March 4, 2021
NASA announced the early end of its Perseverance mission to Mars. It was expected that the search for life would engage the Rover for many years. Sadly, a tree fell on it.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
TRUMP FALSELY ACQUITTED
February 14, 2021
There you have it. The true headline bringing full circle, and to a close, America’s first experiment with a fake presidency. May it be the last.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
Small Enough To Kill With A Shovel
By Damien Cave
- Jan. 22, 2021, 4:09 a.m. ET
SYDNEY, Australia — In a major escalation, Google threatened on Friday to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government approved legislation that would force tech companies to pay for journalism shared on their platforms.
Facebook, which appeared with Google at an Australian Senate hearing, reaffirmed a threat of its own, vowing to block users in Australia from posting or sharing links to news if the bill passed.
In both cases, the dire warnings — which one senator called blackmail — revealed the apparent willingness of Facebook and Google to hide or erase reliable sources of information for millions of people at a time when social media platforms are under fire for helping misinformation spread worldwide.
The companies argue that they already help the media industry by sending it traffic, and that the bill would open them up to “unmanageable levels of financial and operational risk.” The response by Google, which controls 95 percent of all queries in Australia in addition to owning YouTube, has grown particularly aggressive: The company recently buried major Australian news sites in search results in what it called an “experiment.”
A Position Above Suspicion
February 13, 2021
Well I guess that settles it. We now know that there are enough monarchists left in the country to prevent any president from being convicted of anything. No matter how bad. No matter how obvious his guilt.
Congress might as well retire its constitutional power of impeachment.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
The Third Dimension
January 13, 2021
They say that in the “Second Dimension” (the world of screens – the net, iphones, anime – where so many now spend so much of their lives), appearances are all that matter.
Something I noticed among the rioters in the Capitol – and which, strangely, gives me some hope that they may one day break out of their online dream state – is the way many were pawing at the edifice and looking around in wonder, odd looks on their faces. As if both displaced and awakened.
My guess is that it was because the place turned out to be in three dimensions – real.
The transition from the Second to the Third Dimension must have been jarring.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
Release The Grades
January 7, 2021
Given the events of yesterday, I once again call on the University of Pennsylvania to release the transcript of one Donald John Trump, World’s biggest and worst loser and pathological liar.
You can afford the $100 fine the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas might impose on you for such a breach of data confidentiality. But not to worry; I’ll pay it for you – in the interest of the survival of western civilization. Are you really that scared of damaging your ties with this nut? Lies are Lies. Reason is Reason. Where is your honor? What would Ben Franklin think of you? When Quakers quake, Tigers rule. ” I, how you say, unplug my nose in your general direction.”
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
Thirteen Stars
January 4, 2021
Georgia has again shown why it is one of thirteen stars on the original flag…
And that it is possible to put country before party…
Reason before madness.
I salute them.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
How To Transfer A Trillion
December 22, 2020
Say you have a problem. A laundry problem. You’ve stolen the largest amount of money in history, but you can’t spend it. That would raise questions for someone who has been pulling down no more than a government paycheck during his entire multi-decade career.
Answer: On-line banking! You take control of the government of two large countries. Say, Russia and the United States.
Then the former hacks the Treasury Department of the latter. The leader of the latter, curiously, doesn’t complain.
Putin makes deposits. Trump makes withdrawals.
Problem solved!
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
More on Immunity
December 2, 2020
Here’s an example, from abroad, of what I was talking about in the prior post:
“An MEP from Hungary’s ruling party, which is hostile to LGBT rights, has quit after he was caught attending what Belgian media describe as a gay sex party in Brussels on Friday.
Jozsef Szajer, a top member of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, was stopped by police after reports of a house party violating lockdown rules.
Prosecutors say he was found with drugs as he tried to flee the gathering, reportedly shinning down a drainpipe.
He apologised for “a personal failing”.
On Friday he had pleaded parliamentary immunity but he is now under investigation – for both non-compliance with measures relating to the Covid-19 pandemic and violation of drug laws.
The European Parliament said the immunity rule only extended to an MEP’s official duties, not to their private life.” BBC World News 12/02/20
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
Presidential Pardons
December 2, 2020
What is all this talk about “pre-emptive” pardons for the Pres, Giuliani, Ivanka and the boys?
They may be guilty of all sorts of things.
But don’t you have to be convicted of something – something specific, a crime – before you can be pardoned for it?
I see Putin has been trying to get Russian law changed so that he can’t be tried for any crime for life – a sort of permanent get out of jail free card. Is that what we are talking about here, but by trying to use an existing constitutional power to do it? Can this be done?
Article Two, Section 2 (Powers and Duties of the President): “…he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Doesn’t say he shall have power to grant immunity or to hold harmless in perpetuity, which is what is being discussed. And doesn’t the qualifier about impeachment strongly suggest that the intent of the framers was that the presidential pardon power was not intended for self use?
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity