The Winds of Politics

 The Winds of Politics

 I have lived a long time, and I have seen the winds of politics change direction many times.  I date back to Franklin Roosevelt and his “New Deal” when I was young, and I remember people, (including my mother), look on FDR as the “second coming”.  Others called him “that bastard, Frankie”.  I was too young to have formed any political muscle yet, so I just observed.

 Intellectual divisiveness and rancor over politics has always been normal within the relatively small group that followed politics in the past, primarily in the printed media.  The general public pretty much voted with their pocket books, particularly after seeing what the depression of the 1930’s, blamed on Hoover and the republicans, did to the country.  Political slogans at election time no doubt had some impact on impressionable, easily swayed voters.

 While politics was debated, for much of our history, basic American values were extant.  Words like “liberty”, “freedom”, “law” meant something, and related to the constitution.  People respected the local, state and federal governments, and dutifully obeyed the law. 

 Some of this was a swing of the country to the right after the Second World War, but mostly, it was a continuation of the American values that had developed over the last 150 years, and for which internal and foreign wars had been fought.  President Eisenhower was the first republican president after many years of FDR and Harry Truman.  McCarthyism was an unwelcome vestige of right- wing abuse.

 We were pretty much unified as a country, and proud to be Americans.  At least if we were Caucasian, sexually straight, and politically acceptable.  We gave lip service to the continuing bigotry concerning the black community, and the snide remarks about “fairies” and “queers”.  These were an aberrant part of our utopian, politically and societally stable Americana.

 Our society began its long and continuing change in the 1960’s. Martin Luther King Jr., no doubt inspired by the “passive resistance” of India’s Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose efforts freed India from British colonial rule, applied the principles of “passive resistance” and nonviolence in this country to ensure civil rights for black Americans.

 The civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests of the 1960’ and 1970’s were the harbingers of activist “progressivism”, and changed America forever.  However, protests soon deviated from Gandhi’s and MLK’s “passive resistance”, to violence in the streets.

 What were originally beneficent movements to redress obvious societal ills such as discrimination against blacks and gays, soon became perverted, skewed and politicized, and became violent, and examples of “the tail wagging the dog”.  The once valid environmental movement quickly joined this exodus toward an uncontrolled left-wing progressivism and deterioration of traditional values.

 It is evident in retrospect, that an “awakening” concerning discrimination against blacks and gays was necessary.  The same was true for environmental concerns.  To the extent that such a societal awakening was non-violent, it was of benefit to all. 

 Once the civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ+++ movement, and the environmental movement became violent and all-encompassing, these once positive movements lost their validity and entered the realm of activist progressivism and anarchy.

 Where we now sit is an America that has been distorted by unbridled left-wing politics that has made our country a laughing stock, “woke”, “politically correct” “environmentalist”, experimental disaster.  It is run by a doddering, faltering old man, who finds it difficult to remember which direction to go on a stage.  There is a great Polish phrase that describes him “stary dziad”, literally “old grandpa” or “old codger”.

 This “old grandpa” is told what to say, and where and how to go, by his handlers, who seem to be a mix of sophomoric 1970’s socialist/communist retreads, and starry-eyed young left-wing acolytes.  Rather than using his nearly 50 years of “moderate” experience in government, as promised, our “leader” has been co-opted by the most extreme elements in Washington DC today.

 Positive results of all of the political and societal upheaval of the past 75-odd years is that all Americans should be considered equal and not discriminated against, and that we should all be aware of our earth’s environment, and not destroy it.

 We should have also learned that intelligence and discretion, and not selfish politics, should inform our behavior concerning our society and our place in it.  This currently seems lost in the morass of “woke progressivism”.

 Ray Gruszecki

May 27, 2023

Commercial Television

 Commercial Television

 I do not watch commercials, or try not to watch them.  This works OK for my large main TV, which allows me to flip through commercials, sometimes with one click.

 I cannot avoid the commercials on cable TV (normally Bloomberg or Fox), that I have on as I’m showering and dressing in the morning.

 Also, I have a little TV on my kitchen table, which receives “over the air” network TV, and can work on batteries if the power goes out.  I watch this little TV, and the included network programs and, again, the unavoidable commercials as I have my coffee and breakfast in the morning.

 I am appalled at the quality of the commercials on both cable and network TV.  Much of network programming and commercials must cater to impressionable 12 year-olds with a sixth grade education.  Many of the commercials are truly inane.

 Also, sometimes, I cannot avoid “The View” on ABC, if I am running late of a morning.  I have to say that I have rarely experienced such vile, offensive and racist commentary and lies  concentrated in one TV show.  Nonetheless, “The View” draws loud applause from its live audience, and apparently is quite popular with followers.  It has been on forever, and gets continuing positive reviews, apparently from the leftist mob.

