Apologies of a Climate Scaremonger

Here is an article I encountered thanks to the Streisand Effect.  Forbes had posted an article from a long-time environmentalist, a true believer, who had doubts about the over-the-top tactics and claims made by his fellow environmentalists.  Apparently, the backlash was such that Forbes pulled the story and begged forgiveness.  Well, this I have to read.

Click this link to read the story for yourself.

The article is a preview of his book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. Among his points are that we are not seeing a mass extinction, climate change is not making natural disasters worse, fires have declined over the last 17 years, carbon emissions are declining in most rich nations, wood fuel is worse for people than fossil fuel, and more.  An interesting point is that air pollution and carbon emissions diminish by moving from wood to coal to petroleum to natural gas to uranium.  Nuclear plants are the most environmentally friendly.  Well, unless you're in Russia.

The most interesting thing is that his views were discouraged by fellow environmentalists.  Though he remains an environmentalist, he sees that climate alarmism is needlessly scaring people.  When AOC said the world would end in 12 years, that may provoke eye-rolling among some but terrifies youth.  Oddly, I recall when I was in elementary school, a student said the world was going to end in 1980.  Credulous as I was, I believed it.  The teacher didn't shoot down the idea.  Why hadn't my parents told me about this?  Looking back now, it's silly.  Imagine if I had marinated in such claims throughout my childhood.  That's what has happened to Greta Thunberg.

Be of good cheer.  The world is not ending any time soon.

Threat Vector

President Wei Zhen Lin is about to commit suicide rather than suffer a humiliating arrest and show trial.  China is suffering hard times and he is about to be the fall guy.  To his surprise, Chairman Su of the military takes his side, thus saving his presidency.  Though grateful, Wei knows this means he is beholden to Su and Su would rather use the military than the economy to conquer.  Wei acquiesces.  Su intends to absorb Hong Kong and Taiwan and also seize supremacy of the South China Sea.  Obviously, the United States and President Jack Ryan will oppose this but Su has a strategy.  Of course, China can't compete with the US military but it has cyberwar supremacy.  Its hackers can hijack drones and read CIA communiques.

Meanwhile, the Campus - a secret off-the-books intelligence agency established by President Ryan - has been investigating a hacking group led by a figure named Center.  Center has almost omniscient knowledge and appears capable of hacking every computer system.  Is Center somehow related to the hacking of US drones?  Can the Campus counter the hackers before the tensions between the US and China escalate to full scale war?

The story is told from a variety of perspectives.  There is Jack Ryan Jr, who works as an agent and analyst at the Campus.  There is his father, President Ryan, who tries to navigate the rising hostility of China while being hamstrung by failing technology and devastating cyber attacks.  There is Velentin Kovalenko, an ex-Russian Intelligence officer, who has been forcibly recruited by the mysterious Center.  Adam Yao is a CIA agent in Hong Kong who avoids reporting his movements to Langley because there is a leak that has decimated most intelligence assets in China.  Marine Pilot Brandon "Trash" White finds himself dogfighting Chinese fighters in the Taiwan Straight as the situation escalates.

This is a surprisingly good book and a bit scary.  Written in 2012, it is odd to see China cracking down on Hong Kong and making moves to secure the South China Sea.  That's currently happening.  Huh.  Of course, I had seen several Jack Ryan movies but it was quite a surprise to find that he is now President and his son is the spy.  The book digs into the technology, be it computers, F/A-18C Hornets, or ship-killing missiles.

Thumbs up!

It's Not About Black Lives Anymore

In the wake of George Floyd's death, protests erupted against the mistreatment of blacks at the hands of police.  This protest quickly went nation-wide and transformed into riots and looting.  Then there was the push to tear down statues.  These pro-slavery statues had to go if we were to really demonstrate that black lives mattered.  Yes, they have a point.  But then Thomas Jefferson had to come down because he was a slave owner.  That becomes a bit murkier.  Then it was George Washington's turn because he too was a slave owner.  When Ulysses Grant, the man who forced General Lee to surrender and end the Civil War, gets torn down, it's not about black lives anymore.  It has since moved on to the removal of Theodore Roosevelt, the toppling of Father Junipero Serra, and even calls to remove an Abraham Lincoln statue that was funded by freed slaves.  There has even been a call to tear down Jesus because he is depicted as European.  The Black Lives Matter movement has been usurped by Antifa and twisted it into an anti-American movement.

