Open Letter to Ben Cline, U.S. House of Representatives, Virginia 6th district.

Dear Sir: After recently hearing Donald Trump speak at length about: “Abortions being conducted in Blue States ‘3 days’ after the child’s birth”. “Batteries, boats and sharks”. “Pitching tents (four days) at airports”. “Windmills” “Faucets no water, ‘they’ don’t want to you to have water”. “Washing machines and toilets”. I googled: [Representative Ben Cline, Virgina: comments about donald trump]… I got: Representative Ben Cline (R-Va.) said former President Trump discussed pop star Taylor Swift during his meeting with House Republicans, saying that the former president was “surprised” she did not endorse him. Cline told The Hill that the former president talked about how “he did sign legislation during his administration to help the songwriters, and that he was surprised that Taylor Swift didn’t — didn’t support him.” We can all see that you, Representative Cline, have your intellect laser focused on what is important to the USA and your constituents.

The Washington Post, where “Democracy Dies in Foxiness”

My response to learning that Fox News paid $787,500,000 because they lied to their audience is as follows: I do not watch/listen to Fox News. I do not trust Rupert Murdoch nor the people he hires. Now, I don’t trust the Washington Post. They have made quite a few changes in the last year or so. They may think they are doing things that will increase readership, but they have lost me. I wrote this to their OP-ED page, the only way I know of to communicate with them (they got rid of an ombudsman years ago). They’ll never print it, but I feel better.

Single use plastic

I have been keeping a sour dough culture for pancakes and bread making since 1979. I feed it once a week and keep it in my fridge between uses. I keep it in a one quart “single use, disposable plastic yogurt tub”. The tub I use is now more than 49 years old. I guess, in a way, I’ve only used it “once”.

Snakes: Sung to “For What It’s Worth” CSN&Y

There’s something happenin; here And what it is, is exactly clear There’s a snake climbin’ up over there Chickadees, they better beware Chickees Chickees what’s that SOUND? One snake two snakes hangin’ around. The snakes they smell Chickadee But that nest is just too tricky. Their desires to eat are real deep But you know they ain’t got no feet. Chickees Chickees what’s that SOUND? One snake two snakes hangin’ around. Snakes are climbin’ pretty long But their necks, they just ain’t that long. Two snakes, don’t know what to do These Chickadees ain't on the menu. Chickees Chickees what’s that SOUND? One snake two snakes hangin’ around. Chickees Chickees

what’s that SOUND? One snake two snake hangin’ around.

The "Plan"

The “plan” has been in plain sight from the beginning; it has 6 simple parts: After I have established absolute and total immunity for the presidency (codified by the Supreme Court): 1) I will run for president. 2) I will say I won. 3) When I’ve “won” I will do whatever I want. 4) Everything I want and everybody that helped me will be OK (Sorta…, "we'll see about that". I am, afterall, very flexible about everybody but me.). 5) Everybody that didn’t help me, I will take revenge on. 6) I will be a total dictator and above the law, much like being a billionaire has allowed me to be above the law my whole life. The only difference will be, now the LAWS are what I proclaim them to be.

It's not just the IVF people; it's everybody

A lot has been written about the Alabama “person-hood” declaration for in vitro fertilized embryos from the perspective of the couples attempting to become parents. Cells frozen in a petridish. So far, I've seen nothing from the perspective of everybody else. There are lots of folks in Alabama that have nothing to do with IVF. Hypothetically, John and Jill Doe could spend almost all their money at the fertility clinic, have five viable blastocysts on ice there, and get T-boned by a drunk driver on their way home from the clinic. They are both killed. At a rate of several thousand dollars a year, each, the taxpayers of Alabama would get to maintain those frozen cells forever. I wonder how many Alabamian people signed on for this responsibility. As a taxpayer in Virginia, I know that I haven’t.

A letter to the Washington Post Didn't make it in:

Let us put AI into mobile humanoid robots (AP Washington Post Mar. 1, 2024). I expect the next step in this process will be to give them guns. What could go wrong? Our military is already doing this, I guess the logical next step is for industry to make this available to private citizens; just like Ar-15s, tactical gear, laser sights, and night vision goggles. Are the tech innovators trying to create the scenarios depicted in the Terminator movies? Is anyone thinking about putting humanoid ethics into robots? Asimov thought about it 75 years ago. That might be a good idea if "humanoid" ethics were to be better than they are right now. After all, “we” are killing each other’s children all over the world.