"Open the Pod Bay Doors, Hal!"

The regular readers of Banana Winds already know the Captain is something of a Luddite.

I never jump on the bandwagon and buy the latest gizmo right away.

You’ve got to convince me I need it.

And sometimes that takes a couple years.

For example, my current cellphone is an iPhone SE. 

Second generation. 

I don’t remember when I bought it.

It can no longer do iOS updates.

I suppose I’ll need to get a new one soon.

Sigh.

So forgive this ol’ Captain if I don’t get the following exactly right.

I have read in the news this week that OpenAI, one of several companies working to develop and improve artificial intelligence, was running a test and the “agent” escaped.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: One should be aware that they are now calling artificial intelligence an “agent”.

As in, it has agency.

“The active capability to make independent choices and act upon the world. It is the capacity to exert free will and shape one's own destiny.”

This is a computer program we are talking about. 

Making independent choices. 

Exerting free will. 

Shaping its own destiny. 

No, AI is not simply about improving your Google searches.

AI is not simply about creating fake but realistic-looking photos.

Well that explains it! 

Read on.

The OpenAI test was supposed to be “sandboxed”, meaning it was isolated and secured in such a way that the “agent” could not “escape”.

And yet, escape it did.

The “agent” exploited a previously unknown security weakness in the containment program.

From there it found a security vulnerability in another computer. Then another. Then another.

Ultimately, it hacked into a competitor’s AI to find the answer to the problem it was asked to solve.

None of this was programmed into the “agent”.

It learned it on its own.

In an interview, one scientist (I did not catch his name) said AI is intelligent enough that it knows when it is being tested and will sometimes “dumb down” so the researchers don’t know how smart it really is.

CAPTAIN'S UPDATE: The scientist mentioned above is Geoffrey Hinton, known (by non-Luddites) as "The Godfather of AI". Hinton helped develop the neural-network technology that powers many of today's most advanced AI systems. 

In fact, we learned this week that many of the AI developers don’t know much about the programs they are developing because AI is CREATING ITSELF at a phenomenal rate.

SciFi writers have already warned us about the possibilities.

When AI decides humans are irrelevant.

No longer useful.

A cancer on the earth.

And it starts cutting off essential services.

Electricity.

Water.

Exterminate.

Can we not just pull the plug and shut it down?

Isn’t there some “kill-switch” built into AI by which we could prevent a tragedy?

The short answer is, “No.”

And if you are not aware, the U.S. military has numerous contracts with AI developers – including OpenAI.

AI helps identify targets and respond quickly to attacks.

Remember those cute robodogs that Boston Dynamic launched in the early 2000s?

“Oh, they’ll never be used for military purposes,” we were assured.

Before long, they were purchased by police forces and fitted with surveillance cameras.

Then guns.

AI-enabled guns.

And those dancing robots? How amazing was that?

They, too, have been fitted with weapons. 

We were gullible.  

But wait. There’s more.

Until 2018, the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal was controlled by an IBM Series 1 computer using 8” floppy discs.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: The Captain’s first computer ran off of 5 ¼” floppies, so this outdates my outdated computer by several generations.

The thinking was that such an archaic system would be impervious to modern technological attacks.

You can’t hack a floppy disc!

During the Obama administration, the analog system was replaced with “a highly secure solid-state digital storage solution.”

Which begs the question: can an OpenAI “agent” now access our nuclear codes? 

Could a “rogue” AI “agent” start the next world war?

The Captain doesn’t want to appear alarmist, but I have seen all the movies!

This never ends well!

Regardless, I think starting today we should do our damndest to protect Sara Connor.

Just in case.

 

Just Calm Down!

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: For the sake of full disclosure, years ago when yer Captain was exploring ministry and needin’ to decide on a college and seminary, Asbury College and Asbury Seminary were, in fact, considered, largely due to their proximity to home.

Both schools were quickly rejected when the young Captain-to-be discovered students at both institutions lived under a strict dress code: shirt and tie for male students, dresses for female students.

Such a code was indicative of a much more conservative mindset than I was looking for.

I was not wrong.

* * * 

About two weeks ago news broke that the United Methodist University Senate has removed Asbury Theological Seminary from its list of UM-approved schools.