Who else tries to erase the past by demolishing monuments and statues?  ISIS did that.  The Taliban used explosives to get rid of a 2,500 year old statue of Buddha.  Russia demolished thousands of churches to make way for the new religion of communism.  Government-run schools in the United States have already stopped teaching American history as anything other than a crime against humanity.  It is time to get rid of monuments to American history.  A clean slate will make it much easier to setup a new way of doing things.  Something more to the tastes of Antifa.

A hundred years ago, virtually every living person was racist, sexist, homophobic, and classist and it gets worse the further back you go.  It has been a very different world through the ages.  We've come a long way.  If every person who ever lived must meet today's moral standards, there will be no historical figures to celebrate.  How many of us living today will meet the standards of 2120?

Actors barred from Acting

The complaints have been growing for years.  There were those upset that Apu the Indian-American in The Simpsons was voiced by a white actor, Hank Azaria.  Well, that can't stand.  Earlier this year, Azarian left the role.  Now Jenny Slate will no longer voice the role of a half-white, half-black character because she is white.  Kristen Bell will no voice a character that doesn't match her race.  Is this a one way thing?  Do we need to redub Star Wars so James Earl Jones isn't the voice of Darth Vader?  How about the entire cast of Hamilton?  Will future actors to take the role of FDR be required to suffer paralysis from polio?  Can only a blind and deaf actress play Helen Keller?  How dare Daniel Day-Lewis, who is only 6'1" tall play 6'4" Abraham Lincoln?  How does heterosexual Armie Hammer get the role of homosexual Oliver in Call Me by Your Name?  How does a 60 year-old Meryl Streep get cast as a 40 something Julia Child in Julie & Julia?  Let's not even get started with all the 20 somethings who play high school students.  When will this madness end?  When will we start casting people who match the demographics of the characters they play?  Who do these people think they are that they act like someone else with different experiences than themselves?  Clearly, they are insensitive racists, sexists, ablists, ageists, and so on.  Shame!

Chernobyl

The HBO mini-series opens in April 1988 with Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) recording his conclusions and opinions regarding Chernobyl.  After carefully wrapping the cassette tapes in paper and hiding them for some unknown contact, he kills himself.  The narrative resumes with Lyudmilla Inatenko wandering her apartment in the middle of the night when she spots an explosion.  Moments later, the shockwave hits and her husband joins her to stare at the distant blaze.  Meanwhile, inside the nuclear plant, the technicians are trying to determine what just happened.  Anatoly Dyatlov (Paul Ritter) is the man in charge but he spends all his time laying blame and denying that there has been an explosion.  Nuclear plants meltdown but they do not explode.  Soon, Lyudmilla's husband, Vasily, departs for the fire; he is a firefighter.  As he fights the fire, it becomes obvious that the site is highly radioactive but the fire must be fought.  It is at this point that Legasov is summoned to a meeting in Moscow where he learns of the disaster and is dispatched with Deputy Minister Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgard) to determine the severity and provide solutions.  The situation is indeed dire and many Russians must sacrifice their lives to save millions.

The 5 part series shows both the heroic efforts to contain the disaster and also the political minefield of doing so in a communist state.  At one point, they get their hands on a German robot which fails immediately because it is rated to the 'stated' radiation level rather than the actual radiation.  Lying is too often the default setting and it proves catastrophic.  Without a robot, more Russian men must clear radioactive debris.  By the end, one has massive respect for the Russian people and contempt for the Russian government.

Great acting, high drama, and even educational.  Thumbs up!

The Closers

Finding that retirement didn't suit him, Harry Bosch rejoined the LAPD.  Now working from Parker Center, he is back with his old partner, Kiz Rider, and assigned to the Open Unsolved unit.  Formerly known as cold cases, the new chief wants to put more resources toward solving old cases by use of new technology.  No sooner is Bosch at his desk than he has a DNA match for a murder from 1988.  The victim was a mixed-race teenaged girl and the blood belongs to a man who used to be part of a neo-Nazi gang.  Was this a racial killing?  And why is Assistant Chief Irvin Irving so interested?  Irving, a long time nemesis of Bosch, is upset by his return to the LAPD and declares that 'retreads' are more likely to blow out.  Irving is on the outs with the new police chief and hopes to ride Bosch's inevitable failure back to power.  The mystery to be solved is deeper than expected, exposing LAPD politics of the late 1980s.  The 1992 Riots were foreshadowed in the events of the late 80s.

