“Don’t go Anthropomorphic on Me”

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I do not think Donald Trump’s rebranding Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence is a good thing. I think it is a real misnomer. In fact, it is one step towards humanizing A/I. It reminds me of the movie Blade Runner based on Philip K Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

A lot of people are preaching the end of humanity with the advances in A/I or S/I. In my mind, it is really nothing more than semantics. Is there something inherently being changed within this manufactured intelligences that warrants a name change? Is it more than a governmental rebrand? Is it like the New Coke debacle that took place in 1985 when Coke-Cola decided to dump its traditional Coke for something new? Oh, and that took a “real thing” belly flop for Coke.

Or, is “super intelligence” something much more. In Dick’s book he explores deeper forces taking place than just asking a chat bot to make a hotel reservation. According to litcharts.com Dick “suggests that empathy is humanity’s defining trait, contrasting it against the emotional detachment of androids.” My question is: would that same empathy be reciprocated, particularly if a human had to pull the plug on A/I.

Humanity has been living with some sort of dystopian end-of-the-world beliefs probably since man first started looking up at the stars at night and witnessed a complete lunar eclipse. These beliefs can be religious or from science fiction. On the science fiction side of it Orson Wells jump started the dystopian genre with his 1938 broadcast War of the Worlds. If anything, Jules Vern, Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas have proved Isaac Asimov belief that “today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact. We are in the world of A/I science fact.

For the most part Science fiction has given us helpful robots like “Robot” in the 1960s TV show: Lost in Space to R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars. And of course there was the rouge Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Terminator. Both immediately opened us up the evil side of rouge A/I. Both introduced a doubt about “supper” intelligence cohabiting with humans.

But it is just not science fiction. Christianity itself is steeped in apocalyptic doom. The last book of the New Testament deals with the Second Coming; Take Revelation 6:8: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

Or as REM sings: It is the end of the world as we know. It is a concept that has been hanging over humanity for centuries–more so now with the advent of nuclear weapons. Where does A/I fit into this “brave new world.”

Whether we call it A/I or S/I our lives as humans are going to change. But that is what technolgy does it changes our lives. And for some it does mean the end of the world as they knew it. (Does anybody make buggy whips anymore?)

Take the shift from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. It happened way back in ancient times but it was a radical shift. That shift, though, did not take place with the lift of a switch or juice being sucked off into a data center. It was a slow moving change.

The Bronze Age was known for an era the when the Egyptian New Kingdom flourished, the pyramids in Geza were built. It was moving away from stone tools and the mixing of copper and tin that created a durable metal for weapons and tools. It could have been the rare earth metals of the day. But this alloy lead to advances in agriculture. The problem was that copper and tin just weren’t laying around. Copper and tin had to be mined. The mining of ore lead to trade which lead to some political stability for many centuries. The concept of free trade ends wars may have been a concept in its infancy then.

But like with any technology, somebody came up with a comparative mouse trap–and made it better. In this case iron. Some poor old metallurgist who ran out of copper and tin was searching around for a substitute and found it in iron and carbon. He came up with a better mouse trap and the Bronze Age slowly turned into the Iron Age. For humans, it was a game changer.

Now here is my game changer with artificial intelligence, it, is here to stay. But I like the term artificial because it is not human, nor is it human intelligence. Sure it may think like a human and sound like a human with the proper inputs–but it ain’t human. Is it super? Cambridge Dictionary defines super as “extremely good, above average, or to a very high degree. And, as a prefix Vocabulary.Com+5 say the word derives “from Latin meaning “above, over, or beyond,” denoting something that exceeds normal limits or ranks higher (e.g., superhuman, supersonic)” However, putting the word super in there we are automatically elevating A/I to a level above human, like Super-human.

Right now we are looking at machines but what happens when an android or robot creates a legal case that works its way up to the Supreme Court claiming its rights have been violated. Or, it has a right to exist. It may sound strange but then Citizens United affirmed the belief that a corporation, Political Action Committees and Unions have free speech rights–and they are not even sentient beings but a conglomeration of money.

The Arc de Homer

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The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David 1807

If it was not such an egregious misuse of governmental power and resources Trump’s proposed Arc de Trump would be comical. The daily comings and going of our president reminds me of Homer Simpson’s antics.

Take the proposed Trumpian arch for Washington DC. Triumphant arches are not uncommon. They date back to the time of the Romans Empire. It is believed that as many as 50 arches were built through out Rome. Today only three remain. Two of the most famous remaining arches are the Arch of Titus built in 81 CE and the Arch of Constantine built in 312.

Now ebsco.com says, “The triumphal arch originated in Rome as a way for the emperors and citizens to celebrate or commemorate some significant event. These included military victories and the seating of a new emperor.” And of course these structures “were designed to be impressive and were usually decorated with carvings, sculptures, and bronze plaques related to the person or event they commemorated.”

In a city like Washington DC with 100 monuments why not add a 250 foot arch to rival the Washington Monument? My real question is what are we commemorating?

“There is nothing that authorizes or justifies a massive arch, even if Trump tries to disguise it as a military facility… This is cartoonishly illegal, but he’s obviously trying to find a way to do it anyway.”– Rep. Jared Huffman of California, House Committe Natural Resources The Washington Post

For instance, Domitian, Titus’ brother and successor built the arch to celebrate Titus’s victory over the Jews and the capture of Jerusalem. A side note: some of the sculptures on the arch show Roman soldiers hauling off captured loot from the Jewish Temple. I am sure some of that loot helped pay for the arch.

The Arch of Titus, Upper Via Sacra, Rome
by Carole Raddato

So are we building an arch to celebrate Trump’s future victory over Iran? That sounds premature. Is the Trump arch supposed to celebrate Trump being proclaimed supreme leader? Like Augusta, the first emperor of Rome. After his death the Roman Senate went one step further by deifying him. Augusta went into the afterlife as a god.

“…a reporter noticed the arch design on the resolute desk as they were being pushed out of the Oval Office. The reporter asks the president the purpose of the 3D model and he responded, ‘It’s an arch…It’s going to be built.'” When the reporter asks for whom, Trump replied, ‘For me!'”–The Daily Mail

More closer to our time but still more than 200 years in our rearview mirror was The Arc de Triomphe. In 1806 Napoleon decided he needed to be commerated after his great victory in the1805 Battle of Austerlitz. His victory against the Russians and Austrians is considered one of his greatest victories and one of the greatest battles fought. This coming from a man who two years earlier crowned himself emperor. (Trump’s continuing conflict –war; or whatever word du jour the administration is using–with Iran might go down as military flop.)