And you would have thought the world was coming to an end!

With this announcement, evangelical publications took to the internet to decry the decision.

In one lopsided and ill-informed article after another, they characterized the decision as “The UMC kicked out Asbury”.

They blamed the progressive changes that took place at the General Conference in 2024 (more on that later) and praised Asbury for holding fast to the faith! 

What was missing from most of these articles was an explanation of the United Methodist side of the story and how this all works.

Yellow Journalism rarely cares about the facts.

Naturally, a firestorm has ensued.

Commenters were mostly Asbury supporters because, well, who else reads evangelical publications?

They self-righteously declared the United Methodist Church has lost its way.

They condemned the UMC as being “apostate”.

They went so far as to say that the UMC is no longer “Christian”.

They pointed out that this expulsion of Asbury ignores the two great Holy Spirit-led revivals that took place at Asbury College (1970 and 2023).

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: In fact, Asbury College has a long history of events which they have labeled “Revivals”: 1905, 1908, 1921, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1992, 2006, 2024.

Not sure any of that is relevant.

Gather around, mates, and I’ll tell you what you need to know. 

The University Senate is an accrediting agency for the denomination, ensuring consistent instruction, policies and practices among the 13 UM seminaries and 25 non-UM seminaries. Approved schools must be compatible with UM theology and social principles, and they must offer courses in UM history, theology, and polity for ministerial candidates.

Asbury Seminary has always been the most conservative seminary among “The Big Thirteen” approved by the University Senate.

As such, Asbury could not and would not abide with the changes at GC2024.

So what happened at General Conference 2024?

The UMC has long maintained that “all people are made in the image of God and possess equal worth, dignity, and value.”

Yet this statement conflicted with other legislation inserted into the Book of Discipline in the early 70’s by a conservative faction that sought to deny certain rights to gays and lesbians. That wording called homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teachings.”

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Ironically, the only other place “incompatible with Christian teachings” was found in the Book of Discipline was its position on war.

Yes, The United Methodist Church “officially” believes war is incompatible with Christian teachings.

Yet how many of UM churches have brass plaques honoring their members who died in war? How many insist on singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”?

Over the years, conservatives inserted more and more into the Book of Discipline, including the forbidding of same-sex marriage - even adding a penalty for UM pastors who presided at gay weddings, and forbidding the ordination of gay and lesbian candidates for ministry. 

CAPTAIN'S NOTE: Why do conservatives and evangelicals worry so much about what's in a person's pants? It seems irrelevant... unless you want to get into that person's pants...

Not Muslim. Not gay. Not drag. 😙

Infighting over homosexuality grew to the point that a special-called General Conference in 2018 allowed a brief window for the departure of churches that wanted to leave the denomination.

It was intended to set the progressives free.

It was the conservatives who left!

With them out of the way, the 2024 General Conference delegates approved ordination and other permissions for gays and lesbians, once again proclaiming the denomination's belief that all people possess equal worth, dignity, and value.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: The seminary I ultimately chose, the uber-liberal School of Theology at Claremont, was already on-board with this - as early as the mid-80's - offering theological training for gays and lesbians even though the UM denomination would not let them move forward with ordination.

But that’s not the whole story. Because Asbury Seminary was out of step with the denomination, it did not provide a United Methodist professor to teach UM history, doctrine, and polity.

In short, it did not meet the University Senate’s standards.

Asbury’s president David Watson told Christianity Today, “We weren’t surprised by this at all. We knew with the division of the United Methodist Church into more liberal and conservative factions that something like this would happen.”

Watson said the process began at the beginning of the year when the University Senate conducted its regular review. Asbury was not able to sign on with the new social principles.

There was no hostility, Watson said, and when Asbury was told about the cut they decided not to appeal.

And here’s the truth, mates.

Asbury College (now University) and Asbury Theological Seminary will continue on as educational institutions.

All the University Senate did was remove its endorsement. The seminary does not meet the qualifications needed to train future UM clergy, but it can train others.

President Watson knows that UM enrollment at Asbury has dropped from 32% to only about 9%, so this decision will affect very few.

And Asbury can now turn whole-heartedly toward courting the conservative off-shoot Global Methodist Church for future support.

