Prediction
The media aren't asking the right questions
January 18, 2025 06:42 AM
It doesn't seem that the media, at least the national media, is asking the right questions. I thought back to when the government had to come seize the top secret documents that Trump had tried to retain in completely non-secured places around Mar-A-Lago, a stage, a bathroom, next to a GD copying machine.
Through all of that time, I never saw a news agency ask who had access to the rooms. After months had passed, I searched the web for articles on who could have accessed the documents and I couldn't find any. Nobody had thought to ask if assistant managers could have accessed them, housekeepers…caddies.
If I were to create a place tailor made for spies, I couldn't do better than Mar-A-Lago. With scores or even hundreds of employees and anyone with deep pockets able to walk all around the place. And not a single reporter I could find asked who could access the documents, our nation's most guarded secrets, some of which were only supposed to be viewed in specially secured rooms and weren't supposed to be kept anywhere else because they were just that sensitive.
Then I see MAGA apologists explaining that Trump had the power to declassify the documents. And the reporters couldn't find it in their skulls to ask why anyone would vote for someone who—even given the power to declassify—would be so careless with them. These are important documents.
But that's not why I'm here.
Through all of that time, I never saw a news agency ask who had access to the rooms. After months had passed, I searched the web for articles on who could have accessed the documents and I couldn't find any. Nobody had thought to ask if assistant managers could have accessed them, housekeepers…caddies.
If I were to create a place tailor made for spies, I couldn't do better than Mar-A-Lago. With scores or even hundreds of employees and anyone with deep pockets able to walk all around the place. And not a single reporter I could find asked who could access the documents, our nation's most guarded secrets, some of which were only supposed to be viewed in specially secured rooms and weren't supposed to be kept anywhere else because they were just that sensitive.
Then I see MAGA apologists explaining that Trump had the power to declassify the documents. And the reporters couldn't find it in their skulls to ask why anyone would vote for someone who—even given the power to declassify—would be so careless with them. These are important documents.
But that's not why I'm here.
The documents are water under the bridge now. This man shouldn't be allowed anywhere near top secret documents, but the American people have decided that he should get a pass on literally everything wrong he's ever done, which is quite a list, indeed.
What's concerning me is the questions that reporters aren't asking now, and it is maybe even more dire than our national security. I'm talking about something much more basic: our food chain.
The focus that I've seen from national media outlets has been that food prices could spike, because immigrants are our base line in the country's food production. Let's face it, they're the ones picking the fruits and vegetables. They're the ones in the meat packing facilities. When he throws these people out, we're not only going to see grocery prices spike, we're going to see food shortages. The food we've come to expect simply won't make it to the shelves. It will be sitting rotting in the fields and manufacturing plants.
We could be looking at a famine, not from a lack of food, but because the people who get us our food will have been deported.
So, my advice for anyone reading this column, is to stock up on non-perishables now. I hope I'm wrong, but canned and dried foods will keep and you can always dig into them if this catastrophe doesn't come to pass. But for me, I'm going to play it safe. I'd rather have food stuck in a closet for awhile, available for whatever comes, than to head to the store and find out too late that there's nothing left.
Prediction
October 14, 2024 08:05 PM
So, here goes nothing. Kamala Harris is going to win the election. She is going to do better than the polls are currently suggesting. In fact, I don't have a heck of a lot of faith in polls anymore. I believe the American voter will reject a sexually assaulting, insurrectionist felon, who mocks veterans and uses misogyny, fear and racism to stoke his base.
The BS challenges will be filed and filed and filed, but lies don't hold sway in courtrooms. His cult, however, will believe the lies and there will be violence. We can only hope enough of them will see what happened to their Jan. 6 brethren and will care more about their families and actual freedom than hurting other people.
Trump will be sentenced in his felony case to house arrest. Who knows? Maybe three months. The judge will explain that if it were just the felonies, he wouldn't have to serve time, but he will note that Trump endangered the lives of court personnel, showed no respect for the court, nor showed any remorse. The fact that he postponed sentencing leads me to believe this one.
This will start another round of violence, because, as always, a man-child who was born rich is always the victim and never the perpetrator.
His ensuing trials will be even worse news for him. The documents case will be restarted by the appeals court and he will be found guilty in all three of the remaining cases. Having been convicted of felonies, he will be a repeat offender and will serve harsher sentences because of it. He might remain under home confinement for the rest of his life, or maybe he'll serve time in prison. I think judges will not take his breaking the rules of home confinement lightly and may well switch him from that to prison if he flouts the rules.