 Programs like “The View”, must go a long way toward explaining the continuing hatred and extreme bigotry of much of the country and the inveterate left-wing voters in our elections.

 Ray Gruszecki

May 22, 2023

Propaganda in Our Lives

 Propaganda in Our Lives

 Josef Goebbels, one of Adolph Hitler’s closest acolytes, had a PhD in Philology from Heidelberg University, and was Nazi Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945.

 Before Goebbels and his wife Magda killed their six children and then themselves committed suicide in May of 1945, Goebbels would have been proud of the biased press and media in this country.  Goebbels could not have created such a one-sided, one-party media if he had tried.

 In the Germany of the 1930’s Goebbels emasculated respected newspapers such as ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’, and imposed pro-Nazi rags such as ‘Vőlkischer Beobachter’ and ‘Der Angriff’. 

 In this country, there is no “Ministry of Propaganda”, as such, in our government (yet), although Biden did try to institute a “Ministry of Truth”, or “Disinformation Governance Board” about a year ago.

 Our pro-left lies, propaganda and disinformation derives (unconstitutionally), from within the administrative government or deep state, and is proliferated voluntarily by the media, which is about 80% biased toward the left or democrat party.

 Thankfully there are still a few media outlets dedicated to the truth, but truth be told, some of these are found to run to the opposing right of politics and are biased the other way.

 A good idea is to vet sources, before accepting content as truth from them.  I always do this when researching and before commenting on line or otherwise.  “Media Bias / Fact Check” is an excellent media rating service.  “Factcheck.org” is also reasonably unbiased.  Some of the others, like “Snopes” and “Politifact”, are slanted left.

 We are lied to constantly by our media, primarily by the left.  As a result, our country has developed a definite leftward slant.  What were once considered positive, progressive, social justice ideas, have become perverted by activist socialist extremists toward socialism and neo-communism.

 What this has resulted in most recently, (particularly in 2016 and 2020), is interference by our DOJ, FBI and probably CIA, in our presidential elections.  This has taken the forms of flat out and out lies and accusations such as “Russia Collusion” in 2016, and government, media and big tech disparagement and obfuscation of information that was important to the election in 2020 (the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop).

 The continuing media blank on exposure of these lies and abuses, and any attempts to bring them to light, highlights the mainstream media’s complicity in originating and perpetuating these lies and abuses.

 Guys like Elon Musk coming up with over 40 billion dollars to take control of Twitter in the name of free speech offers some hope.  The left is livid that a left-centrist like Musk would expose their cyber-based propaganda machinations in the name of a higher cause, and it must leave them speechless. 

 It is heartening to know that we still have some patriots left that are willing to do something about the dishonest rot threatening our country.  Twitter does not rule the country, but it has been the incubator for many of the biased and racist ideas pushed by the left.

 We Americans cannot just slide into apathy and let our country become another Venezuela.  We must be aware of how our government is being eroded, and we must do something about it at the ballot box.

 Ray Gruszecki

May 20, 2023

Written with Sadness - Mass Shooting of the Week

 Written with Sadness - Mass Shooting of the Week

 Another shooting with 8 dead at a crowded mall on a Saturday afternoon, close to home this time in Allen, Texas, a few miles up the road.  Loud, uninformed left-wing voices will blame the tool, the gun, particularly if it is of the ubiquitous AR-15 variety, and not blame the obviously disturbed shooter.

 Also, murder by car in Brownsville, Texas, with 7 dead.

 Yes, we have a lot of guns in this country, and in Texas, and we have a “gun culture” from taming our wild country and providing food and protection for over several hundred years.  We also have a lot of cars and a “car culture” from our vast spaces, and a lot of knives and other dangerous tools that can kill people.

 The United States is the third most populous country in the world, after China and India.  As of 2023, we have over 336 million people in the country. 

 Recent estimates show that there are between 436 and 466 million firearms in the U.S., and between 77 and 81 million legal gun owners.  Over 20 million guns per year have been bought in recent years, primarily for protection, in response to increased crime rates caused by defunding the police and other efforts by the “woke” left-wing to weaken our law enforcement.

 There were 21,000 willful gun deaths or homicides in 2021 and 26,000 suicides by gun.  Total car deaths in 2021 were comparable at 43,000.  This may be somewhat misleading, since cars are normally not used as instruments of suicide.

 The controversy continues.  Activists from the political left with virtually no knowledge of firearms scream for confiscation and control of all civilian firearms, while they emasculate law enforcement and thereby increase crime rates.  The public responds by buying more guns to protect themselves, and thus increase the number of guns in circulation, and the chance that a gun will fall into some disturbed person’s hands, like the shooter in Allen, Texas this Saturday.

