I'm Afraid I Can't Do That Dave

Imagine you lived a hundred or so years ago as a buggy maker or a blacksmith. Horseless carriages were arriving on the scene. Electric, gas, steam powered. They were expensive toys for the wealthy. They did not fair well on mushy dirt roads. But still, you had some angst about what the future might hold and how you would work to feed yourself and your family if these inventions ever took off.

I wonder how many people back then could envision an interconnected Federal highway system and interstate. How many had any idea that the gas engine would prevail. Who understood that the entire world economy would be based upon petroleum? Doubtful but a few, if even that many.

Who knew the environmental problems carbon based fuels would create? Problems that threaten the very existence of our planet.

Today we are at the beginning of the new automobile. It is called AI. It is already here and no matter what we try to do it is not going away. Because hindsight is always 20-20, and the way forward is done largely in the dark. We really have no idea what the future holds.

Like the blacksmith of yesterday how many taxi drivers, delivery people, and long haul truckers are contemplating what they will do to feed themselves and their families when self-driving vehicles become the norm? How many other businesses and services that support these people will fall by the wayside? How long to I have before this wave of innovation takes root?

Change is always a certainty of any time. Most change is slow and deliberate. We have time to prepare. Time to react. Time to adapt.

But there are times in the course of human history that hit us like a flash flood in the desert. This is one of those times.

Future Shock Right Now

The Birth of Artificial Intelligence has already occurred and the infant is healthy and growing up and doing so much faster than our own children and grandchildren.

We have already arrived at a time where digital electronics can be embedded into a human body and interact with our brains.

Today we are able to collect and store data in a capacity that is virtually without limitation (aka Big Data). That data can be mined, analyzed, and computers without the aid of humans can work in capacities that can serve us. They also can (and do) manipulate us.

Take Facebook as an example. There are two billion of us that participate in this online universe with varying frequencies. Take a step back and contemplate your relationship with Facebook. You might think you are the customer. You would be dead wrong. Customers buy things. You are not a Facebook customer. You are the Facebook product!

Further, Facebook places us into various bubbles. The ads and news feeds you see are based upon the things you post, your attitudes, the attitudes and opinions of your friends. You may have noticed that ads that you see are even related to things you did outside of Facebook. Every thing you post, everything you like, every group you join is recorded, stored in perpetuity and analyzed. All of us on Facebook are subject to manipulation. Did you know that Google personalizes search result based upon who you are. The degree to which we allow ourselves to be manipulated really becomes the question. You are being manipulated by software developers like me.

Ever take the Myers Briggs, or Keirsey Temperament Sorter? I remember how pissed off I was the first time I did. I answered a handful of questions and this formulaic assessment had my number dialed right in! Now imagine how much more data Facebook has on you to make similar assessments and to understand how you are wired.

AI is already here and working to manipulate us. If we were to compare AI to life forms, todays AI is still at the zygote stage. The Facebook zygotes have the ability to place us of into the various bubbles they think we belong. Diversity be damned.

Now if this may sound like gloom and doom I am trying to preach it is not. The last time I checked most of us have the ability to make our own choices. This is the most important point for you to understand and be aware of each and every day.

AI is not going away. It will become even more powerful, and the pace at which this is going to happen will be somewhat mind blowing. AI is going to profoundly change our lives and our society. Actually it already has. We have highly intelligent people behind vehicles moving down our roads at high speeds while texting profound things like "lol see ya soon." Intelligent people who momentarily decide to act like fools and endanger the lives of their fellow humans so they can text some message that really can wait until they park the car. Yet, I digress with my texting rant.

AI, though a child, already is being used to exploit us. If you think about societies that do not function well there is always one predominant trait that stands out.

Us vs Them...

Conservative | Liberal

Urban | Rural

Mix in with this a healthy dose of fear, hatred, and stereotyping and we have a mixed a powerful elixir of manipulation.

I am having a hard time believing this is where we all want to be. This is certainly where we are headed. The choice is still your... at least for now.

There is no there, there???

Please keep in mind I am leaving out a whole lot of other pertinent facts. What is presented should suffice.

Trump appointed Michael Flynn as his National Security Advisor. President Obama advised President Trump not to appoint Flynn to anything. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates briefed the Trump Administration that National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn was compromised and they ignored this until it was reported in the press. Flynn resigned. Trump blamed the media for his resignation. Prior to the election Flynn was pictured at a Russian State dinner seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. If you are not shocked by this set of facts you should read it over and over until it rattles your bones.

Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, is the majority owner of the Bank of Cyprus which is accused of laundering money for Russian oligarchs.

Prior to the election Trump sold Russian fertilizer king, Dmitry Yevgenyevich Rybolovlev a property in Florida. Trump denied that they had ever met. On two campaign stops Rybolovlev's plane was seen at the same airport at the same time the Trumps plane was there.