It is good to have Bosch back on the force again. He is a cop and he cannot escape that. He had blundered in leaving and realizes that his mission - avenging angel for the murdered and speaker for the dead - requires a badge. The narrative has returned to third person, a welcome change.

A good read and highly recommended.

Upload

Nathan (Robbie Amell) is a programmer who is working on freeware software for uploading consciousness after death, providing digital immortality in a virtual world.  But before he has it ready to roll out, he is killed in a freak car accident.  His girlfriend has arranged for him to be uploaded to the popular Lakeview server.  He must now come to terms with his death while figuring out how to 'live' in this virtual afterlife.  Of course, all his family and acquaintances can 'visit' through virtual reality equipment or even just make a phone call.  To help him adjust, he has an angel.  Nora (Andy Allo) works as an angel, appearing when called and providing guidance and some emotional support.  Nora finds she is attracted to Nathan and he feels the same.  Their growing affection is a central part of the series.

The show explores a variety of possibilities in the near future.  There are the driverless cars, phones that are integrated into your hand, uploading consciousness into a server, the continued existence of the dead and their efforts to adapt, and much more.  There is even a young boy who died almost ten years ago but he has not aged.  His 'younger' brother is going to senior prom.  Huh.  However, the show has not delved into the idea of copy & paste.  If you can be digitized, can you be copied?  At one point, a dead person attempts to download into a clone of his old body and it is a given that he is no longer on the server after the transfer.  Why?  That's not how computer files work and we are repeatedly shown that Nathan is just a bunch of computer files.  Maybe next season.

It is an entertaining show and recommended.  It is available on Amazon Prime.

Lose-Lose Situation

Tucker Carlson recently blasted President Trump's lack of action against the widespread unrest throughout the country.  He announced that President Obama would never have allowed things to get this bad.  The National Guard or even the 101st Airborne would have long since retaken the CHAZ and stamped out the riots in various cities.  I generally like that plan.  I'm all for peaceful protests but when they transform into lawless bands of looters and vandals, it's time to read the riot act.  But let's take it to the next step.

Suppose the national guard or the military is deployed to end the riots and stamp out the autonomous zone.  How will that be reported in the media?  Will the president get praise for returning law & order to the cities and protecting the property of private citizens?  Unlikely.  Will the president be denounced as an authoritarian who stomped on the rights of black Americans to protest police brutality?  Oh yeah!  Big time!  If Trump does nothing, he is a weakling in a time of crisis but if he does something, he provides the evidence for the old claims that he is a fascist.  That is how it will be reported.  It is lose-lose.

What to do?  Trump's initial efforts have been to demand that the mayors and governors of these various cities and states take action.  Governor Jay Inslee has the authority to call up the national guard and deploy it to reassert control of CHAZ.  He has declined to do so despite Trump's emphatic prompting.  By pointing out that the local authorities (all Democrats) who have the authority to put down the riots are doing nothing, the president is blame-shifting.  Is it blame-shifting?  Shouldn't the first group to respond to a local riot be the local police?  If that isn't enough, request state assistance.  If that still isn't enough, call upon the federal government.  Yes, that would be federalism.  Trump has further offered to help, if requested.  No requests.  The locals will neither put down the riots themselves nor will they accept some responsibility by requesting federal aid.  Hmm.  This sounds like a setup.

The people of Seattle voted for the government that is more or less cheerleading for the CHAZ/CHOP.  Elections have consequences.  Minneapolis has a Democrat mayor, a Democrat city counsel, all Democrat Congressional Representatives (Ilhan Omar among them), 2 Democrat senators, a Democrat Attorney General, and a Democrat Governor.  Obviously, the Republican President is the problem.

Sadly, this is all about an election year.  How will a crackdown impact the November election?  More importantly, how will a crackdown be reported?  Trump thinks that he is better off letting blue cities and states burn.  Further, he hopes that blue politicians suffer in the polls and he's going to run ads putting the blame on them.  By contrast, it will be hard for those blue politicians to blame Trump for not taking actions that they refused to take themselves.