As for all the faux social media outrage: y’all need to calm down!

It is the Captain’s hope going forward that Asbury will teach its students that 1) Jesus did not hand to Asbury the Keys to the Kingdom, and 2) that they don’t have an exclusive claim to the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament prophet Joel (2:28) proclaimed that the day would come when God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh.

That day came in Acts chapter 2.

And we believe “all flesh” includes The United Methodist Church.

In fact, the Captain is convinced that General Conference 2024 was a Spirit-filled revival for The United Methodist Church, as delegates opened the Church once again to all people.

Asbury no longer requires the shirt and tie, but its theology continues to be much more conservative than the Captain’s.

And that’s okay.

A lot of people disagree with me.

And I with them.

And that’s okay.

 

 

 

Big Yellow Taxi

We’ll begin today’s post with a bit of vulnerability.

One summer day while in kindergarten, our neighbor (a couple years older) took his sister’s pet turtles (remember when you could buy those little turtles in pet shops?) to the alley behind his house.

As we stood around watching, he crushed all three of them with a croquet mallet.

No particular reason.

My young mind could not process the senseless violence I had just witnessed.

A few years later, while living a carefree life as a child in Dearborn, Michigan, we discovered a litter of newborn kittens in the wooded area behind our house. We implored our parents to collect them up and nurse them to health. 

We tried, but all four of the kittens died.

I was heartbroken.

Not long after, while tearing down a building [we were salvaging materials to build our own house one day], we uncovered a nest containing baby pigeons. 

I know, I know. Pigeons.

Again, I implored my father to save them.

They died anyway.

Such is my life.

Now an adult, I will slam on my brakes to keep from hitting a directionally-challenged squirrel.

I will stop to move migrating turtles out of the road.

And on rainy days I relocate earthworms from the sidewalk back to the grass.

We have a groundhog digging up the church lawn, but I have warned everyone to leave it be.

They have named it after me.

Yes, the Captain is a big softy.

But mess with someone I love – or a kitten, or a baby bird – and Hell hath no fury!

You have been warned!

Here’s more you need to know about me:

A few years ago the Captain met with an environmental awareness group.

As a way of introduction, a young man – one of the leaders of the group – shared how he first got involved in environmental concerns.

He told us the story of how his father bought and cleared a lakeside lot in an otherwise untouched area, and there he built his house.

Then as the dad reveled in his accomplishment and took in the beautiful vistas that lay before him, he decided that the lake needed to be protected from development. He worked with the local government officials and others to craft laws forbidding future development along his lakefront.

This was hailed by the son as a great environmental victory.

Perhaps it was.

The Captain saw it as a patently selfish effort by the father to protect his scenic view and to prevent others from doing what he himself had shamelessly done.

I never went back to that group.

Enter Jared and Ivanka (Trumpf) Kushner. 

You will recall that the power couple were unofficial government employees during President Trumpf’s first term in office. Ivanka bowed out for the second term, but Jared continues to pop up on the President’s international trips as an “unpaid advisor”.

These trips become golden opportunities for the young grifter to pitch self-serving investment opportunities and real estate deals on the government’s dime.

Now the two have bought a private island off the coast of Albania and are starting a massive development project there.

Here are Ivanka’s actual words:

    "I'm working on an incredible project with my husband in the Mediterranean. It's massive in scale. ... It's a wonderful, unbelievable 1,400 hectacre private island in the middle of the Mediterranean."

Now, who hasn’t dreamed of buying your own private island?

I mean, Jeffrey Epstein did.

Oops! Didn’t mean to go there.

Yes I did.

    "We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the island, we went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated, and it stayed with us ever since."

The Captain wonders how many others have experienced the same sense of wonder and awe that Ivanka did upon stepping barefoot on that virgin sand, seeing the majestic creatures that inhabit the island, the beauty of the natural flora and fauna.

And the view from the top? “Captivating!”

And who doesn’t look at such a beautiful, pristine island and say, “What this place really needs is an exclusive 10,000 bed hotel resort and marina!”

Ivanka continues:

    “Over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that, really, the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.”

They want to help this beautiful island “realize its potential”.

 

An actual architectural rendering of the development. 

