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  • Trump’s foreign policy bats 500 – at best

    George Rebane

    Well, maybe it’s just 300 which is still good in any league.

    Let’s start with his Ukraine peace plan. The best that can be said about his initial ’29 point plan’ is that its adoption would be a disaster for the west.  Trump still does not understand Putin, his goals and constraints.  As I’ve pointed out before, Putin will not accede to any progress toward peace until he has a significant recent victory in the field – which today he has none.  Trump’s plan that clumsily excluded Zelinsky could have readily been drafted by Putin.  It gives him everything he has already taken and more (the three strategic Ukrainian cities critical to further Russian advances).  In Trump’s peace it is OK to leave Ukraine with a castrated military and no firm security guarantees.

    The only realistic solution for a peace that does not inspire Putin to undertake further invasions into Europe (e.g. Finland, the Baltics, Poland) would be to allow minimal territorial gains (e.g. only Crimea), a capable rearmed Ukrainian military with usable long range missiles, and European boots on the ground in Ukraine conducting regular military exercises.  To prevent his falling out of a window, Putin must show some gains after four years of war and over a million casualties.  Recognized integration of Crimea and the removal of selected sanctions should allow him to survive this war.  In the meantime Zelensky should get the missiles and permission to use them against Russian population centers starting with Moscow.  Given Putin’s massive missile and drone response last night in light of ongoing peace overtures, the ready use of counter-force is the ONLY thing the asshole has ever understood and respected.

    The jury is still out on Trump’s dealings with Xi Jinping, but the optics don’t look good.  The Donald seems not to understand that China is successfully running its ‘hundred year marathon’ to become the world’s dominant hegemon.  Trump continues to embarrass those of us who understand communism with blather about having a “friendship” with the Chinese dictator.  There are no friendships with totalitarian thugs whose well-published goals are to conquer the world.  Publicly calling Xi, Kim, and Putin friends only furthers their disrespect for Trump whom they have successfully played for a fool for the duration of his political life.  Such disrespect motivates their further adventures, e.g. with Taiwan.

    Where our president has made progress is in our display and use of force.  He did good with bombing the crap out of the Iranian and Houthi ragheads, and supporting Israel to do more of the same.  Finally, we come Maduro in Venezuela.

    Venezuela was and has the opportunity to again be perhaps the richest country in Latin America.  Our president is on the right track in massing forces on Maduro’s doorstep.  And it would warm the cockles of me heart if he actually started inland strikes against the drug cartels and Maduro’s military installations.  When/if that happens, I believe Maduro would be on the next plane to somewhere in Africa.  He will have no welcome in the remaining thuggeries of the western hemisphere – i.e. Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, … .  And when Venezuela then normalizes and begins to benefit from its massive fossil fuel reserves, we will see a domino effect in which the other communist and Marxist regimes of the Americas will follow suit to start mimicking their neighbors who are successfully turning toward free market capitalism under liberal governance.

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  • Sandbox – 22nov25

    [Don’t buy that new laptop until you find out when the next generation of AI-capable laptops become available.  The push now is to have AI models executed more at the so-called edge of the cloud.  That means that client PCs will be able to do a lot of the processing locally that should give better results and smaller latencies.  More here – https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-models-locally .  gjr]

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  • COP30 – Climate Hysteria on Steroids

    [This commentary was published in the 9dec25 online and print editions of The Union.  Recent reports from the federal government and UC San Diego highlight the ongoing and alarming trend in the increase of dumbth in our student population and young people in general. Since this is due entirely to the influence of leftwing teachers’ unions across the land, the lamestream media does not want such reports to see the light of day and corrupt its narrative about the glories of increasing socialism. I commend The Union for being an exception. More here – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-college-students-who-cant-do-elementary-math-2db5e549 . gjr]

    George Rebane

    Gavin Newsom, our disaster for governor, is virtue posturing at the latest climate change conference in Brazil while California’s real problems – poorest education, highest unemployment, highest homeless, highest taxes, …  – continue to mount.  In the interval Bill Gates has had an epiphany realizing that the current global warming policies have had and will have little to no effect on climate, but do continue to deny a better life for the world’s poor and needy.  He joins internationally recognized climate realist Bjorn Lomberg of the Copenhagen Consensus (and several thousand independent scientists) in advising that instead of beggaring the world’s less advantaged, that we spend money on improving people’s quality of life and developing technologies that demonstrably do have an impact on reducing manmade contributions to climate change.