On 18 May, 1804, after much political horse trading, the French Senate proclaimed Bonaparte Emperor Napoleon I. They then sent a group of senators from central Paris to the consul’s palace in the nearby countryside, Saint Cloud, to present the First Consul with the news of his elevation. Not content with this secular appointment, Napoleon was also to feel the need for divine approbation via a religious consecration, seven months later.–napoleon.org

Maybe in Napoleon’s mind he thought the emperor gig would be solid work for a while. Unfortunately, his grandiose schemes would end less than 10 years later as he was exiled to his own personal island off the African coast to live out the rest of his life, (under British guard) which ended as depressed man in 1821. And another rub to his majestic monumental desires; his arch would not be completed until 1836, 15 years after his death.

In many ways I see the need for President Trump to fast track the building of his arch. After all the old boy is moving beyond 80. Unlike Napoleon and Titus, he probably wants to be around to see his arch built.

Arch of Constantine
NikonZ7II Paris Orlando Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons

However, his arch reminds me of a Simpson episode where Homer is charged to design a car–“The Homer.” The car turns out to be a flop with so many added bells, whistles and gadgets. It is beyond a flop. The Homer puts the car company out of business.

Some argue that Washington needs a monumental arch. Washington is a capital without an arch. So in many minds we should build one. Especially to commemorate the semi-quincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Heck, why not? Let’s slap a 250-foot-tall memorial right under the flight paths of National Airport.

The building of an arch may not be a bad idea. But, it just seems like so much of what this administration does has little thought put into it; and no public comment associated with implementing something properly.

Over 70 major cities/capitals around the world, from London, Paris and Rome to Madrid, Athens and New Delhi, all showcase beautiful arches. Interestingly, Washington, DC, is the only major Western capital without an arch. Now after 125 years of waiting, the most powerful capital in the world will be home of the most spectacular and beautiful arch of them all! Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum from X

Where the flop comes in, in my mind, is how a memorial arch can morph into a monument commemorating the Declaration of Independence to a “top grade military complex” with drones, snipers and maybe missiles. A great place to store munitions–who would think to bomb an arch in the middle of a traffic circle.

This arch (much like the White House Ballroom) is beginning to look like “The Homer.” It makes about as much sense as building a ballroom that can transform into some sort quasi-military compound.

Trumpapalooza: Chocolate Factory of Political Nonsense

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I did not immerse myself into The Donald Trump Show, a specaial called: Trumpapalooza. I did not bother to read Five Take Aways from what is billed as GOPer two-day midterm convention–a festival supposed to tout the Trump’s accomplishments before the 2026 elections. Actually I am tired of the zany antics of this president. It would be funny if it were a sitcom. But it is not.

The one big thing I did hear from this new episode in Season 6 of The Donald Trump Show is he is going to give me $5,000 if the GOP holds the majority in Congress, not necessarily a golden ticket to a chocolate factory. It is more of sweeting the midterm elections using fee speech and money. It is an old take on Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is easier than getting people drunk enough to vote for you.

When it comes to Trump I find myself like Lucille Ball and Ethel Mertz in an I Love Lucy episode that aired way back on September 15, 1952. First, before I go any further, I must say I did not see this episode when it aired in prime time. It is a classic I Love Lucy called Job Switching. I saw the show as a kid when Lucy was a perennial morning re-run on local TV. It was Friends or The Big Bang Theory of its day.

But back then it was a time of Black and White TVs. It was in time before morning news and celebrity talk shows. It was time with three network channels and maybe one or two local independent stations. And it was a time way before a 24/7 nonstop news cycle feeding us endless drivel.

“….And a man talks on the radio
He’s telling me more and more about some useless information supposed to fire my imagination…” (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction Rolling Stones

My sisters loved the Lucy show. So in the time of limited screens and limited content to pick from; I had two choices: either watch Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory or go outside. I am sure my sisters felt the same way when The Three Stooges came on. I feel this way with Trumpapalooza. I feel like I am the Loo-zah.

For those of you who are not familiar with the episode in question Lucy and Ethel take jobs wrapping chocolates while their husbands Ricky and Fred do housework. It is a classic theme often depicted in sitcoms: who has the tougher job? The theme is nothing new. Shakespeare uses a variation of this theme in various plays and Mark Twain wrote a novel called The Prince and the Pauper.

According to mashed.com‘s description Lucy and Ethel’s work day begins “With a bellowing “Let’r roll,” the conveyor belts starts up. At first, Lucy and Ethel think they can handle it, dutifully wrapping the chocolates. But they quickly realize they’ve overestimated their own abilities. But their jobs are on the line — not to mention the bet with their spouses — so Lucy and Ethel go to battle with the chocolates the fastest way they know how: stuffing them in their mouths and into their clothes. Lucy turns to Ethel, whose mouth is so crammed with chocolates she cannot speak, and declares “I think we’re fighting a losing game!” As the chocolate rate gets faster and faster, it becomes manifestly clear that they cannot possibly keep up — but their workplace fiasco makes for truly memorable comedy.”

When it comes to what Trump says, in many ways, makes me feel like Lucy or Ethel’s inability to deal with all that chocolate. They can’t eat it, they can’t stuff it in their pockets and they sure can’t wrap it. By sending more obnoxious, ignorant and incompressible ideas down the conveyor belt in the news cycle Trump is overloading the public’s ability to comprehend what is real and fake. It comes so fast we don’t know how to handle it. We can’t eat it and we can’t stuff it in our pockets.

The real paradox is that in order for Trump’s chocolates to come down the conveyor belt the news media becomes the chocolate shop pushing this crap on the public. The news media is not responsible for all the chocolate.It comes from a man who sues media outlets and complains constantly about the news media pumping out fake news–when he is the purveyor of most of it.

All of this reminds me of a quote attributed to the comedian WC Fields: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” And I would add plenty of it.

You would think at some point in the consuming public’s need to know would tire of the constant supply of bovine excrement being heaped at our feet. You would think that the economics of supply and demand for this idiotic rhetoric would kick in and reach equilibrium. You would think that at some point along the demand curve the public’s craving for his diatribe would have some effect on the supply side of tainted chocolate coming from Trump and his cohort. Obviously not.