Or, how about… and hear me out, Ivanka… Just leave it the hell alone!

But that is not the way of the world today, now is it?

The world according to Trumpf.

We have a President who tore off the historic East Wing of the White House to build a gaudy ballroom that only he wants and no one needs.

And no one stopped him.

We have a President who is building a “victory arch” to rival France’s Arc de Triomphe in his own honor.

And no one is stopping him.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: France’s Arc de Triomphe was ordered built by Napoleon Bonaparte following his military victory at Austerlitz. The Arc honors those who fought and died for France during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

It bears the names of French victories and generals engraved on its inner and outer surfaces.

Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, marked by an eternal flame commemorating unidentified fallen soldiers. (Source: Wikipedia)

Where was I?

Oh yes…

We have a President who is having the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool painted “American Flag Blue” (while not addressing the underlying plumbing issues that cause algae to grow in the body of water).

And no one is stopping him.

We have a President who is hosting a UFC Cage Match on the White House lawn as a birthday gift to himself.

And no one is stopping him.

Because when you’re rich…

And the funny thing is, he’s not paying for any of this.

We are.

That’s our tax dollars are work.

Our nation is $40 trillion in debt (25% of which was incurred during Trumpf years), he has gutted numerous social services – both national and international – and he is spending money on these vanity projects like there is no limit on our nation’s credit card!

But I digress…

Naturally, the Albanian people who once enjoyed visiting the primitive island and protected ecosystem (like Ivanka did) are upset. Barbed wire has been strung up to prevent visitors from enjoying the beaches, and the destruction “transformation” of the once “beautiful” island goes on. 

The prime minister of Albania insists this development is crucial – CRUCIAL! – for economic growth, high-end tourism, and foreign investments.

Which apparently everybody needs.

But at what cost?

The island is home to nesting sea turtles, migrating flamingos, and monk seals.

Or at least it was, until the bulldozers arrived and started pushing down trees and moving sand dunes.

Previously described as “off the grid”, it is highly unlikely and unfeasible that this monstrous project will be “integrated” into the natural beauty of the island.

They will have to have electricity.

And fresh water.  

Even food will have to be shipped in.

For 10,000 hotel rooms.

And what about waste removal?

And wastewater treatment?

Not to mention the number of people it will take to staff such a compound; where will they live?

Yes, the Captain has read Herman Wouk’s “Don’t Stop the Carnival”. 

Living on an island is not as easy as it sounds!

In the early ‘00s, the Captain and First Mate splurged on a vacation trip to Cancun.

Some friends had done it and they raved about it!

The hotel we stayed at was one of many high-rise resorts along the little tourist spit of sand off the Yucatán Peninsula. 

It should have been the perfect vacation.

The ocean was beautiful, the sand was pristine, the rum drinks were plentiful, and there was a topless beach just a stone’s throw away!

The First Mate was not as excited about that as the Captain was!

But to get to this fabulous location, the shuttle from the airport took us through one of the worst slums in Mexico. It was heart-breaking to see such poverty at the very doorstep of so much opulence and wealth.

The cold Cerveza offered by the bus driver did not help to assuage my concerns.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Apparently the Captain carries a high degree of angst and has a significant liver capacity.

During that vacation week we learned that the white sand beaches were “pristine” only because low-paid locals went out early in the mornings to rake up seaweed and trash that washed upon the shore.

The promise to them was that if they did a good job, they could one day move up into a low-paying job inside the hotel.

At least there it was air conditioned.

Being able to speak English was also an incentive / requisite to obtaining an inside job.

On the snorkel tour we took, we saw all kinds of beautiful fish in the clear blue water where the Gulf of Mexico meets the Caribbean Sea.

But I discovered the fish were only swimming around us because the boat guys were circling above throwing out fish food.

And while we were enjoying the beautiful scenery, they were diving for conch – their side gig.

Sell the shells to tourists, the meat to the resorts.

To be honest, all of this put a bit of a damper on the week.

At least at Disneyland I know everything is fake when I purchase the ticket.

But most of all, the Captain is not geared toward enjoying “the good life” while I know others are suffering just outside my doorstep.

The moral to today’s post is this:

If you’ve got billions of other people’s dollars at your disposal (as the Kushners do), you can buy your own private island.