    In the crosshairs of climate activists is the abolition of fossil fuels as the world’s major source of energy.  In California we are shutting down more refineries in preparation for $7-9/gallon gasoline.  Meanwhile, as Lomberg cites, major international energy agencies report that by 2050 we will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to satisfy our energy needs from today’s 80% to only 50% at best.  And this will be made possible by expanding today’s prohibitive policies that mandate the changeover from fossil fuels to ‘clean energy renewables’.

    What is quietly glossed over and not reported is that even the 50% goal by 2050 will NOT reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, but will actually require a significant increase in their use to satisfy the increased energy needs of the world 25 years from now.  Please stay with me for some light on how this will happen.

    Given that more people will emerge from poverty and the enormous energy requirements of advanced technologies like AI, the world’s energy needs are growing at about 2.5% per year.  If we can hold the increased need to this rate of growth, we will require about 85% more energy generation in 2050 than today.  Reducing the fossil fuels’ contribution from today’s 80% to 50% in 2050 will still require almost 93% (=1.85*0.50) of the world’s energy sourced from fossil fuels.  Based on today’s energy production rate this will demand an increase of 13% (=93-80) from fossil fuels.  Again compared to today’s fossil fuel usage, in 2050 we will require more than a 16% (=13/80) increase in the annual amount of fossil fuels generation required to satisfy our future energy needs.  Only major breakthroughs in energy related technologies – not fostered by progressive policies – have a hope of reducing this level of dependence on fossil fuels.

    This reality goes safely unreported because our collectivist politicians and their policy elites know that, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics, our citizens are almost totally innumerate and would neither discover nor understand the simple arithmetic of the previous paragraph.  The 50+ year downward spiral in America’s schools has our students today rank 33rd among the nations of the world in reading, math, and science.  We are even below average among the OECD countries – quo vadis America?

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  • Scattershots – 10nov25 (updated 16nov25)

    George Rebane

    Ignorance is the handmaiden of collectivism.  When ignorance prevails, socialism/communism will always seek to fundamentally transform the governance of a liberal society.  Rebane Doctrine

    Government shutdown derby.  Unfortunately too many government workers live paycheck to paycheck.  That depends more on individuals’ faulty behavior than unavoidable financial stress.  (Even as dirt poor immigrants with minimally paying jobs the Rebanes always put a fixed percent in the bank for such rainy days – government handouts didn’t exist then.) That said, I don’t see why such destitutes cannot get a bank loans today to tide them over, since we all know that the government will make them whole once the shutdown ends.  That lump sum payment can serve as signed-over collateral to completely eliminate the lenders’ risk.

    News on the street is that lamestream media is in retreat.  Led by major outlets like WaPo and CBS, the formerly ‘hate Trump’ newsrooms are getting a makeover with new management replacing former sleazebags who have long generated fake news to serve the socialist narrative.  In the forefront of their efforts have been edited versions of what President Trump actually said.  Even the vaunted BBC has had a management change because they admitted to modifying, among others, Trump’s 6jan21 speech to sound as if he were promoting an insurrection.  However, these good tidings may be premature, our leftwing media is very firmly entrenched with both ignorant and evil reporters.  I’ll believe any change in the offing when I see it.

    “… to save our democracy” is the practiced refrain of our legions of the less read.  Ever notice how many of your progressive neighbors don’t know the meaning of such concepts as democracy and republic.  Our local newspaper’s op-ed pages overflow with supporting evidence. To them all these words are just parts of parroted slogans that let them declare their membership in the politically correct (today read ‘socialist’) class.