 It has to be obvious from the sheer weight of numbers, that gun control is not going to work is the U.S. in the manner that the uninformed left keeps hammering.  There are simply too many guns and too many legal gun owners, and the Second Amendment concept of “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” is too deeply ingrained in the American psyche.

 It is unfortunate that we have rushed head-long, into a “woke”, “social justice”, “politically correct”, weakening of the morals and ethics that traditionally have supported our societal fiber.  This is particularly true in this extreme left-wing administration where what was once aberrant is now considered the norm.  We have emptied our asylums and prisons, and the inmates are running the country and shooting it up.

 So, the question becomes “how do we keep the guns away from the crazies?” And unfortunately, the answer is not by banning the “one shot at a time AR-15, (Armalite Rifle -15), which the uninformed left terms an “assault rifle”.  We already (since 1934) ban automatics (machine gun type) weapons.  The answer is not by throwing away our tools.  Unfortunately, the answer, that the “crazies” are not learning, is how to use the tools safely, and not mis-use them. 

 And that, folks, is a societal, educational, psychological, psychiatric, religious morass that we have allowed ourselves to get into, and from which there is no easy, modernistic, one size fits all, exit.

 So, we have the “active shooter and killing of the week”, by an addled and disgruntled malcontent, one of the 336 million people in the country that got their hands on a gun, and went on to commit mayhem with it.  And, there’s not a whole hell of a lot that anybody can do about it, save about 50 years of education that includes a revamp of our basic morals, ethics and behavioral characteristics.

 Some statistics:

https://www.marineapproved.com/gun-ownership-statistics-in-america/

 https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-ownership-by-country

 https://americangunfacts.com/gun-ownership-statistics/

 https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/

 https://usafacts.org/data/topics/security-safety/crime-and-justice/firearms/firearm-deaths/

 Ray Gruszecki

May 7, 2023

 

 

Artificial Intelligence

 Artificial Intelligence

 Remember Machiavelli-Wu, the fictionalized international planner deep in the bowels of Beijing Politburo’s Dirty Tricks Division, who thought up releasing a weaponized Covid virus on the West and Fentanyl “candy” on western kids?   Well, this hypothetical unscrupulous CCP planner now has increasingly intelligent artificial intelligence to play with, while the West calls a halt on AI development and wrings their hands in trepidation of the potential power of this technology.

 If they spoke for all of humanity, the cautionary advice by many of the world/s intellectuals about slowing down development of AI would make sense.  Like carbon emissions, it’s a hopeless cause unless all of the countries in the world participate.

 There are no doubts at all, that if the West hesitates on AI development, the Chinese communists, Russia and various other international bad actors will prepare an AI based military, including nuclear if they have it.

 Longer term, is the world astute enough to control potentially weaponized AI like our nuclear arsenals? Or is humanity immature and stupid enough to let AI possibly destroy us?

 Ray Gruszecki

May 6, 2023

AI Platforms

 AI Platforms

 I have been experimenting with several Artificial Intelligence platforms.  Here are the links if anyone wants to talk to an AI.

 The Bing GPT-4 is the most powerful, since GPT-4 is Open AI’s latest creation, and is what many experts are warning about..  You need a few clicks to get it going.  First click on “Open in Microsoft Edge” (twice).  Then “Choose a conversational style”.

 These are all free and busy, so you may have to try more than once.

 All of these will research and return detailed answers, write poetry, translate into other languages, write essays and a whole raft of human-like behavior.

 ChatGPT

https://chat.openai.com/

 

Bing GPT-4

https://www.bing.com/search?form=MY02AA&OCID=MY02AA&=ch&pl=launch&q=Bing+AI&showconv=1

 

Google Bard

https://bard.google.com/

 

 Ray Gruszecki

May 5, 2023

Efficacy of Artificial Intelligence

 Efficacy of Artificial Intelligence

 There has been a lot of dialogue lately about the efficacy of Artificial Intelligence, and cautionary warnings by some experts as astute as Elon Musk to slow down development before it becomes dangerous to humanity.

 I’ve been experimenting with two AI platforms, - ChatGPT, which has gotten most of the attention, and Bard, Google’s, (what is ostensibly a more puny answer to ChatGPT, but does not act like it.) 

 Many people are stuck in the 1990-2000’s, rather than the 2020’s when it comes to AI.  “Garbage in, garbage out”, they say.  All AI can do is regurgitate what’s put into it.  That may have been true back then, but modern AI’s have access to most of the world’s knowledge, and have the built-in ability to draw on it and contextualize it.

