AI is scary but fun

HAL of Space Odyssey

I worked with AI, Artificial Intelligence, for several years in the junk mail business when I was creating computer models that would determine just where to find a catalog company's best and most profitable customers. Yes, it's been around for several years but wasn't really known outside that limited community of analysts and statisticians until recently. It worked. I purchased a computer program, all-told cost me $25,000, that literally did all my thinking in relation to telling my clients where to mail their catalogs. Output was very expensive, which limited those able to pay the price.

I tell you this to illustrate the fact that you can program a machine (most computers) to think like a human, draw conclusions and make valid predictions. In the same vein, it is possible for these same machines to perform normal household tasks, including what is in the Google AI article, making a call that sounds like a human being. Robots replaced human beings long ago on auto assembly lines, as well as other automated businesses. Remember HAL from Space Odyssey? Started out a team player but turns on his makers and controllers. This was 2001. We're way beyond this today.

Can't imagine an Internet without neutrality

Net neutrality, according to Google, is "the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites." A Republican Congress wants to repeal...

"The rules, put in place in 2015 when the FCC was controlled by Democrats, prohibited internet-service providers from selling faster delivery of certain data, slowing speeds for specific content and blocking or otherwise discriminating against any legal online material."   from the LA Times.

Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix are all in favor of net neutrality, which would normally raise a red flag for consumers, but Consumers Union Calls FCC’s Net Neutrality Effort “Chilling.”   Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union says, “Protecting net neutrality means preserving the internet as it was designed — a free, open platform for all that has spurred tremendous competition and innovation." But some Republicans say the Democrats are just politicizing the issue, because they can never win against the House and Trump's signature.

Donald Trump and his GOP minions have been knocking off all programs that favor consumers to put the business community in complete control of our lives. One Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, thinks it's wrong and is part of the group fighting the loss of net neutrality. Here's a list of the numerous rights the voting public has lost under T-rump.

Iran decision just another in line of ending Obama programs

Trump and John Bolton

The man sitting in the Oval Office today is still as incompetent and dull-witted as the day he took office. No matter what success he has had in real estate--most of which is questionable--he is still a loser. He remains in office simply due to the poor, uninformed souls that support him and a Congress riddled with idiots and morons who are equally as incompetent as Donald Trump. It is all a travesty for this country, one that has set us back ages in the eyes of the rest of the world. And just yesterday he revoked another of Barack Obama's accomplishments, just because Obama's name was on it.

He tried this on Obamacare but some thoughtful congressional leaders wouldn't permit it. However, the Iran deal didn't require a vote of Congress so Donald dufus went on his merry way of destruction and repealed an action that many believe was keeping the Middle-East semi reticent. Was this the result of the recent addition of John Bolton to Trump's staff? This warmonger still believes the Iraq war was right and that "pre-emptive war with Iran and North Korea is the right call." I'll leave you with a list of now undone programs from past administrations. Basically, his only accomplishments.

Pro gun control folks must vote Democrat in November

Wayne LaPierre, NRA head executioner

National Public Radio has gone to a lot of trouble to compile a report on how state Senators and representatives have voted on gun control in the past, which is a fair indication of how you can expect them to vote in the future. With one exception. Since the Parkland, Florida gun massacre where 17 students and teachers were killed, the mood has changed slightly in Congress. Atlantic Magazine says Republicans are afraid of primary challengers to the gun lobby this election and "appear ready to abandon these concerns [fear of the NRA] in favor of a more proactive response to gun violence."

As an example, when you look at the NPR study, it is completely one-sided in votes on gun control, divided as you would expect with the left for and the right against. There was one particularly troubling item, mental health and gun control, where all but two Republican House members had voted against along with six Democrats. There was the same proportionate vote in the Senate. The point is, if you were convinced that Parkland was something that will definitely continue, and you want to stop it and all gun violence, pick your candidates carefully in November.

Between Trump and Giuliani, Stormy Daniels will end up President

Rudy Giuliani and MOUTH

Let's just look at this scenario. We have a famous porn queen that claims she had a tryst with Donald Trump, which he denies. She was paid $130,000 to keep quiet. And now enters former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as Trump's top attorney, replacing someone with what looked like solid legal credentials, contrary to the mouth-only talent of Giuliani. The latest is the Oval Office lunatic is unhappy with Rudy, since he can't close the deal on Stormy. Folks, this is the President of the United States, supposedly the most powerful person in the world and not another episode of the soap opera As the World Turns. Trump supporters look at this and say, 'As long as Donald Trump does it, it is OK.' Congress looks at him and says, 'As long as he keeps doing these asinine things, we don't look so stupid.'

Wrong on both counts

John McCain "cunning promoter of his own self-interest"

John, Cindy McCain

The above is a line from Stephen Lemons in FrontPageConfidential. Lemons also writes for the Phoenix New Times and speaks his mind in a way that the informed among us understand. He said the above about McCain adding that he has, "a knack for playing both sides of an issue to his advantage." Like being for immigration and then being against it. He prevented efforts to repeal Obamacare and then voted for Trump's tax plan for the wealthy. He rails against campaign contributions from special interest groups, yet he rakes in contributions from those same groups. He is tops in money received from the National Rifle Assn. And he has a dark side you can see here in his quote from 1998...

Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly?
Because Janet Reno is her father

Another fact...

"Few know that he left his handicapped first wife for a fetching beer heiress whose father gave him a job and a leg up in politics."

John McCain's been a has-been for years and now for the sake of Arizona and the country, should resign from the Senate and spend his time left in beautiful Sedona enjoying life away from Washington. 

Marco Rubio partly right on tax cut

Rubio-Trump

There have been limited bonuses given, little real investment in the American worker, and employment has been in a steady cycle of improvement for awhile, but think Marco Rubio is on the right track, Donald Trump's tax bill still for the wealthy and corporations, not the workers. Rubio says after the weak corporate response above, “In fact, they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.” And an interesting claim that everyone seems to be ignoring, sure we can bring back the car business to the U.S., but since it is almost all automated, it won't help the American work force.