    Eliminating government shutdowns has a ready solution in the Rebane Doctrine.  Government will continue to operate on a perennial continuing resolution of current spending until Congress passes a new budget or appropriations bill.  And all congress critters cease getting their pay during the interval between the old appropriations having expired until the new one reaches the president’s desk.

    [15nov25 update]  Job openings galore.  Small example – “Ford has 5,000 job openings for mechanics offering a six-figure salary, a sign of skilled manual labor shortage facing the United States, the company’s CEO, Jim Farley, said in a Nov. 12 interview on the “Office Hours: Business Edition” podcast.” (H/T to reader)  Anyone who cares to look at the details will see that the Trump economy is roaring.

    [16nov25 update] “History (of socialism) repeats itself because people forget the past.”  So writes Victor Davis Hansen here – https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/11/12/mayor-mamdanis-socialist-vision-is-setting-nyc-up-for-failure/ .  Unfortunately, that is not only untrue, but the reality is much worse.  Today there are already two generations of Americans whose schooling has never covered the tragedies of socialism (and other forms of collectivism) along with the benefices of free market capitalism.  You cannot forget what you have never known.

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  • Sandbox – 4nov25

    [First Sandbox on WordPress. It is remarkable that the conservative media ore giving a pass to the polls showing that 1 of 3 Dems consider political violence to be an acceptable expression of opposition to policies they don’t like. The lamestream is, of course, silent on the news. But were those number applicable to Repubs, they would be screaming their heads off. gjr]

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  • America’s Undeclared Wars

    George Rebane

    [This post was published in the 25nov25 issue of The Union in an edited version titled ‘The Untied States of America’s undeclared wars’. gjr]

    The United States has a history of presidentially initiated military actions conducted under executive authority without a formal declaration of war from Congress, as the Constitution vests such declaratory power in the legislative branch while granting the President command of the armed forces. These instances often rely on interpretations of inherent executive powers, United Nations resolutions, or congressional authorizations short of a declaration.

    In the early 1800s, the United States confronted the threat posed by the Barbary pirates—state-sponsored corsairs from North African polities such as Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, and Morocco—who seized American merchant vessels and demanded tribute or ransom for their release. Prior to independence, American ships had benefited from British protection, but as a new nation, the U.S. initially resorted to paying annual tributes to avoid conflict, a practice that many Americans viewed as humiliating and inefficient.

    Under President Thomas Jefferson, who assumed office in 1801, the U.S. adopted a more assertive stance. When the Pasha of Tripoli demanded increased payments and declared war by symbolically chopping down the flagpole at the American consulate, Jefferson dispatched a naval squadron to the Mediterranean without explicit congressional approval, marking the onset of the First Barbary War (1801–1805). American forces, including notable actions by Lieutenant Stephen Decatur—who led a daring raid to burn the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor—engaged in blockades, bombardments, and ground operations, culminating in a treaty that ended tribute payments to Tripoli and secured the release of American prisoners. This conflict demonstrated the young nation’s ability to project military power overseas and fostered unity among its forces.

    Following the War of 1812, renewed Algerian aggression prompted the Second Barbary War in 1815. Commodore Decatur commanded a squadron that swiftly defeated Algerian naval forces, compelling the Dey of Algiers to sign a treaty abolishing tribute and piracy against U.S. ships. These responses not only curtailed the immediate threat but also established precedents for U.S. foreign policy, emphasizing military action over appeasement in addressing maritime terrorism.

    In 1904, during his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt confronted the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris, a prominent American expatriate residing in Tangier, Morocco, along with his stepson, by the Berber chieftain Ahmed ben Mohammed el Raisuli, who led a group often described in historical accounts as Arab or Moroccan tribal forces. Raisuli, seeking political concessions and ransom from the Sultan of Morocco, held the hostages to leverage reforms and personal gains.

