Showing posts with label predictions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label predictions. Show all posts
Friday, March 3, 2017
Hypocrisy
Saturday, January 28, 2017
John McWhorter @ CNN
I feel the same way McWhorter does about Trump: "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day." Trump spouts so many words that a man is bound to agree with some. He is like a shotgun. Yeah, a couple pellets are going to hit the mark.
Trump talks too much, for one thing, and engages his mouth more than his brain. He is not the ideal leader. He is going to make a lot of horrible and costly blunders with that angry mouth and hot head of his. The best that I hope for is that he corrects at least some of the blunders of his predecessors, and that his blunders prove to be correctable by his successor.
Due to Trump, Putin, and Xi, I do not have any hope that humanity will do anything to reverse climate change. Anyone living on the coast anywhere in the world is in for a rude shock, and those in the interior are also in for neat experiments like desertification, violent storms, flooding and violent and hungry refugees from the coast. Trump can be wrong, but ninety-nine per cent of world scientists can't be wrong.
On the other hand, is it right that the U.S. and Europe make all the sacrifices in an effort to reverse global warming, while India, China and Russia pump out maximum carbon emissions? If climate change is really inevitable anyway, and it probably is, given the geopolitical reality, then the U.S. might as well do whatever is expedient, because Russia and China represent evil in our world, and must not be permitted any advantages. Putin and Xi are evil incarnate and will never do anything that is good. If the U.S. committed suicide en masse, resulting in the elimination of all man-made carbon emissions, then China and Russia would continue with business as usual, and colonize our space and replace the lost carbon emissions with their own. Therefore, global warming is truly inevitable. It is impossible that China and Russia should cooperate with the U.S. They prefer global catastrophe and large-scale reduction of the world population to cooperation. Perhaps a reduction in global population is the real solution to global warming. There is not as much need for people nowadays, with automation in so many facets of business. The world could get by quite well with a million, let alone the seven billion currently in existence. This is the sobering reality foreseen by the elite, such as Trump, Putin, and Xi. It is my grim prediction for the future. I do not see a future with populous countries, but a future of war and strife, nuclear exchanges, massive pollution (including radioactive), dictatorships, and overall a long-term reduction in the global population. A "Mad Max" future.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
The Daily Stormer
Back in the day, there were similar creatures in Europe. Some committed suicide, while others were shot or hung, after the war. There is meticulous documentation about their activities. He is parroting them. The forces he draws upon are not congenial for human beings. It is in their nature to betray the summoner.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Bonds Suck So Bad
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Win at All Costs
Monday, December 12, 2016
Federal Bankruptcy?
Meanwhile, Trump antagonizes our chief debt holder, China. For better or worse, China holds our national debt. If tensions rise between the two nations, as we have every reason to expect they will, the United States may default on its national debt for the first time in modern history. Now, Trump has defaulted many a time before, and this would be in character. What will happen is that no one will want to buy U.S. bonds, and anyone holding them is going to be holding Monopoly money. That would include retirees, dear old grandma and the like. There will be a lot of collateral damage, and suddenly the U.S. will have no way to meet obligations such as Social Security and so forth. There will be unhappy people gathering in the streets.
Trump may be cunning, but he is not half as smart as he thinks he is, and he is going to find that global politics is a lot tougher than it seemed at first. There is a reason that Putin backed Trump, and that reason is not to help America or the American people.