Trump's pick of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. Trump and Tillerson had never met before his nomination. Tillerson has ties to Russian State oil and has been a guest on numerous occasions at Putin's personal residence.

Trumps first campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was doing business with pro Russian leader of the Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych. Victor Yanukovych has close ties to Vladimir Putin. Record for a 10 million dollar payment paid to Manafort was found in a secret ledger that was found in
Yanukovych's personal residence after he fled the Ukraine for Russia.

Jeff Sessions said under oath during his Senate Hearing for Attorney General:
"I had no communications with the Russians." This was a lie. He had multiple meetings during the campaign with the Russians. We are supposed to accept that he just forgot about having meeting with Russian government official shortly after we find out that the Russian government was trying to influence our election?

Jerrod Kushner tried to setup a secret back channel with the Russian government. The Republican parties response to this was that we setup back channels with foreign governments all the time. Really, we setup secret back channels with foreign governments right after we determine that they were trying to influence our election? We are supposed to think this is a plausible explanation.

We are supposed to believe that "There is no there, there"???

Russia meddled in our 2016 election. This is not speculation. This is the finding of our US Intelligence agencies. During the time they were doing this we now know that members of Trumps team were meeting with Russians. They want us to believe that this was just a coincidence?

It is a fact that Trump tried to discredit our intelligence agencies during the period when these facts were coming out in the news.

It is a fact Trump has for a long time continually tried to discredit the media as being fake news. The New York Times, The Washington Post. CNN, NBC, ABC. Fake news?

Trump has yet to condemn the Russians involvement in our election, or say anything critical of Vladimir Putin. This is likely because Trump too is compromised by Russia. Here is an exchange from an episode of the Howard Stern show back in 2000 between Trump, Benza (A gossip columnist), and Stern.

"Trump: I assume A.J.’s clean. I hope he’s clean.
Benza: Meanwhile, he bangs Russian people…
Stern: Russian people?
Trump: Who are you talking about, Russian people, A.J.? I don’t know anything.
Benza: He used to call me when I was a columnist and say, “I was just in Russia, the girls have no morals, you gotta get out there.” [Trump’s] out of his mind."

And the following is from a dossier commissioned and written by a former British MI6 intelligence agent, Christopher Steele. It should be noted that many items listed in this dossier have already been corroborated.

"Former top Russian intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised TRUMP through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him. According to several knowledgeable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sexual acts which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB."

We know that Trump had a private and unprecedented dinner with FBI Director James Comey. Comey kept notes of their dinner and other encounters and shared them with other leaders in the FBI. Comey testified that Trump said to him:

"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go"

Comey also testified that Trump asked him for an oath of allegience.

We know that Trump said the following to NBC's Lester Holt.
"And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said 'you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won'."

...And we are to believe that he fired the director of the FBI who was investigating him, confessed to Lester Holt that he did so over the "Russia thing" and this is not obstruction of justice how? Well it is obstruction of justice and after we establish motive the curtain had better drop!

We also know that Intelligence Director Dan Coats, NSA Director Admiral Rodgers, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to answer questions during the Senate hearing without any legal grounds for doing so. So when did it become okay not to answer questions under oath without a legal basis?

This is just stunning. Stunning.

But, "There is no there, there" Really?

We are a nation of laws. No one in this country is above the law. No one! Our elected leaders take an "oath to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic." New citizens are required to take a similar oath. Justice needs to be served. Return to your seats and buckle up as we are about to experience some more expected turbulence.

Pick up the phone at least once a week and call your member of Congress to let them know that you are paying attention and expect a fair investigation.

---

PS - If you would like for details please refer to
3-5-2017 - Watching the Greatest Scandal in US Political History Unfold
and
5-8-2017 - Watching the Greatest Scandal in US Political History Unfold
Both cite and link to credible sources.

Sobering Moments for History Buffs

The stock market has been going up for the past 8 years. For those of you that are not that familiar with the stock market, when it is going up it is referred to as a bull market.

Eight years ago stocks and real estate were in dire straits. We were shedding jobs at an unprecedented rate. The average retirement fund was down about 30%. People that had diligently saved during their work careers woke up to find their retirement savings down 1/3! Poof gone. We had millions of Americans that lost their jobs and many of them never really recovered back to the economic state they were in before the great recession.

In the history of the stock market this is the first time that a bull market has lasted 8 years. The stock market is very cyclical and a typically long bull markets will last four years.

When we look back at history for the periods of the greatest social chaos it follows periods when society has gone through a serious economic downturns. It is during these periods that Authoritarian rulers rise to power and the mass populace tends to lose their collective sense of ethics and morality.

What is scary now is that we are already in such a period here in the US and many places abroad. Today our markets are doing well. Actually, they are doing a bit too well considering both the economic and political climates.

When the markets take a turn for the worst it is sobering to think who we have as our leader in the White House. There was a perfect storm of events that placed the gravest threat to our Democracy and civilization into the oval office. There is another perfect storm brewing with respect to the current economic bubble we are in. If it bursts and this may well be the year it does...

Refusing to Answer Questions Before a Senate Committee Without Legal Cause

I want to document this as it is something we can easily lose sight of with all that is unfolding and it is a very big deal.

Today the head of the NSA, Admiral Mike Rogers (Active duty military) and the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats would not invoke executive privilege and both claimed that they had no legal basis for not answering basic questions from the Senate intelligence committee that is investigating Russia's influence into our Presidential election.

The questions they refused to answer pertained to whether or not President Trump tried to get them to intervene in the on-going investigation.

This is shocking, stunning, just hard to get my head wrapped around. A Senate hearing has the same force as court of law. These two men swore an oath to tell the and to defend the Constitution. When asked if the President tried to intervene in an on-going investigation they said they did not invoke executive privilege with the President, claim to not have any legal basis for not answering the question, but still refused to publicly answer the question.

Let us be crystal clear. All government workers and elected leaders take an oath to defend and uphold the constitution. Not answering these questions without legal basis is not upholding that duty. Their job is not defend and uphold the person in the White House. Their oath is uphold our constitution.

So let's recap.

1) Two heads our intelligence community refuse to PUBLICLY answer questions if our President tried to intervene in an on-going investigation into collusion by a foreign power in our election.
2) Neither of these individuals had a legal basis for not answering.
3) Duh, the investigation that is on-going involves our President and his Administration

If it quacks like a duck it must be a duck.

This is not okay. If we allow people not to answer questions because the just do not feel like it without any recourse we have crossed a very dangerous line. Please call the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr (202) 224-3121 asap and tell him so.

A Interesting Back Story Why The Russia Meddling and Trump Connection is The Big Deal

Commander John Murphy tells his cold war stories between us and the Soviet Union from the sixties and seventies. I can also tell you that much of the same continued into the 1980's during my time in the Navy. Here is an excerpt from Commander Murphy.

"Technically speaking – any Cold War naval vessel was a potential spy ship, but the Soviet ships that were of the greatest concern to the U.S. Navy were those pesky, little, decrepit looking fishing trawlers that were interfering with naval operations worldwide. We called them AGIs (Auxiliary General Intelligence). The Soviets simply called them 'trawlers'

For the last 30+ years Russian trawlers known as AGI's sit in international waters at least 10 miles out to sea on our Eastern and Western shores. The have massive attenna farms and their primary mission is to collect intelligence."

This is good information and personal recollections on the subject.

I can personally attest to it's validity as I was a sailor in the submarine service during most of the Reagan Administration. It was during the final crescendo with the arms race we had with the Soviets. This race essentially bankrupted the Soviet economy and was one of the key events that led to its dissolution.

I know all about these AGI's as I was our boats primary electronic surveillance operator. I also served as the ships intelligence office as a collateral duty.

People that hang off your coast collecting information on your movements are not a friend or ally. And, in fairness, we did the exact same thing to them. We are not friends. Our efforts back in the day led to fall of the Soviet Union. We won the cold war. What was known as the iron curtain fell and the Soviet Union was officially dissolved in 1991. Russia was the leader of the Soviet Union. They controlled the iron curtain.

Fast forward 26 years. Today Russia is led by former Soviet Union KGB agent Vladimir Putin. He served as a translator (official title) in East Germany during the time when Easy Germany fell. Today the battle field has switched to cyberwar. The Soviets have some of the best black hat hackers on the planet. These people work at the pleasure of Mr Putin and they are damn good at what they do. They had no problem hacking into Democratic servers. They have hacked into numerous government and corporate servers. I suspect they have some pretty nasty shit on President Trump which is why he is so reluctant to say anything bad about them.

Mr. Putin is paying us back. His objective is to destroy our way of life as we did to the Soviet Union
back in the late eighties.To fully understand the gravity of what is happening right now and why it is such a big f'ing deal is to understand the history between our two countries over the last 65+ years. A good introductory history of the cold war can be read at.

Understanding history is important. I got to experience this history first hand in the military.

Vacating the Role as World Leader in the tRump Era

Markets and Business have been making the move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. This trend is not going to change with President tRump taking us out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Many of you think that we may only have to suffer this man for four years. His decisions are going to impact our country for much longer than this.

America, despite our problems, has been a country that other countries look to for leadership. We are seeing the dismantling of this. 195 countries felt climate change was important enough to come together on this subject. Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign the agreement. We now join them.

Our withdrawal removes us from the leadership role we had on the issue that is the greatest existential threat to humanity. Who will step up? Russia, China, France? We can now be certain that it will no longer be us.

Making America Grate Again.