Whichever side you are on, we have the worst political class in my life.  Political maneuvering is more important that doing their jobs.  Tragic.

Judging without Law

The Supreme Court has decided that President Obama's executive order that implemented DACA despite the Congress refusing to legislate an actual law cannot be invalided by a countering executive order by President Trump.  That presents some serious problems.  The purely executive action of one president has been enforced against a later president.  Ergo, DACA is being treated as law.  President Obama has successfully legislated his policy preference without the participation of the legislative branch!  If Biden is elected, will the Supreme Court uphold Trump's executive orders when Biden seeks to revoke them?  If yes, then presidents are legislators.  If no, the Supreme Court is picking sides rather than ruling on law.  Both of those options are disastrous for the Rule of Law.

This was not the only troubling ruling from the court.  Much as the authors of the 14th Amendment would be amazed that they had codified birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens, the authors of the 1964 Civil Rights law would be dumbfounded to learn they had provided legal protections for homosexuals and transgenders.  If the legislature can't get these policies implemented then it is up to the court to bypass the democratic process and just make it happen.  That's how we got gay marriage and now this.  Why do we have Congress?

In a democratic society, big issues must be decided through the elective bodies.  When courts mandate a solution, that is just a majority vote of 9 unelected judges rather than an extended debate that involves hundreds of legislators who must answer to voters.  Look at the abortion debate.  Rather than solve the problem, Roe v. Wade has created an irreconcilable division that has roiled the country for nearly 50 years.  It is why judicial fights are so brutal now because everyone knows that courts - not legislators - will have the final say.  That's not democratic.  That is not the rule of law, but the rule of judges.

Aunt Jemima

I have been buying Aunt Jemima syrup for my waffles and pancakes for as long as I can remember.  If I ever thought about the origins of Aunt Jemima, I assumed she was a woman who knew how to make maple syrup, like Marie Calendar knows pies and Betty Crocker makes cakes.  I suspect that the VAST majority of people had the same impression as I did.  Well, it turns out that Old Jemima was a character in a minstrel show dating back to the 19th century.  Racist.  So now it will have to change.  Uncle Ben is next in the firing line.  I think Famous Amos is safe because he's a real person who bakes a good cookie.  Then again, with a name like Amos (e.g. Amos and Andy), he might have to makes some changes too.  Pretty soon, the only non-racist mascots will be white.  Is that an improvement?

Sheena (1984)

36 years after it premiered in theaters, I finally got around to seeing this movie.  It only took a pandemic followed by rioting to get me to see it.

The movie opens with a family driving at night through the African wilderness.  Philip and Betsy are here to investigate the healing soil of the area.  When they arrive, they find a man buried except for his head.  No sooner have they climbed out of their jeep than natives light bonfires and begin chanting.  The buried man is pulled out and he is healed!  Amazed, Philip and Betsy are determined to explore a nearby cave for answers, leaving their toddler, Janet, with a native woman.  Of course, they are killed and the tribal shaman adopts Janet and renames her Sheena.

Many years later, shaman has had visions of the king's murder and she must warn him.  She arrives too late and is instead framed for the crime.  Sheena (Tanya Roberts) jumps into action and uses her ability to speak with animals through telepathy to rescue shaman.  A column of military vehicles are sent in pursuit and Sheena must use all the animals of the savannah and jungle to overcome them.

Vic Casey (Ted Wass) is a sports reporter immediately entranced by Sheena's beauty.  Sure, there is a story about a murdered king and a treasonous brother but did you see that blonde!  He's occasionally helpful in explaining how the outside world works.

The biggest failing of the movie is Tanya Roberts' acting.  Her best acting is when she sits stone-faced on her zebra as it gallops across the veldt.  The moment she speaks, her every line is delivered with desperate concern.  She sounds like someone about to lapse into a panic attack rather than a strong woman who is about to show these city folk who is in charge in the jungle.  She got this job because she looked good in the costume - what little there is of it.  After this, one wonders who thought she would make a good Bond girl in A View to a Kill?

On top of this, the villains are abysmally stupid.  Oh, let's drive our column of vehicles down a narrow defile where we don't know if it goes through.  Oh no!  We're stuck and natives are flanking us.  Bows and spears slaughter soldiers with rifles and machine guns.

Very weak.  Not a so bad that it's good.  No, this is a so bad that you cringe a lot.  Avoid.