    Roosevelt, viewing the incident as a challenge to American prestige amid his re-election campaign, adopted a firm stance exemplifying his “big stick” diplomacy. He promptly dispatched seven warships and Marine contingents to Moroccan waters to exert pressure on the local authorities. Through Secretary of State John Hay, Roosevelt issued a concise ultimatum to the Moroccan government: “We want Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead,” which was communicated during the Republican National Convention to underscore U.S. resolve.  Perdicaris and his stepson were released unharmed on June 24, 1904, without direct U.S. military engagement.

    In this affair Roosevelt proceeded without congressional approval, prioritizing the demonstration of American power abroad.  This episode reinforced Roosevelt’s approach to foreign policy, emphasizing swift and assertive responses to threats against American interests

    All this along with many more military engagements and interventions over the next two centuries were done with only executive authority and without congressional pre-approvals or declarations of war.  Here are some historical examples of major interventions, this list is not exhaustive –

    Year(s)Action/LocationPresidentDescription
    1798–1800Quasi-War with FranceJohn AdamsNaval engagements against French privateers in response to attacks on American shipping; Congress authorized limited actions but issued no formal declaration.
    1812–1815War of 1812 (initial phases)James MadisonEarly military operations against British forces began prior to Congress’s declaration, including invasions of Canada; the full war was later declared.
    1846–1848Mexican-American War (onset)James K. PolkTroops were deployed into disputed territory, provoking conflict before Congress declared war; the President cited defensive necessities.
    1898–1902Philippine-American WarWilliam McKinley/Theodore RooseveltFollowing acquisition from Spain, U.S. forces suppressed Filipino independence efforts through occupation and combat, without a separate declaration.
    1914–1917Interventions in MexicoWoodrow WilsonNaval occupation of Veracruz and pursuit of revolutionaries across the border to protect U.S. interests amid civil unrest.
    1950–1953Korean WarHarry S. TrumanDeployment of forces under United Nations auspices to repel North Korean invasion of South Korea; no congressional declaration, though funding was approved.
    1964–1973Vietnam War (escalation)Lyndon B. Johnson/Richard NixonMajor troop commitments and bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and insurgents, based on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution rather than a declaration.
    1983Invasion of GrenadaRonald ReaganOperation Urgent Fury to rescue U.S. citizens and depose a Marxist regime following internal unrest.
    1989Invasion of PanamaGeorge H. W. BushOperation Just Cause to capture Manuel Noriega and restore democratic governance amid drug trafficking allegations.
    1990–1991Persian Gulf WarGeorge H. W. BushCoalition forces expelled Iraqi invaders from Kuwait; Congress passed an authorization for use of military force, but no formal declaration.
    2011Intervention in LibyaBarack ObamaAirstrikes and support for rebels against Muammar Gaddafi under United Nations mandate to protect civilians.

    These actions illustrate a pattern where presidents have interpreted their role as Commander-in-Chief to encompass responses to perceived threats, often with subsequent congressional acquiescence through funding or resolutions. The 1973 War Powers Resolution sought to limit such unilateral initiatives by requiring notification and potential withdrawal, though compliance has varied. President Trump’s recent and ongoing attacks on Venezuelan speed boats, transporting contraband drugs destined for the US that have already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, should be interpreted in light of these historical precedents.

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  • California’s Tragedy of the Commons

    George Rebane

    [This commentary appeared in the op-ed pages of the 5nov25 Union here https://www.theunion.com/news/ideas-opinions-george-rebane-california-s-tragedy-of-the-commons/article_2e0ff575-d398-436c-bf93-87945880edce.html ]

    Garret Hardin published ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ in the December 1968 issue of Science, and introduced us to the reality of how a valuable but limited resource owned in common will be depleted or destroyed.  The core concept is that “each individual will benefit from using more of the resource, resulting in the cumulative effect of everyone acting this way will lead to the destruction or depletion of the resource for everyone.”  (For more, google ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ or download https://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles_pdf/tragedy_of_the_commons.pdf )

    Our Founders were aware of this effect when it came to governance – specifically, in the dangers of organizing a society as a democracy.  They realized that there would immediately rise a cohort of the dissatisfied or ‘have-nots’ who would vote to garner unearned wealth and benefits from the state and from their richer ‘haves’.  The Founders’ solution was to avoid an unstable democracy and instead bequeath us a constitutional federal republic.  Such governance would mediate volatile and often managed public wants with a layer of elected representatives who managed the state’s public assets, and also minimally yet mindfully the nation’s economy.  In short, it would eliminate as commons our publicly owned resources and the assets of our wealthier neighbors.  We have enjoyed the fruits of their wisdom for over two centuries, until things have recently begun to fray from the political edges of our republic.