Or maybe it has. Maybe what we are witnessing is a drop in the quality of gas coming out of the bag. I thought Trump “jumped the shark” two years ago in the Presidential debate with Kamala Harris when he said: “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats…,They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

“No one in this world, so far as I know… has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people”–H.L. Mencken

But I was wrong. Just when you thought you hit the ceiling (or bottom) of ludicrous public discourse we were hit with memes of Trump as Jesus, the Pope and the late Hulk Hogan. We have seen Trump toting assault weapons and leading naval ships in modern rendition of “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.”

What upsets me the most is not Trump’s bombastic style, what I cannot understand is how the American public is still consuming this nonsense. As a viewing nation our IQ must deflating as our attentions span lives on cheap sugar. At what point do we realize we cannot keep inflating Trump’s ego. We need to turn off his confectionary conveyor belt of tweets, memes and map changes. We need to stop listening and looking for some sort of meaning in all this. Unlike Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory, there is no Trumpa Bar with a golden wrapper. Trump kept that one for himself.

America’s World Turned Sideways–Soon to be Upside Down?

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The British surrender at Yorktown by John Trumbull, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I must say that the absurdity of this government is definitely going sideways, maybe even soon to be upside down.

But before I go on I want to say that I saw something the other day that put a pause in what I thought about American history. I thought it was so apropos for for today; and so historically ironic it had to be true: That the British Army after its surrendering at Yorktown to George Washington and the French Army marched out of Yorktown playing a ditty called: A World Turned Upside Down. However, it seems like this may have never happened, playing the ditty not the surrender. In fact researchers are not even sure if there ever was such a tune.

According to mountvernon.com, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, some American professional historians accepted this story “and published it in their textbooks (still without corroboration).” It goes on to say that the belief the British stacked arms and marched out of Yorktown with fifes and drums dolefully playing A World Turned Upside Down never happened and actually came from “several American novelists and one British poet, Robert Graves.” Somehow this novel idea worked its way into our historical textbooks and our mythology.

The story, according to mountvernon.com “was first published in Major Alexander Garden’s Anecdotes of the American Revolution forty-seven years after Yorktown. Garden quoted a letter from Major William Jackson who described the surrender negotiations as though he had been an eyewitness, but didn’t mention that he was in Europe, not Yorktown at the time.” Basically Garden’s assertions are based on second-hand and third hand information from sources who also were not even at Yorktown. This also makes me rethink the whole Alamo story.

It really does feel satirical and something a novelist (or Hollywood) would do to embellish a storyline. When one considers the Revolutionary War and what 13 colonies did–with the help of a global superpower, which France was in the 17th and 18th centuries–was incredible.

But defeating the British on the battlefield is not historically earthshaking. Upstarts have defeated Goliaths in the past. Look at what is happening in Ukraine today and what Vietnam did against the French, and later the US.

What turned the world upside down in the 1780s happened a decade after the Revolutionary War when those 13 states formed a more perfect union, a republic, in a monarchy dominated world. People ruling themselves was a philosophical concept batted around in coffee houses and universities of the time–but never in real time.

Now, what does this have to do with anything today. I am glad that you are thinking ahead because as I said our government has been going sideways for a long time. But the current buoyancy of the ship of state is listing heavily to the right–pun intended. I say this because of the back and forth that is going on about saving our elections from alien invasions.

There were two things that the framers of the Constitution wanted in setting up a republic, saving us from alien invasions was not high on their to-do-list. The first was tyranny. It is not a word we throw around too much today. American History Dictionary defines it as “A government in which a single ruler is vested with absolute power.” The framers realized that checks and balances were needed. They feared a government with too much power. Hence, we see the formation of two distinct levels of government. They devised a federal system that a divided governmental powers. We have state and national governments and each has certain delegated and reserved powers–powers not concentrated in one person or institution.

Unfortunately for this administration elections fall mostly under the purview of the state governments and Congress. But that is not stopping this administration’s attempt at a rolling coup using the judiciary system in an obvious effort to control the outcome or at least influence the credibility of the next election. Instead of rolling up a tank division and Seal Teams in storming up the Capitol steps, the administration is using a battalion of lawyers to pull down the government with executive orders and legal rulings. It is the simple Trumpian belief if you can’t win find a judge who will just change the rules in mid game.

The second thing the framers were concerned about was too much democracy infused into the federal government. You see that in the Electoral College electing the president, state legislatures determine who will be senators, and the president nominating judges with Senate approval. At the time the Constitution was approved the people only voted for members of the House of Representatives.

Those framers also knew too much democracy can lead to mob rule, as we saw on January 6th, 2020 when people were urged to “fight like hell.” It was a page right out of Sam Adams and the Boston Sons of Liberty play book. The Sons of Liberty had no problem summoning out the mob to obstruct British governing of Massachusetts. Even after the war the Massachusetts government had to deal with Shay’s Rebellion when farmers shut down the legal system to keep the courts from foreclosing and seizing their property for unpaid taxes. Even during his presidency George Washington led an army into western Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion.

Without a doubt the checks and balances and the separation of powers can make our government slow-footed. Can a king or some other sort of autocrat work quicker and maybe more efficient? Possibly. But that is not how our republic was designed. It was designed with belief that the ultimate power rests with the people and not in one person or one branch of government.

I think we are fast approaching a tipping point with this administration’s efforts to bully its way into the election process. Elections are the engines that drive a republic, a democracy. The Constitution is clear on the fact that states handle elections, No where in the Constitution is it even implied that an executive department, the Department Homeland Security or an independent agency of the executive branch, the United State Postal Service can determine who is an eligible voter.

Without a doubt our election history has had its dark moments. Has there been voter fraud? I am sure if we were to take a deep dive into City-Machine politics we would find more rats in the ballot boxes then we would like to believe. Every major city from Boston to St. Louis has had some sort of boss led city machine. Three of the most famous machines were William Tweed’s Tammany Hall during the Gilded Age, James Pendergast in Kansas City and Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago. It would be hard to believe that ballot boxes were not stuffed during their reign as “Boss.” And I am not going to talk about the opposite: voter suppression with Jim Crow in the South. When it comes to elections we have come a long way from night-riders and city-machine machinations.