In twenty years, the children born to MAGA couples will become adults. The boys, raised to emulate a misogynist, will have a higher prevalence of incarceration for violence against women—who having been raised during the Me Too movement, and won't take it anymore.
The movie version sees some of the MAGA faithful realizing later in life that they were in a cult and making better choices. But Trump has broken much of this country and it is going to take a long time to fix it…if it can be fixed.
The BS challenges will be filed and filed and filed, but lies don't hold sway in courtrooms. His cult, however, will believe the lies and there will be violence. We can only hope enough of them will see what happened to their Jan. 6 brethren and will care more about their families and actual freedom than hurting other people.
Trump will be sentenced in his felony case to house arrest. Who knows? Maybe three months. The judge will explain that if it were just the felonies, he wouldn't have to serve time, but he will note that Trump endangered the lives of court personnel, showed no respect for the court, nor showed any remorse. The fact that he postponed sentencing leads me to believe this one.
This will start another round of violence, because, as always, a man-child who was born rich is always the victim and never the perpetrator.
His ensuing trials will be even worse news for him. The documents case will be restarted by the appeals court and he will be found guilty in all three of the remaining cases. Having been convicted of felonies, he will be a repeat offender and will serve harsher sentences because of it. He might remain under home confinement for the rest of his life, or maybe he'll serve time in prison. I think judges will not take his breaking the rules of home confinement lightly and may well switch him from that to prison if he flouts the rules.
In twenty years, the children born to MAGA couples will become adults. The boys, raised to emulate a misogynist, will have a higher prevalence of incarceration for violence against women—who having been raised during the Me Too movement, and won't take it anymore.
The movie version sees some of the MAGA faithful realizing later in life that they were in a cult and making better choices. But Trump has broken much of this country and it is going to take a long time to fix it…if it can be fixed.
AI
July 29, 2023 02:11 PM
It has dawned on me that a lot of people are going to have to start looking for new jobs in the not-too-distant future. AI is going to be writing books that tick all the boxes for the reader and the book will be written in seconds. A significant number of readers won't care that there isn't a human on the other end. They'll just want books that they enjoy.
I can already tell Photoshop to add a cow or a cat to a picture and it gives me several variations to choose from that look realistic.
A few weeks ago, I predicted that within a decade, people will just be able to tell a computer to make an action-adventure movie about such and such a topic and within minutes, it will be done. No actors or directors, no writers, no camera operators or filming on location in some exotic land, no orchestras. Everything will be computer generated.
Well, this morning, I watched an AI generated trailer. Someone told AI to make a trailer for Heidi. You can see it here. It is freaky as hell to watch. The people and animals are fascinating and eerie, the score is a little bit catchy. It is obviously not going to win any awards for film making, but it's a first step.
Additionally, driverless vehicles are going to kill truck driving and taxi careers. Pilots may well be next. Amazon has technology that allows grocery shoppers to just fill up their carts and leave the store. No checkout. Good bye to the cashiers. Who knows how many jobs are going to be eradicated by technology and if there will be any new ones to fill the void?
I am both excited and scared about the future. What happens to society when too many people don't have jobs to do? I'd love to reach Star Trek level where people are just free to choose whatever career interests them and money is no longer viable. But there's going to be some serious in-between time where people are going to suffer.
Anyway, it was just a thought.
I can already tell Photoshop to add a cow or a cat to a picture and it gives me several variations to choose from that look realistic.
A few weeks ago, I predicted that within a decade, people will just be able to tell a computer to make an action-adventure movie about such and such a topic and within minutes, it will be done. No actors or directors, no writers, no camera operators or filming on location in some exotic land, no orchestras. Everything will be computer generated.
Well, this morning, I watched an AI generated trailer. Someone told AI to make a trailer for Heidi. You can see it here. It is freaky as hell to watch. The people and animals are fascinating and eerie, the score is a little bit catchy. It is obviously not going to win any awards for film making, but it's a first step.
Additionally, driverless vehicles are going to kill truck driving and taxi careers. Pilots may well be next. Amazon has technology that allows grocery shoppers to just fill up their carts and leave the store. No checkout. Good bye to the cashiers. Who knows how many jobs are going to be eradicated by technology and if there will be any new ones to fill the void?
I am both excited and scared about the future. What happens to society when too many people don't have jobs to do? I'd love to reach Star Trek level where people are just free to choose whatever career interests them and money is no longer viable. But there's going to be some serious in-between time where people are going to suffer.
Anyway, it was just a thought.