    Unfortunately, democracy invites the less-read with a simple yet beguiling siren song which power hungry, greedy, and unscrupulous politicians have mastered. Their own particular commons is the voting public of modest means whose favors (i.e. votes) can be bought with government monies dispensed under prominently advertised and carefully tailored laws and regulations.  Such political leaders know for certain that once people get used to any kind of government largesse, they will not vote to deny themselves but only vote for those who will get them more from where that came from.

    California is the nation’s poster-child for operating such a government commons enjoying over thirty years under an effective one-party monopoly.  In doing so the state now leads the nation with a rogue gallery of statistics that strains its big-government competitors like New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.  California ranks worst or among the nation’s worst in its rates of unemployment, crime, illegal aliens, homelessness, K-12 scholastics, affordability, poverty, housing shortage, economic outlook, personal freedom, regulations, taxes, environmental pollution, fiscal stability, exodus rate, …, and, of course, 50th in the overall quality of life.  All of these are invisible to the dominant half of our electorate who year after year continue practice Einsteinian insanity in the voting booth.

    To demonstrate how effective these policies have been in the eyes of its practicing proponents, California’s governor is preparing for his 2028 presidential run promising to replicate California’s good fortune across the land.  And the tailwind for his enterprise of disastrous public policies is the state’s voters, those of our neighbors who demonstrably make up the nation’s least read and most ignorant collection of American citizens.

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  • Just Tolerating the Left is Not Enough

    AOC answers her critics: “If I’m so dumb, then how come it took me only three months to complete a puzzle that on its box was printed ‘4-6 years’?”

    George Rebane

    In these tense times, a faux normalcy cloaks the serious troubles afflicting our nation and the world. As I’ve long argued in these pages, the concurrence of geopolitical missteps, cognitive biases, and the quiet creep of collectivism demands more than passive tolerance of the Left—it requires active containment. Drawing from paradigms I’ve learned from minds far sharper than mine, I’ll unpack the folly of cozying up to autocrats cum tyrants, the psychology of beliefs, the dangers of unchecked socialism, and the Left’s mangling of science and political ideology. My aim is to revisit why merely tolerating the Left is a recipe for societal decay.

    We’re living in a moment where surface calm hides a storm of ideological threats that left unchecked will restructure our society.  With many others I’ve been sounding the alarm on this danger for years, not because I’m some oracle, but because I’ve paid attention to the lessons of history and human nature.

    Geopolitics: No “Good Relationships” with Tyrants

    Let’s start with the global stage. Trump’s claim of having “good relationships” with Putin and Xi is a pipe dream. You can’t pal around with leaders whose national strategies hinge on America’s decline—China and Russia chief among them. The best you get is a civil handshake, not a bromance. Autocracies only respect force; they see diplomacy as a stalling tactic until they hold the upper hand. Trump’s instinct for win-win deals, honed in the boardroom, doesn’t translate to communist regimes that view every negotiation as zero-sum. They’ll string you along until you’re weak or they’re desperate.

    Case in point: Ukraine. The fastest way to end Putin’s war is to arm Ukraine with long-range missiles—Tomahawks, specifically—and greenlight their use against deep Russian targets. That’s not warmongering; it’s the language of power that dictators understand. It would also put China on notice about Taiwan, delaying Xi’s expansionist dreams. Anything less is just kicking the can down the road, inviting more aggression. History shows appeasement only emboldens tyrants—think Munich 1938. Force, not flattery, brings them to the table.