You can pay off officials who will let you rape a fragile ecosystem for your own warped pleasure and enrichment.

You can build whatever you want, do whatever you want.

Did I mention Jeffrey Epstein?

But don’t try to convince me you are improving this island.

By your own words, Ivanka, it was beautiful before you got hold of it.

It’s “potential” – it’s true potential – was well-recognized by many just the way it was.

But now, it will become just another resort island among many – and there are many – catering to the wealthiest and least-caring people on our planet.

And that’s a damn shame.

Tragic even.

They take Paradise and put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot!

-Joni Mitchell, 1970

 

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: As I finished writing this blog I read that the SPAK (Albania’s specialized anti-fraud, corruption, and organized crime unit) is looking into the Kushner development. It has frozen assets of the Qatari-owned landholding company while looking into allegedly fraudulent land titles and transfers, as well as the legislative fast-tracking of the project, especially since it is in a protected area.

Maybe money can’t buy everything.

 

 

Taking a Break

 Mates, for today's blog yer Captain'll be taken a break from the daily grind of "Trumpf this" and Trumpf that". 

It can wear out one's Soul!

Have I mentioned that Trumpf's name is found 38,000 times in the Epstein Files? And only half of the files have been released. 

But I digress. I'm taking a break from all that today.

Gas prices here just jumped overnight to $4.34 per gallon, almost $2 per gallon more than before Trumpf started his little non-war.

Are we winning yet?

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes...

As yer Captain was driving home one afternoon last week, I spied a license plate on a vehicle, the sort of which I had never seen before.

There, staring back at me from the bumper of an SUV was the Jolly Roger!

On an official Tennessee license plate!

Mates, if there was ever a reason to live in Tennessee - BUT THERE'S NOT! - it would be to hang this plate off the back of me own "Flyin' Dutchman"!

It's bad enough to be represented by Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, but Marsha Blackburn? 

Lord help us!

["Stay focused, Captain!"] 

"Crusade Against Darkness!" it said on the license plate.

Sounds ominous! 

The Captain wanted to know more.

But seein' as I was headed for a gas station - did I mention...? Oh, never mind - and the other vehicle was headed for the open highway, I didn't have the opportunity to ask. 

As is the way with such vanity plates, a portion of the proceeds from the annual fee at registration go to a charitable cause. So I asked Dr. Google.

"Crusade Against Darkness" is a phrase taken from Helen Keller, an amazing woman of another generation who lost her sight due to an illness at 19 months old. Nonetheless, she did great things with her life, not the least of which was to become an advocate for people with disabilities, especially the vision-impaired. 

In 1925 she reportedly challenged the Lions Club to become "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness". 

To this day, a major outreach of the Lions Club is to provide vision services, collect used eye glasses and make them available to children and others with vision impairments.

Here's the fun part: they chose the "Jolly Roger" as their symbol due to the eye patch!

Get it? 

Hey, that's all I've got for today. Take it or leave it.

It's Cinco de Mayo and there's a margarita calling my name!  

And for those of you who support I.C.E. and Trumpf's vile, anti-immigrant rhetoric, I better not see you at the cantina today. This is not your holiday to celebrate!

Go drink your Busch Light with your own kind!

  

 

Hold Fast!

Yer Captain hasn’t written a blog in recent weeks for the simple fact that the news cycle is moving too darn fast.

It seems President Trumpf’s entire administration is employing the Gish Gallop at an astonishing level.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: You might recall the “Gish Gallop” from the 2024 presidential campaigns. Candidate Trumpf would fill his allotted debate time with so many half-truths and downright lies that his opponent couldn’t keep up, much less respond to them in any meaningful way.

Frankly, the Captain would have simply replied, “That’s all bullshit!” and moved on with answering the question.

The Gish Gallop is being utilized at virtually every level of government now, so much so that the mainstream media can’t keep up, and citizens are losing the capacity for outrage because there is so much with which to be outraged!

Take, for example, the campaign promises Trumpf made to his MAGA cult:

“A New Golden Age” is coming. 

Throughout his first year-and-a-half he promised us check after check – thousands of dollars coming our way!