Predictions: the federal minimum wage stays the same or is abolished altogether. 2017 inflation rate of 3.5%, 2018 inflation rate of 7%, 2019 inflation rate of 11%, and 2020 inflation rate of 14%. Bonds look like a poor investment right now. Pollution gets worse. The capital spending that Trump envisions will not actually improve anything in the country. He is going to build a wall and spend more on military gadgets for overseas adventures. Spending on scientific research will stagnate, with the one exception of weapons research. The infrastructure will remain as it is, although prison building will expand and become increasingly privatized. Marijuana will become illegal again nationwide, if Trump's Attorney General has his way. Trump is going to put a lot more people in prison as part of the traditional Republican "tough on crime" thing. Most of the new people in prison will be for non-violent offenses like marijuana. The largest per capita prison population in the world is just going to get larger and may even double. The Trump Presidency will be all about culture wars, stocking the Supreme Court with right-wingers, and expanding the military and doing a lot of bombing missions against third world nations to show everybody that Trump stands tall. There probably is going to be some hot fire traded between China and the U.S. in the South China Sea as well, and then an unexpected peace mission resulting in symbolic, empty "concessions" from China that make Trump look good while changing nothing. Trump is all about appearances. All he wants is to look good in the moment. If a world leader understands that, as Putin does, then it is easy to deal with Trump. Give America nothing but a kick in the teeth, but lie and agree with Trump and say the things that make him look good. That is all you have to do with Trump.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Of Course
Are either Trump or Clinton ready for the unique scientific and political challenges of the present? Global warming, financial uncertainty, unemployment, terrorism, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran (the Axis of Evil)? I doubt it. Do they bring new ideas to the table? No, they are orthodoxy.
Many intelligent people do not believe global warming will be resolved by human beings. They view the approaching apocalypse as inevitable. I count myself among them. I do not think that human beings are capable of dealing with the threat of global warming. We are too selfish, short-sighted, suspicious of others. Thus, disaster looms. The federal government foolishly, mindlessly subsidizes development in coastal regions doomed to be devoured by the oceans. Meanwhile, we squash bugs in Syria, Iraq, Aghanistan. Funny thing about bugs. They just keep reproducing. Meanwhile, the treasury is drained on a continual basis, and we become more indebted to China.
I know intelligent people who will not vote for Hillary Clinton or Trump because they see their faults and do not excuse them and see no value in pragmatism. Pragmatism is not sexy, but is boring and depressing. Our system is flawed. Winner-takes-all is a real problem. People will vote for the Greens, for Libertarians, for protest candidates. The system is not capable of processing their intentions.
Our Founding Fathers had good intentions, but ultimately failed us. Their deeds are regarded by the masses as carved in granite, never to be altered, and yet they failed. The system they designed cannot endure. It is being tested. It is doomed.
Global warming occurs, and our national debt increases with no end in sight, and many people are either unemployed or under-employed. Where are the jobs? Again and again, where are the jobs?
It is difficult to be optimistic about the future in the long-term.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
The Best Way to Help the Police
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Nothing Matters
We think things matter because it is a prerequisite of living as an animal. Breathing matters. Feeding matters. To think that these things matter is very useful to an animal. The habit of mind can become all-encompassing, leading one to believe that even little things matter, such as a parking space that one has grown accustomed to or a brand of candy carried by the grocery store. We forget the ultimate reality, which is that nothing matters.
On this planet, there are people now. They were not there in the past. They will not be there in the future. No record will be preserved of their existence. This is a simple concept, but difficult to accept. The Universe does not play favorites.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Trump
Let us examine Trump's thinly veiled threat against Hillary in cold blood. Let us say Hillary is gone. Her replacement would also beat Trump and might actually prove a stronger candidate. That is why Hillary is perfectly safe. I do not fear any assassination attempt against her. The ones to fear for are the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., who gave a better speech than any human being in living history. The evil-doers knew he was irreplaceable. That is why they murdered him. They will not touch a hair on Hillary's head, because she is replaceable, and what is more, the replacement might be better.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
The Model vs. the Ideal
This seems to be the thinking, or rather the deeper, unspoken, secret thinking, behind trends in the world. Technology, philosophy, and economic forces point in the direction I have described. It is not necessarily wrong, even if it is unpleasant and frightening. If the end result is a better H. Sapiens, then perhaps sacrifices need to be made, in terms of quality of life or even life itself. I don't like it, but that seems to be the way that the world is headed, whether I like it or not. I would hope for a gentler transition, but I think that may not be part of the program. One can't count on stability. Stability is a bonus, a prize denied to many of our ancestors.