What we are witnessing today is the assembling of a national machine lead by Boss Trump. A machine backed with the full force of the federal government. The only thing between the Boss and an election is the Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I am not a Constitutional scholar on running elections but it seems obvious elections are delegated to states and not the Executive Branch of the Republic, Homeland Security, Social Security or the Post Office. If this were to happen voters would be marching to the polls to the tune of A World Turned Upside Down.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/03/2026-06601/ensuring-citizenship-verification-and-integrity-in-federal-elections

“I recon I’m as American as anyone from Tennessee.” 

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One of my favorite scenes from the old Lonesome Dove TV series is when Bol, the Mexican cook is “whackin” the dinner bell for supper. Gus McCrae, played by Robert Duval tells Bol, “a man with any sense at all can tell when it’s sundown without you whacking’ that bell.”

To which Bol tells McCrae, “Robert E. Lee freed the slaves. I can whack it if I want to.” McCrae tells Bol “It was Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves Bol, not General Lee.”

It is at the point a Texas cowhand, Pea Eye, joins in and muddies the discussion by saying, “he (Robert E. Lee or Abraham Lincoln we are not sure who Pea Eye is referencing as “he.”) didn’t free Mexicans anyway. It was “Americans he freed.”

The more erudite Augustus McCrae sees that the conversations is going sideways. He tells Pea Eye that he is in over his head. “It was a bunch of Africans Abe Lincoln freed.”

Now Larry McMurtry’s book came out in 1985 and the TV series aired in 1989. When I first saw this scene I had to laugh at the deep misunderstanding of the Civil War that was taking place in that brief scene. It is somewhat apropos, though. One-hundred and sixty years later I think we are just as confused about the Civil War and its outcome as we, as a nation have ever been. In fact some may argue we are reverting back to the post Reconstruction era.

However, it the ending part of the scene I think what is really relevant for today. I doubt Larry McMurtry, when he wrote this, thought somebody forty years later would reference his writing this way. But here I am probably reading way more into it than the scene actually was. I think the final lines of this scene are short and succinct and very 2025-26ish. 

McCrae references his partner and fellow long-time Texas Ranger, Woodrow Call, as being born in Scotland  He says that Call is “no more American” than the Africans Lincoln freed.

Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, returns the burn to McCrae saying. “I recon I’m as American as anyone from Tennessee.” (Gus’s home state.)

I am sure when McMurtry penned those words in the 1980s about a Western adventure that would take place in the 1870s; he was not thinking about immigration or birthright citizenship. It was sort of comic relief depicting the mind sets of those at Lonesome Dove laboring all day in the hot Texas sun getting ready to sit down to supper. 

In fact McMurtry’s book is loosely based on the lives of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving of  Goodnight Loving Cattle Trail fame. I am not sure of what their politics were; and that is not the crux the of story.

I just think there is some sort of irony or historical symmetry in this fictional scene of the Old West, even if it is only in the writings of a man in the 1980s. Because today, when it comes to immigration it appears that the Trump Administration is much like Pea Eye: in over their heads. The Administration is rounding up stray foreigners and wrangling up legal concepts to the Supreme Court to drive immigrants into detention camps and onto new foreign vistas.

Gus McCrae is like the MAGA leaning Supreme Court, the ex-Confederate who realizes the South lost and that is that. It is a new day–no matter how you slice it. But it is day still laced with old prejudices.

However, it is Woodrow Call who says, “I recon I’m as American as anyone from Tennessee.” It is Call’s simple statement that reflects the 14th Amendment’s “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It is that little section of the Constitution that is driving the Administration bat-shit crazy. 

Ironically, it is Bol, the Mexican, whose family most likely has been in Texas long before Texas was a state in the United States. He could easily parrot Call’s words: “I recon I’m as American as anyone from Tennessee.”

For What It’s Worth

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Miniature by Pierart dou Tielt illustrating the Tractatus quartus bu Gilles li Muisit (Tournai, c. 1353). The people of Tournai bury victims of the Black Death. ms. 13076 – 13077

It is too bad that we live in such obstinate times. It is has so many negative effects on so many facets of our lives. It derails and sort of sympathy, empathy or a yearning to understand anything. It makes us overly aggressive in venial ways.

Take Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. He recently sat before a Senate Panel in what President Donald Trump would have called a witch hunt. Fauci took the 5th Amendment on every question asked of him. He even refused to answer what color his tie was.

“There’s something happening here but what is isn’t exactly clear…”

I felt bad for Fauci. His hearing was a strange scene in American Political Surrealism. Here we have a long-time government official, a bureaucrat, with a presidential pardoned from possible future criminal charges for actions done in the past while he was toiling away as a mad scientist. So what is there to do? Steal his diary from his bedroom dresser. We then can all snicker at Fauci’s innermost thoughts and feelings. By stealing his diary and searching his private and untold thoughts I now sleep better knowing this brings us so much closer on how to deal with the next pandemic.

But this really reflects more about the state of inquiry in our country rather than say, searching for cures concerning the general welfare of the people. We settle for the clarity of watching grown adults, mostly adolescent men posing as gifted thinkers, in a political scrum pushing multiple invisible Rugby balls to non existent goal lines. It is where everybody gets to spike the ball. And then, we can watch the talking heads on the media of your choice for the play-by-play anlaysis.

Today, we are no closer to knowing anything about the Covid pandemic than we do about the origins of the Black Death in the 1300s. In fact, we probably know more, and can intellectually discuss the Bubonic Plague better than the ague that ran amongst us five years ago.

I would not have been surprised if a Senator asked Dr. Fauci about the gain-of-function research being done using the ground up powder from a unicorn horn’s. I think under the current mind set this would have been a legitimate question. According to World History Encyclopedia’s “Medieval Cures for the Black Death” this was cutting edge research, and just as nebulous as some of Trump’s suggested antidotes.

It was believed that “Drinking a powder made of the ground-up horn of the unicorn mixed in water was thought to be an effective remedy and was also among the most expensive.” Of course most of us know that the only way to catch a unicorn is for it “to be lulled into submission by a young virgin maiden.” A daunting task since both virgin maidens and unicorns are rare (We need to scour the pages of Dr. Fauci’s diary for clues.) and hence the expence.

Back then ground unicorn had a variety of uses from treating snake bites, “fever, convulsions, and serious wounds.” It was believed it would work “equally well with the plague.” Unfortunately, it seems the unicorn powder did not work any better than cures involving chicken or snakes. Unicorn powder was the 14th century miracle cure right up there with hydroxychloroquine, drinking bleach and UV lights.