    The Psychology of Belief: Facts Don’t Matter

    Shifting gears, let’s talk about why bad ideas persist. It’s easier to sell people on nonsense that fits their tribal beliefs than to persuade them with reasoned truths. (Plato learned this from Socrates 2,500 years ago.)  Humans crave group membership over rational thought—always have. That’s why the old saying about having your own opinions but not your own facts is bunk. Every day, the public square proves people can and do have their own facts, histories, and logics, cobbling together personal realities that defy evidence. Social media echo chambers and partisan media only amplify this.

    This cognitive quirk explains why collectivism—socialism, communism, you name it—keeps rearing its head. Its simplistic pitch of “diversity, equity, inclusion” through redistribution hooks the gullible, promising fairness while delivering shackles. If you just tolerate this ideology in a free-market capitalist society, it spreads like cancer. You can’t sit back and hope it fizzles out. It takes active containment—educating the young on the failures of collectivism, from the Soviet Union to Venezuela, and keeping the debate alive in public forums. Without that, the left’s feel-good slogans will continue eroding the foundations of liberty.

    The Rebane Doctrine: Fooling All, Always

    I’ve long held in what I call the Rebane Doctrine that not only can you fool some people all the time and all people some of the time, but you can also fool all people all the time. Look at the Bolsheviks or Nazis—entire nations bought into catastrophic lies about the promises of collectivism. Today’s “No Kings” rallies, with tens of millions railing against Trump as some wannabe dictator, are a case study. They ignore his administration’s unmatched transparency in policy and action. Agree or disagree with his methods, albeit somewhat haphazardly applied.  -The record speaks for itself: tax cuts, deregulation, peace through strength. Yet the left’s narrative paints him as a cartoon villain, and the sheeple lap it up, proving my doctrine’s grim truth.

    Misreading the Political Spectrum

    The left’s ignorance of political ideology is another sore spot. They embrace socialism and communism as harmless alternatives to capitalism, blind to their track record of misery. Worse, they mislabel fascism as right-wing to tar conservatives as evil. Let’s set the record straight: fascism is big-government collectivism, a leftist ideology. The Right, at its core, minimizes government’s role, if anything, trending toward anarchy in its extreme. The left’s spectrum runs from autocratic collectivism—socialism, communism, fascism—to totalitarianism. The right’s extreme is no government at all. Calling fascism “right-wing” is a deliberate distortion, and it’s why the left’s moral posturing falls apart under scrutiny – minimally practiced today.

    Science as Consensus: The Left’s Anti-Science Stance

    Finally, the Democrat Party’s approach to science is anything but scientific. Bypassing evidence, they treat consensus as truth.  Their obsession with catastrophic global warming is the poster child for this narrative. Science isn’t a popularity contest; it thrives on skepticism, testing, and falsification. Yet Democrats push policies based on apocalyptic models, not hard data, shouting down dissenters as heretics. This isn’t science—it’s propagandizing dogma dressed up in lab coats. Real scientific practice demands constant questioning, not blind allegiance to a majority vote.  (A prime example – the whole field of control and estimation theory falsifies the hubris of centrally controlled large governments embraced by collectivists.)

    The Path Forward: Containment, Not Tolerance

    So, what’s the answer? Just tolerating the Left won’t cut it.  As history warns, their ideas, left unchecked, metastasize into autocracy,. We need a multi-pronged defense: arm allies like Ukraine to deter global autocrats, educate our young on the virtues of free markets and the perils of collectivism, and keep the public square buzzing with debate to expose leftist fallacies. My geo-strategic model, built on lessons from smarter minds, has held up over the years. It’s not about silencing the Left but containing their influence before their redistributionist utopian policies beggar us all.

    The stakes are high. From geopolitical miscalculations to domestic ideological drift, the threats are real. We can’t afford to sit idly by, lulled by a false sense of normalcy. The Rebane Doctrine reminds us that mass delusion is always possible, and the left’s current trajectory—embracing collectivism while mangling science and history—is a clear and present danger. It’s time to act, not just tolerate. Let’s teach, debate, and deter, or risk losing the liberal and free-market capitalistic society we’ve built.

