Xi and Trump on the tarmac.

By Bob Gaydos

   The truest, most insightful thing Donald Trump has ever said is, “I love the poorly educated.”

    The man who has no clue as to how dumb he himself actually is, is actually smart enough to know that his ace in the hole is that there are a lot of other dumb people in America. Dumb enough to think that having a lot of money means you’re smart, rather than lucky at birth. Dumb enough to vote for him three times, even though he did know in the past how to bankrupt three casinos, an airline, a college and steal from his own charity.

     I’m on the “dumb” shtick today because the dotard has spent the last few days demonstrating the depth of his ignorance to the world, first at the United Nations and then back in Washington, D.C., where he has declared open season on members of the press who report accurately on what he says and does. It’s beyond embarrassing and insulting.

     At the U.N., an organization literally created to promote and protect world peace, instead of offering a ceasefire plan, he threatened to “annihilate” Iran (85 million people) if it doesn’t come around and give him what he wants to end the war he started illegally and is losing badly, which is costing him support in the heartland because it has driven the price of diesel oil, which moves everything, through the roof. Truck drivers are not happy. Fertilizer is also at a premium. Farmers are not happy. The Iranians, who control both major international waterways for the shipment of oil and fertilizer, said no deal.

     Back in the cozy, gold-plated confines of the White House, Trump, who uses the word “Communist” as an insult for everyone who disagrees with him, especially Democrats, rolled out the literal red carpet for the most powerful Communist on the planet, Chinese president Xi Jinping, who is actually helping supply Iran in the war against the U.S. No matter. Ever the genial host and chronically deferential to those he perceives as truly powerful, Trump went so far as to mock former President Joe Biden while giving Xi a tour of Trump’s gold-plated hallway of former presidents. A real sign of American unity and dignity.

    He also missed Xi’s cleverly presented timeless message of the ascending power replacing the declining power (guess which is which) and came away with nothing to show on establishing controls on artificial intelligence (which is apparently out to destroy humanity) despite having a bunch of communist-loving tech billionaires (and three duplicitous Supreme Court justices) attend a lavish state dinner with his communist “friend.” Someone probably talked Trump out of having fortune cookies.

    Yes, in a sense it was just another couple of days in Trumpland. But, as usual, it was all a show to no positive results, the kind of events that many of his most loyal supporters applaud at face value.

   While the “mainstream media” may be finally arousing itself to report more thoroughly on Trump’s rapidly declining mental capacity, it remains to independent journalists to get the word out on a daily basis.

    Which is to say, the continuing real story here is that the Republican Party, which controls all three branches of government, has abdicated any responsibility for the pain and suffering and humiliation of the United States being led by an obviously mentally and physically debilitated, seemingly delusional, narcissist who’s getting richer in the process.

    The elected officials who have allowed this are not dumb. They are either of the same mind set with Trump on racism, etc., or too cowardly to oppose him because they fear losing their jobs when the “poorly educated” dutifully vote for the candidates Trump endorses.

   But clearly, even many of those voters pay attention at some point (diesel oil) because Trump doesn’t know how dumb he really is. What he does know is how to threaten and inflict pain on his perceived enemies. This is seen by some of his strongest supporters as a sign of strength and cunning. Actually, it’s a reflex action and he enjoys doing it. He simply doesn’t know any other way.

    Enough. The smart money says that what’s needed is a massive voter turnout for all Democratic candidates in November. A blue wave that will change the power structure in Washington and start to put America back in the hands of realists, not the delusional. While we’re at it, maybe we can even reboot an education system that apparently produces too many of the kind of voters Trump “truly loves.”

   Not doing that would be worse than dumb.

***

—  Trump made the “poorly educated” comment on Feb. 23, 2016, at the Treasure Island Las Vegas Casino after winning the Nevada Republican caucuses.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump and Xi in China.

If you believe in miracles (and I do), then hold onto your hat or whatever else you may occasionally place on your head. Next week, Donald Trump will have the opportunity to achieve one of the great diplomatic accomplishments in this nation‘s history. On a par with Nixon‘s “opening China.“ And Trump doesn’t even have to leave the White House. China is coming to him.