A rare photo found in the back of Dr. Fauci’s diary. It is believed to be Dr. Fauci inspecting a Wuhan labratory.

Encyclopedia Libre Español: Juan Antonio Ruiz Rivas Creative Commons.

But that is not the real big problem. It is logistics. If Dr. Fauci was using a Wuhan laboratory for this research, the problem was not one of securing the lab but in securing a unicorn. Unicorns are not native to China. Plus, unicorns are on the endangered specie list so using unicorns for scientific research would have been a crime. Killing an endangered species is a punisable offense: $50,000 fine and a year in prison, not to mention the use of young maidens. (Which, according to the Justice Department, is not a breach of public faith.)

“There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong…”

What is clear is after the fact we are still manning the covid parapets like a besieged city in a Medieval castle. The only thing that seems to change is who is besieged at the time and who is catapulting the dead-diseased ideas over the wall. In this particular case it was GOP Senators chucking distorted questions down upon a beleaguered Dr. Fauci.

In this putrid political climate there is no way we can get to the bottom of anything. Not even a trash can–not when we keep bringing in more trash. Covid is no different. Did we do somethings right? Yes. Did we do somethings wrong? Yes. The problem is instead of sorting through the trash we keep bringing more to the can. In this case it is a star, struck 80 year-old man’s diary adding to the infinite amount of political garbage manufactured. All I can say is what a fellow worker once mumbled after the crew was told we needed to stay late on a Friday night: Give me a f**king break.

Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line, the men come and take you away

If anything I have no contempt for Dr. Fauci. In fact I feel sorry for him. This reminds me more of siblings going at it when a younger brother snatches his older teenage sister’s diary out of her top drawer of her dresser. The only thing holding back the embarrassment of this violation of privacy is a flimsy lock binding up her inner thoughts, desires and the nonsensical yearnings. But it is the act of having one’s innermost feelings revealed to the world that sets off her panic, and makes the younger brother feel like he has hit social pay dirt. In Fauci’s case it is political pay dirt.

It’s time we stop, Hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look, what’s going down?*

*Buffalo Springfield: For What it’s Worth.

“A tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

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Not that I was looking; but I did not see one mention about the Apollo 11 moon landing 57 years ago. It was a race to the moon that ended on July 20, 1969. I know it was a basically a bunch of white men doing their thing; but it was still one of the greatest achievements of mankind, until they did it five more times. And now we are talking about going back in another race, this time with the Chinese. Historically speaking it should be a day remembered.

Like most Americans of that time I was swept up with the Space Progam. It was an outgrowth of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and became the noble quest of President John Kennedy who challenged the country to begin searching the final frontier. Or was it a modern version of Camelot with space as our search for the Holy Grail–on the moon.

We shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away, a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall on an untried mission to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to Earth. But why some say the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic? We choose to go to the moon. We chose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone. And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone.–President John Kennedy “Moon Speech” on September 12, 1962 in Rice Stadium. 

It is interesting in what motivates man. I really do think President Kennedy comparing space flight to sailing was apropos. He said, “we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone.” But when you think about it, most voyages of exploration are hazardous and dangerous excursions into the “unknown.”

Take Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage to around the Earth. With five ships and 270 men he left Spain on September 20, 1519. His expedition returned September 6, 1522 with one ship and about 40 men–he was not one of them. Magellan’s three-year trip would be more on line with going to Mars today. Currently it would take Elon Musk about three years to get there and back.

But blasting off for the moon was an adventure on the level with the ancient mariners. I love Kennedy’s metaphor of sailing. It reminds me of John Masefield’s poem Sea Fever:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

Man has always been blessed, or cursed, with a natural curiosity of what is on the other side of the mountain or beyond the horizon. When I think of going into space it reminds me of the sea voyages of the ancients, particularly the Greeks. The various Greek city-states might have been in competition for land in Greece but it was the open sea that allowed them to expand their horizons.

Geographically Greece is on the Balkan Peninsula with the longest coastline in Europe. The real factor though is that the land on this peninsula is mountainous–80 percent. Greek city-states trying to feed growing populations on mountainous land became a real problem. The solution was to establish over-seas colonies that relieved over population; but colonization also increased trade bringing to the city-states much needed food stuffs from as far away as the Black Sea and Spain. (I am not sure if the concept of colonizing the moon or Mars would either ease any over population issues on Earth or create trade.)

Dipal 1965 via Wikimedia Commons

Greek sea travel was not so much the age of sail as it was a man-powered voyage. Facts and Details says, “a ‘long day’ journey by an oared vessel” could be 140 miles “believed to be 16 hours traveled at seven or eight knots an hour.” Most Greek mariners hugged the coast line using line of sight and recognizing land features. This type of sailing made it easier to navigate. Plus, it made necessary stops for resupplying essential needs, like fresh water, easier.

Although longer voyages across the Mediterranean were not uncommon it wasn’t until more sophisticated navigational instruments were developed, like the Astrolabe, did mariners become more confident in pushing further out to sea. It took centuries for Mediterranean sailors to refine navigation that would allow sailors, like Columbus and Magellan, to take longer voyages across the Atlantic and to circumnavigate the globe. It took centuries to build better ships to utilize better navigation.

“The astrolabe, which is a precursor to the sextant, is effective for determining latitude on land or calm seas. Although it is less reliable on the heaving deck of a ship in rough seas, the mariner’s astrolabe  was developed to solve that problem. It is able to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time.”–Wikipedia

Khalili Collections /via Wikimedia Commons

And since we are talking about seafarers one cannot omit the Polynesian. Seafarers whose navigation skills, according to Wikipedia relied “heavily on constant observation and memorization. Navigators have to memorize where they have sailed from in order to know where they are. The sun was the main guide for navigators because they could follow its exact points as it rose and set. Once the sun had set they would use the rising and setting points of the stars. When there were no stars because of a cloudy night or during daylight, a navigator would use the winds and swells as guides.”

In the 1960s NASA was tasked with assembling, scientists, fledgling aerospace companies and test pilots to come up with how to traverse 240,000 miles of open space and put men on the moon–with no stop overs. And, to do it in less than 10 years. Unlike past seafarers NASA had to invent and improvise. There was very little institutional knowledge of human space travel. What they did from Kennedy’s Moon Speech in 1962 to that one giant leap in 1969 is really a technical miracle. Especially if we look at what they had to use compared to what we have today.

