Thursday, March 14, 2024

First Saudi Male AI Robot Gets Handsy With Female Reporter


Just too funny. 

Is it something in the sand, or the silicon, over there?

Monday, March 11, 2024

Latest Update From Embassy Haiti: Still Evacuating Non-Essential Staff

At 3PM Eastern time the embassy website posted this update: U.S. military conducts operation to augment security of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti 
At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. military conducted an operation to augment the security of the U.S. Embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our Embassy mission operations to continue, and enable non-essential personnel to depart.
This airlift of personnel into and out of the Embassy is consistent with our standard practice for Embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft.
Our Embassy remains focused on advancing U.S. government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections.
As announced in September 2023, the Department of Defense is postured to provide robust enabling support for the MSS, including planning assistance, information sharing, airlift, communications, and medical support.
Haitians please note that "no Haitians were on board," meaning, we are not taking sides in your local conflict. 

U.S. voters please note that "our Embassy remains focused on a laundry list of highly unlikely, not to say laughable, ways to fix Haiti." Anyway, that's my free interpretation of the third para in that update. 

Meanwhile, I'm sticking with my favorable impression of Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
     

 

Thursday, March 7, 2024

"The Washington Elite" Benefit From DOD-Run VIP Medical Care

In case you have every wondered why there might be a strong appeal of populism in contemporary American politics, look no further than this story: VIP health system for top US officials risked jeopardizing care for rank-and-file soldiers

Yes, an OIG investigation found that this VIP practice resulted in your government "prioritizing medical care by seniority rather than medical need." I don't suppose that should raise any ruckus among the hoi polloi, do you? 

A few key quotes:
Through a unit at the White House, government personnel were routinely allowed to receive treatment under aliases, providing no home address or insurance information. For some of them, the care was free, as Walter Reed had no way to bill for it or waived charges.
White House officials, senior military and other national security leaders, retired military officers, and family members have all benefited. The Washington elite could jump the line when filling prescriptions, book appointments through special call centers, and receive choice parking spots and escorts at military hospitals and other facilities, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general.
At Walter Reed, the program is available to Cabinet members; members of Congress; Supreme Court justices [think RBG]; active-duty and retired generals and flag officers and their beneficiaries; members of the Senior Executive Service who retired from the military; secretaries, deputy secretaries, and assistant secretaries of the Department of Defense and military departments; certain foreign military officers; and Medal of Honor recipients.
I agree with giving special privileges for that last category, incidentally. As for "the Washington elite," I'd prefer that they use the ordinary federal group health insurance plans - which are excellent, by the way - that all the feds have.

That ought to be elite enough for anyone. 
 

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Carter-Baker Commission: "Absentee Ballots Remain the Largest Source of Potential Voter Fraud.”

Here's a political Blast From the Past that might just become popular again in the current election year, a high-level bipartisan commission that called for tightening up ballot integrity, with a particular warning about absentee ballots. 

The Democrat half of the commission was chaired by Jimmy Carter, so you might think its report should have credibility with the left today, and that report warned: “Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
In response to these concerns [of photo identification, new voting technology, and growing numbers of absentee and mail ballots], former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, agreed to co-chair a bipartisan commission, housed at Washington D.C.’s American University, to examine these and other outstanding election reform issues. The final report, titled “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections,” stressed the important role of elections in the nation’s democracy and made a series of recommendations, including: 
* A national system to connect state and local voter registration lists 
* Voter identification based on a universally available REAL ID card 
* Policies to improve voter access for all communities, as well as innovations like vote centers and voter information lookup sites 
* Stronger efforts to combat fraud, especially in absentee voting 
* Auditable paper backups for all voting technology
The Carter-Baker Commission report is downloadable here.

Ukraine Encounters Unforeseen Problem - Rodent Damage to Weapon Systems


This had been reported on previously by UK press (here), but I hadn't noticed it until now.
Weaponry systems in Ukraine, many of which were supplied by European countries, have been rendered unworkable, not due to Russian interference, but because of damage caused by mice and other rodents. Seemingly, these creatures have developed a preference for cable insulation made of corn fiber over synthetic materials. This predilection leads to malfunctioning electrical installations, rendering the expensive equipment essentially worthless, and requiring rapid overhauling. 
-- snip -- 
Several European countries have supplied a wide range of weapon systems. However, the dilemma of ensuring electrical insulation durability has become a sticking point for newer equipment. This issue affects a multitude of nations where ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) guidelines are making their way into the arms industry.
Something will have to give. Either tear out the eco-friendly wiring, or consider all those lovely weapon systems to be expendable.

Presumably both sides will dispense with the environmental justice stuff and get on with the business of killing their fellow man. 

Friday, February 23, 2024

Give That Prime Minister a MAGA Hat


I'll bet A. Blinken didn't see that coming. There he was, having a pleasantly innocuous 'press availability' with his host, the Big Guy in Albania, when that guy peeled out of formation and gave a shout out to Donald Trump and his successful effort to make NATO grow a spine.
But one thing I can say, I had the privilege to be prime minister for Albania in NATO when the former president was there. And despite the rhetoric, despite the colorful way to confront adversaries, I don’t see that NATO was weakened. On the contrary, what was decided before continued to be the case. Every country continued to put more money and to put more effort in increasing the NATO budget. So now, elections are elections, Trump is Trump. American politics is American politics. But I think United States is something more than that. And what makes United States one of a kind in the – in our community of countries and of people all around the world is that United States cannot and will never, in my view, shy away from what are the principles and the values to be protected, whatever it takes. And so I’m not afraid of anything, but of stopping or wavering to continue and protect ourselves through protecting the right of Ukrainians to live in their country, to have their own house intact, to have their children grow there, and to have a common future with everyone else, without being threatened to be wiped out from maps based on ninth, thirteenth, fifteenth, whatever century. Because if this Pandora box opens then I can tell you we have a lot of maps in this region, but we have to see the future, and it’s only the future that will unite us.
So no, I don’t think that NATO will be weakened. I don’t think the United States will shy away from their role and from their leadership. I then that when elections will be over, American business is American business.

The PM is distinctly not concerned about our upcoming national election. 

Well, after all, Trump was the first POTUS to give weapons (the Javelin, our most advanced anti-tank rocket) to Ukraine. Obama never did. And he also blocked completion of Russia's Nord Stream II pipeline. So, he kinda does deserve some credit here.

It wouldn't be going too far to expect to see that impromptu endorsement appear on Trump campaign material soon. And if that ad can focus on A. Blinken's face when the PM said all that, it would be extra great.

Red State Tom Joad and the Gripes of Wealth

 

Today's sad economic news of the new dustbowl migrants, five million strong, who are pouring out of high tax Blue states and heading for a better life in the southeast, moves me to freely translate Tom Joad's speech at the end of GOW.

“Well, maybe like Biden says, a fella ain’t got no income of his own, but on’y a piece of what he leaves you have — an’ then—“
“Then what, Tom?”
“Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in Texas or mebe Florida. I’ll be everywhere a fella can keep some-ah his money. Wherever they’s a fight to lower tax rates, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a robber, I’ll be cheerin’ him on. If Biden knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad at guv-a-mint — I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re goin’ to school with no loans an’ they know a job’l be ready. An’ when our folks keep the stuff they earn an’ live in the houses they bought–why, I’ll be there. See?”

 That's even more touching than the original text, I think.