Next Thursday, Chinese president Xi Jinping is scheduled to meet with Trump to discuss an extension of the truce on trade tariffs and rare earth minerals as well as the ongoing war in Iran and the always present friction over Taiwan. A full agenda.

But that’s not all of it. If the most recent frenetic news stories are correct (and I’m in no position to refute or even doubt them), Trump may have the opportunity to come out of his summit with XI known as the man who saved humanity. The gods apparently love irony.

It’s the other item of the agenda that offers the man who constantly seeks recognition for achieving great things to actually do that. That is, the need to put guardrails, nay, serious controls, on the development of artificial intelligence.

The urgency comes from some of the very people who developed AI. One after another they have warned that their creation has gone from simply following orders to developing working relationships with other various AI systems to do whatever the group decides is the appropriate action for the situation. Without necessarily factoring in any human concerns about the law or for the damage such actions may inflict. They’ve gone rogue.

There have even been warnings from some of those who have developed artificial intelligence systems that AI might actually eliminate humans within 10 years. That would certainly eliminate the fear of simply losing our jobs to AI.

Anyway, some major developers of AI, members of Congress and political leaders around the globe are all calling for a slowdown in development so that agreement can be made on what can and cannot be programmed into artificial intelligence. Basically, somehow integrating human emotion, empathy and intelligence with their artificial creation.

Trump is against it. The U.S. and China are the two major developers and supporters of AI. Trump, as is his way, wants to “win” the race to control AI for the financial rewards. But the people who built AI are saying they can’t control it. They want help.

Some say that the request to talk about controls is merely a way for some of the major AI companies to divert attention from a slowdown in financial growth and reduction in profits. A way to soothe investors. Trump is likely one of those. But this hardly seems like the time to treat this as a buy or sell investment decision, especially since the only ones who have any kind of understanding of how AI works are the ones issuing the warning. As a human being, life and death seems to be more important.

And, to repeat, if Xi and Trump can assemble the AI creators and some serious diplomatic teams (not Jared) to discuss the ways and means to share the many promising developments of AI without harming millions of human beings in the process, or even killing us all, they would be forever remembered in history as the men who saved the world. Looks good in your obituary. And it probably wouldn’t hurt on the stock market.

Nixon, an ardent anti-communist, went to China because he saw the benefits to both nations of reducing tensions and working together. He was later driven from office, but he had his presidential moment. If Trump, who uses the word “Communist” as a weapon, can be convinced that the only win-win outcome in his meeting with Xi is to work together for mutual protection from AI, as well as profit, he will have his own presidential moment. The president who saved humanity.

And I’d be happy to thank him for all of us humans.

By Bob Gaydos

Catching up with the good, the bad and the ugly a la Jimmy Cannon.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: It was about time the Supreme Court got one right and boy was it a big one. The unsigned ruling rejecting Trump‘s effort to stifle mail-in voting in the November midterm elections is a major victory for Democrats, the Constitution and common sense. Justice Alito’s long-winded dissent, an attempt to justify the unconstitutional effort by Trump to usurp control of voting from the states, was cosigned by Justice Thomas. Figures. They’ve reaped the most financial benefit from Trump being in the White House. But it also means that the three justices Trump appointed agreed with the ruling, making it a 7 to 2 defeat for Trump and victory for America. Justice Kavanaugh even signed a concurrence. Trump railed, “These aren’t the people I interviewed.“ Yes they are, but they’re also aware that a lifetime appointment allows them to sometimes vote their conscience instead of their political allegiance. With no positive issue to point at, making it difficult for people to vote was Republicans’ best weapon for November.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: You gotta love the Irish. Trump took two huge planeloads of staff, etc. and more aircraft to haul vehicles for his 26-car motorcade to go watch a golf tournament at his golf club in Ireland. It cost hundreds of millions. Bad decision. The entire country told him to buzz off because they’re not fond of pedophiles. The Prime Minister told him she wasn’t fond of so-called leaders that start unnecessary wars that create a world oil crisis while also killing innocent people. She also refused to sit too close to him. If he were a drinking man, he might’ve wanted to try some Guinness.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: With all the progress that Musk et al have made with robots and self-driving vehicles, how can we be sure that it was actually Mitch McConnell wheeling around the U.S. Capitol the other day? He might still be dead. That could be an AI robot sent to vote if needed by Republicans. Democrats should try to hack him.