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  • Scattershots – 9oct25

    George Rebane

    The Turing test is dead, we are told.  There’s a reasonable basis for this assertion, because today’s AIs already convince humans, on a regular basis, that they are talking with another human.  So the new goal is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) that is defined as AIs that are ‘smarter’ than all humans in every endeavor.  But no one yet knows how to measure ‘smarter’ (i.e. intelligence) for machines since we are still not sure of how to measure it for humans.  To me the whole enterprise of searching for the litmus test for measuring the intelligence of rapidly evolving AIs is moot.  For all we know, the Singularity has already been achieved, and we will only be able to confirm it in the rearview mirror.  Here’s an essay on current efforts to measure machine intelligence – https://spectrum.ieee.org/agi-benchmark .

    Peace in Gaza is celebrated by happy dancing in the streets of major Israeli cities.  Nothing has happened yet but President Trump is already getting his tux cleaned and pressed for the trip to Stockholm.  The line in the sand that Trump drew for all to see was that Hamas would return all the hostages, lay down their guns, and get the hell out of Gaza.  And this was to happen by 6pm GMT Sunday 5 October 2025.  We are now told that the hostage release will occur in the next few days and begin a long process of negotiating the remaining points of the president’s 20-point peace deal.  Given how Trump has handled (i.e. been bamboozled by) Putin over the last months, terminating with the embarrassment in Anchorage, I won’t hold my breath any time soon.  Putin was supposed to sit down with Zelinsky to end the Ukraine war, or we would slap ‘secondary sanctions’ on Russia and give Ukraine weaponry to include long-range missiles with the  blessing to use them against strategic targets, including cities, deep in Russia.  That was the line in the sand for the 15aug25 Alaska summit – so far, nothing.  Meanwhile Putin continues to bomb the crap out of Ukraine’s cities, fly drones and fighters over Europe’s NATO countries, while selling its oil and gas all over the world.

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  • Armed citizens when you need them?

    George Rebane

    The latest mass shooting in Grand Blanc, Michigan highlights the problems with our totally unarmed civilian population in the public square.  The incident left 5 people dead (including shooter) and eight hospitalized.  The crazed killer was a military veteran who drove his pick-up through the doors of the local LDS church into the sanctuary where hundreds of people were attending a church service.  There he got out and started shooting people randomly and then took the time to set fire to the building which ultimately was totally destroyed with the authorities expecting to find more bodies in the charred rubble.  Law enforcement took about ten minutes to get there and take down the gunman.

    What boggles my mind is that among the hundreds of worshippers, and Mormons no less, there was not a single person legally armed with a CCW who could have engaged the shooter, or diverted him and possibly taken him down, thereby saving lives and the church.  There was apparently more than enough time for such a response while police were on their way.

    Sadly, there was no such self-help available.  We have all been conditioned to be sanguine about personal safety from the criminals and crazies among us – the police will protect us.  But when the need demands seconds, law enforcement is minutes away.  Today’s perpetrators are totally confident that they will encounter no immediate armed resistance, especially if they decide to do their crime in a ‘gun free zone’ or a jurisdiction which enjoins an armed citizenry.

    The progressives and other light thinkers among us will immediately claim that legally vetted armed citizens constitute a public danger.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  When the last data was available, you were six times more likely to be murdered by a rogue LE officer than a citizen with a CCW.  Today the chance of your being murdered in any given year by a CCW carrier is less than one in ten million.  Pew Research Center documented a national gun murder rate of 4.5 per 100,000 people.  Therefore, being a victim of criminal homicide by a non-CCW person is 450 times higher. 

    CCW holders are by far the least dangerous armed people among us, and that includes your local police.  And the lives they save and acts of crime they prevent go unreported by our lamestream media because it doesn’t fit their narrative promoting a disarmed citizenry.  The cost-benefit of having a sufficient share of armed citizens among us to give criminals pause is a no-brainer.

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