Mueller the Mute!

     The phrase most common to our polarized political parties is "The American People".  Used across the media spectrum to co-align with the forces of light presumed to have been revealed to humanity as democracy, the reference is ubiquitous.  After 2+ years waiting on the Mueller probe findings, it is surely true that "The American People" have either "heard enough" or they need to "hear further" what Mueller has to say. 

     It is credibly estimated that less than .05% of the US registered voters have read the redacted published report and that a Congressional closed session hearing would, in published format, likely reach no more.  Although both sides generally agree that if televised "The American People" would have a more informed opinion about Muellers' findings, whether this is desirable is of course all a matter of bias intent.

     Presumably Mueller does not want to report publicly, for now much speculated reasons, all of which seem either selfish, or pitiful, or corrupt.  Literally not one pundit has offered a satisfactory reason for his reticence.  Perhaps it is encouraging that these pundits think we are not so far "down the rabbit hole" that they feel compelled to awaken extreme explanations.  That's fine, but for christsake many of us really would like to know.  Are we looking at an MS13 takedown, or would the verbalized findings send the Dow to 3000, or would a Charlottesville like outbreak go viral?  Whatever.... the status quo is now so exasperating that we "The American Public" will welcome anything that is beyond the daily "audience management bullshit".  Bring it on!

The "Digital Iron Curtain"

     It's mine and you can't have it!  So speaks the fearful American Dictator and his sycophant cronies. China has long since said that they will not accept our most prized asset, i.e. "google/utube", but they have helped themselves to the underlying technology that enables these digital age miracles. Now, when it appears that Huawei might well outperform the world in selling tech to the world, Trump wants to respond, not by becoming more competitive, but by imposing an "intellectual embargo", a digital iron curtain. 

     Aside from the obvious reciprocity question as to concern that Detroit UAW's  may not be able to manufacture iphone 11's, there is also a deeper ethical issue.  No one wants to mention, when shouting robbery, that the robbed is a construct, a derivative. The Chinese Bandits are stealing from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, etc. who enticed the smartest Chinese brains to "employee create" the "intellectual property" that these corporate overlords now "OWN". but can only sell at the Dictator's whim.

"The Commerce Department announced last week that it had placed Huawei and its dozens of affiliates on a list of firms deemed a risk to national security. The listing will prevent Huawei from buying American parts and technologies without seeking United States government approval."

     Yes, Alexa Skills are more portable than wheat and the Dictator may have a hard time maintaining his Intellectual Fort Knox, but he can try.  After all, Jeff Bezos will listen to Chris Wray, who has to listen to AG Barr, who always listens to our 20th Century bullyman King!

The "Ozarks" is Hiring

     "The war on guns, like the war on drugs, is primarily waged on poor people by small operations units that drive around in unmarked cars looking for trouble,"

Post-Bomb Brutus

Murder has been forever a common theme on our little blue planet.  While historically, wholesale/global human carnage was not an existential species threat.....today it is!  Although we humans don't talk much about our common peril, we all know that TECH has brought us iphones, Crispr and a the real possibility of species annihilation.  We, of course, embrace the trade, rationalizing that all now known fatal techs, "bio-AI nuclear-climate",  need only be reconciled as probabilities, like plane crashes and ebola.  

I accepted that at some time/space scale, everything is lethal, but the IDW people keep inviting statistiics aficionados to prove up that for all of these mega-killers, the event probabilities are all 100% and that, for each, the low-risk time safety zones have past.  My favorite, is the Nick Balstrom "chiller scenario" that says that in any sizable population the human behavior diversity is always such that a few people would, if possible, choose to kill millions, or everyone.  Why, is not relevant.  We all know that if, to fabricate a Nuclear Bomb, required the same Tech Capacity as is required to make a Gasoline Engine, we would all now be dead. Particularly, this stealth-nuclear expression and the similar stealth-bio-pathogen expression seem most probabilistically troubling.  One can imagine that we are coming upon a culture where nuclear/bio DIY kits are available on racks at Walmart, designated as "re-purposed for sport venues".

Not to announce my melancholy, nor to undermine Nike optimism, but I'm thinking intercessory prayer.

I Call "Bullshit"....but

     A Quillette post today brought focus to what we all know, but casually overlook. Namely that our often personal opinions arise as a state of understanding based on dubious memory and therefore assesments that may be faulty.  We may be the victims of "historical amnesia" resulting from our "information overload culture".  It is prudent to remember, as the Quillette post put it:

"We have in the cacophony of the internet a vast machine for forgetting. One that is building a new society upon the shallow, shifting sands of Historical Amnesia."

     As such, we need think deep when our biases arise.  Are they responsive to the cumulative expression of an evolving self or they shallow inclinations reflecting "too much now". 

     And further, if this isn't enough, we must guard against reacting to this conflict-laden "information overload", by escaping into an "apathy zone" where we call neither "cheers" nor "bullshit" at all.  Which is, of course, the state of engagement that the architects of power wish for we, the electorate.