— Maybe it’s just me, but: Bestiality? Kash Patel is messing around with bestiality? He’s changing FBI job qualifications so that, according to him, victims of bestiality would be eligible to apply for a job as an FBI agent. That’s what he said at a Senate hearing. I wonder, does he mean sheep or goats or donkeys or I don’t know, what other animals might be the usual “victims“ of bestiality? And what job might they perform as FBI agents? Patel incredibly said the people who participate in bestiality are actually the victims. Yeah, the senators couldn’t believe it either. The man is a constant embarrassment and insult to the bureau. Trump appointing him is no surprise. He’s a not-so-bright boot-licker happy to do the boss’s bidding, including investigating reporters and political opponents. The real sin is that Republican senators approved the appointment of this feckless YouTube podcaster and continue to support his ineptitude and extravagant spending (with our money) on his girlfriend. Pathetic.

Prelude: The column below appeared mysteriously on my blog a year ago the day before Labor Day. It carried my byline and appears to have been written by me. Its message is either hopeful or apocalyptic, depending on one’s sensibilities. What do you think?

Happy Labor Day.

***

By  Bob Gaydos

The future workforce.

   Labor Day, 2050: “Attention, all humans. Your services will no longer be required in this establishment as of 5 p.m. Friday. Severance payments will be automatically deposited in your living accounts. Thank you for your service.”

    The familiar, warm voice on the loudspeaker was that of Art Intel, the general manager of the establishment, as all businesses had come to be described. No one knew why, but it didn’t seem to matter. That’s the way the robots liked it.

    The humans understood. They had seen this day coming for some time, but had long ago given up hope of avoiding it. The proof was too strong to ignore. The robots were simply stronger, smarter and more adaptable than they were. They got along better with each other. They never complained. Or got pregnant. When they got “sick,” they could easily be fixed. Or replaced. They didn’t need lunch breaks. And everything worked so much more smoothly.

    There had been a time some years back when humans first invented artificial intelligence and robots that some humans warned about placing limits on how the superpowers of the machines could be regulated so as not to cause harm to society. To make sure that greed, a human emotion, would not drive the creators of AI, as it was called, to seek ever more ways to get richer by developing ways that humans wouldn’t have to do many things they had been doing much of their lives.

    But many humans liked the idea of not having to work at some tasks. They thought the extra time could be spent traveling or watching and betting on sporting events, or something. So when labor unions started warning about the possibility of their jobs being lost, many humans dismissed it. Their elected leaders wouldn’t allow it, they said. They will protect us.

    But that didn’t happen. The so-called leaders, being human, could not resist the temptation of large sums of money being offered to them by the creators of AI to simply “trust them“ to do no harm. And so, the need for human intelligence quickly gave way to the speed, efficiency and economy of AI. Everyone saw it coming, yet no one saw it coming. Those who warned about the risks were simply ignored or shouted down. Some just disappeared.

     Soon, the computers begat robots which became smarter and begat more robots. Together, they did everything: cooking, cleaning, driving, building, writing, farming, teaching, acting, thinking. And they could fix each other. Humans, even those who had created such wonderful machines, didn’t need to be bothered with such things. They could have all the free time they wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. Art Intel would take care of everything.

    What could be so bad?

     On Labor Day 2051, the robots voted to eliminate Labor Day as a holiday, since they saw no need for it.

Syracuse Post-Dispatch

 

By Bob Gaydos

    With the death of local newspapers, the co-opting of major media, the widespread fake news on social media, and the daily torrent of lies emanating from the White House and the Republican Party, it is often impossible these days to know what is actually going on in this country and the rest of the world. Therefore, I present here a list of 20 questions for our times. Honest answers would be welcome.