If I am fortunate, I will survive to an appropriate old age, such as eighty or so, and then cash in my chips, well-liked and well-remembered by those who know me. I hope the economy does not crash, or war break out, or something foolish like that, but one never knows, with Trumps and Putins and Khameinis and Kim Il-Jongs running around in the world stirring up trouble with their nuclear bombs, missiles and tanks, and nasty threats and disregard for others. Many people seem to think that hatred and warfare is the way, and that peace is for sissies, and morality is for losers. The warrior ethos still holds great appeal for wannabe candidates to Valhalla. This may be a fatal flaw in H. Sapiens, given the capabilities of our weapons. Hatred and warfare, so much of it, reinforced over generations. To recover from traumatic violence may require more than one lifetime, and cycles tend to repeat and reinforce.
If I am not fortunate, then that is okay too. I think the world will go on turning.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Yes to Tariffs
The idea that one day, America will be able to compete with China on jobs is ludicrous. China has zero protections for workers and the environment. They will always be cheaper. Either you want an America where your child will grow up to flip burgers at the Waffle Goon, or else you want an America where future generations can get decent jobs that pay well enough to enjoy a good quality of life. It seems pretty simple to me. The only people that benefit from so-called "free trade" are the stockholders in the big corporations. Workers don't see any benefits.
I do realize that slapping tariffs on China would result in a drastic increase in prices for all computer parts and all kinds of other goods. My purchasing power would go down, in the short term. There would be a long period of pain, maybe even a whole lifetime. That would be a price I am willing to pay. One has to think, not just about today, but about fifty years from now. What will America be like? People just don't think about anything other than themselves and today. That is why America is in the situation it is in, where good jobs are hard to find.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Hadrian
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Calling the 2016 Election
It is obvious Hillary Clinton will be the next President. I find it so obvious that I don't even feel the need to explain. I'm far from alone in seeing this. Probably everyone with a functioning brain sees the same outcome.
I prefer Bernie Sanders, but perhaps he is too old and obscure. He does not enjoy name recognition, unlike Clinton. I don't think Bernie can beat Clinton at this time. Young voters prefer Bernie, but young people are apathetic and don't tend to vote. I see grayhairs when I go to the polls. Young people stay at home playing video games or whatever. That is why the country is in the jam it is in.
I will vote for Hillary Clinton, because the alternative, Trump, would be unpleasant. I think Trump may even win some televised debates, because he's a seasoned TV personality, and what seems to matter is style rather than substance. Trump has a more flamboyant style than Hillary Clinton. Even if Trump wins all the debates, he will not win the election. I will be surprised if he carries the white vote.
I prefer Bernie Sanders, but perhaps he is too old and obscure. He does not enjoy name recognition, unlike Clinton. I don't think Bernie can beat Clinton at this time. Young voters prefer Bernie, but young people are apathetic and don't tend to vote. I see grayhairs when I go to the polls. Young people stay at home playing video games or whatever. That is why the country is in the jam it is in.
I will vote for Hillary Clinton, because the alternative, Trump, would be unpleasant. I think Trump may even win some televised debates, because he's a seasoned TV personality, and what seems to matter is style rather than substance. Trump has a more flamboyant style than Hillary Clinton. Even if Trump wins all the debates, he will not win the election. I will be surprised if he carries the white vote.
Guns WIll Be Obsolete
By 2100, guns will be obsolete, because the purpose of guns, slaying humans, will no longer serve a purpose.
Humans will cease to inhabit their corporeal forms. They will, instead, exist in data. We are just a series of numbers, like anything else. By digitizing our personalities, we can exist eternally and endlessly replicate through cloning. Thus, slaying a single clone will not have quite the effect that gun violence does today. Not only will guns be obsolete, but all forms of violence, which will be diminished in status from a great evil to an annoying rudeness. Once one body dies, another takes its place.
The great question is who will be cloned, and what sorts of people will they be? If history is any guide, they will probably be a better sort of people.
The physical body is such an obvious horror in so many ways that people will eagerly embrace their liberation from its cruel tyranny. In virtual reality, one can exist in a perfect heaven of one's own construction. This may indeed offer the solution to overpopulation. Given a choice, most people would choose to die immediately, if guaranteed eternal life in virtual reality, because millions of years in virtual Heaven is better than a short span of years in a form subject to pain and suffering. There only need be a few physical avatars tending to the needs of the computer system, ensuring continuous power and smooth operation.