For instance if we just look at the computer used on Apollo 11: the Apollo Guidance Computer. Apollo 11Space called this 70 pound computer, about the size of carry-on luggage, “a pocket sized pioneer (for its time.)” It was a 20th century astrolabe.

Each Moon flight carried two AGCs, one each in the command module and in the Apollo Lunar Module. AGC in the command module was the center of its guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system. The AGC in the lunar module ran its Apollo PGNCS (primary guidance, navigation and control system).”–Wikipedia

The original uploader was Grabert at German Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I am not some sort of techno-geek. I do not know the first thing about what RAM is or how it works. I know nothing of processing speeds, or what 4G or 110 Megabits per second translates to. So comparing the AGC on Apollo 11 to the iPhone by the numbers means nothing until it is put into layman’s terms. I find what RealClear Science says “that the iPhone in your pocket has over 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed man on the moon” pretty impressive. There is our giant leap.

A leap, to paraphrase John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem High Flight: Man has “slipped the surly bonds of Earth” and has “trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space,” and has “touched the face of God.”

Whether it was the ancient sailors on the seas or the astronauts in space, it really gives meaning to what Masefield meant when he said “all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

A Conscious Awareness of Consciousness

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Personally, I believe that the world is constantly riding spiritual waves of awareness. And when I say this I don’t mean it as a religious wave like say the Great Awakenings which swept this country in (and others possibly) the 1700s and 1800s. It is not mysticism either. I think philosphers, sociologist and psychologist beat around the concept of collective (universal) consciousness; and its role in our personal consciousness and in our collective life. Right now we are in the trough of spiritual consciousness. 

Two man-made institutions play heavily into creating our collective consciousness and awareness–and our material reality: governments and churches. (I would add a third entity to this: multinational corporations. But we know they are for-profit, godless heathen organizations.) Too often we Americans think of separation of church and state effecting just this country. God may have made man in His image and likeness; but man has made religion in his image and likeness, governments too. And all of this seeps into our awareness and our concsiouness.

Awareness is the key. Do we see the stories that we’re telling ourselves and question their validity? –Pema Chodron

Collective consciousness knows no international boundaries nor time. Most of us do not realize the influence it has on our own consciousness and reality. It exists at levels we are not totally cognizant of. The latest flare up between the U.S. and Iran is a perfect example of where governments and churches come into conflict. This conflict is much like a strike-slip fault in the Earth’s Crust. The sliding plates of the Earth’s crust, like governments and churches pass each other creating tension, transforming human consciousness. (For the most part Americans had no real concept of Iran. To us the Persian Empire was something the Greek city-states fought way back in 499 BC to 449 BC. It wasn’t until the late 1970s AD did Iran’s chants of “Death to America” enter our national awareness and then into our consciousness.)

It happens all the time and it doesn’t have to be a war where empires clash. Henry the VIII transformed English religion and government without nocking an arrow when he broke with the Catholic Church. It all started in 1517 when Martin Luther rattled religuious awareness when he posted his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Within 20 years Henry broke ties with the Catholic Church. In 1534 he set up his own church. Naturally, he was the head of this church. He also felt it was his job to seize church property in England, thus adding the church’s wealth to the royal coffers–religion for fun and profit. His strike-strip actions transformed England–and transformed the country’s collective consciousness, and ours. It spawned Separatists, Pilgrims and Puritans who ended up in what would become, collectively, the United States.

Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.–Charles Lindbergh

Man may not always act in spiritual ways. But that does not stop religion from determining ethical and moral codes that help collectively keep society in line. Historically speaking, it is some sort of religious beliefs that influences the citizenry, the government and the institutions and hence the country collectively, The United States of America is a case in point.

Although we do not subscribe to one church, and some would preach the need to change this, we cannot deny that the spiritual beliefs of the collective consciousness of those who wrote the Constitution in 1787 still impact our nation today. To say they were not influenced by Judeo-Christian beliefs, as well as the collective beliefs of the Enlightenment, would be wrong thinking. These men combined a unique combination of beliefs to establish rule of the people–and not a monarch or some sort religious swami–or Ayetollah.

We are celebrating our 250th year of independence from a religious infused monarchy. This is something uncommon in human history. We took Henry the VIII’s concept of forming a religion in the image of a government and turned it around. We created a government based on religious and moral beliefs without the sanctimonious trappings of some sort of religious leader anonited by god in the mix. Our president has many roles as chief diplomat and commander in chief but he is not a shaman, medicine man or Levite in charge of a church. 

For 250 years we have managed without religious rules enshrined into our laws. The ancient Jews had 613 laws: 248 do’s and 365 don’ts. According to Chabad.Org only “369 mitzvot are still operative” today. But for centuries those laws have settled deeply into the Jewish collective consciousness, something we Americans may have a hard time comprehending but our awareness of these beliefs run deep in our collective consciousness.

As a nation–a nation basically a collection of immigrants from around the world–we have formed the basis for our national collective consciousness from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And although property-owning white men wrote both documents, there was enough Christian diversity and mutual distrust of European religious disputes in their collective awarness to enshrine the belief of popular sovereignty over religious rule.

According to The Journal of the American Revolution the Constitution is purposely religious neutral, as is the theory of the government it embodies. “Whereas the Declaration explained and justified a rebellion to secure God-given rights, the Constitution is a blueprint for stable and effective republican government in a free country. The Preamble to the Constitution declares that its purposes are ‘to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.’ These are wholly secular objects; religious references are extraneous in a document drafted to further them.”

If Christianity started out as an offshoot of Judaism then Judaic thought is a part of the Christian consciousness. Beliefs like: the love all humans, do not to stand by idly while another’s life is in danger, do not to cherish hatred in our hearts, or to bear a grudge and seek revenge are just a few Jewish beliefs that have effected our collective consciousness. And although these beliefs are not codified in our Constitution we do expect these sorts of beliefs to be reflected in our society; to guide our government and our leaders–to guide them and us in our collective consciousness.