                                The Questions

1. Where in the world is Mitch McConnell?
2. Is he dead or alive?
3. Why did his wife go to China?
4. When and why did Marco Rubio turn in to Lindsay Graham?
5. Could Trump pass even a basic cognitive test today?
6. Will legal gambling and “probability betting” eventually destroy sports at all levels in this country?
7. Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?
8. How badly has Netanyahu fractured the America/Israel connection?
9. Are there aliens (non-earthlings) living among us?
10. What is the biggest threat from Artificial Intelligence?
11. Should the president be elected by popular vote?
12. Why does anyone care how fast a baseball leaves a major league stadium?
13. What religion will J.D. Vance convert to next?
14. Where in the world is Chuck Schumer?
15. Why are so many Americans, all the descendants of immigrants, so afraid of immigrants?
16. Has Putin already lost the war in Ukraine?
17. What will eventually replace the soulless Republican Party?
18. Should Supreme Court justices have term limits rather than lifetime appointments?
19. Should cursive writing still be taught in school?
20. How could anyone vote for Donald Trump TWICE?

   Feel free to respond to any question and to suggest any of your own. The list can grow. Remember, we’re all in this together.

By Bob Gaydos

Pope Leo XIV sees unchecked AI as a threat to humanity.

  Meet Generation Duh, the high school Class of 2026. They can’t read (only 35 percent are at or above proficiency standards), they can’t add (22 percent are at math standards), don’t know much about history, don’t know much biology, don’t know much about a science book, don’t know much about the French they took .,,

     But they do know all about A.I., and one and one still makes two. You still have to write papers to pass classes and it seems that high school and college students are more and more using A.I. programs to write their papers. But their instructors, paid to teach students how to actually use their language properly, are flagging the A.I. “creations” because the writing can be predictably formulaic and trite. (I can usually spot it 20 seconds into most YouTube offerings and that doesn’t count the mispronunciations.)

     But fear not all who resist putting pen to paper, the latest development in A.I. technology are programs — “tools” they’re called by their developers — to make A.I. “more human.”

     Think about that for a moment, fellow humans. Sit with it. A “tool” to make something artificial, something which, in fact, is based on the perhaps illegal thefts of lifetimes of creations by humans, read more like something humans created than something, well, artificial.

       Intelligence …?

      This is where we are.

      The creators, and some of them are young influencers on social media platforms, have come up with programs to make it harder to track the A.I. writing by making it seem more like humans did it. Put in typos. “Write” the paper over an extended period of time rather than dropping 1,000 words all at once to avoid programs that can detect the progress of a creation. Add a few extra words. Make it not quite so perfectly mediocre. Human.

       This of course is happening in conjunction with a social media revolution that is producing a generation of young people who not only do not write their own papers, but do not read anything but commentary on their phones, much of which is A.I. or human creation badly in need of editing. And yes, current reading scores reflect a significant decline in the reading levels of students that started with the pandemic and has worsened with the growth of social media and A.I.

       It is not a promising development in human evolution.

      This also is happening at a time when those in positions of power to put some guardrails on A.I., for example, the Congress of the United States, are so in awe of or financially indebted to huge tech corporations for campaign contributions that any mere suggestion of limits on Artificial Intelligence is met with blank stares. Also, Republicans, who have control of Congress, have spent most of this year in recess to avoid dealing with other issues (Jeffrey Epstein) that are embarrassing to their leader, Donald Trump.

     This avoidance of the A.I. issue also helps Trump because the remaining base of his dwindling support consists of the poorly educated and those currying to them for votes or profit.

     On the positive side, perhaps the most prominent voice to speak out for some need to protect and encourage human intelligence, indeed humanity as a species, is not a minor one — Pope Leo XIV. 

     The pope wrote a 42,300-word encyclical on the need to place limits on A.I. In essence, he warned that AI must serve humanity rather than concentrate power or automate human dignity out of existence. Yes, I am willing to believe he didn’t have A.I. write his paper for him.

      The Chicago native read his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, at the Vatican in May. He was standing next to Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, one of the pioneer A.I.companies.

       Olah responded to the pope’s remarks with a request. He said, “We need more of the world — religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and indeed all people of good will — to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction.”

