicated truth. Just one of many.  In regards to both President Bushes, Obama and the Clintons even with all the lies and deceit both real and imagined have committed no crimes that they can be charged with. It isn’t due to lack of evidence. There is no evidence except for the imaginings and desire from many for there to be. There might possibly be evidence to charge them with but there is no evidence to convict them with. Troves of make believe evidence and opinions exist. Thousands of people from all walks of society and a variety of disciplines would be necessary for the magnitude of cover ups that would be necessary to keep them from being charged, if they were guilty.

        Four were Presidents. One will never be President. Donald Trump is President. These are hard truths. That’s just the way it is. That’s another hard truth. This isn’t about the former Presidents or any of those that might have been President. This is about where we’re at as a nation. As a nation we have to deal with this situation. Where do we go from here? Resistance isn’t a plan. It’s an action or actions. Impeachment isn’t a plan. It’s an action, a process.

        This isn’t about impeachment. Some of the same professionals that have investigated in the past along with some new people will do their jobs again and investigate our current President and various associates just as they have done in the past with other administrations. What they will decide to do for the good of our nation when it comes to moving forward remains to be seen. (There have already been a couple guilty pleas that we know of.) Obviously this is something that needs to be done. The problem this nation faces goes far deeper than just one man or woman.

        Wagons have been circled. Heels have been dug in. Reality is no longer an issue because the reality of the situation is unacceptable. Zealots don’t need to be morally or ethically right; they just need to advance their position at any cost and they don’t care who pays for it.

        People are going to die.

*Benjamin Franklin in 1735. (Human nature hasn’t changed.)

It is what it is. [POLITICS]

        It’s time we talked about the real problem in our country—rich old white men (or just rich white men, if you prefer) running things. They’re why it gets harder each passing year for the rest of us to hang onto nice things.

        The current administration is Republican:  the House, the Senate, the Presidency and the Supreme Court of the United States, though not technically political, now has a conservative majority. The Republican Party is now in complete charge of our form of government. It seems like this should be a success story. Instead it has been chaos. And it’s getting worse.

Who caused the most recent economic collapse?

Rich old white men.

Who caused previous economic collapses?

Rich old white men.

Who runs most corporations?

Rich old white men.

Who sent most of our jobs to foreign nations?

Rich old white men.

Who continues to send our jobs to foreign nations?

Mostly rich old white men.

Who imports the most foreign goods?

Predominantly rich old white men.

Who is governing our country?

Predominantly rich old white men.

Who is running the Republican Party?

Predominantly rich old white men.

Who is running the Democratic Party?

Predominantly rich old white men.

Who controls agriculture?

Predominantly rich old white men.

Who controls energy?

Predominantly rich old white men.

        And then what happened? In order to fix problems caused by rich old white men white people turned out like never before and elected a really rich old white man to be President. To top things off this is a man that talked about the fun of assaulting women sexually and confessed to walking in on naked teenagers in his beauty pageant. I’m not sure if this qualifies him as being a pervert or just a run of the mill voyeur. I’ll give him this: he has taken sexual improprieties committed by Presidents to a whole new level. It’s a distinction that our nation could have done without. 

        He in turn appointed more rich old white men. (To be fair there is a rich old white woman or two that were appointed along with a person of color but I think that he’s just playing at being rich.)

        Who is currently condemning tens of thousands to death by making health insurance unavailable to them?

        Who is pandering to their wealthy white friends by providing a trillion and a half deficit just to give the rich white men a tax break?

        Who is after Medicare and social security?

        Is there a pattern here?

        Seriously. Think about it.

        While I acknowledge that blaming rich white men is pretty simplistic it’s a consideration that we need to take into account if we’re going to get the nation on a better track. Make that back on the rails since we currently seem to be completely off the track. I understand that there are women and people of color involved in what’s going on in Congress as well. But more than half of Congress are now millionaires and there are plenty of multimillionaires. I think that perhaps we should consider a different approach if we want to stop the decline of our nation.

        I have a suggestion. Let’s elect some women. Start out with white ones if necessary so it isn’t too much of a shock and then work up to brown and other colors.