Humans will cease to inhabit their corporeal forms. They will, instead, exist in data. We are just a series of numbers, like anything else. By digitizing our personalities, we can exist eternally and endlessly replicate through cloning. Thus, slaying a single clone will not have quite the effect that gun violence does today. Not only will guns be obsolete, but all forms of violence, which will be diminished in status from a great evil to an annoying rudeness. Once one body dies, another takes its place.
The great question is who will be cloned, and what sorts of people will they be? If history is any guide, they will probably be a better sort of people.
The physical body is such an obvious horror in so many ways that people will eagerly embrace their liberation from its cruel tyranny. In virtual reality, one can exist in a perfect heaven of one's own construction. This may indeed offer the solution to overpopulation. Given a choice, most people would choose to die immediately, if guaranteed eternal life in virtual reality, because millions of years in virtual Heaven is better than a short span of years in a form subject to pain and suffering. There only need be a few physical avatars tending to the needs of the computer system, ensuring continuous power and smooth operation.
Monday, December 22, 2014
America's Unlikely Defenders
The most devout guardians of our homeland are North Korea and Iran, or had better be, regardless of their bellicose rhetoric to the contrary, because were we ever attacked by nuclear arms, then there is no question but that N. Korea and Iran would cease to be inhabited by human beings within twenty-four hours, and that would be right, and the American public would approve of that response. The idiots heading those incompetent dictatorships may delude themselves all they want, but the instinct for self-preservation may yet stay their hand, as anyone can guess what lies in store for them in the final analysis.
When dealing with such regimes, they are guilty until proven innocent beyond any shadow of a doubt. And even if they are not guilty of a particular crime, they are already proven guilty of other crimes and deserve what they get.
When dealing with such regimes, they are guilty until proven innocent beyond any shadow of a doubt. And even if they are not guilty of a particular crime, they are already proven guilty of other crimes and deserve what they get.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Sucks To Be Poor
I was not too pleased to read about Microsoft replacing security guards with robots. They probably spent a princely sum on the robots, all for the sake of giving some poor guys making $15 an hour the pink slip.
At least the idle aristocrats of Downton Abbey had enough of a conscience to employ the lower classes and think about their welfare. There is something to be said for sharing the wealth and bringing employment to a community, and yes, Microsoft does "owe" the community in which it does business.
It has always sucked to be poor, perhaps more so before the advent of Obamacare, but in the future, all bets are off. Computers and robots keep getting smarter, whereas our pace of evolution is at a standstill according to most authorities. It's not our fault that we can't replace the "chip" inside our brains with a newer and faster "chip". Biological science has not yet advanced to the stage where we can design our offspring or ourselves.
I think that as more people become unemployed and unemployable due to the replacement of humans with computers, there will be a larger group of hungry, poor, discontented people, eager for any type of change, including war. Of course nothing will be done to stop global warming, and the coming scarcity of resources such as drinking water, food and electricity will be a huge pressure upon the lower classes.
The writing on the wall is evident in the U.S. Our vast army of law enforcement officers, already unprecedented in its numbers and resources, will expand and transform, under Republican leadership and guidance, into a kind of Schutzstaffel, eliminating "undesirables," that is, the lower class, and protecting the property of the rich, more or less as it does now. The rich today murder and go free, whereas the poor are jailed and occasionally killed for the slightest infraction. Ferguson could be a harbinger of things to come. Perhaps in the final analysis, it is a good thing that the U.S. has such liberal gun laws, because the Schutzstaffel of the future will not hold all the cards.
I really hope that sanity prevails. I also hope that our scientists develop a way to improve the human animal. Throughout history, science has proven more of a beneficial influence on the human condition and especially on the lower classes than any politicians. Just learning how to prevent the spread of common diseases by washing hands on a regular basis was a huge step forward in medical science and of greater value than anything any politician ever did. The nurses and doctors that insisted upon hand-washing were great heroes of civilization.