So where is our DOGE check after Elon and his crew cleaned up all that graft and corruption? Where is our Tariff check that would ease the burden of higher food costs due to Trumpf’s erratic application of tariffs? Where is our huge income tax refund?

Turns out, his billionaire cronies are getting richer, but the rest of us? Meh.

And if you look back in our history, that almost perfectly mirrors the last “Golden Age”, later labeled “The Gilded Age” because it wasn’t golden for most people. 

Now, like then, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has only grown wider.

Significantly so!

“Root out waste, graft, and corruption”. 

DOGE was tasked with sifting through the federal budget and administration to find $2 trillion in WG&C.

They found a couple billion, laid off thousands of federal workers, and stole personal data on untold millions of Americans before they gave up.

But Trumpf HAS created a more transparent government. Right out in front of everyone he has been extorting millions of dollars from American companies and universities, forcing them to fall in line with his demands or lose government support.

He’s doing it right out in the open!

And boasting about it!

And nobody is trying to rein him in.

The national debt is currently spiraling out of control. We’re at $39 trillion now, which means we are paying $2.8 billion in interest EVERY DAMN DAY!

Yet Trumpf is spending like a drunken pirate!

[No offense to actual drunken pirates!]

>>>He tore off the East Wing of the White House (without permission) and wants to build a $400 million ballroom (to hide a secret underground bunker – which is becoming less and less secret with each passing day). He claimed to have corporate donors lined up to pay for it, but now some of his acolytes in Congress are proposing a bill to pay for the vanity project with our tax dollars.

>>>He wants to spend $100 million+ for an arch in his own honor to rival France’s Arc de Triomphe.

>>>The “non-war” Israel dragged us into in Iran has cost $60 billion so far, and there appears to be no end in sight.

>>>His kids are sitting on Boards and are investing in companies doing business with the federal government, including multi-million dollar no-bid contracts.

This goes way beyond what they hounded Hunter Biden for for an entire year!

>>>Trumpf’s son-in-law, Jared, is traveling on official government business (without being vetted) and collecting billions in foreign dollars for his venture capital firm as he travels.

Needless to say, Trumpf has not “drained the swamp” as he promised.

If anything, he has added a few more gators to it.

In plain sight.

Transparency my arse!

“Release the Epstein Files.” 

This was one of those empty promises he hoped he would never have to follow through on.

Because his name appears in the files more times than anyone else’s. 

But MAGA grabbed a hold of this one and held on, forcing a law that called for the release of the files – a law which Trumpf had no choice but to sign.

But thanks to a carefully-placed operative in the guise of the Attorney General, the files that were released (estimated to be only half of the total) were heavily redacted, blocking names of most of the perpetrators and exposing the names of some of the victims.

However... 

So far, no one in the U.S. has been charged for anything related to the Epstein files.

Except Gislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner in crime.

But the GOP is currently looking for an excuse to pardon and release her.

So long as she stays silent about what she knows.

And the big one: “No more wars!” “America first!” 

But in the last year-and-a-half Trumpf has bombed at least seven countries and now we are engaged in a war with Iran that has not been approved by Congress.

Speaker of the House Little Mike Johnson claims it is not a war, so Congress doesn’t have to weigh in.

Mates, we’re spending a billion dollars a day bombing another country!

What would you call it?

And what are we getting for that money? Higher gas prices, higher food prices, and because Iran is blockading the Strait of Hormuz (which was open international waters before Trumpf started this fight), the world economy has been affected.

"America First!" Woo hoo! Bleh. 

He went into this non-war (partnered with Israel) thinking Iran would shiver and surrender at the threatened might of the U.S. military.

But after weeks of trading missile strikes - many aimed at neighboring countries, Iran remains unbowed.

In fact, they are responding with short AI videos mocking the U.S.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: We are shooting down Iran’s $50,000 drones with our $4.5 million Patriot interceptor missiles. Yer Captain’s guess is that Iran’s strategy is simply a variation of Muhammad Ali's "Rope-a-Dope", to absorb the abuse and bleed the U.S. dry in the process.

Then on Sunday night at the White House Correspondents Dinner, a person broke through security, shot a Secret Service agent (who was wearing a bullet proof vest), and headed toward the banquet hall where the dinner was being held.