They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.–Romans 2:15 New International Version

The news today is full of stories on how our democracy, the Constitution is being shredded up before our very eyes. There may be some truth to that but it is not our Constitution that is failing us. It is how quickly virtue has been sapped from our collective consciousness and put us in a trough of spiritual (un)awareness. Each day we look up at the growing wave that surrounds us and see nothing but a gray wall of water fermenting discord and hostility within–not insuring any sort of domestic tranquility; or civility.

It is not that we are losing our democracy, that is only a side effect of losing our collective awareness and consciousness. We now debate what is morally and ethically right. We have collectively begun to abandon or Christian “values” that are ingrained in our consciousness whether you believe in God or not. We are being guided more by expedient pseudo-political/religious values that satiates the moment.

The current administration and its sycophants realize that collectively most Americans don’t hold the same zealous motivations that are being used to justify their actions. The current administration realizes that it could lose dramatically in the midterms if Americans recognize the fact that there is nothing wrong with our government. It is the lack of spiritual awareness, virtue and integrity of our leaders running government that has put us in this trough.

What America needs now is not an attitude adjustment but a retuning to its wave of awareness.

JD, You are No Dick Nixon–at least not yet

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The other day Vice President JD Vance compared himself to President Richard Nixon. I think it is strange that he would compare himself to Nixon. In the very least Nixon is someone like Charles Dickens’ Fagin character in Oliver Twist. The leader of criminal gang. I am not sure if JD has risen to that level of malevolence.

To be clear, Nixon was a burglar. And a burglar, like Bilbo Baggins, no matter how honorable or lovable, is someone who breaks into a building with the intent to commit a crime. Is JD telling us that he intends to commit a crime; or maybe he already has.

With that said, Nixon himself did not break into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Building. He had Bill Sikes and Fagin do it for him.–E Howard Hunt and James W McCord, ex CIA operatives, to plan and take care of that. These guys along with G Gordon Liddy, an ex FBI agent, led a group that was known as White House “plumbers”. The original Mario and Luigi plumbing brothers leading a bunch of bungling burglars. I am not sure who was Mario and who would be Luigi in that group. Their original intent was to find out who was leaking info from the White House. I guess their investigation led them to the Democrats. From there it morphed into stupidity. Or as ex White House Attorney, John Dean, testified at the time: “a cancer on the presidency.”

Staying with Vance comparing himself to Nixon, I take it Vance could be comparing himself to a more gentler kind of criminal, a thief, maybe. A thief unlawfully takes another person’s property without consent. Maybe he should be comparing himself more to Dickens’ Jack Dawkins, “the Artful Dodger” than Nixon. After all, Nixon was breaking and entering. The Dodger was a pickpocket.

Politicians can easily fall into the pickpocket/thief category. The big difference is that politicians can legislate their thievery; as Trump is trying do to with the 2026 mid-term elections. Although I would not put Trump in the pickpocket class of thief, more like grand theft auto.

What is happening in our government now is a premeditate heist, an Ocean’s Eleven, one we are watching live right before our eyes. JD should be comparing himself to Rusty Ryan while Trump could be Danny Ocean. But stealth has never been one of Trump’s strong suits. What Nixon and the plumbers were trying to do through covert operations Trump and his merry band of Trumpsters are trying to do legislatively and judicially–or legalizing the actual breaking and entering.

I have never been one to try and figure out the various Generations used to describe the demographics of our country. And I am not sure if JD is a true representative of the Millennials in this country. It is obvious that this 42 year-old Vice President has a different take on Nixon’s clandestine- criminal organization that was run out of the basement of the White House. I think conservative revisionist history has mesmerized him. I think like the 18 minute gap in the Nixon Tapes, Vance has a historical gap in his understanding of American history.

To some current GOPers, Nixon is the subject, object and the predicate nominative of a deep state witch hunt. I think maybe they have watched too many X-File reruns. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were not real FBI agents being tailed by the Cigarette Smoking Man, The mysterious operative who worked for a “Syndicate” that according to Fandom allowed him “top level access to both the FBI and the Pentagon.” All this to thwart our heroes and conceal the truth from the American public.

Nixon’s use of former CIA operatives and various government agencies to help cover up his criminal missteps was a big breach of faith in our government at the time; and a step way out of bounds. It seems we take that for granted now because we have blown right through that X-File phase of our history and living in Jackass Forever.

Today, there is no need for a “deep state.” Now you just buy an entire political party, brow beat GOP legislators, let billionairs lose in the bowels of government and try and pack courts with sycophants like, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to throw downfield legal blocks. Now you simply bypass the covert ex CIA and FBI agents; because, who needs them when the agencies are now being run by a never drained pool of boot-lickers and cronies. No more stealthy midnight raids busted by a minimum wage security guard. Just send the FBI in to raid whomever you choose in broad daylight. Oh, and get the Supreme Court to rule that presidents have broad range of immunity from prosecution that places the office above the law. We should check the US Geological Survey for strong earth tremors emanating from the Nixon gravesite in Yorba Linda when that decision was handed down.

Sorry Dick. You were 50 years too early for that one to save you. But your spirit lives on in JD Vance.

A/I, Follow the Money Part II

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Way back in March of 2019 I wrote that “America is due for a big-time governmental/economic scandal of tsunami proportions.” I never considered myself as a some sort of wizard with a crystal ball or prognosticator of future events. And from the looks of it, if I did, I would consider myself ill-equipped to make it that in that sort of profession. Another words: Don’t quit your day job.

But yet here we are in 2026, seven years later with the stock market humming and the economy hanging tough; despite tariffs, tax cuts, Doge and a military excursion/operation against Iran–that’s only real accomplishment has been to raise inflation and gas prices around the world; and maybe spike EV sales.

It is easy to say something is going to happen, if you say it long enough it is bound to come true. I am sure there were New York Knick fans who said in 1974, and every year after, that the Knicks are going to win the title next year– 53 years later they were right.

Throughout history, for instance, there have been some bold predictions on when the world would end, which I guess could be a harbinger of economic scandal. Much like our recent belief in a computer meltdown with Y2K. We live in a tech world swimming with malware and hackers. It seems as if we are just one click away from possible doom. Especially now with all the talk of A/I ending humanity as we know it.

For a lot of us our first encounter with A/I was with “the computer” on Star Trek. We sat back and were absorbed with how the computer in Star Trek could figure out how many Class M planets there were in a certain quadrant of space. Or how some unknown space disease was mutating human bodies into some sort of alien creature–and then figuring out a cure to reverse the process! The other side of the story comes out around the same time. We learned from 2001: A Space Odyssey how a computer without “parental” controls could lock humanity in deep space.