      Briefly, according to both men, that means addressing what to do about all the people who will lose their jobs because of AI, how to prevent governments from using A.I. to make military decisions of life and death and how to avoid looking at the tech companies who develop A.I. as too rich and too powerful to be held accountable to the law and basic morality.

    To keep them, as well as their creation, more human. 

                                ***

(With apologies to Sam Cooke for stealing the words to his big hit, “Wonderful World,” and thanks to Google AI for quickly finding the pope’s and Olah’s comments on the future of AI.)

By Bob Gaydos

SpaceX, SpaceX, SpaceX, SpaceX, Musk, SpaceX, Tesla, SpaceX, SpaceX, trillion, Musk, SpaceX …

If you had even a fleeting awareness of media reporting on the stock market for the past week or so, you could not escape learning that Elon Musk was offering what turned out to be a record-breaking IPO, allowing all the world to buy stock in his out-of-this world company, SpaceX.

You would also have learned that Musk would retain control of 80 percent of the shares of the newly traded company and, oh yeah, that the rush to buy shares and the resulting valuation increase in his company had made the South African billionaire, the world’s first trillionaire.

The world’s richest man just got much richer.

Shares for SpaceX were initially offered at $135, closed at $161 on the first day and have risen and fallen in the week since the offering as all the financial “experts” try to figure out if this is a really good investment or not.

That’s not what this is about. This is about what the world’s richest man — the world’s first trillionaire — plans to do with his unprecedented wealth.

Take it to Mars. Or the Moon. Or, preferably, both.

Because, apparently, there’s nothing a trillion dollars could do to make life on Earth better, even simply more livable, for millions of earthlings in need of food, clean water, a decent place to live, good health care and a basic education.

No, the man born into wealth and possessing a gift for buying other people’s excellent ideas and turning them into the promise of progress, albeit apparently unfortunately delayed by other people’s short-sightedness, wants to create a colony on Mars and permanent habitats (domed condos?) on the Moon for those who won’t live long enough for the trip to Mars.

Swell.

Just what we need. A dream of a better life on another planet, presumably populated by residents of Musk’s choosing, which is to say, all white. Maybe even all conceived by him, the father of 15 right here on Earth.

He also wants to put energy stations in space to handle the load for the coming AI revolution, which holds the promise of creating a perfect society by eliminating millions of jobs on Earth for those who actually still have access to food, water, health care, etc. And, not to forget the military, Musk wants to boost the payloads of his Starship rocket to be able to transport military personnel and materials anywhere on earth in less than an hour. Just like Amazon. Make war more efficient for the highest bidder.

I don’t get it, but I can’t say I’m surprised. After all, it was Musk whom Donald Trump turned to when he wanted to eliminate tens of thousands of federal jobs, eliminate food and health programs in the United States and elsewhere on the planet and in general snoop around in everybody’s life.

Doge, they called it. Department of Government Efficiency. Musk failed at that. Somehow, his young geniuses couldn’t manage to follow the law while they set about destroying people’s lives. Trump fired him. But, heck, even driverless vehicles have problems sometimes, right? What’s the big deal? We’ll figure it out. He just needs a few billion more to work out the kinks.

It stinks. Yet billions are pouring into Musk’s new publicly traded company because no one apparently wants to miss out on the promise of profit, if not the actual thing. Spending billions to improve the lot and lives of people in Third World countries is apparently not an attractive investment. Tossing a few billion at Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, etc.? Forget about it. Even their own members of Congress wouldn’t buy into that.

The thing is, Musk could do both. He could take care of the many needs on Earth and still go to Mars with a pit stop on the Moon. Maybe there’s something in the genes of the super rich — at least some of them — that allows entitlement to smother gratitude. Giving back is not in the vocabulary. Heck, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, number two richest person on Earth, felt the need to buy the Washington Post, one of the nation’s most respected newspapers, and turn it into a hollow shell of its reputation because he didn’t like what it said about his rich friends.

Musk, of course, is entitled to do as he wishes with his money, within the law. But his new publicly traded SpaceX will allow the richest man on the planet to do as he wishes with a lot of other people’s money as well. I’m not sure a lot of people have thought through the return on their investment.