 What people forget, or may not know, is that much of what has recently incorporated into AI is not just computer and network technology, but also recent break-throughs in neuroscience and how the human brain works. 

 We are making our AI more like us!  We can get into a metaphysical discussion here on consciousness, the soul and more esoteric considerations, but functionally, we are making AI more and more like human brains.

 ChatGPT and Bard will go out to their knowledge databases and answer and expound on questions, albeit with some caveats and warnings when asked for opinions.  AI also writes poetry better than a human being.

 Just for grins, I asked ChatGPT and Bard a question from our current bible study on James.  Here are the results.

 

ChatGPT

 How do verses 9-11 in James Chapter 2 emphasize the seriousness of treating people unequally?

 Verses 9-11 in James Chapter 2 emphasize the seriousness of treating people unequally by pointing out that any discrimination or favoritism towards certain individuals based on their social status or outward appearance is a violation of God's law and is equivalent to breaking the entire law.

 Verse 9 says, "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." This statement makes it clear that showing favoritism is not just a minor mistake or a social faux pas, but rather a sin that goes against God's commandments.

 Verse 10 continues, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it." This statement reinforces the idea that even if a person keeps all other commandments, but violates one by showing partiality, they are still guilty of breaking the entire law. This underscores the seriousness of the sin of favoritism and reminds us that we cannot pick and choose which parts of the law to follow.

 

Finally, Verse 11 states, "For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." This statement emphasizes that all of God's commandments are equally important, and violating one is the same as violating any other. Therefore, showing partiality is just as serious as committing any other sin, and should be avoided at all costs.

 In summary, these verses emphasize that showing favoritism is a serious sin that goes against God's law and is equivalent to breaking the entire law. This underscores the importance of treating all people equally, regardless of their social status or outward appearance, and reminds us that we cannot pick and choose which parts of the law to follow.

 

 Bard

 How do verses 9-11 in James Chapter 2 emphasize the seriousness of treating people unequally?

 James 2:9-11 emphasizes the seriousness of treating people unequally by making three main points:

 It is a sin. James says that if we show favoritism, we "sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers." This is because the law of God commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). When we show favoritism, we are not loving our neighbors equally.

 It breaks the law. James says that if we keep the law perfectly except for one point, we are still guilty of breaking the whole law. This is because the law is a unit. When we break one part of it, we break the whole thing.

 It leads to condemnation. James says that those who show favoritism will be condemned by God. This is because God is a just God who will not tolerate injustice.

 These verses teach us that treating people unequally is a serious matter. It is a sin, it breaks the law, and it leads to condemnation. We should all strive to treat everyone with love and respect, regardless of their race, ethnicity, social status, or any other factor.

Ray Gruszecki

May 3, 2023

Migration

 Migration

 We, in Texas continue to see massive movements of illegal migrants without documents flood across our border.  Our Governor Abbott does what he can to report the numbers and stem the flow, but the bulk of the biased Biden-supporting media hardly reports the situation unless Abbott routes a busload of illegals to Martha’s Vineyard or New York City.  Hundreds of thousands more migrants are massing and waiting for Title 42 to lapse to illegally enter the U.S.

 I did not know the extent to which this assault by illegal migrants on our southern border was organized.  Apparently, there is an international movement to flood undocumented people into our country.

 I did a little study prompted by an article by Jonas Vesterberg

who is the editor of The Florida Standard, a newspaper which is slanted to the right of the political spectrum.  Vesterberg is a reputable newsman who has over 20 years of media and publishing experience.

 The Darien Gap reference is the subject of a long New York Times article which dovetails with the Florida Standard article.

 The other link is to the IOM, the UN agency facilitating migration of displaced people, who apparently have a hand in the massive migration of peoples into the Southern U.S.

 When I first read the Florida Standard article, not being familiar with the publication, it smacked of another “conspiracy theory”, which have become extant recently.  But I vetted the publication and the author and did further researches to confirm the veracity of the article.  It is indeed true, that there is an organized movement to flood our country with undocumented aliens.  It’s not just unfortunate refugees from wars and persecution.  It includes terrorists with mal-intent, political operatives of many stripes and pure and simple criminals of all sorts.  And all with the tacit approval of the Biden-Mayorkas cabal that pretends to be a government.

 https://www.theflstandard.com/federal-government-behind-massive-operation-to-send-illegal-immigrants-into-u-s/

 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/world/americas/migrants-darien-gap.html

 https://cis.org/Bensman/United-Nations-Hand-Out-Hundreds-Millions-Cash-USBound-Immigrants-2023

 https://www.iom.int/

 Ray Gruszecki

May 2, 2023