But when it comes to the ending humanity it is religious leaders who squawk the loudest with their predictions of fire and brimstone. And like Y2K it was the millennium change as a reason to fear the end. According to historysnob.com, Pope Sylvester II put the Medieval world into a dither with the belief that the Second Coming was imminent when triple zeros showed up on the calendar. As if God is working on a manmade calendar. And then, I ask, which calendar: The Julian or the Byzantine. Or is God working of a lunisolar calendar? Just asking, because I think Sylvester didn’t inform God. I mean, who knows maybe the world ends in 2037 in the next year of the Snake. After all the snake shows up early in Genesis. That slithering serpent put an end to the Garden of Eden. I am just saying.


It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
(It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
(It’s time I had some time alone)
I feel fine–REM

But back to the Popes. Not to be out done, Pope Innocent III predicted in 1213 “the world end in 1284–exactly 666 years after Islam’s founding.” I am not sure of the significance of that. An easy google search says: “The number 666 is commonly linked to the Roman Emperor Nero, known for his persecution of Christians. This connection arises from a method called gematria, where letters are assigned numerical values. This sounds more like figuring out the cryptogram quotes on the puzzle page of the daily newspaper. (What’s a daily newspaper?) When Nero’s name is transliterated into Hebrew, it adds up to 666. Good enough for me. I like the logic. However, my gut tells me the snake thing makes more sense.

Here in the United States we have had our religious prognosticators, too. Cotton Mather predicted the end times in 1697, 1716, 1736. I am not sure what methodology he used–the entrails of a witch, maybe. However, he died in 1728 not knowing he was wrong.

And then there was Harold Camping. History Snobs says: “This radio preacher twice announced Judgment Day: first on May 21, 2011, then again on October 21, 2011. Billboards went up worldwide, announcing the end of the world.” Both dates came and went and we are still here.

 There are others like Isaac Newton. I think I might take his prediction a bit more seriously. After all, he did give us the Law of Gravity and three Laws of Motion that seem to be pretty consistent over time. Newton “studied biblical texts obsessively and predicted the end might come around 2060.” We will have to wait and see.

I am more in the mode of Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism, who had a more open-ended approach to predictions. History Snobs says, “To his credit, he didn’t try to set an exact date or time, although he made it clear in his sermons that he felt Christ’s return was imminent.” I am not sure what Wesley said about the Second Coming in his sermons, but he died in 1788. We may need to define the word imminent. However, I feel the same way about an economical scandal of Biblical proportions in the near future. It is imminent.

But to get back to the looming economic scandal just around the corner. I base my prediction on technological innovation and greed and a simple concept of follow the money. In my March 2019 blog I mention the coming of the railroads and the land grants handed out to railroads, particularly the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. These two companies were involved in an 1860s version of a moon race. However the Russians were not involved. And like A/I today, the problem back then was not so much engineering as it was financing. Engineers and hard labor cleared the Sierra Nevada mountains but it was the good old use governmental funds greasing the palms of Congress that kept the Greenbacks flowing and the trains rolling.

“It’s gonna take-a money, a whole lotta’ spending money. It’s going to take plenty-a money. To do it right…”–George Harrison’s

The axle turning the wheel of this scandal was the Union Pacific’s construction company, the Credit Mobilier. The company over charged the government to the tune of $44 million and spread the wealth amongst their shareholders and several dozen Congressmen as well as the Vice President of the United States, Schuyler Colfax. Nothing really happened, nobody went to jail. A few Congressman were censured, the railroad got built and it was just chalked up to a typical business project during the Gilded Age.

The next governmental scandal centered around oil–drill baby drill. The global economy was shifting from a coal based economy to oil. One institution making that shift were navies of the world. So it really made sense back in 1910 to set aside land with known oil as a reserve for the US Navy.

This was an era before petrodollars. But shrewd oilmen knew the value of buck. There may not have been gold in “them there” Wyoming oil land reserves; but there damn sure was money to be had just lying there to be pumped. The Navy Department convinced President Warren Harding to transfer the land to the Interior department where Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, began leasing out the Teapot Dome oil reserves to Mammoth Oil Company and Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company–both in non-competitive bids. Sound familiar?

Interestingly leasing of the lands was not a crime. The real problem with these sorts of scandals is in the creative art of accounting; particularly when somebody is left out of the art of the deal.  It only takes one disgruntled individual, in this case a left out oilman, to start following a money trail of  illegal interest free loans and bribes. Just a few of the financial incentives Fall received as compensation for his generosity to Harry F Sinclair’s  Mammoth Oil Company and Edward L Doheny’s Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company. A Senate investigation of Fall’s financial shenanigans lead to Fall serving nine months of a one-year sentence. Sinclair spent six months in jail not for financial malfeasance but contempt of Senate. Doheny was acquitted of any charges. And so goes Jazz Era justice.

Now I will be honest. I could be shooting in the dark here. I don’t know whole lot about A/I. I am smart enough to figure out we are moving into the next phase of the Information Age. I also realize that there are various companies lead by very rich men that are developing the computers to run A/I and setting up data centers. (Check Forbes as a list of the top 50 A/I companies: forbes.com/list/ai50/) I do know from watching the news and reading about A/I is it is going take a ton of financial investments to get A/I to become a reality. And here again, I don’t want to sound like someone predicting the end of the world when A/I spreads its roots deep into humanity and really comes to some sort of fruition. But before that happens it has to be built. And if history is any indicator there is always somebody ready to jump the line with a paper bag of cash or stocks to get a leg up.

From what I can gather, A/I is here and being used today. My guess is we have only scratched the surface. It took the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific nine years to complete the transcontinental railroad. In 1914 the USS Texas was the last US Navy battleship built with coal burning engines. The “Mighty T,” was converted to oil in 1925. I am sure A/I can be rolled out just as quick as linking the coasts with a railroad line or putting a gas station on just about every corner in America. Of course with the right financial government funding you can send celebrities into low earth orbit. I am sure right now there is a money trail being laid out from Wall Street to our governmental hallways attracting the right palms to grease to give somebody a leg up on everybody else. But as George Harrison sang it is going to take a lot of spending money, which brings us to the mantra “follow the money. Once the grease is applied, then we can worry about the end of humanity.