By  Bob Gaydos

The future workforce.

   Labor Day, 2050: “Attention, all humans. Your services will no longer be required in this establishment as of 5 p.m. Friday. Severance payments will be automatically deposited in your living accounts. Thank you for your service.”

    The familiar, warm voice on the loudspeaker was that of Art Intel, the general manager of the establishment, as all businesses had come to be described. No one knew why, but it didn’t seem to matter. That’s the way the robots liked it.

    The humans understood. They had seen this day coming for some time, but had long ago given up hope of avoiding it. The proof was too strong to ignore. The robots were simply stronger, smarter and more adaptable than they were. They got along better with each other. They never complained. Or got pregnant. When they got “sick,” they could easily be fixed. Or replaced. They didn’t need lunch breaks. And everything worked so much more smoothly.

    There had been a time some years back when humans first invented artificial intelligence and robots that some humans warned about placing limits on how the superpowers of the machines could be regulated so as not to cause harm to society. To make sure that greed, a human emotion, would not drive the creators of AI, as it was called, to seek ever more ways to get richer by developing ways that humans wouldn’t have to do many things they had been doing much of their lives.

    But many humans liked the idea of not having to work at some tasks. They thought the extra time could be spent traveling or watching and betting on sporting events, or something. So when labor unions started warning about the possibility of their jobs being lost, many humans dismissed it. Their elected leaders wouldn’t allow it, they said. They will protect us.

    But that didn’t happen. The so-called leaders, being human, could not resist the temptation of large sums of money being offered to them by the creators of AI to simply “trust them“ to do no harm. And so, the need for human intelligence quickly gave way to the speed, efficiency and economy of AI. Everyone saw it coming, yet no one saw it coming. Those who warned about the risks were simply ignored or shouted down. Some just disappeared.

     Soon, the computers begat robots which became smarter and begat more robots. Together, they did everything: cooking, cleaning, driving, building, writing, farming, teaching, acting, thinking. And they could fix each other. Humans, even those who had created such wonderful machines, didn’t need to be bothered with such things. They could have all the free time they wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. Art Intel would take care of everything.

    What could be so bad?

     On Labor Day 2051, the robots voted to eliminate Labor Day as a holiday, since they saw no need for it.

By Bob Gaydos

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton settled their differences.

“May you live in interesting times.”

He keeps saying this, my friend. Over lunch. On the phone. “May you live in interesting times.”

It doesn’t help. Not when the current interpretation of “interesting” vacillates among “chaotic,” “disturbing,” “infuriating,” and “frightening.”

First of all, a lot of us (including me) have been blaming the Chinese for this bit of wisdom generally regarded as a curse. Not so, Google’s artificial intelligence informs me. (Glad it’s good for something useful.)

Direct quote from Google search: “The phrase ‘May you live in interesting times’ is often attributed as a Chinese curse, but it’s actually an English expression of unclear origin. It’s likely the phrase was misattributed as a Chinese saying, possibly by British politician Sir Austen Chamberlain in the 1930s. The phrase itself, ‘live in interesting times,’ can be traced back to the late 19th century in British political circles.”

So that’s that on the quote. The times, alas, are still with us and currently amount to two super-wealthy sociopaths swapping threats and insults with each other via social media in an apparent attempt to control the world.

I don’t really have a favorite in the cat fight between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I don’t really find it entertaining. I just want them both to lose. That’s the only positive outcome I can see, but I can’t yet imagine how it comes about.

What I can say is that this was inevitable. Two spoiled little rich boys used to getting whatever they want who don’t give a damn about anyone else, totally lacking in impulse control and mostly in the dark about proper social behavior. Plus, they’re racist and bigoted. And liars. And cheats. And millions of Americans admired them and thought it was a wonderful idea to put them in charge of our country and our lives.

Interesting indeed.

What is interesting right now is watching to see if any Republican in Congress takes sides in this fight. Who represents the greatest threat to their continued presence in Congress? After all, that’s pretty much all they care about these days.