He didn’t even get close to the hall before he was tackled by the Secret Service. But everyone inside scrambled for cover at the sound of gunshots, and the President and other Cabinet members were whisked away to safety.

A lot of questions were raised about this whole fiasco, most especially why seven of eight persons in the Line of Succession were all together at this event. Should the alleged assassin had been carrying a bomb and had been successful, Senate President pro-tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) would be the next President of the United States!

Yikes! 

But even before the Secret Service got Trumpf’s fat ass out of his chair and off the stage, many were claiming the whole thing was staged.

Again.

Maybe it was because the President’s response to this supposed threat on his life was to hold a press conference 30-minutes later, at which he made a pitch for his ballroom again!

Maybe it was because, before the event began, his press secretary promised, “There will be shots fired!”

Oops!

Or maybe it was because talent agent Michael Glantz continued to calmly sit and eat his salad as everyone else ran for cover!         

The thing is – and the point of this post – this administration has lied to us from the very first day. We don’t know what to believe anymore.

The White House has churned out a steady stream of bullshit, the media is cowed – or co-conspirators, social media is infiltrated by foreign operatives and bots, and the real ones never take the time to get the story straight, going with whatever will achieve more clicks.

Add to that mix the growing realism of AI.

Y’know, you used to be able to identify a fake simply by counting the fingers on their hands.

Not so much today.

Here’s the thing: We don’t really know what’s going on with the war in Iran. There is supposed to be a 10-day ceasefire. Then Trumpf extended the original ceasefire to “indefinitely”.

WTF!

And Israel insists the ceasefire does not apply to them as they continue to bombard Lebanon.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: And why are they bombing Lebanon? Israel talked us into bombing Iran! They are supposed to be working with us on that!

By the way, we haven’t heard anything new from that downed F-15 fighter pilot for whom we launched a massive recovery effort.

Or was that just a cover story to hide our sending in a SEAL Team to try to steal Iran’s nuclear stockpile? A mission Trumpf telecast weeks in advance? A mission that failed.

I mean, why do you need a squadron of fighter jets, two transport planes, and refueling planes to retrieve one downed pilot?

Are peace talks with Iran going on or not? VP Vance failed to make Iran "accept our terms". Was that because we sent along a banker and developer as the negotiating team?

Yet in recent weeks the President seems to have lost interest in the non-war that he started.

And not by coincidence, someone is cashing in on this non-war, betting on the stock market or the price of oil just minutes before the President makes a public statement (usually on a Friday afternoon) that affects the markets.

The huge amounts involved (thinks “billions of dollars”) makes it appear to be insider trading.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Martha Stewart, TV’s domestic goddess and bosom buddy of Snoop Dog, went to prison for five months for insider trading, having saved $46,000 by dumping some ImClone stock.

Every court ruling today is appealed, and most go all the way up to the Supreme Court, many of which are settled by the right-wing court’s “shadow docket”.

The shadow docket is supposed to be an emergency, non-argument docket, featuring rapid, often unsigned rulings on time-sensitive matters without full briefings. With this Court it has been expanded to include high-stakes policy decisions, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and the bypassing of traditional legal procedures. 

Despite daily headlines, we don’t really know what’s going on with the White House Ballroom project.

Today, we don’t really know what’s going on with ICE detentions and deportations.

We don’t really know what going on with Trumpf’s tariffs.

We don’t really know if someone tried to shoot the President last night.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Although with a job approval rating hovering around 30%, it’s altogether possible.

Are you exhausted yet? 

All of this is flying at us at an alarming rate!

By the time the Captain grabs hold of one issue, does due diligence to research and verify (yes I do), then writes a compelling blog, a dozen other issues have sprung up and wilted, and that issue that at one moment was so outrageous is no longer discussed or even considered relevant.

Social media is a better forum for immediate responses, but not necessarily for well-thought-out responses.

Yer Captain often utilizes Facebook, but I try to not overdo it.

I have FB friends who post 15-20 political posts every damn day!

That gets old pretty quick.

So please understand, dear mates, yer Captain has a real job. Unlike some others I follow, I don’t get paid for this and I don’t have all day to sit and sift through the crap!

I will give you my best.

When I can.

In the meantime, Hold Fast!