I hope that the right-wingers that America elected into office don't drag the country down into war, famine, disease and misery. Just because there is something that makes people happy and more productive does not mean that you have to destroy it. Republicans want to end Obamacare, immigration liberalization and even the minimum wage, and they don't seem to care about Social Security either. What is so bad about paying a worker $11 an hour instead of $7.25 an hour? It seems to me that right-wingers want to pull the wings off butterflies just for the sake of doing it. And then there are some people that would rather pay $1 million for a damn robot than $30,000 a year for a human being to work a job. What is the human supposed to do? Join Islamic jihad?
At least the idle aristocrats of Downton Abbey had enough of a conscience to employ the lower classes and think about their welfare. There is something to be said for sharing the wealth and bringing employment to a community, and yes, Microsoft does "owe" the community in which it does business.
It has always sucked to be poor, perhaps more so before the advent of Obamacare, but in the future, all bets are off. Computers and robots keep getting smarter, whereas our pace of evolution is at a standstill according to most authorities. It's not our fault that we can't replace the "chip" inside our brains with a newer and faster "chip". Biological science has not yet advanced to the stage where we can design our offspring or ourselves.
I think that as more people become unemployed and unemployable due to the replacement of humans with computers, there will be a larger group of hungry, poor, discontented people, eager for any type of change, including war. Of course nothing will be done to stop global warming, and the coming scarcity of resources such as drinking water, food and electricity will be a huge pressure upon the lower classes.
The writing on the wall is evident in the U.S. Our vast army of law enforcement officers, already unprecedented in its numbers and resources, will expand and transform, under Republican leadership and guidance, into a kind of Schutzstaffel, eliminating "undesirables," that is, the lower class, and protecting the property of the rich, more or less as it does now. The rich today murder and go free, whereas the poor are jailed and occasionally killed for the slightest infraction. Ferguson could be a harbinger of things to come. Perhaps in the final analysis, it is a good thing that the U.S. has such liberal gun laws, because the Schutzstaffel of the future will not hold all the cards.
I really hope that sanity prevails. I also hope that our scientists develop a way to improve the human animal. Throughout history, science has proven more of a beneficial influence on the human condition and especially on the lower classes than any politicians. Just learning how to prevent the spread of common diseases by washing hands on a regular basis was a huge step forward in medical science and of greater value than anything any politician ever did. The nurses and doctors that insisted upon hand-washing were great heroes of civilization.
I hope that the right-wingers that America elected into office don't drag the country down into war, famine, disease and misery. Just because there is something that makes people happy and more productive does not mean that you have to destroy it. Republicans want to end Obamacare, immigration liberalization and even the minimum wage, and they don't seem to care about Social Security either. What is so bad about paying a worker $11 an hour instead of $7.25 an hour? It seems to me that right-wingers want to pull the wings off butterflies just for the sake of doing it. And then there are some people that would rather pay $1 million for a damn robot than $30,000 a year for a human being to work a job. What is the human supposed to do? Join Islamic jihad?
Saturday, November 8, 2014
The Daily Show is Righteous
The Daily Show is probably the most moral television that has ever existed. Today I watched an episode where the show actually took one of its own advertisers to task. I thought to myself, "Only the Daily Show would do that. In a hundred years, only the Daily Show." It really is the one television show that is worth watching above all others. That single show is better than all the content of all the other channels, combined, that is, if one has a sense of humor, morality, and cares about this country at all. I always get the sense that the Daily Show will be one of the very few television shows still watched a thousand years from now. There will be, as there is now, great interest in it.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Climate Change
Now that gay marriage is all but certain to be the law of the land, climate change will be the next huge political issue in the U.S., and as usual, Republicans are on the wrong side of it. The cost to reduce carbon emissions is miniscule, laughable really, but Republicans act like doing anything will destroy the economy. Just like gay marriage destroyed marriage, huh? D'oh! And I suppose legalized marijuana will end the civilized world as we know it. The hysteria just goes on and on. Why do people find it so difficult to think?
Thursday, October 30, 2014
More News from Putridity
Putin's Putridity, Russia, having invaded and conquered a neighboring country without any cause but greed, is increasingly flying bombers near Western cities. I think there is an increased potential that the West may have to nuke Russia at some point, with Putin or his cohorts in charge. The world would not much miss a region that brought us only communist dictatorship, war, vodka, Russian Orthodoxy, bad manners, bad art, and bad music.
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