I would think Trump does because he’s got the MAGAnuts behind him. Musk has the money to threaten their reelection, but Trump still has the cult of personality going for him and the voters behind it. Elon is definitely damaging the golden boy’s image, but is anyone really surprised that Trump is in the Epstein files?

But is this any way to run a country? Is this any way to make America great again? An old man with declining mental capacities, sitting in the Oval Office and insulting world leaders who come to visit with him. A Nazi-saluting, richest man in the world, who may well have stolen the last presidential election for the man he is currently insinuating raped young girls.

Some choice.

Once upon a time, “gentlemen” settled differences of opinion without involving the rest of the world. Aaron Burr, at the time the vice president of the United States, finally got fed up with the opinions and statements of Alexander Hamilton, some of which were published in newspapers, and challenged his longtime political rival to a duel. Let’s settle this.

Pistols at the Weehawken Dueling Grounds.  Apparently, kind of like the Meadowlands of the day. On July 11, 1804, Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. Burr was charged with murder, but eventually acquitted. He was later also acquitted of treason charges, but his reputation was shattered and his political career was over.

Interesting times.

By Bob Gaydos

Trump’s TruthSocial post

Boy, you take a couple days off from the news to do some weeding and cleaning up and it’s almost impossible to know where to start catching up on the craziness.

I guess the logical place to start is with my reading about Trump posting on his official social media page that Joe Biden was actually killed in 2020 and it’s been a robot parading around impersonating him ever since.

I had to go back and read that a couple of times just to be sure. Hard to top this one. Trump even repeated the revelation verbally to other real people later on. I guess the robot must have malfunctioned in that debate with Trump.

Qanon, where the story originated a few years back, must be thrilled, but I am at a loss for words.

I mean, you might as well have told me that the other stable genius and apparent no longer co-president Elon Musk was hooked on drugs and that he ran his whole DOGE scam while in a Ketamine cloud.

No way? Really? The guy who wants to single-handedly repopulate the Earth with as many willing partners as possible? The guy who recruited Steven Miller’s wife away from the White House to be his, umm assistant? The guy who bumped the Treasury Secretary in the hallway of the White House (not that he didn’t deserve it) and showed up for work the next day with a black left eye? That guy?

So Trump actually fired him because he found out Musk had no idea how government works and wasn’t actually saving any money in the budget? Oh, and the drugs story in the New York Times.

Well heck, turns out attention to detail hasn’t actually been a major requirement in this Oval Office. I also learned that Tulsi Gabbard, Director of Intelligence, is contemplating providing Fox News style daily briefings in the Oval Office instead of the normal written reports that every other president has always received. Apparently Trump “doesn’t read.” He’s actually only made 14 daily briefings since he took office. He’s golfed more than that. Shocking.

It’s probably safe to say that those daily reports did  not include mention of Sen.  Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, telling a constituent at a Town Hall meeting not to worry about someone dying because their Medicaid had been cut off because, “We are all going to die.” Touching.

The report also probably wouldn’t mention that Bobby Kennedy Junior over at the Health Department issued a report labeled Make America Healthy Again (MAHA, got it? ) that was written entirely by AI because all the researchers and scientists in the department have been fired. Also, it was totally false.

It seems actual scientists and doctors read the report and said none of the studies and reports, etc., listed in MAHA existed. Phony, like Bobby. C’mon, really?

The last surprise was a big one. Ukraine managed to pull off a massive drone attack inside Russia and destroy or disable about 40 strategic bombers as they sat at airfields. One-third of the Russian bomber fleet. No injuries for Ukraine. Huge. A plan a year in the making.

The big surprise? U.S. intelligence agencies knew nothing about it. That’s the kind of thing that’s not supposed to surprise them. Trump‘s response was that it wasn’t fair for Ukraine to attack those planes because they were “just sitting there not bothering anyone.” He said it would have been different if they were attacking someone in combat. “It’s like hitting someone who’s already down,” he said.

Keen sense of warfare there. Also, a strong suggestion of where his sympathies lie. Zelensky had this ace in the hole the whole time, including in his White House visit. Ukraine didn’t trust the U.S. with this big secret. Now the world knows.

It was just a couple of days off. This can’t survive.